Pull Out Your (Digital) Wallet | Business of AV
If the last two years taught us anything, it’s that future-proofing is impossible. There is no way to guess what the next requirement in higher ed, or AV in general, will be. We saw our classroom BOMs grow from legacy point-to-point switchers to fully-integrated camera-mic-Zoom-hybrid ecosystems practically overnight. While it is still to be decided how much of that change will become permanent post-pandemic, there’s no doubt the world has changed, and therefore our customers’ expectations of us have changed.
Three years ago I made the bold claim that the real convergence coming was not IT and AV, it was UC and AV. And I was right. Thanks to a global pandemic, it came faster than anticipated, but nevertheless, the technology was ready and waiting. It just needed a reason to shine. That ship has now sailed. The convergence of both IT and UC into AV are done… signed, sealed, delivered. The day you tell a faculty member that they cannot record a lecture or stream a subject matter expert into their class is the day you start updating your LinkedIn profile. Now, I’m not saying every space must be UC-enabled, but rather that we must be able to offer the service in some capacity. (My opinion, it needs to be a standard everywhere. Period. But that’s a decision you and your administration need to decide.)
So now… my next bold claim. The next convergence in AV is with the metaverse. Let me say it again… The next convergence in AV is with the metaverse.
I know most people jumped straight to envisioning a classroom of students all wearing VR headsets, and thought, no way, not happening. And you’re right, that will not be the standard–though it will be the case for some classes and spaces. But the reason you are wrong, and I am right, is because you don’t understand the metaverse and it’s purpose.
The metaverse is simply a codeword for blockchain-based experiential integration. Let me say that again… The metaverse is simply a codeword for blockchain-based experiential integration. In a recent AV Week episode, Frank Padikkala correctly stated that the biggest story of 2021 was Facebook’s rebranding to “Meta” (sic, Meta Platforms Inc.). So let me ask, why would the seventh biggest company in the world feel the need to fully rebrand and change its name? The answer isn’t because “only grandma uses Facebook.” Instagram Reels and WhatsApp are proof that Facebook is capable of separating its brands well enough to cater to the correct audience. Then why? Did you know that Facebook also runs a company called Reality Labs alongside a tech research division focusing on Artificial Intelligence? Reality Labs develops the Oculus, but that’s only a small part of their work.
More research money is going into augmented, virtual, and mixed reality experiences than any other tech area. Let me say that again… More research money is going into augmented, virtual, and mixed reality experiences than any other tech area. This is true at Facebook and it’s true on our university campuses. If you have an engineering school or are an R1 institution, just look at your grant dollars. Follow the money. Follow. The. Money. Cancer/medical research and alternative realities are where all the donor and grant money is flowing.
So what does this have to do with AV? AVIXA stands for the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association. What did I say earlier that the metaverse is codeword for? Blockchain-based experiential integration. Read this paragraph again from the start, and read it slowly. The metaverse is what we do! It is simply a digital version brought into a physical experience. There is money being spent, and there is money to be made. It is the teenagers at home who are going to be the next generation of devs and consumers. They will want workplaces and educational systems that mimic what they are doing now. While we are still arguing BYOD, the next generation is creating virtual lives that are thriving. It is our job to combine the two.
If you thought Esports had big dollars running through it, just you wait. Just. You. Wait. Any smart higher ed institution and intelligent integrator will recognize that the real money is being the “Zoom-installer” of the metaverse. This is why at USC our Esports arena currently under construction is also going to be a full-integrated virtual reality experience.
Now let me bring this to what this means for you. It means we need to be on the blockchain. We need to pull out our digital wallets and start looking for services that can connect our spaces with the virtual world our students are already in. We don’t just need a p-card, we need a non-custodial digital wallet tied to a DeFi purchasing method. To be honest, we’re still early in this, but it’s coming fast. The first Satoshi of bitcoin was mined just thirteen years ago, and now look at the possibilities. The growth is exponential, and the opportunities are coming. The blockchain is more than cryptocurrency, it’s a way of living a true digital life. In time, all trades (if they aren’t already) will be based on the blockchain, and not just for gaming, NFTs, or crypto trading, but for medical data, supply chain, identity verification, voting, rights authentication (aka copyright proof), and many other use cases.
This digital evolution is starting on our college campuses. Our campuses now just need the spaces to thrive. As I said, we’ve already converged with IT, so you have the network backbone access and high-performance computing power. We’re already converged with UC, so you have the ability to connect people to people anywhere on the globe. Now get ready for the metaverse convergence.