By Corey Moss
Over the past year, it has become apparent that the industry grows more disruptive by the moment and the video conferencing industry looks to be leading the way. These disruptive forces, as I have labeled them (I’ve put in for the copyright) have put a whole new spin on an industry that had become somewhat stagnant in its approach turning it into a widespread playing field for many to jump into, however those that have led the way continue to do so. From the first laser strike by Vidyo in 2007 to the current mass UCC landscape comprised of players like Blue Jeans, Acano, Videxio, Pexip, Zoom (and of course Vidyo), this side of the industry continues to grow in size and stature. The long-time industry standard bearers Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom and LifeSize have each chosen directions as well and it will be seen over the next couple of years if their current moves will bring continued industry recognition as will be seen among the newer players as well.
InfoComm was an event that brought others to the forefront as well. One of note of course is SMART Technologies (in a return to the show after a one year hiatus), and their return came with a bang – the launch of the new SMART kapp, which replaces the standard dry erase board to include content sharing in the cloud along with mobile device usage. The launch included a show within a show with a Museum of Productivity as one of the centerpieces, deemed an “irreverent repository” of obsolete business tools. Along with making my Disruptive Top 10 at the Show (with other excellent notables), they also won the rAVe Publications 2014 Best of InfoComm Awards top prize: Best Overall New Product with SMART kapp, a major achievement for the company long-time known for the SMART Board (and now SMART amp) for education, and of course the SMART Lync Room System to go along with SMART kapp for the enterprise.
Of note as well was AMX winning rAVe’s Best New Wireless Collaboration Product for their Enzo solution. After completing a major partnership with Harman, AMX brought their own brand of disruption to InfoComm adding screen mirroring to go along with content download from DropBox. Another that caught my eye was from Christie, which won the Best New Wireless Accessory with Brio Team+ Wireless Box. They also won another award for Best Concept Product with what I consider one of the show stoppers: Christie’s Real-Time Projection Mapping Car App (more to come on this). All three companies representative of solutions providers who have joined in on the high level of market disruption. Others are likely being spurred on as well – just wait for next year’s rAVe Publications Best of InfoComm awards, as well as the return of the Disruptive Top 10 to see who they might be.
So there you go, disruption comes to InfoComm as well as Let’s Do Video – with more to come…
