How do you follow up with someone who wasn’t even at the InfoComm show? Listen to this week’s Selling AV to get some tips. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
InfoComm is always a great place to meet potential new clients and this year the show touted more end users than ever. How do you combine these two facts to create great InfoComm follow-up? Tune in and find out. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
I was talking to a friend and industry colleague the other day who was a little frustrated with the way a recent project had gone. The AV design included a large 1.9 mm dot pitch direct view LED screen in a large presentation space. Based on viewing distances from the seated positions in the room, […]
In the spirit of the 4th, I submit the AV Declaration of Independence from the Tyranny of … HDMI. Enjoy:) When in the course of industry events it becomes necessary for AV people to dissolve the political bands which have restricted their devices from being connected to one another and to assume among the powers […]
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when you return from a large show like InfoComm. This week, I talk about how to approach existing clients you met at the show. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
June 8th, 2017 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA On the heels of Apple’s HomePod release, Phenomenal Industries has announced that they will debut their new wireless home automation hub at InfoComm 2017 in Orlando. AVPhenom is well known for his innovative product releases each year, with his latest successes being the World’s First! 4K Speakers and more […]
Earlier this month, SoftBank acquired a portion of NVIDIA for 4 Billion dollars, making it the 4th largest stakeholder in the company. How much of NVIDIA did SoftBank acquire for that amount? About 4.9%. It’s a deal that illustrates how large the tech world outside of commercial AV is. Samsung bought ALL of Harman for […]
AV systems are used everyday to help give company presentations to potential clients. How many of you are positioning the AV systems you design and install as marketing tools? Listen to this week’s Selling AV to learn why you should. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
It is InfoComm season and the new products and their associated press releases are flooding the AV airwaves. With the plethora of information circulating, it is hard just to keep track of what’s new, let alone wrap your head around what it may take to actually integrate it into your next project. One category of […]
A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog that relayed the top 5 reasons that you, as an AV professional, should go to NAB. The first of those five reasons was end user attendance. In case you missed that piece and didn’t feel like clicking the link above, in 2016 the NAB Show had over 102,000 […]
Sometimes the difference between being dismissive or accepting of new ideas is not being so sure of ourselves. Listen to this week’s Selling AV to learn why. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
Many times as AV sales people we are asked to itemize pricing on our bids. In this week’s show, I give a couple strategies on how to handle that request. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
Next week in Las Vegas, the National Association of Broadcasters holds their annual trade show in Las Vegas. The NAB Show doesn’t seem to generate the same amount of buzz in the integration circles as shows like CEDIA and InfoComm and I’m not quite sure why. There’s a tremendous amount of value in going to NAB, […]
Bidding open RFPs can be tedious and your chances to win the work can be slim. This week I tell you how to multiply your odds. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
If you are an AV industry professional in the commercial AV space, odds are you are familiar with InfoComm’s CTS certifications. There are 3 varieties currently, being the CTS General, the CTS-D for Design, and the CTS-I for installation. Many times a consultant or an end user may require that the integrator working on their […]
If you have gone to any AV leadership event over the last several years, ranging from the Commercial Integrator Summit to InfoComm’s AVEC to NSCA’s Business and Leadership Conference, you know that developing a revenue stream based on service has been at the forefront of the conversation. Many integrators have started offering managed services to their […]
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the use of Virtual Realty (VR) technology. One of the applications being touted as ripe for VR is virtual meetings — a Virtual Reality Telconference (VRTC) if you will. But will VRTC be the next big leap in meeting technology? Imagine getting ready for your next […]
I’ve been around AV for the last 15 years and have worked for residential and commercial integrators as well as AV manufacturers. There has been a lot of change in that time, and most agree that the days of selling little black mystery boxes for 60 points margin are all but gone. In fact, many […]
Today another eulogy was given to AV technology. As with most AV eulogies, the problem is that the technology declared dead is still alive and well. In this instance, the projection screen business was “buried alive” by Gary in his latest blog “Is the Screen Business About to Disappear?” However, like Uma Thurman in Kill […]
AMSTERDAM and RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CALIF., FEBRUARY 2, 2017 — With the emergence of voice control as the hottest new trend in AV, AVPhenom will be introducing a new voice control product at ISE 2017. “Ever since Alexa’s debut at CEDIA, I have been obsessed with voice control as the future of the user interface […]
On Christmas day in 2016 there was an invasion. Over 1.2 million people awoke to find ornately wrapped boxes from loved ones or “Santa” that contained gifts nearly 62 million Americans longed to receive: Drones. Drone sales in the US hit over 2.5 million in 2016, nearly doubling sales of the unmanned aircraft in 2015. […]
It’s fun to be a part of the tech industry, but it’s also interesting sometimes to take a step back and look at it from afar. I took the opportunity to do that a couple days ago with respect to all the attention Alexa and Amazon Echo have been getting ever since the Crestron compatibility […]
All the biggest stories of 2016 in the AV integration space had to do with acquisition. The latest round of which relayed that Samsung bought Harman Group, AVI-SPL bought Anderson AV, and Compass Group bought Waveguide. Well the AV prognosticators are already out in force predicting the future and they see more of this consolidation […]
As AV sales people we hear a lot of sales advice and tactics. But what happens when those tactics meet reality? In this Selling AV, I talk about a time I went against my gut to deploy a tactic I paid good money to learn and what happened as a result. Podcast: Play in new […]
I’m sure we’ve all heard the term “Fake it ’til you make it.” It’s typically used to relay the mindset that people should act as if they are successful even if they aren’t yet, and that perception and attitude will eventually become a reality. Lately however, it seems this attitude has found its way into […]
A couple years ago I posted about getting my CTS certification. I think I was on an endorphin high at the InfoComm 2014 show, because I even threw down a challenge hours later to see who wanted to pursue the elusive dual certification: CTS-D and CTS-I. The excitement died down a little, and not only did […]
It’s always interesting to hear people’s take on the future of technology. There seems to be a fanaticism built around Moore’s Law, the Turing Test, and the ability of computers to become “conscious.” It usually ends in a theory of technology not unlike the rise of Skynet’s machines in the Terminator movies. If you’re not […]
The biggest news of the year as far as AV acquisitions go is definitely the purchase of Harman by Samsung. In the commercial AV space, there aren’t many deals that start with a “B” as in billion, let alone $8 billion. Harman does over $7 billion in annual revenue and is also sitting on a […]
Play along if you will. . . You go to a restaurant. You order a hamburger. You are given a hamburger. The hamburger is good. You leave. Are you impressed? Are you brimming with joy, thinking“Wow. . .I got what I paid for!” ? Of course not. The idea that satisfied customers are a positive […]
We’ve all heard that “Content is King” but how do we as an industry take that from a cool phrase to a revenue generating opportunity? On this episode of Kings of Content, I talk with Timo Korpela of Idean about design thinking and bridging the UX gap as well as how integrators can increase the […]
Not every customer is for you, (although they may think that they are). Find out when it may be time to fire yourself to avoid a bad fit. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
I have the opportunity to work with an amazing group of integrators here in Southern California. Their expertise vary widely, their company cultures can run the gamut, and they range in size from a handful to hundreds of employees. I also worked on the integration side of AV from 2002 to 2012, and those three […]
