Why there is no price list on this page.
Two rooms the same size, on the same block, with the same seat count, can be a long way apart on an install, and almost none of the difference is the equipment. A published rate card would be a comfortable thing to show you and a bad thing to quote from, because the number is set by your ceiling, your electrical panel, your access hours and what you already own.
What we can do, and what nobody in this category seems willing to do, is tell you exactly which variables move the number, in which direction, and roughly how hard. Then you can read your own room, and when we quote it you will already know why it says what it says.
Every driver below has moved a real number on our own jobs. They are listed in the order they tend to matter, not in the order that flatters the quote.
What actually moves an AV install number
1. What is above the ceiling, and whether you are allowed to open it
A drop tile grid with clear plenum is the cheap case: speakers go in, cable pulls easily, access stays. A hard lid means cutting and patching. A pressed tin or landmark ceiling may mean you cannot drill at all, which pushes the whole design to surface mounted boxes and visible, routed cable. Same speaker count, very different job.
2. Power, and the state of your panel
Amplifier racks and LED walls want their own circuits. If the panel has spare capacity in the right place, this is a small line. If it does not, somebody is running new wire, possibly for 220 circuits, possibly a long way, and that is licensed electrical work with its own schedule. On our own jobs this has been one of the largest single swings on an otherwise modest install.
3. Access hours
A room that is still being built is the best case: everything is open and nobody is eating. A room that serves dinner seven nights is the hardest, because the work happens overnight in short windows, has to be made safe and clean before service, and takes more visits to do the same amount of work. That is a real cost, not a surcharge.
4. Whether anything flies
Speakers or panels hanging over people is a different category of work from anything sitting on a bracket. It brings structure, a frame, rigging hardware, sign off, lifts and an access plan. Keeping a design wall mounted instead of flown, where the room allows it, is one of the few genuinely large savings available.
5. Cable paths, and how much wall gets opened
Cable is cheap. Getting it from the rack to the far corner of a finished room is not. Distance, the number of walls crossed, fire rated assemblies, conduit where it is required, and then patching and painting. This is why we would rather reuse sound existing cable than replace it on principle.
6. Programming and commissioning
Zone levels, delays, limiters, presets, alignment, wall mapping. It is the line most competing quotes leave out, which is exactly why those quotes look cheaper and why the system arrives sounding unfinished. Expect to see it itemised on ours.
7. How many zones you want controlled separately
One room on one level is the simple case. Dining room, bar, patio, private room and back of house each at their own level, with presets for different parts of the day, is more amplifier channels, more cable and more programming. Worth it in most hospitality rooms, but it is a choice with a number attached.
8. Service access designed in or left out
Rack location, panel access, whether an LED wall can be reached. Designing access in costs a little now. Leaving it out costs nothing now and can be unfixable later, which makes it the worst trade on this page.
9. Conditions set by other people
Landlord insurance certificates before anyone enters, elevator reservations and protection, a general contractor's schedule you have to fit, a filing that needs a licensed electrician, a building with a labour agreement. None of these are obstacles, we work in all of them. They are conditions that affect the hours and therefore the number, and they are better known at quote time.
10. What you keep
The one driver that pushes down. Existing cable in good condition, speakers worth keeping, a rack that can stay. We assess before we price, and if two speakers moved and a processor set up properly fixes your room, that is the quote you will get.
How to compare two install quotes that are far apart
- Find the programming line. If it is not there, it is not priced, and someone is going to ask for it later or you will live without it.
- Find the electrical line, or the sentence excluding it. A quote that is silent on power is a quote with a hole in it. Ours says plainly where a licensed electrician and any filing are needed and what is excluded.
- Check the speaker count against the seating, not the square footage. Fewer, better placed is often the better system. More speakers is not automatically more coverage.
- Ask where the rack goes and how it is reached. The answer tells you whether anyone walked the room.
- Ask about access hours. If a quote assumes daytime work in a room that serves dinner, the schedule is fiction and the number will move.
- Ask what happens in year two. Spares, maintenance, who takes the call on a Saturday night.
We give a fixed written scope after a site visit. The visit and the design cost nothing, and you keep the design whether or not you hire us.
Want the number for your room?
A site visit, measurements, and a written scope with every line itemised, including the ones other quotes leave out.
Request a free site visit Or call or text (646) 280-9522. Ozzy answers his own phone.