The pandemic has made us more dependent on technology than ever before. Video conferencing and collaborative working solutions were only seeing steady market growth prior to this year but the wide scale adoption this year has been nothing short of game changing.
Here at Northamber we’ve found that with the right VC infrastructure in place, we’ve been able to continue to operate normally and maintain business as usual. The team has grown significantly in number to help us provide even greater levels of product and solutions expertise to our reseller partners.
Even before the crisis, businesses were trending towards flexible and remote working. The productivity, health and lifestyle benefits of remote working will still be valid and entire workforces will have had the experience of working remotely. To adequately plan for the future, businesses will need to take both preferences into account. It is likely that more employees will want to work from home more frequently. However, physical meetings will continue to be an important part of everyday.
Northamber have already announced several exciting new partnerships this year, Airtame, Lifesize, PTZ Optics, which all complement our existing AV solutions driven approach. New to our portfolio is Mersive, delivering wireless content sharing, collaboration and video conferencing, which have all become increasingly important.
Their Solstice platform provides all of this and much more. With the explosion of Microsoft Teams, one of our key vendors, Avocor, has the first Windows Collaboration Device to be certified for Microsoft Teams. This is an incredibly valuable asset when it comes to collaboration solutions. New vendor announcements will be made over the coming months.
So what will the next six months bring? Today’s business environments realise AV technology has a huge role in bringing teams together to be more productive. The ability for someone to bring their own device into a meeting and to share content with ease, as well as choose from where they present, or share is becoming more standard every day.
Digital signage applications have come into their own as lockdown has eased. Smart signage that automatically counts visitors as they enter bars, restaurants and shops is already widely in use and undoubtedly will be extended to entertainment and sports venues to gauge capacity as they open up.
Facial recognition and biometric tools will also work in synergy with cameras and displays to identify individuals should they need to be contacted at a later point and to monitor levels of social distancing and observance of safety rules.
Northamber AV have created an AV Guide that aims to share the latest AV products, solutions and services that will help both pro AV and IT resellers to address new challenges for their end users. We already support a comprehensive product portfolio across major audio visual technologies such as large format, interactive and LED displays, projectors and digital signage; this has now evolved to include automatic temperature screening solutions for high footfall areas, to digital way finding solutions with integrated hand sanitisation for retail spaces, offices and schools.
For more information and to download our guide, click here https://www.northamber.com/avguide