It’s 2020, And People Are Still Choosing Projectors Over Flat-Panel Displays

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST  By: Wayne Borg Marketing Manager, Casio  A familiar question in the AV industry: How do projectors compare to flat-panel displays? Before you answer that, first establish what kind of projector you’re referencing. Therefore, the better question is, How do lamp-free projectors compare to flat-panel displays? Because once you eliminate the […]

It’s 2020, And People Are Still Choosing Projectors Over Flat-Panel Displays

The 20th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball: 2020 Edition

Welcome to my 20th Kayye’s Krystal Ball! I know, I was shocked too. Twenty years of this. But I love writing this annual predictions article. If you’re a regular reader, you already know this, but for those who don’t, my Kayye’s Krystal Ball piece is an annual article where I not only tell you what […]

The 20th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball: 2020 Edition

Some Personal Observations of ISE 2020, Professional Observations to Follow Later

While the coronavirus certainly decimated attendance at Integrated Systems Europe 2020 — coming in right at around 52,000 attendees — exhibitors were thrilled with those who showed. NOT ONE exhibitor complained to me. Quantity was down, but the quality was up. Way up. This actually could have been the best thing ever to happen to […]

Some Personal Observations of ISE 2020, Professional Observations to Follow Later

How Dante Could Disrupt the AV-Over-IP Market

By Aviad Cohen Founder, Comeet I’ve been a fan of AV-over-IP ever since I first worked with the technology — but the number of vendors and different solutions out in the market make it very hard for customers to choose. How could an AV investment be protected if there is no standard? You can be […]

How Dante Could Disrupt the AV-Over-IP Market

An AV-Over-IP Update

By Adam Cox Senior Analyst, Futuresource Consulting Low-latency AV-over-IP solutions are on the rise across a range of key verticals, presenting clear advantages over competing technologies. Yet, technology continues to struggle to achieve mass-market acceptance. Adam Cox, senior analyst at Futuresource Consulting, explores some of the challenges and takes us through the detail. AV-over-IP has […]

An AV-Over-IP Update

Esports: Mom Lied When She Said I’d Never Make Money Playing Halo

By: Morgan Alley Account Manager, Almo Professional A/V We millennials sure love to ruin everything, don’t we? First, we came in with participation trophies, we moved on to tank the economy and now we have come for sports! *Queue diabolical laughter* According to this Reuter’s article, global esports revenues will rise above one billion dollars by […]

Esports: Mom Lied When She Said I’d Never Make Money Playing Halo

A Worthy New Year’s Resolution

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. […]

A Worthy New Year’s Resolution

Nureva Enters Small and Medium-Sized UCC Space with New HDL200 

Nureva is announcing the HDL200 audio conferencing system, the newest addition to the company’s line of audio solutions. Using a all-new industrial design, the HDL200 covers any meeting room up to 18′ x 18′ (5.5 x 5.5 meters), in a 10-pound speakerbar-like form-factor that’s designed to fit above or below a monitor (or even on […]

Nureva Enters Small and Medium-Sized UCC Space with New HDL200 

Wireless USB and My Take on the HRT Huddle Hub

A couple months ago, I saw a post from Liberty AV on social media. It showed a picture of a device that seemed to wirelessly share a laptop to a larger display. There are a lot of devices that allow someone to share their screen wirelessly to a display — Barco ClickShare, Crestron Air Media, […]

Wireless USB and My Take on the HRT Huddle Hub

Diversity, Inclusion and 2020 New Year’s Resolutions for the AV Industry

Happy New Year, friends. I’ve been too absent from these spaces as I’ve left one job, settled into a new one and let the rhythms of life get in the way. Let’s take it as a New Year’s resolution that I’ll be back, with more to share. As we’re talking about resolutions, we’ll start with […]

Diversity, Inclusion and 2020 New Year’s Resolutions for the AV Industry

Why No One Is Using That Collaboration System

Collaboration had to be one of the most-used buzzwords of the last half decade. It’s been used to describe everything from wireless screen sharing to interactive flat panels to teleconferencing to cloud-based file sharing apps. Marketers LOVE to slap “collaboration” on their boxes and press releases. I even heard a story about a sales rep slapping […]

Why No One Is Using That Collaboration System

HETMA Virtual Conference

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 […]

HETMA Virtual Conference

Media Day at CES 2020

CES 2020 kicked off with some exciting announcements from LG. Last year we were all blown away by LG’s incredible OLED roll-up screens, so this year LG are taking it one step further with a roll-down version that extends from the ceiling, similar to a motorized projection screen. LG also announced all-new gaming displays and […]

Media Day at CES 2020

The Top 9 AV News Stories of 2019

2019 was like no other year I can recall. While the AV-economy experienced explosive growth, at the same time, a few big brands nearly disappeared, namely InFocus and Polycom. How can the Kleenex of projectors, InFocus, literally divest themselves of projectors? Well, it happened and, that happened to be our biggest story of 2019. In […]

The Top 9 AV News Stories of 2019

The Sensor/Data/Analytics Footprint

This is part four in a four-part series Christopher Gillespie has been writing about the relationship between end users and integrators, particularly with regards to corporations or educational institutions that have a large number of conference rooms. See part one, his introduction, here, part two on the AV bill of materials here and part three, […]

The Sensor/Data/Analytics Footprint

The ITSM Architecture

This is part three of a four-part series from Christopher Gillespie. Read his introduction here and his piece on the AV bill of materials here. Years ago, maintaining and reporting on the inventory was a matter of many spreadsheets, maybe a home-baked database, perhaps it was some hybrid, or maybe it was Crestron Fusion or […]

The ITSM Architecture

Fred Bargetzi: The Most Consequential Person of the Modern AV Era

By Scott Walker Principal, Waveguide LLC There it is. I’m putting it out there. I’ve thought about this a lot and from my vantage point, having spent the past 30 years of my life as an AV design consultant, I believe there’s no other single individual who has had a greater impact on the lives […]

Fred Bargetzi: The Most Consequential Person of the Modern AV Era

Whatever Happened to Polycom? And Is Adobe the Next Zoom?

Remember when Polycom and Cisco were always mentioned in the same sentence? Seems like a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, huh? Do you remember when we were all saying, “Why don’t Polycom and Cisco just make their stuff interoperable?” Well, that was what led to their ultimate demise — in […]

Whatever Happened to Polycom? And Is Adobe the Next Zoom?

Comparing Wired and Wireless Lighting Control

By Andrew Jimenez Vice President of Technology, Anixter The commercial building lighting controls market is experiencing a period of rapid transformation. With commercial lighting technology making the shift from traditional fluorescent to LED lighting fixtures, legacy analog lighting controls are being replaced by more scalable and reliable digital controls that can operate over a wired […]

Comparing Wired and Wireless Lighting Control

Why Everyone Has “as a Service” Wrong — Including (and Especially) AVaaS

After writing a couple blogs in 2017 about the equally loved and hated potential of “as a Service” (aaS) models to take off in AV, I took a break for a while and watched as the industry discussed the idea. If you missed my original posts on this, you can catch up here: AV as […]

Why Everyone Has “as a Service” Wrong — Including (and Especially) AVaaS

DSaaS: An Opportunity in Higher Education

Every time I start to write a piece for rAVe ED, I try to think about what the broader AV industry wants to know about the education market. I always try to put forward ways that companies can partner with schools to provide value for all parties. As many people know, one area that I […]

DSaaS: An Opportunity in Higher Education

Cloud-Based Interop: It’s Finally How It Should Have Been… Or Is It?

Earlier this month at Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft announced that soon Microsoft Teams, the company’s web based video meeting and productivity applications, would be natively compatible with Zoom and later WebEx. If you missed this part of the story, rAVe founder Gary Kayye wrote about it here and it’s been a very popular article, especially in […]

Cloud-Based Interop: It’s Finally How It Should Have Been… Or Is It?

The Effects of 5G on the AV Industry

The arrival of 5G is transforming technology and our AV industry. You can barely scan your News Feed or watch television without some type of news or advertisement about 5G and its impending impact on your life.  And while this whole 5G thing sounds like amazing hype, I’ve found that many of our customers and […]

The Effects of 5G on the AV Industry

Zoom Is the Apple of AV, Cisco Is Microsoft and Poly Is Motorola

I had this thought back at Zoomtopia 2018, but after Zoomtopia 2019, it’s clear: Zoom is the Apple of the AV industry. Zoom is what? All of the eyes in AV were looking at Zoom yesterday. If you don’t believe me, look at the social stats of tweets and LinkedIn posts about Zoom Video Communications, […]

Zoom Is the Apple of AV, Cisco Is Microsoft and Poly Is Motorola

Integrators and Higher Education: An Evolving Relationship

As long as I have been writing columns for rAVe ED, my aim has been to help integrators understand where they can provide value to the higher education market. The business has changed so drastically over the years, that the value propositions of ten years ago no longer exist. I write about this because I […]

Integrators and Higher Education: An Evolving Relationship

Top Five Things to Make Your Digital Signage Content Memorable

By Jim Nista Almo Pro A/V For digital signage, everything about your content, including design, motion and messaging all go into making a memorable experience for your viewers. There’s no one right set of rules, since digital signage is used for everything from interactive wayfinding to menu boards, design guidelines vary. Creating memorable content for […]

Top Five Things to Make Your Digital Signage Content Memorable

The Ripple Effect — Your Premeeting Chatter Matters

The science of meetings is fascinating. How do we best communicate with one another when we find ourselves sitting across from each other in a conference room? How do we solve problems, build confidence in one another, share? It’s an interesting area of our lives to explore — particularly because the workday is composed of […]

The Ripple Effect — Your Premeeting Chatter Matters

Is Barco Buying Unilumin? I Believe It’s Just a Matter of Time 

Barco just announced a strategic collaboration with Unilumin, a listed Chinese company that’s an LED manufacturer. Barco says it’s engaged in a wide-ranging partnership with Unilumin to secure a supply of LED display components, which allows broader penetration in its core markets with differentiated Barco LED visualization hardware and software solutions. But, isn’t it logical they will […]

Is Barco Buying Unilumin? I Believe It’s Just a Matter of Time 

Why AI Will Make Collaboration Experts of Us All

By Kelly Bousman Sr. Vice President, Marketing, AVI-SPL Editor’s note: Seventeen unified communications (UC), video and collaboration leaders from Fortune 500 and large enterprises met at AVI-SPL’s 2018 Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting and a subset of six CAB members met over three months in 2019, to envision AI’s role in improving collaboration and meetings. […]

Why AI Will Make Collaboration Experts of Us All

Change Management

IT Service Management and ITIL define processes for information technology professionals to follow in order to deliver the best value for their customers. The processes defined are agnostic to whether the clients are internal or external. Some in the industry think of AV and IT as separate, however we are very similar and in many […]

Change Management

The Most Dreaded Time of the Year

I have worked in education for over twenty years. When August hits, we know that summer has ended for us. The pace picks up quickly as the days get closer to September and the level of anxiety begins to rise. By the end of the month, we are in an all out sprint. Will all […]

The Most Dreaded Time of the Year

This Is What Disruptive Looks Like

As part of my quest to better understand the UC/AV space – I’ve been reading a lot of research reports. This week I put two reports together to realize something pretty interesting: The professional video cable market is predicted to reach revenues of $2 billion by 2024. If you sell cable to the enterprise – […]

This Is What Disruptive Looks Like