Pro AV by MarketScale

Tyler Bonner, Senior Vice President of Mission Critical Environments for Diversified, joined this episode of MarketScale's Pro AV podcast to break down the building of mission-critical environments for power utility control buildings. Bonner’s 20-plus years in the technical innovation and critical environments field brought an expert’s perspective on the conversation.

“Over the past 10-to-12 years, there’s been a migration in the U.S. utility market toward sustainable transmission facilities due to the fact our grid is interconnected,” Bonner said.

Consistency in the build of transmission facilities is essential. The distribution side can vary due to the size of some areas - rural communities vs. large cities, for example. No matter the scale of the municipality, it is vital each has infrastructure capable of supporting a 24/7 operation.

Different considerations come into play when the environment is a 24/7 operation. If a situation, say a weather emergency, occurs, the building may be used by more people and for a more extended time than in a non-emergency. Noise dampening to ensure people can effectively communicate over the phone, rooms to rest and relax, and areas for different stakeholders to work together without everyone accessing the control room are all factors that go into today’s mission-critical environment designs.

Roughly 75% of the projects Bonner works on are remodels. The notable change in these environments, noted Bonner, is the technology.

“A lot of these dispatch and transmission facilities have been operating inside the same six walls for 15 years, and the technology changes in the new building brings a culture shift and operational shock for some of them,” he said.

A part of every project is training to ensure the people working in the new facility are comfortable using the latest equipment and technology.

Acrelec is hiring a Brand Relationship Manager based in their Pittsburgh, PA office.

The brand relationship manager will work closely with existing customers, as well as develop new customer relationships in an assigned territory. The Brand Relationship Manager will act as the creative liaison between the development team, the design team, and the operations team to deliver Acrelec America’s suite of products and services.

The position requires 3-5 years’ experience in sales, preferably outside sales and managing extended geographical territory.

To see the full job description, visit MarketScale.com/careers

Acrelec are Pioneers in the QSR industry and have innovated technology that can be seen in some of the largest brands around the world.

If you have ordered fast-food or coffee recently, chances are you have used their products.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join a team of over 700 talented individuals who are reshaping the way we purchase and interact with brands.

If this job sounds like a fit for you or someone you know, visit Acrelec.com or marketscale.com/b2bjobs to apply.

Today's featured Job is from Bluewater Technologies. 

Bluewater is the only woman-owned business of its kind, operating four industry-leading business units that support sensory storytelling through digital & physical canvases.

Bluewater is looking to hire a Production Coordinator in their Southfield, Michigan office.
This position is responsible for working with their Production Lead and Technical director to coordinate logistics on their production tours.

General responsibilities include:
Scheduling and managing travel for production crew (Flights, Hotel, Ground Transportation)
Scheduling meals and catering for tour crew production days
Assist in managing and updating production crew schedules
Assist in scheduling local labor for each show
Schedule venue heavy machinery (For lifts, scissor lifts, boom lifts, and generators) for each show
Manage all paperwork for crew, labor, rentals for each show site
Assist Account Director and Manager with paperwork for closing out each show
Manage any productions runners on show sites

Skills:
Strong Organization Skills
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Resourcefulness
Ability to Multitask
Time management
Aptitude for personnel management

Experience:
3 years agency or production company experience
Experience as project manager, coordinator or production coordinator and must be able to discuss relevant experience
Bachelor’s Degree

Requirements:
Ability to travel

If you are hiring or looking for jobs in B2B visit MarketScale’s career page to find the best resource for job placement and recruiting.

The “diligence” in “due diligence” is one of the most crucial aspects of signage, especially when dealing with multiple municipalities. On this episode of MarketScale’s Pro A/V podcast, Courtney McDaniel, Director of Client Services for Kieffer | Starlite, sat down with Sean Heath to discuss the fact that a quick and thorough start to a permitting process can help with the unavoidable wait that follows.

In today’s fast-paced environment, clients can get ahead of themselves when pursuing their signage goals. A recent situation demonstrates the need for information before beginning construction, McDaniel said. “What they did not know, what they did not ask before going into construction, was that the roof line comes into play for this city and their signage could not go above their roof line.”

The value a signage expert provides is quite substantial, explained McDaniel. “With our expertise, in terms of city codes, and also, taking it a step further, with our manufacturing and installation logistics, we can execute a signage program that’s just going to run so much more smoothly and be that much more effective.”

Municipal regulations can be a significant factor in a customer’s decision to open a location in that city.

“We have certain cities here locally, in North Texas, where they restrict what colors can be on a given sign,” McDaniel said. “We can inform the customer if they might be better off just looking elsewhere. Even just moving a couple of miles east or west of where they’re going, so they fall into another city’s jurisdiction.”

“Digital transformation” is on the tip of everyone’s tongue as the technology revolution continues to change society at large. So what does this buzzword mean? Guest Chris Devlin, president of Omnivex, unpacks and defines the jargon for listeners on Marketscale’s Pro AV podcast, explaining how the concept benefits businesses as well as consumers.

To explain the holistic idea of digital transformation, Devlin quotes MIT researcher, George Wesman.

“Digital transformation is a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people, and process to fundamentally change business performance," he said.

Hospitals, airports, malls, restaurants, and major corporations are all undergoing digital transformations on complex levels. The biggest change is the merging and collaboration between departments as digital transformation filters throughout an agency. Devlin emphasizes this by pointing out how boards of directors are in desperate need of IT experts to oversee the digital big picture.

In a fast-paced world, Devlin argues that the beauty of digital really shines, allowing for adaptability, flexibility, and the agility to control a message in real-time, such as during an emergency or crisis. Ultimately, Devlin said, digital signage and communication is about improving revenue, safety, and cost, for everyone. When organizations are proactive with public and employee communication, it shows in profits, popular perception, and customer engagement.

Designing today's digital signage is more than thinking about filling the screen. It's about the how and why of the information and data being presented. (And actually, don't fill the screen. White space is your friend.)

Today on the Pro AV Podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with digital designer Rich Archer for a nuts and bolts discussion about the philosophy of design and how data makes the difference in effective and good-looking digital signage.

Archer joined the design team at Omnivex three years ago, after spending two decades in design, marketing, and communications. With an educational background in architecture and experience in graphic design, Archer saw an interesting intersection of two schools of design thought coming together in digital signage.

"I don't think I could find a better merge of data and design than digital signage with the applications of it we build here at Omnivex," Archer said.

Archer uses this blend to influence his design approach and offers tips for doing the same.

"Thinking of the how and why of graphic design was just like thinking of the how and why of architecture for me," Archer said. "Thinking about the how and why we build houses for certain scenarios, clients, climates... that applies here."

Do you remember when companies thought posting on social media was optional? Now it's nearly the same thing with digital content and digital display managers. Digital signage has matured to the extent that companies need ongoing support for their display technology and content needs.

"Digital Signage as a Service" is helping small and mid-sized businesses conquer this skillset. On this episode of the Marketscale Pro AV Podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with two experts from industry leader Diversified, which recently launched its DSaaS called FocalPoint: Jay Leedy, Director of Business Development, and Kenneth Flemm, product owner of FocalPoint.

With the expansive technology and tools available for digital signage content, the possibilities are often limited by a company's time and expertise they can devote.

"In many cases, customers either under-considered or had no budget allocated to content management," Leedy said. "So we had a number of customers who intended to do it themselves but grew to learn either they didn't want to do it themselves or the knowledge base they'd hired and trained has since left."

Flemm heard from clients that were having a hard time finding the right digital display solution for their requirements because almost everything they looked at required them to manage the whole system themselves.

"You could hear the exhaustion in their voices," Flemm said.

FocalPoint provides an out of the box solution that can be generally tailored to a company's needs without customizing so much that it requires a specially-trained staff.

In the AV industry, consumers are looking for fully-immersive experiences that drive content in a big way. But to really capture the experience-driven demands of the consumer, stunning visuals are only half of the equation -- quality sound is having to do a lot of the heavy lifting for full immersion.

On this new episode of the Pro AV Podcast brought to you by MarketScale, host Daniel Litwin digs into the power that speaker technology can have on end-user engagement with Dave Howden, Applications Engineering Manager for the Large Venues Group of Community Professional Loudspeakers, a Biamp company.

"Gone are the days are having just some upbeat background music in a retail location or shopping complex," Howden said. "Today's consumers are used to being engaged with audio and video content all the time, as well as on the go. "

While consumers expect a seamless immersive experience in the audience, end-users also expect a seamless operating experience behind the scenes.

"End users are no longer thinking about audio or video, but rather, converged and most importantly scalable platforms to deliver that content to the masses," Howden said. "The industry as a whole has stepped up to build these converged networks to transport the audio and video content around a mall, or shopping complex, all the way to widely distributed content in these large venues."

Neon signs conjure images of days past at illuminated drive-in restaurants glowing orange, red, and blue, but many people don't realize most all modern signage uses neon.

On this episode of the MarketScale Pro AV Podcast, host Chris Reeves sat down with Rob Fehlman, Director of National Service of Kieffer | Starlite to discuss changes he's seen in his 15 years in the industry and what's next for signage.

Kieffer | Starlite is a national sign company that specializes in manufacturing, service, and installation since 1956. In addition to sign installation and repairs for retail and hospitality industries, they do building and parking lot lighting, an essential function for public safety. Today, the Texas-based company has evolved to include LED reader boards.

"When I started here, it was neon exclusively," Fehlman said. "The industry has made a lot of leaps and changes from there, using incandescent bulbs to doing chasing signs... From neon to LED lighting. from incandescent to full color HD displays. It's incredible what you can do with LED technology."

But technology extends beyond the signs themselves. Kieffer | Starlite uses GPS location to help track sign vendors or installers and equips them with iPads and smart tablets in the field so they can upload photos and have manager signoffs.

"There have been huge changes just over the past 12 to 15 years," Fehlman said.

Businesses have a lot of moving parts to keep track of with streaming over IP, the cloud, machine learning, you name it. But all of that comes with training, education, hiring, and network infrastructures that pose a challenge for even the largest IT and AV teams.

On this new episode of the Pro AV Podcast, host Daniel Litwin sat down with Jason Kornweiss, vice president and general manager for emerging technology and solutions, and Paul Catterson, vice president of solutions for emerging technology and solutions, both of New Jersey-based Diversified. The two future-focused thought leaders share ways to make emerging technologies work more efficiently for you.

When clients approach Diversified as a systems integrator, they often feel behind the times because technology moves so fast. But "technology for technology's sake" isn't always the answer, Catterson said.

"People will come to us saying, everyone's in the cloud; I need to be in the cloud. I need to virtualize; Everybody's virtualizing," he said. "And that may be true to a degree, the true application of that solution is going to be more dependent on what that business is trying to accomplish, not necessarily where it wants to be from a technology standpoint."

Making technology work for your business goals often means outsourcing to managed services that have historically been done in house.

"Clients are more willing than ever to outsource operations [as opposed] to having an on-site staff, which is now quite frankly too expensive to keep that staff trained and fresh with all the latest greatest technologies," Kornweiss said.