Posted by Gregg Dixon on Thu, Nov 17, 2011 @ 08:42 AM
1. What is the best size for me?
There are a few things to consider here. One is how far you are going to be sitting away from the display. That's pretty easy to figure with a simple formula. It's also important that the TV looks good, wherever you decide to have mounted. A large screen TV can be made to look very small on a long blank wall. The opposite of this is also true. A relatively small 32" TV can look monstrous and out of place on top of a small dresser or cabinet. If you have enough room and can sit a reasonable distance from the display, buy the largest screen size you can. I have never had a single customer want to switch to a smaller TV. I have had many that later wished they’d have gone larger. This rule does not apply the same when applied to projector.
2. What kind of TV should I get? LCD, LED, Plasma?
As a general rule of thumb I think plasma offers the best and most natural display. Without getting into the science of it, I just think plasma is more pleasing to the eye. Most of our experiences with customers as well as our installation crew would confirm this. The next best seems to be LCD. LCD has come a long way since the days of really slow refresh rates. These slow refresh rates made watching live sports very difficult because of the noticeable delay. That same delay is why we “generally’ don’t like LED TV displays. There are certainly exceptions to this rule and if you are at the upper end of quality you are probably going to be happy regardless.
3. What about refresh rates?
Refresh rate refers to how fast your screen is refreshed. Slow refresh rates create a “lag” when viewing faster motion programming, a good example would be sports, especially hockey. The higher the refresh rate the better it handles motion. If you’ve ever watched an older LCD television you might have noticed this motion lag or judder. It makes the picture look choppy. However, higher refresh rates can create other issues with cinematography. Check out this article for more details. The refresh rate is mostly a non-issue with plasma displays.
4. Is the TV part of an AV System?
If the TV is going to be part of an AV system you are going to want a TV that has an RS-232 port on it. This port can connect to a Crestron, RTI or other remote control system. If it does not have a port for RS-232 than use a TV that is known to have “discrete” IR codes. Using Sony, Samsung, LG or Panasonic will generally serve you well. I’m not positive but think you would also be fine with the Sharp and Toshiba. Do yourself a big favor and leave than off name discount brand on the shelf at your local Warehouse store. We don’t want to mention names here but if it’s not listed above and it’s inexpensive, don’t buy it. Don’t waste any brain cells evaluating the remote that comes with any TV you are considering. Or for that matter, any other AV device you are going to purchase. The manufactures factory included remote will be useless in a system environment and will end up spending it’s lifetime in a drawer anyway.
5. What about 3D?
Currently, there is a lot of debate on whether or not to get a 3D television. I’ll make this easy for you. If you think your kids would like it or you think it would be cool then by all means go ahead and get 3D. However, if this whole 3D thing seems gimmicky to you or you can’t see yourself wearing the special 3D glasses then don’t bother. Regardless of your preference though, you may not actually have a choice. Why? That’s because most of the best displays are made in 3D. Not because 3D is necessarily any better but because the manufactures need to include this feature to justify the higher price.
6. Mounting your TV
If you bought a very thin TV and are going to mount it on the wall there are some other considerations you’ll have to take into account. First off you’ll need a really thin mount. The older style mounts will be as thick as or even thicker than your new TV. Secondly, if your TV is going to be very thin you’ll never be able to use a standard electrical outlet. You’ll need to have the outlet recessed in the wall. Here is an example of what you’ll need.
7. Fireplace’s
Mounting a TV above a Fireplace is not ideal. This is not for any other reason other than it’s just too high. Too often in our homes the fireplace is the focal point. The problem with this is that though designers design this way, we don’t live this way. What looks good at a home show is not what makes sense for everyday use. Fight it all you want but the typical American household should have the TV as focal point if you want to be practical. All too often, we are called in after these design decisions are already made. If you must mount over your fireplace and there are situations when you will, try to keep the mantle as low as possible. You’ll be kicking yourself later when your neck hurts from looking “up” at the TV if you don’t head this advice. Mounting over the fireplace can work well if you are reclining back when viewing, lying in bed or in a room that is used as a party situation where people are typically standing.
8. Price
The television, or video in general is what drives this industry. The TV seems to be the key piece that facilitates the purchase of all the other associated products like Blu-ray players, AV receivers, speakers and control systems. Unfortunately, the price of the television seems to be the most important thing to many people. I think this is actually a subconscious thing and find myself sometimes thinking the same way. It has somehow been ingrained is us that if we “save” $200 on a $2,500 TV we have reduced our cost. Especially when we are talking about a system this is so not true. If your installer comes out to service your system and finds the issue to be with a TV that you did not purchase from them, you could with one simple service call wipe out the entirety of what you thought you might have saved. It’s best to have a single vendor responsible for everything in the system.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Thu, Aug 18, 2011 @ 09:49 AM
Obviously being in this business we do a lot of jobs that require the installation of a video projector. There are multiple issues we run into when we visit a job site to tale a look at the project. One major issue is, currently almost any laptop you'll buy is going to be a widescreen laptop. The widescreen has become, it seems the de facto standard. However, most companies that have had an AV setup for any length of time, seem to usually have the old 4:3 ratio screens. This presents a problem because the preferred "new" source is widescreen but the display area is not. Not every customer wants to change a perfectly good screen just because they are replacing the projector.
That brings me to the Hitachi CP-WX625. We have used it as a widescreen projector and adjusted the customers' existing Non-wides 4:3 ratio screen so that it doesn't hang down as low. This means the bottom and sides have the "black" borders but the top of the screen will not have that "black" border. Doing this has delivered very good results. Because the projector performs so well for a reasonable amount of money (a quick Google search shows them for around $2,500) clients have been very impressed.
The image and clarity of the unit are so much better than what the clients is used to seeing we never have complaints that image is actually slightly smaller. When installing in a new room with a matched 16:10 wide projection screen the image is astounding. We have used these projectors in large rooms and medium sized rooms and when you see the image from it you know you got a lot for your money.
On top of all of that, we have also had very good reliability with this projector too. Most people tend to buy projectors that are too small and inadequate for the job. Usually they don't have enough brightness (lumens) or contrast. Manufacturer's specs are almost useless when comparing projectors. I have seen this projector (Hitachi CP-WX325) next to others with specs that are similar but the image on the screen was not even comparable.
To wrap it up this is an excellent choice for the money. If you are need of a projector in the $2,500 area this is what I would use every time. We have never been disappointed with this projector and I doubt that you would be either. Of course if you found this information useful and are considering an AV project at your business have a look at our website or give us a call.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 10:00 AM
In the last article I wrote about AV control systems and their use with new and emerging technologies such as iPads and Android tablets.
This time I wanted to show you some of those new technolgies in action. Here is the page for Crestron's Mobile Pro G application. On this page you can see some screen shots of some pretty cool GUI's that have been created. Although this is the page for the Mobile Pro G app, smaller, simpler systems can get away with using the standard mobile app.
For even more interesting GUI's look on this page. These GUI's are winners and other entries into a design contest that was held by Crestron.
If you look at the two movies here in this video (you'll have to click on resources tab) you can see the Crestron Application in use on an iPad.
If you are still interested in how Crestron can help you work with your Apple gear, take a look at all of Crestron's products for integration with Apple products here.
Crestron is not the company embracing the iPad though. For residential use in your home Sonos has done a fantastic job of putting all of your music "sources" in one place.
With the Sono's app on your iPad, iPhone or soon Android, you can control the Sonoss player using whichever device you have wirelessly. That includes PC's and Macs too. With the Sonos player and one of these devices you can wirelessly control your Sonos player and select from the music files on your PC, Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius, Napster, Last FM, a ton of radio stations and more. Here is an example of the Sonos application in action. In my opinion the Sonos app is so good it's even better than the app for the PC or their proprietary handheld controller.
Another favorite company of ours here at AV Specialists is RTI technologies. While I feel they have been way too slow to get their products out with regard to Apple integration, the people at RTI make very good, reliable and cost effective products. They also stand behind their products like no other "consumer" based remote control system I know of. So though it's disappointing its not here yet, you can be sure when it gets here it will be good.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 12:09
Once upon a time a good control system for your AV room could cost you as much as the system you wanted to control. With the advent of devices like the iPad and the Android Tablets customers will now have far more options.
However, before we get to that lets talk about why you need a control system. There is nothing more embarrassing then being in front of a group and not being able to put on a presentation that you planned, because the equipment will not work. Skimping on a control system potentially leaves you open to this embarrassing situation. Most of this is avoidable.
One of the biggest push backs I hear from customers on control systems is that "they don't need anything fancy like that, it would be too hard to use." In reality, a well-planned control system will not make the system harder to use it will make it far easier to use. This is especially true for busy executives that don't have the time to be trained. It's also true for visitors to the facility that have never used the system before.
For an example let's look at the iPad. Almost anyone can pick one up and use it right away. Why is that? I would say it's because it doesn't try to do too much. Unlike a PC, its simple, intuitive, well laid out and it just plain works, always. Don't get me wrong , a PC is a great device and it can do almost anything you want, anyone is allowed to write code for it and it's very inexpensive. However in regard to the PC all of those pluses come at a price, when we are talking about reliability.
A good well laid out control system takes the "thinking" out of the process. With the touch of a single "button" the system can tell a projector not only to turn on, go to the proper input; it can turn on an amplifier and set the volume controls for all the devices to a preset level. On top of all that, if it doesn't happen that way, information can be relayed back to the system from the devices and tell the system to make it happen. So by being "smart" and having information go back and forth both ways (two-way communication) mistakes and embarrassments are eliminated.
In the past, these kinds of AV control systems typically required a proprietary touch panel to operate them. Well that's not so any longer. The iPad (and soon I'll bet other devices such as Android tablets) are putting quality control systems within reach of far more corporate and consumer budgets. As far as AV Integrators like ourselves are concerned, it is much easier to help customers understand the benefits of a good control system by tying them into these devices they already own or are familiar with. 
Now, just to be clear, touch-panels likes Crestron's TPMC-8X do far more than the iPad can. They can not only control the AV system but display the video from the devices being controlled on the panel as well as a host of other things. We'll save that for another article. However compare the Crestron TPMC-8X at a retail price of $3,800 to a $500 ish iPad and you can see what I am getting at.
AV Control system manufacturers like Crestron, RTI, Savant, AMX, Control 4 and others are embracing the iPad. I would assume this is for a host reasons such as; its low price point, good looking display, reliability and customer familiarity. The iPad has really brought the price down for the touch-panel part of the system. In my opinion these manufacturers see the writing on the wall, that the iPad is here to stay and yes they are competing against it. However in addition I think they see an entirely new market they can now reach because of the lower price point. I don't see the iPad totally supplanting the other manufacturers panels but I do see it changing how much time and money the manufacturers would want to invest into the panels as opposed to the control systems themselves.
I recently read an article detailing how Apple was able to market the iPad at such a low entry level price. I think in the long run, this is going to help everyone have better systems. Once clients are used to having a control system I think they will continue to want to improve their control systems and at that point maybe even add the manufacturers own feature rich panels later on. I think making the first step towards implementing a control system easier to reach by using an iPad is a great thing for all of us in the industry. That includes us integrators and the clients as well.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Fri, Nov 19, 2010 @ 11:59 AM
The use of digital signage marketing can help you promote your business, educate your clients and keep them entertained. All of this can be done while you have a "captive audience" with the installation of digital signage at your business.
Digital Signs have been around for a while now but have been difficult and expensive to implement, let alone explain to the end user. For much of that time, industry insiders and trade publications have been telling us that the digital signage market is one market that is going to grow like crazy. With the proliferation of inexpensive flat panel displays, it does seem like the time for that prediction to actually come true may have finally arrived.
Now that the cost of flat panel displays is no longer an obstacle, the only other issue we had encountered with digital signage was with ease of use and content. Scene Studio is a product created by our partners at RidgeLogic. Their product addresses both concerns. They now offer various content packages to give you great content and super easy implementation to simplify your signage production even more.
This content is available on a subscription based service. Having the content already produced is a major time saver. Now, most any one with a basic understanding of computers can easily and quickly put together professional looking signage presentations.
Some of the available content choices are :
- News Updates (filtered for the public)
- Sports Updates
- Celebrity Information
- Weather
- Interesting Nature photographs
- General Trivia Knowledge
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Sun, Oct 31, 2010 @ 12:01
If you have ever considered the idea of wall mounting flat panel TV's in your place of business you may want to read on.
One of several reasons to mount those flat panel TV's and quickly is a recent (2007) study* that shows injuries to young children is up over 41% since 1990.** Those injuries cited in the study occurred because the flat panel TV fell over and caused an injury to the child.
This makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Older tube TV's weighed a great deal but were very difficult to lift or move, often requiring two people to do so. Modern day flat screen televisions are so light they can easily be moved by a single person, even sizes as large as 50 inches. However, these TV's are not very well balanced and awkward to carry. Because of their large screen size and awkward balance when the TV starts to fall over, there usually no stopping it.
In order to help protect your business from a potential law suit you could hire a contractor like us to mount the TV's to wall. Once mounted the TV isn't going anywhere unless the entire wall goes with it. Hiring a licensed contractor like AV Specialists and using a mount specified for the TV and exact mounting purpose may help protect you.
It is not uncommon to find TV's sitting on a piece of furniture in waiting rooms at places such as physicians' offices, eye doctors and other medical professionals. I have even seen where some of these offices had TV's mounted to the wall but workmanship was shoddy and the wires were hanging all over the place. This may not be a reason for a law suit but it sure looks bad.
To take this a step further you could also consider places where you may find adults acting like small children such as nightclubs and bars. I have seen many places try to fashion their own mounting system when a simple solution from us was easily available. Sure it might cost a little bit more up front. However, what is the potential cost of saving a few dollars now only to have to deal with the possible legal and insurance ramifications of an accident later?
*Injuries from Furniture Tip-overs Among Children and Adolescents in the United States, 1990-2007, Clinical Pediatrics, May 2009.
**41 percent increase in number of children injured and almost 15,000 ER visits annually
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Wed, Oct 27, 2010 @ 04:53
For many businesses that rely on the distribution of HD or "High Definition" video content, there is some potential bad news coming. That "bad news" in my opinion will affect Sports Bars and Restaurants more so than any other industry.
At the risk of oversimplifying this, I will attempt to breakdown what this means to our customers over the next few paragraphs.
The AACS and the "Final Adopter Agreement"
To start, the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) is basically a group of manufactures responsible for implementing standards that will make it impossible to copy digital copyrighted material. That goal seems noble but it is going to be costly to consumers. More on that later.
The AACS license agreement has a term called the "Analog Sunset." The analog sunset is what we are talking about here in this article. This new license agreement more or less states that going forward all HD video content must be sent out of source devices as digital only.
That means it will have to be delivered via the HDMI port and not the component video connection. Since most HD video distribution systems AV contractors have installed currently use the component or RGB analog outputs, not the HDMI ports, you can see where the potential problem lies. Typically contractors used the component video connections because they were much more reliable and much less expensive for our customers, yet still delivered great pictures. Too good apparently.
Specifically, the "analog sunset" provision means eventually new hardware such as Blu-Ray players won't even have component video outputs. This forces us to use the HDMI if we want to take advantage of the optimal quality signal. In addition older devices that do still have component video outputs will have the quality of the signal scaled back to a max of 480p, instead of 1080i. This is done via a digital "flag" called ICT (Image Constraint Token).
This will include not only Blu-Ray players but Cable TV boxes, Satellite receivers, VUDU players, ROKU boxes and so on. The time table on when exactly this will all happen is sort of left to the content providers. However my manufacturers tell me that they may start implementing some of this, as early as January 1st, 2011.
For more information and opinions check out this article on the AACS. I really like this guys "take" on the situation. There is another more detailed article here on the CEPRO website.
To read more about the specifics of this and how it may affect you, download the complete AACS agreement below.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Wed, Oct 20, 2010 @ 12:03
We were approached by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce with the idea of installing some IP cameras or web cameras to showcase the beauty of the area surrounding downtown Dunedin. The idea was to mount the cameras on top of the roof on the chamber building which is located right downtown.
For this job we had several obstacles to overcome. One of those obstacles was that the roof access was very difficult to deal with. It was difficult to reach the area where we wanted to mount the camera. Also we didn't want to be forced to rent a crane or cherry picker because of the additional cost it would add. Therefore we ended up using a special non-penetrating roof mount that would hang slightly over the edge of the building.
We had to be sure the camera was properly grounded in order to keep current with local building codes as well as protect the IP camera from a lightning strike. This was especially important since the web camera ended up being just about the highest point on the building.
You can see the view from the camera here on the chambers web page. All of the webpage script was specially written by Dan Zucker of Zucker & Zucker Marketing and web design.
The project was a collaberation of us, (AV Specialsits Inc.), the Chamber, Terbo Construction Group and Zucker & Zucker. All in all in turned out quite well and offers a nice view of the city showing off both the beautiful waterfront and fun nightlife. 
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Tue, Oct 19, 2010 @ 07:03
At AV Specialists we do audio video installation in the Clearwater, Tampa at St. Petersburg, Florida area. As the owner of an AV design and installation business, I am often surprised by the amount of really bad workmanship I see in my travels. Sometimes it amazes me that contractors actually get paid when i see what their jobs look like. 
It's not uncommon to see cables hanging from the TV instead of being neatly zip tied together. I also often see TV's that are not hung straight and you can obviously see that they are mounted on a tilt.
Another thing I see a lot in restaurants and bars around the area would be speakers that are aimed either directly at the floor (someone didn't tighten the bracket enough) or straight across the ceiling so that the customer will never hear the music properly. It should be obvious that the client is wasting his money by paying whatever price the speaker is priced at, only to have it aimed in the wrong direction. Being aimed improperly effectively reduces the usefulness of that said speaker. This results in needing more speakers to do the very same the system was initially designed for.
Another often overlooked design consideration that may not be the installers fault is the height the TV display is mounted at. When you go to a bar there is only a certain height you can mount above before the person sitting at a bar is experiencing neck and back pain. I guess the thought here is that they would rather the bar look cool than have people hang out and spend money??
Pictured on the right is a job another contractor did at one of our clients locations. You can see the wires were never hidden behind the wall nor did they attempt to conceal them in a raceway. In fact they made zero effort to even attempt to make this look good. 
When you consider a contractor for your business these are the little things that you can't show on a price sheet. The price shown on a proposal is not necessarily the same if one contractor is going to leave your business or home looking sloppy and unprofessional and the oher will make sure everything not only works good but looks good.
At AV Specialists we are licensed and insured. W ehave been doing installations in the area since 1995. When we do a system it will look right. You won't see sloppy wiring and we won't make your business look bad. Please consider us the next time you need to upgrade or add some audio visual equipment to your establishment.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Tue, Sep 28, 2010 @ 07:58
We have installed many video surveillance cameras and digital video recorders (DVR's) around the Tampa, Clearwater area. Video 
surveillance equipment cameras and DVR's are an excellent way to stay on top of your business. One common use of internet ready DVR's is to check on your business while you are away from the office. This can be done via the internet using a web browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Many video equipment vendors these days have even written software applications so you can monitor DVR via your BlackBerry, iPhone, Andriod or other smartphone.
Another use of video surveillance equipment would be to monitor cash registers in order to be sure employees are ringing in sales transactions properly and also that all transactions are logged into the register. Using this equipment we can even attach a device to the cash register to show the amount rung and time stamp that amount and time on the DVR recording with some of these systems.
A third and perhaps less obvious reason is to have a record in case of a law suit or insurance claim. Some clients are installing these around their prpoerty as well as inside the buildings. This way if a false claim was made against you, you would be able to supply video evidence to the courts to help you dispute any potential claims.
Video surveillance systems have advanced so much in recent years. 
They now make excellent cameras for being able to see at night or in low light. Even PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras have come down in price a considerable amount. You can now also control the tilt and zoom of these cameras over the web as well as view them using your browser.
IC Realtime is a vendor we have had great results from. You can download a brochure on the Max4 system from Here.
To see more of our vendors look on our site's Vendor Page.