Recorded May 19, 2023 It’s June and, for the pro AV world, that means InfoComm… and that also happens to be the topic of this month’s episode. Our download numbers show that you’re likely listening to this before you travel to Orlando, so this episode is all about what we’re doing there all week long. Justin is teaching a 3-day course, Chris is leading a HETMA workshop, Larry is presenting a case study, and we’re recording and publishing every day, so look for a glut of content. If you’re listen...
Jun 08, 2023•30 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Recorded June 2, 2023 It’s a veritable smorgasbord, a cornucopia, a plethora of topics! In our last show before InfoComm, we cover such diverse elements as fear, surprise, a ruthless efficien… wait. We discuss the announcement of a 16K (consumer) display that isn’t 16K or for consumers. It’s weird, but most importantly, it’s not in 21:9 but instead in 16:9 (AKA the correct aspect ratio). Then, we delve into the challenges (and opportunities) with hiring qualified staff at our schools. Pay is too...
Jun 06, 2023•57 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Recorded May 12, 2023 Well, it finally happened; a big school is going all in on VR in a big, general ed program. Goggles on, please. Arizona State is replacing their introductory biology lab classes with VR. Chris is not amused. Then, we review recent technologies to determine if they are just marketing or if these are real, long-term solutions. Marc doesn’t like term “broadcast” anywhere near your PTZ cameras and Zoom events, Chris says USB-C is just marketing and a real thing, Justin reviews ...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 17
AV SuperFriends #AVintheAM - May 21, 2023
May 15, 2023•1 min
Recorded May 5, 2023 We start with a news story about making digital content accessible and that leads to a larger discussion of accessibility in AV. Look for that on a future show. Then we talk “selling” our campus clients on AV in order to deliver the experience they think they want; especially in conference rooms. Marc leverages the client’s business case to convince them how to spend, Justin hates the word “sales,” and the rest of us are simply trying to drive prices downward on standard spa...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Recorded April 14, 2023 Is it over yet? While the topic for this month’s show wasn’t clear, it was assumed to be about the approaching end of the school year. Instead, we opted to discuss technologies that we’re just sick and tired of discussing. And, if you know us, you know we just love VR and the metaverse. And while we don’t wish anyone ill will, we do enjoy our schadenfreude. News articles: https://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-eliminates-its-metaverse-division-as-part-of-companys-layoffs-pla...
May 08, 2023•29 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Recorded April 28, 2023 Instead of AV news, we return to the topic of digital canvases only a few days after our previous discussion. We’re joined by Atkins Fleming who has a suggestion for a software platform that seems perfect for digital canvases and remote teaching and learning, but the company seems unaware of the education market. Then we hash out the support tools and skills necessary for modern AV systems. Jamie puts it best when he says, “bring your laptop.” As AV becomes more and more ...
Apr 30, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Recorded April 27, 2023 We begin with a follow up to a news article we covered a few months ago regarding the University of Arkansas buying the University of Phoenix. Has the deal soured? Are there concerns of propriety and branding? Oh, my, yes! Next, we’re joined by Raul Burriel from Oregon State University (and current President of NWMET) to talk about the NWMET 2023 conference at Carroll College in Helena, MT earlier this month and to give the first ever preview of NWMET 2024 in Corvallis, O...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Recorded March 10, 2023 Who wants some riveting discussion of IT budgeting? Yeah, neither do we, but we make a heckuva effort to stay awake for this. Chris budgets projects with massive contingencies and with market pricing, Marc budgets by time, Larry is concerned about trying to make up all of last year’s projects and complete this year’s projects, Jamie borrows used gear from the rich to give to the poor, and Justin just wants to know “What can I buy today that will last until I no longer wor...
Apr 08, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Recorded March 29, 2023 Ever wanted a 360 camera paired with a camera bar below a display? Me neither, but here’s a news story (well, product announcement) from our favorite inappropriate UCC solution. Then we hash out the various options for BIG displays (and we all agree that anything over 85” falls into the category of big displays). Does projection still win the day? Are we still building LCD video walls? What about LED video walls? As prices continue to come down, have our perspectives on d...
Apr 03, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Recorded March 24, 2023 We’re joined by Paul Ziele to talk networking… and we get waaaay into it. We’re talking Mariana Trench, Kola Borehole, Hollow Earth. Record deepness… and we really only scratched the surface. We’ll have Paul back to continue this talk. Paul shares his frustrations with AV people not knowing networking, Network people not knowing AV, and no one willing to budge more than a few wiggles to make it all work. We also share a listener email about appropriate applications of 21:...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Recorded February 10, 2023 It’s the coldest part of winter, so let’s talk Spring Cleaning! Remember to fully submerse your touch panels in bleach before re… oh, not that kind of spring cleaning. We’re joined by Joe Way to talk through our plans for Spring Clinging— that is, what we should be thinking about replacing, what we are holding on to, and what things we should be getting rid of entirely. We all have rooms full of old gear that should go… or should it? On an unrelated note, we also want ...
Mar 08, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Recorded February 24, 2023 This is the audio recording of our live session at the HETMA 2023 Conference. We proclaimed that AV is dead and simply part of the larger IT umbrella… or is it! We were joined by Ryan Gray of Yavapai College who wrote in a few weeks earlier suggesting a new approach to the continuing AV/IT convergence, so we put him on the panel. Thanks to HETMA for the opportunity to share with the community and for all those who asked live questions. HETMA: https://www.hetma.org...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Recorded Feb 3, 2023 We cover all the news from ISE… *cough* The state of Arkansas is buying Phoenix… or something. We hash out what it might mean for the future of higher education when traditional universities buy online for-profit schools. Then, training. What training are we working on? What about our staff? Are we focused on technical skills or wider professional development? And where does the AVIXA CTS belong? Finally, we get a mailbag question on wireless sharing appliances. While we all...
Feb 10, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Recorded January 11, 2023 This month’s topic is BYOD and why that’s a terrible idea all around. Wait, it’s not? Well, you’ll have to convince me. We discuss BYOD for conferencing vs. BYOD for presentation only, BYOD for meetings, BYOD for student devices, wired vs wireless connections, why all wireless sharing appliances are bad, and even campus-wide iPad/Chromebook/laptop programs. Larry introduces the term BYODTRTMADETPIF and Justin again reminds us of his (in)famous Zoom Rooms. Alternate show...
Feb 08, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 5
In light of so much recent AI-related news, we skip the news and dive right into AI. Will AI take over or is it just the newest fad in technology? Afterall, we’ve been using AI-generated artwork for months, so that means even this podcast is AI-enabled, right? The current spate of AI search engines are really just cranking out the top result from Google, Wikipedia, Stack Overflow, and other sites, often without citing sources or verifying information, but they sure do seem to be the bees knees! ...
Feb 07, 2023•59 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Recorded January 20, 2023 In a change of pace for Off the Rails, we’re going to stick to one subject: USB. We’re joined by Joe Cornwall, Legrand’s AV Technology Evangelist to dive deep into USB and why it seems to be anything but universal. We all get the question from users that their laptop, tablet, phone has USB-C for charging, so why can’t we do that in an AV system? We’ll also cover such questions as: Why is trying to simply extend USB a bad idea? Why can’t I rely on USB extension? Why is H...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Recorded December 14, 2022 It’s our annual prediction show! But first, a Festivus Miracle— ClearOne and Shure have settled their dispute over squares, or whatever it was. Anyway, we review our predictions from January 2022 to see how right (or wrong) we were and then make bold predictions for 2023. Marc talks AR and VR, Chris foresees a student-driven redefining of the college experience, Rachel is both impressed and creeped out by AI, Jamie sees increased training and development for instructor...
Jan 08, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Recorded Dec 16, 2022 Apple is including a new application in all their devices with a new service pack called Freeform. While it may look like any other whiteboarding app, it is a harbinger of the types of second or third channel content that students will bring with them to our classrooms as it’s now pre-installed on billions of devices. Then we review the concept of designing on expected system lifecycle rather than capability. Should every system we design, specify, install, and support run ...
Dec 23, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Recorded December 09, 2022 (Watch the video of this show: https://avsf.live ) In our second live show, we host a typical awkward office holiday party complete with ugly sweaters, a gift exchange, seasons greetings from the Higher Ed AV community, some special guests join us to share what they’ve been up to, and AVSF trivia to give away AVSF swag (and everyone likes swag, right?). And Chris Neto breaks big news about the future of #AVinTheAM! Our gift exchange is of AV-related gifts that we found...
Dec 15, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Recorded October 26, 2022 In the spirit of American retail annual sales scheduling, here’s a holiday episode recorded in October. Our theme for this show is stocking stuffers, so we all have a little gift to share (aka a “recommendation”) or something from our AV wish list that will hopefully arrive soon. Little Marc gives everyone AVoIP decoders, little Chris gives “secret” analog I/O for QSC Cores and wants the perfect button panel controller, little Justin gives everyone an NDI to USB convert...
Dec 07, 2022•31 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Join the AV SuperFriends: Live! https://avsf.live
Dec 01, 2022•46 sec
Recorded November 11, 2022 Remember movie theaters? Enormous sodas, greasy popcorn, giant candies, and … Zoom? Have you ever wished you could combine the experience of a summer blockbuster with a Zoom meeting? Neither have we, but it’s coming to a theater near you. Then we return to the topic of AR, VR, XR, and other Rs. Larry makes a cogent argument about AR and Marc broadens his definition to encompass nearly everything. Regardless of how we think of it, the application of AR in higher ed will...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Recorded November 4, 2022 Meetings! We love ‘em! We need more of ‘em! Or do we? And are all these fancy spaces we’ve built out to support hybrid meetings just adding to the problem? Next we dive deep into the hardware side (and a few software bits, too) of selecting AVoIP encoders and decoders. We’re putting together a list of criteria, separating them into Nice to Have and Need to Have and are in the process of testing these all in real-world environments. Why? Because we aren’t going to wait u...
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Recorded October 28, 2022 In the news, Chris shares his thoughts from the recent CCUMC conference at UCF in Orlando. Also, CCUMC has changed their inscrutable name to the slightly more scrutable ETC. Then we’re joined by Jason Zapf from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay to discuss how to (or how not to) provide hybrid capability in active learning environments. While the temptation is go big and expensive, we all provide alternative suggestions to keep things simple and not over complicate...
Nov 14, 2022•52 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Recorded October 21, 2022 For Thanksgiving, the AV SuperFriends all gathered at Marc’s house and stood around the kitchen waiting for the turkey to cook in the indoor deep-fryer. In addition to an assortment of side dishes, we all brought an AV Turkey to share. Marc reminds us of the nonsense of touchless AV control, Chris complains bitterly about wireless sharing appliances, Justin gives up on Stem Audio, Jamie rewinds to multi-cable digital video extension, and Larry despises digital signage. ...
Nov 08, 2022•33 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Oct 17, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Recorded September 28, 2022 In a change of pace, we’ve collected our scariest and creepiest tales of AV projects, equipment, customers, and support. Join the AV SuperFriends as we sit around the bonfire and share our tales of fright. Justin brings an Old Kentucky Fable, Marc recounts his end of summer waking nightmare, Larry reminds us that our worst fears can come true during the Year of Good Enough, and Chris visits the Twilight Zone to recount the Needs Analysis of Terror. Happy Halloween, y’...
Oct 08, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Recorded September 16, 2022 We had a different news story selected for this week but given the recent public email exchanges between Aurora Multimedia and Crestron, we had to discuss it. Is Crestron being the bully or getting taken advantage of? Marc raises the possibility that this is all a staged act to generate publicity and we all like the idea of a Crestron - Aurora conspiracy! Then, we’re joined by Dean Heckler of Heckler Design to talk about his company’s novel approach to AV-friendly fur...
Sep 27, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 2
