AV Issue 44

04

Editorial The Disinformation Super Highway I see effectively-free and effectively-unlimited telecommunications as the necessary foundations for so many more advances in the way we communicate between each other and between the devices we use to manipulate our environment.

For me, audiovisual tools and technologies are the underlying infrastructure for everything we do, from growing food and building machines, to informing, caring for, and amusing ourselves.

The belated introduction of an Australian nationwide plan for a reasonably-capable, fibreoptic-to-the-endpoint network finally received bipartisan political support a few years ago. Due to the open-ended nature of the project brief and the constantly-evolving technology it was being built from, the venture was established as a ‘design and construct’-style of project, with the ability to respond to technological changes during construction.

In broad outline, the task was to build a nationally-owned, freely-accessible, fibreoptic data network with end-points in every residence, business, office and enterprise in the country.

Where fibre networks were impossible or impractical to run, other high-speed data access technologies, including broadband wireless and direct satellite links were to be provided. Like the Korean broadband network, this was to be a network to give the entire country the capacity to produce and consume data for any purpose that could be dreamt up.

In the case of the 90+ per cent of connections to be made via fibre, provision was made in the system design for the endpoint electronics to be upgraded during the multi-decade lifetime of the passive fibre. This would allow the data bandwidth of the network to be increased as higher density multiplexing became more affordable and bandwidth demand increased. In fact, while the original design brief called for a 100Mbps network to be constructed, by the time contracts were let for the bulk supply of network termination devices, 1GBps-capable devices were actually supplied in many places.

During the federal election that took place just a couple of years into the construction of this broadband network, the opposition political party decided to use the construction of the national high-speed network as a means to attack the incumbent government. Their communications spokesman was given some very bad technical advice that there was a cheaper and faster way to build such a national network, and without sufficient due diligence to confirm the validity of the advice, proceeded to announce far

and wide that if his party was elected they would pursue this cheaper and faster construction path to deliver a network of equal value and capability.

Not only was this alternate plan neither cheaper nor faster than the one in place, in the short term it would provide much less bandwidth, and in the long term…. Well there wasn’t actually any long term. You see, the new plan was based on overdriving existing copper wire infrastructure that had been allowed to run down by its owners during the last decade in the certain knowledge that it would soon be replaced with an optical fibre network. However, the design of this new plan was based on the incorrect premise that the old infrastructure had been well maintained, even though the phone company’s shareholders would probably have seen this as mismanagement.

Terrified that such changes may actually be implemented after a likely change in government, technologists from all over the internet, telecommunications, information technology and data networking communities rushed to point out, both directly to the spokesman and via the media, that the proposed alternative network would prove to be a total disaster for the country.

Humiliated by the response from the technology communities, the communications spokesman took to personally attacking the bearers of uncomfortable tidings and in the time-honoured tradition of all politicians, just kept on repeating his ill-informed view.

Following that expected change of government, the communications spokesman, now the Communications Minister, set to work implementing the ill-advised and impractical version of the network that was now government policy. Along the way he’s also found it possible to rid the project of the people who had the temerity to point out that the design of the alternative network was fatally-flawed.

One year on from the change of government and the construction of the fibre network has been effectively abandoned. In some instances fibre has been run down streets but may never be connected to the buildings it runs past. In a few areas, partially-completed fibre rollouts have been finished because of binding contractual obligations. Mostly there is nothing going on for at least another year, while new teams of engineers have been charged with the task of working out how to make this impractical network design deliver broadband at anything appreciably faster than good ADSL2 speeds.

Along the way, the much-proclaimed ‘Superspeed Broadband Network’ has quietly

become a ‘high-speed broadband network’, the term previously used to describe ADSL2 when it’s running downhill with a tailwind, less than a few hundred metres from an exchange. The 100Mbps fibre network with a 1GBps underlying capacity has now become a 20Mbps network of mostly badly-maintained copper phone lines for the last few hundred metres, that may only deliver 12Mbps in some locations. What happened to the noble intentions of nation-building infrastructure?

To top all of this, just a week or so before the Christmas break, when network news programs have shut up shop for several weeks and most industry specialists are busy with kids home from school, office celebrations and family gatherings, the Communications Minister chose a Sunday morning to quietly announce that the National Broadband Network has just paid a lot of money to purchase the country’s soon-to-beabandoned Hybrid Fibre-Coax (HFC) networks.

These mostly-overhead (and hence vulnerable) networks are currently being used to deliver subscription television, a small amount of VoIP and a moderate amount of moderate-speed broadband to some parts of some larger cities.

As these decades-old networks were due to be replaced by the now-abandoned fibre network, they too haven’t recently seen a lot of tender loving care from their current owners. However, we’ve been told that these will speed up the rollout of the national network and save billions of dollars.

The really interesting aspect of this purchase is that no explanation has been forthcoming as to how these HFC networks can be cost-effectively converted to carry high-speed broadband, and how this has achieved much more than giving billions of taxpayers’ dollars to the former owners of an asset of dwindling value. There’s also the possibility that the subscription television providers will now have the capital to build their own competing fibre-to-the-endpoint network to deliver their new, enhanced digital programming that probably wouldn’t have fitted over the HFC network anyway.

I know that this is a cruel and selfish thing to say, but despite all of this mayhem, I’m alright Jack. Both my own office in suburban Hobart and our editorial offices in central Ballarat were considered to be in sufficiently unimportant locations for the trial NBN rollouts. Consequently we have nice, comfortable 100/40Mbps connections between us for VoIP, VPN server connections and magazine layouts. Sorry. 

Crew Paul is a freelance lighting designer based in Sydney.

Struggling to find work in his homeland, Paul spends much of the year in far flung places in perpetual search for the perfect breakfast and good coffee.

With a love of lights, gadgets and a good story, Paul makes an admirable effort to bring to AV reviews of products and events from around our small and wondrous globe.

Advertising Office: +61 (0)2 9986 1188 PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia

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

Editor: Andy Ciddor (andy@avapac.net) Publication Director: Stewart Woodhill (stewart@avapac.net)

Ben Hatcher is an AV engineer with 8 years industry experience. After starting his AV career as a dry hire driver in London he moved on to work at British national broadcaster ITV for almost 4 years heading up the AV department. Ben currently works at the University of Adelaide in a technical support role within the Client Delivery team. He is also an AETM committee member.

Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@avapac.net) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@avapac.net) Art Director: Daniel Howard (daniel@avapac.net) News & Online Editor: Jen Temm (jen@avapac.net) Additional Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@avapac.net) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@avapac.net) Cover photograph: St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral, Sydney Courtesy of Technical Audio Group (TAG)

Stephen Dawson is a long-time geek, whose geekery changes focus from time to time. He made his first microphone pre-amp from an Electronics Australia (remember them?) design back in the early 70s. His schooling involved melting a screwdriver on the school hall control panel, and receiving tingles from poorly-insulated antique lighting control pots. These days he spends just about all his time writing about audiovisual gear.

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2014 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. 24/12/2014

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.

Issue 44 REGULARS

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NEWS AV industry and product news highlights from the AV website.

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EYES ON THE FUTURE Epson’s Moverio BT-200 augmented reality glasses.

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COLLABORATIVE SWEET SPOT Melbourne University's 'The Spot' building gets a collaborative update.

20

INFOCOMM ASSOCIATION NEWS News and announcements for the Asia Pacific region.

48

TERMINATION Someone has to do the crap jobs

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FEATURES

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G20: PUTTING THE LIGHTS ON River City puts on her party frock to welcome the G20 dignitaries.

24

UPDATING THE ARCHIVES The Theatrette at the National Film and Sound Archives finally gets a makeover.

30

NO TIME FOR REFLECTION St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney gets a new PA in one Almighty hurry.

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REVIEWS TECHNOLOGY CORE'S HDI MOBI ELITE PLUS TROLLEY SYSTEM Another locally-designed take on the large touchscreen mobile computer.

EPSON EB-1985 WU MULTIMEDIA PROJECTOR Mid-range 3LCD projector with a multitude of connectivity options.

44 46

TUTORIAL

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44

46

NOT SO EASILY LED Incandescent light sources ain’t dead yet!

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INFOCOMM TUTORIAL Colour temperature.

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NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

THE SMALLEST TITAN

NEW 4K JVC CAMCORDERS

LARGEST 4K TOUCH

Measuring 42.5cm wide and weighing 8kg, the goanywhere Quartz lighting console from Avolites comes complete with onboard processing and a bright 12.1-inch screen. Launched at the recent PLASA show in London, it’s the latest addition to the company’s Titan mobile range and suits smaller events and tours, offering much of the functionality of Avolites’ larger rock touring desks. “It is Avolites' smallest fully-featured console,” says sales manager Stephen Baird Smith. "Super compact, small enough for hand luggage, the Quartz is positioned as the ideal companion for lighting projects ranging from touring and festivals to clubs and one-offs.

Offering full compatibility with multi user, the Quartz is also perfect for use as a back up or extra programming surface, cutting your programming time. Quartz is ready to benefit from multi band sound to light triggering functionality offered in Titan version 9." The console also supports Titan Net and Titan Remote, and features four DMX XLR-5 connectors, 16 DMX universes, a builtin MIDI input, 10 playback faders, three high quality optical encoders, 20 programmable macro buttons, headphone output and front-panel mounted USB3 port.

Universal Lighting & Audio: (07) 5509 4633 or www.ula.com.au Avolites: www.avolites.com

JVC has announced three handheld additions to its professional 4KCAM line up, including the newly released high end GY-LS300 Super 35 4K camera.

The model features JVC’s 4K Super 35mm CMOS sensor combined with a Micro 4/3 (MFT) lens mount, a combination the company says will accommodate the largest variety of lenses and adaptors without compromising image quality and lens characteristics.

The LS300 also comes with 4:2:2 sampling, UHD and full HD recording at 60p/50Mbs, dual-codec recording (mov & AVCHD) simultaneously to (non-proprietary) SDHC or SDXC media cards, with 4K output via 3G-SDI or HDMI, dual XLR inputs with switchable mic/line and phantom power, integrated handle with hot shoe, and dedicated mic mount. It also supports IP network remote control, with remote viewing, metadata editing, and FTP of clips across network connections via optional adapters. The other two models are the GY-HM200, a 4K Ultra HD camcorder with HD streaming, and the GY-HM170, a cheaper option 4K Ultra HD palm-sized camera. The GY HM170 and GY HM200 camcorders are expected to be available in February 2015.

Quinto Communications: (02) 9894 4244 or www.quinto.com.au JVC Professional: pro.jvc.com

Planar has launched the industry’s largest 4K touch display with its Planar UltraRes 98” Touch. Combining a multi-touch, multi-user experience with native Ultra HD resolution, the display is designed for resolutionrich collaborative applications including meeting rooms, training facilities, command and control centres, and interactive digital signage. Its key features include seamless touch with 32 simultaneous touch points, 500-nit brightness and 2D/3D viewing, offering the largest touch surface area without bezel disruption.

Planar’s UltraRes MediaPlex software allows up to eight directly attached sources to be viewed, four at a time, in full HD quadrants. Whether sources are full HD, sub-1080 or 4K, they can be viewed in the 1080 quadrants or scaled up to fill the entire display area. A bonded glass screen improves optical performance and touch accuracy by eliminating the air gap between the protective glass and LCD screen, and the display offers a sleek design with a narrow, logo-free bezel, and installs around 101mm (four inches) from the wall. The company has also released plug-in modules for easy integration with AMX, Crestron and Savant. RRP: $76,879.

Image Design Technology: (02) 9417 4924 or www.idt.com.au Planar: www.planar.com

NEWS IN BRIEF:

Sydney’s AP Technologies has been appointed Epiphan’s major distributor in Australia and New Zealand, in Epiphan’s first distribution agreement in the region. AP has been a primary reseller for the US video capture, recording and streaming systems provider for the past few years. “Working with Epiphan in a distributor role allows us to help define the strategy for ANZ and grow the AV market,” AP Technologies managing director Andrew Paton says.

AP Technologies: (02) 9452 6001 or www.aptech.com.au Epiphan Systems: www.epiphan.com

SingTel has announced a partnership with digital media solutions provider Tripleplay Services, to design and deliver integrated IP media solutions to the corporate, banking, hospitality and healthcare sectors in the Asia Pacific region. Tripleplay’s solutions deliver television, ondemand video and digital signage over IP using open standards products. “We believe that this partnership will further strengthen both businesses position in the APAC region, ” says Tripleplay’s managing director for Australasia, Jamie Hind.

TriplePlay Services: www.tripleplay-services.com SingTel: info.singtel.com

Roland has announced support for Audinate’s Dante audio networking as an optional expansion card in its new M-5000 live mixing console. The Dante solution addresses the need from audio professionals to interconnect digital audio products, Roland says – and supporting Dante in addition to REAC, MADI and Waves SoundGrid positions the mixer as one of the most openly networked audio consoles on the market.

Roland Systems Group Australia: (02) 9982 8266 or www.rolandsystemsgroup.com.au Audinate: www.audinate.com

• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net

Midas has announced the G2.5 firmware release for its PRO series digital live performance consoles and select DL15x and DL25x fixed-format I/O devices, adding features including Solo Follow Select on the PRO1, the ability to turn bulkhead fans off and restart automatically, 48k capability for DL15x and DL25x series I/O devices plus compatibility with version 2.09, or higher M32 console firmware, a recovery system for all PRO Series consoles, and a lock on the patching page to prevent unauthorised changes.

National Audio Systems: (03) 8756 2600 or nationalaudio.com.au Midas: www.midasconsoles.com

LED screen specialist Mediatec has announced the opening of a Western Australian branch, owned

by Perth local Casey Bennett.

Bennett previously worked with Mediatec’s European office and undertook the role of video production manager for Eurovision in Copenhagen last May. He says the move brings the latest LED screen options to the state as part of a range of integrated broadcast solutions for sports, music and corporate events.

Mediatec WA: 1300 708 014 or casey.bennett@mediatecgroup. com.au

FIRE SERVICE UPGRADES WITH POLYCOM The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has selected Polycom’s RealPresence One video collaboration solution to enable seamless, real-time communication between 900 staff across the state and more than 70,000 volunteer members.

The subscription-based video solution provides uninterrupted communication in life-critical situations, enabling the NSW RFS to make faster decisions in planning and emergency situations and drive recovery. The deployment has also brought significant reductions in travel time and cost, helping the volunteer organisation save tens of thousands of dollars in transport allowances and accommodation. The NSW RFS is the world’s largest volunteer fire service, responsible for 95 per cent of the 800,000 square kilometres of the state’s fire and emergency services. It has 87 offices and its members include volunteers, fire fighters, operational and managerial staff. The service previously used traditional, hardware-based video solutions to communicate and collaborate, but recently chose to upgrade to the subscription-based RealPresence One for its scalability, availability and redundancy. With more staff and volunteers able to access video solutions, travel time is significantly reduced both in emergency planning and response, and in member training.

Polycom: 1800 355 355 or www.polycom.com.au

Dave Demmocks has joined Magna Systems and Engineering to head up its digital solutions sales department as the company expands in the broadcast industry and moves into new markets. Demmocks, a senior sales manager with more than 30 years experience in IT for companies including Future Reality, Data Direct Networks, Isilon and Autodesk, will concentrate on bringing products and solutions to industries around the broadcast sector such as corporate and government video, pro AV, defence, police and emergency services.

Magna Systems and Engineering: (02) 9417 1111 or www.magnasys.tv

Christie has launched three upgraded versions of its Twist, a solution that delivers full image warping and advanced edge blending in the company’s three-chip DLP projectors. Easier to use and with better, more precise pixel-to-pixel alignment, the upgraded product family includes three tiers of specialised software for different application requirements: Christie Twist, available as a free download from the company’s website; and Christie Twist Premium and Christie Twist Pro, paid upgrades that provide additional functionality for more complex projects.

Christie Digital Systems: (07) 3624 4888 or christiedigital.com

Integrated Systems Events has announced its 2016 event at the RAI exhibition centre in Amsterdam will be extended from three days to four thanks to the show’s “rapid rise in size and prominence” according to ISE managing director Mike Blackman. “This move has largely been driven by the demands of our exhibitors and attendees,” Blackman says. “Quite simply, the extremely high attendance at the show saw increasing requests from exhibitors to have more time to spend with attendees.”

Integrated Systems Europe: www.iseurope.org

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NEWS

HI-FI CONFERENCE PHONE

EXTRON FIBRE OPTIC CONTROL INSERTER

MORE CHRISTIE Q SERIES

Revolabs has announced the release of its FLX UC 500 USB conference phone, a high fidelity solution for everyday computer-based conferencing in desktop workspaces and conference rooms. The sleek device offers powerful hi-fi audio using tweeter and midwoofer speaker elements, four microphones, a wide frequency response and higher power than typical USB devices, with full duplex support for clear calls with simultaneous audio capture and playback. Users can connect the unit USB to a PC, Mac or Chromebook for use with Skype, Microsoft Lync, Cisco Jabber, WebEx, and other applications. "We designed our FLX UC 500 conference phone to create a seamless extension to any computer-based unified communications application while delivering an exceptional sound experience that is expected but, until now, not delivered," said Revolabs CEO JP Carney. "The FLX UC 500 keeps web conferencing easy and provides customers with bestin-class audio through innovative engineering solutions for echo cancellation and higher bandwidth in a smart and stylish sound-driven unit." Aggressively priced for its home market at US $399, the FLX UC 500 will retail in Australia for AU $699 (inc. GST).

Audio Products Group: (02) 9669 3477 or www.audioproducts.com.au Revolabs: www.revolabs.com

Extron Electronics has introduced FOX II RS 104, a four-port RS-232 inserter for long-haul transmission of control signals to remote source and destination equipment over fibreoptic cabling. Each port provides a bidirectional fibreoptic connection to an Extron Fox II or Fox Series transmitter or receiver for the Ethernet insertion and extraction of control data, while maintaining a continuous pass-through link for video and audio. RS-232 data from the Ethernet port is inserted onto one or more of the fibre optic outputs, providing remote monitoring and control. Reclocking on the unit’s buffered fibre optic outputs ensures signal integrity and transmits the fibre optic signal at its original power level. The inserter maintains the performance of the optical signal transmission while providing bidirectional control from a control processor, eliminating the need for separate control system wiring to remote devices. Available in multi-mode and single-mode models, it is compatible with Fox II Series transmitters and receivers, as well as Extron’s Fox Series matrix switchers, distribution amplifiers, and extenders.

RGB Integration: (08) 8351 2188 or extron@rgbintegration.com Extron: www.extron.com

Christie has added three powerful models to its Q series range. The new “whisper-quiet” Christie DWX851-Q, Christie DHD851-Q and Christie DWU851-Q deliver 7900, 7500 and 7900 ANSI lumens respectively, and are usable in either single or dual-lamp mode. Operational in portrait or landscape setup and suited to applications including auditoriums, boardrooms and conference rooms, government, video mapping, and rental staging, the new models offer 2500:1 contrast ratio, Christie’s eClarity for improved control over image sharpness, gloss and shading, and built-in High Dynamic Contrast Range (HDCR) that eliminates image washout in high ambient light conditions while preserving image clarity.

With two colour wheels built-in, users can select the one that best suits their content and application. The HighBrightness colour wheel provides superior whites for enhanced graphic presentations while the Ultra-Rich colour wheel delivers an expanded colour gamut and lifelike images. Q Series also has software that works with an optional camera for fast and easy edge-blending and warping in multiple projector setups to create panoramic or stacked displays.

Christie Digital Systems Australia: (07) 3624 4888 or christiedigital.com

REAL HDMI SIGNAL DETECTION

PLUG & PLAY AMP MODULE KIT

STANTON IN A SPIN

Kramer Electronics has released a new high performance automatic standby switcher for HDMI video and unbalanced stereo audio signals that allows flexible active switching based on real signal detection. The VS-211HA can switch inputs while keeping the output active and HDMI links alive, making it more efficient and reliable than a standard standby switcher. Users can easily select between auto switching (last-connected or priority) and manual switching modes (manual and manual override), offering flexibility. VS-211HA detects real HDMI signals instead of just 5V presence, allowing auto switching only to sources actually in use. HDMI 5V output turns off when no inputs are connected to enable cascaded setups and to let displays go into sleep mode.

The device offers full signal re-clocking and parallel analogue audio and HDMI switching. Additional features include HEC, ARC and 3D pass-through, and support for full HD video up to 6.75Gbps (2.25Gbps per graphic channel).

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

Powersoft has introduced a ‘plug and play’ DigiMod Integration Kit, which offers all the components necessary to design a simple but complete system for active loudspeakers around DigiMod amp modules.

Customers can choose between two different DSP solutions including interface panels with I/O connectors, LEDs, programming and networking connections. Part of the DigiMod IK platform is Armonía ProManager, a new dedicated software tool that configures IK combinations and makes the final product accessible in the latest software version of the Armonía Pro Audio Suite (2.5.0) as a custom branded item. Purpose-designed for configuring the DigiMod IK Series modules, the tool is also compatible with the full range of Powersoft products. Assembly of the DigiMod IK requires just three parts to be screwed together in order for OEM customers to develop their own line of active loudspeakers.

Production Audio Video Technology: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Powersoft: www.powersoft-audio.com

The vinyl revival is great news for a company like Stanton. Founded in 1946 by Walter Stanton, inventor of the easily replaceable slide-in phonograph stylus, the company helped create the original consumer market.

Now a Gibson brand, Stanton is set to showcase its Stanton 150 Series turntable range at the Las Vegas CES. Suitable for digital vinyl systems, traditional vinyl mixing, archiving and home audio use, the range offers durable construction designed to minimise feedback, with ultra-strong torque, stable platters and precision tone arms. The ST.150, with its standard S-shaped tone arm, provides improved sound quality, while the Stanton STR8.150, fitted with a ‘skip-proof’ straight tone arm, offers great scratching capabilities. Both provide professional-grade features including key correction, reverse, up to 50 per cent pitch adjustment and S/PDIF digital outputs. The T.92 USB and T.55 USB both feature USB connectivity and A/D converters, and ship with iZotope Music & Speech Cleaner software.

Australian Musical Imports: (03) 8696 4600 or www.gibsonami.com Stanton: www.stantondj.com.

• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net

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NEWS

BARCO 12K PROJECTOR

STREAM LIVE AUDIO TO SMARTPHONES

VISION THROUGH WALLS

Barco’s latest is a cost-effective single-chip DLP projector producing 12,000 centre lumens light output. The new RLS-W12 offers WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, extended warping and blending, and HDBaseT technology to provide video over a single Cat5 cable. The model suits use in small to mediumsized venues, with an optional rental frame for the rental and staging market. “Our RLS-W12 projector is a smart choice for customers who are looking for a costeffective projector that delivers the brightness needed for large screens,” says Barco’s strategic market director Richard Marples. “Designed for fixed installation in museums, theatres and conference auditoriums, it’s also ideally suited for the hotel and exhibition rental market thanks to its rugged design, extended warping and blending functionalities, and optional rental frame.”

The projector operates at full brightness on a voltage range of 110 to 240V and can be controlled via the new wired or wireless remote control, the projector control app for Android and iOS devices, or the user-friendly Barco Projector Toolset software.

Barco Systems: (03) 9646 5833 or www.barco.com

MobileConnect from Sennheiser provides live audio streaming to mobile devices. The universal system uses a wi-fi connection to stream lip-sync audio content to the user’s smartphone, which has an app that instantly converts it into a mobile receiver. The system consists of a streaming server and a specific wireless LAN router, providing a closed network users can connect to from smartphones. The selected audio data is transferred to the device via the MobileConnect multi-channel app, enabling users to play the content through headphones.

Applications are unlimited, says Sennheiser: whether it is in a theatre, a museum, a sports stadium or a company, MobileConnect can be quickly and easily installed, and is cost-efficient to use. “This solution will enable our customers to simply use their own smartphones to receive audio content, and merely have to download the free MobileConnect app to their smartphone,” says Sennheiser Integrated Systems director Andy Niemann.

“At the same time, event organisers are no longer faced with the cost of providing, renting and maintaining the audio devices.”

Sennheiser Australia: (02) 9910 6700 or sales@sennheiser.com.au

Running cables in old buildings can be difficult – especially where thick stone walls are involved. UK audiovisual manufacturer Vision has developed a solution with its new HDMI Powerline transmitter and receiver set, which runs HDMI and IR signals from PCs, TVs and Blu-rays over existing electrical power cables with “virtually zero” latency according to the company. “Other consumer-grade products have fallen short of being reliable enough for use in professional installations, but all that has changed,” says Vision general manager Stuart Lockhart. The device combines Qualcomm Powerline 500Mbps technology with H.264 compression. The transmitter has a two-input HDMI switcher integrated with an HDMI output, which can feed a local display. It comes with a remote so the switcher can be switched from the transmitter or receiver.

For home users it has IR pass-through, and cabled IR receivers and emitters are included so everything can be hidden out of sight. The HDMI Powerline offers plugand-play simplicity, with onscreen diagnostics to help eliminate any problems. It will be available in the first quarter of 2015.

Hills SVL: 1800 685 487 or www.hillssvl.com.au Vision AV: visionaudiovisual.com

• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net

NEWS

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HDTV MINI POV CAMERA

NOISELESS SWITCHER

GEFEN BRIDGES THE GAP

Marshall Electronics has introduced the CV500-M2 miniature 2MP HD-SDI camera, capable of providing full HD video in multiple formats including 50fps in 1920x1080p, 1920x1080i and 1280x720p. This is the second generation of the CV500 mini-camera line and Marshall says it offers improved features and versatility to meet the requirements of professional broadcast, film and television production. “Our new CV500-M2 offers the added convenience of HD-SDI with full size BNC connectors, a very useful feature for broadcast applications,” says marketing manager Tod Musgrave. The mini-cam offers a durable 1/4inch-20 mountable body with full size HD-SDI (BNC) built into the rear panel, and switchable M12 lenses. It features a 2 megapixel 12-bit CMOS sensor, a miniature 3.7mm high definition prime lens and new chip-sets with HD 1-bit digital video signals obtained at high speeds of 50(60) fps (3G-SDI) with very low power consumption. Digital enhancements include double shutter wide dynamic range, white balance, digital defog, pixel correction, and extreme low-light sensitivity.

Quinto Communications: (02) 9894 4244 or www.quinto.com.au Marshall Electronics: www.marshall-usa.com

ARX Systems has released an externally controlled stereo input signal switcher, for use in emergency warning and intercoms systems, console switching, and remote control of signal sources in broadcast applications. “We developed the Remote Switcher in response to requests from integrators and installers for a unit allowing remote and external switching selection between two line level audio sources,” says ARX managing director Colin Park.

“EWIS (Emergency Warning and Intercommunications System) is becoming mandatory for most new and upgraded commercial buildings and public spaces, and our Remote Switcher is a cost effective solution for noiseless and instantaneous switching between normal audio program and EWIS emergency announcements.”

The Remote Switcher silently switches between two pairs of A or B female XLR inputs to a stereo pair of XLR male output connectors, without any loud bangs through the audio system. Input channel control can be selected either by remote switch/relay closure using an external power pack or wall wart, or by 12 to 24VDC supplied from an EWIS or similar panel.

The Resource Corp: (03) 9874 5988 or www.trc.com.au ARX: www.arx.com.au

Don’t throw away those old devices just yet: Gefen has announced the release of three new scalers that bridge the gap between legacy equipment and digital high definition systems. All three scalers convert the output from video sources using a VGA connection to enable compatibility with digital displays, projectors and other downstream devices. Each features a different type of digital output (HDMI, DVI, SDI), making them ideal for anyone wanting to extend the life cycle of traditional devices with portable solutions that offer versatile installation options. The models are the HDMI and VGA to 3GSDI Scaler/Converter, which supports a VGA, HDMI or DVI (with adapter) source input for converting and scaling to SDI for postproduction and broadcast applications; the VGA to DVI Scaler/Converter, which converts analogue video to digital DVI, scaling resolutions up to 1920x1200; and the VGA and Audio to HDMI Scaler/Converter, which converts analogue video and two channels of audio to HDMI for linking older equipment to modern high definition displays and projectors.

Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or www.ambertech.com.au Gefen: www.gefen.com

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Eyes on the Future Epson’s next generation of wearable augmented reality platform Smart Glasses, the Moverio BT-200, are now available for purchase – and some of Australia’s top education and research organisations are leading the way in using and developing applications for them.

The Moverio BT-200s are already in use at the CSIRO, the University of Western Sydney, Griffith University, and Monash University’s CAVE2 Immersive Visualisation Platform and its Faculty of Information Technology.

With applications in entertainment, manufacturing and medical science in particular, the binocular, transparent Smart Glasses offer a display in each lens, right in the field of vision, projected into the user’s surroundings. They boast 2x the virtual screen size and work straight out of the box with common connectivity technologies such as wi-fi and Bluetooth, and Android apps certified by the Moverio App Store. With a frontfacing camera and motion tracker, Epson says the model is shaping up to be a premier development platform for apps of the future and hands-free scenarios, delivering large, 2D or 3D images with simplicity and ease.

Dr Ruben Gonzalez – Senior Lecturer and Manager of the visualisation lab at the school of ICT, Griffith University: “We were looking for a platform to be able to integrate our computer vision research with visualisation research for a variety of student projects in new application areas. I must say I’m

impressed with the BT-200. So far I have used it as a remote terminal with a BT keyboard using VNC, and used it as a wearable computer. I'm still working on the software so I can use them as a remote client to a vision processing server but it looks promising. Our main application is for student research projects combining computer vision and data visualisation, which will make use of the glasses as a remote client to the vision/ visualisation processing server. That said, I can see the Moverio BT-200 being of great use in the area of assistive technologies, combining computer vision/AI and visualisation.”

Dr David Barnes – Monash University: “At Monash University, we operate the world’s largest CAVE2 immersive, ultra-scale visualisation facility. CAVE2 is an 84-million pixel, hybrid 2D – 3D display wall, curved into a cylindrical configuration and large enough for up to 20 people to explore a 3D scene. CAVE2 is used for the visualisation and analysis of large scientific and engineering datasets, as well as immersive environment simulation, collaboration, and arts and humanities applications. The intent in working with Moverio BT-200 is to explore augmented virtual reality as opposed to augmented reality, so that different users in the CAVE2 can overlay/see personalised data and/or 3D models while viewing a common large dataset. The Moverio BT-200 pass through the 3D effect perfectly. Our strategy will be to get the demo

applications running, then implement a simple test in the CAVE2 of using Moverio BT-200 to overlay some additional ‘heads up’ information in the CAVE2 environment. We are pretty excited about glasses-based display technology as a way to augment the ultra scale immersive environment of the CAVE2.”

Jon McCormack – Associate professor and ARC Australian Research Fellow, Caulfield School of Information Technology and Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University: “We do research into visualisation and virtual reality. We’re interested in seeing how new technologies can make visualisation and interaction more intuitive and creative. The Epson Moverio BT-200 smart glasses are a very advanced type of technology. The ability to see a 2D or 3D image overlaid in front of you just by wearing glasses is amazing. We’ve done some testing as we’re interesting in using them as an interface device for a very high-resolution data visualisation system. We are also experimenting with applications where the Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses are used as an interface device and also some new applications in augmented reality.

We do a lot of 3D printing, so one application we’ve thought of is being able to preview a 3D printed model in-situ before it is printed to check the size and orientation. The other application we’re interested in is storytelling and narratives that link real places with virtual ones. We’d like to give people the Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses

NEWS

and get them to travel around a city where the experience is enhanced by a different reality.

The Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses have a real future as I think augmented reality will become increasingly popular, particularly in specialist areas such as training, maintenance and servicing in the field – any job where you need to use your hands for something else, or need accurate spatial information about how something will appear in your environment.”  Epson’s new Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses are available and on sale now from www.epson.com.au for $849 (inc. GST). www.epson.com.au

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EPSON vs GOOGLE Epson Moverio BT-200 – Key Features • Display: Binocular; each lens has its own display projected onto your surroundings with 2x the virtual screen size; equivalent of 80-inch screen at 5m (320-inch @ 20m) • Built-in front-facing camera and motion tracker • Interactive track pad and smart navigation menus for Android-based games, apps and content • Wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity • Removable memory: built-in card slot supports up to 32GB microSDHC card • Immersive 3D • Dolby Mobile surround sound • Includes lens insert for prescription lenses, also features two UV shades for added contrast • Rechargeable battery offers nearly six hours of battery life • Includes headset, controller, 4GB microSDHC card, detachable earphones, AC adaptor, carry case • Price: AU$849 (inc. GST)

Google Glass – Key Features • Display: High resolution display is the equivalent of a 25-inch high definition screen from eight feet away • Camera: photos 5MP; video 720p • Audio: Bone Conduction Transducer • Wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity • 12GB usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage, 16GB Flash total • Battery allows one full day “typical use” (features including video recording are more battery intensive) • Includes Micro USB cable and charger • Compatible with any Bluetooth-capable phone • MyGlass companion app requires Android 4.0.3 or hgher; MyGlass enables GPS and SMS messaging • Google Titanium Collection prescription frames available including two ‘twist-on’ sunglasses • Price: US$1500 (not currently available in Australia)

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Digital Sweet Spot

Rising 12 storeys above Melbourne’s busy Haymarket intersection, the University of Melbourne’s Business and Economics Building earned the nickname ‘The Spot’ soon after its completion in 2009 due to its striking façade.

University of Melbourne recently embarked on a project to refurbish and expand three of The Spot’s collaborative learning spaces, merging single to double rooms and updating the AV backbone from analogue to digital. The Spot now boasts two spaces that can accommodate up to 100 students and one space capable of hosting 50. Built around a system of pods designed for 10, audiovisual content can be shared across PC screens, wall-mounted flat panels or projection screens around the room, providing a huge amount of flexibility in classroom delivery and participation. Chosen to assist the university on the project were integrators Soundcorp and audiovisual consultant WSP Group.

CROSSPOINT TO MAKE

Duncan Johnston, Audio Visual Engineer with consultants WSP Group takes up the story: “The functionality of the new system is similar to the old one; each of the pods have two PCs the students can use. The option now is to share either of those PCs to the local monitor, flat panels or projection screens, or to have the teaching material presented on the flat panels and other devices at the teacher’s discretion.”

Powering the video and audio switching needed for such a large system are Extron XTP Crosspoint modular digital matrix switchers.

Crosspoint 3200s are installed in the larger rooms, with a Crosspoint 1600 in the smaller space. Michael D’Aprano, senior technical specialist in the learning space support team at the University of Melbourne, worked with Duncan on the AV specifications to ensure the university was getting what it needed: “This is the first time

we’d used Extron XTP in a collaborative space as opposed to a lecture theatre.” Sam Moore, sales manager at Soundcorp, knew they’d made the right decision: “Extron XTP ticks all the boxes,” he agreed. “It’s simple to install, simple to use, and very versatile.”

LASER GUIDED

While the University repurposed some existing equipment, including power amplifiers, ceiling speakers, and document cameras, the upgrade required new audio processing from Biamp, tabletop microphones from Shure, wireless microphones from Sennheiser, flat panel displays and projectors from Sony, and AV control processing from AMX. Each room now includes a teacher’s lectern with touchpanel AV system control, local inputs, document camera and a combo DVD/VCR, plus wired and wireless microphone options. The student pods, in addition to two PCs, each have HDMI, DVI and VGA laptop connectivity and a simple AV system control keypad. Each room includes four large projection screens. All AV equipment is monitored, logged and maintained remotely through AMX’s Resource Management Suite.

The 10 new Sony VPL-FHZ55 data projectors installed in The Spot are part of an ongoing upgrade process at the university to replace traditional discharge lamp projectors with laser models. “When projectors are workhorses, laser offers significant advantages,” noted Duncan Johnston. Michael D’Aprano agrees: “We’ve been installing laser projectors for the last 12 months. They really suit our needs, as we don’t have to get a ladder out and change a lamp every 3000 hours. The laser projectors are rated for an operational life of 20,000 hours. Our replacement cycle for lamped projectors is three years, but installing laser projectors allows us to extend that out to probably six or seven years.”

TIME, QUALITY, BUDGET

As with all Universities, the biggest challenge in installing a successful digital collaboration system wasn’t technology, but time. Peter Nanscawen works in project management for the University of Melbourne and is in charge of overseeing seasonal works for AV installations.

“These projects have big dependencies and tight constraints,” he illustrated. “These sorts of works need to get done over semester breaks, often working nights to get them done.” This is why the University turned to Soundcorp to deliver the project. “I’ve dealt with Soundcorp a number of times over a number of installations and I was confident they’d be the ones to pull it all together,” said Peter.

Soundcorp’s Sam Moore added: “We did two weeks’ worth of night works between 8pm and 6am, roughing in, going into ceilings and under floors. We worked closely with the university’s Information and Technology Services staff to make sure they imaged the PCs correctly to feed the right video resolution and audio output into the Extron systems.”  CONTACTS WSP Group Asia Pacific: wspgroup.com Soundcorp: (03) 9694 2600 or www.soundcorp.com.au RGB Integration (Extron): 1800 398 766 or rgbintegration.com Sony: pro.sony.com.au/projectors Jands (Shure): (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au Sennheiser Australia: 1800 648 628 or sennheiser.com Audio Products Group (Biamp): (02) 9669 3477 or www.biamp.com AMX: (07) 5531 3103 or www.amx.com

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Turning The G20 Lights On Brisbane puts on her party frock to welcome world leaders and amuse the locals.

Text:/ Derek Powell

After years of preparation the G20 Circus has come and gone from Brisbane with a maximum of pomp and a minimum of protest.

During the long weekend of the leaders’ summit, as motorcades swept to and fro through lockeddown streets and helicopters and FA-18 Hornets swooped overhead, most locals opted to head to the coast.

However by contrast they warmly embraced the free G20 Cultural Celebration that lit up the city for three weeks leading up to the economic talk-fest. The celebrations featured dozens of live events from ballet to brass bands and included everything from street-corner performances to full-scale parades.

All of these were framed against the spectacular backdrop of Colour Me Brisbane, a lighting and projection extravaganza funded by the Queensland government, that activated the heart of the city like never before. The buzz in town was palpable as crowds flocked to see the city’s most famous buildings and signature landmarks immersed in interactive washes of colour and playing starring roles in ambitious son et lumière performances.

Wielding his electric baton across some 32 sites straddling the Brisbane River was Creative Director Jono Perry, who had spent the previous six months working in the Premier’s department bringing together a combination of local and national talent to wow both the leaders and the locals. I caught up with Jono just on sunset in Queens Park and asked him how he had interpreted the government’s brief to stage a ‘community party’.

“I decided that it needed to be something about Brisbane, and for Brisbane, so rather than doing fireworks, or a ‘City of Lights’, which was very much a Brisbane Festival event, I wanted to do something different and celebrate where we live,” he told AV. That ‘something different’ turned out to be a lighting festival that ranged across and around the key G20 sites but with some new and distinctively Queensland elements. With just six months to pull everything together, there was no time to waste.

“We went to tender very quickly,” he recalled.

“We asked for expressions of interest in two parts – one was the interactive lighting project which has become Paint Your City, while the second was for delivery of both content and equipment for projection onto key city buildings”.

After a round of initial surveys, there were some terrific responses, and the interactive lighting, which would allow punters to try out their own palette of colours on a city wide stage, was won by 32 Hundred Lighting (who developed ‘Paint Your Bridge’ for Sydney’s Vivid festival), while the projection sites were awarded to The Electric Canvas and TDC (Technical Direction Company). Oracle Attractions were contracted to provide laser projection on to City Hall and Suncorp Plaza.

PAINTING THE TOWN RED… OR GREEN, OR BLUE

The concept behind Paint Your City was to establish a giant canvas across multiple buildings with linked RGB luminaires. Then, members of the public could take control, either from a city centre kiosk or from on-line, and illuminate the buildings with their individual choice of colour scheme – just for a minute at a time.

Setting up a lighting control system across entire city blocks is no small undertaking, so 32 Hundred Lighting were the first people on site as they started establishing their network.

“Obviously to have that instant response we had to have a very stable network and the team from 32 Hundred did an amazing job,” Jono observed. “It’s all wireless Art-Net run from a custom app driving Catalyst media servers. A Catalyst server is sitting on the roof of one of the buildings and fed information from the touch screen at South Bank. And we’ve also got a web app with that where people can actually select predetermined time slots for their colour palette and that information gets sent to the server and pre-scheduled.”

If that sounds tricky enough then try doing this in conjunction with the communications nightmare that is the G20. “We had to work fairly closely with Defence Signals and the police so we were on a frequency where they’d be happy” Jono explained with classic understatement. “So that when they start sweeping the spectrum they

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Left: The work of Queensland projection designer Rachel Johnston adorns the Magistrates Court. Image courtesy of TDC. Below: Projection designer Craig Walsh curated a collection of bold works on the faces of QPAC. Image courtesy of TDC. Bottom: 32 Hundred Lighting Paints your City. Image courtesy of Atmosphere Photography

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Animated swimmers enliven the façade of the Treasury Hotel. Image courtesy of Atmosphere Photography

can make sure that there’s nothing going awry.”

Radio communications wasn’t the only security concern of course and to the security team, lasers were just another potential threat to the World Leaders. “Unfortunately there was some mis-information that ended up in the hands of some of the foreign delegations,” Jono mused.

“At the Treasury Hotel we had a few challenges with the dignitaries who initially thought there would be a light and laser show outside. That was one of the reasons for positioning the laser down on City Hall and Suncorp Plaza, although it’s not like a normal laser show. What Oracle Attractions has done is completely different. It’s used the architecture and actually mapped the building with lasers and then made the control interactive for the public.”

THE CHANGING FACE OF BRISBANE

The show using the façade of the Treasury hotel, The Changing Face of Brisbane, is possibly the highlight and certainly the most spectacular element of Colour Me Brisbane. The six-minute son et lumière not only featured animated projection mapping but uniquely includes a live choir, belting out Verdi choruses from the balconies. Jono explained: “It’s all about telling Brisbane’s story – why Brisbane has become a great city. I wanted to do that through the visuals but I wanted to have a connection to the Brisbane people, so we used the Opera Queensland chorus and Queensland Symphony Orchestra to record the soundtrack.”

Although the soundtrack is a recording on most nights, certain weekend performances got

the full treatment with the opera chorus singing live amongst the animations.

“From an audio perspective it’s a big undertaking. There’s a lot of radio mics, plus we have in-ear monitors for all the singers so that they’re all in time with the son et lumière.” The live element certainly adds a new dimension, and if you’re quick you can still check out the show on YouTube – just Google ‘The Changing Face of Brisbane’.

CREATIVE DESIGN

Indigenous art features heavily in several of the projection sites and Jono was careful to engage projection designers who could take full advantage of Queensland’s contemporary indigenous arts scene. The massive walls of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) provided a huge canvas for projection designer Craig Walsh to feature works by the likes of Sally Gabori, Richard Bell and Fiona Foley.

“There’s no commissioned artwork on QPAC,” Jono noted, “but it was all the best and brightest – the works that would translate really well to projection, and when you see them on the side of the building, they look quite amazing.”

“At the Magistrate’s Court we’ve got the work of Rachel Johnston, another Queensland projection designer. She comes from a rock ‘n’ roll background. She used to do all the visual content for Powderfinger – she now tours the world with bands and performers like Azealia Banks – a very, very accomplished projection designer. She hadn’t done anything on a building before and she’s working with a couple young

Rigging for projection on Queensland Parliament House.

One projector is inverted and two are lying on their sides to achieve the required intensity, coverage and blending.

Image courtesy of RJ Productions

contemporary indigenous artists – a guy out of Cairns named Shaun Edwards and Megan Cope who’s from Stradbroke Island. Megan has actually produced a new artwork which showcases all the indigenous nations of southeast Queensland overlaid on an old military and geological map.”

PIGI OR NOT PIGI

In addition to video projection, The Electric Canvas has done a couple of buildings with PIGI

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Above: The touch panel interface that allowed visitors to Paint Their City, one building at a time. Image courtesy of 32Hundred Lighting.

Right: Xenon-powered PIGI transparency projection cuts through the sunset ambience on the Old State Library building. Image courtesy of Atmosphere Photography

projectors which project large format (180mm x 180mm) slides and film strips. Jono admitted that the PIGI projection onto the old State Library building, which features images of Queensland Industry, is one of his favourites. “It looks incredible, because it’s one of those buildings that is not crowded by the rest of the city. It actually stands out – I think it looks amazing especially in that first 10 minutes after sunset when there’s still a little bit of light in the sky behind it.”

GETTING THE GREEN LIGHT

Even amidst all the razzle dazzle, Colour Me Brisbane was carbon-offset and green friendly.

As far as possible, all lighting was LED but with a collection of 40 projectors, ranging from 3kW Barcos and Christie Roadsters up to 6kW PIGI’s, the festival needed a fair bit of electrical input.

Every ampere was calculated in advance and the equivalent in Green power was purchased through a wind-farm in the ACT. So with G20 gone, will we ever see a regular lighting festival for Brisbane? “We didn’t (and don’t) want to just replicate Vivid or White night – it’s got to have something unique to Brisbane,” Jono insisted. Nonetheless, he sees plenty of interest in, and scope for an annual event: “We are pretty fortunate that the George Street end of town, from South Bank, is a perfect theatrical amphitheatre. Brisbane is a city that lights well and the spectacle works well with the public so hopefully…”  MORE INFORMATION: The Changing Face of Brisbane: Search Changing Face of Brisbane on YouTube 32 Hundred Lighting: www.32hundredlighting.com Oracle Attractions: www.oracleattractions.biz The Electric Canvas: www.theelectriccanvas.com.au TDC – Technical Direction Company: www.tdc.com.au

PRODUCTION TEAM

EQUIPMENT LIST

Creative Team Jono Perry Creative Director Paul Bearne Technical Producer Projection Designers The Electric Canvas: Parliament House, Treasury Hotel, Pullman Hotel, Old State Library Rachael Johnston (Strictly & Lowdown): Magistrates' Courts Craig Walsh: QPAC

32 Hundred Lighting 138 × Phillips Colour Reach 174 × 32 Hundred IP65 LED Par x 60 × IP65 LED bricks 20 × IP65 high output LED Tape for City Cats (30m per vessel) 15 × Anolis ArcSource 24 Inground 4 × Catalyst Server 22 × Artnet Distribution- Ruckus 2 × 50inch touch screen w/ 32Hundred custom app interface Hog 4

Craig Wilkinson and Stephen Brodie (optikalbloc): Queens Place Andrew Gibbs (Human Creative) and Richard De Souza: Commissariat Store (Projection & Interactive Design) Beh Wattenberg: Miller Park (Installation Designer) 32Hundred Lighting Iain Reed Project Manager Martin Bevz

Production Manager

Chameleon Touring Systems Brian O’Connor QLD Manager Shannon Ward Hire Manager The Electric Canvas Peter Milne Projection Designer and Project Manager Tillman Schneider Art Director Glenn Williams Chief Technician / Crew Boss TDC Kain Jones Olin Winton Steve Cain

Project Manager Technical Manager Head Technician

Oracle Attractions Glenn Turner

Technical and Creative designer

Chameleon Touring 28 × Martin MAC Quantum Wash 12 × Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500 16 × Palco 5 20 × Martin VC Dot 9 Strings 48 × IP65 LED Pars 9 × Par 64 Outdoor 12 × Honeycomb 36 6 × Source 4s Grand MA Lite Martin M1 3 × Showstore Projection (The Electric Canvas and TDC) 6 × PIGI 6k 11 × Barco HDF-W26 8 × Barco FLM HDX-W20 17 × Christie Roadster S+20 1 × Barco CLM-S+10 Watchout and Modulo Control Lasers (Oracle Attractions) 8 x 18W RGBY OPS Oracle lasers (Suncorp Plaza) 16 x 15W RGB OPS lasers (City Hall clock tower) Scaffolding Over 30 fully clad scaffolding towers for lighting and projection up to 15m high

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Despite a major refurbishment and technical upgrade, the former anatomy lecture theatre retains its heritage feel, right down to the steam radiators and the original angled film projection screen.

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Updating the Archives The National Film & Sound Archive, Australia hosts 30,000 school kids a year. Now, after a $2m upgrade to the NFSA’s theatrette, they’re finally paying attention.

Text and Images:/ Mark Davie

It’s just a little embarrassing when every presentation in the theatrette at the nation’s central repository of cinema and television history begins with the screensaver featuring the logo of the DVD player’s manufacturer. “We used to look like we were sponsored by Pioneer!” laughs Technical Support Manager, Trevor Anderson at Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra. “We used to buy the cheapest DVD players because they lasted just as long as the expensive ones, but you couldn’t turn the bloody logos off on the cheap ones.”

It wasn’t an entirely dire situation. After all, the problem was confined to NFSA’s theatrette, as the main cinema had been upgraded years ago. Still, the theatrette was used mostly for educational presentations, where the NFSA was trying to give 30,000 kids a year a taste for Australian media history. And trying to enthuse kids about the history of film and sound with a DVD player, an ageing projector and a couple of props was somewhat limiting, considering the breadth of content on offer behind the scenes.

THE VIEW FROM UP HIGH

Recently, the NFSA put the finishing touches on a $2m top-to-bottom renovation of the theatrette. It used to be an entirely flat-floor venue with a central aisle that occupied the best seats in the house. Despite the flat floor, the bio box was still in the standard cinema projection position, ie., high up the back wall. Most of the material screened in the theatrette’s early days was on film, so the screen was tilted back to compensate for the inability to correct for heavy keystoning. So not only were visitors staring at the back of each other’s heads, they were watching footage on a screen tilted back away from them – a disastrous viewing experience.

These days, apart from the heritage-protected decor, you’d hardly recognise the place. The theatrette now seats 114 in a tiered layout without a central aisle, and no obscured-viewing seating positions. Even the glass safety barriers in front of the side seating boxes on the balcony were respecified as flat panes so they no longer warp the view of the audience.

It took a lot of engineering to comply with the heritage classifications, and eventually the builders, Icon, installed massive amounts of steel, pinning it to the walls of the level below to take the load of

the new structure and get the 1932 building up to code. Not that you’d be able to tell, the original black board is still on the back wall from its days as the Institute of Anatomy.

GOING SOFT ON THE ACOUSTICS

The acoustics were a big job, not much had ever been done with them when the NFSA took over occupancy of the building. Peter Griffiths of Acoustic Studio took on the task, and one of the main criteria was to hit a noise floor benchmark of 32dB SPL. They ended up at 28dB, which – though not studio-level quiet – is really good for a room dedicated to critical, yet enjoyable listening.

The stage, while it looks original, has actually been extended further into the auditorium to allow the NFSA to stage cultural events in the theatrette.

After all, it’s not just an archive for film, but sound too. Being one of Canberra’s most iconic buildings, its unique heritage detailing and seating plan that curved into the stage makes it an attractive performance space. Since the restoration, it’s already hosted acts like Gotye, hip-hop artist Urthboy, the Stiff Gins, and an experimental surround sound performance. The low noise-floor, and natural amphitheatre-like acoustic allows acts to perform un-amplified if they choose.

“You can have someone playing a cello live on stage without amplifying it, and everybody in the room will hear it perfectly,” remarked Anderson. “Urthboy walked on stage and tossed out a throwaway line – then someone in the audience answered him. It’s a very intimate experience in here.” It’s also eliminated the need for educational presenters to rely on a mic, even with a room full of 12-year olds.

PLENTY OF D&BS

If the need for amplification arises, there’s another side of the venue that can be unleashed. To cope with the cinema playback, a d&b Audiotechnik 7.1 surround system was installed, using xS series speakers, including the 12S-D model for LCR (left, centre and right) positions, 8S for side surrounds, the in-between 10S model for rear surrounds, and a couple of 18-inch subs to handle the low end. The decision not to go with traditional cinema speakers was so the surround system could be used for more experimental audio performances without the risk of blowing anything up.

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Crestron room control and replay touchscreen on the lectern and the dCine remote media store controller running on a Windows tablet.

As well as the surround sound system, the subs can revert to being time-aligned with a pair of d&b E12 coaxial loudspeakers hung at the front of the stage for a more traditional left/right PA setup.

“We chose the E12s because they sound better for speech,” said Mark Chatburn from Wizard Projects (recently acquired by Videopro), who installed the system. Originally the plan was to have two boxes a side, but “the NFSA wanted to bring the image of the sound down at the front, rather than it going over your head. So there are four d&b xS-5s speakers in the stage to get the complete room coverage.”

Everthing runs through a Yamaha CL3 digital console up in the bio box, where engineer Dan Lualdi can either mix through JBL LSR2325 powered studio monitors, or he can undock his iPad and mix out in the auditorium. “It gives him control over most of the functionality of the desk in the room,” said Anderson. “Or if we had a massive show to do in there we could take the desk into the room as well.” The flexibility to move the desk around at will is because it connects via Dante networking into the 32-in/16out RiO digital cores under the stage, requiring only a couple of Ethernet ports to be dotted around the venue at key hookup points.

ALL IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN

“We went with a Dante system so we could pick and choose what was on the network, and what went where – it’s so flexible,” said Chatburn.

“There are two Yamaha DME64N processors sitting in the rack that have all the audio going through them, the dCine server, the Blu-Ray, the Dolby side – a lot of inputs. Then we’ve got the Crestron control sitting over the top of that. So as well as standard control, you can also output up to 12 sends of speakers from the CL3 so you can mix however you want. We also wired it all with dual-redundant networks, which is common to

Dante, so if someone pulls the primary network, it automatically fails over to the secondary.”

There are now three networks strung around the theatrette; one running the house network, one running Dante, and one running the Crestron AV control. Wizard installed the last two networks, not because they wouldn’t run over the existing infrastructure, but because they couldn’t be sure it would be foolproof.

“Crestron systems are all HDBaseT, so we ran in all R&M shielded Cat 6 cabling from Madison Technologies because it’s probably the best stuff you can get,” explained Chatburn. “You can’t cut corners.” Likewise, there were no corners cut when it came to the accuracy of the sound system.

Chatburn: “We used Belden high quality cabling.

All of the wiring goes back to the rack, so even if two speakers are paralleled, they’re paralleled on a terminal strip at the back of the rack.”

Lualdi has a collection of Sennheiser G3 handheld and lapel systems to work with, as well as a few DPA d:fine headset mics when required, and Audio-Technica goosenecks for the lecturn.

“On the stage, there’s a really nice, live, natural sound because of the kind of shape of the stage and the surfaces,” said Anderson. “And because it’s such an intimate room designed to be very dead back up in the rear, Dan often just lifts the sound a little bit and adds a bit of reverb.”

As for what Lualdi thinks of the CL3, “It doesn’t have that inherent digital sound to the preamps. It’s not an LS9; it sounds amazing compared to that platform.”

PROJECTING THE RIGHT IMAGE

The main projector in the bio box is a 1080P three-chip DLP Panasonic PTDW 10k, which had been the projector in the main cinema until it got upgraded to a 4K-capable Barco machine.

“We’re running the Panasonic with all four lamps at the moment because we want to be able to have a fair amount of light in the room and

still get an image on screen,” said Anderson.

The screen is now a 16:9 Electricinema XL motorised screen. At 250 inches, it takes up a large part of the wall, but it’s perforated to let sound travel through the screen from the d&b system behind.

Serving the footage to the projection system is a Digitall d-Cine X-21 media store, a server built in Melbourne that has eliminated the need for presenters to mess around with multiple formats day-to-day. “It’ll take MP4, MPEG2, all that sort of material at high bit rates,” says Anderson.

There are government regulations about having access to networks in public places that the crew has to abide by. So, if they want to add something new to the server from the archive, it’s a manual process of uploading it via USB sticks.

UNDER CONTROL

The room is comprehensively controlled by a Crestron control system. A touchscreen control unit sits in the Lectrum lectern, and a Windows tablet lets presenters roam around the room while running their presentation through a touch version of dCine. The server has an interface to the lighting system, so when a presenter triggers a clip, the lighting dims, and when the clip finishes, the lighting automatically returns. “Wizard was just phenomenal,” said Anderson. “The programming of the Crestron unit is absolutely amazing. You can control basically every detail of the room just from the control surface.”

All the vision passes through a packed Crestron DM-MD32x32 digital media switcher, including a Wolf Vision Desktop Visualiser for showing off props and documents on the big screen. There’s also AJA HDMI to SDI converters, and a WellAV SD/HD streaming encoder allowing the staff full control over where they want vision to go and in what format.

Events can be broadcast live using the three remote-controllable Panasonic PTZ cameras installed in the venue and a Panasonic video switcher that can switch the live video as well as any feed from the Crestron media switcher.

For the moment, the NFSA uses the theatrette to hold staff meetings, using Cisco’s C90 video-conferencing codec to beam vision from the three cameras to the NSFA’s other sites in Sydney, Melbourne and their storage facility in Mitchell. But there are big plans in the works for turning the theatrette into the NSFA’s link to the outside world.

“We plan to run educational programs out to schools from here,” said Anderson. “There’ll be somebody in the bio box operating the vision switcher, a presenter doing their presentation and a group in the room. We can go out to three

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Once a dusty lecture theatre bio box, the control room is now well equipped for a wide range of presentations that include live performances, screenings, lectures and web-streamed conferences.

schools at a time, or hire a bridge and go out to as many as the bridge will sustain.”

As well as the PTZ cameras, other NFSA staffers can bring in one of the many video cameras on hand. On the end of the chain is a four-channel Editshare Geevs HDP server that can record synced high-resolution video for later editing, and importantly, archiving any significant shows.

LED’ING THE WAY

The devil is in the details, says Anderson. You can’t have a great projection on a massive screen, with immersive sound, and then have emergency lights and flashing LED indicators in your eyes. He has nothing against LEDs, just in the right place at the right time. In fact, the install is one of the first fully LED theatres in the country. “There’s a general desire to save power throughout the Commonwealth agencies,” said Anderson. “We thought we should do a theatrical rig in the same manner. The cost to have a winch system for the lighting rig is saved by the fact we only have to access the lights once every 10,000 hours to address failures, which will be years and years away. As opposed to a normal theatrical rig, where you’d be up there every week regelling and changing lamps.”

The original heritage architectural fixtures also had their internals replaced with LED sources, all dimmable to zero. All the lighting, including both the house light and the stage fixtures, are controlled by the ETC Smartfade ML lighting console via a Jands DD8 DMX512 distro while house lighting is via ETC’s Paradigm Architectural control system. There are 4 x Vari-lite VLX Wash moving heads, 14 x ETC RGB Source Fours, 10 x ETC Desire D40 RGB

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washes, and four ETC Selador LE Lustr LED bars washing the walls.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Anderson had only been at the NFSA three years when he undertook the heavy-lifting task of renovating the main cinema and writing the brief for the theatrette. Anderson: “It lay around for a number of years while the old system just got worse and worse. And I just kept saying, ‘let’s bite the bullet and build this place.’ The most successful program we run all year is the schools education program and so it deserved a venue which matched the number of people we presented to.

“It certainly didn’t before this. The projector was only a 1500 ANSI lumen device that you couldn’t run with any kind of light on in the room – otherwise there would be no contrast. We were running out of DVD players with a VGA output to feed the projector; the sound system had been in here for many, many years; the screen was old and yellowed; and the flat floor didn’t work for anybody or anything – it was just a mess, the whole place.”

It’s a dream come true for Anderson. After pressing for so long, he finally got all the tech he was after, resulting in a multi-functional space that has expanded the capabilities of the NFSA dramatically. There would be one addition he’d love to have though. While he’s happy with the quality of the Panasonic projector, he’d love to have a 2K DCI digital cinema projector alongside it to allow the NFSA to run the theatrette as a secondary cinema and have a films run for longer than the current single screen program allows.

Unfortunately, “you can’t run DCI-packaged films on a video projector,” said Anderson. “It’s a proprietary system for exhibition of film. So it locks you out of anything other than that.”

With the immediate change in acoustic, the comfortable seating, the upgrade to the visuals and sound, the flexibility of sources, and the

ability to draw in new shows, the theatrette renovation is undoubtedly a success. But the real test is when it comes to the bread-and-butter educational presentations. For presenters like Jeremy, who had an uphill battle with a room full of kids before the renovation, he says the game’s been changed dramatically. No more futzing around with discs not loading and dodgy remotes, or a screen the kids could barely see.

“It’s a totally different experience conducting a presentation,” he said. “The kids are more engaged because they don’t have the distraction of looking at the kid in front of them and poking them in the back of the head. And they’re seeing the entire presentation, in hi-def, and hearing it in fabulous quality. They actually pay attention to you.”  MORE INFORMATION Systems Integrator: Wizard Projects (now a subsidiary of Videopro) – videopro.com.au Electroacoustics: Acoustic Studio – acousticstudio.com.au Yamaha: au.yamaha.com National Audio Systems (d&b audiotechnik): nationalaudio.com.au Madison Technologies (cabling): madisontech.com.au Crestron: crestron.com Digitall (dCine): digitall.net.au Jands (ETC, LED lighting, ClearCom): jands.com.au Panasonic: panasonic.com Cisco (videoconferencing): cisco.com Lectrum: (lectern): lectrum.com.au Sennheiser: (wireless mics): en-au.sennheiser.com Amber Technology (DPA): ambertech.com.au Technical Audio Group (Audio-Technica): tag.com.au

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No Time For Reflection Getting a new PA for St Andrew’s Cathedral in an Almighty hurry.

Text:/ Andy Ciddor Images:/ Courtesy of Technical Audio Group

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Even if liturgical audio isn’t your primary area of interest, if you’ve been reading this magazine for long, you’re probably familiar with the exceedingly-problematic task of achieving high-intelligibility for sound reinforcement in places of mass worship.

Many places of worship and prayer, whether temples, mosques, cathedrals, synagogues or neighbourhood churches, use soaring architecture to instil a sense of grandeur, wonder and even humility into visitors and most are constructed from impressive materials as part of the glory and wonder. The acoustics of large, uninterrupted spaces surfaced with masonry, tiles, glass or timber are characterised by strong reflections and very long reverberation times. If the geometry of the space includes parallel surfaces or a dome, then the number of additional reflections is manifold and complex.

Early attempts at reinforcing the source of the voices and instruments in places of worship and prayer simply involved making the original sound louder, which of course makes all the reflections louder too, and in the process actually reduces the intelligibility. More sophisticated contemporary approaches to reinforcement have involved using more loudspeakers, each covering only part of the listening area and each time-aligned to the original source. While this improves intelligibility, there are still issues with reverberation from the structure and the whole process collapses in a heap if there are multiple sound sources such as the prayer leader and a choir, or if the locations of the prayer leaders change during the service.

As more loudspeakers are progressively added to such a system to solve the acoustic issues, the complexity of the signal processing for each of the loudspeaker feeds becomes impracticable.

As with so many reinforcement problems, the perfect acoustic solution would be to hand every member of the congregation a pair of decentquality headphones fed by an appropriatelydelayed signal with artificial reverb added to match the building’s acoustic.

St Andrew’s Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican diocese of Sydney, is typical of a large venue for worship. Its imposing Perpendicular Gothic style, with stone walls and pillars, soaring ceilings and impressive stained glass windows, reflect the Church’s desire to inspire wonder and awe in the congregation, and coupled with the classical floor plan in the shape of a crucifix, provides a cornucopia of parallel reflective surfaces to ensure that any natural sound is distorted into unintelligibility. St Andrew’s is also a little unusual in that services are conducted from the intersection of the cross, with congregants located behind the altar and pulpit, in addition to the usual positions at the front and to the sides.

In the decades since the development of sound amplification, the acoustics of St Andrews Cathedral had steadfastly resisted the many

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attempts to provide it with good, clear sound.

When Ross Cobb took up the position of Director of Music at the Cathedral in 2007 he listened to the sound in the building and recommended that with the sound reinforcement technologies currently available it was time to seek a working solution.

A number of proposals were sought by Cobb together with Canon Chris Allan and tenders were submitted to a contract approval committee set up by the Diocese. However as the quotes received proved to be beyond both the available budget and foreseeable financial resources of St Andrew’s, they were reluctantly shelved.

ENTER: PRINCE OF PEACE

Then, in 2014 the fairy-tale family, Princes William and George and the Duchess of Cambridge, came to visit Australia. Just a couple of weeks before their visit it was decided that it would be appropriate to celebrate the rising of Christ on Easter Sunday at the major cathedral of their family’s church in Sydney – St Andrews.

This provided the impetus for an intensive burst of fundraising in the diocese and the engagement of a team led by Wizard Projects to install the new PA system that had previously been proposed and indefinitely postponed. There was however one fairly stringent condition on the contract. The project which had originally been quoted as requiring three months for design, construction, installation, commissioning and tuning, had to be completed in the 14 days then remaining between signing the contract and their Royal Highnesses arriving for the Easter Sunday service. Considering the installation was also required to take place around the existing operations of a busy cathedral, that’s an almighty hurry. Wizard Projects principal Paul van der Ent was on the phone arranging to get a team on site to measure up for custom hanging brackets within minutes of the contract being signed.

IN THE ZONE: ACOUSTIC CONCEPT

The proposal put to St Andrew’s by the partnership between Wizard Projects, Technical Audio Group and acoustic engineers Glenn Leembruggen of Acoustic Directions and David Gilfillan of Gilfillan Soundwork was very similar in concept to the headphones idea. However their solution was realised by dividing the cathedral into more than 100 separate acoustic spaces, each covered by tightly-focussed beamsteerable line array cabinets. Each zone is driven by a custom-processed feed that includes time alignment, equalisation and level adjustment to adjust for the locations of the source and the listening zone. All acoustic energy from the system is directed at the congregation to avoid exciting the multiplicity of reflective surfaces of the building.

Whilst straight-forward in concept, the painstakingly-detailed electroacoustic analysis of

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the space and system design, would now have to be foregone and replaced by a process that would rely much more on Leembruggen and Gilfillan’s intuition derived from their experience on previous projects with similar acoustic problems and the configurability of the loudspeaker cabinets and the signal processing system once the cabinets were in place.

CONJURING THE SYSTEM

The solution installed by Wizard Projects (now a subsidiary of Videopro) in conjunction with supplier Technical Audio Group consists of 140 Martin Audio OmniLine beam-steerable line array cabinets deployed in both electronically active and passive beam-steerable modes, hung from custom-fabricated brackets in 22 locations.

The main western nave arrays comprise two banks of 12 active OmniLine cabinets with a further two banks of 10 active arrays for the outer north west pews. The Eastern nave comprises two banks of eight active elements with a further four positions, each of six active OmniLine cabinets, for the centre of the transept.

The bottom end is delivered from six floormounted Martin Audio AQ212 high-powered double 12-inch direct-radiating sub bass cabinets

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in 'end-fire' configuration. The front-to-back ratio of over 18dB on these cabinets also allows the bass end of the sound to be directed at the congregation and kept away from reflecting surfaces. Some existing pews were redesigned to camouflage the presence of the subs, whilst retaining the critical spacing and acoustic airflow required for an end-fired system.

The speaker cabinets are driven by 60 channels of 200W-per-channel QSC Audio power amplifiers running under the management of QSC Audio’s Q-SYS Core 500i signal processing, distribution and speaker management system.

The Q-SYS package was also used for the design and modelling of the overall system and the preliminary specification of the FIR (finite impulse response) filters that were applied to all channels. The Q-SYS controller is also used to reconfigure the entire sound system when the clergy move from conducting the service at the central altar to delivering a sermon from the pulpit. When a pressure mat in the pulpit detects the weight of a person, the gain, time alignment and even some beam steering is realigned for the change in location of the sound source.

Q-SYS is also used to monitor the outputs of all channels and reports in real time on any

Above: The detailed treatment of every part of the cathedral necessitated 22 hanging points for the small array clusters.

Below: All system components were obsessively tested before delivery to the site to avoid any nasty surprises during tuning.

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FEATURE

amplifier or loudspeaker anomalies that would impact on the performance of the systems. So far, since the system was handed over to the Cathedral, it’s had no anomalies to report.

INPUT

Input control is handled by an Allen & Heath Qu-16 mixer with a digital stage box available for multiple inputs for musical performances.

The Qu-16 provides more than sufficient digital signal processing for all of the equalisation and effects required for the cathedral’s applications, together with automation memory for a wide range of presets configured for different uses of the building. Extensive use has been made of the console's remote automation via iPad to allow the vast majority of applications to be selected remotely, then fine-tuned for the occasion. A custom script was developed to integrate remote operation of the Q-SYS and Qu-16 systems via the iPad's GUI. The notionally-impossible task of bringing off this project was placed in the hands of Michael Sheldrick, senior engineer at Wizard Projects, who not only managed to get the system installed around the demands of the working cathedral, by running crews right through the night to install brackets, hang speaker arrays and run cabling in ways that were sympathetic to the aesthetic of

the building, but he managed to do so ahead of the impossible schedule. On Good Friday he was able to hand the system over to Leembruggen and Gilfillan, giving them additional time to tune the system.

When Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge arrived at the cathedral for the Easter Sunday service, what they heard was a sound system that is widely-acknowledged to be amongst the best around. The result has exceeded Ross Cobb’s expectations, indeed everyone that hears it comments that it sounds more like a quality hi-fi system than a church PA. The truth is that with an SPL variation of just +/- 1.5dB across the entire congregation, it’s possibly quite a bit better!  MORE INFORMATION Systems Integrator: Wizard Projects (now Videopro) – videopro.com.au Electroacoustics: Acoustic Direction – acousticdirections.com Gilfillan Soundwork – gilfillansoundwork.com.au Technical Audio Group (TAG): tag.com.au Martin Audio: martin-audio.com QSC Audio: qsc.com Allen & Heath: www.allen-heath.com

Left: Console-operators' view of the cathedral. Right: When a pressure mat in the pulpit detects the weight of a person, the gain, time alignment and even some beam steering is realigned to avoid feedback through the live pulpit mic.

EQUIPMENT LIST 140 x Martin Audio Omniline ultra compact line array 6 x Martin Audio AQ series 212 dual 12-inch sub bass cabinets 16 x QSC Audio CX254 4 channel amplifiers 1 x QSC SYS Core 500i Integrated processing system 4 x QSC Audio Q-SYS I/O frames 16 x QSC Audio data port cards 8 x QSC Audio mic/line and output cards 6 x QSC Audio AD 52 series ceiling speakers 1 x Cisco SR2024 24-port Ethernet switch 1 x Allen & Heath Qu-16 Digital mixing console 1 x Allen & Heath AR2412 Digital stage box 1 x Packedge W6 Wi-fi access point 5 x Audio Technica 3000 series radio mic systems 3 x Audio Technica 857QL Lecturn mic 1 x Kit - Audio Technica Artist Elite vocal & instrument mics.

1 x APC 2.20kVA SmartUPS 1 x PowerWise three phase power distribution unit

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TUTORIAL REVIEW

Not So Easily LED Rumours of the death of incandescent light sources could be greatly exaggerated.

Text:/ Paul Collison

I keep hearing that the incandescent light source is dead – a light source that’s shuffled off this mortal coiled-coil. But I wonder if perhaps we are being actually being let down by our lighting manufacturers.

Is LED technology really that close to replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs that we can walk away from an attachment we’ve had with hot glowing things since man first stumbled across fire? An emotional connection we’ve had since well before the invention of the wheel, before even sliced bread?

Is it concerning that our manufacturers are abandoning incandescent sources in favour or LED technology, or is it yet another case of the unstoppable march of Technology. As the compact disc was to the vinyl microgroove record, will we slowly see the quality of our ‘tools’ degraded in the name of progress?

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Humanity’s affection for fire is deeply embedded in our DNA. Most people can spend hours staring into a fire or looking at a candle in some sort of mesmerised state. The very essence of our connection to incandescent light sources arises from those same feelings, albeit that an electrically-heated tungsten wire is lot more stable and controllable than a naked flame. We are drawn to it like the animals that we are.

I’ve never seen someone enamoured by the sensation of an LED source. Sure people get excited at the energy efficiency, technology and possibilities that LEDs present, but we don’t have that built-in resonance a simple 60W lamp can evoke. Like watching a fire, one can watch an incandescent lamp heat up and emit light with wonder. The characteristics the globe takes on as the filament heats and cools bring a similar complexity, dynamic flow and rich range of spectral colours that we see in fire. That sort of visual journey just doesn’t exist with an LED source. At least not at anything approaching a practical cost, and even then, not without some outboard processing.

KELVINS AIN’T KELVINS

The big problem is that LED source manufacturers are so caught up in getting an LED source to look convincingly like a tungsten source at 2800 to 3200K they’ve overlooked that many of us

actually use the variations of colour along the tungsten dimming curve as part of the palette for our art. Not just in shows or on camera either, but in our lounge rooms and offices. My hallway has expensive LED downlights that dim: great.

However, when they dim, I don’t get that same warmth I have in my lounge room when those venerable incandescent globes are dimmed. Sure, my hall is darker when I dim it, but the mood barely shifts. Unless I want to go to the effort of colour mixing RGBAW LEDs in my hall to simulate that colour (but even then, not the colour rendering), I’m not going to recreate that feel. Certainly not in an efficient way that doesn’t make me look like the lighting geek that I may be.

So, are we just romanticising the incandescent sources, or is there some technical logic behind the Don’t Make Me Stop Using Incandescent Light movement? Let’s begin with the colour spectrum.

An incandescent lamp by its very nature as a hot glowing object emits the full visible colour spectrum in varying amounts, which is what the colour temperature scale measures. By definition, an incandescent source has a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of 100 because it can reflect off (render) every colour present in an object it is illuminating.

During a fade up or down of a tungsten source, while the relative mix of the spectral colours may vary (colour temperature shift), the whole visible spectrum is still being emitted.

Every non-incandescent type of light source such as fluorescents, metal halides, and especially LEDs, produce their light by some physical principle other than simply heating something up, and consequently don’t produce the entire colour spectrum in ‘natural’ proportions. Most of these sources are substantially more efficient at producing light than incandescence due to heating, but to make them useful for tasks such as viewing coloured objects like people, artworks, full-colour images, and food, we have to resort to various tricks to approximate the light that our brains have evolved to see. The CRI of a light source is an attempt to measure how well those tricks work.

Any LED, even one with a relatively-good CRI, may have obvious spikes and troughs in its output spectrum. Whilst some of these shortcomings may not be very noticeable to the human eye because our brain compensates for them, they are often quite obvious on camera

where the film or the sensor chip can’t be as easily fooled. To make matters worse, LEDs often vary in colour output between manufacturing batches, even on the same model of light, depending on the batch they were sourced from and when they were purchased.

NEVER MIND THE EMOTIONS: FEEL THE TECH

Then there are the technical aspects of LED application. Take for example a community theatre group. Perhaps they have 16 luminaires to play with – a mixture of incandescent fresnels and profiles. If the local council gives them a grant to buy six new high-efficiency fixtures using a source such as LED (that has a constant colour temperature, rather than the varying colour of an incandescent lamp on a dimmer), will those new sources sit equally among the others? It’s likely they will be so different that those new fixtures will

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TUTORIAL REVIEW

always need to perform exclusive duties so they don’t stand out as being different types of lights.

Let’s shift perspective and look at a video production studio. Is it possible to blend new light sources that not only have a different control system (internal dimming control as opposed to traditional external dimmer control) but also have drastically different colour temperatures across the dimming spectrum? Well, in a pinch, sure they can.

However, the question arises, does your average studio want to spend hours a week shuffling different sources around the grid to perform the same jobs? Do they want to sacrifice the ability to re-purpose a light on a whim? Not really.

RIGHT THERE ON MY TV

So in order for a television studio to move to predominantly LED-based sources, a complete swap out of almost the entire fixture stock (or at

the very least a high percentage), and a complete infrastructure change needs to be implemented.

Dimming will need to be replaced by direct power sources, or at the very least switchable line/dimmed modules. More data distribution infrastructure needs to be installed to send control data directly to the fixtures rather than a dimmer room. Then of course there is the training and experimentation that needs to take place in order to make a complete transition to new sources.

That’s a lighting change even more fundamental than the mandatory conversion from monochrome to colour in the early ’70s, when the changeover mostly involved swapping older tungsten lamps for their more modern tungsten halogen equivalents. Can anyone in the broadcast world see that kind of change happening voluntarily any time soon? In Australia, we can’t even manage to broadcast in HD properly, so how on earth can we make a fundamental change to our studios like that?

I asked Andrew Veitch, head of lighting for the Nine Network in Sydney, what he thought about a slow conversion to LED sources in his studios. His response: “It’s not going to happen.

There is too much infrastructure to change for a slow transition. It would need to be a 100 per cent conversion, and even then, there are still shortfalls in fixture variety with LED sources to completely fit out a multipurpose studio.”

Andrew then pointed out, “If it was a small news studio or current affairs type studio then we could change over to that pretty easily. The London Olympic studio lit by Stuart Anderson was completely illuminated by LED sources, but that studio was small and the scope of work was limited.” I then asked him what he would do if he was building a brand-new multipurpose studio today. “I think you’d need to build it with the infrastructure to cope with LED sources,” he replied. “But, ultimately, if it was a multipurpose studio, it would have to work as a tungstenbased studio.”

FIXING A HOLE

Of course LED has a major place in our inventories. The mixing of LED, tungsten and discharge lamp sources has kept us entertained for many years and will for many more. The differences in the sources serve the variety of our

stocks well. However, there is a gaping hole in our inventory becoming alarmingly bigger. That of the moving head incandescent source profile.

To my knowledge, the ETC Source Four Revolution is the only profile still on the market with this source, and it’s now over 10 years old.

While it was never an amazing fixture, it does a job that seldom could be done by another fixture.

I am amazed there is not a simple incandescentbased profile at an affordable price that can move and zoom and comes with shaping shutters. I can think of dozens of applications for such a light: schools, museums, retail, houses of worship, let alone theatres big and small.

How is it such a challenge to manufacture something like this? How is it that we’ve been asking manufacturers for something like this for 10 years or more, yet there is still nothing available? How could Vari-Lite get it so wrong with their incandescent moving head profile, the VL1000TI , and never try and improve on it? Why did Martin shelve its TP-1 project (the profile version of its TW-1 tungsten wash light) and why, oh why, have second-tier manufactures not leapt in to fill this void?

I have personally spoken to almost every major manufacturer of automated fixtures on the planet and discovered they have all shelved any plans to market a tungsten profile. Instead they are focusing on LED-based sources that will only emit light in the colour temperature range of 2800 to 3200K or higher. None are interested in recreating the colour temperature curve of a traditional tungsten lamp. Is that a concern? Is history repeating itself when consumers of audio blithely accepted the dreaded MP3, sacrificing quality for convenience?

We are all well aware of the benefits of LED: cooler fixtures, lower power consumption and far less maintenance. LEDs are firmly established in our art form and will be so for a long time to come. The question is: are we able to afford, ready to implement, willing, and most of all able to make that leap to the exclusive use of LED light sources without sacrificing quality? 

MORE INFORMATION The InfoComm tutorial on page 49 of this issue provides an introduction to some of the concepts of colour temperature.

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REVIEW

Technology Core – HDi Mobi Elite Plus trolley system Text:/ Ben Hatcher

Technology Core has taken the popular MoCoW (a term keyed by the folks at Queensland University of Technology meaning Mobile Computer on Wheels) and spruced it up with height and tilt adjustment mechanisms and a touch interactive LCD. The results are worthy of a closer look.

MOBILITY & FLEXIBILITY

The the purposes of this review I’m testing the Mobi Elite Plus with a 55-inch touchscreen that has the ability to be height adjusted up to 1.71m (top of screen) and will also tilt to any angle (all the way to a flat ‘tabletop’) along that journey.

The mechanics behind the up and down motion as well as the tilt mechanism are very smooth and the controls are well-positioned for both safety and usability. Although there is only the one button that switches between the height and tilt adjustment and up and down, arrow buttons take care of the execution. It’s very easy to work out how to operate. The trolley is built to a high standard and is robust. It is not overly-light, but with the feature set, this is understandable.

However, it would probably be best for those of slight build to have someone help them move the unit around.

There is also a base model, the Mobi, that has manual height adjustment while the Mobi Elite model has powered height adjustment and tilts when the screen gets to the lowest position.

There is also the option of having a larger 65inch LCD screen.

For the purposes of testing, a Lenovo tiny M93P PC running the Windows 7 OS was connected up to the screen via USB. The setup was a simple plug and play affair. According to Technology Core the touch interaction will also work on Mac OS as well as Linux operating systems.

TOUCH INTERACTIVITY

Large LCD touchscreens are nothing new and a lot of the manufacturers are using an overlay to enable touch interaction. Technology Core has chosen to use an infrared (IR) technology to accommodate touch. A frame sits embedded just in front of the LCD panel and has light emitting diodes (LEDs) on one side and light detectors on the opposite side. This essentially

creates an optical grid across the screen and when an object (finger, stylus etc) touches the screen it interrupts the light beam. This is how the unit detects the position of a touch. The main advantage is that the response is very accurate but the detection may be susceptible to interruption by other objects, even dust, and may also be confused by the presence of high-frequency flickering light sources such as fluorescents, metal halides and LEDs. Overall the idea of eliminating the need for an overlay gives a certain amount of familiarity to the unit. A majority of people have touchscreen phones or tablets and the IR touchscreen coupled with the tilt feature gives the feel of a 55-inch iPad. I’ll talk more about this later.

SELLING POINT – A 'SMARTBOARD'… LITERALLY

For as long as I can remember, around AV departments the topic of smartboards (think Panasonic’s Panaboard) constantly rears its head.

The conversation with stakeholders usually goes something like this.

Stakeholder: We would like to get a smartboard.

AV professional: Can I ask why?

Stakeholder: Because we saw someone from another institution had one and we want one too.

This is obviously not a particularly convincing

argument for purchasing a piece of technology.

When we dig a little deeper the main reason clients want a smartboard is for use as a whiteboard so that they can brainstorm ideas and then print the scribing off to distribute. Recently our team at the University of Adelaide has had a surprising number of these requests come through and we are pointing them in the direction of the Mobi Elite Plus unit. Users can use the unit as a whiteboard using the WizTeach software as well as annotate over the top of Microsoft documents.

WIZTEACH : STRANGE NAME, GOOD PRODUCT

As technology professionals I think that we can sometimes get caught up in feature sets and ‘cool stuff’. It’s all well and good having a product that will allow you to annotate over a document; connect up to a video conference that allows participants to dial in from all over the world and do live annotations as well; have all the people in the room connect up with their tablets and embed photos into the presentation for further elaboration (I could go on); but in reality, most of the time the simplest solution is not only the best but the one that will actually get used.

A WizTeach license comes with the purchase of any of the trolley systems that Technology Core offers. It allows users to do a simple whiteboard

REVIEW

session and save the scribing as a JPEG image.

If you would like to annotate over the top of an MS Office document (Work, Excel, PowerPoint) you can do this as well. The good thing is that the annotations can be saved embedded as part of the document. There’s nothing worse than having to take a photo of all the scribbles on a doc with your phone and then emailing it to yourself to put back into a PowerPoint slide. While this product may actually be aimed at the K-12 education environment, its simplicity is a big attraction.

A MASSIVE WORKSTATION

As ridiculous as it may seem (see the US Fox network’s newsroom), these screens could potentially be used as a presentation device.

We have looked at using an HDMI distribution amplifier to split the video and audio signal from the PC off to the local trolley touchscreen monitor with the second output going into an AV system for distribution. On testing, the results gave the presentation a certain wow factor but above this it actually felt rather intuitive. There is some work required to get everything looking neat and tidy sitting on the trolley system. We have Windows 7 installed on the Lenovo tiny PC due to some University standard operating environment issues, but I think there would be a great benefit in (dare I say it…) using Windows 8 [Wash your mouth out – Ed]. The tilt at any height feature makes the experience both comfortable and intuitive.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Personally I am very impressed with the Mobi Elite Plus unit. It definitely caters for a majority of the requirements that our users have with regard to whiteboarding and annotation on documents. I was really surprised at the price point with the 55-inch unit coming in at just over AU$6000 and the 65-inch at just over AU$7000.

When compared with a Panaboard or equivalent that comes in at around AU$2000–$2500 I think the extra money is more than justified.

Obviously you need to buy a PC to attach to the unit and a wireless keyboard with touchpad is also handy for initial log in. I think one thing that would greatly enhance the overall experience would be to have a slot-in PC similar to the NEC OPS. This would make the unit extremely slick. If your clients are considering a trolley system for collaboration, presentation and brainstorming Technology Core’s product line deserves your consideration. 

MORE INFO Technology Core: www.technologycore.com.au or +61 3 9459 6900

NEWS

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REVIEW

Epson EB-1985WU Multimedia Projector Text:/ Stephen Dawson

Epson has targeted its latest set of ‘mid-range’ projectors, the 1900 series, at the corporate and classroom markets, arguing that these projectors remain more cost efficient than flat panel displays in those environments.

There are four projectors in the range. Here we look at the top of the line model, which boasts WUXGA resolution, WiFi connectivity and multisource display.

DESCRIPTION

As with almost all Epson projectors, it employs a 3 LCD panel light engine. A 250W lamp provides the light, and a lens with a 1.6:1 zoom delivers the image to the screen.

Focus and zoom are both manually operated, with the controls recessed into the body so they should resist being knocked askew. There is no lens shift function.

The projector throws the bulk of the picture above the axis of the lens. For a 2.5m (100-inch) 16:10 screen the picture will extend below the axis by only 120mm. The zoom range allows the projector to be placed between 2.96m and 4.91m to deliver an image of that size.

It’s a bright picture, rated at 4,800 ANSI lumens at the normal output level. A lower output Eco level is also available.

Of course the projector can be mounted upside-down on a ceiling mount or behind a rear projection screen.

It has a small speaker built in to the side, which might prove an occasional convenience.

CONNECTIONS

Connectivity is where this projector is particularly strong. There are two HDMI inputs – one supports the Mobile High-definition Link standard, by which certain Android devices can be powered and deliver their video in HD to the projector. MHL is a slippery ‘standard’, so you shouldn’t be confident that any particular MHL compatible device will necessarily work. My LG phone did. My Samsung tablet didn’t. You will also need an MHL cable, which are rare.

There’s a composite video input and two D-SUB15 computer inputs, with analogue audio inputs for all three.

All that’s pretty standard. Where the projector stands out is in its network and USB connectivity.

It has an Ethernet port, and WiFi (via an included

dongle) and both USB-A and USB-B sockets.

Content can be fed to the projector using all of these. With WiFi you can use WiDi or Miracast to mirror computer or Android device screens to the projector.

INSTALLATION

I installed the unit on an adjustable ceiling mount so no tilt was required. The zoom and focus controls worked smoothly, and screen patterns are available to help you focus. But there’s an unusual focus help system as well. You press a button and some test patterns are rapidly displayed, finishing off with one which instructs you to adjust the focus control until two yellow circles coincide. The projector has a small camera built in to assess the sharpness of the image. This system was flaky and unreliable until I turned off the room lights. Then it worked well.

The focus was extremely sharp and the colour alignment of the three panels was as perfect as any projector I’ve seen.

The projector has auto-keystone options, and a more sophisticated ‘Screen Fit’ option, which makes the picture square even if the projector is at an angle. These functions also use the builtin camera, but they only work if the projector is front, desktop mounted, not ceiling mounted.

To use the network features you can just wire up the projector to the Ethernet, or you can plug in the supplied USB dongle. This doesn’t go into the rear panel USB-A socket, but an additional one hidden under the filter’s cover. It’s best to install this before you mount the projector because you have to remove a locking lug, which

is very difficult to get back into place if the projector is upside down on a ceiling mount.

A ‘Warning – Password Protected’ sticker is provided. This should be applied in a prominent position on the projector. It won’t guarantee that your projector will never be stolen, but it ought to reduce the odds.

There is extremely extensive documentation for all features, including the multiple network ones, provided on one of the two CDs. These are spread across ten different PDF files, only a few of which have names that make it clear what they contain, making the learning curve steeper than it need be.

The network connectivity includes web control features, so you can exercise complete control over the projector from a network computer. It also has a web based ‘Remote’, a small interface that runs in a separate browser window.

IMAGE QUALITY

The image produced by the projector was wonderfully bold and bright. I used it on an 83-inch screen under full room lights for most of the time, and not once was there the slightest problem with seeing subtle detail from projected computer screens.

Used in a home theatre context it was a mixed bag. Even in eco mode the black levels were a little too bright with the room lights off. This wasn’t noticeable when the image was mostly bright, but in darker scenes there was a touch too much glow. That was with the dynamic iris switched on (this darkens the overall brightness according to its assessment of the picture). There

047

REVIEW

Top: A 1920 x 1200 image via the USB input has some phantom scaling applied.

Above: The same image via the Ethernet input is pixel aligned as expected.

was a quiet, but still audible, chatter from the iris during operation.

One other problem appeared only occasionally: where poor cinematography resulted in picture judder (where during camera pans the image jumps visibly from frame to frame, rather than sliding smoothly), this was revealed in all its ugliness by this projector, suggesting a fast switching speed for the LCD panels. There is no motion smoothing processor in the projector.

That aside, the picture was very attractive, with good scaling up from SD resolution and excellent sharp results with full HD content. The projector even did a good job on progressive scan conversion of 576i50 and 1080i50 content, thanks to the Faroudja DCDi processor.

NETWORK PICTURES

There are several ways of feeding material to the projector via the network.

Screen Mirroring is for Android portable devices or WiDi-capable Windows computers.

My Toshiba notebook, running Windows 8.1, only rarely works with WiDi (so much grief from a $1,200 notebook!) This projector proved no exception: the notebook found it but would not connect. A Samsung tablet, though, mirrored its screen to the projector with the whole connection process taking only a few seconds. Likewise for an LG Optimus G phone.

The other connection methods require installing included software on your computer – both Windows and Macs are supported.

Having installed the software, I could not get the Toshiba to find the direct WiFi connection to the projector at all. Again I blame the computer, or perhaps the wonderfully rich stew of 2.4GHz band electromagnetic radiation produced by all the devices in my office.

However going via the WiFi network worked rather well. The Epson software on the computer couldn’t find the projector using the Automatic method, but going Manual produced a good link. Manual meant typing in the IP address of the projector, and since the projector helpfully

displayed this on the screen, that was easy.

A few seconds later my notebook’s display was mirrored on the projection screen, clearly if not with quite the snap and sharpness that one normally expects. The reason for that was that the image was being delivered at the notebook’s display resolution: 1366 by 768 pixels, and scaled by the projector. That it did well, so the picture was still quite clear.

But I soon discovered that Windows 8.1 was happy to treat this network monitor as a regular one, so I could set it as an ‘Extended’ display, or have it operating alone. Either way its resolution could go to the full 1920 by 1200 pixels, resulting in a sharp, perfectly defined computer image.

Later when I switched off the projector connection, the desktop contents failed to return to my notebook. It took quite a bit of fiddling to get its display back. The moral of the story: practice first, and make sure that you return to displaying only on your notebook’s screen before you switch off the projector connection.

For the most part the projected computer screen was quite responsive, with a lag I’d estimate at between a quarter and a half a second. Sometimes it would slow down to a full second. The responsiveness was similar with Screen Mirroring from an Android tablet.

A simple collaboration application allows up to four computers to share the screen via the network, with one acting as moderator, controlling who’s allowed to do what. Each person can show their PC’s screen on their section of the screen.

This was very clever stuff and worked nicely with two PCs. I could not get the Multi PC software (the most recent version 1.21) to produce my Mac’s screen, though. Everything appeared to work, but there was only a black area where its display should have appeared, even though the Mac worked fine with the standard network screen display.

USB

Your Mac or Windows computer can connect to the projector via USB. Once again, this worked.

Once again, you can treat the display provided as an additional display using your computer’s control facilities. Once again, it looked good, if a bit chunky, at the notebook computer’s resolution. However when I set it to 1920 by 1200 the clarity available from a network or HDMI connection was not provided, as though the image was being imperfectly mapped onto the display.

You can also plug in USB memory and display JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG stills, ‘Scenarios’, which are slides converted from Power Point by software provided with the projector, PDF and AVI movies (with Motion JPEG content, ADPCM or PCM audio only, up to 720p resolution). In many cases, with a bit of preparation you could skip the computer altogether.

PRACTICALITIES

The projector is switched off by two presses of the power key. During the time I ran it, including on some quite warm days, the fan switched off within a second, rather than running for a while afterwards. Startup time was about 26 seconds to first produce an image (from HDMI input), but it continued to brighten for another minute or so after that.

The projector can show an on-screen pointer.

This is an image overlay, not a laser pointer, and it’s controlled by the arrow keys. If you really want to point at the screen you’ll probably want a laser pointer.

The unit is rated to consume 411 watts during operation. Standby power consumption is 3.5 watts with the network functions idling but available or 0.34 watts with them off. A replacement lamp is priced at $170. The rated lamp life is 3000 hours in normal mode, 4000 hours in low output mode. Assuming electricity costs 20 cents/kWh, this projector would cost 13.9 cents per hour running in normal mode, of which less than six cents is lamp cost.

CONCLUSION

The Epson EB-1985WU is a very well featured high-resolution multimedia projector that works well in installations, yet is also small and light enough for trolley use. It would fit especially well environments where the network connectivity would be useful.  SPECIFICATIONS Display technology: Three 19.3mm LCD panels, 1,920 x 1,200 pixel (WUXGA) resolution.

Lamp: 250 watts UHE. Lamp life: 3000/4000 hours (Normal/Eco mode) Brightness: 4800 ANSI lumens Contrast ratio: 10,000:1 Inputs: 2 x HDMI (1 with MHL), 1 x composite video, 2 x RGBHV (D-SUB15), 3 x stereo audio (1 x RCA, 2 x 3.5mm), 1 x USB-A, 1 x USB-B, Ethernet, WiFi. Outputs: 1 x RGBHV (D-SUB15), 1 x stereo audio (3.5mm) Remote control: 1 x RS-232C Dimensions (w x h x d): 377mm x 110mm x 291mm Weight: 4.6kg

MORE INFO Recommended Retail Price: AU$2399 (inc GST) Warranty: Three years (first of 12 months or 750 hours on lamp) Epson Australia Pty Ltd: (02) 8899 3666 www.epson.com.au

048

NEWS

InfoComm News

News from the Asia Pacific Region

AETM CONFERENCE ‘EXCEPTIONAL’

InfoComm International Executive Director and CEO David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD, gave the keynote address to the Association of Educational Technology Managers’ (AETM) 2014 Conference in Cairns, Queensland.

The conference was held 11-13 November at James Cook University.

Labuskes joined the group via videoconference to explain the concept of an exceptional AV experience and the role AV professionals play in achieving it. Promoting exceptional experiences is an InfoComm Board of Directors strategy initiative aimed at increasing awareness of high-quality AV integration and design. An exceptional AV experience combines content, space and technology to achieve a customer’s specific goal.

AETM conference attendees also learned about the ANSI/INFOCOMM 10:2013 Audiovisual Systems Performance Verification standard, which includes 160 reference points that AV professionals can use to ensure a system operates as it’s supposed to, and the new AV Provider of Excellence program, which encourages adoption of the Audiovisual Systems Performance Verification standard. For more on InfoComm standards, visit www.infocomm.org/standards INFOCOMM PUBLISHES UCC WHITE PAPER

Seasoned AV professionals can have a significant impact on the success of today’s unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions. To help technology adopters and AV integrators understand best practices in UCC deployment, InfoComm has published a 32-page white paper, The Role of the Audiovisual Industry in Unified Communications and Collaboration.

Richard Morrison, CTS, national manager for information communications technology at Norman Disney & Young, chaired the InfoComm task force that produced the document.

“It is important to be aware that UCC is not something firms can just buy from anyone,” the authors wrote. “UCC — when approached correctly — is an outcome. It happens when there is a coherent strategy, planning, and a blend of tools and infrastructure to support the multiple, unique needs of an organiSation.”

The white paper is free to download. Find it at www.infocomm.org under Resources.

Among the goals of the guide, according to the task force that wrote it, is to “show how, as technology needs and learning methods evolve, the AV/ IT infrastructure can continue to support those changes.”

The guidelines were produced with the help of organisations around the world, including the Association of Educational Technology Managers (AETM), the Consortium of College and University Media Centers (CCUMC) and SCHOMS, the professional body for senior managers in UK higher education. Find it at www.infocomm.org under Resources.

NEW YEAR MEANS NEW INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP

InfoComm International welcomed the newest members of the Board of Directors: Frank Culotta, CTS, of Symco; Maria Gaitan of Grupo Niza; and Joe Pham of QSC Audio Products. In addition, Julian Phillips of Whitlock has been reappointed to the Board, and current Board member Gary Hall, CTS-D, CTS-I, of Cisco Systems, has been elected Secretary-Treasurer.

InfoComm thanked outgoing Board members Tony Warner, CTS-D, of RTKL; Jeff Faber of Sharp’s Audio Visual; and Jeff Stoebner of AVI Systems for their service and dedication.

InfoComm also welcomed the newest members of the Leadership Search Committee, which was established in 2008 to identify and mentor volunteers to serve on committees and stand for election. New to the LSC are Gary Hall of Cisco Systems, Victoria Dade of Sonic Foundry, Robert Grubb of Bose Corp. and Jay Rohe of Milestone AV Technologies.

LOCKING DOWN NETWORKED AV SYSTEMS

Videoconferences frequently include confidential information, so the last thing users want is someone eavesdropping on their virtual meeting.

Meanwhile, digital signage done right can attract lots of eyeballs, which makes it attractive to hackers looking to embarrass a company by putting inappropriate content on-screen.

With more AV systems on the network, it's important that AV professionals know how to protect them as if they were desktop computers or mission-critical servers. Read about the issues and the measures pros can take in InfoComm’s special report, Networked AV in Depth: Securing AV Devices. All of InfoComm’s exclusive articles are available online under the Resources tab at www.infocomm.org

HOW TO DESIGN & BUILD SMARTER LEARNING SPACES

InfoComm volunteers spent much of 2014 producing a definitive guide to helping higher education technology professionals integrate AV into 21st-century learning spaces. The 158-page document, AV/IT Infrastructure Guidelines for Higher Education, is free to download. It includes everything from descriptions of education technologies, to design considerations for learning spaces, to best practices in project planning, budgeting, and coordination.

NOW HEAR THIS!

If you want a behind-the-scenes look at InfoComm International and the people who make up the commercial AV industry, tune into the InfoComm Today Podcast. In recent episodes, InfoComm Executive Director and CEO David Labuskes, looked back on 2014 and AV executives weighed in on the current state of AV integration. To listen or subscribe, click the Resources tab at www.infocomm.org and choose ‘Podcasts’. 

All The AV Industry Employment News Delivered to your IN box every week any time you want it at www.avapac.net

049

TUTORIAL

Colour Temperature Understanding the perceived whiteness of ‘white’ light The following is an excerpt from Design Online.

These topics will be covered in greater detail, with added project-based skills practice, during InfoComm’s AV Design School in Melbourne and Sydney during 2015. For enquiries or to enrol contact Jason York at oceania@infocomm.org An important property of lamps, which defines the perceived whiteness of ‘white’ light, is colour temperature.

The correlated colour temperature (CCT) of different LED lamps range from warm white to cool white to daylight. Models can be strategically chosen for places, like a ballroom, where you want the light to appear either harsh or soft depending on the event.

CORRELATED COLOUR TEMPERATURE Light Source

Colour Temp.

Candle flame

1900K

High pressure sodium lamp

2200K

Tungsten lamp

3200K – 3400K

Cool white fluorescent bulb

4200K

Daylight

5400K

Direct daylight, noon, cloudless sky 5500K SMPTE reference white Colour power distribution of a fluorescent lamp with a CCT of 3000

Different white light sources contain varying proportions of the range of wavelengths in the visible light spectrum. Depending on how much of each colour is present, the human eye will perceive a white light as ‘warm’ or ‘cool’. In the graph above there is a greater proportion of warm wavelength colours (reds and yellows) than cooler wavelength colours (blues and greens).

This factor impacts the lamp types you need to choose for particular situations. If outdoor light is coming into your room, you need lamps which match the outdoor colour temperature. If there aren’t any windows, you can choose a warmer light which is more pleasing to the human eye.

6500K

GLOSSARY: COLOUR RENDERING INDEX (CRI)

The effect a light source has on the perceived colour of objects relative to an incandescent source of the same correlated colour temperature, which has a CRI of 100.

QUICK TIP: CCT

The higher the CCT, the bluer the light. The lower the CCT, the redder the light.

On the diagram below the curved line in the middle, the Planckian-Locus, indicates the colour of an ideal theoretical black body as it is heated to the temperature indicated in Kelvin. Imagine heating a piece of steel in a blacksmiths shop. As the metal heats it starts to glow, reddish to start then becoming orange, white, and finally blue.

Under this light the meat and plate have a natural look With a higher colour temperature both meat and plate look cooler Under this light everything looks warmer and darker

The Ra value (highlighted on the chart) is the average test colour, or CRI, of a lamp. Changing to a LED lamp with a higher CRI would alter the appearance of the plate of meat.

GLOSSARY: COLOUR TEMPERATURE

Colour temperature is the quantification of the colour of ‘white’ light, rated on a numerical scale. Low colour temperature light (~2000K) has a warm (red-ish) look while high colour temperatures (~6000K) have a colder (blue-ish) appearance.

QUICK TIP: CCT AND CRI

CORRELATED COLOUR TEMPERATURE

Correlated colour temperature (CCT) is a single number measure of the colour a ‘white’ lamp emits. Typically, most commercial light sources range from 2700K to 6500K, with lamp CCTs appearing ‘warm’ below 3200K and ‘cool’ above 4000K.

with the most accurate replication of colours at 100 and the least accurate at the bottom of the scale. Typically, incandescent lamps are the best replicators, followed by LEDs which are somewhere in the 90 range.

This is especially important to the AV industry.

If you have a company logo, critical information on a projection screen, or a CEO leading a decisive meeting via videoconference you want the audience to see the accurate colours.

CIE xy 1931 chromaticity diagram

COLOUR RENDERING INDEX

While the CCT is a measure of the colour the light source is emitting, the colour rendering index (CRI) quantifies how accurately a light source replicates a desired set of parameters. Lamps are tested for their ability to faithfully render several test colours, and those measurements are averaged to produce the CRI number.

CRI values range from the negative up to 100,

It’s very important to understand the link between the correlated colour temperature (CCT) and the colour rendering index (CRI).

If you're given an LED blend with a perceived Kelvin reading of 6500K, you might think it’s perfect for your application. However, if it has a CRI in the 20s, it’s going to be worthless to your camera and for most other uses.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ENERGY MANAGEMENT

InfoComm developed the Audiovisual Systems Energy Management (ASEM) ANSI standard which defines and prescribes processes and requirements for ongoing power consumption management of AV systems. For more information about how to design to this standard contact InfoComm. 

050

HUMOUR?

Termination Cutting The Crap Text:/ Graeme Hague

When you first start in this business, normally you get all the crap jobs. That’s because somewhere there’ll be a boss (or maybe another co-worker canny enough) to steer all the horrible stuff your way. Anyway, what do you expect?

You’re a newbie and that’s how the world works.

It doesn’t really matter, since you’re keen; eager to make an impression. You’ve got the black cargo pants, the black shirt, the work boots, the torch and Leatherman in a pouch on your belt... you’re an AV Ninja.

After a while you’ll come to realise that some aspects of this job are crap and always will be.

There’s nothing exciting or glamorous about running a million miles of speaker wire around a crowded arena filled with drunken Australia Day punters who refuse to budge. How about baby-sitting a single radio microphone system and listening to an expert on Utterly Boring Bureaucracy drone on for eight hours – complete with a home-grown Powerpoint presentation that refuses to change slides?

For me, the worst job after all these years has always been retrieving the multicores after a gig. The damned things are bloody heavy, usually covered in spilt beer and food, and sticky with second-hand gaffa residue. They never coil up properly and the multi-pin connections get jammed on like the lid of an old jar of Vegemite.

Yep, if you asked me, packing up the multicores is the worst AV job in the world.

Until yesterday.

I was yesterday that, for the first time, I ran a PA system with a digital console combined with a MADI stage box. What a technological marvel.

Oodles of audio channels running through a piece of string. Freaking awesome. At the end of the day it’s like winding up a fishing line (okay, don’t panic, I didn’t quite do that).

Mind you, it can be a bit stressful. It’s hard for us old hands to accept you’re reliably sending truckloads of audio signal to and from the mixing console essentially through a telephone line – if you’ve ever had to call Telstra Customer Support, you’ll agree this sounds like total madness. Does the drum kit have to be put on hold, while the guitarist plays a solo? Will Peter Allan songs suddenly burst out of the PA when the MADI system shifts every audio channel one slot up the call-waiting queue?

At the same time, at least there’s still a piece of cable involved – a comforting thought. Everyone dreams of the day when absolutely everything is transmitted by wireless and we don’t have to mess around with cables at all – but not me.

Right now, it’s the last thing I’d want. My faith in wireless transmission is taking a bashing. I’m battling a new modem that’s supposed to be the latest, greatest web device in the world, but as soon as my wife hits Facebook the data transfer rate turns to treacle. Well, at least, I think she’s on Facebook...

Besides, here’s a thought – remember when people were concerned that over-use of your mobile phone might give you brain tumours? So what would happen if you’re groovin’ in the mosh pit of Queens Of The Stone Age (or something) and you’re getting 96 wireless channels of heavy metal grunge going through your noggin? Forget about a mere tumour, that’s going to turn your brain to soup. The good news is that the kids of today are perfectly safe. At concerts nowadays everything is mimed to a backing track and none of the radio mics are actually turned on – phew, what a relief.

But back to the wonders of MADI and telephone cable-like multicores. The problem can

be – as always with digital – that when something goes wrong then everything goes wrong, right?

Analogue snakes on the other hand kind of fail incrementally, one channel at a time until the number of XLRs on the stagebox with bits of gaffa taped over them outnumber the connectors that still work and someone decides to break out the soldering iron. Yesterday, we even had one of those moments when the bass player unplugged his amplifier head and for a nanosecond the background music vanished, before coming back to life. Coincidental or not? Was the system on the verge of collapse? We didn’t have a chance to find out since everything was instantly working perfectly again, but we eyed the MADI stagebox suspiciously and began to question whether putting our faith completely in this new-fangled technology was such a good idea after all.

That is, until it came to load-out time and packing up the multicores. All you keen, young folks in your shiny new work boots can focus on the easy tasks of dismantling the PA stack, derigging the lights and loading the truck while I take on the worst job of all, wrapping up the dreaded multicore. Brilliant, this MADI gear.

Bring it on, I reckon. 