5 mins with… Matt Davies - Avire Global (Memco).

• Tell us about your company and your business

Memco, as a brand, has been around since 1972 and from the mid-1980s onwards we became well known for our range of light curtains. In the early 2000s we moved into autodiallers and launched the Memcom autodialler in 2010. In 2012 we merged with three other lift component manufacturers to form Avire. Since then, the Microkey (Spain/Portugal) and Rath Communications (US) brands have also been bought into the Avire family and today we’re the largest global manufacturer of open protocol autodiallers.

• How many times have you attended the Lift & Escalator Symposium now?

Much to my shame this will only be my second time attending.

• What has been your highlight of attending?

It’s the genuinely thought-provoking nature of many of the papers. It’s fascinating to hear from experts, with vastly more experience than me, give their perspectives on their chosen fields.

• What will you be presenting/demonstrating?

I shall be presenting my paper ‘From a Bell on a Rope to VoIP: The Evolution of the Lift Alarm in the U.K.’ and Memco have an exhibitor booth showcasing our Sentinel service.

• Tell us what has changed for your business in the past 12 months, what have been the highlights?

Over the last year we’ve seen the impact of the end of the analogue telephone network in the UK (PSTN switch off/digital switch) gather pace. Lift owners are increasingly realising they will have to act to ensure their lift alarms (autodiallers) can continue to function and remain resilient after the digital switch. To that end Memco launched our Sentinel Service in the UK last year. This gives lift owners the option to source a resilient managed lift connectivity service, including upgrades over time as the telecoms landscape continues to change.

In addition, demand for our single and three phase UPS solutions has increased dramatically in the past 12 months as customers look more and more for a UPS supplier with solutions tailored for the load demands of lift operation, that can help with sizing and ensure a risk-free selection. Whether that be for a simple brake lift function or full lift operation for a defined period of time, we have a solution and can help determine the best option for any given application.

Finally, we recently established a services side to the business to help support customers further, whether that be through drive upgrade supply and fit, UPS servicing, pre- and post- modernisation energy consumption measurement or pro-active power quality assessment prior to starting a modernisation project – it is better to identify and correct an issue before a modernisation program starts, rather than find it mid-works.

• What would you say to anyone who hasn’t attended before? Why should they attend?

For years I saw this as a purely academic event and it’s not. So why should you attend: There is a great mix of papers and as I said earlier you will hear thought provoking content and learn about aspects of our industry that you may not have previously considered. On top of this it’s a great opportunity to network with industry specialists and share knowledge.

• What do you think are the trends for the next 12 months in the industry?

As we’re entering the final two years of the PSTN switch off. The planned publication of EN81-76 will, I’m sure, put the subject of using lifts for evacuation front and centre for many in the industry; there will no doubt be a need to develop new solutions for this application and to educate both lift owners & the riding public about “Evac Lifts”. Lastly the Grenfell enquiry will publish their findings this September, that will have an impact on the wider building safety debate, and I suspect led to further regulation being bought in. How much of the latter will affect the lift industry directly or indirectly remains to be seen.