Gary’s Rants & rAVes

There are 20+ manufacturers of displays and projectors at InfoComm this year. But, few leaders. Barco not only invented a number of the segments of the projection market but they’ve always innovated. I asked Barco’s Peter Pauwels to join me and talk all about InfoComm. In booth C2536 this year (and in meeting room 257), Barco will […]

The world’s largest exporter of LEDs is Absen. InfoComm 2017 was their coming-out party and InfoComm 2018 their booth (N1618) will be a giant launch of all-new LEDs. Everything will be new, according to Absen’s Senior Marketing & Communications Manager, Alison Maxson. Every pixel-pitch, every size, every form-factor (including a new system-on-a-chip) and every application from Install to Staging […]

Anchor Audio’s Nick Craig joined Gary on his podcast today to detail their Series 2 launch in two weeks at InfoComm that includes a new 1.9 GHz Mic system using AnchorLink, new Lithium Ion battery technology and a mic line with both mute and volume control of the speakers — wirelessly located up to 300-feet away. Anchor […]

Nureva will be at InfoComm with an all-new Nureva SPAN Wall system, the recently launched Dual HDL300 audio conferencing system and a software update that includes a Follow-me feature for meeting leaders. What’s Follow-me and why should you put Nureva’s booth N1276 (inside the UC Pavilion) on your booth tour at InfoComm? Listen (or watch) to today’s videocast/podcast with Nureva President […]

Originally thought of just as a digital signage solution, Panasonic’s LinkRay technology has become more of a platform for the company since launching it at last year’s InfoComm show. Gary was joined on today’s podcast by Panasonic Business Development Manager, Brent Sanders, we explained how LinkRay can be used for access control, control, interactivity in meeting rooms and classrooms […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST Brawn Consulting has worked with Samsung for over 15 years. And, Jonathan Brawn joined Gary on his podcast today to talk all about LED — including the new MICRO LED, called ONYX, that Samsung wants to use to replace projection in movie theaters. Almo ProAV is a distributor and arranged for us to bring […]

The SDVoE Alliance (for 10G AV-over-IP network-based signal routing) is up to 39 adopter companies making products that send AV signals (up to and including 4K) over the network. And, all of them are cross compatible. For example, you can use iMAG transmitters with Christie Digital receivers while using VuWall software to run the system. And, at InfoComm the SDVoE will have over […]

EloTouch’s Kristin Roubie joined Gary on a pre-InfoComm Videocast to show some of their new collaborative solutions, including a new touch-based Collaboration Board integrated with DisplayNote’s Montage software – including a one-year license for free. EloTouch is unique in that all their touch systems can be mounted in portrait, landscape of flat and they have collaboration boards up […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED STORY Gary was joined by NEC’s Mark Weniger and Almo ProAV‘s John Wills to talk about how NEC’s open-source Raspberry-Pi-based System-on-a-chip allows Almo to provide integrators with a turn-key option to not only sell the signage solutions from NEC (including the P and V Series; and, in the future, the C Series), but provide […]

In today’s podcast, Gary’s goes is none other than Gary Mandle, the co-inventor (with Peter Jurgensen) and patent-holder) of the turntable used inside every microwave oven — you can see his original patent here  Gary spent is 30+ years at Sony working in the display division and attending countless InfoComm Shows and consulting on large projector installs in […]

Charity Hardwick is the newly minted president of Soundcast — the company that launched the industry’s first high-end outdoor wireless speakers in 2015. Charity served as VP of Sales and Marketing for three years before talking over leadership and she talks about why Soundcast is better than off-the-shelf Bluetooth audio systems and how they work. Listen and visit […]

A little-known fact about Mike Weems is that he’s inadvertently the father of the CTS program. How? Listen to this podcast to find out. Mike’s being honored with the Mackey Barron Distinguished Achievement Award for his 40+ years of industry service that includes thousands of volunteer hours teaching at InfoComm shows and PETC Institutes, a storied career at companies […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED STORY A year or so ago, Almo ProAV launched their Hospitality group led my their Director of Business Development, Apryl Lamberti. Since then, they’ve helped more AV integrators enter the hospitality market – a market that’s experienced double-digit growth in the last 12 months – than any other entity in AV. And, it’s not just […]

Today’s podcast is all about how End Users of ANY projector can send NEC their old projectors and have them recycled, responsibly, and get cash-credits for new NEC gear. The program was launched last month and it’s called Trade In & Trade Up and is available to both educational, healthcare, government and corporate end users […]

InfoComm 2018 will, no doubt, be the largest InfoComm show  ever. Not only is the industry on a giant growth curve, but the Las Vegas locale always breaks records. But, we’ll see a lot of new technology and some product category shifts at the early-June show. Listen to what Gary thinks are the must-sees, as of […]

AVIXA’s Educator of the Year, Hope Roth, joined Gary on his podcast to talk about her AVIXA Educator of the Year award  her life in the AV industry, the future of programming (she’s a Crestron Certified Programmer) and her favorite movie. We hope you’ll listen! Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

Did you know that the future of our industry could be determined by how well Jeff Bezos’ AV guy is? Listen. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

NEC snagged two awards at DSE and demo’d projection-based signage, traditional display signage and a total System-on-a-chip (SoC) approach with their Raspberry-Pi solutions at the Digital Signage Expo last month. NEC is in a unique position as they are one of only two display companies that makes every kind of display technology so they have signage of any […]

I asked Epson’s Senior Product Manager of Visual Display Solutions, Remi Del Mar, to join me today on my podcast totally about their amazing LightScene projector – in a track-lighting form-factor. Using sealed optics, it’s designed as both a light aesthetic as well as a content device for signage and traditional projection. You can power multiple LightScenes from one track […]

We just opened nominations for our annual Readers’ Choice Awards this week. Hurry, you only have a few more days to enter. But, in the meantime, please listen to my podcast about why nearly every other industry awards program is a big fat scam! Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

Gary caught up with LG’s Director of Sales, Dan Smith, less than a week after the Digital Signage Expo show and they talked about which technology excited the signage crowds the most and how their unique position with OLED has upped their offerings. You can see all the videos we shot at DSE in the […]

Laser projection is to the projector market as OLED is to the flat-panel display market — it’s truly a revolution in colorimetry and form-factor. So, Epson, known as the industry’s projector-only display company leading the market with 3LCD technology, will be at DSE with not only a family of laser projectors aimed at digital signage, but with a truly-revolutionary […]

LG will head to next week’s DSE with a line of Touch-enabled monitors in sizes from 55” – 86”. In addition, LG will highlight embedded integration of both the Cisco Spark platform and Crestron control right into a line of monitors aimed at simplifying AV meeting room design. Gary was joined on today’s podcast by LG’s head of marketing, Garry Wicka  who also […]

InFocus was at ISE with two giant launches — a new line of laser projector as well as a 4K resolution, and fiber-capable, version of their AV-over-IP-based PixelNet system dubbed PixelNet 2.0  The projector line include both short-throw and standard lensing and the 4K version of PixelNet added audio to the popular wall system. Please listen to […]

Gary was joined on today’s podcast by Peerless-AV VP of Sales Brian McClimans,  who not only talked about the company’s DSE launches but also gave us some great insight to the digital signage industry and where it’s heading. Obviously, the big-growth area is in LED, but the all-in-one kiosk market for digital signage is also huge and, Brian says, is […]

Smart Building Technology (SBT) has been around for over a dozen years now but AV hasn’t been part of it until recently. And, the advantage of being a Smart Building integrator is that you get to spec the AV gear BEFORE the building is built. But, although this isn’t a simple process, it is a […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST BY Almo Pro AV On today’s podcast, Almo Pro AV debuted a new partnership with Samsung that bring four pre-packaged Huddle Room solutions to the AV integration channel. Each package includes either an HD or UHD (4K) Samsung commercial-grade LCD and an AMX huddle room camera system and range from small spaces […]

Gary was joined on his podcast today by Paul Johnston of ABSEN following their double-win of our 2018 Best of ISE Awards.  ABSEN has gone from nowhere to everywhere in just a few years and their new CoB (chip-on-board) technology will allow for 0.25 (eventually) pixel-pitch LEDs. Yep, 0.25! Listen and see how.    Podcast: Play in new window […]

Gary was joined for a follow-up of last month’s ISE show by Christie Senior Product Manager Karl Johnson on a special videocast. Today rAVe RADIO listeners (and viewers) will learn about Christie’s build-out of simplifying AV-over-IP infrastructure. In this videocast, Karl shows us Christie Terra software, which enables the transport, processing and control of audiovisual […]

It’s been 6-months since InfoComm (the association) became AVIXA  (the association). Of course, InfoComm (the show) is still the InfoComm Show and is quickly approaching — just four months away! But, there’s no association (or arguably, no group in the entire ProAV market) more important to all of us in the commercial AV market as AVIXA. They’ve helped steer […]

We’ve got the scoop and all the details on the 2018 edition of the Almo ProAV E4 AV Tour — its 9th year! This year’s tour includes two educational tracks — all AVIXA CTS RU approved — and a GAME you can play right there on the show floor. Today’s podcast is with Almo’s VP of Marketing, Melody Craigmyle, […]

At ISE, Crestron did a head-to-head shoot-out between their 1G NVX system and the 10G SDVoE systems out there. Paul Harris, founder of Aurora Multimedia, says his company was called out either at the ISE shoot-out or on a pre-ISE video shared by Crestron on LinkedIn as under-performing. In today’s podcast, he’s clearly on a mission to […]