The UK’s main PC and Mac trade bodies have joined forces and together are aggressively targeting the audiovisual (AV) and voice channels.

Formed from the merger of the Professional Computing Association (PCA) and Mac Technology Association (MTA), the Technology Channels Association (TCA) boasts a membership base of 800 dealers and system builders.

TCA chief executive Keith Warburton said that the body will reach out to voice over IP and AV resellers to ensure that it is relevant to the wider channel.

“Both organisations needed to reform, and coming under a common umbrella made sense,” he said.

“We need to top 1,000-members if we are to represent the views of the digital technology market.”

The MTA had seen its membership decline from 79 to 50 in the past year due to a lack of internal resources.

Former MTA chief executive Robert Peckham, who will continue to run the TCA’s Mac-related activities, agreed that the TCA’s remit must widen.

“It is important that an association of this sort represents all the technologies resellers offer,” he said.

“One major technology we are missing is voice and that is something we have to look at.”

Warburton said the TCA is still hammering out how it will harmonise membership fees, and stressed that integration of the brands would occur gradually.

“It is also an opportunity to review our code of practice to make it is useful to resellers in other technologies,” he added.