infoComm09
Spire_Jeff
Posts: 1,917
Anyone going to be attending this year? If so, any plans for a meeting of the minds at some point?
Jeff
Jeff
0
Comments
--D
Tell me how it is!
There are many technically knowledgeable people at InfoComm. You just need to get past the suits and breasts that greet you at the booth entrances.
In my experience, the show is what you make of it. I have not been to infoComm, but I have been to the last 5 CEDIA shows. It has been my experience that most of the companies have at least one employee from the tech and/or engineering department at the show. Having a face to face conversation with these people has solved some problems in the past and more importantly, I have gotten direct contact numbers and put a face to my name (which can be beneficial).
I don't really deal with sales myself, but I also use the shows to research other products that we are not currently dealing with. If there is a product I don't like integrating, I will try to find a replacement that I can suggest. If there are occasional requests for certain functionality, I keep it in the back of my head and occasionally I stumble across a product that will allow us to accomplish the request (Common requests are more actively sought out). I also have a chance to look at the product before I recommend it so I can verify the existence of a serial port or talk with an engineer to find out if there is a serial protocol document available and how I can get it.
I used to just go to the shows and wander around without much direction and I usually didn't accomplish much. Now I go with the plan of meeting with the engineers of the main companies I deal with and as I am walking between booths, I check out anything that grabs my attention. I find it to be very beneficial for me, but I understand that others have a whole different view of trade shows (basically get free drinks and food from reps, then hit the bars and stay out late, then wander the show looking for passes to another party to repeat the whole experience
Jeff
*cough* SpeakerCraft *cough* Cuddlebags *cough* GuiFX *cough* AVAD *cough* (At CEDIA)
Sorry, something in my throat
Sounds like it is going to be a smaller crowd this year than last.
I've always found Infocomm to be very good for getting to technical people at the companies that I need to talk to. Infocomm started for vendors to push stuff out to dealers, and there are still a bunch of comapnies that bring their tech staff out to answer questions.
Looking forward to it really.
Oh well, no hurry eh?
looking at the Craptron press releases there's nothing that exciting new there either. DigitalMedia's not news is it? That's a serious question, I'm sure we saw it last year or am I wrong. On the remote front, "How many Craptron Engineers does it take to develop a remote?" "Not many to be honest..."
I'll post my findings.
Introducing Enova
http://www.amx.com/enova/sophisticatedEnvironments.asp
Introducing HydraPort
http://www.amx.com/enova/sophisticatedEnvironments.asp#hydraPort
More to come...
http://www.extron.com/product/prodtype35.aspx
They have always had those "keypads" with the clicking buttons that looked like they were from a 1970's remote control.
Jeff
For installers - check out the HydraPort - pretty cool way of doing connections at a tabletop.
At first glance the Enova seems like a "MPS killer" - a bundled controller/switcher solution in one that AMX has been lacking. Need to talk with AMX more to get details and pricing info, but looks good from what I've seen so far.
Report here if anyone sees anything else new and interesting at Infocomm - AMX or not....I'd like to know what others have seen.
It's a 2100 with mic in, Component,Composte,DVI,RGB, 2x25w spkr out, and scaled video.
I see a lot of these going into boardrooms.
The NXV-300 is great too. It is a product that was needed years ago. I to was surpised that it only did 2 resolutions.
The rotated 4" is cool but not life changing for me.
The Hydraport is cool but it's just a fancy port thing for tables. It's cool.
The show is light on traffic. I guess everyone is cutting back.
I'm off to have a beer and rest my feet.
Kenny
I cannot believe that with todays technology, AMX was not able to create a virtual control without more costly hardware.
I did not attend the show this year, but it doesnt look like I missed much.
The future of AMX concerns me. If you look at their 2 major releases, one of them was not
even an electronic device, it is a connectivity solution for furniture. What's up with that??
This is from a pioneer in the control system industry? Either there are no good ideas, or there is
nothing left to develop.
Extron will make a killing with their new control products. That's just the way it is.
My clients are always looking for a cost-effective solution to the 2 major systems.
Now it is going to be even harder to convince them otherwise.
My company pushes AMX control systems very hard. We try to support the vendors
that support us. Since the first of the year, AMX support has drastically dropped.
Some of the other dealers out there know the reasons why. I won’t go into specifics.
This industry has really changed over the years.
I stopped by the Exton booth and a lot dealers were looking at their new touchpanels. For their first tps they were pretty nice, not G4 nice but nice enough for the educational market. Plus they are dead simple to program. Did anyone see the demo? They had a feature in the TP design software that allowed you to change border depth and shading much like Photoshop.
One of the Extron guys said they were creeping into the AMX/C-Tron world since AMX/C-tron was creeping into theirs. hmm.
The presenter kind a peaved me as they were insinuating that "Programmers Bad Evil people that cost you too much".
While I think that Extron will do it better than some, I can't wait to start getting projects tearing out Extron TOuchpanels and replacing them with AMX cause "the systems never worked".
I agree with John about his Extron experience. I liked some of the editing features of the touch panels that I hope AMX can see and pick up on - the button editor was a cool feature. But the overall tone was ...."Programmers BAD - stay away from programmers". I did NOT like it when they were asked about items that were not in their database and how to handle that since according to them - "no programming was needed". Simple so says Extron - just ask them to write a driver for the device and "poof" - problem solved. Yeah right....when we're sitting out on a jobsite trying to get some piece of equipment to work at 9pm or over weekend and we HAVE to get it done by the next day who's going to help us then? I think the extron solution is a nice idea and might work in SOME isolated instances, but I don't see it taking the industry by storm anytime soon.
I have never followed that philosophy. Why are programmers bad but not installers, managers, vendors etc? If I was somewhere and heard that I think I would ask for an explanation.
Paul