Volume 10, Issue 23 — December 18, 2013
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The Other Side of the Bridge — A Look at Some AV Streaming Solutions
By Leonard Suskin Pixel and Ink-Stained Wretch
One comment I frequently hear about HDBaseT is that it’s a “bridge technology” between the old days of simple point-to-point connectivity and a future in which AV joins the rest of our data on those great big IP networks which dominate the rest of our lives. Are we ready for this paradigm shift? Is the future here? Perhaps not, but it’s tantalizingly close. I’ve recently had a chance to look at two compressed video over IP products: Just Add Power’s 2G+ system and SVSI’s N2000 series. While neither seems quite ready to dethrone HDBaseT as the defacto video standard, we’ve reached a point at which these types of solutions deserve, at the very least, to be part of the discussion.
Form Factor and Convenience
Form factors for the base transmit/receive units are similar, dominated by the familiar six-inch square flattish metal box. Just Add Power adds a three-encoder rackmount unit while SVSI offers a card-cage for flexible configuration of permanent installations. SVSI’s standalone units are UL rated for use in plenum spaces, allowing the to be safely (and legally!) installed above ceilings in most localities. What’s more, PoE (power over ethernet) is standard with SVSI and an option from Just Add Power. This means that one really need run only a single cable.
Performance
The units all performed as advertised, albeit with their own quirks. The Just Add Power demo kit, consisting of transmitters, receivers, a network switch and a wireless access point, was delivered to me pre-configured with each switchport configured for a particular device. That’s right, their configuration apparently requires you to know which device is going to which port and to configure the switch accordingly. Once I got the wiring straight it worked as advertised; switching was quick, and the system boasted a handy “video wall” mode in which it would tile an image across four or more displays without any extra hardware. The switch configuration issue is a bit of a concern to me; this will need to change, but at present AV installation techs don’t tend to be the best at IT configuration. In fact, one often gets a blank glassy stare sometimes after “is it turned on” and “are all of the wires plugged in.” A look at the manual for their software seems to indicate that switching is handled by putting switchports on unique VLANs and moving these around to match the VLANs of the destination. This strikes me as an odd way of using a switch, but I’m not a network engineer by any means.
SVSI’s N2000 units each had the now-familiar web interface, showing stream ID numbers, scaling, audio embedding, HDCP status, etc. It also handles switching and routing a bit differently than Just Add Power; as is the case with the N1000, every encoder is assigned a “stream number.” A decoder can then choose which stream to receive. There is also a multicast option for greater network efficiency. Other controls include a slider for video quality, selection of scalers, image cropping and HDCP enable/disable. Image quality is quite good, but at the expense of noticeable lag. Such is the price of video compression. It isn’t enough to make it unusable by any means, but would be an impediment to realtime collaboration or annotative applications; if one sketches something in a drawing program one doesn’t want the line on the screen to trail the real-time activity.
SVSI’s units have onboard scalers, which are nice and tough, although somewhat limited in what resolutions they can handle. A test monitor with a really weird native resolution ended up with severe underscan, while more standard 1920×1080 displays worked perfectly well with a variety of inputs. On the positive side, the Web interface gives the full extended EDID for those who need to know exactly why their image doesn’t look the way it should.
Tiling and Windowing
Not only could images be strategically cropped to create a tile-effect (as above), but they also gave me an additional toy with which to play — a four-input windowing processor. The inputs in this case are streams from N2000 or 1000 series encoders, and the web interface allows one to create layouts of up to four windows. With one of these windowing processors per display and a bit of creative cropping, one can build a complete video-wall of pretty much any configuration so long as no more than four windows touch any single element. This isn’t quite as flexible as other forms of window processing, but is more than adequate for some applications. It’s another case in which the video over IP technology is catching up to everything else.
I’ll aside here that Christie has also made a move into the IP world with its Phoenix system; Phoenix endpoints are connected via IP and can send to and receive from each other through a standard gigabit Ethernet switch. It’s an interesting product in its own right, likely deserving of its own post. For now, we can take it as another sign of how things are moving; solutions which a few years ago would have required dedicated copper or even fiber ones can now be part of the same network as the rest of one’s data.
Building an AV Ecosystem
One of the more exciting things about having AV on a network is the possibility of creating a unified ecosystem, in which live content, signage and a larger unified communications platform all work together. Software players exist to bring H.264 and even JPG2000 content to PCs (although the latter might be somewhat restricted in frame rate if you don’t have a fast enough machine). A plethora of recording and processing options are available for digital content. IP based systems can, at their best, change the way we look at an AV installation from individual systems to an interconnected AV ecosystem in which various resources can be called upon not only in various conference rooms, but also on desktops, tablets and sent to remote locations.
We started by asking if HDBaseT is a bridge technology. I’ll close with a different, and more interesting question: How does replacing HDBaseT with network transport fundamentally change what an AV system is and how we interact with it? Leave a Comment
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Gaming the Industry: Xbox One Review and Install Tips
By Matt Cooper Lead Designer
If you read my last article on the PS4, you’ll no doubt be unsurprised where this article is going next. We’re covering Microsoft’s entry into the next-gen console market: the Xbox One. Next week will be my first non-review column and I hope to go into more detail with some specific solutions that will add value to a game-centric theater. Lee Distad made a good comment on my PS4 article and Mark Coxon made some good points on his blog — you should read it — and I hope to address some issues in a way that would make Kevin O’ Leary proud (a SharkTank reference from Mark’s article).
Released one week later than the Sony PS4 with a $100 premium, sales are brisk and stocks are non-existent in retail stores after Black Friday. I’ll admit that I stood in line at a Best Buy on release day for the first time in my life to make sure I got my hands on the Xbox One. I’m glad I did, because I haven’t seen one in stores or online since. Overall, the case design is minimal and angular compared to the predecessor Xbox 360′s curves. I actually would personally have thrown in a splash of color to offset this case’s pool of black. The bigger issue is the literal brick-sized power brick that you’re going to have to hide somewhere and is going to take up precious cable space. If you’re keeping the 360, you now have two lovely bricks to find spots for while you are cable dressing. Speaking of dimensions, I was unprepared for the size of the Kinect motion sensor/camera. It’s about 10″ long and almost 3″x”3 on the side. It looks a bit ridiculous standing on a display so finding a way to integrate it into a theater wall would be a large improvement. It has a thick, monitor-style 9-foot cable instead of a standard USB cable like the Xbox 360, which is really going to put a cramp in your placement options for the console itself. Hopefully they will open the signal standard and allow for Cat5 extenders or even just longer extension cords.
Here are some quick specs:
- 8 Core AMD CPU
- 8 GB system memory
- 500 GB hard drive (non-upgradeable, but external support is coming soon)
- 4K and 3D video output support (no game support planned currently at that resolution)
- Gigabit wired Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 N and Wi-Fi Direct support (no 802.11 AC here either)
- HDMI in, HDMI out and optical audio out.
If you’re looking for a pure gaming experience with the best quality content this month — you may want to head over to the PS4 camp. Several games that launched on both platforms run at a lower resolution on the Xbox One. Microsoft is heading towards a unified media center with the Xbox One and dabbling with control. While this is not great if you want to sell equipment with third-party UI options, there are plenty of tie-ins to premium theater equipment.
The biggest current flaw with the Xbox One is a bug affecting surround sound through the optical out. It currently supports full Dolby 5.1 through the HDMI audio out, but dumbs it down to stereo Dolby DTS through the optical audio out. This could really kill some theater setups, but Microsoft assures users that a patch is coming down the line soon to fix the issue. To jump into some of those integrated media features, the Xbox accepts an HDMI in signal, which actually includes support for the HDMI control protocol. No current major satellite or cable boxes support this yet, sadly. The plan is to plug your DVR, cable box or satellite receiver into the Xbox. The Xbox then overlays its own UI on top of the image coming from your content box. You can use voice or motion controls to browse content from the cable box. The Xbox controls the cable box by using the Kinect as an IR blaster. Interestingly it can also control any device in a room by filling the room with bouncing IR signals. Some people with consumer TVs have been feeling some frustrations with the lack of discrete on/off signals while trying to use more control. I can see more control functions opening up in the future through the Xbox app store and potentially using the iOS and Android SmartGlass app feature.
The great thing about this strategy is the power of the Xbox’s incredibly fast switching UI. Playing a game and want to check a game on TV? The game will freeze in place and you can swap to TV with no lag or flashing plus a smooth animation. It also lets you “pin” a live TV window to a corner of a game. I know our industry has fast switching signal equipment, but I think you’ll be impressed.
What’s weird about this setup? The Xbox is only taking a live signal and sending signals to control the cable box. In an age of DVR place and time-shifting, this feels like an anachronism instead of next generation hardware. Microsoft itself makes DVR software with its Windows Media Center line. It may be a space issue considering the limited 500 GB internal hard drive. When external storage is opened through it’s USB 3.0 ports later in the year, there will be more room for media.
The other part of the answer could be a working CableCARD system to directly receive cable signals. We know that’s not going to happen any time soon. The other issue is the same problem I have with all IR based control systems — the terrible lag you experience while your remote methodically blasts out a series of IR codes. Partnering with several control companies or using an open standard for would be ideal and I wouldn’t rule it out in the future. They already support Logitech Harmony remotes, but that has some of the same lag issues previously described.
One other unique feature of the HDMI in is you can put virtually any device into that port. I’ve been using it to watch my AppleTV. You can find funny photos online of people plugging other Xboxes into it for an Inception style experience.
Control itself is a defining feature of the Xbox One. The Kinect bar lets users use their hands to move through the UI and the integrated mic and voice recognition system takes commands like a champ. I haven’t had any issues so far with it recognizing words (other than me feeling a little silly at times talking to my TV). The first generation of Kinect had some, um, issues with accuracy. The verbal command structure is very specific, which I hope they will improve in the future. For example: “Xbox, off” does not work, but “Xbox, turn off” does. Also, you’ll have to be specific about game and TV channel titles. You can’t say “Xbox, play Ryse,” but instead have to say “Xbox, play Ryse, Son of Rome.” Hopefully they will keep improving the software to be a little smarter. The motion control actually works pretty well, although at times I feel less like I’m in Minority Report (and yes, we know that analogy is played out in the AV industry), and more like I’m a TINY MAN PRESSING GIGANTIC INVISIBLE BUTTONS!
While we’re on the subject of the Kinect, there are a couple other innovative uses of the camera. The face recognition software is amazing. Walk up to your Xbox and it will automatically recognize your face and log you into the machine. Your friend sits down, and it will recognize her and log into her user account as well. If you receive a physical item, such as a gift card you you can scan the QR code instead of typing in a 25 number key. One odd note: The camera never turns off and MS hasn’t promised not to gather and sell data based on your presence and attention to the TV. Weren’t paying attention to that last ad — Microsoft could track that. On the flip-side, it’s forced to watch you (warning: this link may offend some, so click at your own risk).
The Kinect also integrates beautifully with Skype and has an excellent 1080p camera with motion tracking and zoom. Playing a game or watching TV and you receive a Skype call? Hit the fast-switch and move to Skype. This is going to bring Skype into millions of living rooms that previously had no teleconferencing on the main display. It may eventually kill our beloved Biscotti, or even higher-end home video conferencing systems for a particular segment of the AV industry. This shift reminds me of Sony’s decision to add Blu-ray to the PS3 — suddenly millions of people have unintentionally added a technology into their home and taken a stand on standards. The game controller is great, with minimal changes for people used to the Xbox 360′s controller. While it does have a proprietary jack for headsets, it only offers voice functionality, unlike the PS4′s audio and mic 3.5 mm jack. The included controller does not come default with rechargeable batteries and instead uses AAs. For $30 you can buy a rechargeable battery pack with an external mini-USB jack. Just one more reason AV furniture manufactures need to get up with the times and offer built-in USB charging stations. I like it — solid, good button feel and two independent rumble packs. Buying a second controller is a bit pricey at $80 for one with a rechargeable battery.
Like the PS4 and WiiU, the Xbox is embracing second screen technology with their Smart Glass app for iOS and Android. You can control the Xbox UI and add an extra layer of control and engagement to some games. The Smart Glass app uses a direct Wi-Fi connection to the Xbox for virtually no lag between the Xbox and your device.
The overall Xbox One UI is a bit of a mess. The fast switching and pinning makes up for many of those sins, but the metro-style square icon docking layout creates a jumble content to flip through. If you have 50 games, you’re just going to have to flip through them with with little control over organization.
The Xbox already has quite a few apps available for free in the store, including Netflix, Amazon Video, HBOGo, and twitch video uploading. Like the PS4, every game you play is recorded and buffered for 30 seconds. Hit a button, and you can record and post your digital exploits to services like Twitch, or store it on the cloud service SkyDrive for later posting. Microsoft is being a bit heavy-handed with Xbox Live Gold and Silver accounts – and who can blame them for wanting recurring revenue. If you want to play multi-player, or even watch Netflix, you HAVE to buy a subscription to Live. For those who enjoy playing alone, this feels pretty unfair. Currently there are no free game demos for the Xbox One to download, so unless you’ve purchased a game you like, you’ll be stuck with the fighting / button mashing game Killer Instinct.
Unlike the PS4, the Xbox supports DNLA out of the box. But, unlike the 360, you can push content from a computer or mobile device to the Xbox One, but you can’t remotely browse a computer or device serving content. It’s much more like Apple’s Airplay now.
The Xbox one is a solid machine — it’s a big ‘ole dedicated gaming computer sitting in your theater/living room. There are no huge downsides, so if you buy this or the PS4 it’s really just up to your client’s preferences. Microsoft’s modest foray into making a media hub and control box shouldn’t scare clients away from more elaborate AV solutions you can sell and design for them. I think if anything it will let them dip their toe into what’s possible and ultimately feed their interest for more. I think most gaming fans are going to want one of these in any theater setups anyway, so it’s up to you to show that you can really make the setup sing with the rest of the theater gear in a way that your competitors may not have thought was possible. I hope to continue to write about that in more detail in the coming months. Leave a Comment
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Never Going To Give Up My SPL Meter
By Lee Distad rAVe Columnist
If pressed, I’d have to say that my two favorite tools in my toolbox are my multimeter and my SPL meter.
The multimeter is a favorite because, as it’s name implies, it’s versatility allows you to measure everything electrical that needs measuring: voltage, amperage and wattage.
Conversely, unlike the versatility of the multimeter, the SPL meter only measures one thing: sound pressure levels. But that’s no reason to not enjoy using it.
If you want to be an AV pro, you need to have both of them. Although to be honest, when I say I have an SPL meter in my toolbox, it’s a metaphorical toolbox, rather than an actual one.
While I’m not entirely sure what happened to my trusty old analog Radio Shack SLP meter (I think it’s in one of these boxes under the stairs), the SPL app on my iPhone gets even more use than my old analog unit ever did.
There’s plenty of SPL apps to choose from for iPhone and Android, I use Decibel Ultra, which is a free app, but no less handy for that.
The fact is, and I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, an SPL meter is critical to fine tuning an AV installation. Whether you’re tuning up a home cinema or setting the levels in a commercial PA system, you need to use your SPL meter to make it all sound great.
When using an SPL meter, there are two choices: “A” and “C” weighting, and the rate of response. “A” weighting will make the meter more sensitive to frequencies between 500-10,000 Hz, and “C” weighting is a more even measurement across 32-10,000 Hz. Most of the time “C” weighting is what the technician will need to measure. With response time, whether it’s “SLOW” or “FAST” or one where the technician can adjust the rate in milliseconds at which the meter measures, the slower setting can be used for determining an average SPL level, while the more sensitive faster setting will respond more quickly to peak levels. However, most SPL meter apps display both the average and peak readings on the display for reference, so setting response time isn’t necessary, but it’s still important to know the difference.
The job of the installer and his SPL meter is to ensure that sound pressure levels are reasonably constant in a variety of listening positions. The information that the SPL meter delivers will impact decisions like speaker position, seating position, as well as how furnishings and acoustic treatments are positioned in the room.
When setting the speaker levels for a room the technician with the SPL meter should sit in the main seating area. Begin with the levels for each speaker channel at zero. Working one speaker at a time with the receiver’s test tones adjust the speaker level to measure at 75 dB. If it’s not possible to easily reach that reading, because it’s either too high or too low that’s when adjustments like furnishings and acoustic treatments to level out the listening spot.
Equipped with an SPL meter app on a smart phone and the basics of how to measure sound and adjust speakers levels even a novice installer can do a great job. Leave a Comment
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Panasonic Moves Away From Consumer Products
Guest blog via Weezer Group
The Newark Star-Ledger reported earlier this month that Panasonic will abandon consumer electronics to focus on professional products only. WOW! Many I spoke to in past few months thought the pro side of the “Big Boys” (Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, Mitsubishi, etc.) was hurting but consumer was OK. Just OK, not great. So this seems a surprise. It was not a surprise was when last month Panasonic announced the phasing out of plasma displays. After all, it was the last company still supporting plasma technology.
As a consumer I am disappointed as Panasonic products were always rock solid reliable. As a professional I welcome this. Panasonic will be able to shift its considerable financial and technology resources into new pro technology. Because let’s face it, in past few years Panasonic (and Sony) has been fading. The question was, would they fade away like Ampex, RCA, EchoLab and soon Grass Valley and Chyron?
Many factors contributed to this:
- No doubt the recession impacted sales of both consumer and pro gear.
- The big wave of the digital transition has subsided. Broadcasters and video producers are now completely digital.
- AV Pros are still making the transition and as long as VGA continues to tread water, analog will be with us.
- Smaller, more nimble pro manufacturers are gaining market share.
Consider Blackmagic Design: Just a few years ago this small, Australian start-up offered analog to digital converters. Due to shrewd acquisition, BlackMagic is now a serious player in the pro video world. In 2009, it acquired Da Vinci Systems, a company that had won Emmy Awards for its film coloring and restoration equipment. In 2010, Blackmagic Design acquired the remnants of Echolab, a manufacturer of production switchers. In 2011, Blackmagic Design acquired Teranex, a manufacturer of video processing products. In 2012, Blackmagic Design acquired Cintel, a manufacturer of professional post-production equipment for transcribing film into video or data formats. Also last year at NAB, BlackMagic made a huge splash when it introduced the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Blackmagic may have reinvented the studio recorder with the HyperDeck Studio, which records uncompressed and compressed Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD video formats using fast 2.5″ SSDs — yet is easy to operate with familiar VTR controls.
So it will be interesting how this news will impact the broadcast, pro video and pro AV markets. Hey… no predictions from this writer. Time will tell.
This column was reprinted with permission from Weezer Group and originally appeared here. Leave a Comment
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Pavlovian Shoppers and The Demise of TV Retailing
By Paul Gagnon DisplaySearch
If you are a client, colleague or collaborator of mine, you’ve probably heard me preaching about how TV retailing needs to change. For years, primarily since the flat panel TV transition kicked off near the early part of the last decade, TVs have been a go-to door buster for retailers seeking to entice early holiday shoppers.
Rapid price drops each year, enabled by rapid cost reductions in manufacturing as LCD and plasma production capacity expanded, let retailers promote huge savings on the price of highly desirable flat panel TVs. This was especially true in the flat panel boom years between 2005 and 2008. Few consumers had a flat panel TV at the time and the “cool” factor was still very strong.
Then the market started to change after the Great Recession, and shoppers’ budgets were slashed and price sensitivity skyrocketed. At the same time, as the technology adoption curve progressed from early adopter to mainstream consumer, ever-growing numbers of households found a flat panel TV in their living room and there was little need to buy another one so soon. As I mentioned in an earlier post, people in the U.S. replace their TVs at a rate of about every 7-8 years.
What happens when a large portion of consumers swap their tube TVs for flat panel TVs very rapidly? Retailers need to work even harder to reach the technology laggards, or entice the current flat panel TV owners to swap their relatively new TV for a newer, probably bigger one. Likely, both have to happen.
Which brings me to Pavlov’s Dog, and our current predicament.
First some facts.
- Household flat panel TV penetration in the U.S. is high, over 70 percent.
- Most of those flat panel TVs are years away from being replaced on a normal cycle.
- Secondary TVs tend to be smaller, often older displaced TVs from the living room.
- A surge in smart devices like tablets, smartphones and cheap laptops with access to streaming services means consumers don’t need to buy a TV to watch TV (aka cannibalization).
So how can the TV industry (brands and retailers) keep the market for TVs growing in light of these pressures? By keeping the discounts big, consumers can be prompted to buy another TV, almost on impulse, whether they need one or not. But big discounts these days require huge sacrifices in margin because the costs of the flat panel TVs are not going down as fast anymore. According to our TV cost modeling, average margins for brands at key sizes are in the low single digits at best, and mostly negative, while retailers make half of what they used to a decade ago on flat panel TVs. Therefore, they can only push these big discounts selectively, hence the heightened focus on the holiday season and Black Friday in particular. The most deeply discounted TVs on Black Friday probably even have double digit negative combined brand and retailer margins.
Examining the retail POS data from The NPD Group, it’s apparent that the seasonality for Black Friday in the TV category has been growing in recent years. Just like the conditioned response of Pavlov’s Dog, consumers have become “trained” to wait for special discounts during Black Friday, and since the general demand for TVs has waned, the willingness to defer purchases that might otherwise have been spread out throughout the year has grown. Based on my observations this Black Friday, the situation has gotten even worse. Not only are consumers waiting for Black Friday to buy a TV, they are waiting for the top four to five key deals on Black Friday and largely ignoring the dozens of other less spectacular TV sales. Ever-optimistic retailers and brands continue to push product into stores hoping consumer demand will spill over onto other TV deals once the door busters run out, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. As a result, inventory languishes and pressure mounts to clear the inventory after Black Friday, sometimes lingering into the following year, and fueling the unprofitable cycle.
Breaking the cycle is not an easy proposition, but one that probably needs to start happening as growth in TVs falters. There are many other hot products that suffice to get consumers in stores, as evidenced by the long lines for tablets and smartphones this year. A deep discussion about how to promote TVs responsibly and return profits is long overdue, but so long as competition remains fierce, the conditioned response will probably continue.
This column was reprinted with permission from DisplaySearch and originally appeared here. Leave a Comment
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Private Capital Company Acquires Milestone AV Technologies Pritzker Group Private Capital today announced that it acquired has acquired Milestone AV Technologies, which owns and markets the Chief, Sanus, Da-Lite brands. Milestone was purchased for an undisclosed price from The Duchossois Group, which will retain a significant interest in the business and continue to have representatives serve on the board of directors.
Milestone serves more than 5,000 global customers, including professional AV dealers, regional home theater dealers, consumer electronics retailers, mass merchants and original equipment manufacturers. The company maintains global operations with offices in the U.S., Europe and China.
Learn more about Milestone here. Leave a Comment
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CEDIA Announces New BoardCEDIA has announced the 2014 volunteer board of directors, which includes four new directors: Terence Murray, Michael Pope, Will Pisula and Joe Whitaker.
Terence Murray — Terence Murray has 24 years of experience in the consumer electronics industry as a home technology professional. Currently Terence serves as vice president, strategic development & operations for AudioVisions and as senior director, Best Buy Services. In his current role, Terence leads the team responsible for the company’s information services and technology, operations and software development that includes ProIntegrator, AudioVisions’ end-to-end business management and financial and engineering software suite. Terence also works closely with various Best Buy teams to develop strategies and methodologies to drive various enterprise initiatives. Terence studied Managerial Economics at the University of California, Davis.
Michael Pope — Michael began in the custom installation industry 32 years ago as an owner of a residential & commercial security business. After the sale of that business, Michael founded Audio Video Interiors in 1990 and later, its sister company, Safety Technologies, which specializes in security solutions. Michael is a past member on the board of directors for the Ohio Electronic Life Safety & Security Association and CEA TechHome Board of Directors. He currently chairs the Audio Video Retailer division for CEA. Michael is a CEDIA Designer Level I and is a THX Certified Home Theater Technician. His companies have won numerous national awards including: CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles Awards, CEPro 100 company, Security Sales & Integration Magazine – SAMMY Awards –2011 Installer of the Year and many others.
Will Pisula — Will is a career consumer electronics executive, specializing in business development and sales management. He has led the charge in everything from a high-end, hi-fi boutique to multi-category, big box retail stores, to residential integration firms. After 18 years in the CE industry, Will continues to be passionate about technology, and believes integration firms have more tools at their disposal to affect positive change in their customer’s lives than every other industry except health care. Will’s eclectic experience in the industry has taught him how to run profitable organizations that provide an exceedingly high level of enjoyment — both for clients and employees.
Joe Whitaker — Joe has over a decade of experience in custom systems integration and design. As one of the well-known Control4 system designers and product advocates Joe continues to create reliable Control4 solutions while maintaining consumer education on home automation. Joe has also helped in product development and preproduction testing with top manufacturers like Sony, Platinum Tools, Sanus, Nyne, Stealth Acoustics, Simply Reliable, Wyrestorm and many more. Joe is a regular contributor of news, product reviews and tutorials at EH Publishing CE Pro Magazine, Electronic House Magazine and Commercial Integrator Magazine. Joe was a member of the Inaugural CEDIA Blog Mob and will be Mobbing International CES 2013. Joe currently serves as the senior director of business development for ielectronics.
The *2014 – 2015 CEDIA Board of Directors:
- Federico Bausone
- Robert Brown
- Dennis Erskine
- Mark Hodges
- David Humphries
- Richard Millson
- Terence Murray *New
- Larry Pexton
- Michael Pope *New
- Will Pisula *New
- Bill Skaer
- Joe Whitaker *New
The Director’s term will begin Jan. 1, 2014.*The executive committee as well as appointed directors will be announced in early 2014.
CEDIA is here. Leave a Comment
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Pakedge Intros Wireless-N Dual-Band Concurrent Wireless Access Point Pakedge Device & Software has just launched the W7 Dual-Band Concurrent Wireless Access Point that offers simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz operation with more range, speed, reliability and configuration options than conventional designs — some specifically for AV applications.
The W7 utilizes exclusive Pakedge Smartwav technology to sense the wireless environment around WAPs and weave a signal around potential sources of interference, such as microwaves or thick walls. Smartwav technology gives Pakedge devices a more powerful signal, greater coverage and a lower operating cost. Four Smartwav antennas broadcast constructive signals by synchronizing waveforms to further increase range, throughput and quality of service via a stable radio signal, eliminating the peaks and valleys characteristic of traditional wireless devices.
The W7 features band-steering functionality that can automatically switch compatible clients from the 2.4GHz band to the less-congested 5.0GHz for superior performance. The W7′s built-in SectorMaxx software optimizes the device’s signal-to-noise ratio, yielding up to three times the broadcast range of traditional wireless access points. This optimizes the W7 for smartphones, tablets, laptops and home control devices.
The W7 can be easily deployed in stand-alone mode with little configuration necessary. Dealers setting up large wireless networks with multiple WAPs can facilitate this process in two ways: one way is to download a free program, Where’s My WAP, from the Dealers Only section of the Pakedge website, while the other is to use the Pakedge C36 WAP controller. The C36 hardware WAP controller can automatically detect and connect up to 30 access points.
Dealers can monitor or alter the status of the W7 from anywhere in the world by using an internet browser, tablet or mobile device when used with BakPak, a free iOS/Android app from Pakedge. The W7 supports 18 SSIDs — eight per band plus two guest networks.
Here are the specs. Leave a Comment
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Energy Squad Offers LED Diet Training, New Revenue OpportunitiesFor HomeAV or ProAV dealers looking for some new recurring revenue opportunities or who want to do marketing or branding around GreenAV, Energy Squad offers some interesting programs geared specifically to AV dealers on not only GreenAV products such as automation or energy management, but also on green products that AV dealers don’t typically offer, such as LED lighting or the Nest thermostat. The company, which calls itself a full-service green tech distributor for the AV industry, recently hosted some dealers from around the country for the first-ever dealer training for its LED Diet program.
Introduced at CEDIA EXPO 2013, the LED Diet program provides dealers with a proven sales program that enables them to establish their businesses as the “local authority” on LED lighting and green technology. Certified LED Diet dealers (or as Energy Squad calls them, “LED Dieticians”) can use the program to reach out to new and existing customers by offering a cost-effective and scalable approach for converting a home or building from an outdated, poorly lit and power-guzzling space into a beautiful, energy-efficient environment, one bulb at a time. Dealers also have access to special product pricing and technical support from Energy Squad.
The two-and-a-half day training included in-depth product demonstrations from vendors including SWITCH lighting, sales training and the formal introduction of Energy Squad’s LED Diet program. It also featured in-depth familiarization with products, including new eco-friendly system solutions from Nest, and an overview of Energy Squad’s ecoInsight app for specifying LED products and creating custom proposals.
Energy Squad announced the dates for its second LED Diet training, which will be held Jan. 21-23 in Bethesda, Md. Space for the second training session is limited and dealers interested can register online here, via phone 301-656-2238 or email at sales@energysquad.com.
For more information on Energy Squad, click here. Leave a Comment
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CEDIA Europe Announces Training at ISE 2014CEDIA has announced its training line-up for the ISE 2014 show in Amsterdam in early February. We highly recommend two of the sessions:
1. Residential Networking: The purpose of this course is to provide a foundation for understanding IP (Internet Protocol). It is appropriate for both beginners and individuals looking to formalize and increase their IP networking knowledge. With the vast majority of subsystems now having the ability to be converged over an IP network, this is arguably the most important topic to make sure that you have a solid foundation in.
Topics covered include:
- Understanding the 7 layer OSI Model and how it relates to networking (essential learning)
- Applying the OSI model to residential network structure and setup
- Recognising and understanding basic network hardware
- IP Addressing – using the right addresses for the right job
- Basic network troubleshooting
By the end of this course, participants should be able to: explain common network protocols such as TCP, UDP, IP, DHCP, DNS, and NAT, understand the functions of a consumer router in a wired environment and begin basic troubleshooting in a consumer level IP network.
It’s taught by Geoff Meads, a highly respected marketer and technical trainer with over twenty years experience in the home technology sector. He’s worked for some of the most notable brands in the world including Dutch Electronics giant Philips and Hi-Fi specialists Arcam and now owns Presto AV, a web design and technical training agency working mainly with technology companies.
2. Technology and Consumer Trends: Highlighting future technologies and perceptions that will affect the residential integration sector, this session will examine the trends that are set to mould our industry in the coming years. As well as examining technologies, we will be putting these into context with some of the trends that increased consumer perception and demand for technology is creating.
This course is designed to be the ideal introduction for show visitors and will explore today’s most exciting new products and tomorrow’s most promising technologies.
It’s taught by Peter Aylett, a globally respected residential technology expert with 23 years experience in the field. Having worked for 15 years at some of the UK’s most respected technology integrators, Peter was until 2011 director of professional development for CEDIA, where he was the authority on industry standards, education, certification and technology trends.
You can see the entire training program here. Leave a Comment
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Pakedge Ships Its W7O Outdoor Dual-Band Concurrent Wireless Access PointPakedge Device & Software is now shipping its W7O Outdoor Dual-Band Concurrent Wireless Access Point. The W7O allows for simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5.0 GHz dual-band operation, is powered by PoE and uses a IP67-rated weatherproof aluminum housing that protects it from dust, dirt and moisture in harsh outdoor environments.
What makes the W7O unique is its Pakedge Smartwav technology. Smartwav proactively learns the wireless environment around the WAP and directs its signal around potential sources of interference, like microwaves and thick walls. The company says this allows its devices to not only produce a more powerful signal with greater coverage, but to do so while still using less power than competitive devices. The W7O’s four Smartwav antennas broadcast constructive signals via synchronizing waveforms, creating a strong and stable signal without the peaks and valleys characteristic of traditional devices.
The W7O also employs the Pakedge TruStream suite of features for top-notch streaming media performance. TruStream helps the W7O recognize and categorize network traffic to ensure that high-priority traffic like streaming video, music or VoIP is given precedence. TruStream avoids interference and gives priority to latency-sensitive devices, bypassing issues that cause buffering, lag or even complete interruption of streaming playback.
The W7O can be deployed using three methods. The first method, using the Pakedge C36 WAP Controller, is the easiest and fastest as it requires the least amount of manual configuration. The C36 will automatically find and integrate multiple WAPs simultaneously. The second method is by using the Where’s My WAP, a free PC and Mac software discovery tool that allows manual changing of the IP address. Where’s My WAP can be found on the Dealer Portal section of the Pakedge website. The third method is through pure manual configuration, meant for experts doing complex installations where a high degree of customization is required.
Here are all the specs. Leave a Comment
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NuVo to Introduce Next Gen Multi-Zone Player at ISENuVo Technologies will introduce the next generation player for its IP-based solution, the NuVo Wireless Audio System, to the European market at ISE. The new P3500 professional series player will power three separate zones simultaneously, from a single rack-mountable unit, with an impressive 200 watts per zone.
As part of the NuVo Wireless Audio System, the P3500 can work in conjunction with NuVo’s P100 and P200 wireless players, and the P3100 professional series player, to create an audio solution for up to 16 zones. All players offer streaming Internet radio and access to network-stored digital audio libraries, and feature control through free apps for Apple and Android mobile devices.
NuVo’s stand at ISE will also show a variety of pre-developed control drivers for operating the NuVo Wireless Audio System components through third-party automation systems. NuVo offers licensed drivers available from Vantage, AMX, BitWise, Control4, Crestron and RTI.
Learn more by visiting stand 1-N6 at ISE in Amsterdam this February, or online here. Leave a Comment
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BenQ Ships MX600 Projector with MHLBenQ’s new MX600 is designated as its “mobile-friendly projector” since it integrates MHL technology. The MX600 is specified at 3,200 lumens and uses BenQ’s SmartEco technology that claims 10,000 hours of lamp life. We’re not going to give you the projector’s contrast ratio spec as it’s ridiculous.
The MX600 features horizontal and vertical keystone calibration, as well as a built-in 10 watt speaker. It also allows users to charge their smart devices via the projector’s MHL connection.
Now shipping, the BenQ MX600 lists for $699. Get all the specs here. Leave a Comment
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Extron Introduces Two Input DTP Wallplate Transmitters for HDMI and VGAExtron has announced the DTP T HWP 232 D and the DTP T UWP 232 D two input Decora-style transmitters. The DTP T HWP 232 D transmits HDMI, audio and control, while the DTP T UWP 232 D transmits HDMI or analog video, audio and control. These signals are sent up to 230 feet (70 meters) over a single CATx cable to an Extron DTP 230 receiver. The DTP T UWP 232 D digitizes incoming analog video for reliable display on a variety of output devices. Both transmitters are HDCP compliant and include independent stereo audio connections. They also offer many integrator-friendly features such as EDID Minder, auto-switching between inputs, remote power capability and bidirectional RS-232 and IR pass-through for remote AV device control.
The DTP T HWP 232 D and DTP T UWP 232 D provide switching and transmission of HDMI signals, supporting Deep Color up to 12-bit, CEC pass-through and embedded HD lossless audio formats. For simplified operation, both transmitters can automatically switch between sources. For added installation flexibility, a single external power supply can be used to remotely power the transmitter or a DTP 230 receiver over the twisted pair cable. The DTP T HWP 232 D and DTP T UWP 232 D can be used as a point-to-point solution or integrated within HDMI switching environments, such as an IN1608 or MPS 602 system to support inputs at remote locations.
Here are all the detailed specs. Leave a Comment
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Middle Atlantic Hires Blake BrubakerMiddle Atlantic Products has appointed Blake Brubaker as regional sales manager for Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. In his new position, Brubaker will manage sales for the A/V, security, data and residential market segments while ensuring that Middle Atlantic factory sales reps are properly trained and equipped with the right tools to effectively represent the company. He will also provide support with sales calls, trade shows and direct customer contact.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Leave a Comment
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TruAudio Announces Exclusive Worldwide Partnership With PadimountTruAudio announced this month that it has reached an agreement to be the exclusive partner and sole supplier of Padimount In-Wall Docking products throughout the world. Padimount provides a variety of unique benefits to the AV integrator in offering an iOS docking solution to their clients.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Leave a Comment
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Savant Adds Wall-Smart to Partners in Excellence Cooperative ProgramSavant Systems, LLC has announced the addition of Wall-Smart, Ltd. to its PARTNERS IN EXCELLENCE cooperative program. Savant’s PARTNERS IN EXCELLENCE initiative has been targeted to achieve global compatibility between Savant’s control systems and a diverse group of best-in-class manufacturers from the audio, video, lighting control, HVAC and security industries, as well as value-added partners from many related markets.
To read the complete press release online, click here. Leave a Comment
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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 2013 – 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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