When we look at the state of vertical markets based on the 2018 Integration Business Outlook study, conducted annually by Commercial Integrator and NSCA, the obvious good news is that pretty much every market in pro AV points upward.
The even better news, however, is that the vertical markets pointing up most dramatically are the industry’s largest ones, according to NSCA executive director Chuck Wilson.
Over two-thirds, 67 percent, of surveyed integrators say their corporate market business was up in 2017; 44 percent say their education market revenues were up in 2017. A minuscule 5 percent say their corporate market business was down in 2017.
In terms of expectations for 2018, 81 percent of integrators expect their corporate market business to grow; 70 percent expect their education market business to climb. Only 2 percent expect their corporate market business to diminish.
“The biggest markets are up,” Wilson says.
“Corporate AV really took a positive turn a couple of years ago with technology leading the way. We were getting kind of flat in the corporate world with a lot of people bidding on the same stuff with customers, but as soon as the more affordable solutions came out with video conferencing and UCC and new products that were more affordable for the clients, all of a sudden corporate pro AV became a very exciting market again.”
Beyond corporate and education, there are no real duds in this data. Healthcare was actually up more than education in 2017, with 46 percent reporting growth. Hotels and casinos was up for 42 percent of respondents.
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The least prolific growth market for integrators in 2017 was transportation, which is also the market that the least number of respondents consider themselves to be active in; 28 percent of respondents say their transportation business grew in 2017.
Government had the largest percentage of respondents that indicate that business was down in 2017 with 21 percent.
