Taking Charge of Your System Design and Implementation

After being an installer for some time and taking tech calls on the manufacturer side of life, I have come across similar issues time and time again. Regardless if it is HDCP or EDID of HDMI or internet dropping, I have found that the more time, thought and effort you put in during the setup process, the less time you spend fixing issues at the end.

Typically out of the box, products are designed to be user-friendly with “AUTO” settings set up across the board whether it is for resolution, audio type, etc. Everything is connected turned on and all of sudden, not everything works quite as it should be. Maybe you get PCM audio instead of Dolby or you get 720p instead of 1080p. It is at this point you ask, “What should be happening and why isn’t it happening?” At this point, it is too late and additional labor hours, whether on the customer’s tab or your own, start to accumulate.

Rather than wait until it is too late, ask yourself BEFORE you are ever even on site, “what should be happening?” If you have a 1080p display, wouldn’t it make sense to set up a Bluray player out of the box for 1080p? If you are using an audio-video receiver (AVR), is it would make sure that the audio coming in from your sources are in a digital format? By designing and setting up a system before you arrive on site, you are already ahead of the issue and are providing your customer with the specifications and products they paid for in the first place.