Dishwashers, Refrigerators, Kitchen Tables, and the Evolving Role of the AV Consultant

As some of you know, I've recently moved (which is why I'm not here quite as much) and am trying to take my kitchen to the modern era. When told about the kitchen project, people are invariably off all manner of advice and requests. I've been asked often if I'll be putting a microwave above the stove (I won't) or if I want a table near the one blank wall (I don't). The interesting question for today's discussion is about the new appliances - would I be getting a single-manufacturer suite, or buy each on its own.

Old appliances. No interconnectivity.

The answer to the appliance question was, for the kitchen, an easy one; there's no synergy at all between a refrigerator, a stove, and a dishwasher. A single-source would perhaps give a slightly more consistent look, but that's it. Instead I'd look at each item on its own and choose the best fit for our use profile and budget.

"Single source" versus "best in breed" is a question which frequently arises around technology, and one which not many years ago I'd have approached the same way I approach appliances today. I especially remember analog systems which might use video switchers, video conference appliances, and control systems all from different manufacturers. In a large build gear might not even be consistent from room to room; I've seen, for example, one manufacturer's touchscreens in specialty spaces and another's keypad controller in a simpler rooms. With purely standalone systems, it made sense to choose best in breed rather than a single source. As a consultant, I'd need (amongst other knowledge) broad familiarity with the product offerings of many vendors and and understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.

Is this still the case? I find it telling that when I told one of my colleagues at SMW that single-source didn't make sense for my kitchen because the appliances don't talk to eachother he corrected me: they don't talk to eachother YET, but they almost certainly will. It's easy to imagine a home full of smart appliances coordinating, for example, energy and water usage so as not to overload the infrastructure at peak times. It's quite likely that my next set of kitchen appliances (a long time from now, I'm hoping) will be a single-manufacturer ecosystem. 

Newer appliances. Shinier, but still not interconnected.
And yes, my countertop is a half-sheet of OSB.

In the AV world, of course, we're already most of the way there. For a very simple example, nearly every manufacturer who manufactures control systems also has some kind of remote asset-management software to provide remote monitoring and control. Suddenly mixing in less costly keypad controllers from an alternate vendor no longer makes sense; you might still be able to save a few dollars and get a slightly nicer device, but at the cost of cutting one space out of the larger ecosystem you're building. "Ecosystem" is a word (and a concept) which I find myself using with increasing frequency these days. That, after all, is what many vendors are selling. I spoke about AV transport over standard IP networks a few times, focusing mainly on functionality. Another interesting development is that many vendors of such systems aren't selling standalone products but broad suites including options such as recording appliances, windowing processors, control, and monitoring. It's an approach which saves the AV contractor headaches in getting disparate systems to work together, saves finger-pointing between manufacturers when two products won't work together, and somewhat simplifies the design process by taking advantage of the R&D manufacturers have put into creating an ecosystem of interoperable products.

Does this mean that the AV designers role is fading? After all, if one is going to deploy a single-source solution it's quite easy to get a master quote from one or more vendors listing all of the pieces and parts it would take to make the solution work. I'd say that this can't be farther from the truth, and the consultant is every bit as important. First,  we still need to do the same work in evaluating client needs, in project programming, and in coordinating all of the moving parts it takes to get  from the idea of needing AV solutions to the actuality of having working solutions. That part can't be sources to a vendor if one wants independent, unbiased analysis.

Another thing to remember is the value of form as well as function and communicating with clients about how people work and how they want things to look. This goes to the kitchen table which at least three people have suggested to me. We generally don't eat in the kitchen, but do quite a bit of cooking. As you can see, it isn't all that large a space. While adding a table would increase workspace, it would do so at the expense of cluttering the area and cutting travel between, say, the microwave and the sink. It's a bad tradeoff for the same reason a gooseneck mic on a conference table is often a bad tradeoff. In both cases, there might be a narrow functional improvement which, to the user, is not worth as much as the tradeoff in aesthetics or workflow that will come with it.

As a designer, it's great to start with a blank canvas.
Even if you need a sledgehammer to get there.

Finally there is, in addition to the obvious need to evaluate entire ecosystems as opposed to single products, a requirement for much more attention to connectivity with other infrastructures. Data networks. Scheduling systems. Security systems. Building management systems. As important as it can be for some types of spaces, audiovisual almost never occupies a central place in the design process; nobody is going to design their entire network infrastructure around the AV system needs. Working with choices made by those in unrelated disciplines remains one of the big tasks and challenges of the AV design consultant.

The work we save by using single vendors - if  we save anything - is what I'd argue is the least important in terms of design. It's the detailed bits and pieces which make the vision work after it's been conceived. While this is absolutely vital, it doesn't speak to our core purpose in the design realm. In my years in the industry, I've seen clients having various levels of satisfaction with the end results of AV projects.  THose who were less than fully satisfied almost never had functionality complaints; AV contractors are very good at delivering systems which, at the end of the day, work. The user hits the button, the projector lights up, an image appears on the screen. The bigger problems are almost always ones of expectations; the projects which fail have often failed when someone didn't ask the right question, months or even years before anyone has chosen the  nuts and bolts needed to execute what would eventually be a flawed vision.

The role of the AV consultant (and designers as a whole) might be evolving even farther from a focus on "nuts and bolts", but the core of what we do - helping clients find a vision and marrying that vision to available technology - hasn't changed.

Looking and Seeing - The World through AV Eyes

Before my AV career I did  a few other things, including telephony and the unparalleled horrors of residential cable installations. One interesting thing about these three fields is each has lead me to a greater focus on parts of our world the rest of us take for granted and fail to notice. If you drive down a residential street with me, for example, I'll notice if services are brought in aerially or below ground, if cable and phone drops are run neatly at right angles or lazy diagonals from the pole, perhaps even if homes are being fed with fiber or copper. A closer look and I'll see if connections are properly grounded. Why? It's simply become part of my world. So to it is with AV. Sometimes as a consultant I can even see things which aren't really there. 

Earlier this year, Molly Stillman asked the following question: Does work in AV "ruin" live events for you? I've never worked in the live-event side of the industry and, for that matter, don't attend all that many live events.  What I do know how to view - and what has become part of my world - is installed AV. What's interesting is the different things that irk or interest me as I've moved from the integration to the consulting side of the world. Over a year ago when I was first seeking work with the SMW team, Tom Shen asked me a very good question: why did I think I was ready to work in consulting? This was part of my answer: a passion I have for the technology, and an eye I develop towards seeing it. If you were to walk through a hotel lobby with me, I'd very likely be able to tell you where they have video monitors, where there are speakers, and what I think they should have done as compared to what they actually did. This game of  asking myself what the designers were thinking, what they should have been thinking, and what I would do differently is one I am constantly playing in my head.

Two recent examples come to mind. One is a digital signage display at my local grocery story (the Douglaston outpost of the New York based chain Fairway). My contractor eyes see a nice Sony display surface-mounted above the deli counter, fed by a signage player of some sort. It matches the similar monitors pole-mounted near the frozen foods. My contractor eyes see that it might be mounted slightly off-true, and that someone left the protective plastic cover on the bezel. These kinds of small installation details are easy to spot anywhere.

Digital Signage in the wild. 

My consultant eyes see something different. They see that if one waits in a natural position a few feet back from the deli counter the display is too high to see without craning ones neck and that if you're actually AT the counter it is directly over your head. Given the pace of the Fairway deli counter, customers standing far enough back to view the content will almost certainly lose their place in line. The content consists of a loop of what appear to be in-house produced cooking and food videos with an overlay including the store's social media address and a few announcements. It's nicely chosen content for a grocery store, but misses an opportunity to highlight anything special in the specific area where it's placed. The consultant in my head wants to push the display back behind the deli counter, adjacent to the pricing board. This is where people will be looking anyway, greatly increasing the attention the sign is getting. As there are more than one of these in the store, content can be adjusted per location; perhaps the deli counter could show sandwich making, the creation of some of their salads and slaws, or give an idea of what we're supposed to do with that hundred dollar a pound Iberico ham I've always been tempted to try but have feared that I lack the sensitivity of palate to appreciate. As things stand, it's a reasonably clean installation with appropriate content. With a tiny bit more thought, it could be something more. And, of course, with a tiny bit more thought and a great deal of extra money the menu board could be replaced with a video wall for something truly spectacular. That's the part where my consultant-eyes see things which don't, in fact, exist. This also might, in all fairness, be a bit of overkill for store signage. 

A good value! 

I'll give you a quick preview of my second example from the wild: interactive kiosks at rail stations here in New York. In addition to form and function, those suggest another theme which I'll be exploring in a future post exclusive to ExpresSHENs, the official blog of SMW (but please remember - whether I post here or there, my opinions are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the SMW team at large).

What do I have to say about this?
Tune in next time!

For the nonce, I'll leave you with a question: with what kind of eyes do you look? And what do you see that isn't there, or that others don't?

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.

Dispatches from the underside of the iceberg

I'm back from too long a break from having posted here, with an update of where I've ended up in the AV field. I'm still in the commercial AV world, but have left not only AVI-SPL, but the entire world of systems integration. I've moved crosswise and upward to the consulting side of the business as an associate in the AV department of the very talented multidisciplinary consulting firm Shen, Milsom and Wilke. So what does that mean? It means no more time in the trenches trying to make things work, and no more creating detailed "shop drawings" with individually labelled wires. What it does mean is being in a place closer to the actual user, helping them figure out what their needs are and how we can translate those to an AV design.  Why do I feel misunderstood here? Let it suffice to say that last to weeks ago, when I was summoned to jury duty, I was the only one asked "what does that mean" after telling the judge what  did for a living.

So what do I do for a living? The easy answer is that I'm part of a team that sells expertise; we don't sell microphones or loudspeakers or touchpanels, but will tell you what kind of a touchpanel you need, and where you should put loudspeakers or microphones or projectors. We work with the people who do sell you those things, but our work is largely on the other side of the iceberg.

The metaphor should be obvious. An iceberg is a tiny sliver of frozen water bobbing above the surface. On it you might find a microphone, a touchpanel, a speaker, and a projection screen. In fact, you'd see every inch of an AV system you'll ever see. Seemingly in contradiction of the laws of physics, it floats above the surface of customer expectations. If you get too close without exercising a great deal of care, the bigger part - the part that lurks under the sea - will send you and your unsinkable ship to the bottom of the ocean. Just like an AV project. Having worked on bid-build projects from the contractor side, I've dealt mainly with the top of the iceberg; the last few months in a process that could take years.

My new desk. It's grown a second monitor since
this photo was taken.

Much of the bottom of the iceberg is made up of things I'd already known about; needs analysis with the eventual end user, the need for infrastructure like power and data and conduit, coordination of AV systems with lighting and millwork, ceilings and walls. It's the meetings in the design development phase, not only before there's construction, but before there are even floor plans.

It's lots of fun.

Office, Sweet office

I'm lucky to be part of a team at SMW with a terrific, open team-oriented culture. Everyone has their own projects, but everyone also has at least some idea of what everyone else is doing, and someone is always there to pitch in with help from a technical suggestion to the tedious detail work of re-numbering a drawing package to anything in between. 

Do I miss anything about the contractor side of the business? I do miss the hands-on scramble to make something work. The odds of  my having to grab tools, a laptop, a ladder, and an assortment of adapter cables and make something work are pretty slim these days. Some of my fondest memories in the AV field were having the "aha!" moment that comes from solving what looked like an insoluble problem. There are different problems and challenges, but part of me will miss the hands-on aspect. So, for old-times' sake, I'll close with a real-world puzzle.

Sources included a Mac Mini, Windows PC, and laptop interface. Destinations included a projector (Digital Projections dVision series) and interactive touch-monitor (Smart interactive pen display) and two rack-mounted test monitors. The windows PC displayed to all locations. The Mac Mini displayed on the projector, but not the touch-monitor.  If I swapped the touch- and rack-mount monitors, the problem followed the touch-monitor. If I bypassed the Crestron digital media switch at the heart of this system, the Mac would display perfectly on any of the displays. If I swapped the Mac and PC, the roblem followed the Mac. It was ONLY through the system going to the projector plus touch-monitor that there'd be a problem. I ended up calling Crestron who told me all that I needed to know to fix it. AV people out there: what did Crestron tell me to do? It seems obvious now, but took roughly forever onsite to figure out.

Reading the above again, perhaps I shouldn't miss the "hands on" bit that much after all.

Tonight I'll be meeting some of my friends in the industry for the Women in AV Holiday gathering and "tweet-up" -- look for updates soon.