Networks, Integration, Flexibility are Trends at InfoComm
Jun 23, 2005 8:00 AM
More high-quality video, including widescreen images in high definition; more video being streamed over IP networks; and more flexible projectors are available at a wider range of prices than ever. Those are some of the first impressions industry veterans formed at the recent InfoComm show in Las Vegas.
The ICIA says more than 25,000 people turned out for the show, a gain of about 10 percent over last year. The show floor featured 725 exhibiting companies, also a record, according to the association.
For Mike Levi, CEO of Digital Projection, one of the most striking trends at the show was the number of multi-projector blends on display on the show floor. “It was not the quantity that grabbed my attention though,” he says. "It was the fact that the blended projector arrays included projectors of nearly all magnitudes (from one-chip DLP to three-chip DLP) and in configurations appropriate for a wide variety of applications."
Levi adds, “We like blends. They allow producers and designers to create displays of unharnessed aspect ratios and resolution. Breaking away from the typical 4:3 or 16:9 screen aspect ratios, then adding geometric warp (offered on DP's HIGHlite Pro series and our MMS 1000), and now from a design perspective, all things are possible!”
Christie Digital’s Dorina Belu says the company also sees a trend to wider displays, especially in the church and select corporate markets.
Networking is also a major interest today, and the company introduced a new wireless audio and video system. Max Kopsho, product manager, Network Solutions, says the new system is an ideal solution for “challenging environments that require flexibility due to architectural constraints, where wired setups can be inconvenient or problematic.”
Jupiter Systems Vice President of Sales and Marketing Wayne Wahlenmeier remarks, “[I was] struck by the universally strong demand for streaming video by customers, contractors, and integrators from around the world. The widespread adoption of this technology is emerging as an integral element in daily operations for any command and control center—from security, defense, intelligent traffic control, building management, and government to the boardroom.”
Central to this trend, Wahlenmeier says, is the move to networks as not only a mechanism to communicate between computers and carry data, but increasingly to carry audio and video content, either in realtime or as stored media. This has become especially critical as the amount of information being moved—especially video—has grown exponentially.
"As the number of these monitored sources continues to rise, transporting video using traditional methods becomes very expensive and complex to integrate," he says. "Moreover, the installer often [has] to go to third-party vendors for additional equipment, investing a great deal of time and effort. Using existing IP networks offers an economical method to transport digitized and compressed video.”
Bill Coggshall of Pacific Media Associates saw more consumer-oriented products at the show than had been previously available, indicating more of an overlap among markets that used to be distinct.
Long-standing price/performance formulas are also continuing to shape the market. Coggshall notes, “Front projectors up to about 3000 lumens are approaching commodity status. Some pro AV dealers have created divisions to sell these high-volume, low-priced products and are able to continue to make money on them. But even these dealers continue to shift more to system integration.”
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