Last year Commercial Integrator surveyed various businesses, and AV integrators and predicated rapid growth within the AV industry.

It’s fair to say that everyone was a little off…

2021 might look a little more promising.

What we do know is that the need for businesses to adapt to the virus has driven demand for our industry, and the right-fit solution is increasingly important to medium and large organizations. Innovative solutions have been developed, questioning the future of the office and how we work has challenged our industry.

Interoperability is still an issue

In September we were granted the gift of Cisco and Microsoft Teams’ interoperability. Polycom, Pexip, BlueJeans and Webex all has video interop with Microsoft Teams.

That still doesn’t mean organizations are having issues with connecting with external teams, vendors and business partners. This could be because of a missing SIP license or not paying into the CVI gateway.

VisionPoint has been taking a good portion of 2020 to focus on the issues surrounding interoperability. Our engineering team developed UNIFY, which enables room-based systems to connect with Microsoft teams, WebEx, Go To Meeting, BlueJeans and Zoom.

Office Technology Will Change

The needs of the workplace is changing. CIO’s are suggesting much of the workforce might only be in the office a few times a week, or when collaboration is needed. Many products facilitate the need for smaller collaboration like the mobile cart, or huddle room kits that are meant for focused teams.

There is still a lot of uncertainty, but many issues that have been put off due to uncertainty still need solving. We also can’t forget remote collaboration, connectivity issues, remote management and support for organizations. Business operations didn’t come to a grinding halt in 2020, and it certainly won’t in 2021.

AV Will Become Front and Center

We already know that AV is mission critical. Corporate communications and collaboration tech will continue to be mission critical as businesses are figuring out their plans for 2021. While some businesses may simply move to a hybrid work schedule, or partial/fully remote staff, others may implement technology to help navigate the transition back to work. VisionPoint has been noticing our customers showing interest in spacing detection, hygiene, and biometric sensors that take temperature from a distance. We think this trend might continue until COVID is a thing of the past.

The digital transformation to the cloud will most likely continue. Finding the right collaboration platform will be key to carrying out business operations, especially if remote work is here to stay.

Many organizations might re-focus their AV needs to long-term, right-fit solutions that are built for both the remote worker, and the in-office employees.

What VisionPoint Predicts?

In late December, High Profile Magazine asked us to share our views on how we think 2021 will look in the modern workplace. Our Director of Sales Tom McNeff offered some valuable insight on what our customers are most interested in, and the way our industry is moving. You can read the article here.