The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group InfoComm 2003 Bob Reilly |
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Bob Reilly writes about some Internet enabled products he saw at the Infocom 2003
Audiovisual Conference and Exhibition held at Orlando, |
There is more to the Internet than just cruising through Web pages. At InfoComm 2003 I saw many Web pages but I was also treated to a variety of products that utilise the Internet for communications. The event was designed to showcase audio/visual equipment to the professional presenter, eg. educators, seminar leaders, sales people and executives. It lived up to its claim as the world's largest AV exhibition, with 20,000 attendees and 550 vendors. There were thousands of products on display but unfortunately one cannot see them all. I tried to focus on AV and control systems that use the Internet.
The Video Internet
First stop was the Sony booth with their new PCS-1 Video Communication System. It uses a fixed IP address to do video conferencing at up to 2 Mbit/s and 30 frames per second with pan, tilt and zoom capability. They had a demonstration running where they were connected to their home office in San Diego, California. While the system could manage only 1 Mbit/s due to network limitations, the picture was very clear with no perceived pixilation of the image and the audio was great. There seemed to be just a hint of lag between the video and audio. Using an optional PCS-DSB1 Data Solution Box, the PCS-1 could also send screen shots and share documents from an accompanying PC over the video conference link. Obviously, the US$4900 price tag is a little steep for the home user, but we have to remember this is aimed mainly at the corporate boardroom market.
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The next product I found was the Mediasonic MS9400 HD TV Video Player video
server appliance. The size of a thick three ring binder this machine is used to
store and feed video content to Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD)
TVs. It had a 40 GB HDD that provided three hours of video file storage at
normal data transfer rates. There is no need for a monitor, keyboard or mouse
because all management, content distribution and automation are done via TCP/IP
interfaces. You could locate several of these video servers in a large
auditorium with large HDTV screens and manage them all from a central control
room.
Elmo Manufacturing presented its PTC-201C Internet enabled remote control
camera. Although I didn't see a live demonstration they claimed it would zoom up
to 22x with 300 degrees of horizontal pan and 120 degrees of vertical tilt. The
video and camera control could be done from anywhere on the network and its
internal server could provide video images for up to ten users simultaneously.
Video conferencing and remote video are heavily dependent upon the IP
infrastructure. Typically the data travels over the public Internet. The data
can also be transferred over wireless.
Wireless Networks
OTC Wireless displayed their new WiJET Wireless Projector/Monitor Adaptor. It
consists of a small box with two short stubby antennas and was hooked directly
to the VGA port on a projector. Using Windows based software on a laptop a user
can shoot Powerpoint presentations directly to the projector over an 802.11b
wireless link.
Wireless laptops and PDAs (personal data assistants) were everywhere at the
show. Many attendees were sending and receiving e-mail while sitting in the food
court. I don't know how many were surfing the Net, but a few of the vendors,
such as Crestron and Extron were using the wireless PDA devices to interface to
their demonstrations.
The System Control Internet
Crestron, Extron and Aurora Multimedia all had products that managed various
audio/visual component devices, provided control of lights or relays and
communicated over the network.
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One of Creston's products, the QM-WMC wall plate, could be connected to a
laptop, VCR and microphone. Then a Crestron QM-RMCRX box could be hooked up to a
projector and speakers at the other end of the room. Audio, video and
presentation software images were then fed over a Quickmedia cable to the
projector and speakers. The whole system could be monitored and managed using
Roomview software from anywhere on the network. Crestron's back end (Internet
enabled control boxes) could be interfaced to wireless tablets, wireless PDA
devices, as well as standard wired networked PCs.
Controlling lights and monitoring sensors were other features of the system
control group of Internet products on display. All three vendors had AV
controllers with customisable servers that would send e-mail and Web pages to
your browser to tell you about problems with any of the connected equipment. For
example if a projector went offline during a presentation, a technician could be
notified immediately by e-mail.
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Imagine a large company trying to manage tens or hundreds of projectors. The
Extron Product Manager said his controller, the IPL T SF24, could record the
"on" time for a projector bulb and provide an estimate of when it was about to
burn out. The built-in e-mail server can send a message to a technician in time
to have replacement bulbs onsite when needed. Imagine a bulb blowing at an
annual shareholders meeting. At US$500 apiece most companies want to closely
track projector usage and buy bulbs only when they need them. This is
intelligent use of the Internet. Aurora Multimedia product's Web servers could be customized using JavaScripts, DHTML and CGI scripts. The earlier mentioned companies had similar levels of Web server programming support. |
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Wrap Up
To most consumers, a significant part of the Internet operates in stealth mode.
The commercial world is developing a vast array of products and services that
use the Internet for essential communication and much of it happens behind the
scenes. InfoComm 2003 had a nice mix of Internet enabled technology and was
considerably more interesting than just bouncing around Web pages.
Web Sites
Sony Electronics - http://www.sony.com
MediaSonic - http://www.mediasonic.com
Elmo Manufacturing - http://www.elmousa.com
OTC Wireless - http://www.otcwireless.com
Crestron Electronics - http://www.crestron.com
Extron - http://www.extron.com
Aurora Multimedia - http://www.auroramultimedia.com
About The Author
Rob Reilly, rreilly@cfl.rr.com
is a writer and technology consultant, involved in Internet, Wireless and Linux
projects. He is a strong advocate of recycling and hotrodding obsolete PC hardware and is always on the lookout for stories
and projects that focus on interesting products, Linux and business
applications.
Reprinted from the July 2003 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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