Photo of the Month |
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| At the annual Commerce Bank awards show at Radio City Music Hall, Alford Media helped create an impressive display using DPI's HIGHlite 12000Dsx+ projectors. Each screen utilized four HIGHlite 12k's in a blended array. The top screen was set up with front projection, while the lower screen was rear projection using 0.8 lenses. Alford joined the production company of Q-We Get It to stage the event.The total image size was 76' wide. |
All-In
At info Comm 05, Digital Projection announced the exciting ALL-IN Promotion and Poker Tournament . This exciting year-long event rewards DPI commercial AV Dealer sales associates with both cash and official All-IN poker chips when they transact orders for DPI projectors. Salespeople accumulate $10 of cash for each $1000 of DPI invoice value (1% of sales).
In addition to the cash rewards, DPI also includes 1 poker chip (worth $1000 at the Texas Hold ‘em Tournament) per $1000 of invoice value. Save those poker chips! Once you build your stake to 50 chips ($50,000 in DP projector sales), you will qualify to compete in our exclusive ALL-IN Poker Tournament, to be held at info Comm 06 in Orlando. Prizes for the top six tournament winners include glamorous trips to the All-In capital of the world, Las Vegas! The top three winners will also take home one of Digital Projection's precision home cinema displays - an iVision HD-X and a dVision HD will each be awarded. The Grand Prize winner may choose either DPI's flagship Mercury HD projector and a trip to Las Vegas, OR a 2006 Victory 8-Ball Motorcycle!
To take part, you simply need to register as an All-In participant, then, as you transact DPI projector sales, register the details of each transaction using the same form. You may make claims at any time for qualifying sales recorded within June 1, 2005 - May 31, 2006.
Here is the link to the program details and registration form: Register NOW!
CES 2006: A "Toy Story"
This year's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas was truly like going to the world's largest toy store. There were a plethora of LCD flat panels in sizes from 4” to 82” and plasmas up to 102”! The most exciting buzz phrase was of course “1080P”.
In addition to 1080P flat panels, several single-chip 1080P projectors were shown in “prototype” stage with deliveries promised mid to end 06'. Most of the 1080P single chip projectors will utilize Texas Instruments new “Brilliant Color” technology, which uses 6 unique color segments (RGBCMY) instead of 3 colors on 6 segments (RGBRGB). The new “Brilliant Color” approach dramatically improves color depth and flesh tones. Brilliant Color technology is also being deployed in the latest version of DLP based rear projection TV's.
Texas Instruments once again showed their prototype 1080P 3-chip projector, which looked great and received wonderful reviews. Look for production 3-chip 1080P products to emerge toward the end of this year.
Several companies announced HD DVD and HD playback products based on Blue Ray, HD-DVD, and Media servers using MPEG-4 technology. There is even content already available for these new formats! About 50 titles of new and recent movies were shown in HD format.
Of course, in the spirit of “Technology Marches On”, displays at CES were brighter, higher resolution, more colorful, and yes, both cheaper (on the low end) and more expensive (on the high end) than ever before!
2006 looks to be a very exciting year indeed!
Rep Meeting
On March 15th, Digital Projection will be hosting our 2nd annual NSCA Rep Meeting. The meeting will be held from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel next to the Las Vegas Convention Center. In addition to reviewing our 2005 performance, we will discuss DP's future product roadmap as well as commercial issues, Rep targets, product delivery and demos. Additionally, we will announce our Commercial Rep of the Year and our Home Cinema Rep of the Year for 2005. The agenda also includes demonstrations of the much anticipated dVision 1080p single chip projector as well as new additions to our iVision family. Digital Projection will be hosting dinner after the meeting. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
All-In Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tips
Thinking Like a Poker Player
#1. Math skills
- They know that you have about 1 in 8.5 chance of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair, and that you have about a 1 in 3 chance of completing a flopped flush draw by the river.
- They know the importance of 'outs.' Outs are simply the number of cards that will improve your hand. Count your outs, multiply them by two, and add one, and that's roughly the percentage shot you have at hitting.
- They can figure out the 'pot odds.' Knowing outs is meaningless unless it's translated into rational, calculated betting. Knowing you have a 20% chance of hitting, what do you do then? Well, simply once you figure out your chance of hitting/winning, you divide the size of the pot at the river (i.e. the current pot plus the amount of money that you think will be added through future bets) by the amount you have to put in. If you have a 20% chance of hitting and the bet to you is 50, if the pot at the river will be greater than 250, call. If not, fold.
- Math skills are the most basic knowledge; it's day one reading. Anyone who doesn't understand these concepts should not play in a game until they do.
#2. Discipline
- Good poker players demand an advantage. What separates a winning poker player from a fish is that a fish does not expect to win, while a poker player does. A fish is happy playing craps, roulette, the slots; he just hopes to get lucky. A poker player does not hope to get lucky; he just hopes others don't get lucky.
- Good poker players understand that a different game requires a different discipline. A disciplined no-limit player can be a foolish limit player and vice versa. A disciplined limit player has solid pre-flop skills. When there is not much action pre-flop, he or she only plays the better hands. When a lot of people are limping in, he or she will make a loose call with a suited connector or other speculative hand.
- However, a disciplined no-limit player is very different. This player is not so concerned with paying too many blinds; instead, he or she does not want to get trapped. The main difference between disciplined limit players and disciplined no-limit players is that the limit player avoids piddling away his stack bit by bit while a disciplined no-limit player avoids losing his whole stack in one hand. Hence, a disciplined no-limit player can play a lot of hands. Preflop, he or she can be extremely loose and limp in with hands as odd as 5 of spades 3 of diamonds. However, a good no-limit player knows when to toss hands that will get him or her in trouble.
- A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. He recognizes when he is on tilt and is aware when a game is too juicy to just quit while ahead.
- A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry. He learns from the mistake and moves on.
Next Month: Psychological Skills & Risk vs. Reward
From www.pokertips.com
TECH TIPS
Designing A Projector Enclosure
A proper enclosure for your projector will take some careful design, but it is not a task only for a rocket scientist. In order to succeed, you must first be familiar with what a projector needs from its surrounding environment.
Heat Exchange
The key to any enclosure design starts with heat exchange. In simple terms, your goal is to remove the heat generated by the projector. The unit of measure of heat generation is BTU (British Thermal Units). Often, the projectors BTU value will be included on the spec sheet. If not, use this simple formula to determine the BTU output of a projector: Wattage X 3.42 = BTU
If you are dedicating an air conditioning unit to the projector enclosure, you should rate your conditioner at 120% of the projector BTU rating. As an example, an air conditioner that exchanges 5000 BTU would satisfy a projector that is rated at 4000 BTU.
Note: Do not rely on an HVAC system that is intended to support a particular area of a venue to provide cooling for the projector enclosure. The problem with this approach is that the thermostat for that HVAC system is located in the room, not in the enclosure that houses the projector. Therefore, the projector environment will not receive adequate cooling. Another risk with this approach occurs in the winter, when the thermostat is set to output heat. In that instance, the projector enclosure would be receiving heat, as opposed to cooling.
Flow
Flow is measured as cubic feet per minute (CFM), or in similar metric terms. Some projector spec sheets provide the requirements for airflow. If not, contact the manufacturer's technical support to obtain this information. The key to enclosure airflow design is to ensure a reserve of air is present at the projector inlet, and that you are creating a draw at the projector outlet. This is also known as positive pressure (at the inlet), and negative pressure (at the outlet). A simple rule of thumb is to provide 120% of the projector's rated CFM at the inlet, and to draw 120% of the same value at the outlet. Example: A projector's CFM rating is 100 CFM. The inlet and outlet fans should be rated at no less than 120 CFM.
Note: It is not always necessary to have both an inlet and exhaust fan. The more important function of the two fan systems is the removal of hot air, as mentioned in the heat exchange section. So if you only have the means to use a single fan, design that as a draw, or outlet, fan.
Temperature
Blowing very cold air into a projector enclosure is not always a good idea. Very cold air can cause as many problems as hot air. Large temperature differentials in electronics or lamp systems can result in undue thermal stress. As an example, it would be perfectly acceptable to have inlet air to the projector that ranges between 70 – 76 Farenheit. Most projectors are designed to operate with inlet temperatures well above this value, usually up to about 90F. However, it is not good practice to design a system at its limits. You always want a safety margin in your engineering.
Pressure
Projector specifications will sometimes advise of a maximum operating distance above sea level. This information is based on air pressure. A maximum operating altitude of one mile above sea level is a normal specification, and covers about 95% of installations. Since most projectors are specified to support this altitude rating, you do not need to pay much attention to air pressure, other than as stated above regarding inlet and outlet loading with fan CFM's. Even if you are a couple of hundred feet beyond the operating altitude specification for the projector you are employing, following the 120% CFM guidelines and the temperature rules will keep you in a safe design zone.
Isolation
Far more mistakes in enclosure design are made in the area of input/output air isolation than any other parameter. It is very important that your inlet fan is not pressurizing your projector exhaust, and your draw fan is not pulling fresh air away from the projector intake. In addition, you do not want your inlet fan pulling the projector exhaust back into the projector! The critical place to start here is to ensure that your draw fan is sealed and isolated such that it exclusively draws from the projector's exhaust. This ensures there is only one path out of the enclosure and there is no possibility of hot air being pulled back into the projector. Make sure you know the intake and exhaust layout of the projector you are using, as each chassis will have different isolation requirements.
One must also assure a safe area is created around the projector. In other words, how much bigger does the enclosure need to be than the projector? In reality, it does not need to be much bigger to support efficient cooling, perhaps just 3-4 inches per side, as long as the parameters above are followed. Projectors tend to be designed to funnel heat out of certain openings, and ingest fresh air in the same controlled way. Rarely do the bulk of the BTU's generated radiate equally out of the total square area of a projector. Therefore, you can base your clearance on other factors like service access or general mechanical clearance and other guidelines.
General
Always take advantage of any application support you can get from the manufacturer, to help guide the design of your projector's enclosure.
Remember that projector's specifications are based on proper heat exchange, so a lot of the work is already done. You simply need to obtain the BTU, CFM, pressure rating, and mechanical layout of the product's air intakes and exhausts. Be realistic, if not conservative, regarding the ambient temperature of the environment, and make sure you are not using a room HVAC system to cool the projector enclosure. If it is a new enclosure/projector design and you have the facilities to execute a test, there is great value in verifying the enclosure airflow efficiency and internal operating temperature under thermal load, in advance of your final installation.
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