AV Integrator vs Internal IT: Who Should Do What?
- marktildesley
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Why this question matters more than ever
As organisations continue to refine their hybrid working strategies, the modern meeting room has become one of the most technically complex environments within the workplace. What was once a simple conference room with a projector is now a carefully integrated collaboration space connecting employees, clients, and partners across multiple locations and platforms.
Yet many organisations encounter the same challenge: unclear ownership of collaboration technology.
Internal IT teams are often expected to manage meeting room technology because it connects to the network and supports business applications. At the same time, deploying professional audio-visual systems requires specialist expertise typically provided by AV integrators.
When responsibilities are blurred between these two groups, the result can be familiar:
Meeting rooms that are technically functional but difficult to use
Poor audio or video experiences in hybrid meetings
Platforms that work individually but not together
Delays in troubleshooting because no one clearly owns the issue
The most successful organisations recognise that IT and AV serve complementary roles, not competing ones. Understanding where each function delivers the most value is essential to building reliable, user-friendly collaboration environments.
The role of a professional AV integrator
A professional AV integrator focuses on designing and delivering collaboration environments that work seamlessly in the real world.
Meeting rooms involve far more than installing screens and cameras. Every element — acoustics, sightlines, microphone placement, platform compatibility and user workflows — must be considered to create a space where communication feels natural for both in-room and remote participants.
An experienced AV integrator typically takes responsibility for several key areas.
Designing collaboration spaces
The design phase is where the majority of meeting room problems are either solved or created.
AV integrators analyse how a room will be used, how many participants it must support, and how it connects to wider collaboration platforms. They consider factors such as room acoustics, lighting conditions, camera angles and microphone coverage to ensure every participant can see and hear clearly.
This design process is especially important in hybrid environments where remote participants must feel just as present as those physically in the room.
Installing and configuring professional AV systems
Professional meeting room technology is significantly more specialised than typical office IT equipment.
AV integrators handle the installation and configuration of equipment such as:
Professional displays and projection systems
Cameras optimised for hybrid meeting environments
Beamforming microphone arrays and audio processing
Control systems that simplify the user experience
Digital signal processing for clear audio distribution
This stage ensures the hardware works together as a coherent system rather than a collection of individual devices.
Integrating collaboration platforms
Modern meeting rooms rarely operate in isolation. They must connect seamlessly with collaboration platforms used across the organisation, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Cisco Webex.
AV integrators configure rooms so that joining meetings is simple and consistent regardless of the platform being used. The goal is to remove friction for users and ensure meetings start quickly without technical complications.
Providing ongoing support and optimisation
Meeting room environments are not static. Organisations expand, technology evolves, and collaboration habits change.
Professional AV integrators often provide monitoring, support and optimisation services to ensure systems continue to perform reliably over time. This proactive approach reduces downtime and helps organisations maximise the return on their technology investment.
The critical role of the internal IT team
While AV integrators specialise in collaboration spaces, internal IT teams remain central to the success of any meeting room deployment.
Their responsibilities typically focus on the broader technology ecosystem that supports collaboration across the organisation.
Network infrastructure and performance
Hybrid collaboration relies heavily on stable network performance. Internal IT teams manage the underlying infrastructure that enables high-quality video calls, including bandwidth allocation, network segmentation, and connectivity policies.
Without robust network management, even the most advanced AV systems will struggle to deliver a reliable experience.
Security and governance
Collaboration platforms often connect external participants into internal systems. IT teams ensure these connections are secure, managing access policies, identity management and compliance requirements.
They also maintain the security posture of meeting room devices that connect to the corporate network.
User accounts and platform administration
Internal IT teams manage the organisational side of collaboration platforms. This includes user provisioning, licence management, software updates, and integration with existing identity systems.
This work ensures employees can access meeting platforms consistently across their laptops, mobile devices and meeting rooms.
Endpoint and device management
IT departments also maintain the broader ecosystem of employee devices. Laptops, tablets, and mobile devices must interact smoothly with meeting room systems, making endpoint management an important part of the collaboration experience.
Where organisations often get it wrong
In many organisations, meeting room technology is treated as an extension of IT infrastructure rather than a specialised user experience environment.
This often leads to one of two situations.
In the first, IT teams attempt to design and deploy collaboration spaces without specialist AV expertise. While technically capable, the result may lack the acoustic design, camera positioning and usability considerations needed for high-quality hybrid meetings.
In the second, AV systems are installed without sufficient coordination with the IT department. This can create network conflicts, security concerns, or inconsistent platform integration.
Both scenarios highlight the same underlying issue: meeting rooms exist at the intersection of IT and AV disciplines.
The most effective approach: collaboration between IT and AV specialists
The organisations achieving the best results recognise that collaboration technology works best when AV integrators and IT teams operate as partners.
A clear division of responsibility helps avoid duplication while ensuring each area benefits from specialist expertise.
In a typical successful model:
The AV integrator leads on room design, professional AV hardware, system integration and user experience.
The IT team manages the underlying network, platform administration, security policies and organisational infrastructure.
This partnership approach ensures meeting rooms are designed with the user experience in mind while still aligning with corporate IT standards.
When both teams collaborate early in the project, deployment becomes smoother, support becomes clearer, and the overall reliability of collaboration spaces improves dramatically.
The bigger picture: enabling better hybrid collaboration
Ultimately, the question of whether IT or AV should own meeting room technology misses the broader point.
The real goal is not simply installing technology. It is creating environments where people can collaborate naturally regardless of location.
Achieving that outcome requires both disciplines working together:
AV expertise to design spaces that support clear communication
IT expertise to ensure systems are secure, connected and scalable
When responsibilities are clearly defined and collaboration is prioritised, organisations can build meeting environments that genuinely support the way modern teams work.
And that is where the true value of professional AV integration lies.
👉 Learn more about how Collab AV deliver AV Integration solutions - Professional AV Integration for Corporate Environments
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