Volume 4, Issue 5 — May 25, 2010
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The Little Things
By Joel Rollins, CTS-R Well, here it is again. Time for "The Show."
InfoComm time.
And, as usual for someone in the rental portion of the industry, I go off to "the Show" looking for things a little different than the rest of the industry, a little different from the things the advertising and hype will attempt to direct my attention to.
What makes the expectations of the Rental portion of the industry different? Well, first of all, Rental companies don't go to the show to buy, at least not in the same way the dealerships and distributors do. Our purchases are normally determined by specific needs for specific events or seasons, so we're less likely to be influenced by "show specials", unless they replace the utility of existing equipment that needs replacement. Sure, we go to the show to kick tires, but for most of us the actual purchases will wait until there's a direct need – and a show with a deposit.
So, much as Gary did in his column here, I'm going to suggest that there are much better reasons to attend InfoComm than the product exhibits. In fact, if you think about it, in an age of Internet-based information, we no longer go to InfoComm to see product anyway, because it's going to come to us. There are few surprises in product at InfoComm anymore anyway, and those that are there will almost immediately be brought TO us anyway. InfoComm stopped being a dealer show years ago anyway, so there's just not as much management or pricing information to be obtained there, and nothing that won’t be brought to dealer principals whether they attend the show or not. So, in latter years, I've actually found it more important that my employees attend the show than I do.
So why DO I think it's important for people in the industry to attend the show?
Well, first, I go to see people. Suppliers, distributors, friends from around the industry – all the relationships with people that you only see at industry gatherings, but are necessary to your business. Sometimes these are simply personal relationships, and sometimes these are alliances that help us in our day-to-day operations, but all are people I need to see for one reason or another. This is also my excuse for the fact that you are much more likely to see me in the bars and restaurants than on the show floor.
Next, I go to the show for intelligence. No, I'm under no illusions that the inane advertising we see at the show is educational, or that the clowns, magicians and showgirls that beckon us to the tackier booths can do anything for my I.Q. The kind of intelligence I'm referring to is also more often encountered in the lobby bar than on the show floor. It's the whispered asides that tell you you'd be better off waiting for version 2.0.
But the REAL reason for going to the show (or, better yet, sending somebody ELSE to the show) is one of the few things I completely agree with Gary on. It's training.
Unfortunately, because the show is the biggest gathering in the industry, many of the manufacturers take the opportunity to hold their most important training classes there. However, we, as dealers, often don't get the right people there to attend them. In most organizations, especially the smaller (read "dealerships") ones, attendance is seen as a perk. The dealer principals and senior salespeople go, while the people who actually implement the products we sell stay at home. This is one of the things that puts me in a training class on how to mount a new plasma, while my staff snickers, knowing that I haven't picked up a hammer in, well, a few years.
So, despite the fact that I feel the show has lost a lot of its original purpose, there's still a great reason to send people, while the industry (as it must) sorts out better ways to get training to the people out "where the rubber meets the road." Fill up your schedule with meetings and training rather than the tradeshow booths, and take as much of it home with you as you can.
A personal note: Many of us in the rental portion of the industry are avid photographers and videographers. Lots of you know that when I'm not staging a show I'm often stalking some poor unfortunate creature in the woods with a camera. Anyway, Olympus is sponsoring one of the best photo contests I've ever seen – and one that will send you away on an incredible photo safari, and in this business we ALL need to get away. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/getolympus
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS-R, is General Manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at Joel can be reached at joelrollins@mac.com Back to Top |
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InfoComm: I'm Lovin' It!
By Gary Kayye, CTS I cannot tell you how excited I am about this year’s InfoComm show!
Held every summer, InfoComm, as I hope you all know, is the ProAV industry’s premiere trade event (I use that term intentionally as trade show doesn’t do it justice — it’s really, truly an event) that anyone and everyone involved in the market should attend. Not only is it a tradeshow, but it’s also packed with expert-led educational sessions, hands-on workshops and even manufacturer-led training – oh, and did I mention parties?!?
But, what I am REALLY excited about is that I am in the lucky position of having relationships with projector, flat-screen display, signal routing, videoconferencing and a handful of other technologies – and many of them have told me what their InfoComm new product plans are. And, all I can say is WOW!
Wow, why?
Well, for the past four years, although there have been some really cool products that have been launched at InfoComm, few have been ground breaking. Most have been me-too or next generation. Sure, we’ve gone from having 4”-deep LCDs to 1.5-inch deep, we’ve gone from 2” bezels to near bezel-less, and we’ve gone from SD to HD conferencing — or should I say videoconferencing that didn’t work to stuff that DOES now work — and control systems that required weeks of training to program to configurable systems that that just about anyone can learn to program in a day.
But in my opinion, it was mostly through incremental steps of improvement.
But, InfoComm 2010 will be the holy grail of InfoComms. It’s shaping up to be one of the best ever in many, many ways. You’ll see some major product innovation right before your very eyes. You’ll see new display technologies you couldn’t have imagined a few years ago and we’ll see the dawn of the networked-AV era become prime time!
But, as I’ve said many, many times before, don’t go to InfoComm just for the tradeshow! Go take advantage of all the educational opportunities that you’ll be presented with. Don’t plan your InfoComm experience backwards. Most people attending InfoComm plan their show experience around the exhibits and their ability to peruse the show floor and see all the manufacturers they need to see. Then, depending on the appoints they make and the meetings they attend in the booth, they determine the left over time slots for taking in a course or two through InfoComm’s extensive show educational offerings.
That’s exactly opposite of what you should be doing.
What I think you should do is immediately (after you finish reading this column, of course), go to the InfoComm educational section of their web site and pick educational courses relevant to your interest and expertise, plan to attend them all and then with the time you have left, visit booths, attend parties and meetings. You can see them all listed here: http://www.infocommshow.org
Education in our market is crucial. The first time an LCD projector was ever shown to the ProAV market was in a class at COMTEX (the name of InfoComm prior to becoming InfoComm); the first time the concept for a DLP projector was explained to AV geeks was at a seminar at InfoComm. And, the first time a networked-AV system was demonstrated was in a seminar at InfoComm. Likewise, the very first time HD-videoconferencing was shown publically was — you guessed it — a seminar at InfoComm! Sure, these technologies and trends eventually hit the floor, but the time and attention given attendees of a seminar by the instructor far exceeds the time given to a question on the typical show floor booth. And, by the way, while the industry’s marketing gurus from each exhibiting manufacturer hangs out with PR kits in their respective booth, the engineering departments’ “geeks” are teaching technology at a seminar down the hall.
Reprinted with permission from Sound & Communications. Founded in 1955, Sound & Communications is the premiere magazine for AV systems integrators, contractors and consultants. To subscribe or read sample articles, go to http://www.soundandcommunications.com Back to Top |
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Analog Way To Show New Seamless Matrix Switcher at InfoComm Dubbed the Eikos and billed as a multi-layer scaler and seamless switcher, the 12-input, 2-output matrix can switch, cut or fade between any input to any output or even produce picture-in-picture imaging on the fly. Designed for the rental and staging markets, the 12 inputs include four SDI ports and two DVI-d ports. The outputs can be DVI or VGA (RGBHV) and can scale up to 2K.
The product will debut at InfoComm next month in Vegas, so it’s not on Analog Way’s website yet. When it is, it will be here: http://www.analogway.com/products/newproducts.php
I’ve been impressed with Analog Way’s recent offerings, and am really looking forward to seeing this soon. Since there’s no further product data available yet, I’m eager to see what other AW components it works with, like their control panels perhaps?
–JRR Back to Top Sanyo Shows 120Hz 1080p Projector Although aimed at the home theater market, the new Sanyo PLV-Z4000, a 120Hz FullHD 3LCD front projector with 1080p24 capability, is garnering interest in the Rental market as it’s a FullHD, 24Hz projector with 1200 lumens for less than $2500. With Sanyo’s exclusive TopazReal HD system, the projector includes a 3D color management system that enables color accuracy. Through dual HDMI 1.3b inputs, it is Deep Color- and x.v.Color-capable and listed at 1,200 ANSI lumens with a 65,000:1 contrast ratio, and it’s one of the brightest FullHD projectors on the market now. Scheduled for release at the end of this month, the SANYO PLV-Z4000 will have list price of only $2,495.
For all the specs, go to: http://us.sanyo.com/Projectors-by-Market-Home-Theater-Sub-Category/PLV-Z4000
Especially at the price, with full HD resolution, this should make its way into smaller breakout rooms and green rooms quite handily.
–JRR Back to Top Extron Debuts Modular Power Enclosure for Twisted Pair and Fiber Optic Transmitters Extron recently introduced the PowerCage 1600, a rack-mountable, 16-slot enclosure that supports the range of Extron fiber optic and twisted pair A/V transmitter and receiver boards. Billed as providing an efficient way to power and mount multiple transmitters and receivers, the PowerCage 1600 simplifies integration for large, rack-mounted systems by offering an optional redundant, hot-swappable power supply plus active power and thermal management to optimize reliability in mission-critical applications.
Available boards for the PowerCage 1600 include 14-fiber optic and four twisted pair extenders to support a broad range of video resolutions and formats. The fiber optic and twisted pair boards operate independently, and may be mixed and matched within the enclosure, making the PowerCage 1600 a solution for larger systems that need to support remote sources and destinations.
To learn more, go to: http://www.extron.com/company/article.aspx?id=pc1600ad
Ah, yes. The ability to produce switching and distribution racks for rentals without securing all those heavy wall-warts inside. For those of us who are currently building our next generation of distribution racks to accommodate the new digital sources, and who are accommodating fiber distribution, this should neaten things up a lot.
–JRR Back to Top Extron Launches Modular DVI Matrix Switchers Extron just launched the DMS 3600 and DMS 1600, two modular DVI matrix switchers that, as far as rAVe can tell, are the industry’s first modular DVI matrix switchers. They accept various combinations of 4-port DVI input boards, 4-port DVI output boards, and 4×4 DVI input / output boards for switching high-resolution DVI digital video signals without copy protection. The DMS 3600 is an 8U enclosure that can be configured in I/O sizes from 4×4 to 36×36, while the DMS 1600 is a 4U model, configurable from 4×4 to 16×16. A modular, field-upgradable, and hot-swappable design allows for future system expansion, as well as continuous system reliability with a fan assembly and redundant power supplies that can be replaced at any time.
To learn more, go to: http://www.extron.com/product/product.aspx?id=dms1600
Another great tool for maintaining an all-digital path from source to display. The ability to apply EDID selectively should eliminate a number of DVI switching and distribution issues in the field.
–JRR Back to Top RGB Spectrum Adds HDCP Support RGB Spectrum's MediaWall 4200, MediaWall 4500 and SuperView 5000 display wall processors and multi-viewers are now available with High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) support.
As you may know, HDCP is an audio and video entertainment industry standard designed to protect digital content by employing complex authentication during transmission from a source device to a display device. Proper authentication across the entire signal path is required for source content to be decrypted and for transmission to occur. The authentication process is highly active at connection time, as well as throughout playback to ensure that the transmission of the content remains secure. Until now, the complexity of authenticating display devices has made it impossible to provide HDCP-protected material on their display walls and multi-image displays.
The HDCP option is now available on all new MediaWall 4200, MediaWall 4500 and SuperView 5000 products.
The HDCP issues are already becoming a problem in the rental market, faster than even I thought they would. This looks like a viable solution for our HDCP issues, combined with a very flexible wall processor…
–JRR Back to Top NEC Adds New S-Series to LCD Monitor Line-Up Last month NEC Display announced its new S Series, featuring the addition of the 40-inch S401 and 46-inch S461 LCD displays. Replacing the renowned M Series, the S Series is ideal for those customers with digital signage and entertainment applications running for extended operation times. These types of environments can include airports, hospitality, boardrooms and public areas.
The 1080p native displays offer a variety of new features compared to previous generation models, including DisplayPort and Ethernet connectivity and an ambient light sensor for automatically setting brightness based on existing lighting conditions. The displays spec a contrast ratio of 4000:1, an increase from its predecessors, while maintaining the same level of power consumption, according to NEC. The S401 and S461 have the ability to be tiled in a video wall matrix up to 10×10 (100 displays), which is an improvement from the previous 5×5 capability of the M Series. Brightness is spec’d at 250 cd/m2 and the S401 and S461 will be available for April 2010 shipment listing at $1,399.99 and $1,799.99, respectively.
You can see all the specs at: http://www.necdisplay.com/Products/Series/?series=653ca4d2-9a8e-4e04-a614-b9c94ddd8c19
Better, brighter, cheaper — the world of high-quality LCD displays is really paying attention to the needs of stagers now. From the specs, these models (especially at the price) look to be well-designed for our needs. I’m looking forward to seeing them at the show.
–JRR Back to Top |
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News from iRule, ClearOne, Barco… iRule, which has an application turning an iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote control, has announced a partnership with Global Cache, a provider of WiFi and connectivity products, to provide "seamless access and control to standard AV equipment from an iPhone, iPod, or iPad"… ClearOne has appointed R. Scott Woolley as director of product management for multimedia and networking products… Barco's has announced that its Cyberlight 2.0 moving mirror lighting fixture is now on tour with acts such as Alice in Chains, Bon Jovi, John Mayer, and others. Back to Top For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe Rental [and Staging] out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100% opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the rental and staging industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions — in this case, it’s industry-veteran Joel Rollins' opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
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rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004. rAVe Rental [and Staging] rAVe Ed [Education] rAVe DS [Digital Signage]
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Back to Top Copyright 2010 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 210 Old Barn Ln., Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – (919) 969-7501. Email: sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |
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