Next week is the Global Association of Customer Engagement Professional’s Spring Conference. A few hundred professionals dedicated to providing world-class customer experiences will converge on Austin to share best practices, network, and learn about new innovative methods of engaging customers. I always look forward to connecting at this conference because the conversations revolve around impact […]
This Sunday, Chris Neto introduced the topic of projection mapping to the #AVintheAM community. I was busy with family activities throughout the day, and even though the topic was practically shouting my name, I had to sit it out … until now. Projection mapping is often misunderstood. It involves much more than large-scale projection on […]
It’s post ISE, and although I observed this year’s show from afar, I was able to gather a lot of information via my team on the ground in Barcelona, as well as the quantity of videos and interviews produced on the floor and shared on platforms like rAVe and social media like Linked In. I […]
My role as an Experience Design Professional often intersects with my passions for biology, neuroscience and human behavior, and for good reason. To truly create a transportive experience, you need to immerse someone completely in a new world, making them forget that they’re in an alternate reality. I’ve often reflected on the challenges of a […]
Working in experiential technology, I am often working on large, immersive environments, with curved LED, LIDAR, spatial audio, and custom content. Many of these environments also include custom fabrication and specialized content, making the projects complex at times. There are several layers to any experience. The end user experience (audience), the operator experience (presenter), the […]
I saw a post on LinkedIn this morning by Richard Mulholland about having your camera on in every meeting, including internal meetings that “set the standard” for meeting etiquette. I will say that if you are invited to a customer meeting and have a key role in that meeting, you should definitely have your camera […]
There’s a lot of talk about AI In our industry, typically around products and tools that we use to help customers have better meetings. We talk mostly about AI in microphones or cameras to improve audio quality, triangulate meeting participants, and create better camera shots of attendees as they speak. As integrators, we also help […]
I talk a lot about our industry and the shifting center of the technology design process toward human-centered design and the holistic user experience. When talking about large, complex systems, most of the AV people I speak to agree that experience is key. Still, when bringing this idea down into the design of something like […]
The dust has settled, we’ve all returned home, and hopefully most of us came home healthy or have recovered from any bug we may have caught in last week’s gathering of 30,000+ people. Vegas Vegas’d, our social tanks were filled, steak dinners and late night cocktails fueled early morning rehydration efforts, and the overwhelming sentiment, […]
Direct View LED is becoming more and more affordable, especially in pixel pitches of 1.2 to 1.9mm. For projects that need the most pixel density possible, there are even a few options under 0.7mm if you have the extra cash to get the technology. Bespoke dvLED environments often include corners, curves and facets, making their […]
Imagine a digital canvas made up of various technologies ranging from transparent, flexible OLED to dvLED to projection-mapped architecture, integrated into an environment where the video is choreographed with the lighting, synced with spatial audio, and personalized to different users based on sensor-based automation or AI. These customized, experiential environments span several resolutions and aspect […]
I was visiting an office a while back and was offered a phone room to hold some meetings. The room was well-equipped with a comfortable chair, adequate lighting, a small table with a Neat Frame to easily join Teams calls, and even a blue accent wall to make it feel a little less sterile. I […]
I had the pleasure of supporting an LA-based event this month and discussing how AI-based workflows will affect office designs as we move into the future. Most talk of AI in the AV industry has to do with sensor based automation, like personalization and camera tracking and switching in meeting rooms. Most of the buzz […]
It’s funny how great minds think alike. No sooner had I posted my first blog on picking the proper projector than I received a comment from Aaron Peterson at Mechdyne pointing out that I missed a crucial part of the puzzle, and that is the misleading marketing around projector resolutions. Warning: If you thought the […]
It’s 2024 and despite the proliferation of microLED and the high availability of low bezel LCD screens, projectors are still alive and well in the AV industry. Rumors of their death have been circulated for years, yet, just like they say in Monty Python, they’re “not dead yet!” Interestingly enough, I find that specifying the […]
In 2016 I wrote a blog called, “Why aren’t we talking about NVIDIA?” If you missed it, the general conclusion was that AI and large-scale video applications would drive NVIDIA to success well beyond gaming. When I wrote that blog in April of 2016, NVIDIA was trading at $8.50. Today, NVIDIA is at $776 with […]
If you’ve been in technology for any amount of time, you understand that managing a large project can be tricky to say the least. Strong project management skills are a must to create a schedule, assess dependencies, isolate lead times, organize installation crews, coordinate with other trades and keep all of this organized over the […]
Well it’s that time of year again. No it’s not Rabbit Season, it’s not even Duck Season, it is Spin Season. CES kicked off the year, NAMM is happening now, ISE is next week, NAB in the spring and then InfoComm in June. It’s a steady flow of industry shows and product announcements, some of […]
In 2017, the audiovisual trade organization known as InfoComm formally changed its name to the Audio Visual and Integrated Experiences Association or AVIXA. The addition of that little “X” caused some consternation among many in the industry at the time, and there are still some industry Luddites who take shots at the idea of adding […]
Rewind 10 years ago, and the stack of hardware in a basic conference room included a display, an audiovisual matrix switcher, an audio amplifier, a control processor, a DSP, a hardware based codec, a PTZ camera, ceiling or table microphones, wall or ceiling speakers, and a proprietary touch panel. All that was held together with […]
As integrators, at the bare minimum, we are value added resellers of AV equipment. We make AV systems more valuable than the sum of their parts through expertise in installation, maintenance, and long term support of technology. However as prices decrease, all-in-one products replace multiple SKUs, and systems come preconfigured out of the box, that […]
Hybrid work isn’t going anywhere, and the return to historic levels of in-office work and daily attendance is not anywhere on the horizon as far as I can tell — and for good reason. The utility of knowledge-based work can be done from anywhere. The proliferation of high speed internet, Wi-Fi, and cloud-based applications coupled […]
If you’ve been following along with this series, I appreciate your continued interest in the topic of fixing our meetings. If you’re new to the series, welcome! Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2 so you can catch up. In the last blog, I asserted that we are having the wrong types […]
If you missed “Part 1: New Tools, Old Mindset,” feel free to go back and read the anecdote I posted there. Our meetings have become bad over time because the world has changed significantly, but I’d argue that our meetings haven’t. You may be thinking, “Well Mark, you’re wrong because today we have new tools […]
When I was 18 years old, I went to visit my grandpa. We sat in his living room and talked about his favorite subject, his grandkids. He took pride in updating me, the family, his waitress at the local Greek restaurant — and anyone else who would listen for that matter — on their accomplishments. […]
Disclaimer: This is NOT a technology post. If you are looking for a post on AI cameras or the latest and greatest all-in-one sound bar, you should click the back button and surf the rest of the rAVe site. However, if you’re looking for a post on innovation, keep reading. For all the corporate real […]
I’m a huge fan of authors who write about behavioral economics and human behavior. My shelves are full of books by Geoff Colvin, Dan Ariely, Daniel Kahneman, Chip and Dan Heath, Barry Schwartz, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt, and Malcolm Gladwell. The latest book I read by Gladwell was “The Bomber Mafia,” Gladwell’s effort […]
Earlier this month, I logged into my AVIXA training portal. I uploaded several certificates for CTS RUs that I had earned over the last three years. Some of those RUs came from moderating technical webinars or teaching workshops or courses for AVIXA. Others came from events like LAVNCH WEEK right here on rAVe. Still more […]
If you follow the debates in the social media space, you may already know there is a conversation happening about whether AV is now a subset of IT. Many people believe now that many AV devices are now network endpoints running server or cloud-based virtual services and/or applications, that AV is definitely IT. Others argue […]
If you live in North America and you’re in the AV industry, then you likely know that InfoComm 2023 is coming June 10-16 to Orlando. With literally hundreds of exhibitors, hundreds of learning opportunities/workshop sessions and tens of thousands of attendees slated to be at the event, it can be hard to determine how you […]
Believe it or not, we are still in the middle of the hybrid work debate and design process. Some companies are at different stages than others in the cycle, but most are still looking for some type of benchmark to emerge and help them define their final destination. However, waiting for someone else to go […]
This week I go to LinkedIn and answer this question from Jason Ward: “When do you walk away from an opportunity?” Tune in to learn when to walk away (and when to run). Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
