Beijing | ProAV manufactures may love hardware - but even among Chinese manufacturers, the future increasingly lies in platform solutions that closely integrate hardware and software. In this context, AI is emerging as the critical hinge between the two. Hardware alone is no longer enough - not in Asia, either.
Beyond Hardware: AI and Software Take Center Stage
For CMS developers in Europe and North America, a new wave of competition from the East is beginning to take shape. China’s display manufacturers are quick to identify trends, and their pace of innovation is close to none. At InfoComm China, established and lesser-known hardware vendors alike presented software solutions such as CMS and Remote Device Management (RDM) for the first time. The solutions are not positioned as standalone products from ISVs, but as components of integrated, AI-driven ecosystems backed by financially strong hardware players. Often fully integrated and packaged with the hardware at no extra cost.
For now, Navori, Vertiseit & Co. have little reason for concern. When it comes to software and AI, Western customers – given the current geopolitical climate – are unlikely to adopt Chinese solutions. At the same time, Chinese customers have long relied primarily on domestic platforms. Especially in DooH, CMS deployments must be accessible to state authorities by design. One of the few Western companies to have successfully established itself in China is Telelogos. With its on‑premise CMS solution, the software pioneers from France continues to serve successfully large Chinese enterprises through local partners.
That said, the pressure to innovate will increase. ProAV has now become part of China’s five‑year strategic planning. Against this backdrop, Chinese AI hyperscalers such as Alibaba, Huawei and Tencent may, in the future, become relevant platforms for Western digital signage ISVs, too – alongside Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. China’s hyperscaler are growing rapidly also outside of their home market in APAC, South America and Africa. This could open new opportunities in markets outside the West that are increasingly shaped by Chinese AI platforms,
As China’s emerging display giants expand to EMEA and across APAC, Western ISVs will need to support SoCs from Chinese manufacturers such as Hisense, TCL, BOE and Skyworth – either natively or via middleware platforms like SignageOS. The good news: these are typically Android-based SoCs, albeit with manufacturer-specific characteristics.
China’s domestic market will remain a mostly closed market for Western ISVs, but Chinese manufacturers acquisition of established visual solution providers, their global expansion and China’s AI hyperscalers growing relevance in many markets provides interesting growth potential.