Audiovisual Best Practices
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AUDIOVISUAL AUDIOVISUAL BEST PRACTICES The Design and Integration Process for the AV and Construction Industries AUDIOVISUAL With pride, thoughtfulness and attention to detail, Audiovisual Best Practices was created for everyone responsible for ensuring the success of an AV project. And in today’s environment of exploding growth in sophisticated information communications technology within every aspect of public life, this book arrives in the nick of time. BEST It is a guide designed to bring all the players in AV systems integration to a point of mutual understanding and collaboration. Developed in an easy-to-read, logical format, BEST Audiovisual Best Practices offers the recommendations of highly successful experts with years of experience in systems integration and design, consultancy, project management and information technology. PRACTICES The following audiences will find this book invaluable: I Architects I Facility owners PRACTICES I Building and construction personnel I Project managers I Consultants I AV industry newcomers I Contractors I AV professionals I Developers I Sales representatives I Engineers I Rental and sales Read what others in the field have to say about this book: “An essential read - this is an invaluable guidebook that defines the course of action for everyone involved in building and integrating installed AV systems. As an end-user technology manager, I have needed a resource like this to communicate better, and THE DESIGN AND now we have it!” — John Pfleiderer, MA, CTS-D, Video Infrastructure Coordinator, INTEGRATION PROCESS Cornell University Ithaca, NY FOR THE AV “AV Best Practices is a great primer for owners, architects, design consultants and AV AND CONSTRUCTION professionals on the processes required to create great technology-intensive projects, achieve timely collaboration, speed decision/procurement processes and reduce INDUSTRIES overall risk. Every project will benefit from these shared insights.” —Stephen Newbold, AIA, RIBA, Senior Technical Architect, Gensler “As the manager of a communication systems design group within one of the largest architectural firms in the world, I found this book to be a great primer for anyone looking to better understand the AV professional's evolving role and responsibilities as part of a design or construction team.” — David Labuskes, RCDD/NTS/OSP, CSI, Vice President, RTKL Associates, Inc. “AV systems are playing an ever more vital role in our lives and in our built environments, and Audiovisual Best Practices is an excellent tool for architects, AV professionals, owners and contractors who want to better manage the implementation process and more successfully integrate these increasingly complex systems.” — Peter A. Gross, AIA, Senior Associate Principal, Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC Addressing the audiovisual needs of architects, building and construction trade personnel, consultants, contractors, developers, engineers, facility owners, project managers AUDIOVISUAL and AV professionals, this needed reference manual explores: BEST I Roles of the owner, end-users, architects, consultants, and PRACTICES integrators I The differences between an The Design and Integration AV Design-Bid-Build and Process for the AV and AV Design-Build process Construction Industries I How to build a project team and conduct a needs analysis This highly anticipated volume I The best way to conduct the published by the leading AV AV design and integration industry association covers a broad process range of territory in succinct, I Who is responsible for what targeted prose with appropriate during design and construction illustrations throughout. I How to ensure ultimate success through final The book’s primary mission is to evaluation and user training explain the complete AV process from start to finish, while simultaneously providing With the help of consultants, professional insight into the best integrators and end-users, the and recommended practices to use Audiovisual Best Practices Guide for a successful audiovisual design has captured and documented the and integration project. essential aspects of the AV design and integration process. A companion to the popular industry reference manual, the Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design: Revised Edition, this new book builds upon the technical aspects of the Basics book to reveal the intricacies of the process and also to provide information about the industry, its historical roots, its growth and where it is headed. A must read for all AV professionals, and those who work alongside them to make audiovisual best practices a reality. AUDIOVISUAL BEST PRACTICES THE DESIGN AND INTEGRATION PROCESS FOR THE AV AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES Addressing AV process questions of architects, building and construction trade personnel, consultants, contractors, developers, engineers, facility owners, project managers and AV professionals. First edition. Published by the International Communications Industries Association, Inc.® (ICIA®) 11242 Waples Mill Road Fairfax, VA 22030, U.S.A. www.infocomm.org Copyright 2005 by the International Communications Industries Association, Inc.® Authors: Timothy W. Cape, CTS-D, Principal Consultant, Technitect, LLC Jim Smith, CTS, Director of Strategic Initiatives, HB Communications, Inc. Editors: Susan J. Higginbotham Taly Walsh, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Membership, ICIA Book Design: Holli Rathman Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number 2005927586 ISBN: 0-939718-20-0 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying and information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. DEDICATION To organizations that want successful audiovisual systems and to the professionals who know how to make it happen. The best way possible. WHAT THIS BOOK MEANS TO ICIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RANDAL A. LEMKE, PH.D. As I was reading through the first draft of Audiovisual Best Practices, I paused at a paragraph that reads, “The greatest differentiation between pro- AV and other trades is that pro-AV involves the full-blown creation of communications environments. Consequently, AV professionals are concerned with more than just the cable pathway and the electronics at the end of the cable; they are concerned with making it possible for the customer to communicate.” This statement accurately describes our industry. AV professionals, who have found their life’s work in this field, are increasingly more concerned with the bigger picture in systems integration. They and their collaborators from other disciplines need to know, from the outset, how the entire building construction or renovation will affect the AV system, and vice versa. This new perspective means that the AV professional, architect, engineer, facility owner, project manager and others in the process interface routinely with one another. Successful AV installation and integration is no longer dependent upon a small group of technically savvy individuals (although they are vital to the process), but rather it requires a strong relationship among the members of a more disparate team. To be effective, this team must know as much as possible about AV projects and how they are accomplished. This book, then, is our opportunity to disseminate information about the business of pro-AV. It is a unique publication that reveals the best of AV — from the standpoint of the industry, its roots, its professionals, its processes and practices and, importantly, its customers. i • • To see this book published during my tenure as Executive Director is right up there with being a part of an industry that is emerging as a powerhouse and helping the association make valuable contributions to its membership and the industry as a whole. To all those who worked tirelessly on this book, as well as those who conceived of it and made it happen, I offer simply this statement: “You set a high goal when you conceived of this book, and clearly you have reached it.” Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D. Executive Director International Communications Industries Association, Inc. Perspective from the ICIA Executive Director ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The ICIA Best Practices Committee Audiovisual Best Practices: The Design and Integration Process for the AV and Construction Industries is the result of an extraordinary combined effort of three primary groups among the Committee Chair Mark Valenti membership of the International Communications Industries Association, Inc.® (ICIA®). They are The Sextant Group the AV systems integrators, the independent consultants and the technology managers/end-users. Co-Authors Tim Cape, CTS-D Technitect Through their councils — the Sound, AudioVisual and Video Integrators (SAVVI), the Independent Jim Smith, CTS Consultants in Audiovisual Technology (ICAT) and the Technology Managers/End-Users — HB Communications SAVVI Council Chair members volunteered their time and commitment in forming the AV Best Practices SAVVI Subcommittee, chaired by Mark Valenti of The Sextant Group. George Bing HB Communications Spencer Bullins, CTS The result was a committee of eleven that gathered and determined the scope and goals of the AMX Tom Peters, CTS project, the intended audiences, and the elements