Bee Victorious!

There was a real, bustling energy at ISE this year, where the show, once again, broke its own attendance records. The RAI was bursting at the seams with over 80,000 attendees over the four February days of the show.  There were 1,200 stands, the most ever, with 300 of the exhibitors there for the first time this year. 

So, an incredible event for ISE and for the AV sector as a whole, with a great feeling of energy and buoyancy across the industry. It was a great show for us at Bees Buzz too,  with our Datapath clients’ Fx4 display controller winning Best Digital Signage Technology at the InAVate awards.  

A great night was had at Amsterdam’s Gashouder, with Datapath’s marketing manager Kay Mumford saying after the awards:

“This is a really meaningful accolade for Datapath, as all the categories for the InAVate awards are voted for by integrators and users of the products. So, it’s great to get this feedback that our customers are delighted with the products we are offering them.”

B-Tech and Datapath’s overseas distributor Mindstec also won the Distributor of the Year award at the InAVate awards, beating off stiff competition.

The win for Datapath came hot on the heels of a major industry win for another Bees Buzz client, B-Tech AV mounts, who won the coveted AV Awards Manufacturer of the Year crown in September.

We’ve been working with B-Tech for a few years now and it was fantastic to see them win against high-profile competition such as Samsung, NEC, Panasonic and Sharp. It was truly rewarding to see the B-Tech’s stunning dual-floor stand at ISE with their Manufacturer of the Year award logo proudly displayed!

There were some interesting technologies showcased at the event.  Datapath’s Quant collaborative software drew huge interest and product manager Matt Tibbit demonstrated it live in sixteen half-hour sessions over the four days. It was also an excellent window to show Datapath’s new Hx4 stand-alone wall controller, which is now available to order.

The international flavour of ISE provides a great opportunity for networking and Bees Buzz enjoyed welcome meetings with journalist and editors from afar afield as the Far East and Latin America. From our EMEA beginnings, Bees Buzz truly does now operate globally for our clients.

Throughout the show, there seemed to be an emphasis on a maturing of existing technology.  Projection mapping was given a real showcase with several manufacturers offering eye-opening solutions.  ISE, in collaboration with RAI and Amsterdam Light Festival, ran the World Masters of Projection Mapping competition. This was competed for by five world renowned video artists, highlighting this immersive technology’s graduation to the mainstream. There was also a tantalising insight into what we can look forward to seeing in future years, with products like the large transparent OLED displays from LG.

We expected RGB LED to be everywhere at the show, but it wasn’t as prevalent as anticipated. The reduced pixel pitch solutions from the major manufacturers looked stunning, but there is still an enormous requirement for traditional video walls where it makes economic sense to use LED screen technology in small configurations. The RGB LED technology has also increased in visual quality and proved its reliability over the last few years, so as the technology becomes more standardised and the pricing stabilises it is likely to eclipse LED screen technology for large and very large displays over the coming years.

Our client, B-Tech, is ready for that transition and demonstrated their new Universal LED mounting system on their stand to wide acclaim. Another of our clients, Handy AV, showcased their P4 LED solution on B-Tech’s latest mounts, demonstrating how these versatile displays can be used in fixed floor, wall mounted and mobile applications.

B-Tech distributed over 500 copies of their recently released 2018 catalogue over the four days, getting their product information out to specifiers and integrators around the world. For all our clients, Bees Buzz created and provided digital press packs for industry media, giving them instant access to press releases, imagery and case studies.

AV over IP is another technology whose growth we are watching with interest. The technology is the last piece of digital infrastructure which will enable a digital flow of data from content creator to viewer. We have been writing about AV over IP for many years now and it is still surprising that the technology isn’t more established.  Is it network infrastructure which is preventing AV over IP from being the main method of distribution on every install?  Time will tell.

At Bees Buzz we are already well ahead in planning our growth and that of our clients for the year ahead. We will again be an awards sponsor for the AV Awards 2018 in September, but you will be hearing much more from us between now and then.