The message being promoted at the AMX booth (4727) is “simplicity” this year, especially with a cool little widget that the company’s marketing manager, Jeff Kindig, calls “our sleeper product at the show.” That’s because AMX HydraPort Connection technology solves important, little problems, when compared to the mega signal switchers and other types of technology found across the show. HydraPort is a simple, little, table pop-up module column that is easily custom configurable by the installer or end user directly. more…

I’m always fascinated to hear about the unique development histories of various products, I learned the decade-long background today of JBL‘s new CBT Series Line Array Columns. Chatting with Rick Kamlet, Senior Director of Commercial Installed Sound for JBL, I found out the new series, personified by the CBT 50LA (50cm high compact column relying on a line of eight 2-in. drivers), CBT 100LA (100cm high with 16 2-in. drivers), and CBT 70J speakers (two-way coaxial line array with 16 soft dome tweeters and four 5-in. woofers that is 70cm high) on display at the JBL booth was 10 years in the making. The technology is based on the research of former JBL and longtime audio engineer Don Keele, an inventor of constant directivity loudspeaker horns, who started publishing papers on the concept back in 2000, when he was still with JBL. more…

Lots going on, as usual, from Sennheiser at InfoComm this week. Although the company’s introduction of K-array lightweight speaker technology was a new venture in the speaker category, and upgrades of two wireless mic systems and the introduction of a third (making the company a major player in both the RF and infrared categories) were among its biggest newsmakers today, I was most taken with the company’s ongoing education and service focus. more…

My visit to Epson‘s booth (4127) this afternoon continued what appears increasingly to be a highlight trend for me at InfoComm 09: education. Epson is making a big push with brand new products largely focused on that market. I saw the new, very bright PowerLite Pro Z8000WUNL—possibly the brightest projector ever from Epson, targeted at auditoriums and conference halls. Epson officials, however, told me that the demo of the projector overhead at their booth has also drawn interest from theater folk this week, including guys from the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, in Epson’s California back yard. more…

It was interesting to hear my pal, Bennett Liles, chat this morning with Extron Marketing VP Lee Dodson about some of that company’s many new products geared toward the education market, especially since Bennett works in that field. (See here, here, and here for Bennett’s comments on a couple of those Extron products.)

While we were talking, I asked Lee how Extron was viewing the education market and its vibrancy in the current economy. Having two elementary-age children moving through California’s suffering school system, I had a natural prediliction to presuming that not a lot was happening on that front. But Lee, and others I talked to in the last couple days, suggested that wasn’t exactly the case. He agreed with what others said, which I mentioned on the blog said yesterday. Namely, that schools and universities large and small are making, or are about to make, modest infrastructure expenditures and are seeking technology with long lives and upgrade paths from major manufacturers. Thus, a lot of technology on display in Extron’s typically gigantic booth, such as its new Annotator annotation graphics processor and its VoiceLift infrared mic system, is drawing intrest from the educational crowd. more…

You won’t find a more passionate evangelist for Crestron‘s new DigitalMedia initiative than PR chief Jeff Singer, and he presented an interesting case to me that the history of Crestron’s development of the initiative, and resulting family of products on display this week at InfoComm with more coming shortly thereafter, represents a mission to be on the bleeding edge of the industry’s current paradigm shift into the digital universe. more…

The growing partnership between Middle Atlantic (booth 5701) and Exact Power (6341) was on display, and educational for me, when Middle Atlantic PR guru Kevin Handerson introduced me to Exact Power’s president/chief engineer/resident genius, Bob Schluter. Bob proceeded to explain the new IsoCenter Isolation Transformer System built by Exact Power, but which will shortly be distributed by Middle Atlantic, and I found myself, for maybe the first time, understanding a little bit about power management, and more importantly, finding it fascinating. more…

Wireworks held a little birthday celebration at the booth this afternoon, celebrating 35 years of cabling the world—including most of Broadway, the White House, the BeeGees White Tour, the Pope’s tour, churches, theme parks, and more. Of course most famous for introducing the world to colored cable, Wireworks also introduced removeable multipin cables and a host of other innovations we now take for granted. President Gerald “Jerry” Krulewicz is a charming host, and it was short and sweet—no agenda, just an acknowledgement. For more see a story by Linda Said Frembes.

Among the celebratory awards given out today by InfoComm International to launch the exhibition was the first ever InfoComm International Pioneer of AV Award, and it went to a long-deceased single mom who started what would become the Da-Lite Screen Company exactly 100 years ago—about eight years before should could legally vote. That woman is company founder Adele de Berri who, divorced and seeking an income, used her knowledge of paint and its reflective qualities to launch what was then called the De Berri Screen and Scenic Company around the same time that Thomas Edison and George Eastman were busy inventing the technologies that would give birth to the motion picture industry.

To celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, Da-Lite has a cool historical exhibit at its booth (4401) about the life and history of Adele de Berri, and the historical achievements that led to her becoming, truly, a pioneer of the AV industry.

Incidentally, Da-Lite officials report good and interesting success with the new web site they started in March—the Da-Lite Design Center, which offers virtual design expertise for custom configurations for all sorts of applications such as trade shows, special events, and recently, a unique star-shaped screen for a boardroom at the headquarters of Macy’s.

—MG

Press release

At InfoComm 09 Booth #6321, Revolabs announced that three premier providers of conferencing technology products for education and business collaboration have certified Revolabs as a partner in their value-added solution programs. Read on at The Briefing Room

More InfoComm 09 news from The Briefing Room