On The Circuit

In-person is back for so many things. One of my favorite in-person events has been the Mix Sound for Film & TV event put on by my longtime colleague...

Are robotics the future of AV manufacturing? Apparently, Christie thinks so. They’ve long been pioneers in factory engineering—the company’s Environmental Management System (EMS) dates back to 2006. The system,...

Until Covid hit, I’d been going to Las Vegas for a continuous 30 years for the NAB Show and alternate years for InfoComm. That ambivalent annual streak ended with...

This is one of the most personal columns I’ll probably write here. Last month Bob Simpson, founder of Electrosonic passed away after a long life and career, leaving behind...

In March, news came that the bangin’ rock & roll experience company TAIT had acquired the imaginative powerhouse Thinkwell now in its 20th anniversary year. When Michael Tait founded...

I started my career as a theme park designer when Douglas Trumbull was already famous in my world, having set the standard for all we would pursue with the ...

This month, during the Omicron surge, I heard a story from someone who works in national-level live events. The house crew tests every shift and wears masks. Visiting talent...

As we go to press, it’s still 2021 and Meyer Sound Constellation is officially 15 years old, though its roots reach back decades further, all the way to Canberra...

I think we’ve all had quite different experiences adapting to video calls and meetings, and a personal range of comfort and discomfort. I learned about some of my preferences...

Today as we go to press, the Event Safety Alliance announced the postponement of their hybrid 3-day December 2021 event to March 22-24, 2021 on the campus of Rock...

As we go to press, a reported 1400 people attended a plucky CEDIA, NAB and Enterprise Connect are cancelled, and AVIXA CEO David Labruskes is 99.999% sure InfoComm will...

Surely one of the most peculiar losses of COVID is Orlando’s Holy Land Experience. You may not know this, but it shares a parking lot with Electrosonic’s Orlando office,...

The National Retail Federation is reporting that consumers want to go back to physical stores (although with the added convenience of permanent curbside pickup). Workers do kinda want to...

I remember when Dante AV was announced at what we called a trade show. Long ago, in the before times BC, your may remember that the tribes used to...

As we go to press, the FCC announced $7 billion with a B to improve remote access for American students. Where there is money, there is opportunity. Not always...

As we go to press, the schools in LA have just opened up ish. The day before classes resumed, I did an unscientific survey with one sample fifth grader...

There have been so many accomplishments in pandemic. Some of course have been heartbreakingly hard won and I try to never miss a chance to acknowledge the heroic and...

You’ll often hear technologists say that we jumped ahead five years in pandemic. Certainly it will be considered one of science and engineering’s finest hours in ways big and...

For the first time in pretty much my adult life, there was no CES to schlep to Las Vegas for. No forced marches, no pitched battles for cabs, no...

I grew up going to hippie folk Masses, where my dad would sling his macramé guitar strap over his shoulder and stand at the front of our historic Santa...

Last year, when I wrote the 2020 editorial calendar, I dedicated this issue to Staging. I could never have imagined where Staging would be at this point in the...

The Secretaries of State across our country are in the middle of executing a giant seven-month change order. Actually, it’s multiple change orders for simultaneous job sites all over...

This month is my 22-year anniversary of working from home as an employee. I worked from home as a newlywed, while pregnant, as a nursing mom, as a boss,...

Many of us are here in AV because of music and the arts. Right now live sound feels like longed-for past. I’m encouraged to see artists finding new voices...

How goes our virtual lives? Not always great. My daughter’s virtual graduation from high school was awful. There, I said it. We sat, the three of us, in our...

Necessity is the mother of the videoconference. AV has always been there. Much of what we are doing now to survive—both professionally and personally-we could have done before. In...

It’s only one tiny part of the strangeness of our times that the cover theme of this month’s issue is Arenas and Stadiums. This happened long before anyone could...

Why "We" Matters

As we went to press, rumors surfaced again that Apple will ditch all iPhone ports for at least one of its 2021 phones. This news has put the WiGig...