Diary and column Opinion A sign of things to come: It’s time to embrace the new normal and to reboot our industry!


“It remains vital that we, as an industry, remain proactive, coming together to play a crucial role in helping pave the way for the future of the many different industries we serve and to ensure the safety of the public and the economy as we battle through these difficult times.”


AV technology has a critical role to play for businesses in keeping people safe in a post-Covid-19 world, says Franck Racape, Vice Pres- ident, EMEA, Philips Professional Display Solutions


“As I write this, the world con- tinues to largely hold its breath. While small steps toward a revised sense of nor- mality progress, the uncer- tainty and impact surrounding Covid-19 continues to be felt, with previously unimaginable effects on health and wellbe- ing, both for individuals, fam- ilies and communities, as well as for businesses. For the AV industry, it goes without saying that the impact of Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown has been tough, with few if any areas, whether corporate, retail, education, events, hospitality or any other, unimpacted. Indeed, a new re- port from AVIXA shows that the Americas pro AV market alone is set to fall by eight per cent this year to $86 billion. While the first positive shoots of recovery are being seen in some countries/regions, and as lockdowns are gradually re- laxed, the impact is likely to be felt for some time to come. With social distancing and people safety – whether that’s staff, customers, students – likely to become the norm for many moving forward.


It’s important we all embrace what is heavily being described


as this ‘new normal’. The need for technology for many indus- tries is quickly moving from a ‘would like to have’ to a ‘must have’ as they are forced to adapt. These forced changes represent significant new op- portunities for the AV industry to step up and make a differ- ence.


Manufacturer’s duty


As a manufacturer, we believe it’s our duty to support our sys- tem integrators and installation partners through this. Together, we represent a passionate AV community, and we sustain a great deal of employment that must be safeguarded. As a re- sult, we’ve kept our full teams in place to provide continuity for our people and partners and every one of our current opera- tions has a single objective at its core: helping our partners and the industry to reboot busi- ness. The solutions we can all deliv-


er now – whether as manufac- turers, integrators, architects or consultants – can help to bring businesses back more quickly and confidently, building up communities and economies for the future. It’s therefore also important


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– if not critical – that as an in- dustry we remain proactive in building our skillsets, enhanc- ing knowledge and awareness in order to confidently approach and provide customers with the tools they need to get back to some level of normality.


Rekindling the high street


What might this look like? We believe digital signage will play an intrinsic role in maintaining social distancing in public set- tings and that it will become an increasingly used and accepted medium for communicating messaging and instruction. One of the hardest-hit indus- tries is retail – a space relying on a daily influx of customers – and we’re seeing, as I’m sure are others, significant interest and investment in preparation for reopening.


Here at Philips Professional Display Solutions, our teams have responded quickly to the current pandemic, building on our strong industry-wide part- nerships to design and build a new people counting solu- tion to help retailers better manage capacity, allowing for safer social distancing as well as providing improved commu- nications for those waiting to


enter if and when capacity is reached.


This, we believe, will become a norm for the high street and the experience for many cus- tomers moving forward. Leading brands are already installing our solution, which includes smart people counting cameras linked, via our unique PeopleCount app, to our An- droid SoC displays to indicate when people can enter - even providing waiting times and helping remind customers of any safety rules and measures. Automatic doors can also be in- tegrated into the solution, add- ing better security and freeing up the need of line manage- ment staff. This, though, is not intended as an advert for Philips PDS. This is bigger than one man- ufacturer. It is, instead, about helping the AV industry truly understand the opportunities available to us, as a collec- tive, to provide and create true transformational change for our high streets and, indeed, any public setting with a regular footfall. In the absence of shows such as InfoComm, IFA, Digital Sig- nage Expo among many others this year, it remains vital that we, as an industry, remain pro-


active, coming together to play a crucial role in helping pave the way for the future of the many different industries we serve and to ensure the safety of the public and the economy as we battle through these dif- ficult times.


Stay safe!


Franck Racape, Vice President, EMEA,


Philips Professional Display Solutions


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