RaveEd — Volume 12, Issue 17 — September 5, 2019

September 5, 2019 | Volume: 12 | Issue: 17

It’s September, #AVtweeps, and that means you can (almost, maybe) take a breath! August is over! But there may still be work to do and Scott Tiner talks about just this in his most recent column: “The Most Dreaded Time of the Year.”

September is a pretty cool month, though, despite it being pretty stressful for the education space as it is the unofficial launch date for products in our industry space following the summer season. You will see that this is the case as we have over 15 product releases and product shipping announcements featured in this issue of rAVe ED. Hear from Extron, Audinate, Panopto, Visix, QSC, NEC Display and more!

As you may know, I attended UNC-Chapel Hill. I was scrolling through Instagram
this morning and saw quite the photo. That computer is the size of my refrigerator and I bet it had like 2.5 GB of RAM. My MacBook Pro has 32 GB and it might as well be as thick as a sheet of paper. Man, computers are COOL.

Enjoy the issue!

-Jacob Blount

COLUMNS

+ The Most Dreaded Time of the Year [Scott Tiner]

I have worked in education for over twenty years. When August hits, we know that summer has ended for us. The pace picks up quickly as the days get closer to September and the level of anxiety begins to rise. By the end of the month, we are in an all out sprint. Will all our installs be done in time? Will our maintenance work get done in time? What about the training that has to happen with the new faculty and staff members that are coming on board. Max Goodwin, the head doctor from the NBC show "New Amsterdam" always asks his staff, "How can I help?" Now that we are into September, here are some ideas for firms who want to ask me that question and are looking to build some new business and relationships.

+ Standardize the User Experience [Christopher Gillespie]

Take the time to focus your efforts on understanding HOW and WHY systems are used. Understand the desired experience for customers and you will do far better! I want to clarify that this responsibility of defining that experience belongs to both the integrator AND the end user. I have put a lot of effort into focusing on documenting the experience to ensure the integrator gets a better picture of how we want things to work. But the dealer needs to put a commensurate amount of work into it if we are going to have a great partnership. That is the info that must be communicated throughout the entire project cycle. If the salesperson and the PM know… but the programmer doesn't, it all falls apart.

+ The User Interface — It’s Not Business, It’s Personal [Mark Coxon]

We should be putting the user at the center of the technology design process, using a human-centered design approach. This means starting with a blank slate, honoring existing work habits and patterns and creating user interfaces that have a high degree of discoverability.