By and large, our industry has four players… we have manufacturers, we have dealers/integrators and consultants (let’s be honest though, they are really two sides of a coin) and then we have the end user.Twenty years ago, a user would come to a consultant or a dealer and say… “I need a room built out!” […]
Last month, I spent some time in this column standing on one of my traditional soapboxes, namely that the AV rental and staging company has come to a point in the history of our industry where it becomes necessary to do some reinvention of our products and services. In my usual roundabout way, I came […]
In my biweekly blog series, I am highlighting some of the incredible people who work for the Audio Video Industry. In this post, we are profiling Nawsad Joomratty. Here is his brief introduction. Nawsad Joomratty is the Founder and Managing Director of the engineering office at Home Automation by NJ located in Lausanne, Canton of […]
Plasmonic metasurfaces are being developed for use in future flat panel displays. These are basically scalable electrochromic nanopixels using plasmonics and their color gamut and high spatial resolution blows away even the best OLEDs we have today — by a factor of between 400 and 1000. Right now, according to a research paper published in […]
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the field troubleshooting systems. These days, as a distributor rep, I’m on the other end of the phone, fielding calls from dealers and helping them troubleshoot installations that use my hardware. Mostly, how I handle those calls is to walk through and confirm what they’ve already done: […]
Last year, Crestron was the focus of some cyber activists who found vulnerabilities in Crestron touch controllers that could theoretically allow someone to use touch screens to spy on the person in the same room. This was covered in a class at a hacktivist conference called DEFCON and subsequently was written up in WIRED Magazine. […]
I suspect most of you reading this will have never heard of MIMESYS — but, I certainly have. When I first saw their technology in person, I immediately thought of how Cisco would have loved to have this back when they were pitching their telepresence systems. Imagine being able to “teleport” someone into a meeting […]
Evolving how we understand and design collaborative spaces One of the most consistent things we see in corporate facilities/classrooms/lecture halls worldwide is that they have been equipped with some manner of technology package that is there for the users of that space to better communicate with others. And one of the most consistent things about […]
The city of San Francisco, via its board of supervisors voted yesterday to ban using facial-recognition technology. The actual ordinance deals specifically with city governmental organizations and divisions, but it will have long-lasting ramifications that could easily (and quickly) ben emulated all over the country. Designed to protect the average-guy/gal member of the community from […]
In my biweekly blog series, I am highlighting some of the incredible people who work for the Audio Video Industry. In this post, we are profiling Marla Suttenberg. Here is her brief introduction. Marla Suttenberg is the Owner of Sapphire Marketing LLC, a manufacturer’s representative organisation located in Greater New York City, US. 1. […]
Whether you’re working on improving yourself personally or professionally, it’s essential to have the ability to be introspective and analytical, in order to identify what you need to work on. That’s also true when you’re coaching others. In that, self-improvement has a lot in common with troubleshooting systems and equipment at work: diagnose, analyze, repair, […]
Security has arisen as a significant issue over the past several years in the AV industry. Several high profile issues have made people question what they should be doing about security. I (and others) have written about it, trying to give our readers some thoughts about where to start. As I read more about security […]
In the last month, I’ve had the opportunity to listen and learn a lot about the modern workplace and the principles behind its design. The philosophy goes well beyond the phrase “open” and really capitalizes on the idea of activity based working and creating spaces that allow for independent work, team collaboration, large team meetings, […]
It’s national stress awareness month, so I thought I’d share one of the techniques I use at work to reduce stress for my readers. We’re a company that focuses on making your meetings something you can actually enjoy, and my own design team will talk about “de-stressing” opportunities in our own UI. However, there are […]
For many years, the joke in the rental and staging industry has been that we exist as the unpaid (and uncredited) research and development arm of the manufacturers that we buy from. Often, we are the first buyers of new technologies for a number of reasons. First, because of the technological pressure to stay ahead […]
A start-up audiovisual systems integrator needs to take every single lead seriously because, with no backlog of client work, every new lead feels like immediate gratification as a sales lead. When this company grows and has plenty of work, do the leads become less important or is every new lead still a sales lead? The […]
By Jonathan Brawn, CTS, DSCE, DSDE, DSNE, DCME, ISF-C It seems like just yesterday we saw the launch of the new 4K UHD (Ultra High Definition) spec that was set to revolutionize the display industry. Boasting four times the effective resolution of our then state-of-the-art 1080p FHD (full high definition), this new technology was supposedly […]
Right now, a part of each of my day has been dedicated to developing my class for InfoComm 2019. I am giving a talk on “Using AV Technology to Trigger Customers’ Biological Responses” or as I refer to it, “Triggered!” Any time that you are giving a presentation, it’s extremely important to consider the audience […]
By Daniel Waldron Head of Content, Armagard Audiovisual equipment forms the foundation of any digital signage application. Screens, media players and software are integral to bringing digital signage networks to life, which is why choosing the right audiovisual solutions for digital signage installations is crucial. Every digital signage application is different, but the basic audiovisual […]
In my biweekly blog series, I am highlighting some of the incredible people who work for the Audio Video Industry. In this post, we are profiling David Allara. Here is his brief introduction. David Allara is the Managing Director of konnectus, an Audio Visual and Technology Engineering Consultancy located in North Sydney, Australia. 1. Describe […]
In a previous column, “Signal to Noise,” I discussed the ever-increasing amount of marketing communications besieging our end-users/customers. And while that trend in and of itself has a multifaceted impact on the industry, there is an underlying issue that has a much, much, much larger potential impact and is truly the dark side of the […]
Spring has sprung where I live, and that signaled the start of Spring Cleaning, both indoors and out. It was after cleaning out the garage and attempting to wash away all the grit from winter that I discovered that the hose bib had frost damage, and leaked into the basement when the tap was turned […]
Essam Refaie, CTS-D, CTS-I, Senior Technology Consultant, Aurecon
One of my readers recently pointed out that universities are leading the charge when it comes to understanding the social impact of the technologies we build. I know this same reader was in the audience when I began to talk about how important privacy, security, and analytics will be as part of a “Future Workspace […]
By Satish Agrawal CEO, Bambu Vault This year will be an exciting time for the lightning industry as it leverages the latest technology to innovate LED design, color, wavelength, energy efficiency and more. All indications point to healthy growth for the lighting industry in 2019 and the next few years. Several factors are contributing to […]
On the day that InFocus shocked the AV industry and announced they’d bought its largest competitor, I was actually there. It was Monday, March 6, 2,000 — I remember the details of the day very well but my old Franklin Planner helped me keep track of the date for the purpose of this article. Let me […]
Many science-fictional promises of the “world of the future” never have and perhaps never will come to pass. We don’t have our flying cars, and perhaps never will. We don’t have a robot maid. We aren’t eating Soylent Green. (OK, that one might not be a great loss). What about the meeting room of the […]
Over the past dozen years or so, technology managers in higher ed have grown more educated and become more visible in the industry. However, many feel that this group has never been looked at as equals in the industry. We have several organizations that represent us, including an AVIXA council, “Technology Managers Council.” There are […]
Crestron Masters is an annual event for premier programmers and dealers. By premier programmers, I mean programmers who have cleared all 3 levels of CTI training and may not have any more programming training available. Perks of being a premier programmer include being on the front lines to getting prestigious projects and no doubts, your experience […]
Last month I wrote a blog about Mad Systems new Quicksilver AV distribution system and I ended that piece with a teaser about their new facial recognition software. If we know anything about content, we know that the context of that content is extremely important. Delivering content is one thing, but delivering customized content to […]
Focusing on effective sales growth can be either proactive or reactive. A proactive personal development plan (PDP) helps your salespeople self-assess their current capabilities and articulate a proposed set of growth areas for themselves. A reactive personal improvement plan (PIP), on the other hand, is not initiated by the salesperson but by their manager as […]
When I first joined the ranks of Milestone one of my coworkers told me that “Every integrator wants to work for a manufacturer when they grow up.” It was funny, and at the time I identified with that statement on some level. Working for a manufacturer offered a few advantages for sure. From a sales perspective, […]
