Leonard C Suskin, the pixel-and-inkstained wretch, lives in the suburbs of the greatest city in the world with his wife, two children and cat. A veteran of the AV industry, he is an audiovisual design engineer for Robert Derector Technology and continues to pen fiction and poetry in his spare time. Opinions are his own, not reflecting his employer, colleagues, rAVe staff or two cats - though they'd likely agree. The cats, that is. You can find him on Twitter @Czhorat. Pronouns: he/him.
As some of you know, I’ve recently moved (which is why I’m not here quite as much) and am trying to take my kitchen to the modern era. When told about the kitchen project, people are invariably off all manner of advice and requests. I’ve been asked often if I’ll be putting a microwave above […]
As a lover of both words and technology, I take particular notice of word choices in the technical realm. One recent change I noted was when the OS on my phone upgraded itself to Android 4.4.2. In addition to the various cosmetic changes, there was a shift in label of one particular icon from the […]
A week past my return from InfoComm, I’m finally getting to write my overall reflections on the show and what technology I saw there. For further perspectives, visit my esteemed colleague Alex Mayo, who offers his own perspective. Alex is a bright man and a very talented designer with whom I’m quite fortunate to work. […]
My InfoComm wrap-up will be in FOUR parts this time. Next part will be about technology. Before we get into that, I have something important to say — something about this show which bothers me. Read on. Some of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen my hashtag #AVHallOfShame. It’s one I use […]
The second — and final — day of this year’s InfoComm journey is behind me. More when I get home, but here are a few quick impressions: Vaddio debuted its new line of Roboshot cameras. These have some nice features, including installer-adjustable lens stops to configure the same camera for wide angle or tight zoom […]
Some super-quick pixel-and-ink stained impressions from Day 1 of my InfoComm experience. Expect a longer update when I return to New York and have the time to digest the events of the show and figure out what the overall story is. For now, quick impressions: Pat Brown remains smart. I had the pleasure of a […]
InfoComm time is almost here! I’ll resume my tradition from last year and share with you my thoughts on things for which to look on the show floor. Those of you following the discussion online should be aware that my esteemed colleague, AV wunderkind Alex Mayo has already weighed in on this from the cubicle […]
Digital is fun. Digital is sexy. Digital is what gives us the tools to manipulate sound and video in ways which would have been impossible not too long ago. Today video switchers are digital. Audio mixing consoles are digital. Fancy speaker arrays and even mic arrays are digital. The world is so digital that it […]
Greetings, friends and followers! My apologies for the various obligations (professional and personal), side-projects, and secret adventures which have kept me away from these pages for the past week. After a weekend off the grid at an undisclosed location I’m refreshed and ready to dive into all of the news in AV-land on this, the […]
Summer is coming, and with it, new product releases. I’ve been lucky enough to get a few sneak peeks at new products due for release this InfoComm. I’ve not seen anything quite earth shattering or revolutionary as of yet, but a string of reminders as to how small, thoughtful decisions can create significant improvements. There […]
The FCC made waves last week with an announcement that it’s dropping its long-standing position on “net-neutrality” — the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by Internet service providers. This is something with direct impact on an increasingly network-centric AV industry, and one about which several of my fellow AV bloggers have […]
Discussion of some project details recently brought me to the Savant Systems showroom in lower Manhattan. In addition to the matter at hand, I was treated to a showroom tour as well as a discussion on their offerings, the overall Savant ecosystem, and where they hope to be in the future. The demo space is […]
Before my AV career I did a few other things, including telephony and the unparalleled horrors of residential cable installations. One interesting thing about these three fields is each has lead me to a greater focus on parts of our world the rest of us take for granted and fail to notice. If you drive […]
Quite a few years ago I earned the CTS (Certified Technical Specialist) certification from InfoComm. Last year I began studying to take the ICND1 (Interconnected Network Devices) in pursuit of my first-ever Cisco certification. Last week I started learning to throw a juggling pattern called a 4,4,1. What do these three seemingly disparate items have […]
The proliferation of consumer technology in professional AV has been a hot topic as of late both in the office and amongst my fellow AV bloggers. Over the past week we got commentary from Mike Brandes, Josh Srago, Mike Brandes again. It’s also been a recurring topic on LinkedIn and Google+ AV professional groups. There […]
Today marked the official grand opening of Primeview’s New York showroom. Primeview, for those not familiar with them, are a manufacturer of commercial flat panel displays, focusing on video-walls, digital signage and interactive applications. For their demo space they partnered with several of the manufacturers with whom they work on projects: Haivision, Vista Systems, TVOne, […]
About what do AV designers talk? Design certainly, in all of its forms. Past projects and wish lists. Perhaps most of all, we talk about technology. For all of our talk on these things, there are relatively few actual product reviews or comparisons. I’ll talk about products here, but stop short of a formal endorsement […]
Last week Ryan Pinke joined a new tradition in proclaiming the video conference Codec dead. In my own look ahead I posited a potential future free of boxes, in which software solutions largely replace dedicated appliances. Is Pinke right on this one? Have we reached, or are we nearing the end of hardware? I don’t […]
It’s the end of the year as we know it. This year in review and its companion peek into my pixel and ink-stained crystal ball at the year coming up will be largely “pixel” posts in that I’ll talk about commercial AV. Perhaps one or two literary mentions to round things out. And more on […]
It’s non sectarian holiday time in the city. Last night was one of the New York AV community’s traditions: the Sapphire Marketing holiday party at the Crestron showroom in midtown Manhattan. In what may or may not become a bee annual party of the transition, George Tucker and Chris Neto broadcast an AV related chat […]
One comment I frequently hear about HDBaseT is that it’s a “bridge technology” between the old days of simple point-to-point connectivity and a future in which AV joins the rest of our data on those great big IP networks which dominate the rest of our lives. Are we ready for this paradigm shift? Is the […]
Today I’d like to share a moment to discuss everyone’s favorite transport mechanism, HDBaseT. For those not in the know, the HDBaseT alliance have defined HDBaseT as a technology for transport of video, audio, power, Ethernet and control over standard category cable. As a point-to-point (as opposed to routable) signals, HDBaseT cannot be routed with […]
