Name's David....just david....i'm actually a newbie. i'm a math school teacher. I've always wonder how everyone does things that they do...saw your website. It looks interesting so...i'm hoping i can learn some stuff from you guys...may be a pointer or two. after all, my job entails learning for a living.

Welcome timego. I was terrible in math, took me 4 years to complete 2 credits :).

Name is Bill. I have been in the AV biz since 1959 with my dad as a little kid. He was one of the original crew to set up several TV stations in Indiana, West Virginia and Washington, DC.

That was when a TV station needed only about 5 people and a city could by an an entire station- control and transmitter- from RCA, delivered on one semi for the gear and a couple others for the tower and antenna.

Back in the day, "remotes" were achieved by literally stringing camera cable (3/4" diameter) from phone poles down to the high school to cover basketball games. Phone line transmission of signals was just getting started.

When we lived in DC he was the film director, editor, and newscaster for WMAL(now WJAL). At age 6, I went with him to show the camera dolly guys how to coil camera cable. We were always the first to have a TV in our area and I learned at an early age how to re-tube them and stared working on them learning what did what.

I was always the geek in elementary school and in third grade I was the only person in school to run the 16mm projector and set up the old RCA audio tape recorder. Remember the green blinking tube that was the VU meter back then?

Stayed with the AV and self taught electronics, got shocked few times and learned those lessons well. In sixth grade I was allowed to repair the school PA system and just stayed with the AV and stage crew activities all through school.

IN DC and working with my dad I had a a LOT of exposure and involvement in government activities and presentations with congressmen, the President and numerous government agencies.

After school I worked for several high end sound and AV companies over the years and developed a reputation in the industry for building or modifying equipment that most techs said could not be done. Simply because they lacked imagination, IMO. I specialized in remote control repair/redesign of existing hotel ballroom lighting and sound systems. I started building remotes for Extron equipment that even Extron did not have.

Last company I worked for went through a slew of acquisitions and name changes in such a short period of time our clients would call and ask "Who are you today?" We called ourselves "AV de Jour".

The final corporate employment ended when I suggested on a Friday that the company install security cameras to catch the thief or thieves who were stealing us blind. On the following Monday I was "downsized". A month after I left I found out from friends that the thief was the brand new manager and his buddy from one of the companies we acquired.

(The manager they displaced when the new "mis"management team came in came in was the most admired guy in the company (by the employees) and the highest net profit office manager in the entire company but he was an ex Air Force guy and didn't play office politics.)

The new "manager" was escorted out of the building by FBI agents as he was linked to interstate theft, fraud, buying materials from out of state under false ID and authorization and grand theft.

So now I build the same stuff I did and sell it back to me original company and their competitors. I still do on site repairs and reworks of hotel and church installations and several conference rooms.

Best part is no office politics.

Hi,
Kenny here. First newbie of the new year.
Found this site via link from a google smurf search, looked interesting and has lots of potential to answer those questions that I will have when I finally get around to designing our home AV system [after my wife finally decides how she is going to arrange the family room.] 8-}
My first DIY project was building a box for some coaxial 3-way speakers I got on sale from Radio Shack in '72. They lasted 30 years until my son blew them out. I warned him about cranking the volume control on that old Spectrosonic receiver/amp.
Coming from a family of engineers, (aerospace, electronic, civil, etc.), it's just natural to want to tinker with & tear things apart to see how they work and maybe fix them and put them back together.
Had to re-build half of our house in '04 after a fire and installed a bunch of smurf tube in the exposed walls before the contractor did the drywall. If I thought there might be a remote (pun intended, lol) chance of installing anything somewhere, I popped in a length of smurf & anchored it to a stud. Took lots of digital pictures which came in real handy a year later when I had a 4 station dish network system installed. The installer just had to feed the wire to me and I shoved it down the tubes & back out the boxes I had ready. He said it was one of the easiest installs he ever had done. He did the techical part, I did the grunt work and viola! a custom install at the *free* standard price. (no holes in the outside walls, no wires to be seen).
Looking forward to chatting later this year... I hope. :-)

Welcome K54 Frog! Conduit is the only true future proofing technique! Sounds like your covered!

Welcome Giz.. its weird welcoming you at almost 400 posts LOL.

Hi, I'm Majid, from Kenya but now in the UK. Got a BEng in Digital Comms and Electronics. Worked for a A/V co. during my year in industry and resumed my job after uni. Mainly do the pronto and networking side of things and now I'm working my way into crestron.

Welcome to RC Majid. I accepted your request at Facebook. Networking is a huge plus and Pronto programming is a valuable skill. Good luck with Crestron!

Thanks, I'm sure I'll need all the luck I can get! I'm taking it quite slowly though, baby steps :D

Thats how you have to approach this business. You have to move slow and pay attention. It does you no good to skip to the end because the end keeps moving. The technology keeps changing.

Hello All!

I am Doug from St. Louis, MO and I new to the forum. Hopefully I can get some help with my Pioneer Elite Kuro Pro-151FD to make it capable of able to be IP Controlled like the Pro-141fd signature seris panel. I appreciate the opportunity to be a member of this forum. Thank you.

Welcome to RemoteCentral mbc230!

Try posting your question in the RS-232 & IP Forum.

[Link: remotecentral.com]

I am a 33 year old CI living in Orlando FL. I run Out of Sight Home Technologies inc. and have been in business for the past 2 years. I couldn't have picked a more depressing time to start my company but I believe I have what it takes to flourish. We offer many services that give us the ability to sway with the current economic situation. Right now CCTV has been on fire. It is definitely not as interesting as custom home theaters but it is extremely profitable and easy to design & install. I will remain to be cautiously optimistic. We have customer service, which simply can’t be matched with bigger outfits. Our client base is growing and happy with our product. We just need to get this economy moving again.

Welcome to Remote Central gregpolasky. You have a ton of portfolio pics of nice looking installations. Stay busy doing what work comes your way and wait it out.

Hello. My name is Ted White. I pop in when sound isolation discussions come up. Most times this works out, sometimes it doesn't, but either way I like to stick to facts and data.

LOL! Welcome to RC!!

CJ