ISE 2025 – Technological trends and innovations

Every year, a group of Habegger employees from various departments travel to the trade fair to discover the latest developments, bring new knowledge back to the company, and provide their teams with fresh inspiration from the industry.

Frank Burghardt, Carsten Jantz, Marco Fioretti

We spoke to Carsten Jantz, Team Leader & Technical Manager, Frank Burghardt, Head of Project Support, and Marco Fioretti, Project Manager. They provide exciting insights into current technologies, emerging trends and the concrete added value of innovative features for our customers that they discovered at ISE.

For Habegger, the ISE is indispensable for two reasons:

• Experience technological innovations – The trade fair allows you to test new products directly and recognise the differences in features, quality, and value for money.
• Market analysis & networking – ISE is the central meeting place for the industry, ideal for exchanging ideas with experts, establishing valuable contacts and observing current trends.

The trade fair also provides creative impetus for our projects.

We were impressed by the sheer size of the trade fair and the variety of innovations. The further development was particularly exciting:

• Separate halls for lighting & sound – These trades are now firmly established and offer targeted innovations.
• Expansion to include the rental market – Finally there are solutions especially for temporary events and live assignments.
• More features, less effort – products are becoming smarter, additional modules are no longer necessary, and plug-and-play simplifies handling.

Instead of revolutionary innovations, the focus this year was on optimising existing technologies – with real added value for practical use.

LED Cube

Frank: Development in the LED sector is progressing rapidly. A perfect example: the LED cube. A novelty last year, it is now ready for the market in many variants – and is also in high demand among our customers.

As a versatile design module, it attracts attention as a stage highlight, especially at corporate events. Its biggest advantage: Images can be displayed on it from several sides, allowing content to be visible from every angle and creating an immersive visual experience. Just a year ago, this technology was not yet fully developed – today it is an integral part of innovative event staging.

LED Walls

Carsten: Transparent LED walls are more versatile than ever and increasingly characterise the visual design of events. We were particularly impressed by the Muxwave M series: A transparent, heavily pixelated LED wall at the front, with a high-resolution wall behind it – the interplay creates fascinating depth effects, such as a jungle with a waterfall, even though both layers are operated independently. A technical highlight: The transparent LED is extremely thin and light, which enhances its transparency. In addition, there is no classic matrix control – the signal is only fed in on one side and can be flexibly cut to length.

This technology opens up new possibilities for worlds of experience, museums, stage sets or large corporate events – the focus is on the multi-sensory experience.

Wireless

Carsten: Wireless technologies such as the DMX series from Lumenradion are revolutionising the way we work. Instead of controlling each light manually, small DMX controllers are plugged directly into the devices – allowing entire DMX routes to be managed wirelessly. Particularly powerful: Stardust, which controls up to eight DMX universes via Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

The biggest advantage: Efficiency and flexibility. Settings, adjustments and troubleshooting are carried out directly via the network matrix – often remotely, without being physically on site. This saves time, reduces technical effort and enables more precise control, especially on stages.

E-Paper

Marco: We really liked the newly presented e-paper technology from Samsung. The lightweight display with integrated battery and app control brings the classic paper experience digitally to the screen. Content can be easily transferred to the device via a mobile app or Samsung’s own VTX system. The displays have WLAN and a battery like a mobile phone – no cable required.

Similar to digital price tags in supermarkets, but in colour and in sizes up to 75 inches, they offer completely new application possibilities. Particularly exciting: ultra-thin (only 12.9 mm), energy-saving and ideal for sustainable information transfer. Perfect for visitor centres, museums or as digital advertising posters, as content can be flexibly adapted. The market launch is planned for the end of 2025.

Transparent Micro-LED

Marco: The transparent Micro-LED enables a creative combination of digital content and real products. Targeted visualisations create a surprise effect: If the LED box is completely filled with content and then faded out, the physical product takes centre stage. Micro-LEDs are also more translucent and brighter than transparent OLED displays – and the colours are also more vibrant.

They can be used primarily in experiential environments and product presentations for smaller items. The technology is currently still under development and is not yet on the market.

A clear trend: Drone shows as an environmentally friendly alternative to fireworks that not only look spectacular, but also contribute to crowd control at major events.

We see the greatest progress in the automation of planning software:

• Automated Audio Planning – angles and sound reinforcement are calculated by software, and the speakers adjust themselves.
• 3D event location planning – A single reference measurement is all you need to digitally capture rooms. Manual measurements are no longer necessary.
• Precise sound reinforcement – Even large venues can be precisely tuned acoustically to the smallest areas.