Broadcaster and campaigner June Sarpong OBE was the keynote speaker at an AVIXA Diversity Council on the Main Stage at ISE 2020 yesterday. She spoke about the benefits of diversity and inclusion, and how we all win when we work out ways to include everybody creating a framework where anyone, regardless of their background, can fulfil their potential.
“I think what’s really interesting about the AV industry is that actually – when it comes to social mobility – you’re far ahead of many other industries,” Sarpong told attendees. “If you look at the general makeup of your sound person, there is a real increased proportion of those from a working-class background. But how can you expand that to include other under-represented groups? How can you go into communities that have been forgotten and inform them that this is a place for them?”
The accelerating rate of change in virtual and augmented reality, as well as immersive audio, was reflected in the latest XR Summit ISE, which took place yesterday at the Hotel Okura.
Here, Elumenati VP sales and marketing Hilary McVicker explored the practical challenges of deploying XR “at scale” and the potential of group experiences in spatial XR to “bridge the physical and digital worlds”.
Meanwhile, the inaugural Control Rooms Summit (CRS) – which also took place at the Hotel Okura yesterday – explored the theme of ‘How better integrated AV will save and protect lives’. Focusing on the world of mission-critical command and control, it explored how the provision of AV technology can help to deliver more efficient operations.
During his conference session, The Holographic Academic, senior educational technologist Dom Pates challenged delegates to come up with their own speculative design uses for using the technology in higher education. The session was part of AVIXA’s half-day Higher Education AV Conference, the theme of which highlighted ways in which the effective application of AV tech can impact the experiences of many people.
