Your LAN is not just for computers anymore. Last year we added IP controllers to our HVAC system...today several Crown amplifiers hopped on the network...soon many more amps and AMX controllers will join in the fray.
I have nothing to do with audio/lighting/production at GCC, but I've always been an audio geek at heart. I really enjoy hanging out in the production booth during a service...watching all the knobs, sliders, lights, buttons...I'm certain I'd make a great audio tech if I ever had the time to learn it :-)
I was blown away by the level of sophistication in the amps they fired up today. Most of the amps at GCC are Crown ... which are top notch amps and the fact that the company HQ is about 15mins from GCC certainly has a benefit as well. The new amps put in today were Crown's CTs series. Since the audio guys know nothing goes on the LAN without my approval they asked me to help/observe. We jacked the new amps into a switch via standard cat5 cables, installed IQWic on a laptop, powered up, and the IQwic software auto-discovered them over the LAN...kewl! (I should note that the amps were pre-configured with IP addresses that I had given to the audio contractors prior to today.) Double-click the amp you want to control and up pops a sweet looking control panel. From this panel you can do everything you want...monitor line voltage, set filters, crossovers, check impedance, set EQ...it was awesome to watch the granular control they had over the amp and the changes were all in real time. Compared to the audio gear we had in the band I was in in college...this was nirvana. And to top it off you can set the amps to email you if certain thresholds are met. Want to know how many times the high school audio techs clipped the amps during their service?...just set up the triggers :-)
A quick check on the Crown website gave this blurb about the IQWic software : IQ Networks can perform amplifier control and monitoring, digital signal processing (DSP), automatic mixing, routing, ambient noise system level control, and system and load monitoring. IQWic or IQ for Windows software running on the host PC allows control and monitoring of the entire system from a central location. Kewl...with a capital "K"!
Exciting stuff! Next to come will be a number of IP assigned AMX control panels that will control about anything you want...lights, dimmers, screen motors, amps, projectors, dvd players, etc.
I checked out AMX's website and low-and-behold, Fellowship Church is listed...sweet! They have a pdf doc showcasing Fellowship's use of AMX controllers...and it's got a nice picture of their Guest Kiosk and diagram of their control room AMX setup...high drool factor stuff.
It's fun to have some involvement with "networking" outside of the typical computer/server stuff...they promise me all these devices aren't very talkative on the LAN...we'll see ;-)
Clark ProMedia is now onsite as well to begin overhauling our main auditorium sound system ... we're doubling the size of our auditorium and moving the sound booth down to floor level ... so they've got their hands full to get everything "rockin" by the grand opening the 2nd weekend of June.
In the immortal words of Stryper...soon we'll be - "Rockin' the world for You, Holy One / Rockin' the world for You, and your Son / If you want to rock the world / Come along with me / Spread the news to every boy and girl / Singing out what we believe / Singing out for truth / Opening our eyes so we can see..."
Serving audio needs today, with lights and video scheduled for tomorrow.
We’ve been using Crown IQ for almost 6 years now. There was always this hope that some day it would all be on the network…how wonderful convenient that would be. To be completely honest we wanted our amps connected to the network years ago but we can’t sacrifice stability and reliability of a major component of a service that is reaching thousands just to be convenient. And years ago we don’t have much confidence that something would print on our network let alone be up long enough to communicate information to vital pieces of equipment. Things have changed, thank God and Jason and their team.
Our network isn’t just up more than it’s down anymore it’s stable. Now I’m not naive enough to think our network will never go down but I do have tons of confidence that our network is built with systems in place to help insure stability and quick recovery should there be an issue…in other words, our network is up and running because they should because this, this, and this are in place…not, it was working yesterday so it should work today…there’s a huge difference. I should also mention that most of the software for such vital items is now set-up in a way that the connection to the network is only needed to monitor and change things (like the Crown amps for example) the network connection is not needed to keep our audio system on.
That network stability and that ever present responsibility to do more with what you have (which can be more or less than the day before) has really pushed us to explore the AMX world and the possibilities that exist. We’ve started with AMX because it’s a clean way to turn things on and off. Be that lights or projectors or our whole audio system (start-up relay turn equipment on and off in the correct order). But now we are turning the corner that will have every TV and virtually ever piece of technical equipment connected to AMX and the network.
Having AMX connected to the network will allow us to be able to turn modify any piece of technical equipment that is connected to AMX through a browser interface. This will allow us to change every channel on the TV’s at a given moment, or enable us to drop a screen, turn on a projector, and select an input on the projector as well as lower the intensity of the lights for an overflow room…all from a remote or distant location. There are also other fiscal benefits to using AMX. We are equipping our new children’s rooms with motion detectors that will automatically turn off all the lights and make sure the video projectors are off if there isn’t any movement in the room for a set period of time saving probably hundreds of possible lost hours on lamps…that’s huge when the cheapest lamp you can buy for our projectors are around $400.
Besides having a stable network we have also had a great partner in Ken Kuespert of TPC Technologies . He’s been a very competent and knowledable partner through our whole AMX process. If it wasn’t for his knowledge and foresight into infrastructure and how we use our equipment choosing to use AMX could have been a very costly choice for us.
Using technology to make things better isn’t a luxury any more it’s a necessity. But even more than that, keeping our systems up and running isn’t a one man job anymore…it’s a team effort from the people who give money sacrificially, to our leadership team who gives us a vision worth pouring our time and budgets into, to our teammates that don’t just do what they are supposed to they do what is needed, wanted, and expected. Every one on our team has a role to play out to make this things a success…I’m just happy to be a part of it.
Posted by: Adam Callender | April 23, 2005 at 01:16 AM