Remember when we had to use proprietary hardware appliances to host or join video calls? Isn’t it great that we got away from that with Zoom, Teams, Hangouts, et al? Also, here’s a whole new line of proprietary hardware appliances that demand to be the center of your AV system!

This episode starts with the topic du jour of InfoComm moving to October— could it be a permanent date change? We sure hope so!

Then we argue about central AV management systems. Every manufacturer has one and yet several of us are still talking about building our own. Why is there not one system to control them all?

It’s February, and as legally required by Hallmark and your Great Aunt Silvia, this show will be Valentine’s themed. We share our backgrounds and how we got into AV and why we do what we do. For a bit of future prognostication, we also cover what we’d love to see from AV in the future. 

Hey, let’s talk staffing levels. How many support technicians do you have on your team? How many programmers, project managers, specialists? Is that based on historical precedent or just luck?

Also, we review real job listings and try to determine if you want to work there.

Marc apologizes for inadvertently ending a childhood winter tradition and Rachel is not having any of it and drops an f-bomb. Chris shares way, way too much information on a single project and invites you to do the same. Justin wants to know if we’re doing away with proprietary VTC hardware for the right reasons and just replacing it with more of the same.

Let’s start 2021 right— Chris really doesn’t like the term “Classrooms of the Future,” then we talk the process we use (or don’t) to plan for summer projects, and Rachel has been fielding lots of questions from manufacturers about forecasting AV budgets.

How many projects and installations are universities tackling over the holidays this year compared to last? For some of us, a lot-- for some, none. Weird. Then Jeff Peterson and Jordan Basham return to continue the discussion from our last episode about university athletics AV, managing student employees, the future of live AV production, and the critical importance of being able to properly over/under cables. We wrap with a lightning round of our AV-related New Year's Resolutions.

Shure buys Stem Audio-- are they making a play at the conference room market? (Hint: Yes). The AV SuperFriends are joined by Jeff Peterson from Oregon State University and Jordan Basham from Western Kentucky University to talk about AV for NCAA and Athletics as well as the interaction between academic AV and athletics AV. Also, what happens when you have a student you just can't let escape? Finally, we each have a Naughty and Nice list for the AV industry.

It’s time for the holidays with the AV SuperFriends! Everyone shares their holiday wishlist and names one item that they really, really want from Santa… except Chris who has trouble counting and just rattles off his entire list. Merry Christmas, y’all!

The end of Adobe Flash means a lot of potential issues with older equipment, a major manufacturer suggests we all ignore IT security updates, Dr. Jon Dorbolo returns to continue his exploration of pedagogy and technology, and we all went on the Internet and found THIS!