Video & A/V Vendors Show Their InnovationVideo & A/V Vendors Show Their Innovation
The video and A/V space is rife with new products, partnerships, and innovation, as showcased at Integrated Systems Europe 2018.
March 5, 2018
Another Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) has come and gone, and at this year's event, I once again spent my time running from hall to hall, meeting with clients in the enterprise communications and A/V space. ISE 2018 certainly did not disappoint in the area of new product and services announcements. The event also brought out a slew of new partnerships -- some already inked and others soon to be announced.
Important Announcement
ISE 2018 marked the unveiling of a new research and analyst firm called Recon Research. The new firm will make its official debut in Q2 2018 with a range of new offerings, a high-power team of industry analysts, and a next-gen business model that will turn some heads.
After 15 successful years at Wainhouse Research, I decided it was time for a change. Sign up now at www.reconres.com and we'll notify you when we open our doors.
Via inductive reasoning, my team came away from ISE having identified a handful of trends that are of clear interest to vendors, service providers, channel partners, and of course end-user organizations:
Huddle, Huddle, and More Huddle -- What started as a concept just a few years ago has become a dominant theme for the industry, as vendors large and small released and presented their huddle room-optimized offerings. Not surprising, given that there are more than 40 million such rooms in the world.
Meeting Room Mode -- Cloud video providers are introducing (or have already released) meeting room friendly workflows and UIs within their software apps, with a goal of simplifying and expediting the process for joining hosted meetings.
Skype and More Skype -- Vendor upon vendor upon vendor released, demoed, and discussed new and updated forms of integration with the Microsoft's Skype for Business ecosystem. (Who says A/V doesn't understand UC?)
Rebirth of the VC App -- After years of chatter and hype around WebRTC and browser-based conferencing, we are seeing a resurgence in dedicated software apps for conferencing.
Audio Does Matter -- Finally, after decades of telling people again and again that video is sexy but audio is king, the industry seems to be getting the message. The show floor was still packed with new, thinner, and larger displays, but the background noise at the show was about better audio for the meeting room.
Management of A/V Rooms -- During our whirlwind tour, we stumbled across dozens of monitoring, management, and control portals for A/V environments. While the systems vary in breadth and depth, the theme is quite clear: Flying blind won't cut it anymore.
Ideation Goes Mainstream -- Just a few years ago, the concept of ideation fell mostly on deaf ears. Today, however, ideation has become a mainstream application -- both as a stand-alone tool and as a feature embedded into other solutions and systems.
The above list is certainly not all-inclusive. For example, the topics of voice recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) came up again and again in our briefings, as did the importance of analytics and the value of cloud services.
Now that you have the top trends in mind, click to the next page to take a look at highlights from many of the companies my team had briefings with at ISE, reviewed in alphabetical order.
Click to the next page...
Altia Systems
Enhancements continue on the PanaCast camera platform. For those not in the know, PanaCast is a USB camera solution that leverages multiple camera elements to provide a single video stream with a 180-degree field of view. According to the company, more than 1,200 companies in 38+ countries use PanaCast solutions every day. At ISE, Altia highlighted demos of the PanaCast 2, the first Panoramic-5K 180 degree intelligent vision platform, and also demonstrated Intelligent Zoom, PanaCast Vivid (HDR), and the PanaCast Whiteboard capability. We also saw a demo of next-generation algorithms for people detection, counting, and tracking. AI here we come!
Ashton Bentley
The Ashton Bentley "meeting room in a kit" story continues to evolve. The company's impressively sized booth included a wide range of complete meeting rooms of different shapes and sizes, using different video codecs.
At the event, Ashton Bentley introduced Meeting Spaces, a third-generation combination of A/V technology and furniture that provides everything needed for meetings, presentations, collaboration, and more. Just add the video codec of your choice, and that's it. To simplify installation, the solution includes two boxes: an under-table box and a "behind the display" dubbed the "A" box.
In its booth, the company also demoed its enhanced display technology, including a new 75" 4K display available with or without touch, as well as its integration with a Cisco Touch 10 panel.
While not a well-known vendor worldwide, codec-agnostic Ashton Bentley has partnered with numerous recognized vendors - some of whom resell Ashton Bentley under their own brand name.
Audinate
These are the guys who brought you Dante, a platform for the transmission of digital audio over standard IP networks. Dante has been licensed by over 400 microphone, speaker, A/V, and networking vendors, and is embedded in more than 1,300 products to date. 
Audinate announced the worldwide commercial availability of Dante Domain Manager, network management software for Dante audio networks that enables enhanced security through customizable user roles and permissions; increased scalability by supporting "domains" of products that can span subnets; and improved visibility with real-time alerts, customizable dashboards, and audit logs.
The event also marked the European unveiling of the Dante AVIO line of adapters, pictured to the right. This family of analog-Dante adapters provides a cost-effective way to bring the benefits of audio networking to legacy audio products.
Avocor
For high performance touch-display vendor Avocor, ISE 2018 was all about highlighting recent partnerships. For example, the company's newly inked relationship with Zoom. Other partnerships include Intel (via the Unite program), Huddly, Nureva, Flat Frog, Logitech, and others. Take your favorite touch-ready collaboration software, add an Avocor display, and ideate away.
Click to the next page...
Barco
At this year's ISE, Barco's massive (250 square meter) booth included a mixture of display/video wall technology and collaboration solutions, including demos of Barco ClickShare, its wePresent product line (yes – both ClickShare and wePresent are Barco products), and the weConnect learning solution.
The company also highlighted Overture, an IT-friendly, centralized, software-based A/V monitoring and control solution that requires no programming -- only configuration via a web UI. Even advanced features like alerts and notifications can be enabled with only a few clicks. (For more information, please read our white paper, "Meeting Room Management for the Next-Gen Enterprise.")
Biamp
The takeaway from Biamp was a bit different. We met with the new CEO (70 days on the job as of our meeting), who appears focused on leveraging the company's strength in R&D, combined with its existing solid audio product line, to create complete solution sets aimed at customer needs. Interesting quote: "If double-sided sticky tape is what our customers need, Biamp will provide it."
His growth plans include both organic and inorganic paths. Expect to see increased focus on developing tight relationships with channel partners as well.
Bose
Bose Professional highlighted some of its recently introduced products including:
ControlSpace EX conferencing solution, which includes a Dante-based digital signal processor (DSP) and several under-table Dante endpoints/interfaces (see our test results)
Version 5.0 of the ControlSpace Designer software, including support for the ControlSpace EX products
The S1 Pro multi-position PA system
The ShowMatch Systems solution package targeting professional users in the rental sound and events/staging community
Bose also hosted a well-attended product demonstration day where new products were demonstrated and discussed in detail.
Cisco
Cisco's booth was jammed with attendees experiencing demos across a range of applications. On the endpoint front, we saw team collaboration workflow with a Spark Board 70, a Spark app with annotation. We also got to see in action the new Spark Room 70, a fully integrated single or dual screen 70'' system (based on a new codec platform) with fixed-lens cameras and automated digital speaker tracking (also worth noting, Cisco is a Best of Enterprise Connect finalist for this product).
On the infrastructure front, Cisco showed a Spark control hub, which enables monitoring and management of Spark deployments; a new project workplace portal; and servers supporting common collaboration activities, including integration with custom UIs like Apple TV. The end-to-end Spark story continues to evolve.
If we detected any overall change in the Spark tides at ISE, it might be a slight shift away from cloud-cloud-cloud to cloud-CPE-hybrid. Stay tuned.
Click to the next page...
ClearOne
With a group of recent patent awards, ClearOne was showing off its microphone technology, as well as its Skype for Business capabilities within its Collaboration Pro line of room video conferencing systems and CONVERGE Pro 2 product line. These devices can now register on Skype for Business or Office 365 servers.
In addition, the company announced a new version of its VIEW Pro system. New features include a web-based UI, a re-design of the configuration tool area to simplify common tasks, and more.
Comm-Tec
Our friends at European distributor Comm-Tec showed off the latest and greatest technologies from their global partners. Noteworthy items included:
The Barco Overture software-based control system, which runs on standard off-the-shelf hardware and sports template-based HTML 5 user interfaces
The QSC next-generation platform offering audio, video, and control within a single environment
The Visionect/GetJoan wireless e-ink meeting room scheduling system offering 12 weeks of battery life and a customizable GUI
Comm-Tec is also a leading (if not the #1) distributor of Barco ClickShare.
Crestron
A/V market powerhouse Crestron made quite a splash at ISE with a combination of product-related and business-related announcements, as well as ongoing system demos.
Notably, what we view as the most important Crestron announcement at ISE, the debut of the DM XiO Edge, wasn't even formally announced. As far as we can tell, there is no press release on this, and a search for XiO Edge on the Crestron website returns zilch. XiO Edge is essentially a server-based version of the company's 3-Series control system. So customers enjoy Crestron-level reliability, redundancy, and security (including authentication and encryption), in a scalable, IT-friendly form factor. After years of asking (almost begging) for such an offering, we're glad to see it happen.
Visitors also saw demos of the DM XiO Director, a new IT-friendly A/V matrix offering centralized configuration, management, and control of DM NVX network A/V systems. Crestron also showed XiO Cloud, a cloud-based provisioning platform that offers centralized configuration, monitoring, management, and control of various Crestron products including Crestron Mercury and XiO Edge centralized control systems (see, "No Jitter Roll: Five for Friday").
Am I the only one seeing a common theme here? Centralization. Scalability. IT-Friendliness. It's a new day at New Jersey-based Crestron.
In addition, the company announced and demoed FreeForm (shown to the right), an appliance designed for mounting behind displays that enables wired or wireless presentation with auto-switching. FreeForm is designed for use in open enterprise spaces (lobbies, lounges, etc.) and includes built-in AirMedia 2.0 wireless presentation.
We also saw the debut of AirMedia 2.0, the updated version of Crestron's AirMedia wireless presentation technology offering. AirMedia 2.0 is built into a range of Crestron solutions, including Mercury.
ISE was also the coming out party for the AirBoard PoE electronic whiteboard solution (shown to the right) that captures dry erase board content and makes it viewable on any display device. AirBoard is the result of Crestron's recently inked partnership with Kaptivo (also announced during ISE).
Finally, Crestron also introduced and demoed a new line of wall-mount media presentation controllers, a new line of Horizon keypads, and four new FlipTops.
Click to the next page...
Global Presence Alliance (GPA)
We were pleased to participate in several GPA events at ISE, including a pre-event cocktail party with the GPA channel partners and a pretty intense panel discussion focused on the reality of A/V in the global enterprise.
GPA's momentum continues to grow, as does its list of members and roster of global customers.
Harman
The folks from Harman/AMX made a number of product announcements at ISE. The AMX N2400, for example, is a network-based windowing processor that supports multiple 4K60 streams and 4x1 windowing, without sacrificing security.
But we spent most of our time talking about the company's Acendo collaboration family including the Acendo Core (a PC-based appliance that supports one-click Skype for Business meeting launch, wireless content sharing, room scheduling, and more) and the Acendo Vibe (a USB "conferencing sound bar" that includes speakers, mics, and a wide-angle camera). We have yet to fully test Acendo in our lab, but the demos we've seen at shows have been impressive.
Huddle Room Technologies (HRT)
Our friends from Italy announced the general availability of Huddle Hub One (HHO) and Huddle Hub One+ (HHO+) products. These products support device-to-device presentation for up to 30 users, and a multi-camera UC feed for up to 6 users and 1 webcam). HHO+ also supports a webcam and local room display. An enterprise (server-based) version designed for centralized deployment and offering support for four simultaneous sessions is coming soon. For those familiar with HRT, the company's marketing message has shifted from "a Skype enhancement for remote collaboration," (although this mode is still supported if the meeting room host launches a video conference) to "person to person in-room collaboration/content sharing" -- a use case that is far more common.
InFocus
InFocus debuted a range of new laser projectors including the INL5350 Series for large venues and INL140 Series short-throw projectors. In addition, the company showed its new 55-inch version of Mondopad, which, like the rest of the Mondopad line, supports HD video conferencing, interactive whiteboarding, web browsing, data sharing, presentation, document annotation, wireless casting, and more. In addition, the company demoed its Jupiter StreamPoint line of streaming encoders enabling users to upgrade their infrastructure to stream, process, and record video while supporting PixelNet 2.0, Catalyst, and Canvas installations.
Finally, the company highlighted its newly extended relationship with ideation solution provider MultiTaction, which allows InFocus to sell MultiTaction hardware and software worldwide (via authorized channel partners). While not announced or even whispered, we would not be surprised to see MultiTaction's software and UI make its way over to InFocus touch displays at some point.
Lifesize
The eye candy in the Lifesize booth was the company's redesigned mobile app for collaborating on the go, but perhaps the most significant technical feature was the ability of Lifesize Cloud clients to provide direct media connections for point-to-point calls -- the result being improved video quality and lower Internet bandwidth loads. Lifesize also showed in its booth Polycom and Cisco video systems integrated with the Lifesize Cloud video service, as well as a new Outlook add-in for scheduling.
Click to the next page...
Logitech
Logitech officially announced the SmartDock Flex expansion kit. Flex includes two parts: the Flex Base that mounts to the bottom of the Logitech SmartDock (see our evaluation of Logitech SmartDock), and the Flex Extender Box that is installed near/behind the room display.
The Flex Base and Extender Box are connected via a single CAT-x cable that carries data, audio, video, and power between the base and extender box at distances up to 50 feet, as shown in the diagram to the right. This single-cable connection approach saves time, reduces complexity, and results in a very clean overall installation. And notably, SmartDock Flex effectively addresses the primary weakness we saw in Logitech SmartDock during our hands-on testing -- cable management.
Logitech SmartDock is designed for use with Skype for Business as part of a Skype Room System (SRS). However, SmartDock Flex also supports A/V passthrough, which allows the room system's camera, audio system, and display to be used with other collaboration tools (e.g. Cisco WebEx, Zoom, BlueJeans, etc.) running on a user's notebook PC.
MediaPlatform
While this company is really focused on an end-to-end platform for live streaming and VOD content management, MediaPlatform is also embracing conferencing and collaboration via interoperability with Polycom, Cisco, and Microsoft Skype for Business through its strategic partnership with Pexip. The Pexip relationship is also focused on making video meetings (including multi-point meetings) more "stream-able." We also enjoyed a strong demo of the company's new Video Business Intelligence software focused on providing detailed insight into the quality of experience (QoE) during webcasts by automatically capturing, aggregating, and presenting experience data provided by each user/player.
Mersive
Recently acquired by OpenGate Capital, this innovative wireless presentation software company used ISE to land a beachhead in EMEA. Not afraid of a little risk, Mersive had a very large booth and was showing alpha code of Solstice Kepler, software that displays usage graphically by date, by location, by device as well as system status for all deployed Mersive rooms. The company's flagship product is Solstice itself, which is software to share and control any amount of content from laptops and mobile devices to a meeting room display. Users can wirelessly stream device screens, application windows, HD videos, etc. Mersive also showed Solstice room scheduling and support for five new languages: Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Traditional Chinese.
MultiTaction
Ideation broke through the noise level this year at ISE, and MultiTaction's Canvus is an example of a highly refined software app that allows users to visualize data, socialize ideas, educate clients, etc. (shown below). At the eventthe company announced a strategic partnership with InFocus under which InFocus will sell MultiTaction software worldwide. This announcement extends a previous working relationship under which MultiTaction resold InFocus interactive PC displays.
Pexip
Every vendor needs a Microsoft story, and Pexip is no different. Pexip showed its Microsoft-certified video and content interoperability solution for Skype for Business. We witnessed an impressive demo of a Pexip-hosted Skype for Business meeting that included a Cisco Spark Room Kit, a Microsoft Surface Hub, a Skype Room System (in a Logitech SmartDock), a Polycom Group series endpoint, and WebRTC clients - all with their native experiences intact. That's the key -- keeping the native experience intact. The Pexip meeting platform includes native and plug-in-free scheduling from within Outlook, and all-new clients for both desktop and mobile users. With all of these features and functions, Pexip is looking beyond B2B and into B2C opportunities in markets such as banking and healthcare.
Click to the next page...
Polycom
As far as we can tell, Polycom did not make any major product announcements at ISE. However, the company's booth was jumping with demos of various products including:
Pano -- a wireless presentation appliance offering touch-display support and a handful of ideation features including whiteboarding (see our evaluation report). Also worth noting, Polycom is one of six finalists for the Best of Enterprise Connect 2018 for the Pano product.
Polycom MSR -- a family of Skype Room System (SRS) bundles including a Surface Pro installed within a Polycom MSR Dock, and additional Polycom audio/video peripherals (depending on model ordered). For example, the MSR 200 is designed for small rooms and includes the Surface Pro, MSR Dock, a 1080px webcam, and a Polycom Trio 8500. According to Polycom, MSR is now shipping.
During our meeting at the booth, Polycom mentioned that its Trio speakerphone is, and we quote, "flying off the shelves" in both audio-only and audio + video flavors.
As one might expect, Polycom's booth also included a range of Polycom phones -- both Open SIP and Skype for Business versions, as well as other Microsoft-friendly solutions (e.g. the Polycom Group Series video endpoints).
Prysm
Prysm announced the general availability this month of two new native apps for its visual collaboration solution -- one for Windows 10-based devices, and the other for iPhones. These apps extend the power of the Prysm work experience from the conference room to the desktop to the mobile device. Prysm for Desktop allows users to connect to visual workspaces and view/share content, files, notes, sketches, and more. Prysm for iPhone allows mobile users to engage in Prysm projects, share files and web content, and add ideas and notes to sessions. In addition, the iPhone app allows users to quickly and securely log in to Prysm-enabled displays directly from an iPhone. Note also that Prysm technology (meaning software) was featured in several other booths including Avocor, Leyard, Planar, Unilumin, and Urben.
QSC
This is an audio company that is very much focused on breaking down the barriers and silos between audio, video, and control within the meeting room. This is the concept behind the Q-SYS platform -- the convergence of audio, video, and control capabilities within a single software-based offering. In other words, customers no longer need separate hardware to create a complete system.
At the show, QSC launched a new version of Q-SYS Control with an improved drag-and-drop approach to creating user control interfaces (UCIs) onto native Q-SYS touch screen controllers, as well as a new Block Controller component, which is a visual coding tool that makes sophisticated scripting easier. Also demoed was Q-SYS Reflect, a new monitoring and management system that allows clients to manage their A/V equipment like the rest of their IT estate.
Sennheiser
Sennheiser was all about microphones -- wired and wireless. In addition to the broad range of devices shown on the stand, Sennheiser introduced its new Control Cockpit portal, allowing customers to manage and monitor their Sennheiser devices. (Think about battery status for wireless microphones and how important monitoring mic batteries in meeting rooms can be in the enterprise environment.) Bottom line: The new focus of Sennheiser revolves around the topic of "Digital Workflow by Sennheiser" and the features of the Sennheiser Control Cockpit.
Click to the next page...
StarLeaf
The headline at the StarLeaf booth was the StarLeaf app, which was first shown at last year's Enterprise Connect, formally announced at last year's InfoComm, and officially available in late September 2017. It may not be new, but the company is quite proud of its new UI and the associated ease of use/workflow. For those who have become accustomed to the ease-of-use of browser-based conferencing and collaboration, the use of a client app often provides improved ease-of-use and functionality. StarLeaf is no exception.
On the business side, StarLeaf has been successfully growing its business by demonstrating how the company's cloud infrastructure and service works seamlessly with third-party endpoints as well as their own. Skype for Business is the other big story here; at the event, we also participated in a refresher tour of the StarLeaf Skype for Business endpoint and the company's management portal for these endpoints.
Videxio
Several interesting bits of news came from this booth. The first was the launch of Videxio's Skype for Business gateway that enables Videxio users and systems (SIP) to directly dial call Skype users or systems, while offering all participants a native calling experience. In addition, Meeting Room Mode within the My Meeting Video app allows users to join scheduled meetings at the push of a button. This calendar integration supports one-tap joining into video meetings hosted on Videxio, Zoom, Skype for Business, BlueJeans, Cisco WebEx, Cisco Spark, Pexip, and more. We also saw a preview of soon-to-ship software that harmonizes the user experience across mobile, desktop, and web.
Urben
While running between halls, we stumbled across the urben booth. Founded by a team of ex-integrators and engineers, urben offers stand-alone, free-standing floor-mounted frames and turnkey media walls that eliminate the need for custom millwork or wall-mounted racks/brackets. Urben systems, as shown on the right, are technology agnostic and are designed for quick system installation and easy maintenance.
To buy an urben, you specify the type (frame or media wall), the number and size of displays (e.g. dual 75" displays), and the color. The picture to the right shows a single display urben frame with a recessed Cisco Spark Room kit.
Yamaha (Revolabs)
The company announced the first customer-ship of its CS-700 huddle room solution in January. For those of you who haven't see this product, the CS-700 is an all-in-one USB audio/video solution including an integrated microphone, speaker, and camera designed for small-to-medium spaces (see our evaluation results). The CS-700 A/V's camera has a 120-degree wide angle lens, features integrated SIP capabilities, and supports centralized device management over IP. On a corporate front, it's worth noting that the company's booth clearly stated that Revolabs is now (and perhaps finally) Yamaha, or more specifically a part of the Yamaha Unified Communications department.
Learn more about Video Collaboration & A/V at Enterprise Connect 2018, March 12 to 15, in Orlando, Fla. Register now using the code NOJITTER to save an additional $200 off the Regular Rate or get a free Expo Plus pass.
