Rounding up News-Making, Record-Setting InfoComm 2017

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Rounding up News-Making, Record-Setting InfoComm 2017, slide 2

Reminder to Keep It Simple

Although there are certainly exceptions to every rule and we know of plenty of integrators who aren’t afraid of the most complex installations, the general trend in systems now is “ease of installation” and management. That became more evident than ever at InfoComm 2017, where about 40 percent of attendees were technology managers and end users.

Simply stated, this means products and solutions are intended to just work together, says CI columnist George Tucker. Installation is intended to be completed by “qualified technicians” and managed by the IT department. Over the last few years, chagrined engineering types have described nearly all of the AV industry trade shows as “evolutionary not revolutionary.” The heady days of when Ethernet was new, 3D was everywhere, and a plethora of upstart companies popped up are in a period of waning.

The technology has reached a significantly advanced state that this is more than possible, wrote Tucker. Labor is expensive, he says, and if a company can minimize its cost per degree, it can spend more on gear and additions.

“Concept-shifting innovation is an adrenaline rush, filling the senses with new possibilities,” wrote Tucker. “It also costs extra time and money –not something many institutions or corporations desire to spend willy-nilly. It is no doubt that many of these folks are not coming to InfoComm for the cutting-edge, but for the straightforward, often incremental, solutions.”

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