4 Infrastructure Considerations to Prepare for the Next Disruptive Disaster
During a recent episode of SDVoE LIVE! titled “AV Disaster Prep: How Ready Are You?”, Justin Kennington, President, SDVoE Alliance spoke with Rachael Harris, Sr. Infrastructure Engineer – Event Video Streaming about the importance of having a strong infrastructure foundation to be prepared to adjust working operations when we encounter the next disruptive disaster. Here are 4 key area Justin and Rachael discussed:
- Infrastructure is readiness. Your infrastructure is the foundation which will allow you to best respond to the next imminent disruption to your business due to circumstances beyond your control. And it is not “if” but “when” the next disaster occurs. If your infrastructure is not solid you could be in trouble.
- What is AV infrastructure? Justin wondered aloud, “When I think of AV infrastructure, I’m thinking about the category cables in the walls, maybe I’m thinking about a few of the boxes that plug in there.” But guessing it’s more than that. Rachael commented, “In AV is there are so many more pieces of infrastructure than just the wires in the wall.” You also need to consider the nodes, equipment, and services—and the people who run and manage the infrastructure. “I think it’s more than equipment, it’s systems and how do the equipment and the operations come together” to help you accomplish what you need to get done.
- Don’t overlook infrastructure planning. It is important to take time to plan and brainstorm around infrastructure and implementations. Rachael advised all organization to look at the adjustments and pivots that happened in the last two years and the new technologies that many organizations and end users needed to embrace to continue to work. This gets back to point #1. Don’t assume all operations will go back to normal and that we will not longer needs Zoom Rooms or Teams Meetings. “Take the time now to get the team together to brainstorm what your big, giant, no restrictions of time or money vision is.” Rachael recommended asking yourself , “What do we want this to look like? And how do we want it to be?” This vision then acts a guideline to help you plan your resources. And it you’d looked at it through the lens of the last two years’ experience, may help you avoid pitfalls.
- Bring end users into the design process. Typical AV projects include designers, AV specialists, systems engineers, the builder, and the client who is sponsoring the initiative, but often fail to include the end user who will utilize the space or installation until after the build is done. So, ask end users what their workflow will look like in the space, where do they want which buttons, etc. Considering functionality in the design and preconstruction process ensures the end result will meet the needs of the actual users of the installation.
SDVoE and Grooming the Next Gen AV Pros in the news
RH Consulting Audio and Video Report
For 10 years, RH Consulting, headed by Roland Hemming, has been putting out their networked audio products report. 2022 is the first year they have included video products. The big news for the SDVoE Ecosystem is! Of the 420 video products they counted, 267 of those support SDVoE. Read more here.
Grooming the Next Generation of AV Pros
Peach County High School create an Audio-Video Film and Technology course designed to provide student with a hands-on experience and a sneak peek into what it is like to work in the industry as an AV pro. Way to go Peach Country High School in Fort Valley, Georgia for preparing the next generation of professionals. Watch the video article here.
Academy
The pro AV industry has embraced SDVoE Academy as their trusted resource as we blend AV and IT technologies to take full advantage of off-the-shelf Ethernet switches to realize greater system flexibility and scalability over traditional approaches such as point-to-point extension and circuit-based AV matrix switching. Since its inception in 2018, SDVoE Academy has attracted more than 5,000 students and served more than 25,000 lessons over more than 100 different online courses in video technology, network basics, and system design across a variety of vertical markets. We’re building a strong community around the SDVoE Academy forum where SDVoE members, designers, developers, and end users can mingle, share tips & tricks, answer questions, and solve problems together. And it’s all free!
Two professional certification programs, for SDVoE Design Partners and SDVoE Developers, have together graduated more than 1,600 students with the goal of enabling great AV user experiences. And again, it’s all free!
What’s next?
Join us every other Tuesday at 1 PM ET (New York) for a fresh episode of SDVoE LIVE! in SDVoE Academy or on THE rAVe Agency’s LAVNCH platform.
Upcoming SDVoE LIVE! shows
Join us March 22 for the next episode, “SDVoE in the Digital Operating Room”. Get the latest info at sdvoe.org/live/.
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