Volume 11, Issue 5 — March 16, 2020

March 16, 2020 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 5

Hi, welcome to the first March edition of our UCC newsletter! I’ve had a difficult time coming up with something good to write about — it’s been a hard time to be in news, no matter what type of news you work in. I think it’s important more than ever to be positive and to keep spreading sunshine.

I have three columns for you today, as a Monday present. The first is Gary Kayye’s famous Krystal Ball: He will tell you the future of our industry, and you don’t even have to call a 1-800 number and pay $99.99! Next up, I have a column from Scott Tiner on digital transformation — he explains what it actually is and its impact on AV. Finally, Mark Coxon has some hot takes on the recent mergers and acquisitions among AV integrators. They are all good reads, and I’m excited to hear your thoughts on them.

In other news, AVIXA has an InfoComm update among all the recent cancellations surrounding COVID-19, Lifesize and Serenova are merging, ClearOne has won another patent judgment against Shure, and more.

Hakuna Matata!

— Steph Beckett

COLUMNS

+ The 20th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball: 2020 Edition [Gary Kayye]

Welcome to my 20th Kayye’s Krystal Ball! I know, I was shocked too. Twenty years of this. But I love writing this annual predictions article. If you’re a regular reader, you already know this, but for those that don’t, my Kayye’s Krystal Ball piece is an annual article where I not only tell you what I think is going to happen in the AV market for the upcoming year but, I also look back and review the previous year’s predictions — sort of a scorecard of accuracy, if you will. 2020 is going to be an exciting year with A LOT of changes in the AV market so I hope you’ll read them all, below.

+ Digital Transformation — Buzzword or Opportunity? [Scott Tiner]

If you have had your ears open over the past couple of years, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “Digital Transformation.” If your experience is similar to mine, you have not only heard about it but also read about it and seen ads for webinars about it. Vendors often use the phrase to get their products in front of you with lines like “this technology will help you in your digital transformation strategy.” Like most buzzwords, however, many of us don’t know what they actually mean, and what the real impact is on the work we do. According to George Westerman, MIT principal research scientist and author of “Leading Digital: Turning Technology Into Business Transformation,” “Digital transformation is a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people and processes to fundamentally change business performance.”

+ Mergers, Acquisitions and the AV Ecology [Mark Coxon]

I remember reading a book back in the late ’90s called “Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare” by Paul Colvinaux. It was one of the first ecology books I read, and although the science was still evolving itself, there are a couple points in the book that have stuck with me over time and that I have found perhaps even more relevant given the course of recent events. This year has brought more mergers and acquisitions among AV integrators, most notably at the top with Diversified buying Sensory Technologies and AVI-SPL merging with Whitlock Group. It seems these types of mergers always cause some initial trepidation in smaller firms, wondering how they will keep up, compete and fight off the large behemoths.