Latest highlights: Lee Distad on product interoperability, Scott Tiner on Log4j and Jeff Hastings on consolidation in the AV industry.
December 28, 2021 | Volume: 18 | Issue: 24
Happy holidays — and almost new year! We’re getting close to wrapping up 2021 and sliding into 2022. I’m very excited to see what AV trends will continue into next year and what will change. What are your predictions?
Interoperability is more important these days than ever before — the WFH trend doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Oftentimes, learning what solutions can actually work together in the home is left to installers and end users, but Lee Distad says there are ways to minimize this. Minimizing the brands your products incorporate into, choosing well-designed hardware and testing interoperability yourself are the first steps you can take.
With recent cybersecurity scares, there’s never been a more important time to learn how safe your Home AV and IT tech really is. Scott Tiner’s column this week opens the door for an opportunity you may never have heard of: Log4j. A piece of code that logs commands, Log4j is both a tool and a liability, and you’d be surprised how it can be used for both the good and the bad. Check out Log4j and the opportunities it presents in AV.
Lastly, there’s been consolidation in AV this year, and according to Jeff Hastings, that’s a good thing. Consolidation means collaboration— which also ties into the pros and cons of interoperability. Jeff writes, “I think we’re entering a transformative time for our industry — a time when the silos that currently make up the AV space are beginning to meld into one another.” What Home products have you seen that have been consolidated with other AV solutions?
That’s it for today, Hometweeps. I won’t see you until 2022, so have a safe rest of your year, and I’ll catch you on the flip side. Talk to you soon! Bye!
The home technology landscape has changed profoundly over the years, driven in part by ever-faster internet speeds. And there are plenty of positives that end users have gained from the progress. I reflect on how my new 75-inch LED TV was one-fifth the price of my prior 60-inch plasma TV. And yet, looking back, I still see things that we, whether industry professionals or end users (notwithstanding that all industry professionals are also end users on our off time), still struggle with.
In late December, a flaw in software that is ubiquitous around the world was reported, and it sent cyber-security pros into a frenzy and turned the hairs of technology pros gray. There are countless articles about this vulnerability, so I am not going to go deep into the technology of what occurs. Here is what is important for us in the AV world to know about: Log4j.
As 2022 gets underway, one can’t help but reflect on how transformative the past two years have been. The AV industry endured pandemic-driven changes that nobody could have anticipated. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s becoming clear that our industry is not only changing, but it’s becoming smaller (which is good, and I’ll explain why in a moment). Here’s my high-level analysis of what’s driving this change.