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Analysis: Ireland installed AV market survey

It’s a country that is often found in surveys to offer the highest quality of life anywhere in the EU. But does this satisfaction extend to the Irish installed AV market? Our latest survey finds out.

The respondents to our latest survey of national installed AV markets, from Ireland, are a fairly optimistic bunch overall. The majority of them felt that their own company’s financial performance was going to improve this year, and most of the remainder felt that revenues would remain steady, rather than fall. When it came to gauging industry confidence, there was a roughly equal split between those who thought this was stronger than six months ago and those who felt it was the same. A much smaller proportion felt that confidence was falling.

That’s not to say that our respondents are free of cares in the context of their business. The issue causing concern to the greatest number of respondents was ‘clients going for lowest price rather than best value’. One manufacturer commented, sagely: “Buying the cheapest is always a false economy as the time and expense dealing with the inevitable fault will invariably cost more than the initial saving.” An integrator said: “Price is still a big concern on many projects and most of the time it’s a race to the bottom, leaving little or no margin. Sometimes it’s better to walk away – you can be a busy fool if you’re not careful.”

When we asked our respondents to predict growth trends across various sectors, a pattern emerged that was broadly similar to that in other surveys: digital signage and corporate led the field; unusually, though, performing arts venues were in last place – which is a counterintuitive finding for a country with the rich artistic heritage of Ireland.

Turning now to the size of the market, the majority thought that the number of companies active in the Irish installed AV market was static. One respondent remarked that there seemed to be a few smaller companies entering the market.

We also asked our respondents about what they would like to change about their country’s installation market, if they could. We received a mixed bag of comments here. One integrator would like there to be a more regulated industry, because currently “anyone can get into it.” (The same respondent noted elsewhere that confusion over AV technology in the market is very common.) Other respondents cited tendering processes and enforcement of standards as areas where they would like to see some improvement.