Installation January 2014 digital edition

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Installation INTERNATIONAL AUDIO, VIDEO AND LIGHTING INTEGRATION

January 2014

Running the show O pen platforms move centre stage in show control p46

InstallAwards – a brand new installation industry event p14

ISE 2014 preview – what to see in Amsterdam next month p16

Education – lessons to be learned about technology p39

WELCOME & CONTENTS

EDITOR’S COMMENT

Stay ahead in 2014

‘This industry is increasingly taking mass-market technology and co-opting it to serve our own niche’

“WE CAN’T be at the end of 2013 – I’ve only just got used to not writing 2012.” So said someone on Twitter last month, and I know how they feel.

There’s nothing like having a monthly deadline to make the time race by – to me it feels like we generally put an issue to bed about every three weeks, and it seems like about two and a half since we finished the December issue.

If there was one technology trend that summed up 2013 for me, it was the mass of products designed to enable people to share content from their personal devices with others. OK, Barco’s ClickShare first saw the light towards the end of 2012, but Crestron, Christie and AMX are among the names that have joined the party since then – and Barco recently announced a downsized version of ClickShare for smaller rooms.

It’s interesting that increasingly it’s developments in technologies outside pro AV that are driving development within it. It used to be that new technology started off expensive, so only affordable to businesses; consumers got involved later, as the market matured and prices fell. That has been turned upside down: this industry is increasingly taking massmarket technology and co-opting it to serve our own niche.

So the Bring Your Own Device phenomenon is a response to the increasing use of ‘iThings’ (as I heard the stable of Apple products referred to recently) in our professional as well as our personal lives. But it’s not the only example of technology coming in from outside the AV world. There’s also the increasing use of standard hardware platforms, such as PCs (and, in sectors such as show control, PLCs – programmable logic controllers – as we report in our feature starting on on page 46) rather than proprietary kit; and the use of standard PC processing chips in certain audio products.

Developments of this kind present both an opportunity and a threat, which are two sides of the same coin. If products, or even whole projects, become easier and cheaper to put together, that’s good news as long as it provides new opportunities for your business; however, it’s bad news if the new way is an erosion of your existing business model. The moral is obvious: stay ahead of the curve, and embrace disruptive technologies before your competitors do. Of course, this is easy to say and rather less easy to do.

But then, this is the time of year for taking stock and resolving to make positive changes.

IT'S CUSTOMARY to say that you're excited when you announce a new endeavour, but it really is true when it comes to the InstallAwards, which we launch on page 14. The way the awards are structured gives us the opportunity not just to celebrate the best installation projects, but also to recognise the key products that make them possible and the teamwork required to bring off a successful outcome. Project nominations open later this month: there’s no fee to enter, so start thinking now about the recent installations you are most proud of. The InstallAwards are the perfect spotlight for sharing successes with your peers.

Paddy Baker, Editor, Installation – paddy.baker@intentmedia.co.uk

www.installation-international.com

NEWS & DATA 4 News 8 Appointments 10 Industry data: Display market

trends to look out for in 2014 12 14

Expos and events

Installation launches the InstallAwards to celebrate 15 years of innovation

SHOW PREVIEWS ISE 2014 p16 BETT 2014 p36 PEOPLE 28 Opinion: Roland Hemming looks 32

back on the life of Steve Jones Interview: Prysm’s Dr Roger Hajjar talks LPD technology

FEATURES 39 Education: The higher education

46 42

community is increasingly tech savvy Show control: Open systems are growing in popularity Regional voices: Italy

TECHNOLOGY 56 New products 60 Showcase: amplifiers SOLUTIONS 64 Toison d’Or, Dijon: This major

66

68

shopping destination has undergone a multimillion euro upgrade Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London: Unobtrusive audio at its best Tilted Kilt, Ontario: Sports bar chain invests in its entertainment technology

Cover image Stiegl brewery visitor experience, courtesy of AV Stumpfl

January 2014 3

NEWS NETHERLANDS

NEWPARTNERS Intellect Audio Visual Solutions, a new UK-based company, has been named as the official distributor of Arthur Holm. “We are delighted to be chosen as their partner and be able to promote and share their quality products,” said Intellect AV’s David Raymen. www.albiral.com www.intellectav.co.uk

Biamp Systems has chosen Adec Technologies as its exclusive distributor in Turkey. Adec will distribute the full range of Biamp’s pro-AV products including Tesira, Audia and Nexia. A relatively young company, Adec supplies solutions for customer needs ranging from teleconferencing and projection to control systems. www.adec.com.tr www.biamp.com

Peavey Commercial Audio has appointed Rvrb as its distributor for Sweden. The company will look after all three brands: MediaMatrix, Crest Audio and Architectural Acoustics. According to Rvrb’s Jorgen Larsson, the main goal of the agreement is to manage the continued growth of Peavey Commercial Audio in the territory. www.peaveycommercial audio.com www.rvrb.se

Symetrix has announced the appointment of Barcelonabased SeeSound to serve as its exclusive distributor for the Spanish market. To help enhance awareness of the Symetrix product range, SeeSound plans to implement an extensive training effort. www.seesound.es www.symetrix.co

4 January 2014

New features at ISE 2014 NEXT month’s Integrated Systems Europe 2014 will be the scene of a number of new features before and during the three-day exhibition.

The M2D (manufacturersto-distributors) service, designed to match manufacturers seeking worldwide representation of their products with potential distributors, will be launched at the show. M2D is provided and managed by German digital signage software and service-management provider 2Signage.

The M2D application will be shown on a number of large LCD screens placed in hightraffic areas of the Amsterdam RAI. It will feature scrolling lists of manufacturers seeking

distribution, with contact details so that introductions can be made on the showfloor.

On Monday 3 February, an invitation-only Investor Showcase will take place.

Organised by ISE in conjunction with Go4Venture Advisers, a London-based investment banking boutique focused on emerging technology companies, the event is designed to introduce ISE exhibitors in search of additional funding to the investor community – venture capitalists, private-equity firms and other service providers.

The event will consist of companies presenting their business, past performance and strategies to an assembled audience of invited investors.

UK

Warwick Audio secures £1.25 million

HIGH-TECH loudspeaker company Warwick Audio Technologies recently secured a £1.25 million investment deal to take its innovative flexible loudspeaker technology to market.

The company, which has its head office in Coventry, UK, has developed a flat, flexible loudspeaker that is thin, lightweight and low powered.

It can be used in flatscreen TVs or audio panels, in car audio systems, or in public

“It is, in effect, the elevator pitch, a short presentation to a willing audience of investors, all of whom are hoping to find something of interest that they can become involved in,” said Jean-Michel Deligny, MD of Go4Venture.

Also on the eve of ISE, Italian integrated systems publication Connessioni will be hosting AudioForum@ISE – a one-day event for specialists in the sectors of systems integration and pro audio.

Held in English, AudioForum@ISE will consist of a series of panel sessions and seminars on some the foremost topics that affect these two intersecting industries, with a focus on transport protocols used in digital audio.

Finally, on the afternoon of 5 February, a new conference event, Sport Facility Integration Summit, is taking place. Produced by Sports Video Group (SVG) Europe, it will give attendees the opportunity to find out more about the latest trends and techniques related to sports facility systems integration.

Turn to page 16 for our in-depth ISE 2014 preview, brought to you by the ISE Daily team. www.iseurope.org

GERMANY

address systems and advertising displays.

The new investment will enable Warwick Audio Technologies, which is chaired by Derek Mottershead (pictured), to fully commercialise its operations, which include developing audio products for original equipment manufacturers.

Multiple investors secured the funding, including Finance Wales and business angels from FSE Investor Network.

This funding round brings the total investment in the company since its inception in 2003 to £4.5 million.

Part of the investment will be used to market highly directional loudspeaker products developed under Warwick’s subsidiary company, ZonarSound.

A CROWD of nearly 2,000 journalists, VIPs and group representatives were wowed by a spectacular laser show created by tarm Showlaser at the Volkswagen Group’s 15th annual general meeting. The display, which was accompanied by a performance from the Pet Shop Boys, was devised to highlight every one of the group’s 10 models.

www.warwickaudiotech.com

www.tarm.de

www.installation-international.com

NEWS GERMANY

Christie chosen for flight simulators CHRISTIE has partnered with flight training equipment specialist Frasca International to supply its Matrix StIM WUXGA one-chip projectors for the German Federal Police (BPOL)’s two new helicopter flight training devices (FTDs).

A total of 12 simulation projection systems will go into the two FTDs – Eurocopter EC155 and AS332 – at BPOL’s new Simulator Centre in Sankt Augustin, Germany, which opened in July 2013. The WUXGA one-chip DLP solid state, LED-based projectors will power the new simulators with a field of view of 200º horizontal by 68º vertical.

These will be used for day and night training operations in all of Germany.

“Frasca chose the Christie Matrix StIM projectors because they were the only viable dual normal/IR projection solution on the market, which is a testament to Christie’s R&D,”

commented Frasca’s project manager, Greg Poe. “The projectors were new so Frasca had a lot of design questions.

Christie’s support staff worked closely with Frasca to ensure their solution met their high quality standards and our customer’s needs.”

The Matrix StIM uses Christie InfraScene to provide independent control over both visible light and the infrared spectrum. This is said to provide a more realistic training experience with real night vision goggles (NVGs).

“With InfraScene, the Christie Matrix StIM accurately depicts day and night scenes as well as independent, stimulated NVG images delivering realistic training for conditions of limited visibility

Recent highlights

and night-time operations,” said Zoran Veselic, vice president, Visual Environments at Christie.

The system also uses Christie ArrayLOC, which works with the Matrix StIM to automatically adjust and balance the brightness, colour space and black levels of all the projectors in the display in real time with no additional latency. The LED light source and solid-state technology deliver more than 50,000 hours with virtually maintenance-free operation.

NUVO INTRODUCES THREE-ZONE PLAYER NuVo Technologies has introduced a new high-power, rack-mounted three-zone audio player for the IP-based NuVo Wireless Audio System.

ISE 2014: CEDIA TO HOST MARKET-FOCUSED TRAINING CEDIA has released details of its education programme for ISE 2014 in Amsterdam. A number of new sessions will be on offer to delegates as the association looks to reflect the current state of the CI market.

CEDIA ELECTS NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS Six places on CEDIA’s Board of Directors were available to be filled at the end of 2013.

The election results were revealed at the organisation’s recent AGM. VIVITEK LAUNCHES HOME CINEMA PROJECTORS Vivitek has released two new home cinema projectors which deliver 1080p resolution, coupled with deep colours and brightness for a 3D entertainment home experience.

To read these stories and the rest of our residential coverage, go to

www.installation-international.com/residential

www.christieemea.com

UK/WORLD

Pixel Projects increases global footing PIXEL Projects is opening offices in six cities around the world to provide a consistent service for its international customers. The company already provides installations in the Americas, Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia. Pixel Projects will form a group made up of seven locally registered companies under common ownership, creating what it calls a unique offering within the AV industry. The

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new offices are located in New York, Dubai, Moscow, Singapore, Lagos and Rio. Paddy O’Brien, MD (pictured), said: “The expansion will combine the benefits of being a global entity with the high standards, friendly service and quality expected from a smaller organisation.”

In using this expansion strategy, Pixel Projects promotes the company’s

core value of offering a wholly in-house service provision – at no point will projects be outsourced. This enables continued stringent quality control, according to the company.

“Pixel Projects knows that it is the little details that make a good project a great one,” said the company in a statement.

“That is why our principles run right through to details some may see as insignificant.”

To facilitate these operations, the supply chain will be extended to build a network of global suppliers.

According to Pixel Projects, this will lead to an improvement on delivery times with far more direct procurement. Clients will effectively still be dealing with a single entity, but with the additional benefit of localised points of contact. www.pixelprojects.co.uk

January 2014 5

NEWS EUROPE

New acquisition and distributor for Advantech DIGITAL signage specialist Advantech has acquired British intelligent display company GPEG in a move that will bolster the company’s activity in the European proAV market. GPEG’s original management team will join Advantech Embedded Core Computing Group, under the name of Advantech-GPEG. The pair will combine strengths to promote Advantech intelligent displays and develop the gaming market in Europe.

Advantech chairman KC Liu stated: “In view of the global trend towards Smart Cities and the Internet of Things, the intelligent display will be the most important user interface in the near future.

Therefore, Advantech is very optimistic about development potential in the intelligent display market, and with the GPEG merger, we hope that we can accelerate product

development, enhance sales strength and lead market growth in intelligent displays.”

GPEG’s former CEO Nick How and sales director Dave Webbing will lead AdvantechGPEG, cultivating gaming and application-specific display markets for customers in each vertical industry, and providing customised complete solutions.

Advantech has also penned a distribution agreement with global IT distributor Avnet Technology Solutions (EMEA). The pair aim to complement each other’s product portfolios to provide complete digital signage and retail/hospitality solutions in the European market.

Avnet will use its expertise in providing its partners with a quick way to bring end-toend digital signage solutions to market. Bas Smeets, business development

manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, explained: “With the tremendous growth in demand for professional digital signage and retail/hospitality solutions in Europe, Avnet’s experience and large customer base will help Advantech expand its business in this area.”

David House, sales director, Integrated Solutions Division, Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA, commented: “We have built an ecosystem of highly trained and knowledgeable partners who serve as an extension of our suppliers’ sales forces. The addition of Advantech’s industrial offering complements Avnet’s growing portfolio and strengthens its existing market position as a leading distributor of digital signage products and solutions in the IT B2B market.” www.advantech.eu www.ts.avnet.com/uk

Recent highlights PROJECTION ADVERTISING LAUNCHES PIXEL-PERFECT MOVING HEAD MAPPING Projection Advertising has developed Motion Mapper, a new, proprietary projection mapping system to maximise the effectiveness of moving head projection systems.

NEW OSRAM LED CHIP ALLOWS LONGER HIGHTEMPERATURE LIFETIME Osram’s Oslon Square brings an LED lighting breakthrough with better heat dissipation, stable colour uniformity and a longer lamp life even at high temperatures.

demonstration of its philosophy at its London office.

BIM – BUSINESS ENABLER OR TECHNOLOGY RED HERRING? Neville Glanville argues that BIM can only be successful if every individual and organisation has fast access to the in-depth information required to drive effective cooperation and collaboration at every stage of the design, build and operation life cycle.

FSR LAUNCHES HUDDLEVU COLLABORATION SYSTEM FSR’s HuddleVu collaboration system allows multiple users to share and view their laptops, tablets and smartphone screens on a main display.

AMX HELPS TO MAKE WORKING LIFE BETTER Office furniture specialist Kinnarps has worked with AMX to deliver a working

To read these stories and the rest of our coverage for the architectural and interior design community, go to

www.installation-international.com/tfa

CHINA

Music Group City will be 10,000-strong MUSIC Group City, a 70-acre manufacturing campus, will open in Zhonghan, China in the middle of this year. It comes some 24 years after Music Group, which owns brands Midas, Klark Teknik, Turbosound, Behringer and Bugera, became the first in its industry to move manufacturing to China.

The new campus will be home to up to 10,000 Music Group employees. It will be used for design, build and distribution of the company’s entire portfolio. Project cost is $70 million, and the factory space will hold 100 automated manufacturing lines.

“I’m thrilled to see the progress on this wonderful new manufacturing facility called Music Group City,”

6 January 2014

said CEO and founder Uli Behringer. “Seeing this campus coming to fruition is gratifying – and we can hardly wait to see this place come to life.”

Music Group has stated that several specialised Japanese process engineering firms have worked to create what will be one of the most efficient, automated and environmentally friendly manufacturing plants in the world. Within the complex structure will be massive glass curtains and aluminium-braced facades. The facility will also feature internal walkways inspired by Volkswagen and BMW that allow visitors to view the high-tech production process.

www.music-group.com

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APPOINTMENTS MEYER SOUND

Espinosa named chief loudspeaker designer The new role is in addition to his work as VP of research and development PABLO ESPINOSA (pictured) has taken on a new role as chief loudspeaker designer at Meyer Sound, adding to his current role as vice president of research and development.

Espinosa will now oversee the company’s loudspeaker development strategy, from hardware and user experience design to engineering, as well as long-term conceptual planning for the full loudspeaker lineup.

Promoted to VP of R&D in 2008, Espinosa has driven strategic technological

CHORD ELECTRONICS

direction while working closely with John Meyer, Meyer Sound CEO and co-founder. His work has directly contributed to the launch of the M’elodie and MINA line array loudspeakers, the 700-HP subwoofer, the 1100-LFC low-frequency control element, and the LEO linear large-scale sound reinforcement system.

In collaboration with the digital team led by John McMahon, executive director of operations and digital products, Espinosa has also helped to ensure seamless

In this role he will be responsible for helping to deliver the company’s US strategy. His focus will be on working with new and existing clients to deliver transformational sensory experiences in the science, entertainment and educational markets. Before joining Holovis, Caskey was a director for the Americas at Global Immersion, which was recently absorbed into Electrosonic. www.holovis.com

Alan Ainslie has been appointed business development manager at Chord Electronics. Prior to joining the company, Ainslie was business development manager at Naim Audio’s NaimNet, the brand’s custom install multi-room audio distribution and control system. He was also responsible for bringing streaming technology to Naim.

INFOCOMM INTERNATIONAL

integration of company loudspeaker and digital technology, as shown in the steerable CAL column array loudspeaker.

Prior to joining Meyer Sound in 1997, Espinosa spent more than a decade in the field as FOH, monitor and systems engineer. He was a technical production lead for multiple TV shows for Mexican broadcast company Televisa and also participated in the recording of live albums by Metallica, Carlos Santana and Juan Gabriel.

INVISION UK

David Bunnage has joined the sales team at Invision UK taking up the role of regional sales manager. Bunnage is experienced in system design and has experience working with home cinema, wholehouse control solutions, WAP and network infrastructure, marine, and commercial installations.

L-ACOUSTICS

HOLOVIS

8 January 2014

www.electrosonic.com www.infocomm.org

projects, creating potential system models using Soundvision software, and conducting technical training and product demos.

QSC

www.chordelectronics.co.uk

Holovis has announced the appointment of Alan Caskey as business development manager for North America.

www.meyersound.com

www.l-acoustics.com

www.invisionuk.com

Electrosonic’s Sarah Joyce has been appointed to InfoComm International’s board of directors. Joyce has 17 years’ experience in the AV industry, where she has worked in a variety of disciplines, including executive management, business development, product marketing and strategic human resources.

She is currently president for EMEA at Electrosonic and will serve a two-year term on the InfoComm board.

“Meyer Sound has built a reputation of innovation and exemplified a long-term approach to serving the industry,” said Espinosa. “I look forward to building on this legacy and pushing the loudspeaker technology envelope even further in the years to come.”

As part of the new structure, Meyer Sound is recruiting for the position of director of product development to manage R&D project teams and resources.

on the role of general manager. Peter Cochrane, meanwhile, has been named rental operations manager, where he will be primarily responsible for expanding the rental business in Australia.

He will also assist other APAC offices in expanding and optimising their rental operations.

John White has joined QSC Audio as vice president, research and development.

He will provide technical and managerial leadership to the development programmes at the company, and plan and execute personnel development, process management and infrastructure management within the R&D department.

Prior to this, White served as vice president of engineering at THX and previously spent time as director of engineering at Avid. www.qsc.com

Dan Orton has been named application engineer for the UK and Ireland at L-Acoustics.

Based in the UK, Orton is primarily tasked with providing support for consultants and UK L-Acoustics systems integrators. His new duties include offering sound design assistance and solutions, providing on-site support for

RIEDEL Following the recent opening of a new office in Sydney, Australia, Riedel has announced key role changes in the region. Cameron O'Neill (pictured), a long-time solutions manager with Riedel Australia with key relationships in theatres, convention centres and broadcast centres, will take

www.riedel.net

SAVILLE AV

Saville Audio Visual has named Rob Morrison head of sales (south) for the conference and live events division. Based primarily with the team in Guildford, he will build on the foundations he has established from working alongside Saville for the past six years, to develop the company’s reputation within the industry and explore new market opportunities. www.saville-av.com

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INDUSTRY DATA

Screen time Steve Montgomery highlights some of the technology and market trends to watch in the displays market in 2014 THROUGHOUT THE mobile, tablet and TV markets, the choice of display technology is a critical element in the commercial and operational success of a product. A live webinar, hosted by IHS Globalspec – as part of its Electronics360 series of online publications covering the business and technology of electronics as it impacts industries across the global economy – provided an overview of the latest global research and market intelligence for large and small displays along with an overview of market trends.

The webinar investigated the different types of display technology, next-generation touchscreens and emerging flexible display sheets. It provided a comprehensive overview of the latest forecasts of supply and demand for displays in a variety of existing and

increased activity up to 84/85in and ultra-high definition (UHD) displays.

Prices are falling rapidly in both of these product categories: the 55in Full HD display has dropped in price from around $900 per unit in 2010 to $550 in 2013 and is expected to continue falling to below $500 in 2014. This will stimulate demand threefold from 1 million to more than 3 million units annually over that period.

Suppliers are aggressively marketing their ultra-HD TV products, with penetration rates expected to rise rapidly from 1% in 2013 to 8% in 2017. The top global brands (Sony, Samsung, LG) are focusing on the high-end, high-margin market. Regional Chinese brands (China Star Optoelectronics, BOE) are concentrating on the lower end of the market with the expectation of budget

8%

HD TV PANEL MARKET FORECAST – MILLION UNITS 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2012

2013*

2015*

2014*

2016*

2017*

The price of a 55in Full HD display is expected to fall below $500 in 2014, leading to sales of over 3 million units per year by 2014

UHD

Source: IHS Globalspec *=Forecast

FHD

HD

CHINA LCD FABRICATION INVESTMENT – MILLION SQUARE METRES 12

Expected UHD penetration rate by 2017 10 emerging applications throughout global and regional markets, discussed the merits of a wide range of technologies, and examined potential supply chain risks that may affect the supply and price of these devices.

CHANGING PATTERNS There is evidence of a strong shift in preference by users from notebooks and desktop PC/monitor combinations to tablets, and to a lesser extent to smartphones. The consequence of this shift is a significant contraction in the large LCD panel market. At the same time, demand for small to medium-sized TVs has fallen. As a result, manufacturers have begun to shift their focus to valueadded displays; including smart TVs, touchscreen integration, higher resolution and larger pixel densities.

Manufacturer emphasis is now on screen sizes of 50in and above, with evidence of 10 January 2014

models falling to prices as low as $500 for a 39in TV. Already 1.7 million ultra-HD sets have been produced and a further 2.3 million are expected in 2014, increasing to over 20 million units in 2017.

The reduction and negative manufacturing growth of monitors and TVs is compounded by the current stockholding and high levels of inventory of existing LCD displays that were manufactured during 2013. This decline is, however, balanced by tremendous growth in eighth-generation LCD in China, mainly in the 8.5in tablet size. Total LCD fabrication capacity in China is soaring, doubling from 19 million sqm in 2013 to 38 million sqm in 2015. New technologies and enhancements, including LTPS LCD, oxide TFT and quantum dot, will make headway rapidly in future as

8 6 4 2 0 Q1

Q2

Q3

2013

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

2014*

Huge growth in eighth-generation LCD is expected in China, mainly in the 8.5in tablet size

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

2015*

Fifth generation Sixth generation

Source: IHS Globalspec *=Forecast manufacturers strive to gain a competitive edge through increased display resolution.

Introduction of mass quantities of the longawaited OLED TV is still, unfortunately, not imminent; prices are a factor of 10

Eighth generation times that of Full HD LCD. Ultra-high definition OLED is being shown in demonstrations but is not expected to be released in quantity in the foreseeable future, again due to the extremely high price. Instead

it is likely that newer technologies will leapfrog OLED UHD and will dramatically influence the industry as a replacement for LCD. www.globalspec.com

www.installation-international.com

EXPOS & EVENTS

SPOTLIGHT

Integrated Systems Europe 2014 Amsterdam, Netherlands 4-6 February 2014 www.iseurope.org

tion Installa

A R T X E ATION CIRCUL

With an additional entrance, new wayfaring tools and enhanced signage, ISE 2014 should be easier than ever for visitors to navigate. The expanded Professional Development Programme will include the Smart Building Conference on the eve of the show as well as other new features (see News, page 4). InfoComm and CEDIA training sessions will also be held from 3-6 February. Exhibitor space is booking up fast with more than 850 exhibitors on the show’s largest-ever floorplan.

EVENTS

For the latest exhibitor news see our preview starting on page 16. Installation publishes the official ISE Daily. To get involved, contact ian.graham@intentmedia.co.uk or les.wood@intentmedia.co.uk.

Your complete events calendar for the months ahead

FEBRUARY 1-4 MIDEM 2014 Cannes, France www.midem.com

18-19 PLASA Focus Nashville, US www.plasafocus.com/ nashville

4-6 ISE 2014 Amsterdam, Netherlands www.iseurope.org

24-27 Pro Light + Sound Guangzhou Guangzhou, China www.soundlight.cn

10-12 SIEL Paris, France www.siel-expo.com

23-26 LED China Guangzhou, China www.ledchina-gz.com 25-27 BVE London, UK www.bvexpo.com

FEBRUARY 12-13 Digital Signage Expo Las Vegas, US www.digitalsignageexpo.net

12 January 2014

EDITORIAL PLANNER

MARCH 5 ISCEx Milton Keynes, UK www.isce.org.uk

10-14 CeBIT Hanover, Germany www.cebit.de/home

15–17 PALME Middle East Dubai, UAE www.palme-middleeast.com

11-13 CABSAT 2014 Dubai, UAE www.cabsat.com

30-1 PLASA Focus Leeds, UK www.plasafocus.com

12-15 Prolight + Sound Frankfurt, Germany www.prolight-sound.com

MAY 13-14 Streaming Media East New York, US www.streamingmedia.com

30-4 April Light + Building Frankfurt, Germany light-building. messefrankfurt.com APRIL 9-11 InfoComm China Beijing, China www.infocomm-china.com/en

18 High End Munich, Germany www.highendsociety.de 18-20 The ARC Show London, UK www.thearcshow.com

FEBRUARY Shops & shopping centres Audio networking Smart buildings Showcase: Residential audio News deadline: 15 January Distribution date: 2 February MARCH Houses of worship AV in broadcast Lighting control Showcase: Large LCD/plasma displays Features submission deadline: 14 January News deadline: 17 February Distribution date: 4 March APRIL Concert venues Unified communications High-resolution projectors Showcase: Cables & connectors Features submission deadline: 21 February News deadline: 27 March Distribution date: 11 April MAY Command & control Intercoms & paging Room control Showcase: Audio consoles Features submission deadline: 19 March News deadline: 25 April Distribution date: 13 May

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INSTALLAWARDS

A new event for the install industry Installation turns 15 years old this year. As part of our programme of anniversary celebrations, we’re launching a brand new awards event in June The inaugural event will be held at the Hilton London Wembley

TO COINCIDE with our 15th year of publication in 2014, Installation is launching a new awards event – the InstallAwards.

When we sat down to devise an awards programme for the installation industry, we had a number of aims. We wanted an event that recognised achievement across the full spectrum of projects in a wide variety of application sectors. But we also wanted a means whereby projects of different sizes, scopes and budgets could compete on a more equal footing. And we wanted to be able to reflect the fact 14 January 2014

that successful installations are the result of a combination of factors, some technology-related, and some down to the efforts of individuals and teams.

So, after much headscratching, long meetings and more cups of coffee than we care to admit, we're proud to announce the InstallAwards.

These will be presented at a ceremony at the Hilton London Wembley Hotel on 12 June.

We are inviting project entries in the following

Corporate and industrial Residential Within each of these categories, we will make three awards.

categories:

BEST PROJECT AWARD We'll be looking for evidence of as many of the following as possible: Technical innovation Elegant design – technical or aesthetic Meeting or exceeding the client brief Expansion capability/ futureproofing

Public display/retail Education Sports and performing arts

TEAMWORK AWARD This award is designed to

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE INSTALLAWARDS The inaugural InstallAwards will be brought to you by the team behind the successful Music Week Awards and Pro Sound Awards.

This is your chance to celebrate the fantastic projects that have been developed over the previous 12 months and are continuously challenging the boundaries of the use of technology each and every day within the permanent AV Install market.

Be a part of championing the people and products that are making these projects and the AV business the most diverse, forward-thinking and exciting sector in the world.

For all sponsorship details, or further information on marketing opportunities at the event, please contact Ian Graham (ian.graham@intentmedia.co.uk) or Les Wood (les.wood@intentmedia.co.uk) on +44 (0) 20 7354 6000.

www.installation-international.com

INSTALLAWARDS

The Pro Sound Awards enjoyed a successful launch in 2013

acknowledge the importance of collaboration and teamwork in the delivery of successful installation projects. Any size of team, from two people upwards, may be nominated, and we will be looking for: How team inputs shaped one or more aspects of the project How one or more team members went beyond the call of duty to deliver an element of the project How the individual skills and specialities of the team members combined to give an exceptional outcome.

STAR PRODUCT AWARD This award focuses in on a single part of an installation – a product that performs a key role in the overall system design. We're especially interested in products that provide a new solution for an existing issue. We’ll want to know: Why this particular product was chosen, rather than a competitive product How the system design, and/or the end user experience, would have been different if an alternative product had been used instead.

Any permanent or semi-permanent installation may be entered for the InstallAwards, provided the date of

client handover is between 1 March 2013 and 28 February 2014.

To enter, please go to the InstallAwards website at www.installawards.com and download the entry form. There is no entry fee.

Any individual or company may enter a maximum of three projects, either in the same category or in different ones.

The entry period opens on 21 January and runs until 14 March.

As was the practice in Intent Media’s Pro Sound Awards, the judging will be carried out by a large panel of independent experts from across the industry, drawn from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible. If you would like to offer your services as a judge, please send an email to paddy.baker@intentmedia.co.uk.

So get your thinking caps on! If you've been involved in an installation project that you feel is worthy of recognition from your peers, go to www.installawards.com and download the form. And if you know of colleagues who have worked on deserving projects, be sure to tell them about the InstallAwards.

And finally, for now, put Thursday 12 June into your diary for the InstallAwards ceremony – it's going to be a great event. www.installawards.com

Intent Media also produces the ever-popular Music Week Awards

www.installation-international.com

January 2014 15

SHOW PREVIEW: ISE 2014

in Installation

The finest on display Over the next few pages are some of the product highlights to look out for at ISE this year, grouped by category. We begin with digital signage, displays and projection AOPEN will show its new, ultraslim, all-in-one multipurpose commercial tile PC built for retail environments – a world-first of its kind, the company claims.

The AOPEN eTILE is a 15.6in and 19in multitouch PC tile, based on Intel Core Processor technology and built to perform in the most demanding commercial environments. It is robust with built-in cable management so that no ports are visible to the customer, making the device totally secure and tamper proof.

It’s also dust-resistant and waterproof.

When used as a POS, the eTILE can also be provided with a secondary ultra-slim touchscreen for customer use. The eTILE has 3G, 4G and WiFi options, and will be offered in Windows 8 or Android 4.04.

Also new is the M Series LED display. Featuring a modular design, the M Series comprises no fewer than nine models, all employing 20-bit processing featuring 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 4.8mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and 16mm pixel pitches.

All use 2-in-1 SMD LEDs. The M2, M3, M4 and M4.8 deliver either 1,500 nits or 2,000 nits, and have a horizontal viewing angle of 160º and a vertical viewing angle of 160º, while the other five can deliver either 2,000 nits in indoor mode or 5,500 nits in outdoor mode. Outdoor screens are IP66rated. All models are quoted as having a 100,000 hour lifespan.

Casio will demonstrate its new Dual Projection System that is bright enough to be used in well-lit spaces. The XJ-SK600 combines two projectors (projecting the same image) with a Geometric Correction Box and a sturdy, black stacking box, which acts as a casing.

The result, says Casio, is a

The “world’s first 12,000 lumen solid-state laser projector” – the HIGHLite Laser 12k by Digital Projection

16 January 2014

strong light output of up to 6,000 ANSI lumens from a laser and LED hybrid light source. The correction software synchronises the two overlapping images to produce a distortion-free image.

The image is claimed to remain bright and clear, even on projection surfaces with a screen size of up to 7.5m (300in).

The light source promises a long service life as the mercuryfree laser and LED hybrid can be used for up to 20,000 hours, making the DLP 1,280 x 800 (WXGA) projectors “eminently suitable for 24-hour use”.

A range of new digital signage players will make its debut at ISE 2014 on the Cayin stand. The SMP-6000, SMP-4000 and SMP2000 all come embedded with the company’s renewed and upgraded SMP-NEO system software.

The SMP-NEO is described as a significant upgrade and aims to provide users with an intuitive user interface. It also offers rich library resources, allowing users to enrich content with a variety of materials in the library, including files, fonts, clocks, programmes and playlists.

Announced not long before ISE 2014 opened and receiving its first major public showing at the RAI, the new coolux COMPACT Player is described by the company as an extremely versatile hardwarebased media player that is both small in size and great in terms of reliability and power.

Whether it is part of a cuttingedge digital signage installation, inside a modern museum, or even on board a cruise ship, coolux says that this latest addition to the Pandoras Box product family can play a vital role in a wide variety of different professional playback scenarios.

The COMPACT Player’s Playlist feature is claimed to make it very

The newly updated Professional (P Series) large-format displays from NEC

easy to play multiple media files in a row without the need to program separate containers on a timeline sequence. Maximum playback resolution is 2 x 1920 x 1080p at 25/30 frames/second. Unlimited graphics layers are possible, while an interactive web browser is also included.

Dubbed the “world’s first 12,000 lumen solid-state laser projector”, the HIGHLite Laser 12k by Digital Projection is being shown for the first time at ISE 2014. The projector is a production highbrightness device, aimed at a number of vertical channels, which delivers 20,000 hours of solid-state illumination with a WUXGA resolution.

Edge Blend is included as standard along with geometric correction functionality. Fully active 3D with up to 144Hz refresh rate offers flicker-free viewing, while dual HDMI 1.4, DVI and 3G-SDI inputs provide high-speed video delivery.

HDBaseT connectivity allows for the transmission of uncompressed HD video over a Cat5e/6 LAN cable and lenses

range from 0.77:1 to 6.76:1.

The HIGHLite Laser 12k is scheduled for shipping in March 2014.

A new 84in large-format display, claimed to be the brightest of its type in the world, will be shown by DynaScan Technology.

The DS841LR4 is the largest professional LCD offering from DynaScan, and features a 4K Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160) IPS LCD with an ultra-high-brightness backlight (with local dimming), producing a sunlight-viewable 2,500-nit image.

The DS841LR4 is designed for large-scale display applications in high ambient light environments, and is said to be an ideal solution for storefront windows, outdoor kiosks and other locations in direct sunlight.

Available in three sizes (110in,

144in and 146in) is the Leyard range of large-screen HD TVs, on show throughout ISE 2014.

The 144in model is available in a choice of pixel pitches – 1.667mm, 1.923mm and 2.5mm – giving resolutions of 1920 x 1080, 1664 x 936 and 1280 x 720, respectively. The 164in unit comes with a 1.923mm pixel pitch for a resolution of 1872 x 1092.

Resolutions up to 4K are supported. All four units feature a brightness sensor that allows screen brightness to automatically adjust to ambient lighting levels.

Brightness is 1,200cd/sqm with a claimed uniformity of better than 97%, and viewing angles are 160º in both axes.

Occupying its traditional position at the entrance to Hall 2, Mitsubishi Electric is showing its

Produced by Installation, thedaily is the official newspaper of Integrated Systems Europe. It is put together from an office just off the showfloor and distributed to attendees at hotels, on shuttle buses and on arrival at the event.

There will be a further preview of ISE 2014, courtesy of the team from thedaily, in the February edition of Installation, which will be published ahead of the show. www.installation-international.com

in Installation latest LED backlit LCD panel pitched at control room applications for the first time in Europe. Configured into two 5 x 2 vertical ‘towers’, the new 55in super narrow bezel (SNB) L55P1 offers Full HD performance, LED backlighting and a host of advanced features, among them an Intel OPS slot and compatibility with AMX Device Discovery and Crestron RoomView systems.

The screens deliver up to 700cd/sqm brightness and 3500:1 contrast, combined with antireflective screens.

Another European first is the new LED DLP replacement The XJ-SK600 from Casio combines two projectors with a Geometric Correction Box engine, which allows customers to upgrade legacy lamp-based Mitsubishi Display Wall systems Given the current proliferation allows for quick and convenient to the latest high-brightness LED of digital signage across a wide rear display access and servicing. technology without replacing range of markets and locations, In addition Peerless-AV is screens or cabinets. The RPE74U exhibitor Peerless-AV believes launching a range of ‘Quick that it is becoming increasingly allows existing customers to Release’ videowall mounts at ISE important to attempt to stand out extend the working life of their 2014, designed to offer added current display wall and to reduce from the crowd. To this end, the convenience in accessing midcompany says that its new Mosaic its environmental impact and array and recessed displays. This Video Wall mount (DS-VWM770) running costs. spring-loaded push mechanism The newly updated Professional enables imaginative installers and can be restricted with a locking (P Series) large-format screw when not needed displays from NEC now and the carriage extension include a human sensor, force can be adjusted to nearfield communication and accommodate different remote browser control. weights of screens. Three The MultiSync P Series versions will be available in models, available with 40in, the UK and Europe, with 46in, 55in, 70in and 80in both portrait and screens, all have LED landscape for up to 65in backlighting for lower power panels and a super size consumption, a slimmer model for displays up to design and reduced weight.

95in.

“This new range was For the first time in developed freshly from the Europe, Planar Systems’ UltraRes Touch 84in 4K ground,” said Thorsten displays are showcasing Prsybyl, section manager multi-touch, multi-user large-format displays at NEC capabilities in high Display Solutions Europe. definition. The company “They bring innovations that says it responded to make the products more customer feedback environmentally friendly, requesting touch easier to use, and cheaper to integration following the install and run.” introduction of the 3840 x The human sensor detects 2160 resolution UltraRes someone in front of the Series of 84in Ultra-HD display and can change displays earlier in the year. settings – such as input, The company combined its volume or brightness – when ERO protective glass someone approaches, or surface with multi-touch engage power-saving modes technology to deliver the if no one is present.

DynaScan’s new 84in large-format display is said to be the functionality which is The patented indoor P3 brightest of its type in the world described as “Planar-built LED display by new ISE and Planar-supported”. exhibitor OPTOTECH offers a modular structure which integrators the opportunity to do Planar UltraRes Touch offers just that and create striking and minimises the gap between six simultaneous touch points to impactful display arrangements. assembled modules and allows allow multiple users to With universal mounting for for a speedy disassembly process collaborate simultaneously. The 46in to 70in flatpanels and to help reduce labour time and display recognises the full range complete 360° rotation in 15º costs. of common touch gestures increments, there is said to be no The P3.1mm display delivers including tapping, scrolling, limitation to the endless array of 3,000 nits brightness and 100,000 pinching and rotating. The fanless hours of life, making it a strong configurations that can be created. display supports both landscape contender for semi-outdoor usage and portrait orientations and Ten points of tool-less micro as well as high-efficiency LED and comes with fail-over power adjustment enable the fine tuning supplies and easy access through IC technology to reduce heat and required to deliver a seamless the Planar Profile Mounting extend the life of the LED. videowall appearance in any System which installs less than Customised modules can support orientation, while the articulating 4in from the wall. more effects. arm extension from the wall www.installation-international.com

January 2014 19

SHOW PREVIEW: ISE 2014

in Installation

Connectivity and signal processing A Full HD video server encoder uncompressed, HDCP-protected and decoder is the ISE 2014 focus HDMI content up to 100m via for first-time exhibitor Antrica. For HDBaseT without signal use in streaming live content to degradation. Transmitters, digital signage decoders, the available with black or white ANT-6000 can accept HD-SDI, faceplates, can either be mounted HDMI, DVI-D and VGA signal inputs in a single gang wall box or can be up to 1920 x 1080 at 60Hz or 60 rack mounted. frames/second and stream out Part of its new PerfectPix over a LAN in RTSP or MPEG-TS product family, Kramer Electronics is unveiling the VP-773 formats.

Digital signage display decoders Presentation Scaling Switcher.

Other products in the family are that can decode live streams can the VP-460/1, VP-770, VP-771 and display the content together with VP-774. pre-recorded files. Embedded The VP-773, which features audio in both HDMI and SDI is eight inputs, four HDMI inputs and supported as is two-way audio.

HDBaseT output, is said to offer a High-quality video can be versatile feature set that includes streamed over any IP network picture-in-picture functions, lumawith ultra-low 80ms latency end-to-end. keying, 2K resolution, emergency A compact dual-channel video alert notifications, built-in web streaming encoder is making its pages and more. debut at ISE 2014. AVerMedia It incorporates a certified Technologies’ AVerCaster HD Duet HDBaseT output port that is (F239) ingests and encodes HD claimed to work flawlessly with all video from HDMI/component input of Kramer’s HDBaseT receivers. sources for the delivery of live The newest member of Lightware’s 25G family, the 25Gcontent over IP networks.

FR80x80 crosspoint matrix frame, AVerCaster HD Duet can also be will be on show at ISE 2014. The used for broad media delivery across the internet by publishing RTMP to content delivery networks (CDN) and famous live streaming platforms such as USTREAM and Justin.tv.

AVerCaster HD Duet allows users to configure the quality of the encoding format to meet the demands of the network bandwidth. It can be configured, administered and controlled using the company’s Management Webpage embedded web management tool, which can be accessed remotely via a web browser on a PC or mobile device over a network.

The 25G-FR80x80 crosspoint matrix A new family of HDMI over frame from Lightware HDBaseT extenders, which transmit and receive 4K content compact 25G frame handles 80 using standard Cat5e/UTP cables, input and 80 output ports and will be revealed by Crestron. In addition, the company has manages the signals on eight announced that Crestron different layers, which means the DigitalMedia matrix switchers, signals are switched in three ranging from the 8X8 model to the dimensions. newest 128X128 edition, are ready It’s able to transmit HDMI 2.0 for 4K support. video signals up to 4K resolution, The HD-EXT3-C and HD-EXT4-C ready for DP 1.2, supports all the 3D formats, handles forward and support 4K resolution content and return audio, transmits USB-KVM, can transmit HDMI long distance via HDBaseT using standard Ethernet, bidirectional Cat5e/UTP cable. Both support 4K RS-232/RS-422, IR and CEC signals and extend signals.

Kramer Electronics will unveil the VP-773 Presentation Scaling Switcher

20 January 2014

Enhancements to Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite include a voice search service

The GUI helps control the matrix and allows the user to access all its functionality. Lightware’s Advanced EDID Management and HDCP compliancy are all included in the frame.

As the maximal 80x80 is a large switching plane, Lightware has introduced ’Room Management’ for various spaces. Smaller virtual matrices called ’rooms’ can be programmed with their own sources and destinations, but also

The matrix switch also benefits from a Control4 driver that will allow the switch to integrate with Control4 home automation and commercial AV systems via RS232 and LAN. A new media recording and streaming device launched at the end of 2013 is the focus for exhibitor Reach. Running an embedded system, the Bee 8 is a 1U height, 19in rack-mountable device.

The Bee 8 is new from Reach

can share resources if required.

Room Management allows the administrator to prohibit an operator in one room from accidentally making switches in another.

The Multimedia 16 x 16 Matrix Switch System from Canadian exhibitor MuxLab is a modular AV switching platform that converts and switches a range of digital and analogue AV inputs to HDMI via HDBaseT over Cat5e/6 cable.

The 5U rack height matrix switch features an 8-slot chassis that allows up to four 4-port input modules to be switched to up to four 4-port output modules for a maximum switching capacity of 16 x 16. The matrix switch is managed via front panel controls, RS232, USB, web server interface and third-party drivers. Dualredundant power supplies and hot swappable I/O cards are featured for higher uptime and ease of service.

The matrix switch works with the 500451-Rx HDMI receiver to convert all AV inputs to HDMI.

With three DVI-I inputs, it supports two video and one VGA inputs, and records these signals with audio synchronously. The video inputs support standard definition and high definition up to 1080p/60. The format of the recorded file is MP4, which Reach says makes it easy to play back and work with Windows Media Player, QuickTime, VLC and many other video players.

The Bee 8 has 1TB of internal storage as well as a USB port on the front panel. According to Reach, any user can quickly record files directly to the USB device or download recorded files to the USB device.

The VSP 5360 is a member of the AVDSP Series Seamless Scaler family from RGBlink, and is designed to deliver advanced capabilities for presentation environments.

It is a four-layer, 14-input seamless switcher that accepts a variety of video signals, including RGB, computer video and HDTV. It has multiple cascade capacity for

sync mapping, and offers a range of transition effects such as full screen, dissolves and wipes with adjustable durations. It also provides multi-window operation, pixel-to-pixel configuration (4096 x 1152 pixel-to-pixel mapping, 4096 x 2304 zoom mapping), and multiple user modes and control methods.

Preview and programme outputs are separate, and a genlock reference input is provided. The VSP 5360 can be remotely controlled via TCP/IP, USB or RS232. A 3.5mm earphone interface can be used to preview audio, with buttons enabling detailed adjustment.

The Mediasite Enterprise Video Platform by Sonic Foundry has undergone some enhancements, which will be on display at ISE 2014. The platform now offers multi-format video capture with synchronised automation of multiple video signals, meaning two or more videos can simultaneously stream within its multi-window Mediasite Player.

Also available are the ML HD Recorder for event capture and on-the-go webcasting, and a centralised, full-spectrum recording model which extends the power of video to any room, automatically extracting video from sources such as IP cameras and videoconferencing tools.

Mediasite’s Voice Search Service pairs phonetic search with custom word lists, allowing users to accurately search and discover contextually relevant content contained in any video. Visitors can also see My Mediasite in action, an interface from which users create, upload, manage and share their own video content.

www.installation-international.com

SHOW PREVIEW: ISE 2014

in Installation

Residential solutions iNELS Home Control (iHC) is at the core of ELKO EP’s home automation offering. The company says that its iMM Server can be used to connect almost all the technologies in a house with the iNELS Bus System – lighting, heating, blinds, air conditioning, cameras, appliances, multimedia (audio, video) – using a single application.

The iMM Client can be used as a videozone player, with the TV serving as a videozone that allows users to watch television programmes, browse photos, and play music or movies from network storage. It can also be used to control the entire installation, using an icon-based system displayed on the TV. Also available on the TV is a video feed The world’s first plug-andplay movie and music server from OutClass

22 January 2014

from a front door camera.

The new uniDock from iRoom and cMode is a universal wireless charger that will work with nearly all mobile devices. It comes with connections for Apple Lightning, Micro-USB or USB-A 2.0, with users able to choose by simply turning the mount. The uniDock will fit a normal European wall box and operates on main voltage supply. iRoom claims that uniDock is a unique product: “Other manufacturers have single chargers either for the iPhone or with a USB connector, and in many cases they are not in-wall but onwall solutions.” However, because the uniDock is so flexible, it means it is more applicable to a wider range of projects, as it can be used with so many different mobile devices.

The OutClass Server launched in 2013 as the world’s first plug-and-play movie and music media server and storage solution dedicated to the Apple TV. The server brings seamless ripping, storage and playback of CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays to users of Apple’s replay device without hacking or jailbreaking the Apple TV. It’s pitched at consumers who

need to rip and store a large movie collection on a server and make it accessible from any number of Apple TVs around a house.

Working in both the Windows and Mac OS environments, the OutClass will also stream movies and/or music to almost any DLNA and UPnP certified devices, including smart TVs, SONOS systems, Squeezebox and Russound multi-room systems for maximum compatibility.

ProofVision has launched a topof-the-range Bathroom TV that is aimed at sound and AV installers “looking for a smart product at a competitive price”, says the company’s MD, William Uttley. It has also introduced a new music system designed specifically for the bathroom.

The Bathroom TV has a flush finish and glass front, giving it a sleek look. It features two HDMI ports, plus RS232 and USB connectivity, as well as an improved viewing angle compared to its existing models. It will also connect the user’s devices via Bluetooth to play music or audiobooks as they relax in the bathroom. It comes with external ceiling speakers.

Screen Innovations has spent

The uniDock from iRoom and cMode

the last two years developing a screen that comes close to the light rejection capabilities of its Black Diamond projection screen material, but at a significantly lower price point. The result is the Slate, which makes its European debut at ISE 2014. It is said to reject 65% of ambient light – compared with the 10-20% rejected by a typical white or grey screen.

Also new from Screen Innovations are Black Diamond Tiles. These have the properties of the Black Diamond screen material, but are delivered in tile format, giving them a versatility that means that screens of any size or shape can be created and making them “a complete gamechanger in large-scale projection display”, according to the company.

ELKO EP’s iMM Client

www.installation-international.com

in Installation

Audio equipment

C-Mark Audio will be showing the three models in its US Networkable Active Loudspeaker series

ON display for the first time at ISE 2014 is a new MultiLoop Driver (MLD) range from Ampetronic. The MLD range of amplifiers drives current two-loop systems in combination, featuring dual output channels and 90째 phase shift in a single rack space.

Rack space saving is claimed to be dramatic compared with other solutions, reducing space and thermal management requirements by 50-90%.

Combined with features to extend system flexibility and provide superior performance and reliability, Ampetronic says that the MLDs mark a major step forward for professional loop systems.

Consisting of three units with a range of output currents for efficient area coverage solutions, the range is headed up by the MLD9, which features Class G amplifiers that are said to save up to 60% in energy consumption.

AVnu Alliance, the industry consortium that certifies Audio Video Bridging (AVB) products for interoperability, will host 11 member companies at a dedicated AVnu Alliance technology and product pavilion in Hall 7.

Featuring live demonstrations of AVB networks, the Pavilion will include participation from AVnu Alliance members with the latest in AVB-enabled products.

Members include: Barco, Biamp, Extreme Networks, Harman, Meyer Sound, Riedel, Uman, XMOS and Yamaha.

Demonstrations in the Pavilion will highlight AVB as a foundational element of the network that can be utilised by many types of traffic or media on the same network, such as audio, video, IP, control signals, wired and wireless networks.

The new US series Networkable Active Loudspeaker from C-Mark Audio integrates network transmission, remote control and monitoring, digital signal processing, and Class D amplifiers to drive high and low frequencies separately.

Users can remotely switch on/off, monitor loudspeaker temperature/driver voltage/ current, set up the DSP and remotely receive network audio signal on a PC, using a Cat5 cable and RJ45 connector to transmit, control and monitor the audio signal.

The speakers offer complete protection (short-circuit protection, over-current protection, over- and undervoltage protection, DC protection, power limit, temperature limit, long time output power limit, clipping limit), and have a high efficiency, safe output dynamic compress function and temperature protect circuit.

There are three models in the range. The 10in has a 1.35in tweeter, while the 12in and 15in units both have 1.75in tweeters.

They have, respectively, 50W, 80W and 100W rms HF output power, and 150W, 220W and 300W rms LF output power.

The latest addition to the 4000 Series of loudspeakers, designed for the AV install market, will be on the Genelec stand.

The 4000 Series active loudspeakers are suited to music playback and speech amplification projects, which makes them a strong choice for critical commercial installations.

The Directivity Control Waveguide provides broad and flat coverage for precise imaging in all environments, while Practical Room Response Controls optimise

The new CPX-AVB expansion card from Riedel

24January 2014

www.installation-international.com

SHOW PREVIEW: ISE 2014 supports both bidirectional AES for intercom panels and unidirectional transport for broadcast AES. The Connect AVB A8 provides eight analogue inputs and outputs on RJ45 connectors.

Riedel’s AVB Manager offers full AVB network management and features system-wide control of all AVB components.

Digital Feedback Reduction (DFR) is now available as part of a free firmware update to the Shure SCM820 Digital IntelliMix Automatic Mixer.

Features in the latest firmware update, which is supported by version 1.1.X or higher, include two channels of patented DFR that can be assigned to input channels and mix outputs; automatic feedback detection and filter deployment;

Sonodyne’s Opus speakers

the loudspeaker’s tonal characteristics for any environment.

Once installed, overload protection ensures reliability and 12V contact closure allows for seamless integration with any in-house automation or AV control system.

According to Rane, users can now control its HAL DSP system with any device, anytime, anywhere. On show at ISE 2014 are the latest version of HAL (HAL4) and Rane’s EXP7x device.

HAL has made a name for itself in room combining, paging and distributed audio systems.

Featured in the box, and now on Rane’s website, is Halogen 4.0 software, which adds support for the Web Controls feature in any HAL, as well as a firmware update to existing HAL devices that enables customisable web pages to be created within Halogen.

It is simply necessary to run the custom page(s) on any smartphone, tablet or computer’s web browser; no iTunes store or app installs are required.

The new CPX-AVB expansion card from Riedel allows its Artist 1100 series Digital Matrix Intercom control panels to interface with AVB networks, allowing all of the panel’s ports to be accessed from across the entire AVB network.

It is a dedicated card that converts two Artist ports to the AVB network and vice versa. To further enable signal integration, Riedel offers a comprehensive suite of AVB-enabled interfaces for its Artist intercom platform.

Besides the existing Connect AVB x8 panel interface, the Connect AVB C8 offers eight AES connections on BNC. The device

to minimise cone breakup and distortion; a Kevlar cone midrange and silk dome tweeter in waveguide for controlled dispersion; and transparency in critical mid, upper mid band and soundstaging.

The new Stealth Acoustics SA2400 dual-channel amplifier with built-in DSP is claimed to offer “maximum ease and flexibility of powering and tuning Stealth speakers or other speaker systems”.

Rated at more than 450W rms per channel, the SA2400 uses Stealth’s Class A/B output stage coupled to a traditional highcurrent power supply for professional output and long-term reliability.

It also marks the debut of the newly designed Stealth Signal Management System (SSMS), which allows for complete perchannel programming of advanced DSP features including: 11 bands of fully parametric EQ; high/low pass filters with variable slopes; fully programmable limiters; delay and phase controls.

Stealth is also showing the latest upgrades to its SA255R 250W mono amplifier, which incorporates a new limiter stage for tighter bass response and improved system protection.

Stealth Acoustics’ SA2400 dual-channel amplifier with built-in DSP

www.installation-international.com

the ability to apply up to 16 filters per channel; 25Hz to 20kHz bandwidth; and up to 18dB gain reduction per filter.

The addition of DFR brings audio professionals two added channels of adaptive EQ filtering to find and attenuate frequencies with too much gain, preventing the onset of feedback in live sound reinforcement systems.

Sonodyne Technologies is showcasing the Opus speakers, which merge the worlds of digital content and analogue electroacoustics.

Opus is said to respond to the evolution of the IT and telecom industries, which has transformed portable media devices like mobile phones, computers and set-top boxes into high-fidelity content carriers. It addresses the new breed of computer and digital audiophiles who need high-quality DAC and active speakers to plug into the high-quality digital media stored in IT ecosystems.

Product highlights include: a Kevlar cone woofer and midrange

New loudspeakers will be among the full line-up of products for the installation market on show from Yamaha.

The show will see the launch of significant additions to Yamaha’s Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) series. These are EN54-24 certified versions of the VXC and VXS loudspeaker ranges, which are specifically designed for use in PA/VA systems.

Yamaha’s full CIS series will be on show, including all VXC and VXS loudspeakers, XMV multichannel amplifiers, MTX matrix processors and DCP controllers.

The company will also be demonstrating its Commercial Installation Solutions Speaker Calculator software. Available as a free download from the Yamaha Pro Audio website, this Windows application quickly and accurately calculates the number of speakers required for optimum performance in a room size specified by the user, as well as working out the effective sound pressure level of the system. www.iseurope.org January 2014 25

OPINION

Steve Jones (1952-2013) – a life in audio The renowned audio consultant, whose passing we reported in our November issue, completed a roster of major, pioneering projects. He did not shy away from pointing out uncomfortable truths – some of which remain highly relevant Steve Jones and Roland Hemming first worked together on the Millennium Dome

Roland Hemming RH Consulting

BY THE time he set up on his own as a consulting engineer in 1985, Steve Jones had already had a varied career.

His first job, at the age of 19 in 1968, had been as an apprentice electronic and electrical engineer at EMI. Here, in the space of a few years, he worked in missiles (until he was disgusted to discover that these were being supplied to both sides in the Nigerian-Biafran war, and demanded a transfer), record manufacturing, electronic components, acoustics, audio engineering (he built sound mixers for Abbey Road Studios, including the first transistorised mixer), tape editing, broadcast engineering and was even involved in the creation of the first CT brain scanner.

After EMI he moved to Ferrograph, where he sold 28 January 2014

tape recorders to studios, and then to Haydon Laboratories, distributor of Telefunken, Sondor and Sennheiser. After being laid off from there, he spent seven years at Electrosonic, where he worked on projects – predominantly in theatres – all over Europe. He remains the only pure audio person the company has ever employed. (An Electrosonic connection remains: Steve is survived by his son Gareth, who works for the company.)

Setting out on his own, he took on design work from consultants he had worked with at Electrosonic, such as Tony Easterbrook from John Wyckham Associates (JWA).

One of these was for Tel Aviv Opera House, completed in 1987. It was through meeting consultant Jim Griffiths (then with Travers Morgan, but who went on to form Vanguardia Consulting) and showing him the Tel Aviv design that Steve became involved in what was to become probably his most significant project – the sound system for the first Wembley Stadium, which he completed in 1990.

The challenge at Wembley

was to design a house system that could also be used by visiting pop concerts, without the sound spilling out into nearby residential areas.

Steve’s solution was to mount the speakers high and fire them down onto the seats; this meant that coverage could be obtained at lower SPL, which in turn meant the local authority was able to license more concerts at the venue.

His system design was way ahead of its time. It was the first stadium system to use a fibre network (this was still relatively unusual even a decade later), the first to use DSP and the first to be used by all visiting sound engineers. Even today, it wouldn’t look out of place.

STANDARDS For many years, Steve was involved with standards work with the ISCE and SCIF trade associations. In 1989, not long after the Hillsborough disaster, he met with his local MP and came up with the idea of having a code of practice for voice alarm specifically in stadiums. He established an Inter-Institute Working Group

(so that it had sufficient firepower without being partisan) and under the banner of SCIF a Code of Practice was established in 1992. This was adopted as BS7827 – Sound Systems at Sports Grounds in 1996, and revised in 2011.

Steve also joined the BS5839 committee, from which the new part 8 – the code of practice for voice alarm systems – was emerging.

More recently his focus turned to Europe. Around 2008, work on the EN54 product approval standards was starting, but with little audio input. Then he began getting involved with the updates for the future, especially with active speakers.

He was the only independent audio industry representative on the EN54 standards committee, and he gave it his full input. He would ask the big manufacturers in the audio industry if they were really serious about EN54 standards development, because with a few exceptions they did not send representatives to the

Steve Jones

committee meetings. Six two-day meetings a year plus the associated preparation work take up approximately 10% of a person’s working year. This is surely not an enormous commitment for the larger manufacturers – particularly alongside some of the other costs associated with being a player in PA/VA systems, such as educating the market or having products tested for EN54 compliance. While attendance from audio companies was poor, the meetings were well attended by companies in the fire protection sector – and standards that reflected the workings of the fire industry were the result. As Steve used to say: “People get the standards they deserve.”

In 2010 he co-wrote the Guide to Voice Alarm Systems with Richard Northwood and

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OPINION The original Wembley Stadium – perhaps Steve Jones’ most famous audio project Picture: Colin Smith

myself (which was sold via this magazine) – the only general book on the subject.

STADIUM SAFETY Steve was always aware of the importance of the work he did in stadiums and other buildings where crowds of people gather. If you were working with him on a new contract, after the celebratory drinks he would always remind you of the gravity of the situation: this is a life safety system, and if you get it wrong, people could die.

There’s one meeting that he handled during our work on the Millennium Dome that I’ll always remember. The contract for the voice alarm work had gone to a voice alarm company, but we wanted to take it off them: we knew that our solution worked and theirs didn’t. But as the contract was worth £1 million, we knew they weren’t going to give it up easily.

Steve very patiently explained what was required, and asked the VA company how they would fill these particular spaces. It became clear to the construction director that Steve had a

30 January 2014

vision for the solution and they didn’t; but they wheeled out all sorts of people to defend their position – it was quite a bunfight. Finally Steve won the day – and rightly so.

‘On more than one occasion he declared that every UK stadium audio system is probably illegal’ We worked again together on Ascot Racecourse, another large prestigious project – this one needing 1,500 loudspeakers, most of them invisible.

Overall, he did some very impressive work – big, difficult stuff – under extreme pressure. He was sometimes maligned by people who haven’t been there in the same situation.

His outspokenness could rub people up the wrong way, but I struggle to think of a time when he was in the wrong.

On more than one occasion he declared that every UK stadium audio system is

probably illegal; that is to say, although they conform to the relevant standards, they probably do not fulfil the legal obligation to ensure the safety of the public.

The reason for this is that the tolerance on loudspeaker monitoring systems is very wide, and in many cases it isn’t possible to detect the failure of a single loudspeaker. If you follow the rules of the current standards you risk losing too many loudspeakers but still thinking your system is OK. None of the stadium standards sets a tolerance for measuring the loss of loudspeakers.

The potential implications of this are clearly huge.

Systems performance and loudspeaker monitoring are clearly more important issues than the environmental testing of speakers, or defining exactly what is meant by ‘voice alarm control and indicating equipment’ – important as those are. If only others put in as much effort as Steve did, we might have standards that do more to drive the development of safer stadiums. www.rhconsulting.eu

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INTERVIEW: DR ROGER HAJJAR, PRYSM

Let there be light Monica Heck speaks to the CTO and co-founder of the videowall manufacturer about LPD technology and the future of the market

‘Our aim is to transform our a technology into plug and play solution’

What led you into fibre optics and physics?

In my teen years, I was fascinated by light, starting with ‘psychedelic lights’, where every light is transformed to certain frequencies of audio content.

I worked on electronic systems that sensed music with a microphone and

converted the audio levels to light levels to make the light pulsate at different frequencies.

The disco ball light effects were also fascinating to me. I used to buy a big mirror, cut it into pieces, glue the pieces together onto a ball, then hook them to a motor. I turned it into a business, it

Dr Roger Hajjar – a brief biography Dr Roger Hajjar is the CTO and co-founder of Prysm. Alongside CEO and fellow co-founder Amit Jain, the team started the company in 2005 working with multidisciplinary technologists and business people in the US and around the globe Prior to Prysm, his roles included: vice president/GM of transmission subsystems for Avanex Corporation; vice president of technology for Vitesse Semiconductor; and chief technology officer and founder of Versatile Optical Networks, prior to its acquisition by Vitesse Hajjar has also held research positions at the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona and IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center He holds a PhD, MS in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Boston University where he graduated summa cum laude 32 January 2014

was my first entrepreneurship in the light AV systems world. My parents wanted me to pursue an education however, so I went to the American University of Beirut and transferred to Boston University.

The words ‘optical data storage’ were fascinating to me. I started at an early age examining the application of optics into technology, starting with optical data storage. I did my PhD in Tucson, Arizona.

My thesis was on optical data storage, specifically the interaction of light with matter. I mention it because it’s been a common theme throughout my life. Whether it’s that light interacting with a spinning disk to read and write information or light interacting with a fibre optic as a medium instead of disk to transfer information – in the end it’s the same theme but different physics. Finally here in this venture it’s light interacting with phosphor, hence the name laser phosphor display (LPD).

My career really spans from the early days of optical disco, to optical data storage in my 20s, moving into optical telecommunications in my 30s and now since 2005, optical displays. The other element to all of this is asking ‘how can you do it differently this time?’ when looking at different technologies and integrating them. I tend to think outside of the box.

And the LPD story, specifically?

It was more about how I could bolt pieces together to make something interesting: understanding the mechanism of solid state and how a photon beam pumps an energy level and it’s converted to another energy level; but now, let’s make it interesting and pump a certain energy level to get only that colour or only the primary colours of a display.

Then, I wondered about using a laser printer type of mechanism to scan that light, like a CRT scans an electron beam; but unlike an electron beam we don’t have the

luxury of applying a magnet: we have to move the light with a mirror.

It needed to be a commercial and not an experimental solution, based on established technologies that are out there like the ones that became available in laser printers and then Blu-ray.

When those technologies, from solid state, to laser printer, to Blu-ray, became available, that’s how I knew the time was right to do this.

How did you set up Prysm?

In a bold move, [venture capital firm] Artiman Ventures asked us to form a company in the display space.

Displays were a very hot commodity at the time and people were pouring money into projector-like display technologies.

When we started in 2005, we were apprehensive – there were already LCD, plasma, projectors in the space. Also, looking at the amount of capital needed to launch it was a little bit daunting.

It was suggested I start as an entrepreneur in resident (EIR), I took my time and it came together. I was reading articles on solid-state lighting, attending phosphor conferences. I had to kick the tyres and I came up with the concept during my EIR. I then wrote the white paper which is the basis of what we are doing today.

We all decided it had legs and Amit [Jain] and I formed the company. We had already worked together in optical communications and it was natural for us to do so again.

What word would you use to describe LDP? Self-emissive display. When you look at the display, the light is emitted from the panel itself and not generated somewhere else and projected. Part of the allure of LPD is that it’s a selfemissive technology, like an LCD, or an OLED: the image is formed on the fabric you’re looking at, that’s the big distinction. You eliminate a lot of the hassle involved in having to project an image.

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INTERVIEW: DR ROGER HAJJAR, PRYSM How is it more energy efficient?

Because we are modulating the lasers per pixel, the light source doesn’t need to be on all the time, we’re only lighting up the pixels we need. On a running video, our power network is low because the source utilisation is low. Source utilisation, hence source heat, source thermal and source life.

The other key aspect is that all the light at the laser makes it to the panel. In a laser system, that light is efficiently transmitted from laser beam to the panel, as high as 85% of that light makes it there. There’s an architectural fundamental difference between our technology and that of others [projectors, LCD…] and that’s what makes the efficiency so much better.

Do you have plans to license the LPD technology?

In the future, anything is possible. We already package LPD for the commercial world in the form of videowalls and tiles. It would be very interesting to have a licensing of the technology into some of those different markets we cannot take on because of our current focus. So yes, if that opportunity arises we would definitely consider it.

[VP of marketing Tim Messegee also commented that Prysm is pursuing partnerships downstream of

34 January 2014

licensing, working with others who may private label the product. The company anticipates it will see LPD videowalls from businesses other than Prysm one way or another.]

What has the Cisco collaboration brought you?

Systems integrators were taking our tiles, putting them in conference rooms and hooking up their Cisco codecs and customers were happy with the performance.

That’s how we started talking about working together. Of course it brings us a lot of credibility in the marketplace we have since signed up more system integrators, secured more wins in the conference room space.

Our aim is to transform our technology into a plug and play solution. The collaboration videowall solves a lot of problems in terms of a triple play in the conference room: the projector, telepresence and the whiteboard.

LPD combines all three. It’s a large seamless surface on which content from various presenters can be shared, moved, annotated and mirrored to another location.

It really makes the experience very engaging.

Yes, it’s a high-end product and solution but it really improves productivity and saves a lot on travel. It feels very comfortable and natural. We are definitely

serious about this segment of the business.

We are open to working with others, but for now it’s mostly Cisco. They have a good brand name, a nice camera system and of course all the networking behind the wall.

Is broadcast a market to watch for display manufacturers?

We are certainly well suited to broadcast on many levels.

A curved wall for example [as per a recent win at Beijing TV] is not easy to handle with a projector or cubes. Curvature gives you an immersive feeling, especially when it’s large.

Viewing angles are also key in broadcast. The uniqueness of our selfemissive technology is that when the phosphor lights up, the viewing angle is practically end-to-end, the light is emitted naturally in all angles.

Will your product range expand or change?

We have a small, very focused product range. Changes will be seen not so much with the shape of the product itself, but around enhanced performance of the tiles. The TD2 [announced in June 2013 to replace the TD1] offers an almost 80% increase in resolution to the TD1. There will certainly be TD3 tiles coming out in the future, its feature set is still being discussed. The lifetime of our

systems is 10 years and beyond.

Has it been difficult to break new ground and to educate the market about the kind of technology you provide?

Since introducing LPD circa 2010, we have been to all the major exhibitions to keep educating people and demonstrating it. We have had testimonials of customers talking about the energy efficiency. Our job on the marketing side is to keep that education going. That takes energy.

The good news is most people appreciate large, lifesize displays. We have a unique type of display and we must first show it and then tell them

why it’s different. The market is quite large broadcast, education, conference rooms, digital signage in retail – I would say we span them all, out of the home. Display out of the home is our market.

On the consumer side, there must be a uniqueness to videowalls in the home as the TV of the future. The applications can be diverse as to what you can do with a videowall in the home, as opposed to a regular TV that has a certain limitation in size.

We have been talking about that, it’s more futuristic but the technology definitely lends itself to that and we are exploring it. www.prysm.com

PRYSM’S LASER PHOSPHOR DISPLAY (LPD) TECHNOLOGY Prysm is the only designer and manufacturer of LPD technology The TD1 tile started shipping in 2010 and the TD2 was launched at InfoComm in 2013 Both tiles are 25in in diagonal and work in the same way, using solid-state, ultraviolet lasers to scan the surface of the screen to excite the phosphor and create the image This environmentally friendly process draws 75% less power than traditional LCD and projection technologies The image generated is on the surface of the screen, giving the display an ultra-wide viewing angle of 178° The tiles generate no heat so don’t need any additional HVAC cooling infrastructure, which can be costly, noisy and take up space

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SHOW PREVIEW: BETT

A safe BETT More than 35,000 educators and learning professionals will make the trip to east London in January to see the latest technology and discuss the key issues for the primary, secondary and higher education sectors BETT 2014 will once again combine an extensive summit and seminar programme with technology demonstrations from leading brands in technology and education.

Organisers are promising more content than ever before with a packed Arena programme, three bespoke CPD-accredited Summits, six Learn Live theatres and a whole host of networking and fringe activity.

Of particular interest is the Technology in Higher Education Summit, a space for HE professionals involved in IT provision to share ideas and streamline technology decision-making. In free seminars, experts within higher education and their counterparts in the corporate world will provide insight into technology delivery on a budget and managing user expectations. The sessions begin with ‘An Overview of the Impact of Technology on Learning in Higher Education’ at 10:30 on 22 January, while other highlights include ‘Changing the Learning Landscape Case Study: Preparing Higher Education for the Digital Age’ at 12:15 on 22 January and ‘Creating Flexible Learning Spaces for the Future Student’ at the same time on 24 January.

Over in the BETT Arena, confirmed topics include ‘Next Generation Content: Utilising Videoconferencing Across the Curriculum to Connect Securely with Experts and Industry’ which will feature speakers as diverse as film producer and educator Lord David Puttnam; Chris Lubbe, a former bodyguard to Nelson Mandela; and ‘Big Data’ with Gartner’s Bill Rust and Stephen Heppell of Heppell.net.

TECHNOLOGY Korea’s AHA i&c provides a number of products including digital podiums, interactive LCD and LED displays, tablet monitors, interactive tables, and digital signage. New for BETT is an 84in interactive LED display complete with optional on-board PC, interactive pen tray and 4K resolution.

36 January 2014

WHAT?

BETT 2014 WHERE?

ExCeL London WHEN?

22-24 January: 10.00-18.00 25 January: 10.00-16.00

New technology for the education sector will be on show at the event

Ascent IT/Hue Animation Studio will showcase the Hue camera, which is widely used in schools as a multipurpose camera and visualiser, combined with easy-to-use stop motion animation software in the Hue Animation Studio kit. The camera’s flexible neck makes it useful when animating. Both the camera and animation software can be used with Windows or Mac OS X. Visualiser manufacturer AVer Information Europe will demonstrate its recently launched TabCam, which allows users to connect a tablet device to share content wirelessly. Also on display will be the AVer TabSync charging cart and the AVer ClassHD videoconferencing solution.

With an education-themed classroom backdrop, AVer will be joined by an array of videoconferencing content providers, who will be on hand to talk visitors through the benefits of videoconferencing in schools.

CTOUCH will show its Leddura and Leddura XT ranges – the company’s latest generation of interactive large-format touch displays.

The multitouch surfaces offer four or 10 touchpoints, fast response times and built-in speakers.

Onelan and Onemedia will be showing a wide range of products. Onemedia’s videowall solution is described as “a simple, cost-effective communication solution that provides a high-impact way of communicating messages and dynamic content to audiences”. Schools, colleges and universities can play a mix of HD video, live TV streams, web content, scrolling text messaging, photos and RSS feeds across 2 x 2 or 2 x 3 videowalls in single zone and multi-zone arrangements.

Using a single Onelan signage player to drive the whole wall, a videowall processor is not essential. The Onemedia videowall solution includes hardware, software, training, support, and a creative design tailored to an organisation’s requirements.

The two companies will also be showing the Digital noticeboard. It comes with fully customised layouts featuring customer logos and branding colours.

P Squared will be showing

its range of School Radio solutions at this year’s show, including the SR4 Fixed Studio package, featuring contemporary studio furniture design and a full complement of broadcast studio features.

BETT will be one of the first public showings of a new offering from SMART Technologies, called SMART amp. This is a Cloud-based learning platform that can be employed on virtually any device, whether owned by the school/college or by the student. Because content is stored in the Cloud and accessed via a Google+ signin, SMART amp is suitable for schools and other educational establishments where the use of devices is shared between a number of students during the working week.

Sony will demonstrate how educators can harness the possibilities of rich multimedia content and interactive learning to enhance the learning environment, showcasing solutions from complete end-to-end AV systems to products for upgrading existing teaching environments.

“Sony takes pride in pushing technological boundaries to provide the most compelling experience for users, and our solutions for the education arena are no exception,” explains Sony Europe’s Damien Weissenburger. “Education is rapidly evolving and in our world of digital natives, it’s critical for teachers to engage with pupils through dynamic, powerful multimedia tools. We are working hard to marry the escalating needs of students with technologies that seamlessly support and augment the work of teachers and ultimately create a more engaging, empowering learning experience.” www.bettshow.com

Onelan Net-Top-Boxes were chosen as the digital signage solution at the University of Bedfordhsire

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FEATURE: EDUCATION A presentation is recorded via Mediasite by Sonic Foundry Picture: Sonic Foundry

[KEY POINTS] Video capture of lectures and centralised video management is increasingly popular

Interactive technologies are on the radar for new investments

Despite public sector cutbacks, education investment remains strong going into 2014

Lessons from the HE market Lecture capture, video management and audio matrix solutions are among the signifiers of an increasingly tech-savvy higher education community. David Davies derives 10 lessons from a market where demand remains strong despite public sector cutbacks BOOMING, ROBUST, enduring: just three of the epithets voiced about the higher education (HE) market during interviews by Installation this past month. For it seems that despite the cutback culture affecting some areas of education across Europe, HE’s practical (and moral?) obligation to ensure its students are able to benefit from the latest technology is helping to ensure a healthy flow of new projects for manufacturers, distributors and installers.

As Installation’s 10 ‘lessons’ from the HE market demonstrate, satisfying tech-savvy students is leading facilities to adopt increasingly cutting-edge solutions – from visualisers and interactive projectors to complex audio processing.

Looking ahead, lecture capture and video asset management will allow HE facilities to reach beyond the classroom for content – bringing an even broader world of education within the grasp of their students.

1. BASIC FACTS FIRST… THE HE MARKET IS BOOMING Public sector cutbacks might lead one to suspect that AV business in the HE market could be under strain at the present time. But in general, although there is some reference to a slowdown in parts of Northern Europe, demand is felt to be strong.

Allan Leonhardsen from Holdan – a distributor for, among many others, Blackmagic Design – isolates the primary strands, noting: “The sector is growing fast,

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driven by higher education facilities modernising to install visual information systems, and students increasingly demanding access to professional broadcast equipment.”

For Crestron, HE represents 33% of its business in terms of controlonly products, while video management specialist Sonic Foundry estimates that the sector accounts for around 60% of its business.

In fact, pretty much everyone who spoke to Installation confirmed that the sector’s importance is currently increasing – audio product manufacturer TOA among them: “We continue to grow in the education sector and are seeing more and more of our products installed in the HE market,”

remarks marketing assistant Sag Patel.

2. A QUICK GEOGRAPHY LESSON… DEMAND STRONG ACROSS EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST With the UK among the earliest adopters of lecture capture and interactive whiteboard (IWB), among other new technologies, it’s to be expected that the country remains a leading source of HE business. But several other countries and regions are rising up the league table.

For Holger Graeff, general manager EMEA at projection specialist Vivitek: “The strongest regions for education have been Russia, Germany and some of the Middle East region.”

Jonathan Mangnall, sales director at control giant AMX,

‘Interactivity is becoming more and more important’ Damien Weissenburger, Sony January 2014 39

FEATURE: EDUCATION highlights robust demand in Germany, the Netherlands and Benelux, while Sony’s Damien Weissenburger draws attention to continuing interest from the French and Nordic markets.

3. INTERACTIVITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME The teaching space is a very different place technologically from even five years ago (and certainly the however-many-years ago it was that your correspondent last graced a lecture room). We are talking, of course, about interactivity, and Graeff puts it succinctly.

“The widespread growth of interactive learning is the biggest revolution in education since Victorian times and we are developing solutions that are designed to meet the challenge,” he says, highlighting Vivitek’s newly launched D755WTi interactive projector.

Weissenburger also confirms the overwhelming trend towards interactivity and “collaboration with students”, pointing to an expanding product range that includes laser projection, flatpanels and more.

CASE STUDY

“Interactivity is becoming more and more important, and price points are dropping too,” says Weissenburger, alluding to products including the S-Series projectors.

4. LECTURE CAPTURE AND CENTRALISED VIDEO MANAGEMENT ARE ON THE RISE Ray Hassell from Mediasite video management system developer Sonic Foundry confirms the continuing demand for lecture capture facilities to help HE establishments preserve presentations for both the short and long term. But now, “with the advent of usergenerated content capabilities, which offer the ability to ingest third-party video, there is even more flexibility to the way that HE establishments can work”.

Delivering simple automated control and management as video usage becomes more sophisticated is crucial. “I firmly believe that automating the process and removing the obstacles to use are key to allowing organisations to create a lot of content,” says Hassell.

Bryan Sinclair, UK sales

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN SWITCHES ENABLE JOURNALISM STUDENTS TO CREATE COMPELLING CONTENT Recently enhanced facilities at Fontys Hogeschool Journalistiek (FHJ) journalism school in Tilburg, the Netherlands, ensure that not only can students at various stages of the programme write a good story, but also turn it into compelling video using the very latest broadcast technology.

Footage captured by students in locations far and wide is edited on iMacs and then compiled to produce a weekly show in the school’s HD studio facilities. The production workflow here is built around Blackmagic Design’s ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio, which is controlled by an ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel. A Compact Videohub is used for routing camera signals and additional inputs through

to the ATEM and other destinations. In addition, a number of Mini Converters and OpenGear Converters are in service for converting between SDI, optical fibre and HDMI connections throughout the facility.

Among other benefits, the ATEM 2 M/E allows students to switch between a variety of content, including studio footage from three fixed cameras filming two student presenters, as well as the various news reports. There is also the ability to add graphics, captions and picture-in-picture production with ATEM’s SuperSource feature. The resulting show is broadcast in HD to a big screen in the school’s auditorium and monitors in the school reception and every classroom.

FEATURE: EDUCATION MEDIASITE BOOSTS ACADEMIC VIDEO SHARING IN NORWAY A partnership between UNINETT – which is the network and internet services provider for Norway’s colleges, universities and research institutions – and video content management and webcasting solutions provider Sonic Foundry has led to the extensive deployment across the country of the latter’s Mediasite EX video management platform.

The specification of Mediasite EX allows participating institutions to connect any number of their Mediasite Recorders to UNINETT’s centrally managed Mediasite webcasting and management platform. This provides schools and researchers with a scalable infrastructure to record, deliver and manage rich video content.

Highlighting the growing demand for lecture capture in Norway, Thorleif Hallén –

manager for WolfVision, confirms continuing demand for its 3-series and 8-series desktop visualisers – “due to

42 January 2014

CASE STUDY

senior adviser at UNINETT in Trondheim (pictured) – tells Installation that “for students, Mediasite as a specific product means that you will reach your content on basically any device, with the content being extremely searchable as Mediasite generates a lot of metadata.

For teachers, meanwhile, Mediasite has always been powerful, [not least] because of the automation feature that gives schools the possibility to do lecture capture entirely without teacher interaction. My experience is that teachers are not very keen on playing around with technology when they are lecturing…!”

Hallén also singles out the My Mediasite content launchpad tool – which allows faculty, staff and students to create and share videos, lectures and assignments wherever they are, using their

laptop’s built-in camera – for specific praise: “It’s great for producing content away from the lecture theatre and gives users full control of the content they produce through access to easy recording, access rights management and editing.” Looking ahead, he reveals that “work is already well underway” to implement the latest version of the system, Mediasite 7, across the UNINETT network.

the 1080p high-quality image, ease of use and reliability” – while the recently launched C6 1080p ceiling-mounted

visualisers possessing “the ability to record and share lectures has been wellreceived, and offers different

options when considering teaching area design”.

increasingly popular,” says Leonhardsen.

5. HE TV AND RADIO STUDIOS NEED TO MIRROR THOSE OF ‘REAL WORLD’ BROADCAST FACILITIES “While there is no standard deployment in education facilities, it’s now considered essential that the facilities replicate those found in broadcast environments,” says Simon Westland, director of Blackmagic Design, which delivers products including the ATEM switchers into this HE market segment.

“This determines the choice of equipment and infrastructure, so it’s now common to see 10-bit broadcast-quality video as a standard with SDI and fibre cabling infrastructures.

Students can now access technology that just a few years ago was only affordable to high-end broadcast and post facilities.”

As in ‘real’ TV studios, flexibility is very much the watchword. “For example, we are finding that broadcast cameras that can be used by single operators, live events teams and studios are

6. CONTROL SYSTEMS AND INTERFACES NEED TO BE SIMPLE TO OPERATE With installed systems needing to be operable by a wide range of users, it stands to reason that there is an impetus for control technology to be easily graspable.

“There is a real place for simpler control solutions which are easy to scale, configure and install,” says Mangnall, noting that in AMX’s case this has led to products such as Enova, which has “dramatically simplified installation and integration through consolidating control, switching, audio processing, simplification and category cable distribution into a single box”.

Nonetheless, every facility is different, so “there is no standard [approach] for control as each room tends to have its own requirements”, says Marc Poffley, education business development, Crestron UK. “Fortunately, our solutions provide maximum flexibility

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FEATURE: EDUCATION across the range, starting with the simple MPC-M5 [Media Presentation Controller] up to the large auditorium systems.”

7. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ‘STANDARD’ AUDIO INSTALLATION IN A HIGHER EDUCATION FACILITY Patel confirms that audio solutions tailored to facilities’ individual requirements in terms of size, scale and flexibility are very much the order of the day. “We make sure that a bespoke solution is provided to ensure that each specific objective is dealt with, which results in the mixing and matching of TOA products to successfully comply with the aims and objectives for the HE facility,” he remarks.

8. SELF-RELIANCE IS GREAT… BUT YOU MUSTN’T BE AFRAID TO CALL FOR HELP Many would concur with Leonhardsen’s contention that, on the production side, “lecturers and technicians now expect kit to be plugand-play. When it comes to post production, media asset management and AV installations, integration is

44 January 2014

much more of an issue as networks have to contend with IT data, video signals and streaming data. The reality is that many users still need to be able to call on external help to maintain their infrastructure. This is why it’s so important to select the right reseller in the first instance.”

Post-supply and installation, minimising maintenance is also integral to allowing facilities to be as self-reliant. For example, Graeff highlights the fact that all Vivitek projectors are DLP-based, “which have as a benefit low maintenance as there is no filter to clean. This is also a key consideration as part of the integration.”

9. TRAINING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER AS SOLUTIONS’ COMPLEXITY INCREASES “Particularly in HE, new features and technology [require] enhanced education for the channel,” says Axel Kutschke, senior manager, presentation products for Hitachi Digital Media Group, “although a focus on making features ‘user friendly’ helps to keep the training at a

on-site training at their own facilities,” says Mangnall.

‘There is a real place for simpler control solutions which are easy to scale, configure and install’ Jonathan Mangnall, AMX reasonable level.”

Distributor Holdan has recently launched a training academy, while AMX actively encourages HE end users to attend product training. “We have a comprehensive training offering which runs at locations throughout Europe, in addition to which we offer

10. HE FACILITIES WILL CONTINUE TO REACH ‘BEYOND THE CLASSROOM’ “We will see more content produced by lecturers outside of the lecture theatre/classroom so that students can consume theory whenever it suits them, and use the lectures for ‘better learning’ – discussions, group work and so on,” says Thorleif Hallén, senior adviser at Norwegian academic internet services provider UNINETT [see Case Study, page 42].

Remote learning will become more and more de rigueur. “Solutions that allow the ‘bring your own device’ generation to link up with the classroom, encompassing remote learning with Microsoft Lync, or simply recording a class and posting it on the university LVE [Lightweight Virtual Environment] are all now becoming almost a necessity,” says Poffley.

Kutschke, meanwhile, predicts the greater use of technologies such as 3D, VR, 4K and “enhanced audio

capability” in the service of creating “the real virtual experience. This underlines the fact that there won’t be one new direction, but [a convergence of trends to enable] new solutions and applications,” he remarks.

UNDER PRESSURE Broader fiscal pressures have meant that there is “unquestionably a greater need for efficiency and accountability across the board”, remarks Mangnall. But as he also notes, technology is absolutely “intrinsic to how people are educated nowadays”, and with the European economy now showing some signs of rallying again, the general expectation is that investment in new systems will remain buoyant throughout 2014. www.amx.com www.blackmagicdesign.com www.crestron.com www.hitachi.eu www.holdan.co.uk www.sonicfoundry.com http://pro.sony.com www.toa-corp.co.uk www.uninett.no www.vivitek.eu www.wolfvision.com

www.installation-international.com

FEATURE: SHOW CONTROL

[KEY POINTS] Proprietary hardware still has a place in show control – but the attractions of open systems are becoming harder to ignore

Increasingly, industrystandard networking – Ethernet, IP – is becoming pervasive, allowing new levels of functionality, flexibility and resilience

Protocols are at the heart of the show control business, enabling interaction with an extensive range of devices

At the George W Bush Centre in Dallas, Medialon show control systems enable visitors to feature in the film footage

Control freaks Everyone seems to be talking about the Internet of Things, in which any appliance can communicate intelligently with any other appliance. Given the direction the show control industry is taking, finds Ian McMurray, it could be thought of as a microcosm of the wider world WHAT DO the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv; the New Year’s Eve Night of Worship at the Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale; the Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich FC; the Doctor Who Experience and The View From The Shard in London; the Korean launch of the Mercedes-Benz CLS350; the K College in Kent, England; and the Bellagio in Las Vegas all have in common?

The answer is that they have all benefited from show control systems in their various forms – controlling projection/display, controlling multimedia, controlling lighting, controlling special effects, controlling visitor 46 January 2014

interaction – and even controlling fountains. Entire theme parks rely on them.

Show control systems are the hardware and software at the heart of the most banal corporate presentations – but also at the heart of many of the world’s most stunning spectacles.

To grossly over-simplify: a show control system manages a sequence of AV – and other – events which can be executed on a bewildering array of devices, often in close to real time. Those events may follow a linear programme – or they may respond to some external impetus via an interrupt. It all takes considerable software

flexibility, ingenuity and sophistication – and powerful, flexible hardware to enable the software to do its job.

Show control is a highly specialist application. As such, it might be suspected that it would rely on specialist hardware – which can often mean proprietary hardware. Yet the PC has become ubiquitous, and open standards in both hardware and software are driving the market. Where does the show control market stand?

‘OPEN’ VERSUS ‘PROPRIETARY’ The answer seems to be: somewhere in between.

“It is absolutely true that,

today, show control hardware is more likely to be based on ‘open platform’ technologies such as a PC,” says Fredrik Svahnberg, marketing director at Dataton. “The key components in a modern show control system are a web-based interface and modern media server.

Dataton was actually one of the first show control manufacturers to promote a software-based solution: WATCHOUT multi-display presentation software.

WATCHOUT does not require any proprietary hardware, which means the user can get more mileage out of existing hardware investments, as well as

The combination of powerful hardware, high-speed networks and sophisticated software has brought about a remarkable convergence of AV – and other – technologies

having the freedom to choose system hardware.

This approach has definitely been one of the strengths of WATCHOUT since its debut in 2000 and appeals to a lot of users.”

“Dedicated hardware is becoming less prevalent because hardware advances move so fast,” agrees James Ross Heron, marketing director at Green Hippo, the company behind the Hippotizer media server. “A two- to three-year cycle for developing a system with dedicated hardware or fixed firmware runs the risk of being out of date before it sees the market, whereas systems running on open www.installation-international.com

FEATURE: SHOW CONTROL platforms will not suffer so much. The advantages of open platform systems are upgradeability and user familiarity: if a user knows the operating system already, he has half the battle won.”

Alex Carru, CEO of Medialon, whom Fredrik Svahnberg credits as seeing the TCP (transmission control protocol) revolution before most people, and who is the designer, along with Eric Lambert, of the first network-based show control system – Medialon Manager – waxes positively evangelical on the subject.

“For us, it has always been the case since the beginning: we don’t believe in proprietary hardware,” he says. “There is a huge need for openness. ‘Open’ allows customers to select the best hardware for their needs, which they will often find in the industrial automation world.

More and more PLCs – programmable logic controllers – are able to run Windows. We introduced a PLC version of our show control software some time ago.”

“The power of show control lies in the software – and it requires processor performance that PCs can offer and that proprietary

48 January 2014

hardware is far from offering,” he continues. “Any PC today can run multiple shows controlling hundreds of devices over IP.” “And,” he goes on, “people often mention reliability when it comes to PC-based show control systems. We at Medialon have thousands of show control systems running every day on PC-based platforms, some of them running entire park-wide show control 24/7. If PCs weren’t reliable, we wouldn’t be in business any more.”

Also a fan of PLCs is Henry Corrado, the founder of Tejix and who also represents Alcorn McBride in France. “PLC manufacturers are starting to offer interfaces that are specific to the AV world, such as MIDI, SMPTE and various lighting protocols,” he notes.

“This means that safety-critical ride systems can control show elements without the need for a dedicated subsystem.” He also believes that PLCs are easier to support over the long term, given their protracted lifecycles in comparison with off-the-shelf PCs. Fred Neulinger, technical director at AV Stumpfl, sees things somewhat differently

CASE STUDY

TDC, BARCO, DATATON COMBINE TO DELIVER SYDNEY HARBOUR EXTRAVAGANZA Australia recently celebrated the first entry of the national Australian fleet into Sydney Harbour 100 years ago. Imagination Australia produced the event, and engaged Technical Direction Company (TDC) as its video technology partner.

An evening spectacular involved video projection that was combined with fireworks launched from seven warships. There was lighting from 28 land and ship locations plus live action onboard ships culminating in an aerial fly-past from the Royal Australian Air Force that was enjoyed by the millions lining the foreshore.

Digital video projection onto both sides of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons was a first, and TDC deployed a total of 56 Barco projectors including the FLM-HD20, HDF-W26 and HDQ-2K40 models.

The content – created by Imagination Australia – was managed using Dataton WATCHOUT multi-image and display software and 26 computer servers. The entire proceedings were synchronised by timecode and transmitted across Sydney Harbour using Riedel MediorNet fibre optic media signal distribution and processing.

www.installation-international.com

FEATURE: SHOW CONTROL at in terms of complexity, reliability – and obviously budget.”

OBSERVING PROTOCOL The show control industry historically used a range of protocols, each designed for a specific purpose. MIDI, for example, was designed in 1983 to enable electronic instruments to communicate with each other, or with a computer (MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface). DMX was designed to simply control lighting dimmers. Over time, as the industry has become more complex and more sophisticated, these protocols have been used to achieve things for which they were never intended, resulting in significant complexity.

when it comes to the continuing value of proprietary hardware. “Is ‘open’ superseding proprietary?” he asks. “The answer is: yes and no. Using an open device as a programming platform is a must in this market. Using a PC as the show control hardware itself can be offered as an option – but we would never limit the system to this. Having a proprietary hardware platform is absolutely necessary in terms of stability, reliability, compactness and price. We offer both, so that the client can choose.”

He has an ally in Hans Christian Stucken, who is marketing and

communications director at coolux.

“It all depends on the specific project requirements,” he says. “In many cases proprietary platforms might seem to cost a little bit more in the beginning than the customer running software on his existing hardware. On the other hand, there is great benefit in being able to rely on one particular system’s official support network, which can be of great help when trying to find solutions to challenging set-ups, where countless slightly different devices all have to be integrated and controlled.

There are a lot of pros and cons that have to be looked

IT’S ABOUT THE NETWORK As with so many things in the AV world; increasingly, it’s about networking and about distributing intelligence. The design of AV Stumpfl’s Wings Avio is a case in point. Noting that, historically, show control systems relied on a single, master controller, Fred Neulinger takes up the story.

“With Avio, we developed a new system in which each single node within the show control network – starting from a simple relay box up to a powerful media server – is powerful enough to be a master controller, and to run a show or a sequence,” he explains. “So, getting more functions or performance can be achieved by simply using the ‘brain’ of the relay box for example – or any other node in the show control network.

The same with the reliability: if you take away one node, all the rest of the show keeps on working. Avio is a completely new approach to show control, because it’s decentralised.”

Carru also sees the pervasive influence of networking. “We’re seeing more and more TCP/IP connections,” he says. “Every device or system that you want to control will be Ethernet-based soon. Today, DMX is over IP; AVB control is over IP; lighting desks are over IP; DSPs are over IP.” coolux too has embraced the network. “In the case of our Pandoras Box Manager software, we can control and truly frame-sync an unlimited number of Pandoras Box systems via the network,” points out Stucken. “The Widget Designer Software is a gateway to connecting the Manager’s control parameters with a truly breathtaking number of different input and output devices.”

POWERFUL PROTOCOLS What’s travelling over the network is, for the most part, the protocol traffic that enables interaction between the many different types of device. MIDI (MSC: MIDI Show Control), for example, is a widely known protocol most often associated with audio devices – although it is now being challenged by OSC

‘We don’t believe in proprietary hardware.

There is a huge need for openness’ Alex Carru, Medialon (Open Sound Control) – but which is, in fact, capable of being used to trigger or respond to a wide range of audiovisual systems.

“There are now more usable protocols than ever,” notes Heron. “What makes protocols unique these days too is their ability to be ‘aware’ of hardware present on a network and know what

CASE STUDY

AV STUMPFL HELPS VISITORS LEARN ABOUT BEER The visitor experience at the headquarters of Austrian brewery Stiegl sends visitors on a trip to the origins of the company’s beer and its production.

With the aid of ultra high-resolution images and videos, visitors learn about the philosophy of the Stiegl brand using the language of high-quality images, videos and fascinating animations.

A seamless widescreen image is projected onto a huge semi-circular wall via four Full HD Panasonic projectors using soft edge-blending. The floor projection also consists of four projectors delivering overlapped images. For this purpose, Hitachi projectors with very wide-angle lenses are used, allowing projection onto the entire room. The live action movie, with a total projection area of 180º with 3D animations, was produced on a RED www.installation-international.com

EPIC at cinema standard 5.5K (5,120 x 2,560 pixels). Wings Vioso features direct editing and playback of this 5.5K content, achieving a quality six times that of HDTV in terms of resolution.

A water wall was integrated which can be started and stopped via the system and lit in RGB colours matching the film. The entire projection runs on four Wings Engine Dual media servers in perfect sync. The user interface to the show is via Wings Touch running on a 10in touchpanel, with control of the water wall, RGB lighting and so on achieved via multiple I/O boxes. All control elements communicate using the Wings Avio communications protocol, simplifying management for the integrator as all functions in the complex set-up can be accessed directly.

January 2014 51

FEATURE: SHOW CONTROL

ONLINE EXTRA George W Bush Presidential Center, Dallas, US: A Medialon show control system encourages interactivity by taking pictures of visitors and using them among the regular footage shown on a 20ft-tall high-definition LED wall encircling the Freedom Hall.

it is and what parameters are controllable. Two-way communication is now the norm. In times gone by, you had to tell set-ups what equipment was present and what you wanted to do with it.”

Carru develops the theme.

“Today’s show control requires much more processing power to interface to more complex devices or perform more complex tasks,” he says.

“Look at a lighting system:

it’s not enough to control it via a couple of MIDI – which is a very old protocol – commands. It needs to be controlled with a more sophisticated bidirectional protocol via TCP/IP. Every device you’re controlling these days is able to return information about its status, actions and so on – and the show control system must be powerful enough to manage these interactions.

“One major leap is that, in the past, you would have MIDI connectors, RS232 panels, DMX in/outs and so on,” he continues, “and proprietary connectors from some

manufacturers, with convertors in abundance, making up one system. Now, a single fast Ethernet network is usually all that is needed to connect items together with, in many cases, software compatibility/ conversion between devices built-in.”

“The more agnostic the control, the better,” adds Chris Ferrante, director of product management at High End Systems, a Barco company and responsible for the Hog range of lighting consoles. “We will continue to be open to triggers, and to be able to trigger, over as

many different protocols as possible. What is important is the ability for us to really fit in, in any situation and not be limited through allowing only a single protocol, for example.”

“In the case of our own products, more and more protocols have been added and are constantly being added to create greater creative freedom for our customers,” says Stucken.

“Recently, web server and web browser integration are also becoming more important, since HTML5 devices and ‘second screen’ scenarios are becoming

‘Today, show control hardware is more likely to be based on “open platform” technologies such as a PC’ Fredrik Svahnberg, Dataton increasingly popular.”

“Today’s hardware offers ease of use, networking and interactivity – and it’s a vital element of the show control business,” summarises Svahnberg, noting that Dataton now offers the WATCHPAX as a compact, easy-to-integrate alternative to PCs. “But, of course, the most powerful hardware is nothing without the software that delivers the solution the customer wants. Over the past few years in the show control business, it has been key in bringing about an amazing convergence of communication, web and media.” www.avstumpfl.com www.barco.com www.coolux.de www.dataton.com www.green-hippo.com www.highend.com www.medialon.com www.tdc.com.au www.tejix.com

52 January 2014

www.installation-international.com

FEATURE: REGIONAL VOICES

Italy The Italian economy has been in recession for some time – since 2011 according to some, since 2008 according to others – but the tide is expected to turn this year. How is the installation market faring? Our survey finds out

2.9%

-1.9%

Annual GDP growth, Q3 2013

Budget deficit, 2012 (as share of GDP) Source: countryeconomy.com

STATE OF THE

MARKET

Do you think general levels of confidence in the Italian installation sector are higher or lower than six months ago?

Source: Istat

EXTERNAL FACTORS

ENTERING THE MARKET

HOW INFLUENTIAL (EITHER POSITIVELY OR NEGATIVELY) ARE THE FOLLOWING FACTORS ON YOUR BUSINESS?

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A MANUFACTURER LOOKING TO ENTER THE ITALIAN AV INSTALLATION MARKET?

MOST INFLUENTIAL

‘Have a clear strategy, especially in the integration market. Be clear that it’s not possible to sell to everyone in the custom business. The demands of customers are very high.’

National economic situation Legislation/regulations More affordable technology Competitor activity

Higher – 7%

Energy efficiency/green issues

The same – 70%

LEAST INFLUENTIAL

Lower – 23%

DO YOU AGREE WITH THESE STATEMENTS ABOUT THE INDUSTRY?

StronglyAgree

Agree

Neither

‘Offer a good service. Choose serious and well working installers and resellers.’ ’You need to be cutting edge while keeping quality high. Although the recent focus has been on keeping costs down, the Italian market is still willing to pay top dollar for guaranteed quality.’

...AND TO AN INTEGRATOR LOOKING TO ENTER THE MARKET? ‘First, learn the language. Second, find Italian people to help you with your operations. Last but not least, don't sell only on price.’

Disagree

‘Be serious, offer good quality at the correct price, and offer a service after the conclusion of the installation works.’

The majority of Italian integrators specialise in a single sector, such as corporate,

DESIRED CHANGES

education or sport facilities

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT THE WAY THE ITALIAN INSTALLATION MARKET WORKS, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

There are no significant skill gaps in the Italian installation sector In general, Italian installers are

‘Distributors must not be installers.’

comfortable with the increasing amount of IT networking in AV

‘The competence of installation companies – it is quite low in this country’

installations

0%

54 January 2014

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

www.installation-international.com

TECHNOLOGY: NEW PRODUCTS

What’s new Our selection of the latest products for the installation market

PRODU OF TH CT MONT E H

NEETS CONTROL DELTA

IT’S… A 19in AV control system with integrated audio mixer including balanced inputs and outputs.

DETAILS: With the DelTa, all room functions can be controlled from a single mobile touch device or web browser (IOS, Android or Windows 8).

The built-in audio-mixer, 240VAC relays, light and AV control make the

DelTa a cost-effective three-in-one solution.

To simplify control of the room, the relevant devices can be dragged and dropped from the device driver library, custom buttons can be created, or one

ANALOG WAY QUICKVU

of the many templates can be used. All connected devices are controlled through a generous amount of RS-232, RS-485, LAN or IR ports.

AVAILABLE: Now AND ALSO: Custom graphical user

SMS PRESENCE

solutions for large and heavy displays and interactive whiteboards.

switcher with three scalers.

DETAILS: Based on the Midra platform, QuickVu offers a large variety of connectivity, through eight seamless inputs and 14 source plugs: four Universal Analog, four DVI-D, four HDMI and two 3G-SDI plugs. Thanks to the CleanCut effect, QuickVu can seamlessly switch between any of its 14 input plugs without fade through black or loss of sync. EDID management is now standard for inputs one to six for computer sources.

To fit any display resolution, including non-standard formats like LED walls and rear-projection cubes, QuickVu offers custom output format

www.neets.dk

SMS SMART MEDIA SOLUTIONS IT’S… A new series of mounting

IT’S… A new mixer/seamless

interfaces are configured using new, free Neets Project Designer software.

package can accommodate a shortthrow projector, interactive board and peripheral equipment in a single wheeled unit.

DETAILS: As cables and peripheral management, with a main layer fully resizable and that can be positioned anywhere.

QuickVu provides the ability to modify the Program in real time without using the Preview.

AND ALSO: Thanks to the new Quick Frame function, a foreground frame – one of eight available – can quickly hide all layers when necessary. A push button enables a return to the previous frame.

equipment can be concealed in the product, it can be placed anywhere in a room. Displays can be locked in place with a padlock or a locking pin.

Key members of the range include the SMS Presence Video Conference, a wheeled stand that can carry two parallel displays; the SMS Presence Mobile, which supports a large single display; and the SMS Presence Wall Manual, a stable and adjustable wall bracket that uses a spring-mounted solution to enable users to set the height of the display simply, by hand.

AVAILABLE: Now www.smartmediasolutions.se/en

AVAILABLE: Now www.analogway.com

TAIDEN HCS-1030U

AND ALSO: The SMS Presence Short Throw Mobile Motorized is the flagship product for interactive boards. The

INFINITUS IMOTION G6

IT’S… An electronic nameplate for meeting environments.

IT’S… The sixth generation of DETAILS: Available as a standalone solution or as part of a conferencing system installation, the electronic nameplate can display information such as the name and title of participants, the conference name/logo, the company name/logo, the country name, the participant’s seat and more flexible options. Meeting attendees see their information displayed electronically upon sign-in.

Sign-in can be done remotely by the operator or by the participant themselves using personal IC cards.

The soft display on the front and rear of the unit, with white text on a black background, prevents the nameplate from emitting too much light so as to 56 January 2014

high-performance full-outdoor technology, which will replace the current imotion outdoor product line.

deliver good results for photographs and video recordings. Other features include design for low power consumption.

AND ALSO: The product is available through Media Vision.

AVAILABLE: Now www.mediavisionusa.com

DETAILS: imotion G6 free-standing systems come in landscape and portrait orientations, in single and double-sided alternatives and in LCD sizes of 47in, 55in, 65in and 72in.

The new designs have smaller bezels (70mm) than previous imotion products, along with minimised LCD-to-glass distance (12mm) and a refreshed mask design.

Systems can be fully technically controlled remotely, including accessing a player in case of failed OS. Other selfprotective features include emergency

failure messaging, sequential cold start and sequential warm start.

AND ALSO: Visitors to ISE 2014 will be able to see the touch interactive imotion G6 47in portrait single-side and imotion G6 72in portrait double-side models, intended for DOOH advertising.

AVAILABLE: February www.infinitus-outdoor.com

www.installation-international.com

TECHNOLOGY: NEW PRODUCTS

TV ONE 1T-VS-668

IT’S… A universal video scaler/ switcher with versatile format conversion and multi-output routing capability.

DETAILS: The 1T-VS-668 features fully scalable video inputs including HDMI, DVI (via DVI-to-HDMI adapter), analogue

RGB via HD-15 connectors, analogue YPbPr or 480i/576i YUV Component via three RCA connectors and Composite Video. To ensure lip-sync capabilities, both digital and analogue audio processing are supported with audio delays of up to 150ms. Eight analogue

stereo inputs can be selected for embedding into the HDMI outputs, and separate coaxial digital and stereo audio outputs are provided.

The 1T-VS-668 handles input and output resolutions up to 1080p/WUXGA, analogue-to-digital conversion,

AVAILABLE: Now AND ALSO: An On Screen

www.tvone.com

ID TAGS

XPAU

IT’S… An extra-large mobile

IT’S… Real-time tracking ID

Fusion AV cart.

tags for use in a variety of creative set-ups.

58 January 2014

Display menu allows for easy set-up. Control is via the front panel joystick and buttons, infrared remote or RS-232 interface, providing product versatility.

COOLUX

CHIEF

DETAILS: Designed for extralarge and touchpanel displays from 55in to more than 100in and up to 300lb (136kg), the XPAU series can also be customised for dual monitor videoconferencing use with the dual monitor accessory and a camera shelf.

Other features include a turn knob to allow a single user to easily adjust the screen height between 48in and 65in; and room for internal storage of AV components, including

and digital-to-analogue conversion, allowing a range of AV signals to be displayed on a HDMI or VGA display. The HDMI is fully HDCP compliant and is compatible with HDMI v1.3 standards.

DETAILS: Each of the tags can

hardware to mount two RUs of AV gear vertically.

AND ALSO: Available in black or silver and with sleek aesthetics, the range is designed to fit in corporate and classroom environments.

AVAILABLE: Now www.chiefmfg.com

be addressed with a unique ID, which opens up the possibility of up to 256 different unique IDs being tracked in real time within a single set-up. One individual tag has two LEDs onboard and can have one to two additional infrared LEDs attached to it.

Tracking people or objects this way is achieved using a purely optical transmission system, which means users can avoid potential problems that can be linked to radio control-based set-ups. The coin-sized ID Tags can be easily attached to set pieces, costumes or any other part of a tracking setup. Tags can be fitted with a button cell battery with enough power to last over 10 hours.

Alternatively, a micro USB port can be used for connecting additional power sources. 2D Tracking set-ups can be realised with just one camera; 3D XYZ tracking will require a minimum of three cameras.

AND ALSO: Using coolux Widget Designer Software to create the actual control setup, users can choose between different modes, depending on each individual setting and lighting situation.

AVAILABLE: TBC www.coolux.de

www.installation-international.com

TECHNOLOGY: NEW PRODUCTS

VISION AV

GEFEN

TECHCONNECT CONTROL

GTB-HD4K2K-441-BLK IT’S… A 4 x 1 switcher for HDMI 4K/2K. DETAILS: This new switcher connects four HD sources using HDMI to one display. HDMI 2.0 support is included for this and all Gefen Ultra HD products supporting 4K 60Hz resolutions with 3D pass-through. The inclusion of Gefen FST (Fast Switching Technology) virtually eliminates signal latency, providing an instant switch of audio/video content.

These features and the fact that it can also support 1080p Full HD makes the new 4 x 1

IT’S… An update to the control panel, which now has IR, RS-232 and 12V trigger control.

switcher for HDMI 4K/2K best suited for installations that have upgraded their display to 4K and still want access to sources such as gaming consoles and satellite set-top boxes as well as laptops and computers. Ultra HD content will be delivered at 4K resolutions while high-definition content will be delivered at 1080p resolutions.

protection) compliance, and support for lossless audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, complete the features.

AND ALSO: Full HDCP (high-

AVAILABLE: Now

bandwidth digital content

www.gefen.eu

CONRAN/BEAGLE MEDIA HOLO

IT’S… A broadcast product said to offer the biggest 360° floating optical experience on the market.

DETAILS: Controlled by simple hand gestures, the 2.4m-high, diamond-shaped Holo is the only hologram device with gesture control. It is available

www.installation-international.com

in a range of colours and materials, including wafer-thin glass, brushed aluminium and chrome.

AND ALSO: The product is available to buy or rent from Engage Productions.

AVAILABLE: Now

www.engageproductions.com

DETAILS: For simple applications where only one IR code is assigned to a button, Vision has made the programming simpler. For complex programming the device is now plugged into a USB port on a PC and programmed with supplied software.

Using the software, multiple codes can be applied to each button, delays can be set, and scheduled actions can be set up, such as turn the projector off at 22:00 on pre-set days. The IR blaster has been strengthened and there is a blaster built into the front of the module. The device comes with a mains power supply but can run on

batteries for simple applications.

AND ALSO: Vision’s Techconnect Amplifier has also been updated with a new front panel to match the Techconnect Control. It has an upgraded power supply to improve reliability and boost power output.

AVAILABLE: Now www.visionaudiovisual.com

January 2014 59

TECHNOLOGY: SHOWCASE

Amplifiers Energy efficiency, power versus size and centralised and decentralised AV systems are top of the agenda for amplifier manufacturers. James McGrath assesses amplification technology currently on the market

{

Crestron offers full integration

Crestron’s HDI-XSPA 7.1 high-definition professional surround-sound processor and amplifier has been designed for easier integration with wholehouse AV distribution systems.

The system features a number of input connectivity options, including four HDMI, one SPDIF optical, two SPDIF coaxial, two unbalanced analogue and one balanced analogue. The HDI-XSPA also incorporates a DigitalMedia 8G+ input to offer complete

compatibility with Crestron’s DigitalMedia integrated AV distribution and switching platform.

Installers have the option to combine a number of local sources with those that are distributed throughout the installation via a centralised matrix, without the need for an extra DigitalMedia 8G+ receiver.

The HDI-XSPA also includes onboard LAN, COM, IR, relay, and contact-sensing control

}

ports so that users can control device functionalities via the DigitalMedia 8G+.

In addition, the amplifier has an HID USB port to route local keyboard and mouse commands to a centralised host via the DigitalMedia connection.

In terms of audio specifications, the unit features a built-in highefficiency, high-performance eight-channel power amplifier.

This operates 140W per channel at eight ohms, and 200W per channel at four ohms. There’s also an unbalanced stereo downmix output for a second zone or audio return. www.crestron.eu

{

Powersoft provides efficiency

Medium- to large-scale installations increasingly require more efficient ways to power audio. Powersoft’s new Ottocanali 2U rack amplifiers – the 12K4, the 8K4 and the 4K4 – are the flagship range of the company’s line of energyconscious installation amplifiers.

Each offers eight channels, which are independently 60 January 2014

configurable with DSP functionality, making them suitable for multi-zone applications in mid- to largescale installations.

The family uses a series of proprietary technologies to maximise the efficiency of the system and reduce power consumption. These include Power Factor Correction (PFC) and Pulse Width Modulation

}

(PWM), and the proprietary Smart Rail Management (SRM) technology. To give an indication of what these amount to, the Ottocanali is close to the current minimum power consumption level of 1W per channel, as opposed to the market average of 10W per channel.

The amps are also the only product on the market to implement dual redundant power supplies. These provide greater efficiency and reliability, as there is always one power supply operating all channels in case of failure of the other. The power supplies also grant worldwide operation with any AC voltage as they are designed to work with both 70V and 100V distributed lines and Lo-Z loudspeakers.

What’s more, the Ottocanali’s GPI/O system makes this new line viable for emergency systems.

{ } Peavey powers up Crest Audio CKd range

With the install market demanding more highpowered amplification solutions, especially for large constant-voltage projects, Peavey has adapted its Crest Audio CKd range of amplifiers for solutions of that nature by bulking it with more power.

The CKd range is currently the highestpowered eight-channel amplifier with a Dante interface in the market.

Within the series are four multichannel models: the 1208 and 1204, which provide 1,250W per channel in eight and four channels respectively, and the CKd 608 and CKd 604, which provide 625W per channel in eight and four channels.

The 1208 and 1204 models offer five times more power than any of their predecessors.

The company says that the series has been built with all the Crest Audio knowhow gained over the past 35 years in the marketplace. This means the amps include overbuilt power supply technology, the company’s exclusive ACL (Active Clip Limiting), which automatically reduces gain at the onset of clipping to prevent

amplifier load damage, and IGM (Instantaneous Gain Modulation), which monitors load current to protect against overloading.

Each amp in the series has the ability to be controlled and monitored via Peavey’s standalone Nexsys 5 software utility or by the company’s more extensive MediaMatrix NWare platform.

The amplifiers can be equipped with either an eight-channel CobraNet or eight-channel Dante module for networked audio. Control features such as real-time load monitoring, amplifier fault monitoring, remote power on/off, channel gain and mute controls can all be accessed by combining the amps with the company’s MediaMatrix NION products.

A control voltage input is included on each channel to allow external gain control, while the fault output on each channel allows the CKd power amps to be monitored by external systems. In addition, users can conserve energy by disabling channels that are not in use. www.peavey.com

www.powersoft-audio.com

www.installation-international.com

TECHNOLOGY: SHOWCASE

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Lab.gruppen’s decentralised amplifier

Lab.gruppen says its new amplifier – the smallest it has ever produced – heralds a new approach to fixed installation audio.

The four models in the LUCIA range have been designed to take power, DSP, control and I/O to where they are needed in smaller installations – close to the end-user and to the loudspeakers for simplified use. This offers system designers of boardrooms, classrooms and small lecture theatres, museum multimedia areas and retail units a more cost-effective approach to design, without the complication and cost of a distributed system with centralised rack-mounted amplification.

The models are available across two power configurations – two at 60W

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and two 120W – each available with either four-in, four-out matrix-mixer and configurable DSP features (LUCIA 120/2M, LUCIA 240/2M) or in a basic two-in, two-out configuration (LUCIA 120/2 and LUCIA 240/2).

All models are equipped with DSP pre-configured ‘out of the box’ for operation in typical applications. Additionally, the ‘M’ variants are enhanced to facilitate easy set-up via USB connection – with Windows and Mac LUCIA configuration software – so that the processing and mix-matrix can be configured to meet specific requirements.

Features also include ADLC (Automatic Dynamic Loudness Contouring), which is said to provide a fuller listening

}{

experience, especially at low perceived levels.

Furthermore, dynamic processing technology means the amplifiers automatically ease off at higher SPL so that the system maintains a consistent full bandwidth sound with full impact at all levels. ‘M’ models also benefit from additional DSP functionality and a 4 x 4 mix matrix.

All amplifiers are Energy Star-compliant Class D models; these low-impedance systems deliver the full performance potential of amplifier and loudspeakers, for inherently better audio quality than 70V and 100V systems. In addition there’s no need for the long cable runs and trunking of 70V/100V systems, and the cost of loudspeaker transformers is saved. www.labgruppen.com

Extron offers XTRA with powerful yet compact XPA 4002

When designing the XPA 4002, which takes its place in the company’s XTRA Series, Extron set out to create a powerful yet compact amplifier. The two-channel Class D model delivers 400W rms power and takes up 1U of rack space. The company says it is half the size of comparable amplifiers on the market and weighs less at 9lb.

The amp is able to afford less space because it generates substantially less heat than similar power amplifiers: measured thermal heat dissipation is 54W (185BTU/hr) under full load. This degree of energy efficiency removes the need for ventilation, plus cooling fans, allowing the XPA 4002 to be convection cooled – minimising componentry and reducing maintenance requirements and operating noise.

Further energy-efficient features from the Energy Star-compliant amplifier include a power-down feature

}

Apart REVAMPs with new technology

The REVAMP series from Apart Audio consists of five power amplifiers with a uniform design and some of the company’s newest technology inside.

The amplifiers have been designed with as few frontcontrols as possible and offer pre-defined settings to make installations tamperproof and as hasslefree as possible.

The series comprises a pair of two-channel amplifiers, the REVAMP2250 and REAVMP2600, the 16-channel REVAMP1680 and the four-channel REVAMP4120T alongside its more powerful counterpart, the REVAMP4240T, which offers four channels at 250W output power at 100V or four ohms.

The 2250, 4240T and 4120T all include European designed Hypex

amplification and power supply technology as well as outputs with efficient Class D output topology.

The digital signal processor inside the 2250 and 2600 operates with one simple pushbutton at the back of the unit to select one of the preset operating modes.

The 4120T and 4240T, meanwhile, are said to be ideal for applications with four zones in mono, two zones in stereo or even bridged dual mono or bridged stereo systems.

These two amplifiers, along with the 2600, also contain an intelligent variable-speed cooling fan that’s only activated when needed.

This staves off overuse and unduly noisy operation and reduces maintenance requirements. www.apart-audio.com

}

that automatically places it into standby after 25 minutes of inactivity. Once in standby the amp consumes less than 1W (18W when idle).

Ultra-low inrush current draw also prevents power circuit overload, which can occur when multiple amplifiers are switched on simultaneously. This feature

eliminates the need for power sequencing and prevents other equipment from interrupted operation due to power surges.

The company provides a handy online tool for estimating the energy usage and thermal dissipation of XTRA Series amplifiers at www.extron.com/audiotools.

{Trio of amps from Dynacord } Dynacord has added a trio of multichannel amps to its DSA series of fixed installation amplifiers.

These comprise the DSA 8805, which offers eight 500W channels; the DSA 8405, offering four channels at 500W; and the more powerful DSA 8410 which provides four channels at 1,000W each.

The new amplifiers feature Variable Load Drive (VLD) technology, which 62 January 2014

provides a high degree of flexibility: each channel can be individually configured to deliver a maximum power of 500W or 1,000W into any load from two to 10 ohms, or drive 70V or 100V rms loudspeaker lines directly without an output transformer.

Users can configure the amplifiers by connecting the company’s RCM-810 remote control modules; using IRIS-Net

configuration, control and monitoring software, the maximum output per channel can be set anywhere between 100W to 500W (or 1,000W depending on model) in 1W increments, into any load from two to 10 ohms (adjustable in 0.1 ohm increments).

Connecting to IRIS-Net will also give users remote control of various functions (configuration, power on/off,

power on, delay, mute and VLD) and supervision of aspects such as load per channel, output VU, protection, limits and temperature. www.dynacord.de

www.installation-international.com

SOLUTIONS: TOISON D’OR, DIJON tion Installa

OF THE MONTH

Gold standard

In the Piano zone, a grand piano is linked

by MIDI to the water pump system within the fountain so that water can shoot into the air in sync with the music

FRANCE

Twenty years after its inauguration, the Toison d’Or shopping centre needed work to maintain its position as the ultimate shopping destination in France’s Burgundy region, writes James McGrath SINCE IT was opened in 1990, Dijon’s flagship shopping centre, the Toison d’Or (meaning ‘golden fleece’) has elevated from its original position as a side attraction to the city centre to the epicentre of shopping for France’s Burgundy region.

Two decades of use meant that the facility required a new lease of life to sustain its position as the go-to mall in the region. In 2010 commercial property company Unibail Group, which has a portfolio valued at €30.5 billion, launched a project to safeguard the facility’s future by pumping €92 million into renovation and extension projects.

Blending new and old architecture was key to the success of the project. The man who headed up the project in the 1990s was once again called upon to help ensure continuity between the structures: François Ceria of the FCERIA Architect Agency selected a curved architecture for the theme, which was most apparent in the three prominent new entry archways.

For the interior sound reinforcement system Unibail 64 January 2014

set aside €300,000 and drafted in audio consultants Ateliers Audiovisuel.

With predicted numbers of annual visitors post-project rising from 7 million to 8.5 million, the centre’s owners wanted a system that could deliver superb intelligibility for all audio advertisements and background music with the intention of this positively impacting sales. Emphasis was also placed on the importance of speech intelligibility (and RASTI score) on safety and building evacuation. What’s more, the loudspeakers needed to blend in with the architecture, and complete audio coverage of the facility was required.

The system’s audio design was a three-pronged effort from Ateliers, Lyon-based systems integrator Snef Audiovisuel and regional distributor Sound Distribution.

Ateliers opted to keep the background music system separate from the voice alarm (EN54) side of the 20-zone audio system.

“With all Unibail projects, we first look at the quality of coverage and fidelity required for the specific application

Soundtube speakers were chosen for for the BGM system

and then create a solution which conforms to the relevant needs of both the environment itself and the system’s use,” comments Ateliers Audiovisuel’s system designer, David Thiebaut.

“This was the principal reason that the EN54-compliant components were separated from the general BGM [background music] equipment – the regulations often limit the choice of products we can use, and with retail environments we need full flexibility in our product choice.”

The latter spreads across the facility’s two areas: the

‘extension’, which provides the Toison d’Or with an additional 1,200sqm capacity, and the ‘renovation’, which was the revamped original main space.

To calculate coverage and intelligibility for the different zones, Ateliers Audiovisuel employed EASE, EASE Address and Bose Modeller Plus modelling tools, while acoustic prediction and engineering were conducted by the acoustician through CATT software. A measurement statement was also taken from all the different variants to ensure targets were reached before

system handover; this was completed with a Neutrik XL2 NT, which focused on the STI and frequency response characteristics.

BORROWED TIME Two central challenges faced by systems integrator Snef Audiovisuel were completing the installation in just five months and the technical issue of interfacing the programming between the extension and the renovation.

“We spent over 1,200 hours – basically five months – on the site, with two engineers permanently dedicated to laying cabling,” comments www.installation-international.com

SOLUTIONS: TOISON D’OR, DIJON Snef engineer Rodolphe Roellinger. “The entire project used 9km of 4sqmm and 2.5sqmm HF system optical fibre cabling. “With the mix of construction going on in and around our working areas, we operated using the LEAN method (often used in manufacturing), which divides the site into small tasks with management and engineers jointly deciding the planned implementation time of each task. This allows us to quickly rectify the parts of the job that are slowing down.”

To run the 20 zones, Snef installed two racks of the ultra-low latency (0.88ms, inputs routed to outputs) Symetrix Radius system, which can be expanded up to 64 transmit and 64 receive channels at a later date if necessary. The master rack, which is located in the renovation section, contains one Radius 12x8 scalable DSP accompanied by one xIn 12 (12-input) Dante extension module as well as two Powersoft Ottocanali 4K4 amplifiers. Rack two, which is located in the extension, houses one xIn 12 and two xOut 12 (12-output) extension modules and another two Ottocanali amps.

The complete system enables individual source and volume control over the 20 zones located throughout the facility, with the DSP rack communicating with sources via Dante.

Roellinger explains: “We chose Dante because it not only offers us simplicity when networking the different zones and managing various sources, but it also gives the possibility of future extension (with a wide range of products from different manufacturers) and provides a low-latency protocol for the Piano zone” [a zone of the install discussed later]. explains Roellinger.

[ABOUT THE INSTALLER] Snef Audiovisuel is part of Groupe SNEF, a leader in the field of electrical installation and, more broadly, the management of turnkey projects and operations The group was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Marseilles In addition to Snef Audiovisuel it has more than 50 agencies and over 30 specialised subsidiaries

In choosing Dante, the facility can also accommodate additional audio reinforcement systems so that an incoming event or production can broadcast speech or concert audio throughout the mall.

The central system allows six different sources to be selected through the proprietary SymVue software, which has been installed on a computer in the security desk. This is also the location of a Cloud PM1 microphone, used for general paging calls and missing person searches.

The control software provides presets, mute, control volume, source selection and switching equipment on and off. A more basic version of this (volume control, source selection, preset activation) is accessible via Symetrix’s ARC-WEB online GUI, which the duty manager can operate via his smartphone over the local wireless network.

BACKGROUND STORY With install time a major factor in the project’s success as well as the need to address the architectural constraints, Ateliers selected Soundtube loudspeakers for the BGM system.

“As a manufacturer, Soundtube offers a large range of loudspeakers with models to cover most needs of a project demanding highquality commercial audio. In particular on this project, their range of ceiling loudspeakers could fit the majority of our space, quality and frequency requirements – using a mix of standard versions alongside special ‘small depth’ variants, including those with 4in, 5in, 6in and 8in depths,” comments Thiebaut. “On this project, we have also utilised the SM31 satellite in-ground loudspeakers for the gardens which did a superb job of creating an aural effect in an unusual situation.”

PIANO ZONE In the innovatively designed Piano zone, a grand piano stands in the middle of a water fountain. The instrument can be played in the usual way by a pianist or via a touchscreen located on the level above, which also allows programmed pieces of music to play and offers musical games for shoppers.

The piano is linked by MIDI to the water pump system within the fountain so that water can shoot into the air in sync with the music.

www.installation-international.com

[INSTALLED] AUDIO Symetrix Radius DSP (12x8) Symetrix xIn12 Dante expanders Symetrix xOut12 Dante expanders Furman CN3600SE power conditioner/sequencer Cloud PM1 paging microphone Soundtube SM400i-WH mounting speakers Soundtube CM52BGM-WH ceiling speakers Soundtube CM62BGM-WH ceiling speakers Soundtube CM52sBGMWH slim ceiling speakers Soundtube RS400i-WH on-ceiling speakers Soundtube SM31EZT-BK mounting speakers InOut NP20R network audio players Powersoft Ottocanali 4K4 amplifers Sennheiser EM 2000 UHF microphones

To ensure the music remains at a volume shoppers can hear, there are sensors dotted around the building that allow the Symetrix DSP to increase or decrease audio levels to compensate for background noise. Sound from the piano is captured via two Sennheiser EM 2000 microphones integrated into the piano itself and transmitted along the background music network.

Music for this zone and in the Orc zone – where the tail of an Orca whale can be seen protruding from a water fountain – emanates from discreetly located Soundtube SM31EZ-BK 3in loudspeakers, which are integrated into the flowerpots.

Soundtube SM31 EZ-BK 3in loudspeakers have also been hidden in planters

To run the 20-zone audio system, Snef installed two racks of the ultra-low latency Symetrix Radius system, which can be expanded if necessary

A variety of other Soundtube products are used elsewhere in the centre where architectural constraints had to be accounted for. For the circular walkways and restrooms, Snef installed Soundtube CM52BGM-WH and CM62BGM-WH coaxial twoway ceiling speakers. The mounting hardware, which is included with the speakers, features a constant tension fixed wiring system with 21 gauge steel tile bridges, which ensured rapid and secure installation. Running costs were also saved through the efficiency of 91.5dB sensitivity at 2.5W (100V) for the CM52.

Soundtube RS400i-WH on-ceiling speakers were deployed in certain areas where the architecture couldn’t support in-ceiling variants and aesthetic constraints didn’t permit wall versions. Circular walkways throughout the complex were equipped with a total of 44 Soundtube SM400i-WH mounting loudspeakers.

Six InOut NP20R network audio players, with an internal hard drive and TCP/IP network connectivity, have been installed to supply the music. A powerful scheduler adds the flexibility to provide time- and date-dependent announcements and jingles. A Furman CN3600SE protects the rack elements against extreme voltage shutdown

and reduces AC line noise, powering in a three-step delay sequence, and dissipating voltage spikes.

After completion, Ateliers and sound design agency Heho Design, as well as Snef Audiovisuel measured coverage and intelligibility; results showed that volume could increase more than 20dB above the highest ambient noise reading (NC60) and that STI (taken at night in the empty space) is between 0.55 and 0.71.

“Even if the audio part didn’t represent a vast quantity of our global budget, it was important for us to have a quality sound reinforcement,” comments Matthieu Gailly, director, Toison d’Or. “The speakers are well integrated, with no distortion so that music and advertisements are clearly heard. The user interface with ARC-WEB is intuitive and easy to use. We now have reliable equipment that will allow us to focus on advertisers and music playlists to increase our turnover.” www.cloud.co.uk www.furmansound.com www.hehodesign.eu/en www.inout-digital.com www.latelieraudiovisuel.fr www.powersoft-audio.com www.sennheiser.com www.snef.fr www.soundtube.com www.symetrix.co

January 2014 65

SOLUTIONS: SERPENTINE SACKLER GALLERY, LONDON UNITED KINGDOM

Out of sight…

[INSTALLED] AUDIO QSC Q-Sys Core 250i processor QSC TSC-8 touchpanel Lab.gruppen E series 8:2 amplifiers K-array KZ10 miniature line array elements K-array bass array element Amina AIW750E speakers

[ABOUT THE INSTALLER] Based in south-west London, RG Jones Sound Engineering was founded in 1926, and specialises in sound designs It the only UK sound company to be awarded The Royal Warrant for services and standards provided to The Royal Household and other Royal Special Events

The main part of the gallery is an old gunpowder store dating from 1805; the extension is designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

Installations in environments with high aesthetic values often demand unobtrusive audio technology – and one of London’s newest gallery spaces has certainly delivered on this. Paddy Baker reports THE SERPENTINE, a lake in London’s Kensington Gardens, has historical associations both old and recent. It is the site of a Christmas Day 100-yard swimming race that was inaugurated in 1864 by JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is a local landmark. And the nearby Serpentine Gallery has shown modern and contemporary art since its opening in 1970 – housed in a tea pavilion built in 1934.

The gallery has recently been augmented by the opening of a second space:

the Sackler Gallery, located the other side of the Serpentine Bridge. Designed

by Zaha Hadid Architects, the new venue re-uses an even older building – a former gunpowder store, built in 1805. An extension has now been added, featuring a white roof whose elaborate curves are something of a trademark of this architect. The new addition houses the gallery’s restaurant and social space, while the original building – known as the Magazine (the word being used in the sense of firearms rather than media) – is used for the exhibition space.

A total of 11 Amina AIW750E ‘invisible speakers’ are plastered into the four walls around the perimeter of the corridor space

66 January 2014

This part of the building is more or less square, consisting of four corridors that encircle two vaultedceilinged rooms – known as Powder Rooms in light of their previous function.

Arup Associates was commissioned to specify the system requirements. The Sackler Gallery required a speech reinforcement system – for day-to-day visitor announcements, along with presentations and visiting artist speeches – with an element of playback for any of the visiting exhibits that might require it.

However, the design evolved over time, particularly with regard to the choice of speakers. The result is one of the most unobtrusive audio systems that this writer has ever encountered. In the two Powder Rooms, tiny K-array KZ10 miniaturised line array elements, just 10cm long, are hidden among the beams, and a KKS50 bass array element, containing four 4in transducers, is tucked away on a windowsill. In the corridors, Amina loudspeakers have been plastered invisibly into the walls.

To give flexibility in its use

in different parts of the building, the audio system has been divided into zones.

A QSC Q-Sys Core 250i DSP unit and Lab.gruppen E series amplifiers were chosen.

The system was installed by a team from RG Jones Sound Engineering, headed by project engineer Jake Miller.

System operation is via a Q-Sys paging station – based around a QSC TSC-8 touchpanel – which can be plugged into either of two locations. Miller explains: “Using the Virtual Page Station component within the Q-Sys software we were very easily able to divide up the zones and use it as a routable touchscreen.”

Individual pages on the touchscreen GUI govern different functions. One of these is paging: the user selects the required paging zones and speaks into the attached gooseneck microphone. Another touchscreen page manages the use of an external input from a minijack connection – which has been configured for mic and line level inputs to provide the greatest flexibility.

One function that had not

Projects include: Buckingham Palace, All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Lord’s Cricket Ground, The Royal Academy of Arts, ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoo, St Paul’s Cathedral, Harrods

been completed at the time of our visit was radio mic control via the paging station. There are six input points for a single-channel radio microphone around the gallery – two in the Powder Rooms, and two in each of the east and west corridors.

Once the necessary programming has been completed, it will be possible to use the GUI to select zones for the radio mic.

A page for selecting and playing recorded messages is also available for future programming, if desired.

Paging zones can be selected via a QSC TSC-8 touchscreen

www.installation-international.com

SOLUTIONS: SERPENTINE SACKLER GALLERY, LONDON While there is currently no audio provision within the social space, cabling and speaker points have been installed there, so that this area can be brought into the main audio system in the future.

This was one of the integrator’s first projects using Q-Sys Core. “It’s definitely in our sights as a product we’ll want to use in the future,” he says. “When you fire it up, it just sees everything.” In addition to it having a lot of DSP capacity, Miller cites the Virtual Page Station function as a highlight of the product, along with “being able to grab things from that to build the GUIs”.

A QSC Q-Sys Core 250i DSP unit and Lab.gruppen E series amplifiers are at the heart of the system

www.installation-international.com

Miller gratefully acknowledges support from Shure Distribution – QSC’s UK distributor – and also from Matt Holland, application manager at Amina Technologies, over the integration of the company’s ‘invisible’ speakers into the system design as well as their installation requirements.

There are 11 Amina AIW750E speakers installed in the walls of the four corridors of the gallery. This is the flagship model of the company’s Evolution series, with the widest bandwidth and highest power handling.

“It was important from Arup’s point of view that the speaker system provided fullrange sound – bass response below 100Hz,” explains Holland. “By using two separate vibrational panels per speaker, fed via an external crossover-cumprotection circuit, the AIW750E operates from 50Hz to 20kHz.” Unusually for an Amina installation, the system design featured 100V lines.

He explains: “One of the initial challenges of integrating the Amina speakers with a 100V line amplifier system was how to deal with the crossover circuit which is designed to operate on a low impedance speaker connection. My team

K-array KZ10

worked with Jake’s to engineer a bespoke combined housing for a 100V line transformer and a crossover unit, for installation close to each speaker within the ceiling void.”

Also included in the DSP system are limiters which detect peak system levels and keep them below a maximum ceiling – protecting listeners and equipment alike if, for instance, someone drops a microphone on the floor, or too high a source level is accidentally selected.

When it came to EQ-ing the system, Holland says that, because Amina speakers are omnidirectional, he advised Miller to trust his ears rather than expect the sonic behaviour of traditional

K-array KZ10 miniature line array elements are mounted unobtrusively on beams in the two Powder Rooms

speakers. “I think he was genuinely surprised that a wide-dispersion speaker would be so effective in a reverberant space.” www.amina.co.uk

www.arupassociates.com www.k-array.com www.labgruppen.com www.qscaudio.com www.rgjones.co.uk www.shuredistribution.co.uk

January 2014 67

SOLUTIONS: TILTED KILT, ONTARIO CANADA

Sporting chance When a sports pub chain wanted to ensure it was ahead of the competition an upgrade to its entertainment offering was the answer, writes James Christopher [ABOUT THE INSTALLER]

A Crestron system provides easy control of 32 video displays

Advanced is a leading Canadian designer and installer of AV, digital signage and video collaboration solutions The company has completed more than 3,000 installations in the past two years alone and has been awarded Diamond level CAVSP by InfoComm International As well as headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario, Advanced also has offices in Toronto (Downtown), Ottawa, London and Sudbury, with partner offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax

THE TILTED Kilt chain of pub and eateries’ corporate mantra is to cater to every client. It was with this in mind that the Richmond Hill, Ontario franchise decided to invest in its AV offering to set it apart from the competition.

Canadian integrator Advanced was called in to design and install a system that would give the restaurant owner fast, easy control of 32 video displays that can show 12 different sources.

The Crestron system that controls the restaurant is the centrepiece of an AV installation that includes two HD projection systems, seven wall-mounted 60in Sharp LED TVs, 11 46in HDTVs, three Sunbrite 46in TVs in the outdoor patio area, and – the main attraction – a 138in videowall that comprises nine 46in ultra-thin NEC displays adjacent to the main bar.

The video components are supported by eight audio zones with independent level control. All the displays and audio zones can play content from 11 satellite TV boxes, the Tilted Kilt TV promotional video server and a background music server.

68 January 2014

“Richmond Hill has a very vibrant restaurant and bar community but with our state-of-the-art AV systems there’s no one else like us here,” says franchisee Patrick Murphy. “The nine-screen videowall by the bar can show a single video feed or six different feeds. With both the NFL and NHL in full swing right now, there are always several sporting events that our guests want to see.

“But even better than the TVs themselves is the technology that allows us to play any channel on any TV with the push of a button. It saves us so much time and frustration compared with the old system where each TV had its own remote, and the pros at Advanced even configured it so the system asks ‘Are you sure?’ when we make a change, to avoid accidental input or changes.

This way we can make sure that we change the correct TV to the correct channel at the correct time, and not accidentally interrupt when guests are watching the final seconds of an important game.”

According to Advanced general manager of systems

integration Omar Prashad, managing the large, complex AV system is as simple for Tilted Kilt employees as setting their DVR at home.

“The technology available today makes it easier and more affordable than ever to implement a broad video and audio distribution system,” Prashad says. “At Advanced our mission is to deliver above and beyond every client’s expectations, and that even includes free follow up training if they have questions about using their new systems.”

To access the system, Murphy relies on two permanently installed The 138in videowall is made up of ultra-thin NEC displays

touchpanels, one in the bar area and another in the dining area, to control the AV system. He decided not to use iPads as control devices because the permanent in-wall touch panels can’t get stolen, can’t be dropped, and don’t need to be recharged because they are always on. www.advanced-inc.com www.biamp.com www.chiefmfg.com www.crestron.eu www.draperinc.com www.nec-display-solutions.com www.peerless-av.com www.sharp.co.uk www.sunbritetv.com www.toa-corp.co.uk

)

[INSTALLED] VIDEO Sharp LC-60LE650U 60in LED TVs Sunbrite SB-4610HDBL46in TVs NEC X462UN LED display and E463 LED LCD display NEC NP-PA550W-13ZL projectors bundle with NP-PA550W projector Draper 116255L and 116240L projection screens

AUDIO Biamp Nexia PM and SP DSP presentation mixer TOA DA-250FH CU and DA-500F-HLCU power amps MOUNTS Peerless EPT650, PLCMUNL, ST650P, PRGSUNV and STX660 mounts Chief CMS0507, LSMVU and CMA115 mounts

CONTROL Crestron TPS-6LB-T touchpanel Crestron AV2 dual bus control system Crestron C2ENET-1 single port Ethernet card

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BACK PAGE

Rants and ramblings WE should really have run this story last month to be in time for Christmas, but we would have fallen foul of an embargo.

So we are pleased to present a singing Christmas tree. Not, we hasten to point out, one of those animatronic ornaments that become highly irritating after 10 minutes, but a lifesize tree (well, conical green tower) containing real-life singers. The tradition apparently dates back as far as 1993, and this fine example comes from Highland Baptist Church in Meridian, Mississippi. It came to our attention because it uses 16 Earthworks SR30 high-definition microphones to capture the voices of 65 to 100 singers over its nine levels. We can’t help wondering what political wranglings are involved in deciding who goes at the top of the tree, though…

Bits and pieces from the editorial cutting-room floor

INDEX Albiral.....................................51 Amina ....................................30 Analog Way..........................41 Apart Audio .........................40

The Twitterati ponder quality, speed and cost

ASL............................................4 Ateis.......................................49 Audac ....................................42 Audio-Technica......................6 BBG Peerless-AV ................45 Barco..............................17, 57 Blackmagic Design............11 Bosch .......................................9 Cadac.....................................50 Canon ....................................35 Chief.......................................29 Control4................................23 Datapath.......................26, 27 Dexon .......................................9

VAN Damme cable manufacturer VDC Trading recently held a 25th anniversary party at Abbey Road Studios. CEO Niall Holden had an interesting anecdote about the company’s investment policy when it was founded in 1987: “A lovely man at the NatWest gave us £5,000 and we thought, ‘Wow!’ It felt like free money. We went on holiday for three weeks with it to Rhodes!... We had a fantastic time in Lindos and then we thought we hadn’t had enough spending, so we bought ourselves two cars. We bought a 1.3 Sierra and a brown Cortina estate. We did all that and then we had £128 left… and that was what started VDC really.”

Of course, the company is far more fiscally aware these days and keeps a close eye on the figures – with one notable exception. Being founded in 1987, it was holding its 25th anniversary party a year late.

Digital Projection................43 Fohhn Audio.........................52 Gefen.....................................48 Guntermann & Drunck .....15 Hitachi ...................................38 ISE 2014 ...............................69 Kramer ..................................47 Lightware................................2 Matrox...................................13 Meyer Sound............................. ................Outside back cover Mitsubishi Electric .............21

THERE was the briefest of scares last month when the Metro newspaper carried a story headed ‘LED lights: Should we worry about damage to our eyes?’ Apparently a Spanish study has found that blue light from LEDs can cause irreversible damage to eyesight. We haven’t been able to track down a copy of the study, so we can’t really comment, but a doctor from the London Eye Hospital, who was quoted in the Metro story, sounded a sceptical note. He said: “The Madrid study tested someone looking at the equivalent of a 100W light bulb, at a distance of 12in for 12 hours a day.”

Then, rather helpfully, he added: “And this isn’t something a normal person would be doing.”

Mode-AL ..................................5 Nebula......................................3 Peavey ...........................18, 61 Powersoft.............................63 Prolight + Sound ................53 Projecta ................................31 QSC.........................................22 Revolabs ...............................12 Ricoh ......................................33

IF you ever go on Facebook, you’ll often see posts promising that something amazing will happen to the image if you click ‘Like’. Of course, nothing ever happens – Facebook doesn’t work like that. Whereas in the press releases we receive via email, images often contain an embedded link so we can download a higher-resolution picture. We were slightly disappointed by this image, though; even though it was a story about an installation in a bar, when we clicked on it, it didn’t bring up a photo of some lager.

Smart-E.................................44 Shure ................24-25, 58-59 Sommer Cable ....................19 Sony..........................................7 Symetrix ...............................34 Taiden.......Inside back cover Tannoy..........Front cover, 67 TOA.........................................55 Vaddio ...................................37 Vogel’s...................................53

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70 January 2014

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