Veteran commercial integrator and Twitter sensation Brock McGinnis of Westbury National already shared several of his favorite displays and A/V happenings from ISE 2019.
We saved three of his showstoppers for last: new solutions from Kramer, Christie Digital and Biamp.
Christie Digital MicroTiles
Saying Christie MicroTiles are “back,” McGinnis called the display the “highlight of day 1” at ISE:
Highlight of Day 1 @ISE_Show? @ChristieDigital Microtiles. A brilliant new creative LED product. Entirely flexible. Totally unique. Incredible industrial/form factor engineering. And, as a result, winner of “most likely to be copied”. #ise2019 pic.twitter.com/EX7xWUB36M
— Brock McGinnis (@brockmcginnis) February 6, 2019
He gushed even more about the tiles to CE Pro, lauding their small form factor and extreme flexibility for customizing sizes, shapes and curves.
“Beautiful image quality,” he adds, “and the most innovative conversation-changing take on LED of the show and the year.”
CE Pro's sister company Commercial Integrator shot this video at ISE, providing more detail of the Christie system.


Kramer Electronics Flex
While the world may be going A/V over IP, McGinnis was impressed with a traditional — but not traditional — new matrix switcher from Kramer Electronics. The new VS-34FD is a 34-port modular 8K multi-format digital matrix switcher with interchangeable inputs and outputs.
McGinnis tells CE Pro:
Kramer Electronics showed a flex input/output modular HDMI / HDBaseT switcher that eliminates one of the main reasons integrators now choose AV over IP – asymmetrical switching (3 in, 13 out for example). Current switchers are symmetrical 8×8, 16×16 etc., so for an app like a sports bar … with only four cable TV inputs but 28 zones of TVs people were forced to go AV over IP at a greater cost. Now they don’t. Quite revolutionary.
He suggests the Kramer product has probably ticked off “every other fixed-format matrix switcher manufacturer in the world” because now they need to go and design a similar product.
On Twitter, McGinnis heard from another integrator who thought Kramer's claim of “The end of I/Os” was a bit ironic, given the product is a fixed-chassis matrix switch.
Not missing something…but AV over IP is not a panacea or the best solution for all applications. It’s become a go-to for asymmetricals…and I think this is a very practical approach to winning that market back for HDBaseT. https://t.co/mYwkg968JK
— Brock McGinnis (@brockmcginnis) February 5, 2019
Biamp Speakers and Mics
Biamp, provider of networked A/V systems for commercial venues, came out with its first speaker line — Desono — and McGinnis was impressed:
Loved Biamp’s first foray into the speaker business – these unique, gorgeous pendants. Designers will gobble them up at any price.
Also at ISE 2019, Biamp launched the new Tesira Parle low-provide microphone line to rival the company's bulkier models. McGinnis cheered:
Also loved Biamps new ceiling and table mics. We always appreciated their Beamtracking technology and audio quality but clients/designers hated the look. These are the solution.
Someone responded on Twitter that the products are the result of the “Rashid effect,” after Rashid Skaf, who joined Biamp as CEO in 2017 after a long stint leading AMX.

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