As a techy person, I have always been intrigued by the Consumer Electronics Show. It has always been a mix of amazing new technology and useless new technology. I am surprised, though, that the show does not get much coverage in our industry, particularly in the education sector. I think there are a couple of […]

Late August to early September is the time when students flood back onto college campuses, many of them bringing with them their shiny new sneakers and their brand-new backpacks. They have had a summer filled with fun (hopefully) and are ready to dive into another year of learning. For the tech managers in higher education, […]

AI is one of the most consequential and fast-moving technologies we have seen in years. The speed of change and drastic impact of that change will cause people to react quickly, go with the crowd and make poor decisions about how the technologies will be used in their businesses. No one, not even higher ed […]

For years, I have been the poster child for standards in classrooms. I have made this argument for a very long time at my school and through talks and at conferences. The arguments for standardization are powerful and plentiful. The ability for staff to only need to be focused on a certain family of products […]

If you have read my blogs in the past, you know that I work in higher ed, and it has hopefully come out that I am passionate about education. In fact, my career was supposed to be in education. I went to college to be a teacher, did my student teaching in a high school […]

One thing I truly love about writing a blog for rAVe is when I get a reaction from my peers about what I wrote. These responses always help me further think through what I originally wrote, and I always learn from others in these scenarios. In my December blog, I wrote about the supply chain […]

Sometimes it seems like the topic of every conversation has changed from “COVID, COVID, COVID” to “supply chain, supply chain, supply chain.” This is for good reason. Just about everything is in short supply, and prices are rising everywhere. The good news from this — the news that people are still spending money — gets […]

Each year, thousands of AV professionals gather together for InfoComm in either Las Vegas or Orlando. The show can feel like a giant reunion for your AV family, with networking events galore, new products to explore and classes to attend. #AVtweeps will proudly tell you how many years they’ve attended the show. But what about […]

For the past 18 months, firms in most industries have struggled with the dual challenge of hiring new employees and retaining current employees. Retaining employees has become a major issue across our country as the number of people quitting their jobs has been dubbed “The Great Resignation.” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that […]

First let me say thank you, with a title like this one, I am surprised anyone is reading this blog. Let’s face it, asset and inventory management is not exactly a topic that sparks interest and debate. Part of the reason for that is that no one really enjoys doing this tedious, boring work. Yet, […]

For educational institutions far and wide, public and private, kindergarten to graduate school, Google services have one thing we all love — the price was right! For many of us, that meant it was free. There have always been some premium services that you can choose to pay for if you are a Google school, […]

Higher ed just lived through what may be the strangest semester we have ever had. At my school, we held in-person classes, and — knock on wood — we were very successful, with limited numbers of COVID cases and no serious cases. Like many other schools, we employed social distancing, lower limits on people in […]

For years, many of us in higher ed have used the various laws associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act to determine what was required for accessibility in classroom and campus spaces. We thought about things like closed captioning for movies, support for hearing aids and the ability to view a screen properly. However, this […]

Over the past several weeks, the higher ed world has become more widely acquainted with the term “HyFlex.” For some, it’s a vague word that leads to more confusion than clarity. Let’s take an opportunity to think about it and what type of AV installs and equipment would support a HyFlex classroom. Interestingly enough, this […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST FROM CASIO By Wayne Borg Marketing Manager, Casio Projectors remain the best display option for the larger screens needed in college and university classrooms. But move over, lamp-projectors — with the introduction of Casio LampFree projectors that use lasers and LEDs as a light source instead of lamps, you can now […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST FROM CASIO  While the classroom has changed, so has the projector. Lamp-based projectors of yesteryear have downsides: They’re bulky. They’re expensive. After only 2,000 to 3,000 hours, they’re at half the brightness. They need constant maintenance. They run hot. Then there’s the issue of mercury; the lamps in projectors leak […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST FROM TELEPORTIVITY  When people think of remote support, they don’t often think good things. Actually, most people really hate automated support systems. No one likes being pushed through a robot before getting to a real person on the other end of the line. To date, remote tech support, whether AV […]

THIS IS A PROMOTED POST FROM OPTOMA TECHNOLOGY INC. By Jon Grodem, Sr. Director, Planning & Strategy Optoma Technology, Inc. At first glance, the AV needs of government and higher education spaces seem to be vastly different. To think that the hardware used in a control and command center or government training room can be […]

AVIXA is expanding its commitment to showcasing the benefits of audiovisual (AV) solutions in higher education with a featured panel discussion at the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) 2019 Annual Conference, July 14-17, in Seattle. The SCUP 2019 Annual Conference is attended by more than 1,500 higher education professionals and offers an exchange […]

A couple months ago, I wrote about the various problems that arise when people choose not to use microphones during large meetings or classes. In particular, I was discussing the negative impacts this choice has on people who have some type of hearing issue or hearing loss. I wrote about my belief that all rooms […]

We recently had a email thread at my institution discussing whether people should use microphones as a standard at all meetings. The discussion started as a result of people having a hard time hearing during faculty meetings. Interestingly, this discussion took a different direction that previous ones had. It was focused on accessibility and how […]

Hitachi America expanded its Collegiate Series line with the addition of two new 3LCD laser projectors. Both the LP-EU5002 and the LP-EW5002 are spec’d at 5,000 ANSI lumens and are WUXGA 1920×1200 to WXGA 1280×800, respectively. These maintenance-free operation projectors have 20,000 hours light source life and up to 50,000 hours with Long Life 2 […]

Productivity and engagement, collaboration, team cohesion – these are all topics that are important to a company’s success. These topics have come into focus as corporate enterprises look to adapt their culture to the ever-increasing millennial demographic. I’ve met with several Fortune 100 companies who understand that rigid company hierarchy, top-down management, and traditional meeting-driven culture […]

A couple of time I have written on the use of video conferencing in higher ed. At my institution it has grown exponentially. Last year we supported over 200 individual videoconferencing “events.” Many of these were job interviews, done in blocks. So, while I don’t have an exact number, it is likely that we had […]

Hold on to your hats – it’s just happened again… First the particulars: SMART Technologies Inc. and Foxconn Technology Group announced they have entered into an arrangement agreement under which Foxconn has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of SMART for a cash payment of US$4.50 per Common Share. The US$4.50 per Common […]

Those who know me know I like to talk. I’ll leave that thought there for now. Recently, in a business discussion I was asked “Why do you answer every question with a story?” I sat there for a few moments and – yes – was speechless (imagine…). Now I’m not sure exactly what my answer […]

Thanks to my colleague Brett Tipton for his contribution to today’s blog post. Brett is a writer, teacher, and public speaker. He brings a great in-the-trenches perspective to the topic of higher education, how well it prepares students for the real world of corporate America, and how corporations themselves — and IT departments, in particular — […]

Thanks to my colleague Brett Tipton for his contribution to my first rAVe Pubs blog post. Brett is a writer, teacher and public speaker. He brings a great in-the-trenches perspective to the topic of higher education, how well it prepares students for the real world of corporate America, and how corporations themselves — and IT departments, in […]