GoodBuyGuys Blog

I must admit that I have been a skeptic about digital television. From the beginning, this looked like a bandwidth grab by the telcom industry, engineered by the FCC, and insuring that the rich got richer. Between the reallocation of broadcast frequencies and the making obsolete millions of televisons, it was hard to see how this was in the interest of the American people.

I have to admit, I am beginning to come around. It is easy to acknowledge that the quality of digital broadcasts in high definition is pretty amazing. I find myself watching things on TV that I would have never considered before. Still, as great as this is, the price point for having a high definition TV is still really steep. Lots of American viewers may never get much from this aspect of broadcasting going digital.

Two other things really have changed my mind.

The willingness of the federal government to underwrite the cost of providing two digital converters to every home that requests them means that you don’t have to abandon your television set if you are not ready. I admit that this will be complicated for some folks and there is sure to be an outcry next February 17 when millions of viewers who have not kept track of impending changes in broadcasting will be surprised to discover that there televisions no longer work. Its hard to predict how this may shake out. Those who understand and implement these converter boxes will receive lots more programming options than they have now.

My real willingness to embrace this change is the unbelievable increase in the amount of available content when you receive your broadcast televion digitally.

We live in a broadcast-rich area of the country, and by simply using a set of rabbit ears in my family room I am able to receive over 30 digital broadcasts.

Of particular interest is the wealth of programming now delivered by our local PBS affiliate, WUNC. Rather than just receiving a single broadcast channel, we now receive five different program streams from the same source. It is great to be able to get regular PBS programming, high definition programming, kids shows, archived tv programs and more. I still have satellite tv programming, but spend more and more time watching free digital broadcasts.

Every local channel now broadcasts in digital, providing multiple programs including always available weather, news and special programming in addition to their regular shows.

Reluctantly, I have to admit that this is a change for the better.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service.

One of the unexpected benefits of running a web based business is the ability to find out a lot about your customers in a hurry. Most of our customers have web sites and we always take a look at how they present their businesses on the web as part of processing their orders.

A large number of our customers are entertainment production and audiovisual presentation companies. I rarely see anything of real interest at these sites and I remain surprised that industries with such a high level of technical knowledge miss the opportunity to put their best foot forward.

These sites are usually “black box” pictures-pictures of the equipment the company owns- and lists of technical specifications that may impress their competition but rarely mean anything to a potential customer.

That brings me to the point of this posting. When we were in the “hands on” sound and lighting business one of our good friends and competitors was Carey Sound in Greensboro, NC. I have been friends with the company owner, Ken Carey, for over 25 years and he generously sub-contracted shows to us more than once. I guess the term “competitor” doesn’t really fit here.

The web site he has put together for his company is breathtaking in its depth and quality. Any production company seeking to create a real presence on the web would be hard pressed to put together anything better than what Ken has created.

The type of information he so carefully presents is a lesson in how to use the web to gain new customers and hang onto the ones you already have. His “how to” videos are great information and a powerful sales tool. No doubt, they have deflected lots of last minute panic calls from his rental customers.

Ken’s extensive News section is well laid out and makes for lots of good reading if you are in the sound business.

Carey’s Rental section answers lots of the questions that a potential rental customer might have in a good humored and honest manner that lets the renter know exactly what to expect.

The photography is beautiful (lots of smiling faces), the layout is logical and easy to navigate, and details regarding the services and equipment Carey offers are presented with the clients point of view considered on every page.

I’ve spent a well over an hour browsing this site in the last week, and still have not seen it all.

If you are ready to move your company’s web presence into the big leagues, don’t miss this site.

p.s. Congrats to Carey Sound on their new building and their 30 year anniversary.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service.

When asked about the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford said “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.” Ford realized early on that a potential purchaser of his invention had no way to conceive of what an automobile was. They were thinking about how to make their current reality better.

Digital audio is quickly bringing live sound to the point where Ford stepped beyond his customer’s reality.

Up to now, the design theory behind bringing digital audio to live sound has been to make the sound person’s reality better. Give them more powerful tools while keeping them in charge of deciding how something should sound.

Now that digital mixing consoles have come way down in price and complication, they are being embraced at every level of the live sound industry. It’s common to see them in churches and schools. Digital microphones are next. When this new mic technology is embraced (sooner rather than later) by the live sound community, the digital signal chain will be almost complete.

I say almost, because there is one giant analog bump in what is otherwise soon to be a complete digital signal path. If you mix sound, that bump is YOU!

How far are we away from the digital live sound reality that doesn’t include the sound guy?

Here’s what I’m talking about.

Take the latest Dave Matthews Band album. It’s recorded digitally and everything on the album can be reproduced and analyzed in the digital domain. Stick with me here. I’m not talking about how a song is actually played, but rather the volume, tonal quality and relationship of all the sounds on the album to each other.

If the band wants to closely reproduce the sound of the record (the “mix” if you will) in a live performance, then why not have the person who used to mix the sound be replaced by a computer that knows what the song is supposed to sound like. Every instrument on stage will soon be introduced into the live sound system either by a digital direct box or a digital microphone. Instead of a human moving faders and twisting knobs, the computer doing the mix will maintain the tonal integrity, relative volumes and dozens of other parameters analyzed from the recorded sound. There will be no problem if the arrangement on stage changes from night to night, because the mixing computer doesn’t really care about how the song is played, only about how it sounds.

It wasn’t long ago that most of us believed that cost, reliability and user-complication would keep digital mixers from ever being accepted in the live sound world. We’re over that.

Look for this to happen with spoken word first.

A presenter will simply read a couple of sentences into a digital recorder that interfaces with a digital mixer. When the speaker steps up the podium, the sound system will already know what he or she is supposed to sound like. When this info is combined with the digital analysis of the output of the sound system (we’ve had this software in common use for years) then the true sound of the presenter’s voice can be delivered directly to every seat in the house.

Will the future of live digital sound need us at all? Let me know what you think.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service.