INTERVIEW: RONNI GUGGENHEIM, BARIX
ways pulled back from audio; not because it did not ‘make sense’, but because it did not know how to deal with it. Now with solutions like Soundscape and Audio Signage, I think we are really starting to make progress.
In an increasingly standards- oriented market, presumably some formal recognition would also help to encourage this new area of the market? Absolutely – and in fact, developments there are ramping up very rapidly at the moment. I am again closely involved with OVAB Europe [the pan-European digital signage association that was co-founded by Guggenheim in 2008] and we are in the process of setting up an audio chapter that will help to handle this convergence. We held the first workshop in June, then there will also be conversations at the OVAB Digital Signage conference in Munich in September. By then we should have a working group in place to define the standards, which I hope will be ready a year or so.
Barix remains a leading player in IP paging and
intercom systems, but how do you see the audio over IP landscape developing in general terms over the next few years?
I think as audio over IP becomes more standardised, and we have a situation where every smart device can stream high-quality audio. The challenge will be to add value on top of the standards. In professional install, this will mean that rather than providing components which are then patched together by systems integrators, different individual vendors will have to come up with more harmonised end-to- end solutions providing added value – not just in terms of audio, but also in building whole surrounding ecosystems involving functions such as scheduling, quality of service, insertion of adverts and so on.
In terms of Barix and its
own developments, we are investing significantly in a roadmap for paging and intercom that will see us taking a lot of the functionality into the Cloud. Alongside the audio signage interests, it’s something
that we now look forward to developing quite aggressively.
Will the skills required by increased convergence necessitate an even greater emphasis on training? Yes – and indeed, this is an area that we are investing in significantly at present. This is really getting underway with a series of webinars, some of which are geared towards addressing the challenges facing systems integrators. We see ourselves as a thought leader in this segment, so it’s just one aspect of what we have planned. Plus we always encourage systems integrators who work with Barix to undergo our training and certification procedures.
From your long career in digital signage and now audio, have you identified any universal principles that you think can be applied to achieve growth in all areas of professional AV? Three points immediately spring to mind. The first, and absolutely key element, is to know who you are [as a company] and what your core strengths are in terms of technology and market
Ronni Guggenheim – a brief biography
Born in Switzerland, Ronni Guggenheim studied economics at the University of Zurich and holds an MBA from Belgium’s European University
The majority of his professional AV career has been spent in the field of digital signage, variously serving as president of Minicom Europe, CEO of Minicom Digital Signage and president of EnQii-MDS at ComQi Holdings – the last-named position after Guggenheim helped to facilitate the merger with Minicom in 2011
He has also helped to pioneer this technology on a pan-industry level, co-founding OVAB (Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau Europe), whose stated mission is to ‘raise awareness of and to establish digital out-of-home communication as an independent and accepted media within the media landscape’
In recent years, Guggenheim has been a noted champion of the opportunities presented by increased convergence between different AV sectors. This is something he is now helping to pioneer with the Audio Signage solutions range at Barix AG, of which he became CEO in October 2013
positioning. If you have this clear identity of yourself then you can also portray this successfully to the market. The second aspect is
diligence – hard work and making sure that your partners are kept happy. Finally, you have to keep your own team happy. I have always been in family- oriented companies, by which I don’t mean ‘family’ in the
original sense, but rather in terms of maintaining a family spirit in which you can truly rely on your personnel. It’s an atmosphere that is highly conducive to ensuring that companies continue to develop; rather than people being there to make money, they want to take the company to the next level.
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