Trends in the Government Market.

IT and AV spending will grow to $97.6 billion by fiscal year 2013

According to a research report conducted on behalf of InfoComm International, the U.S. federal government alone reached $70 billion in 2009 with a prediction that IT and AV spending will grow to $97.6 billion by fiscal year 2013. Based on this research, the slow but steady increase in funding opens the doors for audiovisual technology to make a greater impact on the health of our nation.

InfoComm International reports that advanced AV technology has long been used to aid governments with homeland security, surveillance, air and motor traffic monitoring, as well as with military applications. Government agencies also rely on both broadcast and production technologies for communications.

But what are some of the newest trends in the government AV market?

“Conferencing and collaboration along with digital signage are the major trends this year,” said Alan Brawn, principal of Brawn Consulting. “It’s all about giving government agencies, branches and units the ability to more easily interface with one another in real-time to conduct meetings and enhance workflow. Digital signage is needed to schedule times for the dissemination of information, to distribute information/materials and to train personnel in diverse locations.”

“Video teleconferencing systems and NOC initiatives have become very visible business opportunities along with 3D implementation,” noted Tony Barton, senior director of sales, Christie Digital.

“In projection, we are seeing a shift to widescreen from 4:3 in government customers,” added Steve Schafer, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “In the monitor space, we are seeing government customers recognize the advantage of going with commercial grade large format monitors rather than consumer grade units.”

How is the industry addressing these trends?

 “It is understood that AV and IT have converged, and as a result, we are increasingly taking advantage of expanded paths of communication, collaboration, network operability and portability,” said Brawn. “The AV industry is responding with network-capable displays, projectors that allow numerous computers to connect wirelessly, touch screen displays and interactive white boards of all types, not to mention pico projectors and ultraportable displays that can easily be moved to turn an empty space into a multimedia-capable environment.”

"The ‘pot of gold’ in government sales is using the technologies and services that we already know and have to meet government needs.”

Brawn added, “Once we understand what our government customers’ needs are, we can then custom tailor the solutions to effectively address those explicit requirements. We have a great number of technology solutions at our disposal and the ‘pot of gold’ in government sales is using the technologies and services that we already know and have to meet government needs.”

Today’s leading product manufacturers are going to great lengths to make their products more government-ready and assessable to this market.

“We offer a standard five percent discount to government customers on all projectors and monitors,” said Schafer. “In addition, we offer a bid registration to those resellers who engage Mitsubishi in their deals. Our trade-compliant product line makes our inclusion on contracts that require TAA-compliance a simple proposition.”  He added that offering a large number of widescreen trade-compliant projectors helps Mitsubishi compete very well in the federal market.

“We are marketing directly to government entities via advertising, local shows and product events using technical-oriented approaches,” added Barton.

In addition to their own efforts, most major product manufacturers now work in lock-step with value-added distributors to make certain that they are touching the government market in most efficient way possible.

“Working with a value-added distributor such as Almo allows us to reach a much larger group of integrators than we could reach on our own,” said Mitsubishi’s Schafer. “Almo's expertise in recommending full solutions ensures that integrators are getting their answers quickly and correctly.”
                 
Christie’s Barton concludes, “Distributors – such as Almo – allow Christie to reach decision makers in the government sector that otherwise would not be engaged with Christie technologies and solutions.”