You can find this article in Commercial
Integrator July 2025

Opening Scene: A Familiar Face on the Job Site 

You’re walking onto a site visit—another large-scale AV integration, complete with a rack room to wire, a digital signage system to configure, and a dozen vendors to coordinate. It’s business as usual. 

And then you see them. 

A familiar face. Someone you shared a cramped office trailer with five years ago. Someone who helped you pass your CTS exam. Someone who now works at the competitor bidding against your firm. 

And yet, instead of tension, there’s a grin, maybe a handshake, in my case a hug or a quiet joke. 

Because in AV—as in any rebellion —“I have friends everywhere” isn’t just a line from my favorite show, Andor. It’s real.  

The Small, Wired World of Pro AV
The professional AV industry isn’t as sprawling as it seems. Yes, it’s global. But it’s tightly guarded and networked. People move between integrators, manufacturers, consultants, and reps like HDMI signals through a well-routed switch. 

One year you’re pulling cable side-by-side at a convention center install. The next, you’re across the table, submitting competing bids for a university’s hybrid learning project or a new ride venue at a theme park in Florida.  

And yet the connection stays. 

AV friendships are often forged in the field—under tight deadlines, in loud venues, with tools in one hand and a punch list in the other, sweating over hardware delays. These relationships don’t dissolve just because name tags change or companies compete.

 The Power of the Line: “I Have Friends Everywhere”
In Andor, the line “I have friends everywhere” is whispered as both a promise and a quiet rebellion—a defiance of the cold machinery of control. 

In AV, that same phrase takes on a different, yet equally powerful, meaning. 

It means:

• Someone will pick up the phone when you’re stuck on a DSP config at 10 p.m.

• A rep from a competing line will vouch for your ethics to a shared client.

• A former coworker-turned-rival will still refer a project if it’s not a fit for them. 

This is my kind of rebellion, a friendship that lets you get carried away.  

It doesn’t mean you get special favors. It means you’ve built relationships strong enough to transcend the day’s proposal or project scope. 

It means your network isn’t a contact list—it’s a community. 

Trust, Standards, and the Ethics That Keep It All Standing
This community works because it’s grounded in trust—and in standards. Not just technical ones like 

• AVIXA’s ANSI/AVIXA 10:2021 Performance Verification Standard

• Rack Building and Cable Management Guidelines

 …but in the unspoken code of the AV pro:

• You don’t poach inside info.

• You respect the NDA.

• You celebrate your friend’s win, even when it stings.

 When someone you care about lands the auditorium install you bid on, you don’t resent them. You text them congratulations. And if you’re secure in your craft, you even ask what won them the job.

Because this isn’t a zero-sum game. There are always more installs. But there aren’t always more friends who understand your world down to the decibel.

Motivation in the Mirror
Seeing your friend thrive at a competing firm is a strange mix of pride and pressure. 

Their product launch gets featured in Commercial Integrator? You read every word. 

They speak on an AVIXA panel? You take notes. 

Their project video goes viral on LinkedIn? You study the signal flow behind the scenes. 

It’s not jealousy—it’s fuel. Their success becomes your motivation to raise the bar on your own deliverables, your designs, your leadership.

 You compete—not to beat them, but to belong in the same league.

 Quiet Support Behind the Scenes 

The best AV friendships, your true front row, aren’t performative. They’re quiet constants. A well-timed text. A subtle head nod at InfoComm. A shared understanding during a commissioning call gone sideways. 

And sometimes, they save the day:

• A friend at a rival distributor helps you fast-track a replacement part.

• A systems designer from another firm walks you through a firmware workaround.

• A competitor passes on a local lead because they’re over capacity—and they know you’ll handle it right. 

In a high-stakes environment where the margin for error is razor-thin, having friends everywhere isn’t just poetic—it’s practical. 

Drawing the Line Without Burning the Bridge
Friendship in AV doesn’t mean fuzzy ethics. There are hard lines—and smart friends know how to walk them. 

During an RFP process, you back off the casual texts. You don’t ask about pricing. You don’t share roadmaps. 

You might even say: 

“Let’s go quiet until the bid’s awarded—then we’ll catch up.” 

And when you lose to them, you show grace. When you win, you stay humble. That’s how these relationships last across decades and job titles and galaxies.  

Why the Industry Needs More of This
AV is evolving faster than ever. Hybrid work, immersive experiences, smart campuses—everything is converging. Standards are adapting. Tech is changing. And the pressure to deliver “flawless” is higher than ever. 

But in that rush, the human side of the industry can’t get lost.

 We need people who:

• Get what it means to stay up past midnight writing DSP presets.

• Understand the emotional chaos of a failed commissioning just before client handover

• Know that sometimes, all you need is someone who speaks “AV” and knows your “wiring” logic. 

Those people are often sitting in a different office, wearing a different logo. And they’re still your people. 

Because in this industry, where collaboration and competition exist in constant feedback loops, friendship is one of the most powerful signal boosters there is. 

Final Word: Connection Above All
So yes, we chase specs. We follow AVIXA guidelines. We measure SLA’s, calibrate color temps, and refine control logic. But at the heart of the AV world isn’t just clarity—it’s connection.  

And when the gear is powered down, the emails stop, and the last truss is flown, sometimes what remains is that friend you texted from a noisy job site, or clinked glasses with after a late-night install.  

Because in this business, having friends everywhere isn’t a sci-fi catchphrase, it’s the hope that keeps the ProAV community as a whole moving forwards.  

About the Author
Carrie Garcia is an AV/IT professional with 20 years of practical experience and believes that behind every successful project is a network of professionals—and friends—who make it all work.