Christie will allow ISE 2024 attendees to experience all its products and technology in stand/booth 3K500 this year, its 95th year as a company. The entire booth is driven either by Pandora’s Box, its media server technology, or Christie Terra, the AV-over-IP ecosystem based on SDVoE. Christie’s senior director of marketing, Enterprize, Steve Capling, and its director of product management, Joel St-Denis, sit down with me on my latest episode of Rants & rAVes to talk about how Christie’s ISE booth isn’t as product-focused as it is all about the experience and showing what its products, services and software can accomplish. Watch this and stop by during the show!

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Yesterday, Xyte announced a $30 million round of investment, which includes $20 million in Series A funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from Samsung Next and existing investors S Capital and Mindset Ventures, as well as $10 million in venture lending from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. Check out my exclusive interview with Xyte CEO Omer Brookstein just hours after the investment. Here’s what he had to say and how it will benefit AV manufacturers and AV integrators alike.

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SpinetiX will use ISE 2024 to debut an all-new four-output media player designed to simplify video wall design and deployment. The new player includes four 4K60fps outputs that can break up or combine content across four displays that are configured in any physical layout — not just 2×2 or 1×4. And, it’s manageable via the ARYA cloud-based signage ecosystem, which, by the way, will officially be Q-SYS certified with a simple plug-in. (This makes ARYA part of the Q-SYS ecosystem, by the way!) Check out this pre-ISE 2024 videocast with SpinetiX CEO Francesco Ziliani to learn more, and plan to visit SpinetiX at ISE in stand/booth 5E500.

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My latest pre-ISE videocast features NETGEAR’s director of marketing for NETGEAR Business, John Henkel, to discuss what the company will have in stand/booth 5C750 at ISE 2024. The new M4350 Series will debut in Europe (a few of them even support SMPTE ST 2110). In addition, NETGEAR will show the new PR460X Pro Router and demo how the NETGEAR Pro AV and Pro WiFi Design Teams perform network design services for free. P.S. There will also be nearly 100 booths on the show floor using NETGEAR. See if you can find them all! Watch and make sure to stop by!

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Vivitek will be exhibiting on the Delta Display Companies stand, 3K700, at ISE 2024 — showing the full breadth of display products from handheld projectors through LEDs for commands and control centers (and everything in between). In this latest Rants & rAVes episode, I speak to Holger Gräff, Vivitek and Delta Display Solutions EMEA general manager, to talk about what you can expect when you stop by #3K700!

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In the latest Steph takeover episode of Rants & rAVes, I take over for Gary Kayye to chat with Natalie Gillespie and Annie Foster of the Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance (HETMA). HETMA, being a nonprofit advocacy organization, does a lot of good for our industry, but in this episode we focus on the Prism Scholarship in particular. The scholarship, born out of a partnership with AVIXA, supports the growth for underrepresented communities within higher education technology industry. Learn more about the scholarship, eligibility and how to apply by giving this episode a watch!

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Yealink is one of the fastest-growing UCC gear and systems manufacturers in the world. The company is focusing on its partnership with Microsoft Teams and Teams Rooms-certified products at the upcoming ISE 2024 show in Barcelona — Yealink will be in stand/booth #2S130. Today’s pre-ISE 2024 podcast features Yealink’s marketing director, Lisa Zhang, to talk about what we can expect from the show as well as her outlook on 2024! Make sure to add Yealink to your ISE plans.

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Another Steph Takeover Rants & rAVes episode? It must be your lucky day! This time, I interview Christina De Bono, founder and president of Sustainability in AV (SAVe), about everything the organization is doing to help meet the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our industry can be quite wasteful, and from programs that help give your tech a second life to encouraging manufacturers to package their products more sustainably, SAVe has done some great work in the past year. However, next year is set to be even bigger. Watch this to learn about everything SAVe has planned, including its first Global Conference. Check it out!

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In this Steph Takeover episode of Rants & rAVes, I interview Tammy Fuqua and Christina Cruzeiro about what it is to be a woman in our industry (news flash — it’s tough). During COVID-19, the percentage of women in the AV workforce actually declined! But the AVIXA Women’s Council does great work, and to continue that work it has added Christina Cruzeiro as its co-chair with Tammy. I’m so excited to see all they’ll accomplish. Watch this episode to see what else the Women’s Council has in store for 2024!

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Brawn Consulting founder Alan Brawn joined me on for his the latest episode of Rants & rAVes to talk about an article he recently wrote in which he cited some interesting customer buying shifts that have been documented by research firms like Gartner, McKinsey and Harvard Business Review. Data shows that somewhere between 70%-80% of buying decisions are already made before an AV integrator is even called. So, what’s the role of a salesperson now? Well, watch this insightful 20-minute interview that, if you are in sales, will likely change your perspective on your own role.

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