In Broadcast - July 2015 - 65

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 7 | July 2015

InReview

InfoComm15: ProAV Industry
Embraces IT (& More)
The InfoComm show has a broad appeal for those in the wider professional AV sector - this year
attracting 950 exhibitors and featuring 300 sessions, writes Contributing Editor Michael Grotticelli...

midst the massive expensive LED
screens, 4K projectors, digital
signage technologies and IP-based
control systems, the attendees to this
year's InfoComm 2015 conference, in
Orlando Florida, were mainly looking
for the most cost-effective ways to run
large live corporate presentations and
efficiently manage multiple staff (and
devices) on a network.
The annual professional audiovisual (ProAV) staging and events,
and "non-broadcast" show - which
this year drew a record-breaking
39,105 attendees from 110 countries
- is quickly becoming a haven for
consumer
electronics-inspired
products that are easy to use and
affordable in price, yet they also offer
reliability and flexibility to support
a variety of applications. Over 950
companies exhibited their wares this
year, covering half-a-million square
feet of floor space (up slightly from
last year's gathering in Las Vegas).
Perhaps most telling about this
accelerated transition was the
opening keynote, which was entitled
The Internet of Things (IoT) and
featured a panel discussion featuring
executives from Cisco, Crestron,
Harman and Samsung (all of which
are embracing IP-based networked
connectivity) discussing the future of
the professional AV market, and how
the so-called 'Internet of Things' will
affect how video and audio is captured
and delivered.

The IoT is often explained as a
scenario in which individual devices
connected to a network of servers,
via serial and machine-to-machine
connections, can each be assigned
unique identifiers, facilitating the
ability to transfer data over the
network without requiring humanto-human or human-to-computer
interaction. But there's more to it than
that.
Kevin
Hague,
VP,
Developer
Community and Programs at Harman
International, said he sees a time
when a network of things will help a
conference get started with little or no
human intervention. "It knows what
conference call you want to make," he
said.
Samsung's Ron Gazzola, Vice
President of Marketing at Samsung
Electronics
America,
said
he
expects the increasingly prevalent
smartphones and smart watches to
be their "signature," indicating to
systems - at work or in retail stores
- how to customise an experience.
Of course, all of this will require
collaborative networks and cloudbased operations to make it a reality.
Some of it is happening today among
larger organisations (like the US
government). The IoT also has huge
potential for addressing security and
privacy concerns as well as supporting
open specifications and standards for
seamless interoperability between
disparate systems.

Digital Projection joined many others in exhibiting new types of digital laser
projections and LED displays

This year's InfoComm Show drew over 39,000 attendees to see
the latest in display and video capture technology

Indeed, standards are sorely expensive, proprietary switches to
lacking in some areas of the ProAV work, resulting in limited adoption to
industry, causing customers to date, while Dante works with any offhave to choose between competing the-shelf switch.
protocols. A good example is audioOf course, what would an
over-IP networking. A company international trade show these days
called Audinate has developed a be without an unmanned aerial vehicle
networking scheme for moving audio (UAV) pavilion? The InfoComm 2015
data call Dante, which now boasts show featured a new 'Unmanned
225 Dante partners (up from 150 this Systems and Drone Pavilion' where
time last year). Competing with that several companies showed the now
is the AVnu Alliance, a consortium familiar flying vehicles. Yet, unlike
of professional, automotive and at an NAB or IBC show, InfoComm
consumer electronics companies that vendors were touting the remote
are working together to establish and control technology as useful for
certify the interoperability of open videoconferencing, video downlinking,
Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standards. lifting heavy loads and even
The AVnu Alliance's stated goal is to monitoring software to keep track
make it easier to implement network of your drone in flight. There were
systems by promoting the adoption also classes on how to fly a drone in
of the IEEE 802.1, 1722 and 1733 AVB congested areas and what rules the
standards. This will ensure that AVB FAA will impose on users.
products from different
manufacturers
work
together natively.
Ravenna, yet another way
to transport audio and other
metadata over IP, is an opentechnology standard without
a proprietary licensing policy
like AVnu or Dante, has not
been as widely adopted in
the ProAV space.
Interestingly,
Audinate
is a member of the AVnu
Audinate showed its Dante Via software
Alliance. The main difference
solution that transforms computer audio interfaces
is that AVB requires
and soundcards into networked devices

http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.infocommshow.org/ http://www.digitalprojection.com/emea/ https://www.audinate.com/

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