Last month, I spent some time in this column standing on one of my traditional soapboxes, namely that the AV rental and staging company has come to a point in the history of our industry where it becomes necessary to do some reinvention of our products and services. In my usual roundabout way, I came […]

Evolving how we understand and design collaborative spaces One of the most consistent things we see in corporate facilities/classrooms/lecture halls worldwide is that they have been equipped with some manner of technology package that is there for the users of that space to better communicate with others. And one of the most consistent things about […]

2018 has been an interesting and eventful year in the AV and collaboration industries.  We’ve seen a number of mergers and acquisitions, rebranding of products, new players big and small entering the market and an avalanche of new products. So what does 2019 have in store for us? I don’t have a crystal ball, but […]

By Jami McGraw Does the blender at your local smoothie place look anything like the one you’ve got at home? Do your auto mechanic’s power tools seem a little more “robust” than the ones gathering dust on your workbench at home? Of course. High-demand, business-grade jobs require heavy-duty products that just work, and work. And […]

Big box retailers are like the weather: We all like to complain about them, but none of us ever do anything about them. But as entertaining as it is to hate them, and make jokes at their expense, the relationship between big box retail and boutique professional firms is nuanced and complex. The business practices […]

Things change; that’s a message we repeat on a regular basis in the trade media. Disruption, commoditization, price erosion, there are a whole host of factors play into changing the business landscape. Sometimes the evolution of a business is gradual and easy, other times it can be a little rocky. At some point or other […]

By Dan Daley Special to InfoComm International This is the second in a series. To learn what these AV professionals think about how the business of AV integration is changing, read our earlier report. In many ways, technology is the basis of the AV industry. But when technology changes quickly and often, as it’s been […]

“What does success look like in 2019 for InfoComm?” asks InfoComm Executive Director Dave Labuskes. This question is at the heart of InfoComm’s new strategic plan, which board members and employees are working hard on and expect to finalize and put into action sometime next year. The new strategic plan was a focus of Labuskes’ […]

I will admit straight off that this post is somewhat of a rant, but I am tired of bad customers. The customer, despite claims to the contrary, is not always right. My wife does a lot of marketing work for everything from Comic Con to auto shows to demonstrating espresso machines. She is amazing at […]

I seem to have acquired a spool of glowing glass. OK, it’s an architectural sample of Corning’s Fibrance light diffusing fiber, and it landed on my desk as an architectural sample of something which intrigued one of the members of the design team on a project I’m working on. What to do with it? That […]

While you’re at InfoComm, take a look for technologies that are NOT typically associated with the AVL market but have clear in-roads for systems integrators: networking, cloud computing and storage, automation technologies (and not just AV automation) and even Bluetooth Low Energy. The trends that look beyond thin displays, LED lighting and new levels of […]

By Dave Labuskes Executive Director, InfoComm I talked with my 21-year old son yesterday while I was on the way home from the airport. We got to talking about making decisions — the costs and the benefits. Of course, that’s my perspective of the conversation, as a “wise and all-knowing” Baby Boomer father. I’m sure […]

This month, I highlight one of the biggest innovators not in the A/V/L market: Dell. For reasons that will become abundantly clear, this company has figured out how to listen to customers, solicit feedback and incorporate customer service into a commoditized market — and still have steady revenue. It’s important to learn what Dell can […]

By Premier Mounts As we all know, the industry is changing in front of our very eyes and one change that concerns us all is that many products have become more and more commoditized, and the result is eroding margins. Premier Mounts is directly addressing the changing nature of the market in order to serve […]