Volume 12, Issue 14 — July 23, 2019

RaveEd — Volume 12, Issue 14 — July 23, 2019

July 23, 2019 | Volume: 12 | Issue: 14

In the northern hemisphere, we know you’re slammed in the summer as, while the students are out, you are busy installing new AV gear. And upgrading the rooms with laser projectors! So, we’ve shortened this issue of rAVe ED to focus only on that’s important RIGHT NOW. For example, we have two columns dealing with network security. These are important and timely reads. And, we have a great piece from rAVe ED columnist and Bates College AV-geek, Scott Tiner, on the active learning classroom and it’s relationship with collaborative spaces and technology.

Finally, while you’re upgrading your rooms, have you seen Extron’s new TouchLink panels? They all have a built-in IP Link Pro control processor, come in 5”, 7” and 10” sizes and are PoE. We use these in my classrooms at UNC, in fact!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and protect that network as we move to an AV-over-IP world.

-Gary Kayye

COLUMNS

+ Five Questions Every Integrator Should Be Asking [Mark Coxon]

Here's a secret. No one buys technology. They buy the benefit of what technology can do for them. Given that, here are five major questions I think every Integrator should be asking early on in the discovery phase, as well as a quick reason that each one is important.

+ Cybersecurity Lessons Learned from Zoom, Logitech and Draper [Paul Konikowski, CTS-D]

I hope that this week will mark the “watershed” moment in audiovisual industry cybersecurity. Over the last few years, there have been a handful of security vulnerabilities discovered in touch panels, wireless presentation systems, video conferencing codecs, digital billboard signage players and other devices. But this week is different. Unlike security vulnerabilities in devices and software that can be downplayed, patched and/or swept under the rug by manufacturers, data breaches are governed by laws like the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The mere chance of a data breach this large should make AV companies realize how bad it could be.

+ Another View on Biamp Buying Community and Apart Speaker Brands [rAVe Team]

This acquisition is likely to offer Biamp substantial opportunity across the install pro audio markets. However, the development of all the brands will likely show a more commercial audio focus. At the same time this means more competitive pressure in key growth verticals, and further increases the need for a large product portfolio when it comes to install projects. DSP, control and audio networking synergies will be positive for the group, and many brands will be impacted by the solid pairing of Biamp DSP with Audioprof’s loudspeakers. A specialist DSP and networking brand has just purchased two specialist loudspeaker brands, and no doubt this journey will continue to be watched closely by many of the largest pro audio companies.

+ Collaboration Space Interface Design [Scott Tiner]

For the past several years in higher education, the active learning classroom has grown in popularity. With these active learning classrooms comes an increase in technology. Many of the classrooms have multiple displays and multiple ways of getting your content onto those displays. These may consist of flat panels, projectors and interactive whiteboards. The expectation of these rooms is that the teachers and students bring their own technology into these spaces. This technology may be cell phones, iPads, tablets or computers. Because these are being brought in by the users of the room, the designers have no idea what type of devices are being brought in. While AV designers (internal or external) are extremely talented at designing these systems, the problem comes when we have to design the interface. How do you make a usable system with all this complexity?

+ Imminent Disaster — The Looming AV Threat [Andrew Davis]

If you are already working on rebuttals to the effect of, "nobody wants all that security," or "we don’t want to add extra complexity to the installation," or "we aren’t cybersecurity experts," or the worst and most likely, "our software devs have assured us that our product is inherently safe so there is no need to waste any resources on this…it’s fine," please feel free to address the responses to me and send them right to that magical place where discarded drafts go because this is not something you can pass on. The Titanic was unsinkable and Enigma was uncrackable, yet here we are.

+ Is It a Standard if Nobody Uses it? [Dr. Frederick Ampel]

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 the flavor variations created by various international overlays on existing standards, the pile of paper is beginning to reach the size of a major mountain range in height.