.
The all-new 8 ” ln- Ceiling Speakers by Sonos and Sonance feature completely new acoustic components, offering natural, room-filling sound with discrete installation.
Pre-order now at your distributor
"AV just keeps
evolving, and we take a good look at many of the reasons why it's the ultimate in sound and vision"Rob Lane, Editor rob.lane@futurenet.com linkedin.com/in/rob-lane-646365a/
This year’s ISE – simply the best yet – was some way to kick off 2024. It smashed all previous records, and raised the bar further for what promises to be an even better iteration in 2025. Check out our roundup of some of the best launches and demos during ISE 2024 from page 26 – along with a report on the ISE Audio Museum – and our exclusive post-show Q&A with Integrated Systems Events managing director Mike Blackman on page 50.
AV just keeps on evolving, and this issue we take a good look at many of the reasons why it offers the ultimate in sound and vision, with the latest from the Las Vegas Sphere (take a bow Matrox Video) and a clutch of other amazing installations from page 6; the next phase of the evolution of projector and display technology; the artful business of background music (no longer derided as merely ‘muzak’); and the challenges of controlling volume levels to protect hearing, as today’s amazing audio from the likes of HOLOPLOT gets ever more immersive.
Elsewhere, we’ve commentaries from Matrox’s Rob Moodey, who discusses the continuing convergence of technology; Dave Chace from Cognet360, on the growing importance of 3D for retail; Audiocontrol’s Chris Kane, talking up the advantages of audio-over-IP; Annelies Kampert, VP and general manager at Crestron Europe, taking a good look at multi-cam, AV-driven tech in the hybrid workplace; and the impact of digital signage on bank branch operations, courtesy of Tripp Elliott, of Spectrio.
Next issue, we'll be taking a deep dive into the broader pro audio developments, alongside an education sector update and a special report on residential AV and its overlaps with pro AV – so-called resimercial and prosumer, touched upon in our sound levels feature in this edition. As Mike Blackman points out in his Inside track interview, ISE was always a "mix" of residential and commercial AV, from the very first edition in 2004. Indeed, Installation has traditionally mixed things up too, and we intend to continue doing so, as AV convergence intensifies. The ultimate in sound and vision!
INSIGHT ON CONFERENCING, FUTURE RETAIL, AUDIO-OVER-IP AND MORE
6 Install insights
This issue, Matrox drives 4K video at The Sphere, Panasonic boosts Titanic Experience, Eight Day Sound reinforces Dizzee Rascal tour, Leyard’s Wall of Wonder inspires – and much, much more!
12 Convergence: It’s all coming together
Rob Moodey, manager, strategic partnerships, at Matrox Video on the convergence of industries, driven by IP networks
13 Embracing 3D: How to navigate the future of retail 3D is the future of ecommerce success for custom integration, says Dave Chace, president of Cogent360
14 Special delivery: The advantages of audio-over-IP
Chris Kane, vice president of sales & marketing at Audiocontrol, looks at how AV professionals can benefit from audio-over-IP tech
15 The meeting space revolution
Multi camera, AI-driven tech is in demand, says Annelies Kampert, VP and general manager at Crestron Europe
16 Conferencing changes: New meeting rooms
Kramer regional account manager Richard Horvath on the latest developments in meeting room and video conferencing tech
17 Transforming the banking experience
Tripp Elliott, director of account management at Spectrio, discusses the impact of digital signage on branch operations
NEW INSTALLATIONS – FIXED & TEMPORARY MATROX’S STARRING ROLE AT THE SPHERE HEADS UP OUR ROUNDUP
PROJECTORS & DISPLAYS: WHAT’S NEXT? SUSTAINABILITY, VERSATILITY & EASE OF CONTROL AT THE FOREFRONT
26 Simply the best!
The 20th edition of Integrated Systems Europe really was better than all the rest. The bar was already very high, and the organisers are set to raise it further for 2025 and beyond. But for now, Installation editor Rob Lane takes a look at some of the brands and launches that caught his eye during an enjoyable few days within the hallowed halls of the Fira
32 Echoes of a distant time: The ISE Audio Museum
The Audio Museum provided an opportunity to get up-close to groundbreaking audio systems once used by legendary artists including Pink Floyd and David Bowie, writes Ken Dunn
50 Inside Track
Integrated Systems Events managing director Mike Blackman on ISE 2024, plans for next year, and an expanded app 36
18 Projectors & displays: The next frontier
With signs that the ‘arms race’ over higher resolution is beginning to subside, customers are increasingly prioritising requirements such as sustainability, versatility, and ease of control & management, discovers David Davies
36 The artful business of background music
Like it or loathe it, background music in bars, restaurants, hotels is not going away. If anything, discovers Kevin Hilton, it is only going to become more influential
44 Levelling down
Controlling sound levels is not easy task, but modern technologies are making it a more manageable one. Paul Lydon reports on the race to protect music lovers’ hearing
WHY BACKGROUND MUSIC ISN’T MUZAK THE BGM MARKET IS VALUED AT $2BILLION, AND IT’S ON THE UP
48 Movers & shakers
Key appointments, including new hires for Sharp/NEC, Avantis Education, Legrand | AV, RTI, and Electrosonic
Our pick of the latest installations from around the world. This issue Matrox Video drives 4K video at The Sphere, Panasonic projectors boost Titanic Experience, Eight Day Sound reinforces Dizzee Rascal tour, Leyard’s Wall of Wonder inspires – and much, much more!
Multimedia system designer and integrator Fuse Technical Group has revealed that it specified Matrox Video’s technology to drive SMPTE ST 2110 routing, orchestration, conversion, and control inside The Las Vegas Sphere, where legendary band U2 is currently in residence. Show and event producers rely on the technology to feed and manage SMPTE ST 2110 signals for what is currently the biggest show on the planet.
Sphere’s interior boasts a 160,000-squarefoot, 16K wraparound LED canvas with 256 million rendered pixels – the largest and highest resolution LED screen in the world. For U2’s ‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live’ residency, the band’s content development team called on Fuse to develop a video playback system capable of handling 16K resolution and augmenting and moving live input across 16K – all over IP, running on a complete SMPTE ST 2110 backbone.
Titanic Belfast is using Panasonic projectors to convey the emotional impact of the human tragedy within the Titanic story, through the creation of a new, absorbing immersive space that places visitors at the heart of the liner’s ill-fated maiden voyage. More than 12 years on from the opening of the iconic building, the attraction has refreshed the Titanic Experience for returning visitors.
Working with integrator, DJ Willrich Ltd, Titanic Belfast now uses more than 30 Panasonic PT-MZ16K, PT-MZ780 and PTVMZ71 LCD projectors to deliver the Titanic Experience.
The projector installation helped Titanic Belfast won the “Outstanding Achievement – Visitor Experience Reenvisioned: Limited Budget” accolade at the 2023 Themed Entertainment Association Awards.
Sound reinforcement specialist Eighth Day Sound has been helping British grime MC and rapper, Dizzee Rascal to tour his Mercury Music Prizewinning album ‘Boy in Da Corner’ by specifying Solid State Logic and DiGiCo consoles, with a d&b audiotechnik KSL PA.
For Dizzee’s monitoring system, Shure PSM1000 IEMs with d&b M2 wedges were speci ed, alongside Sennheiser 6000 Series RF, throughout the UK arena tour, following a major comeback at London’s O2.
A 4K CarbonLight VX LED screen from Leyard Europe is at the heart of a new inspirational and educational exhibition at the headquarters of the European Molecular Biology Lab (EMBL), Europe’s flagship laboratory for research into life sciences.
The World of Molecular Biology exhibition occupies 800 sqm of the double-height atrium of the EMBL headquarters in Heidelberg Germany. It tells the story of life through 45 AV exhibits comprising a mix of AV, VR, interactive and tactile elements, grouped into three zones, themed ‘The Spirit of EMBL’, ‘Life is Amazing’ and ‘Seeing is Understanding’.
The star of the exhibition is a 1.9 mm pixel pitch, 8m by 4m Leyard CarbonLight VX 1.9mm 4K LED screen, with content provided via a 7thSense media server, and PIXIELAB Blocks for show control. The ‘Wall of Wonder’ was designed and installed by DJ Willrich (DJW), the systems integrator responsible for AV tech within the exhibition, which was itself designed by Haley Sharpe Design.
The Leyard screen displays images captured by electron microscopes housed in an adjacent room, scaling up micro-organisms far too tiny to be seen with the human eye into stunning, detailed images.
Digital Projection’s 1-chip DLP M-Vision laser projectors were deployed at Astra Film Festival at the end of 2023.
Held in Sibiu, Romania, Astra Film Festival is a major event in the European film community, lasts just over a week and welcomes movie fans of all ages to venues across the city – most famously the fully immersive Full Dome.
NewMedia used a fleet of six Digital Projection M-Vision 27000 WU projectors in Full Dome, adorning its entire perimeter, projecting onto the 360° screen.
Full Dome, considered one of the festival’s highlights, is a 300 sqm multimedia projection dome in the main square of Sibiu. Every year it delivers a 360° AV experience that immerses the audience in the cinematic highlights of the festival.
It can now be revealed that a Dicentis conference system from Bosch was selected by the organisers of the recent International Paralympic Committee (IPC) General Assembly and Conference, which took place in Manama, Bahrain at the end of September 2023. The solution was provided by local Bosch partner Mohammed Fakhroo & Brothers W.L.L.
The Dicentis ‘discussion device with voting’ was specifically chosen for the general meeting, thanks to its accessible options for visually impaired participants. The orientation sheet, as an optional accessory, added clearly noticeable braille cells to help distinguish between the different voting buttons. Added to this, audible feedback from the device helped to facilitate voting – when a participant casts a vote, a beep sounds in their headphones to confirm the action.
Kino Flo Lighting Systems’ MIMIK 120 full-spectrum, imagebased video lighting tile was recently utilised by Hollywoodbased digital lm production company Fearless Productions for ‘Project Chimera’ – a music video designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the very latest in virtual production technology. For the video, Fearless Productions utilised a variety of MIMIKs in di erent con gurations on a virtual production LED stage to light talent and a Tarform electric motorcycle.
Filmed on a virtual production stage at Fuse Technical Group, the video was shot with RED Komodo 6K digital cinema cameras with Fujinon Premistas zoom lenses. It also showcases a wide range of cutting-edge technologies for the creation of AR objects, camera tracking, and motion control.
Immersive
studio Float4 has transformed the digital displayfuelled lobby of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas –which features eight 16-foot-tall columns, covered in digital displays –with a visual art piece titled ‘Opulence’, which immerses guests in a fantasy world where surreal characters come to life.
The hotel lobby, designed by Rockwell Group, has been a prominent feature of the resort since The Cosmopolitan rst opened in 2010.
Lifesize Plans, creator of the world’s first patented 1:1 scale walkthrough building experience, has partnered with Panasonic Connect and Dublin-based AV specialists, Think, to install eleven Panasonic PT-RTZ990 1-Chip DLP projectors across its showroom, enabling people to view their home through 1:1 scale building plans taken from architect drawings, before it is built.
Lifesize Plans has used Panasonic’s Geometry Manager Pro software to adjust the multiple projections with edge blending of up to 100 images, colour matching, and digital image enlargement (up to x10 zoom).
The climactic moments of Poor Things, the gothic comedy movie, nominated for 11 Academy Awards, were brought to life with a mammoth virtual production set-up powered by AV Stumpfl PIXERA technology.
Ice Cube recently made his long-awaited live return to the UK and Ireland, performing a run of six live shows powered by an L-Acoustics K Series rig supplied by UK production specialist, Adlib.
Adlib deployed a system made up of two main hangs each side consisting of 12 K1 and up to 6 K2 down. A total of 36 KS28 were used, 10 boxes flown behind and 8 ground stacked below each main array. Four KARA II and four A15 Wide were used in combination for the front fill system. The entire system was run via Milan-AVB across 46 LA12X amplified controllers.
Three or four decades ago, techies started to get excited about convergence – the idea that audio, video, and data all co-exist, and even complement each other, on IP networks. A convergence of technologies.
Now there’s a new convergence becoming apparent –whole industries are converging.
The convergence of conventional AV and broadcast comes as no surprise. Advertising dollars moved away from traditional broadcasting to the web-based competition, and without this revenue, broadcasters were less able to purchase capital hardware. That hurt the broadcast manufacturers, so they looked around for similar markets to sell their particular expertise into – and found AV. At the same time, the broadcasters looked for similar markets to buy from (at a lower cost) – and found AV
Those aren’t the only markets converging. The CCTV market shares the same interest in media, cameras, recording technology, and the network. CCTV has a different outlook, characterised by the sheer number of cameras and the consequential amount of media – but the interest in connectivity and media formats is very similar.
That description is spookily similar to another market wellknown to AV – unified communication. UC abounds in the corporate space. Almost all users have cameras and want to collaborate, share live content, and record it via the network.
Even highly regulated industries, like medical, are recognising similarities and exploring how much overlap there is with other industries.
Of course, suppliers that have sold into the control room market have spanned those same industries for years, exploring and exploiting the commonality of technology.
The distribution channel has been quick to recognise what is happening, with distributors establishing multiple verticals, including some beyond their traditional scope; so ‘broadcast’ now commonly appears alongside ‘government’ and ‘retail’.
When businesses combine, one of the first things they look for is synergy – where the combination yields benefits. The same applies to industries. We see exactly that in IPMX – an emerging extension to the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, which broadcasters developed for moving content over IP networks instead of as SDI over coax. IPMX was developed to converge that high-end standard with the wider AV world.
Industry requirements are inevitably fueling the convergence. Two things are making it happen faster:
n There are companies that already serve the converging industries. Matrox is one of them. The focus on moving and displaying video has changed it from a company with separate divisions to a converged company addressing both.
n IP switch manufacturers have worked hard to bring to market devices that match both the emerging needs of converged users, as well as the needs of traditional IT folks, whose networks are configured differently.
What next? In AV, we have CEDIA marketplace and AVIXA marketplace. Are they destined to get closer? Time will tell.
says Dave Chace, president, Cogent360
Two tech titans recently made big moves to change the way consumers shop. Google added interactive 3D product models into organic search results and Amazon dropped 2D videos in favour of interactive 3D elements on their product pages.
These changes build on an ever-growing body of evidence that 3D visualisation technology is the future of ecommerce: according to [Canadian multinational e-commerce company] Shopify, online shopping experiences with a 3D product model have a 94% higher conversion rate. With 3D visualisation becoming more common and less expensive, this is a great time for AV integrators to upgrade their own online experiences.
AV integrators aren’t running traditional B2C ecommerce sites, but the statistics on the integration of virtual environments and 3D modelling in B2C demonstrate how they can become a powerful part of a customer journey.
For example, Shopify’s data on the role of 3D in ecommerce conversions indicates this technology is persuasive and can help accelerate decision-making. The same report found that 3D product models are correlated with a 35% reduction in returns; this tells us that 3D increases the accuracy of the client’s expectations, resulting in higher satisfaction upon final delivery.
3D visualisation technology can also be instrumental in increasing the total value of a sale. Audi found that
customers using a 3D configurator drove a 9% increase in the purchase of custom features. The process of visualising an upgraded system in a lifelike, virtual space helps make add-ons concrete and irresistible.
The AV industry can leverage 3D and virtual technologies for faster sales cycles, higher customer satisfaction, and more successful upsells. Perhaps most important for an industry rife with complex technologies, however, 3D experiences can be powerful educational tools, detailing features while educating the customer about the product as they view it from a variety of different angles. This technology goes beyond just basic persuasion to setting real expectations and reducing product learning curves.
Implementing virtual environments or 3D modelling is a specialised skill: if you’re ready to incorporate this technology into your website or other waypoints on your customer journey, you’ll likely need a partner.
Start by developing a clear plan for your use cases and needs. Think about who your audience is and what they care about. Lastly, look for a vendor with experience in the AV industry.
3D visualisation technology is changing buyer behaviours, and those shifts will reach AV integration eventually. The only question is whether you want to be leading or playing catch up. Take a cue from the ecommerce world: show your customers the future instead of lingering in the past.
It is not every day a simple 'black box solution' such as an audio amplifier can adopt new technology, bringing endusers better performance, while helping professional installers deliver the best systems efficiently. However, AV installers who have embraced products that include audioover-IP formats, such as Dante Audio, now deliver outstanding performance to any room in a home or business, no matter how remote, with uncompromised sound quality.
The multi-zone distributed audio market has evolved tremendously since the fledgling days of MP3 libraries played over rather inglorious, early-generation in-wall speakers through amplifiers possessing a few meagre watts per channel. As those systems were put to the test, listeners were introduced to a sonic performance akin to overcooked pasta topped with ageing jarred sauce, plucked from the back of the fridge. Today, thanks to engineering achievements, including audio-over-IP, residential and commercial entertainment systems reproduce outstanding audio fidelity delivered through professional AV integrators.
Dante, like similar audio-over-IP solutions, is an uncompressed digital audio codec that takes advantage of standard network Cat 5e, Cat 6A, or fibre optic infrastructure to transport packetised audio data.
Dante-enabled devices each contain a high-quality clock and synchronise with one another over the network. Once decoded, playback occurs with near-zero latency. This
technology enables integrators to deliver audio with delayfree clarity in every zone and eliminates the need for traditional analog speaker wire that, in effect, acts as a noisecollecting antenna. Using Cat 6A, integrators can deliver high-quality digital audio into remote areas up to 100 metres from the network switch. Fibre applications extend the range into kilometres.
Audio-over-IP helps amplifier manufacturers deliver fullfeatured, space-efficient solutions using amplifiers designed with critical DSP and matrix functionality to drive multiple high-powered zones from a compact chassis. This is the new gold standard for AV pros, especially in projects where rack space is limited. Modern multi-zone amplifiers featuring audio-over-IP may be used as a self-contained entertainment solution or be part of a more comprehensive smart home ecosystem, offering unparalleled system configuration flexibility to accommodate any entertainment system architecture.
Audio-over-IP (and video-over-IP as well) has revolutionised the delivery of entertainment content to now include standard network infrastructure, contributing to a more efficient, lower-cost process for AV installers to provide highquality audio across multiple zones. AV integration specialists should closely examine the benefits of audio-overIP-equipped amplifiers, to provide as the ultimate solution for their next multi-zone entertainment projects.
The shift to hybrid has led to an increased requirement for multi-camera, AI-driven tech, says Annelies Kampert, VP and general manager at Crestron Europe
The great push of ‘return to office’ initiatives that took hold as the pandemic waned has now settled into the state we find ourselves in – something referred to as 'hybrid permanence'. At the same time, hybrid workers have realised that certain videoconferencing technologies that might have been adequate for smaller meeting rooms are completely wrong for larger, high-impact spaces.
The simple fact of the matter is this: in executive boardrooms and similar spaces – where the length of the room often exceeds 15 feet – many cameras can’t capture clear, distinct images of those who are furthest away from the lens. If someone gets up to move about the room –perhaps called upon to join a presentation – they may be viewed in less-than-flatteringly, depending on cam placement.
There’s a need for creating what’s called “meeting equity” in these spaces, creating a videoconferencing experience in which everyone can see and be seen, hear and be heard, no matter their physical location. Virtual collaborators need to see those nonverbal cues, expressions, and gestures that in-person meeting attendees can access.
One excellent way of achieving that equity in high-impact spaces: multi-camera speaker tracking solutions that utilise optical zoom, driven by software that provides 'visual AI'. By utilising smooth, AI-directed tracking and framing, these solutions can offer clear close-ups and multiple angles that create a superior, broadcast-quality video image for remote participants, with intuitive functionality and a premium look and feel for those in the room.
To
Since the solution is creating a broadcast-quality video connection that’s completely automated, in-person attendees never have to concern themselves with looking toward the camera. The 'cuts' between speakers mimic those you’d find in any film or TV program – they’re quick and clean and eliminate constant camera movements. The best systems include settings that can follow the natural flow of a conversation, cutting between current and previous speakers, allowing remote attendees to see non-verbal cues from each.
For those larger, high-impact spaces, it's also essential to specify cameras that rely on optical as opposed to digital zoom to bring the remote viewer a close-up of a contributor. Optical zoom occurs within the physical lens of a camera, while digital zoom 'blows up' and crops an image in close-up. That digital zoom process reduces the pixel density of an image, rendering it less clear – an issue if the distance between subject and camera increases.
As the clarity of an image diminishes, gestures, expressions, and all the other nonverbal clues critical to maintaining engagement become compromised. When remote meeting attendees can’t see their colleagues properly, meeting fatigue sets in, impacting on productivity.
By deploying the right camera solution – with the appropriate software driving those cameras, you’ll achieve the optimum result for those high-impact spaces: a natural experience for every attendee, both remote and in-person.
What new technical developments and products do you think have brought the most change to today’s video conference experience?
All in one solutions are now the popular choice. Vendors such as Yealink, DTEN, Avocor and Neat have all released all-inone solutions with mobile capability. Consisting of a touch display, camera, microphones and speakers, these solutions are perfect for smaller meeting rooms, spaces which lack the ability to hide cabling and are multifunctional.
With HDMI inputs these solutions can be used as a simple display screen which can be flexed up for Native Teams and Zoom or BYOD meetings for a platform agnostic experience. Using Android OS, additional functionality such as Collaborative Whiteboarding and Web Browser are also available on these devices. Flexibility is also important, as these devices can be mounted on a roaming mount.
This means users can also benefit from having one solution that can be wheeled between multiple meeting rooms, rather than purchasing multiple fixed video conferencing solutions. Often, users will use the solutions in breakout and open spaces for group huddles and town hall meetings where the portability factor plays an important part.
Front Row from Microsoft has also been a gamechanger. With Front Row, remote attendees are seen in the room at eye level and additional desktop Teams meeting features including chat, and a list of participants with raised hands, are shown to the room display. This provides a better hybrid meeting experience for all and incorporates into the meeting room
some of the popular desktop Teams meeting features that users have become accustomed to. Users can select the front row layout from the layout selector experience on the Teams Rooms device panel. It’s an excellent advancement of what users are familiar with.
What do you see as the key driver in VC development, now & in the future?
A key development in video conferencing environment is actually not such a new prospect but one that has come full circle. The days of Poly and Cisco immersive solutions with high level integration almost became a thing of the past, I suspect mainly due to the immediate need to equip offices with 'plug and play' Teams and Zoom systems to meet a criteria ushered upon us by Covid-19.
However, we are now seeing a rise in demand for the likes of control systems to integrate within the meeting room interface, for a more cohesive and complete experience. More specifically in executive boardrooms, C-Level users want to control functions such as temperature, blinds, lighting and the meeting room display all whilst still being simple and intuitive.
Simplicity is key, and a single management interface for all networked components is what we can all expect moving forward.
Mergers and closer partnerships are also playing a part in users getting a more streamlined experience. When companies come together it very often means the customer and end-user benefits from combined technologies. An example that is very close to me is the recent Audiocodes partnership with Kramer.
What changes have you seen in how conferencing kit is being utilised?
We have certainly seen a rise in BYOD meeting spaces over the past year or so, with organisations taking a more platform agnostic approach within their estates. Whilst Teams, Zoom & Webex are ever popular, shared and flexible workspaces require an approach whereby anybody can turn up and start a meeting and collaborate, no matter the hardware or software platform.
The release of VIA 4.0 firmware has driven efficiency in education and corporate settings, allowing users to start a meeting using any meeting platform from their own device and wirelessly connect to a VIA Connect2 or Campus2.
Yealink, Logitech and Meeting Owl thave designed tabletop solutions for video and audio. Consisting of 360 degree video using dual panoramic cameras and 360 degree voice pick up microphones using beamforming technology solutions and in built speakers for far end audio. Coupled with intelligent software all participants can be framed equally for a more natural meeting experience.
More vendors have taken steps to create a more immersive environment by releasing solutions for additional video conferencing cameras in the MTR space. Microsoft’s 'see and be seen, hear and be heard' promise is a catalyst for this.
An extended version of this interview is available on our website. To read, click here
If you’re reading our print edition go to: https://bit.ly/430Q5iW
The remaining few physical branches of banks are exploring new avenues for personalisation to attract and retain financial customers. With new personalisation and engagement techniques, banks can attract customers seeking services they might otherwise receive on a mobile app. In line with this vision, banks are also shifting to quantity over quality, building community-focused locations as opposed to numerous branches of the past.
But how can banks create these highly tailored experiences? One method that banks should consider is digital signage, which could, for instance, display real-time financial information.
Digital signs also offer a platform for promoting bank services, special offers, and promotions. Banks can update these promotions dynamically based on customer profiles and preferences, encouraging clients to explore additional services that align with their financial goals.
However, this communicative content goes beyond the customer to employee engagement and management, as well. There is a big push to use digital signage to communicate with and organise employees, ensuring all information is clearly and accessible communicated to staff. One survey even found that organisations that leverage digital signage for internal communication have five times higher employee engagement.
With their interactive capabilities, digital signs can offer a user-friendly interface that allows customers to navigate through various banking options. Intuitive touchscreens and
menus guide users through the self-service process, making it easy for customers to perform transactions independently.
Another advantage of digital signage is the information it provides. Digital signage can capture real-time analytics through a combination of sensors, data sources, and interactive features that enable continuous monitoring and analysis of user behaviour and content effectiveness.
Motion sensors integrated with signage can capture how customers move through a branch space and measure dwell time in certain zones, helping banks determine what advertising content captures the most attention.
Some digital signs also incorporate feedback mechanisms, such as surveys or sentiment analysis tools, to capture user opinions. Analysing feedback in real-time allows for immediate adjustments to content or interactive features based on customer preferences and satisfaction levels.
Generally, getting real-time data on foot traffic and engagement is becoming increasingly valuable. This data helps banks develop unprecedented levels of hyperpersonalised content for different demographics – even helping banks shift display content based on what demographic is likely to come in at certain times or to display content based on what’s trending.
As Financial institutions reinvent traditional branches with a more personalised experience, digital signage should be front and centre when budgeting branch transformations.
With signs that the ‘arms race’ over higher resolution is beginning to subside, customers are increasingly prioritising requirements such as sustainability, versatility, and ease of control & management, discovers David Davies
During the round of interviews conducted for Installation’s latest overview of the professional projector and display market, more than one participant alluded to an ‘arms race’ over resolution – and it’s not difficult to see why. The adoption of 4K and now 8K, and these technologies’ contribution to sharper and more detailed picture quality, has been a huge part of the narrative for the best part of a decade. But what also became clear during these calls is that this is now beginning to change as other features and functions come to the fore.
With the dawning of 8K, in particular, there is now a distinct sense that we are reaching the end of a particular avenue. Not only will further improvements in resolution be increasingly difficult to justify for many customers in both practical and economic terms, they will also offer a level of detail that is hard to discern with the human eye. So it follows that manufacturers have to shift focus (as it were) to other areas, such as versatility, ease of use, control and sustainability.
Encouragingly, it appears that many vendors are already making great strides in this area. Some of these innovations are discussed in this article, but they were also writ large in the halls of ISE 2024 – an event that also underlined the remarkable resilience of the broader AV industry after four often challenging years (seepage26forourshowreport). As Mark Wadsworth, vice-president of global marketing at Digital Projection, reflects: “It was busy – insanely busy! It really felt like it was back to the good old days of Amsterdam where there was a constant flow of footfall non-stop. [Going into the 2024 event], we already had a lot of big projects
signed off, but people were visiting us to talk about specific kit. So it really feels like there is a very upbeat mood [in this sector] at the moment.”
Leyard is a leading name in LED and LCD digital video wall and display solutions, providing its products to a wide range of applications in corporate, education, retail, broadcast and more. Cris Tanghe, VP product at Leyard Europe, is therefore wellplaced to both chart the resolution trajectory, and identify why it may be approaching a plateau.
“There are different responses to [resolution], depending on the product itself, but [in general] if you look at projection solutions, which we [at Leyard] don’t do, there has really been a trend towards higher resolutions in the last decade,” he says, adding that a similar pattern has been observable in two areas which it very much does do: “So with LCD solutions, there was a transition from full HD screens towards 4K, and now you gradually see the 8K coming in. Then with LED walls – which is our main product that we are selling now – there has been a transition for lower pixels.”
However, Tanghe implies that the limitations of going further are now increasingly apparent. “Achieving those 8K resolutions [tends to mean] massively big walls, so generally we have stopped at 4K, which depending on the pixel is already quite a big wall. [In addition] you don’t see that much effect by moving from 4K to 8K on an LED video wall because you’re already standing 4 or 2 metres away from the screen.”
Mark Wadsworth also implies that – both from technology and customer perspectives – more isn’t always more. “It has often seemed that there was almost an ‘arms race’ for higher brightness and more resolution, but that’s not always what the customer is asking for realistically. [Instead] what they may
want more is a solid, reliable, predictable experience with the projectors, involving an easy and efficient process.”
These opinions are – to some extent, at least –contradicted by ViewSonic, whose portfolio encompasses projectors, LED displays, LCD monitors and more. On the display side, indicates monitor business unit GM Oscar Lin, higherresolution remains a fundamental sales driver: “[In this product area] we are witnessing a remarkable surge in the demand for high-resolution displays across various industries… This surge has paved the way for substantial growth in the 4K, 5K, 6K and 8K monitors/displays market, bolstered by advancements in display technologies, notably OLED panels.”
But on the projector side, the nature of demand seems more complex. Dean Tsai, GM of the projector & LED display business, remarks: “For the projector market, as the pursuit of higher resolutions and better picture quality continues, we’re witnessing a concurrent shift towards an enhanced user experience. The current market increasingly favours
projection solutions that not only deliver superior visual performance, but also boast a compact lightweight design. [For instance], nowadays compact projectors deliver higher brightness to offer a delicate visual experience even in ambient light conditions. The innovation allows the projector to be effortlessly transported and installed for a variety of leisure activities, [such as] decorating commercial spaces or setting up 360-degree immersive environments.”
Meeting the diverse demands of customers more effectively means that “seamless add-on features" are also important to solve the pain points, including high transportation costs and installation/ maintenance difficulty, "especially for large-format displays,” adds Tsai.
Inevitably, these issues will be more acute in those sectors, such as retail, that are having a more challenging time, although a worsening economic outlook in many countries – the UK and Japan being among those who formally tipped into recession as this article was being finalised – is likely to be mean a more pervasive focus across sectors on operational
Above:
LeyardEurope VEM Series LEDwall(33m in width and 4minheight) deployedat the news studio of VRT, thepublic broadcasterof Beligium's Flemish community
costs like transportation, installation and maintenance.
To which one might reasonably add ‘energy consumption’, which also resonates with another increasing emphasis across the projector & display business: sustainability.
Along with boosting versatility and general ease of use, improving the environmental footprint of projectors and displays – not least as a fundamental component of helping customers to achieve their own sustainability goals – was the most frequently recurring theme of the interviews for this piece.
The overriding impression is that awareness of climate change and the need to decarbonise has increased significantly in the past five years, in particular, with customers across applications increasingly defining (and publicising) their Net Zero roadmaps. And whilst this is clearly the correct direction to be taking by any meaningful metric, it’s also worth noting that corporate sustainability reporting requirements are now being tightened up in many territories. Once a concern primarily among the biggest national and international corporations, it’s going to become a requirement for more and more SMEs in the next decade. Inevitably, then, sustainability is rising up the ranking of factors informing both purchasing and R&D decisions.
Tsai strikes a widely-shared note when he remarks that ViewSonic is “keenly aware of the importance of environmental considerations like energy efficiency, lifecycle management and recyclability". In line with ViewSonic’s ESG commitments to reduce emissions and enhance product sustainability, initiatives include designing products for longevity, repairability, and achieving high reuse/recyclable rates, with a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting responsible consumption. In terms of specific product design progress, Tsai cites the use of LS Series Lamp-Free Projectors with LED and laser technology “for better energy efficiency and a longer lifespan than traditional lamp-
based projectors”, while Clifford Chen – GM of the Presentation Group at ViewSonic – alludes to the inclusion of recycled materials as well as energysaving control and scheduling features “to enhance resource efficiency and reduce energy consumption".
Among a roll-call of customer questions, Leyard’s Tanghe cites ‘How green is this? and ‘What is the power consumption?’ as being among the most frequently-occurring these days. Along with climate concerns, “the fact that we have skyrocketing gas and oil prices means that it’s more and more on top of people’s minds", he says. "It maybe started with people thinking about their [home environment] and what they needed to do to be ecological there, but then it became clear that [the same type of conversations] about our professional environments were needed.”
From that tipping point onwards – which Tanghe suggests was around three years ago for quite a lot of organisations – there were “more and more requests coming in to be carbon neutral or [enable] carbon reduction.” In terms of Leyard’s own products, the adoption of more efficient processing chips and built-in power standby in LED cabinets –“meaning you can send a command and it will shut down down to less than 3W” – are among the most significant developments, while plans are also afoot to further advance the carbon neutrality of the European factory, which is located in Slovakia. “We also have a yearly evaluation by an external company that checks how we can further improve our efficiency,” adds Tanghe.
Sony Group, meanwhile, was among several manufacturers to draw attention to the latest developments in its environmental progress at ISE 2024. The company’s Road to Zero plan aims to reduce environmental footprint to zero by 2050, and as part of this Sony has established medium-term targets, referred to as Green Management 2025, that concern FY2021 through FY2025.
As a consequence, Sony says it is “accelerating efforts” such as the reduction of product power
consumption, the elimination of plastic from the packaging of newly-designed small products, and the introduction of renewable energy.
In terms of specific visual solutions, Sony’s own recycled plastic, SORPLAS, has been integrated into the BRAVIA BZ-L professional display series since last summer. Indeed, all 15 models incorporate sustainable elements – from the use of SORPLAS recycled plastic and less ink usage on the cartons, to an optional stand for less waste and an Eco Dashboard for better understanding of power consumption based on settings configuration.
For Digital Projection, Wadsworth immediately points to the long-running green philosophy of its parent company, Taiwan-based Delta Electronics. “Every single R&D decision they make is taken [with regard] to how can they do better for the planet, how can they be more efficient, how can waste be reduced, and so on," he says. So for example, at the high-end of our new projectors, the new TITAN [Laser 47000 WU] is 15% more efficient when measuring the lumens-per-watt output [than the previous model].”
Among a host of other developments showcased in Barcelona, Digital Projection introduced new Satellite MLS (Modular Light Sources) responding to “a huge demand for even more brightness and efficiency”, with 20,000 and 30,000 lumen MLS now complementing the original 10,000 lumen light source.
Echoing a widely-voiced opinion, Wadsworth suggests that improving power efficiency will remain a top R&D priority, arguably providing not just welcome benefits to environmental impact now, but also an historical corrective for an industry that has traditionally been distinctly energy-intensive.
“Let’s face it: as an industry we have had a pretty big footprint when it comes to electricity use,” says Wadsworth. “So with every new projector we create, a big part of it is how we can be more efficient [in energy consumption].”
Whilst the technological direction of travel for key markets such as corporate and education, was increasingly clear pre-Covid, it’s certainly become much more so in the aftermath of the pandemic. So to pick up on those two markets, working, meeting and learning patterns are now often more variable –not least in their inclusion of more remote participants and technically-demanding visuals –than they were ten years ago. No wonder, then, that versatility and an ability to adapt to new and/or unexpected circumstances is now a big design driver.
For ViewSonic, Chen cites the ViewBoard 100G Series as an example of its “significant strides in
versatility”, adding: “It’s a 110in 4K interactive display, designed with a 16:9 aspect ratio and [including] a built-in whiteboard tool that elevates classroom interactivity and supports multitasking through features like split-screen and floating windows”.
As for the future of professional displays, Tsai points to the growing importance of “customisability”.
“The demand for solutions tailored to specific user needs and industry requirements is on the rise. This includes the desire for configurable hardware and software options that cater to varied requirements,” he says, pointing to recent developments such as the new LDC series LED displays – which afford flexibility in size and aspect ratio “while preserving the All-inOne design” – and the availability in its product range of different brightness levels and projector lightsources.
Focusing firmly on displays, there is also an evident willingness to help customers integrate solutions into a wider range of environments, which for example may be impacted by space considerations.
For Leyard, Tanghe points to the development of a solution that allows components “to be offloaded to a rack which is typically in a controlled and secured environment”.
For example, moving the power rack away from the display lowers the heat dissipation and supports broader deployment of the solution, especially in complex environments like control rooms. The resulting slimmer form-factor is also useful in broadcast: “It allows you to be very creative in
The demand for solutions tailored to specific user needs & industry requirements is on the rise – including the desire for configurable hardware and software options that cater to varied requirements,"
DeanTsai,GMforViewsonicprojector&LEDdisplay
broadcast studios, such as in the way that [a background display] is provided.”
Not surprisingly given the trend towards increased remote working – and the need to be able to manage estates over potentially large distances – there is also a discernible demand for visual solutions to be supported with cloud-based management platforms. As well as allowing for effective control of day-to-day requirements, such platforms also tend to gather significant data that allows potential problems to be identified and addressed early on.
For example, ViewSonic has introduced myViewBoard Manager. “This cloud-based platform empowers IT administrators with the ability to efficiently monitor device information, optimise tool usage, and conduct firmware updates across all ViewSonic displays via a singular web dashboard," says Chen. "This tool not only simplifies the management and communication process within organisations and campuses, but also enhances resource efficiency and reduces energy consumption, paving the way for more sustainable operational practices."
Samsung is another manufacturer to have recently highlighted new innovations around system management and control. Hence at ISE 2024, its ‘SmartThings for Business Exhibition’ highlighted how the use of IoT (Internet of Things technology), among other innovations, will help business owners to leverage their displays to connect and gain more control of their smart devices across different business environments.
Underlining the importance of powerful connectivity, SW Yong – president and head of the visual display business at Samsung Electronics –observes: “In a commercial display sector where operational efficiency is key, Samsung digital signage is leveraging SmartThings to deliver next-gen connectivity and features to organisations of all sizes. This further expansion of the SmartThings ecosystem will serve to elevate experiences for customers and partners from a wide variety of industries.”
Whilst the period after early 2020 was undoubtedly challenging – and, in terms of the recent past, unprecedented in its sheer unpredictability – a mood of optimism was discernible in all of the interviews conducted for this piece. In particular, the latest edition of ISE has resulted in many vendors feeling that the industry is now regaining its pre-Covid energy. Not untypically, Tanghe notes: “ISE was really buzzing – the atmosphere was really good and the amount of visitors we had was excellent… Everyone we spoke to was very enthusiastic.”
Indeed, this enthusiasm is even discernible when addressing markets one might reasonably expect to be more muted at present – retail being an obvious example. Whilst the high-street is incontrovertibly having a tough time in many countries, the growing tendency of retailers to focus their investment on a select number of stores and create impactful experiences heralds obvious opportunities for visual solution providers.
“It might be the case that the retailers [don’t expect to sell so much through their physical stores], but are more about creating an experience that enables people to connect to the brand and then maybe buy [a product] somewhere else [eg. such as online],” says Tanghe. “So you see a lot of LED walls being installed into new ‘experience’-type stores.”
Meanwhile, building projection-mapping as part of large-scale immersive experiences remains in the ascendant for many vendors – Digital Projection among them. “Especially in the Middle East, there seems to be a massive appetite to create huge impact [in this way],” says Wadsworth, adding that demand currently tilts more towards corporations –who might want to use projection-mapping to announce new products or initiatives – than sports or other live events.
But its not just corporations getting in on the act. ISE saw the official launch of a partnership between INFiLED and Alex Maltsev, an award-wining artist renowned for his 3D and design projects. The collaboration will “extend across content creation for screens”, showcasing the integration of Maltsev’s artistry with INFiLED’s latest display technology. ISE also marked a collaboration between INFiLED and Barcelona-based creative studio Tigre Lab, entitled ‘Living the Art Experience’.
With Leyard among other companies engaged in immersive artistic projects – its recent supply of an LED tunnel to the Axel de Beaufort and Guillaume Verdier-designed museum-boat ARTEXPLORER being a prominent example – it’s clearer than ever that visual solutions is an area in which art and commerce can be perfectly intertwined.
ISE also drew attention to another encouraging trend for the long-term prosperity of the visual solutions sector – the announcement of new partnerships or expansion of partner networks. It’s not hard to see why these are appealing in an era of shifting expectations, not least as software and
integration requirements continue to evolve rapidly.
For example, Sony announced the addition of 26 members and industry leaders to its AV Alliance and Technology Partner Network, joining the existing 40+ members from across Europe and other parts of the world. The resulting strategic alliances enable the provision of “compatible software and hardware solutions that deliver enhanced value, compatibility and creative freedom" to its BRAVIA pro displays.
Returning to an earlier theme, Rik Willemse – head of professional displays & solutions at Sony Europe –remarks: “Our partner network is not only important for delivering the highest-quality solutions to more end-users, but is also key in our mission towards a more sustainable AV industry. It’s important to us that our partners share our mission on advancing environmental and social initiatives.”
Putting together market overviews hasn’t always been the cheeriest of tasks in the last few years, with Covid-19 and other world events impacting industry progress. But with ISE 2024 confirming that pro AV is in robust health once again, this feeling of uncertainty is dissipating – not least in visual solutions.
So, while even higher resolutions might not be so important in the future, it’s clear that there will be plenty of other features and functions – from ease of control and integration to sustainable operation – to ensure that this remains an ongoing success story.
The 20th edition of Integrated Systems Europe really was better than all the rest. The bar was already very high, and the organisers are set to raise it further for 2025 and beyond. But for now, Installation editor Rob Lane takes a look at some of the brands and launches that caught his eye during an enjoyable few days within the hallowed halls of the Fira
ISE's 20th anniversary edition was the biggest and best attended event in its history, also delivering the largest content programme to date, as regular ISE conferences were augmented by the inaugural European/Latin American AV Summit and a rich freeto-attend programme that included the ever popular Tech Talks, AVIXA Xchange Live and CEDIA Smart Home Technology Stage.
It was some show, as Integrated Systems Events managing director Mike Blackman confirmed during an exclusive interview for this edition of Installation (see page 50 for the full interview). “ISE 2024 was our most successful show, in all our 20-year history," he says. "We had 73,891 unique attendees from 162 countries, which is a record attendance since the show’s inception in Geneva in 2004. This is a superb increase of 27% on the 2023 edition.
“...Exhibitors also reported unparalleled footfall on booths across the largest ever ISE show. In addition, the exhibition also showcased its highest number of exhibitors (1,408) and the largest show floor space (82,000 sqm) to date.”
Blackman is right to enthuse: this was, without doubt, the best ISE to date, and it sets the stage for what is guaranteed to be an even bigger and better event in 2025. As Blackman adds: “Already, ISE 2025 is shaping up to be even larger than the recordbreaking ISE 2024 with over 10% increase in reserved space compared to the previous year.” And whilst ISE 2025 is yet to reach full capacity, you certainly wouldn’t bet against it!
BOOTH BUSTER
Installation did its level best to cover as much of the huge Fira floorspace as it could during the show, but in truth we probably needed 40 days not four to fully do it justice. However, we visited a lot of booths, and our show highlights are featured here – alongside the biggest InstallationBest of Show at ISE Awards yet, on page 31.
As was the case in 2023, unified communications had a big part to play at ISE 2024, with a raft of companies launching new audio and video products for office and home, and the education market.
Sony and Nureva teamed up to create a large-room audio and video reference bundle. Featuring select Sony SRG series pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) and remote cameras – including the AI- powered SRG-A40 and SRG-A12 cameras, the SRG-X40UH camera and the SRG-XP1 box camera – and the Nureva HDL410 audio-conferencing system, the interconnected solution provides automated audio-based camera switching collaboration for corporate and education.
Bosch introduced Dicentis Hybrid Meetings, a complete solution that is said to “seamlessly” combine in-person and remote conference attendance. This hybrid solution is intended to create a “highly flexible meeting environment for maximised efficiency and effectiveness”.
Audio-Technica’s ATND1061 Beamforming Microphone caught our eye at the Fira. It benefits from the company’s Link’s IP technology, for transmission of uncompressed multi-channel digital audio and for information control with minimum latency. Pitched as an “ideal solution” for conference rooms, boardrooms, lecture theatres and more, the ATND1061LK searches for the speaker’s position, allowing for accurate tracking of – and switching between – participants who move during meetings or presentations. It also detects unwanted sounds during a meeting and automatically adjusts the beam so that it is not pointed in that direction.
Jabra announced Jabra+ for Admins at ISE, a cloudbased API-first software platform for remote monitoring and management of meeting rooms and devices. It gives IT administrators visibility and control over settings, firmware and insights from one unified software platform, allowing them to check in for realtime status updates from anywhere. Click here for an exclusive video roundup of both Jabra+ for Admins and other ISE launches.
Sennheiser’s upgraded Room Planner – now “more intuitive and user-friendly” – is designed to streamline device planning and room design. The Room Plan Upload Feature, allows for personalised audio and video designs when uploading room plans.
Shure launched Microflex Wireless neXt 2 (MXW neXt 2), the newest addition to its Microflex Ecosystem, expanding the success of the original Microflex Wireless platform. Designed with a unique combination of advanced features, the new Microflex Wireless neXt 2 is a two-channel wireless system designed to offer a cost-effective, intuitive, and all-inone audio solution for diverse spaces and hybrid environments.
Samsung’s “SmartThings for Business” exhibition emphasised advancements in IoT, demonstrating how business owners can leverage SmartThings for their digital signage solutions to gain more control over smart devices across various landscapes.
Samsung also announced an expanded partnership with Cisco to deliver enhanced collaboration experiences for hybrid workers. As part of the new partnership, Samsung unveiled its new 105in, 21:9 Smart Signage QPD-5K model that is compatible with Cisco Room Kit EQ, which is certified for Microsoft Teams.
Leyard showcased a diverse range of meeting room solutions tailored for hybrid working, including the Planar URW105 21:9 display. Featuring integrations with platforms such as MS Teams Front Row, these solutions aim to enhance collaborative experiences. The LN Series and the new CarbonLight CLM5.9 M3 were new additions to the company's rental & staging portfolio.
Renkus-Heinz was keen to promote its Omnibeam beam-steering software for live venues at ISE 2024, and showcased its ICLive X Series and Iconyx Compact Series from its flagship line of digitally steerable arrays, the award-winning UBX Series of
passive column loudspeakers.
Also for live venues, Cameo – the Adam Hall Group’s lighting technology brand – presented its new product highlights on its dedicated booth. The focus was on the AZOR and OTOS moving head series, complemented by a variety of other spotlights for installation, broadcast and theatre applications –including the new ZENIT models and the PIXBAR G2 LED bars.
d&b audiotechnik presented a range of next generation audio solutions, all under the banner of the MILAN standard – including the DS20 Audio Networking Bridge, the DS100M Signal Engine and the D90 power amplifier.
LEA Professional showcased its range of smart power, advanced digital signal processing and intelligible IT integration capabilities, with interactive demos of an updated LEA Cloud, WebUI, and SharkWare platforms. The company also launched six new Connect Series half-rack models, ranging from 30W to 120W per channel, said to harness all the flexibility of LEA Professional technology, only in a smaller form factor.
The best demo Installationexperienced at ISE 2024 came from Las Vegas Sphere audio hero HOLOPLOT, for its X2 MD30. Bringing the company's Matrix Arrays into a smaller form factor, X2 simply blew us away at the Fira. HOLOPLOT's 3D AudioBeamforming and Wave Field Synthesis tech focuses sound on the audience area, and the effect was truly astounding, seemingly beaming audio dialogue a couple of booths away as if by magic. Stand in the audience area sweet spot, and you can hear every word; step out of it and it's gone.
The MD30 is capable of generating up to 12 separate sound fields simultaneously – each with its
own content, equalization, level, shape, and position –and the ISE demo team was able to provide us with a second audio feed, 'sweet-spotting' in a completely different area away from the speaker installation.
Another enjoyable demo came courtesy of Sonos. The residential hi-fi company (often used in bars and restaurants too – so-called resimercial installations) demonstrated its Sonos 7.2.4 home cinema set-up, with music and movies. The system boasted two subwoofers (one too many for the demo room, Installation opined!), with steering speakers mounted in-ceiling. It was – over-egged sub bass provision aside – an incredible system, both for music and film. Installation will be looking at residential AV in greater detail in 2024, both resimercial and 'pure' resi. Watch this space!
Staying inside the home, smart living solutions provider Snap One demonstrated its Control4 and OvrC ecosystems with expanded KNX support, alongside Control4 CORE controllers for smart living control, and the new real-time surveillance benefits of the AI-powered Luma Insights solution.
Installation would have loved to have checked out more smart home and home cinema booths, but alas time was against us. Hopefully next year!
We did manage to experience the best that displays and projectors have to offer commercial AV though, starting with a visit to Digital Projection’s arresting, cow-themed, booth.
The company introduced two of its most advanced, single-chip DLP laser projectors to date at ISE 2024. The all new E-Vision 16000i WU boasts a newly upgraded electronics platform that shares much of its functionality from Digital Projection’s flagship TITAN series. Totally redesigned from the bottom up, central to the new design is the implementation of Texas Instruments’ new 0.8in High Efficiency Pixel (HEP) DMD. This new DMD allows for a higher brightness than was previously achievable on the 0.67in DMD, as well as superior colour and contrast.
The new E-Vision 10000i boasts 9,600 lumens brightness and 20,000:1 dynamic contrast, and shares the same advanced capabilities as the E-Vision 16000i, including Source Redundancy, Brightness Sync and Auto White Balance Correction – features that are usually reserved for high-end 3-Chip products.
Projector and display manufacturer Viewsonic showcased its new LDC series, a customisable addition to its advanced All-in-One LED display lineup.
PPDS also showcased an‘ All In One’ LED display series, with four Philips Titan models, as well as entering the outdoor display market with the Philips
Urban LED 6000 series – with FC Barcelona confirmed as its first customer for the Camp Nou Stadium rebuild!. The company also unveiled a new ‘entry-level’ Philips Hospitality TV series, providing premium features at a more affordable price for small hotels, and a new line of Philips Collaboration for Education interactive displays.
Display giant Sony’s Professional Displays & Solutions division showcased a huge portfolio of of products and solutions on its huge booth, catering for the corporate, education, retail and virtual production sectors, including the new high performance BRAVIA BZ-L lineup and newly released SRG-A12, SRG-A40 PTZ cameras – mentioned earlier in this roundup –with enhanced AI PTZ Auto-framing capabilities. As ever, the company was keen to promote its sustainability credentials, and its virtual production demos were out of this world!
Boasting an even bigger booth, of course, was Crestron. The company announced four new Crestron DM NAX Audio Edge Devices at ISE, intended to provide “seamless interoperability and performance” between audio sources for any AV-over-IP system. All new edge devices are compatible across DM NVX AV-over-IP, DM NAX Audio-over-IP, AES67, and Dante audio networking platforms. Additionally, the devices are powered via PoE, eliminating the need for local AC power.
Sticking with Dante, Audinate announced that its Dante Director, a SaaS solution for remote Dante network administration and management, would be available as a pre-release beta. Dante Director enables
management of Dante networks from a “simple, convenient” web dashboard, accessible from anywhere. The solution joins the Audinate suite of products that bring professional management to AV solutions, including Dante Domain Manager.
AtlasIED released a new software update for its Atmosphere audio processing and control platform and products, featuring multiple enhancements. It also showcased its premium loudspeaker series, the Aimline series of column arrays, the AtlasIED IsoFlare point source loudspeakers and the AS Series of allweather, surface-mount loudspeakers.
MSolutions introduced a new quadview video processor to help customers scale and display four video sources in a single screen. The new MS-41Q device can accept four HDMI sources and upscale any input resolution to 4K@60 4:4:4 with up to 18Gbps bandwidth, providing “exceptional” visual quality for monitoring purposes for live production, security and other applications.
Kramer expanded its innovative Series 3 product line, showing the company’s commitment to providing end-to-end solutions that are fully interoperable and connected. Series 3 offers premium quality with uncompressed 4K60 4:4:4 video, zero latency, and advanced connectivity features like fast switching, single-cable extension, and USB-C interfaces.
ZeeVee was excited to introduce pro AV’s first AV over IP encoder with a built-in comprehensive management and security interface. The
ZyPerUHD60-2EMP was demonstrated alongside the company’s other ZyPerUHD60 models for 1Gb networks, as well as its full lineup of ZyPer4K 10Gb SDVoE encoders and decoders.
Atlona introduced its global debut of an alternative to touch panels for AV control in smaller spaces and less complex applications. The AT-VKP-8E provides IP-based system control in environments where a simple and straightforward keypad interface is preferred, such as standard classrooms.
Powersoft showcased Verso, a gateway device designed to connect current Powersoft products to its MyUniverso cloud platform. Formerly known as Universo, MyUniverso has now merged into MyPowersoft, ensuring that all users with MyPowersoft accounts can access the platform.
Matrox Video displayed a selection from its complete portfolio of products designed for networked, IP-based control rooms and live production environments. In the Control Room Collaboration pod, attendees saw Matrox Video's encoders and decoders, IP KVM extension and switching solutions, and video wall controllers in action. The pod featured a video wall and an operator workspace driven by Matrox products.
Datapath teamed up with Absen, B-Tech AV Mounts and Fountainhead to demonstrate a complete control room solution of video processing and distribution, LED video wall displays, mounts, CCTV and consoles – giving ISE attendees a ‘closer’ experience of a control room set-up and the chance to explore and experience other vendor control room-related kit.
PlexusAV showcased its IPMX-based AVoIP system, boasting USB-C, RS232, IR, and the all-new Stream Conversion Gateway; whilst Lawo presented its AVoIP solutions for facility and corporate infrastructure, corporate conferencing, stadiums, parliaments, theatre and opera house applications, enterprise installs, and remote production installations – including the new IP-native crystal versatile broadcast mixing console.
The days of eye-catching, 'me too' AV innovations at ISE may be over (remember all those takes on Pepper's Ghost, touch tables and huge waves of lowgrade LED 'ribbon walls'?), but this year's anniversary certainly lived up to expectations; it was without a doubt the best iteration yet. All wheat, no chaff: the best audio-video technology from the best vendors, showcased at the best venue.
Roll on 2025!
The awards recognise standout, innovative AV products and solutions exhibited on the show floor in Barcelona.
Optimal Audio WebApp
Renkus-Heinz OmniBeam
Listen Technologies ListenWIFI LWR-1050 Receiver
Samsung Electronics VXT
Chief Tempo Wall Mount System
LED Studio 54in EDGE Pro and 65in EDGE Series
AUO Corporation AUO Transparent Micro LED Display Series
MAXHUB Ultra Wide 5K Display
Crestron 1 Beyond Cameras
Crestron Desk Scheduling
Jabra PanaCast 50 Video Bar System
DTEN Bar
DTEN Vue Pro Camera System
Vaddio AV Bridge Nano
Innosonix MA32/D2
Panasonic ET-FMP50 Media Processor Series
Audinate Dante AV-A
AtlasIED Aimline Series
WolfVision vSolution COMPOSER
Optoma ZK810T 4K fixed lens projector
Adder Technology ADDERView CCS-MV Multi-Viewer Range
Blaze Audio PowerZone Connect 6008
The winning entries in all four Best of Show publication categories (Installation, TVBEurope, AVTechnology, Sound &VideoContractor , DigitalSignage, Mix, ResidentialSystems and Tech&Learning) will feature in a special ebook soon...
As one component of ISE’s 20th anniversary celebrations, the Audio Museum provided an opportunity to get up-close to groundbreaking audio systems once used by legendary artists including Pink Floyd and David Bowie, writes Ken Dunn
With the rapid rise of immersive sound technologies for installation, broadcast and music, it has been an extremely exciting past decade for audio. But at ISE this year there was an opportunity to take a trip back to the 1960s and ‘70s – a period in which professional audio as we understand it now really took shape, and one in which there were more than a few precursors of the multichannel, immersive sound we are revelling in today.
Billed as a ‘rare treat for classic rock and pop fans’, the Audio Museum at ISE 2024 saw the show organisers team up with CH Vintage Audio, a company run by audio historian, touring stalwart and music promoter Chris Hewitt.
Home to the largest stock of vintage music-related sound equipment in the UK, the Cheshire-based company is regularly called upon to provide historic PA systems, mixing desks, guitar amps, effects units, microphones and more for use in film, TV and music video productions.
But it was a presentation at PLASA in 2023 that ultimately sparked an invitation from ISE to develop and deliver an Audio Museum for this year’s show. “ISE had decided that we wanted to have a show feature to connect between Hall 7 and the walkway to the demo rooms in Hall 8,” recalls ISE head of content Joe Hosken. “It’s a few hundred metres long, so the plan we had was to showcase various pieces of audio equipment from ‘down through the ages’, tying in with ISE’s 20th anniversary theme. Last year I was visiting the PLASA Show in London and Chris had an exhibit there, showcasing some selections from his very extensive collection. So we started chatting and took things from there.”
Whilst there was a request from the show organisers to incorporate items “connected with significant events and international artists that people would recognise”, the actual selection of equipment was entirely down to CH Vintage Audio. With Hewitt’s long-held interest in audio associated with Pink Floyd, and the landmark TheDarkSideoftheMoon (DSOTM) album recently marking its 50th
anniversary, it seemed eminently logical for some of the band’s most celebrated live gear to ‘headline’ the ISE Audio Museum.
Floyd fans visiting the Audio Museum will have immediately recognised the WEM (Watkins Electric Music) PA that was such a prominent feature of Liveat Pompeii, Adrian Maben’s 1972 concert film captured at the ancient Roman amphitheatre on the west coast of Italy and structured around an epic performance of the classic track ‘Echoes’, from the previous year’s Meddle LP. But that was only one aspect of the PF presentation at ISE, with Hewitt also shipping the PA used on the original DSOTM tour – famously designed by Bill Kelsey and Martin Audio founder Dave Martin –as well as a new reconstruction of an Allen & Heath console used at both Pompeii and on the DSOTM tour.
The bulk of the work involved in reconstructing the pioneering quadrophonic mixer took place in less than two months after Hewitt was approached by Allen & Heath at the aforementioned edition of PLASA. “A while later, having spoken with [current A&H MD Rob Clark], I got a call out of the blue from Andy Bereza, who was a co-founder of A&H and designed and built the original desk,” he recalls. “We started talking and he was able to provide me with a lot of information, for example how wide the channels were and which knobs were used. From that we managed to scale it up and do a drawing, thinking that the reconstruction would be a complete dummy [ie, not operable]. But then as time went by, we decided to get a couple of the channels and VU metres working.
“We also wanted to recreate the illuminated push buttons that were originally requested by Peter Watts [celebrated Floyd roadie and father of actress Naomi]. Having rushed ‘round and bought components from around the world, we actually finished the mixer within seven weeks of drawing it out, and Andy was really involved in the project throughout.”
Audio Museum visitors had the opportunity to hear both DSOTM and the Live at Pompeii soundtrack through the historic PAs, but the Floyd was by no means the only classic act represented. Invited to
select some other highlights from the exhibition, Hewitt points to the Midas desk used on the tour that followed the release of Mike Oldfield’s TubularBells; monitors deployed during The Beatles’ work on the album that became LetItBe (and recently featured in Peter Jackson’s GetBackdocumentary); compressors employed during the recording of John Lennon’s Imagine LP at his Berkshire country house, Tittenhurst Park; a mixing desk once used by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; a PA system utilised by David Bowie for his 1973 tour, which famously concluded with a shock announcement during the Hammersmith Odeon gig that he was retiring his Ziggy Stardust persona; and items related to Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Frank Zappa.
Having amassed such a formidable collection, it’s no surprise that Hewitt’s phone frequently rings with requests to supply period equipment to film and TV productions. RocketMan and BohemianRhapsody –the biopics devoted to Elton John and Queen, respectively – and TheReckoning, the recent BBC mini-series about the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, are among his many credits.
Also noteworthy was the Disney+ series, Pistol, about the Sex Pistols, which neatly brings us back to Ziggy Stardust’s last hurrah, after which Pistols guitarist Steve Jones famously helped himself to some gear belonging to Bowie’s band – an event depicted in the opening episode of the series and recalled by Jones on his radio programme/podcast Jonesy’sJukebox.
“Quite often these projects will start with a request that gradually expands into something bigger,” says Hewitt. “So with Pistol, we were initially approached
because we had a particular guitar, but during the conversation they mentioned they were looking for various PA systems and recording gear, much of which I said we should be able to provide.
"For the Ziggy Stardust [sequence], we went back into the Hammersmith Odeon [now known as the Eventim Apollo] and basically put in the whole stage PA that we fabricated from scratch. Of course, six months later someone came up to me at PLASA and said they had the [original system] in their shed in Slough…!”
Whilst the CH Vintage Audio inventory is already extremely extensive, it’s not always easy to resist making further acquisitions. As Hewitt admits: “My problem is that I can get a bit of money for doing things like ISE and PLASA, but then spend like five times that amount in collecting more stuff!”
Although his focus is evidently on heritage audio, Hewitt readily acknowledges that there are direct connections to be made with today’s most significant audio innovations. For instance, the quadrophonic audio championed by the Floyd in the 1970s is an antecedent of the immersive systems that are increasingly de rigeur in the world’s leading performance spaces.
“It’s important that people recognise the industry we have now has come from somewhere,” says Hewitt, who also hopes that the Audio Museum may have helped raise awareness of day-to-day audio quality in an era where so much personal listening occurs via computer speakers and mobile phones. “I think that some people do [unquestioningly] accept modern audio as being great because they don’t have proper reference points.”
He is also concerned that touring sound specifications are increasingly determined by requirements other than the actual audio quality – an inevitable consequence, perhaps, of a business that has become significantly more organised on every level since the more freewheeling days of the 1970s. So it’s by no means uncommon, he says, for tour producers to be prioritising questions like 'what is the lightest way to truck [the loudspeakers], and how many of them will fit into a truck?’ Whereas previously it was more ‘we need the best sound and then we’ll work out how to truck the boxes’.
"Like every business in the end, it can be the accountants that make the decisions and not necessarily the innovators,” he adds.
The Audio Museum underlines the commitment to innovation that has always characterised pro audio since the sector began to mature. “A lot of the equipment shown predates ISE by 30 years, but many of the brands still make audio equipment and are exhibiting at the show,” says Hosken. “It reflects heritage and engineering excellence, and all the companies should be proud of that fact. It really shows that, ultimately, quality will win through.”
The exhibition also chimed with a broader theme at ISE 2024 – that of AV’s ongoing evolution across disciplines and applications. “It's something that you could see throughout the show – that technologies and solutions continue to evolve and the ‘state of the art’ moves forward," Hosken adds. "But it’s when the technologies are in the hands of truly creative artists that we can hear the greatest results… The Audio Museum showcased that really well by highlighting some of the key events where that unique combination occurred.”
Moreover, the fact that ISE visitors could then visit Hall 8 and step into the 14 specially- built Audio Demo Rooms – where some of the latest and greatest audio solutions were being showcased by manufacturers including Coda Audio, Holoplot, L-Acoustics, Turbosound, Lab.gruppen and Void Acoustics – only served to highlight the determination of R&D teams to deliver something new and surprising.
“It was fantastic for attendees to be able to see what was pioneered 50 years ago, then visit a booth or go into a demo room at this year’s show and experience the latest manifestations of surround sound and so on,” says Hosken. “It’s very much a continuing story.”
It is something that has divided opinion for decades but, like it or loathe it, background music in bars, restaurants, hotels and even the gym is not going away. If anything, discovers Kevin Hilton, it is only going to become more influential in creating the right atmosphere in both the retail and hospitality sectors
There was a time when background music meant just that. Music – often bland and nondescript easy listening pieces or insipid versions of classic and recent hits – played in restaurants or hotel lobbies and lifts as a backdrop to dining or checking in to your room. Sometimes referred to under the umbrella term muzak, a nod to the American brand of the same name, synonymous with background music (BGM) since 1934, its use has thankfully fallen away considerably over the past 30 years, and in the last ten in particular.
Today, background music tends not only by the original artists, but is as carefully programmed as the playlists of radio stations – if not more so. Time of day, time of the year, the demographics of the regular clientele, the location of the business and even the weather are all factors taken into consideration when compiling the right soundtrack for a specific type of venue.
This underlines the importance of background music as a commercial business. It is very much a service, offering a selling point to other businesses just in the same way as the food and drink served in a restaurant or the design and furnishings of a hotel.
Matteo Luppi, chief executive of Barcelona and Los Angeles-based music provider SoundMachine, values the BGM market at $2 billion (based on 2023 figures), with forecasts that it will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 10 percent to reach £3.9 billion by 2030. "It is a substantial and expanding segment within the broader music industry," he says. "BGM services find extensive usage in mature markets, including the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. This prevalence is attributed to the sophistication of customer bases in sectors such as retail, hospitality, healthcare and more."
Luppi adds that the operations of rights organisations in these territories – such as PPL and PRS in the UK, and ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR in the US – "contribute to the adoption of BGM services". As for the "primary adopters" of BGM services, he identifies medium/large and large companies, which are where user adoption is more advanced.
"These businesses, with a need for site management, including music, and a higher exposure to liability if non-compliant, drive higher adoption rates," Luppi says. "By comparison, user adoption among small and medium companies is in the early stages of development."
According to Mark Lehman, vice president and general manager of SiriusXM Commercial Music, the global sector is projected to reach between $2.1 billion and $2.5 billion by 2030/31. SiriusXM Commercial Music provides BGM services in the US market through three brands: Pandora CloudCover, SiriusXM for Business and Pandora for Business.
Lehman explains that these "provide comprehensive and complementary offerings for businesses of all sizes", with the group seeing increasing demand in the retail, hospitality, healthcare, office and fitness sectors. "There is rising adoption of digital streaming and interactive solutions," he says, "along with a growing awareness of the impact of music on consumer and employee behaviour. BGM is used widely in various sectors, each of which has its own unique needs and preferences. For example, in-store music is used to create an atmosphere that can influence customers to stay longer and spend more money, while hotels, restaurants and bars use it to create a relaxing or upbeat ambience."
A rougher estimate of how much BGM is worth comes from Ola Sars, founder and chief executive of Sweden-based music service provider Soundtrack Your Brand. "The commercial value of business-tobusiness [B2B] streaming is roughly 100 million addressable 'doors' globally, meaning cafes, restaurants, receptions, gyms and so on," he says. "The average price for a background music B2B subscription is about $30 per month, so, doing the maths – 100 million x $360 [the total annual subscription] is $36 billion annually. As we expect ARPU [average revenue per user] to go up a little bit over the years, it's roughly a $40 billion addressable market."
Sars also quotes the October 2021 MRC Data report BackgroundMusic:TheUntappedPromotional Avenue for Music, which showed that, in the US alone, consumers made more than 90 billion visits to businesses every year, with 79 percent of those polled noticing music was played in the places they went. As this survey was published during the pandemic, it can be assumed that the number of visits has risen since then.
"Currently 90 percent of businesses play music, according to MRC Data," Sars comments. "Any and every size and type of commercial business can and should be using a music streaming service that's licensed for businesses. We service more than 72,000 restaurants, hotels, bars, cafes, retail shops,
spas, offices and more across 74 countries globally. In terms of main market sectors, retail, restaurant, and hospitality – hotels, spas – are leaders in usage. A large percentage of our customer base is small to midsize businesses but we also work with brands, such as Ikea, Joe & The Juice and Tag Heuer."
UK market research consultancy Futuresource does not have a specific view of the value of BGM, but does 'track' it through vertical markets. In AV terms, the significant areas are Installed Leisure – covering shopping centres/malls, stores, education, corporate, transportation, hotels and other hospitality premises – and Installed Commercial, including nightclubs, sports stadiums, arenas, gyms and fitness centres, museums and art galleries, theme parks, bowling alleys and casinos.
"In terms of value, we have a global market size of $868 million for Leisure and $785 million for Commercial," explains Grant Youngman, lead analyst for the pro audio team at Futuresource.
"We do not attribute a specific number or percentage to BGM, but it will certainly be an important segment. In retail and hospitality, for example, we are hearing that, post-Covid, the level of investment in installed venues is growing at a faster rate than before the pandemic, with the majority [of the spend] being plugged into the experience of the consumer."
In general terms, Ekin Binal, director of core technology and strategic partnerships at Crestron, describes BGM as "a key AV attribute" for
commercial businesses. "It helps engagement with the end users/customers and can also serve as an extension of a given company's culture," he says.
"For instance, if the commercial property, store, hotel, restaurant or what have you is an energetic location, the background music can be tailored to carry that same vibe. This is a great way to increase the number of return customers to a given venue, something that is critical for most hospitality-driven businesses."
Binal identifies hospitality as one of the major target markets for BGM: "Hospitality includes hotels, bars, restaurants and even hospitals. Retail is another major sector. A smaller one that Crestron as a company is working in increasingly is enterprise, providing background music in common areas such as lobbies, cafes and shared spaces."
The diversification of BGM into other types of retail and hospitality premises, ones that would have previously relied on the radio or a TV music channel for their musical backgrounds, is confirmed by Edward Bigland, a director of Auracle Sound.
"The main markets are retail in terms of individual stores and shopping centres, along with hospitality, which is predominantly restaurants and hotels," he says. "Leisure sites such as gyms, spas and sports facilities are also big but all these are by no means the only areas using BGM. All sorts of venues now have BGM, including hair salons, recreational areas and offices."
Auracle Sound is a UK-based IP audio streaming service that was founded in 2007 as a partnership between an artist agency and a music consultancy. It now supplies commercially licensed copyrighted music to the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors in the UK and mainland Europe. "I would estimate that the scale and importance of BGM is a growing sector of retail, hospitality and leisure," says Bigland. "It is the cheapest way to influence the environment of these types of businesses with instant impact. The sector has been growing steadily for several years."
While there are some installers emerging that work exclusively in BGM, many systems integrators (SIs) are working with the technology as part of larger projects.
"In terms of BGM we do everything from hotel, hospitality, retail and leisure," comments Sam Greatorex, operations manager at SI Design AV Europe. "The bulk of our BGM systems are probably hotels and hospitality as opposed to retail. We tend to focus on the hotel side and the reason for that is often – but not always the case – that we're doing other work at the property, such as conference and meeting rooms and banqueting suites. Alongside
that there will be a wider requirement for a BGM system. Probably about 70 percent of what we've done is part of wider work and maybe 30 or even 40 percent is a standalone BGM installation."
While Greatorex acknowledges that many businesses and brands now recognise the value of BGM and employ specialised metrics to assess what will work best in their premises along with specially compiled playlists from streaming services, there are some that are still more likely to bring in a mechanical and electrical (M&E) contractor to install equipment, which might be more on the prosumer or consumer side, than a specialised integrator – and indeed, may involve residentially-targeted kit; so-called resimercial.
This may still be the case with individual businesses or even small chains, but when it comes to top-end brands the brief is for not only higher quality sound and equipment but also more sophisticated systems in terms of networking and zoning within a building.
"Background music is a key design aspect of commercial spaces, specifically in hospitality and
retail where the goal is to create an ideal customer experience," observes Adam Shulman, director of product management at Bose Professional. "In a hotel, music plays a key role in a guest's journey from check-in to their room and then on to the restaurant or other amenities by setting the mood and atmosphere."
Shulman continues that by using the right background music, customers can be encouraged to linger in a shop or bar. "It also reinforces a positive mood and association," he says. "The ultimate goal is to increase the likelihood of repeat customers through repeated visits and word-of-mouth recommendations."
Bose Professional was involved in the installation of BGM systems in Norrøna House, the recently opened flagship store of the Norrøna outdoor clothes brand in Lysaker, Norway. The premises contain not only the expected retail area but also a Storm Lab for testing garments, the Naturen Brasserie and the Black Box theatre for screening films and staging other entertainment.
"Each department contributes to different aspects
Above: The Naturen Brasserie within Norrona House, Norway,will feature a Bose Professional soundsystem when the dinner service openslater thisyear
of the customer experience while supporting natural movement through the store," explains Shulman. "By having the ideal music suited to each department, which is played through Bose Professional audio systems, Norrøna House's aim was to create an exciting shopping experience."
Pro audio and AV manufacturers such as Bose, AUDAC, TOA and Crestron have been active in BGM for many years, but alongside them have been consumer and prosumer brands. Back in the early 1990s there was a trend for hi-fi loudspeakers to be installed in restaurants, bars and bookshops. The reasoning was that the premises needed good sounding music, so why not use the same type of equipment the owner might have in their home?
The modern equivalent of this resimercial specification can be seen in Sonos now becoming more active in the BGM market. "We know that we are growing in that sector, even though we are thought of as predominantly a residential audio system," comments Stephen Rhead, manager for Sonos Professional in the UK and Ireland.
"We are now growing rapidly in that commercial space. We have the Sonos Pro system in the US, which has the capability to allow, for example, the owner of a restaurant chain to see what is being played in the different branches and change things if necessary. It's important to have the right audio for the space. That hasn't come to the EU region yet purely because of licensing."
Rhead explains that before moving into BGM, Sonos carried out research into this new target area, which he describes as "light commercial” or the aforementioned resimercial, including cafes, restaurants, hotels, beauty salons and car showrooms.
"What our research showed was that 45 percent of shoppers said music affects how they feel in a space more than the lighting. An interesting one was that 76 percent of patrons said they preferred a place with good music over places with good drink. And in gyms and places like that 62 percent said music motivated them to workout longer and harder."
Among the reasons Sonos has been successful in the residential market is that its speakers can run over a home WiFi network and be controlled from a smartphone app. Anyone with this kind of set-up in their home is probably familiar with the family conflict of anyone having the app on their phone being able to change the music.
Consequently, Rhead says, Sonos has instigated a best practice for commercial installation. "This involves having our speakers on a separate VLAN [virtual local area network], not a public WiFi," he
explains. "It's controlled by a single tablet, which is password protected and only the branch manager or senior members of the team can have access to it. You certainly never put it on a public WiFi, because as we know from it being used like that in pubs, it falls over when you've got 300 people going online. We also generally recommend it should be hardwired, not running wirelessly."
There is a wide variety of different ways of controlling BGM systems, depending on the type of installation, personal taste and how the music is delivered to the premises. "Mobile devices, tablets and web browsers have become popular methods for streaming music through Bluetooth speakers such as Sonos," comments Mark Lehman at SiriusXM Music.
"There are also networked media players, which are designed specifically for playing music and often offer more features than smartspeakers, such as multiple zones, scheduling and integration with other systems. Ultimately, the best form of control/ interfacing for a BGM system depends on someone's needs and constraints."
45 percent of shoppers said music affects how they feel more than lighting & 76 percent said they preferred a place with good music over places with good drink"
StephenRhead,managerforSonosProfessional,UK/Eire
Auracle Sound's Edward Bigland observes that a variety of control options exist: "Devices can be remotely programmed in the device portal to play a chosen schedule of music channels or playlists. Auracle Sound also has a remote control app that enables units to be controlled wirelessly and shows the available channels and playlists. Alternatively a unit can be controlled manually from the front facia controls."
Professional controllers also come from Crestron and AMX, including touch screens to APIs and keypads, as well as apps. A growing trend is for loudspeaker and hardware manufacturers to work with one of the many streaming music suppliers that are now working in BGM. As Ekin Binal explains, Crestron's DM-NAX-4ZSP audio processor is able to stream directly from services such as SoundMachine.
Matteo Luppi at SoundMachine adds: "In the case of integration with third party devices, as with Crestron, it would be via an API to the Crestron app. Web interfaces and apps for tablets and smartphones can be used in other situations."
As well as SoundMachine, specialist music providers for business include Imagesound, Musicstyling, Epidemic, Tribe of Noise, Deezer (which works with Sono Pro in the US), C-Burn, Soundtrack Your Brand, Ambie and Mood Media, which is probably the granddaddy of them all as it's the current name for the Muzak brand.
All these are a significant technical move on from the eight-hour CD compilations sent out monthly sent out by Rediffusion in the early 90s to be played on its RM3 system. The dedicated streamers are also recommended for business rather than someone using their home Spotify or Apple account, because all the music is licensed and copyright cleared for use in public environments.
As for the future, BGM looks set to keep growing with projections of a CAGR of between five and 10 percent. On the technology side, networking using audio over IP is becoming the norm, if it is not already, while immersive sound systems offer the potential for a more enveloping sound experience and greater control over zoning. Inevitably AI will make its presence felt, primarily as an analytical too.
What is certain is that background music appears to be shrugging off its elevator/lift-based, 'muzak' negative connotations, and is set to be a bigger, worldwide hit than ever before.
Controlling sound levels is not an easy task but modern technologies are making it a more manageable one. Which, as Paul Lydon reports, is just as well, because there is now more need than ever before to protect people's hearing in a wide variety of environments
Extreme audio levels can potentially damage hearing, and the issue is among the most serious health concerns in the world right now. Younger age groups in particular are reported to be experiencing problems with their hearing due to long periods of exposure to high levels of sound, both on personal music players (PMP) and at concerts.
As a result, over the last six years the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a series of standards and guidelines on sound and noise levels to limit the extent of this potential damage. The first of these, Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (2018), covered a lot of ground, including traffic, railways, aircraft, nightclubs, pubs, fitness centres, live sport, concerts or live music venues and PMP use.
Being lumped in with non-musical sound prompted Live DMA, a network of European live music associations, to issue in 2019 a white paper entitled 'Music is Not Noise'. Live DMA was later invited to take part in consultations for what eventually became the Global Standard for Safe Listening - Venues and Events (2022). Live DMA aimed to "defend all music aesthetics and diversity" and give more flexibility for maximum sound levels in small venues, plus removing peak sound limiters from live music events.
Individual countries also have their own legislation and guidelines on sound and noise. In the UK this includes the Noise Council Code of Practice (1995), which covers music concerts and was based on the old Greater London Council 'Pop Code' of 1976, together with the 1990 Environmental Protection Act and 2003 Licensing Act.
"The most likely formal control in the UK is a specific noise condition on the premises licence," observes
Richard Vivian, acoustic consultant and director of Big Sky Acoustics. "The primary statutory instrument that addresses employee safety is the 2005 Control of Noise at Work Regulations. However, the first threshold level of 80dB is often viewed as problematic in hospitality environments where music levels will typically be in the mid-nineties dB. A responsible approach to venue design, sound system configuration, employee work patterns and the right hearing protection can make this work but it requires skill and experience."
Another catchall method of keeping sound levels to a set dB figure is to install a limiter, which will clip the signal when the maximum is reached or, in extreme cases, cut the power completely. Sound consultant Simon Honywill describes this method of control as "archaic", with the cut-off in some civic halls set at 90dB. "It comes from a fundamental lack of understanding of the nature of what is going on," he says. "The majority of problems are caused by low frequencies and very specifically third octave bandwidths. You'll find 63Hz, 40Hz are problematic and in festival systems, for example, that is where all the weight of the kick drum usually is. That's what upsets people but there are ways of managing it using various filters without actually killing the mix."
An alternative to old-style devices that limited signal level rather than peak is to use the DSP either within loudspeaker management systems or in the front-end of amplifiers as a dynamics processor to introduce a maximum level control. Emma Bigg, director of AV design consultancy Octavius RE, comments that clubs featuring DJs are often told by local councils to install a limiter. "So you get a brick wall limiter and someone is
Themajorityof problemsarecaused bylowfrequencies, 63Hz,40Hzkickdrums atfestivals,forexample
turning up the volume, it's starting to distort and feels quieter," she says. "When what they need to do is turn it down to stop everything hitting the limiter, so the system can breathe and you get a better result."
Octavius RE works on a variety of audio installations, including for the hospitality and fitness sectors. In the case of restaurants, Bigg has seen either low powered systems or a rig more suited to a rock gig being used, which causes level problems in itself. "If you come from a venue background and you go for a left-right-sub configuration and try to put that in a restaurant, it doesn't really work," she says. "One end is really loud because you've got to turn it up to get coverage at the other end. Whereas a good quality, distributed sound system that's properly set up with the right power, amplification and placement is going to sound louder because you can hear it better."
Today, more distributed and positional systems are being employed to prevent sound from spilling out of a venue into surrounding areas. This technique was used at Lord's Cricket Ground, which sits in a residential area of north London. RG Jones installed the loudspeaker system with design and project management services by RH Consulting.
Principal consultant Roland Hemming explains that because of the close proximity of Lord's to local residences, great care had to be taken in the planning stage: "We used directional loudspeakers in a highly distributed design to put out as little energy in any single place, with a zoned approach so appropriate audio is only delivered where it is needed. In addition, there are limiters on the entire system so it cannot be over-driven. This can be done within the Q-SYS DSP but some of the amplifiers also have DSP built-in."
RG Jones' sales and installations director, Jon Berry, comments that in designing a system the company aims to "control sound levels to each specific area". Another example of this is the West Holts stage at Glastonbury, which last year featured a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision rig to provide additional containment so that as little sound as possible leaked towards neighbouring stages. Berry adds that DSPbased dynamics, EQ and timing are used for every loudspeaker circuit, either built into amps or other external devices.
Gareth Davies, projects lead at specialist loudspeaker manufacturer HOLOPLOT, observes that venue installers could learn lessons from the PA/VA (public address/voice alarm) sector, which for many years has based installations on distributed systems.
"Historically, sound designers and front-of-house engineers have designed rigs under the distinct misconception that louder is always better," he says. "In turn, audiences often assume that if they can't understand the lyrics, it must be because the system isn't loud enough and not due to a lack of intelligibility.
Thedayswhen performancesby bands like KISS could leaveearsringingare reducingduetoAVtech
PA/VA designers understand that intelligibility is not only a function of level but a result of both the direct to reverberant ratio and the signal level relative to the background noise. In most cases PA/VA systems are distributed systems operating at lower levels, typically 80-90dB."
While the actual level of sound is a prime factor in causing hearing damage, the length of time someone is subjected to high levels is equally significant. Thomas Lund, senior technologist at Genelec, works for the WHO in an unpaid capacity and is well aware of the potential risks for concert goers and clubbers, but points out this is equally true for customers and staff in shops and restaurants.
"You can have a very lively restaurant with background music at a pretty high level of 80dB," he says. "If you are seated for two hours while eating and more or less shouting at each other, this could put you in the danger zone, and in clothing stores it can be very loud. I measured shops like that in the US ten years ago and levels were in the 90s dB SPL. As a customer, if you go in and out for ten minutes it's fine but if you're working there, it would be highly illegal in European countries."
Lund has also worked with the WHO on PMP safety. This has resulted in a CENELEC (European Electrotechnical Standardisation Committee) standard that will see all such devices in Europe, including the UK,
have to feature mandated sound exposure measurement technology.
"There will be a grace period to be determined but it will probably be two or three years from now," he says. "At that time all devices sold in our area must be compliant. That would be an improvement in making people realise the levels at which they should be listening and take note when going to concerts. I think a lot will come out of it."
Professional headphones and headsets have been designed to hearing safety standards for some time, which has provided greater protection not only for those working in live sound and broadcasting but also office workers, particularly those in call centres. Sennheiser follows EU safety in the workplace directives on headphone levels, and developed ActiveGard to keep output below a prescribed level. This features on its professional models, including the HMD 300 PRO headset.
Jabra has also produced a series of technologies to help protect the hearing of those using headsets for long periods of time. These are branded as SafeTone, which comprises PeakStop, designed to remove sudden noises, and IntelliTone to keep down the average noise level. As with many other headphone/ headset manufacturers, Jabra additionally offers noise cancelling, which, while not a sound control feature in itself, does exclude background noises and so means a wearer does not need to have the volume too high to hear what they are listening to.
"Noise cancellation is not really to do with protecting your hearing," explains product manager Richard Trestain. "It gets rid of rumbles and repetitive noises, including air conditioning and machinery. A feature like IntelliTone is designed to protect people's hearing. It's about average noise level during the day to ensure that call centre workers are not exposed to continuous high levels of sound." Trestain adds that PeakStop, originally designed to prevent spikes on conventional phone calls, now has applications in video conferencing dealing with unexpected interference, which causes similar unwanted peaks on communications platforms such as Teams and Zoom.
Attitudes towards volume levels have changed dramatically over the last 40 years. Going to a gig and coming out with ringing in ones ears is, fortunately, no longer a badge of honour – and there's a growing awareness of the dangers of prolonged, loud, headphone use, even in the workplace. People are being guided to be more careful with their hearing, and the technologies and standards to help them do that are now numerous.
UK-BASED AV connectivity and control specialist, SY Electronics has appointed Amir Ramadan in the newly formed position of Middle East sales manager. The role signals SY Electronics’ increased focus on developing partnerships in the MEA region.
Ramadan is based in Dubai and is a well-known figure in the Middle East AV community, having served in senior sales and business development roles with leading AV and ICT distributors in the region, including almost nine years with Mindstec UAE.
“I’m pleased to be part of the expansion of an AV brand with a proud track record stretching back more than 40 years,” said Ramadan. “I look forward to introducing more systems integrators, consultants, and distributors right across the region to the benefits of working with SY Electronics,”
K-ARRAY USA has announced the appointment of Joanna “Jojo” Mikucki as vice president of business development, KSCAPE. With over 17 years of experience in the AV industry, Mikucki is said to bring a wealth of expertise and achievements to her new role.
Jojo’s professional journey began in the AV industry as an event producer, specialising in live events and tradeshows.
Transitioning into the residential/commercial construction sector in 2020, Jojo forged strong relationships with builders, architects, and interior designers, earning accolades such as the Woman of the Year Award 2023 from the Long Island Builders Institute. In her new role, Jojo’s key responsibilities include driving brand awareness for KSCAPE among architects, interior designers, and AV consultants across the States.
EVENT production and AV installer, Spotlight Sound has announced that Ashton Gold will join as account manager. Her appointment is part of the company’s growth plans, which have already seen it grow from two employees to six in the last year.
Gold brings with her an impressive customer care record of over a decade, and comes to Spotlight Sound from The Lion Inn in Boreham where she was the event planner, coordinating an array of events, including charity fundraisers and weddings. She’ll be the main point of contact for all clients and venues using Spotlight Sound.
“I will be fundamental in liaising between the client and technicians from the planning to execution of their event,” commented Gold. “My role means that the technicians can fully concentrate on the production of the event.”
TWO NEW appointments see the Sharp NEC Display Solutions UK sales team continue to grow. Sian Cotty (pictured) joins the end user sales team, with Kate Butcher joining the channel sales team – both bringing a wealth of professional experience and industry knowledge.
As end user account manager, Cotty will drive new business development. She comes with a 17-year career in the AV/IT industry, and her initial focus will lie within the pharmaceutical and professional services sectors where her proven client-centred solution-oriented approach will perfectly align with the Sharp/NEC ethos.
Butcher brings 10 years’ sales experience in the channel and AV services, previously at Peerless-AV and more recently, Airtame. She joins the team to support Sharp/NEC’s UK channel partners.
Stay in the loop with the latest appointments, top hires, and promotions from across the AV industry…
AVANTIS Education, creator of ClassVR – the world’s only virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) solution designed exclusively for education – has appointed a new leadership team in a strategic move designed to support its continued expansion in global markets.
Founded in 2007 by Nik Tuson, the strategic restructuring has seen the former CEO move into a nonexecutive director role, with Huw Williams, managing director, stepping up as the new CEO to lead the rapidly growing education technology business.
Having been in the education technology industry for over 20 years, Williams has spent the last nine of those heading up the global sales and marketing function at Avantis, helping pioneer many of the company’s marketleading innovations including Eduverse, the content engine that powers ClassVR.
RTI has announced the appointment of Evan Rapp as the company’s new US western regional sales manager.
“Evan is a true AV tech evangelist who shares our customer-first philosophy,” said Joe Roberts, RTI CEO. “He brings not only years of AV tech and sales experience but, more importantly, the same energy and passion for customers that defines the RTI brand and culture. We’re excited to have him join our sales team.”
Rapp brings almost four decades of sales leadership and management experience to the role. His recent roles include regional sales manager for ClearOne. He is based in Southern California.
“RTI has a long history of innovative solutions to help integrators create exceptional custom AV experiences for their customers,” said Rapp. “I’m excited to join the company.”
LEGRAND, the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures, has announced Pam Hoppel as president of Legrand | AV. As part of the LNCA CEO Executive Committee, Hoppel will drive all aspects of the AV business, including increasing customer satisfaction, operational excellence, sales, and market share growth.
Prior to joining Legrand, Hoppel held various leadership positions at Delta Faucet Company where, most recently as VP of trade, she built and implemented both the trade and international vision as well as the strategy to deliver profitable above-market sales growth and margin expansion. Before her role as VP of trade, Hoppel led the retail business as VP, during which time Delta Faucet Company was named The Home Depot Marketing Partner of the Year, a company first.
ELECTROSONIC has announced the appointment of Marc Jourlait as chairperson of the board of directors. Jourlait possesses a distinguished career spanning more than three decades leading innovation-driven technology companies, and joined the board in 2021.
Having begun his career in 1989 with Apple, Jourlait joined the company and held a variety of product management and business roles until 1997 when he joined Hewlett Packard for eight years as VP of marketing and general manager. Between 2006 and 2014, he held senior roles at Seagate, Technicolor and Bose Corporation.
In 2015, Jourlait was appointed Navico’s deputy CEO and board member before taking up the CEO and board member role at Kodak Alaris. He holds several board and operating positions in private equity businesses.
How was this landmark edition for you?
What a week that was – ISE 2024 was our most successful show, in all our 20-year history. We had 73,891 unique attendees from 162 countries, which is a record attendance since the show’s inception in Geneva in 2004, and an increase of 27% on 2023.
Exhibitors reported unparalleled footfall on booths across the largest ever ISE show. In addition, the exhibition also showcased its highest number of exhibitors (1,408) and the largest show floor space (82,000 sqm) to date.
ISE 2024 was a real testament to the innovation of the pro AV and systems integration community. The diverse array of products and services reflected the industry's commitment to pushing boundaries and enhancing user experiences.
With regards to our location, we have settled in very well in Barcelona, the city, region and country have welcomed ISE and all it brings with open arms.
Well as previously mentioned, ISE 2024 was our most successful show ever – and the re-booking process during the show was no exception. During ISE itself, exhibitors attend re-booking appointments to secure their space for next year. On March 1 we opened the booking process for new exhibitors. The very strong demand for exhibition space has led us to expand our availability by opening up Hall 8.1, enhancing opportunities for showcasing innovation and engagement.
Already, ISE 2025 is shaping up to be even larger than the record-breaking ISE 2024 with over 10% increase in reserved space compared to the previous year. While we haven't reached full capacity yet, we eagerly welcome inquiries from companies interested in exhibiting, ensuring a diverse and vibrant showcase at ISE 2025.
Yes, we do see more growth coming from this market. This year saw the Content Production & Distribution Zone make its firm stance as one of the dedicated Technology Zones on the show floor, which featured a wide range of solutions covering content acquisition, editing, management, storage and distribution, alongside a wide range of equipment and solutions.
The first Geneva show felt more residential in flavour. Do you see this as a growth area?
Well, the first show in Geneva in 2004 was actually a mix of residential and commercial. Obviously, the core exhibitor base for the show came from InfoComm, CEDIA and the NSCA. For the first show I went out on the road and sold every single exhibit space myself. I remember driving around Europe visiting lots of companies and we ended up with 120 exhibitors – and with a mix. Quite a few from the US: there was very strong support from some companies who were staunch NSCA, InfoComm and CEDIA members like Crestron and Extron. They were very much behind the show and helped get it in place.
Part of the success of ISE is down to the fact we are a great mix of residential and commercial companies and of course visitors. We work closely with AVIXA and CEDIA and endeavour to grow in both arenas in line with market developments.
No queues this year – well done! – but signage in-hall could still be improved. Could the app play a part?
Yes, providing more access points in the North, South and East Accesses, earlier opening for Halls 1 and 2, and encouraging people to print their badges in advance all meant that the queuing situation was vastly improved this year.
We will continue our efforts to improve our processes and yes, we are looking to expand the capabilities of the ISE app for next year and we will be continuing its development to ensure visitors have the best experience possible.
Lots of reports of muggings and violence this year. Do you plan to work closely with the authorities to mitigate? Safety is our highest priority, and we are very concerned to hear of these reports. Nearly 74,000 people attended ISE 2024, with the vast majority enjoying no issues at all. However, one incident is one incident too many. We remain convinced that Barcelona is a great place to explore both by day and by night. But as in any big city, visitors should be extra vigilant – especially in the heavily populated tourist areas. We are working closely with the authorities and the venue to ensure the right steps are taken to ensure the safety of all visitors and minimise incidents. We will continue to provide advice and support to visitors of ISE '25.
Discover the Philips Signage 3650 EcoDesign
Environmentally conscious displays without compromise
A true signage display that consumes half the power compared to it s competition in the same size range? Sounds unbelievable But it ’s a fact EPEAT Silver Climate+ rated, the Philips Signage 3650 EcoDesign display has been designed using PPDS’ six principles of future proof produc t thinking Delivering on the same high quality, resolution, and reliability enjoyed across the Philips Professional Display range, while created to reduce environmental impac t, using recycled and recyclable materials, and with repairability, refurbishment and reuse at it s core.
Open2 display for the greater good with the Philips Signage 30 00 Series EcoDesign. Find out more at ppds .com/displaysustainabilit y
