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Recorded January 20, 2023 In a change of pace for Off the Rails, we’re going to stick to one subject: USB. We’re joined by Joe Cornwall, Legrand’s AV Technology Evangelist to dive deep into USB and why it seems to be anything but universal. We all get the question from users that their laptop, tablet, phone has USB-C for charging, so why can’t we do that in an AV system? We’ll also cover such questions as: Why is trying to simply extend USB a bad idea? Why can’t I rely on USB extension? Why is HDBT & AVoIP more reliable to do essentially the same thing? Why is USB switching a bag of hurt? Why is it so hard to identify the right cable with the proper capabilities? Finally, all the panelists will share their thoughts on implementing USB-C in their classrooms. Spoiler: sorta, but not really. Also, stop extending USB. Legrand’s AV University - https://www.legrandav.com/tools_and_training/training/training_and_certification Look for Joe’s AV Transport and Signal Distribution Masterclass at InfoComm 2023! Alternate show titles: USB-C, the AV Unicorn You cannot tow that boat with a Corvette The parts you need to do that; they don’t exist yet Lots of reasons to start foaming a the mouth The bad taste left in your mouth 80 gigabits per second Give ‘em the finger and walk away USB-C is a desktop transport; full stop It’s called “Go Home!” As fat as it needs to be

Recorded December 14, 2022 It’s our annual prediction show! But first, a Festivus Miracle— ClearOne and Shure have settled their dispute over squares, or whatever it was. Anyway, we review our predictions from January 2022 to see how right (or wrong) we were and then make bold predictions for 2023. Marc talks AR and VR, Chris foresees a student-driven redefining of the college experience, Rachel is both impressed and creeped out by AI, Jamie sees increased training and development for instructors, Justin expects someone to buy Zoom (Amazon? Apple?), and Larry says we’ll all be using Microsoft Teams more than Zoom. Article discussed: https://www.avnetwork.com/news/shure-clearone-have-reached-global-settlement

Recorded Dec 16, 2022 Apple is including a new application in all their devices with a new service pack called Freeform. While it may look like any other whiteboarding app, it is a harbinger of the types of second or third channel content that students will bring with them to our classrooms as it’s now pre-installed on billions of devices. Then we review the concept of designing on expected system lifecycle rather than capability. Should every system we design, specify, install, and support run forever? Or, given the significant changes in teaching and learning over the last three years, should we be prepared to modify systems after only two or three years? Finally, now that almost all learning spaces are distance education capable, can instructors expect the same level of production and support? How do we manage those expectations? Apple Freeform: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-launches-freeform-a-powerful-new-app-designed-for-creative-collaboration/ Alternate show titles: Cockroach Technology That’s all I expected out of this device Don’t Future-proof Disposable Equipment … and a Side Toilet They Beta Drove It Rip off the bandaid without them knowing I didn’t get no complaints

Recorded December 09, 2022 (Watch the video of this show: https://avsf.live ) In our second live show, we host a typical awkward office holiday party complete with ugly sweaters, a gift exchange, seasons greetings from the Higher Ed AV community, some special guests join us to share what they’ve been up to, and AVSF trivia to give away AVSF swag (and everyone likes swag, right?). And Chris Neto breaks big news about the future of #AVinTheAM! Our gift exchange is of AV-related gifts that we found in our storage spaces. Old classroom-in-a-box systems, non-standard ersatz keystone inserts, table devices with more non-standard inserts, a lamp-based travel projector, a “compute,” even AVSF swag— it’s all fair game. Special kudos to Larry for sending Jamie a hammer for his whack-a-mole control system and to Rachel for sending Marc the world’s weirdest sad clown artwork… which is now the episode artwork! If you want to be part of the next AVSF: Live show, sign up for notifications here: https://avsf.live Erin’s Maher-Moran’s links: HETMA Prism Scholarship AV Nation Ed Tech Podcast Chris Neto’s links: #AVintheAM @theAVintheAM Joe Way’s links: Higher Ed AV

Recorded October 26, 2022 In the spirit of American retail annual sales scheduling, here’s a holiday episode recorded in October. Our theme for this show is stocking stuffers, so we all have a little gift to share (aka a “recommendation”) or something from our AV wish list that will hopefully arrive soon. Little Marc gives everyone AVoIP decoders, little Chris gives “secret” analog I/O for QSC Cores and wants the perfect button panel controller, little Justin gives everyone an NDI to USB converter, little Jamie also gifts us all an NDI decoder, and little Larry brings a Dante remote decoder from the local corner store. Don’t forget to join the AV SuperFriends LIVE on Friday, December 9 at 300p EST for our holiday spectacular! AVSF Live: https://avsf.live Products discussed: VANCO Handheld HDMI Tester: https://www.vanco1.com/product/handheld-4k-hdmi-tester/ BirdDog Pod: https://birddog.tv/pod-overview/ BirdDog Play: https://birddog.tv/play-overview/ Focusrite RedNet R1: https://pro.focusrite.com/category/audiooverip/item/rednet-r1 Alternate show titles: Fool around at the house Jamie learnt me something today That’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year Uncle Larry’s at it again It’s a twofer learnt day Listen to Zoom trash my sound

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Recorded November 11, 2022 Remember movie theaters? Enormous sodas, greasy popcorn, giant candies, and … Zoom? Have you ever wished you could combine the experience of a summer blockbuster with a Zoom meeting? Neither have we, but it’s coming to a theater near you. Then we return to the topic of AR, VR, XR, and other Rs. Larry makes a cogent argument about AR and Marc broadens his definition to encompass nearly everything. Regardless of how we think of it, the application of AR in higher ed will be driven by students, so be ready. Also, the Metaverse is never happening. Finally, Larry shares his thoughts on UNCG’s new Esports arena. What does he like, what would he change, and where is gaming leading us in the future? Article discussed: https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23446136/amc-zoom-rooms-theaters-meetings UNCG’s Esports Arena: https://esports.uncg.edu AVSF: Live! on December 9: https://avsf.live Alternate show titles: An Owl Cam at the Movies Where are we using AR today? We’re just calling old shit “AR” The AR-ish type thing we’re trying to do here The Google Person Real-time Fact-checking Baby’s First Step was Zoom According to Wikipedia… That’s the Job! No Cameras and Flashing Allowed

Recorded November 4, 2022 Meetings!  We love ‘em!  We need more of ‘em!  Or do we?  And are all these fancy spaces we’ve built out to support hybrid meetings just adding to the problem? Next we dive deep into the hardware side (and a few software bits, too) of selecting AVoIP encoders and decoders.  We’re putting together a list of criteria, separating them into Nice to Have and Need to Have and are in the process of testing these all in real-world environments.  Why?  Because we aren’t going to wait until Q3 of 2023 and there’s a LOT of alternatives out there. Finally, Jamie raised an interesting question: has the challenge in getting certain types of equipment changed how we get rid of old gear?  Are we hanging onto equipment that would have ordinarily been discarded and sent to surplus in 2019?  Justin has the best suggestion for how determine when something must be cast-off. Article discussed: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220926005145/en/One-third-of-Meetings-Are-Unnecessary-Costing-Companies-Millions-and-No-One-Is-Happy-About-It Alternate show titles: That One Special Space Frustration Multiplier It’s a Pixel Bus I’m a regular person Rookie-friendly Just put a magnet on it I cut ‘em up all the time

Recorded October 28, 2022   In the news, Chris shares his thoughts from the recent CCUMC conference at UCF in Orlando.  Also, CCUMC has changed their inscrutable name to the slightly more scrutable ETC.   Then we’re joined by Jason Zapf from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay to discuss how to (or how not to) provide hybrid capability in active learning environments.  While the temptation is go big and expensive, we all provide alternative suggestions to keep things simple and not over complicate an already busy learning environment.     Finally, we hash out the recent push for the 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio.  It’s not particularly new (1957), it will lead to detrimental compromises in screen element size, and frankly, it’s not going to happen, Microsoft.    ETC (nee CCUMC): https://www.etcollaborative.org   Alternate show titles: I hate everything about it It goes all the way up Hell, no… but! Eat together, drink together, sleep together 

Recorded October 21, 2022 For Thanksgiving, the AV SuperFriends all gathered at Marc’s house and stood around the kitchen waiting for the turkey to cook in the indoor deep-fryer. In addition to an assortment of side dishes, we all brought an AV Turkey to share. Marc reminds us of the nonsense of touchless AV control, Chris complains bitterly about wireless sharing appliances, Justin gives up on Stem Audio, Jamie rewinds to multi-cable digital video extension, and Larry despises digital signage. Turkeys all around! Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

Recorded September 28, 2022 In a change of pace, we’ve collected our scariest and creepiest tales of AV projects, equipment, customers, and support. Join the AV SuperFriends as we sit around the bonfire and share our tales of fright. Justin brings an Old Kentucky Fable, Marc recounts his end of summer waking nightmare, Larry reminds us that our worst fears can come true during the Year of Good Enough, and Chris visits the Twilight Zone to recount the Needs Analysis of Terror. Happy Halloween, y’all!

Recorded September 16, 2022 We had a different news story selected for this week but given the recent public email exchanges between Aurora Multimedia and Crestron, we had to discuss it. Is Crestron being the bully or getting taken advantage of? Marc raises the possibility that this is all a staged act to generate publicity and we all like the idea of a Crestron - Aurora conspiracy! Then, we’re joined by Dean Heckler of Heckler Design to talk about his company’s novel approach to AV-friendly furniture, mounts, brackets, and finding the niche products that make life easier. Dean talks us through Heckler’s earliest days making iPad mounting brackets, to custom pieces for large universities, to the process of re-thinking the classroom lectern, to ADA wall panels— all with an eye on making everything feel like it’s from the future. Finally, Chris is going to replace every projection screen on campus with direct view displays, regardless of size and appropriate viewing height. Well, not exactly, but we discuss the concept of doing so and the price delta between large monitors and small projection screens. Seriously, though, why are we installing 105” projection screens? Heckler: https://www.hecklerdesign.com

Recorded September 9, 2022 The AV SuperFriends kick off Season 3 with some announcements of upcoming changes and a new show, AVSF: Live! Yes, live-- on video, that is-- but live! With video and you! We want you to join us! The link is below. Then we return to our Twitter poll from a few weeks ago to share the results. With equipment lead times continuing to be a challenge, what are other schools doing? We hash out the three most common approaches— waiting for preferred gear, looking around at alternatives, or implementing new equipment. Marc then shares his thoughts from a recent tour to Biamp’s headquarters in Portland, OR. It sounds like it’s well worth a visit if you’re in the area. Finally, we dig into the mailbag and respond to a listener email about control system automation. Our discussion gets pretty heated! AVSF Live!: https://avsf.live Twitter poll: https://twitter.com/AVSuperfriends/status/1562109314923237376

This month’s topic is software AV and we couldn’t decide between software AVoIP content, software AV control, or software management platforms, so we’ll cover all three! We start with an article about a semiconductor manufacturer widening software (and hardware) support for SMPTE 2110, which gets us one step closer to HDBaseT-style interoperability… in theory. Then, it’s a whirlwind tour of software AV content, control, applications, and more. Why are we using legacy thinking when building our networks? Will we ever fully trust the PC to be a true AV endpoint? After all a huge amount of current content originates from or is delivered to the classroom PC, so why can’t we (reliably) leverage that for multi-protocol high bandwidth content? Article discussed: https://www.ravepubs.com/macnica-new-software-hardware-smpte-2110/

Recorded August 12, 2022 We fire up the AVSF time machine and travel back to 2010… to talk about HDBaseT. It’s all in good fun, but it’s a weird article to see in 2022. Then, what’s your threshold for standardization? That is, are you looking to broaden you AV equipment portfolio or just waiting out the on-going equipment delays? What happens if that wait becomes six, eight, 12, 16 months or more? Jamie is always game to try new gear, Chris is re-engineering systems from the ground up, Justin is stuck between a rock and a hard place, Larry is concerned about staff support, and Marc is staying the course. Finally, how are we responding to the increasing commoditization of AV integration? In addition to structured cable contractors, there are new service providers who want to help you offload some of your repetitive work (and make money, of course). It’s an interesting concept… Article discussed: https://www.avnetwork.com/features/how-hdbaset-simplifies-av-installs

Recorded August 5, 2022 Panopto is buying Kaltura! Sorta. The investment firm who owns Panopto also wants to own Kaltura. While this could mean we’ll see a really cool platform come from this “merger,” most likely it’ll be bad for all of us. Look for your license fees to increase dramatically. Then, what do you mean by “AV design?” What does it mean to be an AV designer? How much time are you spending doing documentation? How much is too much? Justin just wants to avoid questions, Larry would rather think of cool concepts than create drawings, Jamie hates CAD, Marc hates all documentation, and Chris loves all documentation (in fact, he’s working on a reflected ceiling plan right now). Finally, what do we all think about eliminating traditional AV cabling and equipment just because we can? Sure, it might not be best practice, but could it be considered “good enough practice” for our spaces? Articles discussed: https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-panopto-bids-to-buy-israeli-video-co-kaltura-for-383m-1001419838 https://www.avinteractive.com/news/business/panopto-raises-its-bid-to-buy-competitor-kaltura-to-383m-01-08-2022/ https://old.reddit.com/r/CommercialAV/comments/wefc3x/av_systems_designers_of_reddit_how_much_time_do/

Recorded July 15, 2022 It’s Back to School season! What will the 2022 - 2023 school year bring? We start with an article from EdSurge about schools who put massive student CRM systems on hold and are now restarting those massive projects. Regardless of how many times we’ve all been through this process, the end result seems to be the same: a litany of complaints, nostalgic stories of the previous system, and plans for the next upgrade. Then, plans for our Fall terms to start in just a few weeks. Setting expectations based on un-finished projects, mitigating standards to make something work, and delays delays delays. We also prognosticate on what we think will be our top help desk tickets this fall. But, if nothing else, fresh Trapper Keepers for all! Article discussed: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-06-21-higher-ed-is-investing-in-student-success-tech-is-it-a-new-golden-age-or-just-vague-talk

We start with an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that asks why colleges and universities are constructing so many new buildings, but leaving older facilities to rot? We’re all guilty of focusing on the new hotness and ignoring the old and busted, but what will happen now that enrollment is set to drop? Then, active learning rooms. Do they really need all that stuff (no) or all those options (no) or all those displays (no) ? Larry explains active learning as a food analogy, Marc suggests we focus on the students and avoid all the “stuff,” Justin uses software rather than hardware to avoid monstrous AV budgets, Jamie bemoans the lack of pedagogy and overspending of technology, and Chris has built way too many of these spaces all over the country. Finally, AVIXA wants feedback on the CTS programs. We review the survey for the general CTS and share how we think the CTS holders on our teams leverage those skills. Article discussed: https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-overbuilt-campus https://archive.ph/XDGwT

Recorded July 8, 2022 Marc starts us off with an article about new, high resolution and AI-driven optical microphones that will never be a product, but will be in almost every audio product in five years... and probably in your phone, too.  If this technology goes where we think it will, it’ll be the next version of beam-tracking & beam-steering. Then, with apologies to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, we apply the Five Stages of Grief to delayed AV projects (which in 2022 means every project).  We discuss the client perspective as they experience denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  We also share some of the analogies we use to explain to clients why partially received AV systems can’t be installed.  Hamburgers and cars seem to be the most common.  Also, Justin shares his terrible method of preparing hamburgers. Finally, Larry has an idea about hand-me-down classrooms and we try to help determine if that’s a good idea, bad idea, or just reality.   Article discussed: https://gizmodo.com/optical-mic-camera-record-multiple-instruments-separate-1849104793 https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/2022/optical-microphone