1. Boy, I hope you like software!

Whether you like it or not, the traditional AV industry is shrinking. Back in the day, a full commercial kit-out would’ve buttered up the bottom line and taken a lot of work for the AV integrator. Sadly, beamforming microphones and the smarts behind the cameras are just too good.

Companies like Shure, Biamp, Sennheiser and Audio-Technica, to name a few, are creating these incredible ceiling arrays that are plug-and-play. And on the video side, automatic PTZ cameras make digital meetings much more of a seamless experience for all involved.

A few Integrate Expos ago, Neat debuted the Neat Board, an all-in-one device that’s on wheels (!), so building managers might even opt not to install AV in some rooms and go with the bloody portable solution.

Because of this, some in the AV industry have pivoted to services, data and software. While there will always be work for these commercial integrators, someone needs to install everything; the true moneymaker will be post-installation services.

How can integrators provide value after the installation? How can they keep their name in front of these big clients? The answer isn’t to sell them more big boxes; that’s not the way the world is headed, the answer is to keep yourself in demand.

By giving clients rich insights, based on the data from your devices in their spaces, you can become an essential part of their purchasing decisions and, honestly, the way they work. Data doesn’t have to lead to more purchases or installs; it could even help the client streamline their business so they’re continually maximising their space.

But boy, I hope you like software. Because if not, the future could be quite bleak.

2. Residential remains

The number of times I’ve been to a trade show and people share their scary stories harkening the end of the residential AV space is astounding.

Connected magazine has written about “resimercial” and how residential integrators can start to dip their toes into the commercial space, and that’s great (just don’t read my first prediction…).

But despite all these fears, there’s always a residential market. The top end of town will always be there.

I don’t want to get stuck in the weeds about late-stage capitalism or the Matthew effect, but the margins on these jobs are fat and they’ll always exist.

While the commercial side is taking a hit as customers settle for “good enough”, the bigwigs in residential will stop at nothing to get “the best”, and that’s heaps of fun for the AV guys who get to bring out all the toys.

I do want to acknowledge that, yes, a lot of the middle ground was eaten away during and after the pandemic. For those without unlimited cash sitting around, it can be hard to rationalise a theatre room. But for those that can, they’re always going to want to spend.

3. Where does the customisation end?

I like to think that I have a really strong attention to detail, and arguably, it’s a bit too good because I can get nitpicky on every word in the magazine. Thank goodness I’m an editor, hey!

Because of this, I love it when you go into a corporate setting and see customised logos and styles on all the AV in a building. You know that someone has taken the time to customise every screen in a building, give it a personal flair and, most importantly, not stretched a .jpg into some whacky aspect ratio that makes me want to barf.

But where does that customisation end? A flat panel might use all a company’s fonts, styles and colours, but a lot of technology (rightly) has the manufacturer’s logo sitting proudly at the bottom. Would these manufacturers ever forgo their logo if a company wanted that extra step of customisation?

Instead of a Crestron logo at the bottom of a room booking panel, would they manufacture it without? Instead of Logitech’s branding on a video bar, would they scrub it off? Is this already happening, and I just haven’t seen it? Potentially!

4. Physical media continues its rise

This prediction’s a little self-serving because I have a growing collection of 4K DVDs and boutique Blu-rays. I started my collection after reading Stephen Dawson’s article on collecting vinyl records earlier this year.

Collecting 4K UltraHD discs truly is the ultimate collector’s piece, though (I say, almost to myself as much as you), the human eye can’t perceive a difference between 4K and 8K content unless it’s on a screen almost as big as the IMAX. As far as my life has progressed thus far, I don’t think I’ll be owning a screen that big in my lifetime.

So, this isn’t about collecting DVDs in the 90s or Blu-rays in the 2010s; this is the final frontier. The 4K discs you collect today will still be the highest quality decades from now. It’s a foolproof investment!

Below are my (half-baked) rules for collecting:

1. If there’s a new movie that I really like, don’t settle for anything but the 4K UltraHD DVD. Note that not every Australian release gets the Dolby Atmos soundtrack (for example, only the US version of Parasite (2019) has Atmos, so I bought that).
2. If a movie was released before 2000, be happy with the Blu-ray. I’m still hammering out where this line should be drawn. I have a 4K copy of Shaun of the Dead (2004), and I’m struggling to find the value above a regular Blu-ray.
3. Check other people’s reviews of older remasters. The original Alien (1979) is one of my favourite movies, so when they remastered and released it in 4K, I considered breaking my second rule. But when I read what other nerds on the internet had to say, they suggested that it didn’t do wonders for the “feel” of the film, so I hesitated. Similarly, how much better would a 4K restoration of Seven Samurai (1954) be compared to a Blu-ray?

Feel free to borrow those guidelines or let me know where I’m going wrong.

5. The growth of the Southeast Asian market

Australia is part of the Asia Pacific region, but we’ve always seemed to be more closely related to New Zealand than north of our continent when it comes to the AV world. That seems to be changing.

The AETM hosted its first-ever Southeast Asia chapter meeting in Singapore, welcoming a whole new batch of potential members. The team got the idea after attending InfoComm Asia, an ever-expanding show hosted by a subsidiary of AVIXA.

A few other trade shows in our industry are popping up across the continent (mostly in Singapore for now), but it’s something worth keeping an eye on as integrators are continually looking for where the next job might be. Is there potential for growth beyond our borders?