A Pixel-And-Ink-Stained miniupdate - Infocomm 2014

Some super-quick pixel-and-ink stained impressions from Day 1 of my Infocomm experience. Expect a longer update when I return to New York and have the time to digest the events of the show and figure out what the overall story is. For now, quick impressions:
Pat Brown remains smart. I had the pleasure of a two hour seminar with Pat Brown of SynAudCon on amplifier specifications, including the math that goes into sizing an amplifier, why better quality audio sounds quieter, and an introduction to the new Common Amplifier Format. Fun activity: ask various vendors if they have CAF data for their amps. You'll either get a "no", a blank stare, or a no followed by a blank stare.
Vidyo remains interesting. In an increasingly crowded  unified communications field, long-time player Vidyo remains relevant in their attempt to include - and showcase - as wide an array of platforms as possible. In their booth they have demonstrations with their own hardware, smartphones, a competitor's Codec (Lifesize) and a PC running Lync. They even had three employees call in from remote locations spending the entire day staring into a videoconference camera to give that multi-call experience.

AVB Remains Promising - but Frustrating
The AVNU alliance had the usual demonstrations of mostly audio products with a little video. It's still very nearly where it has been; a very promising technology needing more applications before it takes off.

Interesting moves from Biamp
Biamp finally released an AEC-enabled version of its Tesira extenders. This allows a much more reasonable build for a  centralized system, They also have a partnership with Lab Gruppen in which one of Lab Gruppen's new amplifiers now comes with what seems to be a mini-Tesira processor built in. This to me says that Lake Processing (member of the TC group along with Lab Gruppen) is not interested in moving to the vtc/install market.

Microsoft Really Is just Looking
Did you see the Microsoft booth? Lots of white space. It might be the biggest booth in the show AND have the smallest amount of product.

That really is the Microsoft booth

Women in AV Continue to be Relevant
Too many booths on the show floor are using women as decoration. Given that and the male-dominance, it's wonderful to see the Women in AV continue to work towards broader acceptance and access in the industry. The second annual mentoring award was given to Theresa Hahn of Verrex; it is well deserved ant the work she does on behalf of the industry continues to be relevant. Let's all work toward a time when this is no longer needed.
More to come! Watch me here, on Twitter ( @LeonardCSuskin ) or on the show floor for more.

End of day AV Selfie with the Drunk Unkles!