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APAC’s third-biggest pro AV market and the fastest-expanding economy in the region, took a heavy beating during the pandemic, particularly during the surge of the Delta variant in mid-2021, but the rebound is well and truly on.
“India was one of the country’s most severely affected,” says Arun Kumar Anandhan, head of operations, Lightware Visual Engineering. “The impact was harsh on the economy – the market response was sluggish. However, the situation is recovering faster than we expected and we’re seeing pro AV also picking up the pace.”
Moody’s Investors Service raised its GDP growth forecast for India to 9.5 per cent for the current calendar year, citing a stronger-than-expected economic recovery. Bloomberg even rated CAGR growth for the next five years at 11 per cent. The consensus in the industry is that pro AV will return to the pre-pandemic phase in 2023, with 2022 being the bridge year. The broad outlook for growth to 2025 is also very positive.
“Pro AV is still in a ‘V’ shift recovery but we are seeing positive teps which will continue over the next twelve to eighteen months,” reports Justin Joy, senior manager, Peerless-AV. “A lot of the big projects that were shelved are now being released, especially in the corporate and government sectors.”
The government is leading recovery with a focus on infrastructure development, including several mega projects being commissioned that have a significant AV element. These include rail transport (the line between Gujarat and Maharashtra being India’s first high speed network); India’s second largest airport is under construction in Utter Pradesh; and multiple greenfield city urban redevelopment projects.
“The government increased spend on infrastructure projects, museums, health and education in a huge way during the pandemic, the original motive being to increase jobs,” says Arun Kumar, Genelec’s regional business manager. “With Covid restrictions lifted, these projects will go on the fast track and be a source of growth for pro AV this year.”
Uptick in demand
Prashant Govindan of live event specialist, Generation AV reports all major manufacturers and SIs enjoying an uptick in demand. “That’s important since the drop of new projects in commercial office space, retail, hospitality and leisure saw AV take a huge hit in revenues and growth. Most SIs reported a dip in revenue and many of them remained afloat only thanks to long term maintenance business.”
With staff working from home many multinationals used the time to re-equip the office space with remote collaboration and UC and VC ready for return.
“Covid has impacted the overall fabric of how we conducted business, the work from home concept never existed in India prior to 2020,” says Sabarishan Nanjundappa, director at Mumbai-based Mindstec Distribution which saw revenues rocket 130 per cent in 2021, mainly from the corporate segment.
“It now seems to be an integral part of how we will work in future. Both corporate and government are seeing a large spend on AV solutions based on collaboration. We hope that this trend keeps up and AV firms get to recover the losses from Covid.”
Widespread demand for UC room and BYOD solutions is also reported by Lightware. Its Cisco integrated rooms have been installed at the Dwarka Convention Centre in Utter Pradesh. “Government, education and medical sectors are following the hybrid model,” says Anandhan. “The next twelve to eighteen months will be very rewarding as lots of new projects plus all the shelved ones from 2020-2021 become active.”
Video conferencing is also on an upward trajectory. “The IT sector has not gone back completely to the office as it finds it more economic for people to work from home,” says Nipun Khanna, regional sales director, Konftel. “They (the industry) are not encouraging them back other than one day or so per week but schools are now completely offline and all back in.”
Konftel just completed a big order for around 700 Konftel Ego speakerphones in the south of the country for a semi-government municipal contract. “I’d say there’s no better time to establish and grow a conferencing presence in India. There’s lots of demand and the economy is picking up again. The long-term benefits of remote meetings are definitely being understood and embraced,” says Khanna.
Along with cinema, live events was undoubtedly the most badly impacted vertical. “Live events have seen some dark days recently,” observes Siddharth Chhibber, founder, Acoustic Arts (Powersoft’s distributor).
“Some rental companies have had to sell their inventory at compromised prices to reduce their debts and liabilities. The hospitality sector has also been under stress due to frequent lockdowns coupled with high rentals though, as people venture out again, this is likely to bounce back.”
Christie’s sales director, Enterprise, Rishubh Nayar reports that a number of events companies closed down with some employees even leaving India to seek jobs in regions like the Middle East.
Now, the sector is making a massive recovery. Rental staging firms are investing in gear, whilst event companies are opening up their doors once again to former employees. We had the first major rock concert in Bangalore in March (since early 2020) – the clearest indication that live events are back in a big way.”
Command and control has always been buoyant in India and continues to grow “exponentially” says Nayar, even in tier 2-3 cities, “as the demand for crisis and disaster management, as well as national security continues to rise.”
The country has seen a fivefold increase in the number of DooH screens in the last three years (to over 60,000), propelling a growth of 20 per cent until 2025/6. “India is one of the fastest-growing DooH markets globally, and brands realise the value and RoI in targeted messaging concerning demographics, timing and seasonal variations,” says Gagan Verma, executive director, Crestron, India.
“For brands looking to acquire digitally native customers, custom-designed experiences will be absolutely critical. Retail is an evident focus area as consumers return to pre-Covid shopping routines.”
Cloud-based digital signage is a focus of national SI, AllWave AV Systems. “Clients are looking for something simple, easy to deploy, with minimal hardware,” says MD, Kuldip Kamat. “Our managed service platform allows us to monitor, predict, test and help make better business decisions with remotely control devices.”
Understanding the market
While the India market is vast and has tremendous potential for growth, it’s also important to approach the territory as consisting of multiple countries and cultures.
“The market in the North of India is very different from the west and south,” observes Govindan. “Each region exhibits distinct customer preferences too. Combined with the nuances in language, working culture, and income levels it can be quite confusing for outsiders trying to make sense of how and where to invest.”
Most manufacturers and SIs typically set up a country office in one of the major cities like Mumbai or New Delhi, and then work with local partners to establish working relationships with stakeholders.
“Given the vast cultural diversity, it sometimes makes sense to appoint distribution partners in each broad region and then try and work on sub-distribution,” advises Govindan. “A consultant that specialises in hospitality projects may want to enter based on global relationships and then embark on working with local hospitality chains. This may entail a few years of understanding the working culture and setting up local management and business development teams.”
Nayer suggests that in South India “your focus will have to be on appointing and nurturing corporate partners. It is extremely important to engage the appropriate channel partners to represent the brand well in each vertical market.
“There’s been a shift in consumer behaviour that might have an overall positive impact on India’s pro AV market. The central government recently announced a policy that it will no longer go for the lowest bidder for a lot of jobs. That encapsulates a growing sentiment in India that if you need a quality service or product, you shouldn’t always commit to the lowest cost options.”
Regional hotspots
New Delhi, the seat of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House, and the Supreme Court of India, is the hotbed of government-centred AV activity. Outside the capital, this type of AV supply and installation can be found in Gurgaon, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, according to Joy. “Mumbai has more entertainment AV and the South has a more corporate way of doing business,” he adds.
Bangalore is home to a wide range of heavy and light industries, as well as high-tech and service industries including IT and electronics, telecommunications, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. It’s also a base for many consultants and Taiwanese integration companies.
“With numerous multinational companies based here, it is a hotspot for corporate AV that includes projection, direct-view LED videowalls and digital signage solutions for corporate lobbies, meeting rooms and auditoriums,” says Nayar. IT giants Cognizant and Wipro, American-Swiss medical company Alcon and research institute IIT Indore, have also chosen Christie’s LED video wall solutions in the last couple of years.
Other emerging hotspots identified by Govindan include Baroda/Ahmedabad for hospitality and government, Chennai and Kerala for corporate and hospitality, Kolkata and the North East for government business and tier-II locations like Raipur, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur/Jodhpur and Chandigarh for hospitality and leisure.
“We also expect tourist areas like Goa, Rajasthan and Kerala to rise up the ranks of demand as international travel returns to normal,” says Verma.
Anandhan picks out Chennai as the automobile hub and that multinationals are returning to their regional offices in tier 2 cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Indore, Coimbatore.
Those pursuing a longer-term strategy, might look at localising some manufacturing “as the government is actively pushing a ‘Make in India’ initiative and offering tax breaks and subsidies to firms willing to commit to manufacturing or assembling in India,” says Govindan.
Untapped potential for international AV brands
India can also be a springboard for exploring adjacent markets, such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, he says. The SAARC treaties and trade agreements tend to give preference to Indian-manufactured products, and a local manufacturing base may be useful in entering and exploring these countries.
While there is good competition across price points, “the Indian market is largely untapped” finds Verma and there is a significant appetite for any business looking to enter the region.
“There’s no doubt the Indian market is a difficult-to-run sales activity like road shows or exhibitions, primarily due to its size of the country and local logistical challenges,” says Andy Lee, senior global account manager, Datapath. “We use the annual InfoComm show (September 2022) as a launchpad.”
“What is distinctive is the manner in which consultants and integrators push creative boundaries, proposing new ideas and technologies, while maintaining standard operating procedures with end users,” notes Joy. “The level of technical product knowledge is very high and everyone from junior technician to product manager prides themselves on their professionalism.”
Kumar thinks the AV market “quite price sensitive” with SIs always on the lookout for ways to achieve desired functionality with minimal cost. He also notes that with the Indian government being the largest buyer of pro AV, knowledge of its bureaucratic buying processes will go a long way.
“The strategy likely to achieve the best results will be to hire a local business head and sales team and partner with distribution companies that have strong inroads into various geographic areas.”
Genelec itself is partnered with Alphatec Audio Video for distribution. Peerless-AV’s partners Pro Radio Networks. Martin Audio works with Generation AV; S-Cube represents VIOSO. Local distributors and SIs like these are poised to win business projects with multinationals establishing branches in Indian cities.
AllWave recently launched a Managed Service Centre which offers 24×7 NOC support as part of company investment aimed at making it an attractive partner to take on such work.
“We are currently engaged with a lot of conversations and projects with global and regional integrators to be their #1 partner,” says Kamat.
“We’re also seeing a merger between AV/IT as well as in creative fields both from a technical and storyboarding perspective. Some of our recent projects not only encompass pure AV but also solutions around creative story building.”
Light and sound and senses
Lacking any gigantic theme park attractions, museums have been the perennial favourite when it comes to pro AV innovation. Nayar says the government is supporting tourism by investing heavily in museums to promote the country’s rich heritage.
“While the outside world might look at us as a significant market due to the sheer size of our population, the reality is that culture is woven into most things we do,” says Verma. “India is a country of many emotions, colours, languages and cultural traits. That reflects in the creative sensibilities of our AV design, application and the need for technology to make it happen.”
For example, India is arguably the projection mapping capital of the world. Many of these large-scale spectaculars are produced exclusively to showcase the rich cultural and historical heritage of a particular region, or to honour martyrs, statesmen and religious figures.
“With a civilisation spanning thousands of years, India has a plethora of incredible archaeological sites and monuments,” says Chhibber. “Interest in these sites is being revived with state-of-the-art sound and light shows which is likely to remain an active segment for years to come.
“It can be quite tough to do business here and usually takes time. As in some other Asian countries business is driven by personal relationships and decisions are often emotional. Understanding and appreciating this facet of how business works here is a good start. That and patience.”
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