The first day of InfoComm 2015 is in the bag, and after a busy of running around the show floor, I’ve come to the decision that the network is still king. No matter what booth you happen to wander into, you’re bound to find something that sits on the network or can be connected via category cable. It seems that the industry is finally fully embracing that the future of our businesses (possibly even our industry's very survival) will rely on the IT infrastructure.
- With yesterday’s big news from AMX that they have obtained SVSI, another big player has added a company and product line to their arsenal that extends their offerings heavily into the world of network-based products. What makes this move so exciting is how SVSI has taken the approach to allow their products to sit natively on the network and work with existing network infrastructure (using the de facto standard Layer 3 switches found in most corporate environments) to provide full resolution HD switching over the network. With almost every other manufacturer showing some form of video over IP or some form of network-based video solution, it has gotten to the point of network video becoming your standard form of transmission with the exception of some IMAG and professional video situations.
As you walk around, you are going to find digital signage solutions not only in the digital signage manufacturer's booths, but also in most other booths as well. Many of the digital signage platforms have been on the network for a few years now but you are now seeing additional and extended services that are based in the realm of Digital Signage. Network based integrated wayfinding from companies like AskCody, which we saw built into a PeerlessAV outdoor touchscreen pedestal display, allows you to utilize wayfinding with a combination of local network and your mobile device to arrive at your destination. We’re also finding a plethora of cloud-based management tools and many integrated network applications that control point of sale signage products for every level of application.
Everyone seems to be finally catching onto the network as a viable transport method, and I’ve yet to have a conversation about network based transport that concluded with the “but” moment that I’ve experience so often in the past to remind the attendee that there were significant limitations with utilizing and leveraging existing network infrastructure to enhance and deploy large scale audio video systems.
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Matt D. Scott is president of OMEGA Audio Video, in London, Ontario, Canada.
