Volume 11, Issue 18 — September 18, 2020

rAVe UCC — Volume 11, Issue 18

September 18, 2020 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 18

Did you hear the news about ISE? Mike Blackman and Integrated Systems Europe announced new dates for 2021, the show moving from February to June but remaining in Barcelona. So that means InfoComm 2021 is scheduled for June 16-18 (exhibition dates), while ISE 2021 is scheduled for June 1-4. That’s a first, huh?

“The postponement of the event to early June provides additional time for the industry to adapt and restore balance,” said Blackman about ISE. But what about for AVIXA/InfoComm? What does this mean for a (pretty much) back-to-back ISE Show and InfoComm next year? We reached out to AVIXA to find out: Their commentary is in the story below titled “Updated: ISE 2021 Moves to June — Still in Barcelona.”

We’ll do you one better. Gary Kayye had an exclusive conversation with BOTH show leaders in his videocast Thursday. After watching, you’ll be convinced that this plan is a good one — both ISE and AVIXA provide a suggestion for those who might want to attend both events next summer. Find it here: https://www.ravepubs.com/rants-and-raves-episode-1007

In other UCC news this week, check our stories below for product/company updates from Williams AV, Barco, ClearOne, Vivitek, Crestron, Extron/NEC, LG, Kramer, QSC, Visix, Black Box, Philips, BenQ/Zoom, SYNNEX and Mimo Monitors/Lenovo. Did I get them all?

Please also give Chris Evans’ and Kane McKenna’s columns a read. Insights and market perspectives from Futuresource never disappoint.

— Leah McCann

COLUMNS

+ Office Based Headsets — A Key Element of the Home Working Revolution [Kane McKenna]

The rate of growth in the office based headset market has been steadily increasing in recent years. A key driver of this has been the rising importance of video conferencing, explored in Futuresource’s 2020 Video Conferencing report. Many end users have been looking to improve their videoconferencing experience, leading to investment in more sophisticated audio and video technologies, with headsets being a key beneficiary of this. The steady market growth that has been observed in recent years was expected to continue into 2020, but no one could have predicted how explosive a year this would be for videoconferencing and associated technologies.

+ Surge in Corporate Video Use Is Fueling Growth in Entry Level Professional Video Products [Chris Evans]

The challenge for many businesses to facilitate home working at scale has proven to be a major catalyst in making video an everyday business tool. This has been one of the most significant operational and cultural changes businesses have faced in decades and has proven to be a fast-track education for many in the benefits of using video. Now that more companies than ever before have opened their eyes to the potential for video to be used to save time and money, it is encouraging many organizations to reevaluate how to use video technologies more prominently in their longer term strategy for success.