Regarding Gary Kayye's column March 21, "The
Economy -- Part 3"
Dear Gary:
Just read your recent article concerning the down turn for box houses
selling presentation systems. As an integrator this happens to be valued
news since these "houses" present a problem when it comes to pricing
and performance. As our industry offers more and more complicated integration
systems, the end users are becoming less impressed by pricing and seek
out a local dealer for support and interaction. As with any box sell
there is no personal relationship established and the end user becomes
frustrated when the local dealer does not want to become involved in
the integration of a unit purchased from three states away. Although
we strive to serve our client base, there are ethics involved which
must be adhered to. No one wants to be taken advantage of. We integrators
are constantly striving to be well informed attending manufacturers
seminars, service training and various other activities which maintain
our credibility. I don't know if this down turn is related to the current
economy trends or not. I do believe that the end user is becoming more
responsive to service needs and "do" want a personal relationship with
someone local. Putting the economy aside, maybe this down turn is a
warning to the mass distributors that the end user is wising up.
Rob Owen
Industrial Video Corp.
Cleveland, Columbus, Cinncinatti, Ohio
Regarding Gary Kayye's
February 28 column The
Economy's Impact on AV:
Since the last quarter of 2000 there has been a turning trend in the
staging and rental industry. It has a direct correlation to what we
are seeing from the economy in general. I am noticing an extreme caution
from many of our clients. Clients that are feeling the stock market
decline, massive layoffs and poor sales performance are hesitant to
spend lavishly on their sales meetings, trade shows and product announcements.
In the resort areas such as Orlando, Palm Springs, Phoenix and San Diego
the Hotels are reporting group room nights are down due to meetings
being postponed or canceled. Although this is typical of a recession,
it seems as though it is more cautionary than due to lack of funds.
Speaking to others in our industry I am getting a similar response about
budget cuts on larger programs. Our industry has survived many changes
in the economy. We adjust to changing conditions and respond to our
customers needs. Our clients are looking for value added services and
new ideas to increase their market share. Overall we are still busier
that the previous years. Companies are still having trade shows and
corporate meetings, you just have to be careful not to rest on your
laurels and be innovative to create excitement at a good value. From
what I am seeing there will be more cancellations and budget cuts through
the summer. It is definitely a time to control costs, and anticipate
the need to replace lost business. More importantly, take care of the
customers you currently work with and provide outstanding products and
services.
Nick Smith
AV Concepts
www.avconcepts.com
"There was overwhelmingly positive response to my Economic Impact
to AV article last week, but I found an interesting trend. All the people
who disagreed with my column are in the Rental/Staging market. Interesting,
huh? -- Gary Kayye"
That sector of our
business will not experience a slow-down even if a recession hits due
to one simple fact--Corporate America is not going to be able to return
to the past. A past filled with rented overhead projectors being used
in poorly lit rooms with no audio support. Unlike the Production side
of our business, which is always one of the first departments to be
slashed in a recession due to the fact that the work is so easily outsourced,
the Presentation products being used today, and more importantly, the
integrated systems and board-, conference- and meeting-rooms in which
they play such a major role, are as vital tools to a businessperson
today as the computers, fax machines, cellular phones, and personal
palm organizers on which we so heavily depend. We may see rooms and
systems and products stretched a little farther before being replaced,
but slashed from budgets all together? No way!
Just my two cents.
Best regards, Mark
Mark V. Polla
Sales Manager
Professional Products Inc.
Phone: 240-864-4000 Fax: 240-864-0002
E- Mail: markp@ppionline.com
http://www.professionalproducts.com
Regarding Gary
Kayye's February 14 Column: ISDN
still kicks IP's butt
Interview about VTC was a valid and timely piece.
Here at FIU (Miami) we are swiftly getting off of ISDN. Laurie hints
at what a pain the providers of ISDN have been. The ISDN gurus tell
us that, once established, an ISDN connection should not be subject
to problems due to traffic, any more than would a telephone call. ISDN
travels through a connection based system, which is inherently more
reliable for timing sensitive traffic than a best effort network, which
almost all IP networks are at this time. But, as Laurie points out,
it just hasn't been so. Disconnects and inter-C.O. dialing problems
are common. Having a provider condition an ISDN line properly for videoconferencing
is a frustrating experience which they have only had a lip service interest
in helping with. Most phone Co. test facilities don't even own a videoconference
unit, and don't want to discuss the protocol needs of your unit and
seldom agree that there should never be any bit errors on an ISDN circuit.
My point is, if ISDN providers had made ISDN service the standardized,
trouble free medium it was designed to be, I would be the first to argue
for using it until IP network technology became much more mature than
it is at present. But ISDN has become such a nightmare, we are prepared
to put up with a few intermittent skips and freez-ups in picture and
sound with IP operation, as long as it gives us good picture quality
and doesn't drop the connection.
Having said that,
I will be the first to agree that the public internet is not nearly
ready. We are one of many universities on the 'Internet-2', a high speed
pipe reserved for research institutions. We have run high bandwidth
video coast-to-coast on this, supporting distance learning classes with
a very high degree of success. Even with that, we are subject to intermittent
freeze-ups, presumably due to bursts of traffic that remind us we are
still using a best effort network. Last I heard, we may still be several
years away from having "QOS" and priority features that will
let us uncross our fingers.
But IP "connections"
very seldom disconnect, as ISDN often does, and once you have seen the
video quality of H.323+ at 2Mb/sec., there's no doubt in your mind:
ISDN's days for videoconferencing are numbered.
Paul Wagner
Senior Broadcast Engineer,
Florida International University
Regarding Gary
Kayye's column November
2, 2000:
Gary, Your opinions and examples expressed in the "Service is not an
Extended Warranty" article are spot on! Looking forward to the next
installment.
Brian Cantarini HAVS, Incorporated
Regarding Gary Kayye's column
October 4, 2000
Gary, In reference to your recent article "What's Going On?" on Oct
4th, 2000... All I can say is "Amen Brother!" As a growing Pro-AV/Integration
firm, we are beginning with these thoughts in mind.. Tracking costs,
selling service, managing our growth in reference to our effectiveness,
and establishing baseline margins of profit and productivity. It is
soooo hard when the phone is ringing off the hook and you forget to
work ON the business instead of IN the business (especially difficult
when your really a geek at heart!) Even worse is the constant temptation
to crank out a job cheaply with low margins to keep everyone busy, and
the reps happy selling their products. Bad choice. But always a temptation
We have structured our business (or at least constantly attempt to)
sell complete systems and service to all our direct clients, but to
also provide technical services to other AV dealers in an exclusive
non-competitive arrangement. This way we stay out of the rat race of
low-ball hardware sales, but still provide the technical labor resources
(installation, programming, engineering, and project management, training,
CAD, etc.) to the ProAV dealers in the target market. We can keep our
technical people working, and concentrate our efforts on our own system
integration efforts closer to home. We are several dealers -INSTALLATION
department.
The trade off is that we exclude ourselves from marketing directly to
the end-clients; however, we are able to offer our technical support
and warranty programs to our client's end customers (recurring revenue!).
In order to keep our integrated systems market area fruitful, we market
directly to companies (Fortune 1000, dot-comes, etc), and organizations
(Fed Gov't and Associations) with a set radius and vertical markets
-- anything outside the circle is like picking the low hanging fruit
from the tree. We just need to make sure that fruit is ripe, and is
what we are equipped to do.
We have not only learned quite a bit about "how the other guys do it"
but we've developed several working partners who rely on our service
exclusively. Maybe in time we will expand our services to include more
area(s)- geographic and vertical (data, comm, network, personnel) or
even grow less dependent on this profit center as our Integrated System
division grows. Either way, we look to a steady, but sane growth rate,
as the key to a well managed, documented, and client-focused firm.
Ron Baylin EVRON, Inc. "Design-Builders of Business Solutions" 410-239-8747(O)
410-239-1411(F)
Regarding Peter
Putman's article about the projector shootout at INFOCOMM:
I've gone to every shootout since it started and every year, I spend
less and less time in it.
When it first started, I went to confirm that we were selling the sharpest
CRT projector and to see where the bad products were. When LCD panels
arrived, it was simply a brightness and color temperature issue because
everybody displayed VGA.
This last shootout, I spent 20 minutes there, to confirm my suspicions
that all the projectors are almost identical. Where's the fun if you
can't pick on HJT with the first ILA projector or Sayett for having
bad pictures, and poking fun at AMPRO's CRT "always the fuzziest" projectors?
We head off to the show floor to try and get Lasergrahics to explain
how a Mitsubishi projector with an XGA panel does QXGA, or to visit
with the small companies, to thank them for listening to us and coming
out with the right product at the right time.
--Marshall Copeman
Account Manager
City Animation
mcopeman@cityanimation.com
Dear Pete:
I was glad to see someone expressing the same reaction I felt to this
year's Shootout. I still believe the Shootout has the potential to be
a useful and important tool for comparative analysis, as it once was,
but sadly it has devolved into a confusing and disappointing experience.
The fundamental problem was, in my opinion, poor design of the Shootout
area. I wouldn't fault a number of manufacturers for being furious with
the haphazard lighting distribution, and the resulting degradation to
the apparent image quality of their projectors. It wouldn't be unreasonable
for them to conclude that participation can be more harmful than not
participating. The affect of the reflected light on the large venue
projectors was especially severe. The primary value of the Shootout
has always been comparison under equal conditions, but I left the floor
this year feeling that a fair comparison was impossible.
Pre-show literature announced the changes that would be made this year,
especially the emphasis on adding ambient lighting. I didn't understand
the rationale for this before the show, and my doubts were confirmed
by the results. The whole point of the Shootout, for me, is to focus
on the projector's image quality and relative brightness. We all know
what ambient light does to a projected image, so it's fairly easy to
predict the affect that "real world" lighting will have, no matter which
projector you prefer. To actually ADD ambient light to the environment,
knowing that it will interfere with image evaluation, is a questionable
tactic in itself. To do it badly was unfortunate indeed.
The decision not to display ANSI Lumen specs is, I feel, a mistake as
well. I've heard all the arguments about manufacturers exaggerating
ANSI ratings, but I don't buy the idea that they aren't helpful. As
an educational tool they help illustrate quite clearly that: (a) apparent
image brightness isn't linear; b) you can't always believe what you
read in a spec sheet; (c) getting a useful image involves more than
just choosing the brightest projector.
Best Regards,
Harry Thomas
In response to Gary Kayye's column August
16, 2000.
Q:
Some great thoughts. You left out the cost of ownership. If lamps plunge
the same way that projectors costs are going down, sure, they will be
everywhere. I can't help but think that travel and the associated shocks
and hits make lamp life shorter. So, I would think that if they exist
at the destination (Parts 2&3 of your series), the portable will be
left at home and one portable will be shared by a group of travelers.
I'd also be interested in your thoughts on how heat from lamps affects
the life span of the electronics. Why have a small projector permanently
installed in a room when a big one (what we used to call ultra portable)
will do? Will a larger projector last longer than a small one because
it dissipates heat more readily? As we approach the Holy Grail of specs-
HDTV resolutions in a Palm Pilot box that puts out over 3000 lumens!-
will lifespan be the next "thing"? Just some thoughts.
I do enjoy your column.
Best regards,
Bill Jung Thalner
Electronic Laboratories Grandville, MI
A:Hey,
great thought! I hadn't thought about the cost of the lamps. Good one!!!
As for the heat issue, certainly there is better heat regulation with
larger boxes in many cases, but in most cases, each projector manufacturer
has designed an elaborate way of dissipating heat properly. Some use
the enclosure itself and some use well-designed, well-placed heat sinks.
Heat is definitely an enemy of projection electronics, but the heat
issues of the late 80's and early 90's have been addressed and, for
the most part, solved in the 2000's. So, no worries.
The real advantage of the size of a projector is features and user interface
design. A larger projector typically has tons of inputs, compatibility
with everything and user-interface features to adjust RGB Gain, RGB
Bias, color temperature and some even have convergence (features very
desirable in fixed installations). I agree that the portables of today
are the fixed install projectors of tomorrow, but they are missing these
key features to be really replacement boxes for the projectors truly
designed for installs (i.e. Proxima's ProAV line, Sony's FX, PX & FE
line, Epson's i series, etc.).
Thanks for the comments and keep the feedback coming.
Gary Kayye
gkayye@kayye.com
www.kayye.com