Latest headlines: ISE 2022 postponed until May, Helen Matthews on the professional camcorder market, plus news from Extron and Sharp/NEC
January 12, 2022 | Volume: 20 | Issue: 2
Did you hear the news? This just in, folks: ISE 2022 is postponed until May 10-14, 2022. This will be a smart move! I’m hoping that in May, the COVID situation will be much safer for travel and trade shows. What do y’all think?
Anyway.
In AV, collaboration goes hand in hand with UCC technology, hence Unified Communications & Collaboration. But does collaboration mean people working together or does it mean the technology that enables us to do so? How does the way you think about collaboration influence the way you work and the way you choose solutions for clients? If you think collaboration is about workflows, so does Mark Coxon. You can read more of his thoughts here.
Also, if you’re interested in the comeback of the professional camcorder market — be sure to check out the insight from our pals at Futuresource. It’s maybe one of the only good things that COVID has given us.
Our emphasis on screen sharing and UCC tools is important, but it is a very small part of the picture. As integrators, we often go after this low-hanging fruit, sell appliances we like and then leave it to our clients to determine how these new tools best fit into their workflows. In some cases, we may even expect our clients to alter their workflows to use the new tools, which is a recipe for low adoption and unrealized ROI. So, if meetings continue outside of their calendared times, tasks are progressive and continuous and data extends beyond digital borders, how can we up our collaboration game to better accommodate the way people work already?
COVID-19 has had a lasting impact on the professional camcorder industry. Its initial impact appeared to be negative, with the first half of 2020 seeing a significant downfall in sell-in compared to previous years. Lockdowns, social distancing and event cancellations affected markets across the globe, resulting in the majority of traditional end users halting investment in next generation camcorders, both due to the cancellation and postponement of events, budget limitations due to market uncertainty, as well as competition from pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras. However, by the third quarter of 2020, demand for professional video acquisition devices from “non-traditional” verticals started to emerge, as organisations saw longer-term return on investment in video products and remote working solutions.