AQAV is dedicated to improving the operational art of designing and installing audio visual technology by focusing on the quality management systems of those who design and install for the benefit of the industry and all its stakeholders: clients and users of AV technology, AV designers and installers, equipment manufacturers, related construction and architectural firms, and the environment. It does so by:

·         Defining standards for quality management systems for AV technology providers

·         Providing training on AV quality issues

·         Providing appraisal audits of AV systems

·         Providing appraisal audits of AV companies

Engineered audio visual systems continue to become more complex and difficult to integrate. Indeed, audio visual technology is commanding a significant share of a capital budget. The need for finding qualified designers and integrators with management systems in place to assure consistent quality has never been greater, and the cost of poor quality is staggering.

This organization is a membership organization open to all parties interested in improving the outcome of the integrated audio visual system. If you are interested in joining or contributing to this effort please contact info@aqav.org

Core Quality Management Principles

Quality Management is complex behavior. To be effective, several principles need to be addressed, contemplated, reviewed for application in your organization. Then we must ask how we can do it better.

Every month we will focus on one core quality principle. The first eight months are surrounding ISO9000, the international consensus for an auditable Quality Management Systems Standard. We will then move on to the technical aspects of the audio visual industry for the last four months. Here is the first installment.

Quality Management Principle for the Month of February:

Principle 12 (AV9000): Produce systems of intrinsic stability

Good systems may be impacted by fast-pace changes in technology, but that doesn't mean that they should be designed for obsolescence. On the contrary, a well-designed system will last for decades, perhaps with elements updated or upgraded as needed. If the basic system was installed correctly, the microphones and loudspeakers are in the same place they were when the system was first installed, but certain items of equipment may have been changed. Ceiling mounted projectors may have given way to flat screen , for example. In any case, you generally do not have to rip everything out for an upgrade.

AV9000 points to the fact that good design means doing so with the service technician in mind, not the designer or installer. By the "service technician", I mean the person(s) who need to maintain the system for years, well after the last installer left the building.

• Is each item of equipment accessible?
• Are the cables adequately labeled, so if an item of equipment is pulled for repair or replaced, is it obvious how all the different cables were connected?
• Are frequently accessed terminals, such as the output terminals of power amplifiers, readily accessible or at least available on an I/O panel, so measurements can be taken (S/N, THD, normal operating levels)?
• Are cables so tie wrapped so that it makes it nearly impossible to pull something for repair?
• Is the equipment well ventilated?
• Is the equipment inventory and documentation complete enough to include make, model, serial number, firmware version, software version, IP and subnet addresses, passwords, and all the other database elements in the AV9000 requirements so that when a replacement is necessary, it can quickly be configured?
• If something needs to be recalled, do you know (1) if you have it in the system, and (2) where it is?

Answers to these questions such as these sill determine if there is a high Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), and the least Mean Time During Failures (MTDF), both critical elements of a well installed system.

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” 
― Henry Ford

“I am enthusiastic over humanity’s extraordinary and sometimes very timely ingenuity. If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem.” 
― Richard Buckminster Fuller

"People forget how fast you did a job – but they remember how well you did it” 
― Howard Newton

Click Here for All 12 Principles