ELEGANT DESIGN, LIFELIKE AUDIO. MicroexTM Wireless Systems Enterprise-scale Microphone Solutions for Managed AV Environments ™
Microex Wireless systems bring vivid, lifelike audio to meetings, panel discussions, teleconferences and other applications in managed AV environments — from signature boardrooms and concentrated multi-room environments to networked corporate campuses. • • • • • • •
Flexible mic options – Gooseneck, boundary, bodypack and handheld microphones Modern, low-prole designs – Fit comfortably into diverse AV environments Dante™ digital audio networking – Low latency, multichannel audio over Ethernet networks Advanced rechargeability – Smart lithium-ion batteries enable remote monitoring Browser-based control software – Comprehensive system setup and real time control Automated frequency coordination – Ensures clean frequencies for every wireless channel Encrypted wireless – AES-256 protection for secure over the air wireless audio
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NEWS
Samsung SMART Signage Displays
Samsung Smart Signage Platform (SSSP) takes Samsung dynamic signage to another level. Included in the new Samsung DME, DHE and UED series, SSSP offers quad core System on Chip (SoC) technology helping to boost power and provide more functionality for Samsung signage applications.
Images for illustration purposes only Specifications correct at time of print, but subject to change without prior notice 1 Samsung LED BLU Commercial Displays use LCD display panels with LED back or edge lighting. 2 DP Cables not included. (Sold separately)–DP loop out not available on DM32E 3 MagicInfoŽ Premium S server client access software licence is required for networked applications, one licence required for each display (sold separately). Internet connection may be required. Data and subscription charges may apply. Usage may be subject to third party service provider agreements. Network infrastructure not included.
NEWS
05
Samsung Smart Signage Platform (SSSP) Included with DME, DHE and UED ranges
• Complete Stand-Alone Signage Solution • Design Template options included • DME, DHE, UED series allows for PC free content scheduling and delivery to multiple compatible displays using DP Daisy chain² (excluding DM32E) • DME, DHE, UED series PC-less video wall with DP Daisy chain² (excluding DM32E) • PC-less touch using SoC player and optional Touch Module (sold separately). • Scalable for networked server based signage applications with MagicInfo® Premium S client access software licences (licences sold separately - one licence required per display³).
New Samsung Commercial Displays with Samsung Smart Signage Platform The new Samsung DME and DHE series LED BLU¹ displays introduce a sleek design. Helping to provide clients with a consistent look for their installations even when different model types are required for specific applications.
PC-less video wall from SD Card, USB (devices sold separately) or on-board memory in one display with DP Daisy chain²
USB Direct play back MagicInfoS Direct play back
www.samsung.com/au/business business.partner@samsung.com
July/Aug 2016
Editorial Hands Down Great Ideas
I 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
Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@avapac.net) Editorial Assistant: Preshan John (preshan@alchemedia.com.au) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@avapac.net) Graphic Designer: Daniel Howard (daniel@avapac.net) Additional Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@avapac.net) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@avapac.net)
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 © 2016 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. 6/7/2016
put this issue of AV Asia Pacific to bed just prior to boarding a flight to Vegas to attend InfoComm16. Everything was nicely tucked up, all that was required was the proverbial peck on the cheek — namely this editorial. I figured that since time was tight (or more precisely I was bereft of an original idea), I would write my editorial while in Sin City, where I’d have so much more free time and enjoy a monastic lack of distraction... right?! Well, I got one thing correct, InfoComm is the perfect event to be bombarded with ideas and inspiration, and that’s even before Day 1 of the show! I’ve just sat through the InfoComm keynote address that occurs the night before the big day. This year it was Stephen Dubner’s turn. Stephen is the first to admit he knows nothing about AV (a good start) but he knows quite a bit about human behaviour. He’s the author of the crazy-popular Freakanomics series of books, and his podcast of the same name is listened to by around 5 million people a month — suffice it to say, he has a few interesting anecdotes up his sleeve. One that stuck with me was his description of how a large hospital in the US went about improving its hygiene compliance among its doctors. Or put more simply: how do you get doctors to wash their hands before seeing a patient? A committee of senior clinicians explored a well worn litany of carrot- and then punitive stick-based incentives: bribing doctors with coffee vouchers for doing the right thing; shaming doctors who failed to comply. Fascinatingly, what actually worked, no one could have predicted. The senior epidemiologist in the committee brought a swag of Agar plates to a meeting and conducted a spot check on the hand hygiene of committee members, with each anonymously finger-printing a culture plate. The results were disturbing: the committee members’ (all doctors themselves) hands cultured an array of deadly bacteria. Then the turning point. One bright spark asked a crazy question: can we use a horror image of ‘Dr Staph Hands’ from the Petri dish and turn it into a screen saver on every PC display in the hospital? The result was almost instantaneous. Compliance hit 100% within days. As our AV Industry Awards program for 2016 picks up pace, it’s been great to read about AV professionals who have tackled a curly behavioural or technological problem with a left of field solution. Because that’s the essence of the AVIAs: innovation and excellence. It’s not about how much of XYZ’s product you ordered; and it’s not about how many employees you have; it’s about having the guts to come up with a ‘crazy’ solution and have the smarts and tenacity to design and/or integrate that AV solution. So, the lesson? Wash your hands after visiting the dunny. Oh, and get behind the region’s very own independent pro AV awards program, the AVIAs. Because not only does it represent great (and free) marketing for your business, it makes our industry better. Christopher Holder Editorial Director, chris@avapac.net
Zero Latency Zero Compression InďŹ nitely Scaleable Video over IP
Pro AV integrators rejoice, iMAGsystems has just simplified your life! Lightning is a 4k encoder/decoder matrix system that distributes high resolution video with the uncompromising quality you expect, using off the shelf network switches. Use Lightning for all your PRO AV video applications and reap the savings and simplification that networking provides.
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XTWO X-LINE ADVANCE Forward-thinking line-array design starts here. X2 X-Line Advance utilizes state-of-the-art EVengineered components and incorporates a range of innovative new features, all of which work together to surpass the capabilities of other line arrays, and all in a significantly more compact, flexible, and quickerto-set-up package.
KEY FEATURES & BENEFITS: • An unprecedented performance-to-size ratio provides the big sound without the big storage, transport, crew or labour costs • Advanced audio quality and control via exclusive EV technologies including Hydra plane-wave generators, high-output transducers, and proprietary FIR-Drive optimization • New Integrated Rigging System provides easier and faster set-up and set-down drastically reducing in and out time
X2 X-Line Advance includes full-range element X2-212/90 and the X12-128 — the most powerful subwoofer EV has ever developed.
Designed, engineered, and tested for ultimate reliability by Electro-Voice in the USA. Learn more at: www.electrovoice.com/X-LineAdvance Bosch Communication Systems:
1300 026 724 sales.communications@au.bosch.com
July/Aug 2016 REGULARS NEWS AV industry and product news highlights from the AV website.
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INDUSTRY UPDATE News from the AV associations: InfoComm
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TERMINATION Creepy Crawlspaces.
58 FEATURES
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BIG BERTHER Australian Maritime College’s super sim.
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SECURITY CALL As AV migrates to the network, so does our need to adhere to IT network security.
30
LAB TEST We put the UTS Superlab under the AV microscope.
36
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY We check in on Hillsong church’s weekly sophisticated AV production.
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INDUSTRY ICC SYDNEY Meet Brian Nash, Head of ICCS AV Services — big job.
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COMMUNITY SPIRIT We talk to Steven Johnson, CEO of Community Loudspeakers, about its move to Hills.
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AVT: MORE THAN A REBRAND AMX’s purchase by Harman has meant big changes at the privately owned AMX Australia.
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REVIEWS
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CASIO XJ-F210WN Solid-State Projector.
52
DANTE VIA Audio Networking Software.
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TUTORIAL CABLE PREPARATION InfoComm International Education: Good cable prep is the key to a good termination.
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Highlights from AV News Online
ANYWIRE: VIDEO OVER COPPER
LUMENS 4K PTZ CAMERA
LASER & LCD PROJECTORS FROM PANASONIC
Altinex introduces the Anywire TP315-101 and TP315102 Transmitter/Receiver System. Anywire lets you transmit live 1080p/60Hz video and computer video signals with audio over any type of copper wire, including speaker wire, low voltage wires, coaxial wires, and more. It’s ideally suited to structures and situations where running traditional Cat6 lines would be disruptive to a building’s existing architectural aesthetics, and many additional applications. The TP315-101 transmitter facilitates the transmission of 1080p HDMI signals using a simple two-conductor cable. The TP315-102 receiver allows the receipt of 1080p HDMI signals using the same cable type. Both are capable of signal transmission up to 600ft. A single TP315-101 transmitter is capable of driving up to four TP315-102 receivers using either four individual wire pairs, or by daisy chaining the receivers. The two-wire solution simplifies installation — integrators need only to route the wires, cut and trim the installation, and connect to the terminals. IR passthrough for receiver side to transmitter side control is provided without corrupting the HDMI signal during transmission of IR signals. Axis AV: 1300 294 728 or info@axisav.com.au Altinex: www.altinex.com
Lumens' first 4K-capable PTZ camera, the VCA70H, has a 1/2.3-type progressive scan ‘Exmor R’ CMOS sensor with 8.3MP output resolution and 12x optical zoom. It utilises an efficient DC motor servo controller for high-speed, quiet and precise positioning movements with smooth PTZ operations. The VC-A70H has HD BaseT interfaces, allowing Ultra HD resolution and transmission up to 70m, carrying power, video and control through a single Cat5e/6 cable. Capable of 4K recording at 30fps and 1080p recordings at 60fps, Lumens suggests the camera for lecture capture, videoconferencing and broadcasting applications. At ISE, Lumens also displayed the VCA60S HD PTZ camera, equipped with a 1/2.8-inch image sensor, 30x optical zoom, professional noise reduction, wide dynamic range and video capture of up to 60fps. The VC-B20U is Lumens’ new USB PTZ camera, with 1080p resolution and 5x optical zoom. The USB 3.0 connectivity means plug ’n’ play functionality with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Chrome OS, and you can save up to 128 user-defined preset model to allow for ease of use in any environment. Corsair Solutions: (03) 9005 9861 or sales@corsairsolutions.com.au Lumens: www.lumens.com.tw
Panasonic has released the new PT-RZ570 1-Chip DLP Solid Shine Laser Phosphor projector for the education market. The projector is positioned towards the middle of Panasonic’s range for education, designed to be a budget-conscious yet no-compromise option. The PT-RZ570 features 5400 lumens brightness, and 20,000-hour maintenance-free operation. Chris Maw, Product Marketing Manager, Projectors, Panasonic: “Laser technology improves efficiency, performance and delivers cost savings through maintenance-free operation. This is ideal for reducing the burden on technology support staff in the education industry.” The PT-RZ570 ships with a free 360° (vertical and horizontal) installation, 2X zoom lens, extra-wide-range manual lens shift, curved screen and corner keystone correction, and a HDBaseT compliant Digital Link singlecable connection. Panasonic has also updated its EZ range of LCD projectors with the new PT-EZ590 Series. With an output of up to 5400 lumens in WUXGA, they’re made for scenarios such as classrooms, conference rooms, and lecture halls. Lamp replacement cycle is stated as up to 5000 hours in Eco mode. The projectors also get two HDMI inputs as standard. Panasonic: www.panasonic.com.au
NEWS IN BRIEF:
Barco NV has acquired the totality of the shares of Medialon Inc. — a transaction that fits in both Medialon’s and Barco’s long-term strategies to strengthen their respective positions in networked show and AV control. Medialon believes the merging of the two companies will bring important benefits to its customers, including accelerated product feature developments, integration of functionalities into broader media networking platforms, and global customer service which Barco provides all its customers with. Interactive Controls: (02) 9436 3022 or www.interactivecontrols.com.au Medialon: www.medialon.com Barco: www.barco.com
Not long after adding Community Professional Audio to its distribution network, Hills has signed an agreement for exclusive distribution of Beyerdynamic proaudio and conferencing solutions. Dan Fletcher, Head of Hills AV says, “Our strength and our focus is the commercial audio and audio visual market. As we focus on growing our business in this area, we are thrilled to continue to offer Beyerdynamic’s pro audio, conferencing and audio solutions to our customers.” Hills: (03) 9890 7477 or www.hills.com.au Beyerdynamic: www.beyerdynamic.com
• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net
Exterity is joining Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) in an effort to reinforce its investment in the hospitality sector, following its added support for Philips Smart TVs and Samsung Lynk on top of LG hospitality TVs, representing the three most prominent TV screen providers in the sector. Exterity is committed to increasing its presence in APAC, as shown by the appointment of Travis Anderson as Country Manager for Australia & New Zealand, and Jamie Hind as Regional Sales Manager for Asia in 2015. Midwich: 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au Exterity: www.exterity.com
InfoComm International has promoted Rod Brown, CTS-D, CTS-I, to Regional Director — Oceania, which sees Brown take responsibility for managing InfoComm membership services, the education program in the region, InfoComm certification, and the Australia Advisory Group. Previously, Brown served primarily in AV education as an InfoComm staff instructor, teaching InfoComm University courses and more. InfoComm APAC Senior Director Development, Jonathan Seller: “Rod is highly regarded by our InfoComm members. He brings extensive experience and connections within the industry to this role.” InfoComm: www.infocomm.org
JBL comes out with yet another sub, this time a dual 10-inch model targeted to the installation market. The Control SB2210 packs high output into a small footprint, making it ideal for situations where space is short. The sub has undergone some performance upgrades that bring serious low frequency reinforcement and increased power capacity to the table. It’s an ideal complement to the recently updated Control Contractor surface-mount loudspeaker models — the Control 23-1, 25-1 and 28-1. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or www.jands.com.au JBL: www.jblpro.com
Real-time media network
MEDIORNET
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Highlights from AV News Online
MALTHOUSE THEATRE GETS X-FACTOR
PLANETSHAKERS CONFERENCE OVERFLOWS
TDC GOES ALL OUT AT VIVID SYDNEY
In early 2016, the ageing audio system at The Coopers Malthouse in Melbourne was due for a technical upgrade. The venue, originally built as a brewery in 1892, is run as a non-profit organisation, so budget was a major factor in the choice of a system. The Coopers Malthouse consists of three theatres, rehearsal studios, meeting rooms, a bar and a café. In choosing a new system, weight limitations and the venue’s low ceiling steered the decision towards L-Acoustics’ new coaxial range, the X Series; comprised of eight L-Acoustics X12 for main FOH, four X8 delays, six 5XT with two SB15M subs for front fill, and two SB18M subs in addition to the MTD subs from the previous system. Five LA4X amplified controllers power the system. Approvals for the upgrade were received in 2015, and the system was installed early 2016, thanks to integrator Norwest Productions. “The X Series delivers crystal clear vocal clarity throughout each of the theatres and is consistent across all audience areas,” says Baird McKenna, technical manager at Malthouse Theatre. “Our sound operators are over the moon and find the system a joy to work with — it makes their shows really come to life.” Hills: (03) 9890 7477 or www.hills.com.au L-Acoustics: www.l-acoustics.com
Melbourne’s Planetshakers Church recently held its Awakening Conference in the Hisense Arena. Lighting designer and programmer Paul Collison chose MA Lighting for the event, using two grandMA2 ultralight, a grandMA2 fader wing, MA onPC command wing, and three MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) to control nearly 600 fixtures. Collison: “After doing the initial designs in Vectorworks, the fixture data was ported to the MA showfile via the grandMA2 plugin. After a few tidy ups, the show was ready for some pre-programming in MA 3D. All of that work paid dividends once we hit the venue. The combination of integrated tools at our disposal prior to getting on site makes the grandMA2 the only choice for an event of this size.” Collison continues, “The theme of the conference was ‘overflow’. I had the inspiration of a massive wave, encompassing both stage and audience. I wanted to create an all-inclusive feeling for the event by dispensing with the pretence of band on stage and audience on the ‘other’ side. It was quite an ambitious concept that was exceptionally well executed by lighting vendor Resolution X” — who provided the lighting equipment. Show Technology: (03) 9681 7511 or sales@showtech.com.au
Technical Direction Company worked hard with Vivid Sydney’s organisers to deliver record-breaking technical production at the spectacular festival of light and music. TDC employed 35 staff working full-time to produce a massive 11,500sqm of video projection in excess of 20million pixels. Over 70 projectors were deployed in custom-made projection towers located in and around Sydney. TDC’s work was found in some of Sydney’s most iconic buildings and locations, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Customs House, Cadmans Cottage, Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon for Bangarra Dance Theatre, Taronga Zoo Centenary Celebrations, Central Park precinct, AMP Building for the McGrath Foundation, The Royal Botanic garden Sydney precinct, and Darling Harbour precinct. Ignatius Jones, Creative Director of Vivid Sydney said, “We work closely with TDC to constantly break new boundaries in technology and to develop immersive experiences each year in the festival’s delivery of creativity and innovation. Vivid Sydney inspires, entertains and exemplifies the emerging technologies that are changing our world. It is a celebration that will blow away all who behold it.” Technical Direction Company: www.tdc.com.au
NEWS IN BRIEF:
At the F8 Facebook Developer Conference, Livestream’s Mevo was announced as the first camera to stream directly to Facebook Live. The palm-sized camera extracts multiple shots from the single lens so you can edit on the fly while live streaming your event. Livestream Studio 4.0 is now available in beta, and lets you stream directly to Facebook Live in the streaming module. Studio Cloud Edition is also to be released, which is a hosted version of Studio 4.0 on the Amazon Cloud. Corsair Solutions: (03) 9005 9861 or sales@corsairsolutions.com.au Livestream: www.livestream.com
Hills strikes again with its official appointment as exclusive ANZ distributor for Cadac. Consultant Support Manager Bryan Davidson has been busy building the Hills brand portfolio: “Cadac is the perfect fit for our brand portfolio. It will partner extremely well with L-Acoustics to service the premium end of town, including both the touring and fixed installation markets. Hills is very excited to have Cadac on board and we are all looking forward to bringing these consoles to market.” Hills: (03) 9890 7477 or www.hills.com.au Cadac: www.cadac-sound.com
• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net
Vision’s Freespace is an Androidbased product that displays a meeting room’s calendar on a display outside the room, similar to how you’d check a calendar in Outlook. The new version of the app has a revised interface that’s more customisable and now works with Google Apps and any other app-based calendar system. One of the two new hardware flavours is the new ‘Freespace Dongle’ which is designed for conference and event centres where there are already large 1080p displays installed. Hills: (03) 9890 7477 or www.hills.com.au Vision: www.visionaudiovisual.com
Music is planning to make around 70 staff redundant at its manufacturing and office facility in Coatbridge, Scotland. If the redundancies are confirmed, the Coatbridge facility would cease operations completely, transferring Tannoy loudspeaker production to Music’s manufacturing plant in Zhongshan, China. The announcement was made to employees by SVP, Lifestyle & Home, Peter Sommer, who said the proposal comes following an extensive evaluation of the company’s operational and financial structure. Music: www.music-group.com
High Lumen Projectors
Designed for Exceptional Performance Epson G, Z and 4000 Series Installation Projectors are powerful performers in virtually all venues including lecture halls, bars & restaurants, houses of worship and more. These projectors utilise advanced display technology such as Edge Blending, 360 degree and corner projection and short throw lenses for flexibility. Features include: • 10,000 lumens and WUXGA resolution for bright, colourful, brilliant images • 24/7 operation for continuous and reliable use for almost any application • Versatile connectivity including HDBaseT • Easy integration with Crestron, AMX and Extron compatibility For more information vistit www.epson.com.au/installation *Compared to leading 1-chip DLP business and education projectors based on NPD data, July 2011 through June 2012. Colour brightness (colour light output) measured in accordance with IDMS 15.4. Colour brightness will vary depending on usage conditions.
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WIRELESS PERFORMER
IN THE CLOUD
EPSON LAUNCHES G7000-SERIES IN ANZ
Audix has announced its new Performance Series of wireless microphone systems. It’s all about simplicity with the Performance Series, designed to take the mystery out of wireless systems, enabling musicians, singers, performers or presenters to get up and running with ease. Kicking off requires just two buttons — press Scan for six seconds so the system can find a clear frequency, then press Sync to lock in the transmitter and receiver. Available in single (R41) and dual (R42) rack-mountable models, the receivers for the Audix Performance Series have rugged construction and intuitive menus. The transmitters consists of both handheld and body-pack designs. The H60 handheld transmitter features a slim line body. Several system options are available. Systems include receiver, antennas, power supply, body-pack or handheld transmitter, and microphone. Production Audio: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Audix: www.audixusa.com
The new CS-C3 in-ceiling speaker from Cloud Electronics is now shipping. It’s a full-range loudspeaker with a three-inch driver designed to provide excellent intelligibility and musical performance, with an emphasis on bass-response over sensitivity. The CSC3 features ZeroEdge magnetic grilles and easily accessible high/low impedance settings. Ideal as a discrete solution for retail, hospitality, leisure and commercial applications. The CS-S3 surface mount speaker is also shipping. It provides constant dispersion across a broad frequency response and an innovative omnidirectional mounting system. Also now available are the CS-S4 and CS-S6 surface mount speakers with concentrically mounted drivers with soft dome tweeters. The larger 6.5-inch driver of the CS-S6 and the smaller four-inch driver of the CS-S4 provide full-range sound, and both speakers feature accessible high/low impedance switch settings and IP55 rating. Available in black or white. National Audio Systems: (03) 8756 2600 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au Cloud Electronics: www.cloud.co.uk
Epson’s new G7000-Series projectors have multiple features including increased brightness, motorised lenses, versatile connectivity, and collaboration features. With six models in the range delivering up to 8000 lumens of colour brightness, the series also features a zero-offset ultra short-throw lens with 0.35 throw ratio — ideal for space-constrained venues and digital signage. General Manager, Business Division, Epson Australia Craig Heckenberg said, “The new G7000-Series raises the bar with higher brightness, 4K Enhancement resolution, new motorised lenses, and advanced technology to captivate any audience. They also underscore our commitment of delivering a broad portfolio for any company who requires a high quality projection solution for their meetings.” The G Series 3-chip 3LCD projectors are ideal for any meeting space. Each projector comes with a threeyear limited warranty and a one-year or 750-hour lamp warranty. Epson: www.epson.com.au
BEAM & SPOT IN ONE
SOUNDCRAFT Vi2000 WITH SPIDERCORE
YAMAHA CATERS FOR ALL
Martin announced its new MAC Axiom Hybrid lighting fixture, a hybrid solution that combines beam and spot functionality into a compact unit that also offers diffused wash and impressive intensity. The unit’s zoom and focus capability eliminates the need for dedicated beam or spot modes and allows for both instant and discrete transitions from a highintensity collimated beam to a flat field spot. The Axiom Hybrid’s optical system offers high contrast, both in mid-air and projection, as well as a surprisingly flat field. Markus Klüsener, Product Manager, Stage Lighting, HARMAN Professional Solutions, calls it, “an evolution for Martin. In addition to the fixture’s extensive set of effects, the implementation of the MAC Viper CMY colour palette gives designers the advantage of unlimited selection, from subtle pastel shades to deep and saturated colours.” Even with its array of features, the MAC Axiom Hybrid casts a small footprint and is lightweight. Show Technology: (03) 9681 7511 or sales@showtech.com.au Martin: www.martin.com
Soundcraft’s Vi2000 combines the unique Vistonicsbased control surface with Soundcraft SpiderCore, an integrated DSP and I/O engine based on Studer technology. SpiderCore is a 40-bit, floating-point DSP engine that mixes FPGA and DSP technology to maximise I/O routing and DSP mixing capability. The Vi2000 is configurable up to 48 mic line inputs and 16 line outputs, using combinations of 16-channel XLR modules in four rear-mounted slots. The total I/O count of the console is 246 in and 246 out if you use the expansion slots. Dante integration is taken care of with a built-in 64x64-channel Dante interface. Further audio networking potential is provided by the optical MADI interface. Soundcraft has managed to pack all this into an impressively compact framesize — only 1.15m wide, with 16 input faders and eight output faders. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au Soundcraft: www.soundcraft.com
Yamaha pulled out all stops at Prolight + Sound, showing off products that cater to the live sound, installed, studio, broadcast and post production markets. The PX Series is a brand new range of power amps featuring Yamaha’s latest DSP technology in a package that’ll work for both live and installed audio. The RPio222 I/O rack is a compact variation of the current RPio622 I/O rack for the RIVAGE PM10 digital mixing system. Yamaha’s CL, QL and TF ranges have all had recent software upgrades, including the ability to control Shure’s ULX-D wireless systems from CL and QL consoles. In the sound-for-film sector, Dolby Atmos for Nuage was demonstrated which allows lifelike aural experiences to be mixed on the Yamaha system. More new products from Yamaha include the EMX2 portable powered 10-channel mixer with 1-Knob Master EQ, the 1020W 18-inch DXS18 powered subwoofer, SWP1 network switches, and HPH-MT7 closed-back monitoring headphones with 40mm drivers. Yamaha: www.yamahaproaudio.com
• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net
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NEWS
Highlights from AV News Online
CHRISTIE APEX LED TILES
GEFEN DEBUTS 9
SONY FILLS PTZ LINEUP
Joining Christie’s Velvet family is the new series of narrow-pitch LED tiles featuring 1.2 and 1.6mm pixel pitches. They’re designed for critical viewing applications like command and control rooms, and surveillance monitoring. The high-impact visuals of the Apex Series also makes them suitable for corporate lobbies, museums, indoor advertising etc. Designed for uniformity and performance, the Apex Series offers increased flexibility with a new slim design, 100 percent front-serviceability, 16x9 aspect ratio, native HD and UHD resolutions and micro adjustments. Christie says its new LED tiles are easy to install, configure, manage and service. The Apex Intelligent Module adds features that make modules ‘plug and play,’ reducing downtime and reconfiguration requirements. Christie Digital: www.christiedigital.com
Gefen premiered nine new signal distribution products at ISE 2016. Leading the way was the GEF-UHD-89HBT2 4K Ultra HD 8x9 Matrix for HDMI which takes advantage of new HDBaseT 2.0 technology to route eight 4K sources to any combination up to eight remote 4K displays over a single Cat5 cable and one local display with HDMI for local monitoring. Gefen also introduces two new extenders that use the latest HDBaseT 2.0 technology, EXT-UHDA-HBT2 and GTBUHD-HBT2 that extend HDMI up to 100m at 4K or 150m at 1080p, using one Cat-5e cable. The EXT-DVIKAHBT2 HDBaseT 2.0 KVM extender also made its debut. It extends DVI, USB 2.0, RS-232 and two-way analogue audio up to 150m over one Cat-5e cable. In addition, the brand previewed the upcoming EXT-UHD600 Series of 600MHz HDMI Distribution Products — a product family that enables AV distribution at full spec of 4K 60Hz at 4:4:4 colour-space, along with HDR support. Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or sales@ambertech.com.au Gefen: www.gefen.com
Sony’s recent addition of the SRG-120DS brings its PTZ camera offerings in the SRG series to six full-HD options. The all-in-one compact design makes these cameras easy to install in various locations, ideal for use as either a primary or secondary camera. The target market of the SRG camera series goes beyond just the traditional broadcast and security sectors. For example the judicial system has a growing trend of including visual communications such as remote testimonies, video arraignments, virtual prison visitations etc. The SRG cameras are capable of live streaming via IP, and two or more parties can communicate when the cameras are connected to a video conferencing device, making them suitable for this type of application. The SRG cameras also suit the healthcare and education applications. Sony: pro.sony.com.au
NEWS IN BRIEF:
Extron’s Room Agent v1.1 software turns TouchLink Pro touchpanels into full-featured room booking appliances that display a room’s meeting information and availability. With Room Agent, the touchpanels require no programming, as they simply become a client of the existing Microsoft Exchange server. The latest version offers new features including a new Scheduling Activity File for capturing events from each meeting room for convenient analysis and a Check-In button that confirms attendance for the scheduled meeting. Extron: www.extron.com/ roomschedulingvideo
Atlona introduces the ‘first’ HDBaseT-equipped collaboration system providing 4K AV switching, USB and HDMI extension. The two-piece AT-UHD-HDVS-300-KIT system enables a single category cable connection between a conferencing hub and a 4K display with USB camera. The TX unit serves as the conferencing hub, video switch, and HDBaseT transmitter, and the RX decodes the HDBaseT signal and delivers an HDMI signal to the display. Midwich: www.midwich.com.au
Community Professional Loudspeakers has signed an agreement appointing Hills Ltd as its exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand. Dan Fletcher, Head of Hills AV: “Community is well known for its high-performance outdoor loudspeakers as well as indoor products designed to be attractive yet unobtrusive. It offers great musical sound quality and clear voice intelligibility, with many Community products ETL certified to meet UL specification for mass notification and voice warning applications.” Hills: www.hills.com.au
• Get your daily news fix at www.avapac.net
Exterity’s ArtioSign enables businesses to stream TV and video alongside live news updates and tailored messages to strengthen their communications. The Exterity system offers users a feature-rich, fully configurable digital signage application and IP video system in one. Using ArtioSign, organisations can turn any connected display into a digital signage delivery point, centrally control the time, location and target audience for each of their messages, as well as tailor the experience to specific audiences and locations through the additional multi-screen user access functionality. Midwich: www.midwich.com.au
Martin Audio has extended its CDD install series with the introduction of weatherised variants (CDD-WR). CDD5TX-WR and CDD6TX-WR feature a dual cable gland for easy daisychaining of cabinets without the need for external breakout boxes, and also feature a 100/70V line transformer. CDD-WR loudspeakers meet a rating of IP54, and are accompanied by a full range of weather-resistant mounting brackets. Similarly, the CSX-WR subwoofers are suitable for outdoor under-canopy operation and have an IP24 rating. TAG: (02) 9519 0900 or www.tag.com.au
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Embedded Closed Captions: Great for public, educational, and government video programming operations. Multiple Input Options: Video — 3G HD-SDI, HDMI, Composite/CVBS; Audio — Up to four channels of embedded SDI/HDMI audio plus unbalanced stereo Silent & Fanless: Perfect for lecture capture in higher ed. Mission critical Reliability
LC Mode: Ideal for lecture capture. Stream two sources to two destinations. HD/SDI is the primary input, and you can select either HDMI or CVBS as the second input.
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NEWS
ICC Sydney: Meet The Head AV Guy
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he $1.5b International Convention Centre Sydney is quickly taking shape. Gary Thomas has been the principal technical architect, with Fredon the integrators. The word on the street makes for a mouthwatering AV prospect. There will be three theatres: the ICC Sydney plenary-style theatre seating 8000, the 2500seat Darling Harbour Theatre and the 1000seat Pyrmont Theatre 1000 and then there’s the 35,000sqm of exhibition space. Some of the big-ticket items include a comprehensive QSC speaker and QSys network, d&b V Series in the theatres, 180sqm LED screen out the front of the main theatre, Panasonic 12K projectors, IPTV, 10GB fibre tielines around the building, full-spec broadcast studios, smart lecterns… We’ll bring you the full story in due course. Overseeing the ICCS AV toyshop is Brian Nash, Director of Audio Visual Services. AV Asia Pacific had an email exchange with Brian to hear how things were progressing. BYOD-DAY
AV Asia Pacific: How have people’s conferencing and exhibition AV requirements changed over recent years and how is ICC Sydney doing things differently to meet those expectations?
Brian Nash: The ‘bring your own device’ trend has been a key design consideration for us. Today, many delegates and presenters are wanting to operate off their own device and multiple connection types can be required at any given time. To support this shift, ICC Sydney has installed easy to use ‘intelligent lecterns’ which allow any device to be connected at one time, either through physical ports or via our integrated Wi-Fi. We have also deployed 955 access points throughout to ensure the high bandwidth, high density and robust wireless connectivity is accessible across the venue to meet delegates’ need for easy and consistent connection to fast Wi-Fi. Higher resolution video and enhanced collaboration are also vital, so we have a raft of interactive, high definition digital signage solutions and large scale projection opportunities plus first-rate audio equipment and elite conferencing facilities. AV Asia Pacific: AV and IT is converging from a technical and practical point of view. How is ICC Sydney addressing this when it comes to delivering AV services? For example, are certain traditional IT/AV boundaries being blurred?
“” ICC Sydney has combined its ICT and AV departments to deliver a frictionless digital experience for clients. We have created a single platform from which to manage all digital elements across the precinct
NEWS
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NEWS
Brian Nash: In an unprecedented move, ICC Sydney has combined its ICT and AV departments to deliver a frictionless digital experience for clients. We have created a single platform from which to manage all digital elements across the precinct, allowing full control of digital signage, event recording, and broadcast capture and online streaming of events. This includes the ability to stream sound and video via a sitewide audio and IPTV network that incorporates presentation and broadcast AV across a consistent network. AV Asia Pacific: How will greater levels of AV integration impact the client and attendee experience? Brian Nash: ICC Sydney’s integrated approach has enabled us to implement a leading monitoring and reporting system to track performance and provide real-time insights. Every connected device is viewable from our single platform and this gives us access to instant feedback and vital analytics from which we can then shape and adapt digital conditions as required. ICC Sydney also has a built-in contingency plan to proactively mitigate any potential device failure — a level of planning that is rare in convention centres.
AV Asia Pacific: What are the advantages of a ‘fresh start’ when it comes to delivering world class AV at ICC Sydney? Brian Nash: The main advantage to creating something from the ground-up has been our ability to create a purpose-built digital venue which not only supports the needs of today, but truly has the capability to flex and adapt for decades to come across all types of events, big and small. ICC Sydney has been built on a 10GB optical fibre backbone, so unlike other venues, we have been able to hardwire a high calibre and functional IT network into every room. Here, every hireable space, including all formal meeting rooms and theatres, has also been 3D modelled for acoustic performance, with architectural finishing specified around the AV requirements of the area. All formal meeting spaces are integrated with the venue’s AV system too, and pre-configured with optimal environmental ambiance, including lighting control. Another benefit of starting fresh has been the freedom to really raise the bar in terms of industry standards. We’ve been able to undertake a rigorous amount of research and coordinate
a large scale ‘Technical Cabling Infrastructure’ throughout the precinct between key operating and control areas. Input from several production companies and television networks has been taken into consideration for this to ensure we can bump in and out different events without delay. All switching and processing equipment for ICC Sydney is based around a centralised rack room, situated locally to each cluster of meeting rooms. This would have been difficult to implement in an existing structure, and not only frees up vital space within the rooms but also allows the venue to easily introduce additional layers of AV over time. The entire venue design caters to the changing architecture of meetings and events, and is supported by world leading technical and production facilities that are scalable, flexible, and upgradable. We can now constantly evolve and innovate, supporting our clients with bespoke solutions for years to come. ICC Sydney: iccsydney.com.au
FEATURE
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NEWS
Community Spirit Everyone’s heard of Community loudspeakers but who actually knows much about them? Having recently appointed Hills as the Australian distributor, we thought we’d speak with Community CEO Steven Johnson to find out what makes the US company tick.
AV Asia Pacific: How would you describe Community ? Steven Johnson: ‘Audio for the people’, that’s who we are. We’re not the guys who will overcharge you for some magic pixie dust. We marry up practical solutions with the right kind of support — from the factory, from the distributor, and with good online tools. AV Asia Pacific: You couldn’t ever describe Community as trendy or ‘flavour of the month’. How would you like people to feel about the brand? SJ: We have a maverick streak about us. We do things a little bit differently. Sometimes it’s genius, sometimes it’s a little crazy but mostly different. Take the humble ceiling speaker as an example. We use a horn-loaded compression driver. The reason for that is we always have the real world in mind, and if you’re an airport or shopping centre, where coverage is an issue and you want uniform coverage from high ceilings, the best way to do that is with a compression horn and some pattern control. AV Asia Pacific: What’s your approach to our part of the world? SJ: Asia Pacific represents less than 10% of our sales, so there’s a huge opportunity for us. One thing I’ve learned about the audio business is, from a product perspective, it’s a global business. There’s nothing uniquely special about an audio product that makes it more or less desirable in China over, say, Canada.
The difference, ultimately, is the distribution and market knowledge — proper pricing and support. And I think we just haven’t been there in Australia; we haven’t been that presence. But that’s going to change now we’re working with Hills. Next step is for us to appoint a regional sales manager. But it’s mostly focus. That’s where I see our growth, not in terms of being flavour of the month.
AV Asia Pacific: You manufacture your own transducers? SJ: We make all the smaller compression drivers for our ceiling speakers and a number of others. Probably our best-known transducer is the M200 midrange compression driver, which we manufacture in the US at our Chester, Pennsylvania, factory. It’s a monster and Community’s signature driver, if you will. In addition, our company founder Bruce Howze invested into a Chinese factory years ago. It only makes transducers for us. We didn’t restrict ourselves with the I-Series. Sometimes there’s advantages to being a transducer manufacturer and sometimes there’s some inherent disadvantages if you don’t allow yourself to pick and choose the best of the best out there. AV Asia Pacific: Did you ever consider designing a line source system? SJ: Never say never, but there have been people using line source or, more correctly line arrays (they’re not even line source a lot of the time) because they look cool.
If you’re going for flavour of the month, I can guarantee those shoulder pads might look really good now, but five years from now they won’t Nobody’s really fooling anybody other than we’re all fighting over the same dollars and the same mind share. It is interesting to see people coming back to point source. That said, we have our E Series column line source and that product’s truly amazing. To my knowledge there’s nobody else doing that: a three-way column that you can stack up. The E-Series is finding its way into a lot of stadiums and not just for public announcement duties, as it’s very musical. Big consultants like WJHW are spec’ing it because they want to know that when that product has music going through it, they won’t be embarrassed. AV Asia Pacific: Why are Community’s horn-loaded pointsource boxes so popular in the stadium and high-school gym markets, which are big, acoustically hostile spaces? SJ: It’s all about pattern control, right? If you can control the pattern, and the lower you can control it, and direct that energy to where the people are, then you’ll enjoy success. In our case we achieve that control by physically directing it (with horns and pointing the speakers in the right direction) rather than electronically. Our philosophy is, where possible, you’re better served by a distributed system. Don’t try and blast it from the scoreboard across the other side of the stadium, and deal with the temperature gradients that mean it sounds great one day and awful the next. You mentioned high school gyms. Don’t forget, Community makes
a good value product. And I think that’s why we have been the product of choice in some of those high school stadiums and smaller colleges. We also know where our strengths lie and don’t lie. You won’t find us in huge bowls like the Dallas Cowboys stadium — our current product offerings are not the appropriate choices for that setting. And if you rang to discuss that kind of job, our Applications Group would steer you elsewhere — they know our products but they also know the other guys’ products and they’ll say when somebody else will be a better choice. We pride ourselves in delivering a product that performs to spec and will continue to do so for years to come. The enclosures from our R-Series and W-Series, they’re 15year enclosures. You’re not going to find that with anybody else because we do outdoor better than anybody else. I think those are the real world, practical elements that help to differentiate us. If you’re really going for the flavour of the month, I can guarantee those shoulder pads might look really good now, but five years from now they won’t look so good. Audio for the people! Contact Hills: 1300 445 571 or hills.com.au Community: communitypro.com
NEWS
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FEATURE
Big Berther Simulating the movement of giants of the sea needs a very special projection system. Text:/ Derek Powell
FEATURE
A
small group of video engineers are gathered on the bridge of a supertanker. Ahead, peering over the massive bow of the ship, they see the harbour entrance looming. Looking North, then South along the coastline, all seems fine, though slightly indistinct. Sea mist isn’t the problem, it’s pixels. The pixels are visible through the panoramic bridge windows and that’s not what they want to see. Damien Freeman, manager of the Australian Maritime College Centre for Maritime Simulations in Launceston, Tasmania, steps to the controls and suddenly the world outside vanishes. “The line-up is perfect, but we’re still not getting 4k resolution to the projectors,” he announces. Jim Urosevic, Panasonic’s lead AV Systems engineer nods in agreement. He’s pretty sure he’s narrowed down the problem and it’s not in the five, top-of-the-line 10,000-lumen laser projectors he’s just installed. But he can’t solve the issue here on the banks of the Tamar River. He’ll head back to Sydney to do some tests before returning with the team from Panasonic and the crew of integrators from Vantage, to fully commission the system – and banish pixels from sight on the massive 30m-wide screen that wraps around the simulator. Damian is nearing the end of a project that’s been several years in the planning. When complete, the upgrade to the Full Mission Bridge
Simulator at the Australian Maritime College will make it the most advanced simulation experience of its type in the world. The simulator allows ship’s captains, harbour pilots and master mariners to experience what it is like to bring a wide range of vessels, from bulk carriers right up to the Queen Mary II, into virtually any Australian port. SIM HISTORY
The University of Tasmania’s Australian Maritime College (AMC) has been operating simulation systems since 1985 and has amassed a vast body of knowledge, as well as a substantial library of ship and port models. There’s a lot that goes into creating an accurate simulation and the college runs the latest Polaris software from the Norwegian manufacturer Kongsberg Maritime. The core of the experience for the full mission bridge simulator is the immersive view from the bridge that extends 240° around the full-sized control station. Prior to the upgrade, that view was created by seven overlapping images from single-chip DLP projectors at SXGA+ resolution. But generating sufficient light output and consistent colour was a constant battle, as Damien Freeman explained: “We’ve got a projection screen here that’s 7.2m in radius and 4.5m high, so we have to cover a fair bit of real estate with the projectors,”
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he noted. “With the old projectors we tried all different types of colour wheels to get more light. We went from an RGB-type wheel to an RGBWtype colour wheel which gave us a little more light but we lost a lot of our contrast and our gamma range.” LAMP LAPSE
Damian started looking for a technology to replace the existing projectors three years ago. Lamp changes are a particular problem in multiprojection simulation. If one projector has a lamp replaced, it often causes a significant brightness and colour mismatch with adjacent projectors running older lamps. Sometimes, this leads to expensive mass lamp replacement to keep the image looking uniform. Knowing that lampbased projection was nearing the end of its days, he was keen for a solid-state illumination source that would avoid the recurrent cost of lamps. This narrowed the field significantly and, finally, AMC sought a proposal for a solution based on Panasonic single-chip laser projectors. At this point, Jim Urosevic, Panasonic’s support engineer, became involved and he takes up the story. “AMC was looking at the RZ-670 initially and its idea was to use that projector in portrait mode to achieve the target brightness,” he said. “If it had proceeded that way, it would have
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THE HULL TRUTH: HOW TO SIMULATE A SHIP To be effective, the Bridge Simulator has to accurately recreate the many forces that are at work on the massive hulls of modern vessels and also calculate the way the ship will react to inputs such as its propellers, thrusters and rudder. The backroom wizards at the Australian Maritime College are able to create from scratch accurate models of virtually any vessel that is not already in their library and over the years have amassed a set of extremely accurate models of every major port in the region. To create a simulated ship, the team starts with General Arrangement drawings of the vessel, and use photographs to recreate the textures and colours on the visuals. But beneath the surface, there’s a lot more going on. As well as having the right size, shape and look of the original, the model has to react to sea and port conditions correctly to provide an accurate experience of maneuvering in a narrow channel, or alongside a wharf. To model these aspects, the team generally approaches the ship builder to obtain the real data from the ship. They’ll use both the calculated hydrostatic and hydrodynamic data and also the measured performance from sea trials. Port operators are enthusiastic clients for the simulators. They know only too well the enormous costs that can result should a ship get stuck in the channel or be unable to maneuver to its berth. The simulator is ideally suited to conduct trials on ships that haven’t actually come into a port.
meant 11 projectors and I thought that was an over-complication of the system. Too many projectors, too many blends, too many overlaps and it could become cumbersome to keep on top of all those projectors,” he continued. Fortunately, just at the right time, a new product was about to launch – and it looked tailor made for Damian’s very demanding application. The new product was the Panasonic PT-RQ13K three-chip DLP laser projector. It was small and light enough for the space available and given the much superior 10,000 lumen brightness and 4k resolution, the simulator’s massive screen could be covered with just five projectors instead of 11. It was a perfect match! THE VANTAGE POINT
AMC’s preference was for a turnkey solution together with local support, so Panasonic recommended Vantage, which was already well established as a supplier to AMC and the University of Tasmania, to undertake the installation. From there, things moved quickly. Vantage prepared five locally manufactured custom projector mounts and sourced a suitable HDBaseT extender system from Lightware to handle the 30m run from the server room to the ceiling-mounted projectors in the simulator room. Projector control was implemented across the LAN using Panasonic’s Geometry Manager Pro software and some custom AMC code to automate the simulator startup process.
Importantly, trials on the simulator help define the port’s ‘environment envelope’ for a particular vessel. Operators need to understand, for example, the maximum wind speed conditions for safely berthing a vessel. Some ships have a significant amount of ‘windage’ (where the side of the vessel can act like massive sail) and so are prone to substantial sideways movement in windy conditions. This of course can make it very difficult to safely maneuver a ship at the low speed required when berthing. When the Queen Mary II recently came to Australia for the first time, the AMC was approached by a number of ports which wanted to host the huge liner but needed to use the simulator to be sure they could manage the critical operations to bring her safely to berth. The simulator staff were able to get the required data for the Queen Mary II, and created the model, but then after testing they went to the next stage to validate the simulation. With the model online, they invited the Queen Mary II’s captain to Launceston. After a couple of days doing validation runs on the virtual bridge, the Ship’s Master asked for a couple of tweaks to bring the model into line with his experience of the real vessel. Following his validation, the model could be confidently trialled at the various virtual ports already in the simulator so that their operators and pilots could assure themselves that the enormous ocean liner could actually be brought in safely.
EQUIPMENT LIST 6× Panasonic PT-RQ13KE 4K projectors (1 spare) 5× ET-D75LE50 lenses 6× ET-CUK10 licenses for auto camera setup 6× ET-UK20 licenses for maximum Geometry adjustment range with the Geometry Manager Pro Software. 1× ET-SWA100F3 Early Warning Software (3 years license). 6× Lightware DVI-HDCP TPS TX95 HDBaseT transmitters 5× Custom Projector Mounts supplied by Vantage
AUTO LINEUP
With everything up and cabled, the Panasonic Australia team made the first of two visits to assist with the critical lineup. This was a world first deployment for the new projectors, so along with Jim Urosevic, two factory engineers who worked on the development of the new projector made the trip from Japan. AMC optioned the ET-CUK10 software that, using a digital camera, allows the projector line-up to be automated. The camera plugs in via USB to a laptop that connects via LAN to the projector. This makes the line-up process relatively quick and easily repeatable in case a projector ever needs to be swapped out.
The five Panasonic 4K projectors are neatly tucked up above the bridge.
Team Details Panasonic Jim Urosevic: Sales Engineer AV Systems Yuji Ido & Shuji Teranishi: Specialist Engineers (Panasonic Japan) Rohesh Raju: Business Development Manager Peter Huljich: Group Manager – Projector/FPD Business Systems Group Vantage Adam Rowbury Ben Krump AMC Damien Freeman: Manager, AMC Centre for Maritime Simulations Professor Thanasis Karlis: Director, AMC National Centre for Ports and Shipping Panasonic: au.panasonic.com Vantage: www.vantage.com.au Lightware: www.lightware.eu
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FEATURE
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The first step is to survey the screen and accurately place grid markers to define the position for each of the five projected images. This is done placing UV marker s on the screen so the camera software has a reference of the projected surface when the markers are illuminated by UV light. Once those grid points are placed, the projector test grid is roughly lined up and there’s no requirement to manually adjust the geometry. The camera system detects what correction is required and through the Geometry Manager Pro software it allows the projector to make any adjustments to totally remove any geometry distortions. With the precision achieved in the automated lineup, edge blending between the five images was seamless, despite a relatively small 8.3% overlap. Level and colour matching was swiftly achieved but there was one more crucial step to produce a truly continuous blended image. FADE TO BLACK
Shipping operations happen at all times of the day and night so good black level performance is very important for AMC’s night-time simulation. However laser projectors use Dynamic Contrast to constantly vary the laser light output scene by scene, reducing the projector brightness during dark scenes to provide blacker blacks. This function can be challenging when several projectors are combined to create one continuous image. At times, some projectors in the system may be receiving a higher brightness section of
FEATURE
content than others, prompting the dynamic contrast to produce different black levels from its adjacent projector. In a night-time scene, this would be obvious and tend to spoil the illusion. Fortunately, Panasonic has developed a system to overcome this and first implemented it on this particular model. Each projector has sync In and Out ports which are connected in daisychain fashion from Projector 1 to 5 and then looped back to Projector 1. With one projector nominated as a ‘master’, the software looks for the brightest content among all projectors then sets all Dynamic Contrast controls collectively to ensure there’s no variation in blacks across the combined image. Once the projectors were looped and the software set, the combined image, by day or night was faultless. 4K CRUISING
So, with projectors flown, geometry aligned, overlaps and colour matched and the black levels synchronised everything was ready – except the projectors would not display an image when the graphics engine was ramped up to 4k resolution. What could be wrong? As it turned out, Jim hit upon the solution quite quickly and it is a salient lesson to us all. The signal chain for the simulator is quite simple – and almost foolproof. Each projector image is created by a separate, 4k-capable, Nvidia GTX-970 graphics card mounted in the server enclosure. Each HDMI output from the graphics cards goes to a separate 4k-rated Lightware
HDBaseT transmitter and then via Cat6a cable directly to the 4k-rated Digi-Link input on the projector. What could be wrong? The culprit was the simplest link in the chain. The short HDMI patch cables from the graphics cards to the transmitters were not 4k rated! Jim suspected as much on the first visit but had been unable to source a cable built to the HDMI version 1.4 or 2.0 specifications anywhere in Launceston during the few days they were there. Swap the cables, re-boot the server in 4k mode and the result was a superlative bright and seamless 30m wide and 4.5m high image with not a single pixel visible from the bridge. SEA-ING IS BELIEVING
With the one remaining problem eliminated, the Panasonic team spent the remaining time training both the AMC operators and the Vantage staff who would be providing any necessary local technical support. Damian Freeman pronounced himself very satisfied with the results: “We’re very, very happy with the outcome,” he told AV Asia Pacific. “We got the brightness on the screen that we were after, and the colour reproduction is just fantastic – the 4k resolution on that big screen is just fantastic. We don’t get any pixilation in the image and the simulation environment is just so immersive now that everybody who comes in comments on how great it is.” Job done! And a great war story for the Panasonic, Vantage and AMC crews.
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FEATURE
Not understanding IT security can cost audiovisual designers and installers dearly. Here's what you need to know – and why. Text:/ Derek Powell
FEATURE
et’s be honest: IT Security is not a subject many audiovisual professionals know a lot about. In fact, it is a subject many of us have avoided discussing in the past, because if we even raised the topic, we were likely to be asked awkward questions that could get us into trouble. Sadly, many of those questions crop up at installation or commissioning time when we ask the IT department for an IP number to connect our control system or encoder or digital signage player to their network. The bad news is that we can no longer avoid these conversations. And that’s just as well, because waiting until installation before discussing IT security is really bad for business. The good news is that now AV equipment manufacturers are finally building gear that answers all those pesky security questions. Now what we have to do is learn to understand what those questions are all about.
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WHY SECURITY MATTERS & THE COST Nearly every piece of audiovisual equipment you can think of (except maybe some mics and speakers) now comes with a LAN socket on the back. Often, these network connections are the only way you can configure certain parameters and they are essential to control and monitor our increasingly complex designs. We used to request an IP number by simply saying: “It’s just a network appliance – no need for security”. But that’s not true, and network administrators know it. You might assume that hacking an AV control system would merely allow the attacker to take control of lights, projection and sound systems but that is not the scenario that worries security specialists. Once a device with a processor on the network is compromised, hackers can use it to gain access to other systems from the inside. Paul Zielie, Harman’s Product Manager, Enterprise Solutions has been the driving force behind a huge push to improve IT security in the AMX product range and across the wider Harman brands. His relentless zeal for spreading the message of security to the AV community has seen him deservedly named Infocomm International Educator of the year. Paul gives two case studies that starkly illuminate the issues. Hackers who perpetrated the infamous Target (US) hack of 2014 used credentials stolen from an air conditioning contractor to access the Target’s vendor portal. That system was supposed to be separate from the network that handled financial transactions (just as AV systems are supposed to be on segregated networks). However, once inside, they moved step-by-step further into the network until they were able to access the POS terminals and steal the credit card details of 40 million customers. While the immediate cost of that single incident was a ‘mere’ $162m the
lawsuits currently in train could cost many times more. That event instantly claimed the scalp of Target’s CIO and CEO and focused the minds of network administrators everywhere. Paul goes on to relate that audiovisual manufacturers received a very specific wake-up call when hackers demonstrated they could take control of a car’s steering and brakes by remotely compromising the entertainment system.
IMPLICATIONS AT THE COALFACE Security isn’t just a matter for manufacturers. It needs to be understood by everyone in the industry, from sales staff to designers and installers. Firstly, if you can’t understand the customer’s IT security standards then you may be unable to demonstrate that your product is capable of meeting these and you may not be allowed to connect to the network. At best this will compromise some of the features you promised and at worst, the system may not operate at all. But there’s more: It is not enough to supply your clients with equipment that has the right network security features. According to Paul Zielie, in some jurisdictions an installer may also have a legal responsibility to ensure that the system is configured to operate in a secure manner. In his presentations, Paul explains that the concept of due care may be used as a test of liability for negligence, should the worst happen. “It is expected that a ‘reasonable and prudent person’ would secure their network in a business,” he notes. “If it can be shown that the consultant or integrator organisation secures their own network then they must show the same care to their customer they exercise themselves.” Proving due care involves showing that the necessary steps have been taken to help protect the organisation, its resources, and employees. Reviewing organisational security policies and specifying products and configurations which meet those policies show due care. This is a tricky area and you shouldn’t rely on this as definitive legal advice in Australia. Nonetheless it is clear from what we have seen that we all need to be concerned with network security issues.
STEPS TO TAKE All least the steps required to implement proper IT security are easy to understand. That’s because they largely mirror the best practice stages in any AV design and installation. There are five vital steps in each and every installation that requires equipment to be connected to your client’s network.
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Step 1 — Needs Analysis: Once it’s established that equipment you will be supplying and installing has to be connected to the customer’s network, then you must ask for (and understand) the organisation’s IT security policies and requirements. Step 2 — Design & Document: Design your installation using equipment that meet those IT security requirements. Prepare separate IT security documentation that show how their security requirements are met. This documentation is vital and will be used for the next steps. We’ll see more about how you write this later. Step 3 — Sign-Off: Identify the responsible parties and get sign-off on the security documentation. Step 4 — Configure: Working with the customer’s network administrators, confirm all network access is correctly configured and appropriate permissions set. Ensure all equipment passwords and software configuration are accurately recorded on the security documentation. Step 5 — Handover: Deliver the completed IT security documentation to your client.
And it’s that simple! Well, it would be nice if it were. Let’s take a closer look at each stage to see what can go wrong – and how to get it right.
NEEDS ANALYSIS NEED TO KNOW Too often in the past, audiovisual consultants and designers have ignored this step altogether. Frequently, they were secretly concerned the system mightn’t be able to be secured and if this wasn’t discovered until ‘too late’ the client’s IT people would be forced to simply make an exception and allow connection to the network anyway. Indeed, this strategy used to work. Not anymore. As we discussed earlier, the cost of IT security failures has become so high that IT managers now certainly have the power to stop any installation in its tracks, forcing a re-design that can cost your business dearly. The first step is to engage with your client’s IT department. You need to find out what their security policies are, so you can then show how your equipment will conform to those policies (or what you can do if that’s not possible). Many integrators dodge this step because they have no idea what sort of information they are going to get or what it may mean. So it’s time for a quick cheat sheet on the kinds of issues that will arise. At the end of the article I’ll give you a handful of web references to some really good guides to how this all works, which you should read. But first let’s set up the basic framework so you can understand the common security requirements.
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IT managers now certainly have the power to stop any installation in its tracks, forcing a re-design that can cost your business dearly.
Most security requirements you’ll have to meet fit into one of only three straightforward categories. If you can recognise which is which, you will be well on your way to understanding what they are and solving them. Think of these three categories as who can get onto the network; where they can go in the network; and what they can see.
ACCESS CONTROL: WHO'S WHO It’s tempting to say this is all about passwords, and passwords are crucial, but you need to understand that there’s more to Access Control than just changing the default system password. Most IT organisations use the combination of Usernames and Passwords for these functions: • To verify that the user is who they say they are (Authentication) • To verify that the user has permission to do the task (Authorisation) • To keep a record of who accessed the system (Accounting) The provide Access Control, part of the IT security policy will be designed to make sure only certain people can get into the deep menus and make changes to the system that’s connected to their network. It also wants to make sure that if any changes are made, those changes are recorded in a log along with the identity of the user who made them. To perform these three functions, either your AV device must be able to store lists of users, their passwords and records of what they did when logged in; or the AV system must be able to communicate on the network to an established directory that holds the records about everyone’s usernames, passwords and permissions (this is often called an LDAP or Windows Active Directory server).
UNDERSTANDING VLANS In a network, every device is connected to every other device. But there are ways and means of making sure that commands from AV control systems (for example) can only reach devices like
projectors that need to be controlled. We don’t want commands entered in via a touchpanel to reach secure places like where financial records are stored. Sometimes this means building a physically separate network for the AV systems so that rogue operators don’t have a physical connecting cable to get to the secure parts of the network. However, there are better ways of separating things out. Instead of building a physically separate local area network (LAN), the network administrators can set rules in the various network routers that create separate islands in the network that are virtually separate from the rest of the LAN. These are called VLANs. VLANs are a good way of keeping AV devices on their own virtual network but still letting the right people or devices get through when needed. An access control list (ACL) can be used to either allow or prevent devices on separate VLANs from getting through to each other. An ACL lists the devices from which a router will allow messages to pass. If a control system, say, wants to get through to a computer on another VLAN, it has to be on the list before its traffic is allowed through. ACLs are set up by the network administrators, but as part of the AV security documentation, you may be asked to create a list of which devices need to talk to each other to build that list. Devices like computers, control systems and so on have various ways of communicating with each other across a network. These different communications connections are called ‘services’. Services are referred to by a variety of acronyms like HTTP, HTTPS, TELNET, SSH and so on. Some services are more secure than others. A device may have many services activated but some may not be needed in the particular situation. The network security part of your client’s IT security requirements might specify that if your particular installation doesn’t need a certain service, then it must be switched off. It is a bit of a stretch, but you can think of this as being like a projector that can be controlled by RS-232, IP or IR. If you are only ever going to use RS-232 control, you might want to disable the IR functions so that someone who gets hold of an IR remote doesn’t wreak havoc by taking control.
PASSWORD PROTOCOL Industry specialists agree that failing to change the default password in a system is the number one vulnerability in the AV community. Worse, it could leave the installer liable if bad guys gain access. So here’s Paul Zielie’s advice on best practice during integration: 1. Create a job password for the installation period. 2. Change all the equipment default passwords to the job password (so everyone working on the job has access to the equipment). 3. As part of the commissioning documentation give the customer a list of passwords and change instructions.
ENCRYPTION: SPEAK IN CODE The third of our categories in the security requirements is encryption. If someone taps into the communications between AV devices, can they see what is happening or is the communication in code so that no one can understand it. For the AV world, this can refer to encryption of audio or encrypted videoconference signals so that eavesdropping on sensitive conversations is impossible. However, it may also be a requirement that network communications between devices (such as when passwords are exchanged) be encrypted so that intruders can’t steal passwords.
DESIGN & DOCUMENT Documenting the network security aspects of AV systems is one area that causes confusion. The documentation should be based on the Client’s stated policies and requirements and many network administrators will have a template form for you to complete. If you want to get a feel for best practice in this area, download the example template that Harman has made available (web reference below). This has been put together by Paul Zielie as a companion to his excellent workbooks that cover ‘Security for Networked AV’ (also accessible through the references at the end of this article). As a minimum, look carefully at the ‘Device Inventory’ and ‘Ports & Protocols’ sheets in this Excel workbook. In the header Paul gives helpful instructions and examples for how these should be filled out.
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we have adjusted to the analogue sunset, dealt with the digital transition and made sense of the hurdles in HDCP, so I am confident IT security will eventually be just another set of lessons learned
IT SECURITY WEB RESOURCES
Most major manufacturers (certainly AMX, Crestron and Extron) have already documented the information you will need for each of their products, however this isn’t usually included in the product’s specification sheets — you’ll need to look deeper into the user manuals and elsewhere. AMX publishes a ‘Network Administrator’s Guide’ with very comprehensive data and a clear discussion of security aspects. The Crestron equivalent is the ‘Crestron Secure Deployment Guide’ which is similarly detailed. For Extron products, the ‘Extron Control System Design Guide’ brings together most of the information you will need for good documentation. The best advice, if you are uncertain, is to first engage with your client’s network administrators to find out their expectations. Find out if they have a standard form to complete or if there are any other processes to follow to allow connection to their network. Then, if you need further advice, contact your equipment suppliers. I have already noted that AMX (and Harman) are very much on the front foot in assisting integrators and users with information and advice, and I found both Crestron and Extron are also very aware of IP security issues. Extron’s Director of Product Marketing, Joe da Silva, emphasised the importance of access control at every level, but noted that simply changing the default passwords in equipment as it is installed is a crucial and often overlooked step. “I think there’s a lot of work to do to educate our colleagues in this industry to understand the amount of responsibility and the amount of integrity with which they need to approach IT Security. I think that’s a big task for our industry,” he told me. “We take IT security very seriously at Extron and it’s always top of mind,” he said. Joe also
confirmed that Extron made it a priority to answer customer concerns about security, creating a special engineering team to handle these queries. “When a question comes up about protocols or if there are security questions about our product this group is brought in and we respond to those questions quickly and efficiently,” he stressed. So assistance is readily available from suppliers. The message from the industry is “just ask and we are here to help”.
AMX by Harman has some terrifically useful training materials that explain the fundamentals of IT security practices. For the most part, they are not specific to any particular equipment and are a great way to understand the lingo, whatever brand of AV equipment you use. A great start is to read the White Papers found at: www.amx.com/security/resources.aspx (Tip: They are free, but you may have to enter your email address and provide other details to gain access – it’s well worth it!) I also recommend you download the spreadsheet which provides an example template for documenting the security aspects of an AV system that is to be connected to the client’s network. You can find it here: www2.amx.com/AVSecurityReq Crestron: The IP Considerations Guidelines for the IT Professional is a good starting point available for download here: www.crestron.com/downloads/pdf/product_misc/dg_ip-considerations-guide-it-professional.pdf To obtain the ‘Crestron Secure Deployment Guide’ you’ll need to request a log-in to access Crestron’s Online Help. Extron: ‘The Extron Control System Design Guidelines’ are available here: www.extron.com/company/article.aspx?id=designguidead
DOCUMENTATION SIGN OFF Savvy professionals are already aware of the importance of having their designs signed off before commencing the installation but with the security aspects there’s one more complication. Who has (or should have) input to the approval process? Make sure you identify all the stakeholders. As well as the network administrators, seek input from the operational staff and the physical security group (if there is one). Finally, don’t forget to check if there are any external standards that must be met. Government and large corporate clients often have to meet external IT security standards (and pass audits).
CONFIGURATION As we saw earlier, it is not enough to simply install equipment that can be made secure. If you install equipment to a network without ensuring that it is securely configured, you may still be held liable for subsequent problems. This is where the documentation (and the spreadsheets) we spoke about earlier come into their own.
You need to ensure all the settings and passwords are correct on your equipment (and recorded on the spreadsheet) and then have the client’s network administrators do their part to properly configure the network and set all necessary permissions and access control lists. This isn’t an optional step, because most likely nothing will work if it isn’t done. Do arrange a time in advance with the network people — sometimes changes can only be made according to a weekly schedule and not just whenever you happen to ask!
HANDOVER Hurray! We’re done! So don’t forget to hand over the security documentation (and keep a copy for yourself in case equipment changes are necessary).
EPILOGUE As professionals we have adjusted to the analogue sunset, dealt with the digital transition and made sense of the hurdles in HDCP, so I am confident IT security will eventually be just another set of lessons learned. Possibly the hardest part is figuring out how to properly charge for all our time and effort in those extra steps we’ve just discussed. Perhaps that’s a topic for another day.
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Lab Test It is probably the toughest challenge an AV designer can face – but just what is a SuperLab? Text:/ Derek Powell
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he notion of a SuperLab is relatively new — no more than 10 years old — but it’s quickly established itself as an indispensable new category of teaching room — alongside Collaborative Learning Spaces and the traditional Lecture Theatres and Tutorial rooms. The first SuperLab was built at the London Metropolitan University and it quickly gained a reputation as a key tool for improving passing grades and enhancing retention rates amongst first-year science students. WHAT IS A SUPERLAB?
What’s the definition of a SuperLab? A SuperLab must allow many classes to run in the same space at the same time, and be able to instantly reconfigure to allow an instructor to address any sized class – from as few as a dozen to as many as 200 students. It sounds easy if you say it quickly, but facilitating two-way communication between a demonstrator and a class undertaking practical chemistry or biology experiments is taxing already. Adding the requirement for different groups to work side by side without interrupting each other takes the audiovisual task to an entirely new plane. Match that with the need to configure up to 12 different sized classes on the
fly and you bring the audiovisual design to the very edge of the possible. This is the challenge that the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and their audiovisual suppliers took on – and beat – in the brand new Science and Graduate School of Health Building in Ultimo, Sydney. SCOPING THE CHALLENGE
The UTS vision was for a state-of-the-art Super Lab 52 metres long, with space for 220 students. The 26 workbenches seating eight students were to be fitted with touchscreen PCs and microphones, to allow up to 12 classes to work concurrently. Every second bench would feature a demonstration station for teachers, while multiple breakout areas accommodate group work and informal meetings. From the experience in London, it was clear that this SuperLab would require bringing together complex video matrix switching, twoway multi-frequency wireless communication and IP video links direct to each student’s computer. So the critical element was the creation of a flexible yet intuitive control system that could invisibly manage these disparate elements. The UTS control system of choice has been Crestron for quite some time, so Senior Project
Manager at UTS Audio Visual Services, Rob Hardy, had no hesitation in contacting his longterm Crestron contact, Bignesh ‘Vicky’ Dayal, for input early in the design phase. The technical challenges of the video distribution was the number one talking point. “UTS has hundreds of rooms of Crestron Digital Media [DM], it’s something they rely on and trust,” Vicky recalled. “So we looked at their specifications and started to work on a design using DM. Then our Tech Sales design team worked on ‘proof of concept’ designs and built a prototype to show how it would work.” SOLUTION PROOF
The proof-of-concept idea would prove crucial. UTS set up a dedicated space to build a student bench and two teaching stations with their suppliers coming on board to provide prototype systems for testing. The brief called for 12 demonstrator stations, each with a PC, a document camera, a wireless input for a tablet PC and wired inputs for laptops, microscopes and other experimental equipment. Video sources could be switched to selected wallmounted monitors between each pair of benches and were also to be delivered direct to a PC at each student position. Demonstrators would each
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Long Hall: The UTS Super Lab is 52 metres long, with space for 220 students. The 26 workbenches seat eight students each and are fitted with touchscreen PCs and microphones, to allow up to 12 classes to work concurrently. The neon blue 'traffic light’ alerts students to don their headphones and tune in to the lecturer. Students can hit a button, turning the light amber to alert the lecturer they have a question. Red, means a student requires some assistance. The alerts also show on the demonstrator’s Crestron control panel.
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Crestron X-Panel places a virtual touchpanel directly on the instructors’ PC screen. The instructor can drag and drop any source to either the wall monitors or the student PC screens.
have a wireless headset to allow for a two-way conversations with students in their class group. It quickly emerged that the Crestron DMPS300-C all-in-one presentation switcher would be the ideal core for each of the 12 teaching stations. The system would provide local control, as well as video source switching and audio deembedding and mixing. Output signals would then be routed to the central equipment rack via Digital Media across a single Cat6a cable. At the rack, a Crestron DM-MD32x32 Digital Media Switcher provided outputs to the monitors as well handling the combining tasks feeding signals back to the benches. One problem sorted, three to go! To provide feeds to the student PCs, the UTS team turned to IP transmission and hit upon a novel method for routing the signals. Each station was equipped with a Matrox streaming encoder fed by a separate HDMI output from the DMPS-300-C. Each demonstrator’s stream had a unique URL and each student PC decodes and displays the stream using the familiar VLC software player. Then came the clever bit. When the demonstrator selected a student to be in a group, the Crestron control system used software scripting to force their computer to open the VLC player and tune in to the correct demonstrator stream from the 12 available. Two problems down, thanks to flexible control over IP! AUDIO DECODE
Now, as Rob Hardy recalled, things got tougher. “The surprising thing was the audio,” Rob said. “We anticipated that the switching to make the space adaptable for different size classes was always going to be a problem but it became apparent very quickly that to find a two-way audio solution for 220 students in up to 12 groups was going to either be really, really costly – or very hard. We tried various different manufacturers, and different industries as well, just to determine if there was anything out there that would help us with the two-way communication. We even looked at smartphones
Starting a session is as easy as touching the bench icons that are part of the group and pressing ‘Begin Session’.
– but that wasn’t particularly practical.” Finding enough UHF wireless spectrum was difficult so UTS finally settled on a hybrid solution. Each of the 12 demonstrators was equipped with a Sennheiser radio microphone and headset monitoring system on a different channel. Back at the central rack, the receivers and transmitters were connected to an audio matrix. From the matrix, any desired demonstrator’s microphone could be sent back via cable to any selected student bench. At the bench, a Williams Sound transmitter operating in the 2.4GHz ISM band provided signal to eight pre-tuned receivers and headsets for the students. But what about if a student wanted to talk back? A wireless microphone per student was out of the question – there weren’t enough clear channels, and anyway, how could you control and direct all the traffic from 220 student transmitters? The UTS solution was brilliant – traffic lights! A bollard was built into the bench between each pair or students. At the top, was a signal light tied back to the Crestron control system. When the instructor started a session, this light would illuminate blue to signal the students to put on their headsets and listen in. If someone needed to ask a question, they pressed a button on the bollard which turned their bollard ‘traffic light’ orange to warn the instructor someone wanted to speak. This also brought up an indicator on their instructor’s Crestron control panel. When a teacher was ready to take the question, they touched the indicator on their screen, which activated a microphone mounted on that student’s bollard. This allowed teachers to easily see when there was a question and avoided the cacophony that might ensue if a number of students tried to talk back at once. There’s also a ‘panic button’ on each bollard that lights red if someone needs immediate assistance. RING MASTER
By this stage, there was an awful lot for the control system to do. It needed to switch video, direct IP streams, route two-way audio, control
and respond to traffic lights… all from up to 12 locations simultaneously. Fortunately Crestron, and the UTS programmers, were up to the job and had been developing the control strategy alongside the hardware design on the proof-ofconcept system. Knowing that a clear graphical interface would be crucial, the designers chose to use the Crestron X-Panel which placed a virtual touchpanel directly on the instructors’ PC screen. This gave plenty of screen space (up to 24 inches) for the interface when needed and freed up precious bench real estate by using one screen instead of two. The key element would be devising an intuitive way for each instructor to select the correct benches to include in their own group. Rob Hardy succinctly explained how the final design works: “There’s an icon on the desktop when they start. The icon opens a full-screen plan of the SuperLab so they can see where all the benches are. They simply select by physically touching each bench icon they want to be a part of their group, then they press ‘Begin Session’ to commence. On the next screen they can drag and drop any source to either the wall monitors or the student PC screens. Once that is happening they can minimise or reduce the X-Panel window and they’ve got access to the rest of the computer and the network if they wish.” The result is so elegant that it all looks simple… well, almost. But there’s a power of work that went into the design, testing, installation, interfacing, programming and commissioning to achieve that simplicity.
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Station Master: Each station is equipped with a Matrox streaming encoder fed by a separate HDMI output from the Crestron DMPS-300-C presentations switcher. Each demonstrator’s stream has a unique URL and each student PC decodes and displays the stream using the familiar VLC software player.
EQUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTS 1x Crestron 32x32 DigitalMedia Switcher 21x Crestron Digital Media Input Card 6x Crestron DMCO-55 4 Output DM Output Card 6x Crestron DM CAT w/3 HDMI Output Card 5x Crestron DIN Rail Automation Processor 1x Crestron CP3N 3-Series Control System with AV-Lan 4x Crestron DMPS-200-C DM Presentation System 200 12x Crestron DMPS-300-C DM Presentation System 300 21x Crestron Airmedia Wireless Input Devices 21x Crestron 8G Receiver & Room Controller w/Scaler 5x Crestron DigitalMedia 8G+ Transmitter 401 9x Crestron TSW-550 5-inch Touch Panel 12x Wolfvision VZ-8L4 Document Visualiser 9x SmartBoard SBX885-SMP 88-inch Multitouch IWB 12x Matrox Maevex Streaming Encoder 12x NEC V-Series 65-Inch LCD 1x Samsung 230MXN 23-inch Room Booking Panel 215x Dell all-in-one PCs 12x Williams Sound Digidock & 2.4GHz Transmitters 246x Williams Sound Student Receivers & Headsets 12x Sennheiser 5.4GHz wireless mic sets 12x Sennheiser eW-300 IEM receivers 12x BSS BLU-100 DSP Processors
PERSONNEL UTS Audio Visual Services Senior Project Manager: Rob Hardy AV Designer & DSP programmer: Raife Merchant AV Applications & Systems Integration Specialist (Crestron Programmer): David Connolly Commissioning Technician: Josh Thomas Guidance & management support: Reg Collins Crestron Representative: Bignesh ‘Vicky’ Dayal AV integrator: Star (Electrical) Audio Visual Consultant: Alder Consulting
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Any Given Sunday Part rock concert, part plenary session, part live broadcast, part multicast stream‌ little wonder Hillsong does things differently. Story: Christopher Holder
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very Sunday an enormous AV production and broadcast machine kicks into action. It’s as sophisticated and as disciplined as any in the region. It’s a church. But not just any church, it’s Hillsong. Everyone’s heard of Hillsong. If you’re aligned to a church you’ll know the Hillsong music, and be aware of its huge conferences. If you’re in the AV business you’ll know they’re a big consumer of product. (If you’re neither in the business nor in a church you’ll have seen Hillsong in the mainstream media.) But unless you’re an integral part of the Hillsong team you don’t know the half of it. Hillsong is going gangbusters… internationally gangbusters. There are 15 permanent campuses in Australia and a growing number overseas, from LA to Kiev. It all emanates from Hillsong’s home base in Sydney’s Hills district where the 3500-capacity auditorium heaves three times a Sunday to a slickly packaged combination of brilliantly presented contemporary worship music and inspirational messages from the pulpit. Each service requires the work of dozens of staff and volunteers: audio, lighting, comms, broadcast, video, camera operators, graphics, CCU, tech direction, production… it’s an enormous undertaking from an array of individuals each committed to getting the best result and doing even better next time. After receiving Adamson’s ‘Worldwide Sound Reinforcement Partnership’ press release a little while back, AV Asia Pacific decided it was high time to pay Hillsong another visit, our first since the church installed an Adamson Y10 rig in 2011. So first, let’s look at the big Adamson news. We sat down with Steve Le Roux, Hillsong’s Technical Facilities Manager for some background. ADAMSON & EVE
Steve Le Roux: “Upgrading to the Adamson Y10 changed everything [start of 2011]. Up until that point, the system we had wasn’t delivering and it was hurting the team. It was
a difficult PA to mix on because it performed differently at one sound pressure level to another level. You couldn’t train and develop people because it was almost like an old gearbox without synchronisation, where you had to build up the revs but you’re grinding away regardless. “The problem was a quirk of the product, the amplification, and the fact the array was too short for the space, resulting in holes in the coverage — as you walked from stage to the mix position you went through maybe six patchy zones. It really was a difficult system. So to use the gearbox analogy again, moving to the Adamson Y10 was like going from a manual gearbox without synchromesh to a smooth automatic. “That upgrade also built up a lot of trust between leadership and the tech team. The system met all expectations, we got it in on budget and the church just lifted — the worship experience was so much better and the message was heard everywhere.” SHOOTOUT HEAVEN
Selecting the Y10 came as a result of an exhaustive series of system tests. The Hillsong tech team invited the big players to temporarily fly a rig in the Hills campus, for a week or so at a time, whereupon all the key operators had a chance to mix a service. Scorecards were handed out among the tech team, the musicians and the leadership. According to Hillsong’s Steve Le Roux and Hillsong’s technical infrastructure leader, Ricki Cook, Adamson was a clear winner. This time around, a more modest shootout was staged at the church’s Waterloo campus for a smaller line source solution. The Adamson S10 won the day. Adamson’s Australian distributor CMI, in a savvy commercial move, kicked off a conversation with Hillsong that led to a deal for Adamson to supply the church’s global PA requirements. The idea was attractive to Hillsong as it could standardise its PA technology, which makes the rollout of new campuses just that little bit easier — not only to design and install but in the
training of operators. The deal included an E12 upgrade of the main campus system. When the Y10 rig was installed, the Y Series was soon to be superceded by the E series which leverages Adamson’s most recent driver and waveguide designs. The new system is based on two main hangs of 12 x E12 with side hangs of 10 x E12. Spaced dead centre between the main and side hangs are three E119 subs in a cardioid configuration (the middle box is facing backwards). There are a further six T21 subs flown in the centre (in an end-fired cardioid configuration) for further LF reinforcement [more on how the system is configured next page]. BROADCAST DEMANDS
Hillsong’s broadcast capabilities are formidable. (In fact, it has recently launched a 24-hour Hillsong channel on the TBN Network, broadcasting globally, but that’s another story.) The broadcast capability started with the need to record services for online streaming. Once multiple cameras became a reality, the broadcast suite became increasingly sophisticated with vision switchers, multiple video monitors with picture-in-picture capabilities, a Euphonix digital mixing console for the audio mix, overseen by a producer calling the shots. The team would hone its skills on producing special events packages and the production values would increase year on year. With new campuses due to go online the Hillsong leadership team threw Ricki Cook and the tech team a curve ball: ‘How can we multicast the Hills campus sermon to the satellite Hillsong churches in Sydney, and even Melbourne, Brisbane and elsewhere?’ MULTICAST OF THOUSANDS
Here’s an example of how a Sunday morning might play out between the Hills HQ and the two Sydney City campuses: The Hills campus’ first service starts at 9.15am, the Alexandria campus starts at 9.30 and Waterloo at 9.45am. To share the sermon with
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the two city campuses (where the AV package would be beamed onto the other sites’ screens and PA), Hills would record the service then play it back at the appropriate point. While it’s recording, teams in the Alexandria and Waterloo campuses will be watching the feed from HQ. Those satellite teams, in their own respective broadcast suites, can record, playback and cue the recording. The satellite team member will find the jump-in spot and use that as the cue point. Having a system that simultaneously takes care of record and playback was a technical hurdle to jump. But to ensure that having Pastor Brian Houston dropping into your church didn’t feel like someone pressing Play on a VCR, music from the Hills HQ is also piped in. Here’s how that works: If Pastor Brian unexpectedly throws to a song, then the local music team can play along with the Hills worship team. Each audio operator will bring up the Band stereo stem, Leader and Vocalist stems. The local monitor engineer will already have brought up the click and cue stem (shout mic audio from the music director). The remote campuses can then jump in, with the band taking their cues from the Hills team and the FOH operators mixing as much or as little of the local team as they like through the house PA. It’s a clever approach, especially when you add a bunch of other Hillsong campuses and the ability to pull off the same trick in reverse (ie. the Waterloo or Alexandria campus sending a feed with eight channels of audio to the Hills HQ). THROWING OUT STREAMERS
As you might expect, Ricki Cook has given the streaming setup much consideration. As the level of complexity rose he sought to simplify matters to ensure his Sunday tech teams (largely composed of volunteers) could get a result and deal with the unexpected without meltdowns. “Sometimes the streaming schedule would change unexpectedly and the volunteer would have to phone a tech to
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FEATURE
HANGING OUT WITH ADAMSON
MEET THE ADAMSON E SERIES
The Hills campus auditorium is cavernous and notoriously tricky in the low end. The 45–52Hz area can lose definition and get away from you pretty quickly. The Adamson E119s single-19 subs are flown in a position that ensures perfect coupling with both the main hang and the side hang. The theory goes that if you arrayed the E119s alongside the main hangs you would have perfect coupling to the front but once you move to side the path lengths change, and you won’t get proper coupling with the side hangs. By positioning the subs in a way that the distance between the subs and the two hangs is the same overcomes this issue. Rounding out the system (and part of the original Y10 install) are six Adamson T21 subs (two hangs of three) in end fire mode. Not you’re everyday end-fire configuration, they use a proprietary Adamson preset that provides for more consistent real world damping across the audio bandwidth as opposed to great damping in one frequency range and not so much in others.
The Adamson E Series is made up of two full-range cabs: the E12 and the E15. The 12s and the 15s share the same co-linear mid/high section (based on a seveninch kevlar cone and a four-inch compression driver) and the same crossover frequency. The E12 has a wider and higher (110° x 8°) dispersion compared to the longerthrow (90° x 6°) E15. The E15 is suited to large-scale applications, while Adamson recommends the E12 for use up to a throw of around 80m. With a maximum throw distance of some 50m, the Hillsong system uses a 12-box main hang of E12s. Adamson manufactures most of its transducer designs, and the 19-inch driver of the E119 and E219 subs represents the company’s push to improve performance and reduce the size of the driver and weight… and also not worry too much about whether it’s an 18 or a 21inch driver. The E219 is designed with a high impedance so you can run two in parallel, something you couldn’t do with the legacy T21 — mainly because there wasn’t an amp at the time of its release (2005) that could deliver that kind of performance in a 4Ω load. Nowadays, a single Lab.Gruppen PLM20K44 can run three E219 cabs, resulting in cost savings. Adamson now exclusively recommends Lab.Gruppen amps.
ADAMSON S10: THE CAB THAT COULD The S10 is a more recent addition to the Adamson lineup and a response to the market for: something smaller (it’s a two-way), more flexible and more cost effective, that could happily be driven from a minimal number of amp channels (as many as eight cabinets per amp), but still be a true line source. Like the E12, the S10 provides a 110° horizontal coverage and has the same sonic signature as the E12 above 2kHz (with its four-inch titanium compression driver). The S10 doesn’t have the nifty colinear drive module of the E12 but has the same waveguide (to ensure phase alignment of the mids and highs). Unconventionally, the 10-inch drivers splay outwards to provide the symmetrical horizontal dispersion. Prior to the Hills campus shootout, Hillsong pulled the trigger on a number of S10 purchases for its Waterloo and Brisbane campus.
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FEATURE
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FEATURE
Broadcast suite of Hillsong’s Alexandria campus: as a satellite site it can receive streamed video and audio stems or, indeed, stream out to multiple campuses.
change the source of the stream.” Instead Ricki and his team use a program called VSM, which allows him to design a simple UI where the operator can choose the source (either one of the Hills venues or a link from another campus with broadcast capabilities). The interface conveniently includes a small video live feed window and audio meters for extra confidence. VSM replaces banks of hardware video source/destination switches, with each VSM preset taking care of some really quite involved re-routing routines in the background: “That one apparent change to a video router sets off a chain of commands that will automatically change the audio router, Lawo VPros might be reembedding everything onto the SDI feed, and then back to the streaming servers and up onto YouTube. That’s a massive undertaking in the background all from one button press on a touchscreen. NETWORKING: JUST PLUG IN
Ricki Cook is also Hillsong’s network guru. With AV accounting for the majority of network traffic, he argues that he needs to be. We began discussing networking while up in the gantry 15m above the
platform looking at the lighting — which runs on the Ethernet-based Pathport protocol. Ricki Cook: “The MA Lighting GrandMA2 runs Artnet to the main Pathnet node. It then runs on our existing Ethernet infrastructure. The Ethernet plugs in then breaks it out as two universes of DMX. When you hang a fixture on one of those nodes, you select which universe you want to output. It makes it really easy.” Ricki Cook has plans to consolidate his networking even further. He’s using the current build of the Epicentre facility as a networking proving ground: “The next building goes one step further. At the moment you have to plug a fixture into a dedicated lighting network — the Lighting VLAN. In the new Epicentre you’ll be able to plug into any Ethernet port you like. The network will recognise the device; authenticate it; and put it in the right VLAN for it to start working.” This approach to networking will be a godsend. It means rooms can be especially versatile. For example, the Epicentre will have spaces that serve as lecture rooms during the week and as a small band rehearsal space of an evening or the weekend.
Rick Cook again: “The musicians can wheel in a compact rack with a couple of Yamaha Rio interfaces on Dante. They can pull out a couple of Ethernet cables that will plug into the nearest Ethernet port and the network will auto-provision that. It removes the complexity.” It almost sounds too good to be true, but Ricki has been playing with SDN (software defined networking) for some time: “I’ve been working with a system from Avaya. Once you plug a device into an Ethernet port it sends an identifying Ethernet frame out; the network switch picks it up, detects the MAC address, looks it up in a database — ‘you’re a Yamaha Rio and you belong to this particular VLAN’ — and if everything lines up, it automatically drops it in. It means that as we buy Ethernet devices we take the MAC address, turn it into a QR code, stick it on the device and when someone wants to authenticate that device in a different venue or room we can scan that QR code on a smartphone, type in an admin password, tell it which VLAN it needs to be on, authenticate it, give it a minute, and bang, it’s up. “This approach is great for our tech team. You don’t have to phone
the IT department: ‘I’ve just plugged into Port 43, I think, but it’s not coming up... can you switch that to VLAN 601 for me?’ And the poor help desk guy is thinking ‘I don’t know if I should do that’. Instead he’ll create a ticket, escalates it up until it hits a service engineer. Which all takes time. This way, as soon as you unplug a device, the port shuts down and resets back to a zero state, which mean you can plug in a TV or whatever the next day, even an AMX controller — the network will recognise it and put it in the AMX VLAN.” SAME HY MN BOOK
It’s fascinating to see an institutional tech rollout of this magnitude and sophistication. Hillsong really is writing its own AV production and broadcast playbook, as its needs are unique. Yes, there are bigger AV productions; yes, there are more complicated live and recorded broadcast gigs; yes, Hillsong isn’t the first to adopt software defined networking… but it’s arguably Robinson Crusoe when it comes to combining all these disciplines weekin, week-out across multiple sites.
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NEWS
Industry Update AV CALENDAR
InfoComm International is getting ready to host several events that will be of major relevance to the professional AV industry. By the time you read this, the annual InfoComm tradeshow and conference in Las Vegas will have been and gone. A few weeks later, AV installation technicians in Australia will have the opportunity to attend the InfoComm AV Installation Skills Day, held on 29 June 2016 in Sydney. “We are excited to bring AV Installation Skills training back to Australia,” said Jonathan Seller, InfoComm Senior Director of Development, Asia Pacific. “For the first time, this training will be offered as a one-day course. This has been one of our most popular courses in other countries in Asia Pacific, often sold out and with additional sessions being scheduled to meet our members’ demand.” AV INSTALLATION SKILLS TRAINING The AV Installation Skills Day on 29 June 2016 in Sydney will be offered for the first time as a one-day course format. This hands-on training is ideal for installation technicians who want to learn essential skills and techniques to work with cables and connectors. In a single day, students will learn and practice correct cable termination procedures, and also gain knowledge of cable considerations, pulling techniques, and power and earthing. Safe practices will be discussed and practiced throughout the course. “This course gives installation technicians the skills to correctly terminate all the major cable and connector types commonly used in the AV industry, with the advantage of the opportunity to practice them during the course,” explained Rod Brown, CTS-D, CTS-I, the new Regional Director for Oceania. This course is open to anyone interested, with a special discount offered to InfoComm members. Places are limited. Please contact oceania@infocomm.org to register. ROD BROWN: NEW REGIONAL DIRECTOR InfoComm International has announced the promotion of Rod Brown, CTS-D, CTS-I, to Regional Director – Oceania. In his new role, he will be responsible for managing InfoComm membership services, the education program in the region, InfoComm certification and the Australia Advisory Group. “We are very pleased to see Rod take on the role of Regional Director – Oceania,” said Jonathan Seller, Senior Director Development, Asia Pacific, InfoComm International. “This position was created with our commitment in mind to further enhance services to InfoComm International members in the region. Due to his longstanding career in the AV industry and
through his service as our regional staff instructor, Rod is highly regarded by our InfoComm members. He brings extensive experience and connections within the industry to this role.” Prior to his promotion, Rod served as an InfoComm staff instructor, teaching InfoComm University courses, presenting seminars at industry events and delivering AV education webinars. He also worked on the creation of new and updated learning content. He was the first Australian to earn his CTS-D certification. Rod's expertise, particularly at a practical level, comes from his extensive experience in broadcast television, live theatre, concerts and cinema. He has been involved in education for many years, particularly in sound production techniques and acoustics, and has been a seminar panellist for the Audio Engineering Society. Prior to joining InfoComm, Rod was a sound and audiovisual communications consultant based in Melbourne, Australia. His company served clients in the corporate, education, entertainment, legislative, transportation and worship markets in Australia and internationally. During this period, he was awarded Honorary Life Governorship of Vision Australia for his contribution to establishing audio description of theatre performances. STARDRAW ADOPTS STANDARDISED AV SYMBOLS In other major news, software provider Stardraw.com has licensed a standardised set of architectural floor plans and ceiling plans symbols for audio, video and control systems. The company plans to implement them into its AV design and documentation software. The adoption of standardised symbols by a major AV design software provider confirms once more the importance of universal consistency in commercial AV design and documentation. Pro AV companies in Australia are also recognising the need of standardised AV symbols. Said Pasquale Valpied, CTS-D, partner and consultant at Parity Technology Consulting, a firm in Melbourne that specialises in government, education, corporate and performing arts, “It is very important for all AV designers to utilise a standard set of symbols, to ensure we are all ‘speaking the same language’. A key benefit is in allowing other service providers such as architects, project managers and electrical engineers to quickly grasp the AV requirements from a set of drawings. We already understand the common symbols from other services such as electrical and data, so also providing standard AV symbols makes perfect sense.” Valpied’s business partner and consultant Andrew Hicks, CTS-D, added, “Standardisation of AV symbols will help provide consistent documentation across our industry and a unified front to the IT and construction industry.”
Integrate Sydney, August 23-25 www.integrate-expo.com Infocomm India Mumbai, September 12-14 www.infocomm-india.com PLASA London, September 18-20 www.plasashow.com AES Los Angeles, September 29–Oct 2 www.aes.org/events Melbourne InfoComm Networking Event Melbourne, 4 October Sydney InfoComm Business Forum + Networking Event Sydney, 18 October LDI Las Vegas, October 17-23 www.ldishow.com SMPTE Hollywood, October 24-28 www.smpte.org Inform Middle East & Africa Dubai, December 6-8 www.infocomm-mea.com
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TUTORIAL
ARE YOU READY?
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TUTORIAL
Cable Preparation Correctly preparing the cable is the key to a good termination.
The following is an excerpt from Installation Online: Introduction to Installation. These and other topics will be covered in greater detail, with hands-on skills practice, during InfoComm’s Install Skills Day in Sydney during 2016. For enquiries or to enrol contact Jonathan Seller at oceania@infocomm.org
B
efore you actually terminate a connector onto a cable you need to prepare the cable. First, let's look at some tools which will help you in this part of the termination process:
COAX CABLE STRIPPING
EVALUATING STRIPPED CABLE
Another type of cable stripper you may encounter is the coaxial cable stripper. Some coax strippers are designed with the blades in cassettes, which can be easily changed to keep the tool sharp. These razor sharp blades usually require some adjustment before a proper cut can be completed. The tool manufacturer will provide specific adjustment instructions.
After stripping, always inspect the cable to confirm there is no damage to the conductor(s) or the insulation, and that the cuts are neat and expose the correct amount of the conductor(s).
CABLE STRIPPING
Stripping is the process of preparing the cable for the connector by removing the jacket, and sometimes insulation, from its end to reveal the conductor(s). Precise stripping ensures a good physical and impedance match with the connector. If you strip the cable improperly you can, among other things, distort the shape of the insulation. Doing so can alter the impedance properties of a cable. Blunt blades cause inconsistent or uneven cuts and waste time and money. Always use a sharp tool so you get a precise cut. Use a stripping tool designed for the cable and connector. Do not use pliers or other general purpose cutters. Using the proper tool also helps to prevent injuries. It is not uncommon for technicians to injure themselves using a utility knife to strip cable, particularly larger cables. WIRE STRIPPERS
There are many different sizes and types of cable and wire. Some tools, like the one below, can be used to strip several different sizes. The stripper is placed over the appropriate spot on the cable, the jaws are closed so they cut through the jacket or insulation without damaging the wire, and the tool is pulled towards the end of the cable to remove the waste material.
Nicked conductor
Frayed jacket edges
HEAT SHRINK
Fitting heat shrink tubing is another aspect of cable preparation. You typically do this between stripping the cable and making the termination.
Coaxial cable stripping tool
When using a properly adjusted coax stripper, which is correct for the cable and connector, stripping and trimming the various parts of the cable is completed in a single action. The tool is placed over the end of the cable and rotated around it until the blades have cut to the appropriate depths. The waste parts are then slid off the end of the cable, and it is ready to terminate after inspection.
Heat shrink tubing
Heat shrink tubing strengthens connections on cables because it stabilises the cable assembly, especially where the connector joins the cable. To shrink the heat shrink, after the connector has been terminated to the cable, you use a heat gun.
A heat gun looks like a hair dryer.
Stripping coaxial cable
Stripping wire
Correctly stripped
The heat shrink replaces the stripped insulation and jacket near the connector on a low voltage AV cable. All you need to do is slip the piece of heat shrink tubing over the end of the cable, perform the termination, slide the heat shrink over or up against the termination, and apply heat using a heat gun. Do not use an open flame to shrink heat shrink tubing.
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TUTORIAL
CABLE TERMINATION PROBLEMS
Using a heat gun on heat shrink tubing conforms the tube to the cable
The tubing shrinks to tightly cover and protect the cable. Most heat shrink reduces by up to half its diameter when shrunk.
Improper termination (physical or electrical) is the source of most problems in an audiovisual system. It is always good to check connectors and cables to be sure everything is stable before completing the installation and when troubleshooting. Be methodical, going through the cabling and connections in a systematic manner. Check every cable leading to and from one device before moving to the next. While somewhat painstaking, such a sequential check will be the most effective, and may uncover more problems than you were originally aware of.
Terminations with heat shrink
We recommend using heat shrink tubing on all terminations because it adds strain relief, and creates a professional-looking finished product.
Poor Termination Example
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Control the position of your moving lights easily
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ANIMATE
Adjust the brightness of any fixture with dedicated faders
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Quickly select a colour from the pre-defined colour set
Add circles, ballyhoos & other effects to your moving lights
Simple touchscreen control for all other fixture functions
Bring your colour & movement to life.
Poor compression gate termination examples
CONCLUSION
Correctly preparing the cable is the key to a good termination. For example, if you nick any of the wires and don't realise it until you've already installed the cable you could have a serious problem. That's why you need to prepare by carefully stripping your cables using the correct tools and techniques, and apply heat shrink, before you begin the actual termination.
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REVIEW
Casio XJ-F210WN Hybrid Laser Projector Text: Brad Watts
I
t’s amazing we put up with them for as long as we did. I guess we had no choice. The traditional incandescent lamp-based projector is one inefficient beast of a contraption. A traditional lamp emits white light, and that white light has to be broken down into red, green and blue, which, somewhat ironically, is re-mixed to recreate white light. This process produces enormous amounts of heat, which as we know, represents wasted energy. It’s wasted energy produced by the projector blocking every other colour from that white lamp source, chewing up power that could be used elsewhere. Then consider the countermeasures required for the projector to display black — regardless of whether its DLP or LCD, that’s a lot of energy blowing out the vent. Being the hot-houses they are, typical mercury vapour lamp projectors can go through a number of lamps in their useful lifetime, and UHP or Xenon lamps aren’t cheap — anything from $100+ to thousands. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but that’s a lot of dough to be coughing up every year by any institution with a bunch of projectors. But it’s not as expensive as man hours. Which is why many institutions would have a regular facility-wide lamp replacement program, especially if it meant hiring a scissor lift for the occasion. In other words, the total cost of ownership of lamp-based projectors is, as they say, non trivial. There’s an environmental dimension to consider as well. Those lamps contain mercury vapour — not so much of an issue in settings where the projector is installed, but all those worn out lamps need to be safely disposed of somewhere. Mercury hangs around forever, and it’s quite toxic. I think
This is one of my favourite features: you can use the projector’s back panel USB port as a 5V power source to run Chromecast/screen mirroring dongles that plug into the HDMI socket. Again, it’s a desktop/mobile godsend for prepping a meeting in a hurry — potentially one less power cord and/or one less HDMI lead for easy screen mirroring.
USB-A (DC 5V)
HDMI
USB power supply Stick device
we can all agree that completely phasing out the use of mercury lamps is good for sea turtles, good for humans, and good for the planet. Certainly the UN agrees, with its Minimata Convention permanently prohibiting the use of mercury in light sources as of 2020. CASE FOR LASER
Now we have laser. And we like it because it far more efficient. Here’s why: Unlike a traditional UHP or Xenon lamp, a laser diode can be designed to produce a single colour. This in itself is a boon for projector
manufacturers as all that wasted energy from a purely white light source can be used to power a single coloured laser. This results in almost instantaneous warmup times, less electricity consumption, and, more of that energy being converted into light travelling through the lens. From a performance perspective, laser projector can produce rich colours and thanks to its ability to turn off and on quickly, the blacks are blacker, resulting in high contrast ratios and consequently very sharp images. Laser-lit projectors solve a number of issues. Brightness and contrast, colour gamut and
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Resolution maxes out at 1920x1200 from computer devices, with standard DTV and HDTV resolution ranging from 480i through to 1080p. Native resolution is WXGA (1280 x 800). The unit will automatically ascertain the video input signal, be that NTSC and its variants, through to various flavours of PAL and SECAM. Audio can be shunted in and out, with RCA and 3.5mm-jack input connectors, and a 3.5mm jack for output (variable). For remote control there’s a standard infrared remote, or there’s a RS-232C serial connection that'll happily to talk to AMX, Crestron, and Extron protocols. Standby power represents a paltry 0.23W/2.3W, and runs up to 205W when on and full brightness is engaged.
Connectivity is extensive: along with two HDMI A, RGB component (mini D-sub 15-pin) and composite video inputs, there’s the capacity to present material for display via standard ethernet IP networks, wireless networks using the optional Wi-Fi LAN adapter, or from a PC or Mac via USB connection. If that isn’t enough, you can also read from USB
density, and ‘green’ environmental factors, however the most compelling advantage is the lifetime of a laser. Sitting on my workbench is such a device: the Casio XJ-F210WN. Casio has had skin in the laser projection game longer than anyone (it’s credited with inventing laser projection in 2010) and is now up to a sixth generation light source where others are up to two or three. The half-life of this little projector’s light source is rated at around 20,000 hours — that’s over two years of continuous projection, with no need for any maintenance whatsoever, let alone replacing an expansive lamp. (Chances are you’ll replace the projector before you’ve clocked up that 20,000 hours.) HYBRID THOROUGHBRED
The XJ-F210WN is a ‘hybrid’ design, meaning it uses a mixture of laser and LED light sources, with a 0.65-inch Texas Instruments DLP chip for image reproduction. Hybrid, in the world of projection lighting could mean any variation of laser, LED, and phosphor wheels. Casio’s ‘hybrid’ uses a blue light laser, combined with a red LED. By bouncing some of the blue light via a phosphor wheel, green light is produced, thus attaining the RGB trinity needed to produce an image when bounced off the imaging surface – in this case, a DLP micro-mirror chip. Casio proudly declare the design to be ‘lamp free’ which of course is completely true. With a brightness measured at 3500 lumens, it’s a good tripling compared with the brightness available form similarly sized and priced projectors from a mere five years ago. The XJ-F210WN sits in Casio’s new Advanced lineage of projectors, with the ~$2k price tag looking particularly
memory sticks, or even transfer material to the unit’s 2GB of onboard RAM. Project movie files, PDF files, or even connect a camera directly to the unit. Many of these options are ideal for mobile presentations, and could negate the need to carry a laptop altogether.
attractive when you know you’ll never need to add lamp purchases to the tally. Casio has a lot of confidence in the ‘lamp-free’ technology – so much so the company offers a five-year/10,000 hour parts and labour warranty, with a five year warranty on the light source. SIZE MATTERS
The XJ-F210WN produces an impressively-sized image — up to 300-inch diagonal is possible. The minimum throw distance is 90cm (providing a 35-inch image) while a 100-inch projection size can be achieved in as little as 2.8m. Automatic keystone correction will take care of your image for impromptu sessions, with manual keystone correction available for permanent installations. And, thanks to a five second startup time, your image or presentation is ready to roll in less than the time it took to plug the unit in. In fact, to make setup even faster, the XJ-F210WN has a built-in light sensor, and will adjust the projector automatically to suit ambient light levels. With so many advantages to laser light sources, it’s little wonder that all the big players are investing heavily into lamp-free projection. As far as the XJ-F210WN goes, I like what is has to offer. For installation into set and forget positions there’s ample control via serial connection, and there’s the ability to stream via ethernet or wireless LANs – viewing material is only a laptop or desktop machine away. It really is a onestep install, something educational institutions or conferencing facilities will appreciate in their AV trolleys. Access to the projector via wireless network, or indeed sneaker-network for transferral of visual material makes the Casio projectors a compelling solution.
Casio’s hybrid solid state light source uses a blue light laser, combined with a red LED. By bouncing some of the blue light via a phosphor wheel, green light is produced, thus attaining the RGB trinity needed to produce an image when bounced off the imaging surface – in this case, a 0.65-inch DLP micro-mirror chip.
WARRANTY Standard: 5-year/10,000-hour parts and labour warranty. 5-year warranty on light source. Shriro Australia: 1300 768 112 Web: www.casioprojector.shriro.com.au PRICING XJF210WN: $1999; XJF200WN: $1799; YW40: $159
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Dante Via Audio Networking Software Text:/ Brad Watts
REVIEW
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REVIEW
A
udio networking, the concept of delivering audio via standard ethernet style Cat5, Cat6, or fibreoptic cables has been around for some time. Yet in the early days of its development there were many caveats — using supported switches, and dedicating the physical cabling of such networks solely to the required audio (and/or video) network. There was also the spectre of latency — the inevitable tardiness of digital data being shunted via ethernet cabling could make or break the usefulness of an audio network especially. A decade ago, and following a number of years in development, Audinate unleashed Dante — an AV networking system that could piggyback onto an existing ethernet or fibreoptic network. Yes, Dante functioned on any network, with a guaranteed latency quotient. It was also switch and router agnostic, in which case you could ostensibly hang Dante-aware peripheral equipment, such as audio recording and playback devices, digital mixers and stageboxes, speakers, amplifiers, embedders and de-embedders, off an existing network, and know your digital audio would be delivered glitch-free and in time. Consequently, Dante has grown to become the dominant defacto standard for AV networking and integration within sound venues, corporate AV installs, OB vans, and indeed, broadcasting facilities. Dante is even making its way into recording studios. As mentioned, the range of Dante-aware hardware is large and getting larger. Logistically, Dante is the first and final choice for integrating an audio system network. VIRTUAL REALITY
This is all very well for Dante-equipped equipment speaking with other Dante endowed hardware, but what if you need to apply this same integration between the countless ‘virtual’ pieces of hardware within a standalone computer? Or even have an audio application running on said computer access to the aforementioned Dante hardware. Or, in fact, augment an audio interface without Dante support, into a device which can integrate into a Dante network. Enter Audinate’s Dante Via. Dante Via is this missing link. This software application, with a quick flick of the download and install button, not only turns your Mac or PC into networked Dante hardware, it also bestows all your audio software with Dante smarts. Audinate offers a 30-day unhindered demo period for Dante Via, so there’s no reason not to grab it and give it a whirl. The lightweight 54MB download is compatible with OSX 10.95, 10.10.5, and 10.11. In Windows-land you’ll need Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8.1, or Windows 10. System requirements for both operating systems start at i5 processors (which unfortunately will rule out many laptops), 4GB of RAM, and a
it’s really up to whatever you can think of, knowing you can flick an audio signal to and from your computers with a drag and a drop 1Gbps network interface — easily attainable stipulations. Plus you’ll need a 1Gbps network switch or router for gaining access between other computers with Dante Via or/or Dante hardware — beware ‘EEE’ (or ‘Energy Efficient Ethernet’) switches. Notice there’s been no mention of wi-fi thus far? That’s because wi-fi is strictly unsupported. It’s simply not fast enough, and let’s be honest, it can be flakey at the best of times. Dante networks can handle up 32-bit/192k audio streams — today’s wireless speeds simply couldn’t deal with it. That said, Dante Via keeps audio within the 24-but/48k realm. Should you not be able to live without Dante Via at the end of the demo period, the cost isn’t prohibitive (US$49.95), and the licence will allow up to five instances of the software. Note, if you’re using the Dante Controller and/ or Dante Virtual Soundcard on other computers on the network, you have to upgrade to the latest versions of these apps to use in tandem with Dante Via. ON THE ROAD WITH VIA
So enough of the background. Let’s look around the Via GUI and see what can be done. Following installation (on OSX, which is from where these descriptions will follow), start Dante Via and you’ll be presented with a reasonably simple drag and drop interface, with Audio Sources on the left, and Audio Destinations on the right. Sources can be Local Devices such as the computer’s onboard audio inputs, or indeed, inputs on any connected audio interface. Below this is the Local Applications area. Here, applications that can generate audio are listed. This includes DAWs, browsers, media players, Skype, iTunes — literally any application that can produce audio — up to 32 x 32 channels. However, streaming between applications is limited to 2 x 2 channels. Beside each of these source options is a tick box to enable Dante for those devices. Below this is an area for other computers/devices running Dante Via and the input sources for each of these devices. Then finally we see another area representing Dante hardware devices taking part in your network.
Moving to the right side of the GUI we find Audio Destinations. These include any hardware device or software application that can receive audio from the computer, or indeed the network: Dante-equipped mixers, amplifiers, speakers etc. Below this are Local Application destinations, and here you can shunt audio from applications such as browsers and media players, even Dante Devices on the network, then choose Dante Via as the record input in your DAW. Easily make a two-track of whatever’s coming into your Dante-savvy mixer, for example. When it comes to patching up these sources and destinations, it’s simply a matter of dragging icons to and fro. It’s a piece of cake. Then when you see what’s possible within Dante Via, you soon realise it to be the Dante Swiss army knife. SYNCING FEELING
With so many options possible, you’d start to wonder what keeps all this patching frivolity in check. Fortunately, Dante Via takes care of all sync and sample rate issues, resampling everything to 24-bit/48k seamlessly. Bear in mind, Dante Via takes control of your computer’s audio system as soon as it’s booted. In OSX the sound input and output are quietly changed to Dante Via. Quit or stop Via and the previous sound devices are returned to. There’s a lot you can do with Via. Initially my first thoughts were for recording outputs of applications straight to a DAW — simple enough. Then I realise I could quickly set up a patch to record to a DAW on another machine, and send that audio off to a dedicated spectrum analyser on another computer without the need for an audio interface on that machine — all with a respectable 10ms of latency (that’s within Dante Via, there will of course be the additional latency of ancillary devices such as USB/Firewire/PCIe audio interfaces). This lends itself quite readily to easily recording desk mixes with a laptop. But then the applications become wider the more instances Dante Via finds itself: quickly send your PowerPoint presentation to the house audio system with an ethernet cable; gain talkback to the talent’s in-ear monitors with a USB microphone and a laptop… it’s really up to whatever you can think of, knowing you can flick an audio signal to and from your computers with a drag and a drop. It’s hard to fault Dante Via. While there are a few hiccups at the moment with Apple audio applications (I did chase my tail with Logic Pro X until I was informed there was a “soon to be rectified issue” with Apple software), I am pleased to have been endowed with a licence. And frankly, at US$50, it’s a steal.
056
FEATURE
AVT: Much More Than a Rebrand Story AMX Australia/AMX New Zealand has rebranded to avt. But this is more than a story about a new logo and the reprinting of business cards. “We’re not some specialist, solo, standalone, cosseted industry anymore. We’re very much part of the day-to-day fabric.” Peter Swanson is Head of Sales & Marketing for avt (née AMX Australia) and has seen a seismic shift in who is buying AMX gear. The channel partners might be the same (Rutledge AV, ProAV, Telstra etc) but the people who are deciding to buy an AMX solution have migrated significantly in favour of the IT department. As a consequence, AMX looked into what matters to the CTO and CIO. What they found may not have been a surprise but it does, nonetheless, change everything: it needs to be on the network; it needs to be secure; and it needs to be flexibly scalable. We’ve been talking about ‘convergence’ for years, but we’re now way beyond reading the portents; the writing is on the wall. “Either we get on board with it or you rigidly stick to the belief that we’re a specialist AV company.” Nicolette Minnie, is Strategic Marketing Manager of avt (née AMX Australia) and she’s helping avt to evolve from a first-class AV business to a first-class technology business. There’s a lot of change and change is painful, especially when you could argue that ‘it ain’t broke’. AMX FAMILY It’s hard to think of too many equipment distributors that attract as much love and loyalty asavt. From the General Manager Graham Evans down, the focus is on providing superior customer service. Every business knows customer service is important, but avt lives and breathes it — and the AMX partners and integrators respond. Saying that, when you know just about every one of your customers by name (and probably know their wife’s name as well as how the mother-inlaw’s hip operation is going), then disarmingly-good customer service remains an ambitious goal, but at least it’s possible.
“AV has been a niche market for a long time, where everyone knows everyone else and no one wants to change. We have to change,” notes Nicolette Minnie. Brave stuff. Certainly not out of the usual playbook of a regional distributor, which would normally consider it prudent to follow the market rather than lead the way, but Nicolette makes a compelling case of ‘adapt or perish’. “The people who are now making the decisions to buy our gear haven’t always been part of our circle, so we need to broaden it. And we need to change the language we use to speak to them. We need to help them realise AV is part of their every day whether they realise it or not. The truth is, people want to embrace AV and we need to help bridge the gap.” avt’s new website reflects the company’s new pivot. Not your standard AV catalogue site, the focus is on key Enterprise verticals — Health, Government, Education, Defence and Commercial — and heavy on case studies and inspiration. Peter Swanson explains: “The applicationspecific case studies are designed such that partners can use the site and share those with a client: the message is ‘here’s what’s possible’. But it’s also a site for partners. We give them an online portal packed with resources that formerly would have been emailed or on an ftp site. We’ve made that more accessible.” The other thing you’ll notice about the new avt site is it talks about a whole lot more than just AMX. HARMAN TECTONICS If half the impetus of this story of radical change is driven by AV/IT convergence then the other half is all about Harman. Harman’s tectonic plates are moving and the landscape has changed markedly. As a brief recap: Harman has traditionally been a pro audio company. A few years ago it determined it would need to provide more comprehensive audiovisual technology packages — audio, video, lighting, control — and acquired AMX and Martin to join JBL, AKG, dbx, Soundcraft, Digitech, Crown, BSS, Lexicon and Studer. Last year Harman took the ‘nuclear’ option and
globally consolidated its distribution channels — the ramifications are still rippling around the globe. In Australia, although the implications are significant, they’re not necessarily as disruptive as other markets. Largely this is down to the fact that most of the Harman brands have long been held by another established, class-act distributor in Jands. But it does mean so-called Enterprise customers can buy any Harman SKUs from avt and Entertainment customers can buy AMX video and control products from Jands. Hence the AMX Australia/AMX NZ name change — as a Harman Enterprise distributor in Australia it was no longer appropriate — to avt, itself a comforting back-to-the-future return to the company’s AV Technology roots. ‘But as a channel partner who traditionally deals with Jands and AMX/avt, who do I now buy from?’ Surely this will get messy?’ Peter Swanson would like to take AV procurement beyond tribalism and the old binary world of AMX versus Crestron. “Who you buy from will be about the application, the relationship, and the right equipment. But it’s the height of hubris to suggest that avt and Jands are the only distributors who are having to adapt to largescale change. “We’re moving away from that binary perspective of the last few years. “As audiovisual equipment becomes more standards based, there will be more choice as to how people mix and match product in a system. If you think, for example, our microphones are the bee’s knees but you’re not sold on our switching or amplifiers then, that’s okay, you’re still our customer. It’s our job to make it as positive as we can for our partners who are going through this AV-over-IP shift.” avt: www.avt.tech Editor’s Note: Pete Swanson has subsequently moved onto another position in the industry.
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058
COMMENT
Termination Creepy Crawlspaces Text:/ Graeme Hague
I
live in a part of the world where the internet can collapse on any given day. For years Telstra told us, ‘Don’t worry, the NBN is coming’. Well, the NBN is here, however it’s fixed wireless and our humble abode is supposedly in a transmission shadow. According to The Map — the sacred document of all things NBN — we’re not eligible for a connection. What The Map doesn’t allow for is that our house (at one end) is five metres above the ground. The skillion roof adds a further three metres to the equation, then if yours truly does my best, Titanic movie ‘I’m the king of the world’ impersonation at that end of the building I can see the NBN tower — I have the coveted line-of-sight. This was illustrated by the bloke who fixes television antennas in town and is also NBN’s local installation contractor. When he was on our roof making sure we could get a decent picture for the footy season, he said, “Did you know you can get the NBN here?”. FALLING OFF THE MAP
If you ever want a surefire way to lose an hour of your life, try calling NBN and attempting to explain that despite The Map, despite its website GUI, and despite everything the Labor Party is claiming, the local guy who does the NBN installations says, I can get the bloody NBN. It just doesn’t get through. It’s the NBN equivalent of ‘Computer says no’. Meanwhile, the old wire-in-the-ground Telstra system that we didn’t have to worry about — and we’re still using — is turning into a puddle of copper, and several nodes around the town have spontaneously combusted after people posted cute cat videos on Facebook. When the internet dies here the first thing to do is phone a few mates and confirm it’s a global problem (‘global’ being the entire township
of 4000 people). If the issue seems localised there are several possible causes and they’re all potentially my fault. Since Telstra finally (after four years) reburied the phone line to our house it can’t be the donkeys chewing through the cable anymore, but from the junction box to the separate points through our home the AV and network installer was... well, me. It’s likely that any faults in the system could be attributed to, let’s say, questionable workmanship. CABLE CONFESSIONS
I have two bad habits when it comes to installing cables. I reckon I’m not alone. The first is paranoia about cutting a cable short and neat, only to stuff up the actual connections and not have enough wire left for a second attempt. So I tend to leave loops of extra cable hanging around — my insurance against dodgy terminations (something my editor has endured on this page for years). The second habit is to install cables temporarily until I’m sure everything works with the intention of tidying things up later. Yes, there is gaffer tape involved. You can’t rush into these things and it’s hardly my fault that five years after I temporarily installed phone and internet outlets around the house — leaving large loops of cable hanging down under the floor and gaffered to joists — that my latest internet outage proved to be caused by two Great Danes redistributing my phone line in a zillion pieces all over the property. Fortunately (and thanks to Telstra’s previous attempts to prevent the donkeys eating the phone line being to dump 200 metres of cable at my door and say, “You bury it and we’ll connect it”), I had the wire to fix things. But while one end of the house is five metres clear of the ground, the other more important bit is only 20cm high. It’s a crawlspace. It’s a crawlspace under the house.
SKIN CRAWL
And we all know what lives in crawlspaces under houses in Australia: Monsters. Snakes, spiders, poisonous millipedes... there are hundreds of critters in Australia that can kill you with a single spit and in a bizarre twist of evolution they mostly live in the same crawlspaces where AV and network cables have to be installed. How the hell did that happen? If it’s not under the floor, it’s in the old ceiling where most people store dead bodies and house unwanted children. Obviously, I survived the ordeal. Only because my personal courage is only exceeded by my wife’s Facebook addiction and it had to be fixed. Now. It’s got me thinking about AV installations from hell. Have you ever found yourself, Indiana Jones-like, thrashing through a wall of cobwebs and venomous death adders to add a new zone to the background music system? What immediately comes to my mind is the Queensland farmhouse that kept a very large carpet python in the ceiling as a form of rodent control and nobody bothered to tell the electrician. If anyone ever complains that tradesmen never move fast, apparently you should have seen that bloke come down the ladder. Graeme Hague invites you to share your worst AV install nightmare scenario. Email him via the editor chris@avapac.net
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