A sit down with Samsung

Chris Bloxsome

BRAND MANAGER, SAMSUNG

Chris Bloxsome is the Samsung Brand Manager at Midwich, a trade-only Chris Bloxsome is the Samsung Brand distributor of AV technology established Manager at Midwich, a trade-only in 1979. Chris has worked in the AV distributor of AV technology established industry for 17 years, he is focused on in 1979. Chris has worked in the AV industry for 17 years, he is focused helping customers find the best Samsung on helping customers find the best solutions, whatever their installation Samsung solutions, whatever their requirements.installation requirements. How did Samsung adapt during the pandemic? I think the terms ‘agile’, and ‘agility’ were buzzwords throughout the pandemic. Every company had to adapt and change how they worked and for many companies, where they worked and Samsung wasn’t exempt from this.

Something that affected manufacturers in the pandemic, was a global supply shortage. Numerous components involved in display manufacturing suddenly became scarce and difficult to get hold of.

To minimise the impact as much as possible Samsung altered the specification on our QM series, removing HDMI out and DVI in. We also changed manufacture location to minimise delays.

How did you see Samsung products used throughout the pandemic? Products that enable mobility, such as Flip boards, were moved into break out areas to assist with social distancing.

We saw an acceleration of outdoor projects to assist with social distancing messaging. Quick service restaurants (QSR), like McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks also started to invest heavily in outside displays to improve drive-through services and minimise foot traffic in-store.

How are Samsung bringing innovation to the market? Our new QMB series launched in April, this is an upgrade on the QMR series, this will see the implementation of embedded video conferencing solutions using Web RTC. We are also seeing the introduction of Smartview+ which is Samsung’s proprietary software for multiple device sharing including Android, iOS, Windows and Chromebook.

Which new Samsung product sets do you think will be the biggest? The QMR series is currently the largest selling display group globally, this transitioned to QMB in April, and we expect to see the trend continue with the new lineup.

Are there any environments that Samsung are investing in for 2022? Samsung’s key verticals for 2022 are retail, QSR and education. For retail we are launching free software on the QMB series called Smart Calibration, this requires a free mobile app and allows you to colour collaborate your display with ease. We also have an expanded interactive line up which launched at Bett for the education market.