I recently took a solo vacation to California for a few days of self-care in the sun. On this trip, I decided to be semi-technology-free and stress-free, meaning I didn’t take my laptop and didn’t check in at work.

I thought it would be a difficult task for me. Despite my anti-rise-and-grind tweets, I do tend to be a workaholic (shhhhh … don’t tell anyone I said that!). Instead, I found the silence and alone time comforting.

On my trip, I scheduled just two things: dinner with a friend on my last night and a sound bath. For those of you unfamiliar with sound baths, it is a meditative experience where those in attendance are “bathed” in sound waves. It might sound a bit hippie, but, working in the audiovisual field, I suspect most of you understand the healing power of audio.

So I headed to the Integratron in Landers, CA, on a Thursday afternoon. Built in 1954 by George Van Tassel, the structure is based on the design of Moses’ Tabernacle, the writings of Nikola Tesla, and—according to Van Tassel—telepathic directions from extraterrestrials.

After we got a brief history of the building, my group and I headed up to the structure’s second floor. The acoustics in the building are fascinating. I could hear perfectly what the people on the other side of the Integratron directly across from me were whispering. When I whispered notes of gratitude from a square in the center of the room, the entire group could hear my words.

The actual sound bath consisted of 35 minutes of 20 quartz crystal singing bowls being played live. According to the musician, the sound levels reached 100 dB, but the noise wasn’t ever overwhelming in the deeply resonant, multi-wave sound chamber. Instead, it was comforting and relaxing. As the sound waves washed over me, I felt completely at peace.

After the musician stopped playing, we all laid on our mats for a bit to relax to the sound of ambient music in the chamber. Leaving the sound bath, I felt completely refreshed and recharged.

It was the perfect ending to my vacation, all thanks to the healing power of audio.

Click here to read more stories from the August 2021 issue of SCN.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Diversity matters. Equality matters.

We’ve all heard the saying, “If you can see me, you can be me,” but imagine the converse, working in an industry where people in power don’t look like you. (You may not even have to imagine.) Many AV professionals find themselves in that situation today, although there is the potential for great change on the horizon as we strive for diversity of thought, gender, race, abilities, and more.

Being an advocate of diversity isn’t just good for your soul—it’s good for your bottom line. According to a 2019 study by Gartner, “75 percent of organizations with frontline decision-making teams reflecting a diverse and inclusive culture will exceed their financial targets.” On top of that, “gender-diverse and inclusive teams outperformed gender-homogeneous, less inclusive teams by 50 percent, on average.”

In addition to fostering diverse teams today, aging industries—like the pro AV industry—should be building diverse generational leadership, which can help to create what some call “cognitive diversity.” Experience matters—there’s no substitution for years of on-the-job, hands-on experience—but lack of experience can also be an asset if harnessed properly. Younger generations are often fearless. They haven’t been around long enough to make our mistakes … so they’re not afraid to try their “crazy” new idea and fail. Or maybe their innovative thinking will work. Something everyone thought was insane could end up being the million-dollar idea that saves your company.

[Check out the young innovators featured in SCN: The Nine]

My hope for the future is that, one day, I won’t have to write editorial letters about why the industry needs to be more inclusive. I hope I’m able to write about how the industry turned the page and set an example for others. Remember, there’s room for everyone, and when we bring more people into the fold and pass the mic, everybody wins.

P.S. I’m proud to say the team at Systems Contractor News has signed the AV Industry Pledge for an Equitable Future. We encourage you to join us.

According to a survey of more than 1,100 workers, roughly 80 percent of employees will experience moderate to severe stress as a result of working with a difficult coworker, boss, or subordinate. Psychologists Alan A. Cavaiola, Ph.D., and Neil J. Lavender, Ph.D., conducted the survey and discuss its implications in their book, Toxic Coworkers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job.

We’ve all been there—sometimes things are complicated and it takes a team to figure out how to fix a problem, and sometimes things are easy in that it’s clear who is causing problems for the team. We all have that one person who makes things incredibly complicated when the situation doesn’t warrant it. (If you’re lucky, it’s just the one person.)

At home, it’s easier to deal with difficult people. You can choose who you want (and don’t want) to spend time with. But in the office, that’s darn near impossible. You usually can’t just avoid the person who inspires dread every time you see their name pop up in your inbox or on a conference call invite. So how do you handle it?

Often when someone irritates me, I find that it’s more of an internal trigger (although this isn’t always the case). Does something about their behavior mimic something I don’t like about myself? If the answer is yes, I need to go home and work on myself. If no, then I try to recognize behavior patterns from the other person so I can control my own emotions when I see that they’re about to engage in behavior that triggers me. While reflecting, I also try to see the other person’s point of view. This method isn’t necessarily solution-driven, but it does help me empathize with the other person and perhaps understand them better.

Another solution is to limit interactions with the person, whether they be a coworker or a client. I like to do this by sending overly detailed, clear emails for the task at hand to minimize the need for follow-up emails, meetings, or phone calls. It’s also wise to know when you’ve reached your interaction limit with the person and send in a substitute when necessary. I’d gladly thank a coworker with a Starbucks surprise when he or she takes one for the team and handles a situation for me.

Lastly, I simply remind myself that not everyone is a match. Some personalities will clash until the end of time, and you just have to be okay with that. Not everyone is going to like you and you’re not going to like everyone, but if you can manage to deal with difficult people with grace, you’re ahead of the curve.

Click here to read more stories from the April 2021 issue of SCN.

The pandemic has been hard on all of us. It can be isolating, frustrating to be stuck in the house, and it seems like it’s all we talk about these days. If you’re a planner like me, you’re likely losing your mind right about now. Everything these days is a moving target.

Think back to last March when lockdowns began. Everyone was thinking four to six weeks max and had a can-do attitude. Then it was, “We’ll for sure be out of the house by June.” June turned into fall, fall turned into sometime in 2021.

Fast-forward to now ... and we’re still not sure what June will hold. I know one thing that won’t be happening in June: InfoComm. The 2021 show has been rescheduled to late October (read the statement about the show’s move from AVIXA’s CEO Dave Labuskes). I, for one, am excited about the change. Late October seems like a reasonable time frame for the AV world to join back together. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll even be able to hug each other instead of the COVID-safe elbow bump greeting we’ve become accustomed to.

For me, life works best when I have a schedule and things are planned out. InfoComm gave us plenty of notice about the move, so it’s easy for me to shift my plans. But that ever-moving target of when we can return to a sense of normalcy has been driving me crazy. Change is inevitable, but success isn’t.

In order to be successful with moving targets, you need to be able to move along with your targets. Have a plan, but don’t be married to it. Be ready to roll with the punches. That way, when the hits keep coming, you’ll be ready to pivot, change, and grow. Don’t forget to share the plan with your team—and keep them updated when the end goal, time frame, etc. inevitably changes.

Perhaps most important for hitting the moving target: keep your team engaged. Engaged employees are happy employees—they’re way more likely to go above and beyond for the company. They take ownership and want to succeed in their roles … in turn, they want the company to be successful. Keep them confident in your ability to lead by involving them in decisions, keeping them informed, and helping them feel as secure as possible in an ever-changing business environment. Band together to hit the moving target.

Remember when we were all so excited for a wonderful new decade to begin with the year 2020? (Insert audible laugh here.) And then COVID-19 changed everything. The world came to a stop—businesses closed down (some for good), schools were shuttered, and introverts rejoiced as staying home made you a hero.

But the future is looking brighter for 2021, which pedants will happily tell you is actually the start of the decade, not 2020. The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have hit the market, and we can now see glimmers of light at the end of the stay-at-home tunnel.

This year has made me realize how precious our time together is, and so my business resolution for 2021 is to make more memories with the AV community and cherish the times we’re able to spend together, rather than rushing home to check my unread emails or worrying about my lack of sleep at a tradeshow.

I asked a handful of AV professionals to share their resolutions with me. I hope they will spark some thoughts about your own goals for 2021. Here’s what they had to say...

Nuna Becic, Markets, Global Integrated Systems Marketing, Shure

Our focus in 2021 will be continuing to help customers through evolving needs. With the pandemic restricting trade shows, business travel, and people in offices, we are all embarking on a new era in virtual meetings. Our job is to help customers keep their employees more engaged and productive. Now, more than ever, organizations of all types need to be agile and efficient for their stakeholders no matter where they meet: the office, a meeting room, at home, or on the road.

Garth Lobban, Director of Marketing, Atlona

We have two core 2021 business goals at Atlona: To build innovative AV products that speak to IT managers, and help people return to work and school safely with touchless collaboration and control solutions. The common thread to both simplify and evolve how people use and benefit from AV technology.

Bernice Cramer, Director of Global Marketing, Bose Professional

After a year full of challenges and surprises that tested creativity and endurance, my 2021 resolutions will be focusing on two important areas: An emphasis on listening to customers describe challenges and needs, especially now as they navigate how to evolve to a hybrid workplace and regather socially and spiritually. Just as important is our employees—helping them find balance for their health and happiness so they can continue navigating successfully while helping colleagues and customers alike.

Gladys Marrroquin, Audiovisual Consultant, Newcomb & Boyd

With COVID-19 catalyzing the need for flexible technology standards, I believe it would be wise to bolster our relationships with manufacturers who have been able to tackle current needs gracefully. It is important to keep in touch and reconnect with our local reps so they can help to keep us updated on each of their unique approaches, and keep those knowledge nuggets in mind when discussing needs with clients.

Nick Belcore, Executive Vice President, Peerless-AV

Heading into 2021, Peerless-AV will continue to focus on our core value of respect for people. We resolve to continue to find new ways to fully support our employees, customers, and partners in their professional endeavors as the world around us evolves. We will take full ownership, and drive impact first virtually, then in person as safety and circumstances permit. By furthering our investment in technology, we will enhance communication, safety, and ensure a cleaner, more resilient, and informed future for everyone.

Gina Sansivero, VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications, AtlasIED

I will work to ensure that 2021 will be a year of continuity and amplification at AtlasIED—our team will magnify what we have started in 2020. We will continue to reinforce our commitment to quality, to our dealer channel, to our industry, and to our employees. AtlasIED has a renewed brand identity and momentum in the industry, and we will continue to fuel that momentum through product development, support, engagement, training, and expansion. 2021 will be an exciting year, and I am resolute in continuing to build on our energy.

Chris Neto Market Development Manager - Experience and Engagement, Starin

2020 was a year of impactful change. For many, the challenge of shifting from office employee to a remote worker was a big enough change itself. In 2020, both AV companies and their employees tested their agility and resiliency in face of adversity. For years, AV sold and installed video conference systems, but many never turned on their cameras. Work culture as we know it has been changed. For 2021, my  resolution is to continue to deliver a higher level of “presence”. Can I deliver a better value to our customers by using collaboration tools? I think so. This will be my personal goal, to perfect that balance between in-person and digital presence. 

Kylie Holm, Director of Marketing, Neurilink

My 2021 business resolution is to continue crafting an outstanding customer experience. The customer experience is always at the forefront of our conversations at Neurilink—as it should be. Our vision isn’t to be the biggest, it’s to be the number one customer choice integrator in the Northwest.

We’re continually trying to find the right mix of flexibility and alignment with our proven process to create the best experience we can. 2021 will provide even more opportunity for us to dive deep into refining the customer experience as organizations rely more heavily on technologies that help employees connect and collaborate.

Joe Dunbar, Midwest Sales Manager, Sennheiser

In 2021, I will stay committed to my continued education.  Like many of us, I was in a position where I could use some of my time to get new certifications and attend a variety of educational and informational seminars or trainings.  Unfortunately though, I allowed a few of 2020’s curveballs to get in the way of (finally) taking my CTS, which I am on track to finish in Q1.

I promise that I will stay committed to supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives and using my voice and power to support equality in the workplace and in my community. I’m listening and I'm learning.

Kim Brown, Senior Director of Marketing, Planar

In 2021, flexibility will be key. We remain committed to offering our customers innovative display solutions that provide unparalleled visual performance, but also understand that their needs will vary during these unprecedented times. Despite the uncertainties next year will bring, the industry will continue to demand superior products, service, and support. From maintaining day-to-day business operations to executing one-of-a-kind installations, we’ll be here. We’re listening and ready to adapt to help make our customers’ visions a reality. 

Vanessa Jensen, Senior Specialist, Market Development, Shure

2021 will be about adaptability. Shure will focus on helping customers remain open to change and evolve with the ever-changing business climate. It is clear that the work-from-home trend will continue into 2021, and we will continue to support our customers remotely so they can offer the best virtual meeting spaces possible. Technology will play an even bigger important role in the post-COVID world, enabling new, socially distant working practices. Providing high-quality end to end audio solutions that feature unmatched ease of deployment and more consistent experience will be more essential than ever.

Luke Jordan, Owner, Electro Acoustics

My goal this year is to take on the odds with my team—stickin' together like flour and water to make that slow dough! We worked for everything we have and we're going to stick up for each other—like brothers from another mother, kind of like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. 

New years typically begin with an aggressive start for AV professionals. Many of us hit the ground running in Las Vegas in January, wandering the ever-so-crowded halls of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). We come home for a week or two and then jump on an overseas flight—typically to Amsterdam, but 2021 was going to be Integrated Systems Europe’s (ISE) Barcelona debut.

Between those two shows, we’d attend kickoff meetings for new projects and close out the last of our installations from last year, and wedge in some time to catch up with co-workers and discuss their holiday travels and adventures. Barely time to breathe.

But this year will be a little different. CES will be taking place at your kitchen table, or wherever you attend meetings while working from home. (While some of us have returned to offices, many have not, and it’s still very unclear how the pandemic will affect our work plans this winter.) ISE, traditionally a February affair, has been relocated to June. With COVID cases surging across the nation, it’s not likely that we’ll be hosting in-person meetings anytime soon. 

While we all anxiously await the distribution of an effective vaccine so we can safely see our colleagues again, we’re back to filling our time with virtual meetings, events, and happy hours. 

Speaking of which, join me for all three on Friday, Dec. 4, at Leveling Up: The Esports and Education Conference and Expo. 

If that doesn’t work for you, I’m co-hosting AV Network Nation, a virtual event that takes place on Thursday, Dec. 10. I’ll be joined by AVNation’s Tim Albright, as well as an impressive roster of panelists who will be discussing the future of pro AV technologies.

Back to filling our time, we should all be using Q1 2021 as a planning quarter because once we are collectively back in business, things will be insanely busy. We’ll be flying from city to city, reconnecting (in person!) with our colleagues, fellow industry leaders, and potential clients. June will bring us both ISE and InfoComm, and the fall will bring an abundance of shows including the co-located NAB Show and AES Convention in Las Vegas in October.

So enjoy what could be the last few months of a slowdown and get ready to go full steam ahead into mid-2021!

Does anybody even know what month it is? Kidding, I’m aware that this is the November issue. But nearly eight months into a global pandemic, time seems to fly by and somehow also move slow as molasses.

Most days are insanely busy around here, especially since the team is working on two can’t-miss events: Leveling Up: The Esports in Education Conference & Expo on Dec. 4 and AV Network Nation on Dec. 10. We’re on Zoom calls talking with our speakers, using Google Hangouts to interview experts for the latest issue of SCN, etc.—it’s a whole lot of screen time.

We work in the technology industry and are probably using our own technology now more than ever. But sometimes you need a break and should find ways to walk away from technology so you can recharge your internal battery. Here are my favorite tech-free ways to recharge…

Hiking I live in the Chicago area, which is mostly flat and filled with buildings, but there are plenty of local forest preserves to explore. There’s something about taking a long walk in nature that refreshes my spirit. Breathing in the fresh air and appreciating the changing autumn leaves is both calming and invigorating. I get some of my best ideas while I’m hiking. Something about being surrounded by beauty and alone with my thoughts allows me—and many others, I’m sure—to be at my most creative. I’ve come up with a litany of out-of-the-box ideas while walking through the woods.

Reading What better way to get out of this technology-driven world than to jump into a fictional one with interesting characters and plot twists? Or if fiction isn’t your jam, maybe you’re expanding your mind with the latest business book. Either way, you’re using your brain while giving your eyes a rest from the blue light of the screen. The AVIXA Women’s Council has even started a book club. They’re currently reading The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate by Fran Hauser and meeting on Nov. 11 to discuss. Email Brandy Alvarado at alvaradobrandy@yahoo.com for the free registration link.

Cooking/Baking The pandemic has turned everyone into a bread maker it seems, with banana bread being the by-far favorite. There’s something so calming about being in the kitchen, following step-by-step instructions—or, if you’re like me, making it up as you go along—to hand-craft an edible masterpiece. Even better, share your goodies with friends. Because of social distancing, you may not be able to break bread together, but everyone appreciates some delicious treats left on their front porch.

Those are my three favorite non-screen activities during this pandemic. Remember, taking some time to recharge from your digital life is one of the best gifts you can give yourself.

As some of you know, I have a passion for reading. Every year, my goal is to read a book every other week—26 books a year. And every year I smash that goal out of the park. Because the year’s not quite over with as I write this, I can’t tell you my total, but I’ll end up close to 40 reads.

I go through phases with the types of books I’m reading, but it’s typically beach reads, autobiographies, or thrillers. Because I read so much for my day job, I tend to use my personal reading time as an escape. Just for good measure, I throw some business books in there occasionally when something catches my eye. With that in mind, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite business reads in the hopes that you’ll add them to your 2020 reading lists.

1. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D.

This book was instrumental to shaping my business persona in my early 20s. After a co-worker read it and highly recommended it, I dove in and discovered many ways I was train-wrecking my own career. (That may be a slight exaggeration but I can’t stress enough how much I have learned from this book.) I’ve gifted it over and over to young people I’ve worked with—and not just young women. Young men can also benefit from the tips and tricks recommended in this guide.

2. Hitting the Curveballs: How Crisis Can Strengthen and Grow Your Business by Jay B. Myers

If you’re a frequent SCN reader, you’re likely already familiar with Myers’ work; he’s often featured in our monthly Viewpoint column. In his second book, Myers shares the story of how his company, Interactive Solutions Inc. (now part of AVI-SPL, after a November 2018 acquisition) chose to not participate in a recession—yes, you read that right. The company’s conscious decision to grow during a downward spiral worked for Myers and his team, and he shares the story and practical tips for entrepreneurs to do the same.

3. Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Culture That Matters by Piyush Patel

If you have a strong memory, you may recall me using this book as inspiration for a previous editorial letter. Patel shares his culture-focused principles and, like the other authors mentioned here, gives practical and easily implementable steps you can use to change your business. Woven together with real-life tales, this book will make you reevaluate your leadership style and the culture of your organization.

Those are some of my favorite business books—I hope you’ll share yours with me. AV book club, anyone?

The unmistakable scent of autumn wafts in on a sharp breeze as the batter steps up to the plate. Running out of outs in a winner-take-all postseason game, the star slugger digs in with his team trailing and the bases loaded. It’s now or never. The jacket-clad throngs fall to an anxious hush as the pitcher rears back and lets go of a blistering fastball. The batter swings. It’s a line drive up the middle! You leap up out of your seat to cheer…

But it’s caught by the shortstop, ending the inning and the rally. He was standing at the exact spot where the ball was hit, on the opposite side of second base from where you’d normally find him—a calculated position based on the tendencies of the specific batter. He barely had to move to make the play.

Much maligned by traditionalists of the game, defensive shifts are the epitome of the scientific transformation of baseball that has been rapidly accelerating over the past few years. Though analytics have been at the forefront of the game since the dawn of the Moneyball era in the early 2000s, developments in recent years have enabled it to permeate the sport to an almost unfathomable degree.

Implemented in the 2015 Major League Baseball season, Statcast is an empiricist’s fantasy come to life. It tracks everything that happens on the field—every detail about every pitch, hit, and play. A sophisticated combination of a radar system called TrackMan and an optical system called TRACAB gives precise feedback on things like the velocity, break, and spin rate of pitches, the speed, angle, and distance of batted balls, and the positioning and movement of every player on the field.

Whereas managers and front offices once only had rudimentary statistics like batting average with which to make decisions, all 30 MLB teams now employ full-time analytics departments manned by PhD data scientists, each with its own proprietary system for breaking down the terabytes of raw data served up by Statcast each season—and turning it into reports that tell managers, among many other things, exactly where to position their shortstop for each batter.

Much like baseball, businesses are demanding data like never before, and the AV industry is uniquely positioned to provide it. In the October issue's features, we examine the state of the industry in fulfilling this demand. While we don’t have TRACAB data to analyze the efficiency of an employee’s route from the break room to a meeting, systems under the purview of the technology manager like room scheduling and AV control systems paint a detailed picture of how a facility and its technology are being used. Even better, new platforms are making it such that this utilization data is immediately presentable. Enterprises can harness this insight to save money on real estate and technology, and use it to attract better talent.

And unlike baseball, there’s nothing romantic about old, inefficient ways of doing business—no traditionalists standing in the way of a new, smarter game.

Do you smell that? The smell of bonfires and pumpkin spice lattes are in the air. Fall is officially here and I am loving it. Autumn has always been my favorite season. Hoodies, hot chocolate, my birthday, and long walks on blustery days? Sign me up.

I am basking in my joy for fall. But then, the unthinkable happened, my friend told me she hated fall. I stopped dead in my tracks and I wish someone had recorded my reaction. What—who hates fall?!? I can honestly say I had never heard that before in my life. She spends an inordinate amount of time raking up leaves and cleaning them from her pool. “My dog thinks a team of navy seals is descending on my house every time an acorn plinks on the roof; there’s months of barking,” was her direct quote.

So…hmmmm…something that I loved and gave me so much joy was hated by someone else. And with good reason. I probably wouldn’t enjoy fall as much if it created a lot of extra work for me and made my beloved dog go mad.

It’s just like an AV install. One user may love the newest widget in the conference room; she finds it intuitive and appreciates that particular technology. The next user despises that very same widget; he thinks it’s difficult to operate and doesn’t like the way it connects with other devices in the room. One technology, two very different experiences, with the installer stuck somewhere in the middle.

Experiences are based on opinions and feelings—not facts. How do you create a positive experience without living in someone else’s head? Truthfully, I don’t know, and it’s probably not even possible. It’s an age-old conundrum that I’m certainly not going to solve in this letter. It’s something we’ll all have to ruminate on and come up with an answer. Until we do, I’m stuck in the middle with you.

Screaming across the hot asphalt at close to 200 miles per hour, the driver waits patiently for the perfect moment. He searches for a spot on the inside of the upcoming curve, the edges of his vision a blur of green and blue. Then, without lifting the throttle, he takes the turn. With a white-knuckle grip, he holds the wheel steady as a weight six times the force of gravity slams his body against the side of the cockpit.

This is just one corner of a 53-lap Grand Prix in Formula One, the world’s highest level of motor racing—and the most exciting engineering competition ever devised. Contested over a 35-week span in 21 different countries across five continents, it’s as global a sporting league as you’ll find. And while the skill of drivers—you guessed it, the best in the world—matters a great deal, Formula One is all about engineering, and always has been since its inception in 1950.

The term “formula” refers to the strict set of regulations each of the 10 teams must follow in developing their cars. Outside of those restrictions, teams pour tremendous resources into finding the smallest advantages over their rivals. Top teams, like Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari, spend upwards of 400 million euros a year and employ hundreds of the most brilliant engineers in the quest for victory.

But on race day, that quest is always something of a gamble—one of performance versus reliability. Turning up the engine to go an extra tenth of a second quicker could lead to failure later on; being too conservative might land you outside of the top three finishers.

This same basic conflict exists in the world of AV, minus the millions of scrutinizing fans. We want the newest, highest-tech displays and technologies to convey that wow factor and cultivate an avant-garde brand image. But, as NetApp’s senior program manager, Mike Tyler, said in this month’s AV in Action, when you’re living on the bleeding edge of technology, “once in a while you’re going to bleed.” But many times, such failure is intolerable. Unlike Formula One, where there’s always next race, you might not get another shot to wow a client, to ideate with visiting partners, or to capture and stream a pivotal moment. Non-functioning AV is utterly useless.

Luckily, the same development that’s making connecting AV a little trickier—convergence with the network—is also helping to minimize the risk of failure. Like the real-time car telemetry available to race engineers, network-connected AV devices can provide insight into how they’re functioning and warn operators when something’s awry. Problems can be prevented before they crop up.

But more than ever, technicians are essential to maintaining a reliable AV installation, especially as systems become even more complex and connected. You need someone onsite day in and day out, looking over the equipment. Because when you’re about to commit to a corner with your state-of-the-art AV system, it just hasto work.

I’m in a glass case of emotions…because I’m so excited for CEDIA 2018. This year’s show—held September 4-8 in San Diego—will be very different for me. It’s the first time I’ll attend as a non-exhibitor. It will also be the first time I attend looking at everything from a strongly commercial AV viewpoint.

Get a sneak peek of what exhibitors are showcasing at CEDIA.

While it hasn’t made it to Webster’s Dictionary yet, resimercial has become a popular term amongst #AVTweeps. Worlds are colliding, things are merging, everybody’s joining in the BYOD party.

My favorite thing about residential AV is voice control everywhere. I love walking into my house and telling Alexa to turn on the lights, or sitting at my desk and saying out loud “Play The Killers” and the music just starts. There’s no stress or fussing with a million different devices. It’s an easy experience, and things just simply work.

The other thing I really enjoy about residential AV is the beauty of it all. Things are designed to be elegant and fit in with my décor. At the same time, those products still function well. Pro AV manufacturers have already started taking a page from this playbook, but many are not there yet. I’m ready to enjoy looking at audiovisual equipment just as much as I enjoy looking at a piece of artwork. If it’s going to be front and center in the room—whether it’s a living room or a conference room—it might as well be pretty.

So as the residential AV market creeps into our sphere (or we creep into theirs, depending on how you see it), what are you doing to make a beautiful blend of both worlds?

The music fell faint; I inched forward in my seat and strained to discern the source of the melody. Then, with a brandish of his baton, the conductor wrenched the orchestra up from the sonic abyss and set it aloft in resplendent fortissimo. Storming onward to the rousing finale, a sea of bow tips billowed feverishly in time with the conductor’s bobbing coattails.

I recently spent an evening at Lincoln Center for a New York Philharmonic performance of works of Elgar and Tchaikovsky. As a devotee of classical music and a former orchestral musician (my first instrument was the cello), there are few things I find more beautiful to behold than a hundred musicians locked in perfect synchronization, each playing a small part in the unfurling of a symphony. But such coordination wasn’t always possible.

From Pythagoras’ discovery of musical intervals in the sixth century BC to the creation of early forms of modern notation by monks in the Middle Ages, musicians and composers had sought out ways of better recording their ideas and communicating them with others. Ultimately standardized in the Baroque period with the help of the printing press, the system of staff notation that has come to be employed all around the world is truly a wonder of human communication.

The technological landscape of today’s enterprise is increasingly shifting into a kind of concert hall where multiple players must share the stage. But here’s the problem: while the IT ensemble has a tightly defined system of sheet music, the AV section has many different ways of transcribing its notes, and they don’t always mesh neatly. We have to get by the best we can.

At AV Technology, we strive to facilitate better collaboration between the performers of information technology and audio-video. Last issue, as in many others, we provided a selection of material to help those in traditional AV circles continue their process of familiarization with the concepts of networking. In this edition, we take the opposite approach, offering IT managers insight into the current state of networked AV and its many unique attributes.

As pointed out in the July/August guide, AV Essentials for IT Managers, the benefits to bringing AV onto the network extend beyond the merits of performance, scalability, and cost effectiveness. As “operational technology,” many of today’s AV devices double as vital sources of data and analytics for business intelligence platforms. Simply put, organizations are better off when AV and IT play together.

But, we’re still very early on in this collaboration, and it’s going to take some time. Both sides just need to keep up their discourse, learn as much as they can about the other, and maintain a creative spirit. Then, one day, CIOs and CTOs will be able to conduct their AV and IT departments from a unified musical score, and it will be a thing of beauty.

InfoComm 2018 was a blast. It was my first time experiencing the show as a non-exhibitor. It was different, that’s for sure, but different in a good way. I wasn’t chained to a booth and I got to explore the show floor and attend classes. I saw innovation firsthand, met plenty of new #AVTweeps, and ran my first Show Daily. It was fabulous to say the least.

But, like most of you, I’m ready for a vacation. In my case, I’m not traveling; I’m taking a staycation. Shortly, I’ll be spending time with my family visiting various Chicago attractions like one of my all-time favorite places—Wrigley Field. Of course, that got me thinking about this year’s slogan for the Cubs: “Everybody In.” For those of you who don’t know, the Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon kicks off each season with a phrase for the team to rally around, the most notable of which has been “Try Not to Suck.”

“Everybody In,” according to Maddon, is a great slogan because “We are all trying to be this altruistic team person who puts the group ahead of the individual.” I can’t think of a better motto than that for the AV industry right now.

Our industry is expanding in ways we never imagined, and we’re all working together to create the next great AV experience. Manufacturers are creating relationships with likeminded firms to create an AV ecosystem; some of them, like Aurora Multimedia, are even creating open-source platforms and working with competitors for the betterment of the industry. Integrators are forming partnerships with furniture companies to create truly collaborative workspaces. Consultants are treating end users like cohorts instead of clients, and ensuring they’re up to speed with the latest advances in AV and that they understand what type of products they’ll need in their space.

With all these twists and turns, we’re hedging bets on where the industry is headed. Are we expanding to include content creators and experience designers? Are end users taking the jobs of integrators with DIY trends? Will we all be working for IT firms in five years? Anywhere we land, Everybody In.

Bright lights, loud noises. Temptation. As the world of AV converges upon Las Vegas, prepare for sensory inundation from all fronts—and not just from the City of Sin.

Arriving by night, it’s especially striking: a vast sea of pitch-black nothingness. Then, out of nowhere, an oasis of shimmering light appears. It builds and builds, until you find yourself enveloped by the bedlam of the Strip. Coming to InfoComm is a similar journey: one of anticipation, expectation, and at last, cascading opportunity.

This is a milestone year in the history of North America’s largest audiovisual industry gathering—the first InfoComm put on by the Audiovisual Integrated Experience Association. Much more than a change of name, InfoComm International’s metamorphosis into AVIXA encapsulated an industry-wide evolution in philosophy: the shifting priority from product to experience. Sure, we’ve heard it a million times by now; but perhaps nowhere is this focus more vital than in navigating the halls of the convention center this month.

An emphasis on outcomes seems so obvious, but in practice, it isn’t always easy. The show is packed to the brim with shiny boxes and a phalanx of hype—from finer displays to quicker signal transport. It’s tempting to jump onboard with these latest-and-greatest products, but be wary: new equipment and ways of connecting it might not be the best answer for your particular case—a point echoed by experts in this month’s feature on AV/IT convergence. Yes, InfoComm is a show of products; to experience it as a show of solutions requires a higher perspective. And for that, AVIXA is there to help.

In addition to the catalog of courses tailored specifically for technology managers, the 2018 show is continuing popular thought leadership events from last year, including the TIDE conference, Emerging Trends Day, and Center Stage. Make sure to mark off some time from your schedule to attend some of these presentations—you may just learn an interesting approach to crafting experiences that doesn’t require new equipment at all.

So, be disciplined in your approach, but not uptight. Some impulses are worth breaking your agenda to pursue, and unplanned diversions can sometimes be the most rewarding in the long run. Just try to keep a 30,000-foot viewpoint.

I recently read a powerful book, Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work by Piyush Patel. In an early chapter, Patel explores the teamwork of geese (yes, the animals). They fly in a “V” formation to fight headwinds, they’re loyal to their flocks, and they work together to find food and rear their young. “Together, the flock will survive,” he wrote.

Like geese, humans need each other to survive. “We’re social animals. We live in groups. We’re hardwired to interact. Biologically, we need each other to survive. We need a tribe,” Patel explained. This is true not only at home, but also in the wilds of the working world. We want to belong. We want to contribute and grow. We want to be a part of something bigger than our own finite bubbles.

This resonates with me as I prepare to fly into Vegas for InfoComm 2018. Regular readers of SCN already know how much I value relationships and the audiovisual tribe. The people I have met in the pro AV industry have helped shape my careers in ways I never could have imagined. Some have affected me directly, like Hope Roth inspiring me to “take my lane.” Others have inspired me by their own stellar leadership, like Dave Labuskes’ never-ending quest to be an evangelist of the AV industry, forging connections with “outsiders,” so more organizations can benefit from integrated AV experiences.

I’m also excited about how the tribe is evolving, and supporting everyone who wants to contribute to the future of our industry. That intern over there? Maybe he will be a CEO in a few decades. That engineer? She could design the most revolutionary product you’ve ever seen. That marketing person you met at the Women of AVIXA breakfast? She could be the next editor of SCN Magazine (me!).

Your vibe does attract your tribe as the cool kids say these days. So what kind of vibes are you sending into the world? Let’s make this InfoComm our best yet—good vibes only. Let’s welcome those who may be new to the industry. Let’s embrace and learn from professionals seeking different perspectives on AV, from experience designers to VR developers.

When we welcome new contributors into the fold, our tribe grows stronger, not weaker. We can find new synergies as our tribe evolves to create new opportunities, perhaps ones you never imagined.

Who are you welcoming to the tribe? Tweet me an #AVSelfie at #InfoComm18 - @MeganADutta

This year has been crazy for me so far—both personally and professionally. My life has changed so much in the past few months; some of the changes have been for the better, and some have been incredibly stressful.

There were two earthshaking changes this past month at work. First, NewBay Media was acquired by Future plc. It’s a really exciting move for us and I can’t wait to see what the future (pun intended) brings.

The second change affects not only me, but SCN as a whole. Matt Pruznick, our former senior content producer, is now content director for AV Technology magazine. Matt has been dutifully correcting my grammar and punctuation since day one, as he did with the editors before me; he’s also beautifully portrayed some of the industry’s most innovative installations. It’s a big loss for the SCN team, and I’m incredibly sad to lose him. But I’m also really, really happy for him—to say that I’m excited to see what he does with the publication would be an understatement.

With these major shifts, on top of others in my life, I started to feel a bit unsteady. Am I using “affect” versus “effect” correctly? Will the day-to-day of my job change? Is this issue going to get out the door while we’re in the midst of these personnel changes? How will I manage the chaos that comes with change? Will I fail or will I rise and grind?

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore—I had to pause, take a deep breath, and step back for a moment from all of my internal interrogation. The unknown is scary. Change is hard, but change is constant. There may be times in our lives when change comes crashing down in abundance, like what I’m experiencing today. There will be other times when change is slow and steady. But it will always be there, lurking around the corner.

One thing I’ve discovered is that, at the end of the day, it’s how I’m managing all of those changes that really determines my attitude. Ultimately, I’m deciding my own destiny. If I’m viewing change as a stressor and a burden, that’s what it will become. If I’m welcoming change as an opportunity to do new and different things, that’s also what it will become. So I have a choice to make: Do I want to wallow in the uncertainness of the new era? Or do I want to soar into InfoComm with my girl boss attitude? I’m choosing the latter.

It’s easy to take today’s immediacy of communication for granted. Almost anyone can chat face to face with another person on the other side of the world, and we barely even pause to appreciate how remarkable it is. Think about this: Just 200 years ago—a span of less than 2 percent of civilized history—the War of 1812 was waged and Washington, DC burned largely because, at the time, news took three weeks to cross the Atlantic. Word of the cessation of British policies that had provoked America to declare war wasn’t received in time to prevent the clash of the U.S. Army and state militias with British forces from Canada.

In 2018, it’s almost too easy to communicate. With rapidly improving translational tools, even language will cease to be a barrier to the sharing of information. If someone from 1812 were told of how connected the world of the 21st century would be, he or she might imagine a place where everyone is always on the same page about everything. Unfortunately, that’s far from the case. While the means are certainly in place, the motivation isn’t always there, or structures of discourse are lacking.

In our industry, the most prominent territorial dispute is, of course, at the intersection of AV and IT. Here, successful diplomacy always involves a concerted effort to keep both departments working toward a unified goal. In this month’s issue, Dr. Dikran Kassabian of West Chester University shares how the school’s AV and IT departments keep up a constant dialog, partake in cross training, and have coffee with each other to discuss their needs. As convergence acclerates, other institutions would do well to follow this example.

In a related arena, Crestron’s 2018 Masters conference was also all about communication—specifically, creating a common language with which programmers and systems design engineers can collaborate to create the best outcomes for customers. In one of the summit’s panel discussions, the conversation kept making its way back to the way AV interfaces with IT departments—and how the lack of commonly agreed-upon standards in the former keeps things from meshing like they should. It’s hard to work side by side with people who are speaking in different tongues.

Speaking of standards, my predecessor, Margot Douaihy, just accepted one of B2B publishing’s highest honors in early April: the Neal Award for Best Media Brand. There couldn’t be a more fitting reward for her eight years of indefatigable effort in leading this publication, and I’m excited by the challenge of maintaining this standard.

I’m looking forward to meeting all of you, learning your stories, tips, and best practices, and helping to share this insight with others. Let’s strengthen our channels of discourse, stay motivated, and keep up the dialog, so that together we may continually improve upon the way we work and live.

It started simply: a 10-year-old girl with her ear pressed to the radio. As a child, I was transfixed by radio transmission (some might even say obsessed). I was amazed by the elegance of the process, the transfer of information through the air and directly into my brain. How could something invisible be so powerful? A spell was cast. If you aren’t enthralled by audio—the intimacy of it, the emotional power and instant recall, electromagnetic energy waves flowing through space, waves that we have the power to control and amplify with creative speaker designs—I’m sorry but we probably have very little in common.

It was this early curiosity about audio’s magic that fueled my lifetime devotion to technology and, specifically, audiovisual innovation. I wanted (and still want) to understand it, not as an engineer but as a storyteller with subject matter expertise. Before I had even graduated from college, I began reviewing high-end speakers for fun and rent money. I also reviewed the wild new inventions called digital audio players (admit that the Rio PMP300 changed your life, too). It’s been two decades since I started researching and writing about technology, and with tremendous gratitude I can share that this will be my last edition as content director of AV Technology magazine. I want everyone reading to know that I have thought of you with every folio I have outlined (and endlessly revised), every commissioning letter, and every draft. I have endeavored to bring integrity, creativity, and a strong sense of community to AV Technology’s pages. I am so grateful to help share your story and put you on the cover.

Speaking of the cover, whatever your political leanings, I hope your take away from this month’s cover story “Projecting Artful Activism” is not about politics per se. Look to this story of Bill Moyer, his derring-do, and his unique take on light technology as proof that your work is powerful. Let this story tell itself; the influence of AV is breathtaking and it is hard to contain. Because of the daily work you do—installing projectors, calibrating, DSP integrations, exhibit design, video wall specifications—we all see and hear the world differently. I can’t close my tenure without thanking Megan Dutta, SCN’s content director, who energizes, supports, and inspires me on a daily basis, and to my collaborator, Cindy Davis, AVT’s contributing editor and the author of our cover story. It is her imaginative approach to technology reportage that keeps me reaching for the stories that matter. I hope to continue the AV conversation with you in exciting new forms, as a speaker, analyst, and storyteller. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

In his book Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth, Eddie Yoon addresses the concept of a job versus a quest: “A job is often something people have to do, whereas a quest is something people want to do. People tend to think of jobs as a nine-to-five experience, but a quest consumes you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

This sent me into a deep-thinking spiral. I love my job, but I have to do it every day. What is something I want to do, not just every day, but every hour, every minute, every waking second? What is my quest in life?

I really enjoy lots of things—traveling, sparking conversations, reading, mentoring young professionals; I have a long list of passions. But what is that one thing that I want to eat, sleep, and breathe?

Then, it hit me. I love to learn. I’m what they call a life-long learner. I’m an old dog who wants to learn new tricks. I want to know the who, what, when, where, and why. It’s probably a big part of why I enjoy my job so much. I get to wake up every day and write about new technologies, people, and experiences. My quest in life is to learn.

All of the passions I mentioned above lead back to this pursuit. I travel because I want to learn about other cultures. I love speaking with people because I want to learn how their life experiences have shaped them. I read because I want to explore new worlds and beef up my vocabulary. I mentor young professionals because I enjoy sharing the things I’ve learned. I also enjoy mentoring because I learn from my mentees—I’ve gained so many new skills and found new ways of thinking from working with the next generation of leaders.

I guess you could say I’m a “superconsumer” of books—especially library books. Yoon defines a superconsumer as a someone who is “passionate about and highly engaged with—and maybe even a little obsessive about—a category. Check, check, and check. I’m particular about what I read but I also read across a wide variety of categories; you’ll find everything from the latest celebrity biography to Kurt Vonnegut, to modern poetry laying around my house. I’m passionate about what I read. I want to shout it from the rooftops when I find a great read—check my social feeds and you’ll find all my most recent recommendations. I love to purchase a new book and then give it away for someone else to enjoy so we can have a shared experience.

What kind of shared experiences are you creating, and is that cultivating your own group of superconsumers? I recommend finding an answer to that question and finding it quickly.

When you see the name Leonardo da Vinci, what springs into your mind? Leonardo’s paintings or his inventions? His Vitruvian Man or mirror-image cursive? Don’t forget about his breakthroughs in botany, architecture, and geometry. Leonardo is the quintessential Renaissance Man, a polymath with artistic and engineering talents that crisscrossed the map. Imagine a garden party on a balmy Italian night. Someone ambles up to Leonardo and asks, “What do you do?” How on earth would he have answered that question?

Margot Douaihy, codec cognoscenti, New Wave fan, writer/editor, vintage audio enthusiast, sleuth novelist

I would never compare myself to the great Leonardo, but, like the Italian polymath, my deep curiosity about this spinning world inspires me to pursue diverse disciplines. I’m a certified yoga teacher with a CEDIA Boot Camp under her belt. Yesterday morning I edited an H.264 white paper and at night I finished a song lyric. I find incredible beauty in an algorithm and in an abstract painting by Rothko. Is it left-brain/right-brain thinking? Humanism? I honestly don’t care. For me, it’s about chasing your passions down every alley. It’s about staying open minded. Subject expertise is important, and the more investment in your specialty, the better. Subject matter experts are always assets. But you never know what new idea will ignite the imagination and help solve problems more creatively. I want to make surprising connections. Don’t you?

As AI and machine learning seep more deeply into our everyday tasks, it’s our creative skills that will give us the edge. To prepare for the inevitable changes in AV technology and the business landscape, look to The World Economic Forum’s report “The Future of Jobs.” This research suggests that more than one-third of skills that are considered important by today’s workforce will have changed by 2020. According to the report, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution will have brought us advanced robotics and autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced materials, biotechnology and genomics.” Indeed, what will help me, you, and the workers of tomorrow stand out won’t be technical acumen. Creative dexterity, agile problem-solving, and emotional intelligence will differentiate us.

These concepts, framed by “design thinking for AV,” anchored AVIXA’s remarkable TIDE Conference during February’s Integrated Systems Europe event. I also hope this spirit of creativity resonates in this edition of AV Technology. UNLV’s dynamic AV team shares their pragmatic yet unique approach to 4K (page 14, “The Path to 4K”). We showcase bright new ideas in LED, OLED, and MicroLED in “Testing LED’s Mettle” on page 18. On page 28, we get in touch with interactive digital signage.

To all the polymaths reading: how has cross-pollination made you a sharper thinker and more inspiring team member? Send your polymath dispatch to mdouaihy@nbmedia.com. Tweet a haiku or line of code to @AVTechnologyMag.

Megan A. Dutta

As I write this, I’m coming off one heck of a week. At CES, I was honored with Women in Consumer Technology’s Woman to Watch Award (#humblebrag). It gave me all the feels—excitement, curiosity, gratefulness.

Now that I’ve come down from that high, I’ve been thinking about what the award means. Besides the obvious “I’m honored,” I’m also scared. So many great women have come before me; will I live up to their legacies?

How do we deal with pressure, especially when it’s coming from within? Can you live up to your own challenges? My most lofty performance goals often come from my own brain, so I try not to get too down on myself if I don’t reach a goal.

I have a lot of reach-for-the-stars-type ambitions. I’ll go into a situation knowing that my objective is nearly impossible. If I make it? Amazing, I’m thrilled with myself. If I don’t? I stop to think about how far I’ve come from where I started. I can get so caught up in the process of climbing mountains that I sometimes forget to look down on all of the peaks I’ve already surpassed. Taking the time to reflect on that gives me a good gauge on where I’m at in my life and how much I’ve accomplished.

Receiving WiCT’s Woman to Watch Award with Sally Washlow.

Another strategy I like to employ is to avoid comparing myself to others. We all do it—his social media game is better than mine, she’s sold more than me this month, he’s got his CTS and I don’t. Keep your eyes on your own papers, #AVTweeps. Start thinking about what makes you unique and how you can rock that upcoming install or create the next-level AV system.

When I stop paying attention to those around me and start dedicating that attention to myself, my progress soars. And that’s not to say I’m doing it all on my own. I have a healthy amount of partnerships with my co-workers, industry friends, and my family. I care about what they’re doing, but only in the sense of how we can collaborate to create the next great story.

So, basically, all of this stuff is easy to say and hard to do. But you can do it. Let’s all get even more ambitious in 2018. Let’s shoot for the moon. As they say, even if we miss, we’ll land among the stars.

In the professional AV industry, from ISE to InfoComm, systems integrators get a lot of fanfare. Rightfully so. One peek at SCN’s Top 50 Integrators List reveals a staggering array of talents and tenacity, not to mention the billions of dollars of value in complex AV projects. But the readers of AV Technology understand that there is much more to the AV installation story than the integrator. Day to day, hour to hour, the tech manager is the gatekeeper of AV system performance and content. The in-house tech director is in charge of the upkeep and uptime of the wireless AV and collaborative tech that helps users work, learn, collaborate, and thrive.

Margot Douaihy

We’re proud to be one of your tech manager forums. AV Technology’s mission is to bridge the knowledge gap between the AV and IT disciplines and equip you with the information you need to make the best technology decisions for your organizations. Our mission is exemplified by our January 2018 cover story, the stellar Julie Johnston, director of learning spaces Indiana University’s IT division, University Information Technology Services (UITS). In her portfolio, Julie leads the Learning Space team that consists of Student Technology Center, Technology Center Consulting, Learning Space Design, Collaboration Technologies, and Classroom Technology Services and Support. Julie has become a formidable force in the edtech world, and her Mosaic Initiative is now synonymous with exemplary active learning. Her creativity, technical rigor, and passion will inspire you. We are thrilled to share her story.

And don’t miss our January guide devoted to real-world scenarios for remote monitoring. As our contributing editor, Cindy Davis, argues: “It is no longer ‘good enough’ to have all of your audio and video equipment and systems on the network.” AV connected to the network should provide actionable information in real time for immediate troubleshooting, diagnoses, or analysis. If not, then it’s time to take a fresh look at your monitoring. Dive into this special guide on page A1.

We explore the opportunities and challenges faced by AV pros as they phase into IP broadcast. We always keep a practical side to our coverage, evinced by Nestor Amaya of Coveloz. “We’re definitely not taking the position that it’s go IP or go home. Different distribution platforms require different post-production workflows, and these are more easily implemented using software-based post production applications running on IP.”

IP was central to the AV conversation in 2017, in 2018 the AV/IT convergence story promises to be even more important. I hope you see your own questions, challenges, and passions for technology reflected in our coverage. What do you want to see more (or less of) in 2018? Tweet me @AVTechnologyMag. Best wishes for a rewarding 2018.

2017 was a heck of a year for all of us. So many new things and changes to process. Our industry is growing and evolving at a rapid pace. Heck, even our largest association changed its name.

New can be difficult and change can be taxing, which is why I find myself thinking about John Foley and the “glad to be here” movement. A quick recap: John Foley, a former Blue Angel, spoke at AVIXA’s AVEC in November, 2017. After each performance, the pilots sat down and had an open, honest conversation about what they did well, and, more importantly, what they didn’t. And they each ended their thoughts with “glad to be here.” They took things in, and thought of adjustments to make, but left with a grateful heart.

The message resonated with me so much that I have not one, but two #gladtobehere stickers on my computer. One is on the bottom of my screen so, even when I’m typing this, I can be glad. Glad I work in this wonderful industry, glad to have a fulfilling career, glad I have the technology to communicate with people across the world instantaneously.

The second sticker is on the front of my laptop. I can see it when my computer’s closed, and I’m done for the day; it reminds me of what a great day I had. However, perhaps even more significant, people sitting near me can see it, and I can spread the message of “glad to be here.” It tends to spark a conversation—I can give the backstory, but, more exciting than that, I get to tell others why I’m “glad to be here.”

Having an openly positive dialogue forces me to think about all the things that make me happy. Even when I’m having a bad day, it helps to turn that frown upside down, and puts me in a more beneficial headspace. I can allow myself to accept constructive criticism, and incorporate that feedback to improve myself and my body of work.

To up my happiness factor even more, I’ve incorporated another tip from John Foley that involves the old adage of beginning each day with a grateful heart. When you’re getting ready to hit the hay, you probably prep your bedside: getting a glass of fresh water, putting out your vitamins, setting your alarm. Add one more things to that list: a journal. When you wake up, immediately write down three things that are gratifying to you. You’ll start your day on an upbeat note, making it a habit for you to be “glad to be here.”

Stories, in one form or another, comprise most of my day. I edit and write pages of stories and terabytes of articles, but I’m also thinking about the larger narrative, trying to see the bigger picture.

Margot Douaihy

“Story” is officially the AV vocab word of 2017, and with good reason. Its importance was underscored in September when InfoComm reorganized as AVIXA, a move that foregrounded the story of integrated AV’s value. As an in-house technology manager, you’re telling the AV story. Whatever your tech triage du jour—a dropped signal, a lost adapter, a live stream snafu, mic interference—you’ll solve it. This is where you excel. You think on your feet. You think outside of the square. It’s why you’re in the AV field. It’s why you’re a tech manager.

Our December edition of AV Technology is devoted to stories, including my report on AVIXA, “Promising Experience."

In our Big Ideas section, programming guru Steve Greenblatt dissects the IoT story (“One-Button Myth?"). He asserts that “IoT is not magic. Although it seems to work without much effort or customization, IoT relies on the availability and support of APIs that provide programmers/software developers the tools to write code that facilitates communication of devices and exchange of data.” Don’t miss Greenblatt’s hard-earned wisdom and his take on the growing IoT opportunities for AV/IT managers.

We investigate other opportunities, such as the demand for IP-enabled AV control in our feature “Hard Turn Toward Software-Based."

We shape our editorial calendars through research and interviews. We also use the process called storyboarding. Storyboarding shows you an aerial view and lets you see how one element flows into the next. It’s about sequence, and it helps logically organize the order of operations. It helps forms more solid and structured planning that feels cohesive. That process led us to our final cover story of 2017, Mitch Gelman, CTO of the Newseum in D.C. This Pulitzer Prize winning technology leader understands the value of AV as an educational and storytelling tool. Don’t miss “We Hold These Truths."

As we drop the curtain on the show that was 2017, I hope your takeaway from the AV Technology story is integrity. We try to bring passion and value to every touch point of our brand, from cover stories to digital pages to our live events. In every element of our brand, we want to inspire you and create a forum for learning about the tools, techniques, and best practices needed for agile IP-enabled AV. I am fortunate to be in a field that challenges me to chase the important stories. What story will you tell in 2018?

Margot Douaihy is the editorial director of AV Technology magazine and advisor at Franklin Pierce University.

Megan A. Dutta

As we close out 2017, I’m sure many of us #AVTweeps are racking our brains and thinking about ways to better ourselves. Many of us will be writing down resolutions to start on January 1. Lose those extra pounds, hit the gym every day, write the great American novel, live in the moment—the clichés go on and on.

But how many of us are going to forget our promises to ourselves by Spring? Odds are, most of your resolutions will fall to the wayside. Which is why, for the last several years, I haven’t made a resolution. Instead, I like to give myself a word of the year. I take all my plans and challenges and roll them into one.

My 2018 word will be EXPLORE. Next year, I’m going to travel more. I’ve always said I want to see all 50 states before I’m 50. As of now, I have 12 left to see. And let’s not forget outside the U.S.; I’ll see all of you at ISE in Amsterdam. I’m going to take advantage of my time “across the pond” and stop in a few European cities.

Besides the most obvious travel definition of exploring, I’m also going to apply the word to increasing my brain power. I’m going to explore new subjects and read more about things I don’t know. I plan to step outside of my usual mysteries, biographies, and beach reads. I’ll probably do a lot of exploring new (to me) technologies as I gear up to earn my CTS (shout-out to Hope Roth and Christa Bender who are leading my study group!).

Finally, I’m going to explore new relationships. I want to get to know more of my fellow AV geeks. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some amazing people through this industry. I want to expand my network and embrace the changes AVIXA is bringing; I want to learn more about people who design experiences, tech managers, and end users. So when you see me around, stop me for a chat! I’d love to hear more about what you do, what you’re passionate about, and what makes you unique.

Now that I’ve shared my word with you, I’m going to challenge all of you to do the same. Pick a word that describes your passion and work with that for 2018. Make it public so you are accountable for your commitment. Wish everyone a happy holiday and an amazing New Year!

It was two hours but it seemed like two minutes. During a recent trip the Bay Area, I played in a virtual reality arcade. Wearing an Oculus Rift, I flew across South America in Google Earth. I scaled mountains in The Climb. I wielded virtual swords as a fruit ninja. I painted starscapes in Tilt Brush.

I was a VR skeptic before—it’s healthy to hold onto a modicum of incredulity in this line of work—but I was utterly amazed by the experience. After meeting with VR innovators, I am convinced that this emerging technology will profoundly influence pro AV's future. As Dr. Puya Abolfathi, CEO of Visospace, told me: “VR is seeping into everything that we do.” That includes installed audiovisual systems, from VR videoconferencing to enhanced digital signage. Our feature “New Nodes & Modes” explores how new technologies like AR, VR, and IoT are changing the nature of digital signage interactions.

"That’s me on the right, wearing an Oculus Rift in Urban Safari, a VRcade (virtual reality arcade) in San Francisco. Now imagine the possibilities for integrating display systems for more social interactions. VRcades are growing in popularity across the world, specifically in Japan, South Korea, and China."
—Margot Douaihy

That wasn’t the only takeaway from my VR foray in San Francisco. It’s immediately clear that in virtual reality you need to keep softness in your stance. With the Oculus Rift headmount on, to avoid falling as I teleported or leaned, I had to keep my knees and ankles loose, similar to QiGong and Tai Chi posture. In both the AV industry and in a VR experience, even though we cannot see what’s coming next, we have to stay nimble and aware of our surroundings. Just like in VR, audiovisual pros need to stay alert to the constraints and possibilities of the spaces we inhabit.

To that end, in “The State of the AV Industry: Adapt or Die”, contributor Justin Rexing reads the technological tea leaves, and he has reached a conclusion about the role of the traditional AV systems integrator. “As a manager and an independent consultant with years on the front lines of pro AV, I can assure you: If your company is not willing to change, you will die. You have to be agile and adaptive.” Have you adapted to stay relevant in your career path? What is your DQ (Darwinian Quotient)?

Keep that spring in your step this autumn and join us at the AV/IT Leadership Summits in New York City (Nov 9-10) and Washington, D.C. (Nov 30).

Margot Douaihy is the editorial director of AV Technology and part-time fruit ninja.

One of my favorite scenes in Netflix’s sensational sci-fi epic Stranger Things is when the ragtag crew—Mike, Lucas, Eleven, and Dustin—hide from monsters in the Audio Visual Room. In the show, technology is a shared interest and gives the characters a sense of belonging. Technology also supports the Stranger Things metanarrative that anything is possible. Hop on your radio or bike and go discover the world. The phone line is a pathway into another dimension.

Since you’re reading these words right now, it’s a safe bet that you have an Audio Visual Room of your own design. Maybe the audiovisual equipment used in Stranger Things strummed a note of nostalgia. Or perhaps the ham radio and CRTs in the episodes seemed liked relics of a lost world. But as quickly as technologies change, the core tenets of AV remain the same. We are driven by a relentless curiosity and drive to tweak systems, improve performance, invent, tell stories, and—ultimately—communicate better.

And though we hold on to the same governing principles as the AV pros that have come before and will follow us, certain myths remain. Take, for example, misconceptions about control rooms. How do we even define a “control room” in this mobile age as technologies continue to converge? In her AV Technology feature “13 Mission-Critical Myths”, Kirsten Nelson opines that while present-day operations centers are still the loci of intense information analysis, their setups are becoming more flexible, easing environmental stress caused by excessive noise and maladjusted visuals. Now most of the loud, hot electronics are located remotely, and UHD displays ease eyestrain and help simplify data sharing. Despite this progress, many myths about command and control systems remain in circulation. Don’t miss this feature to disprove some of those old notions.

What technologies are the most shapeshifting or sci-fi worthy in your organization? Tweet me an AV Club story or your fav Stranger Things scene: @AVTechnologyMag.

Megan A. Dutta

As I’m writing this, I’ve read some heartbreaking news: AIM is no more. Not that I ever use it or even think about it much, but AIM represents so much more to me and the entire tech world.

It’s become a famous party game—what was your AIM screen name? Mine was MeganDoodles. So lame, but I was, like, 14, so give me a break. I love my abbrevs (yes, that’s an abbreviated version of abbreviation) and I especially loved to use them on AIM. Chatting with my friends using all my “hip” lingo so my parents could never decode all of our top-secret conversations (they were very likely about boys and parties).

RIP AIM

AIM wasn’t just a technology; it was a lifeline for us. And one that took forever to load… I know you’re hearing those dial-up sounds in your head right now. And, at the time, we were stunned at how quickly we could get a message across to others. It was our first taste of technological instant gratification.

Fast-forward to today and I’m 100 percent irritated when it takes more than a second to send an e-mail. Or even when a human takes more than a minute to respond to my text message. I crave that instant gratification that I learned from AIM. It’s something we hear constantly in corporate America: you’re expected to be available 24/7/365 because of this technology.

As my friend and co-worker Margot Douaihy pointed out to me, the next generation of technology users will be so “connected,” the word will cease to exist as an adverb or adjective. It will just be.

So where do we draw the line? How do you stay in touch while still allowing yourself the downtime we all so desperately need? Personally, I carry two cell phones. Unless there’s an event or huge breaking news, I stash away my work phone on nights and weekends. I also (try to) give myself a few technology-free hours a day. I pick up a book and read, take the dog for a walk—anything that doesn’t involve electronics. It gives my brain and eyes a break, and I notice myself paying more attention to the world around me. Odd, isn’t it? Sometimes we have to disconnect to connect.

What do you see as the next iteration of human communication and how will you be a part of it?

When is the last time you had a truly exceptional user experience? If I stop and think, it’s been awhile—like a really long time. I’m going all the way back to 2008-ish.

I was in Miami for the HD Expo (a show focused on hospitality, coincidentally). One night, we had clients to impress and I had painstakingly researched a wide variety of restaurants. So, after a long, hot day at the convention center, we gathered up our customers and headed over to Barton G.

Megan A. Dutta

For those of you who have had the treat of experiencing Barton G., you know where I���m heading with this. And I say experiencing instead of dining at because this restaurant took the time to create a unique and memorable encounter.

When we arrived, the building looked like a regular old restaurant. But, when we stepped inside, all of our senses were awakened. We were greeted by amazingly attentive (yet not overbearing) servers. As they led us to the table, I couldn’t help but notice all of the unique décor that created a circus-like atmosphere.

Once the group had settled in, even more fun began. One look at the menu and we were all hooked. Not only did they have some delicious dishes that we were antsy to try, but the names had everyone talking. Things like “Thai Me Up Surf N Turf” and “Kobe’s Huge Weiner” appeared and, suddenly, we were a group of schoolchildren giggling at the inappropriateness of it all. The menu was just another piece of the puzzle that set the mood for our dinner.

Once we had all settled down, we ordered and anxiously waited to see what would happen next, and we were not disappointed. Someone in the group ordered swordfish and it was served on…wait for it… an ACTUAL SWORD! I can vividly remember the “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” coming from our table as our food was placed in front of us. I ordered the chicken, which came in a chicken-shaped tin and even had a quail egg for decoration.

Every second was another surprise, especially when it came to dessert. We decided to share an ice cream sundae and cupcakes. Sound reasonable, right? Alas, Barton G. does not do reasonable. The sundae came out in a martini glass as big as my head, the cupcakes came unfrosted with all kinds of candy for decorations. We spent time creating our own “perfect” cupcake and judging one another’s creations.

We got to share an exceptional experience that night at Barton G. The dinner created a different kind of conversation, and, in turn, left us with a unique bond. And what’s better than a unique bond with your customers or prospects?

Margot Douaihy

Last month, AV and IT thought leaders converged in The Mile High City of Denver, Colorado, to learn and share best practices at the AV/IT Leadership Summit. For two dedicated days, we set up shop in real time and dove into the key issues facing our technology community. Speakers included Harman Professional’s Paul Zielie (resident expert on AV as a Service and AV security), Oklahoma State University’s Rockford Todd (active learning guru), Gartner Research’s Mike Walker (technology seer), and Mersive’s Christopher Jaynes (collaboration visionary), just to name a few. It was an electrifying time and a meaningful idea exchange. Beers and stories were shared. Business cards were traded. Gripes were cheers’d. Products were demo’d. Lifecycle plans were sketched. Our live events are like retreats with teeth, invaluable opportunities for critical reflection as well as action. Is that what “leadership” is all about? Don’t miss my “Takeaways from the AV/IT Leadership Summit Denver" in our September edition.

I am also grateful to share AV Technology's cover story by NewBay Media’s associate editor Matt Pruznick. Matt took a day away from the office for a tour of the National September 11 Memorial Museum with Fernando Mora, the museum’s manager of audiovisual and multimedia technology. I will admit that I am the kind of person who gets emotionally invested in projects (just ask my fiancé), but I have never been on the verge of tears while editing a technology article. That’s exactly what happened when Matt filed this draft. This story is the distillation of what I love our industry: how AV can help immerse, educate, and commemorate. This story and the Museum itself exemplify the confluence of powerful narratives, design, and technical innovation. As with the tragic nature of 9/11 itself, the human story—the intimate human moment—often has the most profound impact. I hope that you are as moved as I am by Fernando’s insight and Matt’s reportage. Let this story inspire you to push the limits of your technological systems. As Mora explained, “Every device here has an IP address; I can get to anything remotely. The idea is to completely go AV over IP over the next three years.”

Mora also reminds us that, as technologists, we have tremendous responsibilities. “I feel that we’re kind of the custodians of this incredible content,” he added.

Please share your feedback on our coverage of the September 11 Memorial Museum via Twitter: @AVTechnologyMag. Technology managers, please join in the conversation at our AV/IT Leadership Summits, November 9-10th (NYC) and November 30th (DC).

Megan A. Dutta

This month’s issue takes a look back at classic AV, and it has gotten me reminiscing about my tradeshow past.

My first major AV show was as an exhibitor at CEDIA 2006, and I remember spending hours planning out how to lay cable under the carpet and get content from media players to 200-pound-plus displays. We’d get onsite, and anytime there was a minor change we’d all collectively groan. Even the smallest move meant pulling cable out of the carpet, rearranging things in the booth’s control closet, and a whole lot of tradeshow labor money. Plus, nobody liked mounting those heavy displays.

Fast forward to InfoComm 2017, and exhibitor setup was a whole different ballgame. All the media players were pre-programmed with content, ready to go, and we just had to plug them in. Even the commercial displays were light as a feather, which was a relief to the setup team. We even had a TV in water. It’s crazy to me how far our industry has come in just the last 10 years, and I’m excited to see the changes ahead in the next decade.

As you can probably tell by now, there’s also a change at SCN. I’m pleased to have been chosen to put a new twist on your classic pro AV magazine. I’ve spent the last decade on the manufacturing side of the audiovisual world, working with multiple companies to create an AV ecosystem, getting to know #AVTweeps, and volunteering for industry associations like InfoComm and Women in Consumer Technology.

I was born and raised in the Chicago area. I love my hometown for its hustle and heart—a booming metropolis with Midwest friendliness. I like to think that describes me, as well. I move at a lightning-fast pace, but I also take the time to stop and get to know people. That’s why I want SCN to be OUR magazine. I want to know what you think has been underreported, what has been overhyped, and what you love about this publication. So, what’s your vision?

Lindsey Adler did a remarkable job running SCN and working closely with all of our friends in the audiovisual world. I’m excited to carry on her legacy and continue pushing SCN forward into the ever-changing future of AV.

Crash! My glass of milk lurched across the kitchen table, spilling its contents on the centerpiece and dinner plates.

Over the summer between the eighth grade and freshman year of high school, I sprouted some four inches, and in the process, embarked on a daily struggle to calibrate my burgeoning limbs. On my way up from a diminutive middle-schooler to a moderately tall young man, there was a lot of spilled milk.

In the years before and since, there have been many challenges to which I’ve had to adjust, but fortunately none have been quite so clumsy or destructive. From moving to New York City for college, to finding a way to remain here working as a writer, I’ve actively sought out unfamiliar and difficult experiences—perhaps in a subconscious drive to relive that tactile achievement of growth I experienced as an adolescent.

Of course, it’s not always within our power to choose our battles. On occasion, providence deals us an unexpected trial from which there’s no option to shrink, and we must meet it head on, doing our best not to knock things over. These are the tests that make us bigger people.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons I was attracted to this industry. Beyond my lifelong passions for both audio and video, I’ve always been enchanted with the inherent challenges of their underlying technology. Like the bright lights of Broadway, high definition video walls and projection pulled me in, and I became inspired to understand how images make their way from computer to screen. Beautiful music played from powerful speakers, and I was compelled to learn what combinations of components produce the purest sound.

But here’s the thing: just when you’ve begun to feel like you’ve got the hang of how something works, there comes a new, better way of doing it. And like the unforeseen watershed events in life, there periodically happens a breakthrough so revolutionary it renders your accumulated expertise all but obsolete—and you have no choice but to step up and learn anew.

I’m sure all of you share in my affinity for this formidable nature of technology to some degree; otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this magazine. So ask yourself: are you comfortable, or are you growing? Are you clinging to what you know, or are you striving to become fluent in IT or a new programming language? It won’t be easy, but when you look down at where you used to stand, you’ll know it was worth it.

• When a couple of friends decided to relocate cross-country, one of the biggest holes they were leaving in our lives was that of the epic social gatherings they regularly hosted. There were clever themes—like the “Fare Thee Weiner” Grateful Dead 50 webcast viewing—complete with whimsical FAQs and never any shortage of the best food, drinks, music, and good company.
• Word came through that their new Western community had held a mediocrely received mac n’ cheese potluck, and we knew we had to respond. Thus, the East Coast MacDown was born. Cheesy invites were distributed, an online message board app was populated, and a fresh dose of competitive swagger was tossed about.
• If there was every any doubt for the enthusiasm of a mac n’ cheese potluck themed party, the guest chefs pulled out all the stops. There were a few takes on the classic rendition with different noodle shapes—corskscrews proved very popular and shells were a nice variation. There was bacon mac, of course. Among the more creative renditions were pimento mac, and the star of the show—both in creativity and execution was the Reuben mac. That’s right, corned beef in swiss béchamel topped with sauerkraut and rye breadcrumbs. It might sound gross, but I assure you that one taste was enough to persuade any skeptic.
• Clearly, this group of friends was inspired and eager to pay tribute to those that had moved on yet contributed so much over the years. While experiencing a big change can be bittersweet, we were all determined to make the most of it and in turn, create something new, yet in no way replacing what was no longer there. In missing our friends and the social events they cultivated such a rich community with, we were able to create the start of a whole new set of traditions.
• Change is a force everyone can relate to whether we’d like to or not, along with its many different degrees of disruption. Attempting to deal with it positively requires remembering the lessons imparted, looking back with a nod to what worked and what didn’t, and then taking a savvy purview of the current state of affairs. Ask yourself: how do we pay tribute to the lessons of yesterday and create something positive in today’s unique climate?
• Of course the challenges and fierce competition of today’s audiovisual and IT industry are much more serious than changing social customs, but I’m always surprised at how much bringing a little levity to tough situations can push us forward.

• Mountain peaks surrounding Los Angeles was the first directive input to the system. Within milliseconds, a list of names popped up.
• Ok, now display that information on a map. A split second later, there it was. A few more clicks and the image transforms into a topographical rendering. Now we can generate the same information for any location around the world instantly.
• This was but one simple example that computational scientist Stephen Wolfram presented in a live demonstration of his groundbreaking, knowledge-based computer programming language during the Collision tech conference held in New Orleans in May. The eponymous language can symbolically manipulate neural networks, basically, a computer modeled after the brain and nervous system.
• Artificial intelligence has long since proven itself a reality, but more recently, we’ve been on the brink of tangible, real-life use cases and even mass consumer deployments. As a highly functional source of AI, Wolfram Language seems light years ahead of what I thought I knew as machine learning with Amazon’s Alexa and IBM Watson. The above example from the demo at Collision was just one of various incredibly simple, often silly functions that managed to yield amazing results instantaneously.
• Wolfram describes it as, “the world’s most productive programming language.” His goal has been to design the highest level of building blocks for software development, making it easy to create really powerful programs, “so people can go from ideas to deployed products as quickly and easily as possible,” he said.
• What has been a 30-year work in progress has produced a vast stack of technology and content, “that I think just completely changes how we should think about programming.”
• While there’s much to be fascinated about with Wolfram Language, I’ll point out that in its latest release, 11.1, industrial-scale audio processing was added, providing fully integrated audio support capable of advanced programmatic processing and analysis. Effectively, it opens the possibility for cloud- or server-based audio processing. Reading between the lines—it stands as one more indication that hardware is no longer the centerpiece of audiovisual systems.
• As we converge on our annual industry meeting of the minds in Orlando this month, let that ring in your ears as you peruse the latest innovations and consider new ways to bring services into your portfolio and create value for clients. In further breaking down the barriers between man and machine, the need to—literally and figuratively—think outside of the box is key to the next generation of systems integration in a computationally informed world.

Lately I find myself fighting the urge to dine out. I love to cook, but I relish the time involved in creating ingredients from scratch, and I don’t often find myself home on a weeknight much before 8 p.m. The reason I’ve been resisting the tempting lure of restaurants is purely economical. While I sure enjoy a cheap meal, I also really enjoy the not-so-cheap kind. It’s become a rather expensive habit.

My moral quandary is centered on the experience of it all. Ah, yes, that abstract expression of individuality, which we’ve spent a whole lot of time talking about here at SCN [see our cover story on experiential design firms you should know]. I absolutely love the experience of eating a great meal out—be it in a unique or comforting setting. From the quaint café at the yoga studio in Amsterdam to the cozy British pub where Churchill’s speeches filter out through the washroom audio zone, to the trendy Brooklyn farm-to-table locavore joint, and of course, the fine dining room bedecked in modernist art—I dearly love them all. Dining out has become a major hobby of mine. I’m quite good at it!

While I often chide myself for overspending, or spending at all, the fact is that if and when that experience delivers, the dollar amount becomes meaningless. The positive feeling I leave instilled with, and in turn extend to those around me, is truly priceless.

Surely, most everyone has had this feeling at a restaurant, or on a great vacation, or at a spa, or at a sporting event—at any number of other places. Now, how many of you think about that “happy place” when tackling a new project? Even when it seems like your client cares more about line item prices, remember that if you sincerely deliver an exceptional experience, the price tag is rendered inconsequential.

And here’s the point in the handwritten draft of this letter where my thoughts literally trail off mid-sentence. Dinner was served; priorities took over. My ride was almost there, and I had donuts to order to spread the good spirit around.

• The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago—so goes the Chinese proverb.
• It was a fitting metaphor employed in response to a query about gathering data from audiovisual systems for the noble purpose of tracking outcomes. My question was rooted in a rustle I’ve been hearing about the need to deliver hard, factual evidence that investing in workplace technology carries a host of benefits. We know it’s true, and those trendsetting end users leading the workplace of the future migration do too.
• Credit for delivering that proverbial tidbit goes to Rob Badenoch, associate principal at TAD Associates, during a Workplace of the Future panel discussion hosted recently by Sennheiser. German office furniture company Wilkhahn participated in the event, during which CEO Simone Vingerhoets-Ziesmann presented some of the different workplace modes that have come to exist by modern (read: Millennial) demands. These include collaboration, focus, learning, socialize, and rejuvenate—all of which correspond to the varying spaces that offices are being designed with now. This differs from past standards, of course, in that they represent a breakdown in traditional silo approaches. Sounds a bit familiar to the way AV systems are changing now too, eh?
• Faced with new paradigms in AV workplace designs, Badenoch aptly outlined some of the key sources of transformation: the migration from hardware to software, the intrusion of consumer electronics into the enterprise, excessive complexity, and the outdated dominance of the “ecosystem,” along with the lack of interoperability it presents. He also shared some internal stats: just one out of five TAD customers holds on to the hardware-based paradigm, while 80 percent directly asks for soft-conferencing.
• And apparently, consultants find themselves informing capital planning decisions today. Could this trend be branching out? Surely it’s been on everyone’s wishlist—if only AV had a seat at the table in the earliest stages of building design to impact decision-making. Bring real metrics to that table, and you’re holding a golden ticket.
• Now isn’t it convenient how converged AV systems deliver a plethora of data? End users get a window into how rooms are being used (and aren’t), and they’re emboldened with information to guide future investments. There’s a dual opportunity within this dynamic that integrators and consultants could be letting flutter by: capturing some of this data to quantify outcomes for prospective clients.
• Big data can be intimidating, and there’s a ton of it being logged in the enterprise today. Your CIO and CTO clients, though, they live for this data. Don’t get left out in the shade and let the chance to track the outcomes of your enterprise systems get carted off to the lumberyard.
• While the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, as the second half of the proverb imparts: the second best time is now.

A group of businessmen huddled tightly in a small makeshift bedroom at Harman’s booth at the ISE show in Amsterdam may have been the oddest-looking scene there. So what were they clamoring to get so up close and personal with? IBM’s Watson machine learning platform was being demonstrated from a JBL alarm clock.

Lindsey M. Adler

It was just another indication that we’re finally seeing the concept of artificial intelligence come to market in tangible means. As AI becomes more of a reality in our concrete world, I believe that it ironically underscores the need for and the value of true human-to-human interaction.

Take for example a wholly different context discussing how advertising is predicted to return to the physical world from the web, as described in a keynote address at Barco’s Media Lab during New York Digital Signage Week. As explained by Dave Etherington, chief strategy officer at Intersection, a media agency connecting these two domains: “For the last 10 years, without question, the innovation in advertising you saw all happened online, funded by advertisers and brands. There’s a real sense that, in the next decade, that innovation is going to happen in the physical world, in the place where we all operate.”

I’ve been reflecting on all of these notions in developing some new projects here at SCN. For some time now, we’ve been kicking around the idea of organizing an event to further engage the AV community at large in a meaningful way; however, I’ve had reservations in the face of what I see as an over-saturation of industry events. If SCN was going to plan one, it needed to be something unlike anything else out there. With that goal in mind, SCN editor-at-large Kirsten Nelson has put together such a project.

The SCN Think Tank was built from the ground up to be fundamentally different from every other industry event. Starting with the venue. Kirsten insisted that this would not be held in a hotel ballroom. (Because, seriously, who hasn’t fought the impulse to nod off in those stuffy, over-lit environments?) There’s no PowerPoint; no tabletop product displays. There are no “attendees”—everyone is a participant in the debate-style discussion forums, the end-user knowledge panel, “speed dating” tech demos, and a future tech “Answer Key” session that ties the whole day together.

This is a symposium for the most forward-thinking minds in AV and experiential design to explore the next-level technologies and techniques that will position their businesses for the next wave. Check out the full details at www.scnthinktank.com, and we hope you’ll join us in New York, September 27.

Bittersweet was the sentiment when I packed up my life and moved away from “Colorful Colorado” 10 years ago. On the one hand, I was eager to turn a new page, yet I was also sad to leave such a breathtakingly stunning outdoor playground. I especially tried to ignore my disappointment in knowing that my new Midwestern home in Chicago wouldn’t afford the same opportunities to partake in my favorite sport, skiing. Nonetheless, I wrapped up my beloved Atomic e7s and went on my way.

Oftentimes, our attachments to outdated, albeit trustworthy, equipment seems practical, even necessary in our own personal justifications.

It turned out to be several years before I got back out en piste, and for logistical purposes, I rented gear the next few times. Fast forward to this year, where a group of friends had planned a trip to Vermont over the MLK holiday weekend. I was especially thrilled to dig into the back of my closet and finally dust off my skis. When I brought them in for a tune up, I was told that my bindings were way out of warranty and unsafe to use, and that I’d be “a dinosaur” skiing on them.

A dinosaur?! It seemed a little harsh considering skis are built to be incredibly rugged and to last for the long haul. I’m pretty sure the pair I had before those were from the ’80s. Sure, I should probably consider investing in new equipment at some point, but I’d spent years building up the anticipation to use my e7s again. Not to mention that mocking my darling pair of skis was not a particularly thoughtful sales technique. Had the rep been more delicate and calculated in his approach, he most definitely would have had me perusing their inventory.

As I explained that I was absolutely in no position to purchase new yet and was simply trying to get up to the mountain that weekend, I settled for new bindings and a fresh wax and edge sharpening. I returned later that week to pick them up, and the techs expressed their surprise at how well everything turned out.

When I hit the slopes that weekend, it was with a pair of old trusty friends underfoot. As the runs down memory lane progressed, the skis handled the terrain with aplomb. I was proud and amped up, yet I also found myself expending a lot more energy than I knew I should have. The long length, subtly curved shape, and heavy weight of the 15-year-old Atomic e7s most certainly had taken their toll by the end of the day.

Oftentimes, our attachments to outdated, albeit trustworthy, equipment seems practical, even necessary in our own personal justifications. At the same time, getting to know what’s possible when embracing the latest innovations is a worthwhile endeavor.

Now that I’ve had a last hurrah of sorts with my e7s, I feel ready to move on from them. The weekend also served to inform my perspective on what kind of a replacement I’d be best served by. As I’ve caught the ski bug hard again and plan my next Vermont excursion in February, I’m eager to actively explore and demo the latest gear in a pragmatic and informed manner. I guess it’s about time to embark on another fresh page.

It all started one Christmas morning with a Tandy RadioShack computer. This plastic and metal box with its floppy-disk drive became the impetus for tinkering in the mind of a young David Labuskes. InfoComm’s executive director tossed out this personal throwback at November’s AV Executive Conference as a metaphor for the heritage of leadership and innovation in the audiovisual business.

He fondly recalled the sense of wonder it gave him. “All of you can remember the first time you opened a gadget like my Tandy RadioShack computer,” he asserted to widespread nods and under-the-breath chuckles.

It gave Labuskes the impulse to wonder and tinker—the same propulsion, he pinpointed, that led Crestron founder George Feldstein to figure out how to open his garage easier. “The legacy of our industry is about that wonder… about creating experiences.”

For Labuskes, it’s a strategic concept he’s using to define what success means to lead the flagship audiovisual industry association into the next generation. Delineating the metrics for success was also front-and-center as we carefully scanned the industry for various different types of leaders to honor in SCN’s Hall of Fame this year, which of course, the aforementioned Feldstein is already a venerable member of.

The Hall of Fame members continue to give us pause to contemplate our roles in today’s unique technology space. Recently, Hall of Famer Scott Walker has done just that with a fascinating acquisition of his firm, Waveguide, by a global hospitality company, detailed here. On the heels of that, another previous Hall of Famer, John Greene, offered up some compelling statements on an AVNation podcast about the implications of Walker’s significant move. Greene has been hearing about how “the AV world is not ready for the amount of work that is coming,” and how we’re not technically prepared or staffed to meet that demand. It is precisely this for which Waveguide’s new parent company, Compass Group USA, is preparing. As Greene stated, “The fact of the matter is that AV and unified communications is something that Compass has to deliver. If it doesn’t have the crew, it has to partner with it or source it out.”

While Greene acknowledges that Labuskes’ assertion for the need to provide wonder has an important place, the majority of AV customers today are also demanding a standardization of easy to use, easy to replicate by the hundreds, communication spaces.

We’ve come a long way from Labuskes’ delight with the Tandy RadioShack computer and from Feldstein’s automated garage, yet these legacies endure with today’s pioneers in AV charting an exciting course to the future—one where both AV wonder and ubiquity promise great potential.

One of the dumbest phrases in existence to Bert Jacobs is that of “work-life-balance.” Simply put, as this chief creative optimist reasons, work is a subcategory of your life. “Bringing the things you love to your work make you more efficient, more fun to be around, and you’ll build better businesses.”

Bert Jacobs of The Life is Good Company delivered an inspiring opening keynote to AVEC 2016 attendees.

Jacobs co-founded The Life is Good Company with his brother after they spent the better part of the first decade of their adult lives driving up and down the East Coast selling T-shirts out of their van, affectionately dubbed “The Enterprise.” Their success story is built on the basic idea that life is inherently good, which was a message the brothers found resonated so deeply that people wanted to express it with their clothing. The T-shirt served as an emotional vehicle. While many of the principles the Jacobs brothers expounded are as clichéd as they come, $100 million in revenue couldn’t make the verity of it any clearer.

“You can focus on what’s wrong with yourself or wrong with the world, or you can focus on what’s right in your life,” Jacobs stated in his opening keynote address to InfoComm’s AV Executive Conference (AVEC) held in November in Miami. He went on to hold up gratitude as the ultimate symbol of optimism. One rule they’ve developed over the years at The Life is Good Company is that they never say “we have to,” but instead, “we GET to.”

Amidst these values that are all too often brushed aside, AVEC attendees participated in workshops to develop skills in same side selling and creating the customer experience. Jacobs set the tone for the conference brilliantly, launching the conversations into new realms of deliberation. The lessons attendees cited as AVEC was concluding were far reaching across business disciplines and supremely relatable.

Finding what you are currently good at and focusing on that—instead of pretending you are an expert on everything under the sun—is a vital step in differentiating yourself from competition and truly bringing exceptional services. So your your snazzy new website looks beautiful and lists all the right jargon; too bad it doesn’t mean anything to your customers if you’re not prominently stating the problems you solve. Building communities within your own organization is a first step to then outwardly building communities with your customers. Your intricately detailed sales process doesn’t mean much if you’re not taking into account calculable results in the end. “We think of success as closing the deal,” stated B2B adviser and author Ian Altman, “instead, we need to focus on what results matter.”

I, for one, am grateful for the opportunity to have participated in such a vibrant meeting of the minds. Looking forward, I hope to sustain the inspiring momentum from AVEC as the road that is 2016 comes to an end, and we soon pop the champagne to embark on the new path of 2017.

• “It will be as disruptive as the internet!”
• Cue—massive eye roll.
• It’s not often you leave a trade show hearing “wow, xy technology blew the show away!” Yet this was in fact the resounding reaction the residential AV tech community had walking away from the CEDIA 2016 show held in Dallas September 15-17. What was even more exciting to me is that said disruptor VUI, or voice as a user interface, is just as applicable to the pro AV market as it is to residential, and mainstream consumer demand, coupled with major investment from a titan of Silicon Valley, is poised to seriously drive growth.
• The keynote speaker responsible for the bold statement above was Charlie Kindel, director of Alexa smart home at Amazon. The presence of Amazon at CEDIA wasn’t limited to a one-off, high-profile platform addressing show attendees; Amazon had a pervasive presence with a large booth and as the official sponsor of CEDIA 2016 training and certification. Amazon suddenly went from being a DIY home automation gadget maker integrators were rightfully wary of, to a committed partner to some of the biggest brands in control: Crestron, Control4, and Lutron. “We want to partner with CEDIA members in this next disruption,” Kindel stated in his keynote, as SCN associate editor Matt Pruznick reported. “This is an inflection point we can look back on in 10 years and say, ‘We rode that wave.’”
• Amazon’s smart home division has rather quietly been laying the groundwork for this sweep into control integration, hiring IT industry veterans from the likes of Oracle, Microsoft, and a less familiar name—points to anyone that remembers Premise Systems—to head up project management and business development. (Premise developed what was effectively an early IoT platform.)
• In case this still leaves anyone questioning the potential impact on pro AV, I’ll point to Harman’s Paul Chavez, who has been championing the use of voice as a hue on the palette of modern interface design, which you can read about further in his SCN column in this month’s Consultants Guide. He acknowledges that this is a major departure from current design methodologies, which reminds me that we live in a world where disruption—despite being such an overused term—does in fact occur with technology, for better or worse.
• Maybe next time that term comes up I can manage to issue a different ocular expression in response.

• Perched at the edge of a cliff, enveloped in spectacular geologic scenery against the backdrop of a picture-perfect sky, I am sandwiched in a row of girlfriends, all simultaneously posing for selfies.
• I just had to capture the comedic nature of that scene on my latest social media toy, Snapchat. I surreptitiously panned my camera around each one of them, and finished with a goofy expression of my reaction. It was brilliant. I burst out laughing and called to the closest friend to see, but when I turned the screen to her, poof! It was gone. Forever. A priceless moment that I could never revisit.
• Such is the nature of Snapchat, which I’ve since sworn off after that fateful and devastating flick of a finger. Moments shared on Snapchat are designed to be short lived. I can’t come to terms with the idea that someone would not want to revisit memories, and thus determined that Snapchat is just not for me.
• But my feelings on the latest social network to take the mobile world by storm don’t make the app any less relevant of a force in our digitally driven universe. I was reminded of this at the recent AV/IT Leadership Summit in NYC. “Snapchat is the main collaboration platform many millennials will have experienced prior to being in a corporate or higher education environment,” said James Basler, senior video conferencing engineer and designer at IAC.
• So in terms of learning and listening to end users’ technology preferences, Snapchat matters a lot to the way AV systems of the futures should be designed, whether we like it or not.
• From a statistical view, Snapchat is hugely impressive. According to eMarketer’s latest forecast on mobile messaging apps, Snapchat is growing its U.S. user base by double digits in 2016, surpassing Twitter. The biggest demographic base of users is 18- to 24-year-olds, representing 34 percent. The fastest growing U.S. age group for the app is those under 12, projected to grow by over 40 percent this year.
• Perhaps the most perplexing element of considering Snapchat as the filter through which many millenials will use videoconferencing, as Basler further stated, is that its interface is notoriously unintuitive. As my digital editor tells me, many of the functions of Snapchat are shrouded in mystery intentionally. It’s one thing that sets it apart in the crowded field of social networks, and I can certainly understand how that appeals to today’s youth, where Facebook has become a zone your grandmother espouses political views in and leaves embarrassing comments for all your friends to see.
• It’s a bit paradoxical to take design cues from cryptic user interface, but what is useful to note is that it is an entirely visual interface. There are no buttons or widgets, nor instructions for that matter. The 150 million daily users worldwide, according to Bloomberg, have simply figured it out. This reminds me of a frequent chorus in the industry, which I heard throughout the AV/IT Leadership Summit: Everyone wants to walk into a room where every function is sensed immediately, and there’s next to nothing a person needs to do start a collaborative, engaging meeting.
• The impact of Snapchat for AV systems remains a complex idea to explore. One thing I sure won’t forget is to share my precious memories elsewhere.

• The temperature shot up well over 100 degrees inside the former Cumberland County Civic Center, and the air was so heavy with moisture, it felt as if a thick, sticky layer of marshmallow fluff blanketed the crowd. That quintessential New England confectionary substance serves up a fitting image for what became an extreme exercise in physical self-endurance. It’s amazing how little effect hydration has on the body in instances of severe heat and humidity.
• More pointedly, the discomfort people like myself willingly subject ourselves to in devotion to the arts and entertainment we love can often seem like more of a practice in fortitude than one of bliss. I imagine this is what marathon runners and other dedicated athletes engage in for that visceral, thrill-seeking experience.
• As I’ve spent the past few weeks engaging in some of my favorite summertime activities—traveling across the country, visiting friends, and catching as much live music as I can—the above example in Portland, Maine was one of the more extreme environments I was exposed to, yet it was hardly the only challenge I faced in pursuit of personal fulfillment. A few nights camping along the Columbia River in Washington State presented an enchanting reminder of the value modern amenities afford, as well as the bountiful rewards in nature that exist while abstaining from everyday comforts. It all helps place into perspective the inevitable trials and tribulations that arise. Like when the FOH audio console suddenly malfunctions and blows out the entire sound system in front of a crowd 20,000 strong; the dumbfounded band continues to play because, well, what else can they do?
• All of these recent adventures of mine are part of the larger struggle in life. As I’ve taken them from personal to public to business iterations of myself, the lessons remain largely the same. There’s an end game we’re all striving for, no matter how basic or insignificant it may seem. There’s a payoff of some sort dangling as bait somewhere ahead; it’s easy to lose sight of and wonder, ‘what’s the use?’
• It all circles back to the big picture of why, as individuals, we got started in the audiovisual field in the first place. Armed with a checklist of goals sprouting up along the way, we need to stay true to our values when faced with diversions. Most of us are in it for the long haul. Whatever the extreme conditions we endure, somewhere there’s a reason, a fundamental truth that often requires us to return to our roots to uncover the key to. For me, it’s a love for live music, and the great outdoors is a vehicle for finding my way back. What’s your use?

Who remembers Google Glass? “Sorta, maybe, kinda, who cares?” That’s the run of reactions I predict that question elicits. Most of the Glass social media accounts quietly disappeared into the ether back in January. There’s still some news about the technology surfacing, but predominantly from third-party healthcare applications. As it turns out, Google has turned its innovation R&D attention to virtual reality, as was on big display during the Cannes Lions festival for creative communications in June.

Google’s VR efforts were first introduced two years ago with its Cardboard, a low-cost solution to make the technology more accessible to the masses and for developers to create content for. A program using it, called Expeditions, was piloted through classrooms around the world. YouTube has already been rebuilt from the ground up for VR. Today, Google’s latest step forward with virtual reality is the Daydream platform, coming this fall, “for creating very high quality mobile VR experiences,” explained Google VP of VR Clay Bavor in a presentation at Cannes Lions.

We’ve been hearing a lot about this new reality that’s virtual in the AV world, and I expect that there’s a lot of confusion surrounding its uses for us. The mainstream cynics have been vocal recently in the media. A New York Times technology columnist went as far as to criticize the simulation as “too immersive,” and complaining how, “VR is still something you have to get used to.”

The real problem that this critic and others are having is they’re missing the opportunities that exist today. They’re spouting one-dimensional views entirely focused on the consumer, mostly gaming and entertainment applications. These are the obvious uses that are certainly destined to come down the pipeline as technology improves, clunky headsets disappear, and price points diminish. What we in the AV industry have already seen—those of us watching, that is—are innovative applications as business tools that are ready for prime time today.

At InfoComm, I demoed VR via Google Cardboard with Polycom and Biamp, the former as a tool to physically put me in a room with its collaborative Centro solution, and the latter for creative marketing. My colleague Matt Pruznick details his VR demo at Stampede’s booth in the July issue. The folks at Arup have been pioneering applications for VR, enabling clients to literally experience their new buildings in the conception phase. There are others already employing uses as well.

Lindsey M. Adler A few holes in one, that 11th hour defending champion lead dissolution, the rolling greens under blue skies peppered with gaggles of the most civilized sports spectators in the world—such was the 2016 PGA Masters Tournament in a (very small) nutshell. But did you catch those commercials? AT&T, IBM, and others, provided a steady stream of cybersecurity and cloud services for sale. Having just come off a string of cybersecurity expert Q&As, watching commercials run during the Masters hit me with a resounding realization: This whole network security thing is an even bigger opportunity than I thought.

I already knew just from the feedback I received and audience engagement at the cybersecurity sessions at Symco’s Regional Roadshows in April that we hit on a really hot topic for AV professionals. When polling attendees, most cited very little knowledge of the topic, and they were eager to take the discussions further.

AV equipment can easily be used as an entry point to a network to access sensitive information at a company. The failure to use strong passwords, allowing remote access to devices, protocols like FTP, are all points of entry. “If you can log into a device, so can someone else,” stated Jim Meyer, of Coordinated Response, an incidence response consulting firm. Sources of malware exist everywhere, and there are many cases publicized where a company’s website—often a lifeblood for its business—could be held ransom for a hefty fee in order to return to operation.

Even outside of the typically highsecurity verticals of government, healthcare, finance, and education, an integrator or client might wonder, “Why does anyone want to hack my data?” Often, it’s simply for bragging rights.

We’ve been hearing about how customers don’t care to have bells and whistles on their AV systems that they’ll never need, but these extra functions happen to also be security liabilities, and they should be proactively turned off. That SNMP protocol? Some companies use it to monitor network activity, and so can a hacker.

We did an informal poll in advance of the sessions to gauge topics of particular interest, and one comment expressed surprise that an AV cybersecurity expert even existed. Joel Bilheimer, of Pershing Technologies, said he’s one of maybe a dozen in the industry.

While SCN will be exploring the nuances of this dynamic topic much further in the coming months, the point I’d like to zero in on here is that network security is, without a doubt, a huge opportunity for AV businesses to capitalize on. The risks and prospects alike are realities for which you need an action plan. Whether it’s hiring or training for it, there’s money to be made, clients to be rescued, and value to be delivered.

Crestron awarded Rob Peregoodoff, director of learning services at the University of British Columbia’s UBC Sauder School of Business, with the Summum Bonum Award for Excellence in Teaching during a special award ceremony at UBC. Crestron’s director of education programs, Roger Takacs, presented Peregoodoff with a commemorative plaque and cash prize during the event, which recognized Peregoodoff for his long-term commitment to students and faculty, and his dedication to the transformation of education through technology. Latin for "highest good," Summum Bonum is an expression used in philosophy to describe the supreme good, the greatest moral achievement and ultimate humanitarian goal.

For more than 7 years, Peregoodoff has consistently demonstrated a passion and dedication for technology at UBC. He was pivotal in transforming a traditional business school classroom into a forward-thinking, active learning space. The Learning Labs provide a transformative educational experience by fostering active and engaged learning and collaboration, both in person and with global partners via video collaboration. By creating these labs, Peregoodoff demonstrates persistence, vision, and enthusiasm for pushing the boundaries of how technology can enhance the learning experience.

Crestron demonstrates its commitment to innovation through education by creating an award to celebrate passionate teachers. The Summum Bonum Award of Excellence in Teaching recognizes the crucial role that learning innovation plays in the academic and personal development of students. This prestigious award is presented to education professionals with a track record of enhancing student learning experiences with the goal of making a difference in their lives.

“We are proud to honor Rob Peregoodoff for the vision and passion that were critical to bringing the Sauder Multi-Purpose Learning Labs to life. We are awarding Rob with our Summum Bonum award for his commitment to creating the ultimate collaborative environment for both in-person and remote engagement,” said Takacs. “This ensures UBC Sauder students are at the forefront of using cutting-edge technology as part of local and world-wide teams that drive innovation that can compete in a fast-paced global economy.”

Nearly 100 faculty, staff, students, friends and family members attended the ceremony. During the event, Peregoodoff accepted the award and addressed attendees. “Change in education is never easy, this is truer now than ever,” he said. “Being honored with the Summum Bonum award from Crestron is a great milestone in my career to build upon, on behalf of current and future students and faculty of UBC.”

When considering distance learning, it all comes down to collaboration. At least that's how Peter Berry, a senior associate at Shen Milsom & Wilke, sees it.

"In traditional distance learning, the professor would be captured by a camera and the image transmitted to its end point, and there would be a formal Q&A format at the end of each lecture. But that is not a truly interactive experience. Collaboration has to be interactive by nature, and that is what is blurring the lines between distance learning and conference systems," he explained.

While the term telepresence seems to be something that comes up more and more in distance learning design, Berry said true telepresence is seldom used in these rooms.

"The reason is that they are extremely expensive," he said. "Telepresence requires custom architecture that is the same in every room."

However, Berry argued that telepresence as a concept may be linked more to the widespread idea of having multiple participants in a session. When designing a room specifically for distance learning, Berry said it's important to think about whom you are collaborating with and what your end points are. But to make a classroom fully interactive for distance learning, there are some key components you have to consider when installing your AV technologies.

First, how many cameras do you want to use? Is this a one camera or multi-camera setup? In most cases, having one camera on the instructor is enough—you won't need an operator for this, and can run the camera in a wide-angle shot. However, if you want to involve the audience in the feed, a multi-camera setup may be your best choice.

"Multi-camera setups need an operator because you never know who is going to speak and when," said Berry. "This can be tricky, unless you have fixed seating to program the camera to who is speaking, but that is the exception, not the rule."

There are solutions available for these multi-camera setups where the microphones are synced to cameras, so when a speaker pushes the button to use his or her mic, the camera will turn to the speaker. Other options may include designating the instructor or a teacher assistant to control the cameras, but that can cause more disruptions in the sessions. "Technology should be there to facilitate the use of a space, not get in the way," Berry said.

Microphone placement is another important factor when designing these distance-learning rooms. For the longest time, Berry said ceiling microphones were not suitable for these environments. "It picks up too much ambient sound," he said. "It doesn't matter how good the video is if people on the other end can't tell what you're saying."

However, in recent years, the invention of line array and electronically steerable microphones have allowed integrators to create ceiling mic setups that are more directional and can create the intelligible sound you need for these transmissions.

Finally, integrators need to consider display options for document collaboration for these sessions, which will allow those following along to interact with the instructor on a higher level.

"We're introducing wireless collaboration systems to do document collaboration, so users can interact remotely," explained Berry. "Students can participate on screen or on their own devices to see what is going on (during the lecture)."

Berry predicts that distance learning will continue to evolve from the amenities we have today, with more and more components shifting to software and the cloud. However, some components of telepresence will remain constant, such as the need for pristine audio, video, and document capture.

"Our role as the consultant is changing, too," he said. "We're not just designing systems now. We're talking about return on investments and life-cycle costs, and we need to learn the language of that. We need to know the total cost of ownership versus building it and walking away, and continuing client engagement is the secret to that."

The Frenchwoman had a Catherine de Neuve-type grace as she suddenly reached across the snug neighboring table and picked up a stranger’s glass of wine. With a quick swirl and posit beneath her nose, “it’s too young,” she declared in English. “This wine has no soul.”

Thus, the suitably palatable 2012 Burgundy lost its appeal. And it was just another Saturday night out in Paris’ 18th arrondissement for the madame. In the crowded neighborhood restaurant after 9 p.m., hungry patrons were packed into small banquettes like sardines, and I must have stuck out like an apple pie in a boulangerie. As much as I attempted to keep my abrasive “r’ pronunciations to a hum and blend in as if I was just another Parisian—blushingly declining the maître d’s offer of an English menu—I clearly wasn’t fooling anyone. It was such a delightful surprise that my boisterous neighbor was so eager to interact with the anglophile friends beside her.

I have this preconceived notion that Americans aren’t all that welcome in some European urban locales, and I always try my hardest to blend in, instead of embracing my own cultural background. The Paris I visited this past week was vastly different from the one I saw on my last visit, almost five years ago. The city of love is still reeling from the tragic terrorist attacks it endured just a few months ago. The security presence in the transit centers is noticeably more pronounced, not just with added personnel, but also with metal detectors to go through in advance of boarding regional trains, and passport screening upon debarkation. Tourism has taken a hit, according to residents, and everywhere I went, the locals were much more eager to engage with me in my native tongue than from what I remember before.

There was the barmaid debating with one of her regulars where my accent was from (they guessed Canadian), the jewelry artisan that beamed with pride that a New York lady complimented his work, and overall, there was an increased willingness to slip right into English, a language the French stereotypically avoid. Maybe I’d forgotten how much they detest crude communication attempts effectively butchering their beloved language, but in general, I felt so much more welcomed as myself than I expected.

While it’s crucial to embrace different cultural practices when traveling abroad or doing business across country lines, I was reminded of the equally important value in being true to who and what I am. It’s nice to blend in with foreigners, and I enjoy the fantasy of pretending I’m someone else sometimes. But we need to take pride in our own identities in the end. Knowing your true self, and it’s worth, involves abandoning the fear of misconception or judgment. There’s a lot we can learn about each other when we open our ears and hearts and minds across cultural divides.

There was an explosion of the artist’s junk drawer. At least, that was the feel of the set at a recent performance in the American Realness festival, with random objects hanging from ribbon strung every which way and the floor scattered with props of varying shapes, sizes, and symbols. Upon entry into the small experimental dance theater, those of us attending were greeted with more such arbitrary iconography and invited to contribute to the unconventional stage décor.

The stars of the show soon made their entrance with a karaoke style introduction, emerging to mingle among the attendees gathered on stage. As we were invited to take our seats, choreographer Larissa Velez-Jackson proceeded to paint a foundation for her self-proclaimed career retrospective, the Star Crap Method of contemporary dance. The compositional methodology was wholly improvised by Velez-Jackson and two other contemporary dancers in the production, along with a mysterious grey and white shadow that lurked throughout the performance.

Somewhat strangely—albeit a bit of a misnomer in what was clearly designed to be eccentric—the show retained a structural integrity to that of any traditional stage production. Each dancer had their own solo, which they announced as such upon launching into a narrative explanation of their own improvisations, playing with props, sounds, and large reflective set pieces. The lighting design was also improvised, as demonstrated when one of the dancers playfully called to the designer as he posed against the wall, and she responded with a prismatic background effect.

The result was a lighthearted, deconstruction of the creative process. Every step of the way, the stars embraced self-retrospection and self-mockery. There were embarrassing moments of failure, which were welcomed as an exercise in humility. The Star Crap Method is as much of an experiment as it is a technique; a trial of artistic creationism.

The show was a refreshing reminder that the path to success is littered with bumps and sharp curves of every scale. In our business lives, the world can be a pretty serious place most of the time. While business goals naturally impel gravitas, the ability to look solemnity in the face and laugh at it is just as vital to the end game. Even in the face of her life’s work, Velez-Jackson exemplified how taking herself seriously involves the ability to laugh in the face of humiliation—or simply to laugh at any moment.

Embarrassing diversions are bound to arise in the work process. The challenge is to be confident enough to let them pass, and cool enough to chuckle and keep on moving forward. We can acknowledge our inevitable mistakes without allowing the potentially crippling side effects to take hold.