Each year at AVNation we do an end of the year special. In this year’s episode, we looked at what made 2015 great and things to look forward to in 2016.
Each year one of my predictions has been that Cisco will purchase a control company to add to their stable of technology. This has become somewhat of a running joke.
However, I’m really not kidding. Here’s why.
1. Cisco buys technology more often than they innovate it.
Take the last few purchases Cisco has made. Acano is the most recent acquisition made by the technology company. If you aren’t aware, Acano was created by former Cisco employees who had an idea so they left Cisco. In a circle-of-life turn, Cisco saw the potential once the team had proven themselves, so much so that they decided to add them back to the fold.
In addition you have purchases like Tandberg and Flip. You remember the Flip recorder. It was the greatest little camera that Cisco purchased in 2009 and then shut down. Tandberg, of course, has been rebranded as Cisco telepresence.
2. You are already using a version of their control.
Well, maybe. If you have ever installed or used a Cisco room that includes their touch screen controller you are using Cisco control. You control the codec as well as the cameras. It would take little effort to include IR, 232, and I/O ports on the back of a Cisco codec and give you the ability to pick from a drop down menu what you wanted each control port to do.
Related: What Apple-Cisco Deal Means for Enterprise Integration
From a financial standpoint it would make more sense for Cisco to purchase a company and integrate the drivers into their existing infrastructure.
3. It is the next logical step.
This company that most of us first learned of as a server manufacturer has slowly ingrained themselves into the AV space. They have done this a couple of different ways. The first was purchasing Tandberg and making them more IT-centric. The second was by helping the IT departments make those codecs as ubiquitous as IP-enabled phones. This allows Cisco to be in nearly every space where communication needs to happen.
As the user base gets more used to controlling devices and their environment with their mobile devices CTOs and CIOs will begin asking their Cisco systems to do more. Once this happens the simple Cisco interface that is currently on desktops and boardrooms will need to add environmental and device control. Since a number of these devices are on the network it will be very little trouble for Cisco to add them. For those that aren’t, the company will need to get outside the box and connect via IR, 232, or another form of control.
Yes, I’ve been predicting this for about four years now. Yes, I’ve been wrong every year. However, the time will come when Cisco will control devices from the codec or the cloud and they will enter what the AV industry refers to as control. We’ll just have to see what that looks like when the do.
