ISE 2015 sees one of the biggest openings in the show's history on 9 February, as over 1000 exhibitors prepare to meet around 50000 visitors from across the entire integration value chain over the next 3 days.
As is the usual the show is divided over four themed showroom areas--Residential Solutions, Smart Building, Digital Signage and Unified Communications. It also hosts free-to-attend presentations 3 purpose-built Showroom Solutions Theatres (Residential, Commercial and Unified Communications) and Personal Development programs from CEDIA and InfoComm International.
Opening the show was the traditional keynote, this time by futurist Lars Thomsen. Titled "520 Weeks into the Future: Trends and Tipping Points in the Electronic Systems Industry until 2025," the speech predicts the Internet of Things will turn the "integrated systems" making ISE's name into a single "integrated system," one tied together by the IPv6-based "digital nervous system."
“In 10 years, 1,000 devices per human will be connected to the internet and this digital nervous system will incorporate all aspects of things that are important to humanity, such as comfort, energy, security, education and so on,” Thomsen says. “Right now there are different halls in this trade show representing different parts of the industry. We are now at a tipping point where we don’t have to think about isolated systems, but rather about moving onto a system that incorporates the internet as its backbone.”
Thomsen also speaks of tipping points-- the moments in time when a new technology or business model proves both cheaper and better than its past equivalent. For the near future, these include robotics and artificial intelligence over current "dumb" technology.
“Within 520 weeks, we will get to a point where robots can work in households or in elderly care, they will reach a price point where they are cheaper than employing humans for the same task. The implications to our society are big,” Thomsen concludes. “We have to do more than just look for trends, instead of waiting for the future we have to find the next tipping point and actively create that future.”
Go ISE 2015
