AV Magazine
Given the territory’s far flung urban centres – not to mention its isolation from the rest of the world – remote working was a way of life for many businesses and education facilities down under pre-Covid. Post-pandemic and the need for AV communications has never been more relevant.
“People were quietly confident it was going to be a good year for ANZ and that this would lead into a prosperous 2021,” says Jamie Hind, regional sales director, APAC, Exterity. “Instead, we’ve seen so many people and so many businesses affected, including all of the major vertical markets.”
Hotels and the hospitality market have experienced disruption and, unsurprisingly, a number of projects have either been delayed or cancelled. Other verticals such as stadiums and venues are devoid of patrons for the foreseeable future making investment choices harder to justify.
“The healthcare sector has been overwhelmed and, aside from making sure robust communications are in place in hospitals and medical buildings, it is hard for other projects to even make the radar with everyone’s health and wellbeing the top priority,” says Hind. “Many projects that were already in motion have continued apace so there is still plenty happening, but it may be another twelve to eighteen months before we really see the full effect Covid-19 has had.”
Covid-19 has required organisations throughout ANZ to review their unified communications solutions. As people return to work, meeting rooms will need tweaking for the new world while those still working from home will need to feel connected.
“Remote, or home-based workers, have now become the norm and there is a good chance that the way we work, and where, will be changed forever,” says Hind.
Unified comms
Stuart Craig, vice-president at Crestron ANZ agrees. “Our working from home and video engagement learnings will not go away as the pandemic subsides. Projects will be delayed, but the reality is more people are talking about workplace technology now than ever. While we can all expect a bumpy few months, the opportunities in the mid-long term only got bigger through this experience.”
Stuart Craig, vice-president at Crestron ANZ agrees. “Our working from home and video engagement learnings will not go away as the pandemic subsides. Projects will be delayed, but the reality is more people are talking about workplace technology now than ever. While we can all expect a bumpy few months, the opportunities in the mid-long term only got bigger through this experience.”
The territory is widely touted as an innovator in technology and early adopter perhaps because of the need to be independent from other regions. “ANZ is often not a friendly time zone to get a hold of support for quickly. For this reason, our market relies heavily on being proficient in our craft,” says Blake Kirby, senior brand manager at Xilica’s ANZ partner, Amber Technology. “We need to have all the answers on hand because it could be eight to ten hours before we’re able to get a response from a manufacturer. Our market has deeply knowledgeable and highly skilled workers in the pro AV world.”
“An example being a very early uptake in LED technology, in airport installations which I saw on my travels way before it was common elsewhere,” says Andy Lee, sales and account manager, Datapath. “Recently, we’ve seen really encouraging adoption in corporate and education markets, which is not always an obvious one for us when compared to our known command and control focus.”
A heightened appreciation for collaboration in Australia, compared with other mature AV markets, was already driving technology adoption trends, reports Alistair Hayward, head of UKI and Asia Pacific, Promethean. “Australia has been at the forefront of IoT, the integration of classroom devices and adoption of education platforms, such as Google and Microsoft.”
The shift to distance learning during lockdown has sparked debate about whether this could be the future of curriculum delivery. Based on market feedback, Promethean doesn’t believe this will be the case.
“Students are social learners, and the collaboration that takes place in the classroom cannot be achieved to the same levels remotely,” says Hayward.
“Recognising that schools will have varying requirements and processes in place, we’ve invested in five high quality video suites around the country that will enable our team to support schools in their IFPD decision making.”
As lockdown occurred during one of the quieter sales periods in the year for IFPDs, it is too early to say for sure how budgets and investment priorities might be affected.
“One thing we can be sure of is a shift in how procurement decisions are made,” says Hayward. “We also appreciate that some schools will still prefer an on-site ActivPanel demonstration when making investment decisions. To support these, we’ve established the necessary protocols to enable us, and our partners, to do so safely.”
Kirby also reports increasing interest in project work at schools and higher ed facilities for AV/IT solutions from Xilica, Wyrestorm and other vendors. “Some facilities are using the lockdown time to make upgrades that were perhaps difficult to conduct during regular opening times. These can include anything from critical infrastructure to changing that ageing projector globe.”
In the aftermath of Covid, live events will be among the last to resuscitate. “AV trends will probably revolve around safe conferencing and crowd and queue control technologies to enable some return to business,” reports Tim Lambert, sales manager for Powersoft’s regional distributor, PAVT. “Given the number of business closures and asset sales, we expect a very buoyant second hand market which will create issues for distributors of new products for the foreseeable future.”
One of the key elements of growth pre-Covid in ANZ was the focus on lifting the experience of patrons at theme parks and museums. “Engagement has been a key outcome as it helps attract and encourage repeat business, as well as drive customer growth via word of mouth or social media,” says Claudio Cardile, managing director of Barco ANZ. “We saw an increase in the use of projection and LED solutions to create immersive installations. Our future depends on our social calendars being stripped to the bare minimum,” he says. “Social distancing contradicts the very nature of the AV industry which largely relies on the concept of being social and connected.”
At the same time, Cardile is optimistic that AV will regain ground in the coming months. “This is largely driven by the fact that AV technology provided the vital link between business leaders, employees, customers and supply chains as the world learned how to adjust to the new ‘normal’ almost overnight.”
Quiet neighbour
In New Zealand, the education and government markets were performing reasonably well, pre-Covid, reports Lambert. The staging market, however, was largely stagnant “due to the low return on investment” experienced by most operators.
In New Zealand, the education and government markets were performing reasonably well, pre-Covid, reports Lambert. The staging market, however, was largely stagnant “due to the low return on investment” experienced by most operators.
“The highly competitive nature of the small to medium staging market causes operators to be very cost driven and often looking to utilise second hand products or keep old systems in service for very long periods of time,” he says.
Upcoming tenders in New Zealand include the Waikato Regional Theatre, slated for 2022-23 and the Auckland Convention Centre which is now being assessed for a rebuild after a fire destroyed its roof late last year.
Exterity points to the New Zealand International Convention Centre in Auckland and the new Sky City Hotel as ongoing projects that have been showing interest in IP-driven AV technologies. “There has been a lot of anticipation as to what shape that might take,” says Hind.
Sporting rivalry
“We are one of the very few pure manufacturers directly represented in our industry in NZ,” claims Craig. Crestron fields an all NZ Team in Auckland. “In many cases integrators and distributors play hybrid roles. NZ business culture and heritage are different and need to be respected.”
“We are one of the very few pure manufacturers directly represented in our industry in NZ,” claims Craig. Crestron fields an all NZ Team in Auckland. “In many cases integrators and distributors play hybrid roles. NZ business culture and heritage are different and need to be respected.”
It is easier to obtain a liquor licence in Wellington than Melbourne so New Zealand’s hospitality industry is more competitive and less likely to spend large sums on decent AV compared with Australia,” says Lambert.
Perhaps the biggest differences between the Antipodean neighbours are around labour unions. “NZ has no real unions of any strength left and has perhaps smaller operators,” says Lambert.
In Australia, the redevelopment of Stadium Australia and Quay Quarter Development, both in Sydney, as well as the Queens Wharf Development in Brisbane are projects to watch.
“They are set to drive an enormous amount of investment and technology adoption as they start to come out of the ground and move towards opening over the next two years,” says Hind.
Crestron said it enjoyed its strongest (fiscal) year ever in the region in 2019-20 with a sizeable take up of its cloud, virtual control and Flex (Teams Rooms) solutions.
“Given that the IT department now makes the bulk of the decisions for our solutions, I don’t see that as a surprise,” says Craig. “Another clear trend is the need for standardisation – one consistent hardware and software platform with a consistent, simple user experience across the campus, enterprise or global facilities.”
The University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland recently completed one such project that incorporates an array of Crestron technology. “The use of cloud and virtual control as a backbone of a scalable system that can be deployed and managed from the cloud allows for a very intuitive services platform beyond AV, and has produced a real benchmark installation for the industry.”
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