Any of you working with third-party IT pros to help with your installations?

I'm writing a story on the subject. Please shoot me an email or call (651-275-9564) if you're doing this, or considering it, or did it in the past, or will never do it ...

Would love to interview some of you.

thanks

julie,

yeah i did it both ways before they sub'ed me out and i sub'd them out.....

boy what a good way to ruin a good friendship...in fact it did on a board of trade job...man was it ugly......

ed

That was sorta what caused my company to come about. i worked telecom/datacom for a few years in between a/v jobs. i left the datacom company and went back into A/V, fast forwerd a few months and there i was installing a polycom unit in a boardroom waiting on the the old datacom guys to bring in my ISDN lines. My best friend was the datacom lead so we hatched an idea to combine the two. We now own a company that has two seperate divisions custom AV on my side, and telecom/datacom on his. Granted there is a little overlap in tech knowledge but really when you think about there are some significant differances between the two sides.
My AV techs can not walk in and layout/install a Main data frame room anymore then my tele/datacom guys could walk in and install/program a theater.


Proggieus

I sub-out my IT and it works great. I can do the simple stuff, but call my guy in when I don't fully understand or don't have the time to figure the issue out. He immediatly sets up remote access, at that point he can help me when ever I need it.

Well said, buddy...

I don't think that the IT guys have the mindset for AV and vise versa. I will use the IT guys IF I either don't have time to deal with the networking end or the customer has his own guy. I used to use IT guys but found it to be like a 3rd party SAT guy they get the stuff in alright but with no thought as to where or how I am going to interface with it or expand if needed, Therefore since we do a lot of AMX & Crestron and my network is key I do my own. Now if the customer has a MAC with an airport he is on his own as far as that goes!

Well, speaking as an IT *and* A/V guy, I have to disagree with your first statement. We're an IT shop that recently (~2yrs ago) moved into the A/V business; I'd been an avid A/V hobbyist before that, and the move seemed natural. So far, the results have been great, in my opinion there's a significant advantage to having expertise in all aspects of residential L/V applications.

cant count how many projects we took over from IT guys that have been awfull...probably over 20 projects in last 4 years that an it guy sais i can do home automation and home theter...just dont work