AV SuperFriends

Recorded October 9, 2026 The Metaverse is shutting down. Nobody uses it, nobody wants it, and the lawyers have finally had enough. There's just one small problem: Justin is still trapped inside. After a year of increasingly questionable attempts to rescue him, the AV SuperFriends discover a possible way in, and it's considerably worse than the Metaverse itself. Welcome to the Backrooms. An endless maze of abandoned hallways, forgotten classrooms, and impossible spaces where reality doesn't quite follow the rules. Every turn leads somewhere unexpected, and every door opens into another era of audiovisual technology. From the rolling TV carts and overhead projectors of the 1980s to the increasingly complicated integrated classrooms of the 2000s and the AI-powered learning environments of today, the gang discovers that every generation has built its own classroom of the future. But they're running out of time. Justin is slowly coming apart, the Metaverse shutdown is approaching, and something in the darkness is following them. Can Jamie, Larry, Marc, and Chris find Justin before he disappears forever? Join the AV SuperFriends for our 2026 Halloween radio drama, featuring time travel, obsolete technology, questionable engineering decisions, special guest appearances, and enough audiovisual nightmares to haunt an entire campus. Because every classroom was once the classroom of the future. And some of them should have stayed in the past. We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com    ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends ► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social ► Email: [email protected] ► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss   Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support

Recorded October 9, 2026 Seven seasons. Six years. And somehow we still haven't figured out how to start the show on time. We kick off another season of Off the Rails with questionable advice, unsolicited opinions, and a news story about "AI holograms" that turns into an argument over Pepper's Ghost, large language models, refrigerator-sized displays, and whether any of this really needs to be a hologram in the first place. Then we get into something slightly more useful: the documentation that's routinely missing from AV projects. We're great at documenting hardware, signal flow, rack elevations, and where the displays go—but what about how the system is actually supposed to operate? We talk programming, DSP configurations, user interfaces, submittals, commissioning, RFP language, subcontractors, and the uncomfortable realization that higher ed AV teams may be just as guilty of relying on institutional knowledge instead of properly documenting their own systems. Finally, we tackle lifecycle planning for "other people's stuff" and departmental AV and technology that somehow becomes IT's problem when it stops working. How do you inventory systems you didn't install, plan replacement cycles you don't control, and explain to a department that "it still turns on" isn't necessarily a lifecycle strategy?  News article: https://www.techlearning.com/learning/stem/teaching-with-ai-holograms   Alternate show titles: Pepper's Ghost! Big box in the front of your room We're out of instructors More lecterns! They're actively learning There's a missing step in there You are your own client There's a lot of layers to this We're just trying to get it in It did not go the way I thought it would go not* Shared Google Spreadsheet Four or Five Deans Turnover They're trying to pre-spend money Maybe it moved   We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com    ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends ► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social ► Email: [email protected] ► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss   Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support

Recorded October 2, 2026 Six years of questionable professional judgment have brought us to season seven, and we're celebrating with wine, undocumented processes, and an idea the panel has been avoiding for months: can digital signage pull double duty as a presentation system? Marc makes his case with a winemaking lab where a display needs to show live fermentation dashboards to visitors, then let an instructor take over for class. Pairing Zoom Rooms sharing with the campus's existing Yodeck signage content offers a potential solution, and immediately starts an argument about what counts as signage, what counts as AV, and whether we're making things simpler or inventing another support headache. From student services lobbies to neglected "huddle-cuddle" spaces, we explore where a shared signage and presentation setup might make sense. Could the same approach support a basic BYOD classroom without the usual pile of hardware and elaborate controls? The panel weighs wireless reliability, video performance, software requirements, licensing uncertainty, and the enduring appeal of an HDMI cable that just works. Somewhere along the way, we even find a configuration everyone can tolerate. Plus, rogue campus signage, newspaper racks selling ads, displays on wheels threatening to escape the building, and students happily collaborating while the expensive TV behind them sits unused.  Welcome to season seven: the planning is questionable, the opinions are plentiful, and we'd still like the classroom to just freaking work.   Alternate episode titles: Cloaked in digital signage Kicking off season seven with leftovers Hilltopper Moonshine Knobs and dials and kegs and casks Knob and tube AV You have it backwards, son If you just do sh*t, it doesn't matter   We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com    ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends ► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social ► Email: [email protected] ► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss   Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support

Recorded September 25, 2026 This week, the future of AV service apparently involves things falling from the sky. AVI-SPL is partnering with Matternet to deliver critical equipment and replacement parts to technicians by drone, which naturally has us wondering exactly how big a DSP, projector lens, or ancient 45-pound amplifier you can sling underneath one of these things. What could possibly go wrong? Then we dig into what's actually in our toolboxes, job boxes, go bags, and assorted piles of AV junk. From basic hand tools to HDMI testers, test generators, Dante headphone amps, and other troubleshooting gadgets, what should technicians carry themselves, what should the shop provide, and what do you really need when something isn't working and you need to figure out why? Finally, USB-C… the universal connector that somehow made everything less universal. The same little oval might give you video, audio, data, Ethernet, power, some combination of those, or basically just HDMI wearing a USB-C costume. If manufacturers aren't going to support everything, fine. Just tell us what the port actually does. Maybe we need stickers. Maybe a feature matrix. Maybe a little USB-C pain scale. At this point, anything would help.   News: https://www.avinteractive.com/news/business/avi-spl-and-matternet-partner-on-autonomous-drone-delivery-for-mission-critical-service-logistics-16-09-2026/   Alternate show titles: Knee replacement parts  Tool cart is a personal thing  Cousin carts  Your laptop is not a test generator You can flap it around and it swings  Just iron that solder on  Hot glue that sumbitch  I love my adapters  I want seven USB-Cs  Do it all or don't do it    We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com    ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends ► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social ► Email: [email protected] ► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss   Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support

Recorded September 18, 2026 Where does the integrator's job end and the owner's responsibility begin? And more importantly, did anyone actually write that down? This month, we dig into the occasionally diplomatic, frequently contentious relationship between in-house AV teams and commercial integrators. Using a real-world commissioning dispute as the starting point, we talk through scope, punch lists, handoffs, communication failures, owner expectations, integrator assumptions, and what happens when somebody shows up at the end of a project and discovers the system they're expected to support isn't quite what they thought they were getting. Along the way, we also answer a listener question about the increasingly tempting world of giant 115-inch flat panels: when they make sense instead of projection, why they can look fantastic, and the very real logistical problem of getting a gigantic sheet of glass through doors, elevators, hallways, and onto a wall without turning it into an extremely expensive folding display. The recurring lesson is pretty simple: document expectations, ask questions early, communicate constantly, and remember that both sides eventually have to live with the decisions made during the project. Preferably without requiring formal diplomatic intervention. Article discussed:  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidshriver_the-head-of-a-customers-in-house-av-team-share-7505594960058937344-PuCr/   Alternate show titles: This is a big giant lab, so it's OK Do you need bigger people? If "Ifs and buts were candy and nuts" I'm the one who's gonna punch it out They can distract me all they want Did you make up some random-ass label?   We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com    ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends ► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social ► Email: [email protected] ► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss   Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support