By: Leah McCann & Steph Beckett Audio Collaborative 2020 kicked off Wednesday with some excellent insights into the audio sector of the AV industry. (In case you missed it, our day one recap is here.) Thursday, we were excited for more. Day two of the show would bring forth topics from esports and the music […]

Gaming headsets and accessories have seen a boost in demand during the first half of 2020, new research from Futuresource Consulting has shown. With social distancing measures increasing demand for communication equipment both from the virtual office and in the virtual playground, gaming headsets are one bright spot for the technology market in 2020. “Our […]

By Morgan Alley Almo Pro A/V With most of our industry cooped up at home in quarantine, it feels like we hear about video games every single day. If you’re working from home with kids, you’ve probably heard them talk about a sweet new Minecraft build, the new League of Legends meta (still hoping for […]

Optoma yesterday unveiled the UHD50X, a 240Hz 4K (3840×2160) home theater projector using 1-chip DLP technology. Specifed at 3,400 lumens of brightness and a 500,000:1 contrast ratio, along with HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid-Log Gamma) compatibility, the Optoma UHD50X also includes an enhanced gaming mode, as well as a latency of only 16ms in 1080p at […]

TechLogix Networx has launched HDMI and DisplayPort video cables that they claim are specifically designed for electronic gaming and esports competition. Huh? The press announcement said, “Unlike traditional video cables which are limited in length and video-processing speed, TechLogix cables leverage a fiber optic core that supports true, real-time 8K and 4K120 video with bandwidths […]

As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Gaming now occupies a place in end-users entertainment options that is as mainstream as a cable box. It’s entirely typical now for a media room or theater room install to incorporate at least one gaming console as a source and quite […]

The recent obsession with Pokémon Go has caught my attention. As a lover of anime and an avid gamer, you would think that I would be all over this. Yet, I am not. I started hardcore gaming at the age of nine when my parents finally bought a console for the house – the NES. […]

Assuming that you’ve not been living under a rock, you’ve at least heard about the Pokémon GO! craze. For the uninitiated, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game produced by Niantic (in partnership with Nintendo, which owns the rights to the intellectual property on which it is based) in which one needs to hunt the […]

This month Apple lifted the curtain on its new Apple TV, dubbed, oddly enough, The New Apple TV. Since then, many of us in the AV business and media have spent time parsing the specifications, guessing at the hints Apple has dropped about its capabilities, and pondering the implications it’s going to have on living […]

BenQ America today introduced the XR3501 — a curved 35” LCD display with a 144-Hz refresh rate, a 21:9 aspect ratio and it’s integrated with BenQ’s RevolutionEyes technology. BenQ’s XR3501 monitor has over 20 options for color vibrance, the VA panel, according to BenQ, provides higher color reproduction with better viewing angles. Users can also […]

Peerless-AV just launched a new product called the LCT620A Desktop Mount. Aimed at education, commercial office space and gaming applications, the LCT620A Desktop Mount can be customized to fit users’ needs, with the ability to be configured in single, double, triple and quad arrangements. The LCT620A uses polished aluminum articulating arm(s) with chrome and gloss […]

  It finally appears that momentum for Valve’s plans to take over gamers’ living rooms appears to be picking up, ahem, steam. For two years now, gamers have been teased with promises of Steam Machines, dedicated gaming consoles for Valve’s Steam online gaming services. The strategy involves partnering with hardware companies to offer a range […]

This week, Apple spent 85 percent of its time during its Spring Forward press conference on the Apple Watch and how it works, what it’s priced at and what it actually looks like. And, I will likely pre-order — no, I will pre-order — the Apple Sport Watch on April 10th, the first day they […]

BenQ is now shipping its XL2420G gaming monitor. Featuring NVIDIA’s G-SYNC technology, BenQ says this display allows players to entirely eliminate performance issues related to image tearing, stuttering and latency. The XL2420G gives users the freedom to switch between BenQ’s Classic Mode and G-SYNC Mode to create a customizable solution. The XL2420G offers a wide […]

On a random side-note, has anybody really read Frank Sinatra’s lyrics to “High Hopes”? They are weird. For instance — a ram trying to destroy a hydroelectric plant? I’m coming to CEDIA this year with an open mind — and like many attendees, I really want to be blown away with a clear winning product or […]

Despite some negative stereotypes about people who enjoy video games, most modern games have a social focus. From massive multi-player games that host thousands of people in the same persistent world like World of Warcraft and Dota II, to party matching systems for match based games, which is most of them. Even solitary games now […]

Very recently, virtual reality has finally grown out of the ridiculous spectacle of the early ’90s into a legitimate display peripheral. Much of the credit for bringing VR back from the brink and into the mainstream consciousness goes to the Oculus Rift, started by a 22-year-old with the world’s largest head-mounted display collection, Palmer Luckey. […]

I’m always up for a challenge and recently, Mark Coxon threw down the gauntlet and asked me to get a little more specific on what a home theater gaming setup would look like. Although it’s true I haven’t worked directly for a true AV integrator — I have done some HomeAV design and install work […]

BenQ America has started shipping its 1920×1080 resolution RL2460HT monitor for gaming — perfect for RTS- and MOBA-style games, as well as fighting games — a big enough market in AV that we even have a GAMING section of articles on our website. The company is also introducing its stylish “bumble bee” black and yellow […]

Here’s a look back in case you missed these news stories this week including: Almo Pro A/V’s new digital signage content creation services, the latest gaming column from Matt Cooper, Extron does BYOD via LinkLicense, Digital Signage Poised to Change the Restaurant Industry and more. Enjoy! And, if you think we missed something, let us […]

Last column, I went over some basic types of gamers based on preferred hardware. Beyond that, it’s worth understanding gaming genres, as it can relate to some particular accessory sales and furniture placement. I’m also going to paint in some broad strokes to keep this article from taking 18 years to read. But, rest assured, […]

In my last article I got pretty specific with theater customizations that not every theater gaming client would need. This month I’ll dial it back in a and give a broader field guide to identify the particular genus and species of your gamer client. This will give you an edge on design recommendations, as well […]

Perhaps the biggest story to come out of CES 2014 was the announcement of the Steam Boxes. Within hours of the initial press coverage, I was getting messages via social media from gamer friends who were, um, excited, to put it mildly. If you’re even half a gamer (or your kids are), you’re already aware […]

BenQ America unveiled two new gaming monitors at CES today. Featuring NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology. The company’s new XL2420G and XL2720G include the G-Sync Mode for low-latency gaming; Low Motion Blur Mode for CRT-like sharpness of moving objects; and a full-featured 3D Vision Mode to create more lifelike on-screen action. By synchronizing the displays’ refresh rate […]

I’m sticking to my promise, and this will be my first article featuring specific ways to add value to your game-centric home theater setup. It may actually be too specific, in that you’ll have to do some custom woodwork until and unless an AV furniture company starts selling similar products. But I’m getting ahead of […]

If you read my last article on the PS4, you’ll no doubt be unsurprised where this article is going next. We’re covering Microsoft’s entry into the next-gen console market: the Xbox One. Next week will be my first non-review column and I hope to go into more detail with some specific solutions that will add […]

Traditionally, people fall into and then stick with a particular console — although some dedicated game fans with the financial wherewithal go for both. And, the type of consumer we’re looking at with a home theater is likely to want two or three consoles (and maybe a PC as well). It’s a pretty safe bet […]

There has been a lot of talk about gaming here on rAVe lately.  It started with Matt Cooper’s blog Gamers: An Untapped Market for AV Integrators in which he shared a bunch of stats from the ESA.  Then, Gary followed up on that article with a Rants and Raves audio diatribe entitled “Can Gaming Save the […]

This is the first installment of rAVe’s new series about gaming in the HomeAV market. It’s no secret that gaming’s demographics have evolved from children to a majority of adults — and those adults have access to a substantial entertainment budget. As AV integrators, we have particular access to people already spending thousands on entertainment […]

There’s a gaming meme that makes the rounds online whose punchline is, “I went outside today for a change. The graphics were amazing but the story and gameplay were terrible.” Gameplay is King, and it’s always been that way. Some game developers get that, some don’t. My current addiction when I need mindless, almost meditative […]

By Lee Distad Whether you consider it to be a generational thing or not, how people consume media has changed. Not just in terms of mobile media, which I spend most of my time dealing with these days, but at home too. In the past, a media room or cinema room had one purpose: watching movies. […]

Consumer behavior and TV set maker strategies are resulting in widely diverging TV product ranges across the world. While the industry is truly global, regional differences are increasing. For 3D, the most enthusiastic regions are Western Europe and China, while the mix of 3D in North America actually declined in Q3’11, according to the Q4’11 […]