Simplifying The World: ISE 2009

Michael Olinger, Vice President of AMX International shares his thoughts on another incredible Integrated Systems Europe show as well as wrapping up a phenomenal year for AMX International and introduces us to a brand new International partner.

Hello again from the Netherlands and welcome to ISE 2009. I would personally like to thank each of our World Partner Dealers for their contribution to making 2008 our best year ever. AMX had another record breaking year and we are looking forward to an even stronger 2009 and the opportunities it will present to us.

Knocking the Competition
As I prepare for another fantastic week here in beautiful Amsterdam, I think back on the previous five years that we have exhibited here and in all honesty, I can say that this year looks to be our very best ISE ever. We are debuting several new products that I believe will truly knock the competition on their - well you see where I'm going here. With our recent acquisitions and growing solution set, we will be demonstrating by far, our most diverse and functional line of control, automation, distributed audio, lighting, matrix switching and software solutions to date.

Show Stoppers
At this year’s show, we are introducing our newest, most compact line of Modero Touch Panels to date - the 4.3" Modero Widescreen Family. These amazing little panels are priced extremely competively which will offer many new markets the ability to integrate control into facilities they may never have been able to have done previously.

Additionally we launched an all new version of NetLinx Studio, Version 3, that includes several programming enhancements that we believe will greatly simplify the installation process for our integrators.

Our TPI-PRO Presentation Interface, has never output more vivid, more bright and more crisp video as it now includes the ability to output a DVI video signal. Check out the new TPI-PRO-DVI-2 and TPI-PRO-DVI-4.

Last year, we rocked the control industry by announcing the integration of VoIP and SIP communications into our Modero Touch Panels for added communication capabilities and this week, we announced that the capability to place and receive local, long distance and international calls through any of our intercom-enabled Modero Panels will soon be available via a free firmware upgrade. This upgrade will also include several video enhancements to these Touch Panels as well.

World Renown
As I look back at our accomplishments in 2008, I immediately think of the showrooms. This year, we opened three, new world-class showrooms in New York, Las Vegas, and London. These showrooms are state of the art facilities designed specifically to provide a venue for AMX systems integrators and industry consulting firms to introduce and demonstrate AMX solutions to their clients. They also provide a space for other activities such as dealer and industry gatherings and product training.

As part of our continuing global expansion efforts, we also opened new sales offices in India and Germany and from these new operations we are now in a better position to provide our dealers, consultants and clients with stronger support in sales, training and technical assistance.

Our Newest International Partner
I am happy to report that our global expansion shows no signs of slowing down - introducing AMX Soluciones S.A. de C.V; dba AMX Mexico.  We are planning significant growth in the Mexican market thanks to our new AMX Mexico team .

Marcelo Cantú is head of the AMX Mexico office, located at Av. Mariano Escobedo 510, Piso 12, Privado 15; Col. Anzures, Del. Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico DF, CP 11590. Marcelo is a respected leader in the AV industry and will help lead strategy on increasing the visibility of AMX solutions and providing our dealers with added services and support.

Our commercial activities will be managed by Sergio Gaitan - Commercial Director. Sergio is a also a well known industry professional who brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and respect to our team and we are happy to have him on our team. You can read more about this partnership.

Simplification For The Masses
From all indicators, 2009 is already looking like another tremendous year for us. We have quite a few, rather intriguing products coming out later this year that will continue to define us as an innovator of life-simplifying solutions. We are also looking forward to introducing more and more cost-effective products, like the new 4.3" Modero Widescreen we announced this year and the Novara KeyPads we debuted last year that allow many cost-sensitive markets like education and government, the ability to enter the market and make life in the classroom or the courtroom, simpler to manage and give the end user more time to focus on more important matters.