| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | Water-based touchscreen display means you can play games in the bathtub (video) | | | by Huffington Post UK | | | Researchers have created a "touchscreen" for your bathtub. With only a Kinect sensor and a projector, AquaTop display facilitates interacting with virtual objects using just your hands. In order to function properly, the system requires you add some bath salts to your tub, which will turn the water opaque and prevent the camera from picking up false inputs. More»
Why This Matters: Don't you hate the way you can't mix bathtubs and electronics without ruining something or dying? Researchers think they've fixed that. –Cynthia Wisehart |
| | #2 | The Quiet Mobile Giant: With 300M Active Users, WhatsApp Adds Voice Messaging | | | by Liz Gannes, All Things D | | | WhatsApp is a tiny startup with a very basic idea, boring design and lots of competition, has somehow managed to connect up most of the world. And that's actually pretty exciting. The four-year-old company — which helps users send text messages between all different types of mobile phones on all different carriers in every country – now has 300 million monthly active users, it told AllThingsD this week. So what's next for WhatsApp? Is it mobile payments, or an app platform, or something mind-dazzlingly audacious? Nope. It's push-to-talk voice messaging. More»
Why This Matters: The new app could be a great communication tool for AV integrators on the go. Other mobile messaging apps have voice features already, but WhatApp says that its innovation is in how simple it makes sending a voice message.–Jeremy Glowacki
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| | #3 | At 10, Disney Hall has become a living room for Los Angeles | | | by Steve Chagollan, Variety | | | When the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in October of 2003, it became an instant Los Angeles landmark, right up there with the Griffith Park Observatory, the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood sign. More»
Why This Matters: Has it really been ten years since I first sat in Disney Hall in L.A.? That first time, as a guest of JBL who had installed VerTecs in the new hall, the silence of those loudspeakers during the performance was music to my ears. After all, the reputation and chief purpose of a true "concert hall" like Disney Hall as opposed to a "performing arts" hall is about the natural, unamplified acoustics of the room. Without the great (and rare) concert halls like Disney, what could we hold up as a standard for PA to emulate? Yes, I've been back to Disney Hall when PA was used discreetly for a jazz ensemble, or a pop performance, and the Harman/JBL system is nice. Beautiful. But this article is a reminder of what the great designers think about, when they think about technology. –David Keene |
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| | | | | Pro AV Today Editorial Team
SOUND & VIDEO CONTRACTOR
CYNTHIA WISEHART, Editor
Phone: (212) 378-0400 x526 | Send Email
SYSTEMS CONTRACTOR NEWS
KIRSTEN NELSON, Editor
Phone: (212) 378-0400 x522 | Send Email
AV TECHNOLOGY
MARGOT DOUAIHY, Editor
Phone: (212) 378-0400 x 538 | Send Email
DIGITAL SIGNAGE
DAVID KEENE, Executive Editor
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RENTAL AND STAGING SYSTEMS
DAVID KEENE, Executive Editor
Phone: (512) 480-9473 | Send Email
RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS
JEREMY GLOWACKI, Editor
Phone: (212) 378-0400 ext 514 | Send Email
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