Global Interactive Display sales in Q4 2011 increased by 14 percent Year-on-Year according to the new Interactive Displays Quarterly Insight report from Futuresource Consulting, which also provides year end data for 2011. “Last year, the global market ended far in excess of 850,000 units shipped,” says Colin Messenger, senior consultant at Futuresource Consulting, “the year […]

This column was reprinted with permission from InfoComm International and originally appeared here. Apple made a little product announcement earlier this month. Something about a new iPad. It got mixed reviews: Some people expected more significant changes to the wildly popular tablet. But AV professionals monitoring the iPad announcement need hear only three things about […]

Contemporary Research has upgraded its 232-Amp Stereo Mixer/Amplifier to the 232-Amp+, increasing power to 32/40W RMS from 16/32W. The 232-Amp+ is a compact, programmable mixer/amplifier aimed at ProAV systems with flat-panel displays and video projectors where you want to take the audio out of the display and convert it from line to speaker level audio. […]

As I have mentioned on our blog in the past week, I was in DC last week for the inaugural InfoComm event for the live events industry, the one they entitled “InfoComm Live.” It was billed as InfoComm’s way to bring together “thought leaders” from the rental and staging industry, to discuss the state, and […]

JVC has launched a number of new analog and IP-based cameras, including eight Super LoLux HD IP-based cameras, two TK-T Series analog cameras and three additions to its V.Networks camera line. JVC also debuted its new HD network video recorders (NVRs). JVC’s new line all support H.264 High Profile (security cameras and NVR), which JVC […]

An FYI… @JMOTA3 originally created the #AVTweeps hashtag. And we love him for it! Here’s a history of the #AVTweeps hashtag from February 13-March 13, 2012.

Barco is now shipping the NSL-5521, a 55″ full HD LED-backlit LCD (native 1080p). Barco is aiming it towards emergency operations centers, traffic management and surveillance centers, C4I-SR environments, utilities and process control centers and broadcast and telecom monitoring applications. The NSL-5521 offers a brightness spec of 700 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 3000:1. […]

PreSonus is now shipping new and improved versions of two of its classic tube preamplifiers, the BlueTube DP V2 and TubePre V2. The BlueTube DP V2 is a dual-path mic/instrument preamp. The solid-state path feeds PreSonus’ Class A XMAX mic preamplifier with 80 dB of variable gain — an upgrade from the original BlueTube DP. […]

projectiondesign just started shipping its entry-level F21 install projector this week. The F21 is a single-chip DLP that’s native 1080p, includes lens shift and zoom with a 1.60 – 2.21 throw ratio, uses a 220-watt UHP lamp and has inputs for DVI, VGA and HDMI signals. The network-controllable F21 weighs about 8 pounds and claims […]

Pro Control, the part of RTI that’s targeting the ProAV market, has finally shipped its line of affordable handheld touchscreen controllers and CPUs, which are in the form of the Pro24.r and Pro24.z touch screen controllers and the ProLink.r and ProLink.z central control processors. The Pro24.r and Pro24.z touch-screen controllers feature a 2.4-inch TFT LCD […]

Atlantic Technology has introduced a 30-watt amplified wireless audio system that can drive a pair of loudspeakers at ranges of up to 300 feet from the transmitter. The WA-5030 Wireless Transmitter/Amplifier System combines a new WA-5030-r zone amplifier and wireless receiver with the three-zone WA-50-t wireless transmitter. The WA-50-t transmitter can be sourced from any […]

CE Labs newest media player, the MP75, is now shipping. The MP75 is a solid-state, stand-alone media player that also has the ability to accept content via USB and SD cards for storage and playback of HD content (MPEG-2, H.264, and VC-1) via HDMI. One unique feature of the player is that it has five […]

Really? How are we still talking about this? I can’t believe I even have to address this pet peeve still. Come on Twitter users, do better.

The “Dynamic Media Digerati” who attended the 9th annual Digital Signage Expo held in Las Vegas March 5-9, 2012 agree that it offered the highest value yet in profiling and advancing Digital Signage use, project planning, project execution and operations. Pre-DSE events, 32 conference sessions, 170+ exhibits and the discussions among a record high 4000+ […]

Audinate and Four Audio have announced the launch of Four Audio’s new DBO1 — a Dante-enabled breakout box with eight analog output channels and allows the user to go from Dante to analog signals in a 1U box. As you may already know, Audinate’s Dante protocol is a way to transport video and audio media […]

Several months ago, I wrote an article called MBA — Mixing Business & AV. The article discussed the need for business education within our industry and mentioned a number of resources short of going back to school for a Master’s Degree in Business that would serve our CEOs, Presidents, COOs, Owners and other industry leaders […]

After four years of going on the road, InfoComm India will become a main event in 2013, a move embraced by several exhibitors at the close of the 2012 Roadshow. InfoComm India 2013 will be held from 17-19 September 2013 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai. ProAV systems manufacturers participating in the InfoComm India […]

Premier Mounts announced a line of false ceiling equipment storage boxes, the GB-AVSTOR series, which are plenum-rated and permitted to be installed within environmental air spaces with UL 2043 certified safety recognition. Equipment installed in air-handling spaces, or plenums, must meet installation code requirements for smoke and flammability performance. The UL 2043 certification is a […]

ClearOne has expanded its INTERACT room audio conferencing product line with the addition of the INTERACT AT-Skype, a complete audio system that adds ClearOne audio signal processing to any combination of unified communications, video conferencing and teleconferencing. The new so-called plug-and-play business solution is certified and optimized for Skype, but is also compatible with Avaya […]

Avaya Inc. today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire RADVISION. Upon closing, RADVISION’s enterprise video infrastructure and endpoints will be integrated with Avaya’s Aura Unified Communications platform to create what they call a “differentiated solution” designed to accelerate the adoption of video collaboration. The RADVISION portfolio includes a full range of videoconferencing products, […]

In 2011, worldwide TV shipments fell for the first time since NPD DisplaySearch began tracking global TV shipments in 2004, slipping 0.3 percent to 247.7M units. As reported in the latest NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report, LCD TV shipments increased by 7 percent to just over 205M units in 2011 — […]

Pioneer’s newest line of receivers integrate Apple’s AirPlay in a big way with four new models. All four also support DLNA, but AirPlay is the big news here with Pioneer betting on Apple’s continued integrated success into the HomeAV world. The four new models include three models with six HDMI inputs with the differentiator being […]

Pacific Media Associates (PMA) has released the results of its latest quarterly projector industry forecast updates. These are enhanced versions of its previous quarterly reports, as they include the industry’s first detailed illumination forecast (for all product ranges) of the projector industry and show how projectors are affected by the different types of solid-state illumination […]

It sometimes seems as if there are two kinds of AV integrators: ones who resign themselves to offering their clients security systems and monitoring, and ones who loathe security and want nothing to do with it. That’s a totally unfair assessment, but as I said, sometimes it seems that way. Excepting for the security integrators […]

A lot of people (technical people, in particular) HATE Apple products. There, we said it. Those folks think the beloved fruit company’s products are overpriced and under spec’d. They think it’s insulting that Apple doesn’t let consumers change their own batteries. They think iTunes is limiting. The list goes on… But one thing that can’t […]

Platinum Tools debuted this week the new Coax Clarifier layout/fault finder, which the company says determines individual run quality as well as the ability of the overall system’s capability to deliver good quality video for high definition levels. With a backlit LCD, the Coax Clarifier shows loss levels on each coax cable run and displays […]

InfoComm 2012 will see the debut of four new special events pavilions on the show floor when the show opens on June 13th in Las Vegas, NV. They include: Commercial Systems & Sustainability Pavilion: You’ll find the latest “green” technologies on this part of the show floor. Whether it’s low-voltage, nurse paging, life safety or […]

The following is reprinted with permission from the Digital Screenmedia Association (DSA). For more information, go to http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org.Keeping digital signage content interesting and up-to-date has never been easier thanks to an explosion in the availability of RSS feeds. Turn on your favorite cable news channel, and what do you see at the bottom of the […]

In the midst of madly running around last week at DSE I managed to grab the equally harried tag team of Pierre Richer and Ashley Flaska, president and vice president of marketing of NEC Display, to get a little more filled in on what’s happening with their Digital OOH ad efforts via VUKUNET. I posted […]

Last week’s Digital Signage Expo — the ninth — broke previous records for overall attendees and show footprint. The show released numbers today indicating: 4,024 qualified attendees (excluding exhibitors) – a 9 percent increase over 2011; Record conference attendance; Record international attendance from a total of 69 countries; Record exhibit sales: 62,440 net square feet […]

Parasound has introduced what it is calling the Zcd Compact Disc Player as part of its popular Z Custom line of rack-mountable components, which are half the width of a standard 19-inch equipment rack. The Zcd includes a Cirrus Logic DAC and a fully independent power supply for the analog circuits and built-in preamplifier functions […]

Extron announced yesterday that it’s started to ship the XTRA Series XPA 4002-70V two channel power amplifier. This 1U, convection cooled amplifier delivers 400 watts rms per channel for 70 volt distributed speakers. It uses a new advanced Class D amplifier design using Extron’s patented CDRS – Class D Ripple Suppression technology that the company […]