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ISE 2023_Day_1

ISE 2023: AV innovations on show at record-breaking event

At 56,870 square metres, the show floor was the biggest yet, and featured new technology and solutions from across the industry

Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), the largest AV and systems integration show in the world took place in Barcelona at the Fira Barcelona, Gran VĆ­a from 31 January to 3 February 2023. During this year’s event, 58,107 unique attendees from 155 countries were able to explore a record-breaking 56,870 square metres of floor space, with six technology halls and a dedicated audio demo room.

ISE 2023 welcomed a range of exhibitors from across the AV and systems integration space, catering to a variety of different sectors. These exhibitors reported unparalleled footfall to their booths over the course of the four-day event.

Mike Blackman at ISE 2023
Mike Blackman

Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, says:

ā€œItā€™s been an extraordinary week and itā€™s hugely gratifying for us to look back and realise weā€™ve delivered an exceptional show for our industry and the wonderful city of Barcelona. Weā€™ve had unprecedented visitor levels to the show, so much inspiring content and features on display, and ground-breaking visits from the King of Spain on Tuesday and the President of Catalonia on Thursday to add both a royal and a political seal of approval to the show.

ā€œThis week at ISE 2023 confirms that we can safely say the global AV and systems integration industry is back with an impressive bang!ā€ 

A royal visit

On day one, ISE 2023 welcomed a very special visitor. King Felipe VI of Spain took a tour of the show floor, accompanied by Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, NĆŗria MarĆ­n, mayor of Lā€™Hospitalet de Llobregat, Laia Bonet, 3rd deputy mayor of Barcelona.

King of Spain visits ISE 2023
The Royal Party and accompanying officials

The Royal Party and accompanying officials visited several booths, including Lutron, Google, Shure, Panasonic, Matrox, Alfalite, Equipson Group and the Barcelona City Council. 

The president of the Government of Catalonia, Pere Aragones, also visited ISE 2023, where 70 Catalan-based companies exhibited.

Keynotes at ISE 2023

All paths lead to real-time

ISE 2023 keynote Unreal Engine

BK Johannsessen, Unreal Engine business director for broadcast and live events at Epic Games, delivered the first keynote address of ISE 2023. In ‘All Paths Lead to Real-Time’, he explored how the games industry is driving content creation in the systems integration ecosystem.

Speaking about Unreal Engine, Johannessen said:

“We’re focused on enabling creators to create experiences, and enabling those creators to do their best work.” The Epic connected ecosystem provides an open platform for content creators, and Epic makes everything it builds available for free.

ā€œWhy do we do this? Because weā€™re makers, developers, engineers and artists just like you,ā€ he said. ā€œWe believe people should have the freedom to create, play and learn in more connected and meaningful ways. That extends to enabling your success over monetisation.ā€

Johannessen concluded: “The future is bright, and it’s definitely real-time.”

Broadcasting the America’s Cup

On day two, Stephen Nuttall, head of television for the Americaā€™s Cup, gave the keynote speech. In this, he covered the record-breaking broadcast production plans for the 37th edition of the sporting event, which is coming to Barcelona in 2024.

ā€œWe intend this to be the most watched Americaā€™s Cup of all time, “said Nuttall. “The 36th race was viewed by 942 million people worldwide. We will look to beat that by a considerable margin in Barcelona 2024.ā€

ISE 2023 keynote America's Cup

The America’s Cup media team has a threefold challenge, deploying various technologies to run the races efficiently and safely, and to tell the story in an engaging way, he added:

ā€œThe technical challenges of covering the Cup are considerable. The boats themselves are 25m long, travelling at up to 100 kilometres per hour. The AV crew need to know their position to 2 centimetres and 1/100th of a second…In the high stakes world of the Americaā€™s Cup, with some campaigns costing over ā‚¬100m and with a history stretching back to 1851, we canā€™t afford to make a mistake.ā€

How innovative is the AV industry?

Finally, Fran Chuan of InnoQuotient delivered Thursdayā€™s keynote, called ā€œHow Innovative is the AV Industry?ā€ During this session, he presented the results of ISEā€™s Culture of Innovation 2023 Survey, using the proprietary InnoQuotient tool.

Over 1000 people took part in a survey measuring innovation in the AV industry ahead of ISE 2023. Chuan started the session by asking: What is innovation? It is a concept we use easily, but we don’t all understand what innovation is in the same way. He pointed out that innovation is a process of continuous improvement, of small steps that add up to make a big change.

ISE 2023 keynote innovation

On the results of the survey, Chuan said that the AV sector has ā€œincredible talent”. However, it does not always make the best use of this potential. Chuan commented that there is an over-emphasis on creating headlines and not enough on getting things done. ā€œWhen they detect opportunities, they donā€™t jump into the field to solve this issue,ā€ he said.

He also found that the industry does not “systematise innovation.” Although the sector excels at coming up with ideas, there is a bottleneck when turning those ideas into opportunities. In order to build certain shared understandings within organisations and across the sector, he advised creating a lingua franca. To foster an innovative culture and increase efficiency, he said it’s critical to identify strengths and limitations.

ā€œWhen you are more efficient, what you create is trends. And when you generate trends, talent is attracted by this area. Then suddenly, you have more and more talent generating more and more trends in an efficient way.”

Special events

Attendees had the opportunity to book a place on a number of special Tech Tours during ISE 2023. This included a chance to discover the art of GaudĆ­ at Casa BatllĆ³ and learn more about the multi-sensory audiovisual technology that powers this immersive experience and a visit to the DALƍ: CYBERNETICS exhibition at IDEAL Centre d’Arts Digitals de Barcelona.

behind-the-scenes tour of the gran teatre del liceu

On Wednesday evening, a Tech Tour went behind the scenes at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. This took in the 2,200+ seat auditorium as well as the lighting set-up in the ceiling and behind the stage. Each seat has an individual surtitle screen which displays Spanish and English translations, with the main surtitle screen above the stage displaying Catalan translations. Some seats which have a blocked view also have screens that show the stage.

Using the cameras that record the stage, the opera house also plans to launch a live-streaming subscription service soon. This will allow people from around the world to watch performances live.

On Thursday, there was a visit to the Mirador torre GlĆ²ries and the headquarters of Mediapro Exhibitions. On entering Mirador torre GlĆ²ries, visitors first descend to an underground level to explore Hyperview. This a series of immersive installations that present a new view of Barcelona, as an interconnected urban ecosystem.

Visitors can view, understand, and reimagine the city from a fresh perspective thanks to innovative storytelling. New multidisciplinary spaces bring together art, science, technology, and environmental awareness. The attraction encourages visitors to take a careful and responsible look at the urban ecosystem that surrounds them, in the context of the climate and sustainability concerns that humanity is facing.

Hyperview Mirador Torre Glories

Guests then ascend to the top of the observation deck, where there are spectacular views over the city of Barcelona. They can also climb through the ā€˜Cloud Cities Barcelonaā€™ sculpture, created by artist TomĆ”s Saraceno.

ISE 2023 conference highlights

Conferences taking place over the course of the four days included the Smart Home Technology Conference; the Smart Building Conference, sponsored by KNX; the Content Production & Distribution Summit; the Content Production & Distribution Summit; Digital Signage Summit ISE; the Control Rooms Summit, sponsored by Guntermann and Drunck; the Education Technology Summit; the Smart Workplace Summit, sponsored by Shure; and the Live Events Summit.

Tech Talks

In addition, AVIXA also hosted a series of free Tech Talks. These provided visitors with the opportunity to learn about technological advancements and commercial trends. Sessions were available in English and Spanish.

ISE 2020 panel on future museum tech

blooloop’s Charles Read hosted a discussion on the impact of technology in museums. This featured insights from Simon Kentish of Frameless and JĆørgen Damskau from Creative Technology. Damskau began the discussion by talking about how technology can support the process of decolonisation in museums. It can help to tell the story of those objects in the spaces that are left behind when they are returned to their rightful places.

Moving on to talk about Frameless, the largest permanent immersive art gallery in London with 40 masterpieces in its collection, displayed using immersive technologies across four galleries, Kentish said technology helps more people to access art and experience it in new ways.

On Wednesday, Bryan Meszaros of OpenEye led a Tech Talk called ‘Balancing physical design and AV integration to create memorable experiences’. One of the key points he made was about the importance of collaboration. OpenEye works with integrators, architects, fabricators, themed entertainment groups and more. It uses technology to amplify certain aspects and make the story come alive.

ISE 2023 presentation from OpenEye

He also spoke about a recent project that the firm worked on Madame Tussauds in Berlin. Here, it was important that the entry space set the tone and showed guests what to expect from the experience. OpenEye added video walls, lighting & audio to bring guests into the experience and show them that this is where the story unfolds.

Educational sessions on the trade show floor

Other educational sessions were taking place on the show floor as well. At the AVIXA stand, for instance, the team hosted Ask the Expert Sessions. In one of these, entitled ‘Ask the Experts: Where to start with immersive experiences?’, Hilary McVicker of The Elumenati hosted a panel that included Stacia Pfeiffer of Lux Machina, Sarah Cox of Neutral Human and Will Case from Creative Technology.

Taking an audience question on what the next generation of immersive experiences will look like, Case pointed out that, for a truly immersive experience, everything has to work together. So, audio is just as important as visual. He also said that there are some exciting new audio innovations to watch, for instance, those from HOLOPLOT.

ISE 2023 panel on immersive experiences

The panel agreed that collaboration across different disciplines is key when innovating in the immersive experiences sector. Creative teams and technologists need to work together. In response to an audience question, the panel also agreed that storytelling is a vital part of the immersive experience. “Story will always win,” said Case.

Elsewhere on the trade show floor, Congress Square allowed attendees to discover new innovations, networking opportunities and industry organisations. Here, they could explore the Catalonian and Barcelona City Council Pavilions, the Discovery Zone, and the International Media Showcase. It was also home to the Influencer and Impact Lounges.

Innovation on the ISE 2023 trade show floor

7th Sense

7thSense, the multi-award-winning media solutions specialist, launched the new Performer Range product line during ISE 2023. This range of new technologies is designed to enable creative teams to tell their media-based stories with the highest standards of quality, reliability, and support.

7thSense Launches New Performer Range Product Line at ISE 2023

The range consists of R-Series 10, Actor, Conjurer, Compere and Juggler. Each product in this range is made to function on its own. When used in tandem, these technologies have the ability to streamline media and production workflows. This will help users create media-based stories more quickly, reliably, and easily.

7thSense also presented its reactive projection mapping solution at the show. This was recognised at blooloop’s Innovation Awards 2022.

See alsoA disruptive new entertainment venue: inside the cutting-edge MSG Sphere

AV Stumpfl

AV Stumpfl, Austrian award-winning creator of mobile and installation projection screens, multi-display and show control systems, presented its AnyShape projection screen system, as well as its PIXERA multi-user workflow features. The AnyShape technology enables direct factory orders for custom-built projection screens with a wide range of alternative frame designs.

multi_user_av stumpfl

When working in challenging installations or show scenarios, the new multi-user workflow tools will make media server operators far more adaptable and productive. Multiple PIXERA director licenses can now be synched. Plus, users can choose between different levels of granularity when working within a multi-user scenario.

AV Stumpfl also displayed its AT64-SHIFT and T32-SHIFT screen system legs at ISE 2023.

Barco

Barco, the technology company focusing on innovative visualisation solutions, launched a new LED solution, delivering great image performance and high-quality colour, powered by the firmā€™s Infinipix Gen2 processing. The NT series is ideal for LED video walls that require high-impact visuals.

Barco NT series tile

The team was on hand to show ISE 2023 attendees how they can use Barco visualisation tech to create truly immersive experiences, and how the firm’s products can help them to resolve control issues faster, using cutting-edge control room visualisation and workflow solutions.

Christie

Christie, the global visual and audio technology company, brought its full array of solutions to ISE 2023. This included models from both the Griffyn Series and M Series of RGB pure laser projectors, as well as Christie MicroTiles LED tiles. These were used to create a striking display on the company’s booth.

Christie Griffyn 4K35-RGB front

The Christie CounterAct UR10 UVC-LED disinfection light fixture was on show for the first time at the event. The team was also demonstrating the capabilities of the Christie Pandoras Box Software License Version 8, in combination with the Christie Access Series II UHD982-P-A LCD panels.

See alsoSurreal: the gravity-defying water feature at Expo 2020 Dubai

Digital Projection

Digital Projection,Ā a specialist in laser projectors, presented its Satellite MLS (Modular Laser System) at ISE 2023. It was also joined by VIOSO at its booth, which featured an eye-catching application-based stand experience. Plus, the new M-Vision 27000, which is set to be the worldā€™s brightest 1-Chip DLP laserĀ projector, made its debut.

Digital Projection booth ISE 2023

The firm has redefined the idea of performance-to-size ratio with its Satellite MLS technology. It has created a technique that enables both more compact and potent projectors. Satellite MLS gives integrators more options, especially in situations where space and access are constrained. It also lowers noise and heat from the audience position by separating the light source from the compact, lightweight projector “head”.

Highlite

Highlite, a leading supplier of show, audio and light equipment, was demonstrating its new DAP WMS design installation loudspeakers at ISE 2023, as well as its new high-end Infinity Raccoon P14/4 RGBW LED par, and the new Showtec Performer Cyc6 cyclorama background wash.

Highlite booth ISE 2023

Attendees could also discover two new DMT pixel screens, the Premiere Series PS3.9 Blue Line and Alpha Series A3.9i.

See also: Illuminating the record-breaking Kondaa coaster at Walibi Belgium

HOLOPLOT

HOLOPLOT, aĀ science-based immersive audio company, returned to the exhibition this year to debut the beta version of its new design and simulation programme, HOLOPLOT Plan, as well as the new rigging system for its X1 product series, and once again won Best in Show.

HOLOPLOT Booth ISE 2023

This followed the debut of its X1 series at last year’s event. The X1 series is a fully integrated system, not just a loudspeaker. It blends IoT capabilities with complex software. The product line is designed for high-performance uses like immersive installations, theme parks, large conferences, music halls, and more.

In-depth explanations of HOLOPLOT Plan, which simplifies and intuitively sets up a HOLOPLOT sound system, were provided at seminars inside the HOLOPLOT audio demo room.

Listen Technologies

Listen Technologies, a provider of assistive listening, multi-language audio transmission and live streaming audio solutions, presented its full suite of products at ISE 2023.

The team demonstrated the improved functionality of ListenTALK, upgrades to Listen EVERYWHERE, and the interoperability of ListenIR. Attendees could also find out more about recent, creative installations of the firm’s technologies across a range of industries.

Listen EVERYWHERE-with phone
Listen EVERYWHERE

During the event, Listen Technologies also put on a series of product training sessions for integrators and end users.

See also: Listen Technologies & the power of shared experiences

LT Projects

The team from LT Projects, an interactive, immersive and creative technology specialist, was also on hand during the show.

Attendees could set up a meeting to discuss the company’s services. These include technical production, consultancy, sales and installation services for retail, events, corporate sectors and visitor attractions.

Panasonic

Panasonic, a leading audiovisual technology provider, treated attendees to a demonstration of what its projection technology can do, with a pop-up version of Frameless, London’s newest immersive art experience.

Frameless on Panasonic booth ISE 2023

The team were showcasing a range of AV innovations during the event, as well as a state-of-the-art Production Studio featuring IP-based glass-to-glass solutions. This included the new AW-UE160 PTZ camera, the latest AK-PLV100 studio camera and the live production system KAIROS.

The company also held a press conference. In this, it talked about its latest developments as well as its commitment to sustainability and its goal to be net zero by 2030. During this session, Simon Kentish, CTO of Frameless was interviewed by Panasonic’s Hartmut Kulessa. They spoke about how Frameless is pushing the envelope of immersive art experiences. The attraction uses interactivity to make them feel closer to the artwork than ever before.

Powersoft

Powersoft, the Italian amplifier specialist, announced a brand-new product during ISE 2023. UNICA is a new cloud-based amplifier platform. It is designed to offer simple integration, straightforward configuration and low maintenance costs in one future-proof package.

Powersoft UNICA

Claudio Lastrucci, R&D director and co-founder of Powersoft, explained that UNICA represents the third and latest generation of Powersoft amplifier platforms, designed to meet the requirements of any size of installation with a single product family:

ā€œUNICA is engineered to accommodate upcoming functions and feature expansions to fulfil the most demanding audio design requirements for years to come ā€“ all within a single platform. By listening to customer feedback and market demands, and drawing on our passion and R&D ingenuity, we have, with UNICA, created an amplifier platform truly fit for the future.ā€

See alsoPowersoft: moving with the music at Our House

Telelogos

Telelogos, a software editor (ISV) with more than 40 years of expertise in software solutions for digital signage, workspace management, device management, data synchronization, data transfer for remote terminals (POS terminals, back office, etc.), mobile devices (PDAā€™s, Tablet PCs, Laptops) and automated terminals, also had a presence on the trade show floor at ISE 2023.

Telelogos Media4Display

During the show, the team was showing how its solutions enable companies and organisations to better communicate and interact with customers and employees as part of their digital transformation.

Solutions from the company were also in use at its partnersā€™ booths, for example, Philips, Vestel, ProDVX and more.

Other highlights from the trade show

Absen, a leading LED display brand, also held a press conference during the show, where it presented the latest solutions from its wide range of innovative LED displays. Attendees could explore the firm’s range of products at the booth. These are designed for different applications covering both rental and fixed installs. This includes virtual production, corporate projects, DOOH, retail settings, gaming and more.

Absen press conference ISE 2023

K-Array also launched some new products during ISE 2023. For instance, the new line of ‘ultra-mini, sleek and discreet speakers’ for the K-array Lyzard professional loudspeaker and the new Rumble and Thunder compact subwoofers on the market. K-Array also highlighted the K Family and how the three companies (K-array, KGEAR by K-array and KSCAPE | Architecture Lighting with Professional Audio) are working together on all projects to create a cohesive experience for customers.

ISE 2023 show floor

Leyard Europe presented a screen that gave a 3D effect without needing 3D glasses. The firm also worked with eyefactive to create an interactive LED video wall using the Leyard Venue Pro Series using a 2.5mm pixel pitch version. Meanwhile, Clear-Com presented its new Arcadia Central System. This is a scalable IP platform. It integrates analogue wired and digital wireless party line systems along with third-party Dante devices in a 1RU device.

L-Acoustics demonstrated Ambience, a new audio system which is ideal for immersive spaces. The newest iteration of active acoustics, it combines realistic immersive audio with high-end acoustics.

Naostage, in partnership with SmodeTech, showcased K SYSTEM. This is a new product that tracks people or objects within a space and allows users to control audio, lighting, projections and more around them. It is the first 100% automated and beaconless live tracking solution.

Attendees could also discover Tempest’s Oasis projector protective cases. These allow projectors to operate in ambient temperatures from -15 to 50Ā°C. In addition, Dataton highlighted the WATCHOUT and the WATCHPAX 62 range of media servers.

Save the date

Integrated Systems Events is a joint venture between AVIXA and CEDIA ā€“ the two leading industry associations for the global audiovisual industry.

Next year’s event will take place in Barcelona from Tuesday 30 January to Friday 2 February 2024.

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charlotte coates

Charlotte Coates

Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.

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