7/29/2019 AV Industries Audio Article

1/2

N \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\a.'\.\\\\\\\\\\\.\\,\\\\\\r\.\i\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\i' i ::i' \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\.\\\\\\\\\.\\\\\\\\t\\\\\\\\\\\\Roundtablesponsored by BIAMPSYSTEMS

\.1dd{

rurenJon Dew-Stanley

zo I lv I JANUARv/FEBRUARv 2013

MaKngthe'R posltlveAt our latest Roundtabre runch discussion we gathered a groupof end-users, consultants and integrators to discuss the issuessurroundingthe use of audio in AV. paurMiligan reports.ff WtrV tras.A'traditionalty been the,, ffi [ f ili'""": :l,iYleud i o spec ia, i s nrin theAV industry and they.ll say the same thing.Audio technology is undervalued andunderspecified in most (if not all) rrajor AVprojects.But why is this still happening? Jon Bern. fiornaudio inregrator and hire company RC Jones. t!lrthere rvas a basic reason ibr this: ..It,s _sot a lor to dowith the fact that sound isn,t tangible. ieople feelthey can latch on to the visual much more easilr ...Unsurprisingly. the subject of rnoney *a, rl.oraised. Clients were able to notice the diftbrence inth:!ua]ity (and cost ol) video products (projectors.

LCD/plasma screens) nrore easily than with audioproducts such as loudspeakers. As a result itdominated the overall budget.As audio was often the unseen (maybe. unsung)element, clients were unwilling to invest heavilvlnsomelhing rhey had litrle expectation of.justrvorking".The experience of Kevin McLoughlin. from theRoyal Society of Medicine, was typical: ..What

,c

{lr"

clients expect is intelli-eible speech reinforcer.nent.But they u-on't congratulate us at the end ofanevent fbr giving thern intelligible souncl. There is nou'ou factor. in the ar-rdio fbr confer.errces andmeetinss. It's.iust expected to ivork.,..{ supefficial tendency to concentrate the budseton technology rhat could dazzle audiences (and irodoLrht lrelp.jrr.tllr the spencl in tlre proeesslurstinderstandable. ifa linle shoft sielttecl, as goodaudro can delir,er a stunning experieuce ilinstalledcorrectlt. Alan Harvkes from Ernst & youns u,asanother s ho had encounterecl clit'liculties pro,rotingthc po.itir e lspcct) ol'auclio eqrripnrerl I crsusr isual technolo_sy: '.Corning lroln a corporateen\ tfoltntent. everyone wants this tvou, lactor intherr conilrence space - from videou,alls to largedrspiar s - rl hich eats r-rp a lot o1-the bLrc.lget. so l-udiois olien dc-stgned to fit tr.,itliin the remainder of thebudget."Richard \onhu ooci. an audio cor.rsultant. hadc-\pcriBncBd this anitude across a nuntber ofprojects. recardless oltheir size or br-rdeet. He hads orked ru a project in a Iive stadiurl. ,ih... usignificant ponion ofthe budget had been spent on

q$bt*..j:,

Roundtable participants stressed that audiopart of the AV mix - but it is vitaltoproducing one piece ofr, ideo contcnt. It.,r.as tj:;-played thror-rgh "t*,o little plastic speaker.s... as :-.recalled: "Halfthe irnpact ofyour video is theaudio. 1,et the only reaction you -uet is _ ,yes s r, --:hear it. rhat's fine' - it's a sharneOthers around thc table agrc.ed it ti,as sotnetir:..beneficial to experience bad (or lniling) audio. a.tlris lorrld Irclpjusttlr thecrrr.t in\e\tntent to lt- .dclircr \irlt it \\it\ \(,U \\et.c tr\ irrg to achiere.Or as Norrhr ood put it bluntlr,: "Audio is likcse\. \ ou ar!. oiien gratelirl lbr anvthing. so tlhate.) OLI C.lll -!ct i. rrhcn crt0tt1lt."Dan Crontpton. tionr Tate N,luscunts. \\,as one r-those ri ho had gone through clifficultres rvith aud.in iris r enLie betbre a reasscssment coulcl take plai."From nn point ofvieu,$,hen sorrethin,,soei\\'ron_s that's ureat" because you then harl r-anopporlur)it\ to qet ir.l there and acjdress some of th.rssues in the prelirninary anci lcad-ups."An issuc raised by Roland Hernrnins. an audiocor.tsLritant and chairman of the Roundtable. wasthat quitc olleu custorners didn't knoti hou,rnuchto speltcl on auclio. either as an alnoLtut or as aproportion ofthe overall budget. Until this rvas

Dan Crompton Jon Berry

7/29/2019 AV Industries Audio Article

2/2

\t\\\t\\\\tlu, w.ev ital

Richard Northwood"#"r

Kevin Mcloughlin Idiscussed. it u oulrl ;lll .r. ir:ke up a small (10 percent or less)parr oi,it't\ \\' :pentl.

Qr-rite olien the audi.r rtrrrion trf rhe budget rvasalso tlre fir'.t ttr hc:].,.'r;ti. : 11'1,r";\ \.ts gcttingtight. Harikes u-scd th:;r,.,iinle ot'three integlatorspitching lbr the santr-;r.: :,., :ilu:trate this probletrperf-ectl1: "11-ther ::r,. .ii:r:: irr l(r\\ er the cost ofvourjob and still u ii'i :it; i,. tr:ii. it's r'asier to lorierthe cost olaudio lnd ::i-, k::n r our tvou' f-actorscreen ancl erplain il:.,: .r, ".-licnt. than it is to lonerthc- spec olthe sct:.:' .:itd \iip a hiuh spec ofthenrdio."

Has kes' i(r::t:r,;:'.: .t:Lick a chord u ith our otherend-us:r': .:- .:,: R, ,::,rii:1i)le. as they had all lacedcLrsio jt-:: r,. :-::::t :::;ir rrrgenisations rvho didn'trin!ii:i:,it'..: ::;:i-,i,r|. iir high-spec audio on a:r:,1:,..,- .,.,,. .1:tir :i.:rllr aureed both end-uscrs-,::;.i\ ::'..:it,t_l::s n:eded to be educatcd in audio::lL,r'.. .,.: r,,:ll l: reseliCrS.Hcr:rliltg. as r ou u ould e\pect from an audiosp:cialisr. u as alu ar s keen Lo promote good quality.:urlio in all olhis projects. and argued that frorn a:.r.]eticll pornt olr ies ifyou had a slightly Jess

,,:: :r;riict intage the audience could still see $.ho. : :: : :,,sclecn. But ilthe audio didn't rvork' -- . ,..rllld actuallv lrave rnore of an":..:ci rlncl be rlore cletrirnental to a- . . - '' - ..:__,::I..ltt than many in the--- : - -r:i:tcingsectorshavebeen

,:., |.rs bcr.n the poor rnan. .l-:r:rrnstlate. Whenl * .:. .:r it can be'-. . l; a(l:llallt iS- -- -- -. ..',lt i]lake an':.ii -:,..1 -: - -. :::r..:1.-:.1.:1-:-eiLil!l-

\'\\\\\:'\'\\'\'i\'\'i\i'\\\\\\.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\.D Kevin Mcloughlin, Royalsociety of MedicineD Dan Crompton, Tate Museums}} RictrarO Northwood, COMSD Alan Hawkes, Ernst &YoungD Jon Berry, RG JonesD Stephen Patterson, BiampD Jon Dew-Stanley, PolarAudioD Rotand Hemming, RH Consulting(chair)

(audio distributor Sound Technolosv beins a rccenrerarnple ol'this).What is the process you to throughwhen specifying audio?The initial discussion you hai,e s ith clrents

lras less to do s'ith ar"rdio. said Northu'ood. andrnore to do rvith psl,chology. "You listen to s hatthey have to say. then you have to go and interpret itand rvork out rvliat they really u,ant."Everyone at'ot-rnd the table acreecl it \\ as best totry and ri'ork backrvards fiorn the client. tiorr u hatthcy u'ere expectiug. and go from there. Whathappcns atter that is olten do*'n to the architect orthe interior designer.

Dilr,.;ih5',Tr;flil1#'#:iThese dccisions can often have a huge irrpact orr thefinal systenr desi-un.McLoughlin's erperience u,ith arch jtects on alecent project n'as tiustratingly tl,pical of many AVprojects: "They have created an aesthetic. and theirdrau rn-us rrever include any speakers because thcy\ oulcl destroy the aesthctic. Afierwards you putspeakers into thc drau ings and the architects rvillsa)'the],don't \\.ant thetr there. and ask fbr thent tob!- IlloYed."

Stephen Patterson

\orthu oocl pointed out that both ofthedisciplines in builcling control IT and FM - hatenoise. ancl spend time trf ing to gct ricl of it fi'onrtoilet blocks and serr cr roolls. so to thetnloud,rireakels arc.just anothcr source olnoise and\ ou \\ on't receir e ntuch respcc{,'consideralion fiolreither as a re-sult.What are the difficulties facedwhen executing audio projects?The integrator at the tablc".lon Belr1,. u asprobabh best placed to ansu,er this as hc u ould

har e seen the probJenrs out there installin,uloudspcakers. rlics and audio control:"Having scrvice routes and the risht access torun vour cabies in the rieht place is onc olthe thin,esthat is or'erlooked by those u'ho design buildings.A lack ofcoordinated thought about thcse lratters isa big problen-r."You nlal' hal'e persuadecl all arclritect to have aspeaker in the right place but there ntav har.e beenno thought about hoii those sert ices ha\ c to getback to s here you har e place d vour ar.nplification.".lon Deu'-Stanlcr'. frorn audio distributor PolarAudio. said his conrpanv ofteu recei',ed post-instal-lation phone calls on integration-relatcd issues:"On paper thcse products u,ork together nicely. Inreality ther,quite ofien don't. What distributorsneed to adcl is the ability to unclerstand products u eclon't sell. We nccd to Lutderstand hou. product.\uorks u ith product B."An issue returned to time and time asain r:r trirrRoundtable c\'ents - education is a lier t,:t; r'i:r't.The client needs to be educated aboLrr :h;inrpofiance of audio u ithin the .\\' L.lt\ r:'1,:r:'-.:ri.otlrerN,ise it $,ill continue to be th.. ;1 , - -; .1' ., 1 1)fAV. and the first part olthc lruti;:. .. -- - r,,:lrJ(iheeau:e'as lortg ir\ \\c (-rr't l'-' ' ' ., - . .,'thcre's no treed to s}'lcnil ii I(r. Lr:r .. r. tr:n ihis is notalu'ays the case.

You can har c the besr r is.r,ris in the ri orld. butr'r,ithout audio to brrck rhcnr iLp rhc) are ottenreduced to nrere u;rllprirer. I

Roland Hemming

. :!ra\

:i 1., itteCh,-,f : e.:i...ien.'1 ip ilp 56

JANUARY/FEBRUARY2013 I AV I 21