Following a recent change made by Dolby to the recommended angles for the surround speakers for 5.1 and 6 channel Atmos systems, I felt like now would be a good time to put together a piece on cinema design. Everyone specifying and designing cinemas should be...

PORTRAIT IMAGES ASIA BY NONWARIT / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM About 15 years ago when I was the MD of a successful integration company in London I met a representative from a distribution company who I am still in contact with today. Although I have moved on to run...

Having adopted the J-standard in early 2015 and the becoming fully compliant with it later the same year we now find ourselves almost two years on. In that time the J-standard itself hasn’t changed but the way we have understood it and the way we...

Following on from my last column on managing change, this month we will look at revising documentation including correct versioning and approval of design drawings. As a project develops through its lifecycle, changes will come about. Shifts in client requirements or budget, site restrictions and superceded...

As we all know every project, from the smallest to the largest, is subject to change over its lifecycle. The client’s requirements and budgets shift around, site restrictions come into play and equipment is superceded, all this falls under the banner of change control. It’s how...

The key to successful proposals or indeed any bidding process is to win the client's trust. This may seem obvious but it is surprising how often this simple technique is overlooked. So how best to go about this, well let's look at the whole process from...

In the world of sales there is nothing better than a direct recommendation or referral. No matter how good a salesperson might be, referrals will always outperform leads gathered from non-referral clients. If you think about it, the logic of referrals is straightforward. We have all looked...

Let's start with a statement and a question: "Design documentation is a critical piece of any successful smart building or home technology system. As critical as the central rack and equipment or the client and end user, without which there would be no system at...

So during the four long days of ISE I have found myself banging on about the importance of proper connectivity schematics. Firstly, I want to clarify exactly what I mean when I say connectivity schematics, as the term ‘schematics’ tends to be used interchangeably with floor-plan...

In my past career in AV I have worn all the hats that the owner of a small to medium sized custom installation company has to wear. From a project perspective this can be anything from installer, to project manager, to salesman and anything and...