In my role, I get cold-called and pitched. A lot. I find that ironic, considering that part of my job description is that I’m the one out there cold calling and pitching. It’s the circle of life, I suppose. I’ll tell you a secret about the pitches I get: Most of them are awful. I […]

Trends are everywhere, even in the AV industry. For May’s temperature check survey, we decided to ask you, the readers, what trends are influencing projects the most and having the biggest impact on the industry. We also asked what trend has been the most overhyped. Your responses provided some interesting perspectives on the ideas and […]

There’s a great scene in This Is Spinal Tap where the musicians tout an amp as louder because the dial goes to 11. It’s hilarious, of course, and obvious that the dial numbering really has nothing to do with the output itself. However, it had me thinking about a few misconceptions in audio that can […]

By Steph Beckett and Cory Knapp This year marked my sixth CEDIA Expo. I’ve attended every year since 2021, and every year I look forward to seeing what’s new in residential AV. This year, I brought along our content specialist, Cory Knapp, for his first-ever CEDIA Expo. We thought that gave us an excellent reason […]

I wrote two posts about eight years ago that raised a lot of eyebrows. They questioned the continued value of an integrator who believed their value lay in delivering hardware at the end of a construction project, especially as systems became more commoditized, complexity decreased and platform access became more universal. I asserted that firms […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST By Brian Phillips, Director of Product Marketing for HP Poly Meeting room collaboration technology has been constantly evolving for decades, with new waves of innovation emerging just as we get used to the previous ones. Artificial intelligence, advanced camera experiences, intelligent audio processing and new software capabilities continue to reshape […]

Human history is full of things that once seemed perfectly reasonable and that we now look back upon and wonder, what in the world were they thinking? For centuries, illnesses were treated by bleeding patients, attaching leeches or heating cups to create suction that was thought to draw sickness out. Even indoor plumbing was once […]

“I don’t know, ask ChatGPT.” Probably one of the most uttered sentences in the English language right now. Between ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and others, we have so many resources at our disposal for solving problems. But every time I use one of these readily available resources, I feel guilty. AI guilt is a new-ish […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST By Brian Phillips, Director of Product Marketing for HP Poly Meeting room “success” is often measured by the technology deployed within the space. Are we using certified devices? What are the camera specs and microphone pickup? Are the camera and microphone appropriate for the room? Did we deploy the features […]

My old boss had an aphorism that he shared with us almost daily, even more often when he was frustrated with our efforts. “Proper preparation prevents poor performance.” A big part of preparation is planning. And the best time to start planning is early. Why do I bring this up now, you ask? I’ve been […]

The first beamforming microphone array I ever saw was the Revoluto by Beyerdynamic, released back in 2006. It was a horizontal “corridor” microphone designed to pick up a speaker at the front of a room, even as they moved from side to side. I’m not asserting it was the first microphone of this type; I […]

If you weren’t sure you belong in the AV world, here are some proof points you can use to ensure you know you’re at home. It’s August, summer has settled in, things have quieted down a bit and the fall event season has not yet kicked into high gear. That makes this the perfect time […]

Let me start by saying I actually don’t know David Labuskes very well personally. He has always been kind to me and generous with his time when I needed something. In fact, he offered up an hour of his time a few years back to help me navigate possible futures within the AV industry. I’ve […]

A lot has happened since my last column was published in 2023. I worked part time for two different companies as an independent contractor, attended or hosted (and paid for) several trade shows and mini-tech events, and so much more, but I’m not going to get into at this time. I joined A-V Services, Inc. […]

By Scott Stephenson, senior director of product, global motorization, Hunter Douglas A recent retrofit project involving illuminated shades in a 1950s estate got me thinking about a problem integrators run into all the time: the homeowner wants a more finished, layered lighting experience, but the house does not cooperate. Maybe the ceilings are not worth […]

LED flooring is still new to competitive sports, and this year’s Big 12 basketball tournaments provided a high-profile test. The glass court lit up the 3-point line after made shots, merging live gameplay with interactive graphics. But players and coaches raised concerns about traction, prompting the conference to switch back to traditional hardwood for the […]

In 1998, I worked at The Buttes Resort in Arizona. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a beautiful property. It’s owned by a hotel chain now, but when it was built, it was one of four boutique hotels in AZ known for using the natural landscape as part of the architecture. It is nestled into […]

United Airlines is defending itself against a proposed class-action lawsuit built around a wonderfully simple question: When an airline sells you a window seat, is it required to provide a window? Passengers say they paid extra for seats United identified as window seats, only to board and find themselves sitting beside a solid cabin wall. […]

By B. Scott SwannCEO, ROC.ai As physical security and digital identity systems converge, organizations are rethinking how identity is verified across access control, surveillance and command center environments. Single-modality biometrics, such as facial recognition alone, are increasingly being supplemented by multimodal approaches that combine face, fingerprint, iris and other identity signals to improve confidence and […]

If you attended InfoComm26, you no doubt noticed the number of companies on the floor that make Direct-View LED (dvLED) products. From well-known brands to emerging market contenders, the breadth of cabinet-based, curved and custom dvLED offerings at pixel pitches from 5mm down to 0.7mm is downright daunting, to say the least. It would be […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST A few years ago, the AV industry had a visibility problem. Today, it has a context problem. That’s a very different thing. We’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what’s happening in a room. We can tell when a display goes offline, when a camera disconnects, when a firmware update fails, […]

The fourth-quarter holiday selling season is when brands spend the most on running promotions with their dealers. They’ll run promos elsewhere in the year, too, of course. They’re often centered around new product launches, but they’ll also run when brands think their quarterly sales are lagging and they want to move the needle. Which is […]

The other day, I read this article in Techdirt about how the so-called “billion-dollar” AI company Medvi is a giant scam. The whole thing is basically a house of lies built on fake AI-generated images and testimonials, plus a metric ton of spam. The GLP-1 drugs they dispense are glorified placebos (they’re “pharmacologically inert” in […]

InfoComm 2026 has officially wrapped, and as usual the rAVe team did an outstanding job covering the products, booths, announcements and personalities that make the show one of the most important events in professional AV. Between videos, interviews and on-site reporting, virtually every significant product announcement found its way into the rAVe coverage pipeline. One […]

It’s Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas. The InfoComm exhibits haven’t opened yet, but education is in full swing. I walked into the West Hall and found the room where I spoke on a panel, “Crafting Enterprise AV Standards.” The panel was stacked, by the way. Nathan Coutinho from Logitech, Roy Sherry from Microsoft, Christina Vernon […]

Day Two! It’s time to provide you with another wrap-up of my day. Of course, it included more sponsor interviews, chats with attendees, and my favorite part: The Technology in Practice Tour. First, we attended the AVIXA Women’s Breakfast. This is like the third or fourth year that I’ve attended this and I’m so excited […]

Hi everyone! This is your favorite wrap-up of Day One of InfoComm. Yes, I am posting this a day late. Yes, this will be a trend. First thing’s first: My day began with sponsor interviews. This was actually most of my day. While yes, people pay for these, I still think they are worth watching. […]

For the better part of the last decade, the technology industry treated “The Cloud” like the answer to every question. Need more processing power? Cloud. Need analytics? Cloud. Need AI? Definitely cloud. For a while, that was the industry’s favorite chorus. And for a while, that made perfect sense. Centralized cloud computing gave organizations enormous […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST InfoComm 2026 is rapidly approaching. Booths are being built, demos are being fine-tuned and product launches are being readied for their debut in Las Vegas. With nearly 750 exhibitors spread across the convention center, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of the show. That’s where […]

InfoComm 2026 is rapidly approaching. Booths are being built, demos are being fine-tuned and product launches are being readied for their debut in Las Vegas. With nearly 750 exhibitors spread across the convention center, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of the show. That’s where we come in. At rAVe […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST InfoComm 2026 is rapidly approaching. Booths are being built, demos are being fine-tuned and product launches are being readied for their debut in Las Vegas. With nearly 750 exhibitors spread across the convention center, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of the show. That’s where […]

It has been 13 years since I wrote the initial guide to Surviving the InfoComm Zombie Apocalypse, so I thought it was time for a reboot for 2026! Nearly 750 companies will be on the floor exhibiting at InfoComm 2026, and with around 30,000 attendees, there is potential to leave after three days transformed into an AV […]