AV News December 2022

Highlights of 2022

The last year will go down as one in which the AV industry started to enjoy some of the benefits of recovery, following the worst of the pandemic, tempered with economic de cline and an energy crisis.

Joel Chimoindes to leave TD SYNNEX Maverick

Joel Chimoindes, vice president, Maverick, Europe has decided to leave TD SYNNEX to pursue an opportunity outside the organi sation.TD SYNNEX has started a recruitment process to find a replacement. In the meantime, Hugo Graça, senior vice pres ident, Specialized Solutions at TD SYNNEX, will assume inter im leadership responsibility for Maverick in Europe.

Hugo Graça: commented: “Joel has been a valued leader for our business for several years. We thank him for his many contribu tions in developing such a strong Maverick business in the region and we wish him all the best for the future. As we move ahead, we are absolutely committed to building on Maverick’s leading position in the professional AV, collaboration and smart signage markets. Maverick’s dynamic, forward-looking value proposi tion is driven by highly special ised and engaged team, with a unique organisational culture and deep, long-standing indus try relationships with customers and vendors. We will continue to work to drive the business to even greater heights together united by our passion for vendor and partner success.”

Joel Chimoindes added: “I have had a brilliant five years working with a talented and inspiring team to develop Maverick into the market leader for collabo ration technology. We have put people at the heart of its strategy.

“I

I'm in no doubt it will continue to innovate and develop in this ever-changing industry and I'm proud to be handing over the reins for someone new to lead the business on the next chapter in its growth. I would like to take the chance to say huge thanks to the whole team and especially the leaders of all the European countries for their hard work and dedication.”

Setup

The energy crisis and AV

UK energy provision has been plunged into chaos by a perfect storm of trans-national market forces and an energy supply industry out of step with its market. So how long will the current energy crisis last?

PPDS reaffirms sustainability commitment

PPDS has reaffirmed its com mitment to supporting and pro moting sustainability in the AV industry with a strategy that is designed to help customers re duce their electronic waste and enhance their green creden tials. This will see the company continue to bring more energy efficient products to market, re configuring and reducing pack aging, while providing greater access to information on energy consumption, for more educat ed and environmentally focused business buying decisions.

The declaration was made by Martijn van der Woude, Head of Global Business Development and Marketing at PPDS, who was speaking at the company’s Global Access: Future Tech in ternational event for end cus tomers and its Global Partner Alliance, held at the MK7 Ora cle Red Bull Racing Technology Campus in Milton Keynes this month (November).

With retail, corporate and hospi tality all key focuses of the event

– and with representatives from as far as Taiwan in attendance – Martijn, together with the full global PPDS management trio and team members, outlined some of the actions and mea sures already taken, with a com mitment to bringing even more in 2023. This includes extend ing its focus on delivering the most energy conscious products to market and bringing lower cost of ownership to customers – more relevant than ever in the ongoing global energy crisis. Martijn van der Woude com mented: “Sustainability has al ways been of great importance to us at PPDS. We’re proud of what we have achieved to date, and we feel it is our duty and our responsibility, both to customers – who are calling for this – and to the planet, to do even more. And we encourage our competi tors to do the same.”

He added: “Collaborating close ly with our partners, we will be working hard to ensure that our existing and future Philips pro

fessional display products and solutions continue to provide best-in-class experiences, while also delivering on lowest ener gy consumption and reduced impacts throughout product

Sony partners with Kramer on classroom to broadcast studio transformation

Sony partners with Kramer on classroom to broadcast studio transformation

Sony has partnered with Kram er to produce a unique edu cation solution that combines Sony’s AR software with Kram er’s Control Solution to create a complete, easy-to-deploy and simple-to-use solution that re

quires less hardware than alter natives. The solution integrates AR software designed for virtual or hybrid learning experiences and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to transform en gagement for virtual and hybrid audiences.

Intended for any education or corporate institution, the

solution combines Kramer’s award-winning Control Solution and various other audio, vid eo, and management products with Sony’s Edge presentation, visualisation and analytics suite (REA-C1000). The combination also improves the quality of all presentations and communica tion as Edge seamlessly blends

AR software with AI technology. This enhances the presenta tion experience intuitively and improves the visual and audio quality for in-room and remote participants. Continued on page 2

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Joel Chimoindes:

have had a brilliant five years.”

Martijn van der Woude, Head of Global Business Development and Marketing at PPDS: Collaborating closely with our partners, we will be working hard to ensure that our existing and future Philips professional display products and solutions continue to provide best-in-class experiences, while also delivering on low est energy consumption and reduced impacts throughout product lifecycles.”

PPDS reaffirms sustainability commitment

lifecycles, including the use of recycled and recyclable materi als, and the carbon neutrality of products.”

In addition to improving the en ergy efficiency of its digital sig nage, interactive displays, dvLED and Pro TV solutions, PPDS, alongside its sister organisations, TP Vision, MMD Monitors and Displays, and AOC, has already made significant strides in en hancing its green credentials

sures are taken throughout the entire production process, from concept to completion. This is highlighted, as a part of its con tinued expansion program, with the recent opening a new man ufacturing plant for its dvLED production, with the building’s design and the practices within it providing not only a quality working environment, but an environmentally conscious one, too.

in the process to date. “This helps to reduce our carbon foot print without compromising the safety of each display during transit and it reduces the levels of waste likely to be immediately disposed of” comments Stefan van Sabben, Global CSR and Sustainability Manager. “Philips professional displays are pack aged in brown board boxes, with one colour only printing using soy-based ink. This ethos is con

Sony partners with Kramer on classroom to broadcast studio transformation

throughout the display lifecycle – from manufacturing in its fac tories, along transportation jour neys, through to its headquarters and regional sales operations. Benefiting from its unique po sition, manufacturing its own products in its own factories (no outsourcing) as a part of TPV, PPDS is owner of its own desti ny, ensuring appropriate mea

End-user rection

A survey of 250 senior decision makers holding responsibilities for green initiatives across public and private sector organisations revealed that 45% of businesses have elected to take sustainabil ity more seriously, while for 32% it continues to be a major focus. More than half (53%) of the re spondents stated the key driver for this focus was around their ethical beliefs, while 41% cited cost benefits.

Stefan van Sabben added: “As a part of our evolution as a busi ness, we’re placing sustainabili ty as an even greater core focus on our mission statement. Our ambitions are to continue to grow our business, but we want to grow responsibly and sustain ably. As well as being accredited and working towards accredita tions with a growing number of sustainability focused bench mark organisations, including EcoVadis, we have set ourselves some challenging environmental and social targets.

It’s part of our DNA, working closely with Royal Philips, which is recognised as the #2 top brand in green technology glob ally, and we’re committed in the belief that this is the best way for us to create superior, long-term value to our customers.” He continues: “We’re making every effort to enhance our own green credentials. This isn’t simply about adding a few recycle bins in the offices or paying member ship fees. It’s a fundamental part of our business.”

“Part of the ethos announced in our rebrand statement high

Products are also now con tained in condensed packaging, carefully calculated to minimise resources used and to maximise the number of products able to be loaded in any one shipment.

Palletisation has also been re viewed and refined, with a 184ton Tank to Wheel (TTW) CO2 reduction and 107-ton reduc tion of wood pallet consumption

lighted our ‘global reach, local support’ strategy. This is hugely important on many different lev els. In short, we have physical teams located across the world, which greatly reduces the travel needs for arranging meetings, sales and visiting project sites.

Videocalls, rather than physical meetings are also greatly en couraged where possible and our business has been set up to support remote working. Our Philips C-Line range makes this even easier – meaning the pan demic meant no radical changes for us and allowed us to function fairly closely to normal.”

Sustainability is also something being reflected in PPDS’ most recently launched solutionsmost evident with its ranges of corporate (Philips C-Line), ed ucation (Philips E-Line), hos pitality (Philips MediaSuite) displays, which facilitate and encourage remote working / learning / entertainment, while helping to reduce unnecessary electronic waste. Taking things further, PPDS’ new Philips DV LED range (Philips 7000 and 6000 series) which are now designed to deliver proven low energy consumption – between 20%, and, in some instances, close to 50%, when compared to similar products on the mar ket – without compromising on performance.

According to the UN’s Global E-Waste Monitor, 53.6 million metric tonnes of e-waste was generated in 2019. Each year, in the UK alone, around two million TVs are dumped, many of which

tinued through the packaging of pre-production components, with finished packaging made almost fully of recyclable ma terials. These, and many more measures, will continue to be evolved and introduced during 2023 and beyond – with a num ber of innovative solutions to be unveiled during ISE 2023 (Jan 31- Feb 3), in Barcelona.”

are fully working but simply deemed outdated and worth less. Jeroen Verhaeghe, Global Business Development Manag er for Hospitality at PPDS, said: “We live in a throw away culture for technology. With products being updated regularly, there is a temptation to replace what you have, in order to benefit from the latest features. What happens to that old TV? It either gets resold or binned.

Martijn van der Woude conclud ed: “As a global business, we have a duty and responsibility to support our customers in their current and future technology needs, and we also have to play a role in helping to protect the environment and to encourage sustainability. When you’re deal ing with multiple product rang es, billions of parts and thou sands of people, change is not always a simple process – but it as an essential one. Some may not agree. Indeed, such chang es may not always be welcome or financially viable. That’s not the case for us. Powering evolu tion is in our DNA and support ing the industry, our partners and our customers with a strong sustainability focus is a big part of that. Is it possible to produce a digital display with no carbon footprint right now? No…but there are ways and means of getting there. The products and solutions we showcased at our Future Tech event have proven the appetite for this and we are looking forward to launching a number of these at ISE 2023.”

Damien Weissenburger, Head of Professional Displays and Solutions Europe at Sony, said: “Sony is recognised worldwide for offering superior technolo gy, innovation and support to our customers. The Sony and Kramer partnership combines our collective strengths and ex pands our power and reach to deliver comprehensive and in

Combining Kramer Control with Sony’s BRAVIA 4K professional displays allows the screen to be come the control processor for all the AV devices in the room, enhancing the user experience. There is also the option to move away from a centralised control processor by using the Kramer Brainware which can be in stalled on Sony’s BRAVIA range.

handwriting extraction across multiple displays, PTZ au to-tracking, close-up by gesture features, Chromakey-less CG Overlay and real-time cropping, all through a single device.

tegrated solutions designed to add value and meet the specific needs of our users.”

Aviv Ron, Vice President, Corpo rate Development and Strategy at Kramer, said: “Our contin ued partnership with Sony has enabled us to strengthen the education vertical offering with a single solution that will en hance presentation technology systems and increase learning effectiveness and experience in classrooms and lecture halls. The Sony-Kramer solution is a progressive education-based offering that empowers faculty and professional staff to deliver impactful, cinematic presenta tions and lesson content in re al-time. By digitising the class room experience, a new learning style is created that gives those in the room and those at home the same great experience.”

To provide the education sector with a cost-effective and profes sional quality presentation suite, lecturers, teachers and present ers can add optional licenses to incorporate features including

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Why CTOUCH is #1 on sustainability in the AV industry!

CTOUCH claims to be the most sustainable touchscreen manufac turer in all of Europe. “Our mission is to reduce our CO2 footprint by 60% and increase the circularity of our products by 25% by 2025. We’re well on our way to reaching these goals and we’re proud of what we’re doing for a more sustainable world. “

Why commit to sustainability? Allow our CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer Remmelt van der Woude to put his planet-saving passion into words: “CTOUCH is focused on making our touchscreens more sustainable every day. We believe this is commitment every manu facturer should be after. Our environment is all we have. If we and you don’t take care of it, who will?”

Our journey towards sustainability started in 2018. We introduced the CTOUCH Circle, the fundamental element that helps us give meaning and substance to our vision: add value for our customers. The CTOUCH Circle consists out of four themes: Customer Engage

Produce with care

Sustainability starts at the beginning. We have set 15 sustainability requirements to ensure that all our strategic suppliers meet our stan dards in areas such as material use, circularity, recycling, repairabil ity and renewable energy use. We looked into decreasing the size of our packaging, enabling us to transport more products per container. On a yearly basis, we save more than 100 tons of CO2 emission on the transport of our 86” models, a reduction of almost 30%.

Use responsibly

We help our customers to use our products efficiently, greatly bene fiting them by lowering the Total Cost of Ownership. Through product innovation, the integration of a human presence detection function and eco mode settings in the Canvas, Neo and Riva, we reduced

End-of-life? Next life!

Modular building and giving products a next life are part of our efforts to give our products the long lives they deserve. We have extended the 7-year lifetime with 3 years for all new products sold as of 2021. Our promise is that at least 50% of our screens are still functioning after 10 years to customers’ satisfaction. This will reduce the annual CO2 impact of our touchscreens by 12%.

As part of our Heartbeat As-A-Service program, we also refurbish end-of-life products. Ultimately, each product gets a new home: a modern meeting room or classroom. If a product cannot be refur bished, we look into re-using parts.

True sustainability through transparency

CTOUCH is committed to making a positive impact on the future through transparency. We put our belief into action by introducing a myriad of sustainability initiatives. With these tools we're spreading awareness about our products’ CO2 impact. We're building trust and triggering dialogue on (re)using our touchscreens. Internally, these tools empower us to make sustainable choices concerning future products, benefiting both the environment and our customer.

ment, Future Proof, Safe & Secure and Sustainability. We make it our mission to excel and innovate within all of these topics. For sustainability, we’ve initiated incredible initiatives. We focus on 4 areas that will help us in achieving our sustainability goals: the pro duction phase, use phase, end-of-life phase, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

the average power consumption per screen (in operation) by 8% compared to our previous generation screens. CTOUCH touchscreens always come in eco mode by default. To show users how much money they can save on their electricity bill when choosing CTOUCH sustainable touchscreens over another brand, we introduced our Energy Saving Calculator.

We perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to identify the envi ronmental impacts and ethical risks of our supply chain and our products throughout their entire life cycle. The results of the LCA combined with insight on our CO2 impact are at the base of our sustainability passport.

We are the first (and currently only) touchscreen manufacturer with a sustainability passport for our touchscreens. This includes a trans parent overview in the materials we use, the CO2-impact of our solu tions, as well as a showcase of initiatives we take to minimize our impact. The details of our passports come to life in our Sustainability Dashboard.

Together we achieve more

It's not just our products’ CO2 impact that we measure. By gaining insight into CTOUCH’s internal CO2 footprint, we already made sub stantial savings on staff travel emissions and energy consumption. The CTOUCH office is 100% solar powered. We also measure our impact in our community. We are inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, having adopted four SDGs where we can make a real difference. These SDGs form the foundation of our sustainability policy and community activities. We’ve entered into various partnerships with, e.g., MVO Netherlands, Workplace Vitality Hub and JINC.

We also take responsibility for the impact of our suppliers on people and the environment. Therefore, we have mapped all important and impactful materials and their suppliers (Tier 2 and 3). Our key sup pliers have signed the Social Responsibility Employment Statement to ensure that slavery and child labour do not occur in any part of our supply chain, and that a safe and healthy working environment is guaranteed.

More information

Eager to learn more on how far CTOUCH has come in our Sus tainability Journey? Please visit: http://www.ctouch.eu/uk/sus tainability

MediaStar acquired by Uniguest

MediaStar has been acquired by Uniguest, a provider of digital engagement technology serving multiple end-user markets with a range of digital media and vid eo delivery solutions. Uniguest is based out of Nashville, TN, USA with 14 global offices and over 430 strong team. Medi aStar joins Uniguest to expand its IP video and digital signage technology portfolio and to en sure that the company remains a leading player in IPTV, video streaming and digital signage in the professional AV market. Uniguest has a long record of developing engagement solu tions and serves many of the same markets as MediaStar, through the Tripleplay, Onelan, Reserva, UCView, Planet eS tream and Otrum brands. “We believe bringing MediaStar, its technologies, and expertise into our family creates an unrivalled opportunity for enhanced ser vice for our joint customer base. You will experience no disruption

MediaStar joins Uniguest to expand its IP video and digital signage technology portfolio and to ensure that the compa ny remains a leading player in IPTV, video streaming and digi tal signage.

in the service supplied today. All current MediaStar team mem bers will be joining Uniguest. We are looking forward to working closely together to bring added value to the MediaStar commu nity in the coming months and years,” said a Uniguest spokes person.

Avocor opens new London HQ

Avocor has opened new offices in Farringdon, London. Centrally located with excellent transport links across the capital, the new facility will also function as a stylish demo suite. London is the second EMEA HQ announced by Avocor in 2022. Earlier this year, Avocor opened offices in The Netherlands, near Amster dam. The new facilities coincide with Avocor’s rising profile and business growth in the region and provide attractive spaces, for partners and integrators, to bring their clients for engaging demos, meetings, training and more.

“This has been an exceptional

cation, we can’t wait to welcome you!”

The new Avocor venue, in Lon don’s design quarter in Greville Street, Farringdon, showcases solutions to improve business performance and collabora tion including Avocor’s E, G, and W series, CollabTouch the award-winning Google Series One by Avocor as well as Log itech MTR’s Rally bars, T1V Thinkhub among others. To book and manage an appoint ment at Avocor’s London demo suite visit: https://www.avocor. com/londonshowroom

Peerless-AV UK expansion and relocation

Peerless-AV has announced the relocation of its UK team to new a new office and warehouse loca tion in St Albans, Hertfordshire. This larger space will better ac commodate the rapid growth of Peerless-AV EMEA and facilitate future potential warehouse ex pansion enabling the business to continue to bring the high est quality service to custom ers. This new location perfectly

logistics and order fulfilment in line with this. We now have an increased capacity for stock held locally to address demand both in the UK and internation ally. Staff have worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition with zero downtime or disrup tion for customers and I’m very proud of their support in making this move successful.”

The new office is a modern,

PSNI Global Alliance adds Zoom as Global Preferred Partner

PSNI Global Alliance, the global network of premier technology integrators and service provid ers, continues to expand its worldwide presence and port folio as it welcomes renowned UCC solution provider Zoom Video Communications, Inc. as a Global Preferred Vendor Part ner (PVP). The PSNI Global Al liance Preferred Vendor Partner program is available to an ex clusive group of manufacturers, distributors and service provid ers in the audio-visual, unified communications and profes sional audio and video industry. The program connects vendors and PSNI’s Certified Solution Providers (CSPs) to pursue mar ket opportunities, and enable worldwide, standardized solu tions to their customers.

been truly exceptional - with over 80% of the Fortune 500 choosing Zoom. We are thrilled to welcome them as an Alliance PVP. The team at Zoom has ex citing expectations for the future of UCC and we are excited to see where our global alignment takes us in coming years.”

year for Avocor, with sustained sales growth and an expert team in place across EMEA,” com mented Mark Mason, VP Sales, EMEA at Avocor. “We are now putting down roots in key terri tories to show our commitment in this region. Our UK customers can visit the new London demo suite and get hands-on with the full range of Avocor solutions, in cluding Google Meet Series One by Avocor and the new L Series 21:9 aspect interactive displays. It’s a great space in a superb lo

Avocor has opened new of fices in Farringdon, London. Centrally located with excel lent transport links across the capital, the new facility will also function as a stylish demo suite.

complements the Peerless-AV warehouse facility in The Neth erlands, servicing the rapidly expanding mainland European business. Peerless-AV’s new UK location is up and running, fully stocked, and operating as usual. Keith Dutch, Managing Director – EMEA, Peerless-AV comment ed: “We’re delighted to official ly announce our UK relocation after a busy few months of me ticulous planning. Moving our warehouse has been a major step, but essential to match our ambition for continued growth after a hugely successful past several years, and to strengthen efficiencies in our operations,

communal workspace designed to encourage creative collab oration between teams whilst building moral and team spirit. Based in Curo Park industrial estate, located between Radlett and St Albans, it has good trans port links being in between junc tion 21a and 22 of the M25 and close to junction 6 and junction 8 of the M1. There are two sta tions nearby, Park Street and How Wood, with links to London Euston, Milton Keynes, Birming ham, the Northwest and Scot land. The new UK address is: Unit 2, Curo Park, Frogmore, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL2 2DD.

Clevertouch appoints ADI Global Distribution for the Middle East

ADI Global Distribution, a Resideo company, is a leading distributor of security, AV and low-voltage products serving more than 100,000 customers across North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India.

John Ginty, EMEA Sales Direc tor, Clevertouch Technologies, explains: “The strength of the Clevertouch range of products continues to grow, and we are looking forward to working with ADI and seeing our interactive displays, commercial displays and digital signage products advance in both education and corporate markets in the Middle East.”

“Along with my colleague, Ben Kimble I'm really looking forward to working with the team from ADI in growing our business across all countries in the Mid dle East; our vision and values in providing the best communi cation and collaboration solu tions, strong partnerships with exceptional support, and having accessible stock levels readily available is very much aligned to those of ADI,” added Ian Parkin, International Sales Manager for Clevertouch Technologies.

Trusted by AV professionals and end-users around the globe, Zoom is one of the leading pro viders of Unified Collaborative Communication technology. Their widely used platform was instrumental in keeping the wheels of work turning through out the lengthy period of Covid lockdown. “The Zoom brand needs little introduction to those both in and out of professional AV circles,” said Tom Roberts, director of vendor programs for PSNI Global Alliance. “Their growth over recent years has

“Zoom is thrilled to be joining PSNI Global Alliance and we look forward to fully engaging with the PSNI CSP community,” said Cary Bran, Global Head of Zoom Rooms and Workspac es Sales and GTM. “Bringing together the world class AV in tegrator expertise and partner ecosystem of PSNI with Zoom and its industry leading Zoom Rooms and Workspace solu tions will truly enable us to bet ter serve the collective needs of our global customers as they navigate their way back into the post-pandemic workplace.” All the vendors within the PSNI PVP program are pre-screened by the Certified Solution Providers of The Alliance to ensure that only the best technology provid ers are represented. Customers who engage with The Alliance are assured seamless installa tion and support, benefitting from the collective expertise of PSNI’s integrators and vendors alike.

Utelogy Drives the Future of Connected Workplace

Utelogy Corporation, a global leader in the monitoring, man agement, control and automa tion of technology in the mod ern meeting room is redefining the user experience in today’s increasingly connected glob al workplace. The company is seeing rapid growth in annual revenues and subscriptions as it continues to unveil platform enhancements, forge new part nerships and expand interna tionally.

Utelogy has been increasing headcount across EMEA and the US, and has also grown its US presence with new head quarters in Petaluma, California, and additional offices in Seattle, WA, and New York City, NY.

Over the past year, Utelogy has maintained a high profile at major industry events, publish ing an array of significant new product releases including High Availability, U-Manage Analytic Tiles, Microsoft Teams Integra

tions and enhanced cyberse curity measures. Utelogy is also working closely with many lead ing manufacturers to onboard them onto the Utelligence Pro gram to ensure the creation of feature rich drivers.

The company’s ongoing technol ogy innovation demonstrates its total commitment to supporting the changing needs for AV and IT professionals for intuitive and cost-effective estate manage ment solutions.

“There’s no one approach to building, integrating and man aging the types of connected A/V environments global users will need for growth and suc cess,” said Kevin Morrison, CEO of Utelogy. “It requires contin ued industry collaboration and an openness to listen to what employees need to do their jobs more efficiently. That mindset is the foundation of Utelogy’s plat forms and the driving force of our success.”

Utelogy’s Growing Partner Network

Utelogy is continually growing its global partner network to meet the increasing demands of enterprise customers. Re cently onboarded partners in clude EOS IT Solutions, Kinly and Pro-Tech to complement Utelogy’s long-standing partner relationships. Each unique col laboration shares the common goal of delivering outstanding and consistent AV experiences, enhanced productivity, and a

reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).

The company’s Utelligence Program, developed to drive agnostic and standards-based security for AV and UC devices has continued to grow this past year with many additional man

Peerless-AV relocates to accommodate rapid growth of its EMEA business

John Ginty, EMEA Sales Di rector, Clevertouch Technol ogies: “The strength of the Clevertouch range of products continues to grow, and we are looking forward to working with ADI and seeing our interactive displays, commercial displays and digital signage products advance in both education and corporate markets in the Mid dle East.”

Utelogy’s Growing Partner Network

ufacturer partners anticipated to come onboard in early 2023.

Current members of the Utelli gence Program include Barco, Bose, Cisco, GUDE Systems, Lightware Visual Engineering, Logitech, Sennheiser, Sony, Yea link and others.

Another example of Utelogy’s innovation for industry collabo ration is the “Beyond the Con ference Room” initiative. This program is designed to integrate the Utelogy platform with other elements of the workplace such as booking systems for deep er analytics, IoT, and BYOD to support the ever-growing hybrid workforce. Utelogy will contin ue adding new features to its

platform in 2023 allowing cus tomers to elevate their AV/UC management capabilities and deepen how they visualize and use their data.

Upcoming Utelogy key products and feature enhancements in clude: Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) Enhancements: Utelogy will en hance its MTR management of fering for effectively and proac tively monitoring and managing MTR environments for both soft ware and hardware endpoints. New features will include call quality metrics, remote manage ment and updating of USB pe ripherals, real time Teams data and remote support via screen

sharing.

API Enhancements: Upcom ing integrations of the Utelogy platform will make it easier for integrators and customers to work with the company’s APIs and derive the information most valuable to them and their work flows.

Data Transformation: Utelogy’s goal is to transform the way our customers visualize and present their system data for a more flu id, richer, and improved user ex perience, through new features such as a federated architecture built for performance, enhanced data analytics reporting tools, configuration management da tabase (CMDB), and health rol lup.

Kramer joins GPA to deliver future -facing audio-visual technologies

As the largest systems integrator in the world with offices in 164 cities across 50 countries, GPA’s global partner programme is strictly managed to ensure only the top global vendors who de liver worldwide standardisation to customers are part of this elite programme.

Kramer’s selection to partner programme rested on its shared values with GPA. Both organisa tions are committed to helping end-users effortlessly connect, collaborate, and create, believ ing that audio-visual technology can amplify the human expe rience and help people reach their potential.

Global enterprise custom ers acknowledge they need a global AV/UC strategy with standardised solutions deliv ered using Global Programme Management. With dedicated Global Programme Managers under the guidance of a Director of Global Programme Delivery, GPA has the expertise, tools and processes in place to deliver and support global programmes. Recognising the importance and value behind this, Kramer will work with GPA teams to deliver solutions that meet customer needs in these times of supply chain uncertainty.

Solstice,has launched a new robotic division

Solstice AV has announced its brand new partnership with Pudu Robotics, together with the creation of a new robotics division, designed to acceler ate growth of the global-leading commercial service robots in the UK.

With the service delivery ro bot market predicted to grow to $100bn globally by 2030, Solstice is the first trade-only distributor to make commer cial service robots available to the channel. Leveraging a local stock holding, rapid delivery, and a national network of over 100 qualified engineers, Solstice is set to enable resellers to enter this rapidly growing market with minimal investment in technical resource.

Leo Hu, UK Country Manager at Pudu Robotics, said: “We’re very happy to have Solstice as our first trade only distributor in the UK. Through Solstice and their reseller network, we will be able to address the challenges and needs of our customers with our award-winning commercial ser vice robots and Solstice’s unique service-led distribution.

“The commercial service robot market is growing rapidly with predictions stating that 25% of hospitality workers will be robots by 2030. Solstice will give us the local presence, an excellent re seller network, plus the on-site service and support capability we need to meet our customers’

needs.”

Lee Hooker, Commercial Direc tor at Solstice, added: “Today, restaurants, hotels and retail ers face daily challenges with attracting and retaining em ployees, as well as constantly spiraling costs. Pudu Robotics’ service delivery robots address all of these challenges, supple menting the existing workforce with reliable, efficient backup, and allowing staff to focus on what’s important – the customer.

“Research shows that adding

robots to a hospitality business fills the staff gap, reduces costs and makes for happier employ ees and clientele. We will be pro viding local stock holding with a full-service offering, including on-site installation, hotline sup port and on-site warranty for all Pudu robots, giving resellers a fast entry into this rapidly-grow ing and exciting market, while allowing end customers to pur

With a strong relationship with GPA business units locally in market, Kramer has been in creasingly working with the GPA regional teams and global customers so it was critical that together the organisations align to better support customers and maintain a consistency with global delivery.

Kramer will participate in the GPA Global Summit in Toronto from the 1 – 3 November 2022.

At the Summit, Kramer will be officially welcomed into the glob al community and will be meet ing in person and showcasing their range to over 80 GPA staff.

Byron Tarry. CEO of GPA said: “Our partner programme is about not only aligning and optimising to deliver upon our GPA global delivery consistency promise today, but also in find ing partners that celebrate GPA’s core values like trust and pas sion as a foundation for building what might be tomorrow. With a clear and renewed vision of their path and position within the col laborative enterprise workplace of the future, and a firm belief in GPA’s capacity to partner with them in achieving that, we’re excited to welcome Kramer into

the GPA Partner fold to travel that journey together.”

Gilad Yron, CEO of Kramer said: “Becoming a part of the GPA community is a huge honour for Kramer. Building on many of the existing relationships we hold, we are committed to work ing with the regional business units to bring innovative and advanced technology and solu tions that power creativity, col laboration and engagement. We are confident that our open de sign, end-user focus and prod ucts, services and training that make us an all-round choice will bring advantages to customers and support the overall success of the group globally.”

Bauer Digital announces UK deal with Lighthouse

Bauer Digital have announced that they have signed an exclu sive UK distribution deal with Lighthouse Technologies. Paul Langridge UK General Manager for Bauer Digital said: “We are thrilled to announce this part nership officially. Bauer Digital and Lighthouse Technologies have been working together for several years, with Lighthouse Technologies supplying a large amount of the Bauer Digital In door LED range already. Having exclusive access to the Light house Technologies ranges in cluding their award-winning out door LED product, means that Bauer Digital can now provide a huge range of super high-quality products from stock held right here in the UK”.

Peter Chan, CEO of Lighthouse Technologies, confirmed: “For over 20 years, the UK has been one of our most important mar kets. Our partnership with Bau er Digital further demonstrates our commitment to bring bestin-class products with holistic services to our UK clients. I am deeply impressed by the creativity and professionalism of the Bauer Digital team, and I look forward to completing many more successful projects with

them.”

Bauer Digital’s BDL range was launched to meet the require ments of the corporate and broadcast 4k hi-end market.

The latest indoor product, the BDL Mini with its 600 x 337.5 cabinet 16:9 ratio is only 24mm thick making it one of the slim mest LED cabinets on the mar ket with a pixel pitch of 0.9mm to 1.8 and front surface service ability. Bauer’s BDL mini–LED Series matches colours with the CIE standard. It calibrates both brightness and colour for the least brightness variance and true colour reproduction

from the video source. The Bau er Digital BDL Series provides DUAL power, signal, and control system (on request) to mini mize the risk of operation faulty during the event.

Bauer’s standard LED and highly popular BD range has two cabi net sizes 1000 x 250 and 750 x 250 with 4 or 3 interchangeable modules. Bauer Digital products have been designed to enable an upgrade path where most of the LED structure remains in place and only the modules are changed. This reduces the amount of waste with the struc ture being able to be re-used.

Solstice AV has announced its brand new partnership with Pudu Robotics,

Bauer Digital’s BDL range was launched to meet the requirements of the corporate and broadcast 4k hi-end market.

Poor audio makes our brans work 35% harder

Global audio and video brand EPOS has launched findings exam ining the impact poor audio quality is having on the productivi ty levels of remote workers. The research found that poor audio quality causes our brains to work harder to process information. EPOS also found that the brain undergoes significant strain when struggling to process digital audio in comparison to sounds in a physical environment.

Following the onset of COVID-19 there has been an influx of research on the long-lasting cognitive issues related to the global health crisis as well as how lockdowns and other soci etal shifts have affected mental health. However, there has been little research on the impact of communicating primarily through digital solutions. Sound significantly impacts cognitive function because the ear is just a vehicle to the brain that per ceives and translates a series of electronic nerve signals. With much of the global workforce continuing to work remotely, background noises remain an impediment to productivity and potentially a risk to health, as it relates to levels of stress. Work forces today are largely unaware of how background noises affect them, and it is only by address ing the issue that we can begin to unlock new levels of wellbeing and productivity.

The psychoacoustic research was conducted by EPOS in the Centre for Applied Audi

ology Research (CAAR)1, Oti con, Denmark, with a focus on pupillometry tracking, speech recognition performance and subjective ratings for pre- and post-load tasks for each noise condition. The users performed the listening tasks with and with out EPOS passive damping. The researchers concluded that the passive noise reduction perfor mance of EPOS headsets leads to a reduction in effort listening, better memory recall and higher levels of word recognition, with subjects' memory recall improv ing by 10%.2

Listeners enduring noisy back grounds can struggle to inter pret and understand the entirety of what’s being discussed. While that raises immediate concerns for the absorption and retention of information, the longer-term issue is clear. Poor audio caus es our brains to work harder to interpret information and experi ence 35% more effort listening. The brain can become much slower to respond to sound as it finds it trickier to switch between

Listeners enduring noisy backgrounds can struggle to interpret and understand the entirety of what’s being discussed. While that raises immediate concerns for the absorption and retention of in formation, the longer-term issue is clear. Poor audio causes our brains to work harder to interpret information and experience 35% more effort listening.

stimuli. For instance, when on a conference call that is marred by audio issues including back ground noise and interference, the brain works harder to focus on what the most important source of sound is.

This, the researchers contend, can lead to cognitive overload and brain fatigue. Sound affects

us psychologically, cognitively, and behaviourally, even though we are not aware of it. By testing EPOS’ technologies and solu tions, and examining cognitive effort and memory recall, it is possible to develop solutions to mitigate the effects of unwanted background noise on the brain. For example, EPOS can test and

2023 and the rise of ‘Wagamama Workspace’

The world of work has changed dramatically over the past few years and 2022 was no exception. There is much uncertainty about the future of work, policies and expectations. Employers have been asking staff to return to the office five days a week, while others are trialling four-day working weeks. At the same time, employees are fighting for more flexibility, as shown by the rise in workcations and digital nomad visas.

Here are Poly’s top workplace collaboration trends in 2023.

•Hybrid work will be normalised, and more people than ever will work a four-day week

In 2023, ‘hybrid work’ will just become ‘work’. It will no longer be a trend, but normal every day work life. As a result of this shift and relaxation in attitudes around work, we could see a rise in the number of people wanting to work a four-day week.

In 2022, more than 3,300 work ers at 70 UK companies, rang ing from a local chippy to large financial firms, started working a four-day week with no loss of pay in the world’s biggest trial of the new working pattern. This num ber will boom in the new year, as more and more employees and employers see the benefits of taking up this option.

To prepare for this shift, UK businesses must adopt effective hybrid working strategies sup ported by the right processes. This requires organisations to focus on their company culture, and ensure employees are em powered to be productive, but without getting close to burning out. Employers should also en deavour to provide their staff with the right tools for them, al lowing them to work to the best of their ability, regardless of lo cation.

•The 9-5 will die as work be comes more distributed and fragmented In the last few years, organisa tions have got used to managing employees working from home. However in 2023, they will need to adapt to manage people working from far flung locations. This is because more and more employees are working from lo cations such as the pub or cof fee shops. We will also see an increasing number of employ ees taking ‘workcations’ working abroad to maximise their annual leave. In addition, we’ll see a rise in the number of digital nomad employees – those that work remotely full time from various locations. To capitalise on this trend, countries such as Portu gal and Spain are offering spe cial digital nomad visas to allow remote workers to work legally in the country.

Clearly, the traditional 9-5 will become a thing of the past in 2023. Organisations need to ensure they are ready to offer employees total flexibility, espe cially if they want to retain and attract the best talent, many of whom will want to work abroad.

Ultimately, 2023 will be all about creating a more flexible, attrac tive workplace for those employ ees that want to unshackle from the 9-5 culture.

•Empty trends like quiet quitting will fuel employee and employer disparity

We heard a lot about quiet quit ting in 2022, but we’ll hear a lot less about it in 2023 once em ployers realise that simply do ing your job isn’t actually a bad thing. Quiet quitting defined em ployees that worked their hours and didn’t go above and beyond their job description. It suggest ed employees should work more hours and do more tasks than they are paid to do.

But in an era of hybrid work, the notion of only working your hours shouldn’t be a controver sial one. According to research, organisations have seen an 72%

rise in productivity as a result of hybrid work. Employees have become more productive in the hybrid era, and so in 2023 em ployers will see that staff are not quiet quitting, but simply getting on with their jobs and being more productive than ever.

This kind of trend highlights the different attitudes towards work between employer and employ ee, a disparity that could impact retention and growth. Expecta tions differ, particularly on issues like how often employees come to the office. Research shows 54% of employees want to split their time evenly between the office and home. This contrasts to 52% of employers believing

prove that damping specific fre quencies of disturbing noises re ally does result in lower listening fatigue over an extended virtual meeting.

Built on world-leading psycho acoustic research through the Demant Group, EPOS has de veloped unique algorithms and acoustic technologies to repli cate the ideal and most natural conditions for a user’s brain to interpret sounds. These technol ogies fall under the EPOS Brain Adapt banner. Products built on EPOS BrainAdapt technologies, such as the ADAPT 660 and

ADAPT 660 AMC headsets were shown to enhance performance through improved recall and re duced cognitive load.

Torben Christiansen, Director of Technology, EPOS: “Businesses invested hugely in technolo gies to support their workforces during lockdowns. That was a necessary fix to an immediate threat to business continuity. Now, we’re starting to see the longer-term impacts of remote work on our employees’ pro ductivity and wellbeing. Poorer concentration and productivity have an immediate impact on business output, but the more insidious and cumulative effect will be that of increased fatigue and dissatisfaction amongst workers. This, in turn, can lead to burnout and employee churn. Employers need to face down these new challenges with the same rigor they did in 2020 and invest in new solutions to sup port their employees’ wellbeing, satisfaction, and productivity.”

hybrid work is a blip are looking forward to getting everyone back in the office. To make hybrid work a success, employers need to meet the needs of employees and provide the level of flexibility that they expect.

•Get ready for the ‘Wagamama Workspace’

In 2023, we will see employers start to take inspiration from some unexpected places when they redesign the office to ca ter for the future of work. One such inspiration will be from restaurants, both in the form of booking spaces to work and how they organise their spaces. One workplace trend we will see much more of in 2023 is ho

telling. This is where employees make use of a corporate booking system to reserve desks in their own workplace, for a day at a time.

This shift will also see organ isations take inspiration from restaurant chains – like Wagam ama – when redesigning their offices spaces. We’ll likely see the introduction of bench style desks and hot desks to ensure everyone has somewhere they can work when visiting the of fice.

In 2023, we will see employers start to take inspiration from some unexpected places when they redesign the office to ca ter for the future of work. One such inspiration will be from restaurants, both in the form of booking spaces to work and how they organise their spaces

C M Y CM MY CY CMY K

Proximity bias: How it affects the meeting room equity we’re striving for.

It’s no mystery that a positive work culture can be an incredible asset for any company. There are plenty of ways leaders can create these environments, from hiring employees that align with your company values to fostering trust and respect among employees and ensuring there is transparency throughout decision-making processes. But it’s not an easy road, especially when our own bias es can alter the outcome.

Proximity bias, like any bias, is a natural instinct. An evolution of our cognitive decision-making process, we are more likely to make deci sions based on predetermined shortcuts to what makes us feel saf est in that moment. This predates the hybrid work model and even our working life as adults. Think back to school when you would sit near those people you knew the best, a decision made simply out of feeling more comfortable.

Fast forward to today’s business leaders, this bias can create a halo effect, where individuals can build an inflated view of those nearby whilst overlooking the individual qualifications and experiences of those further away. Long-term proximity bias can negatively impact productivity, leaving employees feeling undervalued if they feel their output is not adequately acknowledged.

The very notion of proximity is changing in the hybrid workplace. On the dramatic end, in-person employees may be the first to be chosen for an assignment or their input may be trusted and valued more because they have taken time to commute to the office.

The disconnect between how much employees say that they are working and how much leaders think they are working is stark. The Microsoft Work Trend Index clearly investigates how many leaders and managers are missing the old visual cues of what it means to be productive because they can’t “see” who is hard at work by walking down the hall or past the conference room.

Indeed, compared to in-person managers, hybrid managers are more likely to say they struggle to trust their employees to do their best work (49% vs. 36%) and report that they have less visibility into the work their employees do (54% vs. 38%). And as employees feel the pressure to “prove” they’re working, digital overwhelm is soaring It’s essential that leaders think about how they are interacting with everyone in their team, regardless of physical location, and whether their technology and workspace ecosystem is able to facilitate those interactions confidently and reliably.

Level the playing field

Both in Microsoft Teams and via Microsoft Teams Rooms, leaders now have access to a range of tools for enabling and supporting hybrid meetings. Together mode is an excellent example of a feature specifically designed for hybrid work. Ensuring employees can po sition themselves in a virtual meeting room to create a better sense of kinship.

Microsoft is a clear advocate for ensuring that the most effective hybrid workplaces are the ones where everyone has the same equi table experience, and we’re seeing this through technology advance ments also. Neat, with the Neat Center, is the latest manufacturer to announce its version of a tabletop 360° camera, a device designed to give remote participants in hybrid meetings a better view of people in the room. Along with the Logitech Sight, both devices will work in conjunction with in-room cameras and take advantage of their AI capabilities to ensure that everyone is equally seen and heard.

“85% of leaders say the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive.”

Microsoft Work Trend Index 2022

The future of good content creation

Jason Cremins, CEO of influ ential digital signage software company, Signagelive, talks ex clusively to AV News about the business’s latest bid to support data-driven content creation through an industry-first pro motional partnership with visu al analytics leader, EyeQuant.

The new promotion will see Signagelive offer customers one month of free, unlimit ed EyeQuant neuroscientific analyses to prove, and where necessary, help boost the effec tiveness of digital signage im age and video content, before it goes live. Worth over £375, the incentive provides, Cremins suggests, “an introduction to the future of good content cre ation.

sualties of any budget cuts.

Q: What exactly are the benefits for the end users?

JC: Anyone with an active Sig nagelive licence can now trial and experience data-driven de sign support, pre-launch, when there’s a real opportunity to save money by preventing content from ever under-performing in the first place.

In just one click, users can in stantly run analyses and see, at a glance, exactly which parts of a design are likely to attract the most attention.

The beauty of the platform is that

uniquely placed to support. With EyeQuant, and Signagelive’s technology, Real Time Events (RTEs), customers have more opportunity than ever before to bring down the cost and com plexity of delivering experiential campaigns.

Transforming the Signagelive CMS platform into a hub for external device control, RTEs make it easy to control any con nected product in the environ ment, so you can set the right ambience and immerse viewers in any on-screen brand story, or promotion.

While EyeQuant helps highlight a strapline, the RTEs solution

fers solutions, such as Secure Dashboards and a dedicated Microsoft PowerBI app to help organisations quickly – and se curely roll-out their insights at scale, EyeQuant enables them to perfect their data visualisation strategies, and make facts and figures easier to interpret.

Q: Can you tell us a little about how EyeQuant works?

JC: Drawing on a combination of advanced neuroscientific research, artificial intelligence and neural network modelling, EyeQuant simulates how people perceive designs within the first

accurate as conducting any prelaunch surveys or in-person fo cus groups, and a much more

JC: From many years of cus tomer feedback, it’s clear that producing good content is still a challenge for many organisa tions.

It’s one of the biggest blocks to user adoption, deterring compa nies across the market from ex panding their networks, or worse still, investing in one at all.

The fact is, while leading-edge content management, delivery and execution can certainly maximise the impact of cam paigns, if the content is no good, your network isn’t going to per form as well as it should.

That’s a big concern for all com panies, especially given the pressure to run marketing cam paigns around the clock, twen ty-four seven.

This need to design effective content one hundred per cent of the time is the motivating factor behind our EyeQuant partner ship. Through the EyeQuant platform, we believe we can of fer the missing link in content creation support, and, in the process, help democratise ac cess to good design.

it can salvage weaker content, without requiring any major re design work. Through a series of heat maps, it visually signposts how a switch in layout position

ensures you’re able to drive the message home. It enables you to send commands within your content files to trigger, at any pre-selected stage of the asset

three-five seconds of viewing. Already widely used by the likes of Google, Epson and Meta for other digital media, such as websites, social media and

immediate and cost-effective alternative It’s the kind of AI data-driven tool that we believe will become increasingly key to the business

of good content creation, trans forming the subjective art of design into a more predictable scientific process. For more information on Sig nagelive’s promotional part nership with EyeQuant, please visit: https://signagelive.com/ eyequant/

JC: We hope that it will help resellers offer more practical, cost-saving support for all their customers, even the small-tomedium-sized enterprises that can be more risk adverse.

Technologies, such as EyeQuant, along with CMS platforms like ours, which come integrated with a myriad of simple content creation tools, enable stream lined teams of all graphic design abilities to create impactful, lead and/or sales-generating content.

For large enterprises, simple centralised content manage ment support, and a data-vali dated approach to campaigns can significantly reduce much of the risk, cost and investment associated with delivering digi tal signage at scale. This com bined support gives companies more opportunity - more scope to pursue and justify ambitious network expansion plans, which are often otherwise the first ca

Q: Why launch a promotional partnership with EyeQuant?

Q: How will the partnership support reseller projects?

Introducing - Bauer Digital

In 2022, we are proud to have partnered with leading LED pro viders, Lighthouse Technologies Limited. General Manager Paul Langridgeeexplains “Lighthouse Technologies Limited is a glob al leader in LED video display technology that develops, manu factures, and markets LED video display solutions for multiple indoor & outdoor applications, media and entertainment events, and sports arenas across the globe. With numerous technological breakthroughs to their name, Lighthouse is a multi-award-winning leader in the LED video display industry that holds itself with the highest standards of quality.”.

AVN – Nice to meet you Paul, you are the GM at Bauer Digital, can you tell us a little bit about your background and Bauer Digital?

PL – After a short time in the military, my first role in AV was in 1990, working on the development and marketing of LCD panels. Since then, I’ve been involved in the production of various display technologies including LCD, DLP and LED. For the last 12 years I have worked with manufacturers and system integrators in provid ing LED display solutions to a range of end-user markets.

AVN – Bauer Digital recently announced an exclusive distribution deal with Lighthouse Technologies for the UK, can you tell us how that came about?

PL – Bauer Digital and Lighthouse Technologies have had a good working relationship for a while now. We have always been im pressed by the range and quality of their products and the pedi gree of the company. As Bauer Digital grew, we knew that having a direct connection and opportunity to partner with Lighthouse was the next stage to Bauer Digital's development. This exclusive partnership with Lighthouse Technologies means Bauer Digital now can provide our UK clients with some of the best LED display technology on the market.

AVN – What would you say are the main USP’s for Bauer Digital over some of the other LED brands selling UK?

PL – We have a wide selection of LED Indoor and Outdoor prod ucts, all stocked in the UK for fast delivery. We can provide Instal lation support services to back up any integrators and resellers. Whether you’re experienced in selling or installing LED or not, Bauer Digital has the in-house expertise to assist with projects, via our in-house technical support services. We are highly competitive on price, but big on features and quality for the cost and in the rare occurrence that our customers might have any service issues, we have a UK based service centre, which allows a fast turnaround on repairs. We can even provide on-site service, if required.

PL - We have a lot of installations that your readers can check out on our website www.bauer-digital.co.uk We cover just about ev ery vertical and application, so whether the integrator supplies into corporate, education, medical, retail indoor or outdoor, we can not only provide the product, but help with the specification, planning and any aspect of that project. We view the business relationship with our UK integrators as a partnership, not as a supplier/customer relationship.

AVN – Are there any new products that you can talk about to our readers?

PL - Yes we are very excited about one of our newest products the BD-0.9-600-337.5. It’s part of the Bauer Digital SP Series LED Display, it delivers amazing high-resolution and vivid colour. With a narrow pixel pitch up to P1.25mm, the superfine pitch offers unlim

ited possibilities for advertising, digital broadcasting, and mar keting events. What I personally really like about this product, is that the panel depth is only 24mm (0.008ft.), with front service capability. This makes it one of the slimmest and most versatile products in the market and at a great price.

AVN – How can anyone interested get in contact with you?

PL – We can be contacted by phone on +44 (0) 20 3503 0011, or by email at info@bauer-digital.co.uk

AVN – Thanks for your time today Paul. We wish you all the best with this exciting new brand

PL – Thanks so much for allowing us the time to tell you all about us.

AVN – Are there any other areas or installations you can talk about to our readers?

The energy crisis and AV

UK energy provision has been plunged into chaos by a perfect storm of trans-national market forces and an energy supply in dustry out of step with its market. These trends threatens the UK economy from consumer energy suppliers to the business commu nity and heavy industry. Less conspicuous to date, has been the societal shift in favour of digitisation, which has seen all sectors of society, from education to ecommerce, increasingly reliant on a consistent and affordable energy supply. So how long will the cur rent energy crisis last? And will things ever go back to ‘normal’?

Press coverage is stoking fears that a wave of energy suppliers will collapse and consequently, households and businesses will be saddled with unaffordable bills. But that is not the full ex tent of the problem. Along with most advanced economies. The UK is amidst a socio-economic transition to a digital and there fore, energy consuming environ ment. Be it IT, AV, business or entertainment. It all uses elec tricity and is therefore subject to the laws of supply and demand. So what are the drivers behind the current crisis? Many and various is the answer. and we are particularly unfortunate that these factors are combining into a ‘perfect storm’.

Drivers of the energy crisis

Undoubtedly. Putin’s war in Ukraine is one of the major is sues which shows no early sign of immediate resolution. As shipments of gas have turned from Europe towards China, ad ditional flows of pipeline gas to Europe have failed to make up the shortfall. In a single day gas prices across Europe rose by an other 10% after Russia’s statebacked gas company, Gazprom, refused to increase its exports to Europe – despite record-high prices across the continent. The company has met its contractual obligations for gas delivery over recent months but Gazprom has come under fierce criticism for appearing to send little extra to help meet the enormous de mand in Europe.

The gas shortage is particularly bad news for the UK. Around half of the UK’s electricity is gen erated by burning fossil fuel in gas-fired power plants, a trend which has become more deeply entrenched over recent months after a string of problems in the UK electricity system. The UK has been slow to react to the challenge of renewables and ageing nuclear power plants have been forced to suffer un planned outages for mainte

nance. A main power cable used to import electricity from France has shut down after a fire and the UK’s wind turbines have slowed during some of the least windy months since 1961. Britain has been forced to tem porarily fire up coal power sta tions, paying millions of pounds to the likes of Drax in North Yorkshire, to plug some of this power shortfall. That fragile sys tem faces further challenges in the years ahead, with most of the UK’s nuclear power plants, which supply up to 20% of elec

rose by more than 12% from 1st October and is likely to rise again next April. But the hikes will not come fast enough for dozens of small energy suppliers which don’t have deep enough pockets to survive the wait until the next cap increase.

As a major supplier of business displays and monitors, Sharp/ NEC was one of the first to offer customers immediate access to information around the energy efficiency of its range of digital signage, interactive displays, dv LED and Pro TV products to cus

when scanned using a smart phone, immediately show the information stored on the EPREL database, allowing greater trans parency to customers and easier market surveillance by national authorities.

Martijn van den Woud, Head of Global Business Development and Marketing at PPDS, com mented: “It’s estimated that up to 25% of products in the mar ket do not comply with energy efficiency labelling regulations and that around 10% of poten tial energy savings are lost due

ENERGY STAR efficiency re quirements. Federal laws and requirements mandate that agencies purchase ENERGY STAR-qualified products (or FEMP-designated products) in all product categories covered by these programs and in any acquisition actions that are not specifically exempted by law.

FEMP's acquisition guidance and associated ENERGY STAR efficiency requirements for dis plays and monitors are tech nology neutral, meaning that one technology is not favoured

devices based on quantum dots have promised “greater power efficiency, brightness and co lour purity than previous gen erations of displays.” Quantum dots are nanoscale crystals ca pable of emitting light of differ ent colours. Of the three colours typically used and required for full-colour image displays blue has proven difficult to produce. Pixels can appear almost any co lour, but they are not the small est element on your screen; they are typically made up of subpixels which are red, green and blue. The variable intensity of these subpixels gives the ap pearance of a single colour from a palette of billions.

Quantum dot light emitting di odes, or QD-LEDs. Displays based on QD-LEDs already exist, but the technology is still matur ing, and current options have some drawbacks, specifically regarding the blue subpixels within them. Of the three pri mary colours, blue subpixels are the most important. Through a down-conversion process, blue light has the ability to generate green and red light. Because of this, the blue quantum dots re quire controlled physical param eters – more so than others. This often means blue quantum dots are highly complex and costly to produce, and their quality is a critical factor in any display. But now, a team of researchers led by the University of Tokyo’s Department of Chemistry has claimed to solve the problem.

How long will the energy crisis last?

tricity, to close by the end of the decade. Hinkley Point C is being built to enhance nuclear energy supply but will not be available for years.

Electricity prices

The energy price cap sets out a maximum level for default ener gy tariffs twice a year based on the cost of supplying energy. It

tomers (listed in the box below.) Earlier this year the EU’s revised energy labelling system came into force, replacing the existing labelling (A+++, A++, A+, A, B, C and D) with a more simplified A-G measurement rating. Exist ing appliances with an A or A+ rating are likely now listed as G. The new A-G labels placed on Philips professional displays now feature a QR code which,

to non-compliance. The new labelling and database will help improve understanding and coherence for customers to correctly identify and select the most efficient products.”

In the US has been far more proactive: The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) provides ‘acquisition guidance’ for displays and monitors, a product category covered by

over another. However, ENER GY STAR's product specifica tion requirements are limited to computer monitors and signage displays. Products covered by other ENERGY STAR program requirements (e.g., televisions) are excluded.

Outside government, AV indus try suppliers have taken inde pendent initiatives. Samsung, for example, says that its display

So in the longer term, a tech nological fix may well be on the way. But will these be available in time? Energy market watchers say that the energy crisis will last until at least 2024. In January if this year, British Gas owner Cen trica’s CEO Chris O’Shea told the BBC that “high gas prices will be here for the next 18 months to two years”. But that was even before Russia invaded Ukraine, and Europe moved away from Russian energy, which in turn prompted Russia to limit its en ergy supply to the continent. This move exacerbated an al ready perilous situation for the UK, which had low levels of gas storage and was heavily relying on European nations who got much of their energy from Rus sia. With global gas supplies still unable to properly meet demand – and with Russia still at loggerheads with the interna tional community over its illegal invasion of Ukraine – the ener gy crisis may well continue past 2024.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research’s depu

ty chairman Douglas McWil liams has said that “unless the Ukraine situation resolves itself, prices are likely to be high but falling for three or four years.”

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has wars: “It may well be that we have a number of winters where we have to somehow find solu tions through efficiency savings, through rationing and a very, very quick buildout of alterna tives.”

What would end the ener gy crisis?

Diminution of the driving fac tors behind the energy crisis is complicated and difficult to exe cute. Most are also long-term. Of those with the most immediate prospect of resolution, a Rus sian withdrawal from Ukraine, should result in an earlier end to the crisis. But sanctions on Russia are likely to continue for a while, as Putin’s regime has become a pariah state that must be stopped from further aggres sion.

In the longer term, Europe as a whole has been attempting to create an energy mix that doesn’t include Russian oil or gas. This will likely be a lengthy process, but the best route is to commit to developing renew able energy sources. This will cut reliance on Russian oil and gas, provide a way for the UK to reach net zero emissions, and help the country to achieve en ergy independence. Investment in solar energy, wind power, geo

Impact of the energy crisis

Greg Mack. Sales Manager, UK, Ireland and Middle East. at Vivi tek described the impact of the energy crisis on his customers: “Education, leisure and the cor porate sector are all impacted by the energy crisis and are likely to be so for at least the next two years, as they are particular ly energy-intensive industries.

Looking at premises holistical ly, those businesses that are based in energy-efficient smart buildings have a head start, as a combination of solar panels, PV inverters and energy manage ment solutions provide much more control over their energy use and storage.”

“That really needs to be the starting point; while it is sensi ble that all electric devices can power down when not in use or are energy efficient, all of those device-related gains can be lost if the building itself is inefficient.

In terms of how they're respond ing to the crisis, we're seeing more organisations hanging on to their IT and AV equipment, rather than trading up.“

“Schools for instance, had their budgets set earlier this year ahead of the energy and cost of living crisis taking hold. Their budgets are now diminishing rapidly, with many now having to decide between heating and providing meals for their pupils.

That scenario has seriously im pacted their ability to make new investments in any field. That's

slash energy costs on Philips professional displays The com pany has reaffirmed its com mitment to supporting and pro moting sustainability in the AV industry with a strategy that is designed to help customers re duce their electronic waste and enhance their green credentials. This will see PPDS will continue to bring more energy efficient products to market, reconfig uring and reducing packaging, while providing greater access to information on energy con sumption, for more educated and environmentally focused business buying decisions.

The declaration. made by Mar tijn van der Woude, Head of Global Business Development and Marketing at PPDS, in cludes extending its focus on delivering the most energy con scious products to market and bringing lower cost of ownership to customers – more relevant than ever in the ongoing global energy crisis. Van der Woude added: “Sustainability has al ways been of great importance to us at PPDS. We’re proud of what we have achieved to date, and we feel it is our duty and our responsibility, both to customers – who are calling for this – and to the planet, to do even more. And we encourage our competi tors to do the same.”

Cross-industry collabora tion

Further, he said: “Collaborating closely with our partners, we will

PPDS, alongside its sister organ isations, TP Vision, MMD Moni tors and Displays, and AOC, has already made significant strides in enhancing its green creden tials throughout the display lifecycle – from manufacturing in its factories, along transpor tation journeys, through to its headquarters and regional sales operations. Benefiting from its unique position, manufacturing its own products in its own fac tories (no outsourcing) as a part of TPV, PPDS is owner of its own destiny, ensuring appropriate measures are taken throughout the entire production process, from concept to completion. This is highlighted, as a part of its continued expansion pro gram, with the recent opening a new manufacturing plant for its dvLED production, with the building’s design and the practices within it providing not only a quality working environ ment, but an environmentally conscious one, too. Products are also now contained in con densed packaging, carefully calculated to minimise resourc es used and to maximise the number of products able to be loaded in any one shipment.

Legislative support

Earlier this year, the EU’s revised energy labelling system came into force, replacing the existing labelling (A+++, A++, A+, A, B, C and D) with a more simplified A-G measurement rating. Exist ing appliances with an A or A+

thermal energy, and hydropower is the way to find a long-lasting solution to the crisis.

Between now and October 2024, the government needs to find a way to end or at least mit igate the crisis, or face having to freeze energy costs again – a policy that’s already set to cost the taxpayer more than £100 billion. This is where measures designed to temper energy us age are significant, even where the numbers involved might formerly have seemed relatively trivial.

one reason why schools - and other organisations - that pur chased reliable and durable AV solutions with long warranties, are now benefitting from the investment decisions that they made ahead of the energy crisis unfolding.”

Energy saving initiatives by the AV industry

PPDS places sustainability as a ‘top business priority’ as part of a commitment to reduce waste, protect the environment and

be working hard to ensure that our existing and future Philips professional display products and solutions continue to pro vide best-in-class experiences, while also delivering on lowest energy consumption and re duced impacts throughout prod uct lifecycles, including the use of recycled and recyclable ma terials, and the carbon neutrality of products.”

In addition to improving the energy efficiency of its digital signage, interactive displays, dvLED and Pro TV solutions,

rating are likely now listed as G. The new A-G labels placed on Philips professional displays now feature a QR code which, when scanned using a smart phone, immediately show the information stored on the EPREL database, allowing greater trans parency to customers and easier market surveillance by national authorities.

Martijn van der Woude believes that: “It’s estimated that up to 25% of products in the market do not comply with energy effi ciency labelling regulations and

that around 10% of potential energy savings are lost due to non-compliance. The new label ling and database will help im prove understanding and coher ence for customers to correctly identify and select the most effi cient products.”

He continues: “Part of the ethos announced in our rebrand state ment highlighted our ‘global reach, local support’ strategy. This is hugely important on many different levels. In short, we have physical teams located across the world, which great ly reduces the travel needs for arranging meetings, sales and visiting project sites. Videocalls, rather than physical meetings are also greatly encouraged where possible and our busi ness has been set up to support remote working. Our Philips C-Line range makes this even easier – meaning the pandemic meant no radical changes for us and allowed us to function fairly closely to normal.”

Design for sustainability

PPDS’ most recently launched solutions - most evident with its ranges of corporate (Philips

C-Line), education (Philips E-Line), hospitality (Philips Me diaSuite) displays, which fa cilitate and encourage remote working/learning/entertainment, while helping to reduce unnec essary electronic waste. Tak ing things further, PPDS’ new Philips DV LED range (Philips 7000 and 6000 series) which are now designed to deliver proven low energy consumption – between 20%, and, in some instances, close to 50%, when compared to similar products on the market – without compro mising on performance.

In another innovation to support energy saving in displays, Avo cor’s Google Meet Series One, is an all-in-one devices. launched in September 2021, to bring meeting equity to everyone, both in-person and remote. The Series One Desk 27 and Board 65 feature a sleek design that is intuitive and easy to use, includ ing an optically bonded screen. Both devices are tilt-optimized for a natural writing angle, with anti-fingerprint glass to offer an acutely sensitive writing expe rience using fingers, palms, or the included passive stylus for immersive whiteboarding where

Martijn van der Woude Head of Global Business Development and Marketing at PPDS : “It’s estimated that up to 25% of products in the market do not comply with energy efficiency labelling reg ulations and that around 10% of potential energy savings are lost due to non-compliance.

Most of the UK’s nuclear power plants, which supply up to 20% of electricity, to close by the end of the decade. Hinkley Point C is being built to enhance nuclear energy supply but will not be available an estimated 11 years.

CTouch CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer Remmelt van der Woude: “CTOUCH is focused on making our touchscreens more sustainable every day. We believe this is commitment every manu facturer should be after. Our environment is all we have. If we and you don’t take care of it, who will?”

everyone can easily see and contribute.

A specifically energy efficiency feature of the Google Meet board is called Idle Mode, which, has ow been adopted in a number of Avocor displays. “Our interactive touch screens are designed to flawlessly and seamlessly con nect employees’ together and improve meeting productivity, whether they’re in the office or

Woude again: “Sustainability has always been of great importance to us at PPDS. We’re proud of what we have achieved to date, and we feel it is our duty and our responsibility, both to customers – who are calling for this – and to the planet, to do even more. And we encourage our competitors to do the same. Collaborating closely with our partners, we will be working hard to ensure that

Tools and tips to reduce energy usage

As rising energy costs bite more deeply, there is plenty of advice available for businesses to help them reduce their energy bills . NEC With simple ideas such as replacing light bulbs with LEDs, to in vesting in a smart meter to help you be more energy aware, busi nesses want to take control of their energy usage. The risk of energy shortages as a result of geo-political threats further adds to the need to reduce usage in order to safeguard supplies. Here are some AV specific suggestions from Sharp/NEC.

Five tips for reducing power consumption

Most professional devices feature ECO modes and functionality such as automatic timers and smart sensors which are recommended to use. Different product groups will have different functionality but all with the aim of reducing power consumption and lengthening the life cycle. Not all these tips are so obvious however, so look out for some perhaps lesser-known ideas!

1. Operate in ECO Mode

working remotely. With environ mentally friendly features like power-saving mode, some of our interactive flat screens also have built-in sensors, automatically turning on when you enter the room.”

Such energy efficient features will surely be adopted in the near future by many other manufac turers, steering them towards sustainability. These technology enhancements have a longer life than the duration of the current energy crisis and mark a step on the road to true sustainability.

Will the energy crisis morph into a sustainability crisis?

Some environmentalists view the present energy crisis as a mere symptom of a deep-rout ed societal shift to a greener, more sustainable world. PPDS and CTouch are among the AV leaders in this respect: Van der

our existing and future Philips professional display products and solutions continue to pro vide best-in-class experiences, while also delivering on lowest energy consumption and re duced impacts throughout prod uct lifecycles, including the use of recycled and recyclable ma terials, and the carbon neutrality of products.”

CTouch CEO and Chief Sus tainability Officer Remmelt van der Woude issued a challenge to manufacturers: “CTOUCH is focused on making our touch screens more sustainable every day. We believe this is commit ment every manufacturer should be after. Our environment is all we have. If we and you don’t take care of it, who will?” Many other manufacturers will follow suit as sustainability migrates from an item on the feature list to a corporate philosophy, fun damental to product design, manufacturing and operation.

Sharp/NEC desktop monitors, large format displays and projectors all feature ECO Modes, designed to optimise energy consumption during operation. Intelligent Power Management features and Au to-standby Mode ensure the device is only switched on when a source is connected. Inbuilt scheduling functionality avoids unnec essary operating time by automatically powering down at a pre-set time.

These tools are available and Sharp/NEC encourages its customers to make full use of them as they audit and action energy reduction. All Sharp/NEC displays are shipped in an energy-saving pre-set be cause, in general, the end user rarely makes any adjustment to the factory setting.

2. Activate sensor technology

Motion sensors, such as the NEC Human Presence Sensor, detect movement around the device to trigger an action. Built into Sharp/ NEC desktop monitors and an optional feature on its large format displays, when the user, or passer-by, is detected within the sensor area, the display automatically powers-up to increase the bright ness. By minimising power usage when there’s no one in the vicinity, significant energy savings can be made. Businesses can save over 30% of their CO2 consumption by using this feature.

Similarly, brightness sensors adapt the display brightness to the am bient light conditions ensuring eye pleasing readability of content and optimised power usage.

3. Shut down when not in use

Almost all electrical appliances consume energy even when in stand by mode. Both LED and LCD technologies are mature enough to be shut down every day thus reducing unnecessary power usage. It is important however to be mindful of the inrush current when an LED device is switched on which can overload components. By regulating the switch-on process with the use of a switch-on controller, individ ual LED modules will start up sequentially to mitigate power spikes. This investment is small compared to running the overall system 24/7 unnecessarily.

4. Choose your content wisely

Even if a complete shutdown is not possible, running your LED de

vice without content could also reduce the energy draw. The influ ence of the content on the energy balance is often underestimated. By using a black background instead of a bright background for your LED display, the power consumption drops by up to 50 percent. Fur thermore, blue LEDs consume the least amount of power so content using predominantly blue rather than red or green is preferable.

5.Remote management and control

Digital signage screens, media players and other devices should be continuously monitored and actively controlled. A software solution for remote control is one of the most efficient ways to operate a dis play network. With the NEC NaViSet Administrator 2 software, for example, automated switch-on and switch-off times can be defined, minimising unnecessary power usage when devices are not in use. NaViSet can be used to monitor and report on usage and power saving functions across all connected devices helping organisations to quantify their carbon footprint.

Sharp/NEC desktop monitors, large format displays and projectors all feature ECO Modes, designed to optimise energy consumption during operation.

Photo by Tobias Weinhold on Unsplash

Highlights of 2022

The year of consolidation!

The last year will go down as one in which the AV industry started to enjoy some of the benefits of recovery, following the worst of the pandemic, tempered with economic decline and an energy crisis. Whether you finished the year up over all largely depends on the sector you are in and the state of your business at the end on the pandemic. For many, even continuing as an independent business has to be considered as a result.

February 2022

Shortages and delays put Live Events at risk

Throughout the pandemic it was the live events sector that really suf-fered. PLASA, the lead association for the entertainment tech nology in-dustry, and #WeMakeEvents, the global campaign to save live events, published a detailed global survey report on the current position and fu-ture recovery of the live events industry. The survey ran from 1 Novem-ber 2021 to 21 December 2021 and was com pleted by 1,948 respondents in over 40 countries in five different languages. The data provides strong and clear evidence of the chal lenges facing the sector, with the vast ma-jority reporting delays, shortages and cost increases.

January 2022

Exertis’ biggest ever acquisition

The year kicked off with the news that DCC Technology, which trades as Exertis and al ready one of the world’s leading technology distribution and ser vices businesses, announced its acquisition of Almo Corporation in North America. The acquisi tion is the biggest yet in the his tory of par-ent company DCC plc and underlines the importance of the American market for AV / IT. The move signalled an am bitious strategy for Exer-tis, ex tending its international scale in the Pro AV sector and ramping up its expansion in the North American market.

The addition of Almo Corpo ration builds on other acquisi tions in North America such as Stampede, Jam Industries, The Music People and JB&A, adding greater depth to its consumer portfolio. It expands Exer-tis’ Pro AV capability to form the largest specialist Pro AV business in North America.

In an interview with AV News, Tim Griffin MD of D CC Technology and Exertis said: “The acquisition of Almo Corporation is the largest in DCC’s history and signals our confident and ambitious intent to expand DCC Technology. By integrating Almo with our North Amer ican Busi-ness, we will form the largest specialist Pro AV business in North Amer-ica. Almo’s 75-year history of growth and success, combined with its longstanding relationships with industry partners and its ability to contin-ually innovate and expand will be great assets to Exertis. In turn, we will bring significant economies of scale, global supply chain access and other benefits to the customers of Almo Corporation.”

He continued: “Alamo is a substantial proAV asset ion its own right but it also comes with a great platform for us to be able to extend into con-sumer appliances and ecommerce, so we are very happy with those addi-tions above and beyond the proAV space. Obviously, we’ve got proAV there and we have now got a similar sized asset to combine into a genu-ine powerhouse.”

CTouch increases UK stock and adopts hybrid distribution

CTouch UK has recently openedup increased stock holding abil ity in the UK to enable it to meet market demands from both end-users and resellers alike. A new warehouse facility and logistics contract was secured and implemented with specialist transportation company, Relay Technical Transport, to offer na tionwide coverage, with special ist ‘white glove’ delivery services.

CTouch Europe, through plan ning and long-term manufac turing relationships, was able to avoid any major stock shortages for touchscreens in the UK, seen by much of the AV industry, and has seen an increase in demand as a result. Gregg Ringer, then Head of Market Development in the UK, commented: “Over the past 12 months we have seen increased demand for our touchscreens. By expanding our distribu tion ability, we have ensured that we are able to meet this demand.”

Looking ahead confidence is mixed with the majority of respondents lacking confidence in industry recovery within the next six months. This is even more startling considering the survey was conducted before the Omicron variant threatened the lucrative winter holiday season. Howev-er, there was cautious optimism in the timeframe from seven to 18 months, which mirrors the progress made when the Live Events industry re-opened in 2021. But for now, companies and organisations are carry-ing a heavy financial burden, reporting a huge decrease in annual turno-ver. To increase the pressure further, 45% took on additional debt to survive the lockdowns. Freelancers are faring no better, with low earners growing in number and top earners dropping by 78%.

The supply chain was found to be in complete disarray, with short ages and delays across the board. A shocking 94% of manufactur ers experi-encing delays in components, resulting in many being forced to source new suppliers and redesign products. The knockon effects are felt by rental companies, venues, installers and dis tributors, with the vast majori-ty facing delays in finished goods, cost increases, and unavoidable com-plications.

What was once a strong and dynamic sector and the envy of the world – bringing in £70 billion, according to the BVEP UK Events Report – is now suffering from a ‘perfect storm’ of issues which is permeating every part of the Live Events Supply Chain.

ISE postpones until May 2022

Perhaps we all felt it was inev itable, but nonetheless news of ISE’s three-month postpone ment was greeted with a mix of shock and disappoint-ment, tinged with a hint of relief. In a statement, ISE’S organisers said: “After consultation with the ISE exhibitor and visitor com munity and in the light of the in creasing impact of the Omicron variant in Spain, Inte-grated Systems Events announces that ISE 2022, scheduled for 1-4 Feb-ruary, has been postponed and will now take place on 1013 May 2022 at the Fira de Bar celona Gran Vía.”

Mike Blackman, Managing Di rector of Integrated Systems Events: “We’ve been closely monitoring the conditions in Europe and have been working hard on your behalf to balance health and safety concerns with the need for commerce and in-person interaction.”

Mike Blackman, Managing Di rector of Integrated Systems Events, said today: “By moving the event to the spring, it pro vides time for our community to rebalance and for confidence in international travel and meetings to resume. We will be working closely with all our exhibitors and stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition to the new dates. We look forward to hosting the global AV community at ISE 2022 in May in our new home in Barcelona.”

March 2022

Midwich acquires Nimans

Midwich has announced it has entered a binding agreement to ac quire Nimans Limited and its subsidiaries from Nycomm Holdings Limited. Nimans is a UK based specialist distributor of unified com munications, telecoms, collaboration and audio-visual technologies. Based near Man-chester, Nimans was founded in 1981 and has

long-established business with a great reputation for technical excellence, cus-tomer service and logistics competence. Its

built a strong presence and repu tation in the UK telephony hard ware market.

In recent years the business has expanded successfully into new market areas such as unified communications, VOIP solutions, security, and networking. Key brand relationships include Yealink, Jabra and BT. The Company trades with over 2,500 telephony, IT and retail customers and employs over 200 staff. In its latest audited financial statements, for the year ended 31 December 2020, Nimans generated consolidated revenues of £114.3 million. Completion is subject only to FCA approval and ex-pected in the first half of 2022.

Stephen Fenby, Midwich Group Managing Director, commented: “Nimans is a long-established business with a great reputation for tech-nical excellence, customer service and logistics competence. Its tradition-al telecoms market has been changing, bringing with it new revenue op-portunities which the company has developed strongly, in areas such as unified communications, video conferenc ing, security and networking. I believe that the combined skill sets and capabilities of Midwich and Nimans bring a unique offering into the market in terms of providing complex solutions involving multiple technologies.”

Exterity rebrands as VITEC

Exterity is now officially VITEC, marking a key milestone in the suc cess-ful integration of both companies following the acquisition of Exterity in April 2021. VITEC is a provider of IPTV, Video Streaming and Digital Signage Solutions that help organisations harness the power of video to engage, empower and evolve. The strengthened organisation will contin-ue to deliver a wide range of best-in-class solutions across its markets, leveraging the expertise of the com bined teams to best serve customers and partners around the globe. The move has been further signified by new branding, incorporating the distinctive Exterity orange into the VI-TEC logo, giving a fresh new look to accompany the change. The combined company now has 375 employees across 16 coun tries, and work is ongoing towards maintaining and expanding upon the investment in Exterity staff and locations.

April 2022

Exertis’ digital transformation drives Board changes

Leading technology distributor Exertis has announced changes to its sen-ior leadership team.

Vishal Chhatralia, Chief Digi tal and Marketing Of-ficer, will move into a global role, driving digital transformation across Exertis International. Chhatralia joined Exertis in 2019, focusing his ef-forts on developing digital capabilities within Exertis UK. This includes online, cloud, di rect2consumer, data analytics and robotic process auto-ma tion.

Leading technology distributor Exertis has announced changes to its sen-ior leadership team.

Vishal Chhatralia, Chief Digi tal and Marketing Of-ficer, will move into a global role, driving digital transformation across Ex ertis International.

In his new role, Chhatralia will take these capabilities and ac celerate the digital journey of the Exertis Group international ly, while also taking on responsibility for Exertis’ own brand portfolio and global vendor account management. Chhatralia will report into Tim Griffin, Managing Director of DCC Technology. Tim Griffin, Man aging Director of DCC Technol-ogy, said, “This move will enhance and accelerate our digital transfor-mation across the Exertis Group. Vish has successfully built blueprints for many initiatives in the UK and now we begin the process of scaling these out. I wish Vish every success in his new role.”

Exertis UK has also announced personnel changes. Phill Turner, Global Head of Voice of the Customer, is moving into the position of Chief Ex-perience Officer, reporting to Paul Bryan, Managing Direc tor of Exertis UK. The newly created role is responsible for delivering a seamless cus-tomer experience across all stages and touchpoints in the customer jour-ney, helping the business continually achieve greater customer satisfaction and increased efficiencies. Turner will assume responsibility for Custom-er Services and Sales Operations but will also be the driving force in pri-oritising and encouraging prob lem-solving, strategic thinking and cus-tomer orientation amongst the wider organisation including IT, Opera-tions, HR, Finance, Sales, Commercial, Marketing, Digital and Purchasing.

So here our roundup of what happened in 2022

Tim Griffin, DCC Technology & Exertis Managing Director says, “The acquisition of Almo Cor poration is the largest in DCC’s history and sig-nals our confi dent and ambitious intent to expand DCC Technology.

Gregg Ringer, Head of Market Development in the UK, com mented: “Over the past 12 months we have seen increased demand for our touchscreens. By expanding our distribution ability, we have ensured that we are able to meet this de mand.”

Stephen Fenby, Midwich Group Managing Director: “Nimans is a

traditional telecoms market has been changing, bringing with it new revenue opportunities.”

ISE 2022; times a changing?

Some changes to the ISE formula are born of changes to the market, others can be attributed to the evolution of the show itself. It’s an unusu-al event in so far as it embraces so many disparate, but re lated, technolo-gies and an ever-growing range of applications. This year, we will see some consolidation of collaborative technologies as hybrid working be-comes the norm, further progress in new realities as well as organic de-velopments in displays, audio and networking. And then are the para-digm shifts, such the practical adoption of IOT.

This latter trend has been marked by the new partnership between ISE and the IOT Solutions World Congress (IOTSWC to reimagine cross-industry digital transformation. The partners have agreed to join forces this year and provide an unparalleled ecosystem for dig ital transformation to professionals from many industries. The joint celebration of the two events will provide a unique opportunity to explore the crossroads be-tween two different sets of disruptive technologies.

May 2022

Sharp/NEC joint venture complete

Sharp NEC Display Solutions Europe is placing the entire visual dis play line-up of both Sharp and NEC branded products under one umbrella brand. Sharp NEC Display Solutions will provide significant value and business advantage to customers and partners through access to an en-hanced portfolio and an extended range of profes sional service offerings. The brands are uniting their extensive in dustry expertise and market recognition. Sharp’s innovative business products include professional and commercial displays, as well as the development of advanced tech-nologies in interactive and 8K. NEC’s broad range of high-quality visual technology and digital sig nage solutions for a wide variety of industries are recognised by cus tomers worldwide.

Sharp NEC Display Solutions Europe, led by President and CEO Bernd Eberhardt, will follow a strategic path to the future of visu

initiative. This program is designed to integrate its platform with other elements of the workplace such as booking systems for deeper ana lytics, IoT, and BYOD to support the ever-growing hybrid workforce.

“Utelogy is responding to the needs of an increasingly con-nected and technology-reliant global workspace by delivering cost-saving solutions that elevate user experiences through insights and ana lytics,” said Kevin Morrison, Utelogy CEO. “We are also continually growing our global partner network to meet the evolving demands of our enter-prise customers.”

Morrison added, “Our vision has always been to provide a toolset that delivers actionable intelligence on how businesses use their technol ogy, how it performs, and how the workplace is utilized. This data can then be used to make better and more informed decisions. In 2022, Utelogy will add new features to its platform so customers can take an even deeper dive into how they visualize and use their data. Focusing on the voice of the customer has given us the ability to grow Utelogy more than 270% from 2020 to 2021,” said Morrison.

June 2022

ISE 2022: the verdict!

ISE 2022 closed its doors and the visitor numbers have been an nounced. The conclusion is that the move to May, the change of venue and the on-going battle with Covid resulted in a remarkably smooth transition to Barcelona albeit with lower numbers of visitors.

With a total 43,691 unique attendees from 151 countries, exhibitors reported busier than ex-pected booths and many fruitful business connections. This was the first full ISE show since February 2020, when ISE said farewell to its previous home in Amsterdam and nat urally there were suggestions for improve-ments from both visitors and exhibitors.

With 834 exhibitors in 48,000 square metres of show floor spread across six Technology Zones, with visitors suggesting improvements to booth numbering and integration with the show app. ISE 2022 set a new benchmark with a host of opportunities to explore new solutions and drive new business. Transport to the venue was gen erally good, with sub-sidised public transport. but something of a shortage of taxis when leav-ing Fire de Barcelona. Exhibitors were unconvinced about the value of late evening opening.

Mike Blackman, Managing Director of ISE, commented that ISE 2022 was an event to be proud of: “We are so pleased to have provided a suc-cessful platform for our exhibitors and partners to showcase their inno-vation and technology solutions. As we all re cover from the impact of the pandemic, it is wonderful to be here in Barcelona with what feels like a ‘normal’ ISE in its new home,” he continued. “We look forward to build-ing on this success to return on 31 January next year for another, energis-ing, exciting and inspiring ISE, here at the Gran Vía.”

Visavvi acquired by SCC

Bernd Eberhardt, President and CEO, Sharp NEC Display Solu tions Europe: “By combining the strengths of Sharp and NEC, we are provid-ing the widest range of visual solutions across multiple technologies, all engineered for trusted long-life reliability.”

al solutions, focusing on superior customer satisfaction enabled by high-quality prod-ucts, sales leadership excellence and a strong commitment to relation-ship-building.

“By combining the strengths of Sharp and NEC, we are providing the widest range of visual solutions across multiple technologies, all engi-neered for trusted long-life reliability. Sharp NEC Display Solu tions Eu-rope seeks to improve user creativity and productivity with products that help our customers address their business challenges, with each product supported with our world-renowned care and in tegrity. For the time be-ing, Sharp/NEC will offer two lines of displays that will be continuously aligned as we move forward,” commented Bernd Eberhardt, President and CEO.

Collaboration boosts software at ISE

Utelogy Corporation returned to the ISE Show in 2022 with a full exhibit planned to highlight its new product innovations and explosive company growth. Utel ogy is coming off consecutive years of significant increases in YoY revenues and bookings of more than 270% as its inter national ex-pansion continues.

During that time, Utelogy has published a number of signifi cant product releases that will be featured at ISE, including High Availability, U-Manage Analytic Tiles, Microsoft Teams Integration, and enhanced cy bersecurity measures.

The company also highlighted its Utelligence program for industry stand-ards around security and agnosticity, as well as the “Utelogy beyond the conference room”

SCC, Europe’s biggest privately-owned IT services firm, has an nounced the acquisition of Visavvi, adding capacity to scale its uni fied communica-tions business, SCC AVS. Visavvi is renowned for its high standards, with the company holding top industry accredita tions and partnerships, and has won AV Integrator of the Year three

RELEX Solutions acquires Formulate

RELEX Solutions has announced that it has acquired Formulate, a Swe-dish promotion planning and analytics company, building upon its posi-tion as a trusted provider of unified retail planning solutions. The acquisi-tion is a major step in RELEX’s commitment to offering a best-in-class unified platform with a robust promotion planning solu tion for retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies across the globe. Effi-cient promotional planning is an increasingly crucial factor to consider for retailers but is also notoriously difficult to manage, time-consuming, and mistakes can be costly. Lack of quality forecasting and scenario testing damages retailers’ overall business and logistics strategy, leading to a loss of 30-40% of pro motional sales and 15-30% of promotion profits.

With this acquisition, retailers will benefit from improved planning and optimization capabilities for each stage of the promotion process with the help of proprietary AI, machine learning, and advanced ana lytics in an easily accessible and understandable way.

Founded in 2016, Formulate offers world-class AI-based analyt ics for evaluating, predicting, and planning retail promotions. The company’s customers have reported a 15% profit improvement on promoted items, 75% time saved per person per week on promo analysis and forecasting, and 20% sales uplift on promoted items.

PPDS US becomes wholly owned subsidiary of TPV Group

times, including 2021. SCC AVS was formed in 2018 following the merger of SCC’s AV business with avsnet. The acquisition of Visavvi will build on organic growth achieved in the past three years. SCC AVS has more than doubled in size since 2020 – by adding wider breadth in the traditional AV market and enabling a larger focus on growth areas, such as digital workplace solutions accelerated by new hybrid working models. The acquisition of Visavvi, which will trade as ‘Visavvi, an SCC business’, sees SCC welcome 130 skilled people in AV and deepen its specialisms across the commercial and private sectors, including in education, where SCC has just been appointed an inaugural Panel Member on the enFrame ICT Framework.

Peerless-AV acquires ADF visual display products

Peerless-AV has announced that it has acquired ADF Visual Display Products of Southern California. Specialising in complex dvLED con-struction, ADF has engineered and manufactured some of the most prominent, visually stunning and challenging dvLED deploy ments of the last decade. Acting as a discreet OEM design and manufacturing partner for two of the industry’s best known dvLED infrastructure companies, ADF has set the standard for excellence in the category.

“Our dvLED business exploded virtually overnight. We began part ner-ing with ADF on projects where our capacity simply would not allow us to do it in house,” said John Potts CEO of Peerless-AV. “Af ter seeing the quality of the ADF product, for both ourselves as well as another significant name in the industry, we realised that they were the logical ad-dition to our company to facilitate our dynamic growth.”

PPDS has announced its US business has become a wholly owned sub-sidiary of the TPV Group, as the company enters a new, ac celerated hy-pergrowth phase in North America. This highly strate gic development fully aligns the business with PPDS’ wider global operations, unlocking immeasurable benefits and opportunities for its partners and customers. This includes adding more choice and value to the market, while offering unrivalled partner support, facil itating projects on both a local and global scale across industries including Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Hos-pitality, Retail and Transportation.

With this latest development in its global growth program, PPDS has set an ambitious target to achieve a top three market position in North America, cementing its position as one of the world’s fastest growing en-ablers of professional display solutions. Franck Racapé, Head of Global Commercial at PPDS commented: “As part of the company’s long-term plan to exponentially expand Philips professional display sales on a global level, our growth in the North American market is a milestone in our success. Our current business dynamic in North America is very promis-ing and we look forward to further acceler ating the trend, offering total display solutions for customers in all sectors, and positioning Philips pro-fessional displays as we believe they should be.”

Vince Schuster, who was appointed in October 2021 as the compa ny’s Vice President, Professional Displays commented: “Leveraging our partnerships and open technologies, such as Android, while cap italising on recent announcements, such as our Cloud-based Wave platform, to deliver a modern technology to securely and remotely monitor large pro-ject roll outs for our SIs and software partners, PPDS already stands tall and proud in the global market. With TPV, the future for the US busi-ness has never been brighter and we look forward to our partners joining us on our journey.”

Kevin Morrison, Utelogy CEO: “We are also continually grow ing our global partner network to meet the evolving demands of our enterprise customers.

Peerless-AV has announced that it has acquired ADF Visual Dis play Products of Southern California.

July 2022

RELEX Solutions has announced that it has acquired Formulate, a Swe-dish promotion planning and analytics company, building upon its posi-tion as a trusted provider of unified retail planning solutions.

InfoComm 2022 “buzzing”?

InfoComm 2022’s return to Las Vegas from June 4-10 featured a “buzz-ing trade show floor” according to the show organisers. The show wel-comed 19,681 verified attendees from more than 110 countries and all 50 US states, and 522 exhibitors showcased inno vative pro AV products and solutions across 294,500 square feet of the trade show floor in the North Hall and new West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

of 5.9% from 2022 to 2027. While this is due in part to the slow-down in economic ex-pansion across the globe, pro AV is still set to grow faster than most countries’ GDPs during the same period.

AVIXA’s 2022 Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA) presented data and analysis about the size of the pro AV industry with a glob al per-spective – plus regional and vertical breakouts. The research covers product trends, solution categories, and vertical markets. “As COVID-19 restrictions decline and people regain comfort with gathering in person, the economy is transforming and pro AV feels a surge in demand,” said Sean Wargo, Senior Director of Market Intel ligence, AVIXA. “Up to this point, the strongest solution areas were those offering adaptation to new behaviour, such as conferencing and learning. This has shifted to events and performance as we re turn to in-person.”

After being upended during the pandemic, the venues and events market is demonstrating its resiliency through a high ranking among market op-portunities. The market is forecast to grow from $30.7 bil lion in 2022 to $47.2 billion (9% CAGR) in 2027 globally. The fastest growing markets for pro AV include many that are recession resistant. While pandemic re-covery drives high growth in venues, media, and hospitality, others are benefitting from more stable investment. This

Rob Bint, CEO at The LED Stu dio, comments: “The LED Studio is going through a massive peri od of growth, having recently ex panded into the US. Our Innova tion Labs include a 35,000 sqft facility in Swindon UK, a Studio in London and offices through

Andreea Timis has been ap pointed as Commercial Direc tor EMEA to run the operations from the Cyprus HQ.

November 2022

Bosses think workers work less from home

A major new survey from Microsoft shows that bosses and work ers fun-damentally disagree about productivity when working from home. Bosses worry about whether working from home is as produc tive as being in the office. While 87% of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home, 80% of managers disagreed. (The survey questioned more than 20,000 staff across 11 countries.)

InfoComm 2022 welcomed 19,681 verified attendees from more than 110 countries and all 50 US states, and 522 exhibitors show cased innova-tive pro AV products and solutions across 294,500 square feet of the trade show floor in the North Hall and new West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

David Labuskes, CTS, CAE, RCDD, CEO of AVIXA said: “InfoComm is the only place in North America where the entire ecosystem of the pro AV industry gathers – from manufacturers to distributors to integrators to end users. This week we saw thousands of AV profes sionals make the trip to Las Vegas to learn from each other and expe rience innovative technology in person. AVIXA is proud to play host to such an incredible group of industry professionals as they spent their week advancing their businesses and careers and gaining inspiration to take home with them.”

August 2022

Barco’s big office experience survey

Barco conducted a big survey of 1200 executives across 13 coun tries to find out how the office is changing, and how workspaces are used. The main objective was to find out how the covid pandemic and lockdowns (leading to forced working-from-home of the entire

EMEA faces the greatest headwinds due to the wide-reaching im pacts of the conflict in Ukraine, though growth is still relatively strongSales of high-brightness projectors hit record high

includes government, en-ergy, and transportation. Despite some lin gering challenges associated with the pandemic, APAC is resuming the economic expansion that be-gan in prior periods, driven by rising corporate activity and a growing middle class looking to spend. While growth in collaboration solutions slows in the Americas, the experien tial solution areas like venues and events are rebounding and driving growth. Revenue for venues in Ameri-cas is forecast to reach $10.7 billion in 2022, rising to $16.1 billion by 2027, CAGR of 8.5%. In addition, the Americas is the one region where services capture the most revenues ($2.1 billion in 2022).

October 2022

PMA Research has reported that worldwide sales of projectors +10,000 lumens rose to an all-time high during the first half of 2022. With the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions in advanced econo-mies, consumers turned their spending from at-home products to outof-home entertainment. That sparked strong growth in sales of su per-bright projectors for large venues such as concert halls, theme parks, stadiums, and planetariums. Continued growth of immersive or experiential enter-tainment using projection mapping technology also contributed to the high-brightness gains as did ongoing strength in the higher-education market.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella believes this tension needed to be resolved as workplaces were unlikely to ever return to pre-pan demic work habits. “We have to get past what we describe as ‘pro ductivity par-anoia’, because all of the data we have that shows that 80% plus of the individual people feel they're very productive - except their management thinks that they're not productive. That means there is a real disconnect in terms of the expectations and what they feel.”

Both Nadella and Ryan Roslansky, the boss of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, said employers were grappling with perhaps the biggest shift in working patterns in history. The number of fully remote jobs advertised on LinkedIn soared during the pandemic but Roslansky said data sug-gested that type of role might have peaked. Some 14 or 15 million job listings that are typically live on LinkedIn, about 2% of those involved remote working before the pandemic. Some months ago, that stood at 20%, and it has since come down to 15% this month. Work from home for 20% less pay, says a city law firm At a time of acute labour shortages, employers are having to work harder to recruit, enthuse and retain staff. That even includes Micro soft itself, according to Nadella. “We had 70,000 people who joined Microsoft dur-ing the pandemic, they sort of saw Microsoft through the lens of the pandemic. And now when we think about the next phase, you need to re-energize them, re-recruit them, help them form social connections.”

Tech Data and SYNNEX merge

Tech Data and SYNNEX have merged to create a leading global dis trib-utor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem, to be called TD SYNNEX. “We have been operating throughout Europe under the name Tech Data — A TD SYNNEX Company. We are excited to share that from October 17th, 2022, we will align our European business entities to our global brand, meaning that Tech Data in Europe will be known as TD SYNNEX from that day on. In addition to changing our logo and brand identity, we will also be renaming our legal entities to reflect the TD SYNNEX brand and changing email addresses to show the @tdsynnex.com domain.”

Tech Data and SYNNEX have merged to create a leading glob al distrib-utor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem, TD SYNNEX

staff) have affected the global office spaces. The results show a clear desire for more engag-ing and inspiring workplaces, although region al differences are striking.

A first noteworthy finding from the survey is that employees enjoy be ing back at the office. 62% of respondents agree with this. The office is no longer just the place for desk work, but rather a dynamic space for better meetings, stronger collaboration and social interaction. An important ex-ample of the evolved way to use office technology are video walls. They were typically used to grab the attention of external visitors but are now transformed into tools to engage employees and improve collaboration and productivity.

Corporate lobbies have evolved from their traditional function (greet ing visitors or having them wait) into places to create an impactful first im-pression and to instil pride in employees. According to the survey, the lobby is the second most chosen space for meetings (49%) and aims to impress whoever (staff or visitors) enters the building (45%).

September 2022

Pro AV revenue for 2022 to exceed 2019

After a strong 2021, when pro AV revenue growth exceeded initial ex-pectations and hit 11%, 2022 is set up to hit a new high-water mark for pro AV, reaching $263 billion globally, according to AVIXA’s 2022 In-dustry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA). Growth moder ates in the coming years to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)

Overall, worldwide demand in this segment registered 20% growth dur-ing the first half of the year. That was due to robust gains in advanced economies, including the U.S., Western Europe, Australia, Japan, and Korea. Combined sales in these countries grew more than 50% during the first half of the year. However, sales in China during the first half of this year couldn’t keep pace with last year’s growth as the lockdowns and economic headwinds earlier this year took a toll on overall growth in emerging economies. Sales in Russia came to a screeching halt while the Indian market showed signs of recovery. Still, that wasn’t enough to off-set the sluggishness in China.

LED Studio expands EMEA footprint

The LED Studio has further expanded its’ on the ground support, logis-tics and stock operations for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions with a new EMEA HQ located in Cyprus. With installations now in over 40 countries, the new space will allow for enhanced SLAs, additional stock locations and will support The LED Studio in its wider sustainabil-ity mission as the company continues to unveil industry-first technologi-cal advances and move into new territories. Andreea Timis has been appointed as Commercial Director EMEA to run the operations from the Cyprus HQ. Andreea joins from Mu sion 3D where she played a significant role in securing, planning and executing some of the most prestigious hologram installations across the globe. Andreea has been pivotal to the transition of holo gram installations from projection to sustainable LED technology. Her projects have included the world’s first live 4K hologram over a 5G network and creative solutions to provide businesses with alternative solutions to communicate globally.

December 2022

And so the year comes to an end, with many resellers, distributors and manufacturers reporting a patchy year, that almost certainly reflects the sectors in which they are active. The tenor of conver sations with customers is almost certainly coloured by cost-of-living issues and the parallel theme of the energy crisis - a theme that we explored in our final issue of the year.

The energy crisis and AV UK energy provision has been plunged into chaos by a perfect storm of trans-national market forces and an energy supply industry out of step with its market. These trends threatens the UK economy from consumer energy suppliers to the business community and heavy industry. Less conspicuous to date, has been the societal shift in favour of digitisation, which has seen all sectors of society, from education to ecommerce, increasingly reliant on a consistent and affordable energy supply. So how long will the current energy crisis last? And will things ever go back to ‘normal’?

A first noteworthy finding from the survey is that employees enjoy being back at the office. 62% of respondents agree with this.

PMA Research has announced that worldwide sales of projectors

ATG Danmon media systems integration UK University

UK: ATG Danmon announces the completion of a large-scale media systems integration proj ect for a leading UK university. The new resource is designed and equipped to support a wide range of courses in television and film content creation and post-production as well as re search in media-related tech nology. The project tender was issued in two phases. ATG Dan mon was chosen as the systems integration contractor for phase 1 on the basis of its proven ex perience as a successful tier-1 contractor in the broadcast, educational and corporate com munications sectors.

“Phase 1 centred on the instal lation of interfaces and cabling connecting ground floor, first floor, second floor, third floor and fourth floor media and stu dio spaces,” says ATG Danmon UK Project Manager Howard Dixon. “Facilities integrated at this stage included wall-mount ed facility panels allowing easy connection of auxiliary devices such as cameras, video moni tors and projectors. Much of the work coincided with the con struction of the actual building which necessitated special care in timing the various stages of installation. The coronavirus lockdown also required special care in workflow logistics and in sourcing components at a time of global shortage.”

“Also forming part of phase 1 was the installation of the initial core services: sync generation, routing, distribution amplifiers,

Transportation

DMX lighting control, studio/ gallery communications, audioover-IP interfacing and network switching. Lighting support in frastructure was a large part of the overall fit-out for studio spaces and digital galleries. This included a combination of inter

studios, a stop-motion studio, film studio, edit suites, a multi purpose studio, a colour grading and editing system, and related audio/video racks infrastructure. The final objective was to give students access to the technol ogy they can expect to be using

recorders, and Cirrolite lighting with 5 x 5.5 x 4.5 metre support rigging.

Greenscreen Studio 1 and 2 are equipped to give students hands-on experience of the cre ative flexibility and production efficiency made possible by vir

12K digital film cameras plus a wide range of facilities for very high end content production. Among these are 20 LED lumi naires, a 10-input production switcher, 16-channel audio mixer and Sennheiser wireless microphones. The film studio

a Drawmer audio compressor, Genelec monitor loudspeakers and a Custom Consoles EditOne desk.

The Multipurpose Studio is equipped for a wide range of production-training roles. Tech nical resources here include a lighting control desk, 10 LED lighting panels, eight spot lumi naires, 18 4-metre-wide lighting pantographs, a 55-inch UHD display and wireless intercoms.

Core of both the Audio Postpro duction and Critical Listening suites is a 32-fader SSL audio mixer with a Dante AoIP net work-enabled interface plus additional interfaces and touch screens.

nally wired lighting bars provid ing power and DMX connectivity together with studio rail systems, perimeter curtain tracks and curtains.”

“Following successful comple tion of phase 1, we were award ed the tender for the much larg er phase 2. This included the design, installation and com missioning of two motion-cap ture studios, two greenscreen

when they progress into me dia-related careers.”

Core of Motion Capture Studio 1 is a Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking system which uses re al-time optical guidance to allow efficient integration of electroni cally sourced scenery. The sys tem integrated by ATG Danmon also includes a 4.6K camcorder from Blackmagic Design, a UHD vision mixer, UHD video/data

LNER’s display trial makes train travel faster

London North-Eastern Railway (LNER) is pioneering innovative technology aimed at making it simpler for customers to board trains as part of a new digital tri al. In a first for LNER, new digital display screens installed at Don caster Railway Station will advise customers of the train layouts and where they should wait on the platform to board the correct coach.

The technology will be trialled on two platforms for three months

ality. They will also highlight the locations of the onboard Café Bar, bicycle spaces and priority seats. If the trial proves success ful, the screens could be rolled out across LNER’s eleven man aged stations.

Danny Gonzalez, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at LNER, said: “We believe digital innova tion and our work to continually improve our customer experi ence are key parts of LNER’s success in leading the industry

and use a QR code to order re freshments directly to their seat through our ‘Let’s Eat At Your Seat’ service in Standard and we have further exciting digital innovations ahead as we put our customers first.”

The LNER app has just clinched the App of the Year Award at the 2022 UK Business Tech Awards.

It offers customers greater choice and flexibility over their travel plans, from making feefree seat reservations to OneClick Delay Repay. An Edge casting trial is already underway by LNER enabling customers to stream thousands of shows from the ITV Hub onboard a selected number of LNER Azuma trains.

In a first of its kind in the UK, it means passengers can enjoy the on-demand content without it draining their personal data allowance or using the onboard WiFi.

tual studio production. Resourc es here include Kinoflo LED lighting, an ETC ColorSource lighting control desk, 4.6K cam eras feeding a 20-input live pro duction switcher, a 55-inch vid eo monitor, 16-channel Yamaha digital audio mixer with Dante audio-over-IP interface and monitor loudspeakers. The Stop Motion Studio includes a Canon full-frame digital SLR camera, 16 adjustable-colour LED Fres nels and a range of lighting sup ports.

The Film Studio incorporates

Manufacturing

lighting facilities include nine Doughty lighting hoists and are controlled from a proprietary system supplied and installed by Cirrolite.

Six edit suites have been in tegrated, each equipped with a digital recorder capable of capturing 12-bit high dynam ic range and up to 4K60p DCI.

An integral SD card reader al lows video and audio clips to be loaded directly into the system. Content can be archived to 128 gigabyte solid state memory. Each suite is also equipped with

A Ross Video Ultrix 48 x 48 vid eo router with audio de-embed ding forms the basis of an audio/ video racks room, complete with a routing control panel, 12G master reference and test sig nal generator, video equalising DA and MADI interface. SDI to optical interfacing is performed inside a 12G fibre converter.

"This is the latest in a series of projects we have completed for UK universities in recent years," summarises Jonathan Hughes, ATG Danmon Head of Systems Integration. "The media educa tional sector is a very healthy one which has responded well to the ongoing advances in tech nology at every point in the con tent capture, post-production and delivery workflow."

ST Engineering Antycip drives Renault VR suc-

cess with Powerwall

ST Engineering Antycip has partnered with Renault Group to design and integrate a pow erful virtual reality suite for one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers. Building on the companies’ previous collabora tions in the VR world, and after a competitive tender process, ST Engineering Antycip was select

got involved in the request for a quotation and won the tender thanks to our VR expertise, ex perience of working to budgets and track record of delivering high-performance AV equip ment, as well as our internation al network of strong local part ners, including in South Korea, India and Brazil.”

designed and implemented by ST Engineering Antycip.

Most of the AV equipment local ly to help with the logistics and keeping within budget, with the company also providing training on the new system through its local partners in each country.

“We used local suppliers to avoid delays– we didn’t want the prod ucts to get stuck at customs,” continues Besnainou. “We also found people to facilitate the in stallations locally, while offering our international expertise.”

The three powerwall systems, which run Renault’s own 4K-na tive software and content, will be used by the carmaker’s local teams for product design and review, and are also designed to collaborate with each other, as well as with Renault Group’s headquarters in Paris.

with the additional information helping better inform customers of where available seats can be found, where to wait for their booked seat as well as listing calling points and arrival times. It’s hoped the signs will make boarding simpler and smoother while further enhancing punctu

when it comes to welcoming people back to rail. The new in formation screens being trialled at Doncaster are just the latest way we are working to make travel simpler and smarter. Our customers can already signup for live journey updates via the award-winning LNER app

LNER continues to welcome the largest number of customers back to its services when com pared with pre-pandemic usage than any other franchised oper ator according to the latest re sults published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in October 2022. LNER has topped the ta ble for a record fifth consecutive quarter with passenger numbers now exceeding pre-Covid levels. Data from LNER shows more than 15 million passengers have travelled across its network so far this year, more than double the same period last year.

ed by Renault to develop a col laborative, 4K, powerwall-based solution which could be installed at Renault’s facilities in South Korea, India and Brazil.

“Renault France contacted ST Engineering Antycip as they are a historical client of ours in the automotive industry,” explains Johan Besnainou, ST Engineer ing Antycip's regional director for France and Spain, recalling the genesis of the project: “We

The trio of installations, in Busan (South Korea), Chennai (India) and São José dos Pinhais (Bra zil), utilise three identical sys tems comprising one powerwall, one high-end 5m × 2.5m screen and one plinth-mounted Christie 4K10 HS laser projector; a PC cluster; monitor; desk; cabling; 5.1 audio system and wireless presentation hardware (Barco ClickShare) complete the solu tion, which was entirely sourced,

The success of the project, across multiple countries and continents and involving several manufacturers, is a testament to ST Engineering Antycip’s global reach and technological exper tise, as well as its Gallic savoirfaire, according to Besnainou: “We are proud to have delivered this project alongside Renault France in three countries, work ing in partnership with local Re nault teams to create prestigious spaces for automotive design using 4K resolution with VR ca pabilities,” he concludes.

ATG Danmon has completed studio and technical control facilities for several universities in recent years. Photos show examples of work completed from one of the largest of these projects

London North-Eastern Railway (LNER) is pioneering innovative technology aimed at making it simpler for customers to board trains.

ST Engineering Antycip has partnered with Renault Group to de sign and integrate a powerful virtual reality suite for one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers.

Environment

India’s sun temple shines with PIXERA

The village of Modhera in Guja rat, India, has been hailed as the country’s first village with roundthe-clock solar power, delivering sustainable energy to more than 1,300 homes and government buildings. In celebration of this momentous step forward for the region’s sustainability efforts, a new 3D projection show – run entirely by solar power – has been created at the village’s holy epicentre: the Sun Temple. Dedicated to the Hindu solar deity, Surya, the Sun Temple of Modhera has recently come to the attention of many people in the region, by forming the back drop to a beautiful 20-minute projection show, which tells the story of the village’s rich history dating back to 1617. “The brief we received from the client, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited, was to produce a mul timedia 3D projection mapping show about the past, present and future of Modhera’s Sun Temple,” says Pratik Wadhwa, CEO of Modern Stage Services (Projects). “The structure of the temple is completely unique and working on a heritage site comes with many of its own challenges, so we needed to ensure the best kit was chosen for the project.” To breathe new light into this

unique building, five Christie D20WU-HS projectors were in stalled with weatherproof, out door architectural lights from HARMAN Pro, to illuminate the temple’s facade and create a mirror effect in the body of wa ter in front of the monument. All content was delivered using AV Stumpfl’s PIXERA media server software, a powerful 64-bit sys tem capable of 8K real-time ren dering, with intuitive 2D and 3D projection mapping workflows.

Based on the core theme of us ability, the interface allows for a fast and intuitive learning pro

working on-site which is an in valuable tool for us.”

Music Def Leppard’s stadium tour

cess, whether working in 2D or 3D. Due to its having integrated VIOSO auto-calibration technolo gy, PIXERA offers users a variety of calibration modes depending on the intended surface: flat or curved screens, 3D models and irregular surfaces such as rocks, or in this instance, an entire building facade.

Wadhwa opted for PIXERA in this unique installation, stating that the software’s capabilities are “world class” in comparison to anything else on the market: “The pre-visualisation feature helps us deliver our ideas to the clients,” he says. “With this tool, clients are able to fully envisage the end result before we start

Working on the centuries-old heritage monument, the team at Modern Stage Services over came many challenges and re strictions: “The Sun Temple was built hundreds of years ago so of course there were no AutoCAD drawings to work with,” contin ues Wadhwa. “That’s why we needed the very best software for compositing, mapping, and media processing to help us realise the client’s brief. We are so pleased with how the PIXE RA software handled the intri cacies of this project in such a user-friendly way.”

To mark such a prestigious oc casion, India’s prime minster in augurated the Sun Temple’s de but show in October which now runs daily from 6–10pm. “The prime minister of India, Nar endra Modi, tweeted about the show on his personal account,” concludes Wadhwa. “That was truly remarkable and the biggest compliment for our team and everybody else involved in the project.”

The combined forces of two of hard rock’s most totemic bands, Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, turned this year’s The Stadium Tour into the biggest outing of either band's career and the big gest rock tour of the year thus far. With special guests Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts along for the journey, the trek sold 1.3 million tickets, accord ing to Billboard.

It's also significant to point out that the North American tour marked the first time that Def Leppard enjoyed the benefits of KLANG’s immersive in-ear mon itor mixing solution, provided via a DMI-KLANG card-equipped DiGiCo Quantum5 monitor con sole supplied by touring sound company Clair Global. The use of the KLANG system created a

a half weeks of rehearsals in Los Angeles ahead of the tour start. It was the perfect environment for Bible, who has been with Def Leppard since 2002’s X Tour as systems and monitor engineer, to get deeply hands-on with the KLANG system and evangelize it to the band.

“One of the things I especially like about the DMI-KLANG card is that I can simply slap it into the DiGiCo Quantum5 I’m using on tour, add a Mac Minicomput er connected through a network cable and switch, and I imme diately have 64x32 I/O, which doesn’t eat up any physical connections on the console,” he explains. “Once that’s in place, there’s not much else to it. The band has been playing these songs for decades and I’ve been

to sound fuller.”

This combination of audio fideli ty and sense of control over their individual monitoring environ ments are huge benefits for any touring musicians. But they’re especially valuable for legacy artists who have been on loud stages for decades, helping to preserve their hearing.

“With KLANG, we can turn it down overall onstage, and the band doesn’t have to run through things as often to get it to where it feels right,” says Bi ble. “Everyone on this tour has been playing rock and roll for decades, and it’s inevitable that some of them may have experi enced some hearing loss. In-ear monitors can really help avoid making that worse, and the level of control that KLANG provides

more manageable SPL environ ment onstage that reportedly made the group’s performances more enjoyable than ever while simultaneously helping to pro tect their hearing. How Def Leppard and KLANG got together is an interesting story. The KLANG platform first came to the attention of Ted Bi ble, long time monitor mixer for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members and two-time Amer ican Music Awards winners, when one of the band members downloaded the KLANG:app and wanted to try it out. This was just before the pandemic closed down touring for over two years, which gave Bible more time to become familiar with it, including taking an online class on the product and technology with KLANG:technologies’ Phil Kamp.

Its first deployment for Def Lep pard would be on the 36-date The Stadium Tour, which kicked off on June 16 at Atlanta’s Truist Park. The band, which formed in 1976 in Sheffield, UK and has been performing more or less continuously ever since and with virtually the same lineup of mu sicians, didn’t require extensive rehearsals ahead of the tour. However, the pandemic com pelled them to have a backup musician for each band mem ber and that group did three and

mixing their monitors for years, so we all know what they want to hear onstage. The KLANG sys tem gets it to them cleanly and reliably.”

Bible says most of the band in stantly took to the KLANG sys tem, enjoying its ability to keep instrument relationships steady as they moved about the stage, in conjunction with the Shure PSM 1000 transmitters and JH Audio Sharona IEMs they’re us ing.

One band member, who had long been reluctant to move completely to IEMs and pre ferred relying on wedge mon itors, agreed to try them out tentatively for this tour. “His monitors tended to be panned harder and need more gain,” Bi ble recalls. “First, we eased into IEMs with just vocals in them, but by four or five shows in, he jumped all-in on them. And the fact that KLANG has bi-direc tional control of the faders and other parameters, like elevation and width, adds to the sense of control each musician has on stage. All of the band members love the sense of space around them that KLANG offers. In fact, they even think the in-ears sound better than the album! Having the 360-degree space means we don’t have to carve out as much frequency space, allowing each monitor channel

it out.

enhances that further. I tell all the bands I work with, especially the up-and-coming ones, pro tect your hearing now. KLANG is a great way to do that.”

The village of Modhera in Gujarat, India, has been hailed as the country’s first village with roundthe-clock solar power, delivering sustainable energy to more than 1,300 homes and government buildings. (Image: TCGL)

The KLANG platform first came to the attention of Ted Bible, long time monitor mixer for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members and two-time Amer ican Music Awards winners, when one of the band members downloaded the KLANG:app and wanted to try

Evolve TouchscreensCollaborate into a brighter future

Legamaster presents new, more sustainable interactive display series

Legamaster, the professional division for visual presentation solu tions from the edding Group, is launching a new generation of displays on the market with the EVOLVE series, in which, in ad dition to innovative functions, the sustainability aspect is given high priority throughout the entire production and life cycle. This is in line with the efforts of parent company edding to become a climate-neutral company.

Environmental protection and sustainable action are firmly anchored in Legamaster's corporate DNA. The company also strives to act in a sustainable and resource-saving manner in the production and logistics process. After the company was recently certified according to FSC and PEFC and Legamaster was the first manufacturer to offer whiteboards with the EU Ecolabel, it is only logical that the company also focuses more strongly on the idea of sustainability for touch displays, which now account for a significant share of Legamaster's business.

With the new EVOLVE series, Legamaster is now launching a succes sor to its popular ETX series, which, in addition to the usual simplicity and user-friendliness, focuses above all on sustainability.

Durable and resource-saving

All components of the EVOLVE touch display are carefully selected and designed for long-term use in schools and offices. These in clude, for example, panels with a lifespan of 50,000 hours or the touch surface made of quality etched safety glass, whose reflec tion-reducing properties do not wear out even with intensive use. The Android 11 operating system, which can be kept up to date via OTA updates, is currently the most future-proof system and, together with the maximum unique eight-year warranty, the EVOLVE touch

displays offer a durable and reliable collaboration solution.

In addition, the already low power consumption of the units from the ETX series has been reduced even further: displays from the new EVOLVE series consume an average of 30% less energy than the predecessor models. In some cases they use 20% less energy than competitors’ displays as well.

And should a device not function as intended, Legamaster is also mindful of the CO2 footprint here: “As a rule, faults on our displays can be rectified by our local trade partners or our local service units on site at the user's premises,” explains Marcos Vagni, responsible Product Marketing Manager at Legamaster. “This allows us to avoid long transport and travel distances, in line with our sustainability claim.”

New accessories and abandonment of unnec essary components

With additional accessories, the units of the EVOLVE series can be further upgraded to a bespoke solution. These include various (height-adjustable) mounting solutions, OPS computers and an at tachable wide-angle AI conference camera with 4K resolution, inte grated microphones and autoframing function. The EVOLVE displays can also be operated with a proximity sensor that switches the devic es on when there is movement in the room and puts them back into sleep mode as soon as no movement is detected for a longer period of time. This makes it easy to save energy in schools, for example, because the units do not need to run for an entire day. The new NFC reader, available as an accessory, ensures that no one has unautho rised access to the display.

Legamaster is also breaking new ground with the components sup plied: EVOLVE displays are supplied exclusively with a power cable. “Experience shows that other cables from the scope of delivery have rarely been used because either cabling is already in place or the installation partner on site relies on their own cables,” says Vagni and adds: “The cables from the scope of delivery then lie around unused or are simply disposed of. That doesn't fit in with our efforts to act sustainably.” Instead, users can now select individual cables for connecting and operating the displays from Legamaster.

New Legamaster Experience vehicle tour

UK customers will also have the special ability to see the Evolve in the Legamaster Experience vehicle this month and also in 2023. This mobile showroom has the most popular sizes of Legamaster display: the 65” Supreme interactive display, the new Evolve 75” interactive display and the 86” Discover professional display. It also includes the new Loop room booking display – perfect for hybrid working. The tour will also include Visualization staff on hand to answer ques tions. Simply email info-uk@legamaster.com or call 07498419059 for more information.

Doing good with EVOLVE and 1% for the Planet

A very special feature of the EVOLVE displays is the 1% for the Planet certification. As part of this certification, Legamaster donates 1% of its EVOLVE sales to the 1% for the Planet Foundation to support sustainability and environmental projects worldwide. “As the suc cessor to the ETX series, the EVOLVE will be used for the most part in schools and educational institutions,” says Maarten Meenks, who is responsible for the product portfolio at Legamaster. “Institutions where the aim is to prepare a future for our children. A future for which we all have a responsibility. That's why it was important for us to give back a part for a future worth living with the EVOLVE."

The new EVOLVE touch displays are available in four sizes from 55" to 86" inch screen diagonal. The first units are now available from our specialist distributor Visualization from December 2022.

Call Vizuk on : +44 (0)1628 673702 or Mail Us : hello@vizuk.com

Immersive

ISE is the world’s leading show for professional audiovisual integration. Discover the latest AV solutions that deliver unforgettable experiences.

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Case study: Education

The Romero Catholic Academy accelerates IT

The mantra ‘Nurturing the talent of tomorrow’ runs through the very heart of The Romero Catholic Academy. This family of one secondary and seven primary schools offers a seamless learning journey for children aged two to nineteen years, while its cen tralised operations enable the Coventry-based multi-academy company (MAC) to deliver economies of scale and operational efficiencies.

Committed to developing a self-improving and sustainable schoolled system, The Romero Catholic Academy continuously looks for new ways to drive forward pedagogical approaches and enhance MAC infrastructure. Embracing digital transformation as part of this development path, The Romero Catholic Academy reviewed

Led by the Head of IT, Hitesh Vara, this evaluation concluded that a move to cloud computing would deliver a sustainable foundation for digital development across the entire estate, starting with bringing all schools on to a shared network: “Cardinal Wiseman was operat ing in a cloud-based Google environment, the primary schools had on-premise infrastructure with Microsoft 365,” explains Hitesh. With the decision made to transition all eight schools to cloud com puting with Microsoft 365, Hitesh and his team simultaneously ap praised how this would work with the teaching technologies. “In the same way that we started with a mixed communication net work, we were also faced with a broad range of display technologies being used throughout the MAC. To achieve truly sustainable digital development and seamless transition for our learners, we needed consistency in all aspects of the IT estate.”

Consistent and commercially sound

While Cardinal Wiseman used projector and screen set-ups to deliver secondary and sixth form lessons, the primary schools had been ear ly adopters of the Promethean ActivPanel: “Staying focused on our

realise our IT vision, with the commercial arrangements expediting our MAC-wide implementation. Their personalised approach to our unique needs followed through to the installation, where CC Comms worked with us to deliver an ambitious programme that saw over 90 ActivPanels installed in one summer period,” explains Hitesh.

Accelerated approach

long-term objective to deliver a sustainable strategy and consistent teaching provision MAC-wide, we concluded that the whole estate should be upgraded at the same time.

“We had already established a strong partnership with Promethean through our primary schools, and we could see the continued invest ment that was being made in the development of the ActivPanel. On this basis, we wanted to move forward with Promethean and the ActivPanel, and so put the contract out to tender.” Responding to The Romero Catholic Academy’s tender specification, CC Commu nications, a Promethean partner, was appointed to implement over 200 of the latest ActivPanels in 18 months.

Crucially for The Romero Academy, CC Comms structured a com mercial agreement that combined a bespoke, value added ‘buy back’ scheme based on their existing ActivPanels alongside a new leasing plan. “The flexibility shown by CC Comms enabled us to

Speed of roll-out was just one part of the strategy to accelerate time to success. Alongside the introduction of the latest ActivPanels across the entire trust estate, The Romero Catholic Academy committed to Promethean’s MAT Accelerator programme. Available to all Multi-Academy Companies who invest in the Ac tivPanel, the MAT Accelerator improves effective adoption, embeds ActivPanel best practice, and fast-tracks educational value. This is achieved through the devel opment of a customised train ing and support programme that aligns with individual MAC needs. For The Romero Catholic Academy, the MAT Accelerator initially focused on IT staff and teacher training, as well as the creation of Digital Champions. Hitesh talks through what this looks like in practice: “Deliv ered in partnership with Primary Goal, Digital Champions is sup porting us to bring a new Digital Support Technician up to ap prenticeship standard. Crucially, this programme focuses on the ActivPanel specifically, as well as wider digital literacy, adoption of cloud technology and online safety. This content aligns per fectly with our priorities and IT roadmap.

“We have one Digital Champion in place who works across sev eral primary sites currently, and we plan to introduce a dedicated champion to Cardinal Wiseman. From a financial perspective, these are funded posts as we’re able to utilise the apprenticeship levy, which helps make our bud gets go further while delivering greater value.”

Tailored training for targeted im pact

For the teaching team, Promet hean designed a flexible train ing programme that provided access to virtual and on-site sessions. Delivered against an agreed timeframe, this train ing ran simultaneously with the phased ActivPanel implementa tion to ensure that teachers were equipped with the essentials of using the key features from the start.

“The transition from a mixed es

tate to the ActivPanel being used in all classrooms meant that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to training wouldn’t have been sufficient. Pro methean invested significant time in planning the training provision to ensure that it focused on the areas that would deliver maximum impact,” explains Hitesh.

While Cardinal Wiseman was using interactive panels for the first time, the primary teachers were already familiar with some aspects of the ActivPanel – particularly the accompanying ActivInspire soft ware which is supplied as standard. Moreover, with cloud-computing now a key part of the academy’s strategy, there is growing interest in Promethean’s ClassFlow – cloud-based software that connects classroom devices and supports interactive activities such as polling.

“As the ActivPanel comes with a choice of software, we’re able to give teachers the flexibility to choose which will best support peda gogy at a given time. By helping them to develop competence and confidence in using the full Pro methean solution, teachers will then have the freedom to embed the technology in a way that best suits them,” explained Hitesh. The move to cloud-based com puting has enabled The Romero Catholic Academy to add the ActivPanels to its IT network. In doing so, this has created even further flexibility and freedom – both for teachers and the IT team: “Using Promethean panel management we can remotely manage the ActivPanels with essential updates and main tenance. This helps to save us time travelling around sites, and instead means we can focus on driving value and making im provements. It also enables us to turn off panels at a specific time of day, which will help save energy and prolong the panel's life.

“As a fully networked solution we are confident in the ActivPanel’s security, so teachers can decide which apps they want to use and download them directly to the panel. This gives teachers greater con trol over the technology in the classroom and the freedom to access resources they want to teach with.”

Sustainable foundation / long-term vision

Although The Romero Catholic Academy has moved forward at pace to accelerate the ActivPanel upgrade programme, the successful in stallation of 200 panels is only the start of the Promethean journey. Taking a moment to reflect on how far the multi-academy compa ny has come in a relatively short space of time, Hitesh shares his thoughts on where the IT vision will take The Romero Catholic Acad emy next: “We’ve been successful in our aim to deliver consistency of teaching and drive operational efficiencies, from here we have a sustainable foundation to make more of the solutions available to us. We’ve started with the ActivPanel essentials but now want to make more of its cloud capabilities, and we will continue to work in part nership with Promethean to realise our ambitions.

“The MAT Accelerator proved a critical success factor for our MACwide IT strategy, giving us access to a structured programme that supported our unique objectives. It’s been an excellent springboard, but we recognise the real value lies in a long-term commitment, and we’re excited to move to the next stage of our journey in partnership with Promethean.”

Edinburgh Napier University adapts for the future

Edinburgh Napier University is expanding its use of technology, driven by changing trends in education and the worldwide pan demic. To ease its transition and meet the heightened expecta tions of students and faculty, the school is turning to Lightware Visual Engineering classroom technology.

Classrooms at all levels are growing more interactive and connected, with a focus on active learning and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environments to increase collaboration and interactivity between stu dents and faculty. This shift had been broadening over the past sev eral years but was accelerated by the pandemic, which highlighted the importance of technology in the learning experience. At the same time, another COVID-induced dynamic has been the need for greater flexibility, as universities adopt the same remote and hybrid models in place at organisations in every industry

Multiple sites

Edinburgh Napier University has three campuses in Edinburgh, Scotland, offering advanced facilities for learning, teaching and re search. The university’s AV teams manage several classrooms, learn ing and meeting spaces, each equipped with AV technology. Addi tionally, over the past two years, the school has pivoted to a hybrid teaching model, accommodating the need for social distancing and for students and faculty who log-in from remote locations or travel to and from campus often. “When the pandemic started, everyone on our staff began working from home, and our class schedule shifted to fully remote,” said Ben Taylor, Head of AV for Edinburgh Napier University.

Taylor and his team provide technical support for the faculty and staff in many Napier departments. Now that the university is getting back to pre-pandemic operations, there’s also an increasing demand for technology-focused spaces with remote access. The team is pro viding every university staff member with a laptop and a single-cable USB connection to increase the availability and use of all rooms and peripherals.

To make connectivity to these spaces easier, they are installing Light ware’s Taurus UCX switchers in more than 40 rooms across the cam pus.

Lightware’s Taurus UCX

Lightware’s Taurus UCX is an in-room UC media management node enabling the connection of up to four devices (PC, Mac, video room system, etc.), using two USB-C ports and two mixed (USB/HDMI) ports. Faculty, students and guests can simply connect their device using a single USB-C cable combining video, audio, control and Eth ernet signals, and then begin sharing or presenting content. “It’s really ‘utopia’ for faculty members and it gives our lecturers and students the benefits and flexibility of ‘plug and play’ BYOD capabil ities,” Taylor said. “The quality is amazing and the interface is user friendly.”

Each classroom is receiving an AV set-up including cameras, audio, microphones and projector screens, all compatible with the Light ware switchers. The installation’s first phase began in July 2021, with 34 classrooms completed in time for the first trimester in September. An additional six rooms are planned for completion by the end of December.

That timeframe is challenging enough but any installation must be completed when the rooms are dark to not disrupt any class sched ules. “There's no daytime access so evenings are our only option,” Taylor said.

Overcoming supply chain issues

An added complication has been the supply-chain issues that de layed the arrival of several key components from other manufactur ers necessary to realize the full benefits of the Lightware switchers. That includes audio devices and a touch-panel device that “sets the tone for each room and is a key teaching aspect people interact with,” Taylor said. “If I've not got that, then the rooms aren't going to work.”

The university is working with Scotland-based system integrator Streamtec which is providing installation support and technology consulting, as well as helping to develop workarounds to manage the product shortages.

“With our timetable and our heavy demands on space, there aren’t many alternate options for moving people around,” Taylor said. “So we've had to come up with contingency setups. But from the user perspective, it makes no difference what technology is being used. It simply has to work.”

“Even with the patchwork approach, the Lightware switchers still perform as expected and provide the convenience and flexibility the Napier community needs, a testament to their design,” Taylor added. Open API architecture

During the initial Lightware installation, the Napier team ran into a few basic set-up issues, such as needing to add an extra input for connections between the in-room cameras and the switcher’s USB ports. These issues were resolved easily by collaborating with the Lightware product team, further evidence of the switchers’ flexibility and the swift solutions-focused efforts from the team.

The Lightware switchers give the university enough scalability if their

technology needs change or expand. For devices with limited HDMI inputs, a Lightware switch can add multiple inputs and formats such as Display Port, DVI, VGA and USB-C, expanding the functionality with no need for various dongles. Lightware’s open API architecture makes it possible for every data to be openly available for higher-level management, monitoring and control applications

The Lightware switchers have made Taylor’s job easier, in terms of adapting the classroom technology to match the skill levels of differ ent user groups at the university. “Depending on the program, the student demographic is different with varying levels of technology savviness,” Taylor said. “For example, in our sciences, health and social care buildings, the technical skills are at times lower they are in our communications or creative programs. So the support require ments are quite different. But regardless of the user audience, the Lightware switchers help us present a ‘one size fits all’ solution, us er-friendly and simple for any cohort.”

Prepared for the future

Looking ahead, Taylor expects the university to increase its comple ment of Lightware technologies at several areas across the campus, including a new computer centre currently under construction. “It

will be a massive 24/7 facility with AV over IP encoders, about 400 workstations and teaching spaces,” Taylor said.

For now, the switchers are helping the university reimagine learning as an immersive and flexible experience, meeting students and fac ulty where they are, and wherever learning needs to occur. “Through a single cable into the Lightware switcher, people can get on our physical network, access other peripherals and devices in the room, join a Zoom or Teams meeting and get their content on a screen,” said Taylor. “It even charges their laptops!”

The role of the AV supplier

Colleges and universities are relying on AV suppliers in three areas, new buildings on campus continue to need new audiovisual solu tions in classrooms and meeting spaces. Room refresh upgrades are continuing as colleges and universities work hard to keep the entire campus within the latest revision of their technology standards. The new requirements for hybrid teaching have increased demand for new technology standards with USB devices, USB-C connections, and USB host switching. The supply chain issues we continue to experience are increasing the importance of relationships between educational institutions and AV suppliers.

Roger Takacs, Vice President Education, Lightware Visual Engineer ing explains the developing role of the AV supplier in education. “Lightware Visual Engineering supports specific needs of education where reliable, consistent, and campus-wide solutions are needed, offering the best in the industry products. With the TAURUS UCX switcher, Lightware provides seamless USB-C connectivity which is a cornerstone of today’s learning environment that requires BYOM functionality and is heavily based on multimedia with involvements of multiple terminal equipment like laptops, media players, USB cam eras, document cameras, voice-amplifying, and display solutions.”

“ TAURUS secures confidence for instructors and students, and peace of mind for AV-IT on-campus engineers maintaining the work flow of versatile learning rooms, like group study spaces, classrooms of general purposes, distance, and hybrid (blended) learning. AVover-IP, being the best industrial technology for multimedia signal delivery, is the optimum solution for education. Lightware offers VINX and UBEX extension operating on 1Gb/10Gb networks. They pro vide extension in point-to-point architecture as well as up to literally unlimited endpoints which is essential for campus-wide installations. Their EDID functionality enables a smooth handshake for multiple displays in the campus networks. VINX’ and UBEX’s built-in USB 2.0 ports support KVM functionality and USB mass storage.”

Multiple rooms environments of schools and universities need room control and automation, Lightware offers these features as firmware or standalone dedicated products that help reduce cost and increase the general efficiency of the school. As usual, campuses are populat ed with products from multiple brands and are expected to integrate into seamless solutions. Lightware offers open API products that en able integration, smooth operation, remote monitoring, control, and maintenance so tremendously assisting AV-IT campus staff, allowing them to effectively reduce the time for system diagnostics and trou bleshooting.”

But in the longer term, is there any evidence that education will make use of the ability to share resources that decentralised learning permits – e.g. shared expertise of specialist staff? “The long-drawn lockdown made some education institutions act creatively and intro duce effective practices. In Ukraine, in particular, on the initiative of the Ministry of Education, All-Ukraine Online School (AOS) was launched, a platform for distance and blended (hybrid) learning for students from grades 5-11.”

The project was aimed to provide every Ukrainian student and teach er with free access to high quality education content, which offers video lessons, tests, and materials for 18 main subjects. Apart from this remotely accessible content, Ukrainian schools actively used an instrument enabling immediate assessments of students’ level of understanding and engagement. The testing solution synchronizes with Google Class and offers the teacher immediate visibility of the

Further information

Taurus UCX Switcher: https://lightware.com/product-families/tau rus-ucx VINX and UBEX extension: https://lightware.com/catalogsearch/re

students’ progress.

With the All-Ukraine Online School platform and with the use of AV and today’s comput ing technologies, the country managed to withstand the chal lenges of the pandemic, and now, with the Russian aggres sion, Ukrainian kids learn re motely throughout the country. Sharing the admin burden We know that teaching tasks beyond actual teaching are a particular bugbear for academ ic staff, but can mote learning solutions ease this adminis trative burden? “We believe, it does in a way,” says Takacs. “With hardware and software solutions enabling immediate assessments, teachers and students can see their learning progress which saves time on grading and improves efficiency. At the same time, remote learning solutions have increased the burden on the teaching staff by adding another casual interaction tool, the chat box.”

“In the past, students had to ask questions in class, email questions, or consult instructors within their office hours. Now, while classes are being taught the chat box can become overwhelming for some instructors receiving messages during class at any time. During class students in the room are all visible, in terms of blended (hybrid) classes and online students must be visible in the room as well. And there comes AV technology, populating the classrooms with multiple versatile display solutions operating in blackboard mode or display ing digital learning materials and those which are aimed at providing large visible images of students learning outside the classroom.”

“Stanford University was one of the first to introduce the idea of hy brid education and launch the first learning spaces supporting this idea. The technology of hybrid education is rapidly developing, and more challenges of this type of learning are being tackled, such as equality of those studying remotely (they need to have access to quality visual and audio data). This stimulates the development of USB-AI-embedded cameras, and AI voice amplifying solutions, which entails more USB-C, more powerful switching and cabling solutions.”

Many educational establishments are using the opportunity present ed by the remote learning to broaden their offering. “Yes, remote learning technology definitely expands the offering of educational venues. Many of them improve their enrolment rates and revenues by offering individual curricula to such categories as post-graduates seeking for specific intensive courses, or those who cannot afford on-campus learning or strive to cram learning into their busy working lives.”

“However,” cautions Takacs. “remote learning cannot efficiently sub stitute training practice, research, and extensive multi-channel cog nition of such learning environments as medical theatres or training kitchen classes. The smaller discussion focused classes can strug gle with class equality for remote attendees. Schools must account for the experience students will have when enabling remote access. Classroom technology must be up to date to optimize the ability for remote students to have access to all classroom resources”.

sult/?q=+AV-over-IP+solutions

Ministry of Education, All-Ukraine Online School (AOS): https:// lms.e-school.net.ua/

Case study Peerless

WOHN SCHICK HQ CASE STUDY

echion AG equips Wohn Schick Furniture Stores with Digital Signage Screens and In-Store Radio as part of Chic Living Re branding Project

German furniture store Wohn Schick has installed new instore digital signage and au dio solutions in its Haiger loch-Owingen and Rottweil locations as part of an overall store rebranding and renovation project to create an omnichan nel shopping experience for customers. echion Corporate Communication AG, a systems integrator specialising in instore digital signage, audio, LED and scent marketing,

dia synched with in-store radio to present a coordinated mix of video animations, advertising, entertainment, royalty-free mu sic, editorial contributions and information, adapted through out the day to suit different audience demographics, and all reflecting the new strategic Wohn Schick brand image.

The Solution

As of August 2022, over 25 Philips LCD displays and Peer less-AV mounts have been in stalled at both Wohn Schick locations, with more to be in stalled by the end of October.

ers and the CMS system echion Manager.

Peerless-AV’s SmartMount® Full-Service Video wall Mounts with gentle push to release functionality provide quick and easy install solutions with easy access for servicing and main tenance, especially ideal for re cessed applications. Reusable custom wall plate spacers elim inate guesswork and on-site in stall calculations. 8-point toolless micro adjustment allows the mount to overcome uneven walls, creating a seamless vid eo wall display. The DS-VW755S accommodates 46” to 65” displays in both landscape

AVIXA Women’s Council – review of 2022

Securing the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), at The Spine in Liverpool, as the onsite venue for the first Northern event was a great result; thanks to com mittee members Erica Whittle

The webinar that attracted the most attention and attendance, with 118 participants, was the “Self-Limiting Beliefs – How to get out of your own way” coaching session with Monique

about her career journey and experiences, followed by a panel session about advancing your career with Sadie Groom (Bub ble Agency), Mina Machacek (Talent Acquisition Specialist), Stephen Patterson (Biamp) and Denise O’Keeffe (Woop Jobs).

The AVIXA Women’s Council UK is always on the lookout for new and interesting venues as well as sponsorship to help fund refreshments and contribute to guest speaker fees. The more the council expands its reach and accessibility in the UK, wid ens its scope of topics in sup port of diversity, inclusion and encouraging more talent into AV careers, the better the future will be for the industry overall.

was responsible for specify ing, sourcing and installing the products, which included video wall displays from Philips and mounts from Peerless-AV.

Judith Schick-Pieper, Manag ing Director of Wohn Schick, commented, “Echion AG has proved to be a competent full-service provider when it comes to planning and imple mentation of this project. With their competent advice and professional implementation in our stores, we feel that we are well advised and looked after.”

The Requirement

Since December 2021, echion has been equipping the Wohn Schick furniture stores and the furniture discounter K-Markt furniture stores in Haiger loch-Owingen and Rottweil with a wide range of AV hardware. This includes both in-store me

In Owingen-Haigerloch, the 3500m² ground floor refur bishment, spanning the carpet, home textiles, gifts, house keeping and upholstered furni ture departments, incorporates a 3x3 video supported by 6 x DS-VW765-LQR Full-Service Video Wall Mounts and 4 3x1 video walls supported by 12 x DS-VW755S Full-Service Thin Video Wall Mounts.

In Rottweil, there is a 1x3 vid eo wall supported by 3 x DSVW755S in the upholstered furniture (W. Schillig) depart ment, one single display sup ported by 1 x DS-VW765-LQR in the garden furniture depart ment and one 1x3 video wall supported by 3 X DS-VW755S. Lastly, a single display sup ported by a DS-VW765-LQR is installed in the furniture de partment of K-Markt, Owingen. All video walls and screens are controlled by Giada video play

and portrait orientation and the DS-VW-765-LQR is for 46” to 65” in landscape only.

Sabine Dewes, Sales Manag er New Business, said, “We chose Peerless-AV mounts from past experience in retail in-store projects. The mounts are straightforward to handle and position, with innovative features that make an install er’s life easier, saving time and costs. In partnership with Philips and Peerless-AV we have delivered eye-catching instore digital signage that cus tomers acknowledge, engage with and appreciate as enhanc ing their retail journey.”

(Pure AV) and Samantha Bews (LG) who were involved in the AV element of the RCP project .

The Spine will soon be Platinum WIRED Certified, meaning it is one of the healthiest and most intelligent buildings in the UK, and won Education Project of the Year at the AV Awards 2023.

Despite train strikes causing travel issues for some, the event was well attended and was live streamed to a virtual audience. Guest speaker at the event was Debra Stevens, coach, trainer and author of “Stand Out – 5 Key Skills to Advance Your Ca reer”, who delivered an interac tive presentation on the topic of empathetic leadership.

Paul Milligan, editor of Inavate Magazine moderated a pan el session on “Wellness and Workplace Design” with panel lists Angela Townsend (SMART Technologies), Cathy Hardman (RCP), Iffat Chaudhry (Whatiff) and Ben Pain (RCP). In addition to interesting viewpoints on work life balance, impact of covid on building design and the role of AV in the building project plan ning phase, Cathy Hardman provided an insightful introduc tion to The Spine building. Interestingly, the natural pattern of the exterior was modelled on a giraffe, with 23 million polygons etched on the North, South, East and West of the building, and it gets its name from the 2 stairwells at the rear. The natu ral light that this design lets in, together with clean air filtration, provides a calming effect and aids regular sleep patterns. It is a truly phenomenal building; one to be visited, appreciated and experienced.

Wintle-Camp in September. Monique was an energetic and sparkling speaker, who raised questions about the way we see ourselves, our assumptions about how the world works and how in some way they hold us back from achieving what we’re really capable of. Our subcon scious mind accounts for 95% of what we are thinking and our beliefs are largely set by the age of seven. During the talk, she looked at techniques to identify and understand personal liming beliefs and proposed simple steps to overcome the, reframe them and reap incredible re sults.

The most recent webinar was on “Goal Setting – Transform your personal and working life” with Martin Purvis, who provided useful advice and tips for visual ising goals – whether related to finance, career, family or health and fitness – making them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Mea surable) and then choosing to be accountable by planning and setting deliverables.

In light of the recent global re port from AVIXA called ‘Are Women Welcome in AV?’, in which research showed that women are hugely underrepre sented in the AV industry, the topic of career building is clear ly pertinent and calls for fun damental change. At Midwich TechExpo in October, Biamp sponsored a “Career Building Breakfast”, which kicked off with Sarah Joyce (AVIXA) talking

If, as you read this, you have any ideas or requests for fu ture events, in-person or virtual, please share by emailing.

See you at ISE 2023, 31 Jan uary to 3 February, where there will be a networking event on the AVIXA booth [@Tanya please can you help fill in here?

AVIXA Women’s Council UK, 2022

events:

January – Webinar on ‘Imposter Syndrome’ with speaker Jo Hind.

March – On-site event. Inter national Women’s Day “Break the BIAS” panel at Crestron, Weybridge.

May – On-site event. ‘Shared Experiences Panel’ at ISE Barcelona.

June – Onsite event. “Well ness and Workplace Change” with keynote Debra Stevens at The Spine, Liverpool.

September – Webinar on ‘Self-Limiting Beliefs’. Keynote Monique Wintle-Camp.

October – On-site Breakfast event with “Career Building” panel. Midwich TechXpo, Ascot.

November – Webinar on “Goal Setting” with business coach Martin Purvis.

December – Christmas event and keynote with Naomi Rich es MBE at Aura, London.

Visit the AVIXA Women's Council UK website for the latest recording and shared experiences toolkit.

2022 has been a momentous year for the AVIXA Women’s Council UK, hosting its first Northern event at Liverpool’s new flagship building, confirming motivational speakers of all professional and sporting backgrounds, tackling pertinent topics and attracting wider audiences – all with the aim to support and empower women (and men) in the technology and AV industry. Organising a balanced mix of face-to-face networking events and webinars, the objective has been to make these events as inclusive and accessible as possible with live streaming and recordings available.

During our lives and careers we WIN and LOOSE many times!

Will I get the main part in the school musical?

Will I be selected for university?

Will I get the job out of 100 applicants?

Will my organization win the 10-year contract worth a hundred million?

Winning is often associated with luck, but what if I told you that you can learn to win! Not by cheating or having the lowest price or demands? But winning by making use of a technique called Value: Value Based Winning. People and experts are often not fully aware of their value and how it relates to the ‘world’ or to their environment.

The book, ‘The secret of Value Based Winning’ is a com pact book of 74 pages, with a step-by-step approach. It explains simplified and codified winning, making use of the value that is inside of every person, team or organi zation.

It gives guidance how to first learn to think like the cli ent and learn what value the client truly seeks. The book explains the use of the different dimensions of show ing value: The WHAT, the HOW, the WHY and the BE LIEF-SYSTEM. What differentiates this approach is the addition and insight of the different BELIEF-SYSTEMS. BELIEF-SYSTEMS are a very relevant part of the winning process, however often kept invisible during the winning process.

The comparison to the roots of the tree highlights how the belief system plays an important role in winning a

project. Everyone initially focusses on the fruits of the tree (often the project tender), however, the roots of the tree are often the most relevant part to address (why a tender was issued, not just the specifications).

The book contains several industry and personal examples to grasp the idea of value based winning, whereby the book focusses on the discovery-phase: Match and see the differ ent (potential) values. The value-based-winning-matrix can be used as a fill-in exercise to guide you step-by-step and closer to winning.

Once you start to see how the value based winning process works, you will get better and more effective every time you are in the winning and convincing process.

About the author :

Patrick Alexander, the author of the book ‘The secret of Value Based Winning’ is an expert in winning and shaping the winning process. During his career he won and lost multiple times. As an inventor, he participated in a national contest with 2000 others and tackled several stages be fore winning this contest. During the last 10 years as a pro posal architect, he worked with dozens of teams in making complex and winning proposals and tenders, contributing millions of Euros per year to his company’s revenue. Pat rick’s mission is: let people, teams and organizations with the highest value win. Let those win, who most deserve it!

More information on http://www.valuebasedwinning.com. The book can be ordered via the website and https://www. amazon.co.uk.

“As someone who has built a successful media business over the last 30 years, seen it develop and diversify into new media and adopt new technologies as a means of production and communication, some people would describe me as one of nature’s ‘winners’. But there remains a lingering doubt. Even where I have clearly been perfectly positioned for success, with the right skills, knowledge and resources. I have not always won in competition with others clearly, in my view, less able or suitable competitors.

Patrick’s book is a roadmap to different way of winning, and one that I wish I had as my guide those 30 years ago.”

Have you ever wondered why the best (wo)man doesn’t always win?

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

Bryan Denyer

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Peoplewatch

Exertis has revealed its new line-up of AV talent which is heading up the Exertis Pro AV division. The team, who all report into Director of Exertis Pro AV, Jamie Brothwell, consists of: Al Coyne, taking the role of Commercial Director; Tim Fox, named Head of Sales; Jon Grundy, whose role is Head of AV Solutions; and Mark Sanderson, the new Commercial Manager. A wider external team is also part of the new structure, employing Mandeep Jabble and Joe Finn who both report into Head of Sales, Tim Fox. Jamie Brothwell said: “Having responsi bility for restructuring and rebuilding the UK Exertis Pro AV business is the best project I’ve ever been a part of. Building and establishing a new management team, setting the strategy for growth, working with our geographical siblings around the world, and bringing to life and telling the story of Exertis Pro AV has been a joy to be part of. Working at Exertis gives the freedom and entrepreneurial spirit that leads to fantastic innovation and growth. I’m incredibly proud of our business, our culture and our people, and I’m really excited to see where we go from here.”

The Exertis Pro AV division offers a whole suite of products to support the movement towards collaborative working, and the function oper ates across 20 countries, with more than 500 dedicated Exertis Pro AV employees worldwide. The aim of bolstering the talent in the UK division is to give a greater customer and vendor experience, provid ing the support and expertise to upskill customers’ workforces, and offering new and exciting ways to increase customers’ technology offerings – therefore differentiating them from their own competitors.

Al Coyne, Commercial Director, said: “I am relishing the new role as it gives me another cap to wear in the world of Exertis Pro AV – there are several similarities in this market as there are within the OA print market.” Tim Fox, Head of Sales, said: “Building a sales operation that offers customers excellent service and genuine choice is a chal lenge that I am really enjoying. Exertis Pro AV has a lot of momentum now, exciting times are ahead!” Jon Grundy, Head of AV Solutions, said: “Exertis is incredibly forward-thinking and is constantly looking for new ways to improve our offering and better support our partners. Being able to help shape this growth is extremely rewarding.

Mark Sanderson, Commercial Manager, said: “Having spent 23 years in AV/UC distribution, it’s great to be leading a team of passion ate, dedicated and knowledgeable colleagues to drive our portfolio of industry-leading conferencing, collaboration and attach vendors to market.”

exclusive remote display management cloud platform, Wave, all key product categories.

Nick will also oversee the company’s move into a new US head of fice and globally connected showroom, as well as executing plans to increase staff numbers by 50 per cent in 2023 in order to better support customers and enlarge reach across all verticals, leverag ing on PPDS’ extensive product portfolio. In addition to leading the North American team, Nick will work closely with the wider global organisation, using his knowledge and expertise to support senior management operating in the company’s other 158 regions.

Commenting on Nick’s appointment, Franck Racapé, said: “Our am bitions for Philips professional displays in the North American mar ket are extremely high and we have been looking for a profile com bining great industry knowledge, strong manufacturing experience across all our product categories (Digital Signage, Interactive, dvLED and Hospitality TV), who already has a track record of driving growth and developing an expanding team. Nick ticked all these boxes, and I am really pleased to start our collaboration, with extremely exciting times ahead. With Nick on board, we aim to accelerate our growth exponentially in what will be our most strategic growth region for the coming 2-3 years.”

As part of the business’ ‘hyper growth phase’ in North America (first announced in June, 2022), PPDS US is now a wholly-owned sub sidiary of the TPV Group – the world’s largest manufacturer of LCD displays – with the North American business becoming fully aligned with PPDS’ wider global operations – many of which have seen Philips professional displays become a market leader.

One of the most important strategic shifts in the US arm of the company’s history, the move has unlocked immeasurable benefits and opportunities for its partners and customers in North America, adding more choice, consistency, and unrivalled partner support for projects on both a local and global scale. This has seen PPDS US being able to utilize the full manufacturing strengths and resources enjoyed by teams across PPDS’ other international markets, includ

TD SYNNEX MAVERICK, a specialist division of TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) has appointed Lian Cunliffe as Business Development Manag er for Logitech business across Europe. With 10 years of experience in the tech industry she joins Maverick in a new role in its Pan-Euro pean team, as a strategic lead for Logitech video collaboration solu tions. She will work across all of the 15 Maverick countries to bring Logitech campaigns to the whole reseller channel. She will provide

Exertis has revealed its new line-up of AV talent which is heading up the Exertis Pro AV division. The team, who all re port into Director of Exertis Pro AV, Jamie Brothwell), consists of: Al Coyne, taking the role of Commercial Director; Tim Fox, named Head of Sales; Jon Grundy, whose role is Head of AV Solutions; and Mark Sand erson, the new Commercial Manager.

PPDS, the exclusive global provider of Philips digital signage, inter active displays, direct view LED and professional TV products and solutions, has announced the appointment of highly experienced AV leader, Nick Begleries, as its new Commercial VP, North America. Adding more than 25 years of top-level senior AV experience to the steadily expanding PPDS US team, Nick is one of the AV industry’s most accomplished talents in North America, heading up and guid ing forward some of the world’s largest and most successful display manufacturers during an already illustrious career.

A recognized and respected leader, Nick’s specialist knowledge of the Pro AV market and proven management skills, backed by an im peccable track record delivering substantial and often record-break ing growth, made him a standout choice for this business-critical position. As Commercial Vice President, Nick will play a crucial role in PPDS’ accelerating phase of growth in the US, with the target of achieving the business’ ambitions to achieve a top three position in the North American marketplace.

Reporting to Franck Racapé, Head of Global Commercial at PPDS, Nick will be responsible for all aspects of PPDS’ North American business. This includes, but is not limited to, defining the mid- and long-term sales strategy for North America, setting and achieving quarterly sales targets, managing the supply chain, service and post-sales, and driving greater awareness of the PPDS brand and its solutions. Education, retail, hospitality, corporate, healthcare and transportation are among focus markets, with Philips Professional TVs, Interactive Displays, dvLED, Digital Signage and the company’s

ing priority access to core components and materials for manufac turing continuity, and end-to-end supply chain systems enabling full control and monitoring of logistics streams.

Nick hailed the company’s “unrivalled global strengths and capabili ties, its market ambitions and, above all, the current and future port folio of dedicated solutions,” among the reasons for choosing PPDS as the perfect destination for the next phase of his career: “I feel that all my previous experience has led me to this position, and I am incredibly motivated and excited about what we can go on to achieve in North America. PPDS has demonstrated a strong understanding of market direction and what Pro AV integrators and end users need from a manufacturer. As a result, PPDS has already proven to be a highly disruptive force in North America and in the wider global mar ket, bringing truly world-leading, uniquely innovative solutions to the market, when the market needs them. With TPV, R&D and resources are unparalleled, all of which provide incredible benefits to custom ers from the initial tender process to post-installation support. I’m honoured to become part of the PPDS journey and to be entrusted

dedicated support for customers in each region enabling rapid de ployment of new product innovations.

Lian joins the team from the UC&C team at Ingram Micro, where as a Business Manager, she was responsible for developing multi-lev el partnerships, structuring year on year sales and growth for their international vendors, as a trusted advisor within the industry. Lian Cunliffe, Business Development Manager comments: “I’m thrilled to have joined such a renowned business and to be working with a mar ket leading vendor like Logitech. With a focus on making hybrid-work work on a global scale, I’m proud to be part of an innovative move ment that is working to make collaboration equitable, accessible and tangible for all.”

Simon Kitson, Smart Meetings Director, Maverick Europe comments: “Lian brings experience, drive and a dedicated approach and will be a fantastic addition to Team Maverick. With a focus on develop ing and growing the Logitech business in partnership with our team, her role is a natural progression to help our global partners have a more streamlined and effective experience. She brings a deep un derstanding of the channel, solutions and key products which will be vital to build this new role.”

Lian will be based in the UK and working globally across all of Maver ick’s territories and can be contacted at: lian.cunliffe@techdata.com

VITEC has announced the appointment of Kevin Dowd to the role of Regional Business Development Director, APAC. Based in Hong Kong and fluent in Mandarin, French and Japanese, Kevin will use his linguistic dexterity, economic acumen and extensive experience across a range of vertical markets to help to drive VITEC’s growth. “As VITEC continues its growth in APAC, we are pleased to welcome Kevin Dowd to the team,” says Jamie Hind, Regional Director, APAC at VITEC. “It’s an exciting time for us in the region and Kevin brings a huge amount of experience and knowledge with him – we are look ing forward to seeing him help drive the long-term success of VITEC across Asia.”

Kevin has more than 25 years of business development experience across China and the broader APAC region, where he has worked for international technology companies including MultiDyne, Ac cord Networks, RGB Networks, Broadstream, Haivision, Polycom, deCarta (now part of Uber) and Viewcast. He has directly sold and managed multimillion dollar projects in markets including telecoms,

PPDS has announced the appointment of highly experienced AV leader, Nick Begleries, as its new Commercial VP, North America.

TD SYNNEX MAVERICK, a specialist division of TD SYNNEX has appointed Lian Cunliffe as Business Development Manager for Logitech business across Europe.

Peoplewatch

healthcare, military, finance, government, broadcasting, educa tion, and public relations.

Having lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong since 1995, Kevin has established a strong network of some of the largest broadcasters, government agencies, financial institutions and telecommunica tions service providers in APAC, and at the highest levels of local and central governments in China and throughout Asia. With a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, and an MSc in Economics with distinction from the University of Bristol, Kevin is an expert on the political economy of China, having held positions with the Shanghai Institute of Economic Development and Jiaotong University in Shanghai.

ed to be joining Televideo’s extremely talented team, especially during such an exciting period of change for the broadcast industry. As an independent UK-based company with a global outlook, Televideo is well placed to capitalise on a range of new growth opportunities and I am really looking forward to our journey over the next 6-18 months. My main goal is very simple: I want to ensure our focus stays on providing exceptional technical delivery and excellent customer service across everything we do. I am particularly looking forward to broadening the selection of OB work we undertake and to working with our customers that continually challenge us to innovate.”

Televideo has strengthened its executive team with the appointment of James Poole to the role of Chief Operating Officer.

Bradford based Pro Audio Sys tems (PAS) has announced the recruitment of Sue Nash and Nosheen Bibi to the posts of Bookkeeper and Sales Support/ Administrator respectively. Hav ing bounced back strongly from the turbulence of the Coronavi rus pandemic, demand for PAS’s services is growing rapidly, in creasing the need for more resources in the areas of finance, sales support and administration.

Pro Audio Systems Managing Director, Brian Lumb, welcomes the new recruits: “We’re delighted to welcome both new members of staff to our growing and dedicated team. Sue has worked in ac counts across a variety of sectors over a number of years. It was vital to us that we found a very experienced operator that could hit the ground running and ensure that we maintain efficiency in the face of ever-increasing demand for our services. I’m confident that Sue’s skills and experience will make a valuable contribution to Pro Audio System’s continued growth.”

“Nosheen joins us in a combined sales support and administrative role, after making a strong impression during an interview for a dif ferent position. Her previous experience as a receptionist has seen her develop excellent interpersonal and communications skills, as well as a strong focus on customer service qualities that exactly match the demands of her new role.”

Televideo has strengthened its executive team with the appoint ment of James Poole to the role of Chief Operating Officer. With over 15 years’ experience in the Outside Broadcast industry, Poole joins Televideo from Timeline TV where he worked first an OB Unit Manager and then Senior Commercial Manager, responsible for sales and new business development.

.During his tenure at Timeline, Poole won numerous contracts in cluding The BBC Proms, National Theatre Live, Glyndebourne Op era, The Rugby League World Cup Host Broadcast, BBC Women’s Six Nations and Summer and Winter on the Farm as well as a range of other projects. His appointment to the Televideo management team will allow the company to develop fresh commercial and op erational strategies and explore new areas of growth.

Televideo’s Managing Director Paul Scivill said: “We are thrilled to welcome James to the ever-growing Televideo team. His experi ence and enthusiasm will strengthen our existing offering across the board to all our clients. As we continue to expand our fleet, personnel and our client experience, James is an integral part of this process. We look forward to the opportunities we can create now he is part of the Televideo team.”

Commenting on his appointment, James Poole says: “I am delight

Paul Bromley joins The LED Studio with 15 years of experience in the display sector, working with globally renowned brands specialising in LED and large-format displays. He will focus on further developing, implementing and delivering global sales strategies that support the customer and distribution channels.

Paul Bromley, channel development and partnerships director at The LED Studio, comments:

“The LED Studio has a flourishing business with a unique offering that stands out in the LED industry, including a portfolio of proprietary display solutions designed and assembled in the UK. The LED Studio already has strong foundations, which will help as we expand into the broader AV market across EMEA. This is a very exciting time to join The LED Studio and help to cement its reputation and position as an instrumental player in the ever-evolving LED space.”

Lee Stephens brings a wealth of knowledge to The LED Studio with a proven track record of holding senior business development roles at global system integrators. He brings specialist industry knowledge in the retail and QSR verticals.

As global business development manager, Lee will utilise his business development skills to work with key brands and strategic partners to identify and implement route to market strategies across the retail, forecourt, automotive and QSR sectors.

The

Stephens as global business development manager.

Lee Stephens, senior sales consultant at The LED Studio, states: "It's rare to see an LED company with such impressive stock levels and short delivery times, which puts The LED Studio in a unique position in such a buoyant market. With a strong focus on British design and engineering, The LED Studio is committed to creating exceptional LED display solutions built to the highest quality for high end performance and engineered for longevity. These are some of the many reasons I am delighted to join this brilliant, pioneering company, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds."

Rob Bint, CEO at The LED Studio, comments: “Our LED display portfolio is expanding at an incredible rate with solutions that use innovative and futureproofed designs and are environmentally con cise. By engineering with sustainability in mind, we’re able to pass on multiple cost-effective benefits to businesses, which is crucial in the current economic climate. Paul and Lee bring a lot of industry experience and are well respected, so it’s an honour to have them join our senior sales team. Their knowledge will help us further strengthen our position in the market and showcase to companies

Certes Networks, global cybersecurity and data assurance technol ogy provider has appointed Simon Pamplin as Chief Technology Officer. With over 20 years’ experience in Enterprise IT and a spe cialism in Data Centre Networking Simon has worked for IP, SAN and hyper-convergent companies such as Aruba Silver Peak and is a technical evangelist for SD-WAN and the business benefits it can bring.

With Certes, Simon will oversee the development and - alongside Chief Product Officer, Matt Cable - the deployment of its Soft ware-defined Information Assurance solutions for High Assurance organisations, which will allow them to establish and maintain con trol over their data irrespective of network and security infrastruc ture. In addition, working in close collaboration with Certes’ CEO, Paul German, Simon will maintain his role as an industry spokes person on all matters related to data assurance.

“Certes’ aim is to ensure that organisations can confidently use any underlying infrastructure - traditional or new, such as SD-WAN - in the knowledge that they, as the customer - the data owner - at all times have control and ownership of their assurance posture as it relates to their sensitive data,” says Paul German, CEO, Certes.

“With his depth of experience and connections in the SD-WAN sec tor, Simon is ideally placed to elevate our message that the move to SD-WAN can be done in a way that provides a level of assurance, in a way that the industry has not appreciated to date.” He adds, “The track record Simon has in building and managing teams, as well as his passion for business and technology solutions, make him an invaluable member of the Certes team."

Simon Pamplin, CTO, Certes Networks comments: “I’m thrilled to join Certes at such an exciting time; I see Certes as the next step for businesses in abstracting the data from the underlying application and network. Both end-user organisations and IT service providers need to stop thinking about network perimeter security, for it is only once the concept of, and responsibility for, data assurance is under stood by all parties, that the correct steps will be taken to maximise the power of SD-WAN to accelerate business change while mitigat ing risk. I see a lot of places to be disruptive, proactive and protect a business’ most precious asset - its data - whilst minimising the risk of potential breaches,” he concludes.

VITEC has announced the appointment of Kevin Dowd to the role of Regional Business Development Director, APAC

The LED Studio continues to rapidly expand its UK team with the ap pointment of two further senior sales representatives, Paul Bromley, who joins as channel development and partnerships director and Lee Stephens as global business development manager.

LED Studio continues to rapidly expand its UK team with the appointment of two further senior sales representatives, Paul Bromley, who joins as channel development and partnerships di rector and Lee

Congress Square - the beating heart of ISE 2023

Visitors to ISE 2023 should be sure to visit the thriving Con gress Square area, right at the heart of the Fira. The 2,212m2 Congress Square location can be found in the central aisle between Halls 4 & 6 and Halls 5 & 7 and is packed with inno vations, networking opportuni ties and industry organisations, bringing together a range of di verse partners all in one place. It is home to the Catalonian and Barcelona City Council Pavil ions, Discovery Zone, Interna tional Media Showcase and the Influencer and Impact Lounges, and networking space.

New for 2023, the Impact Lounge will offer visitors the chance to meet with organisa tions making a difference in the industry. This includes Women in Live Music (WILM) and ISE sustainability partner SAVe and The Circle Society. The lounge will provide a space for visitors to connect with these organisa tions that are looking to change things for the better and to find out more about the work they’re doing and the difference it’s al ready making.

“We’re returning to ISE 2023 with a dedicated space in the Impact Lounge, where we can make new connections and raise awareness of women in the industry,” said Malle Kaas from WILM. “Along with ISE, we’re offering women a space where they can meet likeminded peers to share their experiences and network, bringing together new comers and those experienced in the industry. We also encour age male guests to learn more about the industry from a wom an’s perspective.”

“We’re thrilled to bring Sus tainability in AV (SAVe) to the Impact Lounge at ISE 2023 for the first time,” explains Christina

De Bono, Founder and Presi dent of SAVe. “SAVe is the first US-based organisation to bring stakeholders in the audiovisual field to take concerted action to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From climate change and envi ronmental degradation to pover ty and inequality, the challenges we face are profound, diverse – and getting worse. We must work together on a global level, as businesses, as educational institutions, and as nations to achieve these critical goals be fore it’s too late. Please stop by the Impact Lounge to learn more and get involved.”

“ISE 2023 will be a first for The Circle Society,” said Lisa Collins, Managing Director at The Circle Society. “We know that the skill sets and team dynamics within our industry are changing, and not only will we be on hand to discuss some of these issues, but we will also have our crew on site to capture some of those trailblazers building a success ful company and individuals climbing the career ladder us ing our peer-to-peer learning and exchange programmes. This global landmark digital and in-person community, platform and network is for anyone work ing in the media technology and services, AV, TV/film production, postproduction and distribution, pro-audio and VFX. “

After a successful debut in 2022, the Influencer Lounge re turns for 2023 and once again welcomes content creators, social media trendsetters and commentators who are an active part of the technology commu nity. Expect a schedule of pod casts and events in this space designed for collaboration and conversation.

Elsewhere in Congress Square

visitors will be able to experi ence the very latest innova tions from first-time exhibitors in the Discovery Zone. Look out for virtual studio software developer Axximetry; AVoIP, HDBaseT and HDMI distri bution device manufacturer Netvio; electronic accessories manufacturer Vanco; and Fly lights, which offers transparent LED displays, among many others.

Congress Square will also be the location of pavilions or

ganised by Barcelona City Council and the government of Catalonia, hosting local and regional exhib itors. The Catalonia Pavilion will host 30 local businesses active in the AV industry as well as high lighting business growth opportu nities and running the Open Inno vation Challenge. The ISE Open Innovation Challenge is hosted by ACCIÓ (the Catalonia Trade & In vestment agency) and Enterprise Europe Network. Returning to ISE for its second iteration, ACCIÓ is working with corporations looking

ISE 2023 to focus content production and distribution

In response to the growing rele vance of content production and distribution technologies across the pro-AV and systems integra tion market, ISE 2023 will see a host of new features focused on this exciting area, including a new dedicated area in Hall 6. The start of a long-term initia tive, this new focus for ISE also highlights the more than 70 exhibitors at ISE 2023 with of ferings in content production and distribution that are located all around the Fira. Show Floor Tours around some of the lead ing brands will be on offer. For 2023, more space has been added to Hall 6 and exhibi tors now and in the future will include suppliers of solutions including cameras, camera tracking equipment, switchers, monitors, virtual sets, video networking solutions, intercoms and audio consoles.

In addition, ISE’s comprehen sive conference programme for 2023 will be enhanced with the addition of a new Content Pro duction and Distribution Sum mit. Details of the programme will be revealed over the coming weeks. The Summit’s focus will

be around how corporates and institutions - all budding film and content makers - can make the best of this new skill to at tract new customers and engage

better with their existing cus tomer base.

Content creation is also the focus of the ISE 2023 Key note. At 17:15 on Tuesday 31

January, BK Johannessen,

for new technologies and solu tions partners to help solve spe cific business issues.

“The Open Innovation Chal lenge was a great success last year, so we’re delighted to be back for ISE 2023,” comment ed Carles Gómara, Business Strategy at ACCIÓ. “The hybrid match-making service connects technology providers with busi nesses looking to purchase solu tions – we currently have eight Catalan corporations lined-up for your pitches. This B2B event

offers the opportunity to create alliances with new local and in ternational partners and partici pation is free of charge, so sign up and get involved!”

Networking opportunities also abound in the six networking areas themed around the show floor Technology Zones. Finally, head to the International Media Showcase where visitors can read the latest issues from the world’s AV media while taking a well-earned breather.

Here, he will discuss how con tent creators are taking innova tions from the games industry and applying them to their proj ects, from cutting-edge virtual production studios to real-time graphics for media & entertain ment, live events, architecture and more.

Mike Blackman, Managing Di rector at Integrated Systems Events, said: “Numerous vertical sectors, from corporate and ed ucation to retail and hospitality, have begun to create, store and distribute their own video con tent, and consumer demand for this shows no signs of slowing.

ISE’s Content Production and Distribution offering will show what’s possible, allow visitors to explore the technology available to create something unique and eye-catching and provide a fo rum to discuss what’s next for the sector.”

The Content Production and Distribution Zone joins ISE’s other Technology Zones on the show floor, designed to make it quicker and easier for visitors to navigate the Fira and find the solutions they’re looking for.

These are Audio (Hall 7); Con tent Production & Distribution (Hall 6); Digital Signage & DOOH (Hall 6); Lighting & Staging (Hall 7); Multi-Technology (Halls 3 and 5); Residential & Smart Building (Hall 2); and Unified Communication and Education Technology (Hall 2).

The 2,212m2 Congress Square location can be found in the cen tral aisle between Halls 4 & 6 and Halls 5 & 7 and is packed with innovations, networking opportunities and industry organisations, bringing together a range of diverse partners all in one place.

ISE’s Content Production and Distribution offering will show what’s possible, allow visitors to explore the technology available to create something unique and eye-catching and provide a forum to discuss what’s next for the sector.”

Unre al Engine Business Director for Broadcast and Live Events at Epic Games, will give an address enti tled ‘All Paths Lead to Real-Time’.