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Highlights of April 2010 Trade Shows and ConferencesMarch 2nd, 2010CRE Rentals highlights the upcoming Trade Shows and Conferences in April. IPC APEX EXPO 2010
The EXPO features the industry’s best standards development discussions, technical conferences and professional development training, as well as an exhibition featuring the industry’s top suppliers. If you are exhibiting, you need to grab the attention of the thousands of passersby, which can be done with plasma rentals displaying your company products, Web site or even a live webcam feed. NAB 2010
The Show was promoted with electronic communications instead of direct mail, social networking sites were leveraged for publicity and registration took place online. Post-consumer recycled materials are being used for conference bags and the limited amount of printing required. CRE can supply exhibitors with energy-effective rentals for NAB, from modern LCD monitor rentals that draw half the power of 5-year-old models to wireless tablet PC rentals for taking notes, downloading conference materials and communicating with others via Skype, chat or e-mail. The NAB Show’s famous annual exhibition features some 1,500 companies covering over 800,000 square feet. Special pavilions include Destination Broadband, with more than 50 cutting-edge firms and a theater, which will showcase the online video experience and map out the “broadband ecosystem” from basic infrastructure to the latest home entertainment technologies. Other technology-focused pavilions include the 3D Pavilion, Mobile DTV Pavilion, Technologies for Worship and Content Central. Interop
For exhibitors who need to be in two (or more) places at once, CRE interactive kiosk rentals are a good move. You can capture attendee contact information, offer product specs and maximize your conference investment. If you have a booth, nothing grabs and holds attention like touchscreen feature available in the all-in-one computer rental with some “push-button fun.” You could also plug a laptop, a DVD player or a home-theater system into a plasma rental to present a PowerPoint slideshow, Flash animation or multimedia brochure. You will also see new technology being deployed, as the InteropNet will be offering a stable high-speed network for attendees and exhibitors, from the conference rooms to the exhibition floor. InteropNet will showcase leading technologies in a live environment, with “virtualization in action” and information on bringing the same cost-effective power to your company. If your company is exhibiting at any of these events and needs technology rentals, partner with CRE Rentals – your one-stop conference and expo shop. Fill out the Quick Rental Quote form and one of our expert Account Executives will work with you to ensure you get the gear needed to make your conference presence a success! March 2010 Trade Shows Spring ForthFebruary 9th, 2010
Nothing pulls people to your booth like the impressive plasma rentals for Game Developers Conference, offering up to 65 inches of high-definition pizazz. You can use one (or more) to display promotions, animations, Flash and PowerPoint presentations, or the biggest, brightest version of your company logo. Since you can connect most any digital device to the monitor, you can show DVDs or even use the screen as a huge browser window to show off your Web site. With upwards of 17,000 attendees expected at Game Developers Conference, you can try any number of approaches to reach the widest possible audience. Game Developers Conference is the primary annual grazing ground for artists, game designers, programmers, producers, audio/video pros, business owners and others in the game industry. If you want to capture as much contact information as possible, and multiply your effectiveness (whether you’re short-staffed or not), interactive kiosk rentals can be a great help. If you have more than a few people going, you might consider standardizing on CRE’s wireless MacBook laptop rentals to stay in touch throughout the five-day extravaganza. - – -
Whether you’re a multinational corporation or an independent consultant, if you’re one of the 450+ exhibitors at this year’s event you need to stand out from the crowd. Holding a breakout session or tutorial? You’ll want to check out CRE’s Westec plasma rentals and Audience Response System rentals. They constitute a powerful one-two punch for showing off the goods, then getting usable feedback. WESTEC puts you face to face and right in the midst of all the experts, vital suppliers and industry innovators. If you’re bringing a convention team, you may want to have some of your staff check out the speakers, panel participants and other exhibitors while you hold down the fort. With CRE’s digital recorder rentals and digital note-taking tablet PC rentals, they’ll get all the important info that you need. Whether you’re planning to exhibit, attend or both, as one of the leading convention and computer rental firms CRE can help you maximize your presence while minimizing the cost and complexity. Our Account Executives are experienced professionals, and good listeners, which means you will get first-rate help, often in ways you don’t even anticipate. Let them help you make the most of your trade show time by calling, sending an e-mail or filling out a Quick Rental Quote form today. Rentals for February Trade Shows: From Macs to MedicineJanuary 26th, 2010
Exhibitors that want to present their new, innovative products — everything from carpet, tile and hardwood to rugs and laminates — in the most effective way should consider CRE plasma rentals. Connected to a laptop, DVD player or other media device, it will bring big-screen excitement to presentations, product videos and even Web site displays. With industry experts leading more than 40 workshops and breakout sessions concerning sales, marketing, installation and design, exhibitors and attendees will be putting a lot of mileage on their soles. What better way to “virtually meet ‘n’ greet” them on their journeys than with strategically placed interactive kiosk rentals from CRE? It can be set up to present your product as well as capture new contact information from passers by. Four on-floor “education stages” will focus on four hot topics in the floor covering industry — sustainability, design and trends, business and technology, and installation — with live demonstrations and presentations running throughout the show.
For easy note-taking, reading or wireless access in the hustle and bustle of a conference, consider renting a tablet PC. It makes taking notes, downloading files, and staying in touch, even collaborating with colleagues and others easy. And, as a core component of the largest design and manufacturing event in the Western U.S., your MD&M West badge gets you free admission to six more industry-related shows at the same location: WestPack, Pacific Design & Manufacturing, Electronics West, PLASTEC West, Automation Technology Expo (ATX) and Green Manufacturing Expo. They account for an additional 1,500 suppliers and 200,000 sq ft more of equipment, systems and services of interest to medical manufacturers.
If you don’t have a Mac laptop already, get one of CRE’s MacBook Pro rentals and show up in style. Whether you are a creative professional or a programming pro, Macworld has all the conference content, special presentations, exciting exhibits and networking opportunities you could possibly want. Whether you are an exhibitor showing off your wares on Apple Cinema display rental or plasma rental for Macworld, CRE can help you make the most of every convention you attend – and every connection you make. The Macworld DEMO Best of Show presentation will unveil the most anticipated new products (but no Mac tablet, as Apple no longer attends the event), while musician BT will team with Berklee College of Music faculty and students to demonstrate the latest digital music-making trends. You can also test drive the newest mobile apps and talk to developers at the Mobile Applications Showcase. Whether you’re exhibiting or organizing a conference or event, CRE can help. We are the convention experts no matter what role you and your company need to play. Call our expert Account Executives today, or fill out a Quick Rental Quote form, and get the help you need to achieve your goals. Tradeshow Roundup for JanuaryJanuary 7th, 2010
The NAMM Show starts each morning with music and the informative NAMM University Breakfast Sessions. The theme for both days of seminars is the “new normal” that has been created by the economic upheavals of 2008-2009. It’s always “normal” to put your best face forward, which is why exhibitors rely on interactive kiosk rentals to get the message out — and get contact information in return. Live, up-to-the-minute Web coverage of the NAMM Show will be streamed at the NAMM Web site. You can also follow the NAMM Show on the group’s Twitter page. CRE is proud to be affiliated with NAMM. LabAutomation2010
Key educational sessions concern detection and separation, micro- and nano-technologies, and informatics. Over 400 booths will showcase the top automation technologies, a perfect job for a LCD monitor rental from CRE. Networking opportunities abound, of course, as educators, researchers and manufacturers discuss the hot topics of the day. It’s a perfect place to bring a Motion Computing Tablet PC rental to take notes, get names and addresses, and access the interactive conference schedules and maps via WiFi (saving many a tree in so doing). SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering
The symposia will cover biomedical optics, lasers and applications, micro- and nano-fabrication, and integrated optoelectronic devices. Photonics West covers all the bases, from product roll-outs that save you money to free courses that offer training and a healthy dose of “value added.” Attendees can use laptop rentals to stay connected while exhibitors display their wares in various ways (including a 61″ plasma rental available from CRE Rentals). The SPIE event actually comprises two separate, world-class exhibitions — with a total of 1100+ exhibitors — at SPIE Photonics West, North America’s essential photonics and laser exhibition, and SPIE BiOS, the world’s largest biomedical optics exhibition. For these events, or others like them, remember that CRE is your one-stop shop for computers and audiovisual gear. From audience response system rentals to the latest laptops and office equipment, we have whatever you need, and not just to “make the scene ” — but to make the scene brighter and better for your business. Call, send an e-mail or fill out a Quick Rental Quote form right now. We’ve got you covered. Reviews of Computer & Technology News of 2009December 29th, 2009
This past year, for computer lovers, was as good as it gets. While every year sees new inventions and further refinements of existing products, 2009 was a landmark year in many ways. From the new MacBook models that CRE now rents to new display technology and “wireless everything,” 2009 was a big year. Laptops have gotten more powerful while getting lighter. Leaving aside the new netbooks, subject of a future blog, the laptop sector has made big strides in power, heat dissipation, battery life, displays, and connectivity. The year started off with dual-core processors limited to the MacBook Pro laptop rental and PCs, and ended with quad-core processors available at the high end of some lines. Desktops have changed in terms of power and ports. Apple dropped the original FireWire 400 connector for FireWire 800 (backward compatible with an adapter). USB is king of the hill for connections, with USB 3.0 right around the corner promising another serious speed bump. Ethernet? Faster. Phone modems? Disappearing. Hard drive capacities are into the terabyte (TB) range and no one gets a PC with just “a gig of RAM” anymore. Even low-end PCs now come with 2-4GB of RAM. Powerhouses like CRE’s quad- and eight-core HP computer rental can have up to 32GB. LCD Displays – Seeing is believing Computer users can thank display manufacturers for their less-strained eyes. The LCD and LED-backlit monitors look better, use less power and emit less radiation. Plasma monitor (rentals) are still tops in the largest sizes, while the Apple Cinema Display 24-inch LED monitor is what every post-production pro wants under the tree this year. Look, Mom, no wires on technology rentals Yes, it was a “wireless” year, for sure, and not just in terms of Web browsing at the coffee shop. The mouse, your phone, the printer, your TV – everything is hooking up with everything else by radio, Bluetooth, WiFi and (it seems) smoke signals, too. It’s not just tablet PC rentals that provide portability with connectivity. Your phone, its headset and your office all-in-one have all lost their electronic umbilical cords. This coming year, watch for wireless recharging of these devices. If you want to know what else to watch for in 2010, keep checking our blog. We will feature tech trends in 2010, laptop and desktop guides, a netbook report, gadget updates and other problem-solving, trend-spotting news. In the meantime, when you’ve got work backed up and no time to waste, remember that CRE is here to solve your problems with just the right tools. Contact us or fill out the Quick Rental Quote, and an expert Account Executive will take good care of you. That’s what we do! 3DTV Is Starting to Take ShapeDecember 22nd, 2009The next wave in display technology for television will be called 3DTV, but marketing terms for 3D-type monitors have not been created yet. These monitors will display a 2D image with stereoscopic depth added. How good will it look? Compare an old 1998 CRT monitor to the LCD monitor rental, and you will note an incredible improvement. Going 3D will be even more dramatic.
3D technologies have improved to the point where Hollywood has a small but growing library of “depth-enhanced” films. Just as black-and-white films were “colorized,” movies can be “depth enhanced” now, especially if made with computer technology like the PowerMac G5 with Kona card that CRE rents to production professionals. Toy Story 3D, in fact, is an enhanced “combo” of the first two 2D films. The 1950s vs. now The 3D projection used for 1950s 3D films called for superimposing polarized or differently colored images on each film frame. Viewers wore “passive” glasses that revealed different images so that the brain would “knit” the images into layers that gave a sense of depth. Viewing newer 3DTV displays with “active” glasses would create much more convincing “alternative realities.” Active glasses are expensive at this point, but as with all technology the price will drop. Sony, Samsung and others are building “3D-capable” displays now, and Panasonic recently demonstrated a large-screen 3DTV that it hopes to ship in 2010. Again, as happened with high-end plasma rentals, premium 3DTV models will arrive first, followed by more-affordable models. Coming soon? Existing cable and IPTV networks are already capable of distributing 3D content. The bandwidth that networks use to deliver HD content will handle 3D content with the latest video compression techniques. Of course, high-end PCs (like CRE’s HP XW 8400 computer rental) and Intel-based Macs are powerful alternatives to TVs. Using physical media, of course, means Blu-ray. It can store, burn, save and present the data needed, and 3D BR players are already in the works. No changes to the Blu-ray specs are necessary, so standards groups and manufacturers are focused on practical things, like making sure that 2D TVs can play 3D discs. Flexible standards Conflicts or development dead-ends due to “battling standards” should not be particularly troublesome, as long as 3DTVs stay flexible. Just as digital TV was defined in 480, 720, and 1080 formats – along with progressive (p) and interlaced (i) versions – an industry group is working on a simple, straightforward standard, the kind that has led to the proliferation of WiFi in laptops and tablet PCs. The first 3D displays will use alternating images viewed with shutter-style glasses until holographic displays are developed. Until then, 3DTV could be sold as a minor upgrade to existing HDTV units. Stay tuned, they’re coming soon! In the meantime, CRE can handle any display needs you have – for your office, conferences or presentations – so give one of our Account Executives a call, send an e-mail or fill out our Quick Rental Quote form. We’ve got you covered, in all dimensions. Upcoming Flexible Displays Roll Out the Power of TouchAugust 27th, 2009In the “coming soon” category of “gee-whiz” devices, few things create as much buzz or excitement as flexible, touch-sensitive displays that mimic the traits of paper. Corporate and university research teams have already developed working units that are leading to even further advances that consumers will see in new generations of portable devices. E Ink of Cambridge, MA, is already supplying displays for the Amazon Kindle Of course, the ultimate goal is to have displays that are flexible and touch-sensitive. Rumors suggest that the first such electronic paper products will launch sometime in late 2009 or early 2010 with roll-out displays using E Ink’s technology and produced by a Dutch firm. Still, the developers at E Ink and other firms have to overcome a number of challenges to add touch sensing to these kinds of screens. The methods used in existing touch screens require a rigid surface, such as seen on tablet PCs and high-end smartphones. There are two major technologies at work here, resistive touch and capacitive touch. The Nintendo DS game console uses the former technology, resistive touch, which relies on two separate “conducting layers” being forced together at specific touch points. If these layers were to flex, there would a big problem with false inputs. Early on, researchers at the Flexible Display Center (FDC) of Arizona State University, co-developer of E Ink’s new display approach, realized the limitations of resistive technology as far as touch-sensitivity goes. The air gap between the layers has to be maintained, making flexibility problematic. The capacitive touch screens used in Apple’s iPhone use transparent, conductive film manufactured from indium tin oxide (ITO). This is a superior technology that is used in the CyberTouch Orion LCD monitor that CRE rents. A brittle and ceramic-like material, ITO is wholly incapable of doing what roll-up, folding and flexing displays will require. Even touch screens using other technologies, ones that detect light changes or screen vibrations, are not up to this futuristic task, since those types of signals can become distorted. The answer? For now, it appears to be something called “inductive touch-screen technology,” although there are still some challenges to overcome. This technology requires the use of a magnetized stylus to create “fields” on a sensing layer in the rear portion of the display. The problem is that most flexible displays use stainless-steel backplanes to allow flexibility while retaining the rigidity needed to prevent damage, and those backplanes interfere with the electromagnetic fields at the heart of the inductive touch technology. The FDC team has proposed an alternative material for the backplane, a thin-film DuPont plastic called polyethylene napthalate (PEN). Already used by thin-film transistor manufacturers, it would provide sufficient support for a display while letting the inductive touch layers work. This approach should not degrade the image quality since the sensing will be accomplished behind the display, an essential consideration as E Ink technology uses ambient light reflection instead of energy-eating backlights.
Tele-Immersion: Videoconferencing on Holographic SteroidsAugust 6th, 2009Let’s take an imaginary look at the office of the future, perhaps even the near future. Forget picking up a phone. You will simply tell your computer, “Phone home,” and one of your office walls will flicker to life when your spouse, child or genetically engineered SmartDog answers. On their end they will enjoy the same, totally immersive experience. That’s “tele-immersion,” a Brave New World-ish technology that can bring two or more distant locations into one simulated setting. It could put a big dent in business travel, no question about it. Even today, you can rent a nice plasma display from CRE, add some software to a sufficiently powerful computer, hook up your webcam and have a pretty impressive videoconference. Tele-immersion, however, is a new kind of communication that goes way beyond videoconferencing. If you’ve used a webcam for a videoconference then you know that it is far from a perfect form of communication, with hardware limitations, software glitches and network delays that can create “jerky” video. In addition, walking out of view of your single camera will cause you to disappear from the other person’s view. In a tele-immersion scenario, not only can’t you disappear from view (unless you leave the room), the person you are speaking with can look around your office simply by viewing their display screen from various angles. It’s pretty much like looking through a window. The most advanced holographic environments will require computers many thousands of times faster and more powerful than even the Mac Pro “personal supercomputer” that CRE rents. This is why today’s systems are hugely expensive, build-to-order propositions, or installed at tele-immersive “studios” where you would book time for holding your teleconference.
Yet there are working systems online today. Cisco’s “On-Stage” TelePresence Experience captures holographic meetings for broadcast over IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision), so TVs or PCs with wireless or wired broadband connections can join in. Cisco says there are over 150 rooms, in almost 30 countries, now capable of high-definition videoconferencing. Today’s computer/Internet kiosks, like the Friendlyway Interactive rental available from CRE, will quite likely evolve into service platforms where customers can interact with real people, in real time. Perhaps five years from now, telepresence will no longer be restricted to special locations or costly devices. Cisco engineers and tech pundits alike are predicting that homes, offices and hotels will be on the holographic conferencing bandwagon—they just can’t say exactly when. Another firm, however, thinks it is onto a better way already. DVE (Digital Video Enterprises) has designed its Tele-Immersive Room with industry standards that allow other, older videoconferencing systems to participate in the “DVE experience.” DVE is assisting Christie Digital Systems with the integration of its technology into Christie’s Mirage HD3 units, among the most impressive projectors in the world. The Mirage HD3 leverages 1080p DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology to deliver an incredible 120 frames per second of lifelike, high-definition, flicker-free, active stereo imagery. Before following the usual technology “trickle down” route to the enterprise level, 3D holographic teleconferencing will likely be used at large conventions, media events and conferences. After that—again, no one knows when or cares to predict with any specificity—the tele-immersive experience will come to the average person’s office or home. Your friends could walk into your living room, virtually speaking, and talk to you the same way that Princess Leia did with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. The possibilities of this futuristically realistic technology are limited only by the imagination, and there seems to be plenty of that still left in the world judging by what Cisco, DVE and others are doing. |
SURFACES 2010
MD&M West 2010 — the annual 
The 
The Association for Laboratory Automation’s annual conference — 
SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering, presents 
Prototypes are currently going through rigorous testing and military applications will likely be the first for these new displays. The tough battlefield scenarios where such portable displays would be deployed require that the screens do not shatter, meaning the glass backplanes in touch- and non-touch-sensitive consumer monitors like the 
