It’s fitting to mention that this month’s Thoughts from the Road installment is actually being written from the road – the topic happened to come up on this very program and seemed like a good topic to cover. So…
You wouldn’t ask a mechanic to fix your kitchen sink, right? Could they do a half-way decent job? Maybe… Probably? There are certainly going to be some similarities to the work that allow them to – eventually – figure things out. But, if you have a leak, do yourself a favor and get yourself a plumber.
At the risk of a horrendous metaphor, I wanted to illustrate the difference between similar disciplines, because the same goes for technology. The most frequent misconception from corporate groups is this: IT is not AV. The reality is that they are similar; information moves from one place to another to accomplish your goals. And while your internal IT department may be able to plug A into B and handle basic AV needs, there is a totally unique school of thought when it comes to AV production. Signal flow diagrams detail highly complex AV system designs and integrations and are set up both from a deep understanding of the technology. And, maybe more importantly, they are set up from experience with how it will implemented best.
We’ve seen so many IT professionals who are put into situations that they couldn’t possibly be prepared for, and quite often that they don’t even want to be involved with at all. It goes back to that aforementioned horrendous metaphor – just because they can, doesn’t mean they should if the quality of your program is critical. Even after 33 years in business, our team at Corporate AV is still finding ways to improve our craft. Again, if it’s just a simple board room setup or even to the permanent video conference solutions, your IT people can figure it out; but, for live events, let the AV professionals handle the AV.