EMI harnessed to add touch and gesture control to any screen

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) has been used to cheaply transform LCDs into touch and gesture controlled displays, according to a recent article in the MIT Technology Review. Researchers from the University of Washington's Ubiquitous Computing Lab presented a method, called uTouch, that harnesses sensor and software developments to manipulate electromagnetic interference and transform any screen into an interactive display.

“All these devices around you have all these signals coming out of them, and we ignore them because we think they’re noise,” Sidhant Gupta, a PhD candidate at the Lab told the MIT Technology Review.

The group presented its findings in a paper at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Paris at the beginning of May.

They argued that the technology, which requires no more than a $5 (€3.90) sensor plugged into a wall outlet, could be used to add touch and gesture interaction to large displays.

Gupta says his group’s method works by measuring signals that are normally given off by an LCD display and how they change when a user brings a hand near the screen.

Polycom certification gives AVI-SPL video comms boost in Europe

AVI-SPL will ramp up its activities in the European video communications market after its UK branch secured Polycom certifications for RealPresence Environments and the RealPresence Platform.

JamesShanks, managing director of EMEA, AVI-SPL, said: “The speed in which weachieved this certification is a testament to our ability to apply vastresources and quickly establish ourselves as a leader in any new market weenter.”

DannyRogers, the company’s director of channels for EMEA described the RealPresencePlatform as “an essential component of AVI-SPL’s UnifyME global video managedservice offerings.

“AVI-SPLwill be expanding its video services infrastructure by adding additionalPolycom RealPresence Collaboration servers in the UK as well as deploying Polycom’sCloudAxis in its core,” he added

Dekom sets up shop in Belgium to promote VC

VC and AV specialist Dekom has expanded into Belgium after pinpointing the country as having the lowest density of video conferencing users in western Europe.

Avnu Alliance in AVB education push

AVnu Alliance, certifier of AVB products, will bring together 17 members when it kicks off an education programme at InfoComm in Orlando, Florida.

Martin Audio shakes up Balkans distribution

Martin Audio signed a deal with Serbian distributor System Design as part of a shake up in its Western Balkans sales operation.

Next gen mobile tech promises massive data boost

Samsung says it has made a significant breakthrough in the development of the next generation of mobile communications (5G).

The company says that the work could lead to mobile networks capable of delivering transmission speeds in the tens of gigabits per second. It has developed an adaptive array transciever capable of transmitting data at a rate of 1.056 Gbit/s at a range of 2km.
Samsung Electronics says that “the array of 64 antennae could be a viable solution for overcoming the radio propagation loss at millimeter-wave bands.” It suggests applications such as the transmission of 3D content and ultra HD video.

Reflex opens London demonstration suite

UK AV integrator Reflex has opened a new demonstration suite in London at Harbour Island.

On show are technologies including cloud-based video communications, wireless audio-conferencing as well as collaboration tools and video wall displays. 37 of Reflex’s corporate customers attended an official opening event, and the company plans an event dedicated to higher education clients in June.
Speaking about the opening, managing director Roland Dreesden commented: “Much of our business is London-based and we’ve developed this facility to support our city customers. It allows us to show products that would otherwise be impossible to demonstrate due to their sheer size. Additionally, it gives customers a feel for how the technology looks in situ and how different elements integrate and work together as full solutions.”

Riedel expands into Benelux and Australia

Riedel Communications has announced that it is expanding its global presence with two new offices.

The company has opened a site near Amsterdam in the Netherlands to offer direct rental and sales support, as well as a new office in South Sydney Australia, which will provide rental stock as well as training and preparation facilities for its partners.

Prolight + Sound grows

The organisers of Prolight+Sound have released figures for the 2013 event, showing an increase in both attendance and exhibitors.

According to the announcement, there were over 42,000 trade visitors to the show from 114 countries, and 901 exhibitors present. However, as in recent years attendance was heavily biased towards the German market. 21,667 attendees came from Germany, with the next biggest total being the Netherlands at 2,095.
The organisers also performed some research on market confidence, which showed that 79% of attendees considered the economic situation to be satisfactory to good. A decline of 4% on 2012.

The walls will have ears (and a brain)

Predictive computing and search is set to be one of the creepier technology breakthroughs of recent history. Google Now can give you traffic information and weather reports it believes are relevant based on what it knows about past behaviours, and now three major technology firms have each invested in start up Expect Labs which develops technology that listens to what is said in a room and presents information that the speakers might be interested in.

Telefonica, Samsung and Intel have announced a strategic investment in the company which had previously released an app called MindMeld. Google Now has met with pretty wide praise from users but it does stop somewhat short of listening in on your conversations.

However to my mind MindMeld or something similar might be really interesting in a corporate setting as a virtual aide to meetings and conference, perhaps predictively lowering blinds or switching sources in a meeting room, or starting a lecture capture cycle automatically. Clearly there are some relatively scary privacy issues with any such solutions, but with three such large players in the mix, I would be surprised if nothing came of it.

Encoder for 8K “Super Hi-Vision” developed

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and NHK, Japan's national public broadcasting organization, have developed the world's first HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding) encoder for 8K ultra HDTV “Super Hi-Vision” (SHV). Dubbed as the broadcasting medium of the near future, SHV features 16 times the number of HD pixels and a 22.2 multichannel surround sound experience.

HEVC, which offers roughly double the data compression of AVC2 and about four times that of the MPEG-2 standard currently employed for digital HDTV broadcasting, is set to be adopted as an international standard this year.

The high-volume SHV images are divided into 17 horizontal rows. The parallel processing of these rows makes it possible to achieve real-time coding of SHV images. The deterioration of picture quality at the row boundaries has been lessened by having rows share data concerning the speed and direction of moving objects.

NHK and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation are pursuing research and development of real-time coding of the 120 Hz frame frequency of SHV.

HEVC is video coding technology that divides a frame into small blocks referred to as macroblocks and the prediction and transformation coding of the images is conducted in each one. HEVC offers variable blocks that can handle up to 64x64 pixels, changing the size according to texture, while AVC has relied on a fixed macroblock size of 16x16 pixels. It achieves both high compression and high resolution.

The new encoder divides the SHV into 17 rows made up of 7,680 x 256 pixels. The coding in each of the rows is processed simultaneously. Data in each row is shared with the row immediately above and below, thereby lessening the deterioration in picture quality that occurs at the row boundaries.

Flat panel market grows in 2013

The professional flat panel display market has grown by 8.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and 30% year-on-year (YoY) according to Futuresource Consulting.

While market conditions remain difficult for many international display vendors an estimated 523,000 units were sold in Q1.

The super narrow bezel display is a market which has proved successful for vendors over the past couple of years, however, in recent quarters the market has not shown the same growth. The market for displays with <5mm bezel has seen slight negative growth for the second consecutive quarter, with Q1 2013 declining 0.8% QoQ, but this has been offset by very strong growth of lower cost displays with bezels of 5mm to 10mm, up 21.8% QoQ.

The large screen market has gathered much focus over the past year, with the large education tender in Turkey and lower cost displays making 55"+ displays more attractive. The market for screens of 55"+ grew 17.3% QoQ and 68.8% YoY.

The EMEA and Americas regions continue to struggle to find the traction for consistent strong growth. Key developed markets, such as the US, Germany, France and UK, are offering opportunities, with a number of projects helping to drive sales and the MEA region is showing signs of potential with QoQ growth of 20.3%.

The Asia Pacific market has had a particularly strong quarter, with the majority of countries in the region growing QoQ and YoY. China is the leading market within the region, with growth of close to 20% QoQ after a drop in Q4 2012. Optimism has grown in Japan, which has been helped by the government's financial stimulus, driving down the strength of the Yen and increasing activity within the country. Korea has experienced another strong quarter as the third largest market in the Asia Pacific region.

Cook brings winning VC recipe to Midwich

Midwich has added former Touchline VC engineer Matthew Cook to its Video Conferencing division as a technical support manager.

He brings a wealth of video conferencing expertise having taken a lead role within the VC technical support operation at Touchline Video for the last five years. As well as adding to the support and service offered, Matthew will also be bringing pre-sales consultation, design, post-sales support and training services to resellers.

Business manager Lee Baker said: “We are delighted to be able to add someone of Matthew’s calibre to the team. He brings a wealth of experience, a solid business network and expert knowledge in his field. The appointment is good for Midwich, and great for our customers who can now enjoy even more support and expertise from our video conferencing arm.”

Saville installs new team member

Saville Audio Visual has announced the appointment of Stuart Carter as installation manager for the Southern region. Although based primarily in Farnborough, Stuart will be overseeing projects around the UK and overseas. He will be working across a wide and varied portfolio of sectors including corporate, education, retail and defence.

Stuart, who has worked in the industry for more than 30 years, started originally as a television repair engineer. He moved on to become a service engineer and progressed to work in all aspects of AV reaching a position as an installation fulfillment manager responsible for an international clientele of blue chip companies.

Speaking about his new role Stuart explained: “I am excited about the new challenges that the wide range of projects undertaken by Saville will provide. The company continues to be a major player in supplying innovative technical solutions and I am looking forward to my part helping the business expand”.

Buy what you see at display solutions showcase

NEC Display Solutions and Nearly New AV (NNAV) are partnering for the first time to offer videowalls and large format displays being demonstrated at the showcase immediately after the event at reduced prices.

The Showcase on May 16 at Tobacco Dock in London will feature brand new displays for one day only, creating a unique opportunity for NNAV customers anywhere in the world to purchase the at a significantly lower cost of buying new. NNAV will be present at the showcase offering interested buyers the option to pre-order and purchase products on the day.

All videowall products and a selection of large format displays will be available to browse and buy on the NNAV website immediately after the event closes. NNAV will leverage its extensive network of contacts in the UK and Europe, as well as emerging markets, including United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, to ensure the quick sale of the displays.

Neil Hartigan, from NEC Display Solutions, said: “This is the first time we’ve entered a sales agreement like this but it makes complete sense and will provide benefits to both parties. I think it’s a fantastic concept that everyone should take into consideration.”

Mighty morphing mobile displays

A team from the British University of Bristol’s department of Computer Science, led by Anne Roudaut, has chosen the name Morphee for a class of thin electronic displays it is working on. The displays have the ability to change (or morph) their physical shape to suit the function required of them within a device. The work was presented at the recent annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) held in Paris, France.

Included in the presentation were six examples of functional Morphee devices, which focus on different applications such as privacy, gaming, home-training memory shapes and other uses. This short video demonstrates a couple of these, as well as explaining how the material shifts is shape based on applied currents.
Whilst the focus of the research is on mobile phone-type devices, there is no reason why it couldn’t be applied to the displays on devices similar to the latest generation of multimedia conference units from Bosch, Televic et alia or to control interfaces and presentation tools.

Comm-Tec takes on Smart Media Solutions range

From June 1st 2013 Comm-Tec will take on responsibility for distribution of mounting and bracket systems from SMS (Smart Media Solutions).

Focusing on Germany and other key European markets, Comm-Tec will add SMS to its stable of existing mounting solutions which includes Weibel precision lifts, ProFLECT ceiling mirrors, Chief brakcets and electromotive systems from Future Automation.

Symetrix expands CTS renewal courses globally

Symetrix has announced a global expansion of its online and on site InfoComm accredited training.

Mark Ullrich, international sales manager stated: “As we expand internationally, the need for training also increases. We are excited to now offer world-wide training courses that are InfoComm accredited. We have trainers covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East., Asia and Australia, and the full-day course carries four CTS renewal points.
“Alternatively for those unable to join us in person for training, our self-paced online training provides renewal points as well.”

Simulation displays takes on Cobra curved display

Simulation displays has been announced as the sole corporate reseller of Cobra Simulations’ Cobra curved display for the UK.

“In addition to the core markets of military training and flight simulation, we see huge potential for Cobra in other areas of simulation such as extreme gaming, education and video communications,” stated Simulation Displays’ business development director, Henry van der Helm.
The low-cost, portable immersive display solution is driven by a single projector and can be mounted on a desktop or stand.

Imago acquires Touchline Video

Imago has added further expertise to its growing operation with the acquisition of AV and video conferencing distributor Touchline Video.

Touchline has been supporting customers with video communications solutions for 20 years with a particular focus on video conferencing and unified communications.
Speaking about the acquisition Ian Vickerage, managing director at Imago, said: “Touchline Video is a company with much credibility in our industry, based on its expertise working with first-class video communications vendors and its strong reseller channel. The integration of the Touchline Video team into the Imago operation will bring additional knowledge, contacts and sales experience and will further enhance our business offering.”

A+K creates new home for room booking products

Anders+Kern UK has added a dedicated room booking website to its group of specialist divisions.

The site is will promote the distributor’s room booking and resource management systems.

It has a dedicated section for A+K’s two room booking systems: Evoko Room Manager and RoomWizard alongside an Integrated Resource Management platform.

Users of A+K Room Booking can also access a training and support section, which provides details of the training packages and service level agreements offered by A+K.

Pixels scoops UK distribution rights for ZeeVee products

Pixels will take on UK distribution of ZeeVee digital video products after signing an agreement with the North American manufacturer.

Bob Michaels, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Pixels, said: “Since announcing internationally compatible products at ISE 2013, ZeeVee has received tremendous interest from dealers and end users.”

ZeeVee products convert video sources such as digital signage players, satellite receivers or any other content and turns them into digital cable channels so they can be broadcast over existing coax infrastructure and received directlyby any off-the-shelf HDTV. 

Pixels will distribute the new HDBridge 2000 Series, developed specifically for the DVB-C and DVB-T digital TV distribution markets in Europe.

Norman Garland, managing director and CEO of Pixels, said: “ZeeVee’s products offer a simple and affordable opportunity for customers to migrate from standard definition to HD video while leveraging existing infrastructure.”