IoT
Trends That Will Shape The AV Industry Encouragingly, many have already begun to adapt and embrace change.
By Mike Brandofino Yorktel
A
s we enter the second tenance and managed services can be negatively affected when customers migrate to quarter of 2019, AV integrators and self-service rooms. That said, it’s important to note that “self-service” doesn’t mean manufacturers now have the proper “no service,” as we are finding that customers who migrate to self-service rooms still perspective to take stock of what haprequire support for their users and monitoring of connected devices in the rooms. pened in 2018 and determine how it will Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) is going to impact the AV industr y in a big way this affect our industr y moving for ward. year. Almost ever y discussion with large enterprises will eventually cover their stratIf you are tired of hearing the term egy for MS Teams. We will see new ecosystems of hardware and managed ser vices “huddle room,” then don’t read the being launched this year, and they’ll be specifically tailored to MS Teams. The migranext few sentences. The tion to smaller, self-ser vice rooms is the precursor to massive rollouts of migration away from larger MS Teams for many global organizations. meeting rooms continues Another trend that might finally make its way into the AV industry is Whereas we used to to progress at an alarming AV-as-a-Service (AVaaS). The concept of renting a complete room of AV pace. We have seen some equipment, including the installation and service, for one monthly fee, has focus on supporting customers adding thoubeen tried in the past—with little success. However, we have seen lenders rooms, we now must sands of smaller collabooffering more creative leasing options and demonstrating a willingness to ration spaces around the work with AV integrators to create packages that now make it feasible to support end users. globe, while only adding offer solutions of this type. That fact, combined with the increasing willinga fraction of larger rooms. ness of enterprises to leverage cloud-based services, might just mean that Whereas we used to The continued growth of this year will be the one when we start see traction in the AVaaS space. provide a small huddle rooms is coupled As customers continue to expand the number of meeting spaces they with the growth of the new have in their facilities, we are seeing an increased demand for data number of large “self-ser vice” model, which about usage patterns, attendance and the overall performance of the is substantially impacting collaboration environment. Customers are no longer happy just to see rooms, we now must how traditional AV integrahistorical information about how many tickets were opened or closed provide a large tors provide ser vices to in a given period; instead, they want data that can be analyzed and used customers. to make meaningful decisions about their continued investments in number of smaller Self-service rooms are technology, ser vices and real estate. AV integrators will be called upon essentially meeting rooms to provide creative ways to capture points of data—for example, how rooms. that have a room PC or many people are physically in the room or which rooms are used most. similar Microsoft WindowsThis represents a new, ser vices-based opportunity for those capable of based device preloaded supporting the associated data and reporting demands. with collaboration and video-commuThese trends represent both a challenge and an opportunity for the AV industr y. nication software. In 2018, enterprises We continue to be pushed to develop closer ties with IT organizations, as the Internet started to take Cisco and Polycom video of Things (IoT) continues to involve AV components and as meeting spaces exchange codecs out of production and replace codecs for PCs. This opens up a new way of delivering ser vices for customers. them with PCs running Zoom and Whereas we used to focus on supporting rooms, we now must support end users. BlueJeans. That has affected a number Whereas we used to provide a small number of large rooms, we now must provide a of traditional revenue sources for AV large number of smaller rooms. integrators and manufacturers. Even setThe status quo is not what we should expect this year. The AV industr y must ting aside the loss of potential hardware evolve and adapt to these new trends, and it is encouraging to see that many have sales, revenues associated with mainalready begun to do so.
18 Sound & Communications April 2019