Up to this point I’ve used my Strange ReTales blog posts as a forum to share strange stories of the embarrassing behavior of the people I’ve worked alongside. One group who so far have been spared have been the people I’ve worked for. That hardly seems fair, so now seems like a good time to […]
Before my AV career I did a few other things, including telephony and the unparalleled horrors of residential cable installations. One interesting thing about these three fields is each has lead me to a greater focus on parts of our world the rest of us take for granted and fail to notice. If you drive […]
I have been following a series of posts by Matt Cooper of rAVe called Gaming the AV Industry. I have read each post so far, and have commented on a couple of them in the past, (in fact Matt asked me to comment on one of them, knowing I may take exception to some of […]
Even though it is absolutely miserable and freezing and cold and icy here in North Carolina, I am still dreaming of the warm sun and sandy beaches of the Bahamas that my family and I experienced a few weeks ago when we went on a short vacation. My husband, daughter Lilly, and I went on […]
A new study by ABI Research forecasts that over 500 billion smart sensors will be integrated into homes by the end of 2018. Half a billion. This is good and bad news for the HomeAV community. As the home automation world becomes less of an art and more of a science, it also becomes commoditized. […]
Last year I wrote a blog post entitled This Is Why LinkedIn Sucks, the title of which tells you everything you need to know about my sentiments at the time. I don’t really do New Years’ Resolutions but lately I’ve decided to make an honest effort to take LinkedIn more seriously. I feel like I […]
Last column, I went over some basic types of gamers based on preferred hardware. Beyond that, it’s worth understanding gaming genres, as it can relate to some particular accessory sales and furniture placement. I’m also going to paint in some broad strokes to keep this article from taking 18 years to read. But, rest assured, […]
As someone who has regularly blogged on AV/IT, cloud and mobility/BYOD, it was my recent blog interview article which brought a whole new angle on blogging for me, opening up a new door where I plan on making it a regular theme as I identify AV companies across the world in this format. I’d like […]
In the work world, one way or another, everyone has to eat what they kill. Strip away the hunting metaphor, and what that really means is that you have to be productive in order to be valued. There’s a saying in self-help that “if you want to be liked, you have to be likeable.” The […]
In my mind, art and science play a similar role — predicting and often guiding new technical directions that will eventually make their way into the mainstream. This is why I was so excited to see the new immersive film installation Ten Thousand Waves at MOMA. This exhibit, and others like it, highlight why projectors […]
By Matthew Thompson Integrated Commercial Design There have been many statements made comparing and contrasting the IT industry and the AV industry. The main reasoning has been the collective technical industry acknowledgement that something needs to change, particularly in the AV industry. For AV integrators, the change has meant the call for IT competency in […]
You’re in the technology business, so it follows that you should be leveraging the latest technology as part of your business strategy. But are you? From creating a styled, personalized brand via social media or exploring user-generated stories as the new customer testimonial, your brand needs to be highly engaged in the digital landscape. This […]
It’s neither nice nor fair but today we live in a world where once a week or so the All Seeing Eye of the Internet plucks someone from obscurity and social media commentators publicly castigate them for some poor behavior or socially unacceptable gaffe. It’s not quite the Two Minute Hate from Orwell’s 1984, but […]
Quite a few years ago I earned the CTS (Certified Technical Specialist) certification from InfoComm. Last year I began studying to take the ICND1 (Interconnected Network Devices) in pursuit of my first-ever Cisco certification. Last week I started learning to throw a juggling pattern called a 4,4,1. What do these three seemingly disparate items have […]
In my last article I got pretty specific with theater customizations that not every theater gaming client would need. This month I’ll dial it back in a and give a broader field guide to identify the particular genus and species of your gamer client. This will give you an edge on design recommendations, as well […]
If you have read anything that I have written on innovation over the last several years, you already know that I am very critical at times of things that I deem to be results of “me too” thinking. Every few years we see some truly innovative or new ideas. For years in between however we […]
By Melody Craigmyle Vice President of Marketing, Almo Pro A/V Before I started in the A/V industry, I was vice president of marketing for the largest AutoCAD reseller and integrator in the country. Our world was architects, engineers of all disciplines, interior designers and facilities managers. I remember the first time I heard the phrase […]
Well, the event sponsors at Digital Projection really did us proud last night. First, they closed Atlanta’s Hard Rock Cafe for the group, and hosted us for an evening of drinks and great food. Then, Mike Levi and DPI’s band performed and totally rocked the crowd, at times throwing frisbees into the audience, (whenever anybody […]
Well, it’s 6pm here at Infocomm Live. As I predicted, it was hard to clear the room at the end of the meeting, so 3 of us missed the main body of the aquarium tour. But, with typical Georgia hospitality, the last three of us were given our very own tour of this incredible facility […]
Alright, so I’ve been in AV quite a while, long enough to know that things aren’t always what they seem or claim to be. Anytime I did a system design, whether residential or commercial, that involved a new product, I always made sure that I opened the product in the shop to verify it had […]
Well, made it to Atlanta, after an evening of hiking through the Charlotte and Atlanta airports – two of the largest (read: longest) airports in the country. By the time I got here around 2am, I felt like I had walked to Atlanta. Anyway, the event is just kicking off, and the venue is spectacular – […]
I recently had an interesting conversation with someone in the product design space at a university that I wanted to share — and get your thoughts about. He asked, “You used to be a professor — should my students take computer science even if they don’t want to be programmers?” My answer probably won’t surprise […]
It’s now been many years since I’ve had to do inventory. That’s one of the advantages to working twelve hundred kilometers away from our head office and warehouse. Earlier in my various careers I wasn’t so lucky. Inventory, whether conducted annually or more often is one of those tasks that is critical for a business, […]
Recent research has discovered a new approach to Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) that may reduce or eliminate the need for the rare (and costly) metals needed to manufacture OLED displays. Thanks to collaborative research at Regensburg, University of Bonn, University of Utah, and MIT — the cost and impact of OLED displays will be […]
The competitive battle for U.S. AV integrator market supremacy has grown hotter over the last few years, and newer technologies in AV/IT, cloud and BYOD are beginning to elevate this movement toward market reign. In many articles that I have read lately, suggestions (and even directives) are being expressed to the integrators to embrace these […]
The proliferation of consumer technology in professional AV has been a hot topic as of late both in the office and amongst my fellow AV bloggers. Over the past week we got commentary from Mike Brandes, Josh Srago, Mike Brandes again. It’s also been a recurring topic on LinkedIn and Google+ AV professional groups. There […]
Let me tell you a story and see if it sounds familiar. I was sitting in a meeting the other day and our network administrators were going on and on about security. You can not put this on the network, you can not use your regular username and password for that. We can not […]
Kevin A. Busza ICD Systems Since when does a manufacturer representative provide a services component on its line card? Yes, I am referring to services such as system programming, system commissioning and professional design documentation. Symco, Inc. a Mid-Atlantic manufacturers’ rep sees the potential, and is making the offering to its network of dealers. If […]
Today marked the official grand opening of Primeview’s New York showroom. Primeview, for those not familiar with them, are a manufacturer of commercial flat panel displays, focusing on video-walls, digital signage and interactive applications. For their demo space they partnered with several of the manufacturers with whom they work on projects: Haivision, Vista Systems, TVOne, […]
So let me start off by saying that the idea for this blog came to me via Twitter. An #AVTweep took umbrage with the way I reacted to my wine experience in my last blog, “The Difference.” We had a brief tweet-versation about it online that culminated in him recommending that I call myself out […]
Tightrope and BrightSign announced a partnership this week that will package its software and hardware, together, for turn-key digital signage systems — Tightrope’s Carousel system will be integrated with BrightSign players. Both companies’ dealer networks will have access to the combined products. Tightrope needs this alliance/partnership as the company has not done well in the […]
About what do AV designers talk? Design certainly, in all of its forms. Past projects and wish lists. Perhaps most of all, we talk about technology. For all of our talk on these things, there are relatively few actual product reviews or comparisons. I’ll talk about products here, but stop short of a formal endorsement […]
