In Memoriam

Michael Murphy
July 27, 1979 - February 11, 2010

It is with the greatest sadness that I report the death of a member of our A/V community. Mike Murphy of Musicorp passed away in the early morning hours yesterday, after a courageous 15-month battle with cancer. He was 30 years old.

As a Pro-AV Integrator, I would not normally have the opportunity to know Mike, as he worked in the retail audio end of our industry, but I count myself blessed to have known this amazing man via two channels - First, he was the Musicorp rep for my father-in-law's drumming supply shop. Secondly, he was an accomplished pipe band snare drummer who played with the Grade I, world-ranked City of Washington Pipe Band (my husband's band) and instructed the MacMillan Pipe Band (that his mother and I both play with). Through both of these channels, I had the opportunity to not only know Mike, but to count him as a dear friend.

Mike grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, and graduated from Chantilly High School in 1997. He attended The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, as a member of the Class of 2001, and played with the Citadel Pipe Band. After graduation, he remained in South Carolina and joined Musicorp where he worked as a sales rep. He had a large territory full of happy customers. In 2008, Mike was one of five nominated, nationwide, for Music and Sound Retailer's Sales Rep of the Year award.

He learned of this nomination in late 2008, right before he found out he had cancer. When the MSR awards were announced at NAMM 2009, Mike was in Georgetown University Hospital undergoing surgery to remove a large tumor (and his right lung) from his chest. He pulled through this surgery and the subsequent rounds of chemotherapy with his typical aplomb - a snarky attitude, gallows humor and amazing determination. He vowed to beat the cancer and to come back to win the Sales Rep of the Year award. His coworkers and bosses at Musicorp were amazingly supportive throughout his illness, even chipping in together to purchase him a brand-new laptop and all necessary accessories to tele-commute, allowing him to continue managing his territory from the hospital and from his parents' home in Virginia. After his final chemo session and a scan declaring him cancer-free, he finally returned to his home in Charleston, SC, at the end of May, 2009 - ending what was possibly the longest "Christmas weekend home" in history.

His return south was short-lived, however. Three weeks after he returned, a series of extremely painful headaches sent him to the doctor's office where they discovered his cancer had migrated to the brain. Back to DC he went from South Carolina, in what was possibly the longest ambulance ride since he was not permitted to fly or to drive. In mid-June, Mike had brain surgery to remove a number of small tumors, followed by cyber-knife radiation to attack the smaller ones. He continued to telecommute throughout the process, taking care of his many customers throughout his territory. In late 2009, he learned that he was again nominated for Music and Sound Retailer's Sales Rep of the Year. Last month at NAMM, winners were announced and Mike was thrilled when he got the call that he was the winner.

His other vow from his chemo days was not to be, however. His brain was not healing as well as they wanted, post-surgery, and he had a few seizures in January. His doctors at Georgetown, as well as specialists from Johns Hopkins, recommended that he have additional brain surgery to relieve swelling. That surgery was scheduled for earlier this week, and postponed until today due to the blizzards. Before the rescheduled surgery could take place, Mike passed quietly in his sleep.

Michael is survived by his parents, Jim and Martina Murphy, as well as by three sisters, Christy, Jaime and Kathleen. Our deepest sympathies to them all. Mike is also survived by all of his "brothers" from the Citadel, his pipe band family from City of Washington, MacMillan, and Charleston Police Pipe Band, and his family at Musicorp, who were so very supportive of him throughout his illness. The A/V world, the pipe band world, and indeed, the world in general were all richer for his having been here, and the loss will be felt. His bravery and determination to live his life, to serve his customers, and to excel in musical performance, in the face of such a horrible illness should inspire us all.

Rest in Peace, Murph. You will be greatly missed.

Murph at the Citadel

Murph with City of Washington

Once arrangements have been made and announced, I will post them here.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my faithful readers...




And in honor of Turkey Day, here's a tasty AV treat from our friends at Shure Microphones:



Cheers, all!

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Convergence, Nothing - That's Commoditization!

IT takes square-aim at the AV Integration market. Enough's enough!

So, the other evening, I'm sitting at home relaxing with my husband-slash-business partner when he looks up from his laptop with an outraged mien and exclaims, "You've gotta be kidding me!" (or slightly more profane words to that effect). Of course, I ask, "What's up?" and he directs me to the Dell website, where, amongst an ever-increasing list of AV products and services being sold by this computer giant, we spied the magic word: Crestron. This morning, a tweet from RAVE news pointed out that CDW, another IT monster, is also selling Crestron... direct to end users... at a single-digit markup. To quote Slim Pickins, "What in the wide wide world of sports is a-goin' on here??"

For the past 5-10 years, the IT/AV convergence has been heralded by folks at Infocomm and NSCA and throughout the industry as a fantastic opportunity to expand our market reach and bring AV to an entire new field of customers. Yet, the first steps in that direction came in the form of Dell and Best Buy and even Staples (!) selling projectors at extremely low margins, direct to end users. This commoditized projectors and drove most AV companies out of competition for projector sales. Few AV companies sell projectors any more, except for the extremely high-end Christies and Digital Projections - the ones out of reach for your average company but not for deep-pocketed government agencies and the occasional corporate headquarters. "Well," we all said back then, "It's only projectors. Every one is moving to flat-panels anyways. Besides, the real money is in the integration - all those boxes that live in the rack and make it all work together." And we let it slide.

Then, IT companies started carrying or manufacturing switchers and other 'boxes in the rack' and we all said, "Well, that's encroaching on our market a bit... but it's still okay. Our boxes are better than theirs and besides, we've got all the experience and the know-how. Plus, it's all about CONTROLLING the systems. It's not really a high-end AV system without the slick control aspect. We've got this." And we let it slide.

Now, we've got two major IT box sale specialists dipping their toes in the control market and driving down the margins on every piece of equipment we might possibly sell in this arena. Now, I don't know what is going through the various manufacturers' heads in this regard, but it certainly cannot be an outrageous concern for their loyal and long-time channel partners on the integration side!

I am somewhat heartened by the fact that the control system components that were listed a few days ago on Dell's site are no longer there, but will the CDW partnership linger? How quickly will that development result in our industry being put on life support? After all, we already deal with IT professionals and end-users alike who suffer from know-it-all-itis:

• "Hey, I put in my home surround sound system. I can do THAT."

• "Pfft. I installed and programmed the entire mainframe AND I have been programming in six different languages since I was 10. I can handle a simple touch panel."

• "Come on! Why are we paying *those* guys to come in and install all this? We have employees that we already pay. Besides they actually want to *touch* our network to install it?? No bloody way!"

As an AV integrator, particularly one from a small firm, this is a huge obstacle to overcome. We've devoted years of our lives learning our industry - acoustics, optics, electrical, integration basics, and the endless manufacturer classes on programming, set-up, design, etc - only to have that time-and-money investment belittled and overlooked by the world at large, and particularly by the IT professionals that were supposed to be partnering with us as a result of the oft-hyped AV/IT convergence.

The true shame is that this came to light mere days after the end of AVWeek. Just a few days ago, we were in the midst of a week-long celebration of the AV Industry and our unique place in the world, and now we are looking at yet another sign of a potential end of our usefulness. We need to lobby our manufacturers to take a stronger role in protecting their AV sales channel. We need to be MORE VOCAL as AV Professionals in educating the world at large - and all of our potential clients - about our knowledge and expertise that is unique to AV. And we need to insist that construction industries, architects, consultants and IT professionals acknowledge our industry as distinct and of value, if we want to have any hope of surviving this commoditization and cannibalization of AV by IT.

Otherwise, you all should just start studying now. I hear those CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco certification exams are tough...

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The $3 Billion Elephant in the Room

Is this the end of the VTC world as we know it? *shrug* I feel fine...

Do you feel hear that massive rumbling? It's the sound of a sudden, major paradigm shift in the A/V world that will have major ramifications for our industry in the months and years to come. Last night, September 30th, 2009, Cisco made an offer of $2.97 billion to purchase Tandberg. The biggest name in IT is now in the process of acquiring one of the biggest names in videoconferencing and, if approved by the Tandberg shareholders, stands to be a game-changing event for our industry. The gradual AV/IT Convergence of the past 5-10 years just exploded forward in a single explosive move. There is a lot to discuss and ponder if this deal goes through.

First and foremost, what will happen to the Tandberg sales channel? Will I wake up one day and suddenly be able to sell Cisco product along side my Tandberg product? More concerning, will I wake up one day and suddenly have the videoconferencing market saturated with IT companies now selling Tandberg and competing against me? As if successfully competing in the A/V market isn't hard enough for the small-to-midsize A/V integrator, let's add a few hundred or thousand more competitors on each bid AND have them speak the same language as the IT managers and facilities managers who make the purchasing decisions! Oy. As a small business owner, the news of this merger both excites me and makes me quite paranoid about our future ability to compete in the VTC market.

Fortunately, these fears may never come to fruition and if they do, it won't happen for the better part of a year. After learning of the acquisition, I immediately called my Tandberg distributor/rep and quizzed her on the news. The entire deal hinges on approval by the Tandberg shareholders and government regulators. Even if they all agree (and Reuters news reports indicate that major shareholders are in favor of the move), the finalization of the deal will not occur for the better part of 8 months to a year. This means that changes to the Tandberg sales channel will likely not occur until then. No worries, kids... We have some time to adjust.

Now, what, you may ask, do Tandberg's competitors think about this news? The biggest threat to Tandberg's market share is generally recognized to be Polycom. So, I next called my Polycom distributor/rep and asked for some reaction - official or otherwise - to the news. Because it's such fresh news and because an official 'reaction' has not yet been passed along the sales channel, she had nothing to say on the record, though the tenor of our off-the-record chat (as business owner and rep, not as tech-journo and source) was optimistic and reflected many of the sentiments expressed by Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jenson who was quoted in a ZDNet article this morning - that Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg will only benefit Polycom and other, smaller competitors like LifeSize. (Read ZDNet's article here.) Incidentally, my dist/rep for Polycom also carries Cisco and I asked how that little conflict of interest would pan out. Fortunately, they carry only a few Cisco products as add-on commodity items so there's little likelihood of Polycom/Tandberg drama in-house - good news for them!

Finally, there's another aspect of this news and the videoconferencing market that has not really been addressed out there. Will the VTC market even EXIST for A/V dealers down the road? The Cisco purchase (and suggestions that Polycom may be next on the acquisition list by Cisco's competitors) potentially steal the high-end and mid-range VTC market right out from the A/V world and shift it over to the IT realm. At the same time, the low-end of the market has been steadily eroding to companies like Skype and Logitech. Today, any person with a webcam and a decent internet connection has fairly decent "VTC" or video chat capability at their finger tips. This topic has been dancing about the back of my mind since spring when my business partner (and company founder) Larry mentioned a recent Skype chat he had with a relative in Texas. "I think this is gonna kill Polycom and Tandberg!" was his immediate reaction. As he said, the quality was so good and the cost of the equipment and service so inexpensive that he saw little reason for smaller companies to invest in a "proper VTC system" these days.

He makes a valid point, and one that was strengthened in my mind as I perused the VTC company booths at Infocomm `09 in June. The companies had only a few small or personal VTC units on display. (At least, they only showed a few to me as I toured their booths!) The bulk of their floor space and development, it seemed, was given over to mid-to-high end VTC and Telepresence solutions. In fact, this year's Infocomm featured these technologies heavily. The Unified Collaborative Conferencing Pavilion gathered most of the major players and some minor ones into one area of the show, while a separate HD Conferencing & Telepresence Showcase brought high quality, "immersive" VTC to the show floor in a major and impressive way.

So, where do we go from here? The possibilities are simultaneously bright and grim. On the bright side, the announced acquisition could strengthen the VTC market for A/V, giving a major boost to other players like Polycom, LifeSize and smaller players. It could open a new market to A/V dealers by providing us with access to Cisco products through existing sales relationships and give us a leg up on some convergence bids that we normally lose to IT companies or that require joint ventures on our end to win. On the grim side, this acquisition could be the death-knell of VTC as an A/V technology - the final high-end nail in the coffin that was built with the emergence of the Skypes and other VoIP and web chat apps. Either way, we're in for an interesting 12 months coming up and, as usual, those of us in the industry nimble and willing enough to change will survive the changing landscape. Until then, hang onto your hats, ride out the temblor and be prepared for any number of possible aftershocks.

NEWS REPORTS:

• Polycom: A potential takeover target following Cisco-Tandberg deal - ZDNet Blogs, 10/1/09, 7:34 a.m.

• Cisco agrees to buy Norway's Tandberg for $3 billion - Silicon Valley Mercury News, AP report, 10/1/09, 8:29 a.m. PDT

• Cisco Snags Tandberg for $3 Billion - Digital Daily, 10/1/09, 7:35 a.m. PT

• 3 Billion Reasons Why Video Conferencing Is Hot - GigaOm, 10/1/09, 7:30 a.m. PT

• Cisco Bets on Video Again with $3 Billion Tandberg buy - Yahoo! News, Reuters report, 10/1/09, 9:34 a.m. PT

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Ruminations on the Calendar and Our Industry on a Monday Morning...

Where did July and August Go? And what's with the worker shortage?

So, I'm sitting at my desk this morning about to pull the top page off of my handy-dandy desk calendar when I actually stopped a second and LOOKED at the thing. August 31. The LAST DAY in August. And it hit me... Where on Earth did July and August go?? I mean, five minutes ago, I was on the shuttle bus in Orlando on the way to the Convention Center for Infocomm and - WHABANG! - It's August 31! Eesh.

Now, I know the newscasters and mass media and, well, the whole darn world are all up in arms about the massive unemployment rate and the devastation of the (capital-R) Recession, however our little company has been busier than scratching dog at a flea circus! We've had back-to-back large projects since before Infocomm and even the company founder has been out in the field pulling cable and crimping ends to try to make deadlines. It's been insane.

Add to this the fact that there is a SEVERE and MASSIVE shortage of skilled A/V installers and technicians in our area, despite the alleged "droves of people on the unemployment line" and we are all strained by our success at the moment. I've talked to other A/V types in the area and several are having similar issues - lots of work, not nearly enough skilled workers. We've been attempting to hire for months. It came down to using *temps* to complete at least one of our jobs... and using non-A/V temps means twice the supervision and 'baby-sitting' on the job site for the lead installers and half the time available for that lead installer to actually get the job done! It's been frustrating to say the least.

And for the one left in the office to hold down the fort (*coughAVDawncough*), it's meant picking up all KINDS of slack - purchasing and payables usually handled by a guy now pulling cable, answering phones, trying to arrange demos and still do quotes and bids and rustle up new business to keep busy through year's end. It's exhausting. Finally, a few of our vendors - manufacturers and reps alike in some cases - are in similar straits because of downsizing or mergers or whatnot and have become less responsive in getting back to us in a timely fashion. Do you know, I've been waiting for one callback for over THREE WEEKS now??

So, suffice to say, AVDawn has been a little on edge, as has everyone else in AVDawn's world. We, as an industry, need to do *something* to beat it into people that A/V as a profession ACTUALLY EXISTS and is a WORTHY and EXCITING and GROWING field to enter. We need to lobby schools and universities to add A/V technology courses and be willing to work with them to develop and implement curricula that can inspire more talented, tech-savvy individuals to choose to work in A/V rather than simply falling into this cool line of work (like so many of us did!). Infocomm has started this effort - with curricula online and resources member companies can use to spread the word about A/V. They've also started A/V Week annually to get the word out.

We all need to do more, however. In an economy with an unemployment rate pushing two digits, and who knows how many more millions are under-employed, there's no reason we should be suffering from a lack of skilled workers! Remember everyone: A/V systems today is where personal computers were in the early-to-mid 1980s. EVERYONE needs'em; early adopters who have'em need to upgrade; and those late to the party need to catch up quick! Our industry has continued to grow, despite the dismal nature of the world-wide Recession. It's just growing slightly slower. So every one out there... Do your part to talk up our industry and help a tech-savvy youth - or a non-tech-phobic adult - find a new, exciting career in A/V!

Now you tell me: Has your company experienced skilled tech shortages lately? Are you busy? Hiring? Talk back! AVDawn wants to know!

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AVDawn is at Infocomm. TONS of Content to Come!!

Some Fun-Fun-Funnies Until AVDawn's Return...

Greetings, Faithful Readers! (All four of you! LoL) At the moment, your intrepid AVDawn is in sunny, muggy and sometimes rainy Orlando for Infocomm 2009. There is a LOT to report on, and as soon as I have five seconds to process everything and get my thoughts together, you'll get it! If you simply cannot wait to get the AVDawn perspective on the show, check my live-from-the-show-floor updates on Twitter, @avdawn. If you aren't a Twitter regular and want the live reports from ALL the Twitterers at Infocomm 09, go to Twubs.com and search for #ic09 - the official Infocomm 09 hashtag on Twitter. That will pull up all the tweets using the tag and give you lots of perspectives from the floor!

And, in the meantime, here are some fun-fun-funnies to tide you over. Click on the graphic below to enlarge and read "AVDawn's World" - a hopefully semi-regular look at AVDawn's professional life at AVS. Every strip is based on a real incident that occurred at our company at one point or another. Enjoy them until the gush of post-Infocomm reports get posted! Cheers... and off to bed for me! Only one more day of sprinting about the massive show floor!

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A Crazy, Catch-Up Blog... Edu-rama!

Too much content! GAH!

So, it's been a million years since I posted last... or at least, it seems that way. In truth, things have been crazy-busy in the life of AVDawn since last we met. Despite the recession, things are hopping at Advanced Video Systems. Every day for the past two weeks, I've either been on a site visit, working on proposals or starting the purchasing process for new projects we've won. And since our installers have been on job sites non-stop, I'm feeling pretty confident about weathering this downturn... well, at least through July or so. Then again, part of my job is making sure that the streak continues, so - busy, busy bee for me! bzzzzzzzz. ^_^

In addition to the uptick in actual work, AVDawn has been out and about on the professional development front over the past month. Two seminars hosted by the county's Small Business Development Council have provided a LOT of great ideas and procedures to keep the company on the go and in the spotlight. While some of these have been AVS policy all along, there are a few GREAT new tips in there. Plus, the SBDC representatives have a lot of info on the new SBA loan programs and a plethora of upcoming opportunities coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. So much info, I'll be going through my notes in the next few weeks and sharing some here! (Though not *too* much... Gotta protect that competitive advantage they talk about so much in business school! LoL)

And, of course, there have been a lot of industry events in the past month. AVDawn has been to two Infocomm events, one rep firm's manufacturer expo, and a number of manufacturer webinars. Talk about a lot of info! I could write two or three blogposts on each event... and probably will, once I have the chance to review my notes. So, don't stray too far and keep on reading, or better yet, subscribe to the blog! That way you won't miss one drop of that juicy info coming your way! Plus, the best is yet to come - It's less than a month til Infocomm `09! I hope to be blogging and tweeting live from the show floor, so stay tuned!

OH! A P.S!

AVDawn is now the Baltimore Business Technology writer for the Examiner.com. So, c'mon over and check out my articles. Some will be repeat content from this blog, but there will be some great new articles focusing specifically on the Mid-Atlantic region, too. The first article is now online at the Baltimore Business Technology page. Enjoy!

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