CEDIA Expo 2013 sees gains in both attendance and exhibitor numbers, with over 470 exhibitors and 17900 attendees from 84 countries taking part in the Denver tradeshow.

According to CEDIA professional and overall attendance is up by 6%, new exhibitor participation by 20% and first-time attendees by 20%. Also seeing growth is CEDIA Training with 6300 course registrations, a 50% increase.

Opening the show was a keynote by Nest CEO Tony Fadell. Other highlights include a new products making their debut at the New Solutions Village, High Performance Audio rooms and a dedicated Security Solutions area.

by Corey Moss, rAVe USA Blogger

If you’ve ever met someone on Facebook who you’ve wanted to carry on an extended friendship with, the possibility of a “Skype” chat is likely to arise in conversation. Upon agreement, each party simply downloads the application on their PC or mobile device, one sends a connect request to the other, and in minutes they’re video chatting. And the best thing is that they can be anywhere in the world. Of course the quality of the video/voice transmission is dependent upon the strength of the network connection they are transmitting over. If the network doesn’t present a strong enough signal to carry on a video chat, a standalone voice chat may be possible. Along with this comes the added feature of instant messaging. I personally have used Skype to chat with friends as well as conference with business contacts, in the U.S. and internationally.

Audio pioneer and founder of the Massachusetts-based Bose Dr. Amar G. Bose dies age 83 according to statements from both the company and MIT, where he was a former faculty member. No cause of death is given as yet.

Bose started the company sharing his name in 1964, basing it on research conducted at MIT. He received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from MIT, and joined the faculty in 1956.

He remained faculty member until 2001, despite initial intentions of teaching for no longer than 2 years.

In 1956 Bose started a research program in physical acoustics and psychoacoustics, leading to the development of many acoustics, electronics, nonlinear system and communication theory patents.

by Paul Gray, Director of European TV Research, Display Search

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a video compression standard, a successor to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, which will enable improved video quality, double the data compression ratio, and support 8K UHD (resolutions up to 8192×4320).

The ratification of the first draft specification of ITU’s HEVC has been hailed as the dawn of 4Kx2K television. However it is perhaps useful to consider other generations of compression and their effect to evaluate its true significance.

MPEG-2 brought the first mass-market digital video formats (MPEG-1 only ever got brief traction in VCD in Asia), enabling DVD and the first digital broadcasts. However its low compression efficiency also made HD broadcast difficult and only a few countries adopted MPEG-2 HD (Australia, Korea, Japan and the U.S.). Probably its biggest effect was to perfect the VCD concept as DVD.

MPEG-4’s initial breakthrough was celebrated as bringing economic HD broadcasting – in particular to spectrum-challenged Europe, but since then to all new digital broadcast deployments. However, its greatest impact (viewed with a few years’ hindsight) is not broadcast at all, but Internet video: Netflix, catch-up services and YouTube. MPEG-4 had unlocked video from the TV screen.

Networks were not invented for audio or video but for data...I suppose if they had been invented with audio/video in mind, then we wouldn’t need an AV Networking Congress.

To create an AV Networking Congress, some companies came together to bring to Amsterdam a full agenda dedicated to media networking. The list reads like a Who is Who: Atterotech, Audinate, Bosch, NTP, Link, Peavey Commercial Audio, Shure, Stagetec, Symetrix, TC Group, and Yamaha Commercial Audio are all sponsors.

The day-long conference will take place in the Holiday Inn near the RAI on January 29th. Spaces are limited so pre-Registration goes without saying. (There, I said it!)

From Large Scale Audio Networks to the corporate boardrooms of tomorrow, to networked studio broadcasting to AV network convergence, the agenda for AV Networking Congress 2013 is impressive as well as extensive.

By Tim Kridel

[Editor’s note] This column was reprinted with permission from InfoComm International (link below).

Pro AV is increasingly about IP networking, with everything from audio to video surveillance traversing Ethernet. If you’re not running power over that cable, too, you’re missing an opportunity to reduce the cost and complexity of your installations.

From Wikipedia:

“Power over Ethernet, or PoE technology, describes a system to pass electrical power safely, along with data, on Ethernet cabling. The IEEE standard for PoE requires category 5 cable or higher for high power levels, but can operate with category 3 cable if less power is required. Power is supplied in common mode over two or more of the differential pairs of wires found in the Ethernet cables and comes from a power supply within a PoE-enabled networking device, such as an Ethernet switch, or can be injected into a cable run with a midspan power supply.”

In practical terms, AV integrators can use Power over Ethernet (PoE) products to eliminate the need for running a separate electrical line to each camera, touch panel or other AV device. And depending on local building codes, PoE can reduce or eliminate the need to hire an electrician. (Caveat: Some states, such as Connecticut, require a license to do low-voltage installations, including those involving PoE.)