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| Its time to talk IT |
| by Mark J. Pescatore |
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March 4, 2005
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What is video? No, this isnt one of those esoteric, life challenging questions. Trust me, Im not that deep a thinker Im not even sure what esoteric means.
The reason I ask is that the job description for todays video professional is changing, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. More and more, AV is requiring IT in its job responsibilities.
I talk AV/IT all the time at trade shows with exhibitors and attendees, but sometimes I get the feeling that people want to avoid the topic. You know, if you ignore it long enough it might just go away. But in todays AV environment, thats the type of attitude that can get you replaced. Quickly.
The Academic Perspective
A few months back, I quoted information from a study from Weinstock Media Analysis, Educational Spending on AV Technology: A Complex and Strong Market. The New York-based research firm spent a year collecting data for the study, which analyzed AV technology spending by educational institutions. The report is based on responses from more than 3,300 participants from colleges and universities, media creation schools, and K-12 schools.
The good news is that plenty of money is being spent on AV equipment in the academic world. In fact, there was more than $1 billion spent by educational institutions on AV technologies for the 2002-2003 school year. However, spending trends show an increase in dollars appropriated to IT purchases.
From Weinstock: Continuing modest declines in spending on traditional AV devices and media will be offset by gains in software sales and especially by gains in IT infrastructure that takes on AV functions. In non-market research speak, that means that IT technologies will continue to worm their way into the AV budget.
AV spending used to be mostly about VTRs, video monitors and projectors, all used to show tapes to classrooms, Weinstock added. It is now mostly about creation or playout of materials in digital files or streams over computers and IT networks. The trend towards merger of IT and AV is creating new cooperation patterns and services on campuses, and new areas of buying power at the expense of old patterns. In fact, according to respondents, one of the top issues regarding the use of AV technology in education was integration with the computer network. (It was the third biggest response, behind budget and ease of use.)
Academics are particularly good at living in a technology bubble. Give me two 3/4-inch tape decks and a Sony RM-440 edit controller and Ill be just fine, thank you very much. Unfortunately, changing technologies are forcing those bubbles to burst. Just as nonlinear editing is invading TV production programs at a rapid pace, IT technology is becoming an unavoidable part of the video landscape as well.
DOD Definitions
While Weinstocks research shows the growing synergy between AV and IT on campus, the educational environment is far from the only government video application that is feeling the effects. Over at the Department of Defense, for example, officials are updating the definition of visual information.
G.A. Redding, distance learning systems analyst for the Institute for Defense Analyses, drafted portions of the DODs current version back in 1987. At that time, he identified optical media and videoconferencing as AV. After all, in the late 1980s, both of these systems were anchored in analog technologies, and classifying them as AV made procurement actions through GSA and other contracting vehicles easier.
Things have changed, of course. Redding said most applications and devices have migrated to digital and is used equally by both communities. Its this blending of the technologies, as well as the emergence of video streaming, webcasting, and other tools, that has prompted the DOD to update its definition.
Redding argued that you can no longer truly separate what is exclusively AV and what is exclusively IT, and video professionals are forced to maintain more of a functional discipline of IT knowledge. AV professionals have to understand the [IT] technology in order to exercise their creativity, he explained.
From distance learning applications to video surveillance installations, IT has become integrated into the careers of video professionals across the government. Stop trying to ignore it, because its not going away. Instead, make sure you can do your job by understanding the IT elements that are impacting your operations.
Mark J. Pescatore is the editor. Contact him at mpescatore@cmpinformation.com.
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