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Our end-to-end method means we deliver AV systems with a fixed budget to meet your agreed needs.
ECAV has always believed that stewardship for AV should be from those first strategic concepts to the ongoing reality of its daily use. Evolving work practices, especially hybrid work, ever tighter technology integration with ICT, and the business-critical need for operational AV require a long-term strategic relationship.
When designers treat AV as a minor element in construction and fit-outs and prioritise it as a “lowest cost” tender item handled by different parties for design, installation, and support, it often leads to inadequate consideration. With the need for business to be nimble and the constant march of technology, AV can no longer be considered only every five years, with band-aids in between.
Defining suitable AV systems requires an understanding of the culture and workflows of your business and how your staff interact and are managed. In other words, how you Collaborate, Communicate, and celebrate. The AV system design must complement both the space and the utilisation aspects of the fit-out or interior design.
Tools for meeting collaboration, like Teams and Zoom Rooms, operate over the network and internet and run on PC hardware with software and security updates. Selecting, commissioning and supporting them requires more ICT interaction than just determining the number of power and network points and a/c for the ever-reducing server room. Our Integration with ICT approach provides a more comprehensive coverage of these aspects.
Knowing what works and what is problematic only happens through practical experience, not reading the brochure. Preparing to support the result sharpens our desire to get it right up front.
Lastly, like other technology, AV needs care and feeding to keep it working optimally. Because ECAV designs and builds, and happy customers will keep using us, we provide Real-world, Real-time Support.
ECAV’s end-to-end approach puts much more analytical and design effort at the start of each engagement. We forge long-term, trusted relationships with our clients so that together, we develop a detailed path for AV – the Concept – that will meet your needs today and into the future.
And because we implement and support the AV systems we’ve designed – the reality – we have ownership of the workability of the solution and budget.
So when we work with you from Concept to Reality, ECAV will commit 100% to delivering AV systems that achieve the jointly defined needs with a fixed budget.
We achieve great results through our eleVAte AV methodology, design experience, and years of knowledge of what works technically and for users. To make it happen, though, we need your business and ICT input – only together will the solution genuinely fit your organisation’s needs.
Today’s AV: Seamlessly Integrated, Elevating ICT to a New Discipline.
AV’s specialisation is to make the Meeting Space work; multiple people need to see, hear and interact with the same content in the same place at the same time – Multiple people using one AV system.
Especially with hybrid work, ICT provides the core apps for communication and collaboration, for in-person use at the desk, at home and when mobile – One person to one device (let’s ignore the multitaskers). That one device with a built-in display, camera, speaker, and mic all the proper distance from head and hands to see, be seen, hear, talk and interact with content and others.
So AV now needs to interface with those communication and collaboration apps, managing multiple video and audio input and output devices to deliver a flexible and positive experience for people within the room and externally.
Those apps have frequent updates to be applied, and they run on PCs that have OS and security updates. And those input and output devices are now connected by USB, network, and Wi-Fi, often with similar s/w updates and security considerations.
You can monitor the AV system like other IT infrastructure and provide remote support, meeting mission-critical infrastructure needs.
In summary, determining the appropriate fit for the AV systems with your ICT infrastructure, apps, network, security, policies, and practices is now more complex. Lack of solid ICT involvement in the AV Design phase, which too often happens, is the crucial reason for AV’s cost and time overruns.
Work through the design and related considerations above.
Ensure ownership of the deliverables by ECAV, ICT and others through the installation, commissioning and integration testing stages – Refer our Smart Construction approach.
Determine the appropriate integration between ICT’s and ECAV’s workflows for monitoring, help desk, support and maintenance. Our Real world, Real time Support services do just that.
Your real world NEEDS real-time support.
The impact of failing AV on effective communication and collaboration in the meeting space is expensive: postponed or relocated meetings, inability to view the prepared content, and external attendees needing help to see or hear.
Much like we would only purchase a car with planning for its regular servicing or set up ICT infrastructure without maintenance arrangements, AV requires similar attention. Yet, AV support often needs to catch up due to its sourcing through the construction process or the default, unreliable support arrangement, typically characterised by ‘the AV’s not working again, and the technician may show up next week – AV support is often dismal.
ECAV is committed to changing the AV Support model with a combination of Prevention and Cure services for the real world to increase AV uptime and fix time.
Scheduled off-site activities to assess the health of your major AV components – to detect likely problems and prevent their occurrence.
This process involves servicing and proactive assessment to identify and manage faults before they result in a system breakdown. It includes firmware updates and associated system testing.
We identify those critical components and consumables to reduce the time to get the AV system back online.
We use those same Communication and Collaboration tools – unified communication, smartphone and remote access – to work with your on-site staff to diagnose AV problems in real-time and determine the appropriate fix or interim workaround.
If the fault is unresolvable remotely, arrange to roll the truck or other activities required to get the AV system back to full functionality.
Case Study
Each organisation has different expectations and needs, so ECAV works closely with the ICT group to develop a tuned Service Level Agreement including:
A tailored suite of services and appropriate KPIs.
Integration with ICT help desk and escalation processes.
Remote access considerations, including network and security policies.
Right AV solution, No variations, Proper quality assurance, Saving money… Just by being Smart.
AVs in construction projects need to be appropriately designed and managed. If you’ve read the other sections, you’ll have the message that we’re not fans of the traditional construction process.
An effective AV solution requires the consideration of the AV workflow (use cases) and AV’s integration with ICT systems. From the construction perspective, there needs to be consideration of viewability (image size, lighting impact, sight lines) and audio integrity (sound quality, acoustic treatment, sound spill) along with the AV technical needs, which will impact other trades, electrical including, networking, partitioning, ceilings, joinery, air-conditioning.
The architects’ and designers’ priorities and focus are (rightly) elsewhere, so the resulting AV design needs to be more considered and present.
Designers convert their designs into tender specifications aimed at attracting low bids. Unfortunately, this often leads successful tenderers to compensate for slim margins by pursuing contract variations. As the client has already approved the specifications, they are typically obliged to accept these variations, potentially leading to sub-optimal results that are challenging to maintain.
Our Smart Construction approach is to manage the AV roll-out in the same way as ICT does! ICT only asks the Architect and engineer to ensure the construction-related components – network cabling, power and aircon for server rooms, and more. – are done as part of the construction process.
ICT would never ask the builder to buy and commission firewalls, switches and servers or install desktop PCs and printers. Nor would ICT expect to install such equipment with a building in this state.
Using our Concept to Reality methodology, we determine the joint AV/ICT needs and solutions and split this into construction-related requirements and post-construction activities.
The Architect and then Engineers incorporate the relevant needs and feed them into the construction process at the right time and in the right way. ECAV actively performs quality assurance on the resulting design, tender response, and actual works on behalf of the client to ensure the fulfilment of those requirements.
Just as ICT performs quality assurance to verify the proper network installation, ECAV also ensures the same level of diligence.
After practical completion of the premises fit-out, the AV system is delivered to the site, commissioned and acceptance tested with the integrated ICT systems (similarly designated post-practical completion).
There are some additional benefits:
Electricians can undertake construction-side AV tasks more cost-effectively. For example, they can simultaneously run AV cables while installing their cables.
In traditional construction, AV installation occurs last, requiring the meeting space to be clean, secure, painted, carpeted, and furnished. Achieving this state in the rush to reach practical completion presents a significant challenge.
There is the opportunity to save 10% and more on AV costs due to reduced Construction PM fees – more than enough to cover the construction QA activities for AV (and ICT!).
Most importantly, our approach allows ECAV to commit 100% to deliver AV systems that achieve the jointly defined needs with a fixed budget and happily save to ongoing support.
Let’s get in touch for a tailored experience that meets your needs and exceeds expectations.
