Pro Systems November/December 2016 by Pro-Systems Africa News

November / December 2016

R38.00

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

Cover Illuminating The Feature Mall of Africa InfoComm Global Trends Report Best Products of 2016 Playhouse Studio Upgrade Lighting Director Insights

In This Issue EDITOR Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of ProSystems Africa News, our final edition for 2016. In what has become something of a tradition here at ProSystems, our major year-end focus is a ‘Best of 2016’ product roundup. Except this year the round-up has a twist. After a full section of favourite products put forward by distributors, with their opinions about their best features and information on how they’ve performed in the local market, we have a separate section with the opinions of professional end-users about their favourite products of the year. These are all independent professionals, so the correlation or not of product opinions makes for interesting reading. Our news section is dominated by acquisitions once more, with the purchase of the HARMAN Group by Samsung of most obvious interest. What the purchase undoubtedly demonstrates is that convergence in the industry is not only between AV and IT, but between AV and ‘consumer electronics’ – in this case the focus on connected systems in the automotive industry. International industry body Infocomm has kindly agreed to let us republish relevant extracts from their recently published 2016 Pro-AV Distribution Channel and Trends Report. This fascinating special report has much of interest to both distributors and resellers in the local market. Our installation section this time round features our cover story, a full rundown of the amazing installation of over one thousand Anolis fixtures in the roof and grounds of the landmark Mall of Africa near Midrand. A theatre installation story gives an in-depth insight into the impressive new state of the art recording studio in Durban’s Playhouse Theatre. Our final live section of the year also departs from type to get some interesting insights from the frontlines of the theatre lighting sector. Renowned local LD Denis Hutchinson writes for us about what goes into designing a major musical theatre production. Finally, we have technical highlights from regular industry contributors Abrie du Plooy and Richard Smith, writing in-depth pieces about video compression and the disappearing art of sound design respectively. Look out for our upcoming set of new features for 2017, and don’t forget that we’re here for you – as your resource for key industry news, 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, newsletter, and social media feeds, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m on james@sun-circle.co.za. Enjoy the read! James Sey

CONTENTS NEWS

Best of 2016

Samsung acquires HARMAN...........................3

Best of 2016: Distributors................................26

Proxio Audio Visual announces

Best of 2016 Pro-users....................................40

distribution partnership with Streambox.........4 EventNet innovates...........................................4

Live / Studio

CEDIA® road show sensation

The Playhouse studio gets

in South Africa...................................................6

a serious makeover........................................48

Tadco restructures, consolidates offering......7 L-Group acquires CAMCO..............................7

Live Events

Mediatech 2017................................................8

Aardklop an opportunity

Bringing SA sunshine to the UK........................9

for young technicians....................................52

ISE 2017 – the story so far...............................10

Classics is Groot...............................................54

Electrosonic and Green Hippo part ways...11

Saturday Night Fever

Imago SA launches new identity

in the lighting booth.......................................58

As SkyGroup Communications....................11

Technical Spotlight

Industry heavyweights give back to young musicians...............................12

The Pixel Age...................................................60 SOUND DESIGN –

Prolight + Sound SHOW REPORT

A dying art or the way forward?..................62

Prolight + Sound show report........................14

Social Research REPORT

CEDIA Training Roadshow South Africa –

InfoComm releases new distributor

Park Inn Sandton.............................................64

and industry trends report..............................16

Exterity Showcase – Montecasino................64 d3 Open Day – Questek Offices...................64

Integration & INSTALLATION

Imago SA becomes SkyGroup

Meyer Sound Leopard

Communications – Houghton Golf Club ....64

makes its African debut.................................20 Illuminating the Mall of Africa.......................22

Cover photo by Peter Hassel

Contributors Elaine Strauss | A journalist and photographer, with experience in writing articles featuring a broad range of subjects, Elaine also has a honours degree in Visual Studies, and is 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. Abrie du Plooy (CTS, CERT AV PROF) | Abrie is the NEC, Galaxy and ZeeVee product manager at Electrosonic SA. He writes for us in his personal capacity.

Richard Smith | Richard is the managing member of well-known local rental and integration company Sound Harmonics. He writes for us in his personal capacity.

Greg Bester | With 16 years in the audio industry and a penchant for the technology of things, has funnelled his accumulative experience into writing since 2007. An audio engineer by trade, he has worked in many areas of production such as live sound, music, post-production, location recording and film audio and his work has garnered several award nominations.

Denis Hutchinson | Denis is one of South Africa’s most renowned and respected lighting designers. He has worked primarily in the theatre for most of his long and distinguished career. He writes for us in his personal capacity.

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.

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news

Samsung acquires HARMAN In a significant move for the global AV industry, consumer electronics giant Samsung recently announced the $8 billion purchase of AV major HARMAN. The acquisition is focused strategically on capturing HARMAN’s largest market, that of ‘connected automotive systems’, based around in-vehicle sound systems, and including infotainment, safety and security systems. This market currently represents some 65% of HARMAN’s reported R7 billion in revenues for the year to date. All of HARMAN’s professional AV brands, like JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG, Crown and others, are a strategic focus for expansion into the connected auto solutions market, as is the current portfolio of installed AV solutions in HARMAN’s business to business portfolio. HARMAN’s experience designing and integrating sophisticated in-vehicle technologies, as well as its long-term relationships with most of the world’s largest automakers, will create significant growth opportunities for the combined business by enabling it to leverage Samsung’s expertise in connected mobility, semiconductors, user experience, displays and its global distribution channels, Samsung stated. In addition, the combination of HARMAN’s brands and audio capabilities and Samsung’s expertise in consumer electronics will deliver enhanced customer benefits and elevate user experiences across Samsung’s complete portfolio of consumer and professional products and systems. HARMAN perfectly complements Samsung in terms of technologies, products and solutions, and joining forces is a natural extension of the automotive strategy we have been pursuing for some time,” said Oh-Hyun Kwon, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Electronics. “As a Tier 1 automotive supplier with deep customer relationships, strong brands, leading technology and a recognized portfolio of best-in-class products, HARMAN immediately establishes a strong foundation for Samsung to grow our automotive platform. Dinesh Paliwal is a proven global leader and, in our extensive discussions, we

have developed deep respect for him, his strong senior leadership team and HARMAN’s talented employees. HARMAN’s sustained track record of rapid growth fuelled by technology leadership and an unmatched automotive order pipeline reflects its commitment to innovation and customers.” While Samsung is seeing value across the board from the transaction, it has made it clear that the main focus will be the huge global automotive market. “The vehicle of tomorrow will be transformed by smart technology and connectivity in the same way that simple feature phones have become sophisticated smart devices over the past decade,” commented Young Sohn, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung. “We see substantial long-term growth opportunities in the auto technology market as demand for Samsung’s specialized electronic components and solutions continues to grow. Working together, we are confident that HARMAN can become a new kind of Tier 1 provider to the OEMs by delivering end-to-end solutions across the connected ecosystem.” Dinesh Paliwal, HARMAN Chairman, President and CEO, stated, “This compelling all-cash transaction will deliver significant and immediate value to our shareholders and provide new opportunities for our employees as part of a larger, more diversified company. Today’s announcement is a testament to what we have achieved and the value that we have created for shareholders. Samsung is an ideal partner for HARMAN and this transaction will provide tremendous benefits to our automotive customers and consumers around the world. Combining Samsung’s strengths in leading-edge displays, connectivity and processing solutions with HARMAN’s technology leadership and long-standing customer relationships will enable OEMs to provide new offerings for their customers.”

In their statement, Samsung describes the transaction benefits by industry sector as follows: • Automotive: Combining HARMAN’s leadership in new connected car technologies, including its top positions in infotainment, cyber security, over-the-air updates and telematics, with Samsung’s significant expertise and experience in connectivity technologies, including 5G, UX/UI, display technology and security solutions, will enhance HARMAN’s automotive and connected services businesses to drive greater sales and provide significant benefits as automakers speed the adoption of next-generation connected cars. • Audio: HARMAN’s leading brands and cutting-edge audio systems include JBL®, Harman Kardon®, Mark Levinson®, AKG®, Lexicon®, Infinity®, and Revel®. The company also licenses Bowers & Wilkins® and Bang & Olufsen® brands for automotive. All of these brands will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Samsung’s mobile, display, virtual reality and wearable products to deliver a fully differentiated audio and visual experience for customers. • Professional: The combination will also expand the combined company’s business-to-business platform through its ability to deliver integrated, large-scale audio and visual professional solutions at stadiums, concert facilities and other performance centres such as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and STAPLES Center – home of the GRAMMY Awards®. • Connected Services: Samsung will gain access to HARMAN’s 8 000 software designers and engineers who are unlocking the potential of the IoT market. This collaboration will deliver the next generation of cloud-based consumer and enterprise experiences, as well as end-to-end services for the automotive market through the convergence of design, data and devices. While HARMAN will continue as an autonomously-run business unit of Samsung, the transaction is a significant one for the global AV industry. Importantly, it is proof that the AV sector is positioned at a crucial crossroads between the IT and networking industry on one hand, and consumer electronics on the other, as convergence continues apace under the pressure of technologies like Cloud and IoT.

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Proxio Audio Visual announces distribution partnership with Streambox Proxio Audio Visual, a distributing supplier of professional Video, AV and Broadcast products and solutions in South Africa are pleased to announce their partnership with Streambox concluded in May 2016, as their exclusive distributors in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan African continent. Founded in 1999, Streambox is an industry leading pioneer delivering unique IP based video streaming solutions over low bandwidth connections. Streambox delivers mobile video everywhere, allowing companies and organizations to broadcast, share, and stream video from anywhere with unlimited scalability at lower costs. The Streambox Advantage provides valuable solutions for challenging digital video productions; with the highest quality video over IP networks, Streambox technology utilizes all available network paths with faster transmission and play-out based on their

industry-leading ACT-L3/L4 codec and advanced LDMP technology. In today’s mobile world, the Streambox vision, “Mobile Video Everywhere” and mission, “Be the Best Provider and Partner to its Customers and Partners” align to establish the finest mobile video technology innovations, while serving a broad base of industries and customers worldwide. “This has been a really exciting and very busy year for us”, explains Richard Barnes, Managing Director of Proxio Audio Visual, “Our partnership with Streambox has filled a significant and relevant gap to provide a professional, innovative, stable and reliable video streaming solution, which we identified some time ago as one particular solution many of our clients and customers required, which had not been part of our arsenal of Pro Video and AV solutions we were able to provide before.” Richard Barnes added “We have already consulted on Streambox solutions in several projects since May 2016 with many prospects that are awaiting deployment.” There are many Streambox product

solutions such as mobile devices which capture and stream live from anywhere with Streambox video compression, transmission, and playout using Streambox technology with any mobile device. StreamboxVR provides End-to-End Delivery for Live 360 & VR Video Streamed to YouTube, as well as cutting-edge technology software solutions based on the industry-leading ACT-L3™ codec, which provides unrivalled performance, reliability, and quality over low data rate IP networks for fast transmission and playout of live video streams in HD and SD. Streambox Video Transport hardware is designed to capture, stream, and share video content in real-time or archive for on-demand viewing. Streambox Rackmounts work seamlessly with Enterprise Server and Streambox Cloud for video routing, archiving of live HD streams, and file-based playout, Streambox Cloud Services for video routing, archiving of live HD streams, and file-based playout include privately managed cloud services with Streambox Enterprise Server and public cloud services with Streambox Cloud.

traditional satellite uplinks – primarily lower latency as well as significantly lower costs! We use the RTMP streaming protocol which is a robust and globally accepted streaming protocol. It also means we are able to stream to any of the major platforms out there.’ A streaming service at most live events is a major benefit, since it offers enhanced user experience, branding opportunities for sponsors and artists, as well as the opportunity to market an event much wider than just the venue at which it takes place. “We use YouTube Live as our streaming backbone as it is free, extremely stable, globally known and streams can be easily integrated into any customer, sponsor or event website,’ explains Malebye. ‘This reduces the cost even more for our

customers. In addition we are able to do full broadcast quality switching, watermarks, overlays and lower thirds with advanced Chroma and Luma key processing, which expands the branding and marketing opportunities.’ Finally, EventNet offers a cute value-add for live event organisers, which is a moderated live Twitter feed screened at the event. ‘People love telling people where they are!’ says Malebye.’ By using your hashtag, people create a buzz and raise the profile of the event. New products and experiences can be shared virally, again multiplying the event’s reach exponentially. We are able to offer custom designed walls to fit the theme or brand of the event, with the highest quality full HD designs.’.

EventNet innovates Local AV industry figures Kgomotso ‘KG’ Malebye and Mitch Shuttleworth have teamed up to launch a new concept company in the local live event space, EventNet. The company is positioned cleverly to provide high-speed, robust and scalable wireless network infrastructure for audiences and companies at live events. Malebye explains the company’s positioning: ‘We are the only temporary wireless network company in the southern hemisphere to offer 802.11ac MiMo Wi-Fi. This is state of the art technology, allowing wireless users download speeds of up to 1.3 Gbps. Our basic event infrastructure runs on a /20 network allowing over 4000 simultaneous network clients.’ Shuttleworth elaborates on the customer offering: ‘At most live event venues there is an existing network infrastructure. We are able to break that up into VLANs to separate user traffic from infrastructure and priority traffic. We also offer live streaming over LTE, which has many benefits compared to

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CEDIA® road show sensation in South Africa

Christiaan Beukes, Peter Aylett and Craig Potter

CEDIA® took a very successful training and awareness trip round the country in late October, bringing AV installers and integrators up to speed on the latest technologies and trends. CEDIA® took its impactful training, networking and discussion roadshow across South Africa from the 21st-26th October this year. Stopping in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, CEDIA members and nonmembers attended a carefully curated programme of manufacturer product training, CEDIA workshops, industry discussions, and networking events throughout each day. CEDIA members, ELAN Systems, iLed, Kordz, Sphere Custom and TrendyStuff were the event sponsors and provided a variety of product training sessions, specific to their onsite products and services. ELAN solutions explored HDMI, EDID and HPD in its session ‘HDMI – It’s Under Control,”

while TrendyStuff discussed the rise and application of window coverings. Wellknown local distributor iLed presented its latest technologies such as its innovative eZi Home Solution, whilst Kordz explored HDMI 2.0b, HDCP, HDR, chroma subsampling, deep colour and Rec. 2020. Sphere Custom imparted its wisdom on sales techniques, design, products and décor tricks to succeed in the home technology realm. “CEDIA is committed in its efforts to grow the home technology market in South Africa and to provide its members with relevant training,” says Wendy Griffiths, Executive Director of CEDIA EMEA. “It is very important that CEDIA remains dedicated to developing high levels of knowledge and skills in locations where membership continues to grow.” Also integrated into the road show were CEDIA’s most popular workshops, presented by industry experts Peter Aylett, Christiaan Beukes and Craig Potter. These courses included the renowned Future Technologies: The Silicon Valley Scoop, Advanced Home Cinema Design, Residential Networking and an exam session for its respective

certification. Aylett’s future trends talk proved an event highlight, with much lateral thinking in evidence about how technology trends are impacting on thinking about home design, living and working spaces and AV networking. CEDIA also hosted its leading CPD session ‘Designing Integrated Future-Ready Homes’ in Johannesburg. This RIBA, BIID and RIAI accredited CPD is aimed at architects and interior designers who are looking to understand the basics of smart home technology and how this can be achieved without detracting from the property's design. As Griffiths points out, “These are two key constituencies for our work. The collaborations between designers, architects and AV integrators is becoming more and more important as technologies and networks converge.” Following the full days of training and workshops, home technology professionals, as well as design professionals who attended the CPD, had the opportunity to network with the day’s presenters and fellow peers at CEDIA’s popular Connect networking events.

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Tadco restructures, consolidates offering After a period of restructuring and consolidation of its brand offerings in the local market, well-known audio brand specialists Tadco are back on the road with a streamlined operation, and are seeing their core brands holding their own – and in some cases taking off. Says owner, MD and industry personality Simon Oates, ‘Our Clear-Com products are selling extremely well, since we acquired the distribution rights back in 2014. We offer their intercom solutions, including partyline, digital matrix, wireless intercoms, and intercomover-IP conferencing software. It’s a very dependable and robust product set, and we offer support for the products across all their installation sectors. Most recently we’ve supplied MGG and Gearhouse Splitbeam locally, and they’re very happy with the product. Interest in the product suite has

been growing exponentially.” Tadco still specialises in audio brands, and has long been a local supplier of Australianmanufactured professional audio brand Quest Engineering. “Quest has been doing very well for us in installations and events throughout Africa, funnily enough. We recently supplied their equipment to the Pope’s visit to Uganda, and supplied a huge event in Malawi. Quest’s MX range of full IP67 weatherproofed speakers are fantastic. Another brand that’s doing well for us is Coda. Earlier this year, Virtual Productions in Pretoria bought 24 of Coda’s new AiRays with 12 Nexo subs to augment their existing kit. Another product line that does well

for us is the Camco Q-Power range. It’s a fantastic amp.’ Oates returns to Tadco’s recent success with the Clear-Com range. ‘It’s always a surprise to me that we have so much need to communicate effectively and we don’t do it well. But the Clear-Com FreeSpeak range of transceivers and antenna splitters is seriously impressive. Its frequency response goes up to 7K, with easy to wear lightweight headsets. Up to 15 beltpacks can run off the FreeSpeak stations, so it’s ideal for use in live event and theatres – it’s such a great product I’m not surprised it’s doing well. We’ve had a demo system in the country for a few months which is out so often I hardly see it!" "We’ve been justified in our decision not to hold stock locally of our high-end audio brands. We can still get stock of Coda, Quest and Nexo very easily, within days, and we’re consequently not trying to convince clients to take product from us that may not exactly fit their requirements, simply because we’re holding stock. Everything we do now is customised and exactly to the client’s specifications."

L-Group acquires CAMCO L-Acoustics’ holding company, L-Group, recently announced the acquisition of CAMCO, the manufacturer of high-end amplified controllers, DSP and audio network solutions for the professional audio industry. A world leader in electronics for the professional sound industry, CAMCO has over 25 years of experience developing amplified controller technology and holds several patents in the trade. Based in Wenden, Germany, CAMCO counts 50 employees and distributes its products in 60 countries around the globe, in addition to supplying components to the industry’s leading professional sound system manufacturers. “For over a decade, CAMCO has been a key supply partner of L-Acoustics. Their expertise in electronics for the professional sound industry has contributed to the success of the L-Acoustics amplified controllers”, explains Hervé Guillaume, managing director of the holding company. “Welcoming them into the L-Group family of companies will allow both L-Acoustics and CAMCO to continue growing our research and development expertise. This merger will give us the tools to develop future products

Hervé Guillaume, Reiner Sassmann, Joachim Stoecker and Christian Heil

to better serve our clients and explore new markets.” “We are excited to join forces with a leader in the professional sound industry,” said Reiner Sassmann, managing director at CAMCO. “Our recognized expertise in the design and manufacture of electronics, combined with L-Group’s excellence in the varied domains of sound reinforcement will allow us both to deepen our skills and enhance our ability to innovate. The united strength of our teams will open up multiple and exciting opportunities for mutual future growth.”

CAMCO will maintain its full team and headquarters in Germany and continue to manufacture its signature i-series, Vortex, D-Power and Q-Power amplified controllers while also developing OEM solutions for L-Acoustics and other manufacturers. CAMCO will keep its brand name and will become a sister company of L-Acoustics, woodworking manufacturer SIMEA, and L-ISA, creator of immersive sound art solutions. L-Group is an independent company owned and operated by the executive partners of the Group and its subsidiaries.

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Mediatech 2017

Mediatech Africa is offering even more in 2017, with the biennial advanced media and entertainment technology trade show showcasing new technologies and services from industry leaders around the world, 19-21 July at the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg, South Africa. During an interview about the 2015 show, Simon Robinson, Exhibition Director for Mediatech said: “We are probably 20% bigger than we were in previous years. We now have over 700 brands represented at the show and a significant increase in the number of manufacturers representing themselves.” The 9th edition of this internationally praised expo not only promises live demonstrations and special events in different industry sectors, including Broadcast, AV integration, Film & Video, Digital Media, Sound & Light and Studio & DJ, but will also feature a drone cage for exhibitors to showcase their products, as well as four half-day conferences. All four conferences, which will run alongside Mediatech on the first and second day, will be industry focussed and broken down into Broadcast, Film & Video Production, AV Integration and Live Event Technology. The conferences will take place in the new

conference wing at the Ticketpro Dome and each will feature around six speakers. Says Shevaun McCreedy, Events Manager for Mediatech: “An exciting new addition to the Mediatech 2017 programme will be the launch of the conference – a multidisciplinary conference with an emphasis on thought leadership and trends within the industry. With each of the four half-day conferences dedicated specifically to the topics of Broadcast, Film & Video Production, AV Integration and Live Events – the conference seeks to provide a platform for discussion amongst industry leaders.” According to Nicola du Plooy, Exhibition Manager for Mediatech Africa, stand sales are open, while registration will be available from January 2017. Online registration for the expo will be free, but time sensitive, while any latecomers will need to pay on site. Costs will be confirmed closer to the expo. Mediatech is currently open to sponsorships, with Gearhouse already on-board as technical sponsor again.

Exhibitor comments from 2015: • “It is very positive to see how many of the manufacturers at this show have shifted to more professional AV, which again, just shows how far Mediatech has come the last few years and it will be very interesting to see where the next show will take this market.” – Wynand Langenhoven, Peripheral Vision • “We are positively impressed with this year’s show. There is so much to do and

see, and everything is well organised. We have also seen a lot of people from outside South Africa visiting this year’s show, especially movie directors and people from large churches in Africa. We have also been privileged to have some of our clients from across South Africa make the trip to be here and that has been great for us.” – Massimo Bolandrina, Clay Paky • “Sony Professional Solutions is a regular exhibitor at Mediatech. Because South Africa is geographically distant from Europe, we feel it is important to participate in Mediatech to showcase our latest solutions to broadcasters and cinematographers in the region.” – Paul Martin, Business Head – Channel Marketing & Sales, Sony Professional Solutions MEA Booked exhibitors for Mediatech 2017 include Protea Electronics, Concilium Technologies, Jasco, Sony, Crestron, Viva Afrika, Electrosonic, Peripheral Vision, Alpha Technologies, Christie and Extron. Stand sales for the expo cost R 3160/pm2 (excluding VAT) for floorspace only stands and R 3530/m2 (excluding VAT) for shell scheme package stands. Says du Plooy: “With less than nine months to go, the team are all hands on deck to make sure 2017 is our biggest and best year yet! We look forward to seeing familiar faces and welcoming newcomers to Africa’s premier media and entertainment trade show.”

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Bringing SA sunshine to the UK

Specialist local equipment rental provider, Gearhouse Splitbeam, was recently approached by Suntoy – a provider of innovative renewable and sustainable solar energy solutions and creator of the immensely popular Consol Solar Jars ™ brand – to assist with the local preparation for a lighting event that took place between 29th October and 13th November 2016 in the UK. Titled IN LIGHT: Illuminating Capability Brown’s Landscape, the event features as a centrepiece an alternative light installation devised by Laurent Louyer of Creatmosphere (a visual art studio which utilises light and technology in progressive and environmentally friendly ways as possible). The event aims to revitalise Compton Verney art gallery and park using an interactive light display commissioned to mark the 300th anniversary of renowned British landscape architect; Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. In an unusual twist, the UK installation incorporates 450 of the South African designed and manufactured Consol Solar Jars ™. Harald Shulz, Managing Director at Suntoy, collaborated with the University of Johannesburg and their technology incubator, Resolution Circle, to realise his vision of linking the solar powered jars via a

DMX-type technology to enable each unit to communicate organically with the others. Each jar’s functionality needed to be controllable by means of a networked wireless mesh so that they could be sequenced through a lighting board. Gearhouse Splitbeam was able to provide the development team with a 24 Channel ETC Smart Fade Desk to experiment with, as they established an effective Mi-Fi control system using individual custom-made receivers mounted in the lids of each bottle. A three day test-run took place at UJ’s AW Muller Stadium in Johannesburg. Splitbeam brought in an MA2 Desk on PC with Command Wing and a pair of the company’s networking whiz-kids, in the form of Marcel Wijnberger and Michael Inglis, to assist with the accurate addressing of each individual unit, improved response times and the programming of chase sequences for the layout of jars for the initial test days. Splitbeam also provided a small sound

system for the test run and press evening to complement the serene ambience provided by a field of 500 twinkling lights as the sun went down. “This is the first time that wireless DMX technology has been used to network solar jars on this scale”, says Michael Inglis, “For anyone with a passion for innovation; being involved in a technologically pioneering event like this, provides a fresh thrill every time. New challenges and new solutions…it’s what we thrive on.” IN LIGHT’s UK iteration offered visitors an additional interactive element allowing them to manipulate the illumination of the trees, Verney’s mansion, the chapel and bridge themselves, using Suntoy’s host of solar powered light sources in a completely different way. “We are proud to have been able to contribute to Suntoy bringing their particular brand of South African sunshine to the UK for this innovative event” comments Inglis.

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ISE 2017 – the story so far The 14th edition of ISE, which takes place at the RAI Amsterdam on 7-10 February 2017, is expected to attract in excess of 65,000 visitors to more than 1,100 exhibitors. For four days, the newly extended show floor will be home to a community of manufacturers, distributors, integrators, service providers and end-users.

For many, the ISE 2017 journey will start on the day before the show – Monday 6th February – when the RAI hosts two ISE conferences and two ISE 2017 opening events. The AudioForum, presented by one of ISE’s media partners Connessioni, is a full-day event, which will include seminars hosted by qualified audio professionals. The Smart Building Conference will also stage a full-day’s programme, including expert speakers from across the smart building industry. New for 2017 is that InfoComm International will be running its two-and-ahalf day CTS Prep course over Monday 6th to Wednesday 8th February – with exams for CTS, CTS-I and CTS-D scheduled Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th February at the RAI Amsterdam – prospective candidates should keep an eye out for details in the coming weeks. On the evening of Monday 6th February, the build-up to ISE 2017 will culminate with the opening address followed by the opening reception. During the show days, the events keep coming. The Sports Venue Integration Summit takes place on Thursday 9th February. On the final day of the show – Friday 10th February – the Future AV Professionals Programme will bring together students and employers, and the M2D Networking Reception will connect manufacturers and distributors looking to forge new business relationships. The final day of the show will also see President and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, Danile Lamarre, deliver the ISE 2017 closing keynote. This is set to be a truly unmissable part of the show. ISE 2017 will see new identities for the Show

Floor Theatre and the addition of a fifth theatre. The CEDIA Smart Building Solutions Theatre lines up alongside the InfoComm Commercial Solutions Theatre (sponsored by Crestron), the CEDIA Residential Solutions Theatre, the ISE 2017 Audio Solutions Theatre, and the InfoComm Unified Communications Theatre (also sponsored by Crestron). In addition to the Show Floor Theatres, ISE’s co-owners CEDIA and InfoComm International will present an even wider range of courses at ISE 2017. Both associations will offer more of their popular technical and business education, with offers in place for early bird discounts. The schedule looks set to offer something for everyone in the most stimulating ISE education programme yet. With an impressive roster of more than 100 sessions to choose from, InfoComm and CEDIA are offering attendees a comprehensive choice of stimulating conferences, classes and seminars in Amsterdam next February. Full details of speakers and their sessions will be available on the ISE website in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here are some of the highlights:

InfoComm International Education at ISE InfoComm is presenting a range of education sessions this year, with four formats on offer. Each type of session offers something different, with education and thought-provoking content guaranteed. There is something for everyone, including IT, AV and business professionals: Application Labs: New to ISE, these education sessions will comprise instructorled discussion and hands-on training. Conferences: A choice of five three-hour conferences from Tuesday to Friday that will explore a set topic through guest speakers and a panel. MasterClasses: offering plenty of chance for hands-on activities and in-depth analysis of key issues. FlashTracks: With over 50 sessions on offer,

attendees will be able to explore an array of subjects, with German and Dutch sessions also. Here is a sampling of the InfoComm courses and instructors from which ISE attendees will gain insight during the show: Application Lab: What’s in That Wire? Dissecting the AV Connection – Joe Cornwall, CTS®-D, CTS-I, LEED GA, ISF-C, FOI, Legrand Data Communications MasterClass: The New AV: How to Replace Products with Solutions – Tom Stimson MBA, CTS, Stimson Group LLC MasterClass: Advanced Projection and Associated Standards – Greg Jeffreys, Visual Displays MasterClass: Deploying AV over Ethernet: The New Matrix Switch – Justin Kennington, AptoVision.

CEDIA Education at ISE From a technology perspective, CEDIA courses will cover future innovations heading our way led by CEDIA’s VP of Emerging Technologies, Dave Pedigo, supported by a range of impressive subject experts from across the globe. As part of this programme, CEDIA will provide:

CEDIA Training • A Full Day Home Cinema Design Course • A Full Day Rack-Building Session • Advanced Networking • Technology Integration for SuperYachts • Remote Management • Re-occurring Revenues • Immersive Sound • Design Thinking • Hi-Definition Audio • Voice Control Meanwhile CEDIA also welcomes renowned U.S. business guru, Leslie Shiner, who will present sessions at the show for the first time. These include: • Warning! Avoid these 10 Simple Things that Can Put You Out of Business; • Understanding Labour, Cost, Productivity and Efficiency • “Work Smarter, Not Harder” Workshop for Business Owners At ISE 2017 attendees can also join free CEDIA Talks, a series of TED-style, bite-sized sessions, hosted on the CEDIA booth every day of the show. Here, thought leaders will take a look at a huge range of issues facing the industry today.

news

Electrosonic and Green Hippo part ways

Further ructions in the local distribution market as UK media server and digital display business Green Hippo parts ways with local distributor Electrosonic SA… Despite a positive outlook for the product in the local market, Green Hippo and Electrosonic SA have ‘mutually decided’ to end their distribution agreement, effective end-November. A statement from

Electrosonic SA reads: “It is with sadness we have to announce that Electrosonic SA (Pty) Ltd will no longer distribute the Green Hippo line of products in Southern Africa as from 26 November 2016. Both parties have mutually decided to go their separate paths. Electrosonic SA will continue to support their existing customers in any way we can, but as of 26 November

2016 any new business will be directly with Green Hippo in the UK. Electrosonic SA has had a great journey with Green Hippo over the last 3 and a half years with some significant sales and milestones achieved. Green Hippo feels that it is time to do things differently in South Africa and will announce their plans to the market in due course. Electrosonic SA wishes to thank all our clients and users for their support. There have been wonderful moments with many shows, Hippo Schools, hugely successful Grahamstown Arts Festivals and Mediatech Shows with the Hippo Brand, and in general some good times with Tom Etra and Simon Harris from Green Hippo.” Green Hippo was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press, with no indication given of their future plans for the SA market.

Imago SA launches new identity As SkyGroup Communications Leading video conferencing supplier Imago South Africa is launching a new corporate identity and name-change to underline its independent status and commitment to its market. Its new name – SkyGroup Communications and positioning statement “Completely Connected” – is a signal to customers that sustained growth is on the horizon, said Johannesburgbased sales & marketing director, Dirk Schreuder. He added: “It is the ideal time to showcase our independence following strategic growth that firmly positions us as South Africa’s leading video-conferencing distributor. “Last financial year, we achieved 43,2% sales growth. Over the last two years we have more than doubled our reseller-base. “We forecast continued double-digit sales growth on the back of continued development of our basket of high quality video-conferencing and voice solutions.” The new identity also underscores the business’s separation from the international Imago Group.

The South African operation was previously a subsidiary of Imago Group plc, a European business that was subsequently acquired by NASDAC-listed ScanSource Inc. Imago South Africa was not part of the transaction. All equity in the South African business is now held by local managers and a UK-based investor. “Since separation from our international parent we have enjoyed phenomenal growth,” said Schreuder. “Our name-change is designed to usher in the next growth phase.” This confidence is based on the strength of the ‘brand basket’ now being marketed by SkyGroup Communications. The product mix includes: LifeSize (cloud-based conferencing solution extending visual communication

from the boardroom to desktop and mobile) Yealink (video conferencing for SMMEs) Barco (manufacturers of plug-in ClickShare wireless presentation tools) Pexip (on-premise, cloud or hybrid visual communication solution) Tely (cloud optimized huddle room solution) “Our resellers not only demand top quality like this, they also expect a responsive distribution partner who provides superior technical support. Total commitment to the market is expected,” said Schreuder. “That commitment is now assured – thanks to our independence and an ownership structure that accommodates local management.” Despite the prospect of zero GDP growth in 2016, the SkyGroup team believes continued expansion is achievable. “We have a qualitative edge across the product mix,” noted Schreuder. “We are therefore well positioned versus other technology platforms. As a level 3 BEE contributor SkyGroup Communications is committed to equal opportunity for all and adheres to the BEE code of good practice. “We regard BEE as a key driver of sustainable growth,” said Schreuder. “It is an exciting way to differentiate your business and achieve competitive advantage. Our long-term vision is to maintain a leadership position through product excellence and quality support.”

news

Industry heavyweights give back to young musicians

Hip Hop Vox

Prosound and DownTown studios teamed up recently to offer a hands-on workshop on session and studio techniques, with Audio Technica as the key product partner. Prosound boasts as rich a history as DownTown Studios and was actually based in the very same street in Johannesburg – Fox Street – for many years. Prosound and DownTown Studios have long been discussing ways of collaborating in a way that benefits local artists. This event was an ideal opportunity to make a positive contribution through the sharing of technical expertise and the right product range to make it all possible in Audio-Technica. Using Audio-Technica’s products, Prosound and the DownTown team imparted some of their years of experience in the live sound and studio environments to an audience that was eager to learn. About 30 people attended the workshop, and were in rapt attention through three different sessions: • The day began with singers Sió, Charlene Lai and RubyGold hosting a panel discussion that highlighted the skills required to succeed as a vocalist in the South African music business. These very talented young ladies shared a bit of their background with the audience and gave them a few tips on what to avoid and where to concentrate one’s efforts when establishing a career as a professional vocalist.

RubyGold (left)

• The second session was sponsored by Audio-Technica. Prosound set up a stage on the DownTown Music Hub’s rooftop balcony and facilitated a workshop with veteran monitor and FOH engineer, Lee Brune, who spoke to the idea that a live performance is very much a team effort. He delved into the various aspects of a live sound reinforcement system with particular emphasis on monitoring and correct microphone choice. Microphone handling techniques and stagecraft were also covered, followed by some spontaneous acapella performances by Sió, Charlene, and RubyGold as well as members of the audience. • The last session of the day was held in DownTown Studio’s legendary Studio One. Paul Martin from the DownTown Music Hub, discussed how artists could prepare for sessions and save themselves loads of time, money and aggravation by effectively planning their recording

sessions. He also presented many tips and tricks from DownTown Studio’s “Happy session Guide” and then handed over to one of the studio’s engineers Clifford “Riffi” Machingaifa, who hosted a live demonstration and discussion on studio microphone techniques with the assistance of Charlene Lai. “There’s lots of talent out there, but we’re noticing that it’s not being nurtured and developed,” says Martin. “There’s some amazing musicianship and skill, but very little practical advice on how to take the next step when developing one’s career. Mzansi Music Magazine and the Female DJ Network, who together convened the event, feel that these types of events are critical in assisting in the development of the South African music industry, so the workshop was facilitated to help upcoming artists learn both the practical technical skills as well as life skills required for success in our music industry.”

PROLIGHT + SOUND Show REPORT

Show REPORT PROLIGHT + SOUND

2016 Global Pro-AV Distribution Channel and Trends Report InfoComm releases new distributor and industry trends report Research REPORT

Following on a 2013 report into the North American pro-AV channel and trends, InfoComm and its research partners have been hard at work analysing the bigger picture for the global industry. As they put it, ‘The 2016 Global Pro-AV Distribution Channel and Trends Report. Is [intended] to explore the ways in which pro-AV products and services move through the market—from manufacturer to end-user organisation— and to identify factors that influence the various channels.’ What follows are excerpts from InfoComm’s channel report, which are reprinted here with InfoComm’s permission. Figure 1: The Pro-AV Distribution Model

Tier 0 Tier 1 Tier 2 For 2016, InfoComm expanded on the earlier study in order to Manufacturer Manufacturer Manufacturer understand better the pro-AV channel globally. The current report also includes research on Distributor end-user buying habits to better inform the Tier 0, Tier 1 and Tier 2 distribution models originally Reseller/ Reseller/ Integrator Integrator discussed in 2013 (see Figure 1). The report examines distribution channels from a End User End User End User manufacturer-relationship perspective. The way pro- AV manufacturers sell products More complex, higher-value products Less complex, commodity-like products can be characterised by the Products are sold from the Products are sold from the Products are sold through three distinct tiers. The research manufacturer directly to the manufacturer to a reseller, two intermediaries; uncovers trends impacting end user without the use of thus indirectly to the end user. manufacturer sells through each tier, including end-user an intermediary. a distributor, to the reseller, thus indirectly to the purchasing habits; service end user. offerings that differentiate Figure 1: The Pro-AV Distribution Model distributors and integrators in Tier 1 distribution; and manufacturers’ expectations Tier 1 Distribution: This channel applies to manufacturers that model.a Tier 2 traditionally refers towhich Tier 1then distribution of distributors, resellers and integrators within sell to resellers, integrators or distributors, sell to end Tier 0 Distribution: This channel applies channels as a direct relationship fromare distribution model. users. In most cases, the resellers, integrators or distributors to manufacturers that sell directly to end manufacturer to integrators. Tier 0 Distribution: This channel applies to manufacturers that bundling services with products as a value-add to the final sale. without the use sell directly to end users without the useusers of intermediaries, suchof intermediaries, It is important to note that while the AV integrator is acting as an such as systems integrators,intermediary, resellers Tier 2industry Distribution: In this multichannel as systems integrators, resellers or distributors. the pro-AV traditionally refers to Tier 1

Press Copy

or distributors. Tier 1 Distribution: This channel applies

approach, manufacturers sell to distributors or resellers. The products are then sold one or more times through the

REPORT Research

Figure 2: 2016 and 2017 Global Distribution Percentage by Tier 2016 Projected Percentage by Distribution Tier

10%

2017 Projected Percentage by Distribution Tier

Tier 0

Tier 0 Tier 1

Tier 1 Tier 2

46%

Tier 2

46%

45%

44%

Figure 2: 2016 and 2017 Global Distribution Percentage by Tier

distribution channels direct relationship fromare manufacturer Globally, shiftsasinathe way products to integrators. bought and sold in the pro-AV market have Tier 2 Distribution: In this multichannel approach, been minimal, and thatortrend is The expected manufacturers sell to distributors resellers. products are then one or more times through channel, most typically tosold continue through 2017.the The distribution to integrators, before being purchased by end users. In this percentages by tier vary slightly regionally relationship, distributors assist manufacturers in selling to systems and depend onresellers, a number of warehousing factors, such integrators and other providing and inventory so that fulfilment is handled by the distributor. as theservices knowledge of the channel stakeGlobally, shifts in the way products are bought and sold in the holders, pro-AV products and geographical pro-AV market have been minimal, and that trend is expected regions,through to mention few thatpercentages may impact to continue 2017. Theadistribution by tier vary slightly regionally and depend on a number of factors, the channel selection process. such as the knowledge of the channel stakeholders, pro-AV products and geographical regions, to mention a few that may impact the channel selection process. Worldwide, approximately one-in-10 pro-AV products is currently sold directly to end users (Tier 0). Tier 1, where there is one intermediary between the end user and manufacturer and Tier 2 (multi-channel) are roughly split evenly at 44 percent and 46 percent, respectively (Figure 2).

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The evolving role of distributors

Distributors currently face a wide array of threats to the way they sell products within the industry. Some of these threats are from new market entrants, such as IT value–added resellers (VARs), but the largest threat is perceived to be shrinking product margins. As margins on products shrink, distributors and resellers will continue to come up with additional service 16 Global Pro-AV Distribution Channel and Trends Reportcontent-creation offerings, such as managed service contracts, services, training and even installation and integration services. As an aftereffect of this business transformation, many of these services put them in direct competition with some of their largest client – AV integrators. The friction created among the multiple channel stakeholders within the AV distribution chain, who are offering the same products and services, will likely result in further consolidation within the AV industry. Stakeholders will also keep looking for new avenues to increase their revenue.

The proliferation of hybrid distribution Worldwide, approximately one-in-10 pro-AVmodels products is currently sold directly to end Hybrid distribution models, whereby the same types of pro-AV users (Tier 0).various Tier 1, where is one products take paths to endthere users, are not new to the pro-AV industry. But the overwhelming utilisation intermediary between the end user andof such models, and the impact that they have on the pro- AV distribution manufacturer and Tier 2 (multi-channel) are channel, has often gone unstated and adds a layer of roughly split at 44chain. percent andbe46 complexity to evenly the distribution As might expected, factors such as product sales, service percent, respectively (Figure 2).and tech support, which drive the purchase of products through Tier 1 and Tier 2 distribution models, affect both end users and manufacturers, but in very different ways. For manufacturers, increased commoditisation, the ability to reduce inventory and carrying costs, and access to new customers has made selling products through distributors and resellers a very attractive option. At the same time that there is a growing dependence on Tier 1 and Tier 2distribution models, manufacturers still find value in selling directly to clients. This multichannel, or hybrid, distribution model means manufacturers have to take into account how to market, sell and provide logistical support for each type of business that operates within the pro-AV distribution channel.

Overall trends Distributors are expected to continue to combine product distribution activities with high-value services, such as technical training and full sales support for both pre-and post-selling opportunities. This comes from a need for distributors to add value in the distribution chain to help increase margins. After the global economic crisis of 2008, AV and IT convergence accelerated. As a result, competition between AV and IT industries has intensified when selling comparable products. Pro-AV distribution had to adjust to IT VARs that began offering more traditional AV services to integrators and end-user clients. Pro-AV distributors indicate that most product margins are now low double digits and even single digits in some cases. The commoditisation of pro-AV products is another factor contributing to the decline in margins for distributors. It has become easier to obtain hardware, whether for a big project or a short-term need. For example, an enterprise client in New York

Figure 13: 2016-2017 Forecast Growth Rate

Research Figure 11:REPORT Global Outlook 2016: Percent and Revenue by Distribution Tier 2016 Projected Revenue by Distribution Tier

2016 Projected Percentage by Distribution Tier

Tier 0

$40,000

Tier 1

$35,000

Tier 2

46%

2017 Growth Forecast

$45,000

10%

Regions

(In Millions)

$30,000

33,338

35,241

$25,000

Global

14%

North America

13%

Latin America

15%

Europe

10%

Asia-Pacific

18%

Middle East/Africa

17%

$20,000 $15,000 $10,000

44%

$5,000 $0

7,982

Tier 0

Tier 1

Tier 2

Figure 3: Global Outlook 2016: Percent and Revenue by Distribution Tier

Figure 5: 2016-2017 Forecast Growth Rate

Figure 12: Global Outlook 2017: Percent and Revenue by Distribution Tier 2017 Projected Percentage by Distribution Tier

2017 Projected Revenue by Distribution Tier (In Millions) $45,000

Tier 0

$40,000

Tier 1

$35,000

Tier 2

46%

39,252

40,124

$30,000 $25,000 $20,000 $15,000

45%

$10,000 $5,000 $0

7,850

Tier 0

Copy

Tier 1

Figure 4: Global Outlook 2017: Percent and Revenue by Distribution Tier

can drop by a store like B&H, which has many pro-AV products in stock. Today, pro-AV distributors have to compete with resellers, systems integrators, and non-traditional pro- AV sources, including consumer-branded retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy. Competition andand undercutting 2016 Global Pro-AV Distribution Channel Trends Report prices are the most common concerns among resellers/dealers, distributors and other channel partakers such as IT VARs. When asked about the potential barriers to growth in the next few years, 44 percent said “Competition in general,” 26 percent said “Competition undercutting price,” 22 percent said “Lack of qualified labour force,” and 22 percent said “Economic instability”. In other words, at the current time, more companies worry about competition than economic instability. This dynamic poses a threat to the profitability of distributors, but also an opportunity for them to become value-added agents and, by doing so, compound their current margins. Manufacturers are under market pressure to reduce product price and hence margins on hardware products. Because of this, manufacturers hope that distributors can become valueadded agents that provide marketing/technical training/ support services, thereby creating their own service margins rather than relying entirely on hardware margins.

Global outlook Worldwide, from 2016 to 2017, changes in the way pro-AV products are bought and sold will be minimal. Currently, one-in-10 products move directly from manufacturers to end users through Tier 0 distribution. The share of products moving through Tier 1 and Tier 2 distribution, respectively, is practically even with 44 percent and 46 percent (Figure 3). The trend is expected to continue in 2017 (Figure 4). Manufacturers are focused on developing new innovations to drive product sales, while distributors and integrators are adding services to complement product sales and installations. Tier 0 distribution

models are expected to see a slight decline in revenue mainly due to a shift 2017 Market Share, by Region toward Tier 1 and Tier 2 models. Minimal 4% changes in the percentage of products sold for each distribution tier could have large impacts on the expected revenue 32% growth for each. On a macro level, the global AV market 41% in 2017 will grow at a healthy forecast 14-percent pace from 2016. North

America, Latin America and Europe are expected to grow at low double digits 5% in the teens. Asia-Pacific is likely to grow at 18 percent with the stronger 17%than expected economy from China and India. Although, Middle East and Africa comprise just 4 percent of the AV global market, 2017 is another strong year growing at 17 percent (Figure 5). Tier 2

Product distribution trends 29

The global product revenue is projected to grow 14 percent from 2016 to 2017. The top three products in order of market size: displays; AV acquisition and delivery equipment; and projectors will comprise more than 50 percent of the market share with 26 percent, 21 percent and 11 percent respectively. The total market size in revenue for these products is just over $40 billion with the display taking almost half of this share and one-quarter of the entire market. Displays (16 percent) and cables, connectors and adaptors (15 percent) have the highest distribution through Tier 0. Control systems have one of the lowest distributions through Tier 0 at just 2 percent with the remaining distributed evenly through Tier 1 and Tier 2. The screen and shades product line has the highest distribution through Tier 2 at 55 percent and just 7 percent through Tier 0.

Purchase your copy today. InfoComm’s full, 80-page 2016 Global Pro-AV Distribution Channel and Trends Report includes further analysis, including trends and forecasts for five global regions: Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and Latin America. The full report also includes 2017 global revenue forecasts for 14 different product categories, as well as projected breakdowns of each category by distribution tier. Discounts for the full report are available to InfoComm members and can be combined with one of InfoComm’s seven vertical market studies, which are based on in-depth interviews with pro-AV customer segments worldwide. For more information and to purchase the report, visit www.infocomm.org/channel16.

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crestron.eu/dmps3 All brand names, product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Certain trademarks, registered trademarks, and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Crestron disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Crestron is not responsible for errors in typography or photography. ©2016 Crestron EMEA

Integration & Installation REPORT

Meyer Sound Leopard makes its African debut By James Sey

The Word and Life Church in Sunward Park, Boksburg, recently installed the first Meyer Sound Leopard system in Africa, supplied and installed by ProSound. The Word and Life Church in Sunward Park, Boksburg, is an Apostolic Faith Mission church with a congregation of around 13 000, and an auditorium for services that can seat up to 3 000 people. Prominent local AV company Prosound recently installed its first Meyer Sound Leopard array in Africa into the church’s auditorium. Explains Prosound’s technical sales manager Lee Thomson, “The client considered a few options, but chose Meyer Sound and Prosound based on our long standing relationship with them, and the fact that Meyer Sound is the premium loudspeaker brand offering the latest in fidelity and un-coloured linear audio reproduction.

“From the technical and sound coverage points of view the venue is tricky, but we were expecting this, since we had done the previous installation in the venue. There are a few rigging challenges in terms of weight loading in the roof. We had to span trussing to spread loads and still find suitable rigging positions for the loudspeakers. We utilised Meyer Sound MAPP, their on-line SPL prediction programme, to predict the coverage in the room.” As Thomson explains, the church already owned a Meyer Sound system, which had been installed some years ago, by Prosound. “The previous system consisted of 16 Meyer Sound M2Ds, which we

installed about 10-years ago. We decided to refurbish and re-use these loudspeakers in conjunction with the new Leopard loudspeakers. The M2Ds were placed to cover the outer areas of the venue and the Leopard on the inner sections. We also added 6 900-LCF single 18” sub-bass loudspeaker that were also flown. The venue shape is unusual and poses some challenges in that there are pillars blocking sight lines and aircon ducts and trussing blocking loudspeaker coverage. The whole install took about two-weeks, and we also provided basic training on the Calisto DSP. However, the church’s technical team are experienced, so it made the training fairly straight forward.” Comments Word and Life’s production and IT manager Dewaldt Visagie, “We have a diverse and vibrant congregation with a wide range of sound requirements for our different services. We’re very happy with how the new Leopard system is handling them all.”

Integration & Installation REPORT

Photo by Peter Hassel

Illuminating the Mall of Africa

Over a thousand Anolis LED lighting fixtures are lighting three major areas of the Mall of Africa in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa … the result of a remarkable collaboration between architectural lighting designer Deryl Jan, European LED manufacturer Anolis and South African distributor DWR Distribution, who also took on the exacting specialist installation of this high profile project.

REPORT Integration & Installation

The fixtures were supplied and installed by DWR Distribution, whose team was project managed by Keith Pugin. They worked closely with Deryl and end-to-end the project consumed the company for a year. The three aspects of the Mall currently lit with Anolis lighting are the roof, a selection of trees in the adjacent City Park and various other aspects around the park including an underpass which is part of a new road constructed to enable vehicle access to the Mall. Anolis was chosen for its quality, proven reliability and for the manufacturer’s willingness to customise and adapt their technology to ensure that Deryl and DWR had exactly the right products needed to deliver world class lighting for this seminal commercial venture. Lead architect Tia Kanakakis from MDS initially gave Jan a brief of how she envisioned the lighting should look, inspired by a number of ideas she collected from Las Vegas and other places around the world where lighting is crucial to enhancing atmosphere and moods. She also wanted lighting to be a central visual feature for the space that accentuated the curves and contours of the building.

Raising the roof The roof is constructed out of 963 triangular ETFE inflatable cushions, 432 of which are clear and 531 opaque, covering a surface area of approximately 3 954 square metres. After considering several options, the decision was made to illuminate only the opaque ETFE panels on all except the outer ring of cushions. The opaque finish took the light extremely well and the effect added a depth and contrast to the honeycomb-like pattern they create. Jan has been using Anolis products for some years in his work. “The quality and the engineering are excellent and it’s definitely an LED light-source of choice” he confirmed. He had also had a good experience with Anolis installed in Protea Court, Sandton, Johannesburg – another premium SA retail project on which he worked in 2011 for lighting designer Paul Pamboukian. “At every stage of the Mall of Africa process,” adds Jan, “I had seven star service and attention to detail from John Saunders and his team at Anolis in the Czech Republic.” Jan and DWR looked at the best solutions for smoothly and evenly illuminating the ETFE segments and then conducted an onsite demo with 21 of the Anolis ArcLine Optic 36s that he was suggesting they use. This was also attended by key people from MDS and the project’s developers, Atterbury, after which they could imagine how amazing it would look applied to the whole roof! After this, the fixtures were confirmed and ordered with Anolis and the factory in the Czech Republic started manufacturing the order, together with special brackets which were designed and fabricated by DWR to clip the fixtures on to the profile of the roof panels. The ArcLine Optic 36s in the roof are powered by 114 x ArcPower 384 Rack Mount drivers located in the ceiling area – and run via an MA Lighting grandMA2 replay unit also chosen for its reliability.

The park, gardens and underpass Mall of Africa opened earlier in 2016 and is the largest single-phase retail experience to be built in Africa to date, covering 550,000 square metres in total with two main shopping levels connecting directly to Waterfall City Park. Its interesting architecture and form was inspired by geographical elements of the African continent. The Anolis fixtures include 900 x RGBW ArcLine Optic 36s which light the roof above the entranceway and main ground floor level which were specified by Deryl Jan of PPA Lightco.

During one of Jan’s first presentations to the client, Atterbury, he showed some views of the park trees – on the south side of the Mall – coloured in blue, an idea that everyone really liked, so this was adopted as part of the overall architectural lighting scheme. Again, for depth and adding a touch of non-uniformity and interest, 70 of the Platanus Acerifolia – more commonly known as London Plane – deciduous trees are lit, for which Jan chose Anolis ArcSource 24 RGBW in-grounds.

Photo by Peter Hassel

Integration & Installation REPORT

These are an adjustable module that can be tilted to maximise the focus. They are RDM-controllable, and can be repositioned as the tree grows which was an important consideration. They are a bright high quality light source with a ‘watch glass’ style front fitted flush to the fixture to reduce the build-up of assorted debris. They are run via a Nicolaudie stand-alone DMX controller with on-board astronomical clock that switches on and off according to the daylight hours, which was spec’d by DWR. The underpass runs below the park and features a long line of concrete central supporting columns. These are transformed from a utilitarian engineering necessity into an elegant architectural feature by 22 x ArcSource 24MC integral lightsources shooting up the sides. Forty ArcLine outdoor Optic 27 POBs (power on-board) are illuminating the nearby cycle track, attached to the soffits along the underpass and also in the garden area. Along the top of two bridges connecting the park to the Mall are a series of ArcSource 1s lighting the general garden areas.

Lighting the park and gardens creates a magical and inviting ambience and draws the whole of this exterior space into the Mall concept.

Installation Of the many challenges involved in the installation, the intense stints of working at height required by the DWR team topped the list The DWR core crew in addition to Pugin included Nic Britz and Bruce Reilly with Britz additionally taking on programming of all their parts of the lighting. DimBright Electrical installers was commissioned to assist DWR on the install with numerous drawings, renders and schematics All working on site had to have additional safety and first aid training, especially since the only access to install the ArcLines in the roof was utilising three 25 metre reach cherry pickers which were hired by DWR for two months.

REPORT Integration & Installation

Manoeuvring these around the site was very tricky and challenging due to the myriad of other contractors and numerous obstacles constantly popping up in the way as everyone vied for space, all focussed on finishing their parts of the job as pressure ramped up in the weeks ahead of the grand opening date. During the summer months, the DWR team was also dealing with direct sunlight on the roof, with temperatures peaking at 40 degrees plus. The team installed over 80 kilometres of Cat 5 cabling in the roof to run the fixtures, a galvanising job which took four months alone to complete. Despite the gruelling installation and the scale and ambition of the overall project, the results are jaw-droppingly stunning, as Jan delivered the spectacular, creative – and much talked about – lighting scheme that Tia envisioned … to the delight of her clients. Jan comments, “It was another awesome experience working with both Anolis and DWR. Anolis had the imagination and mind-set to adapt and suit our exact needs which I think is quite exceptional and

something I value highly”. As testament to the strategic importance of the installation, John Saunders of Anolis flew in to the grand opening in person. He states, “The cooperation between Anolis, the team at DWR and Deryl Jan at PPA Lightco has always been on a different level. Jan’s exceptional designs combined with the most professional of teams at DWR ensured that Anolis was involved in another phenomenal project in South Africa. I am personally looking forward to working with them again on future projects … so watch this space!” Pugin concludes that it was a great learning curve and really stretched their skill sets and personality attributes in every way and also strengthened the many relationships involved. . “It was a team effort in every aspect from manufacturing to technical expertise to admin to Amanda Miranda who prepared an impeccable set of handover documents which were much appreciated.”

BEST OF 2016

Best of 2016: Distributors Our annual round-up of the best products of the year takes a slightly different approach this year. We asked a range of local distribution companies covering a gamut of AV products from integration and control systems to lighting and pro-audio to give us information on up to four of their best products of the year. We also asked what features of the product stood out, how it measured up to competition, and how it ad done in the market this year.

Sky Group Communications

Lifesize

Yealink: VC110 The Yealink VC110 is a videoconferencing system for smaller meeting rooms. The solution serves as a one-stop-shop for meeting business’ various communication and collaboration needs, boasting high performance at a highly competitive price. It is an ideal solution for businesses looking to cost-effectively deploy and maintain an advanced video conferencing system. Its best feature?: Yealink has taken user’s conferencing experience one step further with the VCM60 Wireless Micpod. Used in conjunction with the VC110, the VCM60 enables you to place a microphone in the optimal location for crystal-clear audio pickup. The system also supports full HD voice and video functionality, enabling users to streamline operations and processes with crisp, clear documents, videos and more. The Yealink VC110 boasts 14kHz CD level broadband, as well as a number of leading-edge professional voice processing technologies such as guaranteeing users a superb audio experience. The system installs in three minutes, and has camera, codec and Power over Ethernet(PoE) support, allowing users to easily setup the system and integrate it with any third party equipment—for instance, a second monitor or screen. Why is it better than its competition?: It is a cost effective solution, designed for the SME market. From the launch of their first video conferencing end point in February 2015, Yealink has subsequently launched two additional video conferencing endpoints, desktop and mobile applications, as well as a Cloud management platform. How did it do for you this year? We’ve seen a significant increase in sales of the Yealink VC110, especially within the SME space. The VC110 enable users to connect visually and to collaborate effectively, with remarkable ease of use and cost effectiveness.

Lifesize delivers a completely connected visual communication experience with its award winning Lifesize Icon video conferencing endpoints and Lifesize Cloud conferencing and collaboration service offering. Lifesize Cloud video enables every user in an organisation to communicate with internal and external colleagues and counterparts via simple software applications, WebRTC / browsers, Skype for Business or standards based SIP or H.323 endpoints. Its best feature?: As a pure cloud service, Lifesize Cloud provides customers with a high quality, reliable and scalable collaboration platform. With its Skype for Business support for on-premise and Office 365 deployments, Lifesize Cloud offers customers the ability to enhance and extend their desktop video experience on Skype for Business to the boardroom with the Lifesize Icon Full HD endpoints. Lifesize Cloud also offers recording capabilities of all point to point or multipoint video conference meetings. Due to it being a pure cloud service, companies no longer need to invest in high bandwidth networks in locations where traditional on-premise multipoint servers were required to accommodate multisite video meetings. With Lifesize Cloud, each site only uses one connection to the cloud over the internet thereby decreasing the total cost of ownership. In addition, with the advent of mobility and remote working, Lifesize Cloud ensures communication between the corporate boardrooms and remote workers via secure encrypted video communications. Why is it better than its competition?: Lifesize offers an award winning

BEST OF 2016 cloud service with over 17 points of presence around the globe. This ensures customers enjoy a resilient, high availability and scalable video meeting experience. In addition, Lifesize also offers the award winning Lifesize Icon Full HD Video Conferencing endpoints to extend the quality experience from desktop and mobile to the boardroom with the same look and feel across all platforms. Lifesize received numerous awards and accolades in 2016. How did it do for you this year?: We have seen a definite acceptance of cloud based services in South Africa in the past year. Customers are looking to streamline their communication platforms without the high cost associated with on-premise solutions and resource requirements to run these services. With Lifesize Cloud, organisations no longer require dedicated technical IT support staff to manage the video environment. We have seen a higher uptake in the corporate space, with government and other vertical markets starting to investigate cloud based services for their communication needs.

and cross platform solution, Pexip Infinity provides a cost effective platform for companies to video enable their workforce. Pexip Infinity can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid model. With its distributed architecture, companies are able to deploy multiple Pexip Infinity instances in different geographical locations thereby optimizing and conserving expensive network infrastructure. In addition, Pexip received a “Global Video Conferencing Technology Innovation Award” by UC industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, which confirms that it is a best of breed solution. How did it do for you this year?: Pexip is a new product we recently took on, but we do expect to generate substantial revenue on the product via our certified channel partner community.

Pexip Infinity Pexip Infinity is an award-winning meeting and collaboration platform that enables visual communications and collaboration between teams on the tools and devices of their choice. Its best feature?: Pexip Infinity’s cross platform capabilities allow users to communicate with the application or device of their choice. Supporting standards based SIP and H.323 endpoints as well as Skype for Business and WebRTC ensures that teams can visually communicate and collaborate with the application of their choice and maintaining the workflow they are used to. Why is it better than its competition?: As a virtualized, standards based

BEST OF 2016 Alpha Technologies Alpha Technologies distributes and supports a range of specialised AV brands and automation technologies to a dedicated reseller base in the Southern African region. The company offers us a view of its best products of 2016

ALFAtron SC61E Scaler switcher The ALFAtron SC61E 4K scaling switcher is an installer’s dream product. Versatile and reliable, it offers 4 x HDMI, 2 x VGA, 2 x 3.5mm audio inputs and 1x HDMI and 3 x de-embedded audio outputs. It suits a variety of boardroom systems and is controllable via RS232 and IR. Simple to install and configure, the SC61E is a one-box solution that offers the peace of mind of a five year warranty. This fabulous switcher has been our best-selling product of 2016 as it has become a staple in many integrator’s offerings.

Grandview MB1000B projector lift

Sony VPL-CW256 projector

Our flagship Grandview projector lift has garnered many loyal customers in 2016 with an exceptional lift design at a fantastic price. There are a few lifts on the local market but the MB1000B has proved itself to be superior through hundreds of installations over the last few years. Controllable via remote or RS232 it is the ideal projector lift to add to your boardroom installation. Comes with a five year warranty.

The Sony VPL-CW256 projector brings together Sony’s legendary 3LCD Bright Era technology and Alpha Technologies’ five year warranty and free projector servicing. This projector is ideally suited to the executive boardroom, offering bright 4500 Lumen projection, WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution, two x HDMI, two x VGA and stereo audio. RJ45 10BASE-T/100 BASE TX inputs make this flexible and simple to install. Up to 5000 hrs lamp life.

WePresent 2000s Wireless presentation gateway The wePresent wiPG-2000 is the perfect solution for classrooms, meeting rooms or the executive boardroom. The wePresent device connects to any display by HDMI or VGA and creates a wireless projection in up to full 1080p HD resolution. It works with any device (PC, Mac, iOS, Android), and its conference control gives lecturers/ presenters full control and adheres to strict security standards. The WiPG-2000 is part cross-platform wireless presentation system, part media streamer and USB player, but also has the option to be a dual-band wireless access point, since it integrates with SMARTboards and touchscreens and eliminates the need for additional equipment. Besides this, the wePresent flagship model has extra features like on-screen annotation, virtual whiteboard, Gigabit LAN and Power over Ethernet. The diversity in features makes the WiPG-2000 one of the most versatile collaboration systems out there.

Connect with the world’s largest exhibition for digital signage and DooH With over 400 relevant exhibitors, digital signage is ISE’s fastest growing market sector

Integrated Systems Europe has become the destination of choice for professionals involved in digital signage and DooH. ISE 2016 attracted over 400 digital signage manufacturers and service suppliers, while over 50% of the show’s 65,000 attendees expressed involvement with the professional digital signage market sector.

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BEST OF 2016 Christie

Christie AP Series Launched in June 2016, the AP Series of 3LCD projectors deliver 5000 ANSI lumens in a compact and very affordable package. Specifically designed for easy installation and ideal for classrooms and meeting spaces, each model offers up to 6,000 hours lamp-life. The integrated audio and multiple connectivity options complete a rich feature set. Best feature?: On top of its comprehensive range of standard features, Christie AP Series also includes edge blending, warping, DICOM simulation and an optional wireless adapter for connecting wirelessly to a LAN. It all adds up to a great package. Why is it better than its competition?: The sheer breadth of features and top notch performance makes the AP Series hard to equal in the value for money stakes. How did it do for you this year?: We’ve had an enthusiastic response in both education and corporates to the launch of the AP Series. Going forward it’s going to be a very solid performer for us.

Christie Captiva Christie® Captiva is an ultra-short throw 1DLP® laser phosphor projector. It is super quiet in operation and provides 20,000 hours of high performance lamp-free operation. It has the ability to achieve full brightness within seconds and the capacity to move instantaneously into standby mode with no cool down period. Both the Captiva DHD400S and the Captiva DUW350S are ideal for fixed installations including classrooms, corporate offices, retail, government, and museums where quiet operation is vital. Best feature?: Being ultra-short throw, both models are ideal for environments where space is at a premium. The projector can be placed extremely close to the screen which means your audience can engage much closer, without creating shadows which disrupt the image. Why is it better than its competition?: Christie 1DLP® laser

phosphor technology and ultra-short throw performance is a formidable combination that’s hard to beat. How did it do for you this year?: There has been a huge amount of interest in the Captiva projectors and units have been installed in education and corporate environments. We are receiving great feedback from our clients and are looking forward to many more successful installations of the Captiva units!

HS Series At 13,500 lumens in HD and WUXGA resolutions, the Christie® HS Series is the world’s brightest 1DLP®laser phosphor projector. It is also extremely versatile, being designed specifically for both fixed and rental use with a host of features and connectivity whilst being compact, low profile, lightweight and at a mere 40db – extremely quiet in operation. As such the HS has shown itself to be easy to install, which is especially useful where access is difficult. Best feature?: The built-in Christie BoldColor Technology delivers a premium viewing experience and elevates colour accuracy and image quality to the highest level. By solving all the colour issues that had been associated 1DLP laser projection, even at the highest brightness, HS Series images are bold and exceptionally realistic. Why is it better than its competition?: With all the above features, pound for pound, it is the best projector in its class. How did it do for you this year?: The HS Series has been a worldwide success for Christie with more back orders than any 1DLP projector in recent memory which we put down to the particular value and performance; the brightness and Boldcolor giving clients options over 3DLP projection. In SA we’ve seen the same great reaction too – our demo HS unit has been worked extremely hard and proved very popular – and we’re currently awaiting certification for sales to start shipping.

HydraPort Touch Connection Port

Pandoras Box 5.9 Pandoras Box is renowned for creating the world’s most dazzling displays for real-time 3D installations, large-scale projection mapping, broadcast studios and large scale events. Version 5.9 earlier in 2016 and recently Version 6.0 of Pandoras Box and Widget Designer provided even faster, more intuitive operation with a wider range of options, compatibility and user-friendly workflow solutions that unleash the full potential of the system’s powerful rendering engine. Best feature?: It’s genuinely difficult to pick one feature with this product as it is the sum of so many parts, however we get enormous praise from users about Widget Designer. It gives complete ease-ofuse, customisation and time-saving as we have done all the complicated coding behind each function for the operator – they pick the widget to do the work for them. Among its many new features, Multi User mode will have huge impact for operators in large events, allowing split workload plus more efficiency by working on different tasks like warping, content encoding, timeline programming or simply work simultaneously on the same sequence. Pandoras Box 6.0 also features many workflow improvements such as editable meshes and warps, UV map adjustments and live canvas masking and painting all from within the preview window. The unlimited web clients’ option for the Widget Designer allows any number of web clients to control multiple pages independently for installations where several remote controls are needed with a centralised control station.” Why is it better than its competition?: Combined with Pandoras Box 6.0, Widget Designer 6.0 provides a complete customisable control interface solution for the end user, which no other systems on the market can offer. How did it do for you this year?: This year saw version 5.9 launched at ISE 2016 and version 6.0 unveiled a raft of features that reaffirmed why Pandoras Box and Widget Designer is the go-to choice for any live event, projection mapping or multi-media show.

Perfect for a combined connectivity and control solution in lecterns and podiums • Connectivity & Control in a Single Unit • Ultra-Thin Design that Sits Flush when Closed • 10 HydraPort Connection Ports • Future-Proof Modular Design • Powered by the G4 graphics engine • Exclusive SmoothTouch™ display supports single touch gesturing and delivers responsive performance

34 Kyalami Boulevard | Kyalami Business Park South Africa Tel - +27.11.840.0860 visit our new website: www.peripheralvision.co.za

BEST OF 2016 Crestron

RL 2 Crestron RL 2 is a complete group collaboration solution. It combines Crestron hardware with Skype® for Business software, the popular and powerful server-based application that many companies already use on a daily basis. Crestron RL 2 enables real-time group collaboration on conference room displays, rather than on personal laptops. It incorporates video, voice, interactive content sharing, presence, and chat from one touch screen interface. Crestron RL 2 and legacy Crestron RL systems also now support Skype for Business server upgrades. In combination with Skype for Business, Crestron RL 2 makes it possible for people within a room to collaborate with customers and partners anywhere, anytime. Bundled in four complete, versatile packages, Crestron RL 2 provides everything needed to turn any space into a true collaborative meeting space. Using existing infrastructure, Crestron RL 2 connects over the corporate LAN so implementation is fast and inexpensive. With just a single CAT5e cable, the touch screen can be connected to the UC codec and conveniently placed anywhere in the room, even the far end of the table, without extenders. With just one touch of a button from the RL 2 touch screen, anyone can walk into a conference room and instantly start a collaboration session. The desktop can be shared with local and remote participants, who can view and annotate over Microsoft® PowerPoint® or the interactive whiteboard using the touch display, all in real-time. Remote participants can join via Skype for Business on their desktops. The RL2 has sold over 300 units to date.

DM-RMC-100-STR The Crestron® DM-RMC-100-STR is a compact H.264 streaming decoder designed to receive high-definition AV signals over an IP network. It is a perfect complement to any DigitalMedia™ switcher with a streaming output, and can also be used to add streaming input capability to other switchers and devices. The DM-RMC-100-STR includes a balanced analogue audio output, allowing stereo audio signals to be extracted from the streaming input and fed to an amplifier, sound bar, or a pair of amplified speakers. High-performance H.264 streaming capability enables enterprise-wide distribution of HD content over a wired or wireless IP network. The decoder’s image overlay capability enables organisations to brand their streaming content by overlaying a logo graphic onto the video image. Dynamic text is also supported to allow for labelling of the video, or to enable the display of instructions, schedules, alerts,

BEST OF 2016 and other messaging. Built-in web pages facilitate setup of the DM-RMC-100-STR from a laptop, whether running standalone or connected to a DM switcher. Extensive setup, control, and monitoring of the device is also provided through integration with a Crestron control system. The output volume, bass, and treble are adjustable via a control system using a keypad, touch screen, handheld remote, or mobile device. Its low-profile, surface-mountable design enables a discreet installation behind a flat-panel display, above a ceiling mounted projector, on an AV cart, or inside an equipment rack. By transporting all video, audio, control, and power signals through a single PoE LAN connection, the DM-RMC-100-STR delivers a solution for applications where new or dedicated wiring cannot be installed. Over 100 have been sold since May.

The DM-DGE-200-C features a 4K UHD capable HDMI® output for connection to the display device, and includes a USB HID port for touch, mouse, and/or keyboard input. Additional control ports are provided to enable control of the display device and other equipment. A single HDMI input allows an AirMedia® wireless presentation gateway or other high-definition video source to be connected and displayed on screen. A DM 8G+® input is included to support 4K UHD and DCI 4K sources connected at a DM® transmitter or switcher. Additionally, H.264 streaming video signals can be received over a high-speed Ethernet connection. Ethernet also provides the interface to a Crestron control system, which is required for touch screen and OSM control applications. The DM-DGE-200-C enhances the usability of any meeting room or huddle space display device, while eliminating the need for any other AV or control equipment in the room. The DM-DGE-200-C has sold over 100 units since August.

HD-MD-400-C

DM-DGE-200-C The DM-DGE-200-C provides a powerful, low-cost network AV solution. Built-in auto-switching between an HDMI® and 4K/60 DM® input on the DM-DGE-200-C enables a local HD video source to be connected, scaled and displayed, no matter how you want to connect. The DM-DGE-200-C Digital Graphics Engine transforms an HD or Ultra HD touch screen display into an advanced Crestron® controller. Featuring Crestron Smart Graphics™ technology, the DM-DGE-200-C provides for the creation of a completely custom graphical environment combining advanced controls for audio & video, lighting, shades, HVAC, security, and other functions with dualwindow video display, annotation, audio feedback, and web browsing. Its low-profile, surface-mountable design allows for a discreet installation behind a flat-panel display, under a table, or inside a lectern or equipment rack.

The Crestron® HD-MD-400-C-E delivers an incredibly simple and cost-effective multimedia presentation solution for classrooms and meeting spaces. It allows a laptop or mobile device to be connected to one of three inputs at a table or podium, and routes the signal to a display or projector up to 70 metres away. The transmitter mounts beneath the table or inside the podium, while the receiver mounts behind the display or above the projector. The only connection required between the transmitter and receiver is a single CAT type twisted pair cable. A LAN port on the receiver allows for connection to an Ethernet network to enable easy setup and configuration via a Web browser. Advanced functionality is enabled through integration with a Crestron control system. An additional AV source can be connected at the display device location or through an optional wall plate. Fully automatic operation detects when a source is connected or disconnected at any input and turns the display on and off, alleviating the need for any control panels or remotes. Built-in scaling ensures an optimal video image for SD and HD video signals, as well as for high-res computer signals. A single CAT type cable links the HD-MD-400-C-E transmitter and receiver together. This cable can be up to 70 metres in length, offering an ideal signal extender solution for virtually any room with a single table or podium and one display device. Composed of a compact transmitter and receiver pair, the HD-MD-400-C-E installs in minutes and requires no special programming. Simplified setup, configuration, and basic operation is provided through a Web browser user interface. Essential controls and status indicators are also provided on each unit for easy testing and troubleshooting without a computer during installation. Since February over 4000 units have sold.

BEST OF 2016 Electrosonic

Electrosonic, for instance the medical, residential and hospitality markets. It is a product set that is constantly growing, and with the full range of Kramer products we have become a total one stop solution. This year we have had successful installations in almost every facet of our industry, including houses of worship, education, higher education, corporate, residential, advertising, energy, architectural, agriculture, transportation and sporting.

Martin MAC Quantum Profile Moving Light

ZeeVee’s Zyper 4K ZeeVee has got a range of products to distribute various media and integration signals across an IP network. ZeeVee’s Zyper 4K encoder and decoder units are capable of distributing uncompressed 4K media (video & audio) and USB signals along with control protocols such as RS232, IR, an IP control commands over a 10Gbps network with zero latency without reducing conventional network functionality. Zyper4K is HDCP enabled with zero latency and far better priced than competitive products. It is a new, innovative technology yet to be fully adopted and properly understood by the market but it is definitely the way for future video distribution.

The Martin MAC Quantum Profile is a white light LED engine with CMY , offering better colours than RGBW Mixing. It is a very bright, crisp white light from a pure white light source. Why is it better than its competition?: Many other LED Profiles have RGBW colour mixing. White light with CMY is familiar to many lighting designers who have used traditional discharge lights with CMY colour mixing products. How did it do for you this year?: It has been one of our bestselling mid- size fixtures and we managed to penetrate the very important theatre market, which demands the best fixtures and quality of light

Kramer K-Touch K-Touch is a cloud-based control and automation solution which operates on iOS or Android. It features less complicated, bullet-proof hardware, is completely scalable from simple one-room installations to large site projects, and can fit any budget. Its best features are its cloud-based programming environment, its high degree of customisation and its flexible, functional hardware. With an intuitive and simple drag and drop configuring, it is easy to use and to customise, and comes with pre–designed Graphical User Interface (GUI) modules Why is it better than the competition?: The K-touch fills a void in the market. It is a system built for use today, not an upgraded system from yesteryear. It can complete more projects, with less customer visits, which equates to better ROI and more profitable service contracts. It can be learnt very quickly and fits any budget. How did it do for you this year?: It has been a prosperous year for K-touch. It has opened the doors to many different markets for

Martin M-Touch Controller The Martin M-Touch is a powerful yet simple control surface for the Martin M-Series controllers, the most affordable professional lighting solutions on the market. Fully compatible with all M-Series consoles and M-PC software, Martin M-Touch is a plug-and-play solution with an innovative control surface. 14 touch faders allow control of playbacks and fixture parameters while 20 velocity-controlled pads allow for new types of effects. Additional programming buttons such as Record, Edit, Update, Load and Clear are accessible directly from the M-Touch control panel. It comes with one DMX 512 Universe for direct control of any compatible DMX device. It has an amazing build quality, is very affordable and very compact. It doesn’t have much competition in its market niche with the same quality, cost and small size. At the entry level for this product we sold very many this year.

BEST OF 2016 DWR Distribution

DiGiCo S21

MA dot2 The dot2 core is a compact lighting console designed for small to medium sized productions up to 4,096 control channels. Intuitive operation is the core of the dot2 philosophy and with a comprehensive set of connectivity hardware on all console models, the dot2 range is suitable for most theatre, touring, corporate, television and education lighting environments. Its best feature?: The best feature of the dot 2 would have to be its Simplicity. It was designed to be easy to use but without compromising on the console’s ability to run shows. Why is it better than its competition?: I wouldn’t say it’s better, but rather takes a different approach to how a lighting console should be operated. It also has support for multiple languages making it even easier for people to learn to operate the console. How did it do for you this year?: We are blown away at the response from the market and have done much better than we expected. I think that having the MA name behind the product also helps.

The Digico S21 is a great new product from Digico with all the great features engineers have access to in the SD Range. It features two compact touch screens with 10 channel strips per screen. On the surface you have 20 motorized faders and one master fader. There has been absolutely no compromise on audio quality so you will enjoy the same sound as the SD range in a small foot print at an attractive price point. Out of the box you will have access to 40 full flexi inputs, 16 full flexi bus outputs, dedicated master L+R output, eight matrix outputs and 10 CG groups (VCA), multiband compressors, Digi tubes, 96khz sample rate and 48 channel multitrack recording/playback. On the back of the console you will find 24 local XLR Mic/Line inputs, 12 Local XLR Line outputs, one AES/EBU in and out, DVI output for external screen, USB port for UB-Madi and two DMI ports. These ports are for the new DMI cards. There are ten cards currently out so you can interface: Madi BNC, Cat5, Dante, Hydra and Waves through these ports. Each port is capable of 64 I/O. Its best feature?: The best feature of the Digico S21 is its price. It’s great to demo with engineers and show what the S21 is capable of, you then give out the price and just see the shock on faces. Why is it better than its competition?: Audio consoles are very subjective and become a very personal choice. It is still a new product and we are finding it growing very quickly. We think it’s better than its competition simply because you are buying a small frame console at an amazing price and getting the same sound as the big SD consoles that are on majority of the international riders. How did it do for you this year?: We have only had Digico for five months with the change of distribution and the S21 has already made it in the top 10 products sold at DWR so we are extremely happy with it!

BEST OF 2016 Audiosure

Allen & Heath dLive The Allen & Heath dLive is so much more than a mixer. It is a fully developed ecosystem with over 800 system inputs and 800 outputs. The MixRack houses the XCVI core and is the brain of any dLive system. This brain is supported by surfaces, apps, software, TCP/IP control and IP remotes, all of which provide different means of controlling the mixer. Up to five 128ch I/O ports for a range of audio networking cards including all major digital protocols, the DX32 modular I/O expanders, plus full compatibility with Allen & Heath’s ME personal mixing system all extend the reach of the system. With so many control and expansion possibilities, dLive’s inherently flexible architecture enables it to conquer practically any mixing challenge. Best feature – Transparent workflow: Throughout the dLive design process the guiding aim has been to create fast and transparent workflows that allow the engineer to focus on the mix, not the mixer. The dLive layout is fully customisable, allowing the user to create a mixing interface that matches his or her own mental map of the show. Every input or mix can be assigned to any and every bank and/or layer, virtual scribble strips allow inputs and mixes to be clearly named and colour coded for at-a-glance navigation, and the engineer has no less than 26 assignable SoftKeys at their disposal, plus three pages of six assignable rotaries per screen Why is it better than its competition?: The dLive outclasses its competition in several ways: • A new FPGA processor at 96 kHz sample rate with variable bit-depth for ultimate precision and noise performance provides classleading ultra-low latency of 0.7ms. • The dLive out classes much of the competition in max number of aux’s, audio networking ports and the new Harmony UI capacitive touch screen with gesture control (pinch, swipe, drag and drop) plus wrap around processing strips with integrated screen and controls.

• It retains a one-knob-per-function channel strip approach • DEEP processing. • The very best processing algorithms in the live industry and powerful embedded GEQ and compressor plugins. No extra latency, phase issues, no licences, install or version hassles.

Allen & Heath ME1 personal monitoring system The ME-1 Personal Mixer puts the musician in control of their own monitor mix. Each performer can be given a tailored setup that works perfectly for them, whether they crave maximum control over the fine details of their mix or just want the minimum of keys to press. Best feature: Operation is intuitive and elegant, with simple controls, clear visual feedback and custom naming for instant familiarity. Why is it better than its competition?: It has the ability to handle up to 40 channels through the use of groups. The ME-U is a 10 port PoE hub providing power and audio to connect multiple ME-1 personal mixers.

BEST OF 2016

It comes with a standard input card to interface with GLD and Qu dSnake, dLive, iLive ACE or Aviom® A-Net®. This card can be replaced with a MADI, Dante, Waves SG or EtherSound card to take a digital feed of up to 40 sources from third party mixing systems.

AKG DMS800 The AKG DMS800 is a reference digital wireless microphone system. Designed for crystal clear, reliable wireless microphone or line transmission in theatre, conference, live production and tour environments, the DMS800 offers everything its predecessor (DMS700) does with added power and flexibility. Best Feature: It is difficult to narrow it down due to the DMS800 having so many powerful features but the fact it’s a dual-channel system with a frequency scanner function and the ability to use US style mic heads would be most notable. Also, the DMS800 features full digital wireless audio transmission while also offering two digital audio outputs: Dante and AES/EBU. Why is it better than its competition?: It’s an extremely flexible system that is priced more competitively than its competitors with more professional features, while offering an easy to use interface and a host of built-in processing inherited from other brands within AKG’s mother company’s stable. How did it do for you this year?: Very well. The system is starting to get some real traction in the rental market and we’re seeing more and more requests for the systems on touring riders.

Chauvet Maverick MK2 Spot The Maverick MK2 spot is an incredibly bright moving yoke spot fixture that boasts a 440W LED engine, CMY and CTO colour mixing, a sevenposition plus white colour wheel, two six-position rotating slot and lock gobo wheels, three-facet prism, variable frost and a 13 to 37 degree zoom range, all wrapped up in precision engineered optics. It is controllable via DMX, sACN, Art-Net or W-DMX. Best feature: The best features of the Maverick MK2 spot are its reliability and high output for arena applications. It is just an overall performer in a variety of applications and provides stunning and precise beam work that cuts through the performance and looks great on camera. Why is it better than the competition?: In a nutshell, your return on investment will turn around a lot quicker due to its fantastic price point. You can achieve equal or better performance with this fixture for half the price of competing brands on the market and that is what makes it such good value for money. How did it do for you this year?: We are looking forward to growing this series as successfully as the Rogue series, which has done incredibly well for us this year. We believe that the user will soon see the market flooded with these fixtures as this is great value for money and a real eye catcher when it comes to its performance.

BEST OF 2016 Peripheral Vision

AMX HPX-MSP-10 The HPX-MSP-10 / HydraPort Touch Connection Port with 10.1” panel is a 10 module HydraPort Connection Port with a 10.1” Modero S Series touch panel built into the cover. By combining device connectivity and room control into a single unit, HPX-MSP-10 reduces clutter and saves space on the table top. Thanks to an elegant yet practical design, HPX-MSP-10 looks great in any room, from huddle spaces to large conference rooms. When closed, the unit sits flush with the table top to keep the meeting space neat and clean. When open, the unit provides easy access to the HydraPort modules and a full-featured Modero S Series touch panel. The HPX-MSP-10 includes the same flexible configuration that customers love about HydraPort. It uses simple, interchangeable modules to put together the exact future-proof configuration you need today and tomorrow. It can accommodate any existing HydraPort module, including retractable modules, and is simple to install. The HPX-MSP-10 includes a specially designed, ultra-thin 10.1” control panel that includes all the great Modero S features, including a brilliant 24-colour depth, PoE connectivity, video streaming, and VoIP support – all at an economical price point. The HydraPort Touch is ideal for conference rooms and classrooms with small to medium-sized tables, and is perfect for a combined connectivity and control solution in lecterns and podiums

Barco NRC-200 The NRC-200 is a versatile and easy to integrate room compositor. Its elegant design, small form factor, and silent operation, make it the perfect appliance for many situations – including classrooms,

corporate meeting rooms, and training rooms. The NRC-200 drives multiple displays and automatically composites multiple sources. Benefiting from the intuitive user interface with source preview and moderation control, the users get the chance to fully focus on the training or meeting rather than on the technology. The in-room and networked media sources are automatically detected and integrated with a simple configurator tool. The NRC-200 extends Barco’s ClickShare CSC-1 experience with high quality visualization of any media source in your room. The appliance supports all wired and wireless sources in the room: ClickShare sources, MirrorOp, Airplay, H.264 streams and Barco V2D sources. The intuitive moderation function gives an overview and preview of all content before committing to a display. The user interface runs on Microsoft Windows PCs and Tablets. With automatic EDID management and scaling, the best in-room experience is guaranteed without requiring display adjustments. Switching from one source to another is fluent and does not require any re-sync. The NRC-200 will automatically upscale and downscale to match the preferred display settings, and shows all sources in the correct aspect ratio. Furthermore, audio sources are automatically mixed. The compositor builds on decades of experience in 24/7 mission critical environments. The NRC-200 replaces complex setups with AV matrix switchers, scalers and compositors, with one simple appliance, and comes standard with two discrete compositor engines, each capable of driving a 4k (UHD) display with independent composition of sources. Up to eight different sources can be combined over all compositor engines.

Bosch DICENTIS The DICENTIS Conference System provides a future proof and scalable investment thanks to Bosch’s open media networking architecture, OMNEO. With OMNEO, the DICENTIS Conference System makes use of fully standardised network technology for ease of integration, costeffective installation and simple maintenance. In addition, the system enables easy expansion with OMNEO audio devices and a wide range of audio products supporting Dante technology. Enhanced functionalities can also be added to all DICENTIS devices via software and by integrating third-party or custom-made apps. The interconnectivity of the OMNEO IP network architecture enables the DICENTIS Conference System to cater to every conference size from small companies to multinational corporations, as well as local, regional and national governments and international summits. The system is capable of connecting a network of up to 750 conference devices and seamlessly integrating with other systems sharing the network such as IP video streams or content management systems. Finally, all audio and control data flowing through the system is securely encrypted in accordance with internationally recognized standards in order to protect against tampering or unauthorized access. This means that it is safely protected against tampering and unauthorized access. With the creation of four new discussion devices in addition to the multimedia device, the DICENTIS Conference System will be able to meet a wide range of meeting needs. Equipped with advanced Bosch audio technology, cable redundancy and data encryption, these stylish devices continue the Bosch tradition of acoustic excellence, system reliability and security.

BEST OF 2016

DICENTIS Multimedia device The DICENTIS Multimedia device’s seven-inch user-friendly touchscreen interface is built for an interactive experience and greater user comfort. This device allows participants to access and share meeting content with fellow attendees and to have Internet access at their fingertips. It also ensures highly interactive, engaging meetings and an enhanced learning experience. Expanding the DICENTIS Multimedia device with voting, language selection and identification functionalities is also possible by simply adding software licenses.

DICENTIS Discussion device The DICENTIS Discussion device supports structured discussion, allowing participants to raise their hand by pushing the discuss button and be placed in a discussion queue. Like all other DICENTIS devices, this device possesses the “possible to speak” function, providing clear indication to the delegate on when he or she can speak. Moreover, the dual use function allows two participants to share a single device, ensuring maximum efficiency and reduced cost.

DICENTIS Discussion device with touchscreen The DICENTIS Discussion device with 4.3 inch touchscreen delivers many conference functions including dual use, language selection and voting. Fast participant recognition is possible by means of an NFC (Near Field Communication) identification card. The device’s touchscreen guides the participants through the meeting, allowing them to easily identify each speaker and to view the speaker request list. The screen also provides easy access to translations and voting information and allows two delegates to share a device but vote separately and listen to proceedings in two different languages.

DICENTIS Discussion device with voting DICENTIS Discussion device with voting incorporates standard parliamentary-style voting facilities with touch buttons that only light up when the functionality is required. Voting access can be easily controlled via the device’s NFC identification function

DICENTIS Discussion device with language selector DICENTIS Discussion device with language selector allows participants to listen to speakers in their own language. Selecting a language is easy and straightforward; simply plugging the headphone into the device will automatically activate the device’s language selection functionality. The delegate then scrolls through the list of available languages via the touch buttons on the device. DICENTIS Discussion device with language selector also supports dual use and fast participant recognition thanks to its NFC identification function.

Gefen HD Base T Extender The HD BaseT Extender runs up to 150m on a single category cable (Cat 5 and 6), and can handle up to 4K 3840x2160 resolution video at 30 or 60 frames per second. The extender delivers HDMI with embedded multi-channel audio and bi-directional RS-232 and 2 way IR, as well as power from sender to receiver (no power supply required at receiver). It is the second most popular UHD Extender for HDMI in the local market.

BEST OF 2016

Best of 2016 Pro-users In this section of our year-end roundup we’ve elicited the opinions of people in the field who are actively using the various pro-AV products out there in their day-to-day work. The people we canvassed range from studio gurus to FOH engineers to lighting designers to integrators – as much of the gamut of AV specialists as we could. Obviously they have favourites, but we wanted to find out exactly why they use the particular pieces of kit that they do.

Christopher Bolton – Lighting Designer – Keystone Productions • Robe BMFL Blade – For me this year it is not easy because my top two selections have become so critical to enable me to consistently perform and produce a world class product. However, the Blade on the FOH bar literally has eliminated any concerns I have ever had for a front light. Smooth, flat and precise; all the key words I need to describe a front light. Robe has created something spectacular here and I think the BMFL is going to be the standard for many years to come. • MDG ONE hazer – If there is a camera in the room it’s the only hazer I will use! This machine produces an atmosphere I can’t explain in words. It captures what we as designers work so hard to create: definition and depth. It adds a third dimension to even the smallest of rigs. I am so dead set on this machine I have paid for it out of my own pocket on some events to ensure I get the results I planned in my head. • MA Lighting’s Grand MA2 – It is almost 15 months now that I am on this platform and I have never looked back. My workflow has improved so much that I am finding myself with extra time to add the midas touch to my work. MA is a way of thinking, not just a piece of hardware. I find myself appreciating what the guys at MA Lighting have accomplished every time I sit down in front of my console.

• Robe Robin Pointe – It’s just a great fixture. Even though it’s been around a few years now, when used correctly you can still make it look fresh. Small, versatile, fast and bright. There is still a shortage of them in the market place because of their popularity.

Warren Miller – Solutions Architect – AV Centre

• Biamp Devio – Devio is a great collaboration tool designed for conferencing in small-medium room spaces. The Devio device is purpose-built for soft codec conferencing. The Devio is unique as it acts as USB hub, DSP and Display outputs over USB. It has an auto-setup feature, making installation and calibration quick and easy. Below are some of the Devio’s features; • 2 HDMI outputs for dual monitor support. • Video can be sent to the Devio via an HDMI connection for single display support/pass-through, or video can be sent to the Devio via a USB 3.00 connection and installing DisplayLink drivers on your PC/Laptop for dual monitor support. • Devio will support a maximum of two beam-forming microphones which provide crystal clear audio capture. The microphones come in either tabletop or ceiling versions. • The Devio has built-in audio processing capabilities which include automatic gain control and acoustic echo cancellation, which means that your PC/laptop does not have to deal with these two processes. • The Devio also acts as a USB hub, with USB connections for HID’s and USB cameras. By connecting HD PTZ USB cameras, crystal clear video can be captured and sent to the far side participants. • The Devio also has two audio outputs – one amplified and one line output. Integrators can then choose to connect speakers directly to the Devio, or to an amplifier if greater reinforcement is needed. • Lastly, the Devio has a telephone input. By connecting a VOIP phones headset output to the Devio, users can do teleconference calls through the Devio.

BEST OF 2016 Installation and configuration is fairly simple. What makes this device stand out against its competitors is the price point, control capabilities built into the receiver and the three input switcher on the transmitter.

Lior Manelis – MD – Pristine Moods Productions

• Kramer Via Collage Although not exactly a new product, it still remains one of the most versatile and unique collaboration tools on the market. The Via Collage offers wireless presentation support for 6 or 12 simultaneous connections on single display or dual displays respectively. Below are some of its features; • Ability to install applications such MS Office, Word, PowerPoint, Skype and many others. • USB support for HID’s, Cameras and audio connections • True real-time collaboration on documents • Ability to save annotations, presentations etc. to each meeting participant when the collaboration session is over. • 1080p video streaming • Support for PC/laptop, MacBooks, iOS and android devices with true mirroring. • Ability to view presentation on the main screen on your own device, whatever the platform you are using. Installation and setup is quick and easy. Although there are many wireless collaboration devices on the market at the moment, none offer the features the Via Collage does.

• Crestron HD-MD-400-C-E HD Scaling Auto-Switcher & Extender 400 It provides a simple and cost-effective high-definition AV presentation solution and control for classrooms, huddle/ collaboration rooms and meeting spaces. Below are some of the features; • Composed of a transmitter that installs at a table or podium and a receiver that installs at the display. • Three auto-switching inputs are provided on the transmitter and one additional input is provided on the receiver. This allows for the addition of wireless presentation devices right at the display. • The transmitter and receiver connect together via CATx cable. Built-in scaling ensures a reliable, high-quality image. • The receiver has a built in control processor allowing for device control via RS-232 or IR. • Audio is de-embedded at the receiver, allowing for connection of powered speakers or amplifier and speakers if greater reinforcement is required.

• ACME Saber Speed AE710 Category: Lighting Product description: Beam effect light Best Feature: It can light a cigarette! But in all seriousness, the optics are incredible. It’s better than its competition in its price point. It’s affordable and does the trick pretty darn well for its application. We’ve used it on nearly each and every show, most recently for the South Africa Institute of Civil Engineering Awards dinner.

Gavan Eckhart – owner/audio engineer – Soul Fire Studio • Mackie DL32R The Mackie DL32R is a rack-mount audio mixing console with 32 mic preamps of which eight are Neutrik combo line-ins. 14 XLR and two TRS jack outputs as well as an AES/EBU and headphone out complete its front panel functionality. At the back of the unit are two USB ports: one for a hard drive and another for a computer interface. RJ-45 connections for a wireless controller and Dante integration are provided on the optional Dante expansion card. The mixer is exclusively controlled by up to 10 iOS devices and also offers a control surface connected via Dante, the DC16, which is due to land in South Africa soon. The DL32R’s best features are definitely the multi-track recording direct to hard drive, as well as its well designed intuitive app that is regularly updated with cool features. These two features above, as well as the comprehensive routing matrix, allowing full re-routing of any channel, both A and B inputs as well as analogue, USB and Dante inputs make this a much better live mixer as well as location recording rig. The new spectral analysis per channel and the improvement in reverb and delay algorithms and advanced parameters make the mixer even more powerful. I have been using the desk at many live shows, from corporate

BEST OF 2016 functions, to location recordings, to club gigs and DVD shoots. Its fixed 48kHz sample rate makes it ideal for video compatible recordings and playback. The multi-channel playback function also makes working with the same band regularly really simple and professional. Throw in six VCA controls, six assignable channel views and six sub-groups with EQ and compression and you quickly realise that even the most complex mixing jobs will become a breeze. The offline app setup can be really helpful to plan shows or edit while away from the venue and is the most responsive one I have tried. Dual recording using the Dante card and direct to HDD also provides peace of mind.

Jonathan Bandli – Creative Director – Bad Weather • Vectorworks 2016

Stefan Meyer – MD – Corporate AV Integration

Vectorworks is a 2D and 3D modelling and planning tool to conceptualise, develop and deliver complete and concise drawings and paperwork.

• Barco Clickshare Meeting Description: It’s a wireless presentation system. Its best feature: Plug and play via USB dongle. Why is it better? It simply works, all the time. We have sold a few already and generally clients who have purchased one unit tend to buy more of them for other rooms.

• Kramer VP426 Description: An auto input switcher for VGA and HDMI connectivity. Its best feature: It allows for the simple auto detection of VGA and HDMI connected sources for boardroom presentation. Why is it better? It works extremely well with no user intervention. We sell many of these units as it allows the clients to connect without having to change the source on the display device. • Epson EB W 29 Description: Entry level WXGA projector with a very good picture quality. Its best feature: Great picture quality at an affordable price with good brightness. Why is it better? Very good colour reproduction on LCD technology. This is our main seller for clients with a smaller budget.

Its best feature? The release of of Vectorworks 2016 saw many new features, but one that has helped us is the hoist toolset, now enabling us to accurately draw and calculate rigging in a more detailed fashion. It also has a lot more detailed modelling tools for more complex designs. We also use it to create detailed video and lighting plots as well as gear lists. Why is it better than its competition? There is nothing in the current market that can come close. With it being so focused on the specific needs to the entertainment market this product is unrivalled in my opinion and a must have for anyone serious about the industry. How did it do for you/how and where did you use it this year? We use it on every project we take on, we design in it, we deliver technical drawing in it and we deliver all our paperwork in it. It’s a seamless workflow and we cannot tackle any project without it!

• Martin Atomic 3000 LED Martin’s new LED Strobe has as its best feature the aura glow that you can create with it, with the included macros this strobe is extremely versatile and a fantastic piece of kit. Why is it better than its competition? This has to be the brightest LED strobe on the market and with the low(er) power consumption compared to its predecessor this is a huge advantage in power conscious environments. And with an impact like this unit has, well, it doesn’t really have a competitor.

How did it do for you/how and where did you use it this year? As the “eye candy” race continues and budgets seem to stay the same, having fixtures that are multipurpose is a must, the problem I often see is that some products trying to do too much, land up not doing anything well. This product has managed to do all its functions well and I think that is fantastic. I have used it a few times this year so far and after using it, I don’t see it leaving my arsenal any time soon.

Jessica Green – Senior Administrator – LEDVision

Dicentis Conference System

• Radiant S18 LED Strip Light LED technology is being used in more creative ways every day and with this in mind the latest addition to the LEDVision product range is the exciting ROE Visual S18 Strip. A modular LED batten which brings new levels of creativity to any design, with ultra-high bright LED’s and waterproofing the unit is able to be used in all conditions. Removable diffusers convert the normal LED screen look into an exciting lighting product. Its best feature? With ultra-high bright LEDs and waterproofing the unit is able to be used indoors as well as for outdoor applications. Why is it better than its competition? It is unique in its design. How did it do for you/how and where did you use it this year? The products were launched at the Gearhouse Welcome to Tomorrow Launch in August. They have also since been successfully used at various indoor and outdoor events. • Radiant BP3 ROE Visual’s BP3 has an innovative design which supports a fast and simple setup for both flown and ground-supported setups well suited to the needs of large events, concerts and exhibitions. Featuring a HD pixel pitch and outstanding colour processing, the product promises high-end performance in all indoor applications. Featuring the latest in LED screen processing the new range of ROE visual screens are offered with Brompton Processing, industry leaders in screen processing. Its best feature? HD pixel pitch and outstanding colour processing. Why is it better than its competition? It features an innovative design that allows for a faster setup, be it flown or stacked, saving time and money. How did it do for you/how and where did you use it this year? It was also launched at the Gearhouse Welcome to Tomorrow launch, but it has since been used at the MTV MAMA’s, as well as a whole range of corporate events, film & television shoots and indoor concerts.

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BEST OF 2016 Adam Howard – Owner – Howard Audio

• Warm Audio EQP WA This is a clone of the infamous Pultec EQ – EQP1A. Its best feature? It’s best feature is the broad strokes style EQ, which just adds a lovely colour to the recorded audio. Why is it better than its competition? The price is ridiculously low. How did it do for you/how and where did you use it this year? I’ve had them for three months now – and I use them on nearly every recording – voice and music.

• Bricasti M7 reverb Stereo algorithmic reverb that is too excellent for words. Its best feature is how it doesn’t cloud the mix. It can really help to “soak up” less than awesome sample strings, or give the most incredible sheen to a real orchestra, without getting in the way. And the way it seems to do some kind of spectral modulation between left and right means that anyone trying to use an emulator doesn’t really know what it sounds like. I also have some lexicons in the rack, and it really just manages to be lush, versatile and most importantly not taking over as a feature of a mix, always supportive of it. I’ve used it on pretty much every score I’ve mixed over the last year including, Shepherds and Butchers, Accident, Serpent, Twee Grade Van Moord, Gat In Die Muur, and so on. • Digigrid The fact you can do all that stuff on a single CAT cable! I have come to really like the quality of the preamps, and the fact that they are 100% controllable remotely. I think it fares well on a value point of view for the size – the IOX in particular. 12 Digico preamps, four headphone outs, six analogue outs and a bunch of other features, all individually accessible and patchable via the Soundgrid, is a lot of bang for a one U unit. I’ve used it in all the foley, feature films and orchestral recording we've done over the last year.

• PM40 microphones from Earthworks This is a high-end piano mic’ing system that has as its best feature the ability to easily get the mics into place hassle free. But the sound is quite amazing. How did it do for you/how and where did you use it this year? I now use this product on ALL my acoustic piano recordings.

Simon Ractliffe – Sound and Motion Studios • JBL reference system, 3731’s and 4642 as screen array I was very skeptical about their sonic quality but these are the matched reference versions, and I was absolutely blown away about how detailed they are, and I’m still using them on our dub stage, 5.1, 7.1 and atmos premix. They are reliable, resilient, very well balanced and speak to the industry out there – and the support is first class. I use the rig on every feature we do...and the occasional movie night.

• Nuendo 7 As a DAW rooted in a firm history of music and MIDI, it really still is my best platform for music and especially score mixing. I think its best feature is that it comes packaged with extremely decent plug ins and a great channel strip. The tape sat is awesome, the compressor very decent and the plugins that come stock (not to mention the VSTi's on the NEK version) are really fantastic, from the stereo enhancer through to REVerence, I can't think of another platform that is so complete out the box. I have used it on every film music project I've done, and we use it for most of our ADR and Foley as the cue and streamer system is excellent.

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The Playhouse studio gets a serious makeover

Durban’s Playhouse complex is an almost century-old nexus of arts, culture and heritage for the people of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Now managed by the Department of Arts and Culture, it preserves two historical landmarks: the Prince’s Theatre of 1926, and the Playhouse of 1935; a Tudor-style theatre. Originally built as cinemas, both buildings underwent extensive renovation in the early 1980s, while retaining most of the original period architecture.

The Playhouse now consists of six venues: The Opera Theatre, the largest, seating 1 224 patrons on three levels and an orchestra pit for up to 85 musicians; the Drama Theatre, accommodating 474 patrons in-house and 25 musicians in the pit; the Loft Theatre, the smallest of

the three, seating 136 patrons; the Grand Foyer, a multi-purpose venue; the Alhambra Room, a 180-seat, sun-lit room aimed at wedding receptions and club dinners; and finally the Playhouse Recording Studio.

The studio’s history The idea behind the Playhouse Recording Studio is to facilitate recording both within the studio itself and from the Opera Theatre via tie-lines between the two venues. It consists of two control rooms situated, on two floors, directly on top of one another, respective recording booths and a live room large enough at 1 000 square metres to accommodate a full orchestra. The live room is roughly square in shape with high slanted ceilings but has been acoustically sculpted internally using brick baffles that produce a wave shape on the side walls. In its previous upgrade, the studio was outfitted with a 40 input Pro Tools HD system and a Digidesign Pro Control control surface which are now largely obsolete. It all ran on an Apple Mac G4, also now a piece of legacy equipment. 40 channels of direct microphone inputs linked the Playhouse Opera Theatre to the studio to enable live recording of performances taking place there while the studio itself had its own local inputs for in-house productions.

Despite the Pro Tools HD rig being the pinnacle of digital recording technology at the time, the tie-lines were by and large analogue. This brought the challenges of long cables, difficulties in tracing faults and shorts and the danger of introducing noise should a cable become unbalanced. In 2016, a more elegant and powerful solution made itself available and the Playhouse stepped into the networked digital audio world.

The studio’s new clothes The Playhouse, has done very well in keeping abreast of the latest technology in its flagship theatres and its studios. Upgrades had been performed quite regularly, and a tender for an upgrade of the studio systems went out in December 2015. It was awarded to local industry stalwarts Prosound. The project was overseen by Prosound technical director Mark Malherbe and technical sales manager Lee Thomson, with on-site management handled by Andre Norden. Acoustic consultant Bruce Gessner was brought in to redesign the control room environments while famed South Africa audio engineer Richard Mitchell served as the project consultant on behalf of the Playhouse. “The Playhouse felt that they needed to upgrade their existing recording studios to more modern equipment, building and acoustic works,” explains Thomson. “A fresh new look was required and we were awarded the project earlier this year. They wanted a modern world class facility that would cater for recording of all styles of music, post-production and digital recording feeds from the opera and drama studios. The existing rooms would require a complete re-design, revamp and rebuild.” Thomson goes on to give a bit more background as to Prosound’s previous involvement and how the studio has evolved over the years: “The original studio was built in the mid-80s and was designed by Theatre Projects and installed by Prosound. This included a DDR console, a Studer 24-track recorder and two large Tannoy far-field monitors. The studio control room was then moved down to level three in 1998 when a Pro Tools system was installed with newer monitors and new outboard.” For the current upgrade, Bruce Gessner was tasked with redesigning both rooms in their entirety and a clean, modern look was settled upon with acoustic absorption and deflection panels employed to acoustically sculpt the room, large, custom Audio-Technica’s Matthias Exner, Prosound’s Lee Thomson and Andre Norden and audio and acoustics consultant Richard Mitchell with an Audio-Technica AT5040.

LIVE / STUDIO

acoustically-tuned diffuser/ absorber/seating bench (see picture) was placed in the rear of the main control room to further enhance the acoustic response of the room. The second control room downstairs received similar treatment, albeit without the large custom diffuser. Both studios were outfitted with the latest in recording technology and it’s safe to say that it could be one of the most powerful systems around.

The upgrades Both studios revolve around extremely powerful Avid Pro Tools HD systems. While studio B is aimed at being a production studio and therefore received a smaller Pro Tools HD Native Thunderbolt system paired to an Avid Omni HD IO, the flagship control room in studio A received a full Pro Tools HDX system, accommodating a total of 64 I/O. An Avid S6 M10 16-5 with the companion Avid XMON monitoring solution was the control surface of choice, supplying a huge hands-on control advantage and giving the engineer an opportunity to mix with his ears instead of a monitor and mouse. The advantage of running HDX (Avid’s proprietary PCIe DSP solution), is that it takes plugin processing load off of the host computer’s processor, in this case a top-of-the-line six-core Apple Mac Pro, and allows for much larger sessions. However, because the newer “dustbin” Mac Pros do not have any PCIe slots and only offer Thunderbolt busses, a Sonnet Echo Express IIID PCIe Thunderbolt chassis was required to house the HDX card. Thus, all audio IO – all 64 channels – is handled through one Thunderbolt bus. HDX has one caveat, however: it does not run the extremely popular Waves plugin suites (a choice of Waves). For this reason the Waves Soundgrid series of interfaces and DSP servers were the logical choice. Waves Soundgrid is a modular system whereby interfaces of your choice are assembled into a network and arranged and managed by Waves’ Soundgrid Studio software. Some interfaces, like the IOX, handle mic/line I/O; and others, like the IOS, handle mic/line I/O and also contain an on-board Waves DSP server. Once the desired I/O and DSP requirements are met, all interfaces are connected via CAT5e to a Waves-certified network switch and fed to the Ethernet port of the main host computer. Up to eight interfaces can be assigned to the Soundgrid rack, making all their I/O available and routable from the matrix-style patch screen. It is extremely easy to use and immensely powerful. In the case of the Playhouse, because they were using HDX, a Waves DLS was required to bridge the gap between the Soundgrid network and the HDX system. The DLS enables all available I/O on the Soundgrid network to be routed to the Mini Digilink ports of the HDX system. Meanwhile, because the host computer is also connected to the Soundgrid network via Ethernet, Waves plugin processing can also be offloaded to the Waves plugin server in the IOS. This is the best of both worlds and results in a powerful system that can essentially perform all plugin processing elsewhere without the host computer processor even breaking a sweat.

In total, the Playhouse settled on the following Soundgrid interfaces: • 1 x IOS (control room) • 2 x IOC (control room) • 1 x DSL (control room) • 1 x MGB (control room MADI ingest) • 3 x IOX (live room) • 1 x IOC (live room) The Playhouse’s approach was to create a network of access points throughout the facility in order to keep analogue cabling to a minimum. The live room Soundgrid interfaces are kept in a roaming rack that can be patched into any of the access points on the two available wall panels and patched into the network via an Ethernet patch bay in the control room. This means all that is required is a long standard CAT5e cable to handle transmission of all available I/O in the live room and makes for an elegant solution. As mentioned, one of the main aims of the studio was to record discrete multi-track audio from the Opera and Drama studios. To this end a Waves Soundgrid MGB interface was implemented to allow 64 channels of bi-directional MADI streams to be fed from the Midas Pro 9 console at FOH. Selecting the relevant patch preset in Soundgrid studio makes the system fall over to MADI mode. In order to ensure a robust connection from the Midas console at FOH, a fibre backbone was installed to accommodate the long cable runs. Klark Teknik DS9620 AES50 extenders (one for each theatre) were used to feed the fibre connection from the MIDAS which then feeds to Klark Teknik DN9650 network bridges with MADI modules installed which in turn feed the MGB. This makes for a very reliable link between FOH and the studio, all on the highly robust AES50 and MADI protocols. Lastly, monitoring in the main studio includes the industry standard Genelec 1081 studio monitors in a 5.1 surround sound configuration while the mid-field is handled by a large pair of Dynaudio AIR 20 with DSP room adaption technology. The Playhouse studio upgrade is an immensely powerful system that is both easy to use and flexible. The ability to record straight from FOH, the networked aspect of the system and the DSP available puts this system in a league of its own. What’s more, it really goes to show that South Africa does indeed possess the skill and qualifications to pull off a job of this scope and given the fact that it’s state of the art, it’s sure to serve the Playhouse for years to come.

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Aardklop an opportunity for young technicians

By Elaine Strauss

Aardklop turned over a new leaf this year and with a new beginning, also offered a leg-up to young technicians just starting out in the industry…

Aarklop surprised the country when it was suddenly cancelled early this year and then South Africans rejoiced when it was announced that the festival would indeed take place from 4-9 October in Potchefstroom. Pieter-Jan Kapp (Kappie), owner of PJK Project Management, took on the role of Technical Manager at the festival for his eighth year and brought Blond Productions on-board as technical supplier, their first time in this role. Aardklop consisted of 15 theatre venues and two outdoor stages in the festival / fleamarket area. The theatre venues consisted of school and church halls and university venues, in which the technical crew provided lighting, sound, AV, staging, raked seating and in some venues, aluminium truss grids. Each venue had a minimum of three crew: lighting tech, sound engineer and stage manager. Including

Kappie’s technical support crew, the team was 65 strong. Part of the crew also included several students from the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria and the Academy of Sound Engineering in Johannesburg. The professional crew and the students worked across the venues with a mixture of lighting fixtures comprising a range of Martin, Robe and Philips and grandMA control desks, as well as sound systems dominated by JBL speakers, Soundcraft and Digico consoles. “It is of great importance for us to include young up and coming technicians at the festivals like Aardklop, as we are short on technicians in South Africa as it is and giving the youngsters the opportunity, helps us to identify potential,” Kappie says “We send application forms to the institutions for all to apply, but we do ask that the students are at least in their second year of studies. We include

REPORT LIVE EVENTs

them as part of the load-in teams to work next to the suppliers and their rigging crew and technicians and with the support of Blond Productions and DWR Distribution, the young technicians learn more about rigging and operation of equipment, fault finding, design, planning and theatre etiquette.” Christiaan Ballot, owner of Blond Productions, also emphasised the importance of having students work on actual productions and festivals. Though this marked the first year that Blond Productions took on the role as technical supplier for Aardklop, Ballot has been involved with numerous art shows during the years and his start in the industry was at Aardklop in the early 2000s – while he was still a student at the Tshwane University of Technology. “Many students and young technicians do not get the opportunity to really get first-hand experience in the industry or work on the latest equipment available and at Aardklop we have given them the opportunity to do just that,” he says. “We take the best equipment that we’ve got and put it in an environment where these young technicians can make mistakes while learning, where the consequences will not be as great and no one is going to throw a fit about it. It is a professional environment, but time is not against them as much as it would be in other situations and here they have little enough equipment to not find it overwhelming, with the necessary back up when needed.” Kappie adds: “Personally, I think the only way to learn is on the job. That is where you learn to work under pressure, learn fault finding, learn to work with people, learn the correct attitude towards the job and get a foot into the industry.” According to Ballot, the opportunity for Blond Productions to be technical supplier at Aardklop was a culmination of many years working at art festivals across South Africa. “We want to be part of something new and growing with a festival like Aardklop was a dream come true for us. We know what the usual shortcomings of a festival are and how to make it better and we also wanted to give students the opportunity to work with the latest equipment available in the industry. Most of the bigger venues had experienced technicians, including Jaco Beukes and Wilie Botha. With these guys you can set up and leave them to it, but for the students, we tried to provide a thorough understanding of what goes into setting up for and operating the equipment at festivals like Aardklop,” says Ballot. “These junior technicians don’t necessarily have the know-how of what goes into setting up before the shows and that is a gap in the industry that we need to fill – and I think it’s important to teach the students this, because they do not necessarily get the field experience – the practical application – about what they learn during their studies.” To facilitate this, Blond Productions asked DWR Distribution and Wild & Marr came on-board. Both suppliers provided training for the operators on the different consoles, as well as support and back-up service for Blond Productions during the festival on the

different equipment. “It really made our lives easier and we appreciate that,” says Ballot. Kappie also emphasised this, giving special thanks to the suppliers: “To Blond Productions, SS Structures, Elite Comfort Hire, Split Transport and DWR Distribution for training and support, as well as all the technicians, stage managers and my support team.” Duncan Riley, Director at DWR Distribution says: “It was awesome to see the level of technical standards improve at Ardklop. Thanks to Kappie, the festival is technically on par with international standards. It was also amazing to see how students and freelancers took to the dot 2, which was the control system used in many of the venues this year. Nick Britz and Gareth Chambers from DWR presented training on the dot 2, and the feedback was positive, with users quickly understanding its power and ease of use.” At the end of the day, everything went smoothly, with no major hiccups and positive feedback from productions on the technical support they received from the team. “One of the things we focussed on was sorting out problems quickly and without much fuss. We were available to handle the clients, find the problem and sort it out. But also, from our side, we provided equipment that we trust and that we know works, that won’t fail. And that was really important to us,” says Ballot. “The way we approached the festival was to provide the latest and greatest equipment available on the market. Because we feel the artists and actors work really hard, putting in hours and hours of preparation for these shows and they deserve working equipment and technicians that know how to operate them.” He continues: “That is the standard we want to set with Aardklop – the festival is turning over a new leaf. We have taken the time to raise the technical standards and made the effort to sit with the technicians in each venue, to make sure they know the equipment. There were still some small hiccups, but overall, the event was a success.” According to Kappie no one is sure about the reasons for cancelling the festival after last year, but it was very important to keep it alive. “Aardklop is very important to all involved in the festival circuit in South Africa,” he says. “We must remember that all arts festivals in South Africa play an important role in supporting the arts after the provincial arts councils closed in the mid 90’s. It also means a lot to Potchefstroom.” With regards to the decision to appoint Blond Productions as technical suppliers for this year’s Aardklop festival, Kappie explains: “Over the years I have worked with great suppliers, but management felt that Blond Productions proposal was well researched and planned and we wanted to give them an opportunity. Christiaan and his team are young and very eager professionals. They came with a new fresh approach. Where they were short on equipment they made a plan and stayed within our small budget. The onsite support was the best ever at any of the festivals where I was involved.” From their side, Blond Productions took to the role of technical supplier like a duck to water. “It was a challenge and you always wonder if it’s going to work out, this being our first time taking on that responsibility and all. By the end of the festival we were relieved and proud that everything went smoothly and that’s what makes it all worthwhile – knowing that that is where we all started and coming full circle to where we are back there, but as technical supplier,” says Ballot. “We just felt that we were there to give it our all and do it right. No excuses and no sweet talks. We were there to do what was expected of us and that is the standard we would like to set. There were still some small hiccups, but overall, the event was a success.”

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Classics is Groot

By Greg Bester

Building on the massive success of Afrikaans is Groot, Coleske Artists’ Classics is Groot brings together a multilingual spectacular, presenting well-known classical, pop and rock hits dressed up in a symphonic style.

REPORT LIVE EVENTs

Held at the 6500-seater Moreleta Auditorium in Pretoria to sold-out crowds, the concert featured top-tier international artists on the bill including Neapolitan-Austrian baritone singer Patrizio Buanne, child singing sensation and Holland’s Got Talent winner Amira and local talent such as Corlea, Jannie Moolman, Timothy Moloi, Lindiwe Bongani and Joseph Clark. A 33-piece orchestra conducted by maestro Eddie Clayton and a full band supplied the accompaniment. An ambitious project given the time in which to do it, MGG

Productions were contacted to provide the technical production of the show in its entirety including sound, lighting, LED, staging and rigging. Denzil Smith was appointed as project manager due to his long standing relationship with Coleske Artists and his experience with their previous Afrikaans is Groot concerts. “It was a very last minute thing where they [the crew] pulled miracles out of a hat,” says Smith. “Our crew said it’s probably one the best shows they’ve ever done from a content and creative point of view.” The brief for the show, slightly smaller than Afrikaans is Groot from a technical point of view, was to be simple and effective. The stage was set with seven columns of 12mm VuePix fed by a Watchout 6 system and all content was supplied by Coleske Artists’ in-house production team and sync’d via timecode. In fact, the entire show, from the lighting to the LED to the audio, was timecoded, which brought a sense of orchestration and precision to the whole affair. Remarks Smith, “Before we even got on site the Coleske’s had all the timecode and they had all the content so they made it very easy for us.” Due to the in-house PA system being insufficient for the show, it was removed from the venue temporarily and a full JBL VTX V20 system was hung. Murray Lubbe was the FOH engineer for the show while Gabriel Le Roux handled monitors. There were several interesting aspects to the event from an audio point of view. First, it is remarkable to note that there was not one floor monitor employed – all musicians were supplied with in-ear systems.

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

The band and the orchestra soloists were given Allen & Heath ME1 systems fed by MADI while the rest of the orchestra was given hard-line headphone amplifiers. This was to mitigate the bright and live sound of the auditorium. Second, because of the high channel count – around 124 channels – two consoles were employed at FOH. A Soundcraft Vi3000 with the UAD processing option handled the band and vocals while the orchestra was fed to the Vi6. A clever system of conjoined snapshot control was integrated via MIDI to keep the consoles in sync with one another. A Soundcraft Vi7000 was placed at monitor world. Head of audio Fanie Pieterse was the man responsible for the overall design of the audio system. Direct Out MADI splitter boxes were handled to manage the routing of the audio stream. He explains: “The Vi6 had control of one stage rack and the Vi7000 at monitors had control over the other stage rack for outputs. Then, there was a MADI card between the two of them running tie lines. Everything (all MADI feeds) ran into the Direct Out boxes and then from there each console would get what they need.” Third, over 80 channels of wireless were employed for the show, managed by Shure’s Axient system. “We run Axient exclusively when it comes to spectrum management,” says Pieterse. “We actually got our new AXT600 yesterday so we have one built into the Axient rack and then we have a separate one which is purely for large format spectrum analysing. With the AXT600 you can actually scan in the bands that the in-ears are running on as well. So, having that on stage helps a lot.” Lastly, the entire show was recorded via two RME MADI Face interfaces using Avid’s Machine Control to sync the two to Apple’s

Logic DAW software for a full track count of 128 channels. The lighting design for the show was handled by well-known lighting designer Joshua Cutts and performed on a Grand MA 2 full-size. Eight Robe BMFL Blades and two WashBeams were positioned as front lights and brought a sense of movement and excitement to the show. Of course, there are always challenges. “I think it went smoothly,” says Cutts. “But I think the biggest challenge for me was to keep the feeling of a classical concert while lighting for the camera. I wanted the live audience and the camera audience to get the same feeling.” Over-stage wash and colour texture lighting was performed by 24 Robe LEDWash 600s while 12 LEDBeam 100s on truss towers provided side-fill from the upper left and right corners. Eight Robe Spikies – a first for Cutts – were positioned on the outside rim of the stage for fast moving and precise beam work while twelve Robe DL4S profiles provided further beams downstage and at the front of the ground support. “I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of working with Coleske Artists,” concludes Cutts. “I’ve said it before, but they have such a high standard of work. I always feel that the creative team gets inspired and pulled along with that. So I enjoy it and it’s always a challenge.” Given the amount of time MGG was given and the limitations they were presented with – however large or small – it is clear that their relationship with Coleske Artists is a professional and effective one. Combined with the technical know-how of the MGG team and the in-house production of Coleske Artists, it is no wonder the show was such a success.

Harmony needs balance, silence, and quality of light.

SCENIUS The sound of light

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Saturday Night Fever in the lighting booth By Denis Hutchinson Saturday Night Fever ran recently as a major production at the Pretoria State Theatre, combining a dazzling all South African cast and a brilliant technical team. Renowned local Lighting Designer Denis Hutchinson offered us this unique insight into designing the show from the LD’s perspective.

For the first time in South Africa, the Saturday Night Fever script was released where the creatives did not have to follow the formulae of the original production while obviously still serving the piece. The difficulty with the Saturday Night Fever musical script is that they’ve taken the movie script and each time it says ‘cut to’ they have just tipp-exed that out. Of course in a movie it’s very easy to ‘cut to’ but on stage you physically have to move things and people around, so half of the challenge was trying to keep it flowing realistically while making all the changes. I’m pleased that there was no point where the scenery holds the show up and in some places we have more scene change music than we need, which is always a good sign. An iconic feature of the movie is the famous image of John Travolta posing on the lit floor. The movie’s disco scenes were shot at a club in Brooklyn called 2001 Odyssey, the reason being that the club had an amazing dance floor that lit up. Bearing in mind the piece is set in 1977 and moving lights would only come out four years later with the arrival of the Vari-Lite VL1 in September 1981, the average disco at that time would have had a dozen Par38s in red, yellow and blue, a couple of black light tubes, if you were lucky a strobe, and probably a couple of pin spots and a mirror ball. The 2001 Odyssey had all of that but they also had this floor which was basically 320 light boxes, each with a single light bulb inside. Each box could light up or not light up and there was no colour change. Some boxes had red bulbs, some had white and some had blue, in a pattern. It was three circuits. You could have the reds on, the blues on, the whites on or all on. That was it! We couldn’t get away with doing the theatrical show without the floor! But we’ve moved on from a technology point of view, so we made the floor look like the original using LED technology. Because the floor requires a DVI input we put video out even if it didn’t appear to be living, breathing, moving video. We ran a series of masks using grandMA 2 light to control an ArKaos media server. We use six different layers on ArKaos and then from the grandMA I could change the “gobos” which as a result changes the floor pattern, and I can change the colours of the layers. Bruce Riley and Nick Britz from DWR spent a lot of time making it all work, and I spent a couple of days in the demo room at DWR just playing with the system. It was a great learning curve because I had used an early version of ArKaos years ago so it was good to see the latest version and to be able to integrate it with the desk in the way we did. In the first disco scene on stage the floor takes the exact pattern and colour of the floor in the movie, doing only what the movie floor could do. So there’s a bit of homage to the floor in the first scene but if one stuck to only doing what the floor could do originally, a contemporary audience will get slightly bored because they are

used to so much more. Consequently, I did cheat. In the first disco sequence I didn’t change the pattern at all but I did cheat with colour a little bit. The second disco sequence I started cheating with pattern and colour, and by the final I did all of the above. The nature of disco lighting was lots of flashing lights and there’s nothing more irritating than lights that are flashing off the beat. So the other thing we did was integrate with the orchestra – but when you have a live orchestra it’s not quite the same thing as when everything is on tracks. However, most of the disco numbers do have click tracks so we fed that into the GrandMA and linking it to a rate fader which worked very well. I have been disciplined about not using moving lights. There are moving lights lighting the scenes but they’re never seen to move because they weren’t actually in existence at that time. Although the average audience does not know or care about that, for me a little bit of historical accuracy helps evoke the period. The disco scenes, lighting wise, are quite simple but they’re also quite difficult because with every disco scene, besides having the disco elements and the dancing, there are also book scenes being played where people have to be able to hear and understand the dialogue. It’s a very delicate balance between keeping the sense and feel of disco and still directing focus to where it should be and basically having a degree of visibility that never existed in those clubs. If you think of the average disco, maybe not so much today but certainly then, you could barely see the person you were dancing with. They were black boxes with minimal lights which is why you didn’t see how dirty they were! So it has been interesting to get the balance right so that it feels dark but you can still see what the dancers are doing, you can still see and hear what’s happening in the scenes and there is some kind of

REPORT LIVE EVENTs focus as to where you should be looking. It’s a balance an audience shouldn’t notice, but if you get it wrong the scenes won’t play properly. That was fun too. One of the interesting things about lighting for the theatre as opposed to other forms of lighting, is that lighting in a theatre has all the normal lighting functions but it also functions as editing does in a film. By the way you light different moments you can focus the audience’s attention, which is the same as choosing the shot. Also the way you go from shot to shot, whether you do it as gentle cross fades, snap cross fades or however you do it, affects the pacing in much the same way that editing of film affects the pacing. This musical is particularly tricky because we wanted to pull the show as far forward as possible because it needs a degree of intimacy and the State Theatre is a big venue. Most importantly there’s this huge orchestra pit which is designed for an 80-piece orchestra. Saturday Night Fever is a ten piece. I cantilevered the whole show out over the orchestra so we had a tiny pit that’s appropriate for a ten piece and the show is as close to the audience as possible. But when you do that you create a situation where you

can’t fly anything over a vast area of the stage because it’s in front of the proscenium. The deal was that I had to use the equipment that the State Theatre has and I had a very small budget over and above that. The bulk of their rig is old ADB 2kW fresnels and PCs with some newer SPX and Pacifics but they do now have 12 x Robe MMX Spots, 16 x Robin 600 LEDWash and 20 x Robe LEDForce Pars. I’ve augmented that with 4 x Philips Vari-Lite VL 3000 Spots, 2 x VL 3500 Spots and 4 x ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ MkIIs. For various reasons I used virtually none of the generic rig other than Front of House and by musical standards it was actually quite a small rig. I deliberately downplayed some of what the equipment that I had can do because it’s not appropriate to the period of the piece. The truth is if you’re not a little bit scared as a lighting designer when working on a show like this then you haven’t done your job and its indicative of the fact that either you don’t know what you are doing or that you’ve fallen back on habits and reduced everything to formulae. The fact that I couldn’t hang lights where I wanted them because it’s not physically possible was pretty scary. At the same time though, if I’d gone the easy route and moved the whole show three meters upstage which would have solved most of the lighting problems the show would have been 3m further away from the audience. That’s not good. So ironically if I hadn’t been lighting the show I might have been more inclined to push it further back to give the lighting designer a chance but because I was lighting the show, to hell with it!

TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT VIDEO COMPRESSION

The Pixel Age The most common and primitive method of video signal transmission is between any illuminated object and the human eye. Light from the sun, or any alternative source, reflects off an object towards us at, well, the speed of light. In today’s digital world, littered with video streaming wherever we turn, things happen, rather, at the speed of data packets.

By Abrie Du Plooy

Analogue signals will never be conquered by the digital world. This is based on pure physics. Analogue light and sound waves exist all around us, mostly without human interference. Another reason why we’ll always need the analogue spectrum is because humans are analogue beings. Our eyes and ears receive analogue waves in order to see and comprehend, and our vocal cords produce analogue vibrations for us to be audible. In fact, any digital communication device in the modern world requires A-D (Analogue to Digital) and D-A conversion at either ends of the system to make it usable for human beings. The digital part is purely the technology used to transport the information between end-points without quality loss. Media streaming is nothing new. The most prevalent example of streamed video and audio is probably from the popular website, YouTube. Many other web services are also using the World Wide Web to distribute video content. Video streaming is however not limited to internet connectivity, and there are many applications which require video distribution over Local Area Networks (LAN) or Wide Area Networks (WAN) in an IP, point-to-point, or multipoint network. The conventional way to distribute video is over copper-cabled systems. From elementary Radio Frequency (RF) networks, to higher resolution video formats such as RGBHV (Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal, Vertical), commonly (and incorrectly) termed VGA signals. When digital video technologies surfaced, they brought along High Definition (HD) resolutions and formats such as HDMI (High Definition Media Interface), DVI (Digital Video Interface), Display Port and SDI (Serial Digital Interface), with the latter still being distributed on RG59 coaxial cable. Parallel to the digital video technology development, Information

Technology (IT) also took off at a breakneck pace. When an image is displayed optically with an overhead or slide projector, for example, the image is created from light projected through a filmstrip and a lens onto a distant surface, which then magnifies every little bit of detail showing perfect lines and curves. In order to reproduce the same image digitally, one would have to subdivide the entire frame in tiny blocks (pixels) and colour them individually to form a pixelated image. The more pixels used in the frame, the better the image quality will appear, but theoretically it’s impossible to produce a perfect curve by using square pixels. Even when the pixels are so tiny that the human eye cannot differentiate between them, a curve may appear smooth, but, in fact, it will always consist of tiny squares. Therefore, higher definitions are the best way to produce quality digital video images. In order to convert the information of one digital pixel, the analogue wave is plotted on an X and Y axis and broken up into various samples, at a specific sample rate. The metric coordinates of each sample are then converted to a binary system – a numerical system that only utilises ones and noughts and most commonly uses eight digits simultaneously to represent any number between nought and 256. Each digit is known as a ‘bit’, and in the most generally used 8bit networks, eight bits equal one ‘byte’. The high number of pixels in an image, along with other relevant information, thus results in a large amount of data packets – kilobytes and megabytes. Moving video is made up of a series of still images which is displayed in a quick sequence to create the illusion of a moving object. Standard formats use 24, 25 and 30 Frames per Second (FPS). The amount of

VIDEO COMPRESSION TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT

data packets for one still image thus needs to be multiplied by the refresh rate (FPS), which will suggest the bandwidth required to transmit the video signal in the IP network for every second that it’s playing – for example in Mbps (Megabytes per second). Once a signal is digital, the challenge is that the bandwidth required in HD video signals exceeds the capacity of most commonly used IP networks. These networks are adequate for basic networking requirements, but video streaming will consume the available data flow and congest the entire network, making it dormant for any of the users. Higher capacity networks are available, but at an inflated cost, which is difficult to justify for video streaming only, if not purposely required.

Video Compression This brings us to the reason why certain video signals are being compressed for IP distribution. Many different compression formats are available and currently in use. These are divided into lossless and lossy codecs. Many video codecs are necessarily lossy, simply because of the idea of eliminating information to reduce bandwidth. Lossy codecs compress video based on many algorithms. Basic lossy codecs are throwing away data at regular intervals, which is effective to reduce bandwidth, but may result in a much lower image quality. Another effective lossy compression format is based on an analysis of the nature of human vision, which then dismisses excess information that the human eye would find visually redundant, such as close colour variances. Human vision is much more sensitive to brightness (luma) than colour (chroma) and would thus not distinguish between pixels of closely relevant colour. The third is called ‘chroma subsampling’, which reduces colour space

information at regular intervals. Colour sample ratios are often seen as 4:2:2, 4:2:0, 4:1:1 and many similar ratios, which indicate the changes between the chroma samples from one row to the next. Lossless codecs, as the name indicates, do not discard any information and thus compress video signals by preventing duplicate pixel information from being transmitted. Duplicate pixels exist where large areas in an image are made up of the same pixel information, such as a large background of the same colour with little motion, or adjacent video frames from long scenes in a movie or fixed film sets such as filmed interviews. These will result in many frames having similar pixel information. In these frames, only the changing pixels will be transmitted. Another format of video compression is to group average pixel values together, where several pixels are averaged out into one large rectangular pixel of the same value. Most of these systems allow the user to adjust variable settings prior to compression, such as a specific resolution, frame rate reduction and bit rate to be preconfigured for maximum quality versus maximum compression. Multiple formats have been developed over the years. JPEG, HDV and MPEG-2 are examples of lossy compression, where the latter compresses data over multiple frames (interframe) instead of individual frames (intraframe). Mpeg4000 and its version 10 (H.264) are some of the most popular compression formats used in current systems. Uncompressed video is also seeing the light of day, but in order to distribute uncompressed video one would need a network with the required capacity, such as 10Gbps and who knows what else the future holds. All that we know for now, is that the future of video distribution lies in IP systems.

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EXPERT OPINION

SOUND DESIGN –

A dying art or the way forward?

By Richard Smith

Like everyone, I often need to fill in a form where I list my profession, and I proudly write, “sound designer.” Sometimes I get a strange look or a “Huh?!” from a customs official. Some say, “don’t you mean engineer?!” I can see that people may find that title odd if you’re mixing a concert or band, because the term has largely been associated with theatre or film.

I come from a creative background and like so many industry professionals of my generation and the one before, I learnt my trade in the theatre, so I have always felt comfortable with the title. In a period of my life where I am about to embark on a few very different jobs, from theatre to the largest stadium in the country, I stopped to think if I could apply this term to all the work I do, and if the term is still relevant. There are such a wide range of audio applications now. Do all of them really require “design?” To truly answer that question, we have to take a step back and look

at some of the history, the preconceptions, and the current trends to get to the answer. Sound design is a relatively new discipline and there are obvious reasons for it. In film, sound came later and in theatre, sound reinforcement only started in earnest in the seventies and was primitive, when compared to a modern Broadway musical. Technology was a contributing factor to the limitations of early audio systems. As the word “design” indicates, there is a large creative element to

EXPERT OPINION

the job, as well as the technical. There is also an implication, that it encompasses all aspects of audio for the production. These things are taken for granted when talking about a set designer or lighting designer, but even now, it is common for sound designers not to be given the same billing as their colleagues from other departments. All too often, the sound is left until the last minute, even though it is the primary means of getting the story, message or music to the audience. It is arguably the most important element of a show and yet often seems to be neglected. In the context of theatre, it is easy to understand design because over and above designing the physical sound system, which encompasses all the technical aspects of choosing the correct equipment, there is another, artistic and creative element to it. This is where the designer uses his or her skill to create the audio experience for the audience, which should be in alignment with the vision of the director or artist. The designer uses his technical skill to create artistic elements like

light and shade, that give a show a feel and that allow the audience to be taken on an auditory journey, in the same way a skilled writer will have structure in a story to take the reader where he wants them to go. All these techniques create subconscious emotional responses in the audience and when done well, give energy to a performance and give people an unforgettable experience. “Blah, Blah, Blah” I can hear some of you say! “We do Rock n Roll, or corporates and we just put up a system and do our thing!” Sure, I understand that many people see it that way and perhaps that is why, in the words of an esteemed colleague of mine from England; “The audio department have become the plumbers of the events industry!” Take a good look at what has happened to lighting and video in the last few years and you can see that even though they are adding tons more complicated gear, it has become all about the artistry and creating the ultimate unified visual design. Why is sound so often excluded from that? Many audio people see themselves as just a means of amplifying the band but I don’t subscribe to that view. Even when I am doing a straight rock concert or festival, as mix engineer I see myself as another member of the band with the ability and responsibility to turn their performance into something truly special. In that instance, I may not have used all my skill-set in “designing” the full audio system, but I am certainly using my musicality, my systems knowledge and all my experience to make sure that artist’s music touches and moves every member of that audience in the way that it is meant to. All too often sound engineers get labelled as arrogant, and I am not suggesting that being behind the mixing console puts you in a position of power to do whatever you want. I believe it is the opposite, and that with the trust you are given, comes the responsibility to serve the material as truly as you can! In the same way a really good actor can do Shakespeare one day and a Hollywood action movie the next, a really good engineer can do vastly different genres of music from one show to the next. So while my lighting colleagues get to programme more and more lights, pixel map and control media servers to their heart’s content, what does the artistic future look like for us in audio? There seems to be a movement starting in Europe and America to bring many of the design and creative elements found in cinema to live shows. Pioneers like Jean-Michael Jarre and Pink Floyd have done highly theatrical large scale performances with full surround sound in the past, but these have been the exception and not the rule. Now, L-Acoustics founder Christian Heil has created a team, staffed with industry heavyweights, to design a new L-ISA, which simply put, is a multichannel sound reinforcement technology for mixing large scale live events and gives the audience an immersive listening experience of hyper-realistic localisation. It gives the engineer the ability to place the instruments anywhere within a three-dimensional audience space and allows every member of the audience optimum sound congruency with what they are seeing – not just those in the seats located in the central axis of the scene. In part, it is a push back to reintroduce the creativity and put audio back into the centre of the performance, where it should be. Projects like this give me hope, but in the meantime, I am happy to continue using the title “designer” because with that word comes intention, and that is all I need. I believe it is all in the mind, and so whether I am doing a small music show with two speakers, a complicated musical, or a stadium event; rest assured that if you happen to be in the audience, I have used all the required tools and skills to design a complete audio experience just for you!

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