Ten years ago, the AV system in a conference room was a standalone island — a projector and a DVD player connected to a receiver and a screen, with no network connection, no IP address, and no relationship to the IT department beyond the HDMI cable that occasionally connected a laptop. The AV contractor and the network team operated in completely separate worlds.
Today, every component of a modern conference room AV system is a network endpoint. The codec has an IP address. The DSP has a network management interface. The digital signage player connects to the cloud to receive content. The cameras communicate with the cloud surveillance platform. The scheduling panel synchronizes with Office 365 or Google Calendar. The Crestron control processor receives commands over IP from the touch panel and sends them over IP to every controlled device.
This is the IT/AV convergence — not a trend that is coming, but a reality that is already here. And it has significant implications for how organizations buy, deploy, and support their technology, and it makes enterprise networking solutions and AV design inseparable.
What AV Convergence Means in Practice
Every AV device needs to be on the network — and it needs to be on the right segment of the network. Conference room codecs belong on a network segment with the right QoS policies to prioritize their audio and video traffic. Security cameras belong on a network segment isolated from the corporate LAN to prevent surveillance traffic from consuming bandwidth that users need. Digital signage players need outbound internet connectivity to their content management platform but should not have access to internal corporate systems.
This means that every AV installation is also a network infrastructure decision. When BCS Consultants deploys a conference room system, we coordinate with the client's network team on VLAN assignment, switch port configuration, PoE budget allocation, and QoS policy for the room's devices. When we deploy IP cameras, we coordinate on network segmentation and bandwidth allocation. When we deploy digital signage, we coordinate on internet access policies and content delivery network reach.
The IT team's decisions affect the AV system's performance. If the network switch serving a conference room is not configured with the correct QoS policies for voice and video traffic, the Zoom call quality will be degraded by background data traffic — even if the AV hardware is perfectly specified and installed. If the VLAN assignment for IP cameras doesn't allocate sufficient bandwidth for the camera count, footage quality will degrade during peak recording hours.
The AV system's decisions affect the network. A conference room deployment with fifteen networked devices per room — codec, DSP, control processor, camera, microphone, scheduling panel, display player, and others — creates a significant new IP device population that the network team needs to account for in switch capacity planning, DHCP scope management, and network documentation.
Organizational Implications: Who Owns the Decision?
The convergence of IT and AV creates an organizational decision that many companies have not resolved: who is responsible for conference room technology? The IT department, which manages the network the AV system runs on? The facilities team, which manages the physical spaces? The AV team or vendor, which specifies and installs the hardware?
In organizations that resolve this clearly — typically by making IT the owner with facilities as a partner and AV as a technical specialty — conference room deployments are more successful because the network configuration and the AV specification are coordinated from the start. In organizations where IT and AV operate independently, the gaps between their domains are where problems originate.
BCS Consultants bridges this gap operationally. Our engineers understand both the AV specification requirements and the network configuration requirements, and we manage the coordination between the two in every project. We speak the languages of both communities — IP addressing, VLAN tagging, QoS DSCP markings, and PoE budgets on one side; codec certification, microphone beam steering, and DSP signal routing on the other — which allows us to be the single point of coordination that multi-team projects need.
The Management Implication: AV Is Now an IT Asset
When AV devices have IP addresses and network management interfaces, they are IT assets — and the management practices that apply to IT assets apply to them as well. Firmware updates need to be tracked and applied. Device configuration needs to be documented. Security policies need to apply to AV endpoints just as they apply to workstations and servers.
Crestron processors, Biamp DSP systems, Shure microphone arrays, and network cameras all have firmware update cycles and documented management interfaces. Managing them as IT assets — with the same attention to update hygiene, configuration documentation, and lifecycle management that the network team applies to switches and routers — is the standard that modern AV infrastructure requires.
BCS Consultants provides complete configuration documentation for every installed AV system and advises on the appropriate update and management practices for each component type.
Why Single-Partner Integration Matters More Than Ever
The convergence of IT and AV makes the case for single-partner integration stronger than it has ever been. When AV and network infrastructure are separate scopes managed by separate teams, the integration points between them are where the project produces the most friction — misaligned VLAN configurations, incorrect PoE switch specifications, QoS policies that don't account for the specific AV traffic types, and documentation that doesn't reflect the complete system because each team only documented their own scope.
When BCS Consultants manages the full scope — AV, structured cabling, wireless, and the network configuration that supports all of it — the integration is designed rather than discovered. Network requirements are known before the hardware is ordered. VLAN assignments are planned before cables are run. QoS policies are configured as part of the AV commissioning process. The complete system is documented as a unified whole.
Where to Start: A Four-Step Convergence Checklist
Organizations can start without a large project. First, inventory every AV device that connects to the network, including its model, location, and firmware version. Second, define a standard for VLANs, quality of service, and power over Ethernet for AV devices so that every room is built the same way. Third, assign a named owner for each room and each system. Fourth, document and monitor the result, so that problems are found by dashboards rather than by frustrated meeting participants.
Common IT/AV Convergence Problems
Typical symptoms include conference rooms that lose connection because their devices were placed on the wrong VLAN, video that stutters because quality of service was never configured, and devices that quietly fall off the network because DHCP scopes were too small. Many of these are not AV problems or IT problems alone, which is why they persist when the two teams work separately.
Security Basics for Networked AV
AV devices often ship with default passwords, old firmware, and open services. Treat them like any other network endpoint: change default credentials, keep firmware current, limit access with network segmentation, and turn off services that are not needed. Include AV equipment in the organization's asset inventory and vulnerability review, so that a forgotten device does not become an easy entry point.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does BCS Consultants coordinate with our internal network team on AV deployments?
BCS Consultants works alongside internal network teams on every project. We provide equipment specifications including network requirements in advance of procurement, coordinate VLAN assignments and switch port configuration before installation, and document all network-facing AV device configurations in the project handoff package. We treat the internal network team as a project partner, not a separate stakeholder to route around.
Do our IT policies need to change to accommodate AV network devices?
In some cases, yes. Standard IT security policies — such as requiring all network devices to be domain-joined or to pass NAC posture assessments — may not apply correctly to AV endpoints. BCS Consultants advises on appropriate network access policies for AV device categories and works with the network team to ensure that AV devices are managed appropriately within the existing policy framework.
What network infrastructure services does BCS Consultants provide alongside AV?
BCS Consultants' network infrastructure services — structured cabling, wireless, and network switching — underpin every AV, security, and communications solution we deploy. BCS Consultants handles the complete infrastructure stack, not just the AV layer on top of it, and the details are on our networking solutions page.
Who should own AV devices on the network?
Ownership should be assigned explicitly. Many organizations make IT the owner of the network and device lifecycle, with facilities or an AV team responsible for room use and a vendor providing specialist support. Whatever the model, each device should have a named owner who is responsible for updates, access, and replacement.
Ready to get started? Talk to BCS Consultants — the integrator that speaks both IT and AV · bcsconsultants.com/contact/contact-us/