David J.
Danto
Principal Consultant, Collaboration / AV /
Multimedia / Video / UC
Dimension Data
Director of Emerging Technology
Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative
Communications Alliance
eMail: David.Danto@DimensionData.com 
Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
(Read David’s Bio) (See David’s CV) (Read
David’s Other Blogs & Articles)
A
View From The Road Volume 9, Number 5
LDI 2015 and Year End Wrap
In This Edition:
·
Smaller, Lighter LDI
·
InfoComm Connections
·
New Products Here and Coming
·
Connected!
·
CES 2016 Around The Corner
Greetings from the 2015 LDI Conference in Las Vegas.
This is the 28th annual conference on staging, lighting and visual
technologies and effects. It’s also the
conference where they pour so much smoke and fog into the convention center (to
see the lighting effects more dramatically) that they have to pay extra to
disable the smoke detectors and have fire-watch guards on duty.
Having attended this conference a number of times in the
last few years I must admit I was disappointed with this year’s event. It seemed a bit smaller, and although the wow
factor was still there it didn’t have many new products that caught my eye as
innovations. (My perception could have
something to do with the current
difficulties the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) is
experiencing.) Just about the only
product that was completely new to me was a new method of taping-down and
securing cables.
The GaffGun
is a tool and system that lets you stand-up and walk as you easily organize
cables and secure them to the floor.
They send their holder tubes at no cost to the tape manufacturers and
users simply have to order them with the compatible center. This could save hours on a typical staging
project.
When I looked at who won the LDI show awards, I saw that
the display I found the most visually stunning won for just that reason.
Lightwave
International really outdid themselves.
Click the photo above to see the LASERs in
motion. To see the rest of the winners click
here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LDI usually represents the last conference I attend every year until CES
starts it all up again in January – but not this year. There is now a new event from InfoComm to
keep an eye on. Following-up on their
great success with the regional “Connections” in San Jose last March, InfoComm (along
with the IMCCA) has brought Connections to New York – Co-locating
it with the existing CCW show from the NAB.
This event combines the best in professional video production and satellite
communications with InfoComm’s focus on AV and
collaboration. There are keynote presentations, free classes and paid seminars
on topics of critical importance, including AV/IT, the security of
collaboration systems, live acoustics and much more. In addition, the Cisco collaboration team is
conducting a workshop – and providing free registration for it and the rest of
the conference. Just click the picture
below and use VIP code CISCONY.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As we come up toward the end of year we’ve seen a lot of recent
announcements and new products in the collaboration technology space - and are
expecting even more early next year. Here are some to note and watch:
·
A great deal has been said and written about the Microsoft Surface
Hub – by myself and others – so I won’t go into the weeds again here. January 2016 represents the latest promised
date for this product to become generally available. Let’s all wait to see what happens once it is
actually a product that can be delivered and people actually start using
it. Will it be a huge hit or a big
disappointment? That call will come from
the users of the system, but only after they begin trying to use an actual
production model.
·
Polycom
just announced a new series of products and solutions to meet the needs of
the “Workplace of the Future.” While
this announcement included a new generation of their iconic speakerphone, a new
set-top codec, a center-of-the-room visual collaboration hub and other products
and services, in my opinion the most important part of their announcement was
their acknowledgment of the death of the traditional integrated AV room. Polycom’s RealPresence
Medialign systems take their place beside Cisco’s MX series and others as
the future of room based collaboration.
They are simple, one piece systems from one source that include
everything typical rooms need - and utilize
PTZ cameras that can auto-track the speakers. If you’re still building integrated
videoconference rooms with components from multiple manufacturers then you’re
headed the same way as the dinosaurs.
·
While simplicity in the room and at the UI is the
key to the future of effective visual collaboration, interoperability is still
the key to effective infrastructure design.
Acano has just recently updated
their visual branding and is on the precipice of releasing the next generation
of their systems. If you’re not paying
attention to what they have done and will be doing in 2016 then you’re missing a
big story.
·
A lot has been said about Persistent Virtual
Collaboration spaces – Whether it’s Slack or Cisco Spark or any of the
others. Apparently email has been
declared “bad” and “dead” by everyone – or at least everyone that has a product
or service that competes with it.
Everyone should be aware of how these new products affect workflow and
where they might be useful. But despite
anyone anointing them kings of the future of collaboration, the reality is that
they are still a novelty with only marginal value for the typical organzation.
Watching how they develop in 2016 will be interesting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As this year nears its end a new series of webcasts is beginning. In association with the team at AVNationTV I am hosting and producing
“Connected! – Everything IoT.” This
program will explore how the Internet of Things will affect our lives – with something
of a focus on things important to the AV and collaboration professional.
It will include product demonstrations, expert discussions, actionable
advice and much more. The first episode is
live now, and expect the rest to follow just about every month. Please take a look and let me know what you
think. Click the picture above to view,
and feel free to leave comments and suggestions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That’s it for this View From The Road.
Look for the next one in January from the 2016 CES.
I am honored and privileged again this year to have been a judge for the
CES Innovation Awards – and I
can state with certainty that there are a lot of amazing products and
technologies being shown there in January.
I’m sure the January episode of
Connected! will have lots of new IoT devices to show
from CES.
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This
article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions. David has over three
decades of experience providing problem solving leadership and innovation in
media and unified communications technologies for various firms in the
corporate, broadcasting and academic worlds including AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN, Morgan Stanley, NYU, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan
Chase. He now works with Dimension Data
as their Principal Consultant for the collaboration, multimedia, video and AV
disciplines. He is also the IMCCA’s
Director of Emerging Technology. David can be reached at David.Danto@Dimensiondata.com
or DDanto@imcca.org and his full bio and
other blogs and articles can be seen at Danto.info. Please reach-out to David if
you would like to discuss how he can help your organization solve problems,
develop a future-proof collaboration strategy for internal use, or if you would
like his help developing solid, user-focused go-to-market strategies for your
collaboration product or service.
All images and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.