We all pay lip-service to the notion that good audio is more important than good video. But how many of us really know how to achieve it – or even what it is? “Good acoustic design effectively confines sound in the space while delivering intelligibility to all listeners,” explains Randy…
Technology
AV Essentials: a guide to assistive listening technology
It is estimated that almost a fifth of people have some level of hearing loss. Common decency alone would dictate that venues and other organisations should do their best to ensure they can hear performances, presentations, lectures, announcements and other sounds as well as the rest of us, but in…
Interactivity: More ways to interact
Today’s AV systems provide more choice of interaction methods than ever before. Perennially popular touch technology continues to improve. “More screens are becoming multi-touch, increasing the number of simultaneous users,” says Rim Posthumus, global accounts director at Mood Media. “The surface size is also increasing, up to a hundred inches…
Control systems: Taming the technology tangle
When controlling a menagerie of AV devices starts to feel like herding cats, it’s time to call a lion tamer. Enter the control system, ready to give end users and AV professionals the whip hand over their technology. An executive can walk into a meeting room and fire up all…
PAVA systems: Getting the message across
Public address (PA) and voice alarm (VA) are usually spoken of in the same breath, joined together as a set of initials: PA/VA. They do, however, have their own specific functions, applications and technology requirements that are tailored directly to the particular use for which they were each intended. Even…
Projection: How to spread the magic
Projectors are the comeback kids of the AV world. Once written off as virtually obsolete, the latest solid-state technologies have liberated them from darkened rooms and given them the ability to compete with flat panels and video walls on their home turf, with a combination of flexibility, reach and cost…
PTZ cameras: An all seeing (and doing) eye
PTZ cameras’ many improvements in sensors, lens technology and control have elevated their use to all levels of production from the boardroom to high-end broadcast. A PTZ camera is a pan, tilt, and zoom robotic video camera controllable by a remote operator, which can pan horizontally, tilt vertically and diagonally,…
Wireless presentation systems: Presenting a good image
Broadly speaking, wireless presentation systems allow for easy screen collaboration with just a single press of a button, and feature plug-and-play technology designed to eliminate the need for cables, and make meetings, conferences, and huddles more efficient by streamlining content sharing between individuals. As Lucy Meredith, field marketing specialist, Visual…
Audio: Converging on standard
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has been doing this sort of thing for a long time: almost the dawn of time, in movie terms. It does like to keep up with developments. From deciding how many sprockets all projectors should have to where the little perforations go…
Control rooms: All change
Control rooms have experienced something of a sea change in recent years. “Traditional buying segments still include transportation, government, and energy and utilities,” says Sean Wargo, senior director of market intelligence at AVIXA. “But venues, media and entertainment, education and manufacturing are also likely candidates, as each seeks to meet…