Much of getting 4K to “work” for customers leads back to “IT” and bandwidth problems.
“A lot of the technologies with higher resolutions need to be able to move through IP. I think that’s one of the big things that we’re seeing right now. It’s a lot of bandwidth for higher resolutions to go from the source material to wherever you want it at the other end,” says Scot Barrows of Easy Access Distribution.
Keeping Up with Innovation
For some integrators, understanding all of the new products, technologies and innovations, as well as helping their customers understand these technologies and their capabilities, tends to be difficult.
“A major challenge is keeping up with new technology and knowing what’s available, what’s coming out, and keeping your end user customers in mind as far as the challenges that they’re facing and how we can address those and come up with a solution that will work for the end user and be cost effective,” says Kevin Counter, an AV technology specialist for ComNet Communications.
Dave Dalzell of Central Communications and Baystate Audio adds:
“I think the commodification of all of these products and “low-bid wins it” is a tricky proposition no matter what business one is in. It affects a lot of integration projects, it affects design projects…price is something everybody can talk about, but quality is a little more elusive.”
Alex Halliday, a project manager for Connectivity Point says his company’s biggest challenge is helping customers recognize how to use new technology to actually optimize their businesses.
“For us, personally, the biggest challenge we’re finding is getting a lot of companies to buy into this higher technology. We can put it together, we can make it work, but getting them to integrate it into their culture and put it to effective use tends to be the hardest thing.”
With 2017 just around the corner, businesses throughout the AV world will be faced with figuring out business plans and strategies to overcome these aforementioned challenges.
IT and AV convergence, 4K and new technology are, of course, just a few of the challenges integrators are currently facing. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think is the biggest challenge in the industry right now.
Also See: 3 Choices for Your Tech Firm: Get Big, Get Niche or Get Out
