First let me say thank you, with a title like this one, I am surprised anyone is reading this blog. Let’s face it, asset and inventory management is not exactly a topic that sparks interest and debate. Part of the reason for that is that no one really enjoys doing this tedious, boring work. Yet, […]
Introducing the newest podcast on the rAVe [RADIO] network: #DearVendor. For over a year I have been following the #DearVendor hashtag on Twitter. People often use the hashtag to make jokes or express frustration at vendors. Typically, the jokes are about cold calls or relentless emails. As I watched the communication on this over several […]
During End User Day of LAVNCH WEEK 3.0 in February (in partnership with HETMA), I enjoyed listening to end users speak about AV security. It was particularly interesting to me since I had just written a blog on how the SolarWinds hack should serve as a lesson to the AV industry. I was tweeting a […]
For educational institutions far and wide, public and private, kindergarten to graduate school, Google services have one thing we all love — the price was right! For many of us, that meant it was free. There have always been some premium services that you can choose to pay for if you are a Google school, […]
In mid-December, news broke about a massive cyber breach that occurred through SolarWinds software. There is a chance (I hope not) that many in the AV community briefly looked at this, decided it was an IT issue and moved on. If you did, I think that was a mistake — and want to tell you […]
Higher ed just lived through what may be the strangest semester we have ever had. At my school, we held in-person classes, and — knock on wood — we were very successful, with limited numbers of COVID cases and no serious cases. Like many other schools, we employed social distancing, lower limits on people in […]
Skype, FaceTime and now Zoom. Each of the past several iterations of videoconferencing have a few things in common. First, they became part of the consumer lexicon, becoming verbs, in fact. Second, they became popular because of their use by, and availability to the general consumer. Only Zoom, however, grew at what can be described […]
Being a technology manager in AV has been a wild ride. For years, many of us have felt like we were crashing the party. At first, we were not welcome at InfoComm, then that slowly changed. Then, when manufacturers started communicating directly with us, visiting us on-site, offering training, etc., integrators were not happy. Then […]
Over the past several months, authors on rAVe [PUBS], such as David Danto, have written about the future of the office. This has also been the speculation of newspapers and magazines as of late. In fact, the most recent edition of the Harvard Business Review has a cover story on the Work from Anywhere Future. […]
In the beginning of April and again in May, I wrote updates about the state of higher education for integrators, who may be wondering what their business model would look like for the rest of the year. Paradoxically, it seems like a lot has changed since then, and nothing has changed at all. We are […]
As we continue to struggle worldwide with the pandemic, I try to keep my eyes open for what is changing in the industry and how we can react to it. I think both about temporary opportunities that we should be working on to keep our businesses afloat and permanent change(s) that will outlive our experiences […]
For years, many of us in higher ed have used the various laws associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act to determine what was required for accessibility in classroom and campus spaces. We thought about things like closed captioning for movies, support for hearing aids and the ability to view a screen properly. However, this […]
In case you were not paying attention during the month of September, a few news stories broke regarding industry trade shows: Sept. 16 — ISE announced it was moving from February to June for 2021. Soon after Sept. 16 — InfoComm announced it was keeping its previously planned June dates. Sept. 21 — DSE announces […]
Dear Zoom, We began using Zoom three years ago as a corporate replacement for Skype. The technical staff and our faculty and staff absolutely loved it. Slowly, we acquired more and more licenses. Then in March of 2020, COVID hit, and Zoom went from an essential tool to a business-critical application. And that is when […]
As technology people, we in the AV world are not immune to being drawn to new, fancy, shiny objects. We know we need to ask the right questions, make sure it fits our needs (or our customers’ needs), but wow, that new tech can be exciting. On occasion, we are also drawn in the opposite […]
World Wrestling Entertainment is a sport that relies on fan engagement and interaction more than any other. A big reason for that is the fact that it is staged. Yes, there is a substantial degree of physicality that goes into it, along with choreography and excellent timing. Yet, in the end, we know it is […]
According to Kenny Chesney, “We all have a song that somehow stamped our lives, takes us to another place and time,” I know that I certainly do. But can technology do that too? Here are the facts: We know that numerous studies have shown the effect of technology on teenagers, along with the results of […]
Back in the late fall of 2019, I first heard of Teleportivity. It was in a demo video that Gary Kayye posted right here on rAVe [PUBS]. My initial thought was that the idea was great, but I wondered about the product’s efficacy at smaller institutions like mine, or even mid-size colleges and universities. My […]
On infrequent occasions, I write blogs that do not relate directly to technology or AV. I do this because I feel as though I should stick to the things that I know and have experience with. Yet, there are times when something is so important, I feel like I need to say something. Due to […]
Over the past several weeks, the higher ed world has become more widely acquainted with the term “HyFlex.” For some, it’s a vague word that leads to more confusion than clarity. Let’s take an opportunity to think about it and what type of AV installs and equipment would support a HyFlex classroom. Interestingly enough, this […]
Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” This quote is reasonably relevant today, as we have all taken a beating from COVID-19. Most successful firms had developed strategies years ago and have been consistently and successfully following them. However, what we’ve experienced the past several months — […]
It’s June of 2020, and colleges and universities have finished their crazy spring semesters. Most are pivoting, rooted in planning for the fall semester of 2020. A few themes seem to be emerging that will begin to shape what this next school year looks like, and therefore how the AV market will play a role. […]
Many of us are approaching our third month of stay-at-home orders (while others on the West Coast are looking at their fourth month). We — or at least I — spend much of our time thinking/dreaming about when this will come to an end so that we can get back to a normal routine. However, […]
A month ago, I wrote a blog about how financing at higher education institutions works. In that blog, I wrote about how most places, for various reasons, were going to have some tough budget decisions to make due to COVID-19. In the current environment we live in, things change day-to-day. So, I wanted to take […]
2020 will long be remembered as the year that the world changed. We are living through times that are unprecedented and hopefully, will not be experienced again for a very long time. As all of us adjust to this new reality that likely includes becoming a remote worker (and in many cases a home teacher), […]
The current environment we are all living in is scary on many fronts. First and foremost is the health of our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Second, many of us worry about the security of our jobs as the virus causes epic problems with the economy. With everyone staying at home, much economic activity has […]
Technology certainly has its fair share of buzzwords. If you have had your ears open over the past couple of years, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “digital transformation.” If your experience is similar to mine, you have not only heard about it but also read about it and seen ads for webinars about it. […]
In February, I wrote a blog on universal design in higher ed classrooms. In that blog, I covered the first four of the seven principles of universal design. This month, I am going to cover the remaining three principles. As a refresher, the seven principles are: — Principle One: Equitable Use — Principle Two: Flexibility […]
In December, I was a panelist for a session of the HETMA conference. I can not recall the exact conversation that led to us discussing getting cold calls from vendors. Several of us who are “customers” replied how much we dislike getting the cold calls or emails. What struck me most about the conversation and […]
Last month I wrote about how I thought that accessibility would be a big topic in AV during 2020. A big reason we will hear more about this is a lawsuit that Harvard recently settled with the National Association of the Deaf. In the settlement, Harvard agreed to provide captioning for all new content placed […]
At the turn of every year, I often think of blogging about the big stories or products of the past year, or the promising products of the coming year. I have never written about my resolution for the new year, as they are often personal and not business- or AV-related. However, this year is different. […]
In April I wrote a blog about HETMA, a new association formed by Joe Way and BC Hatchett. Check out the blog to understand more about the association and why it was formed. In this blog, I want to draw your attention to the first-ever virtual conference that HETMA hosted December 9-11, 2019. By all […]
