Quick Bio
Name: Bridget Hayes
Position: Global TPS Marketing Director, Black Box
Company: Black Box
Overtime: I am a traveler by heart and love the freedom of travel. As a family we have invested in a motor home, and every other weekend you will find us cruising to find the next beauty spot to wild camp. I use this time to reflect and breathe, to take time out, and to disconnect from technology and the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. It’s a reset for me.
SCN: What is your position and what does it entail? What are your responsibilities?
Bridget Hayes: Global TPS marketing director. I lead our TPS marketing team and strategy for the Black Box products business.
SCN: How long have you been in this position?
BH: Since April 1, 2021.
SCN: How has your background prepared you for your role?
BH: I started with Black Box in September 2017 as the company’s UK channel manager. It’s been my experience that Black Box recognizes the talent of its employees; I progressed to the position of Nordic and UK sales director, and then recently I was promoted to TPS global marketing director. I have a solid background in sales and indirect channel development, which involved driving the right tactics to achieve our overall goals. This experience and my understanding of Black Box’s overall business and markets has led me to drive a fast-paced and high-performance marketing team that develops and delivers on our core integrated campaigns.
[ What's the Status of the AV over IP Transition? ]
SCN: What are your short- and long-term goals?
BH: Black Box is a very customer-centric company, and we aim to provide the best products and services to our customers in our different verticals, which include, of course, the pro KVM and pro AV markets.
We continue to raise awareness of our pro KVM and pro AV offerings through creative and effective branding and by supporting the sales organization while delivering a personalized digital experience throughout the customer lifecycle.
SCN: What is the greatest challenge you face?
BH: Business is full of challenges. As a rule, it’s always important to be agile and flexible to best serve customers.
SCN: Where do you see the pro AV heading?
BH: In the world of video, we are finally reaching the inflection point of AV over IP. This is due to the fact that AV is simply everywhere. The pro AV community has finally stopped resisting IP-based video and audio distribution. The adoption rate has increased dramatically. We are going to see far more interactive and interconnected solutions in the future. Simple solutions are still going to exist, obviously, but importantly, for mass scalability, IP projects will rely on reliability and usability.
SCN: Are there new initiatives we are likely to see from Black Box?
BH: There are some amazing things happening now and on the horizon from Black Box. Black Box is known for products that make AV easy: easy to deploy, easy to expand, and easy to operate. Our three most prominent product lines—MCX Network AV, Radian Flex Video Walls, and iCompel Digital Signage—all accomplish that goal. What we are doing now will benefit both existing and future customers. As we look further out, we are integrating more to automate AV and make the AV experience far more efficient for end users and for our contractor partners.
[ Moving Forward with the Adoption of AV over IP ]
SCN: How can systems contractors better position themselves to profit from products and/or services you have to offer?
BH: Two big things here. First, start every project with an AV strategy. This means for both short- and long-term projects. Whether for a 4x4 matrix or an interconnected signage platform that connects to the access control system, you need to have a strategy.
And second, embrace the power of Ethernet regardless of the size of your project. Don’t shy away from IP-based systems for small deployments. Using AV over IP means expansibility and scalability in the future. Embracing AV over IP as a standard allows the contractor to leverage that standard for future projects with the end user, regardless of whether those systems will be interconnected.
Click here to read more stories from the October 2021 issue of SCN.
