As you may know, I write a lot about the human aspects of technology and the importance of connecting to people’s emotions or sensibilities while using that technology. I consider these aspects essential “tools of the trade.” Well, the interface — and how humans interact with the systems we design and install — is just […]

Like most folks out there, I spent many years not understanding what UX (User eXperience) was and, more importantly, what the difference between UI (User Interface) and UX was. Over time I came to realize that what was being commonly delivered as a UI in the AV world did not translate to good customer experience. […]

If you’re a movie fan, you’re well aware of the ongoing conflict often portrayed between humans and machines in a dystopian future. Think “West World,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Terminator,” “I, Robot” and “The Matrix.” I can’t help but wonder if these movies are so popular because they reflect our own personal experiences of the […]

For the past several years in higher education, the active learning classroom has grown in popularity. With these active learning classrooms comes an increase in technology. Many of the classrooms have multiple displays and multiple ways of getting your content onto those displays. These may consist of flat panels, projectors and interactive whiteboards. The expectation […]

Utelogy’s latest software release includes something called the Utelogy Visual Framework (UVF), which allows programmers, end-users or integrators to build or restyle their user interface. The UVF includes a component reference guide, that allows users to take standard, ‘out of the box’ components and use them or with the Component API and Theming Guide, developers […]

Some categorize the quality of a user experience as a hierarchy, like this one: An accessible user interface does its job. You can access and interact with the interface. A usable interface is one which can be manipulated to achieve a desired result. This doesn’t mean that the result is something of particular value to […]

I’ve been around AV for the last 15 years and have worked for residential and commercial integrators as well as AV manufacturers. There has been a lot of change in that time, and most agree that the days of selling little black mystery boxes for 60 points margin are all but gone. In fact, many […]

AMSTERDAM and RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CALIF., FEBRUARY 2, 2017 — With the emergence of voice control as the hottest new trend in AV, AVPhenom will be introducing a new voice control product at ISE 2017. “Ever since Alexa’s debut at CEDIA, I have been obsessed with voice control as the future of the user interface […]

It’s fun to be a part of the tech industry, but it’s also interesting sometimes to take a step back and look at it from afar. I took the opportunity to do that a couple days ago with respect to all the attention Alexa and Amazon Echo have been getting ever since the Crestron compatibility […]

If you are looking for a good source of information and body of research on all things business and technology, arguably there is not a better resource than Gartner. It is definitely worth a few minutes to go to their technology page once a week and browse or even to sign up for their email alerts and […]

I’m sure most of the people reading this have heard of NVIDIA, the company known for making amazing graphics cards and GPUs for PCs. If you’re a gamer, I’m sure you may have even pined over a GeForce or Quadro card to enhance your graphics performance or run multiple displays. So with gaming being a […]