In large, complex control room projects, consultants are crucial for Barco. Consultants play a critical role in translating customer needs into concrete solution requirements. In recent years, Barco has been expanding relationships with consultants even more. Consultants help Barco understand customer pain points from a solutions perspective, and in return, Barco supports the consultant community with dedicated information and resources on products and systems, so it can make better decisions for its customers.
Let’s say a government end user needs an image processing solution that makes it possible to monitor incoming wireless bodycam images from first responders in the command and control center in near real time. Obviously, for that end user, it is important that the video latency – the time gap between an actual event and its video playback on the screen – is as low as possible. First responders may need quick authorization from someone in the control room to handle an incident. At the same time, control room operators want to see incoming bodycam footage as close to ‘real time’ as possible to be able to make critical decisions.
Barco has the right solution to make this possible. Its family of networked visualization video wall controllers offers the lowest video latency for distributing and displaying video sources onto any display. However, for consultants who investigate the technological possibilities for a certain project, the Barco system may only be part of a larger solution architecture. In the example above, the bodycam or satellite technology may also have a significant impact on video latency.
Typically, latency is measured cumulatively — the more nodes that data needs to pass through, the more latency keeps adding up. From the camera to video encoders, video decoders to the video wall, each of the individual components in the video streaming workflow can contribute to video latency.
In complex technology set-ups such as the example described above, consultants need to carefully consider the bigger picture and the overall nodes’ designs. They would need to answer the critical question ‘how much latency is acceptable’ and ‘how much latency is Barco adding to the entire system’? In the end, the answer to those questions will determine technology choices.
For Barco it is insightful to see that bigger solution picture, because only then are we able to offer the right sub-systems for the end user’s specific application. That’s why Barco is continuously investing in relationships with the consultant community. Instead of pushing our products to consultants who specify projects, we like to work in partnership with them, so we can understand their pain points and those of their end users and partners. This way, they can make the best technology decision for their project needs.
Barco also has a dedicated team of consultant account managers and pre-sales engineers to support project tenders. This international team of experts work diligently to make the lives of consultants easier and be a trusted resource for control room project designs. Barco regularly and proactively provides its consultant community with technical information, product specifications, drawings and system architecture plans, quotes, demo systems, and product roadmap information. Thanks to Barco’s international presence and dedicated resources, pre-sales teams can react quickly to consultant questions.
Control room projects can be complex and highly demanding, especially for government customers. Without the valued help of consultants, it would be very hard for Barco to fully understand the needs and pain points of the end users. That’s why Barco is committed to invest more in the consultant community than ever before. Barco works hard every day to prove itself as a trusted source of information. In turn, consultants who rely on Barco can use this information and support to strengthen their position as a trusted advisor towards their customers.
Want to know more about Barco’s consultant program? Let us know.