Collaboration. It’s not what you think it is … Whenever I hear someone in the AV industry mention collaboration, I am reminded of the words of the legendary Inigo Montoya in my favorite movie. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” I was looking at job […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST By Paul Richards PTZOptics Following a socially distanced holiday season, houses of worship are continuing to look to AV professionals for the best tools to create livestreams or recorded videos of their worship services for the benefit of those viewing remotely. As the pandemic continues and these formerly in-person services […]
Written By: Tony Sprando and Kate Couch “Age appears to be best in four things, – old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.” – Alonso Of Aragon Age is something we have been redefining for many years as a human race. In […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST The first major AV, UCC and digital signage event of the year was a virtual one. But a virtual format didn’t prevent us from digging in and getting some answers on the uncertainty that lies ahead. Th!nk AV, a three-part thought-leadership event, came to us from Sony, a company who […]
As technology salespeople, it is very tempting to have early conversations around technology itself. I’ve attended job walks or integrator interviews where the represenative of a technology company quickly turns a discussion about a room into questions about how many inputs and outputs the company needs on their switcher or what brand of control system […]
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 […]
By Alexandre Jornod Futuresource Consulting Over recent years, the audio market has witnessed a progressive shift to more premium products. Case in point with headphones and models such as the Apple AirPods Pro, along with the Sony WH-1000XM series, which have helped democratizing higher audio quality to the mass-market. This trend, which can be seen […]
By Tom Kehr Almo Pro A/V The Almo Pro A/V Fall E4v was my first E4 as an Almo employee. I had the privilege of co-presenting with Donald Guzauckas of HB Live on “The Future of Events.” We touched on everything from corporate meetings to larger live events. We all know things are and will […]
Some of my closest #AVtweeps know that back last summer, I volunteered to be one of the 43,448 people within the global trial to get injected with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (aka: BNT162b2 0.3 ml). Yes, I received the actual vaccine rather than the placebo (21,720 people in the study received BNT162b2 and 21,728 received […]
In more than one editorial I’ve made the point that new business opportunities come from who you know. And that if you want more things to come your way you need to know more people. That’s why it’s important to network: to meet new people and find opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise know about if […]
“But they sent the wrong color. Did you know that this job has an open ceiling plan? We have to have gray or it will stand out.” The cable on-site was blue, and we needed 1,000 feet of gray right now or the schedule and budget would go off the rails. I called the cable […]
In my monthly blog series, I am highlighting some of the incredible people who work for the Audio Video Industry. In this post, we are profiling Murphy Daley. Here is a brief introduction. Murphy Daley -CTS ,PMP is an AV & UC Project Manager. She has also written four books, check them out on Amazon. […]
Defining the word that has had so many meanings over the past one hundred years. By: Kate Couch Audio Visual Bend “Okay, Einstien.” “That was smart!” “Your baby is so smart.” These are all common sayings we’ve heard that center around the idea of smart or intelligence. But what is smart? As we progressed further […]
By Chris Pennell Futuresource Consulting As the number of electronic devices in use across North American schools continues to proliferate, K-12 curriculum leaders and IT decision makers are turning to administrative tools to manage data assets, track progress and provide support. A new end user study from Futuresource Consulting explores the impact of these tools, […]
Several years ago, I won an award. I was so happy and proud that I was emotional upon hearing the news. I felt that I’d represented my industry, my colleagues, my company, and myself well enough to have even been considered. My colleagues at my company were happy for me, and my manager asked that […]
As 2020 has turned into 2021, many recently arisen challenges are continuing to confront churches. Among the challenges thrust to the forefront are those associated with recognizing the increasing value of broadcasting and streaming worship services. Even with churches having been largely open in recent months, most have been so on a limited capacity basis. […]
In the weird/unpredictable/unprecedented (did I get all the cliches in there?) times we are in, a question has stayed at the forefront of all of our minds: What the heck are our jobs going to make us do when COVID-19 is no longer a thing? For the past (almost) year, we’ve said “new normal” this […]
It’s that time of year again where everyone makes ridiculous resolutions they probably won’t keep. Instead of doing all that this year, I wanted to make a resolution that would be achievable — no matter how hard it seems. So, I am studying to get my CTS! To keep me accountable, my co-workers at rAVe […]
2020 sucked! So, now that we got that out of the way, let’s review the top 10 AV, UCC and Digital Signage stories, according to data, in 2020! The top story of 2020 was the the acquisition of Whitlock by AVI-SPL. Marketed as a merger, this didn’t appear to be one in hindsight. Whitlock is now […]
As I think I’ve mentioned more than once in recent columns, everybody I know is taking stock of the new world they find themselves in and asking themselves how they can make money. Some answers can be fairly radical, such as opening up into channels you’ve never been in before. Others can be more elementary, […]
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 […]
As much as I hated writing that headline, it’s true. And, despite years of warnings that the future of the cineplex was nothing but apocalyptic, Hollywood wasn’t prepared. Let’s back-up. Back in the late ’90s, companies started building DVD servers for home theaters. The idea was that a homeowner could buy a cache of DVDs […]
There’s no doubt the audiovisual industry has progressed a long way since the advent of the gramophone and cathode-ray tube. Innovations over the last 50 to 100 years have turned AV devices into the primary content-delivery system for almost every human on Earth, and definitely a requirement for every human not on Earth. These innovations […]
Meet the company behind the new ticker symbol “CYVIZ.” Norway’s Cyviz goes to the Oslo Børs to secure a Euronext Growth listing, selling shares at NOK 34.50 (34 euros) and reaching a market capitalization of NOK 370 million (37 million euros). Cyviz designs, develops and delivers software and hardware solutions for conference rooms, control rooms […]
Great salespeople are like ducks, paddling furiously under the water while appearing calm to the outside world. Think about what our great salespeople go through with every prospective customer (budget, authority, buying team, decision-makers, influencers, need, timeline, urgency, objectives, etc.) while focusing on the client’s needs. Sometimes we overlook the most basic and critical distinction […]
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. […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST Tired of the same ol’ online content? Miss in-person trade shows and live AV education? SDVoE hears your pain. Instead of sulking over it, the association responded with an idea. No live events in 2020 be darned! (Using our PG language here…) SDVoE’s idea materialized into a fun new project […]
The spotlight series is a wonderful way to connect with Insiders and that’s why I been doing it for the past years. I love to learn from them and read what makes them keep on going on. In case you missed the 2020 spotlight series, I have linked all the great people featured here so […]
If your church already offers different weekly services — one traditional and the other contemporary — how one approaches each is crucial to the continued growth of the church. Congregation members benefit by choosing which suits them best. When differentiating between each type of service, lighting is an extremely key place to start. In determining […]
AV integrators and HOW leaders are among the many of us that have been presented with extreme challenges since the onset of the pandemic. For the next four to five minutes of your time, I plan to share my thoughts with you on how the HOW market needs help, how HOW integrators should prioritize customer […]
By Patrick Montgomery Futuresource Consulting Apple’s November launch of the $99 HomePod Mini comes at a good time. As the smart speaker market starts to mature in key western markets such as the U.S. and U.K., it creates a direct competitor to devices from market leaders Amazon and Google, both of whom in recent months […]
It’s handy and useful to employ mental tools and rubrics to organize your life in an effort to be more efficient and productive. But it’s also important not to mistake the maps you’re reading for the territory itself. As useful as such things are, it’s possible to be blinkered by them, and cut yourself off […]
