Crestron launched its 4K UHD certification program at Integrated Systems Europe earlier this year, and has seen adoption in several markets, including medical imaging, manufacturing, mission-critical control rooms and more.
So-called “tweeners,” who want more than 1080p or 2K but aren’t ready for 4K, remain a hot market for the conversion to 4K adoption, says Tom Barnett, Crestron’s director of residential marketing.
The “tweeners” often come from the corporate market, where the boss demands a better solution when he experiences trouble doing his presentation on the existing equipment, which he also approved.
For integrators, says Barnett, having a conversation about that challenge is more effective than saying, “Hey, you should have 4K in your conference room.”
Another source of demand for 4K among corporate clients is in applications in which more than one display is used.
“Often there are two displays in a conference room or board room because you want to see your spreadsheets and your video window or the pie chart that goes with the spreadsheet — whatever it is — all at the same time,” Barnett says.
Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign, which introduced its 4K digital signage media player at ISE and showed it off at the Digital Signage Expo, hopes confusion about converting to 4K doesn’t cause it to get a bad name by having other manufacturers try to sell 4K despite not being equipped to do so.
“[It’s] a little bit like when HD first came out and the marketers got a little bit ahead of the technology,” he says. “If you think back to 2001, 2002, it was like ‘HD, HD, HD.’ Well, we later only found out that what they were selling us was really only 720p and not the 1080i that everybody later realized as the real HD. I’m a little bit worried about that on the 4K side.”
Walking the InfoComm show floor and seeing the new products as well as attending some education sessions ought to help sort those issues for integrators. “What we’re trying to do is make sure people really understand that in 4K you really have to have all of these things come together to have real 4K. Otherwise, you’re going to be disappointed,” says Hastings. “We’ve seen the good stuff, and once you’ve seen the good stuff, you’re like, ‘wow, 4K is amazing.'”
Crestron launched its 4K UHD certification program at Integrated Systems Europe earlier this year, and has seen adoption in several markets, including medical imaging, manufacturing, mission-critical control rooms and more.
The market for video walls has expanded and so have the possibilities as these projects demonstrate.
