Disruptive Forces: The Leaders Speak – Mark Loney, StarLeaf

This is the first blog in the series Disruptive Forces: The Leaders Speak. Profile: Mark Loney is the driving force behind StarLeaf’s vision to deliver a global network from which to provide cloud video conferencing services and the manufacture of a new generation of collaboration solutions. He is one of those rare individuals who has […]

Disruptive Forces: The Leaders Speak – Mark Loney, StarLeaf

The State of AV/IT Convergence

Back in the spring of this year I had the idea to write a piece on AV/IT convergence, and where I felt we were at with the concept as an industry. I have seen glimpses of convergence in different segments of the AV and low voltage worlds, and it seemed like it was possible to […]

The State of AV/IT Convergence

The Michelangelo Effect-Part B: Practical Application

If you read Part A of the Michelangelo Effect, you know it dealt with steering our AV businesses into the waters of AV/IT convergence.  The words of Michelangelo seem to extremely relevant in defining just what attitude we need to adopt in order to be successful in that endeavor.  In many ways, adopting that attitude […]

The Michelangelo Effect-Part B: Practical Application

Crestron Fusion 10 Enterprise Building Management Software Ships

Crestron claims it just got easier for IT, AV and facilities managers to optimize workspaces and building operations. Crestron today announced the release of its new Crestron Fusion 10 enterprise building management software that features new room utilization statistics and energy reports, including peak energy consumed in the space/room and energy category level, that make […]

Crestron Fusion 10 Enterprise Building Management Software Ships

The Michelangelo Effect — Part A: Nine Points to the New Renaissance of AV/IT and Convergence

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, well-known as just Michelangelo, was possibly the most renowned artist of the Renaissance. Along with Leonardo and Raphael, they represented artistic pinnacles only to be imitated, but not perfected by other artists. Michelangelo’s body of work was incomparable, and all anyone else could hope to do was duplicate his greatness. […]

The Michelangelo Effect — Part A:  Nine Points to the New Renaissance of AV/IT and Convergence

con·ver·gence

Convergence, in terms of technological convergence (according to Wikipedia), is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks. 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 […]

con·ver·gence

The Internet of Things – Converged, Connected and Highly Vulnerable

When we think of convergence, we of course refer to how the industry’s two realms of technology potentially merge together to create seamless system implementation where all components, potentially including devices, form reliable AV/IT integration whether on-premise, in the cloud, or both. However, questions continue to arise about the convergence and if it indeed has […]

The Internet of Things – Converged, Connected and Highly Vulnerable

InfoComm: Finally, Unified Communications and Collaboration for All

By Cindy Davis InfoComm international Until fairly recently, when technology managers got a request to set up videoconferencing and collaboration systems, the options were separated by a chasm of options and price. At one end were very expensive, immersive telepresence rooms offering the highest quality audio, video and collaboration technologies to enable remote meetings. At […]

InfoComm: Finally, Unified Communications and Collaboration for All

A New AV World Order? Maybe It Was With Us This Whole Time…

Lessons are taught as well as learned every day, and this one I consider a major one. I first want to send accolades to my fellow rAVe Publications blogger Mark Coxon for coming to the forefront and speaking his mind concerning the situation relating to Microsoft at the InfoComm show; I think he put in […]

A New AV World Order? Maybe It Was With Us This Whole Time…

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT – Part 5: Vidyo

Here it is, the final chapter of a series that included highly worthy participants that exist in this new age of communications and collaboration. I decided to look up the term “disruptive forces” on Google and I came up with another term on Wikipedia – “disruptive innovation,” which is defined as an innovation that helps […]

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT – Part 5: Vidyo

Why Microsoft Being at InfoComm Means Much Less Than You Want It To

There has been much ado lately in the AV world about the appearance of Microsoft at InfoComm 2014. Most of that hype has been around the fact that they believe it means that AV/IT convergence is complete. I have my own thoughts on that subject which will be released shortly as an eBook download, but […]

Why Microsoft Being at InfoComm Means Much Less Than You Want It To

What Happens in Vegas, Creates the Next Stage in AV/IT – #InfoComm14

Microsoft. The AV industry giants. The ever growing market of communications and collaboration. Digital signage and video walls. Interactive displays and whiteboards. Cloud and virtualization — strategic technologies enhancing enterprise collaboration, infrastructure and more. BYOD — the fastest growing trend in the enterprise today. The new market disrupters. And of course, the integrators and end […]

What Happens in Vegas, Creates the Next Stage in AV/IT – #InfoComm14

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT – Part 4: Acano

New solutions continue to enter the market at a rapid pace and if all were taken into consideration, it’s altogether possible that this series could go on for months. However, due to the fact that I’ve set it to end prior to InfoComm we are coming to the last few chapters. So far all companies […]

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT – Part 4: Acano

Generational AV/IT – Security Matters

This week my daughter and I have been working on our presentations for InfoComm. That’s right. This year we get to present together for the first time ever. Some of you met my daughter when she was about 8 or 9 when I first came into AV and now she is teaching in AV and […]

Generational AV/IT – Security Matters

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT — Part 1: Blue Jeans

OK, here we go with the first in a series on numerous participants in the new market of disruptive technologies. The groundwork has been laid in the prologue that was published late last week, you may want to first refer back to that if you haven’t read it yet to get set up for the […]

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT — Part 1: Blue Jeans

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT – The Series

The interview — the power of the spoken word, the real sense of expression and feeling when one gives you direct response to something that you’ve been thinking and/or wondering about. In blogs previous to the last two that I’ve done on the title subject of AV/IT be they cloud, BYOD or cybersecurity, it was […]

Disruptive Forces in AV/IT – The Series

Unified Everything?

As some of you will know, I recently attended ISE 2014 in Amsterdam with the rAVe team. We spent a very long week seeing and documenting the entire show, and afterward Gary and I reported on what we thought the major news and themes of the show were. Gary and I (as usual) had somewhat […]

Unified Everything?

Apple, AV and a Whole New Perspective

As someone who has regularly blogged on AV/IT, cloud and mobility/BYOD, it was my recent blog interview article which brought a whole new angle on blogging for me, opening up a new door where I plan on making it a regular theme as I identify AV companies across the world in this format. I’d like […]

Apple, AV and a Whole New Perspective

Getting AV/IT Business Done in the Great White North

The competitive battle for U.S. AV integrator market supremacy has grown hotter over the last few years, and newer technologies in AV/IT, cloud and BYOD are beginning to elevate this movement toward market reign. In many articles that I have read lately, suggestions (and even directives) are being expressed to the integrators to embrace these […]

Getting AV/IT Business Done in the Great White North

AV/IT — An Aerial View Assessment

It looks as if lately LinkedIn group discussions have become the basis and inspiration for my recent blogs. The previous one I was encouraged to write by the moderator of the group discussion, this one I was not, however I saw the opportunity to put together collective thoughts, some related to the thread and some […]

AV/IT — An Aerial View Assessment

Wireless Video: The Apple TV Reprise

One year ago I wrote my first column for rAVe Publications. What a fun year it has been. I have been fortunate enough to have heard from dozens of people with feedback, comments and questions about my articles. Even my daughter got in on the fun a few months back. We had a conversation that […]

Wireless Video: The Apple TV Reprise

The Other Side of the Bridge — A Look at Some AV Streaming Solutions

One comment I frequently hear about HDBaseT is that it’s a “bridge technology” between the old days of simple point-to-point connectivity and a future in which AV joins the rest of our data on those great big IP networks which dominate the rest of our lives. Are we ready for this paradigm shift? Is the […]

The Other Side of the Bridge — A Look at Some AV Streaming Solutions

Video Over the Network Takes the Next Step

On October 1st of this year, Crestron Electronics sent out a press release that its DMCO 7-series streaming card for DigitalMedia was now shipping. This card was not a huge surprise to the industry, as it had been rumored/discussed since InfoComm of 2012. In addition, the technology had been seen by many people in Crestron’s […]

Video Over the Network Takes the Next Step

rESPeCt – Find Out What That Means to Me

There are many in the audiovisual technology industry who chide those of us who beat the drum for designing and implementing technology solutions in the built environment with a heavy focus on energy efficiency and sustainability.  Their argument is one of profit versus performance, survivability versus conscience. Coming out of a major recession where many […]

rESPeCt – Find Out What That Means to Me

Stewart Audio Debuts 2×2 Dante AV/IT Bridge

Stewart Audio’s new NETAV I/O 2X2 is a two-input, two-output network bridge for Dante networks. This network bridge is sort of a digital on- and off-ramp for networked audio applications using the Dante protocol by Audinate. With two balanced analog inputs (line level, mic and available 24V phantom power) that are automatically encoded, any analog […]

Stewart Audio Debuts 2×2 Dante AV/IT Bridge

BYOD, Telehealth and a Value Proposition

On August 1st, I was an attendee at a high level Health Information Technology (HIT) meeting in Washington DC, as an invited guest of the National eHealth Collaborative. The National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) is a public-private partnership that accelerates effective use of health IT to create a more patient and family centered healthcare system with […]

BYOD, Telehealth and a Value Proposition