The dramatic growth of churches using online streaming and on-demand options to extend the reach of their audience offers a steady stream of upgrades and innovations for Pro AV technology solutions. With the increase in both accessibility and adoption of high-speed broadband internet access worldwide has come a massive increase in users taking advantage of […]

As local churches have embraced the capturing, producing, editing and publishing of video content for sermons, event promotions, service streaming, digital signage and social media, many are just now counting the costs and cons of storing massive amounts of video and media data for long-term archival, which leaves the future accessibility of this data in […]

During rehearsals before Sunday services, the monitor mix (A2) guy walks onto the stage and approaches each of the vocalists one at a time and has a brief conversation while looking between the singer and the iPad tablet in the A2’s hand. During these brief 15 to 30 second chats, the vocalist removes one of […]

In two previous columns on the regular rAVe Blogsquad feed, I explored the issues surrounding both manufacturer communications and the increasing perceived problem of direct sales by manufacturers and suppliers to end users, essentially going around the establish dealer/integrator/retail distribution structure. However, there is another side to this story, one that is often being treated […]

Of all the various issues that generate the most questions from potential and current clients in the HOW markets, creating and managing the musical aspects of a service are definitely at the top of the list. It matters not whether it’s a simple guitar and piano accompaniment to a traditional service or a full-on praise-band […]

Cobalt Digital will debut card-based terminal equipment for the openGear platform to address the broadcast, webcast and campus video transport needs of worship media professionals. For sharing video across campus or between different campuses, the new RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) protocol can be used for low latency and high fidelity transport of video and […]

Your business may have the coolest AVL product or service on the market, but amassing more emails in your prospect’s Inbox isn’t helping you sell even one of those great new products. Why? As decision-makers and consumers, we’re inundated and overloaded with information and emails. We’re deluged by data. What we don’t need to know is […]

In his annual year end post this past December, my rAVe HOW colleague Anthony Coppedge presented his analysis of the advertising to the HOW market he though represented the best and worst of the numerous marketing messages he reviewed. His column is well worth your time whether you’re a buyer, seller or just curious. The […]

How much budget should AV industry companies allocate towards marketing to the house of worship vertical? The answer is likely a surprise for any company that’s not spending on this >$1B annual spend segment of the overall AV industry. In 2018, the American Marketing Association, in partnership with Deloitte and Duke University, published the bi-annual […]

Five years of highlighting the best, touching on the worst and recommending some serious advertising changes for the audiovisual industry around the House of Worship (HoW) market has a few companies embracing the church market, but most manufacturers and systems integrators still have a lot to learn about reaching church buyers. The top House of […]

Pastors don’t need high-pressure sales, slick marketing or churchy language. In fact, these three are red flag warnings to a vertical market used to being sold what they do not need. Instead, the three essential soft skills for selling AV to churches are a helpful challenger, intentional communication and value-as-a-service. All three of these lean […]

Question: How do you lead prospects from unique markets and industries down a buyer’s path to a purchase? Answer: You reverse-engineer the customer’s journey. It’s actually a straightforward process of delivering value along the customer’s path when you position your brand, products and services according to their vertical market. In a previous article, I shared […]

The most often ignored or forgotten problem in AV/IT systems can be summed up in this quote from Benjamin Franklin: “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” Technically speaking, a failure is declared when the system does not meet its desired objectives. Therefore we can consider any system that cannot meet minimum performance […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST FROM MVIX By Lillyan Wamaitha Marketing Manager, Mvix Digital signage is becoming a popular option for many ministries. These churches understand the benefits of digital signage and how they can use the technology to increase the reach of their message and communicate with their congregation. Below are three ways churches […]

Automation isn’t new to the audiovisual industry, but a new kind of automation for this technology-focused trade will be centered around automating the customer’s buying journey. As innovation has led the consumer markets to automate the discovery process for buyers, so too has the time come for the long-established AV industry to adapt and embrace […]

As a part of our regular business practice, we check back in with completed HOW projects to ensure everything is still working properly and that no new issues have arisen that might need attention. Over the decades, this approach has proven to be both helpful in maintaining relationships and also often provides new opportunities to […]

Church AV needs are wide and varied, but one of thing they all have in common when it comes to technology: Church AV tech needs a greater focus on innovation than new inventions. Innovation Over Invention Perhaps my favorite example of a firm that gets innovation and obsesses over it is IDEO, a firm that […]

LED video technology will begin to surpass projection technology, spurring a wholesale replacement of projectors in the house of worship market when audiovisual (AV) manufacturers and integration firms realize the path of least resistance for churches is in modularity. The end of video projection for large venue churches is now in sight. Indeed, the wholesale […]

When does selling audiovisual technology shift away from the outdated features and benefits sales model and transform into something entirely different? Something so radically divergent that it actually makes sense to an AV industry in transition? 2018’s technology stack is here with the answer: when vendors leverage the social, marketing and sales technologies to go […]

When selling to churches long enough, a pattern becomes patently obvious: Some church volunteer teams are better than others, regardless of size or budget. Why is it that some church volunteer teams ‘just get it’ and/or are more effective than others? If you’ve sold to, trained or been involved with church AV volunteerism, chances are you’ve […]

Audiovisual (AV) vendors often see themselves as the expert and church buyers as wanting their expertise. This leads to the slippery slope of blurred differentiators, which reduces the vendor’s position as a solution provider down to a commodity sales provider amidst the mass of competing vendors. Instead, AV vendors who will be most successful in […]

There are over 1 billion reasons for audiovisual (AV) vendors to sell to over 300,000 churches in the United States alone; those reasons all have President George Washington on the front. And those billions of reasons are spent every single year by churches. This represents an opportunity of taking responsibility for church AV sales. With so […]

It’s the hot topic, the current buzzword, the latest and greatest and so forth and so on — it’s AV on/over the network. But stop and think — do you actually need one? Do you just crave one? Can you afford one??? There is certainly a lot of product out there in the sound reinforcement […]

People are people, so how people make decisions is a mix of intellectual and emotional thought patterns. This is true for the audiovisual industry and every other industry. In a sense, therefore, it may seem that business-as-usual for promoting, educating and selling audio visual systems and equipment means that your business doesn’t need to change […]

When an audiovisual (AV) solution aligns perfectly with the needs of a potential client, the opportunity just about sells itself. In the house of worship market, local churches across the gamut of denominations have similar challenges and opportunities when it comes to AV technology. This should make selling a simple process for manufacturers and systems […]

Whether by selection or default, if you find yourself in the role of “leader” of your HOW AV team, you need to carefully consider both the methods you use to communicate with your team and the message(s) you are sending — spoken and subliminal. One of the most consistent problems we encounter with HOW AV […]

“Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” That’s the observation from renowned brand thought-leader and master storyteller, Marty Neumeier, author of almost a dozen books on the subject of brands. So if they have such sway over your brand reputation, how important is customer service for your brand? […]

“Alexa, turn on the church audiovisual system.” Clever voice-activated connectivity? Maybe. But practical? Not really. “Alexa, show me the upcoming maintenance on all of my audiovisual components, listing them in descending order by date.” Clever? Maybe. But practical? Absolutely. In the house of worship market, convenience isn’t a key driver for upgrades or new purchases. […]

Flat panel display use in the house of worship market has continued to grow rapidly according to TFCinfo’s recent research report entitled, “The Use of Video Displays in American Churches 2018.”  Of the AV-focused churches that TFCinfo surveyed (churches that have made a strategic and financial commitment to integrate audio visual equipment in their worship service), 75 percent state that […]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the year or so that I have been writing this column for rAVe’s house of worship publication, the majority of the articles have been how to or problem/solution oriented, with an educational and information focus. A number of those have concentrated on room acoustics and acoustic treatment areas (specifically, on intelligibility here […]

The AV industry sucks at marketing. Everyone knows it because marketing across the audiovisual space is generally equally crappy. It’s boring, over-hyped, and under-designed. Pablum. Noise. Filler. “But we need A4, full-color printed spec sheets handed to us at trade shows,” said no buyer in the 21st century. “The ad of a smiling, stock photo model […]

After a week-long intensive at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB), it may feel too soon to start thinking about another conference. Then again, a major reason your firm goes to these conferences is to connect with potential buyers, reconnect with existing clients and see for yourself what others in the audio, video and […]