Category: News & Information

InfoComm 2013 kicks off in Orlando, FL next week! It’s the top technology show for audio visual solutions providers to corporate, education and government organizations.

About 2/3 of the attendees at the 2013 conference will be comprised of business-to-business AV solutions providers, and the other third will be end users of the audio-visual technology at corporations, universities, government agencies, houses of worship and more.

Our CCS manufacturing partner Crestron is a Platinum sponsor of this leading industry conference. Here’s what the company is planning:

• Crestron InfoComm events, including a Partner Breakfast. Learn more about new technology and enterprise solutions for taking your corporation to new levels. Topics will include unified collaboration, digital AV networking and more. The Crestron Partner Breakfast will provide answers on how to lead your organization’s control and AV strategies.
• Crestron also promises exciting product launches at InfoComm 2013. At the 2012 show, the company announced a 3 Series Control System – see more from the video clip below.

More details on Crestron’s InfoComm activities are posted on the Crestron blog. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use its products in corporate or educational venues, contact CCS Presentation Systems for details, pricing and integrated system setup options.

As seen at the recent Google Developer conference in May, tech users are getting excited for the search giant’s upcoming wide-scale launch of Google Glass, its Internet glass set. But it’s not the only Web-enabled headset game in the business.

CCS Presentation Systems manufacturing partner Epson also unveiled its Web-enabled headset – the Moverio headset – at the recent conference as well.

The glasses are aimed at technology users at various enterprise groups – corporations, educational organizations, health facilities, government offices and more and are being pitched to enterprise level developers to create new applications suitable to those environments. The engineering team behind the glasses knows that the Moverio platform is still in development, and they expect great things to come from new AV display applications made for the system. Here is a short video outlining some of the fascinating applications envisioned by the Epson team for its Moverio platform:

Epson told reporters at the recent Google I/O conference that its Moverio glasses are being seen with specific business uses in mind. One report wrote about the example of a doctor wearing Moverio glasses to check important patient information, and others wrote of envisioning large area urban sections with its wide vision views. Its glasses can even display a video wall at a 360-degree perspective.

The unit being show to developers, the Moverio BT-100, is made up of multimedia glasses and a handheld control unit. Users can wear the glasses and use the control device to manage web browsing capabilities, watch content and check files or applications.

The Moverio glasses are an amazing audio-visual technology, and Epson says the platform is being shown to developers to inform and show potential uses in audio visual solutions for industry, education and government organizations. We’re excited for the breakthroughs, and hope to see great use of these in the coming years.

More schools around the state of Arizona are finding ways to bring technology into the classroom. Even with budget funding being limited, the growing demand for school safety and closer parent involvement is prompting classrooms to adapt to the use of technology tools.

Now, an opportunity for parents, teachers and vendors to get together to share and discuss some of these new digital advances is coming at the end of the school year. It’s the Arizona PTA Convention & Exhibition in Phoenix on May 31, 2013 to June 2, 2013 at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix.

This convention is a terrific opportunity for parents, families, and school communities to find better ways to lead our children through their school days. PTA leaders at the show will address budget funding issues, as well as the struggle of implementing laws focused on Common Core Standards, Move on When Reading and new security and labeling systems for schools. The annual convention helps all parties to be better advocates for our children.

CCS Presentation Systems will exhibit new offerings for school safety, from the SAFE audio alert system, and increased parent involvement through the shared experience of Channelone Interactiv.

The award-winning Channel One News (from Channelone interactiv) has set the standard for news for young people. Each day’s 10 minute broadcast – produced in association with CBS News – covers national and global events, politics, science, technology, and human-interest stories all in an editorial voice specifically designed for young people. At the end of the show, a set of interactive SMART Board activities, directly related to the stories just seen, provide an exciting learning experience for the classroom. Parents can get involved with the new Family Daily app, which offers daily access to the broadcast via smartphone, portable device or web and provides discussion questions to spark some meaningful dinner-time conversation.

Audio Enhancement’s SAFE System provides a much-needed tool to help keep teachers and students secure from random acts of violence. Although many different plans including guards and arming our school staff, Audio Enhancement’s appropriately named SAFE System – Security Alert for Education – offers fast audio alerts to emergency teams, fast administration and security involvement. The AE Safe System allows teachers to press a button on a teardrop microphone and silently send an alert to first responders while activating live audio/video feeds directly from the classroom. We believe that this exciting new technology should be in every classroom across the country.

Save the Date: The Arizona PTA Convention & Exhibition is headed to Phoenix on May 31, 2013 to June 2, 2013 at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix.

One of the reasons behind CCS Presentation System’s success in all our markets is the excellent working relationships we maintain with our digital audio-visual equipment partners.

Since 1991, CCS has partnered with leading manufacturing and digital technology companies to provide audio-visual solutions for our customers in the corporate, government and education sectors. Through these partnerships, our customers have been given an opportunity to see the best of the best in audio-visual technologies.

Now, some of our partners’ products have been nominated for industry awards. InfoComm has announced finalists in the InfoComm Installation Product Awards 2013 and you can vote for the best products!

Among our partners noted are:
– CCS partner Crestron is nominated for ‘Most Innovative Video Signal Management Product’ for its Crestron DM-MD64x64

– CCS partner Covid is nominated for ‘Most Innovative Commercial Systems Installation Accessory’ for its Covid Active Plenum USB Extender Cables

One of our CCS Presentation System partners Christie Digital continues to make innovative steps in how digital displays are used in all types of audience applications.

Christie Digital announced at the Integrated Systems Europe show in Amsterdam a new series of weatherproof LCD outdoor flat panels. The 55-inch, full 1920 x 1080 HD Christie FHD551-W panel is clearly a perfect fit for marketing in the outdoors. There are many applications for this ruggedly-built outdoor screen. Christie says it’s designed for outdoor sports venues, live events, entertainment parks, public displays, hospitalities and resorts and many other outdoor situations.

Christie Digital’s Product Manager Frank Anzures describes the new offering’s advantages to companies in both wet and dry weather zones in the video clip below:

He mentions that the FHD551-W screens are IP56 rated, which according to the specs, allows for ‘limited ingress of dust permitted (no harmful deposit) and protected against strong jets of water.’ The panel’s optimally bonded glass helps overall viewability and provides a harder screen shell which helps to eliminate or lessen scratches on the glass. Anzures says that protection offers uses in both harsh, dusty conditions and water conditions. “It’s a perfect panel for outdoor use”, says Anzures.

Christie writes in its press release that:

“The ability to use the Christie FHD551-W in landscape or portrait mode is ideal for rental staging applications, resorts, hotels and restaurants, to provide impactful content in public areas, while being rugged and durable to withstand rain, sleet, snow, and human interaction.“

CCS has offices all over the country, so we can see many audio-visual solutions for the Christie LCD weatherproof panel. Applications could include use outside sporting venues, used in state park locations to highlight hiking trails and other outdoor activities, or even use outside government and corporate buildings, as seen in the video above.

If you’re a business that sees a valuable use for such an innovative panel display, contact CCS Presentations for more details, audio-visual solution insights, consultation and installation. We will work with you in determining your needs and how we can work together on an upcoming digital signage project.

Interactive learning remains a high priority for school administrators, parents and students themselves. Our consumer world is overrun daily with new technology innovations. Now it’s time to transfer that future of learning into schools. It’s time to open up budgets and invest in interactive learning solutions in school districts. A child’s education needs only a small first step to go on to greatness. And that first step just might be at the table.

SMART Technologies is well-known throughout the K-12 education industry for its installations, training and consultancy work with teachers in school rooms for its interactive Smart boards. Now, the company has advanced its teaching tools with The SMART Table.

The SMART Table is a new learning experience from one of the manufacturing partners of CCS Presentation Systems. By its design and form function, the SMART Table brings young learners together to develop and learn from each other both socially and academically.

Up to 8 students can interact simultaneously with the table at one time. With its 360-degree, multi-touch surface and 42″ HD 1080p LCD display, the SMART Table offers interactivity and active collaboration to achieve shared learning goals.

The SMART Table is designed for durability in active classrooms. The company made it scratch-resistant and spill-resistant, which is great news for teachers. The entire table is supported by a pedestal base that’s nearly untippable, making it appropriate, even for roughhousing students. The table also allows for students in wheelchairs to engage in active discussions and small group collaboration activities.

Teachers can access over 1,500 ready-made activity packs from the award-winning SMART Exchange™website, or create their own engaging lesson content using the included SMART Table Toolkit. Teachers can also import ready-made lessons and 3D multimedia content, with SMART Notebook™collaborative learning software (included with the SMART Table).

Schools and school districts usually work with audio-visual systems integrators and audio-visual solution providers to assess, integrate and implement Smart tools in the classroom.

Enhance human interaction through better communication with NEC. Now you can easily deliver your message and communicate, connect, and engage members.

NEC’s digital displays offer a wide variety of benefits to churches and other houses of worship. CCS Presentation Systems partner NEC enhances the worship experience with projectors, flat-panel screens and tiled video walls, a digital display system which can enhance the visual experience of your service. Additional uses are informing congregation of services, events & announcements and also a cost & environmental savings versus printing.

See how https://www.necam.com/Solutions/Retail/doc.cfm?t=DigitalSignage

Good news from our partner Crestron, which recently started shipping its next generation CP3 3-Series Control System®. For users of Crestron’s audio-visual control systems, the new CP3 series features faster processing speeds, more memory, high-efficiency multitasking capabilities, external storage options, built-in BACnet support, and enhanced IP security.

CP3 delivers exponential increases in control system performance for the largest commercial facilities, making it an essential component to any integrated building technology environment. It’s a substantially faster series that simplifies the design, integration, and control of AV, lighting control, HVAC, energy management, BMS and other connected systems. The new system can be used with connected systems in:

• commercial buildings
• hotels
• universities
• casinos
• command centers
• schools
• and multi-campus environments.

Crestron calls its CP3 “the future of networked building control, taking integrated building technology to a powerful new level of control functionality.”

The company emphasizes how it utilizes faster processors (10 X faster) than its previous Series 2 processors. CP3 enables real-time multi-tasking to flawlessly run up to 10 independent programs simultaneously. IT-like programming architecture enables integrators to perform system maintenance and expansion in ways not previously possible.

Upgrades can be performed on any individual subsystem – such as AV, lighting control, HVAC, security systems and climate control – without affecting the entire system. Since each control program is independent, a restart of one program has no effect on the others. The result is improved system architecture and virtually no downtime.

If you’d like more information on Crestron’s new CP3 Series control system, contact us at CCS Presentation Systems. Our CCS team is comprised of top industry and control systems personnel, many having 20-30 years experience in the audio-visual solutions field. We successfully design and complete a variety of project types such as conference rooms, executive board rooms, training centers, classrooms, auditoriums, hotels, and casinos. Use CCS as your one-source solution for all of the Audio Visual requirements involved in a project.

Industry magazine Commercial Integrator recently put together a list of what its writers and industry observers saw at the recent InfoComm 2012 trade show as the leading trends seen in the audio-visual solutions industry.

The magazine’s panel of experts found that increased digital signage, better use of touch screens, more interactive content and better designed audio-visual system displays are among the leading trends seen for the audio-visual
solutions industry.

Commercial Integrator wrote:
“The battle for touchscreen supremacy (iPad vs. everything else) and all things touch-capacitive, video conferencing technology improvements, LED screens, video walls, and overall product augmentation were other highlights pinpointed by Commercial Integrator editors, InfoComm staff and our integrator guest bloggers. Another trend was the implementation of design as it relates to commercial projects, something we saw both at the booths and in real-world applications at the many hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.”

As business continues to become more connected, Commercial Integrator noted that transferring communications protocols to the networked cloud remains a priority for many networking companies. The magazine writes:

”Manufacturers are planting anything and everything on the network these days – projectors, loudspeakers, power products, lighting, climate, security, you name it. Not only does the network factor streamline systems controls, leading to more browser- and tablet-based support, but the access opens up greater possibilities for integrators to remotely manage projects and proactively diagnose and troubleshoot problems.”

We’re excited about these trends. They pave a path of great opportunities. As the future of communications evolves, so too do the opportunities for better audio-visual solutions for companies, schools, churches and other large organizations with A/V systems needs.

CCS Presentation Systems in Arizona is the preferred integrator and installer of audio-visual equipment systems, providing complete audio-visual solutions for corporations, including design, installation and maintenance.

The company’s teams are authorized and trained by leading audio-visual equipment manufacturers including Altinex, AMX, Crown, Crestron, Da-lite, Epson, Mitsubishi, NEC, Panasonic, Polycom, Shure, SMART Technologies, SONY, Tandberg and others. Your organization will benefit from the specialization and depth of audio-visual services offered by CCS Presentation Systems on a wide range of audio-visual solutions.