October 2, 2023 • 56 mins
Discover the world of Racks, what options you have to put your gear in the right place! if you are building a new home and don't want to see your equipment, or you want to show off your gear and make a statement! Racks are one of the best ways to get your centralized equipment into place! From Custom Shelves and LED lighting to make a jewelry box, or if you need to think about the closet space and how much equipment needs to go where in your new home design, Racks give you the best options for where all that equipment goes. We talk about Mid Atlantic, On wall, pre configured, network only, swing out racks, racks above fridges, fully configured, and even some info on common mistakes that can be made that really make your life hard.
We also share a segment on a couple of our favorite Demo songs for your system!
Don't miss out, start this episode right now!!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
The Sound of Design with Mark and Dan,
the podcast that takes you on an exhilarating journey through the captivating realm of custom technology.
Don't miss out on this thrilling auditory expedition into the mesmerizing world of custom technology.
Well,
welcome to The Sound of Design with Mark and Dan and uh we are very excited and happy to have you with us.
(00:42):
Uh Just a quick shout out.
Thank you to uh everyone uh for bearing with that song last week.
That was impromptu.
Uh But if I'm gonna do any more,
I need actual feedback,
you need to send me an email at the Sound of Design dot com and I need to make sure that that email is uh is coming through.
(01:04):
So you tell me the topics that you want me to sing about otherwise I'm not doing anymore.
I thought it was a great idea.
I mean,
I was telling Dan,
like we need to have it like the,
what is it?
The Sam's Town album from the Killers,
you know,
just have that,
that little greeting song at the beginning of our podcast.
That's great.
Absolutely.
(01:24):
Absolutely.
Well,
uh today is all about a V racks and rack infrastructure.
A V racks.
Got it.
Ok.
A va V racks,
audio video racks.
So,
(01:44):
uh we kind of have talked a lot about a bunch of different systems throughout the home and we've covered things like lighting and we've gone real deep into some control systems and some audio systems.
But when you really start thinking about where all that stuff has to go,
(02:05):
let's say that you have a larger project in mind,
uh a remodel or you're building.
And especially if you're building,
quite honestly,
if you are starting from scratch and you've had a system before,
maybe you've had a nice bonus room in the past or something like that,
you go,
I'm building,
I want to do it right.
Then a rack infrastructure becomes kind of the most centralized and most efficient way to put everything together.
(02:34):
And so,
um without further ado mark Damn.
Uh when you think about uh Iraq going into a space,
could you talk to me first about the space that it needs to go in?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So um I'll probably start off with a lot of homes,
(03:01):
arch uh especially like the builders and architects for homes,
don't really think about this aspect of a home.
So if you're building a new home and you're gonna,
I mean,
obviously,
if you're listening to our podcast,
we've told you how important it is to run all the low voltage that you can,
especially that thing called Ethernet throughout your house.
(03:23):
Um But a lot of architects and builders don't think like,
hey,
where can I put this?
You know,
they're thinking about,
hey,
where,
you know,
well,
how does this room fit into the design of the house?
So I've been recommending especially after the past few years.
A lot of architects not including those spaces.
(03:43):
I've been recommending like,
hey,
we need to talk about a ventilated closet or something along those lines to house the equipment.
Um I've had some pretty uh rough uh rough spaces to work in over the past couple of years and our installers do an incredible job at fitting them into these spaces,
(04:04):
but it really isn't ideal in most cases.
So a perfect space would be a closet that's wide enough to fit however many racks that you need as well as it's ventilated.
So you can actively cool the space because it's gonna get really hot,
especially if you're doing amplification and distributed audio around the house.
(04:25):
It's really important that you have that space.
Um I jokingly said recently to my installs,
I'm like,
I wanna have the next project.
Someone build a separate shed outside of their house,
like in Jurassic Park where you got to like walk outside to the house and all the wires are run from there into the house.
I don't know.
(04:45):
That's ridiculous.
And it was more just to talk about Jurassic Park because,
you know,
grew up.
But still,
like,
if I could do that or have a basement that just has a dedicated space for this,
that would be the dream.
Um,
but,
and,
uh,
because I've seen way too many where you're cramming it in a closet that has jackets and other things hanging off of it.
(05:07):
Yeah.
And I think it's important to maybe take some specific considerations of rack infrastructure into the plan that you're gonna have.
So some,
maybe good guidelines or good things to kind of think about.
You gotta have 24 inches by 24 inches,
(05:31):
if you're gonna have an A V rack installed,
ok.
And that's gonna be your,
you know,
depth in your width and of course,
your height is going to be determined by how much equipment you're going to put into uh that shelving system.
And so what happens is you start thinking through the number of devices that you could potentially have and we might get deeper into this.
(05:55):
But as far as the room is concerned,
if you're gonna have one A V rack,
then we need to have 24 inches after uh the floorboard is in that space.
So you don't want to design a 24 inch by 24 inch room and think it's gonna work because as soon as you add that drywall and as soon as you add those baseboards and you've got that little,
(06:19):
you know,
piece down at the bottom like you're eating into your floor space and now it's no longer a 24 inch room.
It's a 22 by 22 inch room.
Right?
And now you can't move the rack out and you can't do the things that you would otherwise like to do because we just didn't plan appropriately.
(06:39):
Also,
please consider that you will have network wire,
that Ethernet that Mark was talking about earlier.
You'll have speaker wire,
you will probably have a shade wire that's going to go into this space as well.
And so let's just take a perfect example.
(07:00):
I did a walk a couple of days ago,
uh for someone who's building a house and they're gonna have 19 prewired shades.
Well,
that means that we have two neutron panels that have to go into this room that all these shades are gonna have to go back into.
And so that's going into the wall.
(07:21):
So it can't be a concrete or exterior wall that isn't studded and framed.
You need to have a studded and framed wall that this is going to go to.
Um,
so you start doing some fast math and you realize I might have a side by side and if they're 24 inches,
that means I need 48 inches wide,
plus I need to be able to slide them in and out.
(07:42):
And so before you realize it,
you're going,
oh,
maybe a six by six room that all this stuff can go into kind of makes sense.
And a lot of folks will consider,
you know,
a mechanical room and that does make a lot of sense for your HV AC.
And you'll have a furnace and a water heater and all that kind of stuff.
(08:02):
But I might not suggest you make these the same spaces because if there's ever a problem with that water heater and it leaks,
you do not want it blowing up your A V system.
This has happened before.
Uh we uh do not want to be having a conversation.
(08:23):
Uh about how the bottom half of your uh equipment was submerged.
Now,
I understand it's an act of God,
it's a flood.
All right.
But we could have planned more appropriately and uh maybe gave ourselves the space to work in where it needs to work.
So,
and,
and then the cool thing about a lot of these,
(08:44):
I mean,
we can,
you can make them look awesome like they don't,
a lot of people think,
oh,
an equipment rack,
it's just gonna be,
you know,
they think like a road case that you would see at a concert,
you know.
Oh,
it's this metal box that might have wheels underneath it,
but it's all beat up and stickers all over it and this,
that and the other like,
depending on your space and what we're designing it for,
(09:05):
we can make it look really clean and really sleek and we can put pretty lights on it.
And other things to make it really kind of stand out in a space on its own.
Um So honestly,
it's one of my favorite parts of the job because you get to kind of,
you know,
it's kind of like to me like building a LEGO set only with equipment rack,
(09:26):
shelves,
right?
You like,
oh,
this can go here,
this can go there.
You know,
obviously you got to take into account weight and heat dispersion and all that stuff.
But it's,
it's a lot of fun.
Yep.
And I'm reminded you,
I'm glad you brought it up with the lights and actually making it a display.
Uh We did a project uh four or five years ago for a pool house edition really,
(09:48):
really fun project.
And the client had been doing a V systems for a while.
So he's kind of knew what he wanted before we ever really started talking.
And he said,
I've got this vision and I said,
ok,
what's,
what's,
what's the vision?
He goes,
you see this whole wall?
It's gonna be this beautiful black tile.
(10:10):
I go ok.
Interesting.
And he goes,
I want to have one of those very sleek,
modern fireplaces and then I want the TV above that and I want it to be kind of flush with the wall.
I want my speakers on that wall as well.
And then to the left,
that's where I want to have the rack space.
And I said,
(10:30):
ok,
he goes and I want it to glow and I'm sitting there going like,
all right,
this is actually sounded pretty cool.
So we build out a spot.
Uh,
the design was to do a 2 ft false wall essentially so that we could fit everything that we needed to.
And so all their infrastructure,
(10:50):
everything that they needed,
uh,
ran behind in this,
you know,
space essentially.
And we built the space for the rack and had it framed and we had 24 inches by 24 inches.
And we did one of those slide out racks.
So you unscrew a panel at the bottom and there's a little button and it actually a whole system's worth of gear.
(11:13):
So this is including the power supply,
the A V receiver,
the brain.
Uh We put a Phillips hue bridge in there and Phillips hue led light strip inside of the A V rack itself.
Um We had some transparent um what's called uh one gang face plates that allowed the light to come through and there was a couple of other things.
(11:38):
Cable box was in there,
Apple TV was in there.
Uh HDM I extender going over to the television was in there.
And as you start building up and you start looking at all that equipment,
you're going,
oh man,
like to have that backlit.
And when it was done that contrast between the bright light of the led s in the rack space and that dark back wall.
(12:01):
I mean,
it was just amazing.
It just pops every time you walk in.
You go.
Oh,
man,
what's going on over there?
That thing's sweet.
Uh,
tell me about that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I don't know if you remember when we were training but they,
you know,
we,
we kind of,
we do a lot of these racks but,
(12:23):
you know,
we kind of pair them with low voltage panels when we're doing a full Prew project.
And,
you know,
one of our,
it wasn't our location but our,
one of our sister locations,
they,
they did a distributed audio video panels,
a Dave panel um for short.
And uh they put these blue led lights on the inside of the panel and the client like jokingly,
(12:45):
but seriously at the same time,
like they went into the house one day and he brought a camping chair in,
set the camping chair down in front of the,
the Dave panel with the blue lights.
And then he was like,
man,
you guys,
I don't care what you do the rest of my house.
This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Cracked open a beer and just sat there and looked at blue lights,
you know,
like,
so it's,
it's uh when you make it special,
(13:06):
you make it look,
you know,
kind of stand out in itself.
It can really add to the decor of the space.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Well,
and so now,
uh we'll kind of get back on track a little bit.
You've got kind of a good idea.
All right,
I've got a,
you know,
two options.
(13:26):
I'm either gonna see the gear.
Right.
And we're gonna make it look cool and make it part of the space or I'm gonna not.
Right.
And both are correct.
It's not,
that one is better or worse.
Um,
I think if you are,
uh,
somebody who's into this stuff,
it's a passion and a hobby,
you like the look of your gear?
Fantastic.
Let's rock and roll with that.
(13:47):
And if you are a home designer and you want the cleanest lines possible and you don't want to see anything like,
absolutely.
Let's go hide that away.
Just build a space to make sure that we have enough room to do the things that we need to.
Um,
and I think this principle kind of goes beyond just a v,
(14:07):
uh,
I've seen it happen with duct work.
I've seen it happen with some of the other,
uh,
trades where people don't plan accordingly and architects are trying to give this beautiful,
clean,
especially in modern homes,
beautiful,
clean,
sleek design and they just don't take the practical stuff into consideration.
And so you end up with all these really weird goofy workarounds and you're going,
(14:30):
huh?
I wonder why they did it that way?
Oh,
well,
maybe they didn't plan it appropriately.
It's like,
just give yourself that mechanical space to do the things you need to do.
Exactly.
Exactly.
It's,
uh,
it's,
and,
and we're bringing this up because,
like I,
I kind of mentioned earlier,
like you as a homeowner when you're building a home,
(14:52):
like,
you need to be bringing this up to them because they're,
they're gonna skip over it.
Not on purpose,
not on purpose because,
you know,
they're,
they're trying to give you your vision in the home.
But,
you know,
if you're doing any type of smart home stuff,
this is important to bring up like,
hey,
I need,
you know that that attic space,
can we cut in an extra six by six space or whatever it is or,
(15:16):
you know,
can we do if we're doing a cellar or a basement?
Can we have this extra mechanical room separate from the other one?
Well,
just bring it up with them and,
and don't budge on,
on the design?
Yeah.
Uh I,
I think so.
Well,
now we've got kind of the uh the main room or placement kind of figured out,
(15:38):
where would we go next in terms of uh the rack design?
And that is what type of rack should we be designing for?
And what are some of the different options that we might have?
Yeah,
I mean,
you kind of mentioned the,
the,
the 24 by 24 option is something that we probably do a majority of the time for folks that aren't looking for a fully custom built solution.
(16:05):
Uh And that's 24 width,
24 depth and then the height varies based on the components that we're gonna be putting in there.
Um But those typically are on casters or wheels and allow you to move it around the space accordingly.
The nice thing about a lot of those too is that they have all different types of openings on the back and on the bottom to allow for different type of types of wire paths and also on the top.
(16:30):
So if it's a,
if it's a semi dedicated space that you know what I mean by that is maybe it is being used as also some storage and you wanna be able to move it to get something in or out of that space.
This is gonna be your best solution,
you know,
the next step.
And it's what we used to have on display and,
and a lot of our uh you know,
in our location and our sister location is uh more of a fixed solution that's built into a wall or some other sort of cabinet that allows us to get around to the backside of it or is on train rails down at the bottom that allows you to kind of slide the entire rack out,
(17:09):
not like the rack that Dan was mentioning earlier with the,
the pull out with the arms.
This one actually just slides straight out.
But again,
it's typically because you can get to the other side of it,
but the,
the sliding is just so you can get it,
get,
get it in and out the first time.
And then you mentioned,
uh,
you know,
the pull out racks,
um,
which are a lot of fun to do,
do them in a lot of existing cabinetry.
(17:29):
One of my personal favorites is,
is the hidden ones that,
that are in pieces of furniture.
So,
and those can be any of the ones that we just mentioned.
They might,
the furniture might have a cut out for something to sit on wheels that just rolls into it.
You might have a pull out or it might just be a fixed piece that goes into the furniture,
something like salamander.
Uh They offer rack rails for almost all of their furniture and it's honestly probably one of my favorite things to do.
(17:55):
Yep.
And,
uh,
I know we've mentioned those before,
but there's two other variations that I just wanted to call out.
One is an 18 inch deep,
uh network only rack.
So a lot of times you may find that you don't necessarily want to do an entire system,
but you do have a larger home and you just want to have good Wi Fi.
(18:18):
And so one of the things that,
uh,
we can do is a on wall 18 inches deep rack that is designed for gear that really is not gonna be used a whole lot.
It just sort of sits and works.
I'm talking about like network switches,
routers,
(18:38):
um,
things like that.
Uh,
even a couple of power supplies,
uh,
monitoring for your system.
Uh,
that kind of an idea.
You don't really go down and push buttons.
You don't really,
I mean,
that's not really,
it's,
it's,
it's purpose but it does need to live somewhere.
It needs to go somewhere.
So these on wall racks give you the ability,
especially in a retro situation where you can put them up high,
(19:01):
you can put them above,
for example,
uh,
in a,
uh,
laundry room or in some other type of a back office space if you didn't have a dedicated option,
and this gives us the ability to do,
um,
some smaller pieces of gear and keep all that stuff up and away and out of people's reach.
Um,
and it's a very,
very,
(19:21):
very nice solution when you really don't have any other options to be quite honest.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Ah,
so that was probably one of the first racks that I did when I got into the industry.
I,
I always forget about it because,
you know,
it's,
it,
but it was the core centralized part of this,
this client's home.
It was a complete retro job.
But,
(19:41):
uh,
it was pretty sweet.
Yeah.
What,
uh,
so what in that particular situation,
uh,
did you have to have the,
uh,
18 inches deep?
Was it a space restriction?
Obviously,
it was,
it was space restriction?
It was actually,
um,
it was a little closet underneath a stairwell and it was one of the stairwells that kind of came halfway down and there was a landing and then the other direction back at you and the,
(20:09):
the,
the door to that was just to the left as you got to the bottom of the stairs.
So the,
the ceiling was kind of pitching down at a,
a pretty uh sharp angle already.
And we're limited on space below voltage panel was basically from my,
maybe my shoulders to the floor almost.
And we had basically from my shoulders to where the however high we could get it.
(20:33):
And then we had just enough to fit in that,
it was an eight,
the eight U uh eight rack unit,
uh 18 inch deep piece.
And we had power management router switch modem,
all that inside of that space and it turned out really clean,
you know,
and,
and that way it was,
it was bounded a little bit up on the wall so the client could get around it easily and they still had floor space to store whatever they wanted to store in there.
(20:59):
So it was kind of awesome.
And I'm,
I'm,
I'm glad that you kind of went into the details because I see this all the time.
Uh Whenever you see a new home being built,
they'll put a low voltage panel in a coat closet and they don't think about uh going back to the beginning of the,
what we were saying earlier,
(21:20):
they don't think about all the gear that has to be there and I'm sure everyone has been in a home and it's like Christmas time or you're over for,
uh,
for a bonfire or something like that.
And they're taking your coats and they put it in the coat closet and,
you know,
they kind of have all these junkie wires just kind of coming out everywhere and,
like,
the panel is halfway off and there's a router that's sort of on a shelf,
(21:44):
but not really.
And sometimes it's sideways and,
you know,
I get it,
you close the door,
you,
you know,
set it and forget it.
You don't really think about that.
Um,
but when you get that cleaned up and you get a proper network switch installed and you start thinking about some of the ways that you can clean up that space and on wall rack becomes so much better.
(22:07):
It's almost that thing of beauty or you're looking at it going like,
oh,
well,
why didn't they just do this in the first place?
It's,
well,
the builder didn't know because they don't listen to our podcast.
Right.
Mhm.
Shameless.
I know.
I'm sorry.
Yep.
Yep.
No,
it's all good.
It's all good.
And I know we've talked about that,
(22:28):
the open frame on wall.
But I,
I've actually,
uh,
done one or two of the,
uh,
the traditional.
Basically the completely sealed side and front glass door on wall racks,
which are a little bit deeper.
You really have to have more of a dedicated space for them.
But it's really cool because the,
the rack itself mounts to the wall and then there's some extra depth there for the,
(22:50):
the mount and then the whole rest of the rack kind of folds out like you're opening up a treasure chest,
you know.
But instead of gold,
it's a bunch of a v goodies.
Well done,
sir.
Yeah.
So,
but they're,
they're pretty sweet.
Um,
again sealed,
typically you can actively or uh actively cool them with a fan or something along those lines.
(23:13):
So well.
And I think this is a good time to call out.
There are some cool things that you can do when you have to.
We did a job for a guy a few years ago that had one space above a secondary refrigerator and we only had maybe three or 4 ft to work with.
(23:36):
Um,
but he had this,
you know,
dedicated space,
so to speak and the other side was being completely remodeled.
And so that's exactly what we did.
We ran all the wiring above the refrigerator and we did that on wall uh rack and we're able to put in there,
uh the power supply network switch,
(23:58):
the A V receiver,
a Roku uh a couple of other devices as well.
And uh it just worked out really,
really nice now.
You did have to get on a chair anytime you want to work on this thing or a step stool or something along those lines.
So,
it wasn't the most convenient.
Um,
and it is kind of a pain in the butt if you ever have to change out anything.
(24:18):
Uh,
it was definitely some work to be done.
But when you have to,
and push comes to shove,
those are the options.
So,
uh,
we've sort of hit it a couple of times,
but let's be a little bit more deliberate.
Uh How would you start thinking about the equipment that you would put in the rack?
How would you think through rack design uh on a component by component basis?
(24:44):
And uh what is the more traditional layouts that you will see?
Uh for most applications?
Not all,
obviously,
there's gonna be exceptions,
but for most applications,
uh how do you start thinking through the components?
Yeah.
So obviously this is gonna be your network head end.
So the first thing that you've got to kind of think about is how many network jacks or drops do I have around the house?
(25:09):
And how many am I gonna make hot?
And then how many devices are gonna be in this rack that I need connections for?
And uh you know,
I used to,
when I was in my early days,
you would just sell 16 port switch and then you just throw an eight port switch here and there and things were hunky dory,
but they really did,
(25:30):
they really weren't,
it actually ended up causing some issues.
So past several years,
you know,
design it based on how many connections you are going to have that you already have plus what you're going to have and then add 10 or 15.
Because as things progress,
you're gonna have more and more connected devices.
The second part of that is look at an A V network switch and you're probably thinking,
(25:54):
what do you mean?
Well,
if you go to a,
a traditional anywhere,
you can buy a network switch,
all of those,
the ports are gonna be forward facing.
So when you think about how I'm putting this piece of equipment in the rack,
you're gonna see if I put a forward facing network switch on there,
all my Ethernet cables are gonna come right out at me.
(26:16):
So then I've got a,
you know,
fold them up and under and push them back through a rack shelf,
which um we haven't brought up Middle Atlantic,
but they make a rack shelf for pretty much anything and everything out there.
Uh They make a really cool brush plate which I've had to use in the past for very specific applications.
But to me,
(26:36):
it just kind of takes away from the overall aesthetic.
So an A V specific uh network switch is typically gonna have that really cool,
sleek front face and all of your connections are gonna be on the rear,
which is where pretty much all of your other A V equipment is gonna be all the connections are gonna be back there.
So,
(26:56):
from a wire management standpoint and a front facing aesthetic standpoint,
it's just gonna be a much cleaner.
Look.
Yep.
Absolutely.
And I'm really glad you called it out because I'm going to jump on a bandwagon that is going to get me in so much trouble,
but I can't help it.
I cannot stand front facing patch panels.
(27:20):
Me either.
I'm glad you brought it up and I know so many A V guys are turning like they're hitting the brakes and they're going,
man.
I do one of the Yeah,
I get it,
bro.
I get it,
bro.
Why is it in the front?
If the rack is on casters,
we're not doing data centers.
(27:40):
This is somebody's home and you're sitting there wiring in a patch panel now,
30 years ago,
fine,
20 years ago.
Great.
Listen,
we are in 2023 and more and more devices are now living on that network.
Can you just design your system to put in a switch and then plug everything in?
(28:01):
So it's always hot all the time.
Nobody wants to go downstairs anymore and plug port one into port 72 in order to make something hot.
It makes no sense.
Now,
I come from a recording studio background so I understand that there is a benefit to having the ability to connect this device to this device and that device to that device.
(28:27):
And there is a creative process to using a patch panel.
I get that 1000%.
And I do not think that it's a problem in the professional world.
It is.
However,
on a homeowners basis and on a high end residential or regular residential,
(28:49):
just put in a switch,
please just put in a switch and let's stop with all this forward wiring that makes it look gross.
So,
you eat a lot in commercial for sure too.
It's,
uh,
I,
I get it,
it's inexpensive.
It is cheaper than doing a network switch.
But I think it's a,
(29:09):
it's,
it's not fun to wire manage and b it doesn't look good,
you know.
So if you're gonna put some money into it,
spend a few 100 bucks and make it look good,
you know.
Well,
I think there's,
uh,
a lot of folks where if that's what you want by all means,
you know,
this is,
we're not the only way to do anything.
And that's one of the beautiful things about the A V industry is there's 9 million ways,
(29:31):
uh,
to do the same thing.
So,
you know,
rock it if you have to,
man.
But in my house there will never be a patch panel.
So now that we've,
we've heated on all the,
the fatal people.
Yep.
Up in smoke.
We go.
Yep.
So,
yeah,
go ahead.
I didn't mean to cut you off.
Go ahead.
(29:51):
No,
no,
you're fine.
I was gonna say so after you get the network sorted out,
you put your A V uh network switch in.
Uh,
what's the next thing you're thinking about?
I mean,
obviously I,
I say network switch but router,
if you've got a manager of some sort for your network,
things like that,
the next thing that you got,
that you gotta think of is obviously you're gonna,
you're gonna be putting in some A V gear and that's all gonna be dependent on what all you're doing around your house.
(30:16):
So I don't want to necessarily get super specific on actual gear cause obviously,
that's gonna be dependent on you as long as it's all rear facing.
I don't care the next biggest thing and it's,
it's just as big as Ethernet is power,
power distribution.
I've seen way too many racks where you go to,
we go to do a takeover project where,
(30:37):
you know,
somebody else has done the work and you turn the rack around and there's 18 extension cords with wall warts plugged into all of them and they're all plugged into one other research trip that's plugged into.
It's like Park Griswold from,
you know,
Christmas vacation,
you know,
like you've got all this stuff plugged in and it's just not a they didn't,
(30:58):
you didn't account for the amount of power that you're gonna have.
So having the correct amount of outlets for everything to plug into.
So it can be cleanly and neatly wire managed is super important.
Also,
the amount of dedicated outlets to that space is important.
Uh,
you definitely don't wanna just plug in two power strips to this when you've got,
(31:20):
you know,
40 amps of,
uh,
of equipment,
you know,
you might wanna talk to the electrician at your job and say,
hey,
you know,
we want to make sure we have three or four dedicated 20 amp circuits to the space depending on your equipment.
So that's something definitely to,
to look out for.
I'm really glad you call,
you,
call that the power because again,
at the same uh uh walk that we did a couple of days ago,
(31:43):
we had that conversation with the electrician.
We said you're gonna have 19 shades,
you're gonna have uh some distributed lighting.
We're gonna do distributed audio.
There's gonna be some A V receivers for a couple of surround sound rooms.
Um We're gonna have the network here and for that shade power panel,
you're gonna wanna have a dedicated line for the second shade power panel.
(32:07):
You're gonna wanna have a dedicated line for that audio distribution.
You're gonna want a 20 AMP line and they all need to be different.
And this is pretty easy to do if your power panel is in the same location.
But please keep in mind that that power panel cannot have anything blocking it.
(32:27):
So you will again,
going back to the beginning need space for your A V stuff and your power.
And that means that you've added another 2 ft to the size of that closet uh as at a bare minimum.
So,
yep,
yep.
One of the other things that we typically look into with that power,
especially nowadays is uh IP controlled devices,
(32:51):
you know,
allowing you or your integrator to be able to power cycle a component without having to roll the rack out.
And I try to unplug something that's wire managed in clean and neat.
Being able to simply just hit a button on your nap and power cycle your Apple TV or whatever it is just makes your life a lot easier.
And I'm glad you mentioned that one too because IP controlled,
(33:14):
uh,
power supplies,
uh,
used to be something that was kind of very rarely used.
Um,
and I think that we've gone now the exact opposite direction,
probably the last 23 years.
I can't imagine a job now,
not having IP controlled,
uh,
power supplies.
Unless somebody really has this need to walk down a flight of stairs and go across and then go back into the mechanical room and sit there and,
(33:41):
uh,
do all the work.
It's really kind of the most,
uh,
inconvenient way to reset things.
And if you heard,
you know,
how do you fix something that goes wonky?
Well,
you unplug it and you plug it back in So the,
uh,
the IP control power supply is your reset,
right?
So that is the one spot that you go to and the fancier you get,
(34:04):
it's not just one,
let's say 88 outlets that get reset altogether,
they'll be separated out into banks.
So you can have,
with a smart design,
you can have a network bank set up,
you can have a audio bank set up,
you can have a control bank set up and so on and so forth down the line.
(34:29):
You start thinking about going,
I'm having issues with my Wi Fi.
Well,
do I need to reset everything?
No,
I just need to reset my access points,
for example.
All right,
great.
Well,
let's do that.
Uh,
my Wi Fi seems to be working fine,
but maybe my internet access to the outside world isn't working.
Well,
maybe we should have a dedicated,
uh outlet for the modem,
(34:51):
right?
Something that we can set up.
And if you ever run into your integrator and you talk to their programmers,
specifically,
some of them can even set it up where it'll automatically power cycle the modem as soon as it loses internet connection.
So this is something that is preventing you from experiencing,
(35:13):
uh,
a service outage because you just bought the right piece of gear to do the right thing.
Exactly.
Exactly.
The modem reset when it disconnects is probably one of my favorite things because it's,
it just sits there and does that until it gets an internet connection again.
And how many times have ha have you done that?
(35:34):
Like,
I've,
I probably reset my modem once a month.
You know,
the fact that you can just simply have something,
turn it on and off and on and off until it fixes itself is,
it means you don't have to worry about it.
All right.
Well,
we've talked a little bit about,
uh,
networking and power.
Then the next most common,
either distributed audio or surround sound rooms that would have an A V receiver.
(35:56):
So in your layout,
what would you use or where should you place?
I should say that a V receiver in the rack,
uh typically towards the,
I mean,
depending on what all is there typically towards the middle or bottom.
I mean,
at the bottom,
if it's the o the only one,
right?
Typically one of your more heavier pieces of equipment that's gonna allow it to,
(36:19):
uh,
you know,
keep your rack a little bit more sturdy and stable,
not the very bottom,
I guess,
but,
you know,
somewhere towards the mid bottom to middle.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I would agree with you.
Well,
uh what's some of the things that uh we have to watch out for uh when it comes to rack shelves?
Yeah,
I know I mentioned Middle Atlantic earlier,
but you've got a couple of different rack shelf solutions,
(36:43):
you know,
your standard,
just metal shelf.
Um,
they have a vended option.
Um,
but when you get in,
I know I mentioned earlier how sleek you can make it.
Custom rack shelves are,
are the way to go.
If you're wanting this to be a,
I was gonna say customer facing,
but a friend fing solution for your,
(37:03):
for your friends,
if you wanna be able to take your buddies down and say,
hey,
look at all this equipment having custom rack shelves for these,
uh made for the equipment,
just really makes the rack stand out.
And if you're not familiar with what that is,
it's actually a rack shelf in whatever size that you need it.
So if it's an A receiver,
it's usually four or five rack units tall.
(37:24):
And then the face that actually is a metal face plate that goes across the front of it with a laser cut,
uh cut out of the piece of equipment that you're putting in there.
So when you put the piece of equipment in and slide it into the rack,
it's just this really sleek,
look across the entire front and you just see the piece of equipment,
you don't see any space or holes down the side.
(37:47):
You know,
you don't see wiring back there.
You just see this really beautiful piece of equipment and it's essentially like it's on display,
right?
Kind of like you would mount a picture on a wall.
This is just kind of mounting it to where it frames it out for that piece of gear and in our best racks that we do,
typically every piece of,
of gear is framed out into one of those rack shelves.
(38:09):
Um,
and it can look not just super cool from a,
you know,
nerdy tech standpoint,
but borderline luxurious,
depending on how it's done.
Yeah,
absolutely.
It's the kind of best expression of uh,
technical equipment,
meets furniture,
meets art.
(38:30):
I really don't know,
I don't know how to,
to,
to solidify that concept.
Uh,
if you just go back to having a cable box,
for example,
sit below a television.
Ok,
maybe you have a small TV stand and so you see all those ugly wires,
it's like,
all right.
Well,
let's get rid of the wiring.
Well,
(38:50):
then you start thinking.
All right.
Well,
what about a piece of gear that is really amazing to look at.
I'm reminded of Macintosh.
Uh,
they have a lb,
uh,
200 I wanna say lightbox and the whole purpose of this thing is to match other pieces of Macintosh equipment.
(39:12):
So everything has a clean uniform look and there's no gear in it.
By the way,
it's literally a box,
just a box and it says Macintosh on the front.
I won't tell you the price because it's a little obnoxious.
It's good.
It's a good price point.
It's a lot less than the gear.
We'll just say it that way.
(39:32):
It's significantly less than the gear.
Um,
but the whole point of it is that way you can hide away some of the other equipment that doesn't match your other Macintosh gear.
And so you do want to look at this from that aesthetic perspective and it has,
uh,
the same color light.
It has that same,
(39:53):
uh,
back light to it.
So everything just is uniform.
Everything is clean and everything matches.
Yep.
They make a clock too.
That does the same thing.
Which is pretty sweet.
Oh,
man,
if I could,
uh,
if I could get one of their clocks.
Mm.
One of the first clients that I met after we kind of uh started working with Macintosh,
(40:14):
you know,
back in 2015,
um,
invited me over and he had already bought all the gear from another dealer probably a year ago,
but they didn't really do him right.
So we were going out there to see how we could help him out and he had salam and understand all open frame and every shelf had a Macintosh something on it.
(40:35):
It was the lightbox and the,
the clock and then obviously his amplification and then the book,
like he had a little shelf that pulled out that had the book on it.
So,
I mean,
it's,
it was,
it was a,
I mean,
it was luxurious and I mean,
it cost more than uh uh a fancy car to be on,
like way more than a fancy car with what he had.
(40:59):
But to that point when you want to put the jewelry box on display.
I'm reminded of,
uh,
if you've ever seen the show,
bitch and rides,
he's got this moment where you open up the hood and you look at the engine and you go.
Oh man,
that's awesome.
Yeah,
it's that aha moment.
That's,
(41:20):
that's what this was.
All right.
Well,
uh,
we've talked a lot about different kinds,
different styles.
I just wanna maybe call it two small things.
A rack unit is 1.75 inches tall.
So,
uh if you're doing some,
some math and you start noticing when you're,
you're looking at these things.
Uh and this is more for the uh the super technical folks if you're trying to do it yourself.
(41:43):
I do highly,
highly,
highly recommend get a professional involved.
Um But just so that you have for planning purposes,
you understand what you're looking at.
Uh that is the delineation,
uh typically cable boxes and uh network switches,
routers,
those will all be one U they don't list out 1.75 inches.
Uh So that's something that you just are expected to kind of know.
(42:06):
Um And then uh there are different types of screws uh because there are different types of racks or rack rails,
I should say that will be used.
And so if you find yourself in a situation where you see from a data center,
a data center rack,
that is not the same thing as an A V rack.
(42:27):
I have one in my house right now and it is about 3 ft deep.
And so there's an extra few inches on the back of this thing.
And the screws are a different size than the A V stuff.
So,
just be aware that there are a lot of different variations of rails.
Um And the most inexpensive versions uh just have squares,
(42:50):
they don't even have screws that you screw things into.
And I went to a customer's house and we looked up in this shelving unit and he had made these poor guys use uh,
bolts and nuts to screw in each individual device.
And if you've ever done that,
you know,
it is the most difficult pain in the butt thing to do because you're trying to hold a piece of gear that you don't want to break and you're trying to screw these two things in from either side and it's just in a tight space.
(43:23):
Very,
very,
very,
very,
very difficult.
So you may save a couple dollars.
You may think that you're,
you know,
getting something,
uh,
less expensive.
But uh as we will learn with all things,
you get what you pay for very much.
So,
yeah,
you don't want to do that.
I don't know how else to say it.
You just don't want to do that.
No,
(43:43):
no,
no,
no.
And,
and you brought up screws,
but I mean,
we kind of kind of went over or miss lacing bars and other things that go on the back of the rack.
I mean,
what,
here's what I would suggest if you're working with an integrator,
get them to show photos of racks that they have built because any of them that,
that are good are gonna willingly show you first and b have 30 lacing bars on the back of the rack.
(44:12):
Specifically for Wire management.
You know,
they're not gonna have this bundle of wires all snaked together with zip ties just coming out.
They're gonna have each individual wire pulled exactly to it's piece of component or a piece of equipment.
Uh at the,
it's gonna be pulled tight.
So it's gonna look really clean and neat and it's gonna be at the right height of the piece of equipment.
(44:34):
So it connects directly and it's just gonna look sweet and things like lacing bars which are just in their basic metal bars that have a little bit of an L in them that allow you to kind of put wires inside to zip,
tie them or Velcro them.
Use Velcro,
please.
Um,
but it's,
(44:55):
it's,
it's a huge differentiator in the,
uh when a racks getting finished out.
For sure.
Yep.
I think it's also a really good call out to say if you're a Navy professional,
you're cutting that wire to length,
right?
And so you are kind of doing this process,
especially when it comes to networking wires where it's going to come along the rack rail and then it's gonna make a hard turn into the exact port location and then they terminate and then they put it in.
(45:25):
So everything looks clean and perfect and that does take time.
So if you ask for pictures of an A V rack from your integrator and they're like,
yeah,
well,
you know,
we do them.
It's like,
ok,
yeah,
you found the wrong guy.
You need to find the guy who's like,
here's 15 of them that I did and they all look amazing.
So you definitely want to make sure that you're working with folks who take pride in their work.
(45:46):
And that's one of those first places that they can do it.
All right.
Well,
we've talked,
uh now I think uh plenty about uh a V rack.
Let's do a segment,
a segment.
I don't know.
That's been fun.
(46:07):
I can use that.
I'm gonna use that.
Well,
hold on,
hold on.
Now we do it.
Segment.
Everyone's excited.
I'm not using that one.
No.
Uh All right.
So uh one of the things that uh happens all the time,
(46:28):
you get a nice system in and you start to realize that the quality of your media starts to make a big difference.
Uh You realize listening to the song on Spotify,
the free version doesn't sound very good all of a sudden and you start thinking like,
maybe there's something wrong with my gear.
It's like,
well,
hold up,
maybe it's that you just didn't pick a song and didn't consider the source material for your song.
(46:55):
And so you start to realize,
well,
maybe if I played it on the CD or if I played it on the vinyl,
I would get a better quality of sound.
But then to take that concept to even uh further,
there are some musicians that work at a very,
very,
very high level and they produce tracks that are kind of specialty tracks that are built to show off the technical side of their musical production.
(47:25):
That's probably the,
the best way to describe it.
And uh easily said they are demo songs.
Yay.
So,
uh we want to give you guys a couple of our favorites and we might do a couple this week,
we might do a couple next week.
Um But Mark,
could you give me like your top two or three demo songs and some things that,
(47:48):
uh why you like them,
who the artist is?
I can't play them for legal reasons.
Um Otherwise I would,
but you,
you could sing them.
Oh,
uh um Yeah,
I've got a plethora of demo tracks that I've accumulated over the years.
(48:09):
Um One of my favorites that I play,
uh is,
um,
you know,
it,
it's been out for a long time and it's by Jeff Buckley and it's uh hallelujah.
Um Why do I like this track?
Well,
uh Jeff Buckley was a classically trained artist.
So,
um but,
but he was kind of,
(48:30):
he kind of came out during that grunge era.
So he kind of got overshadowed until,
uh,
and he really didn't become popular until after he passed away in kind of a tragic accident.
He was just hanging out.
Uh,
um,
and,
and,
you know,
kind of got swept away in some water,
but,
uh I would say,
wasn't he by a river if I remember the story correctly?
(48:52):
Yep.
And uh and then that,
that he really didn't get to see how popular this song became until after he had passed away.
Um But you know,
the beginning of the track,
you hear him take a deep breath and then you kind of have this eerie guitar that comes in and then,
uh but,
but it's very,
very clean and it's right at the right before he gets into the main theme of the song.
(49:18):
Uh It's kind of a harsh guitar kind of,
I don't know how you would describe it because I'm talking on a podcast and you need to listen to it.
It's a little harsh,
but it just kind of shows right at the beginning the dynamics of whatever speaker that you're listening to.
Um And then as his vocals come in,
very soft spoken,
very clean and quiet.
(49:39):
Um It just,
I think a,
a very good way to show off the dynamic range and detail of any speaker.
And then uh another one released,
uh it was part of an Apple commercial a few years ago.
And this is the clean version.
So I'm gonna say,
uh,
say that.
But it's,
(49:59):
uh,
that's it.
I'm crazy by Sophie Tucker.
And we used to play these on a pair of blades,
uh,
C blades in our,
uh,
in our location before we did a remodel.
And that powered on a pair of Macintosh 1.25 kws.
Um,
the bass in that song alone with no sub would shake the walls,
(50:23):
shake all of the,
the structure of the walls itself.
Um So very good bass heavy track,
fun to listen to.
Um,
you know,
it's on all the streaming music services.
Um But,
uh,
yeah,
that's,
those are probably my two favorites and they,
they kind of hit kind of far ends of,
(50:44):
of a demo track,
you know,
one's kind of slower and soft.
The other is like kind of,
hey,
punch you in the face,
you know,
loud and,
and proud.
But,
um,
yeah,
those are the two I've got this week.
I love it,
man.
I love it.
Well,
I'm,
I'm gonna go,
uh,
in kind of a very different direction.
Um I know there's a lot of folks that,
(51:06):
um,
have not heard this song before or even of the artist.
It's Aphex Twin and the song is called Window Liquor.
Uh My favorite,
uh thing about this song is that it's almost impossible for a speaker to play accurately.
It's one of those songs that will uh put your system through its paces.
(51:29):
Uh And when I say put your system through its paces,
I've heard this on a $250,000 system and it still didn't do it justice.
It's incredibly well produced.
It is a techno uh style recording,
but it was created before the age of digital recordings.
(51:50):
And so the short version of this is everything is done on analogy.
So the sound quality for audio purists,
uh they can start to imagine if it's all analog,
you will get a depth and a richness that a computer generated sound cannot mimic.
I don't care how good your gear is and they're getting really good and we're probably right on that edge of computer generated being as good as analog,
(52:17):
but we're not there yet.
So when you go back and you listen to this song,
uh you will hear things that are incredible.
There's,
uh,
it's an extremely long song.
You've got about seven minutes and it was featured this kind of the back half of it was featured in an Adam Sandler movie called Grandma's Boy.
(52:41):
I don't know if everybody has ever seen that.
Uh I seen that in a long time.
Long time.
That's correct.
Anyway,
there's,
uh,
uh go back and watch the movie,
go back and,
and listen to the track and,
uh,
it's,
it's a lot of fun.
It is a lot of fun,
but you gotta listen to it loud.
Um It's,
uh it's one of those,
(53:03):
uh the other one I have is uh Holst.
Uh Gustav Holst is a composer and he wrote a series of symphonies um at the time,
and this is going back a couple of 100 years,
there were only seven known planets in the solar system.
And so he wrote seven symphonies for each planet as we know.
(53:26):
Now,
obviously,
there's,
there's more and had he lived later,
I'm sure he would have written uh eight and nine.
And if Pluto is playing it again,
I don't know about that debate whether or not it is or it isn't anymore.
I feel it.
I mean,
it is in my heart,
we'll just put it that way.
There you go.
So,
uh anyway,
uh he wrote um the uh the Symphonies and Leonard Bernstein does uh a recording of them where he's the conductor and he just brings out such an incredible uh sense of dynamic range and the orchestra just does a phenomenal job.
(54:02):
And so I would just encourage you if you want to take on a Sunday afternoon,
an hour or an hour and a half,
you know,
whatever,
however many you want to go through incredible music,
incredible recording and it will push your system uh to its absolute limits.
Yep.
And you've probably already heard other music that's been influenced by it.
(54:23):
Um I'm talking to you,
Star Trek.
Uh But I mean,
before I joined,
I mean,
this is going back,
gosh,
18 years,
20 years now,
something like that.
When I joined marching band,
it was the year after our marching band.
Did I just remember the da,
(54:44):
da da,
du,
du,
du,
du,
du,
du,
du du du,
you know,
so,
and that's just stuck in my head.
So,
when you watch Star Trek,
that's what you're gonna hear.
And Michael Gino,
that was a heavy influence on that track.
Yeah,
for good reason.
And we'll,
uh we'll,
we'll do some more of these.
I'm sure if you have favorite demo tracks and it could be movies,
(55:05):
it could be music.
We'd love to hear from you.
And if you've got one,
we're gonna listen to it,
we'll put it through its spaces.
If it's good,
we will uh give you an honorable mention.
So.
All right.
Well,
this has been the Sound of Design with Mark and Dan.
Thanks again for,
uh hanging out with us,
uh like,
comment and subscribe.
Uh If you have questions,
you'd like us to design the system or if there's anything that we can do to help reach out to us at the Sound of Design dot com.
(55:31):
And uh again,
special thanks to our listeners uh overseas.
Really glad you guys are hanging out with us and we'll see you on the next episode.
See you
The Sound of Design with Mark and Dan,
the podcast that takes you on an exhilarating journey through the captivating realm of custom technology.
Don't miss out on this thrilling auditory expedition into the mesmerizing world of custom technology.
Well,
welcome to The Sound of Design with Mark and Dan and uh we are very excited and happy to have you with us.
(00:42):
Uh Just a quick shout out.
Thank you to uh everyone uh for bearing with that song last week.
That was impromptu.
Uh But if I'm gonna do any more,
I need actual feedback,
you need to send me an email at the Sound of Design dot com and I need to make sure that that email is uh is coming through.
(01:04):
So you tell me the topics that you want me to sing about otherwise I'm not doing anymore.
I thought it was a great idea.
I mean,
I was telling Dan,
like we need to have it like the,
what is it?
The Sam's Town album from the Killers,
you know,
just have that,
that little greeting song at the beginning of our podcast.
That's great.
Absolutely.
(01:24):
Absolutely.
Well,
uh today is all about a V racks and rack infrastructure.
A V racks.
Got it.
Ok.
A va V racks,
audio video racks.
So,
(01:44):
uh we kind of have talked a lot about a bunch of different systems throughout the home and we've covered things like lighting and we've gone real deep into some control systems and some audio systems.
But when you really start thinking about where all that stuff has to go,
(02:05):
let's say that you have a larger project in mind,
uh a remodel or you're building.
And especially if you're building,
quite honestly,
if you are starting from scratch and you've had a system before,
maybe you've had a nice bonus room in the past or something like that,
you go,
I'm building,
I want to do it right.
Then a rack infrastructure becomes kind of the most centralized and most efficient way to put everything together.
(02:34):
And so,
um without further ado mark Damn.
Uh when you think about uh Iraq going into a space,
could you talk to me first about the space that it needs to go in?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So um I'll probably start off with a lot of homes,
(03:01):
arch uh especially like the builders and architects for homes,
don't really think about this aspect of a home.
So if you're building a new home and you're gonna,
I mean,
obviously,
if you're listening to our podcast,
we've told you how important it is to run all the low voltage that you can,
especially that thing called Ethernet throughout your house.
(03:23):
Um But a lot of architects and builders don't think like,
hey,
where can I put this?
You know,
they're thinking about,
hey,
where,
you know,
well,
how does this room fit into the design of the house?
So I've been recommending especially after the past few years.
A lot of architects not including those spaces.
(03:43):
I've been recommending like,
hey,
we need to talk about a ventilated closet or something along those lines to house the equipment.
Um I've had some pretty uh rough uh rough spaces to work in over the past couple of years and our installers do an incredible job at fitting them into these spaces,
(04:04):
but it really isn't ideal in most cases.
So a perfect space would be a closet that's wide enough to fit however many racks that you need as well as it's ventilated.
So you can actively cool the space because it's gonna get really hot,
especially if you're doing amplification and distributed audio around the house.
(04:25):
It's really important that you have that space.
Um I jokingly said recently to my installs,
I'm like,
I wanna have the next project.
Someone build a separate shed outside of their house,
like in Jurassic Park where you got to like walk outside to the house and all the wires are run from there into the house.
I don't know.
(04:45):
That's ridiculous.
And it was more just to talk about Jurassic Park because,
you know,
grew up.
But still,
like,
if I could do that or have a basement that just has a dedicated space for this,
that would be the dream.
Um,
but,
and,
uh,
because I've seen way too many where you're cramming it in a closet that has jackets and other things hanging off of it.
(05:07):
Yeah.
And I think it's important to maybe take some specific considerations of rack infrastructure into the plan that you're gonna have.
So some,
maybe good guidelines or good things to kind of think about.
You gotta have 24 inches by 24 inches,
(05:31):
if you're gonna have an A V rack installed,
ok.
And that's gonna be your,
you know,
depth in your width and of course,
your height is going to be determined by how much equipment you're going to put into uh that shelving system.
And so what happens is you start thinking through the number of devices that you could potentially have and we might get deeper into this.
(05:55):
But as far as the room is concerned,
if you're gonna have one A V rack,
then we need to have 24 inches after uh the floorboard is in that space.
So you don't want to design a 24 inch by 24 inch room and think it's gonna work because as soon as you add that drywall and as soon as you add those baseboards and you've got that little,
(06:19):
you know,
piece down at the bottom like you're eating into your floor space and now it's no longer a 24 inch room.
It's a 22 by 22 inch room.
Right?
And now you can't move the rack out and you can't do the things that you would otherwise like to do because we just didn't plan appropriately.
(06:39):
Also,
please consider that you will have network wire,
that Ethernet that Mark was talking about earlier.
You'll have speaker wire,
you will probably have a shade wire that's going to go into this space as well.
And so let's just take a perfect example.
(07:00):
I did a walk a couple of days ago,
uh for someone who's building a house and they're gonna have 19 prewired shades.
Well,
that means that we have two neutron panels that have to go into this room that all these shades are gonna have to go back into.
And so that's going into the wall.
(07:21):
So it can't be a concrete or exterior wall that isn't studded and framed.
You need to have a studded and framed wall that this is going to go to.
Um,
so you start doing some fast math and you realize I might have a side by side and if they're 24 inches,
that means I need 48 inches wide,
plus I need to be able to slide them in and out.
(07:42):
And so before you realize it,
you're going,
oh,
maybe a six by six room that all this stuff can go into kind of makes sense.
And a lot of folks will consider,
you know,
a mechanical room and that does make a lot of sense for your HV AC.
And you'll have a furnace and a water heater and all that kind of stuff.
(08:02):
But I might not suggest you make these the same spaces because if there's ever a problem with that water heater and it leaks,
you do not want it blowing up your A V system.
This has happened before.
Uh we uh do not want to be having a conversation.
(08:23):
Uh about how the bottom half of your uh equipment was submerged.
Now,
I understand it's an act of God,
it's a flood.
All right.
But we could have planned more appropriately and uh maybe gave ourselves the space to work in where it needs to work.
So,
and,
and then the cool thing about a lot of these,
(08:44):
I mean,
we can,
you can make them look awesome like they don't,
a lot of people think,
oh,
an equipment rack,
it's just gonna be,
you know,
they think like a road case that you would see at a concert,
you know.
Oh,
it's this metal box that might have wheels underneath it,
but it's all beat up and stickers all over it and this,
that and the other like,
depending on your space and what we're designing it for,
(09:05):
we can make it look really clean and really sleek and we can put pretty lights on it.
And other things to make it really kind of stand out in a space on its own.
Um So honestly,
it's one of my favorite parts of the job because you get to kind of,
you know,
it's kind of like to me like building a LEGO set only with equipment rack,
(09:26):
shelves,
right?
You like,
oh,
this can go here,
this can go there.
You know,
obviously you got to take into account weight and heat dispersion and all that stuff.
But it's,
it's a lot of fun.
Yep.
And I'm reminded you,
I'm glad you brought it up with the lights and actually making it a display.
Uh We did a project uh four or five years ago for a pool house edition really,
(09:48):
really fun project.
And the client had been doing a V systems for a while.
So he's kind of knew what he wanted before we ever really started talking.
And he said,
I've got this vision and I said,
ok,
what's,
what's,
what's the vision?
He goes,
you see this whole wall?
It's gonna be this beautiful black tile.
(10:10):
I go ok.
Interesting.
And he goes,
I want to have one of those very sleek,
modern fireplaces and then I want the TV above that and I want it to be kind of flush with the wall.
I want my speakers on that wall as well.
And then to the left,
that's where I want to have the rack space.
And I said,
(10:30):
ok,
he goes and I want it to glow and I'm sitting there going like,
all right,
this is actually sounded pretty cool.
So we build out a spot.
Uh,
the design was to do a 2 ft false wall essentially so that we could fit everything that we needed to.
And so all their infrastructure,
(10:50):
everything that they needed,
uh,
ran behind in this,
you know,
space essentially.
And we built the space for the rack and had it framed and we had 24 inches by 24 inches.
And we did one of those slide out racks.
So you unscrew a panel at the bottom and there's a little button and it actually a whole system's worth of gear.
(11:13):
So this is including the power supply,
the A V receiver,
the brain.
Uh We put a Phillips hue bridge in there and Phillips hue led light strip inside of the A V rack itself.
Um We had some transparent um what's called uh one gang face plates that allowed the light to come through and there was a couple of other things.
(11:38):
Cable box was in there,
Apple TV was in there.
Uh HDM I extender going over to the television was in there.
And as you start building up and you start looking at all that equipment,
you're going,
oh man,
like to have that backlit.
And when it was done that contrast between the bright light of the led s in the rack space and that dark back wall.
(12:01):
I mean,
it was just amazing.
It just pops every time you walk in.
You go.
Oh,
man,
what's going on over there?
That thing's sweet.
Uh,
tell me about that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I don't know if you remember when we were training but they,
you know,
we,
we kind of,
we do a lot of these racks but,
(12:23):
you know,
we kind of pair them with low voltage panels when we're doing a full Prew project.
And,
you know,
one of our,
it wasn't our location but our,
one of our sister locations,
they,
they did a distributed audio video panels,
a Dave panel um for short.
And uh they put these blue led lights on the inside of the panel and the client like jokingly,
(12:45):
but seriously at the same time,
like they went into the house one day and he brought a camping chair in,
set the camping chair down in front of the,
the Dave panel with the blue lights.
And then he was like,
man,
you guys,
I don't care what you do the rest of my house.
This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Cracked open a beer and just sat there and looked at blue lights,
you know,
like,
so it's,
it's uh when you make it special,
(13:06):
you make it look,
you know,
kind of stand out in itself.
It can really add to the decor of the space.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Well,
and so now,
uh we'll kind of get back on track a little bit.
You've got kind of a good idea.
All right,
I've got a,
you know,
two options.
(13:26):
I'm either gonna see the gear.
Right.
And we're gonna make it look cool and make it part of the space or I'm gonna not.
Right.
And both are correct.
It's not,
that one is better or worse.
Um,
I think if you are,
uh,
somebody who's into this stuff,
it's a passion and a hobby,
you like the look of your gear?
Fantastic.
Let's rock and roll with that.
(13:47):
And if you are a home designer and you want the cleanest lines possible and you don't want to see anything like,
absolutely.
Let's go hide that away.
Just build a space to make sure that we have enough room to do the things that we need to.
Um,
and I think this principle kind of goes beyond just a v,
(14:07):
uh,
I've seen it happen with duct work.
I've seen it happen with some of the other,
uh,
trades where people don't plan accordingly and architects are trying to give this beautiful,
clean,
especially in modern homes,
beautiful,
clean,
sleek design and they just don't take the practical stuff into consideration.
And so you end up with all these really weird goofy workarounds and you're going,
(14:30):
huh?
I wonder why they did it that way?
Oh,
well,
maybe they didn't plan it appropriately.
It's like,
just give yourself that mechanical space to do the things you need to do.
Exactly.
Exactly.
It's,
uh,
it's,
and,
and we're bringing this up because,
like I,
I kind of mentioned earlier,
like you as a homeowner when you're building a home,
(14:52):
like,
you need to be bringing this up to them because they're,
they're gonna skip over it.
Not on purpose,
not on purpose because,
you know,
they're,
they're trying to give you your vision in the home.
But,
you know,
if you're doing any type of smart home stuff,
this is important to bring up like,
hey,
I need,
you know that that attic space,
can we cut in an extra six by six space or whatever it is or,
(15:16):
you know,
can we do if we're doing a cellar or a basement?
Can we have this extra mechanical room separate from the other one?
Well,
just bring it up with them and,
and don't budge on,
on the design?
Yeah.
Uh I,
I think so.
Well,
now we've got kind of the uh the main room or placement kind of figured out,
(15:38):
where would we go next in terms of uh the rack design?
And that is what type of rack should we be designing for?
And what are some of the different options that we might have?
Yeah,
I mean,
you kind of mentioned the,
the,
the 24 by 24 option is something that we probably do a majority of the time for folks that aren't looking for a fully custom built solution.
(16:05):
Uh And that's 24 width,
24 depth and then the height varies based on the components that we're gonna be putting in there.
Um But those typically are on casters or wheels and allow you to move it around the space accordingly.
The nice thing about a lot of those too is that they have all different types of openings on the back and on the bottom to allow for different type of types of wire paths and also on the top.
(16:30):
So if it's a,
if it's a semi dedicated space that you know what I mean by that is maybe it is being used as also some storage and you wanna be able to move it to get something in or out of that space.
This is gonna be your best solution,
you know,
the next step.
And it's what we used to have on display and,
and a lot of our uh you know,
in our location and our sister location is uh more of a fixed solution that's built into a wall or some other sort of cabinet that allows us to get around to the backside of it or is on train rails down at the bottom that allows you to kind of slide the entire rack out,
(17:09):
not like the rack that Dan was mentioning earlier with the,
the pull out with the arms.
This one actually just slides straight out.
But again,
it's typically because you can get to the other side of it,
but the,
the sliding is just so you can get it,
get,
get it in and out the first time.
And then you mentioned,
uh,
you know,
the pull out racks,
um,
which are a lot of fun to do,
do them in a lot of existing cabinetry.
(17:29):
One of my personal favorites is,
is the hidden ones that,
that are in pieces of furniture.
So,
and those can be any of the ones that we just mentioned.
They might,
the furniture might have a cut out for something to sit on wheels that just rolls into it.
You might have a pull out or it might just be a fixed piece that goes into the furniture,
something like salamander.
Uh They offer rack rails for almost all of their furniture and it's honestly probably one of my favorite things to do.
(17:55):
Yep.
And,
uh,
I know we've mentioned those before,
but there's two other variations that I just wanted to call out.
One is an 18 inch deep,
uh network only rack.
So a lot of times you may find that you don't necessarily want to do an entire system,
but you do have a larger home and you just want to have good Wi Fi.
(18:18):
And so one of the things that,
uh,
we can do is a on wall 18 inches deep rack that is designed for gear that really is not gonna be used a whole lot.
It just sort of sits and works.
I'm talking about like network switches,
routers,
(18:38):
um,
things like that.
Uh,
even a couple of power supplies,
uh,
monitoring for your system.
Uh,
that kind of an idea.
You don't really go down and push buttons.
You don't really,
I mean,
that's not really,
it's,
it's,
it's purpose but it does need to live somewhere.
It needs to go somewhere.
So these on wall racks give you the ability,
especially in a retro situation where you can put them up high,
(19:01):
you can put them above,
for example,
uh,
in a,
uh,
laundry room or in some other type of a back office space if you didn't have a dedicated option,
and this gives us the ability to do,
um,
some smaller pieces of gear and keep all that stuff up and away and out of people's reach.
Um,
and it's a very,
very,
(19:21):
very nice solution when you really don't have any other options to be quite honest.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Ah,
so that was probably one of the first racks that I did when I got into the industry.
I,
I always forget about it because,
you know,
it's,
it,
but it was the core centralized part of this,
this client's home.
It was a complete retro job.
But,
(19:41):
uh,
it was pretty sweet.
Yeah.
What,
uh,
so what in that particular situation,
uh,
did you have to have the,
uh,
18 inches deep?
Was it a space restriction?
Obviously,
it was,
it was space restriction?
It was actually,
um,
it was a little closet underneath a stairwell and it was one of the stairwells that kind of came halfway down and there was a landing and then the other direction back at you and the,
(20:09):
the,
the door to that was just to the left as you got to the bottom of the stairs.
So the,
the ceiling was kind of pitching down at a,
a pretty uh sharp angle already.
And we're limited on space below voltage panel was basically from my,
maybe my shoulders to the floor almost.
And we had basically from my shoulders to where the however high we could get it.
(20:33):
And then we had just enough to fit in that,
it was an eight,
the eight U uh eight rack unit,
uh 18 inch deep piece.
And we had power management router switch modem,
all that inside of that space and it turned out really clean,
you know,
and,
and that way it was,
it was bounded a little bit up on the wall so the client could get around it easily and they still had floor space to store whatever they wanted to store in there.
(20:59):
So it was kind of awesome.
And I'm,
I'm,
I'm glad that you kind of went into the details because I see this all the time.
Uh Whenever you see a new home being built,
they'll put a low voltage panel in a coat closet and they don't think about uh going back to the beginning of the,
what we were saying earlier,
(21:20):
they don't think about all the gear that has to be there and I'm sure everyone has been in a home and it's like Christmas time or you're over for,
uh,
for a bonfire or something like that.
And they're taking your coats and they put it in the coat closet and,
you know,
they kind of have all these junkie wires just kind of coming out everywhere and,
like,
the panel is halfway off and there's a router that's sort of on a shelf,
(21:44):
but not really.
And sometimes it's sideways and,
you know,
I get it,
you close the door,
you,
you know,
set it and forget it.
You don't really think about that.
Um,
but when you get that cleaned up and you get a proper network switch installed and you start thinking about some of the ways that you can clean up that space and on wall rack becomes so much better.
(22:07):
It's almost that thing of beauty or you're looking at it going like,
oh,
well,
why didn't they just do this in the first place?
It's,
well,
the builder didn't know because they don't listen to our podcast.
Right.
Mhm.
Shameless.
I know.
I'm sorry.
Yep.
Yep.
No,
it's all good.
It's all good.
And I know we've talked about that,
(22:28):
the open frame on wall.
But I,
I've actually,
uh,
done one or two of the,
uh,
the traditional.
Basically the completely sealed side and front glass door on wall racks,
which are a little bit deeper.
You really have to have more of a dedicated space for them.
But it's really cool because the,
the rack itself mounts to the wall and then there's some extra depth there for the,
(22:50):
the mount and then the whole rest of the rack kind of folds out like you're opening up a treasure chest,
you know.
But instead of gold,
it's a bunch of a v goodies.
Well done,
sir.
Yeah.
So,
but they're,
they're pretty sweet.
Um,
again sealed,
typically you can actively or uh actively cool them with a fan or something along those lines.
(23:13):
So well.
And I think this is a good time to call out.
There are some cool things that you can do when you have to.
We did a job for a guy a few years ago that had one space above a secondary refrigerator and we only had maybe three or 4 ft to work with.
(23:36):
Um,
but he had this,
you know,
dedicated space,
so to speak and the other side was being completely remodeled.
And so that's exactly what we did.
We ran all the wiring above the refrigerator and we did that on wall uh rack and we're able to put in there,
uh the power supply network switch,
(23:58):
the A V receiver,
a Roku uh a couple of other devices as well.
And uh it just worked out really,
really nice now.
You did have to get on a chair anytime you want to work on this thing or a step stool or something along those lines.
So,
it wasn't the most convenient.
Um,
and it is kind of a pain in the butt if you ever have to change out anything.
(24:18):
Uh,
it was definitely some work to be done.
But when you have to,
and push comes to shove,
those are the options.
So,
uh,
we've sort of hit it a couple of times,
but let's be a little bit more deliberate.
Uh How would you start thinking about the equipment that you would put in the rack?
How would you think through rack design uh on a component by component basis?
(24:44):
And uh what is the more traditional layouts that you will see?
Uh for most applications?
Not all,
obviously,
there's gonna be exceptions,
but for most applications,
uh how do you start thinking through the components?
Yeah.
So obviously this is gonna be your network head end.
So the first thing that you've got to kind of think about is how many network jacks or drops do I have around the house?
(25:09):
And how many am I gonna make hot?
And then how many devices are gonna be in this rack that I need connections for?
And uh you know,
I used to,
when I was in my early days,
you would just sell 16 port switch and then you just throw an eight port switch here and there and things were hunky dory,
but they really did,
(25:30):
they really weren't,
it actually ended up causing some issues.
So past several years,
you know,
design it based on how many connections you are going to have that you already have plus what you're going to have and then add 10 or 15.
Because as things progress,
you're gonna have more and more connected devices.
The second part of that is look at an A V network switch and you're probably thinking,
(25:54):
what do you mean?
Well,
if you go to a,
a traditional anywhere,
you can buy a network switch,
all of those,
the ports are gonna be forward facing.
So when you think about how I'm putting this piece of equipment in the rack,
you're gonna see if I put a forward facing network switch on there,
all my Ethernet cables are gonna come right out at me.
(26:16):
So then I've got a,
you know,
fold them up and under and push them back through a rack shelf,
which um we haven't brought up Middle Atlantic,
but they make a rack shelf for pretty much anything and everything out there.
Uh They make a really cool brush plate which I've had to use in the past for very specific applications.
But to me,
(26:36):
it just kind of takes away from the overall aesthetic.
So an A V specific uh network switch is typically gonna have that really cool,
sleek front face and all of your connections are gonna be on the rear,
which is where pretty much all of your other A V equipment is gonna be all the connections are gonna be back there.
So,
(26:56):
from a wire management standpoint and a front facing aesthetic standpoint,
it's just gonna be a much cleaner.
Look.
Yep.
Absolutely.
And I'm really glad you called it out because I'm going to jump on a bandwagon that is going to get me in so much trouble,
but I can't help it.
I cannot stand front facing patch panels.
(27:20):
Me either.
I'm glad you brought it up and I know so many A V guys are turning like they're hitting the brakes and they're going,
man.
I do one of the Yeah,
I get it,
bro.
I get it,
bro.
Why is it in the front?
If the rack is on casters,
we're not doing data centers.
(27:40):
This is somebody's home and you're sitting there wiring in a patch panel now,
30 years ago,
fine,
20 years ago.
Great.
Listen,
we are in 2023 and more and more devices are now living on that network.
Can you just design your system to put in a switch and then plug everything in?
(28:01):
So it's always hot all the time.
Nobody wants to go downstairs anymore and plug port one into port 72 in order to make something hot.
It makes no sense.
Now,
I come from a recording studio background so I understand that there is a benefit to having the ability to connect this device to this device and that device to that device.
(28:27):
And there is a creative process to using a patch panel.
I get that 1000%.
And I do not think that it's a problem in the professional world.
It is.
However,
on a homeowners basis and on a high end residential or regular residential,
(28:49):
just put in a switch,
please just put in a switch and let's stop with all this forward wiring that makes it look gross.
So,
you eat a lot in commercial for sure too.
It's,
uh,
I,
I get it,
it's inexpensive.
It is cheaper than doing a network switch.
But I think it's a,
(29:09):
it's,
it's not fun to wire manage and b it doesn't look good,
you know.
So if you're gonna put some money into it,
spend a few 100 bucks and make it look good,
you know.
Well,
I think there's,
uh,
a lot of folks where if that's what you want by all means,
you know,
this is,
we're not the only way to do anything.
And that's one of the beautiful things about the A V industry is there's 9 million ways,
(29:31):
uh,
to do the same thing.
So,
you know,
rock it if you have to,
man.
But in my house there will never be a patch panel.
So now that we've,
we've heated on all the,
the fatal people.
Yep.
Up in smoke.
We go.
Yep.
So,
yeah,
go ahead.
I didn't mean to cut you off.
Go ahead.
(29:51):
No,
no,
you're fine.
I was gonna say so after you get the network sorted out,
you put your A V uh network switch in.
Uh,
what's the next thing you're thinking about?
I mean,
obviously I,
I say network switch but router,
if you've got a manager of some sort for your network,
things like that,
the next thing that you got,
that you gotta think of is obviously you're gonna,
you're gonna be putting in some A V gear and that's all gonna be dependent on what all you're doing around your house.
(30:16):
So I don't want to necessarily get super specific on actual gear cause obviously,
that's gonna be dependent on you as long as it's all rear facing.
I don't care the next biggest thing and it's,
it's just as big as Ethernet is power,
power distribution.
I've seen way too many racks where you go to,
we go to do a takeover project where,
(30:37):
you know,
somebody else has done the work and you turn the rack around and there's 18 extension cords with wall warts plugged into all of them and they're all plugged into one other research trip that's plugged into.
It's like Park Griswold from,
you know,
Christmas vacation,
you know,
like you've got all this stuff plugged in and it's just not a they didn't,
(30:58):
you didn't account for the amount of power that you're gonna have.
So having the correct amount of outlets for everything to plug into.
So it can be cleanly and neatly wire managed is super important.
Also,
the amount of dedicated outlets to that space is important.
Uh,
you definitely don't wanna just plug in two power strips to this when you've got,
(31:20):
you know,
40 amps of,
uh,
of equipment,
you know,
you might wanna talk to the electrician at your job and say,
hey,
you know,
we want to make sure we have three or four dedicated 20 amp circuits to the space depending on your equipment.
So that's something definitely to,
to look out for.
I'm really glad you call,
you,
call that the power because again,
at the same uh uh walk that we did a couple of days ago,
(31:43):
we had that conversation with the electrician.
We said you're gonna have 19 shades,
you're gonna have uh some distributed lighting.
We're gonna do distributed audio.
There's gonna be some A V receivers for a couple of surround sound rooms.
Um We're gonna have the network here and for that shade power panel,
you're gonna wanna have a dedicated line for the second shade power panel.
(32:07):
You're gonna wanna have a dedicated line for that audio distribution.
You're gonna want a 20 AMP line and they all need to be different.
And this is pretty easy to do if your power panel is in the same location.
But please keep in mind that that power panel cannot have anything blocking it.
(32:27):
So you will again,
going back to the beginning need space for your A V stuff and your power.
And that means that you've added another 2 ft to the size of that closet uh as at a bare minimum.
So,
yep,
yep.
One of the other things that we typically look into with that power,
especially nowadays is uh IP controlled devices,
(32:51):
you know,
allowing you or your integrator to be able to power cycle a component without having to roll the rack out.
And I try to unplug something that's wire managed in clean and neat.
Being able to simply just hit a button on your nap and power cycle your Apple TV or whatever it is just makes your life a lot easier.
And I'm glad you mentioned that one too because IP controlled,
(33:14):
uh,
power supplies,
uh,
used to be something that was kind of very rarely used.
Um,
and I think that we've gone now the exact opposite direction,
probably the last 23 years.
I can't imagine a job now,
not having IP controlled,
uh,
power supplies.
Unless somebody really has this need to walk down a flight of stairs and go across and then go back into the mechanical room and sit there and,
(33:41):
uh,
do all the work.
It's really kind of the most,
uh,
inconvenient way to reset things.
And if you heard,
you know,
how do you fix something that goes wonky?
Well,
you unplug it and you plug it back in So the,
uh,
the IP control power supply is your reset,
right?
So that is the one spot that you go to and the fancier you get,
(34:04):
it's not just one,
let's say 88 outlets that get reset altogether,
they'll be separated out into banks.
So you can have,
with a smart design,
you can have a network bank set up,
you can have a audio bank set up,
you can have a control bank set up and so on and so forth down the line.
(34:29):
You start thinking about going,
I'm having issues with my Wi Fi.
Well,
do I need to reset everything?
No,
I just need to reset my access points,
for example.
All right,
great.
Well,
let's do that.
Uh,
my Wi Fi seems to be working fine,
but maybe my internet access to the outside world isn't working.
Well,
maybe we should have a dedicated,
uh outlet for the modem,
(34:51):
right?
Something that we can set up.
And if you ever run into your integrator and you talk to their programmers,
specifically,
some of them can even set it up where it'll automatically power cycle the modem as soon as it loses internet connection.
So this is something that is preventing you from experiencing,
(35:13):
uh,
a service outage because you just bought the right piece of gear to do the right thing.
Exactly.
Exactly.
The modem reset when it disconnects is probably one of my favorite things because it's,
it just sits there and does that until it gets an internet connection again.
And how many times have ha have you done that?
(35:34):
Like,
I've,
I probably reset my modem once a month.
You know,
the fact that you can just simply have something,
turn it on and off and on and off until it fixes itself is,
it means you don't have to worry about it.
All right.
Well,
we've talked a little bit about,
uh,
networking and power.
Then the next most common,
either distributed audio or surround sound rooms that would have an A V receiver.
(35:56):
So in your layout,
what would you use or where should you place?
I should say that a V receiver in the rack,
uh typically towards the,
I mean,
depending on what all is there typically towards the middle or bottom.
I mean,
at the bottom,
if it's the o the only one,
right?
Typically one of your more heavier pieces of equipment that's gonna allow it to,
(36:19):
uh,
you know,
keep your rack a little bit more sturdy and stable,
not the very bottom,
I guess,
but,
you know,
somewhere towards the mid bottom to middle.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I would agree with you.
Well,
uh what's some of the things that uh we have to watch out for uh when it comes to rack shelves?
Yeah,
I know I mentioned Middle Atlantic earlier,
but you've got a couple of different rack shelf solutions,
(36:43):
you know,
your standard,
just metal shelf.
Um,
they have a vended option.
Um,
but when you get in,
I know I mentioned earlier how sleek you can make it.
Custom rack shelves are,
are the way to go.
If you're wanting this to be a,
I was gonna say customer facing,
but a friend fing solution for your,
(37:03):
for your friends,
if you wanna be able to take your buddies down and say,
hey,
look at all this equipment having custom rack shelves for these,
uh made for the equipment,
just really makes the rack stand out.
And if you're not familiar with what that is,
it's actually a rack shelf in whatever size that you need it.
So if it's an A receiver,
it's usually four or five rack units tall.
(37:24):
And then the face that actually is a metal face plate that goes across the front of it with a laser cut,
uh cut out of the piece of equipment that you're putting in there.
So when you put the piece of equipment in and slide it into the rack,
it's just this really sleek,
look across the entire front and you just see the piece of equipment,
you don't see any space or holes down the side.
(37:47):
You know,
you don't see wiring back there.
You just see this really beautiful piece of equipment and it's essentially like it's on display,
right?
Kind of like you would mount a picture on a wall.
This is just kind of mounting it to where it frames it out for that piece of gear and in our best racks that we do,
typically every piece of,
of gear is framed out into one of those rack shelves.
(38:09):
Um,
and it can look not just super cool from a,
you know,
nerdy tech standpoint,
but borderline luxurious,
depending on how it's done.
Yeah,
absolutely.
It's the kind of best expression of uh,
technical equipment,
meets furniture,
meets art.
(38:30):
I really don't know,
I don't know how to,
to,
to solidify that concept.
Uh,
if you just go back to having a cable box,
for example,
sit below a television.
Ok,
maybe you have a small TV stand and so you see all those ugly wires,
it's like,
all right.
Well,
let's get rid of the wiring.
Well,
(38:50):
then you start thinking.
All right.
Well,
what about a piece of gear that is really amazing to look at.
I'm reminded of Macintosh.
Uh,
they have a lb,
uh,
200 I wanna say lightbox and the whole purpose of this thing is to match other pieces of Macintosh equipment.
(39:12):
So everything has a clean uniform look and there's no gear in it.
By the way,
it's literally a box,
just a box and it says Macintosh on the front.
I won't tell you the price because it's a little obnoxious.
It's good.
It's a good price point.
It's a lot less than the gear.
We'll just say it that way.
(39:32):
It's significantly less than the gear.
Um,
but the whole point of it is that way you can hide away some of the other equipment that doesn't match your other Macintosh gear.
And so you do want to look at this from that aesthetic perspective and it has,
uh,
the same color light.
It has that same,
(39:53):
uh,
back light to it.
So everything just is uniform.
Everything is clean and everything matches.
Yep.
They make a clock too.
That does the same thing.
Which is pretty sweet.
Oh,
man,
if I could,
uh,
if I could get one of their clocks.
Mm.
One of the first clients that I met after we kind of uh started working with Macintosh,
(40:14):
you know,
back in 2015,
um,
invited me over and he had already bought all the gear from another dealer probably a year ago,
but they didn't really do him right.
So we were going out there to see how we could help him out and he had salam and understand all open frame and every shelf had a Macintosh something on it.
(40:35):
It was the lightbox and the,
the clock and then obviously his amplification and then the book,
like he had a little shelf that pulled out that had the book on it.
So,
I mean,
it's,
it was,
it was a,
I mean,
it was luxurious and I mean,
it cost more than uh uh a fancy car to be on,
like way more than a fancy car with what he had.
(40:59):
But to that point when you want to put the jewelry box on display.
I'm reminded of,
uh,
if you've ever seen the show,
bitch and rides,
he's got this moment where you open up the hood and you look at the engine and you go.
Oh man,
that's awesome.
Yeah,
it's that aha moment.
That's,
(41:20):
that's what this was.
All right.
Well,
uh,
we've talked a lot about different kinds,
different styles.
I just wanna maybe call it two small things.
A rack unit is 1.75 inches tall.
So,
uh if you're doing some,
some math and you start noticing when you're,
you're looking at these things.
Uh and this is more for the uh the super technical folks if you're trying to do it yourself.
(41:43):
I do highly,
highly,
highly recommend get a professional involved.
Um But just so that you have for planning purposes,
you understand what you're looking at.
Uh that is the delineation,
uh typically cable boxes and uh network switches,
routers,
those will all be one U they don't list out 1.75 inches.
Uh So that's something that you just are expected to kind of know.
(42:06):
Um And then uh there are different types of screws uh because there are different types of racks or rack rails,
I should say that will be used.
And so if you find yourself in a situation where you see from a data center,
a data center rack,
that is not the same thing as an A V rack.
(42:27):
I have one in my house right now and it is about 3 ft deep.
And so there's an extra few inches on the back of this thing.
And the screws are a different size than the A V stuff.
So,
just be aware that there are a lot of different variations of rails.
Um And the most inexpensive versions uh just have squares,
(42:50):
they don't even have screws that you screw things into.
And I went to a customer's house and we looked up in this shelving unit and he had made these poor guys use uh,
bolts and nuts to screw in each individual device.
And if you've ever done that,
you know,
it is the most difficult pain in the butt thing to do because you're trying to hold a piece of gear that you don't want to break and you're trying to screw these two things in from either side and it's just in a tight space.
(43:23):
Very,
very,
very,
very,
very difficult.
So you may save a couple dollars.
You may think that you're,
you know,
getting something,
uh,
less expensive.
But uh as we will learn with all things,
you get what you pay for very much.
So,
yeah,
you don't want to do that.
I don't know how else to say it.
You just don't want to do that.
No,
(43:43):
no,
no,
no.
And,
and you brought up screws,
but I mean,
we kind of kind of went over or miss lacing bars and other things that go on the back of the rack.
I mean,
what,
here's what I would suggest if you're working with an integrator,
get them to show photos of racks that they have built because any of them that,
that are good are gonna willingly show you first and b have 30 lacing bars on the back of the rack.
(44:12):
Specifically for Wire management.
You know,
they're not gonna have this bundle of wires all snaked together with zip ties just coming out.
They're gonna have each individual wire pulled exactly to it's piece of component or a piece of equipment.
Uh at the,
it's gonna be pulled tight.
So it's gonna look really clean and neat and it's gonna be at the right height of the piece of equipment.
(44:34):
So it connects directly and it's just gonna look sweet and things like lacing bars which are just in their basic metal bars that have a little bit of an L in them that allow you to kind of put wires inside to zip,
tie them or Velcro them.
Use Velcro,
please.
Um,
but it's,
(44:55):
it's,
it's a huge differentiator in the,
uh when a racks getting finished out.
For sure.
Yep.
I think it's also a really good call out to say if you're a Navy professional,
you're cutting that wire to length,
right?
And so you are kind of doing this process,
especially when it comes to networking wires where it's going to come along the rack rail and then it's gonna make a hard turn into the exact port location and then they terminate and then they put it in.
(45:25):
So everything looks clean and perfect and that does take time.
So if you ask for pictures of an A V rack from your integrator and they're like,
yeah,
well,
you know,
we do them.
It's like,
ok,
yeah,
you found the wrong guy.
You need to find the guy who's like,
here's 15 of them that I did and they all look amazing.
So you definitely want to make sure that you're working with folks who take pride in their work.
(45:46):
And that's one of those first places that they can do it.
All right.
Well,
we've talked,
uh now I think uh plenty about uh a V rack.
Let's do a segment,
a segment.
I don't know.
That's been fun.
(46:07):
I can use that.
I'm gonna use that.
Well,
hold on,
hold on.
Now we do it.
Segment.
Everyone's excited.
I'm not using that one.
No.
Uh All right.
So uh one of the things that uh happens all the time,
(46:28):
you get a nice system in and you start to realize that the quality of your media starts to make a big difference.
Uh You realize listening to the song on Spotify,
the free version doesn't sound very good all of a sudden and you start thinking like,
maybe there's something wrong with my gear.
It's like,
well,
hold up,
maybe it's that you just didn't pick a song and didn't consider the source material for your song.
(46:55):
And so you start to realize,
well,
maybe if I played it on the CD or if I played it on the vinyl,
I would get a better quality of sound.
But then to take that concept to even uh further,
there are some musicians that work at a very,
very,
very high level and they produce tracks that are kind of specialty tracks that are built to show off the technical side of their musical production.
(47:25):
That's probably the,
the best way to describe it.
And uh easily said they are demo songs.
Yay.
So,
uh we want to give you guys a couple of our favorites and we might do a couple this week,
we might do a couple next week.
Um But Mark,
could you give me like your top two or three demo songs and some things that,
(47:48):
uh why you like them,
who the artist is?
I can't play them for legal reasons.
Um Otherwise I would,
but you,
you could sing them.
Oh,
uh um Yeah,
I've got a plethora of demo tracks that I've accumulated over the years.
(48:09):
Um One of my favorites that I play,
uh is,
um,
you know,
it,
it's been out for a long time and it's by Jeff Buckley and it's uh hallelujah.
Um Why do I like this track?
Well,
uh Jeff Buckley was a classically trained artist.
So,
um but,
but he was kind of,
(48:30):
he kind of came out during that grunge era.
So he kind of got overshadowed until,
uh,
and he really didn't become popular until after he passed away in kind of a tragic accident.
He was just hanging out.
Uh,
um,
and,
and,
you know,
kind of got swept away in some water,
but,
uh I would say,
wasn't he by a river if I remember the story correctly?
(48:52):
Yep.
And uh and then that,
that he really didn't get to see how popular this song became until after he had passed away.
Um But you know,
the beginning of the track,
you hear him take a deep breath and then you kind of have this eerie guitar that comes in and then,
uh but,
but it's very,
very clean and it's right at the right before he gets into the main theme of the song.
(49:18):
Uh It's kind of a harsh guitar kind of,
I don't know how you would describe it because I'm talking on a podcast and you need to listen to it.
It's a little harsh,
but it just kind of shows right at the beginning the dynamics of whatever speaker that you're listening to.
Um And then as his vocals come in,
very soft spoken,
very clean and quiet.
(49:39):
Um It just,
I think a,
a very good way to show off the dynamic range and detail of any speaker.
And then uh another one released,
uh it was part of an Apple commercial a few years ago.
And this is the clean version.
So I'm gonna say,
uh,
say that.
But it's,
(49:59):
uh,
that's it.
I'm crazy by Sophie Tucker.
And we used to play these on a pair of blades,
uh,
C blades in our,
uh,
in our location before we did a remodel.
And that powered on a pair of Macintosh 1.25 kws.
Um,
the bass in that song alone with no sub would shake the walls,
(50:23):
shake all of the,
the structure of the walls itself.
Um So very good bass heavy track,
fun to listen to.
Um,
you know,
it's on all the streaming music services.
Um But,
uh,
yeah,
that's,
those are probably my two favorites and they,
they kind of hit kind of far ends of,
(50:44):
of a demo track,
you know,
one's kind of slower and soft.
The other is like kind of,
hey,
punch you in the face,
you know,
loud and,
and proud.
But,
um,
yeah,
those are the two I've got this week.
I love it,
man.
I love it.
Well,
I'm,
I'm gonna go,
uh,
in kind of a very different direction.
Um I know there's a lot of folks that,
(51:06):
um,
have not heard this song before or even of the artist.
It's Aphex Twin and the song is called Window Liquor.
Uh My favorite,
uh thing about this song is that it's almost impossible for a speaker to play accurately.
It's one of those songs that will uh put your system through its paces.
(51:29):
Uh And when I say put your system through its paces,
I've heard this on a $250,000 system and it still didn't do it justice.
It's incredibly well produced.
It is a techno uh style recording,
but it was created before the age of digital recordings.
(51:50):
And so the short version of this is everything is done on analogy.
So the sound quality for audio purists,
uh they can start to imagine if it's all analog,
you will get a depth and a richness that a computer generated sound cannot mimic.
I don't care how good your gear is and they're getting really good and we're probably right on that edge of computer generated being as good as analog,
(52:17):
but we're not there yet.
So when you go back and you listen to this song,
uh you will hear things that are incredible.
There's,
uh,
it's an extremely long song.
You've got about seven minutes and it was featured this kind of the back half of it was featured in an Adam Sandler movie called Grandma's Boy.
(52:41):
I don't know if everybody has ever seen that.
Uh I seen that in a long time.
Long time.
That's correct.
Anyway,
there's,
uh,
uh go back and watch the movie,
go back and,
and listen to the track and,
uh,
it's,
it's a lot of fun.
It is a lot of fun,
but you gotta listen to it loud.
Um It's,
uh it's one of those,
(53:03):
uh the other one I have is uh Holst.
Uh Gustav Holst is a composer and he wrote a series of symphonies um at the time,
and this is going back a couple of 100 years,
there were only seven known planets in the solar system.
And so he wrote seven symphonies for each planet as we know.
(53:26):
Now,
obviously,
there's,
there's more and had he lived later,
I'm sure he would have written uh eight and nine.
And if Pluto is playing it again,
I don't know about that debate whether or not it is or it isn't anymore.
I feel it.
I mean,
it is in my heart,
we'll just put it that way.
There you go.
So,
uh anyway,
uh he wrote um the uh the Symphonies and Leonard Bernstein does uh a recording of them where he's the conductor and he just brings out such an incredible uh sense of dynamic range and the orchestra just does a phenomenal job.
(54:02):
And so I would just encourage you if you want to take on a Sunday afternoon,
an hour or an hour and a half,
you know,
whatever,
however many you want to go through incredible music,
incredible recording and it will push your system uh to its absolute limits.
Yep.
And you've probably already heard other music that's been influenced by it.
(54:23):
Um I'm talking to you,
Star Trek.
Uh But I mean,
before I joined,
I mean,
this is going back,
gosh,
18 years,
20 years now,
something like that.
When I joined marching band,
it was the year after our marching band.
Did I just remember the da,
(54:44):
da da,
du,
du,
du,
du,
du,
du,
du du du,
you know,
so,
and that's just stuck in my head.
So,
when you watch Star Trek,
that's what you're gonna hear.
And Michael Gino,
that was a heavy influence on that track.
Yeah,
for good reason.
And we'll,
uh we'll,
we'll do some more of these.
I'm sure if you have favorite demo tracks and it could be movies,
(55:05):
it could be music.
We'd love to hear from you.
And if you've got one,
we're gonna listen to it,
we'll put it through its spaces.
If it's good,
we will uh give you an honorable mention.
So.
All right.
Well,
this has been the Sound of Design with Mark and Dan.
Thanks again for,
uh hanging out with us,
uh like,
comment and subscribe.
Uh If you have questions,
you'd like us to design the system or if there's anything that we can do to help reach out to us at the Sound of Design dot com.
(55:31):
And uh again,
special thanks to our listeners uh overseas.
Really glad you guys are hanging out with us and we'll see you on the next episode.
See you
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com