![\"\u042e\u043b\u0438\u043d2.png\"](\"https:\/\/iridiummobile.net\/upload\/medialibrary\/7a9\/7a9f643221b62a236aee3d05329bdb8a.png\" "\\"\u042e\u043b\u0438\u043d2.png\\"")
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Today our partner, Anton Julin, heading \u201cAlbus Pro\u201d installation company, speaks about his experience of using iRidium in his work and highlights the most interesting moments of integrating Crestron and AV equipment.<\/p>\n
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Anton, how long have you been in the automation sphere and why you chose it?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I began to use automation in the times I worked in the cinema industry, and I guess even earlier in the 1990\u2019s. With time automation began to dominate in the services my company provided.<\/p>\n How and when did you get acquainted with iRidium?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Initially, it was not me, but my colleague, Alexey Fabrikov, who driven by mere curiosity took a training course and used your product at a minor object. If I am not mistaken it was 1.5 version. Later on there was another project, a 150-200-square-meter apartment, where we decided to use your Product as a simple and inexpensive visualization solution, as the project did not feature Crestron equipment, that I usually worked with. The first thing that I liked was the capability to make an interface for Retina resolution. But there were a number of sad moments (at a certain time there were so many of them that I was about to give up this idea), but iRidium capability to use good graphics overweighed. And in the long run the project had to be finished. To tell the truth, it took a long time. My colleagues and the customer got bored. And though I liked the result, nobody else was excited, as they were bored with waiting. Thus, the evident conclusion was \u201cThe crucial factor in integrator work is speed! Now I use your product almost in all projects I make..<\/p>\n \u00abWhen face to face we cannot see the face. We should step back for better observation\u00bb. In short, it\u2019s too early to speak about serious success. Rather yes, than no. The tasks are in fact rather numerous, as iRidium works directly with drivers. There is nothing else to say.<\/p>\n It is noticeable that in almost every installation you use Crestron equipment. What is the reason for the choice? Your personal preferences or equipment features?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Firstly, it is connected with the reliability of Crestron equipment, secondly, convenience of work.<\/p>\n What do you use Creston equipment for?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n More often than not, Crestron equipment fulfils the function of the central controller \u2013 \u201cthe brain\u201d of automation.<\/p>\n Do you usually create a centralized control system?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Not exactly \u2026 It\u2019s a symbiosis of a centralized and a decentralized control systems. The decentralized system is the basis for controlling light, climate (heating) and part of passive security system. The centralized system allows to control more complicated climate systems (such as: ventilation and conditioning) as well as to control the work of the decentralized control system. Besides, the centralized control system is more suitable for controlling multimedia equipment.<\/p>\n What multimedia equipment do you prefer?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n A lot depends her on the budget. If a customer can allow himself a level above average, I prefer to use \u00abDigitalMedia\u00bb and \u00abSonnex\u00bb equipment by \u00abCrestron\u00bb.<\/p>\n Why do you like this equipment?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I think, because it\u2019s easy to set and convenient to work with. It is reliable and allows to make up EDID-tables. And there are no problems with HDCP when connecting equipment.<\/p>\n EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) \u2013\u00abVESA\u00bb standard of data format, that contains basic information about the monitor and its features (including information about the manufacturer, maximum image size, color characteristics, manufacturer\u2019s preset timing, frequency range).<\/p>\n HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) \u2013 technology to protect media contents, developed by \u00abIntel\u00bb, preventing illegal copying of high-quality signal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s imagine that there are 16 (!) different monitors (TV-sets) in your house. A smaller one in the kitchen, a bigger one in the guest room. When HDMI-splitter is connected, the source and the monitor exchange security protocols and supported tables. In case there are many monitors (TV-sets), this procedure takes a lot of time and it may annoy a user. And even after all turned-on monitors and the source have exchanged data, if one of the monitors is turned off (a wife turned off or on the TV in the kitchen), data exchange begins again. It means that the other monitors \u201cfreeze\u201d again. And one more thing. If one of the monitors does not support a certain resolution at a certain frequency, a sort of collapse can happen.<\/p>\n Crestron equipment allows to avoid such nuances and its DM-switch sends data to a monitor, as if it were the only source and the monitor \u2013 the only monitor in the system. In other words, if there are 16 monitors in the house and they work with only one source, thanks to the correctly organized work of DM equipment by Crestron, each monitor thinks that it works with its own source. Besides, DM switch allows to set a table of supported resolutions (EDID) to avoid formats that are not supported by all monitors in the house.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t it easier to use identical monitors?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Yes, it is, but in real life it is practically impossible. If you want to have 60“or 80“ monitors in the sitting room, you may not want to have the same monitors in all other rooms (including kitchen and bathroom).<\/p>\n Sounds convincing. What do you use as the basis to control these systems?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I prefer to use PRO3, AV3, CP3 or AP3 processors, depending on the task, and build visualization on \u00abiRidium\u00bb.<\/p>\n As I mentioned before, firstly, I like the capability to make beautiful visualization with animation. Secondly, I like that iRidium allows to talk to a definite equipment directly, without using the power of the central controller. Thus, I integrate different equipment, separately in the automation part and in the visualization part, without overloading the head equipment with extra calculations.<\/p>\n Do you make visualization on \u00abCrestron\u00bb?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Yes. But mostly in those cases when I have to do something very reliable very fast. I prefer to make more serious visualization in the graphical part on the basis of iRidium. I\u2019m looking forward to the release of the 64-bit version of iRidium Studio. It will give even more capabilities to create serious graphical projects.<\/p>\n How difficult is it in your opinion to make control projects in \u00abiRidium\u00bb?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In my opinion at present it is the easiest and the most comprehensive visualization tool, though I\u2019d like ot have certain moments improved.<\/p>\n What was the most difficult for you in mastering iRidium for Crestron?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Just some minor moments, connected with sending certain binary data, and some difficulties with sending floating point data.<\/p>\n What would you recommend to those who only start their work with iRidium? What to start with in interface design? What has to be taken into consideration?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to say anything definite. I believe every integrator comes across certain difficulties. In my opinion the most difficult part is \u201cGraphics\u201d, as the control interface is, in fact, the only link that joins the complicated home automation equipment and a user. In general, the main difficulty is location of graphical items, controlling equipment.<\/p>\n Thus, from project to project an integrator struggles to find answers to the seemingly simple questions:<\/p>\n – \u00a0how many graphical items to place on a definite page;<\/p>\n – what proportions to keep for the interface to look good and for the customer to easily touch the required buttons;<\/p>\n – \u00a0symmetry or asymmetry? In both cases a unanimous numeric style of graphical items has to be kept. It means that no matter, how many graphical items there are in a definite zone, a certain number limit of them has to be kept in each zone, otherwise the interface tends to be chaotic. There must be a kind of order it helps a customer to handle the control interface easily. .<\/p>\n The following nuances have to be taken into consideration.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Comprehensive symbols. Let\u2019s speak about lighting control as an example. A lot of integrators prefer to use a lamp image on a button that turns on a certain group of lighting, and this image looks dark when the light is turned off, and it looks lit when the light is tuned on. It\u2019s one of the most wide-spread mistakes. If you speak to different users, you\u2019ll easily learn that there are serious difficulties with using such an interface. In some cases it takes users years to remember which button is responsible for which lighting group, as all buttons look the same. To avoid it, each type of lights or a group of lights must have a different graphical image or a name, but names do not always look aesthetic. For this reason, it\u2019s better to avoid button names. Though names seem to be the most comprehensive way to define a graphical item, they are not good enough, as, firstly, customers do not read button names, secondly, the right brain is not receptive to names but to graphical images. There is one more aspect \u2013 it\u2019s difficult to place names in graphical items, as word length varies, and it\u2019s a certain limitation.<\/p>\n Another thing is the interface concept. This term includes a lot. Initially simple things have to be thought about. How will a person understand where he is and what he can control? It\u2019s very important to think how a user will \u201cread\u201d the interface. It\u2019s evident that only a few users understand how to handle an interface themselves the first time they see it. But in general the integrator\u2019s aim is an interface that users can easily understand on their own.<\/p>\n Graphics as an art. It\u2019s not the same to be a good engineer, a good programmer and a good artist. What is required here is a sense of style and knowledge of programs that are not easy to master, as they have certain peculiarities. Even if you have mastered a tool, it does not mean that you will master the technique easily. Anybody can learn to put paint on the canvas, but only a few selected ones can paint anything worthwhile (and in our case a person must have a gift for technical design). It\u2019s possible to ask a designer to make graphics, but many nuances appear here too. Firstly, you must write a very precise technical specification with regard to everything written above, secondly, you can\u2019t be 100% sure that a hired designed can make right decisions on conceptual questions. Let\u2019s imagine that as a result of your joint efforts you have a general concept, but this concept does not have such features as skeuomorphism or flat minimalism, color, texture, pattern. To put it shortly, the customer and his surroundings must like the interface. What if they do not like? Designer\u2019s work has to be paid for. .<\/p>\n One more thing a beginning integrator may come across, is growing difficulty in the programming part in case complicated graphics is chosen (standard tools of iRidium Studio allow to make a lot, but they are not enough for serious projects). That\u2019s why \u00abJS\u00bb has to be used for more serious projects. I am only a beginner here and can\u2019t give you serious advice. All I can share with you is that a trivial syntax mistake can easily make you work very difficult. So, I recommend using such apps as WebStorm\u00bb, \u00abSublime\u00bb or \u00abDreamWeaver\u00bb. Pay more attention to syntax and general rules. In my time I made a lot of mistakes and could not understand why a script did not work. The reason was really simple \u2013 use of unallowed symbol in the function or variable name, for example. The apps I gave as an example drew my attention to these mistakes.<\/p>\n In conclusion, what has to be paid special attention to is mistakes made in the whole project. There can be a lot of them. The most popular of them are \u2013 a \u201dhiding\u201d blank space, \u201cC\u201d symbol that looks identical in English and Russian, but if such mistakes are made somewhere in the script, it may take hours and even days to find them. It\u2019s even difficult to imagine how many people suffered from such trivial mistakes. One has to be extremely attentive and check the work the work carefully and thoroughly. I prefer to do everything by small parts (projects) and then put them carefully together in a single project.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to draw attention to the importance of saving different project versions periodically. In case anything goes wrong, and the project file becomes impossible to use, it\u2019ll be much easier to start with a previous version and not from the very beginning.<\/p>\n The most acute for me at the moment is a capability to copy a whole tree with folders and subfolders from one project to another, and a capability to rename a required part of item names, folders, etc., the way it is done in Crestron. In \u00abCrestron\u00bb you can click with the right mouse button on the whole logics tree and change in the name of tree items the word \u201ckitchen\u201d for \u201cBedroom\u201d, and after it the whole huge tree of folders, logical items, joins is renamed in a second. Besides, you can choose where exactly to rename, that is, in the names of joins, logical items, folders or everywhere. This function can save a lot of integrator\u2019s time. And time is money. Personally I, being used to working with Crestron equipment always give very precise names to joins, logical items and folders. As a result at any time of day and night I can understand what this logics is responsible for by having one look at it. Of course it takes a lot of time to give correct names to all items, but having created a tree once, you can simply copy it and rename items in a bundle. In iRidium Studio it is done manually, it takes a lot of time and leads to mistakes. .<\/p>\n I\u2019d also like a capability to used packed video with alfa-channel as an item. I\u2019ve already spoken about it.<\/p>\n And one more important thing \u2013 release of 64-bit editor of iRidium Studio. Because problems with operation memory made me freeze some of my interesting projects. Here I\u2019d also like to mentions a capability to chose whether to pack into zip or not, when saving an object, not to spend time of archiving hundreds of project versions, as, I repeat myself, time is the most valuable thing in integrator\u2019s work.<\/p>\n And the painful \u201cSlider\u201d question, make them like in \u00abCrestron\u00bb.<\/p>\n Do you have any wishes to iRidium mobile team on further work?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n First of all, I\u2019d like to wish you success and prosperity. And, please, remember about your partners, their needs, requests and remarks. Let your fast reaction and good solutions be faithful friends of your success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today our partner, Anton Julin, heading \u201cAlbus Pro\u201d installation company, speaks about his experience of using iRidium in his work and highlights the most interesting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"template-centered.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[49,12,48,27,52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1265,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/1265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iridi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"ipad-1-compressor.png\"](\"https:\/\/iridiummobile.net\/upload\/medialibrary\/98c\/98cd390460e8632e100bf41bd909654d.png\" "\\"ipad-1-compressor.png\\"")
What tasks of your customers do you solve with \u00abiRidium\u00bb? Has use of iRidium had any effect on your professional growth and business?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"crestron_digitalmedia_diagram_700p-compressor.png\"](\"https:\/\/iridiummobile.net\/upload\/medialibrary\/ac4\/ac4afe62dc2b9bdf10aed0858c2d8156.png\" "\\"crestron_digitalmedia_diagram_700p-compressor.png\\"")
Can you be more specific\u2026<\/p>\n![\"ipad-3-compressor.png\"](\"https:\/\/iridiummobile.net\/upload\/medialibrary\/72a\/72a0e4b8ea28cc458761862ceacc925d.png\" "\\"ipad-3-compressor.png\\"")
What makes you choose iRidium, though the installation features Crestron equipment?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"ipad-6-compressor.png\"](\"https:\/\/iridiummobile.net\/upload\/medialibrary\/6e6\/6e6b2da1abb1ed0c71d9fd8aa4c2ee04.png\" "\\"ipad-6-compressor.png\\"")
Navigation. What requires detailed thinking is how a user will move between interface pages and how easy it will be for him. This problem is not easy to solve, as an integrator\u2019s engineer thinking is accompanied by the customer\u2019s wishes, who, to tell the truth, may not understand what he really wants to see and what he will use or not use in the long run. We have to look into the future here.<\/p>\n![\"\u0421\u043d\u0438\u043c\u043e\u043a](\"https:\/\/iridiummobile.net\/upload\/medialibrary\/6f3\/6f33c1a5c1f441bae9be0042b5ede2b2.png\" "\\"\u0421\u043d\u0438\u043c\u043e\u043a")
What would you like to improve\/change in iRidium for easier and more convenient work?<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n