SDVoE Alliance Launches Design Partner Training and Certification

SDVoE Alliance training and certification gives AV architects leverage to create scalable AV-over-IP solutions leading into InfoComm 2018.

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SDVoE Alliance Launches Design Partner Training and Certification

The SDVoE Alliance, which made its worldwide debut at ISE 2017 in Amsterdam, is ready to add a new wrinkle to the group through the SDVoE Design Partner Program.

The online training and certification program “recognizes experts in the creation of SDVoE systems that take advantage of AV-over-IP scalability, yet offer matrix-switch-like performance,” according to the alliance press release.

Created in cooperation with AV consulting firms HyperSphere Limited and Hewshott International, as well as AV/IT training firm Clavia Ltd., the goal of the program is to certify designers qualified to offer guidance in leveraging the SDVoE standard for AV network deployments in corporate, education, health care, enterprise, entertainment, hospitality, retail, houses of worship, government, military and security.

“The first year of the alliance was all about explaining what it is and getting the brand out,” says SDVoE Alliance president Justin Kennington. “Now, we want to start really being useful.

“We want the alliance to be seen as a useful resource in what I call the collision of AV and IT. We’re helping people in AV speak the language of IT and have a place at the table. The story of InfoComm the last two years has been about how AV over IP is here. We know that now so it’s about understanding more of what you can do with it,” he says.

Matt Dodd of Clavia Group first talked to Kennington about the alliance during its coming-out party in Amsterdam in 2017 and strongly urged him to add a training element during this year’s record-setting ISE 2018. Dodd will lead the training under the new offering.

“There’s always going to be training necessary with something like this,” says Dodd. “You can’t assume people know what the ecosystem looks like.”

SDVOE Alliance Adds Anixter As First Distributor

The training, which will be done for both commercial and residential AV pros, will come in what Dodd calls “bite-sized chunks” and will be ideal for system integrators, designers, consultants and now distributors with Anixter joining the SDVoE Alliance recently and adding a new element to the group.

“The point is to educate people on AV over IP, not to try to get them to join the alliance,” says Kennington. The alliance will also publish a list of those who have been certified, he says.

SDVoE Alliance, SDVoE Design Partner Program

End users interested in leveraging SDVoE technology will be able to tap into this list and it will help the alliance expand the tools available, including design templates, specifications and case studies.

“Everyone out there is moving video from IP switches to circuit switches. We founded the alliance to help with that transition and move that conversation. Some AV guys are scared of a world without them.

“I think that’s possible but preventable. Understanding the user experience and translating business needs into solutions is what AV guys do; IT solves different problems in different ways,” he says.

“One of the things we want to see is for there to be a level playing field,” says Dodd. “Any kind of training gives people confidence that they know what they’re talking about and what they’re doing, and that’s a good thing.”

Presentations introducing the SDVoE Design Partner Program will be held periodically in the SDVoE Alliance booth [N720] at InfoComm 2018 in Las Vegas June 6-8.

Click here for more information about the SDVoE Design Partner Program.

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