Global giant or niche innovator – today’s videoconferencing players are nothing if not multiple and diverse.
No surprises there, of course. Hybrid meetings, combining virtual and physical presence, are now the ubiquitous way in which the world’s enterprises do their business: jumping on a video call is the natural and convenient way for us all to communicate and collaborate.
Continuing commoditisation means differentiators are sometimes hard to identify. Simplicity, interoperability, and a generally-satisfying user experience are rightly top of end user organization priority lists.
So, as this most rapidly-consolidating component of the modern communications stack responds to market forces, to where should those organizations (and their IT partners) turn for a solution that delivers on their demands? Who are the ideal manufacturers, distributors and system integrators that will fit the modern world?
Surely, regardless of which label they carry, the largest return on investment will be delivered by a provider which ticks the big boxes: technologically smart, functionally rich, geographically present, and commercially competitive.
It all means that size matters, but so too does expertise and experience.
“The ProAV landscape looks very different from the way it looked before Covid – the entrance into the market of the huge software platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google, plus the consumer and professional electronics companies, have changed the industry,” says Aviv Ron, Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategy at leading global AV technology provider Kramer, whose direct and wholesale offering is at the heart of that professional audio visual experience revolution.
“In addition, AV and IT technologies are blending and becoming much more software-driven; encompassing elements such as standards, security, ease of administration and management. That means that, for end user organizations and service providers, there are huge advantages to partnering with companies that can deliver end-to-end solutions.
“For distributors and system integrators in particular, it’s about boosting geographical reach, both national and global; increasing economies of scale for better leveraging of fixed costs and enhancing margin; and being able to add additional, more profitable services to their portfolio.”
In the case of Kramer, it ticks all of those boxes whilst simultaneously focusing on the delivery of a premium user experience via constant, envelope-pushing research and development initiatives.
“We define ‘experience’ in terms of ease of connectivity; the quality of the audio and video; and the intuitive cleverness of the user interface,” says Ron.
“We have 20 offices in Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region meaning we are global, but we can act locally. And, when we acquire companies in the way we have during the past few years, we do so based on their research and development muscle.
“We have an alliance programme within which we partner with either large or small, dynamic and growing technology companies that are developing fantastic state-of-the-art products such as next generation UCC devices, for example. It means that when a customer buys our audio video equipment, they have a choice to benefit from that innovation, while still receiving the excellent Kramer experience of the entire solution.”
The professional AV market is certainly a constantly-shifting one, and acquisition and consolidation is likely to continue to continue to feature in its ongoing development. Crucially, that spells increasing maturity and, with that maturity, will come improved capability and enhanced user experience.
For service providers and system integrators, opportunities therefore abound to help their customers capitalise yet further on the game-changing nature of virtual communication and collaboration whilst at the same time driving their own profitability.
“Mature industries consolidate, and the ProAV industry is no exception,” says Ron. “We will see larger, more global players take a bigger share. Small, niche players can bring excellent innovation and they are better off partnering with complete end-to-end solution providers. With the convergence of AV and IT, customers are better off seeking solutions from such providers.”
To learn more about how Kramer can help your and your customers’ businesses leverage the power of professional audio and video technology, click here.
