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OPINION


corporate and event communication right through to our democratic process. The international audiovisual, broadcast and event staging industry had two massive boosts in 2012: the London Olympics and the US presidential election. Both generated events with all the associated staging technologies and huge TV coverage with the necessary live broadcast systems: first, the huge non-profit sporting event and then the race for the most powerful office in the modern world. The Olympics had a huge impact on the world with the largest ever US TV audience for an event (219 million) and a budget estimated to be £11 billion. Technology, content and engineering awards will be won and benchmarks for the staging industry have been set by the London Olympics. The US presidential election was trumpeted as one of the biggest events in history and it was expected to run to the wire. It was certainly the most expensive election – with cost estimates ranging up to $6 billion or more. However the lack of a message, a theme and any real differentiation made this an expensive and unmemorable event. The Olympics’ compelling content, however, allowed it to have a huge and lasting positive influence on our markets. Content was indeed proven to be king.


A continuous thread


through the year was the emerging technology trends: the flatpanel display really started to hugely impact projection sales; everything wants to go wireless but the corporate user infrastructure is struggling to keep up with that; ubiquitous devices (tablets) and huge downward price pressure often at the expense of functionality or quality or both. Though seemingly negative I have witnessed that this recession


is driving some interesting and potentially high-impact innovation: making unified communications a useful business tool; creating pixels efficiently and distributing them in a way that is useful to the user; integrating mass- market devices into highly complex systems, giving users better interfaces to complex technology; and maybe even something useful will come out of that Cloud.


FORWARD THINKING In the new year the pace of change will continue to accelerate. The pro-AV world will continue (as it has for


several decades) onwards, growing steadily and adapting to changes in the economy, technology and markets. In terms of technology I foresee the emergence of a whole bunch of human-centric technologies with an increasing use of cognitive links and gesture-based feedback – connecting the user directly to the technology via gestures, facial recognition or even direct brainwaves. It’s not science fiction; it’s the next trend. So there you go. Good luck, enjoy ISE if you are


FURTHER READING:  Radio City Music Hall


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_City_Music_Hall  A view on the real cost of London 2012 (on The Guardian website) http://tinyurl.com/GdnOlympics  US presidential election cost estimates range to over $6 billion www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture  More on those product and technology trends – The InfoComm 2012 Global AV Market Definition and Strategy Study (on the InfoComm website) http://tinyurl.com/InfoCommMDSS


attending, do not let the media and infectious panic steer your business model, look East for new


technology and do not be surprised if your brain gets wired directly to the technology! Happy 2013. 


 





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Soundcraft T: +44 (0)1707 665000 E: soundcraft@harman.com Soundcraft US T: 888-251-8352 E: soundcraft-USA@harman.com


Booth 1-M22 January 2013 15


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