There are many routes to designing a new or upgraded system(s) in a facility. If you have done the EVALUATE, COMPARE, and INQUIRE steps, then you should have enough input to do your your NEEDS AND GOALS ASSESSMENT. A design partner would be a great asset in helping you sort through your needs and goals and narrow the focus.
During the design phase, don’t let costs or budgets dictate your design. This is a time to design the best system. It is your integrator’s job to help translate the design into what makes sense. Sometimes different phases can be designed in order to spread the cost over several months to years. We’ve had Division One athletic teams that needed to phase projects in over multiple seasons. Time, bandwidth of team, and costs can always create a project management conundrum for you, but that is part of an integration company’s specialty.
With your needs and goals in hand, work with your design partner to model your space. A 3D model will help you see the room in a totally new way. You can model for acoustics of the space and materials, test different types of sound systems, speaker placement, lighting systems, projection, screens, and so much more. The modeling process should give you and your integrator confidence in the systems you have designed and the configuration of the main components. This can save a lot of time in the equipment selection phase and in installation.
Often existing facilities have to contend with old wiring and other infrastructure concerns. When a room is designed well on the front end, many of the unknowns can be factored into contingencies, and risks can be mitigated. A good design partner can, again, help create a design, model the room/space and give you insight into how the facility will function before the first wire or speaker is changed. Adapting existing structures to new technologies can require some creative engineering, so the design consultants will help adapt the technology to your space.
In new builds, architects and design partners can collaborate with clients to balance the needs of the room functions and the technology experience. Architects often rely on the expertise of design partners to bring a space together. You don’t want a beautifully designed auditorium with horrible acoustics, line of sight for screens, or poorly selected speakers. The space will not reflect the true intent of the design. Ask your architect about their design partner. If they don’t have one, ask them to add one. It will save you time and money in the next steps. It can also aid in helping everyone adapt, should changes in a build be needed.
For instance, in one project of ours where we served as the design consultants and integrator, the architects had a miscalculation in the HVAC system and ended up cutting out about three feet of clearance in the ceiling, exactly at the opening to a stage where a 25-ft retractable projection screen was designed to fit. Our team adapted immediately and adjusted the design to a 22-ft screen and recalculated the projector throw and placement. The result was still an impressive visual experience, and the client did not have to facilitate any of the changes themselves.