[related]Clint Hoffman is excited for InfoComm 2018 – and not just because it’s his first as CEO of Kramer USA. He’s excited about the commercial integration market evolving from the old days of solving everything with black boxes to the future of more platform-based solutions.
During InfoComm 2018, Kramer USA is demonstrating that evolution, he says, in an interview with Commercial Integrator (above). Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On the AV Market’s Slow, Steady Evolution:
For a long time we’ve heard over and over again of the merger between AV and IT and for many years it meant many things … Well it’s actually happening now and it’s going to continue to happen at a much greater pace going forward. Our customers now are largely people that are in IT departments, so our whole product roadmap and our whole philosophy as a company is tied to that.
A couple of years ago we introduced the tagline “AV Beyond the Box” because we’ve always been historically a company that sold very excellent black boxes that solved people’s problems. Well now we’re a company that has to provide solutions and those solutions more and more are software based. If you look at the things that we’ve done in the past couple of years:
- VIA – It’s in a box but it’s a software for wireless presentation and collaboration
- Kramer Control – [It’s a software solution
- Kramer Network – [It’s] an enterprise management solution for pro AV
It’s all those things that we’re doing and are in our product road map.
On Where Kramer Is Heading:
We’re evolving to where we’re an industry that’s going to provide a platform solution instead of a box solution. And that’s where Kramer is heading. That person or company that provides the best platform solutions that do everything in one package is going to be the most successful in the future.
When you come to our booth you’ll see the evolution. [For instance] we’ll have Kramer Control embedded in a VIA device so now I’ve got two things in one solution.
Ultimately the goal is to have the enterprise management, the wireless presentation, collaboration, the signal distribution and the control all in one platform. And we’re moving in that direction and that’s what you’ll see in our booth.
Visit Kramer at InfoComm 2018, booth C2919.
