AV Magazine Issue 22

BRISVEGAS!

BRISBANE FESTIVAL’S AV SPECTACLE

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: AFP’S SECRET AV THE LONSDALE GATEWAY: BIG LIGHTS FOR LITTLE ATHENS SONIC BRANDING: FOR THE CORPORATE HQ WITH EVERYTHING

Digital consoles & multi-tracks The Portastudio offers songwriters and musicians worldwide the tools to create and demo on the fly and this range continues to offer peerless sound quality and essential features. Tascam’s digital mixers are among the most transportable digital consoles available today and come with a huge array of features.

EXTRAORDINARY RECORDING GEAR Handheld recorders

Broadcast & specialist recorders

Great for recording everything from field sounds, lectures, interviews and speeches; through to band rehearsals or as a quick ‘notepad’ on which to get song ideas down, TASCAM’s range of handheld and field recorders offer light compact designs, vast features sets and amazing audio quality.

TASCAM also have recording devices for field recording; broadcast; TV & film; mobile facilities; studios; installed systems; post-production and many other applications.

For more information contact CMI Music & Audio on 03 9315 2244. www.cmi.com.au

Bring images to life with the superior quality of Japanese design and engineering.

Whether it’s a small classroom or a giant sporting stadium, Mitsubishi Electric has the visual display solution to suit your needs. With the freedom to choose from a large range of home or business projectors, commercial LCD monitors, Video Wall systems or large format Diamond Vision LED screens, the possibilities are only limited by your vision.

Projectors

Commercial LCD

Diamond Vision LED

DLP/LCD/LED Video Walls Proud partner of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image

VISUAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Mitsubishi Electric Australia Pty Ltd, 348 Victoria Rd Rydalmere NSW 2116 www.MitsubishiElectric.com.au ph: (02) 9684 7777 fax (02) 9684 7208

DS8000 Digital Wireless Microphone Systems Pro Spec: 24-bit audio quality for concert stage, recording studio and broadcast.

Fail-Safe Redundancy: System automatically detects a system fault and seamlessly switches to the backup system. For example, when the system senses a battery is about to die it automatically switches to the backup transmitter and receiver and sends a text message to tech support.

Mission-Critical Audio

Production Audio Services New Zealand P.+64 (0) 9272 8041 sales@productionaudio.com.nz www.productionaudio.com.nz

Production Audio Services Pty Ltd P.(03) 9264 8000 info@productionaudio.com.au www.productionaudio.com.au

04

Editorial Intellectual property rights… and wrongs.

It’s good to see intellectual property rights being discussed so passionately and publicly again. What’s even better is the broad level of engagement across the community this time around. When the argument involves the real world of Facebook, YouTube, Pirate Bay and Google, you’re bound to get the attention and interest of the net-centric, particularly the social media devotees in the community. The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act in the US caused a frantic flurry of Internet lobbying - and of course disinformation - from a range of interest groups who stood to be affected, even though it had nothing at all to do with any bill before any of the nine parliaments that govern us in Australia and New Zealand.

Whilst people were up in arms at the possibility of not being able to upload video clips to YouTube of themselves and their inebriated friends singing Chisel’s Khe Sanh at last weekend’s buck’s party, they were missing the point. In a society where all the means of production aren’t owned by the state, it is by no means unreasonable for the people who come up with the words and lyrics of a song to be paid something by those who wish to listen to, sing, or play the song. Nor is it unreasonable for a company that invests vast sums of money to devise a process or a product, to receive a reasonable return on that investment. It would hardly be worth the while (or the ensuing universal derision) for an artist or company to pursue someone who used their intellectual property for minor personal, notfor-profit activities.

A bit of analysis of the SOPA legislation in the US reveals that its proponents, the US film industry (which isn’t as insanely profitable as it believes it should continue to be) was probably seeking vast blanket financial settlements from the big, successful, online companies who now have the hearts and minds that once belonged to the film industry.

Unless we work as human ballast for a road-roller, most of us already trade our intellectual property for shelter, food, iPods and designer sunglasses. And most of us don’t even blink at the thought of paying for intellectual property rights from CAL, APRA, Screenrights, AMCOS, PPCA, ASDACS, AWGACS or CLL when it comes to the content for the AV systems we design, build, supply and operate. Despite this, most of us also begrudge paying so much money for the right to rent products (you never actually own them - read the T & Cs) from Microsoft, Adobe, Sony, Atlantic, BMG, Fox, etc.

My intellectual property is definitely more valuable than yours while theirs is probably vastly overpriced, so it won’t hurt them if I borrow a bit without them knowing.

Let the debate rage on!!!!  Andy Ciddor, Editor Contact Andy on andy@av.net.au

the AV Industry’s Lunchroom Noticeboard • Who’s doing what work where • What’s happening on the technology front • What training is available • Who’s hiring

Subscribe now: www.av.net.au

Loudspeakers for Worship

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- LS9-32 digital mixer with digital multicore

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Yamaha Commercial Audio provides design services, EASE ™ modelling, programming, commissioning and training to make your PA investment the best possible value for money.

Yamaha integrated PA systems take care of your entire signal chain, from input to output, giving you perfect integration and an unbeatable one-supplier advantage.

Contact Yamaha Commercial Audio on 03 9693 5272 or jason_allen@gmx.yamaha.com for more information and make your next installation the best it can be.

Follow us on Twitter - Yamaha_CA_Aust Find us on LinkedIn - Yamaha Commercial Audio Australia

QLD

Crew Paul van der Ent is the Managing Director of Wizard Projects. His background includes systems design, entertainment and corporate presentation. With over 30 years of experience, he is very passionate about the AV Industry and committed to the AV/ IT convergence. Paul recently attended the InfoComm100 conference in the USA and holds InfoComm CTS certification and regularly lectures for InfoComm Australia. A true Wizard at heart, Paul has been known to do magic tricks!

Advertising Office: (02) 9986 1188 PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086

Editorial Office: (03) 5331 4949 PO Box 295, Ballarat, VIC 3353

Editor: Andy Ciddor (andy@av.net.au) Publication Manager: Stewart Woodhill (stewart@av.net.au)

Derek is an audiovisual consultant with AVDEC, specialising in tertiary education projects. Starting in broadcast TV and radio at the ABC, he bounced between event AV and video production before settling for 12 years at the University of Queensland. He is past president of the Association of Educational Technology Managers and has been a regular judge of the AVIA awards. He now divides his time between consulting, writing and the occasional video production assignment.

Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@av.net.au) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@av.net.au) Art Direction & Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Additional Design: Leigh Ericksen (leigh@alchemedia.com.au) News Editor: Graeme Hague (news@av.net.au) Accounts: Jen Temm (jen@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@av.net.au)

Matt is a freelance technical writer with a background in marketing and a focus on lighting and entertainment.

He contributes to publications around the world and provides media and marketing services for the entertainment industry. A strong contributor to Melbourne's independent theatre scene, he has worked as a producer, director, actor, stage manager, and more recently as a lighting designer. Matt is a produced playwright and budding screenwriter (although Hollywood doesn't think so... yet) and freelances his reviewing skills both online and in print.

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2012 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. 19/1/12

Mandy Jones is Events Producer for Museum Victoria, responsible for producing media launches and special events across the organisation’s four sites (Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum, Scienceworks and the Royal Exhibition Building). Previously she worked in venue hire sales, and in all aspects of indoor and outdoor theatre including production and stage management, lighting design and operation. For many years Mandy was the Melbourne correspondent and photographer for Connections/CX magazine, and also served on the ALIA committee as a board member and honorary secretary.

Customizable backlit buttons

TLP 1000 Series 10" TouchLink Touchpanels

Configurable Control for Larger AV Systems The Extron TLP 1000MV and TLP 1000TV are fully configurable 10" TouchLink™ touchpanels featuring a sleek, contemporary look and thin bezels to complement any decor. The larger, 1024 x 600 resolution touchscreen surface provides ample room for sophisticated controls and graphics. An integrated MTP twisted pair receiver accepts S-video or composite video and audio input signals over standard CAT 5 cable. Power over Ethernet – PoE, allows the touchpanels to receive power via the Ethernet connector, eliminating the need for a local power supply. The TLP 1000MV mounts on a wall, lectern, or other flat surface, while the TLP 1000TV sits on a tabletop or installs on a VESA mount. Both touchpanel models are ideal for control environments that require a larger control surface within an elegant touchpanel design.

Key Features: • Fully-configurable touchpanel control systems provide powerful control with no programming required • 10" color touchscreen with 1024 x 600 resolution and 18-bit color depth • Integrated Ethernet port compatible with IP Link® control processors

IPCP 505 - IP Link® Control Processor

• Power over Ethernet allows the touchpanel to receive power via the Ethernet connector, eliminating the need for a local power supply • Contemporary, thin bezel designs complement the aesthetics of any environment • The TLP 1000MV mounts on a wall, lectern, or other flat surface, while the TLP 1000TV sits on a tabletop or installs on a VESA mount

Australian Distributor of Extron Products

www.extron.com

www.rgbintegration.com

+65.6383.4400

Issue 22 REGULARS NEWS AV industry news. Includes Sydney Opera House’s Drama Theatre audio upgrade.

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INFOCOMM NEWS Regional news from InfoComm.

46

TERMINATION Stuff: you never know when you might need it.

50

FEATURES

30

SONIC BRANDING FOR THE NAB How AV can help define a corporate identity.

22

AFP EDMUND BARTON We don’t mean to be mysterious, but there are things we can tell you about, and things we can’t talk to you about.

28

ACTIVATING A CITY OF LIGHTS Meeting the challenges of a big arts festival along the Brisbane River.

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THE GATEWAY GOES GREEK The Lonsdale Gateway provides a spectacular entrance to Melbourne’s Greek quarter.

36

TUTORIAL

28 36

INFOCOMM 100: ADAPT OR PERISH The international industry thinktank focusses on the convergence and IT.

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KNX BUILDING CONTROL PROTOCOL Is there a new control protocol in your future?

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REVIEWS PRESONUS STUDIOLIVE 16.0.02 Compact digital mixer

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NEC PA500UG MLA LCD Installation Projector

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YoU CReATe A CUsToM soLUTIoN FoR eACh INsTALLATIoN.

We created an easier Way to do it.

Design I Performance I Support

Introducing an amplifier and loudspeakers engineered for the best possible performance, configurability and scalability.

Live concert-quality tonal balance. Consistent performance. Reliability and efficiency. You want the same results for every job. Yet every system you create has to be different. At Bose®, we launched a research project to see if we could make designing fixed-installation sound systems easier – and better. Along the way, we shared our research with leading designers in the industry and asked for their feedback.

The results are the new Bose RoomMatch™ array module loudspeaker and the PowerMatch™ configurable professional power amplifier. Now you can create a custom solution from standard components, and achieve the best possible performance, regardless of system configuration or room characteristics.

PowerMatch™ configurable professional power amplifier

RoomMatch™ array module loudspeaker To learn more call us on 1800 659 433 Visit pro.bose.com/info or email us at info@bose.com.au

With the RoomMatch loudspeaker, you simply choose from 15 different coverage patterns and assemble them to form Progressive Directivity Arrays, so they deliver the coverage you need while behaving as a single loudspeaker.

That flexibility is matched in the electronics. Using proprietary Bose technology, the PowerMatch amplifier can be configured in single module, dual module or four module modes, delivering best-in-class audio performance, regardless of configuration.

We believe these products are a fresh approach compared with conventional solutions, and we invite you to hear them for yourself. For more information, visit our website.

Fifteen different coverage patterns Horizontal - 55º, 70º, 90º, 120º Vertical - 5º, 10º, 20º, 40º, 60º

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PowerMatch™ configurable professional power amplifier

MORE COMPELLING THAN EVER Philips BDL4651VH 46-inch LCD Monitor

Philips BDL5530EL 50-inch LED Display

Deliver crystal clear marketing messages even in locations with high sunlight or brightness conditions.

The 1500 nit LCD display brings you incredible picture quality just about anywhere.

Deliver startlingly clear images in a more eco-friendly way with the edge LED display. High on performance and reliability, yet low on power consumption, it is ideal for projects where no compromise is accepted.

• 1500 nit LCD • Full HD • Slim bezel • Ideal for sunlight applications • SmartPower for energy saving • Smart insert in the backcover to place a small PC

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Exclusively Distributed by: Avico Electronics 8 Foundry Rd, Seven Hills, NSW, 2147 P: +61 2 9624 7977 www.avico.com.au commercial@avico.com.au

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NEWS

ALLEN & HEATH GO FOR GLD

SHUTTLE LAUNCH

THE BUSY BZ-1

Allen & Heath has unveiled GLD – not a single product, but a user-friendly, cost-effective and scalable live digital mixing system, based on the digital iLive series.

A standard GLD 32-input system offers 28 XLR mic inputs with plug ’n’ play I/O expanders allowing expansion up to 48 inputs (44 XLR mic inputs). At the heart of the system is the GLD-80 mixer, providing 48-input processing channels, eight stereo FX returns fed by iLive’s FX emulations, 30 configurable buses, 20 mix processing channels and DSP power to provide full processing. GLD-80 has an analogue-style channel processing control section complemented by a graphical 213mm touchscreen. A fully-customisable drag-and-drop layout allows quick and easy assignment of inputs and mixes to fader strips. A primary AR2412 rack (24 XLR inputs, 12 XLR outs) and up to two AR84 expander racks (8 XLR inputs, four XLR outs each) can be connected over 120m Cat5 runs using A&H’s dSnake protocol. All for under $10k.

Technical Audio Group: (02) 9519 0900 or info@tag.com.au

Blackmagic Design has announced the Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt, a new video capture and playback solution that uses Intel’s Thunderbolt technology. Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt features all the video connections needed to connect video cameras, set-top boxes, game consoles, large screen TVs and projectors to a Thunderbolt-enabled computer. The inline design includes HDMI, analogue component, composite and S-Video inputs and outputs. Thunderbolt-enabled computers connect to Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt using a single cable that is capable of 10Gbps data transfer speeds (that’s 20x faster than USB 2.0 and 12x faster than Firewire 800). Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt is powered over the Thunderbolt cable – no need for an external power supply. Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt will work with compressed and uncompressed video in standard definition PAL/NTSC up to full 1080p HD video. Blackmagic Design’s Media Express software is included and video files are fully compatible with most popular editing and design software. Price: $255 New Magic Australia: (03) 9722 9700 or www.newmagic.com.au

The Hitachi BZ-1 Interactive Projector has all the functionality of an interactive whiteboard built into it, eliminating the need for additional hardware. An ultrashort-throw lens enables it to be mounted close to a wall or projection surface and the BZ-1 also comes with a stand to project the image onto a tabletop surface.

A simple menu system provides easy access to many functions including graphics tools, templates, colours and resources for creating presentations. The usual suspects such as PowerPoint, Word, PDF, JPEG and other formats can be imported directly into the BZ-1, which has a variety of video and audio inputs and highquality optics for clear and sharp images. Users can write, draw, manipulate and resize projected images by using Hitachi’s pen-sized Interactive Control.

Users can also save, print and email projected images right from the interactive menu bar. The BZ-1 offers 2500 ANSI lumens brightness, WXGA resolution and a throw distance of 560mm for a 2032mm (16:10) diagonal image. It has a built-in speaker and 10W amplifier. Price: $2799.

Hitachi Australia: (02) 9888 4100 or www.hitachi.com.au

NEWS IN BRIEF:

Vision’s Techconnect amplifier has been given an internal makeover with a new memory function which allows the installer to preset the input and volume level. For example, now when you reach your hotel room and put you key card in, the amplifier turns on automatically to the correct input at the right level regardless of how the last user left it – including your wife. That’s important.

Integration Supplies: 0408 570 950 or ian@isupplies.com.au

Don’t be tricked, these guys are Australian and proud of it. Still, Blackmagic Design announced its acquisition of Teranex Systems Inc., a leading manufacturer of high performance video processing products for the post production and broadcast industries headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Teranex will continue to support its customers and expand its sales channels with the support of the Blackmagic Design organisation.

New Magic Australia: (03) 9722 9700 or www.newmagic.com.au

Adding yet another feather to its cap, Hills SVL will, as from February 2012, distribute Denon Pro, Denon DJ and Marantz products. Through an agreement with their international parent company, D&M Holdings, Hills SVL will become the exclusive Australian distributor of these brands.

Hills SVL: (02) 9647 1411 or nsw@hillssvl.com.au

With over 23 years experience in audio visual, event staging and computer hire, corporate and business event staging specialists, Microhire has recently announced the acquisition of Melbournebased Durham AV. The purchase of the business was finalised on 1 December, but for now not much will change and Durham will continue to trade as Durham AV. Microhire: 1300 667 095 or www.microhire.com.au

The nameplates on the office doors at LSC are getting shuffled around. With Alan Graham leaving LSC (he’s retired, lucky sod), Trevor Sykes has been promoted to the position of General Manager. Trevor has a long association with LSC starting out with the company as a technician in the late ’80s. Now he gets the Big Office. Good luck, Trevor – and happy retirement Alan.

LSC Light Systems: (03) 9702 8000 or www.lsclighting.com

C 414 INTRODUCING NEW PRICING FOR THE MICROPHONE THAT NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION

A VIRTUAL GRANDMA The MA onPC command wing allows for mobile use of the grandMA2 control system. In combination with the free-of-charge grandMA2 onPC software, the MA onPC command wing is a portable 2048-parameter control solution that can be used in nearly any location. Designed as a hardware expansion to the grandMA2 onPC software, the MA onPC command wing enables the look and feel of the software to be as close to a real grandMA2 console as possible. The MA onPC command wing incorporates the command section of the grandMA2 consoles and with a USB connection between the MA onPC command wing and the computer running the grandMA2 onPC software, all inputs and outputs of a grandMA2 console are available. DMX, MIDI, timecode and Analogue Remote are all on hand directly at the MA onPC command wing. The MA onPC command wing can be expanded by using one of the existing MA 2Port node options.

An MA 2Port Node onPC will give 512 additional parameters and an MA 2Port Node onPC PRO will add 1024 parameters.

Show Technology: (02) 9748 1122 or www.showtech.com.au

AKG’s legendary C414 can be found in recording studios around the world. It’s been seen on stage with artists of every musical genre, and is used by leading broadcasters.

Now, the amazing C414XLS and C414XLII are available for the same great value price. Contact your authorised Australian AKG dealer for

Valens Semiconductor, a provider of semiconductor products for the distribution of uncompressed HD multimedia content and inventor of HDBaseT technology, announced the availability of its new VS010RX HDBaseTLite Receiver and VS010TX HDBaseT-Lite Transmitter chipset. The VS010 chipset meets the needs of installers requiring only certain HDBaseT functionality at distances less than 70m. It’s complementary to standard HDBaseT technology, enabling single-cable transmission of uncompressed HD video, audio, power and controls through a single 70m LAN cable.

Valens Semiconductor: www.valens-semi.com

Oh good... more cables to collect. The USBIF (USB Implementers Forum) announced its release of the USB-IF Audio/Video Device Class Specification. The specification supports the transfer of AV data over USB to a wide variety of AV devices, including mobile phones, cameras, pico projectors, webcams, large HD displays and TVs. The AV Device Class Definition enables manufacturers of small form factor devices to develop single-cable devices, which provide both power and display over one USB cable.

USB-IF: www.usb.org

details of these great new prices. And, of course, when you buy from an authorised Australian dealer, you get the peace of mind of a three year local warranty.

3

YEAR WARRANTY*

*On selected studio condenser mics

014

NEWS

GEFEN HIT THE ROAD

THE FOURTH DIMENSION

CUE Q-MOTION

Gefen has released a bunch of new automation goodies at CES 2012. Professional Automation Control Systems (PACS) can control HDTV displays, Blu-rays, add-on switchers, distribution amplifiers, scalers – you name it – from a central interface. It features a high-efficiency method of accessing AV devices equipped with RS-232 or IR using IP control.

The Mini Professional Automation Control System (called Mini PACS, believe it or not) offers the same features as the PACS in a scaled down version. It is ideal for systems where equipment is not necessarily centralised in a single rack. The Gefen Audio/Video Automation System (GAVA) works with PACS to control all key AV features in a home with the added option to automate lighting and more using a smart phone or tablet. When GAVA is combined with PACS, users can operate any connected device in the home from ‘any location on the planet’ through their smart phone or tablet.

Amber Technology: 1800 251367 or www.ambertech.com.au

Projectiondesign’s new FS32 IR ReaLED projector is designed, among many other things, for simulations with night vision goggles (NVG) in night-time training – not surprisingly – and other low-light scenarios as well as bright and full daylight operations. The high resolution FS32 IR uses projectiondesign’s secondgeneration solid-state ReaLED illumination system that works to improve and assist the creation of deeper black levels and brighter visual light output.

Typically, LED projectors have red, green, and blue LED light sources. The FS32 IR adds a fourth LED that emits infrared light beyond the range visible to the human eye, thus enabling the projector to produce brighter night vision imagery. The FS32 IR Smear Reduction Processing reduces motion artifacts in high-speed imaging even in the darkest of simulated night scenes. The FS32 IR projector was the result of a focused engineering effort to address the critical need of NVG training applications.

Amber Technology: 1800 251367 or www.ambertech.com.au

Quest has released the QM500, adding it into the Quest’s Q-motion range. The QM500 is a passive two-way bass reflex design speaker suitable for mobile or installation use. The QM500 is designed for both full-range use or as the high-mid component of a multi-way system with sub-bass enhancement. The patented phase device high frequency transducer is matched to a rotatable asymmetrical wave guide that can be rotated through 270° for horizontal, vertical or foldback monitor applications. The asymmetrical coverage allows the horn to achieve both long throw performance and wide angle close coverage without creating hot zones or adding to unnecessary room reflections that can degrade vocal intelligibility. The unit can be used in a standalone configuration or as part of a system coupled with any Quest sub-bass speaker as part of a high performance multi way audio system.

Group Technologies Australasia: (03) 9354 9133 or www.grouptechnologies.com.au

EAW: 'UNLIMITED' POTENTIAL

There are few bigger names in the international worship scene than Darlene Zschech.

The songs she penned while at the Hillsong mega-church are belted out by millions worldwide every Sunday. Darlene is now Senior Pastor (with her husband Mark) of Hope Unlimited church one hour north of Sydney, and naturally when they moved in, the church’s ageing sound system was soon in the gun. Production Audio Services’ Dave Watson worked with Hope Unlimited to spec a comparatively modest, yet high quality system for the 750-capacity church, comprising EAW MQV cabs teamed with

Powersoft K6 amps, along with EAW SB2001 subs driven by a Powersoft K20 amp (2 x 9000W at 2Ω!). An EAW UX8800 digital processor takes care of the sonic housekeeping.

Doing most of the heavy lifting is a pair of MQV2364s. These monoliths are renowned for their tight pattern control well into the lower mid frequencies, and comprise 2 x 15-inch, 2 x 10-inch drivers and a two-inch HF horn.

They can be tri-amped, but in this install the 10s and horn are addressed as one channel using the internal passive crossover.

Dave Watson clearly has a passion for church sound and he spoke to

AV about a PA needing to capture a connection between band and congregation – a ‘natural energy transfer’.

And having a system with enough headroom certainly helps, making for what he calls ‘breathability’: “when you have a lot of room for transients in your PA, it just feels much more natural. Match good quality drivers, which have the ability to move the frequencies you need, with a great amp, and it’s like a breath of fresh air.”

Production Audio Services: (03) 9264 8000 or info@productionaudio.com.au

SMAART HARDWARE Rational Acoustics has released the Smaart I-O, which is a measurement-grade 2x2 USB audio interface designed and built specifically for use with Smaart v7 Measurement Software. The I-O features two highquality, active balanced inputs with 50dB of softwareadjustable gain in precision 1dB steps. The input gains are monitored directly by Smaart allowing the user to retain accurate SPL calibration while varying measurement signal input levels. A control program sets preamp gains and phantom power selection, and automatically integrates with Smaart v7. It also provides firmware update capability and can rename the Smaart I-O at the hardware level – handy when you’re using multiple devices with Smaart. The Smaart I-O is definitely CE-certified, but apparently the first units produced didn’t have the CE mark and can’t be sold into the European Union. Perhaps that’ll make these units collector’s items and rare like the 1856 one-cent British Guiana postage stamp that sold for $935,000… or maybe they’ll just fix the problem in the next batch due at the end of January.

Production Audio Services: (03) 9264 8000 or sales@productionaudio.com.au

THE CONFERENCE PHONE,

EVOLVED Revolabs has redefined the traditional design of conference phones. FLX is comprised of several distinct components giving you unprecedented freedom with respect to placement and accessibility of the speaker, microphones and dial pad. FLX is wireless and simple to set up making it the perfect choice for any mid to small sized conference room.

Okay, it’s hardly Britney Spears with no hair or any of the Kardashians (no, not the Star Trek ones) trying to spell, but hey – you never know. This could go viral. AMX has announced a social media site where you can follow, join, like or subscribe to its… well, AMX thing. It may need to dig deep into the vicious office gossip or plan a fake marriage or two to get things kick-started.

AMX Australia: (07) 5531 3103 or www.amxaustralia.com.au

AVCorp has recently invested in a Soundcraft Si Compact 32 console. Pivotal to the decision was a faith in Jands’ back-up service and although the learning curve for AVCorp’s staff was steep, it was short and painless. One feature of the Soundcraft Si that AVCorp particularly likes is the FaderGlow, which illuminates the fader slots according to function with clearly defined colours for FX, Stereo, Linked Mono, GEQ, Post Fade Aux, Pre Fade Aux. Colour and movement… gets ‘em every time.

Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au

•

Stylish design

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Wireless freedom

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Bluetooth integration

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Superior audio quality

•

Simple set-up (with video tutorial)

For your nearest dealer: Call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au

Scan the QR Code to watch the FLX video

016

NEWS

3

1

2

5

6

4 1/ BARCO LAUNCH INTO GALAXY

2/ THINGS GETTING DRASTIC

3/ NO STATIC AT ALL

Barco’s Galaxy 4K series projectors three-chip DLP projectors are dedicated to the Virtual Reality market, bring high-quality images with detail to large-screen 2D and 3D applications. Customers can choose among three models, Galaxy 4K-12, 4K-23, and 4K-32. With resolution of up to 4K (4096 x 2160) on its DVI inputs and, depending on the model, brightness levels of 12K, 23K or 33K lumens, the Galaxy 4K produces high quality 3D imagery ‘under all circumstances’. The hermetically sealed optical engine makes sure no dust can affect the DLP 4K chip, guaranteeing undiminished brightness, colour uniformity and contrast levels. The enhanced DMD cooling protects the system’s core components from overheating. In addition, Barco projectors come with a patented convergence alignment tool. Also, the 12-bit input capability allows more details in black and grey scales when running at 2K sources. Barco supports a number of stereoscopic technologies including active 3D stereo and active Infitec 3D. Barco: (03) 9646 5833 or sales.au@barco.com

Drastic Technologies’ 4KScope is claimed to be the world’s first 4K software waveform, vectorscope, histogram and monitor. Designed to take advantage of the AJA KONA 3G’s Quad HD and 4K capture modes, the software provides a cost-effective 4K monitoring solution. Drastic offers 4KScope for up to 4K monitoring at resolutions up to 4096 x 2160 with the AJA KONA 3G. 4KScope also supports other AJA I/O Series hardware for non-4K monitoring. It’s a dedicated application for viewing video signals through a range of signal analysis and monitoring tools for real-time quality assurance, control, signal monitoring and analysis, and device or workflow setup and calibration. Single link SDI and single or dual link HD-SDI, 3G dual link and 3G dual rate are supported, as is analogue video input as long as you’ve got the appropriate hardware. Embedded, AES/ EBU and analogue audio levels are displayed as well.

Drastic 4KScope is happy with 32/64-bit Windows from XP to Win7 and Apple OSX 10.6 or greater.

Digistor: (02) 9431 6000 or www.digistor.com.au

Sydney’s first station to broadcast stereo FM in Australia will soon install technology provided by German company Lawo for its new purpose-built facility. 2MBS is aiming to address the level of multistreaming now expected by radio broadcasters – FM, the internet and now DAB+ – so the new studio facility will have two on-air studios, two production/ edit booths, a media transfer booth and a music performance studio. Split 12-fader Lawo Crystal consoles and frames were chosen for the two main onair studios, with 2 x eight-fader consoles and Crystal frames for the production and dubbing studios and a four-fader Crystal console for the transfer booth. A fully redundant Lawo Nova17 router ties all studios together via fibre and is responsible for all on-air delegation, switching and a sophisticated talkback system. It’s planned that the new Lawo system will be installed in 2MBS’s new facility early this year.

Professional Audio Technology: (02) 94761272 or sales@proaudiotechnology.com.au

4/ SAMSUNG GETS A TOUCH-UP

5/ COMPACT SIERRA

6/ YAMAHA DME TURNS FOUR

CDT touchscreen overlays are suitable for the Samsung DE and ME range of LED Backlit (BLU) Displays. The new overlay works in landscape mode and a portrait model is planned for release soon. CDT touchscreen overlays’ integration design provides a high-end matte black surface finish custom-built to a very high standard. Incorporating NextWindow’s new 2S thin borders and low profile technology, CDT has minimised the size to maintain the narrow bezel and slim depth of the LED BLU panel. NextWindow’s new 2S touchscreen supports Windows 7, Mac OSX and Linux operating systems and recognises common dual-touch gestures, such as zoom, rotate, tap and press-and-tap.

Installation can be completed in a matter of minutes and sizes include 1016mm, 1168mm and 1397mm.

Samsung ME55A panel with CDT overlay is $6768.

Image Design Technology (IDT): 1300 666 099 or sales@idt.com.au

Sierra Video has released the Aspen 3232, the first model in a new line of compact video 3G HD-SDI routing switchers that will be a line of general utility 3G HD-SDI routing switchers for use in any video installation. The Aspen 3232 is a multi-rate router compatible with 3G, HD-SDI and SDI signals from 19 Mb/s to 2.97 Gb/s (3G).

The Aspen 3232 is also energy efficient, requiring less than 32W of power including the power consumed by its standard built-in routing switcher control system and front panel. A feature of the Aspen 3232 is that the router can drive signals further than most typical 3G HD-SDI routing switchers – the Aspen 3232HD3G can drive 3G signals over 155m (using Belden 1694A cable). The introduction of the Aspen 3232 coincides with the introduction of Sierra’s new control system architecture based on IP, SNMP, and a web interface.

Kramer Electronics Australia (07) 3806 4290 or www.krameraustralia.com.au

Version 4 of Yamaha’s DME series open architecture DSP range cranks up the power and adds more flexibility. New features include Partial Recall – select only specific components in your DSP to change states between scenes. When used in conjunction with Recall Safe (its opposite function, since it keeps components in the same state between scenes regardless of what’s stored) you have the power to make external controllers behave exactly as required, when needed.

It’s worth noting that Version 4 DMEs are directly controllable via Ethernet from AMX and Crestron.

The Configuration Manager manages multiple DSP structure changes between scenes. For example, you can drop in a matrix mixer to perform a function in one state only, or place an automixer in line for conference mode, but not presentation mode.

Yamaha Music Australia: (03) 9693 5111 or www.yamahamusic.com.au

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020

NEWS

Drama King Text: Christopher Holder

Drama theatres are built for a very specific purpose. They’re intimate performance spaces that allow actors to tread the boards and ‘alas’ their poor ‘Yoricks’ without recourse to anything so tawdry as sound reinforcement. Of course, there will be sound effects. Gone are the days of off-stage crew shaking sheets of metal or ringing door bells, so digital playback systems need to be connected to a digital routing matrix, allowing spot effects to be bussed to speakers dotted about the auditorium and allover the stage. Moreover, to thrive, modern theatres are necessarily multipurpose: you might have an un-amplified monologue one night and a full-throttle rock ’n’ roll musical the next.

The Sydney Opera House’s Drama Theatre is the essence of the modern multi-purpose theatre.

Its principal tenant, the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), keeps the theatre busy. But on the occasions that it isn’t occupying the theatre the Sydney Opera House programs dance, cabaret and talks, as well as Bangarra Dance and Bell Shakespeare having regular seasons, ensuring the venue is rarely dark.

Which is all a slightly long-winded introduction to the key news: the Sydney Opera House has given its Drama Theatre a significant audio upgrade – installing a new d&b sound system along with a Stagetec digital routing system. The new setup allows the Drama Theatre to handle virtually anything that’s thrown at it.

POINT & SHOOT

I took the opportunity to tour the Drama Theatre with Ralf Zuleeg, d&b’s Head of Application Support (in town from d&b’s German HQ to commission the system) and the SOH’s Head of Sound and Audio Visual Jeremy Christian.

The first thing you notice is the sheer number

of speakers. Dozens of d&b E Series cabinets dot the perimeter of the room. “Each speaker has its own amplifier channel so if the director points at a speaker and says, ‘I want the sound to come out of that one,’ we can just route it there – this was one of the key design requirements,” noted Jeremy Christian.

Which is where the Stagetec Nexus router takes the stage. “And this is reason why we went with Stagetec,” said Jeremy. “It’s a 256 by 256 matrix if it wants to be – absolutely epic. So the way we’ve done it is we can run it individually and directly, so we can directly plug into any speaker. Or within the Stagetec system we have another set of what we call ‘bussing inputs’ – presets, as it were. So if we want to have a more conventional left/right setup it’ll address all the speakers in a pre-assigned manner with left/right signal. Or we can set up a 5.1 mix where you send the 5.1 into the matrix and it will know where to route that audio. That gave us a bit more flexibility in routing.”

And when you have that kind of routing flexibility, it’s surprising how quickly sound designers cotton on and quickly take advantage of it. Jeremy: “Sound designers will actually design their shows for this theatre. As soon as they know about this stuff…”

the very best coverage, the best and widest frequency response possible in the room and the greatest flexibility. In other words, in true Opera House style, very little expense has been spared.

Another example is clearly evident in the onstage PA for performances and theatre effects.

Not content with a few self-powered boxes, the Drama Theatre has a d&b Q1 array, along with a formidable complement of E Series speakers, again, each individually addressable and with their own amp channel. In fact, the machine room would make most theatre techs weep. The number of d&b amps is prodigious (11 x D12 and 14 x D6 digital amps), catering to the possibility that every single speaker in the theatre’s arsenal at some point may be used simultaneously.

The sub frequencies haven’t been scrimped on either. Previously the omnidirectional sub cabs occupied a cavity each side of the auditorium, with all the usual lack of definition and focussed energy that you would expect. Ralf spec’ed J-Infra subs, loaded with three 21-inch drivers (one driver firing backwards to provide the cardioid rear rejection). The extra oomph in the low end was a revelation: “The first time they were switched on I saw big smiles – stupid smiles! – spread across the faces of my sound guys. These are bad boy subs,” commented Jeremy Christian.

FEEL THE GEOMETRY

STAGED RIGHT

Ralf Zuleeg took care of the system design. The first hurdle he needed to cross involved the vagaries of the notorious/famous SOH architecture – the two-tiered roof necessitates the use of two rows of front of house speakers: the first rank covering the first few rows of seating with a row of ‘delay’ E Series speakers only a few metres into the room covering the remainder of the seating.

It highlighted that this system design is about

You’ve got to give it to the Sydney Opera House.

It’s renowned for being very careful with its money, and gear acquisitions don’t happen in a hurry. But when they do, they do it properly.

And this is a drama theatre with its audio done properly. ‘Future proof’ is a dicey term in such a fast-paced technological world, but I think the Drama Theatre is safe from another audio upgrade for many years to come. 

NEWS

MORE ON THE DIGITAL ROUTING The Drama Theatre uses a Stagetec Nexus signal distribution platform to take care of all its digital routing. The system includes five Base Devices, all interconnected by fibreoptics around the venue. Each Base Device can be populated with any combination of a range of cards including: A/D, mic, D/A, DSP, AES/EBU, MADI, Dolby, 3G,HD-SDI, GPIO and data interfaces. Each I/O card can also be selected with various connector types such as XLR, D-Sub or RJ45.

For the Drama Theatre, Base Device 1 is positioned in the console equipment room and interfaces with the existing console via 128 bi-directional MADI channels on fibre. The local I/O, 16 channels of analogue and 16 channels of AES/EBU are presented directly on XLR connectors, reducing the need for additional patch boxes.

Base Devices 2 and 3 are located in the amplifier room and are configured with 24 channels of AES/EBU and a DSP card each.

The DSP cards are configured with summing, parametric EQ and delay blocks.

Base Device 4 is a mobile frame used at front of house. It’s populated with a MADI fibre card for connection to the FOH console, eight channels of analogue I/O and eight channels of AES/EBU I/O. The fibre optic connection is via a hard-wearing Opticalcon cable.

Base Device 5 is a mobile stage box with eight channels of analogue I/O and 16 channels of AES/EBU I/O. The Nexus fibreoptic system provides 256 channels of audio per fibre card, plus control of the base devices. The topology can be set up in either a ring, a star or a combination of the two. Fibres are connected via SFP (Small Formfactor Pluggable) modules and therefore any fibre cable can be used. In the Drama Theatre, Base Device 1 is at the centre of a fibre optic ‘star’ network, with two XFOC cards, the amp room base devices are split across each card, while each of the mobile base devices for FOH and stage are also split across the two cards. For further redundancy you could interconnect the other base devices, forming a ring between them.

Control of the system is via Matrix5, which can be run on any Windows PC. This software allows the routing and control of the entire system, user rights management, metering and status via Ethernet. Any input may be routed to any output simultaneously, with gain adjustment available at both stages. The settings can be saved as projects, and stored in the system.

Stagetec Mediagroup: (02) 8011 0500 or australia@stagetec.com

021

d&B PA SPECS Q10 loudspeaker x 2 E6 loudspeaker x 10 E8 Loudspeaker x 18 E12-D loudspeaker x 10 E12 loudspeaker x 4 J Sub Subwoofer x 2 J-Infra subwoofer x 2 E15X-Sub, subwoofer x 2 Q1 line array loudspeaker x 8 D12 amplifier x 11 D6 amplifier x 14 R70 Ethernet to CAN interface National Audio Systems: 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au

An EASE plot of the Drama Theatre showing the speaker positions, along with the predicted coverage (@ 1kHz) of the d&b E Series ’Surround’ speakers placed on the sides and rear walls.

022

FEATURE

Sonic Branding for the NAB The jingle grows up and buys a Prius.

Text:/ Mandy Jones Images:/ Anson Smart Studio If you’ve watched an episode of Gruen Planet or Mad Men then you would know that there is much more to advertising and marketing than meets the eye, or the ear. Everything about how a brand is communicated is carefully researched, tested and controlled. In an age of such immense choice, values-led consumerism is the new paradigm – put simply: consumer buying decisions are influenced by brands that embody values which reflect their own. Increasingly, we are choosing brands that mirror our own view, our identity, personality and core values; and in order to be authentic, brand values must extend through every aspect of a company, from the visual identity such as logo, font and colour palette, to the aspirations, attitude and beliefs of its staff.

The expression of brand values through an aural identity may not be a new idea – jingles and sound effects associated with brands or products have been used since the 1920s – however the simplicity of repetitive jingles has been refined into a more holistic and sophisticated approach.

Sonic branding is an extension of brand values and creates a consistent aural identity for a brand across a range of media that includes television, radio, web, on-hold and in-store environments. Marcel de Bie is Creative Director of Melbourne-based sonic branding company The Amber Theatre, and he recently showed me through his largest sonic branding project The Academy.

Located at its Melbourne Headquarters in Docklands, The Academy is NAB’s business development and innovation centre dedicated to the professional development of NAB employees.

Designed by BVN Architects, the design and fit-out of the 3200sqm site is geared around transforming people from the conventional thinking of office spaces into a more creative space. NAB’s US-based sonic branding consultants Rumblefish engaged The Amber Theatre as its Australian eyes and especially ears for this project.

De Bie’s connection with the project was twofold. He was initially involved in the conceptual development and design of the interactive elements of the project with Rumblefish, and later as its project manager on the ground, utilising his network of local suppliers and contacts.

A GRAND ENTRY: THE ACADEMY STAIRS

Entry to The Academy is via a bespoke wooden staircase. In order to prepare employees for the experience of The Academy, the staircase serves as both a physical and mental transition: an idea reinforced through four layers of sound.

“There are earthy sounds at the bottom, wooden

sounds in the middle, metal sounds at the top and human sounds interspersed throughout. It represents the transition of humans and how we have evolved,” de Bie explains.

With 32 discrete channels of audio, the compositions are played through 32 RBH MM-4 (four-inch plus one-inch) bookshelf speakers positioned in and around the staircase. Replay is triggered by a combination of infra-red sensors and cameras. The audio is sourced from an Apple Mac Pro via a MADI digital to analogue interface which feeds the preamps and Extron amplifiers.

The system responds interactively with the human traffic on the staircase, shifting the volume faders via a MAX/MSP program. De Bie worked closely with the architects in designing a system that would integrate cleanly and effectively into the elegant wooden structure. “I was impressed by the RBH speakers because they are a nice mid-range speaker that suited the design aesthetically and sonically,” he explains.

THE ATRIUM: OUTSIDE THE BOX

The heart of The Academy is The Atrium, a large central circulation area that links meeting and training rooms, lunch and breakout areas. Here, over-sized furniture, laboratory-style drinking taps and curved benches create a sense of Alice in Wonderland meets ultra-cool secondary school. De Bie explains that NAB wanted The Atrium to be activated by an ambient soundscape that reinforces the company’s brand values, while creating a dynamic, mood-altering environment for its staff.

“If someone is coming in here for a workshop, the sounds get them into a headspace that encourages them to think outside of the box, or think differently to come up with the next big idea. They feel comfortable in the space, but there are things happening sonically and sounds that whizz by them that make them think ‘what was that?’, so it gets their brain thinking differently,” explains de Bie. Positioned around the main circulation space of The Atrium are five wooden ‘blades’ that are the basis of the main audio composition in this space, The River of Words. De Bie explains each of the blade structures have motion sensors and Vifa VF090B (four-inch, full-range drivers with a glassfibre cone) installed within them.

“The River of Words composition was created to support The Academy’s brand platform: Transformational Journeys. It was created by using the heart and soul of The Academy – the interaction between the voices of its people and the naturally occurring resonances of the building’s physical/ architectural attributes,” reveals de Bie.

FEATURE

023

“Sonic branding is about the culture of a company and when you hear what these people have to say, you can see that it’s more than just a bank”

NAB Atrium: Five wooden 'blade' structures carry image-mapped projections from above and serve as the sound sources for the River of Words interactive soundscape.

024

Created entirely out of human voices, the babbling brook-style composition includes ‘glitched up’ snippets of interviews with 50 NAB staff who were asked what they aspire to, and how they would make the world a better place.

“The authenticity of using real NAB employees was one of the ideas that The Amber Theatre and Rumblefish decided early on, because the employees are the heart and soul of the brand. Sonic branding is about the culture of a company and when you hear what these people have to say, you can see that it’s more than just a bank, it’s a collection of people who really care what’s going on,” shares de Bie. STRIKING NAB’S CHORD

While composing the soundscapes in Logic Pro, de Bie spent a lot of time on site in The Atrium and it was during this process that he became aware of the root note of the room. “I could hear this note constantly throughout the space, there was a frequency – a resonance. I’m quite intuitive in my approach, so I sat down at a keyboard and found it was F#. We could have got the same result through a technical analysis of the environment but we did it the intuitive way, because to me it’s more about emotion and listening,” he says.

Due to the design of the space and practicalities around not disturbing workers in the offices overlooking the Atrium, they decided to embrace the root note and compose around it in order to create a general ambience and energy in the space, while blending into the character of the building. The result is The Academy Chord, a choral composition made up of voices from the staff interviews tuned to F# that gently resonates throughout The Atrium.

The final aspect of The River of Words composition is simply called Sonic Surprises and consists of bird sounds created from manipulated fragments of speech. De Bie describes them as “audio whoopee cushions” and explains when they are triggered by motion sensors they make people say “What was that!” and wonder whether it was part of the sounds or whether someone was talking to them.

Control for The Atrium’s 32 channels of surround audio is custom designed and built to run through MAX/MSP off Apple Mac Pros, and is virtually identical to the setup for The Academy Staircase. Programming of the MAX/ MSP for both spaces was done by Garth Paine, and engineering and mixing of The Atrium compositions was by Nigel Derricks together with Marcel de Bie. VIDEO INSTALLATION WITH INTEREST

Complementing the sonic installation in The Atrium is a 3D video installation by leading video design company Eness. Utilising 18 Panasonic PT-D5700 DLP projectors positioned throughout The Atrium, the sound

FEATURE

blades and the large motorised doors of the training rooms become projection surfaces for a video installation called Parallel Wilderness.

Silhouettes of bushland settings and native Australian animal inhabitants create a ‘virtual ecosystem’ adding to the interactive nature of the space.

Programmed to represent different times of day and weather conditions, the mood of the space is subtly altered by1.the shifting conditions.

Motion-sensing cameras trigger interactive elements such as the animal silhouettes which 1. cleverly gather around any stationary human inhabitants in The Atrium. All content for Parallel Wilderness was created using Eness’ proprietary Pixile software, a dimensional pixel mapping engine.

Other sonic elements within The Atrium include a playful interactive, where staff can press a button and talk into a microphone run through a Symbolic Sound Pacarana sound engine which garbles the sound and plays it back. There is also a feedback microphone where staff can record comments or suggestions about the company that can be reviewed by management or even added to the soundtrack.

“We can harvest those comments, run them through the software and recompose them back into the soundtrack so it is essentially a living composition,” de Bie explains.

1.

2.

IN THE MOOD

The final element of the sound design for The Academy is a system of soundtracks in each of the meeting and training rooms controlled by wireless AMX panels. Rumblefish and The Amber Theatre worked together on deciding the moods and design concepts for the interface ‘Dial-a-Mood’ program, and compiled playlists for each of the moods enabling facilitators to dial-up different room music to suit their session.

“We programmed a player with tracks for Energy, Focus, Calm and Catalyst so depending on whether the facilitator needs to vibe people up or bring them down, they can easily alter the mood with music,” says de Bie. The Academy is a great illustration of the power of sound and the influence it has over us knowingly and unconsciously. Next time you are on-hold, or in an office or store, listen to the sounds you are hearing, more importantly have a listen to the sounds your customers are hearing when they interact with your business – you may be in need of a sonic brander.  FURTHER INFORMATION: www.theambertheatre.com www.rumblefish.com www.brandtimbre.com/news.html (former Rumblefish VP’s new company) www.nab.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/ nab/Careers/home/1/2/2/ www.eness.com

3.

4.

1. The AMX Dial-a-Mood screen found outside each meeting and training room.

2. NAB’s 21st century suggestion box (with overtones of Big Brother – the George Orwell novel – not the Endemol TV show).

3. The input microphone for the interactive soundscape element that slices dices and blends the sounds spoken in to it before playing them back.

4. Marcel de Bie seated on the entry staircase listening to his fourlayer, 32-channel entry soundscape.

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026

FINALIST

FEATURE

AFP Edmund Barton Is this a secure line? Details of one of the most significant (and hush-hush) AV jobs of 2011.

Text:/ Andy Ciddor

Commercial confidentiality is part of the AV industry’s stock-in-trade. Of course, we will keep even the very existence of a project, much less its specification, completely under wraps until the job is complete and the client is ready to let us boast about it to our friends, colleagues and prospective clients. Sometimes we even take on a job because the prestige of having done it will enhance our reputation in some way. And then there are the projects that we’re proud of but not allowed to even mention, sometimes it’s for commercial reasons (like the three letter bank that’s sure the entire banking industry will collapse if anyone ever finds out about the technology on the CEO’s desk), and sometimes it’s for ‘public safety’ or ‘national security’.

There’s one very big building complex out in the wilds of Bungendore (near Canberra) that simply doesn’t exist. It includes some very interesting AV projects on a substantial scale, and while some AV readers worked on this project, and have the business records to prove it, they can never admit to it. The project of course was the magnatet adi voluptae volores sincili gnatur and while we Australians can’t admit its existence you can see satellite images of it on Google Maps (-35.344167,149.375556) and it has a its own entry in Wikipedia entry under Headquarters Joint Operations Command (Australia) (which proves beyond doubt that it doesn’t exist, because everything in Wikipedia is wildly inaccurate).

MUM’S THE WORD

A similar veil of secrecy hangs over the headquarters facility of the Australian Federal Police in the Edmund Barton Building in the Canberra suburb of Barton. Despite the dubious honour of having an entry in Wikipedia, we do actually have an Australian Federal Police Force. I know this because I see them all the time at Hobart airport, preventing terrorist attacks and riots; thankfully they have a 100% success rate so far.

Constructed for use as Commonwealth government offices in the early ’70s, the Edmund

Barton Building did exist and even has a Commonwealth National Heritage Listing for its clever design by Australian architect Harry Seidler.

Regular sightings by local residents indicate that the building is still there, but since its major refurb (prior to the AFP relocating there to consolidate offices that had previously been distributed around Canberra in five other sites), its very existence is now being called into question. Consequently we aren’t able to include any photos of the finished doloriati quaspidebis venihiliate eligendam natum vellupta sitis apictemolut project in this article. As far as we’ve been able to find out, there is a major risk of crime breaking out all over the country if you were to see photos of the actual commercialoff-the-shelf AV equipment installed in the project.

JOB LOT

KLM’s ACT branch successfully tendered for a $600k project in the early stages of the Edmund Barton refurbishment and AFP relocation. This project worked out so well for the clients that KLM was invited to work with design consultants Sinclair Knight Merz in planning and implementing the AV rollout for the remainder of the project.

KLM’s total involvement in the refurbishment and relocation eventually grew to culpa dolorrorro ipsae licim fugia nitatiata dolorrum about $6m of work. By now a significant project, KLM received the 2010 Crestron Award for Best Commercial Project and featured as a finalist in our own AV Industry Awards (AVIAs) in the ‘AV Projects Over $1m’ section.

A significant part of this project involved the complex logistical task of preparing new infrastructure to receive maximod isciderfero qui omnitium aut equipment already owned by the AFP, then dismantling and moving the gear from its previous locations, and finally installing and recommissioning it in the Edmund Barton Building.

This aspect of the project was further complicated by various sections of the client’s organisation appropriating other sections’ equipment before it could be installed – a crime wave worthy of reporting

After purloining the contents of the AFP’s secure-shredder waste bin, we set our team of VET scheme high-school AV techs to work reconstructing the original documents. In addition to a pile of photocopies of very hairy bums, they were able to recover most of a preliminary plan of the lower ground floor facilities. We don’t have the magazine space for the hairy bum images.

FEATURE

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to the national police. Fortunately there were accurate records of what belonged to whom, so police intervention was ultimately avoided.

FULL SCOPE

Don’t think for a moment that this project was entirely about shifting and re-installing old gear. Spread across the six levels of the Edmund Barton building are reptasp erferiora diciusti omnient erae many dozens of meeting rooms, briefing rooms, training rooms and conference rooms equipped with AV gear in different configurations. There are some 27 different types of room configurations, ranging from those equipped only with the infrastructure for later installation of TVs or projectors, to those with just a 26-inch LG LCD TV and on to a wide variety of others kitted out with Panasonic projectors, NEC LCD panels, audio and video conferencing capabilities, LG TVs, TeamBoard interactive whiteboards, Nexia DSP-based echo cancelling, handheld radio mics, computer inputs and of course a slew of Crestron control panels.

The muster room on Level Five is actually a cluster of six rooms separated by operable walls. Each room is equipped with dolorecus voluptatist, sus con a suspended screen and audio replay capabilities, but the rooms can be combined in various groupings with matching audio and video joins. There are three very well-specified (~$120k per room) conferencing facilities (two of them in secure areas). Each includes dual-camera, dual-screen video conferencing, overhead microphones, interactive whiteboards, audio and video replay, and inputs for multiple computers.

Audio processing for both audio and video conferencing facilities is Biamp Nexia throughout. Video conferencing at the time of handover was all Tandberg systems, but the entire Attorney General’s department has since moved over to Polycom.

NB: AFP’S AOCC

The most impressive part of the AFP facility is the AOCC (AFP Operations Control Centre) on the lower ground floor which includes the separate ICC (Incident Control Centre) and the SKIFF room for the Attorney General’s department.

In addition to 42 video-equipped workstations the main AOCC room features two video walls and the ICC a single wall in addition to its 12 video workstations. All three videowalls are of the same design: 16 NEC 46-inch LCD panels split into two groups of 4x2 panels separated by a projection screen covered by an interactive projector. The image switching and screen processing for each videowall is handled by a Crestron DVPHD high-definition digital video processor. The idea behind this layout is that the signal from any one of the 16 LCD panels can be ‘transferred’ onto the larger image of the

FEATURE

projection screen for discussion and annotation then returned to its original LCD panel. Not only does this configuration provide a larger image of the stream under discussion, it avoids the need for building interactivity into every one of the 48 vision streams being displayed on the three walls.

Perhaps the single most impressive piece of AV technology in this facility is the sim facidel entotam reprovit quis solescimodio cum, nos aut pa il ipienis porem ingestion and distribution system. The initial system called for a Crestron-controlled switching matrix with 108 inputs feeding 118 outputs, a feat made all the more impressive by its timing.

As Allan Wade, KLM’s AV project manager for this job put it: “If we had started just six months later on this project, we’d have gone to digital video, possibly over fibre”. Instead the system is built around a six-rack Magenta Mondo matrix frame switching RGBHV video over Cat5 UTP to and from Magenta MultiView Cat5 transmitters and receivers.

Inputs to the system consist primarily of offair feeds from an MATV system together with feeds from an analogue pay-television service and direct feeds from AFP and customs operations at ports and airports. The majority of these sources require a fair bit of cleaning up before insertion into the switch matrix.

With all those screens and their accompanying audio feeds, in an attempt to manage the potential cacophony, the sound for both the AOCC and ICC has been broken down into zones, each with their own source and level selection via the Crestron control system. Each workstation position also has its own local source selection to drive headphones.

THEATRE OF THE SECURE

There is really only one room in the entire Edmund Barton complex that actually welcomes visitors (sometimes), the Media Theatre. With facilities jointly designed by KLM and Videocraft, the theatre is intended for media briefings, press presentations, interviews and video production.

The sound in this facility encompasses acoustic treatment, sound reinforcement and audio signal splits for broadcast media and in-house video production. The use of retractable seating allows the space to be used either for presentations and media conferences or as a flat floor production studio. A green screen wall and accompanying LED lighting facilities allow the three-camera production and recording system substantial flexibility as a media briefing venue or as a source of live or recorded material.

Crestron digital media is used for both signal switching and routing and for integration into the automated control booth. The two edit suites round out a small, flexible production facility that would seem far more than adequate for the needs of any police force. 

FEATURE

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Above: The media theatre in presentation mode with seating rolled out and lectern ready for a media conference.

Top right: Crestron control screen for sound zone control in the AOCC. Centre right: Crestron control screen for video source selection to desks and videowalls in the AOCC. Bottom right: Crestron control screen for video source selection in the ICC. The deliberate misspellings in the screens may be a means of confusing our enemies by obfuscating the true purpose of these operations centres.

Images courtesy of KLM

READ THIS NOTICE

Due to the highly sensitive nature of the material contained in this article, if you’ve read all the way to the end you now know far too much about our country’s security services to be allowed to live. Under the terms of the Commonwealth Official Secrets Act, you are now required to lick this cyanide-impregnated square so you can’t pass the information on. A heavily armed clean-up squad of black-clad paramilitary operatives should be breaking down your door in about 10 minutes to make sure there are no surviving eye-witnesses.

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FEATURE

Activating a City of Lights Meeting the challenges of a big arts festival along the Brisbane River.

Text:/ Derek Powell

Santos City of Lights combines searchlights, water jets, lasers, water screens and wash lighting to entertain and impress visitors to Brisbane Festival.

FEATURE

Brisbane Festival is rapidly building a reputation for creative, modern art and entertainment events with a twist. The festival now includes the hugely popular Sunsuper Riverfire event which is one of the country’s pre-eminent outdoor spectacles.

Brisbane Festival Technical Director Jono Perry took AV on a backstage tour of two unique festival events, the Liquid Interactive Light Scope and Santos City of Lights. Both are spectacular examples of attractions that take the seed of their inspiration from much older forms, but then use cutting edge technology to produce one-of-a-kind entertainment that hauls in record crowds night after night.

A DIGITAL HALL OF MIRRORS

The Liquid Interactive Light Scope reflects an attraction popular in 19th century but brings it to Gen Y in a new and compelling way. The fairground House of Mirrors presented patrons with amusing, distorted reflections of themselves that distended or warped as they moved. The Light Scope also reflects the way that viewers move but in a much more subtle way, and as just one layer of a multi-faceted graphic and sound experience.

Visitors enter a 25m tunnel where the LED walls display changing patterns of graphics and video images. The images interact with and respond to the ethereal soundtrack which itself evolves through snippets of classical, contemporary and original music.

As they progress, visitors are on a voyage of discovery, finding certain points in the image cycle that react to their movements. Children are quick to discover that they can draw patterns of colour on screen by reaching out their arms at one juncture or gather up drifting globes of light into an animated avatar if they dance in front of the screen at other times. There are no instructions for patrons (although helpful guides can suggest how to make the best of the experience) so it is quite amusing to watch visitors gradually discover the different ways in which the images can be made to react.

The Liquid Interactive Light Scope evolved from the original concept of Creative Director Tony Assness and was brought to fruition with a generous contribution from and using equipment provided by Technical Direction Company (TDC) plus literally months of interaction design and programming by Liquid Interactive – headed up by designer Chris Golsby.

PUMPING OUT THE PIXELS

The Light Scope comprises four video screen segments, each consisting of a 25 wide x four high array of OneLED i6 6mm-pitch display tiles.

Each screen array has a resolution of 2000 x 320 (though Liquid’s content was created at 960 x 148) and is driven by a custom-built computer via a Folsom Image Pro and oneLED processor.

One PC acts as a master to keep the other three in sync with each other and with the soundtrack.

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The tricky part is the interactivity, which is created using a pair of Xbox 360 Kinect controllers for each screen. The software was developed in C++ using Media Foundation to enable the interactivity.

Programmer Clinton Shaw from Liquid Interactive was on hand to explain something of the process.

“The hardest part was that we couldn’t get the official APIs for the Kinect until eight weeks out,” Clinton said, noting that this led to some “long days and nights” as the Festival launch date loomed. “It was quite an experience,” he confessed. “But I am a nerd and I love this stuff”.

Jono explained that meeting the demand for a seamless 25m-long image created quite a few challenges in the installation phase. TDC invested in 400 of the latest high-resolution panels which are mounted on special trussing so that the 488mm-square tiles are exactly aligned with each other. “There is no specially prepared foundation for the trusses; the marquee is just on ordinary ground. So it was tricky to get the framework dead level across 25 metres,” Jono noted, gesturing at the floor. “There are lots and lots of packing pieces under there!”

IN THE WAKE OF A DUMP & BURN

The Light Scope ran day and night, attracting a constant stream of visitors, while Santos City of Lights pulled in tens of thousands to its nightly South Bank shows. Santos City of Lights is a sky show, but its technology is more than a thousand years younger than fireworks, the traditional aerial extravaganza.

“The F111’s ‘dump and burn’ routine was such a popular part of Riverfire over the years, that when the jets were retired, we were keen to find a new kind of sky show to complement the fabulous fireworks display,” explained Jono.

The answer was an outdoor laser and light show staged literally in mid-air over the river in front of South Bank and from the high-rise buildings and bridges surrounding the site. Oracle Attractions created the laser and water components while the searchlights were provided by Production Resource Group (PRG) and some LED pars from the ULA Group. Once again Tony Assness was creative director with John Rayment as lighting designer with laser and water design by Glenn Turner and Tara W Cox of Oracle Attractions.

The show itself was certainly a spectacle, and the crowds were large and appreciative. For viewers along the South Bank riverfront, the action took place mid-river where water jets created a screen on which laser images were focused.

Meanwhile, lasers and searchlights atop five city high-rise buildings plus QPAC and searchlights on the adjacent Victoria Bridge cut across the sky creating a city-wide backdrop to the foreground action that could be seen for kilometres around.

The lights and lasers were tightly synchronised to a soundtrack which was amplified across the Parklands and narrowcast by Southern Cross Austereo on 95.3MHz FM to reach viewers further afield.

Image courtesy of Oracle Attractions

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FEATURE

Liquid Interactive Lightscope – a 21st century digital hall of mirrors.

Image courtesy of Brisbane Festival

CITY-WIDE RIGGING CHALLENGES

COMPLETELY UNDER CONTROL

Very few shows require a bump-in to the tops of skyscrapers, rigging points slung under freeway bridges or power delivered mid-river, but for Jono, this was par for the course. “There were lots of man-hours carrying rigging and fixtures up to the top of buildings,” he said. The greatest challenge, though was strapping the 5W laser systems to the freeway pylons out over the water.

“The laser heads weigh only about 20kg, so it was practical to set those up over the water, but getting massive searchlights hoisted up there just wasn’t practical.” The searchlights are on solid ground, as is the generator which powers the under-freeway lights and lasers.

The great white span of Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge defines the Western boundary of South Bank and so was a natural to form part of the Santos City of Lights display.

Across two back-breaking nights, crews installed first the 300 metres of 125A cable and arched trusses, then hoisted into position the dozen 140kg, 5kW Big Lites made by French company Zap Technology. These lights defined the show ‘arena’ superbly and were powered by a 150kVA generator located just under the control room. “It was a big exercise,” commented Jono, the master of understatement.

Jono took me to the control room located in a demountable atop the old Victoria Bridge abutment which has a perfect view across the river display area. Inside are three control points, for lasers, lighting and audio which come together to run up to five shows a night.

Lighting control is dominated by two GrandMAs. One is on-line with the second running as backup. Just outside the window hangs the aerial for the 2.4GHz Radio DMX system. Three weeks before the show the crew spent a whole day measuring signal strength in the various locations to see what antennae were needed and to confirm that reception across the far flung rig. “There were a few teething problems with interference, but everything settled down nicely,” according to Jono. With the furthest link located 890m from the control point, you get the strong impression that the time spent on RF testing paid off handsomely.

Lighting crews came in at 3pm every day to run tests and lamp strikes so that there was time to fix any problems before the 7pm first show. That allowance may seem excessive until you consider that the technical elements of this show were spread across an area of nearly a kilometre square, and the lighting crews needed to visit five city buildings, the Victoria Bridge and QPAC each day.

SANTOS CITY OF LIGHTS EQUIPMENT LIST Oracle Lasers: 2 x high powered green lasers 6 x full colour lasers Oracle wireless microwave control system Oracle Water Fountains 4 x 40 metre vertical jets @ 2500 litres per minute each 4 x 70m wide x 30m high parabolic jets (2500 litres per minute) 2 x industrial water misters Custom radio DMX control system Lighting by PRG: 12 x 5 kW Big Lite searchlights 42 x 7 kW Space Canon searchlights 2 x Syncrolite B52s 2 x GrandMA consoles 14 x wireless DMX transceivers 3 km cabling Lighting by ULA: 12 x iLED Pars Generators by Generator Hire Service 5 x 150kVA Generators 1 x 40kVA Generator Locations: 5 x CBD building rooftops with searchlights (two also with laser) Truss arches across Victoria Bridge with searchlights Lighting position on top of QPAC 4 x laser/lighting positions under Captain Cook Expressway 4 x barges with water effects

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FEATURE

Image courtesy of Oracle Attractions

Photographer: Derek Powell Programmer Clinton Shaw from Liquid Interactive (left) and Festival Technical Director Jono Perry running the daily pre-show system check with an impressive set of colour bars.

The laser show used six full colour lasers and two highpowered green lasers all built by Oracle in Sydney. The LivePro controller, also developed by Oracle, ran from a pair of laptops across a closed network to each of the laser devices. The network was implemented through a set of microwave links to a server on the far side of the river and then distributed via Cat5 UTP to the individual laser units under the freeway.

Lighting and lasers were both locked to the time code derived from the CD player running the soundtrack. Timecode was recorded for 15 seconds before audio start so that all elements could confirm timecode lock before the show kicked off.

STICKING TO SCHEDULE

Every night either Jason Waide (Technical Manager) or James Merryman (Project Co-ordinator) ensured that all teams were ready and got set to call the show. Timing was critical, as the show needed to kick off at exactly 19:00 and 20:00 hours Telstra time.

If Santos City of Lights were to run late, the Brisbane Festival tech team were required to notify Air Services Australia and CASA. With high-powered lasers and searchlights probing the sky, the potential danger to air traffic could not be ignored.

“We involved CASA very early in the planning process,” Jono observed. “And they were tremendously helpful all the way.”

Jono laughs as I ask if he’s thought about next year. “I’ve been focused on 2012 since the first week the Festival opened,” he chuckles. He’s spent a day analysing, deconstructing and brainstorming with Creative Director Tony Assness. But when I ask how he’ll top this show, he simply gives a sly smile.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 

Searchlights – 56 of them, located on five city buildings and the Victoria Bridge – take their turn at dominating Brisbane's skies.

LIQUID INTERACTIVE LIGHT SCOPE GEAR TDC Supplied Equipment: 400 x Barco oneLED i6 Black LED Tile 4 x Barco oneLED processor 4 x Folsom (Barco) Image Pro 4 x R16 3 phase power distribution 24 x oneLED triple hanging bar 16 x oneLED dual hanging bar Liquid Interactive Computer Spec: (x4) Intel Core i7 960 processor 6G (3x2G) DDR3 RAM GTX560 OC 1G GDDR5 PCIE DualLink DVI video Dual 500G SATAIII hard disk drives Windows 7 64bit Pro Interactivity: 8 x Microsoft Kinects (2 per PC) MORE INFORMATION Oracle Attractions: www.oracleattractions.biz Liquid Interactive: www.liquidinteractive.com.au Technical Direction Company: www.tdc.com.au ULA Group: www.ula.com.au PRG: www.prg.com

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036

FEATURE

The Gateway Goes Greek The world’s No. 2 Greek city throws opens its gates.

Text:/ Matt Caton Images:/ Casamento Photography

FEATURE

Melbourne has a well-earned reputation for being a multicultural hub. Much like most of the world’s established cities, a simple five minute walk up the road in any direction can result in the discovery of completely new and different cultural delight. But while Melbourne’s Chinatown is well known for its five iconic key arches, and the Little Italy precinct is renowned for its al fresco cafe culture (and its overabundance of Carlton supporters), Melbourne’s Greek precinct has always struggled a little with its own identity. A recent City of Melbourne initiative helped address this issue, commissioning a star-themed lighting installation suspended above the intersection of Lonsdale and Russell Streets to create the ‘Lonsdale Gateway’ – a new visual marker for the Greek precinct.

The Cultural Precincts Enhancement Fund was created by the Victorian government to help preserve the character of Melbourne’s cultural precincts and is a partnership with the City of Melbourne, and the Greek, Chinese and Italian communities. State Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship Nicholas Kotsiras – who helped ‘flick the switch’ on this installation – believes it will herald the rejuvenation of the historic Melbourne Greek precinct, “The new blue and white lighting installation evoking the night sky’s stars and the Greek flag also acts as a beacon welcoming visitors to the Greek precinct.”

The gateway complements markers in Melbourne’s Chinese and Italian precincts that were also funded through the Cultural Precincts Enhancement Fund. The Victorian Government also contributed towards Hellenic-themed glass screens and awnings revitalising the area’s celebrated cafes and shops.

A MEDITERRANEAN SKYLINE

The corner of Lonsdale and Russell streets now plays host to a suspended web-like veil of power and data cables that stretch across the intersection suspending 144 LED fixtures.

This highly ambitious idea was originally conceived by the City of Melbourne, whose Project Director Ian Dryden presented the concept to Webb Australia, who acted as Electrical Engineer and Lighting Consultant for the project. Webb in turn, sought the help of Lightmoves to come up with a solution for the light fittings and the control.

Lightmoves approached manufacturer Space Cannon Australia, with the initial idea of using a similar fitting to that employed on the Marina Bay Bridge project in Singapore. However, as Space Cannon Australia’s Fabian Barzaghi explains, it wasn’t quite right for this unique project. “That fitting was long and thin, with a single rear-entry cable that was designed to be mounted into a steel structure. It fulfilled the project’s performance requirements, but would have required a major re-design to accommodate the structural requirements of this project.”

They decided instead to use a fixture derived

037

from the Nike P9 LED created just a year earlier for the roof at AAMI Park (as reported in AV Issue 13). After a prolonged and rigorous testing and approval process, a fixture was designed to suit suspension from a catenary rig and that was able to be installed and maintained without too much trouble. “We decided to use a moreshallow version with low voltage side-entry cables and on-board RDM (Remote Device Management) and temperature-monitoring. This formed the perfect template for this project, and ticked all the boxes to meet the mechanical and performance requirements,” explains Barzaghi.

“For aesthetic reasons the client didn’t want to see the plug/socket arrangement that we had previously developed for the AAMI Park project. Installation of the catenary cables and fittings was also going to be a difficult and long process, so we came up with a two-part fitting arrangement that enabled the contractors to space the fittings correctly and pre-cable the system without having the actual fixtures on-site: back half for mounting, the front half housing all the electronics and LEDs.” The housing bracket itself is a simple aluminium bowl with two cable glands and terminal strip inside, which allowed the contractors to preassemble and terminate the fittings offsite in a factory. While the Nike P9 was a full colour-mixing RGB fixture, this version sees the red component replaced with a white LED, allowing the fixtures to emit blue and white – the colours of the Greek flag.

CREATING THE WEB

The fixtures are suspended above the intersection using a custom-made stainless steel catenary wire, with signal sent via a special-purpose intertwined DMX512 and 24V power cable.

A stainless steel mesh sits over the top of the cabling keeping everything in place.

A control box sitting on the east corner of the intersection houses an Enttec DMX Streamer with an in-built time clock, which is used to trigger the subtle light changes over 432 channels of DMX512. The bi-directional DMX/ RDM signals are distributed through a pair of Tec Art RDM DMX splitters.

While it’s quite hard to imagine when looking at it, the entire project was preassembled offsite.

Electrical Contractor, The High Access Group, put the whole web configuration of wire and cable together, including the custom housing brackets.

This allowed the structure to be installed into place first, and the fixtures then screwed into the housing afterwards. The fixtures themselves were DMX pre-addressed offsite and had to be placed in very specific locations following CAD drawings supplied by Lightmoves.

COLOUR CONSCIENCE

A colour-changing light show above a busy intersection may be a great sight for pedestrians and even passengers, but for drivers, it could have proven to be just too dangerous. Keeping

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FEATURE

Image courtesy of Space Cannon Australia Left: The two-part fixture developed for the Gateway project. The cable clamp grasps tightly onto the catenary suspension wire, while the combined DMX512 and 24VDC cable passes through the rear section of the fixture, allowing the device to be rigged and cabled in the absence of LEDs and control electronics. Mesh is wrapped over the data/power cable to keep it neatly attached to the catenary wire. Right: For comparison – a weathered LED fixture of the type supplied by Space Cannon Australia for the Marina Bay Bridge project in Singapore.

this in mind, the programming of the light changes was subtle to avoid driver distractions.

Lightmoves programmed the lighting sequences offsite, as explained by programmer Mark Hopkins: “We chose to program the installation using GrandMA on PC as we could use its wireframe visualiser to program the sequences in the office and work through them with the client without the need to go onsite and turn the system on. By using a range of group, colour and effect presets we were able to program the sequences with ease.”

PICKING THE RIGHT MOMENT

Needless to say, Lonsdale Gateway is one of the most ambitious feature lighting installations ever undertaken over an intersection in Australia. The installation process was a difficult one, and saw many late night and early morning shifts for the contractor High Access

Group, and Lightmoves Project Coordinator Aaron Binion “Due to the fact this was above a major intersection in Melbourne, installation and fault finding was difficult. The install had to be done over a few days and in the wee hours of the morning. We had to close the intersection which of course couldn’t happen in the middle of the day, so all testing and fault finding was a drawn out process.”

With this less-than-subtle gateway marker in place, you’d be hard-pressed to pass through the Greek Precinct these days and not realise where you were. Hopefully for the Greek community and the businesses currently trading there, it’s only a matter of time before this rejuvenation sparks interest from new business ventures, and the precinct develops a reputation that will rival many of its cultural counterparts. 

PRODUCTION TEAM: Project Director: Ian Dryden from the City of Melbourne (www.melbourne.vic.gov.au) Electrical Engineer: Webb Australia (www.webbaustralia.com.au) Lighting Consultant: Webb Australia Lighting Supplier & Programmer: Lightmoves (www.lightmoves.com.au) Luminaire Design & Manufacturer: Space Cannon Australia (www.spacecannon.com.au) Electrical Contractor: The High Access Group (www.highaccesshire.com)

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TUTORIAL

InfoComm 100: Adapt or Perish The international industry thinktank focusses on the convergence of AV and IT. Text:/ Paul van der Ent

Last August my email went off with an invitation from Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D. Executive Director and CEO, InfoComm International and Tom Stimson CTS, Chairman, InfoComm Leadership Development Committee and President of The Stimson Group, inviting me to, “Join the 2011 Class of the InfoComm 100 and to attend a two-day event on one of the most pressing issues in the audiovisual industry – the convergence of AV systems with IT networks.

You will join a prestigious group comprised of 100 executives representing the entire AV value chain worldwide, as well as information technology leaders in corporate, education, government and other sectors”. Feeling just a little bit chuffed, I accepted without hesitation.

[And he really needed the frequent flyer points – Ed] As befits an important audiovisual industry event, the stage in the ballroom of the Portland, Oregon, Marriott was set with an impressive rear projected backdrop screen that spanned the entire room. Tom Stimpson opened the event by challenging us to, “Think, evaluate, and to plan for the future of the Professional Audiovisual Industry”.

Tom was followed by Randy Lemke ED & CEO of InfoComm, who reiterated the message of his Integrate 2011 keynote presentation on the transition to ‘Netcentric AV’. He encouraged us to: “think of IT first as your customer”, pointing out that Enterprise IT and the IT value added reseller (VAR) would start to show up in the AV market as a service provider. Lemke warned that we as AV people need to be prepared to take advantage of this market change.

TOO BUSY TO BE STRATEGIC?

The Day One keynote speaker was Daniel Burrus, author of Flash Foresight, and a leading industry technology strategist who has spoken in Australia many times. His lecture was geared to immediately open our minds to the possibilities of the conference, and he practically scolded everyone in the room for “being too busy to be truly strategic”. He wanted us to see that the problem you may think you need to solve today for your business is not really the problem at all.

You may actually be fixing the symptoms of the

problem without addressing the problem itself.

He looked at the process of distinguishing trends: the ability to see the difference between a hard trend – one that is tangible, fully predictable and linear – versus a soft trend that is really not guaranteed to happen, and may be cyclical. We were encouraged to schedule an hour every week to investigate future trends. He made the point that ‘bad change’ is simply one you didn’t see coming. The key is to spot the trends in the industry (such as AV/IT convergence) and revise your business model before it’s too late.

“...the problem you may think you need to solve today for your business is not really the problem at all” TECH FUTURES: GOOGLE V AMX?

In the following session on Future AV and IT Technology Trends, Mark Valenti, president and CEO of The Sextant Group took us on a journey through past innovations, looking at disruptive technologies such as today’s iPad. He emphasised that these technologies form the basis of the user experience, and people will expect to use these technologies in work and home applications. He pointed out that internet video has now been part of life for several years, and TV over the network is expected to become a regular occurrence.

Valenti indicated that interactive video is expected to be a popular trend in the second half of this decade, although we haven’t yet begun to see its impact, or worked out what it’s going to mean. He warned us that we need to become familiar with technologies such as Wi-MAX, 4G, WHDI, mesh networks and personal broadband.

He also made one of the more controversial statements at the conference when he warned that our reliance on proprietary control is about

to go: “Sorry, Crestron and AMX, but your days are numbered. It just doesn’t make sense today.”

Andrew Milne, CEO of Tidebreak, Inc., the other presenter in this session, began by pointing to the changes already seen within our industry, the Cisco-Tandberg pairing and the partnership between HP and Polycom, as signs of directional change in this industry. He predicts we will see more products that intrude on the things we’ve traditionally thought of as AV. He commented that Google founder Larry Page is hardly afraid of taking on the might of Crestron or AMX. Milne concluded by pointing out that the solutions we’re providing are not just about hardware and software. They include the people, the processes and the coaching services: being able to help people find out what to do with all this technology, and helping to establish the ROI. This must become the complete solution, delivered in a 100% finished state.

TRUST YOUR CLIENT

Kicking off Day Two was keynote presenter David Nour, CEO of the Nour Group, Inc., whose presentation Adaptive Innovation – Adaptable Business Models for Changing Market Demands, focussed on the basics of relationship building. This echoed some of the previous day’s presentations but concentrated on understanding our clients and their businesses.

His presentation covered topics as diverse as social media and cloud computing, but boiled down to a single recurring question: “Why is it in every other culture in the world, we build relationships before we enter into business with a person or company, but in the US, if and only if we enter into business and it is successful, do we decide to build a relationship?” I thought these were powerful words, as we have the same issues here in this part of the world. We too, need to lift our game and have trust between us and the customer.

The informal chat after this session and on the previous day with other attendees – some of whom were end users and consultants – showed me that these problems are indeed global. As Mark Valenti later put it in his blog, “If we don’t understand our client’s business, we won’t earn the trust needed for a collaborative

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TUTORIAL

relationship”. If we don’t all work to change this perception, how are we ever going to get into a project in the early stages and be considered as part of the original design?

IT: EMBRACE THE BEAST

Kit Lisle and Julia Baillie from Acclaro Growth Partners presented the next session. These guys have been responsible for a number of the surveys undertaken by InfoComm since 2004. Drawing on this research we were told that IT believes the convergence with AV is taking place at a faster rate than most AV professionals are prepared to believe. It looks at AV and says we should think of ourselves as part of the IT industry, and as we can’t escape this, we must embrace it. One of the biggest impacts of this convergence is that AV is following in the footsteps of IT in becoming a commodity where hardware margins are now in the low single digits. The silence throughout the whole room was palpable.

To compensate for these low product margins companies need to make a blended margin. Like the IT sector our labour rates need to rise to meet the cost of the education, training, qualifications and standards we will need to have to deal with convergence.

Their research indicates that by 2016 AV and IT will be fully converged, and that both industries would become critical components of a smart building industry. It is expected to see further convergence between AV, IT, security, acoustics, lighting, HVAC systems, communications and structured cabling. They also identified that AV design is becoming more of a commodity, and design consultants will have to add high value services to increase margins and revenue in this new converged era. They also saw the AV design consultant as being ahead of the AV integrator in accepting convergence, a statement that provoked some heated comment.

COMPETITION OR COOPERATION?

Dale Johnson from Technology Assurance Group led us through the next session: Cooperate, Compete, Coordinate. As an example of how AV/IT convergence might take place, Johnson referred us to the data and voice

communication industries converging over the structured cabling system, and voice becoming software based. While he admitted that AV was a lot harder to converge than data and voice, he said we basically have three choices: Cooperate/partner with IT; compete by scaling up our AV businesses to have IT as part of our services offering; or coordinate between AV and IT providers. There is a fourth alternative, and that is do nothing, but as Johnson put it, “Inaction often brings unintended results”. He spoke about these alternatives in depth but came to the conclusion that subcontracting – either AV to others or others under AV – was not a workable solution.

The final session was a Q&A panel of three business consultants: Tom Stimpson from the Stimpson Group, Kit Lisle from Acclaro Growth Partners and Bill Sharer from Exxel Management and Marketing. They reaffirmed a number of often-repeated statements from all these discussions which I’ve summarised in a sidebar.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

I left the conference feeling cautiously upbeat.

My networking was intense, and there was a lot of discussion out in the foyers and at dinners and lunches about convergence, contracting, builders, construction, design and construct, and tender bidding. I spoke with a wide variety of AV industry participants, people from large universities, a specialised programming company employing over 40 programmers, and business owners from South Africa, the Middle East, India, UK, and USA and Canada.

The one thing I learnt was that we all have the same issues. We may not entirely agree about the loss of true AV knowledge that the forthcoming convergence may bring, but we all agreed that we need to get ready for it, because like it or not, it is happening now.

As Daniel Burrus said in his keynote, “The future is changing”. Connection, communication, collaboration and engagement are all being redefined right now, and we, the AV Industry, need to be at the forefront of this process. It just might be time for Australia to have its own AV summit. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The convergence of AV with IT is a fact we ignore at our peril.

The key to survival is innovation – spot the trends and know how to understand them.

The problem you think you need to solve today for your business probably isn’t really the problem at all.

Embrace standards and best practices and keep expanding the skills of your people.

Accept that hardware margins will continue to fall and that the labour component will become more important to our success and our profitability.

Building Information Modelling and 3D will remain prominent parts of AV integrators’ lives.

This is the first era in human history in which four distinct generations are in the workforce together. Include the younger members of your team in helping your business through the development process.

We must take great care to supply what the customer actually wants.

Learn your customer’s business inside and out.

It would be a big mistake for anyone to view current economic trends as part of a cycle.

Many AV integrators lack the sales acumen to properly accept, deliver, and sell real innovative solutions or strategies.

042

TUTORIAL

KNX Building Control Protocol Is there a new control protocol in your future?

Text:/ Andy Ciddor

Standards, as we know, are a good thing, especially as there are just so many to choose from. Network standards are usually a really good thing, offering the hope of a utopia where devices of all kinds from disparate manufacturers, can play together nicely and make our lives more peaceful and fulfilling, thus giving us more time to do important things like breeding orchids, surfing big breaks and racing go-karts.

The AV industry has been well served by standards that are now so deeply embedded in our thinking that we probably can’t even imagine life without composite video, linelevel audio, SMPTE timecode and USB. However, most of us still regret that the only thing standard about RS-232 is its name. Somewhere I still have my big RS-232 reference book laying about, with its hundreds of differing pin-outs and implementation notes for equipment with serial data ports. And I still have the DB25 male-to-female adapter box with the 25 jumper leads.

So when I happened upon the stand for KNX (what appeared to be a new standards consortium) at the CEDIA trade show in Sydney last year, I was embarrassed to discover that despite my work across such industries as AV, broadcast, ITC, live production and commercial lighting control, I’d never come across this 21 year-old networked control protocol.

Unlike most three-letter names, KNX isn’t an acronym or an abbreviation for anything, it’s a play on the word ‘connects’ (such frivolity leaves me speechless). However, its lofty purpose is to connect and control all of the systems found in contemporary buildings.

The standard has been developed since 1990 by the KNX Association, but is descended from a previous group of even older European building control protocols. Perhaps this is the non-proprietary standard that will fill the shoes predicted to be vacated by AMX and Crestron at the 2011 InfoComm 100 thinktank in Paul van der Ent’s article in this very issue of AV [specifically, the ‘Future AV and IT Technology Trends’ session by Mark Valenti, president and CEO of The Sextant Group].

I’ll let the Association pick up the KNX story in its own words, with some excerpts from its extensive resource library.

The KNX Association is the creator and owner of the KNX technology – the worldwide standard for all applications in home and building control, ranging from lighting and shutter control to various security systems, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, monitoring, alarming, water control, energy management, metering as well as household appliances, audio and lots more. The technology can be used in new as well as in existing home and buildings.

For members of the KNX Association the system is royalty-free, moreover can be implemented on any processor platform. All products bearing the KNX logo are certified in order to guarantee system compatibility, interworking and interoperability.

KNX is the only global standard for home and building control with: • A single, manufacturer independent design and commissioning tool (ETS).

• A complete set of supported communication media (TP, PL, RF and IP).

• A complete set of supported configuration modes (system and easy mode).

The KNX Device Network results from the formal merger of the three leading systems for home and building automation (EIB, EHS, BatiBus) into the specification of the KNX Association. The common specification of the KNX system provides, besides powerful runtime characteristics, an enhanced ‘toolkit’ of services and mechanisms for network management.

On the KNX Device Network, all the devices come to life to form distributed applications in the true sense of the word. Even on the level of the applications themselves, tight interaction is possible, wherever there is a need or benefit.

All march to the beat of powerful interworking models with standardised Datapoint Types and ‘Functional Block’ objects, modelling logical device channels.

Apart from the two configuration modes, the KNX standard includes several communication media. Each communication medium can be used in combination with

one or more configuration modes, which allows each manufacturer to choose the right combination for the target market segment and application.

TP (Twisted Pair) Twisted pair, with a data rate of 9600bps, has been taken over from EIB. The EIB and KNX TP1 certified TP1 products will operate and communicate with each other on the same busline.

PL (Powerline) Power line communication at a bit rate of 1200bps, has also been taken over from EIB. The EIB and KNX PL110 certified products will operate and communicate with each other on the same electrical distribution network.

RF (Radio frequency) KNX devices supporting this communication medium use radio signals to transmit KNX telegrams in the 868MHz (Short Range Devices) frequency band, with a maximum radiated power of 25mW and a bit rate of 16,384kbps.

The KNX RF medium can be developed with off-the-shelf components, allows uni- and bidirectional implementations, is characterised by low power consumption and for small and medium size installations, only requires retransmitters in exceptional cases.

IP (Ethernet) KNX telegrams can also be transmitted encapsulated in IP telegrams. LANs as well as the internet can be used to route or tunnel KNX telegrams. In this way, IP routers are an alternative to USB data interfaces, respectively TP line or backbone couplers. In the latter case, the normal TP backbone is replaced by a fast Ethernet-based line.

Logical Topology & Individual Address Space KNX is a fully distributed network, which accommodates up to 65,536 devices in a 16-bit Individual Address space. The logical topology or sub-network structure allows 256 devices on one line. As shown in the diagram, lines may be grouped together with a main line into an area. An entire domain is formed by 15 areas together with a backbone line. Note that KNX KNXnet/IP optionally allows the integration of KNX sub-networks via IP. As shown in the diagram this topology is

TUTORIAL

reflected in the numerical structure of the individual addresses, which (with few exceptions) uniquely identify each node on the network. On Powerline, nearby domains are logically separated with a 16-bit Domain Address.

Without the addresses reserved for couplers, (255 x 16) x 15 + 255 = 61,455 end devices may be joined by a KNX network.

Installation restrictions may depend on implementation (medium, transceiver types, power supply capacity) and environmental (electromagnetic noise, etc) factors.

Clearly this is a very capable, sophisticated, and above all, a complex protocol to implement and the documentation runs to many volumes on network topologies and the content and format of the KNX Telegrams. Even if you learned the standard from top to bottom, it’s certainly not likely to be cost effective to use KNX instead of the usual AV industry suspects to close the blinds, turn on the sound, dim the lights and lower the screen in a conference room. This is especially true given the small number of manufacturers making KNXcapable devices available in this country.

While Philips Dynalite has joined the KNX association overseas, it’s not currently listed amongst the members of the Australian branch, which leads one to suspect that the joining may have been something more to do with Philips in Europe than anything else. Dynalite has recently released a new product in their network bridge family that links between their in-house Dynet protocol and KNX. While a couple of parts of the Schneider group in Europe have joined KNX, there’s no indication that its Clipsal subsidiary is about to put KNX into smart homes in the next little while.

The current members of the Australian National KNX Association include ABB, Cisco, Hager B&R, mySmart CTI, Somfy, WAGO Kontakttechnik, CEDIA Asia Pacific, DEOS Australia, Ecoview Report Analyse Control, iAutomation and Systems Intelligence, most of whom don’t appear on your usual list of AV integrators and smart home consultants.

If you’re working on large projects with multiple complex systems and complex energy management requirements, it may well be the time to get up to speed with KNX and import systems that are KNX capable. Until that moment arrives or unless a lot of reasonably-priced KNX-capable equipment becomes available locally, this may be all you need to read about KNX.  If you do want more information there’s plenty of it available the Australian KNX Local Group at knx.org.au.

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044

REVIEW

PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2 A full service digital mixer for modest jobs.

Text:/ Graeme Hague

Smaller digital consoles are becoming commonplace, but there is a lingering perception that digital mixers are for ‘serious’ gigs and aren’t the kind of workhorse console you’d reach for first, particularly if the channel count is perhaps a single lectern microphone and a laptop playback.

Simple stuff, in other words.

The PreSonus 16.0.2 StudioLive mixer is narrowing the boundaries between what is deemed worth a digital console and the, “what the hell, it’s only one microphone” basic setup we often encounter. The StudioLive is small, relatively easy to operate and cost-efficient, and still offers many of the advantages of an expensive digital mixer. So what’s the hold-up?

Why wouldn’t you be chucking all those cheap, analogue mixers in the bin?

The problem is still all about that dreaded concept of things being ‘intuitive’ [What part of any piece of electronic gear is ‘intuitive’ to a Kalahari Bushman, an Amish farmer, or your own great-grandmother? – Ed.]. Plonk any reasonable technician, be they sound, AV or – heaven forbid – lighting-oriented behind a small, analogue mixer and they’ll quickly figure out how to fudge some noise out of the FOH. Do the same with any digital console and things will get a bit messy. The challenge for digital console designers in the smaller format market is to make things easy to achieve and obvious to the untrained (and not so untrained) eye. That is, to make digital console technology accessible to everyday users.

Has PreSonus managed this?

BIG LITTLE DESK

Some brass tacks stuff first. The 16.0.2 StudioLive (not to be confused with the older/bigger 16.4.2 or 24.4.2 StudioLives ) has 12 mono XLR preamp inputs and the last four of these channels are capable of taking stereo signals thanks to pairs of TRS balanced inputs. The last two channels also have unbalanced RCA connectors, too – nice touch. However you choose to look at the configuration you’ll always max out at 16 channels, but they’re a genuine 16 rather than the

input count being somehow inflated by digital or optical ports. There are four auxiliary channels, which is a pleasant surprise on a compact console and even better you don’t sacrifice any of these to feed either of the two FX channels – they have their own signal chain. If you want four foldback sends, you’ve got ‘em. The built-in DSP, which provides a high-pass filter, noise gate, compressor, limiter and three-band parametric EQ, can be applied to everything: every individual channel, or each of the aux buses and the master output.

FX returns can be sent to the auxiliary channels (providing reverb in a foldback send for example) but not at separate levels – it’s either in all the aux sends or none – an issue which has caused some angst on the PreSonus forums. Some folks are never happy, but they may have a point on this occasion – among all the 16.0.2’s cleverness it’s an odd glitch. There is also a 31-band graphic equaliser that can be applied across the master outputs.

SLIGHTLY OBESE CHANNEL

The controls for all of these parameters come via a ‘fat channel’ that dominates the console’s real estate above the faders. Twelve rotary encoders handle most of the input values and double as sends levels for FX and auxiliary busses. It’s the standard approach to digital mixers with the one set of encoders all focused on the DSP parameters for the channel (or bus) you’ve selected. What’s different here is that PreSonus has opted to display values for each fat channel control using 16-bar vertical LED meters, rather than some kind of central, large LCD screen – there is a small LCD showing preset information, FX values and the like, but it’s certainly a ‘look close and squint’ LCD screen, not something you want to refer to in a hurry. The LED meters are another thing altogether. For example, the mid frequency range is shown spread between 260kHz and 3500kHz over 16 increments and the cut/gain level is plus or minus 15dB in 2dB steps (for those clever bastards doing the maths, don’t forget 0dB in the centre). These aren’t detent values, the EQ does

sweep through the entire frequency spectrum (more on this later) and the gain is a constant variable as well. It’s only the LED bars that will eventually click over from one to the next.

Likewise, all the compressor settings are shown alongside one of these 16-bar LED readouts, which is really only providing a rough idea of the value you’re choosing. Not good, when you’re fine-tuning a compressor.

In theory, and I suppose in practice, the system works fine. Especially when the meters were showing auxiliary or FX send levels for each channel, it worked great – and I’ve had my days of desperately trying to peer at an LCD screen in bright daylight, so any improvement on that gets a big thumbs-up. But I struggled to relate to these LED readouts when it came to the DSP tweaking.

My eyeballs weren’t instantly getting information that made sense – if that makes sense. I had to look closely to decipher just what the pretty green LED bars meant… not happy.

The good news is that I had a means to completely ignore the LED displays anyway.

Good news that makes me grumpy, though.

CLANDESTINE RECORDING CONSOLE

You see, the 16.0.2 doubles as a fully-fledged studio recording desk through a Firewire 400 port on the console. I’ll go into more detail below, but for now I’ll explain that the software driver for the 16.0.2 creates a virtual console on your PC and all the DSP fat channel controls are available in familiar DAW-type plug-in GUI displays.

Brilliant! So an ideal setup would be, even for a small AV gig, to have a laptop connected to the 16.0.2 and you can tweak the fat channels onscreen with all the finesse you desire. It’s way better than using the rotary encoders or, more to the point, the LED bar displays. So why am I grumpy?

Have you tried to buy a laptop with a Firewire port lately? What has happened to Firewire ports?

It’s the preferred connection for all kinds of highend gear like video cameras, audio interfaces and such, yet laptop manufacturers have apparently

045

REVIEW

decided that Firewire ports aren’t required.

Unfortunately, as less than 1% of the vast laptop market, Firewire-using multimedia pros simply aren’t a big enough group for mass market manufactures to bother with in their high-volume, budget-priced offerings.

Even Apple has deserted us. All right, back to the 16.0.2…

That Firewire connectivity allows the console to completely integrate with your DAW of choice, although PreSonus’s own software is plainly best. The StudioLive doesn’t become a control surface as such, but you can route all the DAW channels back into the console to be mixed down old-school style with all the mixer’s DSP goodies at your disposal. When you’re recording through the StudioLive you have the choice to make each channel post- or pre-DSP. You might be mixing a live concert and your DSP settings are hammering at a poor venue, but with the pre-DSP digital out selected, the recordings are raw and untouched.

BELLS WHISTLES FOGHORNS & SIRENS

A quick word about the software. You get supplied StudioOne Artist, which is the entry-level version of PreSonus’ own StudioOne DAW. S1 is an excellent program although users experienced with DAWs will soon notice the Artist version’s limitations and might consider upgrading. You also get Capture, which is so simple and basic – it’s excellent. Capture mimics a tape-based recording system, so you get to name your input channels and arm them for recording… and that’s it. It’s like having a couple of ADATs under the desk [sorry to those who have successfully blocked out the memory of ADATs for the last 10 years – Ed.]. The clever thing is that StudioOne will recognise and open Capture sessions, automatically dumping files into their own DAW channels where you can doodle with plug-ins and envelopes to your heart’s content.

From a live or production point of view the StudioLive’s greatest strength is the ability to save Scenes, Channels and FX presets. No big deal, you might argue – but remember we’re talking about a highly-spec’d digital console that’s about the size of a largish laptop.

It’s ideal for regular AV rig setups where a memory recall will avoid 95% of re-tweaking that finicky lectern mike or instantly tame those nasty foldback wedges you always use.

And you can be assured that the quality of the preamps, the DSP features and the actual build are all impressive. Very quickly you’ll

build a library of favourite channel, desk and FX settings. Set-up times will plummet.

A NORMAL LEARNING CURVE

But face it, it’s a digital desk and so it’s not intuitive. How can it be? Sure, it conforms to many of the standard operating methods that other digital consoles use, but the 16.0.2 StudioLive is offering a wealth of mixing and processing – and studio recording – power in a compact and affordable package. Not surprisingly that kind of package also comes with a learning curve, and it doesn’t matter if your ‘every day’ desk is a Digico SD8 or a Yamaha M7CL, every digital console has its own workflows and you need to spend time familiarising yourself with them, before jumping into any deep end.

The 16.0.2 is a nice compromise of digital capability and keeping things affordable/ uncomplicated – at the expense of the more esoteric functions the big digital consoles can do. It’s a small, useful and rugged digital console that will find a regular gig in a pro AV department or just sitting beside the project studio desk.

I’m guessing that’s exactly what PreSonus set out to achieve. 

It's just a very small full-function audio console, with a single assignable 'Fat Channel' that will scare the pants off your average everyday lighting or video tech – until they pause for long enough to see that it's actually very straight forward to drive.

MORE INFORMATION: National Audio Systems 1800 441400 sales@nationalaudio.com.au www.nationalaudio.com.au RRP:$1699 (inc GST)

046

REVIEW

NEC PA500UG Projector NEC PA Series MLA LCD Installation Projector Text:/ Paul Newton

The PA series of LCD projector is classified as part of NEC’s ‘Professional Integration’ range. There are three flavours within this range: PA600X (1024 x 768 at 6000 ANSI), PA550W (1280 x 800 at 5500 ANSI), and the PA500U (1920 x 1200 at 5000 ANSI), which is the subject of this review.

All three projectors within this class are cased within the same nondescript white chassis and all three utilise LCD panels incorporating MLA technology.

Micro Lens Array (MLA) is an array of tiny lenses that overlay the LCD panels inside the projector and improve the quality of the projected image. On an LCD projector without MLA you may be able to see the fine black lines running horizontally and vertically across the projected image in a grid pattern (known as the flyscreen door effect). This effect is more noticeable on large screens, and where the viewer is close to the screen. On a projector with MLA these lines are minimised to reduce the screen door effect and create a smoother projected image.

The PA500U weighs just over 8kg with a lens, and is very quiet in operation (around 32dB in Eco mode).

Total power consumption is 477W in normal mode, 384W in Eco mode, and just 16W in standby. The easily-installed 330W lamp is rated for a 3000-hour operating life.

There are five optional lenses available – a short 0.8:1 fixed lens and four zoom lenses 1.19–1.56, 1.5– 3, 2.97–4.79 and 4.7–7.2. These lenses are light and are easily fitted via a bayonet-style system which is both sturdy and rigid. Lens shift, zoom and focus are all (and only) manually controlled, which is a little restricting for the poor technician who has to install the projector in a flown or ceiling installation.

The PA series boasts a ‘stacking’ option of up to four projectors resulting in 20,000 ANSI brightness and quad-level redundancy. While the lens shift, with direct dials either side of the lens for H and V will

allow this, I think it would be very hard to achieve an accurate quad stack with such basic, non-electronic lens adjustments. Quad stacking is problematic enough with high-end projectors that are built for it. If you really need 20,000 ANSI, with redundancy, you’d be better off trying to twin stack a pair of 10,000 ANSI projectors.

TURNS ON A DIME

The NEC PA500UG can be rotated freely on any axis to allow vertical projection; all you need to do is adjust the fan mode setting in the firmware to ensure heat is redirected away from critical internal components.

This is a very clever feature for NEC to implement, as permanent projector installations are increasingly requiring this level of flexibility. Image warping is via ‘Geometric Correction’ for projecting onto spheres and cylinders and ‘Cornerstone (keystone) Correction’ for off-axis projector placement. The ease of adjustment is great, with very little distortion of the original signal. The internal scaling engine is quite advanced for a projector at this price point.

Like most projectors (and other AV equipment) available today, the NEC PA series is designed with the environment in mind. Eco lamp mode allows an extended lamp life from 3000 hours to 4000 hours; reducing the cost of ownership and power usage and extending the product lifespan. There is also a sleep timer for when presenters leave the auditorium and forget to power down the projector at the end of a lecture. A ‘carbon savings’ meter is displayable upon start up to let the user know to what degree they are saving the planet. The 500U projector boasts a 4000hour filter change/clean lifecycle. When matched with a 4000-hour lamp in Eco mode you’ll get around two years of maintenance-free operation (based on five 8-hour days per week).

REVIEW

Curved LED now available for hire.

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

The network integration, both wired and wireless, and asset management features are quite comprehensive and are huge selling points for schools, universities and large-scale corporates.

The projector can display PNG, JPEG and Bitmap (BMP) still image files and MPEG2 and WMV9 movie files via Wi-Fi from a nearby PC’s shared folder using the Viewer function. Data can be broadcast from one computer to numerous projectors within the network. This same networking functionality also allows multiple computers to be projected without connecting them directly to the projector. Very cool for educational environments.

All the usual signal inputs are available, 2 x 15-pin analogue RGBHV, five-way BNC RGB, HDMI (with HDC protection), DisplayPort, Composite (RCA) video and S-Video (Y/C). Audio input is via dual RCA or 3.5mm stereo inputs, although the unit only boasts a single 10W (mono) speaker.

The image quality is impressive. I sent a variety of signals to every input and tested the internal scaling ability thoroughly.

Whether you match the native resolution of the projector or send much lower resolutions, the PA500UG displayed it very quickly and cleanly. Menu controls are very basic, yet offer enough advanced functionality to allow pretty precise image controls.

Edge blending is available if you want to project multiscreen wide images (although with a single projector I was unable to test this feature), but I assume it would be a little challenging trying to perfect the overlap area with the limited colour-matching capability of LCD projectors compared to DLP projectors.

NEC has created a very comprehensive display offering within the PA series of LCD projectors. Venues and education environments requiring a simple, reliable projection solution coupled with comprehensive asset management ability and environmental features need look no further.  More information: nec.com.au Contact: contactus@nec.com.au or 131 632 RRP:$7370 (inc GST)

• Designed to enable curve–shaped screens • High Brightness and colour uniformity with great visual performance • 14mm pixel pitch • IP65 – suitable for outdoor use

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Call 1300 783 832, or find out more at www.tdc.com.au

048

NEWS

InfoComm News News from the Oceania Region.

INFOCOMM ACADEMY CHANGES FOR 2012 The InfoComm Academy has become the InfoComm University

The name change from the InfoComm Academy to the InfoComm University took place on 1st January 2012. The name change is to reflect the expanded offerings and delivery platforms that will become available during 2012. To see further details on the InfoComm University Programs go: www.infocomm.org/education 2012 will see the introduction of ‘Mini Virtual Classroom Training Courses’. The courses are delivered using our Virtual Classroom platform, and are completed within one or two weeks.

Webinars will be delivered on Mondays and Thursdays. Each webinar is 90 minutes in duration. There will be class assignments for each student to complete and each class will come with InfoComm RUs. Each ‘Mini Virtual Classroom Training Course’ will focus on key concepts and students will be given the opportunity to explore and practice these concepts without a lengthy time commitment. Please see the Upcoming Events section below for more information on Course Offerings and Times.

CTS EXAM GUIDE BOOK: ELECTRONIC VERSION The CTS Exam Guide is now available for Kindle and the Kindle for iPad app.

The Kindle for iPad has colour photos, ability to pinch and zoom on drawings, rotate for one or two page view, etc. The Kindle reader has black and white photos. The legibility is equally good on both.

The price is approximately US$40 and is available through www. amazon.com. Please note the electronic version doesn’t include the content on the CD-Rom that is supplied with the CTS Exam Guide Hard Copy.

BENEFITS FOR EMPLOYEES OF CORPORATE MEMBERS Did you know that as an employee of an InfoComm International member, you are entitled to enjoy the same benefits of membership as your employer does? That’s right, the benefits a Corporate or Organisational Member has extends to all of the employees of the member. All you need to do to gain access to the member benefits is to make sure you’re listed as an employee of the Member Company in the InfoComm Member records. You can do that by sending you details to us at oceania@ infocomm.org. Please include the company name and address, your first name and surname, email address and phone contact details. We will then send you your InfoComm Website Username and password. If you think you’re already registered, please send an email to the same address and we can check and update your records as required.

Here are some of the benefits that you can enjoy today, for free: • Member newsletter via email • Webinar attendance • On-demand videos • Industry white papers • Free InfoComm tradeshow entry • Access to InfoComm e-discussion groups for online networking with your peers in the Industry.

• Access to the InfoComm iQ AV Product and Services database.

You are also entitled to Member Discounts on • InfoComm University courses

• Certification testing • InfoComm store purchases including books and industry research In addition to the above, you can make a positive contribution to the development of your industry. Through InfoComm’s councils and committees you can take part in the discussions that will shape our Industry for the future. Everyone contributes in their own way and to their level of capacity. We welcome your contribution.

InfoComm provides its members with ‘Edubucks’ which are educational credit notes. They can only be redeemed against the cost of InfoComm University educational programs. If you intend to enrol in an InfoComm University course, check with your employer to see if they have any Edubucks available that you can access.

UPCOMING EVENTS Mini Virtual Classroom Training Courses 13-19th Feb., Ohm’s Law and Loudspeaker Impedance Course Topics: • Identify Ohm’s Law and how it is used in the audiovisual industry • Define the components that make up Ohm’s Law such as resistance, voltage, current, and power • Work with Ohm’s Law, and different arrangements of the equation • Apply Ohm’s Law • Loudspeaker impedance formulas • Loudspeaker impedance calculations for series, parallel, and series parallel • Practice calculations Course Delivery is at AEDT 5:00p.m. WST 2:00pm Course Costs, Members A$150*, Non-Members A$225 ex GST. Members may apply up to 50% Edubucks to the course fee.

Also the week of 13-19th Feb., Is Your Sound System Loud Enough (PAG/NAG)?

Course Topics: • Audio System Stability • Potential Acoustic Gain (PAG) • Needed Acoustic Gain (NAG) • Calculate PAG and NAG • Audio System Stability: FSM and NOM Calculations • Practice calculations and examples for different loudspeaker and room arrangements Course Delivery is at AEDT 10:00p.m. WST 7:00pm Course Costs, Members A$150*, Non-Members A$225 ex GST. Members may apply up to 50% Edubucks to the course fee.

InfoComm Member Roundtable Meetings • Sydney, 20th March • Melbourne, 24th April • Canberra, 1st May • Brisbane, 8th May Oceania Regional Webinars • 21st March, ADST 1:00pm • 18th April, AEST 1:00pm

TUTORIAL

049

Audio Reinforcement for a Panel Discussion This step by step procedure comes from InfoComm’s ‘Event Setup for AV Techs Online’.

For information about enrolling for this, or any other InfoComm course, contact Jonathan Seller or go to www.infocomm.org/education.

AUDIO REINFORCEMENT FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION

Everyone has experienced the frustration of not being able to hear a person speaking at a meeting or presentation. Using a small audio system for voice reinforcement eases listener frustration.

We will walk through the steps of setting up audio reinforcement for a panel discussion or meeting. The items needed for this setup are listed below.

Note: To avoid having to set up temporary loudspeakers, you may want to ask the onsite contact if a house sound system is available for use in the room. If there is a system available, carefully coordinate with them to avoid damaging their system.

What do I need for this setup?

• 3 XLR cables • 3 microphones of a type best suited to your event • 2 loudspeaker cables • Amplifier and two loudspeakers (some loudspeakers include an amplifier) • Mixer • Extension power cables and power strips Loudspeaker Placement • Place the loudspeakers on either side of the presentation area, taking care to put them in front of all microphones. Placing them in front can help avoid feedback issues. Also, it is less distracting for the audience if they hear audio coming from the same direction as the talker.

• The microphone should be pointed up toward the presenters’ mouths, so they speak from above the microphone, not directly into it.

Setup and Connect Mixer • Set up the mixer and amplifier on a table at the back of the room so you can observe all the microphones and hear the people speaking.

(Your loudspeakers may have built-in amplifiers, so a separate amplifier may not be necessary.)

• Individually connect each XLR cable from each microphone to Inputs 1, 2, and 3 on the mixer.

• Label the inputs and the microphones so you will know which level to adjust during the event.

• If the mixer doesn’t have a built-in amplifier, connect the ‘line out’ from the mixer into the amplifier (skip this step if the loudspeakers have built-in amplifiers).

• Connect the output of the amplifier (or, if the loudspeakers have built-in amplifiers, the output of the mixer) to the input of each loudspeaker.

Complete Setup and Test System • Plug in all power cables and turn on all power strips.

• Turn down all the audio levels on the mixer.

If using a separate mixer and amplifier turn the mixer on first, then the amplifier.

• With a colleague talking into the microphones at the panel table one at a time adjust the level for each microphone on the mixer.

• Bring the mixer’s master level up slowly as you test the individual inputs.

• When testing and troubleshooting is complete, properly tape down all cables, following the best practices for laying tape over cables on the floor.

After the Event At the conclusion of the event power the system down, amplifiers first, then disconnect all the equipment and return it to its storage location.

SECTION TEST

Please select an answer for each of the following four questions to check your understanding of these procedures. The answers are at the bottom of the page.

Placing loudspeakers in front of microphones helps avoid ___. a. Pops and clicks b. Feedback c. Loss of volume When setting microphones for a panel, place them so the presenters speak ___. a. Above the microphones b. Directly into the microphones If a mixer does not have an amplifier, connect the ___ of the mixer to an external amplifier. a. Microphone output b. Line output Before turning on an audio mixer, make sure that all input and output controls are turned ___. a. Down b. Up

• Point both speakers toward the audience.

Microphone Placement • Place each microphone directly in front of each person speaking. The microphones should not be used in the area in front of the loudspeakers, in order to help avoid feedback issues.

Answers: 1. b 2. a 3. b 4. a

050

Termination Stuff In Around Text:/ Graeme Hague

They say that one of the most stressful times for any personal relationship is when you’re moving house. Next down the list is when you’re building a house. Right now my wife and I are attempting to move into the house I haven’t finished building yet. I don’t know why the architects don’t just chuck a set of divorce papers in with the house plans and be done with it.

It’s not all bad, of course. One of the advantages of relocating homes is the sudden, strong incentive to get rid of lots of accumulated junk – because you can’t be bothered packing and moving it, plus there is that cathartic, cleansing feeling of a fresh beginning… or maybe my desk is too close to the paint solvents. (I must open a window).

It can be heart-breaking, too. I’ve been pulling out bits of gear that cost me a hell of a lot of money a few years ago, but now (thanks to the advent of things like Windows 7 and HDMI) they’re both worthless and useless – not to mention the slow demise of Firewire ports on laptops, which I’ve grumbled about elsewhere this issue. Just about everything I bought was Firewireconnected, damn it.

STUFF ALL

As I’ve been cleaning out those cupboards, I decided there’s a sliding scale of the shelf-life of stuff.

• Stuff you’re using now.

• Stuff you haven’t used for a while, but it’s still good stuff.

• Stuff you haven’t used for ages, but that’s not to suggest it won’t come in handy sometime. You have to keep it.

• Stuff that has developed a thin film of grime from having been in the cupboard too long (is that mouse pee?), but you’re not going to throw it away – no way. It could be useful.

• Stuff you’d almost forgotten you had – it’s a bit like getting it new all over again (Hey! I’d

“there is a certain smug joy to finding a purpose for a bit of defunct equipment … vindicating your cupboard filled with worthless electronic crap”

forgotten I even had this thing! Wow, it could come in handy sometime…)

• Stuff you need to close your eyes, put it in the bin, turn around and don’t look back – no, don’t look back. It’s over.

Sadly, there’s only one proper rule about stuff when you’re moving house. Do you really need to keep it? I mean, really? It helps, when you’re making that decision, to have a wife standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

CABLE CULL

It’s also an opportunity for a big connector cable clean-out. That’s not the bunch of cords hanging on the back of the door. No, we’re talking about the tangle of spaghetti behind your PC workstation. I’ve just gone though a rather alarming process. I carefully dismantled my computer and all its peripherals, put everything into a single, large box so there was no mistaking where it all could be found – then I subsequently rebuilt my computer in the new office and got it all working perfectly.

Except the box is still half-filled with cables.

How did that happen? What were all those other cables doing, that they’re not doing now? It’s like some weird, PC Twilight Zone where things mysteriously function even though you can’t possibly have connected them. I’m tempted to just jam all the remaining cables down behind the PC to make things look normal. Perhaps they’ll all reconnect themselves in the middle of the night, when no one’s looking.

LANDFILL IN WAITING

You have to agree there is a certain smug joy to finding a purpose for a bit of defunct equipment – something that’s been on the Bin List for some time, but you haven’t gotten around to it – where it suddenly

and miraculously becomes useful. Even better, it solves a problem. That’s awesome; vindicating your cupboard filled with worthless electronic crap. It’s not worth posting on Facebook by the way. Nothing is, normally.

Unfortunately all the above also applies to software. There are boxes and drawers and cute basket thingies on a shelf all filled with DVD cases of programs and driver installation discs. Partly, because the cases themselves have product authorisation serial numbers on them and keeping the jewel cases is a form of back-up (I have a Little Black Book with all my serial numbers in it… damn, I wonder where it is?). Also partly because, even though the software version on my computer is ‘11.2’ or something and I’ve still got version ‘2.0’, it seems a criminal waste to throw the early versions in the bin.

Yes, I know they required Windows 98 to run, but that’s not the point.

HANG ON

Before you suggest I should be unloading any of this stuff, hardware or software, on some poor, unsuspecting fools on eBay you have to remember that it’s junk to everyone else. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” went right down the gurgler, when we all jumped on the latest operating system wagon. This is OS-incompatible junk that my studio turns its nose up at. Even Win XP is being quietly shown the back door.

So I have to be ruthless. Insensitive and inconsiderate. There is no room for sentiment when you’re cleaning out cupboards and drawers and cute basket thingies of accumulated junk. It all has to go.

Except for the stuff that might come in useful. I’d better hang on to that. 

EXPERIENCE MORE .: CONFIDENCE :.

Confidentiality, too. With Audio-Technica’s ATCS-60 infrared conference system, your wireless signal won’t make it out of the room, let alone visit another building. While typical RF wireless systems broadcast right through walls, the ATCS-60 keeps your signals safe & secure, with no information leakage. The innovative ATCS-60 offers flexible configuration for up to 150 participants, intuitive operation, and selectable channels for multi-language groups. Whatever your installations demand, experience more. audio-technica.com '&"563&4 t Information control —Your wireless signal won’t leave the room

t Voice detection — Microphones are voice-activated in automatic mode

t Flexible & easy to modify — Microphone and camera settings can be controlled by PC

t 4JNVMUBOFPVT JOUFSQSFUBUJPO — Use up to four channels for multi-language meetings

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