On this episode of Futurum Live! From ISE 2024, The Futurum Group’s Craig Durr talks with Jose Rivas, Vice President of Global Sales at Shure Incorporated, about Shure’s commitment to innovation and customer-centric solutions in the AV industry. They discuss Shure’s new Global Sales Structure, groundbreaking product launches including the MXW neXt 2 and MXA901, and the company’s forward-thinking approach towards integrating AI into their product line to meet the evolving needs of the market.
Their discussion covers:
- The transformative impact of Shure’s new Global Sales Structure in enhancing customer connectivity.
- Introduction and features of Shure’s latest product launches, including the MXW neXt 2 and MXA901, and a sneak peek into Shure Cloud.
- The significance of Shure’s partnership with the Q-SYS Technology Partner Program and how it aligns with their vision for the future.
- Shure’s strategic incorporation of AI in product development to set new standards in ease of use, installation, and software advancement in the AV industry.
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Listen to the audio below:
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Transcript:
Craig Durr: Hey, everybody. This is Craig Durr, Practice Lead for the Workplace Collaboration Practice at The Futurum Group. I’m still here, live, at ISE 2024. We’re bringing you some of the great updates that are taking place. This is the largest show for system integrators and ProAV. It’s perfect, talking about ProAV, that I have with me now joining Jose Rivas. He’s the VP of Global Sales for Shure. Jose, how are you doing?
Jose Rivas: Hey, thank you. Thank you, Craig. Glad to be here.
Craig Durr: Great to have you here, Jose. You now have a new sales structure to help get yourself closer to the customers, right? Shed some light on this. Tell me some more about this.
Jose Rivas: Yes, Craig. The new sales organization is designed in order to enhance the connectivity that we have with customers and end users. Our goal is to get closer to those end users and to those customers, and make sure that our cutting edge solutions, they’re not just cutting edge solutions, they’re cutting edge solutions that solve a problem that our customers have, where they have.
Craig Durr: That’s fantastic. Now, there’s some great benefits to this though, right? Share with me how this translates into benefits for the customers.
Jose Rivas: Absolutely. Absolutely. Think about end user focus.
Craig Durr: Yeah.
Jose Rivas: We need to be closer to our end users, and the end users have to be the driving force for us. That means that our sales team has to be connected to customers and end users to find the unmet needs that they might have. On top of that, you also have agility. We need to be more agile. We need to respond to market conditions in a more agile way. These new structures allow us to be closer to our end users and to our customers, bringing back that feedback into the products. Of course, this team, as well, is empowered, empowered to make decisions where decisions matter, which is in front of the customer.
We are divided now by regional and local teams, and those regional and local teams are in power to make decisions right there, when it matters. Finally, it is about a continuous innovation. The closer we, as a sales team, are to our end users and our customers, the faster we are going to be able to integrate their feedback into future solutions. Those are the four pillars that I see, and from this new sales organization.
Craig Durr: That’s fantastic. It’s great that you’re talking about innovation, because even at this show, we’re having a few new products that Shure is bringing to market. I would love to hear more about these two.
Jose Rivas: Excellent, excellent. Glad to talk about it, because it’s a lot of stuff happening. But the first one that I want to talk about is MXW neXt 2.
Craig Durr: Okay.
Jose Rivas: This is an all-in-one, two-channel wireless, connected to an all-in-one charger that has embedded a DSP, IntelliMix DSP, and together with an access point, has output via USB, or Dante, that can be deployed anywhere that that is needed.
Craig Durr: Wow.
Jose Rivas: That’s just one.
Craig Durr: Yes.
Jose Rivas: We have more. We also have the 901, the MXA901-
Craig Durr: Right.
Jose Rivas: … also being introduced at ISE. The 901 is a simpler version of our 920. It is for more medium and small rooms, but where you can ease of set up is paramount, but also ease of maintaining that product. Smaller version of the 902, but with clear audio, ease of setup, one single platform.
Craig Durr: I love it. These new products, I had a chance to go down to the showroom floor, and I had a chance to see the neXt 2. I love this all-in-one wireless conferencing device. It’s perfect for conference rooms. But you guys, you’ve had a lot of things coming out here, even in the last six months. Another product that came out was the 902. Tell me about that.
Jose Rivas: Yeah. Well, the 902, we launched that product back in the beginning of the summer. It’s the first time that that product is being introduced at ISE. Just the 902 come with the overall intention to be an all-in-one. You have a microphone, a ceiling microphone. You have the DSP embedded into the microphone, but you also have a speaker in the same form factor of MXA. You have all of that, one single solution, and quality of audio like you expect from Shure.
Craig Durr: That’s perfect. You’re bringing it all back around to the organization, for example, and some of those goals there aligning to meeting those customers where they are and where their needs are. Right?
Jose Rivas: Exactly.
Craig Durr: That’s great. Now, I know that you are also thinking about trends beyond what’s taking place today. One of those big topics taking place is AI, and how that’s impacting the AV industry. What are your thoughts on that?
Jose Rivas: Well, I think that AI is impacting everything that we are doing from a product development point of view.
Craig Durr: Okay.
Jose Rivas: AI, you have to consider that as you develop solutions that are really going to be what the customers need, where the customer needs. We are developing our future products with AI in mind, but it’s not only about that. It’s also about integrating to what we do right now. If you see the two software that we have brought to market at this show, number one is the Shure Cloud. Fantastic, fantastic. Shure Cloud, we are presenting the better version right now, but that’s going to be where you can monitor it, where you can have complete access to your Shure portfolio of products. But we also have Designer 6.0, and a lot of people have been waiting for that. 6.0 allows you to design, but also to monitor your Shure portfolio of products in any kind of application.
Craig Durr: I love that. I had a chance to view that. The user experience within Designer 6.0 is fantastic. Again, it talks to this idea. You probably had some great feedback from your IT administrators, talking about ease of use, ease of ability to manage these devices, and the way you can configure and move around a room within that interface was just incredible.
Jose Rivas: Yeah. Yeah. You know what? Talking about a little bit about what we discussed at the beginning, it is about ease of use.
Craig Durr: Yes.
Jose Rivas: It is about all-in-one. It is about meeting the customer where the customer needs are, and this is about having these solutions that are easy to set up and easy to manage as well.
Craig Durr: I love it. You were just delivering back on these pillars that we talked about in the beginning. That’s fantastic. Where do people have to go to learn and see more about these products now?
Jose Rivas: Well, number one, if you are here in ISE, go and visit us at the booth. It’s 3 and 300.
Craig Durr: Okay.
Jose Rivas: But you can also get all of this information through your IT vendor, through your AV vendor. Or, if you need more information, or if you want to go direct for the information, go to www.shure.com.
Craig Durr: That’s fantastic. Jose, this has been really exciting. I appreciate. There was a lot of innovation, a lot of new products coming out. There’s a lot going on to go see down there, right?
Jose Rivas: Yes, absolutely.
Craig Durr: Thank you for your time.
Jose Rivas: Thank you Craig.
Craig Durr: Everyone, this is Craig Durr, with The Futurum Group. We’re still here, live, at ISE 2024. Make sure you check out the Shure booth downstairs, or go to shure.com. Take care.
Author Information
As Practice Lead - Workplace Collaboration, Craig focuses on developing research, publications and insights that clarify how the workforce, the workplace, and the workflows enable group collaboration and communication. He provides research and analysis related to market sizing and forecasts, product and service evaluations, market trends, and end-user and buyer expectations. In addition to following the technology, Craig also studies the human elements of work - organizing his findings into the workforce, the workplace, and the workflows – and charting how these variables influence technologies and business strategies.
Prior to joining Wainhouse, now a part of The Futurum Group, Craig brings twenty years of experience in leadership roles related to P&L management, product development, strategic planning, and business development of security, SaaS, and unified communication offerings. Craig's experience includes positions at Poly, Dell, Microsoft, and IBM.
Craig holds a Master of Business Administration from the Texas McCombs School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Tulane University.
