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.

My first job in the entertainment industry was as a stagehand, helping produce concerts at UNC, my alma mater. I was hooked after my first show.

One of my earliest experiences was working on an Alice Cooper show. Building a gallows, and then watching one of the best known rock stars of the day (remember “School’s Out “) “hang” himself was pretty heady stuff for an 18 year old in 1970.

Who would have thought that 37 years later Cooper would have become a dedicated Christian and a key player making a real difference in the lives of troubled teenagers. Cooper and Chuck Savale have begun the Solid Rock Foundation, a not-for-profit Christian-based sactuary for kids in Phoenix, AZ.

As part of the process for raising over $7 millions dollors for the Foundation, Cooper is involved in producing concerts as as a fund rasing effort. In addition to supporting their capital campaign, the concerts provide an opportunity to teach real world job skills to kids who might well go on to work in the entertainment industry.

I have written before about the lack of interest among young people in pursuing career opportunites in concert production. It is an industry that is graying quickly and it’s good to see such noble efforts to create a new source for technicians.

This effort has garnered lots of support from major equipment manufacturers and local Arizona venues. They will help equip the Foundation’s center to be built on donated land at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Solid Rock Foundation, click here.

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 your business is primarily distribution of products, it can be difficult to add easily perceived value to what you sell. I grew up in the printing business where a publisher was able to apply ink to paper and create something of much greater value than either of the two raw materials. In the case of our family business, it was greeting cards-adding a clever idea and high quality art is what added real value to ink on paper.

When the basis of your business model is taking items out of a large box and putting them into a series of smaller boxes, it is a real challenge to add additional worth that the customer will value.

We’re always on the lookout for how others do it.

A recent online purchase of a pair of shoes for my daughter led me to a pretty incredible experience with an online retailer called “Zappos“. Their motto: “We are a service company that happens to sell.”

It is hard to imagine a product more challenging for online sales than shoes. Not only does every manufacturer have a different idea of what a size 7 is (or any other size for that matter) but the selection of shoes is incredibly subjective. Not only do you care what the shoe looks like on the page, you also care about what it looks like on your foot.

Zappos not only offers “free” overnight shipping (obviously built into the price) but, if you are unhappy with your selection, they offer free return shipping as well. Full refund with no questions asked if you choose to return the shoes.

My daughter wanted something different than the Christmas present I gave her-no surprise there. She was able to pick out a new choice and have them the next day, and I was able to return the original purchase with no hassle at Zappo’s expense.

Obviously, if too many customers were unhappy, Zappos’ free return service would not work. It’s essential that they achieve customer satisfaction the first time around on most purchases. With the overall commitment to service they showed us, my guess is that the percentage of returns is not too high.

Regardless, we’ll shop at Zappos again.

Got a good “value added” idea ? Share it with us.

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.

A newspaper article headline in the business section of yesterdays Raleigh, NC News & Observer caught my eye.

“Losing The Cords On Flat TVs”

Thinking this AP article might be about extension cords, I read a little before realizing that the author, Peter Svensson was actually talking about the ability to send television data to a large screen TV wirelessly using technology similar to the WIFI signals now found distributing computer data in so many homes.

Three different wireless protocols for delivering data to flat panel televisions will be featured at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It uses recently allocated spectrum that is not supposed to interfere with WIFI and it has a range that reportedly will limit it from spilling into your neighbor’s apartment. This has the potential to make the home theatre installer’s life a lot easier.

Unfortunately, no where in the article did the writer even mention the most important cord of all. THE POWER CABLE! That certainly isn’t going to be lost anytime soon.

One of the most popular locations for large flat panel televisions is over the mantle. How many houses are built with an electrical outlet in the middle of the wall over the fireplace? Not many.

More importantly, while the installation of low voltage cabling for video and data can be safely installed by a hobbyist or homeowner, the installation of a 110volt electrical outlet needs to be done by a licensed electrician. Doing this installation in a space adjacent to a fireplace flue requires special cable and a lot a care to prevent creating a fire hazard.

LCD and plasma display video monitors use a lot of power, and ideally, the electrical outlets they are plugged into also need special surge protection to protect the TV from electrical surges. Providing power for such an expensive item shouldn’t be done as an afterthought.

Now, when flat TVs can lose the power cord, that’s an article I look forward to reading.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your power distribution needs.

When I got back from taking a few days off at Christmas I had over 5000 email messages in my inbox. I have had my email address on hundreds of web pages for over ten years, so I’ve become some sort of spam magnet. Even with lots of filters, I still have to wade through several hundred messages on any given day. Believe it or not, I don’t really mind.

Sure, I’m bombarded with a lot of stuff that is a total waste of time, but a lot of it is pretty entertaining.

Who has the time to create subject lines like “real bored astronauts” or “tire round go wheel“? I realize that this is must an attempt to fool my spam filters in order to sell me something, but somebody actuallly has to write this stuff. Is this actually their job?

Maybe I have too much time on my hands, but when I see something like “Sailing Boat Waters Rainbow” it’s hard not to take a look.

Fortunately, on our latest web site, goodbuyguys.com, we were able to implement a “contact us” form based method for customer inquiries that does not allow spammers to find my address. It means that you can get real questions and comments to me but spammers can’t lift email addresses from our pages. Hope I’m not helping to put some really creative writers out of business.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. Got questions about audio visual and production supplies? Contact Us!

No, that’s not a misprint. I really did mean “mil“.

I recently came across an online ad for duct tape that listed this information under “roll length”.

60 Yds.-180 Ft.-55 Meters

Yes, a standard roll of duct tape or gaffers tape is 60 yards, or 180 feet, but that is not the same as 55 meters. 55 meters is longer than 60yds. Just a little longer, but nonetheless, it helps me make a point.

Tape manufacturers seem to constantly mix standard and metric measurements at will, usually to serve their own purposes.

The width of a roll of gaffers tape was two inches for decades. Simple, easy to remember, and true. About ten years ago, all the major manufacturers of this and other cloth tapes changed to a metric standard for width, and reduced the width of a roll of tape to 48 millimeters. The change was hardly noticable on a single roll of tape but when you spread that size reduction over literally millions of rolls made by a major manufacturer in a single year, the difference was huge. It adds up to almost a full roll of actual tape in a case of 24 rolls.

By using the metric standard for width they reduced the roll size by 4%, but by not adopting the metric measure of 55 meters for length, they didn’t have to increase the roll length.

To confuse things further, the thickness of tape is measured in “mils” with “mil” meaning a thousandth of an inch. Here the mix standard (inches) and metric (thousandths).

If you’ve got any good ideas on how to standardize this system, let me know.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. We’re your first choice for “Satisfaction Guaranteed” tape products.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a huge spike in microphone stand sales at buymicstand.com and our ebay store “buy mic stand“. We had no idea why. I should have asked my kids!

It seems the must-have item for this year’s Christmas is an XBox 360 game called Rock Band. Growing on the popularity of Guitar Hero, Harmonix has released a game that includes not only a guitar, but a drum set and a microphone as well. What it doesn’t include is a microphone stand.

Suddenly, every gadget and gift giving blog I come across talks about Rock Band and about the accessories you’ll need to play the game correctly. A mic stand is one of the accessories that the game maker doesn’t offer.

I hadn’t checked our Google search ratings lately, but currently we are number 1 for the search term “microphone stand” and number 2 for the term “mic stand“.

Maybe we’ll sell enough stands for me to be able to put Rock Band under our Christmas Tree.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your mic stand needs.

When whoever invented the USB interface (Universal Serial Buss) they probably had no idea how universal this connection protocol could become. The USB connector is starting to show up on all sorts of devices to serve a function that is no longer limited to data transfer.

We spend a lot of time watching trends in rechargeable batteries, and the use of the USB interface as a port for charging a battery powered device is really starting to become common. IPODs and other MP3 players, cameras, recorders and lots of other devices with onboard rechargables now use the USB connection for battery charging. You can use the battery charger supplied with the device is you want to, but the real value in this set up is that it gives your computer (laptop or otherwise) the dual purpose of being a universal battery charger. Best of all, the battery can be charged while you use the computer for its intened purpose with no slowdown in its performance.

Travelers who are tired of having to carry a battery charger for every device in their bag (think Martha Stewart facing down the CEO of Sony) can now look forward to having one powerful multipurpose device charge batteries in the background. You can forget about which computer platform you use as well. A device that charges off a USB port doesn’t care if you are a PC or Mac user. “Universal” really does mean “universal”.

Anybody considering a battery powered gadet purchase for a Christmas present (particulary for a road warrior) ought to be sure that the device is equipped with a USB connector that serves the dual purpose of charging the battery.

Perhaps this really is the beginning of the end for a different charger for every device.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands.
Look to us for all your battery needs.

In the rush to jump on the high definition television bandwagon, Honeywell has introduced an HDMI cable that they claim is “self healing”. According to Engadget, Honeywell’s CurexE cable has some sort of error coding built into it that uses inline LED’s to show whether the signal chain is transmitting the correct info to your HD device. It’s hard to understand how they can all the device “self healing” as it has no ability to address problems at either end of the the data transmission so it can’t really “heal” anything.  At best, it can only diagnose what may be wrong with the components it connects.  And that’s on a good day!

Frankly, this item looks like it was developed by the marketing department rather than engineering. Here’s how this product is described in Honeywell’s own press release:

“We’ve made this cable intelligent by integrating a chip into the connector that performs two major functions,” said David Coleman, Program Manager, CE Cable Products, Honeywell. “First, the chip’s line driver ‘cures’ corrupted HDCP and EDID data that can lead to serious audio and video artifacts. Second, we added ‘light’ in the form of LEDs embedded into the connector that let installers monitor the most critical elements of the HDMI interface for problems.”

The parentheses around “cure” are theirs and their description of the “cure” doesn’t really shed much light on this voodoo.

As the broadcast industry approaches the deadline of 2009’s conversion to digital television, a lot of consumers are going to be taken to the cleaners by televion accessory makers who bring very little value to the table. Honeywell’s CurexE cable looks like one of these offerings.

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 and OnStage Stand mic stands. Great products for audio-visual production available on the internet everyday.