In the AV world, referrals are like gold. This week on Selling AV we discuss why asking for referrals to everyone will actually yield referrals to no one. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
It seems like we have been discussing the changing landscape of AV for years. We have all seen the shift toward consolidated components, hardware that is easier to connect and configure, direct sales and marketing by some manufacturers to end users or other trades like electricians, and shrinking margins on the golden calf that used […]
If you have heard some of the gurus of storytelling out there declare the elevator pitch dead, I am here to respectfully disagree. Listen to this Selling AV to find out how to effectively use an elevator pitch in the storytelling economy. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
I admit it. I’ve been trolled. Typically when someone trolls you for a response on social media it means it’s time to take a deep breath and just move on. Convincing someone you don’t know to move away from a point of view they already hold rarely if never happens. It’s a futile effort. But […]
I may be late to the party on this topic but I wanted to give my thoughts on a discussion started by CEDIA’s Vin Bruno when he stated that perhaps it was time we stopped calling ourselves “integrators” and started calling ourselves “technologists.” There have been several takes on this to date. Some like the […]
After I wrote The Cost of Late Adoption last month, I received quite a few comments, Tweets and DMs around the topic. Gary Kayye even did a Rants and Raves on the topic, drawing parallels to the book Crossing the Chasm, one that I have to sheepishly admit that I’ve never read. To tell the […]
If you are a student of technology adoption, you’ve most likely seen this curve. Image via Wikipedia It’s the Technology Adoption curve and it reveals how people adopt technology over time. Looking at the curve as an integrator, you may use this curve to justify a delayed […]
If you’ve been in AV for more than a short time, you’ve most likely heard people in the industry talk about the Good Ol’ Boys network. It doesn’t carry a very kind connotation and has been used to describe activities in the industry that range from sexism to favoritism to nepotism. I think there has […]
For the first time since I saw Brian Solis talk at Customer Engagement Technology World, I was excited about a keynote before a trade show. InfoComm hit a home run in my eyes getting Stephen Dubner, co-author of books like Freakonomics and Think Like a Freak (my personal favorite of his). Making things even more […]
How much is a 55″ touchscreen? If you take a look around online you’ll find everything from single and dual touch screens starting at about $2,000 and going to high end multi-touch units like those from MultiTaction at $20,000. Add a great mount, a PC or media player and installation and you might get up to […]
Well another InfoComm has come and gone, and another Las Vegas record was set this year with over 38,000 attendees at the 2016 show. By attendance alone, you’d have to agree that the show is as healthy as ever. The InfoComm show is an amazing place to connect with industry peers, showcase new products to […]
I am proud to announce that given my writing on the subject of resolutions that span from UHD, 4K and beyond, I have been chosen to demonstrate an exclusive new technology on the InfoComm16 floor. We all know that the real advantages of UHD, 4K, and 8K will come to fruition as we continue to add […]
If you look at the world of AV today, one thing is clear. People are going big. Whether it’s direct view LED, a large video wall, new Sony LED modules, Prysm walls, Christie Microtiles, or good old fashioned large format projection, bigger is better if you want to get someone’s attention. Look around the audio […]
InfoComm is the year’s biggest commercial AV event. As a manufacturer or manufacturer’s rep spending big bucks for space on the floor, the best thing you can do is be quiet. Listen to the Selling AV to find out why. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Android | RSS
If you are looking for a good source of information and body of research on all things business and technology, arguably there is not a better resource than Gartner. It is definitely worth a few minutes to go to their technology page once a week and browse or even to sign up for their email alerts and […]
Oh the wonderful world of cross platform, mobile device, unified communications! Don’t get me wrong, video conferencing and content sharing are an AMAZING tool for businesses to communicate and collaborate remotely…when they work. The problem is, sometimes they don’t, or they work in a less than ideal fashion. Take my conference call this AM for […]
You haven’t been reading or listening to much industry news or chatter if you haven’t seen and heard discussion around the idea of getting more young people into the AV industry. It’s an effort that both InfoComm and the NSCA seem to be heavily involved in. There have been various outreach events at schools and […]
I’m sure most of the people reading this have heard of NVIDIA, the company known for making amazing graphics cards and GPUs for PCs. If you’re a gamer, I’m sure you may have even pined over a GeForce or Quadro card to enhance your graphics performance or run multiple displays. So with gaming being a […]
I always thought I was going to be a veterinarian. As such, in college I studied Zoology. It’s a far cry from where I ended up here in technology for sure. Somehow though, things always seem to come full circle. Just like Biology, technology is punctuated by bursts of evolution. First macro, then micro, and […]
We’ve all heard the saying that in a digital world, content is king. Some still stand by that saying and in the face of a never ending avalanche of content out there, others have started modifying it to include variations like relevant content is king or context is king. I don’t disagree with any of […]
Last month I wrote the Star Wars Guide to Recruiting New Talent, in which I gave a nod to NSCA’s new IGNITE initiative and their efforts to drive interest in the AV industry with technology minded young people. It’s an important initiative, as industries that grow “gray” typically face huge challenges. Look at the gaming […]
I was at InfoComm Connections in San Jose on March 3rd and 4th and had the opportunity to meet up with my industry peers. One of those opportunities was presented to me by QSC’s Cory Schaeffer in the form of an invitation to come over to McCormick and Schmick’s for the Women in InfoComm mixer. […]
There is a great new program and movement taking place in the AV Industry called Ignite. It is a program run by the NSCA to try and create interest and excitement about a future career in the AV industry. Just based on the involvement of Chuck Wilson, Kelly Perkins, Michael Shinn, and Laurie Englert (who […]
If you haven’t heard yet, Apple has issued a public response to the US Governments request for software that would allow them to circumvent encryption on an iPhone. The long and short is that after the San Bernadino attack was found to have ISIS ties, the FBI found themselves in possession of the attacker’s iPhone. […]
Let me start by saying that I know this blog is going to draw criticism from both sides. This is a long standing argument in the AV community, one that has yet to be universally agreed upon, and I’m certain this piece will NOT change that fact. There will still be people who fall on […]
Like she is prone to do, Kelly Perkins of AVI Systems shared a great article on LinkedIn recently. It was a piece in the Harvard Business Review called Collaborative Overload. It’s premise wasn’t a crack at the overuse of the “collaboration” buzz word, although that is a problem in itself, but was aimed at the larger […]
If there has been any trend in AV that is glaringly apparent over the last few years, it is that the amount of hard codecs being sold for video conferencing is declining. Although videoconferencing is being more widely adopted, the hardware sales dollars are decreasing, in a huge extent because the codec has gone to […]
Let me start this blog by saying that there is never a better way to demonstrate the differences in multiple projectors to a client than to set up each projector in the venue at hand with the correlating screen and actually do a multiple projector shootout. It’s the only way to see how the projectors […]
Three wise men followed a bright star in the sky. They traveled a great distance, hoping to find the prophesied savior that would deliver them from certain doom. As they approached the star, they stood in awe as it started to descend from the heavens. They dropped to their knees and bowed their heads as […]
Have you ever been abducted by an alien? No? Well, me neither, but I think we’ve all heard the tales. One night, while out in the woods, a light shines from above. Someone looks up to be blinded by the light and instantly levitates off of the ground and is pulled into the ship, where […]
With the impending premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens here in two weeks, I thought it would be fun to explore the AV phenomenon that changed the whole course of the Rebellion… The Princess Leia hologram. Join me on a seven-minute romp through holography to explore whether or not we could build this with […]
I will admit straight off that this post is somewhat of a rant, but I am tired of bad customers. The customer, despite claims to the contrary, is not always right. My wife does a lot of marketing work for everything from Comic Con to auto shows to demonstrating espresso machines. She is amazing at […]
