As facilities reopen and business travel begins to pick up, AV professionals can once again visit showrooms to learn about and train on the latest pro AV technologies. AVNetwork spoke with key manufacturers to get the inside scoop on their showroom experiences and find out what integrators and technology managers can expect when they're ready to visit.
Absen
Website: absen.com
Location: Shenzhen, China
Showroom Dimensions: 11,409 sq. ft.
Brands or Products Featured: 15 Absen products are featured in the showroom, including its Acclaim Series, Polaris Series, and N Plus Series.
Fun Fact: The showroom is part of the larger Absen Manufacturing complex at the corporate HQ in Shenzhen, China.
BenQ
Website: benq.com/en-us/business/index.html
Location: Plano, TX
Showroom Dimensions: 40 sq. ft.
Brands or Products Featured: BenQ’s satellite Plano office showcases a boardroom fully equipped with all of the company’s corporate display workplace solutions. The collaboration space features the RP02 Series interactive displays. For easy screen-sharing, the meeting room also highlights the InstaShow S WDC20 wireless presentation system. To round out its presentation capabilities, the boardroom houses the BenQ LH770 laser projector.
Fun Fact: In addition to its HQ in Costa Mesa, CA, BenQ opened a sales and marketing branch at the Shops at Legacy in Plano, TX in 2013. The energy-smart location positions the company closer to its clients and partners in the region and serves as a showroom to demonstrate the full UCC solutions lineup.
NanoLumens
Website: nanolumens.com
Location: Atlanta, GA
Showroom Dimensions: 1,456 sq. ft.
Brands or Products Featured: The NanoLumens showroom features many of its products including its Nixel Series of Curvable LED Displays and narrow-pitch Engage Series.
Fun Fact: There are over 11.8M pixels in the NanoLumens showroom for clients to experiment with and enjoy.
Planar
Website: www.planar.com
Location: New York, NY
Showroom Dimensions (square feet): 5,000 sq. ft.
Products Featured: The space showcases an extensive selection of Planar’s LED and LCD display solutions, demonstrating technologies designed to entertain, wow, educate, collaborate, inspire, and more. This ranges from the latest in fine pitch LED video wall display technology, LCD video walls with the narrowest bezels, 4K LCD displays, transparent displays creating see-through installations, and a range of display solutions featuring interactive capability. Showroom visitors can experience the Planar LED MultiTouch, Planar TVF Series, Planar CarbonLight LED Displays, Planar DirectLight X LED Video Wall System, and Planar TWA Series—in addition to the Planar LookThru Transparent OLED Display, Clarity Matrix G3 LCD Video Wall System and an assortment of Planar 4K LCD Displays.
Fun fact: With more than 50 million pixels on display, the building is one of the most unique interactive showrooms and event spaces in New York. Presenting the latest in technology with elements of design and art, the showroom entices integrators and end users to come demo the products on display.
Shure
Website: shure.com
Location: Rose Shure Customer Experience Centre in London
Showroom Dimensions: 9,000 sq. ft.
Brands or Products Featured: With the backdrop of some of Shure’s iconic microphones like the Super 55, Shure features audio products in the systems integration space, including its Microflex Advance and its IntelliMix P300 audio conferencing processor. For conference and discussion application, Shure showcases its Microflex Complete Wireless solutions. Wireless presentation requirements are addressed by products such as the ULX-D. Shure’s products are complemented by the availability of a range of hardware and software-based AV conferencing options so clients can experience Shure audio capabilities enhancing their preferred vendors’ solutions.
Fun Fact: This new Rose Shure Experience Centre is named for the company’s former chairman, Rose L. Shure. Mrs. Shure’s husband, Sidney N. Shure, founded the business in 1925. Rose Shure remained closely involved with the company for more than 60 years, until her passing in 2016.
Sony Electronics
Website: sonycine.com/dmpc
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Showroom Dimensions: 3,500 sq. ft. soundstage and a 1,100 sq. ft. photo studio
Brands or Products Featured: Sony's Digital Media Production Center features its Cinema Line cameras such as VENICE, FX9, FX6, FX3, as well as professional display technology including BVM-X300 and BVM-HX310 professional monitors, 4K and 8K Pro BRAVIA displays, and a Crystal LED direct view display system.
Fun Fact: The 27-seat Viewing Room is home to Sony’s Crystal LED display. The 24-foot wide display system has over 37 million sub-pixels and an ultra-wide aspect ratio of 2.66:1, making it ideal for displaying anamorphic VENICE content. The DMPC also has a dedicated Workflow Suite featuring post-production tools, including the ability to color grade XAVC, RAW, and X-OCN files on HD, UHD, 4K, and 8K displays in both SDR and HDR.
