Infocomm 2013 - For What I'll Be Looking

This will be the last AV post before next week's Infocomm trade show, and a chance to look forward to what promises to be an interesting few days. Plans have been made, including social plans, booth-visits, and the always-important moment to listen to everyone's favorite professional AV rock band. I even found a ringer to take my place in the corporate 5K run I signed up for before realizing that it was the same week as Infocomm. If there's any interest I might live-blog a bit during the show, and will certainly send updates. Looking forward, I've seen a quite a few people post suggestions and previews - many of which are quite sensible. Following are my own thoughts about what I hope to get from the event. If our paths cross, feel free to grab me for a quick "hello".

Also, take a few moments to listen to what some others are saying about the upcoming event and the state of our industry. Christopher Neto had a great piece on what he sees as game changers at Infocomm 2013. I also noticed an intriguing article by David Danto (whom I've crossed paths with a time or two a couple jobs ago) on disruptions in the videoconference world. Am I in one hundred percent agreement with either of them? Not at all, but then again, I'm not usually in one-hundred percent agreement with myself, much less anyone else - no matter their experience in the industry. Below are some of my thoughts.

Networking.
As I said in my earlier post on AV training, I see network integration as one of the big directions in which our industry is moving. I'm quite interested to see where various manufacturers take this, including the still-fledgling AVB standard and its older cousin Dante (and yes, they appear to be cousins, if not actual siblings).  Will one of these standards eventually be able to challenge HDBaseT as the dominant form of video transport, and if so what would that mean for the topology of AV networks and systems? Will centralized server-type DSPs like those from Biamp or QSC emerge as the dominant form-factor over standalone units like those from Symmetrix or Peavey? We might be at the cusp of a fundamental shift in how our industry operates. In fact, I'd argue that we're on the cusp of many such shifts.

The Other Kind of Networking
The great thing about Infocomm is that it seems that everyone is going to be there. Consultants, manufacturers, reps, contractors, and even end-users will all be in the same big tent learning about the same technology. In addition to the sheer pleasure of putting faces to all the names (or bodies to the headshots on various LinkedIn profiles) I've interactive with over the years, knowing people just makes working in this business easier. There are so many times when the solution to a problem lies not in knowing the technical answer, but in knowing whom to ask.
Don't get me wrong on this; if you make connections purely for the professional value you're not only doing it wrong but are quite possibly a sociopath (I should let my live-in clinical psychologist make that determination). If you listen to people and just take   moment to get to know them you'll have the pleasure of more connections and, as a side bonus,  more resources on which to call when you're stuck.

The Missing Lync
OK, Lync isn't quite missing - but it can be a challenging kind of technology to tie into large-scale integrated systems. It's easier than it's been before - thanks in part to products like Vaddio's EasyUSB line (if you're not aware of them, they're definitely a manufacturer to check out. They're also planning on unveiling some new products with a very high level of niftiness for those who work in the small meeting room/classroom kinds of spaces) - to tie them to small to mid-sized systems, but there still are advantages to appliance-based (as opposed to PC-based) conference systems; appliances are more easily controlled, more easily managed, and end up giving a more seamless user experience. I know at least two manufacturers working on Lync-compatible appliances, including Crestron's long-awaited RL. I'm not sure that I'm quite as high on this as Neto is, but it certainly has the possibility to become an important part of the unified communications ecosystem.

Software. The PC-Centered AV System
This is another part of our big paradigm change, and a new answer to a big question: what is at the heart of a commercial AV system? At one point not too long ago, it was a matrix switch and DVD/VHS decks, with increasing need for laptop interfaces. Now, with so many software solutions for conferencing, for collaboration, and for mobile device integration there's a definite move for the PC to move towards the center of a system, sometimes replacing numerous peripherals. The videoconference Codec? Software on your PC. Blu-ray or other media player? Built into the PC. Screen-scrape from your mobile device? A mobile app and - you got it - software on your PC. That annotative whiteboard? A touch-enabled monitor and a PC. Yes, one gives up some measure of capability and some measure of simplicity. I'd certainly not try to design a large, complicated system around a PC, but those small meeting room and classroom systems of which we've all seen scores? Many of those can easily become software-based solutions with little to no loss of functionality.

This ties in with what Danto said about disruption in videoconferencing; I think that the dedicated appliance will still be with us, but that there's more

Surprises (and why I'm OK with Extron not exhibiting)
There are certainly big, well-known companies worth visiting, especially for those who've not had a chance to see their new offerings in person. I'm looking forward to brief visits with AMX, Crestron, QSC, Vaddio, and others. That said, these are companies very much on my radar whom I follow reasonably well. I've seen Crestron's three-series stuff, seen Vaddio at the Sapphire Marketting Roadshow, and had AMX and QSC around for recent visits. This is why it doesn't bother me that much for Extron to not be exhibiting; I don't need a tradeshow to know what the big players are doing.

What I more want is a nice surprise; something I'd not thought of from someone I'd not thought to find it. In other words, if I knew what I was looking for, I'd not have to be there looking.

For anyone interested in meeting your favorite pixel-ink-stained wretch in person, I'll be arriving early Tuesday for some of Audinate's network seminars. I'll be on and off the floor most of the remaining days, with various social engagements including the WAVE reception on Wednesday evening (WAVE is one of those organizations which I feel deserve all of the support and attention we get) and the Drunk Unkles performance Thursday evening. I'll also try to post news and updates as I see things which delight, surprise, or intrigue me.

Final note for any of you writers or readers out there: there'll be more writing when I get back! Carrie K Sorensen is leading another blog-hop collaborative story. Read the first part here, and stay tuned for more.

Did you hear what's up? A morning with a ceiling mic

I remember my first ceiling speaker experience. I was the project manager on a simple bid-build job for a local presentation space. In addition to the usual VGA, composite video, and DVD/VHS combo deck (this was quite some years ago), the client wanted some way to record local meetings. No video conferencing, no audio conferencing, portable furniture to be plugged in via floor-boxes. With no good options for placement of microphones and lacking the budget for wireless boundary mics, the consultant decided to take a pair of omnidirectional boundary microphones and screw them to the ceiling. It worked pretty much as you'd expect; Recordings in this room were absolutely perfect if your goal was to replicate the feeling of talking to someone from across the platform at a medium-busy railway station. If you wanted the actual content to be louder than the HVAC noise you were pretty much out of luck.

There are, of course, better solutions, but the end result always seems the same; the ceiling is not the optimal place to locate microphones. They're far from the talker. They're close to all kinds of ceiling noise. The best results one could hope for are "barely adequate". So it was with hope but some degree of sketicism that I took part in a test of Clear One's new digital beam-forming ceiling mic array.

It's neither a bird nor a plane, but a ceiling mic array.

Physically, it's a nice looking piece of hardware. It's thirty inches long, five and three-quarters wide, by only one inch deep. On the bottom (if ceiling-mounted) are cutouts for the individual mic elements and two LED/touch buttons, one of which has the Clear One 'C' log discretely wrapped around it. It connects to a Clear One Converge DSP (and only a Clear One Converge - more on this later) and power-injector through two Cat5-type cables which can be neatly managed through the hollow rectangular support pole. It also comes with a tile-bridge to easily mount to a standard two-foot drop-ceiling. It's certainly a nice physical package.

The big question, of course, is what it sounds like. We set one up in the center of a fifteen by thirty foot room and made calls from various positions. Sitting at a table. Standing next to the table. Walking around the room. Standing in the corner. We turned on a projector about five feet away from it on the ceiling. Then we did a quick-and-dirty A/B test with some wireless boundary mics (from the good folks at Revolabs). Remember that bit of skepticism I mentioned? It turned out to be completely unwarranted. In as unscientific a test as could possibly be devised in which we were absurdly unfair to the hardware under test (passing it through an extra DSP to avoid having to reconfigure an existing system) it performed splendidly. Intelligent tracking software built into the mic follows the sound of voices, giving a clear and even signal as one of us walked in a circle around the room. Audio was clear from all four corners of the room. Clear One's noise cancellation dealt nicely with the projector noise, although at the expense of slight artifacts perceived by those of us with the most sensitive ears for such things.

Those LEDs light blue when the mic is live, red for muted, off for off (and can be turned off entirely via software). Sadly, there's no ability to actually direct the beams although one can switch them on or off. Switching off a beam pretty effectively would cut off audio to half of the room, making the mic somewhat more directional. Configuration is relatively simple through Clear One's Converge Console software.

There are two issues I saw with this mic array; first is that it connects to the Clear One DSP through a proprietary expansion bus. The ability to daisy-chain three of them together is nice, as is the cleanliness of the installation. It's an additional nice touch that even if you inadvertently switch the power and link wires (we tried) you'll not let any of the magic smoke out of the unit; it'll just  hang there until you get the wiring right. The problem is that it locks you into one DSP option, which wouldn't be my preferred option for all applications.

The other concern is that it isn't an inexpensive option. MSRP is close to $4000, and the DSP will be another four. You could get eight nice boundary mics for half of that, assuming you have anywhere to put them. So it's not the budget choice, but is one of the best I've seen thus far. If anyone's interested, perhaps some more on this after some more experimentation.

In Praise of Brevity

And now for something completely different.

For those of you who found this blog through my thoughts on digital video matrix switchers, fear not! I'll be back later in the week with another "pixels" post about some aspect of AV technology. That is, after all, what I do and a real passion of mine. These are, however, the confessions of a pixel and ink stained wretch, so we oughtn't go too much longer ignoring my inkstained fingers. With National Poetry Month having just closed and National Short Story Month in full swing (and no, I don't know who names these. Just take it for what it's worth and enjoy it), the time seems right to talk about the place where the two come closest to intersecting: flash fiction.

Flash is loosely defined as "short-short", "micro-fiction", or anything under five hundred words or so. A traditional short story will usually weigh in at ten times that length. This is one of those things I like because it pushes against my usual tendencies; readers of this blog will ikely be unsurprised to read that I tend towards verbosity. The drive to condense - to take a story or idea or emotion and distill it to a single scene, sometimes a single sentence - isn't my natural one, but it is one that can yield striking results.

Back to flash in a moment, but here's a fascinating story that I learned during Al Filreis's Modern Poetry class from UPenn on the Coursera platform. Filreis is teaching this again in the fall, and I highly, highly recommend it (despite my misgivings about Coursera's utterly useless peer-review system). Ezra Pound was riding the metro in Paris one evening, and was struck by what he saw as the beauty of people's faces illuminated for an instant as a train ran past. So he wrote about it. And wrote. At one point he had ninetysome lines, but was still dissatisfied and didn't feel he'd captured the experience. So he cut, he condensed. In the end, he had this:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd
petals on a wet, black bough.

That's it. It's pretty much an English language Haiku - not in the formal sense, but in tone and content.
Flash fiction can be like that. One can take a single scene or a scrap of  dialog and leave the reader with a single, clear impression.  One can think of it as literary distillation.

Here's a flash experiment of mine; the seed was a typo in someone else's manuscript, changing the  phrase "shallow water" into "willow water". Any odd phrasing comes from a bit of an experimental game in attempt to not use any single word more than once. I can say more on this kind of thing in a later post; imposing artificial constraints like that sometimes can form interesting  results.

Strip slender branches of bark, soak in pure spring water. Mix lustrous hair, salty tears. Two drops fresh blood, three pages torn from your journal. All into the cauldron, slowly simmering, leaving air thickly scented;  decaying pulp, moist earth, echoes.

Plant a bough entwined with another stolen lock, bloody tooth. Pour hallowed willow tonic, whisper prayers to beloved memories.

No matter if it fails to take root. From my dungeon more eyelashes, skin, bones, and humours still to be harvested, and  salty flow from eyes that once held devotion.

If you want to see what others do with this format, there are plenty of options. The talented Andrea Trask has collections of short-short horror and erotica. The enigmatic Johannes Punkt has a blog in which he publishes delightfully varied and strange pieces of his own fiction. Many can be read in a small handful of minutes, but will leave you thinking.

Want to try it yourself and need some inspiration? Head over to the Google+ social network and drop in on Becket Moorby's Flash Fiction Project, where you'll find prompts, contests, and a vibrant community of writers.

This post is, after all, in praise of brevity, so I'll practice a touch of what I preach and leave you for now. AV friends, expect more technology later in the week. Writers, keep writing and readers keep reading.

Roadshow, roadshow

Last week and this two technology reps hit New York with their roadshows; Sapphire Marketting last week and SYMCO this. I managed time for a very quick visit to each, and saw a handful of interesting things.
For those who don't know the  nice folk at Sapphire, they're reps for several major tech manufacturers, including Crestron, Vaddio, Tripplite, Delta (the displays, not the faucets) and others. Symco reps Savant Systems, Barco, SVSI, Biamp, and different others.  

With the big Infocomm tradeshow just around the corner this is a tiny bit of an off time to be checking out new products. There was a handful of hardware I'd not  seen in person as of yet, including the EasyUSB line from Vaddio (more on this later), but there wasn't a wow, gee-whiz, crazy innovation that would knock your socks off - unless, of course, your socks are knocked off by seeing one of Sapphire's familiar faces don a motorcycle helmet and do some variant of the Harlem Shake. If that's the case, I suggest you invest in some sock-garters. To the best of my knowledge, nobody at Symco did the Harlem Shake. Whether that's a point in favor of Sapphire or a point for Symco is, I suppose, a question for the reader.

I'd caught demos of Cybertouch and Delta Displays recently (see earlier post), so I didn't dwell on those at the Sapphire event. It was a treat to see Vaddio in person, especially with some of their new products destined for use in a current project of mine. They have some very nice quality high-definition pan-tilt-zoom cameras and digital mic arrays in their "EasyUSB" line as well as an audio/video to USB (or H.264) encoder called the AVBridge. Why would you want to do such a thing? So you could use a software-based conference solution (Lync, Jabber, etc) or recording solution in a conference room. It's not always the best solution, but it can be a very attractive option for organizations with existing unified communications infrastructure to leverage. More on that in a later post. The products, of course, have the quality I expect from Vaddio.

Next door to Vaddio was MondoPad. Their product is a flat-panel display with integrated camera, microphone, speakers, and PC with both interactive whiteboarding and collaborative software. There were smartphone apps and videoconferencing (SIP and h.323). When I asked about a better camera for a larger room (it's a 55" display; you're not necessarily going to be right on top of it) the rep nodded next door at Vadio.

Coincidentally, Symco also had an all-in-one PC/multitouch flatpanel/VTC endpoint from Clary.icon. Like MondoPad, the Clari.icon product had an integrated PC, high-definition camera, mic, speakers, interactive whiteboard software, etc. Where MondoPad has a slight edge is with the inclusion of a second WiFi radio. Why two? One points at the network for internet access and videoconferencing while the other can be used with smartphone screen capture and control apps. A cranky wifi at the event space hampered the demo of Clary.icon's remote control app with considerable lag. While this  clearly appeared to be a network issue rather than a problem inherent in the device it did highlight what a thoughtful design choice the second WiFi radio is.

Other products over the two days? I'll confess to not stopping by Crestron as I'm fairly up-to-date with their offerings, having gone so far as to specify the new 64x64 DM switch. They also offered a brief introductory class to the "smart objects" in their newly updated programming environment (relabeled from Core3 to alleviate confusion with their 3 series processors).  There were also some very nice architectural items at Sapphire, including this groovy LCD lift which would be a great fit for a conference table in a high-end boardroom. Someone else had already articulated my wish before I got there: an option for an HDBaseT LCD taking its power along with video and control over the single Cat5. Not today, but perhaps someday soon.

Again at the Symco side I got my first in-person look at Savant Systems' switching solutions. I'd already been introduced to their control options which use an Apple Mac Mini as a host and iOS devices as control interfaces. It's a very nice thought, but for many applications the absence of support for non-Apple platforms (so far!) is a bit of a deal-breaker. A 12x12 switcher fits into a 3RU box (compare 4RU for an AMX Enova 8x8 or 16x16, 4 for a Crestron 8x8, and 7 for a Crestron 16x16). They were showing off local HDMI inputs and outputs along with a tiling card that switched sources in up to five tiles (in what seemed to be fixed configurations). The switching was very slow, but that might have been a matter of the physical configuration; they'd taken the output of the tile processor to the display rather than use it as another switcher input and send a "regular" output to the display. This means that, in addition to negotiating EDID and the HDCP and the like, the tiling processor might have had to recalculate with each switch. I'd like to see the unit in action before judging any farther (and they tell me that it's much, much faster if configured correctly). It's clear that Savant wants to compete in the same space as Crestron and AMX.

There is, of course, more to discuss about some of these. Look for more details on Vaddio, on Savant, on SVSI (not mentioned in this post).

Earthday Everyday! Making Sound Decisions and Being Green

I'll start with a very brief note regarding my recent foray into the "switcher wars" - my recent post was not meant  as an endorsement of any one manufacturer over another. I have great respect for AMX, Biamp, Crestron, Dtrovision,  Extron, and quite a few other entries in the commercial-av alphabet. Also, note the new disclaimer; all opinions expressed on this blog are those of your humble pixel-and-ink-stained wretch and exactly nobody else. That said.... on with today's post.

The NYC Subway - a green way to travel!

Happy Earthday +1/365th everyone! We'll celebrate by recycling yesterday's holiday and talk briefly about how we in the commercial AV world can be green.
Yesterday's earthday discussion brought a question to mind: what can we do to be environmentally conscious in our industry? It's a simple question without a single simple answer. There are choices from equipment specifications and design considerations through personal choices in how we fill our roles. Some are easy, some less so, but there are many ways to make a difference.

Equipment
This is the obvious one that will leap to most people's minds when they hear "green AV" and there are more and more options from which to choose. From the pun with which I titled this post, I'm sure you'd guess the first one:  high-efficiency "Class D" amplifiers.  This technology not only saves on energy, but the higher efficiency means less waste heat and, therefore, less fan noise. Some Class D amplifiers, such as Extron's XPA series or Crestron's MP-AMP series, are completely fanless! This means that in educating end-users as to why this is a good choice there's the added benefit of eliminating fan noise in addition to energy savings.

Class D amplifier topology. Courtesy of Extron Electronics

What's a Class D amplifier? The short version is that it is a switching amplifier usually using some form of transistors followed in series with some kind of filtering to give a smooth waveform. The long version is outside the scope of this post. Perhaps a discussion for another day? The important thing is that it's a technology very much in vogue because of the potential for energy efficiency, and is available in quite a few high-quality commercial products. Crown Audio's CDi series, to give another example, consists of high-efficiency class-D amplifiers.

Projectors are another area with intriguing new choices; quite a few manufacturers have developed lampless hybrid LED/LASER projectors. Aside from the injection of coolness the word "Laser" adds to anything, these not only use less energy but don't rely on the replacement of physical lamps some of which can, if not disposed of properly, be a source of toxic waste.

As an aside, sustainable technology often has benefits beyond energy conservation, and these benefits need to be explained to clients. This is especially true given the relatively few professional AV products which have the kinds of certifications that can help earn LEED points. Given that LEED is the metric by which most commercial projects show their dedication to environmental sensitivity it becomes somewhat of a challenge to sell the benefits of environmentally sensitive choices which don't earn LEED points. "It isn't as loud" is a nice little extra reason. The Extron and Crestron products also feature plenum-rated enclosures for placement above a suspended ceiling (with the added bonus of not violating any fire codes!) Lampless projectors have a much flatter light curve with respect to age, so one doesn't need as bright a projector to compensate for eventual decline.

Personal Choices
This is the less obvious, and less "sexy" side of being green in this industry; the little day-to-day choices we all make seem small, but can add up. Here are two small steps we can all take:

I'll confess - some days my desk looks like this. Some days
the fact that there's a wood surface beneath the paper
needs to be taken as a matter of faith.

First, save a tree - think before you print. I carry a tablet and smartphone onto which I can upload PDFs, write notes, and even make quick markups. Marking up a PDF rather than a physical copy might take a bit of getting used to, but it saves paper as well as clutter. Don't print your email unless there's a good reason. Etc, etc.



Second, travel as greenly as possible. Take the subway instead of a cab. Take public transportation to the office if you can. And, dear to our hearts in the commercial AV world, try to use videoconferencing rather than force people from distant cities to physically attend meetings.

A Final Word

Avoid wasteful packaging. Pack your cat in the smallest
box possible.

We're all on this planet together, and while the big problems of curbing carbon emissions and reducing energy use might seem daunting small steps add up. Think about making sustainability as much a part of your thinking as speaker coverage or video content delivery. Educate yourself so you can educate your clients and co-workers. Take a step.

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?

Book Review - Without a Summer

In Without a Summer,  the third (and final?) installment of her Glamourist Histories, Mary Robinette Kowal continues the story of her magical alternate Victorian England while reminding us why we read about this time period in the first place. For those new to Kowal's work, the series began with Shades of Milk and Honey, a Jane Austen-inspired regency romance with the added fantasy element of glamour - the ability of certain naturally gifted individuals  to create semi-permanent illusions and otherwise effect the electromagnetic spectrum through direct manipulation of the aether. 

The previous volume, Glamour in Glass, left protagonist Jane Vincent literally bloodied and bruised after her part in the war effort but otherwise near the apex of personal and professional success with a marriage to a thoughtful and intelligent man and a great measure of success and fame as a glamourist. The one loose end, dangling since the end of the first book, is the continued lack of marriage prospects for Jane's prettier but otherwise less talented younger sister, Melody. So, when presented with a fortuitously-timed commission, Jane and family head to London thankfully leaving her mother behind. This is thankful to the reader as well as to the characters; the mother was a little bit of a one-note melodramatic hypochondriac whose appearances began to feel a touch tiresome in contrast with the other more complex and richly drawn characters.

In London, the weather proves to be a major topic of discussion and running theme through the book; as the title suggests, the action takes place in the year without a summer, a historic cold spell likely caused by a major volcanic eruption. We're still in the early stage of the industrial revolution and Luddites are smashing looms in the streets while London's coldmongers (glamourists who work with heat and cold rather than light) are scapegoated for the unseasonable cold. Weaving these details of social and economic disruption throughout the novel is one element that makes the Glamourist Histories stand out from many Victorian fantasy novels; the time period is interesting because we stood with one set of economic and social realities behind us, a different set before us, and no clear path to navigate the change. The coldmongers of this alternate London are often young, made sickly by the nature of their work, underpaid, and unappreciated. Yes, it's a fantasy element, but they are as real as coal miners and garment workers of yesteryear and the underage employees of some electronics factories even today. At a time when a new layer of technology is again disrupting the economic and social order this feels very relevant.

Without a Summer also deals with rising religious plurality in England, and Kowal pulls no punches in showing us how even the most sympathetic characters can be driven by ignorance and, yes, bigotry. After hearing about them for the past two books, we meet Vincent's family. And, about two-thirds of the way through, we get one of the most delightful kinds of moments in fiction: a revelation that a fundamental assumption we'd made turns out to have been wrong, and we're forced to look at past events and a wel-established character in a new light.

It ends on a positive note, with the door cracked open just enough that I'd suspect another sequel is possible, but well-enough wrapped up to walk away satisfied should Kowal choose to wander someplace else next. If you'd not read the Glamourist Histories as of yet, do so!

Very highly recommended. Four stars.