We caught up with some of the local representatives that attended InfoComm
this year, here’s what they had to say…

Wynand Langenhoven (Peripheral Vision)

InfoComm was good as always, more or less the same size as last year. There
was lots of hype around new acquisitions and new product releases. I only got
to attend two days of the show so I didn’t get to see as much as I would have
liked to.

From an AMX point of view their new messaging concept was “to think big we
have to go small’ so they had a very good product set in terms of the larger
expensive technologies and they have now filled the gap at the lower end with
products that make up much better solutions with complete AMX solutions from
beginning to end. NEC also launched a couple of new products and there were
impressive exhibitions from Arthur Holm and Sound Control Technologies. Arthur
Holm is a very high end motorised monitor that comes out of a board room table
and allows you to have a local view of whatever it is you wish to view. We’re
going to be doing a product launch on Arthur Holm and Sound Control
Technologies in August and there’s been quite a lot of hype around it.

Bruce Genricks (Electrosonic SA)

The show was well attended with the popular stands being crowded most of the
time. There seemed to be a real buzz on the floor and I got the feeling that
serious business was being conducted.

4K video was a prominent theme throughout the exhibition space. 4K cameras,
media servers, switches, distribution amplifiers, projectors, range extenders and
even LED video displays were on display. Most of the 4K products on display
were prototypes, some however were already in production. HDbaseT continues
to dominate the video over Cat5 technology. More manufacturers are adopting
this technology than ever before. Collaboration was prominent on a number of
stands, with innovative new wireless technologies demonstrated.

“Bring your own device’ (BYOD) is the new buzzword in the industry. This simply
means that employees are now bringing their own devices to work (tablets,
smart phones, laptops, etc) and expect to be able to present directly from them.
Intergrators now need to cater for this wide variety of devices in training,
meeting and boardrooms.

Trevor Peters (Matrix Sound)

InfoComm is always a very well organised event, geared to make things as easy
as possible for visitors. International visitors are offered opportunities to attend
networking functions at no additional cost.

The buzzword was 4K or UHD, all manufacturers were either presenting their
Ultra High Definition video product or in the process of embracing this latest
technology. Large screen UHD blends and UHD LCD displays were very
impressive.

We have acquired the ARX agency and are in talks for the distribution of a range
of digital audio products as well as audiovisual content servers.

Rupert Denoon (Crestron South Africa)

InfoComm is a wonderful trade show that seems to grow every year, it has
created an environment for audio visual professionals to get together and
exchange ideas, showcase new products and help to build our industry.
Walking through the various exhibition floors one could clearly see that 4K was
on everyone’s minds, if you weren’t looking at 4K or designing products that
could transport or display 4K you were simply behind. Around the exhibition
floors many different 4K logos were present, exhibitors advertising 4K, and a lot
of discussions were also around 4K 60Hz video capability.

InfoComm also started to bring in scholars to these trade shows to introduce
them to our wonderful industry, these programmes are important to the growth
and future of the audio visual industry.

Also for the first time at a trade show Crestron, setup two technical areas to
show people how their 4k/ digital technology works giving live demonstrations
of signal handling and showing the difference between a good and bad signal.

JP van Niekerk (Dimension Data)

It was a really good show this year and definitely worth while attending,
especially since I did not attend ISE earlier this year. It was particularly
interesting to see the reaction and outcome of a couple of big announcements in
the industry this year, like Harman acquiring AMX and Microsoft Exhibiting at
InfoComm for the first time.

The following trends and products caught my eye:
• Digital Audio Processing / Distribution: Further development of Dante digital
audio-enabled products from Biamp, BSS Sound Web, Kramer, Shure, ClearOne.
Williams Sound – Hearing Hotspot which can stream 56 audio channels to
hundreds of users’ smart devices via Wi-Fi.
• Unified Communications: Acano and Blue Jeans networks with their cost
effective bridging / conferencing and collaboration solutions.
• Wireless Presentation and Collaboration: Mersive – Solstice 2.0, Kramer – VIA
Collage, AMX – Enzo, Christie – Brio, Crestron – AirMedia.
• Video Conferencing and Cameras: Cisco – SX80 Integration Condeco, Vaddio
– RoboSHOT Cameras.
• 4K / UHD: 4K Switching form Crestron, LG’s range of 4K displays, Christie’s 4K
Projection options.
• Indoor LED Panels: Christie – Velvet LED Cubes, Planar Esdlumen – Mini
Series, Barco – LiveDots.
• High Lumen Laser Projectors for all the big manufacturers: Christie, Panasonic,
Barco, Sony, NEC.