Matt Scott explores AtlasIED’s IPX line with Dean Standing and how the company is building its commercial audio segment on its wildly successful use in the global mass transit category.
“The nice thing about software-driven products is that the hardware can stay the same but we can re-introduce it as a completely new product with new software features and updates and that’s what we have done with IPX,” Standing says. “We have reimported the feature set, added a line of utility to it. One of the cool things about this product category is that it will work either with our own ecosystem or it’s also fully compatible in an IP environment with IP phone systems. We are fully Cisco compatible. We work with most major phone systems where these devices can basically replace a handset. So for areas that are bigger than a desk, which is the area a handset serves, they can put one of these IPX speakers in and cover a meeting room, a cafeteria, we connect them up to cover warehouse spaces and they will fully integrate with the phone system.”
When asked by Scott how integrators can best use the attachment sales approach to outfit auxiliary spaces not necessarily covered by the likes of conferencing giants Cisco, while explaining how exactly an IP speaker fits the bill, Standing honestly replies, “One at a time!”
Standing continues: “The problem with this kind of product is that they go in and present it like they would a traditional speaker. Everyone has the mindset that a speaker is worth a $100, Euros, whatever it is, per location, and you go in with an IP end point that is going to be more expensive. So by presenting it as an end point and responding to the phrase, “It’s just like a phone,” these IP end points or IPXs are priced just like a high-end phone.”
Scott and Standing also explore AtlasIED’s often overlooked big role in the global mass transportation category — where the company is a major player — and how those mission critical solutions will come into play in the company’s commercial audio division.
“We have already done that with our Globalcomm software that we use to run the IPX speakers,” Standing explains. “That is running on very similar software, very similar platform that what we developed for the transportation market. So we have already done that. We have an EN5416 certified system that is fully redundant, again using everything we’ve learned from decades of doing transportation and mission critical systems.”