Already Europe’s largest market, German pro AV is moving
away from its conservative roots but users need to be educated.
https://www.avinteractive.com/features/market-sectors/brexit-bounce-gives-german-av-edge-19-01-2018/
As if by design, business in Germany is spread pretty evenly
across its various states making for an AV dealer base which is focused on
particular verticals. The seat of government and therefore corporate HQs is Berlin,
finance clusters around Frankfurt, the automotive industry is centred on
Stuttgart, the super yacht business is in the North, Hamburg is home for
broadcasting and the creative industries, while universities are concentrated
in the middle of the country and heavy industry along the Rhine delta.
“It’s very regionalised. There’s not one single national
integrator but instead very local SIs and dealers that operate within that
particular vertical,” explains Robin van Meeuwen, president and ceo, Crestron EMEA.
Crestron organises its business in the country accordingly
with its head office (of five) which includes sales, training and an experience
centre based strategically between Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremburg. “Growth on
the government side is tough just now so if I’m looking to regions of most
growth it’s in the south particularly in automotive and corporate,” says van
Meeuwen.
This is in accord with other evidence. A large majority of
AV business, perhaps 80 per cent, comes from the south and south west of the
country. Frankfurt, home of the European Central Bank, dominates the financial
sector, with Dusseldorf being the ‘fashion capital’ and the leader for retail
projects.
The Königsallee in Düsseldorf is Germany’s version of Rodeo
Drive – the peak of excellence for all elements of the retail fashion
experience. According to Aubrey Wright, managing director at full service
provider Handy AV, the street is one of the most elegant and exclusive shopping
destinations in the world.
“You can order a speedboat at Sunseeker and have a bespoke
suite made at Brioni, then have lunch at the fine dining Brasserie 1806. The AV
in the Kö (as the locals call it) is, like the shops, some of the best in the
world.”
The use of digital signage in major German cities is being
driven by the retail sector “with more and larger videowall solutions
required,” reports Thomas Barz, managing director of mounts specialist, B-Tech
Deutschland.
Demand is high in international shopping districts such as
Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse and Kurfürstendamm, home of Europe’s largest
department store KaDeWe, Cologne’s Schildergasse, the busiest shopping street
in Europe and Marienplatz, in the heart of Munich’s old town. Handy AV itself
works extensively for German brand Adidas and will be upgrading Primark stores
throughout Germany this year.
High value
Barz finds the level of competition for suppliers “one of
the most intense in Europe”. Pricing is very sensitive, he adds, making it
difficult to compete against larger companies that run on volume and lower
margins. “However, by having an office, showroom and full stock located in
Germany, with local sales and service personnel, we compete on the whole
package of mounting solutions rather than just price.”
More than most countries, Germany expects to have the best
service possible, together with very specific solutions but at the same time
expect it to cost nothing, adds Barz. “Users have to be educated on the
benefits of investing in the solution rather than just looking at the
cheapest.”
The local AV industry is Europe’s largest, valued by AVIXA
at $8.1 billion in 2016 and forecast to increase by three per cent year-on-year
until 2022. It reports that the market is driven by corporate collaboration and
enterprise media use, backed up by a large telepresence and conferencing
market. The country also has a very established and advanced control room
market for civil uses. Heavy industries, especially around Dortmund, Dusseldorf
and Koln, are increasingly adopting IP video to provide employees with health
and safety information.
“The landscape of AV users in Germany is still scattered,
and explains why growth is not expected to slow down in the next five years,”
says Wouter Bonte, strategic marketing director, events, pro AV & events at
Barco. “The economy has recovered and is growing rapidly. The majority of pro
AV integrators in Germany are fully booked and are battling a war for skilled
technical people to increase their capacity.”
He adds that many conference rooms are “old-fashioned” with
one small display, whether projected or with flat panels: “The devices are not
managed centrally nor communicate to each other.”
Exterity ceo Colin Farquhar also notes the country’s “large
analogue footprint” but suggests increasing crossover between pro AV and
enterprise applications “as more organisations experiment with products and
consider how they can get users to access content via IP to Smart TVs, Wi-Fi
connected tablets, smartphones and other emerging devices.”
He describes Germany’s “unique b2b sector” as largely made
up of mid-sized, often family-owned businesses. “We’ve often found that
customers tend to have a regional bias and prefer to buy from companies that
have invested in local expertise and talent,” he adds. “However, the
combination of low unemployment and the large number of exports means that
German pro AV is likely to maintain steady growth for the foreseeable future.”
Wright calls the overall market idiosyncratic. “A
significant amount of planning, research and thought goes into projects there,
probably to a much greater level than happens in the rest of Europe,” he says.
“Energy costs can shape pro AV projects to an extent that doesn’t happen in
other countries. Electricity is very expensive (second in Europe behind Denmark
and almost double the cost of the UK). This can affect projects to a large extent.
We’ve seen a slow expansion of digital signage, in part due to energy costs.”
Datapath’s sales and account manager Sven Matern concurs:
“High costs of power have quite an impact on AV use in the region. Displays and
systems that run at low power consumption are always going to be favoured over
higher usage solutions.”
This will be a keen topic when the Digital Signage Summit
Europe convenes in Frankfurt next July.
Pushing boundaries
It may not come as a total surprise to learn that process
and thoroughness are a big part of the AV industry in Germany. “Patience is
needed, with some projects taking several years of planning before integrators
get to work,” says Matern. “As AV-over-IP becomes more commonplace (across all
of Europe, not just Germany) it is interesting to see the push and pull between
the fast moving IT industry and the AV industry, where the pace of change is
slower.”
Bonte finds the biggest demand for high-end AV applications
is found in museums, other visitor attractions, corporate experience centres
and theme parks. “The corporate segment is expected to drive growth in the near
future as many enterprises are upgrading the AV capabilities of their
headquarters and experience centres – across industries: from technology
innovators to healthcare, from financial institutions to energy players,” he
says.
Transportation, especially airports, as well as fast food,
fashion and automotive, have all been showing growth for Peerless-AV. It is
also targeting hotels and hospitality in 2018.
“Some of the more established automotive brands often want
functional, reliable and proven solutions,” reports Melinda Von Horvath, the
company’s vice-president of sales and marketing – EMEA. “However, many of the
fashion brands, especially at the high end, want to push boundaries in terms of
the size and scale of AV installations.”
Joachim Fischer, general manager, DACH sales at NEC Display
Solutions, suggests retail is becoming increasingly specialised with particular
opportunities for growth in the 4K/UHD sector. “On the other hand, we have the
fast-growing area of innovative and collaborative conference solutions.”
While Brexit is generally considered to have a negligible
effect on overall business in Germany, Frankfurt is already being boosted by
banks relocating from London. “The focus of the UK market increasingly points
to Germany and many major companies and final customers are settling down there
– especially in the financial vertical in Frankfurt,” notes Fischer. “In the
past, the German market was always somewhat conservatively oriented. Due to
growing possibilities in terms of collaborative solutions and also in signage,
this is beginning to change. The market is rapidly catching up in terms of
cutting edge technology.”
“Brexit is already giving us a great opportunity to impact
the corporate market in Germany,” says Max Hedayat, vice-president of sales,
DACH for SiliconCore. “The spending budgets for new offices relocating from
London to Frankfurt is picking up and with it the high standard and cutting
edge technology demand. Brexit is a great opportunity for Germany to increase
its number of corporate HQs in a variety of regions.”
In Wright’s view the region is conservative overall but with
pockets of high innovation in the major cities. Bonte too spotlights a subset
of players applying cutting edge tech in the form of future labs, virtual and
augmented reality applications, projection mapping in domes, or massive 4K or
8K LED displays being used to ‘wow’ the consumer.
Users are starting to take a more progressive approach to AV
technology. One example is Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg which deployed
professional AV to deliver high-quality productions and performances. This,
says Farquhar “perfectly illustrates how users in the region are becoming more
willing to make bold choices with AV technology, particularly in the stadiums
and venues sector.”
Soccer clubs TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and SV Sandhausen 1916
recently adopted AV technology to provide fans with a more immersive match-day
experience. “This marks a clear shift in the AV culture in Germany, and we
anticipate that in the near future it will establish itself as one of the most
forward-thinking pro AV markets,” says Farquhar.
Case study: Baerlocher
Baerlocher, the Bavarian plastic additives company, uses
Lifesize video conferencing technology to connect with employees, customers and
partners worldwide. Headquartered in Unterschleißheim, near Munich, the firm
chose 25 licences of the cloud-based application to equip conference rooms at
eight main sites with Lifesize HD camera and phone systems.
Case study: BMW Welt
Munich visitor attraction BMW Welt had a recent AV overhaul
to coincide with the luxury marque’s 100th anniversary. Consultants Macom
appointed Kraftwerk Living Technologies to install a range of presentation
systems including Crestron Fusion and DigitalMedia. The impressive exhibition
space features a 28 metre high ‘double cone’ of glass and steel to which high
resolution LED technology was fitted, spanning 150 sq m. This included screens,
LED spindle and an LED highlights videowall. The business club, used for board
meetings, has an LED wall, VC and sound system, controlled via Crestron.
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