AV Systems
Commercial AV systems for Colorado businesses
ESI Technologies designs and installs commercial audio visual systems across Colorado, including conference rooms and video conferencing, video intercom, paging and sound systems, digital signage, and the structured cabling underneath all of it. We have worked in Colorado since 1984, and most of the AV we install sits in buildings where we also installed the access control and cameras.
Commercial AV, built around the room
Commercial audio visual covers the systems that carry sound, video, and information around a building: what happens in a conference room, who gets paged on a production floor, who can be seen and let in at a locked door, and what plays on a lobby display.
The reason those belong together is cable. AV is a cable problem before it is a display problem. Conference room displays, ceiling speakers, intercom stations, signage players, and cameras all run over the same structured cabling, through the same pathways, terminated by the same technicians. When separate contractors handle AV and security, coordination happens in the field and the general contractor absorbs the schedule risk.
Conference rooms and video conferencing
Displays, cameras, ceiling and table microphones, and the control layer that makes them behave as one system rather than five. Rooms built natively for the platform your organization runs, whether that is Microsoft Teams Rooms, Zoom Rooms, or something else, with a documented path for guests on a different one.
The complaint we hear most is never picture quality. It is that the room takes ten minutes to start. That is a standardization problem: one connection method that works identically in every room, a microphone layout matched to the actual table and ceiling rather than a template, and a control system nobody needs training to use.
Video intercom and door entry
Commercial intercom sits on the line between AV and access control, and is frequently bought as part of a security project. Door intercom stations at a locked entrance let staff see and speak to whoever is there before releasing the door, and tie into the access control system so the entry is logged rather than just buzzed.
We install IP-based intercom across offices, schools, multi-tenant buildings, clinics, and municipal facilities. A school front office and a warehouse gate need different hardware and the same idea.
Paging, sound systems, and background music
Distributed audio covers three jobs that get confused with each other.
Paging is coverage. Warehouses, production floors, and yards where someone has to be heard over ambient noise, designed against the noise floor rather than the square footage. Background music and sound masking are the opposite problem: open offices and clinics where conversations carry further than anyone wants, solved by adding engineered sound rather than removing it. Multi-zone control lets one system do different things in different parts of a building.
Emergency communication is a fourth category and a regulated one. Mass notification tied into a fire alarm system falls under fire alarm code, and that work is done by our NICET certified fire alarm technicians. Standalone paging is not fire alarm work and is not covered by that certification. Any integrator quoting a mass notification system should say plainly which of the two they are proposing, because the inspection and testing obligations differ.
Digital signage and video walls
Commercial-grade displays, media players, and content management for lobbies, wayfinding, cafeterias, retail floors, and operations centers. ESI handles mounting, cabling, network connection, and platform setup. You control what goes on the screen.
Structured cabling
Every system above runs on it. We pull, terminate, test, and document structured cabling for AV, security, and network, which is why combining scopes on a construction project avoids a second mobilization and a second set of ceiling work.
Why the security integrator should install the AV
On new construction or a tenant improvement, AV, access control, cameras, and network cable share conduit, pathways, back boxes, and the same ceiling. One low-voltage contractor doing all of it means one rough-in, one set of pathway decisions, one submittal package, and one company accountable when something does not land where the drawings said it would.
ESI also has a state-licensed Master Electrician on staff, so the electrical work supporting a low-voltage rough-in does not require coordinating a second trade.
For retrofits in occupied buildings the argument is simpler. Every cable pull above an occupied ceiling is disruption, and doing it once beats doing it three times.
Frequently asked questions about commercial AV
What does a commercial conference room AV system cost?
It scales with room size, microphone coverage, and whether the room is being built or retrofitted. A single-display huddle room and a twenty-seat boardroom with ceiling microphones and a camera that tracks the speaker are different orders of magnitude. Retrofitting an occupied building costs more than rough-in during construction, because cable paths are harder and work happens outside business hours. We walk the room at no cost before quoting.
Can you install a commercial intercom system at our entrance?
Yes. Video intercom at a controlled entry is one of the most common requests we get, and it works best when it is tied to the access control system rather than bolted on beside it. That way the person at the door is seen, spoken to, and the entry is recorded as an event rather than an anonymous buzz-in. We install door intercom for offices, schools, clinics, multi-tenant buildings, and municipal facilities.
Can you work on an AV system another company installed?
Usually. What determines it is the control platform, whether the programming and configuration files were handed over to you, and whether the equipment is still supported. Control system programming is the common sticking point. If the previous integrator kept the program files, a new integrator may have to rebuild the control layer even where the hardware is fine. Worth asking for those files now if you do not have them.
Is AV a separate project from security, or part of one?
Either, and buying them together is usually cheaper. Cable, pathways, and rough-in overlap heavily, so combining them on a construction project avoids a second mobilization. On an existing building it depends on whether the ceiling is already going to be opened.
Do you install sound systems for warehouses and production floors?
Yes. Paging and distributed audio in high-noise environments is a design problem rather than a product problem. Speaker placement and count follow the ambient noise level, the ceiling height, and what has to be intelligible where. A system specified from a floor plan without walking the space usually ends up with dead zones in the places that matter.
Talk to ESI about commercial AV in Colorado
We walk the space at no cost and produce a written scope with a real number. If a room already exists and does not work, tell us what fails and we will start there.
Fort Collins: (970) 999-1681 | Colorado Springs: (719) 602-7336
Last updated: September 2026