We also looked at an installation of a Barco fine pitch LED display in a hotel that may be suitable for the NCRC cafeteria. http://www.barco.com/en/product/1991
I looked at camcorders for a replacement for the current 3 chip Canon. Basically Infocomm isn’t the right show for this, manufacturers had one or 2 camcorders, but NAB is really the show to shop for this. That being said I think I found a candidate.
I looked at the Canon HD replacements for the SD camera that we have. Their HD camcorder is about $3000 so it is out of our price range and it is questionable if it correctly isolates balanced audio. http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=175&modelid=17885
Sony has a camcorder that would meet our needs but my recollection is that the price is in the $5000 range so it is a bit pricey for us. It has integrated balanced audio instead of a separate module. It uses 2 types of digital media, one with low capacity of a couple hours and another format with extended capacity. http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-broadcastcameras/cat-nxcam/product-HXRNX5U/
Panasonic has a camcorder that is about $2500 with the required accessories that should met our needs. The balanced audio is a separate module but it has mic/line attenuation and level settings all as analog switches on the module itself, no need to dig through menus to set the input type. It uses solid state media. I think that this camcorder might be the one for us. http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=361001&catGroupId=112502&surfModel=AG-HMC40 We would still need to get a demo of the camera and beat up on the audio input since we have had problems with audio quality once we connect a camcorder to our systems due to variations in line level and grounding issues. Balanced audio should fix the grounding issue, but not all manufacturers implement it correctly.
Talked to one of the engineers at Extron that designed the amp0lifier used in the study/conference rooms where I had some problems with it not seeming to turn on immediately with low signal level. Seems that if it is held in standby with a contact closure it will turn back on with contact closure, if the control is just momentary, it will wake back up when the contact opens and will then go into standby with timeout and will need signal to take it out of standby incurring just under a second to produce output. I will have to verify that this is how the code is written. http://www.extron.com/product/product.aspx?id=xpa1002&subtype=411&s=4
Extron now makes an ATSC/NTSC tuner. It has all the video formats that you would expect for system integration as well as balanced audio so it can interface correctly to a professional system. http://www.extron.com/product/product.aspx?id=avt200hd&search=atsc
Extron also now has several EDID managers: http://www.extron.com/product/listbytype.aspx?subtype=44&s=3
Extron has a video wall processor (I believe through the acquisition of Electrosoncs) that would have been a better fit for the CVC auditorium and much lower cost. http://www.extron.com/product/prodtype60.aspx?s=3
Talked to Christie and Draper about the issue with the image alignment in CVC auditorium. Draper had been out and replaced the mirror, said the screen was not completely flat but that wasn’t a flaw. (screen was made by Stewart Filmscreen, RP rig was made by Draper, and projectors are made by Christie Digital). Both Christie and Draper agreed that the image was as good as it can get mechanically(there had been a problem with the old mirror), they said in order to get the images to blend well in the middle, proper alignment, we will need to use 3d reform(add Christie Twist module to projectors.) Christie thinks that we should be able to get away with putting the Twist module in only one projector.
Looked at Sencore’s test generators. Appears that Tpuchpanel based model doesn’t output composite/s-video. Appears that menu driven model doesn’t support forced RGsB/RGBS/RGBHV but further research is needed because the person in their booth didn’t know the generators all that well. In looking up links for this report, I see that Extron has some new test generators, I seem to have missed those at the show but those are also candidates.
Panasonic also has 2 PTZ cameras that I like better than the Sony cameras that we are using now. They are more pricey, but also seem to be better in low light. Looking at Panasonic’s web site, I’m not sure if these cameras had outputs that would be useful to us or if they are Ethernet only.
Went to a day long Extron training where they talked about their control system products. They also talked about their “green” initiative, though it wasn’t particularly useful as a “green” program, the information is useful in device control, reliability, and power control to improve reliability and longevity of the system. There was also a presentation on digital video and audio transport and the various issues of video modes and copy protection. Extron has numerous new products to help solve digital transport related problems such as extenders, audio extractors, format converters, and EDID “minders”.
Talked to Evertz. Evertz had given us an idea about why their fiber transmitters and receivers lose signal sending RGBHV from the OR/procedure rooms but talking to the contractor on the phone from Infocomm, it turned out that the contractor had done several things that ruled out the problem that Evertz thought they were seeing. Evertz also sells several products that would be useful for video distribution in auditoria as well and another video wall processor that would have been better for the CVC auditorium and for the NCRC cafeteria.
Learned what is causing the moiré distortion in an “h” test pattern in the bsrb seminar rooms in the Infocomm resolution and aspect ratio class. It is caused by the digital reform that Tel applied to the projector to correct for improper mechanical installation.
Tripp Lite has a rack power strip with the surge suppression built in to the strip itself removing the need for a separate PDU. Surgex will have a similar product with surge protection and a sequencer. This saves some space on the rack rails.
Color class. This class was good, though it was a 2 hour class that attempted to describe subtractive color, additive color, color capture by a camera and color reproduction by a display starting with the theory of each area.
Projection screen class.
Desktop video conferencing manufacturer’s training. This class was mainly about a specific desktop video conferencing program sold by Tandberg.
