Mark Philben -- Globe Correspondent

August 4, 2021 11:53 am

Q. My son just bought a home in Northern California and wants to convert the two-car garage into office space, but the concrete slab/foundation is pitched for water runoff. He was told it was approximately -inch per running foot, and the garage is 14 by 20 feet. He thinks the change in height is about 4 inches from front to back. The floor is in excellent condition overall, according to the foundation inspector who recently evaluated it. The floor has a thin underlayment material with vinyl plank flooring on top, but the garage isnt usable because of the tilt. My son told me a chair on wheels would drift downhill, so hes looking for a reasonably priced solution to level it off. Do you have a recommendation? Hes looking for a permanent fix that will not raise the overall flooring height much more than needed because the ceiling is already low. A contractor suggested using high-compression cement. Is that a reasonable suggestion in your experience? I read about leveling compounds, but think 4 inches may be asking too much.

I.F.

A. Rather than go with a masonry solution (which could crack in the thin areas), you may want to consider the following: Cut 2-by-4-inch pressure-treated stock on edge into tapered pieces from the widest part down to 0 on the other end. Use them 12 inches on center, then apply a -inch underlayment and, over that, a -inch laminate wood floor. You would lose 1 inch in ceiling height at the high end but have a sturdy, good-looking, and level floor.

Q. Our house was built in 1808. It has its original chimney stack, three flues, and three hearths. For safety, I want to line the chimney, preferably with flexible steel flue liners. The chimney expert told me that is not possible without making the fireboxes smaller. I do not want to remodel the hearths/fireboxes; they are original to the house. Can you recommend a solution?

M.S., Vineyard Haven

A. Working with old chimneys and fireboxes is always a challenge. We used to have a chimney division where I work, and we would never advocate for the installation of a metal liner in a wood-burning fireplace. The two best options are masonry: a cast-in-place chimney lining or a sprayed-in-place relining. The cast-in-place option will probably require you to make a choice and sacrifice one of the fireplaces in order to maintain a large enough flue. The relining process doesnt take up as much room in the existing flues and could work well. There are code issues relating to hearth size, so either way you go, consult several qualified installers.

Mark Philben is the project development manager atCharlie AllenRenovationsin Cambridge. Send your questions to[emailprotected]. Questions are subject to editing. Subscribe to our free real estate newsletter atpages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp.Follow us onFacebook,LinkedIn,Instagram,and Twitter@globehomes.

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Ask the Remodeler: How to level a garage and convert it - Boston.com

It's something of a thrill these days to stay at a hotel and eat in a restaurant, even more so when my twin teen daughters want to join. While I wasn't sure if a Maine staycation would capture their interest, they agreed to give the new Canopy by Hilton in Portland a chance. Certainly, the fact that guests get priority seating at Luna, the hotel's popular new harborview, rooftop restaurant, helped seal the deal.

With its classic brick buildings and cobble streets, active waterfront and celebrated restaurants, Portland's Commercial Street has seen a boom in hotel construction of late, culminating with the Canopy this July. Having visited the first Canopy, opened in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2016, I was curious to see how the latest edition of Hilton's boutique lifestyle brand, the first in New England, would interpret the local experience and culture of my own backyard.

A City View Guestroom, with Canopy by Hilton's signature Canopy Bed. All bed linens at the hotel are by Cuddledown, and the throw is by Evangeline. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Fathom Companies

We were happily delighted. My daughters and a friend arrived on a ferry from visiting a nearby island and walked from the dock to the hotel where I was in a work meeting on Zoom. The room design elicited a "wow!" from the teens for the blonde wood floors; signature Canopy beds with local Cuddledown bedding and Evangeline spreads; and sliding barn doors lending privacy to the sizable washroom. While I finished up my workday, the teens made use of the Peloton bikes and weights in the 24-hour workout room down the hall. We then dressed early for dinner and set out to explore the hotel decor orchestrated by Ealain Studios, a Portland-based interior design firm.

The first floor of the 135-room hotel boasts a well-appointed reception lobby with a lovely moss-lined installation that was created by Plantwerks and Matt Hutton, a local design artist and professor at the Maine College of Art. Add to that, there's 3,000 square feet of event space, a glass-walled library with large conference table and the Salt Yard Cafe + Bar, currently serving breakfast and lunch and eventually dinner, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on bustling Commercial Street.

Works by Portland artists curated by Erin Hutton Projects include nautical photography by Nicole Wolf in the lobby, custom prints of Jenny McGee Dougherty in conference rooms and a striking ash wood wall installation in the Salt Yard by Karina Steele. Bookshelves are filled with Maine authors, and staff uniforms feature items by L.L.Bean and iconic AngelRox/Sugar clothing designer Roxi Sugar, who has a retail space next door in the historical E. Swasey Pottery building.

Our status as hotel guests assured us a table for dinner at the Luna Rooftop Bar, even though it's seen long waits for locals and tourists alike since opening. The chic indoor and outdoor spaces feature views of the Portland waterfront; cozy tables and sofas; a menu of small plates, including raw bar items; and cocktails with astronomically themed names like Andromeda and Persephone. The teens gave the creative takes on corn dogs and cheese dip a big thumbs up, and I thoroughly enjoyed a selection of local Maine oysters and a unique peanut butter hummus for dessert. After that, we ventured out to explore the Portland evening on complimentary orange cruiser bikes parked at the hotel entrance.

The reception and lobby area features a moss-lined installation created by Plantwerks and Matt Hutton, a design artist based in Portland. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Fathom Companies

In the morning, we breakfasted at Salt Yard Cafe + Bar on a selection of homemade pastries and croissants, fruit bowls and a delicious roasted sweet potato and vegetable hash plus full coffee bar. We would have stayed for lunch, too, but couldn't resist sampling Portland's cornucopia of eateries, including Mami for Japanese street food and ice cream from Gelato Fiasco. Besides, we all agreed we want to return to enjoy Salt Yard and Luna as locals again very soon.

Nightly rates at the Canopy by Hilton start at $399, including Hilton Honors benefits and discounts. See canopybyhilton.com for details.

Read the original here:
New Canopy by Hilton Portand captures the essence of Maine - Travel Weekly

It had been almost exactly 30 years since Id seen my favorite gorgon. Id left him where he lived, on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, in the bottom half of Michelangelos The Last Judgment. His name is Charon, and he is charged with herding damned souls across the Styxwith a snarl thats the stuff of nightmares. Charon, a monstrous embodiment of an Old Testament afterlife, has haunted me since I visited the Sistine Chapel in 1991.

I never imagined the Ferryman and I would next meet in the husk of an abandoned Sears deep in western suburbia. But there he (?), was, horrific as ever, part of an immersive exhibit that allows visitors to see both Michelangelos The Last Judgment and the magnificent frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, all from a vantage point thats nearly impossible to achieve if you visit the art in their Vatican home.

At the Vatican, you have to elbow and push like a linebacker to get within eyeshot of Charon. In the old Sears, you can see him in all his otherworldly context. Hes one of some 400 characters in the massive painting; some being swept up into heaven and others cast down into Hell. All are depicted in SEE Global Entertainments pragmatically titled Michelangelos Sistine Chapel, an exhibit large enough to fill a big-box store.

Among abandoned mannequin plinths and forgotten dressing room mirrors, youll find The Last Judgment as well as frescoes from the chapel ceiling transformed into walls of tapestry-sized, high-resolution images. An audio guide provides insight and context to the art. A word about religion: far from pandering to his audience, Michelangelo embedded his paintings with the 16th-century version of Easter eggs. Portraits of those who antagonized him and those he loved can be spotted throughout his art. And while the frescoes show a cinematic visual depiction of various tales of the Old Testament, there are also the sibyls: images of the female divine, oracles from ancient Greece.

"Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel"Through 8/15: ticketed viewing sessions Wed-Sun, times vary. Oakbrook Center, 2000 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook, sistinechapelexhibit.com

Viewers wandering the cavernous space will encounter a gallery of biblical terrors. (Judith beheading Holofernes is deeply satisfying and The Flood will give you nightmares, especially given recent events in Germany and China.) But there are wonders too: God literally shows His ass in The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants and the Delphic Sibyl originates the art of the side-eye when her oracle reading is interrupted.

The touring installation (there are other iterations of the show currently on display in San Antonio, Charlottesville, and Charleston) is the brainchild of Martin Biallas, who had a less-than-optimal experience trying to see the Sistine Chapel.

It was unpleasant, he recalls. Long lines. And once youre finally in after a six-hour wait, youre rushed through. Youre surrounded by 2,000 other people. Theres 50 guards looking at you like if youre even thinking about taking a picture, theyre going to tackle you. And the viewits almost like looking at a stamp, youre so far away.

He continues, I wanted to make it all more accessible. I wanted this to look like you were walking right under the ceiling.

Spectacle has captivated Biallas since 1975, when he arrived in the United States from West Germany as a student, just in time for this countrys Bicentennial fever. It was just everywhere, the red, white, and blue, everyone was celebrating, he says of the year positively drenched in showily performative patriotism.

More than 40 years later, Biallass rsum is littered with outsized endeavors: He created Star TrekThe Tour, a 30th-anniversary international touring exhibition for Paramount; brought Egyptian sacred relics to the world via Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures; and created the Titanic Official Movie Tour, which opened at Wembley Stadium in 1999. Hes got designs on bringing a massive Banksy exhibit to life, and wants to do something with American history, eventually.

But back to (hello darkness) my old friend Charon. You can practically smell the sulfur as he raises his paddle to smash the skull of any lost soul who might try to escape. Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment between 1535 and 1541; the ceiling came much earlier, with the artist actually living in the scaffolding while he labored over it from 1508 to 1512.

He was very secretive, kept things covered up, Biallas says before telling an apocryphal story: The Pope tried to get in to see it a few times, and Michelangelo would throw pieces of scaffolding at his head to make him leave.

Visitors tend to initially gravitate toward the (arguably) most recognizable fresco, Biallas said.

Of course the first thing people will try to spot is The Creation of Adam, he says of the iconic image of a white-haired, buff, Old Testament God pointing toward Adam, their outstretched fingers sparking the creation of mankind.

Its a stunning, iconic image, but I was always more fascinated by The Last Judgment, he continues. Its a perfect representation of our constant temptation, the battle between doing good and not. My dad was a Lutheran minister, so I learned a lot about the church and the bible growing up. But the painting was much more personal to me. I thought the message was timeless: so many things are not good for us or our world, yet we do them anyway, he says.

The Last Judgment is also the only place where Michelangelo put his self-portrait. He was like an early Hitchcock, giving himself this cameo. (You can find the artists self-portrait in the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew.)

Among the ceiling frescoes, Biallas has his favorites.

The image of God creating the sun and the planets. Theres one guy who is showing his rear end to everyone in that fresco and thats God. Seriously. Thats a message, he said.

Biallas is intent on figuring out a U.S. history installation, . . . something that could take people from 1776 to today. Its a concept the Hannover native has been mulling since he experienced Bicentennial fever as an undergrad at the University of Michigan.

When we were being raised (in Germany), we were raised without that kind of patriotism, because of Hitler and what he did in the name of nationalism. We couldnt really be proud to be a German. So to me, it was fascinating how enthusiastic and devoted U.S. citizens were, he says. When I got my first car here, a Ford, I got a special Bicentennial license plate with it. It made me fall in love with this country.

As for the gorgon, I pity him more than fear him. Of all the terrible jobs in the world, pushing people into a fiery pit has to be among the most terrible. Ill have to come back in another 30 years to see if he has changed, again.v

Continued here:
God: now at the mall | Art Review - Chicago Reader

Year built 1960/renovated 2014

Taxes $3,300 (2021 estimate)

Sitting on a corner lot in downtown Nantucket (an island and town of the same name), this single-family is encased in cedar shingles, has a driveway and pathways of brick, and grounds graced by hydrangeas, rose of Sharon, and salvia.

Inside, there is the requisite amount of Nantucket bead board, of course.

At the entrance, a green door with bulls-eye glass fills the foyer with natural light. To the right, one finds the living area and kitchen seamlessly connected with aqua paint, bead-board wainscoting, and hardwood flooring. No support columns interfere with the progression. The living area has three windows.

In the kitchen, an island installed perpendicularly provides physical and visual separation from the living area. Topped with granite, the island offers seating for at least six. The raised-panel cabinets are white, the appliances are stainless steel, and the backsplash is a white subway tile. A door opens to the Barnabas Lane side of the house.

A hallway off the kitchen leads to the dining area and the family room, which are connected with hardwood flooring and a light-aqua paint color. There is no bead-board wainscoting in this space. The dining area sits next to a slider to a cedar deck and underneath a chandelier of shaded lights. The family room (as does much of the house) has recessed lighting augmented by a plethora of windows.

The full bath is the final stop on this floor. It has a shower with its walls and ceiling clad in subway tile with a sandy-colored grout and a pebblestone floor, as well as a single vanity topped with granite. The flooring in the bath is tile.

The upper level of the expanded and renovated home contains the owner suite, a full bath, and two bedrooms.

The owners suite has a drum shade light, hardwood flooring, and three large windows, one of which is nestled into an alcove that can accommodate a desk. One passes a line of closets before entering the en-suite bath, which comes with a wide single vanity. The vanity, floor, and shower are clad in marble, and the space has shiplap wainscoting.

The larger of the secondary bedrooms comes with a closet behind a pair of bifold doors and two windows, including one in an alcove with a bench. The other bedroom offers a closet behind a single bifold door, a drum shade light, and two windows.

Nantucket bead-board wainscoting graces the walls of the shared bath. It also has a floating white single vanity topped with marble, a ceramic hexagon tile floor, and a shower clad in subway tile in a brick stack installation.

The lower level is furnished with pops of blue that remind guests they are by the sea. This level contains the final bedroom, the laundry room, utility space, and a game room large enough for a Ping-Pong table and a gathering spot created by a pair of couches. The space has recessed lighting, shiplap walls, and two windows. The biggest opens into a window well with a ladder. The bedroom is a bunk room with a window that opens into a window well with a ladder.

Outside the home, there is an enclosed shower.

The homeowners association comprises three units, according to the owner. The condo featured here covers about half of the shared lot. The other two units, located in a duplex, share 25 percent, and the rest is held in common.

Nonie Slavitz of William Raveis Nantucket has the listing.

See more photos of the property below:

Follow John R. Ellement on Twitter@JREbosglobe.Send listings to[emailprotected].Please note: We do not feature unfurnished homes and will not respond to submissions we wont pursue. Subscribe to our newsletter atpages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp.Follow us onFacebook,LinkedIn,Instagram,and Twitter@globehomes.

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Home of the Week: A move-in ready 4-bedroom in heart of Nantucket - Boston.com

Cai Guo-Qiang is no stranger to spectacle.

The Chinese artist, who is known for his explosive fireworks displays and daring experiments with gunpowder, served as the director of visual and special effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His work acrossdrawing, installation, video, and performancehas been variously honored with the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Biennale, to the U.S. National Medal of Arts.

For his latest act, Cai has opened a major exhibition to inaugurate the Museum of Art Pudong (M.A.P.) in Shanghai. Titled Odyssey and Homecoming, the exhibition spans three floors of the Jean Nouvel-designedmuseum, and includes 119 of his signature gunpowder paintings, as well as an overview of his long-running dialogue with Western art history.

The artist,who has been based in New York since 1995, is also marking his homecoming to Shanghai, where he studied stage design in the 1980s, by debuting his first-ever VR work and a new kinetic light installation about extraterrestrial life.

We caught up with Cai about his homecoming and his interest in cosmology.

Cai Gui-Qiang, Color Gunpowder Drawing for City of Flowers in the Sky. Exhibition view at the Museum of Art Pudong, 2021. Photo by Mengjia Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

Your exhibition Odyssey and Homecoming opened this month at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai. Can you tell me about your relationship with the city?

Shanghai was my first port of departure. I savored the paints of the Shanghai art supplies factory in the early 70s. I left my hometown for the first time in 1978 and stole a ride on the coal train to Shanghai to see aFrench 19th-century rural Landscape paintingexhibition, which was also the first time I saw originals by foreign painters in person. I have a strong memory of this exhibition. It opened the door to drastically different artistic styles for me, which was deeply affecting.

In the early 80s, I left Quanzhou to study at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. At one point, I felt pity that I was studying stage design rather than studying fine arts the Academy of Fine Arts. I was actually very lucky because at that time, the Academy of Fine Arts was quite conservative. It focused on traditional sketching and plastic-art training, and maintained that artistic training should serve bigger political purposes. On the contrary, the Theatre Academy was more experimental.

Can you tell us about any mentors you had there who influenced the way you think?

Zhou Benyi, my teacher in the department of stage design, had a great impact on me. He was the only one in Shanghai who had studied oil painting at the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute. Aside from his solid painting skills, he emphasized the importance of concepts and forms after a trip to the U.S., where he had been invited by the U.S. Information Agency shortly after Chinese economic reform. In a sense, we were his lab rats for educational reform, as he was exploring the path while teaching us. Under his guidance, we turned to contemplating how and why we create. It enlightened me. Using Shakespeares plays as metaphor, the scripted story is always there, but the key is how you interpret it, what you want to say about it, and how to enact it.

My training at the Theatre Academy also led me to focus on the fluidity of time, multimedia materials, and spatial construction, as well as the spirit of collaborative work. As a result, this experience unintentionally laid a solid foundation for my career as a contemporary artist. Mr. Zhou was always strict with me, and never gave me an easy pass on my proposals. Sometimes he had me redo them five or six times. Later he told me it was because he wanted to see what other surprises and ideas I could offer and what other tricks I could do.

This pursuit of novelty and innovation motivated me to secretly experiment with gunpowder as an artistic medium while I was still a college student. Shanghai was practically the embodiment of Western culture for methe Bund, the sycamore trees, the Bai Du Bridge, and especially those iconic churches, which are also the subjects of some of my early paintings.

Cai Guo-Qiang, Transience II (Peony). Exhibition view at the Museum of Art Pudong, 2021. Photo by Gu Kenryou, courtesy Cai Studio.

The exhibition includes 119 of your gunpowder paintings. How has the way you think about these works changed since you first began making them decades ago?

Gunpowder has a life of its own. The question has always been: how can I fully present its vitality and the charisma of its spirit? The uncontrollability does not just lie in the material itselfgunpowder brings out the uncontrollable side in me! If I dont lose control, neither will gunpowder.

As I gain experience manipulating gunpowder, the need for losing control grows stronger. With more experience and better understanding of the material, the fireworks themselves becomes more controllable. Ultimately the gunpowder is there to explode and unleash me, not only to explode the painting surface.

Exhibition view of A Material Odyssey, a Getty Conservation Institute research exhibition at the Museum of Art Pudong, 2021. Photo by Gu Kenryou, courtesy Cai Studio.

As part of the exhibition, you have recreated your Individuals Journey Through Western Art History for a Chinese audience. What is different about this audience, and how did you adapt the work?

I first had the idea of embarking on a journey through Western art history when I was young. Throughout the journey, I let the spirit and creativity of the master artists cultivate my own qi, and in doing so, I tried to confront the difficulties in contemporary painting. I think dialoguing with different chapters of Western art is to pay respect to, and at the same time decentralize the West. When this exhibition tours to China, I believe it in a sense challenges the Sino-centric view, and pursues a kind of liberty and equality, because it advocates for the idea of inheriting all civilizations in mankinds history as our united heritage.

This exhibition was first held at the Palace Museum last December at the four major galleries of the Meridian Gate. These are works I created along my odyssey, for exhibitions at several museums in the West. Some of these museums used to be palaces or were closely associated with the court culture. When the works made in the context of Western palaces are installed at the Palace Museum, a sense of tension created by the dialogue and contrast between different cultures became apparent.

The Museum of Art Pudong, a venue created for Modern and contemporary art, is quite a different context for the exhibition. Compared to the Palace Museum, M.A.P. is more suitable for displaying artworks. It has extensive white floors and walls as well as Malevichs Suprematist ceiling. When looking at the art, one tends to think about the artists aesthetic consideration, the methodology behind it, and the choice of materials. Of course, in this white cube, my exhibition, as well as the Tate and the Mir exhibitions are perhaps quite pristine and elitist. Conversely, the new work Encounter with the Unknown created for the X Hall is quite experimental and adventurous.

Exhibition view of Encounter with the Unknown at the Museum of Art Pudong, 2021. Photo by Gu Kenryou, courtesy Cai Studio.

Lets talk about that newly commissioned installation, Encounter with the Unknown,whichdraws on images from different stories and myths of humans embracing the cosmos, from Mayan cosmology to Americas obsession with the little green men.What prompted your fascination with the extra-terrestrial?

As a child, I frequently gazed up at the stars and imagined what lies beyond the starry sky. Moving to Japan in 1986, I soon moved beyond the East-West dichotomy, and observed humankind from the perspective of the cosmos. In 1989, I initiated the series of explosion events Projects for Extraterrestrials. Back then I already believed that there existed extraterrestrials and superpower, and that there is the unseen world behind our world. So I very much hoped these elements could be incorporated in my art, and that my artistic methodology and philosophy would have a spiritual dimension.

My installation Encounter with the Unknowncontinues the cosmic theme, through which I wish to convey a boys curiosity and sentiments toward the unknown world.

The work weaves together humanitys desire to defy gravity and embrace the cosmos shared across civilizations. For example, at the very beginning, mankind did not believe that the earth is round. Seeing the sails on the sailboat sink afar, they thought they could blow the sailboat that is large enough off to the sky. Throughout history, some wanted to fly into the sky on birds, and then there was Wanhu, who tied rockets under his chair in an attempt to send himself off into the universe.

Still for VR work Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City Courtesy Cai Studio.

You are also using the occasion of the exhibition to debut your first-ever VR work: Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City,in which people can watch one of your daytimefirework shows over the historic landmark.How did you find working with the medium was able to open up your artistic practice?

I have just begun to experiment with VR. The new technology and its worldview make it possible to create new ways to represent our world and its long history. For example, VRs characteristics of manifesting the surreal and unseen should be amplified in my art, since my art is about using the visible to represent the unseen.

What also concerns me is how to imbue this high-tech medium with warmth as well as an animalistic energy. Thats why I insisted on making the VR film in the style of myPeasant da Vincis, instead of invoking the kind of virtual, CG aesthetics seen in Hollywood movies.

I grafted different languages and mediums together, not minding it being raw and contradictory. The conceptual quality born from the collaging and conflicting of different languages, is more important to me as an artist.

Exhibition view of A Material Odyssey, a Getty Conservation Institute research exhibition at the Museum of Art Pudong, 2021. Photo by Gu Kenryou, courtesy Cai Studio.

Another new technology has been making waves in the art world this past year: NFTs. You have delved into the field with your Transient Eternity101 Ignitions of Gunpowder Paintings which recently sold for $2.5 million. What do you think about NFTs, and do you see yourself experimenting with them further?

These 101 ignition moments from the pieces I created during my Individuals Journey Through Western Art History always exist as an integral part of the gunpowder paintings. NFT technology makes it possible to own and collect these moments, which are transformed as transient eternity.

The project asks what defines an artists work and what is an art project. It reflects on the questions surrounding the transience and eternity of the digital age embodied by NFTs, and the core concept of how value is stored. In the age of pandemic and post-pandemic, through this project, I also reflect on the weight of transient existence in the eternal river of time.

I already have a number of ideas for NFTs. I think my next NFT projects ought to be more adventurous than what have been achieved so far. Is it possible to create an art project with a more forward-looking vision, and with more compelling forms and concepts, by leveraging the core values unique to NFT technology?

Cai Guo-Qiang: Odyssey and Homecoming is on view through March 7, 2022, at the Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai.

Originally posted here:
There Is an Unseen World Behind Our World: Artist Cai Guo-Qiang on What the Cosmos Can Reveal About Humanity - artnet News

The news is spreading quickly through the AV/UC industry. Two industry heavyweights, Shure andCrestron,have achieved something that many supposed industry insiders recently thought was very unlikely.So what has happened and is it really a revolution in AV systems integration?

Microsoft has certified the first MS Teams Room System in which the audio DSP is not connected to the soft codec as external hardware via USB, but instead runs directly on the UC PC as software.

This innovation is rightly celebrated extensively by both partners. See hereandhere. The combination is indeed special, as it is the first AV system from two independent manufacturers without any internal cabling.

Toms Blog, which I value, provides the most important information in a blog post, without going into the background. A joint video from Shure and Crestron also provides marketing information but doesnt quite capture the full impact for the industry as a whole.

Is there really much more to it?Why am I talking about a revolution for AV systems integration? In my opinion, what impact can, and in fact, will this announcement have on meeting room AV technology? In the following article, I would like to give you an overview of the reasons why this single solution from two important companies has what it takes to fundamentally change our business.

AV installations are a PC-free zoneWhile practically all other areas of the professional audio/video industry have long relied on PC technology instead of proprietary hardware, AV installation was and is apparently a Gallic village. This is strange insofar as the requirements in the vast majority of audio installations have long been met by normal PC technology.

In therecording studio, its been almost 10 years sinceAvid Pro Tools & Co almost invariably runs natively on PC and Mac. This means no special hardware in the form of DSP farms is required the CPUs from Intel and AMD carry out all the calculations themselves. Ideally, a GPU also helps as a powerful arithmetic servant. The providers can see how the PC world offers more powerful hardware from year to year.

Even inlive operations, the days of heavy side racks with countless effects devices are long gone. Either the effects are built into the mixer (see for example Allen & Heath) or a small notebook with suitable Waves softwaredelivers every imaginable audio effect.

The same trend can be seen in video editingandpost-processingthanks to solutions such as Blackmagic DesignsDaVinci Resolve.

Even live productionsare increasinglybeing realised with native PC software solutions such asVMIX.

And in the meeting room? There has been a strict separation to this day. On the one side proprietary audio DSPs and on the other the UC engines, i.e. PCs or Macs that run a soft codec for conferencing. The connection in between is a USB cable, which despite being chosen is an interface that isnt really popular on one side or the other.

PCs are well hidden in a 19 rackBut are there really no PCs in fixed audio installations? Of course there are; but they are very well hidden! Of course, AV manufacturers cannot ignore the economic viability of PC technology but you could almost believe that they want to keep it a secret. Instead of proclaiming a revolution for AV system integration with the new possibilities, innovations only trickle into products gradually.

Example 1:One of the most successful suppliers of audio DSPs is undoubtedly QSC. Its Q-SYS productsare flawless mini-PCs with Linux and node.js as central software components.In the case of the largeQ-SYS 5200 Core, it is even publicly made clear that it is a completely normalDELL R740server.

An essential point, however, is that the customer cannot install the respective DSP software on his own server. This is exactly what QSC had already taken to market in 2017 (see here https://www.qsc.com/news/news/detail/qsc-provides-glimpse-into-the-future-of-audio-video-and-control-processing -at-ise-amsterdam) and unfortunately did not quite succeed with. Opinions differ as to why this was but it may be that the time wasnt right then.

Example 2:With the IntelliMix P300 Audio Conferencing Processor, Shure offers a small but powerful audio DSP. This is particularly popular in the UC environment: docked to UC engines with Zoom or MS Teams via USB interface, with smart table and ceiling microphones integrated via Dante on the audio side and all operated via PoE+.

However, the P300 is basically a mini PC. It was in 2020 that Shure took the decisive step and separated the software from the hardware.

Voil, welcome to Shure IntelliMix Roomfor Windows.

Intellimix Room runs on any 64-bit Windows system with very modest minimum requirements:

As you can hear from the industry, the success of this software product to date is still manageable. AV integrators are still too caught up in a box shifting mentality but Shure didnt give in that easily and has now found a real killer application.

The revolution for AV system integration: the audio DSP migrates to the UC engineAs is well known, room clients from Zoom and MS Teams run on conventional PC technology. The term soft codec makes it clear that it is a software solution compared to video conference devices with proprietary hardware and software combinations.

And this is exactly where the circle closes. If both software packages are already running on a single PC, why not run both on the same PC together? Of course, it has to be powerful enough, but that is really no longer a problem these days.

You really have to congratulate the partners, Shure and Crestron, for convincing Microsoft of the good sense of such a solution. It was certainly not that easy, as there are still no (public) test criteria for such a combination. Logically, all interfacing problems in terms of AEC are off the table in one fell swoop. Bravo!

Whats next? The outlook for really deeply integrated systemsIs that enough to start a revolution in AV systems integration? Will other providers follow suit and also offer soft DSPs? Quite possibly and it is certainly desirable in terms of a wider range. But I would go one step further (or are there several steps?). Imagine the following scenarios:

1. UC clients on their own audio hardwareWhy not turn the tables and use the Teams/Zoom/etc install client on an audio product? Why not run Zoom Rooms natively on a QSC Q-SYS Core? The blinkers of the platform providers probably do not yet allow such a way of thinking, but it would certainly be an absolutely sensible solution. Instead of converting a mini PC to an audio installation, current AV devices already meet all requirements in terms of design, sales channel, support structures and the like.

2. Massive expansion of the functionality of audio DSPsThis has already been mentioned several times on my own blog. The gap between the performance of traditional audio DSPs in our industry and the cloud-driven algorithms of software providers (seehere) is constantly widening. When the two worlds meet on the same hardware, there are suddenly enormous synergies and an unprecedented price/performance ratio for the customer.

3. The same applies to videoIf, thanks to theDANTE Virtual Sound Card, audio suddenly goes in and out of a UC engine via the LAN, the same is possible for video. NDI is a perfect solution for this. And such networking is a condition for the following point.

4. Conference hostingInstead of having your own small PC with the appropriate software in each meeting room, this will be centralised in the future. What Crestron does in the world of media control withCrestron Virtual Control VC-4, for example, can also work in conferencing. Microphones, cameras and even loudspeakers that are remote but on the network allow conferencing hardware to be moved to a (local) datacentre. Just think of the effects this has on customer groups such as universities when the rollout of collaboration technology in every lecture hall suddenly becomes very easy!

SummaryWhat Crestron and Shure have just announced in terms of MS Teams Rooms is definitely a milestone in the AV world:

But instead because it opens up the hitherto rather isolated market of AV installation for new providers:

All of these developments require a solid foundation of advice and planning and I am available for inquiries and comments.

Harald Steindl is a consultant based in Austria. This article first appeared on the HST Raising the Bar blog as A revolution in AV systems integration here.

More here:
'The MS Teams Rooms system that will start a revolution' - AV Magazine

During anniversary celebrations with his wife Donna in August 2020, Mr Johnson suffered a fall down the stairs which resulted in him being unable to feel his body.

Aged 57 at the time, Mr Johnson was rushed to hospital and kept in intensive care for two weeks, where it was discovered that he had broken his spinal cord at his C3 vertebrae.

Doctors worked for two hours to clear his chest as he was also suffering from a collapsed lung and pneumonia.

Mr Johnsons wife Donna, was told by doctors to avoid sharing the extent of his injuries with her husband

She said: "They told me and my daughter he would never walk again.

"They didn't want to tell Keith because they thought hed have just given up and wouldn't have kept on fighting."

The dad of four is now suffering from injuries that affect his mobility, meaning he is unable to pick up a cup despite having a fit and healthy lifestyle while working as a cleaner at Teesport prior to his accident.

As a result of the incident, Mr Johnson has revealed that he has suffered from suicidal thoughts, and is embarrassed about the helpless situation he has found himself in.

He has relied on his family to see him through, with the thought of seeing his grandchild, nine-week-old Beau, being among the things which help keep Keiths spirits raised.

The couple are fighting for more physiotherapy for Keith, and are appealing for an extension to be made to their home in Farndale Walk to accommodate Keith's condition since being told by consultants that he will never walk again.

The use of their two-bedroomed house was adapted after Keiths accident. With only a kitchen and living room downstairs, the living room has been repurposed as Keiths room.

READ MOREPfizer vaccine linked to Bells palsy - man suffers facial paralysis

The request has had its setbacks though, as Mrs Johnson claims the process wasn't started until March this year and the pair are frustrated by the delay.

At present the only alterations that have been made to accommodate Keith are the installation of a ceiling hoist and a ramp at the rear, but Donna says they desperately need an extension.

When commenting on the delay Keith said: A year down the line there has been times when it feels like I have only just had the accidentwe are no further forward. Nothing has happened.

"It can't go on like this, it causes stress for the family.

There is hope for the family though, with a spokesperson for Redcar and Cleveland Council commenting: "All our sympathies are very much with this family and our officers are committed to working with them to move this situation forward as quickly as possible.

"Unfortunately, the long term solutions being considered can take a significant amount of time to resolve, such as designing the preferred solution, seeking planning permission and then undertaking the building works.

"We understand the urgency of this situation and will continue to work with this family and everyone else concerned to ensure a satisfactory outcome as soon as possible".

Samaritans (116 123) or email jo@samaritans.org operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year for those struggling.

Read this article:
Heartbreak as dad will never walk again after going to toilet during anniversary party - Express

Councillors will meet on Wednesday to rubber stamp which local projects will be put forward for $4.5m in bushfire recovery funding.

"We've come up with seven projects, totalling $4,234,000," Mayor Peter Petty said ahead of the meeting.

The rural areas of the shire were set to receive a lot of attention, with Drake the major beneficiary where $2.9m was allocated.

Councillors met for a workshop last week to discuss which projects to put forward for funds. That workshop happened after a debate at the July council meeting started to introduce new project ideas, which had not been discussed previously.

It prompted the general manager Daryl Buckingham to say he was concerned the council was making decisions on the run. While improvements to access at Bruxner Park had been included in discussions at last month's council meeting, last week's workshop decided to pursue tourism funding instead of using the bushfire grant.

And a plan to leave more than $2m unallocated so the Angry Bulls Trails development could apply for it was also scrapped, with the council coming up with a list to spend almost all the $4.5m.

The works proposed for Drake include alternative access road and associated drainage, pathways and open space along Bruxner Highway to Timbarra Street and parking and road crossings.

It will include bus stop parking and a highway crossing.

$344,000 has been proposed for dead tree removal across the shire and $220,000 for rural addressing.

The installation of industrial ceiling fans and emergency lighting at Memorial Hall, along with a switchboard upgrade was allocated $220,000. Mingoola Hall upgrades, including a stand-alone accessibility friendly disabled toilet, have been suggested for $120,000.

Other funding applications include $190,000 for Northern Border Walk Signage and $240,000 for Tenterfield Swimming Pool equipment.

Cr Petty said the selection of projects had tried to spread the funding right across the shire. "This is what council has always tried to do," Cr Petty said.

He said the northern border signage was a project that showed great initiate and others addressed infrastructure that needed attention.

"Drake has badly needed this work, with drainage and pathways, and a bit of work on the Bruxner.

"I'm really happy, the council has done a really good job with what they've worked through," he said.

The National Bushfire Recovery Fund was created by the federal government to support communities impacted by the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.

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Council to apply for $4.2m in bushfire recovery funding on local projects - Tenterfield Star

Home improvement is exciting until you open the instruction manual to assemble your new ceiling fan, grill or flat pack table.

Nate Henderson remembers the moment he realized there had to be a better way. One of Hendersons friends tried putting together a piece of furniture with his wife, but it devolved into an argument and ended with the couple throwing away the project.

We started talking about that, and looking around to see if theres something to help the DIY consumer do better, thats not paper and not just video. And thats really how it began, said Henderson, whose Grapevine company just landed a $9 million investment to help it grow.

In 2015, Henderson and his childhood friend Ahmed Qureshi created an app appropriately named BILT and packed it with thousands of interactive tutorials for products that usually require paper instruction manuals.

Today, BILT has millions of users in over 200 countries. It offers 12 different languages and is available in both the Apple app and Google Play stores.

BILT spent a year and a half considering different investment partners before closing a deal with Austin-based Silverton Partners, which Henderson said has a gold standard reputation in Texas. He said the new capital will let BILT grow at kind of a hyper pace.

Tutorials are created by BILT instruction designers a mix of employees with either engineering or graphic design experience. Brands usually reach out to BILT to create partnerships with the app.

The app is free to consumers, ad-free and contains hundreds of brands.

When you see it in BILT, its the exact, right, perfect experience you need to be successful, Henderson said.

Users can click and drag to rotate, zoom and move 3D images of the parts and tools required for each step. Audio or written instructions, or both, are available. The beginning of each tutorial includes the approximate time the assembly will take, how many people it will require and additional tools that may be needed.

Even the Air Force and Navy have partnered with BILT, creating tutorials for things like aircraft maintenance.

They have said, You know what, lets make our servicemen and -women really successful at what they do. It gives them greater job satisfaction, they know theyre doing a quality job, it saves money for the taxpayer. And everybody wins across the board, Henderson said.

Henderson thinks BILT is a market maker, suggesting it fills a void not covered by instruction manuals or YouTube videos.

When you think of competition, I would suggest you think of it more as substitutes, Henderson said. Most people today, when they say the paper [manual is] not working for me, the default is to go to YouTube. The challenge with YouTube is its a bit like the wild, wild West.

Henderson said YouTube videos are often outdated or inaccurate. Paper instructions offer their own challenges, and come with environmental costs. Henderson estimates that in one year, the BILT app will be able to prevent about a billion trees from being cut down.

Imagine the billions and billions of pages of paper, that werent a good experience anyway, that now dont have to be printed, Henderson said about paper manuals. It will be one of the great sustainability stories, I think, of the next decade.

Silverton Managing Partner Morgan Flager agrees that BILT has come up with a better way.

I cant imagine in five years, well still be dealing with paper instructions, he said.

BILT will become increasingly necessary as customers continue to order products online, Henderson said.

The more we buy online, the more pressure it puts on brands to say, youve got to figure out a way of packaging things smaller, and yet at the same time deliver an even better customer experience, Henderson said. The brand has spent years creating a great product that may actually work well. If you cant assemble it right, or youre frustrated, your loyalty toward that brand starts to get pretty shaky, and then you tell others about it.

Smaller packages, combined with the need for great customer service, is where BILT comes in. Smaller packages mean more assembly, and more assembly means more instruction manuals. Instead of traditional paper models, companies can include a barcode for customers to scan, prompting them to download the BILT app to view an interactive tutorial.

Henderson wouldnt provide specific revenue figures for BILT, but he said its experiencing 100% growth year over year, coming in under the $20 million mark in revenue.

BILT is heavily involved now with home improvement brands. But it plans to move into the automotive, small appliances, machinery and semi-professional spaces.

Ask yourself the question, what are the industries that require some type of assembly or installation or setup? Henderson said. It never ends.

View post:
Grapevine app maker readies for hyper-growth by taking frustration out of do-it-yourself projects - The Dallas Morning News

The What: Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) recently unveiled the MKD1200 Series, the newest additions to the MKD Series of full range loudspeakers created for installation applications. The MKD1294 and MKD1264 are three-way designs engineered to produce high output levels and outstanding fidelity while maintaining broadband pattern control for use in applications ranging from stadiums to small music venues.

The What Else: Both models incorporate dual 12-inch low-frequency transducers with 3-inch vented voice coils, and coaxial 3.5-inch voice coil midrange and 1.75-inch voice coil high-frequency compression drivers. Nominal beamwidth of the MKD1294 is 90-degrees horizontal by 45-degrees vertical, while that of the MKD1264 is 60-degrees horizontal by 45-degrees vertical. The large-format horn utilized in the MKD1294 and MKD1264 may be rotated for increased versatility in pattern control, providing sound system integrators with a wide variety of installation options.

The Bottom Line: All MKD Series loudspeakers feature enclosures constructed from Baltic birch, and are available in standard black or white finishes with options for custom colors as well as weather protection. Installation is facilitated by built-in M10 mounting points and optional wall-mount or ceiling-mount hardware.The curved front panel of MKD cabinets permits discreet installation in situations where visual unobtrusiveness is required.

The MKD1294 and MKD1264are shippingnow.

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EAW Expands MKD Series of Installation Loudspeakers - AV Network