I spent the last month filling my brain with information. As is my custom at trade shows I try and stop in at as many booths as possible to see what pops out at me. InfoComm 2016 took place in June, and I strolled the aisles looking for new cool stuff and people to chat with.
New Video Tech
This particular show caters to a lot of video elements, more so than lighting. But what’s so different here, one might ask, as there are a bazillion video walls everywhere you look. I’ll tell you what caught my eye, two products on display from Leyard/Planar. This company won seven prestigious awards at the show — starting with the TWA 1.2 and 1.8 models of LED Video Walls. I’m standing with my eyes a mere 12 inches from the LEDs, and I cannot pick out the individual pixels. It looks like I’m staring at a projection screen. Top that off with the Planar OLED display. This stuff is a transparent video surface. One can put information on a transparent surface that appears to be glass. This revolutionary display allows users to view what is shown on a glass video screen while still being able to see through it. Picture text gliding along a window in front of you while you view a museum exhibit. While I’m sure this was designed for signage use, one knows it will make its presence known on the live event scene eventually.
Samsung had a similar idea, but they were using mirrors in front of video displays. One minute you are looking at your full body in a mirror. The next moment you look down and you appear to be wearing a new set of red high heeled shoes. Clever gimmick, whether you are in an amusement park fun house or a storefront display.
I stopped by this booth by Renewed Vision because they had something that caught my eye. The ProPresenter Scoreboard software. This company makes great products like ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer 2, but this new product fills a void in my video arsenal. I’ve always wondered how I could incorporate scoreboard functions into my computer for faux game show skits that seem to appear in corporate events I do every year. This program makes it easy to simulate a typical scoreboard for such needs.
While we speak of media servers, I caught up with the team from Green Hippo as well.
Their Hippotizer Version 4 is an industry leading 2D and 3D media server in use worldwide on live events and performances. They have expanded on their London based operation by opening up a new office in Los Angeles, making it easier for people to get ahold of their products as well as the always-available support team.
Nifty Lighting, Too
Lighting-wise there were a few nifty items on display. Elation was showing the Fuze Series™, a dynamic range of LED wash luminaires (moving head or IP65-rated PAR versions) with single-lens RGBW COB LEDs for a wide choice of colors and homogenized field of light. I loved this fixture as it has a lens across the front of the light source and the user doesn’t see individual LED cells. I also should note that they had a curvable LED screen, the EVHD3, which looked pretty sweet.
Chauvet had their impressive new Maverick line of fixtures available to play with including the MK2 wash fixture, which we test out in this month’s issue (page 56). They also had The STRIKE 1, a blinder powered by an intense 230W warm white LED source. This fixture not only makes a great blinder, but also an awesome strobe or even a wide area flood light. It’s got an I65 rating for good outdoor use, and you can snap the fixtures together on a yoke to make a grid.
Blizzard had a bunch of twirling fixtures as well as some conventionals. The KryoMorph arc spot fixture joined the twirling Stiletto GLO19, Snake Eye and the Blockhead series of LED lights. But what I really liked was those ThunderStik strips of theirs.
Lastly, the coolest thing on the whole floor was a new prototype fixture that Mega-Lite had stashed in the far back corner of a live stage. I’m just going to tease you here. They weren’t really showing it off, as they are working out some minor kinks. I am sworn to secrecy, as the last thing I want is someone else jumping on the bandwagon with this concept. That didn’t stop me from getting up close and personal with this ingenious fixture. Mark my words — when this bad mamajama hits the scene later this year, they will be everywhere. The TV shows will be lining up to grab these like hotcakes off the griddle.
For Nook Schoenfeld’s introduction to the July 2016 issue of PLSN, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-tz4FMXP8.
