Creative Technology Almanac

AV Systems Design Practices

Hardware Control

Single point of control – Ideally there is one point for technicians to control hardware instead of several. For example, if there are Q-Sys and Crestron (Hardware Control) on a project, one system should have one touchscreen that provides control access to both.

Redundancy / Failover

In order to balance cost, energy consumption, project lifespan, and uptime, I generally recommend:  

  1. Media Servers: Primary media server with redundant PSU’s, Backup digital signage player, cold spare media server (stays off but installed in the rack, and connected to the video matrix or AV over IP infrastructure). Whenever possible I try to match media server specifications with the most demanding needs. Generally I will then recommend one cold spare for every four primary media servers.  
  2. LED Processors: Generally recommend backup processors throughout 
  3. Video Distribution
  4. Monitoring Cameras
  5. Building Tie-in’s
  6. Fire-Alarm tie-in – via Crestron processor or Advantech Adam I/O
  7. BMS tie-in via BACnet (high heat load front-end equipment) 
  8. Security Appliance / VPN

Back End Equipment  

Should be kept in equipment racks rooms rather than millwork or out in the space as much as possible. Consider AV transport and network-based control to front-end equipment from the rack room instead of edge devices installed behind front-end equipment. This allows for easier service and keeps the most equipment in a climate, access-controlled area. 

PDU’s - Specify switchable-by-outlet 

Specify Metered-by-outlet as much as possible – this is a low cost way to begin to add energy monitoring on projects. This can drive our own research, or help the client track their energy consumption.

Custom Servers

NOTE

is custom servers same as media server in which case is this content better moved

NOTE

what is the difference between Servers, Media Servers and custom servers

Begin with server-class chassis – There are a few options that support graphics cards. A lot of server models do not. Some only support headless graphics cards.  Dell 7960 Rack  Dell iDRAC Enterprise  Intel vPro 

Dell 7920 Rack Discontinued  Dell 3930 Rack Discontinued  

Nvidia qualified server list – Filtered to Quadro 

Need to do more research on:  HPE ProLiant  Fujitsu   Supermicro   ASRock Rack   BOXX RAXX 

Prefererences

  1. Redundant PSU’s whenever possible
  2. Prefer ECC RAM  
  3. OOB whenever possible. KVM redundancy as well as monitoring via Dell’s iDRAC Enterprise or similar  
  4. NVIDIA Quadro cards (currently A5000, A6000, possibly A4500)   Quadro Cards can spoof EDIDs, utilize mosaic, quadro sync II,  Nvidia Mosaic Nvidia Omniverse Quadro Sync II  
  5. RAID 10 on drives

Multiple NIC’s can be helpful for supporting multiple VLAN’s

Notchmarks GPU list is a good starting point 

0. AV Systems Equipment contains a table of all equipment. Specific equipment notes (e.g., projectors) have a more detailed breakdown of the models and additional theoretical(?) notes

  1. Network Switches – Netgear AV Line or Cisco Business 350 
  2. Media Servers: Dell 7920 / 7960 series rack 
  3. Touch Screens / HMI’s: Maple Systems  
  4. Video Matrices: Lightware 
  5. Audio DSP: Q-Sys 
  6. Architectural Lighting: Pharos 
  7. Monitoring Cameras: Axis 
  8. Digital Signage Players: BrightSign 
  9. Large Projectors: Panasonic  
  10. Small Projectors: Epson LightScene (similar chassis to the discontinued Panasonic Space Player) 
  11. VE’d Projectors: Epson 

Recommendations for Tech: 

NOTE

moved from AV Systems Onboarding by Tanvi, check with Aaron is this is a good fit

Generally 

  1. everything we specify on projects should be UL/ETL listed and FCC certified. 
  2. we prefer equipment from known manufacturers who have been around for 10 years or more.

To consider:

  1. How long will support, replacements, parts be available for the device? 
  2. What warranty is included? 
  3. Has our AV Integrator worked with it before? 

Installation environment - IP Ratings and NEMA ratings

UL Listed equipment (North America Installs) 

– Language from UL: Federal OSHA requirements mandate that all electrical equipment in the workplace be “certified” or subjected to a complete and thorough evaluation before use. 

ETL Listed devices are considered UL listed because ETL follows UL created standards. ETL does not create their own standards, they just provide device testing and certification based on standards by others.

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