If you’ve been following rAVe DS, you know this is our fourth issue.  As you also probably know, there are more than a few “other” DS publications out there.  But, unlike those, we are picky on which stories we run and what we choose to send to you each month – in other words, just because we get DS news from some manufacturer, it doesn’t mean we will run it.  Yes, we’re picky.  But, the benefit is that you’re getting news that’s worth reading – not just a random applications story that was sent to everyone in the press.

If you don’t know what I am referring to, just go in your DELETED email and take a second look at the past few issues of ANY of those so-called digital signage newsletters.  They are LITERALLY cutting and pasting press releases into emails and sending them to you.  Seriously.  Go take a look.  What good does that do you?  There’s no perspective on the product, there’s no logic in sending it and, to be perfectly honest, their newsletters suck.

Look, I am NOT saying we are perfect or that we are the ULTIMATE eNewsletter covering the DS market – but we don’t suck.  We certainly don’t simply resend you press releases.

Case in point — and you can go in your deleted email and see this for yourself – one of those so-called “publishers” of a DS newsletter LITERALLY had the same stories in their Rental version of their newsletter as they did in their DS version – the exact same.

The point?  We are filtering the news and looking at all the stories but only bringing you stuff you need to know.  Do you really care that Ronin hired a new VP, that Scala is now on a ferry boat in Finland or that version 2.1 of someone’s software has been released?  Come on – give me a break.  Sure, we could go to weekly news – but why waste your time with crap you don’t even want to read?

With that in mind, we hope you enjoy issue number four.  Not only did we select news for you that you can use (and included our opinions on the product or service offering), but we’ve also included two great EDUCATIONAL articles on the DS market that will help you, the AV Integrator, make decisions as you move forward into the DS market.  One is from a longtime friend Jeff Faber (and his partner Angelo) of Sharps AV in Canada (they’ve done some awesome installs up there) and the other is from another friend I’ve known for about 15 years, Sean Matthews – he’s the president of DS manufacturer Visix, in fact.  Both pieces are aimed at you – the AV integrator – and will help you enter the DS market.

Oh, and neither one of the articles are cut-and-pastes of some loser, unhelpful, self-prophesizing press release…