The Qualiverse - Meaningful, Client-Specific Performance Specifications
Do you ever play Box of Chocolates: Netflix Edition? It’s where you just pick whatever show the algorithm picks for you... but you go in blind. You don’t look at the cast list, the description, the language, etc. It’s a risky game. Sometimes you get directed to Squid Game, and it’s a wild ride. Other times... if the young’uns forgot to change Netflix user accounts... you get Season 12 of Bluey, an Australian animated television series for preschoolers. You just don’t know what you’re going to get. It’s a young person’s game, though. This used to be fun, but now I just don’t have the time or the patience for it. I want to know what I’m getting into, what genre, who’s in it, and how many seasons. I want to know exactly what I’m getting before pressing that Play button.
Box of Chocolates: AV System Edition
How many of our users have no idea what they are going to get when it comes to AV systems? Sure, they might know the functionality of the system. They might have signed off on the major items of equipment. But do they know how loud the system will be? Is there a preferred resolution for the system? How big is the display relative to the furthest viewer? How does it compare to other systems deployed on their floor? Are they just playing Box of Chocolates: AV Edition? How is this allowed?
Audio Performance Specifications
I remember performing a 3rd Party Design Review for a client. The design package was prepared by a well-established AV Service Provider, but there were no performance specifications included. I asked the client how loud the system needs to be. They weren’t sure. I asked the designer how loud they planned the system to be. They weren’t sure either, but I didn’t need to worry about it because “they selected amplifiers and loudspeakers from reputable manufacturers, so it will be as loud as it needs to be.” Without knowing how loud the system needs to be, there is no way to know if the amplifier has been sized appropriately for the project, regardless of manufacturer. And without know how loud the system needs to be, there is no way of determining if the loudspeakers can distribute audio at those levels. What if the design supports modest conference space levels (65-70 dB-SPL, a-weighted), but the clients are expecting to throw banger parties in this space (85-90 dB-SPL). At 20 dB louder, the banger parties, literally, need 100x more power than the conference space does! That’s a big difference.
Display Size Performance Specifications
And what about display size? Many people still use the old “4/6/8 Rule”, where the furthest viewer needs to be less than 4x, 6x, or 8x the height of the display, depending on the task at hand. Does it work for the client and users? Can users easily sign into the system from anywhere at the table? Or are they squinting at the head of the table, and must move closer to the display to see what they are typing? That’s not a properly designed system, in my humble opinion. If we are designing systems with the users in mind, anyone should be able to use or read text on the screen regardless of where at the table they are sitting.
The flip side is to use the DISCAS standard, which is great. But it leads to much larger displays than we are used to; for good reason, of course: so people can actually see what is on the screen! However, not many people are hip to putting 86” or 98” displays in small conference rooms where they may have been expecting 55” displays in the past.
There is a lot that goes in to selecting the proper-sized display for a conference space. We need to keep the user experience in mind, but we also can’t bankrupt the department by putting large screen, direct-view video walls everywhere. The big question is, have we had these discussions with the client to come up with a client-specific performance specification for determining the criteria to select the best display size…FOR THOSE USERS.
Resolution Performance Specifications
And, while we are talking about being able to read text on the display…what about the preferred resolution for systems? How often are we, as an industry, just leaving the resolution management set to “Auto” instead of determining the most appropriate resolution for the task at hand? If a system can handle 4K resolutions, should we let it? 4K images look incredible on 46” monitors a few feet from your eyes…but have you experienced one in a boardroom? The text is so small. It is difficult to read at the closest seats to the display, never mind in the rear of the room. 1080P might be a good compromise. It’s still one of the most common native resolutions of most internal laptop screens, so the image shown by the system will be the same as what is typically shown on the laptop. However, if the critical task of the system is reading text during meetings on documents, spreadsheets, and webpages, making the preferred resolution 720P might be preferable. The default text font size will be 50% larger than text in a 1080P signal (and 200% larger than text in a 4K signal!). But what if this is a medical organization, engineering firm, or installation for the military, where they are looking at x-rays, drawings, or maps. Having those extra pixels in a 4K image could be a requirement. There is no right or wrong answer for all users, but preferred system resolution should be determined with intention instead of haphazardly leaving the system on Auto.
Contrast Ratio Performance Specifications
We haven’t even spoke about projectors, yet. The effectiveness of a projected image comes down to contrast ratio. If there is not enough difference between the white pixels (full on) and black pixels (almost off), the image will appear washed out and difficult to read. What many people don’t realize is that a projector does not “project” black pixels…it just sends as little light as possible for those pixels. What that means is the blackest pixel a projector can produce is what shade the projector screen is with the ambient lighting in the room. Think about that for a second. That white screen at the front of the room is the “system black” of the projector system. Let’s look at that one more time…that WHITE screen at the front of the room is the darkest shade that projection system can produce. That means that the projector must project something SO BRIGHT that the white projection screen looks “black” in comparison. That’s contrast ratio. What should that contrast ratio be? AVIXA did a wonderful job with their PISCR and now new ISCR standards. For typical conference rooms, we need a 15:1 contrast ratio and that produces a great looking front projection image. However, that typically requires brighter projectors than people are used to.
We need to discuss this and perhaps demonstrate various contrast ratios to the users, so they get a sense of what is at stake. AVIXA recommends 15:1, but the client might disagree due to performance, cost, product availability, etc. There is no hard and fast design rule for contrast ratio, but it should be designed for with approved and informed decisions.
The Importance of Performance Specifications
Designs and installations have been turned over to users for years without these performance specifications nailed down, but I am not sure we can call them “completed”. They are specific details, but they are just as important as a functional narrative or an equipment list. The narrative and BOM will define the functionality of the room. Performance specifications take that one step further. They define not what the system will do, but how the system will perform. They provide the answers to the test, and without them we run the risk of the revolving door warranty calls regarding not being able to hear the system well, not being able to see what is on the screen, or worse…not getting any calls at all because they just don’t like the system and will take their business elsewhere. These performance specifications may be seen as overly geeky to some, but they are very easy to demonstrate to non-tech-savvy users. And think about the valuable connection you could make with a user by taking the time to demonstrate these system parameters instead of assuming they don’t know what they are or don’t care. Think about how incredible it would be to have every system deployed for a client perform the same way, regardless of room size or functionality. That’s quality right there!
Clients and users of AV systems deserve to know exactly what they are going to get when they request an AV system. Performance specifications draw a very clear finish line, which benefits everyone involved. AV systems should NOT be like a box of chocolates, and users should not just accept whatever is generically recommended to them like when they are binging the Netflix. How an AV system performs should be clearly defined with direction from the users. I don’t see any other way to successfully deliver solutions that will meet their needs.
Next Steps
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