Welcome to the monthly breakdown of our Temperature Check survey. In May, we wanted to ask all of you about InfoComm 2024. Now that the show is over, let’s take a look at your thoughts about the show and its importance to the industry.

The first thing we asked you, our readers, is whether or not you planned on attending InfoComm 2024. The majority of you said “yes, definitely,” 62.5%! We reached out to a few of our friends in the industry, and they echoed the idea that this was going to be an important year to attend the show.

“I think that for AV professionals every year is an important year to attend InfoComm,” said Omer Brookstein, CEO and co-founder of Xyte. “I also think that due to the raising pace of innovation, every year this is only becoming more true. This year is specifically important as we see fast innovation in cloud, AI and other tech-stacks that, while not directly related to AV, directly impact AV.”

The next question we asked our readers is what aspects of InfoComm they found most beneficial. The majority said exhibits and product showcases, while the runner-up answers were emerging technology demonstrations and networking events and receptions.

We asked Scott Tiner, director of client services at Bates College, what his thoughts were on this breakdown. He said: “Higher ed is very cooperative, and forging relationships is critical to the success of our programs. We share information, tools and strategies, so having a large network is critical. Of course, I don’t expect networking to ever take over the top spot of putting hands on products. There is no other place where you can put your hands on every piece of AV equipment available in three days.”

“I think the emerging technologies will always be critical to the AV industry, said Tiner. “We are such a fast-moving industry and knowing what is new is critical to keeping our customers happy. I think with the emergence of AI and advanced programming over the past year, people have a unique interest in the technology and how it works. Being amongst the most advanced and smartest people in the industry give us that opportunity to ‘stay in the know.’”

Which leads us to our last question:

Since exhibits and product showcases was such an important aspect to those who told us they were attending InfoComm, we wanted to know what types of tech our readers wanted to know more about.

The top three answers were: emerging technologies, collaboration and communication tools and advanced display technologies.

For this last question, I wanted to get an integrator’s perspective. I reached out to Kevin Henneman, president of KMH Integration. Here is what he said his impressions were:

“There has definitely been a shift in the ProAV landscape, and we see that continuing to accelerate. From our perspective, the lines between traditional system integration markets are being erased,” he said. “We need to stop thinking of AV and broadcast, for example, as separate disciplines. Of course, each type of project will always require specific protocols and workflows, but the overall approach is the same: determine the customer’s need first and then base your project management on that.”

He continued, “This shift is in large part due to rapidly evolving technology trends, especially recent advancements in AV over IP protocols that have created more options for offering lower latency and higher-resolution compression engines. Customers now have immediate and affordable access to high-performance capabilities that were, until recently, only available on higher-end products. With the current streaming technology and protocols – from IP 2110, IPMX, NDI, Dante, SRT – customers can configure a high-quality broadcast-level system that is fully IP-based, allows scalable control from a single platform and is budget friendly. There’s been a true blending of broadcast workflows with what’s traditionally been considered AV technology. You can call it convergence – we like to think of it as ‘AV Casting’ — but it’s really about focusing more on what the customer needs and less about what their market is.”

So, there you have it, folks. I think this year’s InfoComm was important in many ways. The industry has proven to be ready and excited to be back in person and you could totally feel this energy on the show floor. It was electric. While we are in an interesting time of technology, it was exhilarating to see the convergence of so many industries on one show floor. From broadcast to IT to security to AV, I’m excited to see what’s next. If these answers haven’t convinced you that we stand on the precipice of something pretty great, I don’t know what will. See you at next year’s show!