ICT Today

24 I ICT TODAY FIGURE 9: If control plans include putting AV devices on the client's network, talk to the IT department early and often. Information on best practices is available in BICSI training and manuals, including Chapter 13: Audiovisual Systems in BICSI's Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual (TDMM), 14th Edition. Scope of Work and Specification The output of the design tradeoff process described above is formalized as one of the components of the scope of work (SOW), a contractual document that protects all parties from liabilities stemming from mis- understandings. The SOW defines every technical and administrative aspect of the AV project and drives detailed design, bill of materials, schedule, and budget. Do not proceed any further without an SOW signed by all parties. The detailed design is docu- mented by the technical specification, inter- connect diagrams, and construction draw- ings. At this point, the AV system can be inventoried to determine how many control ports of what type are required by the system, and appropriate control equipment can be specified (Figure 8). FIGURE 8: The SOW defines all aspects of the project, driving detailed design, schedule and budget. Coordination with IT Once the control system has been specified, bring the client's IT department into the design process. The AV integrator and IT manager should determine how many devices require Ethernet connection for control and physical locations. This allows IT to plan network load- ing, network switch configuration, assignment of IP addresses, and physical network drops. This is also the time when IT and the AV integrator ensure that network security protocols are supported by the AV control sys- tem. In some cases, the outcome of this coordination could be that the AV system ends up on its own dedi- cated Ethernet network (Figure 9).

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