In Person, Online and Tough Choices

People often throw around the expression that “history repeats.” In truth, the original axiom — it’s attributed to Mark Twain, although I suspect it’s even older — states that “history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme.” It’s certainly true that if you stick around long enough, you begin to see patterns — that what’s happening […]

In Person, Online and Tough Choices

Buy Direct?

Being a technology manager in AV has been a wild ride. For years, many of us have felt like we were crashing the party. At first, we were not welcome at InfoComm, then that slowly changed. Then, when manufacturers started communicating directly with us, visiting us on-site, offering training, etc., integrators were not happy. Then […]

Buy Direct?

Relationships Matter; So Work Together

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s been a tough year for lots of companies, and indeed entire sectors. When business is slow, we’ve all got an imperative to look for new opportunities. But you have to be smart about it. In the past, I’ve seen manufacturers or their distributors see declining […]

Relationships Matter; So Work Together

Dropping the Ball

Responsiveness and Reliability As any regular reader of my columns will know, one of my significant beliefs is critical to any relationship between a manufacturer and consultants/specifiers. It’s about two things: responsiveness and reliability. Therefore, I present the following story as an illustration of precisely what NOT to do if you are a manufacturer. Take […]

Dropping the Ball

The Irony of Technology Obsolescence for AV Vendors

AV companies have instant information about their product sales right at their fingertips. However, those same AV vendors have little to no visibility into the effect of marketing on tracking the reach, engagement or conversions on those same product purchases. The result is ironic for the AV industry: marketing technology obsolescence due to artificial intelligence […]

The Irony of Technology Obsolescence for AV Vendors

Future of AV: Merging of Product Development and Marketing

Engineers invent and innovate. Products are created. Marketing promotes the products. Sales try to, well, sell the products. That’s the way it’s been done in product development for ages including in the audiovisual industry (AVL). And that’s the past. The future is the merging of Product Development and Marketing. Whereas the linear path described above […]

Future of AV: Merging of Product Development and Marketing

House of Worship: Mistakes Will Happen

The house of worship market is like any concert venue when it comes to the impact of real-time mistakes in front of a live audience. Years ago, I had a humiliating experience that shaped how I taught church tech teams and later designed audio, video, and lighting (AVL) systems. This true story illustrates how a […]

House of Worship: Mistakes Will Happen

It’s All in the Details, or at Least it Should Be in an Increasingly Mobile World

As a matter of course, I like to investigate certain things in order to acquire material for writing, or even to disseminate information in other ways. As we like to talk about the integrators and what they need to pay specific attention to, sometimes that direction needs to be turned to the industry manufacturers and some […]

It’s All in the Details, or at Least it Should Be in an Increasingly Mobile World

The Untapped Market — Portable Churches

Stats vary, but the trend shows that portable churches make up over 20 percent of all new churches in the United States. A ‘portable church’ is a local congregation without a permanent facility, and often meet with the help of volunteers for setup and tear-down in venues such as schools, movie theaters and community centers. […]

The Untapped Market — Portable Churches

House of Worship: A Billion Reasons to Enter This Market

Half of one billion dollars in audio, video and lighting technology sales over the next 12 months. And that’s just from one segment of the house of worship market, representing only about 2 percent of all churches here in the United States. It’s likely your business hasn’t seen the majority of your sales come from […]

House of Worship: A Billion Reasons to Enter This Market