Neil Young Twisted Road - Winnipeg Show

Grant's Perspective on ... Neil Young solo show at  Winnipeg's  Centennial Concert Hall.

Grant is on vacation this week and I've been asked to post while he is enjoying the summer with his family. I attended the Neil Young Twisted Road show last night and wanted to comment on it.

The stage set up was a great mix of old and new technology. The old being the instruments including his "borrowed" Martin D-28 guitar, Les Paul & Gretsch electrics, old beaten upright piano, grand piano, bass pedals and pipe organ. Another acoustic guitar (had an interesting, processed sound) that he played some of his newer still to be released songs. A series of old Fender amps made for some exquisite feedback that Neil wrung out of his electric guitars. His harmonicas (with big glass of water to rinse them out in) rounded out the instrumentation.

The lighting system included old school chandeliers over the pianos, some traditional lighting instruments and effective  LED lighting. Neil was wearing a white coat that reflected the changing colours of the LED foot lights. You can see the panels mounted like audio wedge monitors in front of the mic stand below. The back drop was LED up lighting prop pillars.

Neil used old and new technology and treated the sold out Concert Hall audience to a glimpse into the mind of a genius.

Thank you to Matt (sat beside me at the show) for sending me the photos he snapped with his phone. Another great evolving technology.

Grant will be back next week.

Ken

New Epson Ultra-Portable PL-1700 Series Projector Announced

Grant's Perspective on ... Epson ultra-portable projector announced at InfoComm.

Epson was displaying the new ultra-portable Pl-1700 series projector at InfoComm. This looks like a great unit designed for the "road warrior" who needs a portable projector to work with their laptop or USB drive. The new 1760 projector comes in at less than 4 lbs, 1.7" tall, with 2600 lumens of colour and white light output. That's a lot of output for such a little machine!

The traveling presenter will also appreciate the wireless USB connection between their laptop and the projector avoiding the awkward setting up of the projector in unfamiliar settings (Murphy seems to make the needed distance from the laptop to the projector a foot further than the cable).  The automatic vertical keystone correction feature makes for a quick set up with minimal fuss. Horizontal keystone correction is also included so you don't have to ask the client to move their chair from it's customary position.

Grant

Epson IU-01 Interactive Module Available In October

Grant's Perspective on ... Epson IU-01 will be available in October, 2010.

My July 9th post talked about the Epson IU-01 demonstration at InfoComm. The IU-01 is the interactive part of the Epson BrightLink and enables any projector to become interactive.

I said that I would let everyone know when it would be available. Epson posted a news release yesterday announcing that the IU-01 will be available this October and will be priced at an estimated $599.00 USD.

Grant

HDMI & Cable Run Choice

Grant's Perspective on ... the importance of quality cables and the distance they can effectively carry a signal.

At InfoComm, Kramer was demonstrating the importance of cable choice when using HDMI twisted pair products. Their demonstration showed:

·         Standard CAT5e was only good to just over 100ft. @ 1080P

·         Good quality CAT6 shielded was good to about 150ft. @ 1080P

·         Kramer BC-DGKat623 cable was good to 285ft. @ 1080P

All cables were fed signal from the same HDMI twisted pair transmitter (Kramer PT-571) and receiver (PT-572) set, which were fed from the same Blu-ray player to the same display. The only variable was the cable. The BC-DGKat623 cable uses individually shielded pairs, a larger gauge size (23 AWG) than standard CAT5e or CAT6, and was developed specifically for transmitting digital signals (pictured below). Cable choice with twisted pair digital signals is much more crucial than it is with analog, where standard CAT5e works just fine.

Thank you to Richard from Kramer Canada pictured above at InfoComm, for helping remind me of the technical details for this post.

Grant

IU-01 Interactive Demo At InfoComm

Grant's Perspective on ... IU-01 demonstration at InfoComm.

Epson had a demonstration of the IU-01 at InfoComm. This makes any existing projector interactive. The picture below shows the Epson representative with the infra-red pen doing an elementary school exercise. She gave a short demonstration to show the audience how intuitive and user-friendly the IR pen is and then let her audience try it.

The IU-01 is the same system that is the interactive heart of the BrightLink. It is not for sale at this time so we will stay tuned for a release announcement

BTW - The BrightLink has been getting a warm reception be it at InfoComm or the demonstrations that have been happening at Inland AV locations.

Grant

AMX Previews HDMI Matrix Switcher

Grant's Perspective on ... the AMX HDMI-UTPRO-0808.

AMX was previewing their new HDMI-UTPro 8x8 matrix switcher at InfoComm.

I was impressed with the demonstration and when I decided to post on it, visted the AMX website for a quick review.  I thought the AMX product page overview describes the product well.

" When you need true matrix switching of up to 8 HDMI sources, whether locally or over long distances, the new HDMI-UTPRO Matrix Switching and Distribution Solution is ideal for getting the job done crisply, cleanly and it's fully HDCP compliant. And unlike typical HDMI switchers, AMX HDCP InstaGate® technology allows for HDMI signal switching without delays due to HDCP re-authentication, and eliminates video stream interruption to existing HDMI signal paths."

The photo below shows Marc, our AMX representative, demonstrating the units ability to perform with long cables runs.

 It will be available this fall.

Grant