Latin America. As quickly as the pandemic has spread around the world – impacting countries, states and localities almost daily and in new and unforeseen ways – the audiovisual integration industry has also begun to feel its effects quickly. Many of the professionals surveyed indicate that they continue to try to speed up certain projects as long as possible, but as governments announce stricter measures, such efforts come under a lot of pressure.
"Access to customer facilities is the biggest challenge, as this affects our ability to complete work and maintain employee employment," said one of the AV providers surveyed.
In a second weekly survey conducted among members of AVIXA's AV Intelligence Panel, between March 23 and 24, 85% of AV providers and 83% of AV end users stated that their companies have experienced a negative impact from the coronavirus pandemic, practically the same results of the first survey.
Another of the AV entrepreneurs described the situation: "A good point: the business has increased in terms of helping customers with data connectivity, security, growth of cloud licensing and the supply of technology to meet the needs of working from home. The bad point: projects are being suspended, so we've seen a significant reduction in help desk calls, project management work, and implementations."
Income under pressure
In particular, the proportion of AV solution providers citing declining revenue (up 58%, compared to 45%) and slowing sales (up 64%, compared to 54%) as negative effects has increased since the first survey was conducted last week.
According to the live event professionals, who represent a very limited sample, as only 18 responded to the survey, each said their companies' businesses were negatively affected, and 15 of the 18 described the result as a "big negative impact." The AVIXA Market Intelligence team will continue to track individual responses from live event professionals and invite other members of this community to join the survey panel.
What has changed rapidly, in just one week, is the interviewees' perception of declining revenues in their companies. In our first survey, when asked how much their income had declined in the previous two weeks, most indicated that they simply did not know. This week, they start to get a clearer picture: 23% of AV providers and 36% percent of end users said their revenue was down more than 50% in the previous two weeks, which was the most common response. Along with other possible answers, 45% of AV providers report a revenue decline from 11% to 50%, and 28% of end users estimate revenue reduction in that same range.
Of the 18 live event professionals who responded, 11 expressed that revenue had declined more than 50% in the previous two weeks. According to one of them, "live events have had the biggest negative impact today, with almost all events and shows cancelled or rescheduled."
Looking at workforce reductions
In assessing the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the AVIXA Market Intelligence group introduced a question option on "Staff Reduction/Layoffs". Although the "cancellation of in-person training meetings/events" remains with the most cited impact between suppliers and end users (with 79% and 93% of respondents, respectively, claiming to have felt the effect on their companies, plus 17 of the 18 respondents from the live events sector), 30% of AV providers, 27% of end users and 12 of the 18 live event professionals mentioned that, in the last two weeks, their companies have already started with the reduction/layoff of staff.
One AV solutions provider noted, "We have cut off all the people in our workforce, except for two collaborators. There is some customer work that we are trying to manage. It's very difficult to give a leave of absence to all the staff and then try to do their job and keep in touch with all their customers."
Several of the respondents told stories about how to adjust the functioning of their employees, as more authorities take steps to promote social distancing:
"Starting today, we have people who can work from home instead of coming to the office," said one AV provider. "Technicians will go straight to the workplace unless they need to look for specific components or parts in the office. We schedule who will be in the office to receive and deliver morning courier shipments. We are also canceling all jobs outside the city, so our technicians do not need to stay in hotels or search for open restaurants with home delivery service. This week we await our governor's order to declare the "closure of the state",when that time comes, we already informed our staff that we will pay their full salary for two weeks and after that time we would pay 2/3 of it to comply with federal regulations."
According to another respondent, "before an upcoming announcement of total isolation, today, we would be postponing work in non-essential facilities. We only provide critical IT services and systems. We are taking this time to do remote training so that our staff remain ready and at the pace needed for when it comes time to get back to action once the isolation measures have been lifted."
A global pandemic affecting a global industry
This latest Weekly Impact Survey also seeks to know the answers of AV providers and end users around the world. Unsurprisingly, respondents outside north America report having a very similar impact on their businesses as their American colleagues. However, early indications suggest that perceptions of the impact on the business itself (revenue, sales, supply chain disruptions) are higher internationally than in North America.
Of all international respondents (AV providers and end users combined), 68% said they perceived a decline in revenue affecting their companies (compared to 47% of North American suppliers and end users); 72% cited slowing sales (up from 43% in North America); and 49% noted the negative impact of supply chain disruptions (up from 31% in North America).
