AV Issue 54 by Alchemedia Publishing

Communicate. Collaborate. Command. Control. Protect. Collaborative visualization from InFocus

For over 30 years InFocus has helped provide powerful and comprehensive ways to see the common operating picture for government agencies, military, law enforcement and corporate security. Find out more at infocus.com/collaborative-visualization Contact us for more information infocus@westan.com.au www.westan.com.au

Collaborate Versa, 300, 600 & 900 When the answer is

“All of the above.”

• Includes traditional H.323/SIP, standards-based, multi-party videoconferencing. • Includes built-in, cloud-based Spontania virtual meeting room for 25 participants! • Includes integrated multipurpose tools for streaming, recording, wireless presentation, and whiteboarding! • The Collaborate Pro 900 provides media collaboration with ClearOne’s Beamforming Microphone Array and CONVERGE® Pro DSP mixer technology included! ClearOne’s COLLABORATE® Pro 900 media collaboration solution goes far beyond videoconferencing with best-in-class, multiuse functionality and the ultimate in professional audio.

Over 30 Years in Business To find your nearest Integrator/Reseller, please visit

www.pavt.com.au and click on ‘Where To Buy’

Production Audio Video Technology Pty Ltd 4/621 Whitehorse Road, Mitcham 3132, Victoria PH: 03 9264 8000 sales@productionaudio.com.au NEW ZEALAND OFFICE 28 Torrens Road Burswood, Auckland NZ 2013 PH: +64 9 272 8041

DICENTIS Wireless Conference System 4 design and innovation awards, and counting...

n Demand 2016

Best of ise award

DICENTIS Wireless Conference System â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for a truly exceptional meeting experience Combine Wi-Fi, smart wireless management, touch-screen functionality, acoustical excellence and wireless connectivity, and you get the most advanced, flexible and user-friendly conference system on the market. Being wireless, and so quick and easy to set-up and use, DICENTIS systems are ideal for multipurpose rooms, historical buildings and boardrooms where cable clutter is unwanted. Take advantage of the multiple-award winning DICENTIS today. For more information contact us on 1 3000 BOSCH, sales.communications@au.bosch.com or visit www.boschsecurity.com.au

Dec/Jan 2016/17

REGULARS INDUSTRY UPDATE Association news from InfoComm

TERMINATION ABW. Google it.

58 FEATURES

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)

SNAPSHOT: OVOLO FUNCTION SPACES CAVS has provided Ovolo Woolloomooloo with AV flexibility to match the funkiness.

TOP OF THE CLASS From acoustic basketcase to high achiever, Deakin Uni’s Rusden theatre is transformed.

SQUAD GOALS A PA and AV solution that makes good the ‘multipurpose gym’ promise.

NEW LIFE TO PUREWA CEMETARY Gefen’s AV-over-IP the hero at this modest-budget AV reanimation.

COLD CALLING The Nobbies Centre takes us way south thanks to a superb Mental Media display install.

COOKING WITH GAS Rutledge AV’s AVIA award winning work on AGL’s ABW-based HQ.

SCHOOL SOCIAL CHW designs a social media command centre for Curtin Uni.

EXTREME HOSPITALITY We speak with Merivale’s (The Newport, The Ivy) AV Manager.

CLASS ACTION Legal firm embraces AWB in Barangaroo. AV & IT makes it happen.

REVIEWS

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. 17/11/2016

DISPLAYNOTE MONTAGE Wireless Presentation System.

INOGENI SHARE2 Dual Video to USB3 Super Converter.

TUTORIAL

SIGHTLINE STUDIES InfoComm International Education: Best Viewing Environment.

NEWS AVIA 2016 WINNERS Congratulations to this year’s winners of the AV Industry Awards.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Highlights from AV Asia Pacific’s website, including .

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

ATLONA 4K COLLABORATION SYSTEM

CHRISTIE PANDORAS BOX 6.0

MID LEVEL RADIUS CLOSES LOOP

Atlona is now shipping its AT-UHD-HDVS-300KIT HDBaseT-equipped collaboration system that provides 4K AV switching, USB and HDMI extension, and system control for PC-based conferencing using Skype for Business, WebEx, and GoToMeeting cloud services. Atlona says the new two-piece system is the industry’s first to enable a single category cable connection between a conferencing hub and a 4K display together with a USB-equipped video conferencing camera. The product consists of the ATUHD-HDVS-300-TX, which serves as the conferencing hub, video switch, and HDBaseT transmitter, and the AT-UHD-HDVS-300-RX, which receives the HDBaseT signal and delivers an HDMI signal to the display. The kit extends AV, Ethernet, control, and USB, and includes a USB hub at both the transmitter and receiver. For the AT-UHD-HDVS-300-RX, USB connectivity is ideal for carrying camera video back to the hub. Additionally, a local HDMI input is available on the receiver.

The new Christie Pandoras Box 6.0 media server was officially launched at 2016 Live Design International (LDI). The Pandoras Box system combines the newest rendering technology with intuitive media and show control and is ideal for multi-media events and projection mapping. The system can be set up as a standalone playback device, network playback client or in console mode for direct DMX Control. Multi User mode allows multiple Pandoras Box operators to split the workload of a project and work on different tasks like warping, content encoding, timeline programming, or simply work simultaneously on the same sequence. Pandoras Box 6.0 also features many workflow improvements such as editable meshes and warps, UV map adjustments and live canvas masking and painting all from within the preview window. Joel StDenis, product manager, Christie. “With Pandoras Box 6.0, we listened to our users and focused on improving the general workflow by bringing frequently used features such as warping directly within the Pandoras box interface.”

EAW’s new Radius Series of network-enabled powered loudspeakers boast some smart features like array self-detection and optimisation. The new EAWmosaic app provides total system control and optimisation from anywhere in the venue, as well as room design and prediction capabilities. There’s full Dante integration across the line too, but Radius is positioned to make these high-end features accessible for even modest budgets. With several boxes in the family, the Radius Series’ RSX208L line array module is a three-way, self-powered loudspeaker with 120° horizontal and 12° vertical beam dispersion. Other models include several two-way self-powered loudspeakers varying from 12-inch to eight-inch LF driver sizes. Two subwoofers (1 x 18-inch and 1 x 12-inch) complete the lineup. All Radius speakers have EAW’s DSP with DynO built-in, controllable via the app of the LCD screen and pushbutton rotary encoder on the back.

Midwich: 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au Atlona: www.atlona.com

NEWS IN BRIEF:

AKG’s Australian distribution has moved to CMI. After 50+ years of stable agency (most recently with Hills after it acquired Audio Products Group) the move marks a significant shift for the historic microphone brand. With a strong retail presence along with plenty of experience in the worlds of concert touring and audio installation, CMI has tooled up to give AKG everything it’s got, beefing up its audio department with two new staffing appointments. CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au AKG: www.akg.com

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

PAVT: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au EAW: www.eaw.com

Christie: www.christiedigital.com

Madison Technologies has signed on to distribute the Cambridge Sound Management range of sound masking systems. Cambridge manufactures QtPro sound masking products to help organisations tackle speech privacy issues across multiple industries, as well as reduce noise distractions. Ken Kyle, General Manager of Broadcast & Audio Visual at Madison said, “This agreement means that Madison can now offer an even wider range of solutions to corporate, commercial and professional industries.” Madison Technologies: 1800 00 77 80 or www.madisontech.com.au Cambridge Sound: www.cambridgesound.com

Hoyts cinema in Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre is the first to install Christie’s RGB laser projection system. The 390-seat ‘Xtremescreen’ space fitted with a massive 24m wide screen now has a projection system comprised of a Christie CP42LH 3DLP 4K RGB laser projector with enhanced wavelength diversification (EWD) connected via fibre optic to a laser rack housing nine laser modules that generate white light from multiple combinations of RGB primary colour wavelengths, generating 45,000 lumens. Christie: www.christiedigital.com

Crestron’s DigitalMedia now supports the Dante audio networking protocol with its new input and output blades for 64X64 and 128X128 DM matrix switchers. Connect a HDMI source to the DMB-4K-I-HD-DNT input blade and it will extract the HD audio and output it as Dante over Ethernet through the LAN port on the DM CPU blade. You can connect the optional AUDBOB-1602 Breakout Box to the Dante blades in the DM switcher for analogue audio I/O. Crestron: www.crestron.com.au

Exterity has improved the AvediaServer V7.6 and AvediaPlayer r93xx Receivers V5.3 to provide a host of new features including a r UI, ArtioSign Create app, ArtioPortal Updates, Projector Control app, and Accelerated Channel Change. “With these latest product updates, we are taking the flexibility, creativity and breadth of functionality of our endto-end solution a step further,” said Colin Farquhar, CEO at Exterity. The Exterity IP video and digital signage solutions were demonstrated live at Integrate Expo and IBC. Midwich: 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au Exterity: www.exterity.com

Induction Loop Systems

Now distributed by Madison Technologies

The use of an inductive loop system allows hearing-aid wearers to pick up signals emitted by audio sources directly without the use of specialist receivers. All thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needed is the hearing aid. AUDIOropa produces a full range of induction loop systems, from small portable systems to suit the counter-top, through to large scale systems for major venues.

Infrared Systems IR systems are preferred in installations where confidentiality of the information exchanged plays a decisive role or in areas where several transmission systems are operated in parallel to one another. AUDIOropa Infrared systems offer reliable transmission, free of electromagnetic interference, and the restraints of structural elements within a building. Systems are commonly found in the modern school, university, court room and generally in urban areas where there is a high rate of RF emission present.

RF Transmission Systems The most common of the wireless transmission technologies, RF transmission provides the most powerful system with the largest range of coverage. The nature of RF signals allows users to leave the room in which the transmitter is installed without loss of coverage, and the system is also well suited to outdoor events. The receivers can be equipped with tele-loops which provide for the inductive transmission of signals to the hearing aid. AUDIOropa RF transmission systems are designed for professional applications such as sports arenas, other major venues, churches and lecture / seminar rooms.

with Madison, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re well connectedâ&#x201E;˘

Assistive Listening Systems

Meeting and conference centres, cinemas, theatres and other public institutions, such as banks or hotels can let hearing impaired people wearing assistive listening devices participate in acoustic events using AUDIOropa technology. Download the product catalogue > madisontech.com.au/audioropa For a demonstration, call 1800 00 77 80 or email av@madisontech.com.au

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

HARMAN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CENTRE

INSTALLATION PROJECTORS FROM OPTOMA

SENNHEISER EXPANDS SPEECHLINE RANGE

Harman has opened its new Customer Experience Centre in Singapore — an engagement initiative aimed at forging deeper connections with enterprise and entertainment industry customers worldwide. The Centre gives visitors specific insights into Harman Professional Solutions including its stable of brands. Customers will be able to explore a variety of solutions, test proof of concepts, consult with specialists and experience Harman technology up close and personal. The Singapore location will develop the theme of ‘Engineering a Connected Enterprise’ by inviting customers to learn how the world’s foremost venues, theatres, recording studios, commercial facilities and hospitality spaces use integrated Harman products and solutions. Ramesh Jayaraman, Vice President & GM, Asia Pacific, Harman Professional Solutions: “The new location will help us develop closer relationships with our enterprise and entertainment customers, as they experience firsthand how we can meet their needs through innovative, integrated and holistic solutions.”

Optoma has expanded its professional installation projector range with two new models — the W515 and W515 T. Both projectors emit 6000 lumens of brightness which can be adjusted to suit the application. They also offer large zoom range, lens shift, and a built-in geometric adjustment feature that allows the installer to adjust each corner of the image to create a perfect square picture — practical when image stacking is required, or projection is onto an uneven wall. The Optoma W515T has HDBaseT connectivity, allowing installers to transmit uncompressed HD video and audio over a Cat5e/6 Ethernet cable, as well as control commands using the LAN. The Optoma ProScene W515T is available now and will go for RRP $4499. The ProScene W515 will go for $4099.

Sennheiser expands its SpeechLine Digital Wireless system with some new products that help enhance its flexibility. The SL Tablestand 153-S DW and SL Tablestand 133-S DW are wireless base units featuring wireless charging by induction. Being cable-free, they’re a flexible solution for users. Both utilise the most commonly used Qi wireless charging standard. Offering compatibility with all Sennheiser XLR-3 gooseneck microphones, the SL DW Wireless Tablestand 133-S DW is optimised for podium discussions, speeches and lectures. It comes with a rechargeable battery pack with up to 10 hours of operating time. The new CHG QI 2 is a wireless charging solution that uses the wireless Qi Charging standard to give wireless charging for two mobile devices. The CHG 4N is a network-enabled charger featuring four individual charging bays, each of which has four dedicated LEDs to indicate the corresponding battery status of the mobile device.

Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or sales@ambertech.com.au Optoma: www.optoma.com

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

Harman: www.harman.com

AVPartners has been appointed the in-house audiovisual provider for Queensland’s Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort. The resort has 720sqm of event space, seven meeting rooms, and the Noosa Ballroom boasts capacity for 350 delegates theatre style and 180 guests banquet style. Mark Wilkinson, General Manager at Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort said, “I know first hand how AVPartners consistently adds value through truly creative and smart audiovisual solutions. I look forward to partnering with them once again to deliver unique and successful events.” AVPartners: www.avpartners.com

Five Casio lamp-free projectors, including the XJ-F210WN, have been TCO Certified. In order to be TCO Certified, products must undergo rigorous verification of multiple factors in all phases of the product life cycle, including socially responsible manufacturing during the manufacturing phase; safety, product lifetime, and energy efficiency during use; and elimination or reduction of hazardous substances and responsible end-of-life handling. The five 2016 models are the first lamp-free projectors to be TCO Certified. Casio: www.casioprojector.shriro.com.au

The multi-platform PAcalculate app for live sound engineers is being sponsored by Powersoft. The company decided to implement its brand on the app by focusing on a dedicated session regarding the Powersoft limiter thresholds. This tool has been developed to help users set a starting point for a limiter setup, performing real-life tests to validate and tune the results. José Brusi, the app’s developer, said, “It’s great to see Powersoft as a sponsor of PAcalculate and join the ever growing community of users across the different platforms.” PAVT: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Powersoft: www.powersoft.com

Visionary Solutions has announced a new distribution alliance with Madison Technologies for the ANZ region. Visionary Solutions’ 4K-over-IP solutions have been gaining traction in applications from government to entertainment. Madison Technologies GM, Ken Kyle: Madison Technologies General Manager, Ken Kyle. “Visionary Solutions’ products are changing the landscape in UHD networking, and we are truly excited to be bringing this innovative new technology to the Australian market.” Madison Technologies: 1800 00 77 80 or www.madisontech.com.au Visionary Solutions: www.vsicam.com

Sydney’s The Star Event Centre has welcomed industry expert Steve Chezzi as Technical Manager to lead its team of 50 audiovisual professionals. With over 16 years of technical event management and broadcast experience, Chezzi brings knowledge working for a diverse range of clients in multidisciplinary production and event environments. In addition to Mr Chezzi’s appointment, The Star recently welcomed industry leader Tim Jenkins as Senior Technical Producer in September 2016. The Star: www.star.com.au

NEC’s new 98-inch NEC X981UHD-2 ShadowSense technology multi-touch display offers a platform that will help facilitate creative and efficient meetings. Intuitive touch behaviour includes actions such as finger whipping, stylus writing and erasing. Enhanced filtering and sensors allow operation even in bright ambient light conditions without causing ghost touches. Also new from NEC is the MP10RX MultiPresenter stick — a wireless presentation solution for NEC projectors and displays that supports multiple connections on Windows/Mac/ iOS/Android platforms. NEC: 13 16 32 or au.nec.com

www.christiedigital.com

CHAMPION IN

EVERY CLASS

In the world of display and projection systems, hardly a name comes across so powerful as Christie. Backed by numerous world firsts and a multitude of industry awards, it's time to stand on the shoulders of a giant and be in focus. Speak to us and find out how Christie can help you be the next champion.

AUSTRALIA

+61 (0) 7 3624 4888

ask-australia@christiedigital.com

010

NEWS

BLUERIVER NT2000: AFFORDABLE 4K MULTIVIEW

SYMETRIX PRISM 0x0

The performance of AptoVision’s BlueRiver NT2000 (née NT+) chipset hasn’t escaped the notice of professionals happy to take advantage of the extra pixel count of the latest affordable crop of 4K displays. The BlueRiver NT2000 chipset is marketed as ‘the world’s first and only solution to enable switching and long distant transport of 4K/60 video with High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging’. And although those working in simulation and visualisation find the NT2000 chip’s support of HDR attractive, it’s the multiview capabilities that are that may well provide the most commercial opportunities. Multiview has until now been the preserve of expensive hardware solutions sold into command and control centres and the like. What’s more, high-quality multiview has been difficult to achieve given the lack of resolution in legacy displays — begin to tile or PIP a standard-def or hi-def display and the smaller components are often unreadable. 4K monitors may be more commonplace but those extra pixels can very often be under-utilised. Multiview is a powerful feature that potentially takes full advantage of the extra screen resolution. The BlueRiver NT2000 chipset supports extension and switching of resolutions up to 4K/60/4:4:4, and

products based on the technology are making 4K multiview affordable — good news for traditional multiview markets, such as the aforementioned simulation, visualisation, and command and control, but even better news for new markets such as huddle spaces and collaboration. “Taking that 4K piece and getting people onto that canvas at really good resolutions, maintaining full readability and detail is a big improvement on what’s been available in the past,” noted iMAGsystems Managing Director Gerry Raffaut. iMAGsystems is one of the first international manufacturers to adopt the BlueRiver chipset and has enthusiastically welcomed the NT2000 chip enhancements. “Clients have specified 4K, often for the sake of it,” continues Raffaut, “but now consultants and integrators can encourage the extra investment in 4K knowing those displays can be fully exploited with multiview. It’s really an entirely new presentation category made possible by the BlueRiver NT2000 chipset. It’s a huge gamechanger for the market.” AptoVision: www.aptovision.com iMAGsystems: imagsystems.com

VOICES RAISED AT COUNCIL: When Mitchell Shire Council in Victoria found itself relying on delegates’ handwritten notes to supplement a failing conferencing system for an accurate record of resolutions, it was clearly time for an upgrade. “It was a distraction and embarrassment for all concerned when the old units failed mid meeting,” admits the council’s governance advisor Lee McSweeney. “The existing wireless system was installed in late 2008 so it was quite dated and problematic due to wear and tear, and battery deterioration. It contributed to quite a few problems over the last two years or so, and got progressively worse in the last six months prior to

and the chairman unit has priority buttons, enabling the proceedings to be interrupted at any time. A central Wireless Conference Access Point (WCAP) transmits and receives data from each unit as well as integrating with the meeting room’s existing audio systems. The system is set up by connecting any computer to the WCAP and launching the software via an internet browser; once it has been configured it can be operated stand alone. “We were looking for wireless functionality with the delegate units and the ability for the audio file to be recorded digitally and made available on our computer network,” explains McSweeney. “It has the web interface, it has the lithium ion batteries, which

installing the new system.” A new Televic Confidea G3 wireless conference system recommended by AV integrator InSight Systems was one of four considered through an EOI process and after a demonstration against competing models in a mock council meeting setup with InSight (at the office of Televic’s distributor Production Audio Video Technology), was considered superior for council’s requirements. One chairman and 13 delegate units cover the nine elected councillors and four-member executive leadership team with integrated individual loudspeakers and microphones. A red ring illuminates the top of each mic when in use so delegates can clearly identify who is speaking

are removable so if the battery unit fails we can easily put in a new battery. The system is also quite portable and can be used in another venue if council decides to move their meetings off-site. Other factors we considered included webcasting, teleconferencing and expanding the functionality of the system in the future, and that can all be easily achieved. “I found the web interface quite beneficial — it allows me to see what delegate units are active in the meeting and if a councillor or a director fails to turn their mic off, then I can do that remotely. It also gives me the ability to monitor the system settings as well as the system performance — it gives me live system data on the status of each unit and battery levels.

Symetrix’s Prism 0x0 is the latest in the company's Prism series of Dante-enabled DSPs. Offering expansion via 64 channels of bidirectional Dante networking, the new Prism 0x0 delivers cost-effective processing, mixing, and routing for Dante-enabled endpoints as either the DSP core of a Dante network, or as a DSP co-processor. With respect to processing power and delay memory, the Prism 0x0 is identical to the other Prism DSPs. It has no analogue inputs or outputs and no external control inputs or logic outputs. Housed in a half-rack chassis, Prism 0x0 includes flexible mounting options and power over Ethernet. Like other Prism-series DSPs, Prism 0x0 can be customised, connected, and configured using Symetrix Composer, a Windows-based CAD program. Prism 0x0 can be controlled from Symetrix ARC wall panels, ARC-WEB browser-based interface, and from third-party touchscreens. PAVT: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Symetrix: www.symetrix.co

“The executive leadership team is very happy with the new system and how it’s functioning. Particularly, one of our councillors is quite soft-spoken and this system has built in loudspeakers in each unit so our executive leadership team now clearly hear that councillor whereas before, our old system was linked to our ceiling speakers and we had a lot of difficulty adjusting the microphone volumes.” InSight Systems Group: 1300 369 451 or www.insightsystems.com.au PAVT: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Televic: www.televic-conference.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.

012

NEWS

2016 WINNERS The pro AV industry came out to celebrate the best of the region’s projects at the end of Day 1 of this year’s Integrate Expo in Sydney Olympic Park. Few were surprised by the Best AV in Education ($500k+) award going to UTS for its Superlab (pictured) but the judges were particularly impressed by the cut-price innovation of PowerComs’ Purewa cemetery job (see elsewhere this issue). Thanks to all who came out to acknowledge the fine work of our AVIA finalists. And a huge thank you to our AVIA judges for their fine work and dedication, led by non-voting chairman Andy Ciddor.

EDUCATION $500,000+ Winner: University of Technology Sydney: Superlab This was an Everest of an AV design to tackle, and UTS climbed it. The project objective was to deliver a large, new generation, science-teaching laboratory that would cater to up to 12 concurrent classes; scalable from 14 to 200 students. The Superlab integrates multiple complex technologies to deliver a scalable, unified media delivery solution for lecturing staff and students.

COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT $500,000+ Winner: Rutledge AV: AGL office, 699 Bourke Street Melbourne The AGL new head office (above) is a large, complex Activity Based Working environment and needed smart AV systems to keep pace with the group interactions and collaboration. AGL’s 29 video conferencing rooms needed to integrate with their MS Lync environment using the Polycom CX8000/ Crestron RL2 device as the preferred codec. The range of systems, user interfaces and consistency delivered by Rutledge AV ensures that this modern office environment is a first-class experience for all 1500 employees.

EDUCATION $100,000 – $500,000 Winner: AVDEC: University of New England’s VITAL STEMMEd Space

AVDEC worked with University of New England’s academic staff to design a demonstration space that affords lecturers real freedom to teach as they would a classroom. Flexible camera and audio coverage was crucial, as was loudspeaker coverage to facilitate natural real-time question & answer interactions. A control system was designed around teaching scenarios for easy one-button configuration changes. The result is an affordable solution that can be reproducable even in remote locations. COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT SUB $100,000 Winner: PowerComs: AV upgrade of the Purewa, NZ cemetery After selecting a Gefen video distribution platform, Powercoms and Purewa went on to transform the funeral home into a full blown live streaming media production house. It now includes a Q-Sys Core

Processor as an audio processor and control platform; an automated overflow option to combine multiple chapels for simultaneous use; the ability to record and broadcast services live to the web in full HD; as well as the ability to handle virtually any media a family may wish to bring to a funeral service. This is the AV upgrade that has the whole funeral services industry talking, and for good reason. JUDGES’ COMMENDATIONS Prendi, for its work on the The Wonder Room at All Saints Anglican School ResolutionX for its work on the Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner event TDC, for its projection mapping and technical direction at the Vivid festival Sydney

World’s Best Share Tip The Inogeni SHARE 2 is a dual videoto-USB 3.0 super converter. Embed two video sources into one single stream using the Mixer feature. Works with Skype, Zoom, Webex, GoToMeeting and all video conferencing applications.

USB3.0 Converters Inogeni’s USB3.0 Converters are easy and reliable tools to capture uncompressed video with audio for your PC for recording, editing, videoconferencing and streaming applications. No driver installation is necessary and they’ll work on all motherboards and USB 3.0 chipsets.

+61 (0)3 9005 9861 www.corsairsolutions.com.au

4K>>USB3.0

SDI>>USB3.0

VGA>>USB3.0

DVI>>USB3.0

014

NEWS

PIPER ROOM 1 x Epson WUXGA, 10,000 ANSI lumen EB-Z1005 projector with long throw lens 1 x Custom Screen Technics motorised projector lift 8 x Electrovoice EL-ZX1i-100t speakers 4 x Electrovoice 12-inch subwoofers 4 x Crown CDI 1200W power amplifiers Williams Sound hearing augmentation AMX 10-inch Modero touch panel Barco ClickShare wireless presentation system Extron HDMI & VGA wall input (digital) DJ input plate AKG handheld & lapel digital wireless microphones

Snapshot: Ovolo Events Space PADDO, DARLO & CROSS ROOMS (EACH SPACE) 1 x Epson WUXGA 5200 ANSI lumen EB-G6570WU projectors 1 x Screen Technics motorised projector lifts 1 x 120-inch Screen Technics ElectraCinema motorised screen 6 x JBL Control24 CTM speakers JBL power amplifier Williams Sound hearing augmentation AMX Wall Mounted Modero touch panel Barco ClickShare wireless presentation system Extron HDMI & VGA wall input (digital)

THE RACK Biamp Tesira ForteAI AVB digital sound processor AVB Ethernet Switch to link conferencing room with Pool, Outdoor Area & Stage 1 Hotel Lobby Extron DTP CrossPoint 108 4K matrix switcher AMX NetLinx NX-4200 control processor Cisco Ethernet switch HD set top box for free to air TV Apple iPad for global control of all systems

Paddo

Cross

Piper Room

The Burbs CORRIDOR

ST01

L1.5-07

CONVEYOR

FEMALE

Darlo

BAR L1.5-05

INTEGRATOR’S NOTES Chris Smith, Credible Audio Visual Solutions (CAVS): “We were given the Ovolo Hotels AV template from the Singapore head office and worked with local management to adapt it. Three conference spaces can be run separately or opened up in a variety of combinations. When the three rooms are combined (collectively called The Burbs) we can drop the 130-inch screen and shoot down the room in theatre mode. Any input can be shown on any screen, including the larger Piper Room. The switching is done by an Extron DTP Crosspoint unit. “Biamp Tesira takes care of of all the audio routing and zone control. “The AKG DSR800 digital wireless system hasn't missed a beat but like all digital wireless can be a bit heavy on the battery use. “We have an AMX Netlinx NX-4200 processor in the rack and Modero touchscreens in all the spaces. We have larger 10-inch touchscreens for the bigger spaces and in the corridor where staff can have password-protected global control. “Crown amps power the (mostly) JBL Control series speakers.” CAVS: www.cavs.net.au

Introducing OmniStream™ The industry’s first dual-channel, dual-stream solution for AV over IP. OmniStream is Atlona’s innovative answer for IP signal distribution, drawing on our team’s deep knowledge of the pro AV and IT worlds.

We Are AVisionaries

Sales: 1300.666.099 www.midwich.com.au

Works with

016

FEATURE

Top of the Class Deakin University’s biggest lecture theatre has been transformed from an acoustical war zone to a flagship VC-capable teaching space. Text:/ Jen Temm

he Rusden Theatre at Deakin University’s Burwood campus in Melbourne offers the latest in AV for its staff and students after an extensive $250k overhaul earlier this year, with videoconferencing functionality, high quality audio, an intuitive control interface, automated camera system, programmable prograde lighting and flexible connectivity. “It’s Deakin’s largest lecture hall across all our campuses with a capacity of about 670 seats, so it was a massive undertaking,” says Deakin’s AV & Networks Unit Leader Neil Clarke, who worked closely with installer Insight Systems, major supplier Production Audio Video Technology and Deakin’s eSolutions team on the project. “Because it’s our largest space, part of this project was to set it up to be used for major presentations — and it was a combined project with our facilities people who were working on a physical rebuild of the interior of the theatre.” SETTING STANDARDS

In videoconferencing mode teachers presenting locally can now connect to other sites using either standards-compliant videoconferencing, which Deakin uses extensively, or via the university’s new PC AV integration gateway, which allows PC-based videoconferencing such as Skype, GoToMeeting, Blackboard Collaborate and others: “We tried to stay software agnostic, so that leverages all of the more professional AV equipment in the room. With the two-way audio and video gateway

the teacher can choose whatever PC-based videoconferencing software they want,” Clarke says. Two teacher-tracking iSmart cameras replace older and clunkier IR-based devices and are positioned on either side of the stage to accommodate the width of the room, with a large confidence monitor keeping the teacher’s eyes forward. “Previously we had analogue video switching and all the limitations you get with analogue video but we’ve standardised on using the Epson 3LCD projectors on campus — high-brightness full HD models that don’t break the bank. From there it’s digital the whole way through the switching system now so you get the crisp full-HD HDMI video without any ghosting or shadows or any of the artefacts we were previously experiencing. “The main vision switch is an AMX DGX frame — we’re using the HDBaseT solution throughout all our spaces these days so it’s digital switching all the way through. Around the same time we’ve been working on the standardisation of our AMX room control software, so we now have a common software base and a common user interface across all our teaching spaces using AMX touch panels — regardless of the room, staff get the same user interface experience. Some of the features such as the PC video integration is new to them but that is also appearing in several other rooms, so if they’ve been trained on it for one room that knowledge translates across.”

HANGING THEM HIGH

The front of the lecture theatre required additional building work to allow projected images to display in line with Deakin’s standards for image size, quality and sightlines — a new bulkhead wall, relocation of lighting fixtures and repainting, were all completed by InSight. The task was to get all the gear up and out of the way of the screen and sightlines to the screen.

Deakin chose a widely space line source audio solution over a point source option that would be installed high and out of the way. Arup designed the acoustic wall treatment to break up the first reflection of the EAW KF720 array.

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FEATURE

Teacher-tracking iSmart cameras replace IR-based devices

AUDIO TRANSFORM Ben Clarke, PAVT’s Technical Support Manager, provides more detail on the audio package: “The transformation of this venue is incredible. PAVT in our capacity as tech support for ClearOne has had a lot to do with this theatre over the years, and it’s been a nightmare. It was originally built as a large Gyprock bunker with no redeeming acoustic features. “Arup, as the acoustic consultants, working with the architects, has done the heavy lifting here from an audio perspective — hanging a nice line array PA in the space was the easy part! “Initially a choice had to be made to either spec a point source PA that would be positioned above the projection screen, or a line array hung wide, either side of the large screen. “The uni preferred the line source option if we could make it work. “Having the EAW KF720 so wide and near the side walls meant Arup needed to look after the first reflection, which they did with some serious acoustic treatment.

Bespoke loudspeaker lifting solutions were created to allow the new EAW KF720 series line arrays to be safely lowered to ground level for servicing — one of the trickier aspects of the project according to InSight’s Alex Jory. “One of the issues we came across was the ceiling space was 10m above floor,” Jory says. “That posed issues with accessing the equipment, so one of the more unique things we did was to mount them on motorised droppers — we can bring the PA down for servicing and no one has to climb any ladders. That required quite a bit of custom rigging equipment, putting the droppers in place, cable retraction systems and safety lines as well, so there’s no chance of it dropping and injuring anyone. Quite a bit was involved in getting that working well.” FUTURE PROOF

“It’s on par with a large professional venues except that it’s configured to be driven by the teacher rather than an AV crew,” the uni’s Neil Clarke says. “We’re getting a lot of positive feedback from our technical support staff in that this new space needs much less support, and were

getting positive feedback from the teaching staff and students as well.” Areas outside the lecture theatre are also being refurbished to provide a semi-enclosed, more casual learning environment. “The new technology in the Rusden Theatre allows an interconnect between the stage area in this more open plan space so that if someone is doing a major presentation in the theatre, other people can view the presentation from the video wall display above the stage in the open plan area, or vice versa,” Clarke says. “Part of what we were doing with this lecture theatre build was to look to the future, and with the increasing demographic of part-timers and mature age students there’s an increasing load on this campus in particular and this area is going to have a lot more after-hours life with services open until later in the evening — but that’s a future plan.”  Deakin University: (03) 9244 6333 or www.deakin.edu.au InSight Systems (Integrator): 1300 369 451 or www.insightsystems.com.au

“We supplemented the main PA hangs with a number of small-format Ecler co-ax loudspeakers as front fill to help focus the sonic image down for the front rows, as well as adding to the speech intelligibility. We also specified four EAW JF10 delay loudspeakers up into the top tier of the theatre. We could easily have driven the FOH line array to reach those top rows but we didn’t want to. By installing the delays it meant we didn’t have to throw so much energy into the room from FOH. “In my view, the heroes of the audio piece are the two Powersoft X8 amplifiers — one amp (four circuits aside) powering both arrays, while the other taking care of the subs and delay/fill. The power, efficiency and price of these amps allowed us to keep the audio package under budget as well as ensure the top-notch sound quality. These amps sound phenomenal.” Production Audio Video Technology: (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au

KEY TECHNOLOGIES AMX Control Solutions, video switching & extension Cisco video conferencing & networking equipment EAW KF720 line array PA Powersoft X8 amplifiers Ecler Audeo surfacemount loudspeakers ClearOne audio processing Williamsound Hearing Augmentation APC UPS and power management Epson and NEC digital displays Shure Wireless Microphone Beyerdynamic desktop microphones iSmart tracking cameras Dynalite lighting control KEY PERSONNEL Nick Boulter, Associate Principle, Acoustic & Theatre, ARUP Ken Fong, Acoustic Consultant, ARUP

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NEWS

Mt Disappointment to Mt Pleasant Mt Pleasant Baptist Church based in Booragoon, 15 minutes drive from Perth is a busy place. Sunday sees 800+ people come through the doors and during the week the church runs courses and a range of community groups. The church has had a problem with the auditorium. It was designed more as a concert hall than a venue for amplified music. The room was prone to bass build-up, and its 800 seats spaced out over a wide area making the previous dual-speaker point source setup unsuccessful in delivering even coverage throughout. Because of this, and due to the college students’ use of the same auditorium, the need for a high-quality PA grew over the eight years the previous system was in place. The NAS Projects Team consulted on the job weighing up the options. Installing a line array system was a no-brainer in order to provide full 180° coverage over the wide area of the room. After consultation, a DB Technologies DVA system won the job. The upgrade came as part of a larger scale revamp of the auditorium, including new lighting, a stage redesign, and ongoing acoustic treatment of the space. The installation was carried out by Craig Tucker, PA Product Manager at one of Perth’s premier music retail stores Mega Music. Commenting on the fresh install, Craig Tucker said, “We definitely feel like we’ve got the right coverage where everyone can hear from front to back and side to side. The processor that DBTechnologies utilises in its software is very good. It’s got all the features you would need to fully tune it up — DSP-wise, it’s just as

good as any other higher-grade system. And there isn’t a noticeable difference in sound between the two DVX D10 HPs sidefills and the T8s. They blend evenly right around the room.” Consistent and even dispersion of sound throughout the space now allows both the church congregation and college students to enjoy a first class facility. In addition, the new system makes the venue capable of accommodating conferences, touring artists and bands, and multicultural events. Tom McKeown, Technical Producer at Mt Pleasant Baptist Church, has been receiving a steady stream

NEWS IN BRIEF:

transaction (would be nice to have a lazy $8b in the bank, wouldn’t it?!) and will close mid next year. Although not the focus, the official press release did have something to say about Harman’s other interests. Here’s what it had to say: Audio: Harman’s leading brands and cutting-edge audio systems include JBL, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, AKG, Lexicon, Infinity, and Revel. The company also licenses Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen brands for automotive. All of these brands will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Samsung’s mobile, display, virtual reality and wearable products to deliver a fully differentiated audio and visual experience for customers.

SAMSUNG GOBBLES HARMAN: It’s the biggest acquisition news for quite some time. Samsung has bought out Harman in a gargantuan US$8b transaction. It’s clear from the press release that Samsung has identified automotive electronics as a significant area of growth (“expected to grow to more than $100b by 2025”) — a sector in which Harman is a heavy hitter with some 30 million Harman-equipped cars in the marketplace. The press release goes on to say that “approximately 65% of Harman’s $7.0b of reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 were automotive-related, and its order backlog for this market at June 30, 2016 was approximately $24b.” The sale is an all-cash

of compliments. “We’ve had really positive feedback overall, especially with the sidefills fixing the huge gap we had with our old setup. Accomplished musicians and speakers walk up and say there’s amazing clarity as well as a really warm sound to the DBTechnologies system.” National Audio Systems: (03) 8756 2600 or www.nationalaudio.com.au Mega Music: www.megamusiconline.com.au DBTechnologies: www.dbtechnologies.com

Existing Components:

New Components:

Six monitors

DVA S20 DP 2000W active dual 18-inch bass reflex subwoofer

Mixing console

10 DVA T8 elements (two hangs of five) — 700W active three-way line array modules with high-end 56-bit onboard DSP and 96kHz sampling rate Two DVX D10 HP elements (side fills) — 1200W active two-way speakers with onboard DSP and phase/time alignment functions

Professional: The combination will also expand the combined company’s business-to-business platform through its ability to deliver integrated, large-scale audio and visual professional solutions at stadiums, concert facilities and other performance centres such as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Staples Center – home of the Grammy Awards. Connected Services: Samsung will gain access to Harman’s 8000 software designers and engineers who are unlocking the potential of the IoT market. This collaboration will deliver the next generation of cloud-based consumer and enterprise experiences, as well as end-to-end services for the automotive market through the

convergence of design, data and devices. ISSUE 53 CLARIFICATION: In our InfoComm16 report last issue Paul van Der Ent stated that AMX RMS ‘by default relies on the cloud’, intimating there wasn’t a local solution, when in fact AMX Resource Management Suite (RMS) can be deployed in on-premise (or private-cloud) infrastructure, or leveraged through the Harman deployed and maintained publiccloud platform via the Internet. In AUNZ, RMS can additionally be accessed as a core-features monitoring and asset inventory service through RMSaaS. Here’s some more from Harman: “RMS is closely supported on the

world’s most secure and isolated networks, as well as the furthestreaching and globally accessible networks, with expert deployment guidance and regular review provided as standard. “The RMSaaS cloud service is hosted in the Sydney Amazon Web Services availability region, ensuring consistent and lowlatency performance that is locally monitored and supported in AUNZ without a reliance on long-haul transit links. “Communications with RMS can be secured with industry-standard TLS encryption via HTTPS, providing effective eavesdropping and tamper protection and identity assurance in both private and public deployment scenarios.”

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FEATURE

Squad Goals Just when you thought a ‘multipurpose gym’ was a contradiction in AV terms, one college proves us wrong. Text:/ Christopher Holder

averley College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs is a school that loves its basketball. Where other schools might have a pithy latin motto regarding perseverance and divine favour, I can only imagine that Waverley College operates under the auspices of something like: ‘Ball is Life’. I labour the point only to impress the importance a new gym has in the life of the school. It’s a big deal. But thanks to months of consultation, consideration and care, Waverley College may well own another title, that of best multipurpose gymnasium. 1700-SEAT GYMTORIUM

Gyms are large and can accommodate big chunks of the school’s populous. Which is why other ‘stakeholders’ eye off the space jealously — drama teachers and music teachers, mainly. The most strident advocate for a multipurpose gym was headmaster, Ray Paxton, who laid down some key benchmarks for a new facility: it needed to accommodate the whole school (around 1700 students, including the junior school), it would need an AV system that would ensure clear speech intelligibility, and to be an innovative installation that demonstrated the college’s smarts. The school has some loyal long-time partners who have really poured their heart and soul into this new build. Glendenning Szoboszlay Architects spent many months giving the gym

the requisite features required in the legacy parcel of land. Clare Communications headed up by director Donal O’Sullivan has nursed the AV through the whole way. It’s a clever and sympathetic solution. FAST BREAK WITH TRADITION

“Previously, it was a very traditional gym,” notes school IT Manager, Simon Potter. “Now we have a genuine multipurpose venue, where we can easily switch between a full-school assembly to a basketball game to an end of year production. We can use the mezzanine areas as classroom spaces, with their own zoned PA and displays.” Picking up the story is Clare Communications’ Matthew Donovan: “As the AV integrator we’ve tried to cater for the various needs, from school assembly, to performance and production space where there will be mixing consoles involved — analogue and digital. We’ve used Dante as the backbone of the digital audio structure, but there are traditional analogue tielines with XLR patchpoints as well. “In a job like this it’s essential to simplify the user experience. We use a Crestron system with some built-in touchscreens and some floating tablet devices for control. Depending on the user, they’ll have a passcode that will then give them the functionality depending on their needs. “The Crestron control looks after all the sound, the vision, as well as the stage lighting. There’s scope there, if the client so desires, to tie

it in with the C-Bus as well.” A 16 x 16 Crestron DM matrix is currently addressed by 12 inputs and eight outputs, providing some headroom for future growth if the school wishes do some streaming in or out of the building. Simon Potter: “Prior to the new facility we would need to send down AV or IT staff for a PE instructor to talk over a basketball event. Now we don’t. Previously we would need to bring rental gear into the gym to do an event or production, but now we’re far more self sufficient.” IT’S A ROOM MATCH

Waverley College gym is a poster child for Bose’s Room Match Delta Q system. There are three modules aside (from the top down: 55° x 10°, 70° x 20° and a 120° x 40° modules). You’ll immediately notice that at 20° and 40° in the vertical, Room Match Delta Q has some modules that address large chunks of a venue. Most line array elements will only attempt 15° vertical coverage at the most. Stretch the vertical coverage too much and it’s hard to get a constant ‘ribbon’ of HF from top to bottom. Bose pulls this off by using many more HF devices in its manifold than most. The result is excellent coverage with fewer boxes than a ‘conventional’ line array — thrifty thinking when you’re a secondary school and need even coverage but not necessarily the extreme SPLs of 12 boxes in the air rather than six.

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FEATURE

Tipoff: Three Bose Room Match Delta Q elements aside more than adequately covers the gym., combined with a double 18-inch sub aside. Bose Room Match Utility speakers keep the mezzanine covered. The Panasonic video wall is protected by a sliding glass panel.

Go to AV Asia Pacific’s YouTube channel to hear and see more regarding this project: youtube/avmagazinetv

Complementing the full-range arrays are a 2 x 18-inch sub a side. Ideally the subs will be flown at the head of the array but that would have pushed the array too low for optimal coverage. Instead the subs are spaced to the outside of the arrays, visually centred above the digital scoreboards and then time-aligned to ensure performance isn’t compromised. It’s an audio install that’s redolent of Bose’s engineering-led, don’t-follow-the-pack, innovation, mixed with the practicality of knowing better than most that the vagaries of the real world are just about always likely to stand between you and the theoretically perfect system. In other words, it’s the right PA for the job and the budget. The Room Match Delta Q range has some standard fill boxes called ‘Utility’. Waverley College uses these to cover the mezzanine areas and centre fill. They’re voiced to sound the same as the array.

and the other Panasonic displays in the foyer and the mezzanine can be addressed independently. Crestron Air Media allows staff to stream content directly the displays. SAY NO TO SCISSOR LIFTS

Stage lighting dropped on and off the spec for the life of the project. The conclusion was: although not a day-to-day requirement, having stage lighting ‘up its sleeve’ meant being more self sufficient and not needing to put up with the intrusion of a rental company rolling through the pristine gym with a scissor lift every so often. Instead, Clare Communications has installed a 16m Jands motorised lighting bar and a small complement of Altman Phoenix LED profiles. The bar is long enough to allow the lighting to be directed to the corners of the gym as well as the central stage — a particular requirement for an end of year school production that requires the use of three stages for the event.

VIDEO: A FRESH PERSPEXTIVE

NOT A DIRTY WORD?

The presentation video walls are a triumph. Yes, the 700-nit Panasonic TH-55LFV70 55inch displays, with their ultra-narrow bezel are striking, but they weren’t the only thing ‘striking’ about the gym. How to protect the screens from errant basketballs? The project’s brains trust workshopped a number of solutions, initially the thought was to cover the screens from view, like a giant dart board in a pub. And although no one was screaming for video walls on game day, it seemed a shame that the screens couldn’t be accessed for some future use — such as instant replay or for theming the gym. The toughened glass covers have been a big hit, providing safe, unhindered views of the video walls. The glass panel can be rolled to one side to access and service the displays. All the hardware is 4K ready even if the video wall is displaying one 1080-high image at present. The video walls can display different content

‘Multipurpose’ is a dirty word in any performance venue. By necessity, it means ‘compromise’. But Waverley College has shown that if you’re willing to plan extensively and you have partners willing to take the time to truly understand your needs, then ‘multipurpose’ can work. Advancements in PA design and the architects’ acknowledgement that acoustic treatment in a gym is a prerequisite, has all helped the college to have a sound system that expertly communicates the spoken word and will even provide excitement and clarity in music playback and performance. A carefully programmed control system ensures ease of use. And a display solution provides a visual focus for up to 1700 people, even when projectiles would normally imperil its existence! As school headmaster Ray Paxton put it in those initial planning meetings: “It’s all about being seen and being heard. If the AV systems can’t do that properly then what’s the point!” He has a point. 

EQUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTS Sound Reinforcement System: Bose Room Match FOH — 3 modules per side 2 x Bose Room Match RMS 218 Subs Bose RMU Utility Speakers – Centre FOH Monitors, Mezzanines & Foldback Monitors Bose DS40FW – On Stage Monitors, Foyer 6 x Bose PM8500N Power Match Amplifiers 2 x Bose ESP-00 II Control Space Processors 4 x EW500 Sennheiser UHF Wireless Systems Various custom audio patch field plates for analogue and digital connectivity Bose: pro.Bose.com Audio Visual System: Crestron DM-MD 16x16 Digital Media Frame Crestron DM 4K Scalers Crestron Air Media Crestron TSW Touchscreens Crestron CP3 Control Processor 18 x Panasonic TH-55LFV70 55-inch displays (2 video walls) 1 x Panasonic 55-inch Display with Screen Technics motorised lift 1 x Panasonic 65-inch display for Foyer 2 x Panasonic 55-inch displays for Side Mezzanine Stage Lighting System: Jands Motorised Lighting Bar – 16m long 4 x Altman 250W Phoenix LED Profile Spot Jands 36-Way Patch Panel and associated Dimmer & DMX Splitter

CONTACTS Clare Communications: (02) 9698 3600 or www.clarecom.com.au Glendenning Szoboszlay Architects: gsarchitects.com.au Steve Watt Constructions: www.steve-watt.com

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SPONSORED CONTENT

ATEN Screen Play

Multi-site Multimedia Control at The Bierkeller, UK

60-screen solution across three venues at the Bierkeller entertainment complex in Cardiff, Wales, demonstrates how ATEN Matrix Switches can produce stunning and easily manageable results. Using three ATEN VM1600 modular matrix switches, the Bierkeller can provide several different distributed inputs across the screens in the three bars: the Bavarian Bar, Around the World and Shooters Sports Bar. Staff control the screens and the switching via the ATEN VK2100 control system, and can switch sources for either individual or groups of screens by pressing a single button on an iPad control app. HDMI extension from the VM1600 to the screens is set up using the ATEN VE802 and VE814R.

BACK ROOM

Video Distribution

Modular Matrix VM1600 BAR ROOM 1 Camcorder

HDMI Video Extender VE802T

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HDBaseT Video Extender VE802R

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HDBaseT Input Board VM7514 HDBaseT Output Board VM8514

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Modular Matrix VM1600 BAR ROOM 2

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Camcorder

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Video Splitter VS184A X4

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The three pubs incorporate the ATEN Control System and ATEN’s professional AV solutions to create centralised control of all multimedia devices via an Ethernet network. This allows staff to: • Instantly switch profiles for any of the three locations; and • Remotely power on and off all displays with a single tap from an iPad using the WM1600’s broadcast feature. The solution also prevents television control from an IR signal, which eliminates the issue the pubs were facing with patrons controlling the televisions using a phone app.

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LONG DISTANCE HDMI

The VE814 and VE802 HDMI extenders respectively feature HDBaseT and HDBaseT-Lite connectivity, which is able to deliver 1080p, highquality video transmissions up to 100m and 70m via Cat 5e/6 cables, without signal interference. SPACE-SAVING

The solution allows the pubs to house their ATEN video matrix switches and video sources (three Skybox Satellite TV receivers, four media players, and one live video feed) in a backroom while having them seamlessly displayed in the three venues. The VE802 Extender features POH (Power over HDBaseT), which simplifies product installation and operation. The VE814 further allows two displays to be connected to the receiver unit, improving both space and cost efficiency.

Corporate

Education & Religion

Foodservice & hospitality

Outdoor

Residential

Retail

Sports & Leisure

FUTURE-PROOF

At Bierkeller each VM1600 requires only two input boards for the eight video sources, but the solution provides the scalability to add additional input boards in the future if needed. The WM1600 also allows the venues to replace the input boards if they upgrade their video source interface to DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort, without having to change their IT infrastructure. HDCP-COMPLIANT

ATEN’s HDMI splitter, extender, and modular matrix switch are all HDCP-compliant. The pubs can therefore display video from the Skybox Satellite TV system without issue. ATEN: sales@au.aten.com Madison Technologies: 1800 00 11 80 or madisontech.com.au

Perfect Sound For Public Places Apart Audio offers a complete range of loudspeakers, electronics and accessories with a sharp focus on making commercial installation tasks quick and simple. Apart’s fixed install solutions offer great value for small to medium sized commercial audio installation projects. The range is ideal for: •

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NEWS

Bose ShowMatch DeltaQ Launches Bose Professional has been touring the globe demonstrating its new ShowMatch DeltaQ array loudspeakers, including stops at Sydney (30th of Nov) and Melbourne (7th of Dec). The story so far: RoomMatch (released around five years ago) provided the Bose PA manifesto. The DeltaQ technology allows the user to alter the directivity or ‘Q’ of each individual element in the array. When combined in an array, acoustic energy is highly focused and can be matched to a room’s limits and dimensions. RoomMatch, as the name suggests, was always a thoroughbred install system. It’s size and the rigging was designed to be perfect for set-and-forget permanent installation jobs. But Bose sees how the benefits of DeltaQ extend above and beyond, into rental and AV events applications. As a result, Bose has taken the DeltaQ tech and packaged it into a more portable and more easily rigged package, calling it ShowMatch. ARRAY OPTIONS The compact and versatile ShowMatch loudspeaker system offers the ability to build traditional (J-array or constant curvature) and DeltaQ array configurations, allowing both portable/rental and installed applications to deploy selectable coverage control. ShowMatch arrays are capable of generating a maximum SPL of 145dB (peak), or when SPL is less critical, they offer the ability to achieve full coverage with fewer modules for significant weight, height and cost savings. A companion subwoofer houses a single high-output 18-inch driver and includes integrated four-point rigging that may be deployed forward or rear-facing. A front grille-mounted NL4 connector enables easier wiring for cardioid configurations. The top of the subwoofer supports third-party mounting poles and optional accessories for ground-stack configurations.

NEWS IN BRIEF:

MORE BUYOUTS: Samsung’s purchase of Harman dwarfs all other acquisition news but there’s some other interesting movements of the AV tectonic plates. Not least Blackmagic’s buyout of Fairlight. Both are undoubtedly Aussie innovators, and it’ll be interesting to see what Blackmagic does with Fairlight’s IP – the obvious implication being Blackmagic’s move into audio post and live broadcast audio mixing. “Fairlight creates the world’s most powerful digital audio software and hardware for video production,” said Grant

RIGGING & MODELLING ShowMatch offers a full set of rigging accessories for up to 24 modules, mixed arrays with subwoofers, sub arrays (including cardioid sub arrays), and ground stack configurations. Bose Professional will release Modeler sound system software version 6.9 to support acoustic designs using the new ShowMatch array loudspeakers. Additionally, Bose will be releasing the Bose Array Tool (BAT), a new interactive design aid to support swift customer designs that optimise DeltaQ array loudspeakers for multiple applications. The versatility of the ShowMatch array makes it suitable for a wide range of applications and settings, ranging from small clubs, houses of worship or corporate AV events, to performing arts centres or amphitheatres with audience capacities in the range of 5000 to 7500 people. Bose Professional: 1800 023 367 or pro.bose.com.au

JOIN THE Q ShowMatch full-range loudspeakers will be available in three models (5/10/20° vertical) and feature a compact two-way design including four improved Bose EMB2S compression drivers and two proprietary Bose eight-inch neodymium woofers — yes, Bose’s love affair with eight-inch drivers continues! Each model ships with two sets of field-changeable horizontal waveguides for narrow or wide pattern control. Additional horizontal waveguides can be purchased separately. Removable rigging-guard/handle side caps allow ShowMatch modules to be optimised for both installation and portable applications.

A couple of ShowMatch array modules clearly showing the field swappable HF waveguides.

Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “The exciting part about this acquisition is that it will add incredibly high end professional audio technology to Blackmagic Design’s amazing video products. We look forward to working with the Fairlight team to build even more exciting new products for our customers!” That’s not all. There were moves in Europe with L-Acoustics (or at least its parent company, the L-Group) purchasing amplification thoroughbreds, Camco. “For over a decade, Camco has been a key supply partner of L-Acoustics. Their

expertise in electronics for the professional sound industry has contributed to the success of the L-Acoustics amplified controllers”, explains Hervé Guillaume, Managing Director of the holding company. “Welcoming them into the L-Group family of companies will allow both L-Acoustics and Camco to continue growing our research and development expertise. This merger will give us the tools to develop future products to better serve our clients and explore new markets.”

Integrated Systems Europe 2017 has been confirmed as the biggest exhibition in the event’s 14year history following an increase in show–floor space, exhibitors and halls. ISE 2017 will see 135 firsttime exhibitors making their debut at the show. In total, ISE 2017 will feature over 3000sqm of additional show-floor exhibition space compared to ISE 2016. The 2017 edition will not only be the largest but also the most compelling show produced so far. A closing keynote featuring Cirque du Soleil’s CEO Daniel Lamarre, the largest

ISE educational program so far produced by CEDIA and InfoComm International plus five Show Floor Theatres all point towards a rich and vibrant four-day event. Integrated Systems Events Managing Director, Mike Blackman commented: “With the expansion of the show I am delighted that we are able to take the attendee and exhibitor experience to the next level for our 2017 event.” ISE: www.iseurope.org

Multiview 4K presentation Up to 32 sources 4K/60/4:4:4 resolution Built in scaling iMAGsystems Lightning products harness the AptoVision BlueRiver NT+ chipset which supports extension and switching of resolutions up to 4K/60/4:4:4 making 4K multiview not only possible but affordable. Huddle and collaboration spaces with 4K displays can now enjoy affordable PIP and Multiview functionality.

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AVIA WINNER Best Application of AV in a Commercial or Government Installation with a budget up to $100,000 Powercoms, for the AV upgrade of the Purewa, NZ cemetery. Judges’ Comments: This modestly-budgeted project delighted the judges with its impressive application of ingenuity and innovative thinking to produce results that exceeded any reasonable expectations of its capabilities. This project is seen by the judges as a shining example of the clever application of AV technology to deliver a project without necessarily reaching for the shiniest solution on the shelf.

AV-Over-IP Brings New Life to NZ Cemetery

t’s not uncommon for a funeral service to feature media items such as photo montages, remembrance videos and music playback. The responsibility of manually configuring and managing all these AV components usually falls to the funeral director. To enhance how funeral services are conducted and experienced, the Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium in Auckland, NZ, asked Amber Technology and integration firm PowerComs to design a network-driven AV system that would enable remote control of all AV on the 45-acre property. Gefen signal distribution equipment was selected to serve as the connective backbone for the whole system. “With multiple screens in various locations on the property, the management and distribution of content is a key consideration,” says Murray Wilkinson of Amber Technology. “It’s really important that the Purewa Cemetery staff are able to direct a service without the stress and complications of faulty technology.” To enable remote control, the PowerComs team suggested central operation of all AV within the facility. A Gefen 4K Ultra HD Extender was integrated over One Fiber so the staff could control the two chapels’ motorised screens, Optoma projectors and HD cameras from the same interface, located in a single room.

Gefen EDID detectives were installed to guarantee that compatible audio and video signals are sent to the displays. Gefen Multi Format Processors handle video scaling and switching. “We can now plug and play with virtually no issues,” said Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium General Manager, Clifton Thomson. “During testing, our celebrants were truly blown away by the quality and clarity of the content. It really does add a personalised element that enhances the experience for everyone involved.” At Purewa Cemetery, funerals often saw a chapel’s capacity exceeded by the number of guests attending. Wilkinson pitched on-site distribution as the solution to this problem. The PowerComs team installed a network of Gefen extenders to expand the content to other chapels if needed. “With 10 Gefen EXT-HD2IRS-LANTXs and four Gefen EXT-HD2IRS-LAN-RX’s, we were able to create a system that could distribute content with resolutions up to 1080p full HD,” Wilkinson added. “Now, with this new system, we can broadcast the system live to screens in other chapels so everyone can experience it.” To further modernise the experience, Purewa Cemetery also added a personalised component for its guests — the ability to capture and record every service using two Gefen EXT-HDPVRs.

OneRoom live streaming services broadcasts it in real-time online for those who cannot be there in person. Using the Gefen interface, the cemetery’s staff can change between different camera perspectives to enhance the production. “Before the service, guests can send an e-vite to an unlimited number of people that may want to tune into the OneRoom service,” Wilkinson explained. “Or later on, anyone with e-vite access can download a link to the recording that is provided in HD quality service.” According to Thomson, the system simplifies the entire experience for staff, while also adding a more intimate touch for celebrants. “This system is now so efficient that it leaves little room for mistakes,” he said. “We can watch what the funeral directors are doing and what the celebrants are doing. That allows us to ensure that every single service runs smoothly. If we can see better, hear better and monitor better, the service will go better.”  Gefen: www.gefen.com Amber Technology: www.ambertech.com.au

POWERCOMS’ REFLECTIONS Powercoms Director Peter Mason tells his story: The original scope was simple, Purewa asked us to provide a video link between buildings within their large facility to help coordinate funeral services. We were asked to use existing infrastructure, which was an older unused fibreoptic cable system, and an existing Axis CCTV system, and provide a platform that could enable staff at multiple locations to monitor services. Once we selected the Gefen video distribution platform we were able to quickly expand the original scope to include a control system, an automated overflow option to combine multiple chapels for simultaneous use, the ability to record and broadcast services live to the web in full HD, an audio upgrade, the opportunity to simplify and incorporate virtually any media a family may wish, into a funeral service, without the need for a technician on site, and all for a budget of around $50,000. What initially seemed pretty straight forward soon presented us with some significant challenges. File types, frame rates and resolution aren’t necessarily compatible between CCTV, AV distribution gear, projectors, computers, recorders and broadcast/

streaming services. We needed a strong backbone and an even stronger control system. We chose Q-Sys Core Processor as an audio processor and control platform. We opted for large PC-based touchscreens to provide a single level of control to all components across the entire site. The ability of this system to have a customised GUI enabled a simplified screen layout to assist the operators, without looking complicated. Behind the scenes there were numerous scalers/converters/extenders but we were able to control everything from the touchscreens. The video distribution was provided by Gefen, using a host of HDMI matrixes, HDBaseT extenders, splitters and importantly their new video-over-IP products that we could use to send HD video and audio throughout the facility using an IT network. We chose Gefen multi-formatprocessors to scale and inject audio into the HDMI stream from the Axis CCTV and local audio systems. We incorporated a solid state recording system and provided a feed from the CCTV network to an online streaming service (OneRoom). Powercoms: www.powercoms.co.nz

New To Australia and New Zealand Through Amber Technology Hearing loop products - large area loops for public spaces and 1 to 1 loops for private homes, all positively contributing to the daily lives of people with hearing loss. Speech transfer systems - customer service staff can interact effectively with their customers in a safe environment. With over 40 years’ experience across the globe, Contacta’s products are at the forefront of technology, creating a unique range of solutions for both commercial and residential installation projects. We’ve made things simple for you Contacta joins the Amber Technology portfolio of 70+ brands, meaning our contractor customers can purchase everything they need for their installation projects from one source, saving time in their day-to-day operations. Talk to the team at Amber Technology to find out more: www.ambertech.com.au 1800 251 367 sales@ambertech.com.au

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Cold Calling The Antarctic Journey takes visitors places they’re never likely to go thanks to some immersive AV. Text:/ Christopher Holder

useums have changed considerably in recent years. Kids (especially) expect every exhibit to have some manner of interactive component. If you can’t press, shake, kick, turn, focus, smell or listen to the display then the caravan quickly moves on. Which is where the tech plays its part — stunning images, interactivity, great sound — keeping school groups and daytrippers of all ages engaged. Being such a specialised area, it’s hardly surprising to encounter specialist providers. The Antarctic Journey, as it’s called, was designed by Thylacine, while AV display specialists, Mental Media, led the production and technical charge as supplier of ‘turnkey multimedia’. The new project was co-sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund Australia and Phillip Island Nature Parks. SOUTHERN COMFORTS

The new Antarctic Journey exhibit takes advantage of the once derelict basement level of the Nobbies visitor centre. Apparently there

was previously a flume ride of some description but hadn’t been used in years. There was a lot of water damage… it was a mess. The new exhibit activates the wasted space and gives visitors another reason to spend time in the area. It’s a world class attraction that has already reaped dividends. The display is comprised of two main parts: this first is called The Lab, a hands-on interactive space with all manner of ways to explore and connect with Antarctic creatures. The second zone is a remarkable walkthrough projection room called the Immersive Space — where beautifully shot video is projected across a host of dramaticallyraked screens, accompanied by a speciallycomposed soundscape. This space is really quite breathtaking to visit. IMMERSIVE SPACE

Like icebergs calving from the Wilkins ice shelf, eccentrically angled screens dot the Immersive Space allowing visitors to walk through and explore the footage at their own pace.

There are three sections: Southern Ocean (with four screens playing different HD content), Antarctic Section (another four screens playing different HD content) and a fun augmented reality activation with one large screen. Taking care of the projections are Panasonic PT-RZ670 6500-lumen and PT-RZ470 3500-lumen laser light source projectors (depending on the size of the screen that needs filling), some fitted with ET-DLE030 ultra short throw lenses where required. The content is being played out of Dataton Watchout systems, which take care of all the pixel mapping and image warping — of which there is plenty given the angles of the screens. Mental Media Director, Bruce Brown: “The screens are raked by 10°, which posed some challenges in terms of geometry. We’re quite limited with space so the projectors are jammed hard up against the ceiling.” Working with ultra short throw lenses is always a fiddly business but especially so when there’s no install wriggle room.

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Bruce Brown: “The projectors have a little bit of lens shift to play with, but in the case of the ultra short throw lenses, there’s no zoom whatsoever. The way I prefer to work is to get my projectors positioned as best as I can before any other adjustments. So we spent a lot of time trying to get the projectors far enough from the screen and at the right 10° angle. “The projector mounts are bolted to Unistrut, which allowed us to slide the projector back and forth to get it in the exact position in relation to the screen. Great. But the problem we had was not having the space between the projector and the ceiling to tighten all the bolts up! So we had to slide the projector off and on, gradually fine tuning the precise position through trial and error. “From there we used Watchout, which takes care of all the geometric correction but it was important to get the projector installation correct first.” The install might have been painstaking, but the ultra short throw lenses of the Panasonic laser projectors in the Southern Ocean zone

help to ensure there’s no shadowing — as you walk through the space the screens loom large but you can literally walk up to the screens and almost touch them without fear of shadowing ruining the impact. The Panasonic projectors won the day for a couple of reasons according to Bruce: “A cosponsor of the project is the World Wildlife Fund Australia, so we were immediately thinking about laser projection as it’s more efficient and, because it runs cooler, is less taxing on the air conditioning. Panasonic was also one of the few options that allowed us to combine solid state projection with ultra short throw lenses at the time. I had no hesitation in specifying Panasonic, I’ve worked with their projectors for years and always had a positive experience.” AUSTRALIAN BITE

There are a number of hidden gems in the immersive space. Proceeding into the Southern Ocean corridor trips an infrared sensor which triggers footage of a monstrous white pointer,

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PLAYING WITH ORCAS Bruce Brown: “People just love this exhibit. It’s an augmented reality package from a Belgian company. Originally it included penguins, seals and polar bears etc., and we engaged them to modify it, take out the polar bears — none of those south of the equator — and produce it to suit our needs. “The system uses an HD camera that sits above the screen and integrates your image in with the animation. The difference here is the size of the screen, which is enormous. We use two stacked Panasonic 670s with long-throw lenses. The images are perfectly superimposed and we get the extra image intensity as a result. The cost to produce a one-off augmented reality setup like this would have been prohibitive so we’ve licensed it.”

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teeth bared — shades of a Back to the Future II Marty McFly getting eaten by the hologram promo from Jaws 19! In this case, the shark footage is on a standby timeline in the Watchout system. A delay exists to ensure the shark isn’t constantly making an appearance during a busy period. But it’s a nice shockvalue feature that keeps the kids on their toes. Another one of my favourites is the Whalesong Light Organ. Visitors can trigger one of the five whalesong ‘notes’ by breaking floor-to-ceiling IR beams. With reflectors in the floor, the beam sensors trigger the relay-toIP interface, telling the Medialon Showmaster Pro to trigger the audio grab stored in the QSys Core 250i. SOUNDSCAPE

There’s plenty more to the audio than a whale

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choir though. A specially commissioned soundscape accompanies the footage throughout the immersive space. Running on a 15-minute cycle, there is an individual soundscape for each of the three sections of the immersive space. QSC Acoustic Design series six-inch surfacemount loudspeakers and accompanying 12-inch subs, powered by QSC amplification, take care of the music reproduction. Rutledge AV was the installer of all the audiovisual systems and also commissioned the audio. It’s a fine sounding system — full, immersive, without distracting echoes from competing audio in other zones. Part of that is down to the generous complement of small-format speakers — the system ticks over effortlessly without any strain. The QSys core from Technical Audio Group has more than enough DSP to allow the

system to be seriously tuned and optimised. The music has been produced as three fivechannel surround files to take advantage of all but one of the 16 Q-Sys outputs. The final output is used for the Whalesong Light Organ. COOL RUNNING

Stepping into the Immersive Space’s comms room: Medialon’s Showmaster Pro acts as ringmaster for the entire attraction. Interactive Controls supplied the system and designed the interface. The client-facing UI is very simple — principally allowing staff to set the time of the automated shutdown in 30-minute increments (depending on the penguins’ sleeping patterns… the centre closes prior to dusk). Mental Media, of course, can dial in remotely for in-depth control and diagnostics. Two beefy PCs, built by Interactive

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SEAFOOD DINNER TABLE Seafood Dinner Table allows you to place a plate onto a menu item and read how sustainable it is (or isn’t). A Displax capacitive touch film sits underneath 6mm of Corian. A Panasonic PT-RZ475EA projector displays the image. “The Displax film turns this table into a large touchscreen,” notes Bruce Brown. “We had the film supplied in the correct size for the table. Displax is a Spanish company and I’ve been using the product for about eight years.”

MUSTER AREA A 24-inch 3M touchscreen provides visitors with a menu of silent nature films showing footage of a variety of antarctic animals. The projected image is simply a mirror of the touchscreen image. The area can quickly be turned into a schools orientation space when a staff member turns the keylock which switches the source to a local PC input (HDMI or VGA) with audio capabilities. “In this case I’ve tried Gefen’s new AV-over-IP system for the first time,” commented Bruce Brown. “It works very well. It was about the same price as an HDBaseT setup that would have needed a separate scaler/switcher (the scaling/switching is done within the IP system). I’ll use it again when I need to. Mostly my work is point to point (rather than on a network), where HDBaseT is perfect.”

Controls, take care of all the video streaming — four projectors in the Southern Ocean section from one PC and four projectors in the Antarctic section from the other PC. The PCs’ graphics cards have EDID management onboard, which negates the need for separate EDID managers — it’s all done in software. Lightware HDBaseT extenders make the connection to the projectors via Panasonic’s Digital Link — each projector is receiving data and Ethernet over the one Cat cable. The augmented reality activation is on a different system, as spec’ed by the Belgian suppliers. A DVI splitter sends two separate streams over separate HDBaseT extenders to the stacked Panasonic 670 solid state projectors. Rounding out the AV racks are Univox hearing loop amps.

COOL STUFF

EQUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

AV Asia Pacific chatted with the centre’s communications manager Roland Pick regarding the Antarctic Journey’s impact. “It’s raised the Nature Park’s profile as a conservation organisation globally. Plus we’ve really reached out to a whole new audience — school groups and recreational users — to give them those key messages about conservation. Conservation through education is one of our key platforms, and the new attraction delivers.” 

Panasonic PT-RZ670BE & PT-RZ475EA solid state projectors Dataton Watchout Medialon Showmaster Pro control Gefen HD-over-IP Brightsign media players Lightware HDBaseT Extenders QSC Q-Sys Core 250i QSC CX404 Amplifiers QSC AD S6T loudspeakers QSC AD S112-SW subs Univox Induction Loop Amps

Key Contacts Mental Media: (02) 9557 2011 or www.mentalmedia.com.au Thylacine: www.thylacine.com.au

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Cooking With Gas AGL’s ABW-based HQ made for some WTF VC. Allow us to explain.

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Text:/ Derek Powell

GL’s new Melbourne office is unconventional in nearly every regard. Instead of rising from the ground, the A-grade, 6 Green Star building perches on a platform above the distinctive roofline of Melbourne’s Southern Cross station, literally leapfrogging into a prime location in the packed CBD. Inside, the revolution continues, with AGL opting to adopt ‘Smarter Working’, an Activity Based Working (ABW) methodology, as the key design principle behind the new workplace layouts. Fixed workstations are rare in an ABW environment as most employee’s workspaces actually reside in their laptops. A mobile working environment allows employees to swiftly gather and re-group in agile, flexible and adaptable teams. However, this requirement places extraordinary demands on technology, and in particular the technology in the many and varied meeting spaces, to support seamless connection between individuals and groups. LAPTOP LEAD

This led to an equally unconventional audiovisual design and build program as Craig Harrison, one of AGL’s key project directors and the IT lead for the new building explained: “There were three essential components in actually making ABW work. You have the people component, which is getting people ready to change and making sure that they can work in the environment; you have the spaces; and then you have the technology.” “The technology piece was absolutely critical to making it work,” Craig elaborated. “It encompasses everything from the workstations to the laptops that people are using, then all the way through to the AV integration within that site. I did a lot of work on the desktop [environment], making sure that we could convert everyone in our business to laptops. Then we were at a decision point regarding our AV systems.” MISSING LYNC

Craig and his team understood that communication between teams would be a critical enabler in the new team environment. A key question was creating flexible and easy to use videoconferencing spaces that integrated tightly with the new IT environment. Having adopted

the Lync environment (or Skype for Business as it is now known) for instant messaging and file transfer, the team were already working on a business case to get Skype for Business telephony as well. From that standpoint a Lync solution for corporate video conferencing solutions made a lot of sense. But there was a snag. While Lync worked just fine on laptops, there was really only one Lync room-system on the market at that point in time: the Polycom CX-8000 (and its twin, the Crestron RL). “The challenge we had, was that it was never designed to do what we wanted it to do,” Craig Harrison recalled. “It was good, but they wanted to put a webcam up on a wall, which was never going to be adequate for a boardroom or a big meeting room — you can’t run the microphones and the cameras that you need from a small webcam sitting at the front of the room.” With an astonishing 29 videoconference rooms planned, this technology was central and Craig knew he’d need to find a way to integrate additional devices into these machines to make them work. But at that point, the advice from VC gurus was all negative — advising him to stick with (standards based) codecs and tried and true room systems. So armed with a high-level concept,

but unsure whether the integration of Lync was feasible from an audiovisual perspective, AGL went to tender with four top-flight integrators. TAG TEAM

This is where the process really turned collaborative. AGL were seeking a partner that would work closely with their team and not just sell them into a standard solution. “It was the discussions we’d had with Rutledge AV and the ideas they were coming up with during our conversations that put them at the front, which is why we ended up appointing them,” Craig recalled. Once appointed, the Rutledge AV specialists went straight to work to create a customised solution around the Lync-based videoconference system. Adam Crookes, Rutledge AV’s account manager for the project takes up the story. “We worked quite closely with AGL to develop some room prototypes, using different cameras and control methodologies,” Adam noted. “At the time the CX-8000 didn’t have quite as many integration features, so we had to do some microphone/USB conversions and testing with different DSPs to come up with a reliable solution that would integrate into their wider Lync environment.

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EQUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

33 x Polycom CX8000 34 x Huddlecam HD ~230 NEC Displays NEC & Epson projectors Crestron Fusion Remote Asset Management Crestron AirMedia Extron HDMI extenders Biamp TesiraForte DSP with AEC Extron HDMI Audio De-Embedders Clock Audio Desktop Mics Shure ULXD Wireless Microphone Systems Tannoy CVS6 In-Ceiling Speakers Bosch EVID Ceiling Speakers Lab.Gruppen Power Amps Extron 100V Line Amps Williams Sound Infrared Hearing Assist Lectrum lectern

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“We installed systems in Sydney and Melbourne so that we could test a wide range of cameras. We looked at the Polycom Eagle Eye cameras as well as some Logitech solutions and settled on a middle of the range Huddle Cam USB which had a PTZ functionality. Then we developed the control methodology that we had to use with the touch panel. The unit came with a specific locked-down skin that has a Lync interface. So on the back end we had to develop the basic audiovisual elements like source switching, volume control, mic mute and that sort of thing around the [existing] user interface.” Larger spaces naturally required multiple microphones, but the traditional solution of an external DSP with per-channel echo suppression wouldn’t work in this situation as Adam recalled. “We discovered that the AEC in the DSP we tried was negated by AEC in the locked down version of the Microsoft codec. So we had to work within the limitations of the AEC of the codec itself.” After a lot of experimentation, solutions using a mix of single and multi-capsule Clock Audio button microphones with a mixer rather than a full DSP, produced a quality audio solution for each of the VC spaces. Rutledge AV started work on the design in earnest in late 2014, and with final occupation scheduled as soon as August 2015, time was very tight. Once the videoconferencing solution was locked down the team turned their attention to the other elements demanded by the Activity Based Workplace. MORE THAN VC

As well as the videoconference spaces, there were more than a hundred meeting rooms, huddle and collaboration spaces and training centres, each requiring presentation capabilities that were effective, yet simple to use. Craig’s team at AGL made an early decision to go for wireless connections where possible and set out to trial a number of products before settling on Crestron’s AirMedia. “There were a lot of products out in the market place that had full collaboration suites built in to them,” Craig recalled. “But we were really strict on the fact that we had Lync as our Collaboration Suite. So what we needed was a product that would allow us simply to present, if we wanted to do collaboration, screen sharing or electronic white-boarding or anything like that, we would do that through Lync.” With key decisions on videoconferencing equipment and wireless connectivity out of the way, Rutledge AV moved quickly to the detailed design. To Adam Crookes the logical next step was to decide on a control solution. “We looked at coalescing everything under a single Crestron banner,” he recalled. “This allowed us to leverage Fusion [Crestron’s Remote Asset Management

solution] to create a holistic solution.” Overlaid on the room-based presentation systems is a requirement for effective digital signage that could provide corporate communication, wayfinding and the ability to broadcast ‘town hall’ meetings and messages company-wide. Rutledge AV suggested that an IPTV system would be very effective in the live broadcast role as well as allowing for free-to-air television distribution throughout the building. More than 40 spaces were ultimately equipped as IPTV end-points and the 300-seat function space on the top floor is just one of the areas equipped for recording and live broadcasting across the system. TWO FLOORS AT A TIME

The sheer scale of the installation became obvious when final installation started in earnest. Two floors at a time were handed over by the builder and the Rutledge AV team had just two weeks to complete eight videoconference rooms, 10 - 15 meeting spaces and a slew of digital signage and

IPTV installations before the AGL staff moved in. Then it was straight into the next pair of floors, and two weeks after that, the next. It was a huge logistical task and Rutledge AV mobilised multiple teams to keep pace with the demanding schedule. “On-site at the peak,” Adam remembers, “we had 10 site installation technicians, four commissioners, two programmers, a site supervisor, the project manager and myself as the account manager.” The rest, as they say is history. Both AGL and Rutledge AV are very satisfied with the partnership model, and the results achieved. From AGL’s viewpoint Craig Harrison observed that despite the challenging time-frame, the process produced a very satisfying outcome. “It did work very well”, he said. “With Adam and his team, I think Rutledge AV identified the best people to align with us. For me personally, I think the difference between putting a TV screen on a pole (or on a wall) versus putting in an AV system – is making sure that the business and the partner are working very closely together.” 

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School Social Curtin Uni’s social media command centre Likes a video wall. Text:/ Christopher Holder

arketing has come a long way since the days of the Mad Men, when an idea over a long boozy lunch could change the fortunes of a Fortune 500 company in one easy catch phrase. Digital has changed everything. To be ‘on the pulse’ of a company’s marketing position you need to be on top of at least a dozen ‘vital signs’. What are people saying about you on social media? Is your YouTube push going viral? How’s our microsite faring? Do we really need to get onto Snapchat? For example, if a multinational like Volkswagen drops a thermonuclear bombshell like, oh I don’t know, that it’s falsified the emissions readings on thousands of its vehicles, then marketers need to have an accurate picture of the impact the news is having on its brand. Curtin University’s Marketing School is very aware of the world for which it’s preparing its graduates. And being able to read the digital tea leaves and filter the noise to understand how to best protect a client’s brand or recover from a PR disaster is essential. ‘The Agency’ — as the department’s social media command centre has been christened — is the marketing school’s glamorous showpiece. And the jewel in the crown is the 3x3 video wall. WHEN SOCIAL COMMS CALLING

The Agency is so called because it emulates the look and working environment of a real-life marketing communications agency. Much like many marcomms agencies, Curtin Uni is running Radian6, a digital marketing software platform. Radian6 provides a window into over 650 million sources from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, news and more, to hear what’s being said about a brand. The Radian6 dashboard provides the overview and allows you to zoom in and out of the data and make your own queries. Curtin’s big idea was to truly leverage Radian6 as a teaching tool, making it a central focus for students as they study current marketing hits and misses. But to provide a central focus would

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require a mighty display , a display that could be used to show the Radian6 web portal, as well as the standard suite of Curtin Uni software tools; and for the display to be touch enabled to allow the teacher to work within those software platforms without losing the focus of the class for a minute. CHW Consulting was engaged to design the video wall. The brief was for a display solution which could accommodate either a single image across all displays or a unique feed to each display. The video wall would also need to integrate with existing teaching and learning tools used by the university and mandated for all teaching spaces. LIKES & SHARES

The Agency is a vibrant, exciting place to be, and a compelling forum in which to soak up knowledge. School of Marketing Associate Professor Sonia Dickinson agrees: “The moment they enter this space students are excited to learn. The space has a real wow factor and underscores our position as a real leader in this field. It represents our commitment to transforming learning, and not just the physical spaces but looking at transforming students’ willingness to learn and engage, using technology, and the benefits of doing so.” To the best of our knowledge, this is the first social media command centre in an Australian university, demonstrating Curtin’s commitment to bridging between academia and industry through hands-on collaborative methods. CHW deserves particular credit for its design of the video wall: it’s a clever hardware integration of both source switching and control/management, teamed with the software/web portal interaction. In all, you have a very potent teaching tool and an object lesson in how AV can turbocharge the classroom. 

you have a very potent teaching tool and an object lesson in how AV can turbocharge the classroom

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IN TOUCH WITH THE TECH The 3x3 video wall comprises NEC commercial displays. Importantly, the bottom three screens are touch-enabled. The trick was to select a screen that could accommodate 3M touchscreen film. Initially CHW attempted to find three touchscreen displays that shared the same size and construction as the six other (non-touch) screens. This proved difficult, hence the use of the film. As per Curtin Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidelines, all source switching and distribution is via Extron XTP/DTP systems with control and room metrics handled by the AMX NI series processor and X series touch panel.

CHW Consulting: chw.com.au NEC: au.nec.com AMX: avt.tech Extron: extron.com.au

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Extreme Hospitality Merivale’s Technical Manager, Glenn Rayner, explains how he keeps 20+ Sydney venues singing. Text:/ Christopher Holder

erivale is a large, fast-growing hospitality business with a clutch of high-profile pubs, bars and restaurants, mostly in and around Sydney’s CBD. The business is run by Justin Hemmes, scion of a storied family business that has its roots in his parents’ Australian rag trade label from the ’60s. Justin made his own mark with the Slip Inn, a Sydney Olympics favourite and famously the venue where a certain Mary McDonald met her Danish prince charming. After launching The Establishment and Ivy, Merivale really found its groove. Now it seems that its momentum is irresistible and its Midas touch infallible. Coogee Pavilion and The Paddington are a couple of recent high-profile additions to the portfolio and, this year, The Newport joins the stable. In every case, the venue is at the receiving end of some serious Merivale love. Justin maintains a close coterie of confidants that take care of the refit. Part of that inner sanctum is Technical Manager Glenn Rayner. The AV, and audio in particular, is taken very seriously by Justin. It’s easy to think that Merivale has a ‘no expense spared’ approach

to its fitouts and audio is just another line item. Not so, Justin Hemmes takes a very personal and hands-on interest in the audio, seeing it as a key plank in the fully-immersive experience he wants each and every patron to have, regardless of who they are and where they are in the venue. When it comes to audio, Justin Hemmes means business. THE NEWPORT

Formerly the Newport Arms, Merivale’s The Newport is a big North Shore pub that looks out over Pittwater. Merivale hasn’t finished refitting The Newport but started with the not inconsiderable task of completely reimagining the alfresco area. The Newport’s outdoor area puts every other pub’s beer gardens to shame. It’s enormous and the food and beverage options are extensive. Glenn Rayner: We looked at the existing audio at The Newport and quickly established that the only way we’d get the sort of clarity and coverage we required was to have lots of speakers. The initial design spec’ed 220 loudspeakers. We pared it back down to 180. Regardless, it’s an enormous installation. The design process took months.

We went with the Martin Audio CCD loudspeakers. We conducted a shootout between Martin, Meyer, JBL and another brand, and Martin, with the new range, really shone. All up, it’s a Martin and QSC solution. The design process was crucial. When you’re dealing with long cable runs, like we are at The Newport, you need to make sure you’ve got the right cabling. And when it’s fitted off, that the terminations are done properly — you can’t afford any signal degradation. Being meticulous in the planning also helps with the co-ordination of contractors and maintaining good communications. For The Newport we did leave ourselves some wriggle room. We pre-laid cable everywhere to be ready for any eventuality. We were fortunate to have that luxury. Saying that, we did use roughly 90% of the cables we pulled through and it gave us extra control and flexibility. 144 AMP CHANNELS

Glenn Rayner: Our amp rooms have 38 fourchannel QSC amps — 144 channels all up. There are no more than three speakers per channel, and mostly it’s one or two. The zone control you get from working this way is far superior. We can

FEATURE

customise the feel of every part of the venue, to make it absolutely perfect. Across every output and group of speakers we have EQ, compression, delay, HPF, LPF… DSP on every output — we’re not limited in any way. It means we can walk the venue with a wifi device and fine tune settings for every set of speakers. It took weeks to get right and even now I’ll be there at least once a month to make sure it’s all working optimally. We use Q-SYS for the audio processing at The Newport and AMX as our control system/user interface. Q-SYS is the perfect system for us given the remoteness of The Newport from the rest of our more city-based venues south of the harbour. We’ll use Q-SYS to tell us when there’s an issue with the system: if a speaker’s not working or if any amp channel has failed, then Q-SYS will email us. Again, that saves us an enormous amount of maintenance time.

RAISING STANDARDISATIONS

Glenn Rayner: The longer I’ve been at Merivale and the busier we get — opening multiple venues each year — the more I rely on standardisation. Standardising the build across the group makes it so much easier. It means I can pull out the documentation from the last job, make some adjustments and roll it out again. It allows me to work more quickly and servicing the systems is much easier. What’s more, the team is familiar with every venue’s AV, regardless. We began standardising our AV around five years ago. It started when we did the rebuild of The Establishment, then the new build of the Coogee Pavilion, The Paddington, and now The Newport… all those venues got similar fitouts — the processing and the design and the way the systems are structured are all similar. This includes our control systems. We use the same AMX control system across the group. Each venue has its own system but each has the same code and the same layout as everywhere

043

else. It means the cost of rolling out a new system is comparatively affordable — we have the code and we make small venue-by-venue adjustments. The other key benefit is for our managers: it’s straightforward for them to use the system and simple for them to switch venues and know what to expect. We’ve used BSS as a standard for our processing and we’ll continue to use BSS but for The Newport, given its remote location and the scale of the job, it was going to be a lot quicker to roll out the QSC solution, both with its amps and DSP, and that’s why we went with that product — roll it out quickly, achieve want we needed and it gave us the remote access capabilities we required. The capabilities of Q-SYS are staggering, but it’s also about using the right tools for the job. Our most recent project, Fred’s and Charlie Parker’s, is a small project and we’ve got a couple of BSS London BLU processors and nine amps in there. That job doesn’t need Q-SYS.

MERIVALE AUDIO PHILOSOPHY No Dead Spots: this is the Justin Hemmes mantra when it comes to Merivale audio. Justin takes a keen personal interest in the music (which is programmed and supplied by playlist specialists Nightlife) and audio and as a result it needs to be factored into any renovation from an early stage. Most large venue installations will use constant voltage amp and loudspeaker systems. The advantage of such a setup is obvious: you can daisychain speakers, making it easy to install and far more cost effective — one amp channel for multiple speakers; one cable for multiple speakers. The downside is a serious lack of granular/zone control and no one’s going to enjoy any stereo imaging. And here’s why the likes of The Newport has walls of amps and processing. Having no dead spots also means there aren’t any ‘hot spots’ where certain speakers are run harder to attain coverage. In fact, The Newport coverage is as even as you’re ever likely to hear. It doesn’t matter where you sit — at a bar, at a table, on a retaining wall, in the garden — you’ll enjoy a full and immersive stereo sound. It’s really quite extraordinary. The Martin Audio CCD loudspeakers won the ‘shootout’ prior to installation. The Martin CDD coaxial loudspeaker design is well suited to hospitality installs such as this. Because it’s coaxial you can install the speaker in a landscape or portrait orientation and you maintain the same highly coherent sound quality. What’s more, the dispersion pattern of the Martin CDD design is intentionally non-symmetrical. It means there’s a wider dispersion pattern for those close to the speaker (say, around 120°) and narrower for those more distant (~80°). The advantage of such an approach is a more consistent delivery of HF, regardless of the listening distance.

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FEATURE

THE NEWPORT’S GARDEN STAGE The Newport garden features a fully-fledged performance stage. The audio comprises eight Martin MLA Mini elements a side, with two MLA Mini subs a side. Each MLA box is bi-amped and individually addressed by a QSC amp channel (some 40 channels of amplification are devoted to the stage alone). The array is beam steered down to constrain the throw to around 25m. Live music is a regular weekend fixture at The Newport. A rack has been prepared that’s easily wheeled to side of stage and with a single Cat5 connection plugged into the system. Onboard is an Allen&Heath Qu16 digital mixer, along with a handful of wireless mic channels. The beauty of the approach is the venue is totally self sufficient for the vast majority of events — no need to hire in a PA and/or operator — and the ‘one-connection’ setup preconfigures the rest of the venue’s loudspeaker zones to accommodate the live performance. The remaining 180-odd loudspeakers throughout the rest of the venue are time-delayed, using the stage PA as ‘time zero’. Glenn Rayner: The stage was interesting. We wanted to do something that not only sounded great but looked the part. The Martin Audio line array certainly looks like its meant to be there and looks a lot like a festival stage — the sound and lighting have a festival look. That’s what we were going for.

DAILY ROUTINE

POWER & RESPONSIBILITY

Glenn Rayner: Merivale runs an AV help desk, much like a traditional IT help desk. And we’ve got an automated ticketing system where it logs the jobs and assigns it to the appropriate technician. I’d say 60-70% of our time is spent dealing with those types of call outs. The rest of time is spent taking care of the ongoing maintenance schedule. Depending on the size of the venue we’ll routinely check the AV on a monthly or quarterly basis. We also maintain roughly 200 pieces of DJ equipment across the group. Every piece gets checked weekly, because of the abuse it cops. Huge resources are put into maintaining properly functioning AV.

Two QSC Q-SYS Core 1100s (one for backup/ redundancy purposes) run the show. Out of the Core the digital audio is routed via category cable to Hewlett Packard IT switches which in turn direct traffic to the networked QSC CXD Q Network amplifiers. The degree of control and monitoring is advanced. Glenn Rayner can log into the Q-SYS Core, take a bird’s eye view of the system and indeed use a mouse to hover over any point and ‘hear’ the audio at that node. This makes troubleshooting highly-manageable for such a large audio network. If something’s disconnected or a component is blown the Q-SYS Core will notify you. Customised Technical Solutions, under the watchful gaze of Tyson Nieplet, took care of the installation and its rack work is meticulous, ensuring the system is just as easy to work with on Day 5000 as it is on Day 1.

IPTV FUTURE BECKONS

Glenn Rayner: Looking to the future, I can see us doing more with IPTV across all our venues. I’m looking forward to having streamed media available all the time, anywhere. It’s something we have in a more modest way but I can see it being widespread when it’s more cost effective and simpler to use — that’ll be a great day. But you can never get too cosy at Merivale. [Merivale boss] Justin Hemmes is an incredibly interesting man, with the sort of foresight I’ve not

seen in anyone else, and you don’t know what he’s thinking next. We’re expanding at an incredible rate and from a professional point of view, it’s really exciting to be part of that expansion. Justin relies on his AV being right, and to be a part of that, and have input into how and what we do, is really satisfying. 

CONTACTS Technical Audio Group (Martin Audio, QSC, Allen & Heath): (02) 9519 0900 or www.tag.com.au Customised Technical Solutions: (02) 8068 7684 or www.custechsol.com.au AT Controls (AMX Provider): www.atcontrols.com.au

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FEATURE

Class Action

DRIVING A TOWN HALL

Activity Based Working places significant demands on the AV and IT departments. Gilbert+Tobin’s Head of IT Operations, Mitch Owens, talks us through how the right AV can set AWB up for success. Text:/ Christopher Holder & Mitch Owens

ctivity Based Working: for most office workers the words breathe terror; code for: ‘where the hell did my desk go?’ Bosses love the idea because they want their staff to stop being so darn insular, get out of their cubicle and share their amazing ideas with colleagues. All this seems a reasonable proposition, especially for creative industries where people turn up to work in skivvies and there’s a half-pipe in reception. But what about traditional industries where you need silence and confidentiality… like, say, a legal firm? You might be surprised to hear that one Sydney-based commercial law firm has taken the big leap into activity based working (AWB). Gilbert+Tobin has taken the lease on four floors

Mitch Owens: The main room [no image available, unfortunately] was designed with a number of configurations in mind but the key one was the partner meeting: where we might have 45 of the firm’s partners participating in a three-way VC (with two other Gilbert+Tobin offices) once a month. We’ve got a replica of the Crestron control panel on an iPad as an app. It allows the AV guy to control the video on one of these large VCs. There are four PTZ cameras (North, Sound, East, West cameras) and each has four preset positions. So we worked with POMT to create those preset position that best suit a partner meeting. So depending on who’s speaking you just press the camera icon on the iPad and the preset you want and it will zoom to that area of the table and the partners in Melbourne and Perth can see who’s speaking. POMT has done a brilliant job in integrating all the various technologies — video, loudspeakers, microphone, projection — into the ceiling and keeping the room looking neat and clean.

of one of the new Barangaroo office blocks and has completely done away with traditional offices — no one has their own desk and nothing is permanently plugged in except the phones. Admittedly Gilbert+Tobin is a comparative upstart on the Australian legal scene and has always been known for innovative thinking but this is a huge leap into the unknown. AWB makes some immediate demands on a workplace’s AV. If people can no longer say “please step into my office”, then there has to be an alternative — lots of alternatives. Huddle spaces have become increasingly popular for ad hoc meetings of a small number of individuals. With AWB normally comes the directive to “work where you’re most effective”. So video

conferencing becomes more important, as do VC rooms for colleagues to discuss and collaborate. Often AWB workplaces may have a good chunk of their employees off site — at home, in the field, on secondment — so monthly town hall meetings become more important, as do larger spaces in the office to occasionally gather the clans or conduct social gatherings. In other words AWB is changing plenty and it’s AV’s job to make those changes easy. We asked Gilbert+Tobin’s head of IT Operations, Mitch Owens, to talk AV Asia Pacific through some of the key challenges and the practicalities of the solutions.  Peace of Mind Technology: www.pomt.com

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FEATURE

MEETING OPTIONS Mitch Owens: A key aspect was for video and audio conferencing to integrate with and leverage our Cisco platform. For the three practice floors, rather than build meeting rooms with identical conferencing functionality, we worked with POMT to create different rooms, fit for purpose. Videoconferencing rooms were set up with either single screen or double screen configurations, with other rooms optimised for presentations. Despite the different room functions, POMT ensured the user experience was simple and consistent throughout. Part of our job is educating users regarding which is the best room for their purposes. In many regards, the boardroom with the million-dollar views isn’t the best meeting room. We purposely designed it with one screen [see the image over leaf], which is suitable for VC but not great for collaboration — where you can use a second screen to share a spreadsheet or Powerpoint. Some of the less glamorous VC/collaboration rooms (without the harbour views) are more suitable and set up for that. Other rooms are more geared to having multiple people speaking simultaneously — with the Shure MX beamforming mics. In some rooms we’ll use the Cisco SX20 PTZ cameras while in others we have the Cisco SX80 camera that tracks the speaker. This feature will also have pros and cons depending on the meeting’s format. Crestron touchpanels have made our lives considerably easier. They make the technology invisible. Staff are starting a VC session with a touch of a button. If it’s an important meeting and it needs to be ready and waiting, then we’ve trained up our reception/concierge staff and they’re doing a lot of the room setups for us now.

MANAGING & BOOKING SPACES Mitch Owens: More meeting rooms means more maintenance and more that could go wrong, so you need a solid room management platform. We’ve gone down the Crestron Fusion path. Fusion gives us tools like capacity management, and information around system operability. We’ll be endeavouring to use the information to be more preventative around some of our remediation, as opposed to reactive. Changing a lamp before it dies is clearly better than after it dies in the middle of an important meeting. Naturally, the meeting rooms can be booked and that’s how we’re encouraging staff. There are a handful of small ad hoc meeting spaces that don’t need to be booked.

CRESTRON AIR MEDIA Mitch Owens: We wanted to make presentations easy and wireless where possible. We’ve decided to go with Crestron’s AirMedia to take care of wireless BYOD presentations. When we first moved into the premises we’d pre-installed the AirMedia app onto everyone’s laptops but hadn’t done any training. But it was encouraging to find staff getting on with using it without any training, wirelessly presenting from their devices without any assistance.

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FEATURE

BOARDROOM BLITZ Mitch Owens: The biggest issue we had in our previous boardroom was the audio, mainly around user etiquette and sound quality. So when we were designing the new boardroom and the other VC spaces we were determined to use technology that would solve the user etiquette conundrum. And here’s the reason for the gooseneck microphones in the boardroom. Previously when we had inset table mics, people would throw paper over them — inadvertently and occasionally intentionally. But when they want to be heard the mic will covered. Naturally they see this as a tech issue rather than an ‘etiquette’ issue. So we wanted technology that would avoid these sorts of scenarios. Now those same people have to consciously think about confidentiality — such is the improved sound quality — those sotto voce conversations are all being picked up. We used to have regular video conferencing audio complaints, so it’s a real step forward. Other conferencing spaces will use on-table microphones. We’ve opted for the newer Shure MX multi-element boundary mics. Their beamforming capability means we can set them back from the attendees and they’re less likely to be covered with papers.

VIRTUAL MEETING ROOM Mitch Owens: VMR (virtual meeting room) and CMR (cloud-based meeting rooms) are now the norm. We’ve done away with our on-premise point-to-point Cisco hardware and moved to using Cisco’s cloud products. That does a couple of things: it minimises the amount of gear I’ve got in my data centre — the set up is simple; and it’s easy to operate without any specialist assistance. Our VMR is back-ended by Webex which has given us huge amounts of flexibility and our users are thoroughly enjoying the experience. It means that if someone is out and about, or stuck in traffic, they can still load the app and join the room-based VC from an airport lounge or wherever. They never had that capability before.

UNDOCKED WORK ENVIRONMENT Mitch Owens: When it comes to having the flexibility to roam around the office without interruption to your workflow, wi-fi is key. We’ve got a softphone app as an option, staff can wander around with an earbud and not be tethered to a phone. Every lawyer is catered for in the same way — from a partner to a new grads, it’s all been standardised. My motto is: Anywhere, anytime. Being able to access our systems wherever you are at whatever time of day it is. The next, third, phase is ‘anything’, which will take some more work. But we have staff that might move between client sites and state offices, and it’s crucial they have access to the technology and the data they’re looking for when and where they want it.

CORPORATE MESSAGING Mitch Owens: Our digital signage strategy came about almost by accident. We had some surplus screens knocking about and our integrator Peace of Mind Technologies suggested we set up a digital signage network. Which has been a stroke of genius because law firms are notorious for sending out a flood of internal messaging emails to staff. For example, previously we might send an email with the new café menu while now that can be on the digital signage. We’ll also use the signage to let staff know about upcoming training, client events etc. As we get increasingly comfortable with it, we’re going to start delivering some APItype features. For example, being a law firm where people work late, we could show train timetables after 8pm or a map of where Uber cars are in the area.

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050

TUTORIAL

Sightline Studies The designer is responsible for a seating layout which creates the best viewing environment for the audience.

The following is an excerpt from Design Environment Online. These and other topics will be covered in greater detail, with hands on skills practice, during InfoComm’s Design Elements one-day workshop in Melbourne in late 2016. For enquiries or to enrol contact Rod Brown at oceania@infocomm.org DEFINITION: A sightline is the unobstructed view between a person and the object they need to see. A sightline study determines the most appropriate seating layout for a clear field of view, including the lowest visible point on the display wall, nearest viewers’ line of sight, furthest viewers’ line of sight, distortion of image from off-axis seat locations, and other ergonomic factors for a preferred field of vision and viewing comfort tolerances.

Sightline studies are used to verify that everyone in the audience will have a clear view of the presenter area. These studies determine the lowest visible point on the front wall of the presenter area. This will help the designer to determine how low the screen can be mounted. Sightlines should not be confused with viewing angles, which are used to verify that a display in the presenter area can be viewed as close to on axis as possible. In other words, it is possible to have great sightlines for viewing a presenter at a lectern but poor sightlines for a screen on the wall (screen too small, too high, too low, off-centre). Sightline studies are based on three factors: • Seating types • Floor types • The limits of comfortable viewing (ergonomics) HUMAN SIGHTLINES

When completing a sightline study you need to determine the minimum distance between the nearest viewer and the display. This can be determined by drawing a sightline from the top of the projected image to the eye of the closest viewer at a 30° angle. Conversely, if the audience area has already been determined you can use sightlines to determine the maximum image height. Simply draw a sightline from the eye of the closest viewer at a 30° angle. The point at which that line intersects the wall will be the maximum image height.

The standard line of sight for humans is at 0° (horizontal). The closer the actual sightline is to perpendicular to the display plane the greater the viewing comfort. The centre of the screen should therefore fall no more than 15° above the standard line of sight. EYE HEIGHT

The eye height of your viewers is a critical variable in a sightline study. On the image below the person on the right represents a viewer of large stature, while the person on the left represents a viewer of small stature. If the large viewer were to sit in front of the short viewer the short viewer would not be able to see over the large viewer’s head and shoulders. When seated the large viewer’s eye height is about 85cm plus the distance between the floor and the chair seat. For the short viewer that distance is about 70cm plus the distance between the floor and chair seat. You can mitigate these height differences in several ways. Adjustable chairs permit the eye height of the viewer to be raised or lowered. An adjustment range between 37 and 45cm will accommodate the eye height requirements of about 90% of viewers. You can also stagger the seating layout, or even adjust the floor to a stepped (tiered) or a raked (sloped) layout. SEATING LAYOUTS

When designing a theatre-style visual system you have two primary options for arranging the viewers: aligned or staggered. In an aligned seating arrangement viewers are placed directly behind the viewer in front

of them. On a flat floor the view for anyone in the back row will be obstructed. As you move further back the sightlines will need to be elevated to clear the nearer viewer’s bodies. Compare this with a staggered seating arrangement. In this layout people are placed so they can view the image between the shoulders of the two viewers in the row in front of them. This lowers the sightlines significantly in comparison to an aligned seating layout. FLOOR LAYOUTS

The type of seating you choose for your AV design will depend upon the room’s infrastructure. One element you will need to consider is the type of floor. Flat floors are the most common. However, as you can see in the image below, flat floors may make it hard for viewers further back to see images. These viewers need to look over obstructions, such as nearer viewers’ heads, in order to see the images. Poor seating alignment, such as aligned seating on a flat floor as the image below depicts, creates higher and higher sightlines as the number of rows of people between the viewer and the screen increases. Raked and stepped floors are typically found in amphitheatres, training facilities and other larger capacity meeting spaces. The image below demonstrates how stepped seating can dramatically lower sightlines for furthest viewers (raked floors give similar results). The improvement in sightlines is proportional to the angle (steepness) of the stepping or raking. The example here is of an aligned seating arrangement. With a staggered alignment the sightline would be even lower. 

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TUTORIAL

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052

REVIEW

DisplayNote Montage Wireless Presentation System Montage delivers on extensive set of remote collaboration capabilities. Can you see yourself in this picture? Text:/ Derek Powell

he first task when reviewing Montage was to figure out exactly what kind of device it is. DisplayNote Technologies, the manufacturer, refers to the product as a ‘Wireless Presentation System’, which is as good a descriptor as any, although it fails to really describe the full range of its capabilities. Montage enters a fairly new category of Wireless Presentation/Collaboration/BYOD Connection devices. It is a new category but an already quite crowded one. By my count there are at least a dozen standalone hardware devices on the market; a veritable plethora of software solutions; and what’s more, there is a range of wireless connectivity options direct to monitors, projectors and electronic whiteboards. Each of these approaches offer a slightly different range of capabilities.

So what is expected from a ‘Wireless Presentation System’? From most end users’ perspectives, the baseline is fairly simple: the system should allow an untrained operator to walk into a meeting room and wirelessly connect whatever manner of laptop/tablet/smartphone they have to the display screen, to instantly show any kind of document, video or presentation they desire. Like many requests that we as audiovisual professionals receive, that expectation is an easy thing for a client to say but devilishly difficult to achieve in practice. With the Montage product, DisplayNote has gone further than most in enabling a wide range of devices to connect — which is a great strength — and then adding a variety of extra features. Those extra features take it beyond the competitive pack but with extra

sophistication comes a bit of extra homework, as we shall soon see. Firstly, let’s take a look at the product itself. WIRELESS CONFIGURATION

You can choose three ways to configure the network capabilities of Montage, depending on your particular circumstance. The simplest, is to run Montage without a network cable so it’s not connected to either the internet nor any local network. Users simply join the Montage access point via wi-fi. It’s fall-off-a-log easy to get a group of users connected this way but it does mean you cannot connect to the internet at the same time (which restricts what you can display) and it comes with security concerns — any random person can join, and IT departments will see it popping up as a ‘rogue’ access point which

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REVIEW

MONTAGE OUT OF THE BOX The main unit is based around an Intel NUC mini PC and is small enough to fit on a shelf or even behind a monitor (indeed a VESA-compatible mounting plate is supplied to make this easier). It measures a tad under 12cm square but at 51.5mm high (or a little over two inches), it is just a little too tall to fit on a rack unit shelf. On the front are a pair of USB3.0 ports and a 3.5mm TRS audio jack while the rear panel sports another two USB3.0 ports, a network port, a power supply connector and two video outputs. The video outputs comprise one mini HDMI (Type C) socket and a mini-Display Port. In the absence of a standard HDMI output, the package contains a mini DP-to-HDMI adaptor for easy connection. An external power supply and 240V cable with an Australian plug rounds out the package. Montage ships in an elegant and thoughtfully designed cardboard slip case that could well be used as a transport and storage solution should the unit not be permanently installed.

may interfere with the existing wireless network in the meeting room. Where a readily available corporate wireless network already exists, the preferred method is usually to disable Montage’s own WAP (via a menu selection) and connect the base station via a wired connection to the LAN. It’s the way most larger businesses and universities will go, since it provides a more secure environment and, once set up, is easy for users to join as they are probably already connected to the wireless network. Importantly, connecting Montage to the internet (either through a LAN or directly) allows users to take advantage of DisplayNote’s cloud-based meetings server, which allows participants to join a collaboration session from anywhere that an internet connection is available (more on this later). Finally, it is possible to have Montage connected to the LAN and through to the Internet while still having its own WAP enabled. Meeting attendees can then choose to connect via the LAN or through the wireless network that Montage creates. Once Montage is running and configured, it is time to connect and here is where the unit shows its strengths, as there are a number of options, depending on the device you want to connect. CONNECTION OPTIONS

The Holy Grail of any wireless presentation device is to allow a user with any wireless device (including laptops, tablets and smartphones) to connect and share. As we know, this is a deceptively tough ask. To simplify what is a complex area, there are two basic ways wireless screen sharing can happen.

One way is to use the streaming capabilities built into some devices, such as Apple’s AirPlay or Android’s MiraCast. This works fine, so long as the attendee’s device already has this capability. The second option is to have the user download an app which creates a copy of the screen and streams it out across the network. The trick: the app needs to work with a whole host of devices and OS versions to avoid frustration. Montage allows users to use either of these basic methods since it is compatible with MiraCast and AirPlay and it also has a downloadable app for Windows 7 and above (but no Mac or Linux app). Cleverly though, DisplayNote has provided another option: Montage has a web client available for the Google Chrome browser. Chrome has versions available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, so including this method potentially provides the widest range of connection possibilities. MAKING A CONNECTION

For the purposes of this test, I used a laptop, a Microsoft Surface Pro and an iPad to explore the various wireless connection options. With Montage happily displaying its splash screen on my test monitor, I fired up the Surface Pro and connected to the Montage wi-fi. As a screen sharing device some of what I experienced seemed a little unnecessarily intrusive (why does Montage need my email address and access to my microphone?!). But it all makes sense when viewed through the prism of making remote connections. In this situation, you connect a webcam to Montage and it allows you to create a patchwork of all the users’ screens, with a live webcam

image of the user alongside (like a montage – get it?). Montage not only displays the on-screen content but facilitates two-way audio and video communication between the meeting room and remote users. This is great – if you need it. However, I do wish the process for getting set up and joining a meeting had a ‘simple mode’ for all the times when you just want to connect wirelessly to the screen while you’re in the room. TORTURE BY POWERPOINT

To start my detailed evaluation, I put up my torture-test PowerPoint presentation which has plenty of tiny text, along with revealing highand low-contrast photos and test patterns. The slides changed cleanly. There was a variable delay between the Surface slide change and the display change. However, the lag was never more than around a second. The transmission latency made it tricky to annotate a slide while watching the shared display screen — best to look at your own device. For optimal legibility, I think I would prefer to see an option to make the transmitted image occupy the full screen (90% is the maximum) — up close, my slides had some noticeable compression artefacts on fine details, though even small text remained readable at all times. AIRPLAY TIME

Next, I tried an iPad connection using its builtin AirPlay capabilities. With a swipe or two on the iPad, the vision popped up easily, and looked even better than the browser connection from the Surface. But things got difficult when I tried to transmit a video with sound. No matter what

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I tried, I could not get audio to emerge from Montage, either from an HDMI connection or using the 3.5mm analogue output. I finally rang the Australian representative for assistance. I was in for two surprises. Firstly, it took only a few moments to be put through to a very knowledgeable and helpful engineer who knew the product well and swiftly pinpointed my issue. This was a pleasant surprise and a great bonus for any prospective Montage users. The second surprise was less welcome: My version of the Montage operating system didn’t support sound via AirPlay! What’s more, it didn’t support playing source audio across the browser connection either (something I hadn’t tried to that point). At first, I couldn’t possibly imagine why this would be the case. However, the support engineer quickly explained that, by default, Montage dedicated its audio capabilities to providing two-way sound via the webcam microphones to any connected users. This is understandable for remote users not in the room, but a serious disadvantage for everyday use with people connected locally. I understand that current and upcoming firmware updates will rectify this problem and allow users to choose to transmit source audio. WORKING TOGETHER

Next, it was time to check the remote collaboration facilities that are a key part of Montage. DisplayNote has established a dedicated website (joindisplaynote.com) which allows users anywhere to connect to a meeting on a Montage. The set up was refreshingly simple. I connected the test Montage unit to the internet via my router, whereupon it contacted the Cloud and in a minute or two automatically created a meeting on the server. The only clue to this being a cloud-hosted meeting was a little tick in the Cloud icon on screen and the creation of a sixdigit meeting ID (local IDs are four digits). On my laptop PC, I started Chrome with the Montage extension (note: neither Internet Explorer or MS Edge are supported browsers). I then opened a window and navigated to the Cloud Server and was presented with a simple login screen asking for the Meeting ID. Once entered, you’re asked which part of your screen you wish to share (the choices are full screen or just a single application). I chose to share a PDF reader which happened to be open and in a few seconds, my PDF was displayed on the big screen attached to the remote Montage. The display looked fine, very readable and, switching back to the browser window, the controls on the Montage webpage allowed me to start a webcam feed so my image appeared in a corner of the PDF on the remote screen. There were a few bugs however which indicate that this is an early version of the software. For example, once you’ve committed to showing

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a PDF or a Word document upon login, you’re locked in for the duration of the meeting. If you close the PDF window, Montage boots you out of the meeting — the only way to display something different is to leave the meeting and re-join. This is clearly something that needs to be addressed in Version 2. WORKING WITH THE DEDICATED APP

Thinking the dedicated Windows app might provide the best possible Montage experience, I switched to using it instead of the browser. The app started quickly and asked for the Meeting ID as before. I entered the ID and again, I was connected in seconds to the remote screen. Weirdly though, it didn’t ask what I wanted to send, rather, the remote screen displayed the whole of my laptop screen and its extended display, producing a letterbox image of both my monitors. At that size on the remote screen the text was un-readable and the only option was to access my laptop display settings to duplicate the displays. Readable text returned and Montage displayed the whole of my main screen. This is apparently a deliberate feature, because by selecting ‘Active Display’ on the My Montage app, I allowed users at the Montage display to remotely access my PC using a keyboard and mouse connected to the Montage base station — something not possible using the web app. This could be an effective tool for a help desk and in a meeting context it can be used to allow everyone connected to edit a document together. It is a little tricky remotely using a mouse, because there’s a delay between moving the mouse and seeing the result but it is useable if you work carefully. GOING LARGE

It was time to test things on a wider scale, so I again called the support guys at Madison Technologies for some advice. Once on the phone the engineer simply tapped in the sixdigit Meeting ID code on his laptop and was connected to me sharing his screen in a trice. Compared to the local connection, his image across the public internet was noticeably more compressed, with very fine menu text illegible but, with suitable zooming, the document text was perfectly readable. We tried out some back and forth annotation on the screen and I dragged down the built-in whiteboard tool, all of which worked as expected. If several users are connected remotely to the same meeting via the app or browser, then everyone can see what is happening on every connected screen, which works well as a collaboration aid. During an extended test session though, I did encounter a couple of issues which confirmed to me that the software app still had some development left to go. I have used a number of other tools for remote collaboration, ranging from Lync/Skype for Business to Google Docs and many others. All have their own foibles

and a significant user learning curve, so Montage is not alone in this respect. The question is: do you need this kind of collaboration built into a wireless presentation system and/or do you currently already have that kind of collaboration in another cloud-based app? SUMMING UP

Montage is a complete collaboration solution best suited to facilitate meetings where some participants may be remotely connected to the meeting. In this role, it provides a range of powerful tools that put it in a different league to most wireless presentation systems. It also provides one of the widest ranges of connection options from all kinds of user devices, Windows, Mac, Linux and Android — something lacking in many competing devices. Montage is not for you if you simply need a widget optimised for easy connection by participants within the room — look to the range of simpler wireless presenters. But if collaboration, particularly from remote users, is your primary requirement and you’re prepared to put some resources into support for new users, then you should definitely have this powerful little box on your shortlist. 

MORE INFO Price: $ TBC Madison Technologies 1800 00 77 80 madisontech.com.au/montage Pros Wide range of connection possibilities Advanced, two-way collaboration tools Cons High compression affects image quality Program audio not available or finicky to set up from some connections Some software bugs

NEWS

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Industry Update AV CALENDAR INFOCOMM ED IN HIGH DEMAND AT INTEGRATE At the Integrate 2016 show in August, visitors flocked to the professional development program presented by InfoComm International. “We are pleased to observe that there was a huge increase in visitors participating in InfoComm education sessions,” said Rod Brown, CTS-R, CTS-D, InfoComm International’s Regional Director for Oceania. “Compared to last year, the number of attendees almost doubled, which is a strong indication that professional development at trade shows is in high demand.”

for a seminar topic, contact oceania@infocomm.org. InfoComm is always interested in proposals regarding emerging technologies and examples of exceptional experiences and solutions. SAVE THE DATE: INFOCOMM DESIGN ELEMENTS COURSE Join us for the InfoComm ‘Design Elements’ course on 29 November in Melbourne. This is a concentrated oneday design workshop where AV professionals will learn and practice the basics of meeting room and classroom design. This session is ideal for those who participate in the audiovisual design process or who want to develop more proficiency in the basics of AV design. Course objectives are to design a basic meeting room or classroom that allows the audience to accurately hear speech and program sources; to anticipate basic acoustical phenomena in design and create a better listening environment. For more information, visit infocomm.org/education. To register, contact oceania@ infocomm.org TRENDS REPORT NOW AVAILABLE The ‘2016 Global Pro-AV Distribution Channel and Trends Report’, recently released by InfoComm International,

InfoComm offered educational content at Integrate 2016 in three formats: seminars, MasterClass and FlashTrack presentations. Launched this year, the InfoComm FlashTrack program was particularly popular with show attendees. It was offered over three show days, was free to attend and consisted of short, 20-minute sessions. Each session discussed current industry trends. Dean McFadden, Technical Architect at RMIT University, who presented two InfoComm FlashTrack sessions on networked audiovisual systems, also confirmed positive feedback from his session attendees. “It was great to hear that they had learnt something that will help them with their day-to-day work. I have been pursuing converged AV for a number of years and the opportunity to present allowed me to help educate my colleagues with some new IT skills that are required to support the next generation of AV.” If you want to be part of the InfoComm professional development program in 2017, or have a proposal

is now available for purchase. The report explores key trends that impact stakeholders throughout the proAV channel, including a global outlook of the AV market. The report identifies the growing role of distributors, how services differentiate integrators, and how product commoditisation can be beneficial to the pro-AV market. For more information, visit infocomm.org/research

INFOCOMM MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA Dubai, December 6-8 www.infocomm-mea.com ISE 2017 Amsterdam, February 7-10 www.iseurope.org INFOCOMM 2017 Orlando, June 14-16 www.infocommshow.org

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Inogeni Share2 Dual Video to USB 3.0 Super Converter Text:/ Andrew Bennett

NO DRIVERS, NO WORRIES

he internet is a magical world. It allows us to communicate across the hallway, the street, country, and the world at literally the click of a button. Technology such as Skype for Business, Google Hangouts, or any of the other web-based video communication tools allows individuals, teams and businesses to connect. What was recently only available in the realm of big business — with big AV budgets and dedicated ISDN lines — is now available (in a form) to anyone with a laptop computer and a semi-respectable internet connection. However, there’s a catch: a laptop and webcam will only get you so far. When the need for an additional video source arises, the technical landscape gets complex and potentially pricey. The response to the problem of additional video sources is to a) make do; or b) take a big step up and invest in some sophisticated gear that’ll do the job admirably (but requires some light bedtime reading of the manual, along with an hour or more of setup). Luckily, now there is option c). It is as if the Inogeni product development team put the following headline on its whiteboard: ‘What features are required for 95% of the people trying to do multiple source web conferencing?’. The result is the Share2 ‘Dual Video to USB3.0 Super Converter’. THE PACKAGE

On paper, Share2 is a black box consisting of a two-input video mixer, combined with a scaler and, to top it off, a video-to-USB3 converter, packaged in one small, easy-to-use unit.

Pick up the Share2 and its weight is immediately reassuring — it is a rugged little critter, with an outer shell of steel that is softened by a strip of seven large pushbuttons along the top. The buttons look like they belong on a piece of factory machinery — big, solid, unambiguous. The second thing to notice, or notice the lack of, is that there isn’t a driver disc. This is truly a ‘plug ’n’ play’ device. Inogeni has shielded us from configuration complexity — all you need is a machine running Windows 7 or higher, or a Mac running Mac OSX 10.10 or higher, a spare USB3 port, paired with your favourite software of choice and away you go. The ‘main’ video channel has a single HDMI input, labelled as ‘Camera In’, while the secondary input is a DVI-I connector supporting both digital and analogue signals. There is also an RCA connector for a composite signal should you require it. In the box Inogeni throws in a ‘VGA to DVI’ and ‘HDMI to DVI’ adaptors. Audio is handled either via the HDMI port, or there are 2 x 3.5mm jacks supporting audio in and out. There is a RJ45 port for RS232 communications, should you need to wire the Share2 into an automation control system. Around the front there is the USB3 B connector for connection to the host computer, as well as a two-port USB3 hub, useful for other USB based equipment, such as a conference microphone. BIG BUTTONS

Switching between video sources during use couldn’t be simpler — press one of the large rubber buttons. There are options for either

Yes, I was sceptical at first too: how does a vision mixer that works over USB3 pull off this no-drivers magic trick? Here’s how: the Share2 performs the vision switching in hardware and just sends a single output over USB3 to the computer. The computer recognises the Share2 as a single USB3 webcam and uses the appropriate default drivers within the OS. Setting up your software of choice is as simple as switching the webcam the OS is using. For desktops without a webcam, the Share2 becomes the only (and therefore, default) device. Laptop users may need to switch from their built-in camera to the Share2. During testing, with a few off-the-shelf consumer-level pieces of software, the Share2 easily stood up to handling continuous hours of work without interruptions or dropouts. This means the Share2 can sit alongside a setup in any conference room or boardroom, and the training for users is reduced to a simple twominute conversation.

sources, a side-by-side view of both sources, either the same size or one larger than the other, and finally a picture-in-picture effect with one source floating over the other in any of the four corners of the screen. During my test, the switching was seamless and near instant. DELAY & LAG

Lag is the bane of real-time video conferencing. Lag breaks down the sense of real-time communication and thus the process feels unnatural, and users tend to quickly lose patience, often avoiding the system altogether. During my tests, there was a lag visible to the naked eye when closely studied. The audio just sat in front of the video feed by a few milliseconds. Despite this, it wasn't long enough to feel distracting in general conversation. It is important to note that the milliseconds of lag I experienced could be down to any number of factors, from the choice of camera, to the webbased software delivery system.

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The computer recognises the Share2 as a single USB3 webcam and uses the appropriate default drivers within the OS.

ASIA PACIFIC

MORE CONTROL

The large buttons act as the primary interface but under the bonnet there are a couple of other features worthy of note. Inogeni has released the ‘Inogeni Software Suite’ as a collection of tools that assist in firmware upgrades, recording of videos streams and, of course, controlling the Share2. There is built-in Bluetooth 4 support along with an accompanying iOS app. (One thing to note, there doesn’t appear to be a way to lock down this feature, meaning anyone with the app could ‘accidentally’ take control. Luckily the star button on the unit itself forces a disconnect.) As previously mentioned, the unit supports control over RS232, alongside control over IP with the optional IPto-serial adaptor. The Inogeni Share2 fills an interesting hole in the market. Is allows those doing smaller scale web-based video conferencing to have access to technology that previous has been too complex (and possibly too expensive) to be worth considering for the ROI. Now they can easily add a second camera to their setup. But the Share2 also takes into account those with larger or more permanent installations in boardrooms, conference rooms and classrooms with the added support for remote control and its array of input source options. The Share2’s ability to handle practically any standard signal thrown at it and for it to perform the hardware scaling and technical admin that end users mostly don’t care for is a real plus. AV storerooms are full of ‘nifty’ boxes’ that our clients simply lost faith in because they were just ‘too hard’ despite their redeeming features. Share2 won’t be one of those boxes. It’s easy and effective. I had Share2 working on a Skype call within five minutes of taking it out of the box. Some may find it frustrating, that they can't get in a tweak the size of the picture in picture or the exact placement. But this really is an end users’ appliance, and I’ve not doubt they’ll appreciate how simple and easy it is to use to get the job done. 

MORE INFO Price: $2114 RRP Corsair Solutions (03) 9005 9861 www.corsairsolutions.com.au

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COMMENT

Termination AWB? Google It Text:/ Graeme Hague

Google, pioneer of the activity-based working, hot bike.

e can blame Google for this Activity Based Workplace madness — no, not the search engine or the Chrome browser, I mean Google itself. Some time back I remember photographs being leaked onto the internet; pictures of the Google headquarters in the French Riviera... or was it Monaco? The Swiss Alps? [Silicon Valley perhaps? – Ed.] Anyway, it was somewhere flash and expensive with free beer and sausage sizzles on every corner. The working conditions for Google employees are unique. Everybody has their very own gymnasium, swimming pool, sauna, pinball machine, XBox console and an office chair shaped like a banana (something to do with ergonomics). You travel to the upper floors in a hot-air balloon equipped with a chilled champagne and oyster bar and return down on a fireman’s pole to land in an enormous tub of Mars bars. You can take a nap anytime you want, as long as you don’t disturb everyone else trying to sleep. All in the name of good fun. Because if you’re not having fun, how can you possibly be productive? Google believes the moment you’re feeling a bit down, maybe not so motivated, employees should immediately indulge in a few hours of Donkey Kong, or climb a few ranks in Battlefield 2. HOT DESK, COLD COMFORT

The Googleheim [Googleplex, perhaps? — Ed.] Building is the pinnacle of this whole Activity Based Workplace approach which — let’s be frank — sounds the death knell of the personal desk. That’s a concept with many fatal flaws. For starters, how will anyone find anything? For centuries people have lost stuff, but never panicked because of the reassuring knowledge that “It’s got to be on my desk somewhere”. Without a desk, where the hell can anything

the moment you’re feeling a bit down employees should immediately indulge in a few hours of Donkey Kong be? Any kind of communal workspace can only be a Bermuda Triangle of lost paperwork. A bottomless void for vanishing USB sticks, sunglasses and car keys. Imagine the skyrocketing costs of replacing mobile phones that have been sucked into the Activity Based black hole. For 10 years I had my own small office backstage. My staff knew the rules, like to never disturb me unless there was a genuine fire — actual flames, not just smoke (we had alarms for that sort of thing), and on the occasions I wasn’t rostered on and somebody might borrow my office, no one was allowed to delete the cookies on my workstation in case I lost my favourite... ah, tutorial websites. My desk was sacrosanct. Especially the bottom left-hand drawer with its important shit. God help anyone who adjusted my chair. I had the height and the rock backwardsand-forwards thingy set to an nth degree. Never to be trifled with. And, of course, I knew exactly where everything was — as long as it was on my desk somewhere. SHARE MARKET

Why would any organisation want to replace those sorts of rock solid, dependable management

skills with some airy-fairy, hippy-inspired practices involving sharing things and dashing from room to room every time a different idea comes to mind? Because that’s one of the core beliefs behind any Activity Based Workplaces: you have a shared, brain-storming office for brain storming, and a shared graphics office for doodling, and a shared communications office for sending out funny emails. It logistically can’t possibly work. Here’s an example: I’ve just done my tax return online and trust me, if I needed a different office to imagine all the various deductions I had to invent, you’d need a place with more offices than... well, the tax department (which apparently has nobody to spare for answering the Help Line, so maybe it’s sharing a desk with bloody Telstra or Centrelink). And another thing. How’s the Lunch Dude going to deliver your sandwiches, if he doesn’t know where you’re going to be? Oh right, the communal dining room where some bastard will swap your prawn and avocado wrap for a ham sandwich and deny all knowledge. All in the name of sharing, obviously. Sneaky sods. Activity Based Workplaces can potentially have a detrimental impact on your dietary intake. Who knows what they really put in a ham sandwich these days? So no, just because Google is ranked the second highest performing company in the world, it doesn’t mean it’s doing everything right — or that we should do the same. If you ask me, if Google wants to hit No.1, it needs to give its employees a proper job with a proper desk, arranged neatly in proper cubicles with not too comfortable, proper chairs, and get rid of everything else including the hot air balloon, fireman’s pole and the enormous pit of Mars bars. Like a proper company. 

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