No Freebies

Unless your media consumption habit is restricted to non-ad supported content, you will probably find the following experiment somewhat intriguing, if not downright disturbing. The next time you want to kill an hour doing non-work (and don’t we all sometimes), turn on any commercial broadcast channel, preferably either in the afternoon or late night and […]

No Freebies

The Customer With Two Brains

You may have noticed that magazines and other media have for some time been overflowing with content on left brain vs. right brain and a many other variations on that theme. This is NOT one of those articles. In fact, this article takes a completely different analytical path to understanding decision making and the brain […]

The Customer With Two Brains

On the Network

It’s the hot topic, the current buzzword, the latest and greatest and so forth and so on — it’s AV on/over the network. But stop and think — do you actually need one? Do you just crave one? Can you afford one??? There is certainly a lot of product out there in the sound reinforcement […]

On the Network

Mind Reading

Whether by selection or default, if you find yourself in the role of “leader” of your HOW AV team, you need to carefully consider both the methods you use to communicate with your team and the message(s) you are sending — spoken and subliminal. One of the most consistent problems we encounter with HOW AV […]

Mind Reading

The Value of Time

As a part of keeping up with global business trends and events, I subscribe to several on-line feeds from industry and economic publications. These feeds including the Financial Times, Bloomberg and so forth are a great way to get the highlights of activities around the world that may be impacting our little corner of the […]

The Value of Time

DIY Acoustics: A Cautionary Tale

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the year or so that I have been writing this column for rAVe’s house of worship publication, the majority of the articles have been how to or problem/solution oriented, with an educational and information focus. A number of those have concentrated on room acoustics and acoustic treatment areas (specifically, on intelligibility here […]

DIY Acoustics: A Cautionary Tale

RE-ENFORCEMENT — What is the Goal?

(Author’s Note: The topic for this article was originally suggested by a comment from Barry McKinnon of MC Squared Design Group, North Vancouver, BC., Canada.) OK, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for some serious military grade explosive driven myth busting! MYTH #1: Sounds reinforcement is a 20th century development. We have a tendency to think […]

RE-ENFORCEMENT — What is the Goal?

If It’s Too Loud, It’s Too Loud!

Some four decades ago, loudspeaker technology and the ability to generate sound pressure levels (SPL) above the recognized threshold of human hearing damage collided. As an industry, we had finally reached a level of electroacoustic and mechanical performance that was the audio equivalent of mutually assured destruction in nuclear warfare terms. Not only could manufacturers […]

If It’s Too Loud, It’s Too Loud!

The Mix in the Room

The art and science (for it is both) of live sound reinforcement in any worship space must take into consideration a large number of factors unique to HOW sound. For example, you may well have to mix speech, recorded music, live music, professional and non-professional speakers, musicians, to serve an audience (congregants) that will literally […]

The Mix in the Room

When No Really Means: I Don’t Know

What Does No Really Mean? I don’t know which specific issues you encounter when dealing with a client who knows only one answer to every suggestion or idea you present — NO — but I do know we all have them. There are so many reasons and possible scenarios that can and will generate a […]

When No Really Means: I Don’t Know

Thou Shalt Have Faders

If your worship facility is part of the 65+ percent of houses of worship in North America with a congregation number less than 300 to 400 members, you are probably facing the inevitable quandary of what to update and/or replace in your AV system and when. Since unlike the very large — or mega — […]

Thou Shalt Have Faders

We Can Measure But Do We Know?

Occasionally this column will dive deeply into a topic, starting, as is my wont to do, with a historical perspective. The history is there for a reason. To understand the often complex and multi-faceted themes you need to know how we got here and what drove the development of a particular technology or methodology and […]

We Can Measure But Do We Know?

The Sound of the Word

Words. We use hundreds, if not thousands of them every day. In a plethora of languages, dialects and forms, words are the building blocks of our verbal communications. Every sermon, homily, blessing, oration or prayer is made from words. Instinctively we “reach” for the right words to speak in any situation or moment. It is […]

The Sound of the Word

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth?

The title of this column is a phrase that is the basis of a legal oath that has been part of English Law since at least medieval times and has essentially become embedded in our shared societal structure. The beliefs that have come to encompass our laws and governance concepts remain at their core based […]

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth?

New Construction — Room Acoustics, Part 2

In the first part of this two-part series, published in September, a wide variety of acoustical solutions and issues specifically focused on dealing with a space that already exists were discussed. Although the basic concepts and applications outlined in that article apply regardless, the issues and problems of a new building are in many ways […]

New Construction — Room Acoustics, Part 2

A Rant on Publishing by Dr. Frederick Ampel

Normally, my various rAVe contributions are carefully and specifically focused on a problem, or a solution or a combination of both. The articles are always written with a singular focus — providing valuable information and solid, proven answers gathered from four-plus decades of real-world experience to the kind of problems AV professionals in both the […]

A Rant on Publishing by Dr. Frederick Ampel

A 500 Million Dollar Mistake

In the previous rAVe HOW article, we discussed the value and application of acoustical treatment(s) to almost any existing house of worship (HOW) facility. Unless acoustics was considered and incorporated when the building was created, it is very likely that acoustical issues were not properly dealt with or solved. This is especially true for the […]

A 500 Million Dollar Mistake

The Real Cost of a Product

Any one in the AV industry who specifies, purchases, sells or buys the essentials we use every day to build our systems knows that these “products” have a host of internal costs built into the price we pay. Let me be very clear, the price I am talking about is the net cost of the […]

The Real Cost of a Product

Cleaner, Brighter and Articulate — It Is Possible, Part 1

A Little Physics At the normal sea level atmospheric pressure of 14.7 pounds-per-square-inch, 59 degrees F, dry air (< 50 percent relative humidity), sound travels one mile every five seconds in round numbers — so in 2.5 seconds, sound will cover a distance of half a mile. In NFL football, that’s just enough time to […]

Cleaner, Brighter and Articulate — It Is Possible, Part 1

A $250 Million Epic Fail and the Wonders of Fly-By Wire

Read a related piece by Dr. Ampel about artificial intelligence and the parallels between airplanes and audio. Why are we looking at the aircraft industry and their now decades long journey through automation, computerized systems, and software? BECAUSE, the problems, disasters, failures and the issues these raised mirror those within our own industry in a […]

A $250 Million Epic Fail and the Wonders of Fly-By Wire

I’m Sorry, Dave. I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That.

Read a related piece from Dr. Ampel about electronics and aircrafts with a warning for the audio industry, here. The conflict that often occurs between human sentience and machine intelligence is an ancient story oft told. It is also massively important for our industry as we now face ever more automation and AI based controllers […]

I’m Sorry, Dave. I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That.

Money for Nothing

Long before the 1987 movie “Wall Street” and the now-legendary quote from the fictional Gordon Gecko “Greed is good” became part of the American business worlds’ verbal infrastructure, success, wealth and growth in business were built on the startlingly simple notion that to create, run and succeed in a business, you actually had to know […]

Money for Nothing

In My Head or On the Stage

The house of worship sound reinforcement space can be segmented in a wide variety of ways for a large number of purposes. The simplest divider is whether or not the worship style/service includes musical and singing (vocalist) performers. At this early point in the discussion, it doesn’t matter what kind of music, how many performers […]

In My Head or On the Stage

Can You Hear Me? The Disgraceful Tale of the Three Chandeliers

Once upon a time, there was a great and renowned chef who was planning to open a prestigious restaurant in a highly prosperous suburb of a lovely city. He wanted to have not only stunning food, which he was quite sure he could provide, but also an exceptional architectural presentation and interior design as well. […]

Can You Hear Me? The Disgraceful Tale of the Three Chandeliers

The Sound of Sound

In a world of steadily increasing digitization, robotization and electronic origination of everything from voicemail prompts to virtual customer support, the musical world has not been left out of the progression to artificial sources. Of course there remains the world of orchestral, operatic and some styles of folk/country music performances, which are as unrepentantly “live” […]

The Sound of Sound

Too Many Captain Kirks, Not Enough Scottys

For well more than a century, the audio world was warm, straightforward and essentially analog at its core. It was a copper-based universe of wire, resistors, capacitors, transformers, vacuum tubes, transistors and electronic parts you could touch, feel, see and identify easily. And then, as things are wont to do, it all changed. Individual circuit […]

Too Many Captain Kirks, Not Enough Scottys

Become Multidisciplinary or Else

It’s time to fire up the legendary waaaay-back machine once again to go to the year 1982. Why? Because it was in that year that the National Sound Contractors Association was formed and held its first convention/meeting. (On a side note, that was also the year I launched Sound & Video Contractor Magazine (S&VC) and […]

Become Multidisciplinary or Else

Intelligibility and Acoustics: A Conflict Resolved?

It’s the Law The astonishing thing about the laws of physics and the mathematically derived acoustical parameters that govern sound reproduction is that, despite considerable effort by many well meaning or at least well motivated individuals and manufacturers over the last 150+ years, they simply haven’t changed, and, just in case you think there is […]

Intelligibility and Acoustics: A Conflict Resolved?

We Have a Plan But It Doesn’t Work!

Suppose you were one of the United States largest businesses, with your estimated net valuation exceeding 63 billion dollars, with gross revenue over 9 billion. Your 32 divisions average over $300 million in gross profit every year, and your divisional COO’s average salary is over 8 million, without considering anything but cash compensation. Who would […]

We Have a Plan But It Doesn’t Work!

Misaligned and Disarrayed

Suppose for a moment you were a line array loudspeaker product. Genetically speaking, your DNA could have come from more than 150 different manufacturers, which collectively produce over 350 products (including all passive and active systems sold as “line arrays”), based on a survey of the products listed for sale on the half-dozen primary on-line […]

Misaligned and Disarrayed

Did You Miss Me?

I’m back! As some of you may have noticed (at least based on emails I get), for the past three-plus years my byline has not appeared in any AV Industry publications, print or online, with the sole exception of a short lived participation during Cindy Davis’s era running the Tech Decisions online magazine. There is […]

Did You Miss Me?