One of the major trends we saw at the ISE was the focus on expanding training and education by corporations and professional organizations. We had the privilege to meet with a number of the well known personalities in our Industry.
Some of them are perhaps better know in North America as they organize extensive conferences there, but you will surely want to hear the excellent insight they offered us about why training is so important. Not only for the professionals that do installations, but also to increase general consumer awareness of the fast evolving technologies in our Industry as well as the quality enhancements that can be obtained, for example, in the areas of Audio and Video calibration.
Click on the photo to listen what these pros had to say about education as well as on some other provocative subjects like HD via the Internet, and in any case save time in your agendas in the coming months, as the good news for us in Europe is that all of these organizations will be expanding their training programmes during 2006.
ISE 2006 : CEDIA UK
Wendy Griffiths, Operations Director, and Simon Williams, Vice Chairman, give us insight into the role of CEDIA UK which will be celebrating its 10 anniversary in 2006. CEDIA, one of the co-sponsors for ISE 2006, was started in the United States in the mid 80’s and today has over 4200 members worldwide. The CEDIA UK office is responsible for the development throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa as well as Russia, India and several other countries, counting now 420 members. The primary role is assistance to its members through education and training as well as marketing. Numerous 3-4 day training sessions will be organized throughout Europe in the coming months.
ISE 2006 : CEDIA US
Andy Willcox, President, and Don Gilpin, Executive Director, of CEDIA US give us a brief look at the origins of this influential association that was created almost 20 years ago and is now present in over 40 countries around the world. In addition to organizing training seminars to support its members, CEDIA US is renowned for its key annual trade exhibition, orientated to Industry professionals. The CEDIA EXPO 2005 (see our Photo Report) was a huge success with over 26,000 visitors which has motivated the organizers to expand for the 2006 edition. It will now be a 4 day show, from September 13th to 17th, starting on the Thursday, and in a new location at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The 600.000 square feet of exhibition space is an increase of over 25%, but it is already all sold out.
ISE 2006 : Joel Silver explains ISF video calibration training
Joel Silver, President of Imaging Science Founation (ISF) shares with us the funny story how he got interested in video calibration, while in magazine publishing, which lead to founding ISF in 1994, with the primary goal of promoting education for installers of Video equipment. Today, 3500 professionals have succeeded completing the ISF training, however only 200 reside outside the United States. In the coming months formal training courses will be set up throughout Europe. Joel showed us the user friendly Calibration Wizard created for Microsoft, with a sexy voice to guide you through the steps.
ISE 2006 : Antony Grimani to give ISF courses in Europe
Anthony Grimani, President of PMI, (technical acoustics consulting, creation of CinePanel… see our interview in French) is also Senior Instructor ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) for the training sessions like those organized during the ISE 2006. A highly sought after conference globetrotter, Anthony gives us the “scoop” that he will be running the ISF training session in Paris at the end of April, in French, which is a big change in strategy for ISF as the training has been exclusively to-date in English. He confirms that more courses are planned in local languages throughout Europe during 2006.
ISE 2006 : Joe Kane explains the importance of video calibration
Joe Kane, President of JKP, is editor and producer of Digital Video Essentials calibration tools and organizer of educational seminars world wide that are tailored to everyone from consumers, to A/V dealers, custom installers, manufacturers, as well as the program production community. Joe Kane will be running more training programs in Europe in 2006. Increased awareness is the key to having a more widespread use of Video Calibration, which is not costly for the enhanced quality it provides. These tools for the “Video Art” let us watch films like the producers intended them to be seen.
ISE 2006 : Joe Kane talks about HD via the Internet
Joe Kane, in our exclusive interview on the Home Theater Cruise last November, showed us a new Internet server and discussed HD download, just casually dropping the small “bomb” idea that Internet may possibly become the “end-run” play compared to Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats. In just the few months since, apparently Hollywood is moving very fast, with two active camps, one lead by Steven Soderbergh and the other with Steve Jobs and Disney. HD downloads may (soon !) become reality simultaneously with the film's release. May we all have movies VIA the Internet !
ISE 2006 : THX is both quality certification and training
John Dahl, Senior Fellow and Director of Education, was running the formal THX training sessions organized at ISE 2006. Education is one of the cornerstones of THX, and John is responsible for training around the world, where professionals will be able to obtain several levels of proficiency through expanded programs. THX is involved in every phase of the creation of films, music and games, from the studio to the Home Cinema installation. Certification for equipment continues with the expansion to multimedia. The THX objective is to preserve the vision the artist had in his original studio.
ISE 2006 : THX training programs expanding world-wide
John Dahl in the second part of this interview goes into more detail about the THX formal full day training sessions that he ran during ISE 2006. Part of the training is an overview of the THX approach and part is technical, focusing on Home Theater design and acoustics. Two levels of technicians are available to assist with specific home theater needs: THX Certified Home Theater Technician I or a THX Certified Home Theater Technician II. There are programs in other areas including the automotive sector, DVD and multimedia computer games. More programs will be now be orgaized in Europe.
ISE 2006 : THX equipment certification standards and procedures
John Dahl explains that in the certification process, they invite corporations to bring their products to THX who work directly with the manufacturers to make the picture and sound like it was originally produced by the artist in his studio by checking hundreds of criteria. John clarifies the technical standards of the two different levels of certifications, SELECT and ULTRA, that are basically quite similar in terms of quality, the difference being in the power output available.
ISE 2006 : THX certification standards for games, cars...
John Dahl, in this fourth part of our interview, emphasizes that the THX goal is to preserve the artist’s vision that was on the master tape or film regardless of where it is being watched. The same strategy is done for games to calibrate the picture and sound. The product created in a THX certified studio means that it adheres to THX quality standards. In the automotive program, THX actually does a major part of the design work related to the speakers and the electronics. Other programs exist for studios and cinema, of course!
ISE 2006 : ISE : Mike Blackman
Mike Blackman, Managing Director of ISE gives us the background history leading up to this years’ big success where the number of visitors should be close to 11,000, almost 50% more than in 2005. Another measure of the success is the increase in the number of exhibitors, with more than 330 stands spread out over two big halls. Many exhibitors have already confirmed their presence for next year's edition which will take place from the 23rd to the 25th of January 2007 in the RAI Exhibition Center in Amsterdam, like in 2005.
Click HERE to see all the other interviews in the CineWebTV! section of our site.