Latest headlines: Joel Rollins on redefining some terms in the rental industry, plus news from AJA Video Systems, Powersoft, Planar and more
May 29, 2020 | Volume: 14 | Issue: 10
Columns galore is what I have for you today, folks.
To begin, we have a column from Joel Rollins on some ~redefined~ terms. Why? Because the rental and staging industry is redefining itself constantly — particularly amid COVID-19. Next up, a column from Dr. Fred Ampel — doctor, doctor give me the news I’ve got a … manufacturer that won’t answer my calls? He weaves a cautionary tale and then explains what he did in that situation. Finally, I attended Almo’s E4v — and I give you a run-down of all the live AV goodness I could get my hands on that day.
In other news, Venue Lighting Effects has new products for stage lighting and control, AJA Video Systems has a new single-channel 4K/UltraHD recorder and player. Also, Waves Audio improved its SoundGrid Studio Software.
Now, a lot of people have predicted the decline of the rental and staging portion of the industry due to the accelerated pace of change brought on by the pandemic. The more I prepare for summer events, the more we realize that we are not an industry in decline, but an industry that is doing what we have done many times before. This is, namely, redefining ourselves and the technologies and processes we use.
As any regular reader of my columns will know, one of my significant beliefs is critical to any relationship between a manufacturer and consultants/specifiers. It’s about two things: responsiveness and reliability. Therefore, I present the following story as an illustration of precisely what NOT to do if you are a manufacturer. Take heed.
As with many events in the world right now, Almo Professional A/V canceled its E4 Experience(s) that was supposed to happen this spring. Instead, the distributor held an utterly online version — calling it the E4 Evolution or E4v. I wrote a sneak preview about it a couple of weeks ago. But in case you missed that, here is the gist.