ADA Compliance Cannot Be Added at the Punch List | AV Under the Hood

Accessibility cannot be something AV teams check at the end of a project. Dustin Myers explores why it needs to be considered throughout design, construction, and commissioning, from equipment placement and clear floor space to assistive listening systems. By asking the right questions early and coordinating across trades, AV professionals can help create learning spaces that work better for everyone. Read More

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September 17, 2026

USB-C Is a Connector, Not a Promise | AV Under the Hood

USB-C may look like a simple classroom connection, but the connector alone does not guarantee video, charging, data, or device compatibility. Dustin Myers breaks down why USB-C can behave so differently from one laptop, cable, or dock to another, and what higher ed AV teams need to understand, test, and document before relying on it in the classroom. Read More

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September 3, 2026

Who Is Running the Clock? | AV Under the Hood

Getting audio from one device to another is only part of what makes networked audio work. In this installment of AV Under the Hood, Dustin Myers breaks down why clocking matters in Dante, how PTP keeps devices synchronized, and what changes when AES67 enters the picture. Read More

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August 20, 2026

Who Gets to Go First? | AV Under the Hood

When audio starts breaking up or video begins to freeze, it's easy to assume the network needs more bandwidth. In this installment of AV Under the Hood, Dustin Myers explores why congestion and bandwidth aren't the same thing, how switches decide which traffic gets priority, and why understanding Quality of Service (QoS) can help AV professionals become better partners with their network teams. It's a practical look at the question every network eventually has to answer: who gets to go first? Read More

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August 6, 2026

Understanding Multicast Without the Buzzwords | AV Under the Hood

Multicast is one of the most misunderstood concepts in AV-over-IP, often explained through acronyms before anyone explains why it matters. In this installment of AV Under the Hood, Dustin Myers takes a practical, AV-focused approach to multicast, showing how a single stream can reach countless displays without overwhelming the network. Along the way, he demystifies concepts like IGMP Snooping and the IGMP Querier, helping readers understand not just how multicast works, but the problem it was designed to solve. Read More

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July 23, 2026

AVoIP Isn’t Magic, It’s Just Packets | AV Under the Hood

AVoIP can seem like magic until you understand what's happening behind the scenes. In this installment of AV Under the Hood, Dustin Myers breaks down how video becomes packets, why networks only see data, and what AV professionals need to know to better understand modern AV systems. Read More

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July 9, 2026

We’ll Come Back and Fix It Later | AV Under the Hood

In this installment of AV Under the Hood, Dustin Myers reflects on a familiar challenge in AV and IT: the fixes we promise ourselves we'll come back to later. Revisiting a classroom years after an upgrade, he finds himself face-to-face with temporary decisions that quietly became permanent. It's a thoughtful reminder that today's shortcuts, documentation gaps, and unfinished tasks often become tomorrow's headaches. Read More

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June 25, 2026

Accessibility Doesn’t Stop at the Ramp | AV Under the Hood

Dustin Myers reflects on what he saw at InfoComm 2026 and raises a simple but important point: accessibility doesn’t end with meeting code. Ramps were there, but many booths were still hard to navigate in real use. This piece looks at the gap between “technically accessible” and actually usable, and why better booth design is really about the experience for everyone. Read More

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AV Under the Hood : Standard isn't identical

June 10, 2026

Standards Don’t Mean Identical | AV Under the Hood

Standardization is a core part of supporting AV across higher education, but it’s easy to take it too far. In this piece, Dustin Myers looks at how institutions sometimes drift from consistency into uniformity, and what gets lost when every room is forced into the same mold. Drawing on real examples, he explores why good standards should focus on how spaces function, not just what equipment they contain, and why flexibility is still critical as AV continues to evolve. Read More

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May 28, 2026

Security by Obscurity Is Not a Security Strategy | AV Under the Hood

In this article, Dustin Myers takes a hard look at a common assumption in higher ed AV: that systems are “secure enough” because they’re out of sight or on their own network. Drawing from industry discussion and real-world examples, Dustin Myers breaks down why security by obscurity fails, how AV environments mirror broader IoT risks, and why isolation often isn’t what it appears to be. It’s a practical reminder that modern AV systems need to be built to withstand scrutiny, not depend on avoiding it. Read More

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May 14, 2026

Why AV Teams and IT Teams Don’t Speak the Same Language | AV Under the Hood

In this article, Dustin Myers looks at why AV teams and IT teams often struggle to understand each other, even as campus technologies become more interconnected. He breaks down how differences in perspective, priorities, and definitions of success shape everything from reliability and bandwidth to accountability when things fail. The result is a clear case for shared understanding and shared ownership as AV systems become part of the core of teaching and learning. Read More

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April 30, 2026

AV Security Is No Longer Optional in Higher Education | AV Under the Hood

AV systems are no longer isolated presentation tools. In this AV Under the Hood article, Dustin Myers explains why networked AV must be treated as part of the institutional security surface and what higher education teams can do to address risk at the design, procurement, and operational levels. As AV and IT continue to converge, leaving AV out of the security conversation is no longer defensible. Read More

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