Commercial Integrator February 2021 - 3

EDITOR'S NOTE
Emerald X, LLC.
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New York, New York 10005
800-440-2139
commercialintegrator.com | @commintegrator
The Technological
Evolution of Mankind
I BEGAN COVERING the AV industry seven
years ago.
Unlike many integrators, I could not have
cared less about technology growing up. I
played video games. Used computers. Owned
a stereo. But my knowledge extended as far as
which cables to plug in and where the power
button was.
I used to say that, as far as I was concerned,
technology was magic. I didn't care how it
worked. I just cared about what
it did. My brother (now in IT) was
always around to fi x something if
I needed help.
That's how most of my friends
were as well. They studied business,
sports management, economics,
and marketing. They got
jobs in sales, logistics, account
management, education, and
law enforcement. Technology
was a part of our lives, but it was
far from a hobby.
When I started working here,
those things entered the mainstream lexicon.
I began to develop a sense of what was a
legitimate breakthrough and what was mainly
marketing hype.
Over the past year, as a result of the mass migration
to work from home due to COVID-19,
I've noticed many others have started the same
journey.
A once technologically illiterate employee
An evolution
has occurred,
and fi nally the
majority of
the workforce
has begun
to adopt not
just usage but
understanding
of technology.
I learned quickly the depth of information
that I was unaware of prior. I learned
about encoding and decoding, acoustic treatments,
resolution, and soſt ware platforms.
As a journalist, I still have a rudimentary
understanding of these things, and I'm still
more concerned with what technology does
than how it works, but something fundamental
did change: I now know more than the majority
of my friends.
I was talking about the Internet of Things
years ago, and my friends still don't know
what it means. The analytics in my life involve
gathering data in meeting rooms for business
intelligence, where in their lives, analytics
refers to net ratings and YAC.
I began to notice videowalls and digital
signage for the systems, where my friends only
saw what was being advertised.
Even outside of AV I became aware of
technological advancements. I read about autonomous
vehicles, vertical farming, wearable
technology and cryptocurrency long before
commercialintegrator.com
that required IT support to turn on the display
in the conference room can now
connect to a VPN, hook up a
webcam and Bluetooth headset,
record a videoconference and
automatically send it to interested
parties that couldn't attend.
Even if everyone returns to the
offi ce post-COVID, technology
adoption has increased forever.
The cavemen didn't go back to
fi ghting wolves with rocks aſt er
they invented the spear.
Moving forward the IT department
will fi nd that employees are
better suited to utilizing technology.
They'll be more open to implementing
advanced systems because they'll be more
confi dent in user adoption. Their employees
will in fact request more sophisticated systems
that will make their lives easier.
What's more, everyone will understand the
benefi t of quality technology. Audio is something
that was once overlooked in videoconferencing
systems. Then we all videoconferenced
for a year and learned that poor audio
makes attendees want to bash their heads
against a wall. Now when integrators off er the
good-better-best options, companies won't
ask which is cheapest but which will work.
It's been a long time coming, but I believe
that the workforce has fi nally and forever
evolved - and integrators will see the benefi ts
of that evolution in the coming years.
Jonathan Blackwood, Editorial Director
jonathan.blackwood@emeraldx.com
@BlackwoodTweets
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director
Jonathan Blackwood, 774-505-8048,
jonathan.blackwood@emeraldx.com
Chief Content Offi cer
Jason Knott, 774-505-8042,
jason.knott@emeraldx.com
Executive Editor
D. Craig MacCormack, 774-505-8040,
craig.maccormack@emeraldx.com
Associate Editor
Zachary Comeau, 774-505-8006,
zachary.comeau@emeraldx.com
Technology Editor
Robert Archer, 774-505-8049,
robert.archer@emeraldx.com
Web Editor
Adam Forziati, 774-505-8046,
adam.forziati@emeraldx.com
Design Lead
Katie Stockham, 774-505-8051,
katie.stockham@emeraldx.com
Designer
Graeme Burke, 774-505-8050,
graeme.burke@emeraldx.com
ADVERTISING SALES
Group Publisher, Connected Brands
Ray Lyons, 774-505-8017,
ray.lyons@emeraldx.com
Shawn Tobin, 774-505-8014,
shawn.tobin@emeraldx.com
Chelsea Grater-Cafi ero, 774-505-8020,
chelsea.cafi ero@emeraldx.com
Katie Malafronte, 774-505-8039,
katie.malafronte@emeraldx.com
Marketing
Marsha Marsh, 774-505-8023,
marsha.marsh@emeraldx.com
EMERALD CORPORATE
Executive Vice President
Brian Pagel, 770-291-5438,
brian.pagel@emeraldx.com
President and CEO Hervé Sedky
Chief Operating Offi cer Brian Field
Chief Financial Offi cer David Doſt
Chief Information Offi cer Bill Charles
Senior Vice President, Finance Melanie Pereria
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and
Secretary Mitch Gendel
Senior Vice President, Marketing Services
Joanne Wheatley
Executive Vice President, Customer Solutions
Amy Sklar
Executive Vice President, People & Culture
Eric Reaves
PRODUCTION
Creative Services Director
Manuela Rosengard, 774-505-8052,
manuela.rosengard@emeraldx.com
Director of Client Experience
Jeff rey Miller, 774-505-8055,
jeff .miller@emeraldx.com
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Commercial Integrator February 2021

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