Event report InfoComm – it’s all about the experience


By show’s end, InfoComm 2019 counted 44,129 registered attendees, of which 37 percent were attending for the first time and 18 percent travelled to the show from 117 countries outside the U.S. What did these globe trotters hope to gain from the world’s second largest AV/ IT trade show?


For some, their objective was clear - a record 312 underwent testing to become a Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) while in Orlando, a 23-percent increase over the prior peak, and 255 passed, a jump of 37 percent over the prior record. In all, 205 professionals earned their CTS, 30 attained CTS-D, and 20 became CTS-I. For the casual visitor, the ed- ucational function of the event was rather more informal. The process of absorbing technical knowledge took the form of in- spiration from the innovative ideas on the show floor and dis- cussed in the seminar rooms. Perhaps the most encouraging fact to emerge from the show stats was that 40 percent of registered attendees were un- der the age of 40. “It’s been a truly remarkable week,” said AVIXA Senior Vice President of Exhibitions Ro- chelle Richardson. “The feed- back from exhibitors has been outstanding. Many told us they had exceeded past records for booth visitors by early on the second day, an indication of


IT, technology and architecture, business and entertainment, government and hospitality, healthcare and education, live events and installed systems. The experiences that this broad cross-section of society crave are dependent on the thou- sands of new products, solu- tions and services exhibited at InfoComm, ISE and the dozens of events that populate the AV calendar. So, what were the trends that emerged at this year’s InfoComm? Some were obvi- ous having done the rounds of shows for months - AI, big data and analytics. Others re- flected the growing influence of IT based solutions, such as IoT and collaboration. Various vertical markets had a dis- tinctive impact on the trends on show. Retail was one of these with stretched displays, OLED (curved), transparent OLED displays and interesting LED installations very much on show. Tied in with this, re- tailers are now beginning to understand the importance of customer analytics, so signage


cipal consideration, a move to brighter in-window display is a more immediately acceptable trend. Futuresource tells us the global market for digital dis- plays grew by 16% year-on-year in 2018, reaching 3 million units for the total year. “The importance of smaller screen sizes cannot be underplayed as 70% of signage displays are in the screen sizes 45-59” – for many signage environments, physical space is of a premium, so smaller screen sizes are im- portant to make the most of the available space.”


Higher resolution 8K flat panels were represented at the show, more in specialist applications rather than part of the main- stream. Will the technology trickledown, and, if so, when? Futuresource it to happen for quite some time, but vendors were keen to demonstrate their technical virtuosity capabilities and to bring something new to the show floor. So much so that technologies such as curved OLED and rollable TVs, consid- ered new at CSE and ISE, have quickly become established. Projection continues its comeback with brighter and lighter models this year. As the mainstream market becomes increasingly pressured by oth- er display technologies, more brands released laser phosphor solutions over 6K lumens, with weight


a


very engaged attendees. And the sheer number of people absorbing our content — every- thing from the packed room for Tuesday’s Emerging Trends Day to the crowds at Center Stage — is some of the best valida- tion we can receive of Info- Comm’s value to the industry.”


Next generation


AVIXA Chief Executive Officer Dave Labuskes, CTS, CAE, RCDD. “In addition to every- one who sat for exams, we had nearly 600 people


take our


intensive three-day courses to kick off the week, more than at any other InfoComm. The show’s evolution over the past several years has been incredi- ble, and the calibre of excited, informed, creative participants continues to propel the AV in- dustry forward.” Other


highlights included


the packed room of 283 who attended the AVIXA Women’s Council Networking Breakfast, and the approximately 500 who took part in the inaugural AVIXA Foundation 5K Walk/ Run Friday morning.


Show floor trends


But for most, attention was fo- cussed on the show floor. The audiovisual communications marketplace has come to de- fine the intersection of AV and


P8 AV News July 2019


and advertising can be target- ed more specifically to certain population groups/genders/ age ranges. Personalised signage is the holy grail, but issues around data privacy and stor- age remain critical before true personalised adverts can be- come commonplace.


New tions


technology incarna-


At this early stage, the bound- aries of capabilities of some new technologies are running up against the buffers of pri- vacy, security and public ac- ceptance. Convergence is a key focus within digital signage (DS), with voice and facial recognition (analytics), object recognition, AI and augmented reality (AR) all under evaluation or being trialled in concept lo- cations.


These technologies could po- tentially drive demand for more powerful, edge-based process- ing and storage, generating further business opportunities. With retail remaining the key vertical in digital signage, there is also a push towards more integration between signage, POS and retailers’ e-commerce platforms – hence the potential for conflict


Displays Where aesthetics are the prin- key differentiator.


Even before InfoComm, we de- tected a renewed emphasis on projection’s flexibility in appli- cations like digital signage. But there was no doubt about the emerging champion of the display markrt - LED “The proliferation


of LED technol-


ogy helps to demonstrate why so many display vendors have rushed to bring products to market and the dazzling year- on-year growth this segment continues


to post,”


marised Futuresource. Collaboration


The battle for control of the corporate and institutional meeting room has been well and truly joined, with just about every significant display vendor teaming up with a cloud col- laboration developer, a camera vendor (how may phone calls must Huddly be getting now?) and a soundbar builder. The in- teresting bit is that a number of new entrants to this sector are developing solutions using standard industry technologies as the glue in their meeting room solutions. The resulting cost savings enable them to go to market quickly and cost-ef- fectively.


sum- Brief highlights of InfoComm 2019


Philips Professional Display Solutions (Philips PDS) an- nounced that the complete range of new, Google-certified, Android-powered MediaSuite Pro TVs is now available to all customers across EMEA. Me- diaSuite TVs provide access to thousands of apps through the Google Play Store, including major services such as You- Tube, Deezer and Spotify, plus local news, weather and traffic information.


Brompton Technology an-


nounced that LED screen manufacturer digiLED will feature its Tessera SX40 LED processor and XD 10G data distribution unit. As well as displaying the SX40 and XD units on a dedicated plinth, an SX40 will also be running digiLED’s stunning new patent pending digiTHIN HD screen. This 1.5mm pixel pitch LED screen offers a true 16:9 ra- tio, native HD resolutions and is designed as the perfect re- placement for fixed installa- tions that


Barco announced the next generation in the E2 process- ing family, a new expansion card and its standards-based fibre solution for 4K video transport. Barco’s image pro- cessing portfolio has become the industry standard for run- ning high-quality shows and events. To keep the platform future-proof and up to speed with the latest requirements of demanding audiences, the company introduceds three new solutions at InfoComm.


Yamaha Unified Communica- tions announced the latest addition to its portable USB and Bluetooth speakerphone series with the YVC-330 vir- tual meeting solution featur- ing Yamaha's new SoundCap technology that is specifically engineered for conducting pro- ductive remote conferences in noisy open workspaces. The new speakerphone solves the problem of finding vacant rooms for spontaneous meet- ings by eliminating the back- ground noise in open working environments that have tradi- tionally deterred collaboration.


Kramer Electronics unveiled its industry-first 20-port au-


audio ports, letting AV profes- sionals get more functionality for less real estate. NewTek demonstrated its revo- lutionary approach for system integrators, designers, and installers looking to modern- ize their capabilities using AV over IP. The NewTek booth was a living example of its ground-breaking AV solution where every asset is available and controllable from anywhere on the network using NDI, NewTek's royalty-free and reso- lution independent AV over IP standard.


Sennheiser showed its Team- Connect Ceiling 2, a confer- encing solution


that employs


automatic, adaptive beamform- ing technology. TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is Sennheiser’s flag- ship A/V conferencing solution and employs its unique flexible beamforming technology to fol- low the active speaker wherever he or she moves in the room.


Peerless-AV tested the limits of its Xtreme High Bright Outdoor Displays (XHB432, XHB492, XHB552) through a water dunk


adjust its' height in a matter of minutes. No extra measuring is needed to ensure that the frame is level, due to a clearly marked height scale. PIXERA mini is an ultra-compact me- dia server, perfect for digital signage and multi-display ap- plications.


Calibre showed its LED Smart- Brick, an innovative prod- uct designed to increase the reach and potential creativity of digital signage installa- tions. Where the majority of LED-based displays for digital signage are based on industry standard form factors (16:9, 5:4, 4:3), the three models within the SmartBrick family deliver extended aspect ra- tios of 48:9, 96:9 and 72:9. SmartBricks are designed to be easy to install and connect, and can be arranged in almost any configuration up to the limit of the media player.


Clear-Com presented a range of products from its broad port- folio of professional commu- nication solutions, including wireless and mobile IP solu- tions for all kinds of workflows, including the latest version of LQ Series Audio-over-IP inter- faces, which enable users to bring their IP-based intercom wherever they go by network- ing geographically-dispersed audio and communications devices of any brand or tech- nology type over secure LAN, WAN or even the public inter- net.


tank, impact test chamber, and dust chamber. Available in 43", 49", and 55”, the Xtreme™ High Bright Outdoor Displays offer a maintenance-free de- sign and are rugged enough to withstand


the harsh outdoor


elements, while still offering bright, crisp imagery. Additionally, Peerless-AV’s booth featured a Curved LED Mount


and LED scoreboard are part of SEAMLESS by Peerless-AV, the one-of-a-kind all-inclusive program for LED video wall integration.


Nureva’s visual collaboration solution combines Span Work- space with the Nureva Wall. The Span workspace provides an expansive cloud-based dig- ital canvas that can be tailored to suit


virtually any collabo-


rative activity. It draws upon familiar, simple and flexible tools including sticky notes, sketches, images, templates and screen sharing. Partici- pants contribute and interact with the content using their personal devices, whether a computer, tablet or smart- phone, or directly on the Nure- va Wall or other interactive display.


BrightSign showcased its new BSN.cloud network and player management platform, while demonstrating its award-win- ning digital signage hardware via partner solutions show- cased in its booth and at other locations throughout the con- vention centre.


dio matrix with DSP and in- terchangeable inputs and outputs


to the US market.


AFM-20DSP provides config- uration flexibility and elimi- nates I/O limitations with its 20 interchangeable analog


AV Stumpfl presented their new AT64-SHIFT system for large mobile projection screens and the new PIXERA mini media server. With the AT64-SHIFT, it's possible to assemble a large mobile projection screen and to


BrightSign showcased its new BSN.cloud network and player management platform, while demonstrating its award-win- ning digital signage hardware via partner solutions show- cased in its booth and at other locations throughout the con- vention centre.


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