BLOG PART TWO | Jenny Hicks top tips on what to see at ISE

In the second part of her two-part blog series, Group Head of Technology Jenny Hicks tracks the technology trends to look out for at ISE.  

Projection

The advent of large format displays with superlative image quality could have killed the projector market – but it didn’t. The fact is that the projector market continues to grow, with Technavio forecasting a CAGR of 9.61% between now and 2021 [2].

Yes: LFDs now occupy many of the slots that would once have been filled by projectors – but, over the past few years, the projector market has reinvented itself and kept itself relevant. It’s done that in two ways. First, it has kept up with the continuing rise in resolution, such that UltraHD/4K projectors are widely available.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, it has addressed the significant cost of ownership disadvantage from which it once suffered with the introduction of solid state illumination (SSI). Now, instead of having to change an expensive lamp every few hundred hours, the light source will last 20,000 hours or more.

At ISE, expect to see even more projectors announced featuring 4K resolution and SSI.

[2]  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-projector-market-2017-2021-300439123.html

Networked AV

Few in the AV industry are unfamiliar with the term “IT-ification”. At its heart is the growing prevalence of IP as the underlying technology for connecting everything to everything – including audiovisual systems. AVoIP – or networked AV – is driving convergence between the world of corporate networks and telecoms and what were once islands of AV technology.

But: what’s the attraction? In fact, there are many. IP can do anything that HDBaseT, for example, can do when it comes to moving very high definition video and audio around. IP-based networks deliver huge flexibility and simple scalability, responding to the need of many end users to make their installations as “future-proof” as possible. A common networking technology allows versatility, with the easy interconnection of a wide range of devices – think IoT. And: the proliferation of IP means that devices like switches are becoming more affordable on almost a weekly basis.

The really good news, though, is that the advent of IP will create a significantly greater market opportunity for AV. Expect to see evidence of that at ISE.

Professional video

It has been said that, in an online world, everyone will be a broadcaster. That’s not just vloggers and YouTube channels – it is extending into the corporate world. As with most such developments, it’s started with major organisations – but the expectation is, it will gradually filter down to medium and small enterprises who will have the desire, the tools and the budget to create and distribute their own highly professional video content.

IPTV isn’t just about Netflix or Amazon: increasingly, it’s the preferred way for businesses to stream live and recorded internal or industry news relating to employees and visitors. On-demand content can also be distributed, as well as training materials, corporate briefings and live events, to multiple office locations. That will be enabled not only by IP networking, but also by the increasing availability of the affordable tools needed – professional grade cameras, edit suites, audio equipment and workflow solutions.

At IBC last year, there was much discussion of the convergence of broadcast with AV. At ISE, expect to hear plenty of discussion about the convergence between AV and broadcast. 

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