This editorial leader is for is Installation‘s final edition of 2023, and as well as hitting a landmark 260 issues this month, the magazine has also now experienced three years of yours truly at the helm. I jumped on board on 1 November, 2020, and to say it has been an eventful three years would be an understatement. With Covid still in full flow when I took over, the AV industry had a tricky 2021 ahead of it, with ‘normality’ only really starting to return as we moved into 2 s022. Since then, one global crisis after another has rocked our industry, and it’s testament to the resilience of AV that positivity is still the order of the day. With the 20th anniversary of ISE – which promises to be the biggest yet – now atop most of our agendas, we can hopefully look forward to a fruitful 2024 and beyond.
Fixed installations such as The Sphere in Las Vegas will certainly help. What a marvel this feat of engineering and technology is; let’s hope London’s very own Sphere gets the green light soon. Meantime, check out our ‘boots-on-the-ground’ review of U2’s remarkable residency from page 38 in our digital edition, below, along with our round-up of the latest and greatest installs from page 4.
More positivity for AV: this issue marks our third annual Pro AV Watch List. After our biggest nominations drop yet – dozens were suggested to us – we have selected 15 of the AV community’s most notable influencers at the current time: the ones to watch over the next 12 months and beyond. See who made the cut from page 22.
This issue, we also concentrate on edtech, with a look at how education establishments are leaning into broadcast and music room installations from page 16, and four informative edtech thought leaders from page 10.
Our other features delve into the growth of resimercial (page 30), as the tech lines continue to blur across the commercial and residential AV sectors; and AV’s growing importance to houses of worship (page 44) – and not just in the States – in the first of two articles on the evolution of congregation tech, this month concentrating on production and streaming.
Enjoy the issue, and have a productive end to 2023.
