What impact have the current global uncertainties had on the company’s R&D and product development in recent months?
The current global uncertainties have not impacted our current NPI (New Product Introduction) projects or development roadmaps so far. We are continuing to invest in several major platform developments and new technologies, and we have not questioned the value or strategic importance of these endeavours despite the broader global situation.
What do you foresee as the biggest challenges in R&D and product development/deployment in the coming years?
One of the key challenges ahead will be developing scalable, cost-efficient, and easy-to-deploy AV communications and live production platforms. While cloud-based solutions will play a critical role, even greater focus is needed on virtualised, on-premise systems built on COTS hardware and GPU-based platforms. It is hard to predict how much AI will influence the AV live production workflows in the next few years, but AI-based workflow support will become part of the production.
Where do you see the most opportune areas for innovation in your area of the market, and what tech/solutions will drive that development?
Our customers constantly need to produce more content with fewer or less technically experienced personnel; therefore the automation and simplification of workflows are a focus of our NPI endeavours. In addition, the monitoring of complex IT infrastructures and a translation to the user problem domain will be essential, so that in the future, troubleshooting can become as simple as in the SDI / MADI, or even analogue days. The technologies driving these developments–virtualised platforms, scalable systems, etc–are already available. The real opportunity lies in making these tools truly accessible and intuitive for end users across the AV industry.
