How the Global Chip Shortage Could Impact Your AV Plans

A global shortage in semiconductors for electronics could threaten to impact the supply of AV equipment for conference rooms, training rooms and other business operations across the globe.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, these chips are in short supply because of strong demand for electronics, which began in Spring 2020 with a massive shift to remote work.

The pandemic forced workers to invest in their home offices with monitors, headphones, webcams, and updated computers. In addition to that, and while stuck at home, many invested in home entertainment with new TVs and gaming consoles.

A lot of this demand was expected and chip makers were able to meet the demand for remote work, virtual healthcare and distance learning for the most part.

Restoring Market Balance Takes Time

As we navigated our way through 2020 and started to see businesses slowly reopen and industries bounce back, one of the fastest to recover – more quickly than anticipated – was the automotive industry. Along with that recovery, demand for semiconductors int he auto industry surged in the middle of the year.

Now, there aren’t enough materials for chipmakers to make enough chips for either the auto industry or the rapidly growing tech industry.

The semiconductor industry has been working hard to ramp up production, but the supply-demand imbalance is not a quick remedy.

In fact, lead times of up to 26 weeks are the norm in the industry to produce a finished chip. Making a semiconductor is one of the most complex manufacturing processes.

What This Means for You

Most industry analysts believe the current short-term supply shortage will ease in the coming months as supply adjusts to meet demand. At this time, as far as we know, no AV manufacturers have cited the chip shortage as a reason for decline in production or product availability.

But it is worth talking about, and something that we in the industry are watching closely as it could potentially effect our ability to fulfill requests from clients.

Again, that hasn’t happened yet, but it’s certainly on our radar.

For you and your business, if AV upgrades or new AV installation is something on your radar, it could be worth visiting the project sooner than later to avoid any potential gaps in product fulfillment that could happen as supply tries to make up on some lost ground with demand.