AV SuperFriends

Recorded September 9, 2022 The AV SuperFriends kick off Season 3 with some announcements of upcoming changes and a new show, AVSF: Live! Yes, live-- on video, that is-- but live! With video and you! We want you to join us! The link is below. Then we return to our Twitter poll from a few weeks ago to share the results. With equipment lead times continuing to be a challenge, what are other schools d...

This month's topic is software AV and we couldn't decide between software AVoIP content, software AV control, or software management platforms, so we'll cover all three! We start with an article about a semiconductor manufacturer widening software (and hardware) support for SMPTE 2110, which gets us one step closer to HDBaseT-style interoperability… in theory. Then, it's a whirlwind tour of softwa...

Recorded August 12, 2022 We fire up the AVSF time machine and travel back to 2010… to talk about HDBaseT. It's all in good fun, but it's a weird article to see in 2022. Then, what's your threshold for standardization? That is, are you looking to broaden you AV equipment portfolio or just waiting out the on-going equipment delays? What happens if that wait becomes six, eight, 12, 16 months or more?...

Recorded August 5, 2022 Panopto is buying Kaltura! Sorta. The investment firm who owns Panopto also wants to own Kaltura. While this could mean we'll see a really cool platform come from this "merger," most likely it'll be bad for all of us. Look for your license fees to increase dramatically. Then, what do you mean by "AV design?" What does it mean to be an AV designer? How much time are you spen...

Recorded July 15, 2022 It's Back to School season! What will the 2022 - 2023 school year bring? We start with an article from EdSurge about schools who put massive student CRM systems on hold and are now restarting those massive projects. Regardless of how many times we've all been through this process, the end result seems to be the same: a litany of complaints, nostalgic stories of the previous...

We start with an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that asks why colleges and universities are constructing so many new buildings, but leaving older facilities to rot? We're all guilty of focusing on the new hotness and ignoring the old and busted, but what will happen now that enrollment is set to drop? Then, active learning rooms. Do they really need all that stuff (no) or all those...

Recorded July 8, 2022 Marc starts us off with an article about new, high resolution and AI-driven optical microphones that will never be a product, but will be in almost every audio product in five years... and probably in your phone, too.  If this technology goes where we think it will, it'll be the next version of beam-tracking & beam-steering. Then, with apologies to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, we a...

Recorded June 22, 2022 Have y'all heard of this VR thing? It's a thing! Or is it… We start with an article about highly customized content for highly specialized academic programs and how that just doesn't scale. And that leads a discussion covering everything from shared standards for metaverse content to nursing simulation systems to user generated content. Then, scope creep. Have you done that...

Recorded June 24, 2022 It's a Christmas Miracle— all six AV SuperFriends are on the same episode together! We start with some AV news that created a minor crisis for some of us (for about 30 minutes), but as it's about one of our "favorite" products, we're enjoying the schadenfreude. Also, maybe if your network allows unauthenticated devices to connect directly, you deserve the lumps. Then we're j...

Recorded June 09, 2022 Chris, Larry, Rachel, and Justin were all together in Las Vegas for the largest single gathering of AV SuperFriends since 2019, so we fired up the microphones to share our general impressions of the first InfoComm since the last one! We cover products of note, the best swag on the show floor, celebrity sightings, the utter lack of VR (yea!), the sad lack of esports (boo!), f...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by Doug McCartney from Oakland University and Jon Loney of Whitman College to talk about the NWMET that didn't happen in 2020, Doug's recent election t...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by Jessica Sunset from LightWerks to talk about how colleges and universities can be better partners with integrators (hint: parking!) and how integrat...

Recorded May 13, 2022 It's our annual InfoComm Preview show! Or, if you are listening to this after the first week of June, it's our annual InfoComm Wrap-up show! Chris, Larry, and Justin will be there in person, so come join us for presentations, tours, and interviews. Or, listen to recordings of those same presentations, tours, and interviews because InfoComm is over! We hash through what we exp...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by Kramer's Kristen Garner to talk about building the relationship with higher education, updating firmware, and Kramer's recent purchase of UC Workspa...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by Robert Durbin from Crestron to talk high level concepts, Crestron's A+ program, the four flavors of DM, and using tin snips to modernize your DMPS p...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we grab Dave Stewart from Eastern Washington University (and Chris's former colleague!) and Kevin Gelman of Alfatron Electronics to talk about EWU's testing and imp...

Recorded May 20, 2022 We start with a new story about Morehouse College wanting VR for everyone.  It certainly seems more viable at smaller schools, but we're skeptical.   Then, Chris wants help creating a truly useful sandbox space.  Marc suggests lots of infrastructure, Justin recommends an area for bench testing and a nicer version for outside users, Larry talks about the concept of "a safe spa...

Recorded May 6, 2022 Before the show even begins, Chris grabs the mic and expresses his frustrations with participants on video calls. It's 2022 and there's simply no excuse. Then, Larry poses an interesting question: If we all had the funding and time to update or replace almost every AV system on our campuses, how would we do it? Would we stay the course and get a few years ahead on refresh cycl...

Recorded April 29, 2022 Hey, Rachel is back! Well, for the news segment, anyway. NAB was this past week and Rachel shares some insights into what trade shows might portend for the future. Then it's time to dive deep into the software we all use throughout all aspects of an AV project. Notes, task management, shared network folders, CAD, Sketchup, and everything in between. Also, if you're taking n...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by Marc Yakubisin from Diversified and talk through how integrators can be better partners with colleges and universities AND how those colleges and un...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by new kid on the block, Joe Way from USC.  We talk faculty feedback, incremental software upgrades to existing systems, faculty feedback, a deliberate...

Recorded April 8, 2022 Working with integrators and consultants is a necessary part of the job for any higher ed AV manager, and the AV SuperFriends have plenty of suggestions to make that process easier. Step 1, don't give away engineering and design. Step 2, don't give away consulting and end user interaction. Step 3, don't give away programming. Step 4, don't give away integration. In fact, jus...

Recorded March 31, 2022 Chris and Marc were at NWMET 2022 in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in March and set up a table in the middle of the hallway to talk with as many people as possible about AV in higher education. In this episode, we're joined by Frank Alaimo and Andy Borts from UNLV to talk about their more measured approach to creating and supporting modern teaching and learning spaces. Fra...

Recorded April 22, 2022 After over a month away, we're back and have all sorts of things to talk about… but not on this episode. We start with more data from EDUCAUSE that suggests leadership should talk with their local IT staff who support the learning spaces on campus. It's a good article from a trusted source to forward on to your managers and directors. Then, what's all this event support we...

Recorded March 11, 2022 Jamie brings an article that describes two very different experiences with warranty and support… of socks. It's relevant in a weird way. And in a year when we're having to be extra flexible with our choices of equipment due to the supply chain madness, it does raise the question of just how much that manufacturer support weighs in our decisions of what to specify. Speaking...