Paso: it’s the Quality that makes the Difference
Paso never stopped in this year of Covid but indeed the Italian leading company on the emergency broadcasting, voice evacuation and congress system markets did continue making investments and designing many new solutions.
S News meets Antonio Faccioni, C.E.O. of Paso S.p.A.
Mr. Faccioni, can we consider your results as your strong response to the pandemic?
I’m pleased to ascertain that our effort is perceived from the outside. I think that 2020 has put everyone under a challenging test. Certainly, the reason behind our goodwill to fight this situation was the history behind us – almost 50 years now – and the strong desire to keep it going, trying our best not to stop in front of the enormous and objective difficulties that, like all companies, we have been forced to face.
We certainly have managed – and I am very happy with this, also on a human level – to team up and continue to carry out projects, communicate and provide assistance to our customers despite all the various limitations and restrictions to which we had to comply and respect scrupulously.
Can you give us some examples?
Well, I think it’s very significant that in the tightest lockdown period, not only was the design of a new series of new EN54-24 certified speaker units finalized, but above that the new range of compact voice evacuation systems PAW Mini was launched. This range will enrich the family of EN54-16/EN54-4 certified products with an even more compact cabinet- size than the previous models. The fact that even working remotely we managed to tenaciously carry on what we had set ourselves as a goal at the beginning of the year, before the ringing of events that followed and of which we are still experiencing the consequences began, fills me with pride and good hopes for the future. We didn’t give up and we continued to think “beyond”.
Congratulations! Paso’s Made in Italy always triumphs, so you have never stopped even on the export front. How did you overcome the distances?
That’s true! Even on the international market's front, we tried to make the most of technology to maintain contacts with distributors, partners and customers; in some cases, we also managed to establish new business opportunities in countries with which until now we had interacted in a limited way. For example, we started 2021 by signing an agreement with a new exclusive distributor for the Vietnam market, which saw Paso’s Made in Italy as a great commercial potential for expansion in Southeast Asia. As it is easy to imagine, the part that we miss most on a commercial level is being able to participate in international exhibitions, but a month ago we had the opportunity, thanks to the local support we had from our historical Russian partner IBERI, to be present anyway at the first fair since the beginning of the pandemic, Securika, which took place in Moscow from 13 to 16 April. Our partner did represent us – fully – with the presence of this team in our booth, introducing the PAW family to visitors and updating us on the progress of the exhibition. We like to consider this as a first step to return to the much-desired normality, however slow.
Thus expanding the vision to the market, various sources of research and analysis foresee an escalation of social problems in the short term. In your opinion, and regarding your sound system and EVAC sector, what are the needs of the buildings and cities of tomorrow, which, in addition to being smart, must be safe?
One of Paso's strengths in the EVAC is the fact of having rich historical know-how and experience in the field of sound diffusion, so for us, the importance of sound quality has always been a focal point which, applied to the world of voice evacuation, has an enormous weight while giving that intelligibility to the sound system during emergency status; this is not only an essential fact, but I would say a crucial one. For this reason, our R & D department is always looking for innovative and smart solutions: we believe that offering products designed to meet most installation needs, practical and easy to use are a MUST; it should guarantee the satisfaction of the requirements of the standards while having a great focus on the quality of the Sound of the system.
There is a single common denominator between public places crowded with a large number of people – such as sports halls, shopping centres, cinema halls – and smaller locations, such as shops and offices: being able to enjoy sound diffusion of excellent quality and ensure 100% to safely manage any emergency. To this day, I am very pleased to be able to say that Paso allows all this.
by Monica Bertolo