The Latest From the 2018 InfoComm in Las Vegas
InfoComm is the premier conference in the United States focused on audiovisual technology. The event includes many exhibitors, a diverse group of attendees from 110 countries and thousands of products for audio, video, home automation, security, and more. Fearing’s VP of Engineering, Ehren Tresner, recently attended InfoComm in Las Vegas and we sat down with him to talk more about it.
Q: Overall, what technology was everyone talking about at Infocomm?
Tresner: Video walls are even bigger than they’ve been before. They have been at the show for years, but this year they were everywhere you looked and the resolution and picture keeps getting better and better!
Also, a lot of big companies are implementing device management software platforms for larger corporate rolls outs. As these solutions roll out, it will become very helpful in proactively managing company’s devices. They are mostly cloud-based, which a lot of customers are asking for. It’s a good way to manage all the devices (meaning all of the audio and video components) across all corporate environments in multiple locations. This makes a way to manage a company’s hardware and software more effectively from a central location.
Q: Where is Fearing’s hitting the mark with what’s trending?
Tresner: One of the popular trends over the last several years has been video over IP. IP networks are capable of handling more than just internet using existing network infrastructure and Fearing’s is already completing a lot of projects in this area.
In addition to video over IP, Fearing’s is very experienced with video walls – we’ve done a lot of commercial design and installs over the last few years. We’ve highlighted some of these projects on our blog.
Q: How will homes and businesses operate differently 5 years from now based on technology being developed today?
Tresner: In general, hardware and interfaces are disappearing. We are moving in a direction towards voice and gesture controls, and so much of our technology is becoming software-based, which is a trend that will be even more prominent in the next five years. Many of the trends showing up at the conference are things that Fearing’s has been implementing on a daily basis. Nowadays, there is more of a need to have one specific platform to manage all of your systems which ultimately requires us to be proactive of keeping software and systems up to date. Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) will also affect the next five years, and it is already starting to trickle into residential. For example, there are some security cameras that have the ability to distinguish family members and if anything or anyone unfamiliar is caught on camera, the system will alert the owner.
AI will become more and more integrated into all these devices and this technology will eventually carry over from residential to commercial. Take the Amazon’s Alexa for example. Many of us have an Alexa at home but we’re not yet at the point where it is in all of our conference rooms at work.
While InfoComm 2018 may have been a source of innovation for some attendees, it showed us at Fearing’s Audio Video Security that we’re already providing the forward-looking solutions companies need. Are you wondering if some of these emerging technologies are the right solution for your business? Please contact us for a free consultation.
