Nightmare Fuel, Day the Sixth

My ongoing writing of horrible things. This one was and Day 7 both felt a bit literal and didactic to me. They're pieces which would really benefit from the work I lack the time to give them. 

Meeting with an Angel

by L Czhorat Suskin

From Flickr.com/photos/o_0 under a Creative Commons
Attribution license

A voice whispered into the Angel's ear, "new packet arrived. Terrorist bombing, Istanbul. Playback?"
The Angel subvocalized his answer "Playback affirmative."

Brightly lit cafe, latemorning, last businessmen of the morning rush trickle by the waitress catches his eye she's so familiar, comfortable, he knows this is is favorite seat, his favorite time.

Hot coffee in front of him, thick and dark in the Turkish style. From nearby minarets the call to prayer. The Angel expected it a minute before it came. The sounds, the smells, all felt familiar, comforting.

As the voice of the Muezzin fades, a whipcrackbang tears through the air, rending away the coming silence. Screams from all directions at once, the face window explodes into glass shrapnel flays open the waitresses face she's screaming screaming the Angel isn't hurt but his ears ring he drops to his knees gutpunched with the shock of the blast he'd known was coming outside bodies..."

"Stop playback."

The street, the cafe, Istanbul fades away, leaving the Angel with a sense of emptiness. He drops to his knees, feels tears streaking his eyes.

Deepbreath deep breath.

Remove the goggles. There, in his office, stood the developer stood in the office, shifting her weight back and forth, her grip tight on the her handheld and the cheap set of immersion goggles she'd brought. He could have used them, probably should have to put her at ease, but goggles are too personal.

He rubbed his eyes, in the guise of massaging the ache of tight goggles. His fit perfectly, didn't ache. He rubbed his eyes anyway.

Deep breaths.

"Impressive demo."

The developer nodded. "It's not just seeing, but feeling. We use a combination of the live footage and stock and manipulated and also very light direct magnetoneural don't worry that part's safe and it gives you the emotional response like it was your home. You'll also remember it that way and still care. Just think! People will still care, days, weeks later about people not like them, they'll see these places on the TV and feel deja vu and they'll hear about something else and feel sad and they'll want to help. It's still just sending the news, but it's better. It lets people, see, really see! It's like the difference between words and  picture and a video. This will be the future of news!"

The Angel nodded silently. "I'm impressed. We can definitely find some market for this. Imagine product placement in a virtie with that feeling of familiarity I got from the turkish coffee. I'd never had Turkish coffee, but it completely felt like something I'd had my whole life. Like a part of my life."

The developer tightened her lips. "That's not what I was looking for. Think about the news.. about disasters, about poverty. Think about seeing a story the right way, so you'd care about it..."

"Yes, yes, there'll be that too, I'm sure." The Angel fiddled with his handheld as he spoke. "After, of course, whatever deals of exclusivity run out. There. I've beamed you some contracts. Sign them and not only will the money to finish developing this be yours, but we'll be well on the way to a plan to market for you. You needn't worry about any of the messy details."

Nightmare Fuel, Day the Third. Checkup Day

This is a fun experiment this year; I'm definitely feeling a theme in my responses, perhaps helped by the images being so similar. I'll leave it to you to see what ongoing threads you find in this, and to myself to contemplate Frankensteining them together in some kind of stitch-up.

Thanks as always to Andrea Trask for hosting this project.

Checkup Day
by L Czhorat Suskin

They called him Mr. White. That's all you remember. If you are remembering it for real. It was, after all, so long ago.

There'd been whispers - you think there'd been whispers. Mutterings. Rumors. You were never a very outgoing child, never cool, never popular. Never the one who anybody told the secrets to. No, you were the one who overheard something while you lingered near the swings, waiting for someone to get bored and free one up for you. You'd piece it together, a little puzzle.

Mr White came to the school each year.

Mr. White  looked into your ears, far enough to see your brain.

Mr. White looked up your nose and counted your boogers.

Mr. White examined your scalp with an impossibly sharp needle, probing the secret place where each hair begun.

Mr. White would find scurvy, scoliosis, lice, leprosy, acne, anthrax.

Mr. White was looking for something. If he found it, he'd take you away.

So you waited. You lined up, single file with the other kids. You remember the line, you remember his sportjacket, like the one your father took off every day when he got home. You thought you'd never recognize him if you saw him again, but he looked like the dad from a TV show. That kinda face, a smell like the bathroom right after your mother finished cleaning it Crisp white shirtcuffs peaking from the sleeves of his jacket. Mr. White.

National Archieef, The Commons (Flickr)

You remember that Jackie was first, you were second. The rest, of course, behind. It felt like a punch in your guy when he pulled her mouth open, probed deep inside with gleaming metal picks, his eyes focused beyond her front teeth his eyebrows flickup a look on his face you never saw on  TV dad but just for a moment then he was just Mr White and

Done.

You've tried to remember your turn, but you can't. You know he pulled your mouth open, a metal hook on the corner of your lip. You know that something sharp scraped the inside of your mouth, so far back you almost gagged, back to your back teeth and a little behind and you know

you know all of that. But you don't remember it.

What you do remember, the only thing you remember, is that you never saw Jackie again.

Until now. At first you weren't sure. People change through the years, after all. Once getting onto the subway as you were getting off, once across the street, fading into the crowd. IN a taxi. A face in a crowd scene on te TV news. Again and again. The more you see her, the more your teeth hurt. A dull ache growing in the wisdom teeth you're so proud to still have, crescendoing to a burning stab, then fading into a background ache that won't quite go away. Until you can't eat, can barely open your mouth need to clench against the pain but the clench hurts and you can't see past the pain and finally you call
your dentist isn't there but a colleague is covering... yes, now. Today you arrive.

You barely see the hygenist through tears of pain and oh it hurts at least he's still there, you barely feel his fingers brush your neck as he  clips the papersmock around your neck the chair embraces you and it smells of the dentist office, it smells like disinfectant like the bathroom after your mother cleaned it it smells like it smells

the voice comes from so far away, almost lost in the pain you catch a few words "...you under. .... this ..... hurt...." under this hurt you smell plastic as the mask covers your nose and mouth look up to see the Dentist's face

he's not changed.

It's Mr. White.

The pain fades away, for a time.

Nightmare Fuel - Day the Second (and revisit the first!)

More writing today! Every day for the month? We'll see. Those looking for AV, fear not! I'll sandwich in another AV post hopefully by week's end.

Yesterday I gave you my first Nightmare Fuel entry, which I also shared with the other participants. I told them something I've not shared with you on this blog until now: that there was originally a second part which I deleted in one of my rare moments of brevity. Those who saw both posts uniformly considered the second to be the singer of the two, which shows once again that I have no idea how to judge my own work. Here it is for those of you who are interested. Compare it to yesterday's piece and let me know what you think.

On the Swing
by L Czhorat Suskin

2012
It wasn't the story wanted, wasn't the part of the story I wanted. Too big, too sensational, too ... tawdry. You've heard about that poor girl by now. The mysterious disappearance, the slow fade from memory, the growing certainty that we'd never see her again. But this time you know we did, that if you can stop yourself from mourning the lost years of her youth, if you look past the damage outside and in, if you don't gaze forward at the decades of therapy she'll need... in other words, if you're willfully blind and stupid you can almost pretend that just maybe this is a happy ending. Or at least what passes for one in this screwed up world.

So this girl's not dead, the poor thing, and I get a job to do. Take some photos of the spot she was abducted from. Some kinda swing outside a crappy old apartment building. At night, like when she was taken.

I swear it was perfect when I took it. The empty swing at night, a perfect haunting fucking shot. But I get back home, and in every single frame there's this guy with a thousand yard stare. A guy I had to have seen. I gotta cut back on the sauce.

Fuck it. I'll photoshop it out.
_______________________________________
I still don't know how I feel about that one. There's something literal and concrete about it.

Now, on to todays' entry. The picture gave me a clear mental image of a slightly unrelated scene that wound up being the final stanza of this poem. The initial question is one that psychologists ask on intake. This I know because my wife is a psychologist, not because I'm talking to anyone else about the voices in my head.

I wouldn't do that; it hurts their feelings if I talk behind their backs.

Voices

My therapist asked

"Do you hear voices that others don't?"

How can I answer? Do I ask her?

Do I ask her if she hears them? 

My therapist asked

"Do you hear voices that others don't?"

Do I? Does she?

Does she know? Does she

hear symphonies semi silent sussurations 

tremulous tides of timid tidings

deadlines and dinnertimes taxing travails and taxes and

and

does she?

My therapist asked

"Do you hear voices that others don't?"

Does she know? 

Has she been searching, researching,

dropping eaves on my thoughts?

Did someone tell her?

Day 2 Prompt. Unattributed

My therapist asked

"Do you hear voices that others don't?"

Should I? Does she?

What would they tell me? What do they tell her?

My therapist asked
"Do you hear voices that others don't?"
I could barely hear her over the
screaming came across the sky into my head
the color of a TV tuned to a dead station
called
Ishmael

My therapist asked

"Do you hear voices that others don't?"

I didn't answer.

Hours later, a second martini.

glass table caresses my cheek

Oh.

There they are.

That's what they're saying.

Nightmare Fuel 2013 - Day the First

Now for something completely different. This post will contain fiction.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who struggled with nightmares.

When the summer faded into fall and the season of All Hallows  Eve approached, the dreams grew worse as the days shortened, the skies darkened, and the world cloaked itself in horror.

One year, she formed a plan to drive the dreams away. She woudl find scraps of horror in pictures and paintings - fuel for nightmares - and bind them in words, so they could harm her no more. For the month of October she would take one picture per day, write one scrap of horror fiction. She'd invite her friends on social media to do the same and, thus, a tradition was born.



Our host in this endeavor, Andrea Trask, is continuing the tradition this year. You can visit, play along, or even buy her complete collection of the first year's tales.

For the nonce, I'll play along.

Without further ado, here's  Nightmare Fuel 2013, Day 1

Insomnia by Demon Flame
Image by DemonFlame
 http://demonflame.deviantart.com/art/Insomnia-178609421
Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-
No Derivative Works 3.0 License

On the Swing
by L Czhorat Suskin

Remembering 1982

I remember Pacman. I sitting on the thick carpet the color of autumn leaves. Remember the feel of the joystick, having to push a little too hard to one side. That dots were one point instead of ten and the ghosts were all yellowish. Made it feel kinda bush-league, but still.. pacman. 

Something else to do? See her. On the swing. I remember forgetting, remember chasing the ghosts and remember the next day the grownups talking in hushed voices, the tootight squeezing hugs from my mother, father staring out the window. Like stone.

The controller never moved left after that. I never played Pacman again.

I remember never seeing her again remember looking remember dying remember

I remember

pacman?

I remember.

It's fading.

The swing.

I remember the swing.

I have to get back to the swing.

I'll wait this time. For as long as it takes. I'll wait here.

Thrown for a loop - a day with ListenTech

How AV friends! Sorry to have been quiet here over the past weeks; we'll try to get this blog back up to at least weekly updates. There's always more to talk about. HDMI 2.0! 4K! OLED! Curved flatpanels! Today I'll start with one of the ways we can improve peoples' lives and experiences. Today we're talking about assistive listening systems, specifically inductive loops.

Some possible layouts of loop systems, with
coverage patterns

Earlier this week I had the the opportunity to meet with the good folk at ListenTech for a single day training session on the theory, design, and implementation of inductive loop systems. This was a quick but thorough single-day class with a combination of theory and hands-on demonstrations. Students included a mix of integrators, consultants, and even a family of audiologists there to keep current on how AV technology interacts with hearing aids.

For those not in the know, a loop system uses magnetic induction to send audio directly to a coil in either a hearing aid or belt-pack receiver. It's considered a better system for assistive listening than the more common IR and RF systems for a few reasons.

• No need for many users to ask for special equipment. They can see the sign for a loop system, flip on the T-coil on their hearing aid, and get the audio without having to ask.
• None of the directionality issues an RF system has; there are no risks of falling into a "shadow" or turning so one is no longer covered. 
• Hearing aids are often tuned to a specific user's hearing loss. Using the hearing aid will give superior sound quality.

The first factor is, for me, possibly the most important one. Loop systems welcome those with hearing loss into spaces and experiences in ways which other systems do not. This is the dominant technology in much of Europe, but here in the US we've been slower to adopt it. Part of this is cost, part is poor perceptions caused by some very poorly done early hearing loop systems consisting - in some cases - of little more than an audio amplifier and some phone wire. Today, of course, we can do better. 

With the ANSI adoption of the IEC 60118-4:2006 standard (ANSI 117.7) there's now actual regulatory pressure in the US to deploy loop systems which meet standards. In addition to the requirements of the standard, ListenTech's Mike Griffit gave us a list of other "best practices" to create the best possible user experience.

The IEC requirements are as follows:

1. EM Background noise must be 32dB or lower (A weighted)
2. Field strength should be 400mA at 1 meter for a 1kilohertz sine wave. 
3. Field strength should be even throughout the covered area, with variations of no more than +/-3dB.
4. Field strength should be constant over the 100Hz to 5kHz frequency band, with variations of no more than +/- 3dB

In addition, one need to pay attention to coverage area, creating adequate signage, and insuring that the proper mix of audio is sent through the loop system. As is the case with many regulations, local regulation might trump nationally-recognized standards. The state of California, for instance, requires an entire venue to be looped so as not to discriminate against the hearing-impaired by forcing them into one area. As is the case with any regulatory issue, check with your AHJ (authority having jurisdiction). Listen also certifies both consultants and integrators in loop systems, and encourages the writing of these certifications into specifications. This is one way to insure that the people who design and install systems do so to an acceptable standard.

Wire layout for a phased array system. Loops colored
in red and green for clarity.

The most interesting thing with modern loop systems is phased arrays; instead of a single perimeter loop, two loops would be placed with the audio signal ninety-degrees out of phase. This technique allows greater areas to be covered and makes it easier to compensate for signal loss due to metal content in floors or ceilings. The most important thing to remember? Be careful to lay the patterns of loop wire (or flat copper tape) exactly as designed. Otherwise, you might end up with current in one leg running in the wrong direction and creating interference.

This wouldn't be a manufacturer-led training class without at least a moment of self-promotion, but to their credit it was brief. I also have to admit that ListenTech's loop drivers are nice bits of hardware; the "Multi-loop driver" contains both two drivers and a phase-delay in a single 1 RU chassis, greatly simplifying integration. Somewhat disappointingly, there's no Energy Star rating yet, but they are more efficient than earlier-generation models, more attractive, and even have basic monitoring.

The "figure 8" test pattern. In reality, the loops
would me precisely measured to give a calibrated
result.

The day wrapped up with a hands-on demonstration of how to commission a loop system and how to make test measurements using a "figure eight" pattern to measure metal loss. This is actually quite an easy thing to do; a field-strength meter was provided to measure the signal in various frequency bands.

Overall, this is a technology about which all of us in the industry should be educated. In addition to complying with the spirit and letter of the ADA, there is a moral responsibility to give everyone the best possible experience - regardless of their disabilities. Hearing loop systems are one way we can do that - in which we can do good as a part of our jobs. My thanks to ListenTech for the lesson, and I'll keep them in mind in the future.

At the end, they gave a certification to all of us who passed the test.
Hooray!

SVSI N1000 series - Uncompressed video over network switches

Teaser post showing new devices,
not yet tested or even wired neatly.

Two weeks ago, before a much-needed week-long vacation, I left a teaser post showing some shiny new hardware on the Audiovisual Professionals group at the Google+ social network. For those not following me over on G+, this is the N1000 series from SVSI - a video and audio over standard network switches. It's a technology in which I've been interested for a while, but true uncompressed video has always been a big missing item; if you have a source and display in the same room, you want to eliminate the latency that comes with compression as much as possible. Does this solution fit the bill? Time to find out!

My test rig. HDCP protected content from the tablet,
non-HDCP from a laptop. And I'd not be the pixel-and-ink
stained wretch without an actual bottle of ink!

Physically, each encoder or decoder unit is about 7.875"x5.125"x 1" (according to my tape measure here). This fits them comfortably behind displays, in wall-boxes sized for digital media receivers, and other locations you'd want to stow one. There's also a 1RU rack-mount kit for two units, and a 2RU card-cage which will hold six card-versions of the same units. Encoder units have a DVI-I input for video with embedded audio, a single network jack, as well as captive-screw connectors for IR, RS-232, Audio, and DC power. The units can also accept power over ethernet, which is how I tested them. The decoder units are similar, with the exception of slightly different placement on the DVI connector.

I was able to get started and have a functional matrix within probably less than a half hour, using SVSI's Conductor Netlite software. It auto-dected all four units (plus a controller - more on that later) without a hitch, and easily populated them into a 2x2 matrix with reasonably intuitive mouseclicks to select crosspoints and then "take" to transfer. Separate matrices are created for N2000 and the forthcoming N3000 series devices. Sadly, I didn't have any of those to evaluate as of yet, although I'm working at acquiring an N2000 kit.

Front and rear views of encoder with network switch

So how was the switching? As fast and close to seamless as I could detect. Running tasks through the system (drawing on a tablet, using a mouse, etc) felt as natural as they would via a direct connection. Conductor will also let you rename units, give you their IP addresses, and send you directly to their page on a web-browser to adjust various settings, see extended EDID information, set up local play, etc. This is also where you'll find the ability to allow HDCP protected content, which is a quick and painless process. Once you do so, switching between protected and unprotected sources is as fast as any other switch. Compare this to the Extron XTP matrix which took well over a second for the same task.

Decoder and control processor

Along with the encoder and decoder units I got my hands on an N8001 controller. This appears to be nothing more than a small webserver, allowing control of a system via a web browser. IN addition to the familiar auto-discover and matrix controls, there are script editors and a "panel builder" utility for creation of a control interface. Scripts can direct video streams (either by IP address or the unique stream number the assigned to each encoder), direct audio, operate transport controls for SVSI's DVR appliances (not available for the N1000 series), or windowing processor (ditto) as well as embed other scripts, send RS232 commands, switch from "live play" to "local play" (calling up static images stored on the device) and give a delay between commands. Custom button graphics can be uploaded, or a standard squarish-button with rounded off corners labelled as desired. For relatively simple systems, it does the job quite well and is easily loadable to an Android or iOS device via an app. IT doesn't seem to have an intuitive enough design interface or enough options (conditionals, page-overlays, etc) to build really complex systems, but it seems very workable for simple interfaces. I was able to build a simple panel to route either source to one or the other destination very quickly and easily.

Concerns? There are a few. While the devices switch very quickly, they boot up very slowly. From a cold reboot of one of the encoders or decoders, it took a solid two minutes between plugging in the cable and having the unit recognized on the network. What's worse, it didn't always get the video stream back or sync with the display without re-sending the control command. There's also an odd delay and, on some displays a loss of sync, when switching from "live play" to "local play". Sync was re-established, but it took several seconds and some odd color-artifacts and vertical roll. This was odd.

Secondly, and not unexpectedly, is the issue of bandwidth. Each stream is 880Mbps. I have no idea how this would be able to scale up to 4K; it doesn't seem that there's be enough bandwidth available. Will we need to start deploying 10 Gigabit switches? Will this spell the end of uncompressed video over the network? Will we need to send multiple streams and stitch them together? The drawbacks to all of these solutions is obvious.

All told, it's an intriguing set of options. Pricing - especially for a large-scale system - would be far less than a similar HDBaseT solution with fewer proprietary parts, less rack space, less power draw.

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.