Please excuse my ignorance been out of the business for awhile now.

Heres the run down...
6 dishnet receivers in closet with the low-volt panel, No HD, no Surrond sound, although we are wiring for it. From what I can tell we are just running coax from the closet to the displays. Some are plasmas some are standard TVs. So the question is how do we control the receivers from the panel. I know you guys are about ready to have a fit but, thats what they want dont ask me... The guy running the low-volt side is way out of his league and I have been into computers more lately so Im not so sure of what to do. If I get any access to the customer I will be sure to try explain why everything they are doing is wrong, but the issue at hand is how to control this awesome setup. Should we just put in some sweet radio shack ir blasters, or is there a better way? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Send all flames to [email protected] Thanks in advance.

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This message was edited by DavidatAVX on 05/18/05 20:40 ET.

Bring someone in that knows what they are doing.
I just cleaned up a mess like this. (unqualified installers, salesmen, etc..)

Thanks for nothing

Well being that the Owner I am working for wired the Rose Garden for power and low voltage(?) that was what, a multimillion dollar project? I think they might know something. After the Rose Garden was completed the old man wanted to slow down, so he sold Cherry City electric and started a much smaller company that has been more focused on Residential line voltage. The builders have wanted more and more Low voltage from them. They have been able to handle that fine, they just dont know enough about integration. They also havent done Satellite distribution, and I havent done much either. As I said before I have spent the last few years learning Linux and working on Commercial VSAT.

If someone can just point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I just want to make sure the job is done right.

1) What manual?
2) What Brain?
3) Im trying to borrow yours

I have an idea of what I should do but I just want to make sure its the best plan of attack. As I said its been awhile.

I'll put it a little more gently; you need to bring in a pro. Someone who knows what hardware is available to do this job, and how to ask the questions the end user(s) need to answer in order that the result resembles what it is they want.

If the wiring running between the panel displays and the closet is just coax, you need to answer the question is it carrying a composite video signal or an RF signal from the Ch 3 output of the sat box or a modulator in the closet. If the answer is RF, then there is a way to add remote control using the same coax the signal runs on. If not, you need to run additional wire or use an rf remote that will work in the situation you have (see Paragraph 1).

If you are responsible for results on this job, think about hiring a pro, so you can turn your attentions to things that make you money.

Trust me when I say just because someone lands a multi-million dollar contract (especially a government one) that doesn't mean they know what they are doing. He is probably slowing down because he lost a ton of money on that job. Par for large gov't jobs. Some people call them "prestige" jobs.

Um!

In the manual I'm sure it shows you how to set the receivers to different IR addresses.

Have you read the manual. Talked to tech support?

Coax you say?? Nice...

No accomadation for high def at all??
Are you aware that we are in the midst of a (slow) changeover from NTSC to ATSC that is being mandated by the FCC and Congress??

It's not a debatable issue or a decision that the equipment manufacturers, networks, or sat/cable providers are in charge of, all TVs WILL be high def someday not too far from now.
As I said, it is slow... it may be in '06 like the original spec suggested, but likely it will be pressed back 2-5 years.

The FCC wants the current NTSC bandwidth back, so they can allow more new wireless technologies to exist to give us more cancer.

Whether or not the hardware you choose today is going to be HD, your cabling should at least be HD ready.


Touchscreen, keypad, remote... take your pick.
As long as you can program in the appropriate codes, determine the status of each device, and then route the appropriate codes based based upon which unit you wish to control to the appropriate devices based upon the status of those devices, then you are fine.


How can you explain what is wrong if you cannot identify what is wrong??


Not to get too harsh here, but all the answers to what you are asking are at places like this if you take the time to sift through and can identify what threads/questions/repies are and are not applicable to your particular application.
ie. what devices (displays and sat receivers in this case) have discretes, what workarounds are available on the remote/keypad platforms to let you control remotely located devices on sources that do not have discretes, etc.

These are all VERY important variables that we have learned to identify with years of experience that allow us to specifiy one particular keypad over another, one IR router or controller over another, or one plasma or sat receiver over another.

You can either hire someone that knows this world, or do the legwork yourself and hope that straightening out the learning curve does not come at the expense of hemorrhaging labor time over what you have bid.

Good luck.

I dont even know what receivers they are yet. Right know they just want to run rf coax from the sat receiver to the display, by they I mean the customer. They want to cut corners in very odd and limiting ways. Thanks for the info I will just have to figure it out as I go. I would like to get back into integration, just not sure where to start. I am guessing you guys all started somewhere right? Or where you born with a mx-3000 in your hand:)

Would you like detailed wire by wire schematic, with a 100 page manual on all the various scenarios that could be involved in this set-up. If your guys are doing Multi-million dollar low-volt work, that why are you asking us?
Sounds like WE should be asking YOU.

Well many plasma, especially the cheap ones, do not have tuners. Some sort of upgraded coax for at least baseband composite run will likely be req'd.
Coax designed for RF can be used, but it is not the appropriate wire for the job. We'll leave that discussion for another thread.


No.
I was "born" into the industry as a hi-fi sales guy in the late 80s. Back then audio was audio, and video was boring, and never the two shall meet.

When Dolby Pro-Logic replaced Dolby Surround and more VHS tapes started coming with encoded soundtracks, those of us in the hi-fi stores started paying more attention to video.

Prior to that time, we never touched video. When video was just TVs and VCRs, it was usually sold in the wheeelin' and dealin' furniture and appliance stores, and that cutthroat arena is the very reason that profit margins on video suck to this day.

The early 90's were the time that mainstream electronics manufacturers started making A/V surround sound receivers. The early ones in the 80s only had left and right amp channels, and preamp outs for rears.

I'm sure that there are plenty of us here that have been around long enough to remember dealing with that mess.... Yamaha had a powered center up until a few years ago because so many companies made so many receivers with only four channels in the early 90s that demand for a powered center continued for years after that.

Remotes were collected and placed nearby, and that was about the best you could do.

If you bought the right components, you could get it down to one remote that would control your TV, and with the flip of a little switch, control your VCR of the same brand.

Also, some audio receivers came with remotes that had a few basic commands that operated that brands' CD players and maybe even a cassette if you chose the full logic model and hooked up the little link.

DSS wasn't invented, and big dish receivers were just adding things like remote control and onboard rotator controls. If you had a big budget, you could get a fully integrated sat receiver that also controlled the position of the dish.

LaserDisc players always needed a dedicated remote...

The first universal remotes had terrible layouts and rows and rown of tiny buttons. Also, they were code remotes that could not learn. When learning remotes hit the scene, we thought they were great. But they still had too many buttons and many were unused and you had to remember which button you had pressed on top to remember what device you were trying to control.
The Xantech universal remotes and the URC SL-9000 are pretty much crap by today's standards, but I know a lot of us welcomed the sight of them when they became available.

When Lexicon came out with the 500T, Niles with the Intelicontrol, and Marantz with the RC-2000, we started getting serious about integrating control, and we had MACROS!!... that was in the mid-90s.

In the past 10 years...

- Fixed mini-dish DSS systems with multiple receivers make sat more simple (although they are working hard each year to make it more complex again)

- Single lens LCD, DLP & D-ILA projos make projection more simple

- Receivers with onboard auto setup, video switching/transcoding, and matching power to all channels make audio more simple

- All in one multi-room receivers with dedicated matching keypads make distributed audio more simple

- Powerful PC programmable remotes and keypads combined with resources like this site make control more simple

- Mutliple output RF distribution modules with built in unity gain outputs, combiners, and internally terminated legs make RF distibution easy

You want tough??
Rewind 15 years and start a job like that...
For starters, you would have to have a dedicated 8-10 ft. dish for each receiver. Either that or all the channels you want to watch has better be on the same slot.
Think back to the NASA style skyline above most sports bars 10-20 years ago and you have the idea.

Yeah, like he said. :-) Other than I started in sales in the late 70's, that could have been my story.

Sorry Owen, but in the late 70s I was still in elementary school...

But I did have the nicest stereo and the coolest record collection on my street!!

Rick

brandenpro,
It appears that your (or your client's) needs are too vague for us to really offer any help.
Take the time to identify what rooms will be home to what displays. Then take time to identify what Dish equipment already exists. Then take time to identify a current wiring schematic in the home. Take time to identify exactly what quality source you want to view on these displays.
With this information, you can hire a professional to design and specify a system that will be bulletproof for you (or your client), even if you choose to install it.
Not to be harsh, but those who are profitable in this industry have learned what we do best and we stick with it. Bringing in an expert will not diminish you, it will only create a profitable working relationship for you.