Gary’s Rants & rAVes

In the latest episode of Rants and rAVes, I sit down with Jatan Shah, president of QSC, for an unscripted and candid chat about Acuity Brands’ acquisition of QSC. Jatan sees this as a big opportunity for AV integrators to lean into a data-driven future — think smart buildings, intelligent spaces and selling services in […]

My latest episode of Rants & rAVes features Exertis Almo’s engineering operations manager, Louis Hoxter, who detailed how his team will launch at least 15 preconfigured, pre-engineered AV room designs for integrators in 2025. They’ll even include room renderings. Watch to get the scoop!  Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

In this special “Steph takeover” episode of Gary’s Rants & rAVes podcast, I sit down with Kristen Garner, director of Kramer Western US, to discuss Kramer’s recent price reductions across its product portfolio in North America. Dive into the factors driving this bold move, all aimed at delivering greater value to customers. Kristen also shares […]

NextLVL Leading has a mission to solve the age and diversity gaps in our industry. The average age of the AV professional is 40+ and we all know we have a diversity issue. One of the ways NextLVL Learning is combatting this is by hosting its Second Annual AV Talent Summit Nov. 20 at Pace […]

Registration has already opened for the ISE 2025 — Integrated Systems Europe. But, in all honesty, I think this show should be called Integrated Systems World. Why? And, why sign up now? Today’s Rants & rAVes podcast guest, ISE’s managing director, Mike Blackman, talks about all of that, plus this year’s keynote, changes to the […]

In addition to the ability to go behind the scenes and learn how The Sphere, Cirque du Soleil, the ARTE Museum and Atomic Golf use AV and digital/experiential signage technology to run their experiences, this year’s Digital Signage Experience (DSE) show includes three keynotes and access to two different show floors — all using code […]

Snap One isn’t new to the ProAV market; in fact, they’ve had commercial AV technology for nearly a decade now. And, now part of ADI Global, Snap One has amped up its plans for the rest of 2024 and 2025 as it has nearly twice as many product lines as it did pre-acquisition. I was […]

LG has simplified the management and design of dvLED systems into two categories: custom and all-in-one. My latest videocast features Eric Olson, senior business development manager at Exertis Almo, and Eric Sikora, senior solutions engineer at LG. On this episode of Rants & rAVes, they talk all about LEDs and how simple it is to […]

I caught up with Exertis Almo EVP Dan Smith and SVP Kevin Welling ahead of the Oct. 8 E4 Experience. A few highlights: A session all about how the intricacies of Autism Spectrum disorder intertwines with the evolution of ProAV A session Microsoft Teams Rooms and utilizing AI in collaboration spaces. An expo floor full […]

If you’ve wondered how LG Business Solutions is addressing the movement toward dvLED in everything from higher education to corporate spaces, this is the podcast for you! The company, famous for its OLED tech, is staking a leadership claim to the future of dvLED. In my latest Rants & rAVes videocast, LG’s senior director, Tom […]

Pearl Technology’s Jeremy Caldera joined me on my latest videocast to discuss how you can donate to the new Matt Sittloh Memorial Scholarship — or recommend a college-aged student to apply! Matt was a technician who worked in audiovisual engineering, sales and management for his entire career. Watch and consider donating!  Podcast: Play in […]

On Aug. 28 at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) learn all about USB and how Extron is leveraging this connector for AV and UCC installs. This 90-minute session led by the company’s Training, Product Development and Marketing teams is AVIXA CTS RU and BICSI approved. Extron’s Andrew Evans joins me on today’s podcast to […]

The E4 Experience, Exertis Almo’s regional conference and trade show, kicks off its fall tour with a stop in Boston on Sept. 10, 2024. Attendees not only get to see firsthand all the new stuff that debuted at June’s InfoComm show, but they can also earn up to 10 AVIXA CTS RUs with a special […]

Chanan Averbuch likely needs no introduction, as he’s driven the LED market — in many ways — since 2013. Now, he’s heading up a new division of BlueSquare as the director of innovation of BlueSquare X. This is a firm focused on the design and support of digital experiences by partnering with AV integrators. This […]

My latest episode of Rants & rAVes features TD SYNNEX Senior Vice President Sandi Stambaugh. Sandi talks me through the unique nature of the second annual TD SYNNEX InVision event, taking place Aug. 27-29, 2024. It’s aimed at ProAV salespeople and is highly focused on helping newbies (three years of experience and under) understand how […]

It may seem like MAXHUB became a UCC leader overnight. But the truth is, there’s a lot of strategy behind what the company does in AV and UCC. My latest Rants & rAVes episode features MAXHUB’s Alan Nicholls, its business development manager, who reviews everything MAXHUB did at InfoComm 2024. If you’re an MS Teams […]

Panasonic Connect’s Chris Merrill joins me on the latest episode of Rants & rAVes. At InfoComm 2024, I recorded a deep-dive demo of KAIROS, the company’s live production platform that can take nearly any signal and distribute it all via AV-over-IP to any digital canvas. KAIROS is single-handedly building a new market category Panasonic Connect […]

Could Planar’s WallDirector Cloud software-as-a-service ecosystem, designed to manage Planar’s LEDs, be the cloud-based management platform that every other display company ends up emulating? I think it’s possible! Today’s Rants & rAVes episode features Planar’s Robert Detwiler, who talks about WallDirector and its management of the Planar ecosystem along with how the company was able […]

Peerless-AV’s STS650 Universal Scissor Wall Mount made its debut in 2024 and immediately became a hit with AV integrators and end users alike due to its unique ability to allow for AV gear to be racked behind it professionally (sans cable ties). Peerless-AV VP Sales, North America and APAC, Brian McClimans, joined the latest episode […]

Sony has a plethora of things to show you in its booth W2201 at InfoComm 2024, and the latest episode of Rants & rAVes features Sony’s director of sales and marketing for the B2B group, Mark Bonifacio, who talks about everything you can expect. This is a thorough review of all Sony will show at […]

This pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast features Sharp Business USA SVP of Display Marketing and Product Management Jennifer Cheh and VP of Product & Solutions Marketing Keith Yanke. They thoughtfully detailed everything attendees will see in booth W1201 at IC24. Watch this to get a full sneak peek!  Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

Lightware president and CEO, Clint Hoffman, and its SVP of education, Roger Takacs, joined me on the latest episode of Rants & rAVes to preview some new products and tech coming to InfoComm 2024. In addition to adding a bidirectional Dante version to its USB-C lineup of TAURUS products, Lightware will also show a dual-output […]

In today’s episode of Rants & rAVes, Humly’s CEO Anders Karlsson joins as my guest to talk about how his company is focused on making things work seamlessly in both co-working and open workplace environments. From adding sensors to detect device usage on the fly to leveraging Microsoft Places to encourage collaboration, Humly is offering […]

My latest pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast features Televic vice president of sales, Peter Papageorge, who details exactly why both integrators and end users will benefit from the company’s audio products — in meeting rooms, classrooms and everywhere else. The company will also use IC24 to launch the Unite Platform. Want to know what this is? Watch!  […]

I received some new product scoop on today’s pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast via Matrox Video’s business development manager, Ron Berty. Ron explained that the new Vion lineup will allow Matrox’s ConvertIP AV-over-IP product lineup — using the IPMX standard — to ingest and output video and audio virtually anywhere (even to competitive decoders or from competitive encoders)! […]

The latest pre-InfoComm-2024 episode of Rants & rAVes features Daktronics National Sales Manager Jim Vasgaard, who walks us through the company’s new Flip Chip CoB LED technology. Rumor has it, it’s a lot cooler and brighter than typical LED wall tech. Jim explains how CoB works as the new LED format — aimed at TAA-compliant […]

SpinetiX will be at InfoComm debuting a very cool partnership with Q-SYS — you’ll have to watch this pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast with Spinetix CEO Francesco Ziliani to get a hint about it or head over to its booth in the West Hall (W2007). In addition to the Q-SYS partnership, SpinetiX will show the all-new four-output 4K […]

My latest pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast features TD SYNNEX Senior VP Sandi Stambaugh, as this is always a big event for the and its partners. In addition to hosting a reception open to all AV integrators (register here!), TD SYNNEX will focus on both digital signage and UCC in its booth W1745 at the show. Watch this […]

Another day, another pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast! On this episode of Rants & rAVes, XTEN-AV founders Vibhav Singh and Sahil Dhingra join as the special guests to demo three new features in XTEN’s platform. In addition to an awesome AI feature in which the platform will automatically find mistakes in system designs, XTEN has also added a […]

This pre-InfoComm-2024 episode of Rants & rAVes features Catchbox VP of commerce, Aleksejs Kolpakovs, who explains the company’s new Catchbox Plus room system aimed at higher education installs and meeting rooms. The system includes the famed Catchbox throwable mic along with a handheld and universal wearable lab mic (all charge wirelessly and are available via […]

Optoma will use InfoComm 2024 to debut a new lineup of Interactive Flat Panels (IFPs) that include all the features you expect from collaboration boards but these IFPs also include room sensor technology, as well as Google EDLA certification. In addition, the company will show some new 20,000+ Lumen 1-chip DLP projectors and two new […]

FSR’s director of global sales, Chaz Porter, joins this episode of Rants & rAVes to review all that the company is doing in the Central Hall (booth C8227) at InfoComm 2024. FSR has a new long-distance USB-C cable that carries 60 watts of power, a new all-in-one Ceiling Box for AV-over-IP applications, projective covers for […]