Crestron Electronics, Inc.

June 16, 2022 - If ISE was an early indicator, then the InfoComm® 2022 Tradeshow confirmed it: Trade shows are back, and Crestron is ready. Two separate display booths offered up a broad range of commercial solutions for the modern workplace at this year's show in Las Vegas.

The "buzziest" news generated by the expansive footprint of the Crestron display was twofold, namely: the concept of "meeting equity" demonstrated by the Sightline solution and the evolution of 8K displays. Beyond the press, however, InfoComm attendees were drawn to the portion of the booth that focused on the tech adopted by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ team, which offers real-time, zero-latency video via the Crestron DM NVX® family of products. An attendant esports demo — another key application of this kind of instantaneous video delivery — also drew interest. (If you're interested in learning more on the esports topic, find that info here.)

Crestron's Mike DiBella, who was primarily handling the esports presentations, noted that Sightline was clearly a hit. "The Sightline experience was absolutely dominating the chatter that I was hearing," he says.

In under five minutes (with the help of Crestron's Brad Hintze) AV Nation's Rich Fregosa managed to effectively explain the integration of the recently-acquired technologies of 1 Beyond that have been folded into Crestron's Sightline package. The notion of meeting equity (and how it differs from the concept of meeting "equality"), the ability of the Sightline AI to "find the speaker," and the experience delivered to both in-person and remote attendees is outlined here. The end result has been described as "almost like magic" by those who've seen it in action.

As for 8K, the booth featured a display that demonstrated the evolution of Crestron DM NVX® AV-over-IP technology to a software solution that delivers content to these high-resolution displays. The presentation demonstrated "the ability to simultaneously encode four 4K streams, enabling the distribution of native 8K content." As noted in our preview released just prior to InfoComm, "the resolution that 8K provides has implications for everything from dazzling signage to critical military applications to medicine."

The Crestron blog post on the subject provides a description of those implications:

There's something of a "demand loop" created by increased resolutions: An image with more pixels brings a sharper, clearer image to larger screens — which, in turn, helps drive demand for bigger displays. Instead of chaining smaller displays together for large installations like video walls, one screen will be able to provide the sharp image quality that's needed for these "monumental" effects.

The newly-enhanced Crestron VC-4 software solution drew more than a bit of attention as well — it's now more scalable than ever before. (Stay tuned for an upcoming eBook on the benefits of software controls, and how well they integrate with your existing hardware solutions.)

Trade shows also inevitably mean additions to Crestron's trophy case, and InfoComm 2022 was no exception. Honors include (among others):

• Three "Reader's Choice" awards from rAVe publications,
• A nod from Sound & Video Contractor for the Crestron 1 Beyond Hawk Intelligent Dual-Camera Tracking Solution,
• Three trophies from the Commercial Integrator 2022 BEST Awards,
• And four awards from the AV Network family of publications, including honors for Crestron Flex Phones for Microsoft Teams® Display.

The overarching message of the show overall was different than in some years past, according to Crestron's Lauren Simmen: "There was a different kind of buzz this year as I think the show was less about new product introductions and more about thinking differently with existing solutions to solve new design challenges." Sightline's a prime example of that notion.

And ultimately, the fact that the world is returning to in-person trade shows is incredibly refreshing for all concerned. DiBella noted that, "Brad [Hintze, Crestron's EVP of global marketing] made it a point to say, ‘Hey, it isn't it great to all be together and see each other?'"

"That aspect — humans interacting again — was great," he adds. "And after all these months of video conferencing, it's funny when you realize in an in-person situation that people are different heights!"