Ten Years: Pro AV Integrators in a Networked World
By Bob Snyder
Editor, rAVe Europe
Editor’s Note: This story was taken from our European publication (rAVe Europe) from last week’s issue.
Wow, it doesn’t seem long ago but rAVe EUROPE is finishing 10 years of publishing with its original tagline still in place: pro AV integrators in a networked world.
Ten years on and we are still coming to grips with that “networked world.” The IP protocol changed everything and the digital transformation keeps on rolling…
Hard to believe but there still are naysayers, companies that reject that IT networks are the growing backbone of what we do. Yet others have embraced IT more than could have been expected with name changes, new skills and the business units which reflect the added expertise.
Recently I met with another editor in the business who accepts the IT connection but just can’t see how Smart Building has anything to do with us in Pro AV integration.
Smart Building revolves around an IP network that connects all the technology that runs a building. Our relationship as an industry with Smart Building hinges of the fact that the new definition of a smart building includes enabling the occupants in a digital (“networked world”) life.
It doesn’t mean AV integrators are expected to enter the HVAC business; it does mean we are well suited to understand the integration of the many technologies on the building network. That might buy us an earlier entre into the process of building or retrofitting.
We may be the unique “fish” we think we are in AV but we still swim in a lake. The same IP environment that connects Pro AV to IT networks and buildings will soon connect everything to everything…and you can hear more about that at the Internet of Things (IoT) session at the Smart Building Conference at ISE 2015.
It’s no longer simply AV/IT networks…the impact of mobile on Pro AV is one of the trends that exploded in the 10 years we have been publishing rAVe EUROPE. And the IoT is the next wave of mobile transformation that will change our business.
Does anyone else notice the coincidence that the number “10” also contains the simple binary code that computers use to create networks?
If you’d like to register for the Smart Building Conference at ISE in Amsterdam, go here.