Exretis Almo logo
Exretis Almo logo

Coach’s Corner | Overcoming the Fear of Asking For Help

by | Dec 15, 2023 | Professional Development, Uncategorized

A formal definition of the word “coaching” is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance.  To put it bluntly, I love to coach, whether that be the single season my daughter played soccer, training new employees while working in retail, or striving to help others reach their goals in present times. Although I am not formally trained as a business coach, I do have a passion for the subject. I think it’s why I love the role of Business Development Manager so much, because regardless of what I am doing, it allows me to help others. That is where the idea for Coach’s Corner was born.  By combining my enjoyment for writing and my passion for seeing others succeed, I hope to use this column as a consistent way to support others and motivate those striving for particular goals or attempting to overcome certain hurdles that may present themselves.

One of the biggest hurdles I have faced recently as a father of 2 daughters (ages 12 and 15) is that they seem to become extremely uncomfortable with the idea of asking for help, primarily at school.  It is a common occurrence for my youngest child to run into difficulties with her homework, only to find out she refused to ask questions during class, thus setting her back as she tries to grasp the lesson.  It continues to confuse me how she could be so afraid of her teacher, until I look at what we might experience as adults and the similarities between the two.  Much like the question I always ask my daughter in regard to her teacher, why does it seem like adults still hold onto some of that same fear when it comes to asking questions from their superiors? I can tell you from past experiences in my career that a lot of the explanation has to do with how minds are trained similar to that of a dog.  Think about it for a second. When you bring home a new pet, you normally start training the animal on what’s right and what’s wrong, and while there is surely an accident along the way, the pet eventually trains its mind to know how to get your attention, how to signal it needs to go outside, etc. There was a moment in the earlier stages of my career where I experienced something similar, and it took years to retrain my mind to think and react otherwise.

Woman Raising HandI worked for a company that had a product catalog 3 times the size of those old Sears catalogs from the 1980s.  Inside, it had every little connector, cable, and electronic device you could possibly think of.  As a new employee on the job, I was given this catalog as a “bible” to the job and told to “learn it.” Nonetheless, I was inquisitive as a new hire and would regularly ask my manager questions about what part was appropriate for the job I was working on.  Without fail, my boss would always start his reply with “Rob, I know we have reviewed this,” before eventually guiding me on the solution.  I would sit at my desk left to think how there was no possible way he had reviewed every part on every page in that catalog.  To compound this even more, I had more than a decade of experience under my belt, so I came into the role with a decent foundation to start with.  My mind then became trained to not go to that boss for future questions, because I did not like being made to feel as though I was always wrong or forgetful.  While that experience did not completely eliminate my ability to ask questions, it certainly set me back some because, much like my daughter, became intimidated at the thought of asking because I didn’t want to be made to feel as though I was lesser or not good enough.

How many of us have experienced a similar situation recently and how did you approach it?  A lot of my solutions to combating this continued fear also rely on businesses to enforce an “open door policy” to asking questions, looking for ideas, etc. I am fortunate to work for a company with those exact enforcements.  I also subscribe to two different methods with how I parent my children and I employ these exact two methods on a daily basis in my career:

Method 1 – Rip The Band-Aid

Regardless of what the fear may be, I have learned that most times it is appropriate to just rip the proverbial band-aid, withstand the initial rush of fear, and then reap the rewards in the end.  By training your mind to “fight” instead of “flight” and message your boss or speak up on a call with the question, you will find the situation was never that bad to begin with.  I’ve used this model when having to deliver less than positive news on a project, errors that I may have made, or yes, even asking a question or stating on a call “I do not understand.”  The hurdle is always going to be getting over that self-induced rush of fear and just blurt out your question.  However, I promise it will be worth it and you will even be respected for speaking up.

Method 2 – Worst Possible Outcome

This method was something I actually just used yesterday with my oldest daughter.  She is studying for her written driver’s test (Yes, I am losing my mind!) and was making herself “nerv-cited” as she calls it – a blend of nervous and excited.  I said to her, calmly, “Ok, so I know you think this is a big deal, but what is the worst possible thing that could happen?”  She replied, “Well, I could fail the exam.”  I countered back with “Ok, and if you fail, what happens?” to which she said, “I retake it in 7 days.” Instantly she smiled and you could tell she cleared her own mind.  When we sit calmly and rationalize with ourselves, 90% of the time, we find that the situation is never as negative as we make it seem.  Why be so afraid to ask a question?

Entering my 7th year in Pro AV, I can assure you that these methods can be applied to most roles.  Whether that be on the job with a client and needing to re-draw a proposal/BOM, on a Teams call with your executives and not understanding the direction given out, or even asking for help and not wanting to be viewed as “weak” or “ill-suited” for your role.  Asking questions is a commendable characteristic and while I did struggle with it early on, I now pride myself on speaking up rather than risk making future errors or missing out on opportunities.

I hope this first edition of Coach’s Corner helped some of you with current or past dilemmas you may have faced. Much like my children and how we were taught in school, if you have a question, it is normally a safe bet that many others are wondering the same thing. If I can be of any further support on this topic or others, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Enjoy this blog?
Let Rob know over on LinkedIn …and/or connect with #ExertisAlmo on our LinkedIn company page.

Robert Voorhees

About the Author

Rob Voorhees | CTS, CTP, DSCE, CTNS, Dante

BDM II – Technical Specialist

Supported Manufacturers: Business Communications Services, and Harman: AKG, AMX, BSS, Crown, DBX, JBL, Soundcraft, Martin Lighting

Edition 7 of “This May Be a Dumb Question, but…” – Audio 101

by | Aug 17, 2023 | Pro Audio, Professional Development, Uncategorized

Blog Series written by Exertis Almo's Ashley Nichols, CTS, DSCE & John Borns, CTS, DSCE.

Welcome to Issue 7 of “This may be a dumb question, but…”. This week, we’re going to tackle some basic questions with audio. This should be a fun one since neither of us would really call ourselves “audio experts.” Luckily, we have a whole team of audio experts on staff at Exertis Almo who will tell us about all of the things we got wrong. 😅 We’re going to share the ways we’ve come to understand some basic principles of audio that we’ve gathered by asking some dumb questions. Below are two questions we hear most frequently from newbies (like us), so hopefully these basic answers will help you feel empowered enough to dig a little deeper and expand that audio knowledge!

QUESTION

What’s the difference between 8ohm vs. 70-volt audio systems?

ANSWER

We will start by saying this: One is not better than the other, no matter what you hear. They are made for different situations and require different levels of sophistication and wiring. This is where your “needs analysis” also comes in, because you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary work if you ask: Is audio the driving NEED of the space, or is it just adding to the experience? Do you need to be able to scale the system later, or cover large areas now? How many audiophiles7 will be in the room to tell you that you chose the wrong brand? All important questions. Here is a chart to help you get an ‘at a glance’ feel for which system could be right for you:

8ohm 70v
Flexibility May require larger changes to the system if you add/remove speakers Most flexible, can add/subtract a few speakers without issue typically
Sound Quality Best Just Fine
Cost Effectiveness Less Expensive More Expensive
Scalability Not ideal for large spaces/long distances Best for large spaces/longer cable runs
Ease of Install Straight forward wiring, less components Relatively easy but may require additional components that add to the cost, time, and attention to detail
Room Size Smaller Spaces Large spaces, multi zone, etc.

As I said at the beginning, neither of these are truly “better” than the other. Like all of us, they just shine brighter when they are used in the right space at the right time. In another episode, we would be happy to go over the wiring differences between the two in more detail, so drop a line in the request section if you think that would be beneficial to you!

QUESTION

What’s the difference between mic level and line level audio?

ANSWER

If you’re a seasoned audio veteran, this probably sounds like the simplest question possible. Well, for someone like me who broke into the industry selling cables, it took me a while to fully understand what the difference is between these, and when/how to work with each one. Phoenix blocksFor me, I was always looking for the connectors on the cables to give me some sort of indication as to what signal they were sending, and to a certain degree they do. An XLR mic cable is GENERALLY used to for mic level audio, but not always. In many cases, there aren’t cable connectors at all, sometimes there’s just PHEONIX1 block connectors. Anyway, it became clearer to me when I learned that they’re all pretty much the same signal just at different voltage levels.

  • Mic Level – I was absolutely floored when I first learned that mic level signals are the signal that is produced by a microphone. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. Anyway, microphones are sensitive and produce very low signals, usually measured in mVa (millivolts)2. This signal would not be strong enough to produce and audio signal that you could do anything useful or be able to hear at all.
  • Line Level – The mic level audio signal that we just mentioned will need an audio device to bring that voltage of that signal up to line level. I personally think that line level would be better referred to as “Do Stuff Level”, because this is audio engineers like “do stuff” with the audio signal. Mixing, processing, recording, etc. are all done at line level. Ask Tom Kehr and he will agree that we should start referring to this as the “Do stuff level”. These signals are stronger, usually measured in 1V (volt). Once the signal has been processed and has all of the stuff done to it, it’s ready to be sent out to an amplifier which will bring it to speaker level.
  • Speaker Level – Get this: this is the signal level used to power speakers. The voltage4 is much stronger than line level, usually measured between 10V and 100V. The power of this signal is strong enough to move the physical cones in the speakers to produce the sweet sounds of the Taylor Swift concert that Ashley couldn’t get tickets for (not for lack of trying).

lord of the rings analogySo, really, an audio signal is just like a little hobbit making a journey through Middle Earth. It leaves the Shire weak, but full of ambitions (mic level), it journeys through Middle Earth where it “does a bunch of stuff” (line level) before it finally reaches its final destination in Mordor (speaker), where it finally gets to dunk the ring of power into the fires of Mount Doom and achieve the righteous sounds of a fully produced audio experience.

Vocab Test Time!

Are these the most detailed definitions? No – we are not a dictionary, nor the AVIXA CTS Prep book. Will someone message us after still telling us how much we missed? Possibly. Will these get you a basic working knowledge of these terms and why they matter? 😄 We hope so. Plus, we are 99% sure one of these words will be on your kids’ back to school pop quiz!

  1. Phoenix Block – a.k.a. Euroblock, a.k.a. combicon, essentially a low voltage terminal block commonly used in mic or line level audio signals, but you can also see it in RS232 or RS485 control signals as well.
  2. mVa or Millivolts – one-thousandth of a volt
  3. Milli Vanilli – French-German R&B group that rose to fame and fell to infamy in the last 80’s-early 90’s.
  4. Voltage (E). – The difference in charge between two points, caused by the pressure that forces the current to flow. Voltage is measured in volts.
  5. Current (I). – The rate at which the current flows. Current is measured in amperes, which are also referred to as amps.
  6. Resistance (R). – The rate at which a material resists the current’s flow. Resistance is measured in ohms.
  7. Audiophile – A person with A LOT of passion and enthusiasm around high-quality audio experiences.

Thanks for Reading and Asking Your Questions!

Do you have more ‘dumb’ questions? Share your questions here and we will get you an answer.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Connect with us and #TeamExertisAlmo over on LinkedIn.

Ashley Nichols, Dir BizDev

Ashley Nichols | CTS, DSCE

Director of Business Development

Supported Manufacturers: Sony

John Borns, BDM

John Borns | CTS, DSCE

Services Development Manager – Central

Exertis Almo Professional Services

Edition 6 of “This May Be a Dumb Question, but…” – Connections

by | Jun 27, 2023 | Professional Development, Uncategorized

This Blog Series is written by Exertis Almo's Business Development Managers: 
Ashley Nichols, CTS, DSCE, and John Borns, CTS, DSCE.
Welcome back to another thrilling edition of “This may be a dumb question, but…”. Cables must be in the zeitgeist because we’ve received a bunch of questions around cables lately. Maybe it’s because of Pat Booth’s recent Behind the Panel blog post, or maybe his blog is just a symptom of the industry’s thirst for cabling knowledge. Either way, we’re going to attempt to assuage that desire for cable information by hitting on all the hot topics. Instead of our normal format in which we tackle two equally important questions, we’re going to put together a “dumb questions” guided tour to AV cables and why, when, where, and how to use them.

Now, before we get too into the weeds with ALL of the types of cable connectors in the world, I think it’s important to address that we’re only here to talk about AV cables today. We ain’t talkin’ power cords, ain’t talking data cables.

AV cables have been around for a long time, but they have changed quite a bit in recent years. For most of the history of the AV industry, it was necessary to run your video signal and audio signals on completely different cables. The old Red, White and Yellow RCA5 cables were at one time a groundbreaking evolution because they ran those signals in a more streamlined fashion. You probably still have some of these lying around in a drawer somewhere, and if you do, I can assure you that you almost certainly will never need to use them again. Let it go, it’s ok. It’s FINE. In fact, as recently as when we both passed our CTS tests (humble brag), 6 years ago, there was still a great deal of attention paid to the differences between composite 5.1, component 5.2, and VGA 4 video signals. This was all very necessary and important when the primary video signals we were using were analog signals, but with advances in technology, most of the video signals we deal with today are all digital signals. Thankfully, some very clever people figured out better ways to do things and we now have some simpler digital cables that we primarily deal with today.

DVI-D cable

DVI-D Cable

DVI (Digital Video Interface)1

DVI was the AV industry’s first main adopter of digital video technology. It came out as the digital replacement to the VGA4 cable, which carried analog signals and had many limitations.

VGA cable

VGA Cable

In fact, if you look at it, you can see the similarities. Both had the locking screws that professionals wanted. Similar to VGA, it only carried video signals, meaning you needed another cable to run audio. At the time, it could offer superior resolutions 3840 × 2400 @ 30 Hz, which was its main upside. However, because display manufacturers were slow to adopt this standard, much of its time with us was defined by trying to convert and adapt it to other analog systems that were still around. At one point, there was a lot of confusion around DVI-A, DVI-I, and DVI-D – it became too much for people to really embrace. Have you ever started a new office job and been given two monitors to set up, and the IT guy hands you this wild looking cable that has a bunch of little pins in a configuration you’ve never seen? You may have been looking at a DVI cable. This was many people’s experiences with DVI – not really knowing what it was or how it was different. I’ll admit, I had never heard of this connector type prior to my tenure at Legrand almost 10 years ago. It was certainly superior to ye ole’ VGA cable in terms of video quality, but it would soon be completely outmatched by HDMI or DisplayPort. Here’s why…

HDMI cable
HDMI Cable

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)2

Though released in 2002, HDMI didn’t start showing its (inter)face on HDTV’s until around 2004. By 2009, it had largely taken over sales of the previous digital interface, DVI, and was created to be backwards compatible with DVI. HDMI caught on in the consumer world first, offering the ability to run both audio and video on a single connector. HDMI soon became the preferred connector on Blu-ray players and videos games, driving the need for more adoption from display manufacturers. HDMI also offered some new features like HDCP (which is content protection that prevents digital signals from being pirated) and CEC (which allows for you to turn on your PlayStation 5 and it will turn on your TV automatically), to name a few. Fast forward to today, and we are on HDMI iteration 2.1, which allows HDMI to carry up to an 8K signal at 60Hz, which is the best there is at the moment, even if we typically don’t see other devices or content right now that would require this. This is all well and good for the home consumer, but it doesn’t offer some features that the Pro AV world looks for, and that’s where DisplayPort comes in.

DisplayPort3

DisplayPort, which was created back in 2006, really shouldn’t be considered a competitor to HDMI. Think more Messi vs. Lebron; Both are great in their own space and could complement each other in a system while maintaining their status. DisplayPort was specifically designed to replace DVI and VGA in computer environments, which is why you often see DisplayPort on computers and computer monitors, and not HDTV’s in your home. DisplayPort’s key differences are that the connectors have a locking mechanism (similar to the old VGA and DVI cables). Additionally, DisplayPort has a cool feature that allows you to daisy chain between displays, which is very handy in video wall applications. Arguments on the superiority of DisplayPort vs. HDMI may have stemmed from back in 2009 when DisplayPort was already able to support 8k at 60Hz with DSC, or Display Stream Compression, which is nearly a decade before HDMI could do that.

displayport cable
DisplayPort Cable
*note: while the connector looks VERY similar to an HDMI connector, you will not that only one corner has the ‘notch’ while the other corner is a 90 degree angle2, indicating it is a DisplayPort cable*

As it stands now, HDMI is preferred for AV applications when traditional TVs and displays are involved, and DisplayPort is still the main preference for PC and gaming applications. There are many details and nuance we are overlooking, but this is the 40,000 foot view of the two.

Vocab Test Time!

Are these the most detailed definitions? No – we are not a dictionary, nor the AVIXA CTS Prep book. Will someone message us after still telling us how much we missed? Possibly. Will these get you a basic working knowledge of these terms and why they matter? 😄 We hope so.

  1. DVI – stands for “Digital Video Interface”. First on the scene in the digital video world. Mainly only still used in niche applications but helped paved the way for HDMI and DisplayPort. DVI had to walk so that they could run. The world just wasn’t ready for him.
  2. HDMI – stands for “High-Definition Multimedia Interface.” The de-facto standard for audio/video today. Many features that appeal to consumers. You have a ton of these in your house, you can probably get rid of a few, but they’re not hurting you.
  3. DisplayPort – stands for “DisplayPort.” Another popular digital connection. Primarily used in the PC based applications, featuring some specific professional features that HDMI lacks.
  4. VGA – stands for “Video Graphics Array,” previous video signal standard on projectors and monitors. The industry has tried to retire analog tech like this for over a decade.
  5. RCA – stands for “Radio Corporation of America” and was the company that designed the connectors that were used to transport composite and component signals.
    • 5.1 – Composite Signal: red/yellow/white connectors you used to connect your Nintendo to the tube TV
    • 5.2 – Component Signal: red/blue/green connectors that supported high definition, and you used to connect the first Xbox to your TV
    • 5.3 – Compartmentalize: How I deal with my personal issues. Let’s not explore that too deeply.

Thanks for Reading and Asking Your Questions!

Do you have more ‘dumb’ questions? Share your questions here and we will get you an answer.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Connect with us and #TeamExertisAlmo over on LinkedIn.

Ashley Nichols, Dir BizDev

Ashley Nichols | CTS, DSCE

Director of Business Development

Supported Manufacturers: Sony

John Borns, BDM

John Borns | CTS, DSCE

Business Development Manager

Supported Manufacturers: Legrand AV (NE, SE, MW) – Chief, C2G, Da-Lite, Luxul, Middle Atlantic, Vaddio, Wiremold

Edition 5 of “This May Be a Dumb Question, but…”

by | Apr 28, 2023 | Professional Development, Uncategorized

This Blog Series is written by Exertis Almo's Business Development Managers: 
Ashley Nichols, CTS, DSCE, and John Borns, CTS, DSCE.

If you’ve been following along with our blog series for the past few months, you may have been led to believe that the only questions we ever get are related to projection systems. Who could blame you? You’ve obviously read 3 straight issues of our critically acclaimed mini-series on projection (edition 2, ed 3, and ed 4). Well, I hate to break it you like this, but you’d be wrong. We get all sorts of questions – and maybe you shouldn’t go around assuming things so much. 🤣 Maybe we shouldn’t have dedicated 80% of our blogs thus far to 1 topic. 🤔 There’s no way to know for sure. Anyway… Today, we’re going to talk about AV racks! Another seemingly mystifying part of the AV ecosystem that we’re going to try and make sense of for you.

QUESTION

John, Are these rackshelves/lacing bars/drawers compatible with my rack?
or… John, I have 8 pieces of gear. What size rack do I need?
or… John, How do I know if these pieces of gear will fit in my rack?

ANSWER

These may appear to be different questions, but in actuality, they all stem from not knowing the same basic principles about AV racks. Questions like these are very near and dear to Ashley and me, because we asked a lot of these questions when we first started working together at Middle Atlantic Products many moons ago. We totally remember what it was like trying make heads and tails of how racks work and how everything goes together and what goes where. It wasn’t until a kind soul (shout out to Jason Pavia!) came along and totally bailed us out and taught us how everything works. The beauty about racks is that they are actually very straightforward because there are rack STANDARDs in place.

Firstly, let’s talk about the width of the rack1. Every rack (as far as I know) is 19” wide between the rails. So, anyTHING that wants to be rack mountable is going to conform to that width. Power strips, amps, shelves, mixers, you name it – they’re all going to be that width (or have some additional rack mount hardware that allows to it to cover that space). You pretty much never need to worry about whether or not something will fit into a SPECIFIC rack, because all racks are same size.

The second thing to know is the RACK UNIT2 (or RU as it’s more commonly referred to). A rack unit is always 1.75” high…but that doesn’t really even matter, because everything that is going to be mounted onto a rack must confirm to a solid RU measurement. So those amps, power strips, drawers, etc., that we mentioned above, are all 1 RU, 2 RU, 3 RU etc. So, knowing all of that, you can confidently assume that all of your rack mountable gear will fit in whatever rack you end up going with AND you can determine how tall of a rack you need by simply knowing how many pieces of gear you’re putting in there and how many RUs they occupy.

The last thing consider is the depth of the rack3. This is where the standards sort of dry up. The main thing to concern yourself with here is the depth of your DEEPEST piece of gear. You pretty much just need to make sure that it’s deep enough to accommodate that one piece, with a little extra room for cables and air flow. So, if you have a 20” deep UPS, you’ll probably want to get like a 24” deep rack.

QUESTION

How do I know which type of rack to choose? Wall-mounted? Gangable?
Why would someone need one vs the other?

ANSWER

I’ll admit that no one has asked me this question exactly, but it is an amalgamation of a general overwhelming feeling people have when trying to start looking for a rack. There are a TON of options out there and knowing which ones to use and when can feel intimidating at first. This is really where understanding the needs of the system and users is critical. Most racks are built with a certain type of application in mind. Let’s hit on a few of the common ones and why people would want to consider them.

wall-mountable rackWall-Mounted Racks – There a few different uses here. Mainly, if you have smaller rack need…something like 8-10 RUs….it may be easier to access the gear for use or service by having it hanging off of the wall at eye level. Bending down or kneeling to get to the gear can be an unwanted nuisance, especially if the gear is being accessed routinely. Additionally, maybe you want to keep the gear away from small people with bad intentions – kids. Wall-mounted racks are used in classroom applications. Also, simply having the rack secured to the wall can save space in some locations and may help keep a cluttered closet a little more organized.

Gangable5 Racks – This is really just a way of describing racks that can be fixed to one another in a row. If you’ve ever infiltrated a high security data center to get access to the heavily guarded corporate secrets, then you’ve undoubtedly seen a bunch of server racks “ganged” together. This allows for multiple racks to sort of operate as one larger unit, allow for cables to pass more easily between one another, save space, etc. Additionally, maybe you have a small system now, but one to potentially expand in the future. Getting gangable rack will allow your system to be scalable…to expand into a second rack down the line.

AV rack2-Post Racks vs 4-Post Racks – Generally speaking, in AV applications, you won’t commonly use 2-posts racks. These are typically used in network-based applications with thinner patch panels and lots of wire management needs. 4-post racks are sturdier and can handle heavier AV gear like your amplifiers, DSPs, Mixers etc. Also, 4-posts racks can be more easily built into larger cabinets, which gives them additional options that may improve your system. Speaking of which…

Other things to consider – Security, thermal management, additional storage, etc. I’m certainly not going to be able to do these additional considerations justice. Racks that can have fully welded side panels, and lockable doors are much secure than those that don’t. Some racks are better equipped to manage the heat in the rack (which is critical to control if you want to preserve the life of your gear). Some racks have more room inside the cabinet, or can accommodate special accessories, making it much easier to mount small devices and power strips. Knowing which of these features are critical for your project will help guide you towards the right rack. Luckily, we’re here to help guide you if you need some help!

Vocab Test Time!

Are these the most detailed definitions? No – we are not a dictionary, nor the AVIXA CTS Prep book. Will someone message us after still telling us how much we missed? Possibly. Will these get you a basic working knowledge of these terms and why they matter? We hope so. Plus, we are 99% sure they will help you impress your grandparents when you reset their WIFI. 🤔

  1. Width of rack – always 19”, doesn’t matter the rack.
  2. Rack Units (RUs) – 1.75” per rack unit. Describes the height of a rack and rack mountable gear.
  3. How deep is your rack – Make sure it’s deeper than your deepest piece of gear.
  4. How deep is your love? – I really need to know…
  5. Gangable – Racks that can be easily connected together.

Thanks for Reading and Asking Your Questions!

Do you have more ‘dumb’ questions? Share your questions here and we will get you an answer.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Connect with us and #TeamExertisAlmo over on LinkedIn.

Ashley Nichols, Dir BizDev

Ashley Nichols | CTS, DSCE

Director of Business Development

Supported Manufacturers: Sony

John Borns, BDM

John Borns | CTS, DSCE

Business Development Manager

Supported Manufacturers: Legrand AV (NE, SE, MW) – Chief, C2G, Da-Lite, Luxul, Middle Atlantic, Vaddio, Wiremold

5 Keys to Selecting a New Projector

by | Apr 18, 2023 | Professional Development, Projectors, Uncategorized

Five Things to Consider When Selecting a New Projector

When it comes to producing large displayed images of 100” or more, projection technology is the front runner when it comes to cost, ease of installation, and system maintenance over time. While projector brightness is a key consideration, it is not the only factor you should be looking at when selecting a new projector. Here are some others that I recommend you should be looking at:

1. Projection Technology

If you have been in the industry for over a decade, you likely remember regularly being asked the question, “What’s better, plasma or LCD?” We no longer have that choice since the extinction of plasma displays, however, with projectors, we do have choices in the type of technology. The most common types of projection technology are 3 LCD, 1-Chip DLP, and 3-Chip DLP, with LCoS as a less common option for commercial projectors. While both are perfectly acceptable, 3 LCD typically will produce more vivid saturated colors and DLP may produce “blacker” blacks. Most noticeably with 1-Chip DLP, because of the color wheel, the brightness or lumen output when producing color images will often be significantly lower than the specified lumen rating. 3 LCD projectors will output the full specified brightness whether projecting full white or full color images. For more detailed information regarding color brightness, check out this article.

2. Resolution & Aspect Ratio

With projection, you have three common native aspect ratios to choose from (4:3, 16:9, and 16:10). According to PMA Research, over 75% of projectors sold have a native aspect ratio of 16:10, the majority of which are WUXGA with the remaining at WXGA. Additionally, they report that roughly 20% are native 16:9, with the majority being 1080p and a relatively small segment that are native 4K. This means there is still, albeit small, a percentage of native 4:3 projectors being sold. The important thing to remember here is that you want to match the aspect ratio of your screen to the native aspect ratio of your projector. Whether you are retrofitting a new projector to an existing screen, or installing an entirely new system, you need to be mindful of this. Also, be aware of the source signal you will be sending to the projector, especially if you need to display a 4K signal. While native 4K commercial projectors are expensive and choices are limited, there are many options that are native WUXGA (1920×1200) that support a 4K signal with pixel shifting technologies, like 4K enhancement.

St Eds theater Epson3. Image Position & Adjustment

in a perfect world, you would not have to worry about projector placement relative to the projection screen, however, things like light fixtures and HVAC systems can prevent you from installing the projector dead center of screen. While most projectors offer horizontal and vertical keystone correction, you sacrifice some image quality when using this. A better option is to use a projector that features lens shift, so that the image can be repositioned horizontally and vertically without any digital manipulation of the image.

4. Throw Distance/Projector Placement

the projected image size will be determined by the available distance or “throw” you have in a particular space between the front of the projector lens and the projection screen surface. Unless the projector you are considering offers interchangeable lenses, as your desired image size increases, so does the required throw distance. A key specification of any projector or projection lens is the throw ratio. For a zoom lens, this is expressed as a range of two numbers representing distance compared to the number one, which represents your image width, for example (1.35-2.20:1). In this case, this specification states that the throw distance can range between 1.35 x the image width up to 2.20 x the image width. For a 10ft wide image, the throw distance then can be anywhere between 13.5ft – 22ft. It will be important to understand any limitations regarding projector placement relative to the screen and to choose a projector that will meet those requirements.

5. Connectivity

This may seem like a no-brainer since the majority of sources are now HDMI and pretty much every projector will include at least one HDMI input, however, in many cases the projector will be mounted just below the ceiling in the middle of a room. This could be a considerable distance away from the video source. Often, for cable lengths beyond 50ft HDBaseT HDMI extenders are used to send the audio, video, and control signals a long distance over a single Cat6 cable. Selecting a projector that includes an HDBaseT input can save you money on the extension hardware, simplify the installation, and reduce points of failure.

Whether you are looking to provide large images for a house of worship, create interactive experiences in classrooms, incorporate projected images into a presentation stage, integrate a command and control center, or deliver just about any type of large displayed visual image, a projector exists to get the job done.

What other things do you look for when specifying projectors? Let me know over on LinkedIn.

Brian Rhatigan headshot
About the Author

Brian Rhatigan | CTS, DSCE

Director of Business Development

Supported Manufacturers: Epson, Huddly, Kramer, Jabra

Edition 4 of “This May Be a Dumb Question, but…”

by | Mar 30, 2023 | Professional Development, Projectors, Uncategorized

This Blog Series is written by Exertis Almo's Business Development Managers: 
Ashley Nichols, CTS, DSCE, and John Borns, CTS, DSCE.

Welcome to our 4th and final issue focusing on projection topics. The most commonly asked questions we receive to have do with determining screen size, throw ratio, and brightness. We’re going to attempt to tackle those here today. To get here, we first wanted to make sure that you were knowledgeable enough to be dangerous when it comes to picking out screens and determining which TYPE of projector you need. If you’re coming in late on this, see our previous posts – edition 2 or edition 3.  WARNING: This may take a teensy bit of math, so get out your scratch paper!

FIRST UP: We need to understand aspect ratio.(1)

Simply put, aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and the height of a screen. It’s critical to know this so that we can ensure that the shape of projected image fits neatly within the screen. Every projector has a native aspect ratio, so ideally, you can pair a screen and projector with this information. Fortunately, this isn’t too much of a challenge, as MOST modern professional projectors can be programmed to support all sorts of aspect ratios. Why is this? Basically, the projector needs to be able to support anything you plug into it (computers, Blu-rays, you name it). Additionally, projectors don’t have the same lifespan as screens, so it’s very likely that you will need to match a new projector to an old screen. If someone took down the old projector and punted it into the sea before you had chance to know what it was, you can confidently install a new projector and trust it can adapt to the screen. Below are some common aspect ratios, and more specifically, the most common aspect ratios you will see in projection are 16:9, 16:10, and occasionally still a 4:3. The others are more commonly seen in LCD’s, gaming monitors, IMAX, etc., so we will ignore them for now.

ASPECT RATIO POSSIBLE RESOLUTIONS OTHER FORMS YOU WILL SEE
32:9 3840×1080, 5120×1440, 7680×2160 DFHD, DQHD, 32:9, DUHD
21:9 2560×1080, 3440×1440, 3840X1600, 5120×2160 21:9 Ultrawide
16:9 1280×720, 1366×768, 1600×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440, 3840×2160, 5120×2880, 7680×4320 HD, FHD, 4K UHD, 8K UHD
16:10 1280×800, 1920×1200, 2560×1600 WUXGA, WXGA, WQXGA
4:3 1400×1050, 1440×1080, 1600×1200, 1920X1440, 2048X1536 XGA, SDTV

*Note: ‘other forms’ does not encompass all possibilities, just some of the most common forms

To calculate Aspect ratio when you aren’t sure what you have, the formula is Width divided by Height (W/H=AR). For example, pretend you have a screen that you measure and it is 125” wide by 70” high. 125” divided by 70” is 1.777. BEFORE you say, “Ashley, that is NOT on this list of aspect ratios!”— here is a handy tool to convert to nomenclature that is more common:

ASPECT RATIO ALSO ASPECT RATIO
16:9 1.78:1
16:10 1.6:1
4:3 1.33:1
21:9 2.33:1

These calculations MEAN the same thing: for every 16 units wide, there are 9 units high, or for every 1.777 units wide, there is 1 unit high. If you’re using an old fashioned calculator on your desk instead of some of the calculation tools out there on the World Wide Web, then you will see these decimals and can easily convert over to the more commonly used terms on the left.

SECOND UP: Throw ratio.(2)

Why do you need this? Well, if the aspect ratio is making sure you have the right shape of screen, the throw ratio will help make sure you have the right lens on the projector in relation to where you are mounting it, so that your image fills the screen to your liking. To calculate the throw ratio, you divide the distance from the projector by the width of the screen (D/W=TR). For example, you have 10.42 ft wide screen and you are mounting this bad boy 15ft away, you take 15ft/10.42ft= 1.439. Your throw ratio is 1.44:1, and you find the lens that fits that.

An important reminder is to make sure that you convert feet to inches (or vice versa) when doing your calculations. I’m commonly ask to recommend a screen for 125” wide screen that’s being mounted 15’ away. It would not look great for me to recommend a 1875:1 lens here – which is what you get if you don’t convert 15 feet into 180 inches. More commonly, I get requests such as, “I want to use XYZ projector, I have 164-inch diagonal screen and am mounting this 15ft away: which lens do I need?” I don’t know the width, but I do know the diagonal, so I can either ask for the width to be exact, or I can head over to this tool: http://screen-size.info/, pick out the Aspect Ratio, and find the width. If they give you another bit of info, like the height, then you can dig in the recesses of your brain and use the Pythagorean Theorem to manually calculate the width, but around here, we work smarter, not harder, so feel free to use the cheater tool.

LAST, not least (& probably the most difficult to calculate): How bright do I need my projector to be?

Why do I say this is harder to calculate? Because there are a lot of different variables in the room that affect the ability to see an image, and also, it’s subjective. If you have great eyes and can see the image just fine but someone who struggles a little more can’t make out the details, then that projector probably isn’t bright enough for the space or is even too bright (see Washout from edition 3), even if you think it is fine. There are general standards out there that can be adhered to, though, so we will go over those here briefly and you can build on that knowledge later with more research, if you want. If you read editions 2 and 3, then you have heard us say that projector brightness is measured in Lumens. You may see ANSI Lumens or Center Lumens, and these can be different numbers. Why is this? ANSI Lumens are defined by the American National Standards Institute, and “measures the overall amount of light the projector delivers.” Center Lumens just measures the “center spot,” which is likely the brightest spot on the screen, since no projector can deliver uniform brightness across the entire screen, so “center lumens” is likely a higher number than ANSI lumens. I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other, and neither can the industry at large, because you will see different people duke it out over why they prefer one to the other, but just note that they are different.

Ok, so, where am I going with this? You just want to know how bright the projector needs to be, and I’m giving you a vocab test. Well, bear with me, because here is one more term that I need you to know, and that is Foot lamberts. 👣 Yes, this is a real term. Once you’re finished chuckling, here is why you need to know what they are: these help you determine if the placement of your projector creates a viewable image in your room. By following these guidelines, you can determine if you are going with the 5,000 lumen projector or the 7,000 lumen projector. To do so, the formula is (Projector Lumens ÷ Screen Area) x Screen Gain = ftL

FOOT LAMBERTS AMBIENT LIGHT EXAMPLES
16 – 29 Dark Room Home theaters
30 – 39 Low Ambient Light Darkened rooms, no windows, etc.
40 – 59 Medium Ambient Light Classrooms, well-lit conference rooms
60+ High Ambient Light Auditoriums, lecture halls, etc.

The previous chart will help you determine if you are in the right ball park for brightness. Let’s pretend you have a 220” screen with 1.0 gain (see edition 2 where John talks about screen gain) in a lecture hall, and you got a great deal on a 7,000 lumen projector. Will it work? (7,000 lumens / 150sq.ft ) x 1.0= 47 ftL. Assuming the auditorium is well lit and has a lot of ambient light, this is probably NOT a good fit for the space. Something in the 9,000 lumens or more range would be better suited because it is 60ftL or more.

There are handy calculators out there on the web to assist you in this math so you don’t have to keep doing it yourself, but the next time someone comes to you asking for a suggestion, if you have bits of this info, you can help narrow down their search, and more importantly, be the hero!

Vocab Test Time!

Are these the most detailed definitions? No – we are not a dictionary, nor the AVIXA CTS Prep book. Will someone message us after still telling us how much we missed? Possibly. Will these get you a basic working knowledge of these terms and why they matter? We hope so. Plus, we are 99% sure they will help you shave a few strokes off your golf game. ⛳

  1. Aspect Ratio – the relationship of the height and width of your image (i.e. 4:3, 16:9, 16:10). Essentially, describes the shape of the screen.
  2. Throw Ratio – the relationship of the distance from a projection screen and the width of the screen. If you have these two pieces of information, you can easily calculate your throw ratio to determine which projector lens you need if a manufacturer doesn’t have a lens calculator on their website.
  3. Foot lamberts – Yes, this is a real measurement. Essentially, it is a unit of measurement used to determine how bright you need your projector to be. If you want to get more technical, it is equal to one circular candela per square foot (if this seems like a silly term, take it up with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers who use it).
  4. Frank Lambert – Patriarchal figure in the Emmy Winning show ‘Step by Step.’

Thanks for Reading and Asking Your Questions!

Do you have more ‘dumb’ questions? Share your questions here and we will get you an answer.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Connect with us and #TeamExertisAlmo over on LinkedIn.

Ashley Nichols, Dir BizDev

Ashley Nichols | CTS, DSCE

Director of Business Development

 

Supported Manufacturers: Sony

John Borns, BDM

John Borns | CTS, DSCE

Business Development Manager

 

Supported Manufacturers: Legrand AV (NE, SE, MW) – Chief, C2G, Da-Lite, Luxul, Middle Atlantic, Vaddio, Wiremold

Pin It on Pinterest