Transcript
Essential WYRESTORM
SERIOUS SUPPORT EI spoke with Dave Schorah, Wyrestorm Group technical manager, to get his take on supporting installers to achieve great results.
I Dave Schorah, Wyrestorm Group technical manager, is on hand to offer any technical support installers need
Essential Install (EI): What are some elements of an installation that are perhaps lacking the attention they deserve? Dave Schorah (DS): “The transmission medium itself, cables. That is where many HD projects can run into trouble the use of cable that is poor quality or badly terminated can mean massive headaches. It’s about choosing the right materials and then making sure those materials are properly installed. Poorly maintained, dirty or unreliable mains supplies can also negatively impact on distribution. I always recommend surge protection on every project. “Research and make sure you are using cable you know will support the devices and content to be used. Be careful when terminating your cable and treat it with kid gloves. Also be aware of the effects of the surrounding environment - HD transmissions are sensitive to electromagnetic interference.” EI: What are some of the common mistakes made by installers? DS: “Too much is often expected from ‘plug and play’ – HDCP and EDID communication between devices needs to be respected, as does correct placement of IR emitters and receivers and not hot-swapping HDMI connections. All these factors plus an ignorance of data rate and treating HD like analogue video, means plug and play is never quite as simple as that. I often see problems when a legacy analogue video system (YUV or CVBS) is being replaced with an HD system. “The misconception is that it worked before, why shouldn’t it now? It’s all down to the amount of data that you’re trying to push down the cable. A legacy Cat5e cable that’s happily carried an analogue PAL image for several years or even those that have carried a 10/100BaseT Ethernet signal, will both notice a dramatic hike in demand for bandwidth.” EI: What can Wyrestorm do to help? DS: “Wyrestorm offers a myriad of products to get HD from ‘A to B’ and our top-class technical support service is present from training-specing-pre-sales-installation, after-sales. Having been an installer for five years, I understand what it means to have the support there when it matters most. We design and build our own equipment in our own factory and nothing is outsourced other than Valens’ excellent HDBT semiconductor.”
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EI: How about other forms of technical support? DS: “Our YouTube channel and new website have a growing library of videos to illustrate key features, general product overviews that help in making informed choices and technical demonstrations that answer a wide range of installer queries. We’re also on hand with live chat on the website and email/phone support.” EI: What are your top tips for trouble free projects? DS: “First, test the cable. But don’t use a simple continuity cable tester, this only tests the connection of the cores, it doesn’t interrogate the cable and find weaknesses. Our test kit is the best way of verifying your cable runs before an installation takes place. The best way to test a cable is to send an HD signal down it. If it can do that, then it can do anything. The test kit includes a full HD test monitor, a pattern generator and rechargeable battery. “Also, it’s not always about category rating. A cable will have a capacity rating (measured in MHz) which can be anything from 100-600MHz, depending on the ‘category’, avoid anything below 300MHz. “Furthermore, many installers think projects will fail because of EDID, when in fact, it rarely causes any serious issues. It’s simply a way that a TV or AVR tells a source what it’s capable of. Without it, we’d have to manually set parameters within which the sources would have to operate. Obviously, when you have 16 sync devices wanting to communicate with 16 sources; the communication becomes a little more complicated. Wyrestorm matrixes manage EDID and negotiate with the sources, so you don’t have to. HDCP is also often seen as the enemy. In fact, it is nothing to worry about. It is simply an encrypted ‘key’ that is exchanged between TV and source to ensure that the content is not going to be unlawfully copied. The entire Wyrestorm range is fully compliant with HDCP.” More information: +44 (0)1793 230343, www.wyrestorm.com, www.facebook.com/Wyrestorm, twitter@wyrestorm1 For purchasing, contact distributors: Invision UK +44 (0)1359 270280, www.invisionuk.com; Habitech +44 (0)1420 540054, www.habitech.co.uk
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