This is crucial, expense saving advice for anyone who is thinking of having a home entertainment system, or any other audio-video system, professionally installed. We are often called on-site to jobs that have AV racks that look like this (left), which is an unacceptable quality of work for any professional.
If you’re having an AV system installed, you need to make sure that your contractor sets up the cables in an organized, tidy fashion. Here’s why:
Scenario One
Something in your entertainment center stops working, so you call a contractor (such as Audio Advantage) diagnose the situation. Even if the solution is a simple fix – such as replacing a damaged cable, or reconnecting a removed wire, the job will take significantly more time (which translates to a more substantial expense) if the technicians are required to sift through heaps of cables to determine the cause of the issue.
Scenario Two
When you initially installed your home theater, you compromised with your spouse on audio equipment. After a few months of enjoying your brand new 4K display with surround sound, you’ve decided that the bass in your theater room needs to be upgraded. If your AV rack was organized unprofessionally, a simple installation job could cost you several hundred dollars more than it normally would, because the contractor will have to decipher the existing system before supplementing it or replacing the preexisting subwoofers.
If the job were initially performed correctly, the operation would be simpler, and safer.
Poor cable management is also a fire hazard, and can shorten the lifespan of those cables, which increases the likelihood that scenario one will take place!
The main point
Just because you can’t see the tangled mess of cables behind your entertainment system, doesn’t mean that you won’t be charged extra money as a result of their untidiness. Find a contractor who will do the job right the first time, and save yourself money in the long-term. Poor cable management is a red flag – the chances are that the technicians who do a poor job here have other areas that they lack in as well.
We hope this helps, if you have any questions, please get in touch!
