The 2022 edition of InfoComm India – happening as it did, physically, after a gap of two years – beckoned the industry with its punch line sounding like the otherwise cinematic three ‘R’s- ‘Reconnect, Refresh and Revitalize.’ It, however, ended on a high note by adding a fourth R –Rejuvenation – with stakes evidently getting reinforced with a very very promising dynamic- the arrival of Made-in-India AV.
Yes. The coming back of InfoComm India earlier this month brought along with it that big aspirational element which is certainly bigger than the hitherto known order of the regulars.
An SIA perspective:
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InfoComm India is back. That’s been the biggest thing ranting the landscape of Indian AV.
Those few lines summarize a whole big journey, filled with hope and uncertainty; expectations and deterrents; aspirations and ambiguity, and finally, the satisfaction of a successful congregation of the community.
The story is nothing new, but still it’s anew; afresh; and filled with excitement- of meeting and greeting one another. Watching and wowing at things on show; and acknowledging, nay, appreciating the resoluteness of all the stakeholders. The visitor flow, doing the icing on the cake.
The mild wafts of apprehension and uncertainty that tended to rant the air on the morning of Day-One, got dispelled by the afternoon, with booths and aisles effusing life and vibrancy that the show has been known for from the pre-COVID times. The Day Two practically brought back the much familiar charm of visitor-thronged booths and aisles.
The bigger excitement with the rejuvenated event, though, was the ‘arrival of Make-in-India AV.’ While the regular biggies took their regular positions with little change, the limelight was certainly taken by the long-awaited and much-desired coming of ‘Make-in-India’ AV brands to the centre stage.
The 2022 edition of InfoComm India, was thus marked by at least half-a-dozen exhibitors with that prestigious logo of ‘mechanized lion.’
While the rejuvenation of InfoComm India physical exhibition is certainly a big thing, even bigger than that was Indian AV’s very own products and systems solutions.
Having seen the regular flow for so many years, SIA, for a change, this time presents this new, emerging, and exciting dynamic.
Ø 160 Exhibition Companies
Ø 15 Countries Ø 11,381 Visitors Ø 35 Summit Sessions |
Trueview: Beckoning with True-to-its-Name Promise
The Aurangabad-based Warner Electronics (I) Pvt Ltd shared the IFI 2022 centrestage with other Make-in-India AV brands via its flagship brand Trueview that’s been manufacturing security & surveillance and display solution systems in India. The company, however brought to the fore its latest system solution for education market.
The system solution comprised TRUECLICK, an integrated student response system; TRUE CAP, a smart lecture capture system; and TRUEBOARD, an educational application for interactive flat panels.
In addition, the company also exhibited its latest offering of Interactive flat panel for Entertainment market as well.
“We have till recently been approaching the market with interactive flat panels; but we see the rapid changes on the education market and modern requirement for integrated and smart solutions,” says Naveneet Rathod of Warner Electronics. “We built the system keeping in view the Indian schooling system in particular,” he explains. “The complete ecosystem of TRUE Click, Capture and Board integrates the students and the teacher via a smart learning mechanism with a multitude of tools enabling a plethora of smarter ways of education. They are easy to understand, use and implement.”
ATDSC: Team InfoVision ‘India’ (un)limited
Team InfoVision India Pvt Ltd – the New Delhi-based manufacturer of AV, live streaming and online teaching gear – was reportedly the first company in India to launch Interactive Whiteboards for Smart Classrooms almost two decades ago. Having been in the market for so long, it decided to take to the InfoComm show floor, with the spirited Make-in-India AV punch line under its AV brand ATDSC- Advanced Technology Development Solutions Centre.
The company launched at the show a broad range of solutions that are highlighted by a PTZ camera, wireless HDMI transmitter, wireless Chairman-Delegate Unit, and more.
“Our entire range is fully Make-In-India,” says Dinesh Giri of Team InfoVision. “Only a small minuscule portion of the making is sourced from outside,” he explains. Demonstrating the technology competence, and quality of the products’ performance, Dinesh asserts the product range they launched from the show floor are unique and no other OEM has the same capability at the moment.
“The Wireless Chairman-Delegate conferencing unit is a truly unique solution,” Dinesh explains. “It allows for as many as 1055 units performing from a single room.”
ATDSC also launched its new digital podium at the show.
HIKVISION: Adapting to Make-In-India Vision
Mumbai-based video surveillance solutions provider Prama Hikvision India Pvt Ltd took to IFI show floor with its Make-In-India tagged Interactive flat display panel solutions, LCD video walls and digital signage solutions, apart from their regular, trusted video surveillance systems.
“Our range of display solutions are entirely designed and developed in India,” says Bhavin Chauhan, Assistant Vice-President (IT Products) at Prama Hikvision. As it is, we have begun entirely indiginizing our video surveillance solutions such as PTZ cameras and security systems,” he said. According to him, only a minor percentage of components are being sourced from the Chinese major Hikvison, but they have been building strengths to develop that competency too, very soon.
“The Make-in-India spirit is very big on us,” asserts Bhavin, “we are so much energized and motivated with it,” he clarifies, “we’re here to take the light forward and promote our products with indigenous expertise on par with the global competence.”
BIRD AI: Taking Artificial Intelligence to 4K Highs like Bird
Branching out from Indian Smart Learning tools developer Cybernetix, BIRD AI brought some new, truly Intelligent solutions with 4K capabilities. The company launched from the IFI showfloor, its latest all-in-one 4k Collaboration Hub called BIRD Canvas AX, and USB 4K Whiteboard camera Doodle, besides its popular BIRD Hub- the wireless collaboration meeting on any screen solution.
“The BIRD Canvas comes with built in Interactivity comprising a 4K AI-based camera with auto framing, meaning it adjusts the view based on the number of people in a given set-up,” explains Ananth Vijay Kulkarni of BIRD AI. “It is augmented by 4 mems of beam-forming microphone layers equipped with their own dedicated DSP processor,” he details. “The third layer is our own BIRD OS, designed in our lab with a hexacore processor.”
According to him, the totally customizable solution is fully agnostic and enables running of any native application.
The Doodle solution brings to users one refreshingly new offering. The USB-based 4K Whiteboard camera that it is, the system captures all the content on the whiteboard digitally, and transfers the designated surface. “The beauty of the solution is that even if one is blocking the content by hand, or person, they are rendered transparent on the recipient screen so that the content is seen clearly, without any obstruction,” explains Ananth.
Tacodi Electronics: Big and Strong on Make in India AV
For all those longing for a Make in India brand for video-conferencing AV gear that had hitherto been like a prerogative and monopoly of multinational brands, Tacodi Electronics on Booth D-49 has an inspirational story.
The New Delhi-based Start-Up founded in 2019 – from the entrepreneurs of Burlington, New Jersey-headquartered ‘smart communicator’ Tacodi – having been moved by the ‘Make in India’ vibe looked at the opportunity in the video-conferencing hardware domain that is dominated either by the Western or by the Chinese manufacturers and decided to pursue the ground.
“We looked at the domain. We saw the opportunity and we stepped in,” says Devashish Majumdar. “The idea to come to India and manufacture this hardware was, of course, the opportunity in the space,” he explains, “and give to Indian users the flexibility to design hardware for any application.”
The company manufactures the complete ecosystem of videoconferencing that includes PTZ cameras, servers, MCUs, video soundbars, and other hardware endpoints, apart from the unique desktop speakerphone which is a fancy these days.
Tacodi is obviously benefited by the presence of its own R&D facility based in India.
“The second advantage for us is the assurance of data security” affirms Majumdar. “That our servers are entirely manufactured locally with our components, the security element is always guaranteed.”
Rahi Systems: Bringing Nativity to Google Meet
Rahi Systems – the global IT solutions provider with deep roots into AV integration brought to IFI stage what it called the Native Google Meet Device System.
“People normally talk about Zoom and Team, but not a Native solution,” remarks Rohit Singal, Vice-President, India for the California-headquartered MNC. “No other OEM has this solution, at least on this showfloor,” he observes.
Rahi Systems have also brought another unique solution that integrates multiple devises like DSPs, control switches, processors, and user interfaces and more. “With just one interface, you can control everything.” According to him, it saves space, multiple failure risks and investment too, besides the unique user experience of technology.
“Any technology needs to be tangible, and experiential,” Rohit asserts. “InfoComm shows are the platforms to demonstrate that competency,” he says. “We have been missing this opportunity for the last two years; we’re happy to be back.”
It couldn’t have been a better place for Rahi Systems than the InfoComm India show floor. In a world that is increasingly getting collaborative needing a working coexistence of multiple technologies (coming from multiple vendors) on an agnostic platform, Rahi has a huge stake to claim, and it showed its zest with purpose.
SuperUS, the Mumbai-based tech OEM focused on building connected information systems with smart devices, brought its new healthcare solutions that promise to revolutionize the medical industry services to people. Having tied up with E-Ink Holdings Incorporated to manufacture smart technology tools in India, the company demonstrated its range of solutions under its Make-In-India initiative.
The Big Lot Out There…
The Make-In-India band wagon just didn’t stop there, neither it appeared to. There were exhibitors like Aero Digital, Online Instruments, Samsung, Delta, and others, who have either full, or partial manufacturing happening in India.
The biggies like Kramer, Crestron, Harman, Bosch, QSC, Sennheiser, Christie, Optoma, MSS World, B-Tech AV, Peerless AV, ClearOne and more have all been there with their latest offerings.
The show did have newcomers like ZeeVee, Cyviz, and Aten.
Minister for Information Technology for the Government of Tamil Nadu Thiru Mano Thangaraj – who visited the event on Day One, besides being Chief Guest Speaker at the NIXT Summit Industry Forum for Education on Day 2 – commended the event after he went around the booths. “InfoComm India is a professional platform that gathers industry experts with latest knowledge and valuable insights while providing a conducive channel for business community to network and connect,” he observed.
Yamuna Nagar Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Dheeraj Kumar, one of the 150 Hosted Buyers invited by the show organizers InfoCommAsia Pvt Ltd felt impressed. “I am thoroughly impressed with the technologies put up by the exhibitors,” he said.
While the regular majors have had their own expectations rejuvenated, it was arguably the Make-in-India bandwagon that hogged the limelight at the show.
We all know the 2023 edition of the show would be organized at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. The dates of the event are 25-27 October.
Mark your calendar, now.
*Note: “Make-in-India is an initiative by the government to encourage entrepreneurs to manufacture their solutions in India.
