Pro AV Today

It seems today as if everyone and everything is using Communication technology. From the broadcast studio to the control room, houses of worship, and theme parks, digital communications are one of the most vital pieces of technology for effective operations. Bob Boster, President at Clear-Com, understands the need all too well. Clear-Com is an industry leader in providing digital communication solutions, and as Booster tells it, they live and breathe communications every day.

Theme parks stuck out in host Ben Thomas’ mind because he recently visited a theme park and was surprised to find Clear-Com technology in operation at one of the park’s new rides. And this example points to the convergence of opportunities for digital applications of regular communications solutions that are tried and true, migrating to other verticals due to the ease of installation and lower cost to scale. “You have both local and global IP connectivity coming into play,” Boster said. “And also, people expect wireless to be everywhere because they carry these devices around with them.”

People expect and need real-time communication no matter the venue, arena, or service. It’s no longer a nice to have; it’s a must-provide. And the right communication solutions can help businesses do more with fewer people, which is imperative in today’s worker-shortage climate. “And then things are pulling apart,” Boster said. “The distances of production teams. Some people are doing stuff from home, some people doing stuff from remote operations somewhere in the park, or the entity, or theater; all those people needing to interact together to produce stuff.”

Clear-Com tries to bring in solutions that fit existing communication hardware so businesses don’t have to replace what they have. “That building block mentality allows us to help somebody scale or design a solution is the way we tend to work,” Boster said.

The emerging trend in AV and across all technology over the past few years is the shift to cloud and web-based workflows. But with the trends come the challenges, as AV and tech companies find themselves ill-equipped to accommodate these shifts. Companies are outsourcing labor to handle these challenges at a previously unseen rate. Ben Thomas reached out for an expert’s perspective on the situation. Lach de Crespigny, Co-Founder of Revelo, joined him to discuss outsourcing engineers in the AV industry. Revelo is a leader in the global engineering talent staffing space.

Additional shifts occurring in the space are a rapid move to remote workers. And with the talent crunch of software engineers in the United States during COVID and beyond, companies need to get creative in finding the resources they need. The move to remote unlocks the old paradigm of hiring and extends the resource pool to a global footprint.

The stigmatism towards hiring these engineering positions through international sourcing is gone, and companies feel free to build their teams with the best people, no matter where they live.

“As long as you speak good English, are technically strong, and work in my time zone, I don’t really care if you’re living in San Francisco, Austin, Texas, Mexico City, or San Paolo, Brazil,” de Crespigny said. “So, we had a flood of American companies, who for the first time started hiring remotely. They were looking for the same thing they used to look for in a new in-person employee; they just said, okay, why don’t I expand my talent pool to the 600 million people in Latin America, get better engineers, often for a competitive price. I’ll be able to accelerate the progress of my company.”

Hail, hail, the gang's all here. Greg Harper, President of Harpervision Associates; Cory Schaeffer, Director of Alliances & Ecosystem at QSC; Michael Reilly, Director of National Accounts at Barco; and Charlie Jones, Global Alliance & Partnership Manager at Sennheiser, joined Ben Thomas for an engaging roundtable discussion on the state of collaboration in AV. There was much to discuss with rapid AV technology advancements during the pandemic.

The pandemic changed the expectation of what the AV industry is doing. People attend multi-person conferences via their desktop or smartphone instead of in a conference room. Video conferences are now the standard over audio-only. "Now the challenge is, how do you create rooms and [create] spaces where it makes sense to go into that space," Harper said. "Because if I have everything at my desk and have the right camera and a good microphone, why do I want to go into a room? So, what can I build in a room that will make it a better experience than sitting at my desk?"

Harper said businesses are transforming the traditional conference room into an interactive video experience with multi-camera functionality, advanced screen technology, and ceiling mics to meet today’s collaborative conference expectations. “When you start thinking about the capabilities of some of the technology and bringing that all together, you can create a much better experience in the conference room than before.”

Schaeffer said the pandemic showed people the importance of collaborating with partners from all over the country and the world, and that need will continue as people start working back in offices. And the AV needs in those offices need to keep up with these new demands. “Now, when we go into a room,” Shaeffer said, “we need more than just one USB camera. We need to be able to add more things so we can zoom in and get the reactions of the people in the room to the far end. We can partner with other companies to deliver what the end-user is looking for because none of us have everything every user needs."

Accessibility & education is second only to the curriculum itself, and technology is enabling that more than ever. Pro AV Today’s Ben Thomas brought on Mark Roslon, Director of Product Management for Commercial Projectors at Epson, to have this conversation.

On the commercial display side of EdTech, Roslon said there was a lot of excitement in the market. “We’ve been talking a lot to IT decision-makers within schools as well as teachers to understand their technology usage, and what’s becoming very clear is that old concept of ‘sage on the stage’ is evolving. Most schools and most teachers are migrating towards the facilitator role. And this is where technology comes into play in enabling collaboration and interaction and getting students involved actively in their education.”

This emergence of interactive technology creates opportunities in front of the class and with mobile devices and other one-to-one device computing. But with so many technology choices available, decision-making can be daunting for educators in deciding the right technology for the classroom.

Roslon said one trend in displays is the need to accommodate more content within the space. “Display size and the need for a larger display is going to be a big driving force, and this is what at Epson we feel we’re well-positioned to deliver that cost-effectively.”

Costs will always be a consideration for schools and replacing technology year-over-year is not scalable. Product lifecycle can ultimately drive decision-making in education. Roslon said the days of a 20-year lifespan of EdTech products might not be realistic due to rapid technological advancements, but he felt a range from 5-7 years was a proper expectation for most products. “Under normal budgetary conditions, the schools are trying to eke out the maximum amount of value of any technology they have, including displays,” Roslon said. Many schools are looking into technology investments now while funding is more readily available.