AVI-SPL: Great knowledge and experience but overly burdened by corporate procedures and paperwork
May 13, 2022

AVI-SPL: Great knowledge and experience but overly burdened by corporate procedures and paperwork

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with AVI-SPL

AVI-SPL is used as one of our on-call A/V integrators for our campus. They are used to consult, design, and implement audiovisual equipment and setups in various environments including classrooms, public and event spaces, conference rooms, study rooms, and more. AVI-SPL is also used to service and repair previously-completed installations done by themselves and other vendors as needed.
  • The local crew is great at working with us and maintains a great working relationship with the campus
  • Their purchasing support is excellent when you're looking for updates on orders or product availability
  • Their knowledge of A/V components, trends, etc. is top notch
  • AVI-SPL is severely over-focused on process and documentation. While larger corporate entities have even more reason to keep things straight as they serve lots of customers, the trade-off has been a lot of overhead for customers as well
  • AVI-SPL has become almost agonizingly slow, particularly in recent times, compared to other A/V vendors. Our local crew is very responsive to requests, but any time their larger corporate structure has to be involved (which is increasingly common) things slow to a crawl and it takes many times longer to get responses than from other A/V companies
  • AVI-SPL has lost touch with local customers and needs. When Digital Video Networks (DVN) was acquired by AVI-SPL we were told to expect the same great, quick, locally-focused experience DVN provided us, and this has unfortunately not held true at all.
  • AVI-SPL has an excellent, knowledgeable local crew with second and third level resources at a national level that has helped us solve complex problems with a great level of knowledge and experience
  • Funding at a public university is very tight and often must work within specific timeframes. The increasingly longer lead times in dealing with AVI-SPL have created some definite issues in terms of meeting funding deadlines and in being reactive with extra short-term funds when they become available.
The additional resources that AVI-SPL provides to their local crew have been very helpful. The local crew was already extremely knowledgeable before their acquisition by AVI-SPL, and the ability to reach out to greater resources has only helped to advance that level of support.
AVI-SPL helped with the installation of cameras and microphones in classroom environments that were not previously video-enabled. Their assistance in doing so helped us to be able to share lectures with remote students in a two-way environment that allowed active participation with both in-person and remote learners.

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Did implementation of AVI-SPL go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy AVI-SPL again?

Yes

While I rate AVI-SPL as a "6" for this question, it previously would have been a lot higher and continues to drop. AVI-SPL, and more notably our previous vendor Digital Video Networks (DVN) who were acquired by AVI-SPL, used to be our go-to group for anything A/V related no matter how large or small. At this point, there are enough extra fees and overhead that AVI-SPL is not effective cost or time-wise for smaller projects, and so AVI-SPL is strictly used for larger projects at this point.