- When it comes to audiovisual project management, you need a solid roadmap to ensure you reach your goals successfully. Each project you tackle will differ in its scale and purpose, so it is important that your roadmap considers potential variables and challenges early on.
As with any technological project, there will always be unforeseen challenges. Creating a realistic and thorough plan, however, will make sure there are proper contingencies to safeguard against whatever comes up during the design and installation stages.Here are five tips for robust audiovisual project management:
1. Assess Your Project Goals Early
Factors may shift and change as you advance with implementing your AV project, but knowing what your ultimate goals are right from the start will do wonders for progress. For one thing, planning ahead guards your audiovisual project against scope creep. Assessing your goals is also essential for determining how much manpower you’ll need for implementation and to eventually measure the return on investment. With so many options for LED displays or audio solutions these days, you need to make sure you have a laser-focused approach to planning components.
2. Visualize Your System’s Use
Once you have your goals set for your AV project, it’s time for you to envision how your AV system needs to operate. Think objectively: what’s best for the desired application? Are you designing for corporate, commercial, educational, or entertainment environments? Is it a one-time event like a concert? Think about whether your client needs more emphasis on audio or visual components as well. This is the time to hold stakeholder meetings and reach out to your AV team for vital input. Being able to determine things like where hardware will live, and what the maintenance budget should be, are integral to success.
Create a project plan document that describes all the key actions, timelines, and resources needed to complete your AV system. Include aspects like locations for displays and audio components, installation and ongoing expenses budget, potential revenue, IT issues that may occur with compatibility, networking, and security policies, support options for future maintenance and upgrading.
AVIXA offers a detailed sample of a project plan document that you can use as a template or reference. Remember the key to successful project management is to prepare for as many surprise issues, delays, or unexpected costs as possible.
4. Don’t Forget to Test
All of your hard work with audiovisual project management could potentially be for naught if you don’t run tests with your newly installed AV system. Each AV solution devised is unique to your company’s approach to installation, not to mention you might be working in an international location with different freelancers than you’re used to hiring. Make sure there’s time set aside before your AV system goes live for your clients to run display and signal tests. Consider creating a pilot program, one you can duplicate on the day it goes live so you can give your clients effective feedback.
Paul Weatherhead is the CEO and founder of AV Junction.
