I always thought Goldilocks was taking a big risk when she entered a strange house belonging to predatory bears. Then she sat down at the table and expected that bowl of porridge to be just right. Seriously Goldi, why?
It’s like programming and designing your own website from scratch and expecting it to be quick, easy and work without fail. Not likely.
Why then, when I entered the strange new techy world of AV solutions from the creative world of advertising, would I think I could design and build my own presentation technology? This is a good option for the seasoned AV expert wanting to keep costs down. For me, my thoughts became overwhelmed by how to integrate it, test it, support it and implement training.
Here, I picture Ms. Locks, still hanging out in a strange house, on her second bowl of unsatisfactory porridge, wondering why it’s not quite right.
Like hiring someone to design and build a completely custom website, it could take multiple revisions. But it might not be ultimately what you envisioned. Yet it was costly and time-consuming.
Why then, in the AV world would I hire an integrator to design presentation systems if the lack of consistency can lead to unpredictability? This inconsistency between projects not only affects reliability, it also makes support and user training difficult. The end result is not what you envisioned.
Consult to Bid (aka Design/Bid)
In my ongoing yet unimportant quest to figure out why Ms. Locks is taunting bears, I also learned that I could hire a consultant to design a custom solution on which integrators would bid. This is where things are supposed to be just right for Ms. Locks, but bear (no pun intended) with me for blog’s sake.
In this Design/Bid scenario, things can still be not quite right. Miscommunication among customer, consultant and integrator can lead to unpredictability. Consultants are a great source of expertise and can help design a custom solution by educating clients on the possibilities. However, setting expectations is nearly impossible when designs are created on paper with no tangible example for clients to experience before the solution is built. Like Design/Build, this option can be costly, time consuming and frustrating for everyone involved.
A Just-Right Option
There is a fourth option in the AV presentation systems. Our approach—a standard, turn-key system with a menu of tested options. It’s reliable, custom and makes AV easy. (Like a website builder that comes with standard themes and templates and are easily configurable with your custom content.) Maybe Goldilocks only needed 3 choices, but the AV world needs another just right option.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkNDdplc3Qg]
Don’t miss next month’s blog. Our series on Finding Your “Just Right” When Implementing AV Presentation Systems continues.