AV Goes with IT – The Requirements of Customers Should Not Be Underestimated

Digitization and the corresponding tools and technologies are now fundamental to achieving corporate goals. A high-performance AV infrastructure of StriveAV is also an important component, through the use of which processes and workflows can be designed more efficiently. In order to be able to meet the increased requirements of companies, the expert for AV signal distribution ZeeVee and the Swiss AV integrator and specialist planner Kilchenmann AG are entering into a strategic “AV over IP” partnership.

In the following interview, Jan-Arne Rosenstein, Sales Representative DACH at ZeeVee, and Rolf Aegerter, Head of Concepts at Kilchenmann AG, give PROFESSIONAL SYSTEM an insight into their reasons for – and their expectations – this partnership and give an outlook on its development.

As an AV integrator and specialist planner, how do you see the future development of the AV industry at Kilchenmann AG?

Rolf Aegerter: For some years now, professional AV technology has been moving more and more from facility management towards IT. Not only AV over IP has massively accelerated this trend, but also the customer requirements, which today expect end-2-end solutions, not only in relation to AV technology. The AV system integrator doesn’t just start when you plug in the connection cable. Much more, systems are required today that not only serve visualization, i.e. audio visual system integrator, but also demand, promote and facilitate cooperation.

This realization goes hand in hand with increased requirements on the part of the company. Media technology must ensure that customers can work faster, more effectively, more agile and more collaboratively. Or it has to enable customers to generate new business. It already represents a productivity factor today. Here, media technology is clearly given a business perspective – AV goes IT.

Why did Kilchenmann AG and ZeeVee decide to enter into a strategic partnership for AV over IP?

Rolf Aegerter: Kilchenmann AG is seen as a competent, product-neutral and sustainable partner. In our “AV over IP” evaluation process, our team benchmarked various providers on the basis of different criteria. In the end, the team as well as our management unanimously decided in favor of ZeeVee.

We are supplementing our existing “AV over IP” portfolio with a product from the SDVoE Alliance. According to our tests, ZeeVee is not just any product – we were impressed by the breadth of the product segment, which can be managed with just one management platform.

With ZeeVee we are able to offer our customers tailor-made solutions that are perfectly tailored to their needs. Our aim is to continue to offer our customers the added value that is crucial for their business in the future and to help them become even more successful

Jan-Arne Rosenstein adds: We are delighted that we have been able to win Kilchenmann AG as another strategic partner. For us, the cooperation is a further confirmation that our technology and our overall package are precisely tailored to future requirements.

What are your experiences from previous projects?

Jan-Arne Rosenstein: ZeeVee has written a success story with countless projects around the world. It is important to understand that “AV over IP” projects require a holistic view of the customer and their company-wide requirements, workflows and processes with regard to AV & UC.

Rolf Aegerter continues: The users are increasingly convinced that any technology that is integrated in the company network belongs in the hands of the IT managers.

Excerpt from the ZyPer Management Platform, in which the sources and sinks can be seen with preview images of the applied video signals and can be interconnected like a classic video matrix.

The requirements, structures and processes of professional AV are thus based on the proven processes and standards of IT services. The supportive interaction between work platforms (PCs, software, etc.) and AV technology is of much greater importance today.

What are your expectations in your projects?

Rolf Aegerter: Flexibility or interoperability, manageability and the reduction of operating costs are in the foreground – classic infrastructure topics as we know them from IT.

Just like IT products, media technology products must be centrally manageable and controllable. They must be usable and scalable in an IT environment. Internationally active companies in particular need products that can be rolled out worldwide. That means they have to comply with the rules of IT. Customers want simple, scalable and maintainable environments that enable their sometimes very complex technology to be monitored around the clock and provide evaluable information. Today, AV technology should be an integral part of an IT network and no longer an island.

Jan-Arne Rosenstein adds: Standardization with the aim of a common AV & IT infrastructure “convergence” is the big keyword here.

Which key factors should companies pay attention to when choosing “AV over IP” solutions?

Rolf Aegerter: The infrastructure is decisive in determining whether the company will achieve the goals set and whether there is still room for improvement for later requirements. It is crucial that the most diverse corporate requirements can be mapped with it. Therefore, choosing the right platform comes first.

Jan Rosenstein continues: ZeeVee offers an open management platform which, depending on the requirements of the application, makes various AV codecs available in parallel in a network. Currently, we support JPEG2000, H264, and the open standard SDVoE for complete interoperability, and also Dante for audio video system integrators.

This is necessary for companies today and in the future from a technological point of view, since not one codec alone is suitable for all requirements and, ultimately, economic considerations also play a role. In addition, an open platform provides the best protection against investment.

Rolf Aegerter adds: The simultaneous support of different codecs and the operation in mixed networks is one of the key factors. In later operation, the companies benefit from the greatest possible flexibility, an exact mapping of the requirements, and in each case with the best cost-benefit ratio.

Another key factor is the effective manageability as well as the smooth and safe operation of the infrastructure. Simple and unlimited scalability, redundancy, company-wide administration, encryption, ITIL process management, status reports via SNMP, AV system integration, rights management, inventory, auto discover plug & play functionality at sources and sinks, no proprietary programming, excellent usability. and much more