Reliable Audiovisual Systems & Crestron Wireless Access Point

Grant's Perspective on ... building in reliability to AV systems

Reliability is key to audiovisual system design.

Make sure we utilize quality product. An obvious and simple enough idea but it does take experience to know what product is good and what isn’t.  Being around as long as we have, the product line is solid. As technologies emerge and evolve we come across many products.  Some are good (Epson BrightLink qualifies as a great product), some we decide to not use and there are some we know not to touch.

Make sure the Integration will work.  Like I say, “Improved Communication from Technology Integration”.  When the various components for a system are selected to function as one, you’re good to go. Again, a simple strategy that should be easy to implement but too often I see those who think one can simply draw boxes representing various devices and connect them together with a line. Not the case. Even when two components ideally should work together, experience shows us that some components don’t play nice. I know when I chat with IT people about this and remind them of the clone computers that were so troublesome because one type of hard drive doesn’t work well with one type of mother board, and so on and so forth. They always fervently shake their heads in agreement as they know you can’t rely on those types of systems.   

System commissioning.   This is when  the gear has been installed and verified functioning as per the design spec, the various items need to be setup, or “commissioned”. This completes the system.  But sometimes a setting in one device may affect another.  Some features of some of the various devices within the system may need to be disabled, enabled, or a certain parameter selected to ensure the system performs reliably. Or an item might require configuring via a laptop. Here’s an example: A projector  will auto search for live video sources; meanwhile the control system is commanding the same projector to switch to a particular input. At certain moments this may cause the projector  to get confused and it will “lock up” like any CPU controlled device typically will.  Of course this will happen when the CEO wants to use the system.

One way of creating reliability is to have less components.  Here’s an example of a situation that could make or break a system depending on what or who’s product you use.  There are times where a client will want wireless touch panels  but I advise to use wired if wireless ability really is not required (sometimes it is just there to look cool), thereby eliminating a component like a wireless touchscreen that might be affected by outside factors like interference.  This is especially a trade off when using anything wireless. 

Crestron has the CEN-WAP-ABG-1G  Wall Mount 802.11a/b/g Wireless Access Point (pictured below).  This device provides wireless connectivity to wireless Crestron WiFi Touch panels.  

But the design of this Crestron device really fits our AV world well.  I like the fact that this WAP can be placed in the Boardroom or theater so there are no issues with signal strength like with a router placed in a metal (signal blocking) rack one hallway over or in a back room.  This WAP has also been designed for Crestron WiFi touch panels, so that’s half the battle right there.  It’s somewhat inconspicuous, and it looks good too.  And so far they’ve been dependable.  It’s on my list.

Grant

Bandwidth Cost & Managed Videoconference Services

Grant's Perspective on ... getting more from your videoconference system with Managed Services.


Inland AV recently launched Managed Services to help people get more from their existing videoconference system.


We sat down with one client and discussed their company requirements. They had 3 locations that required systems. They needed to buy a videoconference system for each location, more network  infrastructure, TMS licences and to increase their bandwidth. We then compared the cost of the client buying 3 basic videoconference systems and using Managed Services to take care of the rest of the infrastructure and management issues.


The difference in cost and services were huge! Their increased bandwidth alone was approximately $1,000.00 per year. Their complete Inland AV Managed Services package that included their additional bandwidth (and so much more) was $750.00 per year. Add on the cost of the annual TMS licences, additional network infrastructure and the extra staff costs to manage the system make it a "no brainer" to go with Managed Services.



The Inland AV website has posted a page with more Managed Services information.

Grant

Audiovisual Rack Design Tool

Grant's Perspective on ... Chief's online rack builder application.

ChiefMounts Canada, an Inland AV supplier of monitor & projector mounts as well as racks and accessories has posted a rack builder application. You can configure your own rack by following their step-by-step process. You choose the size and style of rack and then add components and  accessories and save. The finished result is a PDF or jpeg file that you can share with your audiovisual supplier when discussing your new AV system.

 

This is a nifty little tool to help visualize a rack and see how it will look before ordering.

The one issue we had in testing the application was that it ran best in Explorer and Chrome. We had trouble with it when tested in Firefox. Not perfect but a great tool to visualize a project before the money is spent.

Grant

Obama Lecturn Malfunction

Grant's Perspective on ... no one is exempt from AV problems.

It was not too long ago I commented on Obama's teleprompter glass breaking during a news conference. This week the presidential seal fell of the lecturn while he was delivering a public speech.

He handled it well with his "You know who I am" statement but was more telling with his "somebody back there is really nervous right now."





Just another example of whatever can go wrong in a presentation, will go wrong.

There are times when an AV pro can assist in unexpected situations. I recall someone telling me about a situation where a presenter was going to sneeze. It was obvious to eveeryone in the audience that this was going to happen. The presenter continued, then quickly said "Just a moment ..." then blasted out the pending sneeze. The audio operator had turned off the presenter's mic for the sneeze and then had it back on when the presenter said "Excuse me".

The audience turned to the audio tech and applauded his quick thinking and fast action.

Now there is an AV Tech that get's it!


Grant