01 Consultant
Define the intent
Rooms, required experiences, performance intent and constraints. A brief that survives a change of company.
+ "intent": { "uses": ["hybrid_meeting"] }
+ "space": { "id": "R204" }Audio Visual Open Specification
Your AV system.
As code.
AVOS is an open format, in development, for describing an AV system as structured data: its intent, products, devices, ports and connections. One portable record for people, software and agents, across companies and the life of a building.
{
"space": { "id": "R204", "name": "Meeting room 204" },
"intent": { "uses": ["hybrid_meeting", "local_presentation"] },
"devices": [
{ "id": "SRC-01", "product": "P-INPUT" },
{ "id": "CORE-01", "product": "P-PROC" },
{ "id": "DISP-01", "product": "P-DISPLAY" }
],
"connections": [
{ "id": "AV-001",
"from": "SRC-01:USB-C-OUT-1", "to": "CORE-01:USB-C-IN-1" },
{ "id": "AV-002",
"from": "CORE-01:HDMI-OUT-1", "to": "DISP-01:HDMI-IN-1" }
]
}The drawing shouldn't be the only source of truth.
Today one system is retyped into a drawing, an equipment list and a cable schedule. Rename a port in one and the others are quietly wrong, and the next team inherits pictures and lists instead of a system.
Drawing
CORE-01 HDMI OUT 1 → DISP-01 HDMI IN 2
Display model 55" display
Equipment list
Display 65" display × 1
AV processor × 1
Cable schedule
AV-002 → DISP-01 HDMI IN 1
Length ?
Three files, three answers.
Drawing
CORE-01 HDMI OUT 1 → DISP-01 HDMI IN 1
Display P-DISPLAY
Equipment list
Display P-DISPLAY × 1
AV processor × 1
Cable schedule
AV-002 → DISP-01 HDMI IN 1
Length unknown, flagged
One record. Many views. Unknowns stay visible.
The proposed model
Meaning before presentation.
Space and intent. Where the system lives and what the room is for, before any product is chosen.
Products. What a model is: its category and every physical port, defined once and referenced.
Devices. The installed instances of those products, placed in the space.
Connections. Port to port, with a label. Cable detail is added when it is known.
Record state. Which phase the record is in and what is still unknown, stated rather than guessed.
{
"space": { "id": "R204", "name": "Meeting room 204" },
"intent": { "uses": ["hybrid_meeting", "local_presentation"] },
"products": [
{ "id": "P-PROC", "category": "AV processor",
"ports": ["USB-C-IN-1", "HDMI-OUT-1"] },
{ "id": "P-DISPLAY", "category": "Display",
"ports": ["HDMI-IN-1"] }, …
],
"devices": [
{ "id": "SRC-01", "product": "P-INPUT", "space": "R204" },
{ "id": "CORE-01", "product": "P-PROC", "space": "R204" },
{ "id": "DISP-01", "product": "P-DISPLAY", "space": "R204" }
],
"connections": [
{ "id": "AV-001", "from": "SRC-01:USB-C-OUT-1",
"to": "CORE-01:USB-C-IN-1" },
{ "id": "AV-002", "from": "CORE-01:HDMI-OUT-1",
"to": "DISP-01:HDMI-IN-1", "cable": { "length_m": null } }
],
"record": { "phase": "design", "unknowns": ["AV-002.cable.length_m"] }
}The record carries system data only. How it is displayed stays with each application, so two tools can present the same system differently.
One record, handed on.
Each team adds what it knows. The intent stays visible, approved changes are kept, and the next project starts from what was actually installed.
02 Integrator
Resolve the system
Products, approved substitutions, port assignments, cables and IP addresses as the installation takes shape.
+ "devices": [ … ]
+ "connections": [ … ]
+ "substitutions": [{ "status": "approved" }]03 Owner and operator
Run and maintain
The connected as-built record for maintenance and troubleshooting, kept current when equipment moves, fails or is replaced.
+ "record": { "phase": "as_built" }
+ "maintainedBy": "owner_operator"04 Next upgrade team
Start with what exists
The original intent and the installed system, side by side, before planning the next change.
+ "revision": "B"
// intent and history carried forwardAnd again
The maintained record is where the next project begins.
A common record for
anyone to build on.
AVOS is meant to be free to implement and not tied to any one tool. It is written to be read by people and by software agents alike, and it will only be useful if the people who make, design and operate AV shape it now.
Manufacturers
Describe your products once.
Model identity, every physical port with its connector, direction and signal, and where each fact came from. Accurate data makes your products easier to specify, in whichever tool the designer uses.
Talk to usSoftware makers
Read and write one record.
Import, export, schedule, validate or draw from the same system data, and preserve what you don't understand. Nobody has to maintain a private copy of the whole industry.
Talk to usAV practitioners
Shape it from real work.
Substitutions, room types, revisions and as-built changes: bring the handovers that go wrong today, so the format handles them tomorrow.
Talk to usAI agents
Read the system, not a picture of it.
A structured record is something an agent can read, check and reason about: which input a device uses, what a change would affect, what is still unknown. People and agents work from the same source, and people decide what gets approved.
Principles
- Open and vendor-neutral
- Free to implement. No product, brand or application gets a privileged place in the format.
- Data, not drawings
- AVOS carries the system. Layout and drawing style belong to the applications that present it.
- Honest about what isn't known
- Unknowns, provenance and review state are part of the record, not guessed away.
- Grows with the project
- A record can start as intent and gain detail over time, without being rewritten.
Where it stands
- NowWorking draft
Proposed concepts, illustrative example records and a public walkthrough.
- NextPublic release
A published schema, licence, validation tools and an open contribution process.
- ThenInteroperability
Compatible tools exchanging records, and product data published in the format.
No dates are promised. This page will say when each step is real.