The AV industry “is clearly continuing to grow at a pace significantly above general economic growth,” says David Labuskes, executive director of AVIXA.
Indeed, despite a somewhat tumultuous year in 2017 with small-and medium-sized integration firms seemingly all-too-eager to be gobbled up by larger firms or private equity investors, the AV industry is performing extremely well.
More than half, 52 percent, of surveyed AV integration business members describe their current overall business climate as either “very good” or “excellent,” according to the 2018 Integration Business Outlook study, conducted annually by Commercial Integrator and NSCA.
It’s also impressive that 91 percent of the 188 surveyed integrators and consultants report that their overall business climate is good or better than the previous year.
Optimism for 2018 business is off the charts. More than one-third of respondents expect their revenue trends to grow at least 11 percent this year.
Based on the collected data, Commercial Integrator predicts that the industry will grow by 9.45 percent in 2018. That’s after 7.6 percent calculated growth in 2017.
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It’s hard to interpret any of this as anything but “great news,” says NSCA executive director Chuck Wilson.
“Overwhelmingly positive” is he describes the findings. “Every indicator points toward us having a really good next couple of years from my perspective. There is just no shortage of opportunities.”
The industry is enjoying momentum due to a confluence of factors, Wilson theorizes.
For instance, it helps that the prices of the devices that integration firms install for their customers has generally gone down over the last few years. One might think that’s not great for business but, in the contrary, it has broadened the appeal of and demand for integrated solutions.
Meanwhile, organizations have changed the way they meet and integrators are finding work in the millions of meetings rooms that need to be updated.
