The Day Two of InfoComm India 2020 GoVIRTUAL has had its own excitement in that it had some of the most anticipated and topical things for taking. The day opened with its two ‘Virtual Theatres’ taking off with two very topical subjects of Future Preparedness of the Indian Healthcare Sector and Uncovering new age of cyber-attacks generated by nation state actors in Theatre 1 and 2 respectively.
Both the sessions were panel discussions and broached the issues that have been impacting the domains in the recent past, and how the issues could be addressed. Of a particular interest was the way cyber crimes have been causing panic at a macro level challenging the very functionality of institutions of governance.
The issues as brought out by Dr. Triveni Singh IPS, SP-Cyber Crimes, Uttar Pradesh, and Subramanyam Gupta Boda, CIO at the realty major Brigade Group did provide a lot of thought for measures required to be taken.
With a brief gap after the session on Cyber crimes, Samsung ‘virtually’ stole the thunder in that it launched the high-end version of its revolutionary Flip 2.0 interactive panel that fascinated the world at ISE 2020. While the ISE event was treated with 55-inch, and 65-inch panels, InfoComm India 2020 GoVIRTUAL played the global launch platform for the 85-inch panel, that packaged an enhanced experience of visibility and form factor with the existing features from the ISE launch.
The launch event was like over-subscribed issue with as many as 300 viewers from across the industry spectrum watching event. Puneet Sethi, VP-Samsung Enterprise Business, and Vikas Sanwal-General Manager, Samsung Enterprise Business unveiled the product while Sourav Chakraborty, Deputy General Manager detailed the features of the solution to the understandably awed audiences.
Just only for a recap, the Flip 2.0 is an easy-to-use digital board providing smooth pen and brush mode, enhanced connectivity options and a variety of convenient features on a larger 85-inch, UHD display. It provides an intuitive tool for up to as many as 10 people to write and draw simultaneously enabling all the participants to actively and directly engage in the presentation proceeding.
More, all the 10 users can freely write or draw any text or figures or shapes with the Flip’s passive pen, and then can erase with the hand, without needing any other material.
Samsung followed it up with the first trade show launch of its recently released Business TV that is apparently designed keeping in view the modern demands of small and medium businesses like high-end restaurants, shopping enclaves and designer retail stores etc. Said to be engineered to operate for as many as 16 hours a day, and equipped with on/off timer to automatically operate during set business hours, the new Business TV system comes loaded with over 100 content templates for DIY content management, allowing businesses to create their own content, without any additional investments. Some of the templates include vertical orientation, promotions that display content alongside TV programmes, motion-embedded, seasonal sale and other pre-designed layouts providing business perfect visuals for different occasions.
Remotely controllable that it is, the Business TV is operable with Android and iOS devices.
Another interesting session of the day was on 10 AV Standards that the AV professionals are supposed to know. Presented by AVIXA’s Volunteer Instructor T S Gopalakrishnan, the session detailed on the Standards followed by some very interesting Q&A. The standards as listed out by the presenter comprised:
- Audio coverage uniformity in listener areas
- Standard guide for audio-visual design and coordination processes
- Project image system contrast ratio
- AV systems performance verification
- Audio, video and control architectural drawing symbols standard
- Rack design for AV systems
- Rack building for AV systems
- Recommended practice for lighting for small and medium VC rooms
There was that oft-debated question on most multinational corporates not following the AV standards in their technology deployments, asking for more informed decisions from the managements.
Other interesting products on show included mainly Genelec’s premium Smart IP Loudspeakers that were launched at the ISE 2020 but haven’t hit the markets in Asia and India on the intended scale, in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.
“Thanks to the pandemic, we couldn’t move as dynamically as we would have loved, especially since these products are meant for speciality venues with unique applications, and we took this platform to be able to reach out the discerning user sections,” said Arun Kumar, Genelec’s Regional Sales Manager for Asia & Middle East.
For him, the InfoComm India GoVIRTUAL one platform to connect with the target users.
“People must get used to platforms like this to be able to gain the real value from it,” he observed.
Says Chicco Hiranandani, Director-Marketing for Shure in the SAARC region: “There are pros and cons to everything. The positives for this platform is no traffic to deal with, no rushing from meeting to meeting; the virtual setup means filtering a lot of people that would not necessarily be relevant.”
“I think that the ability to filter by type of attendee and interest is very powerful solution,” he said. “However, it is always great to meet in person. The energy is different.”
According to him, the organizers have built a good bridge and provided walkways too; it was for the users to walk the channel and see what’s up at the other end.
“The technology platform is incredible; that too they (the InfoComm ranks) have built in such short time,” felt Syndhya Ravikumar of Cybernetyx. The interactive vision technology solutions provider is promoting among other things its popular Thinker Series – retrofit devices transforming standard displays with integrated interactive whiteboarding and VC.
There are two digital signage exhibitors of interest- the Shenzhen-based Screenage Electronics that is three years into Indian market, and the Taiwanese IBASE Technology Inc. that is actively seeking inroads into Indian market.
Perhaps, keeping in with the market sentiment and requirement, Screenage Electronics put on demo its latest Hand Sanitizing Dispenser along with its other ranges of signage and screen solutions for indoor and outdoor applications.
“Our day one was really good; and it is okay thus far,” said Alex Michael, CEO of Screenage India. “We hope the visitors we got today are genuine,” he said. “We will gain real insight once we delve into the details post show.”
IBASE Technology is demoing its range of digital signage media players aimed at diverse vertical markets such as transport, finance, retail and hospitality segments.
Considering the current IoT trends, and telecom winds of 5G, a product of interest on demo was the ACT Power (Taiwan)’s Smart 5G IoT Gateway ECN-T5R terminal that is said to provide LTE/5G communication for M2M applications.
Smart IoT gateway that it is, the ECN-T5R solution is a hardware platform and web-based management interface providing industry standard Ethernet and RS-232, which can be directly connected with professional industrial control acquisition equipment, detectors and local network.
The system not only provides a fast and cost-effective communication solution, but also enables rapid development of application systems without changing the original system architecture. A much valued product for those in manufacturing and system integration who want fast-track and time to market solutions.
A new, perhaps, pleasing feature of the InfoComm India 2020 GoVIRTUAL was its programme lacing with install case studies. While DayOne had two presentations on install case studies, DayTwo followed with two more-
Ashish Bajaj, Director-Enterprise Sales at Harman International (India) presented one of their prestigious installs at Mayfair Lake Resort at Raipur in Chattisgarh. Launched in 2019, the luxurious 124-room lake resort features a slew of suites, spa, salon, fitness center, swimming pool and more.
Equipped with world-class audio, video, lighting and control systems from Harman, the project featured an array of products from Martin, JBL Professional, Crown, AMX, BSS, dbx, Soundcraft and AKG.
Second one was by Globus Infocom, who presented one of their prideful installs for Directorate of Higher Education in Goa. The deployment was about “implementation of advanced Smart Classroom & Virtual Classroom Solution” in colleges under the Directorate. It was designed to highlight how colleges are adopting advanced learning practices to make quality education accessible regardless of location and time.
