Have y’all heard of this Metaverse thingy? It’s exactly like Second Life from 2003, so we have a news story that says people want to work in the Metaverse.

Then we introduce a new segment we call Technology on Trial where we select a new or emerging technology and listeners can vote on Twitter to determine the outcome!

Finally, we look back on our predictions for our fall semesters. Were we right about everyone having trouble adapting to hybrid learning environments?

Are your AV devices secure? Is your campus network secure? How many devices do we have running firmware from years ago? AV manufacturers have a bit of a cultural problem when it comes to security in that it often seems to be an afterthought.

We discuss campus clients who want to second-guess project estimates. Are "good enough" AV experiences really good enough for a university learning space?

It’s the 2nd Annual AV SuperFriends Holiday Show! We couldn’t decide between a standard gift exchange and a White Elephant gift exchange, so we’re doing both and discussion of our various podcast-from-home arrangements, challenges with supply chains, and campus network improvements.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

First, here’s the Top Ten reasons we all work in AV. It’s a listicle and we love that. Oddly, this article says you don’t need an advanced degree but AV is also challenging. Weird.

Then to the larger topic at hand: Metric AV. Wait, no. The metrics of AV. That is, how do we measure success? There are many quantitative ways to measure a functioning AV system, but what about the qualitative?

Finally, Chris went digging under his couch cushions and found $100,000 and wants help spending it.

Larry and Chris were both at InfoComm in Orlando and EDspaces in Pittsburgh, but will manufacturers continue to make major announcements at large trade shows, or will they host their own events?

We return to the conversation about how to identify our departments on campus. Are we too focused on the equipment in our classroom spaces and not enough on the larger learning experiences that take place outside those spaces?

We review some new trends in learning spaces—that is, trends of the physical environments. If nothing else, it’s clear that everyone loves coffee.

This month we dive deep into the world of AVoIP. The cost-delta is almost nil, the technologies and products are maturing, and it opens an entire new world of finger pointing and shirking responsibility!

We start with a listicle about five trends to watch for at InfoComm 2021. Were these accurate predictions? Sorta.

Then we all share unusual support tickets that we didn’t see coming. Tickets have decided turned from quantitative to qualitative.

Finally, we introduce a new segment that we’re calling “Dinosaurs of AV.” These are items that really shouldn’t be part of a general classroom or teaching space and are due for retirement by asteroid.

The AV SuperFriends share their current frustrations with supply chain issues causing delays in projects and some solid suggestions on how to mitigate those challenges.

Next, who wants to talk about org charts? Marc is currently experiencing adventures in IT reorganization and it has raised the question of where AV belongs. We all agree that it's different everywhere.

Finally, we're going touchless. Marc suggests even if we don't like the concept of touch-free UI, it's coming soon, regardless.

The AV SuperFriends are joined by Josh Kell, CEO of Horizon AVL System Integration, to talk eSports who has been working with Larry on an eSports arena at UNCG.

We talk about laying the groundwork for a successful, long-term, and competitive eSports program, getting buy-in from university leadership, and ensuring everyone understands that eSports is not just video games.

We also give a preview of the two workshops the AV SuperFriends are leading at InfoComm 2021.

It’s the season finale of Off the Rails!

The AV news is from the world of K-12 (because Chris didn’t read the headline), but is relevant to Higher Ed in that it’s about talking with users to determine needs and tasks long before selecting technologies.

We break format and stay on a single topic on the challenges with hiring AV staff. Jamie shares some of the issues he’s run into, especially with candidates who don’t read job requirements and standardized interview questions.