As we all strive to enhance our hospitality experiences to ensure guests choose to visit and return, we need to ensure that design and functionality are held in equal regard.
AV needs to be valued to deliver value.
Whether guests are coming to your venue for pleasure, to relax and rejuvenate, or attending a corporate event, to communicate and collaborate, getting the AV right is key.
Much consideration is always placed on the look and ambience of a space, but you should not have to trade off appearance for efficacy.
To create successful hospitality spaces, it is vital that the technological aspects are considered alongside visual appearance as part of the planning process; not just what you need the technology to do, but what hardware is actually required in order to make this a reality.
When carefully designed together, a holistic approach to lighting, audio and video can be seamlessly integrated into the design of a room, delivering the functionality required in an unobtrusive, even invisible manner. When done effectively, this enhances the overall ambience of the space, as sound and lighting are critical in creating the optimum guest experience for business and pleasure alike.
It is always a good idea to involve your AV Installer or consultant as early as possible in the process. Your management team and the design team may be unaware of what technology is needed or even available to enhance the guest experience and deliver the functionality required. This is where your AV Installer or consultant can really add value.
It is essential that AV is correctly budgeted for, just like the new carpets, chairs or drapes would be; it is always more aesthetically pleasing and cost effective to plan for the integration of AV at the start of a project, rather than to bolt on requirements in a rush at the end.
We often find that AV is not a discipline owned specifically by anyone within hospitality venues. As such, without this ownership, the core values, requirements and budget for AV are often not clearly scoped out or in place at the beginning of a project. This runs the risk of AV not being championed.
To give you an example, without the understanding of how to design a sound system for a specific space; “We don’t need that many speakers, we are not opening a nightclub!” after a few weeks trading can quickly turn into “guests at this end of the room can’t hear, the sound is really patchy!”
The number of speakers is always about coverage and ensuring that sound is evenly spread throughout a space, it is not just simply about how loud sound in a space will be. There is always some give and take in a sound system design; a good AV designer will deliver alignment with ceiling lights and features to help integrate with the design, but always ensure you have the best sound coverage wherever your guests are in a space. After all, you serve the same quality food to all guests, why should their audio experience be any different?
Using a centralised system for sound, video and digital signage may appear initially to be more costly than disparate systems, but the long-term operational flexibility and consistency will soon outweigh this additional cost. Consider your event spaces, when a private hire, exclusive use or big event requires the ability to route the same sound, video picture or content to all areas, having a centralised system can be a deal breaker to the event manager.
In addition, as we all start to embrace Martyn’s Law, it will be key for every venue to plan for any acts of terrorism and other such events that we all hope we will never have to face. To make sure things go as smoothly as possible in such horrendous events, some level of centralisation is essential to effectively and quickly communicate with your guests, delegates and staff.
Linked with remote support, a centralised system can also offer greatly reduced downtime and swift resolution of many issues. Having AV engineers supporting the system remotely can take the pressure off your operational team. Your venue’s maintenance or engineering departments might not be familiar with AV systems, but when instructed and supported by a remote support engineer, they can easily fix the faulty item or address the weak link that needs attention. This makes the process much more effective and efficient, saving everyone time and stress.
If you want to prepare a case for a centralised system, why not consider the following;
- Remuneration given to dissatisfied guests after complaints or issues linked to your current systems
- How much is paid to hire in AV companies or equipment to add functionality for big events
- How long you wait for an engineer to attend and diagnose a problem, to then drive away to get the correct part, before returning to fix it?
These all have an impact on your venue and your profit, not just the revenue on one event, as an experience could prevent both bookings for repeat events and referrals.
When investing in and maintaining your AV think about how it actually affects your guests, delegates and even your team. Hard to control systems or those that don’t perform to the correct standard, can leave staff frustrated and even disenfranchised if not resolved, especially if they are continually apologising for problems they cause guests.
A well-designed AV system will be easy to use or even semi-automated to work for your team, rather than being another task or chore for them. Simple intuitive controls clearly labeled in non-technical terminology will really help your team feel empowered by the AV and learn not to fear the tech.
Value your AV and it will deliver Value to you.
