A decade ago internet cartoonist Randall Munroe made a joke about the proliferation of standards, in which an attempt to create a single unifying standard to replace 14 competing standards instead exacerbated the problem by creating a 15th competing standard. Everyone who creates a standard has a vision for why they are doing so, for […]

Another LAVNCH WEEK, another recap by yours truly. Today we kicked off LAVNCH WEEK 7 with UCC Day, and I may be biased, but it was fantastic. Our speakers gave incredible insights, the attendees asked thought-provoking questions and the content was informative and relevant. Now, I’m going to give you a recap of the day […]

As AV designers, we naturally want to find ways to standardize things. Whether it’s a process, hardware design, finding IO (input and output) “typicals” or programming and control protocol standards, the goal is to simplify the entire workflow process. It’s like this for our entire industry: Technicians become familiar with the typical deployments and related […]

The Audio Engineering Society has announced the adoption and publication of AES75-2022, “AES standard for acoustics – Measuring loudspeaker maximum linear sound levels using noise.” The new standard addresses the need for a practical and cohesive procedure for the prediction of loudspeaker performance. AES75 is the result of extensive work by the AES Standards Committee’s SC-04-03-A […]

If you’re in AV, you are most likely facing supply chains problems as you read this. I have had people reaching out and asking if I knew where they could find a multitude of products, ranging from DSPs with Dante ports to LCD displays to Level 3 Network switches to Video over IP products. A […]

At ISE 2020 in Amsterdam in stand 15-B250, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) ProAV Working Group introduced Internet Protocol Media Experience (IPMX), a set of open standards and specifications designed to enable carriage of compressed and uncompressed video, audio and data over IP networks. IPMX addresses the ProAV industry’s need for a single […]

Everybody says they have standards… but what does that even mean? Are we talking about a locked bill of materials? Did you mean that certain gear is non-negotiable but other stuff you have the flexibility to substitute (you mean whatever manufacturer you have the best back-end rebates from? yeah… we know)? How tightly are those […]

I participated in a unified communications panel at InfoComm about three years ago. It was a great panel with representation from companies like Cisco, Polycom, and (the now defunct) Tely Labs. I was the oddball of the bunch; promising the audience that a focus on software to improve proximate meetings was needed at least as […]

Crestron announced today that its DM NVX AV-over-IP product line has received Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) approval by the U.S. Department of Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and FIPS 140-2 validation by the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. DM NVX is the first and […]

The AV/IT industry has a problem, one of its own making and one that is getting worse by the micro-second. There are just too many conflicting and confusing “standards” and best practices. Between those created by trade groups, those developed by technical associations or technology consortia (worse yet as these tend to be proprietary) and […]

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 […]

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced last week that it has released version 2.0 of the DisplayPort (DP) audio/video standard. DP 2.0 is the first major update to the DisplayPort standard since March 2016 and provides up to a 3x increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version of DisplayPort (DP 1.4a), […]

See part one of Anthony’s Planned Obsolescence column here. Since planned obsolescence for pro AV gear harms sales, service contracts and product support, the future for the AV industry may be headed toward the “as a service” model borrowed from the software industry. Should there be standards for planned obsolescence? Even the IT industry, with […]

Extron is among a select group of professional audio/video companies to have passed the UL DAP – Data Acceptance Program accreditations for the new UL 62368-1 standard. The new standard covers a broad range of products. It applies to all Information Technology Equipment and Audio Video products rated fewer than 600 volts, as well as […]

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has introduced its new DisplayHDR True Black high dynamic range (HDR) standard, a variant on VESA’s High-Performance Monitor and Display Compliance Test Specification (DisplayHDR). The new standard has been optimized for emissive display technologies, including organic light emitting diode (OLED) and future microLED displays. DisplayHDR True Black allows for […]

AVIXA has announced the release of its newest standard, Rack Building for Audiovisual Systems (F502.01:2018), which details the requirements for integrating AV systems into racks by providing a process for consistent assembly, mounting, and cable management. This standard covers the fundamental elements of building a reliable AV equipment rack, including: Assembly of AV equipment racks, […]

Audiovisual systems are becoming increasingly central to global operations as they offer expanded remote management capabilities. This upward trend of AV systems operating over enterprise networks can pose a serious risk for security breaches, therefore it’s critical for AV professionals to understand and mitigate these risks. AVIXA’s new Recommended Practices for Security in Networked AV […]

Today some manufacturers and leaders in the Pro AV market announced they are working together under the umbrella of Avnu Alliance on something they are calling Milan, a standards-based protocol for interoperable media networking in the Pro AV market. Created by manufacturers AudioScience, Avid, Biamp, d&b audiotechnik, L-Acoustics, Luminex and Meyer Sound– Milan builds on […]

By John Purvey Belden To support higher video resolution and refresh rates and real-time, interactive technology such as virtual reality, the HDMI Forum continues to update HDMI specifications. First announced in late 2017, the newest HDMI standard for video cables and connections – HDMI 2.1 – is faster than its predecessors, and ready to support […]

By Justin Kennington President, SDVoE Alliance HDBaseT has been a valuable technology for the pro AV industry, as it was the first to enable the reliable transmission of video with no quality degradation or latency over popular category cable. This is important because the ubiquity of category cable makes it an easy low-cost choice for […]

The newly released SMPTE ST-2110 standard serves to alleviate concerns about compressed video traffic and delivery over managed IP networks. MuxLab’s new 4K extender for broadcasters resolves this concern by using an uncompressed transmission over IP networks in the studio or for live production and is also an ST-2110-ready solution, the new industry standard. MuxLab’s SDI over IP 4K Uncompressed Extender […]

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that DP8K Certified DisplayPort cables — native DisplayPort cables that are guaranteed to support DisplayPort High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3) — are now available in the marketplace. HBR3 is the highest bit rate (8.1 Gbps per lane) supported by DisplayPort standard version 1.4 and provides the speed required to drive 8K video […]

The title of this column is a phrase that is the basis of a legal oath that has been part of English Law since at least medieval times and has essentially become embedded in our shared societal structure. The beliefs that have come to encompass our laws and governance concepts remain at their core based […]

Middle Atlantic Products is sharing its thought leadership by participating in the task group authoring AVIXA’s newest standard, “F502.01:201X Rack Building for Audiovisual Systems.” The standard draft is now available and AVIXA is providing a public comment period, seeking AV experts to review it and provide feedback in an online town hall, Wed., Dec. 13. “Any satisfying AV experience […]

Any one in the AV industry who specifies, purchases, sells or buys the essentials we use every day to build our systems knows that these “products” have a host of internal costs built into the price we pay. Let me be very clear, the price I am talking about is the net cost of the […]

When an organization with the legacy of the International Communications Industries Association (ICIA) changes its name to AVIXA (Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association), it heralds not only a branding move but also signals a shift to an agile approach for aligning to the rapid changes in the audiovisual industry. Perhaps above all, AVIXA represents a […]

The HDBaseT Alliance used InfoComm to officially debut the first set of products using their new HDBaseT over IP infrastructure — designed to compete against the SDVoE Alliance standard, more commonly known as the AptoVision BlueRiver NT+ AV-over-IP system. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Why? Well, I love HDBaseT. The transport platform that was originally launched by — and is still […]

The SDVoE just got the biggest endorser yet. SDVoE is currently the only off-the-shelf technology that offers a “full stack solution” for AV-over-IP.  SDVoE addresses the full seven-layer OSI network stack and offers solutions at every layer. SDVoE technology creates a flexible hardware and software platform which can enable many applications including matrix switches, KVM switches, video walls controllers and multiview image processors. It can also be integrated […]

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced it has formed a Special Interest Group (SIG) that addresses standardization for the fast-growing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) markets. Well known for developing the ubiquitous DisplayPort and Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) standards, VESA also previously defined the long-standing Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) standard–which works with VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort and […]

It is easier to make good purchasing decisions when armed with timely, relevant information. As such, manufacturers, rep firms and systems integrators alike put a lot of effort into promoting the features and benefits of their products and systems before the sale. What’s missing, though, is arming those same users with useful information so they can […]

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced the completion of its compliance test specification (CTS) for products incorporating the USB Type-C connector and the DisplayPort Alternate Mode (“Alt Mode”) standard. The new CTS documents allow VESA members to have their products compliance tested through VESA’s Authorized Test Centers (ATCs) worldwide, or by completing self-testing […]

The Audio Engineering Society has announced that Dr. Richard C. Cabot will be assuming the duties of Standards Manager. A former president of the AES, Dr. Cabot has been involved with AES Standards since its early years, having chaired the development of the AES17 standard on digital audio measurement. He was one of the founders […]