Let me be honest with y’all. This is the most exhausted I’ve been after Day Two of any trade show EVER. And to be honest, I think that shows how much we’ve built ourselves back up since COVID-19 threatened to tear everything down.

My schedule has been SO PACKED. So if you’ve seen me on the show floor and I’ve just waved at you and kept running, trust me. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just probably late to the next appointment.

I want to bring back a couple of trends that I’ve noticed on the show floor. Yesterday I told you about a few of my favorite products. But to be honest, it wasn’t the products at this show that really caught my eye. It was the trends and what manufacturers are trying to stay on top of. There were two major ones that I heard today with almost every manufacturer I spoke with: Esports and sustainability.

OK, I know one of those is a trend and the other is more of a market, but think about it. These are two things that the greater ProAV community could literally not care less about five years ago. And now these AV companies are talking all about their energy-saving products and recyclable packaging and fewer unnecessary parts in the box (like legs for a display). They’re also some of the biggest brands supporting esports in virtually every capacity. With the need for connection that just works and zero/ultra-low latency, it’s a natural fit for our industry.

I don’t really know if either of these will stick around or if they’re just trends, but one of my favorite parts of every InfoComm is getting to hear about what manufacturers are thinking about for the future.

Another highlight: Delivering Nancy Knowlton her AV Hall of Fame award. The CEO of Nureva, I have so much respect for Nancy. She’s the CEO of a company I truly like — with some of the coolest technology around (Microphone Mist really is awesome). It was an honor to get to present her with our award.

Next up: products.

I still haven’t gotten to spend as much time as I would normally like looking through different products at each booth, but I have seen a few cool things. While the rAVe team pretty much saw this same exact booth at ISE, I will tell you that LG’s booth is amazing. The company pulled out all the stops, bringing an over 200-inch 8K display called the LG MAGNIT (you might remember how I gushed over this in Barcelona).

Like? The picture is so sharp it almost hurts to look at it. In a good way.

Look! The picture does it like zero justice. Oh yeah — did I mention it’s a .7 pixel pitch? They keep getting narrower and narrower!

Another thing I saw and really liked was this curved display at Nanolumens. I was just talking on rAVe [TV] about how this is so difficult to do without damaging the panel. A true curved display is manageable but they rarely look this good. Definitely go check it out if you’re at the show.

I know I talked about the above two on rAVe [TV], but I’m serious! They were fun to see!

The last thing I’ll talk about is our team. From the reporters to our leadership team, everyone has done a great job. If you see a rAVe person, please say hi to them and tell them they’re doing a great job. Special shout-out to my video shooter this year, Tommy Wellenhofer. From having to keep up with me on the show floor (I’m a VERY fast walker) to listening to me babble on about random AV products I know about and like, Tommy has been a trooper. Everyone tell him he’s doing a great job if you see him.

That’s all from me for now. Keep your eyes peeled for my final column tomorrow!