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MillimeterWhat's Your Focus?
May 17, 2005 5:38 PM
Whether you work in the trenches or as a supervisor, as a systems contractor or AV consultant, InfoComm 2005 offers myriad opportunities for professional growth and development. The following is just a brief overview for those of you in the AV design, integration, and installation business. For a complete course listing, use the Conference Search at www.infocommshow.org or refer to the InfoComm 2005 show directory. (Manufacturer's training on specific products is also available.)
Audio
For audio pros or those for whom audio represents a large percentage of your work, InfoComm can help keep you current with the latest techniques and technologies. Aside from the Audio Pavilion on the exhibit floor and the more than 200 audio exhibitors, here are some things to check out:
New at InfoComm 2005 are the Audio Demo Rooms, located close to the exhibit floor, featuring practical product demonstrations from Harman Professional, Telex, and McCauley Sound in their respective rooms.
Syn-Aud-Con (Synergetic Audio Concepts) will hold its Sound Reinforcement for Technicians seminar on Sunday and Monday, June 5-6. Picking back up on Wednesday, June 8, there is a multitude of audio seminars, including Room Acoustics (taught by Scott Wills) and Design a Conference Room Audio System (with instructor Gordon Moore). Syn-Aud-Con's own Pat Brown teaches Measuring Sound Fields in Enclosed Spaces, and Bill Magood leads Intro to Live Audio & Gain Structure. Bill Whitlock leads AV System Noise and Ground Loops -- Beyond the Myths, and Gordon Moore is back again with Emerging Trends in Audio. Brandon Haberman presents Acoustics for Presentation Facilities.
On Thursday, Bill Magood teaches about Limiters, Equalization, and Multi Zone (Distributed) PA Systems, and Steve Savanyu shares his knowledge regarding Wireless Microphones for Systems Integrators. Charles Minihan, Steve Witte, and Dwight Raby team up to teach Classroom Assistive Technology and Disabilities Services.
Friday, Kenneth P. Roy is the instructor for Masking Sound, and Steven J. Thorburn offers a four-hour workshop on Advanced Acoustics.
Business and Management
If you're looking to sharpen your business acumen, consider the Selling at the Enterprise Level seminar, taught by Bill Sharer and Paul Depperschmidt on Wednesday, June 8. Or on Thursday, you can choose among Project Management 101: the PMI Model (Scott McCormick), What's Creativity Worth? (Richard E. Van Deusen), and How to Add Profits Without Increasing Sales (Mario J Maltese). Later that afternoon, Barry Halligan offers Service Maintenance Agreements—Make Them Part of Your Business.
Control and Distribution
For you control freaks, on Wednesday, June 8, the offerings include Designing Interfaces the Work (Greg Maderic), Managing Multiple AV Facilities through a Central Control Room/Monitoring System (Christopher J. Maione), and Applied Control Technologies (Frank Damiano).
On Thursday, you might want to look into User Interface Design, presented by the ICIA Independent Programmers Council. Other seminars on Thursday include Dashboard for Controls; AV Controls with a Common Look and Feel (Greg Bronson) and Programming Best Practices (Steve Greenblatt).
For those of you interested in getting the signal from here to there, on Wednesday, you can pick Perfecting Your Image Path (Karl Rosenberg), or Peter Putman's workshop
Display and Digital Signage As always, display technology factors in heavily with the offerings at InfoComm. If this dynamic, ever-changing technology plays even a peripheral role, you should consider the following opportunities: Fundamentals of Display Technologies (Alan Brawn), The Basics of Projection Screen Application (Blake Brubaker), and Wireless Display Networking 101 (Mike Weems). All three seminars are held on Wednesday, June 8. Among Thursday's seminars, Selecting the Right Projector for the Job (Steve Borho), DLP Technology Seminar (Frank Moizio), Working with LED Displays (Myron Linde), and Advanced Display Technologies (Alan Brawn) all present strong learning opportunities to the display professional.
The digital signage marketplace continues to grow. Useful in participating in that growth is Behind Digital Signage: Applying Audiovisual Products and Techniques to the Retail Environment, taught by Eric Cronwall on Wednesday. On Thursday, Digital Signage: The Future is Now (Alan Brawn) and Define, Design, Deploy: The Three D's of Successful Digital Signage (Jeff Dowell) are available. IT/IP
InfoComm Command Center In AV systems, few components operate in isolation, and none do so without some level of control. The Command Center highlights this point, tying together key AV technologies: conferencing, streaming, security, and digital signage. A state-of-the-art command and control/media distribution center on the Central Concourse adjacent to the ICIA booth features equipment, multiple sources, and a control system that sends and receives audio, video, and data to several kiosks in technology pavilions on the exhibit floor, and to the NextGen Home outside the LVCC. Signals will be distributed via an IP network over twisted pair as well as wirelessly. Kiosks in the connected pavilions will serve as remote access points with cameras, codecs, servers, and flat panel display monitors, so you can demo technology-specific applications at each pavilion. Conferencing For those in conferencing, opportunities abound. In addition to the Collaborative Conferencing Pavilion, you can investigate these sessions: Scott Sharer and Jim Smith present the three-day Institute course, Videoconference: Technology, Applications and Trends. On Super Tuesday, Introduction to Collaborative Conferencing (S. Ann Earon, John Tichnor, and David Danto) is among the lineup. On Wednesday, Mike Walker heads up The Value of Implementing Collaborative Communications Throughout the Business Process. Thursday's offerings include: How Does Video Streaming Fit in your Overall Collaborative Strategy? (Scott Sharer) and The Interactive Classroom 2005: Planning for the Next Wave of Interactive Technologies (Randy Jackson). Residential Want to stay close to home? Check out the Residential Pavilion in addition to the following classes, offered in conjunction with CEDIA. On Wednesday, consider Networking Concepts: The Fundamentals of TCP/IP (Richard Reynolds) or Home Theater in the Real World (Joel Rosenblatt). Start Thursday with Home Networking 101: Introduction to Home Networking for the Custom AV Installer. On Friday, Joel Silver presents Digital Video in the Analog World of Home Theater. Design If you're a system designer, there are quite a few choices. Start with one of these the three-day IPD courses: Facilities Design for Universities or Design School Level 1: Principles of Applied AV Design, both starting on Saturday, June 4. Wednesday attend a workshop with Derek Meares, Presentation Facility Design and Integration Considerations or Greg Maderic's Designing Interfaces that Work. On Thursday, you might take Malcolm Montgomery's 4-hour workshop, Designing an Electronic Classroom—What to Tell Your Architect and AV Contractor or the seminar by James A. Horn, Defining the Perfect Teaching Station for Colleges and Universities. Another area of interest for designers is the Manufacturers Training sessions. For complete course information and details, visit www.infocommshow.org.
As the monitoring and control of AV systems and content delivery over IT network systems evolve, gaining an understanding of what's involved becomes more and more important. IT/IP touches almost every corner of our industry, and contractors would do well to keep abreast of the latest development, or risk getting left behind. To help you get up to speed, consider attending Max Kopsho's three-day Institute Course, Networking for the Commercial AV Professional, starting on Saturday, June 4. Other seminars of interest include An Alternative Approach to IP Migration and Networking Basics—Wireless (Jody Thomas), both on Wednesday, June 8. Thursday offers a good selection of courses, starting in the morning with Challenges and Solutions for IP-Based Video Communications (Mike Walker). Or take the four-hour workshop given by Philippe Lemonnier and Patrick Hardy, The Art and Technology of Video over IP. Later that afternoon you can choose among Networking and Projection System -- Current Technology Overview (Jody Thomas), An Overview of Integrating IP into Today's AV Systems (Dave Pincek and David Kroeger), and Network Design for Video Applications (Steve Kapinos).
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.