In planning an infrastructure–a “backbone” –the mantra is clear: It’s less expensive to install a sufficient amount of cabling that can handle today’s highest speed data requirements than to go back and re-do it at a later date.
The equipment using the backbone will include:
- Video: SD, HD, 4K (Standard Definition, High Definition, 4K resolution)
- Audio
- Lighting
- Communications
- Mass Notification and Emergency Communications (MNEC) for churches with campuses
- Security
- Other, not yet anticipated needs
Who saw 4K in video coming? At first it seemed like a ploy of manufacturers to [make] obsolete the present standard—in an attempt to sell more equipment at a high price. Soon, however, surprisingly low prices emerged after the initial stocker shock of the early introductions. The image quality is impeccable, but the need for high-speed data grows exponentially when 4K enters the picture.
Looking ahead has measurable benefits
As the human race continually strives to improve, improve, improve, 4K renders images that are stunningly realistic through projection or fixed-sized screens. Many, if not most, cinemas have adopted 4K projection instead of film because it’s far less expensive than shipping reels of film from exhibitor to exhibitor.
“By 2015, 4K television market share had increased greatly as prices fell dramatically during 2014 and 2015. By 2025, more than half of U.S. households are expected to have a 4K-capable TV, which would be much faster than the technology adoption lifecycle of Full HD,” writes Mark Hoelzel in "Business Insider."
Clearly, if it affects the consumer so broadly, 4K will long since have become the standard for facilities of all kinds, from churches to airports to scholastic settings, the latter often being in, or associated with, a church. Sooner or later, the client will probably choose to upgrade to 4K, which means [they’ll need to have] the infrastructure in place for the new cameras, the new switchers, recorders, projectors and fixed screens.
Infrastructure is not the place for budget cuts. Meet with the facilities people—lighting, sound, video, and utility usage (communications, security, MNEC)—as well as administration and senior leaders. Jointly imagine the most complex system that the group possibly can. Screens in the lobby, screens in overflow rooms, screens in the cry room, cameras in overflow that can send signal to the video switch, a camera in the cry room, and on and on. Then double it. We never know what will be around the corner.
Cable is cheap, installing it and re-installing more ... is not
Audio too, is moving firmly into the 96kHz/24 bit realm from the previous long run of 48kHz/16 bit. This means more than twice the data moving from one place to another. It’s prudent to stay away from proprietary systems (i.e., mixers, stage racks) that run their own data system and protocol and cannot “talk” to the outside world, except perhaps through MADI, although this may not be a problem if the client already has made a major investment in one or more consoles and a means of joining the main network is offered by the manufacturer. One thing is clear [though], manufacturers have become very aware of the need to be compatible. It’s rarely a good idea to be an orphan in the system.
Fortunately, the companies that make products to move data have largely kept up with the demand, and something of a standard has finally emerged called Audio Video Bridging (AVB), and IEEE standard. AVB seeks to bring compatibility among various manufacturers’ hardware and data protocols. How successful is it? Quite. At last check, nearly all the major players in data-based hardware, from Harman to QSC with many stops in the middle, have engineered (or in some cases re-engineered) their systems to work with AVB.
Some benefits of AVB systems include:
- Improved synchronization
- Low-latency
- Reliability
- No infrastructure requirements
- Networked live sound
Given the ever-changing tides, it is prudent and professional to specify a larger-than-life system, because it will likely be filled to ¾ capacity before those in the media department and in administration can possibly project.
