Item: AVI-SPL
Rating: 1
Author: Kenny Schubel

Overall Satisfaction with AVI-SPL

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

They
did not listen to the design process at all. I showed them the existing room
that I wanted to be mimicked and they disregarded and designed something that was not
at all what we needed so that they could come in cheaper and secure the bid. At
the end of the project, they would not replace the wrong hardware that they
suggested in order for features that were specifically requested to work. We
had to go out and purchase the hardware on our own and then pay our in-house
developers to correct the coding that they did not get right. We fought this
for over a year and ultimately decided to pay them rather than drag this out in
court because we needed this classroom that had been down the whole
time and we needed the source code that they created in order to correct their mistake and they would not release until payment was received. This was basically extortion.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Extort
Lie
Cheat

Cons

Experience in designing AV solutions
Listening to customers
Correcting their own mistakes
Communication
Attitudes need to be corrected by project managers

Return on Investment

They ended up costing us more money to get what we needed than the other companies that ended up being cheaper.
Our classroom was down for over a year because of their inexperience and lack of follow up

Support Rating

After seeing how they install the equipment we denied the support coverage. I had no faith that they would be able to help us as a company at all.

Employee Productivity

They have not, they only made things worse.

Alternatives Considered

I should have gone with the company that I was used to working with and had already designed and successfully installed our model classroom. This is the company that intentionally undercut by using subpar hardware that did not even work as requested.

Key Insights

Do you think AVI-SPL delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with AVI-SPL's feature set?

Did AVI-SPL live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of AVI-SPL go as expected?

Would you buy AVI-SPL again?

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued), Brave, Riskonnect

Likelihood to Recommend

If there were negative numbers I would absolutely use them here. I wish I could go below 0.

Using AVI-SPL

Users and Roles

We fired them after the install. They were never capable of getting the system working correctly so we fired them and hired more competent people.

Support Headcount Required

5 - There was about 5 people that corrected and supported the AVI-SPL system. They had AV and PC skills that outperformed AVI-SPL.

Business Processes Supported

Teaching
Conferencing
Presentations

Innovative Uses

We have not been able to use their system as it was never working properly

Future Planned Uses

We will never use them in the future.

Likelihood to Renew

I wish there was negative numbers here. We fired them and will never renew their services.

Evaluating AVI-SPL and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability

They made sure that they were the cheapest to get the job by using equipment that would not work at all for the scope that I gave them.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I would not have given them the quote of a competitor in order for them to select cheaper equipment. They wanted this so that they did not have to spend as much time onsite looking into the existing classroom since their competitor had already spent the time and designed a solution that worked based off of the company that installed the original classroom that was working properly and was to be the model of all future classrooms.

AVI-SPL Implementation

Implementation Rating

We were not at all satisfied. We had to hire another company to go behind them to get it to work.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

AVI-SPL

Implementation Phases

Implementation Issues

They continued to offer excuses and not solutions
Wrong hardware ordered by AVI-SPL
Lack of expertise with AVI-SPL

AVI-SPL Training

Training Types Used

no training

In-Person Training

Online Training

Ease of AVI-SPL Training

No and no.

Configuring AVI-SPL

Product Configurability

It was not at all configurable.

Configuration Lessons

It would be best practice to stay away from this company.

UI Customization

Yes - we have customized the interface extensively - We hired another company to correct their bad programming.

Extensibility and Customization

Yes - we have added extensive custom code - We had to in order to get the system to work properly.

Additional Customization Considerations

N/A

AVI-SPL Support

AVI-SPL Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
No escalation required	Slow Resolution Poor followup Less knowledgeable Problems left unsolved Not kept informed Difficult to get immediate help Need to explain problems multiple times Support doesn't seem to care

Premium Support

No, after a year they never even got the install right.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of AVI-SPL Support

Lol

Using AVI-SPL

Usability

They had us replace the PC three times stating that the PSU was not strong enough to power the USB bus. The last PC had a 1500w PSU. The USB devices kept not working because they had too many USB devices connected. We had to hire another company to come out and fix this mistake as well. They redesigned the solution to get the features that we requested from the beginning and something that would work correctly.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
None	Do not like to use Unnecessarily complex Difficult to use Requires technical support Not well integrated Inconsistent Slow to learn Cumbersome Feel nervous using Lots to learn

Easy Tasks

None

Difficult Tasks

Everything
Every time you turn on the system you would cross your fingers. Sometimes it was the microphones that did not work, sometimes the speakers, touchscreen, cameras, lapel mic, monitors. It was always something until we paid someone to come in behind them to correct their mistakes.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

AVI-SPL Reliability

Scalability

The system was not scalable with the hardware they ordered.

Reliability and Availability

They took over a year to get our classroom together and it still did not work.

Performance

Cannot stay enough to stay away from these people.

Integrating AVI-SPL

Ease of Integration

N/A

Systems Integrated With

Future Integration Plans

Types of Integration

N/A

Integration Lessons Learned

N/A

Relationship with AVI-SPL, LLC

Pre-Sale Experience

Extremely easy to work with during the sales process. They made all sorts of promises that was never delivered.

Post-Sale Experience

They were extremely difficult to work with after the sale. The project manager was extremely pushy and tried to get me to sign off on the job for months when it was never completed. There was broken equipment and code and he still tried to bully me into signing the completion form.