What's a realistic AV budget for a 200-person Cat B fit-out?

A realistic AV budget for a 200-person Cat B fit-out is £180,000 to £500,000, equating to roughly £900 to £2,500 per desk for the AV layer of the fit-out. The wide range reflects sector and spec rather than uncertainty: financial services and legal firms typically sit at the top of the band, general office occupiers at the bottom.

A 200-person headcount usually translates to 12 to 18 enclosed AV-enabled spaces once you include phone booths, huddle rooms, standard meeting rooms, an executive boardroom and a town hall or training room. On top of those rooms the AV scope normally includes reception digital signage, breakout-area screens, wayfinding displays, and cabling and integration with the room booking platform.

The biggest budget drivers between £180k and £500k:

• In-room phone booths. A floor of phone booths kitted out with screens, ceiling mics and lighting (rather than just a power socket) adds £40k to £80k.
• Town hall and all-hands capability. A flexible town hall space with line-array audio, dual large-format displays or a video wall, broadcast-quality cameras and presenter mics easily reaches £75k to £150k on its own.
• Executive boardroom spec. Custom joinery integration, AV-over-IP distribution, redundant DSP, dual-platform certification (MTR and Zoom Rooms), recording and streaming push the room from £35k toward £100k.
• Reception experience. Branded video walls or LED reception backdrops are £25k to £80k; a single 75 or 86 inch signage display is £4k to £10k.
• Sector compliance overhead. Legal and financial occupiers typically need additional cabling segregation, secure-room sweep capability, and integration with case management or trading platforms, all of which raise the per-room cost.

A consultation and design phase early in the Cat B programme produces the AV brief and outline costs in time for the property and finance teams to commit a defensible budget rather than a number plucked from a spreadsheet. The room mix and standardisation decisions made at this stage shape the meeting room AV cost more than any individual hardware choice later.

Quick reference: 200-person Cat B AV budget £180k-£500k, per-head benchmark £900-£2,500 / desk, financial and legal at top of range, general office at bottom.