Buying Guide・2022-07-13

[Economic Daily News Interview] BXB Electronics Targets Smart Office, Making Remote Meetings Highly Immersive

Industry Insights

This report was published in the print edition of the Economic Daily News on July 10, 2022, Page A5 – Hidden Champions.

Special thanks to Mary Yang, Publisher of Global Views Monthly, for her recommendation, and to Wu Ping-kai, reporter of Economic Daily News, for the meticulously arranged interview.

BXB Electronics was founded in 1991 by founder Wu Chao-wen, primarily manufacturing public address and conference systems.

products, and created the brand "BXB" with the expectation of "Best X Best"—striving for excellence and continuous improvement. From the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, and the Central Weather Administration, to prestigious universities such as National Chengchi University, National Sun Yat-sen University, and National Cheng Kung University, nearly 70% of schools below the high school level across Taiwan use the company's products.

BXB General Manager Jerry Hung recalled that about ten years ago, he noticed the company's revenue had stagnated because the analog public address systems of that time were products that customers rarely needed to replace.

He explained that a friend once proactively mentioned using the company's product. Upon inquiry, he discovered that the model used had been discontinued for nearly ten years and had been working flawlessly for 18 years. Naturally, there was no need for an upgrade, which made Jerry Hung realize a major bottleneck in the company's operations.

In response, he reflected and analyzed that since its establishment, BXB has always followed a "single equipment product" economic strategy, focusing solely on improving product functionality and excellence. Facing future trends of digitalization and intelligence, it would be difficult to meet market demands, so he decided to move toward a "venue economy"

" development and transformation.

Hung Chih-lin's strategy was to develop digital products to increase revenue. In the past, setting up an analog conference or public address system for a client cost only about NT$200,000. However, with the integration of audio-visual and digital technologies, revenue per client could increase by at least tenfold. As for the customer base, BXB could leverage its existing 60% market share in Taiwan to expand its business scope, thereby breaking through growth bottlenecks.

Ministry of Health and Welfare, National Sun Yat-sen University, Tainan District Court expand business scope and break through bottlenecks

Addressing the situation where public address systems require many electroacoustic talents, but very few academic departments in Taiwan cultivate them, he set his sights on the abundant ICT talent pool, initiating the integration of IT manpower to accelerate the pace of transformation.

BXB adopts a multi-point layout strategy, establishing two internal R&D teams while collaborating externally with ITRI, III, and National Sun Yat-sen University to establish three external teams. These five teams research the same digital AV streaming technology to increase the probability of success, widely gather professional knowledge, and quickly lead the company into the AV over IoT field.

Hung Chih-lin stated that the company spent two years and invested 20 million NTD to accumulate technology and know-how. After integrating the solutions developed by five units, the transmission technology can operate smoothly. The conference system products developed by the company, with AV over IoT technology at their core, have officially been launched.

Corporate Digital Gateway Marketing Theme

The first corporate customer for BXB's conference system products was Chih-Lin Hung's senior classmate from the EMBA program at National Sun Yat-sen University's College of Management, who ran a hardware fastener business. He was highly satisfied with the product after using it, which greatly boosted Hung's confidence in conquering the market. Hung Chih-lin believed that,

A high-specification conference room represents an enterprise's operational strength, acting as the "gateway" of the enterprise

. In addition to video technology, digital cameras, and high-resolution screen equipment, it also needs to be paired with the most important scenario design to turn the entire meeting room into a business bargaining chip, presenting a high-quality image on camera. Therefore, he decided to market with "Corporate Digital Gateway" as the main theme.

Affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, major international conferences have almost all shifted to video conferencing, and many multinational and small-to-medium enterprises also primarily rely on video conferencing. The market demand for smart offices is growing day by day, and the specifications, quality, and equipment of video conferencing are gradually receiving more attention.

In contrast, traditional conference systems have numerous limitations. BXB's applied technology connects independent offices, conference rooms, training rooms, and lobbies into an interconnected network. Through continuous software optimization, it can be easily managed via smartphones, tablets, and other devices, allowing users to enjoy the realistic presence of 'face-to-face meetings'.

Since 2012, BXB has continuously won awards for its outstanding product performance, including the "Outstanding Performance Award" from the Kaohsiung City SBIR Project, the National Invention and Creation Award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, two German iF Design Awards, and seven Taiwan Excellence Awards.

Silver Medal of the National Invention and Creation Award, Ministry of Economic Affairs

Germany iF Design Award

The 7th Dun & Bradstreet SME Elite Award - Top 1000 Elite Enterprises & The 41st Model of Entrepreneur Award of the Republic of China

Three years ago, Jerry Hung further cooperated with the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to set up a smart conference room in the Startup Terrace Linkou. Equipped with an IoT office space and access control management system, it was shared with startup teams and provided to visiting enterprises for presentations. It was highly praised by business owners, who flocked to it, accelerating market brand awareness.

Jerry Hung said that over the past six years, annual revenue has continued to grow at double-digit rates, with a cumulative increase of 40%, and the main source is the new business brought in by the Audio-Visual Internet of Things (AV IoT). Looking to the future, he said that BXB's current business mainly focuses on B2B commercial systems. To develop new niches, the company is preparing to enter the B2C market segment. This is mainly because the market demand for communication during the office process has not been met so far; for example, working from home mostly relies on laptops, but the video quality and communication efficiency are poor. In response, the company is focusing on developing digital content products such as audio pickup, video, and writing to create new customer groups and markets, while also preparing to enter e-commerce platforms to expand market share.

AI-powered cameras can locate sound sources

Chen Rui-wen, Manager of the Information and Communications Research Laboratories at ITRI, stated that the development of AI by small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan requires significant capital and talent, presenting a relatively high barrier to entry. As enterprises successively develop applications such as robotics and IoT, the Department of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs is also actively promoting the research, development, and application of forward-looking technologies, such as voice and semantic recognition technologies. In the past, it also promoted ITRI's development of the PECOLA companion robot for seniors and Taiwanese song-ordering machines, which are all key technologies for IoT applications.

Chen Rui-wen recalled that BXB wanted to enter the AI voice market and began collaborating with ITRI in 2014 on Chinese-English bilingual voice command recognition technology. Recently, BXB has further collaborated with ITRI on a core technology module for sound source localization. This module uses microphones to detect the direction of the speaker's voice during a meeting, then controls the camera to pan and focus on the speaker while filtering out interference from fixed PA speakers. Simply put, in a smart office, as long as someone turns on the microphone and speaks, the camera will automatically "locate the sound source." Through the video auto-tracking function, the camera uses sound to determine the speaker's position and then zooms in, adding value to the conference system.

Hung Chih-lin Strives for R&D, Surviving the Pain of Transformation

Jerry Hung, the son-in-law of BXB Electronics founder Wu Chao-wen, took on the responsibility of steering the company toward digital transformation. Living up to expectations, he led the company from a traditional analog public address system equipment manufacturer to carve out a new path, building it into the number one brand of conference and public address systems in Taiwan.

Since graduating from university, Chih-Lin Hung has worked as an electronic engineer and an audio-visual equipment salesperson. After accumulating solid technical expertise in electronic machinery, he founded Yin Chen Enterprise in 2001 to fulfill his entrepreneurial dream, engaging in public address system integration business.

Due to business dealings, he met and fell in love with Wu Pei-jung, who was then the export manager of BXB Electronics. At the invitation of Wu Chao-wen, he joined the management team of BXB Electronics.

Jerry Hung said that the biggest difference between starting his own business and joining BXB Electronics lies in the different generations and industrial environments in which the founder and he grew up. Therefore, their views and opinions on the company's business philosophy and future development direction often differed.

After several rounds of communication and discussion, the open-minded founder decided to step back, offering encouragement and opportunities to the younger generation. In 2011, the husband-and-wife team of Jerry Hung and Wu Pei-jung took over the operations, giving him a business stage to fully showcase his talents and ambitions.

Jerry Hung, who shouldered the heavy responsibility of digital transformation, invested tens of millions of dollars annually in technology R&D at the time. However, the process was filled with many uncertain factors, leading to delayed product launches, which put immense pressure on him, to the point where he could barely sleep at night.

Fortunately, the R&D team finally delivered results. The conference system launched with AV streaming technology received rave reviews, and business owners flocked to it. Even Hiwin Chairman Chuo Yung-tsai ordered systems for seven conference rooms. A massive influx of new business kicked off a new wave of growth momentum for the company's operations. With continuous version updates, this has pushed BXB Electronics to maintain its technological edge and market leadership.

It is worth mentioning that during the transformation process, he realized the importance of financial transparency and openness. He commissioned Deloitte Taiwan to audit the financial statements, and the company was registered on the Go Incubation Board for Startup and Acceleration Firms (GISA) in 2016, with plans for a future IPO to further strengthen and expand its business footprint. In addition, Jerry Hung emphasized that after undergoing this transformation, he has deep reflections on BXB's development direction. In the past, the market focused too heavily on upgrading hardware specifications without truly addressing user needs. In the future, BXB will continue to provide tangible upgrade experiences to connect with the digital generation.

Exclusive Streaming Technology Drives Venue Economy

BXB stated that its current workforce is 60 people, but the R&D team—including front-end and back-end software/hardware R&D, R&D strategy, and display interface design—consists of 15 people, accounting for 25% of the total employees. This clearly shows the internal emphasis on R&D, which is a major force for standing out in the market.

First, from the perspective of IoT technology, most IoT scenarios currently on the market do not use much bandwidth, involving small-traffic signals. However, the Audio-Visual IoT (AV-IoT) is completely different. With high demands for speed and smoothness, AV-IoT traffic is significantly larger to prevent lag or interruption, which raises the technical threshold. This relies on streaming technology, which has become our core competitiveness.

Secondly, such as using control software

Performing simplified and user-friendly operations, changing screens and pages, is the result of analyzing various scenarios and undergoing several version updates. Its convenience and smoothness in use far exceed those of competitors.

In addition, in the layout of smart conference rooms, traditional screens use a 16:9 aspect ratio, which limits both height and width. The area below 75 cm from the floor is an ineffective viewing angle, visible only to the first row. As a result, during meetings, people often crane their necks or move their chairs around, causing inconvenience and trouble, which affects meeting efficiency.

BXB Electronics, through its successfully developed video technology, transformed the screen display size from 16:9 to 32:9, extending the information originally at the bottom to the left and right, allowing meeting participants to fully grasp the changes across the entire screen. In addition, there are cameras at both the front and back of the conference room, which can adjust the video according to different meeting scenarios.

BXB Electronics pointed out that they are further developing internal robotic process automation (RPA) to hand over repetitive cross-departmental tasks to AI. For example, when sales personnel fill out an order, the system will connect to the warehouse to check stock or schedule the production line, which may also involve safety stock levels.