 As a student, a teacher, and now an AV professional working in schools, I have used many school AV systems. These systems typically were installed when the schools were built and lasted 15 or more years, untouched and unmaintained, before failing or exhibiting some signs of ending their functional lives. School budgets are tight and can’t be used to refresh a major room audio-visual system every five years. Lasting reliability is how we approached a new AV system in the natatorium for Pine Creek High School in District 20. The primary requirement, and place we started, was audio coverage. First, all speakers needed to be weather-tight with sealed connections for the highly corrosive pool environment. Second, school pool is a highly reverberant and ample open space. The sound echoes a lot, and by the time you add cheering parents, it can be a nightmare to hear what’s going on clearly. To address the clarity issue, we used higher-power speakers to get audio above room noise-level. We added more speakers to ensure each audience area around the pool had direct coverage rather than reflected coverage.
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 At Lambda Audio Visual we always want to make sure we spec the right tool for the job. As AV integrators it’s our job to take multiple tools and combine them into one functional, practical system. We love it when we find one great product suited for a specific task. This time that product was the Maxhub IFP or Integrated Flat Panel. This is a unique piece of equipment that we installed in a workspace and will continue to become very popular option for many businesses and collaborative community spaces!
When NAMI or the National Association On Mental Illness was moving into their new space they reached out to us for technical recommendations. They had a double meeting room with collapsible divider in the middle. They wanted this space to be functional for just about every type of meeting. Nami’s needs were a Zoom room, Microsoft teams, a white board, PowerPoint presentations, music, the list goes on and on. "Don't cross the streams. That would be bad." |
 | After weeks of rigging and installing tech gear, it’s on to wire pulls at Cross and Crown (CC). In preparation for starting at CC, we worked with their electrician on conduit layouts throughout the building to provide safe, easy places for wire runs. We tried to plan ahead by leaving space not only for what is needed now but for any future wire that might be added to the building later on. On this, as with many of our installs, we use a high-speed network backbone with fiber optic in between network switches to condense normally large groups of wires and provide flexibility. We still have plenty of analog speaker lines, camera lines, and other cable runs, but it certainly helps to reduce the amount of cable in a space. |
| With a map of the conduit in the building, we were able to produce a list of all the needed wire runs. To streamline the process, we built a schematic listing the start and destination for each wire as well as any stops it needed to make in between! Once wires are pulled, we begin “terminating” or putting ends on them and plugging them in. With the wiring complete and terminated, we get to move on to installing gear and racks, and beginning to move the final pieces into place to begin testing. It's great to see pieces being put in place and equipment turned on! In just a short amount of time, CC will be up and ready to move into their new building, but for now, we hope you have a restful Thanksgiving week! |  |
The phone began to ring and when I, Ryan, looked the caller ID read WJFW-TV in Rhinelander Wisconsin. I assumed it would be a scam call but answered anyway. On the other end, Marty and Walt from WJFW-TV were calling to discuss a previous article we wrote on an early PTZ camera design. The system they owned was a similar version to what we wrote about many years ago. When they saw how much we liked the system, they wanted to ask how we got it to work so well. I laughed, “We didn’t!"
When I (Ryan) was in high school, I took a series of courses from D20 as part of their tech pathway. These courses were all about becoming a Cisco Certified Network Associate. These classes offered basic understanding of how to setup, design, and configure computer networks. Fast forward to post college with a degree in Broadcast Video Production that I never thought I would use, but today basically all our Audio, Video, and Lighting systems use networks and use them in advanced ways.
 | When we first connected with Woodmen Valley Chapel (WVC) it was to look at solutions for specialty pan tilt zoom cameras for streaming. However, in a passing comment the tech staff noted that they had many problems with their Dante audio networking setup, and it wasn’t in a stable configuration. Talking with the staff about the issue, we were able to present a solution we knew would stabilize things for them. This solution was replacing the older network switches with a properly configured set of Netgear series M4250 switches. |
When it comes to networking today, the simple “dumb” switches, or switches straight out of the box, simply aren’t enough for demanding, time critical, AVL (Audio, Video, Lighting) events and systems. So much data is moving around in these systems that it is absolutely critical to have switches configured correctly for the protocol or service being used. In this case, Dante audio requires large loads of audio specific timing and multicast settings to make sure audio is delivered on time and the clock is never dropped.
| You might have noticed we’ve been a little quiet lately. We’ve been gathering and putting the final details on a few big, exciting projects! Over the next few months, we’ll be equipping a new build with brand new AV and will highlight the steps from finishing construction to a functional meeting space! |  |
We often break down entire video systems and give you an overview of everything we did on an install. This time we wanted to provide you with a glimpse into some of the thought processes of deciding what gear you should choose and how different combinations of equipment can change the result of your production.
While there is no wrong answer to what camera or lens you should select, you want it to fit your use case. When picking out the configuration of your AV gear, it can be hard to find the information required to even start to figure out what pieces you want, let alone what you actually need. We often see this come up with the Ursa Mini camera by Blackmagic Design. Blackmagic offers several Ursa Mini camera variations, and on top of that, multiple mounting options: Pl, B4, EF, etc. Let’s look at a quick overview of these.
We all know that the last few years have brought a lot of new ways in how people interact with AV. It has highlighted the area's businesses will need to focus on as they build their systems and seek to keep people engaged and connected through changing times. So, what does this mean for you, and how does it affect your vision for your business?
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Check out our resources page for FREE checklists and tools we mention in articles! We are here to help you improve and maintain your Audio Visual Systems!
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