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A View From The Road – Volume 1, Number 6
Observations on technology trends from the latest conferences
and seminars.
 In
This Edition:
• Infocomm 07 –
Farewell to Anaheim
• Very Successful
IMCCA Events
• The George and Andy Show
• The Acceptance of Mediocrity
• An Enormous Bridge
Here in the shadows
of Disneyland those of us in the AV
industry just wrapped-up our own California Adventure at the 2007 Infocomm
International conference and exhibition.
It will be the last one of these conferences here for a while, as
the next few years will see Infocomm alternating between Las
Vegas and Orlando. While Anaheim is a beautiful city, I and many
of the others here would have gone insane if we had to go back and forth
between the Hilton and the Convention center one more time. Hopefully we’ll never again have this
show in a venue that is not big enough to handle it under one roof. A record setting ~30,000 in attendance participated
in some very useful and practical educational sessions and saw some
significant new product launch announcements and demonstrations. The Infocomm International website has a
comprehensive listing of these announcements and other industry news available
for everyone at :
http://www.infocomm.org/cps/rde/xchg/infocomm/hs.xsl/avindustry_4184.htm
The (near and dear
to my heart) IMCCA coordinates a number of events in conjunction with
Infocomm, and all of them were tremendous successes this year. There were a number of member conducted
educational seminars, a couple of Collaborative Conferencing User Group
sessions and a “State of the Industry” luncheon. The panel at the luncheon included the
leaders and/or representatives of such firms as HP, Tandberg, York Telecom,
Polycom, WebEx, Radvision, Compunetix,
Codian, LifeSize and
Spire Global. When asked for the
most important advice they could give their customers and end-users, the
panelists discussed a number of surprising topics including a predicted
move to managed services for all, a call to embrace disruptive technology,
a charge to “do it right the first time” when buying and adding new
systems, and a strong emphasis to bring about behavior change in both the
sales force and the end-users so that they can understand what these new
communication paradigms can really do for all of us. The IMCCA also has an area of the
Infocomm exhibition floor set aside as a Collaborative Conferencing Pavilion. This space was packed again this year
with member firms showing their products and end-users coming to ask
industry questions with the assurance that they will receive unbiased
answers. (Please take a moment to go
to the IMCCA website (www.imcca.org)
and look over the list of vendor sponsors that make this source of
information available to all. These
are truly firms that “get-it.”)
The unofficial
kick-off of the Infocomm conference for the last few years has been the
“Manufacturers Forum” where industry leaders discuss and debate trends and
the general state of all things AV.
On the panel this year was Gerry Remers,
President and COO of Christie Digital Systems; George Feldstein, President
of Crestron Electronics; Andrew Edwards, President and CEO of Extron Electronics; Michael MacDonald, Executive Vice
President of Harman Pro Group; and Rick Snyder, President of Tandberg. These are all amazing guys - the movers
and shakers of the industry. But
with all due respect to the others on the panel this event could only be
described as The George and Andy show.
These two rivals are possibly the most colorful personalities in our
industry. Just getting them to sit
next to each other was an amazing and perhaps dangerous feat. After the panel’s introduction Randal
Lemke, Infocomm’s Executive Director went right
down into the middle of the audience to watch the discussion with the rest
of those gathered (and perhaps to get out of the line of fire as I did ask
him if George and Andy had been checked for weapons and he wasn’t
sure.) Their banter and exchanges
were the most entertaining part of the week. (Not a small feat considering the various
party performers hired by them and others included John Fogerty, Pink
Floyd, and the B52s.) Many interesting and controversial topics
were raised including the changing business models for manufacturers and
dealers, the commoditizing of the industry, content protection and how all
media may soon be stored on a single public server in a cave under a
mountain, and lots of other near and far flung topics. The most pressing subject though and
truly the theme of this year’s show was the continuing or perceived
convergence of the AV and IT worlds.
As more AV systems
are designed with devices that work within or rely upon the network and
other infrastructure elements - products that traditionally lived in the domain
of the IT professional - AV industry leaders have cried out for the
integrators to develop better skills in this area. This is a call that for the most part
has been widely unanswered. ‘It is
extremely obvious’ say our integrators, ‘that this business will not switch
to the IT integrator because he does not have and can not get the
specialized AV skills that are required to bridge the gap.’ While it is true that these are vastly
different skills I really wonder if this opinion is the reality or just the
old guard deluding itself (much like the Telephony teams did in the early
1990’s.)
Sadly, we live in a
society where the unreliable PC has become the accepted norm. Your (insert application here) failed? Just reboot. Your cable TV set-top box or smart phone
isn’t working correctly? Turn it off
and on again. This functional instability
has been widely accepted by end-users as a necessary evil of our
advancement in technology. What
makes us think that a qualified IT integrator putting in a sound system or
display without the level of perfection our industry strives for will be
met with anything other than the same complacency and acceptance of mediocrity? There are signs that this is already
happening. Large, traditional IT
manufacturers are already in the AV space with videoconferencing and
control products, partnering with and/or purchasing AV firms only when
absolutely necessary. In fact, the main
difference between the AV and IT worlds is perceived as a plus for IT. AV professionals first look at the
individual user application then design a system specifically to meet those
unique needs. IT professionals
evaluate the market in advance, buy a thousand of their chosen solution and
apply that same one when any user has any request. Often end-users (budget managers, firm
administrators, C-level executives) crave this IT simplicity, even if some functionality
is sacrificed. Give them the cookie-cutter
menu and they’re ecstatic that they don’t need designers or consultants any
more.
There were signs at
Infocomm 07 that the transition is already well underway:
·
Off in a barely looked at corner of Crestron’s
booth was a Cisco 7970 phone that uses its touch screen instead of a room’s
touch panel. Yes it was slow and a
bit clunky for now, but it adds Crestron’s functional
credibility to Cisco’s suite of media room products connected through Call
Manager. That’s huge for both firms. (I can't wait until Mr. Chambers' next
public presentation where he will likely explain how his firm has invented
room control touch panels - 'Finger-presence'.)
·
Extron showed their new MXTPX Plus matrix routers /
switchers which are based on Cat5e cabling.
Absolutely fabulous products, but sad to see that as an industry
we’ve already conceded the death of analog wiring and have agreed to shove
A to D baluns and converters in all our rooms. (Still think that the IT integrators
inability to solder XLRs is an issue? Do you know how to crimp an RJ-45?) Just wait for each manufacturer’s
proprietary IP based scheme – first there was Crestnet
and Cobranet, then everybody will have their own
solution (Paul-net, Sally-net, Ralph-net, Marla-net, etc.)
·
Almost all of the microphone manufacturers have adopted RF
shielding technology in their microphones to block blackberry noise. I don’t see end-users pounding down
AT&T, Verizon and RIM’s door to get them to
stop causing the interference -
just the AV integrators bending over backwards to cope with it.
The most obvious
sign of the transition is the decision to co-locate Infocomm 08 next year
with the brand new NXTcomm conference, just held
for the first time in Chicago. The AV guys will be in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s north and
central halls, and the IT guys will be the south hall. If you’re not familiar with the LV
Convention Center, those two halls are separated by the Desert Inn roadway
and an enormous bridge is built over the traffic to connect and support the
two. Now looking at this
objectively, Infocomm International has been the preeminent association
serving the professional AV communications industry since 1939. It has grown in size and stature to
become a “top 50” trade show. NXTcomm has existed since…well about a week or so ago I
guess. I’m sure they put on a fine
exhibition, but it makes you wonder which group is looking for credibility here? It will
take an enormous bridge indeed.
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I’ll be back to
report on the CEDIA conference in September, and possibly earlier if I can
talk myself into stopping by one of the summer events on my calendar.
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A View From The Road is written by
David Danto and contains solely his own opinions. David has spent 30 years
in the audio visual and broadcasting industries. He has designed facilities
for firms such as AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN, Morgan Stanley and NYU. He
is currently the Director of Global Multimedia Engineering for Lehman
Brothers and the IMCCA’s Director of Emerging
Technology. Email David at David.Danto.IMCCA@Danto.com
About IMCCA
The Interactive
Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance (IMCCA) is a
not-for-profit user application and industry focused association with
membership comprised of service and product providers, consultants, and
users. Members benefit from the understanding and the use of various
interactive and collaborative communications technologies in their
professional and everyday lives.
For further information please contact Carol Zelkin, IMCCA Executive
Director, at 516-818- 8184 or czelkin@imcca.org. Visit the IMCCA web site
at www.imcca.org
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