AV – no longer a small’a’ and a big ‘V’?

David Webster. April 2012.
One thing that has always puzzled me is the way audio is treated by many A/V integrators. Why is audio always seen as the underdog to video? Or putting it another way; why is ‘AV’ more often a little ‘a’ and a large ‘V’?

Of course it can be argued that for typical business applications such as boardrooms concerned mostly with displaying computers for presentations, that audio is irrelevant. However we live in a multimedia age where there is often a requirement to watch TV or other video content accompanied by sound, as well as audio only applications such as telephone conferencing.

The move towards network based Unified Communications (UC) is accelerating amongst individuals or groups of people and has the potential to deliver higher than old analogue telephone audio quality provided the end points are capable of it. Most laptops and desktop PCs can already benefit from simple microphone and speaker upgrades and transform the user’s experience.

So how important is the audio? Try following a TV program or video conference with the sound muted. How often do you walk out of the room during a program, just listening to follow the plot?

But it is not enough to just have basic audio as poor quality can seriously affect intelligibility, especially if the listener looks away from the person speaking or the video.

So why is audio the poor relation? The budgets are smaller, perhaps because business customers behave like home consumers? The best example being HD TVs where the trend is for people to spend £’000s for a new large screen TV with poor quality built-in audio but they don’t want to spend more on amplifiers and speakers that take up valuable space. The reason is perhaps simple, more people can appreciate the difference with improved picture quality than improved sound quality yet there is no video or presentation so good that the viewing experience couldn’t be rendered almost ineffective by the voice not being heard.

It is also true that achieving good audio means more than just using quality products (although that is always good start) – room acoustics need to be taken into consideration. As this can require knowledge and experience of dealing with many factors such as room volume, reverberation time and echo, absorption and reflection, background noise, etc. perhaps some integrators duck the issue all together?

If it really comes down to it, people can tolerate mediocre sound quality and tend not to even notice it until something is really wrong with it (or it is missing entirely!) or they can compare it with something better. On the other hand there are people who prioritize optimum audio fidelity above all else, and would watch a movie in artefact-ridden standard definition if it had a great soundtrack!

As AV professionals isn’t our duty to at least explain and demonstrate the advantages of investing in higher quality audio and to offer a range of solutions and budgets – not just one economy size that fits all and then keeping our fingers crossed for no complaints and repeat business?

Do manufacturers and distributors need a reminder as to the rules of the game?

A simple distribution model is one where manufacturers manufacture and sell to distributors. In turn, distributors help to develop a market and sell to their channel partners – resellers. The resellers then help design solutions and sell and often install that solution to the end user.
Manufacturers have a responsibility to design, develop and manufacture products that end users want. Their choice is to sell through an exclusive distributor or multiple distributors. An exclusive , value add distributor offers the manufacturer focus and a close relationship, especially valuable where there is a high degree of pre and post-sales technical support required.
Multiple distribution, offers the manufacturer potential for greater spread, hence more volume. It works best when the products are more of a commodity and there is an existing demand from the market.
The manufacturer however, may be tempted to sell via a mix of distribution, direct resellers who buy directly from the manufacturer and sometimes even straight to end users. Where the manufacturer is selling direct to the end user these accounts are usually given the name of ‘house accounts’. The reason, or excuse given for selling direct, is that the account is too big or technically demanding to be handled by anyone other than the manufacturer itself. Un-surprisingly, the end result when a manufacturer does sell straight to an end user, is that its distributors receive complaints from their resellers who see potentially large customers that are not able to touch. With direct resellers, the other resellers i.e. those buying from a distributor feel there is no way they can compete. Either way, competing products are likely to be specified instead.
Distributors have a responsibility to provide their manufacturers with a viable route to market, at the same time as providing their resellers with good advice, fair margins and prompt delivery. The distributor’s choice is to offer products to any and all resellers or to opt for a limited number of resellers. Distributors too should know their place in the scheme of things and just sell to resellers. If a distributor finds itself talking to an end user, it, like the manufacturer, should offer advice and talk MSRP only. Then ask if the end user has an existing preferred supplier/installer. If not they should be offered a small group of resellers that might best suit the users specific requirements.
The distributor should not quote or sell direct. If it does it will lose the trust of its resellers overnight and most probably any further business from its other resellers who find out, as they surely will.
Resellers are in an uncomplicated position. They can buy whatever and from whomever they like. In turn, they can sell to whoever they like. As long as they do a good job helping design a system that best suits their customer’s needs, they deserve the business and importantly, they deserve it with a decent margin.

AV racks or just bent metal?

More ‘bent metal’. After all, a rack is just something to hide the hardware away somewhere neat & tidy and make cabling easier. As long as the user just sees a smart front that’s all that matters. Or is it?
From the installers view, there are a number of important considerations;
A rack can be rather awkward to manage and expensive to ship. Where to build/populate it? It may be cleaner, more convenient to build and test it off site, but it will become rather heavy to take to site. How quick and easy is it to build? Labour is expensive. Cable management is key. Does the rack have lacing bars and convenient mounting points?
Thermal management is a very important consideration. Will ventilation be sufficient? Or should the rack have fans fitted? A rack that is fully populated generates a considerable amount of heat which will affect the performance and life of the hardware installed. Studies have shown that for every 10° rise over 85°F (29.5°C), digital equipment life is reduced by approximately 40%!
What about ease of access for testing, future additional hardware and serving? A rack that slides out and turns from a recess might just be the answer.

RGB are the exclusive distributor for Middle Atlantic racks. Middle Atlantic Products offer state-of-the-art equipment racks and enclosure systems for a wide range of applications, including the custom residential, professional audio visual, broadcast and post production, structured cabling and security markets. Dedicated to the proposition that the enclosure system is as important as the equipment it protects, the company incorporates application driven engineering into every system it designs in order to meet the individualised requirements of the broadest range of installers.
The Middle Atlantic audio visual rack product range includes: Free standing fixed and portable, wall mount, flat pack, welded and pull out audio visual racks. Standard and custom rack face plates, rack shelves, rack cooling solutions and accessories.

Mounts matter

Flat screen and projector mounts represent such a small percentage of the overall install value that they may not seem important. It’s just bent metal and cheap too.
However, they turn out to be really important to the guy doing the installation and the company itself. If they are a fiddle, they can extend the install time dramatically. If they aren’t flexible and can’t be mounted exactly where you’d like, they can and do, frequently involve another visit to site with additional materials or alternative mount. If they require two people, they tie up valuable resources that could be elsewhere. Whilst they may only represent approximately 3% of the hardware costs, they can easily turn into a much bigger percentage of the labour costs and delay completion.
So, the ‘bent metal’ can make a difference. Saving money on the purchase price can often turn out to be a false economy.
They are pretty important to the user too. It’s not how much weight they will support that matters. That it will support the weight is a given. It’s what they look like and how discrete the installation looks that really matters to them. Can the mount itself be seen? Can the cables be seen? Again, ‘bent metal’ does matter. If the mount itself can be seen and doesn’t fit in with décor and/or the cables are on show, that can ruin the overall look of a job. In that situation it doesn’t matter much how well designed the system is or what it is capable of, the user won’t be able to appreciate that because all they see is a mess on their wall or ceiling.
RGB are the exclusive distributor for the Premier Mounts range of racks. Premier have been designing and manufacturing brackets & mounts for more than 30 years. During that time, they have built a reputation for quality and innovation in the audio visual industry. Originally focused on LCD and CRT projector mounts, Premier Mounts later developed one of the first after-market plasma-display mounts, the PDM series of plasma wall mounts, and holds many patents for ground breaking features that have become the standard for mounting products. Their products are designed with the installer and user in mind. Quick to install and a good looking installation are of key consideration.
The Premier Mounts product range includes:
LCD and LED flat screen fixed, tilt, pivot, rotate and swing arm wall mounts. Flat screen ceiling, table and trolley mounts, projector ceiling mounts & a huge variety of accessories such as audio visual shelves.

3D works and really rather well

Until now 3D displays might have been regarded as something that is just very useful for product design (with a rather powerful computer & very expensive display) that could one day become more main stream in the home and meeting spaces at work. But only when there is enough content, the glasses are more comfortable and the displays have come down in price.

Well, that day is here already.

Anyone can walk into a high street store and buy a good ‘active glasses’ system now. There are also plenty of 3D Blu-ray discs available with more and more coming out every day to enjoy. Admittedly, a lot are animated children’s movies right now but blockbuster movies and live TV events, such as sport, are also available.

The glasses are quite comfortable too. It does look a bit odd when everyone appears to be wearing sun glasses in the dark, but it works and you get used to that very quickly.

What’s next? No glasses. For example, Philips has already announced an auto-stereoscopic 42-inch model for digital signage while at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Toshiba showed a production ready 55-inch LED glasses free 4K 3DTV. Up to nine people can enjoy 3D but the optimal number is four or less. There is an almost invisible camera in the base of the set that tracks your face and there can be circles and arrows displayed on screen that help you move to the absolute best spot.

Our 3D product range continues to grow and currently includes;

The new Imerge MSI-3D media server.
A high-performance entertainment system that stores all your music and movies including all the latest 3D Blu-ray discs in full HD quality in one place, with the ability to play different media in multiple rooms simultaneously. A system which can archive hundreds of movies, tens of thousands of music tracks with no need for unsightly shelves full of disc boxes. The Imerge MS1-3D media server range is compatible with both active and passive 3D display systems as well as standard HD screens and projectors

Sharp Quattron 3D flat screen TV range.
The LE831E series has 40, 46, 52 & 60-inch models of edge LED backlit HDTV using optional active glasses for 3D. All have Sharp’s new Quattron technology with red, green, blue & yellow pixel LCDs to provide the eye with exactly what it requires to produce a complete and convincing spectrum of colours. While the lighter yellow component means that more light shines through, which in turn significantly lowers the appliances’ energy consumption.

Savant SmartMedia Pro
The Savant range of SmartMedia Pro modular audio and video matrix switching and signal distribution products, part of the complete Savant line of Apple® based control systems, is HDMI 1.4 ready for 3D HD signals. It has market leading, fast switching times and is fully HDMI and HDCP standards compliant.

Kramer Electronics with HDBaseT
The latest HDMI over twisted pair cable extender products from Kramer (the TP581T, TP582T and TP582R) use HDBaseT technology and so are HDMI 1.4 compliant and can extend 3D HD signals up to 100m.

Rainbow Fish Fibre Optic HDMI cables
The Rainbow Fish fibre optic technology is superior to typical copper HDMI cables and can send 3D HD signals up to 1000 feet without degradation and the sleek fibre cable is attractive and easy to use.

What is LCOS?

Why LCOS?

Combining the best of LCD and DLP projection technologies, LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) panel technology uses liquid crystals in place of the individual mirrors found in DLP panels. The result? Exceptionally fast and distronion-free WUXGA (1920×1200) images – without any unwelcome ‘lattice’ or ‘rainbow’ effects.

How does it differ from LCD and DLP?

LCD projector – gridlines are clearly visable and contrast is limted.

DLP projector – frequent colour breakup (the rainbow effect), whites are bright, yet colours can appear weak and poor colour gradation – banding can occur.

LCOS

Seamless images, with no lattice effect, no unpleasant rainbow effect, good contrast together with smooth, natural colour reproduction.

Comparing brightness on paper

That doesn’t work here. Measuring the lumens of an LCOS projector in the same way as others, using a light meter on a white image, will show it to be less bright than the others. However, where LCOS comes into it’s own is on colour reproduction. Colour images can’t be measured the same way. But, and it’s a big but, who projects white images in real life?

 Canon has developed two types of LCOS panels: a 0.71-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) panel, the world’s first* LCOS panel of its size to achieve such a level of resolution, and a 0.55-inch SXGA+ (1,400 x 1,050 pixels) panel.

In 2004, in advance of industry trends toward higher PC image resolution and high-definition video content, Canon launched high-resolution multimedia office projectors incorporating LCOS panels. These products feature Canon’s proprietary AISYS (Aspectual Illumination System) technology, which maximizes the performance of LCOS panels to realize bright, high-contrast images within a compact design. As a result, in addition to general business and education applications, these projectors have earned praise from users in such specialized fields as design, simulation and medicine.

With the development of its own LCOS panels, Canon has developed all of the key parts needed for these high-performance projectors, including the AISYS optical engine, the projection lenses, which complement the high-resolution panels by minimizing image distortion, and the drive IC, which drives the panels.

In particular, Canon’s newly developed WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixels) panel not only makes possible the projection of Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) images but, by supporting the display of ever-increasing PC image-resolution levels, is also expected to contribute to the cultivation of a new market for business-use projectors.

What is HDBaseT?

Shaping the future of digital connectivity

The demand for converged distribution of HD multimedia content and the lack of adequate existing technologies are driving the industry toward an HD digital connectivity standard.
HDBaseT technology is a consumer electronic (CE) connectivity technology optimized for whole-home and commercial multimedia distribution. HDBaseT can connect all the entertainment devices in a setting through its 5Play™ feature set, converging uncompressed full HD digital video, audio, 100BaseT Ethernet, power over cable and various control signals through a single 100m/328ft CAT5e/6 cable with RJ45 connectors.
The compelling features of HDBaseT technology include:
Uncompressed video/audio up to 10.2 Gbps.
Maximum cable length of 100m, including support of multiple hops, up to 8 x 100m
Low cost standard Cat5e/6 LAN cable
Utilizes a standard RJ-45 connector
Supplies up to 100W of power – which can be utilized to power a remote TV
Support for 100Mbps Ethernet
Easy installation utilizing existing in-wall Ethernet connectivity
USB support
Supports HDCP
Networking support including extended-range daisy chain and star topologies

Collaboration – a true requirement or the latest buzz phrase?

Collaboration has many meanings and requires environments with little or no technology right through to complete rooms dedicated to multi-location connections in an immersive space. Whilst applications drive the purchase of technology, adoption of new working processes driven by the technology often result in user resistance. It is impossible to train everyone, but if the user case is compelling the user may be compelled to find out more…

Think of a sales meeting where everyone is eager to present their information. A traditional cabling swapping ritual is replaced by simple management of users that are logged on to NEC’s Image Express Utility software and projector. Users can then be interchanged effortlessly and quickly without disruption. 

Think of a lecturer asking students to share their computer based work. Without moving from their location and by using a simple in room network any student can quickly present their work through an NEC projector using Image Express Utility. 

Think of an R&D meeting, where participants are not all in the same location. Quite possibility technology such as video conferencing or data conferencing (such as Web Ex) have been used to facilitate such events in the past, however users on the same LAN can access and see the same content when remotely logged on to an NEC projector, using Image Express Utility.

Collaboration is certainly not just a hypothetical subject; it happens millions of times per day. There are new ways to facilitate seamless data collaboration, both in room and over distance and if this is something you wish to explore further, please contact the RGB sales team who will be happy to discuss further or arrange a demonstration.

Unified Communications

What is it?
It is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, data sharing (including web connected electronic whiteboards aka IWB’s or Interactive White Boards), call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

Wireless microphones – countdown to Channel 69 switchover

As you may know, Ofcom will be switching the well-used microphone frequency Channel 69 to Channel 38 in 2012. If you have solutions that incorporate radio microphones or other RF equipment, now is the time to manage the changeover.
Next year, channels 61-69 in the 800MHz frequency for radio microphones will no longer be available to use by programme making and special events (PMSE) and without further action, solutions based on Channel 69 will become illegal. Therefore, it is imperative to check if your equipment can be re-tuned or you may need to source a new solution that uses an alternative technology, such as Revolabs.
Revolabs wireless microphones operate in the 1.9GHz RF band and is not affected by the changes to Channel 69. The products provide superior audio performance for broadcasting, live sound, video/audio conference calls, distance learning, web casts and many other audio applications.
For impartial advice and compensation information, please refer to the Ofcom website