Infocomm 12 - Rock Soup

Pardon the Bold format here folks... The post was written in MS Word when I did not have access to my online tools *sigh* .  For some reason the MS formatting is being read as bold and is STICKY as hell. 

Infocomm has wrapped up and if my facebook feed is to be believed even the largest booths have been packed away in crates and are well on the way home. The pictures of tired but obviously satisfied faces with a drink in hand tell you all you need to know.  This show went without a hitch and 34,268 -up 4%!-  found good food, lodging and business deals.

Now, thousands of products were exhibited on the show floor - .  You can find reports on nearly every one in nauseating detail from great industry news outlets like System Contractor, PLSN and many, many others.  rAVe Pubs also did a fine job video documenting nearly every booth on the floor and have them posted in a handy, searchable site.  

To save you time I am going to boil down the main elements for you in seven points

What was Infocomm 2012 all about?  

1). Simplification

 You have heard of multiplication or perhaps even anticipation (it’s making me waa -a-a-it) but Infocomm this year was all about making things “Simpler”, “Easy”, “little ramp up time to operation” and “With in House staff in mind”. These common catch phrases spun as revelatory exclamations seem to show that manufacturers and developers finally understand that interface matters.

There is a darker side to all this happy ‘we get you’ preoccupation with making set up, controls and configuration as easy as a three fingered salute.  I have to ask at what the root catalyst for this sudden interest in implementing the Wizards cry to Dorothy “Pay no attention to that man behind the screen!”.  Are we giving up on the need for basic understanding of the physics and simple mechanics because they are no longer needed for standard operation or because we can no longer find the  personnel  who can or are willing to dig deep?

Certainly the industry is ch-ch- changing but is it for the right reason?  We have a serious youth deficit in this industry, doubly so for the Event Staging world, is this the way to get them into the fold, by bypassing all the hard knowledge stuff ?

2. iPad

Apps  are still everywhere but no one is hysterically shouting about them from booth rigging. Yes they are a good thing. Yes they make things more flexible and, well let's admit it, sexy. Thankfully they appear to have become standard accessories not above or beyond actual equipment.

3. Speaking of hysterical nonsense

 Thank <enter deity name of choice here, or null> -  that 3D is only a footnoted specification now.  Last year in Orlando attempting to avoid the clamour of 3D from any booth was akin to trying to enter a vegas hotel without having to claw your way through the forest of slot machines, blue smoke one could cut with a bowie knife and over eager cocktail waitresses.  If you read my Twitter rants or listen to the AV NationTV podcasts with any regularity -you know just how enamoured with 3D I am.  Oh Muybridge! Up Yours (with apologies to Polystyrene)

4). HD over Structured Wiring

 AV over “Cat 5” was everywhere - or should I say HDBaseT was ubiquitous under various and sundry names throughout the show floor.  For Installations folks the era of UTP / STP as THE wire for everything is now nearly at hand. Another shake up in the wire biz is due soon as fewer and fewer cable types are used.  I wonder what pseudoscience babble Monster Cable will start using to market theirs.

5). IATSE Booth

Before anyone starts with me, I love the folks involved with IATSE- some of my best friends are IATSE members. Yet the large set aside space with a stage and chairs never seemed to have any activity in it. Perhaps I was on a  different schedule or something happened while I was recording AV Social or the Live Life. I spent a good deal of time in the ‘Lighting and Staging’ section and never saw anything beyond a few folks eating.

The eerie atmosphere reminded me of the a scene in the book  Travels with Charley  by John Steinbeck. The book is part travel journal, part memoir and part  literary extension of   Kerouac’s  On The Road, it is the story of his travels across the United States with his dog Charley. Steinbeck wrote the book while living in Sag Harbor Long Island, (My Home Town!) which is also where he wrote the Winter of Our Discontent - but that is another tale altogether. Early on in the book, while he is traveling through deep Vermont Steinbeck comes upon a fully lit and operating roadside cafe but it is empty of people. After waiting for half an hour he decides to get behind the counter and cook his own breakfast which he eat and cleans up after.  With still no one showing he leaves money for  his meal and moves on.   

I really wanted to have some folks on the Live Life podcast but since I could not find anyone in the “booth” the opportunity was lost.  If anyone from the organization is reading this, we would love to have you on a future show!

6). AV NationTV

Rocked with our first Live broadcasts of  The Daily Rave, AV Week, AV Social and The Live Life.  Our Broadcast table, in the front of the rAVe booth drew crowds of regular listeners and many new ones. We had a fantastic time chatting with integrators, press, Infocomm staff  and lots and lots of exhibitors.  When the recorded versions of the shows post I will update here with links.   

7). Finally

Speaking of AV NationTV, we want you for the AV Nation Army- Join us by suggesting topics, guests or even joining us on air as a panelist. We started the network but it is for and about our industry - it can only grow when we work together.

All in all it was a great show. I am unclear if anything really new came out of this show but I found it informative and a great networking opportunity. In the last hours of the exhibit I kept thinking about the story of Rock soup. It may not have started out as much but it was damn tasty in the end with all the help.   Hope to see you all in Orlando next year!

 

 

#Infocomm12, How do I love thee?

So here I find myself in the most unlikely of places - The City of Lost Wages NV.  I am here to celebrate the Audio Visual industry and to kick off AV NationTV’s coming out party.   Like my associate Matt Scott I love trade shows.  I love the dynamics, the press of bodies, equipment and the hands-on handshake experience.  

Truly this is how I view my beloved AV industry – A living breathing, evolving organism, a life that is alive! 

                     

In short I Love you AV industry,  It is a love that I never dared to seek but you found me and because of this you have become an inseperable part of me. I cannot conceive of a life, myself without you.

 

                     

How much do I love thee?  I only need to count one way – you have managed to get me to travel to Las Vegas to celebrate you.  This town, so full of fear and loathing that the air itself is dense with the machinations of greed and gluttony that it creates the impulse in me to barricade the door, drawn the blinds  and become a Howard Hughes shut in and wait out the end of times – or at least the show.  It is a city of snake oil salesmen who settled down with cement shoes.

I love thee AV Industry, so much so that I will bite my tongue and enjoy this time together much like watching “The Housewives of…” shows with my wife – it is not where we are but that we are doing it together.

 

 

 

 

A Preponderance of Presentations - Infocomm 11 as seen from the Mobius Curve

Walking the floor at ICIA's Infocomm 11 trade show

 “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Infocomm is huge this year. From the entire show floor to the second level of classes and demos and breakout rooms throughout  it just seems to never end.

It has been twelve years since I last had the chance to see the show as an attendee and not a booth  builder slash floor barker and perhaps this has altered my perception of space at the show.   When you work the booth for a major manufacture there is little chance to wander from your post and explore -  one eats sleeps and yes poops the product(s) with little chance of getting beyond the immediate parcel of show floor .  The universe is indeed a very defined area during these days.

As attendee, well, it is like being transformed from Sisyphus into David Bowman , complete with wide eyed expression and a multitude of lights reflecting in them.

 
Being here at the show is a must, having a physical relationship with the products and people cannot be recreated by reading press releases or wandering the halls of  a ‘Virtual Tradeshow’.  Only when you can touch a device, turn it over in your hands and look into the -proverbial- eyes  and look directly into the - real- eyes of the company employee does one get  a connection with the possibilities.

This is not to argue against virtual connections. In addition to seeing the gadgets, gear and goodies in action I am excited to finally meet, face to face and beer mug to wine glass, the fine folks of #Avtweeps.  We are a group of  Audio Visual folks who have gathered a tribe on social media, more specifically Twitter.  The daily and sometimes hourly conversations are extremely constructive  and I could hardly imagine a day without ‘hearing’ from the group at least once a day.   

Truth is that I have sought out the company booths of the folks who regularly chat, chide and console each other via the avtweeps association because I trust them. And in turn I am more likely to trust the products - or at least give them the benefit of doubt.

As I head out to dive into day two of the show, my feet still ache and my knees feel as if someone put them on backwards I am determined to see as many demos and presentations as possible.  

Coming from the cloistered world of working for one major manufacture has me learning anew and re-submerging myself into an industry I had taken a short sabbatical from.

See you on the show floor, say hi and join me for a coffee and nosh at the Infocomm Lounge.