AV Issue 61 by Alchemedia Publishing

Ultra-realistic Messaging On Display

Bring the next generation of Samsung UHD picture quality to your commercial environment.

Empower UHD streaming through the built-in Tizen platform media player^

Showcase text and images in crisp, sharp detail, and elevate brand image with UHD technology.* Samsung QM Series features 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution, portrait or landscape orientation, and reliable 24/7 operation~ for ultimate flexibility and picture clarity in commercial settings.

Samsung UHD Displays, differentiating the consumer experience through enhanced large-screen content sharing. For enquiries please contact our Business Desk T: 1800 31 32 33 | E: businessdesk@samsung.com Please visit www.samsung.com.au/business for more information. * Picture quality may vary depending on source content. ~ Only specified models (QMH 49”, 55”, 65”, QMF 75”, 95”) are designed to operate for 24/7. Model QMD 85” is designed to operate for a maximum of 16/7. ^ Built-in Tizen media player available in QMH 49”, 55”, 65”.

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Over 30 Years in Business To find your nearest Integrator/Reseller, please visit www.pavt.com.au and click on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Where To Buyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Production Audio Video Technology Pty Ltd 4/621 Whitehorse Road,Â Mitcham 3132, Victoria PH: 03 9264 8000 sales@pavt.com.au

ISSUE 61

40 REGULARS Advertising Office: +61 (0)416 230329 PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia

NEWS News and new product info.

Editorial Office: +61 (0)3 9998 1998 PO Box 295, Ballarat, VIC 3353 Australia

Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@avapac.net) Assistant Editor: Preshan John (preshan@alchemedia.com.au)

Graphic Designer: Daniel Howard (daniel@avapac.net) Additional Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@avapac.net) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au)

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright © 2018 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title AV is a registered Trademark. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 15/11/2018

ASSOCIATIONS News from Avixa.

TERMINATION Taking a Screener!

AV OVER IP SPECIAL

Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@avapac.net)

Subscriptions: (subscriptions@avapac.net)

ANATOMY OF AN AV OVER IP SYSTEM Macquarie Uni Surgical Skills Lab.

ALL HANDS ON DECK All Hands Brewery.

STABLE AV NETWORK William Inglis Auction Stables.

AV OVER IP: ARE WE THERE YET? Cover Story.

JUSTICE: DIFFERENT LEAGUE New benchmark in Shepparaton.

FEATURES DISPENSING WITH CONVENTION Epson Moverio Smart Glasses in Action.

KARA STRIKES GOLDIE AMPHITHEATRE Home of the Arts PA.

SIBYLL LIBERTIES Women’s College Fitout.

WATTS UP? Max Watt’s House of Music.

ADELAIDE CC COMMS CHOICE Reidel Deal in Convention Centre.

PERFECT PITCH Marketing Agency Adopts Savant Control.

RSL NOT RSI RTI makes club life easy.

LEAP OF FAITH Contemporary HoW Fitout.

REVIEWS

DYNACORD IPX SERIES Power Amplifiers.

ALTIA SYSTEMS PANACAST 2 VC Camera System.

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NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

EPSON 4K PROJECTORS

EXTRON NAV SERIES PRO AV-OVER-IP

MERSIVE KEPLER

Epson has launched its new 12,000 lumen native 4K 3LCD laser projector, the EB- L12000QNL, along with a new compact EB-L20000UNL large venue projector. The new EB-L12000QNL and EB-L20000UNL models share the same robust, compact and lightweight chassis that makes them easy to integrate into existing infrastructure – a breakthrough at this level of brightness. The new projectors also feature support for HDR, 360-degree installation flexibility and a sealed light source and optical engine to protect from dust and smoke. General Manager of the Business Division at Epson Australia, Craig Heckenberg, said, “These new projectors solve many of the issues commonly encountered by rental and staging companies by integrating features such as backward lens compatibility, swappable interface boards, robust and compact chassis, new tiling assist alongside geometry correction assist and edge-blending assist.”

Extron’s NAV Series is pro AV-over-IP platform that distributes and switches ultra-low latency video, audio, and USB 2.0 signals over Ethernet networks. Utilising Extron’s patented PURE3 codec, NAV delivers ‘visually lossless’ video-over-IP at resolutions up to 4K @ 60Hz with 4:4:4 chroma sampling. The NAV Series offers both 1Gbps and 10Gbps encoders and decoders with compatibility across both systems. NAV can also deploy as a high-performance IP-based video and audio matrix, combining the flexibility of an IP-based system with the integration-friendly video and audio switching features found in conventional Extron matrix switchers. Included is the NAVigator System Manager which offers a user-friendly interface for centralised management, configuration, and control of NAV systems. NAV encoders and decoders support analogue audio, embedded digital HDMI audio, and AES67 audio over IP, facilitating integration with DMP 128 Plus audio DSPs or other IP-enabled audio components.

Mersive Technologies has announced Kepler, a cloudbased software tool that centrally monitors Solsticeenabled meeting rooms to provide powerful analytics on user collaboration and room utilisation. These insights empower organisations to optimise their common spaces for greater usability, productivity, and ROI. By collecting data from Solstice Pods installed in meeting rooms and huddle spaces, Kepler provides insights into levels of user content sharing, device usage, meeting statistics, and room usage such as peak hour tracking, room popularity, average meeting length and more. Further, Kepler’s centralised monitoring and proactive email alerts streamline ongoing oversight of Solstice deployments enabling technology managers to detect and resolve issues before they cause disruption for meeting participants. Using Kepler, organisations can automate ongoing oversight of Solstice deployments and leverage key behavioural insights to improve meeting productivity.

Extron: www.extron.com.au

Midwich: 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au Mersive: www.mersive.com

Epson: www.epson.com.au

KV2 AUDIO DISHES IT OUT AT THE BOWL:

Nothing embodies the ‘KV2 Audio Difference’ like the VHD5.0 Constant Power Point Source Array. There’s currently nothing on the market like it. The KV2 Audio team demonstrated the new VHD5.0 and the VHD2.0 Large Format Point Source System at Melbourne’s Sydney Myer Music Bowl in October. KV2 has focused on creating a modular system that has minimal destructive interference while utilising multiple components in a small number of cabinets. VHD 8.10 Low Mid expansion boxes are arrayed around the VHD5.0 Mid High enclosure providing the headroom needed to deliver the low mids and keep the sound balanced. In essence, the system is pieced together to represent one very

large point source, each part of the system being proportional in size to the wavelength of the frequency it reproduces. The radiated power of each bandwidth therefore remains consistent and balanced in relation to the overall frequency response. The aim is to deliver the same sound to every seat in the house. The general feedback from visitors was extremely positive as was their amazement as to how well the sound held together despite a strong breeze blowing across the venue. Angus Davidson: “A number of engineers have commented on the system’s consistency in both frequency response and SPL in all parts of the venue but what has really impressed people is the intelligibility and coherent

reproduction of the sound at the back of the venue well over 100 metres from the speakers. The fact is, that unlike line array, there is virtually no destructive interference occurring in the listening field, hence there are no losses, just a gradual drop in level as you reach the rear of the venue.” Tim Millikan (INXS, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly, RocKwiz et al) summed up the system’s performance in a few words: “Incredible intelligibility, from a whisper to a roar.” KV2 Audio: 0448 959 865 or www.kv2audio.com

NEWS

AV-over-IP SENDERS HDMI

VGA

DVI

Audio

TVONE ULTRA-THIN SWITCHER tvONE’s 1T-SX-654 is an ultra-thin auto switcher with four HDMI video inputs and one HDMI output with supporting HDMI video resolution up to 4Kx2K@60Hz 4:4:4 HDR and multichannel audio. De-embed digital stereo audio provides an analogue audio source for an existing audio system or the ability to use the audio return channel (ARC) for transmitting audio back to the HDMI input port from the connected display. Also from tvONE is CORIOview, an ultra-compact 4K multi-window processor that allows for each of its eight inputs to be viewed in any of the eight video windows with ultra-low latency, making it the ideal solution for IP streaming as well as AV, broadcast and legacy inputs and embedded or S/PDIF audio outputs.

Gigabit Ethernet Switch

HDMI

VGA

DVI

Audio

RECEIVERS

Finally, tvONE has released a new App for its Coriomaster video wall controllers. The App is compatible with both smartphones and tablets and is available at no cost for Coriomaster users.

ANY

tvONE: www.tvone.com Australian Distributor: www.corsairsolutions.com.au

Now with support for 4K

Australian Monitor has appointed Mark Condon as National Sales Manager. General Manager of Australian Monitor, Euan Brown, said that Condon would work with consultants and dealers to grow awareness and expand the Australian Monitor business within the pro AV sector. Condon brings over 18 years of AV industry experience to the role, across commercial installation and live sound production. Hills: (03) 9890 7477 or www.hills.com.au Australian Monitor: www.australianmonitor.com.au

2018 Corporate Pro AV Market Analysis: The corporate market continues to account for the largest segment of pro-AV revenue. According to AVIXA’s Industry Outlook Trends and Analysis (IOTA), pro-AV solutions for corporate office environments are expected to generate nearly US$15 billion in revenue in the Americas in 2018. Growth is expected to be somewhat slower than the overall industry, at 1.5 percent annually from 2017 through 2022. AVIXA’s new 2018 Market Opportunity Analysis Report (MOAR) covering the corporate market examines the opportunities and challenges for providers of pro-AV solutions and technologies. MOAR: Corporate is the second in a series of 2018 vertical market studies, with

forthcoming reports on sports venues, hospitality, education, and transportation. The retail report was released in May. The corporate report is available for purchase at www.avixa.org/ MOARCorporate. AVIXA members are eligible for discounts.

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HDMI, DVI, DP, VGA and audio senders and receivers

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Any-to-any (input-to-output) capability

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KVM-over-IP options for added flexibility

•

Optional hardware control console

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Gefen’s Syner-G management platform

Contact the Amber Technology team to find out more: 1800 251 367 sales@ambertech.com.au

ambertech.com.au

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

TINY ’N’ TOUGH

CONTROL COCKPIT V2.0.0

WILLIAMS AV PRESENTER HUBS

Marshall Electronics is expanding on its robust assortment of miniature HD cameras with the new ultra-high-speed Marshall CV506-H12. The CV506-H12 is built for capturing high-speed action for detailed, high-definition, slow-motion video. The CV506-H12 offers the following resolution and frame rates settings: Progressive HD (1080p and 720p) at 120fps; Interlaced HD (1080i) at 50, 59.94, and 60fps. The camera design pays special attention to enhanced durability in the field with the addition of new structural ‘wings,’ designed to give greater protection to rear connectors during use. The M12 lens mount can be used with fixed prime or varifocal lens options, and the lightweight, small footprint build enables it to be placed easily into tight, hard-to-reach locations for unique angles and viewpoints. The CV506-H12 is designed for use in broadcast, live sports, machine vision, process analysis and any other slow-motion application.

Version 2.0.0 of Sennheiser’s Control Cockpit software has been further developed into a flexible IT-driven tool that ensures optimised workflows and convenience for professionals managing wireless microphones. In addition to microphones from Sennheiser’s SpeechLine Digital Wireless series, this latest version now supports the new evolution wireless G4 microphone systems and is downwards compatible with G3. Version 2.0.0 also offers password protection, enhanced battery management options including notification profiles, and a thorough refresh of the user interface to enhance usability. “Enabling the management and monitoring of both SpeechLine Digital Wireless and evolution wireless G3 and G4 microphones, Sennheiser Control Cockpit 2.0.0 is a universal tool for business, corporate and education settings,” said Kai Tossing, Portfolio Manager, Business Communication at Sennheiser. The software is now available for free download from the Sennheiser website.

Williams AV has enhanced its Presenter Hub and Audio Presenter Hub wireless presentation systems. The Presenter Hub is designed to simplify presentations and collaborations in meeting rooms and beyond. It supports both wired USB and HDMI video components plus wireless mobile devices using Airplay, Google Chromecast and Miracast. The digital hub also provides HDMI connectivity with 4K support and a USB media port for connection to a PC or Mac. The Audio Presenter Hub incorporates all the features of the Presenter Hub then adds audio to the mix, delivering truly wireless, audio and video connectivity. The Audio Presenter Hub can wirelessly connect all computers, tablets and smartphones to the installed audio and video systems in the room. Its integrated mixer includes four inputs, two line outputs and two 25W amplifiers. Acoustic Echo Cancellation ensures echo-free conference calls.

Marshall Electronics: www.marshall-usa.com Australian Distributor: www.corsairsolutions.com.au

Sennheiser: www.sennheiser.com.au

Hitachi projectors rebranding to Maxell: The move began back in 2013 when Hitachi decided to transition its projector business to Maxell (a company Hitachi acquired way back in the ’60 but has been more dormant since its recordable media heyday). It would leave Hitachi to focus on its commercial and industrial products. It meant the factories manufacturing Hitachi projectors were all shifted to the Maxell subsidiary along with the staff — same factories and staff; different name. Now, more recently, Hitachi has decided to make the back office move public. New Hitachi projectors will be branded Maxell. The switch over will be gradual.

New models will have the new branding, and the old models will remain Hitachi. At this point Hitachi’s interactive flat panel displays will remaine branded Hitachi. Hitachi Australia, will remain Hitachi Australia, as it distributes a full stack of Hitachi products and not just projectors. So, to be clear: Hitachi Australia will be the distributor of Maxell projectors — same staff, same distribution channels; different brand name. “We’ve already begun introducing our customers to the Maxell name change,” commented Hitachi Australia’s Deputy General Manager, Matt Hanna. “Maxell is a name familiar to most people, even if they didn’t know the Hitachi connection. Apart from the

Hills: (03) 9890 7477 or www.hills.com.au Williams AV: www.williamsav.com

brand name change it really is ‘business as usual’. The 40-odd projector models already in the market will remain branded Hitachi and we’re looking forward to launching three new projectors shortly under the Maxell name.” Hitachi Australia (Maxell): (02) 9888 4100 or dps@hitachi.com.au

Network Audio Solutions

DA-6400

• Records to an internal hot swappable SSD caddy for live and event recording • I/O options include MADI and DANTE (Cards sold separately)

64-CHANNEL DIGITAL MULTITRACK RECORDER/PLAYER

• Record 64 tracks at 48 kHz/24-bit or 32 tracks at 96 kHz/24-bit • The perfect choice for live recordings, backup for critical DAW sessions & professional remote recording.

SS-R250N

• Balanced and unbalanced analog I/O (XLR and RCA jacks) SOLID STATE PLAYER RECORDER • AES/EBU and S/PDIF digital I/O • Sample rate converter on digital inputs • The IF-DA2 interface card supporting Dante 2ch input and output (sold separately) SOLID STATE AND CD PLAYER RECORDER

SS-CDR250N

HS-20 2 CHANNEL NETWORK RECORDER/PLAYER

ML-16D 16 CHANNEL ANALOG DANTE CONVERTOR

• Capable of tracking in up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. • Clock timer for automated playback, recording, and download

• Colour TFT touchscreen interface • Record to SD card or CompactFlash media

• Provides uncompressed, multi-channel, low-latency digital audio over a standard Ethernet cable • 16 channel analog line input and 16 analog line outputs

• Supports up to 96kHz/24bit • Dual redundant Ethernet jacks which support both primary and secondary connections • ML-32D (32 channels) also available

For more information contact CMI on (03) 9315 2244 or email: cmi@cmi.com.au web: cmi.com.au

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NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

FUJIFILM ROTATABLE LENS PROJECTOR

EPSON FOR 360° INSTALL

CHRISTIE REALLASER

Fujifilm has launched a projector equipped with a ‘two-axial rotatable lens,’. The lens can face up, down, front, rear, left and right to project images in various directions without having to move the main unit. This means it can project images not only on a wall or screen but also on the ceiling and floor, and can easily switch between vertical and horizontal display. The use of an ultra-short throw lens and laser light source also makes it possible to project bright and clear images on a 100inch screen from a distance of just 75cm. Sporting a sophisticated product design, the projector features rounded corners and a compact body that turns into a box shape when the lens is folded in. The projector has a small footprint of 0.18sqm when placed horizontally and just 0.05sqm when placed vertically.

Coomera Anglican College recently decided to install Epson laser projectors for its future-focused, new Imaginarium 360° immersive learning environment, a part of their new building, The Pod, which opened earlier this year. Local SI company 5th Corner won the tender and recommended the Epson EB-L1300UNL as “there wasn’t another projector on the market that could meet the needs and requirements of this project”, says the College’s IT Services Manager, Darryl Hall. Not only did the EB-L1300UNL meet the College’s requirements but its functionality also impressed the team there. The EB-L1300UNL laser projectors are mounted onto a circular steel metal frame in the centre of the theatre and are used to project a 11520 x 1080 image onto the walls in a full 360° circular room measuring nine metres in diameter. Used in conjunction with ImmersaView’s SimVisual software the projector images are then warped and blended resulting in a seamless 360° image across the curved walls.

The new Christie D4K40-RGB 3DLP projector is designed with Christie TruLife electronics and Christie RealLaser illumination, producing more than 90 percent of the Rec. 2020 colour space. Delivering over 30,000 hours of operation to 80 percent brightness, 5000:1 contrast ratio, and up to 120 frames per second, the Christie D4K40-RGB also features a new, patented, sealed optical path. For typical installations, Christie says this translates into eight-plus years of stable, virtually maintenance-free operation. Christie TruLife supports a video-processing pipeline of up to 1.2 Gigapixels per second, enabling 4K DLP at 120Hz performance. The D4K40-RGB operates on singlephase 220V power, making it significantly more costeffective than competitor models. The Christie D4K40RGB ships in December 2018 with a three-year parts and labor warranty.

Fujifilm: www.fujifilm.com

Christie: www.christiedigital.com

Epson: www.epson.com.au

NEWS IN BRIEF:

Gefen’s 4K 600MHz 4x1 Multiview Seamless Switcher switches and displays up to four sources individually or in various combinations on a single Ultra HD display. Its 4K HDMI 2.0 output ensures a high-resolution, pixel-to-pixel representation of each source on one screen in a quad-structure or other layout. Factory presets provide most commonly used arrangements of windows on a display, including single window output. Gefen: www.gefen.com Australian Distributor: www.ambertech.com.au

The UHBX-6S from Hall Research is an HDMI splitter with one local HDMI output and six HDBaseT outputs for extension to compatible receivers up to 150m using a single UTP. EDID management is integrated into the unit with ‘Pass-thru’, ‘Learn’, and ‘Emulate’ features. The unit provides an RS-232 port that can individually address and control remote displays with RS-232 interface. The UHBX-6S also provides PoH (Power over HDBaseT) on all outputs. Hall Research: www.hall-research.com Australian Distributor: www.nas.solutions

Atlona unveils the new Omega Series of switching, extension, and video processing solutions. Three products lead off the Omega Series, including the ATOME-TX21-WP-E is a two-input, 4K EU/UK wallplate switcher and HDBaseT transmitter with one HDMI input, one USB-C input and one HDBaseT output. Midwich: 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au Atlona: www.atlona.com

Apart Audio’s Design in-ceiling back can loudspeaker features a thin-edge grille and neodymium grille fixing magnets provides sturdy and easy installation while subtly blending into the surrounding design. Using only two Apart loudspeaker clamps and the included grid tile rails, installation is quick and easy, decreasing installation time and reducing labour costs. Apart Audio: www.apartaudio.com Australian Distributor: www.ambertech.com.au

AVIXA has announced the release of its newest standard, Rack Building for Audiovisual Systems (F502.01:2018), which details the requirements for integrating AV systems into racks by providing a process for consistent assembly, mounting, and cable management. This standard covers the fundamental elements of building a reliable AV equipment rack, including: Assembly of AV equipment racks; mounting and affixing of rack-mount and nonrack-mount AV equipment; cable management; and final cleaning and labelling. Avixa: www.avixa.org

Award-winning sound from small-format loudspeakers.

RoomMatch® Utility loudspeakers Bose® RoomMatch Utility loudspeakers bring the award-winning sound of RoomMatch arrays to smaller 2-way point-source designs. Available in a variety of sizes and coverage patterns, these high-SPL loudspeakers can be used for many retail and restaurant applications, and as specific zone fill and floor monitors for houses of worship and performing arts centers. The line of products features the Bose EMB2 compression driver to reduce distortion and deliver consistent tonal balance across all product models. Available in black or white.

AUS 1300 368 436 | sales_australia@bose.com NZ 0800 705 500 | sales_newzealand@bose.com

Learn more at PRO.BOSE.COM

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NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

LOOP: NETWORK CONTROL

SOLSTICE 3.4 ADDS SIGNAGE

SVSI ASSAILS HIGH SEAS

The new C Series hearing loop drivers from Ampetronic not only feature digital signal processing and networking functionality, but enable fast, accurate setup and adjustment via a very simple and easy to use digital interface. The C Series has the added benefit of networking capability, enabling installers, technicians and facilities managers to remotely control the driver and monitor its status along with resistance and induction measurements. Email condition alerts provide reassurance that, regardless of location, an operator will be informed of any issues with performance delivery. Networking also provides the opportunity for future integration with Loopworks Measure for automated commissioning. The C Series is now available for system specification in Loopworks Design which affords user direct access to expert design support, design time which is 10x faster than designing by hand, and added competitive advantage through reduced design costs.

With the release of Solstice version 3.4 by Mersive Technologies, any screen in any meeting space can display digital signage content when it’s not being used for collaboration. Solstice 3.4 provides seamless transition between digital signage and wireless sharing/collaboration. The new version supports the playback of HTML signage content from a designated URL between meetings. As an add-on delivered via a software update, Solstice digital signage is cost effective for deployment in the smallest huddle space as well as the largest auditoria. The addition of digital signage capabilities in the Solstice 3.4 release follows room calendar integration with Solstice added last year. Chris Jaynes, CTO of Mersive, comments, “Solstice is evolving in to a complete meeting platform, including scheduling before the meeting, collaboration during the meeting and signage display at all other times.”

Maritime NZ’s new Risk Coordination Centre includes a fresh start for the AV. Integrator, Asnet Technologies, selected an AMX SVSI Networked AV solution — one of the first of it’s type to be deployed in New Zealand. Paul Thompson, Account Manager, Asnet Technologies: “We needed the ability to switch any input to any output across their environment. The AMX SVSI solution was able to provide us with the flexibility, functionality, and scalability we needed to get the job done.” Asnet Technologies installed AMX touch panels with integrated controllers to integrate the audio system with other AV devices and the AMX N1000 Video Over IP Encoder/Decoders as part of a full AV solution. To be able to address larger groups of people, JBL surface mount and pendant speakers were positioned to reduce audio spill into other areas. The system allows the new and improved RCCNZ to distribute media leveraging common network switches in any size and configuration.

Ampetronic: www.ampetronic.co Australian Distributor: www.jands.com.au

Midwich: 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au Mersive: www.mersive.com

Harman: www.harman.com Australian Distributors: www.avt.tech / www.cmi.com.au

See the full picture with 180°c panoramic view Find out more on avt.tech/panacast

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FEATURE

Dispensing with Convention Epson Moverio goes to work.

ractical, real world use of smartglasses aren’t (yet) two a penny. Which is why this case study for the use of Epson’s Moverio smartglasses is so interesting. The School of Pharmacy at Griffith University’s virtual learning environment has been equipped with six edge-blended Epson ultra-short throw interactive projectors and Epson’s Moverio BT300 augmented reality smartglasses. The new teaching tool allows students to (virtually) work in different environments, including hospital and community pharmacy from anywhere in the world without ever having to leave the classroom. “One big advantage of the new technology is to facilitate better student preparation for placements which gives both the student and their supervisor a better on-site experience,” says Dr Grant, Deputy Head (Learning and Teaching) from the School of Pharmacy. Grant and his team undertook a great deal of research into the latest in AR and projection technology and how it could best serve their needs. “Projection was a given and we knew smartglasses were the way forward but finding the right ones took some time as we wanted a dualvision heads-up OLED display that was easy to use, had a small frame and an integrated camera for augmented reality.”

SMART MONEY

The other requirement was the ability to run applications like Wikitude and to display webbased content with great clarity. Finally it had to be an affordable solution: “When all of our research was concluded there was only one solution that met all of these requirements, the Epson Moverio AR smartglasses.” Grant has set the classroom up so he can integrate any number of the projectors with the Moverio BT-300 smartglasses. This makes the learning process particularly fluid as he explained, “We can flick between sources and displays seamlessly and rapidly. It’s total interactivity with augmented reality. The Moverio BT-300 are connected via a wireless dongle to our main PC

which gives them immediate access to the multiple displays and tablets. As a result we use the BT-300 to find products in the dispensary for the students to work with in realtime and, as all the projectors are linked, all the students are seeing what the wearer of the BT-300 is seeing so it’s a complete, activity-based learning situation.” He added, “Soon we will be able to wear the BT-300, look at a patient and dispense medication all via the menu system within the smartglasses. The BT-300 allows true AI and true accessibility of information in realtime whilst teaching, learning and practicing medicine and bridges the gap between innovation and education.”  Epson: www.epson.com.au

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FEATURE

Anatomy of an AV Over IP System Macquarie Uni’s trailblazing lab upgrade.

he Macquarie Uni Surgical Skills Lab upgrade, with its use of AV over IP is remarkable because it’s a trailblazing project; it’s ongoing (demonstrating the promised flexibility and scalability of AV over IP); and it’s depended on a uni AV department that’s thoroughly assessed the options and hoed their own row, so to speak. So although this isn’t the newest story in town, it’s one of the best. The lab is used by the medical community to explore human anatomy. Effectively it’s a room with a number of identical operating theatres (or medical stations): one for the lecturer and six more for students. Each is equipped with a camera displays, speakers, and a central LCD display and projector. FROM 1 WAY TO EVERY WAY

Until the AV over IP work was done, the sharing of images was really one way. The lecturer could share what he was looking at to the other stations. But only after an assistant individually switched the source on the students stations. Iain Brew, Clinical AV & IT Coordinator at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University, decided he would

do something about the lack of collaboration, without throwing out all the existing kit and starting again. Brew designed a new Gefen video over IPbased system that allows the entire lab to function with one cohesive matrix, thus enabling any video source to be routed to any video destination in full HD quality. The new system also allows any user to control video content sharing with an Apple iPad Pro tablet. “If a student makes an interesting discovery, their images can instantly be displayed on the room’s main projector,” Brew explained. “And the instructor can also send his or her camera feed to all displays in the lab during a demonstration, or with a push of a button, return all the displays back to the individual pendant inputs. The system makes research sharing so much easier.” IPAD IRIDIUM

“All routing enabled by Gefen is controlled from a wall-mounted iPad Pro running iRidium Mobile software, which allowed us to program our control system in-house. Users can make preset selections on the home page, or delve deeper and route individual video sources to destinations on

GEFEN SOLUTION Brew installed one Gefen EXT-CU-LAN Matrix Controller to serve as the basis of the new video over IP infrastructure to guarantee seamless video sharing amongst the lab’s 10 Stryker VisionElect 26-inch medical displays. Brew also installed 16 Gefen HDMI Senders, 15 Gefen HDMI Receivers, two Gefen KVM Senders, one Gefen KVM Receiver, three Gefen Scalers, two Gefen HDMI scalers, 10 Gefen SDI-HDMI Converters, and one Gefen Audio Converter.

the ‘Video’ page,” Brew said. “As added peace of mind, lab operators can also make routes and recall presets from the EXT-CU-LAN front panel or web GUI too, providing plenty of control redundancy and backup.” STRICT SIX WEEKS

The system is also equipped with video conferencing and recording technology, including a Panasonic AW-HE40 PTZ roof-mounted camera and an AJA RovoCam 4K block camera used for high resolution display and recording.

AN EXPERIENCE AT

EVERY TURN EVERY MOMENT MATTERS LEARN MORE AT: DAKTRONICS.COM/SHOPPINGCENTERS

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FEATURE

over

AV OVER IP: A SURGICAL APPROACH Here’s an excerpt from an interesting interview with Iain Brew, who spoke to Bennett Liles of Sound & Video Contractor. Iain starts by describing the tech upgrade journey, which began with looking into how to better control the video routing and how that led to video over IP: Iain Brew: I think our highest priority was to improve the control of what we had. However, as we went deeper into the project we realised that we really needed to start thinking about the quality of our audio and video as well, so we did it as a coherent project. In order to do so we needed a new matrix — we have so many inputs and outputs in the space that it was going to get very expensive very quickly.

I also wanted something that was going to be scalable for other upgrades we might be doing in our building — the ability to link everything with a common system. Video over IP was the logical step for us. I looked at a few different products. The thing that stood out for me with the Gefen solution was its matrix controller. It’s a piece of hardware that sits on the network that can receive simple routing commands and then that figures out all the complicated multicasting and network configuration for you. So it’s very, very easy to program, compared to other products where you have to actually talk to the switch itself by logging into its console and reaching its V-LAN.

The Gefen product seemed to be the logical solution, and the other thing I like about it is it’s highly scalable — anything up to 65,000 devices I believe. I hope we never reach that number! That would be quite a mess of work to look after. But the other great thing is their new ultrahigh definition products are backwards compatible with the high definition products we’ve bought — when we do something in another part of the building, we don’t have to rip everything out and start again. They will talk to each other. I think that’s fantastic that our investment is protected and future-proofed.

An Extron SMP111 recorder coupled with a Synology RackStation NAS allows students to record video of their findings so that content can be easily uploaded to the learning management system (LMS) or passed on to clients for review and assessment. Iain Brew and the Surgical Skills team worked on a strict budget within a six-week time frame. With great customer service and easy installation

software, he accomplished the Faculty’s goals without issue. “Gefen’s Syner-G and its autodiscovery tools make it easy to quickly set up the video aspect of the installation,” he commented. “We also really appreciated the great technical support from the team at Gefen, as well as from Jackie Roos at JAMWare for iRidium Mobile.” As mentioned, Brew reused most of the existing speakers, projectors, cabling and more.

Additionally, the uni used the new Gefen system to enable potential future add-ons. “We bought only what we needed now,” Brew explained. “It is easy for us to upgrade and expand with our Gefen system. We can grow it organically by adding inexpensive network switches and Tx/Rx units as required rather than having to replace entire and expensive matrix frames with dedicated cabling should we exceed capacity.” 

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Kara Strikes Goldie Amphitheatre Home of the Arts selects L-Acoustics

he Gold Coast has done much more than rename its cultural precinct. Nestled between parklands, a lake, and Surfer’s Paradise, HOTA (Home of the Arts), unveiled its new $37.5m outdoor amphitheatre earlier this year. HOTA’s new outdoor stage required a sound system that could deliver superb audio quality for a wide range of events. An L-Acoustics Kara system provided by Gold Coast L-Acoustics sales and installation specialist/integrator con-sol has drawn rave reviews from performers and audiences alike. As with many large-scale projects, there were challenges — one of which was that the outdoor stage had been constructed within an urban residential area. A noise management plan would need to be implemented to provide a great experience for performers and audience alike, without disturbing the neighbours. “While a benchmark system had been proposed, in the interest of accountability and transparency, a loudspeaker shootout was organised, from which the L-Acoustic Kara was ultimately selected to best suit the operational requirements of the outdoor stage,” explains

HOTA’s Technical Supervisor, Richard Muecke. con-sol supplied the L-Acoustics system as part of the shootout. Managing Director Bill Karaitiana and con-sol’s technical team were responsible for delivering the Kara system, which outperformed the benchmark system both in terms of performance and cost. 5 STAR HOTA

The system itself is a flown stereo system comprising two main arrays of 14 Kara each, and two sub arrays of five SB18 subs, hanging directly behind the main arrays. Four X8 full range cabinets provide additional coverage at the front of the stage. Depending on the demands of the event, an additional 12 112P compact loudspeakers and four discreet SB15P subwoofers can also be deployed. The entire system is driven by 11 LA4X amplified controllers, and was designed with extensive use of L-Acoustics’ Soundvision 3D modelling software. “Given that no loudspeaker from any manufacturer had been heard at the site prior to the shootout, the modelling provided by

Soundvision is testament to its predictive abilities,” explains Muecke. “The results matched the Soundvision model precisely and we now use the programme extensively to incorporate different sound designs as specified on an event needs basis. This has included supplementing the system with additional components such as L-Acoustics ARCS, SB28 and KS28 cabinets as out fill and low frequency extensions.” Following a performance by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at HOTA’s outdoor stage, FOH engineer Geoff McGowan raved: “The Kara system installed at HOTA on the Gold Coast has blown me away. The clarity and articulation were superb and perfectly translated both the full power and minute subtleties of the orchestra's dynamics in full flight. This allowed the pure emotion of the performance to easily translate to the audience, and with such a high level of transparency that the system became invisible.”  L-Acoustics: www.l-acoustics.com Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or www.jands.com.au con-sol: www.con-sol.com.au

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FEATURE

Sibyl Liberties

Tricky multifunction, multi-level college space given some AV love. Text:/ Preshan John

omen’s College is located in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown. The boarding campus caters for up to 290 students, most of whom are from Sydney University, as well as affiliate students who come in to use the facilities for tutorials, programs and other academic services. Recently, Women’s College decided to build a new multi-purpose facility onsite called The Sibyl Centre. The main intended uses for the building were to host lectures and presentations, as well as musical performances, film screenings, productions and gala dinners. “The Sibyl Centre was designed to become a standout building for the college,” says Peter Bull, Business Manager of Women’s College Sydney. “It provides a lot of facilities for the students such as music rooms, tutorial rooms and study areas. The main hall downstairs can cater for around 300 people.” The Women’s College engaged Sydney-based integrator AV Media Systems to design and install the audiovisual system for the new venue. LEVEL HEADED

The Sibyl Centre is a unique space. The bottom floor is where the main action happens, be it a gala dinner, full band performance, orchestral recital, or an oratory presentation. Climb the flight of stairs and you arrive at a relaxed multi-use area with couches and tables. The circular balcony on this floor looks down onto the main stage — so the PA had to sufficiently cover this second area too. Then one floor up is the library, which has a balcony opposing the one on the second floor.

What makes the space challenging from an acoustic perspective is that the partial second and third floors leave an open ceiling area. Look up from the ground floor and you see right to the top of the building. The PA had to supply coverage to both first and second floors, while minimising spill to the third. “The client request was to have a high level of audio distribution sound for voice and stage production.” says Luke Oliver, Director of AV Media Systems. “It was a joint effort between the architect, myself and the school principal to design something within the space that wasn’t going to be overbearing but was also going to fill the area. We had to make sure the footprint was minimal because the space was designed architecturally with a lot of glass and a view to the courtyard behind the stage.” Because the audiovisual system would be utilised by a range of users, it was important the system’s operation was easy enough for anyone to run. At the same time, the space required the ability to reinforce a reasonably complicated show, such as a full band or production. A hearing loop needed to be part of the overall system as well. T-ING IT UP

Due to the demand for a small footprint, AV Media Systems decided to go with the d&b audiotechnik T-Series line array system as the main front-of-house rig. T-Series is d&b’s compact array solution. Luke Oliver says, “The design team at d&b helped us minimise box size using the T-Series array and also have them powdercoated white to

better suit the aesthetics.” Luke worked with NAS technical experts Michael Prestipino and Thomas Kelly to simulate the perfect rigging solution, such as the hang and splay angles, the array height, and subwoofer positioning. After creating a number of deployment options, the team arrived at a solution that didn’t get in the way aesthetically, pushed the SPL toward the ground floor, and minimised stray SPL hitting the library on the third floor. The final system comprises two hangs of five Ti10L array elements, complemented by four Ti-SUBs groundstacked two per side. A string of SoundTube CM82-EZ-II ceiling speakers are installed under the balcony on the ground floor to ensure those sitting far back in the room still hear full-range sound. Both d&b and SoundTube loudspeaker installations were commissioned by Michael and Thomas from NAS. MATRIX MANAGEMENT

An Ashly ne24.24m matrix manages the I/O of the AV system. A Midas M32R digital console takes care of live mixing duties. AV Media Systems designed the solution to have two main modes: Presenter (for one-touch setup via a Crestron control panel, perfect for lectures or applications that don’t require an audio engineer), and Operator (for more control over multiple inputs). Operator mode routes all the inputs through the Ashly ne24.24m matrix into the AES50 port on the Midas M32R console through a single Cat cable. After plugging in the power cable (both cables pop out of a neat floor box near

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the second-floor balcony), the M32R is instantly show-ready. Michael pre-configured all channels on the desk during the installation phase. A Midas DL16 breakout box on stage offers 16 extra inputs plus eight returns to effortlessly cater for a variety of applications. Hearing aid augmentation is provided by the Listen Technologies IR radiator/transmitter combo. Matthew Bollinger, Engineer at AV Media Systems, was pleasantly surprised at how painless the installation was. “The Listen Technologies is unbelievably easy to install and use. The deployment is just a single cable run to an antenna. You plug it in, turn the volume up, and it just works. It took about an hour to unbox and set up.” LIVING IT UP

The Sibyl Centre has already lived up to its purpose of accommodating a diverse range of events. It continues to impress all who use it. “It has been used already for seminars, lectures, cabaret performances, formal dinners, outside business functions and conferences, on top of what the students use it for,” says Peter. “We have been very happy with the audiovisual system so far. And the groups that have come in have been very happy with the speakers and the sound.” “At night, the school leaves the inside lights on and opens up the downstairs blinds,” says Matthew. “People driving by look in and see the system then call them to book the space. It’s received a lot of good feedback.” “This project was a big step forward for us and my team,” reflects Luke Oliver. “It was a great feeling seeing our designs come to fruition. We’re very proud of it.” 

FEATURE

AV Media Systems: www.avsystems.com.au NAS (d&b, Soundtube, Ashly, Midas): www.nas.solutions

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FEATURE

Watt’s Up Live venue ups PA ante.

ax Watt’s House of Music in Sydney has upped the ante with a significant bolstering of its PA stocks. The new Adamson S10-based PA was installed by 8th Day Sound and has quickly started paying for itself, according to venue manager, Lachlan Russell: “It’s a fantastic rig for us. We looked at the fact that competing mid-cap venues were installing more capable PAs and we took a look at the production capacity of our venue. “We looked at the options, and the Adamson S10 had the right mix of value for money, flexibility and recognition from the international production community.”

bands, the new PA has opened doors the venue didn’t see coming. “We’ve had a big uptick in bands using the venue for production rehearsals prior to going out on tour.” The likes of The Rubens, Dean Lewis, and Flight Facilities have all been through the venue prior to national tours. 8th Day Sound: www.8thdaysound.com CMI (Adamson): (03) 9315 2244 or sales@cmi.com.au NAS (d&b): 1800 441 440 or nas.solutions

PA FLEXIBILITY

The flexibility Max Watt’s needed was a PA that could be just as useful on a conference booking as it is for a cranking live gig. “We really wanted the capacity to host a wide range of acts and bands. This type of rig accommodates blues, rock, punk, electronic… it really is a world leader and provides a superior experience for the bands and the punters.” Not only have the early reviews been positive from the public, tour promoters, manager and

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Adelaide Convention Centre Comms Choice Reidel MediorNet get ACCC talking.

he Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) has recently been given a huge shot in the arm. A large-scale redevelopment say nearly $400m pumped into the ACC. The money has paid for two new buildings (East and West) and saw the deployment of an expansive signal transport and communications backbone powered by Riedel’s MediorNet real-time media network and Artist digital matrix intercom system. MediorNet provides integrated, decentralised, and fully redundant signal distribution and processing throughout the Centre’s three buildings, with an available capacity of 1092Gbps and the ability to route more than 1000 simultaneous HD-SDI signals. Riedel MediorNet represents a significant upgrade over the ACC’s previous infrastructure, which relied on analogue audio multicores, RGBHV video cabling, and DMX over copper cabling. The decentralised MediorNet backbone affords the ACC the ability to route any type of signal from any point in the venue to any other point or points in the convention centre without requiring staff to reconfigure any cables. “Previously, running the signal cables to support a client event could take up to two hours. Now we’re able to configure the MediorNet components in just a few minutes,”

said Matthew Stanton, Technology and Venue Operations Manager, Adelaide Convention Centre. “The time savings and reduced labour mean that we can offer more flexible services to our clients and accommodate last-minute requests, such as increases in signal counts. This kind of flexibility simply wasn’t possible with our previous infrastructure.” MEDIOR SHOWER

Deployed in a decentralised configuration, the ACC’s MediorNet backbone ensures fully redundant distribution of all signals including video, analogue and digital audio, intercom, ArtNet lighting control, AV control system signals, and data for speaker support. Each of the three ACC buildings is outfitted with a MediorNet Modular mainframe paired with a MetroN core router. MetroN provides robust video router functionality with switching delays of less than 40ms, as well as high-speed re-routing. The frame can function within a larger MediorNet installation, interfacing with other MediorNet nodes via fibre. The ACC also has 23 MediorNet Compact and Compact Pro stageboxes for portable signal distribution at locations such as stage floors, grids, and front-of-house positions. There are

also five MediorNet MicroN high-density media distribution network devices for additional signal distribution requirements. One of the MicroN devices is configured as a dedicated multiviewer using the MediorNet MultiViewer App. For robust crew and staff communications, an Artist 128 digital matrix intercom mainframe supports wired and wireless intercom beltpacks, with signals distributed throughout the three buildings by MediorNet. Riedel’s Performer Digital Partylines are carried over the MediorNet Compact Pros via native AES3 paths, which are all connected to the Artist matrix via MADI. “The ACC is a dazzling showcase for everything that sets MediorNet apart from its competition — namely, decentralised signal routing, redundancy of core components, and the flexibility to set up pointto-point or point-to-multipoint configurations on the fly and with minimal effort,” said John Bell, Riedel Communications General Manager, Australia. “With the modularity and scalability to grow the system as the Centre's requirements expand, MediorNet is a valuable competitive differentiator as the ACC continues to compete for global convention and event clients.”  Riedel: www.riedel.net

FEATURE

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FEATURE

Perfect Pitch Marketing agency rescues its meeting and presentation spaces with Savant control and switching. Text:/ Christopher Holder

o much depends on the pitch. Dozens of man hours go into a kick-arse marketing campaign but for the client to hit the Go button, the pitch needs to fire imaginations. In other words, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars can rest on a few short minutes with the client, selling the sizzle of the idea. DDB is an international player in the supply of marketing services. Its Sydney office has a versatile boardroom cum presentation space. There are two spaces really with an operable wall — handy for meetings, and all-staff town halls where the sliding doors can open up to a larger foyer. But it’s during the client pitches where the space becomes the company’s nexus point. The room has to perform.

WOBBLY WHEELS

The trouble is, it didn’t. Technical gremlins bedevilled the room and the AV systems. There was a control system in there, installed some years back but the user interface was a litany of the ‘possible’ rather than the ‘desirable’ — nothing intuitive about it. JFK is an AV integrator with its roots in residential. It has a handful of commercial clients, including DDB. JFK had been working on a number of smaller jobs within the business. DDB finally pulled the trigger on a meeting room AV overhaul. Chris Daley as IT Support Engineer was copping it on a weekly basis. “Only the week prior to the overhaul we

had the audio cut out right in the middle of an important client pitch.” Chris Daley and the team would be required to sit in on any meeting in an attempt to keep the AV wheels from falling off. Suffice it to say, the potential for reputation damage was severe. SWIPE FOR A GREAT UX

This wouldn’t be a totally fresh start. JFK’s solution needed to integrate aspects of the current system such as the (more than capable) Cisco VC system and the Bose loudspeakers that had been more recently upgraded. But ultimately the brief to JFK was: ‘make it work’ and ‘make it simple’. JFK’s boss, Mark Nettleton, had no hesitation

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in spec’ing a Savant control system. One of the big drawcards of a Savant control system is its ability to run the UI on Apple devices. In fact, JFK counts Apple as a client and had years of experience integrating Savant-based iPad touch control into residential and, increasingly, commercial projects. “The iOS gesture control is just so familiar to people, and it so intuitive that clients instantly respond. There’s no learning curve,” commented Mark Nettleton. SIMPLICITY REIGNS

The UI is a key aspect of the system’s simplicity, but that was just as much about JFK’s ability to listen as Savant’s familiar gesture based control. Mark Nettleton’s team sat down with the client and observed how the meeting spaces were used day to day. “After seeing how DDB works in the rooms,” explained Mark Nettleton. “We set about designing a UI that involved the fewest steps required to a) put the rooms into the right configuration for that meeting; and b) choose the source they wanted displayed on the screens. It had to be absolutely foolproof. “Effectively, the client went from a UI based on how a switching matrix works, to a design based on how the brain works. The difference was night and day.” Sources include HD presentation video, Cisco C60 VC, Foxtel or free-to-air. The Savant switching hardware is card based, allowing JFK to select the right combination of input and output cards with a future upgrade as simple as swapping out a card. As it happened, JFK spec’ed 4K compatible cards to be ready for the inevitable arrival of UHD displays.

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MISSION CRITICAL

‘Mission critical’ is a term that’s mostly (and justifiably) reserved for applications where the implications of system failure are dire or even endangering life. It’s not so much of a stretch to describe the AV systems of the DDB meeting rooms as ‘mission critical’. The cracks appearing in the previous AV setup were actively sabotaging DDB’s core business of facilitating clear and inspiring communication. And with blue-chip clients such as VW, McDonald’s, Westpac and Foxtel on the books it was a matter of time before an ‘oopsy’ would turn into a serious loss of business. The DDB AV presentation systems are no longer a source of embarrassment, quite the contrary, they’re reliable and easily controlled. “We have confidence in the engineering behind Savant,” remarked Mark Nettleton. “To know that it’s going to be reliable and fit for purpose, and to know it’s flexible enough to fit just about every application. From the client perspective, they only ever see the user interface, and the Savant UI is easy to customise while looking sharp and modern. For a client like DDB, which trades on image and brand integrity, Savant is a particularly good fit.”  Avation (Savant): (07) 5580 3300 or avation.com.au JFK: (02) 8002 4005 or jfk.com.au

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FEATURE

All Hands on Deck

Text:/ Christopher Holder

AV over IP Beer nirvana.

CONTACTS Showtime: (02) 9824 1004 or www.show-pro.com.au Technical Audio Group (QSC): (02) 9519 0900 or www.tag.com.au Hills (Wyrestorm): 1300 445571 or www.hills.com.au Hitachi (Maxell Projectors): (02) 9888 4100 or dps@hitachi.com.au AV

over

ll Hands Brewing House is all about the beer. The redesign of the King Street Wharf venue was two years in the planning and took seven months to build. The venue features extensive indoor and outdoor eating and drinking along with dedicated function space. The Maddison Architect-designed interiors are exposed and raw: timber, Cyclone fencing, Edison globes, tessellated brickwork and copper… so much copper. In fact, metal conduit is so dominant that the AV contractor remarked they couldn’t even run speaker cable a few inches without copper or galvanised pipe making an appearance to conceal it. ANY SOURCE ANY WHERE

The audiovisual aspects of the venue have also been well considered thanks to a design and install by Showtime. There are 11 fixed point TVs and a large 160-inch projection screen (using a Hitachi CPHD9321 8200-lumen installation projector) in the function space, all fed a choice of three Fox or three free-to-air sources.

A Wyrestorm NetworkHD video-over-IP system allows any source to be routed to any destination via a standard ethernet network and PakEdge network switches (“I prefer Pakedge as the ports are on the back. Keeps things neater.”). The system takes the place of a old-school MATV or RF modulated ‘pub TV’ system and is full HD. The Wyrestorm JPEG2000 video over IP alternative means the TVs could easily fall under the control of the Q-SYS control system rather than requiring a bunch of remote controls. PEFECT LEVELS

The audio is all QSC. A large number of surfacemount AD series loudspeakers and 12-inch subwoofers ensure even coverage while not overly exciting the room with all its industrial-chic hard surfaces. QSC CXD network amps provide the power. Showtime designed a simple iOS user interface for All Hands Brewing House managers to take control of the AV. To make matters easier, Showtime wrote a little script for the Q-SYS control system such that the

background music level would automatically raise and attenuate in sympathy with the ambient noise level. When the joint is jumping, the music remains an element. When a group of 20, say, depart at once, the background music instantly heads south to ensure the levels aren’t jarring. When AV Asia Pacific landed at the venue for an ale, the Darling Harbour ferry’s toot was loud enough to duck the BGM. Which Showtime’s Project Manager Aaron Lee assured me was an easy fix! “We were given the luxury of a good audiovisual budget to spec an appropriate system into this venue,” noted Aaron Lee. “As an audio guy myself, I know that if a venue’s music sound scratchy or edgy I don’t want to hang out very long. The audio is certainly a part of the venue that influences customers behaviour and sales. “The All Hands’ audio is, in my opinion, nice and warm, and comfortable wherever you sit. “The lighting, temperature, the aesthetics and the audio are all keeping me here spending money.” 

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FEATURE

RTI Control: RSL Not RSI

he responsibility of a club renovation weighs heavily on the committee and management. Get it right and membership is given a real boost. Get it wrong and you may as well have spent 20 percent of the outlay on a simple refresh. Brighton-le-Sands RSL has extensively renovated its facilities. The layout has been altered, and the venue has been modernised. WED Group has been working with the club for about five years on a service contract and taking care of the electrical work. Like many other electrical contractors WED Group has been moving into AV work, and was happy to pitch for the full electrical and AV install and integration contract for the club’s renovation. WED Group not so long ago was a father and son electrical outfit, and is now considerably more formidable. Matthew Joyce is the Services & AV Manager, and took the lead on this project.

“It’s traditionally not easy to convince small- to medium-sized clubs on the merits of investing in AV,” observes Matthew Joyce. “They’re very careful with budgets, and properly integrated AV is often the first component to be cut. It was very satisfying to see Brighton-leSands RSL taking it seriously.” EASY ON THE EYE

‘Seriously’ entails 40-odd Samsung displays, Hitachi projection, Grandview motorised screens, Sonance Professional in-ceiling speakers, Crown amplifiers and Biamp Tesira audio DSP processing (programmed by Waller Solutions). Sitting over the top is an RTI control system. “RTI has been ideal for a club install of this size. We’ve been able to take care of the programming in-house and give the client exactly what they want, presented in a way that’s as easy for the manager as it is for the receptionist to work with.” The new 10-inch RTI touch panels are very easy on the eye, and WED Group’s programming and UI is exemplary. The club has a handful of ‘set pieces’ that are neatly programmed as pre-configured presets. The Ode preset, for example (the traditional ‘lest we forget’ litany that’s played nightly at 6pm), sees the RTI control system taking over every displays, dimming the lights, and setting the audio. The Karaoke preset in the function space asks the user which of the two input plates they’re using then sets the AV of the room accordingly, including the enabling of the Sennheiser wireless mics in the

appropriate zone(s). The Raffle shortcut takes a laptop input and sends a signal via the ZeeVee modulator to pre-designated displays automatically switched to the appropriate TV channel. It’s fall-off-a-log easy for the club to take care of business. Oh, and the glacé cherry? A dedicated, air conditioned machine room, which makes maintenance a breeze.  WED Group: (02) 9525 1623 or www.wedgroup.com.au Connected Media (RTI): connectedmediaaustralia.com.au

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FEATURE

Stable AV Networking Inglis thoroughbred sales turn over hundreds of millions of dollars. Now it has a signage and IPTV system that keeps pace. Text:/ Christopher Holder

he horses are the real stars. And when you consider that many of these thoroughbreds can go for $1m or more at auction, you begin to appreciate the reasoning for the $140m investment. The newly developed Riverside precinct features more than 800 stables, extensive parade space for horses, a 5-star hotel with 144 rooms, state-of-the-art conferencing facilities, allday dining, as well as a leisure and retail complex with over 1000 parking spots. The main game is the handful of thoroughbred auctions. To give you a sense of what’s at stake, the Inglis top tier sale — the Easter yearling sale — sees somewhere between 500 and 600 horses sold at an average of some $350,000 every two minutes! The company knows what it’s doing; it’s been in the business of selling racehorses for over 150 years — initially in Pitt Street, Sydney, then on a Randwick site, and now in Sydney’s south west at a Warwick Farm Racecourse property. The Warwick Farm move has allowed Inglis to expand operations, not just in terms of how many horses are for sale — they’re planning on putting

1000 horses on next year’s Easter Yearling Sale prospectus — but also the number of potential bidders and those interested. WIND IN THE SALES

Come auction day, all the action is focussed on the sales arena. Part auction house, part concert venue, the sales arena allows the hundreds of horses to be efficiently auctioned at the best price possible. The horse is led onto the stage; its vital statistics displayed; the auctioneer begins the bidding; the bid spotters in the crowd ensure all bids are acknowledged; the auctioneer’s assistant updates the bids for the displays in real time and adjusts the bidding increments; and the winning bidder is instantly approached by sales staff with an iPad — a signature later, the horse has changed hands and the new owner has all the details texted and emailed to their phone. The atmosphere is crazy-hyped: millions of dollars are changing hands, everyday lovers of good horse-flesh are rubbing shoulders with sheiks and royalty; people are lapping up the

hospitality and the excitement of the auction — after all, here is where the next Black Caviar or Takeover Target is being discovered. It’s fast paced and intoxicatingly glamorous. IPTV: CONTROL OF WHAT, WHERE & WHEN

Network AV plays a huge role. The entire AV package was designed, integrated and installed by The P.A. People. Headlining the AV package is the Bose ShowMatch line array system, an Exterity IPTV system that pushes content to all 140 screens around the precinct and the VuePix hi-res LED screens. Putting all your video content on the network has real advantages. Every screen is an IP endpoint and, via the Exterity software, Inglis’ CIO Deane Jacobs and his team can program what content goes to which destination and at what time. Deane Jacobs: “The Exterity IPTV system gives us a huge amount of flexibility in being able to control devices and zones — scheduling IPTV devices to change channels before an auction starts and to show other channels after the auction,

FEATURE

such as auction results and advertising. This sort of centralised control — whether that’s from a laptop or an iPad — has proved invaluable.” SOUND ON THE HOOF

This is an unusual performance venue. The venue has high aspirations to attract the conferencing and function market, as well as live music events. The P.A. People discussed the clients’ needs, fleshing out the immediate demands on the audio and lighting, as well as the potential unforeseen demands. The Managing Director of The P.A. People, Chris Dodds explains: “The original brief nominated a headline European loudspeaker for the job. But the same brief hadn’t considered stage lighting and video, so we thought we’d help balance the budget and spec a performance AV system that included all those elements without breaking the bank. “The beauty of the Bose ShowMatch system is you can save money without compromising on performance, as you are able to use fewer boxes and tailor your coverage to the space. “ShowMatch is a unique combination of a traditional-style line array cabinet and a constant curvature cabinet — you get the best of both worlds. You would normally need to back off acoustic output on the nearfield boxes at the bottom of the line array hang. Not so with ShowMatch because the dispersion of those

elements is much greater — in this case 20° in the vertical and 100° in the horizontal. That provides cost savings — via fewer boxes. “The top-of-the-array boxes have a 5° vertical dispersion and take care of the long throw component. “Each cabinet is still an active two-way design with a crossover at 750Hz, which is quite low in the vocal range. The EMB2 high frequency driver is remarkably smooth and punchy. “For this project we’ve employed 3 x 5° boxes at the top of the array then a 10° and a 20° underneath. “Each cabinet can handle optional and interchangeable waveguides. As mentioned, the bottom cab has a 100° waveguide fitted. It provides a very wide and even coverage. So much so that we’ve splayed the arrays out somewhat to get a full 130° coverage of the room. People look at the arrays and assume there must be a hole in the coverage in the centre. There isn’t. “Two 18-inch subwoofers aside complete the system. All the loudspeakers are powered by Bose PM8500N network amps with Dante cards.” SCREENS ON THE TROT

The showstopping LED screens provide all the clarity and brightness the auctions need. In the adrenalincharged excitement of a sale, clearly conveyed and accurate information is crucial, and the QE series VuePix LED displays provide it in spades.

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The early brief listed projection, but Chris Dodds from The P.A. People quickly poured cold water on that idea: “We were adamant. There’s so much ambient light in the sales theatre that we would have needed two or more 25,000-lumen projectors stacked to get the performance the client required. Plus the display solution needed to be capable of doing more than showing video of horses. Text and detail are also important, especially in conferencing situations — you’ve got to be able to read a spreadsheet.” The two large-format VuePix screens (each 4.5m wide and 2.5m high) are positioned next to the entrances of the parade ring on each side, with an additional 2.5m wide and 1.5m high screen installed in the middle of the ring above the speaker’s desk. The screens will display the current bidding in different currencies, along with information on the horse and even video of the horse in action. With the fine pixel pitch of 2.6mm, slimline design and lightweight aluminium frame, the installation of the new VuePix screens was quick and seamless. Deane Jacobs: “The screens are big enough for everybody in the room to see the detail and that’s the most important thing. And the screens have proven themselves outside of auction day as well. We recently hosted a conference where we patched in a Stanford University professor via video conference.

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So we had the professor up on the centre screen, with his notes he was speaking to on the other screens left and right. The displays are performing really well.” RECORD CLEARANCE

After chatting to Chris Dodds from The P.A. People and William Inglis CIO Deane Jacobs, getting all the AV aspects happily sitting on the network — Dante audio and the Exterity IPTV’s hotel room TV, digital signage delivery and other video over IP features — obviously wasn’t a walk in the park, but the payoff is immediate. Deane Jacobs: “We have a Huawei GPON gigabitcapable passive, optical network and my role is simplified by having the audio and video sitting on there. It makes monitoring and controlling the content on the screens far easier. It also means we can farm out roles and content creation roles to staff. For example, the marketing team is able to get content and push that out to certain displays — conferences, sales results, the conference agenda and the like.” In the end, and as I mentioned in the intro — it’s all about the horses. Deane Jacobs: “The system really delivered on its promise at our first sales auction. We had a 96% clearance rate — a record for any yearling sale worldwide. “The atmosphere on the night was unbelievable.”  The P.A. People: (02) 8755 8700 or www.papeople.com.au Midwich (Exterity): 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au ULA Group (VuePix): 1300 852 476 or www.ulagroup.com Bose Professional: www.bose.pro.com Inglis: www.inglis.com.au AV

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IPTV & VIDEO OVER IP. LINES BLURRED? The P.A. People’s Managing Director, Chris Dodds reflects on the blurring lines between a traditional IPTV system and video over IP. “Really it’s all down to compression and bandwidth. More recent video over IP solutions use only light or no compression algorithms, something that’s been common in broadcast circles for some time. “AV seems more intent on being proprietary and everyone having their own box that doesn’t talk to the other guy’s box. “If you look at the broadcast video side, things are more predictable with JPEG2000 compression and other mezzanine algorithms that impose only four to six lines of delay. But they’re much more open in their discussion of standards and standards compliance. “If you flick back to IPTV we’re in a space where everyone is still at H.264 or H.265 and their roots are in serving video for the internet. They’re using 20:1 and 50:1 compression algorithms rather than 2:1 or 3:1. “Currently IPTV and video over IP are different animals but it’s only a matter of time before we see those worlds converge.

“In an ideal world we’d use high compression algorithms in non time-sensitive applications, such as the delivery of TV, but still have the capacity in our processors so we can still do time-sensitive delivery. That way we can remove the discussion about latency in a real-time world. “Exterity, from our POV, is the only hardware end-to-end provider. There are other people that provide softwarebased solutions and match that with third-party encoders or decoders; Exterity does the lot. “Exterity’s claim to fame is in the venue space rather than hospitality (which is the traditional heartland of IPTV) but is moving into hospitality rather than the other way around. “The P.A. People has worked with Exterity for close on 10 years now. We’ve done, Carara stadium, Randwick’s new grandstand, and other venues. We’ve found Exterity to be very responsive; always prepared to listen. “Exterity was very helpful on this project, particularly with the hospitality aspect of the commissioning (the hotel room IPTV service) which is not usual core business for The P.A. People.”

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FEATURE

Are We There Yet? Three years into the revolution, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to review how the battle is progressing. Text:/ Derek Powell

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ow that all the Big Three are finally offering mainstream AV over IP solutions – alongside many, many specialist suppliers with both fibre and category cable offerings – what do you need to know about who is using the technology, where and why? I was amused to hear an interviewer at an industry education seminar ask a panel of top-tier integrators whether their recent projects had been “100% AV over IP”. To a person, the panel members answered: “No, not even close yet!”, but to listen to industry chatter, you could be forgiven for thinking that AVoIP was now the only game in town. It is opportune then, to shake down the current state of play and examine where we are as an industry. Will all signal transport switch to the network? And, if not, why not? AV Asia Pacific sought answers to some of the big questions from a collection of leading suppliers in our market. While there was considerable diversity in their responses, there was a surprising degree of agreement on the big issues. We’ll get to those answers in a moment. WHERE IS AVoIP BIG?

While every supplier has a bullish view on the state of AVoIP, finding information on specific installations in our region was a little elusive. There are some interesting reasons behind this. Large corporates are a natural client base for AVoIP as they usually already have high-capacity, well-managed networks that can be leveraged to provide corporation-wide coverage without making massive (additional) investment in dedicated cabling infrastructure. However, many of those same large corporates are in banking or legal services and are notoriously shy when it comes to revealing details of their internal machinations, especially where data networks are concerned. For this reason, several of my respondents, while allowing that big installations were already out there or underway, were unable to name names. Amongst those who could cite major deployments was Graham Barrett, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Innovation at avt. “Australia & New Zealand have always been early adopters of innovative new technology and since we began selling SVSI in Australia and New Zealand in 2016 the uptake has been huge,” Graham revealed. “Of around 20,000 endpoints deployed in our region there are a number of organisations with fleets of over well over 1,000. Many of the larger biggest deployments have been in Justice and Education but we have a number of Corporate deployments of similar scale — Vodafone’s new Smales Farm facility in Auckland and Lendlease’s premises in Tower Three at Barangaroo in Sydney being two examples.” As Graham indicated, Tertiary Education has enormous market potential with most Universities well served by up-to-date data networks. Ronni Guggenheim, General Manager, Atlona International has recently toured Australia and shared the same enthusiasm for the potential

of AVoIP in education. “We see a high degree of adoption across the universities around the country,” he observed. “Deakin University, being one of the leaders in digital transformation, has gone campus-wide with AVoIP adoption with more than 1000 endpoints on the horizon.” WHERE’S IPTV FIT?

Of course, AVoIP isn’t just displacing HDBaseT and matrix switchers in its march across the nation. The closely related field of IPTV is displacing MATV systems and providing many new features while retaining relative simplicity of implementation across multiple endpoints. Exterity has been particularly active in this area and Jamie Hind, APAC Sales Director sees growth continuing. “While we have grown in every area we do business in, hospitality and venues have been particularly hot areas for us,” he confirmed. “A flagship example of an Exterity deployment is the William Inglis Stables complex, where our solutions are used to deliver a world-class experience for the buying and selling of thoroughbred horses and attract new racing audiences through the adjacent luxury hotel.” [You can read a full report on this flagship project elsewhere in this issue – Ed] A third, but by no means final, front of the AVoIP assault is the inroads that traditional audio manufacturers are making. Arguably, audio started the revolution in all things digital. Digital signal processing is now the norm and the migration of audio signal transport to the network is already far advanced.

Applications where the image does need to be perfect and where latency does need to be zero … in those conversations 1Gb is shown the door — and should be shown the door — Gerry Raffaut, iMAGsystems

CENTRALISED DSP

Perhaps the most exciting area is the potential offered by centralised signal processing over ethernet. Large-scale users, like universities are seeing the benefits of using centralised DSP processing where a single processor can serve many teaching spaces. QSC has been aggressively pushing into this area, with considerable success. “Now people understand the benefits of adding audio, video and control signals to Ethernet networks, including the increased flexibility and scalability it offers over a purposebuilt infrastructure,” commented Mike Brandes, Product Manager, QSC Video for QSC. “We anticipate more and more users to migrate to networked-based solutions, especially as we continue to work closely with IT customers and large enterprises who continue to expect AV equipment on the network with the rest of its managed assets.” Mike pointed to two of the large-scale QSC implementations already up and running in Australia. “Australian National University in Canberra have deployed 12 theatres that run audio over a single network connection to two Q-SYS Core 510i processors (one is redundant) and 26 QSC I/O-8 Flex,” he revealed. “Currently deployed in 120 teaching spaces, with an estimated total roll out of 1000 spaces, RMIT has deployed Q-SYS Core processors in redundant pairs with audio endpoints in each

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room via the Q-SYS I/O-8 Flex (120 in total),” Mike continued. “Video is deployed by AMX SVSI N3000 series with at least three endpoints in each room (120x NMX-ENC-N3121 and 240x NMX-DEC-N3221).” WHERE’S AV OVER IP NOT THE BEST FIT?

The transition to AVoIP won’t happen overnight… the timeline of this transition is anybody’s guess but Extron is certainly ready to support both approaches — Joe Da Silva, Extron

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Many industries and applications rely on other signal transports. In broadcast and particularly outside broadcast applications, Serial Digital Interface (SDI) remains a preferred format. SDI can travel over much greater distances than DVI or HDMI and great use is now being made of SDI over fibre, which can quickly establish transport paths of hundreds of metres (up to 10km is common) that can also carry multiple audio channels, telemetry, and reverse paths for camera control and cueing feeds. Graham Barrett from avt also sees advantages in point-to-point solutions. “Transports like HDBaseT and simple cables provide stable and cost-effective transport solutions for huddle spaces and meeting rooms where there is no requirement to share or centrally process content,” he notes. “Networked AV has seen a big reduction in demand for large matrix switchers, but they are still required in some applications in such as Defence and Medical applications where compression and latency is not acceptable.” Extron’s Director, Product Marketing, Joe da Silva agrees, but sees change on the way. “We are seeing applications being the driving force behind selecting any given technology. There are instances where compression is not acceptable and, in those cases, native video formats such as HDMI, DisplayPort, or SDI are applicable. As the performance vs. convenience trendline continues towards convenience, I’m sure that more and more systems will move to Pro AV over IP platforms like the Extron NAV Series,” he says. With product in each camp, Atlona’s Guggenheim expressed similar views. “We see the large traditional matrix market shrinking rapidly, while matrices up to 16x16 would potentially remain in the scope of HDBaseT,” he allows. But adds this rider: “Manageability, scalability and TCO of large matrices done over AVoIP simply outperform the traditional architecture and can no longer be ignored. This is a consultant-driven market, so it is crucial for us to reach out and educate the consultants who design these systems from scratch.” DESIGN DECISION DRIVERS?

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Given apparent industry consensus that some design briefs are a natural fit for AVoIP while some are candidates for HDBaseT and matrix switchers, there is still a wide range of projects that could go either way. So what factors should be driving AV consultants or integrators decisions about which solution is best for a particular client? Cost is a big factor, yet the ground here is shifting quite rapidly. Commodity data switches are dirt cheap, giving a cost edge to smaller AVoIP multi-input or multi-display installs. On the other

hand, new and radically cheaper point-to point HDMI extenders are now hitting the market as manufacturers seek to fight the rise of networked AV. This means the costs of point-to-point transport and simple switchers are plummeting, and category cabling is still easy to run and quick to terminate. As always, the design topology should be the first consideration. Does the client need to have inputs in one location available at lots of different displays? Are there many small spaces that could benefit from centralised control systems or DSP processors? Is flexible room-joining on the agenda? Do flexible work practices mean that spaces, even entire floors need to be reconfigured regularly? Is your client IT-savvy and comfortable with IP technology? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then AVoIP should be on the agenda and we move to Big Question No.2 – should AV signals have their own dedicated network? DEDICATED NETWORK?

What are the pros and cons of roll-your-own networks? Before deciding whether to offer a dedicated AV network or to place your endpoints onto the existing data network you need to ask one question: Who exactly is your client? If the decision maker is the IT Department, then this is a decision for them to make (with appropriate input from the designer or integrator, of course). There are a variety of views from within the industry as to which is the best approach. Many suppliers and Tier One integrators prefer a dedicated network for AV as it means the configuration of the network, allocation of bandwidth and selection of switch hardware can all be optimised to suit the requirements of the AV encoders and decoders. Other network events, such as automatic daily data back-up routines cannot swamp the network and disrupt video feeds by gobbling up bandwidth. On the downside, building an entirely separate cable and hardware infrastructure can largely or completely kill the price advantage of AVoIP solutions. It also negates many of the flexibilities of a converged network solution. Being able to make any network connection an input to a display is a formidable advantage and keeping everything on one network empowers a range of standard IT monitoring and diagnostic tools. Most large-scale deployments, like universities or large corporate users are committed to the idea of a converged solution. CLIENT IT DEPARTMENTS

As we’ve discussed, whether to put AV transport on the existing network or build your own is a decision best made early in the design process. Either way, though, establishing a solid relationship with the IT department is still crucial. The old attitude of “Not on my network you don’t” is passing quickly but there’s still plenty of resistance. While some IT chiefs see AV as an unwelcome addition to their workload and

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Being able to make any network connection an input to a display is a formidable advantage and keeping everything on one network empowers a range of standard IT monitoring and diagnostic tools

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a way to bog down network speed, others are recognising the opportunity. Many CIOs now realise they can use the provision of additional, high-profile AV services as a bargaining chip to upgrade their networks (and their budgets). In other cases, IT departments are simply being handed responsibility for AV as just another part of their job. Nowadays it is rare to hear someone refer to any audiovisual gear as ‘AV’ (monitors, speakers, mics, VC equipment are all just ‘the meeting room IT’) and the onus for procurement and upkeep is shuffled off to the IT department. The fact remains that correct network configuration is essential to the success of any AVoIP deployment. There is more latitude if your applications are running on a dedicated network but where AV transport is implemented across a converged network, the safest bet for success is to have your client’s IT department as your customer. 1GIG OR 10? THAT IS THE Q.

Some manufacturers, including Crestron, remain committed to 1GB encoding solutions – for good reasons. 1GB Networks are still much more common and the cost of 1GB switches is far more attractive. In my experience, the best of the 1GB encoders are easily able to cope with any 1080p content, it is only higher resolutions content (4k spreadsheets are a killer) that really start to expose bandwidth limitations. 1GB encoders and decoders also run happily over copper cabling and the prevalence of existing copper wiring makes this an attractive option. “Copper is still king when it comes to edge wiring,” declares Crestron’s Joel Mulpeter. “Fibre is great for high bandwidths, however the increased complexity around installation and the longevity of copper means that it is still the leading solution.” Other suppliers, notably iMAGsystems and the newly released, and impressive, Extron NAV range offer solutions for both 1GB and 10GB networks. This means also that both copper and fibre are well catered for. Extron’s Joe da Silva is emphatic that AVoIP systems should be infrastructure agnostic. “There is no single answer to what physical medium will be used with these systems. Copper and fibre each offer their own unique benefits and it will be the application that drives those decision points for customers,” Joe points out. iMAGsystems also offers solutions that span the range of network options. “With the JPEG2000based Thunder and the H.264-based Rain we have [1GB] solutions that cover the majority of the market,” notes Gerry Raffaut, iMAGsystems CEO. “We also have another option, a SDVoEbased 10Gb product in Lightning to reach outside those applications where 264 and 1Gb won't suffice. We recognise the need for all three.” “If you're happy with the picture quality of a 1Gb system, for applications where the image doesn’t need to be perfect, and where latency isn’t a concern, then a 1Gb solution will do,” Gerry continued. “But there are applications where the image does need to be perfect and where latency

does need to be zero. And in those conversations 1Gb is shown the door — and should be shown the door. For iMAGsystems, when 1Gb taps out, obviously we steer those projects towards Lightning.” EACH-WAY BET

To return to the original question: will AVoIP carry all before it? When we asked our key suppliers, we discovered the answer depends a little on the product mix that each is currently holding. In general, though, the industry was far from falling for its own hype. Jamie Hind, Sales Director APAC at Exterity was adamant that IP is clearly the dominant force in the market. “Within a decade, it’s likely that every new project will be AVoIP,” he declared. Lightware’s Jacques Van Deventer, while allowing that it is early days, reckons that not all signals are IP bound. “There are different advantages for traditional AV and VOIP,” he points out. “For example, traditional AV provides pixel perfect transmission, whereas with AVoIP you can design asymmetrical systems”. Graham Barrett from avt is a little more bullish for AVoIP but is still sure that a hybrid signal transport market will be with us for some time. “Although networked AV is quickly taking over in applications requiring large-scale or long-distance transport, HDBaseT still provides a cost-effective solution for smaller and simple in-room applications,” he notes. “The market for huddle and collaborative spaces is huge and growing but very cost conscious and is unlikely to transition from HDBaseT and equivalents until the price and simplicity of similar networked AV solutions is on-par.” “Both solutions are growing independent of each other and not directly impacting or cannibalising the sales of the other.” declares Crestron’s Joel Mulpeter. And he is in rare agreement with Graham Barrett on the reason: “This is because there are still a multitude of situations where a simple HDBaseT extender is the right solution and it makes more sense to go down that path rather than running AV over IP due to both cost and complexity.” Extron also sees AVoIP taking time to establish. “The transition to AVoIP won’t happen overnight so there are still a good number of projects in the planning and deployment phases that use HDBaseT technology. The timeline of this transition is anybody’s guess but Extron is certainly ready to support both approaches,” according to Joe da Silva. “Between our DTP and XTP Systems that use HDBaseT technology and our recently introduced NAV Pro AV over IP platform.” To sum up, it seems certain that AVoIP will establish itself firmly in certain niches – particularly tertiary education and large corporates – and has already made a good start in Australia and New Zealand at least. That said, the expanding marketplace in smaller systems like huddle spaces and the continuing resilience of broadcast industry means that other digital transports, HDMI, HDBT and SDI have plenty of life in them yet. 

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FEATURE

Justice: Different League

echnology plays a vital role in the modern courtroom. But often it’s shoe horned and retrofit into architecturally forbidding buildings of yore. Not so in the regional city of Shepparton, which has a freshly minted $73m courthouse, where a tailor-made audiovisual technology has been designed to best serve justice. We spoke with Mark Wilde, a director of Architectus, and one of the principal project architects. Mark’s LinkedIn profile is illuminating. He calls himself an ‘innovative justice space designer motivated by principled concerns’. Here is an architect who wants to get the design of a courtroom right, and to incorporate technology in an appropriate way. AV Asia Pacific also caught up with Mark Hanson and Mark Thompson from ICE Design, the appointed AV and acoustic consultants. ICE Design is equally invested in delivering excellence in courtroom design and has a longterm association with international justice research group, The Court of the Future Network.

A $73m courthouse provides a new benchmark in access to justice. The AV provides the truth and nothing but the truth. Text:/ Christopher Holder

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“In years gone by, technology was first introduced to permit a witness to give evidence in a trial from a remote location,” explains Mark Wilde from Architectus. “Either in another room or somewhere else entirely. “That same idea has gone a little further, to see a person in custody do the same thing. So a person could appear in the court room from a holding room or from a jail where they’re accommodated. “Another step further again, and something we’ve accommodated at Shepparton, is for the judge to be able to do the same. So a judge could be in Melbourne, for instance, and their image would appear in the courtroom and be seen to control the court on short procedural matters. “All of that is standard, day-to-day audiovisual technology, but there’s an extra layer of sensitivity involved. “It’s very important for other occupants of the courtroom that the images of these people appearing remotely be in their correct locations and in lifelike size, colour rendition and sound

reproduction. Crucial. “We’ve tried to get as close as possible to a replication of those virtual people in the room to ensure any disruption to normal proceedings are kept to an absolute minimum.” LIFESIZE POLYSTYRENE

Ingeniously, Architectus went further than an architectural fly-through in software, and mocked up a courtroom in one-to-one scale polystyrene. This allowed Architectus to invite all the stakeholders into the space at one time, and air any concerns or feedback in a shared forum. During these sessions Mark Wilde mentioned that the size of various displays were modified to ensure the appropriate scale for jurors and witnesses. EFFORTLESS LISTENING, YOUR HONOUR

Mark Hanson and Mark Thompson had spent many hours researching the AV of the courtroom of the future and relished the prospect of designing the AV of a self-proclaimed ‘exemplar’ courtroom — a benchmark Court Services Victoria facility.

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WHO & WHAT The development provides 7900sqm of space over five stories, comprising six main courtrooms, along with a large number of interview rooms and break out spaces. Separate facilities are provided for juries, the judiciary, law enforcement officers, legal services, and staff and all required administrative services. Builder: ADCO Construction Principle Consultant: Architectus + GHD Woodhead + Guymer Bailey Architects AV & Acoustic Consultant: ICE Design AV Integrator: Rutledge AV

What particularly got the client’s attention,” recalls Mark Hanson “Was the promise of a courtroom acoustic and sound system design that achieved high levels of speech intelligibility resulting in effortless listening conditions, regardless of where you sit in the courtroom.” Traditionally, a courtroom’s sound reinforcement system would rely on an uncontrolled distribution of ceiling loudspeakers. Adequate coverage aside, there’s no attempt to localise the sound — audio simply emanates from overhead rather than from the judge or counsel. The design is based on ceiling-recessed line array loudspeakers from Acoustic Technologies. “If you’re at the bar table reading some papers and you hear a voice,” notes Mark Hanson. “You can now respond to the direction of the voice — whether that be from the judge or the witness box.” REVEAL YOUR SOURCE

Thanks to a regimented coordinated design process that included advanced acoustic modelling, meticulous placement of equipment and full room

acoustic design, amplified speech sounds natural and appears to originate from the direction of thos speaking in the courtroom, be they physically present or beamed in via Cisco VC. “With all those factors working together we were able to achieve an equivalent acoustic distance of about 1.5m,” explains Mark Hanson. “By which I mean, regardless of how loud an individual’s voice, the system reproduces the voice at a level you might expect if conversing at a comfortable distance 1.5m apart.” Effortless communication also extends to those not in the room. “A remote witness might be feeling anxious or vulnerable,” continues Mark Hanson. “But if the properly specified display is placed in the correct courtroom position, using the correct camera location and framing of the participants, perceived eye contact can be established for more natural communication, which assists the witness to feel that they’re talking to people and not simply being beamed into a room full of strangers.”

OPEN & SHUT CASE?

During the design stage, ICE Design sandboxed an iMAGsolutions video over IP solution: a product called Lightning — a SDVoE-based solution that promises uncompressed, zero frame latency video, up to 4K over a standard IP network. “We demonstrated the capabilities of the Lightning video over IP solution to Court Services,” recalls Mark Thompson. “Demonstrating the negligible latency and the image quality. They were very happy with the proposal.” Unfortunately a budgeting snafu meant costs had to be cut. Court Services Victorian is a Cisco house and the Cisco 10Gb switches the iMAGsystems Lightning system needs were downgraded to 1Gb. Thanks to the good rapport developed with iMAGsystems, ICE Design chose its JPEG2000 compressed 1Gb alternative, Thunder, to fulfil the task of routing AV throughout the courthouse, and the sensitive task of ensuring the remote participants in the courtroom were accurately represented.

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over

NETWORKED AV

Network security implications meant a fully converged network could not be implemented within the new Shepparton Courthouse. However, the audio, video and control were still implemented on a common network. From an AV perspective, joining iMAGsystems’ Thunder system is a Q-Sys-based audio network — using QLAN audio transport — all over Cat6a unshielded cables back to centralised network switches. “One of the key reasons for selecting AV over IP was the flexibility and scalability it offered,” reflects ICE’s Mark Thompson. “Using a standard UTP cabling infrastructure throughout the facility, as opposed to a dedicated STP cabling infrastructure [required for most HDBaseT systems], meant that any data point could quickly and easily be turned into an AV input or output at any location in the building. “We’re reaping the AV over IP benefits even now as Shepparton Courts expands into the old adjacent 1930s courthouse building. Instead of having standalone centralised AV matrix switches, we are simply extending the networking infrastructure via fibre between the two buildings. All those data points are running back to the central switch room,

and we’re adding and removing AV facilities simply by converting those data ports into AV ports. We didn’t need to purchase dedicated HDBaseT switches, patching and infrastructure.”

THUNDER ROLLS IN

iMAGsystems’ JPEG2000-based 1Gb solution, Thunder, has filled the breach more than adequately, providing more than presentable performance. The court clerk controls the switching of sources and destinations in court proceedings. Something that’s not instantaneous. “We need, and have, that switching flexibility,” notes Mark Hanson. “But instantaneous switching isn’t essential. In fact, when the court officer is preparing a video link, having that time to prepare the court can be an advantage.” MARRYING THE ‘A’ & THE ‘V’

It’s still early days for AV over IP. A project such as this illustrates its many advantages, but also the way in which the market isn’t entirely ready and vendors not entirely ticking all of the clients’ boxes. Reflects Mark Thompson: At the time, there were no readily available AVoIP solutions that also provided internal audio DSP. This led us to explore a separate audio over IP solution that would allow us to utilise the standard network infrastructure and provide the DSP we required. For this reason

Q-SYS was agreed and implemented alongside Thunder. Q-SYS also allows you to directly ingest an audio stream, so once a device such as a laptop was connected in the courtroom, the AV was transported via the Thunder system and we could simply route the stream into the Q-SYS Core510i for processing. “It’s a really interesting area. We are keeping a close eye on what Q-SYS and Biamp are doing, taking their current audio platforms and encompassing video. We’re very interested in that integrated space where ‘A’ and ‘V’ can coexist on the same platform.” JUSTICE IS BLIND NOT THE AV

Lady Justice might be depicted as blindfolded on the top of London’s famous Old Bailey courthouse, but modern courthouses are relying on the latest audiovisual technology and acoustic design to ensure that nothing is missed. Justice may blind, but the judge, jury and other stakeholders increasingly have unfiltered access to every aspect of courtroom proceedings. Mark Wilde: “There’s a lot of nuance in a courtroom. There’s the body language; that bead of sweat on a witnesses brow; the telling scratch of a nose… These cues are all important. They need to be represented in a lifelike manner. Not largerthan-life, but lifelike.” It’s satisfying to see how expertly designed and integrated AV is playing such a pivotal role in the serving of justice. 

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Leap of Faith The anatomy of a modern church audiovisual installation. Text:/ Christopher Holder

t’s easy to forget just how much those pioneering parishioners gave up 100+ years ago. The cavernous Victorian/Edwardian churches were perfect for organ music and congregational singing, and they were expensive – huge, bricks ’n’ mortar investments — with money raised by locals who believed in the institution. A contemporary church has very different requirements to the traditional spire-topped sanctuary on the inner-city corner. Car parking, for one. A foyer with the capacity the size of the main auditorium would be another. Modern kitchen and cafe facilities? A must. And modern AV. And, yes, it’s a huge investment. But it’s an inter-generational one. Horsham Church of Christ has made a significant leap of faith into its brand new church in a new estate on the edge of town.

The church knew the old midtown site was no longer suitable. It knew what it had to do to be relevant into the future. It knew it wasn’t going to be an insignificant investment. The new $4.5m facilities are built right. Not extravagantly, just appropriately. Anything less is simply a burden on the next generation. PLANNING FOR AV

The AV is a good-news story. The church leadership began talking to Mozaix some eight years ago. At that crucial stage Mozaix director, Paul Tucker, had one clear imperative to impart: make sure the AV integrator and acoustic consultant are at the table during those planning meetings. Mozaix didn’t necessarily set out to be Melbourne’s go-to house of worship AV specialist

— but word spread that Paul Tucker and his team genuinely understood the, sometime, unusual and competing demands of modern church installations. Paul Tucker: “It’s hugely important to be involved early and to have a good relationship with the architect. Once you’re on the architectural plans you can design a ‘best-case scenario’ AV system rather than being constantly compromised. “We always recommend Mark Hanson from Hanson & Associates as the acoustics consultant. We’ve found that other acoustics consultants often just don’t get it. They recommend treatment for a piano performance and the spoken word, or they’re more concerned with acoustic isolation rather than sound interacting in the space. When that’s the case, it doesn’t matter how expensive or amazing the PA is, you won’t get a good result. On the other hand, Mark Hanson gets it.”

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the building is fit for purpose, for an acoustic and performance level the church is seeking

Having a seat at the planning table ensured the building design worked with the acoustic treatment and the essential AV infrastructure, such as the lighting bars and PA rigging. Paul Tucker: “It’s a subtle but important distinction: while there will always be acoustic treatment applied to the walls, the building is built in such a way that the surfaces are ready for those treatments and form part of the finished surface, rather than being a retrofit. It means the building is fit for purpose, for an acoustic and performance level the church is seeking.” The right performance level can only be decided on through proper consultation. Again, here’s where Mozaix has a proven track record of understanding the market and understanding that churches often struggle to frame their requirements without being walked through the options.

Paul Tucker: “Churches struggle to explain themselves well. Invariably they’ll point to [megachurch] Hillsong as their reference point. Of course, very few churches have a Hillsong budget and, if you ask the right questions, you’ll discover that that level of production isn’t appropriate and doesn’t dovetail with the needs of the community they’re reaching. Which is why we spend the time digging deeper and asking the right questions.” USABILITY ALWAYS

Through hard-won experience, Paul and his team have learnt what gets the best results in churches. It’s not purely about spending the money. It’s about finding the right balance of sound quality, features and usability. Paul Tucker: “For the most part, you’re dealing with volunteers — whether that’s technicians or

musicians. As an example, we’ll specify the best possible PA the budget will allow but we’ll very often match that with a digital mixing console like Allen&Heath’s SQ series. Industry professionals will see that as a mismatch. But the SQ series is intuitive to operate, and you’ll get a better result when the volunteer operator can easily navigate their way around the mixer. “The approach extends to the DIs we recommend. A Tone Bone on acoustic guitar and a Eden World Tour DI for bass. They give you a ‘produced’ tone without the hard work or specialist knowledge. The Radial JDX cab simulator is another box that takes the headache out of miking amps and dealing with different guitarists’ favourite combos. These devices are great for the musicians as well — their easy to plug into and give satisfying results.”

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EARS & EARS OF TRAINING

LOW MAINTENANCE LX

VIDEO: IMAG OR NOT?

Mozaix does all it can to set up the church and its teams to succeed, rather than endowing it with a complex system that needs intensive training and huge buy-in from volunteers without much of a background in AV. Saying that, one area Mozaix does insist on follow-up and training is in the use of in-ear monitoring. Paul Tucker: “Moving to in-ear monitoring and minimising your stage volume is one of the best ways to improve your volunteers’ chances of pulling a good mix. We focus heavily on in-ear monitors and then also focus heavily on a training method for sound checks. We help train the teams to get the best out of their in-ears and enjoy a quieter stage. Horsham Church of Christ is yet to make the IEM leap. The feeling in the camp was to get comfortable in the new space first. In the meantime, low-profile coax DB Technologies FM10 active stage monitors take care of foldback duties.

Lighting is another area where simplicity of operation and low maintenance are paramount. Paul Tucker: “We recommend simple-to-use lighting consoles. We would stick with a Jands Stage CL for most churches or, if moving lights are involved, a LSC Mantra Lite with 12-channel Wings. They’re straightforward to operate. “On this occasion we encouraged Horsham Church of Christ to go with a fairly large complement of moving lights [2 x Martin MH1 profiles and 6 x Martin MH6 wash fixtures from Show Technology]. This wasn’t to meet some kind of demand for nightclub light shows, but provides ability to adapt the coverage without physically moving the lights. The lighting bars are eight metres in the air. Combine that moving light flexibility with the ‘set and forget’ low maintenance of LED fixtures and I would imagine the church’s tech team will probably only rent a scissor lift once a year.”

Horsham Church of Christ’s video requirements are centred around ProPresenter presentation software, a 250-inch centrally positioned Screen Technics screen and a 10,000-lumen Epson EBZ10005UNL projector. Paul Tucker: “The technical tipping point for video is if the church wants to display a camera feed on the projection screen — IMAG video. “Horsham Church of Christ did want this capability, even only for special events, so this meant we installed a SDI backbone for the low latency you need for IMAG. We also built in the ability to add cameras. But the workhorse of the system is the Lumens VC-A60S PTZ camera with 30 times optical zoom. It sits behind the sound booth above the confidence monitor at the right height. So again, it’s about ease of operation for a church that doesn’t have an enormous number of volunteers.”

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FEATURE

ROOM TO GROW

Whether it’s providing enough floor boxes on stage, points on the lighting bar, wall plates for additional video cameras or additional channels on the Jands Dimmer racks, the infrastructure will remain long past the time the mixing console is swapped out for something newer, the carpets relaid, or even the PA superseded. Paul Tucker: “We provided the church with room to grow. There’s plenty of lighting bar scope, with extra power and DMX data. From an audio perspective there’s a significant amount of floor box infrastructure. And there’s data cable absolutely everywhere, which enables just about anything these days to be backed up.” AUDIO: EAW RADIUS ‘COMPELLING’

The main auditorium sits 350 people on the floor with a mezzanine level for an extra 200. The PA design required a lot of vertical coverage. Paul and his team worked on point source loudspeaker designs but struggled to bring something to the table that wouldn’t require a delay system for the balcony. Paul Tucker: “For churches, like other performance venues, it’s all about even coverage. We aim to have less than a 3dB variance to every seat.” After extensive consultation with a number of vendors, EAW and its Australian distributor PAVT pitched a system design based on its new Radius line array that was compellingly priced and, according to the modelling, would be ideal for the unusual dimensions of the room. Paul Tucker: “True line array is great in the right context, especially when you’re blessed with proper acoustic treatment. You can cover the entire room from two sources, and tailor the dispersion to the room and reduce reflections. That’s a major win, especially when you’re trying to direct audio up high into the balcony as well as right down to the front row.” With six elements of Radius aside and two flown 18-inch subs aside, most people’s first impression is: ‘that’s a lot of PA’. Paul Tucker: “With six elements aside, 90 percent of that is about even coverage. The Radius PA may be more than the church will ever need for most Sundays but, in that, there’s enough headroom to accommodate touring acts and special events. “Initially the PA design had only two sub cabs mounted under the stage. But due to the multilevel stage lip, the church decided they wanted the subs flown, which meant we had to double the complement to get the same output. It’s a lot of low-end firepower to have up your sleeve; there’s more than enough headroom to take care of any concert or event the church is likely to host.” Radius is an unusual beast. It’s not a constant curvature array. With its two eight-inch drivers and two HF units, it’s a true line array with

adjustable inter-cabinet splay angles, but is priced well enough to take some market share from the constant curvature systems so popular in houses of worship. Paul Tucker: “It’s by no means EAW’s flagship PA but in that room, working hand in glove with the right acoustic treatment, Horsham Church of Christ has got themselves an outstanding result.” Radius is an active PA that natively accepts Dante digital audio and can be configured via a Radius iOS app. Paul Tucker: “You can manage Radius over ethernet. All the DSP is on board, within the loudspeakers. It’s really quite an impressive PA, the way it can be controlled and the way it configures itself via the DSP. It’s the first time Mozaix has used it and we will definitely be looking to find other rooms to put it in.” Some six EAW VFR69i six-inch passive loudspeakers provide infill from the lip of the stage and help to bring the sonic image down. Paul Tucker: “Yes, it is about bringing that sonic image down for the first three or four rows. It’s also about ensuring the most important seat in the house gets the best possible sound. Front and centre is normally where the senior pastor sits and in many installs that’s the least appealing seat, sound-wise.” REACHING OUT

Horsham is a major provincial centre of western Victoria. Still, it’s a town of less than 20,000 and a 550-cap venue with a full-spec kitchen and foyer (not to mention the best AV spec for miles) is quite a desirable addition to Horsham’s venue options. For the church, that was always the plan — the new facilities were always about connecting with the broader community. Already the calendar is starting to fill up. Schools are booking the auditorium for presentation nights. Funeral directors are calling the church to accommodate larger funerals. As you might expect, Horsham Church of Christ doesn’t have a liquor license and nor would it be courting secular rock gigs and the like. But the new facilities, and the state-of-the-art audiovisual systems that go with it, has broadened the church’s reach, influence and income streams. A step of faith? Sure. An inspirational one? Absolutely.  Mozaix: (03) 9558 0433 or www.mozaix.com.au PAVT (EAW): (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Show Technology (Martin): (02) 9748 1122 or www.showtech.com.au Hanson Associates: www.hansonassociates.com.au TAG (Allen&Heath): (02) 9519 0900 or info@tag.com.au LSC Lighting Systems: www.lsclighting.com

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REVIEW

Dynacord IPX Power Amplifiers Dynacord’s Global Product Manager explains what makes the new TGX and IPX series of highoutput multi-channel power amplifiers different. Interview:/ Christopher Holder

GX and IPX represent a bold assault by Bosch on the touring and install markets. There are plenty of headline features (as well as a fist full of patents), and these amps are an exciting manifestation what a huge engineeringbased multi-national like Bosch can do when it flexes its R&D muscles. And this is the first point to make: the Dynacord marque is to be a thoroughbred manufacturer of power amps and DSPs. It will no longer be the slightly confused European step brother to the ‘all-American’ Electro-Voice. That extra degree of separation will help the market to differentiate and distinguish the offerings. No one will assume that here is a range of companion amps for ElectroVoice loudspeakers. Dynacord isn’t owned by EV, it’s owned by Bosch. Driving the development of these new ranges of amplifiers is an Australian. These amps are Jonathan ‘Jono’ Bailey’s babies, and it was with considerable pride that he revealed them to the marketplace at InfoComm earlier in the year. AV Asia Pacific sat with Jono to find out what’s under the bonnet. ROLE OF DSP

Jono Bailey: We set very high goals with these amps, and were able to achieve the industry's highest audio quality and highest output power ever produced on an multichannel amplifier. But, this means zero unless you are able to do it reliably year after year under even the most extreme conditions — and to do this requires huge amounts of processing power to ensure that the amplifier performing optimally under any mains condition or thermal situation. Features like JTM and Cycle by Cycle filtering [more later] would not be possible without processing like this. So the processing power of modern amplifiers is not only so signal processing can make things sound better, but now also plays a critical role in output reliability. So I think DSP is here to stay. The problem with DSP is that under poor main conditions, where there could be a drop in mains power for even a second, DSP amplifiers

are essentially fragile because they are a computer that requires time to reboot, establish network connections and only then produce audio. This is one reason why many system designers have compromised the electrical designs with using old analogue amps and centralising DSP or using lower powered DSP amplifiers that can be backed up via UPS. This becomes extremely expensive and increases rack space. Therefore I approached this challenge to make a high performance DSP amplifier that is be able to restart its audio instantly — just like an analogue amplifier can. With IPX we achieved this. So during a short term power outage the amplifier never drops its network or DSP connectivity, therefore there is no long reboot times. This has been extremely well received in parts of the world where mains hand off to a generator back up supply often requires many seconds of no power at the rack side. NEVER SLEEPS

Jono Bailey: Both the IPX and TGX have something called Eco Rail — we don’t really advertise the fact in the touring models but it’s still there. Eco Rail is a separate operating power rail. So the amplifier can produce background music — for a foyer or the like — in standby mode. It’s a great idea that came out of some EUFA and FIFA stadium installation requirements, under EN54-16. To be EN54-16 compliant you need to constantly monitor the lines, 24/7. So it’s primarily as a result of a monitoring function of the amplifier but it produces enough output for low level output modulations — background music. So that’s very cool. And then as soon as you need power output, the amplifier transparently and instantly pushes into full power output. FULL POWER COME WHAT MAY

Jono Bailey: JTM (Junction Temperature Modeling) provides the ability for the amplifier to operate under any operating — thermal or power — conditions.

IPX and TGX represent a new era of amplification. Class D, until now, has hit a performance ceiling and we’ve broken through that — Jono Bailey, Bosch Global Product Manager

HI & LO Z AT THE SAME TIME Variable Load Drive (VLD) was successfully introduced with Dynacord’s DSA amplifiers. For each channel, the user can determine whether Low-Z or High-Z 70V/100V loudspeakers are driven without output transformer via direct drive technology. Thanks to VLD, the amplifier can be optimally configured for individual applications via software. In low-impedance operation, each amp channel can be driven in .1-ohm steps with virtually any output power via IRIS-Net software – from 100W to the maximum output power of the amp – across the complete impedance range of 2-10 ohms. This technology allows users to drive all kind of different loudspeakers – even in very complex installations – using only one type of power amplifier in the field. Bosch: 1300 026 724 or www.boschcommunications.com.au THE RANGE IPX10:4 (4 x 2500W) IPX10:8 (8 x 1250W) IPX20:4 (4 x 5000W) IPX5:4 (4 x 1250W)

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2-IN-1 POWER SUPPLY Jono Bailey: A dual interleaved PSU gives the amp the ability to just use one side of the PSU or the other side or both sides together. In so doing it reduces the duty cycle on the amplifier.

WHAT’S OMNEO? The integrated OMNEO interface with a primary and secondary port allows the use of eight channels from a Dante audio network, while remote and supervision parameters run on OCA protocol (AES70), open for

third-party integration. Redundancy options include glitch-free and RSTP to suit individual requirements and existing infrastructure.

Dynacord’s Jono Bailey launches the touring version of the amplifier range, TGX, at InfoComm18.

Traditionally, power amps shut down or reduce the output voltage when the temperature at the heat sink exceeds a certain temperature. The idea is you have to play it safe to safeguard the electronics. What we do is model, in real time, the actual junction temperature inside the semiconductor components, based on the operating parameters, such as operating voltage, housing temperature, output current and output voltage. Parameters such as current and voltage are continuously measured. This approach means you get the most out of your semiconductor components — more output; more reliability. We also use Mains Circuit Breaker Protection (MCBP) — algorithms to ensure a steady and safe operation range of the amplifiers’ circuit breaker and prevent a false overload alert under normal operation. The circuit breaker’s primary protective role not affected. With this process, Dynacord’s power amplifiers offer maximum power at highest operational safety and optimum availability. BELOW 2 OHMS

Jono Bailey: ‘Cycle by cycle current limiting’ allows the amplifier to safely operate below 2 Ohms — in fact, it goes down well below that. Actually we stop the amplifier from going too much below one ohm — 0.7Ω to be precise. Beyond that we tell the amplifier to pulse the power, as it’s quite likely that whatever’s connected to the amp is on fire at that point! 96K SWITCHING FREQUENCY

Jono Bailey: We fixed and stabilized the switching frequency at double the normal Class D frequency. That way, there’s not as many intermodulations down into the audible frequency spectrum. We’ve done blind tests with golden-eared acoustic consultants and speaker designers, they can’t believe they’re listening to a Class D amp. Class D and switch mode power supplies have known issues with reproducing really high or low frequencies and we have both those areas

covered. I believe IPX and TGX represent a new era of amplification. Class D, until now, has hit a performance ceiling and we’ve broken through that. HIGH CHANNEL COUNT

Jono Bailey: People now expect multi-channel amps. Four channels was a minimum for us. Of course, at the top end, immersive audio and a cellular approach to powering loudspeakers is driving the push for more channels. In the mid market, and in the install market especially, people want to drive more speakers with fewer channels — the market wants lower cost but a higher output. So the features like the cycle by cycle current limiting (allowing the amplifier to drive down to 1Ω), and still utilising the full dynamic range of the amplifier… that’s attractive to installers. It allows somebody to run their PA into 2Ω or below and have four speaker boxes off one channel and really reduce the total system cost. So that mid-market is the opposite of the prevailing winds of the upper market, but I’d

argue it’s a larger, more important market. Which is why we’ve produced technology that meets the mid-market but the amps also provide no-holdsbarred, eight-channel systems via Dante, 96kHz, full granularity, full resolution audio for the top end. So we do both. BOSCH BEAST MODE

Jono Bailey: I’m confident in saying this: you won’t see another amplifier like this anytime soon, because I know the engineering effort and investment required. You need a large privately owned multinational to underwrite a platform and technology development like this. Fortunately we’re fully owned by Bosch which happens to also be an engineering company — Bosch understands the level of commitment required and has the thermal labs and the aerodynamic design facilities that helped us map the airflow through the amplifier. We’ve leveraged the facilities that other companies just don’t have access to. They have to guess, for us it’s all science. 

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REVIEW

Altia Systems PanaCast 2 VC Camera AI plus three camera heads create a new type of video conference experience. Text:/ Derek Powell

his is truly a new class of camera. To demonstrate the point, last year, the PanaCast 2 panoramic USB Camera System won best new PTZ camera at ISC, yet it can’t move and doesn’t have a zoom lens! What it does have is the ability to convert a huddle space or small meeting room into a professional looking, automated videoconference studio by simply adding a PC and some clever software. IN THE BOX

The PanaCast 2 comes neatly packed in two sturdy boxes. The first contains the camera head, a 90cm USB3 cable to connect the camera to a PC and an AC plug-pack with a DC cable. The camera itself is quite small, comparable in size to a typical webcam, though quite a bit deeper than most. It is elegantly finished in a machined metal case with the most striking feature being the three individual lenses inset into the curved front of the camera. The second box contains a ready assembled stand with a standard quarter inch thread that screws into the bottom of the camera head. The stand has a clever cable management slot that conceals the power and USB cables neatly routing them down and out the back of the base presenting an elegant and professional appearance on a desk or table top. HOOKING UP

The setup leaflet describes just three steps to get started: connect the camera to the cable; plug in the USB to your PC; and select ‘PanaCast’ from your video conferencing app. That’s really all there is to it, though you may need to select the camera’s built-in audio on the Sound settings of your PC to enable the built-in microphones. The supplied connection cable is a USB3.0 Micro B to USB3 Type A connector. On my laptop, the camera sprang to life immediately without needing the separate plug pack and DC cable. However, the camera head contains quite a bit of circuitry and runs warm to the touch. Depending

on your circumstances, the external PSU may be the best idea if you are running anything more than a semi-permanent installation. Trying it out on a tiny four-person meeting room table immediately demonstrated the value of PanaCast’s signature feature: the extraordinary 180-degree field of view. We simulated a typical huddle space or small meeting room by placing the camera on its stand behind a laptop at one end of the table and starting a Zoom videoconference session. Usually, to include everyone at the table would require a PTZ camera or a wide angle webcam several metres away, a luxury that simply doesn’t exist in most huddle spaces. From its position right on the table, the PanaCast produced pin sharp and undistorted images of everyone seated on both sides of the table and at the opposite end - without the “bowling alley” effect common to wide-angle lenses in typical webcams and built-in laptop cameras. It does this by combining the outputs of three separate HD cameras, pointing left, right and straight ahead, to produce a super wide 3480 x 1080 pixel image. The stitching is done in-camera and in real time (less than 5 milliseconds is required for processing) so it doesn’t take up any CPU power of the attached laptop or PC. The picture was well colour balanced straight out of the box despite the mixed lighting in our conference room (auto colour balance is enabled by default) and the exposure was good, with well rendered skin tones even when we deliberately included a large window into the frame. ROAD TESTING

The camera is an extraordinary technical achievement with plenty more software tricks up its sleeve, so to learn more and see the camera in action in a real videoconference application, I arranged a Zoom session with Aurangzeb Khan, CEO of Altia Systems (which makes the PanaCast) and his technical guru Javed Tufail from their office in Cupertino. Aurangzeb started by explaining how the immersive experience of

a 180° field of view helps make videoconference meetings more effective. “Our goal was to create something that looks a lot like how you see the world with your own eyes,” he related. “Human beings read the room; we read each other; we read body language and that informs us as to what to say, how to say it and when to say it. None of that is possible if you cannot see the [whole] group.” The pictures across the VC link looked absolutely sensational, smoothly reframing to keep both participants in view as Aurangzeb and Javed moved around the room. Intelligent Zoom is a software option that uses AI to recognise and track faces as they move or enter and leave a meeting situation. Javed turned on a feature in his demo PanaCast camera that made the tracking operation visible across the link. A red box appeared around each face and tracked precisely when Javed turned his back to write on the whiteboard and even as he deliberately walked out the door and up and down the corridor outside the glass wall of the meeting room. MEZZO FORTE

The facial recognition doesn’t identify people by name but it can count the number of people in the meeting space and output that number across the USB connection to the PC. That feature

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REVIEW

optional software licence but once that’s in play all it takes is to affix a special logo near one corner of the whiteboard so the PanaCast AI software can recognise it as a writing surface. Astonishingly, the camera does not even need to be looking square on at the whiteboard, so long as it is somewhere within the 180° field of view. Once activated, the camera detects the edges of the whiteboard and outputs a separate cropped image, squared up and keystone corrected so that it appears like a second camera dedicated to the whiteboard surface. It even has a function to improve the contrast of the writing if the marker pen is running low on ink!

capability when the videoconference is used as a remote teaching session. For permanent installations, the ability to interface through the PC with room booking systems using avt’s Mezzo middleware is the icing on the cake. Reliable and responsive ‘no-touch’ room booking, with the ability to maximise meeting space usage, is now a reality with just PanaCast, a PC and a room booking panel (plus, of course, access to Outlook or Office 365). Considering what it does, as a replacement for a PTZ camera and control system, the pricing is quite attractive for this high quality and well realised product. 

SOFT CODEC SHORTLIST

provides the basis for a very useful software extension developed by avt, the Australian agent for PanaCast. Sold under the banner ‘Mezzo’ the middleware software interfaces with certain room booking systems to automate the process of identifying when a room is in use. If a meeting finishes early (or if no one shows up) Mezzo identifies from the camera’s USB output that there are zero faces in the room and notifies the booking system (typically Outlook or Office 365) to release the room for other users. It can also provide useful metrics about actual occupancy numbers, leading to better management and availability of meeting spaces. WHITEBOARD RECOGNITION

Another feature that simply has to be seen to be believed is the ability of the camera to recognise an ordinary whiteboard in the meeting room and provide a separate real-time content feed as people make notes during a meeting. It does require an

For any huddle space or small meeting room where Zoom, Skype or other soft-codec videoconferences are held, this camera has to be on the shortlist. It gives an impressive ‘Telepresence’ like feel to any VC by keeping all the participants in view in high definition. Meetings can be much more interactive and productive where everyone’s contributions and reactions can be seen all the time. The tiny size and elegant form factor, ensures PanaCast will fit into any office setting as well as making it an excellent choice to take on the road if VC is an integral part of your workflow. PanaCast works with virtually any VC software and if you decide to buy one, you’ll be in good company. For example, Zoom and the Uber have recently deploying 850 Zoom rooms with PanaCast across the Uber organisation. I would highly recommend the optional automatic zoom extension which prevents the ‘empty room’ syndrome when only one or two participants are at an endpoint yet automatically and smoothly reframes as participants enter or leave the room. Likewise, the Vivid option which produces superior pictures in less than optimal lighting is worth the extra outlay if your room was not designed with VC in mind. Looking further down the options list, I can see enormous opportunity and demand for the Whiteboard

SUMMARY What it is: A new class of USB camera that enables professional VC results in four- to 12-person spaces. Supplier: avt (www.avt.tech) Price: PanaCast 2 180 degree Camera: $1,853 (Camera only). Options: Intelligent Zoom: $312 rrp (License Key); Vivid (picture enhancement): $312 (License Key); Whiteboard feature: $412 (per camera, per year) Pros: Unsurpassed field of view; great pictures; clever and useful automation Cons: Supplied table stand needs to have adjustable tilt; audio could be improved; some features are an extra cost Recommended for: Soft codec video conferences in huddle spaces and small meeting rooms.

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062

NEWS

Industry Update AV CALENDAR ISE Amsterdam February 5-8, 2019 iseeurope.org AVIXA APPOINTS NEW MARKETING MANAGER FOR APAC REGION

VIXA has appointed Liz Shaw as marketing manager for the Asia-Pacific region. Based in Brisbane, Liz will head up the association marketing effort for AVIXA in the region. This includes member communications, AVIXA booths at their shows and all of the industry and vertical market events and educational programs. Beyond that, Liz is looking to develop marketing strategic partnerships with manufacturers and distributors that serve the AV industry, as well as helping AVIXA members share their success stories. “We are happy that Liz has accepted this newly created, full-time position”, said Jonathan Seller, Senior Director of Development, Asia-Pacific Region for AVIXA. “She has been working for AVIXA parttime as a marketing contractor for almost three years, and we are excited to have her on board with her wealth of knowledge and experience gained over many years in the industry.” Before joining AVIXA, Liz was a marketing communications consultant and worked for companies such as Extron in North America and Europe. Liz draws from 17 years of experience in international marketing and communications for the technology and AV industries. If you are involved in marketing, communications or industry (AV or vertical market) publications, you can contact her at lshaw@avixa.org

AVIXA OCEANIA AWARDS WINNERS

VIXA announced the winners of its 2018 Oceania Awards at a ceremony during the Integrate 2018 Expo in Sydney. Recognising AV professionals for their outstanding achievements in Oceania’s AV industry, a dedicated AVIXA regional awards committee named the winners in the following categories: Oceania Young AV Professional of the Year, Oceania Women in AV, Oceania CTS Holder of the Year, Oceania Educator of the Year, and Oceania Distinguished Achievement Awards. As always, the winner of the Volunteer of the Year Award was selected by AVIXA staff. “The AVIXA Oceania Awards offer a great opportunity to celebrate individual achievements,” says Jonathan Seller, Senior Director of Development, Asia-Pacific, AVIXA. “All winners have contributed to the success of their colleagues or their organisation. Another great element is that award nominations are made by peers, therefore winning the AVIXA Oceania Award is a special way of peer recognition.”

InfoComm China Beijing April 10-12, 2019 infocomm-china.com/en NAB Show Las Vegas April 6-11, 2019 nabshow.com InfoComm SE Asia Bangkok May 15017, 2109 infocomm-sea.com InfoComm Show Orlando June 12-14, 2019 infocommshow.org Broadcast Asia Singapore June 18-30, 2019 broadcast-asia.com Integrate Melbourne Aug 27-29, 2019 integrate-expo.com

THE 2018 AVIXA OCEANIA AWARD WINNERS ARE:

Oceania Volunteer of the Year Award: Richard Morrison, CTS, AECOM Oceania Young AV Professional Award: Essam Refai, CTS-I, CTS-D, Parity Technology Consulting Oceania Women in AV Award: Krissy Waley, Arup Oceania CTS Holder of the Year Award: Dean McFadden, CTS, Learning by Experience Oceania Educator of the Year Award: Damien Hiscock, Extron Australia Oceania Distinguished Achievement Award: Philip Dunn, retired (formerly AV Technology - avt) AVIXA: www.avixa.org

InfoComm India Mumbai Sep 18-20, 2019 infocomm-india.com

THE HOME OF AV AND SYSTEMS INTEGRATION Make all the connections you need at ISE 2019 Integrated Systems Europe is where the latest innovations and solutions are showcased and where professionals go to learn, network and do business.

064

FEATURE

Audio Visual Industry Industry Report 2018 Audio Systems and Equipment

Capture & Production Equipment

Control Systems

Home Automation/ Smart Tech

Infrastructure hardware

IT Networking & Software Solutions

Lighting & Lighting Control

Services/AV Systems Integration/ Managed Services

Streaming media, storage & distribution

Unified Communications & Collaboration

Video display/ Interactive display/ Video Projection

Other

Lowest

$1,000

$250

$500

$10,000

$250

$100

$5,000

$3,400

$5,000

$1,000

$200

Average

$575,310

$44,137

$340,317

$90,733

$726,042

$540,184

$178,488

$485,000

$306,470

$552,467

$314,302

$25,100

Highest

$15,000,000

$200,000

$5,000,000

$500,000

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$3,000,000

$5,000,000

$50,000

SPEND OF SPECIFIC PRODUCT AREAS How much did your company spend in 2017 on each of these product areas?

79%

TURNOVER PROPORTION BY INDUSTRY Which of the following product areas does your company operate in? Roughly what percentage of your organisation’s total annual turnover in Australia and New Zealand comes from each of these product areas?

59%

39%

39% 33%

35%

30%

28%

24% 16%

Audio Systems and Equipment

Video display / Interactive display / Video Projection

Control Systems

IT Networking and Software Solutions

25 %

23%

23 %

20%

18%

Home Automation/ Smart Tech

35% 30%

15%

Lighting and Lighting Control

Services / AV Systems Integration / Managed Services

Streaming media, storage and distribution

Infrastructure Hardware

Capture and Production Equipment

17 %

Unified Communications and Collaboration

Product Area

ntegrate commissioned an ANZ industrywide survey and the results are in. We thought we’d publish a selection of interesting results here. If you’re interested in getting hold of the full survey they contact via the integrate-expo.com website. WHO WAS SURVEYED

A diverse cross-section of respondents directly involved in the Australian and New Zealand AV industry. From buyers and users through to distributors and suppliers, the research captures a wide range of data, insights and opinions. Some 29% were suppliers/distributors; 40% end users/purchasers; and 26% were integrators, consultants and installers. Interestingly, 40% of respondents said they were involved in the education sector in some way, while 36% reported a involvement in media/entertainment, 35% in Corporate and 28% in Government (obviously respondents can be involved in more than one sector).

SURVEY CONCLUSION

Using information sourced from an industrywide research survey of both sellers and users, the Integrate Audio Visual ANZ Industry Report 2018 has presented some fascinating data and insights into the current ANZ market, as well as growth predictions for the next five years and beyond. Simply put, the outlook for the industry is positive, with most respondents expecting the AV industry in Australia and New Zealand to continue to grow. While this opens up new opportunities for all players in the industry, many recognise the importance of investing in research and development to take advantage of this growth. Whether the respondent was a seller or user, the overwhelming consensus was that the Home Automation/Smart Technology, Streaming Media, Storage and Distribution, and Unified Communications categories would continue to

12 % Other

Turnover

grow strongly over the next five years. Respondents identified technology advancements and increased consumer demand (both in the home and workplace) as the two biggest drivers of this growth. This sentiment was echoed across the survey group, with many respondents also highlighting the integration of smart technology into everyday design and the ever-growing appetite for streaming services as key market trends. And while there were natural concerns around price competition and product quality, many respondents pointed out the opportunities that come with the growth of high volume overseas logistics companies such as Amazon and Alibaba. These opportunities include access to better technology and a wider variety of products, improved integration of products, and even the chance to position their business as a high end, specialised service provider. 

065

FEATURE

64%

62%

CUSTOMERS & SALES

Which of the following are your organisation’s customers? And roughly what percentage of your sales come from each of these customer groups?

48%

46%

42%

41 % 36% 33%

28%

26% 17%

17%

19%

17%

14%

26%

14%

23 %

14%

12%

11%

12%

Government

Corporate

Education

Architecture/ Construction

Hospitality

Venues/ Arenas

Media/ Entertainment

Healthcare

Retail

Theatre/Live Events

Residential

Distributors

Energy/ Utilities

Transportation

Collaboration

Product Area

AV over IP

12%

BIGGEST CURRENT IMPACT

Audio over IP, as it provides simplistic and centralised models for AV recording in multi-room scenarios

IP Video. It will change everything as it relates to design, control, and capabilities

Smart screens with plug and play WIFI connectivity technology. AV over IP rather than over dedicated AV cable

IoT / Smart Technology

IP control systems because it is something of a deviation from the existing hardware based control systems we currently use

LED Technology

Definitely LED screens are redefining performance spaces and environment and therefore setting new challenges

Turnover

IoT because it no longer requires on premise custom built systems

Smart connected devices. This can be explained as streaming, integrated or control system products with reliance on networking subsystems

What technology is having the most signiﬁcant impact on your industry and why? LED technology, it’s creating much more flexible lighting fixtures, projectors, with much lower operating costs, with the same brightness and image quality

Other

Streaming/ Storage because of the amount our customers are using personal devices

Streaming

Social media live streaming. Because it’s a great intro to what can be done

Narrow Pitch LED display - it getting lighter and cheaper with QoS increasing greatly

Streaming video options and new ways to send, record video in IT networks. Ability to control AV hardware remotely via IP networks. Offers huge productivity potential

INTEGRATE 2018 SHOW STATS Integrate 2018 was ‘the largest and busiest’ event to date. We’ve picked out some headline stats and trends.

WHO THEY ARE

HEADLINE STATS

6,845

Top job functions

5,340

TOTAL VISITOR UNIQUE VISITOR ATTENDANCE ATTENDENCE (UVA)

26% INCREASE IN TOTAL VISITS

On Sydney 2016 (+9% on Melbourne 2017)

1,056+

33%

38%

End User

Core AV & Integrator

(Corporate & Enterprise)

11%

AV Consultant

Other:

NUMBER OF BRANDS

Live Events Professional

End User Specialist (Education, Healthcare, Hospitality, Retail)

ATTENDEE PRFILE DEMOGRAPHICS

3,213 (60%) NEW VISITORS

49% INCREASE

IN END USER ATTENDANCE Since Sydney 2016

71.55 % 10.54 % 1.63 % NSW

VIC

0.30 %

1.69 %

TAS

ACT

7.21 %

1.70 %

QLD

0.09 % 3.03 % NT

2.25 % OVERSEAS

066

COMMENT

Termination The Wall & The Video Wall Text:/ Graeme Hague

used to work with a lighting technician who was forever arguing about the relative merits of sound versus lighting, and his favourite saying was, “People always come to see a show, you idiot, they don’t say they’re going to hear a concert.” To which my reply was always, “Well, I’ll mute the PA then, shall I, smart-arse? Let’s see how much of the audience hangs around to watch your swirly, twirly, flickery light show without hearing a damned thing.” These days, if we had the same erudite conversation, we’d be joined by the AV guy who could say, “What if I turn off all my bigarse projection screens and force the punters to actually watch the stage? How long then before all hell breaks loose?” Some younger readers might ask: ‘watch the what?’ COW PADDOCK SENSES

It’s been known to happen. In defence of modern-day AV sensory overload, there’s a lot of iconoclasm attached to the historic concerts of the ’60s and ’70s, and I’m guessing plenty of memories are filtered by fond nostalgia, so it’d be really interesting to jump in a time machine and travel back for a look-see. I mean one of those shows like Woodstock where half a million people all desperately needing a bath and yearning for an enormous bar of chocolate had to watch a tiny stage at the other end of a cow paddock and listen to a PA powered by rubbing two sticks together. No massive screens dwarfing the real thing. No line-arrays pulled from the boot of a Prius and covering half of New York State with a single pole-mount stack. What the hell could they really see and hear?

In 2018 a show ain’t a show unless there are multiple repeater screens around the arena and a 20-camera shoot being directed by Steven Spielberg, and it’s gotten to the point where the audience don’t bother watching the actual stage. BROKE FROM WATERS

Some of us, however, beg to differ — but it doesn’t always go to plan. I got bummed out early this year by all this high-tech AV stuff. Back in 2013 I went to Roger Waters’ The Wall tour and, after being tormented by choosing between crap seats or gambling he’d announce a second show (which he eventually did, the bastard), I bought tickets for Row ZZZ, Seat 4000, and not only witnessed a microscopic Waters from the side of the arena, but the angle rendered the famous projection almost invisible. So when the Us and Them tour was announced for February this year I promised to sell several children for scientific experiments — I borrowed some of the neighbour’s, I’m sure they won’t mind — and ultimately purchased primo, top-of-the-wozza seats to experience the concert in all its perfection. We’re talking dead centre and halfway up the first level of tiered seating — no smelly mosh pit — the best seats in the house. THE WALL (OF SCREENS)

Now, also to be fair, Roger has been setting a pretty high bar for himself when it comes to AV at his shows and I should have maybe done a bit of research. But it was exciting to try imagining what he’d be doing on this tour to beat the extravaganza of projection used in The Wall. Enjoy the surprise without any spoilers from YouTube. The answer turned out to be a huge line of drop-in screens running front-to-back of the auditorium, hanging

back-to-back and creating a ‘train’ of video screens down the middle of the seating. It was awesome, brilliant and innovative. A stroke of genius. Roger, you’re a legend. Unless, of course, you’re sitting in the ‘best’ freaking seats in the house. Smack in the middle of the bloody auditorium. Seats that cost a small fortune. For 40 minutes we endured peering at a sliver of stage between a five-metre tunnel created by the line of screens. It was funny for a while, until it got really, really annoying. The folks standing in cowpats at the back of that Woodstock paddock don’t know how good they had it. Not. Happy. Roger. HUMMING LIGHTS

We complained. I wrote a stern letter to Roger asking why the seats weren’t marked as having compromised sight-lines. I even used lots of grumpy words like Rog’ uses in his songs. No one was interested, because I didn’t leave the concert at the time and raise the issue with staff immediately, but rather stuck around and saw the remainder of the show. Suspiciously condemning behaviour, apparently, for someone who’s paid three hundred bucks for a ticket. The upshot is, okay, I definitely go to ‘see’ a show and I’m the first to applaud gob-smacking visuals — and the awesome audio of today’s PA rigs is a given. But I still want to see the people on stage... on the stage, if you know what I mean. All the lighting and inflated, flying pigs, and drop-in bloody screens should always be a bonus, not the main act. I hope you’re reading this, Roger. And making notes. 

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