Red tape...

I need a beer. Still don't have ANY OF THE VIDEO DISTRIBUTION PARTS I NEED that we ordered on Monday. Found out 3 days after the fact the the distributor only has 2 of the 15 parts I need (and they are 2 Receive baluns... they're gonna do a lot by themselves...) and another part isn't in their system and will take at least 10 business days just to add it, and THEN they'll ship it from a backorder status. What??

So I call the manufacturer (Audio Authority - my contact so far has been great). They have everything I need sitting right there in their building, they sell for the same price as the distributor. Awesome! Just need to have the higher-ups sign a "dealer agreement" which is just our info, not even credit terms or anything, and they'll ship next day with a credit card payment. OK!

That was yesterday morning. Guess what STILL isn't ordered yet? All they needed was a signature and a credit card number and I would've been installing it RIGHT NOW.

Did I mention the customer moved in to the house today?!

Argh.

Oh, and all the Fios boxes lost their IP addresses right before I left, as I was setting up 4 of the TVs so they would have them for the night.

Argh.

Workin' in the basement

Been slammed trying to finish this large [for us] job. No brain power left at the end of the day. I will definitely be posting pics as it's my first "real" rack job. I'm not counting the first couple that weren't designed by me (or anyone else for that matter) and everything was just slammed into place and turned on. No no, no more of that nonsense. Here's what we've got. If the design sounds funky it's because it is. We went through 10 revisions of our proposal and each one pulled more stuff out. I had to dumb down the functionality but refused to step down in quality. So here it is.

First Floor:
Marantz SR5003

• Main Zone feeding a 52" Sony XBR and two cabinet style Sonance S623C speakers
  
• Zone 2 feeds Sherbourn TST 200-4 amp in basement rack which feeds 7 pairs of Sonance S623R's... through in-wall volume controls... ugh... :)
  

Sources are AM/FM/XM from the AVR, Escient FP-1 iPod dock/server, HD Fios box



Basement:
Marantz SR5003

• Main Zone feeding a 60" Pioneer Elite and two speakers TBD
  
• SR5003 Zone 2 feeds a 2nd Sherbourn TST 200-4 in basement rack which feeds 5 pairs of Sonance 623R speakers (and more volume controls...)
  

Sources are AM/FM/XM from the AVR, Escient FP-1 iPod dock/server, HD Fios box, and this guy from Game Cabinets, Inc.




We didn't provide it, but it's pretty cool. It's essentially a Windows XP machine with a 15" touchscreen control and 8" display monitor. We had him order the model without the amp since we already had amplifiers figured in for the house. I'm setting it up on an auto sensing line level switch with the Zone 2 outputs from the basement AVR. I tied it in right at the amp, so whether or not Zone 2 is playing it will override the line level out from the AVR and pass the audio on to the amplifier. Then the amp will sense the audio and will power on. Just like that. Hit play on the touchscreen and the basement speakers will play - no intervention with a remote or in-wall control to figure out (which is lucky, because we don't have one down there!)

The line level audio switcher outputs 12v which I'm feeding into our XP-8. The XP-8 will sense the audio trigger, then I can either have it do nothing or I can cause it to send its own 12v trigger to another line level audio switcher that responds to 12v. He wanted the jukebox to come on in the basement automatically but also wanted the option of playing it upstairs. So I can give him a button on the remote that sends a 12v trigger to the switcher and overrides the first floor audio, OR I could just program a Sense Event macro that automatically trips the first floor at the same time as the basement if he decides he wants it to go that way instead. I like having the flexibility to go either way.

Theater
Marantz AV8003 Preamp
Sherbourn 7/110 Amplifier
Velodyne SC-1250 Amplifier
Velodyne SC-15 (x2)
Sonance Cinema Ultra II LCR (x3)
Sonance Cinema Ultra II SUR (x4)
(and a LOT of 12/2 speaker wire - with the passive subs that is 9 speaker runs there)
Sim2 D80E Projector
Ethereal HDMI-CAT5 baluns (x2, AVR to projector, local Blu-Ray to AVR)
Blu-Ray player TBD; we had a Marantz BD8002 in there at one point, but it was pulled out. I think he may end up with a Panny DMP-80 or whatever that model number is.

Adds:
So all of our mini-coax distributed video wiring got pulled out a looong time ago. Now he wants to centralize 8 of his 10 Fios boxes. Luckily, ok luck had nothing to do with it, we have a quad (2 Cat5 + 2 RG-6) at every TV location and throughout the house; 23 in all. And he didn't want a matrix switch - we tried to explain the benefits but it ended up sounding more complicated than it is. He had ordered the 10 Fios boxes before I was done figuring out how I could sell him on a matrix. So now I get to put this together:

Another ERK-4425-AV rack
OCAP-3 shelves (x8)
Proficient IR Plasma sensors (x12)
Xantech 795-20 4 zone IR hub
Xantech 796-20 6 zone IR hub
Audio Authority DuoDrive component Send baluns (x4)
Audio Authority 9880(?) receive baluns (x8)
Audio Authority AVP-11 send & receive balun kit (x3)
(That's 4 boxes split to 8 TVs and 3 boxes straight to 3 TVs. The 8th box in the rack will be plugged directly into the Theater AVR sitting next to it)

That's a LOT of jumpers in there. Not to mention the Cat5's from the rooms land in a structured wiring can that is probably 10' away from the rack. So I'll be pulling around 25 Cat5 jumpers from the can to the rack, then I have to plug in 5 RCA component video and audio AND power for the baluns. Should be fun.
I decided not to do custom AV cables in the "cable box rack" because it would be too time consuming. I figured since I essentially have 8 of the same thing repeated over and over, I'll just use a bunch of pre-made 1m 5RCA jumpers from Ethereal. I think we ordered 18. Geez.


And I'm done...
I'm excited to get this theater finished. Carpet isn't in yet, and I just found out I have to drop the projector another 6" to clear a bulkhead that was added. I'd say we're a Mid-Fi house, but I think we're pushing our way up a bit with this job.

Sorry for the boring post! I'm tired and am a bad writer on a good day. I promise some pics to come!

Will work for AV gear . . .

[yesterday]
Worked from 4-8pm on adding some equipment to an existing system. Have to return one night this week to finish - not all the cables and power cords were moved with the equipment.

Payment? A new-in-box Pioneer BDP-51FD blu-ray player! I'll take it!

Last night I hooked it up to my old H/K receiver that doesn't have HDMI - wanted to use the DACs in the Pioneer anyway - via the 6 channel analog outputs. Futzed with the speaker settings between the AVR and the Blu-ray for a while, but didn't have a BD to test it with. SD picture looked worse than my xbox 360 when I tried 28 Days Later and Flight of the Conchords for some reason, but looked stunning when I put Lord of the Rings III in. Wow. Plus I could already tell the audio quality was better through this player.

[today]
Picked up The Dark Knight on BD this morning. Finally got to hear uncompressed Dolby TrueHD audio through the Pioneer's "high quality Wolfson DACs with 117db s/n ratio" yadda yadda yadda.
Incredible. It sounded like I had upgraded my amp. I can only imagine if I DO upgrade my amp and if I get some better speakers.

Also ripped out the OEM speakers in the rear deck of my car, "Motorjoy" brand that looks like the driver is made out of a Dunkin Donuts napkin and has a tweeter that I swear is brown construction paper. My personal truck is on its last leg and has been sitting unused for weeks, so I took out my good-old Cerwin Vega 6" door speakers and put them in the car. What an improvement! But of course now the OEM head unit doesn't drive them properly, they don't match the crappy front speakers that are still installed, I need a 4 channel amp and only have a 2 channel, etc. So I think I just started a new spending spree. :)

Anyhoo, here's my stuff. Complete with Spongebob "Imaginaaation" lunchbox, stuffed bat, sushi bandaids, and 12" Gumbi & Pokey.

First day with RTI 2-way equipment

Finally... Got back to the office at 3 p.m. and we had already received the XP-8, ZM24, and T2-CZ that we just ordered yesterday afternoon. Sweet!

I've got an upcoming system with a total of 3 Marantz receivers, 2 Escient FP-1 iPod docks, as well as some Sherbourn amps, a Sim2 and a Velodyne SC-1250. It sounds kinda funky, but one receiver is for the theater, one is for the 1st floor Family Room and in-ceiling speakers, and one is for the basement Family Room and in-ceiling speakers. So I'm using feedback from all 3 Marantz FM and XM tuners and the two Fireballs. Today I set up the AV8003, one of the SR5003s, the FP-1 (but didn't have an iPod with me), the Sim2, and all the RTI gear. Here are my first impressions:

Volume "pop up" feedback was a little slower than I wanted. I may have some timing issues I need to figure out, but considering pressing the Volume button first sets a flag on the XP-8, the XP-8 sends a command to the remote to make the Volume Pop-up buttons visible, then go back to the XP-8 which has to request send the volume command to the receiver, which then has to send out volume status rs232 feedback, which the XP-8 has to interpret, then has to send to the T2-C, which has to display the new info... I should probably just be happy with whatever I can get. I'll probably tweak it a little and see what I can get.

The FM tuner feedback is quick! Change a preset on the front of the receiver and the T2-C screen updates almost instantly. Very cool. I don't have an XM antenna setup to test that feedback, but I hope it's just as quick. Getting more info than the station number will be very impressive. [I know you've been able to do it with other control systems for a long time, but this is the first time I've gotten to do it on a handheld, ok? :) ]

As I said, I didn't have an iPod to test the FP-1 with, but I went ahead and set it up on the network and got it up and running. The "Artist, Genre, " etc. headers weren't visible for a split second when you go to that page on the remote, so I'm assuming that the headers themselves were feedback. If so, it was fast. IP feedback from an FP-1 to a T4 via WiFi was painfully slow, so I was surprised. Tomorrow I'll see how it is with an 8 gig iPod Touch.

Before I knew it, it was 5:30 and I wasn't hanging around anymore. But I had control of 2 receivers, 1 iPod dock, and the Sim2, so I was happy. Now it's just a matter of finishing the programming (now that I know the feedback and "drivers" work - I was worried about the AV8003 not working with the SR series driver, even though Marantz has kept their protocols the same for years...)

By the way, I found 2 funky things with ID 7.0. First off, I put a "toggle button" that was linked to the Multi-room A Power status and had a power toggle command on it. If the Multi-room was off when you navigate to that page, the button would not appear. Once it appeared it issued the command and tracked the power status perfectly. Secondly, somehow all my page links, which were all built inside System Macros, got shifted down by 1. So I had to go back through all my macros and change all the links. I definitely didn't do anything to cause that; in fact I don't think there's any way I could have done that. I'll be posting that over at RC in the "7.0 bugs" thread here in a sec.


Have fun, kids!

Second post? More old pics!

These aren't as old as the others. Just finished this job a couple weeks ago. Really cool building. You can see it here. (I'm in slide 15...)

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These pics don't do it justice. That projector is mounted to a floating beam that is about 15 feet off the ground. We also had to put a 125 lb. motorized screen on an identical beam on the other side of the room. We had 3 ladders and 5 guys for that one. Turned out great, though!

Nice little "pod" of JBL Control NOW speakers. Nice and funky looking in this modernized historical building.

We wanted to hang this TV on an articulating mount on the brick wall, but the 150+ year old brick wasn't having it. I was told it was like drilling into butter. We ended up hanging it from the poured concrete ceiling, which took about 4 trips to Home Depot and almost 2 days altogether to get it done.

First post? How about some old pics!

Journaling. I keep reading about how great it is for you. It's stress relief. It's a few minutes each day to clear your mind. Over at The Art of Manliness they even dedicated one of their "30 Days to a Better Man" segments to it. So, what the hey! Here we go...

I really need to invest in a small point-and-click camera. I'd like to start taking tons of jobsite pictures, but I only have the camera(s) in my cell phone(s). 1.3 megapixel? I don't care how many pixels it has when they all look like they're coated in vaseline. These pics are from a little Kodak that now kills batteries faster than you can snap a pic. Anyhoo, here are some old wiring pics.

View from the back of the house.

Doesn't look like much, but that is 22 green "Quad" cables. They are about 3/4" thick and are really stiff. It's like trying to dress up 22 garden hoses full of water. Yes, the bundle coming down from the top has to pass right by the structured wiring can, down into the crawlspace, and back up into the can from the bottom.



Getting these wires straight took two of us about 45 minutes. You can't tell from the pic, but they're following a cathedral ceiling joist. I had to stand on top of a ladder with the whole bundle on my shoulder while we both tried to untangle them so they would be straight. It's hard to say how much that bundle weighed, but it had to be 50+ pounds. All that and it just got covered up by drywall. Sad...