Audio visual specialist Fluid AV has launched the Room Wizard, a free online tool that helps businesses start planning their ideal meeting room in minutes and receive an indicative quote within one business day, giving them a clear ballpark cost before progressing to expert recommendations tailored to their space, budget and ways of working.

The launch follows hundreds of meeting-room installations completed by the Saintfield-headquartered firm across the UK and Ireland, with Fluid AV serving clients from its Belfast base and Edinburgh office. Drawing on 20 years of installation experience, the Room Wizard asks users a short series of questions about their space, including room size, meeting platform, budget and how the room will be used, before providing expert guidance tailored to how they actually work in a matter of minutes.

Fluid AV is a member of PSNI Global Alliance, a consortium of the world's leading AV and technology integrators operating across more than 50 countries, placing it among the most respected systems integrators in the UK and Ireland.

Stephen Mayne, Founder and Managing Director of Fluid AV, said, "After hundreds of room installations, we know exactly which questions matter, and we've heard the same frustration from every customer, they know their meeting rooms aren't working, but they don't know what to ask for or what it should cost. The Room Wizard takes what we've learned over 20 years and puts it directly into their hands. Seven quick questions, and within one business day they have a tailored recommendation and a ballpark quote without any jargon."

Fluid AV designs, supplies and installs certified meeting-room technology, from small huddle spaces to full boardrooms. A Cisco Select Partner and member of PSNI Global Alliance, the company works with leading technology brands including Logitech, Crestron, Yealink and Neat.

Mayne added, "Hybrid working is no longer an experiment, it's how business gets done, and the meeting room is where it succeeds or fails. We built the Room Wizard so that any organisation, from a five-person SME to a multi-site enterprise, can get boardroom-grade advice without waiting weeks for it."

The Room Wizard is available now at www.fluid-av.com/room-wizard

 

Most offices in Northern Ireland still have one. A clipboard or a spiral-bound book on the reception desk, a shared pen on a string, and a column of visitor names that anyone who signs in can read going back months. It is a system that made sense in 1990. Today, it is a GDPR liability, a professionalism problem, and a safety risk, all at once.

A visitor management system is the modern alternative. Here is what it actually does, and how to decide whether your business needs one.

What is a visitor management system?

A visitor management system is a digital check-in solution, typically running on an iPad mounted at your reception. When a visitor arrives, they sign in on the screen, entering their name, company, purpose of visit, and the name of the person they are meeting. The system then notifies that person automatically, by email or Microsoft Teams message, that their guest has arrived.

That is the core function. But modern platforms go considerably further.

What does a visitor management system actually do?

Visitor and contractor sign-in

Beyond standard visitors, a good system handles contractors separately, capturing induction acknowledgements, health and safety sign-offs, and NDAs at the point of sign-in. No paper forms, no chasing people to sign things they've already walked past.

Staff check-in

The same iPad that handles visitors can also track staff attendance, particularly useful for multi-site businesses or organisations that need to know who is on-site for payroll, compliance, or security reasons.

Evacuation management

This is the one most businesses only think about after a fire drill. In an emergency, you need a real-time list of everyone on site. A visitor management system gives you this instantly, accessible from your mobile phone, even if you are already standing in the car park.

Room booking

Platforms like Sign In App integrate with Microsoft 365, so visitors can be pre-registered against a specific meeting room booking, and room availability shows up on screens outside each meeting room, just like you see at larger corporate headquarters.

Microsoft Teams and Outlook integration

When a visitor checks in, their host receives a Teams notification. Pre-registration through Outlook calendar invites means the whole sign-in process takes ten seconds when the visitor actually arrives.

The GDPR case for replacing your paper sign-in book

A paper sign-in book exposes personal data, full names, companies, times of arrival, to every person who signs in after the first entry. Under GDPR, that is a problem. Visitor data should be stored securely, with a defined retention period, and deleted automatically when that period expires.

A digital visitor management system handles all of this automatically. Data sits in an encrypted, ISO 27001-certified cloud environment. Retention periods are configurable. Purging happens automatically. If you ever had a data subject access request or an ICO audit, you could demonstrate compliance immediately.

Who benefits most from a visitor management system?

Corporate offices, any business that regularly has clients, candidates, or contractors on site. The professional impression alone is worth it.

Government and public sector, compliance requirements, contractor management, and security considerations make digital sign-in a natural fit.

Education, visitor logging and contractor sign-in are already legally required in many school settings. A digital system makes audit trails simple.

Hospitality, hotels and conference venues use visitor management for contractor and staff tracking, particularly across large sites with multiple entrances.

Healthcare and facilities, anywhere with regulated visitor access or on-site contractors benefits from a time-stamped, auditable digital record.

What does the installation actually look like?

A typical installation is straightforward. We supply an iPad, a purpose-built mounting stand (floor-standing or wall-mounted, depending on your reception layout), and handle any network connectivity requirements. We then configure the Sign In App platform to match your brand, your logo, your colours, your custom check-in questions, and your notification recipients.

For most receptions, the whole installation takes less than a day. The system is cloud-managed, so updates happen automatically and your data is always accessible from anywhere.

We are a certified Sign In App partner, which means we have direct access to the platform's technical team if any configuration issues arise. Our team is based in Belfast, so we are always close by for on-site support.

Ready to move on from the paper sign-in book?

 

If you are based in Northern Ireland or Scotland and want to find out how a visitor management system would work for your reception, visit our dedicated visitor management page or get in touch directly. Call us on 028 9099 6363, email hello@fluid-av.com, or fill in the contact form on our website and we will get back to you the same day.

The Brief

Invest NI is Northern Ireland's regional economic development agency, responsible for supporting local businesses to start, grow and compete internationally. Its Belfast headquarters relies on a wide range of meeting and training spaces, from large multi purpose training suites to a circular boardroom, and the existing AV equipment across these rooms was ageing, inconsistent between rooms and no longer covered by manufacturer warranty.

Invest NI wanted every room brought onto a single, consistent platform built around Microsoft Teams, so that staff would have the same experience wherever they were meeting and would not need IT support to run a call or a presentation. The specification covered nine distinct room types across the building, ranging from a fifty person training room and a large conference suite that needed to divide into three separate spaces, to a circular boardroom seating twenty six delegates around a round table. The boardroom presented a particular challenge, since a conventional front mounted camera would leave much of the room facing away from the lens, and the building's raised access flooring ruled out a standard induction loop for assisted listening.

The Solution

Fluid AV replaced the equipment across every room with a Microsoft Teams Room platform, so that every space, from the smallest meeting room to the largest training suite, is booked, joined and used in exactly the same way. The two training rooms, IT01 and IT02, each combine a large NEC display, ninety eight inches and seventy five inches respectively, with dual PTZ cameras, one covering the tutor or presenter at the front and one covering the wider room, along with a wireless lapel microphone and a beamforming ceiling microphone so both formal training and hybrid meetings can run from the same room.

The remaining six meeting room specifications, covering twelve individual rooms across the building and ranging from six to twelve seats, were fitted with NEC displays from fifty five to seventy five inches paired with Yealink Teams Room cameras and soundbars. Every one of these rooms has the same one touch meeting join, wireless presentation and automatic room booking panel with an occupancy sensor outside the door, so staff never have to relearn the system from room to room.

The largest space, the Conference Suite, can be used as a single hundred person room or divided by partition into three independent rooms. Sensors on each partition detect which configuration is in use and automatically combine or separate the displays and audio zones, and staff select tutor, presenter and audience, or meeting mode from a wall mounted touch panel to change how the cameras and microphones behave for that session, all without calling for AV support.

The boardroom required the most bespoke engineering. Because delegates sit facing inward around a circular table, a standard front facing camera would have left several people looking away from the lens for the whole call. Fluid AV designed a custom bracket at the centre of the table holding three fifty five inch displays angled in three directions, so every delegate has a clear sightline regardless of where they are seated, matched to a front facing eighty six inch display and three PTZ cameras positioned around the room with speaker tracking so the camera follows whoever is talking. A Bosch delegate system with twenty six individual microphones and speakers gives every seat its own controlled input, and an infrared assisted listening system was fitted in place of a conventional induction loop, since the room's metal rich raised access floor would have interfered with loop performance.

The Impact

Invest NI's Belfast headquarters completed its Phase 1 rollout in April 2023, giving every meeting space in the building the same familiar Microsoft Teams experience. Staff can walk into any room, from a small huddle space to the boardroom, join a call with a single button press, connect wirelessly without hunting for a cable, and trust that the room will show as available again automatically if a booking goes unused.

The custom designed boardroom solution solved a problem a standard installation could not, giving every delegate around the table equal visibility of both the call and each other, while the flexible Conference Suite lets Invest NI run anything from a private meeting to a hundred person event without reconfiguring a single piece of equipment. An ongoing service level agreement keeps the whole estate supported.

The strength of the Belfast rollout has since led Invest NI to extend the same Microsoft Teams Room platform into further rooms at its Belfast headquarters and to its regional offices in Omagh, Derry and Newry, giving staff and visitors the same consistent, familiar experience wherever in Northern Ireland they are meeting.

Audio visual installation is the process of designing, supplying, and fitting AV technology — displays, sound systems, video conferencing equipment, control systems, and more — into a building or space. A professional AV installer handles the full process: from understanding how a space will be used, through to system design, cabling, fitting, commissioning, and training the people who'll use it day to day.

It's different from buying off-the-shelf AV equipment and plugging it in. A proper installation is engineered around the room — the acoustics, the sightlines, the way the organisation works, and the other building systems it needs to integrate with.

What Does AV Installation Include?

The scope of an AV installation depends on the space and the client's requirements, but typically covers some or all of the following:

• Display systems — commercial-grade screens, video walls, LED displays, and projectors specified for the room size and lighting conditions
• Video conferencing systems — camera, microphone, speaker, and codec configurations for platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Cisco Webex
• Audio systems — distributed speaker systems, PA, sound masking, hearing loop, and acoustic treatment
• Digital signage — screen networks for internal communications, wayfinding, or public-facing content
• Control systems — one-touch room controls that manage displays, lighting, blinds, and conferencing from a single panel
• Cabling and infrastructure — structured cabling, AV-over-IP networks, and the backbone that ties the system together

The AV Installation Process

At Fluid AV, we follow a five-stage process for every project — from a single boardroom to a multi-floor building fit-out.

1. Define & Design
We start by understanding how your space will be used and what the system needs to achieve. This means site surveys, reviewing drawings, and designing a system that fits your workflow — not a generic spec.

2. Co-ordinate
AV installations rarely happen in isolation. We co-ordinate with your main contractor, IT team, and other trades to make sure cabling routes are agreed, structural fixings are in place, and the AV works alongside the wider fit-out without delays.

3. Installation
Our own engineers carry out the installation — we don't subcontract. That means consistent standards, accountability, and engineers who understand the full system they're fitting.

4. Commissioning
Once hardware is installed, commissioning is where the system comes to life. We configure, test, and optimise every element — audio levels, video quality, control logic, network integration — until everything works exactly as specified.

5. Handover & Support
We train your team on how to use the system and provide full documentation. After handover, we offer maintenance packages to keep systems performing reliably long after installation day.

Who Needs AV Installation?

Professional AV installation is used across a wide range of sectors. The common thread is any organisation that needs technology to perform reliably in a professional environment:

• Corporate — boardrooms, meeting rooms, hybrid working spaces, reception displays, and building-wide digital signage
• Hospitality — hotels, bars, restaurants, and event venues where both guest experience and operational requirements need to be met
• Education — lecture theatres, classrooms, training facilities, and collaboration spaces
• Government & public sector — council chambers, civic buildings, emergency control rooms, and public information screens
• Visitor attractions — museums, galleries, heritage sites, and leisure venues where AV is part of the visitor experience
• Sports venues — scoreboard systems, hospitality areas, press facilities, and crowd management displays

Why Use a Professional AV Installer?

Commercial AV systems are more complex than consumer technology. The wrong specification, a poorly integrated system, or cabling that doesn't meet standards can mean a system that underperforms on day one — or fails entirely under daily use.

A professional AV installer brings three things that matter: the technical knowledge to design a system correctly, the experience to manage the installation alongside other trades, and the accountability to fix problems if they arise.

When evaluating an AV installation company, look for:

• AVIXA CTS certification — the industry-standard qualification for AV professionals. CTS-I indicates a certified installation specialist specifically.
• ISO accreditation — ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental), and ISO 45001 (health & safety) indicate a well-run business with documented processes.
• PSNI Global Alliance membership — the world's largest network of professional AV integrators, indicating a business that meets a recognised standard of quality.
• A track record of relevant projects — case studies from your sector are a better indicator than generic claims.

AV Installation in Belfast and Northern Ireland

Fluid AV are a Belfast-based AV installation company with over 20 years of experience delivering systems across Northern Ireland, the UK, and Ireland. Our team holds AVIXA CTS and CTS-I certifications, and we carry ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 accreditation across quality, environmental, and health & safety management.

Recent projects include the boardroom AV upgrade at Windsor Park — home of the Irish Football Association — and installations across corporate, hospitality, education, and public sector clients throughout Northern Ireland.

If you're planning an AV installation in Belfast or Northern Ireland, our team offers free consultations with no obligation. Find out more about our Belfast AV installation service, or get in touch to discuss your project.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does an AV installation take?
It depends on the scale of the project. A single meeting room can be completed in a day. A multi-room installation across a full floor typically takes one to two weeks. Larger building projects are planned in phases alongside the construction programme.

What's the difference between AV installation and AV hire?
Fluid AV doesn't offer AV hire. We're an installation company — we design, supply, and fit permanent AV systems for businesses and organisations. If you need temporary equipment for an event, that's a different type of company entirely. Our work is the infrastructure that's still running years later.

Can existing AV systems be upgraded rather than replaced?
Often yes. We assess what's in place before recommending replacement. In many cases, existing infrastructure — cabling, mounting, or control systems — can be retained and newer technology integrated around it, which reduces cost and disruption.

Do you cover the whole of Northern Ireland?
Yes. We're based in Belfast and cover projects across Northern Ireland, as well as the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the UK through our Edinburgh office and PSNI partner network.

Hospitality TV System | Belfast City Centre

The Brief

When Ducales Capital began developing The Foundry Hotel on Hill Street in Belfast city centre, they needed a fully featured in-room entertainment system ready for opening day. The brief was clear: supply, deliver and install a hotel TV system across all 20 guest bedrooms that would deliver a premium guest experience from the moment guests checked in. With a firm opening deadline to meet, there was no room for delays.

The client required a system that could display branded welcome content, support popular streaming services, and provide wireless casting capability — all without incurring any ongoing licensing or subscription costs. Infrastructure including power, data and aerial connections were being provided by the main contractor, so Fluid AV needed to integrate seamlessly into the wider building programme.

The Solution

Fluid AV supplied and installed 20 Philips MediaSuite professional hotel displays across all guest bedrooms, connecting each to the existing aerial, network and power infrastructure. The Philips MediaSuite platform was chosen for its comprehensive built-in feature set and zero ongoing costs — a significant advantage over subscription-based IPTV alternatives.

Each display was configured with a branded welcome screen tailored to The Foundry, giving guests an immediate sense of the hotel's identity on arrival. The system provides access to Netflix, Google Play, and Google Chromecast, allowing guests to cast content directly from their Android devices or Chrome browser. All app sessions are automatically cleared on checkout, protecting guest privacy and ensuring a clean experience for every new arrival.

Working closely with the wider construction programme, Fluid AV completed the installation within the required timeframe, ensuring the hotel was ready to welcome its first guests on schedule.

The Impact

The Foundry Hotel opened with a guest entertainment system that punches well above its weight for a boutique 20-room property. Guests benefit from a familiar, intuitive experience — streaming their own content via Chromecast or accessing Netflix directly on the TV — while the hotel maintains full control through centralised display management.

The branded welcome screen reinforces the hotel's identity from the moment guests enter their room, contributing to a polished, professional first impression. With no recurring platform fees, the system delivers long-term value with minimal ongoing management overhead for the hotel team.

By delivering on time and within the project's construction schedule, Fluid AV ensured The Foundry could open its doors without delay — giving the client confidence that their AV partner could perform under real-world pressures.

Choosing the Right Screen: A Buyer's Guide to Commercial Displays

One of the most common questions we get from clients is: "What type of screen do I need?" It seems straightforward, but the right answer depends on where the screen will be used, how long it will run each day, what it needs to display, and whether it will be viewed in bright or controlled lighting. Choosing the wrong type can mean a screen that fails prematurely, looks washed out, or simply isn't fit for purpose.

This guide covers the main categories of commercial display and when each one is the right choice.

Commercial displays vs consumer TVs

Before anything else: for any business or public-facing use, always specify a commercial display rather than a consumer TV. Commercial screens are built to run continuously — they carry higher brightness ratings, better thermal management, longer warranties (typically three years on-site), and are rated for 16/7 or 24/7 operation. Consumer TVs are designed for a few hours of home viewing per day and will fail quickly when run as signage.

Standard commercial displays: the everyday workhorse

For most indoor environments — reception areas, boardrooms, corridors, restaurants, retail interiors — a standard commercial LCD display is the right choice. Typical brightness is 300–500 nits, which is more than adequate in a controlled indoor environment away from direct sunlight.

These screens are available in sizes from around 32" up to 98", with 55" and 75" being the most common in commercial installations. Most include a built-in media player for basic signage use, or can be connected to a dedicated media player or PC. Look for screens with a landscape/portrait rotation capability if there's any chance your use case might change.

Best for: reception areas, meeting rooms, restaurants, retail interiors, corridors, staff areas.

High-brightness displays: for windows and bright environments

If a screen needs to be seen in a window, under skylights, or in a brightly lit environment, a standard display will appear almost invisible in daylight. High-brightness displays typically output 2,000–5,000 nits — up to ten times the brightness of a standard screen — making them clearly visible even in direct sunlight.

These are most commonly used in estate agent windows, retail shop fronts, travel agents, betting shops, and any environment where the screen competes with natural light. They draw more power and generate more heat than standard displays, so proper ventilation is important.

Best for: window-facing displays, sunlit atriums, outdoor-facing kiosks, retail shop fronts, estate agents.

24/7 rated displays: for continuous operation

Some environments need screens running around the clock — transport hubs, hotel lobbies, hospitals, control rooms, or any venue that operates continuously. A standard commercial display rated for 16/7 operation (16 hours a day) will degrade much faster under 24/7 use.

Screens with a 24/7 duty cycle rating are built with enhanced cooling, higher-grade components, and longer MTBF (mean time between failures). The on-site warranty and replacement response time matters here too — look for next business day replacement as a minimum for mission-critical installations.

Best for: transport hubs, hospitals, hotel lobbies, control rooms, 24-hour venues, anywhere a screen failure would cause a real problem.

LED video walls: large format and high impact

For large-format display — anything above around 110" — an LED video wall is usually the better choice over a very large LCD panel. LED walls are built from modular tiles and can be assembled to virtually any size or aspect ratio. There is no bezel, and at normal viewing distances (typically 3 metres or more) the individual pixels are not visible.

Indoor LED typically uses a pixel pitch of 1.5mm–3mm. Tighter pixel pitches look better at close viewing distances but cost more. Outdoor LED uses a larger pixel pitch (4mm–10mm) and much higher brightness to compete with daylight.

LED walls require more planning and installation work than a flat panel — structural fixing, power distribution, and signal routing all need to be designed properly. But for a statement installation in a lobby, event space, retail flagship, or broadcast environment, nothing else competes for visual impact.

Best for: large lobbies, event spaces, retail flagships, broadcast studios, control rooms, outdoor advertising, anywhere that needs genuine visual impact at scale.

Interactive touchscreen displays

If visitors or staff need to interact with content — wayfinding, product lookups, self-service information, or collaborative working — you need a display with an integrated touch layer. Commercial touchscreens are typically available from 32" up to 86", with some manufacturers producing larger formats.

For educational and meeting room use, interactive flat panels from manufacturers such as Samsung, Clevertouch, and ViewSonic offer built-in annotation, whiteboarding, and wireless presentation. For public-facing kiosk use, look for screens with hardened glass and anti-vandal ratings where appropriate.

Best for: wayfinding, self-service kiosks, meeting rooms, education, retail product browsers, visitor attraction interactives.

Summary: which screen do you need?

Environment	Recommended type
Indoor, controlled lighting	Standard commercial display (300–500 nits)
Window-facing or sunlit space	High-brightness display (2,000–5,000 nits)
Continuous / 24-hour operation	24/7-rated commercial display
Large format, seamless display	LED video wall
Visitor or staff interaction	Commercial touchscreen display

Not sure which applies to your project? Get in touch with Fluid AV and we'll advise on the right specification. We supply and install commercial displays across Northern Ireland and Scotland — from a single screen to a multi-site network. You can also read more about our digital signage installations and LED video wall solutions.

The Brief

The McKeever Group have an ambitious upgrade plan for the Armagh City Hotel. As part of this, the conference rooms and reception area were being modernised — and they asked us to propose a solution that would bring these spaces up to the high standard they were aiming for throughout the hotel.

With multiple entrances and rooms bookable individually or as a group, the hotel had no easy way of communicating which room was being used for a particular function. The reception area also had two previously installed displays that weren't performing well and lacked the visual impact the space deserved.

The Solution

Fluid AV supplied and installed a cloud-based digital signage solution across the entire area, giving the marketing team at McKeever the ability to manage and schedule content remotely from a single platform.

What was installed:

1 - Large digital kiosk — lists each room and its current event, so guests always know exactly where to go. When no events are running, the screen promotes upcoming hotel events and offers.

2 - Per-room displays — a screen outside each room shows the room name and current event, and can be used to market other events when idle.

3 - 2 x 3m LED video walls in the reception area — capable of running digital signage, welcoming companies, and promoting events. Staff can cast directly from a device to the displays for presentations or client-facing content.

4 - Sustainability built in — all screens run on timers and power down completely when not in use, which is especially important for the LED video walls. A simple controller lets staff switch sources and power the walls up and down outside of the scheduled hours.

The Impact

Reception - Now has a real wow factor and visual impact.
Sustainability - Less paper, no printing costs.
Wayfinding - Guests find rooms instantly.
Marketing - More exposure for promotions.
Increased business - The hotel expect to attract more businesses to the hotel.
Ease of use - All screens are managed through one unified platform, making content deployment both convenient and efficient.

Conclusion

The hotel is confident the upgraded reception area will attract high-profile clients going forward. Promoting future events and offers digitally removes the cost and limitations of printed materials that quickly date. Guests see more opportunities, and communication across the hotel is faster and more effective.

The Brief

 

The Tayto Group offers guided tours of its Tandragee factory, giving visitors an insight into the production process. However, the factory floor is a loud environment, making it difficult for tour guides to be heard clearly, which resulted in visitors struggling to follow commentary, impacting the overall tour experience. Tayto approached Fluid AV to deliver a solution that would improve communication, reduce background noise and enhance the experience for both public and corporate visitors.

 

The Solution

Fluid AV supplied a professional tour guide communication system designed for noisy environments. The solution uses portable transmitter and receiver units, allowing guides to speak directly to visitors via lightweight headsets. The system was carefully tested and trialled in advance to ensure it was safe and practical for use on the factory floor. In addition to public tours, the system is used for corporate and supplier visits, providing flexibility across different tour types.

 

The Impact

 

The new system has significantly improved the tour experience at the Tayto factory. Visitors can now hear guides clearly without background distraction, while guides can deliver information smoothly and professionally without straining their voices. The result is a clearer, more engaging experience for everyone. The solution has proven reliable in daily use, with Tayto praising Fluid AV’s support and service throughout the project and beyond.