Brazil – From its São Paulo office, David Román, Senior Director of Sales for Latin America at SHURE, analyzes the company’s growth in the region, the evolution of the collaboration market and the role artificial intelligence will play in workspaces. With the upcoming edition of InfoComm Latin America as the backdrop, SHURE will present IntelliMix Bar Pro, its Room Kits certified for Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and strengthen its technology partnerships while expanding its regional presence.
Visiting SHURE’s Brazilian office in São Paulo quickly provides an understanding of the scale this operation represents for the company in Latin America. A significant part of the activities supporting the regional business is centralized there, while a strategy is coordinated that seeks to keep the brand close to customers, integrators, distributors and end users.
David Román, Senior Director of Sales for Latin America at SHURE, welcomed LATAM STAGE and shared a vision that goes far beyond products. The conversation covered the company’s evolution, the growth of the collaboration market, its relationship with Microsoft and Zoom, the arrival of artificial intelligence in meeting rooms and SHURE’s next steps in Latin America.
A regional operation based in São Paulo
“SHURE has a presence in Latin America, in Mexico City and São Paulo. The São Paulo office is critical and key for us because it represents our entire operation for the 22 countries plus the Caribbean that we manage in Latin America,” explains Román.
This location concentrates areas such as back office, support, customer service, human resources and marketing, making São Paulo SHURE’s main office for Latin America.
But the regional structure is not limited to geography. Román particularly highlights the diversity of the team working for the Latin American market.
“SHURE and the presence we have had in Latin America for more than 40 years are based on the principle of working with a team from different parts of Latin America. Our team, I believe, has six or seven nationalities, although the work is centralized from São Paulo or Mexico City. That diversity in our profiles is one of the strengths of a brand that has had this presence for so many years.”
For SHURE, this closeness to the market is a strategic element. Distribution models may vary from one country to another, but the principle of maintaining direct contact with the customer and end user remains.
“Our footprint in Latin America and the relevance of the market is reflected in the investment we make to have a very direct presence with the end user. Although our distribution systems are different in different Latin American countries, the principle of being close to the market, the customer, the end user, remains one of the keys at SHURE in Latin America and globally.”
From microphones to collaboration solutions
One of the most important changes SHURE is undergoing is the evolution of its collaboration business. Historically recognized for its microphone technology, the company has spent more than a decade expanding its participation in a market where audio, video, unified communications, integration and software converge.
“The collaboration environment, unified communications, audio, video and integration are key elements at SHURE for more than 10 years,” says Román.
The evolution has been progressive. From microphones, SHURE has gone on to build a portfolio that today includes DSP, amplification, speakers, collaboration systems and unified communications solutions.
“Always at a pace of evolving from a microphone perspective to becoming a turnkey solutions provider within the world of collaboration. So today it is key, it is one of the key markets in Latin America, it is a priority for SHURE globally, given the extensive portfolio we have today.”
For Román, this transformation also reflects a change in the way the company itself is understood.
“Who would have thought that a microphone company would have amplifiers, different speaker models, collaboration systems, unified communications systems, DSPs and all the other features inherent to collaboration systems within such a complete portfolio, not just microphones as such. So it is one of our priority markets.”
InfoComm Latin America as a meeting platform
In this context, InfoComm Latin America occupies an important place within SHURE’s regional strategy. The company will once again participate in the second edition of the event, which will take place in Mexico City, and will use the event as a platform to present new solutions and strengthen its relationships with technology partners.
“We take every opportunity we have to be close to the market. InfoComm is a great showcase for us, as are the other shows in Latin America, where we always have a direct presence as a brand to establish conversations with end customers, intermediaries in integration companies, rental companies, etc. InfoComm is key for us within our communication strategy with those customers.”
One of the main focuses of SHURE’s participation will be IntelliMix Bar Pro, a solution that represents precisely this transition from traditional audio toward a broader collaboration ecosystem.
Audio as an input for artificial intelligence
The incorporation of artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way meeting rooms are conceived. For SHURE, audio plays a fundamental role in this transformation.
“All collaboration systems are changing and migrating. Artificial intelligence has opened a key door for us from the standpoint that it is increasingly recognized that the input, in this case audio, is an extremely important element in taking those collaboration systems to the next level.”
In this scenario, IntelliMix Bar Pro emerges as SHURE’s first product to enter this collaboration segment.
“So the bar, or IntelliMix Bar Pro, is our first product that enters that collaboration system.”
InfoComm Latin America will precisely be one of the platforms where SHURE will seek to explain this new vision. The company will also have the participation of strategic companies such as Microsoft.
“InfoComm Latam is the launch showcase where we have guests, for example, from strategic companies that work with us, such as Microsoft, who will be at our InfoComm space to explain that this entire world of hardware, software and collaboration is integrated.”
The presence of Microsoft executives will also publicly reinforce a relationship that, according to Román, is continuously developed in the field of technological development.
Certifications and partnerships that go beyond hardware
The IntelliMix Room Kits are certified for Microsoft Teams and Zoom, an aspect that SHURE considers fundamental to its strategy.
“That is the key. As I say, everything is going to evolve. Working directly with companies such as Microsoft or Zoom within the developments they are making on collaboration platforms allows us to deliver that added value that we promote with the systems we are bringing to market.”
The relationship with these platforms is not presented as a one-off integration. SHURE works with Microsoft and other technology partners on development roadmaps that take into account the future needs of the market.
“The evolution is constant because you have people from SHURE working with Microsoft and Zoom, and people from Microsoft and Zoom working with SHURE on the development of this. They are a software company. We are a 101-year-old company making hardware and technology.”
Román mentions that development requires a long-term perspective. “We come together with roadmaps looking at what is going to happen next year, in two years, in three years. Nothing is developed in the short term. You are always looking at their needs from an infrastructure standpoint and our needs from the standpoint of collaboration platforms that are so widely used today around the world, in order to continue developing added value that translates into what the end customer wants.”
For SHURE, it is a combination of hardware, platforms and knowledge. “So it is a communion and joining of efforts between companies to continue delivering what the market is asking for.”
The meeting room prepared for AI
During InfoComm Latin America, SHURE will also focus on a concept that will become increasingly common in the market: the meeting room prepared for artificial intelligence.
The company will conduct two presentations focused precisely on the meeting room of the future and the conditions required for these spaces to take advantage of the possibilities offered by AI.
For Román, the starting point remains the same: audio quality. “The key today, at least projected into a short-term future of three to five years, is that the relevance of audio in these collaboration systems lies in everyone understanding each other well and hearing each other well.”
The reason is direct. Artificial intelligence can analyze, translate, summarize and process information, but it needs to receive quality data. “The foundation for artificial intelligence to provide you with reliable information from the standpoint of intelligibility, translation, meeting minutes, etc., depends on the input you give the system, the platform. And that is where SHURE comes in.”
In this scenario, microphone technology ceases to be simply a capture element and becomes part of an information chain. “Our advanced microphone systems provide that intelligibility so that AI can take that input and translate it into decisions, communications, information and data that become decisions for companies.”
Román summarizes the current moment as the beginning of a much greater transformation. “We are in the first steps of this artificial intelligence moment, which is nothing more than the collection of data for decision-making.”
From data to efficiency
The evolution of AI in collaboration spaces will, for SHURE, have an impact that goes far beyond the tools that are beginning to be incorporated into meetings today.
“Everything is going to translate into efficiency. From data to decisions and to that efficiency. I think AI is going to move the world toward increasingly higher efficiency,” acknowledges Román.
The possibility of making decisions more quickly and based on better-structured information could change the way companies use their collaboration spaces.
“When you start making faster decisions, based on better data, the only thing you are going to increase is efficiency, profitability, better use of time, to give a few examples, which will translate into faster, more efficient decisions made with better data.”
For SHURE, the challenge is to turn technology into concrete value for organizations. “Today we continue collaborating and talking; the vision, at least not only of SHURE, I think of the entire business as such, is to translate that data into a lot of added value, into better returns on technology investment, which translate into efficiencies for companies.”
The showroom as an experience tool
SHURE’s expansion strategy in Latin America also includes greater investment in spaces where customers can directly experience the solutions.
In Mexico, Representaciones de Audio, SHURE’s distributor, will open a new showroom in Mexico City. The objective is for end customers, integrators and other professionals to experience the different solutions within a real demonstration environment.
“We have our own showrooms, such as the one here in São Paulo, plus showrooms belonging to our distributors. These spaces are key because, in one way or another, they show the different types of products and the different ways of using the technology.”
The ability to test the solutions takes on particular importance when it comes to collaboration systems. “It is very easy to say or show; another thing is to feel, to use, and these showrooms will allow that.”
The new space will allow different types of collaboration environments and the various technologies that can be integrated into them to be demonstrated.
“It is not a single collaboration space. There are different types of collaboration spaces using these technologies, using the showroom equipment. So, having these spaces with our distributors fits us perfectly. Obviously, the spaces in our offices are oriented toward all end users or intermediaries. For example, integration companies can use them to demonstrate what is being promoted.”
A new SHURE for a new Latin America
Toward the end of the conversation, Román offers a definition that summarizes much of the transformation the company is undergoing. “SHURE is evolving to transform itself from an audio company into a value-added IT company.”
This process takes on a particular dimension in Latin America, a market that historically adopted certain technologies after the United States and Europe.
However, for Román, that scenario is changing. “I believe technology adoption processes have always been somewhat delayed in Latin America. They first start elsewhere, in the United States, in Europe, especially in multinational companies, and then reach Latin America. I think that no longer exists.”
The acceleration of artificial intelligence can change that dynamic.
“It is going to be updated because the transformation of using artificial intelligence in our way of working is and will continue to be very accelerated. So, those technology adoption processes in Latin America are going to be faster than ever,” says David Román.
To accompany this process, SHURE is committed to continuing to expand its portfolio and strengthening its presence through distributors, channels, integrators and direct contact with users.
“We are going to continue working on expanding the portfolio, as we have always done, with more equipment, more functionality, with the same spirit of keeping pace with technology and platforms.”
And in a market where hardware must increasingly coexist closely with software, evolution does not necessarily end with the purchase of the product.
“Hardware investments are not for short-term thinkers, but they will continue to be enhanced with functionality through firmware, through controls and management systems for this hardware, in order to match that with the next things that will continue to emerge in artificial intelligence.”
The formula, Román says, maintains a principle that SHURE has considered fundamental for decades: listening to the market.
“The formula remains the same. Being close to the market, being close to the end customer, being close to platforms and technology partners, and continuing to promote this throughout Latin America with the presence we have.” With more than a century of history, SHURE demonstrates that innovation is not only about developing new technology, but also about anticipating the way that technology will transform our lives. From microphones to collaboration ecosystems, from audio capture to artificial intelligence, the company continues to look ahead, combining experience, vision and development to build today the tools that will define the workspaces of the future. In Latin America, that vision is already underway.
