From The
Editor’s
Desk
pages 16-17
Content Is King!
Game of Thrones is
back on our screens,
are you making sure
you sell your ability
to enhance today’s
entertainment
experiences?
Fully engaged as we are in the world of AV and automation,
it’s sometimes hard to see how those not directly involved
perceive what the industry does and what is really
important about it. Having new toys to play with in terms
of automation is definitely a boon, (see page 53 for an
article on voice control) and makes the industry stronger,
however there is another, probably more powerful hook
that our industry can offer: People’s love music and film!
Connecting people with all the content they love is
arguably the strongest sales tool we have. Yes, we are
about automation, but people tend to relate to that or
not. Sure you can change people’s perception of what it
is and talk them around, but how often do you have to try
and convince a client they like music or movies?
People often talk about the golden ages of
entertainment, from the days of the music hall, the
explosion of pop music in the 50s and then the 60s.
Punk in the 70s challenged conventions of what
entertainment could or should be, Hollywood’s
golden age of black and white films, where screen idols
where sophisticated and unreachable, all conjure up their
own special magic. Bringing things up to the modern age,
it’s entirely reasonable to argue that TV drama has been in
a real purple patch in the last few years, big series that use
large budgets and high quality writing to deliver genuinely
exciting experiences; Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The
Walking Dead, are just a few examples of shows that justify
an enhanced AV set up to do them justice.
So different ages have always enjoyed different
high points, however, the thing that is different today
in terms of entertainment and this goes for music and
film, is that all of the above and more, is available to
everyone 24/7 (with the right help of course). This
makes this era of entertainment unique. Since the dawn
of civilisation when humans
first discovered the pleasure of
creating sounds and rhythms
to convey meaning, until very
recently, each era of music and
entertainment remained locked
into its own epoch. Access was
only through what collection a
person could build themselves,
or borrow from friends. Fun up
to a point sharing content like
that, but if someone had said
to kids in the 70s ‘how would
you like to be able to listen to
all your fave music and watch all
your fave movies at the push of
a button’, you would have been
crushed in a stampede of flairs
and ‘plimsoles’. So guess what?
Those kids are all grown up now
and with the rest of society, want
what only we can provide, the
best content, in the best quality,
everywhere. Its powerful and fun
and always will be.
EDITOR IN CHIEF: Daniel Sait, [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING JOURNALISTS: Jordan O’Brien, [email protected], Simon King, [email protected]
SALES DIRECTOR: Ian Kitchener, [email protected] PUBLISHER: David Kitchener, [email protected]
ACCOUNTS: [email protected] CIRCULATION: [email protected]
STUDIO MANAGER: Ben Bristow, [email protected] GRAPHIC DESIGN: Jon Appleton, [email protected]
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