Trick? Or treat? It’s an odd coincidence that Microsoft chooses the Halloween period to launch Windows 8. So much of Microsoft’s future depends upon the success of this OS—and so much of W8 success depends upon Microsoft’s bet on multi-touch.

Windows 8 is the next generation OS and it has been redesigned for the multi-touch user: ok, the “tablet multi-touch user.” Windows 8 is the first desktop OS with native NUI design and experience in place. Heck, it is so visually-oriented that instead of just a classic password it even offers a slick Picture Password sign-in. (You select a photo for your login screen and then setup a simple gesture that you “draw” on the image to login.)

Microsoft’s Windows 8 PC market share for 2012 should be approximately 77% and, if W8 is successful, will fall slightly to 73% by 2019. Windows OS operating margin might decline only from about 62% in 2011 to nearly 54% in same period…IF Windows 8 grabs the business customers and consumers.

In this video, you can see how Microsoft W8 performs in multi-touch.

Go Testing Microsoft’s Windows 8 Multi-Touch

This year’s InfoComm MEA, says the organizer, enjoyed an unintended benefit. The hall location away from the main traffic flow meant that some visitors missed the event, but by the same token, those who made their way there were decidedly more focused on Pro-AV solutions.

The result was InfoComm 2013 was noticeably less well attended than in 2011. Just about every exhibitor remarked on this – although not all of them said they were disappointed by it.

Sharp Middle East FZE said they had a very good show. Deputy General Manager Marketing (Business Solution Division), Gautam Chakrabarty said: “There was a high level of quality visitors and very relevant crowd. Over the past few days we have had valuable business discussions with the industry and have sold quite a fair bit of our products that are displayed at our stand."

First-time exhibitor, Prysm, also benefited from its participation. “There has been a steady stream of visitors at our stand, which generated a good amount of high quality leads. We met with the right people from governmental and large scale projects,” said Steve Scorse, Prysm’s VP for Europe, Africa and Middle East.

CayinTechnology unveils a new generation of compact digital signage server, CMS-40. The hardware upgrade of the new server largely improves system performance and notably increases operational efficiency.

“It is the perfect timing to release the new server,” said Ravel Chi, VP Cayin Technology. “With more successful pilot run of digital signage deployments, many projects expand the scale of digital signage network, increasing the need of powerful servers.”

The new CMS server upgrades its processor and can manage more media players. One CMS-40 entry-level server can control twice the amount of media players, a maximum of 80 SMP players, simultaneously.

“This new release is also aimed at better multitasking performance,” Ravel noted. “Cayin is seeking to deliver a balance between efficient player management and high-quality video streaming.”

The new MegaPixel Summit will be co-located with the ISE show. To be held at the Amsterdam RAI over Jan. 28th and 29th, the Summit will be produced by *Insight Media.

“Over the past couple of years, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of ISE exhibitors offering display solutions that are above full HD resolution,” says Mike Blackman, MD, Integrated Systems Events. “The potential of these technologies is enormous, but these are complex systems and many industry professionals are enduring a steep learning-curve while implementing them.

“By hosting the MegaPixel Summit at ISE 2013, we hope to create a forum in which the challenges arising from creating large-scale, multiple-component displays are addressed by a mix of different stakeholders: manufacturers, distributors, integrators, rental companies and end customers.”