BuyersClub — Volume 4, Issue 11.1

BuyersClub — Volume 4, Issue 11.1 — November 8, 2018

November 8, 2018 | Volume: 4 | Issue: 11.1

Happy November, #AVtweeps! It is crazy to think how fast the days fly by in months let alone years. But, the value is finding small amounts of time to engage and focus. That’s what this moment is for you, enjoy this edition of AV Buyers.Club!

Joel Rollins hits on virtual reality and his (virtual) visit to Oculus Connect. I’ve actually spent quite some time with Joel — in reference to how much I usually do — the past two weeks as we’ve been working on some rAVe VR projects. If anyone is passionate about virtual and augmented reality, it’s Joel. I would highly recommend this column; his excitement flows right off of the page.

Leonard Suskin spent some time with Crestron recently at a day-long event that was focused solely on room scheduling. Intriguing, right? What is even more intriguing is that four of the sessions were seemingly the same. But he got something both productive and different out of all of them. Check out his column below for more!

In addition, we have the regulars: product news, industry news, case studies and the tech round-up. Enjoy!

-Jacob Blount

COLUMNS

+ AV=Actual/Virtual [Joel Rollins]

What VR can restore is the feeling of the attendee’s independence in the environment — presence. Where teleconferencing and webcasting give you a camera’s view of what is going on someplace else, in a VR environment each person is a separate participant, able to associate with others and with the presenter in a more individualized way.

+ Top Three Uses of Digital Signage in Churches [rAVe Team]

This column is written for house of worship end-users moreso than integrators, but we thought it was interesting enough to include. The idea is that digital signage provides churches with new opportunities for community engagement — exactly what a ministry needs.

+ Scheduling, Software as a Service and the Day I Sat Through the Same Presentation Four Times [Leonard Suskin]

I don’t know if "As a Service" has replaced "experience" or "convergence" in the AV buzzword bingo game, but it certainly has been a hot topic as of late, opening some interesting questions as to how the business models of traditionally hardware-centric AV companies fit into a software — and software as service — based world. Last week, I met with Crestron Electronics, often seen (perhaps erroneously) as a hardware company. What was interesting about this is that it was neither a hardware-based day nor particularly a Crestron-based day; the heart of the gathering was a series of presentations by Crestron’s software partners in the world of room scheduling. Overall, both the event and the partnerships say something about one of the ways in which Crestron sees their role in an increasingly software-based world.