Closing The Gap: The Opportunity for IT Providers Between All-In-Ones and Custom UC Solutions

The move to hybrid work as the default in businesses across the world has had a dramatic impact on the video conferencing market. The global market climbed to $8.1 billion in 2021 – just as COVID-19’s grip on society began to wane – and is expected to surge to $19.2 billion by 2028, according to BlueWeave Consulting research published in 2023.

There’s a very simple explanation for this boom: Many teams no longer meet regularly in person and in some cases not at all. Even if most participants are office-based, at least one is likely to dial in remotely. Similarly, face-to-face client meetings are increasingly being replaced with virtual ones to save time and cost of travel. All this is driving demand for video conferencing and audio-visual (AV) solutions for workplace meeting rooms which, in turn, is leading tech brands to continuously introduce a slew of collaboration products and peripherals to work with the leading UC platforms from Microsoft, Zoom, Google Meet, etc.

No single company dominates the market. There are a variety of technologies on offer to cater to different needs and preferences. This ranges from all-in-one devices from established IT brands suited to smaller, simpler rooms to professional, bespoke systems from experts in audio and video that can be tailored to any kind of environment. Options at either end of the spectrum certainly have their place and the gap between out-of-box solutions and fully custom integration continues to shrink thanks to new solutions that combine the best of both.

Despite the variety of solutions available in the market, many IT providers continue to gravitate towards video bar systems as the answer to all collaboration needs, resulting in unrealized potential for increasing customer satisfaction and revenue.

Why all-in-one systems aren’t all-purpose solutions

While USB video conferencing solutions offer convenience and solid performance across simpler meeting spaces, challenges arise when such all-in-one systems are deployed in environments beyond their intended application. Specifically, most video bars are not designed for use in larger or acoustically complex rooms. The audio experience is often the first to suffer—participants may struggle to hear clearly, voices may sound distant or muffled, and background noise can become a distraction.

A mismatch between space requirements and system capabilities can lead to user frustration, lost productivity, and over time erode confidence in the IT service provider who recommended the solution. Organizations may find themselves needing to reinvest in more suitable technology sooner than expected, incurring additional costs and potentially straining vendor-client relationships.

Capitalizing on the AV market opportunity

Driven by the increased reliance on cloud computing services, the video conferencing market is booming and there’s a real opportunity for the IT channel to step into the void and begin offering more advanced solutions from AV experts. Channel partners have long been there to help customers navigate complex and emerging markets, and video conferencing is no different. But this means exploring all the options on the table, not just those provided by the biggest names in the IT industry.

Resellers may reap serious rewards by plugging gaps in the portfolio of solutions they can offer customers – particularly for those large collaboration spaces in which all-in-one systems don’t quite provide the desired performance. Opting to take on more powerful and sophisticated systems from an audio specialist to augment your unified communications (UC) offering will go a long way to giving clients the best available option depending on their specific needs and budgets.

Similarly, for IT service providers looking to differentiate with the promise of AI-enabled collaboration workflows, more advanced audio solutions also represent a critical core component in your UC portfolios. High quality audio is essential for enabling accurate real-time transcription, automated note-taking, and intelligent meeting summaries—capabilities that are increasingly expected in modern hybrid workspaces.

This is where vendors like Shure can step in to provide MSPs and your clients certified, complete collaboration solutions and a full range of audio expansion systems that deliver a high-quality conferencing experience from the start, whatever the space and end-user requirements.

Professional audio solutions that are suited to every need

Shure is an industry leader with decades of expertise in acoustics, wireless systems, networked audio systems, and digital signal processing. We offer channel partners and customers the most comprehensive portfolio of audio-first collaboration solutions from a single vendor, all designed to work together seamlessly and efficiently address the need for high quality, ease of use, and scalability in modern collaboration systems.

For example, the Shure IntelliMix™ Room Kits provide a one-stop, certified solution for small to large Microsoft Teams Rooms, including a powerful Windows 11 compute with pre-installed Shure IntelliMix® Room DSP, an intuitive touch panel, superior MXA902 Ceiling Array Microphone + Loudspeaker, and intelligent Huddly camera solutions. Four curated kit options are available in ready-to-use packages to address the needs of varying room sizes. With a familiar, networked setup processes and zero-touch provisioning, the kits are straightforward to deploy for IT professionals and don’t require specialized knowledge to achieve premium audiovisual experiences.

A recent case study by FORTÉ demonstrates the practical benefits of deploying Shure’s IntelliMix Room Kits in real-world scenarios.

“The Shure IntelliMix Room Kit has everything needed for a complete Microsoft Teams Room setup. It installs cleanly, sets up fast with minimal configuration, and delivers great audio, which is important for Microsoft Copilot, transcription, meeting notes, and live translation to work effectively.” – Jack Manansala, FORTÉ

The compute and touch panel included in the IntelliMix Room Kits  are also available as a dedicated, certified Teams Rooms kit – the IntelliMix Foundation System –  that can be flexibly combined with Shure’s versatile Microflex® Ecosystem portfolio of conferencing audio solutions and third party cameras. This allows skilled integrators to offer customized solutions tailored to specific room and client needs.

Through technology partnerships with IT industry giants, the Shure Microflex Ecosystem-series microphones, DSPs and loudspeakers can also be easily integrated with existing video and UC systems from the likes of Cisco, Logitech, Poly and others to augment the performance of these systems in larger spaces.

Shure’s collaboration solutions can be configured in so many different ways and can scale up or down depending on the size of the meeting room or the context in which they are used. This provides channel partners and the customers they serve the fullest freedom to customize collaboration spaces room-by-room to deliver the best results, while ensuring investment protection through adaptability and upgradeability.

Conclusion

As many clients are reviewing their workplace strategies and collaboration technology needs, flexibility is paramount. The provision of advanced audiovisual solutions presents a lucrative opportunity for IT providers to expand your UC service portfolio, enhance client satisfaction, and increase profitability. By partnering with leaders in AV to offer synergistic solutions, IT partners can position themselves at the forefront of workplace innovation. The path to growth and differentiation has never been clearer—it's time to embrace the power of audio-first collaboration solutions.