Features
Finding Face Time
The increasing use of technology in place of in-person business communication has never bothered a naturally introverted person like me. I always have preferred...
From the Editor
Features
Trade In and Up
As an industry trade journalist I’m always on the lookout for business and technology trends. Typically three or more occurrences of something, will pique...
Features
Surprising ATL
I’ll admit something to you. When the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce offered CEDIA’s PR department the opportunity to invite a few members of the...
Features
Under the Big Top
OK, so maybe it wasn’t as cool as the original Lollapalooza, but AVAD’s Vend-o-Palooza, in its second year, was a lively and worthwhile event...
Features
Spring Renewal
Given what we’ve all been through over the past six months or more, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I walked on...
Features
Fields are Green
I spent the first eight years of my life on a small, lush island. One of my fondest memories of that time in Barbados...
Features
Your Wake-Up Call
The last line of Voltaire’s Candide is “tend your garden,” which I interpret to mean, “worry about your own situation first instead of getting...
Features
Our Tech President
On inauguration day, every media outlet tried to get in on the action. As I sat watching the festivities last month, I even pondered...
Features
Interesting Times
There’s an old Chinese saying that, as it turns out, is not that old and apparently isn’t even Chinese. Nevertheless, during these troubling days...
Features
I am a PC?
Some of the excitement preceding my first visit to the Microsoft campus, last month, was muted a bit by my realization that “Bill G.”...
Features
Riding the Rails
During the Great Depression in 1930s America,it was not uncommon for a down-and-out person to hop on a freight train and travel from town...
Features
Flock Together
During my recent tour of the always-popular coal mine exhibit at Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry, I was reminded of the canary in...
Features
All Thumbs
I bought a new mobile phone the other day and, technically speaking, Im already behind the times. As much as I try to stay...
Features
On-Demand Kids
I often worry that the on-demand media lifestyle to which many of us have grown accustomed will have a long-term negative impact on our...
Features
To Be Like You
For the first time in my eight-year term as editor of this magazine, I have finally gotten my hands dirty like a true custom...
Features
Give a Little
As the editor of a magazine representing this industry, one of my biggest frustrations in the past eight years has been the general lack...
Features
Generation Why?
At the recent CEDIA Management Conference, a record 260 attendees converged on San Diego to discuss employee recruitment and retention and many other business...
Features
My Home Theater
My topic this month should be the slowing economy and the effect that it is having on the custom installation business. Instead, Ill save...
Features
Green is Good
The recent green movement has made environmentally friendly practices in the home and work world trendy again. For an individual, a family, or even...
Features
A Litmus Test
A litmus test, as anyone who has ever taken a middle school science class knows, is a common indicator used to test materials for...
Features
My CEDIA Favs
CEDIA EXPO was bursting at the seams again this year at Denver’s Colorado Convention Center, with media servers, 1080p video products, speaker innovations, and...
Features
Contractor Concerns
I am having a problem with one of my contractors. I probably should fire the guy, but I really want him to do this...
Features
All Work, No Play
I can almost hear the Beach Boys singing …and well have fun, fun, fun, til our daddy takes the T-bird away, through the sound...
Features
An Open Dialogue
This industry that we all refer to as custom is changing all the time, and often not for the better. What began as a...
Features
Dealing with Change
I have never been a big fan of change. I practically lived in the same place for 18 years growing up. I attended one...
Features
Heres to Sam
When I initially read the press release about Planar Systems acquisition of Runco International last month, the first thing I thought was, Weve just...
Features
Open House
Theres a beta fish named Logo living in the art department of this magazines midtown Manhattan office. If there was ever a metaphor for...
Features
Your Strategy
Love him or hate him, Robert Moses is considered one of the greatest urban planners of the 20th century. The master builder was instrumental...
Features
A Lifestyle Business
Do you run a growing, thriving company, or have you become a lifestyle business? Dont know what I mean? According to 2007 CEDIA Management...
Features
Super Bowl Live
Pre-Game Coverage: As I begin this column, Im sitting in the American Airlines terminal at New Yorks Kennedy Airport waiting to board my flight...
Features
Wider Appeal
As a custom installation professional, do you ever get the feeling that youre being used? For instance, isnt it your company that manufacturers call...
Features
Glue That Binds
Do you have a competitor who consistently gives you trouble even though you know that youre better? Whats your sales pitch? How do you...
Features
All Subbed Out
Many readers will consider this sacrilege, but I have decided to do something extreme. Im going to unplug my subwoofer and put it in...
Features
ABCs and HDTV
Sometimes, its a wonder how our business survives at all. The other day I was watching a ballgame when a commercial for one of...
Features
Blue Laser Blues
There we were, my wife and I, ready to sit down, relax, and watch a good movie from the comforts of home. Our daughter...
Features
Rock Revisited
Pop quiz: Who are Robert Zimmerman and Elliott Adnopoz and what links them together in rock and roll history? Thats the kind of fun...
Features
Back in Control
In the 1979 movie, Being There, a simple gardener named Chance, has never set foot outside the gates of the estate where he works....
Features
Everything Zen
Most people recharge their inner spirituality at a local church, synagogue, or mosque. For me, an event organized by SpeakerCraft president Jeremy Burkhardt usually...
Features
Failure’s Lessons
Failure is much more endearing than success. That thought occurred to me the other night after watching New York illusionist David Blaine perform his...
Features
EXPO, Part Deux
It was the buzz of the show, but it wasnt a new company launch or revolutionary new product release that had everyone talking at...
Features
Recharging Batteries
A diminutive, yet muscular, man walked out on stage, took off his black sports coat, hung it over a chair and said, I was...