AV Issue 60 by Alchemedia Publishing

Ultra-realistic Messaging On Display

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

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

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

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

$ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ ! $ $ " $ $ $ $# $! $ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ $

$ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ ! $ $ " $ $ $ $# $! $ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ ! $ $ " $ $ $ $# $! $ $ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ $ ! $ $ " $ $ $ $# $! $ $ $ $ $ $! $ $ $

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

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

I N T E G R A T E D AUDIO, VIDEO & CONTROL

AUDIO

ISSUE 60

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

Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@avapac.net)

NEWS News from InfoComm18 & 10 Years of Integrate

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

ASSOCIATIONS News from Avixa.

TERMINATION Taking a Screener!

66 FEATURES

ROUNDING UP UNSW'S Roundhouse Upgrade.

Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@avapac.net)

MONDOPAD TICKS ALL THE BOXES Public sector entity’s Meeting Room.

Graphic Designer: Daniel Howard (daniel@avapac.net)

CAPITAL WORKS Capital Theatre Invests in KV2 Audio.

Additional Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@avapac.net)

TRADING PLACES UWA’s Trading Room Learning Space.

Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au)

GREAT EXPECTATIONS UON’s Great Hall.

Subscriptions: (subscriptions@avapac.net)

WEST IS BEST? Perth’s New Optus Stadium.

MORE IS MORE Immersive Audio Cover Story.

HIGH STAKES Tabcorp HQ Fitout.

Assistant Editor: Preshan John (preshan@alchemedia.com.au)

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 © 2018 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title AV is a registered Trademark. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 2/8/2018

VIVITEK DK8500Z 4K Single-Chip DLP Laser Projector.

AUDINATE DANTE AVIO Digital Audio Adapter.

NEWS

All Expenses Played?

he US-based InfoComm show flipped back to Vegas this year and proved, yet again, that it’s a thoroughly worthwhile way to spend a week of your professional life. Vegas is comparatively easy to get to, Avixa does an admirable job in organising the show, and, provided you have the maturity and selfcontrol to not push the boat out too far every night, the city is designed to keep you well fed, watered, and entertained. There was plenty of new product to get to grips with (a selection of which we’ve included in our news pages this issue) as well as some interesting industry announcements (I thought I’d focus on the Milan news – the AVB-based protocol). There were certainly plenty of Aussies at the show, which is great to see — it raises our industry’s international profile, and we all benefit from our best ’n’ brightest using the big international tradeshows to get their technical and creative juices flowing. But not everyone’s happy. I heard more than once from Australian distributors in Vegas that many Australian integrators, consultants and end users who had made the trip had little control over their own time. They all seemed to be hosted by larger vendors or distributors and couldn’t make time to visit anyone else’s stands. I heard this not only from smaller Australian distributors but from larger ones as well. My initial reaction was: I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Business is business. If you have product that’s interesting enough, people will make time. But, still, it’s a curious state of affairs, where you have tribes of Australians at ISE and InfoComm, hosted by the larger distributors doing their best to protect their AV brood from the competition. It’s so prevalent that if you meet another Aussie, the first question may as well be: ‘who are you with?’ How does it work? As mentioned, larger distributors will invite you to attend the show as their guest. They’ll pay for flights, accommodation,

along with some meals and entertainment. In exchange you sign up to a schedule of stand tours (if it’s a distributor with multiple brands) and events. If you take a glass half full perspective (and very often the glass is kept full!) you can say that this type of hosting ensures we get our industry people to these shows and, if done with eyes wide open, people return with a broader or more informed perspective and this can only make the industry better. If you take a more negative perspective you might suggest that many of those being hosted don’t/can’t extricate themselves from their host and are rarely more than arm’s length from a free beer. In other words, you could argue that the trip is really just a piss up. I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle. I received this email from a smaller Australian AV distributor who clearly feels he’s being denied a place at the negotiating table because of unfair tactics. Or is it just the sour grapes of an operator without the big-name brands that people really desire?: “People are playing dirty pool these days — market domination by all means is the goal for many manufacturers. This sort of tradeshow hosting has the power to seriously distort even the most strong-willed attendee’s viewpoint, be they end users, SIs or consultants. More often than not, the gear that goes into jobs is not really the best choice but a favoured choice. I’ve long maintained the existence of cults in the industry and this sort of hosting just strengthens the bonds. I’m sure it’s not unique to the AV industry but it’s certainly not a level playing field these days. Add big rebates to this mix and it gets even worse — you have companies ‘buying’ people that are deep inside their target sectors, such as education. The line [of commercial propriety] gets very blurry.” Hosting is nothing new. There have always been all-expenses-paid factory tours. It’s a way of vendors ‘influencing the influencers’ by demonstrating their technical prowess and developing relationships. But I think there’s a difference between buying someone’s time and

attention via a trip to Korea or Japan, and buying someone’s exclusive time and attention in Vegas or Amsterdam — the latter feels like a blocking tactic as much as anything. How prevalent is the practice? Talking to one high-profile AV consultant, he remarked that he’d be quite surprised to hear that someone had paid their own way to an InfoComm or ISE. He went on to say that he’d attended, say, nine or 10 international tradeshows — three of which were hosted — but doubts if he’d allow himself to be hosted again. “It drastically reduced the time I had to spend on the show floor. I knew what I was signing up to — it was a great trip and I was grateful for the hospitality — but in hindsight I’d rather pay for the trip myself and have the freedom to spend all my time on the show floor seeing what I want to see. “Don’t forget, the companies who can afford to take you on these all expenses paid trips, are the same companies with the personnel to drop by your office in Australia, keep you up to date with the latest gear, and take you on a factory tour every couple of years. “For example, Crestron is the last stand I go onto at an international tradeshow. Not because I don’t like Crestron equipment — in fact, quite the opposite, we specify Crestron all the time — but because Crestron has such a large presence in this region, I’m kept up to date more than adequately in Australia. It’s the smaller 2x2m stands that interest me the most. “This is what these shows are all about — what’s new and what other people are doing internationally.” I went on to ask if this ‘hostification’ arm’s race was bad for the industry? “No. Because many of the people being hosted probably wouldn’t attend otherwise.” I’m sure there’s a range of views. Give me yell if you want to have your say.  Christopher Holder: chris@avapac.net

NEWS

How Milan Works Milan is a thoughtfully designed and developed standards-based, user-driven protocol built for deterministic, interoperable, future-proof media networking in the Pro AV market.

AV-over-IP

Device Management Interop Discovery, Enumeration, Control

SENDERS Device Media Interop Audio/Video Device A

HDMI

VGA

DVI

Audio

Format, Transport, Sample Rate

Audio Device B

Network Interop QOS, Network Time

Gigabit Ethernet Switch

D&B, MEYER & L-ACOUSTICS… BEST OF FRENEMIES It was a red letter day. Top brass from d&b, Meyer Sound and L-Acoustics all in the one room singing from the same hymn book. They were announcing a new standards-based protocol, called Milan. It’s a huge turnaround of the fortunes for the Avnu Alliance, which has been around a long time with not much to show for it. Avnu remains the body that will determine if a product or UI is AVB compliant. An InfoComm press conference was convened to make the Milan clarion call, that included a trestle table of connected kit from the aforementioned PA superpowers along with an Avid console and some compliant switches (Cisco has just now been admitted into the fold, to much acclaim). PreSonus has also signed up, along with Neutrik. One wonders if the naming committee was tossing up between Milan (thank you for not calling it ‘MiLAN’!) and ‘The Anti Dante League’. Certainly Dante was the elephant in the room (‘adopted by over 400 companies and integrated into over 1400 commercially available products’, including d&b, in fact). Meyer Sound’s John McMahon, who is the Avnu Alliance Pro AV Segment Chair, didn’t have to mention Dante when the press material quotes him thus: “We encourage companies seeking a technically superior network, that guarantees interoperability and is not limited by the confines of proprietary products, to join us and participate in building out this ecosystem.” Only minutes before the Milan announcement I posed this question to Biamp boss, Rashid Skaf: “Are you winning the AVB ‘hearts and minds’ war?” His reply was beyond pragmatic for the leader of the company that for years seemed like the only vocal AVB evangelist: “We’re now protocol agnostic.” For him the AVB war was over when it had only just begun for others. As if it had its ears burning, Dante has (kinda/mostly) answered a longheld question: ‘what about video?’. It’s collaborated with video-over-IP alliance SDVoE on an integrated AV control environment. Fascinating!

Milan: www.avnu.org/milan

HDMI

VGA

DVI

Audio

RECEIVERS

ANY

Now with support for 4K •

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

•

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

•

KVM-over-IP options for added flexibility

•

Optional hardware control console

•

Gefen’s Syner-G management platform

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

ambertech.com.au

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

DYNACORD BEEFY TGX AMPS

MORE MARSHALL MINIATURES

SHARP HUDDLE BOARD

Not exactly an install amp, but Bosch used the InfoComm show to ram home its amplifier credentials, again using the Dynacord marque as the vehicle. The new TGX pro amplifier range currently comprises two products: a 4 x 2500W and 4 x 5000W — that’s a hefty power density of 10kW and 20kW at 4Ω. The amps promise 96k DSP with FIR-drive processing and Dante networking. They’re built to handle dodgy voltage and load conditions. TGX is engineered and manufactured in Germany, and built as the ‘ultimate amplification solution’ for medium to large‑scale live performance sound applications.

Marshall Electronics cements its reputation as the first name in miniature cameras with ongoing development. Recently released: the next-gen Miniature CV505 and Compact CV345 HD Pro-Series Cameras with HDSDI/3GSDI (BNC) and HDMI (v.1.3) on simultaneous outputs and optional audio mic/line-level selectable input. Built around next generation chip sets and a state-of-the-art 1/3-inch megapixel sensor improves every aspect of previous models. New proprietary pixel technology offers the lowest noise ratio on the market today capturing sharp, vivid colour images in very low light conditions.

Dynacord: www.dynacord.com Australian Distributor: www.boschcommunications.com.au

Next, the CV350-10X, Marshall’s next-gen Compact 10x Zoom Camera for twice the zoom range as the previous version at 10x optical (4.7~47mm). It’s easily controllable and adjustable from long runs, and has versatile HDMI and 3G/HD-SDI outputs.

Sharp launched the new PN-50TC1 Huddle Board to add to its existing range of popular models. The TC1 range is a fresh approach to boosting the vitality of your business and educational organisations by enhancing meetings for two to six people. The TC1 range comes as a 50-inch or 40-inch screen size to suit your application. The board features a full-flat design with 10-point multi-touch functionality. Sharp’s ‘capacitive touch technology’ offers a smooth and quick response for writing and touch gestures, while delivering full HD (1920×1080) resolution. The Huddle Board comes with a 2mm tip touch pen for onscreen writing and presentation. The onscreen menu allows easy switch inputs, options for touch and pen modes, and access to other frequently used functions. Built-in wireless broadband allows up to 10 devices to be connected simultaneously without drop-out or low-quality connectivity.

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

5 MINUTES WITH AV STUMPFL CEOS FABIAN & TOBIAS STUMPFL

AV Asia Pacific: Screens are getting larger, but are they also getting more unusually proportioned for special uses? AV Stumpfl: Most customers still order screens with a 16:9 or 3:1 ratio, but a lot of customers have realised that custom sizes are not a problem at all for us to deliver and therefore do not hesitate to ask for uncommon sizes and ratios. We have put a lot of effort into designing systems to suit all kinds of custom requests — from curved screens to built-in motorised screens where the housing can be installed at the build phase of the project and the screen clips in later to avoid construction mishaps. We work very hard to be a part of our customer’s solution rather than

another issue they need to solve. We’ve even delivered 40x8m Fullwhite screens for international projects, despite the logistical challenges. AV Asia Pacific: Are there tech frontiers screen manufacturers still trying to cross? AV Stumpfl: Absolutely. We’ve recently designed the T-32 Shift screen system leg, which makes it possible for just one person to easily assemble a mobile projection screen – one person is now able to adjust its height in a few seconds and build the whole screen solution in less than five minutes. Any further height adjustments can be done without having to disassemble the frame, which has revolutionised singleperson setups.

AV Asia Pacific: What does 4K or 8K projection mean for AV Stumpfl? AV Stumpfl: We’re known for the best projection surfaces available in the market, so projecting 4K and 8K content is not a problem at all. We’d simply point out that if you’re going to the trouble of setting up crisp and beautiful 4K+ projections, you definitely need to make sure your surface quality is also of a very high standard. Show Technology (AV Stumpfl): www.showtech.com.au

Madison Technologies: 1800 00 77 80 or www.madisontech.com.au Sharp: www.sharp.net.au

MOVERS & SHAKERS: Christie announces the addition of four new 1DLP laser projection solutions. At 20,000 lumens, the Christie D20WU-HS/D20HD-HS are the lightest and brightest 1DLP laser projectors available, and at 16,000 lumens, the Christie D16WU-HS/D16HD-HS are the lightest and brightest 1DLP laser projectors to operate at full brightness on a single 15A, 110V circuit. Christie: www.christiedigital.com The Skarrhoj PTZ Pro is a clever IP camera controller supporting brands such as Lumens, NewTek, Panasonic, Sony, Blackmagic and more. The PTZ Pro supports a wide variety of cameras but with its intelligent Device Cores this universal PTZ controller

essentially becomes tailor made for your specific type of camera or cameras. Skarrhoj: www.skaarhoj.com Corsair Solutions: www.corsairsolutions.com.au

Award-winning sound from small-format loudspeakers.

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

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

Learn more at PRO.BOSE.COM

010

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

ALL-IP MEETING SPACE

EPSON CREATES A LIGHTSCENE

IMAGSYSTEMS RAINS SUPREME

Atlona’s All-IP Meeting Space helps organisations eliminate the legacy technology that has long translated to complex systems designs, lengthy installation periods, and high equipment and labor costs. The central message of the All-IP Meeting Space is that the network switch becomes the switcher, creating freedom to deliver right-sized switching systems without the limitations of a fixed I/O matrix. Once deployed, Atlona’s All-IP Meeting Space solves the challenges of sharing content and AV resources, including digital signal processing and control, across multiple rooms. The system management element also grows easier, as every component on the network can be natively managed from any location. This benefit also removes the learning curve for IT administrators, as AV becomes just another element managed on the shared network.

LightScene is designed to simultaneously illuminate and project dynamic content on virtually any surface or material to engage audiences and provide an immersive experience for commercial signage applications in markets such as retail, hospitality, showrooms, and museums. LightScene laser projectors can rotate 360° horizontally, giving you an array of scalable display combinations and a variety of mounting options to explore when designing your space. You can use existing filters or create your own to display graphics, logos and information. Combining 3LCD laser technology with a fully sealed optical engine structure, LightScene projectors deliver up to 20,000 hours of virtually maintenance-free operation.

iMAGsystems debuted a new range — Rain — to complement its Lightning and Thunder products. Rain is a highly-compressed H.264 video-over-IP streaming solution. The low bandwidth overhead of Rain makes it ideal for enterprise rollouts within education institutions and other AV-over-IP applications where network bandwidth is premium. Additionally, the video streams from Rain encoders can be fully decoded by software players like VLC. A welcome addition to the Thunder JPEG2000 family is a two-gang PoE wall plate version of the Thunder encoder. The wall plate form factor and PoE support of the Thunder encoder greatly benefits venues where rack space is limited and flexibility in connection is crucial. iMAGsystems’ Lightning Director SDVoE software received an extensive upgrade with a customisable GUI control interface.

Epson: www.epson.com.au

iMAGsystems: (03) 8414 2911 or sales@imagsystems.com

Atlona: www.atlona.com Australian Distributor: www.midwich.com.au

REIMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE

Three blokes in their autumn years. I guess it makes sense. QSC is celebrating its 50th and the three founding patriarchs were on hand. The ‘Q’ in QSC started it all, Patrick Quilter. He built guitar amps. Current CEO, Joe Pham (shredding credentials unknown), paid tribute to the trio — their foresight and willingness to adapt and retool. Not that long ago, QSC built power amps. Good ones, but that was it. They diversified into loudspeakers, and now sell more than just about anyone else. Now QSC has two arms – Q-SYS and everything else. In Q-SYS, QSC has transformed from an audio company into an AV biz that looks the best suited to deal with the IT-dominated world of

network convergence. It’s quite remarkable. Certainly Pat Quilter had the look of a man as proud as the father of the No. 1 draft pick. But also quite pleased to be cutting the cake rather than re-imagining cake as we know it. Avixa gave the three, Quilter, John and Barry Andrews a lifetime achievement award. Richly deserved.

MOVERS & SHAKERS: Madison Technologies has announced the addition of Sharp Commercial Display Panels and Interactive Touch Displays to its expanded portfolio of professional and commercial AV solutions. Jeff Bolt has joined Bose Professional as its Regional Sales Manager, Australia and New Zealand, to lead the Pro ANZ team, based out of the Sydney sales office. Jeff joins Bose after a 30-year career at Jands where he held the position of National Sales Manager. Jands NZ has introduced a new brand identity and rebranded to JPRO. JPRO Managing Director Bruce Gray: “We remain committed to distributing Harman Professional audio solutions,

while adding other brands and look forward to growing our vast inventory of audio products.” Hills has broadened its pro AV product offering by signing distribution agreements with three new vendors: XTA Electronics and MC2 Audio (which are UK technology partners), Xilica Audio Design (known for its DSP) and ASL — a leading manufacturer of public address, voice alarm, commercial audio and 3D control systems.

012

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

A&H SQ-7 GOES LARGE

BIAMP TESIRA ADDITIONS

OMNIA: DON’T HAVE A (Mo)COW

Allen & Heath has unveiled its new 33-fader SQ Series flagship console, the SQ-7. Following hot on the heels of the SQ-5 and SQ-6 launch, the new SQ-7 takes the same XCVI 96k FPGA engine and adds extended control and I/O in a larger format. That means you get 33 faders, 32 onboard preamps, 16 custom soft keys and eight userdefinable soft rotary controls. SQ-7 is a 48-channel console, fully compatible with a range of remote I/O expanders, including the portable DX168 96kHz stage boxes. Inputs and mixes can be individually assigned to 192 fader strips across six layers. Forthcoming Dante, Waves and SLink audio networking cards further extend the scope for expansion, system integration, FOH/ monitor splits and recording. Optional DEEP processing plugins give SQ-7 access to boutique compressor and preamp emulations.

Biamp has announced its new AVB USB audio expander, the Tesira EX-UBT. Designed for use in Tesira systems, the new expander provides a reliable digital audio interface via USB. It looks to be well suited to installations requiring multiple USB audio inputs or in projects using Tesira Server or Server-IO as the DSP adding an on-board USB connection. As a neat companion, the PoE Tesira EX-UBT expander supports up to eight channels of configurable USB audio as well as Bluetooth wireless technology, which is enabled and configured through the Tesira software. Using Bluetooth, the EX-UBT provides integrators with a cable-free solution for teleconferencing using soft codecs, continuing a mobile phone call into a meeting room, or supplying background music such as in a hospitality setting.

When a regular display mount simply won’t do! Maior of Italy has turned the humble mount into a design feature integrating an adjustable LED lighting system. Omnia Studio is on wheels, and the lift system can raise and lower the screen (‘smoothly and silently’ up to a metre) by remote control (via a smartphone app) or room control system. The monitor can be rotated a full 360°. Clearly this is not your for your average MoCOW, and more likely to find a home in a contemporary showroom, TV studio set, nightclubs, anywhere you need a design statement or in rental stock. There’s a ceiling mount version — the Omnia Cielo lift — it’s manufactured in Italy and also ships in black.

Allen & Heath: www.allen-heath.com Australian Distributor: www.tag.com.au

Biamp: www.biamp.com Australian Distributor: www.jands.com.au

ATLAS IED: SCREEN TAKEOVER

comes into its own is in the case of emergency. For example, we have a plug-in that deals with lockdown acknowledgement. When any member of staff activates Lockdown mode, the system sends an audio message throughout the school, a video message by taking over the displays on the network (or via a scroller on an Atlas IED network appliance), and to the desktop of each teacher’s computer screen. When a teacher sees the message they lock the classroom door and acknowledge the lockdown. This gives the principle a map, showing all the rooms locked down and helps isolate the position of the threat. “I’m aware the need for this kind of feature isn’t as pressing in Australia as it is in the USA, but we’ve still had interest from

AtlasIED produces a suite of and software scheduling and IP-based announcement products that have specialised emergency messaging, lockdown and evacuation features. AtlasIED product is found in mass transport hubs, schools and other larger institutions. Atlas IED Sales Manager, Olivier Savoie, describes why the company is growing quite so quickly: “There are other scheduling solutions for announcements, audio and visual, but our solutions are fully supervised and fully IP based. “In the case of a school, from a central server we can push out scheduling to different campuses a variety of bells and pre-recorded messages. We can schedule digital signage messaging for displays on the network. “But where Atlas IED really

schools in Australia. “Similarly, in the case of an airport, we can centrally schedule all the FIDS (flight info), BIDS (baggage info) and GIDS (gate info) data, the advertising and wayfinding. That much isn’t so unique. But in case of emergency we can take over all the displays, regardless of their function to assist in an evacuation situation. “All the displays have a different IP address and we can use the displays really effectively in emergency wayfinding — intelligently using each screen’s orientation and location to send people in the correct direction.” PAVT (Atlas IED): (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au

Maior: www.maiormover.it Australian Distribution: www.iti-imagegroup.com.au

MOVERS & SHAKERS: Plantronics has acquired Polycom for US$2b. With this acquisition, Plantronics is focused on voice, video, content, and cloud solutions and can offer a premium experience regardless of the UCC solutions selected by the customer. SDVoE Alliance and Audinate are collaborating on an integrated AV control environment. In addition, Audinate has joined the SDVoE Alliance as a contributing member. Demonstrations of Dante Controller managing SDVoE signal routing were featured at InfoComm 2018. Leading technology integrators, Advanced Lifestyle Solutions and Urban Intelligence have joined forces to create one of

Australia’s largest residential and commercial technology providers. ALS Founder, Michael Stavrou will lead the group as CEO. All Urban contact details will remain unchanged. Urban will be relocating to the Docklands. LOUD Audio has sold the Martin Audio brand to a UK-based private equity investor LDC. Mark Graham, CEO of LOUD: “… we believe this change will benefit both businesses by allowing for simplicity and focus.” Dom Harter, MD of Martin Audio: “LDC has demonstrated a shared vision with a focus on developing our product line even further, and … to extend our global reach and drive market share.”

A NEW GENERATION OF AUDIO CAPTURE FOR VIDEO

NEW RELEASE DR-10SG

Audio Recorder w- shotgun mic

DR-60DMKII DR-680MKII DR-70D

pty/ltd

DR-701D

www.tascam.com.au

014

NEWS

TELEVIC: HEAR YE, HEAR YE Victor Harbor council chambers’ old analogue conferencing system was past its useful life expectancy and needed replacing as a matter of urgency. A call was put through to Sonic Technology, which has an enviable reputation in the Adelaide region as a unified communications specialist. With Managing Director Darren Williams leading the charge, Sonic Technology designed a new digital conferencing system, based on a Televic Confidea G3 wireless product range. “It was a tricky proposition because the equipment room was on a different floor to the chambers with a 150m round trip through some hard-to-access conduit,” recalls Sonic Technology’s Darren Williams. “This steered us in the direction of an audio-over-IP wireless conferencing system. The options were scarce, but the more I looked into Televic’s wireless Confidea system the more confident I was that it was ideal. It has plenty of runs on the board, especially overseas, and it’s remarkably well priced.” Darren and his team designed a system based on the Televic product and an existing QSC 110 Core, which could handle all the DSP and control aspects. An ambient room microphone runs back

into the DSP via an AES67 Terratec card. All the video is switched on an Atlona Omnistream AV-over-IP system. In all it’s a multistream solution, that integrates nicely with the council’s VC platform of choice, Skype for Business. The Vaddio IP camera also means council meeting can be streamed to the web for rate payers to see democracy in action. The system was installed by ELB. And according to Darren Williams the Televic conferencing system hasn’t missed a beat since sparking it up. “The Victor Harbor council’s whole system is on the client’s network,” noted Darren Williams. “We didn’t create a parallel AV network. This is the brave new world the manufacturers boast can be done. What they don’t tell you is it takes a lot of homework — it’s not plug ’n’ play! But it’s time you need to invest and it’s well worth the investment.” Sonic Technology: sonictechnology.com.au PAVT (Televic): (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au

LIGHTNING EXPERIENCE DB Results is a digital business consulting and technology company headquartered in downtown Melbourne. Last year DB Results commissioned a presentation space/experience centre, that would occupy a highly visible showroom in a shared ground floor retail and commercial space in its Collins Street address. The space is effectively a ‘fish bowl’ that would provide conspicuous branding opportunities for DB Results as well as be an impressive presentation space for the DB Results sales team. Anric took care of the AV/IT integration. The showroom features a 2x2 video wall, a projection screen, VR visualisation, control of the screen content via a tablet PC, and a low-profile loudspeaker system. “The client needed the utmost flexibility in the treatment and display of the visual content,” recalls Anric’s Richard Balaganeshan. “A DB Results sales executive needs to have the ability to call up content on a device and display that on one screen, then stretch that across two, three or four of the in-room displays.” Anric was keen to explore the versatility of a video-over-IP solution and selected the iMAGsystems Lightning SDVoE product. The Lightning-powered system proved powerful, yet simple to conceptualise. The 4-in/5-out Lighting design sees a

Lightning encoder taking video from the four sources (a PC, two Apple TVs and the WePresent WiPG2000 collaboration system). The encoded signal is transported via an off-the-shelf Netgear 10Gb managed switch to one or more of the five display destinations (the four displays of the video wall and the projector) via a Lightning decoder unit. The system is managed by a cost effective, iPad-hosted Neets Sierra 2 control system. iMAGsystems supported Anric and the client every step of the way. Richard Balaganeshan: “The iMAGsystems team was very responsive, working with us and the client to ensure we had a stable and effective solution. Chris Smith of iMAGsystems was particularly helpful in writing an API for the system power up/ down routine.” iMAGsystems: www.imagsystems.com Anric: www.anric.com.au

Real-time networks for video, audio & communication

INFRASTRUCTURE

MEDIORNET

COMMUNICATION

BOLERO

FOR ANY

Radio & intercom

NETWORKS

INTELLIGENT

See us at IBC booth 10.A31

CCTV & accreditation

SECURITY

CCTV

FORMAT

www.riedel.net

016

NEWS

10 Years of Integrate Text:/ Christopher Holder

ntegrate turns 10! What better time to dig up some photos from the vault?! The year was 2009 and Alchemedia Events was launching its inaugural gathering: Integrate. It would be a cliché to say the beginnings were ‘humble’. The facts of the matter were, the moment we went to the industry with an idea for a tradeshow and said we were thinking of calling it Integrate, everyone got it. Actually, the industry probably got it even better than we did. Our big idea was to gather the audio, lighting and AV tribes into one big technology love-in. In the end, the market knows best and the market

wanted an InfoComm/ISE-style show for Australia. Voilà, this is show you see now. The first Integrate was staged in Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter — the Hordern Pavilion and Royal Hall of Industries, to be precise. The venues had charm: the Hordern, dark and brimming with rock ’n’ roll cred; the RHI, bright, light and clean cut, perfect for the rapidly emerging world of commercial AV. But again the market knows best, and the market wants its showpiece AV show to be domiciled in the best Australia has to offer. Which is why, after the sale of the show to Diversified Communications, Integrate is calling MCEC and the ICCS home. The first show went hard with a serious education

program, which was warmly received and set the template for future Integrates. There was a full day of InfoComm (now Avixa) training and audio legend George Massenburg (pictured) was a guest of honour. It was something we hadn’t seen before in these parts. People were thirsty for the training and education and enthusiastically signed up. Everyone in the world of trade shows knows that Day 2 is often the best attended. Everyone except us. Day 1 attendance was solid but unspectacular, leaving our nerves jangling. We hoped for Sydney weather to be kind on Day 2 and for people to turn up. They did. It was a bustling show that was almost universally appreciated by exhibitors and show-goers alike.

MOBILE PROJECTION SCREENS Small Packing Dimensions • Lightweight • Mobile Quick Set Up & Breakdown • Long Lifetime AV Stumpfl Projection Screens feature an unequalled design and manufacturing precision, lowest operating economics and best picture quality. Improve your way of projecting.

APPLICATIONS Popular uses for mobile projection screens include: Corporate Events: Product Presentations, Customer Events & Trade Shows Education / Training Courses HDAV Presentations Live Concerts and Shows Hotels Corporate Buildings Mobile Cinema

AV Stumpfl Projection Screens Perfection in Projection Screens. Mobile. Roll Up. Fixed Frame. Custom. Contact Show Technology today, exclusive distributors of AV Stumpfl products in Australia and New Zealand. sales@showtech.com.au

www.showtech.com.au SYDNEY • MELBOURNE • PERTH • BRISBANE • AUCKLAND

www.avstumpfl.com

018

NEWS

Shots from 2009 and 2010. (Previous page) Integrate went hard with a world-class education program in its inaugural show. Pictured is George Massenburg presented, and a PA discussion panel including – Anthony Russo, Jeff Mackenzie, Ben Clarke, Scott Willsallen, Jeff Shoesmith, Phill Webb, and Steve Devine. (This page) More old-school stand photos from last decade, and the judging panel from the first ever AVIA Awards – Peter Blackmore, Paul van der Ent, Derek Powell, Tim Hall, Patrick Lee and Scott Allan (not pictured: the camera-shy chair, Andy Ciddor).

MATURING WITH THE MARKET

In the time since Diversified Communications took the show on, Integrate has continued to mature, reflecting the growth of the commercial AV market, eclipsing the scale and importance of entertainment technology, home AV, and audio shows of the past. Show Director, Soren Norgaard, has presided over much of the growth: “Integrate’s growth has been more in the commercial AV industry’s development rather than in the number of exhibitors, which has reached a stable number of about 130 or so. Regional distributors are representing more brands while the larger display

manufacturers are requiring more floor space as they demonstrate their equipment in application specific showcases.” And here’s where the show has moved and morphed with the demands of the market. AV’s role is increasingly to excite the market with amazing user experiences rather than its ability to plumb signals from A to B. It’s harder to fire the imagination with endless racks of gear than it is with a retail, hospitality, or boardroom experience. Soren Norgaard is more than aware of the push and pull of market forces and the shifting tectonics of technology, and what it can do for

(and to) a show like integrate. In the meantime he’s raising the profile of the show regionally and internationally. For examples, dozens of delegates attended from Indonesia in 2017 while more of the New Zealand industry is making the trip over the ditch. A strong education emphasis remains. As the instigator of the show, Alchemedia wishes to join with Soren and his team in tipping our hat to the industry for getting behind Integrate. A mature industry needs a strong trade show, and Integrate is one we can all be proud of.  Integrate: www.integrate-expo.com

YOU ARE INVITED TO:

LOUD&CLEAR Thursday, 23rd of August, Hotel Sofitel, Darling Harbour. Between the ICC & Hard Rock Cafe. 3 x 1.5hr Sessions: 10:00, 12:30, 15:00

Ideal for consultants, integrators, live sound professionals and production providers. Refreshments are provided. Seats are limited. Registration is required.

Future of Audio Communications

Amplifier Engineering Excellence

Ethan Wetzell | Platform Strategist

Jonathan Bailey | Global Product Manager

OCA

DHCP AES67 DNS-SD

TCP IP

AIMS AES70

RSTP

Jono is the Global Product Manager for Dynacord Electronics. He will give an insight into key patented technologies of IPX & TGX DSP amps including Eco-Rail Power Conservation, Junction Temperature Modelling, and how these amps can be driven reliably even below 1 ohm with Cycle by Cycle Current Limiting. An entertaining and impressive power comparison demonstration will close the session.

OMNEO

ST-2110 IS-05

mDNS

IS-04

DANTE

SMPTE

Ethan works on platform strategy and core technology across EV, Bosch, Dynacord and RTS. He will analyse the current standards landscape and his session will help cut through the fog of standards activities within the industry and their impact on the market. Technical information on standards such as AES67, AES70, ST-2110 and their relationship to solutions such as Dante and OMNEO will be provided.

Introducing EVC for Fixed Installs

Introducing PRAESENSA

Phill Webb | Live & Install Product Specialist

Jason Hatswell | Install Audio Specialist

With 30+ years in the industry Phill has an extensive knowledge of live and installation applications. His presentation and live EVC demo will illustrate EVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ASC technology which preserves the low-frequency performance while presenting a stable load to the amplifier, regardless of the number of speakers in parallel. VariableIntensity technology will also be illustrated and each model will be put through its paces.

Jason has over 25 years experience in the design, sales and project management of commercial and pro-audio systems. His session will feature the latest addition to the Bosch IP-based Public Address and Voice Alarm Systems. Praesensaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flexible system architecture, intelligent power amplifier management and network redundancy will be outlined. Complementary EV and Bosch loudspeakers will be on show.

EVC SERIES

Hotel Sofitel SOFITEL ICC

Darling Harbour www.boschcommunications.com.au

Registration

Win an Evolve 50

1.5 hr Sessions at: 10:00, 12:30, 15:00

One lucky attendee will walk away with an EVOLVE 50 Portable Column Speaker.

Only 50 seats per session are available. Register your seat by using the QR code to the left or the following url: https://tinyurl.com/y8jnmxsf P: 1300 026 724

E: marcom@au.bosch.com

020

FEATURE

Rounding Up UNSW’s Roundhouse Overhaul

he Roundhouse is a conference, gig and hireable venue in the University of New South Wales. Since its opening in 1961, bands like the Foo Fighters, Green Day, 21 Pilots and Fear Factory have graced The Roundhouse stage. The distinctive space has a 2200-person capacity and hosts everything from major dance parties, comedy, theatre, conferences, private parties and sold out gigs. The Roundhouse is managed by ARC — an organisation comprised entirely of UNSW students and alumni. With the speed of evolution in sound reinforcement technology, The Roundhouse’s audio system simply wasn’t cutting it. In 2016, ARC initiated an 18-month project to give The Roundhouse the thorough refurbishment it long deserved. Shelley Valentine, Director of Student Services at ARC, acted as Project Lead for The Roundhouse refurbishment. “The Roundhouse hadn’t received a significant audio upgrade since 1961,” says Shelley. “For anything that was international we had to get a higher end system that could cope for international or top Australian acts.” V FOR VICTORY

After an intensive shootout period that pit five PAs against each other, d&b audiotechnik’s V-Series system emerged the winner. Sydney’s The P.A. People Installed Systems team delivered the audio, lighting, projection and control systems, working in conjunction with other suppliers. The P.A. People worked with d&b’s distributor, NAS, and its Projects Team (with Chris Braun running point) to design and configure the best possible audio rig. Front of house is handled by two array hangs, each comprising six V8 boxes above two V12 boxes. Six dual 18-inch d&b B22 subwoofers (three per side) are stacked across the length of the stage for bass. Filling in the gaps, are two pairs of d&b V7P point source loudspeakers, with d&b E8 loudspeakers acting as front fill.

CEILING THE DEAL

The P.A. People provided comprehensive cabling infrastructure, along with a complement of dimmers, projection screens and luminaires. In addition, they also installed a Digico SD12 desk and QSC audio control system, a Hog4 lighting console and three Epson projectors (two 8000 lumen and one 11,000 lumen model). Jands assisted The P.A. People with chain hoists for speaker rigging plus winches and chain hoists for motorised lighting bars, trusses and scenery battens as well as a package of curtaining for the venue. A major challenge with the project was the Barrisol ceiling — a lightweight fabric membrane stretched across a segmented pie structure. The stretched membrane needed to be cut to allow the rigging and cabling to pass through. This had to be measured and cut precisely the first time to avoid damage to the ceiling structure. AHEAD OF THE CURVE

After living just a few weeks in the Roundhouse, the new install has certainly made an impression on ARC members, customers and showgoers alike. “We’ve had some bands through already,” says Shelley. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. It sounds amazing and the bands have

loved it. It’s a really clear sound and it’s got a wider listening area — not just at the front and a bit to the sides, but almost a 180° coverage.” An ARC representative summed it up during a speech at The Roundhouse’s grand opening: “When the sound system was turned on for the first time, there were tears of joy.”  GEAR LIST • d&b Vi8/Vi12 speaker system • Digico SD12 audio console • QSC Q-Sys control & audio routing system • Roland XS-84H vision matrix • Mic package inc. 4x Shure QLXD radio mics • High End Systems Hog4 lighting console • 24 x Phillips Showline SLBAR510 LED wash lights • 24 x Philips Showline SLPARS • 6 x ETC CSSPOTs • 6 x ETC Source4 profile • 3 x Epson LED projectors 2x 8,000 & 1x 11,000 lumens • 3 x Screen Technics motorised screens • 8 x chain hoists • 10 x winches • 40m of truss • 2 x Scenery battens • 1 x Jands flying control system • Curtaining

022

FEATURE

Mondopad Ticks All the Boxes

he conferencing, meeting and collaboration capabilities of a public sector entity have been given a significant shot in the arm thanks to a new boardroom, featuring two Infocus Mondopads. Tasked with creating a large interactive meeting space, the Infrastructure Manager seized the opportunity to turbocharge the organisation’s capabilities after an enforced move from one level to another within the building. Previously the organisation had a small video conferencing space but nothing that gave them the capability needed to engage in interactive training (on site and remote). In fact, team members would sometimes need to hire a video conferencing space off site, which wasn’t great for operational efficiency or the bottom line. Having additional space as part of the relocation, the organisation was keen to invest in creating new meeting spaces, and in particular, having a multipurpose boardroom/meeting/ training room as the jewel in the crown. The Infrastructure Manager explains some of the demands placed on the new space: “Our services and products are always being updated and these changes need to be conveyed to stakeholders across the state. Traditionally, we undertake ‘road shows’, travelling across various regions state-wide conducting presentations. While this won’t change immediately, having the ability to now also conduct interactive training with the Mondopads is a real advantage, and we anticipate significant cost and time saving as we continue to extend use of the platform.” TWO IN ONE

Control of the room comes via an iPad loaded with an Elan control system. Wall-mounted LaunchPort inductive charge docking stations ensures the iPads are always ready to roll. With a press of a button the system is configured and ready to operate. Either the room can be used as one large space with the two Mondopad working as one, or the room can be used as two independent spaces (a Bluestream 8x8 HDBaseT matrix switcher takes care of the routing in the back end). The Mondopad has its own wifi access point, allowing participants in the room to share content wirelessly and for guests to share their device’s content without the need to log-in to the department’s wifi network (a security advantage). The organisation is a long-time Polycom client, and is able to leverage a network of hundreds of nodes throughout the state. The Mondopad has its own advanced VC capabilities but in this case has been set up to integrate with the Polycom codecs.

Once remote participants have joined the meeting, those in the room can use the Mondopad to run the presentation. On-screen annotations can be made and, in fact, the presenter’s laptop can be controlled (reverse connectivity) via the Mondopad during the presentation wirelessly — a key selling points for this project. BEST OF BREED

The AV design (and subsequent installation and commissioning) is the brainchild of Phil Tait, Codirector of Cable & Connect. He worked closely with installers, IT Connect Communications, led by Terry Huybens, who has worked on many customised projects with this customer. Phil Tait: “The centrepiece and most critical decision was the choice of the Mondopads. We attended the Integrate show in 2017 and it seemed

like every vendor had an interactive whiteboard offering. We looked at the Cisco Spark, the Surface Hub, Promethean, the CommBox offering, but we kept returning to the Mondopad — it ticked all the boxes. The annotation tools are excellent, the wireless connectivity and the collaboration tools are excellent, the ability to print, share, email content… it’s all very obvious and intuitive. “One of the biggest factors for me was support. When I took the design to other suppliers their comment was: ‘our product hasn’t been used in that way before’. It didn’t fill me with confidence. On the other hand, I felt confident that Westan could offer me the support I needed to jump the technical hurdles in this job.”  Westan (Mondopad): 1300 963 963 or www.westan.com.au

024

FEATURE

Capital Works

Text:/ Mark Davie

hen technician Mickey Levis had to find a new PA for Bendigo’s Capital Theatre, he did a full dress rehearsal. The Capital Theatre was built in 1873, as a masonic hall, when the big Corinthian columns and Octastyle porticos of the Renaissance Revival were in vogue. The cement rendered building is ornate, and it looks brilliant, so good that it has a dreaded heritage overlay. CASTING CALL

Nary a hole can be drilled or lick of paint applied without attracting unwanted attention, so when it came to choosing a system, it had to be able to hang off the existing front truss. It also had to come within the budget, and handle a huge variety of performances from Fred Astaire tribute acts for retirees to indie bands travelling through the region. When some capital funding came the Capital’s way, Levis knew he didn’t want to make the decision in isolation. He founded Troy Horse in Sydney and has a long history in event management and audio installation. “It’s very hard to make a decision in your own venue; you know too much about it,” he explained. “We wanted to get closer to what the clients coming through the theatre, and the punters in it, experience.” He invited other technicians, local theatre and hire companies to be part of the process. He then put out a call for any distributors who wanted to be part of the shootout, coming out with a handful of high quality PAs that fit under the budget ceiling. LIVE PLAY LIST

Levis wasn’t content to simply pump out a playlist of program music, “the majority of what we do is live performance, so we put live music through

it,” he said. “We had a local guy called Bill Barber come play some acoustic blues, then some material with a full rhythm section. Then we got a guy to talk at a lectern, ran some theatrical sound effects and, of course, played program through all the systems, too.” Throughout the day, no one knew which PA they were listening to — Levis would alternate between them in random orders — or what price point each came in at. “Gradually people narrowed down to a couple of systems,” he said. Everyone took notes and they went across to the pub to chat about it. The next day, a smaller group of technicians returned to the theatre to find out which PA was the easiest to pull a mix on. “I was very concerned about making sure people got hands on with mixing through the systems,” said Levis. “I figured if more technicians could pull great mixes through it, it would be better for everyone.” With all the feedback and written reports, Levis was worried they’d get a spread of favourites. However, he said it was almost unanimous, everyone loved the sound of the KV2 Audio rig. After showing the rig to management at the end of the process, they were pretty happy that it also came in at $35,000 less than any other contender. ALL CLASS

The system now installed at the Capital is a pair of KV2 Audio ESR215 full-range, three-way loudspeakers. The five-foot tall box has two 15inch woofers, above and below a central threeinch compression driver and eight-inch, hornloaded mid-range driver. With its 110° dispersion and centrally-located mid and high drivers, it works best flown where the top end can spread

out rather than hit you in the stomach in a ground stacked setup. It pairs with the ESR3000 control device containing six individual amplifiers with separate Class AB topologies to match the components each it is driving. System processing is via a SAC2 Super Analogue Controller — which has basic controls for limiting, a four-band EQ and a couple of notch filters — and two SDD3 Delay Lines. There’s no DSP signal processing to mess with, which fits into KV2 Audio’s philosophy of building monitoringquality loudspeakers that don’t need intervention. Despite the tri-amplification, it all goes to the box on one cable, which suited Levis’ heritagerestricted working environment just fine. While the ESR’s go down to 30Hz, the system also has two VHD 2.18J subs mounted under the stage to reinforce the low end. They’re driven by a separate VHD3200 amplifier. Three perfectly-timed EX26 front fill speakers are embedded into the stage, which Levis can pull up on top of the stage to get a bit more throw during a band show. The whole system sounds fantastic, and gets great coverage across the venue without the sense of losing one side as soon as you step off the centre line. Front to back, with the seating rake, you only lose about three dB, eliminating any need for delay speakers. It’s a testament that sometimes flashy line arrays, with loads of processing and Class D amps aren’t always the best solution; point source boxes tied to a Class AB amplifier can still sound spectacular… and apparently can come in much cheaper, too.  KV2 Audio: 0448 959 865 or www.kv2audio.com

FEATURE

025

Focus on the cool | Turn boring to Blue | Create an in-your-face solution thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fly The new Pointmaker Audio Presenter presentation system delivers industry first, truly wireless, audio + video connectivity. It will surely be loud, striking a chord with your crowd, spinning sound clearly into the mix. This BluetoothÂŽ connection is totally legit, pairing personal devices to integrated systems with ease. So, turn on the Blue. Turn up the cool. Keep your clients and their audiences engaged.

026

FEATURE

Trading Places UWA Trading Room Learning Space.

9 live news feed displays 30 monitors on pods that raise automatically

50 financial terminals with dual desk displays

170 displays showing various live stock data, news feeds and simulations

he University of Western Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Trading Room is a purpose-built teaching environment that takes students from out-of-date text books into real-time data. The room can seat 45 students. Students can work with live real-time Bloomberg terminals and view live Foxtel feeds. All seated positions have sight lines to directive content from the instructor. This modern facility gives students access to over 400 global markets and more than four million gigabytes of historical market data.

A striking 12 stretched panels producing a ticker canvas of 23,040x540 pixels displaying live stock data via an enterprise signage solution in UWAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Business School Foyer.

6 video walls

84-inch confidence monitor

027

FEATURE

84-inch Interactive Surface Hub

TRUTOUCH X Series

Interactive touchscreen with Unified Communications • 4K LED display with ultra-wide viewing angle • InGlass™ technology for responsive touch • Stereo speakers, wide angle FHD cameras and echocancelling microphone array • Windows 10 PC on board • Front and rear HDMI and USB ports, wired and WiFi networking • 65”, 75” and 86” models

INNOVATIONS 3D Audio Visual took care of the AV design. Features include: • Content delivered via an IP fibre streaming network which is integrated as part of the client network. • Low latency SVSI encoders deliver media streams to most of the displays which include live stock data, news feeds and simulation content. 15 streams in total. • 11 visual live stock trading feeds on vertically operational lifts (Turrets) central to the participating students’ terminals. • The desks were prototyped 10 times to ensure an optimal configuration for comfortable study space for each student.

TRUTOUCH VN Series

Interactive touchscreen • 4K LED display with ultra-wide viewing angle • Advanced IR technology for responsive touch • Walk-up-and-use whiteboard, browser and image viewer that require no connected PC • Front and rear HDMI and USB ports, wired and WiFi networking • 65”, 75” and 86” models Check out these exciting new products on Stand A2 at Integrate 2018. Contact the Amber Technology team to find out more: 1800 251 367 sales@ambertech.com.au

ambertech.com.au

028

FEATURE

Great Expectations University of Newcastle’s Great Hall gets a great big AV makeover. Photos:/ Jason Smith Photography

ON had high hopes of shifting the AV of its ’70s-built Great Hall into a totally new gear. In its brief to AV consultant, Indesign Technologies, the technology makeover would significantly improve the Great Hall’s audio and video quality and reliability. The old analogue system would convert to a full digital AV-overIP solution. The result would be a vastly more flexible and scalable system that reflects the diverse requirements of the venue. We take a tour of some of the project highlights.

FEATURE

HOSTILE ACOUSTICS: FRIENDLY AUDIO The space is awkward: 30m from front to back with a stepped ceiling; some ceilings are 20m high ceilings; lots of concrete, brick and timber surfaces. Detailed EASE diagrams were produced to optimise the speaker placement. Martin Audio WPM ultra-compact line array, passive two-way (2 x 6.5-inch/3 x 1.4-inch), 16Ω enclosures. Martin MSX subs are hung behind the main WPM arrays. More next page.

TRANSPARENT LED This technology has every second row of LEDs missing on a 10mm deep transparent PCB – providing a translucent screen look that’s far less obtrusive than a jet black or stark white screen when not in operation. Thanks to the small pixel pitch it provides an excellent quality image as well. The Novastar screen is bright, operating at only a third of its potential output.

NETWORK EVERYWHERE: AV OVER IP UON is a Crestron uni and has relied on Crestron DM as its HDBaseT transporhtation system. This install uses the brand new, and largely untested, Crestron NVX video-over-IP transportation platform — one of the first roll outs in Australia. All the audio sat on the network via Dante, including hearing augmentation, DSP, wireless microphones etc – about 120 inputs and outputs. The result saw every single device run on the network (with Cisco switches). The only transport cable is shielded Cat6a, as witnessed here with the connection of a Panasonic IP PTZ camera.

STAND & DELIVER: LECTERN The Lectern Hub unit features a Wolfvision document camera, Audio-Technica gooseneck mic, Crestron touchscreen control, an Extron recording and streaming processor, and a Mersive Solstice collaboration system.

029

030

FEATURE

GREAT HALL PA: MORE SOUND THINKING

The Great Hall’s audio upgrade was undoubtedly the biggest ticket item of the upgrade and also one of the curliest. Among the challenges were: the hostile acoustics, the super-tight delivery timeframe, the budget and the uncertainty of structural loading capabilities. A Martin Audio PA was selected, which in itself has an interesting back story. Indesign Technologies Director Peter Coman: “In the first instance, the client had a previous Martin Audio installation they were very happy with, and secondly, we trust the brand. Martin Audio provides a value-for-money solution, was able to offer a system that was fit for purpose, and it met our budget.” He continued: “On top of that, the entire system is digital, so being able to incorporate the Martin Audio Dante amplifiers (pictured) integrated perfectly into the rest of the system.” Finally, there was the question of availability, since there was an extremely short timeframe to deliver the project. “Martin Audio assured us it could meet the deadlines,” said Coman, adding that it had the speakers specially manufactured and flown over in record time. “But the main driver was the support from TAG [Technical Audio Group]; they were always available to provide the technical expertise required to deliver this complex project, from design and commissioning with expert installation from Xcite AV.” The FOH PA consists of 14 x Martin WPM per side with 4 x MSX subs flown per side, while the

delay hangs comprise 10 x Martin WPM per side. Front fill consists of 6 x Martin CDD6 below the front lip of the stage and a pair of Martin CDD6 as out fills to cover the outside front corners. The flown hang of four subs aside wasn’t the team’s first configuration choice. TAG’s Ewan McDonald explains: “The original plan was for a custom tapered column array that would attempt to match the throw of the main WPM arrays. As is the case with line arrays, the low frequencies fall off faster than the high frequencies so we needed to try and get a tall line of spaced subwoofers to combat this.” Unfortunately, the uni couldn’t see past the optics of the proposal and kiboshed the plan in favour of the smaller sub array we see today.

Amplifiers/FIR processing consists of 7 x iKON IK81 and 2 x IK42. Due to the challenging acoustic space, every WPM and MSX enclosure is individually powered and processed. Ewan McDonald again: “Martin Audio allows you to set ‘hard avoid’ areas where it will actively cancel energy to those surfaces. This was really important given the huge reflector of a back wall and the lectern position which could be directly under the arrays.” Once onsite, David Gilfillan (Gilfillan Soundwork) carefully examined the real world results using a combination of critical listening and measurements to ensure the right balance was met. 

032

FEATURE

West is Best? Perth’s Optus Stadium is off-the-hook amazing. Text:/ Derek Powell

erth Stadium, or now, Optus Stadium, thanks to a rumoured $50m naming rights deal, is Australia’s newest major sporting venue and the third-largest sporting stadium in the country by capacity, with 60,000 seats. The facility, owned by the Western Australian State Government, was officially opened on Sunday 21 January 2018 after a four-year construction program. And it was worth the wait. The venue has already hosted several major sporting events including One-Day International Cricket, Big Bash, Rugby League, and Rugby Union; plus two sold-out Ed Sheeran concerts; and of course a dozen AFL games, in less than six months. At a reported cost of $1.6b, everything about this venue is massive. The stadium boasts two of the biggest screens in the southern hemisphere, plus more than 1000 displays spread throughout the interior, however it has not come without some challenges during the design and build phase. MAN OF STEELE

The entire complex was built by Multiplex under a design, build, finance and maintain (DBFM) contract. The original audiovisual specification was developed by consultants

Marshall Day with Rutledge AV taking over the responsibility for construction delivery. Elijah Steele (Rutledge AV Project Manager) spent three years immersed in the project right from the extensive workshopping phase with the myriad potential users to the final handover, so he was in a great position to recall the inside story. “While we obviously took note of Etihad Stadium, the MCG, and, of course, the Adelaide Oval, we tried to take a ‘clean slate’ approach, because the outcome Optus Stadium wanted was a ‘fans first’ experience in a multi-purpose stadium,” Elijah explained. “A stadium used for so many different sports events, as well as concerts and everything else is quite rare. There are not many other stadiums around Australia that can support that.” To make sure everything was taken into

consideration, the stakeholder engagement was extensive — encompassing peak bodies, such as AFL Australia and Cricket Australia; the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers and the broadcast users (NEP and the in-house production facility). KNOW THE GAME

Before embarking on the detailed design, the Rutledge AV team needed to understand the real nuts and bolts of game-day operations. It is surprising just how much AV equipment is required for such a large modern sporting facility. One hub of activity are the coaches’ boxes — for both the home and away

FEATURE

033

HIGH IN FIBRE

teams. This includes communicating with the interchange bench and briefing room, dialling up video from the medical room and acquiring viision and audio links integrated into the warm-up rooms. At many venues, these facilities have been enabled by patching, but the Rutledge AV design for these facilities is based around a touchscreen-controlled 32x32 Crestron matrix switcher to support specific video feeds — a quantum leap into the future and one that has been enthusiastically embraced by the tech-savvy coaching staff. However, there is much, much more to the story than this. Elijah explained that there are several major

sub-systems within the AV infrastructure. First, there is the broadcast infrastructure: facilities used either by the broadcasters or the in-house production facility transmitting to the in-house screens, corporate facilities, bowl PA and the massive LED scoreboard screens. Then there are the ‘Premium AV’ spaces which include the corporate boxes, game-day suites, function rooms, terrace bars and the executive level dining rooms located around the stadium. The facilities for the teams include the warm-up areas and coaches’ boxes. Finally, there are the PA systems, including the enormous bowl PA and the general PA system covering back of house, concourse, bus station, train precinct, ticket booths and some of the outdoor areas. Almost as an afterthought, Elijah revealed that there are over 1500(!) speakers, just in the general PA alone.

Rutledge AV’s brief started with the backbone cabling around the entire stadium for all broadcast facilities, including internal production. “The three main locations include the OB compound, which is obviously essential, the main communications room and the production room,” Elijah revealed. “The majority of the infrastructure goes directly back to the OB compound, which is a massive facility with over a thousand ties. We also have fibre infrastructure feeding the Master Control Room and the Production Suite. Essentially you have a massive star configuration with a redundant ring between the key locations where feeds can be distributed all around the stadium. Broadcast field points can be shared between the broadcasters and in-house production at certain locations rather than separating the infrastructure as has been the design intent in the past. It’s almost network-based,” explained Elijah. The video format is predominantly 3G SDI often carried on SMPTE 311 M hybrid fibre/ copper cables. “We installed fibre at every

034

single location,” Elijah noted. “All the locations do have other cable infrastructure as required but the fibre is there due to the distance and the future proofing that it offers. “These days, broadcast production units have fibre converter boxes for nearly everything. We have multiple fibre cores at any one location so the infrastructure can be used for video or audio and can enable future expansion of specific network connectivity. A fibre design offers substantial future proofing so that’s where everything is heading.” SUITE AS

The roster of ‘premium AV’ spaces includes 102 suites around the stadium, which are classed as corporate game-day facilities. Each suite comprises screens with access to local HDMI sources as well as the in-house IPTV system. Separate audio systems will allow patrons to play their own music or select the various video soundtracks. Each suite is managed by an integrated controller which operates the lights, in-room music, selects between the multiple HDMI inputs, and commands the inhouse IPTV system. Suites are only part of the Premium AV story. There are huge dining spaces, one of which can split into three function rooms. Local video feeds, IPTV or game-day feeds can be displayed on a pair of 200-inch projection screens, with audio handled by Tannoy VLS30 column speakers matched with dedicated subwoofers. The broadcast infrastructure extends throughout the

FEATURE

function area providing presentation points that can be used for local broadcasting. Rounding out the function areas is the exclusive Chairman’s Club which even has its own dedicated video conferencing facility. BOWL OF PLENTY

In a stadium, the main PA system (or bowl PA as it is referred to) is always going to present challenges — and this was no exception. The Rutledge AV crew really had to pull out all stops to create a super sound to go with the stadium’s two massive Daktronic screens — more on those later. Rutledge AV started from a specification provided by the State, which posed some very challenging performance criteria. The brief called for a Speech Transmission Index (STI) of 0.6 across the seating areas with the capability to achieve 102dB at the seating level (to rise above the noise of a boisterous crowd). So they set to work with an EASE modelling system and worked backwards to arrive at a suitable hardware solution. The system chosen was based on Nexo GEO S-12 components and local support for the brand was crucial. “Nexo was obviously a very good system, with both the clarity needed and the power to perform to the expected criteria,” Elijah explained. “But also the local Australian supplier of Nexo, Group Technologies, has a very good understanding of the structural components and had some pretty savvy design around how the line arrays could be

ON THE TANNOY: INSTALLED AUDIO • More than 400 premium Tannoy CMS503 ICTLP and 240 x CVS6 in-ceiling loudspeakers are installed in the hospitality suites. More than 300 premium AMS6 ICT and 120 x AMS8 DC surfacemount loudspeakers are installed in the general seating and undercover concourse areas. • 60 x OCV hanging pendant loudspeakers are installed in the food concession areas of the stadium. • 140 x VLS15 and VLS30 column speakers are installed in the general outdoor concourse areas, walkways and rail platforms • More than 100 compact lab.Gruppen Lucia 120/2M amplifiers are installed in the hospitality suites and corporate boxes which are integrated and controlled via RS-232 with the site-wide AV control system.

Acoustic Technologies — For All Your Sound Needs 07 3376 4122 • info@atprofessional.com.au • www.atprofessional.com.au

Australia’s Longest Established Manufacturer of Audio Products Supplying Australian Integrators since 1972

INDUSTRY

INSTALLATION

INFRASTRUCTURE

AT has earned a reputation for excellence designing high-powered, ultra-efficient loudspeaker systems for the Australian music industry.

AT represents the latest cutting-edge technology in providing innovative design solutions for a variety of installation applications.

AT has developed speakers for demanding areas where intelligibility, efficiency, durability and weatherresistance are crucial.

Buy Australian! Exceptional quality products Unequalled responsiveness & accessibility Unparalleled warranty & after-sales service

PROUDLY AUSTRALIAN MADE

036

FEATURE

STADIUM LED HALL OF FAME Daktronics dominates the Australian stadium LED screen market — with screens in 18 of the most significant stadiums. The two in Perth Stadium are the biggest stadium screens in the country.

housed. So they worked very closely with us to deliver those structural components which were a big part of installing the bowl PA system.” Getting the structural and mounting issues right was crucial, as Elijah explained: “By the time we got to the point of detailed design,” he recalled, “the stadium itself had been in design for three or four years. The roof structure and everything else had already been manufactured. So having decided that line arrays were the best solution to the acoustics, we faced very strict criteria around where we could suspend them, since the roof structure was nearly all fabric.” PA & CAN-DO RIGGING

The upshot? The only available point for suspension of the heavy speaker arrays was the very tip of the roof structure 45 metres above the ground — well out of reach of conventional access techniques. The structural engineers were called in to assist in designing the mounting but they also faced another hurdle. To allow for the line arrays to be serviceable, they had to be suspended in such a way that the massive assemblies could be dropped down to the seating level for maintenance. The solution was ingenious, but challenging.

Perth Stadium: 10.24m x 33.28m Melbourne Cricket Ground: 13.17m x 25.24m Sydney Cricket Ground: 10.97m x 24.87m

Adelaide Oval: 9.88m x 18.65m Etihad Stadium: 6.58m x 12.8m Skilled Park Stadium: 5.85m x 10.24m

BIG SCREENS, BIG UNDERTAKING The impressive LED displays in the bowl are a story unto themselves. The Daktronics displays themselves are 10.24m by 33.28m (some 8 million pixels, all up) but the horsepower and manpower behind these monsters is even more impressive. The turnkey contract with Brookfield Multiplex was for the design, build, installation and maintenance for all LED displays and control system at Optus Stadium. The sheer scale and complexity of the operating functionality and integration with the audiovisual system is by far the most advanced and complicated installation within Australia. To give a sense of the job at hand, Daktronics Australia’s Blair Robertson shared the extent of the manpower involved over the course of the installation and three-month commissioning phase: • 3 full time project managers • 10 full time installers, 12 months on site • 2 mechanical engineers • 1 electrical engineer • 1 thermal engineer • 1 programmer

Rather than being a couple of digital scoreboards, or ‘dumb’ endpoints for content, the Daktronics control system (the Venus Control Suite) provides a single point of control for all LED and IPTV displays throughout the complex. The control suite was tweaked to send triggers to the sound and lighting system providing a synchronised presentation for the Philips lighting and audiovisual set pieces. The Venus Control Suite also allows the stadium to access diagnostics status for any LED display within the system (including remote access). Using Real Time Data (RTD) integration with Champion Data, the Daktronics can display the latest stats from other games of interest to patrons including AFL, cricket, rugby union/ league and soccer.

FEATURE

037

038

GEAR HIGHLIGHTS • Nexo GEOS Bowl PA & amps • QSC CXD QLAN amps x 55 • QSC processors – 2 x Cores & 8 x DSPs • Tannoy install speakers x 1200 • Lab.gruppen amplifiers x 102 • Crestron DigitalMedia • Yamaha CL Series Mixing Consoles • Yamaha Dante I/O • Sennheiser Wireless • Genelec monitors • Blackmagic audio monitoring • Panasonic 4K IP PTZ Cameras • Panasonic PT-RZ790 laser projection • Extron DTP Distribution Amps • Lectrum Aero lecterns (pictured)

Rutledge AV and the team designed and manufactured a custom mobile dolly, which is housed permanently in the roof structure. The dolly is equipped with a two-tonne winch and can move around to each speaker stack, attach to it, and drop the entire line array down to the Level 1 seating area, where it can be maintained. The speakers are a passive design, so meaty 6mm figure-8 cables snake through the structure from the speakers at the tip of the gantry to the amplifier racks on level 5. All sound in the stadium travels across a fully converged network via Dante and QLAN, under the control of Q-Sys. The Q-Sys system is broken up into two separate components. While Q-Sys is the backbone, distributing audio stadium-wide, it is also the core component in each of the premium AV areas. These are standalone with a Q-Sys core dedicated to the rooms but draw content from the wider system carried on the network, everything from commentary to the background music channels.

FEATURE

KEY RUTLEDGE AV PERSONNEL • Elijah Steele • Rob Di Tella • Fernando Barreiro • Ross Fowler • Kamila Marcinczak • Lina Will • Gavin Wright • Alistair Dick • Matt Edgcumbe • Ryan Agostino • Rob D’Agostino • Adam Gregory • David Conner

Every aspect of the audio and each individual room can be scrutinised via the Q-Sys monitoring system which makes identifying and dealing with problems much more efficient. PRODUCTION SUITE

At the centre of the action on game days is the production suite. On the audio front, a Yamaha CL-5 handles the mixing tasks but there’s a lot more going on as well. The heart of the production suite is a 128x128 HDSDI routing switcher which integrates video sources from around the stadium via the broadcast infrastructure and routes video feeds to all the production stations, the team facilities and the corporate suites as well as to the twin stars of the video firmament, the two 340sqm Daktronics ‘Super Screens’ at each end of the ground. While in the individual areas such as the coaches’ boxes and the premium suites, Crestron control systems call the shots, the action on screen

and in the stadium is managed by a separate Daktronics custom show control system. When the West Coast Eagles run out onto the field, the director triggers a preset on the Daktronics Show control that calls lighting scenes both within and outside the stadium, cues the audio and switches vision to the super screens for an all-enveloping ‘fans-first’ experience. The entire stadium audiovisual experience is a tribute to the many people and companies who made it happen from the builders Multiplex to consultants Marshall Day and AECOM, not forgetting the pivotal role of Rutledge AV. It is also a reminder to the rest of the country of the capabilities of our Sandgroper cousins. As Premier Mark McGowan remarked at the official opening: “The build here, the finish, the extraordinary design shows that West Australians, and the West Australian industry can do anything.” 

039

FEATURE

Transport Bar, Melbourne 2 x 2.5mm pixel pitch displays

AURORA LED SIGNAGE

INDOOR LED WALLS

DIP OUTDOOR SERIES

VIDEOWALL SCREENS

Super-Strong, easy install, safe, super bright.

3m–4m LED display solutions, perfect for big-screen sports, school halls and more.

SHOP FRONT LED SIGNAGE

FRONT ACCESS LED DISPLAY

90- or 103-inch high brightness displays. Various pixel pitch.

Easy access, space saver. Ideal for on-wall installations.

• • • •

Ultra lightweight: Only 5.6kg per cabinet, 60mm thin Seamless Design: Fast locks on left & right /top & bottom Easy maintenance: Any LED module can be independently connected Super High Definition: High refresh rate and high contrast, auto brightness controlling • Widest View Angle: 160° horizontal and 14° vertical • Noiseless: Fanless aluminium heat sink

DOUBLE SIDED LED DISPLAY • LARGE FORMAT WINDOW DISPLAY • FLEXIBLE CURVE LED DISPLAY • LED SCOREBOARD DISPLAY All Aurora LED are stringently factory QC tested and where relevant waterproof tested and shake tested. Stock is held locally at Westan’s network of warehouses and support is provided locally by the Westan Support team.

Westan will provide the best possible after sales service including • Free technical training courses of software • Within two-year quality guarantee period • Online and local phone support service and where necessary onsite warranty

22-24 AUGUST ICC Sydney Darling Harbour

The ultimate experience in sight and sound. Discover whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next. IN ASSOCIATION WITH

INTEGRATE-EXPO.COM #INT2018

Celebrating 10 years of Integrate

041

FEATURE

Immersive Audio

Text:/ Christopher Holder

hanks to L-Acoustics’ L-ISA and d&b’s Soundscape making headlines, it really feels like immersive audio’s time has come. Immersive (or ‘spatial’) audio has been around a while. Ambisonics bubble of 3D sound was first in development in the ’70s for example. But now the conditions are right for immersive audio to take a leap forward into mainstream concert touring, AV events, audio installation, musical theatre, museum and exhibitions, and more. Such is the flurry of activity it’s hard to separate what ‘immersive’ is and isn’t. Let’s break it down. IMMERSIVE: 1 WORD, 2 PURPOSES

When we talk about immersive audio systems we’re talking about systems designed to potentially do two distinct jobs (and occasionally, they’ll do both).

The first is room enhancement. The most famous of these systems is Meyer Sound’s Constellation, where scores of loudspeakers are carefully installed within a room, along with dozens of microphones that sniff the sounds in the space then reproduce them through the speakers to simulate a room with a different tonality or decay time than the natural reverberation. Constellation has been used to rescue concert halls with shoddy natural acoustics. Or it’s been used to supercharge presentation spaces. OBJECT-BASED MIXING

The other aim of immersive audio systems is to improve upon stereo via object-based mixing. This is the rapidly emerging application which itself is manifest in two main formats: Frontal and 360.

Immersive frontal mixing sees the audio engineer sending instruments or stems to not less than five loudspeaker sources across the top of the stage. 360 mixing incorporates additional surround speakers — to the sides, rear and overhead. As mentioned, object-based immersive mixing is, at its core, about addressing the shortcomings of stereo. Stereo is great if you’re planted in the sweetspot — whether that be in your production studio’s Herman Miller or in a muddy festival field. Of course, in a gig situation a very small percentage of the audience is actually in the stereo sweetspot. You can address this with more loudspeakers across the front, above the stage. And rather than placing your source via varying amplitude between the left and right speakers, you can now position

042

FEATURE

THE PLAYERS d&b Soundscape

dbaudio.com

d&b’s Soundscape tackles the 3D mixing and room enhancement challenges with two optional software packages: En-Scene (for 3D object-based sound placement) and En-Space (for acoustic manipulation and enhancement). Works with a DS100 64x64 engine. L-Acoustics L-ISA

l-isa-immersive.com

Pronounced ‘El-lisa’, the French loudspeaker co. has a ‘road ready’ 3D mixing system. Not necessarily the most sophisticated interface but the easiest to jump into in a gigging scenario. Meyer Sound Constellation meyersound.com/product/constellation Meyer’s mature acoustic enhancement system has rescued many a flawed performance space. Pricey, powerful and potentially life changing. Meyer is now turning its gaze to 3D mixing — it has the hardware, now it’s working on its SpaceMap UI to be more gig-friendly.

that signal into the appropriate speaker between the left and right speakers. It means that no matter where you are in the room and the coverage area, the audio image remains true. For 360° mixing, you can extrapolate from there, around and above the listening area. BENEFITS OF IMMERSIVE

Forget about Pink Floyd cash registers going off behind you or THX-style glass shards flying overhead, most immersive productions will be ‘frontal’ with five arrays above the stage (additional arrays can be placed either side of the stage for additional width). In these circumstances every patron in the listening area will be treated to a ‘what you see

Harman Immersive

pro.harman

Uses a Lexicon-branded ‘QuantumLogic’ DSP to upscale a 5.1 or 7.1 source to a 32-channel immersive room. Pitched at movie theatres for the moment. IOSONO

www.iosono-sound.com

Now a Barco company, IOSONO combines a ‘Core’ DSP and a GUI to achieve loudspeaker-agnostic objectbased mixing. Pitched at cinemas, events and themed entertainment. Vivace

www.mbbm-aso.com

A powerful hardware/software system for acoustic enhancement, in the main. Meyer Constellation’s main competitor. Big in the classical music/concert hall arena. Astro Spatial Audio

Outboard TiMax

outboard.co.uk

TiMax is one of the godfather’s of spatial audio. It’s best known for stage tracking vocal localisation — using a delay-matrix processor and software to dynamically move an actor’s vocal pan position across a LCR loudspeaker system. Flux:: SPAT Revolution

fluxhome.com

Real-time 3D-audio mixing engine that can also add room effects. Can use it to send the result to a loudspeaker setup or a pair of normal stereophonic headphones, or export the result as audio stems to use in any other audio engine.

astroaudio.eu

Another loudspeaker-agnostic system based on a rendering engine and a software GUI. Uses an algorithm developed by the Fraunhofer Institute. Making headway in the musical theatre market.

is what your hear’ audio image of the stage. Vocals are more intelligible. Every instrument is heard with more precision, the audio engineer isn’t so compelled to resort to a bag of EQ and compression tricks to achieve separation in a mix, while the extra ‘depth’ dimension can help to create lush and spectacular soundscapes. RUBBER HITS THE ROAD

So how will immersive audio impact on the real world of AV events and installation? We talk to big-event (and Emmy Awardwinning) specialist Scott Willsallen about his audio design for a no-expense-spared UAE National Day celebration. With seven frontal arrays across an enormous stage, along with loudspeakers on the

sides, rear and overhead, it’s safe to say this kind of approach will be the exception rather than the rule. Most AV events will see immersive audio’s influence via the introduction of extra frontal arrays. Saying that, aspirational concert halls would do well to consider a 360 system in their next upgrade. Sydney Opera House certainly did when it upgraded the Dame Joan Sutherland Theatre (regrettably that story will have to wait for a future issue). Naturally, it all depends on the application and the budget. Which is why we’ve tackled this story from a number of angles. I trust it gives you a solid background in what is a rapidly emerging new audio paradigm. 

READY TO ROLL

Gilkon Axis NVS Series Mobile Computer on Wheels

MOBILE

EDUCATION

Call (02) 9914 0900 Email sales@gilkon.com.au Visit gilkon.com.au

044

FEATURE

Well Oiled Machine No expense spared, one-off event in the UAE. Text:/ Christopher Holder

he UAE celebrates its National Day (when a bunch of Gulf States unified to create the UAE) with a variety of cultural events, military parades, and unimaginable quantities of fireworks. A formal VIP presentation at the most recent 46th National Day last December switched things up a bit. 1800 dignitaries were treated to a noexpense-spared rich-media manifesto of UAE as a leader in the world of hi-tech and an ambitious vision-cast of the future. An enormous (40m wide by 14m high) stage was replete with LED and projections and the listening area was surrounded by a L-Acoustics L-ISA-controlled PA. It was a fully immersive experience for those present, both visually and aurally, and masterminded by UK event producers, Done+Dusted. Auditoria director, Scott Willsallen, got the call to take care of the audio design. He knew it had to be ambitious; state of the art; and at the very least in surround, if not totally in the 360 with overheads.

system. We helped them by creating an evaluation environment so they could more easily shortlist the available options — that way we could more easily switch between them and give the manufacturers different tasks to perform so they could show us their strengths and weaknesses. Going into this UAE event, the platform I was least familiar with was L-ISA, mainly because it hadn’t been released in the field and there was only one location in London where you could really evaluate it. I spent a few weeks in London in August last year to try and get a really good understanding of it: how it worked, how to operate it, the things it does well, the things it does less well and things they’re planning on improving. At that point it was clear that L-ISA was my preferred option in terms of the user interface, and these things are almost entirely about the user interface. They all have to sound good but they all do. So really it’s about how well you can control it and manipulate it.

COMPARING SYSTEMS

SPACE & REVERB

AV Asia Pacific: When you were considering your options in the lead up to the UAE event, how did you arrive at L-ISA as the preferred option? SWA: We did a lot of work for the Sydney Opera House when they recently upgraded the Joan Sutherland Theatre with a d&b Soundscape

AV Asia Pacific: Where a system like L-ISA is more than a powerful matrix router is in its ability to provide artificial ambience to introduce ‘distance’ or space into a mix. How does L-ISA perform in this regard? SWA: The current reverb engine within L-ISA is

simplistic — not just simplistic from the point of view of how it sounds, it’s simplistic from how can be implemented within a show. Where they’re heading is much more exciting, both from what the reverb sounds like in the time domain and in the frequency domain but also how it can be used and implemented. Introducing reverb has its pitfalls. You can very quickly end up in a situation where the sides speakers are much closer to most listeners than the main system. What you shouldn’t ever do is hear the reverberation before the direct sound. So the system needs to be aware of where the loudspeakers are and how the sound propagates through the room, ensuring there is no situation that can exist where the reverb arrives before the direct sound. That’s something that will soon be implemented PREPARING YOUR SOURCE MATERIAL

The soundtrack to the event was a combination of a full orchestral program (recorded at Air Studios London) along with traditional instruments and percussion. The intent is for the music program to be immersive; to transport those at the event into an amazing-sounding concert hall. From there, sound design and SFX moments would punctuate the program with creative use of the surround channels. It was a mouth watering prospect but intimidating for Scott Willsallen and his team.

FEATURE

DO’S & DON’TS: SUBS Do consolidate your subs: “Subs being mono blocked is something we’ve been doing since 2006. So rather than being clever with subs by putting them left, right and centre in some kind of horizontal line source, tapering it and then beam steering it… rather than doing all that, if it can place them in one spot and have enough energy there, it’s always going to deliver a better result. We had our subs stacked behind the LED display — which wasn’t a solid surface. That worked really, really well for us.” Don’t space your arrays too far apart: “We put the the main seven loudspeaker arrays above the stage no further than 15° apart to ensure smooth panning. They were about five metres apart in our case. Because of the stage height they were higher than we’d like. So we implemented front fill that pulled the image down for those at the front.”

SWA: The loudspeaker system side of an event like this is relatively straightforward. It’s a lot of effort to install but the design side of it is really not that complicated. The complicated aspect was in the production workflow; that’s a complete departure from a regular stereo workflow. Put it this way: I’ve done a number of Olympics ceremonies and this was way more complicated. In stereo world, we would work with the music team to define a stem list that we’d need for our two main mixes: the live mix in the venue and the broadcast mix. These stems would be based around an orchestral breakdown. For example, Strings Stereo Low, Strings Stereo High, Brass Stereo High, Brass Stereo Low, and so on for woodwind, percussion etc. And that's great; works really well in the stereo paradigm. Meanwhile, when it comes to immersive sound playback, ideally we want every instrument provided as a mono source, so we have absolute flexibility to range the instruments across the left-to-right sound stage. The problem with that is the channel count. The orchestra itself was around 120 pieces, along with 80-odd traditional instruments, another dozen inputs from a choral recording, along with some electronic production — that’s a lot of inputs. It was just not practical to try and take every input. Instead we asked ourselves what we really wanted, and that was the

045

sound of the orchestra as though they were sitting on stage. So we worked with the music team and the audio guys at Air Studios to come up with a capture technique for the orchestra that would work for us. What we got were seven stems that sliced the orchestra up horizontally across the stage [matching the seven speaker arrays]. Within each of those seven pieces was an expertly mixed balance of the instruments in that slice along with a beautiful room reverb recording. So we ended up with 21 inputs for the orchestra, comprising a mono mixdown of the instruments in that horizontally sliced section, a feed from one of seven large-diaphragm cardioid mics that was in front of that section, and seven channels of 7.0 reverb. This approach freed up a whole truckload of channels and it meant the orchestra mix was very fast to throw into the system. When we received new tracks it was super quick. That was important because we didn’t have time in the evenings to mix. We only had time during the day and during the day you're also battling with angle grinders, battery drills, scissor lifts beeping away etc. We used the L-ISA GUI for all of the placement of everything except the sound design. The sound of water dripping or a hyper-loop train taking off… we did within Pyramix. The Pyramix panner

046

FEATURE

Surrounded: The system comprised 36 outputs, including seven front arrays above the huge stage, and overhead speakers. The monoblock subs were positioned behind the acoustically-porous LED screen.

WHO’S GONNA SPEC IT SWA: Immersive audio inevitably changes the whole look of a stage. Everyone is now accustomed to the paradigm of a wide and relatively tall LED upstage and then a long black column of PA either side of stage. We’ve had that for a while and everyone seems pretty comfortable with it. To shift that to five or seven slightly shorter lines of PA right across the top of the stage changes things. If the artist wants it, great. The set has to accommodate it. And I think that’s going to be the way this grows. If the artist wants it, then we’ll just have to make it so.

is extremely sophisticated. All the sound design panning was then printed in 36.1 – to reflect the 36 outputs we had. IS IT WORTH IT?

Not many clients have the deep pockets of the UAE. And this event certainly pushed the technical boat out to the very limits of what we’ve seen anywhere. But what about other less ambitious and more moderately bank-rolled events? Is the extra setup time, money and effort all worth it?

SWA: It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever heard. You might think, ‘he would say that’. But for me, apart from the success of the event itself, it was the reaction of the lighting team, the riggers, the guys creating the visual content… the comments were so incredibly positive. They thought the orchestral recording put them right in a concert hall. That’s a pretty powerful statement to make when you consider that we were in the middle of a massive car park with no reflective surfaces whatsoever. Using a system like L-ISA to correct the errors

of stereo such that wherever you move within the audience area you have a really good spatial representation of what’s going on… that in itself is amazing. If you’re then lucky enough to have some overheads and some surround speakers such that you can add some room to these spaces… well, then, that’s when ‘amazing’ becomes ‘unbelievable’. Yes, it’s absolutely worth it.. 

USB 0.2

WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;VE GOT YOU COVERED

AV-over-IP Whatever the Environment JPEG200 AV-over-IP solution for 1Gb networks

Best AV-Over-IP of Integrate 2017 Best AV-Over-IP of InfoComm 2018

Uncompressed, zero latency AV-over-IP solution

Best AV-Over-IP of Integrate 2016 Best AV-Over-IP of ISE 2017

2016

H.264 AV-over-IP solution for low bandwidth networks

Wireless presentation switcher

Best Meeting Room Product of InfoComm 2018 Best Collaboration System of InfoComm 2018

Visit us at An AV-over-IP Company

iMAGsystems.com

Booth B52

048

FEATURE

Exploring The Soundscape d&b’s Ralf Zuleeg talks about the beauty of ‘what you see is what you hear’. Interview:/ Christopher Holder

HOW MUCH EXTRA?

alf Zuleeg is d&b’s head of Sales Services & Application Engineering. If Soundscape is anyone’s ‘baby’, it’s Ralf’s. Ralf Zuleeg: For d&b, it was a case of ‘what would be the next loudspeaker?’ With GSL, we have an amazing new loudspeaker with great properties — great directivity, SPL; everything is outstanding. Yet, still, we’re stuck in a left/right speaker world. For me, the most important thing was my belief that for 30 years we’ve been doing it wrong.

Ralf Zuleeg: There is an extra cost to an immersive audio production. For frontal systems with proper preparation, financially you’re talking about an extra 20-25%. A lot of that is in getting a proper set design put together. The extra rental cost is fairly minimal. You don’t have 5 x 24-deep arrays at the front. The arrays are smaller and you distribute the energy in a different way. A frontal system might have around 30% more loudspeakers.

FRONTAL OR 360?

NEW APPROACH TO SYSTEM DESIGN

Ralf Zuleeg: My original vision for Soundscape was for it to be a frontal system. Not so much a 360 system, but a system that could reproduce sound in the right way — a ‘what you see is what you hear’ system. I recall being at a Laurie Anderson concert. I was in the 5th row, right in front of the left PA stack. It was waste of time. I want to have a proper relation with what’s happening on stage no matter where I am in the audience. Not that everyone is hearing the same thing but they are hearing the right thing. From there, 360 is the logical extension. At d&b this became the idea behind the En Scene user interface. And if you already have loudspeakers in the round, the next logical step is to emulate any acoustic space — something we address with En Space.

Ralf Zuleeg: When it comes to immersive audio, you need to say goodbye to a purely technical approach to sound reinforcement system design. You have to look at energy distribution. This is not the time to rely solely on a measurement microphone, you should listen and design for human beings. You, of course, need proper coverage but you need fewer boxes in an array. And the interesting thing with immersive sound, especially with 360 systems but also frontal systems, it appears to be louder than it actually is. You have this impression of audio coming from all directions. Psychoacoustically, it can feel really quite loud, but you can turn around and talk normally to you neighbour. What, I can just talk normally?! The spatial distribution of the sources, in the horizontal and the vertical — the two-dimensional

distribution of energy, if not the three-dimensional of energy — makes the game a bit different. We have to take into account that we’re using the same energy but we’re using it differently. Horizontal coverage is also managed differently to a conventional L/R array. Each array should be able to cover the entire target area (or as much as possible). Each array should be spaced such that the maximum distance between the arrays are about 70% of the distance of the closest listener. That’s the density required. There’s definitely a psychoacoustic aspect to immersive audio that we don’t yet fully understand. Which is why I say you need to design a system with your ears as much as with a tool like ArrayCalc. SCARY OR FRIENDLY?

Ralf Zuleeg: We set up a d&b Soundscape system in the Acoustic Stage at the Glastonbury Festival and made it available to visiting front of house engineers — none of which had used the system before. Just one or two out of the 10 or so bands elected not to use it, most were interested and had a go. I think the barrier for some front of house engineers is not having the picture in their heads. In other words, the barrier is psychological. There’s not much extra effort required of the sound engineers. You’re working on the same mixing console, it’s just that you’re using the most expensive panner in the world to position your signals! 

050

FEATURE

Meyer In The Right Space Meyer Sound’s Steve Ellison is set to take what they know from Constellation into a live sound context. Interview:/ Christopher Holder

n most regards Meyer is way ahead of the immersive audio tech curve. Constellation does something truly amazing — combining dozens of measurement microphones that ‘sample’ the space, feeding the monumentally powerful (288x288) D-Mitri DSP that matrixes trickedup audio to (sometimes) hundreds of installed loudspeakers. The result is the ability to turn an average acoustic space into a world beater. Meyer Sound has for many years been the vendor of choice when it comes to tricky multichannel productions and events. Cirque du Soleil has some hugely complex audio productions in some, sometimes, oddball acoustic environments. Meyer’s state-of-the-art hardware to the rescue. In these cases Meyer’s SpaceMap acts as the panning UI and cueing architecture. But to this point SpaceMap hasn’t been optimised for working in a live sound environment so much as for set ’n’ forget installs like theme parks and the Cirque. After some tinkering under the SpaceMap bonnet, it feels like all Meyer Sound needs now is some snappy 3D mixing system branding and willing high-profile gig partner. SPACE MAP CADET

Steve Ellison is Meyer Sounds’ Applications Director, Digital Products at Meyer Sound. He’s been charged with the job of heading up Meyer’s immersive audio offerings. His history with immersive audio dates back to six months he spent in Canberra as a fresh-outof-college grad when he donated spare time to a music art project that distributed 16 loudspeakers within a dome. “I was sitting in the dome trying to figure out how to efficiently adjust the amplitudes,” recalls Steve. “That was the genesis of the idea of SpaceMap.” SpaceMap became commercially available from 1993. In fact, it was first used commercially in Vegas for a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s roller skating spectacle Starlight Express. Meyer bought SpaceMap and incorporated features of the algorithm into D-Mitri. Steve’s been with Meyer for years, but only recently adopted the title of Applications Director, Digital Products: “It’s interesting for me to get

back into immersive audio — especially how to make it more approachable for live sound,” commented Steve. “The increased interest makes sense because the loudspeaker systems are more compact and easier to deploy — it’s easier to hang surround systems now than it was years ago. What’s more, Meyer has its amplification built in, which makes it even easier — plug it in and give it sound... good to go.” LOOKING TO CONSTELLATION

But what has Meyer’s years of experience with Constellation taught it about 3D mixing and immersive audio? “We’ve learnt a lot,” observed Steve. “We’ve developed guidelines regarding minimum quantities of loudspeakers to ensure overlap — if we’re using this model of loudspeaker, this dispersion pattern and this elevation, then you need them at this density. “Constellation is all about sound in all directions, mimicking real-world acoustics. From a live sound point of view, it’s not that way, but getting information from all directions, including overhead can be very effective.”

Meyer has partnered with MoogFest with a small-scale immersive audio rig. As is the Meyer MO, the hook-up is heavy on pushing limits, both cerebral and artistic. “We’re so science driven at Meyer, so it’s refreshing to test our systems artistically,” observed Steve. “How far can you stretch live sound 3D/surround mixing? We had congas mixed to the rear surrounds. Do you delay those congas? Then do you delay those elements out to match the perception of where the artist is on stage? What’s your perspective when there’s percussion behind you. Some of this we’re learning.” And immersive stage monitoring? “With SpaceMap we were able to set up a quad stage monitoring system at MoogFest,” said Steve. “It meant the performers were able to experience some of what was going on spatially — we folded the surround channels to loudspeakers on stage.” There seems a genuine sense of excitement and anticipation within Meyer Sound ranks regarding its immersive future. Steve again: “It really feels like the production world is ready to push forward with surround, and Meyer is well placed.” 

Visit us at Stand L48

052

FEATURE

L-ISA: French Revolution L-Acoustics pioneered the last major reinvention of the PA, now it’s confident it can do it all again. Text:/ Mark Davie

-ISA isn’t even technically on the market yet, and Guillame Le Nost, L-Acoustics’ Director of R&D on L-ISA, is already referring to stereo PA deployments as “the way it used to be”, “traditional”, and “stuck in a 50year old configuration.” I guess everything looks nostalgic when you’ve poured the last few years of your life into developing the ‘next step’ in live sound technology. L-ISA started as a research project with a team of three. By 2016, L-Acoustics finally had a “technology that could really offer productions a way to put the sound back at the centre of the show”. L-ISA’S NEW FRONTIER, SPACE

You can read about Auditoria’s 360 L-ISA deployment elsewhere this issue, so I wanted learn more about what was in L-ISA’s immediate future and what’s pertinent to the fixed installation market. The L-ISA processor holds the key. While L-Acoustics has had some spatialisation characteristics built in, the new version of the Processor “could be considered a room acoustics enhancement system,” said Le Nost. It’s not a room simulation engine like Meyer’s Constellation, designed to replicate a specific concert hall in your gymnasium. Rather, it’s about giving the system designer the ability to tailor room reverberation characteristics to the application. “If you’re in a very reverberant venue, you can just add a few early reflections and restrict its effects to a specific frequency range,” explained Le Nost.

“Conversely, if you’re in a venue that’s really dry, you can add more diffusion and late energy. You can store those tweaked parameters as presets so a single space can have multiple use cases. “Let’s say you have a fixed installation in a theatre, you could create a drier acoustic environment for a spoken word event on Monday, then switch it to a wetter preset for a chamber orchestra on Tuesday. It’s not replacing the sound engineer’s reverbs — like plate reverbs or their favourite Lexicon presets — it’s an enhancement of the space you’re in. It has an effect on all L-ISA systems, but the space effects work better if you have more extended deployment with surround speakers.” PLUGGING INTO THE SYSTEM

As for the cost, well, L-Acoustics isn’t revealing its hand yet. The L-ISA processor is not technically for sale, yet, and doesn’t have a list price. Ecalle would rather discuss the overall deployment cost: “Another way to look at it is how much of a cost difference it is compared to a classic stereo deployment. Because the energy is spread out over five or seven arrays, you don’t need to dimension the clusters in the same manner. When you would deploy 12-16 K2 cabinets per side in a stereo configuration, you’re going to be working with 6-9 KARAs per cluster — more cabinets overall, but a smaller format. The average cost difference is between 25-30%, but can vary a lot from project to project.” The team at L-Acoustics are bullish about

Audio Director Nick Ryan (left) and Technical Sound Designer/ Immersive Mixing Engineer Davey Williamson (right) integrating the 19.1 Briefing Lift’s AV system. Spyscape’s Surveillance Challenge 360° room is a large, cylindrical space, around 16m diameter and 8m in height, and the gallery tells the story of surveillance. Here, 38 speakers and a pair of subwoofers create a 38.1 system. The system comprises three rings of 10x 5XT speakers each: one at floor level, one at the mid-wall height, and one at ceiling level. Eight more 5XT are deployed in a smaller ring on the ceiling pointed at visitor head height. Two SB18 subs placed in the centre of the ceiling facing down provide low frequency coverage throughout the room. Ten LA4X amplified controllers power all elements across 40 discrete amplification channels.

L-ISA. Not arrogant, just confident they’re sitting on a game-changing technology that takes the conversation away from what sort of rigging pin setup a PA has, or minor spec bumps. They believe it’s an undeniable improvement over that “50-year old configuration” we’ve been “stuck” in for so long. 

054

FEATURE

Pinball Whizzing: Spatial Theatre Audio Immersive audio is making headway into musical theatre.

usical theatre would seem ripe for the immersive audio picking. Productions are often holed up in cranky old theatres for months on end, where acoustics aren’t always great, and sound designers are always looking for an edge. Astro Spatial Audio is a package that takes care of 3D mixing, some room enhancement and is starting to make inroads in Broadway as a PAagnostic platform. Astro Spatial Audio (ASA) uses SpatialSound Wave (SSW) technology, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, and licensed to ASA. MULTI-BAND AUDIO

Theatre sound designer Kai Harada won a Tony Award for Best Sound Design with a production called The Band’s Visit. The show, which was also nominated for Best Musical and a number of other gongs, follows a band’s trip to Israel for the opening of an Arab Cultural Centre, only to find out that they have boarded the wrong bus to the wrong town. Hijinks ensue. The show marked the Broadway debut of Astro Spatial Audio (ASA), and Harada was keen to praise the effect the system had on the show’s sound design. “ASA allowed us to precisely place

the instrument source as an audio object within a graphical interface, while it did all the calculations to make it sound correct. Changes to staging were easily accommodated,” he explained. “In addition, having used other acoustic enhancement systems on other shows, I was eager to try the ASA room enhancement to give the illusion that the theatre was a larger acoustic space for some key moments in the show.” He added: “Without the functionality of the ASA system, the sound of The Band’s Visit would have remained two-dimensional. I’m extremely pleased with the results. I am eager to find another show that would lend itself to using Astro Spatial Audio.” TOMMY: FEAST OF SENSES

Sitting in the audience of one of The Band’s Visit shows was audio designer Ken Travis who knew instantly he needed a Spatial Astro Audio system for a production he was working on: Pete Townshend’s rock opera, Tommy, in Denver. “I was really blown by the use of the ASA system – and I wasn’t even sitting in a particularly good seat!” recalls Travis. The core of the ASA solution, the SARA II Premium Rendering Engine is a 3U road- and

rack-ready processor offering up to 128 MADI or 128 Dante configurable network pathways at 48kHz/24-bit resolution, and utilises extensive metadata attached to each audio object. The result is a precise calculation of that object’s position within virtual 3D space, processed in real-time up to 40 times per second for each individual object, as well as that object’s acoustic effect on the virtual space around it. The result for the engineer is a three-dimensional audio canvas on which to play. In this case the production is using Meyer Sound UPJ self-powered loudspeakers and a Digico SD10 console. Travis allowed the system to stretch its legs on the showstopper, Pinball Wizard: “We treat the orchestra like it’s a pinball machine, so, for example, the guitars playing those massive power chords are mirrored by the flippers whacking the pinball around the room, while the Hammond B3 sounds like it’s coming from the lights on the machine,” says Travis. “In rehearsals I mapped out the whole song with the click track, then once we got into the theatre we linked up to timecode, hit ‘go’ and it worked flawlessly first time.” So much so, in fact, that “everyone started laughing, it was that good!” 

056

FEATURE

High Stakes Tabcorp goes all-in with the AV fitout of its new HQ, including three highly flexible video walls. Text:/ Christopher Holder Images:/ Converged Technology

abcorp is an ASX50 company that recently moved its Melbourne headquarters to five floors of a Collins Street address in Docklands. Tabcorp and Tatts Group combined in December last year and now have the largest retail footprint in Australia. Integrating the two businesses has created many opportunities for the combined group, including the opportunity to customise the new Melbourne office with state-ofthe-art AV technology. STONE AGE TO SPACE AGE

Taking care of all the commercial AV heavy lifting was Converged Technology. Tabcorp’s previous Melbourne office was starting to show its age and as the company began to grow, there was a need to relocate. The new Collins Square address encourages flexible working and collaboration with more than 50 custom-designed meeting spaces (such as that picutred opposite). The new office is open plan

with agile working spaces, VC rooms and userexperience tech spaces. The big move also allowed Tabcorp to revisit functionality, layout and capabilities of its wagering and operations centre. From an AV perspective the most noticeable manifestation are three high-performance video walls. DAY AT THE RACES

Tabcorp’s Raceday control room (pictured above) is the operational wagering hub, controlling parimutuel (tote) wagering across thoroughbred, harness and greyhound races. In 2017, Raceday controlled more than 125,000 domestic and international races. This involves monitoring and disseminating all racing information for up to 60 race meetings daily. The team’s primary focus is to uphold the integrity of each race controlled, by stopping betting at the exact moment the race commences, then paying out on the correct numbers as declared by relevant governing racing bodies

MISSION CRITICAL Converged Technology (partnering with IComm and Telstra) designed and implemented a comprehensive video wall solution for Tabcorp that would service the specific needs of each of three different teams. The system would be mission critical, support 24x7 runtime, be IPTV capable, have audio capabilities, support a large number of different graphical layouts and user-driven configurations, yet remain easy to use and accessible to all members of the various teams. A custom Crestron control system featuring a professionally designed user interface optimised for a 22-inch touch panel was installed into each of the three areas, ensuring that staff had immediate access to the content they required. Converged Technology: 1300 032 751 or www.convergedtechnology.com.au

FEATURE

057

horses are withdrawn from a race), track and weather changes, protests, delays and rider/ driver changes and updates. They have direct contact with the race stewards when they need additional information. Powered by a Datapath video wall processor, the 4x2 video wall has been a revelation. The new AV fitout has simplified the way they communicate and receive information. In action, on a busy Friday evening, Raceday is a little like the bull pen of a stock exchange. A lot of chatter, a nose-to-tail race schedule, and a lot of matters to nail quickly and efficiently. It’s a place where conveying concise and accurate information clearly and quickly is essential. MANY EYES OF SYSOPS

(stewards). Sounds easy but the implications for getting it wrong are astronomical. In the rare instance a race is not closed at the commencement of the race or the result is paid out on the incorrect numbers, the team is in breach of the company’s licence and must declare this as a Significant Event to the relevant regulators. The room has 18 workstations for raceday controllers to watch and listen to individual races. When the race is complete, raceday employees stay tuned, ensuring results given by the caller and stewards are aligned to the results they witnessed. They then await the ‘correct weight’ announcement before paying out. Each workstation has four display monitors

and controllers can select the source for each screen. An audio source selector and level unit allow the operator to hear audio for each of the sources via baby Genelec powered speakers on the desk. At the rear of the room, senior Raceday team members pay attention to the big picture. A 4x2 46-inch Samsung video wall shows Sky 1 and Sky 2 race meet video along with sources from Tabcorp’s IPTV sources. These might include raw footage from the race meetings. The senior Raceday employees on the podium level at the back of the room will have their eyes and ears on high alert for all relevant meeting information; from late scratchings (where

In the System Operations room, a 5x2 Datapathpowered video wall (pictured overleaf) displays Tabcorp’s digital and online wagering activity. The screens display dashboards, Sky Racing, Keno and wagering results, which are constantly monitored. The highly flexible video wall has the capacity to display as many as 30 different sources. One Samsung 46-inch panel can display two or four separate sources, or one image can be cast across four screens (see the control screen layout, left). CONTROL & COMMAND

The third video wall is in the Command Centre, which is used for incident management when critical IT and wagering infrastructure isn’t functioning correctly. This video wall was designed to provide response teams with

058

immediate access to monitoring dashboards and real-time data analytics. A 3x2 Samsung 55inch video wall connected to the same Datapath backbone, allows Tabcorp staff to quickly identify and triage core systems. HOW IT ALL WORKS

The brains of the video wall operation is a powerful Datapath processor in a centralised equipment rack. The Datapath server takes a combination of capture and graphics cards that best serve the needs of the project. Having a centralised server, as opposed to one video wall processor per room, met the client’s brief, whereby any source can be sent to any of the three walls. In fact, when you include the 22inch Crestron touch panel in each room (which can preview any source), you’re talking about six separate destinations. Along with Sky TV and PC feeds, the server handles over 100 channels of in-house IPTV. Three SQX decode cards take the IPTV feeds.

FEATURE

The SysOps (top) and Raceday control room (above) video walls. The Datapath video wall processor provides the configuration flexibility and power to provide the Argus-like eyes and ears the Tabcorp team needs to ensure smooth operations.

BrightSign media players take the IPTV feed then split the audio from the video signal destined for the Crestron DSP. The arrangement ensures Tabcorp employees always have the right audio when they need it. Plus, it means the SysOps wall (which generally has a large portion devoted to a race feed) will have the audio following video — switch to Race 4 at Dapto and the audio comes along for the ride. Having audio so integral is unusual for a command and control room scenario, and required some problem solving. YOU BET

The excellent AV solution provided by Converged Technology has enabled Tabcorp to continue delivering and plays a pivotal role. 

KNOW YOUR TOTE Parimutuel betting or the Tote or totalisator system: is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the ‘house-take’ are removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets. Fixed Odds Betting: A systems where you place a bet a certain, known, odds. In this system you know the return you’ll be getting once you place the bet.

WHEN YOUR MESSAGE IS ON THE LINE, TRUST THE WORLD LEADER WITH MORE THAN 350 INSTALLATIONS WITHIN AUSTRALIA. LEARN MORE: DAKTRONICS.COM/AU

RETAIL ADVERTISING | ROADSIDE DIGITAL SIGNAGE | AIRPORT INFORMATION | SPORTS VIDEOS

060

REVIEW

Vivitek DK8500Z 4K Single-Chip DLP Laser Projector Review:/ Christopher Holder

his is a 4K Special Issue, so it’s only fitting we bring a 4K installation projector in for questioning. Easy? Not so much. There are very few commercial 4K projectors on the market. Vanishingly few. Since some 12 months ago there have been a smattering of 4K home theatre projectors with brands such as Sony and Optoma making forays, but Old Mother Hubbard’s 4K cupboard is pertydarn bare. Even this year’s tradeshows didn’t see a conga line of 4K projection announcements. A handful of vendors are addressing the events/ rental market with 4K releases, such as Epson and Panasonic (think: White Night/Vivid and IMAG applications). So it was with a certain amount of posthaste alacrity that Synergy (Vivitek’s Australian distribution partner) sent me the DK8500Z back in February. Word was: I was the first person in Australia to spark up this bad-boy. The device in question is a 7500-lumen, singlechip, 4K DLP laser projector. It’s a serious piece of kit. For starters it’s no lightweight — there’s not much change out of 30kg with the lens fitted. After making a variety of old-man noises moving the box (‘why the heck is this thing so heavy?!’ — we’ll hear why later), my second immediate impression was: here is a serious piece of commercial AV equipment: plenty of lens options (eight, in fact, all with lens shift) and a professional array of I/O and control ports (including SDI, HDBaseT, RS232, ethernet, HDMI2.0 and DisplayPort). After fitting a 1.25–1.79 lens (easy bayonetstyle, insert/twist procedure) it was time to spark up the DK8500Z and bask in some UHD goodness. Not so fast. 4K (DIS)CONTENT

In an AV world where you soon won’t be able to purchase a full HD display in favour of 4K,

you might naively imagine that there’s a veritable cornucopia of pixelenriched commercial content. Not so. There’s a dearth. An embarrassment of embarrassments. There’s a smattering on NetFlix; and a couple of cool commercially produced packages/teasers available on YouTube (which probably accounts for why you see the same old demo suspects on tradeshow 4K TVs all the time). So it begs the question, if there’s hardly any suitable content to be had, who’s screaming for a 4K projector? I’ve asked around, and not many people are. It’s currently a niche requirement. But if you’re in that niche, then you need to know about the DK8500Z because, like Obi-Wan, it may be your only hope. So where you’re dealing with 4K source video/ graphics and you need to create a large canvas, then the DK8500Z has you covered. It may be a museum exhibit (yes, you can mount the projector any which way); or some specialised digital signage; exhibition/stand exhibit (made easier with this projector’s built-in multiscreen edge-blending and warping features); you may be fitting out a visualisation or simulation suite; or, more likely, an application that I’ve not yet considered that has come out of the clear blue sky and you were all set to advise your client to not bother and scale it down to 1080p. Like I said, now you have a commercial-grade 4K option that didn’t exist a few months ago. LASER TAG

The DK85000 uses a laser phosphor light source. Like the competition, Vivitek talks about a 20,000-hour life expectancy. Unlike some of the competition, because of a fully-enclosed, air-tight assembly (where dust can’t intrude) the 20,000 hours has real world practical implications. Vivitek has done its homework and at the time of going to press has made it to 12,000 hours of

24/7 use in tests and has found the lasers’ output decreases linearly and predictably at around (a miserly) 1-2% every thousand hours. All up, this is good news for a permanent install and good news for your power bill. Being laser, boot up/down time is also swift. It’s not Vivitek’s first laser ‘rodeo’, the company has been producing laser projectors for a couple of years now. They’re equipped with an efficient liquid cooling system and the aforementioned airtight sealed optical engine in order to reduce the maintenance — no lamp replacements, and no need to climb a ladder to replace an air filter. It’s worth giving credit where it’s due, so I’ll doff my cap to Delta (Vivitek’s parent company) for inventing the laser phosphor engine — Delta has a number of patents out and, in fact, is an OEM manufacturer, supplying laser phosphor engines to other industry players. Under the bonnet you have two blue laser diodes as the primary light source. The blue light from the laser diodes shines onto a spinning colour wheel coated in a phosphor compound. The blue light excites the phosphor, emitting yellow light. The yellow light is then segmented using dichroic coatings to create red and green light while the blue light component directly passes through a diffusion segment in the phosphor wheel. HOW’S IT LOOK

Vivitek manufactures great projectors. It’s a respected brand, albeit one that’s not had a big presence in Australia (something Synergy is quickly addressing). I ran 4K content and 4K test patterns via the DisplayPort output of a PC installed with a suitably-buff graphics card. I was impressed. It’s a great looking image. Being a commercial AV magazine I’m not going to disappear down a rabbit hole of home theatre-

061

REVIEW

4K TI DLP CHIP: 8.3M PIXELS? 4K image from a 4K chip, right? Not exactly. The Texas Instruments DLP 4K digital micromirror device (DMD) allows for full 4K UHD display solutions, ie. 8.3 million pixels on screen. But it doesn’t have 2160 lines of micro mirrors, it has a pixel/mirror complement of 2716 x 1528. If you do the maths, that amounts to half the 8.3m required. To achieve the required 8.3m pixels, the chip does a sleight of hand where it delivers two pixels one after the other through the same mirror using a 120Hz refresh rate (60fps per pixel). The total number of addressable pixels in this process is (2716 x 1528) x 2… or 8.3 million pixels, ie. native 4K resolution. This is called XPR technology, where an FPGA chip drives an actuator at 120Hz. It’s a different trick to the Sony/JVC e-shift ‘twostep’ where the same pixel is reproduced twice in every refresh but jiggled slightly diagonally. The DLP ‘XPR’ method, on the other hand, provides independent control of colour, brightness and contrast per pixel. Interestingly, TI also manufactures a larger 3820 x 2160 DMD, which is quite a bit more expensive. Vivitek’s sister company, DigitalProjection uses the full 4K chip in its range. In fact, it goes so far as to apply the aforementioned XPR technology to achieve an 8K image — the first projector, as far as I’m aware, to do so. The DLP chip has a quoted 5000 lumens as its upper brightness limit. With TI’s co-operation, Vivitek ramps that up to 7500 lumens thanks to the unit’s liquid cooling, maintaining a temperature no toastier than 60 degrees. Which helps explain why the DK8500Z tips the scales at a hefty 30kg (with its lens). The liquid cooling and pump along with the radiator fins (to dissipate the heat of the closed light source) go some way to accounting for the weight.

don’t simply tar 4K with the pixel brush, there’s more to it, and it’s worth your investigation style test bench nerdery. But I’ll make a couple of observations. A 4K image with four times the HD complement of pixels (see the TI DLP Chip box item) places greater stresses and scrutiny on lenses. In fact, you might be interested to know that a single 4K pixel occupies only 5.4 microns of lens real estate as it exits the projector. So the tolerances are indeed miniscule, and a less-thanperfect lens will result in image inconsistencies. Vivitek mills its own pre-optics and sources lenses from ‘name’ Japanese suppliers. The company is confident its lenses are up to spec and I was happy with what I saw in my tests. Investing in a high quality projection screen will also be rewarded. I’ll also make an obvious observation regarding image size: with quadruple the pixel count of full HD, you can quadruple the canvas size and enjoy the same resolution. And here’s where projection, especially 4K projection, will carve out a market share, especially as large-format LED screens’ resolution and pricing improve — providing big canvases and encroaching on the projector’s traditional turf. The bigger the canvas the more you’re likely to appreciate the extra pixels. If the image is smaller, then you can make the observation that 4K’s resolution won’t be fully appreciated (the eye can’t resolve the finer detail without getting closer to that smaller image). True. But 4K is not all about extra pixels. The 10-bit colour palette and the contrast (along with

the extra pixels) combine to provide a subjectively more immersive image. In other words, don’t simply tar 4K with the pixel brush, there’s more to it, and it’s worth your investigation. ULTRA VIVID SCENE

This is a breakthrough projector. Vivitek has an undeservedly low profile in Australia and it’s cool to see it flying the Innovation Flag with the release of the DK8500Z. The chassis size, the brightness, the lens options, the mounting options, the I/O complement; they’re all hitting a sweetspot for a commercial install projector. Will it be immediately spec’ed into a thousand lecture theatres, no, of course not. Being cuttingedge 4K, this is a relatively expensive 7500-lumen installation projector; it’s a specialist projector. And in that regard the KD8500Z will introduce Vivitek to a small but impatient coterie of end users and integrators who have a pressing need for just such a projector. I’ve no doubt these projects will be well served by the DK8500Z. 

MORE INFO PRICE: $29,999 Lens from: $1499 CONTACT: Synergy Audio Visual (03) 9459 7474 www.synergyaudio.com SPECS: Brightness: 7500 lumens Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1 Weight: 28kg Light Source: laser phosphor Warranty: 5 Year projector / 3 years or 10,000h on the light source 8 optional lenses: from 0.377:1 to 5.31-8.26:1 throw ratio range

062

REVIEW

Dante AVIO Network Adapters

Text:/ Christopher Holder

his is an interesting move from Audinate. It’d be a little like Intel marketing its own mini PC. Ah, hang on. But the point remains, Audinate’s core business is selling Dante chips. And has done a remarkably solid job of it. Dante is easily the world’s preferred means of getting digital audio from A to B via an IP network. As far as I can tell, this is Audinate’s first foray into making a Dante-based product. And, prima facie, AVIO looks like powerful disincentive to other partner companies to make similar products… after all, how could they be price competitive when Audinate manufactures the chips? As a punter, I’m not so concerned. Bring it on. AVIO is a potential life saver.

AES67 INTEROPERABILITY Audinate has been adding AES67 support to its chipsets, and in a product like AVIO, this kind of compatibility is especially powerful. (AES67 is a technical standard for audio over IP and audio over ethernet interoperability.) It means the AVIO family

has the ability to send audio streams to other nonDante products that use the AES67 standard (like Ravenna and QLAN). Clearly, it’s the QLAN/Q-SYS compatibility that’s of most interest to the commercial AV community and is a significant AVIO drawcard.

WHAT IS AVIO?

What is AVIO? It’s a range of converter ‘dongles’ that allow equipment that doesn’t talk Dante to join a Dante network. All your AVIO device needs is a squirt of PoE and it shows up on your Dante network. The most instantly, got-to-have-that, members of the AVIO family are the Analogue Input and Output adapters. Each is available in one- or twochannel versions. Practically what these sons of guns can do is lasso a legacy device, like a favourite analogue console or a keyboard instrument, directly into your Dante network. Got a boutique compressor or EQ you simply can’t do without? Then you can use an AVIO Analog Input and Output dongle to access their old-school goodness. Or, you might be working in an equipment room and want to monitor audio from your Dante network. Easy, take an AVIO Analog Output adapter, plug it into a PoE network port and plug the other end into a powered monitor. Or, you might want to feed a portable powered PA to cater

to an overflow space. The possibilities are endless. You can probably instantly think of half a dozen ways AVIO Analog will save you time and hassle. The only question I had: how soon will a minijack version of AVIO Analog be available? ANY OL’ PC

The Dante AVIO AES3/EBU Adapter has stereo input and output breakout cables, to easily accommodate gear using that digital standard, or indeed entire parallel setups or studios based on AES/EBU. Finally, the Dante AVIO USB Adapter is perfect for dropping any ol’ PC onto a Dante network without any additional software (such as Dante Virtual Soundcard). AV techs will love this. You can now easily create an audio droppoint for laptops in conference settings — no need to reconfigure your Dante network for different computers. Got a punter who hands you a phone

for music playback? If you can’t (or don’t want to) accommodate it on the mixing console, then no problems, just plug the AVIO USB into a phone camera adapter-style dongle and you’re good to inject music into the network. These Dante AVIO network adapters will immediately be standard issue in every AV tech’s gig bag, along with a multimeter, XLR sex changers, etc. The price is keen enough to get one of each. You just never know when AVIO will save your skin. 

MORE INFO Price: $216 Corsair Solutions: (03) 9005 9861 or www.corsairsolutions.com.au

ASIA PACIFIC

Follow AV Asia Pacific Magazine • Latest/Exclusive AV Jobs

• Industry News • Comment

Linkedin_AV-Half-H.indd 1

1/8/18 4:58 pm

064

NEWS

Industry Update AV CALENDAR Integrate Sydney August 22-24, 2018 www.integrate-expo.com

ISE’S MEDITERRANEAN MOVE

ntegrated Systems Events, the producers of the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition, has announced that its 2021 edition will be held at Gran Via, part of the Fira de Barcelonaexhibition complex in Spain on 2-5 February. The new venue will become the permanent location for the world’s largest AV and systems integration show. The decision to relocate the ISE exhibition comes after 18 months of research into the viability of remaining at the RAI Amsterdam. With annual growth in ISE exhibitors and attendees approaching 10%, and the international AV market forecast to grow by 5% per annum through to 2021, it was concluded that ISE was outgrowing its popular Amsterdam location. ISE 2018 attracted 80,923 attendees, of which 22,000 were visiting the show for the first time while 1,296 exhibitors filled 53,000 net sqm of floor space in 15 halls. ISE 2019 is expected to increase on these record breaking figures. Mike Blackman, Managing Director Integrated Systems Events, commented: “The RAI and Amsterdam have provided a fantastic location, been great partners and contributed to the success of the show. But, demand from exhibitors, and the continued increase in the numbers of attendees, showed us that limited floor space was in danger of putting a brake on the show’s development. In spite of all our best efforts this was not an issue we felt could be solved by staying at the RAI Amsterdam. “We conducted extensive exhibitor and attendee research and visited many major exhibition centres in Europe before making this important decision. By announcing our move to one of Europe’s largest and most prestigious convention complexes, we can now continue to focus on creating a unique experience for everyone and confidently plan for long-term development. At the same time, we will ensure that the remaining two editions of ISE at the RAI Amsterdam are the best in its illustrious history and a fitting way to bring our 14-year relationship with the venue and city to a close.” The Fira de Barcelona is one of Europe’s most prestigious convention and conference locations. The complex has two exhibition venues and hosts 140 international trade shows each year, featuring over

30,000 exhibitors and attracting over two million attendees. In total it has over 400,000sqm of floor space and 14 halls. Gran Via is one of Europe’s largest and most modern exhibition venues. It blends outstanding architecture with exceptional functionality across eight halls and 200,000sqm of exhibition floor space. It also offers unparalleled visitor flow and state-of-the art services and logistics. It is conveniently placed for access to the nearby international airport and public transport. ISE’s co-owners AVIXA and CEDIA are keen to highlight the positive benefits of the decision to relocate. David Labuskes, AVIXA CEO, commented: “Our thinking in coming to this decision has been driven by our desire to serve and deliver value for our members, attendees and exhibitors at ISE. We can better achieve these objectives in a venue that can evolve with us and continue to reflect the market we work in. The continued success of ISE and the growth anticipated in the AV business meant that we knew this decision would need to be taken before too long. I’m delighted that we were able make that decision now so as to control events and to ensure that a smooth transition is possible.” Tabatha O’Connor, CEDIA Global President and CEO, commented: “Not only is the new venue a state of the art home for our show but the city of Barcelona is one of Europe’s most vibrant and exciting. It’s the perfect choice for an exhibition and growing industry that engenders creativity and commerce.” Fira is one of the Europe’s leading trade fair organisations and is closely linked to the Barcelona brand, a city with over a century of trade fair tradition. Its annual economic contribution to the city of Barcelona and its surroundings is estimated at over €2,600 million. Fira is a consortium comprising the Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Generalitat and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which combines public ownership with autonomous company management. Both the ISE 2019 and 2020 editions will take place at the RAI Amsterdam and are forecast to be the largest and most successful in the show’s 16-year history. AVIXA: avixa.org/awardsoceania18.

InfoComm China Chengdu 5 to 7 September 2018 InfoComm India 18 to 20 September 2018

Network Everything

Legacy gear can now enjoy the benefits of networked audio FEATURES • 6 new adapters • Plug & play operation • Built for the road

AVIO AES3

AVIO Analog Input

• Sample rates up to 96kHz (48kHz for USB) • Excellent dynamic range, SNR and THD performance • Configurable gain/attenuation (analogue I/O models only) • Asynchronous Sample Rate Conversion (AES3 model only) • Dante audio-over-IP and AES67 RTP transport formats

AVIO Analog Output

AVIO USB

• Power over Ethernet (PoE) support • Dante Domain Manager ready

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

066

COMMENT

Termination Taking a Screener: Live sport, Many screens Text:/ Graeme Hague

few months ago a famous Australian golfer called Peter Thomson moved on to the Great Links in the Sky. He’ll be loving it — no sand bunkers, holes the size of buckets, and nobody complaining when you ‘accidentally’ kick your ball out from behind a tree. Among Thomson’s many claims to fame was winning the British Open five times between 1954 and 1965, for which (in 1954) he was awarded the princely sum of £750 — about 20,000 in today’s pounds, shillings and pence — and a claret jug. That’s the Scots for you. There was a retro photograph of Pete on the news after his passing. There he was, in dignified monochrome, wearing corduroy slacks, a cardigan (obviously knitted by his mum), and some comfy leather shoes. He’s seen smacking the ball down the fairway, and using a 3-wood club that’s — for goodness sake — made of wood. How bizarre is that? BROUGHT TO YOU BY

There was another odd thing about that old-school photo and it took me a minute to realise what it was. After a moment’s consideration I realised what was missing. Thommo wasn’t wearing a skerrick of sponsored, logoed equipment — ‘Ping Golf Bag 7 Iron Resorts International’. No caps, gloves or shoes emblazoned with squiggly lines, even his golf bag was unadorned. In the background there were... trees and the like. No hoardings, no banners strung between crooked metal stakes. It was all rather civilised. I couldn’t help but make a comparison with the modern game — the difference is Hibernian chalk and cheese. Today’s professional golfers are walking billboards for every company that ever manufactured so much as a wooden tee, and in the background every square inch of potential advertising real estate is festooned with signs, banners and flags.

However, conspicuous by their absence are on-course big-screen displays or AV equipment replaying the shots in ultra slow-motion 4K resolution. After a stroke — good, bad or indifferent — there’s simply the crowd reaction and the caravan moves on. Perhaps the ‘ancient game’ is happy to hold onto some of its ancient ways. As far as I can ascertain, audiences who attend important golfing events are expected to actually watch the game — the real thing — often in weather (especially in Scotland, as we saw at the British Open this year) only Vikings and Scott of the Antarctic have willingly endured. Bizarre behaviour, even more so when you consider an open fire and two fingers of Laphroig are only minutes away for those sane enough to pull the pin. BLINK & YOU’LL MISS IT

I’ve been tricked twice before by this odd concept of attending sporting events and being required to witness the real game in real time. Once was back in the Dark Ages with Australia playing a one-day game against the Windies at the WACA. Seriously, how the hell are you supposed to watch cricket live without replay screens? You can’t see anything. It just happens, and you have to guess what happens by the reactions of the players. That was my first lesson in finding an in-venue bar and letting Tony Greig and Bill Lawry fill me while I stayed refreshed. The second occasion was a few years back at the MCG to see an AFL Grand Final. My team didn’t have what it took to participate that day, but I wanted to experience the occasion and bought two standing room-only tickets (for my partner and I) from a shifty-eyed bloke wearing a trench coat. We spent the first half staring at a concrete pillar, and at the ‘main break’ were heading for the nearest pub when my niece phoned to say she had two spare seats in the top level of the three-tier

stand. So we went up there and watched 36 tiny black dots chase an invisible football. The only reason we endured the remaining game time was because my legs were locked with cramp from the bloody steps. I should have drunk more fluids — meaning beer. THE EXPERIENCE

So I’m the first to applaud the technical design of Perth’s new Optus Stadium and its 1000-plus AV displays that allow you to watch the game without having to suffer sunburn, windburn, frostbite or Collingwood supporters. Punters can buy a ticket, go to the game, and enjoy their plastic cups of mid-strength beer and box of mid-heat chips in proper, 21st century comfort — out of the elements and always within spitting distance (sorry, bad metaphor) of a good-sized telly to keep track of the game and abuse the umpires. Optus Stadium will also host cricket matches, and with the installed AV system there’s every chance the punter will be able to see what happens on the pitch — from the choice lip-read words in slips, to the hypnotic counter-rotating spin of the googly, and the bottle top and lip balm work on the Kookaburra. And, of course, with close-ups of the players and their sponsored pants, shirts, socks, boxers and sunglasses, and the dizzying amount of LED digital signage, we’re being constantly, reliably informed of what everyone needs to buy should we be somehow inspired to attempt sport ourselves — a silly idea, but you never know. Vale Peter Thomson. Amazing how you hit the golf ball in vaguely the right direction, given your home-spun, non-sponsored, non-titanium, noncarbon fibre equipment! But you did. There are plenty of fans who wish they could relive those famous victories from 20 different angles in super slow-mo on a dozen different screens. 

Laser Projectors

Visit us at Stand E22

Designed for Exceptional Performance Epson L Series large venue laser projectors take image quality to new levels with game-changing laser light sources, WUXGA resolution and 4K enhancement technology. Create powerful images with outstanding reliability and minimal maintenance that are ideal for staging and rental applications. Features include: • Up to 25,000 lumens and WUXGA resolution for bright, colourful, brilliant images • 20,000 hours of virtually maintenance-free operation for continuous and reliable use • Versatile connectivity including HDBaseT, HDMI, SDI and DVI-D • Easy integration with Crestron ®, AMX® and Extron compatibility • Full suite of lens options for virtually any staging and rental application For more information visit www.epson.com.au/LaserProjectors

The math is simple: elevate the tenantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; business, they will elevate yours. LG Commercial Displays will help you find new ways to support your business.

OLED Wallpaper 55EG5CD

LG OLED, another amazing display of innovation Explore the full range of Commerical Display Solutions at LG.com.au or contact your LG distributor.