[SBE] Visio for broadcast equipment?

[Dan Slentz]

I used Visio exclusively for the WHIZ TV Great Room (master control combined with production control).  It's one of the most reasonably priced.  To get around the hours of template design or tracking them down, I actually imported photos of all the gear.  I took pictures of gear and cropped it, plus went to manufacturers web sites and grabbed those.  If you size the photos and maintain ratio, a 1RU piece of gear sized to your wire frame racks (which ARE available from almost all the rack manufacturers), you can actually get a perfect scale layout.  Best part is your drawing will look incredibly close to the finished product.  
A great side benefit is that you can zoom in and actually see all controls.  It's certainly a poor man's VidCad or WireCad, but you can also use Visio for timelines (which I used), graphics, room layout floor plans, etc.  

On a cool side note, I downloaded a demo version of Visio and was able to use that.  I got a call from Microsoft offering to sell me the software.  When I explained to this woman that I only really wanted to use it for one project, she actually gave me a code that allowed it to run for months.  When I got to really know how to use it, I realized what a great value it was and purchased it.  

Though I'm now in Dallas and can afford WireCAD (which we have), I've purchased and still use Visio.

Dan Slentz
KERA TV/FM  & KXT FM, Dallas




________________________________
From: Jeremy Morris <jdmickies at gmail.com>
To: sbe member discussion mail list <sbe at sbe.org>
Sent: Sun, June 27, 2010 6:34:06 PM
Subject: Re: [SBE] Visio for broadcast equipment?

The best for broadcast is VidCAD.  You can step down to WireCAD.  Both are not cheap.  Most other programs (AutoCAD, DoubleCAD, Visio, StarDraw, etc.) you have to create your own blocks or get them from someone else (other designer, some manufacturers, etc.).

Jeremy






On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Ryan Salazar <ryan at ryansalazar.net> wrote:

The biggest problem I'm having is that Visio doesn't have stencils (or whatever they're called), for broadcast equipment. Example - I can't find digibeta decks or even rackmount LCD screens. I want to insert those stencils into a rack diagram. Thus way I can track used rack spaces, etc.

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>On Jun 27, 2010, at 7:20 PM, "Jeremy Morris" <jdmickies at gmail.com> wrote:

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>we've had some guys in service use it as well as a couple of our clients.  For a more AutoCAD-like program, try DoubleCAD XT.  It's got the most bells and whistles for a free CAD program.  You can edit dwg's and pdf's.

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>>Jeremy

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>>On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 6:52 PM, Ryan Salazar <ryan at ryansalazar.net> wrote:

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>>Ray,

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>>>I actually meant "Visio", the diagramming software to pre-config racks in software before implementation.

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>>>Thanks!

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>>>On Jun 27, 2010, at 6:01 PM, "Eargle, Ray L" <REargle at hearst.com> wrote:

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>>>Visio TVs work  well universals mounts from Markertek work well. Most of the TV's in KCRA station are now the Visio and many in rack units and easy to mount. Also with the exta screws you can make even some racks models of a home brew. Also one more thing make sure they have ventilation; Visio work very well they are good units. 

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From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Salazar

>>>>Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 2:21 PM

>>>>To: sbe member discussion mail list

>>>>Subject: [SBE] Visio for broadcast equipment?

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>Hello,

>>>>I’m moving some items around in a rack and just curious if anyone has used Visio for broadcast rack configurations? I can’t find simple things like rackmount LCD displays, decks, etc…

>>>>Thanks!

>>><ATT00001.c>

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