Alexander the Great is Pissed (Again)

Originally posted to rAVe Pubs on March 14, 2012

We humans produce a lot of information - great gobs of it.  So much information, in fact, that we have deforested large swaths of the earth to record and propagate it. We built great institutions called libraries to make these ideas available to anyone and everyone... 

Or, at least we used to.  

Forget the four horsemen of the the apocalypse, Alexander the Great is pissed and is most likely now assembling an army to retake the largest continents once again. The goal? To reestablish the most basic forms of sharing and documenting human endeavors.  

Alexander the Great, or AG to his friends, was more than a military genius, brutal warrior and the handsomest (*cough*) emperor of the known world- he also built the greatest library in human history. You may think the Library of Congress has a lot of books but they are just peanuts compared to what was stored in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  

If you are of a certain age group, or just a science junkie you will recall walking through the great library of Alexandria as guided by Carl Sagan via the TV show ‘Cosmos’. This collection of knowledge, Sagan told us, was the greatest repository of human thought in the ancient world, and if the stories are true, is almost unmatched in our modern era. Special envoys were sent out  to any newly conquered lands to seek out all writings, screeds or documents to be brought back to the library where they were copied.  The originals were categorized and filed while the copy was sent back to continue enriching the people who created it.  With such a collection, scholars in 300 B.C. could  directly reference the original text of Elements  or the  complete writings of Homer.  Human philosophy and science flourished until, allegedly, Julius Cesar destroyed it, inadvertently, during a siege of the city. We even lost the knowledge of the ‘flush’ commodes for thousands of years.

Fast forward a handful of millennia and we can now access the Library of Alexandria times ten.  We live in a time when information on anything can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. We even have our own personal Bibliotheca’s to archive our beloved material. Yet so much of our knowledge and history are missing from the this networked repository.  

Yeah, I am looking at you technology manufactures. Just why is it so difficult to find information on products you sold only five years ago?! (Don’t even start to look for something ten years old.) Recently I was tasked with the job of putting some of our pre-owned gear up for sale on our own site. The process of collecting and organizing the gear included trying to find verifiable manufactures' specifications on the units. (Yeah, I know somewhat of an oxymoron there). 

Astonishingly I could not find this information on a good number of the manufactures' sites - not even a support documents link -  (you know, where a lot of companies just pile up scanned documents with product names buried in gobbledygook of ampersands, percentage signs and random letters - nice work unpaid intern!). This seemed to be especially true on professional/theatrical lighting sites. What gives, folks? Is it a question of not wanting the riffraff out there getting information on your products?  Fear that used gear will flood the market and dent your coming year sales?  If not - what then?  

I was forced to find information and documents on used gear sites and suspect forum threads. Not to question these forums' belief that the information is true, but it would be nice to use actual science tenets and have a way to verify the information. In addition to wasting my day, the process has me questioning the trust I can put in these companies - what else are you hiding from me? I know this sounds crazy but next thing you know you’ll start proactively start removing documents from my storage accounts.That could never happen right?

There are extremely important cultural artifacts still missing from the collective cloud from one of a kind academic thesis and pop culture philosophy to early recorded history of American music. It  is not to be suggested that the documentation of one product from a single manufacture should take precedent over the aforementioned, yet how do we know that a product - your product - will not wind up on a future remake of the BBC’s ‘The History of the World in a Hundred Objects

I have an associate who has long scanned and saved documents of any product he purchases onto the company's drives - something I smirked at with a confused bemusement. Now I know just how smart he has been and now view my past expectations with chagrin. Heck, even those in Ptolemy’s era knew that denial is not just a river in Egypt.  

And yes, I DO have that cut sheet and manual circa 1995 scanned and stored.  I will be happy to provide you with a copy, but first a question - how much cash to you have on you right now? 

 

Convenience vs Consistency In Marconi’s Magical Ether

Convenience vs Consistency In Marconi’s Magical Ether

Marconi, the fantastical genius (second in renowned and sheer infamy only to Tesla, despite Yahoo Serious's portrayal ) who brought us the ability to transmit information from one location to another without the need for miles of wire would be amazed but quite comfortable with our wireless world. After all  the first wireless phone/mediadelivery system was in use by 1922.  The tools and interfaces would no doubt astound him, yet the process and application would be as natural as reading the newspaper.  The modern 'Golden Age of Wireless'  is mother's milk to most of us - we are as afraid of its presence, with a few odd exceptions, as we are of indoor running water. So why does it so often befoul and frustrate us?

This dichotomy was brought to my attention when, in the process of teaching a class on Ethernet and Wireless essentials this past week,  I opened my #inSSIDer tool to show what our local Wi-Fi looked like.  The plan was to use the live readings as a simple example of just how interference comes about.  Well I was, admittedly, just as stunned as the class.

 

Whoa! This is what the 2.4GHz frequency range looks like in the Secaucus, NJ warehouse where I spend a good deal of my working day - a somewhat isolated space. How could the IT manager let this happen, someone wondered aloud.

I have experienced similar reactions when teaching high school students about Ethernet, specifically Wi-Fi and RF principles. I have found that even many of these Millennials were unclear on just what is going on beyond the very basic setup.  

Why would this be?

Wireless Internet Access is ubiquitous, so much so that it has become an appliance and as such is nearly invisible to most folks - until it ‘stops working’.  In other words, it is like using a telephone, you may need to know whether to dial 9 to get an outside line and the number you are calling but other than that - it just works.  Off the shelf manufactures sell us the instant gratification of ‘pushing the Little Red Button’ to set up and connect - no need to worry about what is going on behind the curtains and in fact, these boxes intimate,  it may just be dangerous to look dear Icarus.

Our own industry, one which prides itself on being the most informed on the multitude of distinct technological disciplines, is still is coming to grips with the world of Wi-Fi.  Six years ago as the install industry was still  making the hard change to Ethernet many manufactures started to introduce Wi-Fi based products. As a technical support manager  I witnessed first hand the confusion from lack of knowledge in the field and in the support room.  The initial thought and assumption was that the technology was fairly common and therefore would be in the general knowledge meme of the installers. We could not have been more wrong.  It turns out that a great majority of our clients had very little experience with wireless Internet setup, let alone Ethernet in general.  This is not a dig at the companies and individuals involved - my discussions with other offices and support personnel at other manufacturers (yes many of us chat in private forums, even with competitors -  we are professional and know where the lines are, get over it) confirmed an industry wide problem.  

As a result of this miscalculation it became common to work hour long support calls-walking an installer step by step through the basics of setting up the Wi-Fi router/ access point.  In my company a great effort was made to teach the client on the other end of the phone line just what we were doing and what each process was for - ‘...teach a man to fish...’. While this total support helped the individual, it did nothing to stem the tsunami.   The recognition that our incorrect presumptions had a detrimental effect on call times pushed us to develop an extensive training and certification program for staff and dealers. The process took about a year to show a decline in calls and service time on the basic concepts but reduce it did. Now we could deal with issues stemming from new technologies like WDS  and general RF interference which, once recognized caused apoplectic fits.   

RF and EMF interference are funny things, if you are unaware or just limited in knowledge it can be a very vexing problem. The question is just where  can you learn the essential techniques and troubleshooting without having to digest electrical engineering text books or RF circuit design manuals?  My personal path started with having the responsibility of testing wireless microphones become part of my job description. 

Unlike wireless data networks which have data detection and correction techniques built into the transmission / reception process,  audio cannot send a request for the vocals to be resent live. This means that the concepts can be learned without getting into the minutia of error checking and checksums.   Many RF mic manufactures publish pamphlets on the basics of best practices. As we gathered more and more material books and tear-sheets   I studiously and obsessively  hand copied the main points, sometimes the whole booklet, into a small sketch book. Remember this was just pre-world wide web days and portable devices were barely smaller than a breadbox. 

I have always found that just as many audio concepts can be more easily taught by first starting with real world applications of Standard POTS (Plain Old Telephone) lines so can many RF basics be explained using wireless microphones.  This may not be the exact connection you may need but it is a start. I would suggest the following primers: 

Crestron Best Practices for Installation and Setup of Crestron RF Products  (shhh, don’t tell anyone I helped write and edit this) 

Wireless Microphones and the Audio Professional

Texas Instruments has a great overview ‘deck’ entitled RF Basics, RF for Non-Engineers

Shure has some interesting documents that discuss some of the tertiary issues 

You could just trust that is will all work but then it is a question of  program or be programmed - which brings us back to the maligned IT manager we 

mentioned above. Looking at the spectrum analysis it might strike you that it  is amazing that any of the connections work at all.  The Truth is that the network administrator, like you and me, can only contain not control  the unwieldy beast of unlicensed RF. 

 

Convenience vs Consistency In Marconi’s Magical Ether

Convenience vs Consistency In Marconi’s Magical Ether

Marconi, the fantastical genius (second in renowned and sheer infamy only to Tesla, despite Yahoo Serious's portrayal ) who brought us the ability to transmit information from one location to another without the need for miles of wire would be amazed but quite comfortable with our wireless world. After all  the first wireless phone/mediadelivery system was in use by 1922.  The tools and interfaces would no doubt astound him, yet the process and application would be as natural as reading the newspaper.  The modern 'Golden Age of Wireless'  is mother's milk to most of us - we are as afraid of its presence, with a few odd exceptions, as we are of indoor running water. So why does it so often befoul and frustrate us?

This dichotomy was brought to my attention when, in the process of teaching a class on Ethernet and Wireless essentials this past week,  I opened my #inSSIDer tool to show what our local Wi-Fi looked like.  The plan was to use the live readings as a simple example of just how interference comes about.  Well I was, admittedly, just as stunned as the class.

 

Whoa! This is what the 2.4GHz frequency range looks like in the Secaucus, NJ warehouse where I spend a good deal of my working day - a somewhat isolated space. How could the IT manager let this happen, someone wondered aloud.

I have experienced similar reactions when teaching high school students about Ethernet, specifically Wi-Fi and RF principles. I have found that even many of these Millennials were unclear on just what is going on beyond the very basic setup.  

Why would this be?

Wireless Internet Access is ubiquitous, so much so that it has become an appliance and as such is nearly invisible to most folks - until it ‘stops working’.  In other words, it is like using a telephone, you may need to know whether to dial 9 to get an outside line and the number you are calling but other than that - it just works.  Off the shelf manufactures sell us the instant gratification of ‘pushing the Little Red Button’ to set up and connect - no need to worry about what is going on behind the curtains and in fact, these boxes intimate,  it may just be dangerous to look dear Icarus.

Our own industry, one which prides itself on being the most informed on the multitude of distinct technological disciplines, is still is coming to grips with the world of Wi-Fi.  Six years ago as the install industry was still  making the hard change to Ethernet many manufactures started to introduce Wi-Fi based products. As a technical support manager  I witnessed first hand the confusion from lack of knowledge in the field and in the support room.  The initial thought and assumption was that the technology was fairly common and therefore would be in the general knowledge meme of the installers. We could not have been more wrong.  It turns out that a great majority of our clients had very little experience with wireless Internet setup, let alone Ethernet in general.  This is not a dig at the companies and individuals involved - my discussions with other offices and support personnel at other manufacturers (yes many of us chat in private forums, even with competitors -  we are professional and know where the lines are, get over it) confirmed an industry wide problem.  

As a result of this miscalculation it became common to work hour long support calls-walking an installer step by step through the basics of setting up the Wi-Fi router/ access point.  In my company a great effort was made to teach the client on the other end of the phone line just what we were doing and what each process was for - ‘...teach a man to fish...’. While this total support helped the individual, it did nothing to stem the tsunami.   The recognition that our incorrect presumptions had a detrimental effect on call times pushed us to develop an extensive training and certification program for staff and dealers. The process took about a year to show a decline in calls and service time on the basic concepts but reduce it did. Now we could deal with issues stemming from new technologies like WDS  and general RF interference which, once recognized caused apoplectic fits.   

RF and EMF interference are funny things, if you are unaware or just limited in knowledge it can be a very vexing problem. The question is just where  can you learn the essential techniques and troubleshooting without having to digest electrical engineering text books or RF circuit design manuals?  My personal path started with having the responsibility of testing wireless microphones become part of my job description. 

Unlike wireless data networks which have data detection and correction techniques built into the transmission / reception process,  audio cannot send a request for the vocals to be resent live. This means that the concepts can be learned without getting into the minutia of error checking and checksums.   Many RF mic manufactures publish pamphlets on the basics of best practices. As we gathered more and more material books and tear-sheets   I studiously and obsessively  hand copied the main points, sometimes the whole booklet, into a small sketch book. Remember this was just pre-world wide web days and portable devices were barely smaller than a breadbox. 

I have always found that just as many audio concepts can be more easily taught by first starting with real world applications of Standard POTS (Plain Old Telephone) lines so can many RF basics be explained using wireless microphones.  This may not be the exact connection you may need but it is a start. I would suggest the following primers: 

Crestron Best Practices for Installation and Setup of Crestron RF Products  (shhh, don’t tell anyone I helped write and edit this) 

Wireless Microphones and the Audio Professional

Texas Instruments has a great overview ‘deck’ entitled RF Basics, RF for Non-Engineers

Shure has some interesting documents that discuss some of the tertiary issues 

You could just trust that is will all work but then it is a question of  program or be programmed - which brings us back to the maligned IT manager we 

mentioned above. Looking at the spectrum analysis it might strike you that it  is amazing that any of the connections work at all.  The Truth is that the network administrator, like you and me, can only contain not control  the unwieldy beast of unlicensed RF. 

 

 

Alexander the Great is Pissed (Again)

Originally posted to rAVe Pubs on March 14, 2012

We humans produce a lot of information - great gobs of it.  So much information, in fact, that we have deforested large swaths of the earth to record and propagate it. We built great institutions called libraries to make these ideas available to anyone and everyone... 

Or, at least we used to.  

Forget the four horsemen of the the apocalypse, Alexander the Great is pissed and is most likely now assembling an army to retake the largest continents once again. The goal? To reestablish the most basic forms of sharing and documenting human endeavors.  

Alexander the Great, or AG to his friends, was more than a military genius, brutal warrior and the handsomest (*cough*) emperor of the known world- he also built the greatest library in human history. You may think the Library of Congress has a lot of books but they are just peanuts compared to what was stored in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  

If you are of a certain age group, or just a science junkie you will recall walking through the great library of Alexandria as guided by Carl Sagan via the TV show ‘Cosmos’. This collection of knowledge, Sagan told us, was the greatest repository of human thought in the ancient world, and if the stories are true, is almost unmatched in our modern era. Special envoys were sent out  to any newly conquered lands to seek out all writings, screeds or documents to be brought back to the library where they were copied.  The originals were categorized and filed while the copy was sent back to continue enriching the people who created it.  With such a collection, scholars in 300 B.C. could  directly reference the original text of Elements  or the  complete writings of Homer.  Human philosophy and science flourished until, allegedly, Julius Cesar destroyed it, inadvertently, during a siege of the city. We even lost the knowledge of the ‘flush’ commodes for thousands of years.

Fast forward a handful of millennia and we can now access the Library of Alexandria times ten.  We live in a time when information on anything can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. We even have our own personal Bibliotheca’s to archive our beloved material. Yet so much of our knowledge and history are missing from the this networked repository.  

Yeah, I am looking at you technology manufactures. Just why is it so difficult to find information on products you sold only five years ago?! (Don’t even start to look for something ten years old.) Recently I was tasked with the job of putting some of our pre-owned gear up for sale on our own site. The process of collecting and organizing the gear included trying to find verifiable manufactures' specifications on the units. (Yeah, I know somewhat of an oxymoron there). 

Astonishingly I could not find this information on a good number of the manufactures' sites - not even a support documents link -  (you know, where a lot of companies just pile up scanned documents with product names buried in gobbledygook of ampersands, percentage signs and random letters - nice work unpaid intern!). This seemed to be especially true on professional/theatrical lighting sites. What gives, folks? Is it a question of not wanting the riffraff out there getting information on your products?  Fear that used gear will flood the market and dent your coming year sales?  If not - what then?  

I was forced to find information and documents on used gear sites and suspect forum threads. Not to question these forums' belief that the information is true, but it would be nice to use actual science tenets and have a way to verify the information. In addition to wasting my day, the process has me questioning the trust I can put in these companies - what else are you hiding from me? I know this sounds crazy but next thing you know you’ll start proactively start removing documents from my storage accounts.That could never happen right?

There are extremely important cultural artifacts still missing from the collective cloud from one of a kind academic thesis and pop culture philosophy to early recorded history of American music. It  is not to be suggested that the documentation of one product from a single manufacture should take precedent over the aforementioned, yet how do we know that a product - your product - will not wind up on a future remake of the BBC’s ‘The History of the World in a Hundred Objects

I have an associate who has long scanned and saved documents of any product he purchases onto the company's drives - something I smirked at with a confused bemusement. Now I know just how smart he has been and now view my past expectations with chagrin. Heck, even those in Ptolemy’s era knew that denial is not just a river in Egypt.  

And yes, I DO have that cut sheet and manual circa 1995 scanned and stored.  I will be happy to provide you with a copy, but first a question - how much cash to you have on you right now?