To me, the ISE in Amsterdam last week was the first one ever, which makes it hard to compare this year to the previous events taking place. It’s also a special year because it was the last time that the ISE was held in the Netherlands as they announced the move of the whole event to Barcelona, Spain, starting in 2021.
I thought it was very interesting to attend the expo, see many new solutions, meet up with friends and partners. We also showcased our own services at the GPA booth and the Emerald Room, which was booked for demonstrations that require a bit more time and attention, perhaps than just walking past the booth.
So, it’s over, and beside the setback of visitor numbers and a few exhibitors that pulled back due to the COVID-19 health risks, it was a success. Now, if I had to call one single thing out that I noticed the most, it would be the fact that emerging companies delve into new territory and equally, traditional companies that have been around for decades, are reinventing themselves and what they do.
In this time and day, even the most successful and the largest companies can not sit back and idly watch what is happening around them. Everybody not only tries to improve their products but to add entirely new product families and solutions that complement their existing strategy or make room for a new future strategy, perhaps. So what are some examples of this exactly?
Bose Videobar VB1
One exciting new product that nobody saw coming was the Bose Professional Videobar VB1 for Bose Work. Of course, you are familiar with the audio products of Bose but adding a high-quality camera with autoframing into a single device, for huddle rooms and medium-sized conference rooms, that was unexpected, but still, it was a welcome addition to their product catalog.
With such a videobar, you can augment existing displays into fully-fledged collaboration experience spaces with relatively little extra work, so this certainly has a market, and we are looking forward to testing these out ourselves soon.
Biamp adds wireless USB and content sharing to portfolio
Mergers and acquisitions are often announced right before or during the ISE, so while we never truly know what is going to happen until it happens, we anticipate that there will be some significant changes to hit the industry around that time of the year. Biamp announced their acquisition of HRT SRL and, next to their traditional booth, now also outfitted a booth dedicated to huddle room solutions for wireless content sharing and conferencing.
This was a very interesting move by Biamp, and while this is very fresh news, we are looking forward to even more news from them in the near future.
Barco adds more video wall solutions
When one thinks of Barco, many people have digital projection in mind. While this is not wrong, it is clearly visible that their overall offering is shifting. When visiting the Barco booth at the ISE, a variety of small and large, fantastic displays have been demonstrated. Whether you need a solution for a command center, infotainment, or for commercial digital signage, there were a lot of interesting new solutions that have nothing to do with the world of projection.
This doesn’t mean projectors are legacy at all, but it means, we are in a good time to reinvent ourselves and what we do. We need to keep challenging ourselves, to see whether or not we are still providing a solution to the problems of our customers. If this is maybe no longer the case, we need to think about alternative ways.
GPA embraces a new brand and reconfirms commitment to global clients and vendor partners
As you might have noticed while reading through this article on our new website, you might have noticed a slightly different vibe to the good old GPA. We did a lot of research and talked with a lot of clients and partners about how they felt about our brand and have gone through a complete redesign of the same.
At the time when GPA was founded, it was just right, but not only do our partners evolve, but so do our clients, their projects, and in addition to that, we also had to jump into becoming who we are now. All teams around the world are not a loose gang of just some AV companies scattered around the globe because there might be a benefit here and there of being part of that club. It’s very different from that.
GPA is a legal entity, and there were GPA people all over the ISE – hundreds of them wearing the new brand on our event-themed shirts. We are not a website with logos. We are faces and people. We are present, and I feel that as well, whenever I have the opportunity to attend GPA events, such as the one in the video above, which was recorded right before the ISE.
Even the ISE itself changes
As the event came to an end slowly last week, ISE also announced its own new brand. In Barcelona next year, you will be able to spot this new logo all over the place.
Next to the physical move from not only one venue to another but one country to another, all indicators scream “change.”
It’s a wrap
In summary, we can say that to survive, not only animals and mankind itself has to undergo an evolution every now and then. Organizations and the people therein need to adapt to change to remain relevant. We need to understand the new problems and listen to our peers carefully.
It would be unwise to keep on preaching about the same solutions for decades. The world has changed and what we do changes to. Therefore, we do not only need to adapt to change, but be the change, spearhead the change, advise our peers what will be and not wait until the world tells us what we did wrong or what we missed out. This is my takeaway from the ISE 2020.
Did you see how we tried hard to embed little snippets of the event for you in the article just now? Those are only some of the posts we published on our GPA LinkedIn profile for all of you who couldn’t attend the expo this year. If you want to stay up to date, make sure to follow us there or feel welcome to reach out at any time. We’d love to hear from you via email or maybe even at our booth at the coming InfoComm or ISE in Barcelona. We’ll see you there!
Photo credit: The feature image was provided by the ISE for media usage and is owned by them. All logos and product images are owned by the respective companies and manufacturers. The Barco UniSee video from the ISE has been taken by the author for GPA.
