The commoditization of IT skills as organizations mature, is it better to hire an IT person who then learns AV or hire an AV person who then learns IT? What's our standard cabling infrastructure and are we following all the TIA standards?

Will the metaverse take over classrooms? Not in the Lawnmower Man way you’re thinking, but definitely look for persistent, unique identifiers, NFTs, and blockchain technology to show up in your favorite content platforms, campus LMS, and productivity software. Besides, the goggles do nothing.

QSC divides into two divisions, focusing on their pro audio products and burgeoning control and AV transport lines respectively.

Then we dive into AV replacement cycles. Do we set arbitrary schedules of 5, 7, 10 years or tie AV refresh projects to capital projects and building renovations.

Finally, we celebrate the little widgets, tchotchkes, adapters, converters, and odds & ends that keep our AV systems running. These products are truly the glue that holds the industry together.

In the AV news, we review Kramer purchasing UC Workspace, best known for their Quicklaunch software.

Then AV SuperFriends help determine the “best” method for integrating multiple (that is, more than one) PTZ cameras into a classroom system. Should we transport baseband video? What about IP video? Or, do we use USB?

Finally, it’s the first ever AVSF Hall of Shame/Fame awards.

This month’s topic was supposed to be about the return of ISE and the upcoming HETMA Spring conference, but in light of ISE cancelling their show and “rescheduling” to May, we figured it was time to write an obituary.

Then, what of the future? Will we still have massive national expositions or regional tradeshows?

Also, the AV SuperFriends will be presenting a session at the HETMA Spring conference this month, so go sign up and bring your best questions. Register at https://www.HETMA.org

It’s a lecture capture spectacular!

The AV SuperFriends are joined by two guests, Michael Quinones and Raul Burriel, and are still unable really define lecture capture. But that doesn’t stop us from walking through the earliest days of ITV systems, camcorders, VHS & DVD recording, and even famously abandoned systems like iTunes University (remember that?).

Finally, Jamie shares a clever method for bootstrapping light video production switchers into his classroom systems.

With enrollment decreasing, some schools are looking to specialized learning spaces to match their specialized academic programs. Is this a harbinger of university learning spaces to come?

Then, we cover the gap between pedagogical development and physical operation of a hybrid learning spaces. It's only become evident after we’ve gotten past the “make everything hybrid” phase of the last two years.

Finally, we review the results of our first Technology on Trial on Extended Reality.

It’s a prediction show! Educause suggests 10 IT-related trends we should all be aware of and it’s highly-researched and detailed, but just a little too milquetoast for our tastes.

Then each of us has a prediction for 2022. Some are suggesting general technologies, others are focused more on the adoption technologies, and Larry is concerned that “good enough” will be seen as good enough.

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?