ORLANDO – InfoComm 2019 moved back to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. North America’s largest AV trade show attracted 44,129 attendees from 117 countries during the week of June 8-14. Over one third of the attendees were first time visitors, while over 1,000 companies exhibited their wares.
Although there was plenty of lighting and staging as well as video innovations on display (scroll down to the end for a booth-by-booth photo gallery), we cover many of those developments each year with our NAMM, PL+S and LDI show reports and decided to zero in on video innovations with the text section of this year’s InfoComm show report.
There were a few things of considerable interest this year. The folks at ROE Visual showed off some new LED tiles designed for installation. But what really impressed me was that they are offering their Black Marble Floor in different textures, such as glass, matte and mirror. This way each style looks very different when there is no video playing though it.
Vanguard gave us quite an education on how they manufacture their 0.94mm products and then coat the tiles in an epoxy to protect them from dirt and other elements. Their gear just may be the most road worthy design on the floor.
Another exhibitor with original and interesting products on display was Huasuny. They had rolls of rubber material with LEDs in it that let users bend the “screen” to their hearts delight, and their curtains of LED tape were also interesting. Huasuny also makes an LED screen that folds up into itself as it’s lowered down that appears to save a lot of time in set up and tear down.
Lastly, Applied Electronics showed me the first version of a video truss (with a center bar for hanging tiles) in a curved form. No more fighting truss and shifting hardware around to get a cylinder of LED products to hang perfectly. They’ve done the work for you.
Without further ado, here’s an A-to-Z (or at least A-to-Y) look at the innovations in video on display in Orlando.
Absen debuted their Aries series (AX1.5), the company’s first NPP range that has been specially designed to meet the growing demand for sub-2mm fine pitch LED in rental. It includes their Integrated Matrix Device (IMD) packaging with four-in-one pixel installation. www.usabsen.com
ADJ: The AV series of LED tiles has been selling like hotcakes. With the AV2, each panel has a pixel pitch of 2.97mm with a configuration of a 3-in-1 RGB SMD2121 LEDs. The panel can curve in convex or concave +/-5°. The brightness is 1,000 NITS. The price point is very competitive. www.adj.com
Analog Way featured their LivePremier Series of powerful 4K/8K live presentation systems, comprised of four high-performance pre-configured products: Aquilon RS1, RS2, RS3 and RS4. These have unique I/O capabilities and up to 120-megapixel throughput on Program outputs at 10bit 4:4:4 – all from a single chassis. www.analogway.com
Applied Truss and Electronics: While many companies have been offering up their version of a video truss with a center line to hang video tiles, Applied now makes a model with curved sections of truss. Of course their ground support system can hold a video wall as well. www.appliednn.com
AV Stumpfl: New this year was the Pixera one media server, which ships with the latest high performance Wings RX software. The compact 1U server model can play back uncompressed 4K at 60fps. It can be upgraded for Uncompressed 4K (4:4:4) 60fps content playback and is available with two or four outputs. www.avstumpfl.com
Avolites was on hand to demonstrate the power of Synergy. Their consoles can now talk directly with their media servers and share information between the two in a unique way. This groundbreaking technology makes the programming of media servers a snap, with quick speed and efficiency. www.avolites.com
Blackmagic Design offers everything from cameras to switchers and everything in between. Their ATEM Constellation 8K was particularly interesting. It’s a powerful switcher with four 8K DVEs, 8K inputs (40 x 12G‑SDI inputs), an 8K super source, 8K chroma key and four 8K multiviewers. www.blackmagicdesign.com
Blizzard displayed an array of their indoor 2.9mm Iris R2 panels. With an exceptional 1200nit brightness and 3840Hz refresh rate, they are designed for easy one man handling, a quick lock system makes setup a breeze. Featuring fast and accurate side locks that allow curved connections from 10° concave to 5° convex. They now offer a 2.5mm line with a 16:9 size panel. www.blizzardpro.com
Brompton Technology’s HDR (High Dynamic Range) video is here. Brompton showed the Tessera SX 40 4K processor, their highest capacity model ever. Their solution for the massive amount of pixels we need to control now was to go to a 10K fiber output. The machine has four 10-gig outputs. Also introduced was the XD Breakout box for breaking the signal down. www.bromptontech.com
Chauvet Professional utilized their F3 product, an indoor-only 3.9mm LED screen, to show off their latest products at their booth. The 1m x 0.5m LED video panel is equally suited for installations and rentals. It runs on the NovaStar control protocol and is fully front and rear serviceable, with easily accessed magnetic LED modules. They make an F4 model designed for outdoor use. www.chauvetprofessional.com
Christie revealed a new version of the Christie Micro Tile. The 10” x 10” models have a 1.25mm pitch and feature smarter software; the user can monitor the tiles through an app. A P3 option is also available for cinema color. Features include easier installation capabilities and maintenance, combined with mission-critical reliability. www.christiedigital.com
Coleder showed off their ACE Block fine pitch LED tiles with cable free connections which included a 1.56mm model for conference room.. The new Road-Ready rental line of products include a unique connection system to easily make S waves or curves. This product ranges from a 2.5mm version to an outdoor model that has a 3.9mm pitch. www.coleder.com
Desay featured its iF and Red Dot design award-winning H Series carbon fiber LED displays at InfoComm 2019 for the first time. Desay also showcased their smart touring frame and its sturdy touring cart. The pixel pitch ranges from 2.8mm and 3.9mm indoor to 3.9mm, 4.8mm, 6.9mm, 10.4mm outdoor. www.desayopto.com
Dicolor exhibited at InfoComm for their third year. Looking back, they have been pursuing excellence and chasing innovation in quality, while seeking new breakthroughs in integration product solutions. This year they offer the HT Series for installs, with five models ranging from 1.27 to 1.9mm in pixel pitch. Features include wireless connection, light weight, 16:9 ratio and 24K/4K standard resolution. www.dicolorusa.com
disguise were on hand to show you what their media servers can provide, with different models ranging from the gx range to the most powerful 4×4 Pro – which can drive 16 HD projectors or LED processors from a single server. www.disguise.one
Draper displayed their Tecvision line of projection screens, with 11 surfaces to fit your particular specification. They also offer their own fly/stacking cages for projectors as well as structures designed to free stand LED walls and various screens, including a curved Absen Acclaim wall. www.draperinc.com
Epson: The leader in projection offered up the L20000U laser projector, a compact and lightweight projector for this size output. New this year is the Pro L12000Q Native 4K Laser 3LCD Projector. For retail signage, they offered the petite LightScene EV-100 projectors for shining imagery with a 2000 lumen, sealed optical light engine. www.epson.com
Georgia Case: This manufacturer of road cases fills a special niche by designing the ultimate travelling case for any flypack system. They also provide cases for LCD displays including ones that can stay in their case while the display pops out of the top. www.georgiacase.com
Gloshine shined at Infocomm as one of the worldwide LED display leaders. With diversified LED displays, from the P1 small-pixel to the P5 hollow LED display, they can provide great support in indoor conference and exhibitions or outdoor performance and other large-scale events. www.gloshine.com
Green Hippo showcased their Hippotizer Montane+ Real-Time Media Server, which is designed to utilize Notch playback. This is a real time media server that responds to changes live. While it’s been popular in the live events market because of this, it is now appealing to many installations. The Hippotizer 4.5 software shows how easily it can do 3D projection mapping. www.green-hippo.com
GTEK/AOTO showcased their new Ironman, billed as the ultimate alternative to cabinet-based LED displays. A fan-less aluminum structure has been designed for heat dissipation and ultralight weight, while still delivering high contrast, sharp colors, uniform brightness and an IP65 rating. AOTO meanwhile displayed their CLD (mini LED) Series. https://gtek.aoto.com/
Huasuny has focused on the development and manufacture of flexible LED displays for more than 13 years. In 2019, they redefined the LED display with their LEgenD series. Offering three models ranging from 2.88 to 4.68mm in pixel pitch for indoor/outdoor rental and feature a simple structure, quick installation, light weight and foldable movement. www.huasuny.com
INFiLED gave a shot to the LED display rental market with their All for Rental Series (AR series). It retains all the features of its other rental products, which also means they can be interlocked with other panels. www.infiled.com
Kingaurora: This has been a memorable year for the Shenzhen company. The self-encapsulated DIP 3 in 1 LED display with high brightness, stability and energy saving attracted numerous visitors and achieved many orders on the spot. The curved rental LED display, which can make variable irregular shapes and comes with backup power and signal, was particularly eye-catching. www.kingaurora.com
Leyard and Planar: Leyard’s DirectLight X LED Video Wall System was on display. Fine pitch models (0.7, 0.9. 1.2, 1.5 and 1.8mm) feature seamless connections and built in processing as well as integrated off-board electronics and power supply. www.leyard.com
Liantronics: Their fine-pitch VA1.5 & VA1.2 attain an ultra-high contrast ratio, wide viewing angle, high refresh rate and silent operation. Perfectly applicable for broadcasting, critical mission, and high-end commercial displays. The super Mini LED P0.9 adopts 4-in-1 packaging technology to reduce LED malfunction and enables it to reach NTSC broadcasting-level color gamut without the Moiré effect. www.liantronics.com
Macroblock: The manufacturer of great LED drivers has come up with the next generation of high quality viewing experience. Their HDR-Optimized drivers provide true 16-bit PWM resolution at 4K while providing higher color depth. www.mblock.com.tw
Nationwide: The premier company for dry-hiring video tiles, AV equipment, cameras, flypack systems as well as lights and consoles was on hand to show what they have to offer. With 11 locations scattered across the country they are glad to support your company with any extra gear you need to rent for any sized show. www.nationwidevideo.com
NovaStar: Their R&D team works to stay ahead of industry trends and provide features and solutions before clients even realize they are needed. They’re very excited about HDR-Optima, a version of HDR10 that has been optimized for LED, designed by NovaStar and supported by their MCTRL4K controller. www.novastar.tech
Panasonic celebrated 10 years of making PTZ cameras and showed their line. Also shown was their PT-RQ50KU, Solid shine 4K — the world’ s smallest1 50,000 lumen 4K DLP Solid Shine 3-Chip laser projector. They offered a dozen different models of projectors to suit each individual need. Their mock up Esports 4K arena system was a great model. www.panasonic.com
RGB Link once again showed they have the video processing for any scale event available. The Venus X3 is user-configurable for a wide range of input/outputs. The new P (stands for preview) model can take 4K in at 60 Hz and be used as a presentation switcher as well. www.rgblink.com
Rigtec: This UK company came over her to show their expertise in designing cradles for hanging projectors. Also on hand was their Atom Grip, a single point, tilt and swivel bracket which has been designed to mount onto any Rigtec Rental Frame. They make an Atom Grip duo for heavier projectors. www.rigtec.com
ROE Visual: Not to be outdone by their highly touted Black Marble floor and Diamond 2.6 tiles released last year, ROE presented their latest products designed for Installation. The fine pitch “Amber” model comes in 0.9 to 1.875mm pitch with a 16:9 ratio with a four-in-one LED. The Jasper model is 500x500mm in size, with resolutions ranging from a 2.6 to a 5.1mm pixel pitch. www.roevisual.com
Roland showed off their array of AV gear ranging from switchers such as the V600UHD to the VR-50 HD MK II, a multi format AV mixer. The extremely cute V-02 HD is a two channel multi format mixer. It’s a switcher, scaler, expander, with audio processing and video effects. https://proav.roland.com/
Screen Innovations: SI’s Solo2, a motorized projection screen was a hit at this show, but what caught our eye was the flexglass material. It’s a durable polycarbonate material that is meant to bend and accept rear projection. The optional aluminum frame can be used for wall mounting or in a standalone setup, and it can be configured in any curve. www.screeninnovations.com
TransTech: The makers of the LedPoster showed their indoor series of digital signage posters. The standalone 572-by-1902mm frames can be fed any file for continuous play. New this year is the ability for the display to use facial recognition. It can judge your age, gender and nationality and change the media playing to a more attracting ad for that audience. www.trtled.com
Unilumin impressed visitors with their latest innovations. The Red Dot “Best of the Best” award-winning Unano has enjoyed great popularity for its groundbreaking mechanical design and highly protected features for fine pitch rental application. The UtileIII, UpadIII, and UpadIIIH LED tiles with professional touring system were shown for a hands-on experience. www.unilumin.com
Vanguard LED Displays: America’s favorite Video “Jockey” whipped up some great products this year with the Axion — the ultimate TAA compliant fine pixel pitch display that starts at 0.94mm. The Tungsten series is incredibly structurally strong and available in indoor and outdoor models with ranges between 1.9 and 3.91mm. The Cesium series offers lightweight CF frames and curving ability. www.vanguardleddisplays.com
Yestech: The MG7S P3.9 PRO covers 80 percent of all LED rental applications and adjusts between indoor and outdoor modes. It has multiple functions and various shapes. Boasting increased anti-pressure and anti-collision factors, safe performance is guaranteed with no deformation under pressure when used as a dance floor. Added heat conduction balance system spreads heat uniformly and prolongs the lifespan of the LED screen. www.yes-led.com
As noted above, while the text for this year’s InfoComm show report focuses on video innovations, there were plenty of other lighting and staging products on display in Orlando this year. Here’s a photo gallery showing a glimpse of what was on display.
