|
|
|
| A Primedia Property | |
| August 26, 2004 | |
|
Table of Contents Corporate A/V Top Story Users love it, if you don't call it streaming Installation News New Washington State Convention Center relies on SymNet QSC powers audio system of San Jose Convention Center Product News TEi ships AxisTV version 5.3.1 Extron Electronics announces AVT 100 compact tuner Multidyne RGB-5000 transports multiple sources via one fiber Corporate A/V Top Story Users love it, if you don't call it streaming You can sell a lot of streaming-video and webcasting technology to corporate users these days, especially if you don't call it streaming or webcasting. Something about the nomenclature just gets in the way, says Rimas Buinevicius, CEO of Sonic Foundry. "Streaming and webcasting are very intimidating terms," he says. The key to marketing these valuable new tools, he says, is to broaden the user's viewpoint. "As soon as we say 'videoconference recording,' people say, 'that's a great idea.' But if we say 'streaming,' they back off," Buinevicius adds. One Sonic Foundry client, Thermo Electron Corporation, had the same response, but wasn't deterred from rolling out a new streaming video and audio installation using Sonic Foundry's Mediasite tools. Tami Stubbe, director of communications for the company's Scientific Instruments Division, recalls that on hearing words like webcasting, "My first thought is that I'm going to have to hire somebody to do that." Staffing up just to manage technology was out of the question for Thermo Electron, she says. "It would be very hard to prove return on investment for internal communications if it's going to cost a lot of money." Instead, the company opted for recording videoconferences and executive messages that can be accessed on demand from any workstation in the enterprise. The implementation played a critical role in helping the company transition from a holding company with a number of subsidiaries to fully integrated operating company. "We had a huge need for leadership, and for means of getting out coordinated messages," says Stubbe. "You want to be sure you're giving the answers to everyone at once and really helping them understand what's going on." The ease of implementing the video-on-demand system (which Thermo Electron bought through a Sonic Foundry dealer) has helped the company focus more on the message than the delivery mechanism, Stubbe says. The content really is key, Buinevicius says. Indeed, he believes video is the least important element in these communications, from the user's point of view. Graphics come first, he says, and audio second. For this reason, Sonic Foundry has emphasized delivering high-quality graphics, devoting separate data streams to the graphics and the audio or video. Buinevicius, the Sonic Foundry CEO, also believes live streamed events still play a relatively small role in the market. "Ninety percent of all Mediasite users are not viewing events live, they're viewing them in a time-shifted manner," he says. The corporate market might not have been an early adopter of these streaming tools, but it is catching up quickly, he adds. "Education has always had a big affinity for this," he explains, "because it's directly related to revenue." That is, offering on-demand web-based presentations and other forms of distance learning helps educational institutions attract more students and collect more tuition and fees. Students have even come to expect these tools, Buinevicius says. In the corporate setting, on the other hand, the most common applications for webcasting and streaming are training and sales meetings -- overhead expenses that most companies want to control tightly. Buinevicius says Sonic Foundry continues to serve more education customers than corporate, but the spread is narrower than it used to be, and the two market segments are now growing at roughly equal rates. Aiding in adoption of streaming tools in corporate settings is the fact that corporations so often want to standardize their IT hardware and software enterprise-wide. Knowing that all users will have the same tools on their desktop simplifies both implementation and the ongoing use of the new communications tools. The more transparent the systems become to users, adoption will be further encouraged, Buinevicius says. Sonic Foundry, for example, has recently developed with Crestron a touch-panel user interface to drive its media presentation systems. "Many people still have the mindset that this is a very complicated, sophisticated system," he says. "But in fact, this replaces complex systems. Installation News New Washington State Convention Center relies on SymNet At 81,000 square feet, the new Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, Washington, provides the south central Washington tri-cities area with a big drawing card to a part of the state that's long been overshadowed as a site for conventions, meetings and other events. Situated not far from Portland and Seattle on the Columbia River, the area has long had to contend with the drawing power of those two tourist meccas. With the new convention center, which was originally planned to encompass more than one-third less space than it eventually spanned, the area has made a bold commitment to compete for the lucrative meeting and convention business. But being able to offer a cavernous convention center is only part of the battle to lure that coveted and lucrative business. Even more important is the ability to offer a facility that's technologically up to speed and able to accommodate users' varied communications and presentation needs and expectations. High on that list of demands for technology infrastructure is efficient management of distributed audio. The center's ability to accommodate users' varied communications needs is essential in providing a venue where business can be accomplished. From entertainment functions to convention floor activities to meeting room gatherings, the audio system must be readily controllable and flexible. To help accomplish that, Michael R. Yantis Associates, Inc., the Seattle company that designed the center's sound system, made SymNet the hub for efficiently distributing audio throughout the facility. SymNet is the DSP-based modular audio mixing, routing, and processing system from Symetrix, Inc. "The overall challenge was to distribute quality sound throughout the convention center that is zoned and user-configurable both at the system's central computer as well as at individual control stations located in each event room. The goal was to enable user linking of selected zones (room sound systems) to operate as one, and to enable other zones to operate separately and autonomously from the others as required for each event," says Steve Goegebuer, senior AV systems consultant with Yantis. Considering the layout of the center, that was no small task for either Yantis or Evco Sound & Electronics, the Spokane, Washington-based company that installed the system. The convention center is separated into three main areas - a main ballroom hall flanked by two large meeting room areas. All three of the rooms are designed to be subdivided into four smaller areas and combined in a variety of different configurations. The center's highly flexible floor plan required a similarly capable audio management tool. "We needed an overall audio control system with strong routing and processing capabilities that would allow individual room sound systems to be linked together or separated as needed," Goegebuer says. "SymNet does a great job of handling that kind of traffic and all in the digital realm." Given the center's sheer size, and the demands for distributing audio, the SymNet solution had to be a robust and extensive one. At its heart are audio processing and control devices housed in the control room that allow the formation of three "rings" permitting interconnection and control. A total of twelve 8x8 DSP units; four 8In DSP units; and eight BreakIn 12 units allow the main ballroom, the east cluster of meeting rooms, and the west cluster of meeting rooms to each function as a separate SymNet ring. Control of the building's other areas, including hallways, the kitchen, office spaces, exterior public entries, the café, and a loading dock are distributed among the three rings. "Each ring handles its own audio signal processing as well as control of all inputs and outputs, which are all tied together with a CobraLink interface (a SymNet unit that allows the sending and receiving of digital audio and control data from one distant ring to another)," Goegebuer says. Room-level control of audio functions is provided by SymNet ARC (Adaptive Remote Control) units. Each area capable of being partitioned as a separate space is equipped with one secure, wall-mounted ARC control station. The programmable ARCs provide a broad range of remote control functions, including audio source selection, zone volume control, and room combination control. One of the Yantis audio system design team's major challenges, which SymNet helped address, was integration of a complex paging system into the facility's audio network. In addition to facility telephone paging access, four dedicated push-button paging consoles - one each for the administration, show office, security, and AV department - were routed through SymNet. Setting up the system to allow for pages to be directed to specific areas of the facility, as well as across the entire building, was a key need. "On-site SymNet reps who worked with us on the job had to get creative when it came to merging the paging system with the general sound system," Goegebuer says. "SymNet was able to handle the paging system logic, something other control and processing systems would have had a hard time doing without adding other hardware. SymNet has a lot of processing capability built-in, something we were very thankful for on this project. The Three Rivers project marked Goegebuer's first extensive involvement with SymNet; one he says will likely lay the groundwork for using it in future jobs. "The fact that SymNet has such extensive processing power is a major draw because, as a designer, you're always worrying about whether you're going to have enough processor capacity to meet your needs," he says. "SymNet worked well for this project, and the audio quality is great." The project also marked Evco's initiation with SymNet. The company's project manager, Rich Williams, says SymNet has all the hallmarks of a great audio technology. "One of the nice things about SymNet is that to the end user it looks very simple, but what goes on behind the scenes is very complex," he says. "Audio routing using SymNet can be set up to be as complex as you need, and with the room combining needs of this project there was a unique need for something like SymNet." QSC powers audio system of San Jose Convention Center As a shining example of architectural form and function in Silicon Valley, the San Jose Convention Center offers the kind of amenities meeting and convention planners openly drool over. Housing acres of column-free exhibit space, an elegant ballroom, and a sizable number of meeting rooms capable of accommodating almost 2,500 people, the facility relies upon a QSControl network audio system from QSC to connect, control, and monitor its audio systems on a house-wide level. Recently upgraded by San Diego-based Audio Associates using a design penned by Vance Breshears of San Diego's Sound Technology, sound across the entire structure receives power from 97 CX204V and 96 CX1202V amplifiers, also from QSC. "With QSControl, a single person can keep tabs on every amplifier function within the entire facility from a single location," says Audio Associates project manager Dan Mitzel. "And there are nearly 200 amps in the building." By making a simple connection between two remote equipment rooms and the main equipment room, Audio Associates was additionally able to provide system operators with a way to physically hear the output of each amp as well. "You can monitor the performance of each amp onscreen via QSControl's host computer, and actually listen to it too," Mitzel adds. "Combine these kinds of operational features with the space savings we gained by choosing the CX Series amps, and the deal just gets that much sweeter. Normally you can't get this kind of amplifier power in packages this small. But thanks to the CX amps, we were able to power the entire facility and have rack space left over. How often do you hear about that sort of thing on a project of this size and scope?" With high power output, a number of versatile loading options, high thermal capacity, and QSC's legendary reliability, CX Series amps have found their way into permanently installed sound systems around the globe. Designed expressly to meet the needs of professional sound contractors, the CX product group includes 1 dB detented gain controls to facilitate easily repeatable settings, security covers, and active in-rush limiting, a feature which reduces the need for power sequencing. QSC Audio Products, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of power amplifiers, loudspeakers, signal processing, digital signal transport, and computer control systems for professional audio markets worldwide. For more information, visit us on the Web at www.qscaudio.com. Product News TEi ships AxisTV version 5.3.1 TEi (Tech Electronics, Inc.) announced that it is now shipping a host of new features in version 5.3.1 of its AxisTV dynamic visual messaging system. The release includes several anticipated new features and product enhancements - Free Form creative interface, event schedule adaptor support for CEO Software and Newmarket International, optional support for external graphics links, strengthened security, and message transition improvements. The most anticipated feature, Free Form, mimics the drag-and-drop functionality of many client applications, but through a typical Web browser. Users are able to independently position and format multiple text and graphic elements from anywhere in the world. "We continually improve our clients' ability to create, manage, and deliver stunning visual messages through an intuitive Web interface," says Trey Hicks, director of marketing and sales, TEi. "Our Free Form interface allows the free-moving manipulation of individual message elements often found in cumbersome client applications." Building on its experience with event-management software from Dean Evans and Associates, TEi expands its AxisTV adoption opportunities by adding adaptors for similar applications from CEO Software (Scheduler Plus) and Newmarket International (Delphi). The adaptors enable the real-time extraction of room and event data for delivery to endpoint displays. The latest release supports external graphics links enabling users to point to ever-changing graphic images on their LAN or on the Web. Strong password and intrusion-control features provide new levels of security for AxisTV managers. All new orders are shipping with version 5.3.1 and upgrade pricing is available to current AxisTV users. The upgrade is available at no cost to SMA and warranted users. Interested persons should contact TEi for additional information. TEi designs, manufactures, and supports dynamic visual messaging, computer control, signal routing, and distribution technologies for use in corporate, education, and government applications. For nearly 25 years, TEi has created products that are engineered with precision and simplicity of design, assuring high performance, reliability, and the utmost in efficiency and functionality. Extron Electronics announces AVT 100 compact tuner Extron Electronics is pleased to announce the AVT 100, a compact cable and television (TV) tuner with RS-232 control, designed for easy integration into a variety of applications. The AVT 100 is ideal for professional A/V environments such as boardrooms, conference rooms, and classrooms, and can be employed in large-area RF distribution systems in stadiums, arenas, and campus CCTV systems as well. The AVT 100 is simple and intuitive to operate. Channels may be selected directly from the front panel, which includes a three-digit alphanumeric LED display. Expanded control is available via RS-232, as well as extended range IR operation with an optional IR remote. "With easy operation, as well as an integrator friendly feature set, the AVT 100 is ideal for A/V applications that require access to broadcast programming," commented Lee Dodson, vice president of marketing for Extron. The AVT 100 can be set for full or restricted user channel access. Configuration settings for channel presets can be exported to a file for convenient installation of additional units. Outputs for the AVT 100 include composite video, and balanced or unbalanced stereo audio. The AVT 100 is available in both NTSC and PAL versions, and is housed in a 1U, quarter rack width metal enclosure. For pricing and availability, please contact an Extron customer support representative at (800) 633-9876. Multidyne RGB-5000 transports multiple sources via one fiber The Multidyne RGB-5000 provides a long-haul transport solution for high-resolution (up to 1800x1440) RGB or VGA video sources via one fiber. The product provides a total analog bandwidth of up to 800MHz. The system supports loop-through HD15 XVGA inputs and one HD15 output. The supports standards include RGB, XVGA, SVGA, UXGA, component and analog HDTV signals. Most systems have a 1.25 Gigabits per second data throughput with 60 percent compression. The RGB-5000 has a data throughput of 3.125Gbps with no compression - or very low color-space compression. The system automatically detects the horizontal and vertical sync configuration with support for sync on green, CS sync, and separate HS and VS sync inputs. The RGB-5000 supports all possible sync configurations with just one fiber. Most systems require up to five fibers to support all possible sync configurations. Fiber optic transport provides the capability for the separation of a video signal source and the monitor. For example, a computer or imaging device can be in a different location from the monitors. In many applications space is limited in the monitor area. With flat-screen technology, very little space is required. The computers or imaging devices can be in another room. Systems are available to transport RGB video as well as audio, keyboard, and mouse control. Applications include commodity and stock exchanges, medical and MRI displays, advertising and signs, sporting and concert video displays, video walls, digital cinema, radar displays, air traffic control, and military information displays. For product information and sales, please call Multidyne at (800) 4TV-TEST or (516) 671-7278. Visit our Web site at www.multidyne.com. |
|
About This Newsletter To unsubscribe click here: Unsubscribe To subscribe to this newsletter, click here: Subscribe For information on advertising in this newsletter, please contact: Erika Lopez |
|
|
|
You are subscribed to this newsletter as <*email*> To get this newsletter in a different format (Text, AOL or HTML), or to change your e-mail address, please visit your profile page to change your delivery preferences.
For questions concerning delivery of this newsletter, please contact our
Customer Service Department at:
Primedia Business Magazines & Media Copyright 2004, PRIMEDIA. All rights reserved. This article is protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed, re-disseminated, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any medium without the prior written permission of Primedia Business Magazines & Media Inc. |