Sounds Like Success: Recent Episodes
AtlasIED
Industries change and evolve. That formula is nothing new. But what happens when everything about an industry faces an upheaval due to a pandemic?
One of the industries most impacted by COVID-19 was transportation. Dave Moriarty, Senior Systems Specialist for Transportation with AtlasIED, and Olivier Savoie, International Sales Manager with AtlasIED, have seen many changes in the transportation industry over the years, but nothing quite as transformative as the past 12 months.
Education is on everyone’s mind, as this fall’s back-to-school season looks different in every way due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AtlasIED’s Michael Peveler, Vice President of Sales, and Michael Yonks, Regional Sales Manager for Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, spoke about the challenges facing K-12 schools and districts and how AtlasIED’s solutions can make communication simpler.
“There are a number of places AtlasIED plays in the K-12 space from a product and solutions standpoint,” Peveler said, noting that here are many communication tools available, from PA announcement and intercom systems throughout a school to classroom audio systems and microphones to lift a teacher’s voice throughout the facility. “We really have made a name for ourselves in the IP endpoint space. We introduced the first IP endpoints, or speakers, as some call them, and it evolved far beyond that over the years.”
While the education sector used AtlasIED’s products and solutions long before the pandemic, the challenges brought by COVID-19 are providing new opportunities for these products to play a role in helping get schools ready for in-person learning. Yonks spoke about AtlasIED’s wireless mic product, Atlas Learn.
“Atlas Learn is the same product before COVID; it hasn’t changed,” Yonks said. “It is a voice reinforcement solution. It’s a classroom microphone, either a lapel or lanyard, that a teacher can wear. Now, with COVID, there’s the probability of teachers teaching with masks on. The intelligibility of the teacher’s voice, especially in a larger classroom, is critical. It shows the value of a solution like Atlas Learn in that environment.”
Peveler and Yonks stressed no matter the need, large or small, AtlasIED can meet those education communication challenges with cost-effective solutions, easy implementation and available online training.
The technology solutions for the transportation industry are hyper-specialized. AV needs for public transit can differ from other markets. AtlasIED’s Chris Deatrick, Product Manager, and Justin Young, General Manager, lent their expertise in software engineering and industry focus to help unpack the needs, and provide solutions for various transportation sectors.
When the focus is on AV solutions for the public transit sector, there are a couple of key considerations.
“First and foremost, with this market,” Young said, “intelligibility of the provided audio is king. Everything starts with that. The technology requirements to meet that is a mix of audio reproduction of the speakers, the system design of the acoustical spaces, the ability to control where the audio routes to, and if it is synchronized audio [are all key] to maximize the intelligibility.”
The second thing is the system needs to be reliable.
“When you are dealing with emergency mass notification systems,” Young said, “you have to have a system installed that has credibility. The end customer has to believe the system is going to work.”
Due to the complex nature of some transportation settings (airport terminals and train stations), the AV networking solutions need to be adaptable and agile, allowing for specific communication control, messaging in various areas and unique job requirements.
Deatrick pointed out that, while a good 90-95% of the AV needs of, say, an airport terminal, are standard, it’s the 5-10% of custom work that can make the difference.
“This is an area where AtlasIED shines, logistically,” Deatrick said. “We have a good granularity of pieces and parts and components where we can put together and make a 100% solution for a customer.”
And AtlasIED’s custom team can help resolve special customer needs where a standard solution won’t work.
Justin Young, General Manager, AtlasIED, and Thomas Ahern, Engineered Solution & Service Manager, AtlasIED, know the importance of announcement and communication networks for healthcare systems. They were excited for the opportunity to discuss AtlasIED’s enterprise-wide communication ecosystem, GLOBALCOM.IP®️.
“GLOBALCOM.IP is a network-based announcement and messaging controller,” Young said. “It can coordinate different audio-input sources and behave like an air traffic controller, managing the audio's routing. It has two different audio output zones based on every customer’s unique acoustical requirements.” Also, the GLOBALCOM system comes with a multitude of additional functionality, and an interface to link with other networks.
Ahern stressed the importance of having a state-of-the-art communication system for healthcare. “In healthcare, communication can save lives,” Ahern said. “It’s about getting the right message to the right person at the right time. So, improvements to the daily workflow is that improvement in those benefits to a patient’s outcome.”
GLOBALCOM can operate in small healthcare settings up to large-scale enterprise network systems. “The power of the system is in its flexibility and versatility,” Young said. And GLOBALCOM’s multitude of features and connectivity options make it affordable.
Ahern mentioned how GLOBALCOM works with today’s smartphone technology to provide efficiencies for caregivers. “Being able to take a caregiver’s wireless phone, and allow them to make a page with it, and not have to walk back to, say, the nurse's desk to the microphone contributes to a better workflow,” Ahern said.
Gina Sansivero and Michael Peveler discuss the effects of the pandemic on the Pro AV industry.COVID-19’s impact on businesses across the globe is widespread. To provide context on how the Pro AV space is dealing with the crisis, Gina Sansivero, VP, Marketing & Corporate Communications, AtlasIED, and Michael Peveler, VP of Sales, AtlasIED recently joined Sounds Like Success for an industry update.
Sansivero and Peveler agree that one of the significant shifts in how they are doing business today is travel. Both had heavy travel schedules between customer meetings, product launches, trade shows and other important events. Now, everything has moved to an online environment.
But how has the pandemic impacted business for AtlasIED? Peveler said many customers are using the time with people out of the building to complete AV projects that might otherwise be complicated by the interruptions of a typical workday.
“Because many schools are online for the remainder of the scholastic year, we see many of our school-oriented projects initiated now,” Peveler said.
One of the things Sansivero said helps in times like these are firm core company values.
“As part of our mission to give back, and one of our core values, integrity, we decided to dedicate some of our bandwidth and reallocate it to a new manufacturing process. We’ve started creating face shields to be donated cost-free as PPE to healthcare workers across the country,” Sansivero said.
While Peveler felt fortunate that AtlasIED’s supply chain was strong, its manufacturing capabilities are intact, and it can service customers during the pandemic, he recognized many companies in his industry are struggling.
“We want to see everyone in our industry, competitors included, be healthy,” Peveler said.
And, while tradeshows are off the table for the time being, Sansivero said AtlasIED found a creative solution to introduce new products to the marketplace with a new virtual and limited in-person approach. There will be exciting product update announcements on an upcoming episode of Sounds Like Success.
The nature of good business is growth. When that growth expands to new countries, there are a few very specific challenges that await. On this episode of the Sounds Like Success podcast, Dean Standing, International Sales Manager for AtlasIED, sat down with Sean Heath and they discussed the challenges of expanding into new countries.
The initial concern when entering a new market can be a simple language misstep, such as the one that befell Chevrolet when they expanded into Mexico, according to Standing. “They introduced a car called the Nova, which was very successful in the U.S. market. Literally, ‘no va’ means ’no go’ in Spanish. It’s kind of hard to sell a car whose name is ‘Doesn’t Go’.”
Another challenge arises when an established company attends tradeshows in multiple countries. They can’t just coast on their laurels, Lureman explained. “In the domestic market, in the U.S. market, we’re having to show people that Atlas isn’t your grandfather’s ceiling speaker company anymore and that we do have complete solutions and that we do have high tech products, as well. Internationally, we’re really starting more from ground zero and having to explain who we are and what we do, in general.”
The home markets of a company can have a dramatic effect on their global approach, detailed Clay.
“U.S. companies have always had the luxury of a big enough domestic market where we can focus on the domestic market and be successful. European companies, if they focused only on their home markets, they wouldn’t do very well. So, they usually start the companies, right from the beginning, with the idea in mind that they’ve got to be global. They’ve got to extend well beyond their borders if they want to have any degree of success.”
The benefits of developing a good reputation are immense. The challenge comes when a company needs to evolve their offerings. On this episode of Sounds Like Success, Tom Lureman, Director of Engineering and Product Management for AtlasIED, and Steve Clay, Engineering Program Manager sat down with Sean Heath to discuss the challenges of redefining an already stellar reputation.
One benefit that accompanies a good reputation is achieving a large customer base, according to Lureman.
“We’re highly known for ceiling speakers in large commercial spaces. But, more recently, we’re well known in the education industry, as well as airports, where we have most of the major airports in the United States for paging systems," Lureman said.
As companies acquire new personnel, the opportunity to define that team’s purview and road map is extremely important, Lureman explained.
“It was extremely refreshing for having someone telling Engineering that we can have the time to develop the products and the platform, but more importantly, up front, without quarterly expectations of the investment," he said.
The skills that a new team can provide make an enormous difference when expanding a company’s offerings, detailed Clay.
“We essentially have some rock stars. We have tons of talent. They already know how to work together. We just needed to put them to work. We were able to bring some great tools and experience in product validation with us," Clay said.