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Volume 9, Issue 2 — February 21, 2012
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Making Warm Calls Out Of Cold Calls
By Lee Distad
rAVe Columnist I like cold calling. People think I’m weird for that, but there you go. Personally I enjoy researching prospects and meeting them for the first time.
I recognize that not everyone feels the same way, and that’s fine, but aspiring salespeople also need to realize that you don’t always have the luxury of staying inside your comfort zone. If you want to make a living you’re going to have to spread your wings a little. After all, if you’re not happy with your results, you need to change your processes.
For salespeople who don’t like to cold call, then you have an alternative: create warm calls. While sometimes warm calls will be handed to you by someone else; a referral or whatever, your best bet is to make them yourself. As fond as I am of cold calling, it’s a lot easier if you find a way of warming up that cold call.
So what is a “warm call”? Those are sales calls that are pre-qualified to some degree, which means that your prospects know you’re coming and are actually looking forward to it. In order to get warm calls you can get referrals, and can make them yourself.
To do that, find a connection. Turning a Cold Call into a Warm Call isn’t too hard. When you’re developing your list of leads, dig a little deeper and see if you can make a connection. Think of it as playing “six degrees of separation” for money. When I first moved here, someone said of Edmonton, Alberta that despite being a city of almost a million people, “it’s a town of 600.” If you look around where you live and work, odds are you can find an “in.”
I’ve told this story for years, but once, while profiling homebuilders, I dug up the name of a project manager and recognized his unusual surname. I connected the dots to a long-time acquaintance of mine who’s a patriarch of his small ethnic community, and my relationship with him was enough to get me a warm welcome at the builder’s office. It worked!
Of course, don’t forget about referrals; they’re crucial to having a successful business. You need to forge connections with people who can send business your way, and you need to do it all the time. So what do you have to do to get the ball rolling?
If you’re any good at what you do many referrals are spontaneous. When I was first hired by the AV integration company I used to work for, my original mandate was to drum up new business. However, my employer had twenty years’ worth of repeat and referral business and, fortunately for us, there was so much low-hanging fruit that needed picking that I didn’t do nearly as much cold calling as I had planned.
That’s great when it happens, but how else can you make referrals happen for you? It’s obvious, but if you want people to recommend your company, you need to be worth recommending. Personally, I refer friends and acquaintances to businesses that I know are going to take care of them, and by extension, make me look good for pointing them in the right direction.
On top of that, ask for a recommendation. If you’re not afraid to ask for the sale, then don’t hesitate to ask your contacts who clearly love you to send business your way. Bear in mind however that you’ll be most successful at getting referrals when you ask at the right time, and in the right way.
I was shown a specific method by one of my old mentors that is simple and straightforward, and yet it works like a charm. The time to ask for referrals is during the follow-up period after you’ve shown your worth, whether it’s a completed project, sale, or follow up. When your contact has acknowledged your ability, then you can say to them “I’m glad that you appreciate what I do. I would like to ask you for one small favor: Let me give you two of my business cards for you to keep in your wallet. If, in your day-to-day, the subject comes up with one of your friends or colleagues, I would be honored if you would think of me and pass one of my cards on to them!” I’ve done that ever since, and it works.
Whether your sales calls are warm calls or cold calls, all calls are good calls. Regardless of whether they come to you, or you generate them yourself, focus on determining the best way to maximize your potential for closing the deal.
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.com Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top OLED TV One-Two Punch LG / Samsung Deliver 55-inch at CES
By Steve Sechrist Fresh out of the gate here at CES minus one, aka, "Press Day," the hot rivalry between Samsung and LG just turned white-hot at the blockbuster introductions of not one, but two, 55-inch OLED TVs (using two different technologies) from the two Korean CE giants.
First came LG’s 55-inch OLED (uses white OLED, plus a color filter of RGBW) which had the media at a frenzied pitch by the time the press conference ended. LG’s John Taylor and company had the stage mobbed by a press eager to get an up-close look at the new set, despite the best efforts of company-hired security to protect the new device from a swarm of onlookers.
Then six hours later, Samsung, never to be upstaged by hometown rival LG, announced its new 55-inch OLED set (also scheduled to ship in 2012), based on its red, green and blue OLED sub-pixels and, perhaps, PenTile technology (sans any color filter). Samsung evidently learned from LG’s mistake of leaving the set on stage for the press as they moved the OLED set off stage before the end of the show.
OLED technology has been in the offing for the past four years, after the long-promised technology arguably made its TV debut at the 2008 CES with the Sony XEL-1. That 11-inch OLED TV was more of a proof-of-concept device, offering an eye-popping display that served to whet the Consumer Electronics industry’s appetite for the "uber" thin, self-emitting OLED technology.
Today, that earlier promise was delivered and then some — at least as far as any trade-show press conference can — and not by Sony, but by two Korean rivals who seem, more than ever, determined to leave Sony in the consumer TV technology race dust with large OLEDS that will ship this year.
LG offered a stunning pedestal style 55-inch diagonal package with electronics built into the base of its stand. Specifications for the new display include a new model number (55EM9600) and a very light for its size (16.5 lbs.) ultra thin (4mm) product. To get the stunning images, Tim Alessi, LG’s director of home electronics new product development confirmed that the set uses a White OLED approach with a four primary (RGBW) color filter. They also employ what LG calls "Color Refiner" technology that works together to generate "natural and accurate colors that are sharp and consistent." According to LG, this technology uses a special algorithm to improve viewing angle and refine hues and tones, making the viewing experience more consistent than in past models.
For its part, Samsung said far less about their OLED, offering no model number as yet, but did indicate in an earlier report in Korea-based ET News that the panel was made on their 5.5-Gen SMS line (small mask scanning), having reached yields and life time efficiencies that justify going to market, perhaps in time for the 2012 Olympics.
Four years ago at CES, Sony launched its 11-inch "TV" along with an odd native resolution of 960×540 to much fanfare, but, by February 2010, the company stopped production amid concerns over limited lifetime of the display technology (17K hours to half brightness) that uses sub-pixel architecture, micro cavity and compensation circuits developed by Sony. A report on Sony’s OLED lifetime released at the time stated, "The RGB architecture is very sensitive to the image and has a 5,000 hour lifetime for white and a 17,000 hour lifetime for the typical video image, well below the published specifications of Sony. Moreover the panel suffers from differential aging: After 1,000 hours the blue luminance degraded by 12 percent, the red by 7 percent and the green by 8 percent," according to the DisplaySearch findings. For its part, Sony continued to maintain the published spec of 30K hours life for the XEL-1 OLED TV. The set eventually reached a selling price of $2,500 and was the world’s thinnest TV at just 3 mm.
But Sony was successful in creating demand for the new OLED technology and the time is ripe for OLEDs to once again appear, this time in full-HD and real TV sizes of 55-inch. It will also be interesting to see who choose the better OLED approach in these "early days" of large display for the technology — the lower cost and perhaps less risky LG color filter approach, or Samsung’s RGB OLED cells that depend on getting the science right to match lifetime color uniformity and brightness over the long haul. Let’s hope the lessons of Sony weren’t lost on Samsung and they can deliver on what some are calling the "messiah of TVs."
Steve Sechrist senior analyst and editor at Insight Media. Reach him at steve@insightmedia.info Leave a Comment
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Sony Shows a Genuinely New Kind of TV Display at CES, But It’s Not a Product
By Ken Werner As my colleague Steve Sechrist reported in a recent Display Daily, both LG Electronics and Samsung introduced their own 55-inch AMOLED TV sets at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being held in Las Vegas this week. Both companies exhibited multiple units of their AMOLED TVs on the show floor to extremely appreciative audiences.
With both companies promising to sell such sets before the end of the year, is it too early to ask what might follow AMOLED as the even newer, even fresher large-screen TV technology?
What might appear to be the answer to that question was tucked away in the technology corner of Sony’s large exhibit space at CES: two FHD 55-inch CrystalLED TV sets. Although Sony had issued a press release a couple of days before, it was easily misunderstood, and the actual screen took display people by surprise. So what is CrystalLED? It is an emissive screen in which each pixel is made up of an RGB trio of inorganic LEDs. The screens looked great. In fact, they looked generally like AMOLED screens, which isn’t very surprising.
Sony representatives new very little about the screens they were showing, beyond what we’ve just said. They had no knowledge of how the screens are fabricated or what the cost issues might be. They were, however, emphatic in saying that CrystalLED is a technology demonstration and that there are no plans for it to be a product.
Now we know why. An extremely reliable source in the Asian display industry has informed Display Daily that the CrystalLED screen is composed of roughly 6.2 million LED chips (one for each sub-pixel) wire bonded to the appropriate pads. The result is a beautiful display, but it’s hard to imagine Sony building it in volume at anything approaching an acceptable cost.
A practical inorganic LED panel does have attractions. It could solve the blue aging problem and consequent color shift that bedevils OLED displays. Inorganic blue LEDs are famously long-lived. (They are the emissive engines in all of the white LEDs used in the backlight of cell phones, notebook PCs, and LED-lit LCD-TVs.) They could also be more efficient, if miniature LEDs share the luminous efficiency of their large brothers used in solid state lighting.
So, are their ways of making an inorganic LED display that could be competitive in cost with AMOLED? Maybe. At least one other panel-maker has been looking at the problem and considering how inorganic LEDs could be placed on a glass substrate in economical ways. Wire bonding is not part of that solution.
Ken Werner is a senior analyst and editor for Insight Media. Reach him at kwerner@insightmedia.info Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Will “Smart Sensors” Replace TV Remotes?
By Steve Sechrist
Sr. Editor and Analyst, Insight Media One big focus for TVs at CES this year was a plethora of alternatives to the remote control. Options ranged from voice to smartphone App connectivity to control solutions, but perhaps the most intriguing for its simplicity and ease of operation is the use of hand gestures to replace the IR remote control. As mentioned in yesterday’s DD by Pete Putman, Samsung was there with a CES Press Day announcement supporting hand gesture technology on several of its high-end, Smart TV models. The company said they will begin shipping high-end TVs (8000 & 6000 series), which include an on-board camera mounted top center of the set, that not only captures images for Skype video phone calls, but also translates gestures into commands that can replace the standard functions of the remote.
To make its point, Samsung had a demo showing the technology in operation at CES and we had a chance to try out the technology first-hand (pun intended). The Samsung device goes beyond a Kinect-like gesture control, by adding voice and even face recognition to the intelligence of the ever smarter Smart TV. For the Samsung gesture demo room, the company set up two large glass enclosed areas.
Our first impression was that the technology worked rather well, with voice and face recognition quite impressive for a first gen demo. To turn the system on, one simply speaks "Hello TV" to prevent any unintended gestures making TV set changes. Voice commands like channel up/down and volume up/down worked fairly well, but did require a strong and fairly loud voice. Others in the room were able to use these voice commands also.
Face recognition was even more robust, but does require the user to be in front of the TV. When a second user moved to this recognition zone, the profile set up for that specific user was recognized (based on face), and displayed top-level content preferences.
What we did notice is the gesture recognition UI needs some. Specifically the screen UI text and icons were rather small, requiring balloons that highlighted tightly packed line items perhaps in an effort to improve visibility and accuracy. As the user waved the hand to control the cursor on-screen, the balloons would appear then disappear, like doing a mouse roll-over on a hypertext link.
This part of the demo even took the trained user a couple of tries to select the specific on-screen function, even after giving demonstrations all day long. Overall the gesture on-screen navigation experience felt a bit forced, as if Samsung engineers migrating a more highly accurate pointing device over to the gesture UI, rather than developing the system from the ground up (note, this is pure speculation on my part.)
Contrast this experience with the Prime Sense demo going on in the South Hall of the CES show where the company confirmed that LG was a licensee and showing its version of a Kinect-like accessory running gesture in their booth. The Prime Sense UI employed a rather innovative highlighting system for gesture control (along with much larger on-screen targets) that made the experience almost game-like and fun. The UI used bright white marker-like highlights on screen, to indicate what was selected. It was rather compelling. The LG system uses a multi-camera approach that is based on creating a 3D image that may prove to be more robust, responsive but perhaps more expensive.
Samsung may have developed the 2D camera based gesture technology itself, or perhaps licensed it from Herzila, Israel based XTR3D (short for Extreme Reality) that sells a single camera solution optimized for a host of devices including TVs, mobile, laptop and gaming. On their web site the company said its technology includes real-time software that uses "…full body 3D motion capture technology," from a single standard webcam. The motion capture engine "extracts the 3D position" of the user in front of the camera, using every frame, then creates a live 3D model of the user in real time, which is analyzed with gestures extracted, using "appropriate tolerances according to skeleton positioning and/or trajectories," the group said.
Specific to the TV solution, XTR for TV requires a web cam and software, offering OEMs a minimal footprint and memory consumption, with seamless integration to augment the existing remote control, working up to 5 meters away. It also helps that the solution is OS agnostic adapting to any platform, according to the company.
We think gesture control, along with voice and face recognition is the "wave" of the future of TV, plus many other devices. Besides being intuitive and convenient, it also has the potential to solve the lost remote problem-and which remote to use. Like so many other areas in TV innovation, what was shown at CES this year was not totally new. We’ve been looking at gesture and voice based TV prototypes since 2008 from Hitachi and Toshiba at CEATEC Japan, and perhaps even before that. But the big difference this time, LG and Samsung TVs are set to move out of the lab and ship to consumers this year. We have no doubt that the Samsung experience will improve to parity LG. So now we can finally say, "Goodbye, remote" and "Hello, TV."
Steve Sechrist is a senior analyst and editor for Insight Media. Reach him at steve@insightmedia.info Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Can VIZIO Cross Over from TVs to PCs?
By Chris Connery News that VIZIO plans to enter the PC market caught quite a few CES attendees off-guard, and it was a common topic of conversation at the show this week. The company announced plans to market all-in-one (AIO) and notebook PCs.
There seem to be good reasons for VIZIO to enter the PC market from a supply-chain perspective. Many of VIZIO’s panel suppliers and assemblers make both LCD TVs and PCs. With VIZIO being a leading brand in the North American LCD TV market, it certainly has purchasing power for LCD panels, a key component of both AIO and notebook PCs.
This announcement also makes sense from a distribution standpoint in that VIZIO is quite strong in U.S. retail. While the brand fell from its number one spot in the North America LCD TV market in 2011, it still has a higher market share than Sony, Toshiba, LGE, Sharp and Panasonic.
Finally, while it may seem strange, the PC market has higher margins than the TV market; therefore, the strategy seems to make sense for a TV-centric company to continue to diversity its portfolio. With AIO PCs growing 39 percent Y/Y from 2010 to 2011, there is likely room for additional players. At the same time, notebook PCs are forecast to see at least an 11 percent Y/Y growth rate in 2012, thanks to new form factors like ultrabooks.
There are some reasons, however, to question the strategy. VIZIO is not the first company of its kind to try to make the cross-over from TVs to PCs (and vice versa). Back in the early 2000s, Dell, HP and other PC companies tried to parlay their flat-panel purchasing power from monitors and notebooks into TVs, without success. Maybe a better comparison would be ViewSonic, also a strong LCD purchaser, which tried to parlay its success in monitors—at the time a bigger market than LCD TVs—into both TVs and PCs; however, neither of them panned out. There are also differences; for example, ViewSonic was not a strong consumer brand.
But ViewSonic was quite strong in small-to-medium (SMB) and other B2B markets, and had strong channel partner relationships and brand awareness. However, this presence and the supply-chain synergies were not enough to allow ViewSonic to compete in the PC market. One of the key challenges was meeting the support demands of end customers. VIZIO might indicate that it has gained experience in supporting demanding consumer needs, for example with smart TVs, but the combination of hardware, operating system, and software application support that PC users require will likely be much more difficult.
Digging deeper into the growth potential for the PC space also does not bode well for US-centric VIZIO. In 2011, AIO shipments in North America dropped 8 percent; the growth came instead from China (up 178 percent Y/Y) and Latin America (up 107 percent). Likewise, notebook PC shipments (not including tablet or mini-note PCs) were up only 3 percent Y/Y in North America. Of course the area of most significant growth will be tablet PCs, with a projected growth rate of 58 percent in North America in 2012, but VIZIOs 8″ tablet has yet to catch the attention of consumers the way Apple’s iPad or Amazon’s Kindle Fire have.
This article was reprinted with permission from DisplaySearch and originally appeared here. Leave a Comment
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Four Tips for Managing Cash Flow As the ongoing economic situation has led electronic systems contractors (ESCs) to run increasingly lean operations, cash flow strategy has proven crucial to running a sustainable business. Any small business that lacks a healthy cash flow isn’t likely to stay in business for long.
Cash flow management is the process of monitoring, analyzing and adjusting your cash flows. Smart analysis and management of cash flow can help your business weather the tough periods.
Can you answer these questions on a regular basis? - How much cash does the business have?
- How much cash do I need to operate the business?
- Where do I get my cash and where does my cash go?
- What will be the impact on my business if I expand or invest in new assets?
If you can answer these questions, congratulations! You are managing your cash flow. For those of you who have some doubts, here are four primary ways to improve your cash flow management.
1. Planning. Create forecast projections frequently in order to plan your business's cash requirements. A cash flow projection provides a detailed estimate of cash flow "ins" and "outs", including where the cash is coming from, where and when it is going.
To create your cash flow projection worksheet, start with the cash on hand at the beginning of the period, add total expected cash receipts, less total expected cash payout and you’ll arrive at cash on hand at the end of the period.
2. Monitoring. Create a system to monitor cash flows regularly – weekly and monthly – and compare estimates to actuals for insight into how accurate your projections are.
Monitoring cash flow helps businesses maximize their use of working capital, improve profitability, and improve relations with suppliers, vendors and banks. Do you have enough cash coming in to cover the outflows? If not, how do you intend to fill the gap in cash needs? In tight times, this monitoring will help you identify where payments can be delayed, cancelled or adjusted.
3. Invoicing and collections. The policies and procedures for managing receivables can impact your inflows. Having the funds that are due to you sitting in your customers’ bank accounts will not help your cash flow.
Payment terms can have a big impact on cash flow. Your payment structure should be set up so that the client is financing their project – not you. Do not start work if you have not received the payment according to your terms. If a client does not pay and you work, you are at risk.
When is the time to focus on collections? Before you need the money. Take measures to avoid late payments in the first place. Have a planned approach for collections, and be prepared to track and aggressively pursue payment of late receivables.
4. Payments to vendors. Your policies and procedures for managing payables can impact your outflows. Pay your bills on time, but not before they are due. Make payments at regular weekly or monthly intervals. This keeps suppliers happy, helps you obtain preferred pricing and lets you take advantage of “prompt pay” discounts.
Set up an automated purchasing system in order to measure committed funds. Automation of purchasing streamlines the processing of payables and inventory and provides current information to project management, estimating and accounting. Companies that are not automated for purchasing should maintain a purchasing journal.
This is the first article in a five-part CEDIA newsletter series on cash flow strategy. Click here to subscribe to the CEDIA newsletter.
Looking for more strategies for effective cash flow management? Get the details on these four tips and more in the courseware book for the CEDIA University course on the subject, ESB301: Cash Flow Strategies to Boost Your Bottom Line, available for purchase through the CEDIA University Courseware Marketplace as an e-book or paperback.
Back to Top Our Debut rAVe Discovery: Arcade-Like Light Switches rAVe Discovery – This is a new regular feature section of rAVe [Publications] where we help you discover something AV related — maybe a new product, a new technology or new people — movers and shakers of AV's future. Whatever we choose to highlight, it'll be something that you haven't seen before…
There's a couple in Carmichael, Calif. who doesn't even know they're about to be featured in today's rAVe as we tell you about their hand-made (but high quality) product we found. They're names are Meghan and Alyson and they own a company called Aleph Design. They make all kinds of cool things, but the coolest, in our humble opinion, is a light switch that harkens back to the days of Ms. Pac Man and Astroids, when bright lego-colored switches adorned any and all pinball machines and arcade games.
And, they'll custom make it for you with any color plate or switch. Check it out yourself at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/74059377/working-arcade-light-switch-3-4-week?show_panel=true Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Sudden Death for Cisco’s umi No press conference this time, no big announcement. Cisco just shuts off sales of its consumer videoconferencing system, umi. Call it tiptoeing away from an ill-fated business debacle. Call it slinking away from another disaster for the once-infallible Cisco who thought it could easily crossover into consumer marketing.
Introduced in Oct. 2010, umi offered full HD videoconferencing in 1080p (720 for recording) for $599 per endpoint. OK, it included a camera, a controller and a set-top box, but Umi also required a $10 per month monthly service fee. And umi owners still had to supply their own HD TVs and pay for an ISP connection — and find somebody else who did the same.
Existing customers (so far) will continue to be able to use the service to make calls to other umi subscribers or to Google video chat accounts.
Lots of industry commentators (yes, those darn bloggers!) make this out to be the Waterloo of Cisco in consumer marketing. But we think not.
John Chambers is a pragmatist, making decisions he has to make to placate Wall Street during a difficult economy. He knows the price of these decisions — he won’t easily find support to buy another consumer company or to launch the Cisco brand into the consumer arena.
But he must follow the proliferation of video and his is the loudest voice shouting about how video will dominate our communications in the future.
Where does that leave him? John Chambers and Cisco will simply bide its time and use its Linksys brand to make more attempts to follow video, VoIP and video networking as it cascades down into the hands of consumers.
The end of Cisco chasing home telepresence? Nope. Just a time-out for a commercial message.
The website is still up, however: http://home.cisco.com/en-us/telepresence/umi/ Leave a Comment
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Start-Up Tries HTPC Inside a Projector, Again Remember a few years ago when all sorts of projector manufacturers were integrating PCs inside projectors in hopes of combining two technologies into one for simplicity? Well, that approach never caught on. But if a tiny start-up called BryteWerks has its way, it just might now.
Using an open-sourse media management Intel-based Core CPU (aka HTPC-ish media player) that uses an operating system called XBMC, and a 1920×1600 (WUXGA) LCD projector that's spec'd at 6000 to 10,000 lumens, BryteWerks hopes that its new line Media Player Projectors will get you to take a second look at the concept of all-in-one systems for home theaters and corporate meeting rooms.
The first product, BryteWerks Model One, is a 16:10, 1920×1200 projector that features a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and a 1:1 throw of 1 foot to 50 feet. It has a fully-integrated Intel Core i3 to i7 HTPC CPU, a full featured, slot-loaded Blu-ray player, plus up to 2 TB of internal storage (including a 500 GB Solid State Drive), making it a home theater PC as well as a media player built inside a projector.
But, they didn't stop there. The Model One also has a content management (including the ability to operate numerous BryteWerks projectors and connected devices simultaneously). It's controlled from the 720p 8.9-inch touch panel display on the back of the projector, a provided RF remote control or the free XBMC remote App for Android and iOS devices. Connectivity is via 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet, offering two-way communication with other BryteWerks projectors.
The power and I/O interface, which also features dual USB and HDMI ports, 5.1 individual analog surround sound outputs and AC power, is fully-upgradeable and has a patent-pending cable management system that conceals all cable interfaces in the projector's "Mag-Snap feet."
Want more specs? You'll have to wait until the official launch on Jan. 16, but here is the website: http://www.brytewerks.com/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Knoll Offers 4500 Lumen 1080p Projector Knoll has added a new DLP projector to its home theater line in the form of the HDO2200 – a 1920x1080p DLP projector that claims 4500 ANSI lumens using the DLP DarkChip and BrilliantColor systems. Factory-calibrated to D65 (6500 kelvin) colorimetry, the HDO2200 has RS232 control, 12v trigger outputs and a 3000-hour lamp. It's integrated with Pixelworks image processing and claims to have a 3000:1 contrast ratio. Price has not been set, but is rumored to be $9,000.
Full specs can be found here: http://www.knollsystems.com/prod-hdo2200-features.htm Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Crestron Upgrades Touch Screens to Core 3 UI Crestron announced that its new Core 3 UI platform is now available on select Crestron touch screen models. Core 3 UI gives Crestron programmers the ability to design dynamic touch screen interfaces using Adobe Flash objects, HTML5, digital HD video, H.264 streaming video and Web browsing all at the same time. Crestron says that with Core 3 UI, customers can easily select their favorite movie in any room of the house by simply dragging and dropping the Blu-ray Disc player icon into the preferred room on the touch screen. Programmers can even personalize the display by utilizing a wide selection of pre-installed Core 3 UI objects; from animated gauges and liquid sliders, to a gesture based canvas, the options are virtually endless. Core 3 UI's SmartObjects technology enables programmers to add controls, user presets and metadata interfaces for everything from simple keypads to complex media devices and environmental systems.
Core 3 UI's SmartScaling technology allows for resizing multi-layered objects, such as virtual keypads. Rather than multiple objects (buttons, text, borders, etc.), each requiring resizing or other graphical editing, Core 3 UI treats a complex object as a single item. Resizing a keypad, for example, is as simple as clicking on the object and dragging a handle to the desired size.
To learn more, go here: http://www.crestron.com/products/core3ui/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Tannoy Intros Budget 3D Audio System Tannoy’s new TFX 5.1 builds on the SFX 5.1 system, offering compatibility with Dolby True HD and DTS HD-Master Audio sound. This system is entry-level priced with what Tannoy claims is not entry-level performance, aimed at those big-box-store, all-in-one audio systems.
The TFX satellite and center channel speakers feature Tannoy’s WideBand technology with a tweeter that extends its response to over 70kHz and surround sound frequencies of up to 48kHz (LPCM @ 96kHz/24bit). Tannoy says the enclosures of the original SFX range have been streamlined to eliminate standing waves in key frequencies and reshaped to get the very best from the driver and crossover upgrades. Each cabinet is made from an advanced polymer chosen to best dampen the enclosure, while revised bracing delivers tighter mid-range punch. TFX satellites have been developed to communicate speed, impact and clarity while the TFX centre has been further tuned to convey the most accurate dialogue.
Tannoy says the TFX subwoofer builds on the success and strengths of the SFX model, underpinning the new Wideband TFX satellites with fast, deep bass. Its long-throw 8" driver and potent 100-watt, class A/B amplifier have all the power required to fill a large room with taut low frequency effects. The revised TFX filter network ensures seamless integration of bass output with the satellites for a smooth, full-range soundstage.
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Share Article Back to Top Procella Audio's New Flagship Loudspeaker Offers 2400 Watts of Power Procella Audio announced a new flagship loudspeaker designed for large home cinema and screening room environments. Dubbed the P860, it's a biamplified, three-way, full-range, screen channel speaker spec'd as capable of delivering THX reference level playback in rooms up to 24 meters (80 feet) in depth. It stands six feet tall.
According to Procella, the P860's playback range is capable of 24-bit, 96KHz and continuous output levels of 128dB and peak levels of 132dB when free-standing and a maximum output of 132dB continuous and 138dB peak when wall-mounted. The P860's nine-driver includes a 1.5-inch, pro-quality, high-frequency compression driver mounted on a proprietary Procella constant directivity waveguide (80°H x 50°V above 1.5 kHz). The midrange is reproduced by dual high-performance 8-inch drivers aligned in a vertical Midrange-Tweeter-Midrange configuration that provides exceptional directional control. Procella says these drivers are mounted in a closed-box enclosure that can be rotated for precise toe-in alignment.
In a separate closed-box enclosure, low frequencies are handled by six 10-inch bass drivers, mounted in a unique push-pull V6 configuration. Rather than using the conventional two 15-inch driver, low frequency approach, Procella created this configuration to include a more compact enclosure size and faster transient response than would be achieved with 15-inch woofers.
Since this is a new product that won't be officially released until the ISE show, it's not on the company's website yet, but will be here: http://www.procella.citymax.com/loudspeakers.html Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Tannoy Releases New TS2 Series Subwoofers Tannoy is introducing the TS2 active subwoofers, designed with high power Class D bridge mode amplification with dual opposing drivers enclosed in 25mm MDF cabinets. The new TS2.10 employs two 10” drivers and a 300-watt RMS amplifier, while the larger TS2.12 offers two 12” drivers and a 500-watt RMS amplifier.
Boasting more power and more square-inches of driver area than any competing design, the Class D amplifiers are controlled by a Tri-State Pulse Width Modulated Digital signal processor that delivers low frequency effects right down to nearly 20Hz. Tannoy says the twin 10” driver configuration subwoofer offers a similar cone surface area to a single 15” design, while the twin 12” driver model offers the same cone surface characteristics as a subwoofer with a single 18” driver. This design was created to avoid the cabinet vibrations inherent in large single-woofer designs. Tannoy’s polymer cone feet, specially developed for the original TS range, are again deployed on the TS2.10 and TS2.12.
Coming with complementary grilles, the TS2.10 is available in a dark grey satin, premium high gloss black or contemporary high gloss white finishes. The TS2.12 is available in spring 2012 in dark gray satin finish or high gloss black as a premium option. Full specs are here: http://www.tannoy.com/StudioSummary.aspx
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Niles Launches 4" Two-Way Ceiling-Mount Speaker Designed as a high-end ceiling speaker, Niles' new CM4PR features a rear wave control enclosure that inhibits sound transfer to adjacent rooms. It is ideal for locations with limited space and offers flexibility for installation locations. Using magnetically-attached MicroThin speaker grilles, the specs include a frequency response of 70Hz to 21kHz +/-3dB, plus 8 ohm nominal and 6 ohm minimum impedance. It offers a hole cutout of only 4-5/8” (11.75 cm) with a depth behind ceiling or only 3 5/16” (8.4 cm) and weighs less than 2 lbs.
Here are all the specs: http://www.nilesaudio.com/product.php?prodID=CM4PR&recordID=Ceiling%20Mount%20Loudspeakers&categoryID=Speakers&catcdID=1&prdcdID=FG01666 Leave a Comment |
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