Latest headlines: Anthony Coppedge on what churches want and need from AV sales, Dr. Fred Ampel on all the acoustical data available to us, plus news from DPA, FOR-A, LG, Extron and more
August 30, 2019 | Volume: 8 | Issue: 16
I’d like to call out an article in the Tech Round-Up section of this issue of rAVe HOW from WorshipAVL. It deals with often-stressful activity of troubleshooting. Systems can create a host of problems and variety of issues that even a veteran AV tech can’t prevent. But don’t sweat: everyone is plagued by an issue whether it be caused by a faulty power source, faulty cabling or something else — myself included.
What are some of your “horror stories” surrounding AV systems malfunctions?
I was supporting a broadcast operation at a Carolina football game last season and in the middle of the game, I lost a video feed. The first thing I thought was, “well, shit, we are going to have to delay the game.” And we did. But in that moment, I quickly realized I needed to think strategically as to why I lost the feed and not immediately blame the TV truck. It turned out to be a faulty power source for a fiber-to-SDI converter and it took me only 45 seconds to realize it (mainly in part to the amazing fact that manufacturers build their products with status indicator lights). When the light is off, the device isn’t receiving power — who knew?
In seven years of sharing practical insights on how to sell audiovisual (AV) to churches, we’ve posted over 70 articles focusing specifically on the opportunities and challenges of selling to buyers and influencers in the house of worship market. During that same time, the church AV market has gone from hundreds of millions of dollars allocated annually to technology in churches to over a billion dollars earmarked yearly for church AV tech. The barrier-to-entry for manufacturers and systems integrators alike has never been lower, yet the HoW AV market is still likely the most underserved segment in all of pro AV.
A quarter century later and the RTA is considered a low-tech toy found on your cell phone app store. With today’s products we’re getting resolutions three, four and five times as precise, for a quarter of the cost. You can use smart phones or tablets, but regardless of the hardware, the volume of data is so much larger that just post-processing a set of room responses could take days. With that thought in mind-the question should be: What is the goal?