K2 Audio Visual Perth is a large audio visual provider in Western Australia for over 10 years. We want to share with you some inside secrets on what to look out for when you’re looking for an audio visual equipment supplier and at the end of this, We will show you some audio visual certifications you should also keep in mind when selecting the right provider.

Check their Portfolio

Check their portfolio. Now, that sounds dead obvious, not rocket science but in our experience, clients don’t ask for past work references and especially in this industry where there is an abundance of products and every product works differently. If a company is quoting you a Crestron Electronics solution for example and they’ve never used or have very limited use with Crestron, that’s a recipe for some sort of a high-risk disaster. Now of course there are going to be companies that are smaller, newer, that don’t have that portfolio and of course, they should be given a chance like we did when we started but keep in mind, you are going to need to be more hands on your teams going to need to be more involved so you should push them harder on budget. So they should be quoting a lot less you get to save money but then you need to be more involved to deliver that job more seamlessly.

In-house Installers and System Designers

In-house installers and system designers. Now tell me can a company who outsources all of their installs to Bob from Gumtree or old mate Terry who’s a close friend who runs an electrical company really take their business seriously. It’s very hard to invest in the staff, Audio Visual requires a lot of specialised certified training and to get an outsourced subcontractor team to follow those procedures and to ensure this quick turnaround. If you got a subcontract someone, they’re working on their own schedule. All of that ensures that the company you’re working with is taking their job seriously and are going to deliver the project based on the highest quality possible.

A Dedicated Service Team

A dedicated service team. Whenever you’re installing these electronic products, they’re likely to have faults. Sometimes they can up. You’ve got to be mindful are you willing to hand over the responsibility of delivering a job to a company that doesn’t have someone that’s dedicated to servicing that audio visual equipment in the quickest possible time frame when something goes down. Even Apple, a trillion dollar business calls you back within minutes if you have a fault with any of their products.

Biased Product Affiliations

Biased product affiliations. Now this one bothers me the most because as an AV vendor your job is a consultant. So if your hiring us to provide a solution for your office and we have an exclusive relationship with X product or we’ve manufactured our own Y interactive screen that we imported from China and rebranded it to the K2 Audiovisual screen. It’s very hard for us to stay unbiased and give you the best solution and it can be hard to identify whether a provider has one of those exclusive relationships. An easy way to spot this is look at their past portfolio and as an audio visual vendor, you be using a plethora of different products and if you’re not and they’re always using some sort of similar products on their previous jobs that’s a sign that there’s some sort of affiliation and preference to push a product as opposed to pushing the best solution possible and why this bothers me the most we’ve had many opportunities to develop an exclusive relationship to manufacture our own product because in the short term it makes you a lot more money but unfortunately in the long term your is affected and as a client, you want to go with the company that you can build a long-term relationship with.

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail. Now, this might just be a point because I’m quite pedantic but when a company that you’re evaluating is providing you system drawings that are not very neatly organized, that each product does not sit in each of its quadrants so you can follow the cable paths when the previous installs are done, the cables are not in wall cabled where possible even down to the little things like their website. Is it very, very cumbersome to navigate? Is their presentation poor? Are they well groomed? All those things, like I said, may seem pedantic but those indicate how proactive they are, attention to those little details which will make a massive difference to your overall job. That is the kind of vendor you want to partner with for the long term.

Too Many Specialties

Do they do everything? So, there’s commercial AV which is what we as K2 Audio Visual Perth do which is corporate offices, meeting rooms, boardrooms, education, retail, then there’s residential, the company comes installs a projector and an audio system in your theatre at home. Then there’s your staging part of AV. You’ve got an event, they come out and bring the equipment out to the thing, pack it up, take it away. And some companies do all of this. Which of course to you should be a red flag. If a company does everything, how are they going to do what you want them to do the best they possibly can. Make sure they’re not the type of company that whatever you pay them for they’ll do that for you.

High Turnover of Staff

High turnover of staff now is a big indication of that firm is not great if staff are leaving left right and center especially if you’ve been contacted by five different account managers over the past 12 months from that same company that indicates there’s something wrong with the culture or internally there’s not much harmony in that firm. That equipment is going to be there for 15 years be wary if you awarding that contract to a vendor that doesn’t have a cohesive internal structure, you are taking a risk.

After Sales Support

After sales support, this one is probably the most imperative out of all of the points that I’ve mentioned because you’re not being given a toaster which is dead obvious on how to use. This is a complicated integration of various products to give you a solution for your space. So one, there must be a level of ongoing training and support if staff in your company change, someone who knew how to use that system is no longer there or someone just needs constant up keep to understand how to use this valuable investment. So in our case when we started as a company we ensured training was free unlimited and as many times as required because we know training indicates how often that product is going to be used and how well that company is going to make use of their investment. So ensure you ask the question of what is your training, your after sales service support. How long do you warrant your installations? Because all of that is going to matter on how far your investment goes in the long term.

Certifications

Finally, certifications. So, the one certification that that company needs to have to demonstrate that they take their business seriously is the CTS certification, certified technology specialist run by Avixa internationally, that shows that that staff member knows what they’re doing when they’re designing an AV solution but depending on the types of products that have been specified for your job if they’re quoting a Crestron system with programming, that programmer needs to have programming certifications. If they are installing an interactive screen, for example, a Promethean, there is a Promethean education training certification. If they’re installing an Epson product, there’s Epson install certifications. The main thing for you to understand is Audio Visual is an industry that has no formal training. So, most people that are in this industry have been trained by working at another company or doing self learning and then working out in the field to improve their skill set. But companies that take their work seriously put their staff through rigorous training and I could go on for days but depending on the brand and the type of product, there is an install and a design certification which is very important for you to check that the company has.

We hope you found this valuable when selecting your next AV vendor if you ask these questions we guarantee you are going to get the best value for money and we wish you the best for your next project.

Learn more about picking the right Audiovisual supplier on our YouTube Channel here.