InfoComm 2013 Recap

InfoComm, the largest audio visual show in the world, is one of our favorite annual industry events. With more than 35,000 attendees this year, service providers, manufacturers and end users gathered to experience the latest and greatest offerings that promote communication, collaboration and connectivity. We were happy to exhibit with our peers in the Unified Collaborative Conferencing Pavilion and participate in several IMCCA events. Here is a quick recap of the show.

Desktop Video Client and New Mobile Video App Unveiling

We kicked the show off with a bang, announcing we were demoing our new desktop video client and the next generation of our EncoreB2B mobile video app. Delivered via Video-as-a-Service, both solutions are available for white-labeling and connect PC and Mac desktops, HD conference room systems (Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize, AVer and more), tablets, smartphones, web browsers and Microsoft Lync. With 20 years of experience behind us, we always strive to deliver the most agnostic and flexible solution in the market and our presence at InfoComm fully supports this commitment.

With a quick install, users experience high-quality video conferencing with a full-featured interface, including customizable screen layouts, high resolution content, email/URI dialing, improved continuous presence, real-time reporting and more. (For users without install capabilities and guests, don’t fret! AGT will continue to offer the full-featured web browser client.)

Both offerings will be available in Q3 and support WebRTC and GoogleTalk for the first time. We are pumped!

Demoing our new desktop video client at the booth.

State of the Industry Lunch and Learn

Mark Cray, AGT’s EVP of Global Sales and Marketing, participated in the popular IMCCA State of the Industry Lunch and Learn Panel, moderated by Dr. S. Ann Earon. The dynamic panel included 11 speakers from a wide variety of vendors in the Unified Communications and Video Conferencing space.

During the panel, the dramatic changes in the market, interoperability challenges and scalability were just a few of the topics discussed. AGT’s Mark Cray pointed out that the industry is forever changed by disruptive technologies coming from outside the industry, such as the tablet, Skype and FaceTime, and that it is time for the industry to get back to “steering the ship.” Mark concluded with a strong recommendation to those in the buying decision process: don’t buy hardware! Subscribe to a video service and avoid the pitfalls associated with hardware (high costs, complex installation, etc.) Benefits of Video-as-a-Service include significantly less total cost of ownership, flexibility, a higher level of interoperability, and the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies and trends.

Powering the Business of Video

The show continued with more interesting panels hosted by IMCCA and demos at the booth, including a lot of lively conversations with service providers, consultants and AV integrators that see a customer demand for flexible video conferencing services. We were happy to showcase our service provider program, which enables vendors to complement their existing offerings by delivering leading cloud and managed video conferencing services with full branding and little time to market.
On a final note, it was great to see some start-ups – Pexip and Acano – launch at InfoComm, showing the growth of video and its impact on organizations’ communication strategies.

Did you attend InfoComm 2013? What did you think of the show? See more pictures from the event below and we hope to see you next year in Vegas!

IMCCA’s Industry Panel made front page news, including quotes from Mark Cray of AGT.