Integrated Systems Europe has announced that a new Immersive Technology Zone will be premiered at ISE 2017. The new feature will be produced and managed by Holovis, a world leader in sensory experience design in the entertainment, industrial and retail sectors. The ISE Immersive Technology Zone will take the form of a dedicated area within […]

Planar Systems, a Leyard company, announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire NaturalPoint, a company that’s in the optical tracking and motion capture solutions markets, for $125 million in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition brings Planar closer to strategic opportunities in augmented and virtual reality and in other market […]

There is mounting evidence that VR is not necessarily an isolating experience, but one which can and will become very social. Virtual Reality Arcades or VRcades may indeed be one of the next big ideas that drives VR into the mainstream. Clearly, the availability of reasonably-priced VR headsets from Sony, HTC, Oculus — together with […]

According to an article titled “Amusement Parks Hurtle Into Dizzying Realm of Virtual Reality” in the August 31st Wall Street Journal, there are over 3,000 roller coasters worldwide. Did you know that? Well, unless you happen to be a coaster-fanatic, probably not. Why? Because amusement parks have never been firms that widely use technology. Yes, […]

A great deal of digital ink has been spilled on the phenomenon of Pokémon Go, including on these very pages by Gary Kayye, on the AV Power Up! podcast and, of course, by yours truly. There is one more thought which I’d like to share before I wander off to talk about something else, which […]

By Dan Daley Special to InfoComm International Like a video game, virtual reality (VR) technology allows participants to experience the world in simulated environments. But it may also change the game for the AV businesses. In the span of a couple years, the industry has seen tangential technologies, such as drones and the Internet of […]

Virtual Reality (VR) is coming to the ProAV market with a distribution agreement between Seattle’s VRstudios and Stampede. The two companies announced today that Stampede will serve as the North American ProAV distributor for VRstudios’ virtual reality platform and products. The agreement will introduce an exciting new product category to the ProAV industry and will […]

The Futuresource Professional Display team is all set to participate in InfoComm 2016 in Las Vegas. The team will be speaking at a number of conferences connected to the show as well as scanning the show floor, reviewing the new propositions in the pro audio visual (AV) space. The goal is to understand the hot […]

By Leah McCann This year’s 2016 ISE opening panel began with a nice “thank you for being here” and a warm welcome from Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events and head organizer of ISE 2016. But the primary topic of Monday evening’s keynote — and a recurring theme of this year’s show — […]

I don’t like writing about the same thing two columns in a row. However, since my last column on virtual reality in the classroom I have heard from several readers with thoughts and questions. While a few of them were along the lines of “this is just like 3D, a passing fad,” but more of […]

As a digital subscriber to the New York Times, I was frustrated when they announced they would be sending Google cardboard to their print subscribers. I was on the verge of dropping the whopping $15 that could have bought one on Amazon, when the Times told me they were sending them to some of their […]

Virtual Anatomy 101 Robert Hasel had an idea about how to change the teaching of human anatomy for medical, dental, and health science students which, instead of cutting into a real human corpse, involved wanting his students to get immersed via virtual and augmented reality. Hasel is associate dean for simulation, immersion, and digital learning […]

The Ultimate Drone? Qualcomm Technologies, the $26 billion (2014 sales) wireless chip company is looking for a new market to consume Snapdragon 800 series SoCs (system on a chip), in large part due to the persistent market strength of the iPhone which only makes use of some of Qualcomm’s technology (even though there is usage of the chip in the […]

By James Gruening Mechdyne Corporation A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Virtual Reality Isn’t Just About Games,” by Christopher Mims, made several predictions about the future of virtual reality technology. However, there were a couple of points that Mims missed. First, head mounted displays (HMDs) are not the only way to experience virtual reality (VR). […]

On May 28th, at its annual I/O developer conference in San Francisco, Google announced that it would bring virtual reality into the classroom with their own VR platform device, which itself was introduced at their 2014 I/O conference. Oculus Rift it’s not, however those who have used it likely agree that it has a huge role […]

For those of you music fans who may know of the following album cover art… …you may not know that it’s an image modified from an existing photograph of the inner barrel of a particle physics detector, an experiment built on the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider at the European […]

Microsoft recently unveiled a series of commercials surrounding the long anticipated and much rumored HoloLens VR 3-D headset at both IES 2015 and during Super Bowl commercials in addition to press tours and the other typical Microsoft product showcases. This is on the heels of others such as Facebook’s recent purchase of the Oculus Rift […]

Happy New Year! Technology gets off to a quick start at the CES show every year, and there is always plenty of marketing hype around “must have” personal technology toys. But the show can also be a bellwether for enterprise software, collaboration, and media tech that will impact the AV industry in the coming year. […]

Oculus (the Facebook-owned virtual reality company) has teamed up with Samsung to create the Gear VR Innovator Edition, a development kit for mobile virtual reality. Leveraging only the Samsung GALAXY Note 4 (Samsung will have to do additional engineering work to make the new Innovator Edition work with other phones), the Gear VR Innovator Edition […]

Christie, a company historically known for high end display, video wall and projection technology is continuously doing something which can only be described by a singular statement — blowing your mind. For those who may not yet be aware of what they do (that should be very few), Christie is a leading provider of high-performance […]

By Norbert Hildebrand Display Central High resolution displays in mobile applications are a definite trend among new devices, even though this trend may be more driven by marketing thinking than actual necessity. Most people will not be able to see a difference between a 5″ HD (294ppi) and full HD (440ppi) display, but it makes […]

It’s Friday and time for the Weekly Wrap-Up! Every week we give you a second look at some of the top stories from the week. This week’s wrap-up features some new product announcements from Extron and Christie, a post from Matt Cooper on the state of virtual reality in the AV industry, a review of […]

Very recently, virtual reality has finally grown out of the ridiculous spectacle of the early ’90s into a legitimate display peripheral. Much of the credit for bringing VR back from the brink and into the mainstream consciousness goes to the Oculus Rift, started by a 22-year-old with the world’s largest head-mounted display collection, Palmer Luckey. […]