Emmaco Press Releases

Emmaco Project Wins Thea Award

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's "Science Storms" exhibit recently won a Thea award, which is the theme park's equivalent to an Oscar Award.

Emmaco supported Mad Systems (Orange, CA) in their design of the acoustics and audio/video systems on the project. Our efforts included concept block diagrams, equipment selection, and system interconnection and facility interface wiring.

This is the second Thea Award wining project in which we have been involved. The first was EPCOT Center, a project of Walt Disney Imagineering.

�&�
Written by John Mayberry

It struck me that there is much to be said for the ampersand in Sound �&� Communications, especially when it comes to our business.

Last night I started reading Dickens �The Old Curiosity Shop�, a long delayed high school homework assignment. Mind you it�s a worthwhile endeavor to read any Dickens book, and much can be learned about audio/video systems in the process.

A typical story involves some sort of interclass struggle in Victorian England.   How the rich fail at being rich; how the poor fail at being poor; and how those that don�t really care about money inevitably are the happiest and most successful. Plug your favorite A/V contractor or manufacturer into the equation, and I think you�ll get the not-too-subtle point. It�s not like we don�t have our own unique lot of characters in our industry.

Yet no doubt as a response to being paid by the word and being one of the first serialized publications, Dickens provides incredibly detailed descriptions of each character. He left little doubt about the appearance and motivations of each character in his writings, using words as his paint strokes and often taking an entire page to fully vet his characters.

And since Dickens is dead and the copyright�s long expired, I�ll steal a passage describing a relatively minor character to give you an example, �His attire was not, as he himself hinted, remarkable for the nicest arrangement, but was in a state of disorder which strongly induced the idea he had gone to bed in it. It consisted of a brown body-coat with a great many brass buttons up the front and only one behind, a bright check neckerchief, a plaid waistcoat, soiled white trousers, and a very limp hat, worn with the wrong side foremost, to hide a hole in the brim�� .

Now many may already know what they need to know about this character to close some the deal.   Obviously the $50k Magico speakers will be a tough sell, but a good salesperson probably has picked out his new bedroom video monitor and speakers already. AVI/SPL�s Jeff Fink would probably have sold the customer a car with matching wood grain on the dash.

Herein lays the rub with our humble ampersand. Sometimes it�s the ampersand that makes everything worthwhile- precisely because of YOUR attention to detail- the not so trivial of trivialities.

�&� is thus the shortest of conjunctions with perhaps the greatest meaning. Attention to detail in knowing your clients� motivations, hopes, desires, and dreams can indeed make or break your firm.   Yet exactly how well do you know your customers?

Sometimes it�s just the dumbest things�

Few would argue that Land o� Lakes Butter sales would plummet without the Indian maiden on the packaging. Somehow that little Droste afflicted vixen provides a special something that makes one�s hand reach into the supermarket�s refrigerator and pick it out over generic store butter. Why?

Once removed from the magical aura of the supermarket, a rational thinker might logically conclude that very few half naked Indian maidens actually staff the butter manufacturing coops in the Great State of Minnesota. Yet she�s been around since 1928- so our grandparents were likely also under her spell as well. There�s something to it. Admit it.

This seemingly weird attention to detail may indeed be the very key to your business. What is it that makes you different and special? Lest we think this compunction is any less powerful in our own business, do your remember why your key customers contacted you in the first place?

At some point you took their aggravation away. You�re polite and well mannered. They like driving by your facility and seeing the roses out front. You help them when they need help, and don�t whine about the inconvenience. You point out what�s special about what they just bought, so they can brag to their competitors. Maybe it�s a silly girl holding up your product in a meadow.

So that humble little ampersand is in fact the �devil in the details�.   It likely will determine your future. Ignore it at your peril.

The long and short of the mighty ampersand is to get to know your customers better.   I�m not talking about buying a $10k Customer Relationship Management software package.

It�s about picking up the telephone and asking them out to lunch to better understand their needs and how you can help.

It may be the best investment you ever make.

Reprinted with permission from Sound & Communications, published by Testa Communications.
For more information, go to www.soundandcommunications.com.

On Sale Now at Newstands

Acoustically Incompetent

It�s been 108 years now, and you�d think it�s been long enough. Yet some of the brightest guys in America keep making the same dumb mistakes over and over again.

And ignoring the issue hasn�t made it go away either- it just keeps popping up like Baby Boomers and their anticipated Social Security payments�

Still, you�d think someone given the responsibility of designing our great facilities would want people to be able to converse and enjoy listening to music in them. Sadly, that is far less often the case than necessary.

At the most basic level, sound bounces around unless it�s absorbed or diffused. Too many bounces and our brains get confused and we can�t enjoy the space. Too much intrusive noise and we get confused too, and the issue only gets worse as we age.

The cure is simple and well known. Go buy absorption and diffusion and sprinkle it liberally around a room, starting with the ceiling, floors, and walls. Absorption is cheap; diffusion more expensive. Yet neither is a rare or exotic item; they are both widely available and allow both performers and listeners to enjoy the space. Carpet works well.

We should all agree that a good sound system cannot fix a bad acoustical space. Neither can a great one. No amount of amplifiers and speakers can �fix� a large room with insufficient acoustical absorption, no matter how loud it plays or well its pattern is controlled. Even with the most exotic line arrays, the room will sound far better if properly treated to optimize the reverberation time relative to performance expectations.

Yet for years American architects have wrongly believed that noise and reverberation problems can be cured with exotic sound reproduction systems. They can�t. There is no $300,000 sound system that sounds good in a tiled restroom. Nor is there a three dollar sound system that does.

Isn�t it funny how modern restaurants using the exact same materials as our restrooms and get the same �aural flush� result? Did you know any acoustician can calculate and predict the results accurately long before the building is built?

One needn�t look very far to understand why it�s difficult to communicate in most modern buildings in the United States- it�s the fault of our architects. Their training is lousy.

How lousy?

Apparently architects are no longer required to take Latin. Had they done so, they would realize that the root word in auditorium is not seismic retrofit; nor design/build; nor cost/plus; nor value engineering, nor even LEED. Here�s a hint:

auditorium
1727, from L. auditorium "lecture room," lit. "place where something is heard," neuter of auditorius (adj.) "of or for hearing," from auditor "a listener," from audire "to hear" (see audience).

One might assume that a space dedicated to where something is heard would have a primary emphasis on noise reduction, reverberation control, and maximizing speech intelligibility.

Not so in American architecture. Even with seats costing $200 per evening for prime events now, our architects continue to treat acoustics as an inconvenient afterthought.

Why so? I�ve concluded there are a number of answers behind this debacle.

Many American architects live exclusively in a visual world. It�s often all about the pretty picture in a magazine and on the web. Many European architects live in a visual and aural world and realize that the design of a facility affects the quality of sound reproduction.

Our architectural schools do not teach the subject properly. One of our more prestigious architectural schools offers a total of 123 total classes in its curriculum. Only one of them, �Design for the Luminous and Sonic Environment� appears to have an emphasis on the aural environment. Even in that one we take a back seat to lighting. Typical.

Ever look an architect straight in the eye and asked them what they budgeted for interior acoustical treatments up front? Nine times out of ten the answer is nothing.

Architects routinely ignore their acoustical consultants input, and put in them in the unenviable position of having to justify their recommendations ad nauseum. Ever see a lighting designer having to justify their lamp selections in a similar manner? Nor have I.

Our architects need to better understand which materials have the best acoustical absorption. Wood is good, but not great for absorption. Fiberglass is two to three times better.

There is no building code compliance enforcement for intelligible speech, thus it is not a priority for many architects. There is for fire sprinklers. If the sprinkler system doesn�t work, the building doesn�t get a Certificate of Occupancy. True, there are some emergency evacuation standards that are just beginning to address the issue, but the lack of an acoustic code means a lack of enforcement. We regulate everything from tire tread wear to pajama flammability, but not basic audio quality in our society.

More expensive project labor means less expensive materials are used. Seen much granite used in buildings recently? Less expensive materials imply lower weight materials, resulting in less capability to attenuate sound transmission between rooms.

Perhaps some of that is our fault as sound system suppliers. My suspicion is that few in our profession are aware of how to calculate speech intelligibility. We have no control on the amount of fiberglass or diffusion installed in a building. Many have never bought any absorption or diffusion in their entire career.

Providing a quality aural experience requires a quality acoustical space first and then a quality sound system to perform well. Go straight to Audio Jail, do not pass Go, and do not collect $200 if you think you can get away with a all hard surfaced interior, no matter how tightly you control your speaker directivity.

In the meantime American architects need to step up to the plate. The issue is well understood, and the knowledge to solve the challenge already exists. No more research needs to be done. Get yourselves properly trained.

The first quantitative acoustically engineered building opened to the public in 1900. Boston Symphony Hall has been making money for a century now, and it�s well past time our architects use technology properly to improve acoustical performance throughout North America in every single building.

Remember Zappa�s Law: There are two things that are universal: Hydrogen and Stupidity. The inability to communicate successfully in our facilities falls in the latter.

SCN Magazine
Dealing with Options

It seems that opportunity ebbs and flows like the tides. Recently it seems like a game of Whac-A-Mole around here with lots of potential projects coming in, leaving us wondering which to select and which to avoid. Exactly how does one make the best selection, improving one�s rewards while minimizing potential losses?

I�m not convinced Whac-A-Mole is the right approach for dealing future planning. This arcade machine consists of a soft mallet used to pound on dummy heads that randomly pop up from a waist level cabinet. The more heads you hit, the higher your score. The heads pop up slowly to begin with and then accelerate as the game progresses.

Whac-A-Mole was invented in 1971 by Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, who sold it to a carnival operator without patenting it. Eventually another firm copied it (purportedly even taking molds from the original) while the creator went on to found a pizza chain and ended up being the biggest customer of the popular arcade game. A fine example of intertwined risk and reward.

Yet how does one develop the appropriate response processes to both minimize threat and maximize opportunity? A commonly used tool to do so is called a Risk Management Plan. Generally speaking, a good risk management plan contains several key components: a definition as to who owns the risk, probability for success, impact, and urgency. It often involves thresholds specific to resources, cost, and of time. Generally a schedule is included.

Often a risk register is also included, with prioritizes each project and its risks, near and long term risks, qualitative risk analyses, and a watch list dealing with lower priority risks. Once completed, a risk register comprises two main parts for dealing with positive and negative risks.

There are three strategies for negative risks- avoidance, transfer, and mitigation. Nothing different than what we do everyday in our own lives. Avoidance changes the plan and typically involves removing a threat by changing or reducing scope. Transfer generally involves moving the risk to someone else and paying them a premium to do so. Mitigating the risk reduces the impact to an acceptable level, often by adding redundancy or making the process less complicated.

Positive risks are all about share and exploiting the opportunity to maximum effect. The three strategies are generally simplified down where one shares, enhances, and eventually exploits the risk.

Sharing responsibility and accountability with another may give a team a great chance to effectively seize an opportunity. Enhancing a risk involves increasing the probability of success by improving the chances of the trigger conditions. Exploiting a risk involves using the best people and technology available to rapidly affect the outcome positively.

So once we�re done thinking through our response strategies and contingent responses we hope to make the best choices. Like Whac-A-Mole, we�re pounding away right now hoping we�re making the right decisions and aligning with the right folks. Hopefully we�ll couple the right logic to it as well, instead of pounding away and hoping for the best.

Perhaps we should consider the home version of Whac-A-Mole as a good training class of how not to predict the future. I doubt the IRS would allow that write-off.

Summer is a great time to plan and think about future opportunities, as well as developing the new skills where necessary that can augment your current capabilities. Perhaps getting LEED certification, the appropriate contractor�s license, implementing a CRM plan, or figuring out a way to drive new businesses to your website. The sheer amount of easily available content associated with these new activities on the web is amazing, and many of the tools are free for those willing to take a few minutes to figure them out.

I�ve been particularly impressed with some of the free website analytic programs recently made available. After inserting a bit of html code on your website and waiting a day, Google Analytics allows you to get in-depth information on your website�s visitors. It maps where your visitors are from on a world map, which pages are the most popular, how long they looked, what pages they connected in from, and which page they exited out from, and which pages are boring them. One can�t help but think we could use a similar analytics page on our own projects to optimize opportunity. Last month our web hosting company was offering similar information for only $3,500 a year. Now it�s free.

Planning for success certainly beats the Whac-A-Mole approach for figuring out how to most efficiently use one�s limited resources. A good response plan for the future is important, along with choosing a quality strategic direction that allows one to quickly quantify and qualify whether an opportunity is in one�s own best long term interest.

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