When putting together a design team, you may be wary of having too many cooks in the kitchen. You need engineers and consultants you can trust—not just to do high-quality work, but to ensure a smooth process. Hiring an integrated firm like an MEP lets you focus on managing your project while dealing with fewer points of contact.

MEPs design the major mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in a building. Often, they will offer to consult on AV, security, and other low-voltage systems as well.

While it’s convenient to check several boxes with one hire, the decision is not without risk.

Here are three caveats to be aware of.

Mirage Pricing

If you’ve compared quotes for design consulting, the cost of adding AV to your MEP contract may seem appealing. But integrated firms achieve that bulk pricing by keeping their AV designs as simple as possible. With price as the primary objective, there’s no incentive to tease out the ideal system’s complexity. They don’t take the time to let the users make their case .

So, a system is specified without a clear idea of what is truly needed. And the system you require—the one that will serve your client’s functional needs—will not be delivered at that price.

Because those functional needs will come to light, one way or another. Your clients will ask questions, those questions will identify unforeseen requirements, and those requirements will lead to change orders.

By that time, the project will be far enough along that the cost of adding what you need has exploded.

Depth of Knowledge

MEPs employ “technology specialists” to handle AV, security and telecom design. They tend to be generalists with functional knowledge of each discipline, but are rarely experts. While there are similarities between each of these systems, they are not the same.

Consider your typical construction project. In addition to the electricians, you will often see one crew of AV installers, another for security cameras, and sometimes a third for IT. At the field level, their tasks are perhaps the most similar—install and configure low-voltage cable and devices—yet they are still separate and specialized.

The knowledge gaps only widen as you move upstream to the engineering and design stages. Quality AV, security, and telecom systems each have their own criteria. And not just objective criteria, like security standards , but subjective criteria that satisfy operational needs the users may not even know they have!

AV consultants have a process that begins with understanding an organization’s needs and continues through design, commissioning and training. This approach has been refined from years of experience with AV’s idiosyncrasies. If you’re not working with an AV expert, this in-depth consultation will be superficial. If the process is cut short, this will lead to disappointment and costly change orders.

With proper discovery by an AV specialist, you will know what you’re getting when it’s time to procure: the appropriate system at the appropriate price.

Attention and Oversight

With an MEP, once construction is underway, you’ll rarely get the attention of the principal you worked with at the start of the project. They may attempt to swoop in and save the day if the project goes off track, but by then it could be too late.

With a specialized AV consultant, you’ll have direct access to the expert. They will be with you at every stage to guide you along, solving problems as they arise and making sure the system is ready to go at handover.

Because we don’t just build relationships with your team and the client. We also work hand-in-hand with the AV contractor to ensure quality standards are met. We speak their language and can provide counsel if they run into problems. We prevent issues from clogging your inbox as they bounce back and forth between stakeholders. Instead, we solve them at the source.

The decisions you make at the start of your project will ripple through the entire process. Treating AV as an add-on during the design stage is a sure way to prevent a smooth integration, and the waves will grow bigger and bigger as they crash towards commissioning. You can avoid that turbulence if you beware of mirage pricing, secure the appropriate depth of knowledge for your design team, and ensure that highly visible systems have the oversight they require.

Chroma can help give your AV project the attention it deserves.