Audiovisual Has Become Essential

Sound, Light and Video

As you may know from previous posts, I was invited to attend the #YCombinator #FemaleFounders Event in San Francisco earlier this year. While waiting in line I chatted up another attendee. She asked what I did and this is what I said, “I am the founder of a digital audio visual company. We rent and install equipment in different kinds of venues. I’m in the process of developing an app for aspect ratio, tone generation and voltage conversion.” Her reply, “I have NO idea what you just said.” It was funny but in a not-so-funny way. The audiovisual technology industry is a multibillion dollar industry, and growing every day. It’s a fascinating industry!

So why should you care about #AV? Here are just a few reasons. It is safe to assume that you have been to a football game, baseball game, soccer match or some sporting event that took place at a stadium. Stadiums today are extremely high tech. While at the sporting event, you no doubt noticed the large projection screens from where you can view the games. The sound engineer or videographer often pans the audience and voila! Your face may even show up. These screens are what audiovisual companies or AV integrators design and install. They are called jumbotrons. The Dallas Cowboy Stadium has screens that are 1,200 square-feet above the field. There are 72′ high 160′ long screens on each side and 48′ wide screens on each end. That’s audiovisual! The new Levi Strauss Stadium in Santa Clara California has over 2,000 LCD displays ranging from 40” to 85”. That’s a lot of video. Are you fascinated yet? No? Ok, continue strolling with me.

In 1995, I was staying at the Le Meridien in Barcelona, Spain. While touring the town, I remember these very large banners in almost every store window. The banners were displaying Windows(R) ‘95. I was proud and excited because Microsoft(R) was home grown. Let’s fast forward to the year 2000. It was February 17th and we were preparing to set up for the Microsoft(R) Windows 2000 launch at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco! I remember sitting and grooving to the sounds of Carlos Santana. The event was enhanced with lighting, sound (amplifiers, audio mixers), microphones, and cameras. Imagine if Microsoft(R) disregarded the need for audiovisual equipment. It’s safe to say they would have fallen short of a successful event.

Audiovisual is essential for many reasons. One of the most significant is its existence in healthcare. Doctors can now communicate with staff members and patients via video conferencing. “Telemedicine is one of the most prominent uses of audiovisual, thanks in part to ongoing government funding of videoconferencing gear in rural clinics, but also to the fact that telemedicine spans so many applications.” Tim Kridel, Special to InfoComm International®

Here’s another example of how essential #AV is. While upgrading the audiovisual equipment for our client, the National Parks Conservancy, we were also asked to participate in the upgrade of the Listening Devices on Alcatraz Island. Without these essential devices, thousands of hearing impaired visitors would be unable to enjoy our national parks! Knowing the pleasure and beauty of our national parks, it would be deplorable if a certain segment of our society were left out. Today, our national parks provide services for the hearing impaired, via use of audiovisual equipment.

I can’t very well write an article about AV technology without mentioning the most popular devices that we, as a society, have become dependent upon. Our smart phones and our tablets also interface with AV technology. So, the next time you’re streaming from your iPhone, iPad or iPod or ANY other mobile or portable device, know that the only way to connect your device to your monitor or television is via an AV cable. It’s essential for streaming from all portable devices.

Speaking of #Apple, I can easily recall most of Steve #Jobs presentations. He generated a certain style while presenting and from what I hear today, it’s a style that Tim Cook does not stray from. Neither presented without the use of audiovisual aids. Apple believes in “picture superiority,” which means there are always visual aids. “Apple is dedicated to the concept of picture superiority. Simply put, the brain processes information more effectively when the content is presented in words and pictures, instead of words alone.” Carmino Gallo, Forbes Contributor

Audiovisual is fun and exciting and flexible. It has become an essential part of our everyday lives. If you are interested in learning more, contact us for our Basic AV Training Course.
@kmt_technical

Inside BB King’s High Tech Tour Bus

The seven Crestron touch panels included a 12-inch touch panel in the rear lounge, an 8-inch panel in the front lounge, and a 6-inch panel for the driver (also for backup camera) and 4-inch touch panels in each bunk. All controls were hardwired.

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Kaleidescape server for King’s viewing and gaming pleasure. King also had auxiliary input jacks for computers, HDMI, AV, etc. in the front and rear loung

Before BB King had the Kaleidescape servers, he had a tiny table that was cluttered with five portable hard drives and a laptop plugged into a CD recorder. King had more 200 movies on the Kaleidescape servers and more than 100 TV shows recorded on TiVo within the first month of owning the tour bus.

Even the driver had a 12-button keypad at his disposal. King’s keypad in the main lounge had an emergency button in case he needed something.

Note: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner B.B. King died Thursday at 89. The legendary blues guitarist delighted audiences for more than six decades with his trusty sidekick, Lucille. Here’s a look at his life on the road. This article was published on CI sister publication CE Pro a couple years ago.

For legendary blues guitarist #BB #King, the thrill isn’t gone when it comes to touring. The ‘King of the Blues’ is still on the road with his famous Gibson guitar ‘Lucille’ performing 100 concerts per year. And BB gets from gig to gig on more than just a simple set of wheels.
BB rides in a $1 million, 45–foot luxury motor coach that has more than $135,000 worth of electronics inside, making it a centre of inspiration for laying down tracks, reviewing audio and video, keeping up to date on news and communicating with his fans and crew. But, most importantly, he’s entertained by a first-class #AV setup.
The interior design of the Prevost XL motor coach was done by Superior Coach Interiors in Nashville, Tenn., while the electronics were installed by Digital Home Lifestyles of Phoenix, Ariz.
The tour bus has seven miles of cabling from Liberty Cable, five miles of Cat5 wiring and 3,000 feet of CresNET. The pre-wiring was done before the walls on the tour bus went up, requiring large bulks of wiring in channels and luggage bays that run the length of the vehicle.
BB has a music and video server system that allows him to access a collection of more than 20,000 CDs, 6,000 DVDs and “more VHS tapes than I have ever seen,” according to Daniel Henderson of Digital Home Lifestyles.
Daniel met BB King’s tour manager several years ago when he was brought in to troubleshoot signal quality issues on BB’s previous tour bus. The job, which was bid on a fixed fee basis, according to Jeff Beall, president and CEO of Digital Home Lifestyles, took 100 hours of design time and 300 hours of installation. The company used a CAIP programmer, Infusebox, for the programming.

Electronics

The electronics on the bus would make any integrator blush. There’s a distributed audio/video system with eight zones of video and nine zones of audio. The front and rear lounges have 7.1 surround sound systems that are fed through a combination of dedicated and distributed sources.

The sources include:

4 DirecTV HR21-PRO DVRs (1 dedicated to the rear lounge, 3 for distributing audio and video)
4 Kaleidescape 1080p players (1 dedicated to the rear lounge, 3 for distributed AV)
1 Kaleidescape 3U server
1 Crestron iPod dock that is distributed throughout the coach
4 individual iPod docks for each bunk
1 Crestron XM tuner (distributed to all zones with feedback on all the touch panels
1 AM/FM radio (distributed with feedback on all the touch panels)
2 Integra Blu-ray DVD players (1 dedicated to the rear lounge and 1 dedicated to the front lounge)
1 PS3 and 1 Xbox 360 in the front lounge
1 Sony Professional DAT Player (dedicated to the rear lounge)
1 Aiphone back-up camera (for driver’s touch panel)
1 Aiphone PTZ front door security camera (distributed to all TVs and touch panels)

There also are auxiliary input jacks for computers, HDMI, AV, etc. in the front and rear lounges. Ethernet (Gigabit) connections are offered in each lounge, bunk and sitting area. The coach has a full-time broadband connection with remote access for diagnostics and programming updates. The coach also has the ability to track weather on any touch panel.

Thanks BB King for your contribution to the world of music! From street corners to stadiums, your unique sound resonated and my mom loved you! Angie