3D @ InfoComm 2016

I’ve been an educational technology director for 25 years, with a significant track record in large educational technology and AV purchases. I  returned from walking every aisle of InfoComm 2016, searching for promising trends, developments, and products that might offer value for the education market.

What does an educator see? I look for both memes that make sense in education as well as the practical solution: the product that potentially meet a need or solves a pain somewhere in my organization. Something crisply new and eye-catching can also spark a burgeoning idea in an educator’s mind. And at times, we chuckle when we see the emperor’s new clothes (vaporware, hype, or solutions in search of a problem to solve).

The Third Dimension at InfoComm

Even though there is still interest in this technology in higher ed, a muted presence of 3D technologies was the case at InfoComm 2016. Two booths featuring autostereoscopic displays were underwhelming, and a few other glasses-based 3D stations were easy to forget. One large display manufacturer with an impressive floor presence and lots of traffic, Central China Display Laboratories, was the exception. Yet the content they were showing was ineffective, bordering on useless. This company has a featured LED installation here in Colorado, at the University of Denver. I wish they were showing that content instead.

Again, InfoComm 2016 seemed like a celebration of incrementalism—simultaneously in its best and worst form. But who knows? As they say, sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.