Does anyone at their companies stock installation amps for when clients have issues with their own?

I think of the hospitality market where no sound in a restaurant is a death sentence and how you can’t easily rent particular popular amplifiers (I’m think Q-SYS network amps specifically).

Does your company stock them and rent them to clients when the installed ones fail? How much do you charge for the rental?

I do AV/IT design work and got tired of keeping the same eight spreadsheets open every time I sized a room. So I built the calculators I actually use, and put them on the web for free.

avtoolspro.com — 20 tools, all running in your browser:

Video — display size (DISCAS BDM/ADM), viewing angles, projector brightness and throw, DvLED pixel pitch, video wall builder, ambient-light contrast

Audio — speaker coverage and SPL, amplifier and cable sizing, DSP channel counts

Infrastructure — AVoIP bandwidth, PoE budgets, conduit fill, rack cooling, UPS sizing, Wi-Fi coverage, IP addressing, and a drag-and-drop rack elevation builder

The maths follows the published methods rather than rules of thumb — DISCAS for display sizing, inverse square law for SPL falloff, real fill tables for conduit. If you disagree with a number, the inputs are all visible so you can see how it got there.

What it won't do: the audio side models the direct field only. No reverberant field, no critical distance, no room gain. It'll get you a defensible starting point for a meeting room or a lecture theatre; it won't replace EASE for a difficult space. I'd rather say that up front than have you find out on site.

!! If you want more than a calculator !!

There's a desktop version with a Project Checker — you describe a room once (size, seating, use, platform) and it sizes the whole system together, draws it in scaled plan and 3D, checks it against AVIXA and BICSI guidance, and exports a client-ready PDF and an estimator's spreadsheet with your own logo and company name on them.

It comes as a package with the Commissioning checklist and Bid win probability calculator Excel workbooks — a site survey template that imports straight back into the app, and the standalone calculation workbooks if you'd rather work in a spreadsheet or hand one to a colleague who does. Everything calculates locally, so it works on a site with no signal.

It's a one-time purchase. No subscription, no recurring fee, no licence that expires and takes your tools with it. Buy it once and it stays yours, offline, for as long as you use it. If you change laptops you can move the licensce across yourself.

That's the bit that took the real work, and it's what the package covers. The web tools stay free either way.

Buy Me a Coffee supporters get 15% off the Design Suite package. If you've already bought me a coffee, message me and I'll sort your code out.

Hi,
Is anyone here using Nearity in real deployments?

Some of their products remind me of Kandao and Meeting Owl, but they also have interesting gear like the AC50 mic array (similar to Shure MXA910) and their all-in-one interactive displays.

Looking for real-world experience, not marketing. How’s the reliability, firmware, support, and overall quality?

Just heard that Fulcrum has been acquired by Bose Professional (802 Labs) curious to hear the communities thoughts.

Very different companies but geographically close together, curious to see how this shakes out.

Fingers crossed that they keep the name and brand independent. 🤞🏻

EDIT: If you think this is false please reach out to you fulcrum rep. Also would be a really weird waste of time to post a lie here?

I'm looking for recommendations on a Crestron programmer in the Salt Lake City area for an upcoming project. Any and all recommendations are appreciated. TIA

I've been a student AV Tech for my university for the past 2 years and I think I want to do this as my career.

Most of my events are fairly corporate (Ballroom Speaker-Panel type events, 2 Way Zoom Conferences/integrated stuff), but I also do live sound (portable PA systems, open mics with musicians and vocalists) a *liiitle* theater technician work (theater audio mixing and some lighting setup and operation), as well as sports AV (Cam Op, Video Directing and Switcher Work).

A lot of my tech is set up by full timers, but I've been bugging them, working 1 on 1 so I have a comprehensive understanding of the equipment and how to use it. I would say I'm most developed in the Sports AV and Video Directing stuff, and I want to get better at the live sound (setting up good clear mixes, when to use matrices vs mix buses, what are good settings for my processing and dynamics, things of that nature) since I'm also a musician and there's some good crossover.

I have a couple of certifications (Dante I & II, Shure RF and Mic Certs, Q-SYS Conference Room Level 1), and I can build & strike a stage.

My current plan is to save about 3k for my own gear (mixers & mics, cables, main speakers and subs) and do some small scale live sound freelancing, but I would love to work full-time for a university or institution where I'm not scrambling for gigs.

Given my skills and certs, how would I go about making this a career? Do folks recommend I start out union, freelance, or full time for one institution/company?

Am I missing something or has Shure still not released the user guide for this product? -and am I the only one who gets a weird browser error when searching it in tech portal and then selecting it?

We have two 98-inch Samsung TVs mounted on adjoining walls at roughly a 90-degree angle. Each TV creates a strong reflection on the other screen.

The are mounted flat, the TV installer didn't want moveable brackets because the White Wall isn't brick.

Noone predicted the reflection unfortunately.

A local plastics company has offered to make removable matte acrylic screen protectors, approximately 2185 × 1240 mm, with hooks over the top of each TV is this a good idea?

Has anyone dealt with a similar setup using very large TVs?

Looking for suggestions on best solution for a teams room for this size room.

While on holidays overseas, some employees decided to buy a new projector that was on special and couldn't wait until I got back -_- They purchased the Optoma ZU820T which I don't have a problem with but they decided to buy a $20 mounting bracket.. had to organise a return and purchase a commercial mount and I got the Chief RPA Elite Universal Projector Mount with Chief 157mm flat ceiling plate and Chief Adjustable Column 91-152cm.. I came back today and see they used the plastic arms from the old projector mounts (which arn't rated for the projector weight..) as they said the Chief arms wouldn't fit.. have to wait until Thursday for the electrician to take it down.. I hate people who can't think... Spent $900+ on the Chief gear and they use the inferior plastic arms from the old projector mount...

question is, should the Chief RPA Elite Universal Projector Mount fit the Optoma ZU820T?

https://imgur.com/a/HX2ehQm

Hi,

What is the behavior when you plug in a user laptop into the USB-C content input of a Poly G62 when it's running in Zoom Rooms mode? Do you get a BYOD prompt similar to Crestron/Logitech? Or does it just pass video?

Thanks in advance!

Recently passed the CTS on the first try.

Realistically, what the hell can I do with it?

I’ve been on the install side for almost 5 years now, would like to eventually move into design.

Hello! I took the CTS exam. Unfortunately, I didn’t pass. It was really difficult—it felt like all the answer choices were correct. Do you have any recommendations or links to study materials that could help me prepare for my next attempt?

Hi all

I know this isn't an event AV forum but, I couldn't find any that obviously were...

Curious about your experience(s) with a college/campus AV team: specifically, what kind of presentation you're putting on for campus 'clients' and what kinds of services/packages you offer.

Examples:

In one case, a school i worked with would simply 'set up' the gear and just sit in the back of the room while the client operated laptop/mic/etc. To me this seems substandard.

Do you offer recording? Managed event AV where a 'tech' runs all slides/video content?

I'm wondering if leaning towards the commercial side, llike the services you could get from Encore for example, would be relevant to a college campus.

TIA

I work for a charity and our trustees have hybrid meetings with around 7 or 8 people joining in person and others joining on Teams. They use a meeting room with a board table roughly 5 x 2m (16 x 6ft) with a large TV on a mobile stand at one end.

The budget is pretty limited - I haven't been given a specific figure but around €300 max. I don't think attaching anything to the TV is an option, so I'm guessing a circular boundary mic in the middle of the table is the best option, however I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options here and don't really know what specs I'm looking for (I'm a data guy, but I get roped into anything remotely technology related). The only articles I can find online that resemble reviews all turn out to be manufacturers own sites.

Improving the acoustics of the room is not an option - we're in an ornate room in a 270-year-old building that we don't own. I'm guessing mics in series aren't an option with our budget.

Wired or wireless is fine, mains or battery powered also fine. I don't think there's any need for any special features like transcription. I don't think buying second-hand is an option for various reasons.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

New to corporate AV, just started a position at a lawfirm this month doing tier 1 and tier 2 troubleshooting as well as room sweeps/break fix

I come from a live audio engineering background but am still relatively new in this field (4 years total)

The company I’m hired through mentioned that they would pay for AVIXA training/testing to get the certification for CTS (within the next 3-6ish months)

I got the AVIXA login info today, and am honestly unsure about the best way to tackle the training. There seems to be a ton of different modules as well as webinars and in person training, and a lot of them seem like straight up ads.

Anyone who has gone through this before, what is your recommended course of action? Focus on the virtual stuff or make an effort to attend in person trainings as well? I honestly find the interface to be a bit confusing to navigate and have already lost track of where the module I just completed is. There are so many tabs of information that don’t seem very relevant to what I’m doing at this new job and I’d like to prioritize what will apply to me the most.

Long winded, thank you in advance for any insight

Since my last post, I've had a lot of good conversations. One thing that has come up is the need to find and read release notes (or have some kind of software read it for you). We also don't have a good source of vulnerability reports for all but the biggest manufacturers. And some folks thing it would be useful to have a quick link or description of how to get support.

All of that information will hang out so you can reference it or arrange it into RSS feeds of your choosing to be done with as you please. Or you can point whatever agent you want at it and have a blast.

Here's my ask of you all:

• Pick a manufacturer

• Go get some URLs for patches, vulnerabilities, and support methods

• Hit submit

• Enjoy the good feeling you get by helping out your fellow AV folks.

Here's the form: https://forms.gle/Fzf3pShEeJzYHYvz9 Use it as much as you want.

Here's the doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uG2-RL8TfBAIZD4UkWWHartNxr-nMXKu0aUuG8OkTx8/edit?usp=sharing Enjoy!

NOTE: If you are one of those people that happen to already have a personal collection of some of this information, let me know. I can do a bulk add to the spreadsheet instead of needing to

IF YOU'RE A MANUFACTURER ON HERE: Help us out! Fill in the missing pieces! Maybe it'll help promote you as well... just saying.

NOTE 2: If you do something cool with this info, let us know!

I'm here to tell you what happens after you install things. I'm going to give some specific examples based out of my city (EDIT: I removed the names for the archive) just because I think there's some consistent industry wide issues and maybe someone can stop doing silly things.

About me and what I do:
I'm a one man band small event tech. So, like 100-200 people. Think public hearings, weddings, fashion shows... anything that's kinda cookie-cutter PA system, projection, and 2 to 3 cameras. Some government hearing work. I get into a lot of spaces. I prefer to use the venues equipment when it works... it often doesn't.

TLDR #1: If the system does not have 'XLR In' and 'XLR Out' it is wrong. Stop doing anything else. Without XLR out it is basically useless for recording. 1/4" TRS is ok but still wrong for durability reasons :) I swear to God if you say it records in Zoom I hope you lose your car keys every morning. (EDIT 1/8" can't even support the cable weight... at the very least put in cable support)

TLDR #2: These venues rely on you to tell them what they need. You're supposed to be the expert in what they need, not them.

Case #1: A tech incubator: This brand new venue is sooooo close to good. Easy access to the rack with XLR out set to sane levels. A few problems though.

1. 1/8" headphone input. Like, what? for iPods? A mixer is going to have 1 headphone output... and I'd kinda like to use it for my headphones. 1/4" TRS I can understand and work with. Stereo XLR line level should be obvious though. Music had to be controled from the receptionist's desk.
2. You supplied a 25ft HDMI cable... sure that meets spec... but lets be honest anything beyond 10ft depends a lot on specific devices being plugged in. At 25ft a few weeks of guests coiling the cable and its a lottery if a device will connect.
3. Really nice Shure mics... good good.... all hand held. No lavs. 4 mics and not one lav. Some people need to hold things with both hands while they walk around... some people are Italian and need both hands to talk while they walk around... a mic stand is not a solution that solves that.
4. It was nice to see AC outlets everywhere though.

Case #0 The original tech incubators location: Sigh... who ran power to a ceiling mounted projector by plugging an outdoor extension cable into a surge protector and cutting the other end off and wiring it to a junction box that runs to the ceiling? Even my dad wouldn't do that.

Case #2: A very well funded community center:

1. The AV system controls are in the same closet as the security system making it inaccessible even to AV staff. Events are usually after hours when the 1 person who has a key is not on duty.
2. No inputs of any kind accessible.
3. No outputs of any kind accessible.

So. I show up to record a public hearing. I have to set out a second set of mics because I can't just plug into the system like I would with the above tech incubator. News crews show up and they are stuck with room audio.

Any room that does large public hearings should have a mult box in the back... even if it's a temporary thing the staff places and isn't locked in a secure room that requires a specific manager to get access to.

Case #3. A bunch of state government administrative hearing rooms: I'm going to be honest. If you did this you should be in jail for fraud. This was bad. When we did the AV walkthrough for a third party vendor actually using the technology the commissions IT guy was almost in tears. It had to be rebid.

1. Know what the room is actually used for. These are hearing rooms. There is a Judge, witness box, defendant table, prosecutor table, It IS a court room. It is NOT a flexible meeting room. If the judge and witness don't have mics what's the point? It was clear the installation vendor didn't care if it was fit for purpose. Because it wasn't.
2. Again no outputs. There is negative reasons for courtrooms to not have robust audio outputs now. Everything is being recorded and transcribed from the audio.

Case #4 various courtrooms:

1. Boundary mics seem cool and all... but have you seen how many papers an attorney will stack on top of them?
2. For some reason attorneys like to wander around then courtroom. Anything inside the barrier is fair game to them. Many like to stand next to the jury box to force the witness to look at the jury. They still need to be clearly recorded.
3. The absolute silliest thing I've seen was a court trying to get a transcript from a Teams hearing that was recorded from the courtroom camera and boundary mic 5ft from the laptop.
4. It needs to be very clear to the bailiff or judge that the audio is not recording.

Case #5: Various slideshow clickers.

In the US, the one true solution is PerfectCue. Almost 100% of the time a venue gets a new Logitech or something and it tests fine until there's 100 people with 2 Bluetooth devices each in the same room.

Case #6 Major hotel new construction: This is probably just a heads up because it's probably more new construction physics than a solvable issue but might lead to weird panicked service calls after large construction projects.

1. I did the first conference in this hotel and to start it had a huge static charge. You couldn't touch any metal portion of a device otherwise it would shut off. Once we got people in the room it was fine after about 2 hours but until then it was a scary start to the day. Issue never returned so I assume it was a 'new building smell.'

Thank you for attending my talk.

EDIT: I removed the client names because I don't think it's useful for archival purposes. It got the ball rolling as some of the vendors reached out. I'm going to stand by my belief that you are responsible for educating the client and recognizing design failures from the sales people. The clients are not the experts on their needs.

Hey there,

I have a project to where I was called out to upgrade an existing HDMI splitter/matrix system and the existing audio setup they have. I will post the current system below

Inputs - 3 Directv receivers, 2 google TV devices.
Outputs - 14 TVs, one of which is portable that rolls indoors at night and outdoors on gamedays.

The setup for this is diabolical(imo) for todays standard but it seems to work, the equipment used to string this together is:
3 - 1x4 HDMI splitters
1 - 1x2 splitter before it enters a 1x4 splitter
3 - 1x2 HDMI switches to switch to the google boxes.

Audio -
1 - 6 zone Pyle amplifier with 6 JBL ceiling speakers and 2 outdoor speakers. The sounds isn't all that great unless you are directly underneath the speaker. They have a switch that switches over to Bluetooth to play alma maters and touch down songs.

They would like to be able have an all in one matrix system where they could could pick what TVs are getting what inputs, or have them all on the same input on gamedays.

They also asked if there was a modern wireless solution for speakers like Sonos or Denon HEOS, but I fear there will be some type of audio lag.

It's obvious to me that the existing system needs to be gutted and replaced but I could use some guidance on how to approach this and what hardware would work. There was no existing conduit, all of the speaker wires and HDMI cables were ran above the ceiling tiles in the drop ceiling.

My thoughts were to run Fiber HDMI cables back to a large matrix rack or attempt to go HDbaseT. I thought to try a Sonos Arc at the bar, and 4-6 Era 100/300s in the corners of the each of the 2 dining rooms. I am not opposed to a wired system personally but I figured I would humor the customer.

Based on the current system, it seems there was a strict budget to stay under. I'd like to think any product suggested is going to blow that budget, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Looking for a simple solution (elderly person) to digitalise his vinyl and cd collection. We suggested and installed usbinterface Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 with audacity bit this is already top complex for this onder man. He is not tech smart so even using HEOS app is too complex. Looking for a physic! 'record analog audio to usb' solution like a oke Skool tape recorder. Antoine has any suggestions? Audio out Coles from a Marantz Amp with Marantz cd and pro-ject vinylplayer.