Try before you buy

You get to test drive a new car before you buy it, so why not do the same for AV equipment? One of the best ways to assess a new technology is to try it out in your environment before you commit to purchasing something that might not be the right fit. There are several ways to do this and your integration and manufacturing partners can help you figure out the best options. If you haven’t asked about demo units, trial periods, or shared-cost pilots, it is now time to start having those conversations. Which approach to take depends on a few factors including the type of equipment, its cost, and its availability as well as the number of units needed and your agency’s security and legal policies. The last two points are extremely important.

It is best to talk to your legal department before you start negotiating with vendors so you know exactly what is and is not allowed at your agency. I’ve found the legal folks to be very helpful and I’ve been surprised by how much is allowed as long as you follow the laws and regulations. Just as you should check with the legal department before you start negotiations, you should always check with your information security department before you connect any new piece of equipment to the network. They are likely to ask for volatility statements, certifications, and other documentation that your integrator or manufacturer can provide.

Once the legal and security work is out of the way it is time to decide whether to borrow a demo unit, arrange a longer term trial, or negotiate a shared-cost pilot. The decision is often influenced by the type of equipment. Projectors are a great example of the type of equipment that is easily evaluated through the use of a demo unit. Most integrators are more than happy to arrange for a projector shoot out at your office. Once you have narrowed the field to a few choices you can ask to keep a unit for a week or so to test out its features and discover its quirks. It usually doesn’t take too much time to figure out if a particular projector outputs the right amount of lumens, has adequate resolution, and has the features needed to fit well in your facilities.

Other types of equipment are trickier and may take more time to evaluate. Things like new VTC form factors, streaming media systems, and digital signage processors are good examples of products that you may want to consider using for a 30 or 60 day trial. The intricacies of these technologies, their user interfaces, and their network requirements make it important to take more than a week to make a decision. For VTCs extra time is needed to set them up, configure them, and test them with your existing units and infrastructure equipment. Streaming media systems require adjustments to the network to provide adequate quality of service and will also need IT support to set up archive storage and web based links to content. You should take plenty of time to test features like editing tools and live multicasting to see how they work for you. Digital signage systems have a strong aesthetic design requirement and need to be set up and tested by administrators with help from video producers or graphic designers that can make the display visually appealing. The main differentiator between demo units and longer term loaner equipment is the level of complexity. I recommend longer term loans for equipment that has a steeper learning curve to master their features and to evaluate their impact on the network. Don’t be fooled by flashy demos or canned presentations. It is best to try it out for yourself to see if it is something you have the ability to manage within your organization.

There are some items that your vendors cannot afford to loan out. These are usually systems that require significant integration to function and may have high equipment and transportation costs. In these situations it is fair for all parties (usually integrators, manufacturers, and customers) to split the costs. Some systems that lend themselves to cost sharing include telepresence pilots and new control systems. Telepresence is an emerging technology that has a high cost due to the sophistication of the hardware, the intricacy of the software code, the facilities design requirements, and the level of integration needed. Similarly, control systems require labor intensive integration and a lot of up front programming work to develop modular code and logical graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

While there is a lot of AV equipment that lets you try before you buy, not everything falls into this category. Inexpensive items are not worth anyone’s time to evaluate before purchase. If the time to process the paperwork costs more than the equipment, just buy it and hope for the best. To put it another way, don’t ask your integrator for a 30 day trial on a DVD player or a speakerphone. That’s just wrong. I don’t recommend trials on one-off items either. These are the foundational equipment that you don’t buy more than a few of for your enterprise including videoconferencing bridges, matrix routers, and auditorium digital signal processors (DSPs). These items are too complex for a trial and require extensive cable management. They are better left to up-front research and reliance on solid warranties and service contracts. As a general rule I limit demos and trials to stuff that I plan to purchase a lot of for my enterprise. That can mean a lot of endpoint units, software players, or licenses. Whatever it is, it is worth talking to your business partners about before you end up with something you don’t need or that doesn’t work on your network or in your facilities. Any good integrator or manufacturer will jump at the opportunity to help their customers find new equipment that will improve their effectiveness and productivity. So, the next time you are ready to upgrade your projectors, try out a VTC, or integrate a new technology into your AV enterprise, consider taking the equipment for a test drive.

Gary L. Hall is the Geospatial Metadata Officer at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Washington, DC., and the CEO of LocalShare and The New Green Economy.