Adding a lifetime warranty for all customers, LED powerhouse Planar will be at CEDIA Expo in booth 15003 next week in Dallas for the annual high-end residential show. In the latest episode of Rants & rAVes, Gary was joined by Planar’s product manager, Jeremy Sternhagen, to talk about using CEDIA Expo as a launching platform for Planar’s new Luxury Living family of products, including four sizes of 4K and 8K microLEDs, five sizes of fine-pitch LED and a new outdoor LED product, too. Watch this so you’ll have the scoop!

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CEDIA Expo happens to be next week (Sept. 29-Oct. 1) in Dallas, and most of the manufacturer training sessions have already been filled because show management is expecting 15,000 attendees! Jason McGraw, group VP of CEDIA Expo, joined Gary on his videocast today to detail more of what’s expected! Watch!

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Gary got a scoop from Liberty AV’s own Kevin Peterman, director of product management, who explains that at CEDIA Expo next week, Liberty AV will introduce its SDVoE-based AV-over-IP lineup, dubbed the DigitalinxIP 6000 Series. However, the magic is in the software solution paired with it — watch this videocast and make sure you stop by booth #14009 at CEDIA Expo.

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Adam Schmidt, Planar’s executive vice president; sales, marketing & service, and Steve Seminario, vice president product marketing, joined my latest episode of Rants & rAVes today. We talk about how, in today’s world, there are supply chain issues and inflation, yet, Planar lowered the price of its microLED lineup. Yep, as of Sept. 1, Planar aggressively repositioned the pricing of its DirectLight Ultra Series. It’s a mystery explained in this videocast; you’ll have to watch to find out more!

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Avocor’s senior VP and general manager, Dana Corey, joined me on my latest videocast to talk all about the company. Avocor recently signed an exclusive deal with Google that will allow the AV integrator community to service the Meet video platform as well as MS Teams and Zoom. In fact, Avocor is doing it creatively with two different collaboration boards — one 27” personal one and another 65” IFD. Both work natively, are integrated with Google’s Workspace collaboration suite and are shipping this fall. This, along with its recent collaboration with Logitech, has positioned Avocor as the collaboration board leader. Watch!

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Gary invited Sony’s VP of B2B, Rich Ventura, on his latest Rants & rAVes videocast to talk all about digital signage. Sony’s approach is unique as the company simultaneously supports both SoC (system on a chip) and external media players. Thus, its solutions, highlighting the BRAVIA displays, include everything from retail to transportation and corporate signage.

Also, Rich has a 20+-year history in the digital signage market and is a leader in the category. He previously served as the president of the Digital Signage Federation board and is currently on the advisory council for the new Digital Signage Experience show this November in Las Vegas. So, watch!

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Michelle Montazeri, Legrand AV’s manager of digital signage, joins me on my latest Rants and rAVes videocast today. This is an interesting one, #AVtweeps — Legrand sits in an interesting place in the world of digital signage. (The company works with everyone: Media player companies, signage companies, display companies, content producers, etc.) With 2023 just a few months away, we talked about the trends Michelle is seeing that will drive digital signage adoption next year.

If you sell signage or want to enter the signage market, this is a perfect videocast for you to watch — we discuss the metaverse’s impact on signage, the trend toward using data to determine the ROI of a network and how NFC technology will make for an equitable experience for customers. Watch!

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HTSN (Home Technology Specialists Nationwide) just announced that all its members get every bit of CEDIA’s online education for free. But, that’s not the only reason to join the organization. HTSN’s Director, Hank Alexander, joined Gary Kayye on the latest episode of Rants & rAVes to talk about this benefit, why HTSN pays each of its member’s CEDIA Association membership dues and how its proprietary eXchange platform is a game-changer in solving residential supply chain issues. Watch this to find out more — don’t forget to check HTSN out at CEDIA Expo 2022 in booth 31117!

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Exertis Almo’s VP of marketing, Melody Craigmyle, joined Gary Kayye on his latest videocast to talk about what you can expect from the company’s E4 Experience this fall — and what you should bring your customers! Gary will attend both cities as the keynote speaker again, and he’ll also do a live group tour of the show floor. His keynote is on how building AV experiences will help bring Generation Z and millennials back to the office. Watch this video for more information — you’ll see how to earn up to 9.5 CTS credits and see a bunch of new products that have only been shown at InfoComm this year.

The E4 Experience will be in Washington, D.C. Sept. 23 and Boston Oct. 20. See you there!

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Listen Tech’s president and CEO, Maile Keone, is a role model for all women in AV. Mentored by two AV hall-of-famer’s Russ Gentner and Cory Schaeffer, Maile is helping to build Listen Tech into an audio company that has some of the most unique solutions in our industry. Her experiences, her expertise and her empathy helped bring her to where she is today — and she’s an AV CEO you should meet. Watch this latest episode of Rants & rAVes to learn more!

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