If AV install companies stick around long enough, they reach a point where they have a large installed base of legacy systems out there. That’s great for a number of reasons: repeat upgrade business and new referral business from satisfied clients. Not to mention — you survived and prospered, while others may have not. But, there […]
One of the reasons I advocate for internship and apprenticeship opportunities for young people is because of the opportunities that I experienced myself as a young person starting out. When I graduated from high school, I enrolled in the tech program in college to become a chemical engineer. I applied for and joined an organization […]
I recently attended a graduation where the keynote speaker addressed the topic of privilege. Unfortunately, like so much of our dialog these days, the term was taken far out of context, and that out-of-context interpretation was then politicized. As I walked away, I was disheartened at the misinformation all the new graduates had just received. […]
THE rAVe Agency’s own Megan A. Dutta, director of emerging markets at LAVNCH, virtually met with Dave Labuskes, CEO of AVIXA, to discuss the many recent cancellations of in-person events in the AV industry and the expectations around InfoComm 2021. As of Sept. 15, 2021, both NAB Show 2021 and Enterprise Connect have been canceled due to rising […]
Yogi Berra said the following quote: “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.” The difference between theoretical and practical is apparent to any AV pro who’s spent their time in the field. And while you can learn either by doing or by observing, lessons are generally internalized better […]
It’s genius, really. If we have a Digital-Out-of-Home industry, why can’t we have Digital-Out-of-This World? Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC) will soon create a new category of advertising space. Outer space. Based in Canada, a GEC subsidiary (Geometric Space Corporation) has several space projects and is now in the process of building a satellite, a CubeSat. […]
When customers come to AV resellers and installers to ask them to provide an AV installation, part of the service is project management. Someone has to communicate with the customer and stay on top of the progress and any changes that are made. Customers are familiar with project managers; they usually have a whole set […]
If you frequent LinkedIn or YouTube and you’re into audiovisual tech, you’ve likely seen the videos of the signs on a street corner with a lion jumping out, a spaceship landing or a Jeep spinning brodies where the subjects of the video seem to escape the edges of the screen and break the fourth wall. […]
Since this pandemic is new to all of us and technology is being designed to aid in coping with this relatively horrible situation, I thought some information and things I have observed or read about over the past 18 months would be helpful. I am not specifying one technology over another nor one vendor over […]
Mobile connectivity is indispensable in our personal lives. Our phones are our lifeline — our conduit to virtually every aspect of our digital lives, from social networks to email to countless apps and other web-based portals. There’s no denying that cellular connections are our on-ramp to the connected world, especially when we’re outside our homes […]
When the Volume Knob Goes to the Right By: Hadi Sumoro SynAudCon In this article, we’re going to ask: how do we turn the volume up properly? This article will explore this question while also discussing some of the basics of sound system design in layman’s language along with easy analogies. Due to the nature […]
Most houses of worship are only used a few hours a week. The rest of the time, the worship halls are either empty or barely visited. And, even with the accelerated concerns about COVID-19 or future viruses, the openness of the typical worship hall offers an amazing opportunity for uses that will help both future […]
On Thursday, Sept. 2, over 150 industry professionals gathered together at the Women in Consumer Technology’s (WiCT) 13th Annual CEDIA EXPO Networking Reception and Luncheon in Indianapolis. “To be able fill this room when we really had no clue how the show would go is spectacular,” Carol Campbell, founder, WiCT, said in her welcome address […]
Over the past several months at my institution, we have been implementing a new Information Technology Service Management Tool (ITSM). After looking at several different products, we chose to go forward with TeamDynamix. The cost is reasonable (not cheap, but reasonable), even for small higher ed institutions (like us). Cost was a factor in our […]
A few years ago, a group of AV professionals were discussing our industry and the culture that we’ve inherited — some of it is good and others, well, they leave a lot to be desired. So, to create change, we headed to LinkedIn and created a group to isolate several places we thought AV could […]
Technology is an essential part of every company and employees’ workflow, and given the events of the last 18 months, it has become more important than ever. Technology is only as good as its adoption, however. You can provide people with amazing tools, but if they are unused or underutilized at their minimum capacity, the […]
After the pandemic, many of us will set out to explore new routes to market. Selim Morlevi wants to drive there. In a van. As the founder of Create-4, a pioneer in experiential marketing in Turkey, he develops tech experiences for retail hospitality point of sale and consumer goods manufacturers. He’s worked with holographs, AI, […]
In Part 1 of my “Simple Expectations of InfoComm 2021,” series of blogs, I explained some of the elements of how InfoComm 2021 will be like no other InfoComm we’ve had in history — for OBVIOUS reasons. And, my advice to exhibitors to help them maximize their ROI and reach the attendees well was simple […]
Many years ago, I worked on a few Fingerhut commercials that still resonate with me to this day. In the commercial, the actress would hold up her finger and say the tagline, “That’s Value with a capital V.” My point here is the word “Value.” It has different meanings to different people. My focus when […]
If you are supporting a HOW event in the next, let’s say, three to six months, it’s time to plan for it to be both in-person and virtual. In fact, that’s the decision we recently made for Pilgrimage 2021, the regional HOW event of the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church. With the increased […]
From my experience, AV installations are permanent. The rooms, digital signage, multipurpose rooms and auditoriums that line my portfolio of installations have that in common: They are set up and left for use for many years. At most, there is one specialist that will interface with the controls to make sure the audio and video […]
By Tom Kehr Almo Pro A/V “A degree in computer science for AV support?” was a question posed in response to a LinkedIn job posting for an AV support engineer (I’m listing only the first five bullet points): Minimum Requirements. The candidate for the position of AV support engineer must meet the following qualifications: Bachelor’s […]
I’m fortunate that my roster of dealers and resellers encompasses a diverse range of channels and verticals. It means I get to meet many interesting people and help them find solutions for a diverse range of problems. It also means that my problems are diverse as well. Even if readers aren’t embedded in the channel […]
Many of us have wondered what business will be like in the “new normal.” During that time, so many of us assumed the new normal also meant post-coronavirus. As we continue to experience surges in the delta variant and wonder about future variants, I am beginning to wonder if living with COVID-19 is actually the […]
By Chris Pennell Futuresource Consulting EdTech purchase planning in K-12 schools across the USA is likely to deliver a raft of opportunities for technology vendors. Almost all curriculum leads are expecting to buy student-facing software applications, with school information systems (SIS) topping the list. That’s according to a new report from Futuresource Consulting, based on […]
As someone who has been in AV for years and spent the time to get all of my AV certifications through AVIXA (CTS-D and CTS-I), I appreciate tools that help with designing systems. Through my years in AV, I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing engineers that developed their own calculators and spreadsheets for […]
My university, a small liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere, recently announced an esports team and hired a coach. That’s surprising to many alumni who don’t realize the esports audience has grown to 474 million globally. (If it were a country, the esports population would make it onto the Worldometer list as the […]
Most AV professionals I know don’t think of AV as being the “construction industry.” While I can entertain arguments for fitting it under that umbrella, if anything, the AV business is “construction-adjacent.” It’s that adjacency that means that AV pros need to understand liens and holdbacks since they’re a reality of doing business. How holdbacks […]
I know this should be obvious and common sense, but to some people, it is not. Therefore, I always try to understand the reasons behind certain people’s inability to communicate clearly, whether on purpose or due to other circumstances. There are countless articles on this subject, yet I occasionally come across a situation that could […]
As we acknowledge the ever-changing impact COVID-19 and its variants have on our industry, our editorial team seeks to keep an updated list of what companies and audiovisual groups we can expect to see at CEDIA Expo 2021. Rather these manufacturers and exhibitors are in-person, hybrid or virtual, we plan to keep this article updated […]
I was recently looking through some of the very first articles I posted to LinkedIn, and I ran across this one called “Taking YOUR Road Less Traveled.” I wrote this about a time I was contemplating a change in my career. I bring it up again today because, over the past 18 months, many of […]
