The InFocus people have been especially great. I wandered into their booth a little shagged out from all the running around and I was immediately standing amid their people, all of whom were ready to answer my questions. The really nifty thing about what they have now is that with USB connectivity between their projectors and a laptop, you can send the external monitor signal to the projector without having all of the usual VGA cable problems; bent pins and so forth. That would really be a great thing for me on my university campus where I have to replace at least half a dozen busted VGA cables a week amid 88 classrooms. They’re also planning to get with me on possible firmware upgrades to deal with the problems that occur with projectors of all makes and models shutting down in response to short electrical transients. That’s what I call service!!

Hi, All:

It has been a whirlwind day already. I just came from the Stantron booth (C3487) where they demonstrated thier sliding and rotating racks for me. As one who has installed a lot of rack mounted equipment in some pretty tight spaces, I’m impressed by the fact that these seem to have been designed by the people who have some of the same permanent rack indentions in their bodies as I have. It has to have been someone who has actually done these installations to think of some of the things these racks do. They have a little click button at the bottom center on the front that unlocks the rack and then the whole deal just slides straight out and rotates around. All you have to do is make sure you install the equipment with enough extra cable to allow the rotation. There’s plenty to know even about wiring these but if it’s done right, these racks can save a huge amount of grief, expecially when it comes to upgrading with new gear and taking out the old stuff. I wish they had been around all along!

Chief Manufacturing, an industry leader in projector and flat panel mounts, introduces the new 2008 Product Catalog at InfoComm. Updated with an enhanced design that was directly influenced by dealer input, this edition is easier than ever to navigate.

“Getting constructive input from dealers was incredibly valuable during the redesign of our catalog,� said Laurie Englert, Director of Marketing. “The suggested changes have made the catalog a much more concise and user-friendly tool.� Read on at The Briefing Room

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Sennheiser acquired Klein + Hummel about three years ago. At that time, the company was known in the U.S. only for its reference and studio monitors. In Europe, however, the company is no stranger to the installed sound space. As Klein + Hummel president Achim Gleissner explained at the company’s press conference today, Sennheiser’s aiming to leverage K + H’s success in the European loudspeaker market and raise its profile stateside in the installed sound market.

At InfoComm 2008, Klein + Hummel is showcasing its IS 122, IS 123, and IS 153 installed loudspeakers. The IS 122 is a horn-loaded 1in. model with 12in. woofer. The IS 123, a three-way loudspeaker, has a coaxially integrated 1in./2in. driver and a 12in. woofer. The IS 153 is a three-way model with a 1in./2in. coaxial driver and a 15in. woofer. Peak SPL is 135dB.

All three models are bi-amp only or available with self-powered back-plate options. The self-powered version includes factory DSP tuning.

Middle Atlantic‘s new, modular booth (C3403) features, among other things, the prominent introduction of the company’s brand new tagline–”Exceptional Support and Protection Products.” Company executive Kevin Handerson had a chuckle explaining the internal discussions (debates) that go into making such changes in describing the company and what it does. But he used the topic to bend my ear for a few moments on the topic of “the little things” in the pro AV world.

Little things like keyboard racks and foldout screens that don’t need to be angled to fit into a rack, and different length plugs engineered specifically to address typical, annoying problems. And the company’s new Duct Cool Long Pull Ventilation System which, despite its long name, is an interesting ventilation product for cooling equipment in residential scenarios with very little noise. None of the products Kevin showed me were, by his own admission, “headline stuff.” Instead, they were designed to improve on existing technologies, solve specific problems, or improve efficiency in certain situations. He calls this “the little stuff” that typically can give AV pros headaches. He pointed out there is lots of “little stuff” in our industry, much of which is being addressed here at InfoComm this week.

–MG

Among all the big screens at Samsung‘s booth was one eye-catching display that involved rear projection. A tiny projector (and I mean tiny – look at the picture in which I compare it to a standard Bic pen) was shooting imagery onto a translucent 3M Vikuiti Screen mounted on glass.

This is the new P400, a single DLP model that employs an LED light as a lamp, offers about 150 lumens. The P400 creates an image up to about 40in. Samsung’s shown tiny LED-driven models before, but the last model only squeezed about 50 lumens out of its lamp. This new model, which ships this summer, should find many homes in cutting-edge retail environments. It goes for about $800.

InfoComm Booth C1740 — Offering three separate functions in a single-box solution, the GefenTV Home Theater Scaler Pro switches between four audio/video sources, converts component, composite or s-video inputs to the enhanced HDMI v1.3 format, and upscales all four sources to 1080p full HD before outputting to one HDMI display or projector. Read on at The Briefing Room

More InfoComm 08 news from The Briefing Room

MediaPointe is taking the YouTube craze to heart. Recognizing that every individual—and company, institution, and facility—is a content creator, MediaPointe is releasing its MediaPointe Ensemble, a server that stores and streams video files over a network. It’s an organized collection pool for all the disparate content. The company is saying its YouTube for the office or school. more…

Rise Vision, a provider of a web-based content management system for the control of digital signage networks, announces two new pricing incentives for resellers of its digital signage solutions. Its Volume Discount and Competitive Upgrade programs offer financial incentives for resellers who buy in bulk, and for those whose customers switch from existing digital signage solutions to its Rise Display Network content management solution. Read on at The Briefing Room

More InfoComm 08 news from The Briefing Room

Panasonic‘s 103in. plasma screens are displayed in all their glory at the company’s booth (C2401) as those big, bad boys continue to proliferate into the digital signage realm. We covered one of their earliest applications a while back at a California casino, and now company officials are offering up several case studies involving those screens. It’s all part of moving them into what Panasonic calls “high impact spaces” for digital signage–using giant displays in digital signage situations that consumers can’t possibly be used to from their home or business interactions with flat-panel displays. They told me about the first ones going into public mall spaces recently–one in New York (The Westchester Mall in White Plains) and one in New Jersey (the Newport Centre Mall in Jersey City), and promise more are on the way. more…