Even a small office on a tight budget can afford high quality audio visual equipment parts and accessories. Employers use A/V accessories for in-house training, video conference calls and group presentations. Base your audio visual parts shopping on a solid business strategy, so you can justify what you need as a way to improve your business.

Determine why your business needs special audio visual equipment. Remember that as your business grows, your needs change. Also, keep in mind that technology changes quickly, so buying to be at the cutting edge is an expensive strategy.

1. Video conferencing is not a replacement for personal meetings, it is a supplement. If you don’t need to provide visual information to a dispersed group, you don’t need video technology.

2. If you train employees in-house, you need good projectors and speakers and may want to include video conferencing to train employees at multiple locations.

3. With the saturation in businesses of slide show software, such as Open Office's "Impress," a presentation needs audio visual accessories such as a digital projector.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Determine how and where the A/V parts will be used

Video conferencing room sizes will determine the audio and video components' sensitivity. Presentations in a large room will need a bright projector. Frequent changes of your presentations' locations call for a light-weight projector.

I recommend: Projector Central provides a helpful business buyers guide to projectors in which you can learn about such key features as brightness and weight. Review the “Top 6 Web conferencing products” examined by CNET.

Calculate total system cost

Audio visual equipment parts and accessories can be expensive to maintain. Frequent use wears out projector components. You may want a professional to install and adjust your speakers. You will need to perform regular software updates on some equipment. Your options include training or hiring an employee to be the in-house expert or bringing in experts as needed.

I recommend: IVCi, LLC offers video conference maintenance contract examples and provides a buyers guide to video conferencing, which includes various prices for popular systems. TKO Video Communications offers tips on video conferencing equipment and recommends four video conferencing manufacturers: Codian, Tandberg, Lifesize and Sony.

Rent seldom used AV parts

Many vendors will rent and supply all services necessary to use the latest audio visual parts and accessories. These companies will deliver, install, remove and operate the equipment. Additionally, some vendors, especially for video conferencing, rent their facilities to customers.

I recommend: United Visual provides sophisticated audio visual staging services. If you want to host an event yourself, Rentacomputer.com delivers equipment nationwide and offers audio visual rental quotes. For an example of a hosted video conference facility, visit the webpage for The Video Teleconferencing Center at the University of Maryland.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider desktop AV parts for connecting individuals without requiring a formal group gathering. This can be particularly useful if the individuals want to share what they are doing on their computers.