Well, February has come around again and I am in the process of preparing for rAVe’s annual odyssey to the ISE show in sunny Amsterdam. As with any trip of this length (especially overseas), I begin with the technology items that I need to take with me for my podcasts, my videography, and my photography, […]

Last month, we looked at the ways that a rental and staging company can use videoconferencing and collaboration technology to maintain better contact with clients, and to better support shows in the field during planning and direction. This month, I thought we would take a look at how these technologies can be employed when the […]

For all you regular reader of rAVe news out there, you may not realize this, but once a month we publish rAVe Rental [and Staging] an email newsletter packed with opinionated news and product stories about the ProAV industry, with a special focus on the rental and staging market. The most recent edition, Volume 9, Issue 11 includes the most recent […]

Last month, we talked about the growth of remote meeting, videoconferencing, collaboration and support applications, especially in the installation portion of our industry. One of the things that I asserted in that column was that it was time that these applications came into general use in the rental and staging portion of our industry. I […]

Over the last few years, a revolution in teamwork and technical support has taken place in the installation portion of our industry. Once network ports began appearing on the equipment that we sold, remote administration, remote monitoring and remote support all became possible, but it really has taken a couple of years to convince clients […]

Well, fall is upon us, and along with it comes the fall meeting season. For those of you in the rental and staging portion of the industry, this is a time of year when clients who have been away for the summer suddenly call in a panic to book a meeting for tomorrow (if you […]

This weekend, I was involved in a long conversation with a couple of colleagues from the industry. At one point during the discussion, I was asked what my favorite new technology announcement was. And I think that both of my colleagues were surprised that I did not mention some new piece of AV equipment. My […]

Last month, we talked about the changes in trade shows that have come in the digital age, most notably the way we register people for shows now, and the way we tracked their information within the show and afterward. For many years, this has been based around a magstripe card which you allowed employees to […]

Last week, I returned from InfoComm. It was the usual manic event, with the usual results. 39,000 people crowded the aisles to see products and services from over 400 suppliers. Many, many of us took the opportunity to rub elbows with our peers from around the world, increasing the sale of beer and soft drinks […]

HARMAN International announced today that it has acquired SVSi, a maker of networked AV products, which will be incorporated into HARMAN’s AMX brand. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, SVSi manufactures and sells products for delivering a AV over an IP network. Included among these is a full range of encoders and decoders, windowing/wall processors, an audio […]

This month, we will be finishing up a three-part series on the art of troubleshooting in AV. Over the last two months, we have been examining the troubleshooting process, how it has changed, and what we can do to make the process more efficient in the future. For those of you who missed the first […]

Last month, we began talking about the highest form of art when it comes to audiovisual systems: troubleshooting. In that article, I began to make the point that the use of a logical troubleshooting methodology began in your head, rather than by swapping equipment or blind experimentation. I don’t think many people had an argument […]

“The difference between Stupidity and Genius is that Genius has limits.” – Albert  Einstein This month, I open with a favorite quote. And this is not just because I get paid by the word. If that were true, I would’ve used a much longer quote. I do it because I am lazy. Now, I am […]

Last month, we talked about the idea that the big voice in marketing and product success is now the small voice, the collective voice, and largely as established by social media. I gave many readers to think that I was in favor of the voice of the masses being the loudest voice. Not necessarily. A […]

rAVe’s Joel Rollins interviewed LANG’s Christian Kuntze and it seems that nearly every client LANG has is at least interested in seeing their stuff in 4K resolution. In this video of their stand, you will see a real-time 4K resolution pinball machine that anyone can walk up to and start playing – it marries high-resolution […]

While at ISE 2015, we had a chance to check out NEC Displays’ new DOOHapps interactive projection game builder. It’s something you will want to see!

Dataton is known for some of the best real-time control applications on the planet. At ISE 2014, the company launched a 4K media server and the smallest mapping module I’ve ever seen.

At the NEC stand here at ISE 2015, NEC Display has a great demo where you can design and build your own virtual fish-tank. It’s a great application demo that uses all sorts of AV technology and, of course, takes advantage of the NEC Displays. Here’s the video.

I have often reflected, both in this column and elsewhere, on the cyclical nature of our business. Here we are in January, first month of the year, and some of those cycles are due to begin again. I’ve always thought of this process as an annual cycle, beginning in January and ending right after the […]

Last month, we talked about rental companies that grew out of audiovisual sales companies. As I pointed out, there are a number of differences between the personnel and equipment required for rental and those required for sales and demonstrations. There is, of course, another kind of specialized rental company which in the industry we refer […]

Well, time for another article that makes me feel old. Believe me, I don’t do this on purpose. I usually do it because one of the young(er) people who works for me asks a question that prompts me to wax philosophical. I try to pretend that this makes me feel like an elder statesman, when […]

Picture it: October 31, 1970, just about dark. Joel Rollins is applying some last minute upgrades to his Halloween costume. Dark sweats, red cape — check. But the mask has got to go. A mangled pair of black glasses — better. Deftly, he fashions two letters out of duct tape and smooths them onto his […]

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 […]

Joel Rollins has been a staple at rAVe [Publications] for years. You’ve read his columns, you’ve heard his voice on rAVe RADIO, and you’ve seen his face in our booth at InfoComm and ISE. He’s the epitome of an AV industry veteran. He embodies all that an AV veteran should be. But, do you know […]

Well, here it is — July. This is the time of year when I have to stop, catch my breath and regroup with my team. The “tradeshow season” really is finished with InfoComm, after having started (at least for me) in February with ISE in Amsterdam. So not only have I been on the road […]

Well, I’m just back from InfoComm, and after three days I have almost sorted out the debris. I have unpacked two suitcases full of dirty clothes, two boxes of literature I will never read, and several of the mysteriously popular LED flashing pins. Sometimes I wonder if trade shows are a conspiracy by the airlines […]

So I have to say that InfoComm14 has been much different so far than my past InfoComm shows. I came in on Sunday and reported to my booth to be assigned some set-up duties. I actually hung an interactive whiteboard and interactive short-throw projector in the booth with minimal injury to myself (a huge victory) […]

Last month, we considered the idea that it isn’t just the disciplines of IT and AV that are converging, but that the tools and components of both disciplines are combining in many AV shows or installations. This earned me some criticism about the way I had misused the term “convergence” (much of it from another […]

As some of you will know, I recently attended ISE 2014 in Amsterdam with the rAVe team. We spent a very long week seeing and documenting the entire show, and afterward Gary and I reported on what we thought the major news and themes of the show were. Gary and I (as usual) had somewhat […]

Each year at this time, I am alerted to the coming of spring by that special fragrance that’s in the air, by those sounds that indicate the coming of a new season. In our business, that fragrance is the smell of shrink wrap and packing peanuts, and it harkens the coming of new technologies that […]

I arrived home last night after a whirlwind day of post-show meetings and goodbyes in Amsterdam. Now, with a profound case of jet-lag, I am sitting down with all my notes and recordings to put this year’s show into some perspective. First, however, let me say something about the effort in which I was fortunate […]

An AWESOME day today — the crowd is great, the mix of manufacturers and buyers is strong, and around the new tech exhibits it can be difficult to move. And that’s great for a trade show. Gary and I did a new edition of “THE WEEK” live from the floor, and its being posted today, […]