By Tony Sprando and Kate Couch

“Age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.” — Alonso Of Aragon

Age is something we have been redefining for many years as a human race. In the ’40s children were seen and not heard, today children are brought to work and meetings and expected to be kept entertained by their 8×12 screens that they are constantly glued to. When I was a teenager, I knew all the latest tech, but now I’m (slowly) slipping behind. My mother-in-law though, not tech-savvy, picks up things as fast as ever. She is, I presume, sharper than most people her age. My beautiful wife does not keep up with technology and prefers to be outside. Due to this, she has much better eyesight than I do. However, I have better hearing. It’s a two-way street of what we choose to invest our time in. 

As we get older and more mature, the brain changes drastically. Most people are aware of this, it’s called cognitive decline. It’s a sad thing to go through and to see others go through. When things that are so drastically important to us like, hearing, seeing, our ability to learn and our memory slowly worsen with every year. It can be hard as a parent, friend, loved one, or business owner to know how to properly help people experiencing this. Age is something not a lot of people take into account when doing custom work for clients. It’s something that’s overlooked but is extraordinarily important. 

It’s important to understand at what ages different needs need to be met. As someone reaches the age of 60, they have a hard time keeping things organized, remembering things, and hearing and seeing things. If you have someone over the age of 60 for a client, you want to make sure that you’re catering to these needs. For example, in audiovisual, if you have an older client, it is important that you are making sure that the speakers in an in-home speaker system are arranged properly so they can hear it. Checking that older clients technology you might be installing is easy for them to use, and that they understand what you’re putting in their home is another important thing you can consider. Solve organization problems and make sure that your clients know how to properly use what you’re installing and understand its function. Just because somebody comes to you with a problem, doesn’t necessarily mean that they understand the solution.

When it comes to this in audiovisual, it’s important to take into account age with any client you have. For example, if you are installing soundproof panels into a nursery, something that is professional, business style and chic probably wouldn’t cater to that age or audience. You need to take into account the problems that you are solving will also considering the age of the client installing something that is more childproof and childlike is more likely to leave the customer satisfied.

If you are installing a meeting room for a business whose employees are young and tech-savvy, you can keep that in mind when integrating the latest and smartest technology. You can’t necessarily integrate a Zoom Room into a company with older employees who don’t know how to use technology but are going to rely on Zoom calls. You can use technology that’s more straightforward, organized and easy to use. It’s very easy to cater to a client’s age if you just consider the problem that they need to solve and how their age affects that problem.