Latin America. After peaking at $259 billion in 2019, professional audiovisual (AV) industry revenue fell to $214 billion globally in 2020 due to the effects of the pandemic, according to data from the new 2021 AV Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA) study produced by AVIXA.
In the same study of trends and perspectives of the audiovisual industry, the beginning of the recovery is forecast in this 2021 with revenues of $ 232 billion and a sustained level of income that will reach $ 329 billion in 2026, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2%.
The IOTA 2021 study explores global trends within the professional AV industry, and provides an overview of AVIXA's current five-year revenue forecast for products and services, along with the prevailing trends driving these forecasts.
"In early 2020, there was a lot of optimism that the initial lockdowns and other measures would help most regions overcome the worst of the pandemic, allowing economies to recover and AV professionals to benefit. While this was true in some areas of Asia, in much of the world this was not the case and therefore AV professionals had a worse year than our initial forecasts indicated," said Sean Wargo, Senior Director of Market Intelligence at AVIXA. "The good news is that we now see a significant recovery, so our estimates for the immediate future are surrounded by the perception of solid growth."
Overall, the revenues of AV professionals from the Asia Pacific (APAC) region were the least impacted in 2020. Having taken preventive measures for COVID-19 early and effectively, China recovered significantly during the first half of 2020. Overall annual growth in investment in av solutions in the APAC region recorded -16.1% year-over-year, resulting in revenues of $78.8 billion and a 37% contribution of total global spending in the AV industry.
In the Americas, the professional AV market suffered a fall of 16.7%, with revenues of $77.6 billion dollars in 2020, a figure that was strengthened by the results of a solid first quarter in 2020 when the pandemic was not yet fully impacting the region. However, a strong recovery is expected for 2021, with an increase in revenue reaching $83.6 billion.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region was the hardest hit due to the effects of the pandemic on some of the most unstable economies and many other factors that created a variety of effects on the rate of recovery. In this region, 2020 spending on professional AV products and solutions was reduced by 19.7% and revenue of $57 billion.
Among all areas of the audiovisual industry, solutions and products for Conferencing and Collaboration generated the highest revenue of the year, as most people became remote workers, students entered distance learning mode, and events moved into the virtual world. These solutions are projected to keep pace and generate revenues of $43.5 billion in 2021 and reach $49.9 billion in 2026.
The Digital Signage Solutions segment is poised for strong revenue growth, with a forecast of $32 billion in 2021, rising to $44.7 billion in 2026. The signage market gained strength in the face of the arrival of the pandemic, as the prices of the screens encouraged their proliferation. A pent-up demand is observed here, which will boost the area of solutions in the immediate future. Media servers are the leading product category for digital signage, with $6.9 billion in revenue in 2021.
Overall, Content Management hardware, formerly referred to by AVIXA as streaming media, storage, and distribution (SMSD), will generate revenue and significant growth over the next five years: $62.3 billion in 2021, with a CAGR of 10.4%.
Live Events and solutions for the Entertainment and Presentations Industry were the hardest hit in 2020, with a combined annual decline of 49.7% in revenue. These solutions are forecast to have the slowest recovery, at pre-pandemic levels, due to continued restrictions and individual resistance to participating in events and joining crowds. However, both areas of solutions will recover substantially, setting new records in the coming years. By 2026, live event solutions will generate $33.9 billion in revenue and presentation and entertainment solutions will reach $30.6 billion.
The IOTA report is prepared by AVIXA in conjunction with Omdia (formerly IHS Markit), a global research firm specializing in a number of underlying supply chain markets, many of which overlap with the core components of the professional AV industry. This specialization offers connections with manufacturers, distributors, integrators and large end-user companies that supply and consume both professional AV products and solutions. This translates into data sources that are modeled alongside key macroeconomic data to generate the forecasts shown here.
