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November
29, 2000
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Standards, What
Standards?
Gary Kayye,
CTS
Page 2
Click here to return to Page 1
The
solution is really rather complicated as there isn't a governing body
for the professional AV industry and there isn't an active "standards
committee" that is addressing all the issues of specifications
and how they should be measured, displayed and quoted in a cut-sheet
or a product catalog. In addition, it's not really the fault of any
of the manufacturers, as many of them actually have to create new terms
and labels to explain totally new technology in the first place. For
example, the term "computer-video interface" was created back
in 1985 to label the technology used to convert a computer's TTL video
signal to analog. Since then, every major computer-video interface manufacturer
has adopted that term to label their line of computer analog video converters.
And where do you think the term "line doubling" came from?
Well, Faroudja of course. They invented the first line doubler in 1989
and since then, at least 15 other line doubler manufacturers have adopted
the term.
In Geoffrey
Moore's Crossing the Chasm (the high-tech marketing "bible")
he described the development of a market and an industry for that matter.
Right now, the Pro AV market customer base is made up of what Moore
labeled early adopters and innovators. We need to force ourselves into
eventually adopting standards beyond today's recommended practices so
that we can move our market towards the early majority customers so
that we can continue to enjoy the same growth we have since the early
90's. I will certainly support any industry efforts in this direction
and hope that either ICIA or NSCA will take a leadership role in developing
these "standards".
Case in point, did
you know there's a manufacturer of cable out there that is actually
promoting "liquid cooled cable"? They even claim that their
liquid cooling method leads to super-high performance and unparalleled
quality. Well, since when do liquid and electricity produce anything
good?
What's all
this mean? It just underscores the need for some "standardization"
and maybe even (dare I say it) some regulation to protect us all from
the marketing hype that surrounds the stuff we read in the average cut-sheet.
However, in
the mean time, the standards don't exist and the potential compatibility
problems are endless. In fact, there are a number of manufacturers who
have developed a complete market from the lack of standards. So, business
is still good. On the other hand, lack of compatibility wreaks havoc
on the system designers and installers whose jobs, reputations and work
is on the line.
So, what can
you do to make your life easier - until there are standards? Well, tune
in next week and I will give you seven steps that are sure to make your
life easier and attempt to "standardize" the un-standard.
Come
back next week for Part 2.
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Gary Kayye
is Principal of Kayye Consulting a firm that specializes in providing
marketing consulting, telephony integration and training development
to the professional audiovisual industry. He spent 12 years at Extron
and AMX as VP of Sales and Marketing before founding his own firm. He
can be reached at www.kayye.com or
via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com.
He is also the volunteer chairman of the PETC. The views expressed in
this article are solely the author's and do not represent the positions
of any organization to which he belongs.
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