A natural affinity with tech

AV Magazine

https://www.avinteractive.com/features/territory-features/natural-affinity-tech-17-12-2021/

The Scandinavian region was less affected than most countries by the pandemic with pro AV recovering well and likely to further increase into next year.

“The AV industry is showing some extremely positive signs, and as a company we’re seeing a lot of new activity and sustained momentum in the channel,” says Mikael da Fonseca, sales director for the Nordics and Baltics, at PPDS (Philips Professional TV and digital signage solutions). “There is a definite and increasing appetite being shown across the industry, to explore, identify and then invest in AV.”

The Danish economy has largely reverted to pre-pandemic levels, with economic growth exceeding 2019 levels amid soaring employment rates, prompting economists to forecast a moderate boom in coming years, according to Reuters.

Economic expansion
Sweden and Norway are each set for expansion of 3.5 per cent or more in 2021 and 2022, according to the news agency, which surveyed economists about the regions. Sweden’s gross domestic product was expected to grow 4.2 per cent this year, up from the 3.6 per cent economists forecast in July.

“People want to make up for lost time but the spectre of a fourth Covid wave is at the back of their minds as well,” says Jörgen Rönnqvist, sales manager for Swedish-based conferencing and collaboration manufacturer, Konftel.

“More local events as well as national ones are now taking place and being planned over the coming months. Retail and hospitality in particular are very busy. The bars and restaurants are crowded and the economy across the Nordics is doing well with levels of general investment quite high. Shopping and travelling has all been switched back on. People just want to go out and enjoy themselves.”

Installations are finally taking place for orders delayed because of the pandemic now that site access has improved and more and more people return to the workplace.

“As an example, I was told that a system purchased about 12 months ago is scheduled for install mid-November 2021,” says Adam Marsden, UK, Ireland, Nordics & Baltics sales and account manager at Datapath.

“That said, enquiry levels are very good within the Nordics with regular in-depth conversations taking place with many direct and in-direct customers. This is a good sign of things to come, assuming no further pandemic restrictions are put in place.”

Getting back to business

Broadly speaking, the Scandinavian AV industry “was very quick to assess and adapt to the new reality of hybrid and virtual events when the live event calendar was basically cancelled,” says Trond Solvold, sales director, Dataton. “We noted that features in our systems as virtual displays, flexible backdrops, NDI, multiple layers and keying, were being deployed more extensively for such events.

“As projects come back online, we’ve noted a surge in demand as rental and staging companies start doing events again and visitor centre and broadcast sectors are also on the up.”

The region may have been relatively healthy compared to its European neighbours during Covid, but it didn’t escape the sweeping changes to work-life balance that have resulted. There’s just as much demand here to reshape the office into a hybrid environment incorporating remote working as elsewhere – except that Scandinavians have a headstart.

“For decades, Scandinavians have embraced technology as a means to increase efficiency and work-life balance,” says Stein Ramsli, regional sales director Nordics at Crestron.

“Finding a skilled workforce is often a challenge, so companies tend to recruit globally, with employees working from their home office, in their home country. As a result, Norway for instance is one of the countries in the world with the highest deployment of unified communication.”

He adds: “Pro AV is at the forefront of most discussions today in the Nordics. We see an increased demand for upgrades of exciting meeting spaces and home offices but managing and maintaining them is more critical than in the past, where the environment was more controlled. We see a greater demand and willingness to invest into pro AV today. We anticipate that this will continue for the coming year, while the hybrid workspace is getting more professionally implemented.”

Early adoption of flexible work-life patterns is typical of the Scandinavian mindset. In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the latest technology is high on wish lists. “We Scandinavians are very technology friendly and want the latest tech everywhere,” says Fredrik Barnö, regional sales director, Nordics, Lightware Visual Engineering.

“It also means AV customers are more likely to be interested in higher quality and high specification products than on low price alone.”

Early adopters
Rönnqvist reports that vendors test their portfolio in the region before rolling out to other markets. “Users are technically driven and can be quite critical because we have high expectations,” he says. “Products should be intuitive, easy to use and high quality. We are always curious to test things earlier.”

Pro AV personnel in the region are highly educated and very self-sufficient, regardless of complexity level, concurs Katrin Kerber, account manager, Northern Europe and CIS, Matrox Video.

“They appear to be ‘less afraid’ of exploring and using newer technologies than some of their EU counterparts, where AV specialists may prefer to wait for more mature products and solutions with a proven stability track record.”

There are hotspots of AV activity all over Sweden, Norway and Denmark, typically, around the capital cities: Copenhagen, Stockholm (home of Vrak – the Museum of Wrecks and ABBA The Museum) and Oslo, but also in cities like Göteborg, Aarhus, and Stavanger. Göteborg, for instance, has a strong cultural and corporate profile, as well as being home to larger AV companies, such as CT Northern Europe and Watteriet.

Oil and gas is very well represented but renewable energy companies are growing, “which means that they are in need of technologies in their new offices around the region that help their employees operate in a remote or hybrid capacity,” reports Ramsli. “Governmental bodies are also highly modernising, again placing AV in the centre of the renewals.”

Barnö spotlights demand for updated AV in the command and control sector: “We’ve seen a steady flow of quote requests during the pandemic” alongside rejuvenated interest in products and solutions for ‘hybrid rooms’ with BYOD and USB-C.

Kerber spies “significant activity through many of Norway’s higher education institutions, executing tenders to upgrade their lecture management systems with remote recorder and video streaming hardware solutions. We are also seeing strong interest in the Danish medical industry to upgrade their hospitals with multi-channel streaming and recording on modern, one Gigabit Ethernet AV infrastructures.”

Screen growth
The global supply chain squeeze is impacting local business, particularly vendors of signage which need semiconductors to fit into screens.

“One area that we are seeing more sales requests is for our kiosks, both indoor and outdoor, as more businesses embrace digital for increased efficiencies and improved communications with customers,” says Martin Romanowski, regional sales director – EMEA, Peerless-AV.

“Our outdoor digital menu boards are not only being deployed by QSRs and fast-food restaurants in the Scandinavian region, but the attractions, hospitality, education, government and corporate markets are also acknowledging the many benefits of switching from static signage to digital.”

Scandinavians have an ingrained online buying interest and this has progressed even more during Covid. Romanowski says retailers are fighting back by investing in digital solutions to give consumers the customer experience they expect.

“With restrictions lifted, employees are increasingly coming back to their offices, which creates a demand for AV solutions in public spaces – such as TVs, signage – and interactive displays in conference rooms all over the region,” says da Fonseca. “Retail is really ramping up right now, especially in Sweden.”

The biggest areas of demand at PPDS is coming from the corporate, hospitality and retail verticals, with LED, digital signage and pro TVs all seeing sustained growth. “Looking at the figures and orders, it would be fine to say we are seeing the biggest levels of growth in Denmark and Sweden,” says da Fonseca. “We have some very large projects in the works right now and, looking at the orders throughout 2021 and 2022, we see no sign of it slowing down.”

PPDS’ Q3 2021 market share for the hospitality sector in Sweden is 81 per cent and in Norway it’s almost 70 per cent. “In Q1-Q3 2021 we are the clear number one player in the Nordic market, with installations of our Philips MediaSuite range happening almost every day, ranging from small hotels to international giants.

“The benefits of the MediaSuite – from sustainability through to the availability of Netflix-embedded – have really hit the sweet spot for hoteliers and, crucially, their guests.”

The channel
Datapath works with distribution partners which as well as providing an in-country presence also offers local knowledge and language. Similarly, Crestron just partnered with Maverick AV Solutions to distribute its Crestron Flex range in Norway, Denmark and Sweden and Konftel recently announced a major new distribution partnership with Exertis across Sweden and Denmark. In addition to ALSO Nordic, Peerless-AV recently added CBK Distribution in Norway to strengthen its local presence.

Lightware has a direct manufacture to installer/dealer approach with no distributors for the whole region. Sales, manufacturing and shipping are managed from its HQ in Budapest.

“This scenario is becoming very popular and is used by several manufacturers because the integrator talks direct to the source and Lightware, as a manufacturer can act much faster and with a higher grade of support,” says Barnö.

Most vendors also have remote sales and training platforms. As elsewhere, the demand for tools that help manage and maintain the technology in an as-a-Service capacity is increasing fast.

Face to face sales trips and travel to the region has only recently opened back up. Marsden for instance made a visit to the Nordics, in October 2021, his first travel abroad since initial lockdowns.

“I visited several integrators, with my distribution partner, to provide on-site, in-person demonstrations of our products. This was a very good visit and the integrators seemed to like that I was there, and not on a video call remotely. It gave me chance to get into the finer details of our product set and encourage the integrators to get hands-on with the products – something that can’t be achieved remotely.”