Last month, we discussed how AV is steadily altering the face of hospitality and healthcare by significantly reducing the time medical professionals must spend on menial tasks. But there's much more to AV than hospital and hotel management, and Bisnow chatted with HARMAN to explore its present and future in the corporate setting.

Networked AV technology provides audiovisual communication over standard IP systems. Solutions include video encoders and decoders, audio transceivers, IP windowing and wall processors, network video recorders and even video management systems.

A large, diversified application on a single network allows businesses to share audio or visual media across multiple platforms and sources to any destination on the network, and streamlines resources — such as documents and media files — into a single IP network to cut installation costs and eliminate the hectic management tasks that come with maintaining multiple data and communication platforms. Modern networks are specifically crafted for easy use and implementation and scalable to the size of the client.

The Future Of Corporate AV

And not a moment too soon. Networked AV solutions are poised to help businesses revolutionize the way they communicate and operate. Even as smart technology weaves itself into the fabric of daily life — with automated thermostats, burglar systems and voice-activated speaker controls enabled in newer single, multifamily and mixed-use developments — AV tech has remained woefully behind until recently.

Take, for instance, the campus headquarters of Sunnyvale, CA-based enterprise solutions firm Juniper Networks, featuring campuswide networked AV solution utilizing AMX SVSI encoders and decoders deployed across more than 300 conference rooms. Initially unveiled in 2014 for its HQ, Juniper has since expanded to India and has initiated a system update — a monumental task that wouldn't be possible without a highly sophisticated, stable system.

Juniper has roped audiovisual tech into the future, as the building is crafted with the intent to support a vast AV infrastructure, featuring a matrix of 600 AMX SVSI input source encoders and more than 900 output decoders, 25 windowing processors and 120 ATR audio transceivers.

The building retains only one LAN (local area network) and hundreds of video conferencing setups, thus totally centralizing engagement and management.

“The key principle in our vision was to enable everything on an IP network, highlighting a different way of executing an AV project,” said Juniper IT CTO & Vice President of Technology Services Gary Clark. “The AV industry still harbors the notion of RS232 controllers. We wanted to drag AV into this century with this project.”

Even now, Juniper’s experiment with AMX SVSI is paving the way for architects and project developers to confidently begin renovating and building developments that can support such massive networks.

Things To Consider When Implementing AV

The key to successful implementation is to seek out vendors with a strong, established history of offering AV network solutions. The provider should offer a full solution, including the requisite IP encoders, decoders, audio transceivers, video recorders and windowing/wall processors. Clients should ensure that their system will support point-to-multi-point streaming and distributed matrix switching, as well as a large number of computers, smartphones and tablets.

Prior to implementation, it is important to assess whether the building’s current IP network meets the minimum requirements to support networked AV, as well as the minimum capacity to upgrade systems when necessary. Clients should check the provider’s bandwidth to ensure their screens and operating software can support high-quality video and audio feeds.

To learn more about Bisnow partner HARMAN, click here.