DSE 2011 – Looking ahead to next week

February 18, 2011 by Dave Haynes

I am getting carpet-bombed with emails from public relations inviting me to their DSE vendor clients’ booths next week for private tours and chats with various bosses. I go to DSE as a press guy because I end up writing a lot about the show, I get broad access, and the press room has a waterslide, 24-hour chocolate fountain and a dedicated Elvis impersonator.

If I went to all the meetings I have been invited to, I’d never do anything but run from one booth to another. Those things suck up way too much time. I’m doing a few meetings with people who are hard to otherwise get at (like HP), and for stuff I really want to see.

However, a run through the list of exhibitors shows while there are a lot of new names on the list, a lot of them are gadget guys with cables and boxes and converter things that get deployment guys giddy, but will not mean a whole lot to a pile of other people.

What is encouraging are the numbers of new names that are from the creative business. There have always been a few firms coming to DSE, but they’ve mostly been walking and talking, not pitching a tent and showing off their stuff in their own space. Content is SOOO important and SOOO under-represented in the exhibit hall. Totally different story in the conference areas, though.

This is an important show, but not a huge one in relative terms for the display panel people. I’ll be interested to see who’s the front guy for Samsung after a re-org and Russell Young’s departure for Sapient Nitro. I’ll be curious as to where NEC is at with Vukunet (at CETW they were mentioning the media player was getting smarter, and therefore more capable of talking to other DS software). Sharp is there and I want to see what they are up to. And LG’s Jeff Dowell tells me his SuperSign Premier product is in many respects launching at DSE, though it first bubbled up as SignNet at Infocomm eight months ago.

I will definitely be at Christie’s booth because they will have a version of the interactive BuzzWall feature the Miami Dolphins are using, as developed by Arsenal Media. It looked very cool in videos.

A lot of the software guys will be showing new version releases of their platforms, so I’ll be curious as to what are improvements versus that are are real eyebrow-raisers. BroadSign, Capital Networks, Navori and a bunch of others I can’t remember at 6:18 AM all have new releases.

I want to see what Ayuda’s Splash platform and open-source player is all about. I’ve been to the offices in Montreal, but ran out of time for a demo.

Yet more guys are coming into the software space – like Israel’s DGScreen, which issued a hyperventilating release Thursday about its price-chopping new SAAS offer (but never actually mentioned a dollar figure)

I do want to see some of the low-cost boxes out there and particularly stuff that’s moving off PCs and on to processors built for mobile. Smartphones can drive big HD screens, so you have to think that stuff is coming (or there).

I NEVER have time to see any education sessions but hope to catch one or two this time. The good ones tend to be early day keynotes, and that conflicts badly with late nights (remember where this show is at).

If you are going, safe travels and I’m looking forward to catching up with many, many people. Bring an umbrella, as the forecast is actually mentioning rain. Highs are only in the 50s F, which will be a marked change from my last trip to Lost Wages, an epic 10-day visit in June to the blast furnace.

PS – One more time with feeling – the mixer is very, really, totally sold out. Next year, probably bigger again.