It’s finally here — rePLAY 2021 is officially live on the LAVNCH platform! We’re so excited to bring you three days of content, including InfoComm 2021 coverage, playing THE GAME, words from sponsors and so much more. We wanted to create an event that recapped the year that was and is 2021 for all our #AVtweeps out there. Here’s a quick rundown from Day of 1 of rePLAY.

An InfoComm Recap

rePLAY 2021 kicked off yesterday with a recap of how InfoComm 2021 went in Orlando, Florida. Gary, Steph and Megan all attended the in-person show and recounted their experience. The trio agreed that this InfoComm was about networking and people. Gary was particularly excited about Legrand, Sony, LG and Samsung product announcements during the show, though many of them weren’t actually on the show floor. The rAVe team shot over 420 videos at the show, so check out our InfoComm microsite to see those products.

Gary recounted that he had time this InfoComm to focus on conversations and wasn’t rushed between appointments because booths weren’t so spread out and busy. Some booths didn’t have products — they focused on people.

“I really believe that InfoComm this past year was about the relationships with the people rather than the technology,” Steph said.

The trio showed footage from the InfoComm floor during rePLAY, showing off the Virtual VR Studio from Absen Inc, Gridd Mobile from FreeAxez, XPressPlay Instant Media Player from Theatrixx and much more! These videos are not sponsored but are some of the amazing products we wanted to share with you from the show. Don’t miss videos from the InfoComm show floor – you can learn more about rePLAY 2021 Day 1 right here.

THE GAME

If you know rAVe, then you know THE GAME! We weren’t able to play it like normal this year, so of course, being in AV, we virtualized it for you! You can play THE GAME on the rePLAY 2021 page by clicking the “Play THE GAME” tab, where you can watch videos to earn points. The points will be tallied together to allow you to enter to win prizes! One of the grand prizes this year is a Bartesian Cocktail Maker! Other prizes include Bluetooth speakers, gift cards, rAVe sunglasses, T-shirts and more.

Intel Unite

Gary was joined by David Buchholz of Intel to discuss the new Unite solution. Unite by Intel is a cloud-based collaboration and videoconferencing platform that works across multiple operating systems and offers many ways to join. The pair also discussed other Intel products that work with Unite, but at InfoComm 2021, Unite took the cake as one of the most impressive products at the show. A lot of development went into Unite during the pandemic because of its ability to aid in the hybrid higher ed market. The update of bringing Unite to the cloud allowed for more added features that will make education spaces safer, such as traffic and space monitoring.

Unite isn’t just for education, though, as many new features will be useful for healthcare spaces as well, such as point-to-point videoconferencing. The tool focuses on ways to bring people back to the office, to work, to education and more in a safe and collaborative manner. Unite uses an open stack API to allow for integration with many different UC platforms. David said there is a big demand for using the e-whiteboard, so Unite has partnered with many companies that have plug-ins to work with Unite for using e-whiteboards.

Check out more from Unite on the rePLAY 2021 page!

Megan A. Dutta and Alesia Hendley

Megan and Alesia Hendley of Audinate spoke about their time together at InfoComm 2021. Alesia’s favorite part of the show, outside of the products, was the Almo networking event and the AtlasIED party. She enjoyed the ability to network with others in AV. On the show floor, Alesia didn’t get to see as much of the virtual reality tech as she wanted, but she did particularly like the UCC area. Intel’s Unite was one of her favorite products, and she thinks it will really benefit higher ed and corporate markets as we continue to navigate the future of the hybrid workplace.>

The pair also discussed Alesia’s time at the Van Gogh Experience! We covered this case study in a rAVe [TV] episode as well. Alesia got to experience the exhibit in Tampa, Florida, and she enjoyed seeing “vintage art done in a new, modern way.” Seeing how AV brought this classic art to life was wonderful, Alesia said, and she loved that it was an immersive experience done with projection mapping that included both video and audio. In fact, Alesia believes there’s a big future for immersive experiences and extended reality. AV for the win!

SDVoE LIVE!

It’s back, and this time it’s season 2! We brought you the live season premiere of SDVoE LIVE!, along with a partnership between rAVe and SDVoE to continue showing the episodes on the LAVNCH platform! After a summer break, SDVoE LIVE! is back with updated coverage that the audience wants. This season will offer more time with guests and take some time to focus on people in the ProAV space, not just the products. This episode covered the state of AV-over-IP as seen at InfoComm 2021 this year. Our very own Gary Kayye was the guest for this episode and spoke with hosts Justin Kennington and Matt Dodd.

Gary offered his take on InfoComm 2021 and how the AV-over-IP market was presented at the show this year. They focused on signal distribution products; Gary says the number one thing that will accelerate AV-over-IP into 2022 is the adoption of NDI into multiple brands. He also says that availability will be more important to AV-over-IP than technology adoption, as it will impact the timeframe of AV-over-IP delivery and growth.

Gary also said this show would change the way future shows happen. He is confident future shows won’t die out as people predict, but companies will have to come up with ways to use trade shows as a focal point for their brand. Trade shows will be more about building relationships rather than showing flashy new products. Because conferencing and online capabilities are so prevalent these days, companies will use their online platforms to showcase their products and save the trade shows for connection.

Steph and Lee Distad

Steph spoke with rAVe writer Lee Distad during rePLAY 2021. Lee has been with rAVe for many years, and when he submits his columns, he always sends a picture of his dogs, Pickles and Piper. We have him pay dog tax for story submission here at rAVe! Lee talked about his year in the industry — both the good and the bad.

Lee says that 2020 was challenging, but 2021 was challenging in different ways. He hasn’t traveled much at all in 18 months and has been working from home. He took the time to reach out to more customers during this time; he wanted to focus on meeting all his customer’s needs, which meant also talking about their personal lives. It’s important to keep in touch with our friends in the industry, especially since we’ve been so cut off from the world for so long.

Catch all this content and so much more by watching rePLAY 2021! Hear from more rAVe writers, other companies in the industry, unscripted sessions with Steph and Megan and get other fun InfoComm 2021 content at your fingertips. You can still register to catch our session today and tomorrow and be able to see the on demand content of the show. Register here to catch the rest of rePLAY 2021!

Wrap-ups of Day Two and Day Three are here: 

rePLAY 2021: Day 2 — Soaring High

rePLAY 2021: Day 3 — Touchdown!