System/Zone Recommended Setup

[bfourney]

I have some questions on how you categorize items in your recommended system setup.

1) How do you differentiate between Distributed Audio/Video, Multi-Media, Theater, and Displays? I'm guessing that Theater is for equipment used in a dedicated Theater room, regardless of weather said room uses distributed signals? Under what circumstances would you use Multi-Media vs. Theater? Would a plasma used for a remote satellite box be categorized under Displays or Distributed Audio/Video?

2) What about miscellaneous items such as equipment racks & AV furniture? What system would you assign to Crestron equipment? Would you put all control equipment into a seprate "Control/Automation" category, or would you put things like PADs and AMPXs into the Distributed Audio/Video Category? How would you classify Programmable remotes like MX-850s, or simple IR repeater systems?

3) What about wire and cable? I know you have the Structured Wiring category which I believe is intended only for CAT5 & Coax? What about things like speaker wire and CAT5 intended for other purposes?

Thanks,

Bryn

[kevinmikelonis]

Hey Bryn,

You are crossing CATEGORIES and ZONES in D-Tools.

Categories are for classifying products and are tied to stencils too. Categories should be left as they are named by D-Tools, adding categories can be helpful to give more definition to your database.

ZONES in D-Tools really are best for naming the systems your company sells.

When you create a project in D-Tools, you want to create a framework of rooms and systems or in D-Tools language, zones and locations.

This framework is for placing packages and products from your database throughout the project.

Examples:

An rack should be in the EQUIPMENT RACKS category in the database, and when added to a project, it might be in the zone (or system) 'Distributed Audio' or 'Multi-media' or 'Theater' (because a rack is used in all of these systems) and then in the location where it is physically located in the project.

A flat panel TV should be in the DISPLAY DEVICES category in the database, and when added to the project, it should go to the zone (or system) that it is used in, this again has to do with what you have named as the systems your company designs and installs in the ZONES list in D-Tools setup (naming systems in the ZONES list - I feel very strongly that this is the 1st and most important step in setting up your database). A flat panel TV could be in the 'Distributed Video' system in one location (room) within a project, and part of the 'multi-media' system in another location (room) and perhaps just act as a stand alone TV in another location (room).

The named systems you see throughout our forum are named systems we have found to be universally accepted and flexible, but for our clients, we often change the names of some of the systems slightly to accomodate their company's way of identifying the systems they design and how they design and think about those systems. It is something very specific to each company, but always seems to come back to the same type of segratation shown here. With integration the lines can get blurred, but the whole concept of named systems in the zones list is so that the multitiude of items in each project are placed into the framework so the filters and reporting used to communicate what all these parts are for in the project can be maximized in D-Tools.

[bfourney]

Thanks Kevin, I understand that Categories and System/Zone are different things - anywhere above where I might have said Category I actually meant Zone. It just didn't seem grammatically correct to say Zone or System.

I guess you answered most of it though. You should add/modify the Zone list as you see fit. I think yours is a really good starting point, I just wasn't sure how you intended some of the things to be assigned to them. I think I may come up with another name for LAN/WLAN such as Network, and maybe separate Distributed Audio and Distributed Video into separate systems depending on the project. I might also add systems for Control Systems and Climate Control, and also possibly Equipment Racks.

The database I'm working with now all the zones were setup pretty much identically to the equipment categories (i.e. Audio Components, Video Components, Labor Package) which is sort of redundant. They were also using them as for different system options which is more useful I guess but should maybe be listed as a upgrade package?

Bryn

[kevinmikelonis]

Hey Bryn, you are on the right track.

I see LAN changed to Network a lot now that more consumers are understanding what network really refers to.

As for Distributed Video, I do see that broken out separately too, but many integrators always distribute audio and video since the two mediums are becoming the same.

Having Options as a zone to use as a placeholder for items in the project that are being offered as options is something I have seen, but I find its best to create a location called Options and assign optional items to the appropriate zone and then to the options location.