Conference Room AV Pricing: What to Include in Your Quote
Conference rooms are the most common commercial AV project. Here's how to structure the quote so it makes sense to the client and protects your margins.
If you're a commercial AV integrator, conference rooms are your bread and butter. You probably quote 2-5 of these a month — maybe more if you're working with a general contractor or an IT director who's rolling out standardized rooms across a campus. The technology is well-understood, the product ecosystem is mature, and the scope is usually predictable.
Where conference room quotes go sideways isn't in the technology. It's in the structure. A 200-line-item parts list emailed as a spreadsheet tells the client nothing about what they're buying. They see a wall of model numbers and a total at the bottom, and the first thing they do is ask someone to "find where we can cut costs." That's when your margins start disappearing.
The fix is straightforward: quote by system, not by part number. Here's how to break it down.
The systems in a modern conference room
Every conference room AV system, from a 4-person huddle space to a 30-seat boardroom, is built from the same basic systems. The products change, the complexity scales, but the categories are consistent.
Display system
For rooms under 20 people, you're typically speccing a single commercial display — Samsung QMC or QBC series, LG UH5N, or Sony BZ40L in the 75-86" range. Commercial panels, not consumer TVs. They're rated for all-day-on operation, have RS-232 or IP control, and don't have smart TV interfaces popping up during presentations. For rooms over 20, go dual display or a short-throw laser projector (Epson EB-PU series or BenQ LU935) with a fixed screen. Include the mount (Chief or Peerless), HDMI cable to the input plate, and the receptacle box behind the display.
Audio and video conferencing
This is where the money and complexity live. Ceiling microphone arrays have replaced tabletop speakerphones in any room that takes itself seriously — Shure MXA920 or MXA910, or Biamp Parle TCM-XA on the more cost-effective end. That mic feeds a DSP: Biamp TesiraFORTE AVB for mid-range rooms, QSC Core 110f for simpler setups, or Shure IntelliMix P300 if you're staying in the Shure ecosystem. Ceiling speakers for the far-end audio — QSC AD-C4T or JBL Control 24CT Micro Plus are both solid and priced right.
For the camera, room size dictates the choice. A Jabra PanaCast 50 or Poly Studio handles a huddle room fine. For standard conference rooms, a Logitech Rally Bar or Poly Studio X70. For large boardrooms, a true PTZ like a Sony SRG-A12 or Panasonic AW-UE4 gives you tracking and presets. USB connectivity to a room PC or direct SIP/Teams via a video codec.
Control system
The control system ranges from "necessary" to "not worth the programming cost" depending on the room. A large boardroom with multiple sources, a motorized screen, room lighting, and shading absolutely needs a Crestron TSW-770 or Extron TLP Pro 1025T with a control processor behind it. A standard 10-person conference room? An Extron MediaLink Plus controller with a simple button panel (source select, volume up/down, display on/off) costs a fraction and takes an hour to program instead of a day.
Don't over-spec control. If the room has one display, one camera, and a wireless presentation device, a six-button panel does the job. Save the Crestron 4-Series processor for rooms that actually need programmable logic.
Signal distribution and infrastructure
This is the category that eats your margin if you don't quote it. HDMI inputs at the table — an Extron Cable Cubby 1202 or Crestron FT2-202-ELEC table box for wired connection. If the client wants wireless presentation, Barco ClickShare CX-30 or Crestron AirMedia are the standards. Network switching if the room needs dedicated AV VLAN ports. Cat6 cabling from the table to the rack, from the rack to the display, from the ceiling to the DSP. Conduit where required by code. Cable management and labeling — not glamorous, but it's what separates a professional install from a hack job.
Room PC or codec
If it's a Microsoft Teams Room, you're speccing a Lenovo ThinkSmart Core, HP Presence Mini, or Poly GC8. Zoom Rooms has similar dedicated hardware. Some clients prefer BYOD — in that case, the wireless presentation device and a USB-C connection at the table are the room's "brain" and you skip the dedicated PC. Know the client's UC platform before you spec anything.
Typical pricing ranges
These are general ranges based on US market pricing. Your numbers will vary by region, vendor relationships, and labor rates.
- Basic huddle room (4-6 people): display, soundbar or USB speakerphone, wireless presentation. $5,000-$10,000 installed.
- Standard conference room (8-14 people): commercial display, ceiling mic array, DSP, ceiling speakers, PTZ camera, control panel, table connectivity. $15,000-$35,000 installed.
- Large boardroom (16-30+ people): dual displays or projection, full DSP with multiple mic zones, PTZ cameras with tracking, recording capability, Crestron/Extron control, custom programming. $40,000-$80,000+ installed.
Labor typically runs 25-35% of the total project cost. Programming can be 8-20 hours depending on control complexity. Don't underquote programming — it's the number one source of margin erosion on conference room projects.
How to structure the quote
Present the quote by system, not as a flat parts list. The client's summary should read:
- Display System: $X
- Audio/Video Conferencing: $X
- Control System: $X
- Infrastructure & Cabling: $X
- Programming & Commissioning: $X
- Installation Labor: $X
Internally, you see cost, sell price, and margin per line item and per system. But the client sees a clean breakdown that tells them where the money goes. If they need to value-engineer, the conversation becomes "let's simplify the control system" or "can we go with a smaller display" — not "cut $3,000 from somewhere, I don't care where."
Include a brief scope narrative for each system. Two sentences describing what it does and why it's there. "The Audio/Video Conferencing system provides ceiling-mounted microphone pickup across the full table, far-end audio through in-ceiling speakers, and a PTZ camera with automatic framing for Teams/Zoom meetings." That's for the facilities director and the CFO, not for you.
Common mistakes in conference room quoting
Forgetting infrastructure. Conduit, cabling, power drops, patch panels, and rack accessories are real costs. If you don't line-item them, you're paying for them out of your margin. Fifteen Cat6 runs at $150 each is $2,250. Two dedicated 20A circuits is another $800-$1,200 from the electrician. A 12U wall rack with blanks, power strip, and ventilation is $600. It adds up.
Under-quoting programming. DSP tuning, control system programming, Teams/Zoom room configuration, camera preset setup, and system commissioning all take time. A standard conference room with Crestron control and Biamp DSP can easily be 12-16 hours of programming. At $125-$175/hour, that's $1,500-$2,800 in programming labor alone. Quote it or eat it.
Not specifying mounting details. "Mount display on wall" sounds simple until the wall is lightweight steel stud and your installer needs toggle bolts and a plywood backer. Or the wall is concrete and you need a hammer drill and sleeve anchors. Different mounting conditions mean different hardware, different labor hours, and different costs. Call it out in the scope.
Omitting commissioning. The system isn't done when the last cable is terminated. Commissioning includes testing every input and output, tuning the DSP, configuring the control system, joining a test call, and walking the client through the room. Budget 4-8 hours for commissioning depending on room complexity. This is where you deliver the experience, not just the hardware.
Quoting residential products. A consumer Samsung TV is half the price of a commercial panel. It also has a 2-year warranty vs. 3, no control interface, a smart TV home screen that pops up, and isn't rated for 16/7 operation. When it fails in 18 months and you're back on-site replacing it for free, you'll wish you'd specced the commercial unit.
Quoting by system in practice
QuoteAV lets you organize quotes by room and system — exactly this structure. Each conference room gets its own section, broken into Display, Audio, Control, and Infrastructure. Margins are tracked per line item and per system, color-coded so you can see at a glance where you're making money and where you're thin. When the client asks to value-engineer, you can model the change in real time and see exactly how it affects your margin before you agree to anything.
Conference rooms are predictable, repeatable work. Quote them with a consistent structure, protect your margins on infrastructure and programming, and present a proposal that makes the client feel informed instead of overwhelmed. That's how you win the room — and the next 10 rooms after it.