Specify the correct projector, place it in the optimal position, use the right screen surface, then control all the light variables - and you might get the perfect picture. However, in all the RFP's I have ever seen, no one specifically asked for the perfect picture.

As a former AV technician I understand how important it is to the project to "do things right." For field folks like myself, this is mostly hindsight. We are handed a project that has already been compromised somewhere along the way. It's easy to point out the flaws as the job is being built and delivered. It gives us something to whine about as we toil and an excuse to point to when things go wrong. Then some manager decides that we seem to know everything (because we told them so many times!) and he or she turns the competent technician into a marginal salesperson, system designer, or technical specifier.

Best Practices Sponsor

At last! A chance to build a better mousetrap: a foolproof system that provides for all the possible needs of the customer. We "what if..." the project into submission and proudly stand behind our design and say, "We have thought of everything!"

...except what the customer wanted in the first place.

"Ironically, when the complexity that we add to our products and services exceeds the needs of our customers, they respond by ignoring the features they do not need and by treating our offerings as if they were commodities." - Jeff Thull, Mastering the Complex Sale

What happens next is that we present the perfectly engineered solution to the budgeting machine and discover that it far exceeds the customer's expectations on price. Depending on the seller, one of two things tend to happen: Either the price is lowered without changing the design or, someone tells the customer why they are wrong for rejecting the solution. In other words, the product is commoditized or the project is lost.

"We don't want to do something that won't work, right?" is the plea of proponents for only "doing things right." Over-engineering isn't a uniquely "live audience" thing. Anyone that designs systems that will be used for presentation - whether it is a boardroom or a ballroom - has at one time or another added contingency capability that exceeded the customer's needs. Have you ever walked into a conference room that the owner doesn't know how to use? Yep, designed by an Expert... 

"The basis of product choice often evolves from functionality to reliability, then to convenience, and, ultimately, to price." - Clayton Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma

If the product is not functional in customer terms, then it is not likely to be reliable or convenient for them either. The buyer will quickly focus only on price.

The goal of system design should not be a smorgasbord of capability; it should be devoted to solutions that are flexible, not specific. Specificity is a luxury. Consider an expensive sports car that is great for driving fast on windy roads, but useless for running errands, much less a family vacation. Control systems are intended to make complex systems easier for customers to use - except that control systems are often too complicated for users to understand.

As AV professionals, we are in love with what technology CAN do, but we must focus more on what it SHOULD do. Complexity compromises reliability and convenience. When we let our passion come out, we design overly complex systems that are rarely utilized to their full potential. That excess capability represents something the customer doesn't value, understand, or is willing pay for. We lose the job on price or lower our margins.