Subscribe to our newsletter
Keep up #withiiyama
You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter.
11.11.2016
Steve Kilroy, UK sales manager for iiyama International discusses how the growing collision of IT and AV is affecting the UK displays market for Commercial Integrator Europe
Steve Kilroy, UK sales manager for iiyama International discusses how the growing collision of IT and AV is affecting the UK displays market for Commercial Integrator Europe
During the opening panel discussion at this year’s Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade show in Amsterdam, moderator and Wired UK’s editor-in-chief David Rowan talked about how AV and IT are colliding as a result of today’s rapid technological advancements (in particular sensor technology). “You’re in a very exciting moment of two worlds colliding,” he intoned. “The sensor connected world colliding with the storytelling tools of audio-visual. I think that’s a big moment of potential growth for a lot of people’s businesses here [at ISE].”
It is certainly true that the AV and IT markets are converging, particularly within the corporate sector as the traditional corporate demands on IT business working practices become increasingly important to AV businesses. Many corporate-facing integrated AV solutions now require support from IT, mainly due to an increasing number of video conferencing systems being integrated into IP-based Unified Communications platforms, as part of mainstream IT networks.
In addition, the growth in the digital signage and display markets has meant that more audio-video technology is being entwined into IT networks. At the same time, the big IT and telecoms vendors are expanding their offerings to include meeting space demands, further bringing AV and IT into the same orbit.
Indeed, as AV is forced to take on more traditional IT habits and IT is increasingly working with AV products and projects, it’s becoming difficult to see the lines between the two industries.
For us at iiyama, we consider the AV and IT market to be one whole, with IT systems integrators selling AV and AV integrators employing IT specialists to help them with the increasing number of IT-style demands on their businesses. We don’t distinguish particularly – although the traditional market for consumer desktop PC sales tends to be an AV-free zone, of course. We have tended to prioritise traditional IT organisations, however, largely as a result of our history as a desktop display supplier, but also due to the fact we have come up against some barriers to entry in the AV channel.
That said, with both sectors working in unison the display market as a whole is a lot easier for us. We welcome feedback from both channels to make our product better for the future. The types of feedback we’re getting demands higher resolution screens – which we’ve addressed – and for bigger projected capacitive touch (PCAP) displays, which we’ve answered with the new 65in. We’ve listened to what people from both sectors want over the last 2-3 years and have tweaked our line up accordingly.
Please click here to read Steve’s article in full on Commercial Integrator Europe.