If you’re an IT leader whose responsibilities include AV technology, this is a challenging time. As you try to plan for upgrading your meeting spaces, the most obvious issue is the uncertainty brought on by the current international trade environment. I’ve talked with IT pros who say their planning has been seriously affected by the potential cost implications for hardware manufactured partially or entirely outside the U.S. – though others have told me they can’t afford to put planning on hold while the tariff issue is resolved.
And it looks like the uncertainty will continue. A federal court last week put Trump’s sweeping tariffs on hold, but the matter is likely to end up at the Supreme Court, leaving the issue up in the air at least for now.
So where does that leave enterprises? In a note posted before the court struck down the tariffs, Prachi Nema, principal analyst at Omdia, wrote:
Prior to the tariff increases, Omdia estimates that outfitting a single small to mid-sized room would require an investment of $10,000–20,000, covering procurement, installation, design, monitoring, management, and room licensing. Video devices account for approximately 30% of that cost. Now, this same deployment in the US may increase to between $14,000 and $25,000. Expanding video conferencing capabilities across a broad estate thus demands an even more substantial financial commitment.
Tariff-driven uncertainty is upending what should be a positive story for the enterprise AV market. Prachi notes that the videoconferencing hardware market grew 10% in 2024, as IT organizations upgrade aging technology and adapt to the latest round of corporate return to office (RTO) mandates. IT/AV leaders I spoke with at Enterprise Connect in March shared that replacement cycles, together with opportunities presented by technology innovations, were driving them towards significant upgrade projects.
If you want a useful, concise summary of what those plans need to account for, check out this No Jitter article by Irwin Lazar of Metrigy. Irwin lays out five principles for decision-makers to follow as they plan the next phase for their meeting room estate, covering not just hardware but issues like management and the persistent challenge of dealing with a multi-vendor environment for collaboration software.
From meeting equity to software interoperability to integrations with facility and management systems, enterprises already have significant challenges to overcome, alongside opportunities to leverage as they seek to upgrade meeting rooms. Unfortunately, the uncertainties of trade and macroeconomics concerns could pose major hurdles.
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