HAMILTON, N.J.—Considered to be the world’s largest audiovisual tradeshow, InfoComm 2012, being held June 13–15 in Las Vegas, will host more than 925 exhibitors and thousands of media professionals.
Even though it’s right on the heels of the NAB Show, InfoComm appeals to broadcast vendors as it focuses on verticals—Houses of Worship (HOW), corporate video, healthcare, government, higher education, and large events staging—that continue to increase their reliance on broadcast quality video solutions.
Many vendors say they find the show an excellent venue for meeting with systems integrators, resellers, channel partners and distributors, as well as end-users.
RECORD CROWDS EXPECTED
“We’re expecting our biggest show, with over 35,000 visitors and 500,000 square feet of show floor exhibits,” said Jason McGraw, CAE, InfoComm International’s senior vice president for expositions. “Our pre-registration is doing extremely well and we expect a record show.
In accord with the show’s live events theme, Tony Ricotta, company manager of “Viva Elvis at Cirque du Soleil” in Las Vegas, will be presenting the keynote address.
InfoComm will also feature a dynamic digital signage showcase, 40 sessions presented by experts, some 250 audio exhibitors, more than a dozen audio demo rooms, and the industry’s most complete display of high-end projectors and displays.
FAMILIAR COMPANIES EXHIBITING
“InfoComm is a very important event on our calendar,” said Richard Threadgill from Grass Valley. “It’s an effective way for us to promote our product portfolio to pro-video customers, like the HOW market, as well as the integrators, engineers and other consultants that serve them.”
“We’ll be exhibiting in our distributor’s booth... With its large booth presence, our distributor, Starin Marketing, draws in big crowds interested in seeing all the major brands they distribute,” he said.
Grass Valley will show Edius 6.5, a major release for its HD NLE that expands the list of supported advanced codecs, native file formats and acquisition formats.
Panasonic plans to present its enterprise solutions working in dynamic “Customer Experience Zones,” rather than static displays. Following the early April 2012 launch of the company’s new business-focused solutions group, the company also wanted its exhibit to be solutions-oriented.
“When customers enter our booth, they’ll see different zones featuring solutions built from the products we offer, including professional cameras, phone systems, projectors and digital signage,” said Susan Campbell from Panasonic. “The displays will demonstrate how Panasonic solutions can benefit large-venue projection, hospitality, lobby and educational applications, among others.”
JVC will also exhibit its products in the Starin Marketing booth, with a focus on cameras, displays, and combo hard drive/Blu-ray record decks. “We’ve chosen products that are ideal for the InfoComm audience,” said Lon Mass, of JVC Professional Products. “These products were just introduced at NAB, and many were developed in response to customer and reseller requests.”
JVC plans to show the GY-HM150 compact handheld 3-CCD model that records in .MP4, .AVI, or .MOV formats onto dual cost-effective SDHC. Also showing will be the GY-HM600 next-generation handheld ProHD camera.
Broadcast Pix’s Paul Lara, considers InfoComm an effective way to reach systems integrators and also end-users.
“Systems integrators have a particularly strong presence at InfoComm and we tailor our message to them,” Lara said. “The more they understand the versatility and flexibility of our systems, the greater the likelihood they’ll recommend our products for their turnkey installations.”
Broadcast Pix plans to show its Mica 500 and Granite 6000 video control centers with software that adds a more intuitive touchscreen and virtual set creation.
Hitachi will feature its broadcast cameras, including the new SK-HD1200, the Z-HD5000 studio/field HDTV camera, and the HV-HD33 POV camera.
“With today’s tight budgets, we believe our price/performance message will really resonate at InfoComm,” said Ken Cyr of Hitachi Kokusai.
“The two hot trends for InfoComm will be managing cloud content and tablets for wireless control,” said Pesa’s Dan Holland. “Both Android and Apple tablets are offering up unique and creative ways to offset the usually complex and difficult ways of having to set up fixed control systems like Crestron and AMX.”
Pesa will introduce the C58 digital media-processing platform that can manage a mix of HD-SDI, component, and IP video feeds for playback or network streaming distribution.
“This is a fantastic venue where manufactures like us can sit down with real-world users and installers to collaborate on next- generation AV solutions,” Holland said.
