ISE 2012 attracted a record 40,869 visitors and an unprecedented 825 exhibitors, with the attendance up by more than 17% and the number of companies participating up by 15%. So ISE 2012 was definitely the biggest, however you measure it, but was it the best? AV News reports.
ISE 2012 established new highpoints for the event, whatever measure you employ – attendance, participating exhibitors, floor space or conference delegates. “ISE is now clearly established as the best-attended event of its kind anywhere in the world,” concluded Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events. “To be able to post record numbers in every key area against an uncertain economic backdrop is a fantastic achievement, not just for ISE but for the industry it serves.”
So ISE 2012 was the biggest yet, but was it the best? If you went to the show looking for brand new technologies with which to wow your customers, you might have come away a little disappointed. There were some interesting exhibits in hot technology areas, like 3D, but no killer new 3D technologies. Yes, there were some real advances in ‘lampless projectors’ and ISE 2012 saw the introduction of some genuine, and perhaps long overdue, competition for Casio. (If you want to know about the new product releases in the category, see our report on pages 8 / 9).
What was impressive, and memorable about ISE 2012, was the almost universal focus on applications and the added value that AV technologies can bring to the end-user experience when correctly applied.
Maturity
ISE 2012 signalled a new maturity in the AV industry, which has previously suffered from an obsession with being first to market and a competitive advantage measure in weeks rather than months. This year’s themes included partnerships, integration and value-added user experiences. The emphasis within exhibition booths was on applications and deliverable solutions. Some would see this as a disappointment – we believe that it offers the prospect of a welcome return to selling products for they are worth.
Nowhere was this more apparent than among the projection vendors. The withdrawal of the Sanyo brand has created opportunities in the market for installation projectors, and Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Optoma, Christie, NEC and, of course, Panasonic have not been slow in filling the gap. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of a show that marked something of a comeback for projection was the emphasis on the enhanced user experience to be had from bringing established pro-AV technologies, like edge-blending and projection mapping, into the mainstream.
Expect to see these technologies offered at lower price points and in easy-to-use configurations as they migrate to a wider market and reach applications including education and independent retail. The pairing of ultra short throw projectors with soft edge-blending offers some really exciting display potential at prices than would be unimaginable using other technologies.
Partnerships
Another theme apparent at ISE 2012 was the growing acceptance by the players in emerging markets within AV that going it alone will only take you so far. Nowhere was this more apparent that in the digital signage arena, where the larger signage networks are owned and operated by considerably larger companies than even the largest digital signage vendor.
These network operators are looking for continuity of supply, standardisation and scalability – both of the solution and the suppliers support infrastructure. Partnerships at every level were being announced – software with hardware vendors, hardware vendors with other hardware vendors – with a view to speeding up the adoption of digital signage through ease of deployment.
Those visitors more interested in the creative potential offered by digital signage would have been thrilled by some of the exhibits on show at ISE 2012. No longer constrained by the rectangular format of large format displays, solution designers can choose to shape their displays with almost no limitations, to add touch interactivity, gesture control and to tailor content by gender and age.
Education
We have yet to see the detailed analysis of the ISE 2012 attendance, and in particular the characteristics of the additional 5,000 visitors added since last year’s show. Should these extra bodies be found to represent end-user organisations, ISE has done the industry a real service. The show has lived up to its billing, presenting end-user customers with ‘integrated systems’ that they can deploy in their organisations to competitive advantage.
