usion mounts are being used in conjunction with Brightsign controllers, flixio content and Philips commercial LCDs

Minneapolis, MN. USA (JUN 2011) – www.chiefmfg.com – Chief, the industry leader in professional AV solutions, joins Brightsign, flixio and Philips to provide visitors to InfoComm 2011 with a visual treat with high impact. The companies combined efforts to create a massive digital video arch on display right now in the Digital Signage Pavilion.
The arch, consisting of Brightsign digital controllers, Philips commercial displays, flixio content and Chief’s award-winning Fusion mounts, reaches a height of 108 feet (33 meters) and spans more than 139 feet in length (42 meters). Read on at The Wire

The Community Pro demo booth was full of new entries including M-Class Monitors. These come in new sizes including the MX8 and MX10 to join the existing MX12. These monitors offer a smoothly sloped appearance that departs from the old boxy wedge look on floor monitors. Also new for the show is the VLF Series of high performance subwoofers including the VLF208LV low profile dual 8-inch unit, the VLF115 single 15-inch with 1500 watts program power handling, the VLF118 that brings a single 18-inch woofer to the stage with 2000 watts program power capacity and the VLF218 that contains two 18-inch speakers and provides 4000 watts power handling. The company is also offering a tantalizing look at the new pendant speakers that will be available soon. A similar preview was on hand for the coming, low cost Commercial Design Series of ceiling speakers. The real treat was a glimpse of the new Forecaster HD software application that enables system designers to add speakers of any model, configure them for a specific space and get the needed power needs and acoustic information for venues with flat or sloped floors and unusual shapes. The demo of this free download application was fascinating and I could see that the demo guys were having fun just showing it off.

by Mary Bakija

The world seems to get smaller every year, and integrators are a necessary part of the equation. People rely on our industry world-wide to help create innovative collaborative technology solutions, and the need is only growing.

“Looking at our market studies, conferencing is going to be very strong,” says Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., executive director and CEO, InfoComm International. Read on at SCN

Neutrik’s Mark Boyadjian demonstrated the company’s new PowerCON TRUE1. PowerCON connectors have been around for a good while and the PowerCON TRUE1 is the latest new version of this proven product. Responding to market demand, they now make a male version of the connector so that turnarounds are no longer needed. They’ve also added a double chassis connector that includes both input and output terminals. One version of the new PowerCON TRUE1 is now IP65 rated for rejection of dust and other contaminants. The other version may be field terminated using only wire strippers and a screwdriver and the connectors are rated for 250 volts AC at 16 amps. Also on display was a new heavy duty HDMI connector with a hard metal shell that’s also IP65 rated. The shell can be removed to expose the HDMI connector for a more traditional look and less rugged application.

Stop by the VMP booth #IC4659 hand over a business card and enter to win an autographed Cal Ripken bat (to go with the autographed Ted Williams baseball you won at the Almo booth). While you’re there, the idea is that you will see–among other things–VMP’s new-for-the-show multi-configurable digital signage mount (pictured). It allows multiple monitors to mount in various simultaneously configurations–portrait, landscape, video wall. VMP also brought a new yokeless low-profile projector mount and showcased their dual large flat panel mount ceiling adapter.

At the Speco booth, the guys were busy with both audio and video enthusiasts while showing off their new HD CCCTV system for the security market. Speco has been around for nearly 50 years and they read the market pretty well at the nuts and bolts level. The most daunting task of installing new security systems has been the labor intensive cable runs where techs have to tear out the coax (or leave it in the conduits) and run twisted pair. Speco’s new HD CCCTV system delivers 720p video on 300-foot runs of coax so the re-cabling normally isn’t necessary for HD performance. This follows the same general trend of scaling the new and finding fresh ways to package high-tech systems. Audio Product Manager Scott Pisani showed me around the sound products including paging mics, amps and ceiling speakers. Among these, the G86 speaker has a choice of traditional or more modern grill design. Also attracting attention among the audio units in the booth was the new PAP160A self contained portable PA system with built-in USB MP3 Player and iPod Dock. Designed to go anywhere and have whatever you need for location playback onboard, the system targets any customer with a need for quick and easy location sound.

by Mary Bakija

All signs are pointing up for the AV integration business. If the InfoComm 2011 Show is any indication, business is starting to get back to the pre-recession days, but cautiously. With more than 900 exhibitors and 475,000-plus net square feet of exhibits, demo rooms, and special events, the show is likely to match last year’s show in Las Vegas, but it is also likely to be the largest InfoComm Show ever in Orlando. Read on at SCN

Infocomm 2011 represents the first show in which AV manufacturers have had the time to fully develop new products and implement a new strategy to deal with the realities of the AV market since the crash of ’08. What we are seeing at the show are new products that put top technology in small bites. A general theme has been the scaling of top of the line pro systems down for the masses and the form of this trend at Yorkville is the new Paraline Series compact expandable active vertical array loudspeaker system. Yorkville took the technology of their big pro arrays and squeezed it down into the PSA1 vertical array and the PSA1S compact active subwoofer. Two BMS 1.75-inch compression drivers deliver a 15-degree vertical and 110-degree horizontal pattern with 1200 watts program power. The 1400 watt dual 12-inch PSA1S sub booms out of a 15mm birch plywood cabinet that serves as a mounting base for the whole system. Yorkville’s Laurence Bell also showed me the LP-LED4 stage lighting system. The four LED modules, each containing four 12.5 watt high intensity LEDs, are pole mounted and can be used to provide lighting effects for a band. With the addition of a DMX module the system becomes DMX controllable. At the control end is the LP-C12 system controller capable of running up to 12 channels (3 bars) of lights. The unit can provide presets, selectable fade rates, effect speed and complete control of each individual pod’s color and intensity.

The second day of the show got off to a big start with the Digital Projection press conference. All the company chiefs were there to talk directly to the crowd and take their questions. On the sides of the enclosure were Titan WUXGA 3D-P units running fantastic footage of Bruce Springsteen at a Hyde Park concert while Michael Bridwell and company president Mike Levi took the mics to address the crowd. Also running on the multi-tiered trusses were the Titan WUXGA Quad 30 projectors that produced stunningly clear and bright video. To a full house, Levi outlined the company’s current strategy and offerings including the HIGHlite Cine 260 and the iVision 20 Series. There was also a curved marquee screen showing edge blending from two Lightning 45 units but the real show stopper was the 3D display on the right side of the room. The 3D glasses were right there so I took a pair and visually fell into the world being shown on the screen. The Digital Projection crew had a lot to show and they had it arranged just right for visitors to sample.

Samsung #IC1543 is on my short list of high impact booths. It’s a strong showing of LED commitment–part product story, part market story. The booth quite artfully combines exhibits that emphasize technical features with exhibits that place the displays in context–I like the way the exhibits effectively suggest context without tipping over to literal reproductions of “real-world” applications.

Samsung’s Jason Redmond walks through the main theme: Samsung is all in with LED (in case you hadn’t figured that out from the escalator arches). The booth represents that well; it shows how Samsung is building commercial-grade screens with contractor features, not, Redmond emphasizes, repurposing Samsung’s consumer TVs. Case in point: take a look at the IO and cabling on the HE, ME, and UE lines–you can easily see the details because of the way these slim screens are glass-mounted like science class slides on a long transparent wall at the center of the booth.

But the message also attempts to be–for lack of a better word–inspiring. Part of that is the music powering out of the big, gorgeous video wall (pictured). “They aren’t the built in speakers,” Redmond notes–of course.” The wall is made up of Samsung’s fourth new line of UD direct-lit backlight panels with super narrow bezels and a striking width–just 5.5mm total from bezel to bezel. Redmond says advanced cooling makes it right for 24/7 applications.

Here’s the press release for more specs.

Elsewhere in the booth, you can see applications that suggest a bar, a restaurant, and a simple retail example. This particular exhibit is noteworthy for the ultra simple deployment of Samsung’s MagicInfo platform for image management–via thumbdrive and handheld remote. MagicInfo is in other new iterations–I like what I saw of the new authoring system, and there are also Android and tablet apps.