Have you noticed the dramatic rise over the last two-plus years in corporate AV/IT client demand for collaborative technology, huddle spaces and similar functionality? It’s a hot buzz word in the upper echelons of corporate management and HR departments. The thought process for most companies goes something like this: Senior management decides that: “We need […]

The most often ignored or forgotten problem in AV/IT systems can be summed up in this quote from Benjamin Franklin: “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” Technically speaking, a failure is declared when the system does not meet its desired objectives. Therefore we can consider any system that cannot meet minimum performance […]

That great sage and commentator on the human condition Yogi Berra is credited with creating this commandment-like law of technology: In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is. Now, of course, Yogi didn’t realize or intend his statement to become one of the unwritten laws of the AV/IT universe […]

As a part of our regular business practice, we check back in with completed HOW projects to ensure everything is still working properly and that no new issues have arisen that might need attention. Over the decades, this approach has proven to be both helpful in maintaining relationships and also often provides new opportunities to […]

There are, within our space-time continuum, some immutable constants. For example, we can be assured that the earth will revolve on its axis every 24 or so hours and produce a sunrise and a sunset. In the sound system world, the number of absolutes is far more constrained by reality but there is one that, […]

DILBERT © Scott Adams. Used By permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved. The wild, wonderfully sarcastic and incisive mind of Scott Adams as represented in his legendary Dilbert comic strips perfectly illustrates the core point of this column. It seems, based on the less-than-stellar outcomes of project after project thrashed out on industry […]

Unless your media consumption habit is restricted to non-ad supported content, you will probably find the following experiment somewhat intriguing, if not downright disturbing. The next time you want to kill an hour doing non-work (and don’t we all sometimes), turn on any commercial broadcast channel, preferably either in the afternoon or late night and […]

What do you think would emerge if you read the blogs, commentaries and posts/articles on the multiple HOW focused websites and publication newsletters as the ‘KEY’ issue for any congregation planning on dealing with an AV project? One guess. Did you say BUDGET? Superficially that is what seems to be front of mind — at […]

You may have noticed that magazines and other media have for some time been overflowing with content on left brain vs. right brain and a many other variations on that theme. This is NOT one of those articles. In fact, this article takes a completely different analytical path to understanding decision making and the brain […]

It’s the hot topic, the current buzzword, the latest and greatest and so forth and so on — it’s AV on/over the network. But stop and think — do you actually need one? Do you just crave one? Can you afford one??? There is certainly a lot of product out there in the sound reinforcement […]

Author and educator Stephen R. Covey, probably most well-known for his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” often said in his presentations that: “Most People do not Listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Think about the last meeting you attended. I don’t care what the meeting […]

Whether by selection or default, if you find yourself in the role of “leader” of your HOW AV team, you need to carefully consider both the methods you use to communicate with your team and the message(s) you are sending — spoken and subliminal. One of the most consistent problems we encounter with HOW AV […]

As a part of keeping up with global business trends and events, I subscribe to several on-line feeds from industry and economic publications. These feeds including the Financial Times, Bloomberg and so forth are a great way to get the highlights of activities around the world that may be impacting our little corner of the […]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the year or so that I have been writing this column for rAVe’s house of worship publication, the majority of the articles have been how to or problem/solution oriented, with an educational and information focus. A number of those have concentrated on room acoustics and acoustic treatment areas (specifically, on intelligibility here […]

(Author’s Note: The topic for this article was originally suggested by a comment from Barry McKinnon of MC Squared Design Group, North Vancouver, BC., Canada.) OK, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for some serious military grade explosive driven myth busting! MYTH #1: Sounds reinforcement is a 20th century development. We have a tendency to think […]

Some four decades ago, loudspeaker technology and the ability to generate sound pressure levels (SPL) above the recognized threshold of human hearing damage collided. As an industry, we had finally reached a level of electroacoustic and mechanical performance that was the audio equivalent of mutually assured destruction in nuclear warfare terms. Not only could manufacturers […]

The art and science (for it is both) of live sound reinforcement in any worship space must take into consideration a large number of factors unique to HOW sound. For example, you may well have to mix speech, recorded music, live music, professional and non-professional speakers, musicians, to serve an audience (congregants) that will literally […]

What Does No Really Mean? I don’t know which specific issues you encounter when dealing with a client who knows only one answer to every suggestion or idea you present — NO — but I do know we all have them. There are so many reasons and possible scenarios that can and will generate a […]

If your worship facility is part of the 65+ percent of houses of worship in North America with a congregation number less than 300 to 400 members, you are probably facing the inevitable quandary of what to update and/or replace in your AV system and when. Since unlike the very large — or mega — […]

Occasionally this column will dive deeply into a topic, starting, as is my wont to do, with a historical perspective. The history is there for a reason. To understand the often complex and multi-faceted themes you need to know how we got here and what drove the development of a particular technology or methodology and […]

Words. We use hundreds, if not thousands of them every day. In a plethora of languages, dialects and forms, words are the building blocks of our verbal communications. Every sermon, homily, blessing, oration or prayer is made from words. Instinctively we “reach” for the right words to speak in any situation or moment. It is […]

The title of this column is a phrase that is the basis of a legal oath that has been part of English Law since at least medieval times and has essentially become embedded in our shared societal structure. The beliefs that have come to encompass our laws and governance concepts remain at their core based […]

In the first part of this two-part series, published in September, a wide variety of acoustical solutions and issues specifically focused on dealing with a space that already exists were discussed. Although the basic concepts and applications outlined in that article apply regardless, the issues and problems of a new building are in many ways […]

Normally, my various rAVe contributions are carefully and specifically focused on a problem, or a solution or a combination of both. The articles are always written with a singular focus — providing valuable information and solid, proven answers gathered from four-plus decades of real-world experience to the kind of problems AV professionals in both the […]

In the previous rAVe HOW article, we discussed the value and application of acoustical treatment(s) to almost any existing house of worship (HOW) facility. Unless acoustics was considered and incorporated when the building was created, it is very likely that acoustical issues were not properly dealt with or solved. This is especially true for the […]

Any one in the AV industry who specifies, purchases, sells or buys the essentials we use every day to build our systems knows that these “products” have a host of internal costs built into the price we pay. Let me be very clear, the price I am talking about is the net cost of the […]

A Little Physics At the normal sea level atmospheric pressure of 14.7 pounds-per-square-inch, 59 degrees F, dry air (< 50 percent relative humidity), sound travels one mile every five seconds in round numbers — so in 2.5 seconds, sound will cover a distance of half a mile. In NFL football, that’s just enough time to […]

Read a related piece by Dr. Ampel about artificial intelligence and the parallels between airplanes and audio. Why are we looking at the aircraft industry and their now decades long journey through automation, computerized systems, and software? BECAUSE, the problems, disasters, failures and the issues these raised mirror those within our own industry in a […]

Read a related piece from Dr. Ampel about electronics and aircrafts with a warning for the audio industry, here. The conflict that often occurs between human sentience and machine intelligence is an ancient story oft told. It is also massively important for our industry as we now face ever more automation and AI based controllers […]

Long before the 1987 movie “Wall Street” and the now-legendary quote from the fictional Gordon Gecko “Greed is good” became part of the American business worlds’ verbal infrastructure, success, wealth and growth in business were built on the startlingly simple notion that to create, run and succeed in a business, you actually had to know […]

The house of worship sound reinforcement space can be segmented in a wide variety of ways for a large number of purposes. The simplest divider is whether or not the worship style/service includes musical and singing (vocalist) performers. At this early point in the discussion, it doesn’t matter what kind of music, how many performers […]

Once upon a time, there was a great and renowned chef who was planning to open a prestigious restaurant in a highly prosperous suburb of a lovely city. He wanted to have not only stunning food, which he was quite sure he could provide, but also an exceptional architectural presentation and interior design as well. […]