The 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, the entity behind the 25, 50 and 100Gbps ethernet specifications, rebrands to the Ethernet Technology Consortium (ETC) and announces the next networking standard, 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE).

“Ethernet is evolving very quickly and as a group, we felt that having 25G in the name was too constraining for the scope of the consortium,” the organisation says. “We wanted to open that up so that the industry could have an organisation that could enhance ethernet specifications for new and developing markets.”

As the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic continues to affect the industry, CEDIA announced CEDIASTRONG, a program consisting of "sweeping" services and tools to empower, educate and inspire CEDIA members during these turbulent times.

According to the organisation, CEDIASTRONG provides members with free financial planning tools and services, technical training and webinars, career planning resources, online business roundtable discussions and marketing content for the local promotion of services. The initiative also includes a CEDIASTRONG fund to provide financial assistance to members in need, with the goal of awarding grants later in 2021.

“CEDIASTRONG was born from the COVID-19 pandemic and was designed to serve as a rallying cry for our industry,” CEDIA says. “Today, as people hunker down and work from their homes, technology solutions are all the more paramount, as is the role of the professionals who design and install them. We want to help members power through this challenging period and prepare them for the future to ensure they are ready to resume business as usual when this crisis is behind us.”

The coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic leads to the cancellation of another trade event as AVIXA announces InfoComm 2020, set to take place in Las Vegas on 13-19 June, will no longer take place.

Initially the organisers were optimistic the show could go on, but following recommendations from the WHO and CDDC, not to mention the extreme circumstances and the size of the show, they decided not proceeding was the best choice.

NEC and Sharp announce a joint venture-- one combining the NEC Display Solutions (NDS) subsidiary with Sharp, creating a single entity bringing together the strengths of the two companies in order to visualisation address the needs of global customers.

The two companies are all but set to complement each other. After all, NDS is a strong presence in the display market, offering visual technology and digital signage solutions for a variety of markets. Meanwhile Sharp brings a decade-long history display solution, and offers advanced technologies such as next-gen 8K LCD monitors.