Immersive experiences within the leisure industry have been gathering momentum and popularity. We install AV equipment in venues and buildings across the UK, but even our local bars and restaurants appear to be buying into experience-led leisure. We recently fitted out Hackers bar in Billericay with an extensive video system to support its mini golf, escape rooms and restaurant – including multiple high-definition TV screens. We are seeing a lot more of these types of venues pop up and I believe there will be more in 2024. The other side of the immersive experience is the offering of extended reality including VR, AR and MR (mixed reality). These technologies can be used for virtual product demonstrations and augmented operational dashboards.
I believe AI will be crucial in tailoring AV content and interactions. We support many schools and religious settings with their audio-visual system installation and those systems are already leaning towards using AI for specific user needs and preferences. Certainly, within schools, we are already seeing this in adaptive learning, with AV technology being built to support things like interactive simulation which can reinforce a student’s understanding and skills. I believe we will see more AV systems needed to support personalised content too. AI will provide AV tools so that we can analyse student data and learning and teachers will be able to base their content to the individual’s needs.
We should expect to see a shift towards and a real focus on energy-efficient and environmentally friendly AV technologies. The world as a whole is committed to the environment and we will see this in the AV industry with a change in the materials we use, a look at our manufacturing processes and the carbon footprint of moving AV technology around. I believe this will evolve rapidly although to what degree of success we shall see. I believe more will be done to look at the end of life of some of our AV systems. Where do they go and how can they be recycled?
Finally, I think we will see more Cloud-based AV Services, so Cloud integration into AV solutions. For our customers and clients, this provides flexibility, scalability, and accessibility, supporting remote access to AV content and resources. We will see this in the form of streaming services using the cloud more which AV will need to support. This will mean that our AV equipment will be able to store more data and allow for a more creative approach to audio-visual creation.
There will undoubtedly be other innovations in the AV industry this year. However, those are the key areas I think we will see the most change within the industry. There isn’t yet a clear route through with any of the above but work is being done and change happens quickly. With the world changing so quickly when it comes to technology and AI, I foresee big changes in our industry in 2024.
