Commercial AV consulting.
Spec it right before the walls close.

What is a commercial AV consulting engagement?

A working session with a written deliverable, not a sales call with a proposal attached. Most commercial AV failures are planning failures. Speaker positions that miss half the room, or a screen that blocks the exit sign. A control system that needs an IT ticket to change the input, or a rack room four feet too small.

Those decisions get made at design, and fixing them after drywall means opening walls, rewiring and losing weeks. We get the architecture right before the walls close, for offices, restaurants, retail, hospitality, gyms, clinics, schools and churches. The commercial hub shows the systems the specification covers.

Who hires a consultant?

Business owners opening or renovating a location. Also general contractors and architects whose client wants a room that works and whose team does not carry the AV background to specify it. An owner gets straight guidance on what to specify, what to avoid and what it really costs before signing with an installer.

A GC gets the low-voltage layer without a full integration contract. That covers conduit routes, pull points, equipment room sizing, wire types per system and rough-in notes suitable for permit drawings and subcontractor coordination. Owners inheriting a half-working system get an audit, a list of what is salvageable and a remediation plan with cost ranges.

What do we deliver?

Six kinds of work, scoped to the project rather than sold in tiers. System architecture maps the audio zones, display positions, control, conferencing and signal distribution as one plan. The pre-construction low-voltage specification turns your architectural drawings into a package your electrical sub can bid. Bid review compares two or three AV proposals and names what is missing and where the risk sits. The existing-space audit tells you what works, what does not and what it costs to fix.

Commercial network design covers guest Wi-Fi, point-of-sale segmentation, camera placement and access control infrastructure, which is different work from a residential network. Digital signage specification covers placement without glare, mounts rated for commercial duty and a content system staff will use. Each engagement ends with a written summary you can hand to your GC or architect. Security is specified first, on the pattern of business security: cameras, doors and the alarm before the screens.

What does it cost?

As of September 2026: the 20-minute discovery call is free, design work is quoted per project, and the Commercial Technology Design Package starts at $2,500. Every design fee is credited in full toward installation if you hire us to build. A bid review, a drawing review or a video call on a specific set of questions ends with a written direction. A site walk, drawing markup or system audit in person is scoped and quoted the same way.

The design package delivers the room-by-room equipment map, the rough-in specification, the wire schedule, the rack layout, signal flow documentation and a bid-ready scope within five business days. Moving a speaker rough-in costs nothing on paper during framing and $1,200 to $3,500 after ceiling tile, which is the arithmetic behind a design engagement. The instant quote gives a first figure for the installation itself.

How does the engagement run?

Four steps. An intake call of about 20 minutes covers project type, timeline and the questions you need answered, at no charge. We then define the scope, whether site visit, drawing review, bid evaluation or a combination, and agree the deliverable before work begins. The working session follows: an on-site walkthrough, drawing markup, bid review or system audit, led by the Rivas Technology Group team member assigned to you, answering in real time.

You receive the written deliverable, ready to hand to your GC, share with your architect or use to compare installer bids. If you go on to build with us, the process continues on the commercial hub: site assessment, fixed proposal, and a typical lead time of two to six weeks.

What does getting it wrong cost?

Rework and schedule. Too few speakers for the square footage, or positions that leave dead zones, are free to fix at rough-in and cost thousands after tile. A 75-inch display facing a window, a conference room that needs IT to switch inputs, signage with no content plan. Each is a placement or control decision that belongs in the specification, not the punch list. No conduit to the projector position, a rack room too small, network drops in the wrong place for the point-of-sale: low-voltage infrastructure has no cheap fix after drywall.

A restaurant bid from a contractor who mainly builds conference rooms misses the ambient noise, the patio and the sightlines that bar and restaurant AV is designed around. The same applies to a conference room, a video wall, a large format display, PoE lighting, a hotel or the cabling under all of them. During the build itself, a solar security tower covers the site until the permanent cameras go in.

Where do we work?

On-site consulting from 415 Railroad Ave S, Kent, WA 98032, across south King County and Pierce County. That includes Tacoma, Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Federal Way, Auburn, Covington and Maple Valley, Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Tehaleh, University Place and Gig Harbor. The Olympic Peninsula is by appointment. Remote sessions, including bid and drawing reviews, are available statewide.

Rivas Group, LLC dba Rivas Technology Group holds WA electrical contractor license RIVASGL799DR, active, bonded and insured (L&I lookup). It is BBB accredited with an A+ rating, and is rated 5.0 from 49 Google reviews. Ivan Rivas, Owner and Sales Engineer, brings 15 or more years in the limited energy sector to every engagement; the team is on about us. The security hub covers monitored systems, and the South Sound Law Group, Washington Pottery Company and Clyde's BBQ pages show what the specifications turn into.