Football Stadium Sound System Design | How to Control the Friday Night Roar
It’s 7pm on Friday night in the middle of September. You’re sitting down with your significant other to a nice refreshing beverage on your back porch. All is calm. It’s a beautiful evening. Suddenly a not-so-distant voice floats through your backyard let you know that #58 has just tackled #23 on the 35 yard line. You are, once again, thankful that your peaceful and idyllic life has been interrupted by the sound system from the local High School football game. No…you wish there was some way to contain that sound to the stadium where it’s supposed to be (NOT in my backyard)! (more)
Saving Money with Health Care AVL Design
The new 2010 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities recommend sound reinforcement systems in healthcare environments. As such, we often get the question: how do you save money on audio-visual systems in the health care sector? Well, there are many practical ways to cut cost without cutting quality, and as independent consultants we often work with our clients to understand how to do just that. Here are a few good ideas that will help with the bottom line: (more)
Whitespace Frequency Update for Wireless Microphones and the FCC
The world of wireless microphones continues to evolve and become more complicated with every passing day. Just a brief re-cap of the last couple years: The FCC has passed a series of rules over the last few years to move the analog TV stations out of the 700MHz band and force them to broadcast all digital signals. The 700MHz band was then sold off at auction to private companies. This band of frequencies was one of the most popular for wireless microphones and the auction meant that this band could no longer be used for wireless mics. The latest rule from the FCC mandates that all secondary users of frequencies in this range must cease operation by June 10, 2010, regardless of whether there is specific interference. (more)
Commissioning Audio-Visual Systems | Why it’s Essential
This past summer I went to commission a small sound system at a new facility. Not necessarily a big expensive project, but the client had hired us to commission the final installation and make sure everything was installed as specified. I showed up on site, confirmed all of the equipment was installed and then proceeded to check out how the wiring had been installed. At first everything looked pretty good, until I pulled one of the microphone input plates off the wall and discovered that there was no junction box behind it. Instead someone had busted a hole in the masonry block and tried to fish the wires down through the block from above. But they had run into a little problem at the steel beam. So they made another hole through the vapor barrier and ran the wires just inside the exterior brick. Problem solved, right? Uh… not so much. (more)
How Hotel Conference Rooms Can Make Money By Offering Audio-Visual Services In House
When hotel owners and managers consider the costs of upgrading their current hotel conference room audio-visual system, they often consider outsourcing these services to a live event production company – one that would bring in portable AV equipment and run it for the events. But more and more hotel managers are learning that offering the audio and video services in-house can be a lucrative cash cow. And they’re finding that the conference room guests prefer a well-designed AVL system as opposed to a portable hodge-podge system. So what is the best way to make upgrades to your hotel conference room audio-video system without losing your shirt in the process? (more)
Industrial Paging System Safety Code Requirements
Generally speaking, sound systems in industrial spaces are there to serve two purposes. One is to reproduce pages for people in the plant to hear. The second is to play background music for people to listen to. For years, it’s been about that simple. An amplifier, maybe a small mixer, and a few paging horns were all you needed. But the “rules” for industrial sound systems are changing, and the safety requirements are getting much more complex. How complex are these safety requirements? I’m glad you asked. (more)
Why Your Conference Room Technology May Soon Be Obsolete: Part II
As the VGA connector continues its rapid transition towards obsolescence (referred to in Part I of this post) many people simply assume that using adapters (such as HDMI to VGA) will solve the digital-to-analog connectivity problem. While this may work in the short term, it ignores the looming problem of DRM (Digital Rights Management), a way of encrypting new media to protect against copyright infringement. DRM uses something called HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) to control which devices are allowed to receive the video signal. So how will you know if you’re using digitally protected content? Well, for starters, your adapter will just stop working. (more)
Why Techies Buy Audio-Video Gear Online
My church recently decided to upgrade from our old analog mixing board to a brand new digital mixing console. The interesting part of this process was that they did not buy it through a local AV contractor. They purchased the sound board online through a company that specializes in phone and internet box sales. This got me thinking about the trend over the past few years in which more and more Audio Visual end-users purchase equipment from online sources instead of the local dealer or shop. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? And why is this becoming the norm? (more)
Why Your Conference Room Technology May Soon Be Obsolete
You can’t get away from the digital age. It seems like digital technology is everywhere. As Audio-Video designers, the march towards all things digital is having an impact on display technologies as well. Meanwhile, flying under the radar, there is a subtle shift happening in how the average person shows information from a computer onto a projector or display. (more)
White Space Update for Wireless Microphones
Several months ago (10-13-08) I wrote about the current state of the wireless microphone frequency spectrum and how the actions of congress and the FCC are shaping the future of wireless technology. Well, several notable updates and changes have been made since that time. You may recall that February 17, 2009, was the date set for the transition to DTV (Digital TV). Congress (in all its wisdom) decided that it would extend the deadline to June 12, 2009. (more)
Coordination for AVL Consultants and Project Teams
Perhaps the toughest and most critical element of designing AVL systems for auditoriums is proper coordination with all the other teams. As audio-visual and theatrical lighting designers, we find ourselves being selected to join teams all throughout the process, from design development to construction administration to commissioning, and this can create a lot of challenges for the AVL system integration. (more)
4 Basic Concepts for Corporate Board Room Video Conferencing Systems
It’s January, and that means new budgets for companies that operate on the calendar year. If this year is anything like the last, it means we will be receiving calls from companies inquiring about corporate board room video conferencing systems. As AV Consultants, one of the most common questions we get asked is, “What do other companies have for AV equipment in their Boardrooms?” And the follow up question is always, “Should we be looking at a video conferencing solution?” It seems, in the business world, everyone is concerned that if their technology is behind the curve, then they won’t be as competitive. And we are all concerned about how these new technologies affect our bottom line. But believe it or not, video conferencing may be a viable and cost-saving solution for almost any company that seeks to enhance its communications. (more)
Digital Signage Solutions for K-12 Schools
My wife teaches English to high school freshmen and seniors. It’s a good thing that she’s the one teaching them, because if it were me, I’d probably end up in a mental institution. The hard part about teaching teenagers is finding effective methods of communication. Sometimes it seems like they just don’t understand words. But there are things they do understand. High school teenagers understand images. They understand video. They understand multi-media, multi-sensory communication. This is one of the reasons why we at Acoustics By Design are seeing a significant uptick in Digital Signage system design for K-12 schools. (more)
Decision 2008 – White Space Disaster for Wireless Mics
Last Tuesday, while many of us were casting our votes in the presidential election, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was making a landmark decision of its own. On their private ballot was a proposal to open the so-called “TV White Spaces” of the frequency spectrum for expanded use. And on November 4th, the proposal passed. Sounds all fine and good, right? Well, maybe not. If the FCC’s current plan goes through, it will lead to a crossroads for the wireless microphone industry and for AV designers. (more)
University Technology: Attending Class In Your Underwear
Urban legends claim that a good way to calm your nerves before giving a speech is to imagine the audience in their underwear. But what if you could attend class in a T-shirt and underwear without anyone else ever knowing it? Well, at many colleges and universities around the world, you already can.
To understand this miracle of science, we have to examine the link between two rapidly changing technologies: distance learning and classroom connectivity. These two might seem unrelated, but in fact they are deeply intertwined. (more)
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