By Michael Boreham Futuresource Consulting Make no mistake: COVID-19 has caused incredible disruption to higher education. As campus living is stripped from the usual buzz of freshers’ week, students are understandably concerned about how university is set to become a not-so-memorable experience. With physical lectures restricted, a 10 p.m. curfew on nightlife, and all sporting […]

From “Hey, Cortana” to cloud-enabled interactive sound for HoloLens to Windows Sonic (Windows 10 comes with support for virtual surround sound), Microsoft invests heavily in research on audio. And the company is convinced the ProAV market fails to recognize this. They have a point here. Did you know speaker detection technology developed by Microsoft researchers […]

By Chris Bull Futuresource Consulting Throughout 2020, esports has been one of the most notable champions amid stay-at-home orders and social distancing policies. The industry has thrived, but it has certainly changed course from its pre-COVID trajectory, and even more so for its application in K-12 and higher education. When we talk about esports and […]

By Kane McKenna Futuresource Consulting The rate of growth in the office based headset market has been steadily increasing in recent years. A key driver of this has been the rising importance of video conferencing, explored in Futuresource’s 2020 Video Conferencing report. Many end users have been looking to improve their videoconferencing experience, leading to […]

By Bob Snyder It’s an image so large it would take 378 4K ultra-high-definition TV screens to display. The resolution is so high you could see the dimples’ texture on a golf ball even if it was 24 kilometers away. This month, a lab at Stanford University, operating on behalf of the U.S. Department of […]

By Chris Evans Futuresource Consulting The challenge for many businesses to facilitate home working at scale has proven to be a major catalyst in making video an everyday business tool. This has been one of the most significant operational and cultural changes businesses have faced in decades and has proven to be a fast-track education […]

By Jack Wetherill Futuresource Consulting Smart speakers continue to capture the hearts and wallets of consumers, driving demand for wireless speakers and establishing a wider acceptance of voice assistants. By the end of 2019, 21 million smart speakers were in use in Western European homes, on track to exceed 32 million by the end of […]

By James Manning Smith Futuresource Consulting The video gaming industry has risen to new heights in 2020, with prevailing market conditions stimulating consumer demand and console lifecycles coming together to create an environment of opportunity. According to Futuresource research, by the end of this year the gaming software market will be worth U.S. $154 billion, […]

By André Luis Atique EletroEquip / AW Digital Technology changes society in several aspects, transforming how it relates, providing information, providing entertainment and evolving culture and habits. Thinking about it, holistically analyzing the hierarchy of needs of Abraham Maslow, the human being has five basic needs. For each one of them, there are related applications, […]

By Blake Augsburger LEA Professional The integration industry hadn’t embraced IoT-enabled business practices until now: When we need to. Today’s market demands necessitate it. We live in difficult times, but I have confidence in our shared ability to get through these days and come out stronger and better prepared. I think it’s important to draw […]

By Chloe Weaver Allsee Technologies To say that the coronavirus pandemic has caused problems for the digital signage industry would be an understatement. As a digital signage manufacturer, these past few months have been some of the hardest in the company’s history. But this extreme situation has also taught us a lot about how we […]

Here’s a message from our LAVNCH EMEA partner, Futuresource, regarding the future of the ProAV market — as we start to move out of COVID-19 in 2021. In case you weren’t aware, Futuresource and rAVe have partnered for an all-EMEA virtual event taking place September 2-3 2020, called LAVNCH EMEA. It’s open for free registration […]

By Rob Voorhees, Business Development Manager Almo Professional A/V We find ourselves smack in the middle of July — when days are getting hotter — and, in years past, we might find ourselves looking forward to August vacations or days by the pool. However, 2020 has continuously thrown curveball after curveball, and we continue to […]

COVID-19 has been a gut-punch for much of the AV industry. Not since 9/11 has the business world faced such an abrupt pause, followed by an uncertain future. In the case of this pandemic, how the future plays out will be dictated largely by viral spread, and our collective response to that threat. And while […]

By Eric Olson Almo Professional A/V AV-over-IP continues to pick up traction among integrators in the ProAV industry, but there are still quite a few that find themselves questioning if they should start implementing this technology. In fact, 45% of respondents in a 2019 industry survey revealed that they either do not embrace, or are […]

By Michael Timmes National Systems Contractors Association The COVID-19 pandemic should have you reexamining your HR policies about remote work, sick time, benefits, and more. As integration companies battle through a COVID-19-depleted market, there is much uncertainty about what the future of the integration industry holds. One feeling, however, has been consistent throughout NSCA’s countless […]

By Tom LeBlanc National Systems Contractors Association Integration firms looking beyond the COVID-19 crisis will serve customers with a new set of priorities for meeting room technology. As integration companies battle through a COVID-19-depleted market, there is much uncertainty about what the future of the integration industry holds. One feeling, however, has been consistent throughout NSCA’s […]

By Tom LeBlanc National Systems Contractors Association Integration firms looking beyond the COVID-19 crisis need to strategize for a corporate client base with re-prioritized technology demands. As integration companies battle through a COVID-19-depleted market, there is much uncertainty about what the future of the integration industry holds. One feeling, however, has been consistent throughout NSCA’s […]

By Rakesh Kumar Mangal, CTS-D, CTS-I, EAVA I am writing this article to collectively respond to various questions and queries I receive on LinkedIn and various other platforms related to AVIXA CTS Certifications. Before starting any further, you should create a login on the AVIXA website if you have not done so already. How did I […]

By Jeff Hastings BrightSign Our industry is more diverse than it’s ever been. The IHS Markit Digital Signage Industry Market Tracker presents separate data in eight vertical markets, and many of these verticals are themselves very diverse. “Retail” extends from corner shops to Harrods to large supermarket chains. Hospitality spans everything from fast food outlets […]

By Morgan Alley Almo Pro A/V With most of our industry cooped up at home in quarantine, it feels like we hear about video games every single day. If you’re working from home with kids, you’ve probably heard them talk about a sweet new Minecraft build, the new League of Legends meta (still hoping for […]

By Colin Messenger Futuresource Consulting A month ago, 13 countries had complete school closures, affecting 19% of enrolled learners and placing an emphasis on the concern for adequate supply. As the peak of the crisis in China was just after Chinese New Year, vendors had plenty of inventory to cover the annual common shortage around […]

By Xiaowen Zhu Futuresource Consulting LED production is highly centralized in China, so anxieties relating to supply have eased fairly rapidly, as the country rebounds from weeks in lockdown. As the number of new COVID-19 cases in China plummets, key vendors are making repeated assurances that their manufacturing capacity has returned to normal, though some […]

By Aaron Gull Almo Pro A/V I thought I would share with you what it has been like working from home with a full house. No schools or pre-schools open. Inside playgrounds, restaurants, etc. all shut down and it’s been raining all morning here in Utah. I have three kids here today, two of them […]

By Brian Rhatigan Almo Pro A/V Editor’s note: Gary’s Krystal Ball column, as well as the webinar he gave on it, was produced before the COVID-19 crisis, which will obviously have a huge impact on the industry that resonates throughout 2020 and into 2021. Gary’s column, and subsequent responses, have mostly focused on technology and […]

By Graham Cooke Futuresource Consulting Last week, Samsung Displays (DID) announced that it is to end production of LCD video wall displays on July 31, 2020. As one of the largest panel providers in the industry, Samsung DID’s decision to exit LCD video wall panel production has generated shockwaves, but it also presents significant opportunities […]

By Kevin Ivey Sports & Entertainment Projects, Baker Audio Visual We are all facing adverse impacts to our seasons and schedules as a result of the restrictions imposed to impede the spread of the Covid-19 virus. How do we best leverage our collective downtime to plan for a resurgent market and the return of fans […]

By Paul Konikowski The last week of February 2020 could go down as the worst week in Wall Street history. The U.S. and global markets plummeted as coronavirus fears escalated. Some think it may have had something to do with Bernie Sander’s wins in the early Democratic primaries, and some think it is tied to […]

By Aviad Cohen Founder, Comeet I’ve been a fan of AV-over-IP ever since I first worked with the technology — but the number of vendors and different solutions out in the market make it very hard for customers to choose. How could an AV investment be protected if there is no standard? You can be […]

By Adam Cox Senior Analyst, Futuresource Consulting Low-latency AV-over-IP solutions are on the rise across a range of key verticals, presenting clear advantages over competing technologies. Yet, technology continues to struggle to achieve mass-market acceptance. Adam Cox, senior analyst at Futuresource Consulting, explores some of the challenges and takes us through the detail. AV-over-IP has […]

As we turn the page on the 2010s, there’s a great deal of speculation about what this new decade will bring. Of course, nobody really knows what the future holds, but I’ve thought a lot about what’s ahead for the AV industry. One segment I find particularly interesting is the automotive space. At the CES […]

By: Morgan Alley Account Manager, Almo Professional A/V We millennials sure love to ruin everything, don’t we? First, we came in with participation trophies, we moved on to tank the economy and now we have come for sports! *Queue diabolical laughter* According to this Reuter’s article, global esports revenues will rise above one billion dollars by […]