Budgets are a bummer, and coming out of a global pandemic means they are tight. When your HOW customers could use an upgrade on six or seven key pieces to their system but only have the budget for three, which do you recommend and why? Here are the first three — in order of most […]
One of the topics from the sessions I hosted on my Pexip Platform (see my previous column, “What I Learned By Hosting 32 Sessions With Different Topics and Speakers During the Pandemic”) last year between April 2020 to July 2020 included a very interesting presentation and point of view from Josiah Hobson, managing director at […]
Not long ago, I submitted a piece titled “Things That Come Up a Lot.” I dove into some of the common challenges AV and CE businesses face, regardless of the specific vertical they’re in. I made the point that most are more similar than they are different and that while specific solutions may need to […]
I took my third business trip post-vaccination today and headed up to New York City for Sony’s first-ever AV Tech Expo at its 25 Madison Ave. location. I’d say it was worth the masking, walking and mouth-sweating (inside the mask). The expo was primarily focused on the new B (for high-brightness) and C (for high-contrast) […]
You know, I don’t normally write about sales-related topics. But I’ve always liked this story my dad told me when I first started out in AV/IT/automation over 20 years ago. It’s one of the many awesome #DadAdvice tidbits I got over the years as a second-generation entrepreneur. Though he was a pinstriper and signwriter and […]
I just finished watching Loki, a Marvel-inspired series on Disney+. For those that haven’t seen it, I won’t include any spoilers here, just that the show revolves around a concept called “the sacred timeline.” This refers to the way we see the world and all of the potential opportunities the timeline had to branch, creating […]
I am actively engaged in the online AV community on Twitter. This weekend, a chat called #AVintheAM challenged integrators to discuss and explore how sports broadcasting as a vertical could yield some fruit on the local and K-12 level. There were a lot of ideas on the viability and profitability of systems and projects […]
Why did the pipeline get shut down if the hackers only attacked the business end? For each column in this series, rAVe writer Paul Konikowski takes a deeper dive into a recent security event or data breach, shedding light on supply chain vulnerabilities, infrastructure and cyber-physical security. By now, most people heard about the Colonial […]
By Tom Kehr Almo Pro A/V Alphabet Soup and Math. Not your favorites, I know. I didn’t get all this at once, but I’ll share some things that helped me immensely. First, let’s sort out these letters. Circuits have properties, and we use values to quantify those properties. There are different symbols used depending on […]
Written By: Kate Couch Sustainability was at the top of the global agenda before the pandemic in 2020. But this thought was put to the wayside as disposable wipes, masks and gloves now litter our sidewalks. With governments having bigger fish to fry, will the fight for sustainability come back? Though maybe not just yet, […]
When discussing business matters with my dealer clients, most of the conversations center around finding ways to grow their revenue and increase profit margins. Ideally, we cover both. They’re both worthy objectives, and it’s something clients look to me to help them achieve. But they’re also only part of the puzzle. As important as growing […]
We’re fewer than 100 days from InfoComm 2021 week — the first InfoComm since 2019 and the first time two InfoComm shows will be in the same town two times in a row in over 20 years. I don’t think we need to review how and why we came to where we are with this […]
In March of this year, AVIXA released an Inclusive Language Guide through its Diversity Council, supported by TAD and Audinate. I highly recommend you take the time to read the guide: You can find it here. Better yet, I highly recommend you print it off and hang copies of it around your offices, workshops and […]
There’s a joke one of my sociology professors used to beat to death. It goes, “There are two types of people: the first type categorizes everyone they meet into one of two types.” I didn’t say it was a good one — my professor certainly thought it was funnier than we did as he always […]
I recently heard from a friend in higher ed that they had been laid off. This person worked in the AV group as part of the overall IT department in their college. Two things stuck out to me about this layoff: first, that any school would consider laying off parts of its AV team after […]
There’s an expression that has stuck with me for a while now: “The way you dress indicates the respect you have for other people.” It stuck with me partly because it’s not an expression I’d already heard a thousand times, like, “The early bird gets the worm.” It also stuck with me because, when you […]
WARNING: Might be best-read with incense burning. Symbiotic relationships. Yep, I’m going to go there. I’d like to talk about symbiotic relationships specifically as a design theory in relation to technology and AV. If that seems like a lot, bear with me, read on. In architecture, this principle already exists, and I truly believe this […]
By Gordon Dutch Re-Sauce Sales & Business Consultancy Ltd As I am sure regular rAVe readers will know, the regular ISE 2021 show in Barcelona planned for February 2021 was initially moved back to June 2021 and then canceled this year due to COVID. Shortly after, ISE announced a series of regional roadshows starting in […]
What does AV look like in other developed countries? Written By: Kate Couch for AV Bend It’s easy to forget that many of the amenities and services we have in the U.S. are also available in other countries. Just because they speak a different language than us or have different customs doesn’t mean they’re not […]
Hello, #AVtweeps! On June 30, I hosted this webinar with Rob Ziv, vice president of business development and strategy at Almo Pro A/V, as well as Adrian Doughty, director of North American sales at Nureva. For this webinar, we discussed how virtual mic and mic-array technologies revolutionize meeting rooms and classrooms — and this is […]
It’s been a good year for retail AV sales. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The truth is, there were winners as well as losers this past year, and the winners won big. BrightSign received the single-largest PO in its history right in the middle of lockdown. That PO came from a retailer. Retailers whose business was […]
I’ve been grocery shopping weekly for over 20 years, and every week I’ve bought bananas. I’ve bought bananas over 1,000 times in my life; it’s crazy to think about! I really know how to buy a banana. I know how my family likes them, I know how long a banana will need to ripen depending […]
You don’t have to know rocket science to follow the arcane world of high-performance wireless, but it doesn’t hurt. The CEO of BridgeComm, Barry Matsumori, worked previously for SpaceX and Virgin Galactic and has served as a board member of the Space and Satellite Professionals International. BridgeComm, optical wireless communication (OWC) company, provides enterprise-grade broadband […]
Written By: Kate Couch and Tony Sprando In 2019, Fox News reported the following: “Ajay Bhatt, who led the intel team that created the Universal Serial Bus [USB], told NPR the design of USB ports used to plug in devices such as keyboards, mice, printers and thumb drives is a bit annoying. Frustrated users have […]
As the world returns to some version of “normal,” change has been significant for churches — particularly with streaming. Even with millions recently returning to worship services, the streaming gains achieved in the last few months shouldn’t be discarded. According to Tim Dougherty, senior solutions engineer for Wowza Media Systems, streaming went from a “nice-to-have” […]
After a successful ISE London 2021, Gordon Dutch, CEO of Re-Sauce Sales & Business Consultancy, sat down (virtually) with Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events to discuss the event. Representing rAVe [PUBS], Gordon successfully snagged the first interview after ISE 2021 with Mike to discuss all the virtual and in-person show details. ISE […]
In January, as part of my 2021 predictions (dubbed Kayye’s Krystal Ball), I wrote “Epson will debut a new technology.” Well, my prediction came true today as Epson announced a hardware and software solution for enhanced lesson plans and student engagement — the BrightLink GoBoard Wireless Collaboration and Integrated Whiteboard Solution. BrightLink GoBoard will be […]
For each column in this series, rAVe writer Paul Konikowski takes a deeper dive into a recent security event or data breach, shedding light on supply chain vulnerabilities, infrastructure and cyber-physical security. In my last “SecuringAV” column about the Nashville Christmas morning bombing, I did my best to define what “infrastructure project” meant using the […]
There are 1,001 blogs on the hybrid workplace and hybrid classrooms. Heck, I may have even contributed to that total. But before you dismiss this one, I’ll tell you it’s short, intuitive and not quite the same as the others. If you’re doing hybrid meetings or classrooms, you already know the main components: Audience facing […]
By Tom Kehr Almo Pro A/V Sustainability. Sometimes it’s about sustaining the humans. When designing an audiovisual system, we often discover that our main challenge is the actual room. Crazy, isn’t it? We try and work around and implement, as best we can, a technology solution when maybe a better solution could involve a lot […]
By James Kirby Futuresource Consulting The professional power amplifiers market, and professional audio in general, has been an area of long-term market growth. Despite the rise of powered speakers, the amplifiers market has continued to see regular replacements and new opportunities over recent years, driven by innovation and demand at a macro level. However, moving […]
Health and wellness is a booming industry but does it involve audio and visual? Written By: Kate Couch The health and wellness industry is a much bigger industry than most people realize. In fact, according to the Global Wellness Institute, the wellness economy is currently valued at 4.5 trillion dollars and represents 5.3% of […]
