Working with digital infrastructure technology consultants
By Eliezer Ganon, Think Tank, The DESIGN | The TECHNOLOGY | The GIZMO
Architects aren’t strangers to using consultants. Designers regularly employ specialists to nail down engineering, lighting, landscaping, and other important details in their projects. These days, architects are turning more frequently to a new type of consultant for the digital age a digital infrastructure technology consultant—one that specializes in networking, telecommunications, and audio/visual (A/V) systems, as sophisticated communications technologies become essential elements in buildings.
The elevated role of digital infrastructure technology consultants results from the increasing willingness of corporations, universities, healthcare organizations, and others to embrace maturing technologies like videoconferencing and so-called “converged” networks, which merge data and voice traffic over a single digital infrastructure. These digital infrastructure technology consultants don’t just handle phones anymore. Often, they have expertise in designing and installing data networks, video production, and sound and lighting systems that make it possible to view a discussion in a conference room from anywhere else in the world.
A niche with influence
Rather than outsiders who sign off on one element of a design, these specialists often have a lot of input on the look and feel of a project. Five years ago, bringing in a digital infrastructure technology consultant would have been an afterthought. Now it’s something standard that happens before design begins.
The tie between communications technology and design is becoming so intimate, in fact, that sometimes technology is the design. Clients who want to look like leaders in their fields believe that high-tech touches like wireless tablet, video screens and futuristic voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phones provide a symbolic aesthetic image, which opens up designers to new visual possibilities. Technology can activate a space and it’s becoming part of the design and gives us a new material to play with.
Architects say their most forward-thinking clients want to blend hardware and software into the overall design for operational efficiency, and to reduce the expense of future upgrades and retrofits. To merge form and function successfully, architects and communications consultants must forge close working relationships, which can be tricky given that both groups often have strong opinions, and sometime large egos, about their respective work.
The challenge of finding a digital infrastructure technology consultant with up-to-date credentials is compounded by the pace of innovation coupled with a lack of standards for implementation. Digital infrastructure technology evolves so quickly that few guidelines or case histories of similar projects exist. Often, clients know they want to use new technologies to meet their program objectives—but they rely heavily on their design teams to present them with options for the best way to arrange, install, and use the equipment. Architects and digital infrastructure technology consultants must be able to articulate clear design solutions to make the most of the client’s investment in technology.
Thinking ahead
As buildings incorporate videoconferencing and other communications techniques that require sending a lot of data over the wires in real time, designers must consider adding ancillary spaces to accommodate the variety of equipment needed. Depending on the project’s size, a building may need a full-blown multimedia control room where technicians can monitor equipment and adjust camera angles and sound levels. Architects may also include several smaller communications rooms throughout a building during programming—an expansion of the old telephone closets—to house racks of servers and communications hardware.
Communications breakdown
Blending beauty and function is, as always, the trickiest balance. Digital infrastructure technology consultants put performance above aesthetics, while architects do the opposite, material selection is often a bone of contention. Architects love glass conference rooms because they look hi-tech. But they’re the worst thing for videoconferencing. There are no acoustic insulation properties in glass, the sound is hard, and it reflects around the room. You end up creating little echo chambers—not the intended result.
Suggests holding brainstorming sessions to identify solutions before the client sees design proposals, so the team forms a united front. Once a project is done, informal meetings can also help design teams build on experience to avoid past mistakes.