AV issue 26

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06

Editorial Chewing Through the Bytes In the world of modern AV we’ve grown to assume that some resources come at little or no cost.

Once system memory was considered so precious that we would spend days doing insane things like writing self-modifying code and hand-coding loops in hexadecimal to avoid any assembler overhead, just to squeeze the whole application into the 8kB that came with the controller. When data screamed across the phone network from one shoe-box sized modem to another at 2400bps nobody redrew an entire screen, just the few bytes that had changed recently. When storage media meant floppy disks that held an astonishing 128kB, nobody kept older versions of documents or embellished their work with cute pictures.

Thankfully those days are far behind us, with bandwidth, storage space and processing cycles now so cheap under most circumstances that they are effectively free. The desktop icons for most contemporary spreadsheets are orders of magnitude larger than the entire 27kB executable file for the original VisiCalc program, which still runs (very, very fast) on today’s Intel/AMD CPUs and is still quite a serviceable spreadsheet.

It’s common to hear IT people use the expressions “bandwidth is free” and “MIPs are free” (Millions of Instructions Per Second

– a measure of the processing speed of a main processor/CPU), this is hardly a statement of fact but more a reflection of our attitude that their cost is an insignificant part of the way we now operate.

The relative abundance of bandwidth, processor power and storage space have led to a scourge on our industry (and most others), the multi-megabyte email. I just adore sitting in a café with only one bar of signal 3G strength waiting while uncompressed TIFF files of the company logo, a background texture pattern and a signature in a highlydecorative font are downloading, only to find the email also includes copies of every email we’ve ever exchanged, a list of all of the company’s branch offices throughout the world (including links to maps and lists of trading hours), the completely-unenforceable 200-word company disclaimer, and finally, the 40-character URL of the data file I actually needed.

Okay, I kinda understand the idea behind a bit of corporate branding or even product promotion as part of communication with clients, but there seems to be no control over how much network bandwidth, disk archive space and mail system processing time this harmless little pursuit is now consuming.

The peak of this insanity though is the use of

multi-megabyte decorations and signatures on internal emails between adjacent desks to say that a client called while they away from their desk and would they call them back please.

A few days ago I noticed that after a cleanout earlier in the week, I had 87 new copies of each of the two graphic images attached to our company emails. These ones aren’t too big because our graphic design department had optimised the file sizes, but some of these were attached to one word internal emails.

In an industry that’s substantially more ‘bandwidth aware’ than most, we have no excuse for doing things like sending out 1.7MB uncompressed TIFF files of our company logo accompanying media announcements that we’re a clever technology company who sends data reliably across very low bandwidth channels.  Andy Ciddor, Editor If you would like a copy of VisiCalc to play with as a journey down memory lane, just drop Andy a line and he’ll send it to you as an email attachment. No doubt it’ll be smaller than the corporate signature block on your email.

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Crew Robert is a composer in the film and TV industries and a freelance journalist fascinated by all things technical in the audiovisual world. His music can be heard accompanying every FoxSports and Channel Nine commercial promoting the ARU Wallabies’ matches in 2012, and his articles can also be found in FineMusic and AudioTechnology magazines. In 2010 Robert co-founded a post-production company called Aurigami, which has produced music and sound design for television commercials, documentaries, feature films and video games.

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

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

Editor: Andy Ciddor (andy@av.net.au) Publication Director: Stewart Woodhill (stewart@av.net.au) Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@av.net.au) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@av.net.au) Art Director: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Graphic Design: Leigh Ericksen (leigh@alchemedia.com.au)

Graeme Hague worked for the last 20 years in regional theatre venues as an audio, lighting and AV technician.

Graeme is a regular contributor to AudioTechnology magazine and was the principal writer for the new Guerrilla Guide to Recording and Production (www. guerrillaguide.com.au). He owns a Maglite, a Leatherman and a wardrobe of only black clothing which proves he is overwhelmingly qualified to write on any technical subject.

Production Editor: Ailsa Brackley du Bois (ailsa@alchemedia.com.au) News Editor: Graeme Hague (news@av.net.au) Accounts: Jen Temm (jen@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@av.net.au)

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2012 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title AV is a registered Trademark.

Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 8/8/12

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

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

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Issue 26 REGULARS

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AViQ’s OCEANIA LAUNCH AV speaks to InfoComm’s AViQ boss, John Fuchs, about the past, present and future of this powerful pro AV business tool.

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USING AViQ Getting the most out of the pro AV industry’s most powerful online business tool.

16

INFOCOMM 2012 WRAP Andy Ciddor runs the rule over over what’s trending at this year’s show in Vegas.

18

INFOCOMM 2012 NEWS Some of the new products releases that caught our eye at this year’s show.

20

INFOCOMM ASSOCATION NEWS News and important dates for the Oceanis region.

48

TERMINATION The 15-minute rule.

50 FEATURES

40

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OLYMPIC COMMS Hundreds of engineering staff talk; world’s biggest sports carnival functions.

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HALL YOU COULD WISH FOR Hamer Hall’s $136m refurb has made for a happy technical department.

32

ADD TO CART Attention shoppers: Metcash’s supermarket distribution centre has smart building control.

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MCEC REVISITED How the original vision for MCEC has survived three years of operation.

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TUTORIALS EQUIPMENT RACK ESSENTIALS We revisit the topic of rack design by going back to basics.

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014

NEWS

Where it All Began Text:/ Andy Ciddor

Those of you who know me and have worked with me will know that I’m just a tiny wee bit of a sceptic: always ready to question the real value of a product, idea, work practice, sales claim, design or the numbers on a spec sheet (see it isn’t just you – I’m like that with everybody). You can imagine the depth of that scepticism when, out of the blue, InfoComm offered AV’s readers free access to a website named InfoComm iQ that listed all the audiovisual products available from a vast number of international manufacturers.

What’s more they had the temerity to tell us that the database behind the website was constantly being updated, with hundreds of new products added every month.

Having unsuccessfully attempted to create a much smaller version of this concept for ALIA, the lighting association, I knew that such a claim was preposterous. Building the database was the easy part, especially if you have a passion for highly-normalised data structures. The impossible part is getting the data from the manufacturers, doubly so if the data has to be in some standard format like the English language or if quantities like weight or length have to be numbers.

And even if you could get all that data once (we never got that far on the ALIA project), the idea of getting regular updates from manufacturers is just a fantasy.

Visitors to the AV website during the last four years may have stumbled across a section labelled ‘Product News’ which is our feed of the amazing InfoComm iQ project.

It’s a damned good idea and immensely useful – until you need to find out where to get a product, and discover that the database only covers resellers and distributors in North America.

A couple of years ago, when we discussed this fairly substantial drawback with John Fuchs, InfoComm’s Senior Vice President responsible for iQ, he went away and thought about it and after talking with the programming team for a while, came back

with a significant suggestion: AV-iQ, a version of the system focussed on the Australian and NZ readers of AV. In fact, they liked the idea so much back at the InfoComm iQ secret headquarters (located under an extinct volcano – it’s where they plan World Domination), that they’re now building a swag of regionally-focussed versions of iQ that provide information on the locallyavailable products and the local resellers.

InfoComm and Alchemedia (the company that publishes this magazine) have been out on the road talking to local importers, manufacturers, distributors and resellers, getting them to become a part of AV-iQ and thus provide the data to add to the existing international and North American material to give us a truly local version of the information and it’s this set of really useful research tools that’s about to be launched at Integrate 2012.

The mystery remains as to how the iQ team was able to develop and populate such a huge database system and how they manage to keep getting the momentum running on product updates and additions. The story goes back about 40 years to an AV integrator named John Fuchs, who needed a better printed catalogue for his business. Here’s the story in his words: HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

John Fuchs: “When I started my integration company in 1972 I felt a need to have a product catalogue that represented the products my company was bringing to the marketplace, as did many other manufacturers and integrator dealers.

“It was common for a dealer/integrator to have exclusive representation of some lines, so there was high value in investing in marketing those products into your marketplace.

Manufacturers each had their own product catalogue but to go into a broadcaster or major corporate account and hand them a bundle of 40 product catalogues from that many manufacturers wasn’t well received.

“Many of us invested in producing an annual product catalogue of a couple of hundred pages and we would talk about projects that we’d done, and effectively it was a marketing tool we handed out. But the cost kept going up and up and it wasn’t uncommon to spend as much as 50 dollars per catalogue.

“However, there was a company called Daniel’s Publishing which saw the opportunity to consolidate the effort. It went out and built relationships with the manufacturers and was capturing product data on a frequent basis and updating its files. It became the default solution if you wanted print catalogues.

“In 1986, together with one other person, I started Professional Systems Network Inc. (PSNI), an organisation of geographicallydispersed integrators throughout the U.S. that enabled us to take care of national accounts that required local installation and support, and I happened to have several of those kinds of customers. It worked out really well and continues successfully today.

“It was also an opportunity to consolidate the production and development of the catalogues that all members of PSNI participated in. So we went from each ordering 500 to 2000 catalogues from Daniel’s Publishing, to representing 20 dealers and buying 50,000 to 60,000 of them.

And while all of the catalogues had the same product content, we built them so that you could have 16 pages of custom content in the front of the book and of course the covers could be custom as well. It worked very well and we saved a lot of money.

“A couple of years later I was elected to the InfoComm board of directors, and because of my experience with the PSNI group and working with Daniel’s Publishing, I was assigned the task of negotiating the printing of InfoComm’s own industry catalogue at Daniel’s Printing, and at that point I represented about 80% of their business, so I became pretty involved in how they did it.

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“We created a central resource where all of the products from everybody could be seen and evaluated.”

INTELLIGENT iQ

“Then in the late ’90s along comes the web, and I just felt the world of the printed catalogue was limited. I looked at the web and thought we’re going to be able to make a difference. And about the same time I was fortunate enough to have a buyer come along for my integration company, so my partner and I sold it, and with the money, among other things we bought Daniel’s Publishing. We converted them from a Quark printbased organisation to an electronic, HTML-based environment and hired people who built the software that we know today as the IQ catalogue environment.

“But before we completed the development work, the 2001 dot com crash came and there we were, with a wonderful concept, a nearly-completed functional, but not-totally-completed business model, and frankly millions of dollars invested, but no access to the necessary funds to finish it. As I had retired from the InfoComm board in at the end of 2000, I simply went back to the board members and showed them what we had and what the potential was, and we were able to negotiate a small deal, nowhere near the recovery of the investment, but we were able to negotiate the sale of the operations of the company to InfoComm.

They were nice enough to employ me to continue to operate it, and after a year and a half or so it became my business unit to operate, and that’s the way it’s gone for the last 10 years.

“We created a central resource where all of the products from everybody could be seen and evaluated.

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016

NEWS

GETTING TO KNOW AV-IQ AV-iQ can make a huge difference to the way you work. Even before AV-iQ goes live in time for Integrate, its forebear, InfoComm IQ, has for years been an immensely powerful and constantly-updated online tool for locating categorised information about an ever-growing range of audiovisual products available in North America. Simply because the IQ database is so big and so widely used, it has acquired sufficient momentum that no company dealing in that region is prepared to be left behind in maintaining its product information or announcing new products as they enter the market. IQ provides not just a comprehensive list of available products, but monthly listings of every new product added to the database.

IT’S A LOCAL THING AV-iQ builds on this and takes it several steps further by providing an Australian and New Zealand perspective on this huge pool of data. Not only does AV-iQ limit the data available to those products actually suitable for local conditions and available from local distributors and resellers, it also provides you with information on who and where those resellers are and how to contact them. If you really do need to look at products available for other regions, it’s a simple matter to switch on listings for the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa or Asia.

That local data is not yet complete. Obtaining the local information is a big task that will progress as local companies realise the value of AV-iQ and either take up their free listing or go for the paid listing that provides AV-iQ users with more comprehensive details. If you think your business or products should be listed, please get in touch with the AV-iQ team.

If you find that information from your usual suppliers isn’t listed yet, then you can give them a prod to get on with providing the info to AV-iQ so that it’s all available to you from the one place. If they import products, there’s every chance that all the necessary data is already in the IQ database and simply needs tagging as being available here in Oceania (which in the case of AV-iQ means Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and some of the Pacific islands).

A localised database listing local products and resellers.

COMPARING YOUR EQUIPMENT Aside from the capacity to find data on a huge amount of audiovisual equipment AV-iQ allows you to perform side-by-side comparisons of up to four products from anywhere in the database, suddenly simplifying the problem of selecting the most appropriate product for the task. This is the killer-capability of AV-iQ. The product comparison tool is about to vastly increase in power with the introduction of a new and significantly more powerful method for storing specifications. As the only suitable standard available, the IQ team have adopted the standardised equipment data format specified for Building Information Modelling (BIM). Capable of holding very detailed and complex data about all manner of devices, the BIM-format product information will empower the AV-iQ comparison tool to provide much more accurate appleswith-apples comparisons, allowing you to use the tool as a sharp and accurate scalpel, rather than a chainsaw.

BIM format data will also greatly enhance AV-iQ’s search capability, allowing the use of data filters to limit searches within a category to products with specific properties such as focal length, weight, or power consumption.

As the existing data format for specs is at best haphazard, the addition of the refined search involves a major rewrite of the search engine and is currently under development and slated for release this year.

GETTING YOUR OWN IQ By registering for My iQ (it’s free) you can save the results of your searches and data comparisons and design your own email news services that will keep you informed about product updates in particular categories or from specific manufacturers or news on topics that interest you.

The AV-iQ toolset can facilitate a surprisingly wide range of AV tasks whether it’s designing a system, preparing a quote, finding a supplier, documenting a job, keeping up to date on the gear you’ve got or making decisions about the gear you want to own. The hype on the front cover of this magazine may actually be true: AV-iQ probably can change everything about the way we work. – Andy Ciddor 

The product comparison tool

018

NEWS

InfoComm 2012 Wrap up Text:/ Andy Ciddor

The past comes back to haunt us (left). Just when you thought it was safe to step behind the RP screen, projectors are travelling in packs again. Image courtesy projectiondesign

Despite the stagnation in the US economy and the decision by former mega-exhibitor Extron Electronics not to exhibit this year, InfoComm 2012 in Las Vegas was about the same size as the 2011 show. At 34,268 show visitors, attendance was up by 4% from 2011, while enrolments in the wide variety of InfoComm University courses were up by an impressive 15.6% to 6940.

An imposing 933 stands covered over 4.5 hectare (487,000sqft) of floor space across two of the Las Vegas Convention Center halls, each slightly larger than the playing field of the MCG. Although I was only able to stop in and visit about 5% of those stands during the three days of the show, I did spend the first two hours of the show doing a brisk, non-stop walk down every aisle, trying to get a feel for the lay of the land.

Perhaps because of the world economic slowdown and some resulting diversion of funds from blue-sky research to product development, I wasn’t struck by any entirely new, attention-grabbing technology at this show. Maybe it’s just not a year of big-headline AV technology breakthroughs. However, I was impressed to see some ideas and technologies that made their debut as proof-of-concept prototypes over the last few years, becoming good, solid, useful products.

AS SEEN THROUGH A PRYSM The standout example would be Prysm, which two years ago made a big, noisy splash demonstrating its Laser Phosphor Display cubes without making it too clear exactly what technology was inside, why it was so cool and clever, or what on earth you could do with them if you could actually buy some. By the 2011 show, Prysm was simply showing LPD cubes for highresolution in-store displays, without even mentioning the underlying technology. By InfoComm 2012 there were real, well-finished high-end display products that

are now in demonstration centres on most continents, except this one. The decision appears to have been made to market this as a premium, high-resolution product for displaying high-value products. I suspect this means that LPD panels have turned out to be expensive to manufacture.

Prysm’s use of laser-excited phosphors to produce images comes just a couple of years after we abandoned an earlier technology that used beams of electrons (known in previous centuries as cathode rays) to excite phosphors for a similar purpose.

And it’s beginning to look like the next few years of developments in materials technologies may herald a new age of phosphors.

WHAT DO YOU USE A PHOSPHOR? For some years now, semi-conductor manufacturers have been allegedly producing ‘white’ light from blue LEDs by partially coating them with a phosphor that emits yellow light, then trying to kid us that Blue + Yellow = White (yeah, but at a CRI in the very low 80s). The next step down the road to producing better, broader-spectrum light sources is already being taken by light source manufacturers whose customers simply can’t pretend that ‘white’ LEDs will do the job. At InfoComm we saw the HS luminaires for film, video and photographic applications that have appeared from PRG in the last few months. These use LEDs to excite custom blends of Intematix phosphors to produce reasonably-believable colour rendering (CRI of 95). Of course Kino Flo has been using UVexcited phosphors in its fluorescent tubes (but not its LED fixtures) to do this for the last decade and a half. Watch this space (and our soon to be published stable mate – Light+Design) for more about of the New Phosphor Age.

A WARPED (& BLENDED) PERSPECTIVE A couple of InfoComm shows ago there were demonstrations of two or three variants on the process of camera-based computer vision systems capable of automated blending and warping of multiple projector images. By the 2012 show there were real, working point-and-shoot versions of the technology available, both as value-added features built into image processing boxes (such as Calibre’s HQView530) or as stand-alone specialist products like Scalable Display Manager from Scalable Display Technologies.

The most impressive example of this technology I saw at InfoComm was a 32-megapixel image displayed on a 3.5m wide rear-projection display on the Projectiondesign stand. The image was built from a matrix of 16 of Projectiondesign’s F22 projectors, each accompanied by a WB1920 multi-image processor and linked to a Scalable Display Manager computer and a single DSLR camera. While the image quality was brilliant and it was a lot of fun to watch the software run through the process of realigning the 16 projectors, the most impressive part was having a peek behind the screen at the shelving system supporting the projectors. That was until I started to have flashbacknightmares about endless arrays of SAV slide projectors clacking their way back to slide No.1 on a reset to top-of-show.

HD-BASE-T PICKING UP PACE The most dramatic example of rapid product maturation and acceptance at InfoComm has been the sweeping uptake of HDBaseT, and the even more rapid uptake of its younger sibling HDBaseT-lite. Just two years ago, during the run-up to InfoComm2010 Valens Semiconductor, which had developed the HDBaseT technology, signed an agreement with LG Electronics,

Samsung Electronics and Sony Pictures Entertainment to push the technology as an industry standard. What’s impressive about this technology is that it pushes fullbandwidth, uncompressed HD video, audio, control signals (such as EDID and RS232), 100BaseT Ethernet and 100VA of power up a 100m length of Cat5e/6 UTP cable. The Valens transmitter and receiver chipset pack all of those signals into the theoretical 10.2Gbps that can be wrung from four intimately-entwined twisted pairs. Last January, to the immediate interest of the industry, Valens released a lower spec (consumer electronics) version that delivers almost all of the above (minus the Ethernet) on 70m runs of Cat5e/6.

In the two years since its release, virtually the entire consumer electronics and AV industries have realised that this is an effective and low-cost way of doing all kinds of things, from home entertainment systems to digital signage, classroom and meeting room systems, exhibitions and museums. They’re signing on to the HDBaseT alliance in their droves and producing products ranging from matrix switchers to display panels and projectors. There were product announcements, product demos and product prototypes all over InfoComm 2012.

The hordes of AV enthusiast kids from Rave magazine and website, who were running round InfoComm in packs of up to 10 – all dressed in bright green T-shirts and getting very excited – awarded HDBaseT ‘Best New Technology for 2012 at InfoComm’. I suppose they must have walked past the HDBaseT alliance stand for the previous two years in their rush to cover this immense show. Now I’m terrified I missed something really important in the nearly 900 stands I didn’t have time to stop at and study in detail. – Andy Ciddor 

020

NEWS

BIAMP AUDIAVOIP

MORE INSTANT WHITEBOARD

CRESTRON GETS CAUGHT

Biamp Systems has released AudiaVOIP. Designed for AV integrators who need a dedicated, self-contained Voice over IP (VoIP) teleconferencing solution, AudiaVOIP is the latest innovation from Biamp and its newest Audia product. With plug-and-play simplicity, AudiaVOIP includes all of the necessary features and functionality needed for VoIP systems. AudiaVOIP relies on Sona for its acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) algorithm to handle the stringent audio demands of VoIP conferencing systems and provide precise, intelligible audio. AudiaVOIP also provides a range of I/O options via IP-2, OP-2e, VoIP, and PA-2 amplifier cards, and ships with a DAP file loaded to allow quick and easy configurations. A pre-designed Biamp daVinci control file is also available for use with the AudiaVOIP. AudiaVOIP also includes AudiaFLEX, AudiaFUSION and AudiaSOLO. Each Audia unit can provide the power of an entire rack of processors with the ability to be customized for nearly any size project.

Audia products use CobraNet technology and are available with a range of options for expansion (such as AudiaEXPI and AudiaEXPO) and control.

Audio Products Group (02) 95780137 or www.audioproducts.com.au

From Elite Screens the Insta-DE2 is a wall covering film material that converts entire walls into a professional Dry-Erase Whiteboard/Projection Screen surface for use with standard or short throw projectors. It is made with GreenGuard-certified VersaWhite whiteboardprojection screen, which is coated with a long lasting anti-scratch surface for daily dry erase whiteboard usage. The Insta-DE 2 has a special anti-reflection diffusion layer to provide a wide viewing angle for projection applications and it combines the need of both chalkboard and drop down projection screen into one simple low-cost solution. The anti-reflection diffusion surface eliminates glare and hot-spot while using a projector and the screens can be ordered in 2130mm (4:3), 2460mm (16:10) and 2670mm (16:9) configurations. Larger sizes are available for complete wall covering solutions. All screens include an adhesive black velveteen border to enhance contrast and overall appearance, and come with a twoyear premium replacement warranty or three-year premium replacement warranty for all government, education, military and religious purchases – you’d think it’d be the other way around, but...

Tasman Australia: 1800 649 586 or www.tasman-australia.com

Crestron has released CaptureLiveHD, a simple, high-definition lecture capture and live streaming solution. It provides presenters with a one-button solution to schedule, record and publish online and view presentations. CaptureLiveHD is designed as a complete, yet practical capture solution that’s easy for the entire faculty to use. It allows wide-scale deployment across any sized campus or corporate environment, so students and staff can view live streaming or recorded presentations in highdefinition from wherever and whenever they choose, including from popular mobile devices or a laptop.

The complete CaptureLiveHD solution simplifies the process of scheduling, recording and publishing lectures. Schedule a session using applications such as Outlook or, if working manually, at the beginning of the session the instructor or presenter can start recording by pressing the Record button on the Capture HD device or touch screen in the room.

When the instructor stops recording at the end of the session, the file uploads automatically to a network server, allowing distribution of the content to various devices and network speeds.

Crestron: (02) 9737 8203 or www.crestron.com.au

NEWS IN BRIEF:

Big news for the Australian AV sector: British AV super-distributor, Midwich, has bought a controlling interest in Australian AV distributor, IDT. The Midwich Group is a $300m leviathan, with seven companies, and 300 employees worldwide. IDT will keep its name and Gerry Wilkins will remain as managing director. Clearly, IDT will have a war chest to embark on an aggressive expansion strategy.

Gerry Wilkins: “We may have joined a global organisation but our growth – our recruitment and investment – will come from, and be in, the Australian AV industry.”

IDT: 1300 666 099 or sales@idt.com.au

D.O.Tec Andiamo.XT is an AES/ MADI AD/DA converter for 32 audio channels with superior sound quality. Based on the Andiamo, a higher level of integration and flexibility is achieved by adding digital inputs and outputs (AES3). 32 analogue plus 32 digital I/Os in 2U make efficient use of rackspace.

Andiamo.XT SRC adds sample rate converters for each of the 32 AES inputs. The SRCs may be activated in groups of eight channels to handle asynchronous signals.

Professional Audio Technology: (02) 9476 1272 or www.p-a-t.com.au

Sennheiser has unveiled its first mic that employs Audio Video Bridging (AVB) technology.

Before you reach for your credit card, Sennheiser’s AVB mic was developed as part of a study. At the moment, it is still a prototype.

Nevetheless, as the successful outcome of a product study, it proves for Sennheiser that high audio quality can be transmitted into a digital Ethernet network without problems. The mic also demonstrates that AVB technology can function as a network technology for the future.

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

Following a five year hiatus the CEDIA Expo will once again return to the Gold Coast in 2013, widely acknowledged by exhibitors and attendees alike as the most popular and effective location (surprise, surprise…). A dedicated Expo website, floor plans, the prospectus and sponsorship opportunities for the 10–12 July, 2013 Expo are being prepared for imminent release in coming weeks. Exhibitors wishing to make preliminary enquiry should register their interest with Kelly Willett, CEDIA’s Expo Manager at their earliest opportunity.

CEDIA: www.cediaexpo.com.au

Epson Discproducer PP-100, PP-100AP and PP-50 are now available to Mac users with the release of its new Mac OS X-compatible Discproducer software, Total Disc Maker Version 1.01. The software which was developed by Epson, responds to a growing demand for Mac OS X-compatible disc publishing solutions. Total Disc Maker Version 1.01 is now available for download from Epson’s website and any Discproducer PP-100, PP-100AP and PP-50 shipped from August will come with software discs included.

Epson Australia: (02) 8899 3666 or www.epson.com.au

)

BEYOND

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SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL Midas has made a move into the compact digital console market and the new Pro1 is quite a departure from Midas’ existing inventory. Even Midas admits the Pro1 breaks new ground for the company. An emphasis has been put on making the Pro1 easy to operate so audio engineers new to Midas won’t feel out of their depth. At the same time there is straightforward compatibility with existing Midas show files and operators working with earlier Midas consoles can load files directly into the Pro1 regardless of which Midas digital console it was created on. The Pro1 has 40 primary input channels including 24 XLR preamps and eight aux returns, all of which feature four-band Midas parametric EQ and insert points. The aux returns can be used as returns for the Pro1’s internal FX processors or as additional microphone channels, if needs be. The feature list goes on, too long for here.

What we can tell you is the RRP for the Pro1 will start at $13,750.

National Audio Systems 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au

Sound On A Whole New Scale™ The first truly scalable media system for digital audio networking using Audio Video Bridging (AVB) — Tesira delivers smarter system modularity, breakthrough performance and boundless expansion potential, with: •

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Tesira means unprecedented power, scalability and sound quality.

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Prepare to play on a whole new scale.

Scan the QR code or visit www.biamp.com.au to open the doors to unlimited potential in the new interactive Tesira microsite

At Integrate this year you can complete the new AMX Enova Solutions Design and Implementation classroom course, which qualifies you for the Enova Solutions Certified training certificate. In the course, you will learn everything you need to know to install and configure an Enova DVX-3150HD, DGX 16, or DGX 32. However, note this is not an ACE Expert certification. Spaces are limited so contact training@amxaustralia.com.au to book your place.

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

Hosting more than 50,000 students during the academic year, Australia’s Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Audiovisual Projects Department has installed a campuswide digital wireless solution to replace its existing analogue system. Supported by Len Lotz and Shane Palmer of Videopro, the Queensland-based technology integrator, QUT now has more than 400 educational spaces across multiple buildings channeled with Harman’s AKG DMS700 digital wireless solution.

Audio Products Group: (02) 95780137 or www.audioproducts.com.au

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.biamp.com.au

022

NEWS

1 2 3

4

6

5 1/ BARCO’S NOT-SO-BRIGHT IDEA

2/ RACK ‘EM UP, CHIEF

3/ CANVAS STRETCHES ACROSS NETWORK

We’re not convinced about this one. Barco has added three heavy-duty and high-definition three-chip DLP projectors to its rental portfolio. The HDF-W22 puts out 22,000 lumens, the HDF-W26 26,000 lumens and the HDQ-2K40 a healthy 40,000 lumens. What’s interesting is that all three projectors will be available with a unique adjustable brightness feature. The ‘lighton-demand’ technology means rental companies can tune the light output of their projector to the specific needs of their customer’s event – rental companies only ever need three projector types to generate any brightness level from 10,000 lumens right up to 40,000 lumens, minimising any rental inventory. Presumably locking out higher outputs will ensure customers don’t get more than they paid for, but with the optional GSM module, the rental company can adjust the light output remotely. Or you could just provide a small, cheaper and less powerful projector and leave the 40K beast in the warehouse where it’s not racking up unnecessary operating hours and it’s still available for the big gigs...

Barco: (03) 9646 5833 or sales.au@barco.com

Chief, which designs and builds mounts, racks and interactive solutions, is now shipping its Fusion Series Freestanding Video Wall Solutions. The new LVM mounts make it possible to construct video walls in prominent locations for temporary situations or when wall-mounting is not an option. Available in standard units of 2 x 2, 3 x 2 and 3 x 3 configurations, the new freestanding solutions can be combined with accessories to achieve video walls up to three displays high and of any length. The LVM2X2U can accommodate displays up to 65 inch (1650mm) and 56.7kg while the LVM3X3U and LVM3X2U are compatible with displays up to 55 inch (1397mm) and 45.4–56.7kg, respectively. The LVM mounts also feature ControlZone micro-height and levelling capabilities, plus plumb and lateral shift adjustments to simplify alignment. Fully integrated cable management aids in a clean installation and smooth-rolling casters allow for easy positioning.

Home Theatre Group: (07) 3276 1355 or www.htgroup.com.au

Jupiter Systems has announced its new Canvas visualisation and collaboration solution that allows users across a network to simultaneously see, share and annotate a video or desktop stream. Rather than an audience being in the same room at the same time to view a single display, Canvas allows users to share video streams and captured desktop streams over an enterprise network and every linked PC desktop becomes a display wall. At the heart of the new system is a sharable collage of visual objects. Users can annotate directly on moving video (instead of first needing to capture a still image of a screen). Canvas enables its users to draw with a mouse, finger or stylus on the video itself.

Canvas provides object-level security for all sources.

For example, if a canvas of video sources is shared with a remote user, only those sources the remote user has permission to view are displayed. System access requires user authentication using standard user name and password combinations established by the client’s IT department.

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

4/ ALL USB OVER 100 metres

5/ MULTITOUCH ADD IR PEN

6/ NEW CHRISTIE 4K NATIVE PROJECTOR

Icron Technologies Corporation, which develops USB and KVM extension technology, is claiming to have the world’s first USB 3.0 extender system with USB 1.1 and 2.0 backwards compatibility. Incorporating Icron’s patented ExtremeUSB technology, the USB 3.0 Ranger 3144 supports USB throughput up to 5Gbps and extends USB 3.0, 2.0 and 1.1 simultaneously up to 100 metres distance over fibre. The 3144 works with all major computer operating systems and does not require software drivers. Additionally, Icron has released a new USB 2.0 Ranger 2304 featuring SwitchableUSB over Network and the EL5200 HDMI + USB 2.0 Extender. This new KVM extender supports HDMI video inputs and outputs and extends USB 2.0 alongside uncompressed HD over a single Cat 5 cable.

KVM Australia: 1800 222 898 or www.kvm.com.au

MultiTouch has announced infrared (IR) pen support for its interactive multi-touch displays. The MultiTaction IR Pen software will enable users to write, draw, sketch, and brainstorm designs and words on MultiTaction Cell displays using most IR pens, and to distinguish clearly between pen and touch interactions. MultiTaction IR Pen software will be bundled as a standard feature in all new MultiTaction displays, and will be offered as a free software upgrade for all current MultiTaction displays. The software enables an unlimited number of pens to draw on a single display or an array of connected displays.

Clients can develop collaborative applications that enable more efficient and productive communication.

Lightwell: (02) 9319 0311 or www.lightwell.com.au

The new Christie D4K25 targets high-resolution markets including amusement parks, automotive designers, planetariums, and applications where native 4K resolution for precision image detail is critical. It also has the ability to use different lamp powers, extending lamp life and reducing cost of ownership, with the Christie D4K25 equipped with automated image alignment for maximising lamp output and brightness. Three sizes are available offering 10,000, 18,000 and 25,000 lumen.

Lamp life for the three are an estimated 1500, 2500 and 3500 hours respectively. It has a motorised lens mount and field-alignable digital micromirror devices to ensure that setup is fast, and maintenance time and costs are reduced. Four 3G HD-SDI inputs come standard, enabling native high quality content to be displayed without any need for optional extras or custom units.

VR Solutions: (07) 3844 9514 or www.vrs.com.au

Wireless Intercom that works for

YOU!

Following on from over twenty years of success with BTR-200, BTR-700 and BTR-800, the new RTS BTR-240 digital multi-channel wireless intercom system offers extremely clear, reliable, and secure full-duplex communication.

Scan the QR code with your smartphone for more information on the RTS BTR-240.

Operating at a 2.4GHz frequency, the BTR-240 system uses the widely adopted IEEE 802.11 technology and is approved for license-free use in countries across the globe.

The BTR-240 also incorporates unique ClearScan TM technology, allowing users to select the optimal RF channel for communcation at the touch of a button.

Bosch Communications Systems 25 Huntingwood Drive HUNTINGWOOD NSW 2148 Ph: (02) 9683 4752 Fax: (02) 9890 5928 Email: boschcomms@au.bosch.com Web: www.boschcommunications.com.au

/

024

NEWS

EXTRON CONTROL: A WORK OF ART The Art Gallery of NSW attracts over a million visitors annually, many to take in the gallery’s world-class modern art collection. In 2008 John Kaldor, a devoted international benefactor and patron of contemporary art in Australia, donated his $35m collection, resulting in the development of 1500sqm of new gallery space.

And here’s where AV takes interest, given the Kaldor collection relies on audiovisual equipment to either show the art in its best light or actually within the piece itself.

John Harman joined the Art Gallery of NSW in 2008 and was quickly brought up to speed by Laurence Hall, AV Services Manager, with what the new gallery would require. Central to the solution was the design and integration of the control room where the multimedia is based with audio and video that can be extensively patched. John: “Essentially the system we put in has the ability to route audio, video or both pretty much anywhere in the entire gallery.”

The effective management of the space came down to knowing how to control a wide range of audiovisual products, without the traditional time restraints and dependency on programming. During the initial design phase John consulted with Ivan Smith from Data Scene, an innovative, specialist control systems solution provider who suggested Extron’s IPLink range for its flexibility and ease of configuration use. “It’s able to take a range of different display and playback devices and control them,” says Ivan. “For example at one point

we had six different types of plasmas, all different vintages, all part of the artworks, all with different control codes.” With an extensive library of device drivers on the website, Extron is able to affectively cater for the various changes in each new model.

Contemporary artworks are supported by a patched network of audio, video and control signals from an extensive rack area designed by John. Five Extron IPLink control processors reside within the space, simultaneously integrating 24 audio and 24 video channels, completely configured by the Art Gallery. Utilising Extron Global Viewer software the Kaldor Gallery is able to be scheduled for operation and shutdown, monitoring and control of 25 projectors (Ethernet), 25 flat panel displays (RS-232), 14 DVD players (IR and RS-232), and 24 channels of audio. “I like the internal web server,” states Ivan. “It makes support very simple, especially for the Art Gallery as they can put everything online and browse to each device’’.

The Art Gallery of NSW public programs are instrumental to engaging a wide audience, with over 100,000 students a year participating in its popular education programs, most going through the gallery’s Centenary Theatre. With control system gremlins appearing within this environment, upgrading the code-based, proprietary system was going to be very costly. Ivan again came to the rescue with an IPLinkbased control system. With the addition of two Extron

TouchLink TLP 700MV, seven-inch colour touchpanels and the IPCP 505 Control Processor, the Art Gallery of NSW has been able to realise full control potential of the Centenary Theatre facilities. Dynalite lighting control, Christie video projection, slide projectors, screen drapes and masking, two DVD players, a set-top box, three computer inputs and six channels of audio via an Allen Heath T-80 mixer are all managed through TouchLink. “The nice thing about Extron Control is the macros are very simple,” says Ivan. “And compared to programmed systems, the result is the same but the complexity in configuring is far less, so it’s faster and easier to troubleshoot”.

The integration of Extron Control products into the new Kaldor Family Gallery and the Centenary Theatre has afforded the Art Gallery of NSW complete configurable control of its facilities. Reconfiguring audio visual Contemporary works and product replacement has become effortless through the use of Extron software and download of drivers. “The flexibility of control made it limitless,” says John. “Its versatility to control is the thing I like most about it”.

“You know if these things are successful or not if you see them there 10 years later,” explains Ivan. “I have got a feeling that this is going to be there for a long time”.  RGB Integration: 1800 398766 or www.rgbintegration.com.au

Marshall Electronics - Monitors & Cameras Marshall Quad View 17” Rack Mount Full Resolution Monitor with IMD • 3 different layouts to choose • RS-422/485 connectivity • 1920 x 1200 display • Blue gun for colour adjustment • DVI and HD-SDI on each input!

Cost Effective HD-SDI & DVI Monitoring Fully Featured 2RU Quad 4.3” Broadcast LCD Rack Mount Monitor • Real-Time Waveform & Colour Vectorscope with 16 Audio Meters • On-screen Time code, assignable GPI inputs, Markers and Clipping • HD-SDI / SDI Inputs and Outputs with Optional input modules

Fully Featured 18.5” Orchid Desktop/ Rack Mount Production Monitor • Waveform & Colour Vectorscope • 16 Channel Audio Level Meters • 3G-SDI, DVI and Analog inputs • Time Code, ClipGuide and Delay • In-built speakers and much more..

Master Confidence Monitor for Control Rooms Triple 2RU Triple 5”LCD Rack Mount Monitor with Modular I/O • Status, False Colour Filter, Markers, Freeze, Colour Temperature • User-definable function buttons, RGB Gain/Bias and much more...

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Australian Distributors for Marshall Monitors and many other brands...

QUINTO COMMUNICATIONS PTY LTD SYDNEY (02) 9894 4244 MELBOURNE (03) 9558 9377 AUCKLAND (09) 486 1204 Email: sales@quinto.com.au Website: quinto.com.au

W

1 The 24.4.2 provides ten aux mixes; the 16.4.2 give you six. 2 Requires a laptop with wireless, running Virtual StudioLive, and connected to the StudioLive via FireWire. ©2011 PreSonus Audio Electronics, all rights reserved. StudioLive is a trademark of PreSonus Audio Electronics. Studio One is a trademark of PreSonus Software, Ltd. iPad is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. Freecall 1800 441 440

ith our new free iPad app, “front-of-house” can be anywhere in a venue! Up to ten musicians can control their own monitor mixes1 from the stage.

Introducing StudioLive Remote, our free iPad app that works with any PreSonus digital mixer2.

It gives you hands-on control of channel levels, mutes, panning, EQ and more for multiple channels at once. Click for a closeup Fat Channel view. Tweak

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Combine StudioLive Remote with Capture (2-click multitrack recording program), VSL plus Studio One Artist DAW, and you have the most versatile, affordable live mixing and recording solution ever.

Get the whole story on our web site. And then get a StudioLive.

028

FEATURE

In The Loop: Olympic Comms The PA People provided comms for many of the Olympics sporting venues. Here's how they did it.

Text:/ Graeme Hague

When the International Olympic Committee declared “Syd-en-nee” as the successful bidder for the 2000 Games it was to have on-going consequences for our industry beyond what many people even imagined at the time. The Sydney games was an unparalleled success leading to them being declared “the best Olympic Games ever” – probably something the IOC President at the time, Juan Antonio, has rued ever since, because subsequent games’ hosts now wait with bated breath to hear those immortal words said again about their efforts – suck it in fellas, it ain’t ever going to happen. For the record, Juan Antonio wasn’t being so original. Six years earlier the 1994 Lillehammer winter games were declared “the best Olympic Winter Games ever”. Maybe Juan printed out the wrong speech and had to wing his way through the mistake?

NEXT STOP EARLS COURT

The grand spectacle of the Sydney Olympics owed a lot to the technical innovation and prowess of the Australian production companies involved – and it has been a hard act to follow. It’s led to an interesting trend. As the ensuing Olympiads in Athens and Beijing were held, not to mention the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi (has all the gear come back yet?), instead of being an almost exclusive opportunity for local production companies to strut their stuff, the Games’ organisers have still encouraged overseas providers to submit tenders. The reality they recognise is there can be no substitute for knowledge and expertise when it comes to the sheer scale of production we see at events like these now–and Australian companies got that in spades-full in 2000. When you’re staging an Olympic-like event we have seriously

gotten our act together. Despite these accolades, you might think the logistics of sending large, trained crews and a warehouse full of gear halfway across the world would make it uneconomical or, at least, the tenders couldn’t be competitive against the locals in the first place. Again, having the experience is telling when it comes to keeping large productions cost-effective. Shipping containers of equipment over distances becomes a relatively small component of the overall – admittedly large – budget.

So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that several Australian production companies are heavily involved in the London Olympics all thanks, in part, to the legacy of the 2000 Games. One of them is Sydney-based The PA People, which is playing a big role in providing communications throughout all the sports venues for the duration of the competition including the following Paralympics. It should be pointed out that this is completely separate from the opening and closing ceremonies.

That’s because the ceremonies are true entertainment productions that have little to do with the sporting side of things – it’s two (or three, really) entirely different production environments. Think about it – Sir Paul McCartney would throw a crap javelin… unless maybe he was aiming for his second wife.

NICK OF TIME

We all witnessed that it was apparently going to be a nail-biting finish to get London and all the sporting venues ready in time – it’s an obligatory news headline leading into every Olympics. It’s fair to say that a lot of requirements for communications were decided later, rather than sooner. Normally, establishing final communication points is pretty much

the last thing done after other technical aspects are satisfied anyway. While the basic design on many venues was clear earlier on with the likes of commentary boxes, scoreboards and OB vans inkedin on the plans, other considerations such as extra cameras locations and audio positions were all subject – as you’d expect – to the whims of media producers and directors arriving and demanding that their two cent’s worth (or should that be tuppence?) be heard and acted upon. The comms for each venue centred around a Clear-Com Eclipse matrix, either a Pico or a Median system. Clear-Com V- Stations were typically provided for the Sports Producer, Announcers, Audio Operator, Vision Mixer and Scoreboard Operator while the Timing, Results and Graphics operators were accommodated using beltpack units.

TONS OF TALKBACK

That’s a lot of talkback cans – and a lot of people trying to get a word in over everyone else.

It’s where Clear-Com’s HelixNet digital partyline had a significant impact on the systems’ designs. The ability to run four discrete channels over a single microphone cable allowed the venues to require less physical cabling – the ever-present spaghetti-like mess of microphone cables – yet still provide dedicated channels to the appropriate comms positions. Even so, with a total of 36 sports arenas to cater for with each one requiring multiple comms outlets for all the operators mentioned above, the numbers mount up. The PA People supplied nearly 400 HelixNet Beltpacks hooked up to 48 master stations. Well over 500 Clear-Com CC-300 one-sided headsets were on hand along with the ubiquitous Beyer DT109 cans and

NETWORKED PROGRAMMABLE DSP SYSTEMS Th e S o u n dw e b L o n d o n 1 0 0 S e r i e s r e p r e s e n ts a p r e mi u m, o p en - a rch i t e c t u r e s o l u ti o n i n th e f o r m o f a h ig h l y f l e x i b l e , c o s t-e f f e c tive a n d s c a l a b l e p a ck a g e .

The PA People’s Inventory ClearCom Eclipse Pico Matrix x 22 ClearCom Eclipse Median Matrix x 5, each 48 analog ports and 32 IP ports ClearCom V-Station 12 key lever x 160 ClearCom V-Station 24 key lever x 80 ClearCom HelixNet Master Station x 48 ClearCom HelixNet Beltpac x 375 RFT Eclipse Duplex Base Radio x 36 Tait T7100 Duplex Base radio x 15 Motorola Simplex Base radio x 75 Base radio multi-coupling systems x 22 Base antenna x 50 Motorola Hand Held Radio x 340 ClearCom CC-300 headset x 530 Beyer DT109 Headset x 32 Beyer DT790 headset x 56 Peltor Headset x 80

• • • • •

Fixed I/O configuration Open-Architecture Processing AEC processing channels for 101 and 102 conferencing applications BLU-Link Digital Audio Bus Same powerful software

Configuration PC x 28 24 port managed network switch x 36 2kVa UPS x 28 12ru rack x 60 Mic cables x 1000 Cat5 Cables x 480 25pair Cat5 cable x 50 CONTACT The PA People: (02) 8755 8700 or www.papeople.com.au Jands (Clear-Com): (02) 9582 0909 or www.jands.com.au Motorola: www.motorolasolutions.com Hills SVL (Beyer): (02) 9647 1411 or www.hillssvl.com.au

100 SERIES ...it’s what you need.

Register now to receive 2 days of BSS Training for FREE Go to www.jands.com.au to book your place at the next session Distributed by

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This course has been approved for 8 InfoComm RU’s

030

DT790s. A thousand microphone cables were put in the packer and half as many Cat-5 cables.

Also deployed were 340 Motorola hand-held radios and 130 interfaced radio bases. Many of the comms requirements dealt with operators who couldn’t use a cable connection and a wireless solution had to be provided.

Interestingly, the fact that The PA People are based in Australia and the equipment was temporarily imported into the UK for the Olympics created a solution for what might otherwise have been an insurmountable problem.

London’s congested radio spectrum wasn’t going to have enough room to allow for the influx of literally thousands of extra transmitting devices.

OFCOM is the regulatory body for television and radio communications in the UK and fortunately OFCOM saw the answer right away. Much of the equipment brought in from overseas for the games already used operating frequencies that avoided the issue of the crowding in existing spectrum. It was simply a matter of rubber-stamping these frequencies until the Olympics were over.

FEATURE

PERSONAL BEST?

Among the glamour of the television coverage with its zillion camera angles, the flashing lights, the HD digital scoreboards, the huge PA systems belting out the national anthems (mostly everybody’s except ours) it’s normal to overlook the guys in black tee-shirts sneaking around and making sure everything works. Even more ignored is the talkback and comms systems that keeps everyone in the loop – literally – and how that without it working flawlessly things can go pear-shaped very quickly.

It’s been a quiet, yet mammoth undertaking and while our “overweight, underpowered, over-twittered, social media-addicted” athletes are were a little disappointing, we can certainly put our production companies, including The PA People, up on the winner’s podium. Cue the national anthem – the one about being “girt by sea”, not the sheep-stealing thing. 

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CONTACTS Alliance: Arts Victoria, Major Projects Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, Baulderstone Schuler Shook (Theatre Planners): 0438 382 408 or jhultquist@schulershook.com Marshall Day (Acousticians): (03) 9416 1855 or melbourne@marshallday.com Kirkegaard Associates (Acousticians): www.kirkegaardassociates.com Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM – Architects): (03) 8613 1888 or www.a-r-m.com.au Jands (Staging): (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au Meyer Sound (PA): www.meyersound.com.au Group Technologies (Digico): (03) 9354 9133 or sales@grouptechnologies.com.au KLM Group: (03) 9320 3444 or www.klmgroup.com.au Riedel Communications: (02) 9699 5579 or www.riedel.net ULA (Robe): 1300 852 476 or www.ulagroup.com

FEATURE

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FEATURE

Hall You Could Wish For $136m is a lot to throw at a refurb, but Hamer Hall’s technical department isn’t complaining.

Text: Christopher Holder

The number of women’s loos have doubled. It might sound like an irrelevant stat for a magazine such as AV, but it speaks volumes.

When Hamer Hall was designed back in the ’70s not much had fundamentally changed in the design of concert halls for 200+ years. They were big auditoria designed for big symphony orchestras to stretch their legs. But as the women’s loos factoid suggests, the designs were becoming increasingly paternalistic and antiquated.

Since Hamer Hall’s opening in 1982, ‘concert halls’ have become multipurpose and multi-functional.

Concert halls need more than an announcer’s tannoy, they need fullblown concert PA systems and a room that can handle high SPL. Hamer Hall for some years now has been doing its darnedest to move with the times. In fact, prior to it closing down for renovations, there were actually more amplified gigs than there were Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concerts. Stand-up comedy, Circus Oz, musical theatre, rock and pop concerts… Hamer Hall was catering to performers and an audience its designers simply couldn’t have foreseen in the ’70s.

The $136m overhaul is clearly significant – financially, aesthetically, and practically. What’s more it’s a triumph for the technical team. Led by Head of Production, Frank Ward, the tech team’s initial ‘blue sky’ brainstorming has been rewarded with a world-leading performing arts centre.

But first, the acoustics.

THE ACOUSTIC PROBLEM

The Hamer Hall upgrade recognised the fact the auditorium itself needed urgent attention. The sound of the hall was seriously lacking. What could only be described as an acoustics dream team was engaged. Marshall Day and Kirkegaard Associates tag-teamed on the acoustics, while Schuler Shook undertook the theatre consultancy duties.

Identifying the problems wasn’t difficult. The MSO complained they couldn’t hear each other or the room/audience – there was a serious disconnect. This unfortunate acoustic quirk of the room meant the stalls area nearest the stage (for the people in the expensive seats) was less than immersive. In fact, committed MSO patrons would often plumb for the cheap $25 tickets in the dress circle because it provided a better sonic experience.

Superficially, since the refurb, the hall doesn’t look transformed.

The differences may appear subtle but they are profound. Acute angles in the stage surrounds have been softened. The upper balcony ‘arms’ and walls near the stage have been removed, allowing a more pleasing reverberation to develop in the room. The floor area of the stalls has been narrowed by three metres and in so doing has decreased the overhang from the circle above – which has made the room more acoustically ‘intimate’, providing for a greater sense of envelopment. Good envelopment brings patrons psycho-acoustically closer to the orchestra and comes

as a result of hearing diverse sources of reflections – not just the wall next to you.

Lastly, as a couple of acoustic glacé cherries, a flocked paint has been applied to the rear walls to reduce some of the HF zing for people nearest the boundaries, and deployable acoustic drapes are available to dampen down the room further if required.

How’s it sound? As of going to press, Hamer Hall had only been open a week and the MSO hadn’t actually had it’s first public hitout.

Saying that, in tests, the MSO and Australian Chamber Orchestra are much, much happier. Mostly, thanks to an amazing innovation – a variable acoustical reflector.

REFLECTOR REFLECTIONS

Any acoustical performance on stage is going to need a reflector overhead of some sort in order to take the sound and bounce it back to the musicians so they can hear themselves playing on stage and also to reflect it out into the audience. Building such a reflector permanently into the architecture isn’t such a big deal, but when you’ve got a rock band with thousands of watts of foldback going full throttle, these reflectors become a total sonic liability.

Previously, Hamer Hall had the traditional ‘80s acoustic dishes suspended above the stage but they provided patchy assistance at best — brass wasn’t getting much of the violas but plenty of the violin, by way of (a fictional) example [nobody gets much of the violas – Ed].

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FEATURE

Tbe acoustic reflector: each panel is 3m wide when deployed and 800mm when folded up and out of the way.

(Inset) The rear of a panel shows some of the engineering that went into building the system.

What’s more, the area above the stage was a mess. The acoustic dishes weren’t as ugly as they could have been thanks to the even-uglier PA rigging and lighting bars concealing them from full view.

So the trick for Hamer Hall was to design an elegant system that could be flown in and out, and, what’s more, not interfere with the operation of fly bars and winches.

As far as the team was concerned, such a system didn’t currently exist anywhere, so it needed designing from scratch. Bob Shook, principal of US-headquartered theatre consultants, Schuler Shook, picks up the story: “We wanted to ensure the hall had a new degree of technical sophistication in order to keep to a schedule: the Melbourne Symphony on Wednesday night, Tina Arena on Thursday night and Circus Oz on Friday night. And the people that do that want the minimum of la-

bour and time spent going from one setup to another.

“Schuler Shook introduced the idea of the ‘Technical Zone’ over the stage. It’s an insertion into the auditorium. Its primary purpose is to contain a sophisticated degree of mechanical and automated rigging.

It allows stage lighting, stage scenery and stage effects to be raised above the stage with a minimum of person-power. And it also supports the new acoustical reflector.”

Ah, yes, the pièce de résistance, the acoustical reflector…

Bob Shook: “The new acoustical reflector is the result of a collaboration between the acousticians, Kirkegaard Associates and Marshall Day, Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) as architects and Schuler Shook as theatre consultants. An acoustical reflector has to fulfil so many different roles: It has to first and foremost work for the orchestra, and for other different

types of acoustic music performed in Hamer Hall. It also has to look like it belongs in the space. That was ARM’s task. Schuler Shook’s role was to design something that could be there when necessary and not be there when it wasn’t, and to be there in different configurations depending on the type of event.

“The reflector itself weighs about 12 tonnes and can be reset into a number of different configurations [i.e. it’s not just either up or down; it can be re-shaped] and minimised when it’s not needed for non-symphonic events – all in less than a minute.”

The design was handed to Jands which engineered the five panels, and according to all sources did so ‘magnificently’. It fulfils quite a formidable brief: the assembly of each of the five panels tilts on four axes; the panels house the orchestra lighting; the panels contain penetrations for the microphone reelers and

pin spots to drop through; there are slots for the flybars and some lighting rig to fly under the reflectors; each panel is three metres wide but is only 0.8 metres when folded away; one of the panels has a middle section that lifts independently to allow passage for the centre speaker cluster…

Jands built the frames, with giant crank shafts and ASM steel-band hoists doing the articulating. It engaged a boat builder to manufacture the exterior – a fibreglass resin and aluminium-honeycomb panel which met the acoustic requirements, with a bronze skin providing the aesthetic. We’ve put a short video of the panels in action on our website. Have a look and I’m sure you’ll agree that these panels are as beautiful as they are ingenious.

DREAM PA

Filling the acoustically-transformed auditorium with amplified sound is

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Some of the new stage lighting inventory. (Right) One of the four Meyer Sound Melodie delay hangs.

Hamer Hall was designed to accommodate a resident orchestra. Bumping in and out huge productions wasn’t on the radar 30 years ago. But in more recent years the load-in facilities have proven to be a real bottle neck.

Under the direction of Schuler Shook’s Jim Hultquist, the dock has now doubled in size and, thankfully, doesn’t share space with the food and beverage services. The back of house hydraulic scissor lift is now a capacious 8m x 3m, with egress to a spacious room — more than enough real estate for a mass choir or AC/DC’s backline.

A healthy 3m-wide door now opens to the staging area – enough to back a car through, or indeed (more likely) huge sleds of equipment onto stage.

Overhead, the flying system has been completely overhauled. The previous setup was a labyrinthine nightmare. And with the new Tech Zone being instituted (with its 70 tonnes of steel, including five tonnes of bolts!) it allowed all the new ASM stage winches to be housed above the choir sides in acoustically treated rooms. A Waagner Biro automation system has been implemented and also controls the two stage lifts which retain their old motors. The new flying system is capable of picking up 16 tonnes of staging equipment and is millimetre accurate. All this work was carried out by Jands.

a new Meyer Sound PA. It replaces the old Meyer MSL4-based system and was selected as a result of a rigorous and fiercely contested shootout.

With Meyer’s D-Mitri acting as the digital matrix backbone, 12 system inputs feed a whopping 102 outputs. From input stage, there are three Digico stage racks (two on stage and one upstairs for the flown orchestral mics) addressed by the two Digico SD7 consoles via an Optocore fibrebased network loop. The audio travels out of the Digico systems via AES digital into D-Mitri, with D-Mitri going about its business in AVB (Audio Video Bridging protocol) via a dual-redundant Cat-6A network.

Nick Carol, Head of Sound: “We have two DCM [D-Mitri Core Matrix] units. One’s a redundant unit. Then from three DCPs [D-Mitri Core Processing units] – one of them is a spare – we run AVB to all the output/input boxes and two AVB streams on different switches to get to the different nodes.”

With 102 outputs you’d think perhaps that every speaker in the house is individually addressable. Erm… not quite.

The main L/R Milo arrays (nine elements per side) are complemented by four Melodie delay

hangs (six per side with a 5600HP flown sub). A low-profile centre cluster of eight Minas takes care of conductor announcements. UPM-1P speakers are used for under-balcony fill to refresh the high-end deeper into the room. Two lines of front fill speakers are installed, depending on whether the orchestra pit is being used or not. Additional, high-powered front fill can be brought in to line the front of stage for high-SPL shows.

If seating is occupying the orchestra pit floor space, the main PA hangs can track back, downstage, by 2.5 metres to ensure those front rows don’t have sound directly overhead.

The system design allows for a ‘clean stage’ configuration – for dance events, AGMs, smaller amplified shows and the like – where two layers of recessed Mina arrays in the stage surrounds take care of infill duties. These arrays sit behind perforated panels and are all-but invisible. For acts that require a greater level of amplification and have on-stage monitoring, the technical team can bring out ground- stacks on stage – each comprises five Meyer Melodie mid/high units and two 700HP subs.

In its acoustic configuration, doors close over the ‘invisible’ in-fill arrays, ensuring the room

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FEATURE

COMMS The Hamer Hall refit includes a new Riedel digital intercom system. This system comprises an Artist 128 matrix, a Performer digital partyline system and an Acrobat digital wireless beltpack system.

The Artist matrix provides the brains for the entire communications and BOH backstage paging matrix. Critical areas, such as the stage manager’s desk, the FOH mix position and the lighting control room are all fitted with Artist panels, allowing discrete point-to-point communications alongside the traditional ‘loops’. The power of the matrix also allows stage managers to make BOH backstage pages from anywhere, including their wireless packs, in full digital quality.

Dual power supplies and redundant CPU cards means this systemcritical infrastructure is as bullet-proof as you can get.

The Performer partyline system replaces the traditional wired beltpacks found in most theatres. By using AES digital signalling, they are able to get two channels of full-range audio down a standard single one-pair audio cable with minimal noise floor. This means the overall volume of the beltpacks can be kept down, minimising fatigue on long shows. By utilising the new audio cabling throughout the venue, the technicians now only have one patchfield to manage instead of separate comms and audio patch points.

The Acrobat wireless system uses 1.9GHz DECT (cordless telephone) technology to talk to 12 wireless beltpacks to operate in full-duplex from a single base. Six distributed antennae allow technicians to roam freely around the backstage and BOH areas without dropout. Since these beltpacks are connected directly to the matrix via MADI, each beltpack acts like a ‘wireless panel’; giving the users access to discrete calls and advanced functionality. By going to the 1.9GHz digital range, Hamer Hall frees up spectrum to allow for the digital dividend without compromising their widespread 2.4GHz wi-fi networks.

The system was designed in collaboration with Riedel Australia, and was installed by the KLM Group.

gets the full benefit of those crucial first reflections from stage. Saying that, two slots remain either side of stage for Meyer’s brand new CAL steerable array to ‘poke’ through.

CAL is being used for emergency announcements and in conjunction with the Mina centre cluster when the conductor has something to say. It’s the first installation of CAL worldwide.

How’s it sound? Unfortunately, I don’t have 100,000 people following my tweets and I’m not vice regal, so AV didn’t make it to the opening night. But AV attended the third night of Philip Glass’s Qatsi trilogy (12 musicians, half of which were miked up, the other half were playing synth sources) and was duly impressed. It wasn’t a high-energy show, but the PA provided an effortlessly sweet response. It was ‘sound reinforcement’ in the true sense of the word – just enough, and delightful. Meanwhile, Nick Carol, Head of Sound, can’t wipe the smile off his face.

Nick Carol: “We had ([legendary system optimisation engineer)] Bob McCarthy in to align the PA and like us he was amazed by how

even the sound pressure levels are in this room. Front to back he couldn’t remember a more even room.”

LIGHTING

The Hamer Hall lighting department, led by Adrian Sterritt, also had its fair share of ‘firsts’.

Above the stage, the new acoustical reflector takes care of work-aday house lighting for the orchestra. The reflectors incorporate 55 tungsten source lamps for an even white wash (on State Automation sine wave dimmers). The moving rig now packs 18 x Vari-Lite VLX wash lights, 21 x Robe MMX spots, 28 x ETC D40 Lustr LED fixtures, ETC Source Four Seachangers and ChromaQ cyc floods.

Adrian Sterritt: “We would like to have gone all-LED if possible, but we couldn’t because there is no profile moving head that’s bright enough at this point. So that’s why we went with the MMX which uses an 800W fast fit globe. It also punches above its weight for the 800W, it’s full of built-in features and it is quite fast. Meanwhile, the Seachangers give us a great variety of light – full CMY mixing. It

Two Digico SD7s (for front of house and monitors) replaces the old Digico D5. Both consoles share two engines (one for redundancy’s sake). At FOH a neat rack of popular outboard items should keep most visiting engineers happy, including TC Electronic delay, a TC M3000 effects device, along with a Lexicon PCM81 and 91 for reverb. Upstairs a studio will allow performances to be recorded. A Digico SD10B will be the centrepiece, with ADAM monitoring and RME audio interfacing.

means that we can turn off the other lights, go fanless, and still have the Seachangers to change colour – which is important for orchestral nights. It’s a similar situation with the ETC Lustrs – fanless. On orchestral nights we can still go colourful without fan noise.”

Upstairs in the control booth the lighting department welcomes a brand new PRG V676 4000-channel lighting desk. For redundancy’s sake an additional Mac runs the V676 software.

Adrian Sterritt: “The V676 is streets ahead. It’s designed to do moving lights, data, and it interfaces with media servers much better. You can configure it in any way you want, and, with the touchscreens, it’s very easy to jump around quickly.”

A Virtuoso network runs the desk while an ArtNet network talks to the 384 State Automation SCR dimmers. On the end of the ArtNet network are a plethora of PathPort nodes (for turning the ArtNet into DMX).

Adrian Sterritt: “We tried to future-proof the venue by putting in so many network points. We’ve

got a fibre ring around the venue and we also have network points from the fibre to breakout, so we can get network almost anywhere in the building.”

ALL IN THE EXECUTION

In extensive, expensive and complicated renovation jobs such as this, rarely does the operator, the engineer, or the resident ensemble really get what they want. Everyone goes in with the best intentions but budgets and technical compromises more often than not blunt the scope and execution.

Occasionally we hear about good news stories, and Hamer Hall looks to be one of them. From the outset, Head of Production Frank Ward sat his team down and asked them to forget about budgets for a minute and simply dream – what would their ideal setup look like?

‘Sure, sure…’ you can sense the scepticism that must have been in the room even now. But according to Frank, 36 of the 40 points on the wish list have been realised. And in my book, I give that an ‘A’. 

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FEATURE

ADD TO CART Metcash – Australia’s biggest distributors to independent supermarkets – uses smart AV to ensure the prices are ‘down… down, down, prices are down…’

Text:/ Robert Clark

Remaining competitive as an independent business in the supermarket industry can’t be easy, especially considering it is dominated by a powerful, nationwide duopoly.

For Metcash, a distributor for many smaller retailers including Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA), it is a daily battle to out-think and out-manoeuvre the ‘Big Two’. When the company decided that a highcapacity distribution centre was needed in Sydney’s west, it was evident early on that it had to achieve high productivity and efficiency targets to keep its clients’ costs down.

The General Manager of Operations (GMO) at the new Huntingwood facility contacted Simon Alder of Alder Consulting to provide AV solutions for the 80,000sqm building (that’s six football fields), and it was clear from the outset that efficiency was a major concern. Of

the initial brief, Alder says, “although Metcash is a very big distributor and wholesaler, its stores are actually quite small. So it had to do it smarter and more efficiently than everyone else but didn’t quite know what that entailed.”

The original tender Alder produced was for traditional AV services such as video-conferencing, but after learning of Crestron’s push into what it calls Integrated Building Technology, he decided to widen the scope of his submission. He did some research and returned to Metcash with the suggestion that it combine the control foundation of an AV system with the latest in energy-saving building management systems (BMS) from Crestron. With a cost-benefit analysis revealing that a fully-integrated system could provide significant savings, Metcash enthusiastically commissioned his services. “The GMO was quite receptive to the idea

of power and energy management,” says Alder. “Metcash is on a 15-year lease, and after two or three years, once it gets its return on investment, there will be significant cost savings.

Every dollar it’s able to save on energy means less it will have to spend. It can then pass on those savings to all the independent stores.”

GIVEN THE GREENLIGHT

The technology that caught Alder’s attention was Crestron’s Greenlight system, which sits above traditional BMS services to control all facets of a building’s AV and energy usage in real-time. At the user end of the tech is the Fusion software, which brings multiple systems – such as lighting, air-conditioning and security – under the one umbrella. Alder explains: “Traditionally you might have a light switch and a thermostat and a security log, those sorts of things,

041

FEATURE

“Key to the success of the system was the simplicity of its UI and the accuracy and accessibility of the information it could provide.” on the wall, but what Fusion does is allow you to combine them into a simple user interface (UI). All the initial systems still do their own things in the background and we’re not actually modifying what they do; all we’re doing is using their capabilities by calling up the presets, or their functionality, and tying it in with the other systems.”

A key example of this uniform integration is the innovative use of the building’s advanced Mobotix security cameras. It was discovered during installation that they could be linked directly to the BMS and provide accurate movement locations of forklifts and staff. This allowed the Fusion software to adjust the lighting system in real-time, based on activity on the ground. Alder explains they were not planning this approach from the outset: “Initially we were going to control the lighting with a beam catch

– in much the same way as when you walk into a shop through the beam and a chime goes off. But then we’d just be limited to that beam, and when the shelves were getting stacked the beams would get knocked and out of alignment, so we were looking for a solution. Then we saw that the cameras were on every aisle, and could give us a detailed, per squaremetre picture for the entire length of the aisle. So that gave us considerably more control and more flexibility, with the added advantage of the cameras being up out of the way.” The camera processing can also track the direction in which workers are travelling, which allows the software to progressively raise and dim the lights as they move.

Another important factor in minimising energy usage for Metcash was managing their array of over 80 forklift charging stations. In a normal setting this could present a significant

and extended draw on power but through the Greenlight system Alder was able to link each station to the head-end control unit, giving the user the ability to restrict charging time to low-demand periods.

POWER SWITCH

Central to such accurate measurement and control of energy usage is the system’s Metering Control Unit (MCU). It has three-phase (plus neutral) voltage inputs connected to the facility’s breaker panel, which allows it to monitor both voltage and current. This information can be provided in real-time or logged power usage data to the Fusion software.

With this information, the UI displays energy usage through charts and graphs that illustrate the building’s historical and real-time energy consumption. The MCU also has the ability to monitor consumption

042

TUTORIAL

The energy management system lights up the warehouse bays as the forklifts enter them.

by area and/or any of the over 250 devices in the building via individual branch monitors, which link to it through current transformer interfaces. The MCU is also Ethernet-based and communicates to the Fusion UI through an automation control system linked via the LAN. Key to the success of the system was the simplicity of its UI and the accuracy and accessibility of the information it could provide.

Alder believes it compares very favourably with previous systems: “Before, if you had an airconditioning system, for example, going at full blast for three months, you could see at the end of that period it used 20,000kWh, but it wasn’t necessarily clear what that meant in real terms.

In these systems, however, you can see its usage in real time and associate it with a dollar value, and if you want, you can have on the screen ‘at 23° it’s going to cost you, say, $250/hr; jump down to 22° and it’s costing you $220/hr’. This control system will allow you to make all of these complex calculations in real time and give you the relevant information for the user. And even people who aren’t technically oriented can have a look at the data, and say ‘okay, well I don’t need to use this so we can turn it off, and we can save $15,000 a year’.”

COMPETITIVE EDGE

Crestron ultimately presented an award to Simon Alder for his innovative use of its technology, but he believes it was just the right time and the right place for the technology to flourish. “It shows what can be done when you have a client who is really willing to do what they can to get ahead,” he says. “And what happens when you’ve got the support of a company who knows the product is new but is willing to really put in and assist in getting it off the ground. I think the more we start exploring the boundaries, the better the results, not only for our industry but for all the other industries.”

For Metcash, the benefit of a BMS that not only gives it powerful and accurate control over its facility but actively saves it money is that of a competitive edge in its industry. As Alder explains: “I think it shows that if we manage to use a great piece of technology to save hundreds of thousands of dollars for a wholesaler, then maybe down the line, that means the average family is saving a little bit of money when they go to the grocery store. So it’s quite nice to think about it that way.”

Fusion provides real-time monitoring of energy usage across the entire warehouse complex.

CONTACTS Metcash: (02) 9751 8200 or www.metcash.com Alder Consulting: (03) 9221 6185 or www.alderconsulting.com.au Crestron: (02) 9647 1411 or www.crestron.com.au

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044

FEATURE

MCEC Revisited How the original vision for MCEC has survived three years of operation.

Text:/ Andy Ciddor

The Ten Tenors perform in the made over Grand Banquet Room using the new lighting rig, new Meyer PA and new the Christie projectors on the new 6m screens.

When the Melbourne Exhibition Centre’s vast new convention centre was opened in 2009 to create the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, AV went along to have a look at what all the fuss was about. To save you trying to find who’s borrowed your much-thumbed copy of AV Issue 7, here’s a brief summary of what we found at the time: DOWN MEMORY LANE

In addition to the aggressively low-energy, lowwaste approach taken in the building’s design and construction, we were impressed with the decision to equip all 30 of the meeting and conference spaces at a level that would meet the requirements for better than 80% of hires, without moving much more than a hand-held wireless microphone or moving the control point from its long room (portrait) position to its wide room (landscape) operating position.

We marvelled at how the lower level of the 5553-seat plenary hall could be transformed from flat floor to tiered seating in just 10 minutes at the press of a couple of touchscreen buttons and divided into three independent halls by soundisolating operable walls at the press of a few more. The question in many people’s minds back then, was whether this impressive system would be needed for fast turnarounds often enough to justify the very substantial investment.

The backend systems that support the MCEC’s 30 meeting rooms really made an impression. The nested-star architecture, with a central control room monitoring three satellite control and

equipment rooms, that in turn each feed a cluster of 10 or so meeting rooms, looked like a workable balance between minimised cable runs, operator proximity to the spaces, and centralised control.

Although we didn’t have room to write much about it at the time, in the banquet room we were shown a very spacious venue, fitted with a great deal of cable infrastructure and lots of rigging points, but not very much in the way of gear to hang from them.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Fast forward through three very hectic years of operations with growing occupancy rates and high demands on the centre’s facilities, and let’s see what’s happening in the real, working version of the MCEC. For the first two years of operation (during the warranty period for the building) AV maintenance and repairs were carried out by Rutledge Engineering, which had installed and commissioned the technology for the consortium that built MCEC. Since then, technical support, operations, equipment maintenance and repair have been handled completely in-house by MCEC. Many of the simpler meetings and presentations are now run entirely by hirers using the installed equipment, secure in the knowledge that all in-use venues are monitored by MCEC support staff in either a local control room or master control, with help just a touchscreen button away. Technical Services Manager, Paul Rumble is proud of the fact that many clients never actually get to push that button, because the

support staff have already spotted the problem and either intervened remotely or despatched a tech to the room.

Found in every single meeting room, the custom-designed MCEC lecterns, equipped with everything from both AMX and computer touchscreens, to a wine-chiller and a local computer with its full-size keyboard secreted in a draw, have been a great success. The only drawback to the system has been that the huge range of options and controls on the AMX touch panel have intimidated, and sometimes bewildered, less tech-savvy presenters. To make tech support simpler and reduce the fear for untrained users, a new top-level system screen contains three big, friendly buttons for ‘Computer’ ‘DVD’ and ‘Help’ (though I didn’t see the words Don’t Panic). All existing functionality remains on the next layer of screens.

The Gala Venue lift system that transforms the lower level of the plenary hall from tiered seating to a flat floor continues to be operated

by Brookfield Multiplex, a member of the consortium of bodies that built and own MCEC. By now, there’s no question the seating system enables events to be packed pretty tightly into the plenary hall and its three subdivided alter egos. In fact, the plenary complex is getting enough work that the lighting equipment originally intended to be shared with the banquet hall now permanently lives in the plenary hall area.

PROJECTING AN IMPRESSIVE IMAGE

There’s also been a Barco HDX14 projector

Multi-Channel Digital Amplifiers DA250D (DA250DH) DA250F (DA250FH) DA550F (DA500FH)

TOA Digital Amplifier technology redefines the very concept of amplifiers.

ImImage courtesy MCEC

added to the fleet as a backup for the plenary halls’ existing FLMHD18 and FLMHD14 projectors. And on the matter of projectors: after three years of hard work, the meeting room fleet of HD projectors is scheduled to be replaced this year, so the hunt is now on to find machines that are green, reliable, bright, well-networked and cost-effective to own.

The banquet room has already had all four of its projectors replaced with Christie Roadster HD10Ks to enable good quality projection at the higher ambient light levels required for many functions, especially those with live stage performances.

As an added benefit, larger (6m) projection screens are now available as an upgrade for banquet hall functions.

Large national and international events at MCEC are increasingly requiring high-bandwidth video linkups for media coverage, web streaming and live connections to other venues. To enable uncompressed high-definition video to be produced or displayed in any of the meeting rooms, a venuewide network of HD-SDI cabling and routing has now been installed alongside the existing fibre network by the house technical and engineering staff. It’s ever-so-slightly ironic that a venue which proudly started from day one with an alldigital HD digital video network has upgraded its capabilities by adding 75Ω coax in its newfound digital role.

While death-by-PowerPoint and simple DVD replay still form the basis for many of the presentations hosted at MCEC, an increasing number are using multiple sources that include media servers, network feeds, blended multi-source images, cameras, computer generated effects and interactive material.

These presentations require more than can be achieved with the basic source-selection and overlay capabilities of the standard lectern and PC-based system found in every room, so MCEC staff are constantly putting together custom systems for each booking. As the time taken to assemble, configure and test every system has to be billed to the client,

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046

FEATURE

The first of the fleet of 12 video modules being built in-house to cater for more complex video presentations

MCEC have been looking for a way to offer these facilities at an affordable and competitive price.

Enter the Video Desk.

After some months of testing various prototype configurations on presentations across the spectrum, the operations and engineering teams have settled on a design for a standard mobile video presentation system built into a desk that can be wheeled into any space in MCEC to run a multi-source and/or multiscreen presentation.

Each desk has three 24-inch monitors, two computers with swish video cards, a Barco Screen Pro II video processor, a vision mixer with digital effects and a PTZ remote controller for the cameras located in every room. Soon there will be a dozen of them rolling around the venue.

A MORE SUMPTUOUS BANQUET ROOM

On my original visit to MCEC I got a strong impression that the 1500-seat Grand Banquet Room which can be divided into two independent spaces was treated in the fitout as a bit of a technical Cinderella. The kitchens were superbly equipped, but it seemed that nobody was sure how much work the conjoined banquet spaces would attract, so only basic infrastructure was installed, to allow for a range of future possibilities.

I also noticed the kind of big slap echo that most people (except someone on the original design team) would expect from a pair of verylarge, totally-rectangular boxes with acousticallyreflective walls. This is hardly a major selling point for rooms that will feature background music, live bands, stage performances, and endless slurred speeches at weddings, bar

mitzvahs and awards nights – not to mention the odd conference plenary session.

The first step in the solution was to change the acoustics of the rooms to defeat the standing waves between the highly-reflective parallel walls. The ‘back’ wall of the space was modified in shape from being flat to having a series of vertical angled-panels (like a louvred door on its side) to break up the front-to-back reflections.

Meanwhile, the ‘side’ walls and the operable wall that divides the space were treated with panels of an acoustically-diffusing material (it looks like carpet) to substantially reduce the reflections from these surfaces without totally deadening the space. The result is a large venue that no longer sounds like one.

With the rooms less live, it was then possible to use a larger PA to fill the space with the bigger, bolder sound needed by so many clients. The existing Nexo GEO boxes were combined and redeployed as a live performance PA and a brand new Meyer UltraSeries system was bought for the banquet room. The PA is flown from some of the new chain hosts that have been hung on rigging points in high-use locations.

AND ON A LIGHTER NOTE

The new, dedicated banquet room lighting rig is also flown on chain hoists hung from the original constellation of ceiling rigging points.

While those hanging points may have proved very useful for the current applications of the space, the extensive DMX lighting control network has not proved to be so valuable. With the sparse distribution of luminaires over such a large space, the traditional DMX daisy-chain

Image courtesy MCEC

topology is much more cumbersome than a DMX-over-Ethernet star arrangement. DMX distribution is being handled by a network of Pathport Ethernet-to-DMX nodes connected via Pathport’s Ethernet protocol, running over the venue’s widely available IP network.

WI-FI FOR THE MULTITUDES

In this second decade of the 21st century, no conference, meeting, working breakfast, trade function or school excursion can take place without plentiful internet connectivity. Never more so than when you’re hosting a conference for thousands of physicists or a symposium for nuclear magnetic resonance diagnosticians who all want to check their emails and tweet about the quality of their dessert at every opportunity.

MCEC is the first venue in the country to offer blanket-coverage of free 512kbps wi-fi. The system is substantially more sophisticated and more capable than what you get from stringing a few commodity wireless access points around the foyer. During a recent physical science conference where evidence for the existence of the Higgs Boson was revealed via an international video link, the system handled a peak of around 5000 simultaneous wi-fi sessions, although its capacity excedes 15,000.

It’s always interesting to visit a new facility a few years after it has opened and see which of the attempts to predict the needs of the future occupants were successful. It will be even more fun to watch the process soon to take place at Darling Harbour in Sydney as the SCEC is demolished and rebuilt. 

048

TUTORIAL

InfoComm News

News from the Oceania Region.

INTEGRATE IN ASSOCIATION WITH INFOCOMM INTERNATIONAL InfoComm International is happy to again be associated with Integrate Expo 2012, held 21-23 August at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. InfoComm’s participation in the event is highlighted by its InfoComm University education program.

On Super Tuesday, InfoComm University presents a series of courses on net-centric AV, following up on the theme of last year’s Integrate keynote address by InfoComm Executive Director and CEO Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., titled ‘The Dawning of the Net-Centric Era’. The courses are intended for all AV professionals and AV technology managers.

In addition, the InfoComm University program includes two informative half-day conferences aimed at end-user groups: AV in Government and The Future of Business Communications. And for the AV professional, Integrate will feature a variety of InfoComm University Seminars, covering everything from managed services to wireless spectrum issues. All InfoComm University sessions at Integrate will be eligible for CTS renewal units (RUs).

InfoComm would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Educational Advisory Group in helping us develop a program that is relevant to what’s happening in the industry today and tomorrow. InfoComm would also like to acknowledge its volunteer instructors, without whom the program would not be possible, for their dedication and commitment to the AV industry. Come and hear their insights.

Finally, InfoComm would like to recognise its sponsors, which provide InfoComm University with the latest equipment, thereby enabling a high standard of quality delivering presentations.

KEYNOTE, NETWORKING FUNCTION & MORE Keynote: The 2012 keynote address will feature an analysis of InfoComm’s 2012 Market Definition and Strategy Study, presented by InfoComm Director of International Education and Member Services Scott Wills, CTS-D, CTS-I. Scott will present highlights from the Global and Asia Pacific Sections of the report.

Networking Function: After the keynote presentation on Day One, InfoComm will host its Member Networking Function in the InfoComm University Seminar Room, on the mezzanine level above the Hall 5 cafe. The stairs up to the room are adjacent to the InfoComm Stand (Hall 5 G40). Members are welcome to join in for an hour of networking and light refreshments.

Member Initiative: InfoComm member ribbons and pins will be available at the InfoComm Stand (Hall 5 G40). In addition to membership recognition, InfoComm would also like to recognise its InfoComm Certified Industry Professionals.

Come by the stand and pick up your CTS, CTS-D and CTS-I ribbons any time during the show.

Booth Draw: Starting 1 January 2013, there will be many changes to InfoComm membership. To get the most out of your membership, it will be important for your company and staff records to be up to date. By coming to the InfoComm Stand and updating your company records, you will not only position yourself to take advantage of member benefits, you will also be entered into our booth draw. Prizes will be drawn every few hours.

CTS PREP COMES TO SYDNEY InfoComm University’s GEN112 CTS Prep class will be held during Integrate. The class will run from Wednesday 22 August to Friday 24 August at the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour.

This three-day class helps students prepare to take the InfoComm CTS Certification Exam. Presented by InfoComm University Staff Instructor Rod Brown, CTS-D, CTS-I, the class involves a mix of presentation and group work. Day One and Two of the class will include an extended lunch break so that students have time to visit the Integrate Expo, just a fiveminute walk away.

The course cost for InfoComm members is AUD$995+GST and AUD$1495+GST for non-members. InfoComm members will be able to apply Edubucks up to 25% of the course fee.

The CTS Prep class offers 24 RUs. The registration form is available for download from the Asia Pacific Regional Page at www.infocomm.org. For further questions, please contact Jonathan Seller, Regional Director, at jseller@infocomm.org FUTURE DATES Mark your calendar now.

InfoComm International Roundtable Meetings: • 5 September, Melbourne • 30 October, Sydney • 20 November, Canberra Wednesday Webinars: No August webinars due to Integrate Expo September 19: Running a Better Business, 1pm AEST

coming Soon Register online: www.lightdesign.net.au

049

TUTORIAL

Equipment Rack Essentials We revisit the topic of rack design by going back to basics.

This is an excerpt from the course INS201 Installation Online, an interactive course addressing advanced science and technology concepts for the AV installer. The program is designed to be easy and cost effective for selfpaced learning. The course outlines installation processes and procedures. In addition, it contains more than 40 downloadable PDFs of step-by-step installation instructions.

SELECTING A RACK

All cables eventually lead to electronic equipment, and much of the equipment is typically located in a rack. An equipment rack is the skeletal framework in which key components are arranged and interconnected.

Rack design is the process of selecting options to meet the needs of a specific installation.

Equipment is not just mounted in a rack haphazardly. Special consideration is given to how much heat a piece of equipment emits, the types of signals to/from the equipment, if the equipment has an interface component for a typical user and more. This requires substantial pre-planning and design of all system elements, rather than leaving portions of the system configuration to be ‘thrown together’ once the installers arrive at the site.

For example, when carefully planning the design of equipment racks and how system power needs will be addressed you must consider: • What are the major considerations for equipment rack layout?

• Is the necessary electrical cabling installed to the rack?

• Are all the pipes, conduit and trays running to the rack?

• Do the pipes, conduit and trays have enough room to carry the cables to the rack?

• What joinery will be needed to finish the rack?

• How is cabling run within the rack?

• How are system power requirements best communicated to the rest of the design team?

• How will heat created by the AV equipment in the rack be handled?

RACK TYPES

The design subtleties of the rack enclosure are purposeful and, in many cases, standardised.

The following are examples of permanent installation racks.

Wall-Mounted Racks attach to any type of wall with the proper hardware. They swing open so the technician can access the equipment from the rear for service. AV designers should understand the structural issues associated with the installation of this type of rack to determine if the wall can hold the weight of the populated rack.

and attached to the sides of equipment first.

Rack screws through the ear holes secure the equipment in the rack. To prevent delays during the installation process check to be sure that the equipment ordered is suitable for rack installation.

RACK ACCESSORIES Wall mounted rack empty and in use

Fixed Racks are used for most audiovisual equipment. Most have mounting rails which secure the AV equipment.

Gangable rack and simple freestanding rack

Slide-Out Racks are used where there is only a limited service area. The whole rack is pulled forward for installation or service.

This type of rack may also have the ability to rotate or spin in place for installation, wiring and service. These types of racks are mainly used with existing cabinets or joinery.

HEIGHT & WIDTH

Panel Width varies depending on rack type.

The interior width of a rack needs to be wide enough to accommodate different types of equipment. The standard equipment rack for audiovisual equipment has a rack space of 19 inches wide (483mm). Racks for computer and communication equipment have 24-inches (610mm) of rack space.

Rack Height varies from over 2.1m to less than 30cm tall. Racks are also classified by their vertical mounting space. This specification is given as the number of Rack Units (RUs) available for equipment mounting. A single rack unit is 1.75 inches (44.45mm). Equipment can also be measured in RUs. An audio mixer might be one (1) RU high, while an amplifier might be two (2) RU high. Some equipment, like large switchers, can be 10 RU or more.

On each of the side mounting rails there are typically two or three punched holes for one rack unit. Caged nuts are inserted in the holes for mounting the equipment. The picture below shows the standard EIA spacing for mounting holes. Notice that they are not evenly spaced.

Equipment manufactured for rack mounting has ‘ears’ – extensions on both sides of the face plate which align with the holes in the mounting rail. Sometimes the ears are ordered separately

If you think of a rack as an organisation space, they are a lot like a cupboard. Just as you can have space dividers, shelves and drawers in a cupboard, similar accessories are available for racks.

Rack blanks are metal panels mounted in empty spaces between pieces of equipment. They can be flat or flanged. Flat blanks are not as sturdy as flanged ones. Both are more appealing than an open space in a rack. Blanks are available as a solid or with vent holes, and in different finishes and colours. You should choose ones which match the installation needs.

Manufacturers also make rack accessories, including: • Drawers, perhaps for storing microphones, remote controls and cables • Shelves, good for consumer equipment which isn’t rack mountable • Sliding shelves, providing easier access • Media holders, slots and dividers for CDs, DVDs or video cassettes • Lighting, helpful in a dimly lit presentation space • Security doors and locks, for securing the entire rack or just one drawer Rack sliding shelf in use

Flanged vented rack panels which allow air circulation and cooling.

All blank rack panel images courtesy of Middle Atlantic Products, Inc. 

050

Termination The Fifteen Minute Rule

By Matt Caton

Photo: Robbie Klaesi

Most of us have been seduced, at some stage, by the drawing power of the excessive home entertainment centre. You know the power. You possibly first noticed it when you installed it in a client’s boardroom.

Maybe you notice it every time you set up a concert. You’ve certainly noticed it when you’ve walked into somebody’s house and spotted the massive ‘infinity inch’ plasma / LCD / LED, often accompanied by a world class ‘drum n bass’ sound system and a full reclining cinema chair. It’s enough to incite levels of jealousy that will see even the most discerning budget-watcher go out and buy their own.

So you’ve now gone and bought your own version of the ‘perfect’ home cinema.

You sit down, start watching the movie, and for the first 15 minutes, it’s pure heaven. But then something happens.

Something so complex that it far outreaches the capabilities of this writer to accurately describe it. Your senses begin to adapt, it becomes your new ‘norm,’ and suddenly the massive screen and crystal picture quality doesn’t seem that impressive anymore.

This phenomenon is often referred to in scientific circles as the ‘Fifteen Minute Rule.’

(It should be noted that this is in no way true, and the Fifteen Minute Rule is something I just made up along the way, but please indulge me.) No matter what the visual feast being delivered to you is, after about 15 minutes, you become so immersed and so ‘used to’ it, that it becomes irrelevant to you.

AT THE MOVIES

Now think about about this; how many

Hollywood blockbuster films have you seen where the filmmaker attempted to wow you for two hours with nothing but special effects? Usually, these films are created by Michael Bay, and sadly even the occasional one from James Cameron. The introduction sequence blows you away and for the first fifteen minutes, you can’t take your eyes off the stunning effects. It doesn’t really carry the movie all the way through though, does it?

It also goes the other way. If you watch a movie with subtitles, or in black and white, or with a grainy picture (from the DVD your sister brought back from Bali), the first fifteen minutes are somewhat excruciating. You begin to question how you are going to make it all the way through, and furthermore, question why you would want to. But after a non-specific measurement of time (lets just say, fifteen minutes), you begin to get used to this visual and eventually you don’t even realise that you are reading subtitles or haven’t seen a single RGB pixel for almost two hours.

WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE EYE...

How does this fifteen minute rule apply to sound? Essentially, it doesn’t. Sound works on a totally different cosmic level that I’m far too unqualified to write about. While it is true that you can become immersed in sound, you never casn never ignore it when it’s too loud or of poor quality. One of the most common tips given to independent filmmakers, is to spend most of your budget on sound; as people will forgive a grainy picture, but people never forgive poor sound.

And I’m sure I don’t need to sell anybody

reading this magazine on that point.

GOTTA HAVE SUBSTANCE

This of course does not mean that a stunning visual has no place; far from it. It just needs to be accompanied by something of substance.

If your show / movie / event / presentation is able to keep the audience’s attention, then your visuals will hit their mark even greater.

If your visuals are expected to carry the entire event, you wanna hope it doesn’t run any longer than fifteen minutes.

In my time writing for AV Magazine, the most impressive spectacle I have been lucky enough to witness was the Audio Visual set design for the Melbourne production of Hairspray. The LED screens gave creation to the most visually excitable thing I’ve seen on a theatre stage, yet the production had enough substance to keep my attention well after I stopped swooning over the set.

It was probably the most obvious, real and tangible example of the fifteen minute rule I’ve experienced first hand. The visuals blew me away, but the substance of the production made the overall experience so much more memorable and because of that, I still have vivid memories of the visuals.

So the next time you are about to deck out your cinema room, or are deciding between the 50 inch and the 55 inch television, or are trying to spruce up your client’s shareholder meeting, keep these tips in mind: - It is possible to use A/V to ‘polish a turd’ (as they say), but it can only be polished for about fifteen minutes.

- If your show is a turd... make sure the sound isn’t shit. 

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©2012 QSC Audio Products, LLC. All rights reserved. QSC and the QSC logo are registered trademarks of QSC Audio Products, LLC in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. Q-Sys is a trademark of QSC Audio Products, LLC.

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