This year marked the 20th anniversary of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) and it didn’t go unnoticed. The show broke its previous record for attendance, with over 73,000 visitors flocking to Barcelona from 162 countries. It also featured the highest number of exhibitors, a whopping 1,408 delivering a combined floor space of 82,000 sq m net, also a record breaker!
I was privileged to attend and here are some of my observations from the show floor and beyond.
The Show Floor
Large-format displays dominated the show. These were primarily LCD and LED with designs for applications spanning all vertical use cases, from control rooms to hospitality, digital art and virtual production. The supply and demand for large-format displays is alive and well with manufacturers showing ever larger sized screens.
For me, there was no standout innovation or groundbreaking new technology or platform launch this year. What I did see was a series of continual improvements, building on the themes of last year, including automation, intelligence, interoperability, and demonstrations of continual innovation to make products smarter and ready for the ever-evolving needs and requirements of different markets.
All-in-One
Unified communication continues to advance with more brands offering all-in-one video collaboration solutions leveraging the widescreen 21:9 aspect ratio and dual display. The proliferation of LED all-in-one displays are pushing the boundaries of education and enterprise beyond their current 100” LCD display limits.
Prysm has been serving this large-format enterprise segment for years with its proprietary Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology which adds unique value via touch-enabled visual interactive enhanced workspaces driven by Prysm Application Suite, a powerful visualization software.
Intelligent Meeting Spaces
This was a big trend at the show, with audio and video manufacturers bringing our new video bar solutions with advanced tracking capabilities. Acting like a virtual director, these collaboration bars are tracking participants as they move around the room, using directional audio to represent where people are on the screen and picking up on more nonverbal signals to improve communication.
This all contributes to making the overall meeting experience more productive, both for those in the room and those joining remotely, which can only be a good thing for inclusion, representation and equity.
AV IT Convergence
Whilst the AV and IT convergence is not a new topic, we are seeing it come to fruition in a slightly different guise, with flagship brands that you would traditionally find in the IT space, including Microsoft, Google, Zoom, now having a greater presence than ever before at the show. With their certified hardware partners and the rise of their dedicated platform specific ‘Rooms’, it shows just how far the meeting space has come in just a few short years and the influence of the AV industry in driving that.
Software
One of the things that attracted me to joining Prysm was their status as an innovator and early adopter of integrating visualization software with large-format displays.
It’s impossible to escape the focus on hardware at the show, but more so than in previous years, the messaging has increasingly shifted to elevate the software innovations as a point of differentiation.
Touch displays driven by visual interactive software have advanced not only to larger screen sizes, but also to embrace video conferencing integration and third-party apps, with a focus on education and corporate meeting rooms. Several of these interactive display solutions also provided basic digital signage functionality for off-schedule usage.
Other software solutions were focused on enhancing programming capabilities, improving backend support and advancing content creation, all of which I look forward to exploring in more detail following the show.
AI
AI was the obvious buzzword that we all expected to see deliver on its promise, with all significant players making a move towards introducing AI-led functionality into their products. These features claim to have great benefits, from making meetings easier to join to improving the user experience once you get there, but I think we’re yet to see how these will really be implemented and the impact they will deliver.
Prysm is also working toward delivering on the promise of AI in its large-format display solutions. With a focus on enhancing the user experience, Prysm LPD software is leveraging AI to simplify both the ad-hoc and curated interaction with our touch display systems.
Sustainability
Again, this has been something of a buzz word in previous years, but now there is tangible data to show how credentials are being acquired and the impact this is making, especially within the display industry. Prysm has been leading the charge with our LPD technology, a low power consumption, low heat dissipation display, providing more sustainable solutions for large-format applications.
This is the start of a huge step forward and I’d like to see a lot more transparency when it comes to sustainability across the whole product lifecycle, from manufacturing to operational running costs and recyclability at end of life.
The largest ISE ever certainly left a big impression for me, with plenty of great partner conversations and learnings to take home. I look forward to seeing what develops within the industry between now and InfoComm, where Prysm is delighted to once again be exhibiting. See you in June!
