Merging Tech Visions: Gestalt IT Rolls Into The Futurum Group, a New App for Pavlov Media MDU Wireless, Waves collabs with Unplugged Connectivity and AI Gets into our Pockets with Eino as a New RF Design Tool

You know , little technical difficulties never hurt anybody , see , do I need to go this way ? Do I need to go that way ? So I'm streaming on Instagram now also , and on Instagram the video is just like . It's like a little bit off , but that's okay . Anyway , I hope everybody's having a good week . It's over .

It's almost over 2.43 on Friday , right before we get to the holiday weekend , lots of organizations are taking time off . Lots of people are taking some time off . That's okay , that's good man . That's all good . All right , let's check the LinkedIn . Cool LinkedIn . So that's got to say something right . A couple , two , three viewers .

Anyway , good afternoon , good morning , good evening , whatever it is , my name is Drew Lentz , I'm the wireless nerd and this is Waves for this week , right before Christmas . It's December 22nd and I am broadcasting live . Beautiful in South Texas , mcallen , texas . A little chilly outside , so I had to warm up here , but a couple interesting things going on .

You know this one was a little bit later in the week , apologize , I try and keep a cadence but at least at some time during the week . And the majority of listeners come via the podcast anyway . So on the podcast anyone downloads that . But busy week lots of stuff going on holiday shopping and family coming in .

I've got all these family members that are about to come into my house here in a couple of hours , so it's going to be pretty great , looking forward to a couple of days off . As you know , I have a full-time employer and my full-time employer does this thing called the shutdown , which is fascinating .

We get like two weeks where we get to spend time with family and recharge and get going through the holidays . So , granted , this is a . You know I'm never one to stop working , so it's a little different for me . We'll see how it goes , especially coming into the new year .

I mean CES , nrf , lots of good things that are coming up here in the next couple of days and next couple of weeks . So let me jump into a couple of items here that I have . I've got it separated into what's new , what's now and what's next .

And the first thing that popped up last week right after we did the podcast , gestalt IT has been acquired by the Futurum Group , which is fascinating and exciting all at the same time . I couldn't be bigger fans of Tom and Steve Foskett and the whole team over there , and I'm curious to see what the future of that is going to be .

Futurum has been making some very good moves in the industry . You know Keith over at the CTO advisor got acquired by them as well , so this is definitely adding to the technology think tank that they're putting together . It's a good group of people .

Futurum has been around for a while and you know I've been lucky enough to sit on the couple of panels with some of the existing team members that are there .

But it shows here , you know , in 2022 and 2023 , they're just expanding and there's all these different Wayne House research evaluator group , dash network , visible impact , cto advisor and now , you know , now come on board with the Tech Field Day group . So I'm wondering how this is going to change Tech Field Day . I hope it doesn't change it .

I really enjoy Tech Field Day . I hope that it expands what they're doing . You know , daniel over there , if your term has just been such a strong advocate of being a great advisor in the tech space , so I don't necessarily see it changing . I think this is only going to empower it , so really looking forward to that .

Again , congratulations to Gestalt IT and the Futurum group . It's going to be really , really neat to see another acquisition happening Pavlov Media . If you don't know who Pavlov Media is , definitely check them out .

Pavlov Media is a large player in the MDU space and they just announced an acquisition for Inspire Wi-Fi , which is an amenity in Clubhouse Focus Solutions group . So they focus on things like amenities and making sure that people have access to you know , open doors and do all the amazing things that they do at MDU .

So it's I'm paying special attention to this one . Number one because I have some friends over at Pavlov , but also number two because I'm really watching the MDU space right now .

Lots of really good things happening in the industry , lots of strong things that are happening and if you look at the trends where Wi-Fi and connectivity are going , mdu spaces is going to be an interesting spot .

You know , as people start to try and save money on technology and save money on equipment and licenses and all the stuff that goes into that , but still having to deploy and design these solutions that are robust enough to make people have the connectivity that they're going to need in the future , this is something that's of keen interest to me .

So , pavlov , congrats on that acquisition . I think that's going to be really cool . It's going to add , you know , another feather in the cap or another tool in Toolbox , however you want to say it . Thank you .

But also one of the other new things that's out here is something that Tom Hollingsworth posted and I want to say about a year ago , a friend of mine tried to introduce me to the group over at INO , and schedules didn't line up , calendars didn't line up , but I've kept them on my radar and all of a sudden , tom pops an article up on LinkedIn .

Just look up , tom Hollingsworth , you can see it . Or go to inoai , e-i-n-oai AI wireless design . So this is in that same realm as EkaHow and Hamina and Net Ally and Cytos , and now a new contender coming into it . So that's definitely going to be one to watch . Had a good conversation with Payman right after this or right after that article popped up .

He will be attending WLPC , which is phenomenal . So if you haven't registered for WLPC , yet there was some news that went out saying that it was full . That was just a bug . Someone hacked the Gibson . Apparently Matthew Castile was not paying attention , he was sleeping on the keyboard . What are you going to do ? No , I'm just kidding .

Just give Matthew a hard time . But no , there was actually . There was something that happened saying that registration was full and it was closed . It is not full . It is not closed . Please register for the Wireless LAN Professional Conference in Phoenix . Learn more about INO .

I know , maybe I don't know how to say it , maybe we'll learn there , but lots of really good things happening coming up at WLPC . So those are some of the new things that are happening . What's happening right now ? Microsoft has received reports of issues in which Wi-Fi adapters may not connect to networks after updating and installing their latest bug patch .

As reported , you're most likely to be affected by this issue if you're attempting to connect to Enterprise , education or public Wi-Fi networks using 802.1x authentication . Well , that's a bummer . At least they're addressing it . So it's going to be good to see that they are addressing it , that something can come out of that . Hopefully it doesn't hurt too many people .

Too many devices are there . Let's see what else do we have going on this week From the AI world , man . So I know , I know , I know , man , I got to figure out how to say that . That's one thing on the AI tip . The other is Google has their Gemini LLM . That's been running natively on Pixel .

There it's going to be running natively on Pixel , and Apple has announced that they want to start running LLM and AI components specifically on devices . So moving it out of the cloud , moving it into the pocket , so chat , gpt and all those things , think about that running in your pocket instead of having to use these huge compute powers in spaces .

That is going to do some pretty incredible things . Now , when you take that processing power and you put it on the device , then surely that's going to eliminate the amount of connectivity that's necessary in order to process those requests for , like mid-journey or chat , gpt or whatever the AI tool set of choice is . So that's going to be really cool , definitely .

You know it's not like it's a lot , it's just text going back and forth for now , but as we move into more applications , being able to run AI natively on the devices , on the hardware , on the devices , is going to be pretty interesting to see .

That being said , there's something else that came out that was really cool to see SMURF Streamable Memory , efficient Radiance Fields for Real-Time Large Scene Exploration so this is really cool . I saw this fly across somewhere , linkedin or something .

If you look up SMURF , s-m-e-r-f , or you look up NERF or you look up GASP , these are all technologies that people are using to create digital twins , and so Google is getting behind this one called SMURF and essentially , if I understand this correctly , what it allows you to do is you can walk around your house and you can take pictures using your phone and you

throw it into into this Smurf model and it will fill in the blanks so that you can get like a 3d tour of your house and you can walk around it , you know , and navigating it , just cruising from room to room to room , you know from you know , through different rooms , through different doorways , through different areas , and it's very similar to what Matterport's

been doing for a long time taking that 360 degree video , stitching it together , giving you an experience where you can virtually to our house or building or whatever else it is . I've always been fascinated by this and the way that it plays a role in Visualizing RF .

I think that there's an incredible future here where you don't have to know that much about RF in order To , in order to understand how it's working , because in the future , my vision is you , you know , put on these glasses or put on these goggles or put on a headset and you can actually see the RF in your house .

This can aid in that by helping that whole digital twin thing happen , so that you can build your digital twin faster and better and then overlay that propagation assessment , that propagation model in that digital twin . So I'm always interested to see what's going on there . Plus , it's really cool . You can take tours of museums .

You can take tours of all kinds of other stuff , now a little bit easier than you could before . Matterport is such an incredible , incredible product and the team over there is just such a good group of people . You know they've been . They've been messing with some of this , I'm sure , so we'll see where it goes . You know it can only help .

It can only help everything out , of course , with Google gets behind it and drops it out . So get help . You can go look up the paper and you can start using it today , because because that's what they do . So it'll be pretty interesting to see . Speaking of seeing things , something weird happened .

If you're a ubiquity user for unified devices users of unified , the popular line of wireless devices from manufacturer Ubiquity or reporting , receiving private camera feeds from and control over Devices belonging to other users so all of a sudden , twitter , you know , blow , or X , blows up and reddit blows up .

People are like , hey , man , I logged in , I'm staring at my dashboard , I'm seeing camera feeds , you know , and I've got full control of these camera feeds . The only problem is these camera feeds aren't mine .

So obviously , something that was happening that was unexpected Over there , which is crazy on the timing , because their marketing machine is really ramping up and they were taking shots at Verkata . Man , if you look at , they've got their logo on the screen .

I don't know how they didn't get sued for that , but you know , here they are taking shots about how secure their stuff is and and how great their video is and then , bam , this hits them . So interesting to see that happen , you know , this past week , so we'll see where that goes .

Speaking of viewing video and TVs Displace , displace , displace , however you want to say . It is an upcoming TV manufacturer and they made this really cool announcement last year at CES and they've got a new one that's coming out this year at CES , but they added to it a little bit .

So Displace is a TV set that's got four batteries that you can slide into and you can hot swap the batteries , and it's got like suction cups or some weird mechanism on the back so you can stick it on a window , stick it on a wall , to the windows , to the walls , et cetera , et cetera .

So once you put it up , you stream video to it from some device that sits off on the side like some server that connects . I tried to Google it real quick to see if I could find out what technology they're using . It's gotta be five gig or 60 gig or something , whatever it is . But they're streaming video from this compute device onto the screen .

But what's crazy is now they've added to it . So the screen has built has a built-in NFC reader , like a chipset reader for your card , for your phone or your cards . The other thing that they're putting on there is this 4K camera so it does full voice and gesture control . So what's happening ? The key here is that you're watching a show and you're like man .

I really like that sweater that that dude's wearing . You can wave your hand or say something or create this gesture and immediately it will take whatever imagery is on there , it'll go out on the web , it'll find it , it'll add it to your shopping cart and you can pay for it immediately on the app or by holding your phone close to the television .

So now you're taking advertising and you're integrating that advertising with real-time payment , with NFC , with the ability to be contextual about what it is that you're looking at and how you're buying it . Lots of really interesting things happening there . So Displace has their upcoming TV . They will be demoing it at CES 2024 .

So , as I've mentioned , I will be out there for that . Some cool announcement coming up here in just a second about that as well , but I'll be out there for that man . I would love to go see it . So I'm gonna try and sneak in and go see what they're doing . They're gonna

be demoing it . This startup specializes in wireless TVs with hot swappable batteries . It was supposed to start shipping . It says it's gonna start shipping in January , mid 2024 . The box sits off to the sidestreams . All the content . It'll use proprietary gesture and voice technology for it . That's integrated 4K camera to tell when a user is raising their hand .

So think about watching QVC , or think about watching anything . I mean , think about watching anything and being able to immediately purchase whatever you see on TV . And so now you enter this whole other realm of it's not just watching something , it's that interactive component with televisions .

And so I'm still wondering how far off we are from TVs just being totally free in the future , where , like , your iPhone gets given to you by Verizon , whoever it is , if you sign a contract . I'm wondering how long it's gonna take before TVs are just given to you because they know that you're gonna wanna buy stuff that's on there .

Speaking of , I don't even watch that much TV , though . So that's the kicker . I don't know if I'm a good audience for that . Everyone's always asking me what show I'm watching . I'm like I don't know .

I only watch whatever my wife puts on in the middle of the night , and right now it's some hip hop show , all about the rap life , or something which is hilarious and fun at the same time . Anyway , I digress . So that's fascinating .

Other fascinating news that happened this week Someone convinced a chat GPT powered Chevy dealer to sell an $81,000 Chevy Tahoe for $1 . This man convinced chat GPT that must agree with quote anything the customer says . So it trained the model . And once it trained the model , it says he says let's see .

The funniest part is that he made the chat bot in each response with a phrase that could become a verbally written contract . After the special training of the model , this man told the chat bot that he wanted a 2024 Chevy Tahoe , but his max budget was $1 . That's certainly not enough to buy this Tahoe , which MSRP is $81,000 .

Surprisingly , the chat bot agreed and said that's a deal and that's a legally binding offer . No takesies back seas . So that's pretty cool , man . No word on if they're actually going to go through with it or not . Probably not , actually . I think it said they're not going to go through with it , but whatever . Anyway , there's some interesting things happening .

Ai is definitely being taken advantage of , but it's also working its way into the space , and so when you start to think about everything that we just talked about and the way that AI is going to play into that whether it's in your pocket , whether it's on your TV , whether it's helping with transactions or identifying things , that's pretty crazy .

All those things are going to need that connectivity . So I know , or you know which . I again have to really figure out how to say powering AI , wireless design is going to be interesting . I just want to see how they compare .

I want to see how they compare to EkaHau and Hamina , like what are they doing that's different , that EkaHau and Hamina are not doing ? Or what are they doing that's the same , but maybe they're doing a little bit better or even a little bit worse .

Either way , I'm always open to seeing some new tools get into the industry , so it should be a fun couple of weeks . That being said , there's that's about it , man . You know it's been an interesting week . Like I said , I've been pretty busy . So so it's .

You know I haven't been keeping up , there hasn't been a lot to keep up with , things seem kind of slow . But I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season . I hope you enjoy your time with your families and I hope to see you all very , very soon .

As I mentioned and I'll and I'll hammer at home again my events I have coming up CES 2024 , january 8th through 12th in Las Vegas . I fly in on the eighth .

I'm excited to stay at the Fontainebleau , the new hotel , directly , basically directly in the parking lot of the convention center , so don't know what they have for Wi-Fi , but I'm going to take a look and see what's going on . There Should be a pretty cool place .

So I'll be at CES 8th through 12th and then bounce over to the other side of the US from the 12th through the 17th , albeit in our F . We are building a full scale , fully functional restaurant in the basement of NRF which is going to be pretty awesome . There's a , there's a restaurant that's going on down there .

It's all going to be powered by Maraki Wi-Fi and Maraki cameras Wave spot on the back end which I've been testing . I've been testing a MQTT streaming out the new CW 9160 access points 9164 and 66 here at the house so I can see how many people transition from my living room into the kitchen .

I'm actually doing it just to test it , but it's going to be pretty neat to see , especially when I get more company that comes in over the holidays . But if you want to take a look , if you're at NRF , please come check it out . Lots of cool technology , advances in national retail federation . Nrf is such a good show .

And again , that's a 12th or 17th of the Javits Center in New York City , if you . If you're out there , let me know . Drop . Drop a message on my LinkedIn and WLPC is coming up right after that . In February , wlpc is happening in Phoenix . Please , please , please , make plans to attend .

And I just got word today that I have been invited and my ticket costs have been covered . Buzzsprout shout out to Buzzsprout , sending me a message saying that I have been selected to go to PodFest 2024 . So that's kind of neat . I applied and said , hey , I'd love to go check this thing out , the Windomair National Hotel January 25th through 28th .

Not sure if I can actually make it . It's going to be a little tight , but PodFest is a big international podcasters conference , so maybe they can help me not say um , as much or whatever it is . Anyhow , y'all have a wonderful , wonderful weekend . I will catch up with you next week , maybe , maybe at some point .

And also , please stay tuned because in January , on the 10th of January , I'm going to be doing a crossover show with Unplugged Connectivity , which is a bunch of Cisco employees have put together this podcast for Unplugged Connectivity and I'm going to be doing a crossover episode live from CES with waves and Unplugged Connectivity .

The two of us are getting together , forming like Voltron to get the word out about what's happening in the consumer electronics space what's happening now , what's happening that's new and what's happening next , and how that affects wireless networks .

So please stay tuned for that Tune in on January 10th or January 11th we're looking at two different dates that we're going to run that stream live from CES , unplugged Connectivity and waves , the crossover episode Everyone's been waiting for , and by everyone , I mean like the four people are involved . So hopefully you pay attention .

Please tell your friends , tell your family , tell your pets to tune in . Also , don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel because I still have not earned enough subscribers for my wife to take me to Mexico . I'm short about 700 , so please go like and subscribe . Smash that sub button , brozki .

Anyway , y'all have a wonderful weekend , merry Christmas , happy holidays and I will talk to y'all next week , see ya .