In less than a year, every single AV vertical market served by integrators has changed to some degree due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But some of them have changed more than others, and savvy technology partners will take notice.
We’ve interviewed firms and their clients from across the audiovisual market spectrum throughout the pandemic, and as a result, we’ve had a unique top-down view on how each vertical has changed and what kinds of solutions they may need moving forward.
Let’s begin with the more obvious examples and move into more specialty AV vertical markets.
Largest AV verticals may have changed the most
Corporate
We have other fish to fry and we know you’re already tired of hearing about how offices have changed. Will offices switch to remote work forever, or are employees secretly starting to get “WFH burnout?” These questions will, in all likelihood, have answers which vary customer-to-customer.
Either way: in the same way that businesses saw benefits in significant drops in travel expenses thanks to videoconferencing, they’ll see similar operating expense benefits in allowing remote work. Less cost for utilities, smaller workplaces, fewer workstations, and so on. This doesn’t mean integrators will have fewer opportunities, though!
It all comes down to your ability to bundle, and — more than ever before — offer managed services that stress flexibility for your client. Outfit clients with the technology they need to succeed in a new hybrid environment. Sell work-from-home technology packages for them to assign to employees. Ensure meeting rooms can operate with in-person and remote users collaborating together — and make all of those capabilities something they can keep paying you for month-to-month.
Healthcare
There are immediate and long-term needs for AV solutions at healthcare facilities that can help healthcare workers fight the virus, and with some areas of the world seeing numbers decline and initial panic at bay, many facilities are at least willing to hear how new technology can benefit them going forward.
Signage and wayfinding tech will play a big role in the near future, since facilities of all kinds require solutions which clearly and firmly direct visitors where to go and how to safely utilize the space. Smartphone integration is key to this, and something integration firms need to consider for every future project.
Related: Sorting Through Body Temperature Scanning Systems
Similar to workspaces that need to prioritize social distancing and open areas, waiting rooms could also stand a technology refresh. Displays for entertainment, intercom systems, and nurse call systems can help make the waiting room experience better and safer for patients and their families.
Education
An enormous amount of pressure on school IT departments as they figure out ways to accommodate remote learning and hybrid solutions means they’ll need to rely on technology partners to pitch effective solutions.
Room analytics can help count the number of people in a monitored area, sending alarms when an area becomes crowded. But cameras without built-in analytics can also be used by security personnel to manually check if a location has too many people.
Smart cards, proximity cards, mobile phones with NFC/BLE can all reduce the touching of things like door knobs and locks.
MNEC can also be used to keep students, faculty and staff informed of health & safety information, campus closures, and reopenings, as well as help community organizations to collaborate.
Enclosed areas need better ventilation so droplets from coughs, sneezes and talking can disperse quickly, so HVAC automation and similar building solutions may be more on the table than ever before.
Related: AV Product Packages That Help Integrators Solve COVID-19-Related Problems
Unexpected AV vertical changes
Craft beer & restaurants
We had previously covered how craft beer markets could be a deep well for installers. But obviously, the pandemic had other plans for this year.
Most restaurants and craft beer establishments have focused on trying to reopen as safely as possible while maxing out the number of on-premise drinkers and eaters. Any solution that can help busy staff monitor and regulate the amount of people and the space between them would be useful.
Some of them also need a reliable order fulfillment system for curbside can pickup.
Esports
Esports has long been discussed as a lucrative opportunity for AV integrators, but much of that hype has been focused around esports events in filled stadiums.
Hanging out in a crowded stadium with a few thousand people is frowned upon these days, but this elevated interest in competitive gaming could carry over to whenever the world is normal again.
Professional gamers need a good streaming camera, quality headset or microphone and speakers, which is a service the industry can provide thanks to its conferencing expertise.
Gamers also need lighting-fast connections that depend on quality networking equipment like routers, cables and switches.
Casinos
Despite what you’ve seen in the reopening of Las Vegas, where masks were optional inside the resorts up and down the Strip until too many COVID-19 cases forced a new way of thinking, there’s an effort today to give people their space everywhere inside the casino to preserve everyone’s health.
In the retail and casino markets, the goal is to create spaces that feel energetic and active even during non-peak hours. Now, installers have the added challenge of creating a space that feels inviting and engaging while intentionally creating space between customers.
An Integration Award-winning project at the Linq is a great example of a dynamic casino project. It actively collects data by measuring guests’ locations and actions, converts the data to flowing images and outputs onto a digital canvas for guests to interact with.
These digital canvases display never-repeating art and also serve as digital wayfinding, collaborative AV and kinetic architecture.
Virtual reality, hologram gaming, esports, interactive multi-stage entertainment, arcade games, the Pulse Arena, rentable Fan Caves and social media integration are all featured in the LINQ. Granted, not all of that is pandemic approved, but could be outfitted to follow regulations and even encourage guests to do so without prompting.
