Rants & rAVes

Jupiter is a 40+ year old company and started with video wall processors. But, Jupiter is also UCC and Collaboration software. And, is famous for pioneering the 21:9 display. Jupiter's Acting Vice President of Global Sales, Craig Stumbaugh, joined me on this pre-InfoComm 2024 videocast today to get some hints on where they're headed and what you will see in booth W1016.

Lenovo's Global Account Manager of Smart Collaboration, Caroline Kneafsey, joined my latest episode of Rants & rAVes today to talk about how they're not only going to show their entire UCC portfolio but, how they've integrated their 3rd party partners into booth C8143 at InfoComm 2024. Lenovo is in the enviable position to own the compute devices in more rooms than any other company and they'll show how they're embracing Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet, equally.

As higher-ed budgets have been cut and the workload has increased, more colleges and universities have turned to student support for AV. But, how do you set the students up for success and ensure they can actually support the high-end AV gear in most classrooms? Well Britt Yenser, AV manager at Northampton Community College, has the blueprint for success for doing just that, and will deliver her expertise in a session titled, “How to Provide Exceptional AV Services while Relying on Student Staff” at InfoComm 2024 on Wednesday, June 12, at 10 a.m. Britt joined me on the latest pre-InfoComm Rants & rAVes episode, and talked about how she'll deliver this blueprint to anyone in attendance.

Hi everyone! I'm taking over another episode of Rants & rAVes to interview Rebecca Sullins, senior design engineer at AmpThink. Rebecca is going to be busy this InfoComm — she is hosting multiple sessions and even a show floor tour! These are all really great because they will all focus on pro audio. From showing audiophiles at all levels some of her favorite products and solutions on the show floor to teaching a class on the importance of acoustic measurement, you definitely want to check out at least a few of these events.

My latest videocast episode features Audio-Technica's applications engineering manager, Mark Donovan, to talk about the company's plan at InfoComm 2024. In addition to introducing a totally new product line, Audio-Technica will show and demo new enhancements to its ATND1061 Beamforming Ceiling Array Microphone in its booth C5619 in Las Vegas June 12-14. Watch this, to get hints on the new product line, as well as to hear about the rest of the company's IC24 plans!

We're sure you've seen her work since she's managed marketing at two of the industry's favorite brands, FSR and now AtlasIED. But how well do you know Gina Sansivero and what she's passionate about? I chatted with her during my most recent episode of Rants & rAVes, so check out this casual interview ahead of both a short vacation and a big InfoComm 2024 show where AtlasIED will launch Version 4 of its Atmosphere ecosystem. Enjoy!

On today's videocast, I interviewed Peerless-AV's executive VP, Nick Belcore, about the unique sustainable packaging and delivery system included with the company's new DS-LEDUNV SEAMLESS Kitted Universal dvLED Mounting System. In addition to simplifying packaging, the new universal mounting system is compatible with every LED brand and model, thanks to a patent-pending universal spacer. Watch this and then make sure you add booth W1725 to your InfoComm 2024 plans (the booth is between LG and Samsung) and see it for yourself!

Legrand AV's director of digital signage, Michelle Montazeri, to joined me on my latest pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast to talk all about three digital signage panels she's part of during the show. All three are laser-focused on supporting integrators and users interested in digital signage and helping them understand the opportunities to deploy them. Each session is very different, but we believe they are must-attends if you play in the digital signage space or are curious about opportunities to deploy signage.

I caught up with NSCA Executive Director Tom LeBlanc on my latest pre-InfoComm-2024 videocast to talk about the BizSkills Workshop NSCA is holding the day before the InfoComm show floor opens (June 11, 2024). The workshop is a comprehensive one-day education program will deliver a strategic business curriculum, empowering participants with invaluable insights and tools crucial to enhancing business operations within the ProAV industry. Listen to this interview with Tom and consider registering now, here: https://www.infocommshow.org/infocomm-2024/nsca-bizskills

Christie launched Hedra as an all-in-one control room processor that includes video, keyboard and mouse (KVM). It's TAA-compliant and is perfect for small and medium-sized NOCs too. It can also be a live events signal management controller. You can even use it as a video wall processor. Christie's Bill Zhu, director product management, joined my latest videocast episode to talk about Hedra and we even included a bit of a demo — watch!

ASPEED will be at InfoComm 2024 in booth C6203 showing all-new Dante capability integrated into its AV-over-IP chips. Companies like Harman (AMX), Just Add Power, Aurora and Kramer all already use ASPEED chips to drive their 1G AV-over-IP solutions, and now ASPEED has added Dante to its solutions. In fact, the the last “A” in Dante-AV-A stands for the A in ASPEED. My latest videocast features ASPEED Sales Manager Lester Liu, who explains what the company is doing as well as a little bit about ASPEED's technology behind the chip. You'll want to watch this — Lester teases an all new 360-degree camera solution coming for UCC applications, too!

In this Steph Takeover episode of Rants & rAVes, I sat down with Chris Wildfoerster, business development manager at Axis Communications. The company is headed to ISC West, the largest security trade show in the U.S. While this show and its audience looks a lot different than those at ISE and InfoComm, security is only becoming more and more important and intertwined with ProAV. That said, Axis is bringing a range of products to the show and you might be surprised to find quite a few of them are audio-based. Learn more about all that Axis is showing at ISC West 2024 and visit the company at booth 14051.

In the latest Steph Takeover episode of Rants & rAVes, I chatted with Troy Peters, chief experience officer at SEAS Productions. SEAS provides AV and event production for live events ranging from corporate conferences to concerts. At InfoComm, Troy will host a session called, “Project Managing Million Dollar Live Events on the Global Stage” on June 11 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. PDT, in room W225 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The session will offer insights into the importance of project management in AV with pro tips, advice and useful resources. You can learn more here!

I was joined by Let's Do Video founder, David Maldow, to talk about his educational sessions at InfoComm 2024. If you ever do livestreaming for clients, both of these sessions are must-attends. The first, “Live Streaming in Action,” will cover all the steps it takes to go live, from hardware setup to software configuration to stream launch. The second is a panel discussion dubbed, “Enhancing Accessibility and Engagement through Automatic Speech Recognition and Captioning,” and it's all about how ASR is used for adding captions to videos and its transformative impact on the online streaming experience. Watch this video and I'll bet you'll want to attend — David can do magic with video! And, of course, you can register for either or both of these sessions by visiting www.infocommshow.org.

Planar just announced it's adding many of the Leyard LEDs to its product lineup. Gary asked Planar's EVP, Adam Schmidt, to join him on today's videocast to discuss where this positions Planar in the LED market. Planar, known as a high-end LED company catering to the ProAV integration channel, will offer the Leyard lineup as a way to expand the vertical and horizontal applications reach of LED imaging - this will clearly include DOOH, Live Events, monumental signage, sporting venues, etc. This is a potential boon to the ProAV channel, as it allows them to enter all these LED opportunities now backed by the Planar brand.

My latest Rants & rAVes videocast features Howard Rose, the senior product manager of projectors at Panasonic Connect, who talks about the impact that 4K projectors have in the higher-ed space. Panasonic Connect has native 4K projectors for large venue applications but, the company has two versions of 4K-wobble projectors that deliver 4K images on the screen and allow you to design rooms more creatively. Watch this and learn how this applies to your classrooms, lecture halls or auditoriums…

Frank Kolavo of Computer Comforts drove to Chapel Hill, North Carolina — the rAVe HQ — to do this demo right next to the University of North Carolina's campus. Why? Because the new Transformer Lectern is aimed at higher-education installations. It's modular, ADA-compliant and works in classrooms and lecture halls equally as well. Check it out and watch this video!