Infocomm 2015 - for what YOU will be looking!

We're setting aside Flash Fiction Friday this week for my annual look-ahead towards Infocomm. I'll not be attending this time around; with Karine not quite six-months post surgery this is an excellent time for me to not travel and continue to take care of things at home. Fear not; I'll still have my eyes on the show from afar, and have some thoughts on what I expect to hear and at what those of you who are journeying to Orlando should be looking.

Display Technology
Displays and loudspeakers are nice to see (and hear!) in person. We can be honest and admit that processing, capture, and transport gear looks like nothing more than a collection of black, greyish, or other-colored boxes; what resolution a matrix switch handles can be just as easily viewed on a spec sheet. Detailed evaluation requires the kind of time, controlled conditions, and freedom to experiment you'll not likely find at a trade show. We should, to a large extent, be looking at the things which we'd see and hear in the real world.

4K is obviously a big trend, with almost every display manufacturer on board. With OLED having finally arrived as a technology, this is a great chance to experience the difference between transmissive and emissive display technologies; I still have concerns about burn-in on OLED displays, but I'd expect them to look terrific.

Another thing which looks terrific, and of which I've spoken here before, is direct-view LED displays Christie, Barco, and Planar have all been showcasing direct-view LEDs with a 1.6mm pixel pitch. Silicon Core Lavender is an even more impressive 1.2mm.  I saw a demo of this at the Sapphire Marketting New York roadshow; it's jaw-droppingly beautiful with an equally jaw-dropping price tag. Drop by the Silicon Core booth and be amazed. Just don't ask what it costs.

No Empty Couches
Last year in Vegas one of the world's largest and most recognizable software companies purchased what felt like a square mile of show floor space which they populated with moderately comfortable couches, charging stations, and a handful of TVs showing the soccer tournament. It was the biggest expenditure for the least effect I've seen in a trade show.

This past year I'm expecting things to be different; with the announcement of the Surface Hub, Microsoft is taking a big step into the increasingly important and increasingly crowded huddle-space/small collaboration room field. The all-in-one arge touch display with a camera and microphone isn't a revolutionary concept, but but given that they own the operating system, I would expect Microsoft to have tighter software integration than many of their competitors. David Danto has sometimes extolled the value of off-the-shelf AV solutions rather than bespoke systems; I'd be curious to see the Surface Hub to evaluate what size room it can support as a standalone device. We've already been discussing possible use-cases for this in the office, including some non-traditional workflow options. It's definitely worth looking at and discussing with the Microsoft team.

Software eats Hardware - So Lets Accessorize!
I've made no secret of my growing interest in software-based solutions. One can use software for capture and playback, for control,  for video routing, for conferencing. This creates an increasing need for tools which can allow computers to access professional quality input and output devices. If you missed it last year, I'd suggest you see the demo of Audinate's soon-to-be-released Dante Via, which allows each application on a PC to be a separate input and output to a Dante network. It's quite nifty, and opens up many possibilities.

Also look for tools to move video and audio via USB. Yesterday I saw this press release from Phoenix Audio; it's a soundbar/microphone/SIP speakerphone with USB connectivity. This plus a flatpanel, webcam, and small form-factor PC can make a neat soft-codec based system. It's the kind of solution of which I'd love to see more. 

Look also for lower-cost camera options. The Vaddio Zoomshot/Wideshot fixed cameras were an early entry to this field, but their cost is still a bit high for the kinds of systems in which they'd be used. HuddleVu  and Logitech have low-cost PTZ cameras for these applications; I'd be on the lookout for other options as well.

On the same topic, I'd look for software, hardware, and hybrid hardware/software bridging solutions at the UCC pavilion. Vidyo had a nice demo last year of multi-site call involving Lync, a hardware Codec, and another software option. We'll need more options for bridging various technologies and platforms.

On the Network
IP-based systems are another exciting frontier. This year we're promised the long-awaited debut of Aurora Multimedia's "IPBaseT" system. This is an uncompressed video over 10G ethernet system, with a slew of interesting features (image tiling, Dante integration, etc). It's a system which promises a great deal. I know some of my colleagues are going to check it out to see if it delivers.

We need to talk about 10G copper vs Fiber. That's another post

There are also network-based video solutions from a variety of other players, both traditional and not. I'm especially curious to see how different players in this space handle the bandwidth demands of 4K video AND to chat with them to see if they can envision a path to 8K or higher. On the audio side, I'd interested in developments from the aforementioned Audinate as well as promised updates to QSC's QSYS platform.

I'm also quite curious to see who is taking advantage of the suite of the time synchonization protocols in the TSN/AVB standard. This is one for which many (including myself) have sounded a death knell before, but it appears to be alive and kicking. There are real issues which CAN be solved with these protocols if we are to use them. Time will tell.

Finally, Some Fun! (and not)
There are some things which I consider fun and would recommend: The Drunk Unkles concert is a great time and a chance for the industry to raise money for charity. AVNation and WAVE are co-hosting a "Tweetup" - largely a gathering of professionals who use the "AVTweeps" hashtag on Twitter, but all are welcome. 

What I'm not a fan of is in-booth raffles, giveaways, and other associated games. If that's what you like, enjoy. I suspect you'd get more out of the experience as a technology professional if you choose to NOT show up at the same time as a half-hundred other people looking to win a free iWatch and instead drop in when you can actually speak to a product expert. 

Last thought for anyone who is going:

As I said, I'm holding down the fort this year. That means that I need to count on YOU to be my eyes and ears on the floor, in training classes, around Orlando. That's right, you. So... look around. Tell me what you see. Hashtag it on twitter (and if you see sexist displays in any booths, do us all a favor and tag those #NotBuyingIt. You can tell the people there that I'd disapprove). 

Then come back, reflect on what you've learned, and see how you can use it to make your projects - and our industry - just a little bit better.

Enjoy.

Flash Fiction Friday - Community, Hashtags, and The Future of AV!

This will be one of two upcoming Flash Fiction Fridays dealing with the moon, and more science-fictional than my usual fare. As readers of this blog know, I not only work in the audiovisual field, but also have a somewhat active presence in the AV online community, including occasional appearance on AV-related podcasts, this blog, and the AV twitterati. AV twitter peeps (referring to ourselves with the hashtag #AVTweeps).

A massive #AVSelfie

One thing at which some AVTweeps have done an excellent job is the creation of community through shared experiences - often trivial ones. Last year at Infocomm (the annual AV tradeshow) Chris Neto came up with the idea for the "#AVSelfie" hashtag; people were encouraged to take selfies either at the show or with AV equipment. There was even, believe it or not, a music video. If you don't blink you'll see your favorite pixel-and-inkstained wretch, taking a selfie at the moment the song premiered (on the AVWeek podcast).

More recently, there's a weekly #AVHashtags game; a weekly joke hashtag with which we AVTweeps play. We've had AVTVshows, we've ReplacedAVWithFruit, and other silliness.

This year's game was #Infocomm2099 - imagining the AV industry through a trade show nearly 75 years in the future. I love the future, and like the idea of using small details from press-releases, foot-notes, and what would be other "found" writing to sketch a picture of future worlds. This is too much to cram into 140 characters on Twitter, so I give to you the following Two Excerpts from the Infocomm2099 Program.

Enjoy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Two Excerpts from the Infocomm2099 program"

Training, Day 1

Tuesday, 9AM

Vid127 (Video, Intermediate), Instructor: Glenn Yorreazz. Use of standing tachyon waves to achieve lip-sync in non-deterministic video systems

• • For as long as video streaming has been with us, so too have lip-sync issues. Explore the use of time itself to solve the conumdrum!

Net103 (Network, Basic), Instructor: Jarash Gosou. Mystifying Time-Aware Networks.

• • Explore the metaphysics behind this newest incarnation of the soon-to-be-adopted TAW suite of IEEE protocols. Originally introduced as audiovideo bridging, this is a technology whose time has come. Learn why you'll expect to start seeing TAW products next year.

Aud322 (Audio, Advanced), Instructor Glenn Yorreazz. Catching the retro "wave" - the use of air pressure waves as an audio transport tool

• • Discuss the opportunities and challenges inherent in this age-old alternative to subcutaneous speaker implants or direct neural transmission.

Vid127 (Video, Basic): Instructor Marco Knox. Quantum Entanglement and HDCP7.2

• • Understand the physics behind the newest digital content protection standard, including a discussion of the continuing issues we have with the HDMI9.7 standard which still lacks a locking connector.

Gen133 (General, intermediate): Instructor, Glenn Yorreazz: Time Management Techniques

• • Learn how the instructor is using temporal fugue to teach three simultaneous courses while walking the show-floor and visiting the nearby theme park.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Event: Lunar Projection Mapping
Congratulations to the Infocomm member known as AVSunrise, of NewBoston. In a first, her winning design will be projected onto the moon itself using multiple banks  Sircthie Digital's new advanced TurboLaser projectors, placed throughout the hemisphere. See the following Q&A with Sirchtie spokesman Dick Bowlerton.

Q: Tell us about this project

A: The TurboLASER projector is a first in its class. Centuries-out-of-date regulations limit use of LASER light in earth-based projection, but sending light to the moon is safe and effective.

Q: Tell us a bit about the technology

A: Light engines are located at various generation hubs (ie, Pacific tidal generators, Hoover Dam), with light pumped to transmission units via fiber optics. We'd planned a field-trip to the Southwest Windfarms, but the prototype wasn't read last year and this, as you know, is an Orlando year.

Q: How do you answe concerns that the focused energy would be any danger to the newly active Lunar tectonics, and the lawsuits threatening to shut the project down?

A: This is very, very highly unlikely. Our engineers are confident that the moon will survive! If it doesn't survive, out multi-body algorithm will be quite well suited for projecting images on the ensuing dust cloud. Just kidding about that last part. But it really would work.

Q: What else is new from Sirchtie?  

A: Inerplanetary mapping is a big thing. More of this will be detailed in the free interactive neural upload "Book of Explorations", including a new plan to "paint" canals on the surface of Mars, several major advertising initiatives, and a few surprises. At last, we can see the world as we see it in our imaginations. Expect new wonders, new miracles. The world is our canvas.

Infocomm Wrap-up, Part the Fourth - Hits and Misses

On the theme of Evolution, not Revolution - TVOne
reprises their "windmill" demo. The four displays
in the center still spin.

A week past my return to Infocomm, I'm finally getting to write my  overall reflections on the show and what technology I saw there. For further perspectives, visit my esteemed colleague Alex Mayo who offered his own perspective. Alex is a bright man and a very talented designer with whom I'm quite fortunate to work. I especially agree with him on the growing role of enterprise-wide resource management and analysis as part of our projects. 

Before I start, I'd like to tip my hat to Draper, to Cory Moss, to George Tucker, and to everyone else who added their voice to the discussion of "booth babes" and the larger topic of sexism in the industry. This is a conversation that isn't over by a long-shot, and it's my sincere hope that we keep it up and see some changes next year. Now, on with the show!

Overall, Infocomm this year was fun and informative, but it wasn't a year that felt important in that it would change how we think about AV. Much of it felt evolutionary to me, as existing product lines were refined and expanded upon but few really new and daring changes came. Here are some hits and misses, along with my reflections.

Hit - Network-Centric AV
It's been quite some years since vendors such as SVSI started selling JPEG2000 encoded video as a transport and routing solution. It certainly is feeling to me that the time for this technology has finally come now that we have greater IT/AV convergence, proliferation of higher-bandwidth lower latency networks, and - perhaps most importantly - changes to workflow and overall expectations. SVSI has expanded their uncompressed video over network line to include 4K and has also expanded their control and video-wall processing offerings. ClearOne, Aurora Multimedia, Crestron, AMX, and others have all thrown their collective hats in the ring, with solutions including H.264, JPEG2000, and/or uncompressed video offerings. Crestron's introduction of an H.264 card (not an Infocomm introduction, but new for this year) is an elegant solution for hybrid designs in which in-room transport is handled by more traditional means.

The best part of this is the number of technologies being deployed. Uncompressed video is critical in latency-sensitive environments such as annotation. Compressed video solutions - most of which are configurable for different levels of quality and bandwidth - are excellent for campus-wide distribution, while uncompressed video is still a requirement for highly latency-sensitive control and annotation applications.

Miss - HDBaseT, Other Video Over Structured Cable
This wasn't a miss in that it's bad technology; I still use this kind of solution in nearly every AV system I design. What makes it a miss for me at the show is that the technology seems to have plateaued. Yes, we can now send 4K content over copper and that's a big plus. With relatively little content available, 4K is still a little bit of a niche technology. Does it remain something for which we need to prepare? Absolutely. Does 4K capability offer real utility in 90% of AV systems? Not really.

This is quite cool. It's a shame it's no longer all that
useful. 

For a "near miss" see the demo by TVOne division Magenta Research of 1080p content over an entire spool of category cable. This is quite impressive, especially for those of us who've sometimes struggled with   marginal signal over long cable runs. The problem is that it seems like yesterday's technology; if I have an endpoint an entire cable-spool away from its source I'd far more likely use a network-based solution. The geek in me finds this really cool; the designer in me is not sure I'll ever use it.

Hit - Direct-view LED Displays
Some of the biggest buzz was over direct-view LED displays, especially Christie's Velvet with a 2mm pixel pitch and Silicon Core's Magnolia at 1.5mm. This is very, very impressive and lets viewers get very close to the display before the image appears to break up to a series of dots. Aside from obvious applications in outdoor displays, this technology has finally reached the point at which it's tempting for a boardroom or conference room application - especially if the alternative involves taking apart the side of a building to fly in a piece of rear-projection glass.

Miss - Complicated Hardware Control Appliances
The above-mentioned Mr. Mayo stated his lack of interest in proprietary touchpanels. His argument is that consumer-grade tablets - especially the fruit-flavored ones from Cuppertino - have as much if not more capability at a fraction of the cost. We'll soon reach the point  at which we can extend that to control processors. I got a peek at the new processors from AMX, and found them a bit time-warpy. They have a nice, low-profile 1RU controller with a ton of serial, IR, and relay ports on the back of it. This would be wonderful a few years ago, but today I see more and more IP-based control and less and less RS232. I'll say the same about new touchpanels from Crestron. Are they improving? Yes. Do they match the capability and cost of an iPad? Not at this point.

 

Hit - Web Control and Monitoring
I had a brief chat with departing Vaddio CEO Rob Sheeley who showed off an integrated webserver in Vaddio's new RoboShot line of pan/tilt/zoom robotic cameras.  This removes perhaps the last major use of RS232 from many projects. It also opens the possibility of adjusting camera settings via a remote interface rather than from the rack-mounted camera control unit. Very much a welcome change and improvement. That the camera itself has a slick, modern design doesn't hurt.

Hit - Wireless Collaboration/Video Streaming

Not only are these proliferating, they're getting better. On the simpler end we have the WePresend/Clickshare CSM/Airmedia family. There is also the software-only product from Mersive, which was already impressively responsive before a recent software upgrade. Rounding out the appliance side are the Wowvision/Kramer product and the AMX Enzo. Now that Enzo has added Miracast and Apple screen-mirroring support these are both viable solutions in this space. What makes them more appealing is that each has the ability to run secondary applications - Windows 7 programs in the case of Wowvision and what appears to be a Java-based system for AMX. This is what caught my interest when Enzo was first introduced last Infocomm, but as of that time the only app available was Dropbox. With the introduction of screen mirroring AND the promise of Lync/Skype integration by the end of the year, Enzo has gone from an expensive Dropbox machine to an intriguing solution for small collaborative soft-conferencing oriented spaces. I look forward to seeing more.

Soft hit - Dante

We've seen the 150th Dante licensee - Kramer Electronics, with a set of small (half-rack) amplifiers. ClearOne, after depending solely on its proprietary G-Link, not only is adding Dante to its Converge product line but is also now producing a 512x512 Dante-based DSP. Audinate itself launched Via, a nice expansion on the concept of the existing "Virtual Soundcard". Via recognizes all of the audio I/O capabilities of a computer (including both software options such as music players or soft Codecs AND hardware options including speakers, mics, and embedded audio on HDMI) and will allow them to be explicitly displayed as inputs or outputs on Dante Controller. Having direct access to applications as well as physical I/O is a very interesting change; I look forward to finding ways to take advantage of this new capability.

Miss ? AVB

When I mentioned AVB to one of my colleagues, he had one question for me: "Is it dead yet?" I don't think it quite is, but it is, at best, on life-support. Crown Audio (as well as the rest of the Harman family) supports AVB, as do a handful of other endpoint manufacturers. Biamp now has AEC available in an AVB-enabled expansion box, but that's about it for the exciting AVB news; it has nowhere near the robust ecosystem which has grown around Dante. In fact, I can't think of anything I could do at this point with AVB that I couldn't do more easily in a Dante system. Mark Coxon may see it as the great big promise for Harman; I'm not quite ready to stick a fork in it and declare it "done" but, at least as an audio-transport medium, I'm very, very close. 

Just imagine what could be here next year.

Overall

This was a nice show, but not a dazzling one; I walked away with, as usual, some interesting ideas and thoughts but nothing which radically changed my thinking on anything in the industry. The industry continues to move, yet at a slow pace. Most symbolic of that, perhaps, was the much-discussed Microsoft booth. Microsoft arrived to display.... nothing very much. Some charging stations, displays, and the promise of white space and what may fill it tomorrow.

Post Infocomm Wrap-up Part the Third - The issue of Booth Babes and A Call to Arms

My Infocomm wrap-up will be in FOUR parts this time. Next part will be about technology. Before we get into that, I have something important to say - something about this show which bothers me. Read on.

Some of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen my hashtag #AVHallOfShame. It's one I use for the cringe-worthy AV moments; sloppy wiring, soundbars in places from which sound can't possibly carry to viewers, badly-sized or badly-placed displays, etc. This week I tagged Purelink's booth at Infocomm booth with AVHallOfShame, but it wasn't for the quality of their workmanship. I didn't even get close enough to look. What was my issue? Take a look at this, from their marketing email:

Yes, someone at Purelink thought that young women in the tightest, skimpiest outfits they could get away with was an appropriate and reasonable way to bring attention to their booth. (I'm not, perhaps, being entirely fair in singling out Purelink. KeyDigital's model in a backless Tardis dress wasn't much better, not were any number of models in short, tight dresses representing literally scores of manufacturers. Crestron continues to hire scantily clad models as living wayfinding signs to get the masses from one part of their party to the next. There are many examples. Purelink just stood out as the most egregious).  For all of the women in the industry - an industry in which women still need to fight for acceptance - it sends a message. That they remain outsiders. That no matter how hard they work, no matter how many find themselves in increasingly important roles, they will always be uninvited guests at somebody else's party. They will be tolerated because the law says that we have to tolerate them, but this is not their space and they aren't to forget it. It tells women that they're in a space run by men, for men.

It sends a message to men too. A message that this is our space which we needn't worry too much about sharing. That boys will be boys, that any complaints could be shrugged off with a frat-boy smirk. It says that we're welcome to make bawdy jokes, to use "sexy" exploitive video as test media. It says that it's OK to ignore the sensibilities of those who are different.

It says that this is a boys' club and that we're free to treat it that way.

It's also, at the end of the day, a waste of my time and yours. I don't want to have to get my badge scanned by some hired-for-the-day model in a short dress and high heels who probably didn't even know that the manufacturer whose booth she is manning existed a week ago. If a woman greets me at a booth, I want it to be someone like Penny Silter of Draper, Kristen Recker of ListenTech, or someone else who's learned the product, lived the product, and believes in it. Someone who can tell me something I don't know and someone who is there for the same reason as I am - because we care about the AV industry and want to share our knowledge. Not because we look good in a dress (and take my word for it -- I look marvelous in one).

For certain definitions of
"marvelous"

Towards the end of a day in which I grew increasingly annoyed by this issue I came to the Earthworks booth, only to be greeted by a woman in a skirt and uncomfortable-looking heels. Not wanting to do the "scan your badge-then let me find someone who even knows what this booth is about" dance again, I gave her the low-temperature scapula as I stalked into the booth looking for someone actually employed by Earthworks and not a modelling agency. The punchline, of course, is that there wasn't anyone else in the booth: the "model" I'd stalked past was, in fact, Megan Clifford, Earthworks' Director of Brand Marketing.  Oops.

We did get to chat about their new install mics and I, of course, offered an apology for being an AV oaf (should that be a new hashtag?). So much as I blame myself for jumping to conclusions, I also blame an industry which spent the previous day and a half delivering a message to me: the women in high heels are there for decoration. They aren't product experts but guns for hire, there to catch the eye of the straight males who make up the only part of the potential market about whom we seem to care.

When I tweeted this, Draper's twitter account responded with a sigh, and the question of "When will this end"? My answer - expanded from the 140 characters I was constrained to in the initial conversation - is that it will end when we decide to make it end. When those of us who are offended by it speak up and let everybody know that we're mad and let them know why. Let them know that, in the long term,  this is harmful to the women and men in our industry. That casual sexism should be just as shocking as casual racism would be. We're not there yet. We may not get there for a long time. Until we do, I call on you to stand with me, to speak up. If you don't, we'll stay where we are. 

This Infocomm I was too wrapped up in what Infocomm means to me to speak up at the time; I regret not saying this sooner, not saying this during the show. I'll close with a call to action, for all of you and for myself. To borrow the big-brotherish slogan from my city's own police department, if you see something, say something. Tweet it (others have used the hashtag #NotBuyingIt for similar issues. We can do the same). Blog it. Transmit it via compression waves generated from your larynx. Talk to your colleagues. Talk to the offenders. Be respectful, of course, but be strident. Be passionate. If you're a woman in the industry, stand up for yourself and the other women in our industry.  If you're a man, stand up for our sisters, let them know that they aren't alone and let the rest of us know that we won't stand for this behavior. 

When will this end? When we decide to end it.

Let's get to work.  

Infocomm 2014 - For What I'll be Looking (A Pixel-and-Ink Stained Look Ahead)

Infocomm time is almost here! I'll resume my tradition from last year and  share with you my thoughts on things for which to look on the show floor. Those of you following the discussion online should be aware that my esteemed colleague, AV wunderkind Alex Mayo has already weighed in on this from the cubicle next-door. He has much of it right, and perhaps missed an item or two which I'd have found interesting.

Things for which I'm not looking:

I'll start off taking a step backwards at what I'll not be looking for. If you're looking for me on the show floor, this is where to not find me (and if you're avoiding me, this is where to go):

HDBaseT. Yes, I still use HDBaseT in many, many designs and don't see it going away. It's just reached the point at which it is somewhat commodified and not all that interesting. Without thinking too hard, I'm sure most readers of this blog can think of a half dozen or more companies  with the same product line: modular matrix switcher, all-in-one presentation switcher, 2-gang wallplate transmitter, standalone transmitter, scaling receiver, etc. Nice technology, but the differences have become fine enough that there isn't all that much more to learn. It certainly isn't the future.

Big Manufacturers. I don't like to do "booth tours" with the big players in the industry: the Crestrons and AMXs and such. It's one reason that Extron's disappearance from Infocommland doesn't affect me all that much; I know what Crestron and AMX are up to. I know what QSC and most of the Harman family are up to. Between training classes, social events and the like I'll probably only have about 6 hours or so on the trade floor; I don't want to chew those up visiting things that I'll read a press release about the next day anyway.

So for What Will I Look?
That's the big question: what is the story this Infocomm? Last year part of what caught my attention was the UC pavillion with various hardware, software, and virtualized MCUs and bridging services. Last year also showed us the first Lync room systems, which represented a push for Microsoft to leverage their success in desktop conferencing  to larger spaces. What will we see this year? A few things.

AVB. "The breakout year for AVB" has been predicted every year for at least three years now. In the meantime, Dante has overtaken it as the defacto standard of audio transport over networks (and yes, I know that Dante isn't an open standard. Neither was Cobranet, but that had a very central place for a long time). That said, I've heard some rumblings about finally sending video over AVB, including rumors of some video products in varying stages of development. If we're to move towards a more "converged" world there will need to be some way to synchronize audio and video streams from different network devices. It is my hope that AVB's time synchronization protocol (IEEE 802.1AS) will achieve this. If so, AVB suddenly becomes very interesting. There's been at least one manufacturer teasing a video product, which may or may not see the show floor.

Dante: With AVB dragging its heels, Dante has emerged as the dominant technology for audio transport over networks. Audinate has announced that their 150th partner product will be unveiled at Infocomm AND that they have a new and "disruptive" (their word) software update. Is this a grab for attention, or is there something exciting there? Audinate's track record is such that I'll at least check.

4K, Uncompressed: Like it or not, have skepticism or not, 4K is coming. With the Valens HDBaseT chipset lacking the bandwidth to deliver 4K (or UHD) content at 60 frames per second with a 12-bit color depth the field is wide open. A few manufacturers have teased solutions and strategies, some of which may see the show floor. 

4K, Compressed: 4K content requires quite a bit of bandwidth, and that means some form of compression. Haivision unveiled an HEVC  (aka H.265) encoder at NAB; one other manufacturer has hinted that they might be looking at the open-source VP9 as an alternative. Which of these takes the biggest market share is an interesting 

Something Different
This falls under the "I'll know it when I see it" category. There's a temptation to take the new and treat it as an extension of the familiar. To think of an IP-based AV transcoder, for example, as an endpoint for a virtualized "matrix switch". To think of Dante and AVB as audio transport busses rather than routable protocols adding some freedom. As I said in the HDBaseT category, there are quite a few manufacturers - on the audio and video side - offering near-identical product lines. For an example of thinking differently, I'll look at one product not appearing at Infocomm: Extron's five-mic input Dante expansion box. This isn't a break-in box so much as a complete DSP with no analog outputs. Rather than send audio from a break-in box to a centrally located DSP for processing, Extron chose to apply filters, EQ, and even AEC locally in a little half-rack sized mini-processor box, then send the processed audio (plus dry) via Dante.  It's a fundamentally different approach and, along with Virtual Soundcard, can lead to some interesting design alternatives.

That's where my eyes will be on my whirlwind through the show floor. As I said, I'll also be taking some classes (more on those when I get back), and meeting some AV friends. Socially, you can expect to see me at the AVTweeps Tweetup and, of course, to see the Drunk Unkles at the Hardrock. Fun fact: With my current position at Shen, Milsom and Wilke I've now worked with two of the "Unkles" - Steve Emspak now, and Felix Robinson back in my AVI-SPL days. 

I'll close with some random snapshots from last Infocomm, in no particular order and for no particular reason. I look forward to seeing some of you, my readers, there. If you spot me, feel free to say hello!

Infocomm 2013 - A miscellany of the good and bad

In this last of three posts recapping Infocomm 2013, I'll give some rants and raves about things I saw and experienced at the show. As always, my opinions are my own and don't reflect those of my employers, my co-workers, the stranger in the airplane seat next to mine, or even my pet cats. Although I think the cats would agree...

So what am I looking for in a tradeshow booth? I have a few tips - and rants - in no particular order. Read on..

THIS is how you show a product

Place your product facing the right way
By this I mean that I want to see the back of it. The back shows me what kind of connectors you use, how they are laid out, if there's room for easy wire management, and how many inputs and outputs of varying types there are. The front of it, in most AV components, shows that you have a pretty faceplate. If there are front panel controls or an LCD display, then exhibit two of it, one pointing each way. Better yet, take the cover off so I can see the innards. I like innards.

Know Who You Are, Know the Market
This should go without saying, but if you're exhibiting at a trade show you need to understand the market, understand how your product fits into the market, and know what you don't know. When I asked the folk at Comnet why I should consider their video-over-ethernet encoders over similar offerings from SVSI, they could tell me their advantages (lower bandwidth requirements, lower cost) and disadvantages (a proprietary variant of JPEG2000 which is lossy). Likewise,  the good folks at Xilic were able to tell me that their Jupiter line of audio DSPs were low cost, high audio-quality, and easier but less flexibly configured than others.
Contrast that with someone demoing an HDMI extender which the OSD said was running at 1080p/24 FPS. I asked if this was a function of the source or if it could handle 1080p/60, and got a deer-in-the-headlight look before the rep asked "uh... you mean 60... gigahertz?" If you want me to walk away from you, that's a good start. I don't expect everyone manning a booth to be an engineer, but knowing the very basics of what you're displaying is kind of a nice thing.

Also, don't bash your competition and please don't direct me to the results of comparison studies, shoot-outs,  or comparative lab tests that you did yourself. I not only won't believe you, but I'll take it as a sign that you lack the confidence in your own product to tell me how it stands on its own merits.

Beware Mixed messages
I only found one group guilty as this one and it's really a quibble - the folk at Projector Lamp Services. They recycle lamps, which saves money and is more environmentally friendly. So what does a company committed to the environment to the point of using the recycle logo symbol as part of their recycle logo give out at their booth? Bottled water.When confronted with the fact that bottled water is terrible for the the environment they said that they knew but gave in to the temptation to give out something. I grabbed a bottle to rehydrate on the show floor. It tasted of refreshment and irony.

Matrix switchers. With a
side-order of boobs.

Don't be sexist. Be open to concerns.
This should be obvious, but it's not.The guilty party here was Key Digital who were running a loop of what appeared to be a Sports Illustrated swimsuit photoshoot on giant displays atop their booth. I asked the person manning said booth (whose name badge identified him as a national VP of sales or similar) if he thought this was appropriate and got a smirking "I like it" as an answer. I'll start off by saying that if we want what is currently a male-dominated industry to gain some level of gender balance we really need to not use women as eye-candy. The shame of it is that the smirking, frat-boy response cost them the chance to tell me about their product. It's a crowded market for video transport and routing, and there are plenty of vendors who did try to set themselves apart from the crowd. Some of us in this industry - as is the case everywhere else - need to grow up.

For a better take on how to handle potential off-messages, I brought a concern to who my possibly faulty memory tells me was Jan Sandri of FSR at the Women in AV reception. They generously invited a local charity to their event and solicited donations so as to leave Orlando a little better off than before we arrived. My concern is that the charity of their choice - The Salvation Army - has a poor track record as of late for statements about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered population. Jan took my concern seriously, explained her reason for choosing the SA (that they spend a very large percentage of their money on actual operations as opposed to overhead) and assured me that WAVE in general and she in particular did not want to be exclusionary. The WAVE reception, as an aside, was a terrific event about which I probably should write more. Let it suffice to say that I left feeling good about both the cause and those working to promote it.

Be Interactive. Be fun
I'll close on a lighter note about how some manufacturers managed to bring an element of interactivity and fun to their booths. I already talked about the pure whimsy from vendors like Vaddio and Gator earlier. This time I'm talking about those who showcased their product in a way we can remember. One favorite was Beam telepresence robots, who had about a half-dozen milling around their part of the show floor. Real people from the company were using them to chat with eachother (robot to robot) and with guests. Better yet, they had a console set up where you could drive one yourself around the office where there remote personnel were. So, I could drive a robot to talk to someone driving a robot which I could then stand up and chat with. Pretty cool.

If you smelled burning electronics, you might have been near the SurgeX booth where they took the very obvious strategy of blowing things up.  It made a point not only about the quality of their protection, but also the durability of their product. They claim that the unit protecting the AMX panel (shown here) was a veteran of several Infocomms, where it had spent hours being "zapped" several times per minute. Still no smoke from the panel, even if stuff next to it got exploded.

And with that, I'll end the recap of Infocomm 2013. It was a great week for meeting people, learning about technology, and taking a look forward at where the industry is heading. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more.

Infocomm 2013 - For What I'll Be Looking

This will be the last AV post before next week's Infocomm trade show, and a chance to look forward to what promises to be an interesting few days. Plans have been made, including social plans, booth-visits, and the always-important moment to listen to everyone's favorite professional AV rock band. I even found a ringer to take my place in the corporate 5K run I signed up for before realizing that it was the same week as Infocomm. If there's any interest I might live-blog a bit during the show, and will certainly send updates. Looking forward, I've seen a quite a few people post suggestions and previews - many of which are quite sensible. Following are my own thoughts about what I hope to get from the event. If our paths cross, feel free to grab me for a quick "hello".

Also, take a few moments to listen to what some others are saying about the upcoming event and the state of our industry. Christopher Neto had a great piece on what he sees as game changers at Infocomm 2013. I also noticed an intriguing article by David Danto (whom I've crossed paths with a time or two a couple jobs ago) on disruptions in the videoconference world. Am I in one hundred percent agreement with either of them? Not at all, but then again, I'm not usually in one-hundred percent agreement with myself, much less anyone else - no matter their experience in the industry. Below are some of my thoughts.

Networking.
As I said in my earlier post on AV training, I see network integration as one of the big directions in which our industry is moving. I'm quite interested to see where various manufacturers take this, including the still-fledgling AVB standard and its older cousin Dante (and yes, they appear to be cousins, if not actual siblings).  Will one of these standards eventually be able to challenge HDBaseT as the dominant form of video transport, and if so what would that mean for the topology of AV networks and systems? Will centralized server-type DSPs like those from Biamp or QSC emerge as the dominant form-factor over standalone units like those from Symmetrix or Peavey? We might be at the cusp of a fundamental shift in how our industry operates. In fact, I'd argue that we're on the cusp of many such shifts.

The Other Kind of Networking
The great thing about Infocomm is that it seems that everyone is going to be there. Consultants, manufacturers, reps, contractors, and even end-users will all be in the same big tent learning about the same technology. In addition to the sheer pleasure of putting faces to all the names (or bodies to the headshots on various LinkedIn profiles) I've interactive with over the years, knowing people just makes working in this business easier. There are so many times when the solution to a problem lies not in knowing the technical answer, but in knowing whom to ask.
Don't get me wrong on this; if you make connections purely for the professional value you're not only doing it wrong but are quite possibly a sociopath (I should let my live-in clinical psychologist make that determination). If you listen to people and just take   moment to get to know them you'll have the pleasure of more connections and, as a side bonus,  more resources on which to call when you're stuck.

The Missing Lync
OK, Lync isn't quite missing - but it can be a challenging kind of technology to tie into large-scale integrated systems. It's easier than it's been before - thanks in part to products like Vaddio's EasyUSB line (if you're not aware of them, they're definitely a manufacturer to check out. They're also planning on unveiling some new products with a very high level of niftiness for those who work in the small meeting room/classroom kinds of spaces) - to tie them to small to mid-sized systems, but there still are advantages to appliance-based (as opposed to PC-based) conference systems; appliances are more easily controlled, more easily managed, and end up giving a more seamless user experience. I know at least two manufacturers working on Lync-compatible appliances, including Crestron's long-awaited RL. I'm not sure that I'm quite as high on this as Neto is, but it certainly has the possibility to become an important part of the unified communications ecosystem.

Software. The PC-Centered AV System
This is another part of our big paradigm change, and a new answer to a big question: what is at the heart of a commercial AV system? At one point not too long ago, it was a matrix switch and DVD/VHS decks, with increasing need for laptop interfaces. Now, with so many software solutions for conferencing, for collaboration, and for mobile device integration there's a definite move for the PC to move towards the center of a system, sometimes replacing numerous peripherals. The videoconference Codec? Software on your PC. Blu-ray or other media player? Built into the PC. Screen-scrape from your mobile device? A mobile app and - you got it - software on your PC. That annotative whiteboard? A touch-enabled monitor and a PC. Yes, one gives up some measure of capability and some measure of simplicity. I'd certainly not try to design a large, complicated system around a PC, but those small meeting room and classroom systems of which we've all seen scores? Many of those can easily become software-based solutions with little to no loss of functionality.

This ties in with what Danto said about disruption in videoconferencing; I think that the dedicated appliance will still be with us, but that there's more

Surprises (and why I'm OK with Extron not exhibiting)
There are certainly big, well-known companies worth visiting, especially for those who've not had a chance to see their new offerings in person. I'm looking forward to brief visits with AMX, Crestron, QSC, Vaddio, and others. That said, these are companies very much on my radar whom I follow reasonably well. I've seen Crestron's three-series stuff, seen Vaddio at the Sapphire Marketting Roadshow, and had AMX and QSC around for recent visits. This is why it doesn't bother me that much for Extron to not be exhibiting; I don't need a tradeshow to know what the big players are doing.

What I more want is a nice surprise; something I'd not thought of from someone I'd not thought to find it. In other words, if I knew what I was looking for, I'd not have to be there looking.

For anyone interested in meeting your favorite pixel-ink-stained wretch in person, I'll be arriving early Tuesday for some of Audinate's network seminars. I'll be on and off the floor most of the remaining days, with various social engagements including the WAVE reception on Wednesday evening (WAVE is one of those organizations which I feel deserve all of the support and attention we get) and the Drunk Unkles performance Thursday evening. I'll also try to post news and updates as I see things which delight, surprise, or intrigue me.

Final note for any of you writers or readers out there: there'll be more writing when I get back! Carrie K Sorensen is leading another blog-hop collaborative story. Read the first part here, and stay tuned for more.