The good news is that the Pro AV industry will continue to grow over the next five years. The not-so-good news is that growth is expected to slow.
There was plenty of data to digest at the “Market Insights Lunch: State of the AV Industry” event on Tuesday afternoon at the Las Vegas Convention Center. AVIXA shared findings from three of its primary research reports, offering a comprehensive view of the current and future state of Pro AV.
“Growth is slowing down,” declared Sean Wargo, vice president of market insights. That said, growth is still growth, and the market will expand from $306.4 billion in 2023 to an estimated $325 billion in 2024. That’s roughly a drop from 6.9% to 6.1% growth this year. The market is expected to add another $98 billion over the next five years, with a 5.35% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
[AVIXA Report: April Numbers Reinforce March Positivity]
According to Wargo, the Pro AV industry is transitioning away from pandemic recovery—with supply chain challenges largely over—to new growth driven by the experience economy. As far as challenges, the industry is shifting from supply issues to labor constraints, similar to the pre-pandemic conditions.
Economist Peter Hansen said demand for workers will continue to outpace supply. The conditions have cooled substantially from 2022 (remember the quiet quitting trend?), and workers are now staying at their jobs longer.
The data also shows that plenty of people start their career in Pro AV directly from school, though the industry also pulls talent from IT, broadcasting, and live events. However, a significant percentage of workers come from other industries. Hansen advised Pro AV companies to be more creative in their talent searches—look for signs of skills and passion for technology rather than experience in the industry for potentially viable candidates.
[InfoComm 2024: Everything You Need to See on the Show Floor]
The industry is approaching the final long-term trends associated with the pandemic and subsequent recovery. As a result, Hansen said analysts can “look further into the future with more confidence.”
Those trends should include a long-term GDP of around 2%, with the odds of a recession dropping significantly from late 2022 and early 2023. Hansen said it’s an exciting time for Pro AV that will allow more innovation that will be “better at addressing end-user needs.”
Rather than see current trends as a new normal, Mike Sullivan-Trainor, senior industry analyst, argued it’s a new era of consistent but more measured growth, with the Pro AV market realigning and adapting to new technologies. “The experience economy has many flavors for end users,” he added.
Sullivan-Trainor also identified four transformational technologies to watch as growth normalizes: AV-over-IP, AI, software and cloud migration, and extended reality (XR).
