Jatan Shah’s journey in the world of Pro AV began in 2010. After a career in HVAC and management consulting, Shah joined QSC, and a mere 10 days later he was experiencing his first InfoComm right here in Orlando. Now, the president of QSC is celebrating his 15th InfoComm as the new AVIXA Chair of the Board of Directors.
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Shah joined the AVIXA Board in 2021—a decision that was a bigger than taking on his current role as Chair—with the desire to contribute meaningfully to the Pro AV industry as a whole. “I remember coming here in 2021,” Shah said. “It was a very small show with a lot of worries—a lot of people thinking about what the future of trade shows was. Joining the Board was a very humbling moment that year. It's one thing when everything's going great and a lot of success is around and everybody's happy and partying, versus joining at a time when everybody's concerned, and you are still in the phase where there's so much uncertainty.”
After becoming an officer, he knew it was a long-term commitment and was excited to take on his new role. “This was a great way of just giving back to the AV community with a quite high-influencing role,” Shah said. “It started with joining the AVIXA Board. When I decided to become an officer, that is when the commitment became a long-term commitment leading to my current role as a Chair.”
The Chair of the Board of Directors serves a one-year term. Shah sees the agenda of the board as a multi-year journey, which involves being the hub for the AV industry and also a catalyst for growth. “As Chair, you are facilitating a group of people who are the Board members as well and bringing the best out of them because you have a very diverse set of people who come from various parts of the AV industry and world,” Shah said. “Bringing voices to the table and making sure that we are able to support AVIXA achieve its long-term goals is where our focus is.”
It is an exciting time in Pro AV, especially for Shah, who is seeing what used to be very siloed pillars merging withing the industry. His own company, QSC, was recently acquired by Acuity Brands, a building management system and lighting company, so he has witnessed that blending of industries firsthand. “You think about the parallel industries that exist, and a lot of the solutions are becoming more and more integrated,” Shah said. “So, from the end-user standpoint, yes, you're making decisions about your AV, but then you're also making decisions about controls—building controls, building management. All those types of broader trends are then driving the technology integration, which then impacts the AV industry as well.”
That convergence continues to be a hot topic, especially in broadcast and Pro AV. But that’s not the only trend we’ll see on the show floor this week. “We will continue to see the more practical use of AI,” Shah said. “The AI hype cycle is not over, but we've gone through that next phase in the AI journey, which is what are some of the tangible values we can see? You see computer vision—it's one of the areas that we've seen a lot of value. You'll see a lot more focus on data and what you can do with data insights, whether it's through different cloud platforms or in various ways.”
As the Pro AV train continues to roll further into the future, Shah will look back to that 2021 show to remember a turning point in the industry. “I felt it was great looking back,” Shah said. “It's one of those defining moments where you look at an organization and how its resilience was tested in a big way.
"For me, it was the smallest InfoComm show, yet it was probably the most memorable show just because it was the moment through which the organization arrived back to an all-time high.”
