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  • Conference Whispers: Commercial UAV Expo 2024

    Conference Whispers: Commercial UAV Expo 2024

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    After 12 hours of standing and over 200 minutes of taping, 40 videos and a few hundred shorts forthcoming, our coverage of the Commercial UAV Expo closes. The Commercial UAV Expo 2024 had over 3,000 attendees, Y exhibits and Z keynotes. The attendees travelled from over ZZ countries. The Expo had exhibits and keynotes on how to become a drone pilot to the drones themselves. There were countless examples of the latest technology in all types of UAVs and UASs, including the sensors and equipment they carry. The expo also showcased solutions for remotely operating and managing drone fleets, as well as advanced methods for analyzing geospatial data.

    Highlights

    • Information was provided across the vertical and horizontal spectrum for UAVs, UAS. Note: few were fully autonomous and would be referred to more accurately as remote-controlled helicopters, drones, and marine vehicles.

    Cautions

    • One must understand the use case to select the correct drone or solution route if one doesn’t want to take on the training burden internally.

    Conference Vibe

    After 12 hours of standing and over 200 minutes of taping, 40 videos and a few hundred shorts forthcoming, our coverage of the Commercial UAV Expo closes. The Commercial UAV Expo 2024 had over 3,000 attendees and was one of two conferences held at Caesars Forum not to be confused with Caesars Palace a stroll away. Everything seemed very organized with no significant registration lines on Wednesday morning. Attendees arrived from across the global and each was invited to put a pin on the map to represent where they traveled to attend. For those that had a full event pass, boxed lunches were available; we were able to catch videos of the boxed lunches Wednesday as well as Thursday. The exhibition hall* was open on Tuesday for cocktails, as well as Wednesday and Thursday. Overall, the expo had exhibits and talks on how to become a drone pilot to the drones themselves. There were endless examples of the latest technology in every type of UAV or UAS, to the sensors or equipment they may carry, to solutions to remotely operate and manage fleets of drones to advance solutions for analyzing geospatial data.

    Becoming a Drone Pilot

    One hot topic at the Commercial UAV Expo is getting enough pilots for the industry as most technology today is remote controlled versus truly autonomous. An entire aisle in the exhibit hall was dedicated towards pilot schools including the Pilot Institute. The Pilot Institute even has a free class for those just getting started with a hobby license. Dan Tartaglia from Droneability shared his lessons learned from his journey as a recreational drone pilot to a commercial pilot with his own company. Paul Rossi shared detailed information on his methodology for a pathway to professional drone pilot. Meanwhile, another session by FlyGuys highlighted that if you have a license and equipment, they will hold our hands and give you the settings if needed to help drone pilots to get experience on a 1099 basis.

    Drones

    As one might expect, commercial drones were absolutely the highlight of Commercial UAV Expo. Many drones, like those of Swiss Air are remote-control helicopters. SwissDrones had their remote-controlled helicopter on exhibit along with Phoenix Air Group who manages a fleet of pilots across the US flying Swiss Air Drones. If you might have to travel somewhere before you fly your commercial drone, A2Z drones shared their 4 models during the Press Briefing. A2Z drones also had an extensive display sharing these collapsable charging docks as well as their release hook for packages. Attis Aviation introduced the new ROC VTOL UAV drone with extensive sensors leveraged for firefighting during the Press Competition. During the same event, Drones Amplified demonstrated how their drones are leveraged to create prescribed fires and backburns.

    For the healthcare industry, DrUber shared their solution during the press competition. Dr Uber can be leveraged for cross town emergencies be it organs or blood supplies. If weather interferes with your commercial operations, SwellPro, the pioneer of waterproof drones, was happy to share their solution with you. Of course, if one desired a fully automated drone, one of the more famous consumer manufacturers, DJI shared their Matrice 3d Fully autonomous drone. For the entertainment industry, we found the exciting drone shows. Not just any show but the drones that enable pyrotechnics plus drone lights by Pablo Air.

    The military use case is of course on top of everyone’s mind at the Commercial UAV show. If you were seeking paper or cardboard drones, you were in luck! Often referred to as blue drones, US military drones are not allowed to have components from outside of NATO countries. Harris Aerial shared their NDAA certified drones in the exhibit hall. The press competition shared impressive drone tech from Ukraine. Likewise, the exclusive provider of drones to Israel until 2027, Rhino Drones was also in the competition.  

    Finally, if you want a one stop shop and expect to need a variety of drones or perhaps prefer to lease them, then Exhibitors such as Blue Skies Drones, that manufactures and sells others’ drones was on hand. Frontier Drones provided an extensive tour of their exhibit. As an organization, they represent over 30 different manufacturers.

    Drone Components and attachments

    The key to the success of the industry is working together. Successful integration and successful collaboration dictate agreement on how things work or standards. The drone pilot hub featured a talk on establishing standards to ensure quality. One safety measure that was popular was drone parachutes which are required to enable flight over people in the USA. One vendor, VSS was involved in the press competition. Parazero Drone recover system was on exhibit and demonstrated how the parachute is as easy as buckling a seat belt to attach.

    Drones requiring satellite communication could leverage Gotonomi who presented in the Press competition. Ultrafast optical tracking technology was shared by SixdofSpace. Their optical tracking technology can be leveraged for landing UAVs or UASs. LiDar systems are popular cargo on UAVs but there are so many variations it can make you head spin. One attempt which looks promising is by Balko Tech who shared their Connectiv Modular LiDar solution. Many distributors were validating this solution internally – it will be exciting to see how it plays out!

    A new occurrence due to drones use in warzones is the requirement to operate even if GPS is jammed or spoofed. Annello Photonics shared their Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope (SiPhOGTM). It is the world’s smallest gyroscope on a chip which enables robust navigation that is reliable even in such hostile GPS contested environments. Another challenge of commercial real-world solutions like War is range. Range anxiety is as real for drones as it is for electric car owners. Gas solutions are as loud as a flying lawn mower. How do you triple the range of a UAV? The exciting news is that the UAV industry has a solution in hydrogen engines. Intelligent Energy provided TBW Advisors LLC with a detailed walk around of their hydrogen energy cells. Not only is the range better but hydrogen cells and hydrogen weigh must less over other energy solutions leaving more space for cargo and sensors.

    Fleets

    At the enterprise or sovereign level, there is an additional level of management required. SparrowHawk can identify UAVs in your airspace – friendly or hostile! flytebase provides an enterprise done autonomy software and platform for advanced field placement. Together it enables complete remote management of one’s fleet of drones. If you are seeking to manage the drones, missions and airspace with one piece of software, Anra Technologies shared their effortless solution. For enterprises just looking to get started and have no idea what drone is appropriate let alone how to build the entire solution to get the mission accomplished, Attis Aviation was in the exhibit hall to share their story of helping customers realize their UAV solutions.

    Geospatial Data

    Geospatial data is an exciting area within data that is critical for UAVs. Geospatial data has to do with the real world and is three-dimensional information about a space. Geospatial data is considered time-based data related to that exact location on earth. GeoCue shared their out of the box LP360 solution for evaluating LiDar information. This enables organizations to take the information from the LiDar and processes providing information that humans recognize and can leverage. Sense Aeronautics took great pride in their drone video analytics solution and its ability to recognize humans or cars coming into the monitored scene. Assetta has a specialty solution to detect red tide when spotted by drones. Dat/em also specialized in drone’s famous stereo image and makes it useful for customers, providing a coherent image as expected by clients. Finally, those that just want the data and don’t want to mess around with drones or getting the data useful, FlyGuys is a (DSP) data service provider that provides that exact service!

    Next Year’s Conference

    Next year’s Commercial UAV Expo will be once again held at Caesars Forum on September 2-4, 2025.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • ­­­Conference Whispers: InfoComm 2024

    ­­­Conference Whispers: InfoComm 2024

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    IC24, InfoComm 2024, spanned 7 days and welcomed 36,967 registered visitors from 125 countries. It is the premier event for AV professionals (71%) and their customers (29%). Held at Las Vegas Convention Center West and Central Halls in Las Vegas from June 8-14, IC24 had 833 exhibitors. Transparent Micro LED, Kinetic LED and LEDs in all shapes and sizes could be seen along with a highly interactive video boards in the 407,000 net square feet of exhibition space. After over 400 minutes of recording and 9 Vegas Loop rides, and some 35 factchecks, our coverage of IC24 ends.

    Conference Vibe

    One cannot help but notice you are at a true AV conference when attendees stand to geek out over the huge sign in the West Hall discussing how it is or how they would create such an item. Something we had not witnessed prior. IC24 is the premier event for AV professionals (71%) and IT professionals dealing with AV (29%). The 36,967 registered visitors from 125 countries had no significant wait time while registering as registration rarely had a line at all.

    Spanning seven days, IC24 leverages 407,000 square feet of exhibits* in the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall and Central Hall. The two halls are connected by a connected hallway one could walk or  riding the Vegas Loop. If you chose the walking route – quite a view including one of Sphere can be seen. Due to construction, finding the Vegas Loop from Central Hall required a covered walking through a temporary hallway. A very formal ceremony was held to open Central Hall including a formal ribbon cutting. We also filmed Thursday’s Central Hall opening and tried out timelapse effect in Central Hall for the first time. If you got hungry, the show provided food or you could buy food in the food court in Central Hall or anywhere in West Hall’s food court. Our entire playlist of video research at InfoComm 24 is available at our YouTube Channel. Save the list to capture related shorts when they are released.

    The Latest LED Capabilities

    While CES has a large collection of LED screens, CES is consumer while IC24 is industrial! Thus the AV technology is beyond what one would see in a residential setting such as Samsung’s massive The Wall exhibit that transports you around the world or their transparent MicroLED display. The common theme wasn’t just different but more energy efficient while maintaining brightness such as the exhibit by Nanolumens. For Sony it is about every aspect of sustainability even down to the amount of ink used on the box. Shape is no longer a restriction as can be seen at Pixelflex exhibit. Straight out of Hollywood GCL shared their LED 7680 refresh rate technology as well as their Extended reality screen as used in many Hollywood films.

    One of the more exciting things we came across is the Kinetic LED technology. LG Business had their large Kinetic LED display on the main hall  of West Hall. From the side, you can see why it’s called kinetic.  Another smaller player, PJ-Link shared their Kinetic LED also used to play a game. From an angle, you can still see it operate by standing slightly to the side to appreciate its kinetic capabilities.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    AV Tech

    As one would expect, there is also a lot of AV tech. Blackmagic Design, a favorite of many at NABSHOW shared their latest release, BlackMagic Replay, a new way of creating live action replays. This is sure to save a lot of AV engineers a lot of time. For those attempting to synchronize many devices connected across cables, a main stage in central hall had a demo on leveraging PTP to synchronize time. We received a full tour of the Belkin booth and saw all their offerings from basic power supply, family/team charging cabinets to secure switches. In the Trailblazer zone we came across HighSecLabs who shared their products specialized to secure AV peripherals.

    Interactive displays were a huge hit with many varieties on display. Multitaction shared their technology with built in touch technology called ClearSight Touch involving rear infrared providing amazing possibilities. The interactive, collaborative meeting technology integrated with teams, the trailblazer zone also featured NodesNow. Teams also hosted a keynote on revolutionizing the workspace. Meanwhile, Scott Josephson from Google shared his opinion on how to operate Google Meet at the enterprise level. Diversified also shared their vision for enhancing user experience through intelligent workspace transformations. One of the biggest use cases for all this AV tech is the universities. Jodie Penrod, CIO at Marshall University led a discussion on leveraging AI in the classroom. It was here we first discovered the well loved Catchbox – a toss-able mic that worked amazing except at the booth. It was so much fun that people went out of their way to ask questions. Q-sys led a talk on digital twins and generative AI in AV. If you haven’t gotten started with AI yet, Chi Hang Lo from UCLA shared his 10-point checklist. A deep dive on where to use generative AI in AV was provided by Senior Trainer, Juan Cuellar of Office Pro. If you were left with questions, a follow-up to a keynote was specifically a Q&A session including a discussion on how AI could be regulated.

    Next Year’s Conference

    InfoComm 2025 takes place June 7-13 (exhibits 11-14) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

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    ©2019-2024 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal, or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • ­­­Conference Whispers: Customer Care Week LV 2024

    ­­­Conference Whispers: Customer Care Week LV 2024

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    After over 750 minutes of recording and two lengthy walks from Caesars to Caesars Forum, and some 30 factchecks, our coverage of 2024 Customer Care Week Las Vegas comes to a close. Customer Care Week was held at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas from June 3-6. It is the premier event for customer care professionals. It spans 4 days, 300 speakers in over 165 sessions, and 5000 onsite attendees. Attendees witnessed endless examples of customer care solutions be they entire platforms, components for a solution or a services company to deploy the solution.

    Analysis only available to clients at this time.

  • Conference Whispers: Smart Retail Tech Expo 2024

    Conference Whispers: Smart Retail Tech Expo 2024

    Las Vegas, NV April 24-25, 2024

    Published to clients: May 14, 2024                                        ID: 2043

    Published to Readers: May 15, 2024

    Published to Email Whispers: January 14, 2025

    Public: January 15th, 2025

    Analyst(s) and Photojournalist: Doreen Galli, PhD MBA

    ABSTRACT

    After 400 minutes of filming, 30 videos, countless shorts and over 30 factchecks, our coverage of this years’ Smart Retail Tech Expo 2024 closes. Smart Retail Tech Expo is part of 5 conferences held at once at the same time and place: White Label, Retail, Supply Chain and Logistics Expo, Smart Retail Tech, Ecommerce Packaging and Labelling and Com Business Live. It was held in Las Vegas from May 8 to May 9 at the South Lower Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). The event featured 5 theaters with each featuring 4-5 talks each day for a total of 47 keynote sessions. With discussion on distribution and logistics and vendors for every step of the journey, one could launch a new business with the contacts from this event alone.

    Conference Vibe

    After 2 days of filming some 400 minutes of content, 30 videos with endless shorts coming and over 30 factchecks, our coverage of this years’ Smart Retail Tech Expo closes. The event is five events held at once all together. White Label, Retail, Supply chain and Logistics Expo, Smart Retail Tech, E-Commerce Packaging and Labelling and Com Business Live. With row after row of exhibits*, the event was made whole by the balanced combination of talks and exhibits. Even better, there was 15 minutes in between the talks so one could catch the exhibits. Furthermore, all theaters schedules were once again aligned in the event you wanted to switch theaters as well.

    The short two-day event packs a punch with 5 keynote theatres each featuring 4 or 5 talks a day for a whopping 47 sessions. The first day was supposed to be capped off by a presentation Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy but it was cancelled purportedly due to security concerns. We captured 30 videos that will result in a lot of great shorts so be sure to save the entire playlist of videos for Conference Whispers: Smart Retail Tech Expo. We were able to capture the walkabout of the entire conference right at the conference’s grand opening. If you are wondering what was to eat at the show, we have you covered with video of the food lines and menus.

    Keynotes

    The keynotes at this smaller event were quite impressive and featured talks from Google, AWS, Home Depot, Lenova, and ASCM (Association of Supply Chain Management) to name a few. Douglas Kent of ASCM (Association of Supply Chain Management) shared top supply chain trends during his keynote. Jesus Sanchez from Google show the many ways in which you can put Google AI to work for you for your retail solution. It is all about optimizing marketing expenses. He also shared the interesting statistic that 15% of all searches are unique. Amazon’s Justin Honaman shared the many ways AWS Gen AI is being leveraged for innovation in retail and CPG. Phil Pench of DHL ecommerce shared an interesting talk with the list of options for the end of the supply chain particularly for those importing goods.

    Home Depot’s Paul Ganz shared the ripple effect of failing a customer. He reminded all that you only get one chance to take care of your customer. That once the customer bought the product, you are handling their item – not yours and it should be treated as such. Chewy’s Debarati Das gave a detailed talk highlighting the complexities of inventory management in the context of the corporate goals and customer satisfaction requirements. There were many people waiting to speak with this speaker following the talk. Kevin Lawton of @thenewwarehouse examined the question of doing fulfillment from the retail location versus a warehouse. Admittedly, this talk reminded me of a patent I was awarded as an IBM Engineer on this exact topic in the heart of the dot com era.

    Exhibits

    While many of the exhibits focused on the White Label portion of the show were captured in the walkabout, there was no technology for us to cover. Nonetheless, we discovered quite a bit of tech to capture. If you need to make a professional video to sell your wares or any other services in getting your product to market, newegg was on display with media, sellingpilot, and marketplace. If you are not sure about the size of the object you are selling, vMeasure was on site. vMeasure leverages cameras, sensors and scales with some great AI /ML models to provide the size of the object.

    If one is selling something in a store, are instead display, Retail Media Management was there to share their digital signs and smart retail tags. One only needs to change the price online, and all price tags will automatically update. They are reported to have a 5-year battery life. Admittedly, we know days of batteries in such electronics is limited as glass can now capture energy from thin air as seen in our coverage at CES. Another digital sign company, Hongzhou had a smart menu kiosk on exhibit. This kiosk not only takes the order and payment but coordinates the order to the kitchen staff. Limited staff but want to open a pizza joint? Pzza has an automated solution to make commercial pizzas that only requires one employee to run the shop. This exhibit gave us flashbacks to the automatic stir fry tech we saw at CES, Techmagic. If you would like to bring home the bacon instead of serving it, Bacon Tech was on site with their staffing and employee management mobile application. If your retail business involves CBD, Argyle Payments was on hand to help you with your banking needs.

    To secure a retail space, many require video surveillance. LVT remote surveillance with their solar panel powered solution complete with simple intelligence was on the floor. This intelligence is leverages to identify objects in the video and notify as appropriate. Is your business is looking for warehouse space AND will create 10 jobs or more? Global Site Location Industries collaborates with municipalities around the country. This collaboration allows Global Site Location Industries to offer their assistance for free.

    If you warehouse scanners or other mobile technology is missing or you need an extra, ASR Tech was on site and can fix anything. If simply cannot find your products in your warehouse or want to monitor them through the supply chain, Lyngsoe Systems passive RFID has a solution for you. RFID has come a long way with stickers at just .05 each. We also heard about Cirro Fulfillment’s Smart robots as they were to enhance the supply chain. SRSI shared their automated storage and retrieval technology available in all 50 states. In fact, SRSI handles all technology available within the 4 walls of the warehouse. Goods was on display to remind you to focus on your business with their integrated solution handling inventory management, order management, and warehouse management.

    As a conference about logistics, there were many logistics companies! Fellowship logistics shared that they can reach 99% of the US in 2 days and 75% in 1 day. Meanwhile, ExFreight was sharing that they provide 100% online capabilities for their entire service logistics offering to 175 countries. C&C logistics serves all continental US and Mexico and can move anything from a single pallet to an entire warehouse.

    There were vendors on display with technology for every aspect of your retail business. Shopline intelligent offered a unified commerce platform. There was also a solution called iVision to automate customer loyalty. Admittedly, both solutions intelligence is not yet fully realized compared to many of the technologies analyzed at the Adobe Summit or even Fintech Meetup.

    Next Year’s Conference

    Smart Retail Tech Expo comes to Las Vegas every year. The next Smart Retail Tech Expo will occur April 16 and 17th, 2025, in Las Vegas, NV at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

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    Henderson, NV 89052                                                    

    ©2019-2024 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answers always in the Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Fact-based Research and Advisory, Galli’s Keys to Success, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal, or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Call & Contact Center Expo Las Vegas 2024

    Conference Whispers: Call & Contact Center Expo Las Vegas 2024

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photography: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    After 2 days of filming, 31 videos and 34 shorts and over 30 factchecks, our coverage of this years’ Call & Contact Center Expo Las Vegas 2024 ends. CCCLV24 was held in Las Vegas from April 24 and 25. The event was held in the Las Vegas Convention Center South Lower Hall. The event featured 4 theaters with each featuring 6 talks each day for a total of 48 keynote sessions. Attendees witnessed endless examples of how generative AI and deep learning are revolutionizing the Call and Contact Center industry.

    Conference Vibe

    After 2 days of filming, 31 videos and ~30 shorts and over 30 factchecks, our coverage of this years’ Call & Contact Center Expo Las Vegas, CCCLV24, ends. With row after row of exhibits*, the event was made whole by the balanced combination of talks and exhibits. Even better, there was 15 minutes in between the talks so one could catch the exhibits. Furthermore, all theaters  schedules were aligned in the event you wanted to switch theaters as well.

    The short two-day event is definitely mighty and packs a punch with 4 keynote theatres each featuring 6 talks a day for a whopping 48 sessions. That said, there were also 2 keynotes who were to bashful to be taped which is a highly unusual occurrence. Nonetheless, we captured quite a lot of great content in this year’s CCCLV24 playlist. In fact we also spun out over 30 shorts which are at the tail end of the playlist – in case you only want to catch the super good parts!. We were also able to capture a video of the food available. Overall, it seems the Las Vegas Convention Center hits the mark as there were just as many bragging about the food and prices as there were complaining. The Global Voice of Customer Experience, Dennis Wakabayashi, was interviewing on site and even shared his wisdom in a keynote. Fascinating to see how leveraging global call center talent can truly impact the world in which we live.

    Getting Ready for Exciting New Technologies

    Sahni Sanjeev’s keynote by eGain appropriately drove home the requirements for corporate data programs to be mature before attempting to dive into deep learning tools and techniques. A second keynote by Uniphone offered up an Enterprise AI blueprint with some very solid advice. Specifically, your knowledge management system should be used so that the data determines your first actions. One must act based on the customer pain points not the cool technology. Of course if you didn’t get to organize it yet, Robot.AI shared their solution on exhibit. Robot.ai is simply feed all your corporate data then provides a gen AI service to answer questions about all of it.

    A keynote reminder was given that one cannot use newest and greatest AI tools without thought to protect your customers. This keynote was provided by Private AI’s co-founder Patricia Thaine. In her talk, she detailed the various scenarios and considerations one must take to not end up on the news for an embarrassing compromise. It was a true sign of industry maturity to see a product such as Private AI on exhibit this year as well.

    Speaking of protection, a vendor we are familiar with, SecureLogix shared their patented solution to stopping call pumping and TDoS attacks and more. Call pumping wastes an incredible amount of money. During my tenure as a telephony strategist, every public 800 number examined suffered from a call pumping compromise. At one point, 85% of all DDOS attacks had concurrent TDOS attacks- meaning your customers cannot find you on the internet or call you regarding the issue. One modern security concern involves deepfakes, to that end Veridas was on hand with their solution to identify and stop vocal deep fakes!

    Conference Whispers: NAB Show 2024 featured translation and transcription services leveraged in editing and broadcast in a keynote as well as in exhibits. Microsoft featured their solution based on Open AI. TRINT featured their text to speech solution adopted across the industry. You may also recall in Conference Whispers: Adobe Summit we covered Transperfect and their 200 languages. For the first time ever, we found the technology that the UN decided to use expanding a ten-minute demonstration into usage for the entire day’s session. Of course, if their presentations was anything like the one at CCCLV24, we understand. Worldwide Tech Connections does text to text, text to speech, speech to text or speech to speech. They build their own grammar and vocabulary models and parse the entire sentence before translating. Of course, if you only needed a bilingual medical back office, Access Salud was there to help.

    Technologies for Agents

    Awaken’s keynote points out that Agent Experience is your Brand’s experience to your customers. To that end, there were many technologies available to improve Agent experience. You may recall FLOWIT from Conference Whispers: CES 2024 that uses Generative AI over employee satisfaction. They were also featured in an Industry Whispers webinar. CCCLV24 had a similar technology by Centrical focused on improving employee experience.  They focus on creating best-in-class employee experience for frontline agents specifically. evaluagent was on exhibit sharing how their technology can execute deep analysis of the conversation and summarize freeing up their agents.

    For organizations seeking to add AI to their agents and leave it to the agent’s discretion when and how they use AI, then Smile.cx was there for you! If you want to capture all the folklore in your organization and make it available to your agents, ScreenSteps exhibited. If you want to avoid handing agents a 200 page searchable PDF files, Drop Cowboy may have an answer for you. In another exhibit, Reddy.IO has AI for your agents and stated a system setup takes 5 minutes. If your agents have heavy accents make calls frustrating for them to communicate, Tomato.ai who was on stage last year, was on exhibit this year. We also featured Tomato.ai in an Industry Whispers earlier this year.

    Big Profiles was on exhibit to provide intelligent customer profiles that predict certain customer propensities such as churn, purchases, cross sales, and collections. Structurely shared their solution to text or call customers including an AI created voice. Observe.AI can digest all conversations with customers to identify moments of interest. If you would appreciate accurate granular sentiment analysis over all those communications, Sestek and their conversational AI and analytics was on exhibit.

    Technology Customers will enjoy

    If you are an individual who’s number is the Do Not Call registry, you will appreciate DNC’s solution. DNC to assist call centers in respecting the list by scrubbing it for numbers that they should not contact. Meera.ai enables a company to stop annoying customers by maintaining contact cadence for the organization. TNS was one of the many vendors present that can add a telephony identifier, ANI, to wireless outbound calls to the ANI of the company represented. For readers who absolutely despise IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems, Talkr.ai shared their technology ready to make your corporate IVR system obsolete.

    If understanding your agent is critical, you will appreciate it if the agent calling has access to Tomato.ai, especially in the event they have a heavy accent. Likewise, if the company your calling is quite popular, you would appreciate if the company you are calling deployed Omilia – able to handle 6 million concurrent calls. If the company you do business with leverages Drop Cowboy, you may just get a custom voicemail. Drop Cowboy leverages deep learning capabilities to generate a voice to customize mass voicemails. Finally, for those of you that just hate filling out surveys after a speaking with a call center, Miarec has you covered. Miarec leveraged conversational intelligences to automatically score a call eliminating the requirement to survey the caller.

    Next Year’s Conference

    Call & Contact Center Expo comes to Las Vegas every year. The next CCCLV will occur April 16 and 17th, 2025, in Las Vegas, NV at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    Corporate Headquarters

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    ©2019-2024 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal, or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: NAB Show 2024

    Conference Whispers: NAB Show 2024

    Analyst: Dr Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr Doreen Galli

    Published April 24, 2024

    ABSTRACT

    After 85 flights of stairs, ~40,000 steps, 12 Vegas loops trips, and over 40 factchecks, our coverage of 2024 NAB Show, National Association of Broadcasters Show, ends. NAB Show was held in Las Vegas from April 13-17. It is the premier event for content professionals in the broadcast, media, and entertainment ecosystem seeking to create superior and innovative audio and video experiences. The conference featured over700,000 net square feet of exhibits, nearly 1300 exhibitors, 750 educational courses and sessions, and over 61,000+ attendees from an amazing 163 countries. Attendees witnessed endless examples of cloud enabled remote production, early implementations of generative AI, and discussions on sustainability in production and technical security for remote live production.

    The Conference

    • The first NAB Show was held October 11, 1923, in New York City at the Commodore Hotel. There were 16 radio stations represented among the 23 attendees. NAB Show moved to Las Vegas in 1991.
    • NAB Show was held April 13-17, 2024, in Las Vegas. The event featured over 61,000 attendees. Within those attendees 27% were international attendees from an amazing 163 countries represented.
    • The exhibitions featured nearly 1300 exhibitors in over 700,000 net square feet of exhibits a 30% gain over 2023.
    • Attendees at NABShow held titles such as Production Director, Production Editor, Production Engineer, Broadcast and Network Engineer, Logistics Manager, Electrical Engineer, Sound and Video Engineer, Director of Product Management, Technical Architect, and data scientist.

    Conference Vibe

    After 85 flights of stairs and 40,000 steps, and 12 Vegas loops trip, our coverage of the 2024 NAB Show produced by National Association of Broadcasters, ends. NAB Show 2024 exhibitions surpassed last year’s by nearly 30% with 700,000 square feet in all. Attendance came in at 61,000 attendees with 27% coming from international destinations. NABPAC contributors were recognized in the West Hall. The conference leveraged the entire indoor conference exhibit spaces in the West Hall, Central Hall, South Upper and South Lower and a few rooms in North Halls. A majority of North Hall was under construction. Fortunately, the Vegas Loop was running with free rides so one needed not walk the entire distance. We took advantage of the loop no less than a dozen times. When asked attendees reported meeting their business objectives and described it as really good. Once again – the quality of attendees itself was mentioned by the exhibitors.  Our entire playlist of video research for NAB Show is available online at our YouTube Channel.

    Deep Learning & Generative AI in Media

    With over 200 exhibitions and over 150 sessions on AI, generative AI was once again the star of the show. Amid the buzz about AI and generative AI transforming broadcasting, one question was on the mind of video engineers – “Will it affect our jobs?”. Luisa Winters had an answer in her keynote. If you are adapting and using the new technologies, you will be fine. No different from the move from tapes. More importantly, you will not only be able to deliver something acceptable but have time to make it great! Another keynote emphasized the importance of great metadata for your assets if you want to fully leverage generative AI solutions in sports coverage. As one might expect, there were countless examples* of tools for production and distribution and each of the tasks involved. Pixellot was on hand with their exciting deep learning automated sports tracking leveraged for streaming sports. Their solution leveraging their state-of-the-art cameras and patented technology that stitches it all together. As would be expected, each sport has its own model. In fact, they had over 10,000 live events streaming as I conducted the interview. Pixellot also includes capabilities for monetizing said sports streams.

    One keynote provided a demo of Adobe Premier Pro, something we didn’t recall seeing at Adobe Summit. Backlight showcased their extensive collection of products for media content creation and distribution. Backlight’s solution leverages AI and  generative AI to simplify media workflows. Backlight allows horizontal and vertical video distribution. Backlight leverages their own AI and LLM models to transcribe the video/audio. That transcription is then used to quickly generate all the metadata to put on social media. They leverage automation to automate the creation of sports highlight clips out to social media by registering all key moments as the game plays. Finally, their solution also enables monetization.

    Amazon and AWS were at NAB Show in full force. A huge display was on hand where they shared their entire Generative AI stack with those looking to develop solutions. Experts were on hand if you had any questions including seeking insights on Amazon Bedrock. In the Microsoft pavilion, SymphonyAI was there as part of the beet the buzzer architecture that enables viewers to play along with game shows. Microsoft offered a Pilot demonstration of AI enabled marketing.

    Transcription and translation are a big area for generative AI in broadcasting and media, sometimes referred to as localization. This topic was featured in a keynote as well as in exhibits. Microsoft featured their solution based on Open AI. TRINT featured their text to speech solution adopted across the industry. One exciting development is the ability to do full motion capture without putting on a special suit due to generative AI! In fact, Zerospace Captury was on exhibit sharing their solution. Interestingly, the room only requires about 15 minutes to set up the space to capture motion.

    With all of the generative content capabilities shown, stopping misinformation and deepfakes was a very popular topic featured in a keynote. The solution involves knowledge of the content frequently communicated through metadata. To that end, Hand (Human & Digital) shared their solution for identity intelligence for notable talent.

    Broadcasting Technologies

    Leveraging capabilities of 5g, XGN featured their solution that enables users to connect direct to mobile to send content from the field – no SIM card required! Cobalt Digital shared their extensive collection of open gear based on 2110, 12G and ultra-low latency. Their gear also supports Rest APIs. Cobalt Digital featured routers, control panels, and multi-viewers for video and audio processing. As might be expected with the continual increased resolution, a new video compression standard is being rolled out and is already rolled out in Brazil, LCEVC. In the LCEVC showcase, all the providers with their next generation of tech leveraging LCEVC were on display. Ateme also focuses on compression – for the purpose of technologies such as the Apple Vision Pro which they showed off in the exhibition. Once you created all your content, if you wanted to manage the programming data so it is accurate in every tv program listing, Titan TV shared their solution. If you wanted to optimize the way in which you manage ad campaigns, Showseeker shared their solution to simplify advertising scheduling.

    For those seeking cost effective or additional footprints to deliver content or to serve an unserved area, Varnish presented their highly cost-effective region. HP demonstrated their HP Anywhere enabling remote teams to leverage power that was not on the remote site. Storj, the sustainable storage solution that leverages unused electronic storage space that we covered in Conference Whispers: World Crypto Con Las Vegas 2019 and last year’s Conference Whispers: 100th Anniversary NAB Show.

    For those requiring the ability to manage the labor and payroll for that remote labor, Procrewz shared their solution. If keeping track of and on top of all the compliance requirements for broadcast and streaming is your challenge, Vela exhibited their product.

    Broadcast stars and the creator economy

    NAB Show also featured technology and solutions to support the creator economy.  In Vimeo’s session they stated that one can expect 2% of free YouTube subscribers to convert to a paid subscriber on Vimeo. For those wishing to participate in a reality show about making creators or leverage it for advertising, the team from the TV show Follow Me had a lively panel. The central Main Stage featured an interview with Jennifer Hudson. During the interview Jennifer told the audience that she is always cheering for everyone. A great session on diversity in broadcasting featured the Las Vegas Aces Alysha Clark who majored in broadcasting during her college career. Alysha Clark made the great point to all that inclusion means opening prime spots to diversity be it tv slots or board and executive spots in corporate America.

    Next Year’s Conference

    NAB Show is held every year in Las Vegas since 1991. The next NAB Show will occur April 5-9, 2025, in Las Vegas, NV.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    Corporate Headquarters

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    ©2019-2024 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal, or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Adobe Summit 2024

    Conference Whispers: Adobe Summit 2024

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    Adobe Summit 2024 took over the Venetian with over 11,000 attendees and leveraging one-million square feet of exhibition to host the conference, keynotes, exhibits and meals. The keynotes and side sessions were all about generative AI for the ultimate in personalization and scale for your marketing content needs. Many service providers and ecosystem partners were exhibited. A Strangely many exhibitors didn’t denote if their products leveraged artificial intelligence within their solutions on their displays.

    Analysis is only available to clients at this time.

    Highlights

    • Extensive examples on stage of how Firefly can scale to quickly generative full experiences target to exactly the right customers.
    • Many service providers were on exhibit for those who are overwhelmed by the technology involved.

    Cautions

    •  Many sessions were filled in advance leaving attendees to wait list for desired events. If attending, be sure to create a formal schedule in advance to ensure ability to attend desired events.

    Conference Vibe

    As a conference for a vendor’s technology for marketing, the atmosphere was set up to be fun with a DJ playing in the hall throughout. The 11,000 strong in attendance could be felt while approaching the keynotes or perusing the exhibits. Meals were served downstairs albeit the word was one might be finding something elsewhere. Readers may experience the entire Conference Whispers: Adobe Summit 2024 playlist.

    Keynotes

    The keynotes presented endless examples of personalized experiences at scale. The opening day keynote launched with an in-depth overview of Adobe Firefly. They then shared an example using Coca Cola brand assets designing an entire campaign with significant variety in no time. Pfizer’s Lidia Fonseca then came on stage. Lidia Fonseca shared how they are leveraging Adobe’s generative AI capabilities enables campaigns every time a new drug is approved by the FDA. Next, there was a quick announcement regarding Adobe’s collaboration with Microsoft was made surprising without Scott Guthrie who was in town or any other Microsoft executive. With no shortage of examples, they keynote then welcomed Mary Barra of General Motors. It was fascinating to hear how Mary started her career on the assembly line as well as how GM leverages Adobe. At the end of day one, there was an amazing introduction to artificial intelligence and generative AI for those who do not understand its basis.

    The second day of the conference commenced with an Inspirational Keynote featuring Delta, TSB, and Major League Baseball (MLB). Admittedly as someone who worked with the MLB in high school, I didn’t expect to hear them talk about a long-lost friend, Bret Saberhagen. The Maximize creativity and scale content strategy keynote provided a Pepsi in depth example. Once again, the theme was how much brand aligned content we can help you create and deliver to exactly who you desire.

    The third day brought some other great conference talks and a lot of tired attendees due to the party at Area 51 with Shaq as DJ. We started off our coverage with an Adobe talk that discussed in-depth how to update your content strategy architecture in the age of generative AI. Expanding on this theme, Omnicom provided in-depth case studies on their AI powered ecommerce.

    Community Pavilion Exhibits

    Exhibitors ran the gambit to support the Adobe ecosystem. Interestingly many that leveraged AI to improve their product did not put any indication on their exhibit. This point was so strangely prevalent that all the industry analysts were discussing it prior to Keynote on day two. According to some exhibitors, the AI was added after the booth was ordered. Others said that at a data conference, every booth specified AI and they thought it was overwhelming. When pointed out if not specifying made it seem like they are displaying legacy technology, the error in their ways was realized. Exhibitors not specifying technology features of their product on the exhibits is not by any means customary!

    If attendees were seeking technology to assist in generating content, Movable Ink was present. Conveo provides AI search over your assets and can provide a generative answer to optimize business outcomes. If you would like to create chatbots from any kind of data, Searchblox was on hand.

    If you would like a single source of truth over all your marketing data assets, Claravine shared demonstrations and overview of their product. If you would like your assets converted to 200 different languages, Transperfect was on site. Yext shared their SEO intelligent platform to optimize the search over all your digital assets. Glassbox specialized in providing and optimizing customer experience and digital journeys with the use of artificial intelligence. Leveraging all forms of AI, Pathfactory shared their platform for b2b intelligence and personalization.

    Session AI’s CMO, Jason Seeba was on hand to share how their technology understands user types within 5 clicks. Knack shared their enterprise grade email and landing page no code solutions. To create a coherent digital journey from telephone calls to web visits at the session level, Invoca conversational intelligence was on display. If you would like to host a conference of your own, Cvent was there with their technology. From planning to hosting to managing all the data for marketing the conference, their product provides an all-in-one solution.

    Finaly on the protection side, Cheq shared their solution to remove all botts form analytics, marketing automation and paid advertising. Web governance in the form of removing unapproved cookies from your site was presented by Observepoint.

    Service Providers

    Adobe exhibit provided many service providers to execute on any of the technologies Adobe shared. We met Webjump who is a Magenta partner in Brazil. We also stopped by Virtusa IT services organization that is proud of their engineering first mindset to enable scalability. Finally, Grazitti not only display but had many their clients also exhibiting at Adobe Summit.

    Next Year’s Conference

    Next year’s adobe summit will be once again held at the Venetian Resort likely in March, stay tuned for details.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Internet 2.0 Conference 2024

    Conference Whispers: Internet 2.0 Conference 2024

    Published: April 3, 2024                   ID: 2040

    Analyst(s): Doreen Galli, PhD MBA

    ABSTRACT

    Internet 2.0 Conference is one of five conferences that makes up 2.0 Conferences. In total the conferences had seven hundred attendees over 3 days packed with solid keynotes. Attendees seemed to agree that small but mighty was a good description of the event. Common themes including where is society going with technology as well as how these changes will impact society.

    Highlights

    • Five conferences all in one meant this tiny conference packed a powerful punch.
    • This event was all keynotes with speakers rotating between the 5 shows.

    Cautions

    •  This conference packs the sessions back-to-back. One must plan on your own for bio and physical movement breaks to avoid excessive sedentary day.

    Conference Vibe

    As a member of the collection of strategy conferences that create 2.0 Conferences, Internet 2.0 and all the conferences could best be described as small but impactful.  The event took place at Caesars in Las Vegas in their Augusta rooms. All the attendees bragged about the amazing food both for breakfast and lunch. Readers may experience the entire Conference Whispers Internet 2.0 Conference playlist.

    Where are we going?

    The biggest theme at the conference focused on where innovation in technology is going to take us. One keynote on the evolution of intelligence had a panel discuss the paradigms that go beyond AI and ML This session also included an interested example of how Yazzmoney was leveraging blockchain. Specifically, they are helping Zambia government to tokenize cattle, minerals, wildlife and renewable energy. This enables the cattle ranchers, for example to access the value of the cattle. Another keynote with an all-male panel discussed how AR, VR and MR can revolutionize customer experience.  Michael Koch keynote was a great discussion on the evolution of work, life, and play. Michael Koch discussed how technology has changed and is going to continue to change even faster with wireless power closer on the horizon than we imagine. Parts of this keynote reminded us of the 100 years of innovation exhibit at CES. One of the fascination aspects of Michael Koch’s keynote was the discussion around moving from creative and getting the ideas to adoption and conversion. There was to be another keynote on AI that looked like great potential at the start. Unfortunately the speakers time was cut in half and the deck didn’t work, thus Gary Y. Wu went Beyond AI in his talk. Futurist writer Jeffrey James Seyferth shared his vision of tech nirvana with attendees.

    One thing all agreed on is there will be an adaptation that must occur. Cyber burnout was a real concern in the keynote on wearables, robot and IoT. That session hilariously drew the parallel of the conference attendees not having breaks in between all the sessions to describe how cyber burnout occurs. With all this change, technologist need to be great communicators. To that end, Archer Now CEO, Trung Q. Pham brought his keynote, “The art of Communication Jiujitsu” to meet the demand. Trung emphasized that we retain 90% of what we teach.

    Social, Cultural and Environmental Impact

    On the keynote titled, “Leveraging tech for environmental and social Impact” the panel emphasized doing the right thing should be rewarded. Vincent Allen from VA-AV industries discussed how new and smart spaces can increase diversity and equity in the global economy. Admittedly, due to the speakers background and slant, we were having flashbacks from our coverage of last year’s NABShow. An inspirational keynote that featured Dee Jones from L3C Esports organization was hosted by gameplay. It was fascinating to learn how they are using esports and gaming to change the lives of inner-city kids in Michigan.

    Several panellists mentioned the concern of impact around generative AI hallucinations. To that end, one panellist shared that hallucinations are to be expected as the technology is in its toddler phase of reasoning. An interesting second concern on generative AI was raised concerning the massive computational requirements for a simple answer is surely not good for the planet.

    Security

    We were able to catch one interesting keynote on security. David Ronn from Zecurity shared their on-premises and edge solution to ending ransomware that blocks and examines all commands outside of a simple read command.

    Next Year’s Conference

    2.0 Conferences 2025 conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at Caesars in April of 2025.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: CES 2024

    Conference Whispers: CES 2024

    Conference Whispers: CES 2024 Playlist

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Published: January 17, 2024

    ABSTRACT

    CES 2024 allowed over 135,000 attendees to see more than 4,400 exhibitors. Attendees and exhibitors agree the word that best described the event was “engaging.” There were advances and capability announcements across all product categories and marketplaces. Anything you need to build your own products to those that can build them for you to products about to hit the market could be found. CES 2024 brought current technology advances of artificial intelligence, and virtual reality across the automotive sector, mobility, health, and manufacturing.

    The Conference

    • The first Consumer Electronic Show (CES) was held in New York City in 1967 with 17,500 attendees1. It is an industry conference focusing on all aspects of consumer technology. The conference features new product announcements in x product categories and y marketplaces.
    • CES 2024 was held in Las Vegas, Nevada and had just over 135,000 registered attendees, with 4,400 exhibiting companies.
    • Attendees at CES 2024 hold titles such as CEO, Founder, Investor, VP, Director, Chief Marketing Officer, VP of Engineering, VP of Product Development, data scientists, lead engineer, and buyer. CES attendees came from over B countries.

    Cautions

    • Care must be taken when creating a CES schedule. CES 2024 spanned multiple venues; buses and the Vegas Loop were provided with convenient routes between all venues. To this end, one’s schedule must allow for the transport or walk time between events. TBW Advisors’ analyst found that 30 minutes was sufficient between LVCC and Sands Convention Space; attendees should plan to allow one hour for transfer between other venues.
    • Just because a product has advanced AI and is designed for the home doesn’t mean that your privacy was fully taken into consideration. Adopters must verify data location and policies for any new products before they are brought into the home or office.

    Conference Vibe

    As an industry conference focused on everything related to consumer technology, CES is best described as a massive conference with highly engaged attendees. CES 20204 celebrates 100 years of innovation. The conference had some 135,000 registered attendees spanned venues, from Mandalay Bay, and Aria, on the Southside of the Strip to the Las Vegas Convention Center Halls West through North and Central. Buses ran frequently to transfer attendees between locations along with the Vegas Loop. One interesting aspect of CES is the juxtaposition of fun exhibits with deep talk tracks that feature impressive speakers discussing considerations taken while creating the various products being exhibited. Viewing TBW Advisors’ Conference Whispers: CES 2024 playlist in order may provide some context for the first-hand experience of attending CES. Alternatively, enjoy our CES Walkabouts Playlist.

    What product would you like to build?

    CES is a place for builders to go and find the components to build products themselves or find organizations to build them for them. CES 2024 was no different. One might start with MicroEJ* a favorite from 2020 CES (1), an containerized IoT device for software defined everything that is upwardly compatible with Android (2). Need sensors to support a function? Hamamatsu Photonics optical sensors were on display (3).  Want your product to be free of requiring a battery? Perovisky shared their indoor solar glass solution (4). Want to make sure you store the energy from the indoor solar glass? Nichicon was present with the LTO IoT battery (5). Perhaps you don’t want just any sensor in your solution but demand a smart sensor with AI models deployed on the edge with the sensor? To that end solutions presented include AI Zip smart sensors that can identify irregular behavior (6). Require data sets to train models in your space? Speeda Edge was onsite to get you quickly moving forward in your data space (7). Perhaps you require a human machine interface (HMI)? If the interaction is from facial movements, Naqi Logix had their Naqi enabled Neural Earbud on hand to control all digital devices and more important, their technology can be licensed to any earbud manufacturer(8). Meanwhile, PalmPlug was present for hand-based HMI interactions (9). Perhaps your IoT product requires a cellular connection. 1nce was one of the companies on hand available to provide a global cost-effective solution (10). Assembling the components but need it waterproof? 3m has any taping solution you might need to make your product come to life (11). If you require a Cloud vendor agnostic platform to manage Linux based secure online development, Strong Network was onsite to share their solution (12). Perhaps the entire process of finding and assembling all the components is just too much for you? Companies were on hand to help you put it all together from Telit Cinterion (13) to Siemens (14). Perhaps you are not even sure where to start or what product you would like to create that would have customer demand? To that end multiple industry analyst presentations were available from CTA itself (15) to the detailed presentation by Circana (16) that let you know exactly where consumers are spending today.

    Modern Green Smart Building

    CES is known as a conference for consumers but at the end of the day – it is just an amazing technology conference where you can find things you might not expect. For example, you were building new facilities. To that end you would like to understand modern technology you could include to make the building smart or green. CES has answers for you! At the entrance, you can keep outside dirt outside with Tectonic’s clean matt (17). No need to waste the beautiful energy from the sunlight on the windows with SQPV Glass by INQS that produces energy(18).  Perhaps the building is a data center without many external windows then the indoor solar solution could be incorporated from Perivskia (19). If you require weather information for your facilities, MyRadar will provide data rain or shine (20). Camera solutions for security or for indoor autonomous solutions could be found by E-Con Systems (21). Building in an area suffering from water shortages? Genesis Systems allows you to capture water from air (22) while HelioWater provide potable water from any type of water be it river water or salt water (23). Green smart exterior and parking lot lights leveraging solar energy are available from Green Tech (24). Have an emergency presentation and need a huge TV suddenly in a room without cabling? Wireless TVs from Display can be put up anywhere with a wall. It contains a battery that will stream for 6 hours straight or 30 day standby (25). Clean air for workers inside can be made available with a bioengineered indoor plant from Neoplant (26). If you have multiple smart buildings, Technis has a smart fleet building solution for you (27). Finally, if you are trying to grow, retrain, empower, or engage your employees, FLOWIT is a smart adaptive people development tool for your employees leveraging generative AI. It can even recommend training based on results of employee engagement surveys (28).

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    Mobility and Accessibility

    CES 2024 had a plethora of mobility and accessibility solutions on hand. As discussed in the session on building a sustainable secure superior future, technology and artificial intelligence advances have been monumental in mobility (29). This point was further emphasized in the discussion on AI powered strategies to transform the mobility experience (30) as well as in the talk, “Technology as a Force for Good” (31). Products on hand included the Mirairi speaker for the hard of hearing has a curved surface to push the voices towards the listener (32). Ives Chatbot for the deaf can understand and produce sign language for customer service solutions (33). For people with vision difficulties, OOrion intelligent locator assistant enables your phone to find anything in your environment or guide you to predetermined locations (34). Lighthouse Tech glasses enable one to identify when obstacles are present above waist height and is targeted at people with low or no vision (35).

    Healthcare

    Healthcare is always a large topic at CES every year and 2024 was no different. An overview presentation on the area, “Forces Reshaping Healthcare” was presented by Deloitte (36). Whether for home healthcare or telemedicine, The NuralogixTM Anura MagicMirrorTM scans your face and in 30 seconds calculates over 100 common metrics (37). Withings BeamO Home Checkup allows a remote practitioner to virtually listen to one’s heartbeat and lungs as well as follow vitals such as temperature, heart rate, ECG, and SpO2 (38). A twenty-minute scan leveraging a virtual reality headset and a program form Machine MD can inform your medical practitioners about any brain disorders (39). An actual virtual twin of the patient for cardiovascular purposes was shown by Dassault  Systemes (40). Smart devices of all types were also on display including smart ring by RingConn (41).

    Smart insoles for diabetes that are self-powered called SoleCooler were shared (42). If you deal with snoring, the smart pillow by 10Minds will sense the snoring and inflate an airbag to turn ones head on the pillow, causing the snoring to stop (43). Need better quality of sleep? MyWaves for better sleep will playback your best deep sleep brainwaves to help one fall asleep and increase quality by 25% (44). If you just want to see effortlessly, ViXion adjustable eyewear may be the exhibit that called out to you. To use, one simply adjusts so it is aligned with your eyes. Once adjusted, you can go from instantly reading 12-point font a quarter mile away on a wall across the convention center to a business card in front of your face. Yes instantly. While I never noticed eye strain, the lack of eye stress using the glasses was truly notable (45). Speaking of relieving stress, Sana Health VR solution can put your mind into a flow state (46).

    Finally, hospitals are a common vulnerability point. For doctors wanting to enable secure transcription at the edge, csky.ai does not allow the data to leave your desktop (47). If your hospital is the Target of ransomware attacks. Galeon EHR takes advantage of the immutable logs of blockchain for storing EHR records. This solution has enabled multiple hospitals to recover and continuously operate despite a ransomware attack (48).

    Smart Vehicles

    In 2024, CES is now the largest automotive show in the world. “Cracking the Smart Car – what truly defines them” discussed the need for cooperation for functionality and security (49). Today building a smart car can get an advanced start with available middleware such as that provided by Apex.ai (50). For OEMs wanting to set themselves apart, the ever-impressive smart mirrors from Gentex combining mirror and camera views were on display (51). To secure your smart car, Autocrypt provides the ability to secure the embedded systems (52). If you are looking to recreate, Pebble all electric trailer may be in your future (53) or perhaps you want to pack up your all electric dirt bike by GoWow to hit the trails in the BLM Parks (54). Today’s cars at CES are not confined to only driving on roads. The day we have been waiting for since we first watch the Jetsons futuristic cartoon has arrived as Xpeng Aeroht presented their flying car at CES (55). Finally, engineers for next generation cars were able to participate in the Indy Challenge. This challenge is a competitions between colleges to build a fully autonomous Indy Car (56).

    Consumer Tech

    Walmart was a significant keynote at CES (57) and even brought Microsoft’s Satya onstage (58). Shopping will never be the same. If Walmart has its way, shopping will it be easier, more convenient, automatics and quicker than ever before leveraging drone delivery (59). CES 2024 also brought you the magic of automated cooking from Tech Magic (60). While currently used in industrial kitchens, anyone involved in adulting can hope one is coming to a kitchen near them soon! One no longer has to drive to a brewery to get freshly brewed beer. CES featured the all-in-one Exobrew enabling all to brew at home (61). Likewise, one no longer must fuss with the step in between the washer and dryer or even adding detergent every load. GE Profile highlighted their all-in-one washer dryer that can hold an entire bottle of detergent (62).  Scrubbing the floors is easier with The Narwal Freo X Series robotic vacuum mops, the uniquely designed new models displayed include the Narwal Freo X Ultra and Narwal Freo X Plus models (63). Even mosquitoes don’t stand a chance in 2024 with the Reptilian smart mosquito repellent design in Africa (64). If one would like to interact with your grandchildren, Zoog has a solution for you (65).  Finally, discussions were held on the reality of the post hype metaverse (66).

    High School and College Participation

    CES 2024 featured the Indy autonomous challenge,a college competition to create the fastest autonomous Indy car. The cars raced at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. TBW Advisors was able to hear from the former Waterloo team captain (67).

    Charity

    This conference did not feature a specific charity event. CTA, the organizer of CES, has a related Foundation for its charitable contributions and actions – the CTA Foundation3.

    Next Year’s Conference

    CES 2025 conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The announced dates are January 7-10, 2025.

    Citations

    1. https://cdn.ces.tech/ces/media/pdfs/2020/ces2020_factsheet_9-23.pdf
    2. https://www.ces.tech/About-CES.aspx
    3. https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation

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    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Channel Partners Conference & MSP Summit 2023

    Conference Whispers: Channel Partners Conference & MSP Summit 2023

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Published May 8, 2023

    ABSTRACT

    The Channel Partners Conference and Expo and MSP Summit, held in Las Vegas from May 1-4, 2023, brought together industry professionals seeking insights and strategies to advance their businesses. The event brought together industry professionals seeking insights on the workforce and business landscape amidst current times. With over 120 sessions, the conference addressed the pandemic’s impact on leadership styles, customer expectations, and growth opportunities. Attendees were advised to adapt to the evolving economy and invest in talent retention. The event also focused on current technologies like cloud, security, AI, and IoT, covering topics such as private cloud capabilities and defending against unknown threats.

    Conference Vibe

    The Channel Partners Conference and Expo and MSP Summit (Managed Service Providers) was held at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas on May 1-4, 2023. It features over 120 sessions across the 4 days. Attendees were excited to garner insights on current times and current technologies to move their business to the next level.

    Current Times

    Understanding the impact of current times on business was top of mind at the Channel Partners Conference and MSP Summit. During the panel session for ‘Rethinking the Workforce of Tomorrow,’ it was pointed out that there are 5 generations in the current workforce (1). The ‘Ultimate Vendor Power Panel’ featured discussions among industry leaders regarding how the pandemic changed leadership styles, customer expectations, employee expectations, and growth opportunities (2). The consensus was that current times are very different from pre-pandemic.

    Attendees were also reminded that the current economy is always good for some business segment (3). The message was to always evaluate and adjust to who is winning today. For those concerned with scaling and finding the right people, C3 Technology Advisors emphasized the need to invest upfront to attract and retain people (4). Magnitech poignantly reminded everyone that it takes happy employees to make happy customers (5). Likewise, we were reminded that technological tools will continue to evolve. Furthermore, resisting or failing to adopt the advancements will be a barrier to growth and market competitiveness (6).

    Current Technologies

    The Channel Partners Conference and MSP Summit did have some coverage of technology topics. Cloud, security, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and IoT (Internet of Things) were all showcased at the event. US Signal demonstrated their Private Cloud capabilities (7). The Field  

    Guide to Cloud Native Maturity was showcased on stage so attendees could properly advise their clients (8). IBM not only shared their cloud capabilities but shared how using their products on

    AWS can help meet your AWS commitments (9). Verizon highlighted the current trend of customers to focus on optimizing their cloud spend (10).

    In TBW Advisors Conference Whispers highlights, it was noted that the NABShow showcased their mature enterprise generative AI solutions used in production for some time. Furthermore, our highlights of the Call & Contact Center showcased their newly developed solutions already in production. Together, these examples demonstrated the progress of enterprise generative AI. Nonetheless, during the AI Panel at Channel Partners Conference, it was suggested that Large Language Models (LLMs), the underlying technology of generative AI, were not yet in enterprise production (11). However, there was an active conversation building on the insightful history of AI that kicked it all off by Talus (12).

    The Internet of Things (IoT) was another important topic of conversation during the event. BH IoT Group shared insights on how to make money on IoT and even offered their services to assist attendees in getting started with their ventures (13).

    Various security providers and products were also present to share their capabilities. Xcitium emphasized the importance of defending against unknown threats (14). Securing endpoints be it remote workers or IoT solutions are of particular importance. Fortunately, ThreatLocker delivered a highly engaging keynote to meet the needs of attendees and provide a roadmap to related solutions in this space (15).

    Next Year’s Conference

    The next Channel Partners Conference and Expo will be held June 13-14, 2023 in London UK.

    Citations

    1. https://youtu.be/D_AHmQAIlx4   
    2. https://youtu.be/8u9ltTFisBs
    3. https://youtu.be/82lOqCAmUmk  
    4. https://youtu.be/R0wdGy0b2VM 
    5. https://youtu.be/cy-2FtEvLaA
    6. https://youtu.be/GE35cTMUA90
    7. https://youtu.be/aAVMa2stz_4
    8. https://youtu.be/4nBJzUn1vcM
    9. https://youtu.be/FI3fhQqFv84
    10. https://youtu.be/dYrRkpU9oBQ
    11. https://youtu.be/BAvPdkFX03A  
    12. https://youtu.be/i64fM0em54c  
    13. https://youtu.be/AdRo4U98hQY  
    14. https://youtu.be/SgzzXLjEFpI
    15. https://youtu.be/PvV3HKkrVVI

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

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    ©2019-2023 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal, or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.