It sounds like a no-brainer. Is there anyone who believes quality doesn’t matter? Is anyone really okay with grainy video, inconsistent volume, lag, freezing, clipping, crackling, or any of the other little headaches that come from low quality AV?
The answer is no. Each of these quality issues has negative repercussions on efficiency and overall enthusiasm. Even so, organizations may fall for the trap of thinking this all simply a matter of want, not need.
High quality AV may be a luxury, objectively speaking, but it’s a luxury well worth the price.
You may be thinking, “sure AV quality is important, but how badly do we need it? We can save money if we go cheap on AV.” While cheaper, less reliable AV may cost less, the expense will be accrued elsewhere.
Bad AV can cause serious frustrations across an entire organization. Throughout the modern world, relatively high video and audio quality is considered the gold standard. Just a slight dip below can make people irritated and confused, sometimes even angry enough to senselessly beat their devices.
Of course, it does much more than just make people angry. Low quality AV makes meetings hard to follow, oftentimes so much so that they simply don’t happen. Meetings end early, IT gets called, and time and resources are wasted.
Worse yet, low-quality AV reduces accessibility. It often lacks features like closed-captioning and real-time translations that are crucial for certain users. Even users who are slightly hard of hearing or face other sensory challenges, no matter how mild, will suffer without high video and audio quality.
Internally, you risk dangerous misunderstandings. Externally, you risk permanent damage to your organization’s brand image. No picture or image would ever go on your website in a quality a single pixel below 1080. Your meetings should function the same way.
Perhaps the organization itself has spared no expenses when it comes to AV quality. Corporate HQ has the latest and greatest speakers, screens, video walls, and digital signage the industry has to offer. As great as that is, in a world where hybrid work environments are the norm, it’s only the first step.
There’s an odd psychological quirk we humans often fall prey to. While we look at our screens and listen to our speakers, any quality less than the best is nothing short of an outrage to us. However, when it’s time to buy speakers, headsets, webcams, and other gear for our at-home workstations, one look at the price tags has us ready to compromise.
Now what happens if an employee working from home compromises on AV quality? Obviously, the consequences are less severe, but only so much. Individual users contribute to meeting headaches, poor brand image, and overall loss of productivity as well.
So how do you solve an AV quality problem? Do you just go on a big shopping spree for the best equipment the industry has to offer?
It’s usually not that simple. The right AV equipment won’t necessarily be screens, cameras, and speakers with the highest price tags or with the highest specs. A very expensive headset may look nice on that store page, but you’ll be kicking yourself if you break the bank for it and find out it isn’t certified for your communication platform of choice.
When selecting an AV vendor, it’s important to take things like device compatibility and platform certification into account. It’s also important to note that I used the singular form of the word “vendor.” The less different providers you’ve built your AV environment with, the easier it’ll be to get support from them if something goes wrong.
There’s still more to do. Once you’ve chosen your AV vendor and decked out your meeting rooms and cubicles, it’s time to get the right gear shipped out to your remote users.
This should be an organizational responsibility rather than an individual one. For starters, making your employees buy their own AV equipment is, for lack of a better phrase, not very nice. On top of that, leaving it up to your users creates more room for error, opening the door to the problems mentioned before.
It can be challenging to find the right vendor and gear to create a high-quality AV experience. Hiring an AV integrator takes away the challenge and can all but guarantee the highest quality environment at the most reasonable price.
Continuant is one such integrator. We have many years of experience deploying AV solutions for many different organizations including government offices, megachurches, hospitals, cultural centers, and retail stores.
We helped our friends at REI save time and money with our quick-deploy Teams Rooms. Each room contained industry-leading AV, could be deployed in short order (hence the name), and helped create a consistent experience across its corporate headquarters.
Another organization that benefited from our services was the streaming company Hulu. Its Seattle office got a massive AV upgrade, including a two-story video wall, new meeting room consoles, and a full production environment system change for its brewery space. It was a major change in quality that made events at the Hulu office better than ever before.
Struggles with low-quality AV don’t have to go on, and high-quality solutions don’t need to break the bank.
Call us today and see how you can get the quality you need.