Tucker's Tuesday Technology & Tertiary Trollings

CODIFYING CODPIECE

This post originally appeared on the AVNation.tv site. 

 

Andrew Robinson of  formally editor at Home Theater Review continues to make waves among the Ivory Tower holders of Audiophila  and I like it.

I like it allot.

Andrew is a breath of fresh air, actually like a straight line wind of fresh air, inside the hobby world of home theater.  One of the first Salvos I heard was in the form of his report/ review of the Rocky Mountain …  show where he barely contained a direct, and well deserved, dressing down of the exhibitors.   His premise?  That the high fidelity, high resolution proponents and manufacturers have effectively priced themselves out of any community growth.

In effect the audiophile holy rollers codifying of the culture has resulted in them shooting  themselves in the foot, repeatedly.

Perhaps this is a push back from the consumer and “PROsumer” products which have had a seminal rise with viable budget conscious buyers options.  There is something to be said for the defending of quality and excellence but when it comes as the result of circling the wagons it also creates a wall.  Every manufacturer is looking to draw folks in with their array of ‘oh, Wow’ products which are posted as glossy equipment pornification in magazines and blogs.  What happens for the rest of us once we get past these obvious select client only devices?

When I started out as young man attempting to cobble together better system many of my best tutors owned remarkable systems but took the time to show me why they decided on the gear they had but, more importantly, showed me how to choose quality at my budget.  There was an entry level ability, one with room to grow.

Codification when it comes to standards or procedures – that is the process to insure the best work is accomplished – is valid and I know that is is what many in the hobby are in their heart of hearts are trying to do.  Sadly what a mid level enthusiast like myself endures feels like the strutting of Codpieces, no longer concerned with the qualities it has morphed into bejeweled and  feathered presentation of superiority.

A funny thing happens when you start to codify a culture, rather than strengthen it begins to deteriorate.

In the early 1980’s I was deeply involved in the nascent alternative and punk culture.  When you think of a punk it often involves the image of a metal studded leather jacket and buzz cut or Mohawk topped youth.  But this was not the case at the start. If you had attended an early punk or American hardcore show the folks in the audience and on stage ran the gamut of looks.  From plaid shirts and sports jackets to surfer types with long hair and the buzz cuts wearing loafers and Dr. Martens boots. Just look at Iggy and the Stooges- not your  a-typical punkers with the bowl cuts and rocker hair.

Those early days were amazing times of breaking the bonds of the corporate music monopoly and spurring  on a revolution in DIY ethos from The Cleaners From Venus/Martin Newell cassettes to the Detroit sound.   Rock music was stripped of its over embellished predecessors indulgences back to the blues roots made to snarl with Les Pauls electrified steel stringed guitar.  As the genre gained traction and its ranks started to swell a change came on. Slowly but surely the scene began to stratify into semi distinct sub groups – perhaps because of outside scorn or a desire to be unique the fans of these new genres began codify what look was acceptable. Where once it was okay to attend a Dead Kennedys show with long hair soon became a daredevils proposition. This much to the lament of the scenes provocateurs and stars.   Like the  WWI trains, before the biases could be healed, travel was already in motion and the lines of battle drawn. To be sure there was always the talented (The Clash, Elvis Costello, Fugazi, The Ramones ) and those less so but with the stratification and codification came a loss of power and message.  And snobbish aspersions were cast upon anyone not in the clique.

The hobby has been turning into an elitist club not because it is necessary to do so but because those promoting it as such find a pleasure in dismissing others.

Am I wrong?  Prove it – Andrew is the only one, so far, in the hobby media to welcome those of us who are just starting out or have defined budgets. If not for him I would be sticking to my high res digital music and a pair of headphones.

In the end –  This is bad for the hobby, bad for the business of AV integration.  If I am reluctant because of the closed shop mentality of the hobby , why would I pursue the next step?

 

JC Penny'd

Google announced some terrible, terrible news a few days ago, its Reader product is to end in June of this year.  Somewhat surprisingly this has caused an uproar - a bit more than the folks at Google expected with the various online petitions circulating. There is one even on the White House - We The People page.  Tech and social news sites were instantly in an uproar decrying the news in breathless posts followed by the flood of giddy articles on what services could replace reader and which had the best importing tools and interfaces.  

What’s all the fuss?,  you might ask.  

If you are unfamiliar with Google Reader (GR from here on out) or RSS feeds here is the skinny.  RSS or Really Simple Syndication,  which GR is mostly based on, provides a method of subscribing to a blog or webpage. These subscriptions allow for the news stories, posts and updates to come to you rather than having to go each individual site to see them.  GR provides a place to aggregate these subscriptions into a single managed feed. Folks like me who have over 500 news subscriptions in their feed laud the management tools which allow the ability to quickly find stories, keep them for later reference or to share. It also provides a quick take on what news is ‘trending’ in the tech publications - if you saw  a story come up repeatedly from various sources one could fairly well know something big was breaking. An NPR commentator, I forget which, stated that Google Reader went from a news hounds friend to a pro tool in relatively short order, a statement that I find disturbing and depressing -(more on this a bit later).  I use GR to find stories for the AV Nation shows but I was sucking up info on it long before.

What To Expect When Expecting (Support)

What you need to do to insure success with technical support. 

Everyone one of us has been there, with racks of gear installed and the shadows growing long on the rear lawn,  the final run through and  system QC is stuck -  a bugaboo is stopping all operation.  The homeowner is eagerly waiting to sign off and get you out of their home for the first time in three months. The other trades have begun pointing to you as the cause of the trouble and cost overages.  You can just hear the security installer gravely telling the homeowner:   ”..if you had let me put in my  dedicated keypads this will be working fine and done...”.   Your nerves are frazzled – you begin to see hallucinations as your fears manifest themselves.  Before your eyes the last payment (nearly all your profit) becomes a squawking Blue Jay flying from your grasp straight toward the nearest window. Finally, you put a call into the manufacturer's tech support.

Now the real fun begins.  First one must make leaps and bounds through the automated call system like the Mario Brothers bounding over the rocks for coins.  At last you are connected to a human who after listening to your synopsis of the situation states  ...”‘funny, I have never heard of that issue before!’ or proceeds to insist that you go through the same basic check lists you performed twenty times prior to calling.  As darkness falls the crick in your neck gets worse from keeping the phone against your ear and your stomach rumbles in protests as the smells and sounds of the clients dinner waft down to the cellar.  Now your patience worn thin the vitriolic bile begins to rise.   

It did not have go this way. 

Retrograde, in Reverse.

Looking back at past innovations leads to the future.

The innovations of the past are more than examples of wrong turns or outdated methodologies and they are more than modern entrails readings. What the study and working knowledge of past technologies are is inspirational. One prime example is how telephony engineers re-examining the process and patent for a frequency jamming resistant torpedo controller developed by ‘the worlds most beautiful woman’ just prior to WWII lead to our modern smart-phone communications - a process called CDMA. The fact is that nothing is built out of the blue but is based on processes that came before, something akin to Broca’s brain.

 If you are a fan of Scientific American magazine you might recall that some of the most thought provoking articles were not the five page with pull out centerfold on DNA mapping but were located near the back of each edition. Just before the ads selling Name a Star services and other science fandom accessories were the magazines anti- agitprop agitators such as James Burke and his ‘Connections’ articles. Mr. Burke’s column took the reader on a delightfully wandering path to discover how things actually came to be, like how the water wheel lead to breakthroughs in modern computing. The BBC series based on his writings only added to the wonder and prodded one to never take for granted any common device - each has so much history and wonderful things to teach us about why our modern world works the way it does.

I was re-reading  the fantastic AV shout article 'What Goes Around, Comes Around: A Historian’s Response to Unified Communications' By K. Daniel Armstrong recently  and it got me to thinking.  The past is something we are bound to repeat, whether we know it or not. Sometimes this is a good thing, a very good thing.

It's Not Just for Breakfast Anymore!

Fiber Optics and the coming revolution in Live Events signal distribution.

 

When you mention the word fiber to most event staging folks it is likely that the reaction will be a commiserating hand on the shoulder and a comment that their doctor said the same thing to them followed by an invitation to compare medications prescribed as well.  
In truth for most of us employed in the collection of industries I like to call the Live Life any practical experience with fiber optics is usually limited to having one of those color changing tubes shaped like a Christmas tree.  Oooooh pretty! There is a good reason the industry has paid very little mind to the coming revolution in topology- we need to be confident in the pathways and conduit which we send video and audio down.  We cannot ask of a do-over when things go amiss, its live People!

Because of the nature of these live events the staging industry is resistant to and even  suspicious of changes to the main backbones infrastructure.  One only has to take a look at how long it took DMX to truly take hold and the rather limp implementation of the ACN protocol, which has many called for applications and improvements yet still is relatively unknown.  One only has to look at how few shops implement Ethernet control on their devices to understand the situation. Don’t get me started in how bumpy the early days of wireless mics were!  Beyond the confidence factor and mantra that you are only as good as your last show - heck these days you are only as good as your last CUE!- there is often a good deal of information and skills ramp up required.

I’m a 3D Believer

Thoughts on the DIY revolution of 3D printing and AV Nations DIY show about this.

For those of you who have heard my commentary (okay, lets be honest here - Rants) on AV Week against 3D Television the title of this post may have given you pause. Rest assured my  assessment  of 3D video as a less than worthless are still in tact.  What I am becoming a full frenzied devotee of is the world of object printing .

Photo Courtesy of Bennett Harris/ HarrisEducational

If you are unsure of what 3D and object printing have to do with one another you are missing a movement that very well may change how we do nearly everything. What I have just written is a bold statement and one fraught with the dangers of over extended presumptions ala Steve Jobs euphoric babblings prior to the unveiling of the Segway.  Even so it can be said with fair confidence that 3D object printers will change how my kids interact with products. It may be that someday soon it will seem as imperative to business success to have a 3D printer version of an offering as it is to have a social media outlet today

Magical Thinking

Is a business model outside of the apple eco-system (or similar) simply wishful thinking or is there something to the reality distortion field becoming the norm? 

My oldest son lost a tooth yesterday and called me with all the eagerness that a seven year old could muster about the event.  Rooster, my name for him - no not his given name, was excited as this is a milestone, to him, toward teenage hood that others in his class were experiencing  with more regularity.  He was revved up like a rockabilly front-man in new town about getting a golden dollar from the tooth fairy.  Gonzo, my youngest at five, expressed concern about the fact that an unknown and nocturnal creature would be in their shared room while he was asleep and unaware.

“How does the tooth fairy get into the house and put the money under the pillow” - Gonzo asked.

“Magic silly”  answered Rooster.

“But magic isn’t real” retorted Gonzo

“If magic is not real then the tooth fairy can’t be real, mommy?... is the Easter bunny magical?” asked Gonzo.

 

Pump Up the Community

We talk a good deal about community these days, in building connections, social graphs and connecting via social media. The Politicos talk about rebuilding the economy by communities coming together but the actuality is a rare sight indeed.

One of the places that actual communities come together is via a remarkable radio station – WLNG of Sag Harbor Long Island. The place is almost an anachronism in the radio
business at 5,300 watts the station should only be a footnote yet its reach and influence is that of stations with 10 times the power. The Station is a marvel that honors the years of relentless promotion and guidance by the remarkable Paul Sidney. When Mr. Sidney died it brought forth an epiphany on just how much the station has meant to me and the town I grew up in – you can see my ‘eulogy’ here.

Stations like the Uber local WLNG have been the subject of ridicule and praise since their inception and, to be honest, the station has been worthy of both. It is one part the radio show in ‘One Crazy Summer’ and one Part “Pump Up The Volume’ providing oddball shows like Swap and Shop while catering to the tourists expectations of a “Beach Community” broadcaster. Which makes the actions of the WLNG staff during hurricane Sandy all the more remarkable – or should I say commendable for I could not imagine them NOT being so dedicated.

From Grass to Gauss

I orginally posted this as a comment on Lee Distad's Blog about how some of our best and most endeared equipment were obtained for free or little more.  You can see his original post here. 

 I have a few items which I obtained for little or nothing by being the one who took up the call to “Clean the #$%* inventory closet !” - it is one of the benefits and occupational hazards of the industry.

Still my most precious (sooo precious ) find was the Teac R1000 reel to reel tape deck. I worked as a groundskeeper and all around assistant fix it guy at a condominium complex in Southampton Long Island. I was only fifteen at the time and almost rejected it when the elderly gentleman offered it to me. The unit came with spare reels, classical music tapes and the amazingly five blank tapes (never used!). This was the beginning of my entry into AV of any sort. It took me hours to figure out to connect to my Realistic record player and amp. It took another few days for me to become familiar with all the features and how to record from a source.

The Last Temptation of Distractions

I wrote the following as a response to a friends article in Residental Systems magzine blog.  The article entitled "Sandy the AV Disaster"  asked , after several days of no power,  "How did people survive before technology?!"  The below is my extended answer. I encourage you to read the post here. 

 

It is an interesting question you, Unknowingly(?), ask Anthony.  Just how reliant are we on a constant stream of distractions.  If you ask a recent business study- much too much. 

Setting aside the dystopian fear that we will soon leave no written evidence  of post 2k civilization for future archeologist to study; one has to ask-just how meth-headed have we become?  

The first step, so it is said, begins with acceptance.  Alright then - We are Junkies.  This being said we have two questions.  1. What do we do to minimize the uncontrolled craving? 2. What can we do to reduce the effect of another massive outage.  While I am really concerning myself with item one it will have a lot to say about item 2.

In all honesty my family was pretty darn lucky and came out mostly  unscathed  from Sandy. We were more than prepared for the worst though - both in finding a place to stay and to entertain/ inform ourselves.  As an tech aficionado and worse, as an industry insider I have been morbidly fascinated with just how folks cope when technology goes awry or away.  To be clear, I LOVE my tech - so much so that I my social profiles include the description of ‘...one part technorotic.  Yeah, I feel it right there baby.  Yet, to be completely honest I actually consume  very little media.  I know, I know, this is akin to a vegan cooking at the meat station of a restaurant so a little background may be necessary.

A Community By Any Other Hashtag

Originally posted on AV Shout  http://avshout.com/tucker-redband-1/

A Community By Any Other Hashtag

What makes a community?

“What’s in a name that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”
Romeo and Juliet – The Bard

If you recall your Shakespeare the quote above is spoken by Juliet upon finding that her true love is from the Montague’s, the one family she as a Capulet  is sworn to destroy. The full scene is a meditation on the uselessness of judging by labels – love is where you find it.

Is our community by any other name the same but different?  In the past few days there has been a call to move a good deal of industry-centric Twitter posts from the grouping #avtweeps to #proav by a few industry publications.  I found this intriguing, the call for an additional industry hashtag is a good sign of growing involvement on the social platform.  What piqued my interest more was the request to use the new #ProAV in  place of and excluding the existing #avtweeps.  I was further moved into beard stroking ponderance when several folks Direct Messaged me on Twitter curious if I knew who the catalysts were and why they seemed to be so disparaging of the group.

What is in a name?
The group AVTweeps, a derivation of the slang Peeps for friends and a playful nod to the twitter lingo of Tweet for a message, was established by AV integrators looking for a way to group their conversations in and about the industry in one common place about four years ago. It has grown to be the single largest collective of AV related folks on Twitter.  The group did debate other hastag names such as #hometheater, #avpros  #AVcontrol and the like but it was decided that the names were too limiting and did not express the wide scope of work we do.  We also investigated using #AV and #AVPro but these were already in use by the Adult Video folks- otherwise known as the *Porn* industry.   While we know full well that many of the systems we install are used for viewing such or are installed in the producers of such material -the association seemed a bit too much by half.

Our House, In the Middle of the Street

Oh House, I have not been so kind to you in the past.  

 

 

I have berated your appearance, underpowered and faulty electrical -(which we had to fix before anything else)- your substandard plumbing, your creaky stairs, slightly tilted floors (fun with marbles and rolling trucks though!), leaky windows and cold spots.  

I have long bemoaned your less than open floor plan and that we cannot seem to keep it clean and the kids seem to think every room is a place to store toys and I have publicly declared you the worst mistake I ever made.   

Today I apologize for these derogatory comments for I am in awe of what a tough ole bird you are. House, while the buildings all around us lost siding, roof tiles and parts of the chimney you stood tall.   I thought for sure on Monday night as the worst of Hurricane Sandy came and laid a heavy hammer down on us that your 15 year old roof would decide that this was the moment to take leave of its foundation.

Kidz Bopping

Oddly, it does seem that many things come in waves.  I rarely speak music with anyone outside a small group of friends because I am so very excitable about the topic and will talk at length about the musical influence of falsetto dance hall singers of the 1930’s and Joe Meek on post punk compositions.  I find it invigorating but I am also vividly aware how mind numbing the conversation can be to those who do not revel in the grand scale of minuta.  

Knowing this I was asked thrice, (yes, thrice) to give my opinion on music related topics this week.  I know you will be shocked to hear that I had quite a bit to say - being the humble quiet type that I am.

First Chris Neto of AV Shout asked me to comment on the Music I bring to secretly test out finished home theater installs when left all alone. Not the ‘best disc’ to verify nor the penultimate SACD from Home Theater magazines hot 100 and especially not the disc or content provided by the manufacturer.   You can read my light commentary here.  

Next the fine folks At AV Nation had me on AV Week Episode 61 and I somehow pontificated on relativity of musical references with the Backyardigans and my kids as exhibit A.

Today I recieved a private message from a long time friend asking me if I let  Rooster and Gonzo -(my nicknames for the boys) listen to all the music I have (or forced them to listen to my collection of 1950’s Hawaiian inspired 78’s).   While the the boys do not have their own MP3 players yet they do have Nintendo DS units which happily play files from an SD card.  So to alleviate my friends concern below is the latest playlist the boys have.  It may not be everyone's cup o’ tea but they helped pick out the songs and happily spend time listening, just listening - remember when you did not do a thousand other things while the music was playing?

Their Faces Haunt Me, Even Now

I wrote this brief first person a year ago for a friend who asked on his blog if anyone in the AV industry would be willing to share their experience of September 11th.  My story is not that of those far, far braver than me who were trying to escape the buildings and it is irrelevant compared to those who charged into the buildings attempting to save others.  It is quite like the thousands who experienced the day first hand and offer it up only as one record of a m0ment that is still not settled in my head. 

 While my story is not about escaping from the burning buildings, I was there on that fateful day, to be more precise I was about 20 blocks away.

The company I worked for then and ten years later work for again installed and had service contracts on the multimedia components for the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the National Museum of the American Indian and several offices in and around the WTC. 

On September 11th I was walking down the West Side Highway  making my way to MJH when the first plane struck.  I did not  see nor hear the plan roar in as I was, in a youthfull bout of folly,  listening to my music at an obscene level (wearing a pair of Sony MDR headphones which I still own).  Just prior to the impact I received a pager message to go to an install job at the Guggenheim  first.  I was pissed as this was on the east side and uptown- completely in the opposite direction.  I cranked up my music louder and turned heel to find the nearest subway station.  By my reckoning I entered the Houston subway at about 8:35.

Intruder Alert Part 1 - Stop Motion Attempt No. 1

 

Rooster and Gonzo's first collaborative Lego stop motion. 
They boys helped write the script, move the set pieces and edit (a bit).. 

It only gets bigger from here. 

Sets built in 10min
Photos took 25min
editing 15min 
 
As a first attempt we are happy with it.   Next time painted backgrounds, a day dedicated to getting the right number of shots and some time in Photoshop to get blaster effects.

 We used a Nikon D90 and Pinnacle 12 editor (got it free with a capture card years ago).  

 

 

                             

John Frum Syndrome

This article was originally posted on rAVE July 9th, 2012

I am a simple man, really; I like my coffee sans sugar and my whiskey straight up. As a general rule I avoid writing on -very- recent current events or product reviews simply because this is generally well covered by the real journos who get paid to perform autopsies. I also get my opportunity to comment on this sort of thing often enough on the AV Week Podcasts.

Even so there are a few subjects for which I am passionate enough about to come out of my shell and shout out about from the rooftops. One of these subjects is the litigious enforcement of an outdated business model or technology. From integrators who still decry the the loss of a single profit source model (flat panel installations anyone? Really?) to box electronics stores and the deplorable act of physical media companies desperately forcing the use of outdated and unwanted formats.

Let us face the facts folks, the days of physical media are over - and unlike the Mark Twain remark - the rumors of its death are not exaggerated, not even slightly. I am of the age demographic that is, according to the research organizations, supposed to be vehemently resistant to digital music formats. While I do still have a rather large collection of vinyl and CDs, (over 1,800 according to my spreadsheet log), I cannot honestly say I have played any in over five years, let alone purchased one. Have you?

I began to think about this around ‘National Record Store Day’ in April. I must admit that I do have a soft spot in my heart for the feel of a record in my hands and the warm hiss of needle in groove. The coverage of the day in magazines like the Big TakeOver, Pitchfork and Alternative Press did indeed make me wistful for the days when I had the time to spend several hours a week in a such stores. The experience, of being on the floor of a record shop with the smell of unfinished wood bins and slightly musty cardboard while enveloped in the sound of the store clerk’s selection, is akin to the romance of used book stores or the stacks at New York Library. - it is impossible to replicate in the digital music arena (not even in Second Life). Despite the many attempts to socialize the process online, the physical act of purchasing music in a communal space and the emotional attachment it conveys cannot be matched.

Fear, Loathing and Peanuts

Today my youngest goes in for allergy testing - While all of the Blood tests show this should go fine it is nerve racking.

As you may know my oldest has a severe allergy to peanuts (and most likely to all nuts). The youngest had failed the scratch test a year ago and given the severity of his brothers reaction we were advised to treat him as if he was anaphylactic as well. A couple of months ago he passed the scratch and blood tests -(as negative for the protein antibodies).

We Carry four of these at all times

Today we go to the hospital with the Allergist for what is called a food Challenge. Most folks first reaction when I mention this is "he is a competitive eater?" I many ways yes.

The Challenge is to have my son eat peanut butter products and see what happens. Everyone is nervous - so much so that we have a team to be at the ready to treat him with epinephrine IV and more Epi pens and who knows what else.

To be honest I am confident in the tests but the slight chance that this test could do harm, however temporary, has my stomach in knots. My son is outwardly excited - he always like trying new food- and hopefully he will not get the willies at being asked to eat something he as been warned, trained not to go near while surrounded by medical people.

Wish us luck!

Social Circle Pictograph

Some Messing around with ways to promote Social community building. 

 

Version One Below: 

 

 

 

Infocomm 12 - Rock Soup

Pardon the Bold format here folks... The post was written in MS Word when I did not have access to my online tools *sigh* .  For some reason the MS formatting is being read as bold and is STICKY as hell. 

Infocomm has wrapped up and if my facebook feed is to be believed even the largest booths have been packed away in crates and are well on the way home. The pictures of tired but obviously satisfied faces with a drink in hand tell you all you need to know.  This show went without a hitch and 34,268 -up 4%!-  found good food, lodging and business deals.

Now, thousands of products were exhibited on the show floor - .  You can find reports on nearly every one in nauseating detail from great industry news outlets like System Contractor, PLSN and many, many others.  rAVe Pubs also did a fine job video documenting nearly every booth on the floor and have them posted in a handy, searchable site.  

To save you time I am going to boil down the main elements for you in seven points

What was Infocomm 2012 all about?  

… and now a word about my hotel room.

After  a day of looking over the finest audio visual gear our industry can provide all racked and wired to in an immaculate manner, it is even more apparent how poorly wired my hotel room is.

I do not want to sound petty here, the room is paid for by my employer and I am grateful for the opportunity to attend and find grab hands on the products I need – and may not have known I needed-  to solve existing and future projects.   It is a room and a fairly well-appointed one at that.

Yet… why would you have an AC outlet like this in the room?