Launched at the start of the year, the SDVoE Alliance attracted a lot of interest at its first InfoComm show. In fact, so strong is the current SDVoE industry buzz that a representative of one non-member manufacturer was worried that people may be getting the mistaken impression that the SDVoE approach to AV over IP is the only valid one; he mused to me that maybe another consortium should be created to send out a balancing message.
The Alliance continued to expand its infrastructure by attracting new members: display manufacturer VuWall signed up as an adopter member at the show, while the run-up to the event saw signal transmission device manufacturers CWIN Technology and Danacoid also take on this role.
At the show itself, Alliance members launched products leveraging SDVoE standards. Christie showed Christie Terra, a range of products initially comprising transmitter, receiver and controller. It boasts whole-system HDCP and EDID management; support for video, audio, RS-232, IR control, Gigabit Ethernet and USB; uncompressed 4:4:4 quality video transmission over 10Gb networks; and high-quality video scaling. “It can cut the number of devices in a system by one-third to one-half,” commented John Swinimer, Christie PR specialist.
DVIGear launched its DN-200 Series, an extension to its DisplayNet AVoIP product line that deploys SDVoE technology. Comprising four different receiver/transmitter pairs, the series supports HDMI 2.0 with up to 12-bit colour, HDCP 2.2, DisplayPort 1.2, and High Speed USB 2.0, and features a high-performance scaler in both Tx and Rx units.
ZeeVee, another Alliance member, was showcasing its third-generation ZyPer4K AVoIP solution. This version of the product range has a multi-view capability, allowing ZyPer4K to be used in command and control centres, production facilities, and many other demanding environments.
If there was an industry body promoting alternatives to SDVoE, one can imagine it would have found a lot of support on the InfoComm showfloor. For instance, on display from Just Add Power was its new 3G Ultra HD over IP transmitter and receiver. Designed for any size of 4K HDMI distribution and HDMI matrixing application, these entry-level models can be mixed and matched with more advanced Ultra HD over IP devices. Features include 4K with seamless HDR and HDR10 support, seamless HDCP 2.2, 4K to 1080p scaling for legacy displays, two-way RS-232 and IP control, support for videowalls and for all audio formats up to and including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Just Add Power has been involved in AV over IP for 10 years, said sales team manager Taft Stricklin. “We’ve designed an infrastructure that can be sustained and manufactured reliably for many years, providing integrators with a scalable, dependable approach to their commercial video distribution needs.”
Among the 31 new products announced at the show by Core Brands was a new generation of Gefen AV-over-IP products: a line of 4K video/audio/KVM-over IP-products, including new DisplayPort and audio-over-IP versions. “We launched this range last year and we’ve massively extended it,” Chris Bundy, marketing manager, told us.
There were also a number of AV over IP products that had been shown at ISE that were receiving their first airing at InfoComm. Now shipping, Crestron’s DM-NVX encoder/decoder transports 4K60 4:4:4 over 1Gb Ethernet, and supports HDR10 and HDCP 2.2. Executive director, product marketing Jeff Singer explained during the manufacturer’s press stand tour that proprietary Crestron technology enables the DM-NVX to decode and scale signals are by at the same time, so scaling does not introduce any additional latency.
After its ISE demonstration of Q-SYS running on a Dell server, InfoComm saw QSC (pictured) announce two products based on this technology: the Q-SYS Core 2200 and Core 5200 processors. Both provide up to 512×512 network audio channels; the Core 2200 has 128 built-in, fully routable acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) processors while the Core 5200 has 256.
QSC also announced ahead of the show that it had collaborated with two other manufacturers on the development of Q-SYS plug-ins. These have been created for Atlona’s Omnistream AVoIP platform and its CLSO Series video switchers, and for specific Attero Tech Dante and AES67-enabled devices.
QSC also revealed during the show that Q-SYS was providing audio processing, routing and control for the entire Orange County Convention Center, where InfoComm 2017 was taking place. Visitors to the QSC stand could monitor the infrastructure at a master user control interface.
