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With three years in planning, development and execution in North America behind them, Starin’s FastTrack program, designed especially for Zoom Video Communications, is now coming to Europe.

FastTrack is a process method, providing a deliverable Zoom Room project from design to site installation at a speed and efficiency beyond typical customer experiences. Scalability is at the heart of the FastTrack system and aimed at keeping pace with the rapid growth of Zoom, Starin has worked on every aspect of process control and execution, to make it possible to design and deploy complete Zoom Room hardware systems in less than a week.

Early on, Starin engaged two operations managers to specifically become green and black belt effective in Lean and 6 Sigma methods for this venture. Offering the Fast Track service through select channel partners committed them to creating a new standard of excellence and scalability, FastTrack has seen positive growth in North America and serves a number of worldwide enterprises. Think AV, was the initial prototype reseller/integrator where the program was tested and proven to operate at the speed of Zoom and now additional Zoom certified partners are in the program, forming a network of resourceful providers.

Starin has now entered the European market with a dedicated facility operated by an experienced AV tech services provider in the UK.

Starin CEO, Bill Mullin told us “We had no plan of going to Europe to merely open up a broad-line offer and shout ‘come get it’. Zoom asking us to expand the formula, gave us focus and purpose to make a solid offer and support of the Zoom eco-system. Let’s face it. It’s not about the stuff. It’s about the experience customers have getting equipped with the stuff and using the stuff in a natural environment.”

Starin has also built a hands-on training facility with a Zoom Rooms Master Class for certified integrators who want to join the FastTrack network in North America.

Ahead of #InfoComm19, ⁦Barco continued to shed its AV assets by announcing that 7thSense Design had reached an agreement with them , in principle, with regard an intended sale of the Medialon brand and ShowControl activities.

The team behind 7thSense Design has led the acquisition to form a new company, Medialon Ltd., which will acquire the Medialon brand and ShowControl activities from Barco. The new company will then join the 7thSense Design family.

Medialon Ltd. will operate from Orlando, FL, with satellite offices in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The company will provide dedicated solutions for the control, supervision, and monitoring of lighting, audio, video, and special effects at museums, attractions, and theme parks.

The sale is intended to be concluded by July 1, 2019. Is is our belief that Barco will eventually shed all of its AV business and focus solely on being in the medical equipment sector.

EE, the self proclaimed UK’s No. 1 (cellular) network has wrapped JCDecaux’s Wandsworth RoundAbout in their unmistakable aqua colour (a light bluish-green colour; aquamarine).

This has been timed for the launch of their 5G offering.

Prohaska Consulting, the most experienced and largest global programmatic consulting firm, is re-launching its Programmatic Creative practice.

Matt Prohaska, CEO & Principal of Prohaska Consulting told us “We say re-launch because we originally soft-launched the practice four years ago when we first saw the opportunity of bringing media and creative together to leverage Tech, Targets, and Talent. But we quickly realized most in the industry were not ready yet, not fully understanding the potential, so we put those offerings on the shelf to bring back later. We are excited to see many more now are ready to start improving their own and/or their clients’ work.”

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Since 2017 our sister site aka.tv has shown that twitter traffic for many big shows has been falling and unlike reported attendance figures (make of that what you will) shows in general have not seen year-on-year increases in twitter traffic since then.

This drop in twitter traffic has been seen with CES, ISE and InfoComm but interestingly not with IBC, NRF or DSE who have all seen rises (respectively, two quite big, the other slightly smaller, but a rise just the same).

This year for #InfoComm19 the numbers across the board were all down quite considerably from previous years.

Attendees claimed patchy cell coverage and poor wifi throughout the show period which will, no doubt, have affected Twitter. This is partly borne witness by the especially poor amount of twitter on the opening day proper (day #1 June 12, 2019). It is rare that any event has higher day 2 tweets than opening day 1, yet this was the case in Orlando.  This may well have put some people off of engaging on social media for the rest of the show, either way day 1 Twitter was poor rather than day 2 Twitter being exceptionally good.

Here are last week’s figures and below that, statistics for the three years prior: –

#InfoComm19 held in Orlando, FL. Attendance 44,129

No. of Tweets: 22,334 (down 30.0% from Las Vegas in 2018)
No. of Twitter impressions: 125,994,924 (down 59.1% from Las Vegas in 2018)
No. of Twitter users who tweeted: 2,958 (down 44.5% from Las Vegas in 2018)
No. of Twitter users reached: 9,862,305 (down 36.5% from Las Vegas in 2018)

#InfoComm18 held in Las Vegas, NV. Attendance 43,000

No. of Tweets: 32,090
No. of Twitter impressions: 309,845,589
No. of Twitter users who tweeted: 5,351
No. of Twitter users reached: 15,571,931

#InfoComm17 held in Orlando, FL. Attendance 44,077

No. of Tweets: 23,064 (down 31.4% from Las Vegas in 2016)
No. of Twitter impressions: 122,513,287 (down 18.3% from Las Vegas in 2016)
No. of Twitter users who tweeted: 4,068 (down 21.6% from Las Vegas in 2016)
No. of Twitter users reached: 8,883,412 (down 36.7% from Las Vegas in 2016)

#InfoComm16 held in Las Vegas, NV. Attendance 38,833

No. of Tweets: 33,771
No. of Twitter impressions: 150,485,480
No. of Twitter users who tweeted: 5,206
No. of Twitter users reached: 14,088,856

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From Friday’s AVIXA Foundation Career Day, welcoming students to the show, to the more than 40 percent of registered attendees under the age of 40, #InfoComm19 held last week June 8-14 in Orlando, continued to draw the next generation of audiovisual professionals, as well as a broad cross-section of engaged AV customers from higher education, hospitality, retail, and other markets.

Whether they were attracted by insightful new content, including Tuesday’s TIDE Conference and rich session tracks exploring AV experiences in hospitality and retail or by the nearly 950 exhibitors, attendees seemed to infuse #InfoComm19 with their energy.

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Snapp Digital has partnered with Signagelive to offer an advertisement software add-on that is billed as one of the easiest, simplest and most user-friendly solutions that will turn any digital screen into an advertisement opportunity.

There’s a simple dashboard and an open community marketplace, which allows networks and advertisers to put into one place creating a cohesive simple process for buying and selling digital advertisement assets.

We are told that, recognizing that many screen network owners already have existing signage solutions, Snapp was created as an add-on solution with a cost structure that is both simple and reduces risk associated with other expensive signage solutions. Adding your network to the Marketplace platform is 100% performance-based – meaning that you are only charged for what you sell. No sales, No cost.

The goal was to create an accessible tool for networks to create their own online ad account management/sales team. Snapp acts as your ad management extension. Bring your advertisers through the platform and they can view your available inventory, build their campaigns, make direct upfront payments, and upload ad content without ever needing to pick up the phone or send an email. Once the content is approved to run, the Signagelive MRSS feed sets those ads to automatically play during their scheduled run times.

Amongst fellow #AVtweeps we’ve been promoting the concept of turning your plain old Apple iPad into a fully fledged laptop or MacBook replacement, with the addition of a Brydge keyboard for several years now.

Back in 2012 we took part in the original kickstarter campaign for the product, gaining our first experience with one of these amazing keyboards on a very early generation iPad. We remember fondly, taking it to CES as soon as we received it and were simply astounded at the interest it received in the press lounge that year – everyone thought that we had had some form of new lightweight clamshell Mac device!!

Our current Brydge keyboard is used with a 2017 model iPad Pro with lightning connector but we are pleased to see that after the most successful pre-order campaign to date, Brydge’s highly anticipated Pro keyboards for the 2018 iPad Pros are now in-stock and shipping. For those of you not familiar with the new iPad Pros, the (old) lightning connector has now become a more standard and much more useful USB-C connector and the screen has less of a bezel (the latter change meaning that Brydge had the opportunity to redesign their product).

Let’s put this as simply as we can, the Brydge 12.9 Pro and 11.0 Pro are game-changers for any iPad user. Not only do they seamlessly combine with the new iPad Pro models to deliver a laptop experience, whilst also enhancing the iPad’s functionality, they now feature dual connectivity (Bluetooth 4.1 and wired via USB-C), multiple viewing modes, and protection for the back of the iPad.

These new products were announced back in November 2018 and we were lucky enough to meet the company founders and engineers at #CES2019 a few months later in January. At that time, the Pro keyboards were made available for pre-order and by May, 2019 well over 7,000 units were shipped to those lucky pre-order customers.

Mind you we’re not the only fans of this technology: –

• “If you ever want to type on your lap with an iPad Pro, the Brydge Pro is by far the best option.” – Sam Byford, The Verge
• “…we can say confidently that it’s the best keyboard for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.” – Mark Linsangan, Apple Insider
• “This Brydge keyboard is exactly what many were hoping it would be: the ultimate expression of a years-long effort to blend the iPad and laptop form factors” – Federico Viticci, MacStories

The Brydge 11.0 Pro retails for USD 149.99 and the Brydge 12.9 Pro for 169.99. Both models are available in Silver and Space Gray.

Replying to an #InfoComm19 tweet that repeated a common misconception, that Orlando attendance was typically less than that of Las Vegas, we put together this list of attendance figures going back to 2010.

* InfoComm 2010 32,000 (Las Vegas)
* InfoComm 2011 33,001 (Orlando)
* InfoComm 2012 34,286 (Las Vegas)
* InfoComm 2013 35,126 (Orlando)
* InfoComm 2014 37,048 (Las Vegas)
* InfoComm 2015 39,105 (Orlando)
* InfoComm 2016 38,833 (Las Vegas)
* InfoComm 2017 44,077 (Orlando)
* InfoComm 2018 43,000 (Las Vegas)
* InfoComm 2019 44,129 (Orlando)

You will note that Orlando takes home the prize for the two highest attendance events ever (44,077 in 2017 and 44,129 in 2019) and that since 2015, Las Vegas has always had less attendance than Orlando the year before.

I am a big fan of Kickstarter but I am rarely allowed to cross post anything here on DailyDOOH. However this Window Solar Charger, described as “a designer solar panel for people who want to be more sustainable, but don’t know where to start” got through our editor in chief’s strict review process.

The Window Solar Charger is a designer solar panel that charges your devices. Unlike most solar panels, it’s designed to hang in any window so now you can bring solar energy into your home, without sacrificing design.

Retail price wil be USD 149 and the product will ship April 2020.

Grouphug is a cuddly tech company based in NYC.

Their mission is to inspire a sustainable lifestyle that is effortless, without sacrificing design. The company was founded by industrial designer, Krystal Persaud.