Amplifier technology is designated with different classes, from Class D to Crown’s proprietary Class I topology. Let’s take a quick look at some of the power amplifier options on the market today. For more details, check out the photo gallery at Pro Sound Web. (Besides, you’ve gotta love anyone who leads a tech article with a Star Trek quote.)

Class D amplifiers Transistors switch on and off using Pulse Width Modulation similar to digital sampling but in the analog realm.

Class G amplifiers The signal is switched between two power supplies depending on the output volume levels. The amp draws more power only when greater amplification is needed, saving energy, permitting the amplifier to run cooler and, ultimately, slightly reducing operating costs.

Class H amplifiers Like Class G amplifiers, these amps use two power supplies. The higher voltage power supply is variable based on the audio signal for greater energy efficiency.

“Systems integrator” is the most common name cited by S&C survey respondents. In this age of ITAV convergence, this makes sense. While it can cause confusion as the IT industry also uses this term, it’s safe to say that if a contractor is telling you where to aim the speakers, he’s not the IT guy.

The next most common company title is “Design/Install Firm,” which is an apt description for the daily business of most AV systems integrators. For many of us, we design the systems, from equipment placement to selecting the right products for the job, and our team installs them. However, the phrase doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue or fit neatly on a business card.

“Consultant” and “Contractor” were tied for third place, with each placing emphasis on a different aspect of the design/build process. A consultant would typically design systems and specify equipment. Most people think of “contractors” as the hands-on types who do the work in the field. However, in the AV industry, this may or may not be true.

Fewer than five percent of respondents preferred the terms “Dealer” or “Installer,” perhaps because they are very narrow descriptors that don’t reveal the full range of service most AV systems integrators provide.

What does this matter to you, the customer shopping for someone to help you create an AV experience in your home or your commercial building, hospitality venue or house-of-worship? Not much, but it does provide some insight into the questions to ask when you begin your search.

The Hunt for the Right AV Professional

If you have a clear idea of what you want in terms of AV design, are familiar with the different models of equipment from different manufacturers, but just don’t have the staff to hang speakers and terminate wires, you may be looking for an audio visual installer. But an installer may very well offer design services, as well. The solution? Ask specifically about the services you need. Then ask for references from people the company has actually performed those services for — preferably within your vertical market.

If you’re looking for an AV design consultant, ask references if the consultants drew up the plans and disappeared, or if he was available for questions and modifications during the installation process. Sometimes, AV designs don’t work out as well in the real world as they do on paper; this requires the consultant to stay in touch with the on-site team to ensure a quality finished product.

On the other hand, if you’re hiring an AV installer, find out how well the company does working from other people’s plans. What do the consultants the installation firm has worked with say about them? Audio visual systems installation is a team effort; “plays well with others” is a job prerequisite.

Is a One-Stop Design/Install Firm the Right Choice?

If all this “coordinating of trades” sounds complicated, an AV firm that can provide consulting, design and installation services might be the right choice for you. There’s already an architect, general contractor, and possibly an electrician and other trades on site. If you can get all your audio, video and control system needs met by one entity, it can simplify processes, from scheduling to billing. Our friends in the restaurant industry use the term “too many cooks.” Wouldn’t you rather work with just a handful of Master Chefs?

What’s Really in a Name?

Few other industries even debate what they would call their business. But no one ever said AV systems integration is easy. Whatever decision you make, be certain that the company you choose can provide the services you need. It really can be as simple as that.

When music is loud, but not deafeningly so, people tend to talk less, eat faster and eat more In a New York Times article, music designer Wyatt Magnum pinpointed 125 beats per minute to be “the perfect tempo for turning tables.” Magnum published an Encyclopedia of Beat-per-Minute to help restaurant and bar proprietors select music of the right tempo.

Research seems to back him up. A Fairfield University (Connecticut) study showed that people took 4.4 bites per minute, rather than an average of 3.83, with faster music playing. A study done in France showed that drinkers ordered an average of 2.6 drinks, completing one in 14.5 minutes, when listening to music playing at 72 decibels. Crank it up to 88 decibels, and guests order 3.4 drinks, finishing one in 11.5 minutes.

Urban Myth… or Music to Turn Tables?

We believe that audiovisual design is certainly part art and part science, and that includes the selection of music. Today’s control system technology makes it easy to automatically program music to increase in both volume and tempo as a restaurant or bar approaches its busiest time of day. But does it really work?

Restaurants have been employing color to evoke an atmosphere and cause people to either eat faster (think of the yellows, reds and browns of your favorite fast food joint) or to encourage people to linger and order course after course in fine dining establishments. It’s not a stretch to discover that music and sound, critical aspects of the ambiance in today’s hospitality venues, can do the same.

One thing we do know: High quality sound, designed and installed by area audio visual consultants with years of experience, creates a more enjoyable experience, letting guests know they are being treated to something special. Customers will return again and again… and tell their friends. Ultimately, that is the type of marketing that will bring your New York bar or restaurant continued success.

In the coming weeks, we’ll recognize some of those organizations in a series of posts that reveal systems integration trends and explore some of the year’s hottest products.

We’d like to thank Sean Goldstein, Crestron’s VP of Marketing, for being the first interview in our Manufacturer Spotlight series.

About Crestron

For more than 40 years, Crestron Electronics has provided AV control systems and automation systems for corporate offices, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, houses of worship and more, as well as whole home automation systems. The company is committed to creating systems that work together to save energy and make audio visual control intuitive and user-friendly creating a seamless experience for the end user.

JD Systems: Control systems have become an integral part of nearly every commercial audio visual installation. Can you quickly review some of your bestselling product lines, particularly for restaurant, hospitality and retail markets?

Sean Goldstein, Crestron: Crestron DigitalMedia is one of our best-selling product lines, particularly in restaurant, hospitality and retail markets. The cornerstone of success for hotels, casinos, restaurants or bars is to entertain their guests. These facilities incorporate several displays into their spaces as a draw to get guests to their venue and keep them there. Whether displaying a sporting event, concert, or digital signage, DigitalMedia (DM) can handle all these sources and distribute them to multiple displays throughout the facility. Guests can watch the same football game from wherever they are seated in the room, or they can watch different games throughout the venue.

JD Systems: Control via iPad, tablet or smartphone is one of the next big things for commercial (and home) applications. How is this accomplished with a Crestron system?

Crestron’s Goldstein: Now iPhone®, iPad® and Android™ users can get the same interface from one app. Crestron Mobile Pro® merges Crestron building control innovation with all platforms, turning tablets or smartphones into a powerful Crestron touchscreen. From any device, facility managers can enjoy reliable and complete building control from virtually anywhere in the world.

An intuitive graphical interface provides real-time status of room temperatures, lighting levels, shade positions, streaming security camera video, distributed audio systems (including metadata), and other connected building systems.

JD Systems: What are some of the biggest current trends you see in control system technology, on the professional side, right now?

Crestron’s Goldstein: There are three major trends happening in the world of AV. The first is the transition from analog to digital. As advancements in technology continue to distribute digital content as opposed to analog, organizations must be have an integrated infrastructure in place that can manage and distribute digital copy protected content such as video with HDCP encryptions. These encryptions can cause problems, especially for users who want to connect multiple displays to a single device. These issues are magnified as the content is distributed over fiber. We see a transition from traditional copper CAT5e/6 to multimode and even single mode fiber. This will happen over several years, of course, so the ability to seamlessly manage and distribute these sophisticated digital signals over both copper and fiber is critical.

The second major trend is enterprise global networking and cross-platform communication. Clients are no longer thinking of an AV system in terms of a single room. The project must now be thought of an enterprise-wide solution. AV systems must now have complete visibility to facilities and IT management on the LAN or WAN. These internal organizations (facilities and IT) want to monitor, manage and control all systems through their own third-party software solutions. Building Management Systems communicate BACNet/IP and IT systems communicate over SNMP. AV, lighting and other systems need to speak these languages to integrate on the network or clients will reject them.

The market also demands a consistent management and control platform across multiple operating systems. So, control of all of these systems needs to look and function the same Windows, Mac and even IOS and Android devices.

The third major trend we see is the changing role of the end-user. Facility managers, IT managers, real estate managers, and owners are taking a much more proactive role in defining the building technology to be used in their environments. Customers expect manufacturers to provide more than just an “AV” solution. They require an integrated technology solution for the entire building to maximize productivity, efficiency, energy savings, and reduce operational costs. They want all equipment on the system to be engineered from the ground up to work together. They want to work with and buy from a single manufacturer and an expert dealer to ensure a flawless implementation.

JD Systems: Looking ahead, what are some of Crestron’s plans and goals for 2013?

Crestron’s Goldstein: We plan to educate our customers around the value of a completely integrated building solution. The amount of technology in rooms, buildings and across organizations continues to increase. Now, AV, lighting, HVAC, voice and data, security, room scheduling, and window shades are all connected to the network. And each new technology on the network adds another layer of complexity. More and more staff is required to manage all of it. As a result, the ability to integrate and intelligently manage all of these disparate building technologies has become a necessity.

Here are six things to consider when you work with your audiovisual consultant to choose the right control system for your AV project.

1. Scalability – Maybe right now you just need your control system to manage your restaurant’s sound and video systems. But maybe you’ll want to control lighting and HVAC systems using the same interface in the future. If your venue expands, can you add more zones to the control system?

On a day-to-day basis, does the control system interface allow different levels of control for different personnel? Can you give a bartender the capability to override pre-set volume controls, but only permit a manager to adjust the HVAC systems?

Scalability, both on a daily basis and in the “big picture,” is important when you invest in a control system that needs to grow with your venue.

2. Compatibility – Closely related to scalability, this factor affects which systems your controller can interface with right now as your systems stand. You want to make sure your control system can be used with lighting, AV, security, room shading, HVAC and other aspects of your facility if necessary. It’s okay to start small, controlling only lighting and sound, for instance, to begin, and scale up as funds become available.

3. Security – As IT and AV converge, control systems reside on the network (either a LAN or WAN.) Control systems should not compromise the security or stability of the network. Your audio visual integrator may work with your organization’s IT team to ensure that the systems work together.

4. Reliability – It’s not an exaggeration to say that the control system is heart of a successful audiovisual integration project. Does network traffic slow the control system down to unacceptable levels, or can it keep up regardless of how many other users are on the network? Are all components sturdy and dependable, with a solid industry reputation behind them?

5. Ease-of-use – While programming a control system is the domain of professional systems integrators, the interface should be user-friendly and intuitive. Controlling the lighting, sound and video systems in a bar, restaurant or house-of-worship should be no more difficult than navigating an iPad. Popular control systems even have iPad and Android tablet apps available to control systems directly from mobile devices.

6. Professional installation and service-after-the-sale – Equally important as your choice of control systems is your choice of integrator. Look for a New York audio visual professional who offers service-after-the-sale, including 24/7 emergency service, and will be available years down the line, whether you need systems repair or an upgrade as your venue and your audiovisual needs grow.

ITAV convergence took on new meaning this Thanksgiving, though, when members of the Information Technology Disaster Recovery Center (ITDRC) and members of the AV community, including Staten Island based audio visual systems integration and consulting firm JD Systems, Long Island-based AV integrators Digital Sales Group New York, rAVe [Publications] and the Women in AV (WAVE organization) worked together to bring something special to New Yorkers displaced for Thanksgiving due to Hurricane Sandy.

Background on a Thanksgiving to Remember

When Superstorm Sandy swept across the New York tri-state area, JD Systems was right on top of hurricane relief and recovery efforts, working with our close friends Partners in Sound Productions and the Carl V. Bini Memorial Foundation. (You can read more about those efforts here. (www.binifund.org)

WAVE founder Jennifer Willard cited the post and shared an article of her own across her vast social network, including a call-to-action for the AV industry to get involved in our relief efforts.

Simultaneously, in a phone call with a member of our marketing team, JD Systems’ Jonathan Joyce had an idea: “You know,” he said, “Thanksgiving isn’t going to be the same for a lot of people left homeless by the storm. What can we do to help make Thanksgiving just a little more normal for those in the shelters?”

A Thanksgiving Day ITAV Plan, In Motion

Fast forward two weeks, hundreds of emails and many phone calls. ITDRC worked with DISH TV network to bring Internet access and television broadcast signals in to Staten Island’s Beyley-Seton Hospital, the site of a hurricane shelter organized by Gateway Church, and to Coney Island in Brooklyn’s historic Our Lady of Solace Church. Both facilities were planning Thanksgiving dinners for New Yorkers without permanent homes.

WAVE and the integrators worked to secure the necessary AV equipment, including projectors, screens, and sound systems, to broadcast the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade during the Thanksgiving celebrations. The industry stepped up, with Draper supplying two large projection screens and Vutec offering a newly introduced model.

Digital Sales Group loaned a JBL Eon system and an InFocus projector to the Coney Island location. Late Wednesday evening, WAVE member Dawn Allcot and her husband, T.J., drove with their family from Long Island to Brooklyn to deliver the gear. Dave Silkin of Digital Sales Group, along with ITDRC’s Joe Hillis, provided remote support to help a volunteer from the church set up the equipment and on Thanksgiving morning, a DISH TV technician came out to assist.

Gateway Church had most of the necessary gear for the Beyley Seton event and JD Systems set up a complete AV system to broadcast the parade during the 1,000-person Thanksgiving dinner, in between working on a high profile New York retail integration project with a Thanksgiving Day deadline. Vision realized and mission accomplished.

Working Together

For audiovisual systems integrators, working on tight deadlines is nothing new. As installations go, these projects were straightforward, since they were temporary installations with minimal design work required.

What was noteworthy about the projects was the way two integration firms and diverse organizations from three industries came together, with Jennifer Willard of WAVE spearheading efforts from across the country in San Francisco and ITDRC’s Joe Hillis working from a trailer near the affected areas of New York City. “Everyone involved played an important role in making this happen,” Willard said. “And the amazing thing is they all did it just to help.”

For thousands of New Yorkers who lost their homes in Hurricane Sandy, a Thanksgiving dinner and the chance to enjoy the parade on a seven-foot projection screen may not have been as much as we would have liked to give, but it was an important symbol of New York’s strength and our ability to overcome a difficult situation with ingenuity, teamwork… and technology.

Professional HDTV Mounting and Home Theater Design

If you took advantage of Black Friday and cyber-Monday sales to purchase the HDTV screen of your dreams, it may be time to celebrate a belated “small business Saturday” and call a local home theater integrator to professionally mount your plasma or LCD screen. Here are some of the benefits you’ll enjoy if you call the pros.

1 – A safe, professional installation - We’ve mentioned this often because it’s true. Improperly mounted HDTV screens can be dangerous if they fall from the mounting brackets. Hanging a plasma or LCD screen properly is a two-person job to do it safely. Sure, you could call in a favor to a friend or relative to help, but wouldn’t you rather have licensed, insured professionals you can trust to hang your HDTV? Not Uncle Vinny after you’ve bribed him with a six-pack of Bud.

2 – No messy wires - Hanging your new HDTV securely on the mounting brackets is just part of a professional HDTV installation. As design professionals, we know how to manage all those messy wires with the right cable management system.

3 – Professional AV systems integration -Today’s home theater systems are more than just a few speakers and a screen. From connecting your Blu-Ray player and Xbox to programming your Universal Remote Control, we’ll make sure all the components in your new entertainment system work together. We’ll even offer a quick training session so you can turn on It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve and impress your kids with your technology smarts.

4 – Professional home theatre design - If you’re not sure about the best place to hang your new HDTV, our design skills and years of experience come in to play. If you want to tuck away components like your cable or DirecTV box, Apple TV unit, and Blu-Ray player in to an equipment closet, we’ll provide custom rack design and cooling to maximize the life of your components. We’ll calculate optimal viewing angles for the screen based on the size of the room, seating arrangements and ambient light to create a full home theatre design that will make your new HDTV screen become part of the decor of your living room, not just a piece of technology hanging on your wall.

5 – Reasonable prices -We know you saved a bundle on your new HDTV. You don’t want to break the bank on professional installation with the holidays coming. Whether you need custom home theatre design or just someone to mount an HDTV screen, we offer a number of affordable packages to meet every budget. Check out our professional home cinema installation options here.

We figure that if one person who wants to volunteer finds out where they can go to help through our feed, or one person in need discovers where they can get clothing and a hot meal from information we’ve been sharing, it’s worth the effort.

We also know that, at some point after a natural disaster, life returns to normal. It might be a new normal — for instance, right now, the “new normal” in New York is buying gas on odd or even days based on your license plate number — but life does go on.

In other states across the country, Sandy is but a blip in people’s minds, overshadowed by the 2012 Presidential Election. As we in Staten Island and beyond make the transition from “Sandy Relief” to Sandy Recovery, we return to that “new” normal… and so does our social media presence.

This week, we’ve begun to share significant AV industry news and information, which we’ll continue to provide in growing quantities over the next few weeks. But it’s not necessarily “back to our regularly scheduled programming.” We’ll also continue sharing news about Sandy relief and recovery efforts — concentrated on our hometown of Staten Island, but also including Long Island, New Jersey and beyond.

Transitioning from Sandy Relief to New York Recovery Efforts

As we support the Carl V. Bini fund here on Staten Island and volunteer as time permits locally to get necessary items in the hands of those who need them, it’s important to know that those efforts are making a difference.

I’d like to share a short quote posted on Facebook by a friend of ours, whose mother lost her home on Long Island’s south shore: “Every hour, churches, fire departments, Moose Lodge volunteers, charities and random Good Samaritans walk up to hand me a list of things they have and a giant box of stuff to help us! Local organizations are the backbone of this recovery. Donate to them: time, money, food, supplies. It gets to the residents IMMEDIATELY.”

This observation supports what we’ve seen here in Staten Island, too, with the Carl V. Bini Foundation and other organizations collecting and donating items, ranging from warm clothing to diapers to cleaning supplies. The Red Cross is out there, helping and visible, but it’s less direct. It is so true we will say it again:

Local organizations are the backbone of Sandy recovery in Staten Island and beyond.

The AV Industry Steps Up

“Local,” though, in the Internet age, takes on a new meaning. When we published our first post on Sandy relief efforts, and, specifically what our friends at Partners in Sound Productions and the Carl V. Bini fund is doing, it was spotted by Jennifer H. Willard, president of the Women in AV. She immediately contacted us, asking, “What can I do to help?” In this case, “local” or “grassroots” efforts describes an industry, rather than a region.

WAVE has been sharing all the Sandy relief news on our Twitter stream, and, together with Partners in Sound Productions and the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center, WAVE is spearheading an industry-wide Sandy recovery project. You can find out more in this post, including finding out how you can help: Help Sandy Recovery

We can’t thank Jennifer and her WAVE partners enough for the support they’ve given us. The AV industry has shown its true character as a tight-knit community of, as Jennifer wrote, “not just companies, competitors and professional colleagues — [but] friends, confidants, and supporters of each other, in the best of times and the worst.”

Ongoing Efforts

Right now, there are still thousands of displaced Staten Islanders and efforts continue to provide the support they need. As Staten Island rebuilds, money, support and volunteers will still be needed.

Even as it may seem business has returned to “normal,” it has not. It never will, for those whose lives have been impacted by Sandy. But we are stronger for it, grateful to have survived, and here to assist others, in whatever form that might take. We adapt.

We’ll continue to be a resource for AV news and information, but also for Sandy Relief and recovery updates. That’s our “new normal,” because it’s what we feel in our hearts is the right thing to do.

We believe that when you ask the right questions, you get the right answers. We didn’t have to look far to find out how we could help Sandy victims right here at home. The Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund mobilized almost immediately to begin taking donations for Sandy victims here on Staten Island.

They are taking donations beginning Saturday, 11 AM at the Partners in Sound Productions (PISP offices) at 18 Hervey Street, Staten Island, across the street from the Old Bermuda Inn.

They can really use donations of:

• non-perishable foods, like ready-to-eat meals, cereal, protein bars, etc
• Bottled water
• Baby food, formula and diapers
• Blankets
• Toiletries

The people who organized this group are close friends of ours. The fund is transparent and they have no overhead. This means all donations, including 100 % of all cash donations, go straight to fellow Staten Islanders in need!

In addition to food, blankets and other essentials, you can make monetary donations through the Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund: Sandy Relief Fund. The Carl V. Bini fund is a not-for-profit 501C, so all donations are tax deductible and will go directly to help Staten Islanders affected by Sandy.

If you’d like to get more involved and volunteer to distribute goods or help out in another way, call the Partners in Sound office at 718.967.7347. If you have items to donate but can’t get them to us, we’ll come to you. Just give us a call.

If we all pitch in, every small act can make a big difference in the lives of local Staten Islanders during this very hard time.

Why did you choose the HDTV you purchased? This was one of the top questions explored in the J.D. Power 2012 High Definition Television (HDTV) Report.

Our colleague Ted Green of The Stratecon Group, discusses some of the survey conclusions on his blog, specifically noting the lack of importance of 3D TV as a sales motivator.

Ted, you wrote:

I know not everyone who reads this post agrees with us, and we’ve taken a fair share of criticism for our viewpoint, but we’ve been consistently skeptical of the power of 3D to drive HDTV sales.

Controversial or not, we agree with you.

We’re right there with you on the “3D-won’t-take-off-any-time-soon” boat. The higher price. The lack of programming. The need for goofy glasses (in most cases.) There are plenty of ways to create a movie theater atmosphere in your home, and none of them require 3D special effects. But back to the J.D. Power study…

Number One Sales Motivator to Choose an HDTV Screen

The J.D. Power reports shows that only 11 percent of respondents listed “3D capabilities” as a motivating factor in the purchase of their HDTV. The number one sales motivator? Drumroll please…

Price.

Here in the AV trenches of New York, whether we’re installing home theater systems in New York apartments or Staten Island homes, or commercial audiovisual systems in sports bar, restaurants, nightclubs or retail venues, we hear it time and again: “How much is this going to cost?”

We understand. Budgets are tight everywhere. It’s all a matter of knowing where to spend and where to save. If your systems are installed professionally… Let’s put it this way: We’re not going to recommend or specify sub-par AV equipment just to save you few bucks. We’ll work within your budget while providing you the audio video equipment, whether that’s a switcher, control system or plasma or LED screen, that fits your needs and the effect you want to achieve in your living room or commercial venue.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to shop by price when you’re looking at consumer HDTV screens, because plasmas, LCDs and LEDs continue to drop in price, and you can get a lot of high-quality screens for less and less money, especially if you just need a new HDTV for your living room or family room.

But if you’re putting in a high-end home theater system or planning a large-scale commercial audiovisual installation, a consultant can help you choose the best screen for your money, without sacrificing quality for low cost. Whether you’re buying and mounting your own HDTV or relying on professionals, don’t forget the other important factors to consider.

According to the J.D. Power report, the top motivating factors for picking a specific HDTV screen, after price, were:

• Brand reputation – 60%
• Positive reviews – 37%
• Past experience with the brand – 36%
• Quality of construction – 33%

To come full circle, at the bottom of the list was 3D capabilities. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. If you’re putting together a home theatre system, there are better ways to spend your money than with a 3D LED or plasma screen. Consider 7.1 surround sound for a truly immersive experience, a high-quality remote control or even extra-comfy chairs to enhance your home theater experience.