Space is luxury

Space is paramount onboard boats, even large luxury yachts. Every corner of the ship is used to store things and you will find it hard to find where to house your audiovisual gear. Critical decisions are taken during the engineering period, and if you are not persuasive enough you will get in deep trouble when it will be time to install. To avoid this unpleasant situation, and whatever you are installing, keep in mind these following points :

• Location

Choosing the location of your audiovisual gear is very important and not that easy. There is a lot of points to be taken in consideration and you will have to make decision according to the need of the owner and the crew.

Cable length 

You know it: a shorter cable is always better for signal. This is paramount for video and audio signal, specially if you have a large TV screen or a videoprojector, and a powerfull sound system. So when you choose the location of your gear, try to be as close as the TV Set, speakers and every “end-of-line” gear to avoid loss of signal.

And please : DON’T use cable extenders. Adding active equipment to your system will make it less reliable, will lower quality and will increase power consumption and heat dissipation… instead, locate your gear closer to the TV or use an other type of signal.

Access to guest areas

You have found a nice cabinet right behind the TV in the Owner’s cabin to house your AV equipment. Great. But now imagine you are the crew member in charge of the system. The owner is chilling in his cabin, reading. He is not using the system and you have basic maintenance to do that need access to the system. You can’t.

Depending on owers or guests, access to areas can be a real issue. This is why, before you decide to install all gear within the cabin, you should have a look to the technical lockers around. Maybe you will find a nice locker, close enough to the cabin, and that will offer all the comfort you need to operate without disturbing or being disturbed.

Accessibility

You need front and rear access to your equipment. Front access is used to operate the equipment manually, rear access is used for connections and power. You need both, even if you’ve installed the smartest automation system of the world, for configuration and reboot.

The best access you can have is by pulling out side or rear panels, with enough room for you to go around. This is why you should try to house your AV gear in a central piece of furniture (such as a coffee table or a bar) instead of something close to a bulkhead. Side access can be ok, as long as you have enough room to move around and operate.

If you have no option, think about pull-out shelves or racks. Forget pivoting stands, unless you don’t have many cables. Otherwise, ue only pull-out racks or shelves. This can help you to have a proper rear access, but will not be as good as a full rear panel removed.

Size

Despite your good will, you will not be able to get rid of all cables and wires plugged to your AV equipment. So you need to find a place to house them. Think about size of connectors, cables curve, cables managements items etc… before you agree on the alocated space for your equipment.

Empty volumes around gear will help engineers to install and operate it, and will help air flow to cool the system. If you have a lot of items, you will need forced air extraction and maybe cool air input.

Flexibility

It is very difficult to obtain the perfect location for your system, so you will have to compromise with the interior designer. The one word to keep in mind is FLEXIBLITY. Keep some extra pull-out racks or shelves to use where needed, split your AV rack to have easier access, keep your system simple and reduce the number of electronic ‘boxes’… Discussions with the shipyard and the interior designers can be of great help to find unexpected locations, so use and abuse of their time!

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Tech tips by bruno