The 3rd Annual AIA Indiana Technology Symposium was a smashing success! We had four outstanding continuing education sessions that provided HSW – Health, Safety and Welfare and SD – Sustainable Design credits to the AIA attendees. A special thank you to our CEU providers/sponsors this year.
A special thanks also to the manufacturers/vendors that participated with an exhibit. A lot of them have been with us all three years and the continued support is greatly appreciated by AIA Indiana and Design 27 alike. Each year of the Technology Symposium we have sold out the exhibit space and provided four CEU sessions.
To shake things up we selected a new location this year in Broad Ripple. Developer Town provided an excellent facility for us to hold the CEU sessions, set up the exhibit area and provide the food and drink all in one large open space. If you have not caught the vibe that is building at Developer Town you need to get on board! The feedback from the AIA attendees and manufacturers/vendors alike has been tremendously positive. We have already started the initial planning with AIA Indiana and Jason Shelley, Executive Director for the AIA Indiana Technology Symposium 4.
Save the date – Thursday, November 14, 2013 – AIA Indiana Technology Symposium 4.
If you are interested in participating let us know. There is no doubt Year 4 will be a sellout as well!
Since basketball season is just around the corner I thought this piece was timely. The Indiana Pacers recently announced that Bankers Life Fieldhouse is due to get a large audio visual upgrade for the new Pacers season in 2012-13. The old scoreboard and sound system were the original system from when the building opened in 1999. In fact, it still contained many components that were in place at the old Market Square Arena and were brought over when the team moved. The new scoreboard will be located in approximately the same location as the current one however it will provide over 500% more viewing area with the new screens. Below are some brief facts from the Pacers announcement about the new screens:
To supplement the audio and video upgrades an additional 330 new HD flat screen TVs (ranging in size from 32” to 70”) will be installed throughout the concourses on all levels of the Fieldhouse. This should provide a real impact when walking from the front entrance to your seat or ensure you don’t miss a thing if you need to sneak away for a frosty cold beverage during a game.
The video system platform is ANC’s VisionSOFTTM. It is the first 64-bit operating system for stadium signage, enabling the scoreboard, video display, LED ribbon, and court side signage to be fully integrated. This will allow all screens to display a single image, replay, animation or for each screen to display a unique image or set of data such as in-depth real-time statistics.
Along with the new video system will be a new audio system for the Fieldhouse. The system will be driven by JBL line array speakers that will provide increased sound ineligibility over the old sound system. Below are the brief facts from the Pacers announcement about the new audio system:
I can tell you given all the new upgrades to the stadium I am definitely looking forward to attending a few more games this upcoming season.
Link to video of full press conference:
http://www.nba.com/pacers/video/2012/08/16/NewJumbotronpressconferencef4v-2188081
Link to commercial about new upgrades:
http://www.nba.com/pacers/video/2012/08/16/PCRS12C04576X324REV1flv-2192883
This is our new favorite construction video. The students at Indiana University – Kokomo get to start this project off right!
A great new product has been released by Panasonic that I think has some real opportunity in many different applications.
The product is formally known as the Panasonic TH-65PB1U Interactive Plasma display and it provides 65″ of display space. Capable of full 1080P and from many different input sources this product could be the new centerpiece of many new conference rooms, classrooms, and collaboration spaces. The true highlight of this product comes from the interactivity options it creates. With the included pen you are able to annotate many different sources and it has the ability to handle up to four pens at one time. On top of this new level of interactivity the display can be completely wireless when it connects to the network.
After adding the wireless dongle to the unit it enables up to 16 different PCs to connect to the unit over the network and show each individual screen in many different configurations. If required you could have a single PC shown on up to 8 different Interactive Plasma Displays. If you don’t happen to have a PC with you no worries, after installing the free Panasonic app from the Apple Store your iPad or iPhone, it can connect to the display and also show pictures and PDFs on the displays.
Later this year Panasonic plans on releasing an 85″and early next year a 106″ version of the same display which should allow the unit to replace some projection screens that may be due for that interactive upgrade.
Last but not least the price. The 65″ unit has a suggested retail of $5,600 dollars which may be the largest barrier to getting into some K-12 classroom spaces. At the same time it will fill some gaps in the higher education, healthcare and corporate spaces that are demanding technology that has the exact capabilities of this unit. I know I can’t wait to have my first opportunity to try out this new product firsthand and design a room around this new equipment.
Take a look at the unit yourself with a link to the brochure:
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/business/proplasma/brochures/TH-65PB1-Brochure.pdf
Our previous post regarding the LED displays used during the opening ceremony was so popular we decided a follow up was needed. The 2012 Olympics in London held the closing ceremony last night and these cool LED displays were heavily used throughout the show. Our team decided the performance of Fatboy Slim was the coolest and really showed the power of thousands of these devices working together. Hats off to the Olympic committee for pushing technology during the ceremonies!
If you were one of the over 1 billion people who tuned in to see the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremonies you may have noticed the crowd was part of the show. At each of the 70, 799 seats in the stadium for the ceremony was mounted a LED panel. This was by far the coolest part of the whole ceremony.
Tait Technologies was the firm that was commissioned to create the panels specifically for the stadium. According to Tait, each handheld video tablet contains 9 individual LED pixels that can be programmed and viewed at 180 degrees horizontally and vertically. Additionally, each panel is IP65 rated as well as EC and EMC compliant.
The tablets had to be installed systematically and attached to a recycled plastic holder at each seat in the venue. They were then cabled to a control rack in each section. All together the panels created an LED screen with 637,191 pixels! To put that number in perspective your home HDTV showing a Blu-Ray movie uses over 2 million pixels.
To use all these LED pixels London turned to Crystal CG International. They were in charge of creating all of the content for the Opening Ceremony. See this video to get more in depth about the content. Very cool technology!
Oh yes one final note…..GO USA!
The HDBaseT standard has been around for over 2 years now however HDBaseT Certified devices started hitting the market in June 2011. If you are not familiar with this standard, you will be soon. This standard allows a single 100 meter Category 6 cable to carry uncompressed video and audio, ethernet, control, and power to a location. This makes deploying audio/visual systems in conference rooms, classrooms, and even digital signage a much simpler process. Today manufacturers such as Panasonic are integrating HDBaseT directly in to their product lines. This eliminates the requirement of an external device to support this connectivity. For additional information I would recommend visiting the HDBaseT alliance website that is linked below:
The video about the new Panasonic projector I mentioned is below. Its a very cool product line that is upcoming. Lamp free and 1080P!
If you have not been involved in a project that is being completely designed within a BIM (Building Information Modeling) software package it is just a matter of time. More and more the owner and the design team as a whole are requiring the project to be designed and administered completely through a BIM software package. The most prevalent of these packages is the offering from Autodesk called Revit.
This tool offers the design team the ability to fully coordinate all building components that are placed within the model. A majority of project coordination during design is spent finding room for all the building systems components above ceilings and within walls. Revit offers the tools to conduct all of this necessary coordination.
As the telecommunications design is programmed into the model we can design the cable trays and conduit to avoid ducts, lights, plumbing, and other building systems instead of doing more manual forms of coordination at certain established points during the design process. Furthermore, the telecommunications design is easily transferred to outside parties so they can integrate it into their model of the building providing them the necessary information to avoid the telecommunications equipment during their design process.
The drawback as it relates to telecommunications and technology design is that the amount of technology equipment available in a BIM format is extremely limited. This paired with the lack of built in tools in Revit and other BIM software packages makes it extremely challenging for a design professional to be successful. Everyone should embrace this approach to design and fully integrate the use of BIM software into your design process.
For additional information I would recommend reading the article in the latest edition of Cabling Installation and Maintenance as it addresses BIM in telecommunications design. The link is below:
Some of you have perhaps figured out the “27″ in our new name Design 27. There really is no secret or big mystery about why we selected the number 27. However, there is a story to tell behind the selection of the number “27″ and in general the name Design 27. For starters the number 27 is pulled from CSI – Construction Specifications Institute MasterFormat, specifically, Division 27 – Communications.
For those of you that are thinking what in the world is MasterFormat? Or CSI? This is the construction bible for all things specified for a building project. This is true both for new construction and renovations. Each section or specification is assigned a primary number and then within that specification additional sections are utilized to accommodate the requirements of a specific project. For example Division 4 is used for Masonry and Division 31 pertains to Earthwork. If you are interested in gaining insight into all of the sections this link provides a general outline for review - http://www.csinet.org/numbersandtitles.
Division 27 – Communications is our primary playground for our project work. Of course our acoustical design work spans several sections depending upon the project and we address some of the sections of Division 28 – Electronic Safety & Security with our security/access control design work. In essence Communications Design (27) is our core foundation and always will be. Our design work and Division 27 focuses on the structured cabling infrastructure for all data requirements, voice communications and audio/visual system needs for a facility.
There have been some long time clients and colleagues that have suggested that Techedvise was fine. Why go to the trouble and expense to completely change your name and identity?The response is simple – we felt we needed to strengthen our brand and create more awareness of who we are. Therefore the name Design 27 was born. We felt it was important to incorporate our core services into a new sleek logo thus DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY AND ACOUSTICS were the only words we included because that is what we do! We were fortunate that we were able to obtain the simple domain to launch our new name and brand. So now when someone sees our logo for the first time they may not know what the significance of the number 27 is but it’s straightforwardness delivers our message.
The responses that we have received are interesting from those working within the built environment. It appears the newer generation immediately recognizes the 27 for the aforementioned CSI MasterFormat Division 27. However, the old guard takes some prodding occasionally as they have been working in the older CSI MasterFormat that only contained Divisions 1-16. Thank you CSI for expanding and updating the sections!
Now you know how we came to be Design 27.
The responses to the logo (and this website too) have been overwhelmingly positive. We are somewhat humbled by the recognition this has already generated in such a short time. We feel the new vibe carrying us into a new and exciting chapter of our company’s growth and we are glad you are along for the ride.