Our previous article talked about the difference between Distributed and Centralized AV systems, and specifically addressed some of the issues with Distributed Systems. This article concentrates on Centralized Systems.
One thing to remember when deciding how to handle your AV system is that it usually represents a significant investment. Also, unlike set work and artifacts, most of the elements in an AV system will ultimately fail, it’s just part of reality. Your goal should then be to extend equipment life time, reduce failure rates, do what you can to optimize the up time of the system, and minimize the amount of maintenance work and disruption involved. It can be realistic to expect your AV system to give you a long, trouble-free life but you have to put some effort into getting the installation done correctly in order to achieve this.
Think of when you buy a car. You expect to buy a system, not a collection of loose parts. You’d expect that the car’s designer has made sure that everything works with everything else, and that the various elements are designed to be easy to use and easy to get to. Similarly, your AV system, which most likely costs more than that car, should be the same. There’s one significant difference between that car and an AV system though. The manufacturer designed that car, tested a huge number of them and then built a lot of copies. Your AV system on the other hand, is most likely one of a kind to your space. This means it needs to last. Spending time and effort properly designing the system and the space is important and includes documenting where everything will go, allocating resources and making sure the system is maintainable.
Speaking of maintenance, the very thought of having a technician doing work in the guest space that is visible to visitors is unacceptable. Visitors of top venues all over the world, including theme parks like Disney frown upon “pardon our dust” and “this attraction is out of order” signs. Pathways for technical staff are designed behind the set wherever possible, so that the ‘Magic’ of the venue is preserved at all times where possible. This means that the bulk of the equipment is not co-located with the exhibits, but instead centralized in places where the tech staff can get to them, work on them, analyze them, and do so away from the public.
That is where Centralized Systems come in. Centralized Systems need proper planning. They are more expensive to buy than Distributed Systems since there is more infra-structure involved and the various audio/video and control signals need to be extended from the control room’s computers to the various other equipment. The control room equipment is rack mounted, and those racks should be properly designed and built resulting in a tidy system that is well cooled and easy to look after.
The main disadvantage to this is that you need to allow space for the racks that make up Centralized Systems. There are guide lines for the design of Electrical Equipment Rooms (EERs) that need to be taken seriously to ensure that they will pass inspection and also to make sure that they’re safe and accessible.
Again, power management is also an issue and we’ve seen plenty of systems where it was ignored or forgotten. Maintenance and cleaning is a little easier when all the major sensitive equipment is in one place though. With most of the equipment being hidden in an EER it means that you can do cleaning and maintenance during the day without anyone ever knowing that you’re working on the system. Part of the EER should involve an analysis of the amount of heat generated and working with the HVAC people to ensure that the air conditioning system for the EER is capable of circulating cool filtered air. This means that your equipment tends to be looked after better and will head for a much longer trouble-free life.
Your up-front costs might be higher with a Centralized System, but the longevity and stability of the resulting AV system will pay for itself.
