What AQAV and AV9000 is and is not.

Authored by:

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

Executive Director

The Association for Quality in Audio Visual

We often get questions about what AQAV & AV9000 are. 

1. Is it "another" or an "alternate to" the long-established and well-respected Industry Education Organizations?

2. Is it an "all-or-nothing" system?

3. Does it add time and cost to projects?

Let's take each of those on this month and create some clarity. 

#1 - AV9000 is the de facto ISO9000-based framework of checklists and procedures for Quality Management for the Audio Visual Industry. The Association for Quality in Audio Visual Technology is the originating body for the AV9000. It oversees updates to the AV9000 standard, provides education, certification, continuing education, and industry support for AV9000 users.

Think of it like this: The longstanding industry educators teach you how to DO the things. AQAV teaches you how to ensure that they are being DONE, and prevent defects from appearing in the final release of the system(s). AQAV is not in competition with anyone. It is a unique and COMPLIMENTARY "next step" building on the knowledge from those who teach us 'how."

#2- Yes & No, but mostly definitely Yes.

AV9000 is the end-to-end system created to prevent defects. It starts in the pre-contract phase and addresses all parts of the project through final commissioning and handoff. Therefore, YES, it will deliver the best results when applied consistently throughout any project.

If you can't do it all, should you not do any of it? Absolutely not the case. A great way to learn or demonstrate the value of AV9000 is to identify areas of failure, determine which sections of AV9000 best address the prevention/detection, and apply them. What we see, almost without variation, is that those actions demonstrate the efficacy of the SYSTEM, and adoption continues, either fully or at a gradual pace. 

#3- Only if you do it incorrectly. Like ANY skill (soldering, mounting, network planning), Quality Management must be learned and practiced to become fast and efficient. IF a company first tries to implement AV9000 because of a bid requirement, or end-user demand, and they have not trained or practiced the actions, absolutely, it takes more time.

I liken this to walking on-site to a job that requires bespoke control system programming without having taken any advanced preparation course. If you open the manual after the lights are already blinking...well, we all know how hard that road is to travel. 

In reality, adopting, learning, and practicing AV9000 SAVES time and money. Re-work due to defects discovered during commissioning (or worse, customer training) is eliminated. Expediting missed items, re-designing post-contract (at the cost of money and loss of confidence), are also eliminated. 

Here’s the TL;DR summary of  it: 

Doing it correctly the FIRST time is always safer than doing it right the second (or third) time(s). 

Avoiding delays and rework means greater capacity for other projects, higher customer satisfaction, lower margin/profit erosion, and more positive employee morale. 

Have questions? We'd love to talk. 

In Quality, 

Bill