The latest and greatest in audiovisual technology was on display in Orlando June 17 through 19 at InfoComm 2009, billed as the world’s largest audiovisual expo. The event, now in its 70th year, alternates annually between Orlando and Las Vegas.
The event is produced by InfoComm International, a trade association representing the audiovisual industry, and led by show manager Jason McGraw, InfoComm’s senior vice president of expositions. Freeman Exhibit Services (an InfoComm member), handled audiovisual production and set up, while Centerplate provided catering.
The show contracted 850 exhibitors, down from 988 at last year’s show. But InfoComm still filled the Orange County Convention Center’s West exhibit area with 450,000 square feet of bleeding-edge technology and garnered 29,000 attendees, the largest turnout the Orlando edition of the show has ever had.
One of the bigger draws on the show floor was decidedly low-tech. Stampede, a presentation and home theater products distributor, presented a brief show called "Western Cabaret" starring the Mustang Girls, a trio of women who danced in front of a large screen displaying technologies offered by the company. The presentation was sassy yet safely PG and brought a steady stream of onlookers throughout the week.
Also among the top draws for attendees was a different kind of live performance, this one showing off the technology behind the Musion Eyeline, a 3-D holographic projection system. In the demonstration, a young woman appeared on a small stage and sang. However, the singer was not in the exhibit hall, but rather on another stage in London.
The Eyeline system projects a life-sized image of a person onto a stage with only a physical backdrop behind them. UK-based Musion is billing the Star Trek-esque technology as a tool for meeting planners to arrange interactions between speakers and audiences who are based in different locations.
