Interview: Nacho Perez, VGI Malaysia

• Features

• 27/04/2021

Covid-19 has severely impacted the AV industry. While data shows decline across the board, the various sectors where the professional AV industry works experienced differing degrees of downturn. The transport sector in particular showed a decline of approximately 3% in 2020 according to AVIXA’s research.

Sectors are also expected to rebound at differing paces and interestingly AVIXA’s research further shows that the transportation vertical stands out for the pace of its recovery, with a 13.6% rise in APAC revenue expected in 2021. AVIXA states that the long-term outlook for the transportation industry is positive and there is expectation of investment in technologies to accommodate future outbreaks and emergencies.

VGI is a Thai company and its business is focused on the transport vertical in the Southeast Asian region. VGI Malaysia was started three years ago in 2018 and began work on Kuala Lumpur International Airport [KLIA]. To date it has installed and operated a range of different screens and displays with the most recent project at KLIA being completed in March 2020 before the disruption caused by Covid-19 hit.

As chief digital officer at VGI Malaysia, Nacho Perez is well placed to comment on the developments he is seeing in the transport sector. He says: “There is definitely an appetite for anything related to digital installations in the transport sector from areas such as airports to MRT lines. But the current situation is very difficult to predict. There has been significant disruption to our operations. And of course, it is difficult to predict how the market will continue to evolve.”

Being involved with the most recent developments and deployments when it comes to airports, Perez has a deep understanding of the technology and systems required. He believes that the solutions to help the transport sector to go ‘digital’ are already available. But they far outstrip the needs of the users. He elaborates: “The technology that is available is far better and more advanced than what we need. Do we really need 4K screens everywhere? This is a conversation that we have with the manufacturers. A 4K screen is only required when the viewing distance is very close. But if you are watching the TV from five metres away, it doesn’t make any difference whether your resolution is full HD, 4K or 8K. So, for the screens in the airport where the viewing distance is not close we do not need higher resolutions. And on top of that, it is more difficult to get content for higher resolution screens, you need higher bandwidth, you need a more powerful media player and everything is more expensive.”

He continues: “The same goes for LED. For example, the most common pixel pitch we have used at KLIA is 4mm. We could as easily have used a 1mm pixel pitch tile, but no one would be able to see the difference and it would have cost us ten times more. When it comes to technology, you have to pick the one that is good, delivers and meets the needs of the client. If you are looking at a large, outdoor LED screen there is no need, in most cases, to go below 10mm pixel pitch. If you do, you end up paying for something that makes no difference.”

However, even though the pace of technological advancements might have outstripped the requirements of the transport sector, that does not mean that there is no room to evolve. Perez identifies content in particular as an area where improvements can be made.

He starts the discussion around communicating the importance of content tailored for the display to clients. Perez details: “When it comes to clients that want to advertise in airport spaces, these clients have premium brands, and they can be quite picky. There are a lot of issues on the creative side and making sure that content aligns with their corporate identity. Some of them have strict guidelines and not a single aspect of their branding or visual identity can be altered or changed. VGI has a full team of designers and we do try and educate the market because when you are displaying content on a digital display you have to have some room to adapt the content to the canvas. It is really a matter of educating the clients properly and finding a middle ground where their branding can be retained but also made to be the best it can be for the display we are using. At the end of the day, we need to show the clients the value that they can get, and this means that sometimes we need to go into detail regarding every location and every display that we operate, but this level of detail is what separates us from a simple ‘creative agency’.”

Perez also believes that the content itself needs to be given more thought: “The right content is extremely important because it is more impactful, it is more interesting for the passengers who are the viewers of this content. And I personally believe that there is a lot more that can be done with the content that is displayed in airports and public transport. We are very good at creating marketing messages to drive sales and communicate with passengers. But we have to explore the area of ‘experiential content’, things like geometrical patterns, nature scenes and content in that vein.”

He continues: “The end game for screens is not just to be there for advertising or just for communication, but to become a part of the environment and to beautify it. If you have an environment that provides an experience versus another that does not have any screens adding to the experience, you can guess quite easily which one will drive more traffic and hence more sales. This was a core reason for why our company started, the reason being that we wanted screens to be more dynamic. It’s not just about content for advertising. People in these transport spaces, they can have different feelings and different moods based on the displays and therefore they can be more engaged.”

Perez concludes: “The transport sector and airports are always changing. There are always new terminals being added but unfortunately at the moment the market is quite slow and there is uncertainty. When are we expecting travel to resume and what level of passengers are we expecting? What is the recovery going to be like? There is some optimism but no one can predict how things will unfold.”