OPINION Miami advice
Blair Parkin Visual Acuity
THE FIRST quarter of 2013 got off to a more challenging start than I envisaged. Most years I travel to see some of our US clients in January returning for ISE and then travelling again to see clients in the rest of the world. Maybe there is something unlucky about 13, but this year I planned a single longer worldwide trip after ISE. I promptly went down with man flu and had to curtail my ISE visit to one night and one day. I had to focus entirely on a specific technical issue for one of our projects: looking at where the world of IP-based video recording in HD intersects with current product offerings. It proved an interesting
area and it turned out that video recording and production is in the middle of a huge shift. Curiously the main challenge is that the companies involved in the market are arranged in divisions such as broadcast, education and security, and the arrival of IP-based video production cuts through the definitions of these groups. This means that to assemble a complex system involves meeting sales and engineering folk from two to three divisions of the same company! The likes of Sony and
Panasonic have a lot of clever IP video production software and hardware coming but we should also watch out for Samsung. On the software and management front emerging companies like Milestone Systems are looking at the world differently and rather than struggling to leverage things like iPads they have engineered their products for a world that is already here. I returned from ISE,
changed bags and headed to San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Not much to report from there other than that I have realised that as an industry sector we can absolutely depend on
18 May 2013
technology for one thing: constant change. I am now getting really confused when I go to corporate briefings at the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft. They are stretching their offers and activities far and wide and pitching large screens, huge touch surfaces, remote collaboration and even exotic technologies like gestural and cognitive input devices as their new norm. Next it was on to Denver
for a cold weekend at the IMERSA Summit discussing content resolution and file formats for digital dome displays. The existing typical dome screen format is moving from 4k to 8k pixel resolution just as the AV world is moving up to 4k. More evidence of that restless change. Then it was on to some splendid weather and the City
A broken elbow and dislocated shoulder meant an abrupt end to the trip
of Miami. My firm has been working on a project there for three years and it has just moved into construction. The new Miami Science Museum is going to be an amazing 250,000sqft waterfront green building. Technology procurement for networks and communications is underway with the AV buying process due to start later in 2013.
GROWING PRESENCE I had never really considered Miami as an ‘AV town’ but recent experiences have shown me that our world prospers in every major US city, finding niches and markets that you just cannot see on the surface. The local
cruise ship industry has given birth to hugely capable system integrators such as Funa who have gone on to become international scale players in broader corporate communication projects. Medialon, a network-based control company, has created its global HQ in Miami and is
finding the pool of talent. Martin Professional,
recently acquired by Harman, has its main US facility on the outskirts of Miami and the company was kind enough to invite me to a rock concert. I am afraid I am showing my age as I had not heard of either act (3 Doors Down and
FURTHER READING Full dome theatre content production association
www.imersa.org
250,000sqft green building under construction
www.miasci.org/blog/future/live-construction-camera
Server-based control company now based in Miami
www.medialon.com
Integrator now serving more than the cruise ship industry
www.funa.com
Discover Daughtry and 3 Doors Down
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daughtry_(band)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Doors_Down
Wow –8,000-lumen LED lighting from theMAC 350 Entour
www.martin.com/product/product.asp?product=mac350en tour
The iPad of the automotive world
www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/performance
www.installation-international.com
The AV industry is prospering across the US, and Miami is no exception
Work is under way at the 250,000sqft green Miami Science Museum building
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