You’ve all seen them. Emails from the plethora of analog and digital magazines covering InfoComm this year — all asking or you to PAY to ENTER their awards programs. I am writing to BEG YOU to stop doing this. This is not only a rip-off, but it’s completely unethical. Sure, a $10 or $20 fee […]
With the deluge of new “Collaboration Boards” that will hit the market over the next six months (this was the most popular launch product at ISE this month), there’s no question that Microsoft will have to cut the price of their Surface Hub. They can’t keep ripping people off at $8,000 — $9,000 (55″) and $20,000 (84″) […]
Barco — Belgian American Radio Corporation I am sure I can’t be the only person in AV who’s noticed the subtle re-branding of Barco. But no one seems to be talking about it. Go look at their website, for example. It’s different — more retail-like. And, then, on Friday, I found this video — it only has 800 […]
The word collaboration is hackneyed in AV — but, I feel we need keep using it as it does, in fact, define a trend in business. People want to connect, share and work in groups — whether they are in-person or working via the Internet. Many would argue that Barco started all this, in AV at least, with their wireless collaboration […]
Update: I spoke to ZOOM CEO Eric Yuan this morning. He told me that it’s correct that they do try to establish relationships directly with the clients. But, he says that ZOOM’s policy about this is very specifically defined: If an AV integrator has an existing client relationship, all they need to do is register that […]
At ISE, I had a chance to get a behind-the-scenes, top-secret look at the new SiliconCore LISA technology. LISA is basically an LED video-wall material (modular, like all the others) where the electronics and board drivers use Chip On Board (COB) manufacturing technology. So, on one side of the PCB is the LED array and on the other are […]
I was honored to be the Luncheon Keynote Speaker at the AVI LIVE 2017 show yesterday in Cincinnati, Ohio, yesterday. And, it was incredible. Everything about it! The branding, the education, the atmosphere, the venue, the vendors, the customers, the food — well, OK, the food was decent, but the rest was awesome. The Branding: AVI Systems founded in […]
Are you a new company selling a new product? Well, this blog’s for you! Listen, don’t let people fool you — this industry is NOT that complicated. You don’t need a fancy marketing campaign and you certainly don’t need to waste your money with banner ads on on-line publications to make it BIG in AV. […]
In the ProAV market, unless you’re blind (or just like to deny truths), you see the writing on the wall, LITERALLY (you’ll get that pun if you keep reading). The projection screen market is about to nearly die a somewhat rapid death. Let’s look at the reasons why: 1. The flat screen monitor (LCD and […]
You’ll read a lot about ISE over the next few months. It was the biggest ProAV and HomeAV show ever. Over 73,400 people attended in Amsterdam and it is NO LONGER A EUROPEAN SHOW. ISE is truly an international show. And, you’ll read about all the 4K stuff, all the new software codecs, all the new wireless stuff, all the […]
While at ISE, I caught up with InfoComm Sr. Vice President of Expositions Jason McGraw, and he filled me in on a bunch of new things going on at this year’s annual show in Orlando in June. This year’s event has more education than any show, ever, in the ProAV world. But, one special Tuesday […]
Planar Leyard surprised everyone at ISE with a 0.7 millimeter LED wall at ISE — it was in there booth as well as in the LANG stand. This is a big deal as the previously smaller working LED was 0.9 millimeter. And, 0.7 millimeter represents nearly the same resolution as direct-view LCD. In addition, Leyard […]
NEC Display Europe went to ISE with a new collaboration board where they partnered with Huddly (for the camera), Sennheiser (for the audio) and FlatFrog (for the touch) and built a Windows 10 interactive board with wireless collaboration integrated all-in-one. It was one of three big attractions in their stand at ISE this year and […]
There’s a lot of confusion about AV-over-IP in the AV market right now — with the only “standard” being Dante — and that’s basically all-audio. But, the SDVoE Alliance started by AptoVision, is trying to explain why they think the AptoVision way of doing AV-over-IP is best. I had a chance to speak to SDVoE’s […]
Last year, WeConnect was in a private suite hidden from the show floor during ISE in Amsterdam. This year, it was surrounded by people interested in understanding how the wireless collaboration system, aimed at colleges and universities, works. If you haven’t heard of WeConnect, you should watch this interview I had at the Barco stand […]
I caught up with Mike Blackman, ISE’s Managing Director, during the final hours of the show to find out his observations of the show — a show that ended up breaking the world’s largest AV trade show attendance record by more than 8,000. Over 73,500 people came to ISE in Amsterdam and Friday was still […]
In 2016 some industry self-appointed pundits in the AV-industry were overusing the trite term known as the “Internet of Things” (aka IoT) way, way too much last year. I keep seeing content marketing and blogs using the term — as if we are really part of it. We aren’t. Thank God we are in 2017 […]
I was talking to one of my oldest industry friends at ISE this week here in Amsterdam and he told me how he’d be “shaken-down” by the MPEG LA (the licensing people for DisplayPort). Basically, some two years after he’d been selling products with DisplayPort ports, he was called, out of the blue, by the MPEG LA […]
One of the big stories from Day 1 of ISE here in Amsterdam was certainly the fact that a court officer from Belgium traveled down to the Amsterdam RAI convention center, entered the KanexPro booth and removed all of their MyTurn Collaboration Systems that were being launched into the market. It was the result of a judge’s order that […]
Vivitek is clearly staking a claim to be the one-for-all (applications) projector company — all using DLP technology. Their booth has projectors form 500 lumens to 12,000 lumens and everything from pocket projectors to large-venue projection. I caught up with Holger Graff of Vivitek about both their future projector strategy as well as their new […]
Bose Professional is well-known for their high-end and live-events speakers and processing products. But, they also want to be known for their new audio conferencing line of products, now, ControlSpace EX line. The ControlSpace EX series includes their EX-1280C conferencing signal processor and three new Dante-based ControlSpace under-table endpoints (EX-4ML, EX-8ML and EX-UH). Bose’ Fuat Koro joined me for […]
I was asked to come to the Barco stand before any other member of the press to get a sneak-peek, up-close view of their newest ClickShare, the CSE-800 The CSE-800 is a two-output 4K resolution (4096×2160) HDMI ports and a dual-band wireless access point. In addition, the new ClickShare has annotation, white boarding capabilities (although, they call […]
Nureva made its EMEA debut at last year’s ISE show and they are back launching themselves into a new market, debuting new products and completing filing out their distribution plans. I had a chance to get a booth tour before the show floor opened and got a look at their new 1080p projector, their HDL300 microphone array […]
Epson came to ISE this year (a year after launching themselves into the staging market) with a new series of 7500-12,000 Lumen 4K capable projectors as well as a new series of business projectors. Today I caught up with Epson’s Richard Miller and Neil Colquhoun and asked them about how their first year in the Staging […]
There has been a ton of talk through the social media channels (yes, on Twitter, it’s mostly the same 20 people who always talk about the same things to each other, but on Facebook and LinkedIn there are some really progressive discussions) about the CEDIA sale to Emerald Expositions — a giant trade show company. […]
I am shocked that NSCA (and its board) is promoting a completely unethical “pay-for-play” awards program. Yes, you read that right! To enter their Excellence in Product Innovation Awards you have to pay an entry fee — and not just a reasonable $10 or $20 “administration” fee, but, in fact, the fees $299 or $499 […]
So, it’s been almost a week and, since then, I’ve reached out to a number of former Harman execs, insiders at Harman and industry gurus that know much more than me about mergers and acquisitions — all in pursuit of finding out what Samsung is going to do with the various Harman brands. Here’s what […]
Yes, it’s only 55″ but, don’t discount it as a potential game-changer in our market. Every single PR firm in the commercial AV market has used the term “game-changer” or “disruptive” to describe a client’s new product or service. But most of the time, that’s just hype or hyperbole. However, even though Google (and their […]
First off, for the sake of the 8,000 or so employees of Harman, I HOPE this is a good deal. The history of mergers and buyouts in AV isn’t good. Sure, there have been some that have done well (aka Milestone), but most big one’s have failed miserably (aka: InFocus buying Proxima and the first […]
One of the best niches in AV today is digital signage. It’s also the most profitable segment of the AV market right now. However, it’s so IT-focused that the average AV dealer is scared to jump in. Thus, we (the AV’ers) are doing less than 25 percent of all digital signage systems in the planet. […]
Although there are other ambient light rejection screens out there, the dnp brand and line, by our analysis, seems to be the dominating screen for that application — with over 68 percent of the installs. This carries over to both rear-screens and front-screens. dnp arguably invented that category of screen technology. So, how does an […]
In case you haven’t been paying attention, your kids are watching nearly all their entertainment (TV, movies, sports, etc.) on their phones. Oh, and by the way, they’re also using their phones for Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, too. So? Well, that number is moving up — up in age. Five years ago, the average 25-year […]
