The Aurora interview
Post its entry in the Indian market in 2017, Aurora Multimedia is one of the front-runners in the audiovisual industry in India with its state-of-the-art technology. AV-ISE got in touch with Nataraju Upputri, Director of Aurora Multimedia, India to know the Aurora story. A well-known name within the audio-visual industry, Mr. Upputuri, delineates on the challenges and future of the industry, while also elucidating on Aurora India’s prestigious projects, latest products and more.
Nataraju Upputri - Director, Aurora Multimedia
What are the challenges for Aurora as a brand in the Indian market?
Aurora Multimedia as a manufacturer is focussing on AV over IP technology and solutions. This direction is aligned with the current direction of the Indian AV industry, which made the timing of Aurora Multimedia’s entry into the market fortuitous. We have a strong culture of pursuing engineering and technology and people are accepting the fact that AV over IP is the future. From the client side, most local and global companies have been demanding AV over IP solutions. The transition from traditional AV solutions is big and we are seeing it happen over the last three years.
The demand for AV over IP is being driven by the intrinsic qualities of the solutions. The challenge for Aurora Multimedia India is competing against solutions that the industry is already familiar with. The Indian AV industry is very accustomed to traditional solutions from multiple manufacturers. This barrier needs to be broken and this is our challenge.
What is the preferred channel for Aurora technology products? Do system integrators only have access to Aurora technology on well-defined actual user requirement?
Like many other OEMs from AV industry, we too prefer the business through our authorized AV/IT integrators. Our authorized partners execute the implementation of Aurora technology products.
In the case of consultant-driven projects, not only the system integrators but also the AV consultants or MEP consultants do have access to user requirement.
Would you like to give us an overview of some of the prestigious projects executed in 2018?
2018 had been a great year in terms of implementation of AV over IP solutions. Aurora Multimedia India would have installed more than 200 spaces with nearly 60 clients. Of course, big or small, all the projects have been prestigious to us.
However, speaking about some of the projects will include the Citrix’s Executive Briefing Centre (EBC) - made for Customer Experience with different content on 20 displays (Video Switching), 8X4 Videowall at Security Operation Center in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, abbreviated as TTD. Other projects were those with EPAM, CA Technologies, ICTS, KIMS Hospital to name a few.
Which AV Integration is the most challenging in adopting cutting-edge technology trends?
With rapid economic growth and development happening in India, the demand for AV Integration in India is growing steadily. Specifically, we foresee that streaming solutions and distribution over IP will be our major growth areas. Particularly, growth in the educational, government, hospitality and residential markets are also promising.
Government is the most challenging due to the loopholes in the system. But, there is very positive growth. A lot of projects are in the pipeline of the new government; hence we would also have an advantage as well. E-Governance will help in terms of AV and with Video distribution becoming a basic requirement of all institutions; we have a huge opportunity in AV control.
We would like you to give an expansive view of the AV sector in India?
India’s AV market is the fastest growing in the Asia Pacific – has grown 26 percent annually from 2009 to 2012, with sales turnover reaching US$2.7 billion. The market in India is expected to continue growing at a rate of 25 percent annually to 2025.
Today’s intelligent enterprise focus on increasing productivity and streamlining operations for the sake of higher efficiency. We have noticed that the way traditional work areas are a concept of yesterday & lots of new conceptual ideas being implemented towards engagement of employees by recreating workspaces with more intuitive amenities. As a result, many enterprises are working towards newer ways of collaborating & communicating with employees and their clients, where merging of AV with IT Playing a critical role. So, they are looking at newer ideas of transportation of Audio Video across floors, buildings & campuses with a very low latency which traditional methods cannot achieve and even cost of ownership is high. But thanks to newer AV over IP concepts introduced by Pioneers like Aurora Multimedia which made it possible at affordable costs. Not only they prefer premium brand but also ensures cost-effectiveness. India being a very tech savvy country, we have a strong culture of pursuing engineering and technology and people are accepting the fact that AV over IP is the future. From the client side, most local and global companies have been demanding AV over IP solutions.
Here, Aurora is playing a significant role as Aurora develops cutting-edge products for markets looking for the most bang-for-the-buck, and their offerings are both competitive and innovative. And we will continue to do the same.
How different is the Indian market from the global market that Aurora caters to?
India is perhaps the most fascinating and dynamic country in the world today and this expansion will allow us unique access to this fast-growing AV market in India. Indian AV market cannot be ignored. A country that is the tenth largest economy by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity on the global front. The total size of India’s market, its young population and increasing integration into the global economy, make it a key consideration for a global company like Aurora looking to further growth.
As already mentioned earlier, India’s AV market is the fastest growing in the Asia Pacific.
What do you think makes Aurora a stand out from its competitors in the industry?
Aurora Multimedia has its genesis in a very passionate quest, a zealous effort to try and do something unique, something special and different from everyone else. About three years ago, we wanted to create a unique identity for the company. Not that we didn’t have one, but something special that people will look up to in awe! Things like AV over IP, making another transmitter or receiver didn’t quite match the zest inside. We didn’t either want to do what everyone else was trying to do with HDBaseT.
What we wanted to do was the way technology treats the integrator and the End User. That is where the concept called the IPBaseT was born.
The IPBaseT was designed to treat the illusion of synergy between things that normally do not synergize with each other. Interestingly, while the industry was seemingly panicky in that the world needed to work towards same standards – with compatibility with H.264, Blue River Technology, VC-2, JPEG 2000, and more – for us, it came down to achieving something that looked like working with multiple protocols even though we weren’t really. That was the beginning of IPBaseT.
We looked at how we could make it different without actually making people concerned about technology. The product that came out of this ‘building block’ effort was what we called the “Transceiver.”
A lot of people in the industry think their technology or solution is the best, which I feel is a big mistake. For, there is nothing called the ‘best,’ including ours. Every piece of technology would have a checkpoint at some point or the other. We reckon this fact and try to build on the convergence of technologies to better the existing, which is why the IPBaseT. For instance, in Video domain, the H.264 is the best thing in the world to record and feed on the Internet, and low bandwidth transmission. But it is not good for computers, because of the compression. There can be more examples; if something is good if the supporting bandwidth is >1G, some other is good for the price, and if one solution is very agnostic, it may not give you the quality you look for. A solution that looks too good for conference rooms might not meet digital signage requirements. So, what we do here is to take the strengths of technologies and leave the weaknesses away; and with those carefully chosen strengths, we build a solution that betters the existing, if not a total game-changing one in itself.
This is exactly why and how we became world’s first company to incorporate Dante as audio standard in our latest offerings. Now that we added Dante channel to IPX( series), our products stand differentiated from the rest by their sheer capability to transmit content via Dante network- as against normal transmission mode by others. It makes a lot of sense for users having multiparous content flow set-ups, as also those integration professionals.
By trying and developing such solutions, Aurora is changing the very topology of AV and leading the pack by example. Now, we see the competition trying to copy us. That’s the kind of game-changing zest Aurora has been standing for.
Which according to you is the most popular and dominant product line/model that Aurora possesses?
Aurora Multimedia Corporation is a leading innovator and global provider of state-of-the-art IP Control Systems and 4K video distribution solutions over IP. Founded in 1998, Aurora Multimedia manufactures products in their own facility in Morganville, New Jersey. Aurora Multimedia products incorporate state-of-the-art technologies that surpass typical specifications and features. Starting with the introduction of the industry’s first non-proprietary web-standards-based IP Control Systems and Touch Panels, through today’s advanced HDBaseT and 4K AV Over IP Video distribution solutions, Aurora Multimedia has evolved into a dominant force in the AV industry. Advanced audio/video processors with scaling, multi-image rotation and dual/quad display processing add to the highly-adaptive, diversified product line. The company solutions address a variety of segments that include government, education, security, hospitality, corporate and house of worship. Aurora also proudly states that we are the Industry’s First Transceivers - 4K AV Distribution over IP which is shipping across globally.
Aurora products include the VLX-TC1 Series provides one of the most advanced IP Streaming solutions on the market utilizing Aurora’s IPBaseT technology, which synergizes various IP/AV standards to work together as one. It is the industry’s first 4K UHD transceiver with only 1.5 frames (25ms) latency and visually lossless compression. Using a transmitter (encoder) and receiver (decoder), respectively, used to be the standard – until now. The VLX-TC1 Series can be set up as either one to make installation, inventory, and troubleshooting easier. Aurora Multimedia has recently introduced a new technological first 4K60Hz 4:4:4 AV over IP signal transceiver, utilizing their IPBaseT technology. Aurora is changing the topology of AV with the IPBaseT technology resolving all existing issues with reliability, serviceability, scalability, capability, and inventory.
The IPX-TC2 Series is the World’s First 10Gbps IPBaseT transceiver capable of 4K60Hz 4:4:4 with extremely low 1.3:1 real-time compression and zero frame latency. Includes scaling, windowing, and videowall modes up to 16×16. Offered in copper or fiber.
Aurora’s latest IPX-TC2 combines a variety of 4K IP technologies and features under one unified protocol using a simplified topology. Uncompressed video with zero-latency (4K30Hz 4:4:4), visually lossless video with low latency (4K60Hz 4:4:4 with 100us latency), seamless switching, videowall and multi-viewer modes, digital audio, USB 2.0 (480Mbps), Dante option, 1Gbps Ethernet, and control are some of the core capabilities of IPBaseT. Utilizing the bandwidth of a standard 10Gbps copper or fiber (IPX Series), IPBaseT supports large scalable audio/video matrix, and it does so while replacing multiple technologies and products with a “single-box” distributed platform.
What will be the strategy of Aurora for further brand expansion in the Indian market?
Aurora had been promoting AV over IP with its flagship IPBaseT technology for half a decade and now the world is realizing and accepting the technology. AV over IP is the future. Since our inception in India, we started promoting the concept through various seminars, training programs across the major cities like Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and today even other OEMs are using the same tone set by us. Major AV Publications also came forward and wrote many articles and stories about the advantages of AV over IP on the traditional matrix switchers. We need to conduct more such training, seminars and magazine coverages to reach the audiences.
Your perception of the future of the AV Industry?
The biggest trends in the professional AV industry is networked AV, the ability to distribute audio and video signals over the IT network. This innovative approach allows for flexible, configurable and scalable installations that can easily be centrally controlled and managed, resulting in solutions with a lower total cost of ownership and fewer IT manager headaches. As such, the solution is a popular way of distributing audio and video signals.
AV integrators no longer need to run dedicated cables from the control processor to each individual piece of equipment in order to manage the system from the controller. The lengthy process of pulling an indeterminate number of individual cables, terminating the connectors of those cables and subsequent testing is now, thanks to IP technology, less expensive and time-consuming. Even better, it also facilitates a farther reach from an infrastructure standpoint and is much easier to maintain. With AV/IP, a single Ethernet connection performs many jobs. Among the most important is handling much larger amounts of audio and video data than serial cables, faster and at a higher quality level. With IP control, devices can be managed centrally with fewer points of failure, which streamlines the process and troubleshooting of technical issues
Sending audio signals over IP is already a reality in the events world and beyond, with networking technology currently in use in a variety of different contexts. AV over IP is Popular among project managers, technical staff and many other professionals who work with it. AV over IP is certainly helping to drive convergence. Innovative and progressive IT managers are running toward the opportunity as they see it as a way to better leverage their people and ultimately help to justify much-needed network infrastructure upgrades. We are going to see Tradition AV approach on my network quickly become a thing of the past as more IT people come to the realization that AV over IP can help fund their network upgrade.