Interview
Gerwin Damberg, Barco
Due to the expansion of AV in recent years, are you seeing strong growth in surprising market verticals? Barco has retained a strong position in its core markets but has also had the courage to divest businesses that did not continue to fit that focus to make room for new opportunities. Our collaboration products are one example where Barco was able to grow in a new market vertical and where the rate of growth of the new business was encouraging. Having seen some of the new innovations in the labs I am confident it is the right decision to allow this relatively new business to expand and innovate fast in the space. How do you see the balance between the IT department and the AV integrator? Will there be growing levels of competition in the future or greater collaboration? Both and it probably depends quite a bit on the customer organisation. On collaboration and meeting room tools, for example, the purchasing decision can involve management whose primary focus might be less on technology and more on the overall meeting efficiency gains that can be achieved by installing new collaboration solutions. Since meeting room hardware such as displays, projectors, microphones, speakers, cameras and whiteboards are all connected today via the company networks and affects the bandwidth and resources IT will always be involved. To identify the best solution will usually require guidance from the AV integrator. At Barco we strive to make this integration across devices as easy and flexible as possible. How important has the company’s new HQ building been to its continued development? Barco at its core is an international company with offices in more than 90 countries. This is also true for R&D where we have development sites across the globe. While some of the sites have certain core competencies, many if not all products are developed in teams distributed over multiple sites and time zones. The new headquarters building in Belgium brought under one roof many employees from different sites in the region, which has been positive. As production, R&D and other functions share one new space it feels as if the interaction between the groups has also increased. Aside from that, Barco’s headquarters is a very functional building in which it is easy to get together and get things done and, in my opinion, aesthetically quite pleasing architecture. When I visit from Vancouver, Canada, about every 4-6 weeks or so, it always feels a little bit like a Silicon Valley headquarters. Just that it’s in Flanders, Belgium. 20
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Connectivity, workflows and content insights are becoming more and more important in almost all of Barco’s product offerings Like many companies, does Barco see the future of AV sales in complete solutions rather than standalone products? Integrators have always and will continue to play an important role in the pro AV and consumer ecosystem. Having said that, Barco strives to provide more and more complete solutions from source to display. Our products will continue to meet and exceed the high demands of the professional markets we serve. In many applications some degree of customisation is dictated by the specific customer needs. Barco strives to provide this flexibility within our individual products and to make it easy for our different products to connect. Where we don’t have the complete solution in-house, we try to design for universal connectivity according to the most common industry standards. This benefits both our customers and our partners such as AV integrators. How different are all the geographical markets Barco has a presence in? And does any one in particular pose more challenges? As for other industries the different regions that Barco sells and manufactures in are quite different. This relates to almost all aspects of the product lifecycle including R&D, patenting, sourcing and suppliers, local standards and regulations, marketing, sales and even operating conditions such as humidity that can affect the performance of our products. The speed at which some of the emerging markets such as China and India move can be both a challenge and an opportunity and it is good to have people ‘on the ground’ and working locally to understand how to best approach the business in each geography. Over the next few years how do you see Barco developing as a company? Our goal is for Barco to continue to lead by innovation for impactful products in the markets we are already strong in, and to look beyond that to leverage the technology expertise we have access to. In this process we will continue to involve our customers and partners closely. www.barco.com