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Volume 9, Issue 14 — July 26, 2012
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Who Here Is Still Wiring With Cat5e?
By Lee Distad
rAVe Columnist That’s an excellent question. Who among you is still wiring your networks with Cat5e? While I would like to think that amongst savvy rAVe readers the answer would be “nobody,” the fact that I still see Cat5e stocked at supply companies and offered in stock lists for online distributors tells me that, statistically speaking, the real answer is “some of you.”
Well, if you are, please stop.
It is now time to be wiring all of your networks, whether data or video distribution, with Cat6. And I’m going to tell you why — bandwidth.
Cat5e allows transmission of up to 100 megahertz (MHz) with an impedance of 100 ohm. Cat6, however, allows a transmission of up to 250 MHz, and is certified for use at gigabit (1,000 megabits) speeds.
That difference didn’t matter a whole lot a year or two ago, but now it matters a lot.
The bottom line is that Cat5e and Cat6 are structurally different cables, with each suited to different tasks. While Cat5e is sufficient for distributing component video, AV pros need to move up to Cat6 in order to accommodate the necessary bandwidth and packet size to handle digital HD.
With legacy analog video distribution systems (and how many of those are you still maintaining for your clients?) using active or passive baluns, existing Cat5e in a network is sufficient, but for digital video distribution you need Cat6’s bandwidth capabilities.
Especially for HDMI applications, the larger wire gauge and superior crosstalk characteristics of Cat 6 will enable reliable function at longer distances than Cat 5e, and can accommodate larger amounts of bandwidth.
As one industry veteran once coached me, when it comes to future proofing an installation, there are three potential strategies: running plastic conduit, three lines of Cat6 or both.
If you lay in three pieces of Cat6 anywhere you want display or source, there’s little that you won’t be able to accomplish in the near-term future. And when you consider the nominal cost difference per foot between Cat5e and Cat6, even if (hypothetically) you’re still installing analog component video (look, I said “hypothetically”) it would be silly to skimp on the wire.
Considering Cat 6 doesn’t negatively affect analog systems, but offers significant reliability and distance improvements for digital systems, the minimally increased cost is worth it in the long run. Swapping the hardware in a system is easy, swapping cables that were buried years ago is hard.
This should go without saying, but you need to be aware that only Cat6 connectors should be used with Cat6 cables. 8P8C connectors look similar to the RJ45 connector used by Cat5e cables, but the crosstalk-limiting characteristics of Cat6 terminations are superior. How superior? At 100 MHz, the near end crosstalk of a Cat5e connector is 43 decibels (dB), but for a Cat6 connector, it is only 54 dB. An 11dB difference is a material improvement, and terminating Cat6 with RJ45 connectors seriously compromises Cat6’s performance.
So if you were still using Cat5e before you read this, I hope that you’ve changed your mind.
Lee Distad is a rAVe columnist and freelance writer covering topics from CE to global business and finance in both print and online. Reach him at lee@ravepubs
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Know When to Hold
By Joel Rollins
rAVe Columnist One of the real tricks in business is to know when to hold. When to stay with a service or product offering from a vendor, when to hold your own pricing, when to keep (or make changes in) what you offer to your clients. It is especially hard in our business, being driven by technology that changes so rapidly that printed catalogs and literature are almost impossible to maintain up to date.
Probably the most difficult leap is to make changes when a product or service is on top of the market. We have a tendency to try to ride our trick ponies just a little too long, to try to milk the market cow just one more time (and, apparently, to hold onto metaphors for just one use too many, if you're me).
There are, however, certain signs that foretell the need to break some new ground. I watch for them in my largest vendors and service suppliers, and, when I am feeling particularly honest, in me and my company.
Here are just a few.
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad"
The very definition of crazy is that somebody sees a different world around himself than anybody else does. In our business, I define this as the ability to deny or discount market forces, as if we are plugging our ears and chanting "nyah, nyah, nyah, I can't hear you" as loud as we can. Compare this to salespeople who have made their living selling expensive desktop videoconferencing systems, denying that Skype is having an impact. Or staging salespeople who think that when the recession is over, public events are going back to exactly the way they used to be. The most difficult part of success is remaining objective, it seems.
"Pride goeth before a fall"
One of the most profound statements from the Old Testament, this one actually dates back a lot further than that, to the earliest Greek tragedies (and we know it is true, as the Greeks are having an economic tragedy of their own right now). Market leaders tend to become complacent and practice this one. The best example I can think of, currently, is RIM, who brought us the Blackberry (or “Crackberry”). When faced with the onslaught of the iPhone, their co-CEO actually said: "There may be 300,000 apps for the iPhone and iPad, but the only app you really need is the browser.” –Jim Balsillie, November 2010
"In the real world, Goliath always wins"
In the software world, there has been no Goliath like Microsoft. And yet, that very market dominance can lead to being blindsided by new products or new thinking, and I can think of no better example than these kinds of statements: “Right now — well, let’s take phones first. Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months they’ll have the most expensive phone, by far ever in the marketplace and let’s see. You know what’s so special…?” –Steve Ballmer, January 2007
"It's a floor wax AND a dessert topping!"
Remember this from Saturday Night Live? This is the fallacy that our product or service fits all market niches, if you just look at it the right way (tilt your head, close one eye and squint). We get this way when we’ve developed a product, put a lot of time and effort into it, and try to deny market forces that ask for something else, even part of the time. You will see it in vendors that, rather than expanding their product line, try to re-define all market demands into what they already have.
"The future is NOT now."
We use this one when a competitor brings out something innovative. One of the market leaders whose various divisions have practiced this was Sony in the ‘80s and ‘90s, who always seemed to discount being behind the curve in data projection because the market was of course going to buy theirs whenever it finally became available, and led those of us in that market to say their name stood for "Soon, Only Not Yet." Despite the numbers, they seemed to believe that the market was going to swing to their product whenever they decided to finally come out with it. They were wrong.
The ancient Greeks referred to the tendency to become overconfident as “hubris.” Currently, we often refer to it as having your head in an inconvenient anatomical location. Either way, it can be an uncomfortable position to be in when the market surprises you that it has a mind of its own.
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS, 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 joelrollins@mac.com
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Share Article Back to Top The Future of 3D and 4K for Home Entertainment and the Display Industry
By Norbert Hildebrand
Insight Media For the last few years, everybody has been talking about the changes to come in the broadcast and distribution industry. Well there are even more changes on the horizon that could easily form the perfect storm for the industry, destroying business models in its path. Think about Internet delivery, 3D and 4K and changing business models. Here is my 10,000 foot view of things to come.
After decades of a solid business model the established infrastructure has managed to move from analog standard resolution to digital high definition with some helpful push from governments around the world. Of course the government’s interest in this matter was driven by the potential sale of very valuable spectrum to mobile providers. Politicians were the ambassadors of the HD transition, ultimately setting a deadline that forced this transition. If we talk about push and pull, this was almost all push, as most consumers did not even understand the consequences of this move long after it had happened.
At that time the CE industry struggled to develop and manufacture TV sets that could benefit from the high resolution content. After the right sets were on the market, the question became: where can I get high resolution content from. The obvious answer was recorded media – movies on VHS tape followed by DVDs. Of course, you also had the option to subscribe to premium channels and if you did not want to pay there were movies on the basic channels that sprinkled a good amount of advertising into the broadcast to pay for it.
STRIKE 1:
The next big step was 3D. Here, there was no government pushing the industry, as there was nothing to gain from this transition. CE manufacturers saw the 3D wave as an opportunity to raise the average sale price of a TV set. What was the upside potential for the content providers? Nothing! This is exactly the issue with this transition. Broadcasters blame the low demand for 3D content; however, there is not enough original 3D content to entice even the 3D enthusiast to watch the same movie more than three times. In all honesty, the networks just invested a boatload of money into all new HD equipment and would now be required to extend this investment period to upgrade to 3D studios. The equipment companies loved the idea: the studios – not so much.
STRIKE 2:
At around the same time, the advent of the Smart TV pushes the Internet connectivity of the TV into the living room. With a high-speed Internet connection, streaming of video content seemed possible and many companies see this as the future of home entertainment. Watch ‘WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT IT’ is becoming the new paradigm. Of course this means a drastic change of business models as pay TV is not as predictable as a monthly bill. Good content will return more than poor content and advertisers will chose very carefully on where to advertise and where not. This is frightening for the top executives that have come to rely on a steady stream of income in their business planning. This is the first hurdle we have to overcome in this new age. Every decision to change a business model will meet internal resistance and thus prevent or at least delaying the change. This opens the door for newcomers to take a part of the market share pie. This in turn takes revenue from the established networks and broadcasters and limits their ability and willingness to invest into new technology and features.
STRIKE 3:
CE manufacturers have continued to develop their display technology to the point of where we can produce a 4K TV display at reasonable yields and therefore cost. LG has now started to take orders for its 84-inch 3D-4K LCD TV. As reported by the Cambodia Herald, Techradar.com and others, the new TV is a clear answer to Samsung and its 75-inch TV announced earlier in the week. The 4K TV allows full HD resolution per eye using LG’s FPR technology and passive glasses. The new TV will ship in limited quantities in Korea and will set you back a whopping US$21,925, depending on the exchange rate.
Here is the issue with this approach: What will you watching on this TV? Where do you get 4K content and how do you get it in your house? Maybe a Netflix post distribution of hard disk drives may work for the beginning but how do you get 4K streamed to your living room? This is a real issue for the industry in the coming years. This implementation requires four times the bandwidth of a full HD TV to show us those stunning pictures as we have seen on the CE shows. Of course this is a great display for watching those high resolution pics taken with the high resolution camera of your choice but it seems a little overkill, price-wise.
This is what I believe could become the perfect storm for the home entertainment industry. If people really want this experience in their homes and the established industry is slow to implement, it will bring up new players to provide such a service. We are certainly looking at many new options in home entertainment and we will have to see who will be the leader and who will follow.
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Large Flexible OLEDs Get a Boost
By Chris Chinnock
Insight Media The Korean government is placing a bet on large transparent and flexible OLEDs. According a several industry reports, the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy will fund the project, which will be led by LG Electronics.
The amount of funding was not disclosed, but it is part of the agency’s new Future Flagship Program. This is designed to provide funding for advanced technologies and help Korean companies gain a competitive advantage over rivals — in this case, Chinese competitors.
The goal of the program is to develop a 60-inch transparent and flexible OLED display by 2017. A consortium of companies will receive funding, including Avaco, a display production equipment maker. Other members of the consortium were not disclosed. The group will seek to apply the transparent flexible OLED into non-consumer commercial applications such as bus stations, aquariums and retail stores, but TVs must be on the agenda too.
The connection with Avaco is interesting as it recently agreed to supply $6.7M worth of encapsulation equipment for LG’s new flexible OLED line (Jusung Engineering will also supply equipment worth about $10M). The plant may be operational by the end of the year, but is unlikely to produce commercial products for a year or two, according to LG. The plant is located in Paju, Korea and is a Gen 3.5 line (730x460mm).
[CC1] Meanwhile, Samsung Mobile Display has announced its first flexible OLED display, which will be branded as the “Youm.” It has plans to begin production in 2012. Samsung is apparently dedicating a number of lines at its factory in Tangjeong for the production of flexible OLED displays. The line will pump out 960K OLED sheets by the end of the year.
Rumors are circulating that the iPhone 5 will use this display. The use is probably not so much for the flexibility of the display, but for the ruggedness of the display. Even with a hardened glass coverplate, smartphone displays often break, so having a non-glass solution would clearly be attractive.
So, if the technology is already coming to market, why is the Korean government also funding a development program? I can’t really say for sure, but it seems plausible that they want to ensure the technology pipeline remains full with the key technology and widen the gap with rivals (and catch up to Samsung).
The other big reason is jobs. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy thinks that with LG and Samsung leadership in this area, the country can achieve yearly exports worth $56B and create 840K jobs through the research and development of transparent and flexible displays.
Some reports suggest that both Samsung and LG are currently pursuing a RGB sub-pixel patterning approach for initial small flexible OLED production. LG takes a different approach for its TV OLED panels (white emitter with RGB color filters), due out shortly. It is not known which approach the Future Flagship Program will take.
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Share Article Back to Top Manufacturers Settle Second Time in LCD Price-Fixing Lawsuit New York's attorney general said today that three new LCD manufacturers will pay $571 million to settle claims that they conspired to inflate the price of LCD screens — this time its LG, Toshiba and AU Optronics. This follows a December 2011 settlement for $553 million with seven other LCD manufacturers, with $240 million of that coming from Samsung. Other companies part of that settlement include Sharp, Hitachi Displays and Epson Imaging Devices.
About $692 million of the settlements from the two lawsuits will be available to consumers as partial refunds.
For more information about the lawsuit, click here: http://www.lcdclass.com
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Share Article Back to Top 2012 LCD TV Forecast Lowered to 216M Units Shipments of LCD TVs are now expected to grow at a slower pace in 2012 than 2011, according to the latest Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report issued by NPD DisplaySearch. In addition, the overall TV market is expected to decline this year, even as segments such as emerging markets, large screen sizes, LED backlights, and 3D continue to grow.
In the latest forecast update, total TV shipments are forecast to fall 1.4 percent in 2012 to 245M units, while LCD TV is expected to increase by 5 percent — compared to 7 percent growth in 2011 — reaching 216 million units. The decline in overall TV market demand and the slower growth in LCD TV shipments can be attributed to the slower rate of price erosion and cautious spending by consumers in Europe and Asia. Average LCD TV selling prices are only expected to decline 4 percent in 2012 compared with 6 percent erosion in 2011 and 10 percent erosion in 2010. The growth is also slower this year as the transition to digital broadcasting, which accelerated purchases in major markets over the past few years has largely been completed. However, many emerging markets are still in the early stages of the switch to digital broadcasting.
“The worldwide demand for TVs is slower this year as economic uncertainty in many regions and a greater focus on profits by many LCD TV supply chain members will lead to softer price erosion, which in turn has a direct impact on sales,” noted Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV research for NPD DisplaySearch. Gagnon added, “However, several key high value segments of the TV business, such as large screen sizes and LED-backlit LCD TVs, continue to grow.”
Growth in emerging markets like China, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, are expected to reach 8 percent Y/Y in 2012, matching the pace from 2011. Growth in these regions is expected to remain in the mid-single-digit range throughout the forecast period, offsetting the lack of strong growth in countries already well along the flat panel TV conversion path.
Indeed, LCD TVs remain the only growing TV technology, as OLED TVs are likely to launch late this year, and LCD continues to take market share from both CRT and plasma technologies. LCD TVs are expected to account for about 88 percent of total TV shipments worldwide in 2012, up from 82 percent the year before, and are projected to peak around 97 percent of overall unit demand in 2015. Plasma TV shipments on the other hand will fall to about 5 percent, declining 26 percent Y/Y as pricing becomes uncompetitive at key sizes.
Larger screen sizes continue to increase their share as affordability improves and early adopting flat panel TV consumers re-enter the market for an upgrade. The share of TV shipments at 50” and larger screen sizes is expected to jump from 6.5 percent in 2011 to 7.7 percent in 2012 and reach 10 percent by 2015. This will bring the average screen size to 35” for the first time in 2012, while the average size sold in North America is expected to exceed 40” in 2013.
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1080p is Popular (Duh) TFCinfo's 2012 Home Entertainment Projection Study proves a clear demand for 1080p. Did we need a study for this? TFCinfo's study shows that 1080p resolution is clearly the resolution of choice for the home buyers surveyed; however, actual consumer point of sale data shows that at this point the overwhelming preference for 1080p resolution is still only beginning to be reflected in greater market-share.
1080p has gained significant market-share in flat panels, but has up until now represented only a small percentage of projector sales due to price. The higher current prices of 1080p projectors are still a factor in purchasing decisions. The prices of 1080p projectors have begun to fall and customer interest is clearly growing.
The 2012 Home Entertainment Projection Study reveals what the more advanced home entertainment buyer wants and demands, and shows how these buyers think. The revealing results of this study allow manufacturers to see the path that the average consumer in the mass market will eventually take.
This report examines the reasons why projectors are being purchased instead of flat panels, how and where projectors are being used in the home, whether they are being purchased in addition or to replace a traditional set, important purchasing factors, preferred features and buying considerations, price sensitivities and premium analysis, the impact of an LED lightsource with extended bulb life and also includes important historical trend charts from 2008-2012 and much more.
This detailed study is now available for purchase. For more information, contact Tanya Lippke, TFCinfo director of survey market research at (207) 783-0055 or tmlippke@tfcinfo.net
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Share Article Back to Top This Week from rAVe's BlogSquad Back to Top
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Are You a Visionary, Profit-Focused or Hands-On Attendee? CEDIA EXPO 2012 is home to a variety of technology, education, and diversified attendees. Whether you are a visionary, profit-focused or hands-on attendee owning the network and the home is crucial for your business’s success and #CEDIA12 has it all covered. Where do you fit?
Visionary: Focused on the long-term goals of their company and its services, a visionary is a type of person that gets “amped up” on the latest technology and products hitting the market now and in the future. Often times this person is establishing the future of the company’s projects and designs.
CEDIA EXPO To-Do List for the Visionary: The Future Technology Pavilion (sponsored by Savant): Explore the technologies you will be installing in the future. The Future Technology Pavilion has its sights set on the intuitive home of 2016 and will inspire even the most tech savvy ESC.
Technologies featured include near field communication, telepresence, access control, and more. Touring the Future Technology Pavilion is a must for the Visionary Attendee.
Check out: ESD091 Future Technologies – The Inside Scoop from Silicon Valley. This future-focused course will explore dozens of radically new technologies that are just now emerging from the secret labs of Silicon Valley.
Profit-Focused: Every business owner should be focused on profit with a purpose, but this attendee is passionate about what they can do to boost profits and keep business competitive.
CEDIA EXPO To-Do List for the Profit-Focused: One of the best ways to keep your eyes set on growth is by learning from your peers. Two new (in addition to many more) CEDIA University courses are being offered to give the Profit-Focused attendee the opportunity to talk shop, network, and brainstorm business building techniques from industry peers.
Check out: ESB0001 You Are Not Alone: Small Business Owners Peer-to-Peer Roundtable and ESB002 You Are Not Alone: Mid-Sized Business Owners Peer-to-Peer Roundtable. To learn more about these courses and others at CEDIA EXPO 2012 click here.
Hands-On: Are you constantly looking forward to push the envelope when it comes to installation practices and techniques? Are you looking for more credentials and hands-on experience to separate you and your company from the competition?
CEDIA EXPO To-Do List for the Hands-On: The new Residential Networking Credential runs right down the Hands-On attendee’s alley. This new credential will help identify technicians and designers who have proven a mastery of the skills needed to support today’s robust residential network.
Complete with a recommended path to mastering the network, the Residential Networking Specialist credential is the perfect achievement to attain for the person constantly pushing the boundaries of excellence.
CEDIA EXPO is also expanding the amount of Learning Labs offered to attendees. This is your playground. Be sure to check our virtual brochure to identify the many hands-on learning labs at this year’s EXPO.
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Share Article Back to Top Onkyo Adds More Music Streaming Options Onkyo has added streaming capabilities to its remote control apps for iPod Touch/iPhone and Android/Kindle platforms, and introduced a USB Bluetooth adapter that provides similar capabilities through a hardware gateway. The upgraded Onkyo Remote 2 app for iPod and iPhone allows a user to stream music stored on her iPod Touch or iPhone directly to Onkyo's 2012 model networked receivers through her wireless home network. Streaming through this app is done at CD quality, 44.1/16bit rates and supports track name, album name, artist name, album art and time data.
Onkyo is also shipping a new UBT-1 Bluetooth USB adapter (3.0), which will allow Bluetooth enabled wireless phones, tablets and other devices to stream music to Onkyo’s 2012 network receivers.
The Onkyo UBT-1 adapter is configured with CSR's aptX compression reduction codec that claims to restore the natural dynamic range to audio files. It's spec'd at a flat frequency response of 10 Hz to 22 kHz bandwidth, a dynamic range of 92 dB, and an algorithmic delay of less than 1.89 ms.
The UBT-1 lists for $59 and it can be see here: http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=UBT-1&class=Accessory&p=i
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Crestron Says Its New Shades Offer Quietest Motor on the Market Crestron today introduced its complete line of quiet motorized roller shades, Roman shades, skylight shades and drapery track systems, offering designer-inspired fabrics and hardware finishes. Featuring Crestron's new low-voltage Quiet Motor Technology (QMT), Crestron claims these shades are the quietest on the market. They also work with any Crestron controller. The shade line includes Roman, Skylight, Drapery Track and Roller shades.
You can see all the specs here: http://www.crestron.com/products/lighting_and_shade_control/shades/
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Share Article Back to Top AirFlex5D Brings Multi-Projector Stacking to the Home A new company called AirFlex5D, owned by Elite Screens, just launched a Multi-Projector Stacking System that will allow custom integrators to create a high brightness system in the home by actually stacking four projectors. The Airflex5D system is a 2D/3D projector stacking system that aligns the images of multiple projectors vertically and horizontally into one single picture with amplified brightness. It can accommodate up to a 1920×1200 resolution projector with dual-channel geometric image correction and supports de-interlacing, scaling and image enhancement.
The AirFlex5D-5S Series will be available in October 2012. You can see all the details here: http://www.airflex5d.com/
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Share Article Back to Top PowerWatch and Blue Line Innovations Announce Strategic Partnership Two leaders in Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) and real-time energy monitoring – PowerWatch and Blue Line Innovations – today announced a product and technical integration agreement. This new partnership will combine the benefits of Blue Line’s meter agnostic sensor and PowerWatch’s communication agnostic Home Energy Management System. According to Pike Research, the worldwide HEMS market is expected to reach $2 billion by 2020.
No matter the meter or AMI — PowerWatch and Blue Line have a way to work with any utility or customer utilizing a modular communication interface (MCI) specification developed by the USNAP Alliance and EPRI. This specification enables any product to connect to any type of demand response system, such as AMI, SEP, Open ADR and/or home or building network utilizing ZigBee, WI-FI, Z-Wave, ClimateTalk, LonWorks, HomePlug, etc.
This energy user interface is also available on Web-connected computers and smart phones. The energy gateway also controls appliances in the home, either directly to the appliance or via a “load control module” that sits in front of the appliance cutting power to it when desired by the consumer, either automated or manually, or via occasional “demand response” calls from the utility when the grid is stressed. The PowerWatch/Blue Line package does all of this wirelessly, without ever requiring the utility to “roll the trucks.”
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Share Article Back to Top Ken Erdmann Named 2012 CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient CEDIA has named Ken Erdmann the recipient of the 2012 CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award. Erdmann, co-founder and president of Erdmann Electric, Inc. will be recognized at the annual Electronic Lifestyles Awards Celebration at CEDIA EXPO on Sept. 8, 2012.
CEDIA’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has exhibited outstanding, creative, innovative and visionary leadership in the growth and advancement of the residential electronic systems industry. Nominations are submitted by industry professionals and are evaluated on the basis of achievement and service within the industry.
Ken Erdmann has been an active member of CEDIA since 1993. Ken is a past chairman of the CEDIA Board of Directors and has served in many volunteer positions including Education Council chair and as a subject matter expert for the Installer certification exam and the Designer certification exam and review. Ken was also instrumental in the oversight of the building of core curriculum for CEDIA University. In 2003, Ken was honored as the Designer/Installer Volunteer of the Year and was selected as a Top Ten Instructor three times. Ken holds the CEDIA Installer and Designer certifications. Ken currently serves as the CEDIA/CEDIA R10 Residential Systems Committee co-chair and is an active member of the CEDIA Technology Council.
In addition to his involvement with CEDIA, Ken is an adjunct faculty member of Utah Valley State College instructing in Electrical Automation and Robotic Technologies. Ken has been a Utah State licensed electrician since 1978, and is a member of the electrical section of the National Fire Protection Agency, (NFPA).
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Share Article Back to Top Crestron Opens New Showroom in Pacific Design Center Crestron added another showcase facility to its lineup of worldwide Experience Centers and Design Showrooms this month. Located in the Pacific Design Center (PDC) in West Hollywood, CA, the 3,500 square foot showroom is the ideal setting for interior designers, lighting designers, architects, builders, homeowners and custom installers to experience Crestron Integrated by Design home technology in real-life settings.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Back to Top JVC Announces New Hires, Promotions JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today announced that Masafumi (Masa) Nakano was named vice president of the JVC Security Division on July 16. The company also announced that John Grabowski has been promoted to national sales and marketing manager for JVC Security Division, and Ian Scott, former vice president of the division, has been promoted to vice president of operations for JVC Professional Products Company.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Back to Top Control4 Certifies New SnapAV Products SnapAV, a manufacturer and distributor announced this month that it now has Control4-certified drivers for its Wirepath Surveillance DVRs and Binary HDMI Switchers. SnapAV has upgraded its Wirepath DVRs to be directly controlled via IP using its newly-developed certified driver, located within the Control4 Composer programming software. SnapAV has also developed Control4 Certified drivers for its Binary HDMI Matrix Switchers.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Back to Top Premier Mounts Reorganizes Territories, Adds Sales Staff Premier Mounts is welcoming back Anew C.T. to its team. Premier Mounts has reorganized territory to fully optimize its efforts across all regions. Robert Guzman, former southwest regional sales manager, has acquired all west coast territory and is now the western regional sales manager. Guzman will cover the entire west coast region with the help of Anew C.T. including California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington. Eric Stageman has returned to Premier Mounts as the south central regional sales manager and will cover the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Colorado.
Anew C.T. has offices located along the entire west coast region from southern California to the Pacific Northwest with headquarters located near Denver, Colo.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Back to Top VIZIO Licenses Patents to Seiki Digital VIZIO announced that Seiki Digital, Inc. has become a licensee under VIZIO's QAM patent portfolio. VIZIO owns a substantial worldwide patent portfolio directed to digital television technology. The parties have not disclosed financial terms of the agreement under which Seiki has agreed to make royalty payments to VIZIO for sales of licensed products.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Back to Top For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe HomeAV Edition 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 high-end HomeAV industry, but we stuff the articles full of our 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).
Don’t like us, then go away — unsubscribe! Just use the link below.
To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter – instead, write directly to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial ideas: Editor-in-Chief Sara Abrons at sara@ravepubs.com
A little about me: I graduated from Journalism School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where I am adjunct faculty). I’ve been in the AV-industry since 1987 where I started with Extron and eventually moved to AMX. So, I guess I am an industry veteran (although I don’t think I am that old). I have been an opinionated columnist for a number of industry publications and in the late 1990s I started the widely read KNews eNewsletter (the first in the AV market) and also created the model for and was co-founder of AV Avenue – which is now known as InfoComm IQ. 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.
To read more about my background, our team, and what we do, go to https://www.ravepubs.com Back to Top Copyright 2012 – rAVe [Publications] – 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 HomeAV Edition 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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