The AV dream

After what we can only described as a rather intense week for rack build, teamwork has really been a vital element in seeing it out.

Tensions are bound to run higher in busier periods – it's the nature of the beast.

The AV dream would be for all furniture & equipment to be present and correct at the point of build commencement, no adaptations to schematics and rack layouts throughout the project and zero faults at the point of in-house commissioning. 

Unfortunately, the AV dream isn’t the AV reality! Lead times can always be an issue, particularly when let’s say five integrators all want 10+ of the same custom built furniture for their client – things are bound to get messy. 

AV Magazine’s June/July 2017 issue has highlighted these issues particularly in the higher education sector at its NEUPC roundtable. 

A point was made by a University strategic procurement officer that “The onus has to be on the AV Integrators to know the market place” whilst managing director of Dalen (Top-Tec) Clive Beardmore stresses the problems that the “summer surge” can create for businesses put under pressure to meet such high demands when the step-up in volumes of unit sales can increase by five times from May to July. 

Reading the article, we have gained a better understanding of how the universities budget year runs, which depends on whether a student turns up to enrol and the £9k tuition fee is lost or gained off the back of this. 

We stress to our clients every year foresight and pre-planning to get their diary slots for the summer labour is crucial to operations. Every year we do see gradual improvement but for an industry that is clearly struggling with demand and supply, how do we make it better?