Welcome back to AV Truth, the weekly series where we uncover what really matters in AV.

Last week, we opened the back of the rack and exposed the hard truths of cable management.
This week, we’re stepping into a space that rarely makes the client tour, but quietly holds the entire system together: The Rack room.

Let’s Be Honest: 

The rack room is almost always an afterthought.

By the time we get to it, everything else has already been decided:

“We don’t need much space.”
“It can go in the janitor’s closet.”
“No one’s going to see it anyway.”

But here’s the truth:

The rack room is the brain of the AV system.
And when you treat the brain like an optional accessory, the whole body suffers.

Where Rack Rooms Go Wrong

• Undersized and overloaded: Clients underestimate how much space a full AV/IT backbone needs. We end up cramming high-performance systems into rooms designed for brooms and backup switches.
• No ventilation: You’re running PoE switches, DSPs, amps, servers, and the room has zero airflow. The system shuts down, then everyone’s surprised.
• No service access: Racks shoved into corners. No pull-out frames. No rear clearance. Just ten minutes of sweating to reach one HDMI cable.

On one project, the client called us late in the game with a simple request:

“Can we just add one more rack?”

On paper, it sounded easy. But when we arrived on site, the existing rack room was already at capacity, wall to wall with equipment, no side clearance, and barely enough ventilation to keep the system stable.

There was no space, no airflow buffer, and no structured plan for expansion.

We ended up spending hours reworking the layout, relocating power runs, and shifting cable paths just to squeeze the new rack in all while trying not to impact the live system.

What should have been a half-day addition turned into three days of risk-managed rework.

All because there was no room to grow.

That’s why we always ask early:

“What’s your future rack plan?”

Because if we don’t design for expansion from day one,

the system ends up boxed in before it even goes live.

What a Good Rack Room Looks Like

• A dedicated space, not shared with janitorial or mechanical functions
• Ventilation, HVAC, and proper power distribution
• Lighting that’s bright enough to actually work under
• Rear and side access for every rack
• Clear labeling, wall-mounted documentation, and tidy cable entry

The rack room is your system’s safe space.

It’s where uptime is protected, where signal integrity lives, and where troubleshooting is either easy, or endless.

So the next time someone says:

“Let’s just put the rack wherever,”

Ask them: Would you put your servers in a mop closet?