Biamp urges audio channel to partner with IT firms

Biamp Systems has stepped up its campaign to recruit IT firms as it predicts significant changes in professional audio market.
“In the next two years, I guess I will be either working for or against Cisco,” says Graeme Harrison, VP for international sales at Biamp, who firmly believes the market for professional audio equipment is ripe for acquisition following the networking giants purchase of Tandberg last year.
Biamp products are primarily used in conference centres, performing arts, courtrooms, educational facilities and leisure venues and the firm claims a 70 percent market share within its core markets.
Channel Drive
As part of its channel drive, the firm has revamped its training and education programme ahead of the new EN 54 standard which will come into force on April 1. EN 54 is a European Union law for fire detection and alarm systems with sections 16 and 24 offering relevance to the audio industry around voice alarm control and indicating equipment (VACIE) and loudspeakers. This European standard is an EU regulation and therefore mandatory in each member state without the necessity of being adopted as a national standard.
Larger projects where specialist audio installation engineers are needed to fit out conference rooms or to meet EN 54 compliance have been overlooked by IT firms. Harrison believes that these larger IT infrastructure suppliers are converting the 30 to 40 percent margins offered by audio equipment installation, especially as its own and rival products mostly use standard CAT-5 cabling and IP based systems.
Although Biamp has traditionally sold through specialist audio experts, the firm has seen a shift in its channel over the last few years. Today,Harrison sees an increased cross-over and merger of IT and AV functions due to the handling of microphones, speakers, video and acoustics on the network for teleconferencing and video conferencing systems.
“Some of our partners who don’t embrace IP will simply not be around in a few years,” cautions Harrison. He feels that this year will see a lot of its existing channel of around 200 UK partners start to either adopt a broader IT infrastructure remit or partner with existing IT firms who lack expertise around professional audio.
IT partners
“IT partners tend to want a set of process to install audio,” explains Harrison. “But there is a bit of art to balancing a room and that is not a skill you can learn overnight.” In his view, the prevalence of unified communications and teleconferencing is a growing the market and the firm already supplies to Avaya, Polycom and Cisco partners who install conferencing suites.
Biamp has seen 30 percent year on year growth even during the economic downturn. “At the moment, we are seeing a lot of growth in the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and our channel, especially in these markets, is growing fast.”
Although the firm only distributes through Polar Audio in the UK, Harrison hinted that it may well look at expanding its distribution channel or “seek additional routes” to market over the next year.