“Pro Av Is Now Recognized As An Industry In India”
- Rishubh Nayar, Board Of Director
Christie has been at the forefront of a number of experiential projects in India. From its laser projection installation at Dandi Kutir for 3D Projection Mapping to its LED Wall Installation for satellite monitoring, to the fascinating projection mapping showcase using 51 laser projectors at Statue of Unity in Gujarat, Christie has made its presence felt in India with a line-up of marquee projects.
In conversation with Rishubh Nayar, the newly appointed Board of Director at Christie India at the recently concluded InfoComm India in Mumbai, AV-ICNx finds out how Christie continues to push the boundary with its product technology in all sectors.
Tell us about some of Christie’s recent big projects?
RN: The biggest project we did last year was obviously the Statue of Unity project. It was a record install for any projection manufacturer. It used a total of 51 laser projectors of 25,000 lumens each, producing a total light output of about 12,75,000 lumens, thrown on a statue from as far as 600 meters away, so it was a record in many ways. Christie is a big player in the projection market, but we are getting bigger by the day in other visual technologies as well. Today on the show floor, we are highlighting the Christie MicroTiles LED. Christie has installed one of the largest LED walls in India for satellite monitoring. It’s one of the most critical installs because you need really high quality display solutions to monitor the satellites. Christie also has the largest deployment of video wall displays in India. We have installed a number of video walls in Gujarat for city surveillance. We have sold about 500 thin bezel 55” FHD553-XE displays there. So even across different visual product lines, be it flat panels or projection or LED, we have had some fascinating installs in the last financial year.
Any projects in the pipeline that you can talk about?
RN: India is a dynamic market so there are a lot of projection mapping installs which are being contemplated. The government is spending a lot on museums as well, so we are quite excited about that as an install market. We see a lot of growth in experiential installs in the coming years.
Has the company innovated any product keeping the Indian market in mind?
RN: We, as representatives of the Indian market, do provide regular feedback to the product managers, who are responsible for the products that Christie churns out, and fortunately, in a lot of ways our feedback has been taken very seriously, because India is a growing market and we have had a good growth rate over the last three to four years. A lot of feedback, which goes up the chain to the product managers, is definitely considered.
What do you have today on the floor? Any new launches?
RN: There are a lot of firsts this year at InfoComm India. We have LED walls such as the award-winning MicroTiles LED - the only LED wall which has a cabinet-free design and can be arranged in near-limitless ways. It starts from 1.2mm and 1.5mm pitch having a P3 color space which is one of the highest visual colors which you get in a video product. It also has a Patented Neighbor Detection and AutoMatch feature, where individual tiles automatically detect and self-locate while the sensor-based AutoMatch feature automatically matches color and brightness to achieve >97% uniformity across the whole display for the entire operational lifetime. We also have the D4K40-RGB pure laser projector, which is a first of its kind. It is the smallest and lightest high-brightness, large-venue RGB laser projector on the market. It is also one of the most compact RGB pure laser projectors with a brightness of up to 40,000 lumens. We also have a host of image processing solutions too, from the Pandora’s Box family to Christie Terra, which is an AV solution enabling the transport, processing and control of audiovisual content, including 4K@60Hz video formats, over 10G Ethernet networks.
Can you tell us a little more about Pandora’s Box?
RN: The Christie Pandoras Box comes from our media playback family. It was formerly part of the Coolux family. It allows many end users to depend upon Christie for a one-stop solution when it comes to blending, warping and content playback as well and that is something Coolux is renowned for. The products have been used in India and we have done fascinating installs with it as well. It has got a software version, as well as hardware version in the form of quad players and servers. Pandoras Box offers users complete control over the entire workflow, maximizing efficiency while unleashing creative possibilities to enable the creation of amazing visual experiences. Pandoras Box offers a true 3D compositing space in which both objects and plane elements can be aligned for projection mapping or real-time 3D stereo playback scenarios at high frame rates.
Which segment are you targeting?
RN: Primarily, the experiential install segment with Christie Pandoras Box.
How according to you has the AV industry progressed in the last 5 years in India and what do you think of the quality standard of AV deployment in India?
RN: Pro AV is now recognized as an industry in India. About 10 years ago, it was considered a mass product, which is moving into a box, but now Pro AV has evolved to become an industry in India. So I think that’s a massive shift and we have seen massive growth across all verticals. From the manufacturing and integration perspective, there has been tremendous growth across verticals - whether it is hospitality, corporate or government. India is a growing market and the government is spending funds on professional AV equipment. Since Pro AV is recognized as a distinct industry in India today, the quality standards in terms of AV deployment too are definitely on par with what you get all across the globe today.
“We have proven ourselves globally and in India by associating with a lot of unconventional projects. When it comes to out-of-the-box system solutions, a lot of buyers depend upon Christie because of our capability to not only design solutions but deliver the back-end for that as well.”
How different is the Indian market from other markets of the world?
RN: In my opinion, India is different in a lot of ways because it is relationship driven while Europe and US are still process driven.
What opportunities do you see in the Indian market, going forward?
RN: As I already mentioned, the government is investing heavily and we can expect a lot of government experiential installs in the pipeline. We have also seen growth in corporate and enterprise, which remains one of the most buoyant sectors for any manufacturer, and experiential installs are something which the Indian market is wakening up to.
What about the Cinema segment?
RN: Cinema is categorized as a completely distinct vertical, a different ball game altogether. The cinema segment is phenomenal as well. We have seen a lot of multiplexes get converted from film to digital and from lamp to laser, so the growth was eminent due to evolving technology.
What is your vision for Christie India moving forward?
RN: Apart from being completely customer-centric, what defines us as an organization is that, today we offer a large category of visual products. There are very few manufacturers such as Christie that can offer projection solutions ranging from 5,000 lumens to 40,000 lumens, narrow pixel pitch LED walls, flat panels, thin bezel video walls and image processing solutions to back it up as well. Our focus is to become a one-stop- solutions provider for any buyer so that they can depend upon solutions coming from a single manufacturer rather than cherry picking amongst 5-6 of them. This is something which we will focus on going forward.
Christie products “extremely affordable” or “rather expensive”?
RN: I don’t think “expensive” is the right word, we’re a premium brand and a niche product in a lot of ways, so customers do get what they’re paying for – value for money. This is how I’ll put it.
Anything else you want to tell our readers?
RN: We have proven ourselves globally and in India by associating with a lot of unconventional projects. When it comes to out-of-the-box system solutions, a lot of buyers depend upon Christie because of our capability to not only design solutions but deliver the back-end for that as well. The Statue of Unity is a case in point. It is the first permanent projection mapping install accomplished with Christie products and even today when it comes to such installs, 90% of the projects in India use Christie because we’ve stood in good stead in the past and we will continue to do so moving forward.