Aten Technology Inc. of Irvine has decided to get people interested in its audio-visual and remote control products by building a huge demonstration room, aptly named “The Sol”—Spanish for sun—in a nod to California’s sunny weather.
The Sol is being used to show customers, prospects and resellers how video walls are built; control rooms managed; and meeting rooms and classrooms improved with digital signage.
“When we want to show our customers the benefits and how to get this done, we realized the best way to do it is by showing them, to have a room with the solutions and how we make all this happen,” Product Manager YT Liang told the Business Journal, sitting in front of The Sol’s video screen.
“That’s the big concept of why we have The Sol. We like to share and show people what the solutions are.”
Forty people took part in the opening in October at the company’s U.S. headquarters in the Spectrum area, and customers have continued to visit The Sol after that, officials said.
Customers, Prospects
Product Manager Aaron Johnson said the room and its techie ambience will help to raise the profile of Taiwan-based Aten, which he says is well-known globally but still has “room to grow’’ in the U.S.
“We want to make sure that everything is covered on all sides of our business,” Johnson said.
The company has “decent market share” in the U.S., according to Johnson. About 30% of sales are from products sold here, according to its parent company’s latest annual report.
“Quite a few people” want to see products displayed in The Sol, Johnson said, and he expects the pace to quicken in 2020.
The room holds up to 80 people and is similar in design and purpose to a 7,500-square-foot space Samsung Electronics Co. opened at Irvine’s Von Karman Towers office complex this year in a bid to boost sales of its own digital displays to businesses in the Western U.S.
The Sun
The Sol features a video wall showing a variety of content.
The company’s KVM—keyboard/video/
mouse—switching products integrate keyboards, mice and monitors of multiple computers or servers. Users can switch back and forth between any connected devices.
Aten’s professional audio-visual products distribute video sources to displays as needed with a phone or tablet to control the switching.
Company materials said users can walk into a meeting room and don’t have to look for multiple remote controls to turn everything on, for instance. Lights, projectors, screens, and video from the PC or server are run from one push of a button, and meetings can begin.
Targeted markets are government, education, and companies, particularly hospitality.
