Commercial Integrator February 2021 - 18

INTEGRATION Future Technology
NEW
TECHNOLOGY
MEANS NEW
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR AV
INTEGRATORS
CI Summit panelists say 5G, 8K and 16K, augmented
and virtual reality and a continued push for servicebased
models will carry AV integrators forward.
By D. Craig MacCormack
ANY AV INTEGRATOR that hasn't made
the shiſt to a service-based model by now
- or at the very least dipped their toes into
the recurring monthly revenue waters -
has missed out on much more business in
the last nine months since the coronavirus
outbreak than was necessary.
The sad reality is the short-sighted approach
to AV integration - with a focus on
selling boxes and just installing AV systems
for customers - might be the death knell
for many companies that were living project
to project, especially since the projects
have dried up signifi cantly since the spring.
In the Total Tech Summit session " Taking
Your Business to New Heights with New
Technologies, " three AV industry leaders
highlighted the importance of a service component
to your AV integration fi rm among
other technologies that could help make the
rocky months ahead a little easier to manage.
" It can be a disservice to your customers
to add more platforms, but devices are all
given heartbeats now, " said DGI Communi18
cations'
Mike Walsh. " You can be proactively
monitoring things. " That will allow
you to provide more complete information
to clients about problems and possible
solutions.
The DGI team looks for trends in the data
it collects from its remote monitoring and
identifi es issues or problems that continue
to crop up, oſt en fi xing them before the
customer even knows anything is wrong.
" Our task and our responsibility with
data is to really critique it, " said Walsh.
AVI Systems' Robert Mathews says it's
" so important " for AV integrators to have a
service desk today.
" As long as you have the right capabilities,
it's going to be a good model, " he
said. " It's one thing to be able to deliver an
endpoint, but it's quite another to be able
to monitor and service it. "
1Path's Patrick Kinsella says AV integrators
have a " responsibility to off er a service
desk, " especially as the complexity and intricacy
of AV integration systems increases.
Commercial Integrator FEBRUARY 2021
5G
SERVICEBASED
MODELS
" We've
gone from training our customers
on how to use their systems to fully
managing it for them, " he said. " As the data
gets more complex, it's going to be on the
integrator to deliver the information the
customer needs to make better decisions
for their businesses. "
Thermal imaging and occupancy sensors
have become major tools in helping
businesses in all verticals manage crowds
and keep people as safe as possible as the
COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread
around the world. AV integrators will be
busy installing the systems but they're not
cut-and-dried.
" Thermal imaging is not something to
be taken lightly, " said Mathews. " It's not
a medical device or a health care product,
but it is going to give some valuable
information. "
Just how much and what information it
gives is one question, said Kinsella.
" You start knocking on the door of HIPAA
compliance, " he said, referring to the
federal legislation that protects patients'
personal health information.
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Commercial Integrator February 2021

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