Category: Audio

Yamaha TF1 Mixer

3/18/2019

Mix it up with Yamaha’s TF1 mixer! Yamaha has created a new mixing console to truly give you more freedom and creativity with your mixes. The TF1 is a rack mountable, digital audio mixing console expandable up to 40 input channels. TouchFlow Operation™ introduced in the TF series consoles allows the user to respond to the music and artists on stage with unprecedented speed, taking live sound reinforcement to a new level of refinement. With the TouchFlow optimized for touch panel control, experienced sound techs as well as newcomers to the field will find it easier than ever to achieve the ideal mix. This console also has advanced live recording features and seamless operation with high performance.

The TF series has also added the latest touch-screen technology to deliver an evolved experience in console operation. Smooth setup and operation, practical presets and refined design, along with software applications that integrate seamlessly with the entire system make the Yamaha worth talking about. They offer comfort and convenience in their consoles, for a wide range of users and applications. If you want to know more, don’t hesitate to ask!

Testing Your Equipment

3/18/2019

A few weeks back we talked about the “Lambda process” for turning your dreams of a new audio, video or lighting system into a reality. Part of that process is all about the gear testing that happens before the equipment ever gets to your location. After the gear has been ordered and has arrived in our shop, we set up all the equipment and each component in the shop just as it will be for the install. This ensures that when we arrive for the install, there aren’t any surprises and there won’t be “that one missing part.” Plus, we have an assurance that each piece of the gear we install will work for you leaving no questions of whether your new parts are faulty.

Nothing can be more frustrating than when you have a piece of gear and it doesn’t seem to be working properly, or even working at all! Here at Lambda AV one of our goals is to not just to help get your current system up and running, or even to replace the gear you already have. It’s to help you to know your system to the best of your ability! Often when you encounter problems in an audio, video or lighting system it can be daunting to try and diagnose where the issue is actually coming from. Often a quick check of signal flow and making sure all the cables are plugged in correctly can save you a lot of time and frustration! There are multiple different ways to go about checking your signal flow. I personally like to start at one end of the system and begin verifying each piece of equipment and cable is working correctly. A piece of gear like this Elite Core Cable Tester, can help you verify that all the cables are working properly. If something like testing gear feels a bit overwhelming to you, not to worry! We would love to schedule a time to do a training on your specific system and gear to help you get to know it better and know the best way to diagnose when equipment isn’t working right! From there, you will be better informed to make the decision to fix something or to plan for a replacement. If you have any questions about what our training's look like, you can check out our Article Here or contact us anytime!

Danley Go2 Loudspeaker

3/11/2019

Danley Sound Labs introduces the Go 2 Series of versatile compact loudspeakers. These full range loudspeakers Synergy™ design philosophy and crossover topology for extremely flat phase response and performance. They are perfect for use in your sanctuary and conference spaces. This loudspeaker is constructed of high density urethane and carefully crafted for each order. Danley creates quality speakers and this loudspeaker will become your best Go2!

Lambda Design Services

2/19/2019

Here at Lambda Audio Visual we, like many of you, love to dream and try ideas with our company. One of the tips that we love to pass along is for you to visualize what it is you really would like to do and how you would like to communicate in your space. It's not just about what products you want to use, it's about creating the atmosphere to accomplish your goals and to create new dreams. That's why we are announcing a service we have been providing over the last year now as a tech tip available to all our customers!
Introducing Lambda Design Services. We know that it’s hard to make decisions based on a list of items, or even based on pictures of other rooms, buildings, and auditoriums.

With that said, we want to help you see what your room can look like based on your dreams and ideas. Take a look at some of the ideas we have put together over the last year. There are so many wonderful ways to show content with one regular size screen, two screens, an ultra-wide screen or even with a combination of screens and LED walls. Try us out, ask us to put together some views of your space, all we need is some measurements. Usually there is an additional cost involved, but because we want you to use the service and get benefit from it, any payed cost for Design is a 100% discount from services, installation, or products ordered based on the Design drawn up for you by Lambda. Try this out and try some fun new ideas, colored lighting, interesting screen sizes and shapes, or LED wall. Let us help you design your dreams and make them come true!

More Cable Options? Check Out the Cable that Can Do It All!

2/11/2019

A few articles ago we talked about HDMI cables and the drawback of only being able to run them 25ft or so. We also talked about how you can use SDI to get HD video signal over a long distance. But that isn’t all we have to tell you! There is a third option for you to consider!
This signal is a new comer on the video scene and is called HDBaseT. This signal was first created in 2010 and can be used for the transmission of ultra-high-definition video, audio, Ethernet, control, USB and even up to 100W of power! All of this is over a single cable! It’s the Mary Poppins of cables!

HDBaseT uses Cat6a cable, but because of all the different functions it can be used for, it uses specialized connectors. These look identical to a standard RJ45 connector but be warned! Because HDBaseT carries power as well, if you plug it into a standard RJ45 jack you can severely damage that piece of equipment! If you are unsure, its always better to ask rather than risk your equipment.

HDBaseT can be run up to 328ft giving far more flexibility in running video signal. This cable is also extreamly convenient in instances when paired with a piece of HDBaseT equipped gear. The PTZ camera, for instance, would usually require up to 3-4 cables for signal, power, and control, but with an HDBaseT connection you only need one! Think about all the money that could be saved by only running one wire connection. Not to mention the amount of time running cable through walls and ceilings. If you have a hard to reach place or a tangle of cables attached to that old equipment, it could be worth your time and money looking for an HDBaseT piece of equipment as a replacement and running one cable instead.

Creating Modern Meeting Places

2/5/2019

AAFCU Case Study

Meeting rooms in recent years have made a major transition in space needs. Gone are the days of a central computer at a podium or lectern in the corner or a large rack of automation equipment. The purpose is no longer for a single executive to speak to a room of employees. Meeting rooms today are dynamic environments with a number of people presenting in a live and cooperative environment.
This is where we began with AAFCU a local credit union in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Their IT staff came to us with the challenge of cleaning up an aging mess of wires and updating technology to turn an often-used board room space into an environment for creativity and corporate inspiration.
The first goals set were to clean up the existing hardware that had been ad hoc over the years for conferencing. Next they wanted to update viewability around the conference table for better engagement of all employees. The staff at Lambda Audio Visual set out to understand the problems of the conference room and it's designated uses and put together a solution to make the room usable for a new generation of meetings.

Meetings in the proposed room contain anywhere from 5 to 25 people and with the configuration of chairs around an circular table, clear visibility of the screen was not always possible. The projection at the front was underpowered and the screen small, so that those at the front of the room were unable to see the screen at all. We were able to solve this in two ways: first by improving quality of projection at the front of the room with a new 1080P resolution, 5000 lumen Sony laser projector. This easily doubled the brightness and clarity at the front of the room. Second, coupled with a new IDEEA screen from Da-Lite it also allowed the space to be used as a white board. This white board has a matte finish creating a surface that minimizes projection hot spots and creates a great writing surface all at the same time. At the back of the room we added a 75” Television from Samsung mirroring the projection feed and allowing for everyone around the table to get a great view of the presentation without putting a kink in their necks.

Conference calling, important in many conference rooms was not left out in this space. The staff at AAFCU had a high need for this capability to be easy to use and clean. With board members across the country and goals of working with other businesses across the community, conference calling is a capability they used often and hoped to make simple for quick use.

We chose to implement a ceiling-based system for cleanliness. Adding boundary microphones from Shure into the ceiling created even coverage of the room to pick up quiet voices and adding inset speakers from SoundTube to present clear call audio back to the room. To tie it all together we brought in a top of the line audio processor from Symetrix. Symetrix allowed us to do several fun things simplifying the calling experience for the staff. The audio processor includes auto mixing functionalities to balance the audio coming from the room microphones without needing to adjust anything manually. It also includes an auto echo canceling to filter audio coming from the speakers so that it will not echo back in the call. The Symetrix processor also included the ability to add a VOIP card compatible with AAFCU’s Cisco phone calling system and an easy sheet to help the IT staff in tying it into their systems.

With all of this great technology in the room we then needed a system to make it easy to use for the average staff member and to allow ease of use with a variety of different laptops, phones, and tablets. Enter the Atlona Velocity system! We have talked about Atlona before and we loved how it turned out here! Our team couldn’t be more impressed with how easy to configure and affordable this “Automation” system is. In previous years, meeting room automation technology was bulky, expensive, and required expensive programmers to make modifications. It was not easy to explain or use. The Velocity system is web based, extremely affordable and scalable! It was easy for our team to add each device and have workflows automatically created on a touchscreen for easily turning the room technology on and off and dialing a call.

Something particularly nice about Atlona is the ability to mirror an on the wall mounted touch screen with a table accessible iPad. AAFCU loved the wall mounted touch screen, but it was not as accessible sitting at the board room table. So in just a few minutes an iPad they already owned was added to the system with a simple app download. The touch screen manages all input switching with HDMI and USB C ports we mounted at the ends of the table. Also a WiFi based connection through KlikBoks allowing android, iPhone, Mac and windows laptop users all to wirelessly share a connection. Our “rack” of equipment was small, and out of the way where nobody needed to touch or move it. Ease of connection, ease of engagement, cleanliness, and ease of usability was created all in one package with a few simple components.

If you have meeting space with issues, outdated technology, or one that you are looking to increase usability in, give us a call or drop us a line on social media and let us make your meeting space a space of engagement and collaboration with people and technology. We want to help you to feel inspired and productive every time you sit down to meet.

FM 10 Stage Monitor

2/5/2019

This active Coaxial Stage Monitor Wedge from dB Technologies renders vocals with power and precision. It’s extended bass response and it’s compact full-range system make it ideal for monitoring vocals and keyboards. The FM Series monitors feature a powerful DSP that offers a crossover, digital multiband limiters, phase correction, and eight variable presets that serve to adapt the monitor to the varying demands of vocalists, instrumentalists, and audio playback applications.
This Monitor is low cost and has the added advantage of being powered, so you’ll save even more not needing to buy an amp. We love using this multi-purpose, quality monitor with customers who are looking for quality on a budget.

Superlux Communication System

2/5/2019

Here’s something new for you to check out! The Superlux IS-103 is a complete wired intercom system that provides clean, clear communication for video, film, broadcasts, house of worship and schools! This Superlux is a great low cost solution for auditorium and church staff communication between positions. It uses simple XLR mic cable and can support up to ten belt packs so you can keep everyone in the loop!

Comfortable, lightweight and easy to use, this could make communication seamless for everyone involved in your project. We love finding and providing affordable options for our clients for all your needs. If you are looking for something in particular, don’t hesitate to ask!

Knowing Your Cable-- Instrument Cable

2/5/2019

This week we are excited to take a look into the second part of our cable series!

Another type of cable you will find in many audio applications is an instrument cable. It is also known as a ¼” cable because of the ¼” jack you'll find on the end. ¼” plugs come in two varieties, TRS and TS. TRS stands for Tip, Ring, and Sleeve and carries a mono balanced signal. TS? You guessed it! TS are just Tip and Sleeve jacks. These carry a mono unbalanced signal. TS jacks are the ones used for instrument cables.

A ¼” cable is used to take weak un-amplified signal from a guitar or keyboard to a direct box or an amp, where it’s then boosted to a usable level. Instrument cables are unbalanced, so they can only be run a short distance before you begin to get unwanted noise into your audio signal. While you can run them up to 50’ its best to keep them to no longer than 25’ for your best sound quality.

Now like XLR mic cables, instrument cables also have a doppelganger. That is, the speaker cable. These two look the same, but are used for different purposes. An instrument cable is low power and high impedance. On the other hand, a speaker cable is the opposite, high power and low impedance. Speaker cable is built to carry a strong signal from your amp to your speakers, a signal with a relatively high AC current and voltage. Because of this difference, speaker cables require a higher gauge wire.
So, always make sure you’re using the correct cable for its intended purpose. Good news is it's an easy fix if you know what to look for!

February 05th, 2019

2/5/2019

It's time to check out a few different cables and exactly how they can effect your AV systems performance. There are so many different cables and making sure you know the difference and know which fiber to use could make the change you've been looking for.
Let's start with Mic cables! These are one of the two cables that you will come across on a regular basis if you work with audio. Now, mic lines actually consist of two components. The mic cable and the connector. The connector is an XLR connector. The reason this is an important distinction to note is because the XLR connector can be used for different connections, specifically 3-pin DMX. This can become confusing as on many stages you will see both mic lines and DMX cable. Now while these two cables look the same they are doing two completely different jobs. While mic line passes audio signal, DMX passes data and requires a much higher specification cable to perform that task. Because of that you can use a DMX as a mic line, but you should not use an mic cable as a DMX line. If you are in a situation where both mic and DMX 3pin cables are being used close to each other, it’s a good idea to mark or label each cable to ensure you or your volunteers don’t mix them up!

The reason XLR connectors are used on the end of mic lines to pass audio signal is that they allow you to pass shielded, balanced audio. I’m sure if you’ve spent any time in the audio world you hear the terms balanced and unbalanced audio. So, what is balanced audio? Mic line consists of a positive, negative and ground cables. The ground pin allows the signal to be shielded, cutting down on the amount of noise that can be introduced. The positive pin carries the signal and the negative pin carries the same signal with the polarity inversed. When the signal is combined at the other end of the cable anything that is not native to the audio signal will get canceled out. Because of this the final audio signal will have almost no unwanted noise from outside electrical interference. This preserves the original audio signal and gives you the ability to pass audio signal over very long distances.
Pretty neat, right? Cabling may seem insignificant, but it can really effect the quality of your production in the end. Make sure you have the right cables for your equipment and the right connections to create a flawless performance! Stay tuned for more info on other cabling coming up!