With all the various types of technologies and services on display at InfoComm, it can be a difficult task to choose a keynote topic that will effect everyone. This year, they have chosen a trend so big, it doesn’t just effect everyone at InfoComm, it could effect everyone in the world. This subject is the nascent Internet of Things (IoT).
The IoT is one of the most exciting and potentially biggest technology trends to hit our space since BYOD. The IoT is going to change the world and the AV space is a likely candidate to lead the way. The AV space already hosts a wide range of “things” that could be identified, accessed, and controlled via IP. As we continue to improve the way we connect people and devices in the AV space, we could serve as a model to the rest of the technology world.
The IoT will provide us with a personalized experience in a wide number of settings. Imagine the meeting room bringing up your project lists, and dialing out to your project team on various monitors as you walk into the room. The potential for business AV applications is pretty apparent and should result in a mix of expected advances, and innovative ideas that break the mold.
Beyond the business setting, the IoT could effect nearly every aspect of our lives on a day to day basis. Some studies estimate that an average person could be connected to thousands of “things” at any given time, and benefit from countless interactions in any given day. Imagine if every car seat or office chair adjusted to your fit and reach as you sat down or if the lighting and climate in every room was always to your preferences.
With all this in mind, I am very interested in general to hear the thoughts of industry leaders on this topic. The official show description says they will…
“debate the future of the Internet of Things (IoT), its applications, and its impact for the commercial audiovisual industry. The panelists will also share their views on the growth potential for IoT, implications for security and privacy, and open specifications for interoperability.”
In addition to those general topics, there are a few particular things I am hoping to hear from this year’s panel, which includes the following speakers:
Fred Bargetzi
Chief Technology Officer
Crestron Electronics
I am interested in the Crestron perspective for a few reasons. Primarily, due to their history in AV control systems, I would expect some unique insight about the potential expectations and demands of users in future IoT environments.
It would also be interesting to see how he addresses the elephant in the room. As a company that makes quite a good bit of revenue from selling hardware control panels and switches, Crestron is due for a major transition due to the IoT. As more and more devices become IoT aware, they also should become accessible, and controllable from an iPad/Android app. If a Crestron room control app for my iPad can do everthing that a hardware Crestron panel can do, it will clearly effect sales. The easy answer is that Crestron has a broad enough set of offerings that they can sustain things if their app sales eat into their control panel sales. But is there a harder answer?
Ron Gazzola
Vice President of Marketing
Samsung Electronics America
The Samsung product list is like the IoT wish list. Mobile devices, monitors, wearables, home appliances, home and business AV, etc. As a marketing exec, I expect Mr. Gazzola will be able to provide us with a more user facing, less technical perspective. These discussions can always be fun as they tend to delve into actual, and future, use cases. We may be the first to hear about something which will soon be in every meeting room as part of the new IoT
Dr. I.P. Park
Chief Technology Officer
Harman International
As the CTO of an AV product designer/manufacturer, Dr. Park should be able to bring us the other side of the device vendor picture. I hope to learn what is being done, from a technology standpoint, at the product level to enable future IoT engagement. In other words, how are we making all of our new devices “smart” and how “smart” do different types of products really need to be?
Mike Walker
Director of Operations
Global Customer Experience Center, Cisco
With billions of connected people, and potentially trillions of connected “things”, the IoT is going to require a lot of bandwidth and network infrastructure to support it all. Is the only question whether or not Cisco will be able to find enough trucks to haul off all the money they are going to make on the backend of the IoT? Also, it will be interesting to hear how Cisco is strategizing to bring its collaboration offerings in line with the IoT.
Make sure you check out our entire InfoComm Preview Guide rolling out this week!
