Why AV Redundancy Matters: Planning for Failure in Mission-Critical Systems

Many industries use audiovisual technology for mission-critical operations, such as managing a control room, coordinating emergency services, and setting up medical imaging. In this blog post, we’ll show why these systems need backups and redundancies to keep running in a crisis.

What Is AV Redundancy and Why Is It Important?

AV redundancy is when your AV setup has a failover system that activates during an operational failure. For example, if a network router fails, the system may switch to another to keep a stable video connection.

Whatever form this takes, AV redundancy protects your system from a catastrophe. It can keep running even when a fault emerges — and it might be so seamless that you don’t notice.

Types of AV Redundancy Used in Mission-Critical Applications

Any part of your mission-critical system could fail without warning. This means you need a setup that covers many types of redundancy; this usually includes the following:

• Hardware redundancy: You must have backups of key AV devices, such as extra video wall processors, dual power supplies, and additional displays.
• Signal path redundancy: Critical AV sources must have two signal paths — your matrix switcher can default to the second if the first one fails.
  Network redundancy: If using AVoIP (AV over Internet Protocol), devices should ideally have dual network interfaces and at least two core and edge switches.
• Staff redundancy: Make sure there are several people on your team trained in your AV systems; otherwise, one person taking a sick day could spell disaster.
• Control system redundancy: If your local processor or control system fails, you can set up a remote/cloud backup working on a separate server.
• Software redundancy: You should keep backups of previous software versions in case a glitch with a new update causes your whole AV setup to break.
• Content redundancy: Having multiple sources play the same content at once lets you switch from one to another if the original feed fails.
  
  

Benefits of Implementing AV Redundancy

The biggest benefit of AV redundancy is that it keeps your system running without any serious pauses. In fact, observers might not even notice the system had a problem to begin with.

These contingencies minimize single points of failure; this is where one small issue cascades in a way that crashes the whole system. Redundancies mean everything stays live, even during a high-pressure or especially demanding situation.

This also means the system will experience little to no downtime. No system is 100% reliable — but failover systems can keep your uptime as high as 99.999%. If an issue crops up, even your operators and stakeholders will be unaware of it.

Redundancies can even make maintenance easier. For example, engineers could upgrade part of the system while the backup mechanism keeps the whole thing working. They won’t have to reserve these updates for after hours.

Common Pitfalls When Redundancy Is Neglected

If your AV setup lacks essential redundancies, the whole system could fail, jeopardizing ongoing mission-critical operations. For example, a corrupted feed can slow surgical procedures or stop security rooms from clearly viewing a break-in.

Here are the main issues you’ll face without high-quality AV failover systems:

●     Downtime due to single points of failure; even a relatively small fault could interrupt vital communications or operations.

●     Stakeholders and clients/end users may lose faith in your tech setup, and possibly your ability to deliver good services.

●     Similarly, you’ll lose customers and the revenue that comes with them, putting the whole business at risk in the process.

●     It’ll also be harder to update or maintain the AV system. Without failover options, it needs to go offline for maintenance.

●     If there is a failure, your team will have to manually switch everything over to new signals or devices, which takes time.

●     You and your team won’t be able to effectively respond to a crisis. In fact, you might not even know if there is a crisis.

How to Plan a Reliable Strategy

A successful AV redundancy strategy must account for every potential risk your system will face; this means designing layered fail-safes for every major component.  

Here are the main steps to follow when setting up your AV system’s backup plans:  

1. Know Your System

Identify which of your AV components are mission-critical — and map out single points of failure that could sink the system.  

2. Design Redundancies

Use this map to determine which parts of your system need backups; this could mean investing in extra processors, network paths, and control interfaces.

3. Select Good Vendors

Only buy AV equipment from reliable vendors. These might already have built-in redundancies or service-level agreements guaranteeing rapid support

4. Train Your Staff

Train your operators and other personnel in using your AV system. If the failover process needs their intervention, they’ll know exactly what to do.  

5. Update as Necessary

Keep updating and iterating upon your AV redundancy strategy. If you eventually spot a gap, fix this immediately and keep your team in the loop.  

Final Thoughts

Redundant AV systems keep your whole enterprise working as it should, allowing you to deliver great media experiences, security monitoring services, and more. Contact the DEXON Systems team today for high-quality video walls and other foolproof AV tools that work well in a crisis.