Buying Guide・2022-05-05

[Harvard Business Review Interview] BXB Electronics' Smart Conference Room: Loved by Major Enterprises

Industry Insights ｜ This report is featured in Harvard Business Review

Global Traditional Chinese Edition May 2022 – [Everyone Leaps to Become a Digital Expert]

Do you remember the school public address systems from your childhood? Up to 60% of them came from BXB Electronics. As early as ten years ago, BXB began planning its digital transformation, which led to today's "smart conference rooms" that even large enterprises love to use.

The school public address system is a shared childhood memory for many Taiwanese. Every time they heard: 'Student XXX from Class Y, Grade Z, please report to the Discipline Office,' classmates would start whispering: 'Did something happen at his house? Or did he get into trouble?' BXB Electronics' clients include the Office of the President, the Executive Yuan, the Central Weather Administration, the Academia Sinica Biotechnology Park, and several national universities such as National Chengchi University, National Sun Yat-sen University, and National Cheng Kung University.

Founded in 1991, BXB is a hidden champion in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. In addition to public address systems, its main products include conference systems, IP multimedia publishing systems, video tracking equipment, and language laboratory systems. Under its own brand BXB, these products have been marketed to over 50 countries worldwide for 30 years.

Ministry of Civil Service Taiwan, Academia Sinica Biotechnology Park, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung Asia New Bay Area Startup Terrace War Room

In recent years, with the increasing demand for working from home and remote work, the demand for video conferencing has surged, which has also catalyzed BXB Electronics' products to become smarter. The analog public address systems of the past have now been integrated with AV IoT technology to develop smart conference systems. Major manufacturers, including Hiwin Technologies and ASE Group, are already important clients of BXB. After using them, many company chairmen and general managers have expressed their desire to fully upgrade all of their conference rooms.

Product Thinking: Meeting Human Needs

Walking into BXB Electronics' smart conference room, many people cannot help but let out a 'Wow!' Coming into view is a massive LCD video wall measuring 540 cm long and 150 cm wide, which is also the most eye-catching feature of this product. BXB Electronics General Manager Jerry Hung stated: 'The core of a meeting is people; equipment should adapt to people, not people accommodating the equipment.'

In the past, before a meeting started, there would always be a group of people scrambling to draw the curtains, turn off the lights, turn on the projector, and adjust the screen size and focus... Moreover, traditional projectors use 16:9 projection screens, which are limited in height and width. The area below 75 cm from the ground is an ineffective viewing angle, visible only to the first row. As a result, during meetings, people were often seen stretching their necks or moving their chairs around. These hassles caused businesses to waste significant unproductive costs for every meeting. Consequently, the BXB team began to ponder: how can we make equipment truly "serve the people"?

The first step in upgrading to a smart conference room is to replace the projection screen with a 32:9 LCD video wall, extending the information originally at the bottom to the left and right so that everyone can see it. In addition, there are cameras at both the front and back of the conference room, allowing the video to be adjusted according to different meeting scenarios.

The more important key is that this system is paired with AV over IoT, making it easy to expand and maintain. In the past, conference systems would reserve space for future expansion during the initial construction phase, but the result was mostly left idle. AV over IoT does not require this; when expansion is needed, you only need to add a small box with the relevant function. (Related products

AV over IP Network Distributed Solutions) Customized services attract large enterprises

BXB Electronics has also put a lot of effort into the hardware interface. To make this system adaptable to corporate meeting rooms of various sizes and shapes, a modular furniture concept was adopted: the video wall itself is composed of eight tiled screens, which can be increased or decreased according to the size and needs of the meeting room. The wooden structure supporting the video wall consists of modular cabinets, custom-made in the factory after on-site measurements. Upon delivery, they only need to be assembled together, resulting in no dust, rapid construction, and reduced noise interference.

In addition to hardware and software advantages, BXB focuses more on service, emphasizing "In-depth partnership"

. Therefore, they always send personnel to conduct in-depth interviews with enterprises to understand their needs before custom-building the equipment. For example, one client was a construction company whose original meeting room had the boss's seat and the projection screen at opposite ends of a long table. Every time there was a meeting, the boss had to keep walking forward because he couldn't see clearly. To solve this dilemma, BXB Electronics rotated the new LCD display by 90 degrees to make it parallel to the conference table. As a result, everyone was equidistant from the screen, and the boss no longer had to walk back and forth. "The time spent scolding people was also greatly reduced," joked Jerry Hung.

Damao Construction Case Study – Conference table configured parallel to the video wall, allowing every participant to view presentation data at a glance, with a wide viewing angle improving discussion and decision-making efficiency

Pan Bo-zhou, Assistant Manager of HIWIN Technologies, which has recently gradually adopted BXB systems, stated that HIWIN values BXB's ability to technically customize various meeting scenarios, providing a one-stop dedicated service from planning, design, discussion, construction, training, to after-sales service, meeting the needs of global sales, technology, and product training. Currently, HIWIN has completed the upgrade of one smart meeting room, with three others undergoing optimization, and the large conference hall of the International Conference Center at the headquarters has also been included in future upgrade plans.

A Decade of Self-Transformation

BXB's smart meeting rooms have won the favor of large enterprises, which is the result of a decade-long layout in digital transformation. About ten years ago, BXB faced a bottleneck. "I realized that our original analog PA system was a 'when will you return' kind of product," Jerry Hung said with a smile. He once visited a friend's company and was shocked to find that they were using a BXB product that had been discontinued for nearly ten years. It had been used for over a decade without any issues, so naturally, there was no need for an upgrade. "This made me realize that if we continued to purely manufacture hardware, we definitely wouldn't survive," he said.

In addition to hoping to break through growth bottlenecks, Jerry Hung also proposed several growth strategies.

The first is focus, increasing the revenue from existing customers. In the past, setting up an analog conference or public address system for a customer cost only 200,000, but after incorporating audio-video and digitalization, the revenue from a single customer can increase tenfold.

Second, public address systems require a lot of talent from the electroacoustic industry, but Taiwan has very few related academic departments. However, ICT talent is highly abundant. Why not integrate BXB Electronics' original core capabilities with Taiwan's existing, ready-to-go IT talent?

Jerry Hung believes: 'We should use this 60% as a foundation for horizontal integration, creating products that customers need but we didn't originally offer.'

To accelerate transformation, BXB Electronics adopted a multi-point deployment strategy, establishing two internal R&D teams and collaborating externally with ITRI, III, and National Sun Yat-sen University to form three more teams. These five teams researched the same digital audio-visual technology without collaborating with each other. Why do this? Hung Chih-lin believed that relying on only one team carried too high a risk of failure. However, with multi-point deployment, the probability of success increases. Even if all of them failed, the five teams could still help the company extensively gather professional knowledge in this field, allowing the company to quickly enter the field of Audio-Visual Internet of Things (AVIoT).

Enduring the Loneliness Before Success

Transformation is not just about technological upgrades; it also involves resource investment. "So I had to secure a lot of funding, but these funds take time to yield results, and you can't see immediate effects," said Jerry Hung. To upgrade, the number of employees and R&D investment grew exponentially, and inventory value also increased significantly. Money was spent, but revenue did not see a proportional increase, which naturally invited criticism. "You must be able to withstand the loneliness and endure the process of being questioned," Jerry Hung recalled, noting that this was likely the most difficult part of the transformation process.

In addition to R&D, communication, and sourcing resources, he also carefully calculated how to conduct the most economical marketing, with "winning awards" being a key strategy. This is because winning awards not only secures R&D subsidies but also gains promotional support from the government. Since 2012, BXB Electronics has continuously applied for and won awards, including the Kaohsiung City SBIR Project "Outstanding Performance Award", the National Invention and Creation Award of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, two German iF Design Awards, and seven Taiwan Excellence Awards, gradually building its reputation.

German iF Design Award, National Invention and Creation Award of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dun & Bradstreet SME Elite Award

The Best Exemplar of Global IoT & Smart Services – Golden Dragon Award

'Building a brand' has always been Jerry Hung's goal. He believes that after transforming products and establishing a solid foundation, the next step is to pursue an initial public offering (IPO). Currently on the GISA board, BXB Electronics has initiated its listing process, aiming for an official IPO in 2024 to continuously drive corporate value.