Happy Thanksgiving AVTweeps! We hope you all had a great holiday and enjoyed the day off, if you had it. Here are the top stories from the week, in cased you missed any of them and need a second look. • Celebrating 100: A Look Back • Good AV Kickoff Show: Networked Video Like Nothing You’ve Seen […]
The STEP Foundation (STEP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing technology industry benchmarks for sustainability practices in the built environment, and the Green Building Initiative (GBI),a nonprofit organization committed to accelerating the adoption of sustainable building practices, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding. STEP and GBI, the organization behind the Green Globes building certification program, […]
ARRIVE‘s room reservation system, the InfoPoint, is now available in a stand alone model, the SA-800. The SA-800 is a room sign (designed to be placed at the door of a room in a hotel meeting room, corporate conference room or outside a classroom) integrated with Google Calendar. The Arrive InfoPoint system provides the ability […]
Elite Screens Friday announced that its Saker electric projection screen is now available with a tensioned variation to its original fiberglass-backed material option. The Saker electric projection screen is designed for the CE retail and pro AV sales channels. The streamlined and durable accurate profiled casing is available in a white color coating. It features […]
Several years ago, I had the great pleasure of hearing Paul Polak speak at the Sustainable Brands conference. If you aren’t familiar with Paul’s work, he is the author of Out of Poverty, and co-founder of D-Rev.org, the non-profit product development company that designs and delivers products to the billions of people living on less […]
This blog and interview were written and conducted by Kelly Perkins. Check her out on Twitter at @AVI_Kelly. Midori Connolly is the principal at AVGirl Productions and former co-owner of an audiovisual company. She is best known for producing the first set of best practices for Sustainable AV Staging. Midori provides support to meetings and […]
BenQ America today announced that it’s now shipping the latest addition to its Colorific line of projectors with the MH630. Aimed at boardrooms, classrooms or even home environments, the multi-purpose MH630 is a single-chip, 1080p DLP projector that uses a 6,500 hours of lamp and is spec’d to deliver 10,000:1 contrast ratio at 3,000 ANSI […]
I am currently working on a two-hour online presentation for the Green Building Research Institute called iGreen: Digital Technology for the Next Generation due out in October and while doing research on the topic came across what could be one of the best paradigm shifts in the Green Building movement — USGBC, ASHRAE and the […]
BenQ America today announced it is now shipping the newest generation of M5 Series projectors including the MX525, MS524 and MW526, all aimed at the small- to medium-sized (SMB) spaces. Each offer a 3,200 ANSI lumens spec, 10,000 hours of lamp life and Colorific image quality. By combining native SVGA (MS524), XGA (MX525), and WXGA […]
Parasound’s new ZoneMaster Model 1250 is a 12-channel power amplifier housed in a 2U rack-mount form factor. Connections for 24 speakers combined with 2-ohm stability allow the use of two speakers per channel. It is rated at 12×50 watts into 8 ohms, and 12 x 90 into 4 ohms. Each channel pair can be bridged […]
The construction industry has fully adopted virtual design. Driven by a combination of government policy and strategies for more efficient, cost effective design practice, building information modeling (BIM) has become widely accepted as a transformation of analog text and 2D graphics, to 3D, digital electronic imagery and information. BIM as a design software tool is […]
Got your attention, didn’t I? Well, Mr. Hiding-pictures-of-the-high school-mullet and Ms. Fingerless-lace-gloves-still-in-the-bottom-of-the-drawer, I’m not talking about your penchant for swinging your hair in tempo to Metallica. Rather, this month is a little education on the severity of e-waste (including heavy metals) and how we must address this issue as an industry. Let’s chat first about […]
Many of my previous articles, especially the last one on manufacturing and green labels, revolve around the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. What I have noticed is the number of comments revolving around just what the ICT industry is comprised of and how that specifically relates to the common use of the word sustainability. […]
BenQ America today introduced its next-generation Colorific home entertainment projectors: the HT1075 and HT1085ST. Both projectors include content streaming and mirroring capabilities for devices equipped with Mobile High-definition Link (MHL) to allow the transfer of small-screen content from any portable device. Featuring BenQ’s Colorific image quality, the HT1075 and HT1085ST are native 1920x1080p projectors that […]
Blue Line Innovations today announced how customers of Essex Powerlines receive Blue Line’s in-home energy display for free, when signing up for Ontario’s saveONenergy peaksaver PLUS program. The display can save consumers roughly 10 percent on average on their home energy costs. With peak energy rates in Ontario having increased 48 percent over the past […]
BenQ America has just launched its brightest projectors yet with the SH963 and TH963. Both are specified at 6,000 lumens using a two-lamp system. Using native 1080p DLP chips, they’re both integrated with the Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing technology from Qualcomm, have optional long- and short-throw lenses and they are both categorized as large […]
BenQ is shipping the latest in its M6 series, the MW665 projector, which is aimed at houses of worship, classrooms and boardrooms. It offers 3,200 ANSI lumens of brightness, a 13,000:1 contrast ratio and is integrated with SmartEco energy-saving features to lower the projector’s total cost of ownership (TCO). Featuring BenQ’s Colorific technology and using […]
In the ever increasing landscape of a technology driven world, a key marketplace differentiator for manufacturers on a wide range of products is environmental sustainability. By 2015, over 100 Billion units of electronic goods will be shipped worldwide and corporate environmental sustainability initiatives from manufacturers are expected to have a major impact on their delivery. […]
HARMAN’s JBL Commercial today announced its six Commercial Series Amplifiers (CSA) and two Commercial Series Mixers (CSM) are now shipping. All CSA products are ENERGY STAR certified. The JBL Commercial power amplifiers and mixers now shipping include the following: CSA2120Z amplifier, 2 channels, 120-watt power output per channel CSA280Z amplifier, 2 channels, 80-watt power output […]
Hear this: We are moving into an era where technology assumes a seamless place in our daily life, both professionally and personally. My washing machine talks to me via my phone. My cat can be located on my GPS. It is a time of wonderment and exploration as our lives increasingly resemble those of the […]
How many of your workforce are part of the Millennial Generation (born between 1977-1994)? How many of your client’s workforce is in this category? This generation now makes up one third of the current workforce and will make up three-quarters by 2025. Most of this group has never known a time without cable television, cell […]
Hitachi America introduced two new interactive projector models, the Hitachi CP-TW3003 and CP-TW2503. Both are interactive models that feature an ultra-short throw design and are aimed at the K-12, higher education and corporate presentation markets. So-called “new generation interactive features” include multiple pen capability, auto-calibration, PC-less drawing, and multi-display interactive use. Additionally, a suite of […]
HARMAN’s JBL Commercial Series today announced that its amplifiers, and mixer-amplifiers have earned the ENERGY STAR label. The ENERGY STAR program, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), provides consumers and businesses with guidance for making purchases that save them money and help protect the climate by increasing energy efficiency. To earn the label, […]
Casio America’s new SLIM projectors, weighing only five pounds and only 1.7 inches thick, feature Casio’s proprietary LASER & LED HYBRID Light Source, which combines a laser, a fluorescent element and LEDs to generate light. Now in its fifth generation, Casio says the improved light source offers a 30 percent increase in light output and 20,000 […]
Casio America has a new lineup of Signature projectors aimed at the hospitality industry. All of them include Casio’s LASER & LED HYBRID Light Source, which combines a laser, fluorescent element and LEDs to generate light (it’s 5th generation), lasting an estimated 20,000 hours. Weighing in at 8.6 pounds, the new Signature projectors offer a […]
ESP/SurgeX today announced a partnership with Verdiem to address the plug load energy waste problem plaguing commercial buildings. This partnership combines Verdiem’s Surveyor software, that can reduce an organization’s energy and print-related operational costs by up to 30 percent, with ESP/SurgeX’s power protection and diagnostic technology, which has been proven to lower service costs. The […]
With it being a driver of a huge chunk of the U.S. economy, California is on target to lead the way in green construction with its revision to the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards (known as Title 24 Energy Code). Being revised for the first time since 2008, the new standard (among other items) mandates […]
Extron has introduced the Extron XTRA Series XPA 1002-70V and XPA 1002-100V, half rack 1U, convection cooled power amplifiers delivering two channels of 100 watts rms for 70-volt and 100-volt distributed speakers. These professional grade amplifiers feature a 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio with 0.1 percent THD+N specifications. Features include: ENERGY STAR qualification Advanced Class D […]
You know something I never really considered before? I never really stopped to consider the potential benefit both to and from places of worship if they were to implement greener practices. I’m sure some of you who service this market segment are shaking your heads at the no-brainer, but I’ve just recently stopped to think […]
Well, we have officially finished our first one. Complete. Done. It’s outta’ here! After many years of involvement we got through a STEP pilot project. For those of you who don’t know, have short term memory, or just plain haven’t been paying attention, STEP stands for the Sustainable Technology Environments Program. If you are familiar […]
Northwestern Europe has often been seen as the utopia for living sustainable. Not only have they lead the world in locally produced and distributed environmentally sound energy forms, sustainable agriculture, and top notch green building practices, but they have also partnered with their neighbors to share ideas and technologies. The United States recently jumped on […]
If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, then the road to progress is paved with technologies that never lived up to their hype. For every technology or product category that changed the industry, the world, or both, there’s always one or more losers; they were marketed just as hard, with tons of […]