InfoComm 2022 returned to Las Vegas with over 19,600 verified attendees from more than 110 countries, and 500-plus exhibitors covering about 294,500 sq. ft of the tradeshow floor.

“InfoComm is the only place in North America where the entire ecosystem of the ProAV industry gathers—from manufacturers to distributors to integrators to end users,” said David Labuskes, CEO of AVIXA. “We saw thousands of AV professionals make the trip to Las Vegas to learn from each other and experience innovative technology in person. AVIXA is proud to play host to such an incredible group of industry professionals as they spent their week advancing their businesses and careers and gaining inspiration to take home with them.”

“InfoComm was amazing, energetic, and an exciting time for the pro AV and digital signage community to come together again in person,” added Rochelle Richardson, senior vice president, AVIXA. “The momentum before, during, and after this year’s show is palpable with an even greater awareness and appreciation for how important ProAV solutions are to connect people and spaces around the world. We live in the world of storytelling, design, connecting, and creating experiences—and we achieved it all at InfoComm.”

So…what happened at this year’s show? Read on to find out the scoop on InfoComm 2022.

Virtual Production Solutions Abound at InfoComm 2022

The virtual production market is rapidly expanding—as evidenced at NAB Show 2022—so it should come as no surprise that many leading companies showcased virtual production solutions at InfoComm 2022.

Unlike NAB Show, there were limited options for education on virtual production, with a single class touting virtual production its main focus. “LEDs, Camera, Action!” took place on Tues., June 7; experts from companies like Brompton Technology and ARRI Solutions Group took a look beyond the current virtual production boom to see where this might take LED video in the near future.

Click here to read more virtual production stories from LAVNCH [CODE].

On the show floor, however, virtual production solutions were rapidly available—and a popular draw for attendees. Several major LED display manufacturers, like Absen and Planar, had full-on virtual production stages. These stages showcased not only the companies’ solutions, but how an array of technologies work together to create lifelike visual effects.

Planar’s extended reality (XR) stage took a different approach than most—the company used this as an opportunity to showcase how virtual production might impact the corporate market. “We’re seeing a growing market in the commercial space so that our business partners can use sets like this to create content for both their own internal trainings and to send out to their customers,” said Planar’s Jeremy Sternhagen.

Planar’s XR stage showcased an XR volume complete with fine pitch LED display technology along with lighting and motion capture technology from OptiTrack.

Brainstorm, a real-time 3D graphics and virtual set solutions provider, also took the corporate approach. The company showcased Edison PRO, which allows the integration of the presenter and even attendees into a virtual world, in the Unilumin booth.

On the shared virtual production stage, Unilumin exhibited its UpadIV product, which allows creative display possibilities for internal or external 90-degree corners, curved walls, ceiling, and more. In addition, an automatic lock design enables one engineer to install and take down the LED panels.

The showcasing of virtual production stages all pointed to one message: it takes a village to create this technology. While LED displays were beautifully displayed, they would be nothing without the technology behind them—all of the stages were quick to point out the ancillary technology that make the content vibrant and lifelike.

Artificial Intelligence Grows in Popularity

Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions have been around for awhile in ProAV, but they were front and center at this year’s show.

AVIXA hosted a plethora of classes focused on the subject, including “The AI Revolution – Friend or Foe?”, which was part of Emerging Trends Day. Hosted by yours truly, the panel—which included Veritone’s Ashley Bailey, Axis Communications’ Quang Trinh, and Metrigy’s Irwin Lazar—explored the latest uses cases for AI in unified conferencing and collaboration applications, as well as smart buildings. The panelists also delved into the various legal and privacy issues surrounding AI, particularly in the cases of facial recognition and facial detection.

Click here to read more AI stories from LAVNCH [CODE].

One of the most popular AI solutions on the showfloor was LG’s CLOiBot. There are three different options for LG’s CLOiBots—a UVC disinfection robot, a ServeBot that moves products from Point A to Point B, and GuideBot, a wayfinding robot that escort users to their destination.

Watch the video below to see LG’s CLOiBot in action.

Sony displayed its Edge Analytics (REA-C1000) solution at the show; it allows users to create video content in real time, without the need for specialized training, additional staff, or equipment. In addition, the compact and lightweight Edge uses AI-based video analytics technology to analyze the input it receives from connected cameras and automatically extracts the object in focus to combine it with other images in real time. Additional licenses can be incorporated to enable features including handwriting extraction, PTZ auto tracking, close-up by gesture, chroma keyless CG overlay, and focus area cropping.

At InfoComm 2022, Sharp NEC Display Solutions (SNDS) debuted NaviSense, a computer vision solution for gathering anonymous customer attributes using off-the-shelf or existing camera sources and processing them through a variety of edge computing devices such as RPi4.

“We’re taking a different approach to gather analytics,” said Kelly Harlin, sr. manager, solutions commercialization at SNDS. “[NaviSense] is an at-the-edge computer vision solutions that is low-cost and uses existing equipment.”

According to the company, this new technology will gather the dwell time of people in front of the display, as well as a variety of other attributes, like their estimated age and gender, the brand of clothing they are wearing, traffic trends, and more.

The Human Connection at InfoComm 2022

This year marked the show’s first return to Las Vegas since 2018—and it was clear that #AVTweeps were excited about gathering together during the show.

“I think there was this pent-up group of people that we had met online in the last two years [during the COVID-19 pandemic],” Mark Coxon, CTS-D, CTS-I, business development manager for AVI-SPL’s XTG, said in rePLAY InfoComm 2022. “There were times where I’d walk 10 or 15 feet and I’d get grabbed three different times by people. I really wanted to connect with everybody!”

While last year’s InfoComm show also had a focus on quality time with fellow AV professionals, this year’s event drove networking home with a plethora of events.

AVRaoke, which occurred on Tuesday night before the show opened, was so popular that there was a fairly large line and wait time to enter the venue. During the event, #AVTweeps honored Cory Schaeffer, who is retiring at the end of this month.

“We want to say congratulations to Cory Schaeffer, the woman of the hour,” Jeremy Caldera, CTS-D, CTS-I, senior vice president at Pearl Technology and co-founder of AVRaoke, said during a speech at the event. “Cory, we wish you the best. We all love you, you are the greatest.”

A group of AV professionals created “Cory Schaeffer Appreciation Society” t-shirts, designed by Hailey Klein, to wear at the event. The proceeds from the t-shirts were donated to the AVIXA Women’s Council Rosie Riveters initiative.

Perhaps the most talked about after-hours event was Peerless-AV’s “Glow Up the Night” partner event, which was sponsored by Exertis Almo, Intel, Sony, TD SYNNEX, and more.

Held at Zouk Night Club inside Resorts World, AV pros admired the venue’s cutting-edge technology, caught up with old friends, and forged new partnerships.

“We were heartened at all of the amazing feedback from our partners and customers that joined us at our event at Zouk,” said Nick Belcore, executive vice president, Peerless-AV. “The venue’s stunning technology was the perfect demonstration of how audiovisual solutions can be used to create ambiance. We were proud to launch this event at InfoComm.”

See you at InfoComm 2023

InfoComm 2022 was, by all accounts, a successful show. So what’s next? InfoComm 2023 will be held in Orlando, June 10-16; the show floor will be open June 14-16.

“We have already begun strategy discussions and planning for InfoComm 2023 to incorporate new areas in the exhibit hall, expansion of integrated experiences, and attendee enhancements,” concluded AVIXA’s Richardson. “InfoComm 2023 exhibitor priority sales launch this week with an increase in exhibit space secured year over year. Mark your calendars and plan to join us for InfoComm 2023 in Orlando.”

For details on the 2023 show, visit infocommshow.org

To stay up-to-date with the latest show news, visit our InfoComm 2022 hub.