Aurora Multimedia has been increasing its focus on the Asia Pacific region. It entered the market in 2014, and established presence in Korea and India in 2016. In early 2019, it announced a distribution partnership with Mindstec which expanded Aurora Multimedia’s reach to include China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia. To further reiterate its commitment to the region, Aurora Multimedia Ignite was held in Singapore.
The event was led by Paul Harris, CEO of Aurora Multimedia, and the main topic of conversation was AV over IP for which Aurora Multimedia provides a range of products.
According to Harris, the switch from traditional AV to IP is something that is being necessitated by the limitations of the former. Card cage matrixes offer few expansion options and are based on proprietary technology. The move to IP effectively alleviates both these problems.
However, the shift to video over IP does not need a complete overhaul for AV professionals. Harris said: “We should treat the network switch just like we did the AV matrix. At the end of the day it is just a device with ports, forget everything else. It is just a more expandable, flexible matrix. It doesn’t always have to be connected to a network. It is just the glue that holds modern AV systems together.”
Regarding the current state of the AV industry with regards to AV over IP, Harris believes that we are currently in the fight for establishing standard and the resolution might be three to five years away. In the meantime, he believes competing technologies and marketing messages will continue to battle it out in the market.
This stance on the state of the industry also informs Aurora Multimedia’s approach to AV over IP. Harris said: “Our position is to not take sides. We want to sit in the middle and make a product that can work with and integrate with all the technologies in the market. The industry will decide which technology wins based on what is being demanded. But if we decide to make these decisions ourselves, then we are not truly serving our clients.”