Posted by Gregg Dixon on Wed, May 16, 2012 @ 06:59 PM
When it comes to your business, your office workplace is a direct reflection of who you are and how you conduct business. To that end, you will always want to project the best possible appearance to current and prospective clients. This means giving your staff the tools they need to excel if you want your business to grow.
This is especially true if you are considering investing in commercial audio video systems to better enhance the way you do business. These AV systems do it all; play background music to set the tone and atmosphere of the office, play educational videos that your clients can tune into while they sit in your lobby or kick up your presentation to the next level by giving you an audio/visual assistant to help close the deal.
Commercial audio video systems tell your clients that you pay attention to the smallest details. It says you care enough to focus on their needs, and shows how seriously you take your business. It can take an otherwise dull office meeting and bring it to life by allowing you to share verbal information and attach a visual to present a complete, interactive picture that is more easily understood.
Depending on your type of business, you can pick options to best suit your specific needs. Examples of commercial audio video systems include options for voice reinforcement, video projection and assisted listening systems; everything you need to offer a high-quality AV experience for both clients and staff.
The key to choosing commercial audio video systems is knowing what works best in the space provided. What type of equipment is going to look and sound the best? It takes a lot more than just buying the items and installing them on your own. If you want it to perform for you, you need to take the time to assess what works and what doesn't. Hiring a professional helps to ensure that your AV system is installed and functions properly; the last thing you want is to give a big presentation and have a short circuit end your chances of closing that deal.
Remember, in business, your presentation is everything. Be the standard by which your competitors are measured by investing in a commercial audio video system that says you care about your business and know how to show it.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Thu, Mar 29, 2012 @ 08:47 AM
We have done several procedure rooms also known as cath lab intercom systems in the greater Tampa Bay area. All of the systems have been similar yet slightly different. Some systems were just some simple intercoms with communication between the doctor and the lab technicians. Other systems were intercoms integrated with a very good sound system. In most all of our systems the intercom system is handled by using Tech Works line of intercom products. Tech Works has a great reputation in the industry and their products have worked out extremely well for us.
Most Procedure Rooms have observation windows that allow Technicians, Students, or support staff to view the procedure while performing other functions. Because of this, clear , intelligible, quality audio is a critical part of communicating through the clean-room barrier. The Tech Works IC-52-ENH is a complete system solution that is easy to install, easy to adjust, and very flexible to allow the operation to be tailored to the exact communication requirements. The IC-52-ENH's full duplex operation means that all words from all parties are always heard so that no message or critical communication is lost.
Some of the accessory options include; hanging microphones, flush ceiling speakers, and foot operated call switches for the procedure room. This maintains the clean environment staff because the staff does not have to touch anything. On the lab or viewing side of the glass there are options for wireless headsets to keep the lab technicians mobile. By being hands-free they are able to work while maintaining full communication. Also available are permanently mounted microphones, speakers, and control switches for other observers or functional control.
In addition a music control option is included to play owner provided music in the procedure room. This can be either to sooth the patient or entertain the staff. This music can be used at all times with the critical speech communication, because it is user controlled. The IC-52-ENH provides for full control of music program by turning it down during critical intercom communication and slowly restoring it to listening level when communication is complete. By integrating the music into the IC-52-ENH intercom, the hospital stall can control what music they would like to hear while performing a procedure. Some of the music choices could be provided by a CD player, iPod, XM radio or other computer music source such as Pandora, Rhapsody or Spotify. We have done some very nice stereo sound systems as well as some rather basic background music only systems. Either way it's usually appreciated by the staff instead of silence.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Wed, Feb 29, 2012 @ 02:43 PM
Who Needs a Professional to Install AV Equipment?
Sometimes customers ask us if we can simply drop off their parts so they can install the items themselves. Sometimes a customer might order equipment online to save a few dollars and attempt to add it to the installation themselves. I'm sure the thought process is something like this: why should we pay “x” amount of dollars for the installation when we already have an IT or maintenance department on staff?
The picture above is an example of what a professional AV installation looks like. To answer the question of whether it's worthwhile to have a professional do the job, let's compare the picture above with the picture below. One is neatly wired; the signal flow paths are obvious and fluid. In the other, the wires are sloppy and running across the floor. They are untied and hanging loosely; an accident waiting to happen. Also, the cover for the wiring conduit does not fit back on its box because the wires are coming out.
To answer the question of whether or not it’s worthwhile to hire a professional, let’s take a look at this example (pictured below) of a job we had previously installed. (Unfortunately, there is no before picture, only the after picture.) That said, I can assure you at the time of completion on this installation and during the inspection everything was done neatly. It was nicely tied together and easy to trace the lines. However, since the completion and subsequent inspection on this job the customer moved all of the equipment to a different equipment rack.
Can you guess how long this rack has been on the jobsite before it came to look like this?
a.) 7 days, b.) 45 days, c.) 1 year, d.) 3 years, e.) 5 years
The correct answer is:
(b.) just 45 days later
Bottom line, at some point you decided your business would benefit from the addition of an AV system. You made a conscious decision to invest in the equipment and installation.
After looking at the picture above, and knowing that this is all too typical, the real question is: why would you ever not hire a professional?
If installations are done wrong the first time, it makes future repairs and system expansions more labor intensive and therefore more expensive. Get it done right the first time and you’ll remain operational and in control. Time is money.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 @ 06:32 AM
When I'm out and about I often run into poor AV installations. There are many reasons that I would consider the installations poor. Sometimes it's merely an ugly or sloppy installation. More often than not, it's a sloppy installation and also a poorly chosen product.
This job looks to me, like it was not coordinated by a professional AV company and the electrician. This happens too often and is why it's good to hire an electrician and AV company that have worked together before. We enjoy working often work with Huettig Electric in Dunedin, Florida. Having that relationship makes a difference.
An obvious flaw with this installation is that the flat panel is not even powered on. This defeats the entire point of the purchase and installation. Which brings me to my next point, the flat panel in this picture is a residential product. It was probably purchased by the end user because of a low price. This panel, specifically because it is a residential panel, is not made to be on all day and is not the correct product for the job. A proper commercial flat panel display is made to be on 24/7 and most are warrantied for 3 years.
Most commercial flat panels can also be programmed to turn on or off are specific times. So I would ask, was the money saved by using a cheap TV worth it? If one thought it was worth spending the money to educate, entertain or market your customers shouldn't you be doing so. You aren't if the device isn't turned on. It's naive to expect that your employees would remember to do so every day because people get busy or interrupted.
The small price difference to upgrade to a proper panel will seem insignificant in a few months from now. However, the client in the article will now have to do the job twice if they want to correct these issues.
Again here's the main points of this article:
- Make the AV Installation look clean. Hide the wires and the power for the electric behind the panel.
- Use a professional AV Installation company to guide you to the proper products.
- Use commercial panels that are made to be on all day and power on and off themselves.
- Use mounts and electrical boxes that keep the installation neat.
You can see some of the commercial video displays we recommend here.
Posted by Gregg Dixon on Tue, Feb 07, 2012 @ 05:26 PM
I have been noticing a trend lately when I go to see clients. Everyone seems to think that a flat panel display is the better tool for the job in conference or meeting rooms. I'm not sure if this is unique to the Tampa-St.Pete area or if it's nationwide.
While in some cases a flat panel display may be the better choice, in many cases it is not. In a very small meeting room, say 6-8 people I think you could get away with a flat panel comfortably. Even then, I wouldn't consider anything less than 50 inches but preferably 52"-60". This also depends what the display is going to be used for. For example, a Power Point presentation with large graphics could get away with a smaller display than a meeting where you might be looking at Excel spreadsheets. -resized-600.png)
If you have a doing a boardroom installation, especially one with a very long table you will not be satisfied unless you use at least a 70" screen. Even then, at the end of a 20 plus person table the display is going to be very difficult to read. Our most popular screen size in a board room installation would be either 94" or 109". If you Google a 100" Panasonic screen the cost on that is $65,000 MSRP.
I think there are several reasons why clients may have these negative beliefs towards LCD Projectors. For one, clients may judge the performance of their existing outdated LCD Projector against a new flat panel display. That's not a very fair comparison. They may not realize, the flat panel display they see at an electronics retailer has the brightness turned up well beyond what is good for the display. They do this in order to make it stand out. Also the lumens on LCD projectors go up every year while the cost comes down.
In some cases a client may have had a poor experience too often changing bulbs on an LCD projector. The good news is that at least they have that option. Most flat panel display repairs are not worth the price. We notice that many times clients don't shut the projector down and just walk away from the system when done with meetings. Obviously this shortens bulb life. This can be avoided with the use of a control system such as Crestron, but that's another blog.
When it comes to meeting room installations where you need a large display, an LCD projector and a quality projection screen is still a much better value. The "average" business customer typically used 2,000 lumen projectors just a few years ago. Now that same price point (around $2,500) would put them at about 4,000 lumens.
It just so happens I was at a conference this week. The hotel conference room had a 50-55" LCD display mounted on the wall for presenters to use when they come in. I was near the far end of the table. All I was able to see on the Power Point slide was the title. I could not see sub-titles or any of the bullet points under that. In this case if there was even a small projection screen I would have been able to see.
Stay Tuned for more on this topic!
http://avspecialists.com
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 PM
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
