Let’s face it. Change is hard and most people resist change even if they’re not conscious of doing so. However, much of the change in our lives isn’t under our control—it’s forced on us by things outside of our control. Think about the changes that have occurred during the past year that we couldn’t control, such as the serious recession or that many people have lost their jobs.

But we shouldn’t think of change as bad. Through change, we can grow and progress—not in spite of the outside changes, but because of them. The famous evolutionist Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most responsive to change.”

The changes in our nation’s—and the world’s—economic climate can offer all of us marvelous new opportunities, and, of course, serious threats. For example, one of the fastest growing companies in the United States is ZipCar, a company that scatters cars around a city for short-term, automated rental. Tens of thousands of young, professional city dwellers are either selling their cars or not buying cars, choosing instead to rely on public transportation and ZipCar. In turn, these people are saving hundreds of dollars per month compared to owning a car. The major auto manufacturers and conventional rental companies resisted change—and are going bankrupt, struggling financially and relying of taxpayer bailouts.

Some factors to having a car stayed the same, such as people still needed point-to-point transportation. But others changed; the amount of parking space decreased and license fees and fuel costs increased. The companies that changed, even promoted change, progressed. Those that didn’t are now living on the public dole.

Alfred North Whitehead, a mathematician and philosopher, said it best 70 years ago, “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”

We all need to look at our businesses with an eye to distinguish the difference between the fundamentals which do not change, and those things which we must change if we’re to progress.

Bennett Liles, contributing editor with Sound & Video Contractor features installations daily on his blogcasts. Through the SVC Web site, listen as he speaks with George Brosie, director of engineering with Innovative Technology Group, who recently installed a new state-of-the-art boardroom for Novus International in St. Louis, Mo.; and Richard O’Connell, principal at AV DesignBuild, who details the overhaul of a sound system in the 125-year-old Springfield, Mass., church, Sacred Heart.

Novus International

• Part One
• Part Two

Sacred Heart Church

• Part One
• Part Two

There’s no question that the transfer of information is changing. If organizations look at innovation in AV the same way they do IT, and manage AV technology in the same structured and proactive way, this exchange can then be transformed into effective communication, better accessibility and lowered costs. Also, if the AV environment becomes integrated with the IT environment, then the complete information and communication cycle can be used strategically. To make this happen, however, CIOs everywhere need to act as the catalyst in the integration process.

It was less than 15 years ago that printers and scanners were bought and managed by the IT department, while copiers and fax machines were purchased and managed by the facilities department. Then multifunction devices were introduced to the market: one device that can print, copy, scan and fax. This resulted in new questions around ownership, as well as the purchase and management of these new devices.

Today, leaders need to have a central role and make strong decisions because the boundaries between traditional IT and AV equipment are disappearing. For example:

• Projectors are often equipped with a network connection and are used to project data stored on a shared network or from a SharePoint site. In the past, a laptop with a VGA cable connection was needed.
• Meeting room reservation systems are connected to a central calendar system (e.g., Microsoft Exchange). The scheduler can see if participants are available to join, as well as if the desired meeting room is available.
• Data networks are used for video and voice. Videoconferencing can occur over IP on both high-end AV-originated tele-presence systems, as well as on low-end IT-originated systems such   as  Skype, Office Communication Server or MSN Messenger.
• Multitouch screens, although still under development, are growing fast. They will dramatically change the way we can interact with information – from static to dynamic and interactive. The continuing integration raises questions:
• Who will manage these merging technologies and how can this be done effectively and efficiently?
• Who is responsible for security?
• Where should each technology be used?
• How will the technology fit into the architecture?
• How should the technology be used within our organization?

This is where leaders need to step in with the answers that ensure this process is seamless and efficient.

Work Styles

Besides the convergence between IT and AV, we’re also seeing changes in work styles within organizations. This directly impacts the requirements regarding the components of IT and AV. The physical world is becoming more virtual – employees, suppliers and customers have access to more technology, which is ultimately changing the way people work and interact together. New working styles – where work can be done anywhere – are quickly becoming embraced, requiring a modern approach to collaboration and the distribution of information, thus impacting IT and AV requirements.

Digital signage on an enterprise level is a relatively traditional way of distributing information. With more employees working remotely, or in different locations across the globe, traditional digital signage solutions no longer work. Today, distributing information takes more than just putting it on a Web site or pushing it out using digital signage. Dissemination now requires companies to look at new communication strategies involving IT and AV components, including tools such as video casts, pod casts, blogs or streaming media.

Coordinated strategy

To be able to adapt to the changes as an organization, it’s critical to create a coordinated IT and AV strategy based upon a company’s information and communication needs. Based upon this strategy, AV and IT components are selected to be part of the overall architecture and integrated network, and then should be managed using methodologies like Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) since the network is critical for the organization.

This coordinated strategy will result in the best solution for each situation – sometimes a traditional IT solution will be chosen for a regular AV challenge or vice versa.

The role of the CIO

Through the convergence of IT and AV, it’s clear the facility department and the IT department need to work closely. The CIO should not just look at the IT environment, but should also be a dominant player in the audiovisual planning and buying decisions. A proper CIO will not wear two hats, but one converged hat in which AV and IT will make the most of each other and help support the organizational needs. Centralized management of this integrated environment will be a big part of this strategy in addition to delivering functionality to ensure availability and supportability.

Economy of scope

The advantages are clear. By looking at IT and AV from a different angle and integrating them from an innovative viewpoint, organizations will benefit from new and almost endless possibilities. They’ll find new, effective and efficient ways to distribute information while lowering costs. Also, new ways of collaboration will arise that fit the new work styles better. At the same time, the support structure will be easier for an employee to access when they need help. Just one desk for both IT and AV related questions, so there is no worry about which department to call. From a support point of view, the environment will be much easier when AV and IT are not just touching each other, but integrated and leveraging the same support model, processes and tools. Management can move from reactive to proactive, creating a more stable infrastructure.

Ben Loos is the owner of MII (www.mii.nu). MII is an independent consulting firm focusing on the integration of IT and AV. MII helps coordinate and integrate ICT/AV vision and strategy to lower management/operational costs, increase availability and enable new communication technologies. The company does not sell nor install any AV or ICT hardware/software to ensure independency, instead helping customers with the most innovative solutions where ICT and AV are key enablers.

InfoComm International, the trade association for the Audio Visual (AV) Industry, took a bold step in April, 2009 by bringing together from around the world one hundred AV thought-leaders and dubbed them the 2009 InfoComm 100. The product of this group’s two-day think tank was a collaborative white paper outlining the conditions and trends that will most affect the industry over the next five years. Very high on the list of discussions was the evolving relationship between AV and IT (Information Technology).

Several assumptions collected by the 100 revolved around the universal standards and open source product applications that AV and IT sometimes share:

• The computer will increasingly become a multifunction tool supplanting specific AV devices.
• The AV Industry needs to fully understand unified communications, networks, and wireless applications.
• The value of installed systems will be in software rather than hardware.

However, the majority of cited trends suggested that customer experiences will increasingly drive expectations. In other words, both the AV and IT industries must connect learn to the end-user on the end-user’s terms:

• Customer demand will “pull” technology to their expectations instead of the industry “pushing” their own agenda.
• “Plug and play” will be expected.
• Network traffic will surge with “real time” voice and video.
• Inclusionary technology will be expected to be everywhere.
• There will be a mainstream shift towards do-it-yourself installations.

In essence, the 100 are suggesting that neither AV nor IT will be calling the shots – but their customers will. In fact, what the end-user wants will require no less than a full and thoughtful collaboration between AV and IT. Neither industry is fully prepared for this, which is why efforts like AVConnect.org are so important right now. The AV Industry has the most to learn and perhaps the most to gain from bridging the AV-IT gap. Their top goal must be to gain credibility within the IT world. In my opinion, this will be accomplished more quickly through faster adoption of IT open standards in the AV world. This will lead to more productive discussions about currently conflicting standards and eventually put the AV community at the IT standards table to protect the visual communications experience of the end-user.

While it may not be fulfilled in the five-year horizon discussed by the InfoComm 100, AV and IT will one day converge into something one participant called the Technology Integration Industry. Visually, AV will always be at the top of the industry pyramid. It represents the end-points and drives the user experience. Technology makes up the middle and encompasses the virtual and real hardware over which information flows. It makes the user experience possible. The foundation of this ever-growing pyramid is cabling and building infrastructure that exists with or without the accompanying technology or audiovisual end points. Eliminating the gaps in human communication between these three technology components means releasing our collective imaginations so that anyone, anywhere can interact with anything or anyone.

Tom Stimson, MBA CTS is the President of The Stimson Group, a Dallas-based business consulting firm specializing in the needs of AV Industry management. Tom is the 2009 President-Elect of InfoComm International, a member of NSCA, and a prolific columnist and blogger. Learn more at www.trstimson.com or tom@trstimson.com.

When people talk about the impending convergence of AV and IT, they’re forgetting one thing. “We’re the ‘I’ in ‘IT’ — we’re the audio and video. We’re the information,” emphasized David Silberstein, national product sales specialist, at Crestron’s Rockleigh, NJ headquarters last week.

If Crestron’s expanding DigitalMedia family of products and trends in commercial and residential installation are any indication, audio and video information already exists in the digital realm. The only question now is how to manage it. Difficult questions about formats and copyright protection schemes, and the hardware solutions that make them play nicely together, are answered for designers and integrators in Crestron’s DigitalMedia Design Guide and through the manufacturer’s ongoing educational efforts in 40 dedicated training locations among its 59 total offices worldwide.

DigitalMedia, just like AV/IT, is an all-encompassing term that seems to cover every aspect of the new era of audiovisual integration. Those looking for a single piece of hardware to affix this brand name onto will find a “solution” instead. DigitalMedia is more than switchers; it’s also input and output cards, transmitters, repeaters, room controllers, and wiring and cable offerings.

“We didn’t want to make a digital switcher,” Silberstein explained. “We wanted to make a solution that reflects everything going on in the market.”

Such an endeavor is an ongoing effort, and Silberstein noted that right now there are five years of product releases in the queue at Crestron. Furthermore, the manufacturers touchpanel product lines must all be made ready for the new digital path. Of course, analog is still a part of many (if not the majority) of installations, which is why DigitalMedia in fact also supports legacy equipment.

Last week I joined my NewBay editorial colleagues Jeremy Glowacki of Residential Systems and Mark Mayfield of AV Technology on a tour of Crestron’s training, R&D, tech support, manufacturing, and distribution operations in its multiple buildings in northern New Jersey.

Crestron founder and CEO George Feldstein pours 40 percent of the profits from his privately owned company back into hardware and software R&D, and as Silberstein pointed out, “there’s tons of research before development.” The DigitalMedia line alone benefitted from the work of 46 engineers over a span of six years before the first DM products were launched. Ongoing partnerships with Microsoft, Cisco, and Texas Instruments also feature prominently in the R&D process.

As such, the purpose-built R&D facility is Feldstein’s playground. His office is located there, rather than in the nearby corporate headquarters, and his handiwork can be spotted throughout the various cutting-edge prototyping and experimental research areas.

The diverse array of products in development at the company reveal how the company has grown from a manufacturer of wireless slide projector controllers 40 years ago to today’s varied product mix. Today, Crestron’s core products, control systems, represent 30 percent of the business, while Media Manager and Lighting products each stand at 20 percent; Audio Distribution/Amplification reflects 10 percent, the Video Distribution, Processing, and Switching category is also 10 percent, and HVAC fills in the rest at 5 percent.

Overall, it looks like the convergence of AV and IT comes down to bandwidth, both in terms of gigahertz and product mix.

Check out a slide show of photos from our visit at our sister site Residential Systems at www.resmagonline.com/SlideDetails.aspx?CatID=20108&ID=33032.

Original Source: http://systemscontractor.com/blog/33020.aspx

Imagine 100 AV Industry geeks talking about the future of technology without mentioning a single product. It was tough, but somehow we managed to stay on task. The InfoComm 100 was an think-tank of AV and related professionals from around the world that examined the 3-5 year future of the AV Industry. Let’s examine the list of primary assumptions about the 3-5 year future of technology influences on our industry and ponder their implications:

1. The AV industry will need to fully understand unified communications, networks, and wireless applications.
   There is a segment of our industry that feels that they will never be involved in computer networks, security system integration, or telecom. They say there is plenty of room for small companies that specialize in hanging AV displays and setting up plug and play control systems. However, I don’t think this small slice is what defines the AV Industry now or in the future. The beauty of AV and the reason it will survive as a dominant player in global communications, is the fact that it CAN integrate with any kind of network or telecommunications system. It may also control and interface security, HVAC, and a myriad of other infrastructure systems not yet considered. The fact that so much of future technology will depend on wireless communications and data management puts an exclamation point on the need to understand 1. HOW unified communications works and, 2. HOW we can be a dominant player in its implementation.
2. There will be growth in multidiscipline AV providers.
   If you believe #1, then #2 logically follows. Smart integration companies are already adding Network divisions, which should expand their managed Services divisions, which should in turn drive more multidiscipline sales. Add some Security, Paging, and Residential and poof! The big implication here is the impact these new disciplines may have on how integrators and consultants approach business development and sales. We may need to graft together great enterprise sales experts with multidiscipline design engineers (or multiple engineers). We will never send just one person to a meeting again. Another huge implication of this converged world will be increased demand for certifications in network, telecom, and AV disciplines.
3. “Open source” will be the norm.
   If you believe #1 and #2, then you not only believe in open source, you are an ardent advocate. Proprietary solutions are the bane of elegant design (although sales people like to sell them). And one thing the AV industry needs is more elegant design.
4. 3D and virtual reality will increase in prevalence and demand.
   Anyone that attended this year’s InfoComm or NAB Show will attest to the prevalence of 3D and virtual meeting solutions. I am not sure I totally agree with the need, but the fact that so many folks do makes it a relevant trend. In my opinion, 3D is not a viable business tool – but it has huge applications in education and medical markets. The danger here is not keeping abreast of what these products can and will do. When a gimmick finds practical application, then hold on for a fast and furious ride.
5. The computer will increasingly become a multifunction tool supplanting specific AV devices.
   Time for a Star trek analogy: Remember how incredulous you were when Spock would manipulate a lot of unlabeled console buttons and often when he touched the same button it did something different? Why do we need different user interface tools in every environment that we work in? Why couldn’t our tri-corder, uh… I mean cell phone, PDA, or laptop serve as our control interface, transceiver, and display wherever we are? See items #1, 2, and 3 above.
6. The value of systems will increasingly be in software not in hardware.
   If you believe #5 (and 1,2,and 3), then software may become your primary product. Will you be a software developer, integrator, or implementer? Probably all three! But there is another aspect of the word “software” that I think is implied by this trend. Intellectual property in the form of “soft services” is hard to define and harder to budget, but has become the core of the AV industry. Anyone can sell hardware. As hardware becomes smarter, more people can design to its application (see plug n play in the secondary assumptions). Our last frontier is creativity – which is always valued and rarely charged for in our industry. This topic may be worth its own blog entry, so I will let that soak in for a while.
7. There will be massive needs for more bandwidth.
   Ok, I can buy this. It’s funny when you think about how massively overbuilt the fiber infrastructure was at the turn of the century. Video content sucks up an amazing amount of bandwidth, but we all want more. I know I have misjudged bandwidth needs once or twice along the way. Network consultants may still be dramatically underestimating the future demand for telepresence-type products, video on demand, and Web 2.0 applications. We can help through better education of not just our clients, but of their suppliers and internal consultants as well.

Comments on Secondary Assumptions:

There were two recurring themes in the secondary assumptions that I think tie in well with the above:

1. There will be more “plug and play” devices that need to be intelligently managed.
   This is one of several trends that point towards end-users defining the experience THEY want to have instead of us techies telling them how it’s gonna be. Increasingly, when consumers do not find the features they want, they don’t buy. This also harkens back to my point about the AV Industry needing to embrace creative design. Creativity solves problems, which in turn forces product innovation.
2. There may be a catastrophic failure of a major AV system due to being digital and networked.
   A major complaint amongst industry visionaries is the tolerance for down time in AV installations. In order for our products and services to be dominant and not relegated to “cool toys” status, AV has to be considered MISSION CRITICAL (emphasis intended). There are two issues: one, the stuff has got to work; two, if it works consistently, then perhaps users will come to depend on AV they way they do IT services. Heck, our television delivery systems are more reliable than most AV installations. Ouch!

Tom Stimson, MBA, CTS is a twenty-five year AV Industry veteran with a wealth of management, business, and organizational development experience. Tom is also the President-Elect of InfoComm International, frequent columnist on business and AV topics, keynote presenter, and seminar instructor. Learn more at www.trstimson.com. Link to Article

Social networking has taken the world by storm over the last few years with no sign of letting up. While it was originally aimed at helping people interact online, increasingly social media has become a promotional tool, used by industries and businesses, including Pro Audio, to develop “relationships” of a sort with existing clients and potential customers.

According to Nielsen Online, the amount of time spent in the US on social media sites has climbed 83 percent from a year ago: in April, people spent 13.9 billion minutes on Facebook, 4.9 billion minutes on MySpace and 300 million minutes on Twitter.

To read more, visit http://www.prosoundnews.com/article/22680.

As president of Biamp Systems, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to AV Connect–a portal that we’ve created to facilitate communication between the merging worlds of AV and IT. I hope you’ll consider AV Connect your go-to resource, whether you’re AV focused or IT focused, whether you’re an AV integrator, IT professional, or somewhere in between. AV Connect is a public, non-commercial resource for everyone in the merging AV and IT communities across the continuum, from engineer to end user. The spirit of this resource is one of collaboration, education, and growth–a place for connection and mutual benefit.

Recognizing the convergence of the AV and IT industries–and seeing a need for a resource that facilitates collaboration between the two–Biamp Systems created AV Connect. There’s been a lot of discussion about the difficulties of converging AV and IT, but we at Biamp believe this transition offers significant opportunities for both AV and IT–integrating technologies from remote AV control to IP-based videoconferencing to Ethernet-driven, computer controlled networks. Specialists in these two worlds are working together like never before to provide end users of these products and systems greatly expanded capabilities in order to answer the new questions and develop an increased understanding about the merger of these technologies.

This new world of growth requires a sharing of knowledge and language through resources such as this one. Through AV Connect, we invite you to sharpen your skills in both fields, troubleshoot problems, find out about new industry developments, and connect with colleagues. In short: be a part of the successful merging of AV and IT. As a public resource for these two industries, this site will be a benefit to both professionals and end users of AV and IT systems.

Our intent is for AV Connect to be a resource where general knowledge is shared to benefit the entire industry–whether it’s in the form of industry news, case studies, interactive how-to articles, or links to upcoming education and networking events. We are proud to offer this resource and hope that end users and professionals in these merging industries will take advantage of it. We believe that AV Connect is a natural expansion of the Doing Business Better philosophy at Biamp. We have always worked hard to provide our partners with the opportunities and resources that will help them and the entire industry grow and succeed.

Many of us in the AV and IT industries agree: the merging of our worlds is inevitable, and we are all better served when we open up the doors to shared knowledge and collaboration. Biamp Systems hopes you will use this site to make that happen. Welcome to AV Connect.

Sincerely,
Ralph Lockhart
President, Biamp Systems

A boardroom installation offers the system designer a chance to really shine in terms of using the latest technologies and products to deliver an aesthetically and technologically impressive space for the customer. Chris Fitzsimmons reports on the trends in the market.

An organisation’s boardroom often represents the pinnacle of its audiovisual investment. Here, critical business decisions are made on the basis of the information available to the directors or executives of a company. It’s therefore vital that the information is presented in as clear a way as possible, and that everyone around the table gets their voice fairly heard.

The boardroom is also the company’s showcase facility and as such, aesthetics are often as important a consideration as the technology itself. Discrete integration of equipment and furniture leads to a stylish and inspiring workspace.

A case in point is the newly refurbished boardroom of international pharmaceutical company Zentiva, in Prague. The job was carried out by AV Media, and senior sales consultant Zdenek Rychetnik described the project as being “a representative solution, which met the company’s requirement for modern technologies as well as good design.”

At first glance, it looks like an elegant meeting room with some AV equipment installed, but this belies the truth. Aside from the two large plasma screens, which are visible, there is a hidden electronic projection system should a larger display be required. There is also a pair of ceiling mounted document cameras, and carefully concealed table-top tanks for all connections that might be required.

This kind of project is replicated across the region, as integrators leverage the reduction in size of input devices such as cameras and microphones, and increases in space efficiency of large format display devices.

A good example of this is the reduction in the adoption of rear-projection technology. Once the staple of any company that wanted to avoid having a projector hanging from the ceiling, the reduction in cost of large format LCD and Plasma displays has meant that much better resolution and clarity can be achieved at lower space costs. Rear projection does however remain an important tool if aesthetics are an absolute priority and the space is available.

The inevitable discussion about the choice of display size throws up some interesting results. Channel distributor Steljes’s Mark Bird reckons the most popular size still to be around the 42” mark for plasma and 40” for LCD, whilst Julian Philips, MD of integrator Impact Marcom believes that 50” is the most common sell into the corporate market, with demand for both 60” and 65” models strong in the boardroom. Clearly nothing is set in stone, but Asysco’s MD Richard Brookes believes both display technology and size should be selected on the basis of application:

“The decision to choose LCD or Plasma flat screen technology depends on the display application. Plasma provides a more film like performance and is therefore suited to video emulation or controlled data emulation. LCD is suited to high quality video emulation and data emulation. Screen sizes are selected to suit the viewing distance.”

The Zentiva boardroom shown in the photo uses twin 65” plasma displays.

Projection is the other side of the display coin. The most commonly installed resolution remains XGA, but both Impact Marcom and Asysco believe that WXGA is gaining significant traction. On the brightness front, there is a continuing march towards higher brightness. 5000 ANSI lumens is not uncommon according to Asysco’s Brookes. High brightness projection allows the user to go for longer throw lenses and to avoid dimming the lights while the projection system is in use. Another advantage is the ability to run projectors in so-called “eco mode” reducing operating brightness and extending the lamp life.

One of the drivers for the change in boardroom technology is video conferencing. What was once an application built into a dedicated suite, is now firmly integrated into the boardroom environment. Products such as telepresence require HD displays and increased network bandwidth. All parties are observing the migration from ISDN-2 to IP as the preferred transport mechanism, but this is bringing AV more into conflict with IT as the fight for bandwidth intensifies. This miss-match between bandwidth required and available is illustrated by Richard Brookes: “HD solutions are now being widely adopted, however it’s worth noting that you require 1 mb bandwidth each way on an HD call. Therefore in practice, whilst many firms are deploying HD ready equipment SD resolutions are being operated in the first instance due to bandwidth restrictions.”

Sound in the boardroom has never been particularly sexy. Despite the best efforts of various manufacturers, the loudspeaker is unsightly, and nowhere is the demand for invisible, floating speakers more great. Mark Bird from Steljes describes one alternative in the shape of flat panel ceiling loudspeakers from Armstrong. There are of course other suppliers of similar products from the like of Artcoustics and Panphonics.

In the case of larger boardrooms, where there is the requirement for voice reinforcement as well as programme sound, microphone options needs considering. As Petr Smolink, product manager for Audio at AV Media puts it: “No one wants to notice the microphone, but everyone wants studio quality sound. Users prefer wireless lavalier microphones for presenters or cable microphones suspended from the ceiling. More commonly we use goosenecks from presentations and boundary type or suspended modules for teleconferencing or recording.”

Another growth area is the use of wireless microphone technology. Companies such as Revolabs have come to market with simple to use wireless solutions that remove the need to drill holes in boardroom tables and that can be removed when not required.

Dumb microphones as opposed to dedicated discussion systems are the norm in all but the largest boardrooms as there is little need for translation or voting services. However, there is increased adoption of DSP based solutions. As the number of microphones increase, and the adoption of videoconferencing in the boardroom grows too, tools such as acoustic echo cancellation as well as basic EQ functions are required. Another thing that DSP can do for you is to ameliorate some of the problems caused by bad acoustic design in a space. Unusually shaped boardrooms or funky materials can cause all kinds of problems if not carefully thought out and catered for in the AV design.

Of course no self-respecting boardroom would be complete without a sleek, sexy looking touch panel to make it all happen. The subject of control systems is almost a non-issue now. The real discussions lie in how much of the room it controls, and how easy for the user the programmer can make it. Nothing will lose an integrator business faster than a control program that doesn’t work as expected or frustrates the MD of a company with an unclear interface. As one integrator recently put it to me, the dreaded question: “Who put this in?” is not one to bring comfort.

The use of wireless technology is also on the increase for control panels. AV Media’s Zdenek Rychetnik reports “significant” adoption of wireless controllers, whilst Impact Marcom’s Philips says the use of wireless control is now common in his company’s work.

The use of control systems such as AMX or Crestron also allows access to site-wide and even enterprise wide remote control and monitoring. Particularly helpful when that interface isn’t doing what it’s expected to by a frustrated, but less than tech-savvy user.

Interactivity is another technology finding a foothold in the boardroom. The interactive whiteboard is still considered an education product by many. However in a space typically used for sharing and discussing information, there is a clear case for their use. For companies who are willing to take the plunge and combine these technologies with videoconferencing there are obvious benefits.

Steljes’ Mark Bird said: “Historically, collaborative displays have been seen as a ‘nice to have’ rather than a business necessity. However Steljes has recently seen a significant uptake in this category as manufacturers have simplified the experience for the end user.” Bird cites the example of client Computacentre who bought a Smart Technologies solution combining interactive whiteboards with Smart’s Bridgit conferencing software. The company’s international sales director Chris Hanson attributes a 75% drop in his average travel mileage to his adoption of the system.

So we’ve established our standard tool kit. HD display solution, videoconferencing with attached DSP, wireless microphones and concealed loudspeakers are all controlled by a wireless touchpanel and our board members are sitting around an undamaged mahogany table. But that’s what everyone else is selling too, so how can you differentiate yourself from the crowd, or add some more value to what you’re doing?

Opinions vary one what extra services AV integrators should look to offer. AV Media’s Rychetnik believes that opportunities lie in the traditional areas of control system programming and design, as well as the further incorporation of technology into furniture. However Asysco’s Richard Brookes, sees that as a risk, which is best left to a joinery partner. In his opinion, supply of a complete end-to-end system encompassing all the services we’ve mentioned is the right approach. Impact Marcom’s Julian Philips agrees: “There are two types of integrators – those concerned with the price point of the products they sell and those concentrating on the engineering and design of those produces. Integrators should decide to become better educated in order to add value and choose between high-end and low-end integration.”

One area which all the major players in this market are well aware of is the business of winning service and maintenance contracts. These are usually built in to the tender for an initial build of a new facility, but making sure you are in poll position for upgrade work and renovation for years to come in terms of revenue going forward.

Everyone still remains positive about the prospects for business in the corporate market. The sector continues to grow, and even if economic pressures dampen its enthusiasm for new projects in the coming months, there will still be a need, perhaps even a greater need than now, to maintain existing facilities. Make sure your initial build is up to scratch, to ensure that you hold on to those precious service contracts. Link to Article

I am not an expert on Web 2.0, social networking, blogging or any of the other time-sucking web-based tools on my computer desktop. I am however becoming an avid user. I am not a fan of the time-sucking part, so I have devoted some (Time) energy into learning how to use these tools so they do NOT take so much effort. The key is to not hunt for things to read, but wait for them to come to you. Or search for specific topics when you need them.

This doesn’t change the fact that many of us thrive on the constant electronic updates of friends and family. It is also true that our co-workers are often our friends. Hence, there is often a blurring of lines between someone’s business and personal posts. This makes MANAGEMENT nervous. It has been difficult enough keeping employees from blabbing about a difficult client or secret initiatives at public events or in incriminating email. Now they are doing it on semi-public social networks or completely public micro-blogs like Twitter. I bet HR managers are inundated with requests for “Appropriate Use of Social Networking in the Workplace” clauses in employee handbooks.

The reality is – I believe – that these managers are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. If they knew how pervasive their perceived “problem” really is, they would curl up in a fetal ball and surround themselves with lawyers. I think their concern is founded, but a better response is to learn how this all works. What I have discovered is that I can connect a lot of news, blog, and personal streams down to one or two readers and scan for what matters to me today. If I find I want to know more about a topic, I can search through past postings and gather them in one saved listing. Let me give an example:

In my home of Dallas, we are having some challenges in the school district that would affect funding at the Magnet school my kids attend. What has been frustrating is that the school board relies on its information from the administration, which only tells the board what the superintendent wants them to know. The public can read and research and find out more using the very tools I have described. The board could do this themselves, but they are not the most electronically connected people – kind of like many business managers.

So, yesterday there was a public rally outside the district headquarters prior to a board meeting. My oldest daughter attended and signed up to address the board. Back at home we felt cut-off from the happening. All the local news stations were there and reported briefly on their newscasts, but it wasn’t very satisfying. My daughter did send us text messages from inside, but I wanted more. So I got onto Twitter and search the district name (DISD) and found a reporter that was posting from the meeting. I let her know I was reading and she increased her posts. I also discovered – by checking her Twitter profile – that she had a blog page. I went there and found she was updating it from the meeting with even better blow by blow reports. I scanned her earlier posts and found other writers who had been documenting the controversy. I ended up adding my reporter’s blog and several others to my RSS feed page in my Google Reader. I now have a saved Twitter search on the topic. This helps me keep up with relevant tweets instead of just scrolling through the (gasp) hundreds of daily posts I subscribe to. Now if I want to tweet something on this subject, I just add a “hash” – in this case, #disd. When other twitterers do the same we can all easily find each others posts even if we are not subscribed to each others’ feeds. Just this morning I have found several relevant blogs and people I want to follow. It is all gathered onto one screen that I can scan when I have time to see if there is anything worth reading. If I can figure out how to do this, so can you.

So let me get back to the management issue (I am picturing a bunch of middle-age white guys like myself). Guys (and Gals), we are not that old. We may have started our careers before personal computers, voicemail, and email, but we adapted. We may have fought PDA’s and email on the phone, but we can’t live without them now. We are pretty well connected technology-wise, but our brains are still wired to a logical, linear stream of information. The younger crowd (you know, 30-somethings) and the real young crowd (Gen-Y) continually process data and update their conclusions all the time. They don’t wait for the compiled code to see if the program runs. If it makes sense to them, they go with it. No point in trying to stop them. We have to adapt.

Here’s what I would recommend to anyone who has been reluctant to get involved in all this. Work your way into the early part of this century. Do these things, in this order:

1. Go to Google. If you do not have a Google sign-in, get one. All it takes is an email address and a password. Click on News. See if there is a news source that you like. Click on an article then find the RSS feed. Subscribe. It will ask you where to put the subscription. Google Reader is easy to use and you are already signed in.
2. You are reading this blog. Maybe you read others. They all have RSS buttons so you can add them to your Google Reader. Do it.
3. Take a break, that was hard.
4. Go to Linkedin. Build your own profile. You do not need your whole life or work history, but at least post a nice picture of yourself.
5. Add your employees as connections on Linkedin. Read their profiles. See if any of them are connected to your competitors – you know you want to. Notice that if your connection is connected to someone, that you can connect to them to. Think about the networking possibilities.
6. Spend a week or two checking your Linkedin homepage to see your connections’ updates. Join some networking group. See how little they actually do. Invite a few more business associates to connect to you. See what they are up to.
7. Feeling brave? Go to Facebook. Works just like Linkedin in terms of getting started, but has a very different flavor. Get your teenager to show you around. Smirk. Connect to some friends. Get sucked in.
8. Notice how people post their status as if other people cared. Find yourself pondering someone’s post and feeling the need to comment. Do it. Feels awkward at first, but you will get the hang of it. Notice how many folks seem proud of you for FB’ing (facebooking).
9. Twitter. It is just a bunch of updates like on FB and Linkedin. What are these tiny url things? They are shortened web page links created to stay under the 140 character limit. Everyone uses them in text messages and postings now. Google “tiny url” to find out how to make them. Hmm, could I post a tiny url that directs people to my press release?
10. Search Twitter for a subject. Try InfoComm. Lots of chatter, marketing stuff, this and that. Anything you are interested in? Click on the screen name of the person that posted it and see what else they have to say. Follow them – it’s like subscribing, but now their posts will show up on your Twitter home page.

I can go on like this for a long time, but you have been a good reader and have a lot of things to do. Mark this blog as a favorite so you can come back to it. Happy Web 2.0?ing. Link to Story

CLEARWATER, FL–Tech Data Corporation is ensuring IT resellers have access to the information and resources they need to capitalize on the unprecedented economic investment the federal government is making through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Tech Data launched Economic Stimulus Watch, a comprehensive initiative that will help resellers track the billions of dollars in IT spending that is expected to result from ARRA starting as soon as this summer.

“The federal government has never invested this much money in an economic stimulus program,” said Tech Data President, The Americas Ken Lamneck. “The total economic stimulus package is expected to top $780 billion, and undoubtedly that will create tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in IT spending. While a tremendous opportunity for resellers, there remain many questions: How much money will each government agency receive? What are their spending priorities? Will the money be spent through normal purchasing vehicles? How will this impact IT spending state-by-state? How will the stimulus dollars impact key verticals like education, healthcare and energy?

“Our public-sector team has the answers to these questions, tracking developments daily and making this information available to resellers free of charge through the Economic Stimulus Watch resource center,” concluded Lamneck.

Tech Data Vice President, Government, Technical and Integration Services Barb Miller will head the Economic Stimulus Watch. Miller leads Tech Data’s team of public-sector sales, business-development and bid specialists that supports resellers focused on IT spending opportunities in the government, healthcare and education markets. Additionally, Tech Data’s Specialized Business Units, and Technical Services, Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Client Systems, Networking, Peripherals and Software divisions will identify solutions and key technologies aligning with ARRA spending objectives.

For example, modernizing schools, expanding the nation’s broadband infrastructure and digitizing medical records have been identified as IT spending opportunities by the federal government. Through the Economic Stimulus Watch resource center, Tech Data will identify solutions resellers can deploy to enhance children’s learning environments, bring online public services to a broader group of constituents and implement secure, paperless record-keeping for small doctors’ offices.

The Economic Stimulus Watch Web resource center will do more than aggregate Tech Data’s extensive product knowledge, technical expertise and public-sector sales support. It will be an interactive forum in which resellers can post questions and comments, as well as communicate with Tech Data systems engineers, credit specialists and other members of the team for bid and pricing support. The resource center also will include the latest ARRA news and developments; links to federal and state government procurement Web sites; whitepapers for in-demand solutions; expert-led Webinars and pod casts; and advice for writing grant proposals, building bids and responding to RFPs. Link to Story

The new millennium is just now getting underway, nine years later. Besides the obvious and most recent big change (our new president), the current world economic crisis is a catalyst of major and fundamental change that seems to be affecting all industries — including ours.

One pervasive shift is the concept that “less is more.” This is often, but not always, a good thing — like in the case of American workers. Boards of directors seem convinced that fewer employees means more financial stability, but we all know it doesn’t always work out that way in the long run.

But when there’s just plain too much of any one thing, some “culling of the herd” can be healthy. Social psychologists have studied the phenomenon of excessive choice on buying behavior. In professional journals like the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers consistently come to the same conclusion: the more choice, the less buying.

The same is true in the technology industry. Do we really need 12 new models of video projectors every month? And how many “new” loudspeakers do we need? Or have your tried to buy a wireless router recently? For fun, visit Best Buy and ask the salesperson to explain the differences between a, b, g, and n wireless products. There’s too much choice, and it changes too quickly.

So in this new millennium we are finally paying the price, and it can be a little painful. Perhaps it’s “Darwinian economics” — but when we come out of this, we’ll have a more streamlined economy that’s more geared to what we need, than what marketers want us to need.

We’re seeing signs of this retooling effort already. Major industries are reinventing themselves, some with significant government oversight (that’s putting it mildly), and some because they are seeing the future. One example is the flat panel display industry. Already, companies like Pioneer and Vizio have announced they are discontinuing plasma display manufacturing in favor of LCD, which already outsells plasma 7:1 according to analyst firm Display Search. Now, this same firm has noted what could be yet another shift for LCD manufacturers — away from flat panel technology altogether and toward photo-voltaic (PV) technologies. There are technical similarities, and certainly the demand for solar power products looks to be a major growth industry.

Is this a bad sign for AV/IT technologies? On the contrary, it’s a very positive sign when major industries can reinvent themselves to focus on what will be important in the future. Certainly, more variants of already-commoditized technologies are not what we need. But truly innovative AV/IT technologies that allow demonstrably better communication with less environmental impact will continue to flourish — at least for the next millennium. Link to Article

More vendors and integrators are offering software as a service (SaaS) to their customers. Tim Kridel finds out why.

The InfoComm 100 conference in early April 2009 was the first time Andrew Sellers heard the term software as a service (SaaS), but it probably won’t be the last, based on what he’s seeing around the industry and at his firm, U.S.-based integrator Sensory Technologies.

“We’re approaching digital signage more and more every day as a service rather than a hardware sale because we’ve come to learn that our customers really are ill-prepared to run their digital signage services on their own,” says Sellers, CTS, a principal at the firm. “They haven’t thought about content management and development.”

In a nutshell, SaaS is a form of outsourcing. Instead of buying software outright – such as for managing content for digital signage – it’s leased for a monthly or quarterly fee.

“SaaS means exactly that: You are purchasing a service, not a product,” says Rob Robinson, marketing director at Stardraw, which offers software for a variety of AV applications. “Under the SaaS model, the end user must be granted a license to access the service for the period of use.”

It’s here that definitions start to diverge. For example, some vendors define SaaS broadly, including offerings sold directly to the end user, while others draw the line at platforms available only to integrators. Another debate is over whether SaaS includes services – such as managing the end user’s signage content – or just the software itself.

“The other camp, in my opinion, doesn’t know what SaaS is all about and seems to be talking about providing a service that involves software,” Robinson says. “Wrong. In SaaS, the software is the service.”

C-nario defines SaaS as leasing the software to the end user for a monthly fee, along with value-added services.

“We don’t offer SaaS directly but through our partners, such as T-Systems, who offer our software to their customers, along with other operational services they provide,” says Yael Elstein, vice president of marketing. “We refer to it as a managed services provider model.”

What’s the Business Case?

Definitions aside, one reason why SaaS is becoming more common – or at least more visible – is the lousy economy, which has enterprises of every size, as well as integrators, looking for ways to cut costs or at least spread them out over a few years.

“Our design applications are sold and treated like many other capital items: an upfront purchase price, with an annual subscription that delivers added-value services, [such as] technical support, access to online services and data updates,” Robinson says.

Depending on how the SaaS offering is structured, an expired contract doesn’t necessarily mean that the vendor sends out a message to tell the software to stop working.

“If the user’s subscription expires, they cannot get data updates, although they can still use the application and previously downloaded data,” says Robinson, referring to his company’s approach.

The role that timely data plays in the user’s – in this case, the integrator’s – end product is part of the motivation for going with an SaaS model.

“There is still room and demand for traditional applications with traditional pricing models, but having said this, SaaS is the way of the future,” Robinson says. “Where the timeliness of data or content is the key value proposition, then it makes sense to recognise and price the software as a service through which timely data can be manipulated. For example, a key feature of Racktools 3.5 is the ability to design, price and order a rack enclosure. You can only do this if you are accessing the current product list and pricing.”

Besides a recurring revenue stream, SaaS also creates an ongoing relationship between the two parties. For example, an integrator could use its SaaS contract as a way to keep its foot in the door at a client, so it can identify additional sales opportunities over time. By comparison, it’s tougher to identify those opportunities if the integrator installs the hardware and software and then just moves on to the next client, with relationship ending at the invoice.

For some enterprises, SaaS can be attractive for the way that it moves software from a capital expense to an operating expense, which can have tax benefits. The regulatory environment for their industry can be another motivation. For example, in some countries, regulators allow banks to loan only what their capital reserves can cover. By making software an operating expense, SaaS means they have more money to loan and thus greater profit potential.

Of course, some software is relatively inexpensive, to the point that it doesn’t make much sense for the end user or the vendor to buy and sell it on a SaaS basis. One example is Westinghouse’s neonNow, which runs about $700.

“From the neon software point of view, it didn’t make sense to make the software a stream of payments,” says Rey Roque, vice president of marketing at Westinghouse Digital. “The next iterations of development are for larger classes of Neon software that are multi-location and multi-screen, where you have different content being served. When we release that software, then I can see more of a x dollars per month model.”

Who Wants It?

When defined as a bundle of software and services, SaaS can be a good fit for major installations, especially when the scale means it’s too much for the client to handle on its own. Sensory Technologies, for example, has a signage client that has ample in-house expertise and equipment because of the industry it’s in but simply prefers to outsource managing that content.

“Even though they have a HD production facility in California, they don’t want to spend the time,” Sellers says. “It takes too much time to manage the content, push it out and schedule it. They’re looking to give it to us to do.”

One version of Westinghouse’s PumpTop TV plays to that approach. Gas station owners can buy and operate the platform, or they can choose the version where Westinghouse manages content that’s fed to displays atop gas station pumps. That frees gas station chains from having to add staff to create and schedule content, as well as license news and weather.

“The stream of payments also includes licensing of third-party content,” Roque says.

If the enterprise already buys other products and services on a subscription basis, it might be more receptive to going the same route for its pro AV needs.

“If they’ve already got a subscription to content, like satellite programming in a bar or restaurant, looking at software that they would pay a monthly license for is much more an extension of that,” Roque says.

How do integrators benefit in those scenarios? One possibility is that by making it easier for businesses large and small to add or expand AV solutions, SaaS eliminates some barriers to adoption, thus creating more work for integrators.

Risky Deal?

Like most new concepts, SaaS has its share of sceptics. One of their biggest concerns is that the client is at the mercy of a third party.

The worst-case scenario is that the third party halts operations, such as for bankruptcy, leaving the SaaS client scrambling to find another party to manage its content. Some sceptics point to Transit Television Network, which went bankrupt earlier this year, stranding clients such as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority.

“These transit authorities are sitting there with screens on their buses that are black,” says Jeff Collard, president of Omnivex, a Canadian vendor whose products include signage software. “It makes the transit authority look silly. If they owned the software and were running it themselves, they wouldn’t be in that situation.”

A related concern is whether SaaS limits the value of the installation – not just for the client, but also for the integrator. For example, the client might be comfortable with a third party managing the content for lobby signage at its offices around a country, but will it balk at letting that third party tap into its databases and systems in order to serve up more sensitive content?

An example of the latter is a warehouse where orders are displayed on signage throughout the facility, eliminating the need for pickers to have or go to a computer so they can get the next ticket. That kind of system would require the third party to access the client’s order system, raising concerns about security breaches that put that information in a rival’s or hacker’s hands. Those concerns could be a deal-breaker, with the client opting instead to manage that content itself by purchasing the necessary management software and servers.

Thinking Small

For integrators, one SaaS-related concern is whether some of those offerings could cut into their business.

“Many of the value-added resellers (VARs) seemingly tend to look at the larger content providers as having the potential of taking business away from them in that they might perceive that big XYZ SaaS company may take away their chances at on-going revenue,” says Chris Connery, vice president for PC and large format commercial displays at DisplaySearch, a research firm. “Most VARs recognize that for massive roll-outs, they won’t be the ones creating and managing content, so this fear isn’t really a fear but more of an acknowledgement.”

Hence the strategy of thinking small.

“What VARs are finding now are that there are many, many smaller digital signage roll-outs that might not require as a robust a system as might be offered by the ‘big guys in software,’ which is where the proprietary software solutions from the flat panel display manufacturers come into play. These solutions allow for integrators to be able to offer a solution immediately, out-of-the-box.”

But one size doesn’t always fit all.

“The important part for the VAR to understand is to be educated on the offerings of the bigger content management software companies and offer these as a solution as the installation dictates, [and] be knowledgeable of the limited-ability of the software solutions offered by the flat panel display manufacturers,” Connery says. Link to Article

Anna Mitchell takes a journey through DSP and finds easy-to-use products don’t have to compromise on functionality. It seems manufacturers have big ideas for smaller applications. Small venues often have big ideas regarding how they want their audio systems to work but struggle with the time and skills needed to implement a system that provides the desired effects. Take a bar for example; multiple rooms with various sound requirements and management that is unskilled in setting up and operating audio control systems. Thankfully for those that run bars, restaurants, small conference venues and hotels there are many manufacturers that offer digital signal processors (DSPs) that don’t just offer standard EQ, limiting, time delay and matrix functions but a whole host of additional clever features as well.

Simon Bull, national sales manager at Martin Audio, says for applications that need a sound specialist on hand at all times, his company offers “an engineer crushed up and put in a box”! Sounds painful? Well thankfully Bull assures us that no engineers were harmed in the making of this product but does say that Martin Audio’s Engineer has utilised “human adaptive algorithms” that are designed to mimic the way an engineer would monitor and control audio.

The product recently scooped an InAVation Technology award in the commercial category and you can see why those that voted deemed it innovative. In addition to incorporating standard DSP facilities the Engineer boasts a circuit function called the BassCreator. Jim Cousins, from Martin Audio’s R&D department, filled InAVate in on exactly what this means.

“What has been found over 100s of years is if you produce the harmonics of a bass note in the right combination then you can get the feeling of low bass note without the low bass having to be reproduced. It’s a technique oddly enough has been used in pipe organs in churches for hundreds of years,” he said. “BassCreator, using the DSP, adds an algorithm to cut out the lowest frequencies – you can select how low you want to go – and then it creates the harmonics that give the brain the impression the low frequency is still there. It doesn’t over-exert the drivers in the loudspeaker and a typical application would be a restaurant where you have no room for subwoofers. It also cuts down room-to-room leakage of frequencies. So if you’ve got, for example, a club in the middle of a building that’s being used for other things like cinemas there’s less leakage.”

Next up, Extron has recently announced its MPX Plus 866, a media presentation matrix switcher. It is the first matrix switcher to incorporate Extron’s ProDSP, a new audio DSP platform based on a 32/64-bit floating point DSP engine. Rainer Stiehl, marketing manager for Europe explained the product combined VGA, video and audio matrix switching, a microphone matrix mixer and DSP processing. “It provides an ideal one-box solution for complete audio and video integration in a wide range of common audiovisual presentation applications,” he said. “The product can be used in any presentation environment with multiple sources and multiple displays, such as modern courtrooms, lecture halls and auditoriums.”

The product is designed to be user friendly. Stiehl: “The DSP configurator software is the user interface to ProDSP, and features a unique graphical user environment with an intuitive on-screen layout of digital audio signal processing tools. Designers can quickly get a snapshot view of the entire audio system including DSP blocks, routing ties, and microphone matrix mixing assignments. To simplify user adjustments, SpeedNav keyboard navigation offers efficient and fast navigation through the Graphical User Environment, using just the keyboard on a laptop.” And watch this space because Stiehl expects to see more Extron products incorporating the new ProDSP engine.

We also recently caught up with Glenn Harris, sales director for EMEA at the Harman Music Group, to explore dbx’s Professional’s ZonePRO Series. He was able to reveal that four new models will be launched at the Frankfurt ProLight and Sound exhibition in April. The new additions will build on the 640, 641, 1260 and 1261 models, that have proved popular in retail applications, ramping up DSP power and providing additional microphone inputs. The new “M” models; 640M, 641M, 1260M and 1261M; also allow selectable dynamic processing on every mic/line input. The 640M and 641M incorporate a mid/route mixer and all four models have an ambient noise-levelling feature. Harris expects typical applications to include houses of worship, fitness venues, retail environments, bars and restaurants, small conference venues and boardrooms.

Another product not yet released, yet hotly anticipated, is Lab.gruppen’s Lake Processor – the LM 26. This is Lab.gruppen’s first standalone processor and is scheduled for launch around September 2009. Doug Green, product manager at Lab.gruppen, said the digital loudspeaker processor had, rather surprisingly, attracted a lot of interest from the residential market, which highlights its suitability for smaller applications. It accepts audio signals as analogue, AES digital or via Audinate’s advanced digital audio network at 48 kHz and 96 kHz sampling rates. Automatic input priority switching may be enabled and the unit can function as both an input matrix mixer and Dante break-in box.

Yamaha is also celebrating a first, having just released the IMX644, its first zone mixer. Scott Fraser, installation manager at Yamaha, said the product was particularly suited to bar work with the ability to pre-set fairly complicated configurations that can be called up by pressing one of four front-panel buttons. “We suffer in the industry from an affliction called ‘Have button will press’,” joked Fraser. “With this you can lock people out who are not authorised to access the advanced functionality. So the bar manager just has to press a button for Monday nights, a different button for Tuesday nights and so on. We also have an input on the back of the product so fire alarm systems can be automatically linked in.”

Dynacord first introduced its new Promatrix 8000 system at the 2008 security show in Essen. According to Nils Schächtele, Dynacord product manager, an important development on this product was moving the configuration control and monitoring software into Iris-Net. Furthermore the size of the internal matrix of the main unit was made bigger. “Originally on the Promatrix 4000 system we had a four by four matrix. Now we have a flexible matrix which allows up to 16 inputs and up to 16 outputs, using up to two input blocks or two output blocks – the product is very flexible because you can configure them anyway you like”. Although remaining tight-lipped about specifics, Schächtele also told us to watch out for further product developments at Frankfurt’s ProLight and Sound Exhibition next month.

And last, but by no means least, we took a look at Biamp’s Nexia line-up. Matt Czyzewski, VP of engineering at the company took us through the range. “The entire Nexia lineup – including Nexia CS (conference system), Nexia PM (presentation mixer), Nexia SP (speaker processor) Nexia TC (teleconference) and Nexia VC (videoconference)– is designed with a network-friendly open architecture to help create economical, intuitive solutions,” he said. “Each Nexia was designed to handle a specific application and is pre-programmed with a standard system file. If the file isn’t exactly what is required, the internal system design is completely user definable via PC software allowing you to customise the design for your specific needs. Multi-unit Nexia systems can be created utilising Ethernet and NexLink digital audio linking, allowing users to network units and features as needed without excess investment upfront.”

There’s a huge amount of functionality out there to be had and these products predominantly apply powerful features literally at the touch of a button. To return to the bar example, if the DSP product is set up correctly, your average manager can implement a sophisticated audio system with no fuss and minimum effort. Link to Article

It’s an IT manager’s nightmare: You’re tasked with setting up a videoconferencing room for your company or campus. Everyone seems excited about the room, but once it has been integrated, the equipment sits there unused and your finance department is questioning the expense. What went wrong, and how can you keep it from happening again?

Before you even buy the room, make sure you understand what your users intend to do with it, says Jonathan Shor, director of technology of McCann Systems LLC, an AV design/build firm in Edison, NJ. “Videoconferencing rooms seem to be Ôthe thing to do’ these days, and some clients will ask us for a room without any usage planning,” Shor says. “Often, the people involved in the budget/design process aren’t the people who are going to use the rooms – and these people don’t talk with each other.” Shor says his company has seen situations where the actual user isn’t brought into the process until the room has been completed. “This person may have a comprehensive list of things he wants to do with the room and the room won’t meet those needs,” he says.

HIGH TECH ISN’T FOR EVERYONE
The attraction of advanced technology can be a downfall. Planners envision their users coolly walking into a room full of high-tech “gadgets,” activating a flashy touchscreen panel, and smoothly bringing up all of the equipment and remote sites for the meeting. In reality, many users find the technology very intimidating and the fear of “messing something up” will keep them out of the room.

The lure of HD videoconferencing is an example of technology that everyone seems to want, but not everyone needs. “It is almost like we are back in the early videoconferencing days of the ’80s with dedicated rooms that cost a half a million dollars to fit out,” says Steve Thorburn, principal of Thorburn Associates, an acoustic and technology consulting company. “But I challenge clients to truly determine who they need to ‘video’ with before planning a room. We ask our clients, ‘Who are you going to talk to and what do you need to share?’ Once you know your position and can defend that, then the designers can help engineer the system and room that you need.”

Thorburn notes that there are many standalone, off-the-shelf videoconferencing systems that may be perfectly adequate for the initial conferencing requirements of users. “Don’t get seduced by the technology,” he says. “You must walk before you run with the features. This is no different than trying to start your exercise routine with an ironman triathlon after 20 years of sitting behind a desk. If you try to do too much, regardless of best intentions, your team will fail.”

Ron Maus, a senior project manager in the Real Estate and Workplace Services group at a Silicon Valley high-tech company, concurs. He maintains that advanced technology should only be purchased based on the technical sophistication of the users. “There is no value to state-of-the-art if the user cannot understand how to initiate the device or how to use it to achieve their meeting goals,” Maus says. “If a room is not being booked at our firm or there are repeat complaints about it, the complaints often focus on the failure to build out the room for intuitive use by the widest range of occupants.”

“Consider how you conduct meetings now, before purchasing your conferencing room,” says Thorburn. “You’ll need the same computer and graphic camera inputs and other devices that you are using now. If you use flip charts in your face-to-face meetings, you should start with being able to display those flip charts at the far end, then, as you are weaned to a more efficient video-based collaboration system, you might try application sharing or something as simple as using a document camera. No matter what, the system should match your work flow – not the other way around.”

Maus says his company provides videoconferencing facilities ranging from small systems to full training centers, and each room has been designed with a specific purpose in mind and a specific set of technology for the users. “Performance is relative to the room size,” he says. For example, Maus says, small rooms may find value-add in tabletop projectors or LCD/plasma screens, limited lighting controls, mechanical shades as necessary, and decent voice conference capability. Medium-sized rooms could integrate “smart” panels, more flexible lighting and controls, advanced AV control, and possible upgrade to HD depending upon the predominant type of video source and material. Large and multi-purpose rooms open the door to all the “bells and whistles” based upon need and the users’ technical sophistication.

TRAINING AND ROOM MANAGEMENT
Another key to success, says Jonathan Shor, is putting in the right level of support for the people who will be using the rooms. “It’s important to instill in the users’ minds the fact that they need continual training,” he says. “We warrant our systems for a year, including training sessions. After that year is up, we propose a service contract that includes preventative maintenance and additional training sessions.” Shor says many companies will try to “make do” with the initial training but after a while, the personnel who were trained may leave the company and their expertise will be lost. A danger of losing that expertise, he says, is potential misuse of equipment.

An example is the SmartBoard interactive whiteboard panel. Shor says this product, which shares whiteboard content between sites, can be an extremely effective collaboration tool for videoconferencing, but “if people aren’t trained, we’ve seen this advanced piece of equipment end up being used as a marker board with the users having no clue as to its capabilities.”

If you’ve done your advance planning well and your conference rooms are getting a lot of use, Maus says you should consider hiring a third-party contractor to manage room reservations, catering, and support so that the rooms will operate more efficiently. “The firm we use [Sodexho] inspects and audits rooms before, during, and after use. They have a standard approach to obtaining needs from the user prior to booking them into a room,” he says.

Maus says another contractor is utilized at their firm to conduct full building occupancy surveys; this contractor collaborates with the room management contractor to identify situations where a user group might be trying to use a videoconferencing room for something other than its intended purpose. “If a user wants to do customer training, or set up a PC/server lab or some other non-conferencing use, our space managers will work with that user group to identify appropriate space other than a conference room,” Maus says. With this type of management, he notes, the videoconferencing rooms at his company are in use constantly and are providing effective ROI for the company. “Once we are able to create an well-performing room for customers, it is heavily used and often taken on as a private room by an executive.”

CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
In addition to usage planning and training issues, other aspects of the room’s design must be considered. “The architecture, finishes, acoustics, cooling, and lighting should be designed to support collaborative environments,” Thorburn says. Network connections must also be carefully considered; if your network will only support lower bit rate conferencing devices, don’t try to implement HD right away. “When you look at HD videoconferencing, your connection to the ‘communication cloud’ [the internet] needs to be fast,” Thorburn says. “You will need a T-1 data connection for HD and you will not have any bandwidth left for anything else – no VoIP, no internet, no VPN. Your clients need to be aware of this. You also need to make sure you have backward compatibility with sites that do not have HD capabilities. If not, your HD room may be useless for talking with non-HD sites.”

Ultimately, the key to success with a conference room – or any use of AV technology – is advance planning. Talk with your users to find out what they need, give them the tools they need to accomplish their goals, and train them on correct usage. The result will be a well-used facility and satisfied clients, with few questions about the investment. Elaine Jones is principal of Elaine Jones Associates, an independent marketing/PR firm based in Salt Lake City. She can be reached at elaine@ejonespr.com. Link to Story

Examination of your proposals can save a good deal of money.

Most AV Technology readers work in a technology-oriented field or manage some type of high-tech system whether it is IT related, AV related, or even security systems. Nowadays, we are all probably more than just a little overwhelmed with things to do on a daily basis. This is very true in a time when technology budgets and headcounts are frozen or shrinking drastically. So when you receive proposals from a company for anything related to AV, you should know how to weed out items that don’t deliver the value that your shrinking budget might require. Here are several ways to avoid spending unnecessary dollars when reviewing a typical proposal from a vendor in the $100,000 range.

If you’re buying a projector, immediately find the make and model your vendor has suggested and go to www.projectorcentral.com. You can search for projectors by specification there, and you will instantly know whether or not you are getting the most bang for the buck. [Careful evaluation of your proposed projector can possibly save 5 percent of a $100,000 system's cost!] However, if your company has any corporate standards already in place, you should adhere to them, even if it does cost a bit more money.

Say that a vendor has included ceiling loudspeakers in their proposal. Require that they do a reflected ceiling plan and consider the coverage of the proposed loudspeaker system. As a rule of thumb, if you have a 10-foothigh ceiling, your loudspeaker speakers should be at least 8 to10 feet apart. Any closer together and you are probably buying too many loudspeakers. I cannot tell you how many times I have walked into an airport, nightclub, or retail venue and just been appalled at how many loudspeakers a vendor will sell someone. [This can save you perhaps 3 percent of a $100,000 system's cost!]

Take a good quick look at the video switching that your vendor has built into their proposal. All too often I will come across a system in a boardroom or conference room that has a 12 x 8 RGBHV matrix in it. If you need one, that’s fine; but if the system only has a single laptop input and a videoconference codec, anything larger then a 4 x 4 RGBHV matrix is overkill. This can usually represent a rather significant cost savings. So as a rule of thumb, always demand that your vendor provide you with an exact justification for each input on a matrix switcher, with reasonable consideration for future system expansion. [This can save you perhaps 7 percent of a $100,000 system's cost!]

Another area that should receive some attention is audio amplifiers. If you ever see the same number of amplifier channels as there are loudspeakers, there should be a profound siren buzzing inside your head. Astoundingly, this happens more often then one might think. Vendors will often suggest that extra amplifier channels are needed to provide users with a “mix-minus” audio distribution system; however this need has really only arisen twice in my 190-plus project, 11-year career. So it’s a good idea to make sure that your vendor has put some thought into how to best appropriate amplifier channels to loudspeakers. [This can save you perhaps 2 percent of a $100,000 system's cost!]

Your control system is another area that should get should be scrutinized. A big portion of your system cost can sometimes be associated with the type of touchpanel you may employ. Most control system manufacturers provide a broad array of sizes and capabilities. For a boardroom system, no matter how important the room may be, I have seldom seen a need for a touchpanel larger then 10 inches. The reason for this is because the cost for a typical 10-inch touchpanel is about $4,800. Prices for a 12-inch touchpanel come in at $12,000, and pricing for a 17-inch panel is $13,600 and above. [This can save you perhaps 7 percent of a $100,000 system's cost!]

Lastly, you can also strive to save money by looking into the type of cable a vendor has chosen to use. There is a recognizable cost difference between plenum and non-plenum cabling. Plenum cabling is always more expensive because it is designed to be employed in spaces within a building that are used for ventilation. Because of this, they could be subjected to open flames in the event of a fire. Therefore they must not burn easily and they must not emit toxic fumes. A vendor should always inquire, or be able to determine whether or not they will be running wire in a plenum environment. If they are not, they should not use the more expensive plenumrated cables. Many vendors use plenum cable by default, and never take the time to consider whether it is actually needed. [This can save you perhaps 2 percent of a $100,000 system's cost!]

Given all of the aforementioned avenues for savings on a typical $100,000 system, it isn’t unthinkable that a keen eye could easily find ways to save up to 26% for every $100,000 of AV system. So the next time a vendor slides a proposal across your desk, take a quick, efficient look at projectors, loudspeakers, matrix switching, amplifiers, touchpanels, and cable types. Your budget will not regret it!

Joey D’Angelo is a principal consultant with Charles M. Salter Associates in San Francisco, CA, and specializes in AV/telecommunication systems. Joey is also a musician in a punk rock band where he plays guitar and performs lead vocals. He can be reached at joseph.dangelo@cmsalter.com. Link to Article

Wireless should be a perfect fit for installations that need to be fast, clean and neat. So why is it still a niche technology? Tim Kridel finds out. The percentage of enterprises that have upgraded their PCs to Windows Vista is in the single digits, according to a July 2008 Forrester Research study. In the U.K. market, a May 2008 Computer Business Review survey of IT managers found that about 2 percent had upgraded, a figure that Microsoft said matches its estimates.

That adoption affects the market for wireless enterprise AV products, particularly projectors. Here’s why: It’s often difficult to walk into a conference room, turn on your laptop, have it search for the wireless projector and then connect. By comparison, it’s relatively straightforward to find and connect to a corporate wireless local area network (WLAN) or public “hot spot” using 802.11 Wi-Fi.

In fact, some integrators and vendors say that this basic process of finding and connecting is so difficult that it’s helped stymie the market for wireless AV products. Some AV vendors have addressed the lack of plug-and-play functionality by providing software that clients install on their laptops to automate the task of finding and connecting to a display or projector. But that approach has a few drawbacks:

Some enterprises are reluctant to allow more software to be loaded onto employee laptops, if only because it increases the chances of conflicts that could cause the notebook to crash. On older, less capable laptops, the software also could tax the processor and memory, undermining performance, especially when running a slide presentation at the same time.

The software would have to be provided to non-employees, such as visitors who want to use a conference room’s projector to make a presentation. That’s even more of a problem in convention centers, where nearly every user is a visitor. And even if the software is available, the user might not be able to install it because of the way that their employer has configured their laptop. “Maybe they don’t have the administrative rights to add that software,” says Rich McPherson, a product manager at NEC Display Solutions.

It’s here that Windows Vista comes into play. Just as previous versions of the operating system automatically found printers on a network, Vista adds the ability to find and connect to projectors on a network – including wireless ones.

“You don’t need a software suite residing on your computer,” says McPherson, whose company worked with Microsoft to add support for its projectors. “It’s built into the [operating] system.”

But one catch is that as a result, adoption of wireless AV products hinges partly on enterprise adoption of Vista. If more enterprises decide to hang onto their existing laptops until the economy rebounds, Vista could remain the exception rather than the rule. And with Vista’s successor possibly due for release as early as the second half of 2009, some enterprises may skip Vista and just wait for Windows 7.

In the case of conference room projectors, another concern is the impact on laptops – and not just in terms of adding software to facilitate connections. Depending on the laptop, pushing video over Wi-Fi can be a real struggle, to the point that it’s noticeable.

“The CPU on the notebook gets all consumed with trying to keep up with pushing video, and you wind up with jerky video, even with today’s high-performance notebooks,” says Mitch Friend, senior vice president and general manager at Avocent.

Why Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi should be a natural fit for AV applications such as digital signage, particularly in places – such as malls and airports – where jackhammering up the floor to run cables to new displays isn’t an option. That hurdle can be even bigger when the client leases the space, requiring the landlord’s permission to install cables.

As digital signage becomes common in more places – from atop gas pumps to above urinals in night-club restrooms – so does the likelihood that integrators will have to get creative in terms of getting video to those displays. Even if snaking cable, say, through a drop ceiling is an option, it might not be the best one.

Yet another issue is how the space is used. For example, if it’s a store, the client might want the work done only between closing and opening – odd hours that can mean labour surcharges.

By comparison, Wi-Fi often can be installed faster and thus cheaper. For example, Avocent says one integrator using its wireless products saved more than $5,000 (€3,850), while another installation took just three hours.

Why not Wi-Fi?
But not all integrators and vendors are sold on Wi-Fi. One common concern is reliability.

“Dealers have told me they would not spec a wireless video distribution for their clients due to the reliability factor,” says Kevin Schroll, senior product planning manager at Sharp.

For example, Wi-Fi signals have a range of about 100m, depending on the version of the 802.11 standard. However, that distance can be reduced by half or two-thirds depending on physical obstructions, such as walls, and on interference from microwaves, cordless phones and the client’s existing WLAN. All of that can produce an intermittent signal, cut the bandwidth down to the point that it struggles to handle video or both.

“Connectivity is real problematic for some digital signage packages in that if they can not touch the network for a period of time, the player goes to a blank screen or locks up,” says Mike White, CTS, president of Multi-Media Solutions, a U.S.-based integrator, and governor-at-large for Infocomm. “Of course, the better players and packages do not do that, but [it's] a reality for some.”

Another factor that can affect reliability is whether the signage piggybacks on the client’s existing WLAN – perhaps to reduce hardware costs – or has its own, dedicated WLAN. If it’s sharing the client’s WLAN, then the ability to get video out to each display in a timely manner is at the mercy of other traffic on the WLAN.

For example, if employees routinely send 20 MB files to one another over the WLAN, plus the usual load of e-mail and even voice telephony, there might be not be much bandwidth left over for the signage application. That’s just one of many issues to consider when assessing whether the client’s WLAN can reliably support digital signage. But finding out can be a challenge.

“Many locations that say that their network can be used have no idea of existing bandwidth,” White says. “Some don’t even know their own passwords, and certainly there is security exposure.”

In fact, security concerns are a major reason why some enterprises won’t allow signage, projectors or other AV gear onto their WLAN.

“Those guys are always sensitive to anything that’s going to be on their network,” says Avocent’s Friend.

Some clients have other reasons for not wanting to put AV gear on their WLANs.

“Usually they don’t want it connected to the network because they want just that specific room to have access,” says NEC’s McPherson, whose company currently has six AV products with embedded wireless.

Staying Separate
Even if there’s a separate WLAN for signage, projectors and other AV gear, bandwidth, range and reliability remain concerns. It’s here that the choice of Wi-Fi technology can be critical.

For example, the 802.11b version of Wi-Fi – the most widely used – runs in the 2.4 GHz band. So if the client already has a WLAN that uses 802.11b, it might make sense to run the AV applications over a different version of Wi-Fi, simply to avoid interference, which can reduce bandwidth on both networks. One option is 802.11a, which uses the 5 GHz band.

“One of the reasons why we’ve operated in 802.11a versus 802.11b and 802.11g is then we’re pretty much guaranteed that we’ll stay away from all of the WLAN traffic,” Friend says.

Besides avoiding interference, the choice of Wi-Fi standard affects performance and reliability in other ways, too. For example, one reason why 802.11a and 802.11g are popular is because they provide more bandwidth than 802.11b: up to 54 Mbps versus 802.11b’s 11 Mbps. Bandwidth directly affects the ability to support applications such as video.

Different Wi-Fi technologies also have different amounts of channels available, based partly on what the standard supports and partly on what regulators in a particular country allow. So if there’s a lot of interference – a good possibility in a public place such as airport or office building – then the integrator may have more options with a technology such as 802.11a for moving the AV traffic to a clear channel. (For more details about each 802.11 technology’s capabilities, visit www.wi-fi.org.)

However, one caveat applies to all Wi-Fi technologies: Roughly half of the maximum bandwidth is eaten up by radio overhead, with the remaining amount potentially whittled further by factors such as physical obstructions, distance and interference.

N is for newcomer
One way to improve the chances that enough bandwidth will be available is to use the Wi-Fi technology that supports the most. That’s 802.11n, which supports peak speeds of 300 Mbps.

The big catch is that the 802.11n standard hasn’t been officially finalised and approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and probably won’t be until sometime in 2009. But that hasn’t stopped makers of laptops and WLAN hardware from shipping 802.11n products.

In fact, many of those have been available for more than two years. That’s noteworthy because it means there’s now a large and growing installed base of 802.11n products in the enterprise space. So if a client has already deployed 802.11n, then it might make sense to use that technology in, for example, projectors or displays.

Avocent’s MPX1550 wireless extender is one new pro AV product that supports 802.11n. Aimed at signage applications, the MPX1550 features three antennas, which highlights one of 802.11n’s benefits: The standard uses multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology to help work around interference and weak signals, thereby improving reliability and bandwidth.

The MPX1550 also shows how the choice of wireless standard affects the types of video that can be supported, such as HD.

“On the wireless side, we limited that to 20 Mbps maximum bandwidth [on its predecessor],” Friend says. “With the 1550, we’ve increased that 450 percent to 110 Mbps in a [one-device-to-one-device] scenario.”

That enables loss-less video, which can be a decisive factor for some applications.

“Around 110-120 Mbps, it’s equivalent to a cable,” Friend says.

Tim Kridel
Tim Kridel is a free-lance writer who covers technology and telecom for a variety of publications and analyst firms. He’s based in the U.S. city of Columbia, Mo., and can be reached at inavate@imlgroup.co.uk. Link to Story

There’s no doubt that the demand for communications bandwidth has increased in recent years and that demand will continue to increase as more consumers, enterprises, and schools adopt IP-based technologies. Cisco estimates that global IP traffic will exceed half a zettabyte by 2012. (How much is a zettabyte? It’s one trillion gigabytes.) To reach that number, Cisco says, global IP traffic will nearly double every two years. A major contributor to the growing bandwidth usage is video – peer to peer, TV, and video on demand being responsible for much of the increase. In the enterprise world, new bandwidth demands are coming from videoconferencing, video streaming, and VoIP applications.

Business videoconferencing primarily used ISDN data lines until just a few years ago. That changed around 2004, based on estimates by Wainhouse Research – during that year, IP became the most common method for hosting videoconference calls. Now, virtually all videoconferencing endpoints offer IP capability as the network standard; ISDN connectivity costs extra and, in some cases, is not available at all.

How are videoconferencing applications affecting bandwidth needs in the enterprise? A single high definition (HD) video call requires between 1 and 4 Mbps for optimal quality; a telepresence room could require 20-plus Mbps. Add extra conferencing rooms for daily collaboration, video streaming for employee training, your VoIP system, and so on, and your overall bandwidth requirement could be huge. Another important factor is the allowable burden on your network, which is typically less than 30 percent of the rated capacity. Although your HD call may only consume 1 to 4 Mb of network traffic, the network capacity needed to handle that burden could be in the range of 14 Mb. “A few years ago, companies needed just a couple megabytes of network service for videoconferencing; today, in many cases, they need 10, 20, 50 Mbps or more,” says Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research.

The way that companies are acquiring bigger bandwidth “pipes” is also evolving. “Ten years ago, companies were putting in point-to-point connections with dedicated T1s or DS3s, in effect building their own video network – so the cost of increasing bandwidth was massive,” says Weinstein. “If you wanted to add a new location to your network, you had to add one (or more than one) T1 line.” Weinstein says this method of bandwidth topology, although still in use within some enterprises, is less flexible than other options now available. “Cloud-based networks, such as MPLS (multi protocol label switching), have dramatically eased the cost of high-quality network transport,” he says. “MPLS customers incur two types of costs; a local access fee for the connection (sometimes called the ‘last mile’ or ‘local loop’) between their building and the cloud, and a network access fee (called a port fee) for the traffic they’ll be routing through the provider’s backbone. Combined, these costs are typically much lower than the cost of creating your own end-to-end data network.”

Your location is a prime factor in determining the price you’ll pay for bandwidth. The closer you are to the service provider’s point of presence (PoP), the less you’ll have to pay. Another factor is the network performance or quality of service (QoS) required for your environment. “If you run multiple applications on a converged network, meaning you’re putting video, audio, and standard traffic on a single LAN/WAN, QoS is a key part of maintaining audio and video performance while protecting other network traffic,” says Weinstein. “Realtime applications cannot tolerate high levels of latency, packet loss, and jitter that occur on many networks. QoS allows an organization to prioritize real-time traffic over more forgiving, non-real-time traffic, like email and web browsing.” According to Weinstein, most MPLS providers now offer a number of different QoS options at varying price points.

The volume you’ll be buying also plays a huge role in the price you’ll pay for bandwidth, says Dr. Mike Jude, research analyst at Nemertes Research. “If you’re willing to buy bandwidth in large quantities, you tend to get a discount per bit,” says Jude. One way to drive your costs down is to consolidate your traffic so you can buy a larger pipe. “For example, a group of school districts could get together and negotiate as a single entity with carriers. If they can guarantee a certain level of service with that carrier, they will get better pricing,” he says. The second way is to negotiate with multiple vendors, Jude suggests. “You can play the rates of one carrier against the rates of the other and get some advantageous pricing. Carriers are fiercely competitive; if you are willing to sign contracts for extended periods of time, you can build into those contracts options to renegotiate your pricing at periodic intervals, which will get you a better price up front.”

Jude says another option is to leave the negotiating to someone else by using a “bandwidth manager” – a company that does not physically own any networks but purchases bandwidth in bulk from a number of vendors. A bandwidth manager is useful if you want route diversity – an important factor for enterprises that want quick disaster recovery, data security, etc. If one carrier’s service slips, the bandwidth manager switches your service to a different carrier. If you are lucky enough to own a right of way (a physical location where fiber or other lines can be run), you have yet another option for reducing your bandwidth costs. “Some enterprises such as railroads who have extensive rights of way have planted fiber along those paths, and they can lease that fiber in exchange for service,” Jude says. Some universities also have rights of way and access to spectrum that can give them bargaining power. “We know of one university that has some spectrum that they are allowing Verizon to use, and Verizon is in turn off ing them discounts for both spectrum and wired access,” says Jude.

Network costs can be considerable, and CFOs always want to see justification for expenses. Wainhouse’s Weinstein urges planning. “Enterprises should evaluate their network traffic and QoS requirements and purchase the appropriate network services,” he says, but notes that the benefits of the network go beyond the numbers on the books. “Bandwidth is the circulatory system of the organization, and yes, it costs money,” Weinstein says. “However, people need to realize that the network empowers productivity. Network-centric applications such as videoconferencing save time and money while increasing efficiency. For example, by using videoconferencing, a salesperson can meet with five significant clients in one day without leaving the office. Imagine the impact this would have on the bottom line. Similarly, senior managers in different locations can conduct face-to-face interviews with a job candidate over a single day without the hassle and expense of business travel. The result is that a four-week hiring cycle be mes only a few days. Imagine the benefit of enabling your global R&D team to meet face-to-face on a daily basis while working on a new product? Equipment prices may change, and bandwidth costs may vary, but the overall value these systems bring to the organization is massive. That’s the real story.”

Original Source: http://www.avtechnologyonline.com/article/

Over the decades, technology has helped eradicate or stifle any number of human afflictions, from polio to measles to malaria. But there’s one that technology hasn’t dented – in fact, it’s one that has technology as its root cause.

Technophobia, loosely defined as an inordinate fear of or resistance to using technology, is still with us despite its increasing ubiquity in homes and in the workplace. Sufferers can be as immovable and contrary as ever, as the senior educational technology engineer at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, discovered.

Once, in the course of explaining how to operate a new classroom AV control system to an instructor, Rick Nimtz got a glimpse into the mindset of the technophobe. “As I was explaining it, he started speaking in Spanish, and I told him I didn’t understand what he was talking about,” says Nimtz. “Then he says, ‘Hey, just listen closely and pay attention; it’s easy to learn.’ That humbled me a little bit.”

Translation: Technology may be approachable for many, but for others it can be as confusing, frustrating, and scary as being dropped into a foreign country.

Indeed, even as technology crowds its way into our lives, forced immersion has hardly immunized everyone from “technophobia.” Attrition, innovation, and the march of time have thinned their ranks and eased their discomfort, but technophobes are alive and, arguably, well, complicating the lives of technology users and purveyors in the process, not to mention their own.

Technophobia probably goes back to the early days of telegraph and telephony. Its modern roots can be traced to the dawn of the personal computer. But advanced AV tools are fast becoming the new bogeyman for many who fear or resist technology. Even as AV puts the more practical and useful face on technology that everyone has sought by revolutionizing entertainment, education, and communication, to technophobes it’s a whole new source of jitters.

But AV’s increasing prevalence means it’s harder than ever for technophobes to hide, especially in settings where it’s becoming part of the backdrop. In environments ranging from the classroom to the business meeting to the courtroom, the technophobe of varying stripes is evolving from a harmless curiosity to a real nuisance and potential roadblock for institutions, co-workers, and technology managers.

INSTITUTIONAL TECHNOPHOBES
At Notre Dame, Nimtz has had his share of struggles introducing AV technology into classrooms. While he has introduced classroom lecterns with built-in controls for DVD and VCR players and ceiling-mounted projectors and document cameras, more than a few instructors were brought along kicking and screaming. Some, he says, either didn’t see a need for AV technology or balked at investing the time needed to learn it.

“It seems like the longer someone has been teaching, the less apt they are to accept it, and part of the reason is the amount of work involved,” Nimtz says. “It does take time to learn it and also develop lesson plans to work with technology.”

Others, like an instructor who labored over a detailed, color-coded diagram of the Civil War on 30 feet of blackboard space as Nimtz taped his class, just prefer doing the things the old-fashioned way. A new source of instructor pushback is coming as Nimtz tries to introduce electronic whiteboard technology.

“A lot still like chalk, and the reason is that they know when they walk into a classroom that it’s going to work,” he says. “With a whiteboard they’re never totally certain.”

But avoidance is fast becoming a luxury that those who fear or resist the march of AV technology can no longer indulge. So it’s falling to Nimtz and other institutional technology managers to develop strategies to bring existing technophobes along and ensure that the pace and manner of technology implementation is calibrated to ensure new technophobes aren’t created.

One pillar of the approach is a clear communication of technology’s benefits. Technophobes have typically defended their stance by arguing that technology is just so much gimmickry. The world worked fine without it, they say, and besides, what’s the difference if they just choose not to participate. The only way some technophobes can be “cured,” some managers say, is by showing them that technology can make a demonstrable difference.

In the educational arena, where committed teachers are constantly searching for better ways to impart knowledge, showing technophobes the difference technology makes shouldn’t be hard, says Randy Jackson, assistant director of technology services for the University of Washington, in Seattle. With AV technology continuing to prove its value as an instructional tool, Jackson believes even the most technophobic instructors can be coaxed into letting down their defenses. A lot of it depends on how skilled implementers are in selecting technology and framing its introduction, he says.

“You have to promote the benefits, bring it back to the idea that technology can make learning more exciting and teaching easier,” says Jackson. “Make that the goal, not the successful rollout of another piece of technology for technology’s sake.”

If technophobes in the educational arena can’t be sold solely on AV’s ability to improve how instructors teach, they might be swayed by its impact on how students learn and what they expect. As new generations of ever more techsavvy students emerge, instructors will have to be able to use AV and IT tools to be taken seriously. For technophobes, the fear of being seen by students as incompetent or out-of-touch may trump fear of technology.

“Students are now so comfortable with technology that they expect to see things like PowerPoint and smartboards used in class,” Nimtz says. “So I see a certain amount of instructors not wanting to be seen fumbling with technology. If they can see how technology relates to usability and enhancing their teaching capabilities, they’ll be more inclined to learn it.”

DEFEATING ANTI-TECHNOLOGY THOUGHTS
Some committed technophobes, though, insist that technology not only doesn’t add anything useful, but that it’s a net negative. Frederic Lederer, chancellor professor of law and director of the Center for Legal and Court Technology (CLCT) and the Courtroom 21 project at the College of William & Mary School of Law, Williamsburg, VA, says some technophobic legal professionals take the view that emerging AV presentation and distance conferencing technology in legal proceedings actually gets in the way.

“I’ve found that mediators, for instance, by and large find the concept difficult,” Lederer says. “To them, mediation means having everyone in the same room and being able to have a conference at the water cooler. They have a general world view that technology is a barrier to those efforts.”

In running CLCT and Courtroom 21, which are helping foster leading-edge courtroom technology adoption, Lederer says he’s learning the importance of justifying and clearly demonstrating technology’s utility. “There’s a deep-seated disbelief among some attorneys that it’s beneficial, so we have to educate as to why it should be used and how it can be helpful,” he says. “Our hope at CLCT is that, regardless of how apprehensive some may be, they know it’s a tool that at least sometimes is good.”

While addressing “techno-skeptica” is part of the formula for dealing with technophobia, helping technophobes confront their fear of actually using AV technology still poses the biggest challenge. Whether the fear relates to “breaking” something, their ability to comprehend, learn, and use it, or uncertainty that it will work reliably, technology managers often must confront deep-seated apprehension.

Ernie Bailey, director of audiovisual services at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, says he tries to keep a lid on staff technophobia by focusing on technology education and ease of use. A “Teaching With Technology Resource Center” helps educate and familiarize instructors with emerging classroom AV and IT. “We strive to make devices as user-friendly as possible so we don’t see fear in the instructors’ eyes when they walk into a classroom,” he says. “Our rule for integrators that we hire to design new room systems is that it takes a minimum of two touches on a control panel to get an image on a screen.”

ADDRESSING GLITCHES
Inevitably, though, technology will fail on occasion. When it does, technophobes need to be reassured that glitches can be quickly addressed. For that reason, says Jackson, technology managers must develop a robust support network that can swing into action to correct problems. More importantly, the existence of that support needs to be communicated.

“You can’t just put this technology into a classroom and say, ‘Here it is, figure it out,’ and not provide any support on the back end,” he says. “In the education arena, in particular, we need that capability to solve problems immediately because it’s a fast-paced environment where classrooms can change over in 10 minutes.”

While it’s important to address technophobes’ fears, Jackson cautions against going too far in “dumbing down” technology. For one thing, technophobes’ ranks could thin as more people become ever more comfortable with technology, although he senses some may be perpetually behind as the pace of technological change quickens. Additionally, putting too much emphasis on user-friendliness may be shortsighted.

“In the education environment, you really need to have tools that are complex enough to really bring about deep changes in learning,” he says. “That may mean having tools that require a steep learning curve, but which can bring about the goal of creating a more robust and interesting learning environment.”

And overindulging technophobes also may amount to selling them and, indeed, even the human race short, Jackson adds. “Humans are adaptable and can learn to do complex things,” he says. “The key to dealing with technophobia may be making the goal of learning and feeling comfortable with it so compelling that you’ll invest the time and effort to overcome it.” Link to Story

A boardroom installation offers the system designer a chance to really shine in terms of using the latest technologies and products to deliver an aesthetically and technologically impressive space for the customer. Chris Fitzsimmons reports on the trends in the market.

An organisation’s boardroom often represents the pinnacle of its audiovisual investment. Here, critical business decisions are made on the basis of the information available to the directors or executives of a company. It’s therefore vital that the information is presented in as clear a way as possible, and that everyone around the table gets their voice fairly heard.

The boardroom is also the company’s showcase facility and as such, aesthetics are often as important a consideration as the technology itself. Discrete integration of equipment and furniture leads to a stylish and inspiring workspace.

A case in point is the newly refurbished boardroom of international pharmaceutical company Zentiva, in Prague. The job was carried out by AV Media, and senior sales consultant Zdenek Rychetnik described the project as being “a representative solution, which met the company’s requirement for modern technologies as well as good design.”

At first glance, it looks like an elegant meeting room with some AV equipment installed, but this belies the truth. Aside from the two large plasma screens, which are visible, there is a hidden electronic projection system should a larger display be required. There is also a pair of ceiling mounted document cameras, and carefully concealed table-top tanks for all connections that might be required.

This kind of project is replicated across the region, as integrators leverage the reduction in size of input devices such as cameras and microphones, and increases in space efficiency of large format display devices.

A good example of this is the reduction in the adoption of rear-projection technology. Once the staple of any company that wanted to avoid having a projector hanging from the ceiling, the reduction in cost of large format LCD and Plasma displays has meant that much better resolution and clarity can be achieved at lower space costs. Rear projection does however remain an important tool if aesthetics are an absolute priority and the space is available.

The inevitable discussion about the choice of display size throws up some interesting results. Channel distributor Steljes’s Mark Bird reckons the most popular size still to be around the 42” mark for plasma and 40” for LCD, whilst Julian Philips, MD of integrator Impact Marcom believes that 50” is the most common sell into the corporate market, with demand for both 60” and 65” models strong in the boardroom. Clearly nothing is set in stone, but Asysco’s MD Richard Brookes believes both display technology and size should be selected on the basis of application:

“The decision to choose LCD or Plasma flat screen technology depends on the display application. Plasma provides a more film like performance and is therefore suited to video emulation or controlled data emulation. LCD is suited to high quality video emulation and data emulation. Screen sizes are selected to suit the viewing distance.”

The Zentiva boardroom shown in the photo uses twin 65” plasma displays.

Projection is the other side of the display coin. The most commonly installed resolution remains XGA, but both Impact Marcom and Asysco believe that WXGA is gaining significant traction. On the brightness front, there is a continuing march towards higher brightness. 5000 ANSI lumens is not uncommon according to Asysco’s Brookes. High brightness projection allows the user to go for longer throw lenses and to avoid dimming the lights while the projection system is in use. Another advantage is the ability to run projectors in so-called “eco mode” reducing operating brightness and extending the lamp life.

One of the drivers for the change in boardroom technology is video conferencing. What was once an application built into a dedicated suite, is now firmly integrated into the boardroom environment. Products such as telepresence require HD displays and increased network bandwidth. All parties are observing the migration from ISDN-2 to IP as the preferred transport mechanism, but this is bringing AV more into conflict with IT as the fight for bandwidth intensifies. This miss-match between bandwidth required and available is illustrated by Richard Brookes: “HD solutions are now being widely adopted, however it’s worth noting that you require 1 mb bandwidth each way on an HD call. Therefore in practice, whilst many firms are deploying HD ready equipment SD resolutions are being operated in the first instance due to bandwidth restrictions.”

Sound in the boardroom has never been particularly sexy. Despite the best efforts of various manufacturers, the loudspeaker is unsightly, and nowhere is the demand for invisible, floating speakers more great. Mark Bird from Steljes describes one alternative in the shape of flat panel ceiling loudspeakers from Armstrong. There are of course other suppliers of similar products from the like of Artcoustics and Panphonics.

In the case of larger boardrooms, where there is the requirement for voice reinforcement as well as programme sound, microphone options needs considering. As Petr Smolink, product manager for Audio at AV Media puts it: “No one wants to notice the microphone, but everyone wants studio quality sound. Users prefer wireless lavalier microphones for presenters or cable microphones suspended from the ceiling. More commonly we use goosenecks from presentations and boundary type or suspended modules for teleconferencing or recording.”

Another growth area is the use of wireless microphone technology. Companies such as Revolabs have come to market with simple to use wireless solutions that remove the need to drill holes in boardroom tables and that can be removed when not required.

Dumb microphones as opposed to dedicated discussion systems are the norm in all but the largest boardrooms as there is little need for translation or voting services. However, there is increased adoption of DSP based solutions. As the number of microphones increase, and the adoption of videoconferencing in the boardroom grows too, tools such as acoustic echo cancellation as well as basic EQ functions are required. Another thing that DSP can do for you is to ameliorate some of the problems caused by bad acoustic design in a space. Unusually shaped boardrooms or funky materials can cause all kinds of problems if not carefully thought out and catered for in the AV design.

Of course no self-respecting boardroom would be complete without a sleek, sexy looking touch panel to make it all happen. The subject of control systems is almost a non-issue now. The real discussions lie in how much of the room it controls, and how easy for the user the programmer can make it. Nothing will lose an integrator business faster than a control program that doesn’t work as expected or frustrates the MD of a company with an unclear interface. As one integrator recently put it to me, the dreaded question: “Who put this in?” is not one to bring comfort.

The use of wireless technology is also on the increase for control panels. AV Media’s Zdenek Rychetnik reports “significant” adoption of wireless controllers, whilst Impact Marcom’s Philips says the use of wireless control is now common in his company’s work.

The use of control systems such as AMX or Crestron also allows access to site-wide and even enterprise wide remote control and monitoring. Particularly helpful when that interface isn’t doing what it’s expected to by a frustrated, but less than tech-savvy user.

Interactivity is another technology finding a foothold in the boardroom. The interactive whiteboard is still considered an education product by many. However in a space typically used for sharing and discussing information, there is a clear case for their use. For companies who are willing to take the plunge and combine these technologies with videoconferencing there are obvious benefits.

Steljes’ Mark Bird said: “Historically, collaborative displays have been seen as a ‘nice to have’ rather than a business necessity. However Steljes has recently seen a significant uptake in this category as manufacturers have simplified the experience for the end user.” Bird cites the example of client Computacentre who bought a Smart Technologies solution combining interactive whiteboards with Smart’s Bridgit conferencing software. The company’s international sales director Chris Hanson attributes a 75% drop in his average travel mileage to his adoption of the system.

So we’ve established our standard tool kit. HD display solution, videoconferencing with attached DSP, wireless microphones and concealed loudspeakers are all controlled by a wireless touchpanel and our board members are sitting around an undamaged mahogany table. But that’s what everyone else is selling too, so how can you differentiate yourself from the crowd, or add some more value to what you’re doing?

Opinions vary one what extra services AV integrators should look to offer. AV Media’s Rychetnik believes that opportunities lie in the traditional areas of control system programming and design, as well as the further incorporation of technology into furniture. However Asysco’s Richard Brookes, sees that as a risk, which is best left to a joinery partner. In his opinion, supply of a complete end-to-end system encompassing all the services we’ve mentioned is the right approach. Impact Marcom’s Julian Philips agrees: “There are two types of integrators – those concerned with the price point of the products they sell and those concentrating on the engineering and design of those produces. Integrators should decide to become better educated in order to add value and choose between high-end and low-end integration.”

One area which all the major players in this market are well aware of is the business of winning service and maintenance contracts. These are usually built in to the tender for an initial build of a new facility, but making sure you are in poll position for upgrade work and renovation for years to come in terms of revenue going forward.

Everyone still remains positive about the prospects for business in the corporate market. The sector continues to grow, and even if economic pressures dampen its enthusiasm for new projects in the coming months, there will still be a need, perhaps even a greater need than now, to maintain existing facilities. Make sure your initial build is up to scratch, to ensure that you hold on to those precious service contracts. Link to Article

It’s an IT manager’s nightmare: You’re tasked with setting up a videoconferencing room for your company or campus. Everyone seems excited about the room, but once it has been integrated, the equipment sits there unused and your finance department is questioning the expense. What went wrong, and how can you keep it from happening again?

Before you even buy the room, make sure you understand what your users intend to do with it, says Jonathan Shor, director of technology of McCann Systems LLC, an AV design/build firm in Edison, NJ. “Videoconferencing rooms seem to be Ôthe thing to do’ these days, and some clients will ask us for a room without any usage planning,” Shor says. “Often, the people involved in the budget/design process aren’t the people who are going to use the rooms – and these people don’t talk with each other.” Shor says his company has seen situations where the actual user isn’t brought into the process until the room has been completed. “This person may have a comprehensive list of things he wants to do with the room and the room won’t meet those needs,” he says.

HIGH TECH ISN’T FOR EVERYONE
The attraction of advanced technology can be a downfall. Planners envision their users coolly walking into a room full of high-tech “gadgets,” activating a flashy touchscreen panel, and smoothly bringing up all of the equipment and remote sites for the meeting. In reality, many users find the technology very intimidating and the fear of “messing something up” will keep them out of the room.

The lure of HD videoconferencing is an example of technology that everyone seems to want, but not everyone needs. “It is almost like we are back in the early videoconferencing days of the ’80s with dedicated rooms that cost a half a million dollars to fit out,” says Steve Thorburn, principal of Thorburn Associates, an acoustic and technology consulting company. “But I challenge clients to truly determine who they need to ‘video’ with before planning a room. We ask our clients, ‘Who are you going to talk to and what do you need to share?’ Once you know your position and can defend that, then the designers can help engineer the system and room that you need.”

Thorburn notes that there are many standalone, off-the-shelf videoconferencing systems that may be perfectly adequate for the initial conferencing requirements of users. “Don’t get seduced by the technology,” he says. “You must walk before you run with the features. This is no different than trying to start your exercise routine with an ironman triathlon after 20 years of sitting behind a desk. If you try to do too much, regardless of best intentions, your team will fail.”

Ron Maus, a senior project manager in the Real Estate and Workplace Services group at a Silicon Valley high-tech company, concurs. He maintains that advanced technology should only be purchased based on the technical sophistication of the users. “There is no value to state-of-the-art if the user cannot understand how to initiate the device or how to use it to achieve their meeting goals,” Maus says. “If a room is not being booked at our firm or there are repeat complaints about it, the complaints often focus on the failure to build out the room for intuitive use by the widest range of occupants.”

“Consider how you conduct meetings now, before purchasing your conferencing room,” says Thorburn. “You’ll need the same computer and graphic camera inputs and other devices that you are using now. If you use flip charts in your face-to-face meetings, you should start with being able to display those flip charts at the far end, then, as you are weaned to a more efficient video-based collaboration system, you might try application sharing or something as simple as using a document camera. No matter what, the system should match your work flow – not the other way around.”

Maus says his company provides videoconferencing facilities ranging from small systems to full training centers, and each room has been designed with a specific purpose in mind and a specific set of technology for the users. “Performance is relative to the room size,” he says. For example, Maus says, small rooms may find value-add in tabletop projectors or LCD/plasma screens, limited lighting controls, mechanical shades as necessary, and decent voice conference capability. Medium-sized rooms could integrate “smart” panels, more flexible lighting and controls, advanced AV control, and possible upgrade to HD depending upon the predominant type of video source and material. Large and multi-purpose rooms open the door to all the “bells and whistles” based upon need and the users’ technical sophistication.

TRAINING AND ROOM MANAGEMENT
Another key to success, says Jonathan Shor, is putting in the right level of support for the people who will be using the rooms. “It’s important to instill in the users’ minds the fact that they need continual training,” he says. “We warrant our systems for a year, including training sessions. After that year is up, we propose a service contract that includes preventative maintenance and additional training sessions.” Shor says many companies will try to “make do” with the initial training but after a while, the personnel who were trained may leave the company and their expertise will be lost. A danger of losing that expertise, he says, is potential misuse of equipment.

An example is the SmartBoard interactive whiteboard panel. Shor says this product, which shares whiteboard content between sites, can be an extremely effective collaboration tool for videoconferencing, but “if people aren’t trained, we’ve seen this advanced piece of equipment end up being used as a marker board with the users having no clue as to its capabilities.”

If you’ve done your advance planning well and your conference rooms are getting a lot of use, Maus says you should consider hiring a third-party contractor to manage room reservations, catering, and support so that the rooms will operate more efficiently. “The firm we use [Sodexho] inspects and audits rooms before, during, and after use. They have a standard approach to obtaining needs from the user prior to booking them into a room,” he says.

Maus says another contractor is utilized at their firm to conduct full building occupancy surveys; this contractor collaborates with the room management contractor to identify situations where a user group might be trying to use a videoconferencing room for something other than its intended purpose. “If a user wants to do customer training, or set up a PC/server lab or some other non-conferencing use, our space managers will work with that user group to identify appropriate space other than a conference room,” Maus says. With this type of management, he notes, the videoconferencing rooms at his company are in use constantly and are providing effective ROI for the company. “Once we are able to create an well-performing room for customers, it is heavily used and often taken on as a private room by an executive.”

CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
In addition to usage planning and training issues, other aspects of the room’s design must be considered. “The architecture, finishes, acoustics, cooling, and lighting should be designed to support collaborative environments,” Thorburn says. Network connections must also be carefully considered; if your network will only support lower bit rate conferencing devices, don’t try to implement HD right away. “When you look at HD videoconferencing, your connection to the ‘communication cloud’ [the internet] needs to be fast,” Thorburn says. “You will need a T-1 data connection for HD and you will not have any bandwidth left for anything else – no VoIP, no internet, no VPN. Your clients need to be aware of this. You also need to make sure you have backward compatibility with sites that do not have HD capabilities. If not, your HD room may be useless for talking with non-HD sites.”

Ultimately, the key to success with a conference room – or any use of AV technology – is advance planning. Talk with your users to find out what they need, give them the tools they need to accomplish their goals, and train them on correct usage. The result will be a well-used facility and satisfied clients, with few questions about the investment. Elaine Jones is principal of Elaine Jones Associates, an independent marketing/PR firm based in Salt Lake City. She can be reached at elaine@ejonespr.com. Link to Story