Welcome To Tech Perspectives

David J. Danto

What’s Going On In Technology From My Personal Perspective

eMail: Perspectives@danto.com Return To: HTTPS://TechPerspectives.info

February 2024 – Welcome To Tech Perspectives

I was sitting at my desk when I received an “urgent” beep on my pager. I called the number and was told our executives were meeting in a conference room trying to have a video call and it wasn’t working. (The year – in case you’re curious – was 2002.) I walked into the room full of people (too many levels above me to count) glowering at me because the conference was already fifteen minutes late in starting. I went to the device and realized it needed to be rebooted.

If you want to understand the definition of an eternity, try rebooting a Polycom iPower videoconferencing codec while all your bosses’ bosses’ bosses are looking at you.

Years earlier I had specified appliance-based systems for these rooms, but then someone got in the middle of the specification process when I was temporarily not involved in the build-out project and changed them to these Windows based systems. That person never had the experience of trying to reboot one, so his advice turned out to be poor and uninformed.

Eight minutes later the call connected, but no one in the room appreciated the service I provided, even though the mistakes had been made months earlier by the specification, and years earlier by the device’s designer.

I wish that didn’t happen as often as it does in our industry. Whether it’s engineers designing systems before speaking with users, or executives making buying decisions on the golf course instead of listening to their technology teams, we live in a world where there is a huge gap between end-users and decision makers.

That is the impetus behind my launching TechPerspectives today – it will be my attempt to close that gap. I’ll draw upon two significant sources of truth – my four decades of experience on the front lines of technology as well as today’s actual end-user evangelists – to help manufacturers and service providers understand market needs more clearly – and in time to prevent the kind of mistakes that could be easily fixed if addressed early enough.

Mistakes like manufacturing a conference room camera housing only in white when every conference room display in the world is finished in black.

Mistakes like not putting a USB port on a device that would have met a Fortune 50s requirements, which would have enabled them to immediately order ten thousand of them instead of none.

Mistakes like failing to consider how a customer can buy one of something to try, then two, then ten, then thousands – but can’t buy those thousands without a ramp from that one sample.

I’ll use this monthly blog to share my perspectives – mostly on collaboration technology and services, but I reserve the right to highlight anything technology related that is really worth mentioning…or urgent to avoid. I have a four decades long reputation for integrity to the point of (one of my favorite terms) “Brutal Honesty” and I don’t intend to stop now. Look to these blogs for the truth about new offerings.

For one example, when was the last time you checked-out the amazing gear made by DVE Holographics? They’ve been around making awesome high-end video systems since the mid-2000s, and they happen to hold the patents on a lot of the technology that other firms are claiming is new. I’d definitely suggest that users who want high-end, true eye-contact systems look at their stuff first…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for taking the time to read, and again, welcome to Tech Perspectives. More next month.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.