Absolute AV accelerates Calibre

“We’re delighted with the progress that Absolute AV have made over the past few months,” said Willy Tsai, Managing Director of Calibre UK. “We knew that, with their core business and expertise in delivering great images, they would be an excellent fit for us – and that’s how it is turning out. Our solutions for image processing, together with our range of displays are highly complementary to their approach to the market. Their existing connections with major businesses throughout the territory – in banking and retail, for example – through their long-term relationship with Panasonic have proved hugely beneficial, as we hoped they would. We look forward to a long and mutually fruitful working relationship.”

With existing customers including household name companies such as List Sotheby’s International Realty, Bayer, Lenovo, Grand Hyatt and Sumitomo, Absolute AV’s focus is on digital signage, videoconferencing, control systems and other professional audio-visual applications.

“Our relationship with Calibre – a highly respected name in the industry, with enormous expertise in scaling/switching – is already providing us with opportunities we would not previously have been able to address,” said Absolute AV’s Harry Tan. “Our business has always been about delivering complete solutions, not just products, and having access to Calibre’s range strengthens our ability to do that. Even better: the unique AiO display is taking us into new markets, such as hospitality and FinTech.  We’re delighted with what Calibre is helping us achieve.”

Entertainment Technology Asia – Five questions

Expand your reality!  5 Questions for Absolute AV: Harry Tan, business owner at specialist integrator Absolute AV shares his thoughts on the current market and its huge potential.

Can you describe your job role and describe the business climate in Singapore.  What are the challenges and opportunities?

As a business owner and together with our dynamic core team, we are always looking to open up new growth areas. We put together creative solutions encompassing visual display products including those from Calibre UK and more.

The growth of the Singapore economy is not expected to be strong amidst a poor global outlook, however there are still pockets of growth in sectors like public security, houses of worship, medical industry and especially education.

Singapore is a preferred location for multinational corporations to open their offices.  We see corporate spending to renew infrastructure with the latest in audio-visual solutions.  With an environment of heightened security consciousness, there is also a need to invest in top quality visual systems for command and control rooms.

How is Singapore different from Asia and the rest of the world?

The government tends to initiate advanced economic activities in Singapore.  For instance, the Smart Nation Initiative is a “whole of nation” exercise that is aimed at harnessing technology to stay ahead as a global city and improve the lives and livelihoods of its inhabitants. It is backed up by sufficient funds to carry it through the next stage - not many other countries in the world can match this.

Absolute AV is an audiovisual solutions provider so they we can ride on this wave of opportunity and offer creative and interactive display solutions for areas like mobility, healthcare and government services.

What challenges and excites you about the AV industry?

There are specific challenges for the AV industry, which is going through a disruption phase. This means that traditional AV products must be inter-operable.  Internal Protocol (IP) based products are the way forward.  Traditional AV manpower will be less in demand unless people are willing to be get some training in IT and network systems.

With the convergence of traditional AV and the network, we are in a new and exciting phase and those who embrace this can look forward to using new technologies. For example, big data, facial recognition and IoT can help to create an exciting audio and visual experience for the users and customers. How technology is used is not limited to the retail sector (smart retail shops), food & beverage industry (smart restaurants).

What new technologies excite and inspire you creatively?

Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G, Mixed Reality (MR), IoT, facial recognition technologies are constantly advancing.

These technologies allow the solution providers to create interesting solutions for customers to “experiment and experience” and sell more into the retail space. Visitors will repeatedly return to spend more in restaurants and in entertainment. At the same time, enabling technologies help surveillance and security specialists to pinpoint any trouble spots early and accurately from their control rooms so the possibilities for systems are endless.

What can the rest of the world learn from the Singapore market?

On top of the unique marketplace, one thing is certain is that all of us need to embrace new technologies and invest our time and resources ahead of the curve, whether it be learning about new markets or investing in training and in finding new solutions.

If we do this, then we can ride the wave of disruption and benefit from the new business generated.