Sony’s Crystal LED display literally stopped me in my tracks. The large image they showed was just stunning. At 9 feet high by 32 feet wide it was a tiled image that had such great color depth and contrast. A common comment I overheard was “it is like you are there”. No one in the booth from Sony would tell me what the price was. Like other large direct view tile walls, if you have to ask… you cannot afford it. My guess, based on other display prices that it is in the low four figures per square foot. So it is not for everybody, but for that knock out display it sure is.
https://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/cat/mondisp/latest/Crystal_LED_Brochure_Web.pdf
This is the year of LED walls, it seemed like 10% of the show floor had some part of an LED wall system. They ranged from low pixel count displays commonly seen as back drops for stage events to the Crystal LED wall from Sony. China has figured out the technology and is bringing it to market.
Yamaha’s commercial audio division has come out with a number of loudspeaker systems that will be useful when working on those special interior spaces. Their small line arrays (VX1L Ultra Compact Column Array) that are about 2 inches wide and start at 12 inches tall, had a sonic quality and clarity that also made me stop each time my travels on the floor took me close to their booth. I am looking forward to listening to them in our Lab.
Polycom’s new audio processor. Not out on the market yet but, what I heard in the demo will help bad rooms with bad microphone and loudspeaker systems provide more gain before feedback (you should be able to hear what is said better). This is a beta product (still under testing and not available yet to buy) that will be nice to have when it becomes something that can be used.
There were a lot more products that showed steady improvements. Many of which were the nuts and bolts such as mounts and AV electronics. 4K display (2x HDTV in resolution) is clearly here. The source to drive these displays will take a while to catch up. However if you want to look at that E-size drawing on screen and be able to see the whole sheet and read the text just like you would on a blue print as you mark it up, you do not have to wait any longer.