“How long should my AV system last? The last system was put in when the building was built 20 or 30 years ago. Should I expect this new system to last me another 20 or 30 years?” The precedence of former audio and video hardware and their longevity leads to misguided expectations on how long these systems are really designed to last. The hardware centric systems we installed back then are very different than they are today. There were separate electronic components that served their own purpose and if you wanted the system to do something it wasn’t designed to.