“Times Come and Times Go, It’s the Determination, Passion and Integrity Which Decide the Better Tomorrow.”
- by Nitin Joshi
Nitin Joshi - General Manager - Indian Sub Continent, Maxhub India
These are very disruptive times, has Team, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp turned the VC market upside down?
Well, they haven’t turned the VC market upside down, in fact, they have opened up the VC market from the software prevue. For eg. Earlier the same software existed, but they were not accepted or utilized in such a large way, like they have been in the past 6-8 months now, because of the disruptive times, i.e. the Noble Covid-19 every one was restricted by mobility and had no access to the hardware base VC Solution and have adopted to the VC solutions over internet. Like they have started opting for Zoom, or Skype or similar format Software Based VC solutions. In fact, we have observed a new set of users for the software based VC market, i.e. the educators. A sudden spike was observed in the adaptation of the Software Based VC solutions by Educators/Teachers of the competitive exams and the Educational Institutes. These disruptive times have led to an entire new segment of users into the VC Market. Seeing this kind of disruption, the enterprise solutions from Maxhub, is agnostic to any software like Zoom, Team, Skype etc. these software can be installed in our enterprise hardware which is shipped with a built in computer, a microphone line array, speaker and camera. You can utilize it as a complete solution for all your Unified Communication needs. This has made it a complete out of the box solution eradicating the need of separate hardware like earlier times.
The Interactive Panel market for the Educational sector has observed a tremendous growth across the globe, which Maxhub technology feature leveraged this growth.
Maxhub/CVTE has been in the Interactive Panel since the early 2008, it has been more than a decade and is known for its Interactive Flat Panel Touch Technology (IFPT). CVTE can be rightly called to be the torch bearer of the interactive panel as we have been a part of the journey right from Interactive White Board Technology to Interactive Flat Panel technology today. As AV-ICN Magazine rightly pointed out, Educational sector has observed a tremendous growth in the last few years. With the continuous research by the Maxhub Team, we understand the need of the educators and their expectations from the Interactive Panels. Our Educational series of panels come with an in-built Intel based Chipset computer. Maxhub, is not only a hardware manufacturer, but we also have our own Educational Suite Software, which has enabled the Educators/Professors in their teaching aid. Maxhub provides a complete Eco-system for education which has helped us leverage the growth in the Educational Sector. Ruggedness of the Panels, dual-pen technology, overall writing experience, built quality etc are some of the key features helping us gain the forefront position in the Educational Sector.
How do you define the Indian AV market in the next 12 months.
As an Indian AV industry person, and with the occurrence of the Pandemic, the Indian AV market has observed its first slowdown ever since its inception in the country. But, with the break in the daily business routine, OEM’s have taken it in optimism to bring out new technology that caters to the need of the hour today and at the same time is future ready for all possible uncertainties. The market is going to adapt to the changes that the end users and decision makers have made in their technological needs. The AV Market is going to be defined by more of Unified Communication products, more of Unified Collaboration Solutions, more of Software Based video Conferencing Solutions, more of portable conferencing solutions, etc. The Key factor that will help an organization make its mark is by providing solutions that are “Mobile”. As we know and are aware, that the traditional conference rooms are out, and WFH is the new normal, Mobile solutions is where the AV Market will trend too. We can, with a conscious mind claim to see robust growth in the Indian AV Market with all the new technological changes and new product offerings coming from all OEM’s.
What’s the focus for Maxhub in 2021.
With the changes that we have observed in the past few months, our major emphasis are on two broad segments of the Indian AV Market. One being the Interactive Flat Panel market for both, Educational sector as well as the Corporate sector. Two, the VC or the Unified communication Market. We also have our range of wireless presentation solutions for meeting and conference rooms which has been very well accepted by the market and we are keen on penetrating deeper on these fronts. To summarize it, we will have our focus mainly into Interactive Teaching Technology products which will be more user friendly and easy to adopt in the Education Sector and at the same time, we will bring in more collaborative solutions to ease way of doing business for our end users.
Are there any new Products launching for the Indian Market in the coming Quarter?
We do have some Product Launches planned for the Indian as well as the Global AV Market, we have some state-of-art technological products lined up, we shall inform and cover the same in the AV-ICN Magazine going forward.
How Teacher friendly are the Interactive Panels from Maxhub, and how future ready are they?
As I mentioned before, Maxhub is focused on delivering a complete out of the box solution for the Educators and not only the Hardware of interactive panels. The Interactive Panels of the education series are easy to use, easy to adapt and as the teachers are Subject Matter Expert/s (SME) they like that they do not have to go through extensive training for using the Interactive Panels. The intuitive writing is a feature that all educators have loved and has become the talk of the town. Also, the Education Suite provides a complete Education Eco-system which has made the Panel widely accepted by the Educators and the Educational Institutes. We have recently launched our new Educational Series Interactive panel where we have upgraded the Intel Chip based processor, along with Android enabled feature, with a 4K LED display, Toughened glass, multi-touch lighting, Dual-Pen, Gesture controls, easy to write infinite pages etc, which makes our new E-Series of interactive Panel not only teacher friendly but also future ready. As you are now aware, that Maxhub is not only a hardware provider but also provides the softwares, we can with time update and upgrade our Interactive Panels once installed with the advancements and needs of the Educators. As the technology is relevantly new for the educators, we not only ship the product, but also ensure that a complete training is provided to the Educators either directly from our end, or from our distributors end.
What is the challenge in interactive panel design in this new era of online VC?
The main challenge in the online VC era has been touched by us in the first Question. Now what has further more happened is that with the traditional Black Box slowly taking a back-step, as coding and decoding through a codec box is no longer the technology of today, everything is through a software in a computer. To tackle this Unified Communication Solution, and merge it along with our Interactive Flat Panel, we have our Enterprise Series. There are two models if we have to talk in terms of design. The Standard Series which has one in-built camera and the Ultimate Series with 3 built-in camera’s both being all-in-one solution Panels. The Panels are built in with a High Definition wide angle Camera, Microphone array system which covers up to 10 Meters of distance, built in speakers and a Intel Based Compute System to run any Video conferencing Software. With all these features loaded in one panel, all you need is an internet connection for all Unified Communication Calls. While designing the Panel for the Enterprise Sector, we also have to keep in mind that it should look presentable and a sleek design that enhances the overall look and feel of the conference rooms and big corporate houses. Therefore, we provide all of these as a built in feature and not as integrated features with our Enterprise series of Interactive Panels.
Please tell us about your Unified Communication products.
We have a couple of products in our Unified Communication product line, but let me speak about the UC Bar from Maxhub. With the sudden change in the way of doing business, we were discussing how do we tackle the challenges that will now be faced with the New Normal of WFH. That is when we came out with our UC Bar. The UC Bar is an all-in one Unified Communication Product and is a “easy to connect, plug-n-play” solution. The UC Bar has industry’s best HD wide angle camera, which can cover not only a single person, a group of 4 people but a room as big as 16 people. Having an in-built Microphone array system covering a range of 8 to 10 meters, a speaker and an Android PC. The UC Bar which is enabled with the Android PC is now only a display away for all your Unified Communication Calls. We have received a very good response from our end users as well as our channel partners all across the country for the All-in-one UC Bar.
Is Maxhub planning to expand its reach in India through more distributors? Are there any Experience centers made or in the making across the country?
At Maxhub, we follow a distribution module, and YES, we are open and wiling to expand our reach all across the country. Apart from our distributors, the Maxhub India team is spread across the country like Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and North where we are headquartered i.e. Jasola. Apart from this, we also have now expanded further more from Calcutta towards the North-East region. We are present across the country through our Distributors and Channel Partners and are looking for further expansions through distributors in regions we have not yet penetrated. We have one State-of-Art experience center at our headquarters Jasola and one in Mumbai. With the growing support and love from our End-Users and Industry colleagues, we have the Hyderabad, Bangalore and Calcutta Experience Centers in the making, which will soon be available for our end-users and integrators to walk-in for product demo’s.