Sound & Communications October 20, 2008 Issue

correctly, we have just enough labor to drive out theretwice; that is, if we don’t eat or go to the restroom. Somehow,I don’t think there’s enough labor for this project.• 16 rack spaces worth of equipment will not, I repeat,will not, I repeat again, will not, fit in a 12-space rack. Ifyou ask me again, I will tell you the same thing. And, no,I don’t know why the salesman said it would.Needless to say, I can continue on with this for an unspecifiedbut rather lengthy period of time. I’ve seen medo it. There are a lot of piranhas out there—more thanyou can imagine—and each one wants to take a bite outof your business.• As another general statement, it is safe to assumethat, for even a small system rack to be assembledproperly and professionally, wired, tested and labeled, alabor factor of anywhere from four to eight man-hourscertainly is realistic. There is “done” and there is “doneright,” and there is a huge difference between the two.And very often, they don’t look the same.• By the way, racks will get beat up banging aroundin the back of a truck. You can knock most of the dentsout so the doors will shut and we don’t think the shopguy was looking at the right drawings when he builtthem, so we had to completely rewire everything so thesystem would work properly. The customer also wantedto know when the new replacement rack would be coming.It should only take a couple of days to swap out andcompletely rewire everything.• Installers typically do not “tune” or “set up” or “program”systems because that falls under a very differentand specific level of training, knowledge and experience.There was this guy who “tested” the sound system at ahigh school football field, while school was in session,by playing some rap/hip hop CD with a parental advisorylabel on the cover. The customer wasn’t very happy.At last report, this guy was looking for a job at RadioShack.• Oh, and please make sure the next time you sendus that big control system, it is programmed correctly, Iknow you said it was, but it wasn’t. We spent, read thatwasted, quite a few extra hours unhooking and testing allof the video lines, just to be sure we didn’t do anythingwrong before we found out the system simply wasn’tprogrammed properly—like you said it was.• System setup, programming of DSPs, system equalization,and customer training and orientation will be held asa separate element of work from the installation and will bepriced separately. Again, generally speaking, you shouldallow a minimum of four to eight or more man-hours, notincluding transportation or other costs to the labor base.Again, please forgive my attempts at being funny, butit’s not really funny when you can’t tighten the bolts onan R2 because you don’t have a ¾-inch wrench. It willonly take 90 minutes to find a hardware store.Last question: After everything that could possibly gowrong, and did, how much profit do you think you made?Your boss just might want to know.nGraybardelivers theBIG picture.X-END has been integrated into HUBBELL iSTATION modules and keystone connectors to work seamlesslywith all of HUBBELL’s work station and delivery products.Graybar stocks the full range of AV and deliveryproducts, getting it there when you need it, where youneed it.Get the picture?For additional information about HUBBELL’s iSTATION Plug-n-Play X-END AV Systems, call 1-800-GRAYBAR(472-9227) or visit graybar.com/hubbell-av.October 2008 39