rAVe at ISE: Ingram’s Schulz On Five Enablers Of Industry Growth

January 31, 2012 by Dave Haynes

Content partner rAVe Publications has a pile of people in Amsterdam for the Integrated Systems Europe how that opened today. They’re doing blanket coverage, and some of that will get related here, as well. For everything, including vids, go to rAVenowISE.com.

So you missed the ISE keynote address? Not to worry, we’ll fill you in:

Gerhard Schulz, senior vice president of Ingram Micro, recapped the evolution of the AV industry, and provided a perspective of how the analog world is being replaced by everything digital.

There are five main enablers that stimulate growth within this industry:

• Miniaturization
• Storage (and data capacity)
• Bandwidth
• Standardization
• Energy Saving

To understand digitalization, we need to understand the evolution of computers.  Today, there are more than 2 billion Internet users. There are billions of smart devices and personal computers, but by 2015, it is expected that there will be more than 25 billion connected devices (three times more than today). This will be possible because Internet users will not only be people, but machines themselves.

There are three metatrends that explain this exponential growth:

• Ubiquity: Every single aspect of our lives will be digitalized, and therefore, our environment will become increasingly violated by different points of access.  Examples of this includes home security, digital signage and healthcare technology.
• Convergence: Different product features will now be combined into one product that can offer many different functions. For example, hand-held products like watches, cameras and mobile phones will be converged into one smart phone device that depends on software. You will have all that you need in the “palm of your hand!”
• XaaS (Anything as a service): More and more products are based on software applications instead of actual hardware. More than 90 percent of the applications that are run on a PC can also be run on a smart phone. This is possible because physical processing does not come from the device in your hand, but rather from a remote data center. So now, your purchasing power and bandwidth are on a need-to-use basis.

There are three growing vertical networks in the AV industry: energy, education and healthcare. These industries are all shifting toward complete system integration. We can expect many of the companies and products at ISE 2012 to reflect these market shifts.

But what’s coming next?

You can expect every analog application to be replaced by digital. Instant or low-latency connection with networks, combined with bandwidth, will allow data and processing to happen remotely. Ultimately, this industry will move from actual products to services as a whole. Everything will be networked, and using RFID and geo-location, everything and everyone will be trackable. So, we can’t just sell products alone; we must provide networks that offer consumers the best possible solutions to their needs.