The industry wasn’t exactly asking for another wired cable standard. We already have HDMI 2.1 and 2.2, DisplayPort 2.1, USB4, and Thunderbolt 4 and 5 — and most of us have our favorites, along with a few scapegoats. Each standard is busy working on its next version, promising faster speeds and better performance. Still, a […]

With great sympathy, many in the U.K. industry now mourn the loss of the award-winning systems integrator Smartcomm Ltd. And industry executives as individuals and colleagues are rallying to help Smartcomm employees find new jobs. Blame the HM Revenue and Customs, the tax department of the U.K. government, who (with no love at all) filed […]

At ISE 2025, at the annual industry awards powered by Inavation and ISE, Telmaco took first prize in the Government and Public sector for its work on the UN Africa renovation. Every now and then in the ProAV business, if you’re lucky, you get to touch a special project … a project that not only […]

It took more than two years, but First Impression in Netherlands succeeded: the company has earned certification as a B Corporation, a global movement to measure and certify a company’s entire social and environmental impact. First Impression joins 9,000+ companies worldwide that want their business to make a positive impact on people and the planet. […]

When the vice president of the European Commission called on Taylor Swift to mobilize young Europeans to vote, the irony wasn’t lost on Liveurope. And Liveeurope is fighting back. Liveurope, as an EU-founded organization, brings together Europe’s iconic concert venues to fight for European music diversity. The group includes 24 famous venues in 24 European […]

Here are some of the changes you need to know about It won’t be the same ISE in 2025: the ISE team is promising the most dynamic and engaging show yet, with a host of new initiatives and features. So let’s see what we know so far. First, there will be least 20% more show […]

Meta moves to first place in video-to-text imaging with the launch of Movie Gen for AI-enabled content creators We’ve all been impressed by the very first text-to-video AI, with how AI can now use simple text inputs to transform our imaginations into a unique video. Now Meta’s Movie Gen moves the needle forward, outperforming the […]

It’s coming. Soon. Meta will bring out its XR calling service with Pixel Codec Avatars (PiCA): a deep generative model of 3D human faces. Unlike Apple’s Personas (which use front display and depth sensors), the Codec Avatars appear in 3D as full 360-degree photorealistic faces. Let’s call it a “digital twin” for your face. As […]

Artificial intelligence is transforming our world of audiovisual, but if we raise our eyes to the horizon instead of the workbench, we’ll see AI will transform the world around us as well. And those changes may be more significant. Let’s call this next stage in AI adoption the AI Rainbow. From content creation to editing […]

Remember Glue Collaboration? The cool head-and-torso avatars that made the metaverse seem like it was filled with legless players off a tabletop “foosball” field1? The parent company of Glue has now filed for bankruptcy. A letter from the CEO, Jussi Havu, explains that without a definite solution in sight the Glue service may be (soon) […]

It’s the Opus AVant-garde award for the Ensemble Modern for its “walk-in sound body” at the cresc — Biennale for contemporary music in Frankfurt, Germany. Now in its second year, Opus Avantgarde is given for works that go beyond the classic stage performance and depict current technological trends (or future staging trends). The jury and […]

We all knew it was coming, but we didn’t expect it so soon. OpenAI, famous for its ChatGPT and Dall-E free-to-use AI system, unveiled a new text-to-video service to select researchers, beta testers, developers and policymakers. “Sora” generates up to one-minute videos from text prompts. You type in a sentence or two as a prompt […]

Not all Dark Matter is found in outer space. This Dark Matter can be found in an industrial area in southeast Berlin, Germany. In the pitch-black rooms of a former factory site, visitors embark on a journey through seven immersive rooms brought to life with elaborate light installations, kinetic elements, projection mapping and 3D sound. […]

There’s someone who is betting that lots of European companies need a new AV brand. The multibillion-dollar Econocom Group launches Gather, its new AV brand. As one of Europe’s leading tech providers, the publicly listed group announces Gather will create intelligent audiovisual, unified communications and information technology solutions from state-of-the-art collaboration spaces to smart digital […]

While this article features two lectern companies, it’s really about all lecterns. The author has no commercial involvement with any of the companies mentioned in this article. There it is, always on stage. Standing on a podium for so long and so often, some of the users even call it a podium. But it’s not […]

Megapixel Brings Hollywood Tech to Architectural Applications With Launch of Ventana MicroLED Displays With Hollywood’s rapid adoption of virtual production studios, you’ll find Megapixel whose core technology (with more than 200 patents) for LED displays and video processing helped transform the way Hollywood produces its visual effects. Megapixel’s Emmy- and Oscar-winning technologies have become the […]

Congratulations to the organizers of INTEGRATE ME for their first show dedicated to ProAV. Co-located with CabSat, the show drew in an enthusiastic crowd of ProAV May 16-18, 2023 — much to the satisfaction of the exhibitors. The industry held its breath (several attempts in the MENA region have failed) and at first glance, many […]

The global digital signage market may be projected to reach US$29 billion by 2027 (with an anticipated growth rate of 8%, according to The Business Research Company’s “Digital Signage Global Market Report 2023”), but we all know it isn’t easy dough (DOOH). Even so, newcomer Ynvisible announced a deal with a prominent European customer specializing […]

For the very first time, the world governing body for basketball allowed a state-of-the-art court with an interactive video floor. In Madrid, the site of the FIBA Under-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2023, players dribbled over an innovative ASB GlassFloor. While fans didn’t “dribble” in the same way, their mouths were certainly left agape. The […]

This is the summer of blockbuster music tours. Just as “revenge travel” saw tourists hellbent on traveling post-pandemic, “revenge concertgoing” is packing Europe’s outdoor live events, arenas and stadiums. It’s a post-pandemic boom for live events, boosted by some of the world’s biggest entertainers who have emerged with post-pandemic projects. And it’s not just the […]

NASA recently named the four astronauts flying on NASA’s Artemis 2 moon mission in 2024. They will be the first people to travel to lunar in more than 50 years. But Artemis 2 will be carrying more than astronauts in its payload. NASA will send up a new laser communications terminal, the Orion Artemis 2 […]

With AI rolling across the tech landscape, we’re entering new territories — a Wild West of content creation where no one has gone before. In Europe, an AI-generated “interview” with Formula 1 racing legend Michael Schumacher highlights the danger (Schumacher has not been seen in public since his brain injury in a skiing accident in […]

London’s Northbank Business Improvement District (BID) wanted artists to help celebrate a new public space (Strand Aldwych) where the first radio transmission of the BBC happened 100 years ago. “How about a commemorative art installation designed to foster the exchange of ideas, education and art appreciation in a well-traveled common space?” they asked artists. Nick […]

By ChatGPT and Bob Snyder AI (artificial Intelligence) is often mistakenly dismissed as a social media parlor trick, while on the other hand, we fear a dystopian future where humans can’t compete with their own creation. What AI really is, in the near future, is the next computer paradigm — a way to leverage computer […]

Good things come from watching America’s Super Bowl. And not only for Kansas City fans. A few years ago in Germany, the founder of Circus Roncalli, Bernhard Paul was watching an NFL Super Bowl half-time show when an idea came in as clear as a 28-yard field goal. The Circus Roncalli founder decided his circus […]

They’re coming for your business. Flattened by the pandemic and bolstered by the ProAV market trend towards experiential, Europe’s live events companies will broaden their businesses to include systems integration. For decades, it was an exception if you saw a specialized AV events company with a full business unit in the more static business of […]

New research from Sony Professional Displays & Solutions reveals UK and German retailers are proactively preparing for crucial trading period whilst French adopt more laissez-faire approach Being under-cut on price by online stores is the biggest concern for retailers in Europe1 this festive period (43%) Four-fifths of retailers (78%) are investing in in-store operations for the remainder of the year Revamping their pricing strategy is the […]

The invasion of Ukraine, following on the heels of the loss of business due to the pandemic, creates economic aftershocks in the very heart of the European AV business. Soaring energy costs now cripple the cultural sector, and an example from Brussels, the heart of the EU, shows the stress on the AV and related […]

Chances are you never give a second thought to one of life’s essentials: Earth’s magnetic field. We almost never think about the magnetic field — but our lives depend upon it. It extends several tens of thousands of kilometers into space and saves the Earth from becoming the sun’s frying pan by protecting Earth (and […]

Filmmakers Adam May and Amy Zimmerman created an immersive HoloLens experience (called Critical Distance) to tell the story of a threatened orca and her pod. Orcas, stuck with the historical name “killer whales,” are mammals and the largest in the dolphin family. They are apex predators, able to hunt in “packs” and known as killers […]

There’s a new industry association to talk up the sustainable benefits of Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) lighting and technology (versus traditional high-voltage electrical infrastructure), to highlight PoE’s key strategic value to organizations, and to advance more interoperability for smart buildings. The seven founding members of the PoE Consortium are: Igor, specializing in enterprise smart building infrastructure, software […]

March 2023 will be Armageddon for the 8K industry in Europe. New EU power consumption regulations will go into effect then — and the new power consumption limits required for 8K TVs (and microLED-based displays) are so low that experts claim no devices will pass. Not a one. This effectively bans the sale of 8K […]