Who Won, Who Lost InfoComm 2014?

Columnist Chris Neto offers his take on the technologies and companies that improved their standing at InfoComm 2014, and those that had setbacks.

Chris Neto
Photos & Slideshow
View the slideshow View the slideshow

InfoComm 2014 was 500,000 square feet of the newest commercial technologies, products and trends, not to mention a record 37,048 attendees from over 114 countries.

In the midst of all that noise, how can we determine which companies had the strongest presence, which technologies were most popular, and which seemed to fall flat?

Here’s one way. Columnist Chris Neto presents his account of the true winners, and losers, of this year’s InfoComm show.

Winner: LED Displays.

In general, the quality of LED displays has grown dramatically. The mullions have become tiny and the price wars have started. The amount of manufacturers showing LED video walls was amazing. Even in the “Back 40” you could find a small company providing displays that will meet your needs—from single displays to LED video walls.

Panasonic’s LED LCD Life+Screen AX800 display shown at InfoComm 2014

Loser: OLED.

The big buzz with OLED from last year’s show fizzled when big manufacturers began pulling out of development. I’m still holding out hope after seeing Sony’s OLED display last year in Orlando, but that’s me being optimistic and Sony is out of the OLED business. I’m also finally beginning to question the projector market with the advancement of LED panels.

Winner: 4k.

It was everywhere on the show floor. 4k displays, 4k switchers and other 4k ready devices. Just to be clear 4k was the hot “buzz” last year. The only difference is that we had products on the show floor this year that are shipping. This year was the natural evolution of the technology to the next step and future looks to be optimistic.

AVNation and Philip ‘HiPhi’ Cordell took advantage of Crestron‘s 4K display to show their surprise #AVSelfie video on the last day of the show.

Loser: Misinformed integrators and consultants who are not working with customers to help build out their infrastructure towards 4k.

If you had any concerns that 4k was merely a fad or stepping stone for 8k then I think this show confirmed that the technology is here and ready to go now while 8k continues to develop down the road.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!