Once long ago things were much more simple in the A/V world, or so I've been told. It's an accepted fact that technology has been ingrained in the everyday life of modern society. However; and this is hard for some to understand, especially those in technological fields of work, it has not necessarily been embraced by all of society. There is an ongoing saga in the world of contracting that seems to plague every project without fail. Many of these projects span a couple of years or more and the A/V contractor is typically not involved until months or even longer after the design phase is solidified. So long after everyone has forgotten those preliminary meetings and the discussions become blurred and the memories skewed the your left with the customer and you, the contractor. Now the customer makes a direct correlation between the installed systems and the contractor.

Now the installation begins and the job is probably behind schedule and has been before you were even awarded a contract. It's starts off with a bang and everyone's excited because after all it's the systems they've been waiting for all this time. Then the questions start and once they do they continue at a furious pace. How come you haven't installed the TV in Mr. Smith's office yet? Stricken with panic your refer to the prints and are relieved to see the prints don't call for one. The customer's response, "well there's suppossed to be one in there". So you check the spec book and nothing there either. Reassured you tell the customer the contract doesn't call for a TV in this location. This is where it all begins. They have long forgotten that the TV was value engineered out of the design and all they know is that YOU are not putting a TV where THEY want it.

We now find ourselves in a peculiar situation at best. You don't dare bite the hand that feeds you, being the Architect and/or Consultant that you work with on a regular basis and yet you don't want to tell the customer that they can't have what they want. Now you also have to keep in mind that since we (Systems Integrators) are typically the last ones on site the customer has been fighting tooth and nail with contractors for well over a year now. They have also sat through countless meetings in which they have been told various aspects of the job are going to require more money via change orders, supplemental instructions and so on and so forth. So telling them if they want a TV in Mr. Smith's office it's going to cost them more money is not going to go over well.

by Jason Levert