October 2009 – AVDawn

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??”

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.

Convergence, Nothing – That’s Commoditization!

The $3 Billion Elephant in the Room