Each audiovisual project will require technical support, to that the industry has to be routed, that the client is given the task of estimating the cost of the project to a person who solves, analyzes and improves the system.
Juan Tamayo*
InfoComm 2020 has just passed, which was made totally virtual, there was no physical relationship and possibly tells us what the north will be in the audiovisual market. It was possible to observe a large number of new products where there is no physical contact, the audio and video is magically transmitted and where the user did not need technical personnel to configure or program it, even, we even attended a virtual cocktail.
The new "normal" is affecting the business, and companies are only thinking about the present, the future is still uncertain, but it should not be ruled out, designers, engineers and salespeople of audio visual projects must express to the client the importance of a good audio visual system for the space thought, we must not forget the basic theory of audio and video, and to make known that nowadays plug-to-play solutions for corporate and educational spaces tend to fail and necessarily require good design and technical support available.
The people who make purchasing decisions in these projects do not have the technical knowledge to acquire technology, and some companies in their eagerness to sell do not adequately explain the solution, they only talk about ease, as if the audio-visual world were easy, they talk about "connectivity", and above all low cost. But if you put all these characteristics together in a corporate or educational project you would believe that the project in the short time would tend to fail.
This opinion article is not a criticism of the market, it is the approach of a new audiovisual future where the development of audiovisual projects must grow due to connectivity, but this growth must be accompanied by new business models where its main axes must be knowledge of the end customer and technical support.
The economic proposals of modern audiovisual projects should be accompanied by explanations of operation of the system, a basic diagram of operation and that meet clear concepts standardized by associations, basically if a proposal is presented it should include how it will work, what are the strengths of this and what would be the possible points of failure.
It is difficult because the market offeror will believe that showing its weak points will make it lose the sale, but from the point of view of the buyer this will know what the risk of acquiring the product or solution will be and how to mitigate this risk, and if it decides to acquire and install the project, at the time of a contemplated failure it will not have how to claim the installer.
Each audiovisual project will require technical support, to that the industry has to be routed, for example if an educational institution with 20 classrooms, where 50% of the students are remotely receiving content from home does not have technical support staff focused on solving problems possibly the project in time will tend to present problems, and I'm not talking about "preparing" the telecommunications and information for this, it's time to start preparing audio-visual technicians who provide on-site support for the solutions, that the client is given the task of estimating the cost of the project to a person who solves, analyzes and improves the system. It requires people to manage the audiovisual systems.
As I propose in this opinion article, I believe that the market must be transformed, involve more end customers by making them invest in qualified technical personnel, or failing that in an objective consultant to accompany them in decision making, to help select the personnel that will operate the system and that does not become as in most cases a person with knowledge of data networks. facing an audiovisual project and learning from it with trial and error.
It is time for technical and university institutions that have in their educational offer subjects or programs related to audio and production to include modules or lines of education based on design and administration of audio visual spaces, this knowledge must be based on international regulations, hopefully certified, preparing for connectivity is not only learning from IP networks, you should also learn about audio, acoustics, video and audio visual control.
As professionals in the audiovisual world, you should not be afraid of change, you should face it, you should improve in the union and in collaborative work, you should present projects with clear designs and execution objectives, healthy competition based on quality of service and not on final price. The market demands that the guild be united and that it push to the same side.
As expressed, this is an opinion column that shows a personal vision of the author, it is not the vision of the publisher, the technical content is left aside to express market needs, it is an expression that is born with an experience of almost 15 years in the audiovisual industry where successes and failures have been observed in the development of projects.
*Juan Tamayo, CTS-D, has been in the AV industry since 2006. He has experience in all the countries of the region. He is an electronic engineer, a university degree that helps him integrate other technologies into the AV world. He is avixa coach since 2016 and Audinate coach over Dante since 2018.
