25 Evolving Workplace Products from the InfoComm 2016 Show Floor

Middle Atlantic introduced the UTB Series Universal TechBox, a low-profile, unique solution for discreetly mounting AV equipment underneath a table surface within meeting spaces, and the Hub, an all-in-one furniture solution for collaboration spaces designed to maximize equipment and cable storage.

Remote workers and need for quick and easy but high-quality conferencing has spurred a new category of ceiling microphones. At InfoComm 2016 Audio-Technica introduced two Dante-enabled ceiling-mounted mics – the ATND931 Dante six-inch gooseneck microphone and ATND933 Dante hanging microphone. They standard with the new ATND8734 Microphone Ceiling Mount Power Module with Dante Network Output, which Audio-Technica says offers a simple and cost-effective solution for integrating these new microphones with a Dante network without the need for a separate, standalone audio interface.

The company added that the ATND931 and ATND933 join the ATND8677 Microphone Desk Stand and ATND971 Network Boundary Microphone as the world’s first wired microphone products to transmit both audio and control data using the Dante network protocol. A simple Ethernet connection allows these microphones (powered by network PoE) to communicate across an existing network of Dante-enabled devices.

Shure may have unveiled at ISE 2016 its Microflex Advance line of networked ceiling and table array microphones, audio interfaces and control software for enhanced AV conferencing, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a big draw at InfoComm 2016.

Microphones in the ceiling used to mean sacrificing audio quality for convenience, said associate VP of Global Product management Scott Sullivan, adding that that conflict created a challenge for the Shure. “It really raised the bar for product development.”

The Microflex Advanced microphones come in two options: table array and ceiling array. The table array mics are sleek in design and light up with LED colors to show which speaker the mic is picking up on at the time. The ceiling array microphones can be disguised as ceiling tiles or hung easily several inches below the ceiling, in a similar place a ceiling projector might be. Both mic options are controlled through Intellimix system software through a web-based GUI, are Dante-enabled and feature echo reduction.

Kramer, which previously released cloud-based control solution K-Touch, is releasing an entirely new cloud-based solution in Kramer Control that offers drag-and-drop configuration, works on any interface, on any operating system and is designed to cut customers’ automation costs significantly opening budgets up potentially for new rooms and applications.

“K-touch was a jumping off point. We’re taking it to an entirely different level,” Hoffman says. Kramer Control “is modern, built from the ground up, smart, aware, one brain in your system. [It] will be able to communicate with every other brain without the need for programming.”

At InfoComm 2016, InFocus showed off a new version of its collaborative visualization software, Jupiter Canvas 5.0. The company’s Canvas platform is designed to deliver real-time video, data, and application screens from across the enterprise to display walls, smartphones, tablets, PCs and conference room systems including InFocus Jupiter Canvas Touch and CRS 4K systems. It enables users to share information and collaborate on this consolidated business intelligence, anywhere in the corporate or mobile network in a highly secure environment.

InFocus says Canvas 5.0 features an array of ease of use and flexibility enhancements along with upgraded security features and improved display wall control. Features include a new web-based multi-touch interface and support for Workgroup environments in addition to Active Directory environments for user authentication. Canvas 5.0 also adds support for native 4K video sources, driving Ultra HD displays through the InFocus Jupiter Catalyst 4K display wall processor, also announced today and integrated with Canvas 5.0.

If we’re putting in speakers for soundmasking (something that many companies are doing with the shift toward open office designs) we should be able to use those speakers for other audio, too! That’s what the engineers at Cambridge Sound Management were hearing from customers, according to director of marketing David Sholkovitz. So it didn’t take long for CSM to launch its Qt Active Emitter—a powered, single-source Emitter (loudspeaker) capable of both sound masking and simultaneous reproduction of clear audio sources such as paging signals. Patented direct-field technology ensures both uniform sound masking and clear paging in a loudspeaker that’s virtually invisible once deployed in finished or open ceilings. The Active Emitter uses the same control modules and cabling infrastructure as other QtPro systems to deliver the masking signal, ensuring QtPro remains easy to install and calibrate, regardless of whether the Active Emitter or original Emitter is used.

TIV has never been shy about comparing its ThinkHub collaboration solution with the similarly named but disproportionately hyped Microsoft Surface Hub. At InfoComm 2016, the ThinkHub multi-user software application for collaboration that consolidates information on a large-format touchscreen and positioned as a brainstorming application for today’s workplaces added a new feature.

ThinkHub MultiSite is designed for remote collaboration sessions from ThinkHub device to ThinkHub device. ThinkHub MultiSite offers real-time, remote collaboration sessions and session sharing across the entire organization. Now, ThinkHub MultiSite also features built-in videoconferencing capabilities that enable MultiSite users to collaborate while sharing the same digital Canvas, with the added benefit of video and audio feeds to augment the collaboration experience.

What’s more, T1V is offering videoconferencing capabilities through its AirConnect- App, which enables ThinkHub participants to connect to the ThinkHub Canvas from their iOS, OSX, Windows, Android, or Linux device. Through T1V AirConnect View, users can utilize any meeting application (Skype for Business, WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc…) from their laptop to host a meeting and show the ThinkHub Canvas to meeting participants.

“This is a great release for us,” said Atlona’s Garth Lobban, during InfoComm 2016. The director of marketing wasn’t simply talking about the three new half-rack models from Atlona’s newOmniStream AV over IP product family that it introduced during the show in Las Vegas. His comment on day 3 of the event was more of a reflection on how integrators visiting Atlona’s booth had reacted to the new offers.

These products are specially designed to be robust and scalable for the Pro AV market and create the ability to truly stream “any to any, many to many” over a standard Gigibit network – addressing an escalating workplace need.

Atlona’s OmniStream products are expected to ship in September 2016, according to Lobban.

The Conn.-based company developed its new line of room friendly, mobile display stands to provide users with an easy and stylish way to work and collaborate. The stand is compatible with Microsoft’s Surface Hub and VESA mounting patterns, and it is capable of supporting displays up to 65-inches and 165 pounds. In addition, the ADA-compliant stand offers a range of positioning choices to enable users to work comfortably with mounted displays.

The HuddleVU Works series incorporates several pieces of popular FSR technology into one bundle. The HuddleVU Mini station is 44 inches long, ideal for a meeting of three or four people. It’s equipped with three HDMI and one VGA input and needs only a display to create a perfect collaboration environment. A step up from there in terms of size is the HuddleVU Classic, which measures 60 inches and works best with four to six people. It comes with inputs for VGA, HDMI, Display Port and Mini Display Port. The top of the HuddleVU Works line is the Platinum offering, also 60 inches with the aforementioned outputs and a touchscreen control system, all built around a switching scaler.

Intel Unite Version 3.0 is the first revision of the collaboration software platform that includes guest access with a one-time password that doesn’t allow network access. Meeting organizers can lock or unlock access to the session and share video and audio with all attendees as well as wireless screen-sharing because of an open API architecture. Among the 60 million conference rooms, about 40 million are considered huddle rooms or small conference rooms. Only about 9 million of those have dedicated displays, so potential is high in the corporate space, as well as in schools medical offices.

Polycom has been doing incredible things with collaboration over the past year, specifically with the release of its Trio and Centro devices. The Trio is meant for offices, huddle rooms and conference spaces, and includes full color touchscreen, world’s best audio including base, a twenty foot mic pickup, HD voice, acoustic clarity, background noise cancellation and high definition 1080 p video conferencing and content sharing.

RealPresence Centro was built with instinctual human behavior in mind - that people feel more comfortable communicating and collaborating in the round. The base unit includes four touchscreens, five 1080p cameras sewn together for a panoramic view, BYOD receiving, single-click meetings, annotation and content sharing.

Polycom has also worked closely to make sure that its system integrates with Microsoft. Engineers from both companies have worked together to integrate Skype for Business from the bottom up. Skype for Business is extended into these Polycom devices.

Trio can used as telephony instead of a service provider and registers as a Skype for Business end point. When videoconferencing, Polycom keeps the user interface consistent for each video endpoint. A user with Skype for Business will see the Skype for Business setup, while Polycom users will see the Polycom setup, even when collaborating together.

Crestron Studio software has been redesigned from the ground up to power, speed, and simplify AV system design in ways that were not possible before. Whether you’re a seasoned Crestron programmer or programming a Crestron system for the first time, Crestron Studio makes it easy to create intuitive graphical user interfaces without having to write a single line of code.

All you have to do is draw your signal flow diagram like you normally do. All the functionality, the GUI, and the hooks to Crestron Fusion are automatically generated behind the scenes and Crestron validates all the code. Crestron Studio also takes advantage of Smart Graphics to enable simple gestures navigation, swiping, and kinetic effects such as knobs, sliders, gauges, and scrolling lists, common in smartphones and tablets. Then save the project and apply it to every similar room to save time.

Pexip Infinity is a scalable meeting platform that connects virtually any communications tool and traditional video and audio conferencing together for a seamless meeting experience. The powerful platform has been integrated into the Microsoft Surface Hub with help from Whitlock. Pexip has natively adopted Microsoft’s protocols, and it transcodes Skype protocol into H264 for conference rooms and desktops. Therefore, the meeting will pop up in native form on Cisco and Polycom protocol. Skype can also go into the Pexip VMR.

Oblong’s Mezzanine is a powerful collaboration system that turns the whole room into a digital workspace, in fact this year it was named a Gartner Cool Vendor 2016 for human machine interface. As of this year, the collaboration screens can be built up to two by three screens to increase collaboration even further, while in-room “corkboard” screens can be built out to offer more digital space in meeting rooms. The collaborations screens can also be daisy-chained together to build out as far as you want, but a new Mezzanine box will be needed after every sixth screen.

Also new this year is one-button VTC dialing for video conferencing from the wand, which works with Cisco and Polycom participants as well. In addition, remote collaborators can be invited to “Mezz In” to the collaboration space. The user can join through a URL, video conference and file share content so they can take it with them or send content to the Mezzanine system to be saved in the cloud. The remote user simply toggles back and forth between video and content.

Huddlewall is a scalable turnkey display system that includes everything you’ll need in an in-room collaboration solution. The full system includes Solid State Laser projectors and mounts, automatice edge-blending, seamless hard screen with a modular design to fir room size, 10M HDMI cables and a Logitech camera powered with USB cable. The usability includes UCC, LEAN management tools, training software, tools for AEC pros, ideation and brainstorming. Various arrangements of GPU and memory as well as video capture functionality for BYOD are available. Digital paper interoperability as well as custom applications for brainstorming and multi-pen white boarding as well.

DisplayNote’s Montage is a true, all-in- one collaboration solution. Using Montage in meetings allows you to save time and keep everyone on the same page by letting up to 12 users fully participate in-room or remotely. All attendees can stream what’s on their devices to a main display at the same time.

Connect via a Windows app, Chrome browser, mirror via Airplay or cast from your device. People in room or remote can file share, annotate and analyze content – all the capabilities of the system are available whether in room, working on the app, or using a browser. Remote PC control, 2-way collaboration, voice and video, and multiplatform support are all available. For security, full enterprise level encryption reaches all attendees remote and in-room. Password and PIN, 2048 bit asymmetric cryptography and 25 bit symmetric session key. Pause screen is also available for an extra level of privacy for users.

Known as a purely audio company, ClearOne is moving into the video space with its new Spontania collaboration cloud software. By implementing Spontania into a user’s data center, up to thousands of users can collaborate in real-time and share video, voice and data on any device.

Spontania is also interoperable with existing IT and communication environments including PSTN/IPBX, directory authentication and scheduling tools.

Its cloud-based solutions portfolio includes Spontania Standard and Spontania Pro. Spontania Standard offers personal virtual meeting rooms with up to 25 participants per room, hosted in the ClearOne cloud. Spontania Pro offers shared virtual meeting rooms with up to 25 participants each supporting up to 1000 users with instant messaging and presence, hosted in the ClearOne cloud.

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In contrast to traditional single- and limited-source presentations, Solstice by Mersive allows any amount of information to be shared in an ad-hoc manner from any source in a meeting, including content in the cloud, data from a local network drive and media saved on a user’s device.

By enabling information and ideas to flow freely, Solstice improves participant engagement, more informed decision-making and higher-fidelity meeting results –cumulatively leading to real, substantial productivity gains in the workplace.

According to Rob Balgley, CEO of Mersive, Solstice enables content-based collaboration to be on equal footing with audio and video collaboration because Solstice neither limits the number of participants nor the amount of content – removing the final technological barriers from the way people naturally want to collaborate.

ClearOne’s second generation Beamforming Mic Array has beamforming and adaptive steering, ClearOne’s next-generation Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Noise Cancellation. The solution’s sleek design allows it to easily fit into any conferencing environment, as it can be mounted to a ceiling, wall or table.

The Beamforming Microphone Array 2 also features CONVERGE Pro 2 CONSOLE software, auto-discovery of devices and system monitoring and troubleshooting. Whether installed in a boardroom, conference room, training center, courtroom or House of Worship, users can benefit from clear audio pickup through the Beamforming Microphone Array 2’s Acoustic Intelligence technology.

BTX Technologies was excited to introduce its BookIT room scheduling solution at this year’s InfoComm show. With BookIT, employees can book a meeting room on the network from a BookIT touch panel located outside of a room, using a mobile device or using a computer.

BookIT’s intuitive interface requires little to no user training and is directly integrated with MS Exchange, Office 365 and Google Apps for Work, so no additional server is needed. BookIT is simple to implement, cost effective and creates a more efficient meeting space.

All meetings scheduled from a mobile device, computer or at the sign show up on the various devices. This is true integration with BookIT and a user’s email solution.

System Includes: 7” POE touch panel device, simple wall mounting system (brackets included), BookIT Room Scheduling Software, power adapter (when users don’t want to use POE) and a quick start guide.

Consisting of conference microphones, digital infrared tranceivers, a digital infrared receiver, a main unit encoder, battery charger, room combiner and charging cart, the TAIDEN HCS-5300 Series Digital Infrared Conference System is a portable solution ideal for rooms that are frequently reconfigured.

The TAIDEN system is also ideal for confidential meeting spaces, as the system uses infrared as a wireless medium, so the signal does not pass through walls or physical obstructions. Furthermore, the TAIDEN system ensures high-quality of near and far end audio and offers automatic video tracking. The main unit can also easily connect to the codec of a third-party video conferencing system.

One of the most popular trends in modern office spaces are standing desks, and Winsted offers a standing desk solution with an adjustable, ergonomically curved work surface with its Customized Impulse Dual Sit/Stand Console. Impulse Consoles not only allow workers to adjust the height of their desks, but also offer three monitor mount post heights, easy-access cable management, adjustable monitor mounts, electric-lift legs and more.

The WiPG-2000 wireless presentation model allows for easy presentation and collaboration in a conference room, training room, huddle room and other meeting spaces. The wePresent unit connects to any video display via an HDMI or VGA connection, allowing for wireless screen sharing from any device.

Furthermore, the wePresent wireless access point can be enabled, allowing guests to simply connect to wePresent’s Wi-Fi signal, launch the wePresent software and start their wireless presentation.