Growth opportunities ahead for wireless conferencing solutions despite challenging AV market conditions

The wireless presentation solutions market endured a challenging 2023 as the wider AV market grapples with budget cuts stimulated by macroeconomic headwinds. While many vendors were optimistic about growth during the first half of 2024, this has failed to materialise, with new research from Futuresource Consulting showing that volume is still in decline. Shipments of hardware wireless presentation solutions (WPS) decreased by 1,000 units in H1 2024, with wireless conferencing solutions (WCF) falling by approximately 7,000 units. 

Although the current picture is sluggish, Futuresource Consulting expects movement to pick up in 2025 and beyond. 

Market price sensitivity and budget limitations an issue

For WPS products, which share content wirelessly in meeting rooms and classrooms, Chinese vendors have aggressive pricing in place, which is placing downward pressure on the pricing models of Western manufacturers. This is slimming margins for manufacturers. 

WCF, which covers hardware that combines the features of WPS with the ability to wirelessly connect to in-room video conferencing peripherals such as cameras, is also feeling the pinch. With budgets tightening, there is little incentive to replace equipment “just because”. Corporate and education sectors are instead seeking to make do with technology that still serves a viable business use case. As a result, WCF has been placed under increasing pressure, with limited scope for comparatively higher-priced products. 

Some growth expected in 2025 and beyond

“It’s not all bad news,” says Scarlett Woodford, Head of Collaboration, Futuresource Consulting. “2025 and beyond will be more positive, with post-COVID hardware entering the replacement phase of its lifecycle. However, we may see some of these replacement cycles extended, as enterprises sweat their assets while they consolidate their budgets. 

“For WCF vendors, we expect positive activity from 2025. What’s more, WCF volumes will continue to expand throughout our forecast period. In contrast, WPS will continue to face challenges, with a turbulent time ahead. Our forecasts indicate global volume will remain flat through 2025, with incremental market decline expected in 2027 and 2028.” 

Barco and Screenbeam lead the way

Looking to the brands, Barco comes out on top as the leading vendor for combined WCF and WPS volumes, with other vendors of significance including Airtame, Crestron and Screenbeam. For WCF, Barco accounted for one in every three shipments in H1 2024. 

Futuresource Consulting’s Wireless Presentation Solutions Market Review H1 2024, assesses the current state of the market and provides an outlook on the shape of the sector over the next five years. For more information or to make a purchase, please contact Ben at ben.thrussell@futuresource-hq.com. 

About the author

Scarlett Woodford

Scarlett is a Senior Market Analyst in the Collaboration team at Futuresource Consulting, responsible for researching and consulting on the ways we work together, in an increasingly hybrid landscape.

 With a background in telecommunications and connectivity services, Scarlett is particularly interested in the impact of new technologies on existing business models.

 Scarlett has a degree in Psychology from the University of Surrey and has previous experience working as a research analyst in the service provider market.