By Gary Kayye, CTS

We simply cannot cover InfoComm09 in one issue.  We will, like in years past, publish at least three issues to cover this show.  Below you will see Part 1.  In Part 2, we’ll cover more news and then in Part 3, we’ll publish our most anticipated issue of the year – the rAVe Best of InfoComm Awards for 2009!

So, on to the InfoComm news – but first some comments and observations from the show floor:  First of all, this was NOT a small show.  Contrary to popular belief, pre-show, people DID show up.  In fact, not only were nearly 30,000 people at the show, but it was also the largest attendance ever for an east coast InfoComm venue – in a down market.  There’s no question that attendance among end-users was down – and many manufacturers cut their trade show booth staff, too, but integrators and design consultants all attended.  It’s a good sign for the upcoming year.

Second, there were a lot of new technologies at the show.  All of the standouts will be covered in Parts 1 & 2 of our InfoComm coverage issues, but some personal favorites were Extron’s touch panels for their MediaLink system (called TouchLink), Spudnik’s private demo of their laser-based display technology, Lencore’s IP-based sound masking demo, a killer Holographic demo from Illusio (you gotta stop right now and watch this – the three guys on stage were there holographically with rAVe’s Sara Abrons – even without audio, this demo is cool), and Christie DS+750 projector.  Of course, there are others, but these are just a few.

Oh, and not only did Da-Lite’s Affinity screen technology win the NEC InfoComm Product of the Show award, but they donated the $25,000 prize (and matched it!) to InfoComm’s Educational Foundation! Kudos to NEC for sponsoring that award, and kudos to Da-Lite for both winning the award and donating all that money to ICIF.  You can watch Da-Lite president Rich Lundin’s acceptance of the award here.