Team Spotlight - Collin Hogan
After 20+ years in the business, what are your top 3 learnings about the audiovisual industry?
AV is about people. Every project has pitfalls and the best way I have found to avoid them is involving experienced and dedicated employees at every turn. In AV, the process is only as strong as the weakest link.
While Steve and I worked for integrators, we saw the quality of internal departments ebb and flow, but they never came together all at once. If the engineering team was performing well, our best technicians were just hired by the competition or maybe the sales team was inexperienced and underdeveloped projects were undermining the process before it began. We designed AVH to avoid these issues.
By taking control of the entire intellectual process, we ensure there are no weak links in the chain. Our employees average 20 years of industry experience, and we employ a collaborative approach to major decisions and challenging problems. In our model, the integrator’s role is reduced to supplying and installing physical materials, which is overseen by our project management staff. It’s the only way we’ve found to ensure our client’s vision is accurately implemented, deliver quality consistently and standardize across disparate locations.
Responsibility is the name of the game. Most consultants shed responsibility with broad contractual clauses. Culpability falls to the integrator, who is even responsible for the consultant design flaws. To make matters worse, integrators are tasked with creating the build documents despite no involvement in the discovery process. It’s a recipe for lost information. When something goes wrong, either the finger pointing begins or the integrator covers it up so the consultant can save face and they don’t get omitted from the next bid. Everyone’s motivation is their own self-interest instead of in the client’s.
In contrast, AVH takes responsibility from the first discussion to the last menu setting. Our consultant performs the discovery and works directly with the engineering team, ensuring proper communication. If a mistake is made, we own it and find the best possible solution for the client.
Don’t repeat mistakes. One of the major differences between AVH and other consulting firms is our quality control and commissioning process. We have boots on the ground and are in the trenches with the integrators. The primary goals are to ensure systems are installed properly configured to specification, but reporting issues engineering team is critical to our success. If a component is a problem or incompatibility realized, our engineering team hears about it and the issue is avoided in the future. Without this feedback, we’d be repeating mistakes constantly. Traditional consultants don’t have the luxury of this real-world experience and their disconnection with the field increases over time.
Is there a project or partner relationship that you are most proud of?
Getting a small business off the ground is difficult and you need some lucky breaks. Work was inconsistent in AVH’s early days, but we managed to win Novartis’ first building in Cambridge, MA. When they built their next building, we were the only vendor from the first project to make the cut. Since that time the relationship has grown and we’ve completed over 300 projects with Novartis. We’ve done work for them all over the world, the largest project was an eight-building campus in Shanghai.
The faces we work with at Novartis have changed many times over since 2003, but we continue to prove ourselves. It has been our best partnership to date and a point of pride for our entire team.
How will COVID-19 impact AV technology in the workplace long-term?
The easy answer is that conference spaces will need the ability to connect with remote workers, but I’d like to go a step deeper. While remote work has been surprisingly effective, the pandemic has also brought realizations that will drive the need for physical office space for the foreseeable future. We still need to go to an office, but the reasons are evolving.
Concepts like mentorship, team building, socialization, innovation, culture implementation and collaboration are imperative for companies and more effective in person. Some companies made quick decisions to abandon physical office space and I expect they will see these areas suffer long term. How much does a 15% drop in innovation cost a fortune 500 company? What about not developing talent as quickly or an increase in employee turnover? These answers are difficult to quantify, but even small changes yield significant loses for our clients.
The pandemic has been scary for AV companies. Social distance limitations threaten the foundation of our business, in-person meetings. As the dust settles, our larger clients are committing to sizable projects. In general, consolidations are moving forward while expansions are on hold or canceled. While this isn’t ideal news, it is encouraging to see companies committing to future occupancy rates and planning the same number of conferencing spaces they would have last year.
It is no secret that corporations are good at making money. They have a formula that works and COVID-19 will eventually end. While remote work will increase relative to pre-pandemic levels, office space will continue to be the primary work environment. Many companies are realizing that the goal of the office is no longer maximum employee density. Instead the focus is on optimizing space to promote the intangible concepts listed above. And with remote work increasing, technology will play a critical role.
In the short-term, technological advancements will focus on collaboration tools that facilitate both local and webconferencing participants. Flexibility and quality of experience will be the differentiators. If they are to replace in person collaboration, socialization, team building, etc., the audio and video quality is paramount. And with the emergence of remote work and satellite offices, the tools will need to combine people in the room, elsewhere in the building, another corporate office or at home.
Long term the need to involve remote participants will remain and continue to influence technology development. I don’t see all that much changing otherwise. The pandemic will end and people will forget, just like they have with past world changing events. Boardrooms and auditoriums will be full once again and technology will continue along its pre-pandemic trajectory.
What are the top audiovisual trends to enhance collaboration for 2021?
Cross-platform interoperability. The term unified communication has been overused for so long now that it has lost its meaning, but the technology is finally emerging to allow conferencing platforms to communicate. Now the client who has invested in any combination of Cisco, Poly, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Zoom has options to connect all the above. While the backend is complex, the user experience can be seamless, especially when integrated with the company scheduling.
What are your passions outside of work and the audiovisual industry?
Family, friends and health are my main areas of focus. I appreciate the outdoors, mainly through boating and hiking. I enjoy playing many sports, but a few years ago I tried hockey and got hooked. I play in a weekly beer league and some of the guys I play with are over 70 years old. I’d love to be that guy someday.