AV Magazine
Despite its close ties to the United States it is dangerous
to lump Canada’s vast physical size in with that of its noisy southern
neighbour. There’s a mosaic of distinct cultures.
Canada may be huge but there’s no escaping the noisy neighbour. “The audio visual culture in Canada is like the youngest born child in the family,” says Brian Johnston, national director, creative innovation, Freeman Audio Visual Canada. “We see all of the things that our bigger brother is doing, like 15,000 attendee shows, and try our best to replicate the same wow factor on the much smaller budget that planners have here.”
Canada has always had to deal with the proximity and force of the US dollar as the market heavily sources from below its southern border. For the AV rental and staging company and live event specialist the value of the Canadian dollar cuts both ways.
“We are seeing US event planners come to Canada to host their conferences and because of the dollar they get a 30 per cent discount right off the bat,” says Johnston, who cites Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal as the top destinations for US events. “Where the States hosts super shows for 10,000 to 15,000 people our big events range from 1,500 – 2,500 people.”
The economic relationship between the two countries has been unsettled of late after the White House threatened to rip up the NAFTA trade pact. A new deal struck on 30 September with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) “has largely cleared the cloud of uncertainty over trade,” says Mitch Stein, national sales director at Barco. “That together with the CETA agreement with the European Union (concluded earlier) should provide a positive trade environment for us, but we are obviously keeping a close eye on developments and the broader global trade environment which still has uncertainty.”
“Trade tariffs between Canada and the USA are something of the distant past,” agrees Bob Snelgrove, founder and president of GerrAudio, an Ontario-based distributor for Clear-Com, DiGiCo and other brands. “I don’t see (USMCA) impacting products catered to the AV market.”
It’s generalising to say Canadians have a less insular outlook than many inhabitants of the US but many do travel and when they do they experience the latest technologies first hand. Even without traveling, new technology is brought to the country via avenues like touring American productions that make select stops in Canada.
Steady economy
“Unfortunately, Canada does not enjoy the same economies of scale as the US,” says Snelgrove. “This can limit our ability to profitably introduce the latest technologies – despite being well aware of them. For every ten terrific brands (per product segment) that become successful in the US, only the top three enjoy a market presence in Canada.”
“Unfortunately, Canada does not enjoy the same economies of scale as the US,” says Snelgrove. “This can limit our ability to profitably introduce the latest technologies – despite being well aware of them. For every ten terrific brands (per product segment) that become successful in the US, only the top three enjoy a market presence in Canada.”
With the USMCA sealed, Barco expects the domestic economy to continue to operate near potential in 2019. “The consensus is that there are ample amounts of new business opportunities for system integrators and the industry is exceeding the growth rate of the Canadian economy,” says Mitch Stein, national sales director. “Stronger oil and gas exports should also provide increased opportunity for us, as does Canada’s strong investment in the cultural and event sectors. The strong global position of some of our creative and events companies punch above their weight in international projects and touring events.”
InfoComm expects Canada’s pro AV industry to expand by two per cent p to 2022, a decent but slower rate to the US’ four per cent year-on-year growth prediction.
Nonetheless, the pro AV market climate in Canada is described as “healthy” by Datapath which forecasts steady double-digit growth; and “expanding” by GerrAudio “despite increased competition.”
It may take four days to drive from Halifax to Vancouver but sixty per cent of Canada’s 36 million population (similar in number to New York’s metropolitan area) resides within a six-hour drive of the Toronto/Montreal corridor. The pro AV revenue split by region is roughly – Ontario 45 per cent, Quebec and Maritimes 25 per cent and Western Canada 30 per cent, reckons Barco.
“Despite being a vast country, customers expect a high level of customer service,” says Snelgrove. “Focusing on major market centres and ignoring small or mid-sized cities does not work well.”
Barco has a specific Canadian ‘go-to-market’ model for how it deploys resources. Barco’s Canada MD, Tim Sinnaeve explains: “We place a special focus on creating strong channel partnerships ensuring that we can effectively serve different business segments effectively in all its regions.”
Regional variations
Western Canada has traditionally been more of a corporate AV culture, complemented by the oil and gas industry and government sponsored projects. For example, Cenovus and Exxon Mobile are large Barco Clickshare wireless meeting room collaboration users there. By 2022, Vancouver will be home to a new 416,000 sq ft headquarters for Amazon with plans to employ 3,000 people across e-commerce, cloud computing, and machine learning.
Western Canada has traditionally been more of a corporate AV culture, complemented by the oil and gas industry and government sponsored projects. For example, Cenovus and Exxon Mobile are large Barco Clickshare wireless meeting room collaboration users there. By 2022, Vancouver will be home to a new 416,000 sq ft headquarters for Amazon with plans to employ 3,000 people across e-commerce, cloud computing, and machine learning.
Ontario (Toronto, Ottawa) is the geographic and economic hub for many Canadian head offices and the largest contributor to the pro AV and events market economy. The University of Toronto has proposed a new publicly-accessible planetarium to be built on its campus to seat 200 people and feature state-of-the-art digital technology.
Quebec is a key contributor to the pro AV economy fuelled by its French culture, many local music festivals, cultural events and entertainment venues in need of leading-edge AV tech. Some of these include the use of large Barco projections on the ice at the Centre Bell (home of NHL side Montreal Canadiens) and a 46ft-wide sports event projection at the adjoining 1909 Sports bar, projection mapping across Montreal’s downtown urban areas and lighting effects, such as the illumination of the Jacques Cartier Bridge
Quebec is also a global hub for creative content and hosts the talent for large scale pro AV designers and experiences, including global AV entertainment contributors such as Moment Factory, Cirque du Soleil and Solotech.
“A lot of amazingly creative ideas come out of the various AV and events companies in Quebec,” says Johnston. “This is due to the cultural embrace of the creative arts within Montreal and other Quebec cities.”
He adds that Toronto has “done a good job of pushing that it is a multicultural city for everyone.” Planners love that, he says, and see it as a great place to host events. “Planners want creative and cutting-edge event ideas on a tight budget, and that’s why we put a lot of time and energy in strategically planning where dollars go.”
In GerrAudio’s case, the cost of servicing smaller remote domestic markets is offset by carrying a portfolio of non-competing brands. “This lowers the cost to market for us because we can cross-sell and service multiple products to the same customers and provide a comprehensive packaged solution,” explains Snelgrove. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as a distributor to make regular sales calls to remote markets.”
For example, the theatre market in Canada is represented by CITT (Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology) which produce an annual tradeshow in various cities across the country. In 2019, that show is in Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territories, an area representing 35,000 people or just 0.1 percent of the whole population. “It is a relatively expensive place to visit, however we support CITT and will be at this tradeshow in full force.”
Johnston makes the sensible point that in Quebec it is hugely important to either use a local vendor or to have an understanding of the French culture and legal requirements in the province.
“It’s also beneficial to all of our French speaking clients that we’re a bilingual company,” he adds.
Calgary, in the province of Alberta and host for the 1988 Winter Games, just had a referendum on whether to submit a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The result was negative/positive.
Longer term, the country will benefit from the arrival of the FIFA World Cup which it is co-hosting with the US and Mexico in 2026. The ‘United’ World Cup is in actuality a United States tournament since of the 60 matches to be played Canada and Mexico host just 10 each. Canada’s host cities are Montreal and Edmonton. The final will be held at the 84,953-capacity MetLife Stadium, which is home to NFL sides the New York Giants and the New York Jets.
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