There’s a new destination at InfoComm, specifically the greatly expanded InfoComm International booth in the Grand Concourse Lobby. It’s hard to miss the massive habitat, where this year several formerly separate meeting rooms and association venues have been merged. Together for the first time are a cafe, the International Business Lounge, a studio and presentation space and the InfoComm Store.

The development is a part of an overall initiative to connect InfoComm members with more opportunities to meet. “The new InfoComm Booth really reflects the more unified look of what is a more unified association,” observed David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD, Executive Director and CEO of InfoComm International. “It’s all together, which is what I think InfoComm is about—bringing everybody together to advance the industry. I really think it’s an outward reflection of a changing organization reasserting AV as an industry and reasserting the importance of our membership to the success of our industry.”

Sessions at the booth include free professional development consultations and a full roster of InfoComm Chats and scheduled Meetups on a variety of pressing industry topics.

The schedule for the final day of the show includes two more InfoComm Chats led by Brad Grimes, InfoComm Director of Communications. The first will be with David Danto, Principal Consultant at Dimension Data and Director of Emerging Technologies for the IMCCA, at 12:30 p.m. And the grand finale will be an InfoComm Chat with Labuskes himself at 2:30 p.m. Don’t miss it!

Stick around after the chat for a “Chance to Grab $4,000,” with a drawing at 3 p.m. on Friday. One lucky attendee will gain entrance to that trade show staple money-grab machine while dollar bills twirl around them on jets of air. “It’s a great metaphor for the success you can gather at the show,” mused industry influencer Matt Scott of Omega AV while he watched the machine do its thing yesterday. “By coming to InfoComm, you have the opportunity to capture success and solidify your position as a leader within your respective market segment or field.”

From left: InfoComm International Executive Director and CEO David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD; Draper Marketing Manager Penny Sitler; Twomentor President and CEO Julie Silard Kantor; and InfoComm International Senior Vice President, Member Services, Betsy Jaffe

The Women of InfoComm Network (WIN) rose early this morning to share caffeine and the finer points of intergenerational networking. After a brief opening address from Betsy Jaffe, SVP of member services at InfoComm, and a heartfelt welcome from Penny Sitler, chair of the WIN council, the stage was turned over to keynote speaker Julie Silard Kantor.

Founder and CEO of Twomentor, Kantor is an advocate of networking and cooperation between established professionals and young women attempting to break into STEM careers. She cited the unconscious biases and discouraging social environments as some of the greatest social obstacles to girls and young women interested in technical professions. Kantor cited these obstacles as primary contributors to the dearth of women in STEM fields. However, she favored an inclusionary approach to this problem, noting that gender balance in the workplace relied on both male and female mentors and mentees.

Adding a financial punch to her message, Kantor also discussed the direct cost to a business of losing employees from their work force. She estimated that the cost of losing a single employee costs a business approximately one year of that employee’s salary, had they stayed. Citing Gallup polls of Millennial’s expectations and desires of a workplace, Kantor promoted mentorship practices as a key tool in retaining a generation of employees known for its willingness to look for work elsewhere.

Wrapping up the breakfast, the audience was asked to stand and practice the concepts discussed by seeking out others in the room and pursuing correspondence that might one day lead to a strong mentor relationship.

Craig Janssen, LEED AP, is Managing Director of Idibri and President of the Info-Comm International Board of Directors. Recently, he gave a TEDx Talk about how the ways that people communicate affect the spaces they do it in. In short, Janssen argued, AV designers face important challenges when trying to keep pace with new technologies.

What do you most look forward to the week of an InfoComm show?

Janssen: The InfoComm show always provides me and our team with two main benefits. First is the opportunity to gain the knowledge and tools that allow us to serve our clients and stay current in a rapidly changing industry. This may be through the extensive education elements or the opportunity to experience technology solutions first hand. The second benefit is to build the relationships that are the core to all efficient business.

What do you hope attendees will take away from InfoComm 2016 that will help them succeed in the future?

Janssen: If I were to present only one thought on this, it would be that the AV industry is uniquely positioned to create powerful communication experiences for our clients—regardless of market segment. It’s this uniqueness and focus of InfoComm that we celebrate, and which will make us all successful for many years to come. I encourage all attendees to build their network of relationships, as this community will sustain their careers.

It may be in the farthest corner of the North Hall (way out there at N2871), but the IoT Pavilion had a good crowd gathered when the show opened yesterday. A full schedule of presentations had attracted many, and several were making notes about which sessions they planned to attend throughout the show. The roster includes presentations by major brands and bold thought leaders, all of whom will contribute to a larger understanding of how IoT matters to AV.

The IoT Pavilion program, with 20-minute sessions offered on the half-hour every day at the show, has a lot of appeal for those seeking opportunities to add intelligence to systems, either on the back end, with data analytics, or on the front end, with better user interfaces. IoT is about more than simply plugging more things in and making them talk to each other. It’s about building systems that serve clients better while making integrators’ work easier.

“I might just stay here the whole day,” said Dave Thorson, Senior Manager of Programming Architecture for AVI-SPL. He had plans to attend several sessions, and made the wise observation that “IoT is really custom IT.” Which means IT is getting a taste of the AV way of building systems. To reveal more how IoT plays out in the way we work today and how tomorrow looks, a combination of technology outlooks and real-world applications reports will be offered by sponsors such as Crestron, Kramer and various member companies in the IMCCA alliance (including Cisco, Polycom, InFocus and Oblong) and presenters from forward-looking integration firms and futurists already living in an IoT world.

Presentations on the first day included Wearables Research by Ann Hill Duin from the University of Minnesota, who proclaimed that we need to rethink communication in an age where many people are logged in to as many as seven devices at any given moment. “We say ‘bring your own device,’ but it should be ‘wear your own device,’” she noted, asking, “What does that do to communication, privacy and security?” Also related to the human element of IoT, Paul Chavez, Director of Systems of Applications at Harman Professional, had a full house for his presentation on interface design. He advocated a human-centric approach to connecting with technology, describing various displays as “the facial expressions of technologies. If we’re going to be interacting with more things of Internet, we need to design their communications with the visual

cues we’re used to seeing in human interaction.” Today at the IoT Pavilion, the packed roster includes some special sessions by David Bianciardi of AV&C and Neil Redding, a digital space design consultant. Their focus will be on providing ideas and case studies about how we can integrate the Internet-enabled AV technology around us into a digitally engaged habitat that feels comfortable and useful all at once.

There are demo rooms, and then there are training sessions for the ear. The latter is on offer from SLS Audio (Demo Room N119), where timbre takes on new depth in demos provided by Rod Falconer, Pro Audio Sales Manager, Worldwide.

The speakers on tap there include SLS’ new SP212 compact portable dual-12-inch subwoofer and several top-notch offerings in the “speakers on a stick” category.

The new sub also comes in a powered version (the SP212P), which features a built-in Powersoft two-channel amplifier and a powered, processed NL4 output for an unpowered companion speaker. Pair the powered sub to power a passive speaker and click into one of four DSP presets, set up to work with the SLS 8190/8290, 114RT-PXO, CPC1210 or any ol’ speaker via the flat high-passed 80 Hz output.

Each of the SLS-powered pole pair setups is put to the test in the demo, which glides over several high-definition acoustic recordings that sound so lovely, “It reminds you why we’re all in this business,” enthused Jeff Lowry, SLS Director of Marketing.

Falconer really educates listeners with his guidance on listening, noting when “someone is doing some stick work in the background that’s not a part of this mix” or observing how the SLS co-planar line array makes audible the most minute of percussion elements: “Listen for the rhythm toys and the plastic tips on the brush as it moves across the cymbal.” Or on the next track, “Listen for the pick details, the draw of the bow across the fiddle.”

But the demo really knocked people over with a recording of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.” When the room went quiet, Falconer said, “How many people knew there was a 60-cycle hum issue with that track?” To which a listener raised his hand and breathlessly said, “I have never heard that before.”

SLS also emphasizes the economy of its speakers, because honestly, we’re also here to do business. That’s the theme over at the QSC Demo Room (N101), where a big opportunity in business music is the focus. “These are the sounds that are making money for people,” observed Patrick Heyn, Director of Marketing at QSC. To serve this market, a wide array of loudspeakers from QSC’s AcousticDesign Series are featured, including pendants, surface-mount and ceiling models that are all sonically matched for a cohesive sound. The line also has a number of installer-friendly features designed to reduce “ladder rage.”

For the first time, InfoComm has brought local gourmet food to the convention—wheels! The tent-covered food truck area, located in the convention center’s Silver Lot, proved successful on its first day, with attendees lined up en masse for lunch.

There is a choice of four vendors: Tacofest, Lobsterfest, Sausagefest and Truk-N-Yakim which specializes in Japanese burritos. Meal prices range from $10 for sandwiches at Sausagefest and taco plates from Tacofest, to $17.50 for lobster rolls at Lobsterfest. Demand, has been high for all four trucks.

Adjacent to the food trucks is the Beer Garden, an air-conditioned tent that also offers substantial seating for food truck patrons, with 16 large round tables and live music.

The food trucks begin serving at 11 a.m. and the beer starts flowing at 2 p.m. Both areas remain open until 5:30 p.m.

Chris Fitzsimmons, Product Manager for Video Products, Biamp AVB stands for audio-video bridging, but the video element has been conspicuous by its absence—until now. At a press conference Wednesday, Biamp Systems unveiled TesiraLUX, which adds low-latency 4K networked video transport to the Tesira DSP platform, using AVB/TSN.

“With TesiraLUX, Tesira has matured into a true network media platform,” said Chris Fitzsimmons, Product Manager for Video Products at Biamp. “TesiraLUX delivers dependable performance and automatic handling of lip sync, resulting in transmissions that are visually lossless and perfectly aligned.”

Biamp states that TesiraLUX is the only platform that enables system designers to handle audio and video within a single software environment. Biamp says that total system latency is guaranteed to be less than two frames (33 ms at 60 Hz), including scaling, compression and network transit, because of the way that AVB/TSN networks are configured unlike non-AVB offerings whose manufacturers can quote maximum latencies for individual stages of signal transmission, but not an end-to-end figure.

Meric Adriansen of D3, whose New York-based company provided the large LED screen for the stage at the Content Creation and Streaming Pavilion, presented a "Content is King" session at the Pavilion.

The Content Creation and Streaming Pavilion, which debuted yesterday and will run all week, provides attendees with the opportunity to go behind the scenes of a live event studio to see what it takes to produce a live stream—from content creation to execution and distribution. The Content Creation and Streaming Pavilion, presented by InfoComm and content producer BeTerrific, is giving InfoComm attendees a hands-on, educational look at live streaming, content creation and virtual reality, while giving viewers at home an inside look at the ins and outs of the InfoComm show.

Attendees to the pavilion are able to get hands-on with the production equipment and change settings during the live show with the guidance of the BeTerrific team and selected exhibitor representatives. The Content Creation and Streaming Pavilion features two stages—one where attendees can watch live interviews with a multi-camera setup or become part of the broadcast by controlling audio, camera angles and lighting levels, and the other where live seminars, workshops and workflow presentations will take place. Viewers watching the live stream on BeTerrific.com will catch all the action taking place live on stage.

The Content Creation and Streaming Pavilion is supported by sponsors Data Video, D3, LiveU, Nokia OZO and associate sponsor Switchboard. The Pavilion is located in the Central Hall 2, Booth 5860. To view the live stream online, visit BeTerrific.com.

from left: Jeff Lipp, CTS-D, Lipp AV Design; Maria Gaitan, Groupo Niza; Richard Blackwell, Linked2 Software; Sarabeth Mullins, scholarship winner; Ron Camden, Biamp Systems; Lauren Belle Koske, scholarship winner; Erin Bolton, Zift Solutions

On Wednesday afternoon at a packed open house, InfoComm showcased its efforts to nurture nextgeneration audio/video professionals by developing curriculum for colleges and universities worldwide. As David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD, Executive Director and CEO of InfoComm International, explained it, there is now “an exaggerated demand for qualified people” in the growing AV industry, currently expanding at a rate of 12 percent worldwide. “This is a year-round effort that InfoComm has been focused on,” he noted. “In particular, it’s one of the six pillars of our strategic plan with respect to workforce development. In every meeting I’ve been to with members since I took this job, the issue of finding talented and qualified people has been raised. It’s universal, whether in Bangalore or Portland.”

Betsy Jaffe, InfoComm’s Senior VP of Member Services, is approaching a year serving as the Executive Director of the International Communications Industries Foundation (ICIF), a non-profit charitable and educational organization created by InfoComm to assist the AV industry in its growth.

“I won’t be surprised when some of our students today grow up to be the industry executives of tomorrow,” noted Jaffe of this emerging group of ICIF-assisted, AV-dedicated students. “They will have a job that pays good wages, but is also fun, exciting and rewarding.”

At yesterday’s event, university students Lauren Koske and Sarabeth Mullins, both juniors, were presented as recipients of the 2016 Michael Vergauwen Scholarship, each receiving $5,000 to support their audio visual education.

Video is not the only media to be displayed in all shapes and sizes at InfoComm this year. Audio is also taking on a whole bunch of new form factors, and not just in terms of cabinet design. A tour of the Audio Demo Rooms provides a mind-bending array of new options for carrying voice and music to new heights and lengths.

“If you need to throw 96 dB across 622 feet, we can do that with the R6-51MAX and those are conservative numbers,” quipped Chris Barrow, Director of Product Marketing at Community (Demo Room N113). The three-way mega horn-loaded speaker had just gone silent after a demure demo that tastefully exercised the musicality of the speaker rather than its brawn.

Community R6 51MACommunity is also showing its newly rounded out family of I Series speakers, which extends the premium compact line into new territory with the IC6-1062, IC6-1082 and IC6-2082 models. All of the above are available in weather-resistant models constructed in-house with Community’s exclusive PolyGlas material.

Sizing up audio for the size and specs of the demo room was the theme at d&b audiotechnik (Demo Room N117), where the ease of building a system with ArrayCalc was the star of the show. Delivering that sound to far-flung points just got easier with the new DS10 audio network bridge, which is now integrated with QSC’s Q-SYS for control. Further shaping that sound is a new integration with Beckhoff’s automation technology, which is a new capability that will be announced when Beckhoff joins the OCA Alliance here at the show.

Scott Sugden, Head of Application Touring, L-AcousticsAnother premiere, and in this case on a global level, is the new KIVA II from L Acoustics (Demo Room N120). Shown for the first time here in Las Vegas and now packing +6 dB in power with better dynamics and stability, the new version of KIVA enjoys a top-caliber demo with tracks encoded in their native resolution and delivered directly to the boxes via AVB. Maybe not surprisingly, an onlooker wondered if the demo was actually live musicians inside the room.

For adjustable audio, check out the new CBT1000 column speaker from Harman (Demo Room N110), which provides individual upper and lower aiming capabilities. The new model will be available later this fall and requires an actual walk around the room to be believed, prompting attendees yesterday to pull out some sound meter apps for analysis. Also on demo for the first time is the new PD500 (which was here, but silent last year) and some exciting additions to the Control Series of surface-mounted speakers, available in dedicated low-impedance models. The outdoors are covered here, too, with the new Control 80 Series landscape speaker.

Oblong Industries experts will be participating in three theater sessions at InfoComm, sharing their thoughts and insights about the future of work and its relationship to unified communications, collaboration and the Internet of Things.

Wednesday, June 8, 2:15-3:15 p.m., Room N258:

Oblong’s Steve Pryor, Director EMEA Channel Sales, is participating in Workspaces of Tomorrow, a compelling panel discussion moderated by David Danto of Dimension Data.

Wednesday, June 8, 3-3:30 p.m., IoT Theatre:

David Kung, Oblong Industries’ VP of Product Strategy, is presenting The Mixed Reality of IoT. Kung will discuss the vital role pixels, displays and physical immersion play in the future of work.

Thursday, June 9, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Room N258:

Mark Backman, Sales Engineering Manager at Oblong, is participating in the Touch & Collaborate panel discussion moderated by Kevin Hyatt of Disney. This engaging session will look at this long-existing market sector in light of the many new products within it.

InfoComm’s Future Trends sessions generally flag up new opportunities for the pro-AV industry, rather than dire warnings. In Tuesday’s event, however, L. William Nattress, Director of Channel Strategy at Biamp, advised delegates that failing to observe the requirements of HDCP Pro 2.2 content protection could lead to displays going black across entire campuses.

The new standard, he said, acknowledges that the pro-AV presentation community has “justifiable and legal reasons to distribute content and materials to multiple displays simultaneously.” To this end, the standard removes the limitations on the number of HDCP keys that can be distributed within a system. But, he added, there’s a catch. Systems must be periodically updated with the DCP’s “whitelist” and “blacklist” of manufacturers, so that only the DCP can ensure that only compliant equipment has been used.

For systems without a constant internet connection this means that “once a quarter, the licensed integrator must come on site and upload the new blacklist to the facility. If that does not occur, [DCP] are threatening that the entire facility could go black”—potentially an entire campus of AV presentation systems, he said.

Elsewhere in his wide-ranging presentation, Nattress reflected that always-on connectivity and on-the go communications are bringing us closer to “the golden ring of unified communications.” Rather than the communication channel being chosen by the initiator—who needs to know the recipient’s phone number, email address or social profile—“you’re just going to reach out to Bill Nattress and I, as the receiver, am going to choose how I wish to communicate with you at that instant in time.”

Doors opened last Tuesday on the largest InfoComm show to date, with more than 1,000 exhibitors and an anticipated crowd of 40,000 attendees—an affirmation that “the industry is alive and strong and well, and continuing to grow,” according to David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD, executive director and CEO of InfoComm International.

Things got underway with the Super Tuesday full-day classes and a keynote by Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics fame, who discussed the future of the industry and the role of AV in the evolution of global communications. Other highlights of the day included the Digital Signage Summit, which made its first appearance in the U.S.

As the heart of the show opens with the show floor, Labuskes was excited for guests to enjoy the wealth of improvements the organization has made to enhance the experience of attending the Western Hemisphere’s largest AV gathering, including increased shuttle bus service and better way-finding, as well as food trucks and an air conditioned beer garden.

“There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars being invested into the show this year—and into the attendees’ experience—to ensure that people leave having had the ‘exceptional experience’ that we keep talking about,” Labuskes said. “It’s an example of ‘walking the walk,’ not just ‘talking the talk.’”

• Christie, a leader in creating and sharing the world's best visual and audio experiences, has teamed up with AVI-SPL, the world’s leader in AV systems integration, to enhance Invenergy’s control center with 10 Christie FHD552-X HD 55-inch flat panels and five Christie Phoenix systems.

Invenergy Control Center
Invenergy develops, owns and operates power generation and energy storage facilities in the Americas and Europe, including 65 wind farms as well as 19 solar, battery and natural gas projects in North America. Its remote operations center, the Invenergy Control Center, monitors, maintains and schedules power for Invenergy’s fleet of generation facilities. The Invenergy Control Center was initially located in the operations building at a wind project in Texas, far from the head office, and only operated when technicians were off site. Hampered by power and Internet connectivity issues, Invenergy made the decision to bring the control room to Illinois. Along with the move to Chicago came the decision to replace their existing outdated video wall with a new system.

“The Christie wall provided the same size monitor displays at 55 inches, but with ultra-low bezels making the distance between pixels from monitor to monitor only 3.5 mm,” says Brad Purtell, director, Wind Operations Support, Invenergy. “The other item that we like about the monitors is that there is no loss of pixels moving from display to display, but rather one continuous picture.”

With AVI-SPL, the world’s top AV systems integrator, providing the design and installation of the video wall, Invenergy selected 10 Christie FHD552-X HD 55-inch flat panels, in a five by two configuration, and five Christie Phoenix systems to power the wall. Purtell says the selection of the Phoenix system was a given.

“The Phoenix was the first product that we wanted, before we decided which display to go with. Its ability to expand a display to whatever size needed, between the dimensions of the entire wall, is something that is amazing. We have the ability to display operational or market related data that might be important at a specific time across one display or across all 10 that are included in the video wall.”

Invenergy is still considering the many ways to use the video wall, including displaying data from sites in Poland and Scotland via the wall in Chicago.

With invited AV integrators, AV and digital signage design consultants, industry analysts, the press, and U.S. and worldwide LG executives and technical staff in abundant attendance, LG Electronics USA officially opened its new Chicago Business Innovation Center on February 3. The new facility is, according to LG, “a comprehensive technology hub and educational center for LG’s commercial displays and business solutions in the United States.”

From left to right: Kyu-Moon Yu, Michael Kosla, Garry Wicka, Kimun Paik, Clark Brown, Soon Kwon, William Cho, Dr. Jong Kim, Kevin McNamara, and DJ Kang. Indeed, after touring the new facility yesterday and after extensive briefings from key LG execs including Garry Wicka, LG Electronics USA head of marketing, Commercial Displays; Dan Smith, senior director of business solutions for LG Electronics; and Clark Brown, USA VP of Digital Signage, the facility lives up to the billing. The Business Innovation Center features an extensive, hands-on display of LG’s offerings from commercial AV and digital signage displays, hospitality market, and healthcare solutions, and more, with real, complex content, technical support, and product training, the goal of which will be to allow business owners, integrators, and contractors a chance to engage and learn about how LG’s leading line of commercial solutions—a process that will “contribute to an increased bottom line," according to the company.

• “The Business Innovation Center exemplifies LG’s commitment to ‘innovation for a better business’ in the U.S. commercial market,” said William Cho, president and CEO, LG Electronics USA. “In addition to showcasing LG’s extensive portfolio of innovative solutions across various vertical markets—including the all-new Ultra Stretch Signage display—this center will provide the ideal venue in the heartland of America for LG to hold training sessions and executive briefings for current and future customers, further expanding our B2B footprint in the U.S.”

Dan Smith demonstrating the Ultra Stretch Signage 86BH5C.LG launched the Ultra Stretch Signage 86BH5C this week at the Innovation Center opening, a new 86-inch ultra-wide digital signage screen with a “stretched” 58:9 aspect ratio. According to LG’s Dan Smith, this new unit solves the problem of retail or airport settings, for example, where digital screens are “off to the side, outside of the line of sight of consumers who are just walking past the screens without looking at them.” It does this by placing the screens as “columns,” right in the viewer’s space.

The new Innovation center is divided up into “industry zones": Retail & QSR Zones; Hospitality & VIP Zones; Smart Healthcare Zone; Outdoor Signage Zone; and the Energy Solutions Zone.Prominent at the grand opening yesterday were large- and small-format LG commercial displays for the retail space, including solutions that include LG’s webOS for Signage smart platform. Also on display were demos of In Plane Switching (IPS) technology that produces accurate and consistent colors from any viewing angle—as well as connectivity that can easily be customized across each business.

One of the highlights of the unveiling, the Ultra Stretch Signage 86BH5C can display dynamic content depending on the user’s installation environment and can double as digital décor. With 4K Ultra HD resolution and a Picture-by-Picture (PBP) feature—which allows the user to divide the long, rectangular screen into four parts in landscape or portrait installations—the integrator can customize the screen to maximize content.

The Retail Zone’s flagship products also include LG’s largest 4K UHD digital signage display, the 98-inch class (98.0 inches measured diagonally) 98LS95A, and LG’s all-new Direct LED Video Wall VH7B featuring an ultra-slim bezel, at 0.9 mm, that is ideal for retail stores that require a giant-screen commercial installation.

LG’s 98LS95, a huge 98 inch, Ultra HD display with webOS.

In addition to the new Chicago LG Business Innovation Center, LG Electronics USA also just opened the Atlanta LG Business Innovation Center within its newly expanded U.S. Air Conditioning Systems Headquarters in Alpharetta, GA. Those LG centers are the first of their kind in the United States and two of only nine such centers around the world.

Other LG Business Innovation Centers are located in Amsterdam, London, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Epson has released a new line of Pro G7000-Series large venue projectors. With new features including increased brightness, and motorized lenses, the Pro G-Series consists of seven models delivering up to 8,000 lumens of color brightness and 8,000 lumens of white brightness, the series also features a zero-offset ultra short-throw lens with 0.35 throw ratio, ideal for space constrained venues and digital signage applications.

Epson Pro G-Series Large Venue Projectors

Epson projectors offer 3x higher color brightness than competitive 1-chip DLP models to ensure vivid colorful images. The Pro G Series 3-chip 3LCD projectors are ideal for large venues, including events staging, auditoriums and sanctuaries.

Additional features include nine optional interchangeable lenses, versatile connectivity, ready for integration, 4K enhancement technology, dynamic projection capabilities, collaboration features and professional installation features.

The Epson Pro G7000-Series will be available in May 2016 starting at $3,799 MSRP. The projectors come with a three-year limited warranty with next business day replacement, including free shipping both ways, and a 90-day limited lamp warranty.

Odeon Multicines Girona is the second film theatre in Spain to offer Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 3D using a Christie dual-head 6-Primary (6P) laser projection system. This multiscreen complex joins a growing band worldwide to offer Christie 6P laser projections.

Sala 4 at the multiscreen complex, which already had Dolby Atmos sound, was equipped for the occasion with the Christie CP42LH HFR 3DLP 4K RGB laser projector, an ultra-bright colorful solution for big screens.

Christie 6-Primary Dual Head Laser Projection System“The quality and realism of the 3D with this system are absolutely fantastic. And the light on the screen is equally spectacular,” said Manager of Odeon Multicines Girona Carmen Millán. “So much so, that a few days ago, just before the beginning of the movie, we thought that we had forgotten to dim the lights in the theatre, and when we went to turn them off we realised that the light was coming from the screen itself.”

Anchored by the Christie Freedom laser lighting system, the CP42LH reproduces a color spectrum that exceeds DCI P3 specifications and matches the Rec. 2020 color space, making it the most advanced RGB laser cinema projection system available on the market.

Located in Espai Gironès, a huge shopping centre in Salt, a town just outside Girona, Multicines Odeon has ten screens with a total capacity of 1,700. Seating 277 people, Sala 4, where the dual-head Christie system has been installed, is the theatre’s main screen, measuring 14.3 meters wide and 6.1 meters high. The theater is also equipped with Dolby Atmos sound.

The system installed in this theatre includes two 4K Christie CP42LH laser projection heads with integrated media block (IMB) connected via fibre optic to two racks, each one with six RGB laser modules that provide a total of 60,000 lumens – double what current digital projectors with lamps are able to offer.

The scalability of the platform allows up to 12 modules per rack. And with each laser module generating 5,000 lumens of light, a potential of up to 60,000 lumens per rack, and a total of 120,000 lumens is possible. The system, designed to achieve over 14 foot lamberts in 3D screens, uses Dolby3D glasses specifically engineered to exactly match the six primary laser light wavelengths, thus yielding very high light efficiency.

The 6P laser projection screening of Star Wars at Odeon Girona has been the talk of this town and its 97,000 inhabitants.“You can hear people coming out saying that they haven’t seen anything like it. The word of mouth alone is bringing in the crowds. And that is a source of pride for us, because the audiences here in Girona are very demanding and appreciate the high quality,” Millán said.

Odeon Multicines Girona is now the second film theatre in Spain to offer Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a dual-head 6P laser projection system, following in the footsteps of Dolby Cinema La Maquinista in Barcelona which is equipped with the Dolby Vision projection system.

Christie worked closely with Dolby in co-developing the new proprietary HDR and wider color gamut technology that leverages customized, high-frame-rate (HFR) capable Christie 4K laser projection heads to deliver the unparalleled visual excellence of Dolby Vision.

When Apple launched the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Prelite Studios played a key role in helping lighting designers visualize the event before the lighting rig was set up on site.

Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch

The latest iPhones and Apple TV launch, announced by Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook introduced new models of Apple’s popular smartphones with many new features and improvements. More than 13 million units of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus were sold in the first three days of their availability.

Prelite partner Tom Thompson, who also served as the event’s gaffer and assistant lighting designer, and Prelite host Brooke Kimple spent six days at the Civic Auditorium providing visualization services to production lighting designer Paul Efron of Seeing Eye Lighting Design and guest LD lighting designer of OneRepublic A.J. Pen.

“Using Prelite meant we were able to work on site before the immense lighting rig was installed and working. Big events come with enough stress. Prelite relieves any additional stress by providing the time to build and program looks so everyone is ready to go when lighting and scenic elements are set up,” said Thompson.

“Prelite allowed us the time needed on the front end, while we were waiting for staging and scenery to be installed, to explore a variety of options to address what has traditionally been the challenge of lighting a black set for video production,” said Paul Efron.

Apple is known for its clean, elegant and minimalist staging.

”The lighting is designed to maintain focus on the presenters, product and content,” said Efron. “However as the event is live streamed to millions of people worldwide, our challenge is to still light for the best quality video production possible while minimizing the amount of “visual noise." The event marked a departure from previous launches since it was held at the Civic Auditorium for the first time. “The venue was recently renovated and is primarily used for arena concert events, so it’s basically a shell,” Efron notes. “We were tasked with transforming that shell into a world class black box theatre making the build out quite extensive.”

The set consisted of three three-dimensional black “monoliths.” The center monolith, featured a single rear projection screen. Spaces between the center monolith and the two outside monoliths formed dark “infinity tunnels,” which served as entrances and exits for the presenters.

At the conclusion of the general session OneRepublic came on stage to play audience a three-song set.

“During our rehearsal period we experienced some unforeseen delays and consequently were only able to run each of our three songs once before the live show,” Pen said.“Although the OneRepublic performance was just icing on an elaborate cake, they all made me feel as if our brief moment was one of the most basic and important ingredients of the entire event.”

The LED video display manufacturer PixelFLEX has appointed Grif Palmer as its new Vice President of Sales. Palmer will oversee the day-to-day operations of the PixelFLEX sales team while implementing the sales strategies necessary to keep pace with the increased market demand for the innovative line of PixelFLEX LED video technologies.

Grif Palmer, Vice President of Sales at PixelFlEX

• “He has a very distinguished career in the technology industry, and he’ll be an invaluable addition to our team strengthening and developing relationships with both our current and new clientele of video integrators and designers,” said Monty Rains, President and COO. “
• Prior to joining PixelFLEX, Palmer worked in the entertainment technology industry as a Business Development Manager, Vice President of Sales, and Regional Sales Manager for many technology manufacturers such as High End Systems, Barco, and Martin Professional.
• "I am very excited to be joining the PixelFLEX team to oversee this new chapter of growth,” said Palmer. "We have the unique opportunity to create a new leader in the LED video market and the team to make it a reality."

An American-based LED manufacturer, PixelFLEX offers solutions for LED display for live events or installation through their line of LED video walls and video screens.

Premier Mounts today appointed Grant Cossey and Steven Lindenmeyer to two key posts. Cossey will serve as General Manger, Products Division and Lindenmeyer as Senior Account Manager, Key Accounts.

As General Manager, Products Division, Cossey will report to co-CEO Rich Pierro and be responsible for leading, directing and implementing sales and marketing functions for the products division. In addition, Cossey will be tasked with the day-to-day operations of the products division and join the leadership team in setting goals, strategy and execution in line with Premier Mounts Strategic vision.

"We are pleased to introduce Grant as General Manager, Products Division,” said Rich Pierro, co-Chief Executive Officer. “He is the first appointment in the execution of our strategic business plan. Grant brings over 20 years of diverse, relevant experience along with proven success in various roles leading sales and marketing organizations, product development and engineering. We are very excited about the contributions he will make."

Lindenmeyer is a CTS certified professional with over 15 years of AV experience and a track record of delivering technical support and guidance to a worldwide network of AV system integrators and consultants.

In his new role, Lindenmeyer will serve as the main point of contact for Premier Mounts Key Accounts. He will support all Key Account customer objectives and employ the internal resources that best meet all requirements.

• NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the PA322UHD-2 display, which includes all the features of the existing PA322UHD model and now updates the option slot with support for 4K UHD inputs, including an installed, switchable DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 option.

The Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) compliant option slot gives videographers, photographers, print production specialists and others added flexibility to use the PA322UHD-2 in an even wider range of existing workflows.

The display uses a wide gamut white LED backlight and an IGZO technology IPS-type LCD panel that delivers excellent image quality with lower power consumption than comparable LCD displays while delivering 99.2 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space.

“Pros in color-critical fields now have more options for 4K UHD over a single cable, including the latest HDMI 2.0 standard,” said Art Marshall, Senior Product Manager of Professional and Medical Displays at NEC Display. “The 4K UHD-enhanced OPS connects to more devices for greater productivity and creativity.”

In addition to the installed OPS, the NEC Display Solutions 3G/SD/HD-SDI input card (SB-04HC) and the HD-SDI input card (SB-01HC) also are compatible with the PA322UHD-2.

The PA322UHD-2 display’s other benefits include native 4K UHD resolution of 3840 x 2160 with 10-bit color support, 350 cd/m2 brightness and 1000:1 contrast ratio and support for a multitude of refresh rates, including 24, 30, 50, 60, 85, 100, and 120 Hz modes. Additionally, the PA322UHD-2 features a USB 3.0 hub (two up, three down) with DisplaySync Pro, a high resolution keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) switch that can control two computers with only one keyboard and mouse and two DisplayPort 1.2 inputs, one HDMI 2.0 input and the option of either two DVI-D or four HDMI 1.4 inputs.

The PA322UHD-2 can support both landscape and portrait modes, and the image can be automatically rotated when the display is rotated. The PA322UHD-2 also performs color and white Digital Uniformity Correction with 93 percent more correction points than previous MultiSync PA Series displays.

NEC Display offers a range of desktop and large-format displays as well as projectors in UHD and 4K resolutions, leading the industry in this initiative. The MultiSync PA322UHD-BK-2 ships with a four-year limited 48-hour advanced exchange parts and labor warranty, and will be available in February 2016 at a minimum advertised price of $2,999.

• Matrox Graphics Inc. today unveiled Matrox C900, the world’s first single-slot, nine-output graphics card that supports nine 1920x1080 displays at 60Hz. The latest card in the popular Matrox C-Series line of multi-monitor graphics cards, C900 will be demonstrated for the first time at Integrated Systems Europe 2016, to be held in Amsterdam from Feb. 9 through 12.

Matrox C900
A special-purpose graphics card designed to power 3x3 and 9x1 video walls, Matrox C900’s single-slot form factor and low power consumption at 75W offer digital signage and video wall vendors simpler integration and a lower cost of ownership. Its support for stretched desktop across all nine synchronized outputs lets users run any application full screen across a 3x3 video wall which makes the card ideal for signage installations in retail, corporate, entertainment and hospitality environments as well as control room video wall solutions in security, process control and transportation.

Matrox PowerDesk desktop management software for Windows is included with C900 to give users a comprehensive set of tools, including bezel management and EDID management, to easily configure and manage their multi-display setups. Advanced APIs are available to developers and OEMs to quickly build custom interfaces and applications.

“Three-by-three configurations are the sweet spot for many digital signage installations and control room video walls,” said Caroline Injoyan, business development manager at Matrox Graphics Inc. “Now with C900, for the first time, nine Full HD displays can be driven from a single-slot card and system integrators can easily offer a turnkey solution to power three-by-three video walls. They also benefit from the premium technical assistance, long product life cycles and reliability that Matrox is known for.”

• Peerless-AV, the leader in innovative mounting and audio and video solutions and accessories, today announced the industry’s first Universal Modular LED Wall Mounting System.

Universal modular LED wall mounting system
Featuring a quick and easy pop-out mechanism that can be adapted to support various brands and display sizes, Peerless-AV’s LED Wall Mounting System offers a modular design enabling custom installs for specific configurations.

The universal nature of the LED Wall Mounting System will give installers infinite choices as they look to specify more full-color, high brightness, big viewing angle LED displays in their projects.

“LED is becoming an integral part of the AV industry and with our commitment to being at the forefront of audiovisual technology, we’re excited to unveil our new LED Mounting System,” said John Potts, President, Peerless-AV. “To develop the best solution available, we’ve worked closely with customers and LED experts to ensure versatility and compatibility for individual application scenarios.”

Key features of the Universal Modular LED Wall Mounting System include a clean and aesthetically pleasing installation based on a slim, space-saving design. The pop-out mechanism extends the mount 30 inches from the wall, providing ample space for a technician to service and maintain the LED displays. Its universal design can be easily configured to support most LED brands and sizes by simply changing out display-specific adapter plates.

The mounting system’s easy hang wall plate enables a fast, trouble-free installation and handles on either side of the mount provide easy mount articulation without the risk of damage to the LED display. In addition, integrated cable management allows for a clean finish.

Adjustment to the LED Mounting System is simple and installer-friendly. A jacking screw feature allows the entire video wall to be plumb adjusted once all the LED displays are installed. Each mount has four-corner depth adjustment and a first row levelling function assures all the LED displays align for a seamless appearance.

Peerless-AV’s Universal Modular LED Mounting System will be available for custom order through its network of distributors and resellers in Q2 2016.

This new innovation can be seen at ISE 2016 – Hall 11, Stand E70. Visitors to the stand will be given a VIP tour, including presentation of an impressive 5x4 video wall using Absen LED panels mounted on the modular system.

The ISE show in Amsterdam, that will take place February 9-12, is gearing up to be another blockbuster event in the AV world– including for digital signage. Last year’s show– a joint venture of InfoComm and CEDIA– had almost 60,000 registered attendees at the Amsterdam RAI. The event just keeps getting bigger and better.

Returning to this year’s ISE: NewBay Media’s ISE Best of Show Awards, for the brands AV Technology, Residential Systems, and Digital Signage. The Best of Show Awards recognize new and outstanding products exhibited at the ISE 2016 show. The winners will be selected by panels of professional users and editors, based on information provided by the nominated companies as well as booth visits during the show.

ISE Exhibitor companies have been entering their Digital Signage products– but the deadline is nigh. Entries must be in by February 3rd. Click here to enter.

• Matrox Graphics Inc. announced that a variety of Matrox products will be featured on third-party stands at Integrated Systems Europe 2016, held Feb. 1 – 12 in Amsterdam.

Matrox multi-display video cards

Matrox C-Series multi-monitor graphics cards will be used with Scala digital signage software on the Avnet Embedded stand and with VisioSign software on the VisioSign stand. Matrox Mura MPX video wall controller boards will be used by Mitsubishi and VuWall to drive a variety of video wall configurations. VuWall will also incorporate Matrox Mura IPX 4K capture and IP decoder cards and Matrox Maevex 5100 Series H.264 encoders into their presentations. In addition, the Matrox products will be featured in interactive digital signage, control room and AV-over-IP demonstrations on the Matrox stand 11-F48.

Avnet Embedded will run a 3x2 video wall from a Scala-certified Matrox C680 multi-monitor graphics card using Scalas industry-leading digital signage software. The Avnet Embedded team helps industrial equipment and device manufacturers develop faster, robust and secure kiosks, digital signage, POS/EPOS devices and intelligent industrial automation applications.

Mitsubishi will feature VuWalls VuScape video wall controller powered by Matrox Mura MPX capture and display boards. Visitors will have the chance to see how a high-density, low-footprint controller based on Matrox Mura technology can be used to display multiple inputs across multiple outputs with exceptional-quality scaling. This hardware/software combination provides the stability, scalability, reliability and input/output density needed in demanding environments that require high-performance video wall solutions.

VisioSign will be using a Matrox C420 quad-output graphics card inside their PC-based video wall controller designed to run demanding content such as 4K videos. An animated 3D video will promote their Digital Building concept in combination with their new BlackLine hardware, illustrating how corporate customers can use VisioSign software to develop their own internal communication strategies targeting employees and guests with the VisioSign hardware placed strategically throughout their buildings.

• ONLEAN will be in attendance at Integrated Systems Europe 2016, held in Amsterdam, 9 through 12 February.

ONLEAN will discuss next generation Content Management System 3.0 (CMS) supporting LG webOS and Samsung Smart Signage Platform displays, significant updates to the Reserva Room Signage range, including an updated hardware platform for 2016 and support for leading university timetabling systems, and innovative examples of digital signage campaigns, powered by the ONELAN Net-Top-Box and CMS.

Hugh Coghill-Smith, ONELAN Sales and Marketing Director, will also take the stage with Stewart Caddick, Managing Director at Connectiv, to discuss the award-winning install at Dubai Duty Free. This presentation will be held in the Commercial Solutions Theatre on 10 February from 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm.

ONELAN develops network appliances for standalone and end-to-end Digital Signage network solutions. The Net-Top-Box is a mul¬timedia, multi-zoned solution capable of Touch Interactivity. With a browser based user inter¬face, the system is fully multi-lingual and capable of dis¬playing both stored media and live media such as RSS feeds, web pages and broadcast TV or locally streamed video. Further mem¬bers of the product family cater for Enterprise network management and integration with external data sources.

• Contemporary Research’s QMOD-SDI HDMI is a totally new product aimed at houses of worship, combining the two most popular applications – an SDI input for the live sanctuary video, and an HDMI input for digital signage. Small to medium-sized sites can now support both applications with one HDTV modulator.

Contemporary Research's QMOD-SDI HDMI
The QMOD-SDI HDMI has dual encoders to process two MPEG video streams, each supported by a hardware scaler that can accept and format virtually all video between 1080p and 480i in NTSC, VGA and PAL standards. Audio can be embedded or fed separately to digital SPIDF or analog stereo inputs. Two NTSC inputs support composite video or video with closed captioning data.

The new QMODs are fully convergent, able to output the video streams as a dual program digital RF channel or as an IPTV stream. An upcoming firmware update will support a variety of configurations for MPEG2 and MPEG4 streaming and can output two independent single-program IPTV streams.

"We have had many requests from houses of worship for an encoder modulator that could handle their primary media needs in one unit,” says Doug Engstorm, VP of technical services. “We listened and created the QMOD-SDI HDMI Modulator-IPTV Encoder.”

Staging company executives are good at calculating the TCO (total cost of ownership) of the latest new projector or other piece of gear they’re thinking of acquiring for their arsenal of equipment. But when it comes to risk assessment and protection strategies are they doing the same diligence as when shopping for a new 40K lumen projector? That is the topic of an in-depth white paper just published, and available (no charge) to staging professionals working in corporate staging or on the entertainment side of the business. To access the white paper, click here.

The report– that looks at the costs of not doing the right kind of risk assessment– explains that even in a healthy market staging companies can only be profitable when the risks on the business/operations side are managed well. Because shifting industry dynamics, high-profile accidents with industry-wide repercussions, the increasing number of outdoor events, and escalating safety-related liability exposure have changed the business landscape. Only by being up to speed with the latest risk-reduction best practices can the staging company prepare for every contingency. Best practices include: examining the cost of not doing the right kind of risk assessment; moving insurance cost from an operating expense line item to a strategic expense; determining the right formula for insurance costs as a percentage of total costs; proper evaluation of RFQ’s when choosing among competing quotes for insurance coverage; and partnering with the right kind of insurance provider.

Here are just a few highlights from the white paper:

Indiana State Fair stage collapse, 2011.

The cost of not doing the right kind of risk assessment is potentially extremely high: disaster if the wrong claim or lawsuit hits a company. And the company could be wiped out (bankruptcy, and/or shuttering of the business) or worse– criminal charges if the incidents is egregious enough and coverage isn’t adequate.

Even as the North American concert business and corporate staging business are setting new industry records for growth, it’s a perilous landscape for even the most seasoned staging companies, not just for insurance risk but for shrinking margins, labor issues such as workers comp, and other factors unique to live event staging.

“There are so many more festivals,” says Steve Daniels, owner of staging company I-MAG Video A/V, Inc. “But is it all high cotton for the staging company? Not necessarily. There is less margin. And the landscape is different. A lot more video is now a part of almost all events. And video intensive usually means, lots of LED walls, and you can get hurt financially if you’re stuck with older heavier equipment.”

“The boom in business notwithstanding, it’s a perilous landscape for even the most seasoned staging companies. And the cost of not doing the right kind of risk assessment in this industry is a high cost indeed.”

• Event service firms–whether in entertainment staging or corporate event staging– now face different cost structures, with increased and different business costs. One example: the new Affordable Care Act affects hiring of, and benefits for, staff. Under the Affordable Care Act, if an IC (independent contractor) works for a staging company on any consistent basis the law now requires the employer to offer health care coverage to that IC as if he/she were a full time employee. This has serious implications for AV event service firms who tend to hire the same technical experts over and over. So staging companies now have to examine the costs of new laws, rules and procedures for hiring only those firms who carry their own insurance and then determine if those companies are inherently more expensive over time to deal with (because they too, have rising costs, such as insurance) than dealing in the traditional way with individual freelancers.
• In today’s world insurance is a major expense item for many staging companies. They need to determine what the costs could be if things go wrong (including worst case scenarios such as the Indiana State Fair stage collapse in 2011, pictured above). And they need to understand what insurance costs comprise a reasonable percentage of their operating expenses, based on what kind of services they offer.

In today’s world insurance is a major expense item for many staging companies. They need to determine what the costs could be if things go wrong (including worst case scenarios such as the Indiana State Fair stage collapse in 2011, pictured above). And they need to understand what insurance costs comprise a reasonable percentage of their operating expenses, based on what kind of services they offer.The white paper looks at the Indiana State Fair stage collapse in 2011. Before a scheduled performance by Sugarland at the Indiana State Fair in August 2011, a wind gust from an approaching severe thunderstorm hit the stage's temporary roof structure, causing it to collapse. Unfortunately, incidents like the Indiana State Fair stage collapse have been mirrored in other industry accidents. In 2012, criminal charges were brought against Toronto-based Optex Staging and Services following a scaffolding collapse at Toronto's Downsview Park hours before Radiohead was scheduled to play on June 16th, 2012. The Ontario Ministry of Labor laid thirteen criminal charges against three companies and one engineer in connection with the fatal stage collapse– Live Nation Canada Inc., Live Nation Ontario Concerts GP Inc., Optex Staging & Services Inc., and an unidentified engineer. The repercussions of that event, and other accidents in the staging world, are still being felt industry-wide.

Managing Risk: Best practices in live event staging

The paper looks at how those kinds of high-profile disasters in the staging world have moved the staging industry toward adopting new best practices to deal with risk. The insurance cost paradigm is now viewed differently by AV staging company executives. Insurance cost, they now believe, should change from an operating expense line item, to a necessary and strategic expense that should be looked at through the prism of “what if I don’t protect my company properly?”

The paper looks at how the right kind and amount of insurance needed should be determined by what your company does. Does your insurance provider understand your business? Does your insurance provider understand the different risk factors for a Tier II (rental with operator) compared to a Tier III (rental with operator plus staging)? Does your insurance how a promoter–someone who is responsible for the spectators, marketing, security and concessions of a concert or an event– is different from Tier II staging company or a Tier III event service firm who is just doing the rigging? The cost of insurance carried by a promoter may not be as high as the cost of insurance carried by a Tier III rigger, simply because the rating methodology is different.

The AV rental & staging market is experiencing a healthy boom. Business travel is up. Corporate meetings have bigger budgets again. And the “entertainment” part of the market is thriving with many more music tours and festivals than ever before. But when it comes assessing risks and costs associated with management, operation, staffing, and insurance, are stagers really doing all necessary due diligence? Many are not. AV staging companies and other live event producers must rethink all costs. Staging companies must ask, what is the cost of not doing the right kind of risk assessment? And then they must adopt new industry best practices to further alleviate both known and potential risks. To read the full white paper addressing all these issues, click here.

• Madonna, renowned for her elaborate complex productions and exacting standards, has chosen a pair of DiGiCo SD7s to deliver audio for her Rebel Heart Tour.

Monitor engineers Sean Spuehler (left) and Matt Napier (right)
She achieves this with the Rebel Heart Tour’s Front of House engineer Andy Meyer and monitor engineers Matt Napier and Sean Spuehler. On the tour, Meyer and Napier are both using SD7s with Napier’s console featuring an EX007 fader expansion where Spuehler mixes Madonna’s vocals and effects.

“Madonna likes her live sound to be as close as possible to the album,” says Napier. “To accomplish this, Sean focuses on mixing her vocal effects and delays, which are then bussed to the FOH console so - in theory, at least - the audience hears exactly the same vocal sound that she does.”

Madonna is an artist who likes to push the boundaries with her live production, and an arena tour can present several challenges.

“Every Madonna tour has its unique aspects,” Napier continues. “The main one for monitors on the Rebel Heart Tour is that she spends a large proportion of the show 110 feet in front of the PA. As she gets further into the PA, the sound of the spill through her vocal mic means what she needs to hear in terms of pitch and timing constantly changes.”

“It’s the first time I’ve run a show using timecode, which I’ve done partly to mitigate this. Having multiple snapshots per song, all fired automatically via timecode, has freed me to concentrate on the aspects of the mix that I need to adjust in compensating for the effect of her moving along the catwalk.

“We rehearse Madonna shows for a long time, 112 days for this tour. That time allowed me to automate the constants and to focus on the variables. The timecode has also been really useful when we have the occasional - inevitable - problem, because it allows me to focus on that and not worry so much about missing a cue.”

Alongside Madonna, stage personnel comprise four musicians, two backing vocalists and 20 dancers. All of the musicians are on in-ear monitors, with additional monitoring for musical director/keyboardist Kevin Antunes, a thumper for drummer Brian Frasier-Moore and side fills for the dancers. Sean’s vocal group is bussed into Matt’s side of the SD7, where he adds it to the music mix in her monitors, as well as looking after the other musicians. In all, the monitor SD7 is set up with 118 input channels, 19 mono auxiliaries, 22 stereo auxiliaries, six stereo groups, four mono groups, 10 matrix outputs and 12 control groups.

“We have kept the console running at 48kHz, mainly because we interface via MADI with the playback computers and all the show sessions are at that sample rate,” says Kevin. “In addition to the playback, we also send record lines back to playback world. This means that in rehearsals the musicians can add any overdubs, or additional parts, quickly and easily. A second MADI interface system connects via RME MADI Bridges to two Mac Pros running Apple Logic. This allows us to interface third-party plugins directly with the console.”

MADI is also used to record all the shows to Reaper DAW running on a Mac Pro and recording to a RAID drive. The recordings are archived to four terabyte backup disks, a copy of every show being kept.

• Amsterdam, the city with reportedly more bicycles than people, is the place to be from 9 to 12 February to network, socialize and conduct business at Integrated Systems Europe.

To help navigate and survive this year’s show Bubble & Squeak Communications has combined over a century of experience in participating at various tradeshows across the globe and assembled knowledge to produce the hottest tips and tricks available.

If you would like to say hello you’ll see the Bubble & Squeak team around the halls wearing their legendary Bubble pink and white striped shirts (see note below about capsule wardrobe).

Before you go:
•Utilize ISE’s social media; include the show’s Twitter handle in your news and hashtag when you talk about the show @ISEShow #ISE2016 @AudioVisualNews #avtweeps
•Download the ISE app (https://www.iseurope.org/ise-mobile-app)
•Find out where the cool parties are happening and make sure you blag a ticket / wristband!
•Check your passport / visa is in date and you have your travel / health insurance in place (Europeans should ensure you have your free EHIC Card http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx)
•Don’t worry if you have forgotten to pick up your Euros. Go online and order them to collect at your airport terminal but watch out, some providers only have landside collection
•Ensure you have contacted your credit card company before you leave and put a travel alert on your card. While you’re at it, jot down their international customer service number (same applies for some mobile phone operators)
•Its also worth making a written list of any other emergency / team phone numbers just in case
•Go to your local chemist or order from Chemistdirect.co.uk (see ‘Things to take with you’ below)
•Use the local hotels, bars and restaurants for meetings that you don’t want on the tradeshow floor. The Okura and the Hilton are very nice, you can also walk to the Holiday Inn and there are lots of local bars just outside the RAI
•If organizing a client’s drinks, do it somewhere close to a big party that they are going to, or on a boat that will transport them there – it takes ages to get anywhere once the show closes
•The second you think of packing something, PACK IT. If you wait, you will forget
•You will inevitably forget something, either at home or while away. Accept this reality, and pray it is not your passport or your wallet!
•It can be freezing in Amsterdam in February – don’t forget your gloves / mittens, warm socks, hats etc
•Pack a capsule wardrobe with plenty of layers – it makes the mornings so much easier, plus layering will allow you to transfer from outdoors to indoors seamlessly! Oh, and never pack something that you haven’t worn before. Otherwise you’ll find your new shoes too uncomfortable, your new jacket too flimsy or your new underwear too tight
•Make sure your electronic devices are fully charged when you are at the airport – extra checks mean you must demonstrate that you can turn them on

Things to take with you:
•Berocca (take them morning and evening)
•Dioralyte – to rehydrate and replace essential electrolytes (recommended if you have partaken in alcoholic beverages!)
•Aspirin or paracetamol (as above)
•Eye drops (to combat over-air-conditioning)
•Lip balm / Vaseline
•Plasters for blisters (try rubbing Vaseline on blisters or sore spots to stop chafing!)
•Umbrella (or find one as a give away on a stand!)
•Mints (show breath – yuk!)
•Chargers – camera, phone, laptop, etc. Pack these into a glasses case to keep them tidy and easy to locate in your bag
•Memory cards for your camera
•European adapters – more than one!
•Dry shampoo (ladies only)
•Mobile phone booster; the long days will eat up your already short battery life
•Shoes – take as many different types as possible so that your feet don’t get time to hurt / get blisters in the same place
•If you like a cup of tea in your hotel room before you set off you will need to take your own tea bags / kettle

While you are there:
•The train is still the cheapest and fastest way to get from Schiphol airport, either directly to the RAI or into central Amsterdam – Check the board above the escalator near the ticket office as trains to the RAI leave from Platforms One, Two or Three
•If you book a taxi from the airport they will meet you by the big red and white checked construction near the entrance to the train (inside)
•Check your diary timings – daylight saving / timezones can screw up meetings!
•Eat some breakfast, even if it's a banana - you might not 'do' breakfast but you never know when you'll be able to grab a bite and you really don't want to spend all your per diem on expensive ham kaas rolls every day. Or faint…
•Plan your day - the halls are many and far! If possible, try to give yourself twice as much time as you think you’ll need, as time flies by in the RAI
•Everyone is inevitably running late. The half hour meeting slot is never enough, there are vast distances to walk and there’s always someone you know around every corner. If it’s you running late, let your host know ASAP (even if it’s a quick text). If someone is late to meet you, don’t get cross. Accept it and re-schedule if you can no longer fit them in
•Get some daylight / fresh air whenever you can
•Get clear instructions on where you are meeting someone – “by a bridge / canal / bicycle stand / flower stall” will not help you!
•Bacterial hand stuff for after your handshakes with a million people
•Drink lots… and maybe some water too
•Watch out for the “bitterballen”. They are the perfect accompaniment to a round of beers. But be careful when you bite through the crunchy crust, the meaty ragout filling is often burning hot!
•Try a delicious stroopwafel
•As much as you believe the contrary, once you get home you will not remember names, or action items. Take notes, leave yourself a voice memo, connect on ‘LinkedIn’ and remember to follow up
•Sleep with a pillow under your feet at night to raise them and relieve pressure/aches
•Find a local limo/boat company and have their number on hand to beat those long taxi queues or maybe use www.uber.com/cities/amsterdam
•Although Amsterdam ranks as the 5th safest city in the world (In the Safe Cities Index 2015 White Paper published by The Economist), remember to be conscious of displaying your mobile and other valuables in the street as you walk around - a surprisingly high number of people have had their phones snatched by passing motorcyclists
•Get your literature digitally instead of carrying reams of paper from the show floor. Embrace the badge scan, stop worrying about getting on email lists, and clean out your in-box later
•Don’t forget to don your wearable technology, or turn on your smart phones’ motion tracker to see just how far you have walked
•To keep yourself looking fresh and banish dubious stains from your clothing, spray (cheap) neat vodka onto the offending mark using an atomizer. Don’t worry, we are assured its odorless!
•Look in every direction when crossing the road – watch out for trams, cars, bikes (especially bikes with wobbly tourists on them!)
•Be aware of the subtle difference between a coffeeshop and a Koffie Huis! (A koffie huis serves refreshments minus the soft drugs and space cake)
•While you are enjoying the city, try and make time to visit the world-class art museums – among them the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk museum of modern art and the Van Gogh Museum
•Presents for partners – ask the Bubbles (we are good at PR, marketing, events and shopping!)

• Blackmagic Design’s new ATEM Production Studio 4K and HyperDeck Studio 12G package deal is $2,495, making it possible for customers to get a live production solution designed for Ultra HD.
• This offer is targeted at customers who are considering the purchase of Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Television Studio live production switcher, and will allow them to obtain a powerful switcher for a similar price.

The more powerful HyperDeck Studio 12G is Blackmagic Design’s most advanced studio recorder which features 12G-SDI and supports recording to high speed SSD’s in ProRes
It’s common for customers to buy both a live production switcher and a broadcast recorder as a combination. When purchased together, the ATEM Television Studio switcher and HyperDeck Studio recorder would normally cost $1,990 in total. With this deal, customers can choose to buy the much more powerful ATEM Production Studio 4K and HyperDeck Studio 12G which are Ultra HD models and include additional features, even when used in HD video formats, for only $500 more.

Normally this combination of powerful Ultra HD live production switcher and Ultra HD broadcast recorder would cost $4,190, and this deal represents a saving to the customer of $1,695.

The ATEM Production Studio 4K has many features that make it more powerful than the ATEM Television Studio, including Ultra HD support, high frame rate 1080p HD support up to 1080p60, a total of 8 video inputs with a full frame re-synchronizer on each input, a dedicated aux output, balanced analog audio inputs on XLR connectors, HiFi audio inputs and balanced audio outputs. This model includes an integrated AC power supply plus an elegant machined metal design that features an LCD for video monitoring and a dedicated control panel for aux control.

The more powerful HyperDeck Studio 12G is Blackmagic Design’s most advanced studio recorder which features 12G-SDI and supports recording to high speed SSD’s in ProRes, DNx and uncompressed video formats. HyperDeck Studio 12G features dual SSD slots for continuous, non-stop recording and is compatible with all existing SD and HD equipment as well as high frame rate Ultra HD 2160p60 via 12G-SDI. That means customers get a future proof live production switching and mastering combination that will work on any SD, HD or Ultra HD production.

ATEM Production Studio 4K has many features that make it more powerful than the ATEM Television Studio, including Ultra HD support, high frame rate 1080p HD support up to 1080p60
Because both of these more powerful models support instant switching between SD, HD and Ultra HD video formats, it means they are a drop in replacement for the ATEM Television Studio and HyperDeck Studio models. These more powerful models will support the same video standards as well as the high frame rate HD rates up to 1080p60 plus Ultra HD video formats.

“I am very excited that we are able to offer ATEM Production Studio 4K and HyperDeck Studio 12G together at this special price,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Demand for Ultra HD production is growing and customers have been asking us for an affordable way to move up to Ultra HD that’s compatible with their existing HD workflows. This limited time combination, for only $500 more than our 1080 HD solution, makes it so much easier for customers to get a more advanced live production system as well as Ultra HD compatibility!”

Epson EX9200 Pro high color brightness, wireless projectors were at MacTech’s annual conference, held in Los Angeles November 4 through 6, 2015. Conference organizers chose Epson's latest WUXGA wide screen wireless projector for its high color and white lumen ratings. Presenters took advantage of easy setup features including vertical and horizontal keystone correction for flexible placement. Presented by MacTech Magazine, a monthly publication focused on Apple technology, the annual MacTech Conference featured a series of joint sessions, two concurrent sessions, labs and forums.

Epson EX7210 projector

The EX9200 Pro is a wireless projector delivering 3,200 lumens of color brightness and 3,200 lumens of white brightness, and is powered by 3LCD technology. MacTech chose the EX9200 Pro projectors due to their high image quality, high color brightness, versatility, and their ability to display presentations featuring charts, graphics and video for discussions and breakout sessions. The projector includes HDMI and MHL support, as well as easy wireless setup, including Epson’s exclusive quick connect with on-screen QR code for easy access to content from smartphones and tablets – users can simply turn the projector on, use the free Epson iProjection app to scan the on-screen QR code, and be instantly connected to share content. Additionally, presenters were able to project content from laptops, smartphones and tablets wirelessly, allowing them to move more freely about the room.

• “MacTech Conference featured a wide range of breakout sessions in several rooms with multiple presenters and varying input sources, so it was crucial for us to have projection solutions that were easy to set up and featured flexible connectivity options,” said Neil Ticktin, editor-in-chief/publisher, MacTech Magazine. “The Epson EX9200 Pro projectors fit the bill perfectly. The flexibility of handling direct wired connections, ability to display content wirelessly, as well as iProjection quick connect capabilities gave us confidence in handling the stream of speakers and devices using these projectors. Best yet, the EX9200 Pro has high color brightness and sharp image quality, easily handling a variety of room sizes and shapes while ensuring attendees could clearly see all content.”
• “The EX9200 Pro is a versatile, pro-quality projector delivering sharp images, high resolution and high color brightness, ideal for small- to medium-sized businesses,” said Eric Uaje, associate product manager, Projectors, Epson. “MacTech Conference is just one example of the range of applications for which the projector can be used, and we’re pleased the conference organizers’ needs were met due to EX9200 Pro’s connectivity options, easy setup and wireless presenting features.”
• The EX9200 Pro ($7994) is available now through major retailers and directly on Epson.com. The projector comes with a one-year limited warranty that includes the Road Service projector replacement program with projector exchange in one business day with paid shipping, and a 90-day limited lamp warranty.

Dot2Dot Communications, the Canadian Master Distributor of Scala, has announced that Out-of-home (OOH) advertising firm Cieslok Media has switched to Scala to manage its growing number of large-format digital billboards across Canada.

Cieslok Media is a leading provider of premium large-format OOH in Canada.

• Cieslok was looking for a stable platform to handle full-motion high definition (HD) videos and scripts that will allow for two-way interaction with their LED billboards found in the countries most sought- after media locations. Scala Enterprise Content Manager together with Scala Designer has answered that need. The technology is known for its ease-of-use and functionality to turn digital screens into a dynamic communications platform.
• In recent months Cieslok has upgraded two existing digital displays with new high contrast, rich color digital screens, and converted a static backlit sign to reportedly the largest vertical full-motion digital billboard in Canada. Cieslok commands the attention of daily commuters for big brands to launch campaigns.
• “This is an exciting time for OOH and what can be done with these spectacular digital boards,” states Andy McRae, General Manager, Dot2Dot Communications. “We’re honoured to be working with an Outdoor specialist like Cieslok to help elevate their product offering with technology that pushes the limits for brands to deliver interactive campaigns.”

• AVnu Alliance has expanded its Industrial Segment. Rockwell Automation and Kollmorgen, both prominent in industrial automation, bring experience to AVnu Alliance activities incorporating new standards such as Time Sensitive Networking into a common networking foundation.

Rockwell Automation has a long history of technological innovation in industrial control systems.

"By participating in the AVnu Alliance, we plan to share our industry knowledge and work together with other members towards further enhancing standard IP-based Ethernet for manufacturing,” said Joe Kann, vice president, Global Business Development, Rockwell Automation.

Kollmorgen, provider of high performance motion control solutions has demonstrated commitment to open communication standards and network flexibility. Kollmorgen has supported Ethernet based networks for many years.

"Kollmorgen's business as a provider of innovative high-speed motion solutions is driven by ever-evolving customer needs for high-performance, multi-device fieldbus options," said Steve Crass, VP North America Industrial Automation and Aerospace & Defense at Kollmorgen. "Joining AVnu Alliance is a logical next step for our business and AVnu provides us with a forum that will support open systems architectures for many years to come."

The addition of these companies exemplifies the importance of the continued evolution of standard Ethernet through TSN. The experience with control networking that these companies possess will complement the existing efforts within the AVnu Alliance to define a common foundation for the Industrial Internet.

This next step for standard Ethernet will enable complete convergence of standard IT traffic and the control system and will enable IoT for the industrial, automation and manufacturing sectors.

• The Women of InfoComm Network will convene at Integrated Systems Europe 2016 in Amsterdam. The group held its inaugural meeting at ISE 2015. The working session for current and prospective WIN members, as well as others interested in supporting and mentoring women in the AV/IT industry will be held over breakfast on Wednesday February 10 from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. in the Café Amsterdam at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre.

The Women of InfoComm Network held its inaugural meeting at ISE 2015
WIN members Sarah Joyce, managing director of Electrosonic, and Jane Hammersley, European business manager for TD Maverick and member of InfoComm International’s Leadership Search Committee, organized the breakfast at ISE and will help guide the proceedings.

“The WIN breakfast at ISE will be a working group session to help chart the future activities of this important, dynamic and engaged council,” Joyce said. “Female executives from companies throughout Europe will chair small groups and facilitate discussion of local issues and develop initiatives to work through in 2016. Following the success of similar WIN events in Australia and Mexico last year, we are determined to make WIN Europe a vibrant community of InfoComm members creating activities throughout 2016 that further develop the mission.”

WIN leaders have invited graphic recording artist Birgit Smit to allow members to visually see their ideas. Through Smit’s illustrations, created live during the breakfast, participants will be engaged by the morning’s event and be able to visually see key takeaways.

The organizers say that in addition to the working part of the breakfast, there will time set aside for networking and meeting colleagues.

The Women of InfoComm Network was created to provide a global community of InfoComm members and other professionals committed to supporting and empowering women who work in the technology and AV industry. Since its inception, WIN has hosted activities and events throughout the world, including trade shows in Europe, United States, Mexico and India. Interested professionals – women or men – can join today and follow the council’s activities through its LinkedIn Group.

• Digital Signage Expo’s four-part Digital Signage Program at DSE 2016 will include an hour-long session titled, “Doing Digital Signage Right the First Time as an Integrator.” The expo is designed specifically for AV Professionals and Systems Integrators, and anyone considering creating a digital communications network.

Mike White, Strategic Account Manager for Unified AV, and Robert White, Design Engineer for Unified AV, will co-present a session that will establish guidelines for avoiding failure on Wednesday, March 16 from 9 to 10 a.m. Attendees will learn how to set realistic client expectations and create realistic budgets by asking the right questions upfront. The seminar will provide the tools an integrator needs to assess the viability of projects, their profitability and execute successfully.

DSE Advisory Board members recently had the opportunity to comment on this topic:

“The investment in digital signage mirrors business goals. The process of narrowing down objectives takes into account goals that must be achieved and considers the value of messaging or engaging viewers at the location of the display.”
Lyle Bunn, Principal and Strategy Architect, The BUNN Company

“Using the 7 Key Elements of Digital Signage provides an excellent guideline to ensure that objectives are met and predicable results are achieved.”
Bob Killmeier, Founder & President, Computer Controlled Designs

Registration for “Doing Digital Signage Right the First Time as an Integrator,” or any of the DSE 2016 educational conference seminars is available online at www.dse2016.com.

• Digital Signage Expo’s 24-part Digital Signage Seminar Program at DSE 2016 will include an hour-long session titled “DIY Digital Signage for Higher Ed.”

Tom Ryan, Director of Information Technology, and Timothy DiVito, Associate Director of Information Technology for Rutgers University-Camden, will co-present a solutions-based seminar that will review some of the systems and technologies used by Rutgers University-Camden to provide digital signage to every classroom on campus using basic technologies already in use in Higher Ed – the majority of which are already present in most IT departments for “do it yourself” application across industries.

DSE Advisory Board members recently had the opportunity to comment on this topic:

“The best way to maximize slim resources for content creation is to reuse and leverage what is already being created.”
Cheryl Flohr, Director, Communications, Parker Aerospace

“We try leveraging a subscription to iStockPhoto or Getty Images, a huge help and a treasure trove of approved material in different formats. Corporate branding guidelines help minimize use or overuse of fonts, styles and image placements. Hiring people that are still attending college or fresh out of college not only makes staffing more affordable, but is also a great way to help young people begin their careers.”
Daniel Orme-Doutre, Senior Content Publishing Manager

Editor's note: Author Matt Krebs will be a panelist on the Digital Signage Federation’s February “Hangout” discussion entitled, “Top Content Management Trends for 2016,” on Wednesday, February 10 at 2pm EST. More information on this and other DSF events can be found on the DSF website. Both DSF members and non-members may join this or any of the DSF’s scheduled Hangout discussions for free – but registration is required and can be accessed on the DSF website at http://digitalsignagefederation.com/event-2090857

New Year’s Resolutions for Digital Signage in 2016

• While many in the digital signage industry are focused on acquiring new customers through screen purchase, those of us in content creation are confident that our market will continue to expand as content in existing networks grows older. As we ring in the New Year and replace our calendars (isn’t it good to keep some things non-digital?), we’d like to suggest these New Year’s Resolutions for Digital Signage Content Management in 2016.

Matt Krebs is Founder and Vice President of Solutions for Creating Margin, which is a member of the Digital Signage Federation

Photo Via: sixteen-nine

Come to Grips - Your Content Isn’t Getting Any Younger
We live in a connected world. Once content is put out there, it will be consumed and date stamped. Try writing blogs – it’s a beast that must always be fed! The same is true of videos, graphics, case studies, and white papers. Once content is released, we must move on to creating the next iteration of it. In short, content gets old – and fast.

As more companies add digital signage to their businesses, they unwittingly start a countdown for when new content will need to be developed, which in our experience, this tends to be two to three years. While the need to refresh or replace content is not new to the sector, it is key to the continued success of a network and serves as a reminder to digital signage users that budget should be set aside for content specifically. Keeping messaging fresh can only add value to the business outcomes and investment in the digital signage network.

Update Digital Signage by Updating your Website
When we create and optimize content for digital signage, we often use our customers’ websites to guide the design conversation. In addition to guidelines for logo placement, primary colors, and content (“Let’s have a button called Directory, like we have on our website,” customers often say), a new trend is that the same content can be sent to a website and to digital signage.

This is in part a realization by companies who have committed resources to updating their website regularly. When digital signage is wholly the responsibility of IT, it is seldom updated for lack of internal direction or coordination with other departments. Instead, we recommend consolidating those internal content resources. Let one person upload to the webserver update both digital signage and the website. With many customers opting for cloud based digital signage systems, this is even easier to accomplish.

One caveat here is that websites and digital signage tend to require different resolutions and file types for content. When considering parallel updates to websites and digital signage, make sure to do your homework, and consult with a company familiar with both digital signage systems and web development.

Don’t Go Interactive Unless You’re Replacing Somebody
This subtitle sounds a little extreme, and the job market these days doesn’t appreciate it. Unless a digital sign is providing information that you have several humans trained to provide to your customers or guests, the screen won’t be used. As a general rule, don’t implement an interactive screen unless you’re planning on having it significantly supplement, or take the place of a person on your staff.

Does your Front Desk staff spend a lot of time printing boarding passes for guests? Are people constantly asking how to get to their event space? Are you paying someone to throw away printed menus when you could make them digital and update them as often as you want? I offer these examples because they are a few of the applications of digital signage that tend to be the most valuable to users.

However, if you’re expecting visitors to swipe their way through headline news on a 55-inch screen, while reading detailed articles as people look on, we suggest re-evaluating your use case (and perhaps your investment). Other hackneyed approaches include weather conditions and scrolling text messages. Catching an eye of a passerby is one thing, but these two overused content types rarely provide value to customers and, even if the information is regularly updated, the value will quickly fade. As with any technology, the driving force should be to improve customer service while containing costs – this is a fine balancing act, but one that can ensure the success of your digital signage.

In our years of implementing digital signage, we’ve seen many examples of unused digital signage, particularly interactive kiosks. Remember in the movie, Home Alone, when Kevin McCallister tells the story about the roller skates he never took out of the box? Don’t be “that guy” with digital signage that your customers don’t even need to use!

Let Your Desired Content Decrease the Cost of Software and Hardware
During the past 10 years of robust growth in digital signage, we’ve seen customers purchase software and hardware that is overkill for what they plan to implement. It’s nice to imagine that you’ll make certain regular updates, or incorporate certain functionality into your screens, but we find that few customers have the resources or focus over a couple of years to follow through.

Instead, if you haven’t implemented digital signage yet, spend a little extra time finding a solution that provides the functionality for what you want to do 90% of the time. You’ll end up saving a lot more than 10% on the software and hardware of your investment. Tools with all the bells and whistles can cost upwards of $2,000 for software (or $50/month hosted) and at least that much for interactive hardware. But less expensive options provide software for free, with a player at less than $500, and a non-interactive screen for less than $1,000. Don’t let the cost of digital signage scare you. Instead, determine how your content absolutely must function, and find software and hardware that can make that happen affordably.

Matt Krebs is Founder and Vice President of Solutions for Creating Margin, which is a member of the Digital Signage Federation. He spent 5 years implementing interactive technologies with a leading digital signage software vendor, developing domestic and international channel partners. At Creating Margin he provides technical insights for sales opportunities and leads the services team. Creating Margin’s customers include large universities, national retailers, SMB businesses, and more. He resides in Denver, CO with his wife Tamara.

• WorldStage continued its relationship with experiential marketing agency Zed Ink by providing audio and video systems for the fourth annual AWS re:Invent conference at the Venetian & Sands Expo Hall in Las Vegas.

WorldStage filled video needs for the conference. Five 60-foot wide screens formed a panoramic display of 300 linear feet behind the main stage for speaker supportCrews from WorldStage’ East and West Coast operations combined to support two days of keynote sessions at AWS re:Invent 2015. AWS is the biggest public cloud currently available. The learning conference brought together AWS users of all skill levels to connect, collaborate and discover more about AWS by following different tracks, including big data and analytics, gaming, networking, storage and content delivery. AWS also packed the conference with announcements of new tools and services and provided a new growth metric: a $7.3 billion annual revenue rate.

“This was our third year at the conference,” said Michael May, WorldStage account executive. “AWS re:Invent 2015 drew about 19,000 people. It was one of the largest conferences to date for user groups from around the world.”

WorldStage filled extensive video needs for the conference. Five 60-foot wide screens formed a panoramic display of 300 linear feet behind the main stage for speaker support. At times, content spread across the entire width of the exhibition hall. Seven additional delay screens were used for audience viewing.

“We used one of our new 3G fiber distribution systems to feed signals to projectors,” May said. “Projection and rigging were a challenge for this event: Our projectionists were dealing with a compressed load in schedule and 34 projectors flown over a space the size of two football fields.”

WorldStage programmer Alex Bright operated a Dataton WATCHOUT 6 system for the conference – the first large-scale use by WorldStage of this upgrade., Three Vista Systems Spyder X20 image processors were used for screen switching and to open up PIP windows on screen to display video modules, computer graphics supplied by the client and computer demos on stage.

On the audio side, WorldStage provided a d&b audiotecknik distributed speaker system.

“It was noteworthy for its distribution and size: over 20 points of sound throughout the hall,” said May.

On the audio side, WorldStage provided a d&b audiotecknik distributed speaker system for re:InventThe company also supplied a Yamaha CL5 console with Dante network system and a Riedel intercom system, which took advantage of its point-to-point programming for individual communications.At WorldStage James Sarro was project manager, Shane Zinke video engineer, Bryan Dominick and Dennis Alfonso lead projectionists, John Muldoon lead utility, Gabe Benso AI audio engineer and Andrew Guberman Riedel intercom technician.

• Apogee Electronics’s second generation of flagship audio interface is the Symphony I/O Mk II. Symphony I/O Mk II is a multi-channel audio interface featuring Apogee’s latest AD/DA conversion, modular I/O (up to 32 inputs and outputs), touchscreen display and optional microphone preamps. The new Symphony I/O Mk II comes with direct connectivity to one of three different platforms – Thunderbolt, Pro Tools HD or Waves SoundGrid network.

Symphony I/O Mk II is a multi-channel audio interface featuring Apogee’s latest AD/DA conversion, modular I/O (up to 32 inputs and outputs), touchscreen display and optional microphone preampsSince its release in 2010, the first generation Symphony I/O has been used by professional recording industry and utilized by a wide variety of commercial studios, producers, engineers and artists worldwide such as Bob Ludwig, Spike Stent, Bob Clearmountain, Dave Tozer, Nathan Chapman and Studio 606. Apogee Symphony I/O was used to record many of this year’s Grammy nominated tracks for Record of the Year and Album of the Year.Highlights:
•AD/DA conversion of Thunderbolt audio interface
•Up to 32 channels of modular analog I/O with optional 8 mic preamps
•Original Symphony I/O modules are compatible with new Mk II chassis
•per-channel interface
•Choice of Thunderbolt, Pro Tools HD (Mac/PC) or Waves SoundGrid connectivity
•Ultra-low latency performance - 1.35 ms with Thunderbolt and Logic Pro X
•Touchscreen display and front panel control
•Designed in California, Built in the U.S.A.

Pricing/Availability:
•Symphony I/O Mk II Thunderbolt - Now Shipping Worldwide
•2x6 Configuration: $2295 USD
•8x8 Configuration: $3295 USD
•16x16 Configuration: $4295 USD
•8x8+8MP Configuration: $4690 USD
•Empty Mk II Thunderbolt Chassis (No I/O Modules): $1695 USD
•Symphony I/O Mk II HD - Coming Spring 2016
•Symphony I/O Mk II SoundGrid - Coming Fall 2016

• DiGiCo will release Stealth Core2, an upgrade to its existing Stealth Digital Processing. Stealth Core2 will release additional processing from the audio core of every DiGiCo SD console and can be fitted to all existing console surfaces.

The new SD5cs comes with a full compliment of Dynamic EQ, multi-band compressors, DiGiTuBe emulators, expanded I/O connectivity and all the other processingThis upgrade, which will be available as an upgrade option to all existing users, includes a re-look at the application code, further future proofing existing and future investments in DiGiCo products.

The benefits of Stealth Core2 include:

•A new look application code, which updates the user experience, delivers more processing power and provides a new screen graphical interface.
•Upgraded FPGA processing power
•Full Dynamic EQ on every channel and buss, amongst other previously allocated tools that can be opened across all channels and busses on all SD models.
•An increase in the SD9 channel count from 48 to 96 channels of full processing at 96kHz.
•An increase in the SD7’s total number of processing strips to 600, all at 96kHz
•The SD5EX system moves to a higher level, matching that of the current SD7 in terms of connectivity and audio processing

DiGiCo will also be launching a new version of the SD5, the SD5cs, which will offer the same specification as the current SD5.

The SD5cs comes with a full compliment of Dynamic EQ, multi-band compressors, DiGiTuBe emulators, expanded I/O connectivity and all the other processing.

“Our aim has always been to give the ultimate return on investment for our partners; it is more challenging for them now and we have to offer our support with these levels of upgrades,” said James Gordon, DiGiCo Managing Director. “This is why we continue to take extra steps to enhance their initial investment over a long and beneficial usage period.”

• London based Eclipse Presentations has completed its brand refresh. After 25 years as Eclipse Presentations the company have rebranded to become Eclipse with a new logo and website.

Eclipse Presentation's new name, logo and a portion of the main page to their newly designed website
The investment in the company rebrand reflects the evolution of Eclipse as well as its vision for the future. Since the companies formation in 1984 Eclipse has worked with clients and venues across the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA.

Working alongside the new logo, Eclipse’s new tagline will now be ‘Creative Technical Production’. This tagline was chosen to represent what Eclipse has been providing clients for over 25 years and firmly places Eclipse as a full services provider.

Eclipse has taken the opportunity to simultaneously develop a new website to increase its online presence, giving clients access to educational information and industry news.

“Our logo, brand name and tagline are all important factors in showing customers who we are and what we stand for,” said Robin Purslow, Director at Eclipse “We feel that this brand refresh not only shows that it has never been a more exciting time to be part of the team but also illustrates our commitment to investing in new technologies and solutions”.

Jennifer Davis has expanded her role to Chief Marketing Officer of Leyard and Vice President, Marketing and Product Strategy for Planar Systems

When Portland, Oregon-based Planar was acquired by a U.S. affiliate of the Chinese company Leyard (for a purchase price of $6.58 per share, or approximately $156.8 million) early last fall, Planar indicated that the plan in place was for Planar to continue with current management, sales organizations, and distribution. Fast forward to this week, and Planar's management team in the U.S. is strengthening– in fact Planar Systems vice president and product strategy director Jennifer Davis has been promoted, with an expanded role as Chief Marketing Officer of Leyard, in addition to her new role as Vice President, Marketing and Product Strategy for Planar Systems.

In her expanded role, Jennifer Davis will be working to support Leyard and Planar brands and products, and generate awareness and demand for products for all of Leyard efforts. David will continue to report to Planar Systems President and CEO Gerry Perkel and the Leyard Overseas Board of Directors.

Leyard has more than 250 patents in China. And they sell about 70% of their product in China. And indeed they have a high profile in that market, and have had since the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the “Bird’s Nest” stadium, including the Olympic Rings and the ground scroll display system, that featured Leyard LED.

• The Electronic Systems Professional Alliance has named Jeff Gardner as its first executive director. He takes this position after nine years on staff at Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association, directing both technical training and industry certification.

“Due to the huge demand for technicians in the electronic systems industry, ESPA has been expanding fast, in the number of certifications as well as academic partners. The time is right for the program to have full-time professional leadership to ensure that the growth continues,” said ESPA Board of Directors Chairman Chuck Wilson, NSCA executive director.

Gardner’s responsibilities include managing the certification process and supporting resources, bringing on schools as Authorized Training Partners, raising awareness of the EST career path among students, and gaining additional support among other industry stakeholders.

• Userful Corporation's new Userful 8.5 is a multi-source video wall controller that supports video walls of up to 60 displays with up to 6k resolution source content. It is the first video wall solution to deliver 6k content in real time over a standard Ethernet network. A single PC or server running Userful software is now able to support video walls of up to 60 screens through the network.

Userful is now supporting up to 6K content from a single high-end gaming class PCAfter its 4k network video wall, Userful is now supporting up to 6K content from a single high-end gaming class PC.

“For too long cost and complexity have been drags on the video wall market,” said Timothy Griffin, founder and CTO of Userful. “This release enables Userful’s simple and affordable video wall solution to compete on scalability and features with some of the highest end and most expensive video wall controllers on the market. Enabling even very large multi-source video walls to be deployed with simplicity at a cost effective price point. No more expensive brittle proprietary hardware, now all you need is a standard PC running Userful.”

Additional features include:

•The world's first video wall controller with an embedded hypervisor enabling virtual machines to run natively on the video wall controller
•A mirroring feature enabling synchronization across both network connected displays and video walls.
•Automated failover: the first video wall to offer automated high-availability failover for demanding applications simply for the cost of a second PC (automatically takes over driving the video wall displays should the primary PC or server fail)

• Richard Ventura, Vice President of Business Development and Solutions, is NEC Display Solutions of America's newly appointed Vice Chairman of the Digital Signage Federation’s Executive Committee.

Richard Ventura, NEC Display Solutions of America's newly appointed Vice Chairman of the Digital Signage Federation’s Executive CommitteeAs Vice Chairman of the DSF Board of Directors, Ventura provides strategic direction for the association, which acts as an independent voice of the digital signage industry. Prior to his role as Vice Chairman, Ventura served a one-year term as the Treasurer/Secretary.

“I am honored to serve as the Vice Chairman of the DSF Executive Committee,” Ventura said. “The Board of Directors has made significant strides to become the leading association for professionals in the digital signage industry. The DSF is truly a leader within the industry and strives to grow the digital signage space locally and globally. I’m looking forward to another great year.”

During his 15 years within the NEC sales organization, Ventura has focused on display solutions, display technologies and projectors. He is responsible for the growth and market penetration of NEC’s portfolio of products, as well as responsible for development of new go-to-market strategies.