After spending the majority of the day yesterday running around the larger booths and seeing products that the biggest exhibitors were showing, I’ve since identified the “off the beaten path” booths. In particular, I was looking for impressive solutions I wouldn’t find underneath a pile of press releases and pre-show marketing emails. I found a few winners that further underscore that the practical AV solution is alive and well.
- With Microsoft Lync becoming commonplace, and more and more small- and medium-sized conference room designs being requested instead of full-scale board rooms, I was able to identify a manufacturer of high-quality, low-cost, USB pan tilt zoom (PTZ) camera: VD0 360 and The Compass. It's a simple, easy-to-use USB PTZ which requires no drivers to be installed on the computer, making it ideal for a BYOD space or huddle room.
- Vercoop’s Stick.TV was another small-booth with star potential. Stick.TV is a software based service that allows an organization to stream content live and on-demand to a web page or through iOS and Android applications for mobile devices. One key feature of this service is it enables content creators to set pay-per-view prices by view or a flat monthly fee. Best of all, it's attractively priced with multiple plans based on user views, bandwidth, and storage.
- In a slightly less practical solution (as far as my applications are concerned) and from a larger exhibitor, I was really impressed with PRYSM’s Cascade collaboration solution. It's a dynamic user interface allowing presenters to easily manipulate and move content to enhance real-time collaboration, and it's one of the many collaboration products I’ve seen in the last few days (Mersive Solstice, Oblong Mezzanine etc.)
I’m hoping to find more diamonds in the rough, from the smaller booths, that will be practical fits for applications. Stay tuned!
Mike Brandes is a media specialist at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Follow him on Twitter @MikeBrandesAV and check out his blog at MikeBrandesAV.com.
