Less than one month after the WannaCry ransom-ware attack, many companies and institutions were hit by Petya. The Petya attack spread very rapidly affecting many companies in a very short time-frame(1). It nearly paralyzed operations of one of Europe's largest container terminal and has seriously disrupted the operations of companies like TNT Express(2).

Building speakers in garages...

Our industry is filled with fantastic stories of Custom Installers having started their business by building fully customized speakers from their garages. Just because what the mass market manufacturers produced wasn't good enough. These pioneers of our industry added real value to their passionately created audio installations. I have never seen a industry with so much passion and I am proud to be working in that industry.

By Robert D'Addario

"Fiber is coming." This assertion seems like the battle cry for the better part of the last two decades. Why pay attention now? Every year it seems some technology company figures out how to bleed that last bit of extra bandwidth out of twisted pair category cable, so why can't they keep doing that forever? Why invest in the training, skill set and frustration of dealing with fiber?

Traditionally, businesses have regarded audio and video as separate media and never imagined that they could be merged into a single network. Until now. AV over IP is no longer a fantasy. Any standard Ethernet network can be used as a conduit to transfer AV signals including: HV video, audio, control and peripheral signals.

While the technology to use AV over IP is available already, the question is whether or not businesses are ready to use it.  Just a short time ago, if you had considered pushing AV over IP, you may have drawn a few worries from the IT department. Concerns about bandwidth, network crashes, and the effects that it would have on other business processes, like email, may have stopped you in your tracks. The big challenge no longer rests on the limits of technology, but rather on a business’ willingness to accept the big push that new technology gives us. If we are ready for that big push, then who knows where the technology might take us.