May 6, 2010
Protecting AV Equipment From Trouble Caused By Power, Heat, And Mother Nature
As soon as AV equipment is
unboxed and installed, whether
in a boardroom equipment closet
or a dedicated machine room, it is
at risk from the adverse effects of
power and heat anomalies, natural
phenomena such as lightning and
earthquakes, and theft.
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Juice Goose’s CQR-1500 is a 15 amp power sequencer which features AC power filtration and surge protection.
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Yet not every unusual event
on the AC power line, neutral or
ground conductor has an impact.
Bob Schluter, chief engineer and
CEO, Middle Atlantic Products,
noted that such events occur all
the time, and recommends looking
to the IEEE for a definition when
discussing surge, spike, or undervoltage
events: “Unless you put
them in context—how much, what
was the duration—they have very
little meaning.”
Schluter has observed a trend to
guard against potential equipment
damage from supply voltage anomalies
at the technical power sub panel
board. “Having a dedicated sub
panel feed for the AV system is the
easiest, best and most economical
way to stop surges and spikes, and is
good for performance,” he said. “Is it
ever bad to install rack-level protection?
No. If the clients can afford it
and everybody wants as much security
as they can, go ahead. But it’s not
needed in many cases. Good engineering
practices will always rule.”
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The SurgeX SU-1000Li includes common mode and normal mode Impedance Tolerant
EMI/RFI filtering, and provides a web browser-based interface to manage power settings,
customize diagnostics, monitor multiple computers, and schedule shutdowns and restarts.
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Furman Sound’s Series Multistage
Protection circuit is one such
rack-level solution. “This is not just
a surge suppressor, it also monitors
the incoming voltage,” explained
Chris Desalernos, domestic sales
manager, Furman Sound, noting
that the company has shipped more
than 300,000 circuits without any
failures. “As it goes over a particular
threshold it will disconnect the
power not only from your connected
equipment but also from itself.”
Desalernos cited an example of a
band on the road that was accidentally
supplied 240V by the electrician. “The
wireless rig got fried, but the front of
house equipment was safe because it
was plugged into a Furman.”
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Panamax/Furman’s BlueBOLT technology
provides secure, hosted IP system control over
compatible Panamax and Furman products.
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The company has now taken
AV systems power management a
step further with BlueBOLT, which
offers IP control over compatible
products from Furman and parent
company Panamax. With Blue-
BOLT, said Desalernos, “Since you
can document your history, if your
client is experiencing failures down
the road you can show them the data
supporting the fact that they need a
voltage regulator.”
The system is implemented
through a plug-in interface card that
provides an ethernet port, according
to John Benz, marketing manager,
Furman Sound. “The whole
system is cloud-based and accessed
through a local area network. That
gives us flexibility in the future,
because it’s software based.” The
software may be configured to send
mail or text alerts.
As Peter Cook, vice president,
Juice Goose noted, in addition to
offering protection against surges
and spikes the company also focuses
on high frequency interference on
the AC line, which creates audio or
video static and can come from fluorescent
or neon lights, dimmers and
motors. “That can occur between
line and neutral [normal mode]
and neutral and ground [common
mode],” he elaborated.
Cook observed that voltages are
more likely to sag than surge, requiring
either a voltage regulator or an uninterruptible
power supply. “With UPS
devices you’re running off of a battery
100 percent of the time. That battery
provides the purest buffer between
anything that’s going on in the outside
world and within your rack.”
Surges are less of a threat to current
AV equipment, Schluter believes.
Modern switch mode power supplies,
unlike older transformer-based
designs, can cope with voltages in
the range of 100V to 240V. “If a
voltage surge comes along and swells
it to 150V, anything that’s fed with a
switch mode power supply is going to
deal with it,” he said.
Lightning is quite another
matter. “Any kind of electronic
component that you put outside is
potentially a lightning rod,” noted
Cook, offering satellite dishes,
outdoor speakers, and surveillance
cameras as examples. Juice Goose
offers a variety of inline products, with coaxial, RJ-45 and other connections,
that shunt the energy
surge to the cable shield. A second
group of products, he said, “will
divert that energy to a wire that
you attach to a copper rod stuck
in the ground. That’s the way you
really ought to go.”
Schluter believes that many
people overestimate the heat output of equipment (see related sidebar).
Thermal problems are rare in
machine rooms, but in telepresence
and videoconferencing applications
that util ize cabinetry, equipment
shutdowns due to heat remain a
problem. Whether the equipment
enclosure is passively vented or fancooled,
he said, “If you don’t think
about how air flows in a cabinet,
where it comes from and where it’s
going to, that might give you a false
sense of security and you end up
with a problem.”
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Tripp Lite’s LCR2400 Automatic Voltage
Regulation system is rated at 20 amps/2400
watts and offers EMI/RFI filtration along
with surge and spike protection with a total
of 14 outlets.
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Where a fan is required, Schluter
recommends a thermostat-controlled
device. “We want to shut off
the fan whenever it’s not needed,
for the dust and for the energy. In
today’s world, where we all should
be caring about the planet, we want
to turn things off when they’re not
needed.” An air filter can help guard
against dust buildup.
Although AV equipment may be
installed in certain instances alongside
IT equipment that must remain
operational in the event of an earthquake
or, perhaps, terrorist attack,
it typically poses only one specific
threat, noted Schluter: “Far and away
what we see everywhere is protecting
people from racks falling over, the
physical damage of a rack on somebody,
and preserving egress.” At
locations outside earthquake zones,
such protection is largely limited to
equipment in buildings rated as first
tier response centers.
Theft can also be a problem,
and is exacerbated by easy access to
formerly proprietary security hardware,
according to Schluter. Now,
he said, “The trend is to make proprietary
specialty hardware where
the driver bits cannot be obtained at
home improvement stores.”
Schluter is also seeing a move
toward three-point latches on rack
doors. A rod that locks the top and
bottom edges of the door in addition
to the key latch prevents anyone from
gaining access by bending the door.
Field Report
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SurgeX equipment protects the Dallas Cowboys Stadium LED display, which is the
largest in the world at 11,200 square feet.
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Shannon Townley, CFO and SVP of sales for
SurgeX, listed several critical installations that
include the manufacturer’s gear, including the
Dallas Cowboys Stadium jumbo screen, the
capitol buildings in Arkansas and Texas, and
the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA,
which recently installed 35 SurgeX iControls.
SurgeX developed its iControl IP addressable
power conditioning management system
with Green Power technology which enables
automated power up/down of selected
components on a customized schedule to
maximize energy efficiency. “The iControl
was requested by consultants based on the
changing needs of AV customers and the
continued push to become ‘green,’” Townley
noted. “Not only does the iControl provide the
opportunity to manage power more efficiently,
but the remote management capabilities allow
dealers to provide value-added services to
their customers without rolling the first truck.”
SurgeX has heard tale of more than a few
incidents where its products have saved the
day in the field, “but recently a customer in
Greensboro told us of a situation where SurgeX
saved many critical AV systems during a horrific
lightning storm,” Townley shared. “Some
of the equipment there was not protected by
SurgeX and it fried, but the high-dollar, critical
AV gear was saved from any damage, effectively
saving them a lot of money.”
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APC’s S20BLK AV power conditioner and battery backup
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APC’s S20BLK network manageable AV
power conditioner and battery backup has
a built-in web server, RS-232 port, and
an environmental monitor, all designed
to enhance remote management and help
prevent unnecessary service calls.
“The S20’s network manageability
makes life easier for an installer primarily
by enabling them to reboot hung equipment
(e.g., satellite receiver, automation
controller, etc.) without having to send
out a service truck,” explained Patrick
Donovan, surge and AV power product
line manager at APC by Schneider Electric.
“This obviously saves them time, money,
resources, and is much less intrusive on
their client—all of which means better
service.”
Of course, where products like the
S20 truly save money is in protecting
equipment. Donovan shared a story
about a commercial and residential AV
installer in Georgia who had a client with
a 6,000-square-foot summer home with
two APC S20 power conditioning battery
backup units protecting home file servers,
AV gear, and a GE security system.
“No one was home when the house
took a direct lightning strike and lit the
house on fire,” Donovan said. “The APC
S20 units survived the blast and kept
everything up and running. This enabled
the GE system to call the fire department.
They came and put out the fire flooding
the attic where the S20 units were
located. Still the APC battery backups
kept providing battery power. The firemen
left, but within a few minutes, the
fire re-started apparently. Thanks to the
long runtime of the APC S20 units the GE
system was able to call the fire department
back yet again. The client’s art
collection, $130,000 grand piano, music
and video collection, as well as 20 years’
worth of tax and business records stored
on the file servers were saved along with
the house itself. Needless to say, both the
installer and their client love APC.”
The Heat Is On
“When we’re trying to deal with protecting
equipment against heat it’s a simple calculation,”
said Bob Schluter, Middle Atlantic
Products. “What people don’t understand
is that they can’t take the wattage off the
nameplate on the equipment. There’s less
heat than people think. They have to take the
current draw.”
Noting that there are simple calculators
and other resources available on the web
to determine how many cubic feet of air
per minute a fan must move to maintain a
set temperature, Schluter offered several
examples (nameplate wattage converted
to amps).
| IN THE RACK |
CALCULATION |
Financial institution video teleconferencing rack containing video
control equipment, a CATV tuner, DVD player, audio mixer, power
amplifiers, and power supply. |
The nameplate rating gives a total of 16.9A, resulting in a 6,760 BTU
output, requiring 418 CFM to maintain 85 degrees F. The measured
current draw was 2.54A, a resultant 1,016 BTU, needing only 63 CFM. |
Presentation rack containing video distribution, switching and control
equipment, a DVD and a VDV/VHS player, and power amplifiers. |
The nameplate rating gives a total of 8.48A, resulting in a 3,392 BTU
output, requiring 210 CFM to maintain 85 degrees F. The measured
current draw was 2.7A, a resultant 1,080 BTU, needing only 67 CFM. |
Videoconferencing system with loud music playing—rack containing
videoconference camera, control equipment, wireless microphone
system and receivers, and power amplifier. |
The nameplate rating gives a total of 9.82A, resulting in an output of
3,928 BTU, requiring 243 CFM to maintain 85 degrees F. The measured
current draw was 2.91A, a resultant 1,164 BTU, needing only 72 CFM. |
Tripp Lite
Protects Cisco
TelePresence
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Cisco TelePresence Suites are protected by Tripp Lite.
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Tripp Lite’s power and network control solutions
have been selected by Cisco Systems
to protect the company’s flagship technology,
Cisco TelePresence Suites. Tripp Lite’s
integrated solution for Cisco TelePresence
includes UPS Systems, Power Distribution
Units (PDUs), KVM Switches, power management
accessories, and more.
Because TelePresence technology
is highly dependent on safe, reliable
power, Cisco needed a sophisticated
power protection solution. Rick Santina,
technical marketing engineer for Cisco’s
TelePresence Exchange Business Unit,
chose Tripp Lite to provide that solution.
“Right from the beginning, Tripp
Lite has provided protection you can
count on,” Santina said. He noted that
since the Tripp Lite solution was implemented,
Cisco TelePresence has never
experienced downtime that impacted a
customer meeting.
“Tripp Lite was thrilled to be selected
by Cisco to provide a power and network
control solution for Cisco TelePresence,”
said Tripp Lite VP Dave Lund. “Working
in close partnership with the TelePresence
Exchange Business Unit, we were
able to develop an integrated, flexible,
cost-effective solution that met Cisco’s
demanding requirements for protection of
this key technology.”
Steve Harvey (psnpost@nbmedia.
com) has been west coast editor for
Pro Sound News since 2000 and
also contributes to TV Technology
and Pro Audio Review. He has 30
years of hands-on experience with
a wide range of audio production
technologies.
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