By Viktor Petersson Screenly Over the last few years, we have seen many cases of digital signage players being hacked for fun, profit and even propaganda. Hardcore porn shown on hacked billboard in Malmö Cyberattack claims multiple airports in Vietnam Hacked digital signage displays porn in Union Station Hijacking the Outdoor Digital Billboard – By […]

At my institution, we began putting our AV systems on the network over a dozen years ago. The advantages were simply amazing. In fact, we take so many of these for granted today, we forget some of them. For example, when was the last time you thought about how amazing it is that you can […]

Last week I attended a small, regional trade show by the name of “CI Expo” in Oakland, Calif. It was one day, lasting less than eight hours, and came with a free lunch, free training and education throughout the day, and my personal favorite part of attending any size/length trade show, lots of meet and […]

Keeping with the precedents set by other innovative AV companies, AV Phenom typically releases new products around InfoComm and ISE each year.  Phenom has successfully developed and released several products over the last few years including the Smart HUBby, the VoiceSaver Remote, the world’s first 4K Speakers, and most recently the ShareChair TM. It’s hard […]

Today I got to check out the new Executive Briefing Center from NEC Display Solutions (that I kept calling an Experience Center), which also doubles as NEC Display’s new offices outside of Chicago, Illinois. This space was designed from scratch, taking up two floors and 6,000 square feet. See our earlier story based on NEC’s […]

You may have noticed that magazines and other media have for some time been overflowing with content on left brain vs. right brain and a many other variations on that theme. This is NOT one of those articles. In fact, this article takes a completely different analytical path to understanding decision making and the brain […]

This past week I was in Barcelona for ISE’s announcement that the show would move there icapitaln 2021 after 14 years in Amsterdam. We were under strict non-disclosure from telling anyone we had been invited there — we hadn’t been told what the announcement was, but it certainly wasn’t hard to guess — but then […]

Good news, everyone! Roon now streams to any Chromecast device, Google Home smart speakers, Chromecast Audio and Chromecast audio receivers, as well as a ton of third party devices. Roon announced it on their blog earlier this month (07/06/18) and you can read the full announcement here. “In addition to Chromecast streaming, today’s release includes […]

Did you watch the Wimbledon tournament or any World Cup games this year? Tennis, soccer, football, skiing and beach volleyball are just a few of the many sporting events live broadcasted on televisions around the world each day. Sporting events bring fans together in households, restaurants and bars for group cheering or friendly competition, giving […]

I spend a decent amount of time in airports and I can confidently share that there are two things that can be found at every airport in the world: a “port to air travel” and audiovisual installations. Ask any member of the rAVe team, they will share that I am like a kid in a […]

InfoComm 2018 is a month behind us, and over the last few weeks, people have been writing about the trends they saw at the show. We’ve seen blogs discussing increasing end-user attendance as well as several people’s lists of their favorite products or the ones they saw to be the most innovative or disruptive. There […]

Thank you for joining us for Part 4 in our series. So far, we’ve presented: Part 1 – The Key Players in AVL Design Part 2 – The Key Tools in AVL Design Part 3 – The Key Phases in AVL Design Now, we’ll finish our series by addressing the final phase of AVL Design […]

Back in 2015, Nest put out a video on its YouTube page called “Welcome To The Thoughtful Home.” It details all the dated appliances, devices, systems and “things” we all use daily and nightly in and around our homes that are rather time consuming, and designed from another area. The video itself goes so far […]

In the soundtrack of life, music matters. As far back as I can remember, music has always been a big deal in my life. It has always provided a most excellent, or as I like to say, a “double awesome” experience in everything that I do, whether it be work, play, explore, build, create, exercise, […]

  InfoComm is the largest, most exciting event in North America focused on the pro-AV industry, with 1,000 exhibitors, thousands of products, and 44,000 attendees from 110 countries. I had the pleasure of attending this year, and it was a blast! The following is a list (not in any particular order) of my favorite booths, […]

As we talked about in my last post about learning how to program, object orientedness is the name of the game when it comes to writing scaleable code that’s easy to update. Break your code up into little chunks that you can reuse. Figure out how to do it once, and you should (hopefully) never […]

“The Internet of things is a network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data.” Each “thing” is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing internet infrastructure. If this […]

When you deal with the public you get to meet all kinds of people, for better or for worse. Most people you deal with are average, and as a result not necessarily memorable. Others are more memorable, and not always in a good way. I had a new client who wanted a retrofit project: a […]

Imagine you were walking the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center at InfoComm 2018. You walk up to a random person without looking at their badge and shake their hand. What are the odds you just shook hands with an integrator? A. 50 percent B. 40 percent C. 30 percent D. 20 percent If […]

In Part 1 of our AVL Design series, we listed and summarized the key players in AVL design. Then in Part 2, we shared about the key tools that those key players may interact with and use. For Part 3, we will move forward to discuss the important phases of the design process. Let’s begin […]

Author and educator Stephen R. Covey, probably most well-known for his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” often said in his presentations that: “Most People do not Listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Think about the last meeting you attended. I don’t care what the meeting […]

I have been reading some people’s reviews of InfoComm and I have to admit, I’m a little jealous that I no longer get much time to walk the floor while I’m at the show. Being a bit of an AV Geek, I miss seeing new products, looking for new trends, and connecting dots in a […]

There’s an advertising catchphrase that’s probably dates back to the dawn of advertising: “We service what we sell!” You’ll see it appended as a tagline everywhere from car dealerships to general merchandise retailers. Last week my kitchen fridge died. It was only seven years old. I say “kitchen fridge” to differentiate it from the downstairs […]

By Erik Byer Guest Blogger for Tony the AV Guy & AV Bend In part 1 of our AVL Design series, we listed and summarized The Key Players in AVL Design including the architect, the consultants, the engineers, an owner’s representative, and a general contractor. And depending on the complexity of your AVL project, these […]

Whether by selection or default, if you find yourself in the role of “leader” of your HOW AV team, you need to carefully consider both the methods you use to communicate with your team and the message(s) you are sending — spoken and subliminal. One of the most consistent problems we encounter with HOW AV […]

By Ron DeVoe Total Marketing, LLC A little time has now passed since InfoComm 2018 turned off the lights. I hope that the sore feet have un-throbbed, the voice has lost its hoarseness and the bloodshot eyes have cleared. I attended my first NAVA a “couple” of years ago and I remembered how exhilarating that […]

With the new branding, AVIXA appears to have picked up a new motto, one which many of us have seen on the various promotional items for sale in the AVIXA store at InfoComm: “Together, we can change the way people experience the world.” Those who know me I believe in language, and believe in having […]

  Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. Hang around long enough in this business and you’ll see a lot of changes, and a lot of technologies come and go. Mostly, you’ll see them go. Nothing lasts forever, but some technologies die off faster than others. The one common thread in all the jobs I’ve held […]

By Erik Beyer Guest Blogger for Tony the AV Guy & AV Bend Whether it’s a major project around your home or a major project you have been assigned to manage at work, when it comes time to find people and companies to get the job done, the choices and process can seem overwhelming. The […]

We all have things that we hold dear. And often, the things that we believe are so internalized that we take them for granted, assuming that everyone else knows what we do. Take baking bread, for example. When leading training I often use that as an example of a basic skill. The thing about baking […]

I just finished up teaching CTS prep for Avixa during the three-day classes before the InfoComm show. Not only was this a fun and a rewarding experience… I also came away with a new challenge. Several of my fellow instructors encouraged me to step up my certification game and get both my CTS-D and my […]

Editor’s note: Joel didn’t write the title of this column. I have always laughed at marketing “buzz terms” as used in our industry. In fact, I once devoted an entire column to them (Buzzards in the AV Industry, July 2010). Except today, I am going to use one myself: Breathtaking. It is simply the only term […]