Volume 18, Issue 8 — April 21, 2021

rAVe HomeAV Edition — Volume 18, Issue 8

April 21, 2021 | Volume: 18 | Issue: 8

Have you heard of the Gordian Knot story? Legend has it that an oracle prophesied that whoever undid the Gordian Knot in the palace of the Phrygians would rule all of Asia. How did Alexander the Great handle this? What’s the point? How does it relate to HomeAV? Lee Distad answers all these burning questions in his column this week — find it here.

Now that you know about the Gordian Knot, I’ll draw your attention to some noteworthy readings in the residential AV world this week:

Crestron: launched a new touch screen smart thermostat called Horizon, which can act in concert with other smart devices like lighting and shading
Blustream: released a new line of HDBaseT products, including 8×8 and 6×6 HDBaseT matrixes, a receiver, an extender and an HDMI switch

ViewSonic: brought us new monitors with built-in webcams

BenQ: announced a new BlueCore laser projector for at-home and commercial golf simulators

Biamp: awarded a patent for its Magic Cable, used in the company’s Desono family of business audio loudspeakers

PPDS (you know them as Philips Display): reentered the hospitality market in North America with the launch of a new line of hotel TVs

All these stories are linked below. As for your homework — until next week — sign up for LAVNCH WEEK 4.0. It’ll be here before we know it.

— Leah McCann

COLUMNS

+ The Gordian Knot [Lee Distad]

The legend goes that an oracle had prophesied that whoever undid the Gordian Knot in the palace of the Phrygians would rule all of Asia. When Alexander the Great and his armies arrived in Gordia, he faced the knot, drew his sword and cut through it. The point of the story of course is that the simplest, most direct solution is usually the best one. There’s a parallel here to the scientific principle of Occam’s razor: that the simplest, least complicated explanation for an observed phenomenon is usually the correct one.

+ Where Are All the Sales Professionals? [Omar Prashad]

Here’s my problem: There are way too many salespeople and way too few sales professionals. In my experience, 99% of all salespeople are just that, salespeople. Not sales professionals. The distinction seems irrelevant; it isn’t, and it’s been giving the profession of sales a bad rap since the beginning of time.