NETGEAR is pondering further engagement with the audio-visual channel, and ensuring its tech-centric partners can better address the audio-visual market.
The networking vendor recently appointed AVD (Audio-Video Distributors) as its sub-distributor to address the A-V market. Andrew Tyler, ANZ marketing manager for NETGEAR, said the company is also in talks with its technology distributors Synnex and Ingram Micro with a view to having them address the market too.
The local talks come after the company created a new engineering support centre for those in the AV and IT channel deploying AV solutions that utilise IP networking.
Laurent Masia, NETGEAR’s director of product line management, told CRN the new support centre aims to assist AV channel organisations because most “are very much afraid of IP” and aren’t good at troubleshooting rigs running the emerging software defined video over Ethernet (SDVoE) stack, an effort designed by multiple technology and AV vendors to enable the creation of complex professional and domestic multimedia systems.
The AV channel, Masia added, expects a different level of support to the IT channel. Slow escalations aren’t an option for those staging live events, he said, so the new support centre guarantees two-hour response.
The centre offers support, on-site coaching and pre-event coaching ahead of AV equipment installation. But only on AV rigs based around NETGEAR’s SVDOE-ready switches.
The centre comprises just eight people around the world, but Masia said it will grow as demand for its services increases. Australian partners’ nearest representatives of the centre can be found in China and Japan, but it’s also possible to work with its members in the USA and Europe.
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