BuyersClub — Volume 5, Issue 24 — December 19, 2019
Latest headlines: Gary Kayye what happened to Polycom’s business, Scott Walker on Fred Bargetzi, one of the most consequential people in our industry, plus news from Eiki, Panasonic, Extron, Logitech, Barco and more
December 19, 2019 | Volume: 5 | Issue: 24
Hello there, #AVtweeps! I hope you’ve all been enjoying the past few busy weeks as we start to wind down for the holidays. But then we’re back at it because in Feb. we have ISE to look forward to!
Speaking of ISE, in today’s newsletter, we feature a few of the products that you’ll see there — say hello to the CTOUCH Leddura 2Share Pro. Also, if you’re on the fence about joining us for #ISE2020, all our readers get in at no charge. What’s this? A FREE TICKET. All you have to do is click here to register and enter the code: 250332.
We have two columns for you today: one by Gary Kayye on Polycom’s business trajectory — and what he thinks will happen to the company in the future. On a serious note: we also have a column by guest blogger Scott Walker on Fred Bargetzi. Yes, Crestron Fred. We encourage you to give it a read. It’s very near and dear to our hearts.
In other news: Eiki has new HDR large venue laser projectors. Also, Panasonic laser projectors are featured in the new Star Wars ride at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, Barco has a new security update for ClickShare and Just Add Power is shipping its 1G AV-over-IP solution.
Do you remember when we were all saying, "Why don't Polycom and Cisco just make their stuff interoperable?" Well, that was what led to their ultimate demise — in the hardware space, that is. In only six years, Polycom has gone from one of the two videoconferencing market leaders to nearly oblivion. Check out last quarter's Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions graphics — Polycom isn’t even listed. All the other biggies are, though — including Cisco, its former videoconferencing rival.
What the heck happened?
I’ve thought about this a lot and from my vantage point, having spent the past 30 years of my life as an AV design consultant, I believe there’s no other single individual who has had a greater impact on the lives of more people in AV over the last decade or more — essentially the "digital AV" era — than Crestron CTO Fred Bargetzi.
The commercial building lighting controls market is experiencing a period of rapid transformation. With commercial lighting technology making the shift from traditional fluorescent to LED lighting fixtures, legacy analog lighting controls are being replaced by more scalable and reliable digital controls that can operate over a wired or wireless infrastructure, including high-voltage, low-voltage, wireless and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE).
