Day Two at InfoComm 09 and the emerging theme is becoming clear: telepresense. Depending upon whom you talk to, telepresence is either the logical extension of video conferencing or a completely unique proposition unto itself. What sets it apart is the sense of immersiveness that its purveyors—a growing chunk of companies huddled mainly in the 3000 series of alleyways in the convention center—achieve by use of HD, multichannel audio, and staging the rooms in which telepresence conversations take place in such a way as to give the impression that the participants are in the same room with each other. The main players include Glowpoint, Tandberg, Polycom, LifeSize Communications, Teliris, and Cisco, the IT giant that is promoting its own proprietary approach to the telepresence. more…

One of the stars of this year’s InfoComm has turned out to be the new TouchLink configurable touchpanels from Extron. The TLP 700MV mounts into a lecturn or wall and is a 7in. screen. All the models have configurable, backlit hardware buttons, five down each side, to use for source selection and navigation. One very thoughful feature of these is that they sense proxomity of the operator’s hand instead of having to be actually touched. Many tech-challenged operators using other brands of touchscreens have called for AV help after wondering why nothing is showing on the screen, even after they hit all the hardware buttons. With the new TLP touchscreens from Extron, that problem is gone. more…

Press release

Aviom, exclusive developer of the world’s most powerful audio transport protocol, A-Net, will be introducing its Pro64 Network Manager PC application at this year’s InfoComm (Booth 6117), June 17-19. While the Pro64 Series is uniquely designed with a simple, front-panel user interface that makes it possible to design sophisticated networks without PC-based programming, the company is introducing a software control application this year for those users who desire centralized control and status monitoring. Read on at The Briefing Room

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Press release

With the new MZF filter module, the MKH 8000 microphone series can provide excellent sound and climate resistance, even in tough broadcasting and film applications. The MZF 8000 filter module effectively suppresses both handling and wind noise. The signal level can be lowered via a high-quality pad allowing it to be optimally adapted to the recording equipment. Read on at The Briefing Room

More InfoComm 09 news from The Briefing Room

Press release

Universal Remote Control (URC), a pioneer in control technology, today introduced its first ZigBee products. The MX-880z is a wand-style ZigBee RF (radio frequency) and IR (infrared) hard-button remote control with a two-inch color LCD screen, while its companion piece, the MRZ-260, is a ZigBee RF-to-IR base station. To further reinforce its commitment to ZigBee technology, URC also announced today that it has joined the ZigBee Alliance, an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. Read on at The Briefing Room

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