A big trend at InfoComm 2016 was HDMI over IP. As Jon Ralston, director of sales at Transformative Engineering, walked the floor last year, he counted 57 other vendors showing just connectivity solutions. That’s 6 percent of the exhibitors.
“It was terrifying to see how many people were in that space,” recalls Ralston.
Transformative Engineering is doing its part to help integrators narrow their choices with the release of the HDU-1 extender. The HDU-1 connects an HDMI/VGA source, fully synchronous USB 2.0 device, bi-directional IR, and an auxiliary audio feed over a single Cat 5/6 cable.
The company’s goal since inception has been to build better, more adept, more custom integrator-centric solutions for everyday problems… for half the price. The affordable HDU-1 is $729, in comparison to competitors that are at least twice as expensive.
In particular, the device is designed for point-to-point communications for conference rooms, classrooms or huddle spaces. When developing the HDU-1, the company particularly paid attention to the small trip-ups that add up to big time and money wasters.
For example, electricians routinely forget to pull the appropriate amount of wire needed for video conferencing. The result is that often just a single Cat 5 is pulled from the conference table to a closet or TV, or perhaps there is nothing but ½-inch EMT conduit cored into the concrete. Most solutions require at least two Cat 5/6 cables as well as power (often for a webcam) to carry video back to the presenter.
With the HDU-1, there is no pulling of extra wires needed. That means no snaking a tiny conduit across, up, over, and down with two or three wires and a bottle of “wire lube.” The HDU-1 requires just one wire for powering both the transmitter and receiver from one end… either end.
It also handles VGA and HDMI (auto priority or manual selection), analog audio (injected into the HDMI when used with VGA — or in parallel), two infrared pathways (one in each direction) both of which will power a 12V Xantech IR pickup (or two-way RS-232 with available dongle), and USB.
Dealers Attest to Product
Transformative Engineering’s slogan is “for integrators, by integrators” with its customer service spearheaded by Ralston.
Jack Gattinella, service manager of CE Pro 100 company Maverick Integration in Nashua, N.H., says, “Transformative Engineering has been a great partner because first and foremost they make products that work. I can feel comfortable about selling an $800 balun because I know it will work. Jon has driven as far as Maine from Boston to help my techs on site. He has also helped on sites with problems that had nothing to do with Transformative Engineering. For those reasons, Transformative Engineering is the kind of partner we love to support.”
Sean Hammond, CEO of Intelligent Integration Solutions in Toronto, adds, “It was the first HDMI extender product we used that actually worked and didn't require constant service calls. The reliability coupled with the exceptional customer service made it a no-brainer when starting my own company to choose Transformative Engineering as my exclusive vendor for the type of products they offer.”
