Why no product reviews? On Shootouts and Demos, with an apology to Extron

About what do AV designers talk? Design certainly, in all of its forms. Past projects and wish lists. Perhaps most of all, we talk about technology. For all of our talk on these things, there are relatively few actual product reviews or comparisons. I'll talk about products here, but stop short of a formal endorsement or non-endorsement. Why is this, and what are the perils of doing so? I can illustrate with two examples and an apology.

First, Infocomm 2013. AV_Phenom Mark Coxon saw the dizzying array of HDMI over structured cable extension systems and decided that an old-fashioned "Shoot out" was in order - he'd take a selection and compare for the benefit of the rest of it in the industry. Right away he ran into problems.

1. Acquiring Appropriate Gear
Manufacturers pretty much universally outwardly agreed that this was a great idea. When it came time to actually get sample products, roadblocks appeared. Their trade-show demos were strapped down to permanent displays. They were missing power supplies. They didn't know if they had the latest firmware updates. Some of these might have been legitimate issues. Some might have been a lack of comfort with the risk of taking part in a showdown under conditions they couldn't control. For whatever reason, it's something manufacturers aren't quite comfortable with. 

 

2. Creating a Fair Test
If you read the original post from last year,  you'll see that at the first try none of the extenders worked. At all. Blank screens all around. Removing the extension system and running sources directly to the display, of course, resulted in a perfectly clear picture. Every element of the test had been proven good except the extension system. Which means that the extenders were bad. Right?

Not right. Replacing an active HDMI cable with a .99cent special made everything work. So the problem is the active HDMI cable. Right?

Not right. Months later I saw the same problem - an active cable not working on the back end of an extender. Replacing it with a seemingly identical cable made the problem go away. What the issue appears to have been is a defective cable. Not quite so defective as to give no picture, but marginal enough to fail with some equipment.

Notes on Digital Video

Side note on digital video: as I'm sure you're aware, a digital signal is just a string of ones and zeros. One way to measure the integrity of such  signal would be with an oscilloscope. Ideally, ones should be very high, zeroes very low, with a clear sharp transition between. This is called an "eye pattern". As the signal attenuates and picks up noise the "eye" will flatten and become less sharply defined. Different receivers have different "eye masks" - their tolerance for imperfect signals. The problem with this kind of test is that, absent some rather costly and complex test equipment, it is impossible to determine where the signal is degrading, how, and to what extent. We're left with the binary "it works/it doesn't work". Which leads to the final issue:

3. They all work
Coxon's result was something I could have told him before he started: all of the extenders were able to pass video.  After all, for a manufacturer to sell a product which simple doesn't do what it is advertised as doing would be rather shocking and result in a short life for that manufacturer. Yes, there are secondary tests he could have performed but didn't. Unplug and reconnect the video source to measure sync time. Unplug and reconnect the power to compare startup time. The larger point is that these kinds of devices have become somewhat commoditized; not only do many have the same function, but they also have similar form-factor and, under the hood, use the same chipsets. It's ultimately a comparison of apples to very slightly different apples.

Are there manufacturers with product lines and ecosystems better suited for one application or another? Yes. Are there some which offer better reliability and better customer service? Also yes. I'm not quite ready to say that digital switching and transport is a pure commodity in which any device is equivalent to any other. What I AM saying is that they're close enough that, absent a great deal of time and equipment, it's quite challenging to make meaningful performance comparisons. 

Which brings me back to the beginning, in which I owe somebody an apology.

Some demo gear. I love demo gear!

A few months ago in my visit to Extron post I commented that their XTP switcher changed sources slowly, especially when switching between unprotected and HDCP protected content. This is true; it was unacceptably slow and much more so than other, similar products. So, when one of my colleagues (SMW senior consultant Joe Gaffney) received some Extron demo gear and saw that it switched very slowly I found myself unsurprised.  Fortunately, this was a test in the comfort of our office and Mr. Gaffney is quite diligent about getting things right. After watching the indicator lights on the front of the unit and making several calls to Extron, he determined that there's a setting to drop the HDCP handshake when non-HDCP sources are selected. If this setting is turned off, it has to initiate a new three-way handshake every time a protected source is selected. Hence the long wait time. Turning it off made the unit behave much more reasonably.

Is this what happened with the XTP demo at Extron's demo facility? Without an actual XTP matrix I can't say for certain, but I must admit that it's a possibility. While a manufacturer always should be sure their demo is configured to show the product in its best light, we need to remember not to take first impressions at face value. 

The moral of the story? Sometimes we all get things wrong. Evaluating products is hard. It's OK to make judgments, but make them carefully and be open to the possibility of revisiting them.

Those morals are a bit more universal than the world of AV, aren't they? Perhaps therein lies another lesson.

HDBaseT Interoperability Follies

Welcome back to any AV followers who faded away last month while I was posting all fiction all the time. The stories and poems won't entirely go away but we'll start moving into a little better balance between pixels and ink for the nonce. Today I'd like to share a moment to discuss everyone's  favorite transport mechanism, HDBaseT.

For those not in the know, the HDBaseT alliance have defined HDBaseT as a technology for transport of video, audio, power, ethernet, and control over standard category cable. As a point-to-point (as opposed to routable) signals, HDBaseT cannot be routed with standard network switches. With offerings branded by major techm manufacturers (ie, Crestron's "Digital Media" and AMX "Enova" it has become a defacto standard for commercial systems.

Or has it?

The idea of a "standard" is that it should be manufacturer-agnostic. The HDMI output on a Sony Blu-ray player, for example, will work on the input of a Sharp LCD panel as well as it would on a Sony. Is that the case with HDBaseT? Is it, in other words, really a "standard"? The HDBaseT website does boast, in a large banner, that it is "The standard of the future", but the remainder of their text is much more cautious, referring to HDBaseT "technology" or "specifications". Can one grab an HDBaseT transmitter from one manufacturer and receiver from another and expect them  to work together? In an ideal world, the answer would be yes. Those of us who have wrestled with HDCP, EDID, or other HDMI-inspired headaches knows one thing for sure: this is not an ideal world.

For the sake of my own curiosity I tried a little experiment. I had access to transmitters from three major manufacturers: Crestron Digital Media, AMX DXLink, and Extron XTP. The latter is not, to the best of my knowledge, HDBaseT certified, so I'd not expect interoperability from it. The others are, so I would. Is that what happened? Not quite.

The AMX receiver gave me a "green screen of doom" when I tried to connect the Crestron or Extron transmitter to it. This is apparently an HDCP handshake error (as opposed to HDCP noncompliance, which would give a red screen of doom. Doom is the consistent part). This possibly has to do with how AMX handles HDCP authentication, which treats the receiver as a source rather than a repeater. This is nifty in that it bypasses the key limit in some sources (in other words you can run a single Blu-ray player to as many displays as you have outputs for, regardless of its key limit), but might make the receiver more picky in what it looks for from the source side.

This was a fairly disappointing result in that it left the non-HDBaseT certified Extron XTP as my only other receiver. IT might not be "certified", but it does use the same technology as HDBaseT transport solutions. Somewhat to my surprise the Crestron and AMX transmitters both sent HDCP protected content to the Extron XTP receiver. So much for certification.

What does this mean in practical terms? Not all that much. What it highlights is just how similar these devices are. Even in terms of form-factor you get a great deal of similarity between product lines; everyone has a standalone receiver about an inch or so deep to fit behind a flatpanel (or in a wall box), a similarly shaped standalone transmitter, a two-gang wall-mount transmitter,  and modular matrix frames sized from 8x8 up to 32x32 or larger. There's no real practical reason to step out of a single manufacturer's ecosystem other than to prove that you can. Now that we've done so, even that is gone.

A selection of transmitters and receivers

So how does one choose? We're the same place we were back when we did "Switcher-Wars" last year. Do you need Crestron's full audio and USB breakaway? AMX's smaller form-factor and better energy efficiency? Does an end-user with limited programming expertise want to be able to make equipment substitutions and other programming changes through Extron's Global Configurator or AMX's Rapid Project Maker? Is there an existing implementation of a remote-control and asset management system (Crestron Fusion, AMX RMS, Extron Global Viewer) into which you'd like your new system to tie? We've reached a point at which not only are the differences more subtle, but many of them won't even appear on a spec sheet.

The real take away here - for those who didn't realize it already - is confirmation  that the technology is very much the same. In fact, it's the same to the point that if one files off the serial numbers one would have a hard time even telling one apart from another. What this really means is that the best manufacturers aren't just selling the technology; they're selling a solution, including an ecosystem to fit around it and the thought they put in to some of the details that one might miss on a spec sheet.

An afternoon visit with Extron

I've not talked about Extron here recently since my visit to Anaheim for their training school nearly two years ago. Since then, two Infocomms have come and gone without Extron's once expected presence, but they've still been at least somewhat on our collective radar as one of the major players in the industry. In lieu of making trade show appearances, they've focused their outreach efforts on creating a network of local demonstration and training facilities. Today was my first visit to the facility here in New York. It's not as much fun as flying out to Anaheim, and they don't have anything as impressive here as the labor of love that is the Saloon (a great live-performance space showcasing some of their products, as well as local Country Western musicians), but it's a heck of a lot more convenient. So what did I find there? Read on!

This is what you get when you take an application diagram
and bring it to life.

The demo room was clean and modern, with quite a few of Extron's product lineup on display. They had, amongst other things, a live demo of the XTP digital matrix system. XTP, of course, is Extron's digital video matrix. It's their answer to Crestron Digital Media, AMX Enova, Purelink PM, and about a dozen other similar products. The demo was very nicely presented on a wall printed with the  system diagram, including cutouts for some of the live and running system elements.

Extron announced that, as of tomorrow, pricing will be available through their online "configurator" utility for XTP systems. This, of course ,is a big step towards being able to evaluate XTP against other solutions.

How does it fare?



It's largely quite familiar to anyone who's used a digital media switch in the past few years. Input blades fit into a 16x16 or 32x32 card frame, accepting HDMI, 'XTP', and DVI inputs. Outputs are XTP or HDMI only.
At 5RU for a 16x16 and 10 for a 32x32 it falls between the AMX Enova DGX (4 and 6RU, respectively) and Crestron DM (7 RU for a 16x16, 14RU for a 32x32). Unlike the AMX product, there's no onboard control processor. Unlike Crestron, there's no USB transport. There is, as of yet, no 8x8 or 64x64 option.

 Like the AMX Enova DGX, it will power a number of cards through the frame with no additional hardware. Like Crestron Digital Media, it offers full audio breakaway. Unlike the above solutions, it is not interoperable with other HDBaseT solutions. This is starting to become a concern as display manufacturers are adding native HDBaseT inputs. Extron claims a high level of support (to the point at which they will commission each XTP system without charge to the integrator). They also claim a very high level of testing, and that no parts of the system will be delivered that aren't thoroughly checked out and guaranteed to work with the widest possible variation of endpoints. The demo system we saw worked well enough, but switching speeds were inconsistent, sometimes taking two seconds or longer. Other solutions, at present, appear to be faster. On the roadmap are fiber input and output cards, possibly SDI input cards, and decora-style transmitters.  There also might be larger switchers.

What it appears that there will not be is an "all-in-one" system similar to the Crestron DMPS or AMX Enova DVX. Instead, Extron's lower-cost all-in-one IN- series devices will continue to use the lower cost DTP extension system, leaving the HDBaseT compliant XTP for the larger matrices. This likely means that the IN systems will never be interoperable with native HDBaseT inputs on displays or with third-party extenders. It's their tradeoff for lower cost.

The other interesting topic of discussion, and something legitimately new to me, is the announcement that their VN-matrix 250 streaming appliance (using the proprietary Pure3 Codec) is HDCP compatible. When I asked what that means, I was told that it encrypts a stream which can be decoded by VN decoders only. It will NOT be decoded by the  VNR recorder, and the receive side will give a green screen if connected to a non-HDCP compliant display. THis is the first HDCP-enabled streaming solution I've seen, and it's definitely nice to have as an option.

The tour wouldn't be complete without a moment in their classroom proper. It sports a 4x2 LCD video wall driven, of course, by Extron's Quantum Elite video wall processor. They did a nice job of showing off the processor's capabilities, including upscaling images to the entire wall, downscaling to display literally over a hundred windows, and the addition of text overlays and time stamps.

There was time for a brief discussion of all things Extron, including their audio products. One thing which may be in the roadmap is Dante support for their XPA series of amps. XPA is one of the Extron lines with which I'm quite pleased; they're small (1RU or less), energy-efficient, dissipate heat out the sides so they can be stacked, and have no fans (and, therefore, no fan noise). The DMP audio processors are simple, fixed-architecture audio processors better suited for simple systems than the larger, more complex and more demanding systems for which one would want an open-architecture system.

All things considered, it was nice having a visit with Extron and nice getting the chance to again see in person their commitment to professionalism and customer service. Will this be enough for them to catch up in the digital video switching arena? They clearly aren't there yet, but I remain open to being convinced as they roll out more products and refine the ones already there. Time will tell.

About that Crestron/Extron/AMX "Shootout" video

For those not following the commercial AV field, this happened last week. Crestron released two videos on their site, comparing their Digital Media switching system to "similar" (more on this point later) offerings from rivals AMX and Extron. This first came to my attention not through Ravepub's write-up on it or even from Crestron, but in an email blast from Extron accusing their competitors of chicanery in rigging the test. Are their accusations true? I'm not sure, but don't know if it really matters.  From where the industry stands now, Extron is clearly a bit behind AMX and Crestron in availability of products. Crestron and AMX are very close to each-other, with each leading in some areas. Would I be interested in a third-party neutral "shootout" between the three (and perhaps others)? Perhaps, although switching speed and performance are not the only metrics, and there are other intriguing options on the way for some spaces.

Form Factors, Specifications, and More
Before we discuss tje performance issues, we need to look at what each side is actually offering. After all, a high level of performance is a bit of a moot point if a device lacks the capability for which you're looking. The Crestron shootout compared Extron's DXP with a Crestron DMPS and AMX Enova. It's a fair comparison on the Crestron/AMX side; each is an "all-in-one" unit comprised of a digital video switcher, audio mixer, and control system, each has HDBaseT (Crestron's DM 8G+ and AMX's DXLink) inputs and outputs, local HDMI inputs and outputs, and a variety of analog video inputs.

The Extron device, on the other hand, is a simple HDMI matrix. It lacks the audio breakaway, integrated control processor, and integrated amplifier of the other products. Reviewing the devices for actual design into a system, I'd completely ignore Extron on this one. They have their places, but this sadly isn't one of them.

So far as Crestron and AMX are concerned, in form-factor and capabilities it's very close. AMX has an edge in that they have an onboard scaler for each local output as well as scalers integrated into all of their DXLink receivers. Crestron has a scaling receiver option, but you'd need to add an external scaler if you want to scale your local output. Crestron does have an option with built-in acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) for conferencing applications. I've not had the opportunity to test this, but it's an intriguing option for small conference rooms and might sometimes save the need for a full DSP.

AMX also claims one more advantage; energy use. The DGX and DVX are presented as being more energy  efficient than competitors. They have their own comparison tool, the DVX Energy Calculator which compares a DVX to a conventional system and a "non-AMX Presentation Switcher". It's pretty much an open secret that the non-AMX PS is a Crestron DMPS. AMX claims about a 4:1 power savings in active mode and over 10:1 in standby mode - a big issue considering that these units will usually be always on. (Why are they always on? Because the control processor is built in. If you power it down, there's no way for the system to power itself back up!) With today's increased emphasis on sustainable technology this should be an issue, the lack of an Energy Star of similar certification or the ability to earn LEED points makes it a harder case to make, even though it is a real advantage.

A test set-up at Crestron's training facility

Performance aside, which of these would I suggest? It depends. In a control-system-agnostic environment, Crestron has an edge on cost, AMX on onboard scaling, Crestron with AEC (if needed), AMX in energy savings. The latter pushes the needle towards AMX for me, but not so dramatically that I'd not consider Crestron a very viable alternative.

About those Videos
I'm not getting into Extron's accusations of outright cheating; I'm not a forensic video analyst, I am disinterested in engaging in a frame-by-frame analysis, and as I said, it's an apples to oranges comparison.

The innards of an AMX Enova DVX

What did interest me is is that the set-ups for the Extron and AMX comparisons are different; for one, they added extra hardware (an HD Scaler) in the latter, while giving the option of not scaling as a benefit. This strikes me as dishonest in the least. The second is that they used two outputs of their test generator to feed both units. I have no idea how EDID and HDCP keys are handled by this sort of unit; it's quite possible that it needs to negotiate both keys and get a "best common" in order to sync. Interestingly, the only times Crestron appeared faster was when showing the test bars - a source shared between the two systems. I'd be very interested in seeing the same demonstration with truly separate sources.

Conclusions?
I don't have one as of yet. We have, at the very least, two great products from two great companies. Performance between Crestron DM and AMX Enova is close enough that "one switches faster" is most likely not going to be the deciding factor, but simply one factor amongst many. The videos should be taken as what they are: marketing. Would there be value in an independent "shootout"? Perhaps, but as stated before, that ignores real difference in form, capabilities, power consumption, and other factors. Going farther, in a larger install these systems would be part of a larger infrastructure, including control programming, remote asset management, and other factors.

Is it ironic that the discussion of Extron's video lead to a discussion of everyone but Extron?

The End of the Year as We Know it - personal wrap-up of my AV adventures

Happy December everyone. I'll close the year with my last "pixel" post; a wrap-up of my adventures in the wonderful world of professional AV, as well as some thoughts on what's happening in the industry.
This isn't a comprehensive list, but a few stories and trends that, for whatever reason caught my attention.

Extron left Infocomm, Finally released XTP

I was at Extron for one of their week-long training classes the week that this news broke, and it took everyone by some level of surprise. Not too many years ago, if I were designing a high-end conference room I'd start with an Extron switcher without a second thought. They didn't seem to follow the shift to digital as quickly as many of their competitors, and today I'd still choose Crestron Digital Media or AMX Enova before Extron's newer XTP. They have some nice ideas and features, but I'm not sure if they're quite there yet. Still, Extron had an interesting year, debuting several intriguing new products including the first energy-star certified amplifiers, audio DSPs, and signal extenders with varying price-points and specifications.

They also opened an impressive showcase in their Saloon and Ranch, using their own control products along with some nice Meyer Sound line arrays. It's loud and sounds amazing. Here's hoping that 2013 is a good year for them, whether or not they come back to the big trade shows.







Avaya buys Radvision. Polycom moves to software
Since Cisco purchased Norwegian teleconferencing giant Tandberg they've been the force to recon with in the telecommunications/telepresence/unified communications arena. Logitech purchased Lifesize, leaving not too many independent operators in the telepresence field. Avaya threw their hat into the teleconferencing ring by purchasing Radvision. Radvision has both teleconferencing appliances (including integrated 4 and 8port MCUs on even the smaller ones) and a suite of software-based desktop applications.

Polycom, meanwhile, seems to be taking steps to move away from appliance-based solutions and towards software. The name of their RealPresence CloudAxis might sound like it came from a buzzword bingo card, but the idea of a secure, enterprise quality video system which can link Skype, standards-based VTC appliances, GoogleChat, Microsoft Lync, and even Facebook is a very good one. I'll be interested to see where this goes.

Green AV is something we talk about. But that's about it.
There are steps towards more sustainability in the AV field, from RoHS-compliant hardware to the first Energy Star certified AV product (the aforementioned Extron's XPA line of amplifiers), but it's still nowhere near the top of anybody's list. This is a conversation I'll be looking to continue next year, with Gina Sansivero of Project Green AV and others. Until there are LEED or other certifications available for green AV it will likely not be anyone's top priority, but it's still worth thinking about.

I left AV Project Management for Project Engineering

My workspace at Biamp Training

My favorite parts of the job have always been the technical ones; figuring out the best way to accomplish something, how to help end-users answer questions they didn't even know to ask. I even liked getting my hands dirty and fixing something - or at least figuring out where it was broken. Juggling schedules, managing construction sites, and horse-trading for resources has never been my favorite part. So, the good people on our team at AVI-SPL agreed to help me transition to the Project Engineer position. I spend much of early 2012 learning, travelling a bit, and settling into a new role. After years of implementing other people's designs and concepts, I had a chance to put my name on the title block of our drawings.

I left AV Project Engineering for Consulting
It's been a whirlwind. Late summer I left AVI-SPL and took a step even farther from the hands-on part of the industry towards the pure design realm of consulting with the firm of SM&W. I've already had the chance to work on some eye-poppingly cool projects, met some more very talented colleagues, and am genuinely enjoying this next phase of my professional life. In addition to the other skills acquired over the past year, I've learned the basics of Revit, much more abotu AutoCAD, and even took part in my first screening-room design. This is a role where my borderline-obsessiveness (the first thing I notice anywhere I go is AV) really fits in and will pay off.

Those are my personal thoughts at the close of 2012. In 2013 I look forward to learning more, seeing more, doing more. I've also made a New Years resolution to update this blog at least weekly, so watch this space.

E is for Extron

Here we are, continuing along the alphabet. Thus far I've alternated AV technology with writing and literature, and today we'll continue that theme with a shout-out to one of the major commercial tech manufacturers. Last month I had the pleasure of leaving sunny and warm New York to visit their headquarters in chilly Anaheim, CA for Extron's two-day School of AV Technologies for System Designers. Extron has been around for three decades now and has cultivated a reputation for high-quality, reliable audiovideo switching, transport, and signal processing equipment. Yes, it was two-days round-trip travel for two days on-site, but it's an official requirement for my new  job title so I packed my bags, waved good-bye to the family, and headed westward.
A good training session for me is one in which I walk away with at least one thing I didn't know at the start, and Extron didn't disappoint. Because I started in the industry when HDMI was something a  consumer might want on his TV, I'd never learned about performance specifications for digital video, including how to read an eye pattern on an oscilloscope - or even what an eye-pattern is, for that matter. They gave us the whole powerpoint presentation on a USB Key (I seem to be starting a collection of  USB keys given away to me by manufacturers), but it's more fun and better reinforcement to sketch the slides on my tablet with a fingertip.


Day two lessons covered streaming video (although not in quite as much depth as I would have liked) and what, to me, was fairly familiar ground in analog video, single- and multi-mode fiber. Here you can see some of my notes on streaming. As is the case with many things, there's a triple-constraint of quality, time (latency in thiase) and cost (bit-rate, or the "cost" in bandwidth)









The best thing about vendor training is getting so see their facility and play with their new toys. They've recently finished construction on a new building, and proudly showed us the crown-jewel: a bar/live performance space simply but unimaginatively called The Saloon. We couldn't get up and personal with the stage (it was set up for a band later that evening), but got a very good sense about how much thoughtful design and high-quality equipment went into creating the experience, from the pair of Meyer line arrays flanking the stage to subwoofers in multiple locations (so they can use the dance floor for seating without vibrating everyone's fillings out of their teeth) to mundane details like coatrooms and storage between the saloon and adjacent restaurant to keep unwanted sound from spilling over. The system is controlled, of course, with Extron's own touchlink system.

Which brings us to the next part; getting to play with new toys. Demos included:


Streaming Video
Both the a H.264 / MPEG4 encoding SME100 and the Pure3 were on display. The latter, using a proprietary system, was acquired when Extron purchased Electrosonic. It was interesting to see how artifacts appear on both devices if one pushes for too low  bit rate to accomodate a low-bandwidth connection. The Pure3 was impressive in its almost total absence of latency (at an admittedly fairly high bit-rate) and compression could be adjusted to either minimize latency or maximize quality, depending on the application.


Audio
Nothing earthshakingly cutting edge here, but Extron was clearly working to have us see them more as an audio company in addition to transport, switching, and control. They had a nice demo of their various speaker offerings an highlighted the very wide coverage angle of the "flat-field" speaker line (those are the ones that look like ceiling tiles). Two interesting tidbits: First, their amps are now all energy-star rated meaning, among other things, that they'll drop into a standbye mode and consome less than one watt. Second, the class-D XPA amps are convection cooled, meaning that they have no vents or fans. Extron has a conduit adapter kit available for their power which would make them completely plenum-rated, so you can put your amp above the ceiling without violating any fire codes. They also showed off their DSPs, which are physically pretty small, have a reasonable number of processig blocks (these blocks are fixed, like a Polycom or ClearOne DSP, not open like Biamp or BSS),


Switching
This is where I was a touch disappointed; I really wanted to see the new XTA system as Crestron's alternative to digital media and AMX's Enova. The new trend, started by Crestron, is to have all audio, video, and control signals on a single shielded twisted pair cable (CAT5e or better). The bigger units are also modular, allowing users to choose which input and output cards work with a system. The nice thing about XTP is that the output cards are the same size and configuration as the input cards, which might appear a bit neater than DM. Unfortunately, the STP input cards aren't available yet, so their mock-up had standalong XTP transmitters and receivers back-to-back with HDMI input cards. It works, but requires more hardware and more connections than one really wants and doesn't allow transmission of control via the switch. We did get to see the software, which looked easy enough to use. The one quirk was that the XTP frame, which takes about 8 rack units, had a USB mini for the configuration port. I always have micros for my phone and full-size a-b USB cables for everythign else; the mini has become the oddball size that I can usually never find. Oh well.

Before we left Extron owner Andrew Edwards dropped in to thank us for making the trip, ask if we had any questions, and defend Extron's decision to pull out of the Infocom trade show. His take was that the Extron Bash was costing upwards of five million dollars, which is money better spent in other ways - including their planned new demonstration facilities in Dallas, Toronto, and my own home town of New York.
So, that's the story of my two days with Extron. Another training requirement crossed off the list (next month - Crestron Essentials and then DMC-E) and another letter off the alphabet.


I'll leave you with one more shot of the salloon, including their crazy telecaster-shaped mirror-ball.


See you all tomorrow, for 'F'.