Recorded April 26, 2024 The AV industry has a bit of a drinking problem and step one is admitting it.  Thanks to friends of the show Brittany DiCesare and Steve Greenblatt for their editorial in Commercial Integrator.  To be clear, we’re not anti-alcohol and we all enjoy a drink or four at our industry events, but when event after event after event is nothing but drinking, maybe it’s time to rethink things.  Heck, there are entire organizations who seem to exist solely for the purpose of...

Recorded (and broadcast live) on March 28, 2024 We’re still at NWMET and hosting a morning fireside chat show!  Jamie and Larry are impressed by NWMET, Justin’s bad knee, the long road our portable recording kit took to get from Kentucky or Oregon, the well-rounded but focused atmosphere of NWMET, and our special NWMET bucks. NWMET: https://www.nwmet.org   ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn:...

Recorded (and broadcast live) on March 25, 2024 For the first time since last summer, (almost) all of the AV SuperFriends were together in one place at NWMET 2024 in Corvallis, Oregon, so we figured we might as well record a show.  And yes, we’re really in a bowling alley.   Earlier that day, we hosted a town hall open forum at Biamp HQ and we had so many topics, we simply couldn’t get to them all, so we pick up from where we left off and work through topics such as auto-tracking cameras,...

Recorded April 17, 2024 Rather than a single news story, we cover a handful of product announcements from (and prior to) NAB.  Blackmagic announced a bunch of SMPTE 2110 devices (sorta), Osbot has an NDI adapter that goes the wrong way, Cleanfeed is now supporting video (yea!), and PTZ Optics has an entire software production suite for their cameras.   Then, we get into One Button Studios.  Please don’t build these.  There’s too many compromises and the experience is terrible.  What people...

Recorded March 15, 2024 It’s time to get out the mops and brooms, clear out those storage closets, gather up all your old Class A amplifiers, analog cameras, and CRT monitors and throw them in the nearest waterway.  If anyone asks, you have a permit and you’re just returning those parts to nature.  Besides, it’s all biodegradable if you wait long enough…  Marc is getting rid of wires, Larry is removing tiny displays from big rooms, Jamie is throwing away older monitors with weird...

Recorded March 22, 2024 It’s not really news as much as a product announcement that almost hits the mark.  We really like this neat little camera on paper but then… limited I/O and guaranteed bloated software.  Let’s call it a swing and a miss. Then we return to how we tier our AV systems and, honestly, it’s getting messy enough that we probably need a comparison matrix to keep track.  Marc finally introduces touch panels, Chris provides the capability for BYOD UCC (but no one has asked for...

Recorded March 8, 2024 More and more AVoIP systems are being sold because more and more AVoIP systems are getting specified into new projects.  It’s an amazing coincidence!  We cover an article from Commercial Integrator about how commercial integrators see AVoIP.   Then in part 27 of our 213 part series on how we organize our AV systems into buckets, tiers, levels, types, packages, etc., we finally get out of our level 1 and into level 2… sorta.  If nothing else, it’s highly informative...

Recorded (and streamed live) on February 16, 2016 This month’s topic is “rethinking spaces” so we decided to discuss projects that we’ve completed recently that we wish we’d approached differently.  Marc hates microphones, Chris hates complexity, Justin hates how the AV services are marketed on campus, Jamie hates treating rooms as clones of one another, and Larry hates blanket approaches (and single monitors on lecterns).   We stream live on the 3rd Friday every month and you can listen to...

Recorded February 23, 2024 While planning the episode, we couldn’t decide between a news story on VR or a news story on holograms, so we decided to cover them both.  Hint: they’re not real Then we continue our discussion of how we each stratify and organize the different types of systems we commonly deploy on our campuses.  It’s just as messy as you’d think with us all declaring confidently we have rigid systems in place and nevermind all the exceptions.  News articles discussed: ...

Recorded February 9, 2024 Did y’all know ISE was just last week?  That means we’re obligated to talk about it at least one more time for the news, so we have an article that identifies three trends from ISE that we’ll see again at InfoComm.  Two of them are nothingburgers, but the third… so close, but yet so far.   Then we dive deep into how we structure our AV systems and room types.  Do they all fit neatly into three or four categories (hint: nope!) or are we all over the road?  Marc...

Recorded January 19, 2024 Our topic for February is “things just won’t go away” or “things that keep coming back year after year” like Groundhog Day.  We’ve each selected items that we all hope might see their shadow and disappear for a while.  BYOD, VR, terrible marketing, wireless sharing, and more.  We’re also testing some format changes to On Topic to keep the show shorter and LIVE on various platforms, so look for those unannounced live streams on the socials. Alternate titles: I was...

Recorded Feb 02, 2024 LIVE from ISE!  Well, not really, but given some of the other coverage from Barcelona, it’s still more timely and more in depth from 5,000 miles away.  This is our take on the news from ISE this week.  In true AVSF style, this discussion is spicy, yet reasonable, as we review the new products, the coverage, the people, and the show itself.     ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ►...

Recorded January 12, 2024 Remember when refrigerators would just sit there in the kitchen and keep food cold and we really, really wanted them to tell us what to cook?  No? Well, too bad!  We cover a story from CES about an AI-powered, excuse me, “AI” powered fridge that wants to scan your tomatoes! Then, we delve into the concept of basing every AV system on the same equipment and same cabling... unless you’re running Dante microphone arrays as analog sources.  Price be damned, we’re AVoIP...

Recorded January 5, 2024 It’s a new year and we’re starting 2024 by looking backward!  We return to a previous topic: working with integrators.  On Off the Rails 78, we debated Marc’s question about how to ensure we get delivered what we wanted from AV integrators… and that conversation prompted quite the debate on Twitter, led by friend of the show, Joe Way.  So, we invited Joe on the show to talk in more than 140 characters.  Did we solve it this time?   We also review an article from the...

Recorded December 20, 2023 (Part 2 of 2) It’s our third annual prediction show!  And I predict we’ll do it again next year. We first review our predictions from last year to see just how well we did.  Some of us were dead on, others were hit & miss, and yet others seem to be deliberately vague just to claim accuracy regardless of outcome.   Then, we each prognosticate on what to expect in 2024.  Much of it seems to be around AI and Teams.  Sorry. This discussion lasted almost an...

Recorded December 20, 2023 (Part 1 of 2) It’s our third annual prediction show!  And I predict we’ll do it again next year. We first review our predictions from last year to see just how well we did.  Some of us were dead on, others were hit & miss, and yet others seem to be deliberately vague just to claim accuracy regardless of outcome.   Then, we each prognosticate on what to expect in 2024.  Much of it seems to be around AI and Teams.  Sorry. This discussion lasted almost an...

Recorded December 8, 2023 Today’s news is a summary of the Geometry of Learning research project from friend of the show, Dr. Jon Dorbolo, about teaching in round classrooms.  Done well, these are fantastic learning spaces with untold opportunity.  Done poorly, they are technology-driven failures. Those two outcomes are not mutually exclusive.  Then, we attempted to discuss how to document projects so that external contracted integrators deliver what we need, regardless of who is providing...

Recorded November 15, 2023 It’s December, so it’s time for a holiday wishlist!  Each of us shares the AV device or service that we’d really like under the Christmas tree.  Some of these are real products, others are slight variations on commonly available products, and one requires a time machine.   Merry Christmas, y’all! ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn:...

Recorded December 1, 2023 Our news comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education who now recognizes that teaching via lecture and teaching via active learning are not mutually exclusive nor diametrically opposed.  Shocker! It’s possible to effectively teach via lecture in an active learning classroom and engage students in active learning in a lecture hall.   But we all knew that, didn’t we? Speaking of multi-use spaces, how are we designing and deploying our multi-purpose classrooms and...

Join the AV SuperFriends LIVE on Dec 15 at 3p EST for a higher ed AV-themed Holiday Party! We will have live guests, a Santa's workshop photo exchange, and the official AVSFmas tree! It should be a great time of holiday cheer!  https://avsf.live

Recorded November 17, 2023 Our news article this week is really more of an opinion piece by a friend of the show and all around good guy, Steve Greenblatt of Control Concepts.  He opines that maybe, just maybe, contractors shouldn’t be chasing only profit margins, but providing solutions that customers will really appreciate.  Blasphemy! Then we’re joined by Mike Pedersen from Iowa State University to talk about in-house integration.  Mike shares his trials and tribulations of building an...

Recorded November 10, 2023 We start with an article written by a commercial integrator about commercial integrators in Commercial Integrator.  While the points the raise are valid (for some), it raises the question as to who is the intended audience.  Then we’re joined by Johanna Pierson from the Wentworth Institute of Technology to talk about how smaller schools do classroom AV, events, conference rooms, and everything in between (except printers).  She shares her experiences with a small...

Recorded October 27, 2023 Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! If you recall, last year we accidentally set fire to Marc’s house while trying to deep fry a turkey.  This year we all went to Jamie’s house where Larry volunteered to smoke the turkey overnight, which turned out great!  While enjoying Thanksgiving dinner, we each shared our thoughts on some AV turkeys– that is, products or services that don’t quite live up to their promises.  Marc hates network switches, Larry thinks perhaps we’re...

Recorded October 18, 2023 AI is all the rage, so we’re going to discuss AI.  We start with a discussion of Biamp’s new AI-derived DSP processing and we’re joined by Richard Mitchell of Biamp.  We then expand the discussion to broader topics of AI-powered (or at least AI-branded) AV from cameras to microphones to control systems to digital signage. Finally, what about all these spaces that someone else did on the cheap an now we’re asked to “fix” them?  News:...