AV Technology - June 2008 - (Page 21)

tions. Some standards that may be useful to AV technology managers include operational procedures, contract documentation, quality control processes, and engineering packages. Examples of operational procedures include repeatable equipment setup processes and help desk support troubleshooting scripts. Contract documentation may include requests for proposal (RFPs), statements of work (SOWs), service level agreements (SLAs), and memoranda of agreement (MOAs). Quality control processes can be formed into checklists that include the steps required to complete a quality review. Engineering packages can be reused for multiple projects, saving time and money. Some engineering package elements may include baseline room design requirements, modular upgrade options, CAD drawings, AV signal and control flow diagrams, RFP terms, equipment lists, and statements of work. THE MORE YOU KNOW I realize that some government AV technology managers would regard many of these elements as being the responsibility of their design or integration contractors. While that may be true in some cases, I believe that the more a technology manager knows about his systems and the more he is involved in planning and design, the better he will be able to meet the functional requirements of his agency. After all, once the integrator completes the job, it is up to the technology manager to manage the operations of the systems and meet the needs of the end user. Technology managers are the ones who will be judged on a system’s performance, and it is their job to ensure that the performance is optimal. If they fail this task, they are back to putting out fires and monitoring events. Even when they get past the firefighter stage, technology managers are challenged by other aspects of operational support, including scheduling and system setup. By integrating AV systems with software tools like email servers, IM, unified messaging, scheduling, and social networking portals, end users become empowered to use AV and communication systems without the need for scheduling and operator support. All of these process improvements and automated features seem to point toward a reduction in force of government AV practitioners, but I don’t believe this will be the case. Perhaps there will be a reduction in scheduling and operational support requirements, but june 2008 | AVTECHNOLOGY | 21 these reductions will be offset by the steadily increasing need for AV engineering and management specialists that are required to support sophisticated and complex netcentric communications infrastructures. AV technology managers are responsible for leveraging our agencies’ technology investments to meet the needs of our stakeholders. We must also act as technology information resources for our agencies. By establishing technology forecasting techniques, being as involved as possible in the planning and operation of our agencies’ AV systems, and becoming subject matter experts in diverse technologies that are valuable to our agencies, we can accomplish these tasks. By automating our systems, improving our processes, and establishing netcentric enterprise management systems, we can make the time to become subject matter experts and to focus our efforts on strategic planning. Gary L. Hall, CTS-D, CTS-I, is a program management execution officer at the NationalGeospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) in Bethesda, MD. He is also an adjunct instructor at the InfoComm Academy and can be reached at garylhall@gmail.com. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and are in no way officially endorsed by NGA, and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States. Real Pixel Perfection! When it comes to image, the new EIKI LC-SXG400 really puts on a show, with twice the resolution and more contrast than other projectors in its class. Here's rich, saturated 3LCD color rendition of video and computer images, at 4,200 ANSI Lumens bright, with a 1300:1 contrast ratio, in high definition SXGA+ detail. Versatile, this projector offers vertical and horizontal power lens shift, a range of interchangeable lenses, and a full complement of inputs to meet most application needs. The LC-SXG400 4,200 Lumen, SXGA+ Projector. To learn more about the LC-SXG400 or the complete line of EIKI ProAV Projectors, call 1-800-932-8703 or visit www.eiki.com Projectors and more! 2345 http://www.eiki.com http://www.eiki.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - June 2008

AV Technology - June 2008 Contents Precedent Corporate: Global Standardization Government: Strategic Technology Planning Education: It’s All Just a Click Pre-Empting Projector Breakdown Dealing With Technophobes Keeping Ahead of Technology Obsolescence Understanding Video Codecs Rules of Engagement Network, See & Learn Sound From the Heart Sportsbook Makes an Impact Upgrading an AV Image Product Review: Polycom’s RealPresence Experience HD Tech Horizons: A True AV Networking Standard? Product Spotlight: Digital Media Servers; Flat Panel New Products Ad Index AV MO: Calculating Fiber Optic Transmission Distance

AV Technology - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.