Keeping with the East coast to West coast rotation, this year InfoComm is back in the land of oppressive air temperatures and bright lights. In lovely Las Vegas, Nevada, thousands upon thousands of AV Professionals have once again flocked to the Las Vegas Convention Centre to see the latest and greatest technology to be announced at the show.
The first thing I noticed this year was an excitement I haven’t seen in a while. I’m not sure if it was partly the jubilance of finally making it to the registration desk and on to the floor. Which was a nice accomplishment, because it was the longest registration line I’ve ever seen at InfoComm and reminded me of the lines one normally associates with NAB or CES. What a great vote of confidence for the show in the midst of the perennial talk of the shift toward virtual experiences. As I walked the floor there were quite a few aisles where I had to wade my way through throngs of people. A wide variety of booths were so packed full of people that conversations were spilling into the aforementioned aisles and just adding to the congestion. It might have been slightly annoying to traverse, but I’ll take that anyway over dead show floor with a noticeable lack of energy.
The second thing that really caught my attention this year is the addition of video to a couple product lines. With QSC announcing their new video products to their Q-SYS mix, they are providing their clients with a one-stop-shop to be able to design a boardroom or conference room system with pretty much a single solution. By offering video cameras that will sit on the network—the same network that the rest of the Q system operates on—you have an incredible amount of flexibility in system design and functionality.
I was also excited to see the culmination of a great marketing campaign from Biamp revolving around the new video capabilities of the TesiraLUX. Because of the existing framework of the Tesira product family, the LUX is now capable of transporting both audio and video over a single network utilizing the open AVB standard. By extension, this is opening the door to allow AV over the network but because its based on the AVB standard, integrators can make use of the growing number of TSN standards that will allow this product to potentially operate in locations where real-time control is a requirement. This is something that Biamp has had in development for years as they have shifted focus from audio to media not only in-house but also across their language. This announcement follows an incredibly fun and exciting teaser campaign that utilized a guerrilla marketing style and mission impossible ‘This message will self destruct’ fun. It was a great change and an innovative way in which to bring attention to a big move for Biamp. In talking with their Video Project Manager, it was interesting to hear that not only has this product been in development for quite a long time but they have had clandestine job titles in-house to reflect this shift in mindset for a while (but obviously didn’t publicly use these personnel titles).
This year we’re seeing more and more companies offering products that expand their market offerings and allow the integrator to use more of a single supplier to complete their solution. It seems that more and more, companies are realizing the added value that a broader product offering brings their dealers. This shift, as it continues to grow will just allow dealers to offer better and better solutions to their clients while maintaining stronger brand ties.
