Wrapping up 2011 ISTE
By every account, the annual ISTE conference held this year in the Philadelphia Conference Center was a huge success.
Starting with the impressive numbers about the conference itself, the sessions and the exhibit floor were filled with lots of energy and enthusiasm.
One of the prevalent themes was the rapid growth of classroom participation in teleconferencing (with Skype) and the need for whole class audio amplification without an echo from the system or its speakers. For those with this issue in mind, lots of attention was focused on the Infrared Audio System and its ability to support a secondary system to assist students with hearing impairments like Delaware Valley Regional High School, in neighboring New Jersey. Other PA-oriented discussions were held throughout the conference courtesy of the PresentationPro, the “official PA” of the ISTE conference. Updating existing PA gear was also demonstrated by showing how schools can modernize their own existing PA gear from wired to wireless.
A prototype of the soon-to-be launched PA419 was also on the booth, which is a portable 30-watt system and will be the first of its kind to offer a built-in docking station for a smartphone. The 900mHz PA will have dual wireless mic receivers and will be compatible with the rest of the Califone line of wireless mics and PA gear.
In addition to PA gear, innovations also abounded in the development of new headphones and headsets. Shown were samples of the recently acquired Odyssey, Discovery, Explorer and 610 series as well as the never-before seen washable Titanium series, which soaked in a tub of water for the entire conference to demonstrate their waterproofness! Hinted at was the promise of another ground-breaking first – the upcoming launch of the industry’s first headphone cords that are guaranteed for life!
The show also had lots of fun moments too with one of the first ever QR-based contests hold on the ISTE floor (read more about Quick Response codes) where some lucky attendees walked away with some of the first AV2 handheld devices as well as some of the washable Titanium headphones and headsets.
All-in-all, exhibitors and attendees both enjoyed the camaraderie.
This blog was amended 8/2/11 to include the live link to the PA419
Tags: audio immersion, classroom, frequency, infrared, PA Speakers, portable pa, skype, speakers, special needs students, transmission range, voice amplification, wireless
