AV Technology - May 2008 - (Page 8)

perspective by Mark Mayfield may 2008 EDITORIAL vol. 1 no. 2 CONVERGENCE IS A TWO-WAY STREET ow many of you attended Interop Las Vegas at the end of April? I must admit, I was not able to attend this year, but I’m sure it was jam-packed with great new product introductions and educational opportunities. One topic you probably didn’t learn much about was the relationship between networks and the audiovisual/communications technologies that are becoming increasingly reliant upon them. That’s because only one of the 250-plus sessions even remotely dealt with this particular convergence. The session was titled, “What You Need to Know about Telepresence and High Definition Video,” yet none of its presenters were technical experts on video technologies or even providers of telepresence or videoconferencing systems. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. While H on some sort of audio or visual technology for its message delivery. The quality of data transfer — whether it’s numbers, audio, or visual content — has three equally important parts. First, content must be digitized and, in some cases, stored for later delivery. Then the digitized data is transmitted, and must arrive intact and, often, in a “timely” manner. For some IT pros, that where the job ends, but even if this second step is accomplished with appropriate QoS, there’s the vexing matter of the final step — how it’s delivered for “ingestion” by the human perceptual system. I’m not saying that IT and network managers don’t care about the quality of AV delivery. I’m saying it’s given very little thought. There is a “blind spot” when it comes to AV. Why should IT care about AV? Mark Mayfield Editor Anthony Savona Managing Editor Janice Brown, James Careless, Steve Cunningham, Joey D’Angelo, Christian Doering, Gary L. Hall, Beck Ireland, Elaine Jones, George Klippel, Matt Wunsch Contributors SALES & MARKETING Sue Horwitz Publisher 323-933-9485, sue@audientmarketing.com Stan Kashine National Sales Manager 516-626-2813, skashine@optonline.net ART & PRODUCTION Nicole Cobban Senior Art Director Annmarie LaScala Art Director Michelle Henning, Adrianne Knapp, Neel Patil Graphic Artists Fred Vega Production Manager Ariel Steinberg Assistant Production Manager CIRCULATION Anne Drobish Associate Circulation Director, Audience Development Argus Galindo Associate Circulation Manager Michele Fonville Circulation Coordinator Telephone: 888-266-5828 (U.S.A. only, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. est) 978-667-0352 (outside the U.S.) Fax: 978-671-0460 E-mail: newbay@computerfulfillment.com Web: MyAVTechmag.com Subscriptions: AV Technology P.O. Box 8692, Lowell, MA 01853 WHILE IT AND NETWORKING ISSUES HAVE DRAMATICALLY IMPOSED THEMSELVES ON AV APPLICATIONS, THE CONVERSE IS NOT TRUE… THIS ONE-WAY STREET PARADIGM STILL STRIKES ME AS IRONIC, SINCE MOST END-USERS’ EXPERIENCE WITH IT ULTIMATELY HAPPENS THROUGH ONE OR MORE AV INTERFACES. IT and networking issues have dramatically imposed themselves on AV applications, the converse is not true. It may be my pro audio/AV bias talking, but this one-way street paradigm still strikes me as ironic, since most end-users’ experience with IT ultimately happens through one or more AV interfaces. To the consumer of IT or AV, it’s all one integrated experience. As I type this on a computer, I am looking at an LCD display. When I receive an email, I hear a chime through my loudspeaker system. Until data ports appear on the human skull, any type of communication you can of think depends Because it’s part of the overall quality of the experience, or service, that the IT professional is being paid to provide. It’s the corollary of GIGO (garbage in/garbage out) — the best quality champagne drank from a paper cup doesn’t taste as good. A digital compact disc played through a clock radio doesn’t sound as good. Digital content viewed and heard on an inadequate AV system fails to deliver that content the way it was intended. Communication is degraded, and the message is distorted. And that’s a collision on this two-way street of convergence. www.avtechnologyonline.com NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE Steve Palm President & CEO Paul Mastronardi Chief Financial Officer Joe Ferrick Vice President of Web Developemnt Denise Robbins Group Circulation Director Greg Topf IT Director Jack Liedke Controller Ray Vollmer HR Director NEWBAY MEDIA SYSTEMS GROUP Adam Goldstein Vice President, Group Publishing Director Phil Holtberg Publisher Nancy Gregson Marketing Director Anthony Savona Editorial/Creative Director Jeremy Glowacki Editorial Director Jessica Winters Events & Event Marketing Coordinator Mike Lemmerling Web Manager Rob Granger Web Editor David Leach Web Analyst Ashley Vermillion Web Production Specialist Lesley Keller Web Ad Production Specialist Published by NewBay Media L.L.C. 810 Seventh Avenue, 27th Floor New York, NY 10019 Tel: 212-378-0400 Fax: 212-378-0470 Reprints and permissions: For article reprints, please contact our Reprint Coordinator at Wright's Reprints: 877-652-5295 PRINTED IN THE USA. 8 | AVTECHNOLOGY | may 2008 http://www.MyAVTechmag.com http://www.avtechnologyonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - May 2008

AV Technology - May 2008 Contents Precedent Corporate: How to Qualify an AV Supplier Education: Working Smarter AV Technology's Guide to Networked AV Government: IPv6 — Why You Should Care Calculating ROI on Your Digital Signage Investment Enhancing Audio in the Classroom Minimizing Equipment Theft Smart AV The Tribe Has Spoken AV Enables Interactive Research AV Image Enhancement Product Spotlight Tech Horizons Product Review New Products AV MO

AV Technology - May 2008

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