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 […]
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 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 […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST This year has forced innovation globally. Throughout 2020, much of the creativity has appeared in problem-solving and in the interest of human interactions returning to “normal.” For example, a handful of companies are rapidly developing one of the world’s first totally synthetic vaccines to fight COVID-19. But, the innovation didn’t […]
Let’s face it, in March and April of this year, the best we could expect to deliver was very reactive. Unless you were already streaming services each weekend, it’s unlikely you had time to respond proactively to COVID. And, this summer, as states and countries started partially reopening, adding streaming via consumer platforms like Facebook, […]
Yes, we compete professionally. But, together, we BELIEVE in #AV. We know that, due to COVID, many of you have been laid off, but 2020 will NOT define you, and it will not define us. Even though we may compete for your eyes and ears, we are joining forces to bring #PositAVity to the AV […]
Updated Nov. 16, 2020: I reached out to both Kevin Morrison, CEO and Frank Pellkofer, president, Utelogy Corporation for their thoughts and, interestingly enough, they praised Barco and the Overture system with this quote: “Barco is a fantastic company that make world class products. These are extraordinary times and companies across all industries including AV […]
The live events and the in-person meetings markets were, well, decimated in mid-March due to the COVID pandemic. And no one seemed to know what to do — well, almost no one. Don Guzauckas, of HB Live, joined Tom Kehr today at the Almo ProAV E4v virtual show, during his “The Future of Meetings and Events” session and explained […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST Times are changing, and today’s hybrid working world — with some people at home and some in the office — means team collaboration is more necessary than ever. We’ve got a great story to share with you today, and we hope you’ll read it in full, but let’s be realistic; […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST Have you ever been to an NFL stadium or a Major League Baseball park, seen an NHL game live on the ice, or sat in an NBA arena to watch a game? If you have, you’ve seen Daktronics. In fact, more than half of all of those sites in and […]
There’s no doubt that Microsoft Teams has been playing catch-up with Zoom for months; some would argue years. But, this week, Microsoft upped its game by adding a host of features that even Zoom power-users will love. Here’s a summary look at each one: Together Mode: Together mode re-imagines meeting experiences to help participants feel […]
Way, way before COVID-19, UCC saw explosive growth. Because of it, “collaboration” was not only the buzzword of InfoComm 2019 but also completely dominated ISE 2020 — the last great AV event of 2020. But, UCC doesn’t mean meeting room or huddle room, by the way. If you read the spec sheets of the plethora […]
No one is immune to COVID-19. This is a defining moment in world history that our kids, their kids, their kids’ kids (and so on) will learn about in grade school for generations to come. Likely, everyone will eventually know someone directly or indirectly affected by this pandemic, either personally or professionally. As you probably […]
Key Digital just introduced the KD-BYOD4K, a wireless presentation gateway for the KDPlay system. The company is marketing it as a “Game Changer for Presentation and Collaborations.” Do you agree? Here’s how it works: You can wirelessly connect via MacOS, Android or Windows (not Chromecast) to the KD-BYOD4K presentation system and project in full-screen (4K […]
Right now, around the globe, most companies, educational institutions and government agencies have shifted their money to help solve internal COVID-19 issues and are trying to reopen. Therefore, financial expenditures on tech hardware not directly related to healthcare issues seem to be on hold (for now). So, now — more than any other time in […]
Like many of you, we’ve decided to keep THE rAVe Agency’s physical offices closed at least through the end of the summer, but I think it’s unlikely that we will actually gather our team together, physically, fall. In fact, nearly every business will face the significant hurdle of dealing with people who are creeped out […]
Technology seems to be able to do nearly everything — unless the government steps in and says, “No, it can’t.” And, that’s precisely what happened with the concept of facial recognition. Everyone’s experienced it. Everyone’s probably used it, too, if they have a Facebook account or use Apple devices — facial recognition is a giant […]
CEDIA Expo announced that Crestron Electronics will return for the 2020 show, optimistically scheduled to take place Sept. 8-12 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. And, CEDIA Expo also said Crestron will work with closer to continue the advancement and success of the custom integration channel. “After what has been a challenging year for […]
Last week’s LAVNCH WEEK was huge for both THE rAVe Agency and the industry. In fact, it was the largest virtual AV event, ever, with five days, 36 presenters and 20 hours of streaming — all in one platform. Let’s jump into the numbers. Here are some interesting stats: We streamed 15 terabytes of data […]
Back in the old days, like a decade ago, everyone went to a movie theater to watch “first-run” films — especially blockbusters. We all loved the immersive experience, the better audio, the taste of the popcorn and the giant screen. Now, not so much. Although, in this COVID-19 environment, I’d give nearly anything to sit […]
Hello, readers! On April 15, I hosted a webinar with Almo Pro A/V and Steve Milley from Panasonic (this company plays a huge part in the esports and gaming market). And, as promised, I’m including written versions of each webinar, so you don’t miss out on the content — even when the webinar fills up […]
AVIXA has been publishing a monthly ProAV Business Index since mid-2016, gauging sales and employment indicators for the ProAV industry. The index is calculated from a monthly survey that tracks trends. Two diffusion indexes are created using the data, the AV Sales Index (AVI-S) and AV Employment Index (AVI-E). This month’s AV Sales Index (AVI-S) […]
I’m starting a trend of releasing a corresponding blog with my webinars, and this will be the second of that series. On Wednesday, I hosted a webinar in conjunction with Almo Pro A/V and Dana Corey of Avocor, in which I took you on a tour of the UCC world! But, in case you weren’t […]
I was honored to be the only member of the AV press invited to cover the live, global (it was streamed live from Seattle, Washington, New York City, Amsterdam and Madrid) streaming video launch of the Sharp WCD (Windows Collaboration Display) last week. Although those in attendance, live, saw it as a technical marvel (connecting […]
I am sitting here in my kitchen table writing this. Like many of you who traveled last week, I am in a self-quarantine to protect the world from my potentially having the new coronavirus, sadly known as COVID-19 (sad as COVID used to only refer to that Tempe-based AV manufacturer known for the once-famous EXPiX […]
Every year, I like to release a top 10 list of my favorite things that I have seen at Integrated Systems Europe. Last Wednesday, in collaboration with Almo Pro A/V and Barco — I hosted a webinar in which I expanded on just that. But I understand that not everyone can attend every single webinar, […]
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 […]
THIS IS A PROMOTED POST FROM AVI LIVE Next month rAVe heads to San Diego for the first of four AVI LIVE 2020 shows and I will be presenting the keynote at each event. In San Diego, I will be speaking about the future of AV design and why we need to think about the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The recent news of video interoperability between Cisco, Zoom and Microsoft has generated a lot of industry buzz. If you’re interested, listen to rAVe Founder, Gary Kayye’s take on where he thinks all of this is headed and why we need to pay attention to the upcoming ISE show in Amsterdam in February 2020. Podcast: […]
