Back to the Future

By David Jones, Director of Business Development, Control Room Group

As we head into 2012, it occurred to me that the marketplace looks eerily familiar to one that some of us experienced 20 years ago.

Twenty years ago, the AV systems integration business was shaken by the fear that commoditization of the products that we used to create fully integrated system solutions would spoil margins and drive the true system integration company out of business. There was some fallout, but for the most part the system integration industry survived by educating clients about and differentiating the integration business from the “box house” businesses that were becoming a growing part of the market’s landscape. A similar situation exists today where “video wall systems” are being sold online after being advertised as a solution that anyone can design and install after selecting one product from column A, one product from column B and one product from column C.

Consequently, I believe our task is the same as it was 25 years ago: To educate the client and explain the value of having a systems integration company like the Control Room Group (CRG) design a system which specifically addresses their requirements (wants and needs) versus thinking they are saving a little money by purchasing a plug-and-play system online and settling for a “good enough” system.

With perhaps the exception of Pajama Jeans, there really isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for anything of value, and having been focused on the control room market for over 10 years now, CRG knows that as fact. CRG creates and supports 24/7 mission critical control rooms which are custom designed to meet the unique requirements of the client using common off-the-shelf components. The difference in cost between the one-size-fits-all “good enough” system and the fully-supported and specifically designed CRG control room system built to fit your exact needs – RARELY MORE THAN 10%.

Call me or send me an email and I’ll give you more specifics as to how we’ll go about creating an affordable, fully-functional and scalable control room system designed to meet and exceed your unique requirements.

I have another déjà vu experience to talk about but we’ll save that for the next blog. In the meantime, let me know how we can help. Give me a call at 1-888-619-9083 or send me an email – david.jones@avispl.com.