Gary Kayye’s 2018 Krystal Ball is Here — Find Out What He Thinks Is the Biggest Trend in 2018
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Volume 16, Issue 1.1 — January 9, 2018
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Editorial Editorial Editorial
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Industry News Projection Digital Signage Control & Signal Processing
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THE BIGGEST Trend in AV in 2018 Will Be… Kayye’s Krystal Ball Is Back!
By Gary Kayye rAVe Founder
The year 2018 could turn out to be full of giant changes. The market is certainly poised for it as you have a number of technological advancements that have emerged simultaneously — each of them have a lot of potential. First, let’s review all the latest in emerging AV technology and then and I’ll tell you what I think will be the biggest one of them all in 2018, and why.
SSD Lighting: In the world of projection, both laser and LED lighting will hit the big-time in 2018. Although Christie Digital’s public pronouncement last month that 91 percent of the projectors they sold in 2016 were still lamp-based, it has — along with nearly every other projector company — retooled its production lines for laser-based projection. If a company hasn’t done that, it’s most likely decided on the other leading SSD (solid-state device) lighting source, LED. SSD lighting will change everything in AV in 2018. And, I am not just talking about third-party relamping companies going out of business. I am saying that colorimetry will be revolutionary. Any — I mean ANY — side-by-side you do with a traditional lamp-based projector compared to a laser-based projector will win you the project for the replacement every single time (unless, of course, the customer doesn’t have the budget — and, in that case, why do the demo?). When given a reference to what the color reproduction from the original source is on lamp vs. laser, laser wins 100 percent of the time. With LED (vs lamp), it’s easily 90 percent of the time.
But, SSD isn’t all about color — tt’s about lifetimes too. Most laser- and LED-based projectors, no matter the brand, are being spec’d at 20,000+ hours of operation — and some are even reaching the 30K hour mark. This simply blows away any lamp-based projection model. Everyone will want to upgrade.
But not everyone will be able to afford it. And, although SSD lighting will be the largest trend in projection, it won’t be the biggest thing in AV for 2018 — so keep reading.
Direct-View LEDs: It drives me — and about about 85,000 other AV professionals — crazy when I see ads on TV or even in our own trade publications touting the new generation LCD displays as LEDs. They aren’t LEDs. There’s a big difference between LED-lit LCDs and actual LED displays. Sure, LED-lit LCDs are awesome and way, way better than CFL-lit LCDs — who would’t buy an LED-based LCD monitor or TV today? LEDs last longer, have way, way less uniformity issues and much better colorimetry than any other backlighting technology for LCD monitors. But, they aren’t LEDs. LEDs will be big in 2018 and we need to stop the confusing the customer with our nomenclature as since they are, in fact, very different from LED-lit LCDs.
The big thing for LCDs in 2018 will be how they continue to get thinner, cheaper and lighter while also getting brighter. We’ll see brightness go up 30 percent in 2018, we’ll see prices reduced nearly 50 percent from mid-2017 pricing and we’ll see a plethora of 75″+ displays hit the market by mid-year — all at half what they cost now. But this won’t be the biggest thing to happen to AV in 2018. So keep reading.
LEDs: If I were starting new business in the market right now, I’d start an advertising agency that specializes in content for LED displays — this is the next big thing in advertising. The entire digital signage space will be revolutionized by LED and much of it will start to happen in 2018. In places where we were putting LCDs before (e.g., menu boards, drive-thrus, transportation signage and retail video walls)m LEDs will swallow up the market. I mean, LEDs will dominate nearly every direct-view display conversation and will certainly own 60 percent recent of the video wall market by the end of 2018. And because they are SSD, they too will have colorimetry that’s significantly better than LCD. In many cases we’re actually having to run the LED panels at 40-60 percent of their potential brightness because they’re too bright — so really will last forever. Yet, even with all that happening in 2018, LEDs will still not be the biggest thing to effect the AV market in 2018. So keep reading.
OLED: So far, LG is kicking butt with OLED. LG’s Wallpaper display is the one everyone wants for direct-view installs, but it’s still very expensive. But if the client wants perfect colorimetry throughout their signage network or in conference room, there’s only one choice in direct-view and that’s OLED. No one sees it and doesn’t think so — even LG’s competitors. However, issues like so-called burn-in, 24/7/365 operation limitations and cost will relegate OLED to the very high-end of display technologies. Companies like LG and Sony will be perfectly fine with that as they improve from generation to generation. OLED will accomplish 24/7/365 operation in 2018 without burn-in and pricing will fall. But even with all that happening, it’s not the biggest overall trend of 2018. What is? Keep reading — and no peeking ahead.
4K to 8K: Every single friend I have — whether they are in the AV market or not, wants a 4K TV. I live in a liberal arts college town full of non-techie types that see me as their only tech outlet and I get asked, all the time, about 4K TVs. Heck, even my parents went out over the holidays and purchased a 4K TV from Samsung — the QLED Q7 series. It looks amazing — even with old-timey 1080p coming from their AppleTV. But, all this talk in our market about 4K will diminish when Sharp debuts an entire line of 8K displays at CES next month. This introduction will garner much of the CES attention worldwide and will help put Sharp right back on the big-time monitor-map as an alternative for more than just their collaboration systems, dubbed AQUOS BOARDS. 8K will be big for Sharp.
However, just because you can display it, doesn’t mean you can use it yet. 8K will mostly be relegated to demo-land and wow-factor applications. So, although you will see it garner a lot of attention in 2018, routing signals will be difficult (in fact, currently, the Extron XTP II CrossPoint Series is the only switching system able to route 8K without compressing it because of its 50 Gbps digital backplane). 8K will impress, no doubt, but it won’t be the biggest trend in AV for 2018. So again, keep reading.
BYOD & Collaboration: Thanks to Barco and its ClickShare systems that debuted in 2012, a new market was spawned for wireless transmission systems — heck, Barco even bought one of them: WePresent. 2018 saw the launch of the first 4K BYOD system in the Barco CSE-800 and a few others have followed as well. Barco will continue to own the largest market share for stand-alone BYOD systems in 2018 and watch for them to launch a more cloud-friendly version this year (more on that later).
But, 2017 spawned an even bigger segment for AV than BYOD that will get even bigger in 2018. Dubbed the collaboration board by this very author when the segment found its way to the mainstream market, these are mostly direct-view LCDs that include white boarding, annotation and wireless sharing. They are integrated with cloud-based video- and audio-conferencing (without a PC), most have a USB camera and all of them include multi-touch interfaces. Infocus and Sharp didn’t totally invent the category a few years ago with respective launches of the Mondopad and the AQUOS BOARD, but they certainly set the bar for what was to come. And, 2017 saw nearly 15 new companies enter the market with collaboration boards — now everyone from Google to Sony has one. Name any display company and they have one. The biggest surprise here wasn’t a flat-panel manufacturer but projector manufacturer EPSON. The company’s BrightLink Pro, once aimed only at the higher-ed market, grew exponentially in 2017 because of two factors: They launched a corporate version and they added laser-projection models.
You can also expect to see digital canvas pioneers Nureva launch laser and higher resolution models this year as well. This market will explode in 2018. Everyone will be talking about collaboration, again, this year and the number of companies and products won’t contract one bit — you will see more, in fact. This will, no doubt, be the largest growth segment of the AV market for 2018 but it’s the second largest big-trend of the year. So read on.
AV-over-IP: Network-based AV, AVIT, AVN — whatever you want to call it, AV-over-IP is coming and coming fast — maybe faster than we all thought? In all honesty here, there are segments of the AV market that are all-in when it comes to an AV-over-IP future (like higher-education) and there are segments that are still in the “not yet” stage (like the corporate AV market). The adoption of AV-over-IP might even be outpacing supply as there are very few alternatives. The SDVoE (Software Defined Video Over Ethernet) protocol based on the Aptovision chip reference design is the leading technology out there due, in part, to their 25+ partners building (including companies like Sony, Christie, DVIGear, iMAGsystems, Aurora and Belden) and also, in my opinion, to their savvy hiring of industry-leader Justin Kennington. Justin has set a great vision and organizational system in motion over at the SDVoE Alliance and they are the system that will likely emerge at the end of 2018 as the leading sales of AV-over-IP systems — passing industry leader SVSi.
That said, the AV-over-IP market will literally explode and change the landscape WHEN Extron and Crestron BOTH have a family of AV-over-IP offerings. In fact, they will likely help validate the market shift towards IP. Crestron has one line, so far, in the NVX series using JPEG 2000 over a 1Gig network, but expect to see more in 2018. Certainly AV-over-IP won’t come close to 10 percent of the signal routing market by the end of 2018, but we could see one or two clear leading systems or direction site market is going — setting up for 2019 or 2020 to be the big-shift to move it all to the network.
The VTC Cloud: Desktop videoconferencing has been around for years, but 2017 was the year it truly became mainstream with, mostly, Zoom Video Communicaitons and Skype for Business, dominating the discussion — so much so that both Cisco and Polycom partnered with them. And, Zoom was savvy enough to have even worked deals with companies like Creston — who integrated Zoom into their Mercury huddle room system as well as Logitech, box and Slack. Although Cisco is still the market leader in videoconferencing, Zoom isn’t far behind them — along with Skype (aka Microsoft), BlueJeans and newbie (at least in this segment) Google. What this all means is that the video call is going in the cloud. Zoom just needs a PC (or something like it that can connect it to the Internet) and a USB camera — that can be a 720p, 1080p our even a 4K USB camera. You can even make 4K calls! The days of the hardware-based solution is numbered and 2018 will put most of the proverbial nails in that coffin.
And, speaking of the 4K call, a tiny unknown company called Altia Systems — you’ve probably never heard of them but probably heard of their product, the Panacast USB camera — took advantage of the concept of the 4K video call and created a 180-degree field-of-view USB camera that allows everyone in a room to be seen on a video call — even when sitting right up next to the screen. This, along with the new Logitech 4K Brio and MeetUp USB cameras, turn Skype, Zoom and BlueJeans into the “this is more than good enough” videoconferencing system for more than 90 percent of the users.
2018 will see more USB cameras, a new, giant company enter the so-called soft-codec (cloud-based conferencing) market and a nearly total shift away from hardware-based codecs. This is still not the biggest of all new trends of 2018. But what’s next is!
AVaaS: AV as a Service. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. But you will. And you’ll start doing it in 2018. The future of everything we do is in services and customers love this concept. It takes the confusion, complexity and caution out of buying AV gear from them. It simplifies your AV lines (as you can build all your AV systems with just a few lines rather than having to carry hundreds of brands), allows you to always specify what you want (and what you can best control and maintain) and sets you up to OWN the client relationship. Basically, to simplify it — your customer would be leasing each system from you rather than buying it. And, as long as it did what they wanted, was simple to use and worked when they need it, they won’t care what you use. So, you are in control of it all.
Look, AVaaS requires much more than a few paragraphs in a future-looking product round-up, and I will write about it a lot in 2018 as it emerges, but, here’s the basic concept:
AVaaS is where all the AV hardware, software, programming and integration services are paid on a recurring basis — maybe annually, quarterly or even monthly. The customer will like this as it removes the risk of owning a depreciating asset that is generally locally managed. And, you will like this as, since you are the owner, technically, of the AV gear, you become their in-house AV company — their go-to for all AV needs. Most of your clients have been using this model in some capacity for years for both IT and furniture. But, in the AV space, until now, we’ve pretty much only applied it to services — selling recurring service or maintenance contracts — and sometimes proactive monitoring, too. But why not everything?
The obvious response right now, from the integrator who may be reading and pondering this is that they can’t afford to finance the AV gear — you can’t afford to buy it all and lease it, in a sense, to the customer. But, you can. Basically, you form a relationship with a leasing company, you slightly mark-up their service and then resell it to the client. But, you also get to roll-up the programming, software licenses and integration fees (and maintenance, if you want) into one recurring fee. The advantages are huge — the obvious ones are, as I said, you own the relationship with the client. Since you’re managing and charging them regularly for the training rooms, why not use you for their meeting rooms too? And, and this is the biggie, you get to ALWAYS pick the the right AV gear for them. This will significantly reduce your overhead, eventually, as you can basically standardize on a set of AV gear you always use for every system. OK, maybe not all of it — but certainly 90+ percent of it. This means you will know that set of gear inside out: how it works, what its idiosyncrasies are, what its tolerances are, etc. — you’ll know those systems so well you’ll know before something happens what’s likely to happen. Servicing identical systems becomes easier and more profitable — especially if you’re good at selling services and/or proactive maintenance plans. Ssimplifying your systems means you’re carrying fewer brands, have fewer SKUs, spend less time finding a product that does something unique for the client and spend less time differentiating each system. In an AVaaS model, leasing programming becomes, legally and technically possible — and very profitable. There’s no question who owns the code.
AVaaS will be HUGE. The clients will start to demand it, eventually. So, consider adopting it now — be a pioneer and, if you don’t know how to do it, ask! AVaaS will be THE BIG THING everyone starts to talk about in 2018 and it’s my pick for the biggest new trend for the new year.
An Honorable Mention – Digital Content Management: Back in October of 2017, Barco issued a press release on a new version of its higher-ed focused WeConnect system. In that press release was a barely-mentioned “Digital Engagement Platform.” But, that mention didn’t go unnoticed by us. This is foreshadowing the direction Barco believes the future of the AV market is heading — content management. The press release describes the Digital Engagement Platform as a digital collaborative portal allowing clients to manage their WeConnect subscriptions over the internet. Translation: Barco has set up an online system to manage content that doesn’t require a locally-hosted network AND they’re even setting up WeConnect as an AVaaS product that has a sort of a seat-license to use it.
Maybe this was intentional or maybe it wasn’t. But you can be sure that every major AV manufacturer who currently does signal routing and management did notice — or at the very least, is looking at integrating such a platform themselves. This is all part of the future, forthcoming AVaaS model and this would even stack on content management — the holy grail (think AppleTV for the corporation) — the AppleTV is his the device and all the content management is the secret sauce. Or, put another way, the Amazon Dot or Echo is only the cheap interface to the intellectual-property-rich Alexa platform. The value of the Digital Engagement Platform is, in fact, intellectual property!
That’s it! I hope you enjoy this and will share it on social. Please also post it in your cubical or office and track it for accuracy. I’m curious what you think too! So comment below and let us know your thoughts. Leave a Comment
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ISE: If You Sell to Education, You Should Go
By Scott Tiner rAVe Columnist
Integrated Systems Europe will take place this year from Feb. 6-9, in Amsterdam. Many of us in the United States view this show as “Europe’s InfoComm.” While the show takes place in Europe, it’s a viable show for people throughout the world. If you sell to education in any way, or work in education, you should seriously consider attending ISE this year.
First, I want to dispel a few possible misconceptions. The first one is that ISE, due to its location is simply too expensive. The logic is that of course it’s less expensive to send people to Las Vegas or Orlando than it is to another country. A quick search on the internet will show you that this is likely true in terms of flight only. A flight to Amsterdam for ISE will cost about $850, while a flight to Vegas in June will cost about $400. However, hotel and food is very comparable to what you will pay at either InfoComm location. A second concern for a lot of people is the idea of being in another country and the challenges it presents. While Dutch is the official language in Amsterdam, English is regularly spoken by everyone you meet. During my time at ISE last year, there was never a time when I could not speak with anyone from hotel staff to restaurant staff to taxi drivers. Everyone spoke fluent English. The food in Amsterdam is great and you don’t need to venture much from your usual palate if you choose. Although, the Dutch do seem to like mayonnaise more than Americans, and don’t seem to eat mustard.
With those misconceptions taken care of, let’s discuss why you should attend. For me, the first big issue is timing. Mid-winter is always a slow time for the higher education market. Classes are in session so there is a limited amount of installation work taking place. Additionally, our budgets for upgrades are likely spent, and now we are only maintaining spaces while we wait for a new fiscal year to begin in July. However, it is when we start thinking about the spaces we will be working on in the next year. We start to look at different products, different designs and try to catch up on some training that we have not had time to do since last winter. Attending ISE in February provides the perfect time for all of this. I don’t mean to knock InfoComm in this regard, but for many of us, it’s too late in the year to be valuable for the current set of installs. By mid-June our designs, programming and budgets are largely done. It is too late to look at new products and think about substituting. Your attendance at ISE will allow you to bring the new products to your customers when they need them. Even products that have a May or June release date may be viable, as that is still before the fiscal year turns for many educational institutions.
Another reason to attend ISE is to start and see what the rest of the world is doing in AV. I was fortunate enough last year to take place in a higher education forum at ISE. I met people from around the world and heard about their successes and their struggles. As a tech manager this helped me see the bigger picture for what we had to do at our institution. As an integrator or designer, this can also be an eye opening opportunity for you. Have you ever considered international business of any sort? What are higher ed institutions doing in Australia that are similar or different to those in the U.S.? Can you bring some value to either of those places, by learning about the other? Many smaller firms have been branching out regionally in the U.S. over the past several years. I recently found out that a small firm in Maine was actually doing international business in the rental and staging areas. So it’s possible to do, even if you have a small firm.
Most well run businesses will do some calculations on the value of attending trade shows, and educational opportunities. Obviously, you can not attend them all and some provide more value than others. By looking at the minimal additional cost to send people to ISE and the potential increase in value from the show, I believe you will find it to be a worthwhile investment in money and resources. Leave a Comment
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On Digital Assistants
By Leonard Suskin Pixel and Ink-Stained Wretch
An AV consultant once had a conversation with an executive from manufacturer about the most expensive home he’d seen. He asked what kind of control system one would build for a ten-million dollar home. The executive answered that there’d be a single button. When the button was pressed, a servant would walk into the room and ask, “How may I help you?”
That’s not my story, but one I was told quite a few years ago now. There’s a fair bit to say about what we’re selling, what control and automation are and whether or not technology will catch up to the simple human element of an assistant who knows what you want and how you want it. What brings this anecdote to my mind today are two events: Crestron’s announcement of integration with Amazon Echo and my own acquisition of a Google Home smart speaker.
First, the obvious for those who’ve not tried it: Voice control is becoming far, far better than it once was. Not only do these devices recognize a voice in normal conversational tones, but Google even has a feature to distinguish between different people’s voices. If I say, “OK, Google, what’s on my calendar today?”, I’ll get MY calendar, while my wife or daughter will get their own Google calendars. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’ll know that devices as gateways to ecosystems is one of my on-going themes (and if you’ve NOT followed be for some length of time, why not?). The growing crop of smart speaker devices are no exception. Google gives you Google search, VoIP calls via your Google contacts, the aforementioned Google calendar, access to your Google music playlist, integration with Google’s Chromecast streaming device. Amazon Echo gives you access to your Amazon content, integration with your Amazon Fire streaming devices.
So digital assistants are gateways to ecosystems. Is that all that they are? Can they become that assistant for the rest of us, one call away and ready to do whatever it is we ask? It’s not a good idea to say “never” in terms of technology, but this time we must say, “not yet” – and, perhaps, “yet” is far enough away that it may as well mean “never.” I also wonder if that’s where we’d want to go.
I’ve lived with one of these for just over a week now and find myself speaking to it several times a day — mainly setting reminders for things to do later, setting timers (winter is baking season!) and asking Google questions. The latter is, while the simplest, the part that most feels like science fiction. Five decades ago we imagined James T. Kirk, captain of the Enterprise, in possession of a ship’s computer. When he needed something from it he didn’t fiddle with a touchscreen or keyboard or switches and dials; he spoke to it, asked it questions in plain English to which the computer would speak an answer. It isn’t quite conversation, but it is getting close to it.
A digital assistant still isn’t the human assistant hired by members of the one percent to fulfill their every need. To give an analogy from the world of science fiction, the Star Trek computer, like digital assistants of today, has for decades been depicted at being wonderful at doing what it is told. It executes commands. It answers questions. Given some third-party hardware, “what it is told” can easily expand from “tell me when Ray Bradbury died” to “turn on the kitchen lights” or “set the temperature to 67 degrees” or “place a video call to the London office.”
That part is special and amazing and we’ve accomplished it. That part that’s missing is the one we see in the next Star Trek series, decades later when an artificial man named Data serves on the crew of the new Enterprise. Like the ship’s computer, Data speaks in plain English. Unlike the computer, Data takes initiative. In some ways this is a step back from today’s digital assistants; he’ll not always unquestioningly obey an instruction. On the other hand, he IS capable of showing initiative, of improvising, and of doing those things too complex for even the most carefully written algorithms.
That, of course, is the first part of what we’re missing: initiative. It’s easy to tell your digital assistant to turn on the lights, just as easy to schedule the lights to be on and coffee made at 5 a.m. each morning (I wake up early). It isn’t even that hard to program an exception – coffee at 5 a.m. except on New Years Day, or unless you’re traveling. Or if you had the stomach flu. The problem is that today creating these exceptions requires the user to think ahead of all of the possibilities and manually create rules and exceptions to the rules and exceptions to the exceptions. Invariably things will be missed which no human assistant would get wrong. That’s the first thing we’re missing.
The second is darker — the sense of power over another human being. Having a servant whose livelihood depends on your happiness cements the fact that you have a higher social status than they do. That your happiness is more important than theirs. It’s a way to separate those in-power from those needing it. This is something no device can replicate.
Or can it?
Look at the world of Star Wars. Droids in some ways fill the role of fancy digital assistants. They’ll do your work for you, they’ll translate languages for you, they’ll even fight for you. What’s more, they’ll be owned by you. You can buy them, sell them, even erase their memories. We have a word for the buying, selling and ownership of thinking beings. It’s a word Star Trek used when it was suggested that the aforementioned Data was property and, thus, could be disassembled and experimented on.
Slavery.
We started with a technical question and a user experience question, but we’ll end with a philosophical one: If we created the control system we really wanted, would we in essence be creating people? And if we wanted those to serve at our pleasure, would we be creating a race of slaves and handing them the keys to the very workings of our entire lives?
This isn’t something to which we are close, but perhaps we still should ask ourselves – is this what we want?
I fear that the answer might be “yes.” Leave a Comment
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Control4 Buys Remote Monitoring and Management Company IhijiControl4 today announced that it has acquired Ihiji, a provider of remote management services.
Control4 says that by combining two industry-leading network and device management solutions — BakPak from Control4 (after Control4’s 2016 acquisition of Pakedge) and Invision from Ihiji — into one unified service platform, Control4 will provide offer integrators a unified cloud-based system for device monitoring and management.
The joint team is now developing the unified cloud-based service platform which will be made available in phases to all Control4 and Ihiji dealers and their end-customers later in the year. The shared goal is to operate a single integrated monitoring and services experience that provides all dealers with complete visibility and control at the network level, which would include over 2,000 third-party products, as well as all Control4 and Pakedge smart home equipment. Today, Ihiji works with the industry manufacturers such as: Araknis, Belkin, Brocade, Cisco, Crestron, Dell, Denon, D-Link, Integra, Luxul, Marantz, Netgear, Onkyo, Pakedge, Panamax, Russound, Savant, Sky, Sony, SurgeX, Synaccess, Yamaha and others, and those integrations will continue to be central to the new unified management platform. The new solution will also deliver a comprehensive view of every home and customer to enable dealers to monitor, assess, remediate and track performance concerns associated with their customers’ homes.
Today, Control4 will begin selling the previously named Ihiji APP-750 network appliance under its new name, the Pakedge NX-1, with a list price of USD $650. Control4 also announced the elimination of all subscription fees associated with the Ihiji Invision management service.
The Ihiji product development and support teams are now part of Control4 and are working within the company’s networking group to continue supporting existing Ihiji dealers, and to deliver the new unified management platform later this year. All Ihiji dealers using Invision will continue to be supported and are encouraged to continue utilizing and installing Invision in new installations. Later this year, progress releases towards the new unified and integrated service platform will be made available to all Ihiji, Control4, and Pakedge dealers and their installed customers through a software update process for the APP-750, NX-1, NK-1, RK-1 and WR-1.
Control4 is here and ihiji is here. Leave a Comment
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VESA Readies 8K Resolution Ecosystem With DP8K Certified DisplayPort Cables CertificationThe Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that DP8K Certified DisplayPort cables — native DisplayPort cables that are guaranteed to support DisplayPort High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3) — are now available in the marketplace. HBR3 is the highest bit rate (8.1 Gbps per lane) supported by DisplayPort standard version 1.4 and provides the speed required to drive 8K video resolution at 60 frames per second (fps) using a single cable, as well as multiple 4K displays. Key applications supported by HBR3 include high-performance gaming, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) and television broadcasting. With HBR3 already available in a wide array of consumer products, including GPUs and monitors, the availability of cables that have been certified by VESA to support HBR3 provides a crucial final link to the ecosystem. DP8K Certified DisplayPort cables are guaranteed to support HBR3, the highest bit rate supported by DisplayPort version 1.4.
VESA is also currently engaged with its members in the development of the next DisplayPort standard generation, with plans to increase the data rate enabled by DisplayPort by two-fold and beyond. VESA plans to publish this update within the next 18 months. With DP8K-certified cables, devices with native DisplayPort connectors can reliably support 5K or 8K monitors, as well as high-performance 4K monitors. For USB Type-C (USB-C) to USB-C connections, this same level of performance is available with “SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps” cables, which support the HBR3 data rate for DisplayPort Alt Mode. A complete list of vendors offering DP8K Certified DisplayPort can be found here.
With the wide field of view offered by AR/VR displays combined with motion, the virtual world is putting more demands on resolution, refresh rate and color depth. In addition, two displays are needed for AR/VR applications, one for each eye, which doubles the data rate demand. Higher data rates will also be needed to support increases in HDR performance and resolutions beyond 8K for traditional displays. VESA is continuing to work on DisplayPort to increase data-rates by two-fold and beyond to enable the higher performance requirements demanded by these applications. In addition to pure display interfaces, VESA is also working to address the future needs of the mixed data-plus-video world of DisplayPort Alt Mode on the USB-C connector. USB-C now allows a single connector for USB data, video data and power, but for simultaneous support of SuperSpeed USB data (now running at 5 or 10 Gbps) and video, the USB-C signals need to be shared, which cuts the DisplayPort bit rate in half. Today, USB-C can support 4K at 60Hz performance utilizing the two lanes of USB-C in this configuration or 4K HDR or 8K at 30Hz by adding compression. Increasing the DisplayPort data rates in the future will also expand video display capability of a single USB-C connector.
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Polycom to Acquire Obihai TechnologyToday, Polycom announced the signing of an agreement to acquire Obihai Technology, Inc., a San Jose-based innovator in VoIP audio solutions.
Obihai Technology develops software and hardware for VoIP endpoints. The strategic addition of its software and development team allows Polycom to compete more effectively in the global voice market and broadens Polycom’s portfolio to include complementary technologies for the service providers and customers of all sizes.
After completion of the deal, Polycom expects to add more cloud-based capabilities and analog terminal adapter solutions to its solutions portfolio.
The deal is expected to close early in first quarter of this year.
Polycom is here and Obihai is here. Leave a Comment
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The Results of the AV Industry’s Only Future of Collaboration Survey Are In!Last month, we partnered with Almo Pro AV and Barco to create a comprehensive survey that asked you the AV community — users and integrators — to tell us what the state of the BYOD (bring your own device) and collaboration (insert your own definition here) market is.
The results?
Most importantly, nearly everyone in the AV market is participating, with over 60 percent integrators integrating at least one collaboration system per month. And more than half of you are installing five or more a month! Who’s leading the way in integrating collaborative systems? Education and government. Corporations seem to be a bit network-shy when it comes to AV.
But, what we found most interesting was the speed at which AV-over-IP has evolved into the mainstream of the AV marker. SVSi is leading the charge (how much so, we can’t share that data with you, yet, as it’s proprietary) but companies like lesser-known iMAGsystems are garnering some attention with their wider-than-average AV-over-IP product line. And, of course, Crestron is making push, along with Kramer, Atlona, ZeeVee and a few others — each barely registered, however, when measuring product sales. So, for now, Harman’s own SVSi is dominating the AV-over-IP landscape.
And, since over 55 percent of the AV integrators are already using some AV-over-IP products, AV-over-IP will move from an emerging market in 2017 to segment that we predict will be 5 to 8 percent of the total AV signal distribution segment of the systems market by the end of 2018.
When we asked about the current state of the collaboration market, the obvious leader was Barco – with over 15 percent of the total collaboration market-share and closely followed by Crestron and their AirMedia product line (note: AirMedia uses the same AWIND chip-technology used in mush of the ClickShare line). A surprise to some might be the rapid growth of the Mersive Solstice product in 2017 which captured nearly 10 percent of the market – up from less than 2 percent at the beginning of the year. The rest of the market sees Extron and Kramer, both at less than 10 percent and a plethora of other companies who make up the remaining 35+ percent of the market. Oh, and kudos to Epson and its BrightLink Pro for being THE ONLY collaboration display product to make the cut.
Of course, since Barco funded this survey, they wanted to know the industry’s overall satisfaction with ClickShare — no doubt, hoping to hold on to their market-leading position as they just started shipping their new 4K product, the CSE-800. Over 90 percent of ClickShare users and installers said they were at least satisfied with their choice with 67 percent saying they were “very satisfied” with ClickShare.
Here’s an infographic that tells you the highlights of our survey and, as the year 2018 moves along, we’ll share more data. But, for now, rest assured you will lilley see more ClickShare domination, an emergence of AV-over-IP that will likely see some big players stake a claim to the network-based signal distribution market concept and we’re sure to see a lot of new IP-based products launched at February’s Integrated Systems Europe show as well as at June’s InfoComm and August’s Integrate shows! Leave a Comment
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Optoma’s Newest Projector Aimed at Both Corporate and House of Worship Installs Optoma today announced two new ProScene projectors – the WU615T and EH615T are WUXGA (1920×1200) and 1080p, respectively, fixed lens projectors that are specifically aimed at both the corporate and houses of worship markets.
These new Optoma ProScene projectors both have 1.8x zoom (throw Ratio: 1.2 – 2.16:1), 360-degree and portrait mode operation, four corner geometric correction, vertical and horizontal lens shifts and keystone correction. Optoma tells rAVe they are designed for image stacking and uneven surfaces and offer usability from any angle. Connectivity includes two HDMI ports, HDBaseT and MHL and both projectors also feature Eco+ lamp power management mode.
The Optoma ProScene WU615T is native 1920×1200 WUXGA resolution and is spec’d at 6,500 ANSI lumens for $2,999 and the ProScene EH615T is 1920×1080 at 6,200 ANSI lumens for $2,799. Both projectors are also spec’d with a contrast ratio of 10,000:1.
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NEC Display Releases New Native 4K Resolution RB Laser Projectors NEC Display Solutions today announced the release of two new projector models, the 30,000 Center (26,000 ANSI) lumen PH2601QL and the 40,000 Center (35,000 ANSI) lumen PH3501QL. Both are native 4K (3840×2160) resolution projectors.
Both projectors are designed for auditoriums, theaters, lecture halls, museums, sanctuaries and other large venues. NEC says they have dust protection for artifact free images and no loss of brightness over time. Built-in edge blending, stacking and geometric correction help support projection mapping when single or multiple projectors are required. These two models also offer the ability to provide image integrity, incorporating stable brightness (constant brightness) over a longer time period to alleviate image decay.
Additional benefits of the PH2601QL and PH3501QL include:
- Viewable in high ambient lighting conditions
- 4096×2160 native 4K resolution
- True 4:4:4 4K signal support with HDR
- Complete panel for digital inputs, including HDMI (V2.0), DisplayPort w/ HDCP (V.1.4), HDBaseT w/ HDCP
- (V1.4/2.2), Quad 3G-SKI and an OPS slot
- Screen size from 50 to 500 inches (1.27 to 12.7 meters)
Both new projectors will be available in January 2019. The PH2601QL will have a minimum advertised price of $129,999 and the PH3501QL will have a minimum advertised price of $149,999.
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4K Version of Vivitek NovoDS ShipsThe new Vivitek NovoDS4K has started to ship. NovoDS4K could be called a digital signage player or it could be labeled a wireless presentation system (think small version of Barco ClickShare with 4K output). The NovoDS4K manages to output 4K video (with an HDMI loop-through), RS232, PoE (Power over Ethernet), is Wi-Fi, and 1Gbps LAN capable that can be hidden behind any display or connected projector. It includes 36 built-in drag-and-drop templates for signage applications that are customizable, including HTML5 rendering, and a playlist for editing content creation.
It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Android operating systems so you can literally send content to it wirelessly from nearly any device. Network-based management software is included so that content can be updated over the wired or wireless network and to manage and monitor devce playback status from anywhere. Output is 3840 x 2160 (Ultra HD) and is 8-bit color at 60Hz or 10-bit color at 30 Hz.
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Extron’s Collaboration Spaces Ships Extron has just shipped the HC 404 AV system for collaboration spaces. The system features built-in control capabilities and integration with occupancy sensors to automate display power and source switching for an intuitive, effortless user experience. The low-profile HC 404 components can be discreetly mounted beneath a table or behind a display. HC 404 systems connect to GlobalViewer Enterprise, providing an AV system management solution to monitor and support all of your collaboration spaces throughout the enterprise.
The HC 404 switching transmitter and scaling receiver work together to extend video, audio, and power up to 230 feet over a single CATx cable for maximum performance and reliability. It features two HDMI inputs and one VGA input at the transmitter and one HDMI input at the receiver. Advanced Extron scaling technology in the receiver ensures excellent image quality with maximum detail and color accuracy. Add an Extron ShareLink wireless collaboration gateway to support BYOD – Bring Your Own Device environments, where users can share content from a wide variety of personal mobile devices for effective collaboration.
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Atlona Ships New BYOD Solution in AT-UHD-SW-510W Switcher Atlona is now shipping the AT-UHD-SW-510W 5×1 universal switcher with wireless presentation capabilities. Aimed at the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement in corporate, educational and other commercial AV environments, the SW-510W claims to simplify system design, integration, and operation by supporting both wired and wireless AV connectivity in a single, compact unit. For local wired sources, the new switcher features one DisplayPort and two HDMI inputs alongside a USB-C input.
For wireless presentations, the SW-510W interfaces natively with iOS, Android, Mac, Chromebook and Windows devices over built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, and offers screen mirroring without requiring the installation of an app. The SW-510U can automatically switch between input sources based on the connection or disconnection of a wired or wireless AV device, providing exceptional ease of use.
On the output side, simultaneous HDMI and HDBaseT interfaces enable multi-destination presentation architectures such as concurrent primary audience and confidence displays, while the HDBaseT output can be paired with Atlona’s AT-UHD-EX-100CE-RX-PSE receiver to extend video, audio, control and Ethernet up to 100 meters. The SW-510W supports wired video signals up to 4K/UHD@60 Hz, plus support for 4K/60 4:4:4 and HDR (8-bit color at 60 Hz) formats on local ports (HDMI, USB-C and DisplayPort) and wireless video up to 1080p/30 (up to 1080p/60 with Miracast). The switcher is HDCP 2.2 compliant for compatibility with protected content.
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Key Digital’s New KD-AMP220 Digital Audio Amplifier Designed for Small Rooms Key Digital’s KD-AMP220 compact digital audio amplifier’s input connections accommodate microphone, line level balanced and line level 3.5-millimeter stereo analog audio inputs. The output is a mix of audio from the microphone input and the selected audio input. Each input has variable volume level set — perfect for presentation spaces as KD-AMP220’s internal pre-amp accepts direct microphone plugin and can provide 48V phantom power.
Speaker level output may be set to bridge, stereo or mono mode. Integrators may sum left and right channels to a single speaker in bridge mode. For stereo applications, KD-AMP220 may be configured to send left and right channels to separate speakers. Mono mode can be useful in speech and voice enforcement applications.
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For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe ProAV Edition out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100 percent opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the ProAV industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: We run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
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Everything we publish is opt-in — we spam NO ONE! rAVe ProAV Edition is our flagship publication with what we believe is a reach of virtually everyone in the ProAV market. rAVe HomeAV Edition is co-published with CEDIA, covering the HomeAV market. We added rAVe Rental [and Staging] in November 2007, rAVe ED [Education] in May 2008 and then rAVe DS [Digital Signage] in January 2009. We added rAVe GHGav [Green, Healthcare & Government AV] in August 2010 and rAVe HOW [House of Worship] in July 2012. You can subscribe to any of those publication or see ALL our archives by going to: https://www.ravepubs.com
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