An Inconsistent Truth
By Joel Rollins, CTS Last month, we looked at the coming problem of gear disposal. While there were several manufacturers who stepped up with information about their disposal programs, all admitted that those programs, while available, are not well communicated to the users. It was seen as necessary to establish them (largely by law) but such disposal is inconvenient to manufacturer’s field people because they are chiefly concerned with sales and support of current gear, leaving them little time or patience to be involved in disposal programs since they are not yet seen as a sales advantage. But they will be. Companies like Apple are making major points in the public and government circles for their disposal programs and their elimination of toxins from their products. As this becomes more important (and it will), the companies with active, existing programs will get mileage out of them in the industry. Manufacturers: If you don’t have one, start one now while you can still get some marketing advantage out of it, because you will wind up doing it anyway. If you have one, why not a few more emails to dealers about how to use them? Heck, you already paid to set them up, make something of them. It seems a lot of you have an opinion — the article generated a lot of email. Among them were anonymous gems about disposing of amplifier racks in the middle of the night, and of filling garages at home with the already obsolete to allow it to become antique (plus one note about what the sender’s wife thought of the idea). I am guilty of this a lot of the time — I become attached to favorite pieces of gear and can’t bear to just throw them away. “I can’t just throw it away, it still WORKS!” is the thought. So I pile them up in my home office — and throw them away much later when I can ask myself “Why did I keep this thing?” It seems the parting requires distance and closure. But several of you sent some interesting ideas. I’m going to skip the one about making decorative fish tanks from old CRT monitors, because there’s really only room for the one in your house, Chuck. One of the things that DID get pointed out to me is that there are STILL ways to sell used gear, even though it is getting harder to do locally. One of the people who wrote in to say so actually RUNS one of those outlets. Bob Buchanan of AVforSale pointed out that there ARE firms who specialize in selling it FOR you, especially those that can export it. There are also others in the industry (check Google), but for writing it in, Bob, you get the link. www.avforsale.com Andrew Smith of Kramer points out that there is already lots more legislation in some parts of the world than there is here, and that it is often used as the potential model for what is being worked through various congressional bills in the U.S. In Europe, where Andrew works, there are strict standards for the disposal of electronics of various types. But an interesting one is that products that MUST be recycled are marked with a crossed-out dumpster icon now, and that the manufacturer must agree to process them for recycling when their end of life is reached. More information about the U.K.’s program can be found here: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/waste/32084.aspx Regardless, it will be important in coming years. It won’t be long, because the rest of the world seems to already be legislating, and we have had bills proposed and some laws passed already. So, if we’re going to have to do it anyway, might as well make some advantage out of it by letting our clients (whether you are the manufacturer or the end-user rental company) know that we have it and we’re thinking in advance. In the installation industry, over the last couple of years our corporate clients have become extremely concerned about environmental impart, and started to address it with purchasing decisions. Mark my words, this WILL filter into their relationships with staging companies. The handwriting is on the wall, in non-toxic paint. But none of them need fish tanks, Chuck. rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS-R, is General Manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at joelrollins@mac.com Leave a Comment
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SurgeX Intros SEQ1200i Sequencer One of THE COOLEST demos at ISE 2011 show was SurgeX’s showing of the SEQ1200i – a sequencer/surge eliminator and power distribution platform. The units have banks that are sequence-able with a 2-, 5-, 10-, 15- or 20-second delay and have two IEC outlets per bank (the one they showed us had four banks). They can be cascaded, used in a master/slave configuration, or used to control SurgeX’s compatible remote-controllable power conditioners. To see a video we shot of the sequencer at ISE 2011, click here: https://www.ravepubs.com/rave2011/index.php?option=com_ravevideo&ravevideo_id=3723&view=ravevideo&Itemid=243
The product isn't on the website yet, but when it is, it will be here: http://www.surgexinternational.com Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Barco Releases Upgrade Kits: Converts Existing Lamp-Lit Video Walls to LED Lighting Barco is offering a “technology refresh program” to customers that own lamp-based video walls products from Barco that will upgrade them to its latest series of LED-lit rear-projection video walls. The refresh program exists for three generations of Barco video walls — OV-D2, D1, and p-Si. The announcement of the upgrade kit follows Barco’s recent launch of LED-lit rear-projection video walls, which the company says offers up to 80,000 hours of LED lifetime, and a 20 percent higher brightness level. They also have Barco’s Sense6 technology, an auto-calibration technology that adjusts brightness and color stability over time to avoid manual adjustments. The display is available in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios in sizes up to 80 inches, at resolutions ranging from XGA (1024×768) to full HD (1920×1080). For more information on the upgrade kits, go to: http://www.barco.com/en/product/2352 Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Christie Debuts 5K Lumen 16:10 LCD Projector Christie recently launched the LWU505, its new 5000-lumen, WUXGA (1920×1200) native resolution digital projector that, in addition to being perfect for corporate meeting rooms, will make a good, versatile rental department projector. Using a 16:10 aspect ratio LCD imager, a 2000:1 contrast ratio and 10-bit video processing, the LWU505 uses Christie’s 3D keystone correction so it can project on curved surfaces. This feature makes this projector versatile, especially since most rental stock projectors can only do 4:3 projection on flat surfaces.
Want to learn more? Go here: http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/business/products/projectors/lcd-display/pages/christie-lwu505-lcd-projector.aspx Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top InfoComm Opens Registration for 2011 Show InfoComm 2011, to be held June 15-17, 2011, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., is now open for registration. With more than 950 exhibitors, InfoComm 2011 will be visited by more than 32,000 ProAV professionals, technology managers, CIOs and procurement personnel from 90 countries. More than 300 education sessions will offer the essential training that AV professionals rely on to stay current with a constantly changing industry. To register for the 2011 show, go to: http://www.infocommshow.org/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe Rental [and Staging] out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100% opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the rental and staging industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions — in this case, it’s industry-veteran Joel Rollins' opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
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rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004. rAVe Rental [and Staging] launched in November 2007. rAVe Ed [Education] launched in May 2008. rAVe DS [Digital Signage] was launched in January of 2009.
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