Your AV Standards Checklist for InfoComm: What to Ask, What to Avoid, and Where to Focus

InfoComm is a sensory overload; new gear, bold demos, immersive showrooms, and more blinking LEDs than Times Square at midnight. But if you're a technology leader responsible for standardizing AV across your organization, it's not just a tech playground, it's a strategic opportunity.

You’re not just hunting for shiny objects. You’re thinking long-term: consistency, scalability, supportability. Whether you’re rolling out 10 rooms or 1,000, the conversations you have at InfoComm can either bring clarity to your AV roadmap… or add more noise.

So before you hit the show floor, here’s your smart, strategic checklist.

What to Ask (Yes, You Can Be That Person)

InfoComm is full of sizzle—but your job is to find the steak. These questions help you cut through the buzzwords and identify which vendors or partners are truly standardization-friendly:

Ask Manufacturers:

• "How do your products support long-term lifecycle planning?"

• "What does your firmware update and support model look like post-install?"

• "Are your systems easy to integrate into standardized AV environments?"

• "Do you offer tools for asset tracking or remote monitoring?"

 

Ask Integrators and Service Providers:

• "How do you help clients document and enforce AV standards?"

• "Do you offer pre-engineered room types or repeatable design frameworks?"

• "What does your process look like for maintaining consistency across locations?"

• "Do you follow auditable quality frameworks like AV9000?"

• "How do you use visual tools like renderings to communicate designs internally and externally?"

 

What to Avoid (A.K.A. Red Flags and Time Traps)

Some demos will wow you. Some reps will talk a good game. But here’s what to steer clear of if you’re serious about AV that scales:

• Products with no roadmap: If the vendor can’t articulate how the tech stays current post-sale, proceed with caution.

• One-off solutions: Cool in a vacuum, but hard to repeat consistently across rooms or sites.

• No integration clarity: If they can’t explain how their system plays with others, expect complications.

• No documentation, no dice: If there’s no support for version control, diagrams, or documentation, your team will be left guessing later.

Where to Focus (Because You Can’t See It All)

Let’s face it, you're not going to have a 30-minute conversation at every booth. Here’s where to put your energy if you care about scale, performance, and strategy:

Look for:

• Standardization-ready solutions: Modular, supportable, and repeatable.

• Remote support capabilities: Gear and platforms that minimize truck rolls and maximize uptime.

• Enterprise-level documentation: Anyone who shows off visuals, renderings, or lifecycle dashboards is speaking your language.

• Partners who talk strategy, not just installs: Bonus points if they reference things like EPM, lifecycle planning, or AV governance.

Why It Matters

If you leave InfoComm with five new vendors, three new platforms, and no clear way to tie it all together—you’ve just made your AV stack more complicated, not more capable.

A thoughtful standardization strategy (supported by visuals, documentation, and reliable integration partners) doesn’t just make your rooms work better. It makes your life easier.

 

Let’s Connect at the Show

We’ll be at InfoComm, and we’re not just looking at gear—we’re having conversations about strategy, standards, support, and sustainability.

Want to meet up? Fill out our contact form to connect with us at the show.

We’ll bring the insights. You bring the questions.

See you in Orlando.