AV trends from ISE 2016

We recently attended Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2016, the largest AV and systems conference in all of Europe. Here are the trends you need to know about.

Automated offices

One big theme of this year’s ISE conference was automation and control systems.

An endless number of companies at ISE offered to automate the curtains, lighting, projector screens, audio, and much, much more.

We are especially excited about this, because of the potential it has to empower the classroom.

One company that stood out was Neets, a Danish company:

They make a simple, easy to install automation platform that can turn on everything in the room with the touch of a button. Adding a motion sensor turns everything off when nobody is using the room.

Screens everywhere

At an AV conference, we knew screens would be featured heavily.

What we did not expect was the quality and sheer size of the screens.

There were ultra-large outdoor LED screens of a quality and sharpness that we had not seen before.

Of course, the much-raved about OLED technology was shown off in full force. A notable example of OLED screens is LG’s display of their ultra thin dual-sided signage displays.

Transparent screens were another screen trend using screens and projections in unexpected ways:

An example that really impressed us was commercial fridges with a transparent screen as a door. This meant that advertisements could be running on the screen front, while it was still possible to identify the bottles behind the glass door.

Go big, go nerdy

We saw two types of AV technology that grabbed everyone’s attention:

The kind that went big and the kind that went nerdy.

Go big

Panasonic’s robotic arms mesmerized most people walking by. The arms showed off both massive robotic power and impressive digital signage processing by moving around three large displays, while content that stretched over multiple displays stayed still and in focus.

Go nerdy

Another impressive crowd-pleaser and nerd-magnet was the Drone Arena.

This place had everything from DJI Phantom’s best seller to high-end photography drones at prices over €40,000 a piece.

It didn’t matter that the Drone Arena was in the furthest corner of the whole conference. There was a constant crowd who wanted to see the latest trends with these flying robots.

Wireless office solutions

A trend that didn’t come as a big surprise to us was the amount of booths exhibiting wireless display and collaboration tools.

Many of the major AV companies now offer some kind of wireless display tool, ranging from the market leader, Barco, showing their new Clickshare lineup to smaller companies offering inexpensive Miracast streaming sticks.

A drawback of the solutions we saw at ISE 2016 was that they offer a long list of features that the user might not actually need.

It confirmed what makes Airtame stand out:

A simple and easy wireless solution that anyone from businessmen to high school students can use.

In any case, seeing the enthusiastic crowd around wireless display pumped us up!

 

Did you attend ISE 2016 or have an idea where the future of AV technology is heading? Let us know in the comments.

Interested? Let’s talk.