COOPERATIVE READING:

Next, we’ll find a long text about how to manage an audiovisual project. It is a long
text, so we will divide it into different people.

A) Before reading try to answer the following questions with your group:

1. What’s, in your opinion, audiovisual project management?

2. Which are, in your opinion, the steps we should follow for a successful audiovisual
project management?

B) While reading, underline and create a list with the technical vocabulary you find
in the text and that could be useful in an English-speaking country, even it’s vocabulary you
are familiar with.

C) After reading:
- Make a summary for your group members about what you’ve read, you can write it in
advance.

- Do you agree with the text?

- Does the text mention the same steps for a successful audiovisual project
management as you listed before?
AV Project Management: What
It Is & How to Do It Effectively

Audiovisual technology has become an integral part of our lives. It is present

in nearly every building, business, and event. The layperson might give little
thought to the presence of AV technology, but behind its successful
implementation and use is a dedicated team that has carefully planned,
managed, and evaluated every stage of that technology’s installation.

AV project management is no small task, and it’s full of challenges. Whether

you’re planning a large installation for a new business or updating a small
system in a conference room, understanding how to effectively manage your
AV project can contribute to your overall success.

What Is AV Project Management?

AV project management is often a key subset of another project, like
launching a sporting venue, hosting a major event in your entertainment
space, or even the grand opening of a new office building or educational
facility.
Planning an AV tech installation is a significant challenge, and the job often
becomes so large that businesses dedicate entire teams to overseeing the
process. These teams map out every detail of the technology’s installation and
use, ensuring that it can meet the goals and overall needs of the event.

An AV project management team might consist of several individuals,

including a project manager and team members, including clients and
contractors. Those members all work together during all of the project’s
stages.

A typical project consists of three phases:

● Planning: Set goals, outline the work to be accomplished, develop team

processes, and assign tasks to team members
● Execution: Perform project-related work, troubleshoot issues that occur,
and meet goals
● Review: Assess the project’s success and the team’s performance, and
discuss lessons learned

Those phases and the work required for each will differ depending on your
project scope and goals. While every project is unique, you can follow some
essential steps that can contribute to its success.

8 Steps of Successful AV Project Management

As you start to plan your AV project, you’ll quickly find that you’re working with
multiple to-do lists. The following steps can help to guide your process and
ensure that you’re well-organized and ready for the challenges that might
arise.

1. Determine Your Project Team

One of the first steps toward managing an AV project is to determine and
create a project team. Your team will need a project manager, but it will also
need technical specialists. Depending on your project, stakeholders, clients,
and possibly additional supervisors may also be integral team members.

At this stage, it’s also essential to determine the scope of work that the project
will involve. The more details you have about the specific workload involved,
the better you’ll be able to determine how many team members you’ll need to
be able to carry that workload. It’s also helpful to identify any specific or
unique skills that the project will require, and make sure that your team
consists of members who have those skills.

It’s important to determine not only your key team members, but to also
decide at what step in the project management process each member should
be involved. Consider the roles that each person will hold and how they’ll work
together. You may also want to start detailing the responsibilities of each team
member.

2. Establish Clear Communication Strategies

Team communication can be a major barrier to effective AV project
management. Many AV projects involve team members who are located in
different departments, buildings, or even different states or time zones. When
you’re working under tight deadlines, accurate and prompt communication
becomes even more important in keeping your project moving forward.

Outlining communication strategies at the beginning of the project can help

avoid some communication delays and errors that are common project
management issues. Consider getting your team involved and discussing
communication tools that they’re already comfortable with. This is particularly
valuable when you’re working with a client and you need to establish an open
line of communication. Clarifying working hours, availability, and response
time expectations can help your whole team to approach the project with a
mutual understanding and unified approach.

This may also be the time to consider using AV project management software.
A quality software platform can help to facilitate internal team communication
and even capture and record that communication for easy future reference.

3. Determine Project Goals

As you start to evaluate the work to be done, it’s also time to determine the
goals for your project. You can break these goals down into what you want to
accomplish during each stage of the project.

Don’t forget that your goals can also involve important elements like quality of
work, timely communication, and other elements that will contribute to your
project’s success. While it’s easy to focus on meeting specific milestones and
viewing those as goals, also think about the goals that will help you to
evaluate your team’s performance, too.

4. Create a Project Timeline

Your project timeline will guide your work through the implementation phase,
and it really serves as the overall roadmap for your team. Start with a general
list of everything you need to accomplish, and determine the deadline for the
entire project’s completion.

Next, work backward. Break down those larger tasks into smaller, more
manageable tasks. Once you’ve created individual tasks, you can assign
tasks to certain team members and add deadlines for their completion.
When you’re determining deadlines, always leave yourself extra time. Back
your deadlines up so that, when something inevitably goes wrong, you won’t
immediately delay the result of your project. Be sure to consider which tasks
are dependent on the completion of previous tasks, too. A delay in a previous
task can trigger a chain reaction, delaying subsequent tasks and putting you
past your deadline. Building in extra time and anticipating potential problems
can help you to avoid this scenario.

As you build your project timeline, you create a workflow that can guide the
overall project’s progress. Plan on referring to this timeline frequently, but
realize that you may also need to make adjustments as you progress through
the project.

5. Develop a Detailed Budget - and Refer to It Often

Good, detailed budgeting is essential to a project’s success, and it can help
you avoid getting into tight spots and facing difficult decisions later in the
project’s stages. Careful research, accurate quoting, and rigorous attention to
detail can help to ensure that your budget is appropriate.

While establishing a detailed budget can help you plan an AV project, it’s
equally important to frequently refer to that budget as the project evolves.
There will almost inevitably be unexpected expenses, and it’s essential to
balance your actual costs against your predictions. This is also a stage where
client communication becomes even more important, especially if you
discover that the project’s costs will exceed your initial predictions.

6. Create an Audio Visual Installation Checklist

The AV installation process is particularly prone to errors, so developing an
installation checklist can contribute to your project’s success.

Your installation checklist will need to detail the equipment and supplies
needed, as well as policies and procedures that installation technicians should
be trained in. This is the time to develop an installation plan that outlines the
order of installation, as well as the locations.

The more detailed this checklist is, the smoother your installation process
should be. This checklist can help to ensure that you don’t miss important
steps, and it may help limit the troubleshooting you have to do after an
installation.

7. Determine Appropriate Tests and Fixes

Rigorous testing is one of the most important elements of AV project
management. Investing plenty of time in thorough testing can help to identify
issues that can be addressed before they affect the technology’s performance.
It’s essential to perform plenty of testing at appropriate stages during the
project. You’ll need to identify those stages, as well as the types of testing that
you can use to validate the technology’s performance.

You may also want to develop a troubleshooting procedure or list of fixes to

help the process go smoothly and quickly.

8. Use the Right AV Project Management Software

Managing any AV project, whether it is a small residential retrofit or large-
scale commercial new build, is a large task, and it requires rigorous attention
to detail. It’s essential to track everything from task deadlines to budgets, and
you also need to be able to easily review project progress and identify
potential issues before they become larger problems.

Having the right project management software can make that easier. The right
AV project management software can help you with everything from proposals
to system design and development to enhancing team effectiveness. A quality
software platform takes some of the work out of tracking essential details and
manually checking in with your team members. It leaves you to focus on the
tasks at hand and to address issues that truly require your attention and
energy.