Consumer AV for Commercial Projects? The Debate Rages On

Integrators lament use of residential-grade displays and controls outside the home, but now failure to meet clients’ demands could mean losing the job.

The major differences between consumer- and commercial-grade displays come in the levels of haze and reflectivity, brightness, thermal capacity and production and display orientation.

Dust is another consideration, says Daragjati, especially in environments with industrial-strength HVAC systems. Consumer displays, of course, only come in horizontal varieties, and many digital signage displays are hung vertically, for example.

Around-the-clock use on consumer displays in commercial settings would likely mean the product gets replaced every two years, says Yanke. “It’s a conversation that happens all the time [with integrators],” he says. “We have a lot of examples we can show them of what works and what doesn’t. We still have customers who go with the [consumer-grade display] and replace those mistakes a few years down the road.”

Daragjati says he still encounters issues pretty frequently but notes corporate customers in particular won’t make the same mistake after experiencing frequent failures with their systems. “They get it eventually,” he says. “It’s all about budgeting. When they have to repair the system multiple times, it’s no longer about the cheapest bid. Bars and restaurants are sometimes able to live with the difference in quality and sound.”

Daragjati says about 30 percent of his work is cleaning up other people’s messes, but notes he’d rather start from scratch than try to figure out a quick fix after someone else installed the system. “It costs more manpower to redo what someone else did than to replace it,” he says.

CompView fights the battle on some level in about 80 percent of its installations, says Madison. That includes with Fortune 500 clients, on college campuses, military bases and more. Casino clients, he says, generally understand the need for more robust products.

“I don’t really see any end to this,” he says. “Manufacturers are the only ones who can structure their pricing lines in a way to affect this. They don’t really know how to handle it either.”

What Can Integrators Do?

If integrators go ahead with a client’s wish to install products that aren’t built for commercial settings in those environments, it voids the warranty in most cases, says Godbout. “If that’s not a message, I don’t know what is,” he says.

Madison notes, though, that because many integrators buy their products through a distributor, they can get around the voided warranty by buying additional coverage through the distributor.

User error and ignorance is often the root cause of problems, says Yanke. “The product is fine as long as you’re only using it a few hours a day, and you don’t need control and there’s no light reflecting off it,” he says. “The challenge comes with some of the smaller customers, like lawyer’s offices and local doctor’s offices. It comes down towhether the customer appreciates the value added and relationship with the integrator. Some customers are only looking at price.”

Godbout worries an increase in failure rates that’s triggered by using cut-rate products in installs will sully the reputation of systems integrators as a whole, when in reality only some are to blame for the use of consumer products in commercial jobs.

“Our industry is fragile to start with,” he says. “We need to make sure we’re as ethical as possible and have the customer’s best interests at heart. We shouldn’t be tricking them.”

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