5-Day Design School

• Explain the importance of the mission statement and core beliefs to the company and the designer.
• Define a company's design philosophy and explain what it includes.
• Discuss the role of the designer.
• Explain the three organizational structures.
• Discuss three areas of information gathering that a designer needs to meet customer needs.

In this section, we cover a wide spectrum of materials to help you learn how to design complex home electronics integrated systems that are convenient and simple to use. In this first lesson, we review various aspects of a home electronics integration business to provide a brief overview that is beneficial to designers. As an integral part of your organization, it is important for you to understand some of the business basics before we explore the core essentials of a designer.

Standards represent the level of quality or excellence that a company offers its customers.

It is the level of value for company products and services that is accepted as the required level of achievement by which actual attainments are judged. Helping to develop product standards is an important part of the designer's role. To begin to develop standards it is important to understand who the customer is. Who does the company intend to sell its products to?

• Describe twisted pair cable and 4-pair UTP terminations.
• Describe 75-ohm coaxial cable and its characteristics.
• List standard outlets installed in various rooms in the home.

This lesson describes the standard method of providing a structured cabling system for a single-dwelling home for the purpose of voice, data, and video. In many cases, these systems are integrated and the cabling distributed from the distribution device (commonly known as a distribution center) to various locations within the home. We will discuss the distribution of music, security, HVAC, and lighting in subsequent lessons.

• List and explain four ways to document cabling in the home.
• Explain why it's important to document the cabling plan.

The purpose of documenting the cabling in the home is to provide information to the installation team that allows them to terminate and install the outlets, keypads and touchscreen devices. In addition the documents allow service teams to return to the project years later for upgrades and maintenance.

• Discuss characteristics of loudspeakers.
• Explain the two reasons for creating zones in a house-wide music system.
• List common speaker locations and the location for the music system.
• Discuss the characteristics of amplifiers and list various amplifier classes.
• List the types of amplifiers and explain how to select the right amplifier.
• Discuss cabling for music systems.
• Select a music system location.

The home–wide music system distributes tunes from one centralized music system to speakers installed discretely throughout the home. There are basically two types of home–wide music systems from which to choose: a system that distributes the same song to every speaker, or a more intelligent system that allows each family member to listen to a different music source (such as a CD player and tuner) simultaneously in different rooms.

• Explain the purpose of a point–to–point diagram.
• Create separate levels of point–to–point diagrams.
• Use a standard system to develop a pointpp-diagramspoint diagram.
• Label a block in a point–to–point diagram.

Point–to–point diagrams are used to understand circuits by breaking them down into smaller sections or blocks. Each block performs a particular function and the point–to–point diagram shows how they are connected together. No attempt is made to show the components used within a block, only the inputs and outputs are shown. This way of looking at circuits is called the systems' approach.

• Explain the four types of lighting — ambient, task, accent and decorative.
• List and explain briefly the types of lighting fixtures.
• List and explain the different types of lamps and how they work.
• Prepare a lighting load schedule.
• Design a lighting control system.

Lighting is our longest lesson. We start with basic lighting technology and how it works, then list and describe the four types of lighting — ambient, task, accent and decorative. We review 10 different types of light fixtures and explain what type of lighting they generally are used for. We look at different lamp types — incandescent, fluorescent, high-intensity, halogen and others.

• Identify project communications requirements.
• Discuss determining communications methods.
• Discuss the issues concerning communicating with outside contractors.
• Describe the value of running effective meetings and the Project Manager's role in those meetings.
• Discuss the Sales to Operations Turnover meeting and its purpose.

Once a customer has signed a contract, extensive communications is necessary to move from —selling a project to — delivery and acceptance. In addition, it is necessary to plan how the sales representative is going to let the Project Manager and the project team know what the customer expects during the course of the installation. This lecture examines the importance of effective communications planning, the steps it takes to provide such communications, the parties involved, and the methodology for turning over the project from sales to operations.

• List the steps in systematic UI design.
• Define the user in user interface.
• Explain what to anticipate in designing a UI.
• Explain the use of defaults.
• Define metaphors in UI design.
• Discuss the advantages and limitations of keypads and touchscreens.
• Discuss the use of status indicators in UI design.

Each of us draws on our experiences when interacting with the world around us.

In addition, we give meaning to everything that happens to us. Each of us is familiar with lights, thermostats, home entertainment systems such as televisions and stereos. However, not everyone has used a touchscreen or keypad to control these devices. Consider turning on the lights in your home. It has become almost intuitive to flip the light switch up to turn on the lights, and down for off.

• Discuss the four basic characteristics of sound.
• Define and discuss decibels.
• Explain root mean squared.
• Describe the difference between white and pink noise.
• Explain threshold of hearing and threshold of pain.
• Explain why A- and C-weighted filters are used.
• Discuss the purpose of OSHA noise exposure limits.

In designing home theaters and home-wide music systems, an important aspect is understanding the characteristics of sound and how it works. In this lesson, we discuss the wavelengths of sound, its loudness, frequency and speed. We discuss how sound is perceived and the purpose of A- and C-weighted filters. We also review reverberation, slap echoes, and standing waves to enhance your understanding of sound. Understanding the fundamentals of acoustics allows the designer to construct a home theater that maximizes the sound reproduction of the system.

• List and discuss three types of surround sound.
• Define audio compression and "perceptual coding" compression.
• List the advantages of an AV receiver.
• List the advantages of separate components.
• List several factors in determining how much power is needed in an amplifier.

Sound surrounds you, enveloping you and drawing you into a real theater experience.

That's what customers want in a home theater experience. How do you, as a designer, achieve that movie theater experience in the home? As an industry, home theater technologists are continually experimenting and refining ways to improve sound technology and learn the best way to employ that technology in a home theater. In this lesson we focus on audio technology. We discuss three types of surround sound and how to place the speakers in a home theater.

• Define aspect ratios.
• Discuss screen size and placement.
• List and discuss six viewing sources.
• Discuss characteristics of a variety of video display options.
• Explain interlaced and non-interlaced video formats.

The home electronics integration industry can creates a listening and viewing experience that can match the finest movie houses. Along with that experience comes a complex set of components that designers must sort out and develop into a satisfying home theater experience.

• Describe the three main types of HVAC systems.
• Explain how a forced air system works.
• Explain single and multi-stage control systems.
• Explain home, away, overnight and vacation set points.
• Describe the steps to HVAC integration.
• Discuss the main issues in working with outside contractors.

HVAC stands for Heating/Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems. If your company expects to integrate with the HVAC system, you will need a basic understanding of HVAC systems, even though you are not responsible for installing the HVAC system. Following is a brief explanation of the different types of systems, and important factors you need to know before integrating an HVAC system. This information is important to help you avoid integration designs that could pose a danger to the customer's home and family.

• Discuss the integration area of a security system.
• Discuss basic and advanced security systems.
• List programming questions that need to be answered in security integration.

Security is a concern of most homeowners today. You want to protect your property, and most of all your family. There are simple ways to provide some security for your home, such as motion detectors and floodlights; and more effective, complex ways, such as digitally controlled security systems. The home electronics integrator can provided an added level to security by integrating a homeowner's security system into the overall integration plan for the home. It is not necessary for the integrator to offer or install the security system itself. That's the responsibility of the security contractor.