As we all gear up to meet in Orlando for InfoComm 2013, I wanted to take the next few weeks to introduce (or re-introduce) you to our various podcasts.
AVNation has been producing podcasts for the AV industry since July of 2011. We are certainly not the first nor the last. Are we the best? That really is your call. There are a great number of folks who create some really great content for the industry. Tom Andry from AV Rant is on episode #324. He’s a great guy and has a wicked sense of humor. Sound and Video Contractor and Bennett Liles has been making podcasts for the AV industry since 2008. There are my good friends Bradford Benn and Matt Scott. Depending on who you believe, it is either the Matt & Bradford Show or the Bradford & Matt Show. Either way, it is a good listen. InfoComm International has a podcast called InfoComm Today that we are honored to produce. The TWiT Network has been producing Home Theater Geeks since 2009. So, we are not the first, and are certainly not the last.
Almost two yeas ago, I pressed record on my ProTools rig, said “3-2-1” for the first time and began, quite nervously, AVWeek. The first guests were my longtime friend, Michael Drainer, and two very nice strangers, George Tucker and Linda Seid Frembes. The former has become a close friend and confidant in the last two years. Linda has moved on to other projects and I wish her well.
AVWeek, to me, is the overarching flagship of AVNation. It was our first podcast, one of the ones I host, and our only weekly. The idea behind it was a combination of This Week in Tech and all of the trade magazines in the industry. My background in radio gave me the experience to do the first. Nothing could have prepared me for the second.
Our industry is a little like tech, and a bit different. Very rarely is there “breaking news” in the world of AV. When it happens, it is often the closing of one firm or the buying of another. So, we have looked at the news of the week for the last 94 weeks. Sometimes the topics are fresh, at other times we can get deeper on subjects like AVB or control. At its core, AVWeek is a weekly news program focused on everyone in the industry; from the manufacturers to the end users.
Over the course of those first five months we had people on from Julie Jacobson to my first encounter with Hi Phi, Phil Cordell. It was a growing and learning experience. Our first trip to InfoComm as “members of the media”, and recording AVWeek live was just a year ago. To me, it is the guests who make AVWeek as good as it is. We have had folks on from Crestron, Extron, AMX, Commercial Integrator, AVI-SPL, CEPro, CNET, Aurora Multimedia, One Firefly, and a host of others.
Over the last two years we have had some great shows and some that are certainly below par. We have made alliances, separated from others, but all along we have kept one thing in mind; we want to serve the AV industry. That is what we are here for.
In the coming weeks and months, some changes are going to occur around AVNation. Hopefully they are for the best. We think they are. One of those changes is the retiring of our house of worship podcast. We may revive it again at some point, but at this point, it is going by the wayside. Another is our business model, or at least as much as we have one. Plus, our graphics team (read Matt Scott) is feverishly working on a new website. My hope is that it will be done by the end of the summer. At the launch of that, we will have some more to say.
If you happen to be coming to InfoComm this week, stop by and say hello. We will be in room W232A. There are two times we will certainly be in our recording room. The first is a Tweetup happening there on Thursday evening between 5 and 6 pm. We know you are probably going to another party that night. Just stop by on your way there. The second is when we record AVWeek which will be on Friday afternoon from 2 until 4 pm. Again, we will be in room W232A and would love to see you.
Thanks for taking the time to read the blog. Have a great week.
