Each week, I am highlighting on some of the incredible people who are in the Audio Video Industry. As this blog is mostly about AV insiders, today we are profiling Yasmin Grigaliunas . Here is a brief intro about her. Yasmin Grigaliunas has worked in the Audiovisual industry for over 20 years and is one […]

By Darren Taylor Futuresource Consulting For the past few years, 4K projection has been the reserve of digital cinema, high-end Pro AV and premium home cinema applications, primarily due to high cost of the light engines. However, key component supplier Texas Instruments (producing around half of the world’s front projector light engines) demonstrated a lower-cost 4K UHD DLP […]

When David became the editor of Sound & Communications Magazine, I was already a technical advisor and columnist for them for four years running. And I was their “video guy.” Sound & Communications (S&C) had been 99 percent audio when I was brought in in 1996 to start a column and consult for them on […]

Each week, I am highlighting on some of the incredible people who are in the Audio Video Industry. As this blog is mostly about AV insiders, today we are profiling Jason McGraw. Here is a brief intro about him. Jason McGraw has worked in the audiovisual industry for over 20 years. He is currently working […]

Last week I was away on business. Starting on Monday my iPhone 6 started to present battery issues: rapid power drain, and, for unknown reasons, the battery indicator would read “100%” all day even as it approached zero charge. It was intermittent, too. That only made it even more mysterious. I had no clear way […]

It’s the last day of the show, and TGIF. It really has been a great show, setting records for attendance, and I think the attendees really got their money’s worth this year. There was lots of new technology and ideas, and most new products that were introduced seem to be shipping, which means people can […]

OK, so on the second day of the show I found the best thing I have seen so far this year. And it isn’t a product. It’s a program. Let me back up a bit. This morning, two longtime friends and colleagues from “down under,” Rod Brown and Jonathan Seller, introduced me to two friends […]

Get ready for the industry’s one and only short-throw laser projector in the form of two new versions of the Epson BrightLink line. BrightLink is their Interactive line of short-throw projectors and Epson, this morning, rolled out one aimed at education and one aimed at corporate applications in the form of the BrightLink 710Ui and BrightLink Pro 1470Ui, […]

Remember when Dave, our other AV guy, attended the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas just a few months ago?  Well, he brought back some amazing resources and publications. And we’ve had a lot of fun reading through them to generate some new blog content. One article that caught our attention is, “Building a Better […]

Last week, in an acquisition that was barely mentioned by the AV trades, Econocom Group purchased 100 percent of BIS Group, an AV and Smart Buildings integrator mostly focused in the Netherlands and Belgium. And, Econocomm also purchased a 40 percent stake in JTRS,  an Apple and Google partner focused in the education market in the UK, as well as 100 percent […]

Each week, I am highlighting on some of the incredible people who are in the Audio Video Industry. As this blog is mostly about AV insiders, today we are profiling Paul Harris . Here is a brief intro about him. Paul Harris has worked in the Audiovisual industry for over 25 years. He currently the […]

The SDVoE just got the biggest endorser yet. SDVoE is currently the only off-the-shelf technology that offers a “full stack solution” for AV-over-IP.  SDVoE addresses the full seven-layer OSI network stack and offers solutions at every layer. SDVoE technology creates a flexible hardware and software platform which can enable many applications including matrix switches, KVM switches, video walls controllers and multiview image processors. It can also be integrated […]

In addition to showing new 4K projectors, a new high-end Spyder processor and an all-new LCD lineup at InfoComm, Christie is getting into the AV-over-IP market as a founding member of the SDVoE Alliance and a new product line called Terra. Christie Terra solutions  support video formats up to 4K at 60Hz (10-bit color) and provide the processing […]

June 8th, 2017 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA On the heels of Apple’s HomePod release, Phenomenal Industries has announced that they will debut their new wireless home automation hub at InfoComm 2017 in Orlando. AVPhenom is well known for his innovative product releases each year, with his latest successes being the World’s First! 4K Speakers and more […]

Sony will take to booth 2200 at next week’s InfoComm show with two demos of 8K resolution displays – one using a curved CLEDIS (the mind-blowing LED technology they showed at InfoComm last year and won our Best of InfoComm 2016 award with) and the other made from Sony’s new laser projector line. I was joined on today’s […]

Vivitek will be in booth 4443 at Infocomm next week showing a few industry firsts. They’ll have a 4K home cinema projector for sub-$3000 that also reproduces the Rec.709 color space! And, we got the scoop on my podcast today – you’ll even see it asa we did a videocast demo of the product. And, they’ll […]

I was joined by Barco Strategic Marketing Director Wouter Bonte today to talk everything InfoComm. Barco’s new UDX 4K Laser projector line is already making a splash in the rental market and the new products will spill into the install market as they begin to ship this summer. Barco’s booth will have a dual-projector seamed-demo that will likely […]

Bose Professional is hitting the show floor (in booth #4061) at InfoComm with three major new product launches. The company is using InfoComm for the official U.S. rollout of ControlSpace EX, the conferencing solutions that originally debuted at ISE in Amsterdam in February. I nabbed a one-on-one interview with Rob Kosman, Bose’s events and applications manager, today on […]

Altia Systems, creators of PanaCast 2 Panoramic-4K USB video camera system, has worked with Intel to launch PanaCast Whiteboard, a computer vision software that detects content on an existing whiteboard and displays (in any room) and adds it in (automatically) into a vide meeting. This may not seem like a big deal but, watch this videocast with their CEO and […]

Today’s edition of my Rants and rAVe’s podcast includes the first public showing of Logitech’s new MeetUp ConferenceCam  I was honored to be joined by Logitech’s Head of Marketing for the Collaboration Business Unit, Joan Vandermate, who explains the features behind the 4K USB camera and what makes it perfect for small rooms and huddle spaces. This is one […]

A new coffee shop opened up on the corner near my house. It’s one-off, and locally owned. I got a double espresso, to go. It was three bucks, and, I found out after I left, undrinkable. Not because I’m some sort of effete coffee snob, but because it was literally undrinkable. It tasted like the […]

Gary was joined by NEC Display’s Rich Ventura  today on a video version of his Rants and rAVe podcast – and this one was definitely a rAVe! The NEC ThinkHub is coming off a four-city roadshow, where 500+ people got to play with it first-hand. The response is that NEC Display’s collaboration with T1V for the ThunkHub collaboration board in 55” […]

Gary caught up with Anchor Audio‘s new director of sales, Nick Craig, on a pre-InfoComm videocast today where he talks about why Anchor added their Air feature to the Bigfoot and Beacon portable PA systems. Air is their wireless system and they have a very cool feature where you an use different PA’s together, wirelessly. Watch this videocast with Nick […]

The world’s first look at the new indoor LED M Series (m for mobile) from Absen happens right here – on Gary’s latest Rants and rAVe podcast. The M series is completely modular – even the video board is modular. On this special InfoComm videocast Gary is joined by Absen’s Marketing Communications Manager, Alison Maxson. And, Absen’s Key Account […]

To say that the “perceived” sudden departure of CEDIA‘s short-time president and CEO, Vin Bruno  isn’t big news would be a lie. It’s all nearly every Home AV manufacturer I’ve spoken to over the past two weeks has asked about it, asked if I know what happened, asked if I knew if Vin got fired, asked if […]

Earlier this month, SoftBank acquired a portion of NVIDIA for 4 Billion dollars, making it the 4th largest stakeholder in the company.  How much of NVIDIA did SoftBank acquire for that amount?  About 4.9%. It’s a deal that illustrates how large the tech world outside of commercial AV is.  Samsung bought ALL of Harman for […]

dnp is known as the company that invented the ambient light rejection screen technology. And, now they have AV furniture — here, take a look a the video we shot of some of their projection furniture this past February at ISE here. But, as you’ll see on today’s pre-InfoComm videocast with the VP of Global Sales […]

You’ve been hearing about the new Nureva HDL300 audio conferencing system for almost a year now. And if you’ve had the fortune to attend the half-dozen or so shows that it was demo’d at, you were able to hear what it’s like to have 8,192 virtual mics (using Nureva’s Microphone Mist technology) inside a room so that […]

“Notice:  To Preserve Confidentiality Please Wait Here for Service” I am certain that every one of our readers has seen this type of sign.  It is called a “Confidentiality Compliance Sign.”  And most likely, you have read a similar sign while in line at the pharmacy, the doctor’s office, the hospital waiting area, etc.  And […]

I know I’ve talked in the past about the various characters who wandered in and out of the stores I worked in. There were the tire kickers, the be-backs, the rude, unhappy people, and a rogues’ gallery of others. Some of them were even, occasionally, actual paying customers. And then there were the dawdlers, customers […]

Gary was joined on his Rants and rAVe podcast by QSC’s product manager, Martin Barbour  who explained the philosophy behind their play-oriented booth at this year’s InfoComm 2017 booth. In the past, QSC has built running systems in their booth but this year they will be focused on engaged interactivity. Of course, they’ll have all their gear there, […]

For the 12th year in a row, the industry’s most famous (and only) band will play a benefit concert during InfoComm. With the money going directly towards financing the NSCA Educational Foundation and Ignite program, the Drunk Unkles will put on a show with a 9 p.m. concert at BB King’s across the street from the Orange […]