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Double Agent

February 18th, 2021
Photo By: Catholic Spirt
Solving audio problems in commercial buildings with multiple uses.
 
Written By: Kate Couch
 
In last week’s article, we focused on solving audio problems in a residential home. However, AV Bend works primarily with commercial buildings. Though there are a lot of the same principles working and solving commercial problems looks drastically different than solving problems in a home. There are also other things that people forget to consider when it comes to residential vs. commercial clients. One big factor is budget- when it comes to commercial clients the budget is extraordinarily tight. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s more or less than a residential budget but rather there is no room for spilling over. Companies have to meet their quota and stay within the budget. When working with a residential client something that they want might be out of budget it can become accessible if they decide it’s valuable enough to them. That instance rarely happens with a commercial client.
 
Other things to consider when working to solve audio problems in a commercial building is rooms tend to have noises and other things going on that when you go to inspect the area the client may forget to mention. In our last article about solving audio problems, we talked about the importance of listening to a room. Whether you have a residential or commercial client this is still an important practice. When going to a commercial client’s building you need to consider and ask the client what all goes on in this building. Making sure to double-check with the client that there are no monthly meetings they may be forgetting about. Other things may include international calls, occasional Zoom meetings, classes, or if they rent out space to other people. These are all things they can fly under the radar but could be contributing to their noise problems. When going to inspect a commercial area take all these things into account before solving the noise problems.
 
One thing that commercial clients will frequently call AV Companies for is to prepare a gymnasium to hold multiple events. It’s pretty common that a gymnasium also doubles as an auditorium, or is rented out to places like churches or AA meetings, and other gatherings of similar fashion. There is instantly a whole lot of noise problems to solve when a gymnasium is going to be used to double as another space. The classic squeaking of your shoes on the floor seems to emanate from every corner of the room. This can be extraordinarily disruptive if someone was to come in late to a meeting. Just like it is in a residential area it’s important to consider the height of the walls the different angles in the room and the ceiling structure. This is important in a residential area as well. Commercial spaces tend to differ from residential areas because of noise blockers. In a residential space there tend to be things like pillows, furniture curtains, carpeting, sometimes even more carpeting on top of carpeting these things naturally dampen and soften sound in the home. Things that are frequently lacking in commercial spaces. When working with commercial spaces there tends to be a lot more problems to solve because the spaces are larger, they have less furniture in the room to dampen sound, and the spaces tend to have multiple uses. All these things should be kept in mind when solving audio problems in a commercial space. The nice thing about commercial spaces is you don’t have to get as creative with your acoustical treatment plans because it’s a commercial space Aesthetics and multi-function acoustical treatment plans aren’t as important since the spaces tend to be larger and having something that’s a little bit more clean-cut and single-purpose products is totally tolerable in a commercial area.
 
To know more about Tony and his professional profile see these:
 
 
 

The Effects of 5G on the AV Industry

September 30th, 2019

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

The arrival of 5G is transforming technology and our AV industry.  You can barely scan your News Feed or watch television without some type of news or advertisement about 5G and its impending impact on your life.  And while this whole 5G thing sounds like amazing hype, I’ve found that many of our customers and my colleagues aren’t certain of what it is and how it actually will affect their lives and our industry.

Let’s start with some definitions and explanations.

What is 5G? 

The “G” in the term 5G stands for generation and relates to the speed, connectivity and reliability of our wireless devices.

In the beginning, we had 1G which essentially allowed us to talk to each other.  With the development of 2G, we moved into the realm of sending messages.  The next leap was 3G, which gave us broad data and internet connectivity.  Now, we have 4G, which made all of the previously mentioned aspects a whole lot faster.  But 5G is a game changer and a massive breakthrough for devices not only connected to the internet but also with each other.  While 4G is pretty fast, 5G is real time fast.  In fact, it is 150 times faster than 4G.

Which Industries Will Experience the Most Profound Effects of 5G?

You may have noticed that home 5G has already rolled out.  Smart homes connected through the Internet of Things is actually common is some of the major international cities.  Full roll-out of 5G across the globe is expected to begin in March 2020. And within a few years, the average person will interact with 5G technology in a variety of potential ways.

Medical Industry – Because 5G will allow wireless communication in real time across the world, many medical services will be provided remotely.  Robotic surgeries will be performed in one location of the world by a surgeon “operating” from a different location.  Patients will be linked to hospitals with monitoring services within the comfort of their own homes.

Manufacturing Industry – Smart factories are already being developed with wireless robots interfacing in perfect synchronicity.

Food Industry – Drones will simply fly over crops to monitor the health of our food.  With 5G, they will give individualized attention, nutrition and water to our food sources.

Entertainment Industry – Imagine your virtual reality device connected to other gamers across the world and interacting with them in real time.  It’s coming.

Transportation Industry – Driver-less vehicles in major cities will be transporting passengers at speeds up to 200mph and in an accident-free environment.

5G Will Drive AV Technology

AV professionals will have plenty of opportunity to capitalize on the 5G movement as it becomes more and more commonplace.  Right now, many businesses are discussing design and infrastructure options in anticipation of 5G networking.

Due to on-the-go connections and networking, employees will be able to collaborate anywhere.  Existing AV technology like video conferencing will be real time fast and it is a given that virtual reality will be a future daily practice as well.  The conferencing experience will include intelligent cameras and omnidirectional microphones enabling participates to view the entire conference area.

Digital signage is another opportunity area for AV professionals as well.  Facial recognition programs will enable digital signage to be real time fast and personalized.

What are you doing to prepare for the 5G roll out?  Let us know with your comments!

Tony Sprando

Tonytheavguy.com

tony@avdesignsnow.com

Thank you to the following sources of 5G intel!

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-5g/

https://www.hardingloevner.com/why-5g-will-transform-much-more-than-telecommunications/

https://www.conferencetech.com/how-5g-will-spur-av-technology-this-year/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/effects-5g-av-industry-tony-sprando