AV Issue 39

ELEGANT DESIGN, LIFELIKE AUDIO. MicroexTM Wireless Systems Enterprise-scale Microphone Solutions for Managed AV Environments ™

Microex Wireless systems bring vivid, lifelike audio to meetings, panel discussions, teleconferences and other applications in managed AV environments — from signature boardrooms and concentrated multi-room environments to networked corporate campuses.

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ETX Powered Loudspeakers The ETX Powered Loudspeaker family builds upon the industry-leading innovation and 85-year heritage of Electro-Voice audio engineering to offer the most advanced professional-grade products for an array of applications.

• State-of-the-art components deliver the legendary EV sound quality and reliability the pros trust: 1800 W (subs) & 2000 W (full-range) Class-D power amplifiers with integrated DSP produce high SPLs utilizing high-sensitivity, low-distortion transducers (including DVX & SMX series woofers and precision DH3-B HF titanium compression drivers).

• Lightweight, durable and compact 18-mm, 13-ply birch plywood enclosures finished with EVCoat. Eight mounting points for permanent installations. Custom die-cast aluminium pole cups, handles and hardware.

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• EV’s FIR-Drive utilizes the latest Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter technology to optimize transducer linearity.

Advanced limiter algorithms for independent peak and thermal transducer protection.

• Complete full-function DSP control via a single-knob interface. LCD screen for easy system set-up and monitoring: location/application EQ presets, limiter status, input level controls/meters and master volume control to ensure optimal gain structure. Subs feature a preset for true cardioid performance.

• EV-patented Signal Synchronized Transducers (SST) waveguide design provides precise and consistent coverage across all system configurations. Waveguides are custom-designed and optimized per ETX model.

www.electrovoice.com/ETX Bosch Communications Systems (02) 9683 4752 boschcomms@au.bosch.com

10 • 12 • 15 • 15 3-way • 15 sub • 18 sub Designed, engineered, tested and assembled for ultimate reliability by Electro-Voice in the USA.

04

Editorial Thinking the Unthinkable It is stating the bleeding obvious to point out to anyone in the AV world that we live in times of unprecedentedly-rapid and profoundlydisruptive technological change. Many of the technologies we use in the process of conveying our audiovisual communications today didn’t exist in the late 20th century and none of them existed in the middle of that century.

I’m sure you can recall the thrill of the first time you heard your own voice recorded and played back to you. The tape recorder came into commercial use in the early 1950s as a specialised and expensive audio production tool, then rapidly evolved into a universally-available medium for recording, transporting and replaying everything from audio and video to waveforms and digital data, before quietly folding its tent and slinking off into oblivion. You can still find expensive digital tapes in use in data centres; as the lowspeed, off-line archival medium where unloved historical data is sent to die. Keep your eye on the data centre dumpsters for a couple more years and you’ll spot those LTO and DAT digital tape drives on the way to the place that the compact cassette players and VCRs went before them.

Think about it for a moment: here in the mid-teens of the 21st century, does anyone care one whit that VHS was commercially victorious over Beta in the ½-inch videotape wars? Those abandoned boxes of videotapes still gathering dust in your garage or family room would occupy about 10% less space if Beta had prevailed.

Besides, nobody will ever bother to sit down and look at your complete collection of Brady Bunch episodes (they’re all on Pirate Bay anyway). The badly-flayed corpse of that long-dead horse – the argument about the technical superiority of Beta – should now be allowed to rest, alongside the email pleas to send postcards to a boy dying of leukemia.

Another such case is the ‘flash-in-the-pan’

that was the cathode ray tube (CRT). Developed slowly in the early years of the twentieth century as result of the discovery of the thermionic effect (electrons jumping off hot objects and drifting around in a vacuum), it took until the middle of the century for these big valves to find a major commercial use in televisions and later computer monitors. At the peak of their utility in the closing years of the century there were at least as many CRTs as people in many developed countries.

As everyone in AV knows, CRTs are notoriously resilient and reliable, requiring a brutal attack with a ballpeen hammer or a hatchet to break them. Even when you can’t pull a decent focus alignment or registration on them, the damned things just keep on working, so nobody will replace them with a bigger, better, brighter, more accurate or higher-resolution model. Then along came high-volume low-defect processes for manufacturing large RGB matrix LCD panels and by the end of the Oughties the CRT was effectively abandoned. Now the few CRTs left in the world are either in your granny’s spare bedroom or sitting out on the footpath in front of your neighbour’s house, awaiting next week’s hard garbage collection.

So let’s turn our gaze to another technology that is a candidate for going the way of the Pogo-stick and the Philips Compact Cassette.

Nothing is associated with AV quite as strongly as the projector. The first amazing audiovisual projection tool I ever met was an epidiascope, which, for those of you not around in the dark ages, projected a fairly-dingy reflected image of a document up onto a screen. This was the precursor to the infamous overhead projector, which itself has been entirely superseded by the document camera and digital projection of PowerPoint-style presentations.

The first encounter with AV for many of you will have been with both the aforementioned

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overhead projector with its transparent slides, and the 35mm slide projector. Many of you may have seen, or worse, participated in, the synchronised multi-projector, blended-image, 35mm lapdissolve spectaculars that were the bread and butter for the multimedia industry before the advent of the electronic image projector. A loud accompanying soundtrack was usually required to mask the racket coming from all the slidechange mechanisms trying to simultaneously jam three slides into each projector at random, despite a week of programming and three sleepless nights of rehearsals and test runs. These were eventually replaced by CRT-based electronic projectors that took hours to align and often had to be stacked (more alignment issues) to get enough brightness.

Today of course we’re at the very pinnacle of the projection art with computer enhanced, blended, warped and mapped images coming from evermore powerful and ever-higher resolution imaging systems. We must be getting pretty close to projection Nirvana.

So let’s think for a moment what projection is primarily used for… It’s mostly for sharing an image among a group of people. Not so long ago that was a feat that could be pulled off only with a projector in a darkened room or an individual screen in front each member of the audience.

Let’s face it, projection was our only option to get a big, bright, high-resolution (4K) image in front of a movie audience. Now if something really disruptive happened, and each member of the audience turned up with their own high resolution screen in their hand, or if some other technology could put big, bright, high resolution (4K) images on a screen without having to darken the room, projection technology could really be in trouble.  Andy Ciddor, Editor: andy@av.net.au

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Contact us on 1800 00 77 80 or email av@madisontech.com.au

Crew Robert is a composer in the film and TV industries and a freelance journalist fascinated by all things technical in the audiovisual world. His music can be heard accompanying every FoxSports and Channel Nine commercial promoting the ARU Wallabies’ matches in 2012, and his articles can also be found in FineMusic and AudioTechnology magazines.

In 2010 Robert co-founded a post-production company called Aurigami, which has produced music and sound design for television commercials, documentaries, feature films and video games.

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

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

Editor: Andy Ciddor (andy@av.net.au) Publication Director: Stewart Woodhill (stewart@av.net.au) Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@av.net.au) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@av.net.au) Art Director: Daniel Howard (daniel@alchemedia.com.au)

Graeme Hague worked for the last twenty years in regional theatre venues as an audio, lighting and AV technician, before leaving to work freelance for local production companies and focus on becoming a full-time writer based in the south west of WA. Graeme is a regular contributor to Audio Technology magazine and was the principal writer for the new Guerrilla Guide to Recording and Production (www.guerrillaguide.com. au). He owns a Maglite, a Leatherman and a wardrobe of only black clothing which proves he is overwhelmingly qualified to write on any technical subject.

News Editor: Graeme Hague (news@av.net.au) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@av.net.au) Cover Photograph: Courtesy Opera Australia, photographer James Morgan

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2014 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title AV is a registered Trademark.

Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 22/5/2014

Derek is an audiovisual consultant with AVDEC, specialising in tertiary education projects.

Starting in broadcast TV and radio at the ABC, he bounced between event AV and video production before settling for twelve years at the University of Queensland. He is past president of the Association of Educational Technology Managers and has been a regular judge of the AVIA awards. He now divides his time between consulting, writing and the occasional video production assignment.

Jen has worked as a writer and editor in industry and mainstream magazines and newspapers for 27 years, after completing a degree at Charles Sturt University with distinctions in pool playing, band competitions and journalism. She is a long-standing contributor to AV and its sister publications at Alchemedia Publishing, and currently works as a freelancer in and around the AV, music and film industries.

Includes control software for Mac and PC plus Photoshop plug ins for direct graphic downloads.

Connect professional SDI or consumer HDMI cameras in SD, HD or Ultra HD! Imagine your event in full Ultra HD!

Rack mount design lets you install into road cases for portability.

Ethernet lets you plug direct to your computer for control and uploading graphics.

HDMI input lets you plug in video cameras or even computers for slide shows!

You can even plug in SD, HD or Ultra HD broadcast cameras using the 6G-SDI inputs.

Aux output allows connection to on stage screens and projectors. Aux switching can be done using the front panel buttons!

SDI and HDMI program outputs for sending your live program feed to your audience!

Includes down converter from Ultra HD to HD.

See all your cameras and program video output using a single TV with the built in multi view.

Audio inputs connect direct into the built in audio mixer for professional and consumer HiFi audio sources.

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Smash quality barriers with the world’s most advanced Ultra HD live production switcher! ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K lets you connect up to 10 SD, HD or Ultra HD video cameras, disk recorders and computers. You get all the features you expect from a professional switcher including chroma key, transitions, media pool, downstream keyers, built in audio mixer, DVE, multi view, 3 aux outputs with front panel aux switching and advanced 6G-SDI and HDMI 4K video connections!

More Connections ATEM Production Studio 4K can be switched between SD, HD and Ultra HD so it connects to a wide range of HDMI and SDI cameras!

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ATEM uses a familiar M/E style of operation so you get an instantly familiar workflow that’s fast and easy to use. ATEM includes a software based control panel for Mac and Windows! If you need a hardware control panel then simply add the ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel for a true broadcast solution. Thousands of ATEM switchers are used today for live broadcast events such as sports, music festivals, drama, reality TV and much more!

Incredible Features ATEM includes upstream chroma key for green and blue screen shooting. You also get pattern, shaped and linear keying, 2 downstream keyers, 2 built in media players, DVE and more!

The built in multi view allows all camera’s, preview and program to be viewed on a single SDI or HDMI monitor or television, so ATEM is perfect for portable location use! Now you can cover any live event, anywhere!

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Issue 39 REGULARS

30

NEWS AV Industry and product news.

Includes new product announcements from NAB.

12

NEWS: BIG SCREEN, BIG DEAL The Star Event Centre’s big LED investment.

19

NEWS: NEW FOR OLD Athenaeum Theatre's Coda Audio upgrade.

20

NEWS: GAINING CONTROL VCA’s Federation Hall control systems.

22

AVIAS 2014 The categories, the deadlines, the excitement.

24

INFOCOMM ASSOCIATION NEWS News and important dates from the Oceania region.

48

TERMINATION Move it or lose it?

50 FEATURES

26

20

ON-WATER MATTERS Audio for OA’s on-harbour staging of Madama Butterfly.

26

ON THE BOIL Auckland Museum’s fishy tale from a virtual ocean.

30

CENTRAL AV’S HD TRUCK We take a $2.5m OB truck for a spin.

34

TUTORIALS

38

34

44

IMMERSIVE SOUND Setting cinema’s new surround sound standard. Includes a tour of Soundfirm’s new Dolby Atmos mix theatre.

38

A QUESTION OF ROYALTIES A guide to copyright for music and video reproduction.

44

LAYING OUT A DISTRIBUTED PA SYSTEM The science behind getting coverage right.

49

012

NEWS

Highlights from AV News Online

MEYER AT THE MOVIES

SHARP GETS IN TOUCH

NEW EXTRON IN1608

Meyer Sound's self-powered HMS-15 surround loudspeaker is the most powerful in the company’s line of cinema products. The HMS-15 was specifically designed for the extreme demands of today’s dynamic, multi-channel immersive sound formats in cinema exhibition auditoriums as well as in post-production and screening rooms. Pre-release HMS-15 units have been successfully in use at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound. Inside the cabinet, the HMS-15 houses a 15inch long-excursion LF driver, a three-inch diaphragm HF compression driver coupled to a consistent 80°H x 50°V horn, and two-channel amplification with active crossover, driver protection, and correction for phase and frequency response. The HMS-15 can be mounted on walls or ceilings at fixed or adjustable angles with the optional wall-mount brackets or U-bracket.

The HMS-15 is available in two models. The 48V DC version, HMS-15 (available July 2014), is powered by the MPS-488HP external power supply. The HMS15AC model (Oct 2014) is for installations where mains power is readily available.

Meyer Sound Australia: 1800 463937 or australia@meyersound.com Meyer Sound: www.meyersound.com

Sharp Australia has released the PN-70TB3, an Interactive Touchscreen LCD Monitor. Combined with Sharp’s Pen Software and Touch Display Link 2.0, the PN-70TB3 offers a range of features for drawings and handwritten notes to be viewed and shared in real time.

Up to 50 (Windows 8.0) and 20 (Win7) devices can connect to the interactive screen simultaneously via wireless LAN. The 70-inch monitor with 10-point touch recognition is manufactured with a low reflective, hardened-glass touch surface. Interaction allows up to four people to write on the screen at the same time using touch pens or fingers. The wirelessly-connected touch pens use precision pressure sensors at the tip coupled with a handwriting recognition function that converts selected handwriting into standard text. The pen software interface has pen settings and functions including page forward and back buttons, font colour and line thickness. Front facing speakers provide audio. Connectivity includes three HDMI ports, two D-sub ports, two DisplayPort terminals (one input, one output), and two touchscreen-supporting USB ports.

Sharp Australia: 1300 135 530 or www.sharp.net.au Sharp Electronics: www.sharp-world.com

Extron Electronics has released the IN1608 IPCP, a new model of the IN1608 product family featuring a built-in Extron IP Link Pro control processor for AV system control. The IN1608 includes an HDCPcompliant, multi-format video switcher, an advanced scaling engine, integrated DTP 230 transmitter and receivers, a high performance mono or stereo amplifier, comprehensive audio processing, and an advanced control processor that is expandable. The IN1608 IPCP also features a built-in IP Link Pro control processor, with the same functions, processing power, and technologies found in the standalone Extron IPCP Pro control processors. The IN1608 IPCP delivers high-speed processing and control port capacity for complete, customisable control of an entire AV system, including all source devices and displays, plus room functions. Simply connect an Extron TouchLink Pro touchpanel to the built-in gigabit Ethernet switch to create complete control of all AV in the network.

As with all Extron control systems, the IN1608 IPCP can be configured with Global Configurator software.

The latest version includes advanced features such as conditional logic, local variables, and macros.

RGB Integration: www.rgbintegration.com.au Extron: www.extron.com

NEWS IN BRIEF:

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) staff are celebrating after taking out the ‘In-house AV Services’ award from a field of 57 finalists at this year’s National Meeting and Events Australia (MEA) Awards in Kuala Lumpur. MCEC’s Chief Executive Peter King said the accolades recognise the venue’s ongoing commitment to providing outstanding technology, such as the new Visualisation Studio – a convention centre first – where clients can see a 3D preview of their event. mcec.com.au

Network Audio Visual has welcomed Aldo Alibrandi to the role of National Business Development Manager. Aldo is well known and highly respected in the commercial AV and Hi-Fi integration markets, having worked with Hills SVL, Altronics, NAS, and NEC during his 25 years in the industry. Network Audio Visual is the Australian distributor for Runco, Screen Innovations, Parasound, Furman, Fusion, ADA, Datasat, Prismasonic, Atlantic and Tributaries.

Network Audio Visual: (02) 9949 9349 www.networkav.com.au

• Get your daily news fix at www.av.net.au

Avico Electronics will distribute Key Digital Systems for Australia and New Zealand. Key Digital Systems develops technology supporting HDTV custom installers, consumers, home theatre retailers, corporations and broadcasters. The company manufactures a wide range of engineering solutions in the area of digital signal processing and distribution. By enabling non-compatible equipment to talk to each other, Key Digital established itself as an important resource in the evolving HDTV marketplace.

Avico Electronics: avico.com.au Key Digital Systems: www.keydigital.com

Sony has announced the latest upgrade to its Vegas editing technology, releasing Vegas Pro 13. Vegas Pro 13 brings new collaboration tools and streamlined workflows to professional content producers.

One example is the Vegas Pro Connect iPad app, which provides a remote collaborative review process for clients and team members. Vegas Pro 13 will be bundled with other workflow-integrated professional applications, both from Sony Creative Software and key partners.

New Magic Australia: www.newmagic.com.au Sony: www.sonycreativesoftware.com

ClearOne has announced that the company has finalised the acquisition of Spontania cloudbased technology from Spainish company Dialcom Networks, S.L. The addition of this technology completes the company’s strategy to build an all-inclusive video collaboration portfolio. Spontania complements ClearOne’s existing premise-based, enterprise video-collaboration products.

The ClearOne video portfolio now can serve a full range of video collaboration needs for enterprise, SMB, healthcare, education, and other customers, either using their private data centres or the ClearOne Spontania cloud.

PAVT: www.pavt.com.au ClearOne: www.clearone.com

NEWS

013

JBL’s Control 10 Series of Affordable, Blind-Mount Ceiling Speakers!

FIBERPLEX TAKES ON ALL COMERS FiberPlex’s new TD-6010 adapter takes on a variety of SFP/SFP+ modules for any format conversion required – even those that haven’t been invented yet. The TD-6010 frame includes two bidirectional ports for interchanging SFP/SFP+ modules capable of converting between analogue video, SD/HD and 3G-SDI or HDMI media formats, as well as full duplex and BiDi optical, 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet and MADI. The TD-6010 can convert between Dante, CobraNet and EtherSound, or between single-mode and multi-mode fibre, as well as between MADI and Ethernet, and any combination thereof. FiberPlex is targeting its new adapter for applications requiring universal use and conversion between media and transport formats. The TD-6010 also can be used to migrate equipment from standard definition to high definition video, or to interoperate multi-mode fibre optic with single-mode fiber optic networking. The TD-6010 supports up to 12.5Gbps per slot for highbandwidth applications. A uFAC micro-USB interface provides full control and reporting of any SFP/SFP+ registers through a FiberPlex software application available for PCs and Macs.

Videopro: 1300 843 367 or www.videopro.com.au FiberPlex Technologies: www.fiberplex.com

Calrec Audio has committed support to AoIP networking (streaming Audio over IP) by announcing its membership in the RAVENNA community and entering into a partnership agreement with ALC NetworX, the company behind RAVENNA. Calrec is gearing towards developing RAVENNA- and AES67-compatible AoIP interfaces for its range of audio consoles through the Hydra2 network.

Calrec will soon also announce the development of Audinate's Dante AoIP network interface, available later this year, for the Hydra2 network on a gigabit interface.

Syncrotech Systems: www.ssd.com.au Calrec: www.calrec.com

The HDBaseT Alliance used the NAB show to announce that Christie is the newest Alliance member and has already started integrating HDBaseT into its Q series projectors. The Alliance was exhibiting at the NAB Show and used its booth to include some of Christie’s new projectors. Christie Q series features HDBaseT connectivity for simplifying installation and management by allowing for video content, audio and control to be delivered over low cost Cat5/6e cabling to HDBaseT-compatible products. The Alliance also announced a new video wall solution from Primeview and a variety of products from Gefen, Kramer, MuxLab and TVOne. www.hdbaset.org

Superb sound (with soft-dome tweeters and a “sweet”, pleasant, sound character), affordable, excellent coverage, dual cable clamps for “in” and “out” cable, easy installation, available in white or in black for dark ceilings, easy stocking with combined low-Z and 70V/100V in same model.

APPLICATIONS Restaurants / Retail Stores / Music Cafes Reception/Waiting Rooms / Business Music Venues Airports / Offices / Lounges / Convention Centers Hotels / Educational Facilities / Many more applications...

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014

NEWS

MULTI-CAMERA RECORDER V3

THE LIST GOES ON

LATEST FROM TVONE

Matrox Video has updated the VS4Recorder, a standalone multi-camera recording app bundled with Matrox VS4 quad-HD capture cards. Release 3.0 for Matrox VS4 adds features to VS4Recorder including VS4Control for gang recording that lets live event producers capture an unlimited number of video sources simply by networking multiple VS4-enabled machines in a master-slave configuration. Each VS4based recording system captures up to four inputs to create files for use with popular editing apps and for archiving. AVI files can be created using the highquality Matrox MPEG 2 I-Frame codec. MOV QuickTime files can be created using DV, DVCPro, DVCPro50 and DVCPro HD. VS4Recorder also functions as a multiviewer, offering high video quality even when monitoring interlaced sources on progressive computer monitors.

VS4Recorder also includes an H.264 codec with MOV or MP4 file wrapping, DirectShow filters, and event markers for Adobe Premiere.

New Magic Australia: (03) 9722 9700 or www.newmagic.com.au Matrox: www.matrox.com

Wohler has revealed its new flagship product, the AMP2-E16V audio/video processing monitor. Wohler claim the monitor's feature list is ‘the longest in the industry’, yet the product is still operated with onetouch simplicity. In addition to its audio system, it features simultaneous multi-format monitoring, quick program selection, instant stereo mix-down, loudness monitoring, internal channel mixing including SDI reembedding, audio delays, plus a wide variety of meter scales and functions to view meters, video and Dolby or SMPTE 2020 metadata. The AMP2-E16V offers Dolby Zoom, Dolby E line position, and CRC error monitoring, as well as automatic system configuration based upon signal inputs, 32 complete system configuration presets, a complete internal help system, and Ethernet software updates. Audio processor card options can be configured for multiple SDI, AES I/O, analogue I/O, and connection to external surround systems.

AV Group: (02) 9764 5911 or sales@avgroup.com.au Wohler: www.wohler.com

TVOne has released a new hardware user interface and corresponding software to run it. TVOne's C22855 can be set up and managed using either its new front panel or via a computer-based control panel that allows set up in less than one-third the time of the previous generation. The accompanying C2-2855 control software is available on several Windows PC OS platforms and interfaces directly with the unit. The OLED display intuitively guides users through setup and control using colour-modulated, backlit buttons.

Alternatively, a graphic user interface for computer or tablet can be used to set up and control the unit remotely via IP. RS-232 is also provided as a direct control interface for third-party control systems.

The video performance of the C2-2855 is based on TVOne's Corio2 technology, which provides high quality bidirectional conversion and switching between a wide variety of analogue and digital video formats.

Corsair Solutions: 1300 562 779 or www.corsairsolutions.com.au TVOne: www.tvone.com

APANTEC COMES CLEAN

STREAMING: EASY ON THE JUICE

LIGHTNING SWITCH FOR FIBRE

Apantac has recently launched a new HDMI Clean Switch. The newest member of the MT HOOD series, the HDMI Clean Switch (Model: CLN-SW-6x1-H) is a versatile and cost-effective 6 x 1 switch that cuts between HDMI sources. Built-in clean-switch technology ensures that the user will not experience any screen glitches or random noises and pops during source switching. Key features of the CLN-SW-6x1-H include up/down/cross conversion for HDMI input and output, de-interlacing (interlace to progressive conversion), a maximum output resolution of 1080p at 60Hz, seven predefined presets (one full screen, 4 x PIP, and 2 x PBP modes). There is also a built-in audio delay of up to 70ms, eight predefined output resolutions (640x480 to 1920x1080), Ethernet, RS232 and IR remote control, and EDID management.

Techtel: (02) 9906 1488 or www.techtel.tv Apantac: www.apanta.com

Discover Video announced its DV Mobile Projector (DVMP) system which receives live video input from virtually any source and delivers low frame rate live images to viewers. DVMP only delivers images to viewers when there is something new to view – different to conventional streaming technology where the live video is delivered all the time, with resulting bandwidth issues. With DVMP, if the source video does not change, no bandwidth is used to deliver images. This makes the system highly scalable and limited only to available network bandwidth. The DVMP system is configurable: adjust the capture rate, the degree of motion to detect, the image output size, and more. You can use VGA, DVI, HDMI, SDI, Component, or Composite video inputs. The system will automatically detect the input in use.

Discover Video: www.discovervideo.com

MultiDyne has announced LightningSwitch, a 48 x 48 optical-to-optical routing switch that simplifies the routing of fibreoptic signals within broadcast infrastructures by eliminating the need for fibre patch panels. Relying on piezoelectric beam-steering technology, LightningSwitch minimises optical connection loss and maximises optical performance.

LightningSwitch does not use any optical-toelectrical-to-optical conversions and is format and bit rate independent, allowing users to make the best use of fibre routing in broadcast infrastructures.

Through LightningSwitch, users can route one-way and bidirectional optical signals multiplexed via TDM, CWDM, and DWDM technologies with line speeds from less than 1.5Gbs to 100Gbs and beyond. LightningSwitch can be integrated seamlessly with existing routing infrastructures and standard broadcast architectures.

Techtel: (02) 9906 1488 or www.techtel.tv MultiDyne: www.multidyne.com

• Get your daily news fix at www.av.net.au

NEWS

015

FBT & PAT RAFTER ARENA

LIGHT AND SOFT SOFTY

ADVANCED DIMMING

The Queensland Tennis Centre’s Pat Rafter Arena boasts a new FBT Shadow speaker system. The system was installed in December 2013, in time for the Brisbane International, which sees the world’s best players descend on Brisbane. The distributed audio design uses a mix of FBT Shadow 112CT and 112HC speakers.

Both models feature a 12-/one-inch coaxial driver with the 112HC horn-loaded for longer-throw applications.

The FBT Shadow series are rated to IP55, designed for extreme weather conditions; they’re constructed from a single-piece rotomoulded enclosure, and also include stainless steel hardware and a proprietary water-stop grille. The Shadow series is well known for its high speech intelligibility and quality music playback. The 5500-seat Pat Rafter Arena was an acoustic challenge, with considerable time spent in the design phase with EASE simulation software to provide consistent coverage while minimising reflections.

Audio Brands: 0499 828 521 or www.audiobrands.com.au FBT Elettronica: www.fbt.it

Designed by UK cameraman Maxim Ford, the Softy Lite is a small and compact LED softlight that comes with standard professional light fittings so it can be used on all film industry lighting gear, stands, clamps, turtles etc. It is daylight balanced and easily filtered to tungsten with regular gels. Manufactured in the UK from aluminium, each Softy Lite has eight panels of 48 LEDs wired for 12V in banks of three. The LED panels can be switched in any combination with just four switches. Each switch cleverly halves or doubles light output, giving 1 f-stop exposure increments in output. Measuring 230mm x 235mm x 80mm, Softy Lite weighs only 1kg. Power requirement is 12VDC from mains or battery supply with standard universal 2.1mm power socket. Power consumption is 3.5A (40W).

The Softy Lite is available as a single fixture set or in either a three- or four-fixture kit, each head complete with stirrup, stand, diffuser, snoot and eggcrate. Mains power supply and other accessories sold separately.

Softy Lite: www.softylite.com

LSC has introduced a new intelligent dimming and power distribution unit, the GenVI Advanced Dimming System. The new GenVI Advanced Dimming System allows any of its outputs to be configured as an 8-bit or 16-bit dimmer or alternatively as a direct power relay channel. The TruPower technology, introduced to the market by LSC over five years ago, enables the user to set some channels on the GenVI to dim traditional lamps and others to power moving lights, LED fixtures, strobes, fans, video screens and even audio power amplifiers. GenVI as a dimmer includes Softpatch, colour touch-screen operation, RDM (for remote control and monitoring), rigger's control, local scene and chase replay and an emergency backup scene.

The TruPower circuits are electromechanical relay connections, providing a direct power path to the load so they are safe for any type of connected load. GenVI is available in 12x13A, 12x16A and 6x25A configurations with a wide choice of power output connectors.

LSC Light Systems: (03) 9702 8000 or www.lsclighting.com

GOODBYE TO PRESS STUDS

CROWN’S AVB AMP

KRAMER: HAVING A DIP

VarioClip is a new screen design promising to rid us forever of fighting with press studs. Based upon the existing Vario + VarioLock modular projection screen system by AV Stumpfl, the company developed a new frame system, which offers improved compatibilities, easier set-up and pull down and the ability to tension/ relax surfaces depending on environmentally induced stretch/contraction effects on surfaces. While VarioClip utilises the same corner and tube geometry and dimensions, the system replaces the conventional press-studs with an easy to handle clip system. These clips are slip resistant and spring loaded, so that they will not dislodge from the frame system. VarioClip will be available with either the familiar VarioLock joint for smaller/medium-sized screens and the Heavy Duty Slot-in Torix bar for larger screens, rear projection screens and screens which require a very flat border.

ITI-Image Group: (02) 9477 5709 or www.avstumpflaustralia.com AV Stumpfl: www.stumpfl.com

Crown Audio has expanded its DriveCore Install (DCi) series amplifier range with the introduction of its DCi Network Display 8|600ND and 4|1250ND power amps, featuring AVB (Audio Video Bridging) connectivity (apparently, these two models will be the first pro audio amplifiers to be certified by the AVnu Alliance).

The amplifiers are compatible with Harman’s HiQnet Audio Architect system setup and control software and utilise TCP/IP-based protocol in HiQnet for network monitoring and control. The eight-channel DCi 8|600ND delivers 600W into 8 ohms (300, 600 and 300W into 16, 4 and 2 ohms) and the four-channel DCi 4|1250ND provides 1250W into 8, 4 or 2 ohms (625W into 16 ohms). Both amps offer direct drive ‘constant voltage’ capabilities for 70V/100V amplification without the need for a step-up transformer.

Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au Crown Audio: www.crownaudio.com

Kramer Electronics' PT-1C EDID Processor draws its power from the HDMI cable and is housed in a compact Kramer Pico-Tools enclosure. The key to its versatility are the four DIP switches located on the back panel.

One of the DIP switches turns HDCP on/off. When placed immediately downstream from a Mac with the HDCP off, the Mac outputs a non-encrypted signal that solves issues with Apple’s implementation of HDCP. Another DIP switch limits colour depth. In situations where bandwidth on certain legacy equipment does not support Deep Colour, the PT-1C can be used to ensure only 8-bit colour is passed. The audio DIP switch provides a means for limiting the output of an upstream device to two-channel LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation). Finally, the EDID Lock switch allows the user to lock in the EDID from the connected display or other displays/EDID sources.

Kramer Electronics Australia: (07) 3806 4290 or www.krameraustralia.com.au Kramer Electronics: www.kramerelectronics.com

016

NEWS

Highlights from NAB Las Vegas

SHOGUN GOES ON SHOW

VERTIGE SHOWS THE ANALOG WAY

STANDALONE TAPELESS RECORDER

Atomos has launched the new 4K Apple ProRes and RAW capable 12G-SDI and 4K HDMI Shogun. Shogun is a 12G SDI and 4K HDMI I/O monitor recorder and deck and features a 1920x1080 SuperAtom IPS seven-inch touchscreen with 325PPI and 179° viewing, 400nit brightness and multi-frequency (48/50/60Hz) operation (depending on video input). The Shogun utilises both 4K and HD clean output from HDMI cameras and can record 24, 25 or 30p from the camera.

It has genlock-in and features optional wi-fi for remote control. Improved audio handling with the included Lemo breakout cable for XLR audio gives balanced audio, mic and phantom power. Shogun allows you to set up the shot with waveform and monitor assist tools, and record 422 10-bit images straight from the camera sensor. Atomos also revealed the Ninja Star, a small flash-based ProRes recorder and player for extreme applications weighing just 100g and suitable for mobile mounts such as UAVs, helmets, handlebars and more.

Atomos: (03) 9999 5908 or www.atomos.com

Analog Way has announced the Vertige, a new Remote Console designed to control Analog Way’s LiveCore and Midra series of mixers/seamless switchers in wide single or multi-screen configurations. Vertige presents a large operating panel of 510mm depth and 740mm wide, showing different sections to set-up and control a show including Source, Layer, Preset, Edit, Control and Transitions. These sections feature direct keys, contextual buttons, sliders, knobs as well as a joystick and T-bar to operate the console. Vertige has a 16:9 TFT colour touchscreen allowing the display of the Program, Preview and content snapshots on the same page. Version 1.0 is compatible with the LiveCore series of premium presentation mixers. A new firmware version ensuring compatibility with the Midra-based systems is due in the first semester of 2015. Future developments will include compatibility of the Vertige console with a selection of Analog Way’s legacy presentation mixers.

Axis Audio Visual : (03) 9752 2955 or axisav.com.au Analog Way: www.analogway.com

Convergent Design’s Athena 4K/Multi-Stream Player/ Recorder Encoder/Decoder is a field-use or rack-mount complete solution. Athena is a standalone player/ recorder deck capable of 4K/UHD 60p, 2K/HD 60p, and multi-stream (even in 4K). Convergent Design is claiming an ‘industry first’ with the ability to record/play four HD video streams along with 64 channels of MADI audio. It can be used as a production facility tape deck replacement, a driver for multi-screen video walls, the heart of an interactive multi-panel display for education, entertainment or point-of-sale, a concert or live event multi-camera recorder, or as a system to stream footage live. The design fits in a 1U, half-rack space, has a front panel featuring an LCD display for status info and monitoring, a 2.5-inch SSD slot (up to 256GB current spec) and deck controls. An auto-start/autorecovery mode means Athena can start up in seconds.

New Magic Australia: (03) 9722 9700 or www.newmagic.com.au Convergent Design: www.convergent-design.com

SCANNER, SCANNER ON THE WALL…

AVIARY VIDEO TOOLS MAGPI

AJA CION CAMERA

Blackmagic Design announced a new model of Cintel Film Scanner. The Cintel scanner will scan negative and positive 35mm film into Ultra HD so users can unlock the extra resolution from 35mm film that no one has been able to see until now (35mm film is natively 4K). The scanner is constructed using aircraft design techniques for a stiff and vibration-free main deck to ensure smooth film handling. The core chassis has been designed as a super-rigid structural space frame, which results in less weight and allowing it to be wall mounted in a facility.

Whether wall or desk mounted the design includes sliding doors, built-in cleaning rollers and new digital servos to keep film clean and ensure handling of valuable negative remains gentle. The Cintel scanner includes a Thunderbolt 2 connection for transferring 4K video in real time, so you can connect the device to a Mac and scan the film directly into a colour correction system.

New Magic Australia: www.newmagic.com.au Blackmagic Design: www.blackmagicdesign.com

Aviary Video Tools is a product family of real-time video players with clever bird-related names, from Green Hippo. Simple to operate models include Par4Keet 4K+, 2Kan 2K+, and, now, magpi 4x HD. All are available with options featuring the video toolset originally developed for Hippotizer media servers.

Housed in a rugged chassis, Magpi video player offers four independent streams of HD video, or six streams of SD video, with media feeds, real-time correction and trimming of clips, along with a host of other tools. Each output has independent real-time playback control, including colour correction, contrast, and aspect ratio, as well as parameters such as speed, in and out points and geometry. Magpi offers video and audio file format support as well as real-time control via on-board timeline, or external protocols such as time-code and MIDI. An output-mapping toolbox removes the need for additional controllers or processors.

Aviary Video Tools: www.aviary-videotools.com

AJA Video Systems’ CION features an ergonomic design and is capable of shooting at 4K/UltraHD and 2K/HD resolutions. CION has in-camera recording directly to the Apple ProRes family of codecs – including 12-bit 4:4:4 – and also offers the ability to output 4K RAW data at up to 120fps via 4 x 3G-SDI outputs. CION can record directly to AJA Pak SSD media at up to 60fps. CION is designed in the familiar camera form factor with an ergonomic layout that includes a built-in shoulder mount and standard connectors in logical positions. A PL lens mount provides compatibility with industrystandard lenses. When recording in HD /2K, the image is oversampled from the full 4K sensor, retaining focal length. A built-in filter combines an optical lowpass filter (OLPF) to eliminate unwanted aliasing and moiré. Incluedes 3G-SDI and HDMI outputs, which are simultaneously active.

Digistor: 1800 643 789 or www.digistor.com.au AJA Video Systems: www.aja.com

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018

NEWS

MINIVATOR GETS BIGGER

RIEDEL INTERCOM APP

URSA MAJOR RELEASE

The Minivator II from Matthews Studio Equipment (MSE) is the long-awaited stronger and taller version of their Minivator stand, first introduced over a decade ago. MSE’s goal with the Minivator II was to increase the payload and extend the maximum height from the much-loved Minivator, without sacrificing strength, safety or stability. Minivator II features a double cable mechanism that will keep both risers traveling at equal proportions with each turn of the handle, allowing for firm and steady movement of any lighting fixture attached (38 turns will take the fixture to the full height). The addition of combo dualpurpose top castings allows for use of both Junior pin and Baby receiver fixtures. The 21.8kg Minivator II with its 1500mm footprint, reaches a maximum height of 3600mm, with a load height of 1400mm and a maximum load of 36.4kg.

Barbizon Australia: www.barbizon.com.au or (02) 9550 4299 MSE: www.msegrip.com

Riedel Communications has unveiled a new app that enables use of compatible iOS, OSX and Android devices as virtual key panels for the company’s Artist digital matrix intercom system, allowing users to turn their smart phones and tablets into full-featured 12-key virtual panels for any Artist system. Operating the app's virtual key panel via the device's touchscreen interface, users have the same signalling capabilities as they would on Riedel’s 1000 Series wired control panel for Artist systems. Like the wired control panels, the new key panel app can be configured via Riedel’s Director software. To facilitate mobile control over the Artist system through the new app, a VOIP-108 G2 card at the Artist frame converts eight Artist matrix ports into a compressed IP stream. Users can choose between a high-quality mode and a low-traffic mode. The VOIP108 G2 client card then communicates with the virtual panels via a WAN connection to a wireless network. The app is available for iOS, OSX, and Android devices.

Riedel Communications Australia: (02) 9699 1199 or www.riedel.net

Blackmagic Design’s URSA, is a high-end digital film camera designed to improve workflow on set. Built to handle the ergonomics of large film crews as well as single person use, URSA has multiple accessories built in, including a 10-inch fold-out monitor, large userupgradable Super 35 global shutter 4K image sensor and internal dual RAW and Apple ProRes recorders.

Because the sensor and lens mount assembly can be changed, customers can choose EF or PL lens mounts, or a broadcast video sensor with B4 mount, then upgrade the camera in the future. There are currently four models to choose from, URSA PL supports PL mount lenses and URSA EF supports EF mount lenses.

Both of these models include the Super 35-sized global shutter digital film sensor. The URSA Broadcast B4 model, available late 2014, features a broadcast video Ultra HD sensor and B4 lens mount. The URSA HDMI model has no sensor and its lens mount is replaced by a ‘cheese plate’ of mounting points and a HDMI input.

New Magic Australia: www.newmagic.com.au BlackMagic Design: www.blackmagicdesign.com

BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING

TRANS-LUX DISPLAY

BLACKMAGIC STUDIO CAMERA

NAB releases from DPA Microphones included the d:screet Omnidirectional Miniature Necklace Microphone, the heavy-duty d:screet 4060 and 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones, and the d:screet Omnidirectional Miniature Mics with reinforced cable relief. Also new are DPA’s d:fine 66 and 88 Headset Microphones. The d:screet Necklace Microphone is currently being used in the Danish adaptation of Big Brother – yes, someone still thinks it’s watchable television. Featuring DPA’s d:screet 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Capsule in a soft rubber necklace, the d:screet Necklace Mic is convenient for instances when attaching a microphone to the artist’s clothing isn’t practical. The mic offers fast, repeatable, do-it-yourself mounting and is designed specifically for use by non-technicians – even reality TV contestants.

Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or www.ambertech.com.au DPA Microphones: www.dpamicrophones.com

Trans-Lux has revealed the company’s new TL Vision 2mm HD LED large screen display with 4K capability.

The TL Vision display which measures approximately 6m x 6m has a 3840x2880 pixel array. The first of its type, the display produces 1080p HD content and is capable of displaying 4K content driven by the company’s Epic Series LED System Software Suite, a powerful four-module processing system that can be used standalone or as an integrated software solution.

The TL Vision display also features Trans-Lux’s LED Cabinet System that virtually eliminates common alignment issues, expedites display set-up time, and reduces overall costs. The aluminum die-caste cabinets are suitable for both fixed and portable, indoor or outdoor displays.

Trans-Lux Corporation: www.trans-lux.com

Blackmagic Design’s new Studio Camera is specifically designed for live production and available in 1080p HD and Ultra HD models. It features a 10-inch viewfinder, long-duration four-hour battery, talkback, tally indicators, phantom-powered microphone connections and built-in optical fibre and SDI connections that let you connect to a live production switcher with a single cable.

An active Micro Four Thirds lens mount is compatible with a wide range of lenses and adapters. This allows operators to use high quality photographic lenses for smaller setups or fixed camera use, and then use highend broadcast ENG lenses for large, live broadcasts using an MFT to B4 lens mount adapter. A built-in fibreoptic connection offers a lightweight connection to production switchers and is bidirectional carrying HD or Ultra HD video with embedded audio, operator/director talkback, tally and camera remote control.

New Magic Australia: www.newmagic.com.au BlackMagic Design: www.blackmagicdesign.com

• Get your daily news fix at www.av.net.au

NEWS

019

Star Event Centre: Big Screen, Big Deal

The Star’s Event Centre [AV Issue 31] quickly distinguished itself as a world-class venue when it hosted the 2013 Australian Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTAs) only days after opening its doors. The Events Centre has invested heavily in the gear that matters — professional lighting, a d&b rig the envy of the world, topnotch projection along with a bleeding-edge seating system and operable walls to ensure the space would be as flexible as possible.

BIG SCREEN ACTION

And now Star Event Centre has a big hi-res LED screen, “the largest of any event space in Sydney”.

The modular screen can be custom built to suit a variety of event styles, creating a screen up to 10m by 5.5m comprised of 220 of CreateLED's ultra-lightweight AirLED-5 Black Body LED modules. Its flexibility offers events at the Event Centre a full content experience using the highest quality digital offering for event attendees.

First unveiled for Alicia Key’s exclusive

performance in the Event Centre December 2013, the LED screen was constructed to its full size with live stage content being screened to the 3500-plus concert attendees. The screen in varying configurations has also been a feature of the ARIA’s and Australian Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTAs) held in late 2013 and early 2014.

220 PANELS

As Ben Whatmore, Event Centre Technical Manager explains, the possibilities of integrating this new technology into events are limitless.

“Our production team work closely with clients on preparing bespoke digital content to suit and enhance their events. For an upcoming series of events, the screen will be elongated out around the edges of the Event Centre as a scrolling ticker tape display of digital content.

“Having used the system on a variety of event styles we can now offer pre-rigged and configured LED screens in different ratios for

gala dinners, conferences, concerts, meetings, sales kickoffs, product launches and many more,” said Whatmore.

The Star has also purchased multiple trusses, capable of holding the screen in a variety of formations out on Sky Terrace, adjoining the Event Centre, offering a unique addition to any outdoor events.

In addition to the 220 modules of AirLED-5 specified and installed by Big Screen Projects, The Star also acquired a Christie Digital Spyder M20X processor to service the screen and it is backed by and seamlessly integrates with the Event Centre’s four Christie 20K projectors.

The full size screen takes only an hour and a half to set up making swift event set ups and transformations a possibility.  Star Event Centre: www.star.com.au/star-event-centre Christie Digital: (07) 3624 4888 or www.christiedigital.com

020

NEWS

Iconic Athenaeum Embraces Coda & Digico installed. This is a completely open-architecture 16 x 16 40-bit floating point processor configured with room presets comprised of different speaker configurations depending on the show requirements. This allows the in-house technicians to decide on different tuning presets to suit their client, and then also mute different zones depending on what parts of the theatre are being utilised. A Xilica wall panel (the MiniS8), features eight control buttons that can be programmed simply by dragging a parameter on the panel using Xilica's intuitive software package, NeuConsole.

With the room completely configured with several practical preset options, Elston has been very impressed with the quality of sound and the simplicity of operation. “It’s great to just be able to walk in, turn it on, and have world class sound without having to do anything except flick a switch. I am really happy with everything.”

RAVE REVIEWS

As one of Victoria’s oldest public institutions, the Melbourne Athenaeum was founded in 1839. The heritage building was originally the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute. Later it became a picture theatre, then a venue for the Melbourne Theatre Company before they decamped to Victoria Arts Centre. These days, it’s the smallest of the traditional CBD theatres, but always the most interesting, hosting a varied roster of dramatic theatre, opera, acoustic performance, comedy, rock shows, musicals and more.

Recently the ‘Ath’ has undergone a significant audio upgrade. One of the owners Glenn Elston wanted an audio solution that would handle the highly varied range of acts.

Normally, an installation caters for the largest production needs and scales down on a show-byshow basis. However with the Athenaeum being a heritage, wedding-cake style theatre, the venue did not lend itself to large systems, either flown or ground stacked. In addition, Elston was after a system that would cater to all these different productions, while being easily reconfigured by the house tech staff.

CODA FRONT UP

A combination of distributed and small formfactor systems from Coda Audio, Camco amplification, mixing from Digico consoles, plus DSP from Xilica Audio Design and Apex Audio were specified for the installation. This, combined with a thorough infrastructure update, has given the Athenaeum enough flexibility and power to

thrive. The concept was to have a high-powered distributed system, one that would not impact visually on the heritage theatre, while still allowing different zoning and system configuration to cater to the many types of clients hiring the theatre.

Coda Audio won’t be a brand familiar to many. It’s a primo German brand producing ultracompact and high output loudspeakers, which exhibit a consistent tonal response across the range. The decision to go with Coda made a lot of sense given the theatre’s beautiful interior didn’t need to be filled with huge speaker footprints.

Saying that, installing the system sensitively and unobtrusively was always going to be a challenge for installers, Melbourne’s RTR Productions.

New cable runs meant having technicians crawling through unbelievably tight spaces.

While other installers might be happy with running surface-mount conduit on each level, RTR went the extra mile.

Matt Hanson from MPH Australia one of the country’s foremost riggers excelled himself in dealing with the Athenaeum's intricacies.

16 ZONES

There are 16 speaker zones, each fed by a Coda DNC260N controller, which delivers advanced DSP and speaker management for the zone. Four Apex Intelli-X 2 Z48 processors then provide complete front end control for time alignment, system tuning and EQ management. To manage all the matrix feeds, one of Xilica’s latest digital audio processors, a Neutrino A-1616, has been

With the entire PA being upgraded, it was only fitting that a new front of house console was added to match. Mixing and monitoring duties are now handled by a Digico SD9 with 2 x D-Racks. Since the installation, the technicians have found the 64 on-stage mic inputs more than enough to cover their clients’ needs. There are 24 outputs on stage as well. These can feed the four sends of Nexo PS10R2 monitors, or multiple sets of in-ear monitors.

Elston was particularly impressed with the final solution. “The installation was done really well. It really fits with the venue aesthetically. The column speakers on the balcony follow the lines of the building perfectly. It doesn’t intrude on the interior of the theatre at all.” The speakers are soon to be painted, colour matching the cream, heritage interior.

Since the installation, the Athenaeum has been receiving rave reviews and extremely positive feedback from theatre companies, bands and engineers alike as Elston further commented.

“The sound is absolutely brilliant. We have been receiving regular compliments from clients and patrons. It’s just fantastic.”  Group Technologies (Equipment Supplier): (03) 9354 9133 or www.grouptechnologies.com.au RTR Productions: (03) 9381 0530 or www.rtrproductions.com.au MPH Australia: www.mphaus.com

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022

NEWS

VCA Federation Hall Gains Control Image: Gary Drain

Melbourne’s Federation Hall is a 220seat theatre on the beautiful grounds of The Victorian College of The Arts (VCA), Southbank.

Part of Melbourne University, the hall is a true multipurpose venue, hosting lectures, orchestral performances and film screenings.

“It’s as much a teaching venue as it is a performance venue,” explained Scott Morrison, Senior Technical Specialist in Learning Space Support at the University.

“Melbourne Conservatory of Music use it for music composition and performance while The Victorian College of the Arts use it for both theatre performance studies as well as for the Film and TV department.” As such, the venue boasts a beautiful stage, excellent controllable acoustics, an 8m-wide, 360-inch retractable screen, four projectors including 35mm film and a 7.1 surround sound system.

Over the last two years, The University of Melbourne, Parity Technology Consulting and integrators Soundcorp have been working together on a $150,000+ extensive refit of the back-of-house control and distribution infrastructure in Federation Hall, refurbishing its ageing all-analogue backbone to a fully integrated, high-definition venue fully controlled via AMX Modero touchscreens.

COMPLETE CONTROL

“The project started off by renewing the lectern and replacing the existing AMX control system,” recalls Pasquale Valpied, Partner at Parity Technology Consulting. “Then it grew as we incorporated stage lighting and screen operation control via AMX. There’s now centralised control for the screen masking, all audio and video input sources, curtains, screen automation, stage and house lighting, presentation and cinema projectors, Dolby processor and even the slide projectors, all from an AMX NI3100.”

Control of the system is via two AMX Modero touchscreens, one mounted in the on-stage lectern and another in the bio box. “The MXD700 in the lectern has specific user settings, set according to

the University of Melbourne’s standard template for its lecturers,” explained Sam Moore, Sales Manager at Soundcorp. “The 10-inch MTX1000 in the bio box is for operators. It’s got more pages, more control over the lighting and more functions to control the four projectors, the surround system and the microphones.”

MONITORING IN THROUGH OUT

All connected devices report back to the University’s technicians via AMX’s Resource Management Suite. All University AV spaces are monitored by RMS, logging projector lamp hours, wireless mic battery charge and equipment usage cycles, which, as we know, makes servicing easier but also lets the team analyse whether a particular piece of equipment (such as a DVD player) is used often enough to merit inclusion in a similar new space.

At the heart of the complex video switching and distribution system is Extron’s new XTP platform. Accepting all forms of video input from HDMI to component analogue, and distributing signal via Cat6, the XTP is vital to the functionality of the space. “XTP worked a treat,” elaborated Pasquale. “It’s a good application for this space as we have limited video outputs, but a lot of different inputs, from standard to high definition, Betacam players and 35mm film projectors. We can have a lot of control over the resolution and get our video and audio control articulated over Cat6 cabling down to stage.”

MOTHER OF INVENTION

Integrating control of the XTP system to the AMX NI3000 enabled Soundcorp’s AMX programmer Martin Smith to achieve an extensive control with a minimum of cabling. As the venue is constantly in use and difficult to run new cabling from rack to stage, one of the ingenious solutions engineered for DVD and BluRay control was carried out with ported infra-red codes. On activating the lectern’s DVD ‘Play’ button, the AMX NI3000 sends an IR command over IP to the Extron, which ports it down Cat6 to stage, before adapting into an IR

dongle on the front of the DVD player. Not only was this a handy workaround for cabling, it also saved control ports on the AMX. Ingenuity like this is the theme of the installation, with control signals on RS232, IP, GPIO, DMX and Dynalite all integrated through the NI3100. With the house light control on Dynalite and stage light control on DMX, a Dynet DMX switch was employed to link up the new lighting PC in the rack and the override lighting desk via a Dynet network bridge. “Soundcorp did a great install,” beamed Pasquale. “We knew it would be difficult to program, but Soundcorp’s Martin Smith made it look easy.”

THE AUDIENCE IS LISTENING

While vision is key to the installation, one of the trickiest aspects of the job was audio integration.

The space must not only be able to run orchestral performances, presentations or cinema easily without an operator but also switch quickly to control by engineers from desks. All sources and mixes not only feed the house, but also the hearing assistance loop and Lectopia Echo360 lecture capture system.

Along with wireless and wired microphones patched to the existing Mackie analogue sound desk, a QSC DCP100 7.1 surround processor feeds QSC amps with decoded audio from the 35mm film projector and the Extron XTP. To enable control and switching of such diverse sources, an Extron DMP128 12x8 digital matrix processor was installed, enabling any source to be sent any speaker in the auditorium, including the Krix surround system and FOH Bose Panarays.  Soundcorp: (03) 9694 2600 or sales@soundcorp.com.au Parity Technology Consulting: www.parity.com.au AMX: www.amx.com Extron: www.extron.com QSC Audio: www.tag.com.au Philips Dynalite: www.philips.com/dynalite

AVIA ENTRIES CLOSE JUNE 25 Rewarding Excellence Celebrating Innovation Don’t delay – entries for the Audio Visual Industry Awards must be lodged by close of business on Wednesday June 25th.

Submissions are invited for projects completed in 2013 in the categories

Commercial/Government, Exhibition/Display, Production, and Education.

As always, the focus is on excellence and innovation – bigger isn’t always better.

So if your company has what it takes, get involved in the region’s most prestigious, independtly-adjudicated pro AV awards program.

If you aren’t sure about the eligibility of your project contact us: entries@avias.com.au The 2014 judging panel is: Terry Coe and Scott Doyle from AETM, Matthew Loupis and Paul Van der Ent from InfoComm and Joseph Mercurio and Marcus Pugh from ALIA The awards will be announced at Integrate Expo in Sydney after Day 2 of the show, 27th of August.

Entry forms and full competition information are now available for download from the AVIA website at

www.avias.com.au

ALIA

BMA Mixer Amplifiers & EZ Speakers The inDesign BMA is a high quality mixer amplifier for commercial and industrial audio applications.

The BMA Series feature 4 mic/line inputs with the 1st channel offering a mute / paging function. They can operate in either 4 Ohm or constant voltage 100V speaker outputs. The mixer amplifiers are part of inDesign’s Install Series, which also includes mixers and power amplifiers. These units provide excellent features and value. inDesign EZ speakers are the “EZ-est” and quickest ceiling speakers to install!

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On-Water Matters Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour requires plenty of audio innovation to stay afloat.

Right: Hyeseoung Kwon as Madama Butterfly at her wedding to Pinkerton. Photographer: James Morgan

Text:/ Robert Clark Since the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour (HOSH) series began four years ago, Opera Australia’s lavish outdoor productions have created complex live-sound scenarios for sound designer, Tony David Cray. Not to mention the wind, rain and a few oddly-tuned ferry horns.

This year’s production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly once again took some real ingenuity to pull off.

VOICING CONCERNS

From the beginning, questions around how to amplify the voice in such an environment were the most important for Cray and the team of engineers from Norwest Audio, engaged specifically for these productions. “An operatic voice is one of the most powerful instruments,” says Cray, “so we had to ask: what technology do

Above: The set and auditorium seating under construction on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The cranes, trusses and gantries used in construction are actually part of the set.

Photographer: Tony David Cray.

we use? What mics do we use? What transmitters do we use in that chain to try and capture the nature of the voice and share it with the audience?” Headset mics with in-ear monitoring were really the only option, and Cray admits that this is actually a pretty radical thing in opera; not just due to the vocal amplification aspect, but also because wearing in-ears creates unique problems for operatic performers: “A couple of singers found that the headset’s closed acoustic was very isolating, and the way an opera singer will create the node, there’s a lot of resonances; there’s very physical processes in generating that sound. Having the ears blocked creates an inward pressure and it’s very disorientating. It would reinforce certain frequencies, too.”

For many of the singers, having time to rehearse with the in-ear monitoring systems – a

combination of Sennheiser G2s, Shure PSM200s and UR4Ds using Shure UR1M transmitters – was enough to overcome the discomfort, but for others who still experienced difficulties, a creative solution was available thanks to one of the more experienced singers. As Cray explains, “Jonathan Summers devised the idea of using the generic in-ears, taking the foam cover off and just getting the transducer taped in his ear. So he had like a little piece of spaghetti going into his ear but he could still hear ambient sound. It gave him enough present sound of the orchestra to time and to pitch to, but it was open.” This technique is now lovingly referred to as the ‘Jonathan Summers Method’, and some singers opt for it, while the majority persevere and wear the headsets as is.

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OUTTA SPACE

Handling the audio feed from all these headsets, in what could only be described as a ‘guerrilla encampment’ under the stage, is Norwest’s John Watterson. His role as monitoring engineer also includes piping audio from the orchestra, which is enclosed in an acoustically-isolated pit behind him. There is more room in the pit than in previous years, but once performances begin, there is still no chance of any technicians squeezing in to make adjustments. Thinking about ways to minimise the likelihood of that scenario, Cray and the Norwest team installed Aviom A-16II personal mixers on the musicians’ stands, and a lot of groundwork was laid to coach the players to be responsible for their own microphones. The string and brass players all have DPA 4099s clamped to their instruments, while other members of the orchestra have a combination of Schoeps CMC 6-MKs, Neumann TLM103s and Royer R-122 ribbon microphones.

Cray describes the scenario as “like a close mic studio gig”, which is not just because of limited space. Previous experience has shown that such a boxed-in environment typically creates a buildup of low-to-mid frequencies that can be tricky to eliminate down the signal path. Better to mic close and add space later (with the help of an

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Altiverb reverb Cray modelled on the Opera House Concert Hall years ago).

In contrast to the pit, the immense size and odd shape of the auditorium created tricky coverage and delay issues for Cray and his team. It is, after all, far wider than it is deep, which is the opposite concern from most venues. This meant the task of finding a stereo centre was quite a challenge.

They ultimately took a predominantly front-fill approach, with seven speakers embedded into the front of the stage at a very shallow angle, with the driver of each pointing “to about 60% up the auditorium”. The flown array of Adamson Y18s, in concert with left and right stacks at stage level, provide extra coverage for the sides and rear of the auditorium.

EXPECT DELAYS

The expansive stage means the amount of delay is considerable. “If I’m standing down the front of the stage,” says Cray, “my voice is going to take 12ms to get to the first row, but if I’m standing towards the back it’s going to take 45ms”. The solution was to calibrate the throw of each speaker to an artificial zero point about 4.5m back from the front of the stage, which is where most of the cast perform. The delay from one side of the stage to the other isn’t exactly minimal either. Cray estimates the acoustic delay between singers on either side of the stage is 60-100ms.

He further points out that at some tempos, that can represent a sixteenth note.

Foldback for the singers is provided via a combination of EAW JF80 and Adamson M15 low-profile wedges installed above the

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speakers at the front of the stage. This helps singers who aren’t relying on in-ears for timing and, as Cray puts it, adds a level of ‘energy’ to the performance space. It is a complex audio environment for singers to navigate, as mezzosoprano Anna Yun – who plays Suzuki in the opera – tells, “We can hear the front-of-house speakers and there is a fraction of delay there, which is unavoidable. At times, depending on the position on the stage, we can also pick up the sound coming directly out of the orchestra pit [usually the brass], so there can be three different timings for the same phrase [including that of the in-ears].” Yun insists that these issues were not insurmountable, however, and that compensating for the delay became “second nature” by the end of the rehearsal period.

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT

One thing pit musicians can never simply adjust to is loud percussion reverberating in a closed, tight space. This problem is especially acute in an opera like Butterfly, where a famously-loud gong is an essential part of the score. “It would just cane the rest of the pit,” says Cray, “so I suggested to them that we record it and play it back, and they were open to that idea.” As time was running out to figure out how best to achieve this, he sat down one night and “made a little app on the iPhone as a joke”. This turned out to be just the right tool for the job, though, and after creating an interface of a gong that is simply tapped on cue; it was mounted on a stand and routed into the foldback path via the Aviom system for any musicians wishing to hear it. It’s otherwise totally

silent in the pit and, being pre-recorded, perfectly balanced in the front-of-house mix every time. “I think this is a good example of how we can just do things slightly differently to achieve a good outcome,” says Cray.

AND FOR THAT…

It’s also a good example of the kind of creative thinking behind his decision to ‘outsource’ the show’s digital sound processing (DSP) to some unconventional platforms. “Primarily for the audiophile aspect,” says Cray, “the EQ and the compression algorithms on the [Digico SD7] console are good, but they really get exposed when dealing with orchestral music and opera.

The operatic voice is a fearsome instrument; it’s quite a challenge to deal with.” He decided to start ‘farming out’ the DSP using his own plugins of choice, particularly FabFilter’s Pro Q, but then came across the problem of how to tie them all in to an interface he could easily use on the fly during performances. Eventually the highlycustomisable Lemur platform was chosen, which allowed him to create a graphical environment on an iPad and map it into Ableton Live.

WIND INSTRUMENT

The key parameters on the Lemur interface were determined by the EQ and filters Cray uses most on the Euphonix System 5 console in the Opera House recording studio. This constrained the number of filters in the Pro Q plug-in to four; crucially streamlining his process. In further service of creating an intuitive and efficient DSP environment, Cray added an Akai LPD8

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hardware controller within easy reach in the control room, with dedicated EQ just for the orchestra. Cray recalls a night where the wind was particularly bad, and having such easily accessible and carefully chosen controls enabled him to respond quickly to a potentially ugly scenario. “I was dreading the notion of the geishas coming on,” he says, “because I knew it would be this wild flapping wind sound when I suddenly open 24 mics. But I was able to, in a moment, look at my little hardware controller and quickly assign a filter into the chorus bus. So as they came on stage I could instantly just have a steep high-pass filter and roll it up to a point where I almost lost them, but got rid of all of the wind. And that was during the show – seeing a massive problem and actually implementing a change that just required one little turn of a knob. It’s fantastic.”

SAVING FOR A RAINY DAY

Of course, filtering on the fly is one thing, but troubleshooting during a performance is another altogether. With wet weather an unavoidable reality, redundancy was essential. The Digico SD7 console in the site control room (situated in a tower halfway up the auditorium) was designed

by Norwest head of sound, Adrian Riddell, to run two simultaneous 64-channel drive chains divided into ‘Engine A’ and ‘Engine B’, which can be manually switched via a MADI bridge system in the event of a failure. And if the digital network goes down, they also have the option of switching to the console’s analogue outputs, which are fed into Dolby Lake Processors that

handle both digital and analogue inputs. There is also comprehensive DSP redundancy, with two individual instances of Ableton Live (each with a full suite of plug-ins) running simultaneously off networked Mac Minis with RME cards.

Of course, such a long and complex processing chain comes at the expense of latency. Cray says the round trip takes 12ms. “But on this crazy site,” he adds, “the vocal stems themselves need to be delayed at least 15ms, so I was in a window that allowed me to do that. Which is just as well, because it’s pretty scary when you take it out of line and listen to what’s going on.”

THE SHOW WILL GO ON

The technical experience of Cray and his Norwest team certainly comes to the fore in these large-scale scenarios, but refreshingly, his emphasis is always on the big picture elements of his job. The extensive research into thirdparty apps and plug-ins, the programming, the sophisticated redundancy, the intricate DSP; all of this serves ultimately to simplify his role to the point where detail fades into the background.

“The main focus,” he says, “is to try and bring opera to a broader audience, and at the same time, to always remain as true as possible to the art form.” With the HOSH series recently confirmed for another three years, it’s good to know Cray & Co. will have more opportunities to refine and innovate in this genre. 

Far left top: Gennadi Dubinsky as Bonze crashes the Pinkerton's wedding.

Far left: Hiromi Omura as Madama Butterfly and Georgy Vasiliev as Pinkerton. Photographer: James Morgan.

Above left: Audio control room with its jungle of flat panel screens.

Above: the orchestra pit where the plastic cups prevent water from getting into the mics during the rain between performances.

Inset: Aviom A-16 personal mixers were used to provide custom foldback mixes for the musicians.

Photographer: Tony David Cray.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE Sound Designer and FOH Mix Engineer: Tony David Cray – Opera Australia / Sydney Opera House Head of Sound: Adrian Riddell – Norwest Productions / Onset Audio Systems Engineer: Matt Whitehead – Norwest Productions Monitor Engineer: John Watterson – Norwest Productions RF Engineer: Steve Caldwell – Norwest Productions Stage Technician: Dane Cook – Norwest Productions Radio Mic Fitter: Alison Bremner – MessageStick Productions Radio Mic Fitter: Roy Jones – Norwest Productions Secondment: Brittany Wright – Queensland University of Technology

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On the Boil Auckland museum’s tale from a virtual topographic ocean Text:/ Derek Powell

Moana – My Ocean, a recent exhibition at the Auckland War Memorial Museum provides an excellent example of how audiovisual techniques can be used to not just see below the surface, but provide entirely new perspectives into the behaviours of the natural world. Although museums may no longer be characterised by rows of dusty glass display cases and dioramas of stuffed birds foraging amongst the painted trees of a faux forest, this exhibition’s use of Artificial Intelligence to drive a sophisticated audiovisual installation, created an immersive experience to instruct and entertain a wide spectrum of visitors.

“We [New Zealanders] like to think of ourselves as a marine nation, and Aucklanders love the sea and boating,” reveals Victoria

Travers, senior exhibition developer at the museum. “But all we really see is the surface.

There’s a lot going on that we wanted to be able to bring into an exhibition. Moana – My Ocean actually resulted from the strong public response to a blog, posted by one of the museum’s curators during an expedition to the remote Kermadec Islands, far to the North-East of New Zealand.”

BLOGGER TRIGGER

Sparked by the social media response to marine science, planning for this exhibition started as far back as 2011. “First, we started looking at the concept, the scope and what stories the Museum had to tell,” Travers explained. This first stage is very content focused as the development team

and the curators decide on the content of the exhibition. Things start to get interesting as the team of 3D designers get to work mapping out exactly how the content is to be displayed and what techniques will work best in bringing the objects in the collection to life.

Quite early on, decisions were held about whether the exhibit should be object focused or technology-based, with more audiovisual content to explain and reveal the stories behind the artefacts. Given the enormous scope offered by this subject matter, which ranges from the smallest of microscopic plankton to whales and sharks, it was decided that the exhibition should be a mix of objects and a multimedia interpretive display.

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Moana – My Ocean takes visitors on a marine journey through the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand’s most-used stretch of water, famous for recreational fishing and boating. The shallow, warm waters produce an abundance of phytoplankton and zooplankton that makes the gulf an incredibly productive area, brimming with life. It is famous for regular ‘boil-ups’, where a large school of fish is literally herded into a tightly-packed formation close to the surface by predators, causing the surface to boil as fish desperately try to escape the predators below.

ON THE BOIL

All agreed that a boil-up would make a wonderful visitor experience, but creating and interpreting this natural phenomenon would be a challenge. The museum design team considered a sculptured exhibit but Travers recounted that the team felt a static exhibit wouldn’t adequately capture the drama of the event. “Anyone who’s been stuck in the centre of a boil-up before, and I have been,” Travers recalled, “knows that it’s really disorientating. It’s teeming with abstract colours and shapes, really noisy and all around there’s just frenzy and drama. Yet at the time, you don’t know what kind of fish are around you and

what predators are below. We wanted to be able to capture that experience, and show what was really happening.”

A brief was put out to specialist contractors, and along with a number of conventional proposals involving underwater and aerial filming of a real boil-up event, one pitch that came back really stood out. Rawstorne Studio, an Aucklandbased creative design agency, proposed the idea of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reconstruct the fish behaviour in the boil-up system and display it using computer-generated animation.

Essentially, the animation would combine elements of AI with mathematical models derived from research on flocking behaviour, to create a virtual representation of how large groups of marine animals behave when faced with given stimuli like a predator threat.

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“each on-screen experience is unique, generated afresh for that viewing, unlike a film which creates every element according to a fixed script”

BUILDING A VIRTUAL OCEAN

Rawstorne Studio then brought on creative company Pleasure Kraft to help create the audience environment – a 270° immersive animated projection that recreated the experience of a boil-up from within the bait ball itself. To generate the on-screen action they engaged American animation artist Robert Hodgin.

Left: The enveloping 270 degree display screen is 6m in diameter and 2.5m high. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. Photographer: Tāmaki Paenga Hira.

Below: Fully-rendered virtual fish swarming.

Image courtesy of Robert Hodgin, Flight 404.

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Above: Programmer Robert Hodgin set up parameters for bait fish swarm interactions to test the accuracy of the behavioral simulation.

Left: The evolution of a virtual fish boil-up 1. Behaviour simulation using simple polygons instead of rendered images of bait and predator species.

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2. Modifying parameters to produce a natural torroidal swarm.

3. Adding predator species and setting repulsion parameters 4. Dolphins vent bubbles into the swarm to stress the bait fish 5. Whales are added to drive large species stress responses 6. Diving Gannets are added to top off the virtual chaos

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“Robert was key to the project,” said creative director Robin Rawstorne. “He writes code just like a composer writes a score”.

Hodgin, who has an interest in simulating group dynamics, jumped at the chance to team up with the museum’s marine scientists for this unique project. The original concept was to represent thousands of fish as simple geometric shapes that would school together to represent the bait ball. But as the project developed Hodgin was able to recreate lifelike representations of each animal. Tom Trnski, head of natural science at the museum, worked with the Hodgin and his team to ensure the correct species were represented and that they interacted in a realistic way. With Trnski’s guidance the swimming style, schooling patterns (and, for the predators, hunting techniques) of each species were tweaked so the science was spot on, while retaining the drama and intensity of a life or death natural struggle.

Rawstorne explained that each on-screen experience is unique, generated afresh for that viewing, unlike a film which creates every element according to a fixed script. “It is actually AI driven,” he emphasised. “Around

7000 individual virtual fish are created in the computer and animated on screen. They swim about, school together and react to each other in this virtual ocean just as they would in real life, according to some quite simple algorithms that mimic natural behaviour patterns”.

“Then we introduce animated predators into the scene, who operate under their own set of behaviours.” The predators, including dolphins, sharks and finally a massive Bryde’s Whale, attack the bait fish who instinctively attempt to escape by schooling into ever-tighter formations – ultimately resulting in the boil-up. All this is created by the individual animated fish objects, each reacting to the predators in real time, so while the on-screen action is predictable, a viewer will never see exactly the same phenomenon twice – just like a real ocean boil-up. The entire virtual ocean scenario is created within a single computer, that maps the animations onto multihead video output cards.

PUTTING ON A SHOW

With the content correct, the next step was to decide how it would appear on the enveloping circular screen. As creative director Robin Rawstorne puts it: “We were able to position virtual cameras within the virtual world, which observed the unfolding maelstrom. Our only ‘influence’ was to time the release of each predator species to build the intensity and excitement of a boil-up.” As the three-minute sequence unfolds, the camera viewpoint changes from outside the school to a predator’s-eye-view as sharks feast on the ever-tightening ball.

Meanwhile, another hunt was underway: to find the right projectors to fit within the tight confines of a 6m display space. To meet the

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Four Sony VPL-SW535C projectors display the real time animation as it is created directly by the server. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Photographer: Tāmaki Paenga Hira.

requirement for a 270° immersion, four projectors would be required, set at approximately 65° spacing and edge blended. Short throw was a must, so that visitors did not interrupt the beams as they moved in and out of the space, but that raised potential issues of hot spots and light scattering in the overlap regions.

After a careful shoot-out between candidates, the team eventually settled on four Sony VPLSW535C projectors which at 3000 lumens and WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution had the right grunt to match the specialised optical requirements. Lamp life was also a factor, and with a rated 6000 hours (in low mode) the Sony’s stacked up well in the value for money stakes. The projectors were mounted on a custom circular support above a 2.5m-high screen constructed with a specially-welded seamless PVC projection surface to preserve every pixel of resolution.

So how did the ocean-savvy New Zealand public take to this unique view of life in their beloved gulf? The Auckland War Memorial Museum takes a rigorous approach to analysing the visitor response to each of their exhibits, so Victoria Travers had an array of facts and figures to determine just how effectively each aspect of the exhibit captured the public attention.

“Normally, we work to a rule of thumb that says visitors will spend just three minutes in front of

any filmic or animated experience before moving on, so the Boil-up experience was timed to a three minute cycle,” she explained. “But when we studied the patterns of movement throughout the exhibition, we found most visitors stayed for six minutes in the boil-up theatre, which meant on average, they saw two complete shows.”

And that, my friends, in the museum world, gives the Boil-up a blockbuster rating.  MUCH MORE INFORMATION: You can find fascinating insights into the design and lots of technical illustration at: rawstornestudio.com/A-I-ExhibitBoil-UpAucklandWar-Memorial-Museum For those more interested in the coding of the animation sequence for the boil-up, Robert Hodgin gives an in-depth, behind-the-scenes exposition of the programming process at: roberthodgin.com/boil-up/ Creative Team: Creative design: Robin Rawstorne – Rawstorne Studios Creative and technical producer: Olivier Jean – Pleasure Kraft Creative software coder: Robert Hodgin Sound design: Peter Hobbs – Harmonic Theatre construction: Cutting Innovations

Equipment List: Workstation: Dell Precision T5600 (8-core Xeon CPU) Video processor: Nvidia Quadro 5000 Router: Kramer VS-84HDCPx1 DVI matrix switcher Projectors: 4 x Sony VPL-SW535C ultra short throw LCD Projection surface: Harkness Stagelite Matt White 100 screen

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Central Wraps Up HD Video Production With New Sony Truck With the only full HD OB van west of Melbourne, Central Audio Visual has just staked a massive claim to the video business in South Australia – and beyond.

Text:/ Derek Powell Images:/ Courtesy Central Audio Visual

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A 12-camera capable full-HD Outside Broadcast (OB) truck is not the usual item on an audiovisual company’s hire price list, but then Adelaide’s Central Audio Visual, led by the irrepressible Glenn Spear, is not exactly your average audiovisual company. “We blew the budget on the truck just in the month of March,” Spear confided. I was about to commiserate, knowing how costly full HD broadcast gear can be, when I realised he meant he’d achieved his annual income budget from the brand-new OB unit in just one month! I got the feeling this didn’t happen just by chance and indeed Spear explained there was a well thought-out plan behind the acquisition of this massive, $2.5 million asset.

Central Audio Visual has been in business for 32 years and has just had a bumper period, picking up a 10-year contract as in-house supplier to the recently-redeveloped Adelaide Oval, a busy conference venue with some 23 function rooms and a wide variety of indoor and outdoor events [and the subject of an upcoming AV feature – Ed]. For the past 15 years OBs have been very much part of Central’s work, utilising a range of Sony broadcast cameras and a substantial fly-away production kit. Heading up the production division is Wayne Christian, a senior producer with a 35-year career in live event television that includes everything from live concerts to the 2000 Olympics. So with an established set of broadcast credentials and knowing there was no high definition competition within a day’s drive, Spear was certain the move to a fully equipped HD OB Van presented some good business opportunities.

Above: The expanded producers' station on the left, overlooks the vision control area with its 4 x 55-inch OLED monitors configured as a video monitor bank.

Audio control is visible through the door to the left of the vision console.

Right: The truck in road-ready format with the expando section retracted.

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FULLY-CUSTOMISED MERCEDES

The new vehicle is based on a brand new Mercedes-Benz truck with fully-custom bodywork that includes an Expando (slideout) section along with full air suspension and hydraulic stabilisers. The truck, which is the most modern in the country, was built in Australia by Sony Professional Solutions division at its new custom solutions engineering facility located in Beresfield, Newcastle. The basic truck with bodywork, racks and wiring took 12 months to build, with the finishing touches added by Central’s engineers once it was delivered to Adelaide.

The truck is wired for up to 16 cameras but Spear prefers to see it as a highly-competent 12-camera unit with full remote CCU (Camera Control Unit) capability, that can be expanded with extra stand-alone ENG-style (Electronic News Gathering) cameras linked in if needed.

For added flexibility, the van is cabled for either triax (tri-axial copper) or fibre-optic camera cables. A folddown panel on the rear of the bodywork provides access to easily change out the CCUs, providing great flexibility in configuration. While Spear concedes that fibre-optic cables are definitely the future, he notes that the fibre connectors are somewhat susceptible to damage while triax connections are more robust.

To go with the truck, Central has taken delivery of a set of new Sony HDC-1700 studio cameras. Their fibre-optic CCU base stations allow the cameras to operate up to 2000 metres away and naturally the company has a range

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of big Fujinon box lenses (up to 77x) to cater for all requirements. Along with the HDC-1700 cameras, there’s four Sony HSC-100 series triaxbased cameras as well as a pair of DVW-709s, together with assorted Miller and Vinten tripods and heads.

Outside the truck, under a full-width lift-up panel that provides weather protection, are the patch bays for camera, power, audio and comms.

There’s also a set of vision monitors and a router control panel, so individual inputs can be viewed as they are patched, and signal integrity checked right at the external connection point.

LUXURY ACCOMODATION

Back in the van, the engineering compartment at the rear has three CCU operator positions, each handling four cameras. All stations are connected by a massive Miranda 144 x 144 Nvision 8140 hybrid router that provides tremendous flexibility in signal distribution. Also down in the technical area is the slo-mo replay

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section equipped with an industry stalwart EVS XT3 HD video server. The truck is pre-wired for a second EVS unit should there be a requirement for more channels. Recording duties are handled by a trio of Sony HD XDCAM disc recorders.

Moving forward from the engineering compartment is the two-tier production gallery.

At the back, in the slide out section, is the producer’s desk while taking up the entire front wall are four Sony 55-inch OLED monitors that comprise the infinitely-configurable multiview display system driven from a Miranda Kaleido-MX multiviewer. Each monitor can be configured at will to show individual input sources, preview, program output, clean feeds or whatever is required for the production, simply by configuring inputs from the Miranda central router. When the production compartment is expanded, the spectacular control surface of the Sony MVS-6530 slides out from its bunker below the monitor wall to form the main production desk with positions for the director,

director’s assistant and the vision switcher. The MVS-6530 switcher is a new model from Sony with 48 primary inputs and 32 output busses and features three mix-effect rows and a total of 16 individual keyers. A 3D digital effects unit is built in and RGB colour correction is available on all inputs.

The final compartment, up front is reserved for audio. The main desk is a 96-channel Digico SD10 broadcast console, with a Soundcraft Si Expression 1 fitted as a stand-by unit or for submix/monitor duties as required. Spear is a fan of the Digico product already having three other Digico consoles in the Central Audio Visual inventory. Audio monitoring is from Genelec.

BIG CAPABILITIES

Since its commissioning, the truck has already been out and about for the ABC, Network 10 and Fox Sports, handling everything from the Good Morning show to election coverage and even the Alice Springs Cup. But broadcast work

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Far Left: The audio compartment at the front of the truck features a 96-channel Digico console and a 28 channel back-up mixer.

Left: The rear access panel contains the three phase power, communications, audio and video patching, camera cable connections, plus waveform and signal monitoring.

Below Left: The truck configured for action with the expando section deployed to provide the producers' station and truck access doors.

is only one of the outlets for the van’s highdefinition production capacity and only one element in the Central Audio Visual armoury.

Back at base there’s also a TV production studio and two Avid on-line edit suites to provide all the post production needs.

However, broadcast work can be fickle and Spear has his eyes firmly on mainstream audiovisual events work for the truck. “We do big shows,” he affirmed, “and we’ve been doing them for 32 years”. With the new vehicle as a mobile control room, Central is now fully kitted-out to handle a range of high-profile events with its own indoor and outdoor LED screens in 6mm or 10mm pitch, supported by a formidable audio inventory that includes four Meyer line-array rigs plus significant lighting and staging kit. Spear reckons his company is pretty much unique in owning all this gear inhouse giving them some remarkable abilities when it comes to the top level of corporate and event audiovisual work.

I couldn’t resist stirring the pot a little by asking Spear whether he had considered building 3D or 4K capabilities into his OB unit. He’d already done his research on that so his response was swift and emphatic. “3D [television] won’t happen. They started to do some trial OBs in 3D but people aren’t prepared to wear glasses so it’s just a non-event. As far as 4K is concerned, the networks are mainly broadcasting in standarddef. Even the AFL Grand Final last year was broadcast, to my frustration, in standard definition, so the broadcasters aren’t going to need live content in 4K – at least not for the foreseeable future.”

BRIGHT FUTURE

It is great to speak with someone who is so bullish about the future of our industry, and clear about his goals. “We are just running at full capacity,” Spear told me. “Last month was our biggest in 32 years and I think we’re probably one of the strongest private companies in South Australia.”

Having just made a $2.5 million investment in the future of event audiovisual in South Australia, I think he intends running at full capacity for quite a while yet!  MORE INFORMATION Central Audio Visual: www.centralaudiovisual.com.au Sony Professional Solutions: pro.sony-asia.com

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Immersive Sound in the Cinema Setting the new cinema standard.

Text:/ Robert Clarke

The next generation of cinema sound promises to deliver a truly three-dimensional audio experience. New immersive audio systems are already being deployed in theatres around the globe, but before this technology can become truly universal, an open immersive sound standard needs to be published. Currently, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is mediating between some highly-competitive brands to agree upon what that standard will be. Here’s a breakdown of the three frontrunners in immersive audio and what they’re bringing to SMPTE’s negotiating table.

CHANNELLING THE EFFECTS

There are currently two different approaches to immersive sound in the cinema. The more familiar channel-based approach is to have speakers placed in specific zones in the theatre’s acoustic space. Sounds are panned between zones

during mixdown to precisely place each source in the auditorium. The sound for each zone is generally recorded, distributed and replayed on its own independent channel of a multi-channel recording. There are several multi-channel surround sound formats (5.1, 7.1, 9.1, etc,) each with its specific number of signal channels and specified speaker placement. Material created for one multi-channel format is generally locked into that format by the sheer effort required to remix it for another speaker configuration, especially if the target format has more channels.

OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING

The other, more recently developed approach is being identified as object-based audio. In this approach, sounds (eg. voices, effects, instruments, etc) are treated as discrete objects located in the three-dimensional acoustic space of the auditorium. During mixdown each sound

object is recorded along with information about its location. On replay, digital signal processing is used to calculate the most accurate possible placement of the sound using the actual multichannel replay system in the screening space.

While entailing much more signal processing at time of replay, object-based replay is intended to provide the optimum placement of each sound that’s possible in any given configuration and so can take advantage of as many speaker channels as an exhibitor chooses to provide.

AURO 11.1 BY BARCO

Projector manufacturer Barco’s new Auro 11.1 system – licensed from Auro Technologies’ Auro 3D system – assigns audio elements to specific channels, but doubles the 5.1 surround system into low and high rows on the left, right and rear walls, and adds left and right overhead speaker ‘stripes' on the ceiling.

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Left: A model of a Dolby Atmos auditorium where speakers completely encompass the audience.

Above: A model of the Auro 11.1 system licensed to Barco showing the three layers of this system: the existing 5.1 surround (orange), the additional height layer (blue) and the additional overhead layer (magenta).

“sounds are treated as discrete objects located in the three-dimensional acoustic space of the auditorium”

Barco’s senior director of business development, Brian Claypool, says Auro 11.1 fulfilled a need expressed by the industry for an updated immersive audio technology that could “keep as much standard workflow practices as possible.” Further to this aim, Auro is mastered in 11.1 but then encoded into a 5.1, linear PCM stream. A Barco installation is also adaptable to any object-based standard that may arrive. Its processors all have slots for expansion modules to support object-based rendering, and Auro Technologies’ content-creation tools can already mix in, and export, object-based audio (including MDA – see below). Claypool adds, “Even though going object based makes things slightly more complex on the production and distribution side, we’ve designed the system to ensure that when we upgrade to support those modes, it’s not costprohibitive for exhibitors to support it.” So far, more than 50 titles have been mixed in Auro 11.1, including Superman 2 for example, and it has been adopted in over 35 major studios. For 2014, it is either deployed or committed in over 450 screens worldwide.

DTS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL AUDIO

MDA (Multi-Dimensional Audio) is an objectbased immersive audio model that was invented

by SRS Labs and acquired by DTS. As VP of Emerging Technologies at DTS, Ton Kalker says, “MDA is object based, it’s immersive, and we want to offer it as an open standard and royalty free”.

039

Barco is part of an alliance of content creators, tool makers, exhibitors and studios that are backing and actively contributing to MDA as a viable new standard. The alliance, known as the MDA Proponents Group, aims to deliver a platform ranging “from production to rendering in an actual cinema,” says Kalker. This includes specifying the relevant metadata for an objectbased audio stream, defining how that metadata translates into an ‘acoustical experience, and turning this audio model into an actual bitstream. While more speakers will ensure better immersion, being object-based, MDA playback will not necessarily be contingent on a specific speaker configuration. Kalker explains: “You could play it back in a theatre with 48 speakers, or you could play it at home with 5.1, stereo, or what have you. It’s the same bit-stream but it’s rendered differently depending on the context.”

DOLBY ATMOS

While MDA has been tested in theatres with what Kalker refers to as ‘professional content’, it has not yet been commercially deployed. This is in stark contrast to the deployment of Auro 11.1 and Dolby’s Atmos system, and could work against MDA at the negotiating table. As Dean Bullock of Dolby laboratories argued at this year’s CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas: “We don’t want to standardise on theory; we don’t want to standardise on unknown technologies.”

Rather, he asserts that the best standards are those based on what works in the real world.

That real world has Dolby’s Atmos installed or guaranteed in over 450 screens worldwide for 2014, has been used to mix over 100 titles (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a notable recent example) and is already employed in over 55 mixing facilities.

Like its competitors, Dolby Atmos requires

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Dolby Atmos 3D panner interface for positioning sound objects in the auditorium space.

The UI for the ProTools Dolby Atmos Monitor plug-in

overhead speakers, but in contrast to Auro 11.1 it retains a single surround layer that is filled in with additional speakers behind the screen and in the side surrounds. This is to enhance its panthrough array technology, which frees individual speakers from zones and allows them to operate independently or as groups (which it calls ‘beds’) to position sounds in a three-dimensional space. It is essentially a hybrid system, utilising a combination of object- and channel-based technology. As Bullock notes, Dolby Atmos is also designed to be adaptable, meaning it can export in a format that, “Correctly and accurately renders the artistic intent of the mix in any-sized room that has been configured for Dolby Atmos playback.”

licence terms, but for the most part, I think all of the proponents feel that they compete in the marketplace based on the theatre equipment and the actual implementation.”

ENTER SMPTE

Clearly all of the above mentioned systems are effective and catching on, but for a truly open, interoperable standard to emerge, no one brand can (or should) simply become the next standard.

That’s why SMPTE was asked by studios, exhibitors, industry bodies and manufacturers alike to mediate. It established a working group entitled 25CSS (CSS stands for Cinema Surround Sound), and the chair of this committee is the CTO of San Francisco’s Mission Rock Digital, Pete Ludé. He says the competing manufacturers aren’t necessarily vying for their own tech to become the new standard. “Everybody is very anxious to work towards an open system,” says Ludé, “and if there is proprietary technology, that would be made available under appropriate

THE ROAD AHEAD

At the end of the day, it may be the studios and exhibitors who have the most at stake in getting this standard published in a timely fashion, as they are the ones spending time and money mixing and implementing numerous audio formats for every film. As Barco’s Brian Claypool admits, once Auro and Atmos started to gain traction with exhibitors, “the studios kind of pushed back on both of us and said, ‘now hold on you guys, you have got to talk to each other.’”

Regardless of what form the new standard takes, the implications for audiences are significant. After all, the next generation of immersive audio has been compared to the leap between stereo and 5.1. Ludé anticipates that a standard will be agreed upon within 12 months, and we can be certain that Barco and Dolby will continue to push the adoption of their proprietary systems in the meantime. So watch, or should I say listen to, this (3D) space.  MORE INFORMATION: Barco Auro 11.1: www.barco.com/en/auro11-1 Auro Technologies: www.auro-3d.com DTS: www.dts.com Dolby Atmos: www.dolby.com/atmos SMPTE: www.smpte.org

SMPTE’S ROLE Importantly, it isn’t actually up to SMPTE to decide what the new standard will be. As John P. Maizels, the society’s Regional Governor for Asia/ Australia, points out: “SMPTE's responsibility is to identify areas in which standards need to be developed and then bring together and manage the people who ultimately develop them. It then publishes and maintains the resulting standards.”

So, contrary to what many may assume, SMPTE cannot mandate or police the implementation of standards. Maizels further adds that the society serves three distinct roles: membership, education and standards, the first two of which are the sole focus of its Australian section.

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TUTORIAL

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TUTORIAL

Soundfirm: Picture Perfect Welcome to the new Dolby Atmos mix theatre in Soundfirm’s Melbourne studios.

Text:/ Christopher Holder Images:/ Courtesy Soundfirm

When Roger Savage was preparing to move into bigger and better digs in South Melbourne he knew something was brewing at Dolby Labs.

Regardless of any new surround format on the horizon Roger had already drawn up plans for a new Soundfirm flagship mix theatre. The aim: to have the premier film sound mix room in Australia. The fact that Dolby had plans of its own simply meant that Soundfirm could futureproof itself.

The room is a beauty; the audio and vision is superb.

From an audio perspective, Roger’s 2IC, re-recording mixer and sound designer Chris Goodes, had caught up with Meyer Sound’s cinema loudspeakers while on a study tour of the US. Dolby had arranged for a demo of Atmos at one of the Skywalker Ranch mix rooms equipped with Meyer’s loudspeakers. When the showreel sparked up, Chris emitted an audible gasp of admiration: “We’ve not got to the impressive

bit yet Chris,” noted the Dolby dude. To which he replied: “It’s the dialog. I’ve never heard dialog sound so good.” (The Acheron’s 580Hz crossover point places most of the dialog in the horn, which makes it particularly well suited to cinema applications.)

The die was cast: the new room would be a Meyer Sound room.

It would also be a Harrison room. Roger has been a Harrison Consoles man for some time.

The new Trion is a version of the company’s MPC5. It’s a disarmingly unadorned console. It’s like the company had spent 90% of its budget on the best/brightest coders in the land, and then designed the aesthetics/GUI in an afternoon at the company BBQ. That said, the Trion is a sound-for-picture thoroughbred: Chris Goodes: “I’m a big fan of using the EQ and processing on the console. It’s so quick to call it up on the console. It’s all in line: compression, EQ, 16 aux and panning plus your bus outputs,

which are all automatable — something ProTools still can’t do is automate your outputs. The automation is rock solid, fast and simple; very easy to edit then reconform the automation.

“Also, Harrison is now releasing an Atmosspecific panning ‘plug-in’ that allows you to hit a button on the relevant channel which then auto reassigns that channel input on the router — takes it out of the main mix and automatically turns it into an Object for panning. That info gets stored as the metadata for that Object. It’ll make workflow so much simpler.”

Roger spec’ed his Trion to include an impressive complement of faders and allow the room to accommodate two or even three operators: Roger Savage: “You can have a sweetspot over 16 faders, and pull in any input across those faders. So if there aren’t two operators you can do that. The truth is, we have more faders than we need. But someone used to mixing in Hollywood

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ABOUT DOLBY ATMOS SURROUND FORMAT • The Atmos Rendering & Mastering Unit (RMU) accepts 10 bed tracks/stems (up to 9.1) which can be mixed/panned as per usual.

• Additionally, as many as 118 individual sounds can be pulled out of the main mix and addressed as Objects to be steered around the room based on vector metadata. Atmos replay hardware in the cinema renders the info in real time for each Object related to the installed speaker layout.

• Each speaker channel can be addressed discretely by an Object.

• Each speaker is full range.

• Each Atmos room or cinema needs to be Dolby accredited. Prior to use, a Dolby rep will ping the room which applies Lake processing across every channel — every Atmos room should (theoretically) sound the same regardless of size.

Left: Soundfirm's brand new Doby Atmos mix facility in Melbourne.

Right: Each sound object is allocated an identifier before being moved and tracked through the 3D acoustic space.

will want two mix engineers, sometimes three.

And if money is no object, naturally, that’s a good thing.”

Wedged between the two halves of Trion is a Smart AV Tango controller. Roger uses his Tango to dig into ’Tools and make tweaks or write automation within stems. Roger calls it a ‘hybrid’ approach. You can have your ProTools sessions coming up as many or as little of the Trion’s input channels as you like, with the Tango bringing its motorised faders and touchscreen to bear on what’s ‘in the box’.

Mind you, Tango uses the now-venerable HUI protocol to control ProTools.

THE ATMOS SPHERE

Atmos is new and a pain in the bottom line to install into an existing movie theatre. Not so hard for new builds. Which goes to explain why there are so many Atmos-equipped theatres springing up in the land of the new build: China.

As it happens, Soundfirm is big in the People’s Republic. It has a Beijing branch office, in fact.

Saying that, Soundfirm Melbourne houses the studio chain’s only Atmos room. So when the final mix of Filmko Entertainment’s big-budget, CGI-heavy blockbuster, The Monkey King, arrived in the inbox, it headed south.

Chris Goodes: “We got the bed tracks premixed in 9.1. We ran a ProTools HDX2 rig that was full: 512 voices coming into the console

on 112 inputs. We had another ProTools system loaded with another 256 voices and other FX. “We mixed natively in Atmos from the beginning, which meant there was no need to undo the original surround sound mix. It also allowed us to have fun separating out elements such as the music. For example, we placed the choir in the ceiling at one point making more space on screen.

“So the final mix was mostly 9.1 with the occasional Object movement. But those moments really pop when they’re happening.”

They sure do. Fight scenes — of which there are plenty — are dynamic beyond anything you’ve heard in conventional surround. And loud. With nearly 50 full-range loudspeakers coming atcha full throttle, it makes for some intense sonic moments.

Before the final cinema mixes were due, the film studio needed a 5.1 version ready for Chinese new year. With time of the essence, Chris hit the ‘5.1 Fold Down’ button on the Dolby RMU and was pleasantly surprised.

Chris Goodes: “The 5.1 auto fold down worked very well. We played through the whole film and it sounded great. Dolby had done a lot of work in the coding. Even perceptively, they’re doing some clever things with height — pychoacoustically it’s approximating some of the height information from the Atmos mix.”

FUTURE READY?

Like any big generational change, it’ll take time for the Atmos juggernaut to truly gain momentum.

Cinema take up in this part of the world is slow, and as a result local producers aren’t jumping out of their skin to pony-up for an Atmos mix. But as a sound professional or, indeed, as a film director, once you’ve heard what an Atmos mix is capable of, there’s no way of unhearing it. The creative possibilities are endless. Only time will tell just how much audiences will demand it.

Roger Savage clearly sees it as a big part of his future: “We’re building an Atmos room in Soundfirm Beijing at the moment. It’s hard to find a room big enough in downtown Beijing. But that’s now happening. We believe in Atmos and are excited by its future.”  MORE INFORMATION: Soundfirm: www.soundfirm.com

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TUTORIAL

A Question Of Royalties The AV guide to copyright and music reproduction.

Text:/ Jen Temm

We all know – or should by now – that you need licences to play music, videos and broadcasts in a business, shop, at an event, or any other non-domestic setting. This applies to live performances, recordings, broadcasts and even the hold music on a phone system, in pretty much any commercial context.

Even free performances with small audiences are regarded as public performances, according to the Australian Copyright Council. Courts have held that the screening of an information video to 11 bank employees outside business hours was a public performance of the music on the video, as was the music played by an orchestra to members of a social club even though no admission was charged. Music at events such as weddings and birthday celebrations, however, are considered private, even if they occur in commercial venues.

What’s not so clear is who is responsible for obtaining the licences and which ones you need, with different collecting societies offering numerous categories of licensing with overlapping authority.

Basically if you are the owner or operator of a

venue, event or retail outlet running background music or video, it’s your responsibility to ensure you have paid for the right to do so. If you’re in a band performing a show, you need to make sure either you or whoever organised the performance has the right licences. If you’re installing or operating an audio or AV system in a public space, you are probably not liable for the use of that system but the law can be complex: you can infringe copyright by authorising unlicensed material, according to the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA).

“Authorisation is where you direct or sanction the use of infringing material,” says PPCA general manager Lynne Small. “Our recommendation would be to check with the venue and make sure they have the correct licences in place.”

COPYRIGHT OR WRONG?

And it gets even murkier after that. There are at least two copyrights in most music recordings and videos: • The copyright in the song, or the musical works and lyrics – licences from

the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS).

• The copyright in the recordings – licences from the PPCA, or directly from the individual record labels.

Additionally, if you’re making copies of recordings, for example for use in a retail store, you’ll need to obtain a licence from either PPCA, which offers a blanket licence for up to 250 copies, or from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for greater quantities. Note also these reproduction licences aren’t exclusive, and businesses can and do negotiate directly with record labels for these licences as well.

Permission to use films, DVDs and videos operate separately from music licensing authorities but Roadshow Films has a division that offers public performance licensing on behalf of the major film studios – although permission to use clips may need to be negotiated directly, and you’ll need separate licences for the music

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PUBLIC PERFORMANCE

COMMUNICATION

REPRODUCTION*

APRA/ AMCOS

PPCA

ARIA

Radio / TV# (incl digital/ analogue hannels, pay and free-to-air TV services)







Recorded Music (i.e. CD, DVD, MP3, LP, tape, jukebox etc.)







DJs / music for dancing







Live Bands / Performers







Music On Hold







Streaming from a website, internet radio, podcasts







Production music







Dubbing to be used for public performances







Audio and audiovisual for dance schools







* PPCA are also able to offer a limited reproduction licence for reproductions used as background music only. # PPCA does licence the public performance of communications such as internet radio and TV only in this respect.

(Table details supplied by APRA/AMCOS)

and sound recordings in the film from APRA/ AMCOS and PPCA. Licence fee structures are determined by how the music is used, and the scale of the use. So, for instance, an annual school fete might need licences from APRA/AMCOS and PPCA to play background music at a cost of around $110, while a nightclub might need to pay well over $100,000 per year for multiple licences that cover different activities on different nights and could be calculated according to the type of activity, the cost of live performers, the size of the premises and the number of patrons.

While there are no statistics on licensing compliance available, the collecting societies agree that most businesses are aware of their licensing responsibilities and comply with requirements. APRA/AMCOS says it has 107,000 businesses licensed to use music, and issued nearly 5000 one-off event licences last year. But not all do, and the consequences can be dire with penalties ranging from injunctions, damages and court costs, to fines of up to $302,500 and five years imprisonment for corporations, for each infringement [see box].

It’s worth noting that currently, new online streaming music services such as Spotify may only be licensed for personal use and not for public performance reproduction. While this is under dispute from the collecting agencies, the official line to AV from Spotify is that its “agreements with publishers, aggregators and labels, including APRA/AMCOS, license Spotify the use of their

content only for the individual customer’s private and domestic use. We currently do not have the licences in place for any commercial exploitation of the content on the service”. So if you’re playing streaming music in your venue or shop, you should probably stop and check with your service provider.

WHO’S WHO

The Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) administers the public performance rights of more than 73,000 composer, songwriter and music publisher members in Australia and New Zealand. Public performances music include music used in pubs, clubs, fitness centres, shops, cinemas and festivals, where performed live, via recordings, or played on radio or television.

Communication of music also includes music used for music-on-hold, accessed over the internet or used by broadcasters.

The Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) collects and distributes royalties for the reproduction of its nearly 11,000 members’ musical works for purposes including the manufacture of CDs, music videos and DVDs, digital downloads and the same of mobile phone ringtones, the use of production music and the making of radio and television programmes. AMCOS’s day-to-day operations are managed by APRA. The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) grants licences for the broadcast, communication or public playing of

LICENCE TO PAY Fines, damages, interest and court costs can add up quickly, as you can see from this range of judgements in the Federal Magistrates Court where venues and retail outlets have breached public performance copyrights.

PPCA v Evermore Entertainment T/A Nevermind Nightclub, Sydney Federal Circuit Court, April 2013 Sound recordings played in public without licence Damages $57,122 Fine $200,000 Interest $4754 Court costs $8200 PPCA v The Martini Lounge & Nightclub T/A The Martini Lounge, Carlton Federal Magistrates Court, January 2013 Sound recordings played in public without licence Damages $15,212 Fine $138,137 Interest $2250 Court costs $8200 PPCA v Advanced Body & Beauty Care T/A Advanced Body & Beauty Care, Leichhardt and Parramatta Federal Magistrates Court, June 2012 Sound recordings played in public without licence Damages $542 Fine $50,000 Court costs $8200 PPCA v Camilleri T/A X on Albert, Sebastopol Federal Magistrates Court, February 2012 Music played from jukebox without licence Fine $30,000 Court costs $8200 PPCA v Jabouri Brothers T/A Voodoo Clothing chain, NSW Federal Magistrates Court, October 2011 Sound recordings played in public without licence Damages $1844 Fine $30,000 Court costs $8200

046

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TUTORIAL

recorded music (eg. CDs, records and digital downloads) or music videos. The fees are then distributed to the record labels and Australian recording artists.

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) represents more than 100 members. It is able to grant blanket licences for the reproduction of sound recordings in certain circumstances, such as licences for background music suppliers in Australia who need to make copies of music recordings to supply to commercial premises.

Music Rights Australia represents more than 70,000 songwriters and music publishers through their association with AMCOS and more than 125 record labels through ARIA. Originally an anti-piracy unit, its main function now is to protect the copyright interests of artists in the Australian music community through education and advocacy, and government lobbying. The organisation also has a Report Piracy function on their website to report copyright breaches.

Roadshow Public Performance Licensing is Australasia’s largest non-theatrical film distributor and offers licences to screen films in schools, churches, hotels, clubs, restaurants and outdoor events and more. It represents most major studios and independent distributors including Fox, Warner Bros, Icon, Palace Films, Paramount, Pinnacle, Roadshow, MGM, Studiocanal, Disney, Hopscotch, Sony, Universal, Madman, and Umbrella Entertainment.

The Australian Copyright Council represents the peak bodies for professional artists and content creators working in Australia’s creative industries, and the major copyright collecting societies. It provides information, legal advice, education and forums on Australian copyright law for creators and consumers.

The Copyright Tribunal of Australia is administered by the Federal Court of Australia, and acts as an independent arbiter in setting and reviewing copyright licence fees and resolving disputes. 

MORE INFORMATION APRA/AMCOS: (02) 9935 7900 or www.apra-amcos.com.au PPCA: (02) 8569 1100 or www.ppca.com.au ARIA: (02) 8569 1144 or www.aria.com.au Music Rights Australia: (02) 8569 1177 or www.musicrights.com.au Roadshow Public Performance Licensing: (02) 9552 8685 or www.roadshowppl.com.au Australian Copyright Council: (02) 8815 977 or www.copyright.org.au Copyright Tribunal of Australia: (02) 9230 8567 or www.copyrighttribunal.gov.au

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REVIEW

PRO AUDIO • AUDIO VISUAL • INTEGRATION • LIGHTING • STAGING

ENTECH CONNECT is the must attend event for audio visual, pro audio, staging, lighting, integration and broadcast professionals.

RE GI

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23-24 JULY 2014 Royal Exhibition Building | Melbourne Find out more: entechshow.com.au/entechconnect Don’t miss the session with international lighting designer LeRoy Bennett, who has worked with the world’s leading performance artists including Beyoncé, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Nine Inch Nails and Rihanna.

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048

NEWS

InfoComm News

News from the Oceania Region ARE YOU TOUGH ENOUGH FOR DESIGN BOOTCAMP?

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Register online at infocomm.org or contact us at oceania@infocomm.org.

InfoComm has a large range of free webinars that are available to members at no charge. Here are a few upcoming opportunities to learn without leaving your office. Register at infocomm.org.

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The Reality of Radio Frequency (RF) Access Changes to AV Users May 29, 12:00 p.m. Sydney As a consequence of the Analogue to Digital Switchover and the subsequent sell-off of this spectrum, wireless microphones have become a mainstay topic for AV users. This seminar will cover how different types of wireless systems operate, from analogue to digital, from UHF to 2.4GHz, and further aim to demystify some of the confusion that surrounds this vital topic for the AV industry.

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NETWORKED AV SYSTEMS CLASS CONTINUES TO DRAW WELL IN OCEANIA

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049

TUTORIAL

Laying Out a Distributed Loudspeaker System The following is an excerpt from Design Online.

These topics will be covered in greater detail, with added project based skills practice, during InfoComm’s AV Design Bootcamp in Sydney July 2 ‑ 11. For more information, visit infocomm.org

with the audience standing compared with a higher ceiling and a seated audience.

A distributed loudspeaker system employs multiple loudspeakers which are separated by some distance from each other. This is most commonly done by placing them in the ceiling above the audience area. This type of system is typically used when there is no need for the sound to come from a specific location, the ceiling height is low and/or listeners don't have line of sight to a central cluster of speakers, or the sound source location can vary.

CALCULATING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKER COVERAGE

In order to design a distributed layout, two things must first be determined: the loudspeaker’s coverage angle and listener ear level. From this you can calculate the area each loudspeaker will cover.

The loudspeaker manufacturer’s polar pattern directivity information is used to create a section view of a loudspeaker and its coverage angle.

By referencing the polar pattern information, you find the angle at which highest required frequency is 6dB below the on-axis level. As an example, this might be at 40° off-axis, which would provide a full 80° of coverage for that frequency.

Loudspeaker Dispersion Polar Plot 90° 60°

-6dB

30°

0° -36 -24 -18 -12 -6 0dB

Note -6dB crossing at approx. 40°.

Octave Bands Normalized to Zero On Axis.

Measured at 2000Hz (2kHz approx. center of speech band). This device would be said to have a dispersion of 80°, 2kHz Octave Band, -6dB points.

2kHz is used as the measurement frequency because of the importance of this band for speech intelligibility.

Next, you must determine the listener ear height: the highest level is of interest. If you are designing a multi-purpose room where the audience may be standing for some presentations and seated for others, design for the standing audience. For any loudspeaker the size of the coverage circle is significantly less for a low ceiling

ear, which can cause phase cancellation. Also, too much sound in the presentation area can cause feedback, so either don’t place loudspeakers in that area or set them to a reduced level.

These are the six common arrangements for distributed ceiling loudspeaker systems: Edge totoedge Edge edge

Formula LOUDSPEAKER COVERAGE AREA Calculates the diameter of the coverage area of a loudspeaker D = 2 * (H - h) * tan(C / 2) Where: D is the diameter of the coverage area H is the ceiling height h is the height of the listeners' ears C is the loudspeaker's angle of coverage in degrees

For example, if the loudspeaker has an 80° coverage angle, the ceiling height is 3.7m, and the audience is seated (ear level = 1.2m), the coverage circle diameter is: D = 2 * (H - h) * tan (C / 2) D = 2 * (3.7 - 1.2) * tan (80 / 2) D = 2 * 2.5 * tan 40 D = 5 * 0.839 D = 4.2m (radius = 2.1m) LAYOUT OPTIONS

When distributing loudspeakers, the goal is to place them in a layout to produce uniform sound coverage. There are a number of different layouts, and the one chosen may be a compromise between the ideal and the attainable. Often, the available space for the loudspeakers or the budget is less than desired, forcing a compromise to be sought.

The uniformity of coverage is the greatest difference between the layouts. Generally, the more dense the layout, the more uniform the coverage will be; but there may be an increase in interaction between sound from adjacent loudspeakers.

Designers should strive to minimise coverage where it is not needed, or where it can create problems. For example, loudspeakers should not be placed in a position which causes sound waves to strike a wall before arriving at the listener’s

With Withoverlap overlap

Edge tocenter center Edge to

Square edge-to-edge coverage places the loudspeakers so that the edge of their coverage circle touches the adjacent loudspeaker’s at listeners' ear level. There is no overlap of the loudspeaker circles, resulting in significant gaps for this configuration. It is an inexpensive approach, resulting in minimum interaction between loudspeakers. However, edge to edge arrangement may result in an uneven frequency response, plus low levels in the corners of the coverage area. This is the least favourable configuration for business communications, but may be quite appropriate for general paging or background music. Level variation for this configuration is about 4.4dB. Hexagonal edge-to-edge layouts also employ the non-overlapping concept. They are still not suited to business communications settings.

Coverage variation is about 5.4dB. Square partial, or minimum, overlap is one of the most commonly used configurations. It provides very good coverage at most frequencies with about 2dB of variation, and ensures few or no low spots. However, this layout may not produce an entirely even frequency response because of the drop-off in coverage angle with increasing frequency. Partial overlap may create some negative acoustic interaction between adjacent loudspeakers.

Hexagonal partial overlap has a coverage variation of about 2.6dB. Square centre-to-centre, or 50% overlap, provides excellent coverage at most frequencies with about 1.4dB variation. However, it is a costly approach and is likely to be a denser layout than required. The high degree of overlap may also result in negative interaction with the sound from nearby loudspeakers, and inject too much acoustical energy into the space.

Hexagonal centre-to-centre overlap has a variation of about ±1.2dB. 

050

HUMOUR?

Termination Automation, remote control and the (rear) end of humanity Text:/ Graeme Hague

Imagine this conversation in about 50 years’ time.

Guest: Hey, what’s that weird square thing on the wall?

Host: It’s a retro door.

Guest: A what?

Host: A retro door – you have to operate it yourself.

Guest: How does it work?

Host: Here, I’ll show you. You just turn this tactile knob and pull, and the whole thing just swings towards you.

Guest: Bloody hell, that looks dangerous!

Host: Absolutely. People used to get black eyes from running into these things all the time. It even happened to President Packer’s grandfather once, back in 2014. At least, that’s what it says on Packerpedia.

All right, maybe my crystal ball needs a bit of a polish.

However, I can safely say that our dream obsession with the future over the last fifty years has been all about not having to do anything for ourselves. All doors will slide open (if not dematerialise altogether) when we’re detected as being close enough. Voice commands will control lights, music, the garden sprinklers – pretty much every electronic device you can imagine. Our futuristic ideal is basically an amalgam of every Star Trek episode from the original 1960s series.

We used to think Captain Kirk’s communicator was an impossible dream. Now only Vodaphone subscribers believe that.

THE FUTURE IS HERE ALREADY

The AV industry is making it all happen today.

The ability for centralised control of an entire spaceship – sorry, building – voice commands

that can trigger anything from putting a Klingon on-screen to placing a burger made from recycled human waste on your plate, instant communication with anybody in the entire world… these are realities right now. Okay, maybe not the Klingon thing and we’ll not examine any burgers too closely. Still, the rest is real and things will only keep changing faster. In 50 years’ time we’ll be installing AV with Cat17 cable, there will be so much wi-fi in the air you’ll be able to fence your chooks in with it, and it’ll be possible to paint a new television onto any wall you want – and it’ll work. The commercial stations at least, unfortunately.

What’s more important is that we, as individuals, won’t have to do a thing. If we’re not carrying some form of remote control such as an iPad or tablet, it’s guaranteed that within reach will be a controller. In 2064 whenever somebody says ‘He wouldn’t lift a finger to help himself’ it’ll be quite literal. That’s all anyone will have to do – lift a finger – to achieve anything. Maybe speak loudly at the same time.

In fact, it’s a scary thing to look around your house and identify the things that can't already be programmed, automated or remotely controlled somehow. Most things are just a silicon chip away from being wirelessly operated, too.

There’s another problem. A serious one.

All this sedentary, Star Trek-like existence is supposed to also result in all of us looking svelte, fit and trim in those odd, space crew tracksuits, but that’s not happening. Obesity is an epidemic and dieting is almost mandatory.

AV & THE OBESITY CONSPIRACY

Which has led me to suspect a world-wide conspiracy involving leading AV manufacturers, network ‘smart technology’ developers and the diet industry. It's not the kind of connection

many investigative columnists might make, but you can’t deny a direct correlation between the modern-day emphasis on reducing physical interaction with our environment (like, pushing buttons) and the fact we're all turning into fat bastards – a medical term I found on the internet.

I can present as proof that I am personally on a diet myself. It’s called the 5.2 diet (I thought my wife was suggesting a new surround-sound stereo system, which is why I agreed to it a little too quickly) and for two days a week you’re only allowed 600 calories. Before you ask, I can tell you that 600 calories is equal to a deep breath of fresh air downwind from a pie van. That’s all.

So my conspiracy theory is born from intensive and exhaustive research on my part – or possibly a ridiculously low blood-sugar level. If I’m right and the research is accurate, we need to do something about it before we’re completely held to ransom by evil Weight Watcher-like corporations.

MOVE ALONG PLEASE

We need to make diets redundant. My idea is to install motion detectors inside and around any smart device or remote control. None of them will work unless you’re moving – burning calories.

For example, if you’re sitting on the lounge watching TV and want to change channels, the remote won't function unless you're moving. Situps, perhaps. Maybe bicep curls. Control stations on walls can't be used until you’re jogging on the spot. Viewing fast food digital signage will require star jumps.

I have to write this fast, because I think someone from Jenny Craig will be bashing on my door soon – a door that will be worth a lot of money in 50 years, don’t forget.

Or maybe I should slow down and make a nice cuppa with a lot of sugar? I mean, like a lot. 

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