Our Approach To Integration

Successful integration projects require that SmartBoards.com research a client's media needs, make design and installation suggestions, and draw up engineering documents before any qualified price proposal can  be put together.

A typical project is broken down into four major areas:

1. Pre-project Consulting

2. Project Planning & Documentation

3. Fabrication and Installation

4. Ongoing Maintenance, Training and Customer Support

1. Pre-project consulting  

The first step is to find out what you, the client, need in the facility, and here at PPI, we take this step very seriously. During this phase, a formal needs analysis to find out what AV capabilities you want the facility to have is completed. The goal here isn't to decide on specific AV components, but rather to talk about all the ways in which you and your end users would like to use the room when it's finished.

Once the needs analysis is complete, the project moves to the initial design phase. In this step, we paint broad brushstrokes of what the room might look like. One common way of doing this is to list the various blocks of technology that might be employed and provide ballpark estimates for the price of each. For example, an integrated videoconferencing system would be one component with its own price tag, while a projection system might be a second and a fully integrated remote-control system might be a third.

The point of the exercise is to show you where the money is going. And if the rough estimate totals more than you have budgeted for the project, it gives you the information you'll need to match your organization's expectations with your budget. Your goal is to understand what you will get for the amount of money you can spend.

This is the point at which you retain PPI to move into the detail planning and documentation phase. 

2. Project planning and documentation (Back to Top)

After the broad parameters of the project are agreed upon, our design engineers are brought in for the full-scale design effort. With the aid of CAD software, our engineers develop flow diagrams and detailed layouts for the AV equipment and wiring. All the odds and ends, from projector throw distances to millwork dimensions, are factored in.

It's very important that all of the details surrounding the project are committed to paper, and we will do this in a clean, organized way. If you decide to upgrade the facility with new AV equipment in the future, a good set of engineering documents will provide a road map for the future and go a long way toward keeping the cost down.

Once the basic design is complete, we will review it with you to make sure it can provide everything you expect. At this stage, we will present a detailed cost analysis for the project, including a line item pricing list for each of the AV components.

If there's an AV control system involved, we will review touch-panel programming interfaces with you at this time, so you have a good idea of what you can expect the system to control and ensure that it will be easy enough for all potential users to understand. (The sophistication of this interface will depend to a large extent on whether a technician or an end-user will be running the equipment in the facility.)

Once you accept the proposal and sign on the dotted line, the project gets turned over to our Project Manager and in-house fabrication and field installation teams.

3. Fabrication and installation (Back to Top)

After the final agreement is in place, we will order any necessary equipment not in stock and set up a timeline for when you can expect to have a fully operational facility.

For smaller jobs (i.e. upgrading a projection system), the installation process is straightforward; for large jobs, the process becomes much more complex.

For larger, more complex jobs, we will put together the equipment in our own facility before setting it up at your location. This portion of the job is known as "fabrication." Our fabrication crew will build the racks, wire the equipment, load all the components and test the system once it's built. This enables our Project Manager to make sure the project has been engineered correctly and that all the major components are in working order before they're transported to your facility.

If you've ordered an AV control system, we will also program the system at this time, enter the computer code that enables the various devices to "talk" to one another and receive input from the touch panel.

Meanwhile, the Project Manager will spend a good deal of time at your facility to make sure all the necessary groundwork is being laid. This involves such things as working with the electrical contractor to make sure the cable runs are installed correctly and all the power requirements for the system will be met. The Project Manager will also make sure that all the auxiliary devices - including projection screens, projector mounts, interfaces, speakers, microphones and floor boxes - are mounted and installed properly.

Once the groundwork has been laid at the facility and the fabrication phase is complete, the racks and other components are prepared for shipment, loaded into truck and delivered it to your location, where the field crew will get everything up and running. Aside from the connection of wires and hefting of heavy electronic components into place, this process involves a lot of testing to make sure that all the components are still doing their jobs and that the cable runs check out from point to point.

The programming for the AV control system must also be tested and debugged. Debugging is a very important milestone; particularly as control systems become more complex. It typically takes three days to debug a sophisticated integrated presentation system. 

For installations that involve complex audio systems, an audio engineer is sometimes called in to take acoustic measurements of the finished room, check the cabling, make sure the signal flows are correct and tweak the controls on the audio components for optimal performance. Since the audio performance is so dependent on the room's unique acoustics, this step can't be completed in the fabrication phase and must come near the end of the installation process.

4. Ongoing training, service and customer support (Back to Top)

Once the system is fully installed and functional, we will train the key people at your facility in how to use the equipment. For a meeting room or other installation that will be used by many people, we will want to involve a corporate trainer or IT specialist in this orientation process - someone who can be counted on to explain the system to colleagues and any end users we can include.

We also offer after-sales support in the form of a Systems Maintenance Plan. For a fixed annual fee, we provide warranty support plus periodic visits to check and fine-tune your equipment, replace lamps and adjust or update the control-panel programming. Regular visits can go a long way toward eliminating equipment failure.

If you have a very high-end or complex installation or several multimedia facilities on site, we can maintain systems on a full-time basis. This could include doing regular equipment maintenance, walking new end-users through the use of the system, acting as meeting facilitators, providing round-the-clock support and manage your AV equipment on a service-contract basis.