TANDBERG Telepresence at InfoComm

Grant's Perspective on ... the TANDBERG Telepresence booth at InfoComm.

When I was at InfoComm earlier in June I had the opportunity to visit the TANDBERG booth.  At their booth they had a demo telepresence suite set up, very similar to the one shown below.

One purpose of this was to allow vendors and potential vendors the opportunity to experience telepresense for themselves.  I unfortunately missed the booth tour that was scheduled for Inland AV.  I tried to get in other times but I wasn’t able to get through the crowds.

BUT what I did notice every time I was in the vicinity of the booth was many people coming out of the demo system nodding their heads - they obviously had a very positive experience when attending a meeting in the telepresence environment.  I also watched through the side window and it was also obvious the attendees, from their behavior, were comfortable in the environment and felt it was very easy to communicate.


I was able to demo the EX-90 Personal Telepresence system and it was excellent. I have posted a picture below that Tim took of the EX-90 display.

View the TANDBERG See Hello to Video below

The TANDBERG booth was a perfect example of "Improved Communication from Technology Integration . . .  and a lot of other cool stuff too !"

Grant 

Why is 3D Important?

Grant's Perspective on ... why 3D is important and the need to go big.

2010 has been bursting with the recent development of 3D technology. InfoComm was no different. 3D was everywhere.

I've read some blogs stating that 3D is not a big deal. I put some thought into this while viewing the display booths and have come to the conclusion that for many people 3D is big.

If you work in education, 3D is worth investigating. Anything you would like to learn without actually doing it, is right for 3D, from training photocopier repair technicians, engine assembly, to medical procedures.  The Texas Instrument website has some great background information on 3D in the classroom.

Product development and customization is ready for 3D. People who develop 3D Auto CAD illustrations can now view in stereoscopic form. Be it a widget or a custom virtual tour of a new building, 3D can help speed the product development and approval process.

Exploration can be assisted with the use of 3D. The oil and mining industries perform siesmic exploration and produce accurate 3D maps of the resources under the earth without drilling for samples. Going in the other direction, astronomy is using 3D to better understand space.

3D is happening now, I have personally been involved in several 3D projects in the last year.

I also have been asked how big should a 3D screen be? Larger than a regular monitor because the screen should encompass the viewers peripheral vision. Common 2D thinking recommends that a person should sit 3 times the height of the monitor away. To view 3D you need to be closer so bigger is better.

I'm sure I'll be posting more on 3D so I welcome any questions and comments you have!

Grant

Sharp 60" LCD Monitor With The World's Thinnest Bezel

Grant's Perspective on ... InfoComm and the Sharp video wall.

I was really impressed with the Sharp booth that featured a great looking video wall. It featured the new 60" PN-V601 professional LCD monitors.

·         These SHARP monitors contain:

o   the world's thinnest bezel -  making it a great choice for video wall applications.

o   Full array LED-backlighting

§  provides a bright image in virtually any lighting condition

§  uniform colours (the monitors all look the same) and very even brightness across the screen (there isn’t that darker video area near the edges).  Note below the photo provided by SHARP and the photo I took of the display at the SHARP booth.  The proof is there!

§  LED also provides for low power consumption – a must for video walls that run 24/7 as that is a significant power consumption time. 

·   With the 60-inch screen size, a large wall can be created with fewer monitors. The PN-V601 enables a 13’ x 7’ video wall with the use of just nine monitors, while it would require sixteen 46-inch competitive monitors to produce the same 100 square foot video wall.  And the 3x3 configuration that SHARP uses in this example looks better in my opinion as only 9 monitors appear less cluttered.

“As digital signage and display applications continue to evolve, customers are looking for more energy-efficient products and thinner bezel designs that enable nearly seamless images to be displayed in large video wall configurations,” said Ed McLaughlin, president, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America. “The introduction of this ultra-slim bezel, LED-backlit LCD monitor rounds out our comprehensive line of professional displays and offers superior image quality and improved compatibility to serve the needs of the commercial market. The large 60-inch class monitor allows larger size video walls to be created utilizing fewer LCD panels, resulting in increased energy efficiency and lower operating costs.”

Grant

QuadPixel: Seeing It Is Believing

Grant's Perspective on ... seeing the yellow pixel demonstration at InfoComm.

As a follow up to the June 4 post on the Sharp QuadPixel technology, I had a demo of the unit at InfoComm. I am really impressed with the reproduction of the yellow and blue colour spectrum. I was also very surprised at how bright the monitor is. See the picture of the monitor and our Sharp representative Joe below.

I am pleased that Sharp has introduced a Blue Ray player with RS-232 control. This will be welcomed by control system programmers.

I also wanted to send out congratulations to Sharp and their XG-P560W DLP projector for winning the Best Video Projection Product/10K Lumen or Less category.

Grant

Crestron V Touchpanel Flash Powered

Grant's Perspective on ... Crestron touchpanel powered by Flash demonstrations at InfoComm.

One of the cool things at InfoComm is the  Crestron booth that is demonstrating the new TPMC-V15. The touchpanel  interface is created and runs in Flash.

Crestron has posted a YouTube video (embedded below) that illustrates the new graphic capabilities that will enhance the end users experience. The touch and drag interface seems to be the way things are going and it is intuitive.



I'll have more InfoComm reporting when I get back home and go through my collection of stuff gathered at the show.

Grant

Yellow Pixel Makes For Billions of Colours

Grant's Perspective on ... the Sharp Electronics introduction of the RGBY yellow pixel.

I've seen the Sharp Electronics You have to see it, to see it commercial but have not yet seen the new QuadPixel technology in person. I will get the chance while attending InfoComm next week.

Our Sharp representative delivered a slide show about the QuadPixel. They talk about RGB systems reproducing over 1 billion colours and adding the fourth yellow pixel now pushes this to over 1 trillion colours. It is hard to understand what this means so I really liked his slide that showed what new colour reproduction is now possible. The blue triangle below illustrates the RGB colours and the red triangle illustrates the QuadPixel reproduction.

For those that have not seen the Sharp Electronics advertisement, the YouTube video is embedded below.


I'll have a new post on this technology after I see the demos at InfoComm.

Grant