What is Audio Visual (AV)?

AV is an abbreviation for Audio Visual or Audio Video. Audio Visual and Audio Video are interchangeable terms when describing audio and video conferencing communication technology. Today AV is used to signify the hardware used to record and transmit audio and video signal. Audio video technology can includes displays, microphones, speakers, and cameras which can be designed with thousands of different technologies. AV Technology has been used since the early 1900’s for recording real life imagery into film. AV technology has significantly changed over the course of 100+ years where cameras, microphones and speakers can record and transmit in high definition to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Modern day AV is used to help two parties communicate or project an image and sound in a given space or over a video conferencing software. AV systems are designed by AV Integrators to help any given individual to be able to seamlessly communicate over a video conferencing software with the click of a button. The concept of teleconferencing with individuals across the globe seems commonplace today, but less then 20 years ago the technology used to do teleconferencing was too expensive for most companies to have more then just 1 teleconferencing room per office or even per company. AV Technology has advanced significantly and now provides anyone with a computer, tablet or iPhone to be able to have a teleconference wherever they are in the world.

Companies today have the ability to deploy AV Technology in most of their shared conference rooms and workspaces. We help our clients with the design of this AV Technology to make for the most seamless and highest quality communication experience. Our goal is to make it feel like the technology isn’t in the room, but that you are communicating with your colleague or customer as if you are standing in the same room as them. This means that each room your company has today should be considered unique and thoughtfully designed for the right AV technology while taking into consideration the acoustics of the room.

Conference rooms are typically 4 walls and a ceiling. If you’ve ever stood inside a cave and yelled you’ll hear your echo bounce off the cave walls multiple times causing you to hear your voice over and over until it fades off. The acoustics of a given space describes how sound behaves in a closed space. Sound reflects and behaves differently when reverberating off of different objects. If you’ve ever stood in a room that has glass or concrete walls, the acoustics of the room will speak for themselves. Compare that to a room that is acoustically treated with sound panels, rugs and acoustic ceiling tiles, it will sound dramatically different both for the people in the room and those on the far end of a teleconference.
If your team is thinking about how you can improve video conferencing in your spaces, we can help your team with designing and building an AV standard for all of your different conferencing spaces to provide the best video conferencing experience for your employees and customers. Thoughtfully designing your AV is as important today with the advent of remote work and teleconferencing being part of every single meeting. If a conference room is only designed to cater to the people in the room, you can potentially be leaving out the most important people from the meeting because of a poor audio and video experience.