I had the opportunity to work with a company working on digital terrestrial broadcasting solutions..
Here's what I learned:
1. Signal strength matters -- If you don't have a 15.5 db Signal to Noise Ratio, you get nothing. A blank screen.
2. A decent antenna helps immensely and sometimes an amplifier, but too much signal strength will also overdrive the receiver and you'll get.. nothing. (Helps to have a spectrum analyzer..)
3. All reception chipsets are NOT the same. The RCA DirectTV HDTV receiver sucks compared to what is available in newer chip sets. Try different receivers and you may notice substantially different performance.
4. If you don't live somewhere where there are DTV transmitters, none of the above matters. And currently in New York (Maybe one still up?) and outside of large markets, there are no digital television transmitters!
Ok -- of all the posts.. This poster got it right.
The answer is metal conduit to a central cabling area with pull boxes along the way.
Why?
Because unforeseen change is inevitable, the best you can do is plan for it.
Building a house today, I'd put in:
1. 1.5"-2" Metal Conduit or FLEX (1" is a bit tight when you add more that a couple of cables.)
2. 2 to 4 -- Cat 5 To Each Room 2 for a normal room, 4 for an entertainment or other area that might have special needs.
3. 2 or 3 -- RG-6 or RG-11 depending on length
One is for your cable or broadcast TV, the other 1 or 2 can be used for satellite or cable or some other broadband connection.
4. A Blonder Tongue (Yes there is a company called this) Master Distribution Amp.. They make good stuff -- expect to pay for it. So that each of your rooms get a clean balanced signal from the master antenna or cable system.
5. If fiber becomes the next big thing, you put in the conduit and pull boxes, it's not going to be hard to add. You'll redo the rooms several times before the question of fiber comes up. Fiber To The Home? I can't even get DSL or decent cable TV to the home.
Construction costs would gut your $80k USD budget in no time.. You need to be looking at microwave point to point links. Look at stuff by Larus Corp. I believe they make a reasonably priced 4xT1 unit. (6 Ghz?)
So multiple sites have fixed microwave to a tall mountain. Then trunk the traffic outta there probably on fiber. Lots of times phone companies have equipment and fiber on mountains to backhaul cell phone traffic and similar.
Otherwise, you're looking at trunked T1s. I have to assume your school is not 45 miles from the nearest central office. Could do a microwave pt to pt to them possibly.
Bottom line: Don't even think about spending money digging up the ground!
It's basically an Iridium type unit the size of a laptop computer. The antenna is quite small (think laptop screen) and aiming is not critical. The signal goes to an Immarsat or similiar.
By contrast, in order to put a signal up on a commerical Ku band satellite. You need:
a. Permission to transmit. 14 Ghz signals coming from 1.8m dishes with a clear view of the south sky aren't that hard to find in a country like Afghanistan. Tough to do without attracting lots of attention.
b. You have to get a hell of a lot of equipment in. Video equipment, MPEG compression equipment, a carefully aimed 4-6 ft dish, an exciter, possibly even an high power amplifer (which aren't cheap), and don't forget where these reporters are.. You can't get clean water let alone electricity in most places. So don't forget the generators and gasoline!
In short, we're lucky to have the pictures we do have.
I remember buying 45 RU Stantron racks for about
$300-$400 a piece. I bought them from a system
integrator as part of a massive purchase..
If you buy the same thing from Black Box, you'll probably pay 3 times as much.
I would check out you local TV/video facility.. Sometimes they have old racks they want to get rid of...
But the real money comes in the mounting. Shelves -- I remember paying $40-$60 a shelf. 10 shelves and you're talking real money.
The the roll out mounts are easily $100 a piece and are often semi-custom for the box they attach to. Unless you're hell bent on having a rack mount setup, it's probably not worth it. You could buy a few nice cases and other equipment for what mounting this stuff will cost you.
Re:Nothing to do with cost of product...
on
VA Layoff Rumors
·
· Score: 1
Fear: When you see B8 00 4C CD 21 and know what it means
MOV 004C into AX then call INT 21 .
I think 4C is terminate process.. What's scarier, knowing that or knowing I'm writing this at 5 AM...
Linux will continue to make inroads in the server space and there will continue to be a need for support in that area.. If a company can provide that support and use it to leveredge other products, they might be ok.. (Think IBM..)
I agree with your assessment, I spent 6 years in an engineering program and then took a job where I was lucky enough to manage a large system integration project. It was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be.. But it was fascinating to work at a level where I actually had a lot of control over the destiny of my project -- not just be a cog in the machine designing amplifier circuits or writing code. Gave me a whole different outlook. I learned about the importance of good communication, presentation, and people skills.. Things they don't emphasize in engineering classes. In the projects I worked on, I had to manage budgets, play referee, and all sorts of things I never thought I'd do.
I realized there was more to engineering than just writing code and designing circuits. Keeping yourself focused on engineering cuts you off from a whole other world.. I think an MBA may be helpful to provide insight into how the world works outside of engineering, because as an engineer who sits behind a desk who lose perspective. Having the alternate perspective is invaluable..
As for the opportunity to fire the "open source zealot".. Don't shoot the messenger.. Let's not forget that Outlook is insecure and many open source products are excellent. Don't forget that because the guy annoys you.
I can buy my liquor during the day and deal with obscure stupid laws.. But that isn't what would keep me out'a Utah. The biggest problem is: most of the companies I want to work for are in San Jose. If I lived in San Jose and hated my current job, it would not too hard to get another down the street. In Utah, I'd be hard pressed to find another job at a company I wanted to work for.
San Jose -- it is where the opportunities are.
Lastly, I can get to San Jose really easily. Utah doesn't have 50-60 daily flights.
I agree. I stumbled into a fantastic company.. (No, it's not Cisco.) But I have a large cubicle, actually I adopted an extra cube, so I now have two. I have a stereo. I am 15 feet away from a well stocked kitchen.. Computer, big monitor, computer of recent vintage. I've got it pretty good.
I'm also empowered to change things. If there is something I can buy to make me more productive, I can usually get it. My company wants to keep me happy and working hard on their initiatives. By creating an atmosphere I want to work in and can change as needed, they get just that.
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I had the opportunity to work with a company working on digital terrestrial broadcasting solutions..
.. nothing. (Helps to have a spectrum analyzer..)
Here's what I learned:
1. Signal strength matters -- If you don't have a 15.5 db Signal to Noise Ratio, you get nothing. A blank screen.
2. A decent antenna helps immensely and sometimes an amplifier, but too much signal strength will also overdrive the receiver and you'll get
3. All reception chipsets are NOT the same. The RCA DirectTV HDTV receiver sucks compared to what is available in newer chip sets. Try different receivers and you may notice substantially different performance.
4. If you don't live somewhere where there are DTV transmitters, none of the above matters. And currently in New York (Maybe one still up?) and outside of large markets, there are no digital television transmitters!
Ok -- of all the posts.. This poster got it right.
The answer is metal conduit to a central cabling area with pull boxes along the way.
Why?
Because unforeseen change is inevitable, the best you can do is plan for it.
Building a house today, I'd put in:
1. 1.5"-2" Metal Conduit or FLEX (1" is a bit tight when you add more that a couple of cables.)
2. 2 to 4 -- Cat 5 To Each Room 2 for a normal room, 4 for an entertainment or other area that might have special needs.
3. 2 or 3 -- RG-6 or RG-11 depending on length
One is for your cable or broadcast TV, the other 1 or 2 can be used for satellite or cable or some other broadband connection.
4. A Blonder Tongue (Yes there is a company called this) Master Distribution Amp.. They make good stuff -- expect to pay for it. So that each of your rooms get a clean balanced signal from the master antenna or cable system.
5. If fiber becomes the next big thing, you put in the conduit and pull boxes, it's not going to be hard to add. You'll redo the rooms several times before the question of fiber comes up. Fiber To The Home? I can't even get DSL or decent cable TV to the home.
I disagree with Joe.. (Wazzup dude!)
Construction costs would gut your $80k USD budget in no time.. You need to be looking at microwave point to point links. Look at stuff by Larus Corp. I believe they make a reasonably priced 4xT1 unit. (6 Ghz?)
So multiple sites have fixed microwave to a tall mountain. Then trunk the traffic outta there probably on fiber. Lots of times phone companies have equipment and fiber on mountains to backhaul cell phone traffic and similar.
Otherwise, you're looking at trunked T1s. I have to assume your school is not 45 miles from the nearest central office. Could do a microwave pt to pt to them possibly.
Bottom line: Don't even think about spending money digging up the ground!
Ok, a quickee on how these videophones work.
It's basically an Iridium type unit the size of a laptop computer. The antenna is quite small (think laptop screen) and aiming is not critical. The signal goes to an Immarsat or similiar.
By contrast, in order to put a signal up on a commerical Ku band satellite. You need:
a. Permission to transmit. 14 Ghz signals coming from 1.8m dishes with a clear view of the south sky aren't that hard to find in a country like Afghanistan. Tough to do without attracting lots of attention.
b. You have to get a hell of a lot of equipment in. Video equipment, MPEG compression equipment, a carefully aimed 4-6 ft dish, an exciter, possibly even an high power amplifer (which aren't cheap), and don't forget where these reporters are.. You can't get clean water let alone electricity in most places. So don't forget the generators and gasoline!
In short, we're lucky to have the pictures we do have.
I remember buying 45 RU Stantron racks for about $300-$400 a piece. I bought them from a system integrator as part of a massive purchase..
If you buy the same thing from Black Box, you'll probably pay 3 times as much. I would check out you local TV/video facility.. Sometimes they have old racks they want to get rid of...
But the real money comes in the mounting. Shelves -- I remember paying $40-$60 a shelf. 10 shelves and you're talking real money.
The the roll out mounts are easily $100 a piece and are often semi-custom for the box they attach to. Unless you're hell bent on having a rack mount setup, it's probably not worth it. You could buy a few nice cases and other equipment for what mounting this stuff will cost you.
Fear: When you see B8 00 4C CD 21 and know what it means
MOV 004C into AX then call INT 21 . I think 4C is terminate process.. What's scarier, knowing that or knowing I'm writing this at 5 AM...
Linux will continue to make inroads in the server space and there will continue to be a need for support in that area.. If a company can provide that support and use it to leveredge other products, they might be ok.. (Think IBM..)
I agree with your assessment, I spent 6 years in an engineering program and then took a job where I was lucky enough to manage a large system integration project. It was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be.. But it was fascinating to work at a level where I actually had a lot of control over the destiny of my project -- not just be a cog in the machine designing amplifier circuits or writing code. Gave me a whole different outlook. I learned about the importance of good communication, presentation, and people skills.. Things they don't emphasize in engineering classes. In the projects I worked on, I had to manage budgets, play referee, and all sorts of things I never thought I'd do.
I realized there was more to engineering than just writing code and designing circuits. Keeping yourself focused on engineering cuts you off from a whole other world.. I think an MBA may be helpful to provide insight into how the world works outside of engineering, because as an engineer who sits behind a desk who lose perspective. Having the alternate perspective is invaluable..
As for the opportunity to fire the "open source zealot".. Don't shoot the messenger.. Let's not forget that Outlook is insecure and many open source products are excellent. Don't forget that because the guy annoys you.
I can buy my liquor during the day and deal with obscure stupid laws.. But that isn't what would keep me out'a Utah. The biggest problem is: most of the companies I want to work for are in San Jose. If I lived in San Jose and hated my current job, it would not too hard to get another down the street. In Utah, I'd be hard pressed to find another job at a company I wanted to work for. San Jose -- it is where the opportunities are. Lastly, I can get to San Jose really easily. Utah doesn't have 50-60 daily flights.
I agree. I stumbled into a fantastic company.. (No, it's not Cisco.) But I have a large cubicle, actually I adopted an extra cube, so I now have two. I have a stereo. I am 15 feet away from a well stocked kitchen.. Computer, big monitor, computer of recent vintage. I've got it pretty good. I'm also empowered to change things. If there is something I can buy to make me more productive, I can usually get it. My company wants to keep me happy and working hard on their initiatives. By creating an atmosphere I want to work in and can change as needed, they get just that.
And if you thought HC11 assembly was bad, try PIC assembly -- it's darn near incoherent..