LEARNING CENTRE

AV KNOWLEDGE,

WITHOUT THE
SALES PITCH.

Straight answers on meeting rooms, hybrid working and AV budgets, from the team that designs, installs and supports them.

Read what you need, share it with your team, and talk to us when you're ready.

Podcasts, reviews, cost guides and comparisons.

Podcasts

The Problem With AV

Reviews

How Much Does AV Cost?

Comparisons

PODCASTS

LISTEN IN
CONVERSATIONS ON
AV AND WORK

Chris Gore and guests on building SPOR, leading teams and what actually works in the modern workplace.

Leadership Lessons From the Military to Business: A Conversation with Chris Gore

Chris Gore grew up on a council estate in Liverpool. Oldest of four boys. Father was an alcoholic who left when Chris was twelve. No GCSEs. No job prospects. At sixteen he looked at the path he was on and decided to join the army. They put him through some tests and discovered he had more brain than he had been given the opportunity to use. He spent thirteen years in the military. Then he left, moved to London, and founded SPOR Group.

SPOR Group

Aug 267 min read

From Council Estate to £10M AV Company: The SPOR Group Story

The version of this story that gets told at industry events is the one that starts at the first £800,000 deal. This is the version that starts earlier, in Liverpool, where there was no father figure, no mentor, no business background and no idea how to spell the word entrepreneurship.

Chris Gore

Jul 26 min read

This Is How You Deploy Useful AI in Your Workplace

The four-day week trials have run. The data is largely positive. Productivity holds or improves. Staff wellbeing improves. Retention improves. The case for it as a concept is reasonably well established at this point. The question that gets far less attention is a practical one: is the office actually capable of supporting it?

Chris Gore

May 185 min read

2 3 4 5

THE PROBLEM WITH AV

WHERE AV GOES WRONG
AND HOW TO AVOID IT

The mistakes we see most often in meeting rooms and hybrid offices, and what to do instead.

How to Write an AV Brief for Your Next Office Project

Knowing how to write an AV brief is one of the most useful skills in any office project, and one of the least taught. AV is usually specified late, after the floor plan is fixed, the ceilings are designed and the furniture is ordered, which is how teams end up with a boardroom nobody can hear in. If you want the short version, read our guide to how to brief an AV company, and use this article when you are working on a full office project with several people involved.

SPOR Group

4 days ago5 min read

GDPR and Meeting Room Recordings: What You Are Actually Allowed to Keep

Meeting room recordings have become routine. A video call is recorded to share with colleagues who could not attend, an AI tool produces a transcript and a summary, and a copy of both quietly sits on a server for years. This article is not legal advice, but it sets out what the Information Commissioner's Office expects so you can ask better questions of your own legal and data protection team. If AI note taking is part of your setup, our comparison of AI meeting notetakers is

Chris Gore

4 days ago4 min read

Projector vs Display for Meeting Rooms: Which Should You Choose?

Projector vs display is one of the oldest debates in meeting room design, and the honest answer has changed over the last few years. For most standard rooms, a commercial display is now the better choice, but projectors still win in some spaces. If you are specifying a small room, our guide to the best projector for a small meeting room covers that side in detail, and this article helps you decide which route to take in the first place.

Chris Gore

Oct 164 min read

2 3 4 5

REVIEWS

REAL ROOMS,

HONEST VERDICTS.

Projects and technology we’ve installed, and how they perform once people start using them.

How a Major Insurance Company Transformed 8 Meeting Rooms With a Full AV Fit-Out

They had eight meeting rooms on a single floor that needed a complete rethink. Not a patch job. A proper, standardised, future-ready AV fit-out. That's where SPOR came in.

Chris Gore

Apr 216 min read

When One Room Needs to Do Two Jobs: Microsoft Teams Room Meets Dolby Atmos

Most meeting rooms are built for one thing. A screen, a camera, a speakerphone, done. But what happens when your business needs that same space to pull double duty? One moment it needs to run a flawless Microsoft Teams call with a client in New York. The next, it needs to drop jaws with a cinema-quality product demonstration.

Chris Gore

Apr 175 min read

How SPOR Group Transformed Masdar's London HQ Into a Seamless Microsoft Teams Rooms Environment

When a global clean energy company relocates its London headquarters, the pressure is on to get everything right and that includes the technology that keeps their people connected. Masdar, one of the world's leading renewable energy developers, needed a complete Audio-Visual overhaul at their new Paddington office. They turned to SPOR Group to deliver it. Here's how we did it and what the end result looks like.

Chris Gore

Mar 114 min read

2 3

HOW MUCH DOES AV COST?

REAL NUMBERS,
UP FRONT

Budgets, hidden costs and what drives the price of a meeting room, explained plainly.

AV Bundle vs Bespoke Install: Are You Overpaying for Your Meeting Room?

AV bundle vs bespoke install is a decision most office managers face when they fit out or upgrade a meeting room, and the wrong choice usually means overpaying in one of two directions. You can pay for custom design the room never needed, or buy a standard package that does not suit the room and pay again to fix it. If you are still working out a budget, start with our straight answer on what meeting room AV should actually cost.

Chris Gore

2 days ago4 min read

Office Move Costs: What AV and Tech Really Add to the Bill

Office move costs are almost always higher than the first budget suggests, and technology is one of the biggest reasons. Rent, removals and furniture get planned early, while AV and IT tend to appear late, once the design is already fixed. If you are at the start of a relocation, our guide on planning an office relocation without losing your AV investment is the best companion to this article.

Chris Gore

Oct 104 min read

Cisco Room Kit EQ vs Room Kit Pro: Which One Does Your Room Need?

Cisco Room Kit EQ vs Room Kit Pro is the comparison most buyers end up making once a room is too big for a video bar. Both are serious, codec based systems built for large spaces, and on paper they look similar, but they suit very different rooms. Before you specify either one, check that you actually need a codec at all by reading our comparison of the Cisco Room Bar and the Logitech Rally Bar, because plenty of boardrooms get by perfectly well with a video bar.

Chris Gore

Oct 85 min read

2 3 4 5

WANT A NUMBER FOR

YOUR OWN ROOMS?

The estimator gives you the upfront cost and a monthly payment option in about 90 seconds. No sales call.

Get a Pricing Estimate

COMPARISONS

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT
FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Popular platforms and devices compared, so you can choose with confidence.

Spreadsheet vs Asset Tracking: You Have Probably Already Lost Kit and Do Not Know It

Spreadsheet vs asset tracking sounds like a dull IT debate until someone asks where the ceiling microphone from the 2022 boardroom project went. If your AV inventory lives in a spreadsheet, there is a good chance some of your kit is missing, offline or out of warranty and nobody has noticed. It is part of the wider problem we describe in why you do not actually know if your meeting rooms are working.

SPOR Group

16 hours ago4 min read

Microsoft Teams vs Google Workspace: Which One Lets Your Boss See More?

Microsoft Teams vs Google Workspace is a question we hear from employees and employers alike, usually phrased as which one lets your boss see more. The short answer is that neither does by default, and what an employer can see depends on the licences, settings and admin roles they have chosen. We have already covered each platform on its own, in what your employer can see through Microsoft 365 and whether your boss can see everything you do on Google Workspace, and this artic

SPOR Group

3 days ago5 min read

Cloud AV Device Management Platforms Compared

Cloud AV device management is how most IT teams now keep track of meeting room equipment, and almost every manufacturer offers a tool for it. The catch is that each tool only sees its own devices, so the picture you get depends entirely on how many brands are in your rooms. We have already covered two of the best known tools in our guides to Logitech Sync and Poly Lens, and this article puts the main options side by side.

Chris Gore

4 days ago4 min read

2 3 4 5

READY?

GOT A PROJECT IN MIND?

LET'S TALK IT THROUGH.

Book a discovery call with the SPOR team, or get a pricing estimate first if you'd like a number before you talk.

Book a Discovery Call

Get a Pricing Estimate

AV KNOWLEDGE,

WITHOUT THE SALES PITCH.

LISTEN IN CONVERSATIONS ON AV AND WORK

Leadership Lessons From the Military to Business: A Conversation with Chris Gore

From Council Estate to £10M AV Company: The SPOR Group Story

This Is How You Deploy Useful AI in Your Workplace

WHERE AV GOES WRONG AND HOW TO AVOID IT

How to Write an AV Brief for Your Next Office Project

GDPR and Meeting Room Recordings: What You Are Actually Allowed to Keep

Projector vs Display for Meeting Rooms: Which Should You Choose?

REAL ROOMS,

HONEST VERDICTS.

How a Major Insurance Company Transformed 8 Meeting Rooms With a Full AV Fit-Out

When One Room Needs to Do Two Jobs: Microsoft Teams Room Meets Dolby Atmos

How SPOR Group Transformed Masdar's London HQ Into a Seamless Microsoft Teams Rooms Environment

REAL NUMBERS, UP FRONT

AV Bundle vs Bespoke Install: Are You Overpaying for Your Meeting Room?

Office Move Costs: What AV and Tech Really Add to the Bill

Cisco Room Kit EQ vs Room Kit Pro: Which One Does Your Room Need?

WANT A NUMBER FOR

YOUR OWN ROOMS?

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Spreadsheet vs Asset Tracking: You Have Probably Already Lost Kit and Do Not Know It

Microsoft Teams vs Google Workspace: Which One Lets Your Boss See More?

Cloud AV Device Management Platforms Compared

GOT A PROJECT IN MIND?

LET'S TALK IT THROUGH.

2nd Floor, Right Suite, Burlington House, Maidenhead, SL6 1SQ

Unit 9, Kensington Industrial Estate, Hall Street, PR9 0SF, Southport

© SPOR Group. Registered in England & Wales, company no. 12075154

Service line: 0204 558 9719

WITHOUT THE
SALES PITCH.

LISTEN IN
CONVERSATIONS ON
AV AND WORK

WHERE AV GOES WRONG
AND HOW TO AVOID IT

REAL NUMBERS,
UP FRONT

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT
FOR YOUR BUSINESS?