OPINION New year, new challenges 2012 proved a year of highs and lows, but what does 2013 have in store?
Seeing in the new year at New York’s Radio City Music Hall with the Rockettes dance troupe
Blair Parkin Visual Acuity
WELCOME TO 2013. The cold grey light of a January morning combined with the sales ledger set to zero. At this time of year I cannot help myself reflecting on and trying to rationalise the major lessons learned over the past 12 months. 2012 felt like quite a
rollercoaster ride for the pro-AV industry in terms of markets, technologies, events and much else besides. For me it has had its extreme highs and extreme lows but all in all represented a ‘rich multimedia’ learning experience. At each stage of the year a new observation came to my mind from direct experiences encountered in the global marketplace of pro-AV/IT installations. The turn of 2011 into 2012
brought into focus a bit of fun – and reminded me not to
14 January 2013
ever take things too seriously. New York’s Radio City Music Hall provided a platform for harnessing the latest video server technologies and high-power projection systems to create some good old family entertainment. The show ran from November 2011 to January 2012 across the entire US Holiday season and welcomed thousands of theatregoers. Santa Claus and the Rockettes dance troupe benefitted from all the latest trends in architectural scale projection, projection mapping, and uncompressed streams of pixels. When the extreme technology was combined with a good sense of fun it proved to be an award-winning combination. The technology from companies including 7th Sense and Digital Projection won a whole host of international awards and the client was so impressed with this new presence of the pro-AV industry in their traditional show that they have commissioned an on- going involvement of the new technology and production
team. A really good lesson to start the year off. Then on to ISE in freezing Amsterdam where the industry witnessed the landscape of the electronics manufacturers shifting, perhaps forever. While the industry stalwart
‘We witnessed in 2012 the start of a step change in the supply chain of the pro-AV world’
corporations from Japan, such as Panasonic and Sony, were wrestling with huge corporate losses and the effects of the previous year’s tsunami, the new Asian tigers from Korea, China and Taiwan were surprising everyone with their latest technology offerings. Samsung moved from the position of follower to clear leadership in terms of technology, product range and European presence. The huge array of Chinese manufacturers showed LED
screens, projectors, control systems, components and light sources. Taiwan’s Delta Electronics had a booth with mature-looking products in most of the pro-AV display niches from events and digital signage to control rooms. This is more than the cycle of the corporate world. We witnessed in 2012 the start of a step change in the supply chain of the pro-AV world. I had to re-orientate my innovation compass and realise that a US-based InfoComm tradeshow is now no longer at the centre of all the technology innovation. This is spreading out across the globe and providing challenges and opportunities for us all in equal measure. In early spring my
vocabulary was expanded when I first came across the term ‘Grexit’. The media got into a frenzy about imminent global financial meltdown caused by what was then viewed as the inevitable and immediate exit of the Greek economy from the euro. This panic sent shock waves through the manufacturers in our sector, starting to
examine their trade in euros and balancing it to other currencies. Dealer price lists were revised and currencies hedged. Major manufacturers consolidated into one of the core trading nations of Germany, France or the UK, and sales forces and marketing strategies were trimmed.
It turned out to be an over-
reaction to a situation that a year later has not progressed very much and has so far not created the level of crash in the AV and IT business that was feared. From this I have come to believe even more in following your own instincts and measuring against what one can see, touch and feel with one’s own customers and markets. Trying to read the tea leaves scattered by the media, the economists and the politicians is no way to run a business in the AV sector.
MAJOR EVENTS
The end of the summer served to remind me that in AV the old adage ‘content is king’ is not only true but it applies to every area of