Video Vices with Contemporary Research

Sara Krybus, Sales Operations Manager, Contemporary Research, and Paul Briggs, AV Product Support Manager, Contemporary Research joined host Tyler Kern on this episode of the Video Vices podcast to remind businesses of the importance of their system’s emergency alert capabilities.

“Whether a venue has two or 200,000 people, it is important that venues are thinking about how they are communicating how to get to safety or what to do in an emergency,” Krybus said.

Emergencies in businesses take many forms, and alert readiness is a fundamental component of the planning process.

“A video alert messaging system is a great way to grab people’s attention in an emergency,” Briggs said.

Contemporary Research’s A/V products interface with existing equipment for ease of triggering and ending alerts. The system can also turn on video displays during an emergency and shut them back off once the emergency is over.

Krybus listed several examples of situations where video alert systems prove useful in emergencies, including arenas, stadiums, K-12 and higher education.

“Manufacturing distribution centers have a lot of employees around very noisy machines, and video is how they communicate with those employees,” she said.

On this podcast episode of Video Vices with Contemporary Research, Corey Dunn, Chief Creative Officer of Esports Stadium in Arlington, spoke with Tyler Kern about his personal journey from gaming fan, to eSports announcer, to Chief Creative Officer.

Esports Stadium Arlington opened in November of 2018 and is the largest dedicated esports facility in North America. Fully equipped with broadcast and production studios, premium hospitality offerings, retail and social spaces and gorgeous video distribution, the arena goes well beyond a training and competition space.

In the episode Dunn retraced his steps as a Counter Strike fan in 1999, and his experiences joining early cybergaming leagues. Dunn answered an ad in 2004 looking for esports competition announcers, and then began a ten-year stretch of professional competitive gaming commentary. Dunn’s commentary work took him around the country and around the world.

The popularity of esports is growing, and stadium competitions are increasing in popularity. Dunn sees the stadium environment as a way for gaming enthusiasts to gain camaraderie with fellow fans, get to be in the same place watching their favorite gamer compete, and get an experience unique from simply watching the event online at home.

It is important to offer fans a unique visual experience at the stadium to differentiate themselves from a home-viewing experience. From large-scale stadium monitors, providing multiple camera angles with map overviews and player information, to exclusive access to AR/VR, esports stadiums are deploying all of the latest AV technology that traditional sports have been integrating. The result: a more immersive and exciting viewing experience that brings fans to the stadium.

Contemporary Research's Christian Ross & Paul Briggs dive deep into the infrastructure needs of today's content-heavy video distribution.
Content is king, and that’s no more apparent than in today’s media-driven economy. Businesses across all kinds of industries are looking for reliable ways to circulate media across multiple visual displays, be it while you’re pumping gas, watching a sports event at a bar, or attending a live concert at an arena. This kind of mass video distribution is exactly where Contemporary Research excels, and exactly why we wanted to get expert insights on Video Vices.

On this episode, Paul Briggs, AV product support manager, and Christian Ross, sales operations coordinator. The two dive into where video distribution is used, how it’s used best, and what video display solutions are out there.

Undeniably, today’s consumers are expecting rich media experiences, fueling demand for content creation by businesses.

“The consumers across the board, whether it be in airports, dentist office, professional sporting arenas, they’re really expecting an advanced media experience," Ross said.

These sorts of experiences, where video displays are synchronized or live events are streamed simultaneously are made possible with the help of video distribution experts like Contemporary Research.

"It's important for the owner of a facility to work with an integrator that can help identify potential issues and work on solutions to get around it so that the system still performs the way the owner or the operators are going to want it to perform," Briggs said.

“We help create those experiences through video distribution systems. Taking whatever source content...to a screen or multiple screens, depending on the need,” Ross said.

In today’s plug-and-play accustomed world, Contemporary Research offers end to end solutions that are easy to integrate into already established systems, even third party control panels. Be it a big project or small, Ross said that "there’s really not much of a limit to scalability.” As media content increases in demand, so too will the ability to stream that content across multiple displays with ease and reliability.

A week out from InfoComm 2019 in Orlando, we decided to focus this episode of Video Vices on thoughts, trends and predictions around the biggest Pro AV show of the year. We sat down with Christy Ricketts, vice president of operations and marketing at Contemporary Research, who attended the event for her seventh year.

Looking back over her experiences, she remarked on how the latest event adopted an approach that is inclusive of all the businesses that now incorporate AV technologies into their spaces. "It's everywhere. It's in retail, it's in convention centers, it's in arenas, it's in stadiums. Everywhere you look there are televisions distributing video somewhere," she said.

A big trend she noticed on the show floor was the rise in televisions that are no longer just meant to be watched, but are two-way communication devices that enable collaboration and interaction with others.

She also mentioned how the AVIXA Women's Council Breakfast created an open space for both men and women to connect, and shared her hope that it can transition to local meet-ups that happen a few times a year where people can continue to network.

Ricketts went on to describe how excited she was to hear Christine Schyvink, CEO at Shure, speak at the breakfast. The audio-video industry doesn't count many female CEOs, so the discussion was an awesome moment that attracted the attention of many of her peers.

And what's going to be huge in the future of AV? Ricketts believes that E-Sports is only going to get bigger and bigger with more players taking part in video game action and more spectators watching it all go down on their screens.

In this episode of Video Vices with Contemporary Research, host Sean Heath sat down with Nelson Solares, sales executive at Contemporary, to discuss the company’s approach to tried-and-true pro AV technology that’s well-made and affordable. Solares and Heath also address the growing AV over IP trend, which admittedly can be a shiny object to chase.

“Our take is that [AV over IP] shouldn’t be so difficult,” Solares said.

That’s why Dallas-based Contemporary Research takes a user-friendly approach. When it comes to Pro AV solutions, companies can choose to either put things in layman’s terms or make things complicated so that customers have to call their rep if something goes wrong.

“We’re the product that wants to be really user-friendly and integrator friendly,” he said.

When combatting shiny object syndrome, it’s helpful to remember the basics — plug, play, and get to work. “That’s what’s great about Contemporary Research. We’ve done the heavy lifting — giving you the encoders, decoders, and the software — and you just need to plug it in and configure it for you," Solares said.

Contemporary Research’s products are recognized for their durability and quality because they’re made in the United States.

“We’ve managed to keep all the manufacturing in the USA, which customers love, especially customers from other countries,” Solares said. “And then they learn they can have a quality product and save money, they get blown away.”

The Pro AV industry has reached a critical point. The core of professionals running the industry have the experience, but they're aging out, with many close to retirement or already retiring. How does the industry attract more early professionals to join the ranks? John Thomas, the Regional Manager for Visitec Marketing Associates, and Kelly Perkins [ember contributor page], Program Director for NSCA Education Foundation, come on this episode of Video Vices to explore what it'll take to convince a younger generation to join Pro AV.

These two are the perfect pair when it comes to recruiting new audio-visual talent, mostly because they could not have had more different experiences for joining the industry. Thomas has been in the field for more than 35 years, where like many of his generation, was segued into AV from a career in broadcasting.

Perkins was also a broadcasting student, but when she could not find a job after college, just like many other recent graduates, she stumbled onto marketing, and eventually into video, fell in love with the job, and has been working in it for ten years.

Currently through NSCA alone, there are over 17,000 jobs open in AV fields, but for some reason younger people are not attracted to them. Thomas feels that it is a combination of a couple of factors.

For one, he thinks that “old guys in the industry are trying to replace and fill their positions” and trying to find someone “who works like them,” when fundamentally, millenials and Gen Zers learn and work differently.

He also feels there's a lack of emphasis on teamwork within the industry. Many companies are obsessed with finding the best and brightest star, but really all they must do is find someone who will be a good teammate.

Additionally, for a generation that’s obsessed with the “tribe mentality,” Thomas feels like new recruits feel left out when showing up to a conference with people who have known each other for 35 years and speak their own language, including industry acronyms, of which AVIXA has recorded more than 1,000. He feels that mentorship is the key, combined with solid team building.

Perkins also pointed out that younger people are not entirely excited by an 8-5 job where they will be chained to a desk, and that employers who think they don’t have enough money to offer are missing out on other, more powerful incentives. Offering younger recruits vacation time, the ability to work from home, or a more flexible schedule, can be worth more than even the biggest salary.

Like many industries, Pro AV revolves around some of the biggest trade shows the world has to offer. CES rocked Las Vegas in January, ISE showcased international advances in February, and in June, InfoComm returns stronger than ever. Per usual, AVIXA will host its Women’s Networking Breakfast during the show, an event centered around championing diversity and women leaders in AV. Throughout the years, they’ve had many amazing keynote speakers at this breakfast, and this year is no different. Christine Schyvinck, president and CEO of Shure Incorporated,  will grace the stage to recount her journey through the industry and how her leadership has brought Shure tangible success.

But before the AVIXA breakfast event, there's this podcast. On this episode of Contemporary Research's Video Vices, Christine Schyvink joined Alexis La Broi of Avitecture, Inc.  to detail her education and background, her undergraduate and graduate degrees, and how she worked with Sidney and Rose Shure to take on a management, and ultimately the CEO position within one of the trusted leaders in audio products since the mid-1920s.

La Broi and Schyvinck also take a current look at the state of women in STEM fields of study, why it’s so important to go back to your alma mater to mentor, and the value of helping potential applicants learn the skill sets that AV employers are looking for in new recruits.

As of late, Shure has changed their strategies to make sure that they continue to get young and diverse talent, and although it has grown tremendously since the 1980s, the pool of young prospective talented women isn’t as big as they’d like. Schyvinck details why it’s so critical for companies like Shure and industry organization like AVIXA to get the word out about the values in an AV career through social media to make sure that talented young girls know: AV and STEM are for you.

For more episodes of Video Vices, head to contemporaryresearch.com/blog/, or subscribe on iTunes and Spotify.

With the emergence and pervasiveness of video content being key to AV industry, it's no surprise Businesses know that in order to meet this demand, they need to find the right distribution system to meet their needs.