The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is forcing some institutions of higher education to scale back or delay AV projects. Yet the federal government's efforts to pump money into the overall economy could trickle down to universities, giving decision makers the confidence they need to invest in AV technology.
New AV technology continues to march through colleges and universities despite economic upheaval. More than ever, universities see the value in bringing high-resolution presentation systems and online collaboration tools to educate the 21st century workforce faster, better, and more affordably. Widescreen, 16:9 aspect ratio display systems are among the biggest technology trends, as schools seek to make projectors and screens conform to the standard on notebook computers. Hardware vendors and integrators also say a move to real-time monitoring and support of AV assets over networks is sweeping college campuses.
Medical science may have changed over the years, but the skills needed to be a good doctor–listening to patients, making the proper diagnosis, and not panicking in complex situations–have not. The Weill Cornell Medical College in New York was founded nearly 200 years ago to provide the best education possible to students pursuing degrees in medical science. The college boasts affiliations with top-tier teaching hospitals, such as New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in order to give students access to cutting-edge, hands-on experience. Today, the school's mission remains the same, but its teaching tools have gone high-tech.
Creating the 36-by-48-foot Studio H on the 12th floor of the Fox News building in midtown Manhattan began with the build-out of a new two-story studio shell, complete with video cabling and a powered lighting grid. As executives fielded design ideas and bids, the race began: Deadlines were tight because Studio H was to be Fox's home base for live broadcasts on Election Night 2008.
The ability to hide av systsems, in deference to a room's aesthetics, is a constant challenge for AV pros, especially in high-end corporate boardrooms. Company executives usually want all the capabilities of modern AV technology but don't want to see blank screens and messy wires when it's not in use. AV integrators have figured out most of the tricks to hiding flat-panel displays, loudspeakers, and racks, but what happens when your client wants to hide the world's largest plasma display?
New Chief mounts, Lutron's wireless shading system, Bretford technology carts, more
Christie LED projection, Stewart Filmscreen's new-construction screens, Digital Projection's sealed projector, more
Yamaha amps and mixers, Audio-Technica's newest lavalier mic, Lectrosonics new audio networking family, more
New Chief mounts, Lutron's wireless shading system, Bretford technology carts, more
Not that you sit there along the left field line, taking in a ball game on a warm summer evening, and think, "I wonder what went into this sound system" (maybe you do). But sure as Opening Day follows Spring Training, every year baseball stadiums seem to undergo AV upgrades. Perhaps more than any other AV experience, entertainment needs to keep pace with or exceed the in-home experience or risk losing customers. With household budgets as tight as they are, who will take in a game, or a movie, or a concert when they've got an HD plasma and surround-sound system in their family room?
Quintiles Transnational wanted nothing like an old-style, fortress-like boardroom. The company, which performs pharmaceutical clinical trials and sells directly to physicians around the world, was expanding. So the boardroom was just one piece of a major AV upgrade of numerous rooms on eight floors in its headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Plus, having proven the AV design at headquarters, the company planned to use the blueprint for other locations.
The tony corporate boardroom is a well-trod market for AV integrators, but not the most hospitable one. Some rooms are older than the oldest board members, barely wired for speakerphone, let alone stereo surround sound and high-definition plasmas. Others, the new rooms, are so image-conscious they're built without regard for the way AV and architecture must play nicely together.
Though well-known in racing circles because of its omnipresent logo, Lucas Oil Products was hardly a household name in Indianapolis two years ago. So it began to formulate a marketing plan that would take full advantage of audiovisual technology while meeting expectations for a state-of-the-art facility. Digital signage would be a big part of building brand awareness.
Doug Hardman had a lot of work to do to bring the AV system in the Ada City-County Emergency Management Center (ACCEM) in Boise, Idaho, into the 21st century. The center, housed in a concrete building, had two projectors and some chalkboards. The low-tech setup didn't do justice to its importance in the earthquake-prone area.
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry is known for its innovative programming and exhibits. When the Henry Crown Space Center was added to the museum in July 1986, it included a simulated space station, artifacts from the Apollo 8 and Aurora 7 Mercury missions, as well as the city's only five-story domed Omnimax Theater (recently rebranded as IMAX Dome). Today, the Museum of Science and Industry is one of the busiest museums in the country, with more than 1.6 million visitors in 2007.
You've heard it all before: AV and information technology have come to a head. Nowhere is this more apparent, perhaps, than in efforts to move video content over Cat-5 cabling, which is often the economical choice. Many times it's already in place before an integrator begins work on a project. And sometimes, the project is a decidedly IT-heavy install–one in which an AV pro must think like an IT integrator if he wants to start chipping away at the business opportunities.
The University of Georgia's college of Pharmacy has a respectable history with distance learning, but it will push even more confidently into the 21st century when its 84,000-square-foot addition opens this fall in Athens. Two 200-seat lecture halls, two conference rooms, four classrooms, and a multipurpose room will soon be outfitted with the latest conferencing and presentation technologies, all controlled with minimal intervention from a new master-control room. The Atlanta-area AV design firm Waveguide Consulting was hired to spec the new addition.
It seems pro AV and distance learning were made for each other. But that wasn't always the case. In the past, classroom technology and AV conferencing were mostly analog, disconnected things. Meanwhile desktop software had static documents down pat, but choked on video. Today, all that has changed. So what goes into designing classroom systems that can transfer knowledge around the globe? Find out here.
Deep in a bunker built into a mountainside in Culpepper, Va., sits what could be described as an AV enthusiast's ultimate destination. Housed in a former Federal Reserve building, the Library of Congress' new National Audiovisual Conservation Center (NAVCC) contains an inventory of more than 6 million pieces of historical AV, including 1.2 million moving images, 3 million sound recordings, and 1.5 million related manuscripts. Some of these AV artifacts include sights and sounds that were recorded as far back as the late 1800s.
When the folks at Dollywood, the theme park of singer Dolly Parton, got the idea to convert a 100-seat theater from 70mm film to digital–and add 3D to boot–it seemed fairly logical. Such outsized ambition isn't surprising when it's associated with a star known for dreaming big.
Green is good. It's a mindset that has permeated almost every part of life. New efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle in stores, homes, and offices have many of us feeling like we're saving the polar ice caps one reusable shopping bag at a time. But greening the AV industry is progressing slower and with more difficulty than some would like to see. Scott Walker (pictured) of Waveguide Consulting is taking a variety of steps to push the green AV agenda, like getting his offices LEED-certified. "Within LEED," he says, "there is no specific category for building technologies such as AV."
Despite the fact that consumers are cutting back on spending in reaction to the current state of the U.S. economy, the restaurant industry is expected to post modest sales growth in 2009. In its recently released "2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast," the National Restaurant Association projects that overall restaurant industry sales will increase in current dollars by 2.5 percent over 2008 (adjusted for inflation, 2009 may be down slightly).
When Mark Marek set out to launch a new nightclub in downtown Philadelphia, he envisioned a space unlike anything the city had ever seen–something reminiscent of flashy Miami Beach or infamous Las Vegas hot spots.
Faced with budget shortfalls, Chicago has quit plowing side streets to save money. But the snow and cold were made a bit more tolerable for some of the city's public transit passengers, thanks to Kraft Foods, which provided heat at some bus shelters as part of an ad campaign for Stove Top Stuffing.
Keeping consumers in one place in a competitive entertainment market like Los Angeles, not to mention revitalizing the city's long-neglected downtown area, has required ambition and deep pockets. Over the past 10 years, billionaire developer Philip Anschutz has shown both in his efforts to bring people back to the heart of the city. Nearly a decade ago, his Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) led the financing and construction of the $375 million Staples Center, a building that attracted big-time concerts, basketball's Los Angeles Lakers (and–if you're one who still cares–pro hoops' Clippers), and pro hockey's L.A. Kings to a downtown area that had degenerated in decades prior into a virtual ghost town during evening hours.
Poised along the banks of the Hillsborough River, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is a commanding presence. It attracts all forms of entertainment, from Broadway tours to stand-up comedians. But at 11-years old, it wasn't as state-of-the-art as its competition. "We didn't have the amenities that are commonplace at top resorts or attractions," says Michael Kilgore, vice president of marketing and customer experiences for the center.
s