What you need to know about adding audio visual technology to your space

Long gone are the days of space-inhibiting, box-shaped speaker systems that made themselves the focal point of a room. Today, innovative designs that camouflage within an architecturally designed space bring the much-desired balance between quality and aesthetics.

This is what Rapallo specialises in. Providing premium audio and visual products from over 70 brands such as Denon, Arcam, Yamaha, Klipsch and Devialet, the Rapallo team of experts can help architects, designers and homeowners find a home audio and visual system that delivers a next-level experience.

However, there are some things to consider when it comes to a room’s audio or visual platform design. We asked Rapallo’s Tokorua Lambert for some advice.

Tokorua Lambert: We highly recommend that people start during the architectural design stage. If specifiers or owners know what’s out there during the planning stage, then they can actually include it in the design.

Generally, we find people will wait until the builder has finished before deciding they want a home theatre, surround sound or multi-room sound – they will end up cutting holes in walls to run cables and install gear, which is costly for them. So as early as possible is definitely best for the technology to be integrated.

For both residential and commercial, we follow an eight-step process: an initial project meeting, walking through the requirements and proposal, establishing a timeline, installation, post-install testing by the Rapallo AV team, handover and training where we show you how it all works, followed by a check-in a few weeks later to ensure the products are working as expected. We then have our after-care service where we are on-call should you have any questions or issues.

TL: If it’s retrofitting, we look at the space and then we work with our customers to create an installation plan – whether it’s going to a wall that needs to be removed, or that a hole needs to be cut into the walls to run cables. But nothing is off the table. We’ve had very different scenarios where the customer has already pulled down the walls, or we can go in there and do it for them and project manage the entire build.

The great thing about Rapallo is we have a team of experts, including building and alteration specialists, electricians, home automation specialists and AV design and planning specialists. We want to make sure that we can cover every aspect of the install and not have to rely on external services.

TL: We work with any sized room within reason and the size will determine which components can be used. If a room can benefit from sight and sound, we adapt and adjust the design so that it's not going to be overwhelming for the customer. We will give them advice on what fits and then they can come back and let us know what will work for them.

TL: The great news is nowadays, it’s really easy to use and easy to integrate. There are so many options from aesthetics to technology that it means we have a solution to fit your requirements.

We deal with home automation as well, where everything is personalised to the customer. It’s all about touchsmart and voice control intelligent technology, where you can go away from home and be able to manage key systems in the home or office remotely.

TL: There are so many manufacturers designing components that have simple designs that are available in multiple colours to blend with any home’s aesthetic. Back in the day, there were only so many options to choose from. Now you can make it fit within the architectural design of the home or room.

Explore Rapallo’s range of audio visual products.