GREATER ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

SUPPORTING GREATER ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

James Attfield, MD of Turnstone AV, exclusive importer of Vogel’s AV Mounting Solutions into the UK, explains a new green initiative from the brand and some key products now and for the future.

James has been involved in the supply and support of the Vogel’s brands for some considerable time, having formerly been part of the management team of Vogel’s UK subsidiary when a direct model was operating in the UK. Switching to the import model in 2013 through Turnstone AV, Vogel’s has continued to offer a high-quality approach to support products looking to match consumer trends and the needs of installers in its product ranges. Coming into existence in the early 70s, James points out that the company has blazed a trail and enjoyed introducing many firsts into the support category including the first speaker bracket, and the first wall bracket for TVs. Currently, the company is looking to take the lead in another area, that of raising the awareness of the need for greater consideration for the environment and taking steps within in its own approach to offer some improvements and leadership.

James explains, “I am a strong believer in playing to your core strengths and Vogel’s has always been a company that breaks new ground and takes on the big challenges. We have a very strong range of products and installers know they can come to us for high-quality and strong customer support, but the brand is also taking a lead on environmental issues with some new initiatives.

“The brand is working in various ways to reduce its CO2 footprint examining the origin of the raw materials used in the manufacturing process and the way the products are produced.” James argues, “One way to reduce impact is to produce products so good that they last a very long time before needing to be replaced, and the brand definitely does that, however Vogel’s is also continually examining ways to make its manufacturing processes more sustainable. It was also recently announced that Vogel’s has developed fully recyclable packaging for some of its latest products. The approach means all EPS (Styrofoam) has been replaced by paper pulp. Small changes like switching the bags that contain screws and other small components from plastic to paper go a long way when scaled up. This new packaging has been rolled out into the most recent products first, but the plan is to move through the rest of the ranges and make the changes there too.”

In detail the new packaging approach is included on the new Comfort Series and will also be included on all new line ups for 2022, all packaging is 100% recyclable, and also the products themselves are manufactured with 95% less single use plastics.

James says that obviously some consumers will care more about this initiative than others, but the important thing is not so much that this can be used as a sales driver, but that companies must make moves to travel towards less environmental impact for no other reason that it is the right thing to do. However, other advantages such as making the material a product comes in easier to recycle and deal with after installation could have some logistical advantages for installers, particularly on larger projects.

New environmentally friendly packaging is being rolled out

CONTINUED INNOVATION

Making support products more cutting edge has always been part of the Vogel’s story, however making products ‘smarter’ and more integrated has been a challenge that needs to be carefully considered. James says, “Vogel’s has had products that could be moved independently, but in the past this was achieved using an app. The brand wants to go further and currently there is a TV support product in the pipeline that will be fully connected with an open API sitting on the network and able to be controlled via many different sources including voice and RS232.

“The nature of TV support has changed greatly in recent years and offering people more flexibility of viewing angles in today’s often open plan living spaces, properly integrated into a whole home automation system, will be a strong addition. Towards the end of this year, we will have more news on that.”

The obvious other big change is that TVs have continued to grow in size and mounting large screens has always been a particular feature of the Vogel’s line up. James argues that being able to not just fully support right up to 77in, whilst still maintaining fingertip movement is impressive for consumers and underlines the engineering quality of what the brand produces. The brand also has solutions all the way up to 100in screens and 70kilos in weight and can offer some lines in white to give more options for matching interiors. Strength and accuracy is also another Vogel’s trait James emphasises, making it easier to place products exactly where they need to be, often in tight spaces free of the issues caused by some support products loosing integrity over time allowing products to drop, and impacting all the time and effort that was needed to create a truly integrated solution in the first place.