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The innovations of the past are more than examples of wrong turns or outdated methodologies and they are more than modern entrails readings.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.

When I was just cutting my teeth in presentation and live events industry, I was promoted to become a programmer and system engineer using the then cutting edge live show controller Dataton. I presumed that most of my time would be bonding with CRV’s and industrial DVD / Laser disc players. Then they sprang the slide projectors on me. For those of you who are flummoxed by the large spinning discs of plastic some of us used to listen to music on - Slide projectors were these loud, finicky lightboxes that went clickity-clack when you needed to change an image on screen. They were film projectors in slo-mo and my blood ran cold every time the company booked me on yet another, bigger show with them.

It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me- being put on these shows. I had the good fortune to meet and learn from the slide men- gentlemen who had been working and making these industrial revolution sewing machine looking boxes sing and delight audiences for decades - and my world changed. Slide folks were practitioners of an ancient art that,on first pale, looked and acted as if completely divorced from more ubiquitous technologies of audio and video which were slowly encroaching on their native lands. These folks taught me about form and function, about how to properly space text and how a show flow should feel. Being given the privilege of learning from these masters just how the art of multi-image worked, seeing the analog mechanics just enthralled me. The lessons I learned, of stripping things down to their fundamental processes, seeing beyond the shiny gloss has helped me to continue learning with a wide eyed fascination.

The past repeats itself in new ways everyday. 

 

Social Circle Pictograph

Some Messing around with ways to promote Social community building. 

 

Version One Below: 

 

 

 

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. 

 

Father Time! */shakes fist in air/*

 

 

So this happened.

 

Essentially this is the generic Lipitor
 

• “Livalo (pitavastatin) belongs to a group of medicines called HMG CoA reductase inhibitors, or "statins." Livalo reduces levels of "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and triglycerides in the blood, while increasing levels of "good" cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL).


• Livalo is used to treat high cholesterol in adults. Lowering your cholesterol may help prevent heart disease and hardening of the arteries, conditions that can lead to heart attack, stroke, and vascular disease.”

And with it  the last remnants of my youth have drifted away like a silk scarf  in the wind.

I had not been to the doctor in a bit, (yeah I know- typical male),  and being told I had high cholesterol was a bit of a surprise.  I am not a terrible eater but alas I do have my foibles and get way too little exercise.

In fact I was more paranoid that I would be facing a more terrible prospect of colon cancer.  I am not generally paranoid about my health but as it had been much too long between checkups I envisioned some serious malfunctions being present inside me.  We have all heard the stories of a person discovering that they have only months to live after a long overdue checkup. Indeed I have been feeling off lately with an upset stomach (and bathroom issues to boot) and restless sleep.  In general  my sleep is a delft imitation a rock- and after my last bout with insomnia I was on a heightened sense of alert.

Somewhere I read (if it is on the Internet then it’s true, no?) that these could be symptoms related to prostrate cancer and so the seed was planted.  Yet I did not move on getting this checked out sooner. Why? More on the whole prostate exam thing in another post, I am still gauging my emotions. 

To be honest, I was too damn busy.  This and part of me knew that a certain amount of unreasonable paranoia had crept into my brain.   Being  a skeptic at heart I wrangle with what feelings of intuition are culturally fed poppy cock and what is simple attentiveness to my own body and surroundings.  Like many I work long hours at a job, wolfing down my lunch at my desk, then a couple of more on personal projects after the kids have settled into bed and the wife is watching her reality shows. Most of this sitting down.

I used to exercise all the time.  Heck when we lived in Manhattan and Park Slope my transportation more often than not consisted of my well worn in-line skates.  If it was above 40 degrees- I was on my skates making time on the streets of NYC.  Then we moved to the suburbs.  The Ramones line come to mind

“Nothing to do and no where to go”

Good grief people - I may have a nice backyard (small as it is) but there really is nothing to do here that does not require a membership or ten minutes in the car (more sitting) minimum to get there.  To be honest I was a bit discouraged by the lack of outdoor social activity but I had a saving grace:

When I worked as the manager of technical support at Crestron Electronics my job required that I be on my feet, prowling the floor for techs in need or anything that would delay the call queue.   This meant hours standing and wearing a path in the carpet as I moved from one cubicle cluster to another.   Then I was given a real desk job writing copy and building social communities and my arteries never looked back.  

My doctor states that there are no side effects for me to to worried about.  Now this makes me worried about my doctor.   Really Doc! - no side effects... wait what?  You do realize that this is a Statin  don’t you?!  No joke  the warnings include:

• 
  

  In rare cases, Livalo can cause a condition that results in the breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue, leading to kidney failure. Call your doctor right away if you have unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness especially if you also have fever, unusual tiredness, and dark colored urine.

  
  


• Avoid drinking alcohol. It can raise triglyceride levels and may increase your risk of liver damage   (Emphasis mine )

‘Avoid Alcohol’ !   Hell people, despite what Dr. Keith Ablow says I am an AV guy, beer, whiskey and gin are mama’s milk.  

This has me more determined than ever to work toward getting off these meds.  I have three months to accomplish the task and bring by bad level to under 130. (i am at 140 now).  

I have begun to find that I am closer in age to my dad than I have ever been before. How’d that happen?

 

 

AV Week Episode 10 - "Oh Canada"

we mock our northern neighbors, take one for team ,  have serious moment -(ha' who we kiddin?) #avtweeps

 

Episode 10 of AV Week brings new blood with Adrian Boyd, Matt Scott returns as our international correspondent, and George Tucker joins us.

We talk about AV Week, the InfoComm industry celebration of all things AV. Cheryl Regan from ICIA gives us some tips and ideas on how to promote the industry where you live.

Crestron has killed a long beloved product; we mourn the passing of the Adagio line. How would you like a control system you can control with your brain? We’ll explain. Also, George explains how to build your very own satellite. Plus, we have the next big market for you integrators… senior citizens.

http://www.avnation.tv/avweek-episode-10-oh-canada/

The Unspeakable Seems to Have A Voice

A few days ago I posted a provocative  post, entitled "I say a Dirty Word", on Gary Kayye's  RavePubs blog to the custom install professionals to embrace the DIY community as  best bet toward future growth. 

Well it seems that even the pro stalwart PRO Sound News has some similar thoughts by posting a series of videos from the NYC Makers Faire

 

You can see a bunch more videos from the show here

 

Tinker, Tech’er, Solder, Sine via RAVE Pubs

This post orginally appeared on Gary Kayye's RavePub Site on August 2nd, 2011 

 

Are you useless?  I am and proudly so and I think you could do with being so too.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment before we proceed -- you should strive to be useless and leading by example, encourage your staff to be the same.

 Useless adjective       \'yüs-l?s\

              1.    Not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome

In reality useless is usually based on a simple frame of reference, or in the colloquial -- one man’s   
garbage is another man’s treasure. For an install company, tinkering is a useless endeavor, a wasteful process of learning as you go and where results are not always what one expected. Having a staff of useless tinkerers is not just terrible for your business, much worse; it is the best thing that can happen to it.

Do you remember back to when you were six or seven years old and the concept of chemistry or at least the idea that a mad scientist could hold such power with a simple set of beakers and surgical tubing held so much sway? Back then, you mixed shampoo with wood chips, hair gel, milk and orange juice half waiting for the, mostly inert, mixture to start moving of its own volition. These experiments were mostly harmless but if you were like me the ‘failures’ never dulled the excitement of the possibilities -- ‘if I could just find the right ratios!’ <cue cute-evil laugh>. Then again you could have had a mom like mine who occasionally would provide me with bottles marked ‘ingredient X’ - <Vinegar> and ‘Mystery Powder Y’ - <Baking Soda>.  That particular experiment had me wide eyed and standing atop a three-legged stool as the resulting reaction covered the floor of my room. Did I mention that I also became really good with a mop?

I want to see your staff doing more of the above. No, not the mop - the wild-eyed fascination of deconstructivism. Wasteful, you might say. Absolutely devastating to project deadlines and company profits one might argue. Horse Hockey! I say. (With apologies to Sherman T. Potter)

The process of tinkering provides lessons in how stuff works, it is demonstrative and practical, and there is great value in opening a box and figuring out just how they did that. An even greater benefit can come from forceful misapplication-creating wondrous new functions or in letting the genie out.

I am a big fan of something called Circuit Bending which is the process of opening up consumer electronics - mostly kids’ toys - and modifying the circuit boards to create new sounds. The cult community of circuit bending is part heath kit hacker, part pyromaniac musician and part serious electronics debugger. Modifying a toy is not nearly as simple as it might appear -- these units’ electronics are often undocumented; the process of figuring out just where to connect jumpers requires patience and research. It also requires a willingness to fail.

Failure is constructive.

Are you allowing your staff to fail?  

If you still think that I am full of it just take a look at what 3M™ does. 3M has a long standing policy (since the 1920’s!) of allowing employees - regardless of project schedules - to dedicate up to 15 percent of their paid work hours on personal projects. What possible benefits could a policy which wreaks havoc on deadlines and product to market schedules have?  Not much really -- just the development of whole new markets in adhesives, recording mediums and of course the ubiquitous Post-it-Notes ®.

What untapped solution are you missing out of by holding your staff back?  Where would we be without the invention the iPad typewriter?  For me it would be a sad, sad world.

 

 

AV Week the AV Nation Podcast

Tim Albright has tapped a vein with the creation of his Podcast "AV Week" part of the AV Nation community.

First episode of AVWeek:

A chat interview between AV insiders and commentators about all things Audio Visual. With Linda Frembes, yours truly and Michael Drainer Episode #0000 Infocomm - Favorite Infocomm products , HDMI HDCP lssues, The Best AV Apps, Audio Manufacturers OCA alliance,The return of the video wall and Kramer only company offering InfoComm classes.

The show can be found here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/avweek

http://www.albrightav.com/podcasts/

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

 

 

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

                    It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

                                      It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

                   It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

  

                  

Whether you know it or not, you use an invention of the 1940’s cinema star –(and ‘most beautiful woman in the world’) Heddy Lamarr every day, sometimes several.

The concept of spread spectrum frequency hopping had been conceived prior but none had applied in a useful manner.  Heddy and her associate, avant garde composer, George Antheil came up with the idea -(based on player piano rolls )- to help guide torpedoes and avoid jamming from enemy ships.

WNYC’s ‘The Take Away’ had an interesting article this morning about this and a play based on the unlikely duo’s contribution to the war effort called Frequency Hopping.

Alas their patented system was never used to defeat the Nazi’s but would be   ‘re-discovered’ by independent companies working on CDMA.  Every time you call on your cell you are paying homage to Heddy and Antheil – Now, do you think that I could find the Ballet Mecanique as a ring tone?

And Just because it makes me laugh:

Governor William J. Le Petomane: Thank you, Hedy, thank you
Hedley Lamarr: It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.
Governor William J. Le Petomane: What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You'll be able to sue *her*.

Aside:  I do seem to be on a Dadaist roll lately in my blog posting, not sure where this is going to go.