7th May, 2009
The Truth About HDMI Cables
Brent Butterworth
We’ve lately been hearing a lot of noise from the audio/video cable industry about HDMI. And some of it hasn’t been making much sense to us. We’ve recently spotted claims that some cheap HDMI cables won’t pass Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) and High-Definition Content Protection (HDCP) signals. We’ve also heard some say that certain cables deliver better audio performance than others.
None of these claims squared with our limited knowledge of the HDMI spec, but we wanted to find out for sure. So we sat down and read through “High-Definition Multimedia Interface Specification 1.3a,” a 276-page PDF. Then we interviewed Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, LLC, to get his insight on the matter.
CEC and HDCP: Slow but safe
If a cable won’t pass data, it’s usually because the parallel capacitance of the cable is too high. Excess capacitance causes a cable to work like a filter at higher frequencies. This is the main reason why some older and/or longer HDMI cables won’t pass 1080p signals; the higher frequency at which the 1080p signals run means they fall below their minimum strength due to the filtering effect of the cable’s capacitance.
But CEC and HDCP are entirely different from digital video and audio signals. They run on conductors separate from the main data lines carrying the video and audio, and they run at a far, far lower bit rate. We couldn’t find this bit rate specified in the document, but a sampling window chart indicates that the rate for CEC is around 1 kilobit per second. Contrast this with the 10.2 gigabit-per-second maximum rate for the main data lines. As Venuti put it, “It’s like comparing a drop of water to a running faucet.”
Practically any cable–even the Romex wiring in your walls–can pass a 1 kb/sec data signal. The spec for CEC demands a maximum total cable capacitance of 700 picofarads. For all but the longest HDMI cables, that’s an easy number to hit–it’s about the same as you’d encounter in 45 feet of generic Cat-5e cable. If an HDMI cable won’t pass CEC and HDCP, it’s almost certainly because of a damaged connector, not because of low-quality cable construction.
Audio: Packeted and protected
A lot of people seem to be under the mistaken assumption all digital audio signals work the same way as the uncompressed PCM audio from a CD player does. Unless they’re sent into a digital signal processor for modification, these PCM signals work essentially in real time. They go straight into a digital-to-analog converter. Because these signals are continuous raw data, flaws in a cable can cause timing errors (known as jitter) that make their way into the audio that you hear.
HDMI audio works in a completely different way. It’s transmitted in “data islands” between lines and frames of video. To work as islands of intermittent data rather than continuous data, all of the audio–even uncompressed linear PCM–must be packetized, much like the packet-switched data that travels around the Internet. The data packets are stored in a memory buffer, reconstructed into a complete signal, then released in sync with the video. When all the data is buffered, reassembled, and reclocked in this manner, jitter in the cable is irrelevant. The HDMI standard ignores it completely.
Think of it this way: If you bake a cake at home then take it to your friend’s house, it might be damaged along the way. That’s the way unpacketized PCM audio works. But if instead you bring the raw ingredients and a recipe, and bake the cake at your friend’s house, the cake will end up perfect regardless of how many potholes you hit on the drive there. That’s the way packetized data works.
What’s the takeaway?
None of this means that integrators won’t encounter bad HDMI cables. According to Venuti, for a cable to wear an HDMI logo legally, its manufacturer must be an HDMI licensee, and it must be tested to conform to a set of standards that guarantees it will work.
Obviously, it’s not difficult for a manufacturer to copy the HDMI logo and slap it on a product that doesn’t meet spec. “It’s a tough compliance issue,” Venuti confessed, “but we’re working with U.S. Customs to seize counterfeit products, and we’re working in China to shut down illegal manufacturing of non-licensed HDMI cables.”
Venuti said it’s probably impossible for integrators and consumers to tell at a glance if some no-name cable bought off the Internet complies with the HDMI spec. His advice? “Buy from someone you trust. Basically, anyone with a big name–whether it’s a manufacturer or a retailer–isn’t going to risk their reputation by dealing in illegal stuff.”
Venuti added that even in a world where cables need merely meet a minimum spec in order to perform perfectly, there are still reasons for custom installers to consider higher-priced HDMI cables. “We test to find out if there’s enough signal strength at the end of the cable,” he said. “What we don’t test for is durability and performance over time. If you’re pulling these cables through walls, or connecting and disconnecting them a lot, you’d want them to be more robust, and that’s where you might want to go with a higher-end product.”
Posted at 12:21 pm | Comments (5)
24th April, 2009
Why Installers Should Do Audio Measurements
Brent Butterworth
We bet we can guess the total cost of your audio test gear: $45. That’s the price of RadioShack’s Model 33-4050 analog sound pressure level meter, which is the sole audio measurement device many installers own. And that’s a shame, because real audio measurement gear can improve the performance of your installations far more than any component upgrade can.
The best audio test gear doesn’t come cheap, but thanks to digital technology, there are some lower-cost options these days.
In this article, we’ll explain how you and your crew can use audio measurement gear to make your theaters sound better and impress your clients in the process. And we’ll also examine some of the measurement gear that’s now available.
The Benefits
The main use that integrators will find for audio measurement is in fine-tuning the sound of home theaters, for which you need a real-time audio spectrum analyzer, otherwise known as an RTA. An RTA gives you a graphic readout of an audio system’s frequency response. It can tell you precisely at which frequencies the acoustical problems in a room lie. We use RTAs primarily to evaluate different subwoofer positions. They’re handy if you’re installing one sub, but indispensible if you’re installing two or more subs.
You can test different subwoofer positions quickly and accurately. Just put the test microphone in one listening position (i.e., the homeowner’s favorite chair), run a measurement, save the result, then repeat the process in all the other listening positions. Then try different subwoofer positions or configurations to see if one works better.
We recently optimized BG’s complicated new four-module in-wall subwoofer system in about 20 minutes using an RTA. Doing this by ear would have been far less accurate, and might have taken hours. If you’re using graphic or parametric equalizers, an RTA is absolutely essential for proper adjustment of the equalizers’ controls.
Other types of audio measurement gear can help you verify that a signal chain is functioning properly. It can measure frequency response, distortion, etc., of every piece of audio gear in a system, so you can find malfunctions quickly.
The Hardware
RTAs have been around for decades. One that’s emerged as something of an industry standard is AudioControl’s $1,195 SA-3051E, a 1/3-octave RTA that comes with a microphone and an internal test noise generator. A far more advanced option is the $3,995 Iasys, which also measures such functions as polarity, delay, crossover function, and RT60 (reverberance). Another option is Gold Line’s $1,999 DSP30. All of these RTAs are designed for field use—they’re ready to use in seconds, and they’re built to last for years.
If $1,000-plus isn’t in your budget this year, there are less expensive options—as long as you don’t mind bringing a PC laptop along on your jobs, and dealing with a more complicated setup. You can run an RTA software package such as True RTA, which is available at trueaudio.com and costs from $0 to $99 depending on the level of accuracy you want. You’ll need a measurement microphone such as Behringer’s $49 ECM8000; it’s also available in a calibrated version for $85 from Cross-Spectrum Labs. You’ll need a mic preamp with phantom power, such as the $70 Rolls MP13. (Make sure the preamp has no equalization or effects circuits.) You may also want an outboard audio adapter, because the internal audio circuitry in most laptops is pretty noisy. And you’ll need some adapters to get everything to work with your laptop.
Even if you don’t invest in RTA software, you should go to audio.rightmark.org and download RightMark Audio Analyzer, a free audio measurement program that’s like a simple version of the Audio Precision analyzers that most audio manufacturers and engineers use. A click on a single on-screen button measures such parameters as frequency response, distortion, dynamic range, noise, and crosstalk. Just hook up the gear, set the levels, and run the tests. You’ll be shocked when you see what a detailed analysis RMAA can provide.
You can even do rudimentary audio measurement with nothing but an iPhone and Faber Acoustic’s $25 SignalScope software, available through the iPhone Apps Store. SignalScope relies on the iPhone’s internal microphone, so it’s not as accurate or useful as a dedicated RTA or a laptop-based system, but it’s fine for quick analysis.
Not only can these products help you fine-tune your theaters, they’ll also show your clients that you’re serious about giving them the best performance. And in our opinion, that alone is worth the money you spend on measurement gear.
Got any other great finds for audio measurement? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Posted at 1:35 pm | Comments (4)
9th April, 2009
How to Get Great Project Pix on the Cheap
Brent Butterworth
Everybody knows digital photography has made it easy and inexpensive for anyone to take nice pictures. Everybody, that is, except custom installers. At least that’s the way it seems, judging from the submissions sent to home theater magazines and contests put on by CE manufacturers. Having served many years on the staffs of glossy home theater publications, the editorial crew at The Integrator has often struggled to get decent photos from custom installers. Bad photography has been the rule, not the exception.
When a good digital SLR can be had for as little as $500, there’s no excuse for an installer not to photograph every single job in detail. At the very least, the photos will improve the look of your portfolio. And with a little practice, you might shoot something that a magazine or website will accept for publication.
Having photographed many home theaters ourselves–always fast and always on the cheap–we decided to share some tips about how to shoot great-looking photos of your installations.
Getting the Right Gear
While it might be possible to get a few decent interior shots with a point-and-shoot digital camera, you’re much better off getting the right tool for the job: a digital SLR. Any digital SLR will do the trick; the camera itself isn’t critical. What can be critical is the lens you attach to it.
For most of your shots, the “kit lens” that camera makers often package with their affordable camera will work fine. In fact, optical testing in Popular Photography magazine has proven that kit lenses are usually much better than you’d expect.
However, you’ll need to spend serious bucks to get that “money shot”–the wide-angle photo from the back of the theater that takes in all of the chairs, the screen, and the speakers (if they’re visible). For this all-important image, you must have a super-wide-angle lens. The one we use is Canon’s EF-S 10-22mm zoom, which retails for a little more than $700 and is worth every penny. The lens can take in an entire room without visible distortion. There are several other super-wide-angle lenses on the market, including a 10-20mm model from Sigma that costs about $429 (although we can’t attest to its quality), a 16-35mm zoom for full-frame Canon DSLRs, and Nikon’s AF-S DX 12-24mm for small-sensor Nikon DSLRs. Don’t use a fisheye lens for this shot; there’s no faster way to turn off an art director.
You’ll also need a tripod, because the dim lighting in most home theaters necessitates long exposures. The make and model of the tripod isn’t important, but you might want to consider a compact model–it’ll be easier to squeeze it behind that last row of chairs. Don’t even think about trying to shoot hand-held shots, even if your camera has image stabilization. And don’t use a monopod, either.
The Technique
Most home theaters are attractively lit, and you can use that to your advantage. Don’t bother trying to bring in lights or a flash, because most home theaters are too dark to make good use of them. Just turn up the room lights as far as they’ll go, and get a colorful image on the screen (animation DVDs work great). To prevent your hand from shaking the camera, set your camera for timer mode or connect an external trigger device. You may want to use a lens hood to prevent flare from overhead lights, but in a pinch you can just hold your hand above the end of the lens to block the light.
We always shoot interiors in aperture-priority mode, in which you choose the aperture setting and the camera automatically picks the correct shutter speed. Use a narrow aperture–at least f/11, and preferably more like f/20–to ensure that most or all of the room is in focus. Select the highest-quality picture mode your camera offers. Then just click away. Take lots of shots, from every angle you can think of. Be sure to straighten up pillows, chairs, and other furnishings, and remove any unnecessary clutter (including your clients).
A photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop Elements (which comes free with some cameras) will help you clean up your photos afterward. Most of them take a while to learn, but you can usually get significant improvements even the first time around. The first thing you might want to figure out is how to pump up the color and contrast in the image on the theater screen–or if you want to get more ambitious, try replacing the image with a pretty picture, or a screen capture from a DVD.
If you have any other tips for quick’n'easy photography of home theater installations, drop us a comment at our website.
Posted at 11:52 am | Comments (3)
27th March, 2009
Easy Ways To Go Green (And Make More Green)
Brent Butterworth
In practically every industry, there’s lots of talk about going green. But we at The Integrator were under the impression that in consumer electronics, green was just an issue for TV manufacturers, who’ve been under the gun for their increasing appetite for amperage. Not so, says Stewart Filmscreen director of residential sales Joaquin Rivera.
Thanks to a regimen of nearly nonstop dealer visits, Rivera probably knows as much about what’s going on in the custom installation industry as anyone. And he says that for many dealers now, there’s nothing greater than green. “We have dealers who’ll do two proposals for the client: one a standard, and one that’s a green package,” he explained. “A huge percentage of clients choose the green proposal.
“The wealthy clients are still spending money,” he continued, “but they want to feel good about the products they’re buying. If they can make a purchase they really want and at the same time help the environment, that’s great.”
Rivera’s statement made us wonder, though: Besides the TV manufacturers, who out there in the CE world is creating products that a custom installer might be able to include in a green proposal? We decided to seek out a few items that could add a little green to a drab invoice.
Green Manufacturing
“OK, but Stewart doesn’t have anything green,” we pointed out after Rivera told his tale. “All you make is screens.”
“There’s two ways to be green,” he corrected us. “You can make a product that uses less energy. Or you can manufacture products in a way that uses less energy and is less harmful to the environment. We’ve been doing that for years. In 2005 we got a SmartBusiness Recycling Award from Los Angeles County for a new baghouse we installed. We also put in a thermal oxidizer, which is basically a big oven that burns fumes before they hit the atmosphere. And we switched from solvent-based paints to water-based paints.” He added that most of the materials in Stewart screens are recyclable because the structural parts are made from aluminum.
Indeed, there’s a movement in many industries to use less raw material in products and packaging, and to eliminate as many harmful materials as possible. One part of this is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (or RoHS) initiative, which restricts the use of six hazardous substances (including lead, a common component of solder) in European Union countries. Many electronic products now sold in the U.S. are RoHS-compliant, and California has adopted some of the RoHS restrictions for certain products.
Dealers should check with their reps or distributors (or peruse their suppliers’ websites) to find out which of the products they sell are manufactured using eco-friendly materials and techniques. Anything that fits this description could become a key part of a green proposal.
Green Gadgets
Once we dug into the green category a bit, we found more products that can help green-up a proposal. The easiest place to start is with flat-panel TVs. Practically every major manufacturer has reduced the power consumption of its TVs significantly for 2009, and has plans for further improvements in 2010. Cutting power consumption and slimming the chassis also reduces raw material use. You can check with your TV suppliers for more information, but it’s a fairly safe bet you’ll find plenty to work with no matter what brands you’re selling.
Home automation companies are also embracing the green movement. Crestron’s GreenLight application shows homeowners energy use, energy cost per hour, and carbon output caused by the lighting system. When they change lighting settings, they can see in real time the effect on the utility bill. Lutron, Crestron, and other lighting control companies stress that any system using dimmers can save on electricity—dimming lights by only 10 percent can cut energy cost significantly, even though there’s almost no visible difference in light level.
One of the easiest ways that system designers can save energy is to switch to more efficient audio amplifiers. Amps using Class D (digital/switching), G or H topologies consume considerably less energy than a traditional Class B amplifier. A Class B multichannel amp might consume more than 50 watts of power even when idling. The newer technologies can bring that number down into the single digits. What’s more, Class D/G/H amps run cool, potentially saving more money by possibly eliminating the need for active ventilation of the equipment closet. More and more audio manufacturers are switching over to these new technologies; two who have been at it for years are AudioControl and Sunfire.
At CES, we were surprised to find that even speaker manufacturers can go green. DeVore Fidelity builds its new Gibbon 3XL speaker from solid bamboo rather than formaldehyde-packed fiberboard. It also uses diaphragms made from paper and silk instead of plastic or aluminum, and its relatively high sensitivity demands little power from an amplifier. The speaker’s gorgeous looks and audiophile-approved sound show that eco-friendliness need not detract from a product’s allure.
Got any more examples of products that integrators can use to add green to their proposals?
Posted at 5:49 am | Comments (3)
27th March, 2009
Happy Birthday To Us
Michael Verity
To paraphrase the song, it seems these days “money’s too tight to mention”. In spite of that, The Integrator has managed to do well and grow over the past year, such that we’re celebrating our first anniversary. That’s a big accomplishment these days.
We achieve this in no smart part because of you, our readers. Your continued interest in and response to what we say is what keeps us going.
OK, so the support of our advertisers influences us a little, too, so please take a minute to go and see some of the folks who we include among our supporters. (You’ll find them listed down and to the right in the box that says “Thanks To Our Friends” ).
And while you’re here, revisit some award-winning articles we’ve posted over the past year:
First Article In Our History Award (a tough one to pick): Setting Things Straight - Wireless Speakers
That Which Got The Most Comments Award: Full Range Speakers: You’re Fired
The “We Can’t Hear You” Award For The Least Comments On An Article We Figured Would Piss Somebody Off: The Highs And Lows of Height Channels
Silliest Use of Photoshop Award: It’s a tie between this one and this one.
Off we go, into year number 2!
Posted at 5:19 am | Comment (0)
11th March, 2009
The Illusion of Precision
Brent Butterworth
When The Integrator ran a column last year questioning the validity of calibrating TVs, our e-mail boxes filled with retorts. But no one seemed to notice the basis for the article’s contention: that the industry-standard colorimeter (the Photo Research PR-650) has a stated accuracy of +/-125 degrees Kelvin*. This means that precise video monitor calibration is practically impossible.
We were reminded of this lesson once again last week, when shifting the black level on a projector by one step out of 100 doubled the projector’s measured contrast rating. Our measurement was somewhere around 20,000:1; other reviewers (both well-respected) got about 17,000:1 and 30,000:1.
There’s a perception in the consumer electronics industry that we can measure audio and video performance accurately, and make equipment selections based on those measurements. But such is often not the case. That’s why we decided to devote a column to a discussion of which measurements are valid … and which are bogus.
The Picture
As stated above, color temperature measurements are nowhere near as accurate as we’d like to think they are. You could calibrate a TV to track within 50 degrees of the 6,500 degrees Kelvin standard, which is about as perfect as today’s TVs can get. Then the next person could come along with a different meter and measure it at 6,250 or 6,750 degrees—or even further off if it’s a different brand of meter.
The good news is, your clients won’t notice a 250-degree difference in color temperature. If you’re measuring a TV at 5,500 degrees or 8,000 degrees, it needs work. But if you’re somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 degrees, you’re fine. If you want to tweak it to perfection (according to your meter, at least), you probably won’t get a better picture, but you will have a nice chart you can show your client.
Manufacturer specs can be even further off. Many claim a 6,500-degree color temperature mode, and many actually deliver something close. But few video displays receive more than a crude, very fast automatic calibration on the production line, so there’s room for variation. We’ve seen 6,500-degree color temperature modes that measure as much as 2,000 degrees off at some (or even all) signal levels. The only way you can verify these manufacturer ratings is to measure yourself or read a professional review of the product.
Contrast ratings are even more questionable. We recently evaluated a projector with a 10,000:1 published contrast ratio—but the reviewer’s guide admitted that the real-world native contrast was only in the 400:1 range. Probably the manufacturer measured maximum white level with the iris wide open and the white level cranked up, and minimum black level with the iris closed as far as it would go and black level cranked all the way down. Either way, it’s not a watchable picture.
The Minolta LS-100 light meter commonly used to produce this measurement can vary considerably in its readings depending on where it’s pointed (even within a range of only a degree or two), and it also commonly varies by as much as 1 foot-lambert from reading to reading. And as suggested above, the measurement relies heavily on the settings you’ve chosen for the display.
There’s a huge amount of subjectivity in any contrast measurement. The only way you can use contrast ratios for comparison is if you’re looking at a group of measurements produced by the same reviewer.
The Sound
Most measurements of audio electronics (amps, preamps, CD players, etc.) are performed using an accurate and stable piece of gear made by a company called Audio Precision. While one technician’s measurement techniques may vary a little from another’s, the results are almost always close no matter who did the testing. Some might declare an amp’s maximum power output at 1% distortion, some at 10%, some at 0.5%, but those numbers usually don’t vary dramatically. And preamp measurements are almost always consistent from technician to technician.
The measurement problem in audio lies with speakers. All of the various devices commonly used for speaker measurements disagree somewhat. In fact, one frequency response curve will often vary a bit from the next, even if it’s measured with the same gear under ideal conditions.
The most reliable speaker measurements are made in anechoic chambers, but that’s a multimillion-dollar investment. Most speaker manufacturers (and all reviewers we know) measure speakers using quasi-anechoic techniques, in which the effects of the surroundings are removed electronically. Anechoic and quasi-anechoic techniques can produce surprisingly comparable measurements—they’ll vary somewhat, but the gist of the speaker’s performance can be captured by either. A Revel speaker that produced a nice flat frequency response curve in Harman’s anechoic chamber doesn’t produce a jagged response when measured by a reviewer using a quasi-anechoic system.
But that only applies to sounds from about 250 Hz and up. Below 250 Hz, technicians must rely on different measurement techniques to evaluate bass response. (Even most anechoic chambers are effective only down to 60 or 80 Hz.) These techniques often demand the use of scaling formulas that are notoriously unreliable.
Also, while the measured frequency response of some speakers and subwoofers might extend into the bottom octave of bass (20 to 40 Hz), high distortion often makes that deep bass response useless. Unfortunately, few speaker makers publish distortion measurements, and few reviewers perform them. A new standard for bass distortion measurements has been created by a CEA committee, but it hasn’t been widely adopted yet.
The Takeaway
Here’s the way it stacks up. Color temperature measurements are useful as ballpark figures. Contrast measurements are useful only if you’re comparing measurements taken by the same technician using identical techniques (and they’re still far from perfect). Audio electronics measurements are useful and reliable. Speaker measurements are reliable above about 250 Hz, but unreliable below that.
Do you have any opinions on the subject of measurements? How much do they matter to you … and to your customers? Let us know by leaving a comment.
*This statement has been changed from the original, which mistakenly cited an accuracy of +/-250 degrees. See further information under “Comments” below. We regret the error.
Posted at 10:39 pm | Comments (2)
27th February, 2009
What to Do When Word of Mouth Won’t Do
Brent Butterworth
The custom installation industry emerged during an economic boom spanning roughly 25 years. So until recently, it’s never seen hardship. Many of the practices that have worked well since the industry’s beginnings may not work in today’s economic climate.
Most of the integrators we know have always relied almost solely on word of mouth to get work. In the past, their problems lied more in executing the jobs than getting them in the first place. But the tables have turned. Workers are easier to find now, but work isn’t.
As brilliant as today’s integrators may be at installing state-of-the-art technology, most of them aren’t particularly good at getting the word out about their business. That’s no surprise, because marketing requires a completely different skill set from designing systems and pulling wire.
Fortunately, the last few years have seen the birth of companies devoted to helping integration firms market themselves. We spoke to two of them, Revenew Systems and Eclipse Marketing, to find out how they operate and how they might be able to help you. We expected to hear much the same pitch from both companies—but instead, we encountered two very different approaches to solving the same problem.
The MBA Way
Talking to Nasrin Thierer, the CEO of Revenew Systems, is like sitting in on a graduate-level management seminar. She tends to discuss marketing not in the high-flying vernacular an advertising exec might employ, but more in terms of statistics and analysis. “We teach the dealer how to do closed-loop marketing,” she says, “which means they can run their campaigns through a database, track who responds, and respond back.”
Revenew Systems specializes in helping integrators generate new leads (and better develop existing leads), produce marketing campaigns to target those leads, and monitor the results. The process starts with an evaluation of the dealer’s existing clientele. “We analyze the existing customer base, and profile it for them so they know what income, what professions, and what lifestyle these customers lead,” Thierer said. “This gives them knowledge of how to market to their existing customers.” If necessary, Revenew can also provide new leads based on which market segments and territories the dealer wants to address.
Once the target customers are identified, Revenew provides a dealer-specified mix of direct mail, e-mail, and print ad campaigns. All of the campaigns include a “landing page”—a web page where respondents fill out a brief questionnaire that qualifies them for the dealer. (They’re rewarded with a coupon of the dealer’s choosing.) And because Revenew tracks the response on dealer campaigns, it can advise you on which campaigns work best.
Revenew also works directly with manufacturers, including B&W and Integra, to administer co-op marketing campaigns.
A subscription to Revenew Systems’ service costs $1,750 per year. Campaigns and additional data are billed separately; Thierer says those costs are discussed during the signup process.
À La Carte Communications
Eclipse Marketing’s services are designed more for the dealer who just wants to get a marketing campaign going quickly and painlessly. The company’s website provides an extensive selection of pre-designed templates for such items as brochures, web pages, door hangers, ads, and newsletters. Prices for all designs are listed right on the website. It’s like buying a marketing campaign on Amazon.com.
Dealers can select from designs that target homeowners, builders, commercial clients, or architects and builders. According to Eclipse president Leslie Stevens, the company adjusts the templates to meet the dealer’s needs. “Typically we’ll add their logo and rework the color scheme to match the colors in the logo,” she says. “We can also add their own photos if they like.”
As an example, pricing of 1,000 four-page homeowner brochures is $1,389, or $599 if you print your own. Members of CEDIA or PARA get a 10 percent discount. Eclipse can also produce fully custom marketing materials on dealer request.
“What we do is enable the integrator to concentrate on sales and closing, rather than on their marketing materials and their website,” Stevens explained. “We give them the freedom to focus on the stuff they’re good at.”
Eclipse also provides marketing consulting services to dealers—for free. The company’s website includes webinars on marketing (Stevens has delivered many talks on the subject at conferences). Dealers who are unsure of what marketing path to pursue can call the company directly and get advice at no charge.
What’s Working for You?
The Integrator would like to know what’s working (and what’s not working) for your marketing. Are you doing it all yourself? Are you using outside firms? Have you needed to market your company or is word of mouth still getting the job done? Click here to visit our website and fill us in.
Posted at 12:00 pm | Comment (1)
13th February, 2009
Free Money For Installers?
Brent Butterworth
In 2005, most of the integrators we knew had more work than they could really handle; their problem was finding competent installers. But in 2009, with housing sales and construction falling, unemployment rising, and banks unwilling to lend to anyone (much less someone who wants to write a new home theater into his mortgage), many integrators are scrambling for work.
We’ll get to the topic of how to find more work in our next column. This time, we decided to focus on work that’s waiting for you.
Longtime readers of The Integrator may recall that we haven’t devoted columns to single companies—to us, that’s too much like reprinting press releases. But when we recently interviewed Chris Mauzy, president and CEO of Zip Installation, we decided that his company’s business model was interesting and important enough to command an entire issue.
Zip Installation is a nationwide service designed to allow integrators to make money on their excess installation capacity. Got two installers on the clock today but no jobs for them? Zip Installation may be able to put them to work. And Zip doesn’t compete with your own business, it only adds to it.
Here’s how it works: Zip Installation service is available through Target, Office Depot, Amazon, and other outlets. The customer buys a voucher for the service from the retailer. “It’s like a prepaid phone card,” Mauzy said. They then schedule the installation by calling Zip’s 800 number or going to the company’s website. The customer answers a few basic questions—for example, if the job is to wall-mount a flat-panel TV, Zip will ask if the wall is brick, concrete, or drywall, and where the nearest AC outlet is.
Zip creates a work order for the installation, then routes the job based on the customer’s location, the installation skills required, and the customer feedback each installer has received in the past. Typically, the company will notify five to 10 installers by e-mail with a description of the job, its location, and the time it has to be done. The job goes to the first installer to accept it.
Your installer shows up at the appointed time with paperwork provided by Zip. The company will notify you if you need to bring any materials, such as wire channel. The customer will already have the electronics products and all of the required mounts. Once the job is done, your installer notifies Zip that the job is finished. Within five minutes, a call will go out to the customer asking them to rate the installer’s service. If the installer earns a five-star rating, Zip’s escrow fund releases the payment to your company’s checking account immediately. If there are problems on the job, Zip works with the customer and the installer to solve them.
“Either the install goes perfect and the customer is raving, or they’re really bad,” Mauzy said. “We don’t get any in the middle.”
The upsides of Zip’s business model are obvious: You can keep your installers busier without taking away from your core business. “We aren’t competing with the CEDIA guys,” Mauzy said. “We focus on the one- to two-hour jobs. You won’t catch us doing a $10,000 home theater installation.”
The downside is that quick-in/quick-out jobs for a couple hundred dollars may require a different mentality than the multiple-day (or multiple-month) jobs you may be used to. And if you or your installers can’t adjust to this way of working, Zip’s customer feedback program will make it less likely you’ll get jobs in the future.
Incidentally, Zip Installation is no seat-of-the-pants startup. Mauzy comes to the business after years of experience running Best Buy’s Geek Squad and Ultimate Electronics’ installation division, and Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corporation owns 30 percent of the venture.
We’d like to get your feedback on whether or not Zip Installation makes sense for your business—or what other routes you’re pursuing to keep money coming in during these tough economic times. Visit our website to give us your comments.
Posted at 6:00 am | Comments (5)
23rd January, 2009
The Highs And Lows Of Height Channels
Brent Butterworth
This year’s CES held a big surprise for audio enthusiasts: the demonstration by both Dolby and DTS of height channels for surround-sound systems. Despite raves we heard from some showgoers, we at The Integrator found ourselves a little more circumspect.
Just to recap, Dolby’s technology is called Pro Logic IIz. It adds two extra speakers in the upper front corners of a room, and derives the signals for these channels from standard 5.1 or 7.1 soundtracks. Onkyo and at least one other manufacturer have signed on to make Pro Logic IIz receivers. It’s possible to encode materials to take advantage of PLIIz’s height channels, but Dolby expects the process to be used only in games and surround-sound music, not in movies.
The DTS technology is tentatively dubbed Neo:X, and it adds height-channel speakers in the front with (as best we can gather) an extra surround speaker in the back of the room. No word yet on which licensees, if any, have agreed to use Neo:X.
The obvious question posed by height-channel technology is: Does this deliver a sufficiently compelling improvement to make it worth the added complexity and confusion? Or to put it more simply: Does anyone really want this?
One detail needs explaining before we get into the vociferously expressed pros and cons we heard. As Dolby senior manager of partner marketing Craig Eggers explained, there are two flavors of Pro Logic IIz. One is what Dolby demoed: a 9.1-channel preamp/processor or receiver, in a system with two additional speakers for the height channels. But there’s another option, too. Eggers says many of the owners of 7.1-channel receivers use them in a 5.1 configuration, because their room layout doesn’t easily accommodate the extra surround speakers. With Pro Logic IIz, they could use those two extra amps for height channels instead. “It’s a way to increase envelopment, and get more depth, more dimension, more airiness,” he said. So we will likely see the Pro Logic IIz logo appearing on 7.1 product, too.
(We requested an interview with DTS about Neo:X, but were unable to get one in time for this article. There is no press release or other official information available.)
The Technical Stuff
According to Dolby senior technical marketing manager Christophe Chabanne, the technical requirements for a height speaker are the same as for other surround speakers. He said that although the front height channels can carry the full audio bandwidth, there is no need to use full-range speakers in those channels. Dolby’s listening tests showed that the speakers should be mounted at least 3 feet above the front left and right speakers. They can be mounted directly above the front left and right speakers, or spaced further apart. (Chabonne says placing them closer together than the front left and right speakers will make the soundfield collapse.)
Josh Christian, marketing VP for custom installation firm DSI Entertainment Systems in Los Angeles, doesn’t see much problem in using height speakers in his company’s designs. His main concern is appearance. “Either we’d use in-wall speakers or just cover the wall and speakers in acoustically transparent fabric,” he explained. “You could do it with on-wall speakers, but the more speakers you stick on the wall the more it starts to look like Mr. Potato Head.”
At CES, Atlantic Technology showed a speaker designed for use in height channels: a small surround speaker with two midrange drivers and no tweeter. “Since the speakers are elevated, there’s little chance you’d hear flat frequency response from a tweeter, anyway,” Atlantic Tech president Peter Tribeman said. Other companies, such as Triad, already make corner speakers that seem ideally suited to the task.
Does It Make Sense?
While installing height-channel speakers may pose few technical difficulties, the question remains: Does anybody really want this?
Tribeman is bullish on the technology. “In my opinion, the benefits of conventional 7.1 are marginal,” he said. “But applying those extra channels to height speakers in the front has a profound effect.” Referring to a music clip he heard in a Dolby demo, “All of a sudden it went from three front speakers to a total recreation of the stage.”
However, Larry Pexton, president and founder of Triad Speakers, isn’t so optimistic. “The speaker manufacturers are happy to support 5.1, 7.1, 9.1, 10.2, 16.4… but we have to have compelling entertainment options that benefit from this. I see it as probably successful in the high-end gaming space, but not something that’s going to have broad appeal.”
Richard Schram, president of audio electronics manufacturer Parasound, sides with Pexton. “It’s probably more damaging than it is helpful,” he said. “With all the attendant complications and the visual impact, the number of people who would find interest in this is small. The confusion it will generate further erodes the credibility of industry; it’ll be another gratuitous feature that consumers don’t understand.”
Since this is The Integrator, we’ll have to let an integrator have the last word. Here’s how DSI’s Christian summed it up: “For gaming, I think it will be really cool. Then there are the enthusiasts who will probably like the more immersive effect the extra channels will bring. But my feeling is that most customers — probably 80 percent plus — will just think it’s gimmicky and not needed. A lot will feel it’s gotten out of control.”
Posted at 12:01 am | Comments (2)
12th January, 2009
CES: From Your Viewpoint
Brent Butterworth
The Consumer Electronics Show is the most important electronics trade show in the world—except to integrators, for whom the CEDIA Expo is more valuable. Few integrators bother to attend CES, but The Integrator did. And we noted several developments that might be important to you and your business in the coming year. Let’s examine a few….
VIDEO
At the day-long series of gigantic corporate press events that precedes the show, journalists joked about the interchangeability of the speakers and the agendas. In fact, The Integrator can sum up every TV maker’s message thusly: The new TVs are thinner, they’re now running at 240 Hz instead of 120, they can access Internet video, and they consume less electricity. Aren’t you glad you didn’t bother going to Vegas?
The one video technology development that might affect your business soon—although not real soon—is 3-D, a topic we discussed in depth a few months ago. There’s still no standard for 3-D, and to our knowledge there’s no industry timetable for a rollout of 3-D, but so many manufacturers were talking about it that we can’t deny there’s momentum. The most interesting 3-D news came from Dolby Labs, which demonstrated a 3-D system that works with existing Blu-ray players. It does require a 3-D TV, but there are several of those on the market already, including the stock Mitsubishi set Dolby used in the demo.
Another jump in video tech came in a place we didn’t expect: screens. Video guru Joe Kane was on hand to demonstrate the new JKP Affinity screen he co-developed with Da-Lite. The new screen is designed to be, as Kane put it, “invisible,” with none of the granularity seen on other screens. We heard rumors that the Affinity is really no different from recent products developed by some other screen makers, but the picture Kane delivered looked more detailed than any other we saw, and better than the picture he delivered with an early prototype at the last CEDIA Expo. Da-Lite reps said they expect many integrators and home theater aficionados to replace existing screens with the JKP Affinity in the coming year.
AUDIO
Dolby captivated the home theater geeks with a 9-channel surround-sound demo using two extra speakers in the upper front corners of the room. Dolby’s new Pro Logic IIz technology derives the signals for the two “height channels” from conventional 5.1 or 7.1 soundtracks. A Dolby spokesperson told us that soundtracks could be specifically encoded (using matrix technology, not discrete digital channels) to take advantage of the height channels, and that he expects video game companies to pursue this path. The demo featured images from a video game in which a helicopter attacked an on-screen soldier while circling above, and it sounded fantastic. Onkyo has already signed on for Pro Logic IIz, as has at least one other audio company that Dolby wouldn’t name even though anyone in the audio biz would know it has to be Denon. (DTS demoed a similar technology called Neo:X, but fewer details are available.)
Wireless audio also generated some interest among CES-goers. We noted at least two serious efforts, one from Focus Enhancements, and the other a joint effort by THX and Radiient. Both represent efforts to license a wireless technology to other companies, rather than something you can go out and buy, although Radiient does offer a kit with one transmitter and six receivers already. The demos we heard delivered high-fidelity digital audio without a single glitch, despite the fact that the CES show floors hold countless potential sources of interference. (We also heard about a new wireless system from Audiovox but didn’t get a chance to check it out.) Of course, running wires is part of your business, but these wireless technologies may make installing home theaters easier in certain places—say, in a historic home where the owner doesn’t want holes cut in the plaster. Expect total added cost to run anywhere from $600 to $2,000 per system.
And of course, we saw lots of nice new speakers, audio electronics, projectors, and flat-panel TVs. But you knew we would.
Posted at 5:57 pm | Comment (0)
19th December, 2008
2008: Not Great. | 2009. Just Fine?
Brent Butterworth
Right now you’re probably contemplating a cozy pre-holiday weekend, snuggling up in front of the fire with a cup of eggnog and a few “2008: The Year In Review” magazine articles. But before we all revisit the recent deeds of Barack Obama, Bret Favre, and Britney Spears, let’s do just five more minutes of work this year. We’ll do a quick recap of what went wrong for the custom installation industry in 2008—and talk a little about what might go right for it in 2009.
The Real Estate Market
Obviously, the big story for practically any business in the U.S. is the recent economic downtown. But for systems integrators, this is old news. In some metro areas, the integration/installation business started to take a dive two and a half years ago—about the time that real estate values began declining in the most inflated markets. With the decline in the buying and selling of houses came a decline in business for integrators. Most of the integrators we know do most of their business when their customers buy or build homes, and those are rare events these days.
However, this situation may be good news for integrators. The crash of the real estate market was the initial cause of the economic downtown. In this crisis, it appears to be what economists call a leading indicator. Like capital-goods investment and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, real estate went down before the rest of the economy did. And like those other leading indicators, it’s likely to recover before the rest of economy does. That would put systems integrators first in line to benefit when the economy starts to rebound.
Unfortunately, whether or not real estate recovers in 2009 is anybody’s guess.
TVs Still Getting the Love
Unlike cars, real estate, and fancy watches, the public’s fascination with flat-panel TV has not abated in the downturn. While holiday sales of most consumer products have been miserable, TVs have done OK. There are good reasons for this. First, the prices are nothing short of shocking; you can pick up a name-brand 42-inch flat-panel HDTV for $600 or less. Second, the latest super-slim, 1.5-inch-thick designs are hard to resist. And third, the pending demise of analog TV in February has led many people to think they have to buy a new TV, even though no one really has to.
Sure, most people will still get their TVs from mass-merchants like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. But upscale customers are just as excited about the new TVs as anyone else. And economic downturn or not, those customers will always demand a nice, clean installation—a task they’re unlikely to trust to semi-trained technicians whose main goal is to get the job done as quickly as possible.
Retail on the Ropes
Luckily for you, some of your indirect competitors are on their last legs. Tweeter is history. Circuit City keeps on going like the 15-year-old dog that the vet swore would never make it past 13, but the chain’s ultimate destiny seems almost as certain.
For years, we’ve heard that the distribution of electronics would eventually split into two camps—big-box retailers and custom installers—and that the middle ground would disappear. That hasn’t quite happened yet, but the economic downturn will almost certainly hasten that transition.
And that leaves more room for custom installation. When there’s no middle option—when the customer has no choice but zero service (Best Buy, Wal-Mart) or spectacular service (you)—many more are likely to spend the extra money to get a system that works right, looks good, and can be operated by anyone in the family.
Of course, that’s just the way we see it. But given that recent economic events have left practically every economic prognosticator looking like an idiot, our opinion’s at least as good as anyone else’s.
Posted at 6:00 am | Comment (0)
5th December, 2008
Full-Range Speakers: You’re Fired
Brent Butterworth
Most audiophiles consider full-range speakers, with frequency response running from the low bass all the way up to the highest treble, to be the best possible choice for home audio systems. Some go so far as to use full-range speakers in every channel of their surround-sound systems. But recent research—combined with decades-old physics—proves that if the audio systems you install look like Stonehenge, they’re almost as antiquated.
You think we’re crazy? Take a few minutes, follow our logic, then tell us we’re crazy.
Schroeder’s Science
In 1954, German physicist Dr. Manfred Schroeder first documented the fact that rooms have a “crossover frequency,” which we now call the Schroeder frequency. For typical residential listening environments, the Schroeder frequency falls between 100 and 200 Hz.
The midrange and treble tones that lie above a room’s Schroeder frequency reflect off of walls like billiard balls ricocheting off of bumpers. Because the sounds bounce around so much, they’re pretty much the same anywhere in the room.
But the bass tones that fall below a room’s Schroeder frequency don’t bounce, they resonate, just as sound waves do inside an organ pipe or a flute. Sounds whose wavelengths match the dimensions of the room are amplified. Sounds whose wavelengths don’t match the dimensions aren’t amplified. Some of these long sound waves cancel each other out. Some reinforce each other. And the effect varies greatly as you move around the room.
You can easily confirm Schroeder’s discovery. Just play a bass tone from a test CD and walk around the room. You’ll probably hear the level of the sound change radically from place to place. Now play some midrange or treble tones. They may be slightly quieter in some places, slightly louder in others, but you won’t hear a dramatic difference.
Schroeder established that a room responds completely differently to bass than it does to treble and midrange. One might imagine, then, that a single speaker position would be unlikely to work best for all audio frequencies. According to some more recent experiments, one would be right.
The Best Place For Bass
Groundbreaking research done by Harman International (makers of JBL, Infinity, and umpteen other audio brands) has shown that the smoothest, most consistent bass response comes from using multiple subwoofers and placing them along walls or in corners. In a rectangular room, you get the best possible bass with four subwoofers, one in the center of each wall. Placing subwoofers in each of the four corners—a more practical scenario—yields results almost as good. And you get very good performance even by using one sub in each of the room’s two front corners.
Of course, you can’t put the speakers reproducing the midrange and treble in these places. You have to put those speakers where they sound best. In a home theater system, the left and right front speakers have to be somewhere near the right and left edges of the screen, and the center speaker has to sit above, below, or behind the screen.
If you’re using full-range speakers, you have to stick with these positions, not the ones that work best for bass. So while your mids and highs might sound great, your bass won’t sound as good as it would with subwoofers in the corners.
Some home theater enthusiasts claim that by using full-range speakers in every channel, you’ll achieve smoother bass response. There’s a hint of truth there—but only if the bass occurs in all channels, which it rarely does. And still, the bass response won’t be as smooth as it would with subwoofers on the sides of the room or in the corners.
Implications for Integrators
These principles greatly simply audio system design. All you have to do is specify one sub in each front corner—or one in every corner if you have the space and budget. Then use satellite speakers for all the other channels, and put them wherever they’ll sound best. As long as the satellites can play cleanly down to 80 Hz or below, they’ll blend fine with the subwoofers if you use the industry-standard 80 Hz crossover point. You can use equalizers to get the bass even smoother, but that’s optional.
What you’ll end up with is bass that’s smooth and consistent no matter what chair you’re sitting in. It’s practically impossible to match this result using full-range speakers. Your midrange and treble will sound the same as they would if you were using full-range speakers—and perhaps even better, because small satellite speakers give you more positioning options than big full-range models.
That doesn’t mean full-range speakers have no place. Most two-channel preamps and integrated amps lack subwoofer crossovers, so for stereo rigs, full-range speakers can be more convenient. And their form factor may be an advantage in rooms where there’s no aesthetically acceptable place to put a subwoofer. In fact, The Integrator’s editor owns—and loves—a pair of high-end full-range speakers.
But if the best possible sound is your goal, a properly configured subwoofer/satellite system beats out a full-range speaker system every time.
Posted at 6:59 am | Comments (10)
21st November, 2008
LED Projectors: When, Who, And Why?
Brent Butterworth
An off-site demo at September’s CEDIA Expo marked the debut of a technology that will change front projection more than anything since the DLP chip. The consensus among projection experts is that this technology—LED-driven projection—will eventually become a common fixture in home theaters and board rooms. The big question is: When?
First, a quick recap of LED’s advantages. In an LED projector, super-bright LEDs replace the high-pressure mercury lamp used in today’s conventional projectors. LEDs last far longer than bulbs; the PhlatLight LEDs used in some rear-projection TVs are rated to run 8 hours a day for more than 20 years. The lamps used in projectors today last 2,000 to 4,000 hours—and for the last quarter or so of their life, they become annoyingly dim. Replacement cost for these lamps is high, ranging from about $200 to more than $1,000. They also consume more energy than LEDs.
LED also offers the potential for picture quality improvements. LEDs can be dimmed quickly—on a frame-by-frame basis—so they can be adjusted to deliver the deepest blacks and optimum contrast for each shot in a video. Lamps respond too slowly to do this, although a similar if less profound effect can be achieved with an automatic iris. LEDs offer a wider color gamut than conventional lamps, and they come on almost instantly—there’s practically no warm-up time.
Chi Lin Technologies, the manufacturer that conducted the CEDIA Expo demo, gave us an update on the prospects for LED projection in 2009. Product manager Julian Chu said he expects the company to enter mass production in Q2 or Q3 of 2009, and confided that it already has at least one company signed up to distribute the projector in the U.S. (Chi Lin does not sell projectors under its own name in the U.S.—it makes them for other companies.)
Chu said that the company has completed a 2nd generation model which is more advanced than the one shown at the CEDIA Expo. He said the new unit is about 40% smaller and significantly brighter. Chi Lin’s specifications for the projector include a 100,000:1 contrast ratio and a color gamut 28% broader than the NTSC standard. The projector uses a liquid cooling system, which is necessary because the LEDs run at a very high current of 30 amps in order to achieve the necessary brightness. The prototype at the CEDIA Expo had a cooling fan that was vacuum-cleaner loud; no word on whether or not Chi Lin has improved that, but they’ll have to if they want into the home theater market.
Most companies that market projectors in the U.S. are keeping their plans for LED to themselves. However, Brian Carskadon, director of product management for Runco International, was willing to elaborate on LED’s future. He predicted we’ll see introductions of several LED-driven front projectors in 2009. He also predicted—not surprisingly—that the first ones will be expensive and noisy compared with their lamp-driven counterparts. He expects lower-priced, lower-performing models aimed at the casual market to appear toward the end of 2009.
And, most importantly, Carskadon expects LED to someday dominate the projection market. He said that once LED products reach performance parity with typical lamp-driven projectors (possibly as soon as two years from now), lamp-based products will be relegated to applications that require high brightness, such as extra-large home theaters.
For the integrator, LED has one big upside and one big downside. Of course, it will lead to more reliable installations and fewer service calls. But it’ll also give you fewer chances to interface with your clients.
Posted at 12:14 am | Comments (2)
7th November, 2008
How will the iPhone change home automation?
Brent Butterworth
Some insiders in the home automation business predict that a revolutionary change is set to sweep the industry. And others say it probably won’t be such a big deal.
The technology in question is the iPhone, which home automation manufacturers are starting to integrate into their systems. The idea makes obvious sense. After all, from a technical standpoint, the iPhone (and its cellphone-less cousin, the iPod Touch) isn’t terribly different from a wireless touchscreen.
But in other ways, the iPhone differs radically from a typical home automation touchscreen. It’s small: The screen measures only 3.5 inches diagonally, compared with 4 to 17 inches for a typical touchscreen. And it’s cheap: just $199 with a service contract (or $229 for the iPod Touch), compared to as much as $10,000 for a big touchscreen.
We wondered, though: How thrilled would systems integrators be to sell a $229 device when they used to sell one priced 10 to 40 times as much? And how much would their clients enjoy trying to control an entire home from a 3.5-inch, 480×320-pixel screen?
THE PROS
The big advantage of the iPhone in home automation is portability. You can slip it into your pocket and carry it around effortlessly. As Jim Carroll, president and cofounder of Savant Systems, described: “I can be in my media room and control that experience. I can use the same device to manage the media from my pool area. I can watch videos, listen to iTunes. There’s not a [touchscreen] remote I’m aware of that you can carry around which gives you access to and control of all those things.”
To Jeff Singer, marketing communications manager at Crestron, the biggest advantage is that the iPhone also works outside the home. “In the home, it communicates with your system via WiFi, but out in the world, it can communicate using the phone network. Anywhere in the world, our customers can see the lighting levels in their homes, the positions of the shades, the temperatures of all the rooms in the house, the status of the home alarm systems—and from anywhere in the world, they can change all that.”
Besides its unrivaled mobility, the iPhone has another advantage: public awareness. Many people don’t even know home automation even exists, but everyone’s heard of the iPhone—and 13 million have been sold to date. “The sex appeal of this is huge,” Carroll reported. “We’re signing up dealers because customers are asking for this kind of solution.”
THE CONS
The limited real estate of that little screen does demand some redesign of the control GUIs, but Singer and Carroll both say their companies don’t consider this a significant problem. “You may have to have a second page where before you could have just one,” Carroll explained. “But the resolution is high and with the number of colors it supports, you can do a lot with it.” Savant’s iPhone-based systems also use the TVs in a home to display control screens, in order to show more buttons on a single page.
However, Carroll and Singer strongly disagree in their predictions about how the iPhone will affect future system designs.
“I think the iPhone is definitely going to cut into sales of those things [touchscreens],” Carroll said. “Customers are cutting down on the number of remotes they’re using. People might have eight [touchscreen] remotes for everything in their homes, but if there’s only three people living there they might only need three iPhones or Touches.”
Singer doesn’t buy it. “That hasn’t been our experience,” he said. “Have our touchpanel sales been impacted because we offer control from PCs and laptops? Absolutely not. The iPhone is just another option. And when you have more options, you have more opportunities to meet or exceed the client’s expectations.”
Likewise, Singer sees no effect on margins for Crestron dealers. “The iPhone control app is absolutely free to dealers and programmers,” he noted. “How does that affect margin? However they want it to. If you want to throw it in to sweeten a deal, you can do that and it won’t cost you anything. If you see it as an opportunity to increase your margin, the markup can be whatever the client’s willing to pay.”
Asked if the iPhone will affect margins, Carroll replied, “I think in one sense yes and another no. In our implementation, it requires a server at the other end, which the customer will need to buy. And keep in mind that the iPhone is doing everything a touchpanel would do, so they make a margin on the integration as well.”
So the effect of the iPhone on home automation integrator margins remains an open question. But with Sooloos, Speakercraft, Proficient Audio, and others now offering iPhone control options, there seems to be no doubt that the iPhone will become an important interface—and perhaps even the primary interface—in homes of the future. As Carroll put it, “I think it’s a fundamental game changer.”
Posted at 12:28 am | Comments (4)
24th October, 2008
Video Calibration: Is It Worth It?
Mike Wood
This issue, The Integrator introduces its second columnist: A/V expert Mike Wood. Mike has worked on the staffs of Home Theater and Digital TV magazines, and as an assistant to video guru Joe Kane. He is now TV Test Manager for Samsung Electronics. We’re immensely proud to add such a widely acknowledged authority to the newsletter’s roster. –Brent Butterworth
Calibrating television displays has become big business, but should you jump in? Companies like the Imaging Science Foundation and THX, Inc charge sizable sums for you to attend their instructional classes, while measurement equipment companies like Sencore, Data Color and Konica Minolta wait in the wings to sell you expensive color meters and test generators. Some consumers are willing to spend several hundred bucks to have their TVs professionally adjusted. Even big-box retailers like Best Buy sell the service to their customers. But while TVs of even a few years ago may have been horribly miscalibrated to achieve sales floor appeal, modern televisions—with their multiple picture memories and color adjustments—make a much more calibrated image available with just a press of a button. It’s enough to make you wonder if the calibration process is still necessary.
I do believe that a calibrated picture looks better than the average show floor image. For the sake of this argument, I will define “calibration” as the adjustment of a set’s so-called color temperature using a color meter. One could go further and include the adjustment of the actual primary and secondary colors themselves, a feature increasingly available on better displays. The adjustment of basic signal levels, like brightness and contrast, can also be considered a level of calibration, (and perhaps even more beneficial), but the tools and instructions needed to use them are available on a $40 Blu-ray disc or DVD.
Metered calibration is where things get interesting. For the sake of this article, I’m only talking about TVs, not two-piece projection displays, as the latter can’t be factory-calibrated for a given screen material. As the TV test manager for Samsung Electronics, I compare our TV sets with competitors, and I also verify the measurement results of our TVs that go to and come back from equipment reviewers. I’ve noticed a few things. For one, TVs from major manufacturers usually have a setting that comes reasonably close to 6500 Kelvin (the industry standard measure of a set’s color temperature). Secondly, what differences do exist rarely amount to much in a comparative analysis. Third, measurements from different people don’t match. What I might read as 6500 Kelvin, one reviewer might measure as 6300K, and another might say is 6700K. Both reviewers argue that the set needs calibration, and after adjusting levels up or down, declare the set as “improved” and much more accurate.
One can argue that the reviewers are compensating for differences in their source equipment. But if two different Blu-ray players output color temperature settings that are several hundred degrees apart, something is horribly wrong. It’s far more likely that different equipment will need slight adjustments to settings like brightness and contrast.
Different TV settings and tolerances between measurement equipment likely account for the majority of the disparity in results. Samsung uses a Photo Research PR650, a $20,000 color meter that, even though it’s considered the standard for accuracy, can measure up to 250 Kelvin (degrees) different from another PR-650—on the same display, with the same source equipment—and still be considered within spec. Lesser equipment can have even greater tolerances. But if two or three calibration experts using different equipment can’t agree on how the same set should measure, then how can we argue that one setting is more accurate than another? And we haven’t even touched on competence. I’m confident of the reviewers’ skill sets, but what of most calibration class graduates? Given that you can get a fairly accurate image from many manufacturers with just a change of the picture memory setting, it’s enough to question the process as a whole.
I don’t discount the process entirely. While metered calibration may not be as exact a science as many make it out to be, it can bring widely out-of-range displays, like second- or third-tier brands, back into the realm of the reasonable. And there is a small group of enthusiasts who appreciate knowing that their TV is “accurate.” Plus, how can you keep the manufacturers on their toes if you can’t measure their equipment to know what it’s doing?
More importantly, though, in addition to the profit stream produced by tweaking picture controls, many retailers and installers are finding that their “calibrated” clientele tend to be happier than normal customers, and may even have fewer product returns. One reasons for this is because otherwise simple problems are easily overcome when the installer is there to witness them firsthand. He or she can also verify that all of the system’s settings, not just the TVs, are properly adjusted. And even just knowing that the product is professionally calibrated can relieve an immense amount of anxiety for many people.
While these are good reasons for integrators to spend the $1,000+ entrance fee for a training program, or the $2,500 cost of a measurement tool, I do believe installers have a moral obligation to at least show their customers what the image looks like when you switch their display out of the factory default memory and into one of the more accurate modes. Some customers will want to go further and get professional calibration. But the greatest benefit may come more from the in-home personal service and attention than any change to the set’s gray scale.
Posted at 1:00 am | Comments (8)
