Click above for more information Welcome to rAVe's annual Best of InfoComm Awards issue! Since we started rAVe in 2003, this is the issue that's been most anticipated by our readers – the InfoComm Awards. We don't take these awards lightly. There's a reason we don't rush to get this issue out the week after InfoComm, we don't allow for manufacturers to "submit" their products for the awards and we don't tell anyone who's won an award until the issue is released – unlike many of the other publications in our market. In fact, some of the other so-called publications go as far as not only telling a manufacturer they won an award, but also then use that information to suggest they might want to advertise in that particular issue to draw attention to the "award-winning" product.
Nope. The rAVe Best of InfoComm Awards come from us – rAVe. rAVe has, since it's inception, CLEARLY stated our position: We are biased. We call it like we see it. If we like something, we write about it. If we don't, we will either tell you we don't or not write about it at all. We don't offer advertising spots to award winners, we don't allow products to be submitted for awards, and what you're about to read is truly what we think is THE BEST OF InfoComm!
One last thing: While at InfoComm I ran across an old friend and partner of mine, Mike Vergauwen (many of you already know this, but Mike and I along with Jody Thomas and InfoComm's John Fuchs started what is now called InfoComm IQ). Anyway, we'd both grown busy over the years and we didn't often get a chance to see each other, but InfoComm had always been that annual opportunity to catch up. But this year's InfoComm was special – Mike had just been made Secretary/Treasurer and was eventually to ascend to the InfoComm Board President. He told me how excited he was about this (although overwhelmed by the responsibility, too) and how he saw it as an opportunity to fix what he perceived were some issues within the current InfoComm Board structure and how information was being used or, using his term, "leveraged" by a board member for his/her personal gain. Although I didn't know what he was talking about, specifically, I knew that if he was worried about it – he'd get to the bottom of it and solve it – whatever it was. His passing was a tragic loss for our industry. He was a gentleman, a man of his word and was the definition of ethical – in my opinion.
In his honor and memory, we dedicate our 2009 rAVe Best of InfoComm issue to Mike Vergauwen. –Gary Kayye, CTS Back to Top rAVe 2009 Best of InfoComm Awards | Best Booth: LG has set a new bar with their booth at InfoComm. Many manufacturers have had good booths over the years at InfoComm, but LG’s 2009 booth set a new standard. Check out these photos to understand why we gave LG this award: Check this out: http://www.lgcommercial.com/infocomm09/ | | Best New Product at InfoComm 2009: Extron's TouchLink panels. While there have been configurable control systems before, no one has done one with the user interface everyone wants – a touch screen. The cost of programmable touch panels has been considered prohibitive to many potential technology buyers due to the cost and complexity of custom of programming. Many users have opted for simpler user interfaces like keypads and handheld remotes for budget purposes. Extron's TouchLink line has the potential to capture a huge portion of the control market because of the simple fact that programming is not required. It's configurable, but still looks cool mounted on a wall or sitting on a table. This is an important step for our industry. | | Best Seminar Presenter: We asked around about this one and got the same answer from everyone – Steve Somers from Extron for his Display Color Management class. | | Best In-Booth Presenter/Presentation (tie): - Kevin with Coolux. Simply watch this and you’ll see why we gave him this award. Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot on it at: http://www.vimeo.com/5207239
- Wayne Bickley with Christie Digital demonstrated a sand-box 3D effect using a Mirage HD6 projector in a military application. It was awesome! Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot on it at: http://www.vimeo.com/5219933
| | Best Private Presentation: Joe Kane for Da-Lite. Joe's assertion that screen quality affects picture quality as much or more than the projector itself was hard not to agree with after watching his presentation. | |
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| Most Ubiquitous Technology: Digital Signage gets the nod in 2009. Last year we gave this award to 3D technology so we’re generally ahead of the technological curve here, so watch for the DS market to explode in the ProAV world in 2010 – driven by some VERY CREATIVE stuff coming from major manufacturers later this year! | | Best New Killer App: Laser-based display technologies. There were a few in private suites at InfoComm, so we aren’t allowed to talk about most of them, but one, Spudnik Incorporated’s laser-based display technology showed me new stuff we can talk about and I was thoroughly impressed. Its shallow physical depth, colorimetry and resolution were all noteworthy. But, they need to change their company name, in my opinion. You WILL see laser-based display systems in 2010 that are high-res enough and large enough to be in all types of stadium, arena and large-format display applications. | | Best New Video Product (tie): - Christie Digital and Vista System’s new Spyder X20 – a 20-megapixel, 8-output, 16-input image processor. Simply perfect. Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot on it at: http://www.vimeo.com/5219903
- Crestron’s DigitalMedia Product. The future of video transmission is digital (even in the ProAV world!) and Crestron appears to be ahead of the curve with this product. We’ll be interested to see where it goes. Here is some more information from Crestron: http://www.crestron.com/solutions/digitalmedia_hdmi_distribution/
| | Best New Audio Product: Extron Flat Field speaker. Speakers are often overlooked at InfoComm since everyone has them now, but this one deserves a second look because of its unique design. It’s flat, fits in a standard two-foot ceiling tile, and provides significantly better audio dispersion than can speakers in an average room. Here's a link to the product page: http://www.extron.com/product/product.aspx?id=ff120t | | Best New Projection Display: Christie’s DHD700. This projector looked amazing. If you had seen it two years ago, you would have thought it was definitely 3-chip DLP, even though it's actually 1-chip DLP, which just shows how far that technology has come. Check it out here: http://www.christiedigital.com/AMEN/Products/ChristieDHD700.htm | |
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| Best New Flat-Screen Display: NEC’s MultiSync X461UN LCDs are nearly bezel-less (when you place two side-by-side, you get less than 7.3mm image-to-image separation). But, get in line – everyone’s ordering these right now for video-wall and DS applications. Here's a brochure [PDF] from NEC. | | Best New Classroom Product: TECOM Electronics’ new ADA-compliant TechPod Presenter (built-in PC, DVD and USB-port) – not only can you use any control system with it, but it also now accommodates Extron’s MediaLink Controllers through cut-outs designed for them. Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot on it at: http://www.vimeo.com/5234466 | | Best New Rental & Staging Product: Draper’s StageScreen is a hinge-based (no screws) truss screen frame where the screen attaches via a looping system (no snaps). Impressive. We think this design will be emulated – and well, it should be. Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot on it at: http://www.vimeo.com/5217911 | | Most Creative Product: AV Rover’s new 3D AV Rover – it’s a fully-integrated 3D Educational system in a cart. It includes a built-in 3D short-throw lens projector, sequentially numbered 3D glasses (and a built-in sanitation system for the eyewear) and an integrated 3D processing system. We caught it at the BenQ booth, but you can integrate it with any projector brand. Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot at InfoCOmm at: http://www.vimeo.com/5204929 | | Best New Videoconferencing Product: Polycom’s new HDX 6000 is an entry-level priced HD-conferenecing system (stand-alone system) for under $6000. Check out the rAVe NOW Video we shot on it at: http://www.vimeo.com/5235993 | |
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| Best New Audioconferencing Product: ClearOne’s MAX IP Table Top audio conferencing system serves both SIP and VoIP systems. Here's a link to the product on their website. | | Best New Control System Product: Extron’s TouchLink touch configurable touch panels have to get this award as they were the “talk of the show”. Available in 7” in-wall, 7” table-top and 3.5” Cable Cubby table-mount designs, these panels bring Extron into a new realm of control systems – well beyond the small-systems and the opportunity to move into all boardroom, conference room and classroom applications of control. Sure, these don’t hit 100% of the touch-screen market, but we suspect that Extron will be happy with hitting 85% of the market need. | | Best New Screen Product: Da-Lite's New Holo screen. This is a cool new screen specifically for retail digital signage, and Da-Lite's version is awesome. This makes it actually possible to do projection-based digital signage, and we think it will become more mainstream with a big name like Da-Lite behind it. Check out the product on their website. | | Best Digital Signage Product: Rise Vision's SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution. Along with VISIX, Rise Vision is one of the few digital signage content management SaaS companies aiming their product at the ProAV market. Certainly Scala is the 800-pound gorilla, but they are aimed at the IT market. Here's their company website: http://www.risevision.com | | Best Product You Probably Didn't See: 3LCD. Here's a technology that dominates in the corporate meeting room and classroom environments – outselling DLP in some cases 8:1, yet their booth at InfoComm was virtually empty all three days. You could barely get in the DLP booth because it was so crowded. Which really matters – marketing, or mindshare? | |
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| Best New Presentation Technology: Anoto Presenter Pen. This product is awesome and will change how presenters use PowerPoint. The video speaks for itself so check it out here: http://www.vimeo.com/5236690 | | Best Potential New Technology: The impact of iPhone apps in the ProAV market. As developers run out of consumer apps to make, more and more niche pro apps will come out. We expect to eventually see acoustical engineering apps, apps that measure signal quality and help you with troubleshooting systems, and apps that let you manage systems from afar (besides just regular control apps, which are already ubiquitous in the CEDIA market). We even think we'll see CRM apps that go beyond things like Salesforce and will give you amazing demographic information to make better, more efficient cold calls. | | Best Projection Technology: Holographic Projection by Musion (http://www.musion.co.uk/). They have a good on-line video on their 3D holographic technology here: http://www.musionmedia.co.uk/Berlin_Telepresence.html At InfoComm, there were two demos of holographic projection on the show floor, one was Illusio – check out their video on-line here: http://www.illusiotechnologies.com/. Musion sees a huge potential future market for them: Porn. | | Best New Audio Technology: Harman’s AVB Switcher/Router being made in partnership with NETGEAR. The Ethernet-based switcher/router can handle any and all audio formats (and maybe video one day) via Ethernet – 2Gbps. Here's a link to the press release discussing the new technology (look towards the bottom): http://hiqnet.harmanpro.com/news.php?id=88 | | Best Party: Well, there was no TI/DLP party this year! Weird that the party usually paid for by a group of big manufacturers was the one that didn't survive budget cuts, while a couple of the single manufacturer parties did. This award goes to Extron and Crestron, for throwing awesome parties and still supporting their dealers this year. We believe shows should be as much fun as they are work, so thanks to these companies for continuing the tradition. | | Kudos Award: Jason McGraw, for pulling off an awesome show in a down economy. There was a lot of negativity about InfoComm before the show, but he remained upbeat and positive (every time we talked to him or saw him quoted in the press) all year. We think the companies that did pull out made a huge mistake, because the quality integrators still showed up, and this is in large part thanks to Jason. | | Most Awkward Moment Award: This goes to ProAV magazine, for complaining about how frustrated they were about rAVe scooping them on an audio story at the show, not realizing we were right around the corner and could hear everything they were saying. Nice. | | Most Wishy-Washy Exhibitor: Sony. First they were coming with a big booth, then they pulled out. Then they showed up, but they may as well not have because they had random stuff in their booth and a bunch of people THOUGHT they weren't there at all anyway. | | Most Apathetic Tradeshow Booth Staff: Xantech. We went by there (on the third day, true) and asked for info on their new products, and if we could do a rAVe NOW Video, and they weren't really interested. Two booth attendants (who were sitting down) told our reporter that they didn't have anyone who could talk to us, so we asked if we could come back later and they said no! What company doesn't want free press? We guess they were just ready to go home already. | |
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Congratulations to all our award winners! If you are an award winner and want to use the awards logo in your marketing materials, feel free. If you use it on your website, please link it to www.ravepubs.com. If you need a higher resolution version of the awards logo, email us. |
Back to Top 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% 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). Don't like us, then go away — unsubscribe! Just use the link below. To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter – instead, write directly to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial ideas: Editor-in-Chief Sara Abrons at sara@ravepubs.com A little about me: I graduated from Journalism School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where I am adjunct faculty). I've been in the AV-industry since 1987 where I started with Extron and eventually moved to AMX. So, I guess I am an industry veteran (although I don't think I am that old). I have been an opinionated columnist for a number of industry publications and in the late 1990s I started the widely read KNews eNewsletter (the first in the AV market) and also created the model for and was co-founder of AV Avenue – which is now known as InfoComm IQ. rAVe Publications has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition. 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, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004 and is, by far, the largest ePub in the HomeAV market.rAVe Rental [and Staging] launched in November 2007.rAVe ED [Education] launched in May 2008. To read more about my background, our team, and what we do, go to https://www.ravepubs.com Back to Top Copyright 2009 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 510 Meadowmont Village Circle, Suite 376 – Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – (919) 969-7501. Email:sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors.
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