Unified AV Systems isn’t the first company we’ve covered since CI launched late in 2010 to decide it was time to rebrand—and we’re guessing its transition to Unified Technology Systems won’t mark the last time we’ll see AV companies try to broaden their appeal.
[related] In the past year, we’ve seen Trinity Video Communications become Trinity Dynamics and InfoComm International transform into the Audiovisual and Inegrated Experience Association (AVIXA), but they aren’t the only re-brands we’ve covered.
Unified AV’s rebranding as Unified Technology Systems is an acknowledgement that there’s something bigger than AV out there and that they’re part of that “something else.”
Remember when ANC dropped the “Sports” from its name in an effort to broaden its appeal? And what about when Sport View Technologies decided it would rather use SVT in an effort to emphasize that it worked in a lot of spaces other than arenas and stadiums?
Heck, before CI and several of its sister publications were sold to Emerald Expositions, we went from EH Publishing to EH Media in an acknowledgement that the company did a lot more than publishing articles.
Like many of those examples, Unified AV’s rebranding as Unified Technology Systems is an acknowledgement that there’s something bigger than AV out there and that they’re part of that “something else.” In this case, it’s about the ongoing shift of AV components to IT networks, says president Barry Goldin.
“It all stems really from the evolution of our industry,” says Goldin in a video interview with CI editorial director Tom LeBlanc.
How ‘Unified Technology Systems’ Happened
The transition from Unified AV to Unified Technology Systems started with the company’s strategic planning cycle in late 2016. That process, says Goldin, “involved a very specific and deliberate move not to run away from audio and video technology, but to augment audio and video technology with IT capabilities.”
Goldin stresses Unified Technology Systems is not running away from AV integration.“There’s no doubt AV is a very impactful technology for our customers.”
Those discussions involved Unified being able to diversify its product and service offerings to customers, becoming “more valuable” to customers by providing a wider range of products and services and rebranding to reflect those changes, says Goldin.
“Here we are at the culmination of some of those steps and we’re very excited about it,” he says. Goldin stresses Unified Technology Systems is not running away from AV integration.
“There’s no doubt AV is a very impactful technology for our customers,” he says. “All of our customers need that audiovisual capability and it’s really developed into a mission critical capability for many of them. What we’ve noticed is it’s all riding on the network. All of our technologies are now integrated on a common platform.”
Unified’s acquisition of Xzact Technologies last year helped the company add to its networking capabilities including access control, WiFi networks and video surveillance, says Goldin.
“As we go to market to our customers and say, ‘We can take on this entire scope of low-voltage technologies and be your single-source solutions provider for these,’ you’re not representing yourself well when the name of the company is ‘AV,’” he says.
“We wanted to do a pretty simple tweak of our brand to have it more inclusive of a much wider technological platform.”
