Systems Integration Asia – April-May 2018

they are going to compete with our total soluon quality and
proposion.

Not only is there but the channels are also undergoing innovaon. It
both these aspects of business, then the enre ecosystem is rendered
easy- to appreciate, design, build, operate, maintain and drive profits,
besides pleasing the customer. Ten years ago these systems were very
expensive, but today price points are lower, funconalies are higher,
user interfaces are easier making a common user experience as a key
driver. ClearOne drove this trend and connues to do so in the Pro AV
market.

SI Asia: These are the days AV over IP/IT and even AV over fiber.
What's ClearOne's (s)take?

ZEE: I said earlier, ClearOne is one of the earliest adopters of AV over
IP, and we, in fact, have the US trademark AVoIP®, when we
introduced in 2009 our AV over IP technology. It was sort of a push to
get the integrators to open up to the need to be in the knowhow with
the trend. Today, we are a very compelling soluon. Again here, our
AVoIP soluon, VIEW Pro and VIEW are very unique in their ability to
create digital walls, display composion and other funcons without
the use of addional hardware. Our encoders and decoders connect
thru ethernet cable to standard managed ethernet switches which
can be daisy-chained thru fiber for very large systems.

As menoned earlier, our video collaboraon soluon is almost all
soware centric at its core. Our soluons can be available thru the
cloud living on public or private servers, or can be had in simple and
economic room appliances operang on enterprise networks. These
are not hardware based soluons with stac funconality. Our
soluons offer rich funconality on an as you need basis with
soware licenses to add features when you need and if you need.
Within our collaborate soluon, we offer funconality including of
video conferencing, wireless presentaon, whiteboarding, recording,
streaming and chat. We also offer nave Skype for Business
compability soware upgrades for enterprise who wish to enrich
their Skype for Business applicaon.

Our soware based soluons are targeted to meet the demands of
any device, any applicaon, any me. Only soware and networked
soluons can meet these goals.

SI Asia: Doesn't it support the noon that ProAV industry is moving
from a firmware-based business to soware-based domain?

ZEE: Yes, in fact, I had a situaon recently where this noon came to
the fore. I actually feel the Pro AV industry needs to change its name-
it doesn't mean anything in the current standing. In my view, the term

ProAV diminishes the technology, the opportunity and the

possibilies that this industry domain can scale. For example, what

we are doing here at the ISE- it's Networked AV. The term needs to

be replaced by the term Networked. As you can see, today it's all

about how we connect-communicate- collaborate with one

another through soware-driven networked applicaons for audio,

video and content thru group and personal appliances and

endpoints including mobile devices and room systems; there are so

many user interfaces that connect these endpoints by means of

networks and soware. The industry has evolved so much in the

last ten years, that it doesn't just isn't reflected in the name ProAV

anymore. The industry is in the process of reinvenng itself; those

who bring value will survive including both the manufacturers and

its sales channels. In fact, the channel may be among the most

ripe for change by adapng to accommodate how end-user make

buying decisions and purchases.

SI Asia: Having travelled thus far, what brand value, you think

ClearOne has created for itself?

ZEE: Building ClearOne value is an incremental process. It is like

climbing a mountain, you would have made some good, big strides,

but you will have an odd suffering or two. ClearOne, along the way

of its climbing the mountain, has made some great successes like

the beamforming mic, ceiling mic, AVoIP VIEW and our Video

Collaboraon soluons offered in the Cloud and in low cost room

appliances or both.

At this point, I think we have a great recognion by our partners,

and we are seeing more opportunies. In the transion of our CP1

(Converge Pro 1) plaorm to CP2, we did not appreciate the

challenge the transion process would be. We underesmated

how comfortable our Partners had been with CP1, and the longer

learning/training curve partners would need to adopt Cp2.

Somemes, we take two steps forward with one back. That is

reality. Having said that, what I can vouch for now is that ClearOne

is very well posioned for a very strong future.

SI Asia: Do the iniaves, vision and focus have something to do

with the name ClearOne?

ZEE: Aah, I think ClearOne as a brand is a fantasc name; it's been

associated with audio, clear audio but I think since we introduced

our video soluons, the brand extends beaufully to video- clear

video. Now the ClearOne brand is evolving and will be associated

with its total audio and video soluons- the clear one choice in the

AV market to which to go. In fact, as a measure of esmang our

progress of our brand to include audio and video, we plan to

exhibit in the UC secon of ISE 2019, next year.

SI Asia: How far or near do you see ClearOne from the peak of the

mountain you said?

ZEE: We have done a lot of hard work both on all fronts of the

business; we made strategic bets on the market, made significant

investments on our bets, and rolled out some very innovave

soluons. At this point we have reached a spot where we do

believe we will reach our goal as we educate and advocate our

unique vision and soluons. Stay tuned to InfoComm 2018.

http://www.clearone.com

S IA

INTERVIEW