Box sales. Internet commodities. Bottom-dollar buys. Is it too late for the audio, video and lighting market for reversing product commoditization in the house of worship vertical segment? Encourage Systems Integration In the online ‘box-sales’ world of product commoditization, the Internet sale is rumored to have removed service from the purchasing equation. Perhaps for truly […]

Has your company made the equivalent of a better mousetrap? Check your mousetrap. Innovation is everywhere, with new products launched with greater frequency than the trade shows where they’re promoted. Yet, I have two questions for you: Are you making just making better products or are you doing a better job at positioning them? Are […]

I geek out when I find out new ways of using my smartphone — hidden features or undocumented I-didn’t-know-it-could-do-that shortcuts elicit mini-celebrations and a secret calculation of how much more more value I just got out of the original purchase price. Usually these are shortcuts and features that existed when the phone launched; I’m just […]

What’s more important: building a better mousetrap or simply solving the problem of mice in the house? Your answer depends on your perspective. The people living in the house simply want to not have mice in their home. The people selling the mousetrap want you to buy their newer, better mousetrap. So, who’s correct? If […]

Half of one billion dollars in audio, video and lighting technology sales over the next 12 months. And that’s just from one segment of the house of worship market, representing only about 2 percent of all churches here in the United States. It’s likely your business hasn’t seen the majority of your sales come from […]

Creativity has nothing to do with technology. It certainly has nothing to do with the type of tools you have to offer or even how many of your tools church clients are using today. No, creativity is what enables people to use your technology. Creativity Puts No Requirements On The Pocketbook The engineers and designers […]

According to research studying the 8,000 multi-site churches in America, 57 percent of them will launch an additional campus in the next 12 months and spend $580,549,500 on technology for those new multi-site venues.* While I’ve written about the unique opportunities for A/V/L vendors in the fast-growing trend in multi-site churches (see HERE and HERE), […]

Does the value of your product really come down to the lowest price? In an effort to sell more, dealers and systems integrators are often setting the price of their technology based on an aggregate price that they believe will help make the sale happen. Sales may happen, but the value of your brand, manufacturers […]

As an entrepreneur, I’ve discovered, lived and taught that change is a constant. When I started consulting with churches, the focus was on audio, video, and lighting system design. This tech-centric focus increased with the addition of teaching and speaking opportunities where I was able to rattle off the latest model numbers and point people […]

At a time in an industry where commoditization is leading to thinner margins and online price wars, the discussion of Good, Fast or Cheap is sorely needed — before your organization wins the race to the bottom. Most of us know the Venn diagram below, depicting the reality of choosing any two, but never all […]

Is it better to spend more on a higher priced technology than to go for the cheaper alternative? This is a question of the ages that has been exploited on both sides of the same coin by the marketing teams at manufacturers, seemingly forever. We’ve all had situations where the axiom “you get what you […]

There are many A/V/L systems in place at churches of every size, location and style. Many are there because they were the lowest bid price point; others are stitched together over time, mostly borne out of necessity — and yet others are in place because an integrator specified what worked in other churches. Finally, there […]

How important is your brand name? Is your brand not merely well known, but well liked? In the House of Worship market, your brand is who the churches say you are. It is vital that you as manufacturers, systems integrators, consultants, rep firms, and dealers provide this unique vertical space with who you are, not […]

Hopping down from the church stage platform, iPad in hand, the church technical director sees one lighting fixture not quite overlapping the center point upstage position. He casually selects the fixture on his iPad and drags his finger while keeping his eye on the scalloped edges of the light moving slowly, stopping only when he […]

The upside of adding Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi to audio, video and lighting gear is both the convenience and scalability of managing technology, but the more IP-addressable the A/V/L industry becomes, the more managing the vast amount of unique data becomes problematic for the end users. Churches are no different than many other venues when it […]

It’s trade-show season, in full swing. With one of the biggies behind (NAB), and other biggies coming soon, are you open to hearing from your users and incorporating their feedback into your new products BEFORE you launch them? Every vertical market has overlap in how they use your products, but there’s enough differentiation in vertical […]

I imagine the engineers and R&D teams working diligently for months, years even, on new products to roll out at the next big trade show. They’ve innovated, broken through with new levels of sophistication and — best of all — it’s going to allow for increased margins! It’s a win — until… The first day […]

Perhaps no other technology is as poised to be used in more churches than LED. Seemingly the perfect balance of functionality, size, cost of operation and product lifespan, LED is almost perfect for the house of worship market. LED Is Everywhere Once reserved for those in the rarified atmosphere of near-unlimited budgets, LED technology has […]

How many products have matured to a point where the Nth-degree improvement is now only noticed by a fraction of only the most sophisticated users? I’d submit that we’re long past the days of “good enough” for the kind of products coming out in the audio, video, lighting market. The pinnacle of perfection is within […]

Competition is a good thing. I am a fan of the free-market system and like that, when organizations compete, the end-user is better served through better products, better design and better prices. What’s not as obvious is when the number of choices leads to decision-making paralysis. The axiom “just because you can doesn’t mean you […]

In 2003, I stood in front of a room of church leaders at the National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention and said: “Churches won’t need to spend the extra money on high definition video for the next five to 10 years.” I positioned my theory that quality NTSC video (SDI in 16:9 format) was more than sufficient […]

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 […]

There’s been a real push for brands to engage on social media. Whereas the Internet gave voice to the masses, social media has created something more: personal availability — which can even be accomplished by a brand. To ignore the unprecedented growth of this communication medium is perilous to any brand, but perhaps worse still […]

In 1989, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis took the immensely popular Back to the Future franchise and painted a picture of the future in the year 2015. 25 years later, we don’t have hoverboards as the movie Back to the Future II depicted, but we do have stunning technologies that were simply beyond our comprehension at the […]

There’s a notable shift happening in a pocket of churches here in the U.S. — the turn from churches focusing on Capital Campaigns for major initiatives to a culture of generosity. This change means that the infrequent campaigns that happen years apart are now being replaced by the simple teaching of a generous lifestyle. Jesus […]

Manufacturers love to hear these words: “Whenever I see [nsert-brand-name-here] on my equipment, I feel confident about our production.” This is a powerful endorsement from an end-user that is hot marketing copy for creating brand loyalty ads. But how often do you see the opposite happen? “Whenever we see [insert-church-tech-director-here] using our gear, we feel […]

Early on in my career as a consultant, after years of my own experience on staff in three mega churches and then in the design/build side of the A/V/L industry, I found myself re-designing technology systems sold to churches. Quite often, the technology in place wasn’t the right application for the gear, whether that meant […]

Churches are taking these two weeks to prepare for their next big push — to connect with those who visited during Christmas and are checking them out again. They put on their A-game for Christmas, but they’ve got to keep the excellence factor high every weekend, and the AVL technology is playing an increasingly important […]

I don’t know many guys — or gals, for that matter — who do not appreciate the artistic beauty and scientific precision of a Ferrari. They’re elegant machines that, over the years, have captured our imagination. They represent the pinnacle of automotive engineering and have resisted the gravitational pull of mere cars to achieve the […]

One need not envision a distant future of me-too products and companies vying for market sales when considering the future of the AVL industry. Our future is upon us and the end of features and benefits has already slipped past, like a buoy fading with the Doppler effect of time on the sea of sameness. […]

A friend of mine travels the country providing environmental projection and lighting for churches. The fact that he’s now an Executive Platinum member on American Airlines is due entirely to how frequently he travels the country providing this service to countless churches, where he introduces church leaders to the possibility of endless scenic solutions for […]

In an effort to both reach new people and serve those who cannot come to a church service due to travel, work or illness, churches have increasing added online streaming services. Once again, what used to be reserved for “television churches” has now trickled its way down to even the smallest churches, thanks to advances […]