Five Questions with New AVIXA Taiwan Ambassador Nick Cheng
Nick Cheng, who is the new AVIXA Ambassador for Taiwan, has his fingers firmly on the pulse of the region’s AV industry.
Cheng is the head of several companies servicing clients in system integration, media, IT, and project management. As an advisor for numerous technical and industry development organizations, he is also an active advocate for the sustained growth of AV professionals.
He is General Manager at Jin Long System Integration Co. Ltd as well as CEO at Nova Media Integration Co. Ltd and Nova Advertising Co. Ltd. He has also been appointed to advisory and supervisory roles at nine different industry and technical organizations. They include Digital Signage Multimedia Alliance Taiwan, Taiwan Hotel Technical Association, Entertainment Equipment & Digital Communications Technology Association, Taiwan Micro Film Creative Association, Taipei Association of Fire Protection, Taiwan Open API Development Association, Taiwan Hotel Association, a&s Taiwan, and National Taipei University of Technology MMRE Foundation.
Cheng now assumes the role of an AVIXA Ambassador — a local champion who supports AVIXA initiatives in a designated territory. In his new role, Cheng is tasked with fostering a community in Taiwan by providing networking opportunities for the local AV industry. He also leads the effort to extend AVIXA offerings to the broader Chinese-speaking community.
Q: When did you start engaging with AVIXA?
Cheng: I have participated in AVIXA programs for 20 years. I was at AVIXA's very first Asian show in Singapore. And since then I have attended many more conferences connecting with the global AV community and getting first-hand experience with exhibitors like AMX, Crestron, and Extron.
Q: What is unique about the AV industry in Taiwan?
Cheng: The Taiwan market is fairly developed. We have lots of ICT (Information Communications Technology) products going into theme parks, commercial centers, casinos, and other large-scale projects.
Taiwan is also interesting because it is the home to many AV brands, from digital signage to transmission to cabling. In most exhibitions, you will find Taiwanese vendors and manufacturers. The AV ecosystem here is quite unique.
Q: What opportunities stand out the most to you for helping the industry grow?
Cheng: As a consultant, I see first-hand that it’s generally difficult to find good engineers in Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia. When I go to AVIXA programs, I always wondered how the AV community here could benefit from this fantastic bank of knowledge resources.
Q: What is your mission as AVIXA ambassador?
Cheng: Over the years, I have encouraged a lot of vendors to attend InfoComm. And now that I’m formally an ambassador, I look forward to leading the effort in bringing AVIXA training resources to audiences across Asia, Taiwan, and perhaps eventually Hong Kong and Singapore.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing the AV professional? How might one tackle it?
Cheng: Products are changing at a lightning speed. Audio and video over IP is a good example. People used to deploy the same systems over three or five or ten years. Now everything changes so rapidly everyone has to learn constantly to stay ahead.
