6 minute read
How technology is triumphing over adversity
PRO AUDIO: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS TRIUMPHING OVER ADVERSITY
The pro audio sector has had its ups and downs throughout its history but the last three years, as for the rest of life, have been volatile in a way not previously seen. Kevin Hilton looks at the impact of Covid, supply chain problems, Brexit, and how technology managed to rise above it all
When it comes to market surveys there is the instant snapshot conclusion of how business has been. Then there is the more considered evaluation of what has been going on. Which is certainly how the last three years should be approached, and in relation to professional audio.
The general consensus on the period pre-2020 is that touring, musical theatre and events had been growing significantly, with installations also providing strong demand for pro audio products and technologies. Once Covid-19 struck, live performance stopped almost overnight. "Generally speaking, the market had strong momentum [before Covid] but certain sectors and regions performed better than others," confirms Blake Augsburger,
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X Factor Italia concluded its 15th season with a pair of Allen & Heath dLive systems handling the live live mix
founder and chief executive of LEA Professional. "Pro audio, commercial AV and residential markets developed distinct sectors pre-pandemic and each grew and evolved at a different pace."
Once lockdowns and the pandemic itself became part of everyday life, Augsburger says there became an "urgency" for AV systems to support distance learning, remote services, socially distanced events and business meetings. "In some ways, AV was never more important and it became a well-funded national priority for many governments," he says. "Contrast this to other pro audio sectors like performing arts, which were immediately adversely affected and received little support. Fragmentation continues to be an issue and so different regions will recover at varying paces but generally, with the exception of Eastern Europe, the market is improving and the potential for the pro audio market is strong."
STEADY GROWTH
Kalle Hvidt Nielsen, chief executive of DPA, observes that pro audio for live events had been experiencing a period of steady growth leading up to 2020. Once the pandemic was declared, things changed: "Many of the segments that DPA support were hit very hard, most especially live performance and theatre. Houses of worship also found themselves without in-person worshippers."
On the live touring side, d&b audiotechnik saw its business, which also includes venue installations, go from what chief marketing officer David Claringbold describes as "robust" to being hit severely. "The pandemic has had a big impact on the industry, no two ways about it," he says. "And for many the re-emergence from the crisis is slow and challenging. The impact is still being felt worldwide. However, if we are able to take a positive from this pandemic, it's that as a manufacturer we were given a chance to re-evaluate. The pandemic vindicated our investment in installation systems and markets [because] many projects were brought forward, providing us with essential cash flow."
Now that lockdowns are, we hope, a thing of the past, Claringbold says there is a "very real hunger" within the pro audio industry to engage in live events again, reflected in strong demand for systems.
Martin Audio is similarly seeing a return to preCovid levels of revenue, if not higher, after the collapse of the live sector. "Some rental companies were able to weather the storm by working on hybrid and virtual events and some pivoting to installation work but the industry lost companies while many technical professionals left for other jobs," comments James King, director of marketing.
The installation sector, King adds, "fared slightly better" despite there being fewer projects. "Some people used the lockdown to refresh and upgrade systems while others were committed to opening new venues. The opportunities these projects presented were slightly more open than previously due to not all manufacturers being in a position to supply."
STANDING STILL
Bose Professional also saw live sound come to a "standstill", according to Hans Vereecken, sales manager for EMEA. "We needed to quickly readjust our focus, which reduced our planned activities," he comments. "The pro AV market overall is coming
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back to a pre-Covid state at a steady rate, [although] some markets like live sound will need longer to recover. Other markets, like conferencing and workplace AV, continue their growth path from pre-Covid times."
While there was a shared experience during the pandemic, companies faced different problems depending on their distribution set-ups. TOA UK works both through big distributors with its own retail networks; and directly supplies smaller companies, installers and event management teams. "The trend with distributors pre-pandemic was to bulk order popular stock for their warehouses so they had a constant flow to meet demand from customers," explains Ian Bridgewater, director and technical sales manager. "Smaller companies either specify and buy for clients or buy for their own stock. In the UK, distributors partly or fully closed, due to both the events and entertainment industry being so heavily affected by the pandemic and by staff not being on site for deliveries and despatch because they were working from home. Music shops, event management companies and technical services simply closed during lockdown, with some changing their business model from face-to-face to online."
SLOW DOWN
Genelec had also been experiencing healthy market growth but the impact of Covid was "a huge slow down, not to say dead stop" in new projects, according to AV business development manager Sami Mäkinen. "End customers in particular started to get very cautious about undertaking new projects. Fortunately, almost all our ongoing projects were finalised, so these were less affected. New projects are definitely starting to appear now but no one knows how the world will turn in near the future. Covid challenges might turn into war challenges. Once again we're faced with a big unknown factor that will clearly have an impact but how big outside Russia and Ukraine nobody can estimate."
When it comes to what the pandemic did to the pro audio market, distributors and systems integrators were perhaps even more at the sharp end. In the UK, Polar Audio works in both the pro audio and MI markets and also has an integrated solutions division. This is headed by Will Turney, who comments that in the March and even April of 2020 there was still a "good level of business" but then installation projects were put on hold. "There were a lot of orders being received but progressively things started to dry up on the pro install side in terms of traditional products," he says.
Polar's integration division saw a bigger decrease in business than the company as a whole, which Turney ascribes partly to the 'MI' (semi-pro, prosumer/consumer kit) side doing well because people decided that if they had to be at home they would spend money on headphones and better audio/AV systems. "Retail and hospitality quietened down during the pandemic but that is starting to come back again," he says. "It's probably been coming back a bit longer than the corporate market, maybe six months or so. Like the pro audio/touring side, there haven't been many events on and retail has had its doors closed a lot of the time, so they had to make a decision about investing for the future."
While the pandemic has dominated life for over two years, there have been other factors that have
