When should I involve an AV designer in a meeting room project?

Involve an AV designer at RIBA stage 3 (developed design), ideally at the same point the architect or Cat B fit-out designer is finalising room layouts and ceiling plans. Bringing AV in earlier than that is rarely productive (the brief is still moving), and bringing it in later turns AV into a workaround on top of decisions that have already been made.

The common procurement mistake is engaging an AV integrator at stage 4 or 5 (technical design or construction), often after the cabling routes, ceiling treatment and electrical points are already specified. By that point the costly compromises are baked in: ceiling speaker positions clash with the lighting grid, dado trunking and floor box positions don't line up with the agreed table layout, and the AV power requirement was never split onto a separate clean circuit from general office power. The integrator can still deliver a working system, but it will involve compensating for fixed constraints rather than designing around the brief.

Stage 3 involvement gives the AV designer time to coordinate with the M&E consultant on power and data drops, agree ceiling penetrations with the architect before the ceiling specification is locked, and validate camera and microphone positioning against the actual room geometry. It also means the equipment schedule and rack space can be reserved on the floor plan rather than retrofitted into a riser cupboard at the end. Strive AV's consultation and design service is structured around plugging into the wider design team at this stage, working through site survey, single-line schematics and BIM coordination before construction starts.

The cost picture is the clearest argument for early involvement. AV design fees at stage 3 typically run to 0.5 to 2% of total project cost. Fixing late-stage compromises (re-running cables, repositioning luminaires, replacing inadequate AV power circuits) routinely costs 5 to 15% of the AV scope, and sometimes more if the ceiling has to be reopened.

Quick reference: RIBA stage 3 (developed design) alongside the architect, before the ceiling, M&E and structural details are fixed. Late stage 4 or 5 involvement typically costs 5-15% of AV scope to fix what was already specified.