Although the current picture for sales of wireless conferencing technology is sluggish with sales slumping so far this year, Futuresource Consulting expects movement to pick up in 2025 and beyond.
The wireless presentation solutions market endured a challenging 2023 as the wider AV market grappled with budget cuts stimulated by macroeconomic headwinds. Then, while many vendors were optimistic about growth during the first half of 2024, this has failed to materialise, with the new research from Futuresource Consulting showing that volume is still in decline. Shipments of hardware wireless presentation solutions (WPS) decreased by 1,000 units in H1 2024, with wireless conferencing solutions (WCF) falling by approximately 7,000 units.
For WPS products, which share content wirelessly in meeting rooms and classrooms, Chinese vendors have aggressive pricing in place, which is placing downward pressure on the pricing models of Western manufacturers. This is slimming margins for manufacturers.
WCF, which covers hardware that combines the features of WPS with the ability to wirelessly connect to in-room video conferencing peripherals such as cameras, is also feeling the pinch. With budgets tightening, there is little incentive to replace equipment “just because”.
Corporate and education sectors are instead seeking to make do with technology that still serves a viable business use case. As a result, WCF has been placed under increasing pressure, with limited scope for comparatively higher-priced products.
But growth should be coming in 2025. Scarlett Woodford, head of collaboration, Futuresource Consulting, said: “It’s not all bad news. 2025 and beyond will be more positive, with post-COVID hardware entering the replacement phase of its lifecycle. However, we may see some of these replacement cycles extended, as enterprises sweat their assets while they consolidate their budgets.”
She continued: “For WCF vendors, we expect positive activity from 2025. What’s more, WCF volumes will continue to expand throughout our forecast period. In contrast, WPS will continue to face challenges, with a turbulent time ahead. Our forecasts indicate global volume will remain flat through 2025, with incremental market decline expected in 2027 and 2028.”
Looking to the brands, Barco comes out on top as the leading vendor for combined WCF and WPS volumes, with other vendors of significance including Airtame, Crestron and Screenbeam. For WCF, Barco accounted for one in every three shipments in H1 2024.
Futuresource Consulting’s Wireless Presentation Solutions Market Review H1 2024, assesses the current state of the market and provides an outlook on the shape of the sector over the next five years. For more information or to make a purchase, please contact Ben Thrussell at ben.thrussell@futuresource-hq.com.
