by Heather Wagaman | Nov 1, 2016 | Digital Signage, Education, Uncategorized
October finished up the last of the Almo Pro AV E4 AV Tours for 2016, the last of which was in Dallas, TX.
One of the many things to do is walk through the Exhibit Hall, where all of Almo’s manufacturer partners showcase their latest and greatest products…
I really “flipped” over the all-new R Series product displayed by Sharp at our Dallas Show.
This beauty will come in a 42”, 49” and 55” display, and with the extreme tilt capabilities opens up new mounting possibilities that gives more flexibility than ever before to digital signage installations. My imagination went wild. Not only can this series be mounted in portrait or landscape mode, imagine the 42” display mounted face up on a table in a sleek apparel shop, or the 55” face down from the ceiling in a planetarium…
While I wouldn’t suggest mounting it on a floor surface that would be walked on, the design of these monitors is robust enough that they can be suspended from the four corners of the rear housing using wires. I immediately envisioned a simple, elegant look for an office lobby, like an attorney’s office or accounting firm or a retail shop where information, daily specials or other content could be simply and beautifully displayed.
The ingenuity and creativity of our dealers and integrator customers is always impressive. And I can’t wait to see what they come up with when they let loose with Sharp’s new PN-R Series!
by Guest Blogger | Oct 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
Hi! I’m Jeff Sanchez.
With my 9-years experience in the Graphic Design Field, I have never encountered a monitor with such spectacular image quality. NEC’s MultiSync EA275UHD is truly an AMAZING display.
To see images at their full potential in high resolution as an artist is very exciting! Everyday at work is awesome now that I get to experience my designs in stunning 4K UHD.
What I really enjoy about it is I went from 23” standard definition display to an amazing 27” UHD display. Now I can view multiple windows very easily, which is a plus particularly in my field. But the mind-blowing part about it is the image resolution it delivers. Just WOW! To view images in 4K is truly magnificent, especially working in Photoshop. It’s like seeing the picture up-close and personal.
Another cool feature I find advantageous is the ability to rotate the monitor into portrait mode, providing nearly 360 degrees of swivel, and 25 degrees of tilt. Now that’s what’s up.
All-in-all MultiSync EA275UHD is an amazing product that delivers a superior quality making my job more fun, and takes my creativity to a whole new level.
by Heather Wagaman | Sep 26, 2016 | News, Uncategorized
There has obviously been a TON of information published, interviews conducted, Web X Meetings, etc, from both inside and outside the channel in regards to the acquisition of IAVI by Almo Pro AV. Now that the dust has settled, and as a 10 year employee and Senior Manager at IAVI before the acquisition, here is a look at the acquisition from (perhaps) a little DIFFERENT perspective.
FIRST THOUGHTS
- “OMG we’ve been bought out by a competitor in the industry”
- “OMG do I have a job?”
- “Oh no, what ARE we going to do?”
Rewind 3 months to April 13th
IAVI was a 19 year old Commercial – Pro A/V Distributor; a veteran so to speak in the channel with HUGE growth percentages year after year since the mid 2000’s. Almo Pro AV, the company that acquired IAVI, was for the last 7 years one of our chief competitors, certainly our rival in the channel and now; they’ve both taken us out of the game and literally taken over in general. The world as WE knew is now totally upside down and “we” have seemingly LOST the battle.
Fast forward… (it’s now the end of September!)
Where are we today?
“We” as the new combined Almo Pro AV have participated in the third of our E4 AV Tour of the year in Boston, exhibited at InfoComm in June, conducted our annual National Sales Meeting in July, and have one more E4 AV Tour shows coming up soon: Dallas on October 18th (SAVE THE DATE!)
Virtually ALL of Almo Corporation and Almo Pro AV Senior Management have visited the new Almo Florida office and have provided the EX IAVI team with their motives for acquiring the company, and their vision for the future. They’ve shared opinions and insights with us in regards to the “best practices” that had been identified early on between the two companies and we’ve watched as they’ve specifically implemented some of the IAVI practices quickly into the NEW combined Almo Pro AV.
The results of the due diligences investigations that took place prior to the acquisition have been shared and many of us have been proud to see our NEW company adopt and implement many IAVI practices into the new combined Almo Pro AV almost immediately.
Those of us that were offered positions at Almo have been extremely impressed with the ongoing thought process of Almo Corporation owners and the executive team in the Pro AV Division digging deep into all of the business practices of the acquired company to make the new combined company even BETTER than the previous two individual organizations.
My hats off to Gene, Roz, and Warren Chaiken, Sam Taylor and the rest of the Almo Pro AV Senior Management team for the care and dedication they demonstrated in trying to FIND ways to retain members of the IAVI Team throughout the entire organization in lieu of finding reasons to let them go.
Many people have told me over the years and especially right after the IAVI acquisition, that Almo is a PEOPLE first company and that they recognize their greatest assets as their employees. As a NEW employee of Almo Pro AV it’s my pleasure to testify to the truth of their words and it’s my pleasure to be a part of such a warm and caring organization. I for one am very PROUD to be a part of this incredible new Almo Pro AV TEAM!
by Rob Ziv | Jul 25, 2016 | Uncategorized
Improving Results with Column Line Arrays
I had a design inquiry come in this week for a sound reinforcement system. Nothing out of the ordinary; basic box of a room, 50 wide, 70 deep, 18’ ceilings, drywall construction, 13 rows of seats on a flat floor. The application is primarily speech reinforcement with the need to occasionally rock out. The designer had selected a fairly common pair of conventional speakers to place left and right in the front of the room. I was asked to take a look at the design just to be a second set of eyes. The speakers they selected would have been fine, but a column line array would have been a better option. While line arrays in general have become the de facto standard for touring sound systems and are common in large format installations, compact and column line arrays seem to be one of the most underutilized speaker configurations. The reason we don’t see more line arrays in small to mid-sized installations even when suitable, is due to several factors.
- Old habits die hard. Point-source systems (conventional speaker boxes) have been around longer.
- The benefits of line arrays are sometimes not fully understood. Some of the benefits include:
- Improved control over vertical dispersion. This minimizes reflections off of ceilings and other structural surfaces thereby improving intelligibility and system performance.
- While point-source speakers adhere to the inverse square law (where direct SPL drops by 6dB every time you double the distance from the source) line arrays only lose 3dB every time you double the distance – at least within the near field. What this means is you may not need to blast people in the front of a room for it to be loud enough to hear further back.
- In some cases, it is possible to aim the sound to target the specific requirements of various locations within a venue. While this is often not available within a compact column line array, it’s worth noting as it relates to line arrays in general.
- The detailed characteristics of line arrays are sometimes not fully understood. I would argue that this applies to point-source boxes as well. Yet there is greater familiarity and hence comfort with the point-source boxes. (See Factor #1 – Old habits die hard)
- Size matters. The longer the array, the tighter the vertical control and the lower the frequency where control is available. If a room is highly reverberant, the recommended height of an array may be significant compared to room height itself.
- End users ignore good audio and think they know what a speaker looks like. Audio is usually noticed most when something doesn’t sound good. So most people ignore the audio system when things are going right. Since column line arrays can sound better than their conventional counterparts in the right application and they do not always look like conventional speakers, most end users would not even know they have seen/heard a column line array unless it was specifically pointed out to them. In many installations, they blend into the architecture and can be less visually obtrusive than conventional boxes – even when stacked relatively high.
While line array technology has been around for at least fifty years, it would appear from the information above that hesitancy to adopt has more to do with education or experience and less to do with the technology itself. If you work in the installed audio market, consider taking a closer look at column line arrays.
For a quick start, consider the following case study within a highly reverberant House of Worship.
“A Bose Panaray System Tames the Reflections Inside the Thorncrown Chapel”
After that, take a look at some of the products on the market (for example, the Bose MA12EX cited in the case study.) We suggested the Bose MA12 with sub augmentation for the “basic box of a room” mentioned previously.
If you would like to learn more about column line arrays, shoot me an email and we’ll steer you towards additional resources.
by John Wills | Jul 13, 2016 | Pro Displays, Uncategorized
I’ve noticed over the last year the increasing use of outdoor displays in commercial applications. Once regulated to residential porches and light commercial use (such as a sports bar’s outdoor covered patio), manufacturers are now producing displays that eliminate the need for environmental enclosures and kiosks.
Today, properly specified displays provide many benefits compared to the traditional panel within an enclosure or kiosk. Some of those benefits include but are not limited to:
- Weatherproof operation at a considerable lower cost without expensive environmental enclosures & kiosks
- Better picture due to no gap between the screen and an outer enclosure glass that may hinder picture quality
- Overall reduction in physical size and weight for the application
- Simpler mounting and installation
- Ease of on-going maintenance
But how does a design engineer specify the right outdoor panel for a particular environmental application? It’s relatively simple – match the properly-rated display to the outdoor demands of the application. First, assess the application environmental demands:
- Environmental temperature extremes.
- Dust & water extremes (both type of dust and at what angles they can attack a panel).
- Under cover or in direct sunlight.
- Maintenance access (e.g., mounted high, extremely restricted location, etc.).
- Exposure to glass-breaking projectiles like rocks and such.
Now, match the display to the environmental demands of the application.
- Temperature Extremes: Coldest and warmest extremes a display can safely operate.
- Dust and Moisture: Determine a display’s rating using either a NEMA Enclosure Rating (relative dust & particle resistance measurement) or the more popular “IP’ Rating (Ingress Protection as defined by DIN EN 60529). An IP rating indicates the external conditions enclosures can withstand. It describes a display’s scope of protection during use when exposed to temperatures, fuel and oil and their fumes, chemical clouds, acid based moisture and dust entering the display. For example, the “I” in IP has a scale of 1 to 6 that defines the protection against contact and ingress of dust. The “P” has a scale of 0 to 9k that defines ingress of moisture from water droplets to high pressure steam cleaning.
- Indirect or Direct Sunlight: If direct sunlight is a factor, consider a panel with UV optical bonding that can eliminate reflection & refraction glare so it can be easily seen in direct sunlight. Note that simply being a high brightness panel (1500+ nits) doesn’t necessarily translate to good picture in direct sunlight. It’s hard to out bright the sun!
- Impact Resistant: Determine if the display needs to be protected from impacts. And should the screen be broken, make sure it is shatter proof to protect nearby viewers and property.
- Maintenance: Some displays will be mounted high or in difficult to reach places. The less maintenance of filters and the ability to be hosed-off or pressure washed can be key.
Almo ProAV partners with Peerless-AV to offer a family of outdoor displays starting with the IP55-rated UltraView Series up to the IP68-rated Xtreme series. We can match the right display for the environmental demands of temperatures, dust & moisture, direct sunlight, impact resistance, and ease of maintenance. Also, we will assist in pairing the proper outdoor, wind-rated mount. Feel free to contact me or your Almo ProAV Account Rep. We’ll be happy to assist you in specifying the right display for your outdoor application.
by Todd Heberlein | Jun 3, 2016 | Digital Signage, DVLED, News, Uncategorized
There are many factors that go into choosing the correct LED sign, but a few important attributes are commonly ignored. Below are three commonly overlooked factors that should be considered when deciding on a sign manufacturer.
1) Operating Cost
Capital expenditure, or initial investment cost, is typically the first and the most influential factor that most decision makers consider. What many overlook or only give a passing consideration is the ongoing expense of the sign. The larger the sign, the more important this factor becomes over the life of the sign. Knowing that you’re installing an energy efficient sign can save you tens of thousands in operating expenses down the road.
2) Ease of Use / Management
Signs that require proprietary software, or require the purchase of third-party software can add frustration for the end user, a large learning curve, as well as push up the total cost of the project. ADTI offers the flexibility of using their included content management system, SkyShow, or any signage solution that can utilize their standard HDMI input on the SkyPanel system.
3) Ease of Installation
This is a factor that is commonly skipped over, and almost never is considered by the end user. Since it ultimately affects the bottom line, as well as the timeline of the project, I think it’s an attribute that deserves consideration. If the installation requires special structural changes because of the weight, fabrication to enclose the sign for weatherproofing, or modification to allow for extra depth, the money you saved on the lower cost hardware shrinks considerably, or is completely wiped out.
ADTI
The difficulty of measuring the increase in quality in comparison to the increase in cost, can cause endless hours of agonizing research, and can freeze the final decision. Many are drawn in by the low cost LED panels they’ve seen coming out of China, and end user’s tend to lean towards the frugal choice for the initial capital expenditure and ignore the ongoing operating expense of running an LED sign; which can be an expensive mistake. With ADTI, you don’t have to make that compromise. The combination of affordable initial cost, American made quality, IP67 weatherproofing, and incredibly low power consumption, makes for a visually stunning, “no compromise” solution.
