Is your Audio Visual Environment in Service Now?

[Matthew Fearnle]

As Audio Visual (AV) equipment gravitates towards a networked services model is it time for AV to be formally placed in IT? I would argue that it is long past due. This is based on the answers two quick questions:

• Do you have networked equipment?
• When AV issues arrive do the calls go to the service desk? 

If the answer to one of these questions is yes....... then we should talk. As AV is plugged into a PC (which is the engine that drives everything) access, permissions, clients, version control and ultimately usability becomes an "AV" issue. Yet AV still lives outside of IT (or it lives in the basement, guest house or crashed on the couch) AV still isn't a fully baked IT service.

Whatever you call it, "Classroom Support"," Academic Technology" or something else ultimately it comes down to an AV/IT hybrid model. So how do we pivot AV into an IT (read: ServiceNow) environment?

• First decide what is that your AV team supports, classrooms? conference rooms? digital signage? specialty spaces like amphitheaters and performance spaces?
• Are operational requests and technical requests going to the same team?
• Assign the proper tickets from these rooms to your AV support team

Once you have established "ownership" then the CMDB, ITFM process and workflows will align.

There's lots to consider but if you are interested in learning more......hop on the thread. We are putting together a Higher Ed AV working group and would love to hear your concerns, comments and hopes for the future.

In my travels I have found that we all experience many of the same issues so our goal is to make all of our lives a little bit easier

Next week's post: Crestron, Polycom, Bluejeans, Aerva, Solstice......how to structure an AV CMDB.

Regards, 

Matthew