Statistics that have DAM Meaning By Matthew Gonnering We probably have baseball and The Sporting News to thank for the proliferation of statistics in all sports. Yet, Mark Twain once said there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Of course, he was speaking about to the persuasive power of numbers and about how people will either promote or ignore statistics based entirely on whether or not they support a position. This â??truthâ?? is the reason many baseball arguments have never been settled. ...Read More »

Sideloading Comes of Age By Philip John, CEO Clippz.com The iPhone came, it saw, and it conquered a huge chunk of the American media bandwidth for several weeks. One prominent consumer technology magazine even called it the ?Jesus phone,? and likened its debut to such discoveries as fire and the wheel (of course, with requisite sarcasm). When it comes to technology product introductions, no one does it with more bombast, seduction and ?production values? than does Apple. ...Read More »

Five things to hate and love about Apple?s iPhone By Matthew David Unless you have been living under a rock, you cannot have failed to notice the multi-million dollar marketing blitz Apple and AT&T are conducting about the iPhone. If you read the reports and the blogs on the Internet it is hard to know if people love the iPhone or if they hate. With that in mind, we have put together a list of the five things to hate about the iPhone and five things to love. ...Read More »

Going HD or How I spent my winter. By David Basulto As I prepared to make my second feature film, Fiesta Grand, I knew I wanted to step up the look and feel of the film. This film (or movie I should say as I no longer use film!) was a follow up to my horror feature, Death Clique, which I made for next to nothing on my Panasonic DVX100a and received a distribution deal to Blockbuster. My insiders suggested I make the next film in High Definition even though the distributors hadn?t asked for it. "Why", I asked... ...Read More »

Apple iPhone Reaction By Stephen Schleicher Today, Apple Inc. unleashed the iPhone on the world. Consumer Electronics Net?s Stephen Schleicher takes a look and offers his gut reaction to the announcement. ...Read More »

Embracing New Venues By Stephen Schleicher In the early days of YouTube, NBC would routinely contact the streaming media website to have it take down excerpts from Saturday Night Live fans of the shared video service would post. Until they realized people started watching the live show again. NBC jumped on this new free marketing strategy as are many other traditional broadcasters. ...Read More »

When Marketing People Go Amok By Esther Schindler Honest, we understand. It's a marketing person's job to make a presentation sound exciting and relevant as well as informational. But the TechEd presentation titles are, quite literally, beyond audience comprehension. ...Read More »

Do You Volunteer? By Gary Kayye, CTS Do you volunteer? If you don?t, you should. One of my first weeks in this industry back in 1987 was attending InfoComm?s (then known as ICIA) Institute for Professional Development and a class led by Mike Weems. It was on video production techniques and was simply awesome. The very next year, I attended a class taught by 6+ year industry veteran Fred Dixon on AV systems design. The instruction blew me away. It was far and in away better than most courses I ever took in college, and certainly more helpful in my new -real-world life. ...Read More »

Transitional TV Growing Pains By Guy Wright Anyone in the broadcast industry knows that we are in the middle of a transition. More precisely, we are in the middle of multiple transitions ? from analog broadcasts to digital, from standard definition to high definition, and from standard 4:3 aspect ratios to 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios. ...Read More »

Snubbing Social Networking By Esther Schindler All these networking sites assume that a friend is the same as an acquaintence. It's not the case in real life, so why assume that status online? ...Read More »

Way Too Hard = Way Too Bad By Gary Kayye, CTS A recent study by a major university on the Netherlands found that product complexity actually caused over 50 percent of product returns. Graduate student Elke den Ouden of the Technical University of Eindhoven studied people who purchased consumer electronics products and how they tried (and in many cases failed) to use them, successfully. In virtually all cases where a consumer tried and failed to figure out how to use a product and then gave up, the product itself was actually in good working order. There was no product failure. ...Read More »

A Column for AV Guys: The Guillotine By Gary Kayye, CTS I was sooo excited while watching the Super Bowl coverage earlier this month to see that someone finally, FINALLY, crossed the 4-blade razor blade barrier. The long-overdue 5-blade system has finally made its debut. The oh-hum [insert yawn here] market of the 3-blade and 4-blade systems that has dominated the shaving market with has-been gear like Gillette?s Mach3Turbo and the Schick Quattro has finally been shaken up with the 5-blade Gillette Fusion. I ran out and bought one the very next day. ...Read More »

KNews Insider: The Final Sayye with Gary Kayye By Gary Kayye, CTS I?ve had the October 14, 2005 issue of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on my desk since the day it came out. I?ve been meaning to write this story for a long time, but just didn?t have the time or opportunity. But, now it?s time.In the Marketplace section of the WSJ on that day had an article entitled ?The Laptop Backlash,? well-written by Gary McWilliams. Well, you know what I think? Boo-fricking-hoo. ...Read More »

Don't Be Scared Of Sky By Alexander Cameron Wherever you go and whomever you talk to in any of the media, telecoms and television industries, people are absolutely terrified of Sky. Not just scared, absolutely terrified. Not that they?d ever admit it, of course. The fear of Murdoch extends further than you?d think was possible for an old man, and no company inspires wobbling and trembling in both start-ups, SMEs and venture capitalists alike like Sky does. They are one of the only two companies that the incumbent colossus, BT, fears ? the other being Microsoft. ...Read More »

Kayye's Krystal Ball - v.06 By Gary Kayye, CTS Welcome to my seventh annual Krystal Ball feature article about predictions for the upcoming year for Professional AV, and even some Home AV technology, trends and products. If you?re a regular reader of this column, then you know that each year I actually start by reviewing my predictions from last year?s column ...Read More »

Addressing the Overlay Graphics Proliferation Problem By Guy Wright In this digital age of content re-purposing, affiliate programs, cross promotions, and multiple deployment options screen real estate is becoming more and more precious - and more and more people are trying to stake their claims. ...Read More »

The Gods and Goats of 2005 By Charlie White We've reached the end of another tumultuous year in the world of technology, and it's time to take stock, assessing which products, companies, services or concepts were the Gods and which were the Goats of 2005. So here they are, the ones worth remembering and those which would be best forgotten from the past year. ...Read More »

Service Contracts are Easy to Sell: Sell Job Security By Gary Kayye, CTS If you?re a regular reader of my columns, you know that our firm works with dealers, on occasion, to help them become more profitable. In some cases, it?s a box company wanting to learn how to sell systems. In some cases, it?s a systems integrator trying to sell design/build contracts. In some cases, it?s a design/build firm trying to get better cost accounting on jobs. But, in almost all cases, they are all equally frustrated at the level of success they have selling their most profitable product: service contracts. ...Read More »

Annual rAVe CEDIA Awards By Gary Kayye, CTS Gary Kayye is a big fan of the CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) show, and attends it every year. Here are his picks for the best of the best from this year's exhibition. ...Read More »

Product Activation and the World of Tomorrow By Kevin Schmitt Now that us lowly users have been unwillingly pushed down the slippery slope that is product activation, this particular article is equivalent to the proverbial closing of the barn doors after the horse has escaped. Actually, it's more like picking up the door and leaning it on the charred ruins of the barn after it burned down years ago, what with the horse having run out to flee the fire, but I digress. Since activation refuses to just go away entirely, I still (naively) think that there's a balance that can be struck between legitimate users and software publishers. ...Read More »

LCD or DLP Projection? Decisions, Decisions By Gary Kayye, CTS Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines ? projector engines, that is. Since 1998, Texas Instruments' DLP division has out-marketed, out-maneuvered, out-published and, according to many sales figures, even out-sold LCD in virtually of the leading projector vertical market segments. I say "virtually" because there are some markets in which DLP hasn't been playing ? but when it does, it generally wins. ...Read More »

AMD64 - Directly Connecting Your Imagination to Reality By Charlie Boswell Each generation of new technology assaulting the digital content creator typically comes with elaborate promises about how it?s going to change lives. Sometimes that?s actually true -- but not always for the better. Non-linear editing systems brought the number of ?workarounds? to new heights ...Read More »

Have you Crossed the Chasm? By Gary Kayye, CTS Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore is probably the single most important book to read as a ProAV system salesperson (or systems designer) today! It is, in my opinion, the blueprint for the customer sales and marketing process of AV technology. When it was published in the early 1990s it was geared toward the computer industry. Its prophecies, however, are now becoming a reality in the ProAV market of today. ...Read More »

InfoComm -- Good Show Means Great Market By Gary Kayye, CTS InfoComm 2005 was a great show for the ProAV industry and the future of our market. Here?s why. ...Read More »

Live From infoComm: Attendance Record Broken By Gary Kayye, CTS ICIA announced another record attendance here at the show this week, with a more than 10 percent increase over last year, totaling 25,821 as of Thursday. Expect the final numbers to be even more impressive. Also, it?s that time of year again. The year is half way over and it?s time to review my 2005 predictions. ...Read More »

How Much Time Does Apple Have? By Dave Nagel Set sentimentality aside. Set aside the pride and the unfounded fears and all of the little irrelevancies I've seen people worrying over for the last five days about Apple switching to Intel. Focus, instead, on the big one: Will there be a Mac platform in two years? The answer to that will depend on whether Apple sticks to the plan announced at WWDC. If it does, then by this time in 2007, you will be doing your computing on a Windows box. ...Read More »

infoComm 2005 Coming Up! By Gary Kayye, CTS I can't wait! No, I dread flying into Las Vegas for anything, much less a trade show, but I can't wait to get there for the ProAV industry's annual trek into the world of new presentation tools. But, me, I don't go for the show. What? Forget about the exhibits. Don't plan your infoComm experience backwards. ...Read More »

DVD Insider: The Game, The Video, Death of the Disc? By Miles Weston Videogames aren't games to the people who create them and the systems are far from game systems. Should Hollywood take more of a page from the game industry in its approach to customers? The most poignant question: Is all the hassle over DVD media for naught? Are they like dinosaurs? Naw... ...Read More »

ProAV Product Alters the Market By Gary Kayye, CTS Every once in a while a product will come along that I feel will change the market dynamics in a major way and will find its way into the Final Sayye column. Not often, but sometimes. Well, today?s one of those days. I?ve been playing with a new product from Grass Valley this week and I can tell you this is a MAJOR DEAL. You MUST go see this at InfoComm. ProAV has officially entered the server market with a product that will certainly set the bar and one that consultants like Waveguide and Shen are already embracing. ...Read More »

DVD Insider: NAB Buzz ? Mergers, HD, H.264 By Miles Weston NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) is all about TV, movies and radio technology, applications and profits. But it was profits that hogged the spotlight right from the start this year. DVD Insider sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels all. ...Read More »

AV in Schools By Gary Kayye, CTS Recently, I spoke at a local university's technology show and I was amazed at how much AV technology the campus actually had. It was everywhere. Not only were their large screen displays in virtually all the classrooms, meeting rooms and lecture halls, but there were 25 projectors and plasmas in the cafeteria! We've finally hit the big time! But, there's a catch. ...Read More »

This is not a 2D world By Atom Zeidler This is not a 2D world. Now there is no reason that the world of media has to be either. In recent years, producing a high quality 3D image has become easier and more affordable. Film, commercial and broadcast production houses are using 3D imaging more and more frequently to create more realistic and exciting graphics, both to entertain and to educate. ...Read More »

Adobe to Acquire Macromedia By Stephen Schleicher Yesterday, Adobe announced that it would acquire Macromedia in a stock option trade valued at around $3.4 billion. This subtle announcement may come as a shock to many users of the Macromedia products, and it will have a huge impact in the web development and content creation worlds. ...Read More »

The Digital Transition: A Sports Bar's Worst Nightmare By Gary Kayye, CTS Everybody?s heard and read something about HDTV and the world?s transition from our current analog standard TV system to the new digital standard, right? Today most countries in the world use either a system known as NTSC or PAL for broadcast television transmission and display. Both systems are very similar in that they are analog-based and display either 525 or 625 lines of resolution on the screen. Regardless of screen size (from 3" to 300") you?re still seeing either 525 lines of video or 625 lines of video. ...Read More »

Beginners Guide to NAB By Ko Maruyama If you're planning to attend the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in a couple of weeks, you've probably already signed up and are beginning to receive emails and notices daily. The emails probably have all kinds of information regarding the various conferences that will be held, some on satellite technology, others on HD delivery specifications. But you probably haven't received any notices from NAB to wear comfortable shoes. ...Read More »

Randy AV By Gary Kayye, CTS Have you ever noticed how many Randy?s there are in the AV market? It?s astonishing. In fact, there are so many that I almost decided NOT to do this column, as I wasn?t sure how to write it without offending all the Randy?s that I will, inevitably, have to leave off ? simply because of space. ...Read More »