To Upgrade? Or Create Something New?

If your main Audio Visual system has been installed for a while you might be starting to wonder if it’s time to upgrade your system or start from scratch. We all try to save money if we can and Audio Visual is certainly an area we want to save money in. Sometimes a simple update in a piece of equipment is all you might need. Other times it might save you money over time to create a whole new system. How do you know when you can no longer upgrade? When is it time to tear out your legacy system and start over from scratch?

With older systems there are several options you might take: wait it out, simply maintain, or eliminate completely. Each has its pros and cons. Let’s walk you through each one.
If you wait as long as you possibly can to upgrade, it may save you money now but will probably cost you in the future. Many times, these systems are relied on a weekly, if not a daily basis. By waiting until pieces of your system fail, you put yourself in a position where you must make a quick, pressured decision to get the system back up and running. And sometimes you must settle for a piece of equipment that you might not like as much because the one that you want isn’t available that quickly. Or you might have to spend extra money to rent equipment until your new equipment can be ordered and installed.  

"Keeping tech running smoothly is an art form many neglect to maintain. Things break in a moment. Improvement is a lifetime" ~ Unknown

Another option would be to “wrap” your system. Wrapping is a band-aid fix. You can add pieces here and there to make the user interface more efficient and easy to use but leave the core of your system in place. The more you wrap your system, the harder it may be to problem solve. With a complex variety of equipment, additions, and rerouting it becomes difficult to locate where technical problems may be located. Sometimes just thinking a little farther than your basic upgrade can help you more than you might realize. For example, we recently installed new projectors in a church here in Colorado Springs. We easily could have used the older existing video line, but to help them get the most out of their investment we also installed a new HD video cable to ensure their new projectors performed at top quality. By doing this we not only helped them upgrade their projectors to the best they could be, but also prepared them for any future work without a huge cost increase. 

Always remember, it is seldom as easy as unplugging an old
component and plugging a new one in.
Just because you can do something to fix it doesn’t
​ always mean you should.
​

Eventually, making fixes or trying to outlast your equipment won’t make financial or practical sense for the future of your Audio-Visual needs. That is when you need to rip out your system and put in a new one. Another good time to seriously consider starting over is when you are moving from one location to another. We are currently designing a brand-new system for an existing church in Florida. In their old venue, they have an existing system that still works. Would it be possible to re-purposeparts of that old system for the new building? Yes, we could. But very often that doesn’t end up saving money. In fact, sometimes trying to reuse old equipment will end up costing more than just buying new due to compatibility issues. Instead, we have helped the church in Florida to rethink their AV needs. The old equipment will go towards the youth room and a new system will be designed for their main area.

As always, here at Lambda we want you to succeed. We will always work with you to come up with a solution that is designed for your specific needs
We strive to create affordable` options for your system to last longer and serve you for years to come. If you aren’t sure what your system needs to stay up to date and operational, ask our team for ideas. We’re here to promote your success.

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