“Ingram Micro integrates AV and CU technologies into Xperience Center in a unique and real environment”, A. Corner

As Pro AV Business Unit Manager & UCC of Ingram Micro Spain, Alex Rincón carries out a detailed analysis during the tour of the Xperience Center, a bet on technology, training and service to the channel and its manufacturers of which they feel as proud as they are confident of its evolution and success.

“Xperience Center aims to help our entire channel and vendors with the best offices adapted for them and, this way, work together on this evolutionary project in which they have the best technologies and solutions that the market offers right now, both in AV and unified communications systems”, so he assures Alex Rincon during this video interview, in which each area of ​​this innovative space is described.

If just a week ago Xperience Center had its debut during three successful days at the event Homeshow, to which they went 110 distributors and suppliers to their new Viladecans offices (Barcelona) to meet him in situ (all the details in Digital AV), Now Rincón emphasizes that “this space will give a lot to talk about in the coming years.”, because it is going to become the new meeting point for the industry and the place that will allow us to come into contact with the new technologies that will shape the future of companies”.

At the service of collaboration

With the aim of “making the promise of technology a reality” and responding to the challenges of an industry in full transformation, in which the wholesaler evolves its proposal to a model based on continuous collaboration between teams, with hybrid work models, The new Viladecans headquarters has had a direct investment of 500.000 euros to adapt to change.

The new headquarters, with a surface of 2.300 m2 distributed over two floors, has 150 jobs available, fourteen meeting rooms and, as the technological core in which business and collaboration develop, the Xperience Center, whose technological integration has been the work of Ingram Micro R&D engineering team.

The main area of ​​this space, which is called Social Square, since it acts as a central plaza for the rest of the areas, designed with sofas and furniture to be a meeting point and networking, “equips the audiovisual technology most cutting-edge currently on the market, from manufacturers such as LG, Samsung, Sharp/NEC o PPDS – Philips Professional Display, with which we can present different solutions with different technologies and pixel pitch sizes that can help us together with our clients to evaluate any type of product and project”, Rincón emphasizes.

Multipurpose environment

Social Square is set to four different and versatile technological environments to organize face-to-face meetings and/or videoconference, as well as show the multi-manufacturer integration applied to solutions and their use, where large format screens set the tone, with mounting systems Neomounts y Vogel’s,.

The first area is designed to highlight integration, functionalities and type of experience offered by a configuration for large rooms, equipped with the modular Led system The Wall de Samsung, in 110” format and pixel pitch of 1.2 mm; the system of videoconferencia Logitech Rally Plus Kit, along with two cameras and ceiling microphone from this manufacturer, that is configured in an environment Microsoft Teams, with the Proximity Join function, and wireless presentation Clickshare C-10 de Barco, con PC MTR of Lenovo.

A second area shows the experience and functionality of a all-in-one video conferencing bar, in this case of the system Poly by HP X70 and the tablet control TC8, with autofocus functions and microphone pickup range, in one 136" AIO LED panel of Sharp/NEC.

It is a multipurpose videoconference room in an environment byod wireless, with Barco integration CX-30 y, as a differentiator, the experimentation of acoustic barrier functionality, which allows not to disturb the rest of the areas and create a open hybrid space of demos and content.

Precisely, A third area of ​​Social Square is dedicated to setting up sala byod wireless, also with Barco CX30, with smart video bar Jabra Panacast 50, that offers 4K video quality with three PTZ cameras and 180º field of view, eight beam-forming microphones and four stereo speakers, and display in a LG 120” Led screen, con pixel pitch 1.5 mm.

The last environment is dominated by a modular Led screen of PPDS – Philips Professional Display, con pixel pitch 1.9 mm, which offers a more artistic and personalized configuration to show its possibilities in different verticals (corporate, retail, hospitality,…) to adapt to each client's project.

Hybrid work model

Xperience Center offers a space dedicated to new work and productivity models, “in which we work and collaborate on a day-to-day basis with our associates and employees - explains Alex Rincón- that is ready for hybrid work”.

For its start-up, “we have designed different types of meeting rooms, from one to fourteen in-person participants, equipped with different technologies and solutions, with systems byod, Microsoft Teams and others implemented together with the audiovisual part, which allows us to analyze and present to each of our clients many types of environments prepared for the office., especially in the corporate vertical”.

The common denominator of the rooms created is their usability, with multiple solutions byod y MTR, cameras and microphones, either in a configuration with two monitors to work in wide mode or with a single screen, in this case 110”.

An open room stands out, called Collaboration Room, which is dedicated to demonstrations with the V7 interactive panel in 75”, the Ingram Micro brand, for video conferencing in Microsoft Teams with Logitech Rally Bar Mini y TAP IP, mainly indicated for educational environment and corporate training.

Integrated training: Agora Room

As Alex Rincón points out, the Agora Room “is conceived and prepared to develop the entire training plan What we want to implement at Ingram Micro. It is an ideal space for both regulated training and go hand in hand with the manufacturer, in order to transfer all that knowledge of the technologies that the training plan of the vendor cover us, as of non-regulated training, with courses aimed at how to sell a product; know how it works and how to offer it within one vertical or another”.

It is knowledge and learning space, as an auditorium, It has the Led display system for this. The Wall from Samsung, in 146” format and pixel pitch 1.6 mm.

Added to this are a pair of interactive mobile monitors and two cameras for hybrid training, which are controlled from a touch panel, in a Microsoft Teams environment and its Proximity Join function, with interoperable cloud-based video conferencing BlueJeans; Barco Clickshare speakers and wireless presentation system.

For and by the associate

A message that Alex Rincón emphasizes during the tour of the Xperience Center is that “it is a evolutionary project what we want share with channel, manufacturers and customers; that we want it to be a joint success and that we have the possibility of being able to exploit it to the fullest at your disposal., working and developing projects, both together and their clients”.

In this last aspect, The end customer is a fundamental element in the concept created by the wholesaler with this space. “It is very important to work together with them; come to the Xperience Center; that they can see the deployment of technology that Ingram Micro has carried out to offer it to the distribution channel, and that allows us to develop projects together”.

With this commitment, the offer is clear and direct: “we want you the client can feel the technology, analyze and see what are all the solutions we have available and decide which ones you really need to implement. Ingram Micro has been unique in integrating different AV and CU technologies into one real production environment like Xperience Center”.

Evolution and growth

Dynamic, accessible, open and generator of AV and CU projects, Xperience Center has, as Rincón states, a future evolution: “we want to continue growing in technology, in portfolio and solutions. We invite you to come, be with us and have the possibility of working together on a project and developing it”.

As an evolutionary project, The first phase has materialized in the Ingram Micro offices in Viladecans, “from here, We are going to continue working to have the Madrid offices also available for the channel y, in this way, to be able to provide coverage from these two cities nationwide”.