ISE 2018 Report: Integrated Systems, Audio Trends, and User Interfaces

Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2018, the fifteenth edition of the world’s largest AV and systems integration show, was the largest business-to-business event for the professional audiovisual, electronic systems integration and related IT industries, with the largest exhibition area, the largest number of exhibiting companies (1288) and the largest international attendance, supplanting largely the two shows promoted by the two founding associations CEDIA and Avixa/InfoComm International.

What Happened at CES 2018? A lot, quite a lot. More than you think! With 170,000 or 270,000 visitors (depends how you count), CES must be one of the very few shows where the promoters actually try to play down the numbers regarding visitors, also because in practice, no one really knows. There are so many suites and hotels extending the activities of CES throughout the week, that it becomes hard to understand where it starts and where it ends.

In May 2016, following the Munich High End show, audioXpress published a short article preview of SB Acoustics' highly anticipated new drivers, including the brand's flagship TW29BN high-end beryllium dome tweeter, part of its Satori top performing range. The new drivers, also included new midrange and midwoofer drivers using new proprietary cones made with Egyptian papyrus fibers, available in 5" to 9.5" sizes. Thomas Perazella, an esteemed frequent contributor to audioXpress, had an idea for a new speaker project using those drivers!

Sad news for the audio industry. Gibson Brands announced that it is "ceasing active development and production of Cakewalk branded products." Gibson Brands acquired the Boston-based music production software company from Roland Corporation in 2013. Since then, Cakewalk has been consistently updating all products, under the leadership and vision of Craig Anderton. Cakewalk was one of the few remaining historical music software companies solely dedicated to the Windows platform.

On November 9, 2017, I attended the Futuresource Audio Collaborative 2017 conference, at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. With the topic "A Change is Gonna Come," the conference was a valuable and insightful event. To entice our readers to actually spend the hours listening to those interventions (and for those that don't have the time to do it), I will share some of the key highlights, adding some personal takes on the topics addressed.

Barely recovered from a week in New York - at least in terms of catching up with the product announcements - I have left this year's Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention with the feeling that it was just too short. Expectations couldn't have been higher. The 143rd International AES Convention (October 18-21, 2017) was sharing the Jacob Javits Center with the NAB Show New York. So naturally increased attendance was a given, and there were many "synergetic" opportunities to discuss common themes, such as media over IP.

It's been an interesting week! Just prior to the IBC 2017 show, Apple made its traditional event for the launch of the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X (and those Augmented Reality demos were amazing!), also debuting the new Apple TV 4K. And before Samsung and all the other Smartphone manufacturers start announcing their own versions of "X" models, we had a series of interesting corporate and technology announcements, culminating by Amazon's announcement of a series of new Alexa-based hardware devices...

audioXpress closely follows innovations in the truly wireless earbud space, because it simply is one of the most exciting categories in the audio industry right now. Within the headphones category, wireless earbuds are a fast-growing segment. But truly wireless earbuds can be much more. They are truly wearables, which can do a lot more when equipped with the latest connectivity and sensors. But let's forget for a moment the earbuds and focus more on the neckband and those around-the-neck designs.

I know that the current trend is all about smart speakers, but since we have discussed that topic extensively in recent editorials, I thought the time was ripe to discuss what is happening with headphones, a still-growing market segment showing some signs that deserve attention. In this article I wrote for The Audio Voice newsletter, I address ongoing trends in design choices, user preferences, frequency response curves, and personalization.

In previous editorials, I have highlighted the important role of smart speakers in promoting the user case for voice personal assistants (VPAs) and voice recognition applications - given the ideal combination of far-field microphone arrays with a complete audio ecosystem that encompasses digital signal processing, acoustic echo cancelation, noise cancellation, and many other technologies. This opens significant opportunities for the audio industry, given we understand the challenges.