The booths have been taken down, the crowds have gone home, and InfoComm 2022 is now in the books. Last week AVIXA took over the Las Vegas Convention Center for InfoComm, and the show was a success for attendees and exhibitors alike. According to AVIXA, InfoComm 2022 welcomed 19,681 verified attendees while showcasing 522 exhibitors from all over the world. While still 45 percent below 2019’s pre-pandemic attendance (but well above 2021 numbers), AVIXA skillfully arranged the show floor to create an ebb and flow that kept the exhilarated vibe in tact.
With InfoComm being a pro AV show focused on commercial products and applications, what can a residential integrator take from the event? Connected Design walked the show, interviewing manufactures and integrators, all while reviewing products with a residential AV mindset. Here are some takes from InfoComm for the residential market.
The Connected Office
Employees returned to the office this year, signaling a return to normal. However there is now a new normal. Many companies have allowed staff to remain at home, while others offered more flexible work arrangements. While work space solutions have always been key aspect of InfoComm, this year the office solutions made sure to include hybrid and scalable solutions. Product integration with workplace software, applications and productivity tools was an important aspect of every exhibit. These solutions offer more productivity, user friendly and overall InfoComm exhibitors had more engaging product lines. While the average home office won’t need the expansive solutions for enterprise businesses, manufactures responded by showcasing scaled down versions for the home office. The home office is now more than an inexpensive webcam bought for a few bucks online. Monitors, soundbars, cameras and phones are now multidimensional. The manufactures stepped up their game and were ready to present these new offerings and had fun doing it. There are more options than ever before and are ready to be a part of any residential office design and installation.
Flexible office solutions are attainable for all businesses with the solutions, software and products that have been designed to work regardless of where the office is. Even if your office happens to be on the show floor.
AV Distributors Add Value for Customers
The AV distributor model has continued to evolve and this was on clear display at InfoComm last week. Over the last several years, there have been mergers, cut-backs, reorganizations, and a line was set in the sand. The AV distributors wanted to provide more value to their integrators and this was evident with every distributor, on and off the show floor. More than just a place to order products, the distributors have gone out of their way to add additional services.
Herman Integration Services from ADI gives integrators access to a country wide AV labor service to hire additional help for local jobs or out of state projects. Also offered are engineering, programming, and CAD services as well. ADI has covered all the bases to support integrators from beginning to end of an installation.
The freshly rebranded Exertis Almo made its debut at InfoComm with the distributors fully integrated marketing, sales and service teams. The booth theme was “Combined for You” and was a perfect message for the distribution company. The combination the acquisitions from the last two years provide education, trainings, leading AV brands and full line of services giving the Exertis Almo integrators everything they need to succeed.
The Beauty of Micro LED Displays, Projectors & Digital Art
Digital signage the the focal point for display and projector manufacturers at InfoComm, but that doesn’t leave the residential integrator out. As the technology advances in the commercial market, it also advances on the residential side as well. LG, Sony and Samsung brought their residential LED displays as well. LEDs in general provide more pixels than LCD displays. More pixels produce the higher resolution and sharper image. The LEDs also operate using distinct RGB-colored light allowing for more natural colors along with a dimming capability that creates a truer black. Now with the micro-LED technology, the content becomes more than just eye catching, it becomes immersive.
The micro-LED displays are more costly but the benefits outweigh the expense. The modular form factor allows for customized shapes and sizes, they are more power efficient, much more durable and generally require less maintenance. These displays will be stealing the show at CEDIA this year.
To showcase these stunning displays, many manufactures chose to partner with digital art companies like Blackdove. The digital canvas trend has become quite big over the last couple of years. This past May, LG collaborated with artist and NFT pioneer Kevin McCoy at the Frieze New York 2022 art fair to exhibit Mccoy’s art on LG displays. The art is more than just 2D art, on the digital canvas, the art is able to move, shift, change and literally jumps off the screen.
