Q&A: Actis Technologies Becomes First Company in India to Become AVIXA Gold Level Member
Mumbai-based audiovisual solutions provider Actis Technologies has recently invested in AVIXA’s Gold level membership to become the first company in India to pursue such a high level of engagement.
Founded in 1971, Actis has tapped into AVIXA technical training resources for more than a decade. The company is a great case study for how technical training investment pays off for a regional audiovisual service provider, helping it grow into new segments to become one of India’s most respected integration firms.
Actis now employs 250 people and has numerous international certifications and awards from industry leaders like Cisco, Polycom, Crestron, Extron, and Biamp. Its clients include Thyssenkrupp, EMC, CLP India, and more. Most recently, Actis handled the AV and lighting integration for a Viacom facility in Mumbai, including 38 rooms in total, 26 huddle rooms, and multifunctional cafeteria. In a separate project, for Fluor Daniel India in Gurugram, it built a dedicated fibre optic network that connects 5,000 employees across different offices for town hall broadcasts.
In this Q&A, we talk to Actis owner Abhimanyu Gupta about the company’s decision to invest in AVIXA Gold Level membership and his outlook of the Indian AV market.
Q: Actis has seen impressive business expansions over the last decade. What is Actis’s key differentiator from competitors?
Gupta: It comes down to the fundamentals—our ability to take on complex projects and deliver to the highest standard of quality and timeliness. Our customer support for projects extends for years after completion, and that’s an important factor for many clients.
Since inception, Actis Technologies has been a technically driven organisation, and education and training have been a critical part of how we have grown and evolved. Each new hire is provided with learning resources, mentorship, and real-world experience for the maximum opportunity to become extremely proficient for every project.
Actis Training Room
Q: Why did Actis decide to invest in AVIXA Gold level membership at this time?
Gupta: Gold level membership demonstrates to clients and prospects our commitment to technical training and gives more confidence in our team’s abilities in designing solutions, executing projects, and maintaining AV infrastructure to global standards. The membership also makes it easier for us to improve the quality and cost efficiency of our training initiatives.
Actis started its training initiatives started mid 2000s. The initial objective was to make sure the most experienced technical members would be trained to meet highest global standards. Over time we have been able to use AVIXA resources and training tools to enhance our own internal learning programme for staff across the company.
Q: Can you quantify the value of education and staff training to Actis?
Gupta: Quantifying the value of learning is difficult, but I can say with confidence that education has allowed us to venture into new segments we didn’t anticipate.
Our company started with manufacturing film editing equipment, then moved on to overhead projectors, to LCD panels and projectors, to complex audiovisual, lighting, and control integration. Each phase of our growth has been firmly grounded in continued learning and technical skill development. All of this wouldn’t have been possible, if we had stood still without investing in the future.
Our clients also take note of our consistently high technical capability, when they choose to work with us in a project. They trust that our team’s certifications mean we can deliver to their expectations from beginning to end.
Q: Actis’s business growth coincides with the expansion of India’s AV industry as a whole. What do you see are the most exciting opportunities as AV continues to mature in India?
Gupta: Opportunity exists across all sectors of the market. In corporate, organisations are aggressively investing in collaboration technology. There is a lot of investment in meeting technology and video collaboration and some clients are bringing this technology into as many as 50 to 100 spaces in a single project.
IT managers are increasingly looking to streamline infrastructure management by incorporating AV, IT, lighting, and environmental control. In government and education, adoption of AV will continue to grow. Premier institutions are leveraging AV to create more interactive learning environments and enable distance education.
Q: What remains the key roadblock as we look ahead at India’s AV industry?
Gupta: The biggest challenge in India lies in the inconsistency of training, practices and standards across the country. All of this presents obstacles to project quality, timeliness, and profitability.
No one will debate that India’s technical levels have improved considerably over the last decade, but there is still much room for improvement.
