AV Magazine
A pandemic wasn’t going to stop China’s economic juggernaut in its tracks. The pro AV market recovered in the second half of 2020 following the country’s successful efforts in containing Covid-19.
https://www.avinteractive.com/features/territory-features/full-steam-ahead-02-04-2021/
“It’s booming,” declares Edison, a senior manager of business development, at PSNI integrator, Saga Tech. “Along with China’s overall booming economy development, there continues to be strong growth in pro AV.”
Michael Bosworth, executive vice-president, enterprise at Christie says the Chinese government has been actively working towards increasing domestic demand and transforming the economy since re-opening, and links this to rising demand for pro AV projects in various sectors.
Latest AVIXA survey
These feelings are borne out by AVIXA’s latest survey which shows spending up 11 per cent to $61 billion in 2021. CAGR is charted to grow by 8.3 per cent through to 2025.
“With economists expecting high single digit growth rates in China’s GDP in 2021, pro AV naturally follows suit,” says Sean Wargo, AVIXA’s senior director of market intelligence.
The top areas for investment in 2021 identified by AVIXA are security/surveillance and life safety. China has ramped up infrastructure to provide health and safety guidelines stemming from the pandemic, Wargo notes. Symptom monitoring and other data collection components are a part of this.
“The crisis has quickened the pace of digitalisation, with government and healthcare services fortifying their command and control centres for contact tracing efforts,” says Bosworth. “As a result, control room solutions ranging from displays, image processors to video wall controllers have seen an uptick in demand.”
AVIXA also sees strong investment in learning solutions as China improves its education, and in digital signage thanks to improving retail and hospitality markets.
Cultural plan
One of the fastest growing sectors is night tourism, a global trend in which cities seek to entice tourists to stay overnight and enjoy skyline illuminations or bespoke lighting projects. Beijing’s Lantern Festival Light Show, and night tours along Shanghai’s Huangpu River, Chengdu’s Jinjiang River, and Wuhan’s Yangtze River are popular. “Night tourism has created a new cultural phenomenon, serving as a catalyst for further growth in cities that have started such attractions,” says Bosworth.
The Xinhua news agency reports that China’s top economic planner has allocated 5.7 billion yuan (US$814 million) to support project construction in the cultural tourism industry that was hard hit by Covid-19. Demand for AV solutions in venues such as science and technology museums is expected to rise. The new Hubei Science Museum in Wuhan, Hefei Science Museum, and Shanghai Planetarium are described by Christie as “excellent showpieces” of pro AV technologies.
Live events re-emerging
It’s not all boom though. Live events, which as good as closed down in February, are only now showing signs of recovery. “We are still in an unstable environment, so growth will be gradual but sustainable,” observes William Liu, sales director at Clear-Com distributor, Guangzhou Mindo.
The return to live events included InfoComm China in Beijing which attracted close to 31,000 visitors during its three-day run in September despite precautionary measures, such as mandatory mask-wearing and safe-distancing. While ISE is forced to hibernate with an all-digital version, LED China is set to take place in Shenzen this April alongside the debut of the A-V Intelligence Integrated System Exhibition. Show organiser China Entertainment Technology Association expects 50,000 people to physically attend. LED China 2020 held last September attracted more than 15,000 visitors.
AVIXA expects growth in this sector to return during 2021, though at a modest rate as attendance may still be reduced, and some event operators may choose to delay. Unlike the rest of the world, however, it expects the events sector to experience “true growth” over the peak set in 2019 by 2023, one year earlier than previously forecast. It currently predicts China’s live events market will grow eight per cent a year over the next five years.
Local language, local partner
Chinese professional AV has risen alongside recognition of the importance of integrated solutions but remains distinctively linked to cultural development. There’s a strong focus on storytelling, explains Christie’s regional sales director, April Qin: “AV solutions are widely used in large-scale projects across China that involve technologies such as digital projections, special lighting, water screens, audio and atmospheric effects to deliver a highly engaging and immersive experience. This is a major step-up from traditional presentation styles and elevates the overall audience experience.”
Recent projects that have infused culture and technology include the Dreams of Fairy Mountain multimedia spectacle in Changdao, Yinji Animal Kingdom in Zhengzhou, Guangwu Mountain Dreamscape outdoor show in Bazhong, Nianhua Bay light show in Wuxi, and Nanxun Old Town in Huzhou.
“Young Chinese are the trendsetting consumers in terms of fashion, esports and entertainment, as it is for all East and Southeast Asian countries,” notes Liu. “As such, the Chinese pro AV market needs to keep pace with its needs. They should be considered in any future system design.”
Working with local channel partners and distributors is a given in order to expand company footprints but there’s a stereotype that this always means close coordination or even a business pact with the Chinese state.
“If a project comes to a state owned or private corporate, AV business would generally be more market price based, but if it comes to a multinational then it’s quality based,” says Edison. “To build up reputation for international brands, I think the best way would be to work with local distributors who will have more experience.”
Christie manages its own Chinese language channels and social media (WeChat, Wiebo and LinkedIn China) to augment its presence. It also collaborates with local trade media partners for marcoms campaigns, as well as events such as speaking opportunities at industrial forums.
“AV businesses should continuously spend time and efforts to build and strengthen their own branding, and not rely on local partners to do so,” advises Bosworth.
City Brain
The scale of China’s urbanisation is staggering and offers huge opportunities for AV business. For instance, Shanghai is China’s international hub of finance and trade, innovation and technology, transportation and logistics but in recent years, Qin says, “the city is shifting towards a post-industrial economy and striving to develop industries such as electronic information, automobile, petrochemicals, fine steel and bio-medicine.”
Sports drive
Leaving aside ethical dilemmas about whether to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics, the event is intended to showcase China’s softer side just as the Beijing Summer games did in 2008. Christie was previously involved in the opening and closing ceremonies of the games in 2008 and looks forward to playing a similar role in this next extravaganza.
It’s not the only sporting event on the horizon. An all-China version of the Olympics, the National Games, will be held in Xi’an this autumn. The Asian Games takes place in Hangzhou next year and will introduce cricket to Chinese audiences after the Olympic Council of Asia added it to the programme. 2023 also sees 10 Chinese cities host games for soccer’s AFC Asian Cup, for which seven new football-specific stadia are being constructed. One of these is the Pudong Stadium in Shanghai.
The southern port city of Guangzhou, which borders Hong Kong through the city of Shenzhen, is China’s centre of high-tech manufacturing. Hangzhou in Zhejiang province leads in Smart City development and has a ‘City Brain’ system designed by tech giant Alibaba which is headquartered in the city. In use since 2016, the ‘Brain’ is an AI intelligence system that uses big data and computing power to monitor, improve and fix traffic problems. Qin reports that it has successfully helped reduce traffic congestion by 15 per cent. The Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is among the major infrastructural projects in China that will see pro AV technologies playing a major role. Once completed this summer, the airport will have capacity for 90 million passengers, more than twice that of Chengdu’s other airport Shuangliu and making it the largest airport in China’s west region and the nation’s fourth largest.
No comments:
Post a Comment