Barco India MD Rajiv Bhalla bullish about healthcare and entertainment sectors

Display technology firm Barco India, a subsidiary of Belgium-based Barco NV is bullish about the Indian market. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Rajiv Bhalla, MD, Barco India, spoke about the company's plans and future prospects.

Edited excerpts:

Q. How are your products different from others in the market?

The USP of our products is that they can work 24x7 for 365 days. Several products are manufactured and exported from India to 90 countries. In the enterprise space, we have wireless collaboration called Clickshare, which enables connectivity without wires in meeting rooms. Plugging in this USB device creates a private network for sharing. It is a market leader and benchmark for wireless display solutions. Almost 20 percent of our revenue comes from this product and we see growth in this segment.

Q. What is the potential in the cinema and healthcare space?

Our key focus is to create experiences, especially in the cinema space where there is increasing competition from OTT platforms.However, large multiplex chains continue to add screens. The difference is they are focusing on creating experiences for cine goers now. Cinema contributes to 43 percent of our business.

Q. How does the current economic scenario affect your business?

Despite the economic slowdown, we expect continuous growth in the healthcare and the entertainment space. India is deeply under penetrated as far as cinema screens. In India, there is 8 screen per million people, US has 112 screens per million. There is a huge potential for cinema screen expansion in India. In the healthcare space, several hospitals still use consumer grade displays.

Q. Tell us more about your work on Smart Cities?

Every Smart City requires setting up a command and control centre. We have helped set up the command centre at Lucknow, UP. While the implementation is slow, there is huge potential.

Q. What are the challenges you face in the Indian market?

India is a price-sensitive market. People sometimes compromise on quality for pricing. Some of the hospitals still use consumer grade displays which affects accuracy of diagnostics. Our strategy is to ensure providing best facilities but customising solutions to address the value conscious mindset in India.

We have a strategy called 'In country, for country' , where we plan value engineering our products to cut down costs. We plan to bring in low cost products wherein we can also eliminate our intermediaries to pass on the price benefit to the consumers.

Q. Where do you see your company in 2020?

We consider ourselves a mission critical company. The vision for BARCO is to use the strength of visualisation to provide great outcomes. We also plan to ensure sustainable impact towards people, planet and community.