It’s time to fire up the legendary waaaay-back machine once again to go to the year 1982. Why? Because it was in that year that the National Sound Contractors Association was formed and held its first convention/meeting. (On a side note, that was also the year I launched Sound & Video Contractor Magazine (S&VC) and […]

By Bob Romano CRO, BBH Solutions, Inc. Recently a story in rAVe AV News titled “Corporate Culture and the AVL Industry” by Anthony Coppedge caught my attention. I had a disconnect with his article, which seemed to say overworked integration teams (specifically in the AV ecosystem) was due to “cultural failures” of the organization. My belief is […]

I have what I consider to be an advantage in my job. I’m responsible for a business territory that covers 661,848 km², larger than Montana and Wyoming put together. And because of the oil and gas sector, I get to travel to most of it. As a result of the impact that oil and gas […]

As a new year dawns, and those of us who operate on a calendar fiscal year analyze 2016 and plan for 2017, I thought it was time to expose an often hidden, but costly practice which is rapidly becoming more prevalent within the industry. Be sure to read all the way to the end for […]

Like Dickey Fox said in Jerry Maguire, “The key to this business is *claps hands* personal relationships!” Regardless of how fantastic their products are, vendor sales reps need to understand that the personal relationship they build with their dealers can be the make or break factor in how much business they get, or if they […]

After I wrote The Cost of Late Adoption last month, I received quite a few comments, Tweets and DMs around the topic. Gary Kayye even did a Rants and Raves on the topic, drawing parallels to the book Crossing the Chasm, one that I have to sheepishly admit that I’ve never read. To tell the […]

By Jennifer Davis Chief Marketing Officer, Leyard Often we get obsessed with new ideas, new technologies, and new initiatives that we can forget that a key part of strategy is what you are going to say “no” to. This applies to us individually, in our companies and as an industry. So, what are five things […]

iPoint today announced that iPoint Control, its business automation tool, is fully integrated with Slack, a messaging app for teams. With Slack, iPoint Control team users can send messages to individuals or groups of people through channels, replacing email as the team communications tool with an integrated, simple chat function that disseminates critical business messages […]

I recently read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries and could not help but think about how IT and AV could benefit from the processes Ries defines. I particularly found myself thinking of the AV integrators and the struggle that some of them have right now with the small margins they are receiving on equipment. […]

With today’s audio and video technology advancements for PCs, laptops and mobile devices, businesses may be more tempted than ever to outfit their conference rooms using a DIY approach. While this sounds like a great idea in theory, there are a few considerations to keep in mind… DIY rooms often lack the proper equipment to […]

Some business topics get all the headlines, and get written and rewritten over and over. Yet others receive very little attention, even though they can be as important, or even more important than the hot topics of the day. Succession planning is kind of managerial task that company owners and general managers roll their eyes […]

I get ribbed a lot over what one of my friends calls my “hate-crush” on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who, if you don’t know is the author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Antifragile: Things That Gain […]

Dan Daley Special to InfoComm International The pro-AV business landscape has been fluid for some time. The tectonic shift from analog to digital as the technological foundation of the industry set the tone for constant change, as new platforms and formats, from digital audio to 4K video, have generated relentless technical churn. At the same […]

Does anyone spring clean anymore? I remember my mother turning the house upside down annually to wash away the winter and welcome the summer. Clearing out every cupboard and drawer, taking down and washing curtains, cleaning every item in the display cabinet and beating rugs on the washing line; this was not a one day […]

One day when Joe Theismann was at football player at Notre Dame, the coaches called him into their office and asked how to pronounce his name. Joe said it was pronounced “Thees-man,” with the first syllable rhyming with “knees.” Notre Dame publicity manager Roger Valdiserri told him from then on his name would be pronounced […]

To me, the thing that stands out the most as the biggest difference between residential and commercial AV is the approach to starting new projects. Specifically, I mean the bid process in commercial/institutional AV versus the design retainer in residential. It speaks to a different dynamic, not least of which is that the buying process […]

As a consequence of not being as compelling a story as things like the latest development in display technologies, something that almost never gets talked about in the trade media is receivables insurance. In fact, I’d even suggest that articles on install processes and white papers on esoteric control system concepts get more press. As […]

I find it ironic that I am doing another book report considering how much I hated doing them when I was in school. Maybe I hated doing them so much because they were usually on books that I would have never chosen to read on my own and I had little interest in them. The […]

A few months ago, I spoke at an event sponsored by the Technology Association of Oregon on the alignment of sales and marketing. In the course of that conversation, the idea of marketing marketing (promoting the idea of and need for marketing in the company) was raised. Many companies de-value marketing, considering it the department […]

By Jennifer Davis Vice President of Marketing, Planar In my career in technology, I have helped many customers create wayfinding systems — the touchscreen-enabled systems that allow people to chart where they are and where they are going as they navigate a shopping center or college campus. Wayfinding is a lot like the lifelong effort […]

By Michael Newman Michael Newman Consulting More entertaining than educational, I wanted to share my frustration with some of the buzzwords for business and internet marketing. It’s getting a little crazy and it seems people feel the need to shove them down your throat. “The marketing formula seems simple: Attract audiences, engage prospects, convert leads, […]

When business owners think about education and training for their employees, the most obvious reason for training is to equip employees with the necessary skills and abilities to perform their job to a minimum standard of competence. But there are more important reasons than that, not least of which is the ability to excel, and […]

By Michael Bridwell Digital Projection “You seem to really prefer working with the ____ rep team. Why is that exactly?” As a member of a hardware manufacturer, I am part of an elite group. Depending on the economic cycle, product curve, or current trend of the moment, I’m allowed to vent about shifting bid specs, […]

By Marty Schaffel AVI-SPL Over the years, many an employee would walk into my office declaring he has a problem that needs immediate attention. It may have been work related, industry related or personal in nature. In every case, the person would ask me to provide a prompt solution so he could get back to […]

In western society, some of the most frequently told jokes revolve around the three most common lies in circulation. They follow a number of patterns, many of which I will not go into in a column that winds up in general circulation. I have, however, defined the three biggest lies as told in AV. The […]

This past week I was one of the luckiest workers in the world. Why? I was doing what I love and I was doing it for a living.  Life is good.  It helps that I am married to a perfect woman and that I love my wife and kids. It helps that I am a […]

Success doesn’t mean that you don’t have problems; it just means that your problems have changed. Quite frankly, it’s preferable to face the problems associated with having a booming business than the ones that you have when business is slow. As your company’s client base grows, and both the number of projects in your funnel […]

I was recently told by a business owner and successful entrepreneur that he was not “a leader.” He admitted he knows technology and operations but lacked true leadership skills. His solution to this challenge was to hire outside to bring in “leaders” for their team. I can’t help but think about how sad that is […]

This blog is dedicated to the friends I made at Atlanta Soundworks. ASW has such a talented group of people and an ownership team with such generous hearts and caring attitudes. I will miss you all dearly. Although I was not able to do all I had hoped to do in the short time I […]

If there’s any one trend that residential AV integrators need to come to grips with, it’s the fact that what’s driving the business today isn’t hardware, it’s content. Time was you could tell a great AV system on sight not just by the quality of the gear, but the number of source devices involved. At […]

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 […]