The nerd community media, by which I mean the social media sites that generate humorous pictures and the media sites that comment on social media and humorous pictures would have you believe that video game lovers are a nation divided; that somehow a line can be drawn between “serious” or “real” gamers and so-called “casual” […]

So far, the coolest thing I’ve seen at the 2013 Digital Signage Expo (DSE) has been from UK-based start-up company NOMADIX whose so-called iWalker is basically a wearable digital signage player (yes, the person wears a giant DS screen above his/her head) automatically serves custom digital signage content to the viewer based on age, gender, location and even distance […]

For years, Peerless-AV spent nearly all its marketing budget telling buyers of AV gear why they should use the company to mount all their stuff. And, Peerless still builds mounts — lots of them — all here in the USA. But now the company’s marketing budget is split between a few new non-mount product lines. […]

In just  a few years, Almo Pro A/V went from start-up to one of the largest distributors of digital signage hardware in the U.S. Almo, a 50-year old giant consumer electronics distributor, hired long-time AV veteran Sam Taylor to head up its foray into the professional AV market nearly four years ago. Since then, the company’s become the leading […]

I recently attended the NSCA Business & Leadership Conference in Arizona. First off …Kudos to the NSCA staff for finding the most amazing speakers. There were various business seminars on the state of the economy, not being complacent, learning to adapt to change to grow your business, strategic planning and finding the entrepreneur inside of you… Saturday morning John […]

Over the years I have worked with some pretty amazing people… amazing people who occasionally needed a time out. They were tired, cranky or had just been in the business for far too long and started to exhibit some signs that were not exactly appropriate workplace behaviors. If I’m honest, I have been guilty of […]

I’ve attended every single Almo ProAV E4 AV Tour and it’s, by far, the best regional trade show in AV – and not just because i’m the keynote presenter. Seriously, after you attend, if you aren’t convinced that their E4 AV Tour isn’t the best distributor show you’ve ever been to, I will PERSONALLY give you a spot in rAVe to write your own rebuttal […]

Almo Pro A/V has added a new product line to its arsenal in ELO Touch — it will be ELO’s go-to distributor in the ProAV market. ELO Touch actually invented touch-screen technology back in 1971. Elo Touch happens to be the leading global supplier of touch-enabled technology. The Elo portfolio encompasses the broadest selection of OEM touch screen components, touch monitors and all-in-one touch computers for the […]

Well, it has been an interesting several weeks for our podcast series, “The Week”, on rAVe Radio. At the very beginning of the month, we had three shows from ISE in Amsterdam, which turned out to be a terrific show. Then, last week’s guest, my old colleague Dean Hills, gave us a lot of great info and ideas about […]

First, let’s address the title of this blog. It’s a follow-up to my article in this month’s rAVe ED about using Skype and other consumer level video conferencing software. In reviewing comments that I received online and in email, the point of my article synthesized in my mind even more. You see, it does not matter whether you use […]

We’ve all got passions in our life, the things that make life worth living. At least, I know I do, and I hope that you do as well. One of my passions is the AV business, as I’m sure you’re aware, since I blog and tweet about it pretty much constantly. What you might not […]

Well, the last couple of weeks have been crazy for yours truly. Just back from ISE in Amsterdam, it seems like I went straight into a blizzard that ate up the week in which I wanted to be catching up with things, among them, this blog. And yet, I sit here today, with time to write and […]

A quick note, before we start — I am going to talk about clients and customers as the same thing. I view all customers as clients as I live in a relationship world. I have an ongoing relationship with all customers, thus all of my customers are clients. I apologize if this is confusing for anyone that […]

Did you know that Easter falls on Sunday, March 31st? That’s just under two months from now and for churches, that’s a deadline that’s quickly approaching! Easter church attendance is a big deal, as people who normally don’t attend church often make their way to church on this day (they’re affectionately known as the “Lily crowd,” […]

Simple fact: Customer service is the single most important factor to any business… and most only get fair ratings. A simple KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is how we treat the customer before, during and after the sale. This is often referred to as the “Feel Good Factor.” Basically the goal is to not only help the customer […]

It’s that time of year again we are gathered around our TVs — or fully outfitted home theaters — for many of our readers to watch football’s biggest game, Super Bowl XLVII.  Regardless of whether you’re a sports fanatic or not, most everyone gets excited to watch the game.  Living in San Francisco the past seven years, I […]

As much fun as I have writing (and, apparently, as much fun as some of you have reading) my blog posts that reminisce about my experiences with employees who behaved badly, it’s important to remember that these are human beings we’re talking about. None of us are perfect, we all have our faults. It’s just […]

Getting set for ISE 2013 Well, made it to Amsterdam just in time for the rAVe breakfast meeting. Huge crew of folks here getting ready to bring you the latest news as it breaks… This afternoon, I will be delivering a new presentation on The Next Wave of Client, as part of the European Future Technology Summit, for InfoComm. It […]

Just one I had to share with you really quick. ..I was in the Christie booth today (will be talking about that later) .But this was the real eye-catcher for me.. an awesome set of projectors mapped and masked to an irregular geometric back wall. JRR

Spent the bulk of the day looking around the professional AV area, meeting up with friends and arranging some serious demo time on some new products. The show is divided into separate areas for Pro AV, Home AV, Digital Signage, etc… and the array of exhibits is enormous. It really is like attending InfoComm andCedia at the same […]

Wow. This show could be a week long and you still wouldn’t have the time to see everything. But had a great morning, saw a number of great new products and demos, all of which are shown in detail at www.ravenowise.com. Of particular note, I spent some time at Mitsubishi getting a detailed demo on what […]

Well, it is 4:30pm here in a rainy, windswept Amsterdam, and I’m just winding up my second day here at ISE. The show is still open, but I’ve beaten the massive crowd for a taxi, got my blank receipt (there are no IRS subscribers that I know of) and am sitting down to edit my pictures and […]

The 2013 version of the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) has come to a close, but our coverage here will live for another year – until opening day of the 2014 event. We have so much coverage – and there’s so much information on this ISE microsite that it can be overwhelming. So, please take moment to read this […]

I had a chance to grab Wilfred de Man, general manager EMEA of Philips MMD, today at the ISE show here in Amsterdam on a busy Day 2. We toured his stand and shot a number of product videos that are posted on our ISE portal at http://www.rAVeNOWise.com under the VIDEOS tab — you can then type in Philips in the search box. Afterwards […]

I had a chance to sit down with Eric Van Zele, the president and CEO of Barco, today here atISE in Amsterdam on Day 2 of the show. In addition to asking him where he sees Barco three years from today, I talk to him about his vision for how Barco fits into the systems integration segment of the corporate AV market. […]

Just four weeks into his new role as CEO and executive director of InfoComm, Dave Labuskes (formerly withRTKL Associates) hit the ground here in Amsterdam at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show – the world’s largest AV trade, which is co-managed by InfoComm and CEDIA. ISE kicked off the show by celebrating its10th Anniversary and recognizing its founding exhibitors, including companies like AMX, Crestron, Vogol’s and Christie. After cutting […]

Acoustical analysis of any large or small space can be a very daunting task to take on for the average Audio, Video, or IT related position.  The fact that at least 80% of audio products are designed to reduce or minimize the effects that poor design has on rooms makes this even more important.  Most […]

In a first ever, Christie has integrated Corning’s Gorilla Glass into a forthcoming 55″ LCD display. Hidden above the show floor in a private suite, Christie took me to see a prototype of a new 55″ LCD where the company has bonded Gorilla Glass onto the surface of a screen that has less than a 6mm bezel. […]

After a couple of years of not being at ISE, Cisco is back and early indications are that the company will return in 2014. It had exhibited in the past under the Tandberg logo but, after it purchased the company back in 2009, didn’t attend ISE in 2011 or 2012. But as its ProAV guru Paul Depperschmidt told me last week […]

Digital Signage Expo (DSE) is a little less than a month away, but the president at Exponation, Chris Gibbs, found the time to fly into Amsterdam to check out the world’s largest AV tradeshow (ISE) to see what’s up with all this AV stuff. And, I happened to be heading into the Peerless-AV stand to shoot […]

First impressions: the show is huge, and everyone is lost. Which may not be a bad thing, because while I was lost I discovered a number of manufacturers I had never seen before, with some interesting products, which I’ll be going back to see. From my own point of view, and especially for you stagers, […]

I had the opportunity to sit down with Barco’s Dirk Hendrickx (VP of EMEA) yesterday morning ahead of the “official” announcement of the company’s ClickShare feature additions. He was upbeat about three specific additions to their one-click wonder. You may recallClickShare has the capability to route video via a network — without any cables or switchers required. All you do is connect a […]