InfoComm 2014 closes to continued success
Published: MEA
WORLD: As InfoComm once again set up shop in the Las Vegas Convention Center, over 37,000 visitors and almost 950 exhibitors contributed to the migratory head count of the city, and business was brisk and to the point. There was plenty to see in the north and central halls, whilst numerous demonstration rooms attracted full audiences for critical listening evaluations and seminars. Despite the continued rise of ISE, international attendance accounts for some 16 per cent of the total, with no signs of immediate decline.
‘InfoComm is the ideal place to make A/V purchasing decisions, connect with contacts and learn principles that will boost effectiveness,’ commented InfoComm international executive director and CEO David Labuskes. ‘The marketplace strongly supports the InfoComm show and we are grateful for the attendee support and for the innovative exhibitors who are committed to making InfoComm a can’t-miss event on the industry calendar.’
In the four days preceding the ribbon cutting, InfoComm hosted hundreds of educational seminars as part of its Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) programme, which continued during the show itself. More than 5,700 seats were filled at InfoComm University sessions, providing a diversity of courses on topics ranging from acoustics to videoconferencing. Popular courses included The Future of Video Collaboration, Designing Classrooms and 4K is Here: Are You Ready For It? With two-thirds of all of the education sessions being new, more than 500 technology managers also flocked to the Solutions Summits on UCC and Digital Signage.
Exhibitors often worry that the show floor is abandoned in favour of the classroom, but attendees seem to build time into their schedules with military precision in order to visit exhibits of interest. As a solutions show, InfoComm needs to be fully explored by those attendees who need to see all the different pieces, before putting it altogether into a working system for their bespoke needs.
Needless to say that the crowds appeared to be drawn to the bigger A/V brands such as Crestron, Microsoft, Panasonic and Samsung, Aurora, Blackmagic Design, Christie, Epson, NEC and Ricoh. The blue carpeted audio section of the central hall was muted in terms of attendance, but many exhibits were kept busy during the first two days of the show.
Many of the demonstration rooms were showcasing old and new technologies alike and as such drew a healthy number of audio consultants, systems integrators and dealers for critical listening. On the show floor itself, many manufacturers enticed visitors by conducting training seminars on their booths. Peavey Commercial Audio rolled out interactive and informative presentations called Professor Peavey’s Amazing Audio Torture Tests, in which audience members were invited to sabotage audio systems by cutting cables, starting fires and such like. A white coated Professor Peavey demonstrated how the products in ‘Life Safety — What Happens in an Emergency’ could withstand and operate in even the very worst-case scenarios. ‘Let’s Break Some Audio Networks’ on the other hand invited volunteers to implement the most twisted audio networking configurations, test latency, unplug and re-plug cables in an attempt to break the system.
By day three of the show, the crowds had thinned out and discussions between like-minded manufacturers were in evidence. It will be interesting to see what seeds were sown on 20 June, when the wraps come off the new products and technologies at InfoComm 2015.
A full show review of InfoComm 2014 will appear in the September-October editions of Pro Audio Asia and Pro Audio Middle East.