The last dregs of winter are thawing, and clients are ready to invest in outdoor upgrades for spring and summer. As you prepare for upcoming projects, here are five design considerations to keep in mind when it comes to designing and installing outdoor AV.

1. Set Up Sound for Party Mode

In an outdoor space, people are more likely to be chatting and moving around than in a home theater or media room. That gives you a fundamentally different set of design goals, more like a bar or restaurant than a typical residential media system.

Instead of aiming for rich, immersive surround sound, select and position speakers to give you even, uniform coverage. The ideal approach is a 70V system that adheres to the AVIXA Audio Coverage Uniformity standard. If you achieve standard compliance, the entire listening area will sound exactly the same.

2. Audio Coverage: Trust but Verify

Outdoor systems have very challenging acoustics. Water features and sliding glass doors reflect sound with no dispersion. Earth and landscaping features, by contrast, absorb sound waves like a sponge. Any open, highly absorptive environment requires a lot of SPL output for intelligibility.

Commissioning is key. Test your design predictions against real-world performance and adjust to achieve the uniformity you’re looking for. An amplifier with a built-in DSP will give you the flexibility to tune the system to the environment without extra equipment or costly and time-consuming change orders.

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3. Bring the Bass to Outdoor AV

An outdoor subwoofer can add dimension to your outdoor soundscape. Bear in mind, though, that most outdoor subwoofers are variable impedance. Outdoor applications need a hybrid amp with at least one variable impedance and one constant voltage output.

A 500-watts-per-channel solution is generally sufficient for a backyard system. The amp should be built tough, though, with protection circuits to prevent damage from electrical issues. With the right amplifier and a well-placed outdoor subwoofer, your client’s outdoor space will be ready to rumble.

4. Display: Here Comes the Sun

Standard equipment won’t work for outdoor systems. For starters, any outdoor electronics must be IP-rated for water and dust resistance. That’s not the only factor, though: outdoor displays also need to be dramatically brighter than their indoor counterparts.

A high nit count will help, but too much backlight can degrade contrast. Compensate with strategic positioning. Whenever possible, face the display northward. That way, sunlight never falls directly on the screen, but viewers aren’t blinded by the setting sun either. Mounting the display in a shaded or partially sheltered position will also improve both viewing experience and equipment longevity.

5. Unified, Flexible Control Is Key

Most AV sources aren’t rated for outdoor use. You can mitigate this by housing sources in a weather-protected space, installing specialty outdoor receivers, or running cabling (ideally fiber) from indoor sources. Any such solution will leave sources out of sight and mind.

As a result, unified third-party control is essential. I generally recommend including mobile control because remotes and other control devices must be protected from the elements. A mobile device is a convenient control interface users can keep in their pockets — no need to fish around in a deck box. Above all, the outdoor AV system should be designed to facilitate kicking back and enjoying one another’s company.  The system should also look and sound great from any position, at any time of day. With rugged, thoughtfully positioned gear and flexible control, you can create an outdoor oasis your clients will show off at every opportunity.

Brandon White is Director of New Product Development at Vanco.

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