ABSTRACT

Things do not always go from bad to worse, but you cannot count on it. When money is on the line, system uptime is vital. A media services company charges clients $1K/day for editing and compositing services. A broadcaster is contracted to air the Super Bowl along with $100M worth of commercials. A home shopping channel sells $10K worth of products per hour from on-air promotions. It is very easy to equate lost revenue to reliable equipment operations. How much time and money can you afford to lose in the event of downtime? Reliability is a business decision and must be funded on this basis. Therefore, it is straightforward to calculate the degree of reliability (and money to realize it) needed to secure continuous operations. For this reason, AV facility operators often demand nearly 100% uptime for their equipment.