On Topic Episode 73: It only 3/4s of the way plays nice together

Jul 1

Written By AVSF

Recorded June 12, 2026

In this Fourth of July–flavored episode of On Topic, the panel celebrates America’s birthday the only way they know how: by declaring independence from the worst habits in higher ed AV.

This month’s grievances include single-vendor ecosystem lock-in, consultant-led designs that ignore campus standards, isolated “AV network islands,” overcomplicated touch panels, mystery DSP files, proprietary cables, terrible display home screens, and every “professional” product that somehow requires a cloud account just to configure the thing.

Along the way, the panel debates automation versus user control, whether classrooms really need touch panels at all, and why interoperability always seems to mean “mostly works, as long as you bought everything from us.”

It’s patriotic, petty, and painfully familiar: a fireworks show of AV complaints aimed directly at the systems, specs, and design habits we should have dumped into the harbor years ago.

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