Episode 21: About Me, Steve Greenblatt Asks Patrick Murray About Staying Relevant In A Changing Industry

this is a software defined survival where we explore how software defined systems are changing the business of TV IT today where to find survivors can’t just kind of put together a software program on the back of a napkin it just doesn’t work constraining values find out what you excel at but many many times in life so like a lot and I will admit that guilty pleasure and we also get satisfaction out of that anybody came in the lock me up right away that’s you know and I would see could be the driver that convinces display manufacturers to adopt one protocol right because we all know there’s nothing special about your power on command and I think this is kind of a danger in just accepting what comes out of as the solution of the year I am Steve for invite your special host for today our guest today started his career as a freelance service technician moving up to serve in the industry in various roles as a systems engineer and control system program and finally pursuing his entrepreneurial spirit by starting an independent programming company for he’s been in business for over thirteen years and he’s going to become an educator a software developer and inventor an online marketer and podcaster his extensive experience a major control system platforms as well as other mainstream programming languages has proved to be very valuable in being able to make his mark on the industry he’s worked both in the US and in Europe and he’s fluent in both English and German well he probably needs no further introduction he’s the host of the software defined survival Patrick Murray how are you Patrick I’m excellence the thank you for that flattering introduction so it was that accurate is there anything that you’d like to add %HESITATION though that is accurate for sure %HESITATION yeah very flattering like I said %HESITATION it’s it’s always interesting when you get the when somebody else reads back your resume to you and now I’m I’m just a programmer I I can know the feeling so I’m give me a little bit of background here what got you into this industry what keeps in this industry and what would you like the most about it so yeah this question is always like where do you start %HESITATION I I dropped out of college because I couldn’t keep still right had all this nervous energy and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and I was working as a messenger Manhattan delivering boxes here and there and and I worked my way up there to %HESITATION be enough operations manager for an overnight distribution company for office products and then a buddy of mine told me he was going to the institute of audio research to learn how to record music and so I said wow that sounds like something I could sink my teeth into because you know I was a bit of a musician guitar and piano and stuff and I was always curious about how sound actually worked so this idea that you could go to school for that %HESITATION sign me up and at I. R. instability research I learned a whole bunch of stuff about you know what I’m able to do like I learned how to solder I learned how to build electronic circuits of course I learned about the physics of sounds and things like that and you know I hated science and in high school and stuff like that because the subject matter was really relevant right how guitar amplifier works it really sparked my curiosity and and love of learning and %HESITATION yeah and I realize that I did not want to work in the New York City recording industry I wasn’t really cool enough for that but building these racks pulling cables plugging things together %HESITATION the flow of systems and how all that works that’s kind of how I got into a V. I got an apprenticeship fixing pro audio gear and then I did a few projects with a guy named Dennis flood from I. designs and %HESITATION he taught me a whole bunch of stuff about how a V. works and how to build these kind of projects and wire them up and then I went to the systems group it’s %HESITATION broadcast company in Hoboken New Jersey and see what I really learned there was how on how to manage large projects right in in broadcasting installation is like ten racks is small there’s just there’s so big that you need to have a process to make that happen and it would start with you know cutting cables ninety ten cables that are a hundred feet long and they got to be white hens %HESITATION and then people would terminate those cables and then they would get taken to the back room where they would be installed halfway into Iraq and you dress them up and it was just a process for every step of the way and then when you got to the site you know things would plug could be plugged in and kind of work and %HESITATION I guess a year or so after after that I work for Harry Joseph associates and they had that was the first real AV projects or AV company that I worked for board room AV and they kind of had that same idea everything was engineered we build up Iraq in their office and we tested everything everything was programs was really process oriented system oriented so when you got to the job site you plugged it in and it just kind of worked and %HESITATION so back to your question I guess what I like about TV is is a kind of the signal flow I really enjoy that how things work together how to piece together different types of equipment %HESITATION to make a system and how it works ands yeah ends Harry Joseph sent me to a mixed training that’s how I got into programming ends software is just like all of that times ten because you know you can really do anything with software there’s so many different building blocks that you can piece together and so many different ways and %HESITATION yeah I guess that’s what kind of keeps me in AV I I can relate to that I so you mention number times process %HESITATION process I think is important thing and it certainly is for somebody who’s organized and and technically minded process is really the key to success do you see process is being an important part of software in ATV and because I I don’t necessarily know that we use enough process and it of course we don’t right %HESITATION there are people who do great jobs at their integrators out there who do everything the way it should be done but it was kind of a rude awakening for me when I became an independent programmer and open my own company and started to see you know how different integrators handle projects and %HESITATION yeah it was a bit of a surprise how on process the it is hell how little systems play a role in in how projects are actually executed on and there’s a lot of room for improvement in the industry as a whole from my experience I guess and they’re always companies to do it right to the places where I learned from %HESITATION they taught me that way so that’s I I was kind of I guess a little spoiled because I thought that’s how everybody operated and %HESITATION once it became a free lancer found out that that was totally different so how that relates to software if if software is the play more of a role in where this industry is going we will not stand a chance and less we spend more time up front defining things because you can’t just kind of put together a software program on the back of a napkin it just doesn’t work so in going down that road a little bit further the the we’ve been able to get away with it quite a bit right exact and %HESITATION and and so what what do you think that people are going to need to know as technology evolves or as the industry evolves we’re what what what are some of the the areas you know it’s one thing to learn a programming language but it’s another thing to learn and develop and scale sure can you elaborate a little bit about what what that might look like for people that don’t necessarily have that either knowledge or expertise well it depends on what your role in the industry is so if you’re an integrator what you’re wrong that company are you the engineer program or are you the business owner Judy you gonna have a different ones depending where you are if you’re technology manager at an end user enterprise or university for example you’ll have different people we need to answer to their as well so many times it becomes more of a a skill of selling an idea then actions then been the technology itself of course the technology has to work you have to be good at what you do you need to be skilled and trained and you got to have some experience under your belt but if you want to do things a different way %HESITATION there needs to be a reason for it and if a company has been operating a certain way for a long time and like you said been getting away with it it’s hard to make that shift and to be honest with you spent some of my customers they get it and they appreciate it ends there will give you a brief example I always encourage integrators to build the system in their factory first right building off site as much as you can and we will look great at the ends but that cost more money right it takes more space you need to order the equipment earlier that money needs to be there you need to have the space for it and since there may also be this attitude where these texts doing here in our office when they could be off it job sites doing things so that’s a mindset that %HESITATION that needs to be changed somewhat if if you’re if you’re not used to doing things that way so I think %HESITATION a bit of sales and and not really in that you know used cars made sense but just thinking about what why am I doing what I’m doing why do I need to take a new approach what is the benefit and think about who you’re explaining it to what’s the benefit to them and I have a hard time explaining that some of my customers they just they’re just not open to the idea that they’re not the right customer for this idea right it doesn’t mean we can’t work together but I just need to know that they’re not open to working in that way but the other people who are accepting of it and they give it a chance and then they see the results then it’s like well why did we do it that way all the time I I totally get that and I I totally appreciated I I think the there’s a lot of of value that we provide as kind of that third party auditor we are also the %HESITATION at a independent Graham a company and and you know being able to bring an outside group in to say Hey let’s Sam clean clean up this process a little bit or or let’s approach things in a certain way or what we need to know this information in order to be successful I think is challenging the the the typical in house process a little bit let’s shift gears a little bit and it all over the course of your career what are some of the more significant changes that you’ve seen in the industry the iPhone that really was it I mean what what’s a touchdown write it in the late nineties early two thousands nobody knew what we did nobody knew it I think the only exposure touch panel had to the general public was when Ozzy Osborne was on cribs right there was a touch pad on there I don’t know the manufacturer even if I did not see the name but I think as he picked up the touch panel I’m not sure if he actually through it but he was complaining that it didn’t work sure instead look at this thing it doesn’t work so great for us but as soon as the iPhone came out right everybody suddenly knew what a touch panel was and they knew what an app was they were used to touching the screen and having something happen maybe not in the room itself but something happened on on the phone or in the game or whatever it was so I really think the iPhone so you know whatever it is you think of apple but the way they brought that to market and the the way the general public became aware of technology just the influence it had you know it’s it’s like the personal computer I think it’s on the same scale everybody has a mobile phone or you know many people do it nowadays it’s had a huge impact on the way the general public views technology bands because of that the expectations on us on the things we do has also risen in once the iPhone came out the expectations of technology completely changed you know it should be simple if you work it should be easy but maybe it should be or it doesn’t only belong in the corporate boardroom anymore it should be more accessible to more people maybe not necessarily commodity but definitely within the reach of more people than than just that that high level executive board room I I definitely think that’s the case right now and I think that because of that and I’m sure you’ll elaborate on this a little bit industry is feeling the pressure everything that is now more attainable a means that it doesn’t mean take as much effort urchin cost as much or a or or why why what what so complex and custom or why does it have to be custom so with that in mind at how how to people in in our position maintain their relevance because aids is what we do gonna continue to be in demand and or or is is there a different way that we should be thinking yeah the shorter answer is I don’t know it’s it’s why I started this podcast to have these kind of conversations and just see what the different takes are because the bottom line is nobody knows the answer nobody could tell the future and even if it looks like things will work out a certain way something could come out of left field and completely change the way %HESITATION projects are done war the way video compression is done or whatever this anything can happen so nobody really knows so what we can do to maintain our relevance is really the question right because as like you were talking about or systems used to be really complicated ends this question comes up kind of a lot on my mind is are there less complex projects because there will always be projects that need custom programming that need that operator twelve inch operator touch panel with lots of functionality and it ends then another version for a simpler user that has less buttons on it so that you know group of creating an environment of commanding control center is a perfect example of that you know if you’ve got a big video wall and maybe a hundred more sources and lots of destinations and different scenarios that you need to call up that’s complex and then you have a different groups of users right so you’ll have the user who could deal with complexity of another user that just wants to or three bonds to make what happens those kind of projects are really you know where companies like ours shine right as independent programmers that’s where we really bring a lot of value to the table and you know that’s always been the case I think those projects are becoming less right that I think it’s but as a percentage of AV overall it’s definitely declining so the amount of those projects may still exist and you could concentrate on that niche right so that’s one approach is your business could say we are command control center experts or whatever it is whatever that complex in the cheese and then just continue doing what we’re doing for another approach is %HESITATION had Ryan Howard on the show and he had this interesting idea that as things become commoditized %HESITATION and you have a platform so you one of the system may not be interesting because it’s just a display on the wall but managing a hundred of those displays on a wall will then that could become complex right that could be a reason to hire %HESITATION a software developer to create whatever it is systems for digital signage for analytics or whatever it is that special and custom that that enterprise needs on that platform level so I think that’s you know we may not have to change right it’s a choice how how do you want to run your business where you see opportunities how you want to spend your time I think you’ll we all need to be a little more focused on what we do instead of saying we do AV we do some residential we do some commercial it we can do anything and seen I’ve I’ve done that for a very long time and it worked out well but I think with this commoditization we may need to specialize even more on certain things even though we are the generalists and will always interact with all these different systems I mean that’s what we do but to find our niche is in %HESITATION in certain articles maybe for certain applications I think that’s something that we can do to to me remain relevant so it’s more of a business model idea than than actual technology which which makes sense because the they say that you wanted to find your niche at a business in any any industry sure and you know I’ve heard this term used quite a bit is you you instead of being one mile wide at what age did you want to be running schweid and one mile deep say you are you really own your marketing you you own your area of focus and that’s something AV never really was right we were just AB if there was a picture and sounds we could do it this has that been your experience too well %HESITATION yeah there there are people that it that specialize in certain areas but I think the that they’re they’re not there there isn’t enough of pushing the envelope you know we we both know we can do a lot more with what what we provided instead of just providing satisfying the the the requirements there should be looking to be able to do something that providing more value or satisfying more of a need for a client yeah and and I think when you focus more then automatically you’re you’re focusing on but what is the value that are providing and and that’s where you find your niche and it doesn’t have to be like I only two hotels are I only do yachts it could be this type of a system like %HESITATION I don’t know integrating this with that concentrating on the value is where you find out what you excel at so what with that in mind and I think that as it may be a good time to bring up your you you are a little bit they go to the differently than than others in the industry have come to to understand you know you and I know each other for awhile and and and I value that relationship and and I really admire the things you’ve been doing it a one is this podcast and other is is offering training to the industry dabbling in online marketing and so forth it’s it’s risky and and it’s tough to think differently %HESITATION what’s been your experience and and that kind of kind of like you know paint this picture for everybody just to kind of give them a little bit of a of a of a insight into the inner workings of Patrick oh boy so he had the motivation for it all was really it was first you know living in Germany it’s it’s different like I come from this New York New Jersey area there was always work to be had for anyone in AV ends I kind of live in a rural area of Germany but Germany in general has its own quirks about how projects are done and %HESITATION if it wasn’t always easy so there was a lot of feast or famine we we did well and I would %HESITATION be involved with very large projects where you you just put your head down for longer than a year at times right and then coming out of that it’s kind of like okay what do I do now and eventually the phone always writing in and we always found our way but after I guess a decade or so doing that you start to wonder is you know is there a better way is there a way to just avoid this famine and get something consistent happening met maybe not a hundred percent there but just some kind of consistent income to %HESITATION to get through those times ends and take the stress out of being a small business that’s kind of where my head was at a little bit and at the same time looking at software right the iPhone is out it’s everywhere right it’s there’s this huge change in the industry happening but there’s this whole idea of well I can’t do that stuff right all I heard about is how difficult objective sees right that’s the program apps were written in and all these things you don’t know about and Crestron came out with simple sharp around the same time and it was well off if they’re introducing this to the market then maybe this is something we could learn so I put my head down and %HESITATION I forced myself to learn see sharp and it only took about two weeks of focused concentration not to become an expert programmer but just to make something happen right you want to push a button ends and %HESITATION make a switch or turn a light on and off whatever it is and %HESITATION yeah I press that button many many times and watch the light go on and off I will admit that guilty pleasure instead we also get satisfaction out of that people think anybody came in the lock me up right away but so once I realized that I could do this apple was talking about how easy swift was the program at the same time it was their answer to everybody saying objective C. was difficult so I gave that a shot and lo and behold I could write it now ands wow I could open a TCP connection right from an iPad what can I do with that and that’s where the technical part of me that you know how do I. peace these systems together and do things was like wow I don’t need to control processor all the time ands yeah I did a projects %HESITATION came across my desk where I was directly working directly for an end user and it was in the visible room simple enough and we did it just with iPads and little global cachet converters and it works it still works today just fine so all this kind of came together to say to me like okay maybe there’s some opportunity here so I’m looking for some way to create some consistent income and I’m seeing technology change before my eyes executing on it and getting it to work so technically the whole idea sounds so %HESITATION yeah I started creating some apps and tried to bring them out to the market and show them on some trade shows and everybody said wow that’s cool ends not many people bought it so it was kind of his rude awakening of fathers a lot of things that I don’t know %HESITATION technologically I I know quite a bit and I know this thing works and I know it’s valid and I know you could make a business out of it right I’ve had people pay me customers our customers pay me money my company money for delivering solutions like this what’s going on ands yeah that’s what I kind of realize there’s a lot of things that I don’t know about business or bringing a new idea to market and I just had more questions than answers and I was having some great conversations with people I just started calling pretty much everyone I knew and asking questions and %HESITATION one day I forget what it was I think it was Colin Bernie mention that you could contract menu actor the equipment for an entire TV projects speakers the display just contract manufacturer everything and that idea was so you know different to me an interesting I said wow I wish I could share these conversations with people and I don’t know if you recorded conversation and put it on the internet it’s called podcast and here we are today so that’s that’s kind of how the podcast was born and %HESITATION the course is really just came from looking in the forms learning %HESITATION learning simple shock myself and having such a hard time with it and it was such a lack of information about how to do simple things I I made a YouTube video that showed you how to make an interlock with simple sharp pro and it’s like hundreds of people I think about two hundred people signed up for the source code for that so I had the video in little league for the source code in your email because I wanted to know if anybody was interested in %HESITATION in doing that and that was a nice little test if you give me your email address that I know that you know your at least someone interested in it and that’s kind of what set me on the path of making the online courses very interesting hair is so obviously is a lot that you’ve learned what what are some some things that you can share with the audience because I know that part of what I value out of listening to the podcast is how you are always looking to learn from your gas what are some things that you think that you can share that would be valuable to me or other people listening the whole start slowly start early %HESITATION have as many conversations with you can as you can with the people you want to work with so really know what you want out of life out of your career out of your business I think that’s important setting goals and knowing what your expectations are for yourself and from there you could kind of the side you know what kind of projects you want to be working on and then figure out how to do it figure out if there’s a need for before you go down that rabbit hole of creating something that %HESITATION that doesn’t have that much value that doesn’t create that much value for other people if you’re just learning something thing go ahead and have fun right if you did it so that’s again knowing what the goal is if you just want to learn a new programming language then you know shut the door put the headphones on and and go into your own world little world by all means but if you’re you know if you you are looking to create a product or a business or something that that idea of product value of validation is extremely important and I really that if I learned anything it’s it’s that is the most important lesson is find out if anybody else is it or find out how you could provide value to other people and really know it because if somebody says something somebody says that’s cool it’s not enough you know you got to get them to part with something of value in the I think it starts with an email address or some of their time you know can we talk about this going to give your product demonstration and of course if somebody’s willing to pay for something that’s the ultimate validation there so I think in this whole thing that I’ve been through over the past few years that’s really the most important lesson that I’ve learned is %HESITATION you know find out what the value is that you you could provide and to so I I’ve heard the term you know have your potential customer of vote with their credit card yeah that they may apply there and I and I can appreciate that it it’s something that I that I have learning gained in and something that over my career I can look back and say I wish that I did some things differently similarly to what you described but I think it it takes a lot of courage and it takes takes a lot of Dr and and determination to keep at it and and that’s why you’ve gotten to where you’ve gotten %HESITATION what he thinks is next for you for me well I really enjoy making the courses at learning the programming dot com because I get to learn something new I get to explain it but the feedback from people is really it’s just it’s great to know that you help somebody learn something and you know there are people in that situation where I was saying I’m just any programmer what do I need modern programming languages for what will that do for me I I you know why should I bother and then having people take a course and say alright now I understand how this works and I know that I could do it %HESITATION they’ve been people who said they’ve gotten an interest new job because now they could write simple sharp roll on their resume %HESITATION people have created new products because they’ve been inspired to look at modern programming in a different way to look at how they design systems in a completely different way and you know I say all this some feeling a little weird because it sounds like into my own horn but it’s really it’s more of a its roots really satisfying as for feeling to know that you were able to help somebody %HESITATION make a change in their career so I want to continue doing some courses I’m also working with a to other developers on an application called catch connect and it’s it’s a little software application that runs on windows or on a raspberry pi and you put that on the local network and you can define little connections to the TCP connections or website gets to the devices on a local network and then that that piece of software also opens a connection to a cloud application so you can log into that dashboard and you could see if your devices are online or off line and you can send them commands so you could control the projector on and off and do some first line trouble shooting right there and that kind of structure gives us the opportunity to do a lot of interesting things because we have that connection that secure connection from the cloud to your local devices we can integrate with Alexa war IFTTT ends we can start collecting data and doing analytics with that so that’s kind of warm focusing a lot of my time now and %HESITATION at looking for to see where it takes takes us very fascinating I I yeah I think I think that that’s a nice glimpse into the future and I think that that’s also a product of you thinking differently and being and knowing that there’s going to be some some trends a at that are showing the industry is changing what do you think what is your prediction I guess for for the next day I don’t know five years and as far as the the the what what people are going to be experiencing where where the the demands are going to be and and down and you know obviously there’s seven there there there’s the pressures that we talked about %HESITATION but but there’s also sentenced a lot of shifts in technology that are influencing what is going to be a current of modern AV system Adam will end in your mind what it what do you what do you think is going to be where have a second be defined I think there’s a few things to unpack there that there is the business side and there’s the technology side and then there is the kind of the middle where those two with two things mixed together and that’s never really clear right with technology it’s a one or zero you know exactly what’s gonna happen you don’t know what’s going to come right away but how things play out how new technology plays out in the market that’s that’s that mixture of of business and technology and it it makes it murky it’s it’s hard to know what’s going to happen %HESITATION I I think I would see why have a huge influence on AV because we do networks of things it’s a buzz word %HESITATION when I first started hurting hearing it for the longest time I just dismissed it right as a buzz word %HESITATION we’ve been doing networks of things forever doesn’t mean anything to me but what I think we can learn from it is the practices right how it’s being implemented so if you look at something like a nest that’s an IOC products and what are they doing with it while they’re managing a fleet of their devices right do we don’t do anything like that maybe her and said look at the management platforms that that are available to your typical AV integrator how often are they really use how effectively are they really use what are they actually being used for how often does it gets back to never installed how often does the programmer just stand there and say alright you ordered this thing what would you like it to do right so that plays into the you know the whole software practices you know how does the software development community at large how do they do their projects and what can we learn from them and it’s going to be hard it’s going to be really difficult because that again affects the business model you need to front load a lot of work you need to spend a lot of time defining what your goals are who your users are how you’re going to compartmentalize the different technologies so that multiple people to work on the same project at the same time and then plug it all in together and it all just works that’s a different work flow than your typical UV project has and I think it’s a real challenge for us but I think there’s a there’s obviously a lot of opportunity there %HESITATION but I wonder you know this conversation always ends for me is we’ll just cool will do it for us should write I I feel like it’s an exaggeration when I say that but it also could be a real thing that you know Amazon Google whoever just comes out with the protocol that everyone adopts ends that’s you know and I would see could be the driver that convinces display manufacturers to them adopt one protocol right because we all know there’s nothing special about your power on command we also know that they’re not interested in a standard because CC was their opportunity to do it and they just ignored it but maybe I would see is that thing that executives talk about enough to create enough motion with decision makers from manufacturers to agree to actually agree on a standard use something like that could happen and if that does happen you know they will have a real challenge of finding out where we remain relevant because you know that then that’s an opportunity for Amazon to just make an app that does everything just real quickly your take on what dire T. means and you know just what just so that we can make sure that we’re we’re clarifying for everybody yet what immediately coming whatever you want to be I mean it internet of things okay so it’s it’s a it’s a device that has a connection to the internet aren’t so we’ve been doing networks of things even if it’s %HESITATION cereal and relays and I are we’ve been making little networks of things for a long time integrating devices so the IOC introduces the internet ends but what that does is it’s how you apply that is what I owe team means to me it’s not just that you have this network of things that have the capability talking to each other it’s the practices and application of using that type of a system so what do you do you well you can do integrations so if you look at any kind of a a webapp integrations are huge part of many of their business models what does your software integrate with those that integrate with sales force doesn’t integrate with this or that so the IOC makes it possible to do those things right and collecting data business analytics business insights it’s it’s obviously a huge thing and you know I really think everybody should be collecting the on their systems starting today even if you don’t know what the heck you’re going to do with it or what kind of format it should be an because either have it or you don’t right even and it’s not hard to do I’ve done a bunch tutorials online that show you just how easy it is to just you know record how often a source was selected and then you’ll know in a year or two if anybody ever really selected the apple TV right and these are really simple things that we could start doing today and it could be a value add that keeps us relevant and I just don’t understand what the resistance is or you know if it’s really just a lack of knowledge or a fear of security but I would see brings all of these questions along with it you know it’s it’s also an opportunity to learn and we’ll close along those lines because I think I or T. is going to make the system is more intelligent and they’re going to make them more yes more more he I write and then that’s where I was going sand in it they’re gonna make this head they they gonna make a more personalized and more and and more predictable right %HESITATION store or being able to leverage predictability so where do you think we have a really think a I and artificial intelligence is going to have fried in what we do I have phases where I think about it a lot and then I just forced myself to stop thinking about it because you can really come up with these crazy ideas and stuff you know and I have talked to people about it years ago like look this is coming this is possible and that the idea has it changed the way I can do and you know they say to me all what it’ll turn your TV on for you because it knows you’re of the home at five o’clock and say well yeah maybe maybe that is the thing right you know and if you have an iPhone it’ll tell you how long it’ll take to get to work that some form of a high in these kind of technologies are sneaky right it’s nobody labels it like some people do what it is that that feature on the iPhone doesn’t get labeled this is artificial intelligence telling you I know where you live I know where you work and I’m taking all that data and figuring out with the traffic on the fly how long and tell you how long it’s gonna take you to get to work right that’s in a I application but it it’s it doesn’t feel like it it doesn’t feel like skied it at all if it’s like you said it improves your life it’s just this little thing that makes it easier to do something so how does that affect the V. in many different ways like I had to even be on Charlie on the show I think was a week or two ago and he’s talking about software that just analyze everything analyzing everything that’s happening in the space what kind of you know if somebody’s facing a display he’s got skeletal recognition software so you could tell how you’re moving %HESITATION using I tunes I tune begins to see how you know what kind of phones people have so it for just say digital signage right you’re showing ads and you could use these beacons to determine the ratio of iPhone to android users right and then you can show a different set of ads because the iPhone people maybe more affluent than people with androids and you’re gonna wanna show them a different kind of marketing so think something like that is a great application for for digital signage ends you know it’s another one of those rabbit holes with there’s just so many ideas that are that you could do with it but I think when you call it a I that it just it’s just programming right in the ends there’s some logic happening somewhere and if you’re feeding that into something that can really crunch a lot of data and spit out some kind of an output these are things you can start playing with today look into tenser flow from Google and just watch a few videos on it and you’ll get the creative ideas going and then go to your customers and ask them if it has value for them really that’s what it comes down to it’s not going to be an overnight thing where you know everything’s automated in perfect and and and personalized it’s it’s going to be a process of incremental changes that we can introduce to our systems and you may not even realize it like augmented reality it sounds crazy right but if you have one of these cars with a video display and rear camera where they overlay arrows or a map on top of it that’s augmented reality or it doesn’t look like it there’s no label on there but it’s an application of augmented reality so I think these things are more %HESITATION useful than they sound so you mentioned a few times pass gas and I know that part of the podcast ways to be able to to learning can gain as we mentioned so what would have been a couple of your favorite moments I did a highlight email a few weeks ago it’s tough to choose it really is because I do get something out of every episode %HESITATION I enjoyed talking to you facts right because %HESITATION were in the same business and it’s it’s it’s just really cool to ask somebody you know I have this problem with my business what would you do in my situation how do you handle this and you know like we kind of deal with the same kind of customers and and getting that kind of feedback was you know useful %HESITATION I would do this even if we weren’t recording it %HESITATION what else I think %HESITATION yet Dave Silverstein comes to mind with the whole I would do you think I think he has some great ideas on on I. O. T. and its role could play on TV a lot of the things that I was just talking about you know came from him it’s it’s kind of strange because I don’t even know what ideas are my own anymore or what I’m stealing from other people and mixing together %HESITATION I like to Ryan’s idea about you know commodity hardware becoming a platform and what you could do with that this whole idea of storytelling %HESITATION the guys from control envy told me that it’s really important to %HESITATION defined user stories for at all your different users at the beginning of your project and it’s this whole idea of stories has become the theme %HESITATION you know that AV systems are really just tools for storytelling that’s come up quite a bit %HESITATION I really enjoy the interview with mark day %HESITATION because he’s doing some very interesting things applying modern software tools to that is not completely change the severity systems are the same but the way his customers view this systems their experience with them are totally altered it’s it’s it comes back to you know how do you stay relevant how do you provide more value he’s executing on it at a level that %HESITATION that I think that is really encouraging to me and and really enjoyable to hear about so I enjoy that show %HESITATION I don’t know open up the website will go through the whole thing because I really do enjoy every what this episode which is why I keep doing it exactly so is there anything else that you wanted to share that we may not have touched on no I just think my messages really just keep learning just don’t stop learning it you know what really %HESITATION this is all about is like I said in the beginning when I started in navy Crestron amex just sold touch browsing controllers extras all switchers in auto passion and clear one and you know everybody had their thing that they specialized in so as an easy integrator or even a programmer you brought a lot to the table piecing all the systems together defining what %HESITATION the customer needed right listening to their needs and really putting together a system with your talents and creativity ends I what worry if a little bit of that gets lost in this move to one manufacturer delivering everything and I think this is kind of a danger in just accepting what comes out at Infocom as the solution of the year and I would really just encourage anyone to %HESITATION think a little more critically about you know the technology of course the applications the things that are available to us keep learning but also about you know your business and your career and how you want to be spending your time and %HESITATION find out if there’s if there’s a fit there in the market for you know what you love to do ends and what you can do well so I I appreciate your time and and sharing this in the a couple things that I got out of this conversation was that it’s not just about technology it’s about business and technology which was which would which made a light bulb go off for me and both that you know your business as well as your client’s business and I think that that’s a real real big takeaway for me so I hope that I could share that with the audience and others will find that the same type of value in that that message job and I’m sure everybody knows how to get in touch with you but why don’t we let let them know and add dad how can how can that the audience get to %HESITATION get some more of your wisdom and and that ghetto touch with you and and and sample some of the things you’ve been doing yeah it’s it’s getting a little ridiculous my email signatures all these websites so there’s learning reprogramming dot com where there’s lots of online courses you could sign up there and %HESITATION and you’ll get some emails with me and I’m on YouTube to %HESITATION link then of course some very active there and %HESITATION I appreciate everybody that connects with me because it lets me share my ideas and and %HESITATION that interaction is really important to me so yeah I guess messaging me on linkedin Patrick Murray and you are a why %HESITATION or learning the program to calm the software defined survival dot com look around you’ll find me current as well thanks for being on your show and thanks for hosting it you’re welcome anytime if you or anyone on your staff ever considered themselves just in eighty programmer join the club that’s how I used to feel I was just just Crestron program or whatever language of your choice is whatever it may be is generally this feeling in AV that we’re not capable of using modern programming languages and it simply isn’t true short there’s a learning curve but once you get through it all other languages become easier to learn and it just expands the amount of options you have when designing a system it’s not an either or decision you don’t say I won’t be using these manufacture tools anymore it’s just you have a broader palate to choose from ends here’s what market day founder of idea box had to say about his experience with the online courses at learn eighty programming dot com you know Patrick it’s funny how the smallest things can sometimes be the start of a really big ideas %HESITATION before I took the learn ATV programming dot com courses I was in that Terry I’m only a control system programmer kind of mindset ray %HESITATION when he came to new technologies or current technologies like Java script error or things like that for some reason I thought that was different from what I’m doing and what taking your courses flipped for me was not so much what I learned technically taking the courses it was the mindset of well wait a second I’m already doing ninety nine percent of what some of these most of modern programmers are dealing I just have to learn %HESITATION you know the other one percent and that’s really what I did so it’s really been kind of a big change after taking the course %HESITATION and I would really recommend this course to any integrator not only will obviously help their skill set but more importantly it might change their whole mindset %HESITATION which is more important and and and really show them new opportunities open the door so they kind of see problems through a different lens %HESITATION I gotta tell you one of the biggest changes for me was as soon as I become myself HTML CSS javascript and solve the you eyes that I can make with those technologies I just couldn’t sell a %HESITATION Crestron touch him again mark is a great example of somebody who takes new information and really applies it I know that mark still sells a lot of Crestron equipment but for him for his company for his customers for his business he needed a better you why he needed another option for user interface and modern programming allowed him to do that so the question is how can you use modern programming to improve your business please go to learn a few programming dot com and wherever you see a sign up button go ahead and sign up and you’ll get some free information to get a feel of my learning style and what kind of information is available and of course it would be an honor to have you in role in one of our courses and help you upgrade your skills and take this industry to the next level thanks for listening software defined survival I hope you found it useful and maybe it inspires you to try out something new this week if you have any questions does software defined survival dot com I’d love to answer questions on the air and if you’d like to help spread the word please subscribe comment and share it with