Conference Rooms: When Does Custom Integration Make Sense?

Customization has long reigned supreme in the conference room AV industry. AV integrators source individual hardware, from microphones to displays, and build conferencing systems unique to each business. 

But as standard solutions like Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms develop, many wonder which is best for their business: a custom or standard system. The answer? It depends. It depends on how much customization you want, your budget, and when you’re hoping to get started with your new conference rooms. 

Whether or not businesses should buy a standard room package or design their own is up to them. But here are some points that can help your company decide. 

SEE ALSO: Does Your CEO Trust Your Boardroom Technology? 

Custom Conference Rooms 

‘Custom’ sounds fancy compared to ‘standard,’ but is it always necessary? If your organization’s meetings have unique needs—like whiteboard capture, U-shaped boardrooms, and seminars in auditoriums—you may want to design your own standard to apply across meeting spaces. You’ll work with the AV integrator to choose hardware from different vendors to create a solution that makes sense for your business’s needs. 

The downside? A custom conference room can take one to two weeks just for a proposal or quote and will be much more costly than a standard conference room setup. If you’re in a hurry to implement new conference room AV, customizing won’t be the fastest route. 

Standard Conferencing Packages

While it could take weeks to complete a custom conference room proposal, you can receive a standard system quote the same day. You’ll look through a catalog of conferencing solutions that are ready to go, pick one, and we’ll start the project. It’s like purchasing a Dell laptop rather than building a computer from the ground up. It’s simple, all-in-one, and ready to use. 

Companies large and small can benefit from purchasing their conference rooms from a playbook. It’s a quick, inexpensive way to scale across your business with solutions that perform to standard. 

What About Managed Services? 

Does the commoditization of conference rooms mean that managed AV services are no longer necessary? On the contrary, managed services become even more important with standard packages. As these simpler solutions become an even more integral part of the workday, we expect them to work 100 percent of the time. If anything stops working, that’s a major disruptor. 

We see conference room AV services moving away from hardware and, instead, towards service and experience. Software updates, interfaces, and monitoring must always continue, but the hardware can stay the same. Conference rooms are much simpler than they used to be, but as technology becomes ever more present in hybrid workplaces, managed services are key to a well-running business. 

If your business could benefit from new conferencing solutions and managed AV service, we would love to help. Level 3 Audiovisual is a Phoenix, Arizona-based national managed services provider helping organizations of all sizes across the U.S. design, deploy, and manage AV systems and infrastructure. 

Learn more by connecting with our team here or clicking the chat box below to talk instantly. We look forward to working with you.