The Perfect Recipe ...

Authored by:

William J. Lawrence, Jr., CTS-D, CTS-I, CQD, CQT, CQA

Executive Director

The Association for Quality in Audio Visual

Back in the 80’s (1980’s, that is), I was just a couple of months into my marriage to my wonderful wife. We were living in a tiny apartment (450 square feet) with 1960’s era appliances, complete with a small top-condenser refrigerator in “Avocado Green”. 

Having dated for a few years before that, my wife knew how much I loved my mom’s homemade Zucchini Bread. This stuff was amazing. With a higher density than Tungsten and more sugar than the southern half of Belize, we joked that it was “healthy, because: Zucchini!  Slather some butter on it and settle in for a long nap.

Well, my Bride decided she would get the recipe and make some in our first little home’s tiny little kitchen. 

Off I went to the store to gather the ingredients, handwritten list and all. Remember, it’s the 80’s here. Cell phones were in bags and for rich people, and there was no wireless internet.  I did my duty and gathered all the things, triumphantly bringing them home to make deliciousness. 

She followed the recipe with scientific exactitude.  Added generous helpings of love, and we waited with big smiles and a sense of accomplishment for it to cool. 

The time ticked by, and she sliced off a piece for me to have first. I took a huge bite, chewed with a smile, ready to savor the familial treat. It took just a short moment to realize something was terribly wrong. 

Texture? Close…

Density? Very close…

Taste? Well…that’s where the wheels came off. My brain was telling me what should be, but my taste buds were sending “abandon ship!” messages.

I tried to smile and choke it down, but by that time she had taken a bite, and the look on her face told me all my efforts would be in vain. 

It was truly awful. 

What possibly could’ve gone wrong?

Well, as in the audiovisual world, things aren’t always as they first appear. In that old adage, “what you don’t know you don’t know,” will get you every time.

I found out that day that not only do cucumbers look a lot like zucchini, but they also put them very close together at the market, side-by-side, in fact.

And just like so many critical parts in systems integration, they were absolutely and unequivocally NOT interchangeable.

AQAV gets a lot of comments and questions about “isn’t it a lot to do?” Or “I don’t really have to check everything, do I?”

And our response to that is this:

What is your level of risk tolerance? It may be perfectly acceptable to skip steps or rely on trust and ultimately serve a big batch of cucumber bread. If that’s OK with you and your customer, then you have your answer. 

As crazy as it may sound, this is a 100% accurate and true story. I take full responsibility for being negligent in my knowledge of produce. And she has since made many, many delicious batches of actual zucchini bread, although we try to stay away from black-hole-density treats these days.

We learned something together in that experience and made a great story to tell in the future.

That’s really what AV 9000 is. A bunch of major or minor disasters that were survived, written down, and shared by folks a lot smarter than me.

“AV9000 is the ultimate recipe for success. Making sure you have all the right ingredients, in the right measures at the right time, for successful outcomes every time”.

I don't know about you, but I'm off to the store to gather what I need to make a fresh batch. Who wants a slice?

In Quality, 

Bill