01732 759725 04 DISTRIBUTION A bold investment Midwich updates Experience Centre with £1 million investment On November 25, Mark Lowe, Managing Director (UK & Ireland) at Midwich, officially opened the AV distributor’s remodelled, redesigned and updated Experience Centre at Innovation House in Bracknell. The showroom was originally opened in January 2020 and welcomed its first visitors in January 2021. Since then, 3,000 people every year have used the space to experience the latest AV solutions, to undergo training and to meet with consultants, vendors, customers and Midwich’s own experts. Over the last few months, the distributor and its vendors have invested £1 million in redesigning the space and creating a ‘world-class’ Experience Centre featuring 200 products from 50 manufacturers. Welcoming guests to the re-opening, Lowe acknowledged the tendency of distributors to overuse the word value‑add but said that in this case the term was fully justified. “If you’re working on a project and you come here with your end user and you work with us, statistically you are more likely to win that business. This building helps you to generate revenue, helps you to generate profit, so I put it to you that Innovation House is the manifestation of value-add. It’s not superficial. It really does help you to be successful in our industry,” he said. Stuart Holmes, Executive Director Expert Solutions at Midwich Group company PSCo, reiterated this message, describing the redesigned Experience Centre as ‘a bold investment in challenging times’. He said: “The AV industry is tough at the moment – ASPs are down, prices are dropping and the cost of running a business is going up. In fact, we had quite a lot of conversations about whether now is the right time for us to be investing in a shiny new showroom. And we all agreed it was. We all agreed that, as a true specialist, now is the time for us to be investing in the future and in our relationships with you, so together we can win more business.” He added: “This is a big industry and there’s a lot to shoot for, which is what Innovation House and the Experience Centre is all about. We believe in the future of this industry, and we believe that lies in not just selling tin, not just selling hardware, but in creating solutions and delivering ROI. That’s what this place is about.” An immersive experience The refreshed Experience Centre introduces a series of enhanced technology zones covering LED, image processing, workplace solutions, residential AV, home cinema, pro audio, lighting, security, rental fleet and events. Highlights include a mixed reality zone, demonstrating a new way of creating content and backdrops without the need for a green screen; a Microsoft Teams Signature area, showing how the next generation of AI-enabled collaboration can make meetings more equitable and productive; a Live technology showcase featuring big sound systems, lighting, audio and video for large events; a content creation space, including a fully operational podcast studio; a Drone Zone, bringing together drones and projection mapping technology; and X2O One Room immersive conferencing that enables remote participants to dial into Midwich events and training sessions. Midwich Experience Centre Manager Tyrone Zagnoiev pointed out that in
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