How to Brief an AV Company: What to Include and What Gets Missed

How to brief an AV company, what to include and what gets missed. The information that actually changes the quote you get back.

Chris Gore | Updated 2026

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The quality of the brief you give an AV company determines the quality of the quote you get back. Send a one-line email asking for a price for a meeting room and you will get wildly different quotes from different suppliers, because each one is filling in the gaps with their own assumptions. Send a properly structured brief and the quotes you get back become genuinely comparable.

This guide covers exactly what to include in an AV brief, what most people forget, and how to write one yourself before any supplier conversation. If you would rather not write it from scratch, the AV brief generator produces a structured document for you in minutes.

What to Include in an AV Brief

Room dimensions and layout

Length, width, ceiling height and table shape. A photo or even a rough sketch helps enormously. This single piece of information determines camera type, microphone solution and display size more than any other factor in the brief.

Number of people and how they sit

Maximum occupancy and typical occupancy are often different numbers. A boardroom built for twenty that is usually used by six needs a different specification than one used at capacity every day. State both.

Primary use case

Internal team meetings, client presentations, training sessions, hybrid calls or town halls. The use case determines whether you need a PTZ camera, voice lift, dual displays or none of those. The same room size can need completely different specifications depending on how it is actually used.

Video conferencing platform

Teams, Zoom, Webex, Google Meet or a mix across the organisation. This determines hardware certification requirements and affects licensing considerations that the supplier needs to factor into the quote.

Existing infrastructure

What is already in the room. What is being kept. What needs replacing. A brief that ignores existing kit leads to quotes that either double-spec unnecessarily or miss compatibility issues that surface during installation.

Budget range, even approximate

An exact figure is not required. A range helps suppliers propose realistic options rather than guessing and either underselling the project or overselling beyond what is actually needed.

What Most Briefs Miss vs What a Good Brief Covers

What most briefs miss

•       Ceiling height and exact table dimensions

•       Whether the room needs voice lift for its size

•       Network and cabling readiness at the site

•       Who is responsible for commissioning once hardware is installed

•       Whether training is needed for staff at handover

•       What ongoing support and monitoring is expected

What a good brief covers

•       Full room dimensions with photos or a sketch attached

•       Clear primary use case and both typical and maximum occupancy

•       Platform and any existing certified hardware already in place

•       Network readiness and current cabling status

•       Training and handover expectations stated upfront

•       Support and monitoring requirements clearly defined

Writing a brief from scratch takes time most people do not have. The AV brief generator answers a structured set of questions and produces a proper specification document per room type in minutes. Use it with SPOR Group or with any other supplier you are comparing quotes against. It removes the guesswork that leads to vague, incomparable quotes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I include in an AV brief?

Room dimensions and layout, number of people and typical occupancy, primary use case, video conferencing platform, existing infrastructure that is being kept or replaced, and an approximate budget range. The more specific the brief, the more comparable the quotes you receive.

Why do AV quotes vary so much between suppliers?

Usually because the brief given to each supplier was vague enough that they each filled in the gaps with different assumptions. A specific, structured brief removes this variability and makes quotes genuinely comparable.

Do I need to know the exact budget before briefing an AV company?

No. An approximate range is sufficient and genuinely helpful. It allows the supplier to propose realistic options rather than guessing and either underselling or overselling the project.

How long does it take to write a proper AV brief?

Using a structured template or generator, ten to fifteen minutes per room type. Without a structure, it can take considerably longer and important details are more likely to be missed.