AMX takes convergence of AV and ICT serious

AMX just released a press announcement that clearly states that AMX understands where the convergence is going to by appointing an ICT heavy weight as VP of global market development

AMX: Megura at helm as AV/IT converge
11 February 2009

Industry veteran, Walt Megura was recently welcomed into AMX’s Executive Leadership Team. Megura joined the company as vice president of global market development and is responsible for strategy development and execution for government, education and corporate markets.

Megura is vice president of global market development at AMXRashid Skaf, president and CEO of AMX said: “Walt’s deep and extensive background in developing and managing high performance teams in the telecommunications and IT segments which will enable him to help AMX navigate through the convergence the AV industry is experiencing with IT.”Megura said greater end user customer focus was needed to simplify the way people interact with technology. “Today’s organisations require reliable, scalable technologies that centralise the management, monitoring and control of those technology assets across the network and I will be collaborating with our dealers, consultants and sales force to help drive significant revenues for AMX,” he said.Megura was previously senior vice president for the Americas at Intervoice. Prior to that he held a number of leadership positions at Nortel. Most recently he had overall global business responsibility for the IPTV and Broadband business. He holds a BS degree in business administration from Northeastern University, Boston and is an alumnus of the Stanford Executive Management Program.

Cisco is moving into AV world FAST!!!!!!

As you can read in the digitalsignagetoday post as copied and pasted below (click here for original), Cisco is moving in a new direction. After creating their IP/TV platform and stepping into the Videoconferencing market with HP (ok telepresence) they also are moving into digital signage. This looks like their strategy is to be dominant in the AudioVisual market as well. This bigger clue about the convergence between ICT and AV cannot be found




SAN JOSE, Calif. — Cisco is working to make it easier to view video content on many different formats, such as digital signage, desktop and mobile phone screens, with a new media processing technology.

The networking company today announced a platform that simplifies live and on-demand video sharing across digital signage networks, PCs and mobile phones, by automatically formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device.

Driving the new platform is the Cisco Media Experience Engine (MXE) 3000, which delivers the ability to transcode a single source of content so that it is playable on those devices. It also delivers real-time post production and processing capabilities such as watermarking, voice and video editing, text and image overlays and noise reduction to create broadcast quality video experiences.



“Many employees have access to PCs to receive video messages, but there may be a high percentage that don’t,” said Thomas Wyatt, general manager, DMSBU. “They can get access to that very same content through digital signage or enterprise TV. Playing video back on multiple devices is something we’re seeing customers wanting to invest in, especially in a challenged economic environment.”

Janice Litvinoff, director of product management, DMSBU, says that the first applications of the new media platform are likely to come in the education and corporate communications sectors.

“The use of video to communicate change is becoming more critical,” she said. “In tough times you don’t want to use email to communicate important news. Say a company needs to get a CEO’s message out to all employees. Now it can come from one source and reach everyone.”

Grounded, but connected

Litvinoff also said that Cisco is positioning is DMS suite as a way to cut back on operating expenditures in tough economic times.

“The new media processing platform will reduce the time it takes to communicate critical messages,” she said. “The hours it takes to produce video will be reduced, saving time and operating expenditures.”

Litvinoff also said that Cisco predicts some of its more than 800 DMS customers can use the communications suite and its TelePresence capabilities as a way to communicate without having to travel, saving time and money for those companies.

“Hardly anyone here at Cisco is traveling right now unless absolutely necessary,” she said. “We’re all grounded and communicating through DMS.”

Entering the LCD screen market

Cisco’s Digital Media System consists of Digital Media Manager software, Digital Media Players and now the MXE 3000. The system is commonly used for corporate communications, desktop video and telepresence.

Also joining the DMS family are two Professional Series LCD displays designed for use with the system. Available in 40- and 52-inch models, the screens feature full 1080p resolutions and are controlled remotely from the Cisco Digital Media Manager, which allows users to change the volume, contrast, brightness and turn the screen on and off.

The Cisco Media Experience Engine and Cisco LCD 100 PRO 40N and LCD 110 PRO 52S are available immediately.