Steph Beckett (00:17)

Good morning everyone. Happy Wednesday. It’s Rave TV. I’m Steph Beckett.

 

John Henkel (00:23)

I’m John Henkel I’m not Gary Kayye as you can tell.

 

Steph Beckett (00:25)

No, you’re not.

 

No, you’re not. But we’re we bring in other hosts, you know, and w sometimes we just bring in other hosts. And now you’re here.

 

John Henkel (00:32)

I’m thankful for that.

 

Steph Beckett (00:33)

You’re doing this with us about once a month. So welcome everyone who is watching right now. Welcome him in the comments. but yeah, how you’ve done this with me once before and I was traveling, and then you came back and again I’m traveling. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I

 

John Henkel (00:47)

Here we are. Well, that’s your job, basically, right? Is travel like half the time or so. Right.

 

Steph Beckett (00:53)

I it feels

 

John Henkel (00:53)

And

 

Steph Beckett (00:53)

like it. I feel like it’s like a little it’s probably like forty percent of my time is trying.

 

John Henkel (00:58)

Crazy. We were talking about that. I did that back in the day years ago, which is great. And it is it was cool. I don’t know if it’s less I think it’s a little less fun these days though, traveling. I don’t know.

 

Steph Beckett (01:07)

Yeah.

 

Yeah. I would say so.

 

John Henkel (01:10)

Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (01:11)

so I’m in Austin, Texas for WebexOne with Cisco, and it’s it’s very interesting because the beginning of this trip I was in New Orleans for a friend’s Bachelorette weekend. and getting there was was kind of giving planes, trains, and automobiles a little bit because I got I’m I had a layover in Austin, Texas for some reason.

 

And then I got stranded in Austin, Texas, and I’m on the phone with Delta, trying to get to this Bachelorette weekend, which mind you, I’m throwing. So all of

 

John Henkel (01:44)

Mm, nice.

 

Steph Beckett (01:45)

the decor, all of the gifts for the bride, all of the goodie bags for all of the girls, like that’s all with me. everyone else has gotten there, and I’m on the phone with Delta. They reroute me to Atlanta. So now I have to fly from Austin to Atlanta, Atlanta to New Orleans.

 

And then that flight was so delayed that I missed the last flight to New Orleans that day. and then had to spend the night in Atlanta, which it was the delays and everything were because of weather. So I basically had to like

 

John Henkel (02:16)

Mm.

 

Steph Beckett (02:17)

cry to get a hotel room, which was no problem.

 

John Henkel (02:19)

It’s not their fault. Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (02:21)

I was I was already really emotional. So you know, I got there the next morning. I was on the seven thirty AM flight to New Orleans, so I did make it, but that was

 

That was a lot. That was crazy. I wouldn’t recommend that. And that’s not that’s happened to me twice now this year. Where like I’ve just been stranded somewhere in a city that I don’t like live in or have friends in really. So they’re like, I’m

 

John Henkel (02:46)

Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (02:46)

I’m I you always feel like a little beggar. You’re like, Can I please have a hotel room? And they’re like, I guess. Like, whatever. Shut up. And then they

 

John Henkel (02:55)

Duh.

 

Steph Beckett (02:56)

But at least they gave me a nice hotel this time. They

 

When I got stranded in Dallas after Infocom, they were like, yeah, sure, you can have a hotel. Would you like a motel six? And I was like, No.

 

John Henkel (03:08)

Hmm.

 

No, would you like a Motel Six? Turn it back around on them.

 

Steph Beckett (03:11)

Right. I was like,

 

you I was like, y’all got anything in the back that’s like if I walk outside, I’m not in the outside? Like y’all got something with like no cigarette

 

John Henkel (03:20)

Yeah, please.

 

Steph Beckett (03:23)

holes in the sheets? Like that would be super good for me. And then and then they said yeah.

 

John Henkel (03:28)

Little things.

 

Steph Beckett (03:28)

They were like, yeah, we have a windom. And I was like, why why didn’t we leave with that? So yeah, we got

 

John Henkel (03:33)

Come on, start with that.

 

Steph Beckett (03:36)

there, but

 

My God, I don’t know what is going

 

John Henkel (03:38)

It’s all good.

 

Steph Beckett (03:38)

on this year with travel. It’s it’s so bad and it it’s been that way for most of the people that I have talked to and know. So I don’t know what’s going on.

 

John Henkel (03:47)

Well, and and I think the worst part for me, hearing your story, is that this was a pleasure trip. This should have been free from problems, right? That’s when

 

Steph Beckett (03:50)

Hm. Yeah. Yes.

 

John Henkel (03:53)

you want to have the smooth flight, upgraded seat, blah, blah, blah. But you know, that’s the way it works. Here you are, smiling as always. So that’s good.

 

Steph Beckett (03:59)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Yeah. And I told you yesterday when I first told you about this that to get me there, the bride paid a witch on Etsy for like good weather

 

John Henkel (04:15)

I love this.

 

Steph Beckett (04:17)

to get me there. I think she paid like $65 to a witch on Etsy to

 

John Henkel (04:22)

That worked.

 

Steph Beckett (04:23)

be like, can you clear the weather so my friend can get here? and I mean it worked.

 

So and none of my bags got lost. And on the flight that was like the next morning, I originally didn’t have a seat. I get to the gate and they’re like, yeah, you don’t have a seat on this flight. And I was like, What do you mean? And they were like, We don’t know. And I was What do you mean you don’t know? You’re Delta. You work at Delta. What is this going on? And then they’re they’re on the phone, they’re on the computer, they’re doing a lot. And I’m just sitting there, they’re boarding all the groups. They get to like board like six or seven. And then they’re like,

 

yeah, you have a seat. Here you go. Sorry, Miss Beckett. And then they like hand me the ticket. And I was like, what was all that song and dance for then? What what was going on?

 

John Henkel (05:06)

Extra

 

stress. Just what you needed, yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (05:09)

Yeah, and then yeah, they f somehow found a seat out of thin air. Neither of my bags got lost after being rerouted to Timbuktu and everything. And mind you, I had a huge

 

John Henkel (05:19)

That’s amazing.

 

Steph Beckett (05:20)

checked bag of like all the there were a lot of themed outfits this weekend that had all my costumes and witch hat and everything in it. And then a box full of like balloons and decorations and everything. And none of that got lost. So maybe that was the witch. Yeah.

 

John Henkel (05:37)

That’s amazing. Hey, whatever

 

it was, it worked, right? Etsy witch could be a thing, okay? I mean it’s good to know.

 

Steph Beckett (05:40)

Yeah, exactly. Right. So if y’all ever need anything, I I can find the witch’s

 

name on Etsy so you guys can can can contact her.

 

John Henkel (05:50)

Well and it

 

sounds like it’s a it’s a thing. There’s more than one. It isn’t like there’s only one Etsy witch, so wow. Okay. I’m gonna go check that out.

 

Steph Beckett (05:53)

Yeah, yeah, there’s a it’s a genre of of Etsy. Our producer’s

 

laughing because she knows I’m right. and and that’s not

 

John Henkel (06:04)

Yeah. I love it. You made it back.

 

Steph Beckett (06:08)

the end of the travel, you know. We were we were talking about some upcoming events yesterday, so we have one next week that I will be in attendance at, and that is Save 2026, which is all about sustainability in the A V industry.

 

I have been a a pretty big supporter of this organization since they formed in 2023 or 2024. and so I have I’ve been to every Save conference that they have had. So

 

John Henkel (06:37)

That’s great.

 

Steph Beckett (06:38)

I’m not breaking my streak. I’m gonna attend this one. Mike Blackman is gonna be there for the first time this year of ISC. So it they’ve gotten a little bit bigger and a little more support every single year. And that has been

 

Really, really exciting to see. So

 

John Henkel (06:55)

Yep.

 

I’m if I I’m gonna quote this and I believe I’m still correct. I didn’t check it out before the show, but I believe Shure went through the whole save process, which is awesome.

 

Steph Beckett (07:02)

Mm-hmm. They did.

 

John Henkel (07:04)

I was trying to get and I’ve got to be careful how I say this, I guess. I was trying to get us at NetCare to go through that as well. It just wasn’t the right time. We’re in some changes.

 

Steph Beckett (07:11)

Yeah.

 

John Henkel (07:12)

But have a large company like Shure go through the whole save sustainability program that they have is fantastic.

 

Steph Beckett (07:17)

Yeah.

 

John Henkel (07:18)

And it’s not that much of a of a lift for companies to do this. It was it’s really cool.

 

Steph Beckett (07:21)

It’s not. Yeah.

 

Shure is a really big proponent. Christine Schivink, who is their CEO, she was there last year. So that was very cool. I

 

John Henkel (07:31)

Mm-hmm. Awesome.

 

Steph Beckett (07:32)

got to meet her. She’s kind of like a rock star to me. So that was super neat to get to meet her in person. And can I and that was like the only person in A V that I’ve ever been nervous to meet, which is so funny. Yeah. No.

 

John Henkel (07:44)

Mm, funny. You were never nervous to meet me? Wow. Okay.

 

Yeah, good. No, there there are some rock stars and and and sh

 

Steph Beckett (07:50)

You’re like you’re just you’re just a nice guy. You’re just a nice smiley

 

guy. So no, I was never nervous to me. But but Christine Scheivank, like she’s so down to earth and cool, but I was I was like

 

John Henkel (08:02)

Yeah. And it’s a great example o of a woman in power of a huge company that’s very successful in A V. So what of course she’d be nervous. I mean, she’s like you said, a rock star. It’s awesome. We should have her

 

Steph Beckett (08:10)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

 

John Henkel (08:13)

on the show sometime.

 

Steph Beckett (08:14)

gosh, that would be awesome. That would be great. but yeah, I’m very excited. Crestron’s also a big proponent and they have, they’re gonna have a ton of people, at least a two or three people there too. So I’m excited to learn a little bit more about what they’ve been doing. they have some really great keynote speakers who are coming to talk a little bit about like e waste and sustainability. So it’s yeah.

 

It’s gonna be it’s gonna be awesome. I can’t wait.

 

John Henkel (08:43)

But it doesn’t stop there. Then you go to Boston, right? E four.

 

Steph Beckett (08:44)

No. Yes. And then also next week,

 

the latter half of next week, I go to E4 Boston. So we’re closing out. The E4 stops with the fourth one, fourth final one. I’ve never been to Boston before, so that’ll be exciting. and yeah,

 

John Henkel (08:57)

Hmm. Cool.

 

Steph Beckett (08:59)

if you are in the area, I highly recommend coming. It’s one of the easiest one-day in-person events to just get a bunch of CTS credit. So highly recommend coming. I am teaching a class and then I’m also doing

 

a handpicked highlights tour of a few of the booths on their show floor, which it’s always a very fun time. So I would of course recommend that you come. Tim Albright is giving the keynote, and it is all about like ways that you should update your business so that you can adapt and not kind of be left behind as things are constantly changing in our industry. So highly recommend that too. Then our last like

 

good size show of the year is LDI in December. And that’s gonna be in Las Vegas for like the last time in a while. Next year it’s gonna be in New Orleans. So mm-hmm

 

John Henkel (09:47)

That’s right.

 

Steph Beckett (09:48)

in October. So yeah, make sure to come to Vegas. Come to LDI. and I’m very excited to see like all of the rental staging performance

 

John Henkel (09:59)

Mm.

 

Steph Beckett (10:00)

tech. It’s always super fun. It doesn’t net gear goes to that show. So I think I normally see that there. Yeah. So

 

John Henkel (10:04)

Yep. Yep. And I’ve been

 

there. I I work for other companies who weren’t who were video processor

 

Steph Beckett (10:08)

Mm-hmm.

 

John Henkel (10:09)

and LED companies. So I’ve been to the show a few times. Yeah, that is always cool. It’s so different than Infocom or NAB, the the main shows that they go to. So all the smoke, you know.

 

Steph Beckett (10:12)

It’s fun. Yes. It’s so different. But it’s a good show. It’s like a good

 

closeout for the year. And also ISE 2027. We’re already planning for it. We’re

 

John Henkel (10:25)

Can’t believe it.

 

Steph Beckett (10:27)

already planning for it. so

 

John Henkel (10:28)

Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (10:29)

make sure to go ahead and register for that. We have a code. I have forgotten it. but I will find it.

 

John Henkel (10:36)

But you have a code.

 

Steph Beckett (10:38)

I think it’s like Rave 2027 or something. But

 

John Henkel (10:39)

It’s a code. It’s rave something. Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (10:42)

Yes.

 

John Henkel (10:44)

Perfect. And and that will be that’s coming up. I mean, that’s early February. So that’s it isn’t that far away really. So get your plans. And of course, for those of us in the US, it’s a lot more of an effort to go to Barcelona. so make the effort, get those reservations for those awesome restaurants in early. So you’re ready to go. That’s the key. Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (11:01)

In book your hotel now. They run out quick. So

 

Rave Pubs. It’s j it’s just Rave Pubs. Okay. I’m okay. Well, yeah,

 

John Henkel (11:10)

Easy.

 

Steph Beckett (11:11)

register for ISC. Code is Rave Pubs. We already have a code because things run out so early, especially for traveling from the US. So

 

John Henkel (11:19)

And

 

if you’re lucky enough, ISC is a huge show. I heard nothing but good stuff last year. It gets bigger every

 

Steph Beckett (11:22)

God. Mm-hmm.

 

John Henkel (11:24)

year. It’s a really good show. So if you’re able to go, I know it’s a distance and an expense, but it’s pretty cool.

 

Steph Beckett (11:30)

Yeah,

 

it’s it’s so worth going to because i for me that kind of sets the the bar for what the year is gonna look like in terms of what technology is gonna be trending, what’s going on, and of course Infocom is is huge for that too, but i ISC is just gigantic. Like I think last year they almost broke a hundred thousand people and I’m sure that they will this year. So it is just it is it is huge.

 

John Henkel (11:59)

Like you said, it sets the bar for what’s coming up for the year, which is nice. It’s nice to have something early in the year like that and then middle of the year Infocom and you’re good to go. And you get all the other shows, of course, along the way. So cool.

 

Steph Beckett (12:09)

Absolutely.

 

All right. Well, we are going to go into a quick spot from our sponsor and partner, ViewSonic, and then we are gonna bring on our first guest of the day. We’ll be right back.

 

Steph Beckett (13:28)

All right, and now we have our guest of the day, our first guest of the day, John Cruz. First of all, how are you doing this morning?

 

John Kruse (13:36)

I’m

 

doing well, well caffeinated and excited to

 

Steph Beckett (13:38)

Yep.

 

John Kruse (13:39)

spend some time with you guys this morning.

 

Steph Beckett (13:40)

It’s a little early for you, so thank you very much for joining still.

 

John Kruse (13:46)

Absolutely. I’m happy to be here.

 

Steph Beckett (13:47)

So first things first, tell everyone who’s watching and listening a little bit about who you are and what you do at USonic.

 

John Kruse (13:53)

Absolutely. So I’ve been in the industry for a long time, you know, since I touched my first soundboard at age eight in my local church, and I’ve had a love of pro AV ever since. And so that’s moved through live events into enterprise pro AV, and now I’m obviously with a manufacturer, an amazing one. And I have the privilege of leading the solutions engineering team here at ViewSonic, and we do everything from

 

pre-sales to on-site, you know, guided installed commissioning to post sale optimization, classic solutions engineering. And so I’m excited to spend some time talking with you guys this morning.

 

Steph Beckett (14:31)

Awesome. So we when we were kind of planning for this call a little bit, we were talking a little bit about govern display infrastructure. And when we say that, what exactly do we mean and why is that becoming more important for organizations right now?

 

John Kruse (14:47)

Yeah. Well, I can’t say what you mean. I don’t know what you mean, but I know when I think about it, right? No. I’m

 

Steph Beckett (14:50)

I guess what we what we mean. The royal we

 

John Kruse (14:53)

a little yep, little joke on there. so one piece I left out, obviously my background, I spent the last d decade in enterprise healthcare. So I was a customer of displays and pro A V infrastructure before I became a part of the manufacturer ecosystem. And so I see it from that perspective as an end user, and then I also see it

 

from the manufacturing side, what use cases and spaces are we trying to build toward? And I think for me around governed display infrastructure, I see a move from what can we put on a screen and what size is the right size into more of an IT, classic IT view of how do we responsibly deploy and secure and manage and monitor and integrate and maintain an entire fleet.

 

And I think it means that we need to begin treating its signage, but the the display itself less as a pane of glass on the wall and more as a managed endpoint within the broader, you know, A V IT ecosystem.

 

John (15:58)

Boy, as a solutions engineer, you have certainly seen everything. You see all the problems, you see all the good things, of course, too. But really maintaining all these endpoints is not easy, I know. And some of these malls, I know that that NetCare’s done some installs as well. are hundreds of displays. How do you manage all that and what are some of the things you find?

 

John Kruse (16:18)

Yeah. Well, I think you know, when we look at small deployments, right, five or ten displays, you can tolerate, you know, a remote control. when we start getting into hundreds or thousands, you just can’t. so things like configuration drift become a real problem, right? Someone changes an input, someone connects or unplugs an HDMI cable, someone turns something off, someone adjusts volume where you have media playback. And so

 

I think the goal really across the display industry is less about remote control or remote management as it’s been traditionally you know thought about. I think it’s more about desired state management. What state do we want that device or endpoint, right? What state do we want that endpoint to be in? We should know what our fleet of displays looks like and also be able to keep it there with as little interaction as possible.

 

We think about enterprise PC deployment, right? they’re not going to be satisfied to know that they can ping it and to know that it has power. They need to know is it patched, is it up to date with the latest OS service pack? Is it running our policies, our group policies properly, right? is authentication being enforced and working properly? You know, there’s much more to just is it on? it’s about a complete lifecycle management. And so again, as we move from a perspective of

 

displays as panes at the front of the room to displays as intelligent endpoints, I think that’s the mental transition that we need to make.

 

Steph Beckett (17:50)

Absolutely. And in your opinion, what does good government governance actually look like in practice when an organization is managing like a ton of these, like dozens, hundreds, thousands? Like that changes things significantly.

 

John Kruse (18:07)

Yeah, as I thought about this prior to our conversation this morning, I really came up with a few points. And I’d I’ll run through them quickly and then maybe we can, you know, press deep dive on any of them if it makes more sense. so the first one was, you know, what I said, changing from kind of a peripheral mindset to an actual interoperable endpoint mindset. configuration at scale, back to again get away from remotes and get into full desired state management.

 

That obviously bleeds then into observability and support. So we need to be able observe that state and support it. The best ticket is the one that a user never has to open. And then CMS is not equal to device management. So I think we need to not treat those things as interoperable or exchangeable. And then interoperability is governance. That’s part of the process. Everything has to play nice within the ecosystem.

 

And then the last one I think is important and most easily lost is we need to look at total cost of operations, ITCO. It’s so easy to get lost in CapEx. Hey, I’ve got this budget for this one-time deployment and it’s great. I’m gonna buy 500 displays, but then we don’t think about what is that product gonna cost? What’s its life cycle, its intended lifespan, what is it what is its uptime reliability, what does it cost to to repair? Is it serviceable in the field or not?

 

And once we start to look at that, you know, the cheapest display at purchase isn’t necessarily the one with the lowest total cost over its lifespan. So those are the the things I feel coming to the surface, both from my background as a customer and also and all my time spent now with VSonic’s amazing partners and customers.

 

Steph Beckett (19:49)

So yeah,

 

John (19:49)

That’s a great lead in. Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (19:51)

what what would you say is like the worst thing that can happen if an organization simply focuses on the capex of it all?

 

John Kruse (20:03)

Yeah,

 

I think we end up looking at the deployment as just that it’s a deployment. It’s not viewed then as a part of your display infrastructure or more importantly, just your governed pro A V IT infrastructure as a whole.

 

we if we look at the IT perspective, right? Let’s say someone has a massive Cisco switch stack or a massive Netgear switch stack, John, right? You don’t just deploy

 

John (20:28)

Hmm. Thank you.

 

John Kruse (20:29)

that. And you’re welcome, of course, Net Netgear, amazing Pro A V partner to ViewSonic. We love you guys. you don’t just stick the cores and the switches and the routers and the WAPs out in the building and never touch them again. You have to constantly maintain those for a whole host of reasons, right?

 

features, bug fixes, CVEs, you know, there’s a lot of things that need to be done. And so that requires ongoing operational focus and yes, expenditure. And so when you look at ProAV broadly, but displays as well as just a one-time expense, you can miss things down the road where maybe you pay a little more for one brand or one particular type of display over another, but it has a longer warranty. You know, something as simple as that. And that’s a great one that we see a lot in the field is

 

Well, why should I be buying a commercial display when I can just go to Best Buy or Walmart and buy that? It’s like, well, there’s a lot of reasons and we can get into them and we don’t need to do that here this morning. I think this group understands the difference between consumer and commercial displays, but it’s that type of mindset, right? Of the the buy once, cry once, but not really, because it’s super cheap. and then we end up paying for it by orders of magnitude sometimes over the life cycle of that project. Because I don’t know about you, but when I was a user

 

I didn’t get a consistent like, well yeah, we’re gonna put you on a three year room refresh cycle. So yeah, it’s great. We just spent a hundred thousand dollars on that space and we’ll commit to doing that again in three years. No, it was like, well, probably ten years. Maybe if you’re lucky, fifteen, you know, just keep it going until it’s dead and then, you know, keep it going a little longer. Revive it if you can.

 

John (22:09)

That is so hard to think about 10 years in technology like this. There’s there’s a lot of changes that come in. But those sort of things need to be thought about and and discussed and been part of that, part of the bid almost really from the beginning.

 

John Kruse (22:23)

Yeah, I I completely agree. And that’s where I think again we start talking about interoperability, right? that display in particular as a display manufacturer, that thing may live multiple lives, right? It may start off in a boardroom in a in a you know UC environment. that place may get ripped out and turned into, you know, open workspace, and so it gets moved to a lobby and spends some time as signage. You know, it

 

It may move around and work in a lot of different ways. And so how is it going to be reconfigurable? What environments is it gonna work with? Is it gonna work with QSIS and Crestron and Xtron and AMX? Is it gonna work as BYOD? Is it gonna work running, you know, a CMS natively on the device itself? Is it gonna play nice with an external signage player or OS? And when you start to think about it in that context, it’s no longer just that seventy-five inch panel at the front of the room.

 

It’s an investment that can be a a tool in your Pro A V toolkit and can be moved around and used and often outlives a lot of the other components within a space like a chair or a board table, right?

 

Steph Beckett (23:31)

Absolutely. So then where does ViewSonic fit into this conversation and what should integrators be thinking about now if they want to help their customers build display environments that can scale effectively?

 

John Kruse (23:44)

Yeah, I think that we we can fit into so many different places because of the breadth of our product portfolio, right? Everything from that old CRT monitor, the big boxy one you had on your your desk. let’s just say it was five years ago. Everyone on the call were okay with that. Definitely hasn’t been decades since CRTs. I know I’m not that old.

 

But we we run from that all the way up to massive custom DV LED deployments and everything inner in in between. everything from interactive flat panels to great 24-7 commercial displays to little portables, right? So we can offer a lot. And in doing so, I think it gives us the opportunity as a manufacturer to meet our customers, our resellers, our integrators, our consultants in the sweet spot.

 

Right. So when we talk about governed display, it’s about getting the right display and using it in the right way. And that’s my perspective from a solutions engineering is to be candid, I I’ve been on all sorts of pre-sales calls, right? I say, hey, sales, that’s somebody else’s job. I don’t know prices on

 

John (24:53)

Mm-hmm.

 

John Kruse (24:54)

stuff. I don’t know what your spa is. What my goal is, is to make sure that you get what you need to do what you want to do, and then it’s properly configured to work in the way you intended it to work.

 

And from a sales perspective, right, that’s the way that we ensure that that customer’s happy. We don’t get them once, gotcha. And then, you know, they come back later and they go, that wasn’t the right thing. It doesn’t work the way we thought. It wasn’t flexible.

 

Steph Beckett (25:13)

Yeah. Right.

 

John Kruse (25:18)

So we’ve got a lot of flexibility built in through the portfolio and then through within the products themselves. So when we start thinking about displays as endpoints,

 

The majority of our displays run an up-to-date Android OS, which gives a ton of flexibility. Right? You

 

John (25:37)

Mm-hmm.

 

John Kruse (25:38)

can connect things into that, use it as a USB hub, connect peripherals in, and then have a single stream USB-C connection that’s display and peripherals to you know a a Mac or a Windows laptop. We can run CMS applications natively on the device, which can eliminate both the hardware cost of an external player.

 

It can also eliminate a failure point, right? That takes another power supply, another network drop, takes those things out of play. But governance also doesn’t inherently mean that every display needs an OS. You know,

 

Steph Beckett (26:11)

Yeah.

 

John Kruse (26:12)

there’s a lot of places that have a security architecture that says, no, no IoT on our network. and Android is in a large part considered IoT by a lot of enterprise organizations. So we have OS-free endpoints that

 

can still make a display look fantastic, but they don’t have any of those Smarts built in because there are customer use cases that require that. And so again, interoperability is I think the key. We play nice with all of the great partners we have out there in the command and control space. I mentioned a few earlier, right? Crestron, QSIS, AMX, Xtron. And we we love working with those partners because again, our display is just part of a broader ecosystem.

 

And

 

really the only place we see just a display, right, is is in a huddle room or maybe on your desk. Everywhere else it’s part of something else. It’s connected to a UC compute or it’s connected to a larger control system. It’s part of a multi-display environment. you know, we’re we’re headed out next week to do some installations in gyms where it’s connected into scoreboard software, right? So my goal is to

 

back to the question is to get the right Viewsonic product into the customer’s hands, configure it appropriately, and then make sure that they’re well supported over the entire lifespan of that device.

 

Steph Beckett (27:32)

Yeah,

 

John (27:32)

Nice.

 

Steph Beckett (27:33)

wonderful. Last question for you. If people have any questions about anything that we have talked about this morning, where can they find more information?

 

John Kruse (27:41)

Yeah, well definitely head over to VewSonic.com and please come find me on LinkedIn. I’m happy to connect there as well and you know get you connected to additional people within our organization or some of our great partners if you’re looking for one. But Viewsonic.com is a great place to go to learn about all the different display technology we have and how we can put it to work for you.

 

Steph Beckett (28:01)

Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, John.

 

John Kruse (28:04)

Thank you. My pleasure, guys. Have a great day.

 

John (28:06)

Thanks,

 

John. Take care.

 

Steph Beckett (28:06)

Thanks, you two.

 

All right, we are gonna go into a quick spot from our other sponsor and partner, Shure and then we are gonna bring on our next guest, Julian Phillips. Be right back.

 

Steph Beckett (29:09)

All right, next guest, Julian Phillips. How are you doing this morning? Well, afternoon for you.

 

Julian Phillips (29:16)

Well, I’m in Frankfurt in Germany and the sun is shining.

 

Steph Beckett (29:20)

Mm.

 

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us as our next guest on Rave TV. For those who are watching or listening, why don’t you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

 

Julian Phillips (29:36)

So I’m Julian Phillips, Senior Vice President at AVI SPL, but probably better known for being the leader of XTG, the Experience Technology Group. But for those paying attention, I made an announcement

 

John (29:52)

Mm-hmm.

 

Julian Phillips (29:52)

last week that has handed over the leadership of XTG to my colleague Christine Rogers. And so I have future plans.

 

Steph Beckett (30:04)

Amazing. Are so yeah.

 

John (30:06)

How does that feel handing the

 

reins over? Sorry, we have other plans coming up, but after what you’ve established with X D G that’s gotta feel good and sort of not so good, maybe.

 

Julian Phillips (30:17)

It’s actually all good. I’ve been a builder my whole life in technology and to build XTG from a startup to where it’s got today, it was always the plan. There was a succession plan and I feel very proud of the team that I built, not only the leadership team, but everybody in XTG that’s achieved that. And actually in a way,

 

you know when it’s the right time and you know when that you might be getting it the way. And so it was absolutely the right time, the right decision, and I’m so proud of the team and very happy to be doing so. So no regrets.

 

Steph Beckett (30:58)

Yeah. So is your next venture public and like if not, what can you tell us so far about what you will be doing and what you will be working on?

 

Julian Phillips (31:12)

Well, I’ve had many people contacting me saying happy retirement.

 

John (31:18)

Mm-hmm.

 

Julian Phillips (31:19)

And I need to make something very, very clear.

 

Steph Beckett (31:21)

Ha ha.

 

Julian Phillips (31:22)

First of all, I’m not retiring. The very thought of retiring just sends a chill down my spine. I don’t think retirement is ever in my plan.

 

Steph Beckett (31:33)

Yeah, okay.

 

Julian Phillips (31:34)

Second of all, I’m not actually leaving AVI SPL in the traditional sense.

 

Steph Beckett (31:39)

Okay.

 

Julian Phillips (31:40)

So I remain

 

as an employee until the end of the year. And then I transition into a strategic advisory role moving

 

Steph Beckett (31:50)

Nice.

 

Julian Phillips (31:50)

forward. And there’s a number of things that AVI SPL is doing that I’m already involved in that I will continue to be involved in. First of all, I’m the co-chair of our AI Center of Excellence.

 

So we’re doing amazing things in looking at AI, I believe, in a responsible way at an enterprise level. Not only as far as how we use AI internally, but how we’re looking at the use of AI for our customer solutions. So very much still heavily involved in that. We also made an announcement at Infocomm in June about something we call Digital Workplace Experience or DWX.

 

which is again another new thing that we’re venturing into, which is a framework on how we look at the fully integrated workplace experience. Everything from the way that the building operates to the way that people come into space, the way the space management is provided all the way through to AV, UCC and everything together.

 

This, believe, is the next horizon for AVI SPL, is when you are only operating in one vertical solution stack in the enterprise, many people can learn how to do what you do. And they might, believe it or not, do it a little bit cheaper. But if you can stitch together the whole workplace experience across the whole enterprise, not many people can do that.

 

And given our enterprise global customer base, it’s really the right next move for us. I’m going to be hanging around for a while helping the organization figure out how we do more with that.

 

Steph Beckett (33:30)

Amazing.

 

Julian Phillips (33:33)

But now what you want do is one

 

John (33:33)

And I thought you’ve been

 

Julian Phillips (33:35)

of the other things I’m going to be up to, yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (33:37)

Yeah.

 

John (33:38)

Yeah, there’s some exciting things I know and I’m looking forward to to checking some of these out. But you have some writing endeavors that you’ve been working on. I know the is it Leviathan or Leviathan, first of all. Forgive me.

 

Julian Phillips (33:49)

Leviathan, so I switched the I and the A around to make it Leviathan. So it’s based on Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. But I imagine a world where AI is actually responsible for our governance in the future, as opposed to human beings on the principle that we haven’t really always done a great job of it. So that’s a little bit of a provocation, but I have two other books, Intelligent Humility and Data Gentism.

 

And so that’s interesting, but if anyone’s intrigued, you don’t make any money writing books. I do want to make sure that you all understand that.

 

John (34:26)

Mm.

 

Julian Phillips (34:27)

But I am on the speaker circuit, so I will be doing a lot more speaking moving forward. And also from an advisory perspective, a lot of that thought that I have and the writing that I do, I think it’s in the context of the age.

 

I genuinely believe we’re entering a new era for the way that things work. And a lot of the way we’ve thought about not only how we go to market, but how we organize our companies, we bring leadership, how we think about change and adaptation. There’s a whole lot of unlearning and a lot of relearning that needs to be done in the enterprise. So I have an amazing group of…

 

collaborators that I’m working with who are experts in the field. So I will be working with a number of those brilliant people to help organizations navigate that change. And so that’ll be definitely something I’ll be doing in the future too.

 

Steph Beckett (35:23)

That’s awesome.

 

And the thing that I have been really excited to ask you about

 

John (35:27)

Mm-hmm.

 

Steph Beckett (35:27)

is another book that you’re working on is a Cold War spy thriller, which is so very different

 

Julian Phillips (35:32)

Thank

 

Steph Beckett (35:33)

from the other books that you and I have talked about, your other books that you have worked on. What inspired this? When will it be published? Where can we learn more? Please tell me all about this.

 

John (35:46)

Mm-hmm.

 

Julian Phillips (35:47)

Well, I can reveal that the name of the book, I haven’t actually that you get a preview on this one. Exclusive.

 

Steph Beckett (35:53)

Ooh. Exclusive. We love it.

 

John (35:56)

Nice.

 

Julian Phillips (35:57)

So it’s actually called The Fall and Rise of Callum Blaine. And Callum Blaine is a character that’s been in my head for over 20 years. So it’s the book I always wanted to write.

 

John (36:04)

It’s is supposed to be my trying to see always wanting.

 

Julian Phillips (36:12)

And it is.

 

There’s certain autobiographical elements in there. So before you believe that I used to be some kind of British Secret Service agent,

 

Steph Beckett (36:21)

Right.

 

John (36:20)

Okay.

 

Julian Phillips (36:22)

but who knows? There are some autobiographical elements in there, but it is based in 1988 in Washington, DC, obviously the year before the Berlin Wall came down. So you can start to think about what possible scenarios are playing out there.

 

I was very lucky. A weeks ago, I got invited to a joint intelligence community event in Manhattan, where I got to meet a lot of former NSA, CIA directors, and also the head of British Secret Service. And so I was telling them about the book too. so I’ve actually got copies will be dispatched to some of the people

 

Steph Beckett (37:01)

Amazing.

 

Julian Phillips (37:02)

that actually were in the Cold War doing this.

 

John (37:04)

Nice.

 

Julian Phillips (37:05)

So yeah, it’s an exciting project and it will be published before Christmas,

 

John (37:08)

Banking project and it published.

 

Julian Phillips (37:10)

probably by the mid-part, if not the end of November.

 

Steph Beckett (37:14)

Awesome. Please keep me posted. I will be purchasing a copy.

 

John (37:19)

Absolutely. It’s on the list. Love it.

 

Steph Beckett (37:22)

Well,

 

last question, Julian. Thank you so much for your time again this morning or afternoon again for you. Is where can people keep connected with you? Where can they stay up to date on all of your future endeavors?

 

Julian Phillips (37:37)

Well.

 

LinkedIn is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? mean, you could find me on LinkedIn if you’re not already

 

John (37:38)

Well, LinkedIn’s a wonderful thing isn’t

 

Julian Phillips (37:42)

connected. If you want to read more about what I talk about and what I think about, then I have a newsletter on there called Intelligent Humility. So you can subscribe to my newsletter. And I do publish an article every week. So there are new stories

 

John (37:53)

my newsletter and I do publish an article every week so

 

Julian Phillips (37:59)

and new reflections that I make about the way that the world is working and try and provide some kind of perspective on that. And hopefully I’m not overly dull and

 

boring in my writing. And by the way, based on your earlier conversation about travel experiences, one of my most recent articles.

 

Steph Beckett (38:14)

Hehehe

 

Julian Phillips (38:15)

was

 

about a very highly entertaining travel experience I had when I was cancelled off my flight from London to Philadelphia and how I

 

Steph Beckett (38:22)

Good Lord.

 

Julian Phillips (38:23)

was actually party to a four-way conference call between American Express, American Airlines and British Airways where they didn’t realize I was on the phone. I actually got to learn a lot about

 

John (38:32)

didn’t do it because I grabbed I actually got to drive a lot.

 

Julian Phillips (38:37)

how dysfunctional the world works.

 

Steph Beckett (38:40)

That’s like a call that you almost like don’t need to hear. That’s

 

John (38:40)

that sounds really interesting.

 

Steph Beckett (38:47)

well, Julian, thank you so much for your time. And again, thanks for thanks for being on Rave TV. We appreciate ya.

 

Julian Phillips (38:53)

Great to see you

 

John (38:53)

Yeah, it’s great.

 

Julian Phillips (38:54)

all. Cheers, bye bye.

 

Steph Beckett (38:57)

All right, John. Well, now that we’ve been on for a really

 

John (39:01)

Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (39:02)

long time, we let’s let’s kind of kind of do a quick run through

 

John (39:06)

Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (39:07)

of a few of the headlines that have been in the news this week.

 

John (39:09)

Sure.

 

Steph Beckett (39:10)

Hasn’t been a super crazy news week, so I think we’ve just got like about four stories or so, but I will go ahead and do the first one. Cher has announced the general availability of the one and

 

John (39:14)

Like more stories or so, but I will go ahead and do the first one.

 

Steph Beckett (39:21)

only Intelemix Bar Pro.

 

Which is I I wanna say they they introduced this at ISE this year. I got to see a sneak peek of it, and then of course they brought it to Infocom. Sure, coming out with a video bar was huge news earlier this year. It has kind of really solidified them in the UC market, whereas of course they’ve always been an audio and always played in

 

John (39:42)

Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (39:42)

audio and then became kind of a leader in meeting room audio. This is them kind of owning that entire experience.

 

John (39:48)

Think we

 

Steph Beckett (39:49)

So this is kind of

 

made for those medium and large rooms. It’s got some auto framing in it and a few easy deployment capabilities to make life a little easier for integrators. But definitely go ahead and check it out. The full story with a list of everything that kind of comes with this product is all on Rave Pubs. So definitely go and read that. And also I will bring this up again in a little bit but this is a front runner as of right now.

 

For one or two of our Reader’s Choice Awards. So keep votin’. Keep voting. Mm-hmm.

 

John (40:28)

Hint hint. Yep.

 

We were talking about those two. The those awards are different this year because you have a lot more competitors. So that’s great. And

 

Steph Beckett (40:35)

Yeah. Yes.

 

John (40:37)

there they are.

 

Steph Beckett (40:37)

Yeah. We’ve got we’ve got a ton of categories. And I’ll I’ll run through this in a little bit, but a few of the products that we’re talking about today are listed and are options if you want to go and vote. So voting is open until October sixteenth. So I would go ahead and get those votes in now while you can.

 

John (40:57)

And I think I there’s some background noise, I guess, with me perhaps too. I keep hearing introducing. No, I

 

Steph Beckett (41:01)

is it me? It could be me. I’m I

 

John (41:03)

think it’s me. I’m on a speaker. I’m not using headphones. It’s probably me. So hopefully we’re still good. NanoLumens, next story, announced the expansion of their video all products, the Engage Pro Series and Performance Series. What I think there’s a lot of cool things about this. Excuse me. Early I’m my my voice is just waking up now, I guess.

 

Steph Beckett (41:23)

Yeah, you’re good.

 

John (41:26)

And the one of the coolest things I think was 90 degree corner capabilities. And

 

Steph Beckett (41:30)

Mm-hmm.

 

John (41:31)

you can see in some of these, there’s no seam really in the corners, which is pretty sweet. and down to they low they have pixel pitch down as low as 0.7 millimeters, which is just crazy looking at, you know, I was involved in LEDs 10 years ago almost, and it’s amazing what they’ve done with this stuff. Looks gorgeous, great for they they have a enclosure that’s about 20 inches. I think I looked it up. forgot the millimeters.

 

But it’s about twenty by twenty inches square. And that’s the module you use to build all these different environments with, which is great. Cause then that can be I think it’s IP sixty seven rated, protection against water and ingress, things like that. So really great for live touring events, concerts. people are doing more corporate events with video walls and stuff. So sounds like a really cool product for sure.

 

Steph Beckett (42:19)

Absolutely. And also DSF, Digital Signage Federation, they have announced a program called DSF Takeover. This is in Discovery Showcase. It is a four

 

John (42:21)

And also DSF Science Federation, they have announced a program called DS Takeover.

 

Steph Beckett (42:29)

day series of digital signage and digital out-of-home events. It takes place October 13th through 16th, so next week, across New York City and a little bit in New Jersey. and this was kind of developed with DSF members and some industry partners.

 

And it gives attendees the opportunity to explore emerging tech, visit notable installs, industry offices, exchange ideas, build relationships all about digital signage. So for a list of all of those events that are going on through those few days, we list them all out on Rave Pub. So definitely go and check that out. and also like part of that is gonna be XUSC’s Oktoberfest.

 

It’s gonna be in Hoboken at the beer garden. So that’s gonna be really fun. I wish I could go. I will not be there maybe next year. But definitely go and check all of those events out. I feel like if you’re local and even if you’re not, it would be really fun.

 

John (43:28)

Happening there’s so much happening on the East Coast that I wish I was closer sometimes, actually. It’d be fun.

 

Steph Beckett (43:31)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

John (43:34)

I know one of the last ones, news items we had talked about was Green Hippo in their new estuary series. I love the name Estuary.

 

Steph Beckett (43:42)

Yeah, me too.

 

John (43:43)

and that capitalizes on the TV one processing, which TV one’s been around for a long time, the Calico video processor, but it’s

 

Helping with screen management and live switchings for live events for LED walls, speaking of LED walls and projection. And I think that’s some often the underlooked part of all these systems is the content and the video production. And I have other friends at other companies who make video processing equipment that is not simple. So this and this is a series of several different models. This is MC one, there’s an MC two and a three.

 

So this is a a great in a series of processing, video processing for LED spaces and will be pretty cool.

 

Steph Beckett (44:23)

Absolutely. So we got a couple more reminders coming up, but before we do that, let’s go to a spot from our sponsor and partner, Crestron, all about the install at Spotify Camp No. We’ll be right back.

 

Steph Beckett (45:38)

All right, so a few more reminders. I mentioned that that I would bring it up again. Reader’s Choice Awards, they’re open for voting until the 16th, and anyone can vote. You, your friends, your family, your coworkers, your colleagues, your customers. Encourage all of them to vote for you. You might as well. A lot of these I have been checking like every day. A lot of these are neck and net.

 

So if you want you and your company to come out on top, you gotta market to your people and get them to vote for you. So make sure to keep doing that. Yes.

 

John (46:13)

Get out the vote. Vote early, vote often. Right. Yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (46:16)

Yes, exactly. So again, those close October 16th, end of day, 11:59 PM Eastern. So make sure to keep marketing to your to your to our readers. We of course we are encouraging people to vote, but if you want people to vote for you.

 

You gotta encourage people to vote. So keep doing it. I am very excited to see who wins this year. Like I said, a lot of these are close, like right now within like five votes of each other. So

 

John (46:44)

I got a few favorites, but you know, I’m I I love everybody, so I can’t, you know, really promote any one over the other.

 

Steph Beckett (46:50)

Yes, and that’s

 

great that you bring that up because this year we allow you to vote for your top two. So if you are like John and you can’t possibly choose between your top two favorites in any category, which you do not have to vote in every category if you don’t care about top product of the year or if you don’t care about the I don’t know, like the company of the year or something, you can skip whatever and only vote in the five categories you care about.

 

but in the ones that you do want to vote for, you can vote for your top two. So that if you are someone

 

John (47:23)

That’s really smart.

 

Steph Beckett (47:24)

who really likes multiple companies, we don’t make you choose between them. ‘Cause we do believe, you know, someone’s gonna come out on top at the end. And that is what’s happening right now, but it is very, very narrow.

 

John (47:35)

I can’t wait to see the results. Thank you.

 

Steph Beckett (47:37)

Yeah. and then also we have our latest temperature check survey. This is all about professional development in the A V industry. So it’s three questions. It takes about two minutes maybe to answer. And of course, as always, we give two $50 Amazon gift cards to two random respondents. So please answer these questions. This is basically our way of gauging what’s going on in different areas of the industry and

 

by answering, you help me do that. So please do that. And in turn, you might get a little present as your treat for answering.

 

John (48:17)

Nice. That’s that’s a good bait right there, Steph. Thank you.

 

Steph Beckett (48:20)

right. Free

 

$50. you know what? And and you don’t barely have to do anything. okay, couple upcoming virtual events before we finally say goodbye to all of you guys. CTS cram session. It’s tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern. this is a very fun session in which we kind of help you learn how to study for something like the CTS.

 

And you get to learn from my mistakes as someone who studied and failed. So I will be bringing that experience with me. And I have a few friends who are gonna come help me and tell you what to do to pass, because they both passed theirs. So it’s gonna be fun.

 

John (49:00)

I didn’t even try. I I was

 

afraid that I wouldn’t pass, so I haven’t even tried. Maybe

 

Steph Beckett (49:04)

Yeah.

 

John (49:05)

in my Sunny retirement, quote unquote, I’ll do that. But it’s huge because it’s not an easy thing and it’s great you offer their help.

 

Steph Beckett (49:08)

Absolutely. It’s really not,

 

but it’s not impossible. So we’re gonna kind of break it down and help you figure out like what way of studying works best for you. There’s so many resources out there. We’re gonna help you comb through them. so it’s going to be a very fun session. It should be about 45 minutes. So please, if you are studying for the test, come and join us, ask your questions, and we’re gonna have a fun little session all together.

 

also coming up on the 14th at 1 p.m. Eastern is the A V Cloud Summit. It’s gonna be presented by us and Excite. and it is all about you know, AI and meeting the A V fleet. and of course, like it is also worth one CTS or CTS DRU. So if you need another one, it’s another very easy event to add that in on. and the A V Cloud Summit is something we’ve done every

 

John (49:51)

It is also worth one text or text RP.

 

Steph Beckett (50:03)

year, I think twice a year.

 

And it is really wonderful. It’s it’s kind of been a a group of manufacturers with Rave and we’re kind of talking about the importance of open APIs and how the industry has been changing. And I really do think it has been wonderful to see. So if you want to come to the latest iteration of that, we highly recommend you doing so. And finally, we have launch week 14 coming up in

 

John (50:25)

latest variation of that we highly recommend doing so. And finally we have launch week for

 

coming up in three a week from a coming up. You got it. So if you want to come to that, we have three to each day three and

 

Steph Beckett (50:33)

God, I think it’s three weeks. That means I got a lot of work to do. God help me. So if you want to come to that, we have three theme days: experiential signage day,

 

ed tech day, and then pro A V Day. And it is going to be the 27th, the 28th, and 29th of October. If you come to all three days, you get nine CTS, CTSI, or CTS DRUs.

 

John (50:53)

Where all three states get nine C S S I or C S are

 

used and we have some really great channels hearing questions.

 

Steph Beckett (51:00)

And we have some really great sessions preparing for you guys. Sam Phoenix

 

is giving our keynote on experiential signage day. She’s wonderful. she’s going to kind of be talking about a little bit about how the how experiential signage and digital signage have been changing. So she she’s so wonderful and so well articulated and has such great ideas about what is going on in that market that I think it’s going to be really worthy.

 

So that is just one of the sessions that we have prepped for you guys. So please, if you want to look at, you know, an update on what sessions to expect, who’s gonna be there, go to launch.com and you can register for any of these. But go ahead, get yourself registered and we will see you there.

 

John (51:46)

Like an awesome three days right there to spend with you guys. So

 

Steph Beckett (51:49)

Yeah, it is. And you’re gonna be there with me. You’re gonna be doing one of the coffee break sessions with me where people can just ask us stuff. So that’s gonna be a fun little

 

John (51:55)

Well, yeah.

 

Steph Beckett (51:57)

a fun little break. So please come and okay, I think I think that’s our show.

 

John (52:03)

Now you have time for breakfast. You were gonna try to get down to get

 

Steph Beckett (52:05)

Yep. Yep.

 

John (52:06)

some breakfast before your next session at WebEx.

 

Steph Beckett (52:09)

session. Yes.

 

Wonderful. Well thank you all so much for watching. John, thank you for being my host today.

 

John (52:16)

Thanks for having me. It was fun, as always.

 

Steph Beckett (52:18)

Of course.

 

Of course. And we will see you guys next week where I will once again be at some location. Unclear. So

 

John (52:28)

Safe travels.

 

Steph Beckett (52:29)

thank you. All right. Talk to you guys later. Bye.

 

John (52:32)

Yeah.