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vol.7 no.2
avnetwork.com
|
February/march 2014
|
NEWS ANALYSIS: TECH MANAGER STRATEGIES FOR IOS IN THE ENTERPRISE
T h e
A V
r e s o u r c e
f o r
T e c h n o l o g y
M A n A g e r s
A n d
u s e r s
inside JoB
The pros & cons
of inTernal &
ouTsourced
digiTal signage
TREND SPOTTING
Three Key Trends In
enTerprIse VIdeo
ThE 411 ON 4K
whaT do Tech
managers need To
Know abouT uhd?
hEARING LOOPS
a moVemenT
gaIns TracTIon
+
specIaL guIde
showcase of digital
signage on campus
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 1
15
user-Friendly
new products
2/21/14 5:35 PM
this changes everything
Introducing the VPL-FHZ55—the world’s first 3LCD laser light source projector. Beyond best in class; in a class of its own.
sony.com/laser
1. Or 12,000 hours, whichever comes first. When purchased from Sony or authorized resellers.
2. Depends on projector environment and setup conditions.
© 2013 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Sony and the make.believe logo are trademarks of Sony.
AVT_01_14_.indd 12
12/19/2013 3:18:23 PM
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All brand names, product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Certain trademarks, registered trademarks, and trade names may be used to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and
names or their products. Crestron disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Crestron is not responsible for errors in typography or photography. ©2014 Crestron Electronics, Inc. AD2014_01
AVT_01_14_.indd 3
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The Contents
perspective
6
parsing the portents
The Feed
8
top 10 e-Mailed news stories
Blog Bits and Top Tweets
10 ios strategies for the
enterprise
Get Smart: Educational offerings
Big Ideas
12 trend spotting
Tracking three key trends will reveal
trajectory of enterprise video.
18
Features
18
22
Most school districts don’t protect student
data in the cloud.
16 asK professor phil
Clearing up confusion about H.323, SIP,
RTSP, RTP, & conferencing.
DRILL DOWN
38 KeY requireMents of a high-
perforManCe Video enCoder
MEET YOUR MANAGER
inside JoB
Should you bring digital signage ops in
house, or farm it out to experts?
40 q&a with shane MYers, senior
MoBile aV Control for
teCh Managers
Guide
Tablet & phone control is here to stay.
28
now hear this
34
the 411 on 4K
36
14 priVaCY Matters
Consultant, Booz allen
haMilton
28
switChing strategies
Why American Airlines Center upgraded its
routing infrastructure.
60 the right reCipe
The sweet sound secrets of ‘Diners, DriveIns and Dives’.
What do tech managers need to know
about UHD?
THE GOODS
61 protean produCts for
safetY for liVe eVents
proBleM-solVers
58
HOW IT’S DONE
65
AV Technology (ISSN 1941-5273) is published monthly except combined February/March and July/August
by NewBay Media LLC, 28 East 28 Street, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY
10199 and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to AV Technology, PO Box 8692,
Lowell, MA 01853-8692
4
digital signage on CaMpus
AV in Action
58
The hearing loop movement is finally
gaining traction. Read why.
A Q&A on safety and standards
41/a1
66
wireless MiCrophone antenna
ChoiCe and plaCeMent for fixed
installations
Creating soCial Media
CoMMand Centers
F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 1 4 | av ne twor k .com
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 4
2/21/14 5:35 PM
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AVT_03_14_.indd 3
13/11/2013 12:19
2/20/2014 3:30:02 PM
Perspective
February/March 2014
vol. 7 no. 2
Editorial
PARSING THE
PORTENTS
Even the healthiest skeptics can feel the pressure to stay relevant amidst the crush of “new products” and “hot topics.”
With the popularity of IP-enabled consumer products like
Nest, and streaming widgets like Roku, tech managers are getting more questions about what’s possible in commercial facilities. Have you ever broken the
news that the media delivery that’s possible in a living room isn’t possible in the grand lecture
hall? Conversely, pitching new projectors or a matrix wall to a budget-weary Board of Directors
can be tricky. That’s why our mission is keeping you current with notable advances in AV/IT,
and make space for debate, discussion, and education.
Trends worth noting this year: IP, 4K, smart building control, unified communications,
cloud-based services, changing value propositions, BYOE (Bring Your Own Everything), and
new connectivity options. Mindful not to trip into the hyperbole trap, I saw these trends on
display at the recent Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas. I’ve always felt that digital signage is
the microcosm of the macrocosm—a technological synecdoche. Once an identifiable category,
digital signage has become more expansive and inclusive; in 2014, digital signage means geofencing, motion sensor triggers, UDP controls, IP streaming, push to smartphones, analytics,
multipurpose applications, channel creation, and networking.
We’ve devoted this edition to parsing the portents, trends, and new products. In “Inside Job”
(page 18), Carolyn Heinze weighs the pros and cons of outsourcing digital signage network
operations versus keeping it in house. In “Mobile AV Control for Tech Managers” (page 22),
Brian Nadel investigates the panoply of new apps for mobile AV monitoring and control.
I will close my missive with a story about Google Glass, which is being beta-tested by select
organizations to ascertain how or if wearable tech can complement their missions. One proponent is Alisa Brownlee, an assistive technology specialist with the ALS Association. Brownlee
is leading an Explorer trial to learn how these high-tech specs can help improve the lives of
people living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS). Google will incorporate her feedback into the
final product design.
A passionate advocate for the ALS community, Brownlee believes that Google Glass will
be a cost-effective upgrade that will help “revolutionize the lives of those with ALS.“ Potential
benefits include reducing social isolation common; the integration of apps that could open
doors and control wheel chairs; and help people with ALS watch a concert or child’s soccer
game without traveling.
This story resonated with me because of Brownlee’s belief in technology as a transformative
agent. While an AV/IT manager might dismiss wearable tech as superfluous, what if your organization wanted to join the beta test? Where would the upkeep and user education tasks roll?
Margot Douaihy Editor
[email protected]
Carolyn Heinze, Tim Kridel, Brian Nadel, Gary Russell,
Steve Vonder Haar, Dave Zuckerman
Contributors
Steve Cunningham, Joey D’Angelo, Gary L. Hall,
Phil Hippensteel, Jan Ozer, Paul Parrie,
Joe Schuch, Ronnie Anne Spang, Steve Vonder Haar
aV technology advisory Board
Ashley Blume Writer & researcher
SalES & MarkEting
Sue Horwitz Publisher
323-933-9485, [email protected]
Stan Kashine national Sales Manager
516-626-2813, [email protected]
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Walter Makarucha, Jr. associate art director
Farrah Aponte Production director
[email protected]
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11/15/2013 4:10:34 PM
Top10
y
BLOg BITS / AVTwEETS / EDuwIRE jOBS BOARD
TheFeed
EMAILED NEwS STORIES
1 ISE 2014 Focuses on “Editorial
Content” in Amsterdam
The eleventh Integrated Systems
Europe was not only the largest
tradeshow for professional AV and
systems integration ever held in
Europe, but also the brightest and the
busiest.
2 Crestron Demos End-to-End 4K
At Integrated Systems Europe 2014 in Amsterdam, Crestron demonstrated
its range of 4K DigitalMedia switching and video distribution devices.
3 AVnu Offered AVB Education Sessions
AVnu Alliance, the industry consortium that certifies Audio Video Bridging
(AVB) products for interoperability, added new networking and education
sessions for ISE.
4 Christie Entero Video Wall Cubes Now Feature Front Access
Christie introduced a new front access video wall cube product that enables
rear projection video wall displays with minimal installation and maintenance
space required.
5 Atlona Shipping New Converter
Atlona is now shipping its AT-HD-M2C multichannel audio converter.
6 Biamp and InfoComm Will Train AV Professionals in Mexico
Biamp Systems and InfoComm International have teamed up to provide
networked AV systems training to industry professionals in Mexico.
AV
TwEETS
BLOg
BITS
@PhilKomarny
“One of greenblatt’s best
programmers, he said, has
no college degree, but he’s
the guy that goes home
on the weekends and
learns a new programming
language.”
—Lindsey Adler
There Has Never Been a
Better Time for CIOs to Fix
IT’s Reputation @valaafshar #CIO #edTech http://
zite.to/M1wH8X
@AVTechnologyMag
where there’s a will,
there’s 4K. As the 4K buzz
builds, many questions still
remain. great story by Steve
Harvey http://www.avnetwork.com
@ChrisParrTHE 2h
Six trends that will accelerate
the adoption of technology
7 Audinate Enhances Dante Controller 3.5 with Advanced
Capabilities
Audinate, the inventors of Dante, have released Dante Controller version 3.5,
an updated release of the free networking management configuration and
monitoring application.
8 Kramer Adds Detachable DVI Fiber Optic Transmitters and
Receivers Sets
Kramer Electronics has introduced the 614T/R detachable fiber optical transmitter and receiver set for sending and receiving single link DVI signals with
resolutions of up to 1920x1200 at 60Hz, over one multimode fiber optic
cable with SC connectors.
9 Crossroads Church Corona Upgrades Audio
Crossroads Church, a 121-year old congregation located in Corona, CA, has
upgraded its sound reinforcement system with the addition of 24 PowerLight
3 Series PL380 amplifiers and two Q-Sys I/O Frames — all controlled by a
Q-Sys Core 500i Integrated Core.
in higher education: http://
ow.ly/3h4bKR #edtech
“what they don’t want is
digital signage in particular.
what they really want is the
benefits that it can deliver.
Brands, retailers, location
managers, administrators
and others that invest in
communications approaches
want: More compelling
messaging: Research proves
that relevant messages
with animation of text or
graphics will gain viewer
attention.”
—Lyle Bunn
EDUwire.com Job Board for Tech Managers &
Technicians
Join the AV Technology Magazine and EDUwire Job Board
for all the latest IT & AV career posts. Here are the latest
available jobs via www.EDUwire.com/jobs:
• Information Technology Consultant, California
Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA)
• Content Management & IT Manager, Illinois Institute of
Technology (Chicago, IL)
10 SynAudCon’s Web-Based Training Sales Continue to Grow
SynAudCon’s web-based training sales increased 15 percent in 2013.
Visit avnetwork.com for all the breaking
news that tech managers need to know.
8
• Academic Technology Manager, The New School
(New York, NY)
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 8
2/21/14 5:36 PM
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10/18/2013 2:10:39 PM
NEWS ANALYSIS / gEt SmArt
News Analysis
What Makes a Successful
Enterprise iOS Strategy?
By Tim Kridel
iPhones and iPads are becoming as ubiquitous in business as khakis. One
example is Intermedia, which provides cloud services to small and medium
businesses (SmBs). In the first 10 months of 2013, three out of four devices
activated by Intermedia customers were running iOS.
that trend is playing out among large enterprises, too. At good technology,
whose customers include the Fortune 100, 72 percent of activations in Q2 and
Q3 2013 were iOS devices.
Some of that adoption is because companies are providing employees with
iPads and iPhones, and in other cases it’s because of bring-your-own-device
(BYOD) policies. Either way, if your organization doesn’t already support iOS
devices, it probably will soon.
So it’s worth looking at what other companies have learned. I recently spoke with Jim Freeland, senior It manager for enterprise mobility at
medtronic, about how his organization is using and managing iOS devices, as
well as the apps that run on them.
TheFeed
gEt
SMARt
Sound Reinforcement Training
February 24-26, 2014
Portland, Or
www.synaudcon.com/site/shopping-cart/inperson-training/sound-reinforcement-fortechnicians/
NSCA Business & Leadership
Conference
Roughly how many iOS devices does Medtronic currently have? And are
they all company-issue, or do you have a BYOD policy?
medtronic has been using iPhones and iPads since mid-2010. iPads were
purchased in April for a cardiac conference to allow medtronic personnel to
showcase some product materials. We purchased thousands of iPads over the
next 18 months.
Our initial sales tools (apps) were built for the iPhone and iPad throughout the fall of 2010, and [we] have been enhancing and adding to our suite of
apps ever since. We have a mix of company-issued and personal iOS devices
in place today via our allowance of BYOD. the number of iOS devices used
internally has grown significantly, but we do not currently disclose our totals.
February 27-March 1, 2014
How has iOS evolved over that time in terms of making it harder or
easier for an enterprise to support those devices? For example, Apple
made a few changes to iOS over the past couple of years to make it
March 24-27, 2014
(continued on page 62)
Dallas, tX
www.nsca.org/blc
SXSW Interactive Festival
March 7-11, 2014
Austin, tX
www.sxsw.com/interactive
CinemaCon 2014
Las Vegas, NV
www.natoonline.org/events/cinemacon-2014/
ISC West Expo 2014
April 2-4, 2014
Sands Expo & Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV
www.iscwest.com/
IEEE Green Technologies Conference
April 3-4, 2014
Corpus Christi, tX
www.ieeegreentech.org
10
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 10
2/21/14 5:36 PM
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2/20/2014 3:35:53 PM
industry spotlight, enterprise
streaming quietly gains a little
more traction among corporate users year-after-year.
As the market for business online video follows
its methodical growth track
through 2014, the trajectory of
three key trends through the year
will determine just how quickly this
segment can close the gap between
itself and other enterprise technology
categories growing at a zippier pace.
• Meeting Mobile Demand: As is the
Trend SpoTTing
Tracking Three key Trends will reveal
The direcTiOn OF enTerprise videO.
By Steve Vonder Haar
U
nfortunately, 2014 will
not be the year that technology’s tortoise overtakes
the hare.
For much of the past decade, adoption of enterprise streaming capabilities
could usually be described in turtle-like
terms. Particularly when compared with
other software segment superstars like
social media, it’s hard not to think of corporate online video as pedestrian.
Wainhouse Research estimates that
spending on enterprise streaming technologies will grow at a 20 percent clip
in 2014 compared to a year ago. Not
shabby, granted. But neither is it the type
of accelerated growth that makes stock
investors’ hearts flutter.
Instead, much like the hare in the
children’s fable, the market for enterprise
streaming technologies simply keeps chugging along at a slow-and-steady pace. While
category topics that possess more “buzz”—
like unified communications and marketing automation—tend to steal the software
12
case in other technology segments, the
appetite for porting applications to tablet devices and smartphones seemingly is
insatiable. Last year, for instance, only 17
percent of companies had the capabilities
to distribute online video to tablet devices,
according to a fourth quarter 2013 survey
of 1,007 executives fielded by Wainhouse
Research. This year, though, another 25
percent of respondents say their organizations plan to implement technologies
that enable video distribution to tablets.
But while the demand for mobile distribution is there, enabling mobile video
is no trivial matter. Network capacity is
suspect for video distribution. And—on
BigIdeas
many streaming platforms—the webcasts delivered to a
smartphone bear little resemblance to the style of webcasts
business users have grown accustomed to seeing on the
desktop. The ability of technology providers to create a viable and reliable streaming experience on mobile devices
will have significant influence on businesses’ appetite for
pursuing streaming technology investments.
• Roping in the Cloud: The streaming sector is not
impervious to the increasingly appealing charms of hosted
software deployments. As is the case in other technology
segments, the scope of hosted services and solutions that
enable elements of the streaming workflow is expanding
at a rapid rate. Even so, the rise of cloud computing is not
the universal answer for business streaming. One of the key
priorities for organizations implementing online video capabilities is making sure that their deployments do no harm
to their corporate networks. Consider it as the equivalent
to a “Hippocratic Oath” for streaming. As such, issues of
security remain paramount. Executives first must make sure
that streaming provides content security that keeps outsiders
from accessing corporate video information. They must also
provide network security via streaming platforms that do not
expose corporate networks to external risks. Seeking both
the flexibility of hosted offerings and the security afforded
by on-premises solutions, look for more vendors in the year
ahead to offer “hybrid” solutions that blend hosted and onpremises capabilities together in a single platform offering.
• Finding Video’s Johnny Appleseed: Technology
advances are making it possible to sow video into an ever
broader array of business applications. Rather than reserving the technology for a handful of marketing webinars,
video is evolving into a malleable type of data that can
be used to make a range of applications more engaging.
Commonplace training sessions can be enhanced through
video-lead instruction, for instance. Likewise, pre-recorded
videos can be developed to answer customers’ frequently
asked questions regarding key product lines. The primary
challenge for many organizations is identifying an internal
evangelist who can effectively promote wider use of web-
“If this industry segment can collectively post
substantial progress in developing mobile
capabilities, enabling more robust hybrid
solutions and driving greater adoption through
evangelization, it stands a reasonable chance
of surpassing expectations for growth in the
coming year.”
2/21/14 5:36 PM
casting within the confines of their company. Nearly one-fifth
of respondents to Wainhouse Research’s fourth quarter 2013
survey report daily usage of online video. So the pool of candidates with online video experience is sizable. Market success
for 2014—and beyond—becomes easier to achieve as existing
users become stronger advocates for broader streaming adoption within their organization. Based on the view from the
perch of early 2014, it is unclear whether large groups of corporate streaming evangelists will emerge as role models to share
their insight with others through the course of the coming year.
It is impossible to gaze into the crystal ball and accurately
predict how each of these issues will resolve themselves through
2014. But if this industry segment can collectively post substantial progress in developing mobile capabilities, enabling more
robust hybrid solutions and driving greater adoption through
evangelization, it stands a reasonable chance of surpassing
expectations for growth in the coming year.
Most likely, though, resolution on all these issues is three
or more years away. The tortoise will just have to keep plugging away. If that’s the case, it’s not the end of the world for
the streaming segment. Remember, over the long haul, it’s
slow-and-steady that wins the race.
Steve Vonder Haar is Senior Analyst with Wainhouse
Research and can be reached at [email protected].
It’s Complicated
SurveyS reveal that It decISIon
makerS are dIvIded about
technology’S Impact.
A recent Harris Poll found that
among the general population, U.S.
adults are divided on how technology impacts the way we live. Looking
more specifically at IT decision makers (ITDMs)—who due to the nature
of their vocation are among those
most connected to and dependent on
communication technologies—reveals
heightened positive feelings towards
technology, but also some reservations about how it affects our lives.
These are some of the results
of The Harris Poll of 315 full-time
U.S. IT decision makers interviewed
online recently, and 2,210 U.S. adults
surveyed online June 12-17 by Harris
Interactive.
•
•
•
“Technology has improved
the overall quality of my life”
(Response: 86% ITDMs, 71%
U.S. adults).
“Technology encourages
people to be more creative”
(Response: 79% ITDMs, 65%
U.S. adults).
“Technology enhances my
social life” (Response: 69%
ITDMs, 52% U.S. adults).
•
“I use technology as an escape
from my busy life” (65% ITDMs, 47% U.S. adults).
Read more of the results of the
study, including ITDM’s reticence about
technology, on Harris Interactive.
Source: Harris Interactive
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2/21/14 5:36 PM
hosted services can be more
secure than on-premises
hardware because cloud
providers typically have the
skills, staff and budgets to
implement the patches and
upgrades that plug a lot of
security holes. But as the study
shows, many contracts create
their share of security risks.
The Fordham researchers used
state open record laws to get the cloud
service agreements, notices to parents
and faculty computer-use policies for 20
Privacy Matters
Most school districts don’t
protect student data in the cloud.
By Tim Kridel
M
ost U.S. school districts
now use cloud-based services for everything from
storing student test scores
to enabling student-teacher collaboration. Most of them also have no policies
or contractual requirements to protect the
privacy of that data.
Those are two findings from a
recent study by the Center on Law and
Information Policy at the Fordham
University School of Law. Available as
a free download, the report is worth
reading for insights into how—and how
not—to structure a cloud-services contract and tips for complying with laws
such as the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Act and the
Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
The study shouldn’t necessarily send
districts running from the cloud and
back to premise-based solutions. Just the
opposite: Hosted services remain a viable
way for schools to minimize the CapEx
and OpEx of IT services. And with the
right provider and the right contract,
14
districts across the country. District sizes
and demographics ran the gamut, from
264 students in rural Echo, Oregon, to
204,245 in Houston, Texas, but several
common denominators emerged:
• “Cloud services are poorly understood, non-transparent, and weakly
“If you’re a
technology
manager at a school
district, don’t be
surprised if you or a
board member gets
a call from your
local newspaper or
TV station.”
governed.” Just 25 percent of the districts studied tell parents that they use
cloud services, while 20 percent have
no policies covering cloud services.
• “Districts frequently surrender control
of student information when using
cloud services.” Less than 7 percent of
the contracts analyzed prohibit ven-
BigIdeas
dors from selling student information, and many
allow vendors to change the contact terms without
notice, a FERPA violation.
• “An overwhelming majority of cloud service contracts
do not address parental notice, consent, or access to
student information.” In some cases, when parents
activate an account, they’re consenting to a privacy policy that contradicts the terms of the contract
between the vendor and the district.
• “School district cloud service agreements generally
do not provide for data security and even allow vendors to retain student information in perpetuity with
alarming frequency.” For example, none of the agreements analyzed required vendors to notify districts
when there was a data security breach.
The study includes several pages of suggestions that
districts could turn into best practices if they don’t
already have them. For example, 27 percent of the agreements analyzed were for services provided free to those
districts. The study warns that vendors likely are commercializing students’ personal information to make it
financially viable to provide those services at no charge.
“The choice to use ‘freemium’ services at the cost of student privacy should be clear, transparent and subject to
public discussion,” the researchers advise.
Another recommendation is to create a chief privacy
officer position both at the state and district level. “This
function is ever more essential to be able to provide
advice to smaller districts and districts without the
resources to handle privacy issues on their own,” the
study says. “For larger districts and those with extensive
cloud networks and intensive data transfers, the designation of a chief privacy officer with responsibility for data
governance, privacy compliance, and teacher training is
necessary to assure proper stewardship of student data
and to enable those districts to more effectively assure the
protection of their students’ information.”
The study is the latest example of how district use
of cloud services is increasingly in the public spotlight.
It’s received a significant amount of mainstream media
coverage. So if you’re a technology manager at a school
district, don’t be surprised if you or a board member gets
a call from your local newspaper or TV station looking to
see how your district stacks up.
moreonline
download this study at http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1001&context=clip
2/21/14 5:37 PM
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BigIdeas
Ask Professor
Phil
Clearing up Confusion
about H.323, sip, rtsp, rtp, &
ConferenCing.
By Phil Hippensteel
Dear Professor Phil,
I get confused when vendors or engineers talk about conferencing protocols. They use H.323, SIP, RTSP, RTP,
and other acronyms, which are tied
to audio or video conferencing. Can
you give a simple explanation to me
of how they are related to each other
and how they are used to conduct a
conference?
—Jan, Mansfield, PA
Control
H.323, rtCp*
sip
rtsp + rtCp*
Http
Jan,
I’ll try to explain by starting with a little
background information. In nearly all
forms of data communications, discussions as well as designs separate the
technology into two parts: media transport and control. Even the widely used
ASCII (American Standard Code for
Information Interchange) chart shows
this. The first 32 codes represent control
functions; the remaining 95 codes represent characters that can be transported
and printed. TCP/IP has a similar separation of protocols. An example is IP,
which carries data, and ICMP (Internet
Control Message Protocol), which provides control packets that expedite the
IP flow.
In audio and video conferencing,
control is often called signaling. H.323,
RTSP (Real-time-Streaming Protocol) and
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) are control protocols. They handle such functions as call set-up, codec negotiation,
call admission (permission to call- think
of dial tone), and other administrative
procedures. In each conference a separate
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Media transport
rtp
rtp or Http
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The company is also promoting its ISP Speed Test—a
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connection quality over time, providing Internet latency,
*optional
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protocol is used to transfer the media. Most often it is
RTP (Real-time Protocol). When H.323 and RTSP are
used for control, RTP carries the voice or video. RTCP
(Real-time Control Protocol) works optionally with RTP
to provide quality related data to the source. This is a
control function.
I’ve used quite a few acronyms but I think you can see
the common thread. One or more control protocols are
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A closely related example from video but not often
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1/31/2014 12:22:01 PM
Inside Job
Finding a balance between outsourcing and in-house
management of digital signage networks.
By Carolyn Heinze
Since the dawn of the digital sign, companies have used signage networks to communicate with employees and endusers. While this has proven effective for many organizations on an anecdotal level, it’s often challenging to assign hard
numbers to the ROI of digital signage.
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“What IT managers need to consider is the fact that there is going to be an investment in hardware, and that investment is not necessarily going to have
any type of return on it,” said Dave Haar, vice president of digital signage solutions at Kramer Electronics USA. Most inward-facing digital signage networks
are used for things like training and information dissemination, which are not easy things to measure in terms of dollars. “They may get more productivity,
they may have fewer accidents because they’re doing safety messages, and they may have more participation in company events, which could improve morale,
which could improve productivity. But the content needs to be maintained, and there are going to be stakeholders.”
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ROI can be just as difficult to measure when
digital signage is outward-facing, notes Raffi Vartian,
chief operating officer at Signagelive. “It really
depends on what people are using their networks
for,” he said. “If I’m McDonald’s and I’ve got a menu
board up there, it must be up when people come
to order or people will not order things, so it has
a direct financial impact.” If, however, a corporate
office has a display running CNN in its lobby, it
doesn’t have the same impact on the company’s bottom line. “The ROI per screen is so wildly variable.”
“Digital Signage Industry Status & 2014
Outlook,” published by the research and analysis
firm Bunn, notes that over 400 independently
owned and operated advertising-based networks
exist in North America. The firm estimates that
18 million displays represent “owned” media for
companies utilizing digital signage for visitors,
shoppers, and travelers, as well as for internal
communications for staff and, within educational
institutions, for students. There is strong evidence
that these numbers will continue to rise; Bunn
declares that for those working in the digital signage sector, 2014 is going to be a good year.
Digital signage may well be on
its way to becoming ubiquitous.
However, given that its impact can
be challenging to quantify, how
can companies best allocate the
resources they devote to creating
and maintaining digital signage?
And how best to find a balance
between in-house development and hiring
outside experts?
A digital signage system requires network
management, content creation and updating,
and scheduling. In a sense, it’s a miniature
broadcast operation. “There are very few organizations that are completely self-sufficient when
it comes to running their digital signage networks,” said Dave Haar. Most companies form
partnerships with specialists that may manage
all, or part, of the puzzle. “That could be on the
deployment side, or on the content creation or
management side, or they may be using one of
the partners out there that do Software as a Service
(SaaS) and do the hosting of the content.”
For those organizations that want to manage
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becomes
a
question of
which
part
would be best for them to handle. For Haar, it comes
down to content. “If we assume that the success of
the network is based upon the messaging, then the
most logical aspect of the digital signage network to
take in-house is the actual creation and maintenance
of the content,” he said, “because an organization
knows what it wants to accomplish with the digital
signage network that it wants to put in.” And the
people that best know their audience, Haar reasons,
are best equipped to target the messaging.
Taking digital signage in-house requires resources—specifically, human resources, warns Raffi
Vartian, chief operating officer at Signagelive, a
developer of cloud-based media delivery solutions
in Evanston, Ill. “Those that have the ability to take
it in-house have bodies, have humans, that can
actually do the work,” he said. “Digital signage is a
product you have to manage. The cheapest a digital
signage network ever is, is when you buy it, but the
cost never ends because you have to keep feeding
it.” Otherwise, he says, it’s like having a TV in your
home, but no cable package to support it. “The
companies that can take it in-house have a least
one or two full-time people that can look after it.”
Another issue is that digital signage—especially when it comes to content—isn’t something
that falls solely under the IT department’s realm
2/21/14 5:37 PM
of expertise. Depending on what message you
are trying to deliver, there may be a number
of different players involved from throughout
the organization, including human resources,
marketing, and sales. While this requires a considerable coordination effort, if the workflow is
designed properly it could actually ease the burden of keeping content fresh. “There are all sorts
of different departments within an organization
that could contribute to the maintaining and
the refreshing of that content so that they’re not
showing the same message day in and day out,
week after week,” Haar said.
But while bringing more people into the mix
may result in fresher content, Hussain Ali, principal at Houston Dynamic Displays (HD2), reminds
us that these people will require time to create
the content. “One of the most important aspects
of taking digital signage or any other project inhouse is the time consideration,” he said. “People
really underestimate the time that is required to
plan, the time that is required to deploy and the
time that is required to have an ongoing presence
of that technology.” Content creation and man-
agement, technology support and eventual — and larger and more people are required to manage
inevitable — upgrades all take time, as does the it, this staff needs to be highly skilled. “Almost
planning associated with these functions so that everyone that runs large networks has a hosting
the process is as streamlined as possible. “It’s company or a managed services company in the
about [accounting for] that time, which is unfortu- background doing proactive monitoring, call supnately very sacred in a lot of organizations.”
port and everything else,” he said. To him, it makes
Ali also urges organizations, whether their digi- much more sense to outsource the management of
tal signage is managed in-house or not, to make digital signage systems to specialized firms that offer
time to properly test the systems before going fully these services. “It’s a classic outsourcing versus hirlive. “I think it’s important for organizations that ing scenario,” he said. “It really makes more sense to
are thinking about getting into digital
bring in an organization that understands
signage to have some sort of plan
this business. It’s a much more viafor a pilot project so that they
ble business model and network
can test the hardware, the softstrategy than hiring your own
Houston Dynamic
ware, and then refine their
people.”
Displays (HD2)
communication message,”
In the end, each orgawww.houstondd.com
Kramer
he said. “The reason you’re
nization must weigh the
electronics usa
doing this is because you
many determining factors
inc.
want to improve commuand chart their own course.
www.kramerelectronics.com
nication, so it’s important
Whichever way they go, the
signagelive
how that refined message
results will be on digital
www.signagelive.com
gets to your audience.”
screens for all to see.
Vartian points out that as a
Carolyn Heinze is a freedigital signage network becomes
lance writer/editor.
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2/21/14 5:37 PM
Mobile AV Control
For Tech Managers
While they can’t do everything, a tablet or a phone should
now be part of every AV manager’s toolkit.
By Brian Nadel
With tablets and phones inexorably creeping into all aspects of business, it was
just a matter of time before they started to be used to help set up and control AV
equipment. Whether it’s turning the lights on and off, checking on a projector’s
status or even playing a video on the big screen, tablets and phones are here
to stay.
“While they can’t do everything, a tablet or a
phone should now be part of every AV manager’s
toolkit,” says Eric Neilson, senior product marketing manager at AMX’s Richardson, TX headquarters. “These devices can help get the image
looking right and make sure the right slide is being
shown.”
For instance, AMX’s TP Control software connects with the company’s Master Control infrastructure and allows you do to anything from dimming the lights before a presentation to remotely
turning off the projector when the meeting is
over. “TP Control lets you take command of your
equipment,” added Neilson, “and is
becoming very popular with
corporations.”
TP Control is an offshoot of
the company’s family of dedicated control panels that have
touch-screens ranging from 4.3 to
20 inches. The TP Control phonetablet software mirrors their operations. “The apps cover 98-percent of
their abilities,” said Neilson. “The two
complement each other.”
Another approach is to use Crestron’s
Mobile Pro software on a tablet or phone.
It allows AV managers to not only adjust the
lights and turn AV equipment on and off, but
22
examine its operations. It can even tell you that
a projector’s lamp is nearing the end of its life.
“It doesn’t replace the remote control, but puts a
lot of power and intelligence in your hand,” said
David Silberstein, director of commercial marketing at the Rockleigh, NJ-based Crestron.
The software is based on the company’s touchscreen control panels, and can communicate with
devices in the same building, across a corporate
campus or on the other side of the globe. The key
is that once the gear is connected via Crestron’s
Control System, it’s available to any device that has
the MobilePro app installed.
2/21/14 5:37 PM
“We use the Crestron Mobile Pro app on
iPads to control the AV equipment in our conference rooms,” said Leonard Klein, the principal
at Glumac, a Portland-based engineering firm
that has nine worldwide offices that specialize in
sustainable building projects. “It has blended into
how we do business very quickly.”
ONE CLICK
Extron’s TouchLink for iPad app connects with
and works off of the company’s TouchLink touch
panels, which makes setting it up a one-click affair.
The panels range from 3.5-inch displays that can
be folded into a table niche to 10-inch panels that
can be mounted on a wall.
“The TouchLink for iPad provides an extension
to our dedicated TouchLink panels,” said Derek
Joncas, Extron’s Manager of product marketing
for control systems. “It gives people more ways to
control their equipment and more options.”
23
2/21/14 5:38 PM
TouchLink for iPad is available as an iOS app
for iPads models, while Crestron’s Mobile Pro
software also works with Android phones and
tablets. AMX’s TP Control covers all the bases by
adding the ability to control a room’s equipment
with a Windows 8- or RT-based tablet. Or with
any online computer for that matter with its new
TP Cloud that routes commands through the
Internet.
TouchLink for iPad does
have a distinct advantage
when it comes to economy,
though. That’s because the
TouchLink app costs only
$4.99, much less than the
others, potentially saving thousands of dollars
across an organization.
While Mobile Pro costs
$99 per copy, AMX’s
TP Control apps cost
between $250 and $750, but can be purchased as
a site license that lowers the per-user cost. As anyone who’s wasted hours of otherwise
useful and productive time playing the “Cut the
Rope” game knows, the big advantage of phones
and tablets is the display’s ability to interpret finger
gestures, like swipes or multiple taps. This not only
makes it more interactive and tactile, but it allows
people to use the interface in the most instinctual, efficient and convenient way. For instance,
when setting up a video conference call with
Mobile AV control solutions
support tech managers on the go.
Crestron’s
Mobile Pro rather than tediously going through a list of contacts
to invite one at a time, “you can swipe down the
screen to fly through the list and get to where your
recipient is,” added Silberstein. “It can save a lot of
time and frustration.”
Some take this a step further with the ability
to listen for voice instructions. Any of its commands—from turning the room’s projector on or
off to telling it what to show—can be set up for
voice command. Once done, all you do is tell the
phone or tablet what you want it to do.
A phone or tablet can
also come in handy when
things aren’t exactly working
the way they should be. For
instance, Extron’s TouchLink
for iPad can directly look
inside a variety of equipment and grab detailed data,
whether that is an errant IP
address or a dirty dust filter.
Extron’s iGVE app
takes this idea to a new
level by going beyond
monitoring the equipment in a single room. It can
examine hardware and software across a building or campus, querying them for operational or
maintenance snags before they become issues.
This can make an AV manager’s job a lot simpler,
but, it’s only available for iPhones and iPod touch
devices.
A big consideration here is how the data and
commands flow to and from the handheld device.
The software and back-end control systems of
all three systems are agnostic to how they are
fed with data, so you can use a mobile data service
or tap into the facilities WiFi. For most, WiFi can
save a lot of money because there are no outside
AMX’s TP Control solutions
24
2/21/14 5:38 PM
data service charges.
Either way, the action is surprisingly prompt. “We use 802.11n WiFi and
the software’s response is so fast, that you
don’t even notice it,” said Leonard Klein,
“Getting images and
documents from
a phone or tablet
onto the big screen
doesn’t require a
building full of
control infrastructure
anymore.”
the principal at Glumac, a Portland-based
engineering firm that has nine worldwide
offices that specialize in sustainable building projects. “There’s no delay.”
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Tap to Present
Getting images and documents from a phone or tablet
onto the big screen doesn’t
require a building full of control infrastructure anymore.
Epson’s iProjection app can
put you in charge of the show.
The Epson app is a freebee that works with iOS
and Android devices, so it should easily fit into the
emerging BYOD work ethic. It can connect with more
than 70 of Epson’s most recent network-aware projectors, but not those of competitors.
(Above) Crestron’s Mobile Pro and Extron’s TouchLink (below) and iGVE solutions offer flexible, mobile control for system
monitoring and communication.
Getting started is quick and easy. After downloading and installing the iProjection app on your phone or
slate, the system connects with the projector’s WiFi
SLIDE CITY
Some apps like AMX’s TP Control go beyond control to letting you show presentation slides. This
allows executives to leave the clunky notebook
on their desks. “The key is that you can walk into
a boardroom, pull out your phone and start your
presentation,” according to AMX’s Neilson. “It
lets you be in command of everything.”
By contrast, Crestron’s Mobile Pro app is
strictly about controlling AV gear and not presenting. To turn it into a presentation machine, you’ll
need to install the company’s Air Media app,
which can send what’s on the tablet’s screen to a
projector or large monitor. There are versions for
the iPad, iPhone as well as Android devices that
are, happily, free.
It all comes together at Glumac in their new
26
Spruce and Douglas Fir conference rooms, which
are each equipped with a 70-inch LCD monitor and
can be combined to create a large meeting space.
With Air Media loaded on his iPhone, Klein puts it
all on-screen. “I pull out my phone or iPad and pull
the presentation right off of it,” he recalled.
It’s not likely that anytime soon, a phone or
tablet app will put an end to the use of remote
controls or dedicated touch panel control systems,
but their use is becoming increasingly popular.
“Because just about everyone carries at least one
device that can connect with AV gear,” added
Extron’s Joncas, “these apps have a bright future
because they can do so much for so little.”
Brian Nadel is a writer based in New York.
He is a frequent contributor to AV Technology,
Scholastic, and ComputerWorld.
signal via its unique network name. Just select the
projector from the software’s onscreen list of available machines. After that, all you need to do is pick the
item you want to show to the group. In a second it’s on
the big screen for all to see.
In addition to being able to change the source
input or page orientation, the software can show Web
pages, Office documents, Keynote presentations,
Adobe Acrobat as well as the most popular image files.
On the downside, it can’t display videos.
The best part is that once everything is on-screen,
you can annotate it in a variety of colors by writing
on the phone or tablet’s touchscreen with a finger or
stylus. It can turn a boring slide show into an interactive experience.
2/21/14 5:38 PM
Conference at Stanford Will Explore the
Future of Internet-Delivered Media
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engi-
Presentations will address topics ranging from
neers, working with the Stanford Center for Image
the future role of OTT services, to the impact of
Systems Engineering (SCIEN), will produce the
technology on storytelling and on business models,
second annual “Entertainment Technology in the
the translation of “traditional” content to the Web,
Internet Age” (ETIA) conference.
storytelling across devices, the state of sound and
Scheduled for June 17-18 at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California, the conference
will explore the technology, creative, and business
captioning on the Web, and the question of fastlane Internet access.
“The ETIA conference not only offers engaging
requirements for delivering a compelling, reliable
panel discussions and presentations, but also opens
entertainment experience over the Web.
the door to a broader dialog—a conversation with
Technology and creative experts will gather at
the power to move the industry forward in address-
the ETIA conference to explore the differences
ing the new reality of Internet—delivered media and
and commonalities between traditional media
entertainment,” Joyce Farrell, executive director of
and media delivered over the Web, appreciating
SCIEN and ETIA conference chair, explained.
key attributes and predicting technical trends.
(Source: www.smpte.org/etia2014)
Joyce Farrell, executive director of SCIEN
27
2/21/14 5:38 PM
Now Hear This
The hearing loop movement is gaining traction, and tech
managers are playing a pivotal role.
By David Zuckerman | Illustration by Kim Rosen
28
2/21/14 5:39 PM
In 2012, Greg Bawden was serving his third term on the Seattle-area Riverview school district’s education board. Though
he hoped to begin a fourth term in 2013, he had a problem. A few years prior, Bawden had begun to experience hearing
loss. Even with hearing aids, he found it difficult to engage fully in board meetings. When plans emerged to create new
office space, Bawden saw an opportunity. He recommended the district equip its new boardroom with an assistive listening system (ALS). Absent a solution, “I would have had to resign,” Bawden said, “because I can’t participate in meetings
if I can’t hear everybody.”
At Bawden’s urging, the district installed a
hearing loop (also known as a loop). Having tried
both loops and more widely installed RF systems
since becoming hard of hearing, Bawden finds
loops offer a far better experience.
“What a huge difference when I’m in a looped
environment as opposed to relying on, essentially,
a walkie-talkie,” he said. “It’s such a relief to not
be hearing the ambient noise and have the sound
system delivered directly into my ears.”
IN THE LOOP
In its most basic form, a hearing loop (also known
as an induction loop) consists of a current amplifier connected to a copper wire looped around a
room. Audio is run through the amp and inducted
onto the wire, creating a magnetic field that is
then inductively coupled to a coil, called a telecoil
or t-coil, in a listener’s hearing aid or Cochlear
implant. What makes loops unique among ALS’s,
and so popular in the hard-of-hearing community,
is that they communicate directly with an individual’s own hearing aids or Cochlear implants.
Those devices restore volume as well as frequencies users struggle to hear on their own, which
means loops deliver custom-equalized audio
directly to listeners’ ears.
“Those highs and mid-highs are restored
through the EQ process that the audiologist has
set up,” said Mike Griffitt, corporate training manager at Utah’s Listen Technologies. With a loop,
users “hear not only with added volume like with
traditional ALS’s, but they also get that speech
intelligibility.”
And because loops don’t require intermediary
devices, they offer discretion. Whereas RF and IR
require users to draw attention to themselves with
headphones or bulky receivers, to connect to a
loop system, users simply need to activate their
devices’ telecoils.
Bawden is not alone in preferring loop. Hardof-hearing psychologist David Myers launched
the Let’s Loop America campaign back in 2001 in
Holland, MI. There and in neighboring Zeeland,
loops have been installed in scores of public
venues—churches, theaters, event spaces, and
schools—that traditionally feature amplified
audio. More than 130 venues in Holland and
Zeeland are looped, including several facilities
at Hope College, where Myers is a professor.
The Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand
Rapids, MI, recently completed a second round
of loop installations, adding coverage to its main
atrium and meet-and-greet areas after a 2007
29
2/21/14 5:39 PM
The team prepares to install a hearing loop system at the Gershwin Theater in New York City.
30
installation provided loops in the two concourses
and gate waiting areas. In all, there are more than
700 looped facilities in Michigan, more than anywhere else in the country.
But while the rest of the nation has been slow
to catch up, it seems the movement is finally gaining traction. Loop advocacy groups have sprung
up all over the country, and the resulting increase
in public awareness is delivering results. In New
York City, Broadway’s Gershwin and Rodgers
Theaters were recently looped, and loops have
been installed at ticket booths in 488 subway
stations. Loops have also been approved for New
York City taxis after a successful 18-month pilot
program.
Despite these and other high-profile installations, however, the total number of loops is
tiny relative to the number of venues in which
advocates hope to see them. ALDLocator.org lists
just 1,812 looped venues nationwide (though
that number is likely low because the site is selfreporting). As it turns out, the technology has
existed since the Depression—inventor Joseph
Poliakoff filed a patent for a loop system in the
UK all the way back in 1937. Loop took root in
Europe in the early 1970s, particularly in the UK
and Scandinavia, and has been firmly established
as a viable ALS there for years.
One reason the loop has been slow to take
hold in the U.S., said Cory Schaeffer, Listen cofounder and vice president of sales, is that the
feature they require to work—telecoils—simply
hasn’t been available here. In Europe, where
nationalized healthcare is the rule, hard-of-hearing patients have easy access to hearing aids, and
consequently telecoils, which became a standard
feature in the ‘70s. In the U.S., not only are hearing aids generally not covered by health insurance
plans, but telecoil-equipped hearing aids only
recently became commonplace. Although today
close to 80 percent of hearing aids in the U.S. have
telecoils, Schaeffer said, as recently as 2001, the
total was less than 40 percent.
Audiologists, meanwhile, may be just as
unaware of loops as their patients. Greg Bawden
said his first audiologist failed to set his telecoils up correctly, reversing the proper ratio of
ambient sound to inducted sound. Sometimes,
Schaeffer adds, audiologists simply don’t set up
their patients’ telecoils because they don’t foresee
an opportunity to use them.
“An audiologist might say, ‘Oh, we’re not
going to activate it because there’s really no place
you can use it,’” Schaeffer explained. “Well, then
2/21/14 5:39 PM
venues say, ‘We’re not going to put [a loop] in,
because nobody’s asking for it.’ So it’s really on
this cusp where it’s a chicken-or-egg thing.”
Compounding the awareness issue is the fact
that in the past, loops often just didn’t work that
well. Whether unscrupulous or well-intentioned,
installers in prior decades sometimes just didn’t
know what they were doing.
“Ten, twenty, thirty years ago,” Griffitt said,
“here in the U.S., what people were
doing was just using telephone wire
wrapped around a room, hooking it
up to any standard audio amplifier
and telling people, ‘There’s your loop
system.’” Among the few had heard of
it, loop’s reputation “suffered drastically. It kind of got a black eye here.”
Indeed, Schaeffer and her co-founder
Russ Gentner, who is also Listen’s CEO
and a hearing aid wearer, were among
the skeptics. “We sold against this tech-
like Listen and Williams Sound entered the loop
market via partnerships with major manufacturers
in Europe. All of Listen’s loop gear is supplied by
the British company Ampetronic, while Williams
has a deal with German firm Humantechnik.
Listen and Williams also both provide intensive
training to their installers. Listen offers a selective
two-level certification program to which installers
must apply.
“We’re really handpicking certain AV integrators that we feel have the technical sense, and
have design engineers that understand higher
level systems,” Griffitt explained. Selectivity is
essential, Gentner added, given that the growth of
the market is dependent on awareness, which in
turn requires successful installations. “We’ve really
taken the time to teach the dealers and the consultants how to specify, how to design and install
“Audiologists may
be just as unaware
of loops as their
patients.”
nology for most of this company’s [16
year] history,” Gentner noted.
The industry is changing, however. In recent years, advocacy groups
have seen their work rewarded with
an increase in media attention. At the
same time, changes to the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) implemented in 2012 strengthened the ALS
mandate, removing the provision that
only venues of a certain capacity needed to provide an ALS. Now, regardless
of capacity, ALS’s must be provided
“in each assembly area where audible
communication is integral to the use
of the space.” Not only that, but at
least two of the receivers installed as
part of that system must be hearing aid
compatible.
Perhaps more significantly from a
business perspective, the industry has
grown up. Recognizing that loop had
a less than sterling reputation in the
U.S., distributors and manufacturers
31
2/21/14 5:39 PM
these systems so that they’re done right,” Gentner
said. “We knew if we didn’t do that and we started
getting systems installed that didn’t work well,
consultants would stop specifying them, and dealers would stop pitching them to their customers.”
Cody Plagge is the project manager for
Dimensional Communications, the Listencertified integrator that installed the Riverview
School District loop. He said he believes the experienced engineers at his firm could have figured
out loop installations without the training. Still,
Plagge said, Listen’s installer test kit has proved a
valuable tool and the certification is a value-add
when bidding for projects. “Certifications are
always nice to have. Specs or consultants might
call out for that in order to get a job, and we can
comfortably write down that we’ve got that certification. It might have won us a job or two.”
While some installers may have complained
about the certification process, he argues it’s
unwise to take loop installations too lightly. As
simple as the technology is at in its most basic
application, installations aren’t always straightforward. Structural metal, for example, will interfere
with and reduce the strength of the magnetic
field. Existing electrical systems may interfere as
well, creating electromagnetic background noise
that produces an audible hum and reduces sound
clarity.
The Gershwin
Theater’s Got
Rhythm
Broadway’s Gershwin Theater is providing a
more immersive experience for its patrons by
installing a hearing loop system from Listen
Technologies. Bill Register, director of facilities and theater management for Nederlander,
which operates the Gershwin Theater and eight
other theaters in New York said, “The Gershwin
Theater recently underwent a renovation with
new seats and carpet. With the 10th anniversary of ‘Wicked’ upon us, we felt now was an
opportune time to provide a different kind of
upgrade to the theater. Being installed under
the carpet, the hearing loop is invisible to the
eyes, but for our patrons with hearing loss, the
giant leap in clarity of sound is literally music to
their ears.”
32
Also, depending on where the loop is installed,
it might require a more complex design than a
simple perimeter loop. A space might require an
array (a series of loops) to avoid structural metal,
or a phased array, where two arrays are overlaid
but offset to avoid dead zones. All this needs to be
accounted for in producing a loop that conforms
to the IEC standard, which establishes baseline
measurements for magnetic field strength across
a given space. “It seems like a simple thing,”
Gennter said, “But if you treat it like a simple
thing, you’ll get yourself in trouble. It has to be
engineered.”
To help installation teams hit the mark the first
time, Listen uses 3D modeling software. Installers
right now, there’s so little infrastructure.”
Still, he hastens to add, there’s no chance
of loop making other ALS’s obsolete. Infrared,
for example, allows secure transmissions, which
loop can’t, while RF is substantially cheaper. “In
many installations, loop is just cost prohibitive,”
Gentner said. “For example, an NFL stadium can
be covered with one RF transmitter at 260 MHz for
a cost under $1,000. To loop a stadium, it would
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
A white paper authored by Griffitt suggests
even the most basic installations will cost thousands of dollars, while estimates for larger-scale
projects, like a large performing arts venue, run
into the tens of thousands, upwards of $40,000 if
“We are sensing a shift now, in that people are
putting in this type of technology not just because
they’re required by the ADA, but because it delivers
so much better an experience for the end-user that
it makes good business sense for the venue.”
provide Listen site plans, CAD renderings, and a
clarification form with any other relevant information, such as the presence of metal elements and
electrical equipment. Listen’s designers use that
data to model the site, determining what kind of
loop will be required and how much current it will
need to meet the IEC standard. Whether installers
use modeling software or not, doing a thorough
site assessment is essential, because a successful
installation makes life easier for the venue.
“There’s a little bit of fine tuning you have
to do when you add it to a new area,” said Tom
Ecklund, facilities director at Ford Airport in
Grand Rapids, whose loops were installed by
Hearing Loop Systems of Holland, MI. “But once
that’s done it’s really a hands-off system.”
Right now, loop systems account for only a
small percentage of ALS sales and installations.
Listen’s Gentner puts the number somewhere
between 5–10 percent. And while that may dismay
loop advocates, for manufacturers, resellers and
integrators, it means there’s immense potential
for growth. “We’re talking about double-digit
growth for quite a long time, because there’s no
install base,” Gentner said. “If you took all the
loop product and service sales, they’re going to be
growing certainly more than 10% year over year.”
Gentner estimates growth numbers could reach
the 30–50% for the next several years, “because
the installation is complex. The loop installed in
Greg Bawden’s Riverview School District boardroom cost $10,000, a figure steep enough that
Bawden actually rescinded his original proposal
and recommended a lower-cost RF unit. In the
end, however, Bawden’s own confidence in loop’s
superiority convinced the school superintendent
that loop was worth investing in. “They stepped
up and said, this is the right thing to do,” Bawden
said. “And so far our experience has been positive.”
Similarly, Ecklund at Grand Rapids’s Ford
Airport was undaunted by an initial installation
that cost of $137,000. A second installation, to
the tune of another $143,000, “was really a nobrainer for us,” Ecklund said, “because we had
ample evidence that [the loop was] was received
very, very well.”
Gentner believes that kind of recognition is
turning the tide in favor of loop. “We are sensing
a shift now,” he said, “in that people are putting
in this type of technology not just because they’re
required by the ADA, but because it delivers so
much better an experience for the end user that it
makes good business sense for the venue. In other
words, they’re starting to put these systems in for
the right reasons.”
Dave Zuckerman is a writer based in Brooklyn,
New York.
2/21/14 5:40 PM
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2/7/14 4:31
The 411 on 4K
What do technology managers need to know about ultra high-res?
By Margot Douaihy
2014 is already swirling with headlines about 4K: 4K playback, 4K streaming, 4K processing, 4K end-to-end solutions, strategies for 4K content, and the
4K ilk.
Don’t worry—4K is not the new 3D. 4K is a
quick way of indicating technology that is capable of
pixel resolution four times higher than full HD (aka
1080p). A lot more pixels mean more clarity, detail,
and image precision. Despite questions around price
and the impact of net neutrality on 4K, targeted verticals are looking closely at it. Medical, command and
control, military, and retail applications where “ultra
res” makes a different (e.g., Lexus or high-fashion
retailers), see the benefit of 4K. Hardware prices
should drop in time — but it isn’t clear when, exactly.
Tech managers should stay level headed about
4K. There will be a lot of ballyhoo this year; it is
important to separate fact from fiction. Bottom line:
do your users and or stakeholders need this high
level of resolution? As Jeff Porter, founder/CEO of
Porter Digital Signage, explained in last month’s 2014
DSE Consultants Council, “For most digital signage
applications with traditional LCD screens, you don’t
need ultra HD resolutions. Digital menu boards, for
instance, have no need for 4K resolution. In fact, in
most cases, 1920x1080 is over-kill. The human eye
cannot resolve this resolution from the typical viewing distance.”
“Large video walls are a different matter. Putting
multiple 1080p screens together in a large video wall
matrix would obviously demand higher resolution
content (again assuming the viewing distance is modest). So for content creators 4K will be important for
video walls. For screen manufacturers, I’m not sure
it’s a pressing need. Very few applications would need
that ‘close up 4K resolution.’ Perhaps medical imaging, but not much else,” Porter continued.
One organization that is investing in 4K pixel density is Harvard University. The venerable institution is
using Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K
switchers to stream tennis matches online.
BrightSign recently debuted a new 4K digital
signage media player, which CEO Jeff Hastings says
delivers an end-to-end 4K solution that accepts
H.265-encoded content and delivers 60 fps output
via HDMI 2.0.
Each of these characteristics is necessary to deliver
a true 4K solution, Hastings added. “For content to
remain 4K native and be delivered at the highest visual quality, video must be captured on a 4K-capable
camera, encoded, and decoded using the new H.265
compression standard at 10 bits/channel, and fed to
the display via HDMI 2.0 to preserve the original 60
fps frame rate,” he stated.
Hastings also emphasized that transitioning to 4K
is not as intimidating as it might seem. The elements
required for 4K are already here, but they must con-
BrightSign’s 4K solution
ENCODE
Native 4K
video encoded
to H.265
34
VIDEO FILE
4K Resolution
(3840 x 2160)
H.264
H.265
Frame Rate
30 fps
60 fps
DECODER
4K video at:
30 fps
60 fps
H.264
H.265
OUTPUT
HDMI
1.4a - 30 fps
2.0 - 60 fps
2/21/14 5:40 PM
nected in the right way. “Any broken link in this chain
of events adversely impacts video quality and the
output falls short of what 4K is made to be.”
“4K is the normal evolution from 1080p,” said
Bill Taylor, director, Global Signage at CoolSign, a
Haivision brand. While it’s still in its nascent stages in
commercial vertical applications, more manufacturers
are offering graphics cards, hardware solutions, and encoding for
4K content.
To facilitate the transition to 4K, Crestron is offering a 4K Certification program.
Manufacturers can submit 4K
sources and displays to Crestron
to ensure that they: deliver true
10 Gbit/s data rates to get the
signal to its destination; interface with DigitalMedia to
handle cable-lengths found in integrated AV systems;
and work with other 4K products in a DigitalMedia
system. Extron is also offering a comprehensive 4K
education and certification program.
Tech managers should take a closer look at High
Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), the video compression format that is the successor to H.264 (which is
used widely in both content creation and playback).
HEVC is, relatively, the new kid on the block and it
offers new complexities and advantages: “50% better compression than H.264 in video-on-demand
applications, which means similar quality at half
the bitrate,” according to Jan Ozer, contributor for
Streaming Media and AV Technology magazine. He
recently parsed the details of HEVC licensing by the
MPEG LA for Streaming Media.
Senior product marketing
manager of Samsung, Kevin
Schroll, noted that investing in
4K hardware will benefit users
with 1080p content due to the
significant increase in pixel density. Not enough attention has
been paid to the fact that “4K
hardware will make 1080p content pop,” he added.
Commercial 4k content is driving the market, and
if manufacturers can reduce the price of the display,
other components in the chain (e.g., encoding, graphics cards, etc) should also come down.
“Our goal is to bring it [4K] to the mainstream,”
Kevin Schroll said. “It is an evolution, like 1080p was
a few years ago.”
For the fiber-friendly, DVI Gear offers myriad
“Our goal is to
bring it [4K] to the
mainstream. It is
an evolution, like
1080p was a few
years ago.”
solutions for extending 4K Ultra HD up to two miles.
Gefen’s 4K Ultra HD extender moves HDMI 4K over
fiber. The solution delivers resolutions up to 3840 x
2160 at 30Hz with RS-232 and bi-directional IR using
one SC-terminated fiber optic cable.
Gefen also wants to meet the need for 4K pointto-point transmission with its ELR Extender for HDMI
over one CAT-5 with POL (power over line). It transmits 4K Ultra HD content with RS-232 and bi-directional IR. Bonus: POL provides power to the receiver
unit using the same single CAT-5 cable, so there’s no
need to buy an external power supplies.
Sharp is the only company that’s currently offering
4K in a 32-inch form factor. It’s also partnering with
Apple to showcase the 32-inch models in Apple Stores.
Planar made headlines at the recent Digital Signage
Expo 2014 with its 84-inch 4K Planar UltraRes Touch
with extended ruggedness and optics (ERO) and
more touch points.
Becky Connors, Planar Systems’ product marketing manager, stated: “By dramatically increasing the
number of touch points, we’ve made it possible for
organizations to create highly immersive and engaging experiences.” Also notable about this new Planar
unit is that it features Corning Gorilla Glass which
gives it a durable, scratch-resistant cover.
35
2/21/14 5:40 PM
Safety for Live Events
A Q&A about best practices and standards for live events.
By David Keene
Record attendance for last November’s
NewBay Media-produced webinar on
live event safety opened a lot of industry eyes on just how important a topic
this is. I thought it useful to interview,
for NewBay Media’s print issue readers, the key player in that webinar
and, more importantly, one of the key
players in the live events industry for
all things safety related.
Jim Digby is the executive director of the Event
Safety Alliance, which he founded in 2011 (www.
eventsafetyalliance.org). The scope of the Event Safety
Alliance is the standardization of safety practices
within the staging and live event industries. Digby
drew on several decades of in-the-field experience as
a top production manager as part of the production
of the new ESA Event Safety Guide; Digby currently
serves as director of touring and production for the
multi-million-selling artists Linkin Park, and has previously worked with artists as diverse as The Backstreet
Boys, Bon Jovi, and Marilyn Manson.
I sat down with Jim Digby to get an update on the
ESA activities, and the ESA Event Safety Guide.
The Event Safety Alliance, Take 1 Insurance, and NewBay Media are focusing on live-event standards, concerns, and safety.
David Keene: The evolution of the ESA Event Safety
Guide has happened in response to a series of accidents within the live event industry, to formulate a
series of best practices culled from the experience and
insight of top professionals within the event industry, as well as relevant life-safety standards currently
applicable by groups such as OSHA, NFPA, ICC, and
PLASA. How are your initiatives related to what, say,
PLASA is doing?
Jim Digby: PLASA and the ESA publicly announced
their mutual support for each other’s efforts. PLASA’s
central focus is the creation of extremely necessary equipment technical standards and protocols.
The ESA is central to the human side and smart
decision-making. By encapsulating and aiding in the
36
2/21/14 5:40 PM
proliferation of the work of PLASA, OSHA, NFPA,
ICC, and other standards writing bodies, the Event
Safety Guide consolidates the majority of the references necessary to make intelligent decisions in one
document.
We hear more about safety issues for entertainment
events such as live concerts, but what about corporate
events? Entertainment events are usually tours; corporate events are usually one-offs. How does this affect
safety issues?
The best practices contained within the Event Safety
Guide are scalable regardless of venue or type of
event. Additional specific guidance is in process to
target theater, convention, circus, and specialty event
types. But generally, rigging is rigging and the safety
best practices that guide it are generally applicable
regardless of event type.
Has there been any talk of online web training courses
similar to the FEMA courses? And what about possible lectures or quizzes?
The ESA is exploring all methodologies to extend the
reach and result of the guidance, in short—yes. We
are currently constructing the first-of-its-kind Summit
here that the leadership of the ESA are also training
themselves with the help of other industries who have
experienced similar best practice transitions. There is
much to learn from the airline industry, surgeons,
construction, and yes, even NASA. We will be engaging directly with the thought leaders in these spaces
who have helped to develop the protocol’s now in
place to ensure best practices are easy and applicable
at every level and serve the purpose of preventing
injury and catastrophe.
Jim Digby, executive director, Event Safety Alliiance
for Safety Event Leadership Training that we intend
to deliver by year’s end 2014. Additionally, we will
be test piloting a handful of new procedures within
the framework of music tours, which we will be
documenting and making available to the membership body as training material. It bears commenting
Is the ESA scalable to help smaller or start-up vendors
in the industry to ensure they are aligned?
Absolutely. We welcome the opportunity to help and
guide at any level; many of the leaders of the ESA
are available to mentor. Just contact us at: mentor@
eventsafetyalliance.org When will the ESA Event Safety Guide be available?
We are currently at the mercy of the processes within
iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Our hope is
that it will be live electronically as this interview goes
to print. When this happens, it will also be available
through the ESA website.
(continued on page 63)
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Considerations
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Video enCoder
The Drill Down
By Ken Kovach
T
he encoding process is extremely complex. Specialized
software is required to effectively encode the input, and
while most video encoders typically use MPEG-2 or
H.264 standards for compression, how they go about
doing so can be vastly different, with varying degrees of success. In
addition, an inferior RF performance can dramatically impact the
overall performance of the unit. So what are the key factors tech
managers must consider before buying a video encoders? This article
outlines key requirements of a high-performance video encoder.
MPEG CoMPrEssion
The encoding process is a means to compress data, reducing the
number of bits and consequently bandwidth for program delivery
over an IP or RF system network. This is not a simple or exact process.
Software predicts differences between video frames and only passes
on the information that changes, rather than sending redundant picture bits, hence data compression or encoding. Most video encoders
rely on MPEG-2 or H.264 standards to encode, but their method for
Figure 2. Modulation Error Ratio (MER) quantities an encoder’s QAM modulator performance.
38
Figure 1. Group of Pictures (GOP) defines the pattern of Iand P-frames used in MPEG-2 encoding.
doing so can greatly differ.
All manufacturers typically list MPEG-2 encoding features
in their specifications. These include encoding profiles and levels (e.g., MP@ML or MP@HL), color profile, video encoding
bit rate, and GOP size. Some encoder features, such as bit rates
and GOP size, may be fixed or adjustable, while others fit the
exact requirements laid out in the MPEG-2 specification. All in
all, there is not much difference between the various models
when it comes down to the encoding section of the specifications, as most of the specs are within MPEG-2 standards. How
the encoder implements the compression becomes the key to
its quality, along with its RF performance.
A major feature of MPEG-2 encoding is its ability to remove
redundancy, not only within a frame, but also among a group
of frames. MPEG-2 uses frame types (I and P) to represent
the video. (See Figure 1.) A group of pictures (GOP) setting defines the pattern of these frames. Every GOP contains one I-frame (Intra aka the key frame). The I-frame
is the only complete MPEG-2 frame type because it is not
referenced to any other frames that precede or follow it.
I-frames require more bits when compared with P-frames.
P-frames are based on predicted pictures from the previous I- or P-frames and therefore require less bits, aiding in
the overall compression of the signal.
In commercial-quality video encoders, a GOP size
setting of 15 is typically used. A GOP of 15 (one I-frame
preceded by 14 P-frames) has been found to provide
good overall picture quality. Higher GOP settings (16
to 24) can be used to provide greater compression, but
may sacrifice picture quality when the video content
2/21/14 5:41 PM
• Spurious outputs and broadband noise
are two important encoder specifications. Most systems where encoders
are installed will contain other channel sources and may be a mix of digibe achieved by checking the QAM contal and analog. Any device generating
stellation. The larger the diameter of the
noise levels and spurious outputs in
points, the higher the error or MER spec.
sufficient levels may adversely affect
• Amplitude Flatness (aka Spectral Tilt)
other channels in the system should
is the RF response flatness of the
these undesired signals land within
QAM modulator. There are two ways
their channel bandwidth frequency.
to express this specification. The first
Balancing combined output signal
is as a plus or minus value such as
levels and deploying products with
+/- 0.25 dB. This correlates to an overknown spurious output specifications
all peak-to-valley amplitude variation
of -60 dBc and broadband noise of -70
of 0.5 dB, which is the second
dBc will enable successful installations.
way of expressing flatness.
When looking to deploy a new video
The smaller the variation
encoder, it’s important to find a unit
over the 6 MHz channel
that has extensive features and a
Blonder
bandwidth, the better its
high level of performance to ensure
tongue
www.blonder
performance, thus transreliability and superior quality.
tongue.com
lating into lower inherKen Kovach is the product
ent distortion and resultmarketing manager of Blonder
ing in better picture quality.
Tongue.
“Deploying products with known spurious output
specifications of -60 dBc and broadband noise of
-70 dBc will enable successful installations.”
contains fast motion commonly found in big
action scenes and sporting events.
MeasureMents
Encoders that feature built-in modulators
have more tangible specifications for the
QAM output compared with encoding quality. These specifications can be more easily
measured and are not as subjective as comparing picture quality on TVs, which is probably the way most tech managers measure
encoding quality. Below are some of the key
RF output specifications.
• Modulation Error Ratio (MER) is a specification used to quantify the encoder’s
QAM modulator performance. It is the
ratio of the “ideal” constellation point
locations to the actual expressed in decibels. A visual representation of MER can
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First-Person PersPectives From
Leading tech managers
Meet Your Manager
Shane MyerS
senior consuLtant, Booz aLLen hamiLton, Lexington Park, md
AV Technology Editors: Please tell us about
your in-house AV installations.
Shane Myers: We support mostly government
clients, with systems ranging in size from small
VTC suites to large command centers. Recent
projects have also included integrated classrooms and a large theater.
When designing a particular system, we try
to address all of the functional requirements
by gathering input from end users and system
operators. There is a specific focus on continuity across systems by keeping the control system GUI similar, no matter the type of room.
Should tech managers attend InfoComm?
Why/why not?
InfoComm presents an opportunity for market
research to occur on a compressed schedule.
I have not personally attended yet and have
relied on communicating with local manufacturer representatives to keep me informed of
new products. The educational classes that are
presented at InfoComm are offered in other
formats and locations.
How is AV/IT convergence influencing your
day-to-day work, if at all? Are you equally “fluent” in both areas?
Our clients are more aware of how our systems
may impact their network and are more willing to leverage network-enabled devices. My
skill-set is geared mainly toward AV. However,
I am proficient in general networking concepts.
What troubleshooting tools do you regularly
use in your work, if any?
Our laptops contain software to help address
SPL, RTA, EDID, Colorimetry, and network
issues. We also still have multimeters, impedance meters and test generators available.
The tool I most frequently use is the smallformat screwdriver.
What AV equipment are you most interested
in specifying for your clients in the next year?
IP-based video delivery systems are at the top
of my list.
If you would like to learn more about our
Meet Your Manager column, visit www.avnetwork.com.
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If applicable, what is your involvement with
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40
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SHOWCASE OF CAMPUS
DIGITAL SIGNAGE
Featuring:
from the editors of
4NCSU reiNveNtS the billboard
4StoNy brook
rook getS a reality CheCk
4CampUS SigNage oN alert
4digital SigNage iN the age of SmartphoNeS
sponsored by
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 1
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Editor’s Note
[margot douaihy, editor, AV Technology]
As I strolled the busy isles of the Digital Signage Expo 2014 in Las Vegas, one fact was as clear as an image on a 4K display: digital signage is much
more than a digital sign. This evolving category is “smarter” than ever, touting features such as real-time analytics, touch interactivity, live camera feed
nesting, geo-fencing, and IP streaming. In this special guide, Showcase of Campus Digital Signage, we take you inside the bustling halls of Purdue
University, Stony Brook, North Carolina State University, Walnut Hill College, and other prominent schools to learn how technology managers are
using digital signage to engage, protect, inform, and connect students, faculty, and the broader community. We also ask a provocative question: In
the age of iPhones and tablets, is digital signage becoming a moot point? Weigh in with your thoughts on our Facebook page. And, if you have a
campus digital signage network that’s worth sharing, tweet us a picture today: @AVTechnologyMag. Thanks for reading.
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Digital
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Table of Contents
Editor’s Not e ...........................................................................................................................................................................A2
FEATURES
NEw School: NoRTh cARoliNA STATE UNivERSiTy REiNvENTS ThE billboARd .............................................................A4
lESSoNS lEARNEd: SEvEN yEARS oF SigNAgE AT wEST viRgiNiA UNivERSiTy.................................................................A8
PlANNiNg AhEAd: AT ThE UNivERSiTy oF NoRThwESTERN-ST. PAUl, STRATEgy iS kEy ............................................... A10
digiTAl SigNAgE iN ThE AgE oF SmARTPhoNES: will PhoNES ANd TAblETS mAkE digiTAl SigNAgE A mooT PoiNT? .. A12
wAlNUT collEgE SERvES UP digiTAl SigNAgE: ThE RESTAURANT School
diScovERS ThE wiNNiNg REciPE FoR A digiTAl SigNAgE NETwoRk .............................................................................. A14
how To bUild A RAdicAl REc cENTER: PURdUE UNivERSiTy oUTFiTS SigNATURE SPAcE wiTh digiTAlS igNAgE....... A15
gET REAl: SToNy bRook UNivERSiTy PlUNgES iNTo immERSivE REAliTy...................................................................... A16
A2
F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 1 4 | av ne twor k .com | SHOWCASE OF CAMPUS D IGITAL SIGNAGE
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 2
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AVT_12_13_.indd 1
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CAMPUS DIGITAL SIGNAGE
New School
North Carolina State University reinvents the billboard.
By Tim Kridel
North Carolina State University
is known as one of the world’s top
schools for engineering and technology. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the
school’s initial digital signage system
is an open-source project led by the
engineering school.
Inside the high-tech campus of NCSU
NCSU’s homegrown signage system features a
Mac Mini behind each display and a Web interface for
managing content. Dubbed “Billboard,” the management platform puts user-provided slides on a Web
page and then uses a screensaver to post them on signage. Options include the amount of time that each
slide appears, as well as the dates and time of day.
But Billboard is showing its age, which is why
NCSU is in the midst of implementing a new, off-theshelf system that supports interactivity and a wider
range of content types.
“It was time to step up,” said Maurice York, IT
A4
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head for NCSU Libraries.
Featuring Four Winds Interactive’s
platform and NEC panels, the new
system enables applications such as
wayfinding and room scheduling in
facilities such as Hunt Library.
When it was looking to replace
Billboard, NCSU initially tried
heavyweight signage solutions like
those used in airports. “We were
using a person to manage that full
time because of the complexity of the
software,” York said. By comparison,
Billboard can be managed on a parttime basis, and the team sought the
same from a new system.
“You want to look for those lightweight things,” York said. “I would
imagine that for a lot of libraries trying to get into digital signage, that’s
going to be the right solution.”
Like other schools, enterprises,
and just about every other organization that has signage, NCSU learned
that content creation and management can make or break a signage
network. When building or expanding a network, one piece of advice is
to identify the persons who are willing and able to take on the content
management role for their department or the entire school.
“It’s difficult to get someone to
step forward organizationally and
say, ‘Okay, I’m going to own that
content,’” York said. “The content
and organizational issues lag behind
the technical ones by months or even
years. It’s really valuable to invest
time up front to figure out the content and organizational issues before the technical ones get decided.”
THE CONTENT CONUNDRUM
A major focus of NCSU’s new and recent signage is
pulling in content from a variety of outside sources.
Along the way, the school has run into a few situations that other colleges and universities should
consider before using third-party content.
For example, NCSU built an application that pulls
info
from the Newseum’s daily feed of newspaper front
pages around the world. But the school soon learned
that newspapers in countries such as Brazil have more
relaxed standards about the type of content they’ll
allow on their front page. That prompted complaints.
“We didn’t know,” York said. “We were just
automatically pulling whatever was in the feed. Now
we’re having to develop a blacklist to block elements
of that feed where there’s more offensive content.
[Third-party content] does liven up your signage, but
“This approach frees signage staff to focus on other
tasks while making the content more relevant and
interactive.”
A6
it has downsides,
as well.”
Another seemingly innocuous
application uses
the signage around
Hunt Library to make it
easy for people to find one
another, such as by positing that the
Spanish tutors will be in a particular
room.
“We quickly learned that that
had to be monitored and every post
had to be reviewed first,” York said.
NCSU also is working to refine
how internal content is posted – and
for how long. For example, emergency alerts are a major reason why colleges and universities deploy digital
signage, and NCSU is no exception.
But not all emergencies are equal. In
one case, an alert that the water was
out in a particular building tied up
the facility’s signage for more than
24 hours.
“You don’t need that taking over
every sign in your building for the
next day,” York said.
NORTH
CAROlINA
STATE
UNIVERSITY
www.ncsu.edu
A SMARTER APPROACH
TO INTERACTIVITY
As Billboard fades away, another
homegrown platform is rising, this
time to enable interactivity. Other
signage networks provide interactivity by leveraging the smartphones,
for example by showing a Quick
Response (QR) Code that people
can scan to get more information.
Instead, NCSU is building an artificial intelligence
(AI) engine to enable interactivity. The system will use
sensors around signage to monitor light and sound
levels, as well as motion and temperature, and will
also use information provided by a building’s management system. The AI engine will use this information to decide which content to display. This approach
frees signage staff to focus on other tasks while making the content more relevant and interactive.
“We’re trying to build an AI engine that can monitor the space and make decisions about content based
on who’s there and how they’re interacting with it,”
York said.
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Lessons Learned
Seven years of signage at West Virginia University.
By Tim Kridel
There are several reasons why West
Virginia University is home to one
of the largest and best funded signage networks in higher ed: The signage proved its worth early on, due
to enhanced security and community
engagement. And instead of resting
on its laurels, it keeps expanding into
new ways to serve the campus.
The network got its start literally hours after the
2007 Virginia Tech shooting. Several WVU engineers
were at the National Association of Broadcasters show
when they were told to immediately come up with a
solution to deal with major events. Digital signage
was a key component, beginning with a 10-display
proof of concept that showed how the network could
get the word out in seconds versus nearly 45 minutes
with email and up to 50 minutes with cellular text
messages.
“From the very beginning, our senior leadership
at WVU was committed to our success and recognized the value of a nine-second emergency message
response, but also the powerful internal marketing
possibilities the network provides to our students, faculty and staff on a daily basis across three campuses,”
said Spencer Graham, one of the three full-time staff
members running the signage network.
Today, the network spans more than 100 displays.
To maximize redundancy and reach during emergencies, WVU uses the e2Campus platform to push alerts
simultaneously via text message, email, and signage.
But the school views signage as the best way to reach
the 45,000 people on campus each day. “That’s a
very effective way of alerting a campus population,”
Graham said.
THE DONOR WALL OPPORTUNITY
WVU currently is developing signage to serve as donor
walls, initially in the College of Physical Activity and
Sports Sciences (CPASS) building but eventually in
many other facilities.
A8
The team at West Virginia University uses technology to engage, inform, and build community among students and staff.
“Digital signage is ideal for that because you go
into almost any building, and there are brass plaques
everywhere,” Graham said. “You can put only so
many brass plaques in a given building. They’re
expensive, and you can put only so much information on them.”
By comparison, digital signage supports not only
an endless number of donors, but also an endless
amount of content. Touchscreen technology will
enable passers-by to explore that content.
“It’s a much neater, aesthetically pleasing deployment,” Graham said. “You’re not constrained by the
number of words you can say about these people
who have been good to your college. You can put a
video interview up there, portraits, multiple pages of
what they’ve done over the years. We see that as a real
benefit.”
But like any other type of signage application, cre-
ating and managing content is key. CPASS currently is
scanning portraits, writing copy and handling other
content-related tasks for the donor wall’s debut this
fall.
Meanwhile, Graham and his colleagues are working with the building’s architect to find the ideal
location for the signage. They also want to use the
CPASS installation to create a donor wall template of
hardware, software, and content so they can quickly
and cost-effectively meet demand for donor walls
elsewhere on campus.
“We want it to be exportable so we’re not constantly reinventing the wheel everywhere we go,”
Graham said.
TAKING OWNERSHIP
The donor walls are just the latest example of how
WVU is maintaining a strategy, developed seven
AVT_03_14_v4.indd 8
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years ago, of leaving a lot of content
to be approved at the managerial
WEST VIRGINIA
creation and management up to
level,” Graham said. “They have to
UNIVERSITy
www.wvu.edu
each school, college, or departclick the approve button before it
ThE E2CAMPUS
ment instead of completely cengoes live.”
PLATFORM
www.e2campus.com
tralizing that task. The network has
about 25 informational loops, and
MAKING A GOOD FIRST
in some schools, about 20 percent is
IMPRESSION
general-interest content such as upcomIn 2012, WVU deployed a videowall in
ing athletic events and the campus calendar.
the lobby of One Waterfront Place, which
The remaining content is by and for that particular houses the visitors center and admissions office. The
department or college.
installation features eight 46-inch Samsung displays
“We wanted people to take ownership of their in a 2X4 configuration, with content provided by X2O
digital signage as we expanded,” Graham said. “Our Media’s Xpresenter platform.
problem has never been getting enough content.
About 16,000 prospective students and their parDepartments and colleges see the power they have to ents pass through One Waterfront Place, so the vidget their messages out in their local environs, so they eowall plays a major role in influencing their initial
really took ownership.”
perception of WVU. Content is deliberately fast-paced
Many WVU departments already have a designer because unless they’re arriving by the busload, visitors
on staff, so Graham’s team walks that person through won’t be a captive audience queued up in front of the
basics such as content sizes, resolutions, and other videowall. It’s also personalized to some extent.
parameters. The designers also get tools such as Web
“When they come in, we’ve already loaded the
forms for uploading content.
database with all of their names, so they’ll see their
But with freedom comes responsibility. Each name,” Graham said.
department that creates content also has to police
During the New Student Welcome event at the
it.“Every one of those pieces of information has beginning of each academic year, students often
info
spend time waiting in long lines. Being able to tweet
to the signage―via LocaModa―helps reduce the perceived wait time.
“That went over great,” Graham said. “But any
time you’re using social media on a college campus,
our recommendation is that it must be moderated,
simply because kids will be kids. They’ll test you.
You’re protecting the brand.”
LESSONS LEARNED
That moderation policy applies to parts of the network where a particular school feeds social media
into its displays.
“Oftentimes, they’ll use their own Twitter feed,
and only they can tweet to it,” Graham said. “That’s
basically how they moderate. It’s not wide open.”
Graham also advises taking a crawl-walk-run
approach to building a signage network and adding
new technologies. For example, he spent about a year
and a half researching touchscreens to prepare for the
donor walls and a wayfinding initiative.
“Conquer standard digital signage first,” Graham
said. “Then when they feel ready to tackle touchscreens
and videowalls and that sort of stuff, they’ve got experience under their belt because it is challenging.”
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Planning Ahead
At the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, strategy is key.
By Tim Kridel
One indication that a college’s digital signage network is well done is when it inspires other networks at the same school.
That’s the case at University of Northwestern-St. Paul, where signage in the Billy Graham Community Life Commons
has prompted other departments around campus to implement their own signage, including using the same Samsung
displays.
Graham Commons opened in October 2011,
but work on the AV aspects began about three
years earlier. That’s noteworthy because, in higher
ed and other commercial real estate projects, AV
systems typically aren’t considered early on.
“All projects I’ve been involved in, the AV usually is coming in at the tail end,” said Scott Evans,
the school’s head of audio visual services. “It’s
something we’ve been working to educate the university: that we’re involved in some aspect of every
room. It’s a matter of getting them to understand
that we’re part of the core infrastructure.”
The 70,000-square-foot Graham Commons
has 24 Samsung EX Series displays, whose LED
backlighting makes them a good fit for a project
that sought LEED certification from the beginning.
“I can run all [24] of them off a single 20 amp
circuit if I had to,” said Evans.
Ample natural light was a big factor, not only
for LEED certification, but also in terms of finding
the right location for each display so it wouldn’t
get washed out by sunlight. By involving AV early
on in the project, the school avoided expensive
problems, such as having to move displays once
the building was nearly complete.
By working with the architects, Evans had
access to 3D mockups, which helped identify
potential issues such as viewing angles, where
light would fall, and traffic patterns. In cases
where only blueprints were available, Evans built
3D models using Google SketchUp. All of the
information gathered from the 3D mockups and
models enabled Evans to identify the best locations for the displays and then present that to
the architects, whose initial approach might not
have been as workable. “They weren’t inherently
wrong,” Evans said. “They just hadn’t factored in
the traffic flow in and out of the space.”
A10 F e b r u a r y / M a r c h
2 0 1 4 | av ne twor k .com | SHOWCASE OF CAMPUS D IGITAL SIGNAGE
2/21/14 5:43 PM
The audiovisual
team says that it’s
critically important
for the university to
understand that AV
is “part of the core
infrastructure” of
every room.
For signage and other AV systems, Evans advises
meeting with architects, engineers, and other stakeholders to make sure everyone understands the consequences of each option. For example, the architects
and engineers had already decided where the main
cable tray would go in Graham Commons. When
Evans arrived on the project, he explained why that
location wasn’t ideal, including the additional costs of keeping it there. In
the end, it stayed, but the meeting eliminated finger pointing later on.
“Make sure everybody at the table is aware of the options and the ripple
effects,” Evans said. “Make sure that everyone takes ownership: ‘This is what
we decided.’ Avoid those silly conversations later: ‘Why did we do this?’”
One question that came up is why the network needed so many media
players. The answer was future-proofing: With all of the hardware in place,
the system would have plenty of flexibility for delivering content, such as
creating zones.
Envisioning What’s PossiblE
Northwestern also planned ahead when it came to the signage software. For
example, the AV team decided that it wouldn’t be involved with content creation, which meant non-technical people would be responsible.
“That right there told us we needed
a drag-and-drop, streamlined way for
people to get their content up quickly,”
Evans said. “That narrowed the field
pretty quickly when we started look at all
of the software.”
One challenge was educating the system’s users about all that today’s signage
can do. “They don’t grasp the capabilities
and possibilities,” Evans said. “So part
of our job was to understand the software and understand the potential for
what they could do.”
That process included meeting with the departments that would run the
network, and asking questions, such as what they’d like to do if they could
put information in front of students. Their feedback helped winnow the field
of solutions from the initial six or so, to Tightrope Media Systems.
“Tightrope kept coming to the top of the list,” Evans said. And although
Evans didn’t initially know it, Tightrope is based in St. Paul—not that the
proximity has come in handy. “I haven’t had to call them for a service call
yet,” Evans said. “No player failures or software issues. It just runs.”
Evans also had to educate the departments about the amount of work
required to generate the fresh content that’s necessary to condition faculty,
staff and students to pay attention to the signage.
“The content piece probably is the biggest thing that is forgotten
in the AV design,” Evans said. “People don’t grasp the concept that
it’s no less than a part-time job just for content creation.”
UnivERsitY oF
A network the size of Graham Commons requires at least a
noRthWEstERn
three-quarter-time position. Making that case before the buildst. PaUl
www.unwsp.edu
ing opened wasn’t easy.
tightRoPE
“Three years later, that’s a much less difficult conversation
MEdia sYstEMs
www.trms.com
to have because people have seen digital signage—and more
importantly, they’ve seen when it doesn’t work: every day, it’s the
same thing, and you’re not reading it any more.”
“The content
piece probably
is the biggest
thing that is
forgotten in the
AV design.”
info
SHOWCASE OF CAMPUS D IGITAL SIGNAGE | F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 1 4 | av ne two r k .co m
A11
2/21/14 5:43 PM
Digital Signage in the
Age of Smartphones
Will phones and tablets make digital signage a moot point?
By Tim Kridel
More than 64 percent of Americans
now own a smartphone, and among
those ages 18 to 24, it’s 79 percent,
according to The Nielsen Company.
That adoption makes smartphone
apps an effective way to reach a lot
of college students, as well as faculty
and staff.
Skyrocketing smartphone penetration has
done something else: It’s created a competitor
to digital signage on campus when it comes to
budgets and the attention of people the school
wants to reach. After all, if students spend most of
their time between classes with their noses buried
in their phones, then signage loses its reach and
effectiveness.
University of Northwestern-St. Paul is among
the schools that have spent the past few years
pondering the role of digital signage in the smartphone era. School authorities have decided that, at
least for now, the smartphone channel should be
exclusively for emergency alerts.
“At this stage, there’s been a conscious choice
to not do anything with the smartphone aspect,”
said Scott Evans, head of audiovisual services.
“They don’t want to push more information outside of emergency broadcasts and those types of
needed items.”
Call it a “less is more”
strat-
egy: When a school’s app is churning out dozens
of messages every day, there’s the risk that students,
faculty and staff will become conditioned to ignore
them. By reserving the app, text messages, and other
mobile channels for only the most important communications—such as a tornado warning or a shooter or the loose—recipients know that when their
school sends something, it’s time to pay attention.
WILL MOBILE BE THERE WHEN IT’S
NEEDED?
Relying on signage also avoids costs such as building and supporting an app for each of today’s
major smartphone operating systems – and then
building and supporting an app for each emerging one that has enough users to make it worth
serving. Of course, apps aren’t the only mobile
channels. Alternatives including websites designed
to work well on the small screen, text messages,
and cell broadcast, a new emergency-alert system
that reaches all phones in a given area, even if they
haven’t signed up.
2/21/14 6:03 PM
But some technology managers caution against
relying too heavily on any mobile technology
to get the word out during emergencies because
those networks typically clog up during major
events. West Virginia University, for example, takes
a three-pronged approach: It uses the e2Campus
platform to push alerts simultaneously via text
message, email and its 100-plus displays.
“That’s a very effective way of alerting a campus
population,” said Spencer Graham, one of three
people managing the WVU network. “We found
[text messages were] taking as much as 50 minutes
to get there. The emails were taking 45 to 50 seconds.
The digital signage triggered in under 10 seconds.
“The key is to position
them in spots where
they’re going to catch
their eye.”
Crestron Honors an Outstanding Teacher
Crestron Electronics recently
awarded Professor Jennifer Haber
of St. Petersburg College the Summum Bonum Award for Excellence
in Teaching during a special awards
ceremony at the Tarpon Springs
Campus. The annual award recognizes the crucial mentoring role that
teachers play in the academic and
personal development of students.
Jeff Singer, Crestron Director of
Marketing Communications, presented Dr. Haber with a commemorative plaque and cash prize during
the blue ribbon event, recognizing her long-term commitment to her students, education, and technology. The
ceremony was attended by more than 100 faculty, staff, students, friends, and family. “We applaud Dr. Haber for
“I’m not saying [cell broadcast] wouldn’t
her contributions to St. Petersburg College and her students,” said Crestron Executive Vice President and Sumwork. It just makes me nervous. You’re always at
mum Bonum Award Committee Chairman, Randy Klein. “Dr. Haber continually challenges herself to incorporate
the mercy of a network.”
Schools that want to get word out across mul- new tools and resources into her curriculum, enabling her students to think differently and enhance their writing
tiple channels simultaneously have two options: and technology skillsets. We commend Dr. Haber for her dedication to advancing education through technology.”
Have a separate management platform for each
channel, or a single one that can get the word out
across all channels with a single push of a button.
That all-in-one platform could be residing in the
cloud, as a growing number of signage servers
already are.
“For it to be truly effective, you have to have
seamless communications across all their devicNow available, Planar’s next-generation Clarity Matrix LCD Video Wall System with
es,” said Minson Chen, head of digital signage
G2 Architecture combines a thin-profile, ultra-narrow
business development for Samsung’s enterprise
bezel LED LCD video wall with improvebusiness division. “What enables that is everything pulled off a central location, and that
ments in design, installation, and service.
central location is the cloud.”
The new 55-inch Clarity Matrix model also
Physical location also is key for maximizing
offers a tiled bezel width as small as 3.7
signage’s effectiveness. For example, some of the
mm with Planar’s EasyAxis Mounting System
signage at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill
and 24x7 mission-critical reliability. Other
College is in a hallway, where it’s less likely to
key features include 4K ultra high definition
have to compete with smartphones, tablets and
laptops for students’ attention.
(UHD) input capability and 10-bit color pro
pro“Sometimes the best way to get them
cessing. Planar’s Big Picture Plus processing is built into the system,
is to catch their eye on their way
allowing content to be scaled across the entire video wall or sections of the video wall.
to class,” said Mike Finnell, the
“The next generation Clarity Matrix builds on the accomplishments of the award-winning
NEiLSON
school’s IT coordinator. “The
COMPANy
Planar
Clarity Matrix family of video walls, which has gained significant market adoption,” said
key is to position them in
SMARTPHONE
REPORT
Planar CEO and president Gerry Perkel. “We are taking the key elements that everyone loved
spots where they’re going to
www.nielsen.com/us/
catch their eye. It’s where they
about Clarity Matrix, making them even better, and combining them into a next-generation
en/newswire/2013/
ring-the-bells-morewouldn’t have time to sit and
product that meets the needs of today and tomorrow.”
smartphones-in-stupull out their phone or iPad.”
dents-hands-aheadFor more information, visit www.planar.com/matrix.
Planar Offers Strategy for 4K Video Wall
With Lower Total-Cost-of-Ownership
info
of-back.html
A13
2/21/14 5:44 PM
Walnut College Serves
Up Digital Signage
The Restaurant School discovers the winning recipe for a digital
signage network.
By Tim Kridel
The school’s Philadelphia campus started with a
seven-display network serving two purposes. The first
purpose was disseminating bulletin-board-style messages, which were created with Microsoft PowerPoint
and published using Samsung’s MagicInfo platform.
The second goal was less conventional: providing
decorative features, such as slide shows and videos.
One example where digital went decorative is in a
bar with a non-working 1860s-era fireplace. “We put a
low-bezel screen in there that plays a video of a fire or
a fish tank to make it funkier,” said Mike Finnell,
the school’s IT coordinator. “The president
is very fond of using the screens as a
decorative touch.”
Signage also is a key compoWALNUT HILL
Allison Mansion, constructed in 1860 and located in Philadelphia, houses The Restaurant School at
COLLEGE
nent of the remodeled Great Chefs
Walnut Hill College.
www.walnuthill
Restaurant, whose tapestries and
college.edu
other original features made it feel
interiors. It sets the whole mood for wires wasn’t necessary for every application,” Finnell
stuffy and dated. “To bring some life
the restaurant.”
said.
to it, we installed four 55-inch Samsung
Although all 30 displays in its netThe Restaurant School plans to expand its network
screens in a videowall configuration,”
work are MagicInfo-compatible, The into the library and student lounge and upgrade to
Finnell said. “Currently it plays a slideshow of
Restaurant School uses a variety of technologies a new version of MagicInfo that will enable more
various scenescapes. It’s been positioned behind a to manage them. For example, the UE Series videow- content-type and publishing options. For example,
false window frame, so it gives the impression that all is powered by a PC running PowerPoint, and can the school wants to add dynamic feeds such as Twitter
you’re looking out a window.
be updated remotely via the MagicInfo Web interface. to its signage to attract even more eyeballs and thus
“It’s the one that gets the biggest impact, and The Samsung ME Series 32 inch displays in the hall- maximize the network’s return on investment.
that’s mostly from the general public. People walk in, ways are fed by USB drives, which makes more sense
“That’s going to bring their attention to the
and suddenly there’s a 110-inch display showing them than remote access because their content needs to be screen,” Finnell said. “While they’re waiting for it to
all kinds of insane scenes, [such as] famous restaurant updated only every three to six months. “Running pop up, they get more information about the school.”
Used Under the Creative Commons attribUtion-sharealike 3.0 liCense
The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill
College trains people for careers in
hotels and restaurants. Given this,
it make sense to expose students to
something they’re likely to encounter
in the workplace: digital signage.
info
2/21/14 5:44 PM
How to Build a Radical
Rec Center
Purdue University outfits signature space with digital signage.
Today’s high school students face a myriad of options when choosing a university to continue their education. In order
to attract and retain top-line students, higher education institutions have been forced to implement unique measures to
recruit talented incoming students. Signature spaces, like 24/7 dining rooms, lazy rivers and beach clubs have sprouted
at college campuses across the country as many schools are applying unprecedented techniques to gain interest from a
new-generation of students. Schools are competing with one another to keep up with scores of new technologies and
trends in education while also focusing on its reputation with their current and future student bodies.
“Part of that
development strategy
included deciding what
products to install and
how to integrate the
technology into the
environment.”
all sixteen monitors in a full screen display. The
wall includes cable tuners, a blue-ray player, and
local PC/laptop hook-ups. Merck and Hill chose
the Sharp monitors for their ability to support the
HDPC and blue-ray platforms, as well as technical
support.
Courtesy of Sharp and Purdue
University
Photo by Purdue university
For example, Purdue University in West from every corner of the floor, as well as from
Lafayette, IN, recently made a move to stand out both the upper and lower levels of the facility.
from the competition by aiming to build one The bottom of the display wall hangs more than
of the nation’s top college gymnasiums for its 20-feet above the floor, and with each monitor
students. Pulling from data that highlighted the weighing more than 100-pounds, the execution
immense amount of time students spend at the and installation took more than three weeks to
gym, as well as the diversity of the facility’s audi- complete.
ence, Purdue felt that improving this area was an
Since the ambitious installation was comideal way to heighten the student experience at pleted, students at Purdue have been enjoying
the university.
watching the massive wall display when they’re
The plan to renovate the student rec center cranking on the elliptical or hanging out in the
on campus was in part due to the technology the student lounge. The wall display can be seen from
school was willing to invest in the sports facility. the smoothie bar to the basketball courts and usuPurdue contracted Merck and Hill Consultants of ally plays movies, ESPN, PU information, and a
Atlanta to help design and create the space. Part of view of the quad. Except on Saturdays, of course,
that development strategy included deciding what when the Boilermakers football game is shown on
products to install and how to
integrate the technology into
the environment in an effective
and seamless manner.
To serve as the main attraction to the gym, the team would
add a 20-foot video wall from
Sharp that would tower above
the gymnasium space. Merck
and Hill, along with Inter
Technologies
Corporation,
erected the video wall using
sixteen 4x4 60-inches professional monitors (model
PN-V601). The engineers were
challenged to elevate the monitors so it would be visible The Engineering Fountain at Purdue University.
info
PURDUE
UNIVERSITY
www.purdue.edu
SHARP
www.sharpusa.com
A15
2/21/14 5:45 PM
Get Real
Stony Brook University plunges into immersive reality.
By Tim Kridel
Digital signage is becoming a staple on
college campuses as a way to convey
everything from emergency alerts to
the football team’s latest AP ranking.
But Stony Brook University’s Reality
Deck is an example of how signage
also can create an experience.
A few figures will highlight how immersive and
lifelike that experience can be. Reality Deck is the
world’s first immersive gigapixel resolution display, with more than 1.5 billion pixels across 416
displays in a four-wall configuration. Here’s how
big that is: If the entire U.S. population stood for a
class photo taken by a satellite, Reality Deck would
have enough resolution to devote five pixels in
color to every person.
“The facility uses a highdensity cluster of Dell
graphics processing units
GPUs, where each of the
18 nodes drives up to 24
displays at 2560x1440
each”
Stony Brook’s Reality Deck, powered by Gefen and Dell
manager, said after the November
2012 opening. “The immersive layA decade and more than $2 million in the out allows us to develop unique user
making, Reality Deck is being used for a wide interfaces and to push the boundaries
range of applications, including medical imaging, of human-computer interaction.”
astronomy, architectural design, weather modelPixel density was the biggest challenge
ing, and identifying suspicious people in crowds.
to turning the Reality Deck vision into reality. “The
“It’s really a stunning environment in which main challenge came from the sheer number of pixthe pixel density is sufficiently high to satu- els that needed to be generated and transmitted to
rate the resolving capabilities of the
the individual displays in a reliable and costhuman eye over a very large workeffective way,” Gladky said.
ing area, which makes the
The facility uses a high-density
Reality Deck facility particularly
cluster of Dell graphics processing
Gefen
suitable for scientific visualizaunits GPUs, where each of the 18
www.gefen.com
tion of very big data,” Ken
nodes drives up to 24 displays
Stony Brook
Gladky, the operations direcat 2560x1440 each—a resoluUniverSity
www.stonybrook.edu
tor and Visualization Lab IT
tion necessary to deliver the clear
info
images
that the applications require.
This cluster is in
an adjacent room,
a location that meant the
video had to travel up to 100 feet.
Stony Brook worked with Gefen to
choose the cable type and connector, with
options such as dual-link DVI and DisplayPort.
In the end, they chose the latter, using Gefen
DisplayPort Extreme Fiber Optic extenders in 75
and 100-foot configurations. Copper didn’t make
the cut because it couldn’t deliver the necessary
resolution at the same price point.
“The long optical DisplayPort cables from
Gefen allowed us to design Reality Deck exactly as
we had envisioned,” Gladky said. “By extending
the displays from the GPU cluster, we significantly lowered the cooling requirements and the noise
level for the work area of the facility.”
2/21/14 5:45 PM
FREE
AVT_03_14_.indd 9
2/21/2014 5:37:32 PM
AV in Action
Switching
StrategieS
Why AmericAn Airlines
center upgrAded its routing
infrAstructure.
By AV Technology Staff
m
merican Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the NBA
Dallas Mavericks and NHL Dallas Stars as well as one
of the top ticket-selling concert venues in the country,
recently upgraded its routing infrastructure. Installed
last summer, the new system is built around a PESA Cheetah 288x288
digital video routing switcher and includes PESA’s new Touch72 LCD
router control panel.
On any given game day, there are close to 100 technical employees on site, including broadcast personnel, at the 20,000-seat venue.
Beyond its live in-house video presentations, the AAC has a number of
video-related responsibilities, including providing live feeds of game
coverage to NBA and NHL officials via high-speed fiber networks.
While the AAC has access to multiple cameras from the broad-
cast feed, it tends to use footage from its own six-camera setup
for in-house video presentations. Inside the venue, four HD
cameras capture the action, including one handheld on each
end of the basketball court or hockey rink and two cameras
with 72x lenses operated from the stands. There are also two
handheld SD cameras (upconverted to HD) outside in AT&T
Plaza to cover concerts and other pre-game activities.
Three control rooms housed in the American Airlines
Center produce its in-house video presentations. The primary
control room handles all cameras and live video for the arena,
including game action shown on 72x30-foot screens on either
side of the arena and four HD video screens hung in the center.
The secondary control room manages all live switching to the
AT&T Plaza, an area outside the arena that features large HD
video screens and often hosts pre-game concerts. Located in
the press area, the third control room is tasked with graphics
for the main screens and other displays throughout the facility.
EntEring thE EmbEddEd digital rEalm
According to Randy Breedlove, manager of broadcast services,
the American Airlines Center had been relying on multiple
routing platforms to service the entire facility.
“It became obvious to us that we needed to
get all of this consolidated,” he recalled,
amEriCan
airlinEs
“and we needed to get into the embedCEntEr
ded digital audio realm.”
www.american
The Cheetah 288x288 frame is curairlinescenter.com
PEsa
rently populated at about 128x128. Half
www.pesa.com
of the connections are equipped with
embedded audio, which is important to
the AAC because of its integration with broadcasters during basketball and hockey games.
Beyond the main stereo announce audio for
the facility, embedded audio provides access
to additional audio sources — including the
television broadcast, English and Spanish radio
coverage, and effects feeds — through the same
coax connection.
Breedlove said the embedded audio is a feature that has improved the arena’s video workflow. “It’s very useful to have any audio feeds
associated with the broadcast in addition to the
arena feeds,” he added.
info
Randy Breedlove, manager of broadcast services, the American Airlines Center
58
ConCErns for thE usEr
While the facility will “definitely grow” into the
Cheetah router, Breedlove said his engineers
were initially drawn to PESA because of its
2/21/14 6:04 PM
PERC3000 router control solution with Cattrax
software for system setup, maintenance, and
monitoring. “The software is powerful but not
complicated,” Breedlove said. “It’s very user
friendly. That was a huge part of our decision.”
The new routing system was also an opportunity to upgrade to LCD router control panels
“It became obvious to
us that we needed to get
all of this consolidated,
and we needed to get
into the embedded
digital audio realm.”
with PESA’s Touch72 LCD, which features 72
programmable LCD push button switches in
an 2 RU configuration, along with a color
touch-screen display. Each push button can
be configured as a source, destination, level,
or salvo. Up to 16 characters and individual
background colors can be used to identify each
American Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the NBA Dallas Mavericks and NHL Dallas Stars as well as one of
the top ticket-selling concert venues in the country, recently upgraded its routing infrastructure.
switch, and names are dynamically updated
on each affected LCD switch as the system configuration is changed.
The AAC has already installed one Touch72
LCD, and Breedlove said three more will be
installed in early 2014. “We are very happy. It’s
so intuitive,” he added. “It really has changed
how you can control routers now. You can take
full advantage of all the sources in a plant.
PESA definitely delivered there.”
59
2/21/14 6:04 PM
AV in Action
The RighT Recipe
The sweeT sound secreTs of
‘diners, drive-ins and dives’.
By AV Technology Staff
a
iring on the Food Network, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” features a
‘road trip’ concept where show host Guy Fieri travels through North
America looking for the best made-from-scratch food in diners, driveins, and dive bars. In each city, the show visits multiple locations—frequently on the same day. Hence, the show’s production crew needs to be nimble and
ready for just about anything. This is why the location sound operators rely on their
arsenal of digital hybrid wireless microphone technology.
exceptional. “Kitchens are hostile environments,” says
Asell. “There’s heat, humidity, and vaporized oils in
the air. The SM and SR series transmitters and receivers
are fantastic for this application because they are well
protected from moisture, which is routinely encountered in the kitchen. And when traveling all across
North America, frequency agility is necessary. The RF
environment can be significantly different from one side
of town to the other, or from one coast to the next. Our
Lectrosonics gear makes it easy to identify available frequencies and lock them in.”
Benefits Of wireless
“Going wireless also keeps our gear and personnel
safe,” Asell continued. “We do fully wireless setups most
often, as XLRs and slippery floors are a bad combina-
Meet the tech teaM
Jeff Asell and David Canada are senior sound engineers for
Minneapolis-based production house Match/Cut Productions,
while Canada is also a founding partner. Asell’s background
includes freelance work for the network news divisions of both
ABC and CBS while Canada’s work history includes projects for
ESPN as well as the ABC and CBS news divisions. With their collective experience in news production, they are well suited for
the ‘on-the-go’ nature of production that ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and
Dives’ involves.
On lOcatiOn
Production for the show frequently has as many as three shooting
locations on any given day. To accommodate this hectic schedule,
Asell and Canada typically split into two crews. “This approach
enables one crew to be in route to and setting up for a shoot while
the other crew is on location at the currently active site,” Asell
Audio experts David Canada and Jeff Asell on the road with Diners, Drive-ins, and
explained. Combined, Asell and Canada utilize a wide range of Lectrosonics Dives
equipment, including SMa, SMV, SMQV, UM400a, and LMa transmitters along with multiple UCR411a and SR Series receivers. There’s also an LMa trans- tion. Nobody wants a boom mic getting knocked into a
mitter for IFB transmission paired with R1a receivers. Further, there’s a Lectrosonics 350-degree fryer or somebody slipping. Being able to
D4 digital wireless system consisting of the D4T transmitter and D4R receiver. This wirelessly boom gives our crew and our chefs fewer
system is deployed for a primary camera hop and the same signal from the D4 system obstacles to dodge in a typically small kitchen—and this
feeds the producer’s IFB setup, which encompasses a Lectrosonics Quadra digiis before we add lights, monitors, and so forth. It
tal wireless monitor system. As they work, Asell’s setup typically involves
is always a challenge getting the best qualseven audio channels while Canada’s setup utilizes another five.
ity sound in these loud kitchens where
most everything makes a noise, so
Diners, Drive-ins,
in the kitchen
starting with Lectrosonics gear and
anD Dives
www.foodnetwork.com
In addition to Lectrosonics’ audio performance, both Asell and
its fantastic sound quality helps us to
Match/cut
Canada find the equipment’s build quality and RF agility to be
continually succeed.”
PrODuctiOns
info
www.matchcut.tv
lectrOsOnic
ww.lectrosonics.com
60
2/21/14 6:04 PM
noW SEE ThiS
Sites Worth Watching
www.connectrac.com
www.promax.com
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2 ExTron annoTaTor 300
Extron’s Annotator 300 is a hardware-based
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a touch display, graphics tablet, or a keyboard and
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for Problem-Solving
Tech Managers
ViewSonic cDe7051-TL
The ViewSonic 70-inch CDE7051-TL is a new
interactive display solution for in-classroom
teaching, online training sessions, video conferencing and more. The six-point touchenabled display allows two users to simultaneously write or draw on the display’s surface
using their fingers or stylus. A full HD LED
screen guarantees crisp image quality, while
350-nit brightness provides better visual performance in well-lit rooms. Versatile inputs
include a PC slot for easy integration of a
PC module, while traditional inputs include HDMI, VGA, YPbPr, S-video, USB, and RS232
control. In addition to a pair of built-in 15W speakers, the CDE7051-TL also features SPDIF
and Mic inputs for audio, as well as front panel USB for easy connection to external USB
keyboard, mouse or USB accessories. www.viewsonic.com
Gefen HD ViDeo waLL conTroLLer
The Gefen HD Video Wall Controller is
a solution for entertainment and digital signage applications in retail outlets,
clubs, trade shows, control centers, building lobbies, and other similar venues. The HDTV displays are installed in a 2x2 configuration to
create a large video wall. It accepts a single HDCP-compliant HDMI source and divides it onto
four equally sized displays, each with resolution up to 1080p. The HD Video Wall Controller
has very good bezel compensation ability and can accommodate any display bezel width. Power
on, Lock on, and menu navigation control buttons are accessible via front panel and the handheld IR remote control, as well as via RS-232 and IP (web server interface, Telnet, and UDP).
On-screen Graphical User Interface simplifies the system configuration. www.gefen.com
TVone 1T-VS-668
tvONE ’s 1T-VS-668 universal video scaler/switcher is a commercial switcher/scaler with
versatile format conversion and multioutput routing capability. Its fully scalable video inputs
61
2/21/14 6:04 PM
include HDMI, DVI (via DVI-to-HDMI adapter), analog RGB via HD-15 connectors, analog YPbPr, or 480i/576i YUV component via three RCA connectors and
composite video. To ensure lip sync capabilities, both digital and analog audio
processing is supported with audio delays of up to 150ms. Eight analog stereo
and inputs can be selected for embedding into the HDMI outputs and separate coaxial digital and stereo audio outputs are also provided. The 1T-VS-668
handles input and output resolutions up to 1080p/ WUX GA, analog to digital
conversion and digital to analog conversion allowing a range of AV signals to be
displayed on a HDMI or VGA display. www.tvone.com
elITe SCreenS CIneGrey5d
Elite Screens’ CineGrey 5D high-gain 3D-2D projection material is designed for
the retail market. Elite’s CineGrey 5D projection screen enhances the overall
performance of lower-output projectors in addition to eliminating the washout effect that room lighting has on a regular white screens. The CineGrey 5D
Enterprise iOS Strategies
(continued from page 10)
is a .35mm thick PVC material that comprises a silver-gray reflective textured
surface with a tinted diffusion layer. It is a 1.5 gain and angular-reflective material that is ideal for use with floor or ceiling-mounted projectors in either a
residential or business environment. www.elitescreens.com
BarCO CSM BaSe UnIT fOr
ClICkShare
Barco’s ClickShare now comes in two flavors: the CSM Base Unit and the original full-featured CSC Base Unit. The CSM Base Unit offers the core ClickShare
experience at a lower price. The CSM Base Unit displays images up to full HD
resolution via its HDMI or VGA output and is fully compatible with both the
Click-Share Button and the free apps for iOS and Android. Only one user can
share on-screen at a time, but eight ClickShare Buttons can be connected wirelessly to the base unit, ready to share. A set consists of the CSM Base Unit and
two ClickShare Buttons. www.barco.com
used by a large set of users would endure mass annual app resignings and deployments, burdening the users.
Recently, Apple modified its developer certificate/provisioning
profile expiration cadence to allow the enterprise a more graceful
path to stagger the required annual update for internal apps. Other
new device hardware features make the iOS platform more and
more interesting for the enterprise to develop for.
more enterprise-friendly in terms of device management and
security.
iOS as a platform has always been consumer focused, although
there are more and more enterprise features being introduced under
the hood. With Apple’s closed ecosystem, there are some things traWhat advice would you give to a CIO or technology manager
ditional IT support will have a hard time dealing with. Things like:
who’s debating whether to start using iPads and iPhones
• The inability to “remote in” to the entire iOS device to support
internally?
the user.
By purchasing these devices for your staff, or simply imple• Lack of a file system to backup or fix apps (easily managed via
menting a BYOD program, you instantly obtain productivity
Apple’s iCloud service, and sound custom app development practices).
gains through users having access to their email, calendar and
• User-generated Apple IDs instead of “enterprise single sign on.”
approved public or internal apps. Extending some of their tradi• iCloud backup.
tional work tasks to an iPhone or iPad enables them to increase
• A heavy mix of personal apps / data on the devices compared
efficiency and timeliness when they don’t necessarily have to
to enterprise deployed apps makes things difficult at times.
boot up their laptop.
Enterprises leveraging mobile device management (MDM) conConversely, the iOS platform is still not a replacement for the
tinue to walk a fine line in a BYOD setting with what can and can’t
laptop in the enterprise. iOS devices are very progressive with the
be managed on a personal device. Device wipe activities are always
apps Apple and other vendors are developing to make them more
a sensitive topic when the device contains personal photos, app
and more of a contribution devices. Meaning, you can create and
data, etc.
edit more and more content on an iOS device, but there are still
There are, on the contrary, many great MDM features that
limitations as it relates to that contribution benefiting enterprise
enterprises can exploit within the iOS environment to control the
tasks. The iOS devices are sound consumption tools and a great
devices. The iOS ecosystem makes it possible to secure apps with
way to communicate with personnel, share content, accomplish
secure development techniques and/or MDM controls. The mobile
workflow and light editing tasks, etc.
application management (MAM) space continues to mature allowThe consumerization of IT demands organizations work with
ing enterprises to focus security on apps rather than the entire iOS
these platforms. You can continue to invest in blocking and predevice.
venting these tools from being used, pushing users to
Regarding internal use, mobile apps developed and
find covert means to leverage their preferred devices
deployed through private app stores inside the enteron your network and with your data. Or, you can
prise, Apple’s developer program provides some
embrace the iOS platform in a measured way, which
good controls, as well as some burdensome conGOOd
allows you to expose specific lines of business
TeChnOlOGy
straints. These continue to evolve and change. One
www.1.good.com
through the tools and make selective investments
example is the 365-day expiration of provisionMedTrOnIC
to respond to consumer preferences while gaining
www.medtronic.com
ing profiles for enterprise signed mobile apps.
efficiency and responsiveness from your staff.
Organizations with a large number of internal apps
info
62
2/21/14 6:04 PM
Live Event Safety
(continued from page 37)
How do our readers order a copy of the book?
Visit eventsafetyalliance.org and follow the instructions on
how to order.
Last November’s webinar on live event safety was extremely
well received by the industry. Will there be more webinars?
Absolutely. The date for the next Take 1/ESA webinar has Scott Carroll, Take1 Insurance
been set for March 19, 2014. The
webinar will be titled “Ready for
Summer? A 60-Minute primer on
Producing Safer Outdoor Events.”
Protecting
Your Business:
the insurance
PersPective
The co-presenter at last November’s
Live Event Safety Webinar was
Scott Carroll, executive vice president and program director at Take1
Insurance. Carroll provided the
insurance perspective and addressed
not only the importance of having the right coverage but also the
likely pressures to be brought on
live event producers to have certain
event safety programs and training
in place as a condition of coverage.
I asked Carroll to highlight some of
top live event safety concerns from
an insurance perspective.
David Keene: If a staging company
does not have an event safety plan
in place, are they at risk to have their
insurance company deny a claim?
Carroll: It’s more likely that the
insurance companies will simply
cancel an insured’s coverage for
not complying with an underwriting requirement, such as having
an event safety plan. If the carrier
discovers a plan does not exist, it’s
quite possible they will cancel the
policies in force for that insured.
If I’m a stager, how do I know if
my current insurance that I carry
is adequate for all contingencies?
No insurance policy is a guarantee
of protection against all contingen-
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Supports HDCP, 3D, Deep Color, CEC, and 4 K (UHD) resolutions
Front panel status indicators for power, link, video and more for each channel
Compatible with UHBX-R-PD, UH-1BT-R and UH-1BTX-R Receiver
UH-1BTX-R
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CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF INNOVATION
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cies. However, to be as certain as you can be, the first step is
to connect your self with an experienced insurance agent who
truly understands your business and the business of entertainment. The next best thing is to make sure your insurance
company is familiar with entertainment. Finally, have your
insurance agent review your current coverage against what’s
available in the industry. This is their job and a good insurance
agent looks forward to the opportunity to provide that review.
Read more of this Q&A on avnetwork.com. David Keene
is the editor of Rental & Staging and Digital Signage.
www.hallresearch.com
714.641.6607
63
2/21/14 6:04 PM
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2/21/14 7:05 PM
How It’s Done
Wireless mic
AntennA choice
And PlAcement for
fixed instAllAtions
By Karl Winkler
T
he subject of antenna placement is often overlooked in
installations, particularly in AV
applications. The worst case
scenario is where the supplied whip antennas are attached to the receiver, which is then
located in a metal rack. Not much operating
range can be expected from such a poor setup.
Another common mistake is to use directional
antennas or even highly directional units in
situations where such antennas actually hurt
rather than help. Finally, RF amplifiers are
often employed, either built into the antennas
or sometimes as separate devices, when they
are not needed. All of these above described
scenarios will cost you performance, and in
some cases, money.
reinforced concrete is also problematic.
For the most part, as long as your transmitters and receivers are in the same room, you
should be in good shape, even for larger rooms
because the signal from your transmitter/s will
bounce around the room quite a bit.
AntennA diversity pLAcement
The next common problem has to do with
antenna diversity placement. Diversity is an
important consideration for receiver antennas,
especially now when just about any receiver,
and certainly any rack receiver from a reputable manufacturer, has diversity.
What does diversity mean? Since the transmitter signals bounce around as mentioned
above, it is possible to have different
signal path lengths, i.e. out of phase
signals arrive at any given receiver
antenna from any given transmitter.
As the person with the transmitter
moves around, these path lengths
change thus there is the possibility
of a complete phase cancella-
Line of sight
With antenna choice and placement, a knowledge of the basics will help any installer or
user of wireless mic systems. First of all, line
of sight is important but not always totally
necessary. As long as the objects between your
transmitter/s and receiver/s are either
transparent to RF energy or at least
sparse enough for the transmitter/s signals to propagate, you can probably get
a good signal.
What does this mean, and what is not
transparent to RF energy? Metal is the
least transparent, followed by
Lectrosonics SNA600a
stone and concrete. If you have
UHF dipole antennas
created for a wide
a metal panel, wall, or surface
range of wireless
between your transmitters
Lectrosonics
microphone
and receiver antennas, you
www.lectrosonics.com
installations
may have problems. Thick,
info
tion (“multi-path null”) at one of the receiver
antennas. By having a second antenna, the
receiver/s can choose between the antenna
with the better signal.
However, if the receiver antennas are placed
too closely together, it is almost as if there is
only one antenna. The basic rule is to have
spacing of at least one wavelength (about a
foot at UHF frequencies) between the two
antennas. RF theory shows that a greater spacing is beneficial; in fact, having the antennas 10
feet or more apart will work much better than
one foot spacing.
AntennA types
Choosing the correct antenna can save money
and improve wireless performance. Most
receivers are supplied with a pair of “whip”
style antennas (as mentioned earlier). They
are generally tuned to be 1/4 wavelength, or,
in some cases, 1/2 wavelength. These whips
can work very well attached directly to your
receiver/s. However, they are generally not
designed to be used remotely via coax cable.
A better choice for most installations is the
dipole type, which has an omnidirectional
pickup pattern in the lateral plane. These have
a built-in ground plane and thus can be
remoted easily. They are tuned, however, thus
need to be chosen and set up correctly for
best results. The directional types, including
the common LPDA, can be useful by using
the rear null to block unintended signals
(e.g., TV transmissions) while using the
frontal gain to improve intended reception.
Generally, directional types are best for
longer ranges and narrower pickup angles;
dipoles are better for wider pickup but perhaps less distance.
Another common mistake is to use
amplified antennas or RF amplifiers to
“boost the reception.” Such devices are
really only designed to overcome the loss
of signal when using longer cable runs.
Avoiding their use when not needed can
save money and improve the end result.
Karl Winkler is the director of business
development at Lectrosonics.
65
2/21/14 6:05 PM
Creating a SoCial
Media CoMMand
Center
How It’s Done
By Maria Porco
M
uch like TV newsrooms, social equipment are mostly determined by size and
media command centers are scope of the command center.
now becoming critical compo• Structure Ownership: It’s important
nents for managing and moni- to remember that social media encompasses
toring the online social presence of organiza- several areas of the organization including
tions. Driven by powerful new infrastructures, marketing, public relations, customer service,
these stations allow organizations to track and IT, and other departments. A common implerespond to public conversations about their mentation strategy is for a specific department
brands in real time via popular social media to take overarching ownership of the comoutlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, mand center to accelerate response times and
Pinterest, Tumblr, and more. As a result, staff ensure fluid information management. For
can monitor millions of conversations at once, instance, a digital marketing department could
from a central location, leading to more effec- oversee issues arising via social media before
tive follow-up, analysis, and online responses. turning to a multidisciplinary team to take
But how can organizations implement this appropriate actions.
new type of media base? What are the rec• Manage Content: At the center of any
ommended frameworks, processes, and best command center is content. While some sites
practices?
can be monitored directly, today’s variety of
The following guidelines will help actu- monitoring platforms can help organizations
alize social media command centers,
oversee both their brand and industry
through the selection of appropriate
trends while obtaining insights into
hardware and logistics, effective
user demographics, emerging
departmental organization, and
influencers, and trending topics.
X2O Media
content management and preBut when it comes to presentX20media.com
sentation software.
ing information and data to
• Set the Scene: For large
screens, simplicity and dynamic
organizations, social media comdelivery become key elements.
mand centers can be set up in large
Displaying live social media feeds in
areas equipped with several workstareal time, from any number of sources in
tions while smaller firms can choose cubicles a way that avoids subjecting staff to informaor kiosks from which staff members can curate tion overload, will increase both absorption
online conversations. Depending on usage, and retention rates. Therefore, organizations
organizations can select the number of screens should also select a content management platrequired, their positioning, and the possibility form that provides easy-to-comprehend tools
of converging several screens to form a video such as charts, graphs, gauges, counters, and
wall. Generally speaking, the size and num- other graphics. These platforms can also be
ber of screens, workstations, and networking paired with feeds coming from live TV news,
info
66
RSS sources, financial data, or other relevant
external streams.
• Create Channels: A command center’s
content management system will also allow
information to be organized in the form of
channels that group information into topicspecific formats. As a result, content becomes
easier to manage for staff monitoring millions
of simultaneous social media conversations
and allows them to efficiently focus on specific
issues, topics, or crises that may arise. Channels
powered by content management software are
also vehicles for sending information to multiple endpoints, enabling command centers to
reach affected staff members via desktop PCs,
tablets, or smartphones. This keeps employees
informed, regardless of their location.
Social media command centers provide
several added benefits to companies: opportunities for new content creation, gathering
marketing intelligence, measuring online campaign efforts, and providing satisfying responses to customer support issues. By using a
combination of content-enabling software and
sound organizational processes, organizations
can easily develop a social media strategy that
can lead to important competitive advantages, allowing them to securely manage crises, improve customer relationships, and gain
valuable feedback about their brand.
Maria Porco is vice president of business
development for X2O Media. She can be
reached at [email protected].
2/21/14 6:05 PM
AVT_03_14_.indd 5
2/20/2014 3:43:14 PM
automate
success
genius
savvy
collaboration
growth
innovation
performance
Bring your team together with technology.
Imagine empowering everyone in your
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to have a video conference without any help.
Check us out.
© 2014 AMX
AVT_03_14_.indd 2
www.amx.com
2/20/2014 2:30:58 PM

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