No matter your industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated headlines. So it is for transportation, with perhaps even an exclamation point. The pandemic has ground travel down to a minimum as restrictions were put in place, worldwide events were cancelled, and companies shifted to remote work and collaboration. Airports are overhauling their health and safety measures in order to responsibly resume travel, and professional audiovisual (pro AV) technology will have a vital role to play. In fact, AVIXA (the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association) forecasts the transportation industry will spend $12.9 billion on pro AV solutions in 2021 and increase to $17.2 billion in 2025.
As in the period after 9/11, transportation hubs are now looking to update their facilities to assure the health and safety of passengers. In the pro AV industry, this is broadly categorized as security, surveillance, and life safety solutions, which include cameras and other monitoring technology used in a more traditional security sense. Capabilities for monitoring passenger temperature or assist with symptom capture are a part of this as well. Additional communication vehicles will be needed to convey safety guidelines and directives to travelers. In other words, digital signage, which was already an area of increased investment in airports and other hubs, now has taken on additional importance.
Two-way interaction in signage is also proliferating in this new environment, as it becomes possible to capture some traveler information and data even as information is communicated out. Examples may be infrared scanning for temperature in monitoring stations, traffic flow, or display usage data, thereby blurring the line between a true signage or security project. Regardless, the resulting data from these multi-purpose devices must flow somewhere for analysis, thereby fueling another pro AV solution area, the control room. As data proliferates, the control rooms throughout a travel facility used for security and safety must evolve to aggregate, analyze, and display the data as needed to serve the tasks at hand.
Behind these solutions is an array of technologies that also reflect trends happening within the transportation industry. While displays would intuitively be a technology component for a digital signage or control room system to provide the visual element, more and more investment is flowing into the back-end infrastructure used for distributing data and content around a facility. These are the streaming media, storage, and distribution components that represent $3.5 billion of the 2021 spending on AV products and services in the transportation market. Control systems, or the mechanisms for controlling lighting and environmental systems, are a related area adding another $2 billion.
At AVIXA we are interested to see where the intersection of traveler needs, safety protocols, hub logistics, and technology advances takes us as we emerge from the challenging period that was and is the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, so much more is possible today within that intersection, allowing for quicker adaptation and a return to more normal business as a desired destination for us all.
Throughout his 20 years in the technology research sector, Sean Wargo has made a career of maximizing research in a variety of roles, including leading a primary research business, centralizing a business intelligence practice, building an industry analysis department, performing advanced statistical analysis, as well as speaking and writing about research findings. Previous to his role at AVIXA as the Sr. Director of Market Intelligence, Wargo previously served as the VP of Research for BDS Marketing, Inc., President of his own research consultancy, and Director of Industry Analysis at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
