These include traditional codec developers such as Polycom, which has a growing partner program, Lifesize and Zoom; as well as control-systems developers like Crestron with its Fusion Cloud and AMX, which markets its RMS Enterprise Hosted Cloud Service, a cloud-based software application that provides remote management capabilities for AV assets and building systems.
But McArdle also stresses that the future will likely be a hybrid of software-based and more conventional collaboration solutions.
“The value of these software-based services in the market increases as AV becomes an integrated work tool — something you use every day, all the time, rather than something you have to schedule in a room.”
Aaron McArdle, Zdi
Video conferencing is a highly visible service on cloud platforms, but there’s a mix of other offerings that can be leveraged, for both revenue and value. Data and analytics are prime candidates to be commoditized and monetized in these scenarios.
AVI-SPL’s Chiorazzi says data-related services are significant in the company’s future plans, as an extension of its Symphony management platform, which manages AV and video conferencing estate user experiences and systems, among other functions.
“Analytics might be the biggest opportunity in the future,” he says. “[Users] are looking for data like room-use data, how they scheduled the room, who showed up, how long they were there for, what systems were used, and so on. This is something we’re already doing to an extent. It’s only going to become more important, because how they use their spaces today determines what they’re going to build in the future.”
Manufacturers Respond
AV systems manufacturers have been adapting to the shift in direction, creating products with which integrators can address it. Barco, for example, has leveraged its year-old acquisition of automation and show-control manufacturer Medialon into Overture, its enterprise-wide A/V control software product.
Eric Cantrell, the North American sales manager for the Medialon division, says Overture, which was to be relaunched under the Barco brand at ISE 2017 in Amsterdam in February, is sold on a per-room basis.
“The fact that customers no longer maintain need to maintain their own servers is huge, as are features like automated backups,” Cantrell says. “Integrators can sell this as a cloud-based service, and their customers can use as much or as little as they need.”
It represents a shift, he says, from the Capex model of AV system integration to one of Opex — representing the ongoing cost for operating a product, business or system.
“The subscription model lets users scale deployment as they need it — five rooms now and perhaps five rooms later — instead of making a substantial investment in hardware at one time and hoping it returns its investment over time,” he says.
Kramer Electronics, which has manufactured hardware such as switchers, routers and scalers, introduced Kramer Control, a software/cloud-based enterprise level control solution that will collect and crunch data in a “programming-free” environment, after a beta period deployed at an enterprise level with several high profile customers. That’s in addition to Teem (formerly Eventboard), another cloud-based room-scheduling and data-analytics offering for which they have been a reseller.
“You can’t expect someone who’s used to pursuing a $2 million project to care about a $25,000 service contract. It’s going to require a second sales team, with its own account executives, dedicated to as-a-service to sell it.”
Gabriel Gely, executive vice president of Edmonton-based Genesis Integration
“‘Data’ is the four-letter word your customers want most,” quips Clint Hoffman, Kramer’s COO. He says the move to cloud-based operations is one in which integrators are being pulled by their clients, who want to use their personal devices everywhere, but that it required an adjustment in their thinking, too.
“In the beginning, it was IT saying, ‘not on my network,’ where they considered AV to be a nuisance,” he says. “Now, they’re open to AV on the network but desire it to have the same visibility and accessibility as everything else on their network. They require an enterprise-level management solution to accompany it.”
