Joel Rollins

Joel Rollins

rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins is the founder of Steamroller Digital and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at joelrollins@mac.com.

Infocomm Live – It’s a Wrap (Again)

INFOCOMM LIVE Well, as I write this, I am on a United flight from Dallas to Chicago, trying to route around Winter Storm Saturn to get home to NY. I am returning from a packed two days at Infocomm Live, which is the association’s annual event for leaders in the Live Events portion of the industry (read: […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 20: Tradeshows – The Human Factor

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This week, Joel winds up a two-part series on maximizing your returns on tradeshows. Last week, we spoke with Dean Hills about tradeshow technology. This week, we follow that up with a frank talk with Gary Kayye about tradeshow messaging, and preparing for the show. Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes.   […]

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Upcoming on “The Week” on rAVe Radio

Well, it has been an interesting several weeks for our podcast series, “The Week”, on rAVe Radio. At the very beginning of the month, we had three shows from ISE in Amsterdam, which turned out to be a terrific show. Then, last week’s guest, my old colleague Dean Hills, gave us a lot of great info and ideas about […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 19: Tradeshows – The Expense and the Technology

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After the ISE experience, Joel looks at the expense, and the marketing technology, oftradeshows. Joel’s guest is Dean Hills, President and Founder of PRMConnect, who are harnessing the power of the cloud to make tradeshows pay. Show link: http://www.prmconnect.com Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes.   Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | […]

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The Bonus Day

Well, the last couple of weeks have been crazy for yours truly. Just back from ISE in Amsterdam, it seems like I went straight into a blizzard that ate up the week in which I wanted to be catching up with things, among them, this blog. And yet, I sit here today, with time to write and […]

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At ISE

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Getting set for ISE 2013 Well, made it to Amsterdam just in time for the rAVe breakfast meeting. Huge crew of folks here getting ready to bring you the latest news as it breaks… This afternoon, I will be delivering a new presentation on The Next Wave of Client, as part of the European Future Technology Summit, for InfoComm. It […]

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What a Show

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Spent the bulk of the day looking around the professional AV area, meeting up with friends and arranging some serious demo time on some new products. The show is divided into separate areas for Pro AV, Home AV, Digital Signage, etc… and the array of exhibits is enormous. It really is like attending InfoComm andCedia at the same […]

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ISE Day 3

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Wow. This show could be a week long and you still wouldn’t have the time to see everything. But had a great morning, saw a number of great new products and demos, all of which are shown in detail at http://www.ravenowise.com. Of particular note, I spent some time at Mitsubishi getting a detailed demo on what […]

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ISE Day 2

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Well, it is 4:30pm here in a rainy, windswept Amsterdam, and I’m just winding up my second day here at ISE. The show is still open, but I’ve beaten the massive crowd for a taxi, got my blank receipt (there are no IRS subscribers that I know of) and am sitting down to edit my pictures and […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 16: ISE 2013 Day 1

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Joel gives his impressions and shows us some photos of the first day of ISE 2013 in Amsterdam. Show links: rAVe Scoop: Dataton intros WATCHPAX Magician Marco Tempest Wows Crowd With Augmented Reality at ISE Keynote Mitsubishi demos its cloud projector the WD390U-EST Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes.   Podcast: Play in new window | […]

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Opening Day in Amsterdam

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First impressions: the show is huge, and everyone is lost. Which may not be a bad thing, because while I was lost I discovered a number of manufacturers I had never seen before, with some interesting products, which I’ll be going back to see. From my own point of view, and especially for you stagers, […]

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Getting Set for ISE 2013

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Well, made it to Amsterdam just in time for the rAVe breakfast meeting. Huge crew of folks here getting ready to bring you the latest news as it breaks… This afternoon, I will be delivering a new presentation on The Next Wave of Client, as part of the European Future Technology Summit, for InfoComm. It ought to be […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 15: Rollins Enhanced!

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This is a particularly special episode with enhanced podcast features. If you use iTunes, you’ll be able to see links, slide and illustrations for each topic. Joel also covers AVB at ISE, Extron’s DMP-128, upcoming DSE news, ISE OnDemand coverage and finally irritating industry buzzwords. Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 14: The Hunt for Standards in AV Networking

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This week, Joel speaks with Lee Minich, President of LabX Technologies and Chairman of the Marketing Work Group of the AVnu Alliance, about the alliance, the AVB standard, and the importance of interoperability standards. Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS

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A Time of Fast and Dumb

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Well, here we are in 2013. And, as with each year, I need to pick out the things that I am going to complain about this year. But this year there is no contest. It is the “dumbing down” of our industry. There is certainly no doubt that we live in an era of increasingly fast technology […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 13: Interview with Dr. Bocko, Part 2

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This week, we conclude our interview with Dr. Peter Bocko, Chief Technology Officer at Corning, about his presentation for Digital Signage Expo on the future of the display industry. Register for DSE and get a discount with the code “rave”! Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes. Podcast: Play in new window […]

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THE WEEK – Spring 2013

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Well, it’s the first of January. For the next two to three months, I will accidentally call it 2012, until the idea of the New Year finally sets in. But, as we will all have to do, I sit here thinking about the year ahead. And one of the things I have great plans for […]

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THE WEEK – Episode 10: Digital Signage – Part 1

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Joel Rollins talks with Chris Gibbs of Exponation about the upcoming Digital Signage Expo – and why you should be there. Visit digitalsignageexpo.net and be sure to use the discount code: rave when signing up! Having trouble listening to the podcast on this page? You can subscribe using RSS or iTunes. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS

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A Winter Chill in Connecticut

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Last Friday morning, the technical crew of my staff was standing outdoors, indulging in a few minutes that we refer to as the USB or “union smoke break.” One of the things that we all remarked on was that winter was setting in, and it was getting cold. We had no idea at the time how cold […]

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The Maker’s Mark

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I think you’ll all enjoy this week’s episode of THE WEEK on rAVe Radio. I kick around a number of subjects I thought interesting to the AV market (such as Sony’s new simulation projector and Google’s Code-IN), and then talk with Bill Waldman, an advocate of the “Maker” movement in technological education and enablement in the U.S. We discuss Maker […]

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Crystal Radio – Back to Our Future

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Last week, I had a great conversation on The Week on rAVe Radio, with Jennifer Willard of Women in AV and Sara Abrons of rAVe Publications. We talked about women in the current AV workplace. One of the things I brought up with them was the low ratio of women in certain hands-on technical portions of the business, especially in the systems […]

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