I am excited to have been given the opportunity to think about and write about digital signage in education for rAVe [Publications]. I have scratched the surface on this topic previously, in my March rAVe ED column. In that column I addressed some of the differences between the educational market and the commercial market with […]
We have all felt that tension that builds when a big event is happening, and your AV is the star of the show. Have you done enough to make sure it does not fail? There is a pit in the knot of your stomach when it is high stakes, like a board meeting, or other […]
Anyone who knows me knows that I love my job. I always tell people that my job is like Christmas every day. If it is not a new product I am learning about, programming or testing out, then it is a problem to solve. Most mornings, I really don’t know what to expect on any […]
Have you tried those eggs benedict from the B-Line Diner over at the Peabody yet? If not, you need to — it is my best advice of this InfoComm. Here are a few more things to check out before you leave the show floor for good. Or, if you have already left, check it out […]
Are you like me, sitting at work wishing you were at InfoComm? I decided this year that I was going to dedicate half of every work day to InfoComm even though i am not present at the show. Lucky for us, rAVe makes this very easy to do. Frankly, except for the missing out on […]
I realize it is cliche to write about InfoComm in June (or May or April for that matter). Rather than a standard “what to expect,” I hope to take a slightly different approach to this column. First, I have some advice for the technology managers who are reading this column, then I have some advice […]
One of the things that continues to amaze me about today’s educational systems is how difficult they are to truly change. Before I go any further, let me say that I love teachers, educators and administrators. Like literally, I love them. My mother, father, aunt (four of them), uncles and wife have all been teachers […]
In 2002, under the direction of then-Governor Angus King (now a U.S. Senator), the state of Maine started a 1:1 laptop initiative with its middle school students. In a nutshell, the MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative) program funded the cost of laptops for all middle school students. An RFP was created and the winning bidder was Apple. For […]
Unless you have had your head in the sand over the past several weeks, you are aware of the dust up created by Crestron and their switcher “comparison.” If you are lucky enough to have had your head in the sand, catch up right now by reading my last blog. OK, are you back? Well, round three is now over […]
I am not the first person to write about this and surely I won’t be the last. But, heck it is too tempting to leave alone. In January,Crestron posted a video on their website that they purported to be a fair comparison of digital switching. In the video, they blew away the comparable Extron switcher in both timing […]
In December, I wrote a column on how Bates College went from Zero to Streaming in 10 Days. The article was a hit and I turned it into a webinar forInfoComm. This week I spoke at the NERCOMP (@NERCOMP) annual conference. I shared the stage with Aaron Coburn and Marcus DeMaio from Amherst College. We each gave a short introduction to what […]
First, let’s address the title of this blog. It’s a follow-up to my article in this month’s rAVe ED about using Skype and other consumer level video conferencing software. In reviewing comments that I received online and in email, the point of my article synthesized in my mind even more. You see, it does not matter whether you use […]
I had to wonder, is it just me? Is it the cold climate in central Maine? So I asked around. Have you had this problem? Turns out, yes — just about everyone else had the same problem? Then I had to ask. So, why has the problem not been fixed and why do we still […]
In my recent article “From Zero to Streaming in 10 Days,” I briefly mentioned that we use hardware encoders from Haivison. Haivision has a wide variety of products, from single hardware encoders to a massive “video furnace” that can provide video services for an entire campus. At Bates College we use only the hardware encoders. Specifically, we use the Barracuda (SD encoding) […]
Over the course of the past month I have received a few more emails and had more conversations with people about my initial article. I covered several of these discussions in my follow-up blog post, but wanted to follow up on a few more. Bo Warmbold from Vernon Hills High School wrote to tell me that at Vernon Hills, they use a software […]
After my first article for rAVe Ed came out, I had several people email or tweet me questions or comments. I thought they were so good, and thought provoking, that I decided to respond to them here. Mike Tomei (@miketomei) and Conner Krey (@connerkrey) wrote to me asking more about the Bonjour protocol. Mike wanted to know more about what it meant that […]
