The year just beginning throws up quite a bit of hope for the A/V industry. Undoubtedly, the economic reactivation seems to occur definitively during this season and this opens the door for the private sector (whose investments were practically frozen in the last two years) to resume the execution of projects that were on standby.
As an industry we have several trends that we are going to have to talk about this year. The integration 2.0 with the audio and video hardware will reach its zenith in 2011 and this is because on the one hand the capabilities of transmitting information about the network are much better, but also because the various audiovisual equipment are already preconfigured for this purpose (a few days ago I bought a screen -one of the simplest on the market- that offered me the option to download exclusive content from Amazon.com).
Thus, 2011 will be the year of the consolidation of live streaming, but also of the decline of rigid formats. There will still be much to be done to optimize media servers (Netflix, for example, and other on-demand content) now that Web 3.0 suggests smarter systems aimed at locating information according to users' tastes.
Another side towards which the balance will tip this year will be that of a greater demand for solutions with friendly GUIs. It is true that for at least five years each manufacturer has been claiming as its own the achievement of having developed a platform that can be manipulated even by a seven-year-old child, but it is not entirely true.
Today skills and knowledge are still required for the development and programming of a professional A/V system, but the end user is imposing a brutal rhythm when hiring a service: "How long is it going to take you to install that system?" In that vein, integrators are competing and need tools and teams to help them win.
These are just three of the aspects that we will have to wait to see if they materialize this year. I, for my part, say goodbye to this magazine that I saw born and to all of you, who were always ready to help me in everything I needed to enter this exciting industry.
Those who one day want to contact me can write to me [email protected]. A hug for everyone.
