November 1st marks my second year at the helm of this esteemed title, and my, how time has flown, in spite of two years of huge change and upheaval! Coming on board in the autumn of 2020, with Covid still front and centre, was a strange time to take over, and yet if anything things have gotten even stranger in the two years since, particularly in the UK. Barnard Castle and Partygate – as the pandemic continued to dominate the news, our lives and the AV industry, with tragedy, political ineptitude, show postponements and event cancellations; the fall of Trump as the US struggled to maintain its democracy; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on fuel and food prices; and Britain’s first fully unelected Government (even Johnson had majority support of Tory MPs!) falling at the first hurdle and almost bankrupting the UK! What a 24 months it has been…
And yet, as we brace for Covid’s inevitable return this winter with high fuel prices giving the virus additional traction, and as the war enters what could be an even more dangerous phase, with Putin’s finger poised above the nuclear button, AV is looking in fine shape, all things considered. Advancing technologies had already been fast-tracking their way into most AV sectors even before Covid hit, with video conferencing advancing across corporations like never before, retail becoming more and more hybrid, and live events and attractions ramping up their use of experiential solutions. The pandemic, terrible as it is, has added – in the words of the UK’s erstwhile PM – rocket fuel to almost every sector associated with AV, with changes to corporate and the rise of hybrid working perhaps the most obvious step-change.
But other sectors have been boosted by Covid too. Last issue we took a good look at the accelerated overlaps in broadcast and AV, with virtual production – already growing in popularity – super-changed by the pandemic.
In our new edition – ‘on sale’ today! – we concentrate on live events and attractions, with three in-depth features investigating how the sectors are looking to AV to help bring people back to museums, theme parks, etc, and how technology is even more front and centre than it ever before across all visitor-crucial areas.
Elsewhere, we look at continuing supply chain issues, the growth of extended reality – key to many attractions – and how houses of worship are taking the Word even further thanks to AV. If you’re not a paper subscriber, you can read our digital edition here or below (with links to read off-‘page’ if you prefer); we will drop all of the features on this website over the next couple of weeks if you prefer to get your AV hits in smaller doses.
If I don’t bump into you at today’s UC Expo at London’s ExCeL, have a great October.
