Many of you will be working on projects that are effectively being held up by the extremely long lead times associated with the procurement of AV and IT equipment right now. You may even be planning new projects that rely on said equipment and are now struggling to know what to do.

Lead times on many items are as long as 40 – 50 weeks!!! Never before have we seen such madness.

So why is this happening?

Put simply, much of these AV and IT equipment items have been designed with silicon chips. There is a global shortage of chips, which means the AV and IT equipment manufacturers cannot procure the quantities they require to meet customer demand anymore. Many other industries are also affected by this situation. The automotive industry is one you may also be aware of.

Importantly though, what can you do about this problem?

How can you de risk your projects from these long AV and IT equipment lead times?

Consider these two options.

Alternative Products – Same Outcome

We are currently collaborating with a customer to make sensible changes to the original specified AV equipment items in our designs. The key word in that sentence is “sensible.”

Our focus is on bringing the overall project lead time down and choosing alternative products that are more readily available. However, at the same time, we cannot compromise on the overall outcome that the designs set out to deliver. In this case those key outcomes are:

• • Simple to use AV systems
  • Simple designs using reliable and quality equipment

Staged Design and Delivery

Another customer we are working with has been open to installing the original designs and AV equipment in two phases.

Phase #1 can be installed quickly and provide the customer with functional rooms and spaces that have basic AV technology.

Phase #2 will happen in approximately 6 months’ time when the long lead time items arrive. At that time, the remaining equipment will be installed, and the customer will have the full AV functionality as per the original designs.

Got questions or have a similar project with these challenges you would like to discuss?

We can help. Feel free to reach out.