I think you will all enjoy the interview I just did with Randy Lemke, the CEO of Infocomm International, for this week’s edition of “The Week” on rAVe Radio. It has been posted and is available at our website ravepubs.com. In it, Randy talks about his time withInfoComm, his newly-chosen successor, and the future of the AV industry. Don’t miss it. […]
I have to hire a new sales person. I feel like I am always hiring new sales people. But this is the truth of running a small business — or any type of business, I suppose. There should always be new recruits coming in. New blood, as they say. I have found that one of […]
As an audiophile (and an audiophile in recovery, as it were) I’ve always been in the camp that subscribes to Value: that getting the Best Bang For Your Buck is a more important consideration than just throwing money around. And that’s the trick, isn’t it? Spend enough money on your audio system and of course […]
Let’s have a conversation about technology shows… and I am not talking aboutInfoComm. I am talking about the smaller manufacturer technology showcases that take place throughout the year. These product showcases are put together for dealers, consultants and hopefully a handful of end-users. These shows are heavily marketed and require a huge amount of coordination […]
This past summer saw a clash of lawsuits between multiple satellite and content providers over carriage contracts. For background on the disputes, read my July post here. On Sunday, Oct. 20th, DISH Network and AMC/Cablevision reached a settlement in their breach of contract lawsuit that will see DISH pay $700 million to AMC and purchase […]
Music Matters. As Vince Bruzzese, owner of Totem Acoustic and one of my favorite people in the AV business likes to say, “Everyone is an audiophile.” And as a less-famous friend that I used to work with once said, “there are only two genres of music: good and bad.” Music has certainly been central to my life, on numerous […]
I had a great weekend, working on this week’s edition of “The Week” on rAVe Radio. I had a great discussion with Jim Smith of Polycom, who is one of the real “Road Warriors” of theTelepresence industry. Jim and I have been friends a long time, so I was able to prevail upon him (while he is on vacation, […]
Last month, on the day of the iPhone5 announcement I was in Toronto at the Canadian Wireless Show. It was expected, yet surreal, when at 1 p.m. local time the entire trade show floor ground to a halt as everybody tuned into their phones and tablets to follow the Apple presentation for the next forty five minutes. While the resulting […]
So, this is something I shared earlier this week on my own social media accounts, but it’s one of those events that I’m STILL laughing about, and so I thought it be fitting for this week’s Fuggedaboutit Friday. My husband and I went to the NC State Fair last week along with some friends. To make a […]
Like it or not, if you have a job, at least most of the time they expect you to wear clothes. And if your employer doesn’t issue you an actual uniform, then they generally set a standard for what constitutes “acceptable” workplace apparel. In some cases, what not to wear might be subtle. When I […]
The needs of a vertical market are often so niche-specific that the opportunities seem faint given the greater opportunity for a broad appeal. But sometimes these verticals are strangely aligned along certain technology paths, making it both practical and affordable for the A/V/L industry to develop tools, systems and processes that work across vertical channels. […]
I’m sure you’re all pretty sick of hearing about convergence. It’s been the buzzword from InfoComm, NSCA and most of our major publications for, oh, the last decade. IT is coming! Convergence is upon us! Adapt or die! The clarion call has been shouted from rooftops, proclaimed in industry classes and discussed endlessly — in roundtables and keynotes […]
I run an order fulfillment company called Riley Life Logistics (www.rileylife.com). While this story of how I created a vision for our company relates specifically to my business, I think that it is important to create a driving vision for your company. In my case, there was a moment when everything changed. That doesn’t have […]
Long story short, this weekend I replaced three light fixtures in the house. One of them, in the laundry room, had a pull chain, and I replaced it with track lighting and added a light switch at the bottom of the stairs. To make the conversion, I gave my wife a shopping list of what I […]
We have Internet again! We haven’t had access to Internet or Wi-Fi or anything for the last two days, and now we are back in Nairobi heading to the airport to begin our long journey home. This trip has been defining for me, for my husband, for our marriage. I’m still working a whole lot […]
It’s been a busy, tiring, but incredibly rewarding week here in Kenya. We still have time left, but I’m trying not to think about how fast it’s all going. Yesterday was a great, but somewhat emotionally draining day. Home visits. Home visits are a time for our team to break into small groups and go […]
So, it’s Monday morning right now (Kenya is seven hours ahead of the rAVe HQ) and we are getting ready to head to the village. But I wanted to share something interesting from our day yesterday. We headed to the village in the morning, and after a brief run-in with the police, we went to church. The church […]
We normally talk about our great moments. The times when everything went great, the times we did the big show, the times we hit the big budgets. But it isn’t all like that. I got an email a couple of days ago that challenged me to do an article about the bad ones. Since I […]
This may come as a surprise to people who know me, but my relationship with Twitter has been growing distant lately. Despite the fact that I’ve gotten enormous benefit from Twitter over the years, lately it just doesn’t fit in with my life. Part of the explanation for that is fairly easy. When I was still working primarily […]
My first ever email address was a Yahoo account. I still have it: it’s been demoted to one of the disposable ones I use when I need to give my email address for something like an in-store coupon, but it’s still operative. My second email address was my work account for Sony, and the genesis for this blog […]
In the business world, leasing equipment has long been an accepted methodology for technology that either rapidly changes or costs significantly less every few years. I’ve heard churches make this statement: “I’ll be stuck with this equipment and I’m not confident that it is technology that will suit us for five years or longer.” Look, […]
So, I am leaving for Kenya tomorrow. That’s Thursday. So if you’re reading this Thursday, I am leaving for Kenya today. If you’re reading this Friday, I left yesterday. If you are reading this any day after Friday, I left on Thursday. Got it? Some of you may be wondering… WHAT?! You’re going where? Well, […]
I recently attended the Integrate Expo in Sydney — it is Australia’s version of InfoComm, although a lot smaller. There were 87 Exhibitors and over 500 brands, and as the spiel goes, Integrate is “Australia’s largest Audio Visual entertainment information & communication technology event.” The expo also includes many seminars throughout the three days of the show. This […]
Okay, this one is worthy of note, and my hat is off to the propellerhead who thought it up… the Curiosity Rover’s wheels leave the Morse code for “JPL” in its tracks. JRR
I love football. American football. So much. I love the NFL, I love college football, doesn’t matter whose play. I love it. Can you tell I love it? So, a few weekends ago, my husband and I scored pretty great tickets to the opening day football game at UNC Chapel Hill. They were on the 50-yard-line about […]
There is a tale of a Chinese farmer who had an old horse used for tending his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills. The farmer went to the Zen master for wisdom saying, “This is so bad!” The Zen master replied, “Good? Bad? We will see.” A few days later, the horse returned […]
Just today, a friend was basking in her physical prowess: being able to dismount, move and remount her 55-inch flat panel television all by herself, a skill that she attributes to her dedication to weightlifting. While there’s nothing wrong with that, and I had no desire to burst her bubble, it made me reminisce about the old […]
Quality – the word many companies use to define the value of a product or service. Quality – the necessary stamp of the marketing department. Quality – the long lasting buzz-word. Is it so over-used that it has become a red flag for clients or consumers? If a business touts quality as the value proposition […]
I was talking to an old friend from my Newton user group days online the other day – he happened to catch one of my blog posts. He agreed with me that despite its drawbacks, it was an enabling technology because it allowed for mobile email – in 1992. But, thinking about it, it caused […]
There’s a lot of buzz in and around the industry about Best Buy’s financial woes and how it may actually take the company under. In fact, there are all sorts of celebratory LinkedIn posts and Tweets abound that the HomeAV market will be upright, again, when Best Buy goes bankrupt. But that will be the worst thing […]
