Inspired by the presence of Microsoft at InfoComm 2014, AVPhenom announced today that he will debut his new startup AV control and video switching brand at InfoComm June 17th in Las Vegas.  rAVe Publications secured an exclusive interview with AVPhenom to discuss this “game changing” announcement.

rAVe:  “What is your new company called and how did you come up with the name?”

AVPhenom: “I had a hard time coming up with a name for my new company until I thought about Microsoft and their name being a blend of ‘microprocessor’ and ‘software’.  It dawned on me that control systems use macros, or long command strings, and do so through a piece of hardware.  The moniker Macrohard was a natural and intuitive choice.”

rAVe: “What role or niche do you think Macrohard will fill in the AV space?”

AVPhenom “What we’ve been missing in the AV industry for a long time is a proprietary control system with proprietary processors and a wholly unique programming language.  Couple that with our new video switching and extension system that we dub ‘24G‘ and I think we’ve got a winner.”

rAVe: “That’s interesting.  Your video switching platform is dubbed 24G.  We’ve seen 4G on our phones, 8G on Crestron’s Digital Media components, and even 10G networks for data.  How are you achieving 24G in your switching platform?”

AVPhenom: “Woah! Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves here! (Phenom chuckles) The AV industry really doesn’t have any strict standards on how we name products or what implications the names may relay.  Our system is named ’24G’ as it works over Cat5e which consists of 24 gauge wires.  Of course we sell ’24G’ cable as well though.”

rAVe:  “Thanks for clearing that up!  So what are the specs on your extension and switching system then?”

AVPhenom:  “We use the Valens chip from HDBaseT actually, so it is the same specification as any HDBaseT device.”

rAve: “Oh, so it’s an HDBaseT product?”

AVPhenom: “It performs exactly like an HDBaseT product, but we haven’t had it tested by the HDBaseT Alliance.  We decided that if we implemented this as a branded HDBaseT product, people may try to use our switches or source extenders with displays that have integrated HDBaseT ports.  That would cut us out of the profit loop on the receiver side of the video extender business, which didn’t seem like a great idea.  Instead we felt a ’24G’ badge would be just confusing enough to keep our dealers using Macrohard products from end to end.”

rAVe:  “With Microsoft on the floor this has been the year of the buzzword ‘convergence’.  Is your product line leveraging that trend?”

AVPhenom:  “Of course.” 

rAVe:  “Can video be routed through a traditional ethernet protocol switch?  Does your control system leverage a programming language that can talk to traditional IT based equipment like switches to do video traffic marking and QOS settings?   Can it talk to small form factor PCs to launch media files for digital signage, etc?”

AVPhenom:  “No.  Our system uses a completely parallel network of wires and switches and has it’s own proprietary programming language, but we do have an ethernet port on everything.”

rAVe:  “How do potentially interested integration companies find you at InfoComm?  Where will you be on the floor?”

AVPhenom: “I was a little late in getting floor space and it’s quite expensive, so we decided to take a unique approach to the show and set up a mobile display unit in the convention center parking lot that will also show how our system can work under the clouds”

rAVe: Do you mean “over the cloud”?

AVPhenom: “Uh…sure???  Anyway, dealers can DM me on Twitter and I’ll let them know where to go.  For anyone reading please don’t ask the convention center staff where we are set up, as we are trying to stay at least 15 minutes ahead of security.

Oh and P.S.-

Certified Programmer Program!”