RTI, a control and automation manufacturer for residential and commercial settings, announced seamless integration with the modular 2N IP Verso and compact 2N IP Solo IP intercoms, allowing them to be used with any RTI control device featuring video intercom capabilities.

Delivering high functionality in sleek designs, 2N's IP intercoms combine door control with hidden cameras that guarantee sharp video even at night, thanks to their high-resolution settings and infrared backlights. Additional external IP cameras can be connected to the intercoms to cover all blind spots.

To meet the needs of any building, the 2N IP Verso's capabilities can be customized with the addition of modules, including a Bluetooth reader, fingerprint reader, touch display, and more. A great addition to any smart home or small office where style is paramount, the 2N IP Solo offers a compact, minimalist design featuring a single button.

Bringing the IP intercoms into the RTI ecosystem allows users in residential and commercial environments to answer video calls and control doors from video-intercom-compatible RTI controllers. Supported devices include the KX3, KX7, and KX10 in-wall touchpanels, the company's flagship T3x—RTI's first video-intercom-enabled handheld controller—and the CX7 and new CX10 countertop/under-cabinet touchpanels.

"From smart homes to schools and office buildings, there is high demand for integration of video intercom and door control capabilities into the control environment," said Mike Everett, vice president of global sales, RTI. "To help our dealers meet this need, we are extremely pleased to add 2N's popular IP intercoms to the growing list of door station solutions optimized for the RTI ecosystem."

"For users of our IP intercoms, seamless integration into RTI's control and automation systems provides the ultimate level of convenience," said Viktor Bartušek, OEM account manager of 2N. "Now they can answer video calls and open the door from the same elegant interfaces they use to control every other element of their homes or commercial facilities, whether they're using sleek handheld controllers or WXGA-resolution LCD screens."

For the first time, AVIXA made an effort to unite the worlds of residential and pro AV under the umbrella of InfoComm, with the Integrated Life Pavilion.

“We coined the phrase ‘integrated life,’ but it’s really talking about the convergence of technologies and market spaces,” said Jason McGraw, senior vice president of expositions at AVIXA. “The crossover between smart homes, smart buildings, how emerging technologies like voice, AI, collaboration tools, and IoT and those types of technologies are facilitating connections for users between their home, their office, their entertainment, and their transportation.”

With this emphasis has come a wave of new companies exhibiting at the show, including Vanco, Belkin, Google, Microsoft, Leon Speakers, and URC, which returned to InfoComm for the first time in a handful of years.

“A lot of our residential dealers are coming out here and getting a lot more involved in commercial,” said Lars Granoe, vice president of product development at URC. Granoe said he has also seen commercial integrators at the show who are interested in expanding into home technology. “What ends up happening is sometimes they’ll do these commercial jobs, and the CEO will say ‘I’m building a new house, can you do my house too?’ and they get brought into that. And what might make absolute sense to do for a large office building or complex doesn’t make sense to carry over into the residential side.”

Last November, Julian Phillips, executive vice president at Whitlock, assumed the role of chairman of AVIXA’s Board of Directors. We caught up with Phillips, who has been a member of the board since 2013, at InfoComm to chat about the latest AV trends and what AVIXA is up to as an organization.

Why is AVIXA focusing on the integrated experience?

Julian Phillips: I think we have to. We’re moving from the days of us just being functional designers—designing technology to meet a functional need—to being experience designers and solution providers for our customers. And that is more than just AV.

Why bring Integrated Life into the mix?

JP: I think generally the whole concept of integrated life is not just about what we do in the workplace, but what happens in our homes coming into the workplace. We have to be prepared to integrate not just into environments and space, but also to figure out how to integrate consumer technology into those spaces as well.

What are some of the trends you’re seeing in the industry today?

JP: The consolidation that’s happening in the AV industry is “get big, get niche or get out.” I see the big guys getting bigger—either through acquisition or partnerships. You can be very effective in partnerships and can start bringing value to the customer by bringing the partnership to them.

What about a trend at the show?

JP: Attendees are coming to InfoComm for insight rather than just viewing products and meeting people. Center Stage, which debuted at last year’s show, is an example of sharing insight to get the conversation moving. The more that we’re investing in these programs and new kinds of engagements, the greater the chance we’re going to attract more customers, create more demand and more excitement.

Any final thoughts?

JP: The community is more than the membership. It’s important that we’re actually touching a much broader community that touches AV in an ever-increasing way in everything that they do.

The biggest just got bigger: InfoComm 2018 was another show for the record books as North America’s largest AV industry gathering served up a wider range of education, new innovative experiences, and a broader tech focus than ever before.

Attendance figures, released at the end of the day on Friday, were close to 43,000—a 10 percent increase from the last Las Vegas hosted the exhibition, according to AVIXA. And the show keeps growing in terms of scale, as well.

“It’s the largest show floor from an exhibitor space that we’ve ever had,” said David Labuskes, chief executive officer, AVIXA, referencing the 550,000 square feet of exhibits, demo rooms, and special events space, making it the biggest InfoComm ever.

"It was another fantastic week for a show and an industry that never stops innovating," said Jason McGraw, CTS, CAE, senior vice president of expositions, AVIXA. "We continue to develop new offerings that celebrate and explore in-depth the many facets of technology experiences. Our exhibitors took the lead with solutions that continue to push the envelope of what AV can deliver, and our many subject-matter experts and thought leaders contributed to a program that gave all attendees the opportunity to think differently about the role audiovisual technology plays in people's lives."

Exhibitors, which numbered 964 in total, featured some prominent newcomers including Google, Microsoft, Dolby, Lenovo, Intel and Dell, reflecting the growing intersection of AV and IT, as well as crossover with the residential technology sphere—a trend encapsulated in the show’s Integrated Life pavilion.

From Emerging Trends Day and the TIDE conference on Tuesday to the expanded slate of technology tours throughout the week—including behind-the-scenes looks at Cirque du Soleil shows—opportunities for education and inspiration away from the show floor abounded.

Inside the convention center, novel additions like C2 joined popular returning attractions like Center Stage to further enrich the attendee experience and stimulate their drive to innovate long after the week is over.

“Make sure that what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas,” Labuskes said. “Take it back with you to every meeting with your peers, whether you’re an AV technician or a CEO.”

Wednesday, AVIXA handed out its annual awards at Center Stage, InfoComm’s engaging presentation venue in the North Hall.

In addition to all the pomp and circumstance, Center Stage is a place for networking, education and presentations that AVIXA CEO David Labuskes, CTS, CAE, RCDD, said takes the quality and the “experience” quotient to a new level. All that is made possible by the presenters, programmers and sponsors led by ConnectWise, DolbyVoice, Lifesize, Mvix and Samsung.

Located at booth N1646, it’s a place, Labuskes said, to shake up your expectations and get new ideas. (And it’s all free.)

Wednesday’s schedule put concepts such as integrated life into perspective with a panel of senior people from Microsoft, Cisco and URC in conversation with Rachel Bradshaw, AVIXA’s director of program development.

Presentations on the future of AR and the future of stadium entertainment drove home the point that the future is all about interactive experiences. It’s not all technology: Center Stage sessions dealt with the ethics of voice assistance and the psychology of UI.

Thursday's sessions will offer a fascinating panel on testing and measuring the performance of digital signage, as well as a range of innovative topics that tie AV to process automation and building responsiveness. Among the must-sees: How Buildings of the Future Will Change in Response to Human Occupants. Additional sessions on AR/VR will consider the classroom and the stadium. A provocative session will ask the question: Can videoconferencing connect an entire community? It’s not all digital and it’s not all emerging technology—find out at the 3 p.m. session, Combining Live Music With Both Physical and Virtual New Media.

Wrapping up on Friday, Center Stage presentations will turn to topics that include hotels and hospitality, the secrets of using spatial audio to support remote collaboration and techniques to engage audiences in immersive experiences.

The Center Stage finale at 3:30 p.m., hosted by multimedia journalist Alesia Hendley, has some surprises in store as she dialogs with Will Curran, chief event Einstein at Endless Events, and they interactively demonstrate the power of video.

Events are on the half hour (with a break for lunch). Don’t miss them.

With one collective snip of five giant scissors, AVIXA’s Board of Directors welcomed a large crowd of anxious attendees to begin their InfoComm exhibits experience Wednesday morning. After spending Tuesday investigating impactful technologies at educational programs such as TIDE, Integrated Life Day and Emerging Trends Day, AVIXA members were able to walk the show floor to experience them for themselves.

This year’s event holds many noteworthy firsts, including the new Integrated Life pavilion and more than 80 new training sessions, but a key first is that this is the first U.S. InfoComm since the association became AVIXA, with a deep focus on the user experience.

For an InfoComm attendee, a positive user experience can include witnessing new technologies and partaking in conference sessions, but AVIXA CEO David Labuskes, CTS, CAE, RCDD, is quick to emphasize another important aspect of the InfoComm experience.

[Kicking Off InfoComm 2018]

“When you go to a trade show today as an attendee, you really have two primary goals,” he said. “One is to see how the manufacturers are positioning their products and their roadmap for giving you tools to implement solutions for your customers. And the other is to make connections—and not just connections among friends and colleagues. It’s also making connections between the challenges that you’re facing on your projects—or your customer or potential customers are facing—and how those challenges are being met by your peers, and using that for ideation and to develop new approaches to solving problems for your customers, which is the only sustainable business model in the world.”

With 44,000 attendees from 110 countries expected, opportunities abound for making meaningful connections.

Open Mesh will showcase its end-to-end, cloud managed WiFi platform at InfoComm 2018 booth C3202.

The platform is built around the company’s CloudTrax online management portal and offers a full complement of cloud-managed access points, switches, and routers that come with no recurring license fees.

“Open Mesh has built its reputation on providing reliable WiFi networks that are easy, powerful and can be managed remotely,” said Ryan Detwiller, the company’s general manager. With the recent launch of our first cloud-managed router, the G200, we can now provide an end-to-end solution that can be monitored and managed from anywhere from a single pane of glass.”

Open Mesh’s simplified installation process allows networks to be installed and operational much faster than traditional networks. Access points and switches can be pre-configured prior to physical installation, eliminating the need for each access point to be configured individually onsite. In locations where running cables can be problematic, the access point’s automatic mesh repeater mode requires only a power source to distribute the available WiFi signal.

Among the products the company will showcase at the show will be its three most recent introductions: The G200 router, complete with an integrated firewall and a quad core networking processor that provides full gigabit throughput; the A62, a 802.11 AC Wave 2 access point that features a quad core processor and a second 5 GHz radio to deliver higher data throughout and allow greater client density; and a new, enhanced version of its S24 switch, which adds 10GbE SFP+ connectivity and an increased PoE budget.

According to Detwiller, an Open Mesh-based system gives installers an easy way to create a cost-efficient network, billed either under a recurring revenue business model or as a one-time project that can be handed over to the customer. Through CloudTrax, installers can efficiently and cost-effectively monitor and manage all their customers’ networks from any location. Alerts can be set up to automatically notify the administrator should their be a disruption in the system, and often corrections can often be made remotely. “This capability keeps clients up and running,” said Detwiller. “It also drastically reduces the need for costly emergency truck rolls.”

While we are used to technologies moving to the residential space after proving themselves on the commercial front, there are some new trends that have changed the home experience that are now moving into the commercial space, creating substantial opportunities for integrators.

These trends were the focus of the new “Integrated Life Day,” a full-day conference held yesterday. The day began with an overview of the technologies that would be covered throughout the day in great detail—smart speakers, AI, and AR/VR. That panel, “Integrated Life: How the Enterprise and Connected Home Are Converging,” was hosted by Brad Russell, Research Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates and Sean Wargo, Senior Director of Market Intelligence, AVIXA, and covered the high rate of acceptance of these devices in the home (most notably smart speakers) and illustrated how the customer wants the same experience in the home, car, retail, restaurant—wherever they go—and how integrators can benefit.

The remaining sessions included discussions on the user experience such as security, systems design and managed services, creating personalized experiences, and changing consumer habits.