This article first appeared in UC Advanced magazine issue#21.
As the worlds of audiovisual and UC draw ever closer, UC Advanced asked Mark Glasspool, senior director, UK and Ireland, and Nick Stancliffe, collaboration and UC lead at TD SYNNEX Maverick, to share their insights and views on the current state of play in the sectors, and where it’s all heading?
Q AV and UC – converging or keeping their distance?
Nick: We’re seeing a growing number of companies reassess their hybrid working strategies, focusing on how to strike the right balance between productivity and remote work. Increasingly, the emphasis is shifting toward encouraging greater office attendance. As a result, there’s a stronger focus on deploying the right AV and UC technologies, which are widely recognised as key enablers from a user experience perspective. And it’s not just about the meeting room. Digital signage is also being used throughout the workplace to help reinforce culture and foster a sense of connection.
Mark: UC and collaboration are not yet in one place, but there is a continued convergence and that’s primarily being driven by platforms, which have evolved dramatically over the last three or four years and have now become all-encompassing. If you are serious about collaboration today, you need to start getting serious about UC and vice-versa.
Q What’s driving them together?
Nick: It’s about being able to provide the right kind of experience for the context. The environment needs to be set up so that they can have ideation-style brainstorming meetings with a collaboration touch device, or for more formalised meetings in a larger boardroom, or ad-hoc meetings in a small huddle space. It is about designing the solution and the environment to suit the different needs of the users.
Mark: And what you want is for the telephony, call routing, chat, and that ideation and interaction to happen on a single platform – or for all the different solutions and platforms you want to use to work seamlessly together. That’s when it becomes a really good user experience.
Q Will we see integration between vendors?
Mark: We’re already offering a variety of bundled offerings because we see the need for that. People are looking at what their meeting room looks like, what their corporate signage looks like, what the LED wall in reception looks like, and that’s not only about the hardware, it’s about the content and how it all works together. That’s almost always going to involve a combination of products from different vendors.
Q Can the hardware keep pace with software and as-a-service offerings?
Mark: The technology is keeping pace quite well. We’re seeing a lot of advances in different areas now. With centre-of-room cameras, for example, that genuinely support meeting equity. That’s becoming a reality – where everyone gets the same space and visibility.
Q Where are the opportunities coming for MSPs and reseller partners?
Mark: Any ‘box-shifting’ opportunities quickly become a race to the bottom. Most MSPs and solutions partners are looking at their total service and solutions offering, taking an end-to-end approach and providing the service-wrap that goes with the solution. As AV and UC come closer together, we are also seeing more interest in financial, recycling and lifecycle services. Partners with an IT background are more used to offering those kinds of services and for AV partners who are adopting UC, there are opportunities here as well.
Q What’s the future hold for converged AV/UC?
Nick: Increasingly, we are seeing a growing role for AI in managing the entire workday. Tools like Copilot and Google Gemini are enhancing collaboration by supporting tasks such as transcription, note-taking, and action tracking during meetings. Beyond meetings, AI is being integrated into workspace management, helping employees book desks near relevant colleagues and automatically assigning meeting rooms based on attendee needs and agenda requirements.
Mark: It will run all the way through from virtual reception areas with digital sign-ins and digital signage being used for wayfinding, so it starts to become a lot more than collaboration, with the entire experience delivered through the platform. It could then go even further and start scheduling your days and your business trips for you:flights, hotels, transfers, restaurants, everything. That’s when it starts to become really fascinating and a really good opportunity.
We already see call analysis being used in UC to assist customer service, and if you extend that into the rest of your working day, you become instantly more efficient and effective and that will make your in-office or remote experience the best it can possibly be.
Q How does the market look two years down the line?
Mark: Being able to offer the full solution will be where partners need to focus. I think there will be consolidation in the market, with larger IT resellers and AV integrators making acquisitions. AV/UC is going to become more important to our everyday working lives. The AV won’t be unrecognisable within that, but it will increasingly be part of the whole solution.
