InfoComm 2024 heads back to the Las Vegas Convention Center this June 8-14. As we have in the past, SCN turned to several InfoComm 2024 exhibitors to talk trends, technology, inspiration, and an exclusive special sneak preview of what they’ll show in their booths.
[Follow the ROAD TO INFOCOMM 2024 at AV Network]
In today's addition to the InfoComm 2024 Impulses series, meet Garth Lobban, director of marketing, Atlona.
SCN: What technology or industry trend do you expect to be the talk of InfoComm 2024?
Garth Lobban: We are hearing a lot of talk about the 21:9 aspect ratio, which I humorously equate to bringing the Cinemascope format into the office. What’s most interesting about this is the ability to do different things with your screens and presentation layouts. With Microsoft Teams Front Row layout, there is the ability to support 21:9 content in the top middle portion of the screen. On one side there may be a list of those attending the meeting along with their comments, with their faces arranged across the bottom. There are many possibilities of spreading multiple project elements across a screen for collaboration. Our Omega Series of collaboration products align well with the opportunities that 21:9 presentation brings to learning and meeting spaces.
SCN: What is your company’s main focus at the show this year?
GL: We have seen strong business activity in the education vertical over the past few years and serving our higher ed and K-12 customers has been a top priority for 2024. This will be reflected in our booth in several ways, including how we can handle complex AV systems inside classrooms and support the increasing variety of education applications taking shape, including esports. One of our demos will show how our new CS31 Series of compact matrix switchers can acknowledge incoming emergency messages and mute other systems in the room. We will also demonstrate our support for USB-C signals alongside HDMI signals in the classroom, as well remote inputs that better support collaboration.
SCN: How does InfoComm inspire you?
GL: It comes down to the opportunity to meet directly with the people who use our technology. InfoComm has become an increasingly end-user focused show. The dealers and integrators are sending fewer representatives these days to keep up with their volume of work. On the other hand, more end users are coming and that includes the decision makers and C-Level executives we want to reach in the education and corporate verticals.
These changing attendance trends have also inspired changes on how we staff the booth. We will bring sales engineers this year who can go through design options and discuss broader applications. We will also have our product managers on hand this year to listen to our customers and identify their needs. The inspiration comes from meeting people and the networking that happens in the process. All of our teams from sales to engineering are focused on listening and how we can better serve our customers.
SCN: How have “simple” keypad controllers evolved for classrooms and smaller meeting spaces?
GL: We’ve seen button-based panels evolve from fixed, hard button controllers to advanced, self-contained control systems that can eliminate the need for a separate control processor and panel-based system. Enhanced, modern classrooms and small meeting rooms need more than the manual-labeled controllers we used to offer.
Today we see the need to control up to 10 devices in the room including switchers and source devices to displays and audio via IP and RS-232. They also need to be intuitive to operate. The Atlona AT-VKP-8E features an e-paper display and eight buttons offering a clear presentation and easy device control as well as RGB LED indicators for those buttons and a 16-LED strip for a visual representation of the system’s audio level. Atlona also offers an advanced cloud-based set up application, Atlona Cloud, that includes an extensive library of Atlona and third-party device drivers plus a wealth of icons for each button.
