AV SuperFriends: On Topic - I hope AQAV isn’t listening to this…

Recorded September 19, 2025

It’s October, and the AV SuperFriends are leaning into the spooky season with a conversation that’s equal parts eerie and insightful. They tackle some of the haunted house problems in higher ed AV: ghost signals that won’t quit, obsolete equipment that seems impossible to kill off, and the slow creep of outdated standards lurking in classrooms everywhere.

Joining the discussion are special guests Gary Cummins Indiana University and Neal Feuerhelm from the University of Illinois, who weigh in on how their campuses are handling the monsters of modernization. From faculty demands for shiny new gear to the challenges of keeping hundreds of teaching spaces alive and stable, the group debates what’s worth upgrading, what’s better left buried, and how to keep technology aligned with real teaching and learning goals.

And since it wouldn’t be fall without a little football, the episode features a spirited Weekly Rivalry matchup between Illinois and Indiana. Much like on the gridiron, each university makes its case for AV dominance, touting classroom innovations, campus traditions, and the resilience of their teams. The friendly trash talk goes into overtime with lightning-round questions and leaves listeners with one key takeaway: in higher ed AV, rivalries may be playful, but the commitment to delivering reliable, effective teaching technology is very real.

Connect with our guests:

Gary Cummins - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-cummins-5690026b/
Neal Feuerhelm - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nfeuerhelm/

AI-generated Alternate Episode Titles:

Spooky Trends & a Big Ten Showdown
Ether Killer and the Haunted Classroom
When Old Gear Refuses to Die
Spooky Season, Creepy Standards, and a Big Ten Showdown
Ghosts in the Machine: Higher Ed’s Halloween Special
Haunted Touch Panels and Other AV Nightmares
Rivalries, Revenants, and Room Schedulers

Far Superior Human-Generated Alternate Show Titles:

You want all those ports back?
They went from putting everything on there to nothing
There’s not enough of it to justify putting in a special thing
Are you too busy to finish a thought?
Your standards are at random heights
The consumerification of all our AV products
That meant it was dead, not asleep
Either one, I don’t want to do anymore…
Live grounding bus bar
I don’t know how many pools you have on campus
We got a name for that
It involved a lot of lube
Turn it to 11
You can’t really touch the HTML
It’s the viewer’s problem

We stream live every Friday at about 300p Eastern/1200p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com

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