Systems Integration Asia April-May 2013

Vol. 12 Issue 4 ~ April - May 2013

AUDIO • VISUAL • LIGHT • CONTROL SYSTEMS MICA (P) 034/04/2013 PPS 1669/08/2013 (022992)

Bharti Airtel Network Experience Centre

Tech Talk: Digital Cooking

ISE Review

w w w . s y s t e m s i n t e g r a t i o n a s i a . c o m

CONTENTS

Vol. 12 Issue 4 ~ April - May 2013

86 36 80 04 FIRST WORDS

INDIA & MIDDLE EAST COLUMN 52 News

06 NEWS 19 SOLUTIONS UPDATE FEATURE 34 Digital Signage Solutions Update 36 Click Grafix installs Scala solutions at Mydin Hypermarkets EXHIBITION PREVIEW 38 InfoComm 2013 40 CommunicAsia 2013 EXHIBITION REVIEW 42 ISE 2013

Consultant’s Say 60 Harmeet Singh, Director of ihD India Installation 62 Airtel NEC 69 Harman at MFDC 72 The Grand Chola controls with AMX INSTALLATIONS 74 Bosch at the North South University in Bangladesh 76 Wesley Church upgrades its audio system and acoustics 80 Reach solutions at Changi Simulation Institute of Singapore

82 d&b at the Higher People’s Court in Guangzhou 83 Supernova Epic for luxury Singapore penthouse 84 Phoneix rises with Envision AV 86 V2 Indonesia integrates Christie Solutions at SAAT’s auditorium TECH TALK 88 TECHNOMICS – the new opportunity for AV in IT 90 Digital Cooking - Matrix switchers VOICE BOX 93 Reliable system control in commercial applications 95 3C’s of Technology 96 Thomas Mittelmann on consolidating a Community Brand

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FIRST WORDS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

COVER: Bharti Airtel Network Experience Centre OUR TEAM PUBLISHER / EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Thomas Richard Prakasam thomas@spinworkz.com INDIA AND MIDDLE EAST EDITOR Ram Bhavanashi ram@spinworkz.com WRITERS Rosalind Tan rosalind@spinworkz.com Elissa Nadine elissa@spinworkz.com DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Jimmy Chin jimmy@spinworkz.com ADMIN & CIRCULATION Julie Tan admin@spinworkz.com Media Rep in North America Broadcast Media International Michael Mitchell Tel: +1 631 673 0072 mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv PRINTED BY Stamford Press Pte Ltd PUBLISHED BY Spinworkz Pte Ltd 51 Bukit Batok Crescent #06-10 Unity Centre Singapore 658077 Tel: (65) 6316 2716 Fax: (65) 63162715 www.spinworkz.com

Disclaimer Systems Integration Asia is published 6 times a year. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine is to be reproduced, whether mechanical or electronic without the prior written consent of the publisher. Views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the publisher. Unsolicited contributions are welcome but the editor reserves the discretion to use them. Whilst every care is taken to ensure the accuracy and honesty in both editorial and advertising content at press time, the publisher will not be liable for any inaccuracies.

The Chalkboard Dilemma

For this issue’s first words I would like to highlight an interesting point made by Ian Stott from his presentation at the Singapore InfoComm Roundtable that was held on 11th March. Ian is the Principal Consultant from Inova Audio Visual Designs. His keynote address was on “AV Technology: Campus Solutions for Tertiary Education”.

In his presentation, Ian highlighted real-life issues that faced him and his team in relation to a Business School project that the company is currently working on. There were a number of points brought up but I enjoyed what he termed the Chalkboard Dilemma. The Chalkboard vs the sophisticated Interactive Whiteboards. I believe the slide below speaks for itself.

Technology is great when it helps make things simpler and easier. The AV industry has a range of solutions that in essence are meant to help end-users be more efficient and productive. However what would matter is how these solutions are implemented and more relevantly how the end-user feels about the solution provided. Constant communication with end-users is a key component in ensuring that what we as an industry introduce meets the expectations of our customers.

Graphic courtesy of Ian Stott

Thomas Richard Prakasam Publisher/Editorial Director

CORRIGENDUM

With regard to our Cover Story on ISB Mohali, featured in the Feb-March 2013 issue, we clarify that Integrated Audio Visual (India) Pvt. Ltd. or IAV India, are awarded with the Consultancy Contract and are the original AV Consultant to the project. M/S T2 Consulting was sub-contracted by IAV India subsequently to design and execute the implementation of the AV Systems Integration. That the original Project Consultancy attribution to IAV India got missed out in the feature, we would like to stand corrected.

Also in relation to the same article, Ayushman Sinha, who was mentioned as Assistant Director, is actually Associate Director-IT. SI Asia regrets both the errors.

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Christie completes the installation of projectors in The Great Hall of People CHINA: Christie® has completed the installation of four Christie Roadster S+20K DLP® projectors in the National People’s Congress (NPC) meeting room in the Great Hall of People, where the most important policies affecting billions of people in China are made.

Following the newly installed screens on the two walls lining the NPC meeting room, the projectors complete the multi-functionality of the room to fulfill its stringent requirement for video projection.

The NPC meeting room takes on a circular layout with a seating area of 40 meters long and 10 meters high for the audience. Apart from the main meeting room, it is also linked to seating areas for observers and media as well as two rooms for video projection and audio broadcast respectively. With a total floor area of 1700 square meters, the meeting room also comes with various modern meeting facilities such as centralized reporting, simultaneous interpretation

and video tracking to meet the specific demand of the meeting.

For the representatives to clearly view the content display on the screen, the designer installed two 150-inch projection screens to convey important messages, visuals and video data. To achieve the clarity and colour display, the management of the hall required projection systems of ultra brightness and four Christie Roadster S+20K DLP® projectors were handpicked for this purpose. Two projectors are stacked to form a pair and installed on both sides of the room behind the screen. Each pair has a projector as a back-up system to ensure that the meeting can proceed smoothly.

“Christie is honoured to be chosen for the visual solutions for the Great Hall of People,” noted Lin Yu, vice president, Christie Asia Pacific. “This is especially significant as we successfully completed the installation before the

commencement of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. We are proud to contribute to the two most important national congress in the country.”

Editor's Note: The National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were held in March, with Christie completing the installation and commissioning in early February. www.christiedigital.com

DiGiCo consoles making inroads in Korea's HOW segment

SOUTH KOREA: In 2012, a DiGiCo SD7 was installed in Jiguchon Church in the South Korea’s Bundang New City.

Such was its success that four more of the company’s mixers have now been installed in another church in the city, demonstrating how DiGiCo mixing consoles are making significant inroads into the country’s house of worship market.

Featuring a state-of-the-art technical specification, the new Manna Methodist Church has a seating capacity of 4,000, with around 10,000 worshippers attending each week. Services feature a live band, choir, organ and orchestra, so the audio system needed a high input channel count, as well as facilities to mix live audio for broadcast on its own Internet channel.

“The decision to use DiGiCo consoles was based on the SD7’s ability to handle more than 200 input channels, the dual engine offering stability, reliable redundancy and excellent sound quality,” says Soundus sales manager Byung Chul Park. “The church also needed additional mixing consoles and it was an obvious decision to stay with the same manufacturer.”

The church consulted DiGiCo’s South Korean distributor Soundus Corporation, who supplied and installed an SD7 console at the Front of House, with four SD-Racks and an SD8-24 to take care of the live broadcast mix. In addition, Soundus supplied an SD9 for a mobile audio system and an SD11 for the church video editing suite.

Utilising an Optocore fibre optic network, this solution made for a seamless solution throughout the church.

“The system is very versatile and is easily expandable for any future requirements,” concludes Byung Chul.

“The church is very happy with it.” www.digico.biz

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NEWS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

YCD Multimedia's Digital Solution at Sydney's Opera Kitchen restaurant AUSTRALIA: YCD Multimedia's products have been selected to drive promotional displays at the Opera Kitchen restaurant in Sydney, Australia. Mediaplay, an Australian multimedia company, was the project integrator.

Opera Kitchen restaurant is an open air venue located on the lower concourse of the Sydney Opera House, offering the best views of Sydney Harbour, the Harbour Bridge and the city skyline. The screens are located at the points-of-sale at the restaurant's Misschu Vietnamese food and BĂŠcasse Bakery departments and were originally designed to promote special products and offers through the quieter winter period.

YCD|Impulse, the company's solution for merchandising and promotion at the point-of- sale, displays promotional information about the restaurant's offerings, including some of Sydney’s most sought after dishes and seasonal food specials, as well as information about Opera House events. The screens are connected to the in-house wireless network, and receive content updates via the YCD platform, managed by Mediaplay. Opera Kitchen has local control to change daily specials.

The new screens join a music channel that has been installed by Mediaplay,

with customized playlists featuring soul, reggae and roots to suit the outdoor sunny vibe.

"We had great success with the screens' impact on sales and awareness of items, such as Mulled Wine, which customers previously would not have known were offered," said Pete Boyce, Business Operations Analyst, Opera Kitchen restaurant. "We plan to install the YCD RAMP management system and YCD's Menu Board solution, which will further help us drive sales of new products."

"The project demonstrates the importance of digital media as a promotional and selling tool in restaurants, attracting diners' attention and assisting them in their decision making process." said Arik Roztal, General Manager of International Operation, YCD Multimedia." The ability to create and change promotions easily and quickly at the points-of-sale, according to season, time of the day and stock levels increases sales and enables effective suggestive selling." www.ycdmultimedia.com

Epson maintains number one position WORLD: According to the latest results for 2012 released by projector market research firm Futuresource Consulting, Epson achieved a record 12th year in a row as the world's number 1 projector brand. The company grew from a 22.9% market share in 2011 to hits highest-ever market share of 26.2% for 2012; meaning that over one in four projectors sole in the past year was an Epson. Sales of Epson projectors in 2012 were so strong that they were greater than the combined sales volumes of the second, third and fourth ranked projector brands. global.epson.com

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NEWS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

EV speakers help enrich the sound experience in Mahapawn Bangkok Church THAILAND: In 2011, Mahapawn’s sound engineer voiced his concern regarding the sound reinforcement systems in the church which were becoming obsolete.

The sound reinforcement system had insufficient sound pressure level and produced uneven sound quality in the high frequency range.

The church conducts many weekly activities and they required a sound system that featured crisp clear sound quality with no feedback and that has a high sound pressure level. As the church is a small venue there was a specification that the speakers needed to feature 8” drivers tp keep it small and compact.

Cost was also a consideration.

The church committee began their search for a sound reinforcement system that would meet their requirements by evaluating and testing various

brands. Eventually the Electro-Voice loudspeakers were chosen as a perfect fit for the chuch.

It was decided that the best fit had to be the EV ZX1. During the demo, the church committee members were very impressed with the sound quality produced, especially for the live band sections.

The church made a collaborative decision and bought nine EV ZX1-90B 8-inch two-way full-range composite loudspeakers. These were installed by the church representatives themselves, which was completed in 2012.

The ZX1 loudspeakers have highsensitivity, and a smooth, wide frequency response. They are reliable in terms of

producing the best sound quality, and are cost-effective as well.

They are now used for church sermons, and various activities and performances and have contributed to enriching the experience of all participants in the church’s activities and performances. www.boschsecurity.asia

Elite Screens Inc. opens new office in Australia “The expansion of Elite Screens’ newest branch office in Australia demonstrates our long-term commitment in providing the best in products and dedicated staff for the Australian market” said Jeffrey Lin, President of Elite Screens Pty Ltd Australia. “With a great track record of success in both the North American and European markets, it’s just the right time to bring our award-winning products and service to Australia.”

AUSTRALIA: Elite Screens, Inc. an innovative company that specializes in quality projection screens, has announced the opening of its new Australian office, Elite Screens Pty Ltd in Melbourne Australia.

Elite Screens Pty Ltd will be offering the same broad selection of quality projection screens for the Austalian AV market. There are innovative educational/training products like the Insta-DE ( Instant Dry Erase Screen). It is an innovative “whiteboard-projection screen”, Wall covering for the education channel. There are home theatre products such as the AccousticPro4K.

It is an award-winning acoustically transparent material that comes in many sizes and formats. Airbright5D, 2D and 3D passive polarized silver screens offer an ambient light rejecting and polarized 3D solution for both commercial and residential applications.

These are just 3 examples of awardwinning products that will now be easily available to the Australian and South Pacific customers. With many more products arriving as well, the staff of Elite Screens Pty Ltd is looking forward to engaging the industry with its solutions.

Elite Screens Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia, can be contacted via telephone: Local: 03 9041 6593 International: +613 9041 6593

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NEWS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Vega's Kaohsiung office relocates to cope with business expansion

Vega Kaohsiung Taiwan staff

TAIWAN: In order to cope with the business expansion in Taiwan, Vega's Kaohsiung office has been relocated and officially started its operations on the 21st of January 2013. At the same time, it also marked the establishment of the first “EBC Experience Pavilion” in Southern Taiwan region. An official opening ceremony was arranged on 30th January 2013 in the presence of Laurie Chow, the Managing Director of Vega Global, celebrating with other branch offices of Vega Global through their Video-conferencing facilities.

“These are very exciting times for Vega as we continue our expansion to provide

Celebrating the opening by video conference with the different branch offices

The new office

a true global platform in order to service our customers more effectively wherever they may be, and it is worth taking a moment to reflect on where we are.” said Daryl Grove, the Global Business Director of Vega in his speech during the celebration. “A global physical presence is one thing, but our people are what makes the real difference. With our team coming from such a vast array of backgrounds and locations, as a group we now have an impressive range of experience and expertise. We have the ability to utilize from within the group, true technical specialists, with skill sets covering a wide scope of AV and IT

areas, coupled with in-market knowledge to be able to deliver locally.”

The first “EBC Experience Pavilion” in Southern Taiwan region established by Vega is meant to enable the business sector of Taiwan to experience the power of Unified Communication platform and get professional advice from Vega Taiwan.

The new Kaohsiung office is located at 8F-9, No.91, Zhongshan 2nd Rd., Qianzhen Dist., Kaohsiung City 806, Taiwan. www.vega-global.com

Colleagues from Hong Kong headquarter joining in the celebration via video conference

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Sony Business Solutions Corporation named distributor of Prysm in Japan so it makes sense for Prysm to bolster its presence there. With the industry’s lowest energy consumption, the highest resolution and lowest total cost of ownership, Prysm LPD will quickly gain popularity across a variety of verticals in this important region.”

JAPAN: Prysm has entered into an agreement with Sony Business Solutions Corporation to distribute Prysm’s Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology in Japan. Prysm LPD videowalls will be a strong addition to Sony’s popular corporate AV products it is already distributing in the region.

Yoshiro Shigematsu, General Manager of Marketing, Sony Business Solutions Corporation comments, “Prysm is one of the most exciting AV technologies on the market right now and we are excited to introduce it to our Japanese customer

base. With this agreement, we have strengthened our position as the leader in videowall distribution.”

Amit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Prysm explains, “We are very honoured to have one of the biggest names in international electronics as a strategic partner. Sony Business Solutions Corporation’s strong distribution channels will help push Prysm LPD technology into many new markets and this agreement validates the technology advantages LPD delivers.

Japan is known as one of the biggest AV technology innovators in the world

Prysm is the only company on the market offering LPD technology. LPD solutions deliver a uniform picture quality over life and offer contrast, fill factors and the fast response time required to provide brilliant video solutions with longer life spans. Prysm displays are the world’s greenest, designed to decrease energy costs while simultaneously providing an unparalleled viewing experience for customers. Prysm displays use up to 75% less energy and decrease the production of greenhouse gases by 80% when compared to competing LCD, LED, plasma and rear-projector videowall displays.

Prysm also offers interactive and immersive capabilities, including the availability of on-screen gesture sensors, interactive touch screens, remote control access, up to 180 degree curved walls and free form videowall capabilities. www.prysm.com

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NEWS Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

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QSC spreads The Word at Shore Church NEW ZEALAND: Every Sunday the Shore Community Church congregates in the Albany Junior High School’s sports hall. This requires them to set up and pack down their own audio equipment before and after each service. In the past they used an ageing, very large and heavy audio system. The challenge assigned to local installer Halogen Audio was to find a system that met the church’s high audio expectations whilst also meeting their requirements for portability and ease of set up. They tried out various options, but were only satisfied when Halogen Audio supplied a QSC KLA Active Line Array System, consisting of four KLA12 elements and two KW181 subwoofers.

The church required an audio system that was suitable for both speech and the church band. It needed to provide high quality, even sound coverage across the large hall space and the allowance to

grow with the church into a larger venue.

The KLA speakers are very versatile in terms of mounting options, so they can easily be used as part of an installed system when the church moves into a permanent venue. The QSC system also won favours for the ease with which it could be set up and packed away each Sunday — with its simple lift, click and play approach, the fixed arcuate, active line array system can be deployed in a fraction of the time required by comparable line array products.

The Shore Community Church was so happy with the KLA system that they decided to add a full QSC K Series monitor system consisting of four K12 Active Loudspeakers and a K8 dedicated to monitoring a drum kit. The 1000W amplification and six-year warranty on the K Series, in particular, helped to swing the deal.

Two KLA12 elements can be seen on each side of the stage, with KW181 subwoofers underneath. On stage, the K12 Active Loudspeakers are being used as stage monitors, with a K8 as the drum monitor.

Dave Simpson, leader of the Shore Community Church, explains: "The level of support we received from Halogen Audio, coupled with the high quality and suitability of the QSC equipment for our application, meant we were very comfortable placing an order for the equipment." www.qsc.com

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SOLUTIONS UPDATE Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

19

Kramer Electronics: VS-808TP 8X8 Twisted Pair Matrix Switcher The VS-808TP is designed to work with the auto-adjusting TP-133/TP-134 transmitter/receiver pair, allowing direct connection of the signals over differing cable lengths.

The VS-808TP features eight inputs and eight outputs for remote connection with compatible TP transmitters and receivers. The switcher is designed to work with the auto-adjusting TP-133/ TP-134 transmitter/receiver pair. An additional, switchable VGA, stereo audio and RS-232 local input (built-in transmitter) and output (built-in receiver) allows direct connection of the signals (analog video up to WUXGA, audio and RS-232) with these compatible units. The VS-808TP also includes audio-followvideo or breakaway switching for audio signals and 15 user-programmable presets for quick-change configurations.

The VS-808TP is designed especially for presentation and multimedia installations where a high level of control possibilities are required from extended distances.

It utilizes economical TP (Twisted Pair) cabling, which is commonly pre-installed in buildings, schools, hospitals, etc. The unit routes and distributes signals both from a local and/or remote source, at extended ranges of up to 200m (656ft).

Kramer recommends using Kramer BC-DGKat524, BC-DGKat623 and BCDGKat7a23 cables for optimum range and performance.

CAT-5 cable automatically makes the system equalize and deskew the signal for different cable lengths.

Using Kramer’s TP-133 and TP-134 transmitter/receiver pair with a standard

www.kramerelectronics.com

The two-line LCD display of the VS-808TP shows separate routing information of video, audio or RS-232 signals. The unit is controlled via its front panel buttons, RS-232, RS-485 and Ethernet.

The VS-808TP is a standard 1U 19” rack mount size and comes with included rack ‘ears’.

Chief: Interfaces available to Mount Cisco Telepresence™ EX90

Chief, an industry leader in mounts, racks and interactive solutions, has interface solutions that make it possible to mount the Cisco Telepresence EX90 — providing installers greater flexibility in location choice for video conferencing. The EX90 is Cisco’s

personal teleconferencing system to allow colleagues to collaborate face to face over distance.

mount is an elegantly designed desk mount solution for a flexible, ergonomic installation.

One interface connects the EX90 to Chief’s Kontour™ articulating desk mount, saving valuable desk space. The other interface connects the EX90 to Chief Thinstall™ 18” extension swing arm mounts, which eliminates the need for desks altogether.

Both Thinstall and Kontour mounting options come packed with features including extension capability to precisely position the EX90 when in and out of use; Centris™ low profile tilt to provide up to 15 degrees of effortless fingertip tilt for optimal viewing angles; Integrated cable management through enclosed, tool-less cable covers and dedicated shelf space for the Cisco TelePresence Touch 8

"The EX90 interfaces are another example of Chief’s work with other AV manufacturers to deliver the most flexible solutions possible to dealers and installers," said Nathan Bohl, product management manager.

Thinstall wall mounts are engineered to deliver ultra low-profile installations with state-of-the-art functionality for the EX90. The Kontour articulating

The JSB2090B interface connects the EX90 to Thinstall Series TS218SU, TS318SU, TS318TU and TS325TU. The FSB4090B interface connects the EX90 to Kontour Series K2C100B. www.chiefmfg.com

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SOLUTIONS UPDATE SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Matrox Graphics: Matrox Avio F125 High Performance Dual Video KVM Extender The Matrox Avio F125, is a fiber-optic KVM extender which separates dual HD video, keyboard, mouse, stereo analogue audio and USB 2.0 devices from a workstation. Avio F125 features flexible connectivity options. Its transmitter/receiver pair extends two single-link DVI (2x1920x1200) or one dual-link DVI (2560x1600 or 4096x2160) video, and multiple high-speed USB 2.0 compliant devices from the host computer by up to 400 m (1312 ft) over multimode cable and 4 km (2.5 mi) over single-mode cable. Avio F125 stands out for its ability to transmit all signals with zero compression and zero latency on a single duplex LC-LC fiber-optic cable. Designed for high-performance environments, Avio F125 delivers fluid graphics and video playback making it ideal for broadcast, post production, Pro A/V, industrial process control, oil and

gas, 3D design and visualization, and military environments.

Additional Matrox Avio F125 features include local outputs on the Avio transmitter unit for easy maintenance or to share the remote the desktop on a collaborative video wall; DDC

compliance and advanced EDID management; Plug & play design for easy deployment with no software installation and compatibility with Microsoft® Windows®, Linux®, UNIX® and Mac OS® X operating systems. www.matrox.com/graphics

Extron: SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI input capabilities for Quantum Series Videowall Processors

HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI input support is also available for the Quantum Connect videowall processing system.

Extron Electronics has introduced a new, two input 3G-SDI Card for the Quantum® Elite videowall processing system that accepts SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI signals. The new 3G-SDI input card features Extron high performance scaling technology, motion adaptive deinterlacing, and film mode cadence

detection to ensure high quality image presentation on videowall displays.

Automatic source format detection captures 480i and 576i SDI sources, HD-SDI sources up to 1080i/60 Hz, and 3G-SDI sources up to 1080p/60 Hz, complying with SMPTE 259M, 292M, and 424M digital video standards. SDI,

Extron Quantum Series videowall processing systems deliver reliable multiimage presentations for demanding, mission-critical environments. They feature high performance graphics and video processing, and a dedicated high-speed video bus that maintains real-time performance under heavy input loads. Quantum Series processors can simultaneously display hundreds of windows of high quality graphics and video, making them ideal for medium to large videowall systems in environments including public spaces, corporate buildings, surveillance, visualization, and command and control. www.extron.com/quantumsdipr

Out of the box

Array solutions

Telescoping Lateral Shift

Independent Height Adjustment

0° - 15° Viewing Angles

Kontour series K3 Array monitor mounts The K3 mounts are available in 3x1/2x1, 2x2 and 1x2 configurations. Modular and flexible, these mounts work well in offices, call centers, control rooms, security desks, health care, IT or any environment that requires array mounts with a wide range of adjustment features.

PROFESSIONAL AV SOLUTIONS +852.2145.4099

Q

asia.chief@milestone.com

See the K3 Adjustment Features in action

Are you a Chief Certified Partner?

Watch the video at chiefmfg.com/k3array

Register at chiefmfg.com/certification

©2013 Milestone AV Technologies, a Duchossois Company. Chief is a division of Milestone. SI_Asia_Jan13

See You in Orlando

Register now at infocommshow.org.

Use VIP Code MCTSIA for FREE access to the show floor and events.

Collaborate. Communicate. Connect.

Conference: June 8-14 | Exhibits: June 12-14 Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida

SOLUTIONS UPDATE Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

23

Atlona: HDMI® Extenders featuring HDBaseT™ Technology and RS-232 Control Specifically engineered for maximum HDBaseT performance, the extenders provide reliable signal transmission to a distance of up to 328 feet (100 meters). Both the AT-HDTX-RSNET transmitter and AT-HDRX-RSNET receiver also provide bidirectional control with Ethernet, RS-232, and IR remote control for compatibility with third-party control systems. By using Power over Category cable (PoCc), AV, IR, RS-232, and power can be sent over a single category cable, eliminating the need for receiver power supplies.

The new RSNET family of HDMI extenders features locking HDMI ports, USB ports for in-field firmware updates, and captive screw connectors for IR, RS-232, and RJ45 Ethernet connectors.

SI Feb Issue_outlined.ai 1 1/14/2013 5:24:32 PM

AT-HDTX-RSNET transmitter

Resolutions up to UltraHD (4Kx2K) and CEC pass-through are also supported by the devices. Along with 3D, the RSNET family transmits all embedded audio signals including Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio™. Convenient captive-screw terminations for control and power (24 vdc on HDTX and

AT-HDRX-RSNET receiver

PoCc on HDRX) offer more reliable connections and help reduce wire bundles for cleaner-looking racks. For easy installation, the extenders are also available with dual-purpose rack and wallmount ears. www.atlona.com

24

SOLUTIONS UPDATE SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Gefen: Free App for customers using Apple and Android smart phones and tablets

Gefen has announced the availability of a free GAVA App to provide users with enhanced access to audio/video devices, window shades and lighting when using smart phones and tablets as the controller. While GAVA does not require an app to operate, the GAVA App does maximize accessibility when using mobile devices.

GAVA is an automation and control system that uses a home or business Local Area Network (LAN) to control all audio/video devices, lighting and window shades in a home or commercial environment. It offers anywhere/ anytime control of AV systems with a

simple and easy interface that requires little programming. GAVA provides all software and hardware needed for configuration. It uses IP connectivity to access devices in the system including receivers, switchers, Blu-ray players, Apple TV, iTunes, set-top boxes and displays. To install, users walk through a wizard-type setup, and GAVA is given a unique IP address that enables any authorized smart phone, tablet or device with wi-fi or Ethernet access to the system. Although designed to run on a network, GAVA does not require Internet access for configuration or use.

“The new GAVA App uses a caching system on your mobile device so it doesn’t need to re-load data, providing a faster and smoother loading time when you're using other apps or when you’re on the phone,” said Orrin Charm, GAVA product manager for Gefen. “The GAVA App also makes it easier to find GAVA and to manage multiple GAVA systems.

Another appealing feature of the GAVA App for those who may be on the fence about purchasing a GAVA for their home

or business is the free “Demo Systems” mode. When in this mode, GAVA can be demonstrated without an actual system connected or network access.

The free GAVA App is designed to work with GAVA. Users can also integrate Gefen’s Professional Automation Control System (PACS) and Mini PACS systems, which convert IP to IR or RS-232 to control devices without a network interface connection when using the GAVA App. The iOS App supports iOS versions 5.1 or higher and is available for free download on the Apple iTunes App Store: The Android version requires Android versions 4.2 or higher, and is available for free download on the Google Play Store: www.gefen.com/gava

Blackmagic Design: ATEM Software Update 3.5 Blackmagic Design's new software update includes a full Software Development Kit (SDK) providing all functions for the ATEM Production Switchers.

ATEM Software Update 3.5 lets customers build their own user interface and software for use with all ATEM Production Switchers. The update includes a comprehensive Developer SDK that provides the current interfaces for all existing functions. Now customers have the flexibility to use the

ATEM Production Switcher for many commercial applications, like integrating into broadcast automation systems.

ATEM Software Update 3.5 is available

now for download free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website. www.blackmagicdesign.com

26

SOLUTIONS UPDATE Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Planar: New UltraRes Displays bring 4K clarity to professional applications room, collaborative conference room, medical imaging, science, and digital signage, among others. Whether it’s making a multimillion dollar energy exploration decision, quickly rerouting electricity to prevent an outage or producing stunning close-up video for a retail store, Planar UltraRes 4K displays help businesses get the most impact from their high resolution information.

Planar’s new Ultra HD resolution displays are uniquely designed to help professionals across industries reap value from high-resolution information. The new Planar UltraRes 4K displays provide native ultra–high definition resolution (3840 x 2160), outstanding image quality and a range of configurations.

Planar UltraRes displays are ideal for professionals in a wide variety of commercial industries who require a large viewing area, very high pixel density and enterprise-level features that allow teams to collaborate around more immersive and detailed visual information.

Planar UltraRes 84-inch displays are designed for applications including energy, geospatial, engineering and design, architecture, aerospace, control

Planar UltraRes ultra HD displays offer the following benefits: • Four times the resolution of a full HD display making it possible to view the most granular information with stunningly sharp focus.

• The displays feature latest-generation LED-lit LCD technology, selectable dynamic contrast and local dimming for enhanced contrast. The displays also support a full 60Hz refresh rate and 10-bit colour for an exceedingly life-like video experience.

• Sleek design for both function and style. The displays have a slim metal bezel, wide range of digital connectivity options and incorporate failover power supply for 24/7 environments.

• The Planar Profile™ Mounting System allows for an extremely slim profile

RP Visual Solutions: Matrix Flex Mount for Flat Panel Arrays RPV’s RPMM-Matrix Flex Mount is CNC laser cut from precision formed 3/16” black powder-coat welded steel. This heavy-duty steel fabricated mount can extend out from the wall up to 30”, allowing an installer, service person, or end-user to physically get behind the mount for cable connecting and trouble shooting. Additionally, the mount articulates left and right to enhance the viewing experience and for ease of installation or service.

The RPV RPMM Matrix Flex Mount enables a large flat panel matrix to be firmly held in position and mounted on a load bearing wall. If the wall is not able to hold the flat panel weight, custom H-Frames (steel slab-slab posts), floor stands, or overhead support structures are available as installation options. This mount is ideal for 2 high 46”, 55”, and 60” flat panels. It can go up to 4 wide. www.rpvisuals.com

when wall-mounted (about three inches) and provides a front service access mode. The Planar Profile™ Tiling Kit allows for optimized horizontal tiling of multiple Planar UltraRes displays and the industry’s narrowest image-to-image gap for large format 4K displays.

• Advanced energy-efficient design that utilizes edge-lit LED technology and passive cooling.

• Planar UltraRes displays have lockable, front service access, providing ease of service without removing the display from the wall.

Planar UltraRes displays come in three base models to suit a variety of commercial requirements: UR8450LX: 2D landscape display ideal for conference and control rooms; UR8450-MX: 2D landscape and portrait, higher brightness model designed for digital signage and other higher ambient light environments and UR8450-3D: 2D and 3D landscape support, ideal for decision rooms where both 2D and 3D images and video are viewed. www.planar.com

SOLUTIONS UPDATE Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

29

dnp: 4th generation Supernova Flex Screen features significant improvements The 4th generation retractable Supernova projection screen, which is available in both a ceiling- and wall mounted version features significant improvements such as new ultra-quiet Somfy motor, new and simplified controller unit, new remote control and improved flatness. The screen has undergone several engineering improvements that have resulted in improved flatness The good news is there are no changes in price and size for the highly improved product. The Supernova Flex is available with ISF certified 08-85 screen material and ships now. www.dnp-screens.com

TRIUMPH BOARD: MULTI Touch and RESISTIVE Interactive Whiteboards and TB Voting RF550 The new MULTI TOUCH 78”/89”/96” are interactive whiteboards that allows four users to write, draw, move objects or two users to resize and rotate two objects with two fingers per the object simultaneously. It is a truly multitouch, requiring no separate multi-user mode setting. New TRIUMPH BOARD MULTI Touch Series is based on IR Cell LED Optical technology which uses a combination of IR LEDs and photo transistors that are aligned in pairs around the active surface.

The new RESISTIVE 78” is an interactive whiteboard that builds on the existing range with new design identical for most TRIUMPH BOARD products. New RESISTIVE is an interactive board which enables a user to write, draw and move objects with a stylus, pen or even a pointer.

The new TRIUMPH BOARD Voting RF550 is a powerful Voting System which is also considered as one of the most cost effective Interactive Wireless Audience Response System on the market. TRIUMPH BOARD Voting RF550 with LCD display is fully compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint which makes it simple to use and enriches presentations and classroom curricula by eliciting comments from the audience and encouraging participation. www.triumphboard.com

30

SOLUTIONS UPDATE SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Draper: New video conferencing accessories introduced For effective video conferencing in today’s multi-use conference rooms and other venues, you need the required technology precisely where you need it, when you need it—but out of sight when you don’t. Draper has introduced several new products designed to do just that.

Draper’s Video Conferencing Camera Lift-Ceiling allows the placement of a video conferencing camera directly behind a motorized projection screen; the camera raises and lowers with the screen. The Video Conferencing Camera Lift–Credenza hides your camera in virtually any conference room furnishing, ready to be raised at any time by simple remote operation.

Draper’s Video Conferencing Camera Adapter Bracket allows a video

conferencing camera to be mounted in a Draper ceiling recessed projector lift. The bracket is available with three Draper lift models; choose the lift based on how far down out of the ceiling the camera needs to travel.

Draper also offers three unique types of backgrounds to bring your video conferencing to life, help you communicate more effectively and set your content apart. Draper’s neutral backgrounds come in six muted earth tones, and eliminate distractions, help prevent unwanted interference, control room lighting and ensure a consistent corporate image. Custom printed backgrounds can contain custom artwork, photographs, corporate logos and more. Chroma Key Backgrounds, typically referred to as “blue screen” or

Draper's Video Conferencing Camera Lift–Credenza

“green screen” technology, make it easy to change background images or show live action video footage. www.draperinc.com/ videoconferencing/index.asp

Mitsubishi Electric: HC8000D Home Cinema Projector

At 1300 lumens and featuring a lamp life of up to 5000 hours, the new optical engine offers comprehensively improved contrast and light leakage realizing a high contrast ratio of 330,000:1.

True blacks can be clearly depicted even during bright-dark scene intervals, as well as a drive speed of 6x can be set exclusively for 24P signal in 2D. This feature minimizes the colour breaking noise that is produced due to colourwheel-based colour separation methods.

Incorporating the latest original image-processing technologies and advancements to resolve annoying 3D phenomena such as crosstalk, judder, flicker and loss of brightness quality projected, HC8000D brings theatre to life with its smooth reproduction of detail and exceptional 2D to 3D conversion.

With the motion-vector analysis technology, 2D to 3D conversion images are enhanced, producing 3D images

with a natural sensation of depth. One can now enjoy classic films back to life in vivid 3D. Adding to the colour reproduction performance of the HC9000D, the HC8000D DLP projector offers a vastly expanded colour range. Even the hardest colours to produce are included, so images reproduce with deeper, more vivid projections – allowing one to adjust hue, saturation and brightness easily.

The new HC8000D DLP Projector also offers optional lightweight Mitsubishi Electric 3D active glasses, which features a high-speed black liquid crystal shutter that is close to ten times faster than conventional liquid crystal, providing amazing 3D-playback performance and stunning high-definition images for an enhanced viewing experience. www.mitsubishielectric.com.sg

ACOUSTIC ECHO CANCELLATION Now STANDARD with

Q-Sys Core 250i

The world’s most powerful digital audio networking solution now offers Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) – up to 48 channels. And unlike competing solutions from other manufacturers, AEC is a standard feature – no extra hardware or costly upgrade required.

And, because Q-Sys operates on Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet over IT-friendly, industry standard network hardware, not only is Q-Sys powerful, it’s also incredibly easy to deploy.

To learn more, scan the code below or visit us online at qscmarketing.com/aec.

qsc.com

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

32

ADVERTORIAL SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

ECLER is a prestigious European pro audio manufacturer which is approaching its 50th anniversary.

There is a lot of know-how behind the ECLER logo... Its headquarters is in Barcelona (Spain), a dynamic city well-known by genius in architecture like Gaudi or extraordinary football players who can be considered artists.

ECLER to the patented Switching Power MOSFET ‘SPM’ Technology. The Switching Power MOSFET is a more efficient (74% efficiency against 55%) and faster component (7 times faster) compared to traditional bipolar transistor, used by 90% of amplifier manufacturers. In the 90’s, ECLER amplifiers were performing in the most famous night venues in the world.

Probably this artistic background was a kind of leitmotiv that has always pushed ECLER towards innovation. Innovation in ECLER comes in several faces: technological innovation, ergonomic innovation and innovation on external design.

ECLER’s success in the leisure market shows its worth and ability in performing under the toughest circumstances. The company is known for its reliability in its products (< 0.7% returns on warranty, one of the lowest in the industry). From that position in the last decade ECLER has been focusing on pro AV market.

Nowadays, the company offers solutions into six main vertical markets namely: EDUCATION, COMMERCIAL, CORPORATE, HOSPITALITY, SPORTS & WELLNESS and LEISURE.

ECLER was the first pro audio manufacturer to collaborate with the prestigious Italian designer GIUGIARO (www.italdesign.it).

GIUGIARO has created more than two hundred cars in the last forty years and is the designer of AUDEO and VERSO speaker cabinets in ECLER’s product lineup. Both extraordinary designs which perfectly accentuate into luxury venues.

Talking about technological innovation, it is worth to say that as early as in the 80’s, ECLER was searching for a technology to improve sound quality on amplifier design. A partnership with North American giant MOTOROLA lead

The second major step on technological innovation came recently with Ecler’s introduction of a highly exclaimed digital matrix MIMO 88 which can be remotely managed via Ethernet by means of ECLER proprietary software EclerNet Manager. MIMO 88 is the brain of any installation and is an extremely powerful tool that goes beyond the limit of a pure matrix.

System integrators can operate and maintain venues in any location of the world on real time. End users can

control source selection, volumes and presets in a very friendly way, thanks to screens specially designed for supports like iPad or iPhone. It is possible to schedule events every hour and day of the week to launch different activities... And all that comes in a software platform which is highly intuitive and easy to manage.

The future is today at a touch of customer’s hand.

More details and technical specifications is available at http:// www.ecler.com/en/products/ processors/mimo-88.html. ECLER offers a series of eleven tutorials for easy learning on how to manage MIMO 88 and EclerNet Manager software (www.youtube.com/ user/eclernetmanager).

Last but not least about this company from Barcelona is that ECLER is really committed to the planet’s health, energy saving and CO2 emission reduction. SPM Technology, class D amplifiers, switching power supplies and auto-standby function provide electronics with higher efficiency and lower energy wasting.

Recycling materials and using non-contaminant components are also top priorities in ECLER’s green crusade. www.ecler.com

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34

FEATURE SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

DIGITAL SIGNAGE SOLUTIONS UPDATE channels featuring HD video, still images, 3D animations, PowerPoint slides, and data-driven graphics linked to corporate databases such as SAP and Oracle, Excel spreadsheets, or RSS feeds.

YCD Multimedia: MegaPixel Playback Players

X20 also allows users to harness the power of social media by displaying usergenerated content from popular social media sites such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Leveraging Intel Core processors that directly integrate graphics (GPU), MegaPixel Player devices project synchronized visual content on any number of screens at pixel perfect quality, powered via the YCD|Wall video wall solution.

www.x2omedia.com

The new playback devices combine the powerful performance of Intel hardware and YCD software video playback that meets advanced video compression standards such as H.264, while enabling advanced management of ultra-high resolution content. Combining several devices in a synchronized manner also creates an unlimited megapixel playback canvas.

Players are small in size and include 2 or 3 video ports, with each port producing higher resolution than full HD. Together, the video ports produce ultra-high resolution and above without the need for additional video cards. www.ycdmultimedia.com

X2O Media: X20 Platform Built using the HTML5 standard, the X20 platform brings real-time visual communication to live with its intuitive, drag-and-drop authoring tool that allows users to quickly create media-rich

solution for users to manage a selfhosted digital signage network. CMS is the dedicated digital signage server for efficient media player management, content update, central scheduling and streaming broadcast. www.cayintech.com

ONELAN: Cyclone

CAYIN Technology: SMP-WEB Series SMP media players can playback most popular multimedia contents, i.e. 1080p video, streaming video, HTML, Flash, RSS live feed, etc.

Templates can be designed freely with CAYINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s editing tool to create highly customized presentations. Players also support Ethernet, 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS technologies to provide mobile and place-based solutions. Via SMP, users can even switch contents on the screen with their own mobile phones.

CAYINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SMP-WEB series is an open platform for integration to meet requirements from diversified vertical markets. SMP players can receive data from external systems, such as social media, queuing system, factory management system, hotel management system, sales and inventory system, sports game system, etc.

CAYIN also unveiled a new generation of digital signage servers from entrylevel to advanced solutions for users to manage small-to-large projects. The CMS servers truly offer an optimum

Cyclone is ONELAN's player agnostic Enterprise Content Management System designed for large scale digital signage deployments. Managed workflow and metadata allow Cyclone to generate uniquely targeted playlists automatically, enabling Cyclone to scale from the network of thousands within the industry.

Cyclone is for the next era of signage where networks will not only reach hundreds of thousands of players, but where marketers want to unify their campaign management across signage, websites, VOD portals and mobile from a single platform. The software is able to drive content not only to traditional digital signage players, but also to websites and shelf edge screens. www.onelandigitalsignage.com

Scala: Scala Enterprise Content Manager Built from the solid foundations of the Scala product line, Scala Enterprise Content Manager uses state-of-the-art development techniques to deliver a

fast, best-of-breed, web application.

The result of in-depth focus groups and usability studies to guide the development of a new user experience, the Scala Enterprise Content Manager has an entirely redesigned user-interface with highly intuitive workflows. It leverage's ‘Drag and Drop’ capabilities, easily highlights relevant information, makes tasks more efficient and places helpful links right at your fingertips.

The software supports a new family of Android-powered media-players and photo-frames which are of lower cost while growing in flexibility and capability and will be taking advantage of HTML5, the emerging standard for great content on the web, for dynamic and interactive content. Both the new Android players and the classic Scala Players will support HTML5, as well playback content created using standard web-design tools. www.scala.com

SpinetiX: Elementi Constantly striving to improve today’s digital signage technology and innovation, SpinetiX has launched its brand new Elementi software. It is the newest digital signage application that allows users to create high-impact projects and deliver a visually rich experience to virtually any combination of screens. Designed to be easier than ever when creating and organizing digital signage projects, Elementi also makes it easier to schedule, publish and work in a multi-user environment, from anywhere. Customers can choose

between three license types of Elementi which are all fully compatible with the entire range of the award winning HMP Hyper Media Player devices: Elementi S which allows for a quick project creation thanks to tools such as the icon based toolbars, ‘drag & drop’ actions and media timelines. Elementi M, which enables a multi user environment where team members can have different roles and access to a shared network for content editing and publishing and Elementi X, which allows experts to monetize SpinetiX's Fusion template, skin and widget creation.

A free trial version of Elementi – available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese – can be downloaded at spinetix.com/download. www.spinetix.com

Digital Signage Reinvented

Digital Signage with live streaming Any layout, any shape, any media with award winning HMP130 and full HD HMP200 player

spinetix.com

36

FEATURE Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

DIGITAL SIGNAGE CASE STUDY

Mydin deploys Scala Digital Signage to expand Mydin TV to new hypermarket stores across Malaysia

Quick Facts:

*Mydin is one of the leading retail and wholesale company in Malaysia *Over 56 digital screens inclusive of interactive digital directories installed *Currently deployed in 4 wholesale hypermarkets nationwide *Captures critical point of sales decisions *Content includes store promotions, floor directory, educational information, entertainment, live news feed, videos, Twitter and Facebook integration.

Mydin Mohamed Holdings, one of the leading retail and wholesale company in Malaysia was quick to recognize the benefits of focused advertising to its customers when it became the first wholesale hypermarket in Malaysia to harness the power of digital signage technology, with the deployment of its own in-store digital signage network in 2006. The first deployment at its main hypermarket and headquarters in USJ 1, in the Klang Valley consisted of a network comprising fifteen 42â&#x20AC;? plasma screens and a large outdoor LED. Fittingly branded as Mydin TV, the instore digital signage network captures critical point of sales decisions from its shoppers and influences the purchase action. Built on the powerful platform of Scalaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dynamic Digital Signage solution, Mydin TV displays dynamic content on screens positioned strategically at selected points-of-purchase to reach targeted customers at the right time and location with the right information.

Operating over 100 diverse retail outlets nationwide with 11 wholesale hypermarkets under its business, Mydin continues to draw streams of shoppers into its stores as the company successfully penetrates more markets nationwide. In line with this growth, Mydin equipped three more hypermarkets in 2012 with Scala to distribute Mydin TV content to over forty screens spread out across its stores located in Meru (Perak), Kuala Terengganu and Malacca. motivational quotes and videos. Scala’s flexible solution also makes it possible to easily integrate social media such as Facebook and Twitter to generate twoway engagement with shoppers, as well as deliver instant urgent or important notices whenever needed.

The deployment in the Meru hypermarket currently marks the largest deployment for Mydin with content distributed from thirty Scala Players to over thirty 42” HP screens within the food court and payment counters across three floors of the complex. This includes three interactive floor directories running on HP touch screens.

The Mydin TV channel provides shoppers, tenants and suppliers with media rich content that is visually stimulating and informative. The channel updates shoppers with ongoing store promotions and low price items, keeps them informed with live news feed and entertains audiences with trivia,

Scala’s powerful capability for content creation, management and distribution across networks makes it easy for Mydin to remotely manage the network from the headquarters in Klang Valley, via Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Channel content is developed at the headquarters and new content is distributed to the respective locations every 2-3 days. Mydin TV is managed by the company’s IT staff whereas the content development is taken care of by their creative team based in Klang Valley.

In a fast moving consumer retail environment, the Scala solution helps Mydin benefit from the flexibility of remote management and immediacy of new content delivery to meet the demands of hourly, daily or weekly sales campaigns in the stores nationwide.

The Scala solution and integration was provided and deployed by Click Grafix, a certified partner and distributor of SCALA in South East Asia. www.clickgrafix.com www.scala.com

38

EXHIBITION PREVIEW SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

InfoComm 2013 to feature Innovative Conference and Educational Programming

Largest Commercial Audiovisual Show adds new training programs and floor features InfoComm 2013 adds timely new programming, including several workshops to the roster of can’t-miss events at the annual show, taking place in Orlando, Florida, June 8-14, at the Orange County Convention Center.

New show programming and events for 2013 include a revised InfoComm Opening Reception, Tech Zone Pavilions, InfoComm University sessions and more providing a comprehensive schedule of events introducing new content throughout each day.

“In the evolving audiovisual (AV) industry, new possibilities for creative interaction and innovation are constant,” said InfoComm Executive Director and CEO David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD. “All year long, InfoComm strives to keep abreast of those evolutions and offer a nurturing environment for ideas, growth and innovation. This makes our annual show the place for the entire industry to collaborate, communicate and connect.”

New InfoComm 2013 Programming Highlights

InfoComm 2013 will feature expanded programming from InfoComm University.

More than half of all InfoComm University programs are new, including: *Women in Technology Symposium *Digital Image Content in Live Event Production *CTS-I Prep *Business Leadership Workshop *Four new digital signage sessions *Integrating AV Services in an IT Dominated World

Exhibit Floor Highlights

InfoComm 2013 is adding smaller, more focused exhibit areas on the show floor with the introduction of Tech Zone Pavilions featuring new products and services in emerging categories of security, education technology and digital content creation.

Networking Opportunities

InfoComm 2013 is the place for the AV industry to connect and collaborate.

New this year, the show offers new opportunities for networking and collaboration.

InfoComm Opening Reception – free reception with defined networking areas to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction.

First-Timers Orientation & Tour – meet the InfoComm team on a guided tour of the show floor.

InfoComm 2013, the largest commercial audiovisual show, has grown to attract more than 35,000 attendees from wide-ranging market sectors, including business, government, military, education, worship, healthcare, hospitality, retail and entertainment.

Along with a trade show floor that exhibits the latest from all of the industry leaders in audiovisual, staging, signage and more, the educational programming provides attendees with opportunities to develop skills and update certifications during the conference.

Full conference information and attendee registration information is now available at infocommshow.org.

InfoComm is sponsored by Black Magic Design, Christie, Crestron, Panasonic and Samsung.

InfoComm University Plans 300+ Educational Sessions During InfoComm 2013

“InfoComm, through its careeradvancing educational programming, certification preparation courses and CTS testing, offers attendees an unmatched environment to learn, grow their skills, network and leave the event at the top of their game,” said David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD, Executive Director and CEO, InfoComm International. “InfoComm University, along with targeted training from partners, manufacturer’s training on specific products and the opportunity to test on-site for CTS credentials, makes attendance an absolute must for the AV professional.”

InfoComm University Tracks

InfoComm University offers a comprehensive range of programs to address the diverse skills and interests of attendees. It includes: Pre-Show Education – three day “total immersion” technical courses Super Tuesday – full day sessions prior to the show floor opening, including the popular Future Trends Daybreak Sessions – designed to tackle training subjects before the show floor opens Seminars and Workshops – one and-ahalf to two-hour seminars focus on AV systems and technology and special four-hour workshops on everything from networking for AV professionals to incorporating video streaming and managing an AV department.

AV Tech Tours – tours of top AV installations in Orlando The following topics will be covered during the Super Tracks at InfoComm 2013: • AV Systems Technology • Networked AV Systems

• Business & Management • Technology Manager • Staging and Live Events • Digital Signage • First Timers • Standards On Tuesday, June 11, InfoComm University presents Super Tuesday, an all-day exchange of ideas and best practices. Classes with new content include: • Women in Technology Symposium • Unified Communications and Collaboration • Wireless Trends • Technology Managers Symposium • Digital Image Content in Live Event Production • CTS-D & CTS-I Symposium, focusing on the AV Systems Verification Checklist • Future Trends • Business Leadership Workshop Partner training opportunities are scheduled to occur before and during the event and include the following education tracks: 3D Comm, DisplaySearch, IMCCA, Projection Summit, Realcomm/IBCon, SynAudCon and Technologies for Worship. In addition, more than 30 leading manufacturers will offer 60 sessions on specific audiovisual products and solutions.

40

EXHIBITION PREVIEW SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

CommunicAsia2013, EnterpriseIT2013 and BroadcastAsia2013 promise unique exposure for regional ICT industry

Asia’s largest industry event to feature international experts and showcase wide array of latest technology innovations and business updates across the ICT and broadcast industries.

CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT and BroadcastAsia – Asia’s largest and most established information and communications technology (ICT) and media communications events – will return from 18 – 21 June this year at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore to showcase the latest technologies and trends for the entire communications, broadcast and media ecosystem.

With a special emphasis on content, the 2013 edition of the shows will bring together experts and exhibitors from around the world to showcase and share the latest technology developments and insights, touching on the blend of

technologies across the entire value chain of the ICT, broadcasting, proaudio, film and TV industries.

COMMUNICASIA2013 and ENTERPRISEIT2013: Optimising Business Opportunities, Enabling Businesses CommunicAsia2013 and EnterpriseIT2013 will feature a complete range of key technologies, such as cloud computing, enterprise mobility, mobile broadband and applications, developments in LTE/4G as well as Overthe-Top (OTT) and more. Six specialised techzones - ‘Fibre for NextGen Services’, ‘APPSmart’, ‘NextGen Connected Services’, Smart Enterprise’, ‘NextGen Connected Services’ and ‘eGov’ will showcase leading-edge innovations and services that will bring value to businesses. New and returning exhibitors this year include Barco, Dehao

Electronics, FiberHome, Irdeto, KIT Digital, Oracle, Samsung SDI, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable and many others.

SatComm2013, a part of CommunicAsia2013, will serve as a strategic platform for the satellite communications industry in Asia. It will provide the latest updates and pressing issues, and gather the largest assembly of global and regional satellite companies.

BROADCASTASIA2013: Integrating Technologies, Experiencing Content BroadcastAsia2013, Asia’s authoritative integrated tradeshow for the professional audio, film and TV industries will feature groundbreaking technologies and products such as Future TV (OTT / Cloud Broadcasting), Multi-Screen Streaming, DVB-T2, Satellite/Terrestrial/

Cable Broadcasting, Production and Post-Production Software and many more. The highly anticipated Cinematography/Film/Production Zone also returns this year to provide visitors with updates on featured technologies such as Animation and Video Effects, Motion and Film Production, Camera, Lenses and Tripods and beyond.

New and returning top-notch companies include Axon, Dalet, Envivio, Evertz, GoPro, GrassValley, Harmonic, Harris, Hitachi, Miranda, Orad, PCCW, Quantel, Sennheiser, Snell, Wasp3D and more.

To complete the entire broadcasting and film value chain, ProfessionalAudioTechnology2013 will see professional audio companies showcasing the latest audio products and services for the broadcasting and film ecosystem.

Refreshed Conference Format to Feature Joint Visionary Address and C-level Panel For the first time, delegates from both the CommunicAsia2013 Summit and BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference will be participating in a twopart visionary address on 19 June 2013.

The Hon. Gordon Rich-Phillips, Minister for Technology, State Government of Victoria, Australia, will present the Governmental Visionary Address, followed by the Industry Visionary Address by Mr. Karim Temsamani, Head of Asia Pacific, Google

A joint panel discussion has also been conceptualised. The ‘Thought-Leaders Panel’ of C-level executives will highlight the continued overlapping of technologies between the broadcast and telecom industries. Industry leaders from telco and broadcast companies will discuss and identify opportunities for collaboration between the two industries.

CommunicAsia2013 Summit: The Next Wave: The Future is the Empowered Customer The refreshed CommunicAsia2013 Summit will have eight key tracks – each track kicks off with a panel discussion – and two interactive workshops. The four-day programme will highlight the importance of understanding

the customer so that businesses can be prepared to deliver a superior experience. More than 110 speakers will share their views and discuss critical issues affecting the ICT industry.

BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference: Enhancing User Experience, Monetising Content The BroadcastAsia2013 International Conference progresses to the next level with four new tracks, four specialised sessions and for the first time, a half day workshop. This will focus on the shift in consumer demand for high quality content on-the-go, on multiple platforms and the emerging business opportunities for OTT in Asia. More than 100 speakers from 31 countries/regions will lead the numerous discussions over four days.

The Creative Content Production Conference, back for its fourth successful year, is themed “Producing and Distributing Successful Content in Asia.” A series of new topics and speakers including a ‘Producers Dialogue’ have been developed to serve as additional forums for participants to address and anticipate the upcoming trends and demands of the industry.

For show updates, please visit www.

CommunicAsia.com, www.gotoEnterpriseIT.com and www.BroadcastAsia.com.

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EXHIBITION PREVIEW SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

ISE 2013

• The show’s final total of 44,151 registered attendees represents an 8% increase on 2012’s world record of 40,869.

• Just under 900 exhibitors – also a record for ISE – occupied all 12 halls of the Amsterdam RAI from 29–31 January, with most reporting a brisk three days of business involving a healthy mix of new and established contacts.

• The positive trend was continued during the on-site exhibitor rebooking process for ISE 2014, where over 500 companies reserved space totalling more than 30,000 square metres – some 93% of the show’s 2013 footprint and over 75% of the expanded area that ISE will occupy in Amsterdam next year.

Exhibit Highlights AMX new Dual Power over DXLink Controller AMX new Dual Power over DXLink™ Controller (PDXL-2)surfs the speed bumps of long distance AV delivery from three points of attack. As a DXLink power injector, it conveniently enables data and power transport of up to 30 watts on each of the PDXL-2’s two available DXLink device outputs between transmitters and receivers located up to 100 meters away from each other.

Additionally, by injecting Power over DXLink via the existing DXLink path, a stand-alone point-to-point DXLink Transmitter to Receiver installation can

AMX PDXL-2

be created for single room applications.

And, the PDXL-2 eliminates the aesthetic inconvenience and cost of installing electrical outlets at every transmitter or receiver location.

While the PDXL-2 was primarily designed to make remote AV distribution simpler to manage, it can also generate significant and impactful ROI by smartly curbing wasted energy usage throughout a floor, building or campus. Acting as a conduit for a NetLinx® Controller, the PDXL-2 enables administrators to

remotely power down unused devices via I/O control from a single, central location.

AMX Resource Management Suite® Enterprise Software can multiply these savings even further by scheduling and executing automated power down routines, freeing IT to address more pressing matters than room to room, device to device facility power-down tours. www.amx.com

Analog Way introduces exciting new generation of high-end AV processors layer included for Soft Edge Blending or individual screen modes.

SmartMatriXTM Ultra is a high-end 12x4 Scaled Native Matrix, based on Analog Way’s new LiveCoreTM platform, with rugged design for optimized durability.

It offers versatile AV connections for any setup through 12 true seamless inputs and 42 plugs: 6 x HDMI, 9 x DVI-D, 3 x DisplayPort, 12 x 3G-SDI and 12 x Universal Analog.

Analog Way introduced two new high-end innovative systems for signal processing and distribution based on their new state-of-the-art LiveCoreTM platform. NeXtageTM16 and SmartMatriXTM Ultra, were conceived and designed based on careful analysis of customers’ needs and suggestions.

They offer both highly innovative functionalities and first-rate quality of manufacture and design.

NeXtageTM 16 is a powerful Seamless Switcher with dedicated live processing,

based on Analog Way’s new LiveCoreTM platform, designed with rugged hardware and reinforced chassis for demanding live events. Equipped with 8 true seamless inputs and 2 outputs, it offers 28 input plugs: 4 x HDMI, 6 x DVI-D, 2 x DisplayPort, 8 x 3G-SDI and 8 x Universal Analog. NeXtageTM 16 offers 16 Scalers and state-of-theart 100% digital processing, making it an exciting way to create impressive shows. It includes 4 independent true seamless layers per output, as well as an independent Native Background

With 2 independent true seamless scaled layers per output, SmartMatriXTM Ultra provides dedicated live processing for demanding presentations. Two units can be linked, with inputs and outputs shared and added, resulting in an impressive 24x8 Scaled Seamless Matrix.

With the new user-friendly and intuitive web-based Remote Control Software, NeXtageTM 16 and SmartMatriXTM Ultra can be easily controlled via any computing system using an Internet browser, or from the front panel. www.analogway.com

Christie PhoneixTM redefines content management for control room

A network streaming solution at its core, Christie Phoenix allows users to seamlessly access and control information, in virtually any location to collaborate, synthesise and generate fast and accurate decisions in the most critical solutions. Based on a single streaming appliance, the Christie Phoenix node, and a robust PC user software environment, the system offers a simple and cost effective solution

to configure, deploy and manage, simultaneously, all from one box. Christie Phoenix nodes can be combined to create perfectly synchronised display walls of virtually any size, or can be used as a desktop processor to augment a single user's operating environment.

PC software offers access and control of Christie Phoenix streams anywhere a user can connect to their network.

The Christie Phoenix node is a 19-inch rack mount unit that comes as standard with DVI, KVM and audio input and output connectors, all of which can be used simultaneously. One node can encode up to two and decode up to 12 high definition signals. The Christie Phoenix nodes can be combined and synchronised to create a display wall of up to 128 outputs. The desktop software included with Christie Phoenix features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that can manage content on multiple display walls simultaneously. It can also display Christie Phoenix content locally on a user's desktop while sharing content with other Christie Phoenix users across the network, all of whom can view and control the content. www.christiemea.com

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EXHIBITION PREVIEW SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Biamp launches five new products in its Vocia 1.5 release Vocia was designed to meet the exacting specifications and critical requirements of voice evacuation and public address systems; specifically for use in the healthcare, industrial, and transportation markets.

The new products featured in the Vocia 1.5 release are: • GPIO-1 General Purpose Input/Output device that increases the number of logic or emergency inputs/outputs of a system for installations that require multiple fire panels, or where connection to a simple remote contact closure is required.

• TTS-1nc Text-to-Speech and middleware server with built-in software that enables the automation and prioritization of critical paging messages directly from Rauland-Borg Nurse Call systems.

• VAM-1 Auxiliary Microphone provides airports with a streamlined paging station for use in the jet bridge doorway or gate hold areas. It is also used for simpler general paging systems where only live paging is required.

• VPSI-1 Paging Station Interface device provides integration of third-party control systems to Vocia Desk Stations, Wall Stations, and the VI-6 Input device; providing easier integration with custom control touch screen or for integrating existing third-party microphones.

• VO-4e Output device is used to monitor and supervise high-quality third party amplifiers or powered speaker systems. The VO-4e supports the use of the Vocia ELD-1 and the ANC-1 devices with generic amplifiers,

and can be used in a voice evacuation system where EN 54-16 compliance is not arequirement.

The Vocia 1.5 software/firmware updates includes expanded auto-repeat paging and live paging capabilities of up to 12 hours. Vocia inter-world paging enhancements also allow for the support of compressed audio file formats for quicker response times and message delivery between Vocia worlds. www.biamp.com

Crestron unveils complete, Sustainable Integrated Building Management Solutions manages all the disparate technologies throughout the facility to impact productivity, efficiency and cost savings.

Crestron introduced to the European Market to its Integrated by Design™ solutions in Amsterdam during ISE 2013. Crestron solutions enable global monitoring, management and control of AV, energy, voice & data, lighting, security, room scheduling, and HVAC on a single platform to maximise energy savings, lower operational costs and

increase productivity. As part of the complete building management Crestron showcased some of their Integrated by Design solutions.

The Crestron 3-Series™ Control Systems with BACnet/IP support enables seamless integration with existing building management systems and

Fusion™ global enterprise management is a modular platform providing the foundation for smarter buildings that save energy and enhance worker productivity. Customers can choose to deploy Fusion RV™ (RoomView), Fusion EM™(Energy Management) or both based on organisational needs.

Fusion RV enables organisations to centrally monitor and manage room scheduling, as well as AV presentation and video conferencing resources from the help desk. Award-winning Fusion EM manages and monitors all energy sources in real-time, captures, analyses, and modifies historical usage data, and allows users easy access to control and automate commands that impact energy savings, all within the same interface.

Crestron DigitalMediaâ&#x201E;˘makes it easy and affordable to upgrade all the analogue AV systems to digital and get them on the network. DigitalMedia includes everything needed to connect, display, distribute and manage all analogue and digital â&#x20AC;&#x201C; audio and video signals. DigitalMedia is easy to integrate with the managed network. DMÂŽ features a built-in managed Ethernet switch and operates in Private Network Mode â&#x20AC;&#x201C; meaning the entire DM system uses just one IP address on the network. DM also supports SNMP data, so IT managers can monitor the AV system from their IT dashboard â&#x20AC;&#x201C; such as HP Network Management Center or IBM TivoliÂŽ.

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Also exhibited was Crestron's new Core 3 UIâ&#x201E;˘ powered family of tablet-sized, Power over Ethernt (PoE) touch screens. Available in 5-inch, 7-inch and 10-inch models, the ultra-thin TSW collection provides the same high performance home control as larger touch screens and a consistent elegant look. www.crestron.eu

Dataton launches first ever WATCHPAX media server

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In essence WATCHPAX is a revolutionary, small, performanceoptimised, solid-state media server with built-in WATCHOUT software for pure plug and play presentations. WATCHPAX is designed for quick maintenance and scheduling promising return on investment for every user.

WATCHPAX comes in a discreet and stylish matte black aluminium finish measuring a tiny 127 x 148 x 22 mm. It takes up the minimum of rack space or simply sits discreetly on the back of a flat-panel display. The unit weighs only 470 grams and consumes very little power. WATCHPAX runs over any standard network, ensuring that the management and ownership of WATCHOUT is easy to use, even remotely from anywhere in the world. Despite its small form factor and low power consumption, WATCHPAX is a very powerful media server taking full advantage of hardware-accelerated video playback. It's designed to match the specific demands of distributed systems and multi-room installs, without the hassle of running long video cables.

A WATCHPAX media server is required for each display source and delivers full audio and video capability. The inbuilt WATCHOUT software is accessible by an intuitive user interface via TCP/IP. www.dataton.com

SEE YOU AT CHINA INFOCOMM

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EXHIBITION REVIEW Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

d&b audiotechnik launches new ArrayCalc V7 software "For any installer or integrator the new ArrayCalc Version 7 offers the ability to perform acoustic simulations quickly, easily and intuitively. One can now choose from a selection of d&b point source loudspeakers, most notably the xS-Series from the White range as well as Black range Q and E-Series loudspeakers. The White range has been specifically developed to address the complete demands of integrated sound

reinforcement in all manner and sizes of venues, not just clubs and bars, but any public space that requires a complete high quality listening experience," said Ralf Zuleeg from the d&b Education and Application support department The sophisticated additional algorithms of Version 7 address the requirements of a d&b style simulation and planning tool for a complete installation project

as well as corporate and AV rental markets. Until now building a simulation and performance forecast for pure point source has been complex to say the least; include hybrid designs that also contain line arrays and complexity increases almost exponentially. www.dbaudio.com

HARMAN’s JBL Professional CWT128 Loudspeaker provides extremely wide-angle coverage The CWT128 features JBL’s CWT Crossfired Waveguide Technology, designed to provide seamless horizontal coverage across a full 160 degrees.

The CWT128’s relatively compact size and small footprint (31.94 inches H x 10.22 inches W x 11.84 inches D) take up about a third of the footprint of two speakers arranged side by side. The CWT128’s clean, rounded look blends well with contemporary architectural spaces. The CWT128 is based on JBL’s patented Crossfired Waveguide Technology, which essentially splits the waveguide in half and utilizes two compression drivers loaded in different directions. The waveguide provides exceptional off-axis response and by eliminating multiple sets of speakers that

interfere with each other, overall fidelity is greatly improved and intelligibility is increased.

The CWT128 employs two of JBL’s proven 2408H-1 1-inch neodymiummagnet compression drivers, renowned for their high-power-handling and smooth response. A pair of 8-inch JBL SFG™ (Symmetrical Field Geometry) low-frequency drivers each features a copper-clad aluminum edge-wound 2.5-inch voice coil and copper-clad pole piece that improve performance by reducing voice coil inductance and distortion for smoother response, extended bass and extremely low distortion. www.harman.com

Mitsubishi enters solid state projection with premium ultra-short throw mercury lamp projectors. Delivering 2,500 lumens, the solid state lamp has a projected lifespan of 20,000 hrs. Solid state light sources offer fast on-off times and are more resilient in use, making them particularly suitable for portable devices. Containing no hazardous substances, solid state light sources are also easier to dispose of at the end of life and kinder to the environment.

Mitsubishi's WXGA NW31U-EST is aimed at the premium mobile users, such as corporate and higher education facilities.

Its solid state laser and LED light source offers an eco-friendly, reliable and easilyinstalled alternative to conventional

As befits its target market, the 3D-ready NW31U-EST offers high-quality performance. The enhanced colour gamut and light purity of SSI delivers excellent colour rendition, with no

“rainbow effect” due to the rotating colour wheel. The ultra-short throw lens – believed to be the shortest of any SSI projector - and wide manual offset adjustment makes installation extremely easy. A built-in 10W speaker, audio standby and pass-through functions enable slick audio presentations. Other standout features of the NW31U-EST include dual VGA inputs, Android/iOS compatibility and a unique thin client capability for effortless control and versatility. http://displays.mitsubishielectric.eu

The

Checklist:

Win multiple awards for technology that facilitates the routing and switching of HDCP-protected video, audio and serial over fiber-optic cable.

Add four-port option to all transmitter and receivers.

Add scaling receiver module that outputs video to one of 30 resolutions.

Increase adaptability to any installation footprint.

Make life easier for integrators.

sales@magenta-research.com 8 6 0 . 2 1 0 . 0 5 4 6

Already a cost-effective, fiber-optic solution supporting both analog and digital (with HDCP) video, audio, serial and other auxiliary signals, Magenta’s Voyager Series swells its flexibility by adding a four-port core.

The four fiber ports can serve as the heart of any transmitter or receiver and open up an additional sphere of signal distribution options – use a four-port transmitter as a distribution amp, or leverage a four-port receiver as a four-port switch. Adaptability to any installation footprint? Check.

Meanwhile, Voyager’s new HDMIRX+ Scaling Receiver module accepts video from any Voyager transmitter module (HDMI, DVI, VGA or Component) and leverages TV One CORIO®2 technology to scale video output. Users can select from 29 resolution presets (including 1920x1200) or set their own.

Integration with any display or end point? Check.

magenta-research.com

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EXHIBITION REVIEW SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Kramer introduces Digital Signage and Video Over IP Solutions

KDS-EN1 Encoder/Streamer

KDS-MP1 Digital Media Player

Kramer Electronics showcased brilliant new video over IP solutions for the Digital Signage industry with the KDSMP1 Digital Media Player, the KDSEN1, H.264 based HD Video Encoder/ Streamer and the new JPEG2000 based KDS-EN2T/KDS-EN2R HDMI-IP transmitter and receiver.

AV 3.5mm outputs. The unit supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG L2, MP3, H.264/MPEG -4 and VC-1 code formats.

It has 4GB internal memory and can be replaced with an external memory of up to 16GB. The unit’s solid-state components make it a perfect choice for large-scale digital signage deployments.

The KDS-MP1 is Kramer’s new high− quality LAN−based digital signage media player. It is a cost effective, full HD player specifically designed to provide high-quality HDMI video and audio output in a clean and smooth manner, suitable for digital signage applications.

Kramer’s new hardware-based Media Player receives content streamed from the network, saved in its internal memory or from an external USB memory stick, and displays it with image quality of up to 1080p HD via HDMI, VGA or

Kramer's new HD video encoder/ streamer, the KDS-EN1 is a broadcastquality video scaler and audio embedder/ de−embedder for digital signals up to 3G HD-SDI, composite and component video signals, HDMI and balanced audio signals. This professional H.264 HD encoder provides real-time encoding and compression, supporting most audio and video signal inputs, including analog audio and video, SD/HD-SDI, YPbPr and HDMI.

Kramer's KDS−EN2T and KDS-EN2R are an IP−based encoder and decoder for HDMI signals. Using its JPEG2000 compression technology, the KDS−EN2T sends a visually lossless HD image and digital stereo over a 1000BaseT LAN to a KDS−EN2R receiver for video wall and digital signage applications.

The new KDS-EN2T/R HDMI encoder and decoder distribute high definition video content economically and with high flexibility, to up to 1080p for video broadcasting with Gigabit Ethernet LAN. With up to 9 transmitters and more than 81 receivers possible in a single system, the KDS-EN2T/R system is highly scalable. The unique infrastructure transmits an HDMI signal over a single CAT5e/6/7 cable, reflecting the highly cost effective qualities of the KDSEN2T/R. www.kramerelectronics.com

RTI dazzles with latest Handheld Controllers and its expansion into video distribution RTI’s T2i and T2x handheld controllers take style to an unprecedented level with thinner, sleeker, and more ergonomic designs. For improved gesture support, the handheld controllers feature flush-mount, edge-to-edge touch screens, while integrated grip sensors conveniently keep the remotes turned on while they’re being held.

Complementing their design with unparalleled functionality, the T2i and T2x offer a dual RF platform for either one-way control via 433-MHz RF or bidirectional communication with RTI processors and supported third-party electronics through 2.4-GHz ZigBee®.

In addition, the T2x boasts Wi-Fi™ support and a groundbreaking, builtin accelerometer for control by hand

movements. This allows for commands such as rewind and fastforward with the flick of a wrist.

Utilizing HDBaseT™ technology, RTI’s 4x4 VHD-4 and 8x8 VHD-8 extend HDMI®, IR, and RS-232 signals up to 230 feet over a single Cat 5e/6 cable. The units include both HDMI and UTP outputs for each zone, offer very fast switching times of less than one second, and support HDMI and DVI inputs.

The VHD-4 is HDMI 1.3-compliant and supports resolutions to 1080p, while the VHD-8 is compliant with HDMI 1.4 and adds support for 3D. www.rticorp.com

HDBaseT technology based video distribution system

T2 handheld controller

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EXHIBITION REVIEW SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Revolabs introduces Hybrid HD Microphones and XLR Adapter Solutions the power source and placed where required around the table.

Designed for conferencing installations requiring a powered audio solution, the versatile Revolabs Hybrid HD™ products bring all the advantages of wired and wireless solutions to the conference table. Constantly powered and located around the conference table, the wired Hybrid microphones and XLR adapters take the guesswork out of microphone placement, resulting in optimized audio pick up during meetings. For meetings where wireless operation is required, the microphones can easily be removed from

Installers do not have to run new microphone cable.

Powered yet functioning wirelessly, the Hybrid HD products also provide unprecedented ease of use for unfamiliar users. The Hybrid HD alleviates the need for any setup prior to the beginning of a meeting or the need to return microphones to a charger tray after the meeting has concluded. Designed specifically for Revolabs HD wireless audio systems, the Hybrid HD microphones and XLR adapter utilize “Designed for Speech” HD audio technology, providing crystalclear audio so users can hear every word. Integrated RF Armor™ technology makes audio impervious to GSM noise from cell phones, avoiding unwanted

audio interference. To keep meetings private, the microphones feature secure 128-bit encryption technology.

The Revolabs Hybrid HD microphones are available in omnidirectional and directional tabletop versions, and come complete with a power supply. The Hybrid HD XLR adapter provides audio coverage for any dynamic gooseneck microphone (sold separately) with an XLR connection. This allows for the easy installation of gooseneck microphones in any room without having to run audio wires. To reduce the number of power outlets required for the Hybrid HD solutions, Revolabs offers users the ability to power four microphones with one power supply with its Hybrid 4 Multi Microphone Power Adapter Kit, sold separately. www.revolabs.com

Gefen showcases new 8x8 Matrix with Built-in HDBaseT extension The GefenPRO 8x8 Matrix for HDMIw?8 ELR (Extra Long Range) extenders routes up to eight HDMI sources to any eight locations within 100 meters from the matrix. High definition resolutions up to 4k with 3DTV pass-through and multichannel audio are devliered from source to display. All eight outputs use a singel CAT-5 cable to deliver high definiton video and audio to all eight displays using Gefen ELR technology based on HDBaseT.

The Matrix consolidates all power supplies inside the unit with no power needed at the receiver using Gefen Power Over Line technology. Bidirectional IR is also exnteded along the same CAT-5 cable, allowing for local and remote access to all devices connected through the matrix. Gefen Fast Switching Technology improves the HDCP authetication process, resulting in an instant delivery of data with no

downtime between switching. Advanced EDID options provide added stability during all switching for zero downtime.

Control and access to the matrix is provided by IR Remot, the RS-232 port, IP control or front-panel push buttons. A small LCD on the front panels shows all status and settings. www.gefen.com

projectiondesign® releases world’s first ‘panoramic’ DLP® projector A unique projector designed for advanced meeting rooms and collaborative spaces in which users are sharing a variety of graphical image content both locally and remotely, the F35 panorama boasts an exceptionally wide image aspect ratio of 21:9 or 2.37:1. In an office environment with an average ceiling height, this enables images as wide as 4m (13’) to be created without the need for edge-blending the output of two separate projectors.

Furthermore, the F35 panorama’s flexible input configuration means that

it can project simultaneous side-byside images from two separate highresolution sources, fill an entire screen from a single source, or simply set up a video conference call next to a computer presentation.

Based on projectiondesign’s proven F35 single-chip DLP platform, the F35 panorama boasts a resolution of 2.7 megapixels, 35% more than Full HD, and brightness of up to 7,000 ANSI lumens.

And, like all the company’s projectors, it is backed up by a 24/7 and intensive-use warranty for up to five years.

www.projectiondesign.com

Centralized control.

It’s in here.

CENTRALIZED AV/IT APPLICATIONS:

AMX ENOVA DGX AMX understands the demands of AV and IT worlds. That’s why the DGX includes an integrated NetLinx Central Controller and embedded Ethernet switch, which enable management of the entire AV solution— all from a single point. The DGX is an all-in-one control and distribution solution that combines a modular matrix switcher, a built-in controller, an embedded Ethernet switch and video scaling to every output. This integrated solution simplifies the end-to-end distribution and management of audio, video and control.

• AV Conferencing • Control/Automation • Media Switching • Media Distribution • Remote PC Access • HDCP Management

CONTROL & AUTOMATE | MEDIA SWITCHING | ARCHITECTURAL CONNECTIVITY | DIGITAL SIGNAGE | RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

www.amx.com © 2012 AMX

AMX Asia Pacific +65.6846.7960

52

INDIA & ME NEWS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

ProAV & Events Technology Summit in Hyderabad “The two-day event is being designed to educate and enlighten professionals and companies as well as end users,” explains Sreecharan, “it is aimed at providing hands-on experience with latest Pro AV technology products and system solutions.”

INDIA: ProAV Society of India, a newly instituted entity - being promoted by the Hyderabad based AV and Event solutions provider Highbrow Production Services Pvt. Ltd. - will organize ProAV & Events Technology Summit 2013 in Hyderabad.

The two-day event will be conducted at Hyderabad International Convention Centre on 25th and 26th April 2013. The event which is aimed at educating the audience on latest technology offerings in the event and seminar industry would comprise both technical seminars and exhibition as part of the event.

Highbrow, which had organized the first edition of the event as “AV Week” last year on the same premises, decided to re-brand the event with new name and under a new holding entity with a view to creating an education platform for the industry professionals. ProAV Society of India aims at developing a community of its own by inviting all the potential players and stakeholders of the Event industry domain to be its members.

“ProAV and Events Technology domains have great synergistic stakes into each other,” says Sreecharan Atluri, Managing Director of Highbrow Production Services. “However, these synergies have never been leveraged to their capability, as the two domains continued to operate separately due to a large disorganized approach, particularly when it came to events and exhibitions. This is why we

had conceived the event last year,” he elaborates. “We now intend to enable the event as an independent forum with synergistic competencies from both ProAV and Live Events (Technology) domains.”

According to him, the Summit will be a very niche platform of Conference and Exhibition for Pro AV and Live Events industries contributing to technology awareness across the constituent verticals of the two domains. It will have programmes of knowledge dissemination for professionals associated with Live Events, Entertainment Management, Professional Conferences, and Rental and Staging industries.

The promoter is actively engaged in promoting ProAv Society of India amongst the potential players of Pro AV industry such as manufacturers, distributors, channel partners and resellers towards sensitizing them for the platform as also showcasing their latest solution offerings as part of the exhibition. At the same time, he is also interacting with the intelligentsia of the industry for driving the conference and seminars part of the event.

“The Summit seeks to bring onto the common platform professional sound, light, projection, video, controls, automation, displays, congress, rigging, electrical, staging, decor and related disciplines,” sums up the Highbrow MD, “it’s a highly diverse industry but with complementary verticals. We intend to evolve a synergizing platform.”

For More details, Log on to: www.pavets.in RSVP: Ashish Barua Email: info@pavets.in Mobile: +919160018962

54

INDIA & ME NEWS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Actis Technologies’ innovative energy management solutions

INDIA: Actis Technologies recently launched integrated energy management systems and solutions.

These solutions will include lighting control, daylight harvesting with high tech solar adaptive shading solutions, green building systems and light emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures.

Actis’ innovative solutions will accurately measure, analyze and control the energy consumption in modern sustainable buildings. The solutions are aimed at corporate, residential and hospitality sectors.

“Frequent power shortages and increase in energy costs have dampened the growth of Indian industry in the last few years. This impact will only continue to increase,” says Abhimanyu Gupta, Director, Actis Technologies. “Actis plans to partner with Indian industry in bringing these solutions to the fore and implement solutions that will bring clearly measurable benefits to businesses and consumers.”

Daylight Harvesting refers to the optimum use of natural light while using the artificial lighting. Actis Technologies plans to decrease the lighting power consumption depending on the sunlight available with the help of technologies like solar adaptive shading systems.

The systems will be able to adjust the artificial lighting based on the position and angle of the sun at any given point of the day. The shades reduce glare and solar heat gain in the space, creating a comfortable work environment. It maximizes the amount of available daylight entering a space, enhancing the energy saving potential by 15 per cent.

In addition to the solar energy-based adaptive systems, Actis will also be providing sensor technologies that maximize views as well as available daylight by compensating for cloudy conditions and shadows from neighbouring buildings. This technology works in conjunction with the solar adaptive shading solutions. The sensor detects levels of daylight and overrides the adaptive shading solutions ensuring that shades only close when conditions are appropriate. Most importantly, this process is completely automated and happens without any human intervention.

unoccupied space by turning off lights resulting into energy savings from 15 per cent (in open office space) up to 80 per cent (in storage areas/ closets). The tuning mechanism in Actis’ offering helps in mood lighting saves about 20% of energy.

Among all the lighting technologies in India, LED lighting has been considered to be the most emerging segment due to its efficiency and long useful life.

Actis will be introducing dimmable LED lighting fixtures which will be a costeffective option for lighting a home or office spaces due to its long lifetime and shock resistance as compared to other incandescent light bulbs. These lighting fixtures can be controlled individually in a space with available natural light reducing energy costs by about 10 per cent.

“The solutions will enable consumers to ascertain the exact energy savings month on month, the Actis Director explains.

“Actis’ solutions can integrate various elements in a premise and provide intelligent control over various electrical systems to optimize the use of power with the cumulative savings of 60 per cent based on the above offering.” www.actis.co.in

Actis Tech also offer Occupancy Sensors which aids in conserving energy in an

Key Appointment Movements REGIONAL: While it may have, of late, become common for professionals to take to job shifts and companies having new change of guards, the recent movement taking place in quick succession may be of some interest. At least four top executives operating in the India and Middle East markets have taken to new jobs in the recent weeks.

P.S. Tiwari, who was Regional Manager for India and Middle East at ClearOne has moved on to Revolabs as Technical Manager-India and Middle East. He

apparently filled the portfolio vacated

by N.S. Prasad who moved on to Taxan Gulf as the distribution major’s General Manager for its entire operations. Being very familiar with the Middle East market operators, Prasad moved to Dubai to officiate from Taxan Gulf’s headquarters.

Gautam Chakraborthy, who was Deputy General Manager with Sharp Electronics in Dubai, moved higher up and to Singapore as Vice-President-Worldwide Sales at WOW Vision. “It’s a great opportunity,” said Gautam. “Bigger role

and bigger challenge; it enables me to have a wider interaction with the global industry, and contribute more for the cause of it.”

Sanket Sawant, who was Sales Manager for India at SpeakerCraft, has come on-board Kramer India as it Regional Manager-West. “It’s a new opportunity with new probabilities,” said Sanket, “I have my task cut out.”

According to market sources, there are a few more critical movements in the offing.

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INDIA & ME NEWS Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

NEC India strengthens business presence at Partner Connect 2013 Says Ravinder Raina, Country HeadPrivate Network Solutions (PNS) at NEC India, “hospitality and healthcare are dynamic sectors with unparalleled growth potential. Our partners have extensively contributed to our success and been instrumental in taking our brand values to our esteemed customers. With continued assistance from our partners, we have been extremely successful in achieving a leading position with SMBs in India.”

INDIA: With a view to strengthening and spreading its presence in the Indian market, NEC India recently conducted a four-day ‘NEC Partner Connect 2013’ programme in Dubai. The channel partner conference was organized to commend the performance of NEC partners and celebrate milestones made in focused sectors such as Healthcare, ITES & Retail. In addition to applauding large customer gains, the company also outlined its roadmap for FY2013.

NEC has been continuously investing in the growth of its partner ecosystem. The partner strategy revolves around quality selection to bring about mutual growth.

At the event, NEC rewarded all its partners with certificates of appreciation for their exemplary support in growing the business and meeting customer demands effectively.

“Our vision is to drive the ONE NEC approach to empower our customers with holistic IT and networking solutions to meet their display, communication and security needs,” said Zubair Alam,

General Manager – Sales & Marketing, NEC India, commenting on the occasion.

“With this vision in mind, our go-tomarket strategy aims at reinforcing volume sales with strong focus on channel expansion, engaging in mutually beneficial relationships for all turnkey projects, drive enhanced market share through focus on high growth verticals – hospitality, telecom, government sector, education, healthcare and BFSI,” he elaborated. “We remain committed to training and authorizing our employees and partners who share our passion and vision of empowering by innovation.”

NEC believes that besides having critical mass, partners should also have domain expertise. Towards meeting this objective, the company constantly endeavours to engage with experts in verticals to not only leverage their expertise but also to learn from them and customize their solutions to meet the growing demands of customers.

NEC does so by engaging with partners in upgrading skill sets through partner training, annual promotions, incentives, road shows etc.

According to him, considering the opportunities in India, NEC has introduced innovative UC solutions and applications for small and medium businesses, including voicemail and email notification, mobility, FMC, desktop suite, and various incentive programs for attracting new accounts or tapping new business opportunities.

In the last five years, NEC has added substantial breadth to its partner ecosystem, gaining a pan-India presence across 50 cities, increasing national distributors from a mere one in FY 2008 to four in first HFY 2012, and maintaining over 500 channel partners through national distributors, while increasing the number of system integrators to address the needs of large enterprises across verticals.

NEC India Pvt. Ltd. established in New Delhi in August 2006, leverages NEC's unique capabilities in integrating IT and networking technologies for a diverse customer base across governments, businesses, individuals and society in India. NEC India provides and develops solutions for Carrier Network, Unified Communications, Retail, Security and Surveillance Systems, IT and Multimedia Products to cater to the rapidly expanding Indian market. www.necindia.in

Samsung Third Southwest Asia Forum user experience has been expanded to smartphones and tablets; viewers can use their devices as remote controls or simultaneously enjoy two different pieces of content from a TV or Blu-ray player on a second screen. They can also mirror their Smart TV content on a tablet to take it with them around the home.

BD Park unveils the F8000 Smart TV with Celebrity Indian TV anchor Ms. Shruti Seth

INDIA: In what is considered to be one of the biggest industry events in the country in recent months, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd recently organized a very hugel B2B and B2C programme in Hyderabad. The third Southwest Asia Forum 2013 that it was, the event was sought not only to exemplify the electronics giant’s deep understanding and insights into the market needs in the region but also to demonstrate its solutions development approach and diverse offerings for both consumer and professional segments in the region.

technology enables consumers to discover a world of possibilities.

While the two-day event organized at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre was conspicuous for its size – attracting huge numbers of delegates and participants, including those from the media – it also played host to a widerange of new product launches, including some truly innovative and futuristic systems.

Some of the unique launches included the company’s flagship F8000 LED TV, the first Samsung TV to feature a quadcore processor; its first 85-inch Ultra High Definition TV (UHD TV), the 85S9, besides many. The 85S9 also includes Samsung’s proprietary up-scaling engine which can up-convert HD or Full-HD to UHD-level picture quality by restoring detail information to create greater precision for real-life picture quality.

“It was huge,” says Claron D’souza, Director-Business Development at ihD India. “While being essentially a massive product launch platform, the initiative also highlighted the expanse of the applications that the developer brought to market.” According to the ihD director there was a size-able contingency from the AV consultantintegration community at the event.

According to Samsung, its understanding and insights into consumer needs of the region are demonstrated though the 2013 line-up of products, in which

Delivering on this promise, Samsung unveiled a new paradigm in television, smart appliances, connected cameras, mobile devices, printers and enterprise solutions. Sharing innovations from different areas of its business, the electronics major apparently reinvigorated the consumer and professional electronics market with seamless navigation, intuitive control and personalized user experiences.

Samsung has completely redesigned its new Smart Hub, which intelligently organizes a viewer’s content into clear, dynamic menu panels to provide a simple, more intuitive way to discover and experience television. The three panels include: Apps; Photos, Videos and Music, and Social. It is further augmented with Samsung’s enhanced motion control capabilities, which make navigating Smart Hub’s three panels convenient and fun with a simple flip motion. This advanced TV

Developed exclusively for the Southwest Asian market, Samsung has also launched the 46” 5100 TV, which comes equipped with a Digital Hub that allows consumers to share contents among friends and family on the TV. With the Easy Share feature, users can seamlessly share digital contents between devices via two USB ports eliminating the need for a PC and also keep their data on a portable hard drive that fits in an integrated hard disk holder behind the television.

Samsung also announced its strategy to become a global leader in the enterprise market. The company aims to represent 10 per cent of its enterprise business in Southwest Asia this year, and by 2020, the company expects B2B to represent 23 percent of its total global revenue.

Towards reinforcing its focus on the B2B segment, Samsung introduced Samsung KNOX mobile enterprise solution that provides powerful security for both work and play. For enterprises, Samsung KNOX provides comprehensive security and protects confidentiality of enterprise data. And for partners, it is a consolidated built-in solution that allows broader access to enterprises.

Further, the company also launched Samsung Technology Enterprise Program (STEP), a comprehensive partner programme that empowers partners with competitive, differentiating tools to drive mutual growth and profitability in the market. The programme focuses on ensuring that partners are certified and prepared to both sell and service Samsung’s enterprise solutions. www.samsung.com

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INDIA & ME NEWS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Dubai Duty Free and Connectiv join forces to capture passengers’ attention

DUBAI: Dubai Duty Free in partnership with Connectiv, the digital media specialist for the duty and travel retail industry, has selected ONELAN's Linuxbased Net-Top-Box (NTB) signage appliances for its duty free advertising network. The NTB’s proven reliability in 24/7 applications, high quality Blu-ray content playback, detailed proof of performance, minimal maintenance overhead and ease of use have clinched the deal, according to the ONE LAN communiqué.

specific groups of passengers more accurately as they transit the airport.

For example, advertising in Chinese can be delivered to passengers travelling to or from China. This is achieved using the advanced scheduling capabilities of ONELAN's new content management system (CMS) whereby dynamic metadata can be used to change the playback behaviour of the signage network in real-time, based either on manual intervention or automatically from flight information data.

A key operational requirement of ONELAN was to deliver real-time dynamic scheduling of content to match advertising to specific airport locations and flights- a key element of the Connectiv offer to airport retailers.

This will enable advertisers to target

Later phases will introduce ONELAN’s enterprise platform, Cyclone, to add managed workflow, hierarchical metadata for improved targeting and automatic playlist creation, and a media sales system for inventory and campaign management.

Dubai based Connectiv is a company uniquely specialising in managing and selling digital media systems within the duty-free/travel retail sector, targeting passengers at retail shops in airports globally. Every airport is different, with a different passenger profile, a different mix between business and leisure, a different demographic balance. Thus, every duty-free/travel retail environment requires its own unique digital media offer. Connectiv’s goal is to become the prime mover in the management of duty-free/travel retail digital networks and sales of advertising airtime, working with brands to provide a single point of purchase for a wide range of airport retail media assets. www.onelandigitalsignage.com

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INDIA & ME CONSULTANT’S SAY SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Machine is for man, SIA: What is your view of the current state of Indian AVSI industry in terms of dynamism and/ or ability to harness cutting-edge technologies?

Harmeet: It’s not there yet , we are still working with not-so-trained AV system integrators who are more keen to make money on the supplies than work hard and deliver quality installations. The cutting edge technology (in equipment form) is exploited enough as well as over sold in this part of the world, without being supported with right kind of passive infrastructure, or, for that matter, actual need of the project. Thus, the socalled cutting edge technologies, most of the times, turn redundant that don’t work or are of no real use.

In today’s world of multi-tasking capabilities and multi-faceted skill sets many enterprises boast of having such competencies. Ironically, there are very few in technology domain – more so in audio-visual and systems integration domain – who truly qualify for the acclaim. However, one among the very few qualified multi-skill enterprises of the domain is ihD. The Ian D Harris-founded, Hong Kongheadquartered technology design firm is credited with having expertise in audio-visual, acoustic, IT, security, PBX system design and consultancy- almost completing the value chain. The firm has a significant presence pan-Asia, and India. In the continuing series of IME Consultants Speak columns, SIA talked to Harmeet Singh, Director of ihD India on what and how he visualizes AVSI industry in the region.

SIA: How about the willingness to invest in quality solutions and services?

Harmeet: I think most project developers or entrepreneurs have good budgets, and clients do want to invest in quality solutions. However, setting the expectations right is important for all of us clients, consultants and integrators so that the client gets the best quality solution in the budget they have. We need to avoid cutting corners or taking shortcuts.

Technology is of no use if it’s not used properly. Approach should not be to use cutting edge technology merely for the heck or fancy of it, but to solve a problem, or achieve a solution for a need. Most projects dubbed ‘cutting edge’ class today under perform because: • Cutting Edge technology which the client thinks he wants but has no money to get it, is not really there.

• Consultant wants to use a state-ofthe-art or Cutting Edge technology solution for their satisfaction rather than understanding the real problem, so it tends to be an issue.

• System integrator tries to reduce passive infrastructure cost to use a Cutting Edge technology to fit into the client’s budget, that may not help.

How much more willingness we could have? We all need to remember the basic principle of ergonomics: “machine for man, not man for machine!”

SIA: You said not-so-trained AVSIs. Then, how about the availability of skilled and certified professionals?

Harmeet: There is limited supply in this domain. However, things are getting better, of late; we have started getting certified professionals. Having said that, these certified professionals have yet to get skills that can be commended and deliver true benefit!

SIA: What technologies, you believe, are driving the industry today?

Harmeet: I think the AV is becoming IT, and soon a lot more can be done with lesser amount of hardware. It is therefore, then, the value of a skilled professional would be more important which is not yet true in the industry!

SIA: What do you take as the biggest challenge facing the industry today- is it the awareness about technology; access to it; expertise or what?

Harmeet: I think it’s the other way around (on awareness)! Too much awareness on technology without actually understanding the need of the project/solution many times results in chaos. So, we are trying to find a problem to be solved by a technology rather than trying to use technology to solve a problem. Most of the time, client requirement is much lower than what is given to them by professionals.

I would say the biggest challenge is of understanding the need of technology in the given scenario.

not man for machine The most important aspect for us is to understand - without straightaway jumping into technology - what is the exact need of our client. Technology / equipment is the building block of a solution to a need or a problem of the client; it is not directly a need of the client.

Expertise- it is available in all the technologies, however there is a definite a gap in the expertise of selecting the right one!

Budgets - there is nothing like the budget concern. But definitely when expectations are not set right there are compromises. However, we need to approach this differently, and always keep budget as an equally important parameter during the design stage, and not just technology alone simply because everything has a cost!

SIA: Has the emergence of MNC establishments been a contributing factor to the growth of AVSI industry in the region?

Harmeet: Yes for sure.

SIA: Would you associate ITES and AVSI in any aspect? If so, what are the areas that you believe similar or overlapping?

Harmeet: Yes, we may associate them till there is no conflict of interest, or if it’s beneficial to our client and have their permission to do so!

SIA: India's prowess has been proven in the former; why the same is not happening in the latter?

Harmeet: Hah! Because of the split personality of the AVSI! For being a consultant as well as supplier to the client at the same time!

SIA: Would you be able to quantify the worth of Indian AVSI industry?

Harmeet: No idea, as its overlapping a lot with IT now!

SIA: Not many AV equipment manufacturers are setting up direct presence in the country- what reasons you see for this?

Harmeet: Equipment manufacturers do have a presence in India today, some way or the other.

SIA: Would the manufacturers' making their direct presence here help the cause of the industry?

Harmeet: Yes for sure.

SIA: How has ihD contributed to the cause of the industry in the region?

What specific initiatives? Would you please elaborate?

Harmeet: Firstly, we are neither AVSI nor a manufacturer and all our revenues are generated by consulting and providing an unbiased design services to our clients. We advise our clients on what’s the right technology / solution for their technology problem or requirements and the best possible cost-to-quality ratio. The most important aspect for us is to understand - without straightaway jumping into technology - what is the exact need of our client. Technology / equipment is the building block of a solution to a need or a problem of the client; it is not directly a need of the client.

With regard to our specific steps- we talk to our clients to understand the need / problem first; and then look for a technology for it. After choosing on the technology which suits all the parameters of design, including the budgets, we do detailed engineering that includes listing all items that may be required

along with technology to make it work as a system or solution. Document all the connectivity, constraints, quality and compatibility issues of that technology and equipment for the solution we have suggested. This includes listing of exact equipment, cables, connectors as well as drawing the exact connectivity in the form of drawings and not just block diagrams. We provide exact requirements for the user interfaces, flow charts, algorithms and calibration of the equipment for the space or problem, or as per the need of the client, in technical form to the AVSI rather than just plain language. We then recommend the AVSI. However, we do keep a check on the quality and performance of AVSI. Finally, commission and programme the system or to solve the problem as per the clients’ need.

So, we as iHD, take a responsibility to define the need/ problem of the client; to design a solution using suitable technology that can solve the clients need / problem in a right cost; oversee the AVSI ‘s quality, delivery and optimal use of technology; finally commission the system with AVSI to established expectations of the system.

SIA: What is the way forward for the industry?

Harmeet: Neither consultants / designers be system integrators, also nor a system integrator be a consultant for a same project. We need to improve our skills in terms of understanding the core technology as well as physical installation techniques and quality. www.ihD-hk.com

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INDIA & ME INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Airtel NEC: Novel, Exquisite, Cool Technology integration redefined

Building network operations centre has never been so awesome, astounding and artistic! At least, in the Asiatic world! There have been ostentatious NOCs, and there have been some aesthetic models too, they say, but none that combined the two; integrated technological opulence and artistic appeal into a wowing experience.

The Bharti Airtel Network Experience Centre in Manesar, Gurgaon – the IT hub of India’s National Capital Region – is taken to be one exemplifying this phenomenon. SIA presents in Part-One of the Two Part an exclusive on what is acclaimed as technology unfolding in a masterly art form.

“The Air- tells it,” quipped a member of the project team that worked on the Airtel Network Experience Centre, that went live in October last. A NOC

by Ram Bhavanashi

While it may be a matter of sheer wonderment for a commoner, for connoisseurs it’s an art form in technology and vice-versa. What is common for all is the WOW factor- not on one, but multiple counts. The fourstory, quake-proof futuristic edifice is thus an ensemble of several novel, exquisite, and cool components both in structure and texture.

international cable services, and Internet peering points across India and South Asian operations . The Centre will monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs, and in case of any emergency, the operator will have a 360-degree view of any issue, thereby helping to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time. It would serve as the national command centre in case of exigencies and natural disasters. This continuous stream of near real time data will in turn enable Airtel to deliver a superior customer experience across its product offerings.

Functionally speaking, the first-of-itskind-facility in the country, monitors Airtel’s entire communication network spanning mobile, fixed line, DSL broadband, M-Commerce, DTH, enterprise and international services,

More, the centre also showcases Airtel’s expertise across all of its business verticals to stakeholders, shareholders, clients, potential clients, associates, and other interested parties like dignitaries from and outside the State.

of an exalted status that it is, the Showcase facility has been renamed as Network Experience Centre for its sheer exemplification of the wowing nature.

“The new Network Experience Centre allows Airtel to deliver a best-inclass experience for its customers, helping the company to manage its layers of complex networks, products and operations, as well as offering a Service Management Centre (SMC) for end-to-end services.”

Jagbir Singh, CTO & Director, Network Services Group - Bharti Airtel

Evidently, the NEC – when it went live in October 2012 through the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Kapil Sibal’s hands – marked a major technological leap in network management for Indian telecom industry, and particularly for Bharti Aitel- India’s largest, and world’s fourth largest telecom services provider serving as many as over 267 million customers from across around 20 countries in South Asia and Africa.

During peak hours, the operator connects nearly six million voice and five million data customers, concurrently.

As many as 600 switching and routing centers process 80 billion minutes of voice and 24 petabytes of data traffic every month. This huge traffic comes from over 160,000 sites (2G,3G and 4G), through 150,000 kms of optical backbone, via 75,000 kms of undersea cable system and connects customers globally, through 17 global PoPs for voice & data.

Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Kapil Sibal at the official opening of Airtel NEC

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“Setting another benchmark for the country’s telecommunications sector, the Network Experience Centre is flexibly designed to accommodate future shifts in data usage patterns, as technologies, such as 3G and 4G networks, evolve."

Jagbir Singh, CTO & Director, Network Services Group Bharti Airtel

Factoring the WOW!

It’s something like the design was envisioned way before its making. “It was our Chairman’s wish to have a large NOC that defined the best in the industry,” said Ramamurthy Kolluri, Head of the User Group that was tasked to see the project on stream. Ramamurthy, who had the honours of launching many a project for Airtel previously, had this dream project as his last before he laid down his office in December last as VPTelecom and Service Department.

Says Jagbir Singh, CTO and DirectorNetwork Services Group at Bharti Airtel: "Over the years the networks have grown in terms of complexity and scale.

After the advent of data in the Indian market, the telecom user experience has undergone a paradigm shift from a ‘voice only’ to a ‘voice also’ based consumption. It is imperative for any operator to understand the needs of their customers in order to offer them enriching experience.”

Accordingly, the company roped in what it believed the best of the breed to realise the grand vision.

Thus came onboard Stup Consultants Private Limited for the overall building architecture; Nelson India (along with Extreme Global Systems for local help) for interior architecture; T2 Consulting for technology design and programme management; and Turner and Townsend (T&T) for project management consultancy.

“Mittal’s vision was for a single centre where all systems and service data could be pulled together,” informs Kelvin Ashby-King, Principal Consultant T2 Consulting, “to enable Airtel to manage the customer experience, and to ensure customer satisfaction.”

The other set of the project team included Barco India for what is clearly

the centre of attraction – the massive video wall system - Tech Connect for AV systems integration; Velosis for passive network infrastructure; IBM for active networks (operation systems support) and WiFi; Nokia Siemens Networks for dashboard and software; Honeywell for security, access control and iBMS; and Philips for lighting and lighting controls.

“The giant video wall simply makes the NEC the most incredible setting,” says Harcharan Singh Chawla, Assistant General Manager-projects at Barco India.

“Not just for its sheer size, but also for the brilliance of technology.”

Many a time, technology sounds dull and drab because it works in the background and not tangible,” says Tech Connect CEO Mohana Bharat. “But here, technology has come out like the form

According to him, the initial idea was to create this NEC on Airtel’s previously existing facility. However, “the management, being thoroughly futuristic and brand conscious, wanted to build a new edifice altogether to host the new dream (facility). It had to be the most comprehensive set-up one can ever imagine,” the CTO explains, “it had to be unique in every respect, to be able to redefine the customer experience like never before. The architecture, ambience, design, and the technology infrastructure were meant to WOW the customer.”

The reception at the ground floor: Observe the columar crescent of glass structure.

of an art. It’s tangible- which is why the WOW feeling.”

A cumulative genius – culled out from countless number of brainstorming deliberations – has resulted in creating essentially: • A four-storied edifice comprising an expansive atrium space, Command Centre, Customer Observation Deck, Meeting Rooms, VIP Service facilities, Break Out Area, AV production room, iBMs and Security Control Rooms, besides the all-important NOC. • A 3600 square feet LED video wall – made of as many as 175 units of 80inch LED cubes – making it among the largest in the world.

• A large atrium space created using structural glass (for transparency) allowing diverse functions such as customer observation deck on top floor and command center on the NOC level floor to have a full view of the video wall and the console operators.

• Provision for a Strategic Management Centre, future museum and showcase centre • Custom designed structure and all associated services designed to withstand Level Seven earthquakes.

• Fully redundant N+1 Systems to ensure complete operation during any emergency.

Interior Design, Customer Experience and Technology Concept

The design strategy to build the NEC was apparently an inside out approach as the building appears specifically designed around the interior spaces.

Nelson US and their consultants provided the key concept design while the development and detailing was done by Nelson India with their local consultant team that was led by Amit Ramani and Debbie Emett. That the design was driven by a yearning for “Customer Experience,” Nelson bought

onboard their team John Whitcomb as Program Director to develop this concept technically. John –known for his vast experience in development of NOCs – is credited with developing NOCs for AT&T and Egypt Telecom. John was assisted locally by Hemant Vats, Principal Consultant at Extreme Global Systems.

Declares Hemant Vats, who spent quite an emotionally precious time on the project: “No one has attempted building such a facility before.”

“The NOC needed to be elegant, simplistic, human experience oriented and be able to showcase the technology platform in a superlative fashion,” explains Amit Ramani, President at Nelson India who weaved in the interior architecture. “It needed to be vibrant – not a grey and blue that most NOCs globally end up looking – and play technology with aesthetics.”

According to him, the interior architecture was first decided, and then

the building shell and structure - which was why the site did not pose any significant challenges for install.T&T team led by Shikha Shah, and T2 team led by Kelvin, worked closely with Airtel Real Estate Group headed by Ashish Mehrotra, and Airtel User Group headed

by Ramamurthy Kolluri, along with Manoj Tandon and Siddharth Charda.

T2 was responsible for managing the complete technology design process, implementation management, quality processes, site supervision and testing and commissioning.

Heavily driven by technology experience, the Video Wall and Audio Visual requirements were put to international tender for design and build. Three international consortiums bid and vied for it; a stringent scrutiny of competencies and extensive interactions resulted in Barco India winning the bid as OEM supplier and integratorinstaller for the Video Wall, while the AV Systems integration was awarded to Tech Connect Services Pvt. Ltd. NSN was

“The design strategy to build the NEC was clearly an inside out approach.

The building was specifically designed around the interior spaces. The interior architecture was first decided and then the building shell and structure was designed. The site as result did not pose any significant challenges.”

Amit Ramani, President, Nelson India

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“The biggest challenge was the selection of video wall; we wanted the latest, green LED displays but the client, and other stakeholders had doubts about the feasibility. We did our research, software simulations, and calculations on various aspects of the technology. Finally, the core AV design team decided on the LED based cubes. We stood by our decision till the end.”

Hemant Vats, Principal Consultant, Extreme Global Systems

tasked with developing graphic content design and software to capture data to be presented to the Video Wall.

While that the NEC was tasked to be a cutting edge statement went without saying, what the Airtel management wanted, according to the T2 chief, was ‘a technology designed for the next 15 years including an upgradeable path without redundancy.’ The systems had to be able to capture and display data from any and all system sources within Airtel, and content collected by the system should be able to be displayed on any display within the building and at remote locations.

“It had to play the NOC of NOCs,” informs Jagbir Singh. “You would want to call it ‘the Mother NOC!’”

The Centre of Experience: the Video Wall

While every single component area of the NEC is unique in its own right, what arrests one’s attention like nothing is the Video Wall. In what seems like getting the best out of John Whitcomb and Nelson India, it’s a curved floating video wall- not supported from the floor, and floated over the Nerve Centre – which is the staff meeting and relaxation level below the video wall.With a total screen surface of 40m by 8.4m, and made up of as many as 175 OVL-815 LED cubes of 80” the video wall is clearly one of

the world’s largest suspended LED video walls. The clear span of the roof is 49m by 18m, and the beams have been custom designed to hold the structure without columns. These beams are fireproof and eight feet deep. While the whole setting posed an imposing look, it wasn’t that easy doing it.

“The size of the display wall itself weighed 20 tonnes. Clearly, it is not possible to hang such a heavy display wall on just eight pillars,” explains Harcharan Singh. “However, it was the wish of the designer, and the client to have a floating feel,” he elaborates, “so, that was a real big challenge. We had to build a lot of support stuff to take the load as also for maintenance since it is too high.”

According to the Barco AGM, they provided design specs and control room visualization on how exactly it should look like. Their role included the wall- size, style, viewing angle, console layout, network technology, and everything relating to the wall. The Belgian visual solutions major had its expertise contributed from its large local operations as well as some expertise from its European Competence Centres.

The final design was a 25 x 7 (a total of 175) cubes of 80” LED video wall with 3600 square feet of visual display spacescaling size and ingenuity, it stands tall

in respects more than one. “It’s the best part of the ambitious install,” asserts the Nelson India President. “It’s the first hanging display wall we did worldwide,” the Barco AGM says, adding, “the amount of hard work and expertise that were put onto the field is not easily measurable.”The display wall is also unique for its brightness, resolution, and eco-friendliness, explains Chawla.

According to him, Barco’s unique Sense6 auto-calibration technology provides long-term brightness and colour stability across the entire display which is indispensable for video walls of this size.

The continuous automatic calibration minimizes manual interventions. Further more, with the Barco smart power management, the video wall saves up to 30 per cent on power without sacrificing contrast ratio.

Through this video wall, “the NEC would be able to look at the way the end user is using Airtel services in near real time – be it about the devices or websites or applications they are using across geographies,” explains Jagbir Singh, “the data experience revolves around six feeds: devices; network; service; customer usage; customer dimension; and location.”

(To be Continued with the second and concluding part in the next issue of SIA)

“It’s not about the video wall. It’s about the technology and experience that is weaved in when somebody walks in. That as many as three-and-half years of the nearly five-year project have been spent on determining the design explains the amount of details or amends towards perfection that went into it.”

Mohana Bharat, CEO, Tech Connect

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INDIA & ME INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

At A Glance

Barco: A First-of-its-kind Honour control systems. That was a potential challenge. The third and equally important challenge was designing the dashboard. It was critical from the user as well as the viewer point of view. A lot of hard work had gone into making it to a satisfying state, explains the AGM.

Clients:

• Airtel Team – User Group – Shyam Mardikar, Ramamurthy Kolluri, Manoj Tandon, Siddharth Chadha • Airtel Real Estate Team – Ashish Mehrotra, Shyam Sundar, Subadarshi Mishra

Design and PMC Teams: • Architect for Building – STUP • Interior Architect – Nelson – Amit Ramani/Ms Debbie Emmet • Nelson Programme Manager – John Whitcomb • Local AV Consultant – Extreme Global Systems – Hemant Vats • PMC – Turner and Townsend – Shikha Shah • Technology Design and Programme Managers – T2 Consulting – Kelvin Ashby-King and Prashant Hadge

Vendors: • Video Wall System Supplier and Integrator – Barco – Harcharan Singh Chawla • AV Systems Integrator – Tech Connect – Mohana Bharat • Passive Network Infrastructure – Velosis • Active Networks, Wifi, etc. – iBMS • Security, Access Control, IBMS – Honeywell • Lighting and Lighting Control Supplier – Philips • Dashboard and Software – Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)

Harcharan Singh Chawla, AGM-projects at Barco India For visual solutions major Barco, the video wall install at Airtel NEC was a first-of-its-kind honour, as well as a challenge- for the sheer fact of its scale and size. That it was proposed to be built of latest LED technology – that was not familiar to the client – and was to stand hanging in the mid-air plus had to coordinate amongst groups of diverse ideations made it all the more challenging.

“This is the first hanging display wall we did worldwide,” reveals Harcharan Singh Chawla, AGM-projects at Barco India.

“The display wall is not fixed in the wall.

Neither is it based on a support tier from the floor,” he explains, “it is hanging from the pillars behind.”

Evidently, building a 40m x 8-plus m video wall hanging in air wasn’t going to be easy. “There were many challenges,” admits Chawla. “First major challenge was during the discussion stage itself. That there were too many stake holders and each of them felt their point was valid and thus needed to be incorporated was one. While everyone genuinely wanted the solution to be best in class, what’s critical is that every technology would have its own limitation,” he explains. And marrying so many ideas was indeed a challenge.

There was a big debate regarding the hanging display wall. “The size of the display wall itself weighed 20 tonnes.

Clearly, it is not possible to hang such a heavy display wall on just eight pillars,” he elaborates. “However it was the wish of designer and client to have a floating feel - so that was a real big challenge.

The second challenge was integration.

Coordinating between too many important components- networking, AV, structural design, and Barco’s own

Barco got involved with the project from day one. It provided the design specs and the control room visualization on how exactly it should look like- the design, size, style, viewing angle, console layout, network technology, and everything relating to the wall.

The design and engineering parts were handled by Barco Belgium along with local team while implementation was handled by Barco Noida. According to the AGM, the cubes are a mix of different components. The most important is the projection unit. These were manufactured in Noida plant and whole system was assembled & tested in Noida from where they were shipped to Airtel.

“The best part was installing one of the largest display walls in the world in record time,” says Chawla.

“Like all constructions, the building completion was delayed, and our timelines were crushed shorter and shorter,” he explains. “We were tasked to accomplish the install in just 45 days. That was indeed a challenge.

Interestingly, we were first to accomplish the task.”

In addition to the huge video wall, Barco also provided the display control system for a large number of TFT panels in different rooms. The visual solutions major put to use its TransForm N solution to ensure easy distribution of data throughout the building and beyond, using the standard internet connection.

“We are grateful to be able to provide Airtel the best in class equipment in a cost effective manner which benefits both Airtel and its customers” said Abel Garamhegyi, Vice President, Growth Markets (EMEAI) and Managing Director for India at Barco. www.barco.in

Harman Professional at MFDC A case of an ‘Ace’ AV integration The multipurpose facility created by the Manipur Film Development Corporation is an emblematic setting epitomising the heart and soul of Northeast India’s rich cultural diversity.

A prestigious initiative in its own right, the facility boasts an evenly rich audiovisual systems integration to propagate its cause. An SIA exclusive.

The Northeast India, with a closely-knit group of seven states, popularly known as “Seven Sisters” is well endowed with rich and diverse culture. The myriad events that happen throughout the year in this part of India – both traditional and contemporary, form the very essence of life in these states.

A little known fact is the presence of many world class venues with top of the line infrastructure that helps the extension of these cultural events and programs to the public, including large auditoriums where audience throng

throughout the year for various large and small format programmes, events and cinema.

One such shining example is the Manipur Film Development Corporation (MFDC) auditorium in the State Capital Imphal.

An erstwhile Manipur Film Development Council incorporated as Corporation in 1987, the State-owned MFDC’s purpose is to promote and propagate the film industry in the State. Its main objectives are to promote, develop, aid and assist cinematography trade and industry, and all of its allied trades and businesses. The Corporation’s activity domain, therefore, covers a wide gamut of studios, laboratories and theatres for production of movies, both celluloid and digital; television programmes, organization of national and international film festivals, besides establishment of Film Archives, Library and Museum for development of film industry on modern lines.

It was, therefore, quite natural for the Corporation to build its own facility- a multi-purpose venue that suits every application of the institution’s activity.

Moreover, keeping in view the eminence and versatile nature of the facility, the systems and install solution had to be the best in terms of design, audio-visual experience and audience comfort.

Thus was created an 850-seating capacity multi-purpose venue that can host live programmes such as rock shows, classical musical programmes, drama, seminars etc. on one hand, and play movies both film-based and digital in 3D with Dolby sound on the other.

“The MFDC auditorium is a prestigious project and is unique in many aspects,” says Y Ningthem Singh, Chief Engineer and Project Director, Manipur Development Society (MDS), the Stateowned institution which was tasked

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INDIA & ME INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Thus came in Ace Acoustics’ AV concern Ace Acoustics & Audio Video Solutions Pvt Ltd., and therefore, their principal Harman International India- bringing along some of its premium audio and infotainment solutions for the multipurpose auditorium.

Audio: The sound of show

Y Ningthem Singh, Chief Engineer and Project Director, Manipur Development Society (MDS)

with the civil construction works and systems installation and integration.

“Being the only auditorium to cater to the wide variety of entertainment formats in the region, it was critical for us to comprehend the expanse of the need and address the same in the most fulfilling manner. From the AV perspective, we needed crystal clear quality systems with ease of operation and maintenance.”

The agency, after a thorough evaluation of solution providers and due diligence, took onboard Guwahati-based acoustics and AV solutions integration major Ace Acoustics to install the audio and video systems. According to him, the mandate was to set a benchmark for the region in terms of the audio and video provisions and functionalities.

Ace Acoustics, a trusted partnerdistributor of Harman products and systems, brought in a range of solutions to the place towards fulfilling its mandate. “After a thorough understanding of the market and the available brands, we were convinced that Harman is one who could cater to all our audio requirements in an integrated manner,” says the MDS top executive.

“The expectations for this project were extremely high given that this install had to be the very best in the region,” says Devasis Barkataki, Director of Ace Acoustics. “We had to work around many challenges that included integrating and customizing the audio in a way that it best suits the multi-purpose nature of the auditorium.”

The entire system installation project at the MFDC- from providing basic design and drawings, to installation and postinstallation support was handled by Ace Acoustics. The team was led by Devasis Barkataki, and included Debabrat Duarah and Ramanuj Sharma, who got involved in the project from concept-tocompletion.

That Harman Professional has a wide range of systems and solutions catering to every need and section requirement, the integrator had the benefit of weaving in a single-source-system solution for diverse requirements within the facility.

The product diversity apparently allowed the integrator to hand pick its solution from the principal’s broad basket of offerings.

The auditorium is built with the main sound system comprising of tri-amplified, high power, low profile ScreenArray Cinema Loudspeaker System- the THX certified JBL 5674 and two units of JBL 4642 powered by Crown DSI 4000 amplifiers. These systems were aligned with as many as 32 JBL 8340A Surround speakers installed all over the inside of the auditorium, contributing to a creation of amazing surround sound ambience.

The setting having been made for a 5.1 Cinema application as well, the front three stacks, i.e. the Left, Right and Centre comprised the famed high performance JBL VRX 932LA Line Array Cabinet. The strong high frequency deliverables of these cabinets made the front channels strong for the movie application. These crossover boxes were complemented with two arrays of four units each 18” LF driver JBL VRX 918 hangs, giving that bottom end sound impact required for cinema, as also to make the system sound full range

during non-cinematic presentations and speeches.

Crown amplifiers did the amplificationnot only for the Line Arrays but also for Subwoofer Surround, Stage Monitor Sound System, Green Room and Control Room sound systems. Soundcraft Live 8 digital live mixing console provided a 40-channel audio mixing capability, which could handle all the input sources from the stage, and route them to the sound system for a pleasant and great sound experience.

The highlight of the entire installation was the use of processing equipment – BSS by Harman. The backend processing was done using BSS by Harman Digital Processing units. The Soundweb London BLU boxes provide the capability of programming the system in various modes like live music, cinema application and speech presentations mode. It was the user interface which added to ease of use for the end customer. The programming of the BSS BLU 160 and BSS BLU 120 units helped to equalize the system to perform and deliver in all the modes. BSS BLU 10 enabled the user to handle, and control important features like mode selection and volume controls for this application.

In summary, the sophisticated system was made to perform and deliver immediately, being operated by untrained operators with the ease of BSS BLU products and the interface.

An entire range of AKG microphones and headphones – both wired and wireless – has been deployed at the auditorium to ensure that the users of the auditorium get the best experience in sound, both on-stage and in the audience section. These microphones will be extensively used for vocal and instrumental applications. The stage microphones PCC 160 directional microphones are used to pick the stage voices during cultural shows.

The Lexicon reverb processing done

by Lexicon MX200 added to the performance during the Live Shows events. For addressing the need for main vocals, AKG D5 microphone is extensively used for lead and backing

vocals on stage, including D40, dynamic instrument microphone and AKG WMS 450 wireless microphones. Provision for an AKG K240 Studio MK II, a dynamic stereo headphone, is also available in the auditorium facilitating the comfort and use of on-stage performers.

With over 25 mikes catering to various needs of vocal and instrument varieties, theatre production has been rendered par excellence in the auditorium.

“A key reason for choosing Harman range was the vast product range that they could deliver for this varied requirement,” explains Devasis. “It is also about the unparalleled audio output, functionality and after sales service which gives even the end-user the ease of operation and ownership,” he says, adding, “as a company with rich experience in audio installations, Ace is proud to have been a part of this dream project.”

David McKinney, Harman Professional’s Senior Director-India Operations explains: “the successful configuration and programming of audio components using Harman products for this particular project is a commendable achievement for Ace Acoustics and also for Harman.

Harman India’s technical team and the team from Ace Acoustics did an amazing job with a project of this scale. Every part of the signal chain uses high-end products from all the Harman brands.

This has ensured the high quality performance throughout the venue – sit anywhere for any event and you experience the same effect in sound.”

Video: The visual of the initiative

That the Northeast and particularly Manipuri cinema does a lot in traditional

film-based entertainment – which is much popular in the region – the management at both MFDC and MDS wanted a blend of both traditional and futuristic solution for its cinematic setting. To cater to this brief, the integrator has weaved in a combined solution with Apogee HighLight-2 film-projection system from Strong International, and a sliver screen – sourced from Mumbai-based R and S Electronics – for traditional film-based movie presentation and a 22,000-Lumen DP-2000 3D digital projection system from Barco, aligned with Qube XPD 3D digital sever for the modernistic 3D digital cinema presentation. The processor handling the audio from the projection booth is CP 650D from Dolby.

“The idea was to bring into play the popular and traditional film-based entertainment towards promoting the art as well as look into the future with cutting edge sophistication,” explains Devasis reasoning the projection combination. That the facility had to play 3D digital movies, the integrator opted for a Silver Screen imported by R and S from MDI of Canada for the purpose.

“The systems are awesome,” asserts the Ace Acoustics chief. “That we had the experience of installing digital cinema earlier (this is second digital cinema install for Ace), we did not have any serious issues in aligning the projection system,” he continues, “we, however, were faced with the issue of calibrating the audio that fitted cinema and noncinema simultaneously.” The integrator, in association with Harman team, apparently accomplished the task with precision.

The system integrator also roped in one unit of Kramer VP720xl Scaler switcher to facilitate easy switching between

audio and video from the control room.

Further, a Dynalite dimmer is also aligned for controlling the lighting set-up.

Overall, the expansive systems installed, and the expertise weaved into the venue provisions make the MFDC auditorium a one of its kind, and considering its ambience, acoustics and high level of audio visual set-up, it is possibly one of the best auditoriums in the whole of Asia. www.harman.in www.aceacoustics.co.in

+

At A Glance

Customer Manipur Film Development Corporation Type of Venue Multi-purpose Auditorium System Design and Install Ace Acoustics & Audio Video Solutions Pvt Ltd. Solutions Audio: JBL ScreenArray Cinema Loudspeaker System JBL 8340A Surround speakers JBL VRX 932LA Line Array Cabinets JBL VRX 918 Line Arrays Crown DSI 4000 amplifiers Soundcraft Live 8 digital live mixing console Soundweb London BLU processors AKG wired and wireless microphones and headphones Lexicon MX200 reverb processors CP 650D Dolby audio processor Visual: Apogee HighLight-2 film-projection system MDI Silver Screen Barco 22,000-Lumen DP-2000 3D digital projection system Qube XPD 3D digital server Kramer VP720xl Scaler switcher Lighting: Dynalite Dimmer

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INDIA & ME INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

The Grand Chola Controls with AMX World’s largest Platinum LEED-Certified Hotel The ITC Grand Chola hotel in Chennai, the southern metropolis of India is the World’s largest Platinum LEEDCertified hotel and is India’s first hotel to meet its entire energy requirement through renewable sources, including waste water; and the country’s first to secure 5-star GRIHA rating, and more!

Providing system solutions to such an exalted venue is a prestigious task and achievement to any solutions provider.

AMX India had shared the honour with its automation solutions to the grand hospitality venue. An SIA exclusive.

The ITC Grand Chola hotel at Guindy in Chennai is a veritable statement in itself.

For, the architectural opulence, systemic sophistication, and the futuristic outlook that the hospitality ensemble presents is arguably unparalleled. Consider this: *The hotel is entirely themed around Dravidian architecture- made of as many as 462 pillars, mostly hand-carved and

built onsite by around 4000 artisans from Mamallapuram, known for stone-carving skills.

*Has 600 rooms; as much as 75,000 square feet of retail area; and seven exclusive lounges.

*It has over one million square feet of marble with as many as 57 varieties of the stone. The builder was reported to have bought a whole marble quarry in Italy and shipped the lot to Chennai.

Designed by Singapore-based SRSS Architects, and built with an inherent ‘green consciousness’ the hotel has already won envious accolades for ecofriendliness. While it was awarded the Platinum rating from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)- making it the world's largest LEED-Certified green hotel, it was very recently awarded the 5-star GRIHA rating- the highest national rating for green buildings in India, instituted by The Energy Research Institute (TERI) and Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The award was presented to the hotel management by none other than the President of India Pranab Mukherjee. The hotel is also the first in the country to secure a 5-star rating from the Association for Development and Research of Sustainable Habitats (ADaRSH).

*Spread over 1.6 million square feet, it is considered the largest stand-alone hotel in the country. *Credited with having the largest Convention Centre in the country with over 100,000 square feet spread, and with a 30,000 square feet pillar-less ballroom. *Built at a cost of 12,000 million INR (24 billion USD).

Moreover, the hotel carries the tag of ‘luxury collection’- one of the brands franchised from the international hospitality group Starwood Hotels. The hotel is the ninth ‘Luxury Collection’ of the Group.

The ‘Grand’ AV solution With such an awe-inspiring setting the hotel presented a prestigious opportunity for any solution provider.

AMX India was entrusted with the task of providing automation control solution for Rajendra Hall – its grand ballroom – and Kaveri – the meeting rooms.

The ballroom, named after Rajendra – one of the greatest Chola kings – is a 26,540-square feet pillar-less facility, reflecting the grandeur of the Chola dynastic rule. The hall features acoustically treated partitions; in built and strategically placed overhead projection system ensuring overall coverage of the venue; Wi-Fi / high speed broadband Internet; and extensive audio-visual support, besides an on-floor conference concierge.

“ITC wanted their ballroom as hightech as possible while maintaining the luxury and stylish atmosphere that clients expect at any ITC property,” explains Mayank Gupta, Country Manager at AMX India.

Expansive that it is, the Rajendra Hall is divided into three partitions- two partitions with three sub parts each, and the third with two sub parts: The Rajendra Part 1-3 is spread over 8,487 square feet, and is divisible into three separate sections through the collapsible banquet partitions. Alternatively, it can

become part of the larger space for bigger banquets. Rajendra Part 4-6 is spread over 8,184 square feet, and can be divided into three sections which again can form a part of the larger hall.

The hall can be separated by acoustically designed sound proof dividers. The largest of the three parts, the Rajendra Part 7-8 covers an area of 9,869 square feet, and can be partitioned with soundproof dividers. Individually, it can accommodate up to 740 guests in theatre style. It again is divisible into two separate sections.

The hall is thus equipped with a flexible audio/video solution that is controlled and automated by AMX NetLinx Integrated Controllers and AMX Modero Touch Panels. “The hotel’s goal is to have a state-of-the-art technology platform to seamlessly integrate and manage the Rajendra Hall operation,” explains the AMX Country Manager.

“The AMX control system provides easyto-use operation of the Rajendra Hall AV equipment, while providing maximum flexibility to accommodate the hotel’s requirements.”

According to him, the AMX solution here facilitates using the Hall in both Individual and combination modeswhich meant that while all the eight sub-partitions (from the three main parts) can be individually controlled such as Part-1; Part-2 etc., they can also be used and controlled in combinations of two or three.

A total of eight AMX Modero Touch Panels provide seamless integration and automation of theatrical lighting, studio-quality background music, and

speech reinforcement. A hidden-away AMX NetLinx controller manages signal routing and specifically programmed presets.

The other components of the massive AV install here include Christie projection systems; draper projector lift; draper motorized projection screen; Schneider Electric’s Clipsal Lighting Control; Pioneer DVD Player; Tascam CD Player; and a BSS London Architect Audio Controller.

Kaveri - Meeting Room: The Kaveri Meeting Room is a multipurpose space, which can be divided into four Meetings Rooms, each of which can be separated by retractable walls.

A total of four AMX Modero Touch Panels provide seamless integration and automation of theatrical lighting, studio-quality background music and speech reinforcement. A hidden-away AMX NetLinx controller manages signal routing and specifically programmed presets.

The install here, again, is similar to the one in the Rajendra Hall, i.e. in individual mode as well as combinations.

The other AV equipment combination is again like that of the Rajendra Hallprojection system from Christie; Draper projector lift and draper motorized projection screen; Clipsal Lighting Control from Schneider Electric; DVD system from Pioneer, and audio controller from BSS London Architect.

“It was indeed a grand vision and task,” says Mayank Gupta, “and made pleasingly simple and user-friendly, customized to the precise requirement.” www.amx.com

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INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

BANGLADESH

Wireless integration of conference and video solutions delivered in the North South University Bosch Wireless DCN Conference Solution featured at Bangladesh's first private university delegate. 4 AutoDome PTZ cameras were installed within the conference room to provide full coverage of the entire room, streaming video to the 4 mounted LCD monitors via a Bosch Matrix Switcher.

65 wireless delegate units and 1 wireless Chairman unit were provided, ensuring that all delegates had access to their own units. All conference systems were controlled with the Wireless Central Control Unit, while images were managed and controlled via a DVR recorder and an Intuikey Keyboard.

North South University is the first private university in Bangladesh and is known to be one of the best universities in Bangladesh. The campus houses 12,000 students. It contains six buildings, which include the Administrative building, North Academic Building (NAC), South Academic Building (SAC), an Open Theater Building, Library and an Auditorium.

Meetings are conducted daily by committee members, staff and professors of the various faculties in their main Conference room â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Syndicate Hall.

As such, North South University needed a world-class wireless conference system that not only caters to their demanding needs of meetings and discussions, but must also look stylish so it can blend seamlessly into the conference room.

In most meetings, there would be at least 60 participants in the Syndicate Hall. Therefore, the conference solutions provided must enable systematic control of the meeting and deliver clear speeches. Also, due to the large meeting room and the number of participants involved, the university wanted to have an efficient camera control to display the host speaker on a large LCD screen simultaneously as he is speaking.

A demonstration of the Bosch Conference System fully convinced and highly impressed the Board of trustees and committee members in the school.

The Wireless DCN Conference Solution with automatic camera control allowed automatic pan, tilt and zoom of Bosch PTZ cameras while filming the speaking

Installed by Litme Enterprise the system is easy to control and operate. The seamless integration of the video and conference solutions by Litme not only enables fast recognition of the speaker but also its stylish outlook complements the interior design of the conference room perfectly. The flexibility of expansion if required and efficient aftersales support from Bosch further pleased the University.

The university is now able to conduct meetings more effectively and thus more inspiring discussions could be organized. www.boschsecurity.asia

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INSTALLATIONS Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

SINGAPORE

Wesley Methodist Church upgrades its audio system and acoustics

E&E integrates to ensure a vastly improved experience The 128 year old Wesley Methodist Church was founded in 1885 as the first Methodist Church in Singapore. In 1908 the church re-located to Fort Canning Rise amidst a 38,000 sq.ft site and was re-named as the Wesley Methodist Church. The majestic red brick building with its elegant tower surrounded by lush greenery still stands prominently at the site together with an extension building that was completed in 1979.

Most recently further refurbishments and upgrading were completed at the church premises to cater to the growing activities and spiritual needs of its 6000 plus congregation.

The upgrading project included building a glass roof over the old Plaza area thereby creating an additional Hall for the Church. In addition air-conditioners were replaced; accessibility for the elderly and disabled were improved; an additional chapel and more toilets

were included and the existing Wesley Hall was refurbished. The entire upgrading project was overseen by a committee that was specifically set up for this purpose. Leading the committee was Wong Wei Li, a long-time church member who had previously been Chairman of the Church's property management committee for more than 10 years. Ably guided by Wei Li and the committee, the upgrading project was completed with great success and an almost 30% additional Gross Floor Area was added.

The Wesley Hall where regular services are conducted was enlarged and is now able to seat 680 compared to its previous capacity of 580. More critically the Hall together with the two Cry Rooms were acoustically treated and the audio system upgraded to ensure a more pleasant experience for the worshippers.

To improve the acoustics of the Hall, the committee responsible for the Church upgrading hired Steven Sockey of Truephonic based out of USA as the acoustic as well as AV consultant. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our initial idea was just to increase the capacity of the Hall. Along the way, the committee was tasked to improve the acoustics. With support from the Property Committee and the approval of the Local Church Executive Committee (LCEC), additional funding was secured, and today feedback by Hall users has been very positive,â&#x20AC;? said a pleased Wei Li.

The BAD panels feature a series of holes arranged in a special sequence to achieve uniform high frequency diffusion and yet allow low frequency sounds through the surface where there is hidden absorption.

The first cHallenge for Steven was the shape of the Hall. “For practical reasons we weren't really able to work with the shape of the room or angles of walls. The room also has very stringent fire code requirements and so lots of scrutiny was given to the type and extent of materials we could use,” said Steven.

Steven continues, “Considering that a sizeable sound system would be used, and the types of events planned in (and adjacent to) the room, we really focused on surface treatments for the control of reflections and reverberation and a little less on noise and isolation issues. To achieve a 'tonaly balanced' room, one that would feel right for both musicians and the audience, we worked primarily with three key components: the concrete / tile floor with nothing at all (i.e no carpet or wood), the ceiling with an absorptive cellulose material (Cell-Spray), and the walls which are a combination of absorber and diffuser characteristics.

We created an EASE (computer) acoustical model to understand how different design choices could affect the outcome. By modifying the amount, type, location and mounting scheme of these materials we could easily change the results - and the cost. To ensure our models were accurate and based on real characteristics, some sample materials were actually sent to the TUV SUD PSB Lab in Singapore for testing.

One key feature that prominently stands out in the re-furbished Hall are the BAD panels that have been installed. BAD stands for Binary Amplitude Diffsorbors

EAW SMS5 2-way satellite speakers were installed in each of the two cry rooms.

manufactured by RPG, Inc. “The BAD panels are the key to allowing us to control reflections and absorb low frequency energy without making the room overly dead,” said Steven.

“Regular fabric covered panels tend to be either inadequate or result in room that is a “boommy”, muddy acoustical mess. Instead, we've used a series of holes arranged in a special sequence to achieve uniform high frequency diffusion and yet allow low frequency sounds through the surface where we have

Yamaha CL5 FOH Mixer

hidden absorption. If simple perforations had been used, such as those on peg board, reflections would still be a problem. The holes in the BAD panels are actually calculated and arranged in a sophisticated binary sequence (by RPG).

The actual amount of low frequency absorption varies depending on location, but up to about 40% of the panels include 82mm of rockwool behind them.

In all, the BAD panels cover about166 sq meters. As Pastor, Melvin Huang noted at the opening service in December 2012, this likely makes Wesley the 'holeyest' church in Singapore.”

Sound reinforcement for the Hall was primarily handled by EAW speakers.

“The room is not tall enough to allow a lot of gear in the ceiling. And with the mechanical systems (determined long before I was on board) taking up so much prime real estate, line arrays were basically out of the question. The room is also a bit awkward with the stage off center and several different seating conditions. All of this lead to a more traditional point source and delay loudspeaker solution. I was especially interested in a full range loudspeaker with exceptional off axis performance and considered numerous candidates.

We found the EAW QX series performed very well and has the advantage of a well established local support network in Singapore. There are no stage monitors speakers and the band uses a combination of wireless and wired in ear monitors. I think the result is a straight forward solid solution that will serve them well,” said Steven.

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INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

The multi-media room

The entire supply, installation, integration, testing and commissioning of the system was handled by Electronics and Engineering Pte Ltd (E&E). E&E installed 3 units of EAW QX596 Fullrange 3-way speakers as Front of House in side left, left and right configuration.

These were augmented with four units of EAW SB1002 Dual 18” subwoofers.

4 delay speakers were also installed in the Hall. These were the EAW MK5396 Full-range 2-way delay speakers. All the speakers were hung and flushed along the ceiling bars. All the speakers were specified in black so as to seamlessly blend with the ceiling. In fact the speakers are hard to notice. A further two units of EAW SMS5 2-way satellite speakers were installed in each of the two cry rooms in the Hall. These however were specified in white. Keeping in line with the clean look at the stage, there are no monitor speakers. Monitor duties were assigned to 8 units of myMix personal systems.

The loudspeakers are all driven by Powersoft amplifiers with processing handled by 2 units of EAW UX3600 processors. Mixing duties are handled by a Yamaha CL5, which is located at the back of the Hall facing the stage. Wei Li highlights that as in most churches the sound systems are operated by volunteers. “We have different services and of course different volunteers who man the CL5. What is great now is that settings can be locked which makes it easier for the volunteers.”

Ronald Goh of E&E further comments, “With the installation of the EAW QX series, Wesley has the newest and latest sound system. The horn system gives you a presence that you can feel without the harshness. The Sub-woofers are a cardiod system which basically means that we could hang it horizontally and it takes fewer channels of processing and still delivers the punch.”

In addition to the above equipment, a Shure wireless system, P9TER-P7 together with a Shure receiver as well as Shure microphones were supplied to the church. The PSM 900 wireless features superior, accurate Audio quality using Shure's patented Audio reference companding - a more efficient way for compressing Audio prior to transmission.

It offers state-of-art technology like CueMode (patent pending), Scan and Sync, and RF mute switch for easy setup and operation.

On the visual aspect, two Remaco front projection motorized tab-tensioned screens are placed on the left and right of stage with projection capabilities handed over to 2 Christie Digital 8000 lumens DLP projectors. The visuals are further augmented with 82” Sharp LCD screens that are strategically placed within the Hall.

The church also records and mixes the different services and outputs them into a CD. Prior to this, the multimedia team shared space with the FOH mixing team at the back of the church which unfortunately created a distraction

for both the operators and the congregation. There was a balcony which faced the stage but this was mainly used to store some equipment. “At Wesley, the AV volunteers had been working in a large, long, open booth at the back of the room. But the area available for control in Wesley Hall was much more limited after the renovation. Thus we separated the live sound control and the recording and media operations by moving them to a different room. This ensured a better environment for all concerned,” said Steven. Thus the FOH mixing system continued to occupy the back of the Hall with the multimedia team moved to the Balcony. To facilitate better operations, the previously open Balcony was now fully enclosed. The enclosed AV control room now features a small acoustical window that was installed in the double stud wall. This allows a view into the main Hall but maintains the sound isolation. A standard window would have negated the enhanced wall construction. “In this way the volunteers can work without shouting over the live sound and of course, their activities do not disturb others in the Hall,” said Steven.

Steven comments, “Of course, a project like this is not all about specifications and gear. Perhaps the biggest part is the people and church culture. Separating live sound control by moving recording and media operations to a different room, requires everyone to learn new ways of working together - in addition to - learning how to work much more modern equipment. They successfully migrated from analogue audio and video gear to current generation digital. The church volunteers, staff and leadership deserve a great deal of credit because this type of change is far from easy. The benefits are clear: enhanced capabilities with the room to grow.”

A pleased Wei Li concludes, “The response has been great. Everyone has noticed the improvement and the change is obvious. The sound is more “live” and there is a wow factor now.” www.wesley.mc.org www.enepl.com.sg www.truephonic.com

SEAMLESS MIXING. ADVANCED CONTROL. SCM820 Digital IntelliMix™ Automatic Mixer The SCM820 is an innovative 8-channel digital automatic mixer for natural-sounding speech in multiple microphone applications. IntelliMix™ technology delivers seamless automixing for optimized audio through dynamic channel gating and attenuation. IntelliMix™ Modes offer different presets of reliable automixing styles to quickly tailor the mix for a particular application. Ethernet connectivity and Dante™ options are available to enable central control for individual setting and signal routing.

™

™

IntelliMix Technology

IntelliMix Modes

Dual Mixer Operation

Seamless, powerful automixing

Preset, manual & custom modes

One or two independent mixes

Dante Digital Audio

Remote Control

Multiple I/O Configurations

Multichannel audio over Ethernet

Convenient browser-based software

DB25 or Logic-enabled Block Connector

™

Sole Distributor for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei

ELECTRONICS & ENGINEERING PTE LTD 285 Outram Road Singapore 169069 • Tel: +65 6223 5873 • Fax: +65 6225 3709 Email: enepl@enepl.com.sg • Website: www.enepl.com.sg

2013 Shure Asia Limited

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INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

SINGAPORE

Reach enhances training capabilities at Changi Simulation Institute Singapore Simulation laboratories enable healthcare professionals to train safely and efficiently The Eastern Health Alliance was officially launched in late November 2011 as a regional health system for the people residing in the eastern part of Singapore.

The founding members of the Eastern Health Alliance are Changi General Hospital, St. Andrew's Community Hospital, SingHealth Polyclinics and The Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home. The overall objective? To make each patient's healthcare journey as hassle-free, assuring and convenient as possible, while educating, empowering and supporting them and caregivers to manage their health well, in order to live as healthily for as long as possible.

The training of healthcare professionals was identified as a key component in ensuring that the Alliance met its stated objective. Thus the Changi Simulation Institute (CSI) which is an integrated simulation training centre serving the healthcare community in the Eastern Health Alliance (EH Alliance) was born.

The CSI enables healthcare professionals

to train safely and efficiently through realistic training scenarios while experiencing a wide range of clinical situations. And the core mission for Changi Simulation Institute is to develop professionalism and teamwork in healthcare.

4.Live mark the recording video for later accurate playback; 5.Watch live streaming of the simulation in the brief room or anywhere with internet.

6.Central control and monitoring for all the simulation rooms and brief rooms.

Housed within Changi General Hospital, the CSI features simulation laboratories which can be converted to replicas of different clinical care areas such as the operating theatre, intensive care unit and general wards. Each laboratory is equipped with HD cameras. In total there are two simulation rooms for operation, two debrief rooms for students to study and discuss, and one central control room.

The video and audio signals in the rooms consisted of a total of 8 HD video signals from Sony cameras featuring 1080P resolution and 2 VGA signals from two patient monitors.

CSIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main requirements were as follows: 1.Record the simulation training process for future further study; 2.Real-time playback capability; 3.Two-way audio and visual streaming function to realize the teamwork communication;

In order to achieve the requirements set by CSI, SZ Reach installed 2 units of VGA Encoder ENC-120, 8 units of HD Encoder ENC-1200, 1 unit of multimedia recording and streaming server DSS-CM600 and 1 unit of Encoder manager software CMP100. A Yamaha audio solution was also installed in all the rooms to achieve two-way communication with the live streaming of the visual signal.

Networking Topology Each simulation room featured three HD Encoders to capture the HD signals from the 3 cameras installed within the room, and one VGA Encoder to capture VGA signal from the physiological monitor and an audio cable from the speaker connected to the Encoder. The encoded visual and audio data are then transmitted in H.264 and AAC format to the SZ Reach MRS Server via the IP network.

The two debrief rooms each feature 1 HD Encoder unit to capture video from each of the Sony cameras installed in the rooms. An audio cable from the speaker is also connected to the Encoder.

Students are able to view the captured video through the PC screens in the debrief rooms.

The control room rack

Simulation Room

The central control room has an Encoder Manager software installed in each of the control stations to centrally monitor the video and audio signals from the Encoders.

With the Reach solution, trainees and observers are able to maximize learning with immediate feedback and effective reinforcements; which enables healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to train in various scenarios from critical care procedures to emergency resuscitation, in a safe and familiar environment.

Teamwork and communication, crucial in real-life medical scenarios, can also be improved during simulation training.

Central Control of all the recording, live streaming functions

www.szreach.com

(VOD or Live Streaming Picture): all four signals showed in one screen, and each signal can be enlarged to be full screen, thus ensuring great user experience

82

INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

CHINA

A clear case with d&b Acejet (Group) Technology Co. Ltd integrates at the Higher Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Court in Guangzhou

Located at number nine Yuancun Yiheng Road in the Tianhe district of Guangzhou, the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province is one of the highest appellate courts in China. A typical commercial case heard here would sit in judgement over disputes in excess of three hundred million Renmimbi (approximately â&#x201A;Ź3.70 million).

It also presides over cases from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau; most famously being the venue for the renowned Apple and Shenzhen Proview iPad trademark dispute. This is not a court where misunderstanding through the inaudibility of those speaking is to be tolerated.

"When the authorities to the Judiciary determined the court's PA system required renovation they set higher definition and intelligibility as immutable

goals," said a rather proud Long Po of integrators Acejet (Group) Technology Co. Ltd. This was to be no easy task, the floor and walls of the courtroom are marble clad and reverberation is high; multiple gooseneck microphones with high input gain make for an unstable feedback environment; and in deference to the importance of the cases heard here a wholly unobtrusive audio system was required, "Yet one that could deliver high SPLs," added Long Po. "Fortunately we have more than ten years experience working with the d&b audiotechnik product range with high prestige installations such as Nanjing University Theatre, and the Headquarters of the China Development Bank. We are accustomed in dealing with the more difficult acoustic environments

such venues can present. The sheer variety of systems available from d&b, all with consistent quality performance and remarkably accurate pattern control, gives us a toolbox with which to address any problem. We contacted William Xue at d&b China's head office and arranged for the court room to be EASE modelled. Then in consultation with Mr. Xue, determined a system design using elements of the d&b E-Series, namely E12 and E15X-SUB for main left and right; and then added a number of 8S loudspeakers from the d&b White installation range to be embedded in the walls of the audience area for local fill without exciting the fragile reverberation environment." The whole system is powered by d&b D6 amplifiers. www.dbaudio.com

SINGAPORE

Supernova Epic for luxury Singapore penthouse Ong Radio designs and specifies for the luxurious lifestyle screening room Purpose designed to provide the ultimate home cinema experience on a large scale, the 128", 2.35:1 aspect ratio Supernova Epic, with its perfect curvature, combines Supernova’s ISFapproved optical screen technology with the very best from the world of cinema, to provide a truly ‘epic’ viewing experience.

To fully optimise this, Ong Radio proposed a 3-chip LCoS, Cineversum Blackwing projector with 1,400 Lumens to provide excellent quality projection, equipped with a Schneider Optics 2.35 Cinemascope lens. Inputs will include mostly DVD but also Blu-Ray via a Kaleidescape server, to provide an ondemand solution.

In Singapore’s prime residential district, a dedicated entertainment room was recently allocated in a second floor penthouse condominium. The entire residence was renovated, and Ong Radio designed and specified the technical requirements to meet the brief for a luxury lifestyle screening room.

designed system he would have the luxury to entertain and discuss business in various ambient light settings, with the ability for concerts, movies and karaoke sessions to take place concurrently.”

The client was previously the owner of an elegant white screen set-up (in 4:3), which he was happy to accept as ‘industry standard’ — but Ong Radio had other ideas.

But it was when the client visited Ong Radio’s showroom, where they demonstrated the dnp Supernova optical platform against a conventional white screen — showing both the 23-23 high gain and 08-85 screen material — that the centrepiece of the installation was established.

After a site visit, during which room measurements and ambient light conditions were monitored (using a lumens meter) the client was happy to leave the recommendation to Ong Radio. “We took into consideration the type of guest he would entertain, and the level of luxury required,” said Ong Radio’s Mervyn Augustine. “In our

“The [Supernova] Epic Screen was chosen as a firm recommendation since [the client’s] preferences in action movies are mostly in Cinemascope format,” said Augustine. “And since it will be shown primarily in a dark to ambient room setting all the time, the 08-85 gain was proposed. The room was short in length, and a throw ratio of 1.4 was required.”

In keeping with the high-spec video set-up, the audio system, based around McIntosh components, was also designed with equal attention to detail.

A Crestron system with iPad interface is used for control and HD video distribution — for the entertainment room as well as the Master Suite. The other rooms are furnished with iPod Touches for control, and utilise Samsung displays, and McIntosh for audio distribution, with the entertainment hub in the dedicated theatre room.

“The client was delighted with the outcome of the stunning video and audio systems, and has since appointed Ong Radio to design and equip his international residences,” confirms Mervyn Augustine. www.dnp.dk www.ongradio.com

84

INSTALLATIONS SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

AUSTRALIA

Phoenix rises with Envision AV

Harman solutions take centre-stage at the Parramatta Phoenix

As the newest and largest arrival to the Phoenix Group, Parramatta Phoenix is upholding the group’s passion for delivering Sydney Chinese dining experiences. As well as their well known Yum Cha and A la carte menu, the Parramatta Phoenix restaurant is also able to cater for all types and sizes of groups, with their private dining function area perfect for weddings, parties and corporate events.

Envision AV were commissioned to design and install a comprehensive audio system for the venue and with no hesitation they proposed a Jands solution.

The venue has a main restaurant level on the ground floor, a mezzanine level, a private dining room that can be divided into three when required and a function space upstairs. The main restaurant

floor was a particularly challenging space acoustically with ten metre high glass walls on three sides and many demanding ceiling spaces.

However the venue is a total new build which enabled Envision AV to create an integrated system with JBL loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers and BSS processing, all working together and controllable via a simple user interface.

There are a total of eight audio zones.

“Sonically it was a challenging space that needed a distributed sound solution with delayed speakers,” commented Damien Gleeson, director of Envision AV. “We used quite a lot of DSP and powered amplifiers. It wasn’t just a shopping centre 100 volt system - it had to be time-delayed where necessary and each individual speaker needed to be equalised. Due to the cable design we had full control, something that was much needed in this environment.”

Hung off the pillars and the mezzanine are a total of sixteen JBL Control 5 speakers, a high performance wide range control monitor suitable for use as the primary sound source in a variety of applications.

“They have performed excellently,” said Damien. “The engineer who designed

and tuned the system is most happy with them and so is the client.”

When Damien was going through his quote with the client, he pointed out that the designer had been very specific in precisely specifying forty-seven JBL Control 26C ceiling speakers for a particular part of the restaurant.

“He could have rounded it up to fifty or even forty eight to make it an even number but he didn’t,” said Damien.

“At that point the client was hooked as he realised that the designer had been very thorough and based his solution on the square metre and the dispersion patterns. For me as a sales person, I didn’t need to do any more selling.

The client was so enamoured with the design, the solution sold itself.”

A distributed antenna system ensures that the Shure SLX wireless handheld/ lavalier combo system can be used anywhere in the venue. The system includes a SLX2/58 handheld transmitter with SM58 microphone, WL185 cardioid lavalier microphone, SLX1 bodypack transmitter, and SLX4 diversity receiver.

Amplification is provided by four Crown CT8150 power amplifiers.

"The Crown amplifiers provide the best value and reliability of any amplifiers I know," added Damien, "They really are ideal for fixed installations such as this.”

The system is built around four BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-100 networked signal processors with six BLU-10 fully programmable network remotes. The BLU-100 is a cost-effective signal processor that is highly flexible.

The BLU-100 offers a fixed configuration of 12 inputs and eight outputs, configurable signal processing, logic processing and a fault tolerant digital audio bus.

+

At A Glance Customer Parramatta Phoenix

“We went with the BSS system for ease of use,” remarked Damien. “It allows the waiters to drive the system themselves.”

Type of Venue Restaurant with mezzanine level and private dining rooms

www.jands.com.au www.envisionav.com.au

System Design and Install Envision AV

Solutions • 16 JBL Control 5 speakers • 47 JBL Control 26C ceiling speakers • 4 Crown CT8150 power amplifiers • 4 BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-100 networked signal processors • 6 BLU-10 fully programmable network remotes • Shure SLX wireless handheld/ lavalier combo system

86

INSTALLATIONS Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

INDONESIA

Grooming future church leaders with superior technologies V2 Indonesia integrates Christie solutions at SAAT’s auditorium

Southeast Asia Bible Seminary, better known as SAAT or Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara, to the Indonesians, is a theological college established since 1952 in Malang, East Java, Indonesia.

Devoting its resources to grooming competent church leaders, SAAT serves the Christian community with academic studies of post-graduate ministry studies from Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Divinity, Master of Counselling, Master of Theology, Master of Ministry all the way to Doctor of Ministry. To date, more than 1200 alumni have graduated from SAAT to serve the community in Indonesia and overseas.

“As a facilitator and catalyst in providing spiritual resources to inspire and empower Christian leaders, SAAT is a strategic partner for Christian institutions to develop a contextual and fruitful ministry,” said Martus A. Maleachi, vice president for administrative affairs, SAAT.

The SAAT campus covers a total area of 6.5 hectares. The integrated buildings within the campus ground include the dormitories, the academic building, the library, the chapel, the computer laboratory complete with internet connections, athletic facilities, music rooms, preaching labs, counselling rooms, and the administrative building.

Its auditorium with a seating capacity of 1500 stands out among these facilities as Maleachi elaborates, “The auditorium provides us with an ease in creatively delivering our teaching using multimedia tools. It helps to capture the students’ attention subconsciously to the display material and thereby imprint the message in their minds. This is of utmost importance to our teaching to fulfil our mission as a seminary. Besides its usual teaching function, the auditorium also serves as a key venue for our regular conferences and church music concerts.”

“This can only be achieved with the most advanced technology that rises to the challenge of an effective teaching delivery. For the visual system, we needed projectors with an edge blending capability in order for multiple projectors to work together to produce superb projection for our panoramic screen which is 13-meter wide and 2.8-meter high,” continued Maleachi.

“We visited several places to study and compare images and display projection using edge blending technology. With the observation in mind, we were very determined to get an excellent image display, far better than the ones we’ve seen. Christie projectors and their edge blending capabilities met our requirements to the tee. The final result powered by Christie projectors is just like what we expected at the very beginning.”

According to Rudi Hidayat, managing director of PT V2 Indonesia, the system integrator commissioned to oversee the entire project for SAAT’s auditorium installation, the management team of SAAT held Christie in high regard. “They regarded Christie as one of the high-end quality projectors compared to the other brands in the market. This is especially so for its more natural, thick, specific, sharp and accurate projection colour display. They felt that the sharpness of the projectors is gentle to the eyes and small letters are equally sharp on the screen. This is exactly what SAAT was looking for.”

“Besides the quality, SAAT also chose Christie for its price and unique feature of edge blending,” added Hidayat.

“They’re also impressed with Christie AutoStack for its ability to stack and blend projector array in a fraction of the time it takes to do manually.”

PT V2 Indonesia installed three sets of Christie HD10K-M 3-chip DLP® projectors together with Christie AutoStackTM system in SAAT’s auditorium. Christie AutoStackTM, a software driven, camera-based system, supports the array of three projectors that are automatically aligned and blended with unsurpassed accuracy, in as little as two minutes per projector.

This is achieved through quick geometric calibration of the screen points.

“Of course, what the naked eyes see on the screen is more than just the physical projectors and the AutoStack system,”

explained C K Lum, general manager, PT Hitecindo Kharisma Indonesia (HIKA), the distributor for the provision, installation and technical support of the Christie projectors and AutoStackTM system. “For the images from the three projectors to blend together and be seen as one bright and sharp entity without any blur overlapping, Christie uses its signature Christie Twist™ technology.”

The Christie Twist™ technology manages the arrayed projectors to allow for pixels to be mapped to the screen with proper geometry and perfect pixel-topixel alignment. The expert blending ability goes a long way to operate the three projectors as though they are one, showing a single, uniform display. Lum added, ”And the beauty is that it is done through the control of a powerful and easy-to-operate Graphic User Interface (GUI).”

The installation serves as a good reference for Christie, HIKA and PT V2 Indonesia as Hidayat explained, “With more than half-a-century of history,

SAAT is highly regarded in the church community in Indonesia. Only the bestof-its-class vendors have the opportunity to work with them. Therefore we’re really honoured to manage this project. With Christie’s dedicated and professional sales and technical support team, we’re confident that we can and will deliver.

And we did.”

Seeing the high-end auditorium coming into fruition, Maleachi praised the installation, “The result is as big as the ‘Christie’ big name. We’re completely satisfied with the result as well as how Christie backup their products with a first-class support service.” www.christiedigital.com www.v2indonesia.com www.hika.com

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At A Glance Customer Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara (SAAT) Location Malang, Indonesia Type of Venue Seminary Auditorium Partners • PT V2 Indonesia • PT Hitecindo Kharisma Indonesia (HIKA) Solutions • Christie HD10K-M 3-chip DLP® projectors • Christie AutoStackTM system • Grandview Screen • RGB Spectrum for multi window processing

88

TECH TALK SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

TECHNOMICS – the new opportunity for AV in IT In today’s world of rapidly overlapping technologies of AV & IT, success of any enterprise has become largely dependent on the way they harness the communication tools available at their disposal, and in the market. Integrated or collaborative communication mechanism has thus become critical and key to any dynamically growing enterprise. Here is an SIA perspective on what is being popularized as ‘TECHNOMICS.’

*New video applications will push network capacity needs by four to 10 times above the current average levels.

Many an enterprise today are seriously inventing ways and means to balance their continuous challenge of reducing operational costs and making smart investments - to be able to transform their businesses and respond suitably to market dynamics. While the role of ICT to help them achieve this goes without saying, what’s critical now is how to even reduce the total cost ownership of the ICT itself so that it doesn’t result in unnecessary tiers and CAPEX sprawl.

Other estimates show that networks will experience a 600 per cent increase in bandwidth requirements because of users’ demand for business video and collaboration. We are more or less witnessing that happening already with some organizations going for TB counts!

So, video has already become the biggest driver of traffic growth on enterprise networks. Users are quickly growing from being accustomed to being avid takers of information visually.

Organizations are increasingly adopting video and interactive content for meetings and trainings.

For a sheer matter of market dynamics, researches have shown the undeniably growing dominance of ICT tools in business interactions world over.

Consider the findings from Gartner:

Irrespective of their nature of business and size, enterprises are trying to help users collaborate more effectively and efficiently, and to provide customers with more meaningful interactions. In a way, this is often creating an explosion in demand for handling rich media and applications such as streaming video, large image files, audio, course work materials, video collaboration, telepresence, IPTV, VoIP, and social business solutions.

Organizations have thus come to acknowledge that rather than supporting individual applications, it’s much more cost-effective and productive to implement a single integrated solution for unified communications and collaboration across their networks and nodal points of operations. For, it provides them with the ‘economy of technology,’ and vice-versa!

*By 2013, over 25 per cent of the documents that workforce in an enterprise see in a day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio (we are already past Q1 of the year!).

“The single-integrated-system model enables companies to design, deploy, manage, and optimize solutions on a long-term basis with best opportunities of integrating AV and IT,” says Aneeta

Successful ICT managers today boost their organizational productivity through seamless integration of the 4C’s – cloud, connectivity, communications and converged services. While this might seem complex for the sheer nomenclature of the terms and their application, it simply means integrated and less complex architecture which in turn will help reduce CAPEX, and at macro level the operational costs.

Gupta, President and CEO of Visionaire, the Dubai-headquartered pioneer of ICT solutions. “Such an integration model supported by proven expertise and service helps companies economise their ICT spending even as they optimize its benefits.”

In fact, the company has been pioneering the concept of “TECHNOMICS”- meaning a singleintegrated-system model that is backed up by proven expertise and service.

“TECHNOMICS is about business, economics and technology working as one,” says the Visionaire CEO. In other words, it’s about having an integrated solution for what many call today as Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C).

TECHNOMICS provide demonstrable benefits to the CIO’s goals of platform independence, resource optimization, enhancing solution performance and information security while directly benefiting their bottomline by reducing CAPEX up to 30 per cent and opex 60 per cent savings. It’s beyond simply deploying boxes of technology sourced from vendors and executed based on vendor-proposed design and implementation. It’s about delivering multiple benefits with an enriching and immersive experience.

“We, at Visionaire, call it ‘Immersive Collaboration(IC),” says Aneeta. For, the sheer experience it creates for customers using the concept is truly immersive.

A typical UC system will have a VoIP; Voice Mail over E-mail; chat and presence capabilities and is marketed as an extension of voice services with integration to desktops and laptops.

Immersive Collaboration allows users to connect just about anywhere with

THE NINE TYPES OF COLLABORATORS

extensive location-aware presence capabilities with High Definition audio, video and data collaboration —in the workplace or campus, in meeting rooms and classrooms, at home, or on the roadside —using a variety of multiOS Internet-enabled devices. These devices could include smartphones, wireless tablets, as well as video and telepresence end-points, and, of course, traditional VoIP handsets, desktops and notebook computers.

With all of these services now running over Internet or WAN, the user must consider how it impacts latency and quality of service (QoS). Moreover, users who are mobile or in remote locations expect to have the same user experience as their counterparts in the main office irrespective of the type of device.

According to the Visionaire CEO, Immersive Collaboration provides unique business opportunities such as video based help-desks, persistent chat, video mail instead of voice mail, virtual meeting rooms and classrooms.

At the center of Collaboration are the people. It’s the people that have the highest impact on how IC succeeds in an enterprise environment. Evaluating the current state of collaboration includes understanding the types of people in an organization facing the oncoming changes regarding new way of working.

This helps the IC solution providers address the right message to the right people.

The diagram above typifies an example of the nine types of Collaborators

involved in a typical IC environment.

While it’s a cartoon like chart, it does give an imagery of how it happens.

Collaboration is about people. The users must figure out who fits where!

While it is impressive, implementing an Immersive Collaboration strategy requires shrewd and meticulous planning. Progressive SIs such as Visionaire provide extensive proven experience in communication and collaboration. “The SI’s role is to provide the users a unique opportunity of transforming their communication and collaboration environment by combining traditional AV systems with the flexibility of mobility, high quality of telepresence and location-free immersive collaboration– anytime,” says Aneeta.

90

TECH TALK SSystems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Digital Cooking

by Bertrand Jenner and Aaron Lange

We both love cooking. At our homes, we adore taking all different sorts of ingredients and melding them together into aromatic harmony, and ultimately delivering it to our friends and family.

We’re also fortunate enough to have a job that is a lot like cooking, but instead of ingredients, we have video and audio sources, and instead of feeding mouths, we feed display devices, speakers, etc.

With the arrival of multiple digital signal types (HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, 3G-SDI) onto the AV scene, we now have a wide variety of “ingredients” to work with, which make designing stable, reliable solutions quite a challenge. Now, it’s more important than ever to carefully handle and manage our signals, in order to create a stable, well-designed system.

There is a visible trend in our industry towards large centralized architectures.

By centralizing all source signals in one location and branching throughout the installation from this nucleus, we are able to build in scalability while also increasing the serviceability of the system, as our equipment is located in one place. An overly simple example is the situation where you have multiple rooms, each with their own local sources (DVD Player, PCs, etc.), a small matrix switcher, peripheral converters, and possibly a scaler. In this example, each room is its own separate entity. If a case arises where you wish to share the video

content from one room out to other rooms, it’s simply not possible. In addition, if there are issues with the local sources, it requires technicians to visit each room to diagnose and fix them. A centralized system makes much more sense. By having everything in one place, it’s possible to share content across multiple rooms and when issues arise with equipment, technicians stay in their domain, rather than travel out to remote locations, thus increasing efficiency. It’s like having an open kitchen with a central island – everything you need is within a hand’s reach.

At the heart of the centralized architecture is the matrix switcher. As these types of architectures tend to be rather large, it takes bigger and bigger matrices to accomplish all of the matrix switching demands. Currently there are two types of matrices in the larger domain: protocol-agnostic fiber matrix switchers and hybrid matrix switchers.

Protocol-agnostic fiber matrix switchers are protocol-free, switching any signal within their allowed bandwidth. In effect, they switch light, not any particular signal. Hybrid matrix switchers incorporate inputs and outputs on both native local connections (HDMI, DVI, etc.) along with twisted pair (CAT5/6/7) and fiber for remote extension. So, which platform is more adept in this world of ever-changing signal types? We would argue that the hybrid platform is much more suitable in most cases. Let’s contrast the features of each platform to get an idea.

Size:

The protocol-agnostic fiber matrix switcher is capable of switching a larger

Matrix Switcher...It’s like having an open kitchen with a central island – everything you need is within a hand’s reach. number of inputs and outputs. Currently, this type of matrix switcher can achieve sizes of over 1,000 x 1,000. Thanks to the telecom industry, chip manufacturers developed high-density, fast switching silicon, enabling production of these large-scale switches. Hybrid matrix switchers currently reach substantial sizes of up to 160 x 160, however they lose the battle of overall size.

Error Handling:

For the same reason the protocolagnostic fiber matrix switcher can achieve large sizes, they are totally tolerant to errors and protocol shifts.

The chips in these matrix switchers are meant to switch Data, so they cannot differentiate between different types of signal content. As a result of this, they cannot perform any meaningful reclocking such as TMDS (TransmissionMinimized Differential Signaling), which means that errors due to the signals travelling long distances are not corrected and eventually get passed right through to the end device. For higher resolutions and also noisy signals such as ones from Video Conferencing codecs, the resulting errors could cause picture dropout or audio popping.

Hybrid matrix switchers excel in this category. Since the chips used in transmitters, matrices, and receivers are all meant for video transmission, basic TMDS reclocking can do a simple clean up of the signal and even the more advanced Pixel Accurate Reclocking can be implemented, where the signal is decoded to 24 or 36 video bits then reconstructed again with multiple PLL filters before passing it on to the end point. Hybrid matrix switchers dominate in this category for these reasons.

EDID Management:

Critical to all digital signal matrix switching, EDID management is an extremely important and often misunderstood feature. Both protocolagnostic and hybrid matrix switchers contain this feature. How and where the EDID is managed determines who wins this category. In protocolagnostic matrix switchers, EDID is normally managed in the transmitters and cannot be set from the matrix. In most cases, EDID management is also limited to either Emulation mode (end point EDID info is stored locally on the transmitter and emulated to the source) or Pass-Through mode (EDID is directly communicated from the endpoint to the source). Hybrid matrix switchers offer more power and flexibility when it comes to EDID management. EDID can be managed from the matrix and sent out to be individual transmitters or it can be managed from the transmitters themselves. In some hybrid matrix switchers, there is even the ability to create EDIDs and send them out to the transmitters. This is quite powerful, as certain unwanted resolutions can be removed from the EDID file, thus keeping the sources from outputting those resolutions (which translates to stability). Due to this flexibility and additional functionality, hybrid matrix switchers are again preferred.

Future-proof:

It would seem that protocol-agnostic matrix switchers would be quite futureproof, as there is only the need to swap out the transmitters and receivers in order to accommodate new signal types.

Unfortunately, these matrix switchers normally have quite a low bandwidth; Newer digital formats, however, are requiring higher and higher bandwidth.

For example, DisplayPort 1.2 requires a bandwidth of 21.6 Gbps and HDMI 2.0 will require just over 18 Gbps. Since protocol-agnostic matrix switchers only have to switch light, the bandwidth requirement is very low, normally between 4 – 7 Gbps. Hybrid matrix switchers, on the other hand, can now attain very high bandwidths up to 25 Gbps (Lightware Visual Engineering).

Surely you can see who gets the nod in this category.

Flexibility:

With matrix switchers now being centralized along with other source equipment, it’s important to have the flexibility of entering the matrix directly from the sources, or go from the matrix directly into other processing equipment that is also in this central equipment area. Protocol-agnostic matrix switchers do not have the ability to accept local inputs or provide local outputs, but rather must enter the matrix via expensive fiber transmitters, which require fiber receivers on the output side. So, to interact with local equipment is both expensive and cumbersome, as transmitters and receivers require both space and power supplies. Hybrid matrix switchers are built with this kind of interactivity in mind, as they can accept local inputs and outputs directly.

Moreover, some manufactures are even offering additional features on their local input and output boards, such as audio embedding and de-embedding, along with audio decoding from multi-channel to stereo, for example. An additional bonus of having local inputs and outputs cards is the ability to provide extra processing functions inside the matrix, such as color space conversion, audio sampling rate conversion, and video range conversion. Hybrid matrix switchers provide much more flexibility and additional functionality to an installation.

From the above analysis, it is clearly preferable to go with hybrid matrix switchers when deciding on the type of matrix to use in future digital switching applications. These types of matrix switchers are built from the ground up with actual video and audio protocol in mind, so they are much more suitable to dealing with all of the variables that come into play within the centralized switching arena. In the kitchens, we enjoy the flexibility of having different tools for different jobs, as it offers increased efficiency and precision. Why use a paring knife to chop chicken or a cleaver to tournée a potato?

Bertrand Jenner

Cost:

This is a tricky one, actually. It’s much simpler to calculate the cost of the protocol-agnostic fiber matrices, as they only have one type of media - fiber.

Hybrid matrices, however, have an array of boards to choose from which differ substantially in cost. A standard DVI-D input board for instance, costs much less than a fiber input board. In real world cases, it is very rare to have all source equipment and all end points remote from the matrix (requiring extension).

For this reason, it is nearly impossible to generalize and compare pricing for the two types of central matrix switchers. But you could say as a generalization that as your local sources and local end points (video walls, displays, etc.) increase in numbers, the hybrid matrix platform will decrease in cost relative to an all fiber platform.

Aaron Lange

This article is contributed by Bertrand Jenner, Lightware Visual Engineering Asia Technical Director and Aaron Lange, the Sales Director at Lightware Visual Engineering Asia. You may get in touch with them at bertrand.jenner@ lightware.eu and aaron.lange@lightware. eu respectively. SIA thanks them for their contribution. If you have an opinion on the piece please do write to thomas@ spinworkz.com

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No Room for Error: Reliable system control in commercial applications requires more than mobile devices

By Pete Baker incredibly popular devices for access to every aspect of their lives away from work.

When it comes to complex A/V equipment in boardrooms and conference rooms, there are two important factors to consider when providing your commercial client with a control system: ease of use and reliability. Ease of use is essential because numerous people will be using the system, some of whom may be completely unfamiliar with its operation.

Therefore, control must be intuitive enough where anyone can walk in and begin using the system with little or no training. Reliability is imperative for the simple reason that in commercial applications, there is no room for error; the control system must work flawlessly every time. If your client has gathered hundreds of people for an important meeting, it’s a serious problem if they can’t control — or even turn on — A/V components.

While both of these factors are equally important, clients can become more focused on ease of use, which could have an impact on the success of the installation. For instance, businesses may consider bringing in mobile devices to make employees more comfortable with A/V system control. After all, most users are already familiar with smartphones and tablets; increasingly relying on these

Dealers can and should offer their customers access to their systems on mobile devices as a complement to the main control system. For commercial clients, a primary benefit of integrating smartphones and tablets into the control system is that they provide convenient remote access to a facility’s electronic environment from virtually anywhere in the world. Owners and office managers can check in on their building’s security system, turn off lights that were accidentally left on, set the temperature, and much more. It’s a powerful combination of technologies and offers added convenience for businesses.

Where dealers need to be careful, however, is using a tablet or smartphone as the exclusive, primary control device in the conference room and boardroom.

As we’ve mentioned, there is no room for error in these applications. If your client is relying solely on a tablet or smartphone for control, they’ve left the door open to several reliability issues that can be avoided by using a dedicated control device.

One of the issues with mobile devices is that many of them rely on Wi-Fi. So if the client’s network goes down, so does

control over the system.

It’s also possible that the battery on the device will be low when it’s needed, and it’s inconvenient to charge the device while giving a presentation.

Furthermore, without hard buttons for tactile control, a smartphone or tablet doesn’t offer the quick and familiar navigation of a professional control device.

If your customer insists on using a tablet or smartphone as the primary controller, make sure they at least have a companion remote to enhance the user experience and provide a “plan B” should something go wrong. As a companion to these devices, such controllers provide instant connectivity and hard buttons for tactile control, eliminating the need to stop the flow of meetings to perform the screen-swipes needed for basic control functions.

A dedicated control device — or a companion controller at a minimum — should be included in every installation to guarantee a positive user experience and to ensure that the control system is ready to go every time. Remember, your business relies on referrals and word of mouth. Nothing is more vital to your success than a happy client, and nothing as potentially devastating to your future business as a frustrated one. When there’s no room for error, make sure all the right pieces are in place.

Pete Baker is the vice president of sales and marketing at control system manufacturer, Remote Technologies Inc. (RTI). He can be reached at peteb@rticorp.com

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3C’s of Technology: Cloud, Convergence and Cable-free Set-up by Mustafa I. Rampurawala own devices), and wants to connect to any existing system to share data.

Expectations amongst users have gone up so much that when they want a system they come across somewhere to be compatible to every device they know. This essentially means people today want connectivity and compatibility to be achieved everywhere, and without any hassles of time and transmission.

The three major factors influencing technology geeks officiating for AV/ IT domains are Cloud, Convergence and Cable-free setups across facilities.

A peep into how these factors work, and correlate with one another towards leading the professionals into a collaborative ambience makes an interesting study. Here is an attempt for SIA readers.

The best thing to happen to the world, of late, was moving over to Cloud for all the storage and processing requirements. Just before the geeks began fancying, they were actually ‘converging’ to unify all their communications – bringing together all primary requirements of audio, video and data over a single platform – in a way one feels the other person is virtually present before him/her.

Interestingly, the third factor is seemingly older than the other two big Cs. The Cable-free environment – what we popularly call the Wireless – actually began much before the two younger Cs but did/could not capture the imagination of the otherwise ever exploring geeks. In a way, this might sound something like taking two steps back to leap three steps ahead- into a totally cable-free environment!

Today, everyone amongst us wants to have the freedom to BOOD (bring our own devices) or BYOD (bring your

Let me share some examples. Execs today are always on the move, and unlike the past, they don’t want to compromise on keeping connect with their offices, clients, or families while on the move. So Cloud has come to their rescue. It gives them the flexibility of being connected always with everyone. May it be a review meeting, sharing reports, sharing data internally and externally, attending a virtual sales call meeting, or at the end of the day, seeing their loved ones at home, and, even watching their TV shows locally from whichever part of the globe they are in!

Convergence has brought together many mediums under a single string thereby avoiding many hiccups and making technology easier, user-friendly, redundant and more reliable. Like we are seeing today the start of 2G networks then moving to 3G and now talking and eyeing 4G, 5G, IPTV and more. People have already seen the era of Smart TVs where we have merged our personal computer with a leisure device such as TV and usage of both the devices comes from a single source- a single wire carrying data, telephone and TV signals.

Bandwidth has been becoming cheaper and better by the day with the advent of Convergence. Recent eye opener is the HDBaseT- a concept of technology which carries five mediums (including 220 volts power) on a single twisted pair cable over a long distance. This has dramatically reduced cost of cables and moreover the management of cables and maintenance over a longer period. While this technology is yet to be accepted

in a mass market way, it is likely to capture their fascination should it evolve economically.

Every one dreams of having all the functionalities whether professionally or personally without touching any cables.

Whether it is connecting a laptop, smart phone or any other medium instantly to any display device, it’s the same wishing, and this need or rather greed has forced enterprises across the globe to run their brains faster and come up with various wire-free solutions.

The classic example is the Wi-Fi data networks which have subsequently moved on to Video on Wireless and Audio on Wireless (Cobranet). This was a boon for companies wanting to create virtual trainings using a single trainer and catering to hundreds or thousands of students spread across multiple facilities or locations. As of today, connecting your laptop, DVD player, Blu Ray Player or, for that matter, any audio or video signal wire free to any normal regular display is a child’s play. The quality remains intact, for sure.

To conclude, technology looks, sounds, works and feels better so long as it is explored and worked out for the common good of humanity. It turns the other way around, quite automatically, if its direction and focus is changed.

The author is Head-AV Projects at Solutions India Systems (P) Ltd, Mumbai.

He can be reached at mustafa.r@sispl. co.in. SIA thanks the author for the contribution.

96

VOICE BOX Systems Integration Asia April - May 2013

Consolidating a ‘Community’ Brand Thomas Mittelmann, Director of Business Development (Asia Pacific), Community Professional Loudspeakers

The dynamism with which the audiovisual and systems integration industry has been growing in India for the past few years is attracting many a manufacturer. Most are seeking a share of it either by foraying into it, or revving up their already existing base. Global pro sound major Community Professional Loudspeakers is one. Known for its technology exploits and convictions of product development, Community has been one of the most trusted brands in the professional loudspeaker industry world over.

Community’s Director of Business Development (Asia-Pacific) has been in India recently to explore its fortunes in association with its country-partner E&E Systems India. SIA caught up with Thomas to know what the American audio major is up to. Excerpts: SIA: What brings you to India? Any special mission or initiative?

THOMAS: Community has been one of the earliest pioneers in Pro Sound industry, and known for ushering in path-breaking systems. However, we are often associated with large-scale installed systems only, maybe due to our great success in large-venue installs such as stadia, arenas and even race tracks. In reality, Community does have solutions for most applications that the market uses today. That’s one thing we would like to get across. The other thinghaving tried this market, in association

with E&E India, at an entry level, now I guess we need to take it to the next level, and that’s an important task. I can say exploring such opportunities is what I’m here for.

without compromising performance or stretching the budget, and they can be found in houses of worship, hotels , casinos and restaurants, transport hubs, and the likes.

SIA: What do you mean by taking it to the next level?

THOMAS: Like I said, we need to move up from the entry level. We need to understand people’s perceptions and see how we can leverage them to create a ‘community’ out of it. That means finding what’s the market requirement here; what do we have to suit that space, and bringing those solutions to be able to cater to that need. That’s the next level, so to say.

SIA: It’s a heavily competed market space. How does Community distinguish itself from the others?

THOMAS: First of all, we pay high attention to performance. High efficiency and low distortion are key to performance, and we focus on that aspect. We take pride in claiming to be (among) the most honest manufacturers of loudspeakers. Our product data is not made up by marketing people; it is true, honest and complete as coming straight from our engineering department. We put so much R&D into it- every single aspect of the process is documented based on true data. Our engineering team is small but very effective in terms of attention to product precision. We, thus, leave it for the products to speak for themselves; marketing teams just take the supporting role in spreading the word. Compared to other major players in the market, we may not benefit from touring and concert events by associating ourselves with pop stars etc. We rather have a technical approach, just believing in our quality and performance. This can alone be the critical differentiator, and in fact, is much appreciated by the serious consultants and system designers.

SIA: How many market segments does Community address?

THOMAS: Community never believed in getting its hands everywhere. We always believed in focusing on our strengths where we can do better than others.

With that focus, we cover certain vertical markets, and we continually work deeper and deeper to develop systems that are better than others. To mention a few of these segments, the PA systems in places of worships, voice-warning and mass notification systems in places prone to calamities, and sound systems in sports venues and race tracks world over are Community’s forte. More, a host of arenas globally sport Community sound as a proud statement. The London Olympics have been a great example too with no less than five venues equipped with Community systems.

And then, it’s not all about the large projects. We are gaining popularity fast with our Distributed Design Series of ceiling, wall-mount and pendant speakers, and the Entasys column line arrays. Mainly acoustically difficult spaces benefit hugely from these products

SIA: Which market segments you think Community is very dynamic in, and which markets are challenging?

THOMAS: Well, like stated before, the high-performance PA and mass notification segments have been, and remain to be, our strongholds. Many people tried to copy what we’ve been doing, but Community, proudly, is just like the icon in the segment. Our

all-weather series, WET and R-Series have been testimony to this affirmation.

There are some segments obviously that are challenging for anyone, and we are continuously endeavouring to improve in those.

SIA: In your opinion, what has been the most popular product or system offering from Community till now?

THOMAS: It’s certainly the R-Series.

For almost 20 years, it’s been the iconic system from Community. It spans several sizes and types churning out models for different applications, and purposes. There are other very successful products as well but this one continues to stand out as the most popular from Community.

SIA: In your opinion, what is the most powerful innovation that Community has brought to the industry?

THOMAS: I’m sure it’s our use of fiberglass as the key element for highperformance loudspeakers. It was one invention, so to say, that stood Community far apart from the rest of the industry. In fact, during the initial days of the invention, the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Community made large horns from fiberglass. While it was not considered a huge point for marketing, it was certainly one technological innovation that made the systems popular and credible across the market segments. The systems were not only lightweight but also rugged, as well as looking pretty novel, and more importantly they sounded great and stood tall and apart from the rest.

Understandably, they withstood the challenging weather conditions on testing outdoors, and that made them the longest lasting among all that the market had. Still today, we build many complete cabinets of loudspeakers from fiberglass. It enables us to offer a 15-year warranty on the enclosures, which is still unique as far as I know.

SIA: Community is operating globally.

Which markets you feel you are strongly positioned, and what markets are you focusing now as promising geographies?

THOMAS: Traditionally, we do have a pretty strong hold in North America

and European markets, but our focus is on where we are sitting right now.

(Laughs!) India is a major emerging market – similar to China – in the Asia Pacific region, and that’s our focuswhich is exactly why you find me here.

I guess these two countries have the highest potential within the Asia-Pacific region, and will continue to grow for many years to come. These markets are quite different from those where we are strong, and that’s what we want to understand for our future strategy and a compelling proposition for these markets. On the other side, our focus is also on the South American markets which are among the front-ranking emerging markets.

SIA: How about the Middle East markets…

THOMAS: Yeah, even those markets have been turning big of late. There have been some fascinating installs, particularly in places of worship and sporting tracks. It is an important market for us, and we are present there with dedicated personnel.

SIA: How do you look at the Indian Pro Sound industry? What strengths or weaknesses, so to say…

THOMAS: The Indian industry certainly scores points where others have been struggling for years. Thankfully, communication with target audiences is quite easy here due to the high degree of familiarity with English. It does help in getting across the message. Most market players and professionals here are not only informed and willing to learn more; their being inquisitive about the systems and technology helps the systems to be looked at in proper perspective. It helps to understand the true value of the systems- no matter how expensive they may prove at times.

SIA: Most manufacturers today tend to create continuous market buzz with roadshows, speciality programmes around tradeshows, musical celebrity associations, etc. How about Community doing the same or more?

THOMAS: Like I said earlier, we are not part of the pop culture so we may not be focused on that particular aspect.

Running an enterprise of our kind in this

digital age of high energy activism, we might sound as ‘Old School,’ but looking realistically, a loudspeaker is supposed to disperse sound in the intended fashion to the target people and that hasn’t changed over the years. We’re only trying to perfect this art every time.

Having said that, we are equally keen on doing all the rest- roadshows, tradeshows, and focused training programmes. We would strategise all that together with, and then roll it out through, our Indian partner E&E. Part of my job now is to do some ground work towards that initiative.

SIA: What is the latest product innovation that Community has come out or will be coming out soon with?

THOMAS: We have a couple of things taking shape behind the closed doors of our labs. Our product staple will have some fascinating additions to the range in 2013 and following. To talk about the latest on the shelf, it has to be the Entasys 200 Series, based on proven technology and is hugely versatile.

The two-way and three-way column line array loudspeakers with their high performance over a defined dispersion are ideal for, and well accepted in places of worship and other highly reverberant venues.

SIA: What’s Community look into the future?

THOMAS: Of course, we hope to benefit from our activities making more and more people aware of Community sound and technology. Together with expanding our portfolio, we can expect to continue our growth. Some of the markets we are already in, deserve extra attention; one of them being connected to life safety: with disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes etc., there is more awareness and consciousness towards voice-warning and mass notification. We are since many years active in this field and already set for the specific needs of such applications, but will further work on meeting expectations and requirements in these areas. www.communitypro.com

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