Dawn Meade

I just learned that Eugene Polley passed away on Sunday at age 96.  Most of you are now saying, "Who?"  Eugene Polley is widely credited as the inventor of the television remote control.  In the 1950s, Polley was the Zenith engineer who developed the Flash-Matic television control unit, along with many other innovations.  In his nearly 50-year career, he earned 18 US patents and was influential in the development of many features and products we all take for granted.  And, he invented the remote... which in his day resembled a ray-gun and sounds infinitely cooler than the button-laden brick we all lose in our couches.  Thanks, Eugene, for all your great ideas and innovations.  Rest thee well.

Read more about Eugene Polley:  http://www.marinij.com/business/ci_20680677/eugene-polley-inventor-tv-remote-dies-at-96 Add a comment

Peter Shankman is a genius and a social media and marketing GIANT.  He's also a great guy who curates and shares a lot of fabulous content online and shares with his network... in which I am lucky to be included.  He just read a great (okay, greatly depressing) posting on BuzzFeed by a guy named Matt Stopera called "48 Things That Will Make You Feel Old."  The original post is located at http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/things-that-will-make-you-feel-old and I highly recommend surfing over to check it out. If you are anything like me, you will vacillate wildly between "OMG! I remember THAT/HIM/HER!!" and "OMG... I am soooooo old! *le sigh*"  

Still, it's a great read and I felt #16 was particularly apropos for our industry.  It's the picture of the techo-happenin' guy shown with this blog, captioned, "30 years later, you can carry all of this in your pocket."     Too true, though I would add, "and it's all one device... smaller than a deck of cards... and holds WAY more movies, music and processing power than the entire picture combined!"   It's a beautiful thing, in some ways, and it's really depressing in others because it makes you feel REALLY old.  But maybe that's just my looming high school reunion talking... and no. I won't tell you how many years! :-P

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Dawn Meade, CTS – also known as AVDawn – is the Marketing and Media Coordinator for Net-AV in Hampstead, Maryland. She is an industry veteran with experience in integration, AV sales, and social media. You can find her on Twitter (@avdawn), on AVNation podcasts, on her AV tech blog (www.avdawn.com), and of course, here at rAVe as a staff writer and as part of the rAVe BlogSquad.
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I'm not at NAB this week, but if I were, I'd be stopping by Booth SU10519 to visit Cabletime USA.  Cabletime is the manufacturer of MediaStar TV, Multimedia and Digital Signage Delivery Systems.

Okay, I'll be honest here. I don't know much at all about Cabletime and their MediaStar product. Seriously.  Like, I've heard of it in passing. It could be the best thing on the planet for that application, or it could be the absolute worst.  But what I do know is that the folks at Cabletime are good people.

You see, for every registered visitor to booth SU10519 at NAB this week, Cabletime will donate a dollar to the Wounded Warrior Project. All you have to do is stop in at booth SU10519 and let them scan your badge. Yes, you'll probably then get marketing mail from Cabletime for a while, but you'll also be helping combat-disabled service men and women readjust to civilian life and the new challenges they face in overcoming their injuries.

Wounded Warrior Project is a cause dear to my heart, and if I were in Vegas this week, I'd be dragging folks over to booth SU10519 personally!  Since I'm not, however, I figure a shout-out here will have to do.  Go swipe your badge at SU10519 and help a Wounded Warrior who sacrificed his or her health defending our country.  And if it turns out that Cabletime's MediaStar distribution over IP and CAT-5/UTP products live up to their hype, you've found a great product as well as helping our Wounded Warriors.

To learn more about Wounded Warrior Project, visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org

To learn more about Cabletime and MediaStar, GO TO BOOTH SU10519 and swipe your NAB badge!  (Or go to www.cabletime.com if, like me, you aren't at NAB.)



Dawn Meade, CTS – also known as AVDawn – is the Marketing and Media Coordinator for Net-AV in Hampstead, Maryland. She is an industry veteran with experience in integration, AV sales, and social media. You can find her on Twitter (@avdawn), on AVNation podcasts, on her AV tech blog (www.avdawn.com), and of course, here at rAVe as a staff writer and as part of the rAVe BlogSquad. 

As the daughter of a WWII vet, daughter-in-law of a Vietnam vet and sister/cousin/niece/aunt of veterans from every branch of US Military Service, she hopes you too will support your local Wounded Warriors and veterans. <3
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So, I caught the remake of Arthur on a cable movie channel the other day. I’m absolutely NOT a fan of Russell Brand and was quite upset to hear that they were remaking the movie originally. While it was never high art or anything, the original Arthur is a bit of a classic and good for some laughs, mainly at the manic performance of Dudley Moore as the namesake loveable drunk – a performance that has set the standard for a generation of actors “acting drunk.”

Still, I adore Helen Mirren (Can I *be* her when I grow up?) and figured it was worth a watch on a boring afternoon.  I’m so glad I watched it, if for no other reason, for the following scene:

 

As a Pro-AV Systems Integrator for the majority of my professional career, I shall attempt to answer Arthur’s rhetorical questions, at least as they apply to our industry:

Systems Integration Professional… Would anyone do it as an amateur?

Sadly, Arthur, yes. We see this everyday in our industry. Sometimes it’s a trunk slammer or industry newb who just hasn’t (or won’t) dedicate the time and energy to getting much-needed training and certifications to become a Professional.  Sometimes it’s the DIY master – the guy who is somewhat handy, has hooked up his home TV or stereo and figures he can do anything. And sometimes it’s a related trade who has some of our skill-set and a big ego, assuming that there is NOTHING we do that they can’t.  Suffice to say, yes, there are amateur Systems Integrators and they do take work from Systems Integration Professionals at times. On the bright side, they also CREATE work for us other times, because once they screw something up or get it semi-functional, they have to call in the Systems Integration Professionals to fix it or finish it.

Would anyone approach Systems Integration as a hobby, for fun on a Saturday afternoon, instead of flying a kite?

Absolutely – though very often these Systems Integration hobbyists are also Systems Integration Professionals.  I mean, c’mon… you *know* you’ve got your own rack, or control system, or tricked-out, cobbled together home theatre at home! I know for certain that Mr. AVDawn is always tinkering. We have a touch panel control system running our house, cobbled together from salvage parts, eBay acquisitions and sheer stubbornness. Whenever we find some particularly brilliant new bit of tech, it’s only a matter of time until some aspect of that makes its way into our house.  Our friends in the industry tend to have similar stories.  Granted, these home-hobby systems are generally ugly.  Our home rack is ATROCIOUS, but that’s the shoemaker’s shoeless kids theory… We save the good work for AT work and just fiddle about at home. Even still, few Systems Integration Professionals manage to resist bringing at least SOME of their work home, for personal use, on a Saturday afternoon, instead of flying a kite!

Who is integrating systems for their own amusement?

Asked and answered, my good fellow!  Pretty much everyone in the AV Systems Integration field also integrates for fun at home… as well as many at home DIY guys, IT professionals and electricians, and almost any guy between the ages of, say 15 and death… And yes, that’s pretty intentionally sexist right there.  After all, guys have some genetic component or primal instinct to tinker – be it with car engines, AV or electrical systems, household plumbing and so on.  Yes, there are a growing number of us ladies in the industry, but on the main, we aren’t the tinkerers, putterers and hobby-geeks. Still, some of us geek out just as badly as the fellas do… and it is amusing.

Dawn Meade, CTS – also known as AVDawn – is an industry veteran with experience in integration, AV sales, and social media. You can find her on Twitter (@avdawn), on her AV tech blog, and of course, here at rAVe as a staff writer and as part of the rAVe BlogSquad. Her hubby, Harry Meade, CTS-D, is also on Twitter (@MrAVDawn). Add a comment

Yesterday, I got a very vivid illustration of just how powerful Social Media can be.

I grew up in a very small town in Western PA.  Very small.  Like, 200 houses maximum, small.  The town was settled in the early 1800s by about 25 families, who lingered and intermarried until today when pretty much everyone is related to everyone else somehow... and folks are still known as "that new family" if they've only lived in town since the 1970s or so.

Now, this li'l speck on the map doesn't have its own government - it is, in fact, an unincorporated area that straddles two townships - but it does have a church and a fire department.  The fire department is an all-volunteer service, founded by the town fathers (including my grandfather) in 1942.  And, like many volunteer fire departments in Western PA, Paintertown Volunteer Fire Department holds an annual Fish Fry supper every Friday during Lent.  This town social event serves as a fundraiser for the upkeep of the fire trucks. The volunteer fire fighters, the junior fire fighters and the members of the Ladies' Auxiliary all work together to cook and serve a variety of delicious dinner options, and everyone who buys a meal also gets a complimentary dessert - homemade cake or pie made and donated by the town mothers (including my mother).  It's one of those great small town traditions that makes us all long for Grover's Corners, Bedford Falls and Mayberry.

So what on earth does this have to do with Social Media?  Well, I'll tell you.  Because the tradition of the Fish Fry fundraiser is so popular in Western Pennsylvania, Y108 (Pittsburgh's County) radio has an annual remote broadcast event called Monty's Fish Fry Tour.  Throughout "Fish Fry season," fire departments and churches who have Fish Fry fundraisers can submit their names to the radio station.  A number of them are listed on the radio station web site for a week and people are encouraged to vote for their favorite from that group.  Each week's winner gets to host DJ Monty and the Y108 crew for a live broadcast from their Fish Fry that Friday.  Yesterday (March 30, 2012), Monty and the Y108 gang broadcast live from Paintertown VFD, who won the week's online vote overwhelmingly, thanks in large part to Social Media.

How do I know it was Social Media that won the broadcast for Paintertown?  Because the tiny little town I described at the beginning of this article got MORE THAN 64,000 VOTES in the 5 days voting was open!  That's right, a town of less than 200 houses in the sub-sub-suburbs of Pittsburgh got 64,000 votes in less than a week. In short, members of the fire department got on Facebook and Twitter and put word out to vote for P-town on the Y108 site.  Even though I now live in the Baltimore/DC area, I put word out to my followers on both FB and Twitter to ask for votes too.  (Hey, my grandfather was the department's first Captain. My great-uncle Frank was the first Fire Chief, and my late father was a life member and officer of the department until he passed!)  My Facebook friends around the US and even Canada & the UK went to the site and voted.  My Tweeps from all over did the same... as did the FB friends and Tweeps of many of my relatives back in P-town.  And, in the end, this organized effort of a few small town residents on just a couple of social outlets earned major returns with the contest win and a lot of free publicity for this small fundraiser.

Now, if a few average citizens from a small town can get THAT much result in 5 days, just imagine how much publicity, how much brand awareness, and how much potential business YOUR organization can earn with a planned, concerted effort on social media activities!  There are resources out there to teach you how - including the AVNation AVSocial podcast hosted here on rAVe Edge - so what's your excuse?  Put the power of social media to work for you today!

Dawn Meade, CTS – also known as AVDawn – is the Marketing and Media Coordinator for Net-AV in Hampstead, Maryland. She is an industry veteran with experience in integration, AV sales, and social media. You can find her on Twitter (@avdawn), on AVNation podcasts, on her AV tech blog (www.avdawn.com), and of course, here at rAVe as a staff writer and as part of the rAVe BlogSquad. 

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I recently started a new job, after more than a year of freelance jobs and short-term contracts in and out of the AV industry. I've now "tasted" a variety of companies in different segments of our industry and now that I've returned to my roots as a systems integrator, I'm discovering that I've suffered from Corporate Stockholm Syndrome. 

If you Google "corporate Stockholm Syndrome," many bloggers and authors have tried to redefine the psychological phenomenon of hostages identifying with their captors for the corporate and business world. One of the best attempts comes from a programming company, C2, which describes the term as "the phenomenon wherein employees of a business start to identify with, and are exceedingly loyal to, an employer who is manifestly hostile to their own self-interest."  For my purposes, however, this definition can be expanded. 

I've discovered, since starting work at a new integrator, that I have a set and fixed idea in my head what "being an integrator" is - that I have a fairly narrow definition of that idea, developed through my experiences in a few rather small slices of our industry and that my own understanding of "being an integrator" is being challenged, evolving and growing through my new endeavor.  I'm learning that there is more than one way to skin a cat as the old trope goes, so not only must I learn the ways my new company performs its day-to-day integration operations, I also must learn to adjust my own expectations of the daily and long-term work, and perform accordingly. 

Now, on the bright side, I've already learned - to my utter joy - that my own philosophies, innovative impulses and creative vibes are far more in line with those of the new company than they've been with any other company I've been involved with. That bodes very well for our shared future and mutual success.  So, while I've got to "deprogram" myself as we go, I'm sure bright things lie ahead for AVDawn.

What about you?  Have you ever had an experience with Corporate Stockholm Syndrome?  Of getting sucked into a business environment where you lose perspective of the bigger picture (be it personally, of the industry big-picture, or of the world at large)? Have you ever started a new position and constantly had to pinch yourself that, no, this is really how things work here (on the good side, or the bad side)?  Let me know in the comments below!



Comic, titled "Stockholm Syndrome for Animators" by My Medicated Cartoon Life - http://mymedicatedlife.blogspot.com/2010/04/stockholm-syndrome-for-animators.html
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It's New Year's Eve... the end of 2011. It has been a crazy year in general - for the world, for our nation, for the economy, and both personally and professionally for AVDawn.

I will not bore you with endless lists and recaps of 2011, nor will I take this time to play perfect prognosticator and attempt to predict the possibilities post-midnight in 2012.  (Nice alliteration, eh? ^_^)

Rather, I wanted to share a few happy bits of media with you that are appropriate for this festive time of calendar changing.  First, a look back at the movies of 2011, remixed for YouTube by hatinhand.  This video montage includes 166 films, 6 songs, over a month of uploading and editing and 40 untitled sequences in Avid.  Plus, it's really cool.

 

Next, we have AVDawn's favorite year-end tradition (right up there with Rockin' New Years Eve and a rousing chorus of Auld Lang Syne at midnight).  You see, I'm a fan of many different music genres, but I particularly enjoy the mash-up.  For the uninitiated, a mash-up is a new or unique piece of music created by remixing two or more songs.  Mash-ups are most often found in dance clubs and online.  Well, since 2008, a genius fellow named DJ Earworm (www.djearworm.com) has paid homage to the end of the year by creating a mash-up of the year's top songs.  The very first was titled "The United States of Pop" with subsequent versions spinning off from that name.  The 2011 edition, just released on December 26, is "The United States of Pop 2011: World Go Boom."  Enjoy it... and talk to you next year!  Here's to 2012!

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With sincerest apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, I hereby present, "A Pittsburgh Christmas"

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Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
All the family was scurrying like an A.D.D mouse.
The lights and the tinsel were strewn about with flair,
For in just a few hours, a great party'd be there.

The children were scrambling with chores to be done,
In anticipation for much Christmassy fun.
With Mom in the kitchen, and I as her aid,
Lots of cookies and holiday treats, we got made.

When 1 o'clock came and a pause came o'er all.
It's an NFL Saturday! Time for football!
Away to the TV, ran young and old.
Time to cheer on our own Black & Gold!

Our Steelers are winning and prezzies are wrapped.
Dinner is cooking and the dogs are well-napped.
When who, to the house, should suddenly appear,
But cousins and brothers, all bearing cases of beer

For the party that night (though one now is okay!)
Touchdown! Thank you, Mendenhall, Batch and John Clay!
The family is happy and the mood, oh-so-Merry
Even if Mom still demands we all clean, tote and carry.

"Now, Dawn, sort the cookies! Now, Helena?" "Yes, ma'am!"
"Help Uncle Harry lift the turkey and huge Christmas ham!
To the tables, bring dinner and treats for us all,
We must eat in a hurry, there's no time to stall!"

We have dinner at 3, and then church service at 8.
Then, back to the house, where we party til late!
With our cousins, our neighbors, and friends through the years,
We share fun and fellowship, and quite a few cheers.

In the morning, comes breakfast and presents galore
With immediate family (and sometimes a few more).
Its the way we all answer the seasonal call -
Happy birthday to Jesus and Merry Christmas to all!

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Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone, from AVDawn & MrAVDawn, the AV pups and all the extended AVDawn family in Pittsburgh!
 

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This Friday past, the Women in AV (WAVE) held their first 'international' tweet-up, with live events held simultaneously in 10 cities around the US and via Twitter, worldwide.  For a first-effort, I'd say this event was a rousing success.  Thanks to the BlogSquad's own Jennifer Willard for working so hard to put this event together!

In Washington, DC, I ended up with the task of organizing a venue for the party.  Since there was no way to really know who and how many would show up for this inaugural event, I decided to throw the local party at a joint where I'd enjoy hanging out. Thus, Fado Irish Pub in DC's Chinatown became our tweet-up home.  Fantastic, authentic Irish food and lots of great beer and cider on tap, plus open WiFi.  Not a bad place to spend an evening for a tweet-up!

For the DC tweet-up, we had 5 RSVP in advance.  One ended up not making the trip down from Baltimore (though we have planned for a Baltimore area meet up to follow after the holidays!) and two of the others never made it to the official WAVE table.  To be fair, it's quite possible they were at the pub.  Fado is located less than a block from the Verizon Center and the Washington Capitals were playing the Toronto Maple Leafs at home Friday night. Suffice to say, the pub was HOPPING all night long! 

In the end, my partner in crime (Betsy Hiner, a Baltimore County middle school music teacher and "tech liaison" for the school) and I handed out WAVE fliers to the ladies in the crowd, met some great people, had some great conversations - in real life in the pub, as well as among the WAVE members tweeting throughout! - and enjoyed some fantastic food.  (If you ever visit Fado, let me highly recommend the Black & Tan Brownie with Guinness Ice Cream.  YUMMO!)   Plus, the Caps won their game and before we left, the crowd at the pub tripled in time for the DJ to kick off the 'late night' events. 

I know several of the other cities had a very large turn out and I look forward to hearing run-downs from those places - in particularly Gina Sansivero's happening NYC event and the crazy WAVE party in Minneapolis that apparently started several hours early.  Thanks again to Jennifer Willard and Kelly Perkins for getting WAVE off the ground; to Sara and the rAVe crew for being great supporters of the group and the tweet-up; and to Gary of rAVe and NEC for providing an LCD TV as a giveaway for the event.  Congrats to @Vaddio_Hailey for winning the big prize!  You go, girl!

As for me, I enjoyed the event - small though it was, in DC - and look forward to future WAVE tweet-ups and online discussions... as well as a WAVE party at Infocomm come June? *coughHintHintcough*  Until then, thanks for a great kickoff to the weekend and the holiday season, ladies!  Slainte!
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I’ve gotten a lot of fantastic feedback from my last blog, Preach It – including having the blog featured on last week’s AVWeek podcast by AVNation. And every word is honest truth… As an AV pro, you have to be passionate about your field and about the technology and about the work you do.  However, there can be a downside to this passion for the industry. It can become an obsession, an addiction that impacts your life.  Hi everyone.  My name is Dawn.  And I’m an AV Professional.

Now, I’m sure you’re thinking, “What the heck? Just last week she told us, ‘EMBRACE IT! Embrace and share the industry!’”  Well, yes. We do need to evangelize AV and, honestly, to make a career out of it, you do need to love the field or it’s just another pain-in-the-ass job.  Seriously.  But… well… it *can* become an obsessive love, and if you’ve worked in AV for more than five minutes, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Have you ever been on an “immersive” amusement ride and nearly given yourself whiplash trying to turn backwards in the seat to see what projector they’re using to create the effect?  You’re an AV professional.  Been out to eat at a restaurant or sports bar and gone up to the manager to insist on resetting their satellite boxes or monitors because the scrolling logo offended your sensibilities?  You’re an AV professional.  Watched a massive extravaganza – like the Super Bowl Halftime Show or Olympics Opening Ceremony – and spent your time critiquing and criticizing the tech as much or more than enjoying the performances? Oh yeah, you’re an AV professional.

It’s rather endemic to the field – Most of the AV pros I’ve spoken to have experienced this at one point or another. Being married to another AV pro, such experiences are a constant in my own life.  For example, watching the chick-flick “Never Been Kissed” almost always brings my hubby to tears at the end… No, not the part when Michael Vartan shows up to finally kiss Drew Barrymore, but right before that, when she thinks he isn’t coming and drops a handheld mic, windscreen first, heavily onto the ground. That’s pain, right there, for most AV professionals! 

Most recently, we had one of these AV pro moments while watching “The Sing-Off” on NBC.  Now, Harry and I both sing, and we’ve both played instruments, so we love watching a show like this, where incredibly talented vocal artists compete for a record contract. Each episode opens with an AMAZING production number featuring up to 70 singers. While we are regularly blown away by the talent on the show, and the spectacular arrangements they pull off for these opening numbers, inevitably the conversation becomes, “Hon, how many frequencies you think they need for all of those wireless mics? Can you imagine setting up *that* wireless system?  I mean really…”  Yup, we’re AV professionals.

How about you?  Got a great story about a moment when you realized just what a big AV geek you are?  Share it in the comments below. After all, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery!

Dawn Meade, CTS – also known as AVDawn – is an industry veteran with experience in integration, AV sales, and social media. You can find her on Twitter (@avdawn), on her AV tech blog (www.avdawn.com), and of course, here at rAVe as a staff writer and as part of the rAVe BlogSquad.  Her hubby, Harry Meade, CTS-D, is also on Twitter (@MrAVDawn).

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