Today’s post is seems to be about disparate topics, but at its heart regards something quite important to me as a writer and, perhaps surprisingly, as an AV designer. Today we’re talking about metaphor. Last week, I came across this drawing by British artist Alice Hershel, drawing under the name Glytxh (the drawings are quire […]

Last week I appeared on the AV Powerup podcast to discuss, amongst other things, HDBaseT. Taking the time to listen to myself (this is a sign of responsibility to monitor messaging and personal branding, not at all vanity. Honestly) it seemed that I was quite negative on HDBaseT as a technology — I described it […]

There are few things that can compare with the technological advances that the entire Star Wars series accomplished with each movie. George Lucas’ Lucas film and Industrial Light and Magic have revolutionized the Sci-Fi genre by bringing fantasy worlds to the big screen and making them seem real, even possible. People of all ages get […]

I’ve always wondered about the expression “Tire Kickers.” I mean, I don’t wonder about the expression, I know where it comes from: the car business. From Urban Dictionary: Someone who is indecisive about purchasing a product or service, and never feels satisfied with what they are offered. In the end a tire kicker may or […]

While I wasn’t one of the many who rushed to pre-order it on April 10, those that did led Apple to sell out of the most coveted device to hit the market in quite some time in a single day — the Apple Watch. In fact, it was reported that in that one day, Apple […]

By Dave Labuskes InfoComm International I just returned from InfoComm China 2015. What an exciting experience! I’m always impressed by the grandeur of the ancient society juxtaposed over the amazing energy, can-do attitude and raw entrepreneurial spirit that permeates virtually every conversation that I have when in that country. Our show was the largest we’ve […]

After what I considered a highly successful trip to Enterprise Connect last month as media for rAVe, it’s time to turn focus to InfoComm and UCC in the audio visual space. When you consider the realm of Unified Communications and Collaboration, it is no doubt one of the (if not the) most visible sectors of […]

The National Museum of American History labeled April as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM). It’s a time to celebrate and draw public attention to all the wonders of jazz, the amazing heritage and history, and to recognize iconic artists. It’s important to take the time to appreciate the joys, powers, and glories of such magical music. […]

As InfoComm time grows nearer (for my non-professional connections, InfoComm is the annual trade show for professional audiovisual industry) I think back towards a conversation I had at the Women in AV dinner with Kristin Rector of ListenTech. We’d been talking about family and, at the moment, about my then-seven year old daughter (in a […]

Finding a humorous pop-culture reference to segue into the main point of my blog posts isn’t always easy. I’ve been holding on to this one for months, struggling with trying to make it work without being awkward. I’m still not sure I’ve done it, so I’m just going to go for it: In the classic […]

It can be an art form to sell digital signage, because it involves discussions with often non-tech savvy people… and educating them about some very technical products. So above all, solutions need to be boiled down to make sense for each client. (*Cough*… Duh.) You sell digital signage. Great. BUT RIGHT NOW — stop thinking […]

Today is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day!  About 37 million parents and children will be participating in this day, all around the world.  For over 22 years, families, organizations, individuals, and workplaces have joined in on TODASTW to transform the lives of millions of boys and girls. It is important for children […]

For those of you music fans who may know of the following album cover art… …you may not know that it’s an image modified from an existing photograph of the inner barrel of a particle physics detector, an experiment built on the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider at the European […]

On Wednesday April 8, 2015 I got to experience something that every person to hold a golf club has dreamed of, walking onto the grounds of August National Golf Course.  Of course, the real dream would be to play on the course, but if you know anything about golf, you realize that is just a […]

How is instant replay like a gooseneck microphone? As some of you might know, I’m a dedicated baseball fan – specifically of the New York Mets. In recent years, Major League Baseball has added an  instant replay system in which a dedicated team in a remote location are available to review close plays if a […]

  It’s a quirk of mine that, given a choice, I’d rather patronize a small, locally owned business than a big, corporate, national one. In addition to being a locavore I guess that would make me a locaemptor. Sometimes that desire pays off, such as when I shop at the small, family-owned shoe store not […]

There are two pieces on rAVe Publications currently about Extron and their new “True4K” initiative.  One is a blog by Gary Kayye that recaps why Extron has launched the initiative.  The other is a Rants and Raves podcast where Gary talks to Casey Hall, VP of Sales and Marketing at Extron, about True4K and its […]

Campus environments are a special animal when it comes to automation. While they sometimes behave like one large building, that is where the similarities end and automation becomes a challenge to all but the most skilled in the automation trade. An educational campus, office park or any other gathering of buildings under single administration creates […]

I wrote a blog back in September of last year, con·ver·gence, which began this way: The premise of AV and IT convergence is simple, two separate realms of technology come together as a single entity to expand the industry’s capabilities to satisfy full-scale technology needs of the end user. In this day and age the […]

I was in Manhattan last week and was asked to tour a space that represents the future of a Fortune-50 company. An entire floor in their downtown headquarters had been built to create a more open, collaborative, and technology supported workspace that they will begin to roll out worldwide this year. It was both beautiful […]

  For those of you who don’t know me well, my career in AV actually started out on the residential side of the business.  I worked for an integrator in Arizona that did structured wiring, central vacuum, security, and audiovisual systems for home builders like DR Horton, Shea Homes, and Toll Brothers and some custom […]

I’d like to take a moment to speak in defense of negativity. These days negativity gets a bad rap. People build whole careers in social media generating and propagating motivational memes about thinking positive and not allowing negativity into your life. As valuable as that message is, it’s not the whole story. Nor is it […]

My youngest daughter was accepted into a new public charter school to open in the fall of 2014. The school caught our attention because they planned to be a high tech school issuing laptops to all children, as well as use video based learning and very little paper. The summer before opening they asked for […]

                      Spring 2015 is here, wedding bells will be ringing, and your wallet may be in for a surprise. If you’re invited to a wedding that is. If you’re the one getting married, you are one lucky person to be getting hitched in the era […]

So, in case you missed it, Amazon recently announced its new foray into the Internet of Things (IoT), the Dash Button.   In short, the Dash Button is a programmable, WiFi enabled device that allows someone to press a branded button to generate an order for new products through Amazon.  It’s more than a little ironic […]

Note: Chuck Espinoza, CTS-D/I,CQT,ISF-C,DMC-E,EAVA is a co-contributor to this blog article (where noted). After being through the bidding and install job competition wars for over 15 years in the AV industry, I can safely say that I along with others who have written blogs and articles have some great (and frustrating) stories to tell. Many of […]

I am wondering if we’re doing ourselves a disservice by continuing to label ourselves as the AV market. Yes, I realize that perfectly wraps-up what we do 90 percent of the time, but what about the other 10 percent and, more importantly, what about all the emerging markets we are engaging in that aren’t as […]

Day two of the Enterprise Connect show provided more excellent experiences with companies specializing in providing unified communications and collaboration solutions. Here are the booth videos from the second day. AGT AGT has improved the way organizations communicate and collaborate for over 20 years. Our passion for technical innovation, visual communication and customer service – […]

I conducted interviews with several UCC industry executives at the Enterprise Connect Show – here are two from day two: Pexip: CEO Simen Teigre Blue Jeans Network: Product Marketing Manager Jeff Beckham

I have to admit that I’ve finally got involved in the start-up device craze and got hold of a device that measures and reports statistics related to my sleeping patterns. Congratulations to me — I now know that I sleep only 5-6 hours a night. Admittedly, I bought the device during our push to bring […]

March 29th is National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day! It is a day to celebrate and support the hard working small business owners out there, their business accomplishments, and the positive impact they have on not only their local communities, but the entire economy too. In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, […]

Show, don’t tell. It is THE quintessential writing advice for good reason. Don’t tell us that a character is brave – show them facing a fear. While you’re at it, don’t tell us they are afraid — show us the quickening pulse, the sweaty palms, the tightness in the belly. Paint a word picture. Avoid […]