Given last year’s utterly embarrassing and widely reported failure on the part of Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) president and CEO Gary Shapiro in response to being asking his opinion on “booth babes” and the subsequent backlash, I was hopeful 2013 would be a much better year. Never could I have imagined — or thought it was even […]

(Click for full-size comic) Just last week the cartoon posted above was making the rounds through my corner of Facebook. Why it’s funny is because, obviously, music listeners seldom know what they’re missing. I don’t mean to single out audio. But in the case of both audio and video do people really know what they’re […]

Today, rAVe is announcing that we are partnering with Insight Media to bring the AV industry even more in-depth video coverage and analysis at trade shows and major industry events. Chris Chinnock and I have been friends a long time. There’s a huge amount of mutual respect and he’s provided invaluable editorial content over the years with our partnership […]

The old adage that you get what you pay for is no more true today than it ever has been. The one thing has always rang true is that value is the only thing that separates most competition. This is one area of our business in AV that I learned early on.  Some people expect […]

The New York Times recently ran an article about a newer trend in creating church environments in unusual places. The article is worth a read, but I wanted to elaborate on what it means for the A/V/L industry. In short, the article cited examples of churches in Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Tampa where they created unique spaces that […]

It’s hard for me to believe this is the second time I am writing the Women in AV annual wrap-up! It still feels like yesterday when I was at InfoComm 2011 in Orlando thinking how much I would love if we had a women’s group where we could all come together and be there for each other.  Fast-forward […]

Well, it’s the first of January. For the next two to three months, I will accidentally call it 2012, until the idea of the New Year finally sets in. But, as we will all have to do, I sit here thinking about the year ahead. And one of the things I have great plans for […]

Yesterday Gina Sansivero wrote a really nice blog post on the rAVe blogs, called From the Periphery of the AV Industry. If you haven’t read it yet, you really ought to. Gina’s points are entertaining, insightful, and more than a little humorous. Inspired by her, and the fact that I can’t think of a beefier topic today, here are some of my […]

Most of those who know me, know me as having one of two identities in this industry: Green lady or lamp lady.  I don’t prefer one identity over the other. I love both sides of what I do and am just as comfortable with either one.  Today, I have decided, I will be the lamp lady. Manufacturing, selling, […]

This is always the favorite time of the year for me. I love seeing everyone get into the holiday spirit and let up on the pressure of business for a minute.  It truly is a time to put differences aside and appreciate your loved ones and friends and how important they are to your life. […]

As you may have noticed from reading my blog posts, I have a lot of stories to tell. At least to my mind, the best stories are the ones that are funny, and the funniest ones are the ones that are at least a little scandalous. With a long career in retail, I’ve worked with a lot […]

Wireless Technologies has been around since 1896 when Guglielmo Marconi developed the first wireless telegraph system.  These systems have increased in both complexity and also reliability.  Imagine our world without wireless. . . I know, I can’t either. We all benefit from a multitude of technologies that span generations of folks back to Marconi.  Before Marconi, many others viewed this technology, […]

DISCLAIMER: The following comments belong to me, the Analog Man. Not my employer, family, friends or anyone other than me. So if you comment, regardless if positive or negative please direct them to me. Any questions? Pet peeves: Who doesn’t have at least one or two, three or four? You encounter these little things every […]

Oftentimes, emphasis on what makes a good sales person is placed on the ability to close a sale or knowledge of our products or even a gift for gab. However, we overlook how well we listen to our clients.  It is that vital first step we take for granted as we steam roll through to give our […]

Congratulations to the AV Industry and especially the Women in AV!! Last Thursday, Dec.13th, we came together to celebrate our industry, share in the holiday spirit, and inspire each other at the first AV Holiday Party and WAVE Tweet Up.  This was actually our second annual Tweet Up, but this year we built on our […]

We’ve all had experiences with customers whose decision making we didn’t agree with. Perhaps they were well-rationalized in their own minds, perhaps not. Here are a couple of examples I was just reflecting on the other day. Way back in the ’90s one of my regular corporate clients was the sound and light technician for the city’s planetarium. One […]

Last Friday morning, the technical crew of my staff was standing outdoors, indulging in a few minutes that we refer to as the USB or “union smoke break.” One of the things that we all remarked on was that winter was setting in, and it was getting cold. We had no idea at the time how cold […]

This week has been a very interesting one.  I’m working on multiple church projects and am juggling the balancing act that we all do each day.  I do this job because I love it.  AV is the juice that gets me up in the morning.  Some might even call me obsessive with my pursuit of […]

It saddens me to write in memory of James “Jim” Scarbrough, on behalf of the many AV professionals who have had the privilege to work with Jim as a colleague, trade partner or client.  Jim was both a professional colleague and personal friend to my family and me.  His countless hours of above and beyond effort demonstrated […]

Yesterday, Kaleidescape announced it signed a multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution to offer films for purchase. In addition, the company will upgrade all Warner Bros. titles purchased through the Kaleidescape Store to UltraViolet in March 2013. The company went as far as saying that the UltraViolet deal is, “giving users a powerful way to enjoy their collection across their various devices.” […]

In my recent article “From Zero to Streaming in 10 Days,” I briefly mentioned that we use hardware encoders from Haivison. Haivision has a wide variety of products, from single hardware encoders to a massive “video furnace” that can provide video services for an entire campus. At Bates College we use only the hardware encoders. Specifically, we use the Barracuda (SD encoding) […]

According to Yahoo News, the winner of half of the $587 Million jackpot from last week’s Powerball lottery was Matthew Good of Arizona. So, why care? Well, he’s the same Matt Good who works for D&M Holdings, parent company for Denon andMarantz. Here’s the Yahoo Story:  http://news.yahoo.com/ariz-powerball-jackpot-winners-name-released-171448048.html

It’s funny how things change. There was a time when I loathed Christmas. Well, that’s not fair: maybe not loathed, but I certainly did my best to minimize it in my life. I know the reason why, too: years and years working in retail and all the things that go along with the Holiday Season, […]

It’s a consequence of belonging to industry trade associations that those associations sell your email address to companies that are looking for business partners. Sidebar to any trade association flacks who are reading this: don’t act like you don’t, we know you do. As a result, I get a lot of spam from overseas manufacturers […]

In my post, Stand Out, I stated that hosting consumer and industry partner events was one of the ways to differentiate your business from your competitors by adding value as a resource. In this post, I want to focus on targeting industry partners (architects, interior designers, builders and remodelers) through outreach events. You want to make sure […]

Next Thursday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. EST, 5 p.m. MT, 4 p.m. PT, we’re going to create a first in the AV industry by getting together — across the world — for an AV Holiday Party and Tweet-Up! Whether you can attend in-person, at a venue below, or on Twitter, wherever your travels and time zones allow […]

In states all over the country, electrical unions are trying to convince state and local governments that low-voltage installs need to be handled by them. That’s right — to keep people safe from the 5-, 7-, 11- and 12-volt signals (and, of course 70-volt audio systems too) running down speaker wire, Ethernet cables, RS232 cabling and through HDMI ports, […]

The majority of churches tie their new budget year with the new calendar year, meaning new funds are available come January. But what you may not know is that a lot of churches use December to look for upgrades to stuff into the new year budgets at the last minute. It used to be that […]

I think you’ll all enjoy this week’s episode of THE WEEK on rAVe Radio. I kick around a number of subjects I thought interesting to the AV market (such as Sony’s new simulation projector and Google’s Code-IN), and then talk with Bill Waldman, an advocate of the “Maker” movement in technological education and enablement in the U.S. We discuss Maker […]

Over the course of the past month I have received a few more emails and had more conversations with people about my initial article. I covered several of these discussions in my follow-up blog post, but wanted to follow up on a few more. Bo Warmbold from Vernon Hills High School wrote to tell me that at Vernon Hills, they use a software […]

Stand Out: Event Marketing for AV Dealers (Part 1) Our industry, along with the rest of the country, was hit hard during the recession.  Many AV dealers and integrators closed their doors permanently, while others scaled back and saw their revenues fall drastically. Although we’re not out of it yet, for businesses that were able to […]

There are two stories that caught my eye today, and both have implications in the HomeAV market. The first: Biscotti 2.0 Biscotti Inc., the company that created the Biscotti TV Camera, released new MyBiscotti Cloud Services, making the product much more than just a home-based videoconferencing system. Biscotti’s MyBiscotti Cloud Service is aimed at extending the smart TV cam experience, transforming […]