Gary’s Rants & rAVes

Get ready for Gary’s annual Krystal Ball webinar presented by Almo Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, at 2 p.m. EST. LG’s Adam Coleman and Dan Baker joined Gary in the latest Rants & rAVes videocast and gave a sneak peek of what to expect in 2021 from LG, related explicitly to microLED and webOS technologies. Register […]

When Samsung has a touch LED install, they turn to a Texas-based startup called Ion Visual Solutions. Started by former AMX’er Chas Thornhill and former Reflect Project Manager Jay Seng, the two are the Ghostbusters of LED installs. When a wall isn’t flat but Samsung still needs a flat LED wall, who are they gonna call? Ion. When they […]

The Sony REA-C1000 has won four industry awards — including two from rAVe — and you’d never know it. Dubbed the “Edge Analytics Appliance,” the REA-C1000 is really four separate products in one: a chroma-key-less CG Overlay (meaning it can generate a virtual background anywhere at any time without a green screen), a PTZ auto-tracking system, a […]

Few companies ever offer a lifetime warranty. And fewer ever offer them on display products. But, Planar just one-upped the entire LED market with its EverCare program — offering a limited lifetime warranty on the entire TVF Series of LED wall displays! Yep, a LIFETIME warranty. Why and how can the company do this? Well, Gary Kayye was joined by Planar’s […]

Gary was joined on Tuesday’s videocast by ViewSonic’s director of business line management for commercial displays, David Naranjo, who talked about the benefits (and applications) of its new 1.5-millimeter pixel pitch 135″ and 1.8-millimeter pixel pitch 163″ all-in-one LED products. These are already shipping and have a unique refresh rate as well as a built-in digital signage platform — listen/watch […]

rAVe’s own Steph Beckett joined Gary on his latest videocast to talk about an all-new podcast logically titled: Study With Steph. Steph’s been in AV for a few years now, and Gary challenged her to get her AVIXA CTS certification. Well, challenge accepted. But, since Steph never does anything alone, she’s taking you along on her CTS journey — so any and all AV’ers (who want […]

Gary was joined Thursday by VDO360’s founder, Dan Freeman, to talk about the $1,000 reduction on the company’s AutoPilot UCC system as well as the company’s line of SEE Series cameras. Since the pandemic, VDO360’s business has skyrocketed and all of it’s been through AV dealers — and they’re distributed by Almo Pro A/V. Watch! […]

For the first time ever, Gary Kayye and Jonathan Brawn will be presenting together. Both AVIXA Educator of the Year recipients, Gary and Jonathan are well-known and respected as some of the most knowledgeable display technologists in the AV market — Jonathan, a flat-panel display guru, and Gary, a projection and LED tech expert. Dec. 17 will mark the first […]

ClearOne just announced record sales and earnings, and some of its recent success points to the BMA 360 — a patented ceiling tile beamforming mic array. ClearOne’s VP of audio technologies, David Lambert, joined Gary on his videocast today to explain how the BMA 360 works and how it’s different from the other ceiling-tile-based mics on the market. […]

The famed Sixteen:Nine Happy Hour is coming back — at the AVIXA and DSF D=SIGN Digital Signage Conference! In the meantime, check out this videocast with rAVe’s Gary Kayye and Sixteen:Nine’s own Dave Haynes, chatting about the state of the digital signage market, too! It’s worth the watch! Space for the happy hour is limited to 300. Don’t miss it — register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dsign-happy-hour-hosted-by-avixa-and-sixteennine-registration-128767987517  Podcast: […]

Gary was joined by both D=SIGN opening keynote speakers, Laura Davis-Taylor and Beth Warren, today on his podcast along with AVIXA’s Sam Phenix and DSF’s Spencer Graham, to talk all about the industry’s new, premier digital signage event. D=SIGN: The Digital Signage Conference is coming Dec. 8-9 (aka next week). You need to register as this is going to THE event you will remember five […]

Almo is incentivizing its Encore Week of the E4v (E4 Evolution) show by giving away a 4K TV, a sounder (with sub) system and a new VDO360 OSHA-approved headset EACH DAY of the event (Nov. 30-Dec. 4) to three lucky #AVtweeps! So, if you missed any of the E4v sessions last month during the original […]

Gary was joined by both Sharp NEC Display Solutions’ President and CEO, Todd Bouman, and Sharp Imaging and Information Systems’ Mike Marusic, on his videocast today to better understand the impact of the joint venture that formed the new Sharp NEC DIsplay Solutions company. Nope, it’s not a merger — and yes, you can expect the synergy creating […]

BARIX CEO Reto Brader joined Gary on his videocast today to explain the simplest way to convert any distributed audio speaker into an IP speaker — using the company’s new IP Former. The IP Former simply has an Ethernet port on one side and 2-8-ohm speaker output on the other side; it allows you to put any speaker on an […]

As you may have read, security and home technology-focused Resideo (owner of ADI and Honeywell Home) acquired family-owned AV distributor Herman ProAV back in February. Now that the ink has dried and they are one company, Gary caught up with ADI’s global vice president of business development, Cynthia Menna, and Herman ProAV’s own Jeffrey Wolf, to talk about how they […]

Gary caught up with the leaders of one session of next week’s Almo Pro A/V E4v. If you’ve ever wanted to know anything about “The Future of Events: Hybrid, In-Person, VR & More” — check out this interview with Tom Kehr and Don Guzauckas. Then, tune into their E4v session Thursday, Oct. 29. You absolutely need to be there […]

Less than a handful of people in AV have ever won an Emmy Award. One of them is Dan Dugan — and he’ll receive his Emmy live during the 72nd Engineering Emmy Awards on Thursday, Oct. 29. Dan Dugan started in “AV” back in 1965. And his 55+ year career has included a handful of inventions used […]

You may recall that, in mid-August, Gary spoke to AVIXA’s Sean Wargo about the organization’s late-summer market intelligence report. Well — two months later, Gary grabbed Sean again to get his perspective on how things are going as we’re in Q4 2020 — and what new things we might see in AVIXA’s next report. Gary and Sean also discussed […]

Mersive’s founder, Chris Jaynes, and rAVe’s founder, Gary Kayye, will be together in a show exclusive to the LAVNCH & Learn platform to talk about … well … watch this. Then, register here: https://theraveagency.com/lavnch/register/mersive. Make sure to join Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. — IT. IS. LIVE.  Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

Gary’s doing an encore presentation of his famed “4K No Myths, No Exaggerations — Just the Facts” presentation, exclusively for Almo ProAV clients. Plus, he’s added all-about-4K in UCC, too! Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect when you register here for the webinar Thursday, Oct. 22, at 2 p.m. EDT. P.S. Big thanks […]

Vice President of Business Development Jessica McDowell discusses how integrators can lean on SYNNEX to deliver secure AV to support customers in today’s new hybrid environments. SYNNEX offers an industry-leading product line card, certified design engineers, security assessments and extensive training opportunities. With increased levels of collaboration and almost everything being connected to the network today, now […]

Gary was joined on this episode by NETGEAR’s Laurent Masia, who gave him a live video demo of how simple it is to configure the new NETGEAR M4250 Series of 1Gbps AV-over-IP switches. As you are probably aware, 1G is about 84% of the AV-over-IP market right now, so NETGEAR introduced the new M4250 Series to address […]

I rarely record podcasts or videocasts to promote webinars. The principle seems too “meta” to me — and if you don’t know what that means, don’t fret: I work around Gen Zers and millennials all day, so ask your kids. Back to this webinar thing — I think that this webinar I am doing on Oct. […]

A new company made its debut this week: Nialli. Nialli is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nureva (check out the story Gary wrote about it Tuesday). Also, here’s a fun fact: The CEO is Nancy Knowlton of Nureva fame! Gary recorded this videocast with Nancy Wednesday to get the scoop — so watch and learn all about this new venture! Podcast: Play […]

I was honored to have both the managing director of ISE, Mike Blackman, and the CEO of AVIXA, Dave Labuskes, on my videocast Thursday. The subject? The earlier-this-week show shuffle that ended with ISE’s European-centered AV mega show and the famed InfoComm show both scheduled for June 2021. After watching this, you’ll be convinced this […]

After getting a connection request, via LinkedIn, from Calaigh Copland of Diversified in Canada, I noticed her title started with Footballer and ended with AV Professional, not the other way around. So, here’s your chance to hear from Calaigh: the AV industry’s only national soccer player (Guyana)! Her path to AV is probably much like yours was, and she’s […]

Gary was joined by NSCA Executive Director Chuck Wilson to talk about the upcoming P2P (Pivot to Profit) — or, this year, called P2Pv, as the event is virtual — September 22-23. This is THE leading business transformation event aimed at AV and IT, and the 2020 focus is helping low-voltage integrators recover from and reboot beyond the COVID-19 crisis. Using […]

People are the lifeblood of AV, and any time we have a chance to meet someone new, we do. Here’s an introduction to Jacob Sanders, Almo Pro A/V‘s newest business development manager focusing on LED and projection, among other specialties, for the distributor. Jake spent the last two years selling and specifying LED for CreateLED and Lighthouse Technologies. However, his […]

As the entire industry likely enters a transition to XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service), the easiest place to start is with digital signage installs — they are already 100% networked. To start, Mvix Digital Signage probably has the easiest higher-ed DSaaS (Digital-Signage-as-a-Service) line out there right now. Gary Kayye spoke to Mvix senior solutions consultant Daniel Mersberger Wednesday about how […]

On this episode of Rants and rAVes, Gary was joined by NSCA executive director Chuck Wilson to talk about the P2Pv (“v” for virtual) event on September 22-23, open ONLY to AV integrators and designers. Unlike most virtual events (so far) in 2020, NSCA’s Pivot to Profit (P2Pv) event was specifically designed by integrators FOR integrators. The […]

AVIXA‘s senior director of market intelligence, Sean Wargo, is extrapolating a tremendous amount of data that, at first glance, may seem obvious. But rAVe’s Gary Kayye thinks it’s critical to understanding the future of the AV integration business. Want to learn where the market is heading, how to pivot into the right segments, and when to […]

When you hit a milestone like 1,000 — yes, Gary’s recorded 1,000 podcasts — you have to pick a special guest to celebrate it with you. So Gary picked his 16-year friend, colleague and partner, Sara Abrons. This is your chance to get to know Sara. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS