Pro Systems November-December 2015

November / December 2015 R38.00

AV System Integration | Installations | Live Events | Studio PRO Audio

Cover Hospitality Story sector Best Products of 2015 Clay Paky Profile Rigging Expertise Live Events Showcase

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viva afrika

Viva Afrika Sound and Light (Pty) Ltd 45 Lake Road, Longmeadow Longmeadow North Business Park PO Box 4709, Rivonia, 2128, South Africa Tel: 011 250-3280, Fax: 011 608-4109 orders@hybrid.co.za, www.vivaafrika.co.za

In This Issue EDITOR Hello everyone, and welcome to the last edition of Prosystems Africa News for 2015. It’s been a tumultuous year, with lots on the go in the industry. It was a year dominated by the rampantly successful Mediatech Africa event in July this year. The premier African trade show for the AV, lighting, staging and pro-audio industry goes from strength to strength, and saw its most successful iteration to date this year.

Similarly, the year has been marked by growth in the R&D, marketing, and global launch of new products, and by the continued overlap between the AV and IT sectors, both in terms of market and technology convergence. In this issue we take a look at some views from industry gurus themselves about what products they thought worked best this year, and why, in our ‘Best of 2015’ feature.

Our end-user sector in focus for this issue is the hospitality sector, in keeping with the holiday spirit.

What is notable about our look at many casino, restaurant and conference centre installations is how much of a geographical growth area this is for many South African integrators. There is definitely growth in Africa, both current and potential, in the market sector, and even in areas of South Africa that are a little off the beaten track.

Our recently-launched feature offering some editorial space to expert opinions in the industry expands in this issue with, in addition to our SACIA industry feedback, thought leadership pieces on colour calibration and on aspects of rigging and trussing.

The customary live events section contains a wide range of coverage of different events in the last two months of the year, including the South African of the Year show and well-known Cape-based festival Rocking the Daisies.

Personality profiles in this issue highlight firstly the developments happening at international vendor Christie – especially the new directions and new headquarters for the business under the leadership of Richard Nye. Secondly, we have an in-depth piece on the leader of high-end Italian lighting business Clay Paky, Pio Nahum, which also provides insight into the business direction of the company after their takeover by multinational giant Osram.

Don’t forget that we’re here for you – as your resource for key industry information, trends and product news. If you want to talk about any of that, have suggestions, or comments on anything you read here and in our regularly updated website and newsletter, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m on james@sun-circle.co.za.

Enjoy the read!

James Sey

CONTENTS NEWS

PRODUCT REVIEW

Terry Acres steps down at Prosound...............3

Best of 2015......................................................30

AKG and Audiosure settle in...........................3

PLASA SHOW REPORT

Christie 6P laser lights CGV’s biggest screen in South Korea........................4

Exhibitors impressed with

Prosound steps into the AV fray......................6

PLASA 2015 and vice versa...........................38

Shure is now a Polycom technology partner......................8

COMPANY PROFILE

TPSA rigging imbizo huge success..................8

Clay Paky’s Pio Nahum:

ISE 2016 sells out four months before show....9

Preserving a vision, projecting the future.....42

ETC celebrates at PLASA...............................10

EXPERT OPINION ADVERTORIAL

Rigging and such: episode one....................46

Power quality challenges in the AV industry............................................11

Live Events South African of the Year...............................48

SACIA SPOTLIGHT

Super Skouspel exceeds all expectations...50

The trade union question...............................12

Clover Aardklop back for 18th year.............54 Joy of Jazz Festival 2015.................................58

INTERVIEW

Kilowatt AV rocks the daisies!........................60

Nye gets feet under Christie desk.................14

PRODUCT REVIEW Integration & INSTALLATION – Hospitality Sector

Martin M-Touch – lighting control to go.......62

Studio PRO AUDIO

Audiotech and TID team up for Thaba Moshate Casino..................................16

Ableton Live – the amazing DAW

Converged Connectivity

we don’t often hear about...........................64

smells the coffee.............................................20 Fine dining – fine audio..................................22

Social

Prosound spread their wings

LUMINEX Roadshow........................................66

in the African hospitality sector.....................24

TPSA rigging imbizo.........................................66 Audiosure Dealer Event ................................68

EXPERT OPINION Seeing the light – calibrating display devices.28

Contributors Elaine Strauss | A journalist and photographer, with experience in writing articles featuring a broad range of subjects, Elaine is also currently working towards completing her Masters degree in Visual Studies, while making her mark in the audio and AV industries. With a keen interest in lighting design and film studies, she is a peoples-person with a fascination for all things new and shiny. With experience in journalism, videography and marketing, she brings to her writing a passion for and understanding of various fields.

Jimmy Den-Ouden | An entertainment technician based in Sydney, Australia. His qualifications and experience span a broad range of subjects and technologies. He writes and reviews equipment most of the week, and works freelance on various shows and installations on a weekly basis. Jimmy can be seen on most GEARBOX video reviews, available on YouTube.

Eddie Hatitye | Eddie Hatitye has been actively involved in the African music sector for close to a decade.

Currently the Director of the pan-African initiative Music In Africa and one-half of the production duo Epic Minds – Eddie has his finger right on the pulse of many music scenes across the continent.

Editorial Disclaimer The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of Pro-Systems Africa News or any employee thereof. Sun Circle Publishers makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.

Sun Circle Publishers reserves the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner it sees fit comments that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, or is otherwise unacceptable.

All contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publisher.

Publisher| Simon Robinson | simon@sun-circle.co.za Editor | James Sey | james@sun-circle.co.za Managing Editor & Advertising Sales | Claire Badenhorst | sales@pro-systems.co.za In-house Journalist | Elaine Strauss | news@pro-systems.co.za Sub-Editor | Tina Heron Design | Trevor Ou Tim | design@sun-circle.co.za Subscriptions | Albertina Tserere | data@sun-circle.co.za Accounts | Helen Loots | accounts@sun-circle.co.za Sun Circle Publishers (Pty) Ltd | Tel: +27 11 025-3180 | Epsom Downs Office Park, 13 Sloane Street, Bryanston, Johannesburg | PO Box 559 Fourways North 2086, South Africa

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www. pro-systems.co.za

Publishers & Projects

news

Terry Acres steps down at Prosound After starting his business in 1973, Terry Acres, the founder of Prosound and South African sound industry legend, has decided to move away from the pressures of business and to concentrate on his own interests, which include design, consultancy and training in presentation technologies.

Terry steps down as Chairman, Director and shareholder of South Africa’s most established sound, lighting and staging company.

Says Acres: ’Having started the business at the young age of 23, and having achieved all my goals in the industry, it is time to utilise my depth of experience without the pressures of business.

"The company is in the hands of strong

Terry Acres founder of Prosound

directors and a management team that is headed into the next 40 years of Prosound innovation and quality.’’

Justin Acres and André Buys now fulfill roles as co-CEO, and Mark Malherbe continues in the vital role as Prosound’s Technical Director.

AKG and Audiosure settle in Audiosure was named as the distributor of Harman Professional’s AKG back in August of this year. The microphone brand joins the likes of Allen & Heath, Martin Audio, XTA, MC², Samson and Wharfedale Pro on the distributor’s roster. We caught up with GM Alison Taman to find out how the relationship is progressing.

ProSystems News (PSN): As background and context, please give us a brief rationale for setting up the relationship between you and AKG. Alison Taman (AT): We found that we had a gap in our overall offering with regards to both wired and wireless microphones at the highest level. AKG was our first-choice brand to fill this requirement and, additionally, brought with it an extensive headphone offering. The AKG brand perfectly complements our other premium brands and allows us to offer a far more complete range of product to our customer base.

Terry will continue his involvement in staging and managing high-end music events, working on his mission to eliminate what he calls “so much noise and bling and poorly executed technical” in musical performance.

AT: Our team have a very thorough understanding of the AKG product range and its application as well as how it stacks up against our competitors. Our technical team are well equipped to support our customers and ensure that they gain the best possible performance out of their AKG equipment.

We are very focused on ensuring that our after-sales service and support is efficient and of the highest quality.

Audiosure's Alison Taman

PSN: Which markets are you targeting specifically with their products?

AT: The AKG range is perfectly positioned to be extremely competitive in the retail market but additionally, has a really strong and innovative install offering which is very important to us. Additionally, the brand offers the touring market a very compelling and technically sound selection of product.

AKG’s powerful brand equity and the proven reliability of its product range allow us to effectively address the needs of all of these key markets.

PSN: Audiosure prides itself on the quality of its technical knowledge and support of its products. Tell us a little about this in the case of AKG?

PSN: How has the AKG product portfolio been doing in South Africa so far? What are your expectations and strategies going forward?

AT: We are extremely pleased with the performance of the brand thus far and the quality of product has absolutely lived up to our expectations. You only have to visit www. akg.com/pro to understand the extent and quality of the product range and the exceptional level of support that Harman provide for this product range. At this stage I’ll keep our strategies under wraps, but can tell you that we have high expectations for the growth of the brand and are putting serious resources behind realising this growth.

We are very proud to be representing this class-leading brand and are excited and driven by the success we have achieved since taking on the brand in July this year.

The last word goes to Dave Budge of AKG parent company Harman: “We liked the way that Audiosure approached the market and saw a great fit in our plans for growth in southern Africa”

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news

Christie 6P laser lights CGV’s biggest screen in South Korea

The 32-metre wide screen in a multiplex cinema at CGV Starium, South Korea

CGV, a subsidiary of CJ Group and South Korea’s largest multiplex cinema chain, has installed Christie’s groundbreaking 6-Primary (6P) laser projection system in CGV Starium, which houses one of the largest screens in the world. The CP42LH laser projector is designed and configured to achieve a brightness level of over 14fL onscreen in 3D and an astounding 108 000 lumens on CGV Starium’s 32-metre wide screen.

Located in the sprawling Times Square shopping mall in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo district, CGV Starium is a deluxe 545-seat auditorium equipped with a giant screen that measures 32 metres in width – making it an ideal venue for installing the Christie CP42LH high frame rate 3DLP® 4K RGB laser projector, which provides an ultra-bright and colourful platform for huge screen theatres.

This makes CGV the first cinema chain in

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South Korea to deploy Christie’s pinnacle cinematic projection technology.

The upgrade will replace CGV Starium’s existing Christie 4K dual xenon system with a state-of-the-art pair of Christie 4K laser projection heads, a 6P modular laser light farm with fibre-optic delivery, Christie 4K 3D high-bitrate server, and a new premium white screen. This particular system is designed to achieve over 14-foot lamberts onscreen in 3D and an astounding light output of 108 000 lumens, far exceeding any ‘ultra-bright’ industry standards. The CP42LH has been officially commissioned and commences regular movie screenings from today.

Anchored by the Christie Freedom® laser illumination system, the CP42LH produces a color gamut that exceeds the DCI P3 colour and replicates the Rec. 2020 space, making it the most advanced RGB laser cinema projection system available. It consists of rack-mounted laser modules where each module can produce up to 5 000 lumens of white light. Because of the scalability of this platform, up to 12 laser modules can be easily added, removed, activated or disabled depending on the brightness requirements. This provides up to 60 000 lumens per rack. Each laser module is also independently cooled, providing built-in

fault protection, improved efficiency and ultimate reliability.

Since its rollout last year, a number of cinema chains around the world have chosen Christie’s 6P laser projection system as their preferred choice for a superior 3D cinema experience. Theater chains equipped with Christie laser projection technology include Seattle Cinerama, and Moody Gardens in North America and in Asia, the iconic Shanghai Film Art Center in China is the first theater to be fitted with the CP42LH. Christie’s 6P laser technology has also been endorsed by Dolby as a foundation technology for Dolby Cinema™, a branded premium cinema offering for exhibitors and movie-goers that delivers the best cinema experience ever. So far, the famous El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood as well as AMC Theatres in Burbank, Atlanta, Houston and Kansas City across the United States are delivering this total premium cinema experience, while JT Bioscopen in Eindhoven and Hilversum in The Netherlands, and Cineplexx Linz in Austria have also commenced screenings using Dolby Vision, the visual aspect of Dolby Cinema, which is anchored by Christie laser projection.

DICENTIS Wireless Conference System Maximum flexibility. Zero interference

DICENTIS Wireless Conference System – for a truly exceptional meeting experience Combine standard Wi-Fi technology, smart wireless management, touch-screen functionality, acoustical excellence and wireless connectivity, and you get the most advanced, flexible and user-friendly conference system on the market. Being wireless, and so quick and easy to set-up and use, DICENTIS systems are ideal for multipurpose rooms, historical buildings and boardrooms where cable clutter is unwanted. Take advantage of DICENTIS today. Contact your nearest Bosch representative or visit www.boschsecurity.com

news

Prosound steps into the AV fray

Prosound AV's Derek Marsden

Prosound’s origins in the live event, and especially the stadium concert arena, are well documented. Its pre-eminence in the live sound space in South Africa has been followed by diversification into installation and integration work for many different clients, in different industry sectors, with widely varying needs. As the Prosound business has matured also, it has expanded its geographical scope, with a well-established and trusted African footprint at its heart.

Now the business is taking the logical next step of formalising a specialised and dedicated AV department as part of its corporate offering.

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The Prosound AV department is headed up by Derek Marsden, an industry veteran with a strong track record in theatre staging and AV sales and support from both distribution and integration points of view.

“The decision to have a dedicated AV department in the business is simply a logical extension of the work Prosound has been doing,” explains Marsden. “We’ll continue to focus on our existing markets, supplying top-end products, installation expertise, and support for our products across all industry sectors. The creation of a dedicated function for AV within the Prosound business means that we deepen our solutions orientation to our client base. Of course, that means we need to be brand agnostic, since we're concerned with offering the best solution for our clients under the circumstances. As with

business: “The AV sector is becoming a much more prominent part of the business globally, and is definitely a growth area.

Where previously we would have partnered with other integrators to deliver projects, now we feel that often the extent of AV growth demands a centralised and dedicated offering. This is particularly true of the convergence between AV and IT in many of our customer sectors. Where previously the network was seen as the primary requirement for connectivity for enterprises, governments, educational institutions and so on, now the AV and IT systems are much more interconnected in the delivery of services to industry sectors.

We see big growth in this area.”

While Marsden will be primarily responsible for the sales and customer

our other work in installation and integration, all our dedicated AV work will be done under mutually agreed Service Level Agreements, and we’ll have access to the best practice skills of the Prosound technical team of course.”

Marsden offers a rationale for the move to formalising the AV structure within the

relationships for the new entity, a project team under him will ensure the rapid and customised delivery of solutions. “My team has to be professional and accredited,” concludes Marsden. “The constant improvement of professional accreditation and skills training will be a non-negotiable for the team.”

news

Shure is now a Polycom technology partner Shure, a leading manufacturer of microphones and audio electronics, has demonstrated its interoperability with products from Polycom, Inc., the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C).

As part of Shure’s strategic focus on providing innovative solutions in the A/V conferencing and integration market, the company is excited to partner with Polycom, a leader in the UC&C space. Shure is working with Polycom SoundStructure, HDX, Group Series, and Vortex Solutions to connect wireless microphones to Polycom audio and video conferencing equipment.

Because Shure has satisfied Polycom’s extensive interoperability requirements, it can brand Microflex Wireless as Polycom Ready.

Polycom Ready solutions, including end-user devices, network devices, and software applications, are tested for interoperability with Polycom products and applications.

When customers see solutions bearing the Polycom Ready badge, they know they’ve been proven to work with the world’s leading open standards-based UC&C platform.

“We are very proud that the Microflex Wireless System has earned the Polycom Ready designation,” says Chad Wiggins, Category Director. “It instills in our customers the confidence that they can easily deploy our wireless solutions within their Polycom UC&C infrastructure.”

“Our customers sometimes need to add wireless microphones to their Polycom audio or video conference room and training room configurations. Innovators like Shure help extend and enhance Polycom’s UC&C solutions by delivering real value and reliable interoperability – and because of that, Shure has earned the Polycom Ready badge,” says Ted Colton, Polycom Group Vice President, Technology Partners & Alliances at Polycom. “Together, we’re delivering UC&C solutions that power richer conversations and higher productivity, transforming lives and businesses in the process.”

Polycom Technology Partners are committed to teaming with Polycom to improve the customer experience by adding

unique value to Polycom solutions and solving customer business challenges. The Polycom Technology Partner Program is comprised of Polycom Foundation Technology Partners and Polycom Premier Technology Partners. Premier Technology Partners have invested in a deeper relationship with Polycom and commit to an ongoing partnership, spanning activities such as business planning, development, additional testing of solutions, and joint go-to-market activities. As a Premier Polycom Technology Partner, Shure collaborates with Polycom to develop unique, customer-focused solutions that collectively broaden the portfolio offerings of Shure, Polycom, and the nearly 7 000 members of the Polycom Partner Network.

Along with Shure, Polycom Partner Network members enhance and extend Polycom’s open, standards-based video collaboration solutions and together deliver the most complete UC&C solutions available to more than 415 000 Polycom customers.

Through the Polycom Partner Network, technology providers, ISVs, solution advisors, integrators, service providers, and other valued partners can easily address the multifaceted needs of today’s organizations that are using face-to-face video collaboration to improve productivity, engagement, time-to-market, and business continuity as well as for unique applications across various vertical industries.

TPSA rigging imbizo huge success The new TPSA (Technical Production Services Association) Council held a rigging imbizo in Northriding, Randburg on 22 September, to brainstorm with various members of the live entertainment industry about adopting a rigging standard throughout the country.

The imbizo provided an open platform for all who attended to give their opinions about possible options regarding these rigging standards.

Many of the attendees emphasised the importance of taking responsibility, when it comes to safety standards at temporary rigging for live events and similar functions.

The main idea seemed to be that responsibility needs to be defined and taken for what is done specifically.

The benefits of having a basic standard, as well as certified members at various levels of training, in order to regulate excellence and levels of expertise was another hot topic of the day.

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Tony Smith, Kevan Jones and Bruce Schwartz

According to Lighting Division Manager of Electrosonic, Bruce Schwartz, the more people get involved in this initiative, the faster everything can be established.

“We did not have this meeting today to push any kind of agenda onto the attendees, but rather to get a better understanding, from all aspects, of what the industry wants and to create and move towards a sort of standard and a sort of training,” he said.

Executive Director of SACIA (Southern African Communications Industry), Kevan Jones, there has been a lot of positive feedback from most participants of the Imbizo.

“Our intention was to engage with industry on how best to create a level playing field with regards to event safety and particularly rigging standards in the live events industry. It is very evident that some sort of best practice guide that sets out acceptable industry standards is needed. While SACIA will publish the guide, it needs to be crafted with input from a broad range of stakeholders, including engineers, safety officers, venue owners, rental houses, technicians, associations, metro councils and EMS services,” Jones said. “Creating this guide will now become a priority of the TPSA Council and undertake to drive and implement it in the near future.”

news

ISE 2016 sells out four months before show

With the first four-day Integrated Systems Europe exhibition now open for attendee registration attendees can look forward to the biggest and busiest show so far. With four months to go before the show opens over 43 000 square metres have been sold to exhibitors – an increase of 11% on the 2015 edition.

ISE 2016 will once again occupy all halls of the Amsterdam RAI. Namely, hall 1-12, plus the Diamond Lounge and the new Amtrium building – booked entirely by Samsung Electronics.

The increase in sold floor space at the show supports the decision to take the exhibition to four days' duration so as to allow exhibitors and attendees the maximum opportunity to meet and network at the event.

“The fact that the four-day ISE is ‘sold out’ indicates that it was the correct decision to

expand the show and a vote of confidence from our exhibitors and partners,” explained Integrated Systems Events’ Managing Director Mike Blackman. “We are sure that it will deliver a richer experience for everyone who attends,” he concluded.

Notable first time exhibitors include: Monacor, Beckhoff, Chauvet, D3 Technologies, Asus, KV2 Audio, Mimi Systems, Adboard, Hoellstern, GLP, Acano, Renkus Heinz, NEXT Proaudio and Plantronic.

Research has shown that ISE has become increasingly relevant for IT professionals operating within the AV industry and those looking to gain entry or secure partners within the installation and integration marketplace. In response to this ISE will be partnering with selected IT media brands and running advertising campaigns across IT print and digital media to ensure that IT professionals are fully aware what ISE has to offer. ISE will be working with leading PR company Bubble & Squeak on this campaign.

Integrated Systems Europe has also announced its updated board of directors which includes the addition of recently

appointed CEDIA CEO Vincent Bruno. Bruno was formerly the marketing director for Crestron Electronics leading its global marketing strategy. He also sits on CEA’s TechHome Division Board.

The full ISE board is David Labuskes, Executive Director and CEO of InfoComm International (ISE Chair), Vincent Bruno, CEO of CEDIA, Terry Friesenborg, Chief Global Officer of InfoComm International, Wendy Griffiths, Executive Director of CEDIA EMEA, Jay Rogina, Principal of Spinitar, Wolfgang Lenz, President of Comm-Tec, Tobias Lang, CEO of LANG AG and Ollie French, Commercial Director of Future Automation.

Integrated Systems Europe will take place at the Amsterdam RAI on 9-12 February 2016.

To coincide with the four-day show new opening hours have also been introduced: Tuesday: 10am – 6pm Wednesday: 9.30am – 6pm Thursday: 9.30am – 6pm Friday: 9.30am – 4pm

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news

© Digital Deluxe 20

ETC celebrates at PLASA

ETC is celebrating winning the only Gold PLASA Award for Innovation at the PLASA London show in October. The Eos® software version 2.3 provides unprecedented colour control options for LED fixtures, including abstract colour spaces and fade tools, allowing users to adapt their workflows in this constantly evolving art form. Giving the Gold award, the judges described the software, which also provides access to the OSC protocol for the first time, as 'a game-changer.'

The control desk itself was busy on the stand throughout the three day show, with product manager Anne Valentino giving hands-on demonstrations.

Also popular on the ETC stand was the new ColorSource® Spot fixture, and the new ColorSource Relay and Transmitter.

ColorSource Spot follows the launch of the hugely popular ColorSource PAR, which marries RGB emitters with lime, completing gaps in the spectrum to provide high quality lighting for venues on a tight budget.

ColorSource Relay and Transmitter, meanwhile, transform small-system design,

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by combining power control and wireless data in a budget-friendly, effective package.

Cobalt® and Eos Programming Wings were also seen for the first time, bringing powerful programming power in a small, portable package. The systems allow programmers to travel with a physical control surface, in combination with an ETC nomad system.

A separate stand across the aisle was dedicated to ETC Rigging, which was displayed at PLASA for the first time.

In the seminar areas, ETC’s Jeremy Roberts discussed how the company has been working on improving the control of colour changing fixtures, with the aim of making LED lighting as natural and easy to use as tungsten; and Luke Delwiche led a seminar showing how OSC can be used to bring lighting to life.

ETC also brought their popular student sessions from USITT and LDI to the PLASA show on Monday evening. Students were able to ask about the future of lighting control and product development, as well as about training and work opportunities.

There were other winners at the show, with student Robert Butler given a £250 ETC Award at the Michael Northern Bursary presentation; and ETC’s Luke Delwiche and Sarah Clausen presented a cheque for almost £20 000 to the Behind the Scenes charity, following sales of the iRFR and aRFR mobile apps.

At the Knights of Illumination Awards presentation, which was held on Sunday

evening, ETC’s CEO Fred Foster was presented with the Lifetime Recognition Award. When he won the Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, the judges said that his 'visionary leadership has propelled ETC into the top rank of the world’s leading manufacturers of stage lighting equipment.' This time, the judges commented that they wanted to celebrate 'his astounding influence on performance lighting technology and the innovations achieved with his colleagues at ETC.' Lighting designer Durham Marenghi said the judges 'wanted to recognise Fred’s support of theatre across the board from training and all the way through to manufacturing.'

The developer of the acclaimed ETC Source Four® luminaire and lamp, David Cunningham, also won a Gotellier Award at the PLASA show. Although he has never been directly employed by ETC, the independent inventor also worked closely with the company on Sensor® dimming and the x7 Color System. Fred Foster collected the award on his behalf.

ETC had another trade show outing at LDI in Las Vegas in October, with another chance to see ETC’s newest products. In addition to the trade show stand, ETC’s Education and Training Specialist Tom Littrell gave a Master Class, 50 Shades of R80, which went beyond his popular ‘Layers of Light’ presentation to open up a world of colour control, allowing you to experience new LED colour sensations.

ADVERTORIAL

Power quality challenges in the AV industry

By Wynand Langenhoven, Peripheral Vision

The IT and AV industry relies on some of the most advanced mission critical equipment on the market today. Typically, the IT infrastructure is thought of as the lifeblood of any company’s day-to-day operations, where failure of any IT equipment can lead to catastrophic losses. A single downtime event now has the potential to significantly impact on the profitability of an enterprise.

As part of that infrastructure, costly AV Systems can have a huge negative impact on business if they go down. Despite the value of the equipment connected to power, proper protection from our sometimes sub-par power systems is often not taken seriously.

For most small and medium sized businesses, proper power protection is not utilised. In some instances, the server closet also shares circuits with the office environment, which includes refrigerators, microwaves, and multi-functional printers. In a multi-tenant building the server closet could be connected to anything 'plugged in' by other tenants in the building.

Traditional surge protectors typically rely only on Metal Oxide Varistors (MOV’s) as the primary surge protection component, and generally offer very little in the way of noise filtering. The performance of an MOV degrades with every surge that it is subjected to, allowing more and more surge energy to reach the connected equipment.

The SurgeX Multi-Stage solution Superior to conventional single-stage MOV circuitry found in most surge protectors, industrial-grade ESP/SurgeX protection solutions are engineered with patented Multi-Stage hybrid power protection technology and a robust electronic noise filter to improve the reliability of sensitive electronics. Unlike typical protectors, this solution eliminates power disturbances generated from power lines and other nearby equipment and provides industrial-strength power conditioning technology and intelligence. This type of solution protects IT equipment against surges, spikes, noise, over/under voltage anomalies and wiring faults that impact the performance of mission critical systems.

In addition to superior surge and noise protection, industrialgrade, multi-stage protection solutions also provide protection against other common power anomalies. Zero voltage turn-on and in-rush current limiting insure that the UPS and connected equipment are protected from high line voltage/current during start-up. Over-voltage protection insures that connected equipment is protected against sustained voltage swells, preventing damage to power supplies.

UPS protection alone is not adequate and tests performed demonstrate the results of IEEE Cat B surge event passing through a UPS, with and without ESP/SurgeX Multi-Stage surge protection. The results demonstrate a dramatic difference in let-thru voltage that connected equipment is subjected to.

Successful companies utilise industrial-grade, multi-stage Surge plus PDU solutions to protect their IT equipment and business infrastructure. When selecting power protection, it is critical to have a solution that includes industrial-grade, multi-stage surge protection to safeguard the functionality and performance of your IT equipment, as well as to maintain the continuity of your business. SurgeX offers a 10-year parts and labour warranty on their equipment in South Africa.

Surge Elimination Power Conditioning • The only technology that ELIMINATES surge energy up to 6 000 Volts • No ground or neutral contamination (MOV’s are not used) • NRCS (National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications) approved • 10 year product warranty www.peripheralvision.co.za

sales@peripheralvision.co.za

+27 11 840 0860

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SACIA SPOTLIGHT

The trade union question Over the Past few weeks there’s been quite a lot of press about the proposed launch of a new union to represent employees working in the cultural and creative industries.

Established by Basil Dube as the selfappointed Union Convenor, the South African Media Creative and Cultural Workers Union (SAMCCWU) has described itself as 'a progressive trade union organisation that will represent, protect and fight for the rights of filmmakers, writers, musicians, arts educators, craft workers, television crews and technicians, workers in radio broadcasting, tourism as well as those employed in government arts and culture departments, cinema and production houses and academic institutions.'

Despite the strong position expressed by Dube, there is a great deal of resistance to his ambitions, not least of all from those he purports to represent.

As this discussion rolls out over the next few months, I thought it might be appropriate to explore the differences between a trade union like SAMCCWU and a professional body like SACIA. To start with, a trade union is an organisation of workers who have come together to achieve common goals such as improving safety standards, achieving higher pay or creating better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members in order to maintain or improving the conditions of their employment.

The major differences between a trade union and a professional body like SACIA are: (1) membership in a professional body is only open to industry professionals who meet minimum criteria in terms of qualifications and work experience, while membership in a trade union is open to all employees working in a specific market sector; (2) members of a professional body are required to sign a code of professional conduct and abide by an industry code of conduct; (3) while a trade union is established to represent the interests of members, a professional body is generally the disciplinary/ regulatory body for an industry sector and is responsible for protecting the public interest. (4) the primary objective of a trade union is collective bargaining while the primary aim of a professional body is to set standards, award professional designations and to encourage continuous professional development within the sector.

Having examined the principal differences between a trade union and a professional body or guild it’s also interesting to explore the challenges likely to be faced by this new union. The greatest challenge is that the vast majority of individuals active in the creative and cultural space are not employed directly by any one company,

12

but rather work as freelance contractors on specific projects. This is as true for AV technicians as it is for actors, writers, musicians, video editors and camera crew.

Since a union represents the interests of individuals who are employed rather than individuals who define themselves as contractors, it’s difficult to understand who might want to join this new Union. Most of the disciplines active in the creative workspace are already represented by Societies or Guilds, while the acting community, through the South African Guild of Actors, is already aligned with UASA, a union registered with the Department of Labour.

While the film industry is not unionised, the interests of industry professionals working in film are largely governed by commercial agreements entered into between production companies and the freelance crew who are employed both on and off set. These guidelines cover job descriptions, rates of pay, working hours, and a host of other issues that clearly define the rights and obligations of production companies and the contractors working on set. While the guidelines were originally drafted by the Commercial Producers Association (CPA) and are deemed binding on CPA members, they are so universally applied that they’ve become an industry standard adopted by all major stakeholders. Similarly, the SA Guild of Editors (SAGE) has published contract templates that define the relationship between editors and production companies, while the Writers Guild (WGSA) has published templates that define the contractual relationship with performance writers. Certainly the position assumed by established writers, editors, technicians, actors and crew is that there’s simply no need for another trade union.

Less certain is the position taken by newer entrants to the industry who have expressed their belief that they’re denied opportunity to earn a living wage. Unlike experienced technicians with an established network of business contacts, newer entrants within the audio-visual sector battle to secure regular work and have great difficulty in proving their competence. Part of the reason for this lies in the lack of training available to aspirant technicians. Freddie Nyathela’s SARA Academy does a great job of training youngsters and provides an NQF-level 4 (matric) qualification to individuals who complete the programme, but the training alone is inadequate and is simply the first step in a process of learning required to match the requirements of employers.

At a higher level, students enrolled in Tshwane University’s entertainment technology programme can study all the technical aspects of the entertainment industry up to doctoral level. The backstage world of entertainment offers a broad spectrum of job and career opportunities, and many of the graduates from TUT are snapped up by employers or progress to establish their own businesses. It’s the technicians who operate between these two qualification levels that seem to battle the most.

Until the introduction of the SACIA certified AV affiliate designation (SAQA designation 594) these people had no way of demonstrating their competence. Now that the designation is available, industry needs to encourage freelance technicians to write the exam and earn a professional designation – and once they’ve done so and are able to prove their competence, industry needs to ensure that certified members are contracted and paid at a level that recognises their professional standing.

The problems faced by AV technicians in South Africa are not unique to our country. An alarming report issued by Australian industry group Entertainment Assist in August this year painted a stark picture of mental health in the concert and live entertainment community.

According to the report, Australian concert professionals are three times more likely to seriously consider suicide and twice as likely to attempt suicide as the general public. Severe anxiety is ten times more likely in the entertainment industry than it is in the general population, and depression is five times more likely.

The implications of the report are alarming both for Australia and South Africa and pulls the veil back on a taboo topic that’s rarely addressed in trade magazines or industry conferences. Suicide and depression are particularly high among road crews and mid-level professionals who face irregular work patterns which often lead to long-term insomnia and low pay, often without medical benefits or retirement contributions.

According to the report '44% of the respondents agree they don’t get enough sleep, and 45.5% have disrupted sleep. This suggests those in the entertainment industry suffer sleep disorders seven times greater than the general population.'

The report also found that '57.9% had problems finding time for their families, 63% had trouble maintaining a social life, and 45% had trouble keeping contact with their friends in the industry.'

'Within the arts and entertainment industry, there is a growing concern and set of investigations into anxiety, especially performance anxiety, where the context of work behaviour becomes so negative that people are no longer able to function either at the optimal level – or sometimes at all,' the report reads.

Entertainment professionals were twice as likely to binge drink than the general population, four times more likely to smoke pot, nine times more likely to abuse prescription drugs and 12 times more likely to use cocaine.

Besides the long hours and exposure to easily available drugs, the reports blames uncertainty about income and work for the sky-high depression rates and found that a road-crew worker is nine times more likely than the general public to kill themselves.

Malcolm Finlay, a member of the TPSA council, has responded to the report by declaring: “This is an industry that gets abused daily by the cheque-book holders. It desperately needs the protection of an independent body."

The question then becomes whether the protection provided by an independent body should come from a Union such as that proposed by Basil Dube, or whether the protection should come from a professional body that promotes health and safety standards, awards professional designations, encourages continuous professional development and protects the public interest.

My assertion is that SACIA is an ideal position to create better working conditions for all professionals working in the audio-visual and live event sector. By promoting the adoption of professional standards and creating an environment in which the skills of all individuals can be formally recognised against the National Qualifications Framework, we create an opportunity for people to work in a professional environment and earn a living wage commensurate with their skill and experience.

13

INTERVIEW

Nye gets feet under Christie desk

14

INTERVIEW

Richard Nye was appointed earlier this year as Regional Director for Africa within Christie EMEA, moving from his position as Director of Digital Cinema, a position he held for the past 14 years. Nye’s move coincides with the building of a new dedicated facility in Johannesburg for the global visual display solutions business.

James Sey caught up with him for a chat about Christie and the African region.

The US-headquartered visual, audio and collaboration business clearly sees continued opportunity in the EMEA region, and has identified South Africa as its bridgehead into the potential growth markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Setting up the South African operation in the natural economic powerhouse of Johannesburg is an exciting move for Nye. “For the past three years, Christie has been operating out of a small Regus office, achieving outstanding results with limited resources. The logical step to allow the growth and development of our African business was to open a 100% corporate Christie office.

“Our key objective in building and fitting out our African headquarters in Johannesburg is to provide the business with a customised – and customer-focused – base of operations. Through installing our full-function demo and training facilities, we’re showing our commitment to developing and growing our African markets,” he says. “That commitment extends to our channel partners, since we will host open days for them and their customers, as well as offering local training courses tied to the Christie university programme currently operating globally as part of Christie’s on-going training and development drive.”

Nye is justifiably proud of the plans for the new facility, and excited about its possibilities. “We have two demo areas in the facility,” he explains. “The first is an open showroom for key products, such as our extensive range of LCD and single chip DLP Projectors, MicroTile displays and other flagship products. This area replicates part of our very successful exhibition stand at this year’s MediaTech Africa show.

The upstairs demo room features a huge screen to showcase Christie’s super-bright outdoor projection equipment, multi-projection blended images, as well as rear-projection display wall cubes, all in a flexible

multipurpose space.

“In addition, we’ve built in meeting rooms which are kitted out with our finest corporate collaboration and unified communications products, and a fully configurable training and breakaway room which initially will be focused on a key strategic area for us – training in digital cinema.”

The facility will also feature its own service centre, as well as warehousing space, which will be key for Christie in supplying reliably and timeously to other African markets. “We do want to grow the major African markets in sub-Saharan African from our Johannesburg base,” Nye continues. “And the longer-term strategy is to develop these markets in collaboration with local presence and agencies. Our focus for growth will be on our control room business, and on the higher-value end of the business, for example in the corporate market for our collaborative communications and control products. My role is to refocus our dealer network on Christie product in the first instance, and then to educate and evangelise for our product set across different end-user sectors where there may have been less of a concentration in the past.

Part of the process will be to assess how our dealer channel is working in different markets and territories, and to adopt a collaborative approach with them to improve the mutual business strategy and grow our business together. The punitive exchange rate means that we have to find novel and more productive ways of working! But on the plus side, the feedback we’ve already had from partners and the market is that they are very excited by our local presence and the support structure it affords.”

The formal opening of the new Christie office will be in January 2016.

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Integration & Installation REPORT

Audiotech and TID team up for Thaba Moshate Casino

By Elaine Strauss

Exterior of the Thaba Moshate Casino

As the newest addition to the impressive Peermont Group, the Thaba Moshate Casino needed the best of the best for its AV, evacuation and BGM installations…

With more than 10 resorts on 14 properties across the African continent, including Hotels and Casinos, like Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park, Gauteng, the Peermont Group is renowned for their excellence. The newest addition to the group the Thaba Moshate Casino in Burgersfort, Limpopo, naturally had big shoes to fill and, as such, requested the help of commercial and hospitality installation specialists, Audiotech.

For the evacuation and BGM combined system of the Casino, Peermont enlisted the services of the multi-faceted TID to work alongside AudioTech, making this a formidable team of experts in the field.

According to Audiotech’s Managing Director, Craig Hooker, the Peermont Group’s primary business is gaming and the client experience, from the time that the customers walk in to the Casino to the time that they leave, is of utmost importance.

“Audiotech’s experience and expertise assisted the Casino to provide this experience to their valued clients from an audio and visual perspective. Hooker commented: “Peermont wants to make this a destination of choice for people in the region and providing the correct audio and visual solution was of paramount importance.

We listened!”

For the Casino area, Audiotech chose to use Biamp Audiaflex Digital Signal Processing for the background music processing and control, Biamp Vocia for the audio evacuation system and Atterotech analogue to cobra net devices to run the audio across the Casino’s IT

16

backbone. Bittner amplifiers were used for non-emergency amplification, along with Bose surface, ceiling and garden speakers.

“A unique feature to the solution design, was the combining of the background music audio and EN54 compliant voice evacuation into one,” says Hooker. “The Biamp Vocia power amplifiers are certified to EN54-16, and the Bose loudspeakers are certified to EN54-24; the combination of these products, along with the non-emergency components like Atterotech and Biamp Audia DSP, delivered a standards compliant, high quality professional audio and voice evacuation system, able to deliver the functionality and flexibility required for the entertainment component of the system.”

Hooker also mentioned that the TV head-end is a Triax system with distribution over coaxial and NEC projection, Kramer scaling and switching with Crestron control used in the Convention Centre.

“Although we have deployed and installed large TV systems of this size in the past we had not installed a Triax TDX system. The Triax system is user friendly as well as simple to programme and commission” says Hooker.

Tiaan Hoogstad, Marketing Manager at TID, said that Bose, Biamp Audia and Vocia were used with the design of the casino’s evacuation and BGM combined system.

“For hospitality installations like the Thaba Moshate Casino, I highly recommend the use of products like Biamp Voica, which is a networked BGM and Voice evacuation system, combined with Bose speakers for background music and in room audio. I would also recommend RDL In room products for wall mount amplifiers, controllers and speaker modules.”

According to him, the demand for technology that uses network and wifi infrastructure is rapidly increasing in the hospitality industry.

“Most audio products connect to networks in some way. Protocols such as Dante and AVB are changing the way that audio systems for

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Integration & Installation REPORT

The casino floor

hospitality are designed and engineered.”

Hoogstad states that owners and operators of hotels tend to spend millions on interior decorators to get the look and feel of the hotel right and a lot of money is also spent on lighting, catering equipment, which often leaves the audio component at the end of the line when it comes to budget.

“This has however changed over the years, since we have started working directly with the operators to specify the correct equipment.

The proof of this can be seen in all major casinos and hotels around the country. The age old concept that the chain is only as strong as its weakest link remains true in this market as the audio system has to complement the rest of the top class products installed,” he said.

He emphasised that correct products are vital anywhere: “Hospitality is a demanding and competitive market, where guest expectations are extremely high, so correct choice of reliable products can help ensure that the guest experience is maintained without interruption. Quality audio installations can also become a differentiating factor in the venue’s competitive advantage.”

Hooker also emphasises the importance of using top brands of products for hospitality installations, saying: “Again, due to the relatively remote nature of the location, making use of quality products from reputable manufacturers and suppliers and support The conferencing room

18

integrators like Audiotech is a definite advantage for the Peermont Group. Being able to diagnose and repair problems remotely as well as replace faulty parts at short notice is non-negotiable. The casino is a 24/7/365 operation so there is no time to remove and repair. Selecting and integrating the correct products was key to this project’s success.”

Despite the challenges and logistics of working in a very busy but quite remote location and meeting the tight opening date deadline, Audiotech were able to overcome all the obstacles due to the passion and professionalism of the team.

“Good planning and keen commitment shown by all our staff was key to our success. If accurate and meticulous planning is carried out this is 80% of the work done. What remains is the 20% required in the implementation phase. This is a policy that Audiotech follows for all projects and has brought the company success with all of our projects across the continent,” Hooker said.

In conclusion, he thanked all involved in making the Thaba Moshate Casino installation a success.

“Thanks need to be given to the client, the projects team, Audiotech staff involved and our suppliers, specifically TID and Space TV, without whom this project would not have been a success.”

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Integration & Installation REPORT

Converged Connectivity smells the coffee

A unique new gourmet coffee bar restaurant in Pretoria is the intriguing and stylish site of a recent customised installation by local integrator Converged Connectivity. James Sey spoke to founder Kevin McMillan-Craig

Converged Connectivity is an integration company with a special focus on the hospitality industry, with many of their commissions in exclusive hotel chains and high-end restaurants. “We work with many boutique hotels and concept restaurants,” says McMillan-Craig. “Our focus as a business is on customised installations and helping our clients to achieve a unique atmosphere and experience for their clients – which is what the hospitality sector is all about, that service ethos and good client experience.”

In the case of the Aroma Roastery in Pretoria, the owner, says McMillan-Craig, is himself an engineer, and a dedicated audiophile – which meant that the sound installation part of the job was very clearly specified for Converged Connectivity. “It’s a very unique space, with quirky and stylish décor, and a different set of spaces which we had to soundscape – the main restaurant area, the Coffee Academy and the Gelato bar, all with a mix of indoor and outdoor zones.”

“The brief entailed getting a good sound coverage across all the different spaces – not necessarily big sound, but a clear and omnipresent sound field, without ‘hotspotting’, which would enhance

20

the guest experience. For that purpose we used Bose pro audio speakers, with a Nexia CS DSP from BiAMP Systems. For the different mix of requirements in the Aroma space, such as between indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as the range of resonances in the interior spaces, with real wood finishes and so on, we needed a centralised digital sound processor. Through that we could programme in different EQ curves for the different speaker types in different spaces and reach an optimal sound balance from a centralised control system. For example, we installed the Freespace Bose DS100 SEs in the main outdoor space, which are eco-friendly and weatherproof, and a different Bose Freespace system in the main indoor area. Neither of them ever become intrusive, and both provide a great, even sound coverage of those areas.

“We also installed the discreet, high-mounted 86in UHD LED screen in the interior space. It’s an easy proposition to work in spaces and projects like this. The owner clearly has passion and vision in what he wants to achieve, and it’s a really fun, quirky and unique space to relax in. Our job is simply to enhance that experience.”

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Integration & Installation REPORT

Fine dining – fine audio

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REPORT Integration & Installation The Café del Sol brand is an award-winning fine-dining restaurant concept in Johannesburg, with two restaurants developed in the city so far. The family–owned business, based on fresh Mediterranean and especially gourmet Italian cuisine, has become famous for its attention to style and design detail in its restaurants. This attention extends to their AV set-up, especially in the new flagship restaurant in Bryanston, Café del Sol Botanico, and its accompanying exclusive lounge bar, The Landmark. James Sey spoke to co-owner Ryan Viljoen and Neville Rumble from leading distributor Wild & Marr, who supplied the equipment and worked with integrator Craig Harris from Audiobility on the installation.

Café del Sol Botanico restaurant in Bryanston

“I’m a complete audiophile,” confesses Viljoen. “So I really wanted a sound system in the Bryanston Café del Sol Botanico space that was warm and organic, since that goes with the restaurant’s concept, but is also like the kind of vibe I have for my system at home. But while it had to be a comfortable sound ambience, my brief to Wild & Marr and Audiobility was also that it had to be fully flexible, controllable and offer the best sound quality and coverage you’ve ever heard in a restaurant! So no pressure!” he laughs.

The restaurant and bar areas were divided into six different zones for the installation, each with slightly different requirements to achieve the kind of results and flexibility of control that Viljoen was after.

Rumble takes up the story: “In the main dining area of the restaurant, which has an open roof design, we implemented a high concentration of JBL Control 50 series wall mount speakers with wall mount sub-woofers to complement the low frequencies. In total we installed eight Control-52 speakers and two Control-50ST sub-woofers in this area.

“Between this area and the other part of the main dining area there is a big height discrepancy. In the part with a much lower ceiling height we used a high concentration of eight JBL Control-40 series ceiling speakers, supported by two Control-40 series ceiling sub-woofers to improve warmth and overall feel.”

A separate sound zone in the restaurant doubles as both a private dining room, and a corporate function/meeting room, with a basic AV setup. The sound system remains high-end, however, with two Control-47 speakers installed.

“Outside, in the leafy patio area, we used a range of six all-weather JBL Control-25 speakers, and we also installed Control-26/C ceiling speakers and JBL 8138 ceiling speakers in the bathrooms and common areas, ” continues Rumble.

Viljoen was concerned that the high-concept Landmark Bar area should be well-served with a sound system that could be subtly turned up as the noise volume of clients went up in a crowded bar scenario. Rumble deployed two JBL PRX-700 series 10” active speakers reinforced with a PRX-700 series 15” extended LF active sub to do the job.

Finally, the management of the entire system was key for Viljoen, since his duties around the restaurant involve constantly moving around the space. Wild & Marr implemented the BSS BLU-100 Audio DSP processor for maximum flexibility from a zoning point of view, which offers detailed dynamics for system tuning and calibration as well a simple flexible user control. The system enables the restaurant to control either through BSS BLU-8 wall control panels, or through Apple iPAD/iPhone remote wireless control.

“We had a really good time on the installation,’ concludes Rumble.

“And it was a pleasure collaborating with Craig Harris – Audiobility were a very professional and proficient company to work with on the job, and understood their client’s brief completely.”

‘The system is perfect for our needs,” concludes Viljoen. “It’s flexible, warm, robust and offers superb sound coverage throughout the space. It’s also very easy to control from a centralised touchpoint.

We’re very happy with our ambience.”

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Integration & Installation REPORT

Prosound spread their wings in the African hospitality sector

UBCC (University of Botswana Conference Centre)

Prosound has a documented corporate growth strategy of expanding into other African markets from their established headquarters and base in Johannesburg, South Africa. Several of the target market sectors in which the company is strong, such as the live event arena, have provided a way into other markets, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The growth of the hospitality sector in other African countries, driven by business and leisure tourism, is providing plenty of opportunities.

The stability and economic growth happening in nearby Botswana has resulted in numerous projects for the business. Prosound has a dedicated Botswana office, headed by Karuoya (David) Mwai and his team, who handle local projects on the ground, supported by Prosound Head Office in Johannesburg. James Sey took a look at some of these installations.

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REPORT Integration & Installation

UBCC Bar

UBCC hotel

University of Botswana Conference Centre As part of a growing need to host visitors to the University, including guest speakers and lecturers, as well as those on training courses, the University of Botswana in Gaborone is building a state of the art Conference Centre and Training facility, which includes a 72-room hotel with ample room for assessments, lectures and group conferences. Prosound Botswana has been working on the hotel project doing AV installation for the client, China Jingsu International.

Two sets of assessment areas, to be used to train teachers and lecturers, are being fitted with Bosch cameras, allowing the assessor to monitor the lecture room on Elite screens, as supplied by Electrosonic, with Optima projectors.

The hotel gym is also being fitted with Bosch surveillance cameras and speakers.

A 150-seater auditorium has been fitted out with an Optima projector, EVsX300s, with three on-stage boxes for lectern facilities.

UBCC hotel room

For the more corporate and professional conferencing facility aspect of the hotel build, a yet-to-be-completed Video Conferencing room is set to be equipped with two Samsung 55 inch screens, and a Radvision Video Conference system, powered by a Crestron controller. This 18-seater boardroom-style venue has 9 docking stations for plug-in devices.

Additionally, four more meeting rooms, with interactive 84-inch touchscreens are to be included, each with Bosch speakers, and each room will have a media hub above the TV panel with EVsp40.

The hotel rooms are fitted with energy savers, with BYOD media hubs in each room allowing for Bluetooth, USB and HDMI usage.

Not forgetting the leisure aspect of the facility, the outside bar, which has stunning views through to Gaborone CBD, will have Soundtube speakers suspended from the dome-like ceiling.

Finally, over 180 Bosch evac speakers are being installed throughout the entire hotel.

Travelodge, Botswana This new hotel conference facility includes a 700-seater conference hall, with Elite screens and Optima projectors. Bosch LC2s were used for sound, speakers in the two areas need to cater for partitioning of the space for adaptable usage.

On site at the UBCC

Building site at the UBCC

UBCC auditorium

UBCC bar dome

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Integration & Installation REPORT

GICC (Gaborone International Convention Centre)

GICC The GICC, or Gaborone International Convention Centre, is ideally situated at the Grand Palm Hotel and Casino venue in Gaborone. At over 5 200 square metres, this state of the art new venue was built in 10 months, making it is the largest building created in Botswana at this pace. The main venue is fitted with Electro-Voice speakers and ETC lighting. Recent events at this venue have included Miss Botswana, making great use of Prosound’s truss columns and staging.

The Peermont Walmont Hotel in Gaborone, part of the Grand Palm Resort, is an 188-room hotel ideal for business and leisure. The Fig Tree Cocktail bar has a lovely outside setting by the swimming pool and its calm ambience is highlighted by the installation of Soundtube XT Series outdoor speakers, their durable components perfect for long-lasting performance.

The hotel restaurant is interconnected with this system, through an Ashly processor.

The variety of hospitality installations Prosound is currently engaged with in Botswana give some indication not only of the possibilities that exist for growth and expansion in other African markets, but also in the growing strength of the Prosound brand in these regions.

Setup at the GICC

Grand Palm Restaurant

GICC interior

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EXPERT OPINION

Seeing the light – calibrating display devices

By Julian Cohen

Test pattern undergoing calibration

The legendary American producer and director George Lucas, best known as the creator of Star Wars, identified a universal challenge in the way movies were viewed by audiences. He realised that audiences were not able to view movies as the director intended them to be seen. The reason for this? No standard had been established for display devices when they left the factory. The brightness, colour and contrast calibration of screens was an unregulated area of technology. The way an individual experienced a movie was entirely dependent on the twiddling of buttons by the employees at the retail store where the screen was purchased or the intentional boosting of the brightness during the production process by the manufacturer.

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EXPERT OPINION

have the right base colours to mix in the first place.

For example: If your bucket of red paint isn’t perfectly 'pure' red, no matter how you mix in the other primary colours you’ll never you’ll never be able to get that red any more correct.

Video calibration has been around since the dawn of television. It’s not a new concept. It will also continue to be useful far into the future as new technologies and content are invented. Wherever there are movies and television, calibration will always be required.

Calibration of an LCD wall

About the author Lucas went ahead and devised a solution to the problem. He applied his resources to developing the standards that would address the lack of a universal measure of colour calibration. Through standards developed by his company THX, audiences were finally able to view movies in the spectacular form that was intended for them.

The solution that made this possible was a system that could calibrate all display devices, TVs, projectors and LCD screens. This system provides a set standard to ensure that any movie or set of images is viewed as an accurate interpretation of its creator’s vision.

An analogy for this is the speedometers in our cars. We assume that all speedometers are set to a universal standard of speed. If we are driving 120km per hour we accept and assume that all cars regardless of their make and model will be travelling at the same speed if the needle on the speedometer is reading 120km.

This is not the case with manufactures of viewing equipment.

Manufacturers of TVs, for example, realise that people buy TVs according to which screen is brightest. The brighter the screen, the greater the chances of selling the TV. The manufacturers have learned that the key to make screens brighter is to make the whites brighter – and the way to make whites look brighter is to add blue, a lot of blue. Have you ever noticed that the most popular brands of washing powders are blue in order to make your whites whiter? All electronic display images are made up of red, green and blue primaries and cyan, magenta and yellow as secondaries. Most screens have the colour blue boosted by up to 50%. The result is a screen that appears brighter but in fact none of the images are displayed correctly because they are now appearing against a blue canvas. This discrepancy can only be fully appreciated when you compare an incorrect screen with a properly calibrated one. The difference is astonishing.

Calibrating both the greyscale and colours will greatly improve your display’s ability to not only produce black and white accurately but every other colour in between. It will also improve the contrast and allows your display to operate closer to its optimal levels thus prolonging its operating life.

Without proper greyscale and colour calibration the image quality is far from perfect and results in incorrect colours, poor shadow details (loss of darker details), reduced contrast and lack of image ‘punch’.

The picture is simply not very engaging nor is it lifelike. Movies are created and meant to be displayed at 6500K colour temperature, so if your TV is calibrated properly to 6500K, you’re that much closer to seeing what the director intended.

If we compare this to painting with a brush, greyscale calibration ensures that the proper amounts of paint are mixed together to get the colours we need, while colour calibration is ensuring that we

Julian Cohen is the Managing Director of Avstage, an audiovisual rental company specialising in the staging of corporate events.

Several years ago he attended and completed the THX Video Calibration training course in the United States. He is the first person from Africa to complete this course.

• Distributed system with separate MixRack and Surface • DEEP processing embedded plugins • Redundant hot swappable power supply standard across the range • Redundant connections throughout • 814 system inputs and 824 outputs max • Up to 5 audio networking cards – Dante, Waves SG, ACE, MADI Imported by

www.audiosure.co.za

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PRODUCT REVIEW TRACKING TECHNOLOGY

Best of 2015

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TRACKING TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT REVIEW

The best products of 2015 are highlighted by experts.

Digital Fabric was started by Gavin Olivier after 15 years of contracting in a diverse range of markets from Corporate AV to theatrical lighting and effects.. Formed in 2004, the company rapidly became the leading consultants in the field of museum, visitor attraction and heritage work. The last four years have seen projects from the far reaches of Limpopo to the tip of Table Mountain, covering diverse topics ranging from ancient San rock art to modern day beer making.

Gavin Olivier, Managing Director of Digital Fabric, used the WePresent 2000 for various projects this year and spoke about its reliability: “I have to say that a favourite for me was the WePresent 2000. A simple, reliable wireless presentation device that works with across all platforms, the way that we are deploying it is of note, in a current project across university campuses. Wireless connectivity over WiFi to the university network using 802.1x allows university users to push presentations to the projector. This has saved the project the cost of many fixed network ports and works pretty much out of the box. I used the WePresent 2000 at new universities in Kimberley and Nelspruit. Nothing we found quite matches this product at the price point, which is why we are so impressed.”

The WiPG-2000 has a faster SoC and internal memory which greatly increases speed and all-round performance for all WePresent users. It incorporates all functions of the WiPG-1000 and all interactive features of the WiPG-1500. Besides this, it brings some useful new features to your wireless presentation environment. Connect WiPG-2000 to an interactive display or projector and it will create the ultimate wireless and interactive collaboration environment.

Gearhouse South Africa started out with a little equipment and a lot of imagination. Today, with more state-of-the-art equipment and experience than any other event technical supplier in South Africa, they haven’t lost the imagination that got them there – or forgotten that small business is how they started out and came so far. Gearhouse, which works mainly in the corporate audio visual sector, is the sole South African representative of the AV Alliance: an international network of like-minded companies which is committed to perfect service and quality at the highest possible level.

Aaron Harvey, AV ops manager at Gearhouse Johannesburg, spoke about the benefits of the Dataton Watchout 6: “The intuitiveness of the Dataton Watchout 6 software package is incredible. With 3D models and LED Mapping, flexibility within the show control is great for the size and complexities of the shows we do.

The sync between multiple outputs and multiple machines is great.

The low maintenance cost of the Panasonic RZ 12K Laser Projector is also amazing. It features an extremely long life light source of 20 000 hours minimum, great dynamic contrast 20 000:1 and high speed processing for fluid motion reproduction. We used the Watchout 6 at the Bidvest Awards, MBSA VITO Launch and at South African of The Year. The Panasonic RZ 12K we only demo’d. The only thing I would change on the Watchout 6 is to add a built-in countdown and naming generator, pixel space enforcing setting, which would allow you to drag a clip into a track on your timeline, which would size and position your clip automatically. What I would like to change about the Panasonic is the price!

“We have enjoyed working with Penmac AV this year, for their great all round friendly service on Watchout and also with Pansolutions, for their fantastic technical backup and customer service.”

With over 15 years of experience in thousands of productions and presentations of all kinds, all around the world, nothing else comes close to the Watchout. What’s more, with its unmatched flexibility, Watchout really is the Swiss army knife of multi-display presentations. Watchout 6 is the most significant upgrade ever.

It brings a wide range of new features, while remaining just as cost-effective and rock-solid as ever before.

The Panasonic RZ-series utilses Intel’s very latest Core M Broadwell architecture, delivering more power with less heat and longer run time. This allows the RZ to weigh an astounding 1.64 pounds (745g). Despite its light weight and 0.77” (19.5mm) thickness, the RZ is designed to pass a 2.5-foot drop test and 220-pound pressure test. It’s ultra-durable, as well ultra-thinand-light.

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PRODUCT REVIEW TRACKING TECHNOLOGY Keystone is a group of companies that offers a full range of audio, lighting, staging, video production services and a variety of studio facilities. Keystone is a complete solution for medium to large scale events and specialised media productions. The company mainly works in the corporate and TV markets.

Chris Bolton, of the Keystone Group, has long been in awe of the grandMA console and spoke of how this product changed the way he works: “My grandMA console is easily the best product, for me. I have recently changed platforms and the new software release has changed how I do my thing! It really stood out for me, recently on the Starlight classics show and currently on Afrikaans is Groot. The seamless integration of two or more programmers into one show environment coupled with all the fancy bits – pixel mapping through VPU to mention one. More time in front of it for each show would be all I could ask for…

“Other products that stood out for me include the Clay Paky Mythos, for its unbelievable versatility, and the Martin Mac Viper consistently surprises me. And still at the top of my lighting list is the Robe Robin Pointe, because it is just a beautiful fixture. You can’t ever have too many of those.

“At Keystone we have had a long term relationships with Mark Gaylard at MGG in Johannesburg, Brandon Bunyan of Black Coffee in Durban and Donald Clark at C&S in Cape Town and we love working with them. The guys have given us great service all year. We couldn’t do what we do without proper tech support and so Duncan Riley and his Team at DWR, as well as Robbi Nassi and the guys from Electrosonic are great to work with. The boys are always there when we need them.”

The grandMA console is a product of MA Lighting International GmbH. The grandMA2 full-size represents MA Lighting’s most powerful console and offers the control of conventional light, moving lights, LED fixtures and media from one platform.

Equipped with the most up-to-date technology and even some special features (e.g. keyboard drawer and multi-touch command screen), the grandMA2 is suitable for all lighting segments. It supplies an intuitive and fast control of all connected fixtures and channels.

Dimension Data accelerates the ambitions of its clients by delivering exceptional value through its great people.

As an organisation it is inspired by teamwork, innovation, diversity, and integrity. It is driven by professional excellence and always places its clients at the centre of everything it does. The company works mainly in the JSE Top 100 sector.

Dion Bruyns, General Manager for Unified Communications and Collaboration at Dimension Data, was very impressed with the Extron MPA152 Plus Amplifier the past year: “The MPA152 Plus Amplifier was easily the best product over the last year for me, and it was used in large scale deployments for our enterprise clients. I wouldn’t change a lot about the product if I could, because it is priced just right for its capabilities. Though not in the same league, the We Present WiPG-2000 with the updated software is also a great device.

"We have worked really well together with Wild & Marr, the suppliers. Their innovative solutions and great stock holding is incredible.”

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The Extron MPA 152 Plus is a quarter rack width, stereo integrated mini power amplifier that delivers 15 watts rms per channel. The MPA 152 Plus features a 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio with 0.1% THD+N, offering exceptional performance for speaker systems requiring compact, economical audio amplification.

The MPA 152 Plus is an ENERGY STAR® qualified amplifier with an Extron exclusive, highly efficient, advanced Class D amplifier design. It also features patented CDRS™ – Class D Ripple Suppression technology that provides a smooth, clean audio waveform and an improvement in signal fidelity over conventional Class D amplifiers. The Extron exclusive, high efficiency design generates very little heat and allows the amplifier to be fan-less and operate in environments with little or no ventilation.

Converged Connectivity was founded in 2013 by Kevin McMillanCraig, born out of a need to better service the Audio, Visual and Collaboration market. Concepts like Unified Communications imply that telephony and telepresence are applicable to connecting people and places only. Convergence in its truest form allows people, places and content to merge into a singularity. Connectivity facilitates people, places and content to be inextricably linked through this singularity. The company works to achieve this singularity mainly in the hospitality audio, video and digital signage sector.

For Kevin McMillian Craig, Director of Innovation at Converged Connectivity, EPSON Visual Instruments really stood out in 2015: “The quality of EPSON Visual Instruments’ products is unsurpassed, featuring the easiest installation, and a high degree of user intuition, with the development of wireless presenting and the Smart Device App. “We used them at RWC 2015 Sun Fanparks and I can honestly say that the EPSON products are far ahead, with no need for any immediate enhancement or change. There are literally no other brands that come close to EPSON. “We always enjoy working with EPSON, and Bose Professional Audio on the audio side. We enjoy working with all our clients. Though we do not boast a massive list, we have the better part of the top of the hospitality brands.”

EPSON manufactures electric devices ranging from crystal oscillators and LCDs to SRAMs and ASICs. For more than 15 years, EPSON marketed electronic devices through two US affiliates. The first, EPSON America, Inc. (EAI), was responsible for developing our quartz devices, LCDs, motors, magnets and device-applied products. The second, S-MOS Systems, Inc., was responsible for semiconductors, CARD-PCs, silicon foundry, packaging and services. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., EEA is located in Silicon Valley, the heart of the nation’s high-tech industry and home to many leading universities.

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PRODUCT REVIEW TRACKING TECHNOLOGY EPH Productions specialises in audio, video, lighting, structures and staging -basically all technical requirements – but recently started a prop and décor division as well. With over 40 years of cumulative experience by their management team, they can supply a full production plan from concept to the final song on the dance floor.

They also supply a stage design and drawings service, floor planning to the last centimetre, structures, rigging, stages, daylight screens, power and technical crew.

Leon Pheiffer from EPH Productions, told us that two products stood out for him in 2015: “For me, the new Robe Robin 1000 LEDBeams are amazing, as well as our new P5mm LED Screens from Gloshine. We just completed our annual Event for RMB where we used the LED panels in 4m, 3m and 2m cubes for video and it looked amazing. The new beams are also so versatile with their 64 degree spread that you can completely wash any room with them. They are brilliant and very stable and have not missed a beat. Obviously we would love some BMFL and we will be purchasing some but there is a huge price difference.

“With regards to companies we enjoy working with, I have worked with Wild&Marr for 20 years now and just think Darren and Joe are the best. They have always stood by me and supported us in everything.

Furthermore Duncan from DWR is a legend and a true friend and gentleman. You deal with companies because of the people.”

Based on an array of powerful 15W RGBW LED multichips, with revolutionary optics especially developed for a high output under any circumstance and with the moving head fitted with fast-spin motors which utilise our popular super speedy software driving technique (as used in the Pointe and Robin 100 LEDBeam), the Robin 1000 LEDBeam is the right unit that you need for any high profile stage, long distance throw or extra wide theatre scene.

The P5mm LED Screen has three basic colours (red, green and blue) to form the unit boxes, 256-level gradation of red, green and blue form 16777216 kinds of colours, making the electronic displays showing rich colours, high saturation and high resolution, and also enabling them to show high frequency dynamic image. The products adopt super-high brightness LED, so that you can see clearly from a long distance even in strong sunshine.

With years in the professional audio game, Audio Logic can provide the expertise and have the knowledge to make any event, be it corporate or concert, a huge success. The company prides itself on being a service supplier of international standard and with its vast range of audio equipment; it can design the audio and production of any event, using equipment that will specifically work for the event. With a number of world class engineers at their disposal, utmost professionalism is guaranteed. Audio Logic is a single discipline company that specialises in pro-audio only and does all live audio from corporates to concerts and a lot of television productions.

Marius Marais, Managing Director of Audio Logic, spoke about the benefits of incorporating Soundcraft digital consoles in his work: “The Soundcraft Vi3000, Vi5000 and Vi7000 digital consoles as well as the new STUDER VISTA V and VISTA X have been favourites of mine this year. Technology is growing and the workflow platform from both these product ranges is just phenomenal. We own various Soundcraft and STUDER consoles and the ease of use and channel count is what really stands out. Soundcraft and STUDER both have forums that are brilliant communication platforms to make suggestions and both companies are quick with advice and support. Competitive brands that stood out for me include Allen and Heath’s ME-1 personal monitoring system, which is a brilliant product, with ease of use on the Danté platform. This product is any monitor engineer and musician’s dream.

“Regarding our favourite companies, we work with a lot of companies throughout the year and we have a very good working relationship with the industry players, which makes it difficult to just mention one or two.”

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The Soundcraft Vi3000 features an all-new appearance with a more efficiently designed control surface, 36 faders, 24 mono/ stereo busses and a sweeping black screen panel with four Vistonics II™ touchscreen interfaces with sleek, updated 3D graphics. Because the Vi3000 has four touchscreens, it’s the only console in its class that can be used by two engineers at the same time.

Both the Vi5000 and the Vi7000 digital mixing consoles deliver the best Vi sound, bringing optional 96kHz processing, upgraded channel counts and even more reliable hardware to live sound’s most popular mix interface.

The Studer Vista V console harnesses Quad Star technology from the acclaimed Vista X to deliver a powerful, dependable and flexible broadcast audio mixing solution in a compact form factor.

Marking an enormous step forward in large-scale mixing console technology for broadcast applications, the Vista X, together with the Studer Infinity Core, offers an unsurpassed intuitive user interface, retaining the patented Vistonics and FaderGlow user interface, providing control of 800 or more audio DSP channels and more than 5 000 inputs and outputs.

TechRig is South Africa’s foremost technical solutions agency and delivers the highest level of expertise with professional technical equipment in a global arena. One of the most important showcases for a company is a launch event and TechRig takes the stress out of launches by ensuring all AV requirements suit the event and the venue. TechRig has the resources to accommodate large scale indoor and outdoor events; their team is adept at liaising with meeting planners, producers and end-users and is able to provide a complete range of exceptional quality dependable event technology services.

Michael Collyer, Director of TechRig, spoke about the power of the SGM Q-7: “The SGM Q-7 is a super powerful 26 000 ansi lumens LED wash light fixture that not only has IP65 rating but has very little to no maintenance needs. We use it on every show, from mapping, wash and effects to audience blinders. The only thing I would change about it, is for it to have more units.

“We really enjoy working with Barco, as their 26k and 40k projectors are bright, reliable, colour masters – real work horses.”

SGM Q-7 is a low-profile and compact RGBW flood, blind and strobe. Containing 2 000 power RGBW LEDs it is a powerful adjustable multi-purpose fixture with a spread angle of 110°.

Together with IP65 rating, a high output of 28 000 lumens and having a small physical footprint, the Q-7 is an ideal fixture for outdoor use to light up buildings, facades, architectural structures and attractions. As versatile as it is, the Q-7 is also suitable for indoor applications such as TV studios, theatres and other applications where a flicker-free wide flood of coloured light is requested, meanwhile providing the entertainment designs with a flashing bright colour strobe effect.

www.alustage.eu 35

PRODUCT REVIEW TRACKING TECHNOLOGY Lucidity facilitates all the technical and logistical aspects of corporate or live events, dealing with the audio visual, lighting, staging, sound and set and stage design elements. They focus on the needs of the client and offer multi-faceted support in all sectors of the event staging industry. From an intimate boardroom conference through to product launches, exhibitions, seminars and large scale outdoor events. Lucidity has close on 20 years of experience in the event staging industry and has vast knowledge in the various technical elements of an event.

Paul Newman, Owner of Lucidity, spoke about the features of the Martin MLA Mini PA System: “For me, the best product I have used in 2015 is the Martin MLA Mini PA System, for its power, versatility and supreme clarity. We used the MLA Mini at the SCC Pavilion conference & gala dinner for 2 500 people and it really stands alone, no other products comes near this PA System.

“I always like working with Martin Audio, there is no other company that comes close to it.”

Scalable and extremely versatile, the Martin MLA Mini is ideal for portable sound rental, small-to-medium ballroom, theatre and HoW applications and is the natural choice as an infill for MLA Compact systems.

It is designed as a complete system, with a companion MSX mini-sub power-plant which houses the amplification and DSP to power and control itself and up to 4 MLA Mini enclosures. Arrays and MSX’s can be remotely controlled from a laptop or wireless tablet running VU-NET™ control software with its intuitive graphical interface. In the simplest configuration, four MLA Minis can be polemounted above the MSX as a plug-and-play system using on-board pre-sets instead of computer control.

Corporate AV Integration works mainly in the boardroom, digital signage and retail environment sector. The company was founded in 2011 to provide corporate audiovisual (AV) and radio frequency (RF) solutions that help their clients maximise their return on investment in these complex and potentially expensive technologies.

Stefan Mayer, Managing Director at Corporate AV Integration, has lauded the Kramer VP-426 input scaler and spoke about the benefits of this specific product: “One of the most useful products for us this year has been the Kramer VP-426 input scaler. It allows for auto switching between VGA and HDMI inputs without the need to change the source on the display and we use it extensively in most boardroom installations. We like to keep things simple for our clients and thus far we haven’t come across anything comparable at the same quality level yet. The other great thing is that there is nothing I would change on the Kramer VP-426, because it has already been enhanced from the old version VP-425 “Our favourite products are without a doubt, Kramer, Crestron, Epson, NEC and Samsung LFD’s – the main reasons being longevity and virtually no comebacks or hassles. The distributors selling these products also offer superb support, which is one of our most important reason for choosing these brands.”

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The Kramer VP-426 is a high-performance digital scaler for computer graphics/HDTV and HDMI signals. The unit up- or down-scales computer graphics and HDTV signals to resolutions of up to WUXGA and 1080p. Applications of the VP 426 include projection systems in conference rooms, boardrooms, auditoriums, hotels and churches, production studios, rental and staging or home theatre up-scaling. The compact MegaTOOLS® – 2 units can be rack mounted side-by-side in a 1U rack space with the optional RK-T2B rack adapter.

NV controller “NV has the ‘X factor’ DJs have been searching for.”

• Integrated displays let you focus on the music, not the computer • Full-color, 1:1 real-time visualization of Serato DJ software • Intelligent, touch-activated EQ, filter and effects knobs • Groundbreaking effects tweaking, EQ kills, and filter sweeps • 16 velocity-sensitive trigger pads with backlit RGB feedback

viva afrika

• Plug and play with Serato DJ (included) – no purchase necessary • 4 decks of cutting-edge Serato DJ control • 10 pad modes for triggering samples, cues, loops, and slicing • 2 dual-zone wheels with adaptive touch technology • Includes Toolroom Records Remix Packs • Toolroom Records Remix Pack features audio stems from the world’s premier dance music label

Viva Afrika Sound and Light (Pty) Ltd 45 Lake Road, Longmeadow Longmeadow North Business Park PO Box 4709, Rivonia, 2128, South Africa Tel: 011 250-3280, Fax: 011 608-4109 orders@hybrid.co.za, www.vivaafrika.co.za

PLASA SHOW REPORT

Exhibitors impressed with PLASA 2015 and vice versa

Exhibitors at PLASA 2015 were impressed with the show and the awards presented by PLASA showed its own appreciation of the exhibitors.

The show Three successful days in early October saw the PLASA Show bring its three-year stay at London’s ExCeL to a close, with the promise of a revamped and reinvigorated event at Olympia for 2016.

New for this year, the innovative zoned layout of PLASA Show 2015 was clearly a success, allowing show visitors to easily find the exhibitors they wanted to visit. In turn, this meant exhibitors enjoyed the attention of high quality visitors throughout the show.

“We were extremely busy all day. We changed the way our stand looks for this year and it’s worked fantastically,” said Koy Neminathan, Sales Director for Avolites and Avolites Media after the first day.

As in previous years, PLASA Show Platinum sponsor Robe occupied a large area and Robe CEO Josef Valchar pronounced himself very pleased.

“We had a really positive reaction to the stand, with people truly

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thrilled with the theatrical environment,” he said. “The One Light Show, a performance lit by leading South African LD Michael Broderick, was completely sold out. We could easily have doubled the capacity. The hourly rock lightshow was also well received, attracting hundreds of people to the stand every time.”

Despite criticism of the show in recent years for a lack of audio in its exhibitor base, those that attended reported brisk business.

“PLASA 2015 was a successful show for us,” said Terry Murphy, Sales Manager (UK and ROI) for Yamaha Commercial Audio. “We received many high quality sales leads for Yamaha mixing consoles and CIS installation products, with the Nexo products on show also the subject of many enquiries. PLASA attracts potential Yamaha customers from across the industry and we were pleased with the number who visited us.”

Christopher Toulmin, Director of PLASA Events, said: “We are grateful to Platinum Sponsor Robe, Gold Sponsor Clay Paky and Silver Sponsor TMB, as well as all the exhibitors and visitors for their help in making PLASA Show 2015 a success.”

“It was good to end our stay at ExCeL on a high and we are excited to be moving back to West London in 2016 for a new, refocused PLASA Show at Olympia.”

He continues: “We have listened to a great deal of feedback and are making some significant changes to ensure that, next year, we will deliver an event that is better aligned for the needs of the market.

With the continued success and support of the industry for our Focus events, next year’s London Show will build on what we have learned.”

The awards The PLASA Awards for Innovation & Sustainability 2015 and the Gottelier Award, sponsored by Lighting & Sound International, were presented at the PLASA Show at London’s ExCeL on the evening of 5 October.

This year, 31 products were nominated for the Awards for Innovation & Sustainability, with eight awards presented, including a final Gold Award for Innovation.

The winners had to satisfy the judges that they demonstrate a new style of thinking, that they improve technical practice, have introduced new technologies, materials or techniques, that they feature patents or unique intellectual property, offer a new commercial advantage, or improve safety.

This year’s Gottelier Award winner was David Cunningham, an early pioneer of computer lighting systems who developed a number of landmark products for Strand during the 1970s and '80s, including the Multi-Q memory lighting system, the Micro-Q console, the Lightpalette and the CD80 dimming system. He went on to develop the Source Four profile through his own company, Entertec, before entering into a hugely successful partnership with ETC, with whom he went on to develop many other successful products, including the Sensor dimmer.

The eight PLASA Awards for Innovation were presented by Ed Pagett, Chairman of PLASA’s European Regional Board, and went to: • Avid for the SL6 – The judges felt that this console was extremely well-engineered and thought out with improved ergonomics and workflow, coupled with scalable flexibility. This affords it versatility for different markets including broadcast and touring.

• RC4 Wireless for the RC4Magic-DMXpix – the judges said, “Sometimes things are taken at face value because that’s ‘just the way it is’. This product, though, will make life much easier for many technicians as it solves the whole logistical problem in managing pixel control in long strings of LEDs. Regardless of the manufacturer of the LED string, this device will allow a significant reduction in channel count while still enabling individual LED control in all manner of applications, from architectural lighting to costumes.”

• Elation Lighting for the Platinum FLX – The panel found that this was “a versatile moving light that solves a number of problems in one fixture. The spot/beam/wash hybrid design uses clever mechanical engineering that actually delivers a useable result in a manageable size and budget.”

• Robert Juliat for DALIS – The judges said “the colour rendering from this product is beautiful. The fixture is well designed and elegant with a very good uniform beam pattern and will no doubt be a feature of many stages in the future.”

• d&b audiotechnik for the V7P and V10P loudspeaker – The judges found this to be “a well-engineered small and light point source speaker that delivers exceptional levels with good directivity. Its versatility will appeal to many sectors of the audio market.”

• Area Four Industries for EXE Cell – The judges said, “This rigging product gives excellent vision indication by presenting load information clearly to users. It uses a combination of software and technology built into the motor to afford the user a great deal of real-time load information.” The Judges felt that this was 'well designed with some innovative features.'

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PLASA SHOW REPORT

• Eaton – Zero 88 for the FLX Lighting Console – This console was felt by the judges to give “a revolutionary approach to colour and movement for the tablet generation as part of a well thought out-desk package aimed at an accessible price point for entry-level and more professional users.”

• Gold Award: ETC for the Eos Version 2.3 – The judges said: “This product seriously impressed the Judges who felt that it is a game-changer in the approach designers may take to colour control. It unlocks the potential of LEDs and matches the way that lighting designers think in terms of colour. It returns colour mixing and colour fading back to a conceptual level rather than maths and numbers. It allows the designer to choose the way a colour changes rather than letting the control decide.”

Commendations went to SSE Audio for its ProSight2 and Safety Lifting Gear for DUKE – battery-powered electric chain hoist.

The Judges also gave commendations for what they described as worthy toolbox products. The first is the Prosight 2 from SSE Audio, which is a refinement of an elegant solution to the problem of quickly adjusting line arrays in arduous conditions. The second product, the Duke battery powered chain hoist from Safety Lifting Gear, is a simple manual handling solution that will find its way into many trunks to assist with rigging.

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The future Speaking at a meeting for PLASA Members held during the PLASA Show, John Simpson, PLASA Governing Body chairman and chairman of the White Light Group of companies, said: “Without doubt our major issue this year has been that of diminishing profit, which has led to a critical cash-flow problem for the organisation.

“We have taken action in implementing cost-cutting measures across many parts of PLASA, including reduction in staff, putting the Eastbourne office up for sale and a substantial restructure of the organisation. We have overcome the immediate cash flow problems for 2015, but will be limited in services we can provide during 2016 – which is why our Members’ feedback is so important as we look forward.”

On the termination of the merger agreement between PLASA EU & PLASA North America (formerly ESTA), Simpson said: “Both associations will retain the assets they had prior to the merger, which in the case of PLASA will be all the event and media assets not including Protocol magazine, the property in Eastbourne, various programmes, the Technical Resources Office and our skills-based qualifications such as the National Rigging Certificate. Negotiations are now in progress to allow an orderly separation of operations that are jointly owned and settlement of outstanding financial matters.”

SHOW REPORT PLASA In a move that has been warmly welcomed by the majority of PLASA’s Members and exhibitors, the PLASA Show will move to Olympia in 2016, and return to a September dateline, taking place from 18-20 September.

The relocated three-day show will draw on PLASA’s experience of the hugely successful PLASA Focus Leeds event, and be based around smaller, more affordable exhibiting packages with a shorter build time, giving exhibitors more flexible opportunities and a faster return on investment. In addition, by utilising the adjacent Olympia Conference Centre, it will provide access to an industryleading education and Professional Development Programme, as well as to the all-important accommodation and after hours entertainment possibilities that West London offers.

PLASA Director of Events Chris Toulmin said: “Despite the ever increasing opportunities to market driven by technology, face-to-face interaction and maintaining ongoing relatioships continue to be key routes to market.

The creation of the PLASA Focus event was a response to the changing landscape of exhibiting for our industry. That is why we have continued to evolve and develop this model to create a new show suitable for the entertainment capital of the world.

"Moving back into the heart of London will undoubtedly boost the interest and support for the show. Visitors can expect a more interactive, informative and rewarding experience. Exhibitors can expect to see a significant audience of key creatives and decision makers combined with reduced cost and time commitment of participation, bringing that all-important return on investment.”

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COMPANY PROFILE

Clay Paky’s Pio Nahum:

Preserving a vision, projecting the future

Clay Paky OSRAM business headquarters

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COMPANY PROFILE It has been nearly 40 years since lighting product design pioneer Pasquale Quadri established forward looking entertainment lighting manufacturer Clay Paky. Since then the company has grown to become one of a few truly innovative, market leading product designers and manufacturers in the entertainment lighting sector. Last year, in a carefully timed deal, just weeks before Quadri passed away, Clay Paky ownership was handed to German lamp manufacturer Osram. Now, one year on, Pro-Systems catches up with Quadri’s long-term cohort, close friend, business ally and now CEO of Clay Paky, Pio Nahum…

Pio Nahum is a delightful, charming and confident man. Well liked by all who know him, he is a talented linguist, speaking four languages fluently. One of the great business communicators of the lighting industry, Nahum has long been instrumental in delivering Quadri’s creative vision.

Unlike many in the lighting business Nahum is not an ex-lighting practitioner turned salesman; he is and always has been a very focused and professional businessman. His detailed understanding of the entertainment market is built on a solid grounding in international business alongside many years of careful observation and a strong working relationship with his customers and other industry key influencers.

As a team Quadri and Nahum presented a perceptive and forward thinking force, often demonstrating the ability to predict changes in customer tastes and behaviours well in advance and with prescience. In fact Clay Paky is renowned for orchestrating some of the most exciting, insightful and inspiring product launches of the past 20 years.

It’s therefore no surprise that the process of becoming CEO of the new Osram-owned Clay Paky brings Nahum an interesting mix of challenges and benefits: “With any acquisition there is always some expectation from staff, customers and the public that things will change for the worse,” Nahum states. “We accept that the process will not always be easy because there are so many different elements and processes to anticipate and manage, but it presents a very positive time for growth. The advantage for us is that Clay Paky has worked with Osram, both in product development and as a customer, for nearly 30 years. This means that we had an established understanding of what we were dealing with.”

It was for this reason and others that Quadri’s preference was always Osram. “At the time I didn’t necessarily agree with him,” reveals Nahum. “My view was that Osram is an industrial company, its core business is not focused on the same kind of applications as our products.”

Nevertheless Nahum was expected to be open to all proposals from the moment the sale proposition was mooted: “Paky asked myself and two other colleagues to negotiate the various aspects of the deal, independently of one another, with each of the potential buyers. Most of the other interested parties were private equity firms.

“Of course there are pros and cons to both solutions,” continues Nahum. “Sometimes it can be better to work for a finance company because they have no idea what the business is and

43

COMPANY PROFILE

Pio Nahum, CEO of Clay Paky

they have to trust that you do! Osram has a different profile. It saw Clay Paky as an industrial investment and that relationship in itself tends to have a much longer lifespan.”

Quadri elected not to attend any of the pre-sale discussions and left Nahum and his colleagues to make a shortlist of the three best offers. “For the sale of the company I was simply the salesman.

Another member of our team negotiated the price. Paky wanted to ensure that all parts of the negotiations were impartial and that the best deal was struck for the company. It was my job to sell Clay Paky to each of the interested parties, without prejudice, and deliver the best options for Paky to choose from.”

This process confirmed to Quadri that the company’s future would be safest in Osram’s hands. “They have a clear vision for the company,” explains Nahum. “They want us to continue to develop and add to our existing range of products, to widen our market reach and to expand our products into film, television and other entertainment sectors. This approach aligns very much with our own plan, which makes it good for Clay Paky, good for Osram and most importantly good for our customers.

“Osram sees Clay Paky’s continued success as an important vehicle for promoting the wider company and for communicating its diverse success –an factor for the shareholders, yet at the beginning I was concerned that Clay Paky’s business model was too far from that of Osram’s,” confesses Nahum. “However, during the final negotiations I felt Osram increasingly respected the way Clay Paky works. We are and always have been consistent in our approach to business and there is a clear and tangible foundation to build on.

That’s why today Osram has decided that Clay Paky should operate, for the most part, independently.”

Today Nahum is working in close collaboration with Osram to deliver Clay Paky’s agreed-upon goals: “Firstly our customers can be assured that our management team will remain the same. Osram doesn’t expect us to adopt their procedures, their IT system or their branding approach. We are a stand-alone Osram owned business. I

44

The production line at Clay Paky

am hugely grateful for this.”

One of Nahum’s first jobs when Clay Paky was acquired was to put together his five-year vision is for the company. “What first attracted me to Clay Paky and remains the challenge today is building a strong operating foundation in a constantly changing, fast moving market.

While today the entertainment industry is the ideal setting for innovation and creativity, it is also a hugely saturated and fickle market. While any marketing person will tell you the ideal model is to be able to launch as many products to market as possible, that also has to be sustainable.”

Clay Paky is also aware that what it sells has to deliver value to its

COMPANY PROFILE

customers. “We understand that we sell capital investment goods.

Our products are not disposable items that owners can replace when they go wrong. They have to be reliable and offer a positive return on investment on a number of levels. They are therefore feature rich, multi-tasking, durable, repairable and robustly road protected.”

Customer aftercare is key throughout the supply chain. “Customers need access to spare parts and the knowledge of how to fix and maintain their products,” explains Nahum. “As a direct consequence the distribution network for entertainment fixtures rarely operate the box-shifting model. Our sales partners and distributors know and understand the complex products we build. To maintain this level of

service to the end users demands training programmes and investment from the manufacturer. This support and investment forms an important value added element of a business like Clay Paky.”

“In the long term the vision for Clay Paky is to become less of a speciality lighting company and more a global entertainment lighting company,” concludes Nahum. “This fits with what the Osram group is expecting from us. It’s not something we can deliver overnight, we have to fine tune our offering and find the right partners and investors. At the same time, throughout all of this my focus is to ensure Clay Paky’s brand reputation is held in the highest professional regard."

45

EXPERT OPINION

Rigging and such: episode one

This new series of practically-oriented articles on the subjects of rigging, trussing and related fields, will be a regular feature of the magazine for the next few issues, catering for important subjects in this often neglected world. The viewpoints come to you from Rinus ‘Rhino’ Bakker, CEO of Rhino Rigs and legendary industry figure, who started out as a roadie in the early 1970s. Many of you will know Rinus from his annual accredited rigging training courses conducted in collaboration with DWR.

Orientation of bow shackles Undoubtedly the most used item in rigging and probably also the most abused one. They come in the Bow-type and in the D-type of shape. The D-type is not so common in the entertainment industry, as it may not be used in any other way than a straight in line pull and a bow shackle can do that anyway.

Short summary:

“D = NO”

46

By Rinus “Rhino” Bakker

“Bow = YES”

EXPERT OPINION

When used for rigging purposes first of all make sure the equipment is load rated! Secondly; know what the applied load will be.

(Overloading of lifting equipment is forbidden in every country in the world).

Much can be said on the orientation of bow shackles, but the most important thing is the direction of the force(s). The bow is designed to absorb a bridle force, where the pin side only is to be loaded perpendicular to that pin. If the bridle apex point ends up in the bow, all is fine. As soon as any arrow is marked red the shackle use is wrong.

(See picture below in pos. 4 through 7)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

So in straight pull only, the pulling parts shall be on the pin and the crown of the bow only. Even so, in straight pull the choice for the orientation is not completely free. It’s important to understand that the centre of gravity (CoG) in a shackle is always closer to the pin.

Therefore it is wise to have the pin side facing down and the bow facing up. This is how you can prevent that in a slack line situation, the shackle can turn itself (the heavy part facing downwards) ending up in a transverse load, shown above in pos. 6 and 7. This is a simple but effective example of good rigging practice.

produce to some manufactures). There is a little bit of ‘room’ to play, as we are allowed to take that ‘node definition’ slightly wider and include the area on the chord directly next to it.

However, it’s good to realise that the part of the chord in the centre between two nodes is the weakest point of that chord when applying loads. So all along the truss we have alternating strong and weak points in the chords. Truss failure will always initiate in a weak point. In that case the strong points don’t really matter anymore, just like the weak link in a chain.

The most important thing is that the supports must be in or very close to the nodes.

One should realise that, when slinging the truss and lifting it by manual or electric chain hoists, the machine capacity can be close to – or over – the truss capacity.

All the individual forces within a truss, caused by the applied load, will come together in a support point.

A second important issue is high point loads, caused by live loads such as PA-clusters or LED-screens. Again these support points must be applied in/close to the nodes. Failure of just one member in the lattice structure is enough to initiate a fatal collapse.

Reassuringly, repeated small loads, called Uniformly Distributed Load are not directly bound to the node points. However, trusses loaded with only a UDL should be carefully rigged. Also in this case, all the forces will come together at the support points.

Stick to the nodes Nodes are those points in truss structures where the diagonals meet the chords to form the triangular patterns that give us these weight effective load bearing structures. Such structures are relatively easy to calculate for a structural engineer (and maybe a bit harder to

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47

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

South African of the Year

2015 marked the second year of the South African of the Year awards, conceptualised and hosted by the Africa News Network (ANN7), which is also celebrating its second year of operation. The theme of the awards this year was Unity in Diversity, and the live televised event included many musical acts, including international star Jason Derulo. James Sey took a look behind the scenes at the staging of the event at The Dome in Johannesburg.

48

REPORT LIVE EVENTs

Tim Dunn at the control desk

The South African of the Year award show is a high-end, glamorous and no-expense-spared event, with an international flavour in its line-up and behind the scenes, and a house full of celebrities, VIPs and even a presidential presence. The simultaneous live television broadcast of the show meant that the production and stage management aspects of the event had to be conceived and managed meticulously.

Few are better in South Africa at handling such a responsibility than Gearhouse, and in particular their design maestro Tim Dunn. Working in collaboration with Indian event and production company Wizcraft, Dunn designed an event layout with one central stage, and three satellite stages for performers. With over one hundred dancers and performers involved in the event, and cutaways and inserts needed by the television broadcast, with 16 cameras providing multiple angles and points of view, an impressive stage set and lighting

was necessary.

Dunn designed a 13-metre high stage rig, dominated by a row of giant trussing ‘fingers’, holding a series of globes and filled in with .over 230 LED panels, upon all of which, the globes included, appeared the show’s content, live feeds and interviews, as well as the award winners themselves.

“We rigged Robe Pointes and MAC Vipers in the latticework trussing for lighting effects,’ explains Dunn. “Then we used Martin MAC 2000 washes from the main truss for wash illumination of the main stage area.”

For Dunn, the ergonomics of the design were vital in incorporating the almost one thousand guests, including celebrities and VIPS, who filled the capacious Dome venue.

“We extended the blue carpet concept, on which the guests arrive and walk into the venue, through the waiting area and back into the seating and stage area, through the simple yet elegant addition of a small arched bridge into the venue. Because this is a prestigious awards event, we were guided by the concept of inclusiveness, of integration, which is also the theme of the evening. It is as if the audience are being held in the safe hands of the set, all experiencing the same glamorous event. And the projections onto the globes in the set also speak about universality, about a shared experience, which is also tied into the theme. That good vibe also extended to our Gearhouse experience of working on this production – it was refreshingly ego-free, respectful and collaborative, even across international boundaries.”

49

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Super Skouspel exceeds all expectations

By Elaine Strauss

Francois van Coke

Susan Boyle

Super Skouspel took the place of the popular Skouspel after 15 years and with an amazing line up, established its place firmly on the South African live event calendar…

This year’s Huisgenoot kykNET Super Skouspel reinvented the once mainly Afrikaans music concert Skouspel of previous years, with a multicultural, one day concert that took place at the FNB-stadium in Johannesburg on 19 September.

Featuring various musical artists, including Francois van Coke, Karen Zoid, David Kramer en Leon Schuster and bands like Bittereinder, Freshlyground, Mango Groove and Die Heuwels

50

Fantasties, the concert also saw special guest star and international sensation, Susan Boyle, perform for the 30 000 people who attended.

The speakers, amplifiers, monitors and cables were supplied by Gearhouse, while the technical production of the concert was done

by Audio Logic under the direction of FOH audio engineer Marius Marais.

According to Marais, who has been on the technical production

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

David Kramer

52

team of Skouspel for the past 14 years, it was challenging to move the concert from the Superbowl at Sun City, where the concert has been held in previous years, to the FNB stadium.

“It was such an enormous concert and there was so much to do. It took serious planning between me and the monitor engineers to get everything set up for the big day,” he said. “Everything was split between Stan Shilliday, responsible for the orchestra and rhythm and Revil Baselga, who did all the in-ears and wedges. We also had recording engineer Evert du Minnik, who did all the recordings and post-production work.”

Marais was very impressed with the PA setup for the concert.

“Gearhouse did a phenomenal job. Everything was set up perfectly, which really took a lot of pressure off me. Due to the sheer size of the concert, which was really on an international level, the lighting and sound delays needed were very big.”

The FOH Control was made up of a Studer Vista 5 console, a Studer TFT Custom Meter bridge, a Studer Vista 5 FOH rack, a Shure SH55 microphone for TalkBack and a Behringer B205D talkback speaker.

For the monitor control, a Soundcraft Vi3000 console, a Soundcraft Vi6 console, a Soundcraft Vi6 FOH rack, five Soundcraft Vi 64ch Stage Rack and a Soundcraft Compact 32 stage rack was incorporated.

The monitor system was made up of ten Allen & Heath ME1 personal monitoring units, an Allen & Heath MEU hub, eight Shure PSM900 IEM Systems, four Sennheiser G3 IEM Systems and two Behringer B205D talkback speakers.

The microphones used were four Shure Dual UR4D+ Microphone receivers, six Shure Quad ULXD4 Microphone receivers, eight Shure UR4+ Bodypack Transmitters, 24 Shure ULXD2 Handheld Microphone

FOH audio engineer Marius Marais

Transmitters, a Shure Beta 91, an AKG D112, three AKG D40, five AKG P170, two AKG C430, eight Shure SM81, four Shure Beta 98 AMP, three Shure Beta 181, 20 Audio Technica 350 and three Shure SV100 Talkback Microphones.

According to Marius, the musical directors of the show, Janine Neethling and James Bassingthwaite, worked very closely with the technical crew.

“The musical directors, together with show director Ian von Memerty, put together a remarkable show. It was like a rollercoaster ride, with rock music following classical performances and great artist combinations on stage at the same time,” he said. “Susan Boyle was really the highlight of the show, with the classical numbers she performed. Super Skouspel was truly a great success.”

Von Memerty felt very positive about the concert, saying the main reason for the change in direction from Skouspel to Super Skouspel was to give the show a new feel after 15 years.

“There are many ways to judge a show and whether or not it is successful – so – financially yes ; audience reaction – yes! Artistically – yes! It was a fantastic platform of Afrikaans and South African talent – from our youngest performer of six years old – to Leon Schuster.”

According to him, show goers can look forward to an even bigger and better show next year, though he also says that is quite a challenge.

“That what makes a show like this so special is not just the huge range of talent on stage – but the HUGE range of talent off stage – the musical directors Janine Neethling and James Bassingthwaite, lighting, sound, sets, costumes, AV, stage management – without all those departments working superbly there would be no show.”

53

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Clover Aardklop back for 18th year Since its start in 1998, Clover Aardklop festival in Potchefstroom has grown.

It was bigger and better than ever this year‌

Son Maan Sterre at Aardklop

54

REPORT LIVE EVENTs For the 18th year, the five day Clover Aardklop music and art festival recently took place in Potchefstroom. Between 6 and 11 October, visitors could look forward to stage drama and music productions, food and art stalls and so much more.

The technical production of the theatre venues at the festival was split between Sound Corporation, responsible for the sound and lighting, and Freelance Entertainment Projects, who handled the AV side.

Pieter-Jan Kapp, owner of PJK Production Management, has been the technical manager at Aardklop for the past seven years and according to him the size of production’s sets are getting bigger and more involved, thus challenging the technical team to do their work better, faster and safer.

“Each festival in South Africa is different. Clover Aardklop’s people make the experience great. Management, the venue owners (schools, churches, University) all pull together to make it a fun festival, even for our crew. The festival does not have the luxury of corporate budgets and the latest and greatest equipment, but the supplier’s and crew’s willingness to make great theatre with the available gear, is amazing. The ability to change school halls, churches, tin sheds into theatres takes a lot,” he said.

When asked about any challenges, Kapp replied: “We were well prepared, but quick change overs between productions in the same venue are always a challenge.”

Sound and lighting Sound Corporation’s been providing sound equipment for the festival theatre venues since its inaugural year in 1998 and according to technician Tertius Kurver, the company has also provided staging,

lighting, backline and audio visual equipment for the main stages and theatre venues over the years.

“Our main responsibility at the festival was supplying and setting up the sound, backline and lighting equipment before the festival, as well as providing technical support during the festival,” Kurver said.

“We were also responsible for taking on as much as rigging four venues per day, over a three day period, during the week prior to the start of the festival. With this, we also did the complete load out of all venues on the last day of the festival, usually within six hours.”

Sound Corporation made use of : • 16 Yamaha R112 speakers with Yamaha P5000s amplification • 16 Yamaha R118 sub-woofers with Yamaha P7000s amplification • 16 Yamaha R12m wedge monitors with Yamaha P5000s amplification • 16 Ramsa WSA200 speakers with Ramsa 9220 amplification • 16 Ramsa WSA240 sub-woofers with Ramsa 9440 amplification • 16 Nexo PS10 speakers with Yamaha H7000 amplification and 8 Nexo LS500 sub-woofers with Yamaha H5000 amplification • 16 Nexo PS10 wedge monitors with Yamaha H7000 amplification • 16 Titan 12 speakers with Yamaha P4500 amplification • 16 Twin 12 wedge monitors with Yamaha P4500 amplification and • 16 JBL Eon 10 powered speakers for the festival.

“We used various Yamaha analogue mixing consoles, ranging between 12 and 24 channels, Yamaha LS9-32 digital mixing consoles, Yamaha O1V96 digital mixing consoles, various selections of Shure, AKG & Audio Technica microphones and 72 wireless microphone systems,” Kurver said.

On the lighting side, the company used 78 fresnels, 78 profiles,

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Zoid & Van Coke

Moeder Moed en haar Kinders

Ma

Siener in die Suburbs

Hemelruim

56

78 Par64 parcans, 24 Par56 parcans, 33 6-channel dimmer racks, 48 LED parcans, 10 Robe ColourSpot 575at moving heads, 10 X Robe ColourWash 575at zoom moving heads and various Avolites and Strand lighting consoles.

“We take pride in all the equipment we provide for the festival and every venue is custom designed to best suit the requirements of each production. Both sound and lighting systems have been designed to be user friendly to the technicians and productions.”

According to Kurver, there is a rather large crew working on the festival every year, totalling 50 this year alone.

“The Festival Technical Office, under the leadership of Pieter-Jan Kapp, goes through a meticulous process of selecting the most suitable technicians for the job and we’ve also been lucky to have some of the best tech support over the years, including: Mark De Klerk, Jonathan Green, myself, Stefan Roos and Andre Schoeman,” he said.

Audio visual Freelance Entertainment Projects have also been involved with Aardklop for a few years now as technical support, hit squad and operators. According to owner, Stephan Kruger, this year, the company was audio visual supplier for the festival.

“We had a few venues with AV equipment installed, and our technicians form part of the technical support team that helps with problem solving and assistance in venues during the festival. One of our technicians was a venue technician and was in charge of lighting for that venue during the festival,” he said. “We also had various shows that we had to oversee and operate in different venues.”

F.E.P made use of 2 Christie LX605 Projectors, 2 ASK PL20 Projectors, an Acer 1206 Projector, an Analogway Pulse LE Switcher/Scaler, 2 6’ x 8’ Projection Screens and a 7,5’ x 10’ Projection Screen for the festival.

“The Christie LX605 projectors were the perfect choice for the venues we used them in due to the fact that they are very versatile in terms of projection angles and throw distances. At a festival there are always limitations as to where you can rig and these projectors made life easy for us,” Kruger said. “We would just like to thank Pieter-Jan Kapp for giving us the opportunity to part of this great festival.”

The highlights According to Kruver, Aardklop is a definite highlight on their calendar and they look forward to returning in 2016.

“As a technical supplier we cherish the privilege of working on Aardklop as it is an opportunity to develop our skills further, while satisfying our client by meeting their requirements. I think our continued involvement with KKNK, InniBos, Joy of Jazz and of course Aardklop is definitely something to look forward to,” he said.

Kruger also had some definite highlights during the festival.

“I had the opportunity to mix Karen Zoid & Francois van Coke in the Sanlam Auditorium for their once off performance at the festival. That was a really great show. It was also nice to see drama and stage productions using AV to enhance the product that they deliver to the audience.”

Kapp, from his side, was just as thrilled by the success of this year’s festival.

“The fact that we successfully gave productions a working platform to express their art and had fun doing it was a highlight for me. And then of course, to see well attended shows is always great,” he said.

He was also impressed with the recognition the festival gave the technical production crew.

“Of all the festivals I work on over the years, it was the first time that a festival, Clover Aardklop, recognised technical crew and suppliers for their contribution to the festivals.” Kapp said.

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Joy of Jazz Festival 2015

By Elaine Strauss

Dinaledi Prince

58

REPORT LIVE EVENTs

The Joy of Jazz Festival relied on the technical support of Sound Corporation for the 18th year…

Jaco Maria and Wanda Baloyi

Matthew Halsall

The 18th Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival took place from 24-26 September at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Joy of Jazz is South Africa’s oldest jazz festival and Sound Corporation, who was responsible for the technical production at the festival, has been involved with the festival from the beginning, started by Peter Tladi (T-Musicman), at the Pretoria State Theatre in 1995.

According to Sound Corporation technician, Tertius Kurver, the festival has been running uninterrupted since 2000, making Newtown its home. Then in 2014, Joy of Jazz moved to the Sandton Convention Centre, where it returned this year.

“There was great camaraderie amongst the crew involved with this year’s festival. Close to a hundred crew were involved, consisting of sound engineers, technicians, stage managers, lighting operators, cameramen, rigging and operational crew,” he said. “Everybody worked very closely together to meet the tight deadlines of sound checks and change overs.”

According to Kurver, the festival had very few hiccups and everything ran smoothly.

“The festival recipe has been perfected over the 14 years of ifs residency in Newtown. There were some challenges moving to Sandton Convention Centre in 2014, but these were quickly ironed out due to the experience and cooperation of everybody involved,” he said. “Technically, our biggest challenge every year is the backline for the 35 different performances. Riders for both international and local artists are meticulously analysed, and provided for accordingly.”

Stage Monitors with Crown amplification and Twin 12 2-way 12”x1” Stage Monitors with Yamaha amplification.

Sound

Another successful year

Sound Corporation made use of a Solid State Logic Live 500 96-channel console, Yamaha PM5D 48-channel digital mixing consoles, Yamaha M7CL 48-channel digital mixing consoles, Yamaha LS9 32-channel digital mixing consoles and Behringer X32 32-channel digital mixing consoles for the festival.

“Sound Corporation is the first on the African continent to offer a Solid Stage Logic Live 500 96-channel digital mixing console,” said Kurver.

The PA Systems used included EAW KF760 3-way speakers, EAW KF761 3-way downfill speakers, EAW SB1000z dual 18” subwoofers, EAW KF730 3-way speakers and EAW SB730 dual 12” subwoofers, all with Lab Gruppen amplification, as well as EAW KF850 3-way speakers, EAW SB850 dual 18” Subwoofers with Crown amplification.

For monitors Sound Corporation made use of EAW SM12 2-way 12”x3” Stage Monitors and EAW SM15 2-way 15”x3” Stage Monitors with Lab Gruppen amplification, as well as JBL FM1502 2-way 15”x2”

According to Kurver, communication was key in making Joy of Jazz a success.

“Detailed, down to the minute planning is of absolute importance in making both the setup and shows run perfectly and I am proud to say we did,” he said.

"But the highlight of Sound Corporation’s continued involvement with festivals like Joy of Jazz is definitely working with great international and local artists," said Kurver.

“Working with great international artists such as Larry Carlton, Lee Oskar, Marcus Miller, Peabo Bryson, William Parker, Matthew Halsall and Yellowjackets was one of the highlights of the festival for me,” he said. “Locally, Estelle Kokot, Hugh Masekela, Wanda Baloyi, Jimmy Dludlu, Simphiwe Dana, Vusi Mahlasela, Ray Phiri and Stimela are always a pleasure to work with. Our continued involvement with KKNK, InniBos, Aardklop and of course Joy of Jazz is definitely something we look forward to.”

Audio visual Projectors used at the festival included Christie LX45 4,500 Lumens LCD projectors, Christie DS+60 6,000 Lumens DLP projector, Christie DS+8K 8,000 Lumens DLP projectors, Christie LX120 12,000 Lumens LCD projectors and Barco CLM 10+ 10,000 Lumens DLP Projectors.

“We also used two Draper 12’x9’ Rear Projection Screens, two Draper 16’x12’ Front Projection Screens, Draper 21’x16’ Rear Projection Screens, two Draper 4mx3m Rear Projection Truss Screens and four Draper 4.3m Round Front Projection Truss Screens,” Kurver said.

Lighting and rigs Lighting consisted of Par64 Parcans, Profiles, 4-lite DWE Crowd Blinders, 8-lite DWE Crowd Blinders, 6-channel Dimmers, Showtech 1200 Moving Head Washes, Showtech 1200 Moving Head Spots, Showtech 700 Moving Head Washes, Showtech 700 Moving Head Spots, Showtech 575 Moving Head Washes, Showtech 575 Moving Head Spots, Robe CS575at Moving Head Spots, Robe CD575at Zoom Moving Head Washes and Sharp Beam 7R 230w Moving Heads, all controlled by Avolites Tiger Lighting Controllers.

“For the rigging, we used 500m of trussing, 40 electric chain hoists, 220 decking boards and 7.5 tons of scaffolding steel.”

59

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Kilowatt AV rocks the daisies!

This year’s Rocking the Daisies festival saw the occasion of its tenth birthday – and was its biggest and best year yet!

Kilowatt AV, the turnkey solutions-driven technical event integration company, have been involved with the festival for the past five years, and this year they were commissioned to conceptualise, design and fully execute four of the eight stages as well as multiple activation areas.

This year there were more than 4 000 people under the Electronic Stage dome at its peak. The venue at the festival staged 12 acts per day, and was an undoubted highlight for festivalgoers.

With a complicated set up and design to a full line up of artists with different technical requirements, Kilowatt AV was able to support everyone and provide spectacular entertainment for the two days and two nights the show continued.

Rocking the Daisies was held at the start of October at the Cloof Wine Estate in Darling, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town, and included a line up of international and local musical acts, camping, relaxing and good food. In fact the owners never suspected that what started off as a small event on their tranquil estate grounds, would turn into one of the most popular annual music events on the

60

South African calendar.

“We were commissioned by Seed Experiences to provide a technical solution for the Lemon Tree Theatre, the Campsite Stage, the ever popular Beach Bar and of course the legendary Electronic Stage under the dome,” said Neil Zaayman, director of Kilowatt AV. “ We love working with the team at Seed. They trust us with their vision by giving us full control over concept and design of the Electronic Stage – which is their ‘baby’ at the festival.”

This year Kilowatt installed over a hundred panels of high res LED as a backdrop onto the stage as well as 80 panels of LED above the crowd at the Electronic Stage, a dome shaped structure. “A highlight for us was the level of immersion created for punters by having 180 LED Panels surrounding them,” said Zaayman. “Having said that, the hardware is not enough on its own. We used the Avolites Ai Infinity Server to video map all panels and gave multiple VJs a very simple plug and play solution. All content was managed by our very own Michael Edwards, who has become a specialist on the Ai. He is internationally trained and is one of very few in SA who can

comfortably operate the Ai Infinity Server.”

The lighting was electric, including over 130 fixtures at the Electronic Stage alone. Lighting design was done by Willie Botha and Matthew Meyer. Control was on an Avolites Pearl Expert with an Akai MPD26 Midi controller as a trigger pad.

“Robe has definitely taken preference in my lighting specs and we didn’t have a single failure or problem during the three day festival. It was the first time I’ve used the Robe BMFL Blades on an event and I was impressed by the speed considering it’s such a large fixture.

“Our secret is having the passion to create remarkable events,” continued Zaayman. “To create remarkable events you need to focus on every detail; that creates a word-of-mouth buzz, which in turn boosts our clients’ ROI. “Working on Rocking the Daisies gives the Kilowatt AV staff the chance to really get creative and to refine their skills. Younger technicians also gain experience working on bigger events. “It’s not always easy running a production of this magnitude out on a farm but when it all comes together there’s no place we’d rather be,” concluded Zaayman.

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PRODUCT REVIEW

Martin M-Touch – lighting control to go

By Jimmy Den-Ouden

M-Touch is a new inclusion to the M series lighting control platform from Martin. It’s essentially a control surface with USB connection, as well as a single 5 pin XLR DMX output. It works in conjunction with the M-PC software, available as a free download from Martin. You can also use it as an expansion wing for an M1 or M6 console, so for a nominally ‘single purpose’ device it’s quite versatile.

M-PC is a free download, and even if you don’t have any external Martin hardware it allows you to output one universe of DMX over ArtNet or 3rd party DMX node. Plugging in the M-Touch or M-DMX node unlocks additional universes, and if you need it you can buy licensing for control over up to 128 universes. Considering the included control offering, M-Touch sits in a nice spot to fit into schools, churches, small clubs and venues. Freelance operators too will appreciate the portability of the surface not to mention the easy scalability of the platform. It’s extremely good value too.

The M-Touch surface itself seems very much a portable device and yet it still has a good robust feel to it. It uses a system Martin calls

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‘force fader’, which resembles those really cool fader belts we saw all those years back on the Martin Case console, but importantly the force fader system has no moving parts, so there’s less potential for component failure. Behind each of the 14 force faders is an LED ramp that changes colour depending on the function assigned to the force fader. The ramps are set to one side of the fader, so your finger doesn’t get in the way of seeing them. Because there’s no fixed physical fader cap, the force faders have the potential for absolute or relative parameter control. As with conventional faders it’s no problem to simultaneously operate multiple faders.

Ten force faders are used for playback functions, and multiple

PRODUCT REVIEW

pages of playbacks can be built. Beneath each playback is a ‘force touch’ key, which is velocity sensitive. The upper left corner of the M-Touch shows the active page, with page up and down buttons located immediately beneath. The remaining four force faders are used for parameter adjustment, and again force touch keys are used to switch between different fixture parameter sets, provide additional playback, or control effects.

Looking at the M-Touch I initially thought the force faders and touch pads might not be very nice to operate, but happily I was wrong. They’re surprisingly responsive, and a far cry from similar looking ‘membrane’ surfaces of the past. The absolute and relative control modes for the parameter faders switch automatically, which means that the resolution of the fader is always appropriate to the parameter being controlled too. Not every rotary encoder can make the same claim, so this is a really cool point.

The same type of ‘touch pad’ found within the force faders is used for the remaining buttons on the M-Touch. I understand that it’s actually a single membrane for the whole surface. Whereas the flash and function keys protrude from the surface, all other buttons are recessed. I think over time this would see the surrounding frame accumulate a bit of dirt, but nothing a little periodic cleaning wouldn’t fix. The recessed key collection includes functions like Record, Clear, Load, Update, Highlight, and all the other commonly used buttons for which a dedicated key is helpful. Large Go and Pause/Back buttons are within easy reach at the lower left corner, and similarly the other keys are all in pretty logical locations. Two touch pad buttons are located above each playback fader.

Normally you’d perform functions such as fixture selection on screen within the M-PC software. A touch screen makes this whole process a lot faster, and cleverly the interface has been designed with buttons that are about the right size to facilitate this. Combine the M-Touch with something like a Microsoft Surface, and you’ve got

a huge amount of lighting control in a package which fits into a backpack. The M-Touch is USB powered (it draws <500mA), so you don’t even need a separate power supply. Again, this will appeal to touring and freelance LX folk.

For more permanent situations, the M-Touch includes VESA mounting points on the back, so you can attach it to any generic monitor mount or arm. For small club or venue situations this means lighting control needn’t occupy the same footprint as it would using a conventional console – it’s a great space saver. I unplugged the M-Touch from the laptop during testing and re-plugged it to find it started up very quickly, and everything came back exactly where I’d left it.

Finally a word on the construction of the M-Touch. Because of the membrane type setup of the surface, there’s very little in the way of a direct path down to the PCB beneath. I’m not saying it’s waterproof, but I do think it would stand up better to liquid spills (think drinks!) than a more conventional design would. In case anyone else likes the M-Touch even more than you do, there’s even a Kensington lock slot to keep it safe and secure. Perhaps the nicest aspect about the device though, is that unlike 3rd party controllers M-Touch was designed by the same people who wrote the software it uses, so integration between the two is perfect.

Brand: Martin Model: M-Touch RRP: R6 000 ex-Vat Price correct at time of print and subject to change

Product Info: www.martin.com Distributor: www.electrosonic.co.za

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Studio Pro Audio PRODUCT REVIEW

Ableton Live –

the amazing DAW we don’t often hear about

Ableton in action

Ableton Live (widely known as “Live”) is arguably one of the best commercial music making software packages around. Admired by many for giving musicians and producers innovative new ways to create and perform music, it is not surprising that 14 years after its launch the software has amassed a cult of users world wide. Eddie Hatitye takes a closer look.

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Simple design yet very effective workflow

Simple and stable

While other DAWs have continuously improved over the years, Live started out as outstandingly unique and seems to have a better understanding of the needs of the modern day music producer, musician and even DJ. The software has such a wide range of functions that it becomes crucial to have a very effective user interface. This is one of the many things done right on Live. The UI is thoroughly optimised for use in live performance and in the studio. Essentially the workflow is controlled through two main views; the arrangement view, where parts of the song are laid out and played together as a unit; and the session view, where ideas are recorded into various clips. The interface can be used entirely on a single screen due to the compact design.

It is also worth mentioning that Live is probably still the only DAW that makes use of instant help dialogue boxes that pop up when users hover over features on the interface. This makes a massive difference when using the software, regardless of your level of experience.

Live offers multi-track recording, allowing up to 32-bit/192 kHz recording and playback. The multicore/multiprocessor support option introduced in newer versions also significantly increases the software’s capacity to handle complex and CPU-heavy projects.

Instruments and effects Live comes with a plethora of built-in instruments and effects that are custom designed for various uses and genres. In addition the software is able to host third- party VST plugins and, on the OS X version, Audio Unit plug-ins. Users are also able to purchase additional instruments and effects on the Ableton website. The effects featured in Live are grouped into two categories - MIDI effects and audio effects. Most of these effects are already common effects in the digital signalprocessing world but the important thing is that they have repackaged into simpler interfaces that are more understandable.

PRODUCT REVIEW Studio Pro Audio

Even better experience with the new Live 9.5 Although Live’s instruments are generally very good in quality and very open to improvement by the user, one area that needs improvement is the whole kick drum offering. This feature is not as solid and polished as in other DAWs - you always have to heavily tweak before using it. Another concern is that Live tends to be more suited for progressive house/dance music. This is of course not to say you can’t make other styles - it just takes a little more time and effort if you are new to the software.

It’s also important to note that the amount of instruments you get with each installation depends on the edition you bought. Live come in three different editions, namely Intro, Standard and Suite (Suite being the highest level).

Exciting innovation With the launch of Live 9 in 2013 Ableton introduced an exciting new technology, which allows users to convert audio into MIDI data. This functionality exists in three different modes to allow users to convert audio sources to drums, melody or harmony in real time. For example you can take a song in MP3 or wave format and command the software to convert this into MIDI notes which you can then manipulate into new songs or remixes. This opens up a huge field of production potential, further cementing Live’s status as the go-to music creative platform.

Things are just done much simpler in Live than in other DAWs. Automation, grouping tracks (known as creating bus tracks in other software), freezing tracks, sampling, applying effects, and many other tasks look really simple in Live. Also important to note is that Live offers FLAC file support in addition to WAV, AIFF, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

On 2 November 2015, Ableton announced a free update for Live 9 users, to Live 9.5. We haven’t checked this out yet but Ableton says they have made major improvements to Live’s main sampling instrument (aptly titled Simpler), which is said to now have a new interface, warping and slicing capabilities, and new analoguemodelled filters. Ableton also reports that it has introduced new metres and waveforms to provide clarity and precise visual details to producers. For example mixer volume metres now show both peak and RMS levels, indicating both sudden changes in level as well as perceived loudness.

The update also comes with 3 new synthesizers added to the instruments library. These include Bass, a monosynth designed for bass sounds; Poli, a polyphonic synth that excels at strings, pads and stabs; and Multi, a synth designed for immediate enhancements from Push. Unfortunately these are available to Live 9 Suite owners only.

The release coincides with the launch of a much slicker Push MIDI controller with more musical and expressive pads, flexible sampling workflows and a large multicolour display to aid the creative flow.

Apparently if you own the old Push, you get 30% discount if you return it upon getting this one.

Ableton also announced that it is prepping a new technology called Link, that will allow users to jam or collaborate in real time with iOS apps via wireless network.

Ableton Live continues to be one of the most flexible, approachable and user-friendly music making software packages around. Its latest enhancements only confirm that position – it’s a very powerful tool that every music maker should have some fun with!

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