InfoComm 2016: What’s New in the Cloud?

The West Coast networking manufacturer continues to gain momentum in the residential and commercial markets. At the 2016 InfoComm show Pakedge showed its NK-1-CP Controller, and the company says this new space-saving device has been developed to serve integrators in a variety of ways. Pakedge explains this solution serves integrators as a network control device and as a BakPak appliance to enable integrators to remotely manage their clients’ networks. BakPak is Pakedge’s cloud-based system that uses a “fog+cloud” approach that features artificial intelligence to remotely scan, respond and react in real time to evolving network conditions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 we naturally want to collaborate.

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.

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.”