Win Support For Your AV Project With These 3 Budgeting Tips

August 16, 2021 | Reviewed by Sam Scott

On many commercial projects, AV is considered a finishing touch. Equipment like cameras, projectors, and TV screens aren’t usually considered until the last minute. As a result, it’s common for project managers to put off finalizing a design and budget while they attend to more pressing matters.

But AV systems are not just high-tech decoration. They are integral to how the building functions and how your peers work every day. They can also save money and generate profit. And like other large capital projects, they don’t materialize overnight.

So how do you show how important your project is? At your facility, AV systems have to compete with other budget priorities for funding.

Here are three ways you can win support from day one.

Let The Users Make Their Case

A good AV install supports the real-world needs of your company or client’s operations. These needs—and how well the system satisfies them—will become apparent one way or another, sooner or later. Avoid late-stage surprises by speaking with the appropriate stakeholders before budget talks.

What frustrates them about the systems they’re familiar with? How could technology make their work easier? An effective AV system doesn’t just provide clear sound and bright images, but also simple and intuitive controls. These operational requirements form the foundation of your AV project. Bringing their perspective into the earliest budget meetings will help you establish realistic cost expectations from the outset.

Prioritize While Keeping An Eye On The Future

Make clear from the beginning which AV projects are urgent. These are the proposals that will meet pressing needs, maintain critical services, or yield significant savings.

Be equally honest about projects that are worthwhile but can be deferred or funded in stages. Then, even if the organization is not ready to commit to part of the design, you can “piggy-back” future infrastructure on the approved install at a low cost—and significantly reduce the expense of future upgrades.

You can also help by estimating the lifecycle of existing systems. The average commercial AV system has a lifecycle of around seven years, though it varies by component. For example, computers can age out in three to five years, while speakers and screens may last for more than a decade.

A forward-looking AV plan or spreadsheet can help track the end-of-life date for each major component. Once built, you can easily reference the document each year to identify those urgent needs—and illustrate the risk of running systems to the point of failure or obsolescence.

Develop Metrics Where You Can

What matters most to your budget committee? Of course, nothing speaks louder than dollars and cents, but do they also put a premium on saving time? PR and facility reputation? Energy-saving systems and infrastructure? Workplace experience?

Any of these objectives can be integrated into an AV proposal, but it always helps to take the extra step of translating goals into tangible metrics.

Would a new video conference system save X staff Y hours in travel each year? Are there energy consumption targets that must be met to achieve or maintain a green building designation? Could more bookings be made each day if every room had a dedicated wireless microphone and didn’t require technical staff for setup?

The common denominators are money and time. Finding ways to measure ROI will provide powerful funding arguments in a language everyone understands.

Every chance you have to propose an AV upgrade—whether for new construction projects or annual budget meetings—is an opportunity to enhance your organization. But always remember that fancy new technology, on its own, is not a good reason to spend big bucks. AV is a fast-moving industry; there will always be fancy new technology. Your organization has many needs an effective AV system can satisfy and many processes it can enhance. Consult internal stakeholders on those needs and processes, understand what’s urgent and what will save money down the line, and find ways to translate the benefits into a tangible ROI.

If you do this, you won’t just find yourself more prepared for your budget meeting: you’ll keep costs down over time, avoid unpleasant surprises, and make your fellow staff and clients very happy when they go to use their system for the first time and it works just as it should.

If you’d like to consult an AV expert for your project, Chroma can help.

Air Travel vs. Zoom, And Other Possible Futures

January 18 | Sam Scott

Air travel sucks. It’s been a year since I’ve travelled by plane. I’m sure it’s the same for most of you. Frankly, I don’t miss it. A year away from airports has made me realize how frustrating it is. Between the byzantine security check-ins, jostling for overhead bins, and decreasing legroom the experience of air travel has been getting worse for years. After the financial stress airlines have been under this year, it’s not going to get better. As airlines search for more ways to cut costs the experience for the average flyer will decline.

You know what also sucks? Zoom meetings. The constant technical glitches are frustrating. Staring your coworkers not-quite-in-the-eye is unnerving. A day of videoconferencing can leave you feeling alienated and wrung out. Depending on the software you use, the experience can be exasperating. But it’s the only choice we have lately, so we make it work.

Once the pandemic is over, which version of the future are we looking at? Will we hop back in the airplane as quickly as we left it? Or will those in-person meetings that once seemed so critical be replaced for good by Zoom?

It’s hard to imagine business travel coming back with the same enthusiasm. Companies are saving piles of cash in travel costs. Six months into the pandemic Amazon had saved 1 billion dollars in travel expenses. The savings are too big to ignore. We must also reckon with the environmental impact of airplane travel. Increasing carbon pricing will keep the cost of air travel high.

So are we condemned to a future of bad video calling? “Can you hear me now?” “I think you’re on mute!” until our eyes glaze over?

Video calls are discouraging because the technology has made slow progress. It’s taken a long time for video chat to feel seamless and easy. Skype has existed for 18 years, yet software innovation has been sluggish. Until now Skype and its competitors have never bothered to iron out the friction points in the user experience.

Things changed in 2020. The true market for video calls has been revealed and competitors are scrambling to improve their product and win market share.

In the last nine months I’ve seen conferencing software improve fast:

• Easier scheduling and coordinating calls
• Audio quality and echo management
• Affordable, quality conferencing hardware — whether for your desk or for a meeting room
• New specialty video software optimized for different types of remote work
• Vastly better mobile experience

As these user experience wrinkles are slowly ironed out, video calls will integrate as a natural part of our working life. We’re getting there faster every day.

So how will you position your business for the future? Will you hold your breath and return to air travel the moment it’s possible? Or will you invest in the technologies that make remote work better?

While business travel will return somewhat, It’s clear we’re trending toward the latter.

Presentation: Designing the Future of Work and Learning

October 31, 2017 | Sam Scott

Last month I was invited to my first official speaking gig at Datavisual on Display in Edmonton and Calgary. I was pleased to talk to a full house in both cities and had an engaged audience who peppered me with thoughtful questions throughout the talk and after. It was great to meet so many folks from the audio visual community in Alberta. I hope to be back soon.

As requested, here are my slides:

The One Page Project Plan

January 4, 2017 | Sam Scott

If you're considering a major project, it's hard to know how to begin.

The field of project management can be daunting. There are documents, processes and methodologies for every conceivable situation It's hard to sift through them all to figure out what's essential. If you want to take your company somewhere it's never been before, you've got to make a plan.

In this article I want to lay out four simple steps to complete a one page project plan. Follow these steps and you'll have your project sketched out and have a good foundation to build on.

Goals

The first step seems obvious, but it's important to get it right. Define your project's goals. This is the reason your project exists in the first place. It must be clear and concise. Answer these two questions: How will your organization be better once the project is complete? What will you do to get there? Some examples:

We want to renovate our boardrooms to allow staff to collaborate more effectively so we can work faster.

Our goal is to set up an online video platform to allow employees across the country to access training videos whenever they need them.

I want to dominate the known universe by creating a galactic super-weapon.

For any technical project large or small, there's a business driver behind it. You won't be able to secure money and resources for systems and equipment if they don't improve the condition of your organization. When it comes time to ask for money and resources, you'll need to make the value proposition clear.

Schedule

Set a start and end date for your project. It's important to set the expectations for the schedule right away. It will help you set aside resources and fit your project into your organization's regular operating cycles. Setting a schedule will also keep the project from taking longer than it should. Even if you have very little idea about the time it will take to achieve your goal, make your best estimate.

Filling Out the Details

Answering a few more key questions will help you articulate the requirements and the extent of the project.

• What problems will the project solve?
• How much might it cost?
• What are the major milestones?
• What are the potential risks?
• How do we know when we've achieved the project's goal? How will we measure it?

Keep these answers short for now. By answering these, you've taken the first steps in building out a full project plan. Again, if you can only make a guess at this point, that's fine. You've got to start somewhere.

Communication

The next step is to identify who will be involved and how you'll communicate with them. Ask yourself these three questions:

• Who will help with the project? Do we need external help? (This will be your project team.)
• Who will be affected by the project? (These are your stakeholders.)
• How often do you need to check in with each group? How will you do it? This will become your communication plan.

Establish communication routines right away and stick to them throughout the project.

Conclusion

Collect this information in a short document. You now have the framework for a solid project plan. What you have in front of you are the seeds that make elements of a full-blown project plan. You've taken the first difficult step in making your project a reality.

Need help taking the next step? We're project pros!