Last week, my wife told me that she needed a landline with Bluetooth capability for her work, so she could use a headset with it. That should be easy, I thought. But no, few things are ever that easy. I did some quick research and selected a dual-handset cordless phone system from a reputable brand, […]

The legend goes that an oracle had prophesied that whoever undid the Gordian Knot in the palace of the Phrygians would rule all of Asia. When Alexander the Great and his armies arrived in Gordia, he faced the knot, drew his sword and cut through it. The point of the story of course is that […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST  Hello, besties! I’m back with another (sort of late — please don’t kill me, Justin) recap of the March SDVoE LIVE! episodes. So, yes, the episodes I will be talking about today are from March, but the content is evergreen. Today we’re going to be learning about installs in houses […]

Things are weird right now. As I’ve said in other columns, business is still being conducted, just differently. And, I’m sorry to say, at a slower tempo. Some things still need to get done, though. And one of those things is tech support and troubleshooting, whether it’s for an existing installation or a new install […]

I know I’m a little late celebrating Robbie Burns Day, which was at the end of January, but a line from one of his famous poems is a good intro to this column: “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley.” What he meant was: “Things go wrong.” It’s a reality of […]

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the field troubleshooting systems. These days, as a distributor rep, I’m on the other end of the phone, fielding calls from dealers and helping them troubleshoot installations that use my hardware. Mostly, how I handle those calls is to walk through and confirm what they’ve already done: […]

Since I know that I have a reputation for aphorisms, let’s start off with this one: How you do one thing is how you do everything. Best practices are a drum that I beat on a regular basis. But that’s only because they’re important. When discussing anything, it’s often helpful to frame it differently, to […]

Everyone who knows me knows that I have an aphorism for every occasion. (I have sports metaphors too, but that’s not the topic at hand today.) One of my favorite aphorisms (although really, I have so many, it’s hard to choose a favorite) is that “Professionalism isn’t about not having problems: Everyone has problems. Professionalism […]

In my last column, I wrote about how virtual reality will offer amazing opportunities for integrators working in higher ed. A few days after I finished, I read an article that made me think about how augmented reality will change the basic functions of our industry. The article is titled “Why Every Organization Needs an […]

I have a tendency to get hung up on best practices. My excuse for being so centered on them is that best practices are, by definition, the best way to do something. My old boss and mentor frequently reminded us that there were three ways to perform a task: a right way, a wrong way […]

While everybody has an important role to play, it can be argued that the most important part of AV company are the techs. It’s important that everyone, sales, design, project management, programming and support do exemplary work that their job, but If the install and service techs aren’t an A-List team, none of the rest […]

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 […]