AV Magazine Issue 23

issue #23 $6.95

WINNING IS EVERYTHING: SPORTS SCIENCE AT VICTORIA UNI NEW SIM PLATFORM: PERTH’S OFFSHORE OPERATIONS SIMULATOR RIO DIGS PROJECTION: CUSTOMS HOUSE GETS MAPPED

Bring images to life with the superior quality of Japanese design and engineering.

Whether it’s a small classroom or a giant sporting stadium, Mitsubishi Electric has the visual display solution to suit your needs. With the freedom to choose from a large range of home or business projectors, commercial LCD monitors, Video Wall systems or large format Diamond Vision LED screens, the possibilities are only limited by your vision.

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VISUAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Mitsubishi Electric Australia Pty Ltd, 348 Victoria Rd Rydalmere NSW 2116 www.MitsubishiElectric.com.au ph: (02) 9684 7777 fax (02) 9684 7208

DS8000 Digital Wireless Microphone Systems Pro Spec: 24-bit audio quality for concert stage, recording studio and broadcast.

Fail-Safe Redundancy: System automatically detects a system fault and seamlessly switches to the backup system. For example, when the system senses a battery is about to die it automatically switches to the backup transmitter and receiver and sends a text message to tech support.

Mission-Critical Audio

Production Audio Services New Zealand P.+64 (0) 9272 8041 sales@productionaudio.com.nz www.productionaudio.com.nz

Production Audio Services Pty Ltd P.(03) 9264 8000 info@productionaudio.com.au www.productionaudio.com.au

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Editorial CRTs – Fixing What Wasn’t Broken There’s no doubt that our new thin and flat video panels are more compact than the nearly-departed cathode ray tube displays. Unquestionably, many of our current applications for flat panels were just not practicable, cost-effective or in some cases even feasible using CRT displays. I recall with a bit of a cringe some of the more adventurous CRT videowall installations that appeared in museums, nightclubs and retail installations.

The substantial bezels between CRTs and the distortion from the convex tubes were not entirely convincing as a seamless large-screen image, although they proved very popular running endless glam-rock video clips in untold-thousands of fashion clothing shops across the world. As flat-screen CRTs became available, at least some of those limitations began to ease.

While the weight, cooling and power demands of today’s LCD panels may be much lower than for a similar area of CRTs, that certainly isn’t the case for either plasma or LED panels.

While the CRT videowalls may now have been dismantled and their components disposed of in a thoughtful, environmentallysensitive way, the reality is that the CRT has by no means followed the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) into extinction (although down here in Tassie there are still fairly regular, wishful, and totally unsubstantiated, claims of Thylacine sightings).

There are still a fair number of precision CRTs in use that have colour accuracy and colour gamuts that are only now being matched by flat panel displays, usually at premium prices that don’t encourage anyone to rush out and spend a lot of money just to get back a bit of space on the desk or behind the monitor

bay. Although reclaiming desk, rack and wall space from the CRT was an oft-quoted excuse for replacing perfectly good CRT monitors, I’ve yet to see that salvaged space used for anything much other than storing either more equipment, or more likely, uncategorised desk smegma.

Most of the CRTs still out there are doing a perfectly adequate job as single-screen signs, confidence monitors, system monitors and video foldbacks for organisations which can’t justify throwing away any equipment on the basis it’s no longer fashionable. What are we going to use when all those indestructible 9-inch CRT monitors eventually die from careless mishandling? Perhaps robust polymer-screened Organic LED monitors will prove as tolerant to abuse.

Like most of us I hadn’t given the CRT a lot of thought lately, but when Rod Brown at InfoComm sent in the InfoComm University course taster for this issue, which is on the kind of video system fault finding that most of us from previous generations of technology can do almost unconsciously, it occurred to me that the generation of techs who’ve never owned a vinyl record or used a telephone box would be completely at sea identifying problems with composite video on all these CRTs. Thanks Rod.  Andy Ciddor, Editor Contact Andy on andy@av.net.au

the AV Industry’s Lunchroom Noticeboard • Who’s doing what work where • What’s happening on the technology front • What training is available • Who’s hiring

Subscribe now: www.av.net.au

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- LS9-32 digital mixer with digital multicore

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Yamaha Commercial Audio provides design services, EASE ™ modelling, programming, commissioning and training to make your PA investment the best possible value for money.

Yamaha integrated PA systems take care of your entire signal chain, from input to output, giving you perfect integration and an unbeatable one-supplier advantage.

Contact Yamaha Commercial Audio on 03 9693 5272 or jason_allen@gmx.yamaha.com for more information and make your next installation the best it can be.

Follow us on Twitter - Yamaha_CA_Aust Find us on LinkedIn - Yamaha Commercial Audio Australia

QLD

Crew Paul is technical producer/director and co-owner at The Events Activation Resource (The EAR), a company specialising in large scale corporate and entertainment technical event management, and has worked in video projection and multimedia since 1992. He has been involved in video production management for events in the corporate, broadcast, exhibition, fashion and entertainment industries, and has toured extensively. He has expert knowledge of multimedia, content creation and complex live video systems.

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)

After spending five years desiging and installing sound, communication and network systems in the Big House, Cameron has now been released out into the Real World. Prior to the ‘House, Cameron worked as a freelance theatre technician on commercial shows..

A staunch believer in technology and combined networking, he now wanders the country in search of venues in need of communications assistance.

Publication Manager: Stewart Woodhill (stewart@av.net.au) Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@av.net.au) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@av.net.au) Art Direction & Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Additional Design: Leigh Ericksen (leigh@alchemedia.com.au) News Editor: Graeme Hague (news@av.net.au) Accounts: Jen Temm (jen@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@av.net.au)

Matt is a freelance technical writer with a background in marketing and a focus on lighting and entertainment.

He contributes to publications around the world and provides media and marketing services for the entertainment industry. A strong contributor to Melbourne's independent theatre scene, he has worked as a producer, director, actor, stage manager, and more recently as a lighting designer. Matt is a produced playwright and budding screenwriter (although Hollywood doesn't think so... yet) and freelances his reviewing skills both online and in print.

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 2012 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. 20/3/12

Kym Davies is a Director, Actor, Designer, Technician and Writer, who has worked extensively in community and independent theatre in Melbourne. She is currently an associate writer and contributor to Jacksontrainfence Media Services.

Kym also writes theatre reviews and is working on her first novel.

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TLP 1000 Series 10" TouchLink Touchpanels

Configurable Control for Larger AV Systems The Extron TLP 1000MV and TLP 1000TV are fully configurable 10" TouchLink™ touchpanels featuring a sleek, contemporary look and thin bezels to complement any decor. The larger, 1024 x 600 resolution touchscreen surface provides ample room for sophisticated controls and graphics. An integrated MTP twisted pair receiver accepts S-video or composite video and audio input signals over standard CAT 5 cable. Power over Ethernet – PoE, allows the touchpanels to receive power via the Ethernet connector, eliminating the need for a local power supply. The TLP 1000MV mounts on a wall, lectern, or other flat surface, while the TLP 1000TV sits on a tabletop or installs on a VESA mount. Both touchpanel models are ideal for control environments that require a larger control surface within an elegant touchpanel design.

Key Features: • Fully-configurable touchpanel control systems provide powerful control with no programming required • 10" color touchscreen with 1024 x 600 resolution and 18-bit color depth • Integrated Ethernet port compatible with IP Link® control processors

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• Power over Ethernet allows the touchpanel to receive power via the Ethernet connector, eliminating the need for a local power supply • Contemporary, thin bezel designs complement the aesthetics of any environment • The TLP 1000MV mounts on a wall, lectern, or other flat surface, while the TLP 1000TV sits on a tabletop or installs on a VESA mount

Australian Distributor of Extron Products

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Issue 23 REGULARS NEWS AV industry news. Includes Australia’s first Clair Bros install at Billboard nightclub.

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INFOCOMM NEWS Regional news from InfoComm.

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TERMINATION You have been pwned!

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FEATURES

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GRAND SLAM AV The AV behind the Australian Open

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WHEN PROJECTION GOES TO RIO Brisbane’s Customs House is transformed by mapped projection.

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VIKING SIM INVASION Offshore maritime simulator.

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GOING ALL OUT FOR SPORTS Victoria Uni’s new multi-award winning exercise science and sports facilities.

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DRIVING THE MESSAGE HOME Relaunching the car launch.

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TUTORIAL

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CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? The premiere of our series on communications sytems.

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VIDEO FAULT FINDING CRTs: What could possibly go wrong?

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REVIEWS PANASONIC PT-DZ110XE Compact 10.6k 3 DLP projector.

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NEWS

AMX TAKES NOTES

ATLONA SWITCHER

AVID GOES AVB

AMX has announced new versions of the Enova DVX-3150HD All-In-One Presentation Switcher after responding to feedback from dealers. Mostly, there was a demand for a model with fewer inputs (and therefore a lower cost); the ability to bring in sources via DXLink inputs; and for models with 70/100V audio amplification. Four smaller designs with a 6 x 3 matrix have been introduced, plus three reconfigurations of the original 3150HD-SP, a 10 x 4 unit, are also available. They all feature AMX technologies like SmartScale, which delivers video that is properly scaled for each connected display, eliminating the integration challenges that can occur when sources and displays have different supported resolutions.

Also onboard is InstaGate Pro, which – without special tools – addresses key constraints and delays posed by HDMI/HDCP, reducing installation time. Each model in the DVX line is expected to provide a complete AV/IT platform for audio, video and networked control for any mixture of digital and analogue sources, multiple displays, and video conferencing.

AMX Australia: (07) 5531 3103 or www.amxaustralia.com.au

The Atlona AT-PRO2HD1616M is a 16 x 16 matrix switcher that can extend HDMI and DVI (with HDMI to DVI adapters) sources up to 100 metres at 1080p or 1920 x 1200 and delivers the best quality signal available with passthrough of 3D, and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio signals. You can control up to 32 devices through IR remote control, RS-232, third-party IR controllers and the front panel. With stereo audio embedding capability users can combine stereo audio with DVI signals over one CAT5e/6/7 cable. To ensure all audio passes through the 16 x 16 matrix switcher it supports both lossy and lossless formats of Dolby and DTS. Functions use the latest HDBaseT-based technology which as we have noted, is fast becoming a new standard. The Atlona ATPRO2HD1616M has eight programmable memory presets and an internal back-up power supply that will keep everything ticking over should someone inadvertently pull that plug.

Avico Electronics: (02) 9624 7977 or www.avico.com.au

Utilising Lab X Technologies’ high channel-count AVB audio platform, Avid has developed an AVB digital snake for live sound as a key component of the Venue SC48 Remote System. The AVB digital snake combined with the Venue SC48 console offers customers the sound and performance Venue systems are known for, plus the flexibility to remotely locate I/O wherever it’s required – yes, a multicore in other words (except it’s not a multicore as such because… never mind). The launch of the Avid Venue SC48 remote system allows Avid to claim delivery of the very first Audio Video Bridging (AVB) digital stage box to the market. You can mix up to 48 inputs and 16 outputs (expandable to 32) between SC48 and Stage 48, the latter being the business end of the snake.

The system also lets you record and play back up to 32 ProTools tracks. For the record, you’ll need the Ethernet Snake Card installed in your SC48.

Avid: www.avid.com

NEWS IN BRIEF:

SMALLER BRIGHTER FASTER: Submerged in the overwhelming torrent of information that poured from AV industry during the recent Integrated Systems Europe trade show in Amsterdam were a couple of interesting announcements that highlight the industry’s constant push for smaller, brighter, faster.

Barco's next generation of LED-powered video wall modules will be 33% brighter and operate for a true 80,000 hours due to the introduction of liquid cooling systems for the LED sources.

It’s ironic that LEDs, the coolest, greenest, most efficient light sources we know, have so much

of a problem with disposing of waste heat. projectiondesign also announced a 30-40% brightness increase in its F12, F22 and F23 single DLP projectors. However, in this case, the brightness increase is the result of improved efficiency in the RGB filter coatings for their VizSim colour wheels.

Or course, while both of these improvements will lead to energy savings, in neither case will the increase in brightness be noticed by viewers, as the human eye simply can’t detect brightness increases less than 100% (ie. 1 f-stop).

Extron’s MediaLink for iPad is an AV control system App. It provides users with an additional point of control for rooms with an installed Ethernet-enabled MediaLink Controller. Presenters can wirelessly control the AV system using a wi-fi network.

Connection Manager allows presenters to control different rooms and provides real-time status and remote control of multiple rooms for troubleshooting and management. MediaLink for iPad is now available for download at the Apple iTunes App store.

RGB Integration: (08) 8351 2188 or www.rgbintegration.com.au

Nexo’s new STM Series (‘Scale Through Modularity’) comprises four separate loudspeaker elements: main, bass and sub cabinets along with an all-purpose ‘omni’ 15° cabinet. Together they combine to create any PA rig you want – from small corporate gig to monster stadium shows. The STM cabinets are paired with the Nexo Universal Amp Rack, which contains a plug-and-play digital output patch, real-time system monitoring and EtherSound control network functionality in addition to two NXAMP4x4s.

Group Technologies: www.grouptechnologies.com.au

QSC has added two smaller units to the Q-Sys range of DSP control systems. The new models, Core 500i and Core 250i, offer advanced centralised processing, routing and control for contractors and consultants needing a solution for smaller venues. The new Cores are fully-integrated solutions, each with eight card slots on-board. The Core500i is capable of up to 128 network channels while the Core 250i provides up to 64 channels.

Technical Audio Group: (02) 9519 0900 or iw@tag.com.au

DMS700 V2 The first professional true digital wireless system

TAKE ONE TABLET WITH EVERY VISTA Jands has announced the launch of its new flagship media and lighting control console: the Vista L5.

Central to the design is a 530mm high-definition Wacom pen tablet that lets you see the entire rig on one screen and provides instant access to presets, palettes, effects and more. Further control and data input is provided by a backlit keyboard. Under the bonnet the L5 has 16 universes of DMX processed onboard. The 25 physical playbacks each have their own LCD legend and you can split them to create 70 playbacks per page. The nuts and bolts of it all is a Linux OS (yes, Linux!) running on an Intel Core i7 processor with 8GB of Dynamic RAM. The exterior case is a monocoque design that is lightweight, yet strong. The basic design philosophy behind the Vista L5 is to provide a powerful lighting and media controller that is still simple to operate.

Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au

The DMS700 V2 is a revolutionary digital wireless solution designed for the future • Up to 150MHz tuning range – widest in class, gives maximum flexibility to accommodate Digital Dividend changes • 24bit/44.1kHz audio sampling PC manufacturer Lenovo announced an agreement to deliver Polycom RealPresence HD video and voice solutions on its laptops and tablets. Polycom and Lenovo are ensuring a number of devices, including select laptops in the ThinkPad T, X, L, and W Series, are Polycom-ready, providing certification and assurance that the device will perform optimally with Polycom solutions. Lenovo will also resell Polycom’s communication accessories worldwide and are working to embed Polycom-powered software on Lenovo products beyond the conference room.

Lenovo: www.lenovo.com

No, this isn’t a special Polycom Issue, it’s just that the folks at Polycom have been spreading themselves around a bit (in the nicest possible way). They’ve teamed with Ericsson to launch an end-to-end solution that enables operators to offer interoperable HD Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) and unified communication services to businesses of all sizes. Also, Polycom recently went live with RealPresence Mobile for smartphones, an on-the-go version of its RealPresence unified communications platform that will be available shortly for Apple iPhone 4S and later this year for Android 4.0-based phones.

Polycom: www.polycom.com

• 512 bit signal encryption for secure audio transmission • 2-channel digital true-diversity receiver • High performance external antenna distribution systems available • On-board DSP per channel (Compressor, EQ, Limiter) • Quick setup via infrared data link to the transmitter • Graphical spectrum analyser helps find clear channels • No Compander (used in analogue systems): higher sound quality

FOR YOUR NEAREST DEALER: Call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au

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NEWS

CONNECTING THE DOTS

BOSE FREESPACE

NEW STANDARD, NEW SPLITTER

Barco LiveDots is expanding its LED range with three new products. The C5 is a 5.5mm-pitch black face indoor LED display, the CX8 an 8mm outdoor SMD LED display system, and there’s a new single-piece outdoor LED billboard called Digital City Posters. The C5 is for rental and fixed installations with a flown weight of less than 40kg per square metre, integral concave and convex curving, no fans (resulting in silent operation) and full integration with Barco’s DX-700 processing unit. The cross-rentable CX-8 is aimed at the staging industry with its modular design and low weight. Its sea-worthy standard makes the CX-8 suitable for cruise ship installations (assuming they stay afloat!) in addition to event and retail applications. The Digital City Posters are part of Barco’s T-series and come in two models: the DCP-0710 and the DCP-0810, both suitable for advertising and branding applications.

Barco’s proprietary colour signature technology promises exact reproduction of brand colours.

Barco: (03) 9646 5833 or sales.au@barco.com

The Bose FreeSpace IZA 190-HZ and FreeSpace IZA 250-LZ Integrated Zone Amplifier provide signal processing, routing, paging, and amplification for a wide range of commercial applications such as restaurants, retail stores, hospitality venues, offices, meeting rooms, lobbies, and restrooms. The integrated zone amplifier offers a variety of inputs including microphone, line and paging connections, input gain, output level adjustments, and operational modes.

Built-in Bose FreeSpace DS16 and DS40 loudspeaker EQ presets can be selected for loudspeaker optimisation. System expansion with the FreeSpace IZA is kept simple. By connecting the auxiliary output of an integrated zone amplifier to the input of a zone amplifier, the two amplifiers will immediately function together as one system, sharing the same music and paging sources as well as master volume control.

DSP circuitry automatically adjusts tone based on the output level creates a smooth transition between music and page signals. Zone Amplifiers can also be used as standalone power amplifiers with any appropriate front-end signal processor.

Bose Australia: 1800 172 371 or worldwide.bose.com

Gefen has released a new splitter for computers and monitors using DisplayPort connectivity. The Gefen 1:4 DisplayPort Splitter provides an easy method of delivering the same video source to multiple monitors in any viewing environment. The splitter comes equipped with one DisplayPort cable connected to the input and four DisplayPort outputs that support all computers and displays using the new interface standard. Clear graphics in resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 are delivered to all four displays simultaneously. To extend to monitors further away, Gefen has extension solutions ranging from a DisplayPort Super Booster cable for short-range applications to fibreoptic-based cabling for long distance installations. Designed to offer a robust distribution solution for all audio/video systems using DisplayPort, the 1:4 DisplayPort Splitter comes with built-in EDID management to guarantee signal integrity. Shipping will begin roughly by the time you’re reading this – you are reading this, right?

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

NEWS IN BRIEF:

“The town’s Darling Harbour”, that's the location of the Australia Day festivities, according to Germany's MA Lighting. Two grandMA2 consoles and a MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) were used as well as the grandMA2 3D software. Linked by fibre, the control room was 250m away from the barge. The fibre ran through the air to the edge of the bay and got seriously wet from there. The fully-redundant system could also have been run from the barge. Not bad for a ‘town’.

Show Technology: (02) 9748 1122 or www.showtech.com.au

Thinklogical has released the MX48 router, which offers high scalability, signal integrity and control flexibility. The 6.22Gbps signal is capable of supporting high resolution digital video formats and all high data rate signals. Not surprisingly touted as ‘high performance’, the MX48 is recommended for small- to medium-sized computing environments such as corporate conference rooms, hospital and educational presentation rooms, small broadcast facilities and small post-production houses.

VR Solutions: (07) 3844 9514 or www.vrs.com.au

Biamp is promising increased paging speed and greater control with its upgrade of Vocia to version 1.4. Other improvements include greater functionality of the GPIO on both the VO-4 and VI-6; a microphone option to choose between either the original noise-cancelling mike or a new unidirectional microphone option on each of the wall stations; plus various tweaks to the software and firmware.

Audio Products Group: 1300 134400 or www.audioproducts.com.au

Hitachi adds the CP-WX8255 and CP-X8160 3LCD projectors to its Installation Series lineup.

The projectors include a new 360° off-axis display capability, a Status Monitoring System, higher brightness, networking capability and many additional enhancements. Another feature sees the CP-WX8255 and CPX8160 have their lenses mounted right in the centre of the projector, “making it easy to align the lens with the centre of the projection screen for faster setup”. Hmmm…

Hitachi Australia: (02) 9888 4100 or www.hitachi.com.au

Extron Electronics has announced that, effective this year, it will no longer exhibit at the InfoComm USA and ISE Integrated Systems Europe tradeshows where it’s been involved since 1986 and 1999 respectively. The company assures its customers it is in a strong financial position and the decision is one of policy change, based on a belief the effort and money budgeted for these tradeshows is now better spent on specific Extron training events and facilities.

Extron: www.extron.com

MEYER LOWERS THE POWER Meyer Sound has released three more models in its line of self-powered, low-voltage speakers. The 48V, DC-powered units can solve problems in installations where AC cannot be run to loudspeaker positions.

The new UPM-1XP, UPJunior-XP, and UMS-1XP models draw DC power from a remote rackmount power supply with the loudspeakers receiving 48V and balanced audio via a five-pin connector. These systems can be installed using Class 2 wiring without using conduit, resulting in reduced installation time and costs. The loudspeakers incorporate on-board amplifiers and signal processing. Getting into the nitty-gritty, the UPM-1XP is capable of 123dB peak SPL over an operating frequency range of 75Hz to 20kHz. The UPJunior-XP VariO loudspeaker combines the low-voltage, self-powered concept with the VariO constant directivity horn – the 80 x 50° pattern can be changed from horizontal to vertical orientation.

The UMS-1XP subwoofer extends low-voltage system response to an operating frequency range of 25Hz– 160Hz. Meyer Sound Australia: 1800 463937 or australia@meyersound.com

THE CONFERENCE PHONE,

EVOLVED Revolabs has redefined the traditional design of conference phones. FLX is comprised of several distinct components giving you unprecedented freedom with respect to placement and accessibility of the speaker, microphones and dial pad. FLX is wireless and simple to set up making it the perfect choice for any mid to small sized conference room.

HDBaseT Alliance is a cross-industry association formed to promote and standardise HDBaseT technology for distributing uncompressed HD multimedia content in home and commercial situations.

The alliance has drawn our attention to the proliferation of HDBaseT technology at ISE 2012 in Amsterdam earlier this year, calling it a “significant milestone seeing HDBaseT availability of this magnitude at such an influential industry event.” It appears HDBaseT is gaining widespread adoption within the pro AV market in addition to home theatre, whole-home networks and an HDBaseT surveillance camera.

HDBaseT Alliance: www.HDBaseT.org

The new Multitouch MultiTaction Cell 42-inch offers the same set of features as the 55-inch version introduced four months ago. Multitouch now has two families of products. Stackable units are without an integrated application PC and Embedded units have an integrated Intel Core i7 CPU running Windows 7. The Stackable displays are meant for installations where multiple MultiTaction Cells are connected together and run from a single external application.

The Embedded displays are intended for fully integrated turn-key solutions.

Lightwell: (02) 9319 0311 or www.lightwell.com.au

•

Stylish design

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Wireless freedom

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Bluetooth integration

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Superior audio quality

•

Simple set-up (with video tutorial)

For your nearest dealer: Call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au

Scan the QR Code to watch the FLX video

016

NEWS

3

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1/BEZEL-FREE TOUCH

2/A CLEVER LITTLE DLV

3/ MARTIN AUDIO MLA COMPACT

JEA has released its new 22-inch Bezel Free Touch LCD computer. A Projected Capacitive touchscreen provides two-finger multi-touch and gesture input applications and the unit is designed with Intel Atom D525, 1.8GHz processor, which allows for a fanless design suited for prolonged use in dusty environments.

A rugged metal rear cover adds durability along with a splash-proof design for the front touchscreen. A side-accessible hard disk drive tray allows for fastmaintenance or easy-upgrading. Tilt angle for the screen is between –5° and 90°. VESA mounting holes on the touch-monitor unit and table-mounting holes on the stand provide plenty of options. Lockable OSD buttons can help with security when the unit is used in public space. And finally, for any audio requirements, the unit has built-in two-channel speakers.

JEA Techologies : (03) 9757 5060 or george@jeatech.com.au

The new DLV Digital Light from High End Systems integrates a media server loaded with royalty-free content with a high output three-chip LCD light engine.

DLV mounts like any other intelligent moving luminaire and controls with plug-and-play operation using standard DMX or Art-Net cabling and protocols. At over 4000 lumens the DLV is capable of bright dynamic projections and strong aerial imagery. Simple uploads of custom content and 3D objects are possible directly from the Content Management Application and the included DL3/Axon software comes loaded with effects, collage generator, curved surface support and more. An Indigo Highlighter feature provides designers with additional light output from eight 1W indigo LEDs and further increases the layering abilities of the DLV. It has a HDMI video input and the graphics engine is capable of simultaneous playback of four discrete media streams on separate 2D/3D objects.

Lexair Entertainment: 0418 691 509 or info@lexair.com.au

Martin Audio is building its Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) technology into the smaller and lighter MLA Compact for medium-scale touring and fixed installations. The new design brings together the latest technologies in acoustic design, amplification, DSP and optimisation software with communications and control via an audio network. MLA Compact arrays can be remotely controlled from the supplied wireless tablet running VU-Net control software. Class D amplification, VU-Net control network and DSP circuitry are integrated within each enclosure. Up to 24 enclosures can be suspended via its two-point-lift flybar and the same hardware can also be used for single point lifting of up to 12 cabinets, as well as ground stacking up to six high. A neat trick: VU-Net enables the user to switch on enclosure identification LEDs with automatic identification of neighbouring enclosures and connectivity confirmation. No more swapping out the wrong box.

Technical Audio Group: (02) 9519 0900 or iw@tag.com.au

4/ VCC FINDS A VOICE

5/ GOBOS ARE GO

6/DATA AT THE SPEED OF LIGHTWARE

Broadcast Pix has introduced the new Video Control Centre 3.0 software for its Granite and Mica Video Control Centres. The latest version features the first optimised production control on a touchscreen, the first voice-automation control of switching and graphics, powerful virtual sets that anyone can customise and automated, dual-channel graphics that include Daktronics scoreboard integration. The new virtual set software enables up to eight cameras to have virtual backgrounds plus three key layers on top for PiP, titles, and animated logos. Video Control Center 3.0 also supports Vox, the new voice-activated video production option. Vox adds advanced videofollow-audio capabilities by working with Broadcast Pix’s built-in Fluent Macros. Broadcast Pix also announced a partnership with CyberTouch.

PA People: (02) 8755 8700 or sales@papeople.com.au

Just when the saying ‘dead as a gobo’ was getting popular, Martin has breathed life into the fading technology – but it’s okay, you can put the tin-snips away. The Exterior 400 Image Projector from Martin Professional is a fully-weatherproofed LED image projector with over 7000 lumens of output that can integrate dynamic logos, textures and other graphics into outdoor lighting designs. It houses up to six easyto-replace designs, making it suitable for commercial logo projection or textured projections. Gobos are fully customisable in design and you can apply up to eight interchangeable colours using high-quality dichroic colour filters. A range of programmable effects such as colour scrolling, image rotation, focus and iris changes can be applied. The luminaire is also fully dimmable to respond to natural and ambient light levels.

Show Technology: (02) 9748 1122 or www.showtech.com.au

Lightware’s new 25G Hybrid Signal Management is a matrix with a data rate of 25 Gigabit per second, allowing transportation of next-gen video signals like HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2. The system is ready for all video and audio standards including 4K resolution and 3D formats. Lightware claims the development of the 25G HSM has resulted in a unique technology for managing data streams – and control of multilayer signals – all in a new and inventive way. All signals are distributed over a single Cat5 cable or fibre by the input/output cards combined with audio add-ons and a suite of diagnostic software tools. Multilayer switching design allows independent routing of each signal type (so called breakaway switching) for all layers (video, audio, Ethernet, USB KVM, IR & CEC and RS-232 are considered as different layers). All really, really fast.

Amber Technology 1800 251367 or www.ambertech.com.au

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NEWS

Clair & Present This country’s first major Clair PA installation goes into Billboard, Melbourne.

Text: Christopher Holder

You’ve heard of ‘Fantasy Football’, how about we play ‘Fantasy PA’…

If money was no object, what PA would you install into your or your client’s club, pub or theatre?

This is 2012 and most people would probably say d&b audiotechnik. It wasn’t that long ago that you might see preferences split between L-Acoustics and Meyer. And before that, EAW; while JBL and EV have all had their moments in the sun as ‘world’s most desirable’ PA. How many would say Clair Bros?

I can tell you that Clair is unquestionably a heavy hitter and rightfully should be mentioned in the same breath as d&b, L-Acoustics et al.

That said, you could say Clair (in this country, at least) is a sleeping giant; the elephant in the room; the proverbial 400-pound gorilla… ready to flex its muscles.

This is an unusual intro to what essentially is a PA installation story – a system upgrade for a mid-tier live venue in Melbourne. But I think it’s more than that. The Billboard rig is the first, bigticket Clair sale in Australia and it represents the first opportunity for audio people in this country to hear a full-throttle, no-holds-barred Clair system in action.

So what exactly has gone into Billboard? The system is built around the i218 full-range element.

As the name suggests, it’s a double-18 monster with 6 x six-inch midrange drivers and 3 x 1.4inch HF units. It’s Clair’s top-of-the-line 10° line array component for big-time touring applications

and top-shelf club/theatre use. Billboard has four of these a side. The speaker’s frequency response is quoted as 2dB down at 38Hz; it weighs in at 118.8kg; and has a quoted maximum full bandwidth output of 145dB (bandpass dependent). Supplementing the main left/right arrays are four CS218 double-18 subs ground stacked under the stage; there are four FF2 delay speakers that supplement the highs deep into the room and a R2D full-range, two-way active centre fill above the stage. The amp room is populated

by Clair-badged Lab Gruppen PLM20K amplifiers (4400W into 4Ω), which pack Lake processing and are Dante network enabled.

This is one truly formidable system. Billboard is a subterranean live band room and nightclub with two tiers, reasonably low ceilings and is about 30-40 metres deep. With the system set to unity, it will pin you to the rear wall. But that’s not the point: the headroom is plentiful, with the system more than adequately loud enough and ticking over at a modest 65–70% capacity. The main positive spinoff from such an approach is increased longevity — none of the components are placed under any undue stress. And, it has to be said, it sounds like a PA that’s barely trying.

Make no mistake, this is a loud PA but there’s an irresistible, effortless quality to the sound.

There’s plenty of air being pushed from all those 18s, and there’s an immersive quality as you walk the room, but despite the sound pressure levels, it doesn’t eat you alive as you approach the array.

I was sceptical at first. I had to be coaxed closer

than 10 metres to the PA during tests, but sure enough the i218 exhibits all the qualities of a true line source array. (By which I mean, as you move further into the room you’re listening to the entire coupled array, and as you get closer you’re exposure is limited to the one element in your line of hearing.)

RETURN ON INVESTMENT?

The details of the Billboard deal are confidential but clearly this is a very significant investment by any measure. And, in these circumstances, generally there are two possibilities at play: either it’s the vanity purchase of someone with more money than sense or the owner is a greenhorn who came down in the last shower… correct?

Mark Udorovic owns Billboard and his reputation and pedigree in the Melbourne nightclub scene is legendary. He ran the Chevron in its heyday and owned the Metro for a good number of years – no greenhorn then.

For Mark, the purchase is a sober-minded ROI decision. He’s clearly in the business for the long haul and he’s banking on the Clair PA providing him with solid service for the next 10 years-plus.

Mark also knows what he wants in the sound of his PA. He’s been in the game long enough to understand that it’s the PA that gets people dancing; it’s the PA that gets punters involved; stops them from wandering off; helps them build up a thirst; and, in the process, they’re not thinking about causing a ruckus. In other words, great sound is great for business. 

Enabling Innovative Professional Visualisation

Kino Hawkhurst: Photo courtesy of Christie Digital

World class venues throughout Australia, recently invested in Christie Digital Technologies

Clair does three sizes in a line array. The i208, i212 and the i218 – the ‘8’, ‘12’ and ‘18’ should give you an inkling as to what LF drivers these speakers are using. The i218 (as installed into Billboard) is the Rolls Royce of the range. It’s Clair’s ultimate solution to large-scale touring and installations, where maximum output and coverage is required. The high/ mid modules (3 x 1.4-inch, 6 x six-inch units) provide 90° (H) by 10° (V) coverage, while each 18-inch LF driver is front loaded in independent, tuned, vented chambers.

CLAIR BROS’ AUSTRALIAN PRESENCE Doubtlessly, everyone reading this article knows the name Clair Bros. As a rental company, Clair is a global behemoth. I think I can safely say that Clair has a buying power bigger than all the Australian production companies combined. When it buys a certain mixing console design, for example, it’ll take 50 thanks.

Clair has always been an innovator, designing and developing its own PA gear, such as the legendary S4 PA speaker, the Clair iO controller or the 12AM wedge and more recently the I4/5 line array.

Clair is still a family operation. But more recently, as the installation side of the business has grown and there’s a growing demand for Clair-badged gear, the decision was made to separate the businesses. Clair Global remains the rental/production behemoth (run by Troy Clair), having partners around the world, such as JPJ in Australia, to service high profile tours such as the recent Roger Waters shows. Meanwhile, Clair Brothers (run by Barry and Roy Clair) sells product and supplies audiovisual integration services. Clair Bros PA gear is distributed in Australia by a wholly-owned subsidiary called, you guessed it, Clair Brothers Australia.

Clair Bros Australia: (07) 5522 0748 or www.clairbros.com.au

“The Christie HD projectors will enable us to achieve outstanding projection through our Spyder edge blending device, and allow us to create very large, incredibly bright and true colour images on the walls at client conferences and events,” Mark Stewart ACC Technical Services Manager

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024

FEATURE

Grand Slam AV Audiovisual technology at the Australian Open tennis championship.

Text:/ Paul Newton

The Australian Open is arguably the single largest and longest running event on the nation’s sporting calendar. The competition is held over three weeks within the Melbourne Park sporting precinct comprising, Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and Margaret Court Arena (and a host of smaller courts surrounding these three). The combined seating capacity of these arenas is in excess of 30,000 – Rod Laver Arena (14,820), Hisense Arena (10,500) and Margaret Court (6000). The Australian television audience across the three weeks of competition averaged 1.86 million viewers, peaking at almost 4 million for the finals.

Averaging 80,649 per day, about 686,000 fans attended the venues to watch a total of 697 players compete. Reporting on the action were some 700 journalists, photographers and videographers. This included 295 international media from 41 countries. On top of this, more than 1000 broadcast media representatives from 36 networks were accredited, broadcasting to over 100 countries.

Fans also kept up with the tournament through the official website, www.australianopen.com. Immediately prior to the men’s final, 13 million unique visitors (an increase of 39 per cent on 2011) had racked up more than 44 million visits to the website

(an increase of 33 per cent). Once there, they made over 287,000,000 page views.

Social media also has a very strong uptake with this audience. The Australian Open Facebook page has been ‘liked’ more than 613,000 times, while the Australian Open Twitter account has doubled in size since 2011, now boasting over 82,000 followers. On mobile devices, the iPhone app has been downloaded over 660,000 times and the Android app more than 100,000 times.

If they weren’t lucky enough to gain access to any of the main arenas, more affordable general admission tickets allowed tennis fans to freely walk around the precinct which, like any other outdoor festival, was littered with bars, food courts, merchandise tents, entertainment stages, and of course, large LED video screens; 27 of them, with a total area of about 400sqm.

Mediatec Asia Pacific (formerly Massteknik Asia Pacific) has been contracted to supply video screens and signal distribution for this event for the past five years. The Australian Open is the culmination of around six months work each year for Managing Director and Project Manager Owen Davison. The event is constantly changing due to venue enhancements and upgrades and additional display requirements dictated by the client,

Tennis Australia. Some of the concepts executed this year have been in the planning for well over three years. This is truly a living and breathing project that’s constantly changing in scope and complexity.

BITING OFF MORE THAN THE AV

Mediatec involved themselves in aspects of this event that many video suppliers would avoid. Their contribution included drawing and engineering most of the rigging systems (including the Hawk-Eye camera rigging locations), cladding the rigging structures in fascia and even installing audio speaker cabinets in various locations. Davison justifies such involvement by pointing out: “It made sense for us to do the lot, rather than complicate the process by involving additional external parties that would need to work around us” Unlike the early years when the screens were simply used to relay the broadcast feeds, there is now a lot more detailed information displayed. Today the 27 LED screens carry a wide range of material, including live broadcast feeds, digital signage, advertising and audience messaging. Tennis is now dealing with a lot of statistical information that requires continuous updates throughout the matches.

This information doesn’t occupy a lot of screen

FEATURE

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Mediatec involved themselves in aspects of this event that many video suppliers would avoid

real estate (usually it’s anchored in one of the four corners or overlayed at the bottom of the display) so it is important the screens are of sufficient resolution.

The use of the Hawk-Eye ball-tracking system has also driven resolution requirements upward (and also the need for additional screens). Hawk-Eye now forms part of the adjudication process for sports such as tennis and cricket. Through it, players can question a line call decision. This results in a digitallyanimated ‘replay’ of the shot in question being displayed on the live screens for the players, umpire and audience, so it’s imperative that this vision is as high resolution as possible.

THE LIGHTHOUSE AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Other than a handful of Kindwin 12mm LED scoreboard screens on the outer show courts, the installation is predominantly a massive Lighthouse LED showcase. There are 6mm indoor screens in corporate lounges and hospitality areas, and 10mm (BK10) and 16mm (R16) outdoor screens used throughout the outside precinct and in the main arenas.

The BK10 10mm resolution module is an SMD product (using surface-mounted devices where all three RGB LEDs are embedded on a single chip) designed especially for Mediatec Image: Eric Ronald Photography

Australia and the Australian Open, and is not officially part of the Lighthouse LED range as yet. The ‘tiles’ are 1280mm x 960mm and weigh in at 60kg per module.

Mediatec contacted Lighthouse in July 2011 about their requirements. “They had a chassis designed that was close to what we needed,” Davison explained. “The IM (Intelligent Module – the pixel blocks that combine to form a LED tile) was almost there as well”. Mediatec visited Lighthouse in September to have a look at the proposed chassis and IM design and analyse the picture quality. During this visit a further 20 design modifications were proposed. Mediatec then returned in December to sign off on the modules. Sadly this is an all-too-rare instance of a product manufacturer not only listening closely to rental customers, but co-designing a product with them. Not surprisingly Davidson is full of praise for Lighthouse. “They have been out in the wilderness for about four or five years; basically since they produced R16. They haven’t done much for rental companies over the years, but this now seems to have changed.

They were very open to modifications, which was previously not possible. I think this product could be as successful for them as R16 was.”

One of the clever modifications that Mediatec requested was a ‘quick change’

capability for the IMs should they fail. With the BK10, IMs can be replaced with a single hex-driver from the front or the rear of the unit. Previously this process would take an eternity as it could only be carried out from the rear of the tile, and then it required the removal of 12 screws. The IMs also have flexible ‘rubberised’ louvres surrounding the pixels.

The previous style of hard-plastic louvre was brittle and often snapped and cracked during installation and road-casing, and are the cause of numerous scars on video LED technicians all over the world.

HIGH FIBRE CONTENT

The control, production and signal distribution system is very cleverly engineered by Mediatec.

All signals throughout the installation are HDSDI (High Definition Serial Digital Interface) over fibre using Riedel’s MediorNet system.

This fibre backbone was faultless throughout the event, and with a total over 30km of fibre distributing signals, this was comforting for all involved. “This was easily the best purchase of 2011,” said Davison. Each of the three arenas had a dedicated control area to run their local site. Incoming broadcast feeds came via the Mediatec Master Control room near the broadcast suites. With a robust fibre network

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FEATURE

Images: Paul Newton One of three independent arena video mixing areas. Each arena was capable of running stand alone should the event backbone fail.

and two weeks to install and test everything, it would be quite plausible to run everything from a centralised location, but Mediatec have always chosen to run with separate control areas to maximise redundancy in case of a power outage or a corrupted broadcast feed.

If Master Control was ever to lose power, each venue has the ability to mix in holding graphics whilst power is being restored in the mother ship.

On the power front, all 900A of the threephase power required by Mediatec’s screens and control equipment was supplied from installed venue power, without any requirement for auxiliary supplies or generators. All the control equipment in each location was backed-up by a fleet of 22 uninterruptible power supplies.

A SHARED VISION

The vision mixing was via Ross Carbonite consoles in all locations. The mixers cut between a wide range of HD sources, such as broadcast feeds, Hawk-Eye feeds, graphic overlays and statistics from IBM, as well as Facebook and Twitter updates. Mediatec supplied and created all the graphics and content and provided the Macs to run them. They also supplied the

Graphic information screens were created and updated on-the-fly throughout every minute of the Australian Open tournament.

creative personnel to build everything onthe-fly such as player profiles and live public messaging. Ross NK Series Routers and Open Gear Cards/Frames were utilised along with TeleCast Rattlers to ensure high quality HDSDI signals to all of the screens. Video playback (tape packages) as well as recording (all of the matches are archive-recorded for the officials in case of any legal disputes) were via Grass Valley T2 iDDR Turbo disk recorders. Mediatec audio mixing in each arena was on Yamaha LS9 consoles and with a DigiCo SD11 in master control.

With control areas so far away from each other, a rock-solid communications system was imperative. Mediatec supplied and installed a Riedel Artist 32 system that linked all the critical sites within the precinct. This system was run solely on fibre over the MediorNet backbone.

Besides running each arena site for the actual tennis matches, there was an internal ‘TV show’ that commenced each morning and continued throughout the day between matches. The purpose of this broadcast, besides entertaining the patrons, was to inform them of any changes to the schedule. Content included highlight

reels from previous days, live crosses to various players and fans, and of course, sponsorship tape packages.

ALONG CAME A SPIDER

I was also lucky enough to check out the Spidercam rig in Rod Laver Arena up close.

This system was supplied directly from Spidercam’s German headquarters and operated by a German Spidercam crew. Whilst I have observed this system from afar (and been in awe of the shots that it can deliver) it was amazing to see it in action. Spidercam is essentially a specially-created counterweighted camera unit that moves and hovers like a helicopter around the tennis court allowing the camera to capture footage that would otherwise be impossible, even with a massive jib. The lightweight gyro-stabilised camera unit is suspended from Kevlar cables fed out from four computer precision-controlled winches located in each corner of the arena catwalk. The speed and accuracy of the winches is most impressive, and the fact that video feed and control signals travel over optical fibres embedded in these same cables is quite staggering.

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FEATURE

Image: Eric Ronald Photography

Above: Margaret Court Arena, one of the three arenas with a full package of screens, cameras, package replays, audio, statistical displays and a Hawk-Eye line call system. Image: Eric Ronald Photography.

Top left: SpiderCam suspended from its four computer-tensioned Kevlar cables carries Lithium ion batteries for 6-8 hours of operation for the camera, electronics and the dual-axis stabilizing gyros. Catenary sag on the cables is about 10%, meaning a typical 150m cable run must be suspended at least 15m above its maximum flying height. Left: SpiderCam picking up a shot of the umpire.

Bottom left: Master control is put together for the job from a diverse collection of road-cased racks, an inconceivable amount of optical fibre, and a metric butt-load of flourescent labels. Images: Paul Newton.

THE LONG MARCH

The timeline for this installation was pretty compressed.

Between August and December there were four meetings each week with various departments to cover all aspects of the installation; broadcasters, IT, LED screens, corporate areas, hospitality areas and TV production.

All LED rigging structures were designed by Mediatec which worked closely with an engineering firm and steel fabricator. The fabricator was also present during the installation in case onsite alterations were required or anything needed to be invented on the spot.

All fibre cables were installed and tested in November, well ahead of schedule, and guaranteed much less troubleshooting than an event this size would usually require. In December, all schematic drawings were finalised and transferred from Owen Davidson’s brain to paper for the install crew. Installation of equipment began in the second week of December. A total of six crew worked for two weeks installing all the steel work for the screens. They were followed by 12 more crew installing all the LED screens the following week. A crew of 20 then installed the 762 plasma screens over a three-week period.

On each day of the competition, the event is run by a total of 10 video crew. Finally, the packdown is a five-day process involving up to 40 crew. Client meetings will begin any day now to talk about Australian Open 2013. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS Australian Open Series Project Manager: Owen Davison Assistant Project Manager: Steve Letch LED Screen Project Manager: Tom Hogan AV/Corporate Project Manger: Rob Nelson Plasma Installation/Removal Project Manager: Jason Buchanan Production Systems Head Technician: Leigh Ferguson Production Systems/LED Technician: Sean Cooper Real Time Information/Graphics/IT Systems Tech: James Hughes LED Technicians: Dan Aulich, Addam Crawford Graphics Production: Toby Harding, Sean Killa Camera Operator: Adrian Kristoferson Rigger: Murray Hare

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FEATURE

When Projection Goes to Rio Rio Tinto stakeholders meeting mines the best in mapped projection Text:/ Kym Davies Images:/ Haycom AV

FINALIST

Mapped projection is to the current AV industry what the 35mm slide projector was to a previous generation: a technology that’s at risk of becoming an overused cliché. It’s still impressive, but no longer groundbreaking. How do you deliver something fresh, visually impressive but technically simple, for the same outlay that 10 years ago would have only got you some rear projection and a basic video presentation? How do you make it something special? How do you get absolute bang for your buck?

For its annual external stakeholder event, mining giant Rio Tinto, working with Haycom AV and The Buchan Group, used new thinking to deliver an immersive visual narrative, animating the interior of Brisbane’s Custom House. Covering an area of more than 40m x 15m with mapped images, they brought the space to life to tell Rio Tinto’s story. From the Brisbane CBD to the stark vision of an outback mine, rampaging 3D coal trains disappeared into a sandstorm bursting forth from the Victorian Neoclassical architecture. Solid walls dissolved into images that transported the crowd on a virtual tour of Rio Tinto mining operations and raised the bar for corporate AV presentations.

SAME BUDGET, BIGGER RESULTS

“An investment in technology just isn’t enough anymore.

It’s what you do with it, more so than ever,” explains Ian McManus of Haycom AV, which teamed up with The Buchan Group to create this impressive tour of Rio Tinto’s mining operations. “Clients are forced to seek presentations that look better than the previous year, but on the same budget; which ultimately means using the same equipment. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be remarkable.”

The cleverness in this design was in its simplicity.

Haycom AV used a pair of Christie Roadster HD12K projectors, blending custom made 2D and 3D images to create a canvas across the curves and contours of the space. The video content was served up by Renewed Vision’s PVP HD (ProVideoPlayer HD), running on an Apple Mac Pro. The 3840 x 1920 resolution images were output through a Matrox TripleHead2Go multidisplay adapter, eliminating the need for an expensive high-end, multi-image control system.

The content was distributed via optical fibre, which delivered DVI to both projectors, allowing native full HD from the source all the way to the screen; or in this case, a 40m wide wall.

BEFORE & AFTER EFFECTS

The custom-designed mapped content was created by graphic artists Anthony Rawson and Patrick Shirley from The Buchan Group, which designed the video content on a combination of Adobe After Effects and Autodesk 3ds Max. One of the real benefits to Rio Tinto from this design is its ability to be re-used, as Ian McManus explains: “It’s now possible to re-use the content multiple times for events such as a VIP cocktail award for staff recognition, right through to a new launch where appropriate scenes can be selected. This presents never-before seen levels of versatility and eventually – quite a good return on event investment. So even the bean counters got their way.”

GETTING NOTICED

As an added bonus to the success of the project, Rio Tinto’s virtual tour was a finalist in the Best AV Production category for the 2011 Audio Visual Industry Awards (AVIAs). As Ian McManus explains, “The benefit of the AVIAs is the awareness they generate. It’s great to receive recognition for the simple approach; that equipment thrives in the hands of those with good ideas.” He’s also proud to be among the first to use the technology in the corporate world. “I have been unable to find evidence of a prior blended projection mapping onto intricate internal architecture in the fee-paying corporate world,” he explains. “As far as I can ascertain, it’s the first time 180°, widescreen HD projection mapping has been seen in Queensland at least.” 

Client: Rio Tinto (www.riotinto.com.au) AV Design and Supply: Haycom AV (www.haycomav.com.au) Content Creation: The Buchan Group (buchan.com.au)

FEATURE

Digging it: clever image design by the Buchan Group takes advantage of the neo-classical architecture of Brisbane's Customs House to incorporate its decorative features into the promotional presentation on Rio Tinto's mining activities in Australia.

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FEATURE

NORSE RIDING SCHOOL Norway’s Farstad Shipping builds a 56-projector offshore simulator centre in Perth.

Text:/ Andy Ciddor Images:/ Courtesy FSOSC

Most of us think of simulators in terms of crashing an F/A-18 Hornet on to the rolling deck of the Nimitz for the 500th time, before finally turning off the computer, grabbing a beer and going into the lounge room to watch the Aussies bungle yet another one-day cricket game. However, in an expanding range of high-risk activities, simulators are replacing our long-tradition of on-the-job training and an encouraging pat on the shoulder accompanied by a cheerful, “Never mind, everybody stuffs it up the first few tries”. No longer is it acceptable to crumple a couple of utes on your first day in a Haulpak cab. There are big, dangerous pieces of machinery in our workplaces that are no longer entrusted to well-intentioned newcomers. Nowhere is this more important than in the offshore oil and gas industries, where the repercussions of a minor stuff-up can be both environmentally and financially cataclysmic.

The fleet of oil and gas platforms off the Australian coast require an armada of support vessels to keep them in production. The backbone of the support operations is two specialised types of vessels: Anchor Handling Tug Supply ships (AHTS) and Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs). AHTS are designed to provide anchor handling and towing services for semi-submersible platforms, platform jackets, barges and production modules. Some AHTS vessels are also equipped for fire fighting, rescue operations and oil recovery. PSVs are used to transport crews, supplies and equipment to and from offshore installations. PSVs mostly carry containers on their decks and a variety of both wet and dry materials in tanks below decks. They may also carry pipes for pipe-laying work.

JOSTLE FOR POSITIONING

Both AHTS and PSVs are required to carry out difficult tasks in variable weather conditions; often in very close proximity to both the platforms they service and other tender vessels. To achieve the necessary manoeuvrability and the ability to hold their position, these vessels use Dynamic Positioning (DP) – complex systems of fly-by-wire thruster propellers that have more in common with space-station docking systems than anything that put to sea before the turn of this century. Working the systems on these vessels is not something you pick up from sailing in twilight regattas or thrashing a jet-ski around on the bay, a problem that was acknowledged some years ago when the Australian Maritime College set up Australia’s first simulation centre on its Launceston campus for the specific task of training the maritime workforce for vessels with DP systems. The DP simulators at AMC in both Launceston and more recently Perth, are based around the DP systems developed by Kongsberg Maritime of Kongsberg, Norway.

Through its Melbourne and Singapore branches, Farstad Shipping, based in Aalesund, Norway, is a major provider of oil platform support vessels for rigs off Australia’s North West coast. At any one time approximately half Farstad’s fleet of 32 AHTS and 21 PSV ships are operating in these waters, involving some 700 crew members, half of whom are at sea, while the other half are on shore leave and available for training. To support its operations in the Australian area, Farstad engaged Norwegian group, Offshore Simulator Centre (OSC), to design and construct a simulator-based training facility in the Perth suburb of Bibra Lake.

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FSOSC: www.farstadsimulation.com Farstad Shipping: www.farstad.com OSC: www.offsim.no Projectiondesign: www.projectiondesign.com Davro Corporation: www.davrointeriors.com.au Dynamic Audio Visual Solutions: www.davs.com.au

ROLLS ROYCE OF SIMULATORS

A joint venture between four Norwegian partners, Rolls-Royce Marine, Farstad Shipping, Aalesund University College and the Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute (Marintek), OSC was founded in 2004 to develop the technology for offshore operations simulators. What its has developed is a series of highly-interactive and interconnected computer models of the ships, deck equipment, water conditions and weather for a range of offshore vessels, operating in any weather, in any ocean in the world. Unsurprisingly its simulators are built around the DP systems developed by Rolls-Royce Marine in Norway and used in Farstad ships. OSC’s first simulator centre was built in Aalesund, and it has already delivered complete training centres to customers in France and Singapore before being engaged to build what is now known as the Farstad Shipping Offshore Simulation Centre (FSOSC) in WA. Hidden inside a rather unprepossessing industrial building in an area full of similarlyanonymous warehouses and factories, FSOSC has a range of simulators to train for all aspects of offshore platform support operations. There are two ship’s-bridge simulators, one stacked on top of the other. There also two deckoperations simulators, an engine room control console simulator, and separate simulators for operations on an oil rig deck, an oil rig crane and an oil rig anchor winch.

‘UNREAL’ SIMULATION

OSC simulators use IMAX-style hemispherical screens to provide a seamless projection surface that completely envelops the visual field of the trainee, so the most noticeable feature of the FOSC simulator is the twostorey (7.5m high and 15.7m in diameter) inverted aluminium hemisphere (like a very big pudding basin) that encloses the two stacked

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bridge simulators. Indeed the FSOSC logo is a CAD drawing of its pudding-basin screen.

The main projection dome and the two 4.5m domed screens used in the oil rig crane and winch simulators were specified by OSC and supplied by US domed-screen specialist Spitz Inc, which originally developed its screens for low-budget planetariums.

OSC also specified the design for the double-decker bridge simulation platforms and had them constructed by marine engineers Taylor Brothers, which usually does work on Farstad ships and Antarctic supply vessels from its premises on the banks of the Derwent in Hobart. OSC also supplied a Norwegian team to install and commission the simulation hardware and software systems.

Farstad Australia engaged Davro Corporation of Perth to install the bridge structure, the screens and a mezzanine level in the warehouse, fit out the building interior and coordinate with the local contractors for the installation of the simulation hardware and electronics. Davro in turn engaged Perth AV company Dynamic Audio Visual Solutions to design, supply and install the CCTV monitoring, AV and conferencing systems for the classrooms, conference rooms and breakout areas.

Photo: Ole Ketil Helgesen

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SUPER DOME

The main dome housing the two bridge simulators uses an impressive 38 of Norwegian manufacturer projectiondesign’s 3000+ ANSI lumen, F22 single-chip DLP projectors to provide seamless coverage from horizon to horizon. A further six F22s are used on each of the 4.5m domes for the oil rig crane and oil rig winch simulators. The choice of pairs of projectiondesign’s 120Hz F10 AS3D projectors for the three deck-operations simulators provides the option of 3D simulations through these stations.

Top of page: One of two Offshore Vessel Bridge simulators during a rig approach exercise. Not a telescope, speaking tube or parrot in sight. Top right: Catwalk access to the upper bridge simulator.

The top edge and the curve of the hemispherical 'pudding basin' screen are visible. Middle right: Norwegian Prime Minister, Mr Jens Stoltenberg poses for a 'Media Opportunity' in the Engine Control Room Console simulator. Above: Driving simulator with a difference. This one looks out onto a 4.5m projection dome, simulating an oil rig crane working in all weathers and sea conditions.

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FEATURE

Every one of these 56 projectors is directly connected via DVI over fibre to its own Dell PC (I suppose that means that they couldn’t find a Norwegian computer manufacturer). However, these form the minority of the 140 Dell systems involved in the massively computerintensive process of simulating weather, seas, ship motions, equipment movements, user interactions and image generation. The software for these machines was developed, and is constantly updated by, the OSC team in Norway. A dedicated symmetrical 10Mbps link between FSOC and OSC allows for constant performance monitoring and very fast responses to requests for modifications.

Each of the simulation areas is covered by PTZ closedcircuit cameras, which together with the sound from the Sabine wireless microphones worn by participants and trainers, can be routed to any of the teaching spaces. Crew members not involved in a particular simulation session can monitor the progress of the current exercise for post-session discussions and de-briefings.

The six teaching and briefing spaces are each equipped with a pair of Hitachi CP-A220N short-throw LCD projectors and a Hitachi Trio FX77 Starboard. Image switching to the displays is handled through an AMX Solecis presentation switcher while all systems, including the Dynalite lighting were interfaced through a Netlinx NI-900 integrated controller, all controlled through either tabletop or wall-mounted 7-inch Modero touch panels. One of the two boardroom-style spaces is equipped with a Polycom HDX 7000 videoconferencing system displayed on a 65-inch Samsung panel. Two other meeting rooms have Alcatel-Lucent teleconferencing facilities.

ALL SYSTEMS GO

With more Norwegians involved in this venture than you could shake a Viking battle axe at, it was inevitable the Norwegian Prime Minister, Mr Jens Stoltenberg should make the pilgrimage to sunny Bibra Lake on December 9th last year to push the FSOSC ‘Go’ button and get his head on Perth TV, where the story appeared just ahead of news of yet another lack-lustre performance by Australia in the second test against New Zealand at Bellerive (all out for 136 against NZ is hardly our finest hour). Oh well, it’s back to the flight simulator.  Right: The magnificent Rolls Royce Marine control consoles are accurate replicas of a Farstad ship's bridge, all the way down to the leather armchairs and the very cool-looking drink holders. Below left: The Engine Control Room console simulator. Below right: The deck operations simulator in 2D mode. These screens are covered by projectiondesign F10 AS3D projectors which enable 3D simulations that require the participants to wear active LCD glasses.

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FEATURE

Going (All) Out for Sports Victoria University’s new multi-award winning exercise science and sports facilities.

Text:/ Matt Caton

AWARD

WINNER

2011 I look back on my days at university with nostalgia and regret. Could I have studied a little harder? Did I spend too much time taking advantage of happy hour at the campus bar, and not enough time making the most of the education facilities? The answers to those questions are an unequivocal ‘yes’, ‘yes’ and ‘yes’. But one wonders how much easier it would have been to be engaged with education facilities like this.

The AVIA award-winning installation at Victoria University’s School of Sport and Exercise Science, is world class.

The $58m Learning Commons, Exercise Science and Sports precinct located at Victoria University’s Footscray campus has been operational since early 2011. This visuallyimpressive project, which has won several design awards, consists of 12 laboratories with associated areas for Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology, Anatomy, and Motor Learning, in addition to 12 collaborative classrooms, six meeting rooms and various study areas. The technology in the Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology laboratories is cutting-edge, providing the university with both a world-class learning and research precinct and a training facility sought after by many outside sporting organisations, among them the Western Bulldogs AFL team.

The wide-ranging audiovisual elements of this project were overseen by the University’s Media Systems Coordinator Damien Jones, who served as the AV project manager, working with consultants Charnwood Communications and the project supplier and integrator, Rutledge Engineering, “My role was to ensure the AV met the users’ requirements while remaining consistent with the University’s existing design standards.

With limited support staff, standardising on technologies is important.”

SHUT THE GAIT

While there is plenty to marvel at when looking through this project, there is no doubt that the

Biomechanics Laboratory is the most spectacular element of the science precinct; particularly from an AV perspective. The benefits of the teaching and research conducted in this laboratory will extend well past the sporting world: the ability to measure the biomechanical parameters (gait patterns, joint motion) of a human being can potentially bring myriad benefits, including minimising recovery times for the injured and reducing the number of falls in the elderly.

Rutledge Engineering had the task of installing the new technology in the laboratory, integrating it with existing equipment and making provision for further future upgrades and additions.

The university already had a 10-camera Vicon motion capture system from its previous Flinders Street lab which was transplanted into the new facility. Since then Rutledge has also installed a new NDI Optotrak Certus motion capture system.

Both systems use ‘markers’ which are placed on various points of the body being studied. The positions of the markers are extracted from the camera output using vision processing software and converted into positional information for storage and analysis. The systems differ in that the Optotrak system uses active infra-red emitting markers, while in the older Vicon system the markers are passive reflectors.

The new technology also includes six Basler Pilot series motion capture cameras that form part of an instrumentation system which includes six AMTI force platforms set into the laboratory floor. Two of these 648 x 488pixel Pilot cameras – which capture images at up 210 frames per second – are mounted overhead: one on a dynamic tracking system and the other on a remotecontrolled pan and tilt head. The four remaining cameras can be set up in any of six floor-level locations. In the control room, the overhead cameras are controlled from an AMX Modero PosiTrack Pilot Camera Controller which uses a 4.7-inch touchscreen and a joystick to select and position cameras and control the pan and

Top Right: The Exercise Physiology lab, looking across to the windows of the Environmental Exercise lab. The monitoring electronics and screens are on the standard environment side of the glass to avoid the problems produced by constant changes of temperature and humidity. Bottom Left: Not a speaker cabinet or moving light in sight. This truss system is used for flexible mounting of the motion capture cameras in the Biomechanics lab. Bottom Right: A track-mounted Basler Pilot gigE high-speed camera , part of the new Optotrak Certus motion capture system.

Images courtesy Rutledge Engineering

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tilt. Adjustments and video feedback can be made within the laboratory via the networkbased AMX Modero virtual user interface.

The laboratory can be divided into three independent spaces, each of which has a projection system to simulate liveaction activities. For example, a football simulation can be created for analysing aspects of goal kicking by using a projection of the playing field and goal zone. A participant can recreate this skill by kicking towards the screen while being recorded on any of the motion capture systems. The units in question are Mitsubishi XL6500U 5000 ANSI lumen XGA data projectors, mounted on custom brackets and enclosed in security cages used to protect them from the odd errant kick or swing.

IMPROVE YOUR ALTITUDE

Altitude training is all the rage with modern endurance athletes, with many professionals travelling to locations such as Arizona and even Nepal to take advantage of the high altitudes. Now without trying to sound like a science guy [No risk of that - Ed], the basic principle behind altitude training is that the body will adapt to the relative lack of oxygen at high altitude, by increasing the mass of red blood cells and haemoglobin, and altering muscle metabolism.

The Exercise Physiology department contains both an adjustable-environment training facility, and pseudo high-altitude living quarters known as ‘The Altitude Hotel’ to provide the training regime known as Live High / Train Low. The most impressive part of the training facility is the Environmental Exercise Laboratory. This facility contains 10 exercise bicycles in a controlled environment where the room temperature can be taken as low as 5°C and as high as 40°C, with a humidity range from 20% to 85%, allowing the room to recreate the climatic conditions anywhere in the world. Each bicycle is connected to a laptop which sits just outside the glassed area of the simulation room to protect it from the condensation that can build in the room. Each laptop is then connected to an LCD monitor, which is viewable by the

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bike rider. The laptop runs CompuTrainer, a training program which not only serves as an analytical data-gathering tool, it can generate interactive 3D graphics or use actual course footage, enabling riders to participate in a stage of the Tour de France alongside Lance Armstrong.

‘The Altitude Hotel’ living quarters consists of four small bedrooms and a communal living area, all at a simulated high altitude. Each bunk bed in the bedrooms has its own media centre with a DVD player and internet access which is entirely for entertainment purposes. (It could get very lonely and boring in those rooms after a week or so.)

MODERN LEARNING

Incorporated into the new learning commons area are a series of collaborative learning classrooms which have the ability to be linked directly to the research laboratories to enable real-time interaction with the research. Each room contains a 2Touch interactive whiteboard with a 2000 ANSI lumen Sanyo PLC-XL50 short-throw projector and five 42-inch Mitsubishi LCD panels placed throughout the flexible space.

An AMX NI-4000 NetLinx Integrated Controller selects inputs from either the live feed in the labs, a DVD player, the Lumens document camera, or a wi-fi connection to any laptop in the room.

All systems are connected to AMX Resource Management Suite to meet the university’s requirement to monitor the audiovisual system from a remote location, allowing staff to monitor system errors and retrieve reports on equipment usage, such as when a projector lamp is due for replacement.

While I still look upon the project with more than a hint of envy, I guess I can console myself with the knowledge that these are unparalleled education facilities in this country, and that the research and development that will be undertaken in these laboratories in the coming years will not only have a decisive impact on the community in general, but more specifically, on the Australian sport scene. 

it can generate interactive 3D graphics or use actual course footage, enabling riders to participate in a stage of the Tour de France alongside Lance Armstrong.

Client: Victoria University (www.vu.edu.au) Builder: Hansen Yuncken (www.hansenyuncken.com.au) Architect: John Wardle Architects (www.johnwardle.com) Audiovisual Consultant: Charnwood Communications (www.charn.com.au) AV Design and Integration: Rutledge Engineering (www.rutledge.com.au)

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The Biomechanics lab in lecture/demonstration mode with two of the screens in operation. The AMTI force platforms are completely blended into the floor surface.

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FEATURE

Driving The Message Home Reinventing the car launch event.

Text:/ Matt Caton

FINALIST

Image courtesy Kojo Events

We’ve all seen enough car commercials to know how the formula works. Take the car in question, show it driving around either an urban cityscape or a picturesque country/seaside landscape (depending on the car), and make sure that no other vehicles are visible in shot. To add a bit of spice, sometimes we see the car driven into very unusual situations such as a coffee shop or a bank. It’s a well-worn cliche but one that nevertheless seems to have a successful track record.

It is far more difficult though, to translate this style of car commercial into the live car launch; for reasons I shouldn’t need to list here.This didn’t stop Mitsubishi during its five-state national roadshow to launch the Mitsubishi ASX (Active Smart Crossover) to its dealer principals and sales staff. In fact, it embraced the well-worn cliche by adding a clever new element. The campaign for this particular car placed it as the ‘city sized SUV’ (Sports Utility Vehicle), and in the campaign the vehicle was placed in and around various city scenes. To help

recreate this for the roadshow, Mitsubishi engaged Kojo Events (which also produces Mitsubishi’s television commercials) to create a ‘digital’ set, which placed both the live vehicle and the presenters in a series of familiar city landscapes, and one ‘not so familiar’ location.

JUST LIKE BEING THERE

“The beauty of using projection to produce the images in the background was that we could change the imagery as desired, but more importantly, the background images could move,” explains Daniel Tippett, General Manager of Kojo Events.

“For example, the car could move slowly across the stage, and with the background whizzing past at a rate of knots, it gave the impression the car was speeding along a freeway.”

To complement the marketing of the ASX as a ‘city sized SUV’, Kojo created an event that saw the car drive onto the stage and appear to drive along a highway until it came to a halt alongside an inner-

suburban cafe. The café was depicted on the screen behind the car and was reinforced using a cafe table with chairs, umbrella and mushroom heater which matched the furnishing on the backdrop. The driver of the car exited and was greeted by a female companion sitting at the table. Simple, but very effective.

ALL THE MOD-CONS

At first glance, you would expect this to be a rear projection job, but due to the need for a high intensity image – along with sever space restrictions in some of the venues – Kojo projected onto the 13.5m x 4m AV Stumpfl screen from a position that could almost be described as ‘above’. To get over the set pieces and the car itself, the two Barco FLM HD20 projectors where placed very high, with the image produced by some clever use of lens shift. This also required the car, which was under two metres away from the screen, to be precisely positioned.

The video playback was via Renewed Vision’s ProVideoPlayer HD running on

Client: Mitsubishi Motors (www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au) Event production and design: Kojo Events (www.kojo.com.au) Production services and equipment supply: Novatech Creative Event Technology (www.novatechproductions.com.au) Touring logistics: Australian Touring Services (www.atslogistics.com.au)

four Apple iMac computers, while the DVI signal was distributed using fibreoptic cable. The entire presentation was controlled by a Barco Encore video presentation system.

The extended presentation elements were created and played on Apple’s Keynote, including some of the audio. Shure R-Series radio mics and Clearcom wireless comms were used by the presenters, with the sound reinforced by L-Acoustics XT115 and SB118 subs run off a Yamaha M7CL digital console.

Novatech Creative Event Technology provided the technical labour services which included an audio tech, two lighting techs and a video tech, with content and show-call managed by Kojo.

SLEEK DESIGN

The original concept for the presentation was created by Daniel Tippett, Kevin Beacham and the late John Chataway from Kojo.

“We designed in Vectorworks and Cinema 4D then collaborated with Novatech, which then used Vectorworks to ensure accurate lighting and video placement,” explains Daniel.

The video presentation was directed by John Chataway, while the motion graphics team at Kojo built the animated background.

Adriano Candeloro and Graham Milkins collaborated on creating the Keynote presentations.

SET DRESSING

To round out the illusion, Kojo injected a touch of theatrics into the show. Thirty conventional lighting fixtures were joined by a series of LED feature lights and some Martin Mac 700 and GLP Impression moving head fixtures, all run off a GrandMA console. The installation required an extensive rigging design and precise placement to ensure an even projection outcome within the restrictions of each of the venues around the country. The set pieces that depicted the cafe, which were nicely revealed using lighting, were complemented by extensive draping and tab-track reveals for the car, to round out a nice little theatrical event.

The clever project earned Kojo a finalist position in the AVIA category of Best AV Production, a fact that the General Manager is quite pleased about. “Managing to allow vehicles and presenters to move in close proximity to the projection, while keeping the experience intimate for the audience and making sure sight lines were optimal, was the real triumph.”

This launch provided the perfect solution for Mitsubishi, in a cost-effective manner, and was executed with military precision in five states in 10 working days. But really, how can you go wrong when you blend cutting-edge technical design, with some good old fashioned theatre? 

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044

TUTORIAL

Can You Hear Me Now? Effective production communications.

Text:/ Cameron O’Neill

Despite being a critical part of every production, communications still seems to be a black art to many. In this article, and the ones that follow, I’m going to take a look at the different types of communication systems – from the sublimely simple to the ridiculously complex – and see which system best meets the needs of particular applications.

WHY COMMS?

In some simple production formats, if everything goes to plan, a communications system may turn out to be unnecessary and may actually never be used. I’m sure most of us can recollect shows where you waited until the band walked on stage, pushed up the faders, and you’re into it – never once saying a word to the crew on stage. But without a clear and reliable means of communication, it doesn’t take very much to happen before an event can come crashing down (sometimes literally) around your ears.

While working on a project a couple of years back we had an accountant calculate the cost of a major communications failure in a 2500seat venue. The cost for a single system failure was estimated to be in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Never mind the cost in public reputation for those involved.

Simplex, duplex, or something in between?:

Before launching into a detailed description of a number of systems, I need to define a couple of terms, since ‘duplex’ and ‘simplex’ are used (and frequently misused) extensively in the communications world.

Full-duplex: A full-duplex system is capable of talking in two directions simultaneously. A telephone is a good example of a full duplex system: you can hear the person at the other end even while you are speaking.

Half-duplex: A half-duplex system can talk in both directions, but only in one direction at any time. Think about the walkie-talkies you used as a kid: when you were talking you couldn’t hear anyone else.

Simplex: A simplex system can only communicate in one direction, ever. A common example of a simplex system is the announcement system (often called ‘The Tannoy’ for obscure historical reasons) that broadcasts cast and crew calls from stage management to dressing rooms, crew areas and the green room. Since the listeners can’t reply, this is a ‘simplex’ system.

NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY SIMPLEX

DIGITAL PARTYLINES

However, there is one slight problem here; half-duplex and simplex have somehow become muddled and interchangeable in the modern communications lexicon. From now on, the convention I’ll be using is that a Duplex system is one that allows for fullduplex communication, whereas if I refer to a system as Simplex, I am actually referring to a half-duplex system. [I’m really glad we got that sorted out – Ed]. To go back to my examples, I will call a telephone system Duplex, but a walkie-talkie Simplex. On the rare occasions where I will refer to a single-direction system, I will use the term True Simplex.

Digital Partyline systems, which began to appear in 2004, have resolved a lot of the issues with their analogue predecessors. More complex digital signal processing circuitry means you can extract your own audio from your listen circuit (echo cancelling), the noise floor is dramatically reduced, and you can fit multiple channels down a single cable without the need for odd adaptors. However, since these systems usually run over the AES protocol which (like DMX512) specifies a 110Ω twisted-pair cable, they can’t be reliably used with standard mic cable or even star-quad cable.

More recently, advances in wireless technologies have allowed for the next generation of partyline systems to be developed.

Wireless partylines use a digital transmission standard to allow the partyline beltpacks to be freed from the tyranny of cabling, thus increasing the freedom of the user, whilst drastically reducing the contents of their wallet.

PARTYLINES

One of the simplest ways for a group to communicate is the shared partyline. Analogue partyline systems have been used in broadcast and production since the Stone Age of electronics. They appear to have developed out of the original military field telephones.

These systems used simple, parallel-connection circuitry to allow any user to hear everything that anyone else says on that line. Modern military phones retain this as a capability; you can call individual users or you can join the ‘conference’ – a common line that anyone can talk on at any time.

There are many advantages to the partyline.

They are almost always powered from a central unit by a phantom power arrangement, and they usually use a single-pair cable like a mic cable, avoiding the need to carry specialised cabling just for the comms. Plus, the simple circuitry means that there is very little to go wrong; with many early beltpack-style partyline systems continuing to work (albeit noisily) for two decades or more.

However, analogue partylines have a number of drawbacks. Since there is no central way to control individual levels, a particularly loud station can drown out other callers.

Increasing the number of stations also increases the amount of background noise on the system due to the increased load on the base station.

Also, due to the simple circuitry there is a very real (and very common) issue with feedback; when you listen to everyone speaking, that includes you.

WHERE WOULD YOU USE PARTYLINES?

Due to their simplicity and ease of use, partylines are most often deployed in areas where there are only a few users (less than 10 is my usual rule of thumb [Although the Editor has worked on many productions with 30+ beltpacks]).

They are most commonly used in small and medium auditoriums, touring productions, or as an extension of a bigger matrix system.

Most Partyline systems allow for multiple channels or ‘loops’ to be controlled from a central location (e.g. a stage manager’s desk).

This extends the usability of a Partyline system out to about 20 users, but beyond that you are limited by that central person’s ability to communicate effectively with everyone on the network.

Large-scale productions and big events require much more than is possible with even the most sophisticated Partyline setup, which is where the Matrix communication systems come in to play. Stay tuned, then, as we explore some more next issue. 

TUTORIAL

Image courtesy of ClearCom Image courtesy of Riedel

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REVIEW

Panasonic PT-DZ110XE A punchy and compact 10.6k WUXGA 3 x DLP projector Text:/ Stuart Gregg

When this projector arrived, my initial thoughts were “I hope this unit performs”.

The form factor, specifications, features, build quality and price all appeared to stack up, so I really hoped it would walk the talk.

The quick specification run down is, a 10,600 ANSI lumens, 3 x DLP WUXGA projector in a good size box, weighing in at a respectable 24kg, including lens. This makes it a punchy unit that is ideal for ballrooms and lecture theatres. The projector is just half the size of its predecessor, which is no mean achievement.

My only concern is that producing that much light in a much smaller case has ramifications for heat dissipation and cooling and consequently product life and reliability.

That said, at one point we had the projector running for over eight hours and it never felt unduly hot to the touch. The exhaust vents seemed to push the hot air quietly and effectively away.

If the world of installation is more your thing then the claimed lamp life of 2500 hours at full power and auto-cleaning filter make it a low-maintenance unit. As with all claims about lamp life; in a review you can never verify or dismiss them, but from experience I use half the claimed hours as a rule of thumb. I’ve found with all the projectors I have owned that lamp changes are required at around that mark if you want the image to still have acceptable colours and/or brightness.

The other nice function aimed at installations, and one that I have not used before, is the easy-to-use built-in scheduling.

This allows you not only to have the projector power on and off at set times of day, but also to switch input sources, swap lamp powers and open and close the shutter. This makes smaller digital signage applications easy and avoids the need for external control systems.

OUT OF BOX EXPERIENCE

SEEING SOME DAYLIGHT

Fitting the lens was simple and felt nicely secure. The lens range is comprehensive from a fixed 0.7:1 up to 13.8:1 with very few gaps in the range. Lens shift is 55% vertical and 20% horizontal.

We set the projector up on a 3m screen in semi blackout and fed it a range of test images from a live camera, a computer and a Blu-ray player. The menu system is clear and effective and the only criticism of it would be that it’s not aesthetically pleasing and looks lower tech than the unit deserves.

Without going into any of the features of the projector, the initial images were good and what you would expect to see from any of the top projector manufacturers. The projector had no issues detecting sources and auto image-setting for any resolution or colour space. As most projectors these days can achieve this, we decided to see how good we could get the projector to look by using the host of on-board image processing features.

First we looked at the Digital Clarity 3 processing, which according to the brochure uses sampled data from each scene to produce more natural and lifelike images. The brochure and marketing material use examples of high definition portraits and focuses on the quality of the reproduction of high detail areas such as hair and skin. We did the same, then tried out some high-resolution wildlife shots. The results were good, with the projected image reproducing detail in hair, fur and skin with lifelike detail and no unnatural sharpness.

Next we played dark scenes from our favourite movies to see how well the dynamic iris and claimed 10,000:1 ratio held up. Suffice it to say I would be happy to have this unit as a home cinema. The best result for general movie use was the intermediate setting. I have a personal preference to have the dynamic iris off for general graphics and presentation use.

Most of our daily use for projectors at Haycom is for slide presentation in a range of lighting environments, so the System Daylight 2 was interesting to us. This technology claims to optimise image quality to improve colour perception of the projected image in bright rooms. The projector adjusts gamma curves, sharpness and colour correction to improve the quality of images in bright environments.

We fed the projector a slide presentation with a light background and then turned the lights on to 80%. The projector did respond and produce a good image, but we lost some of the subtle detail in the background.

If medical imaging is of interest, the projector has a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) simulation mode. This imaging mode is similar to DICOM part 14, which is an imaging standard designed to give clarity to x-rays, CAT scans, PET scans, etc on large screens.

We then spent some time going through the other standard menu features such as colour temperature, sharpness, clock, phase and keystone, all of which were easy to use and did what was expected.

Some of the more interesting and advanced features of this projector that initially caught my attention are the built-in edge blending, colour and brightness matching, and geometry correction. The geometry correction has three areas, Keystone, Curved and PC. The Keystone gives good horizontal and vertical keystone as well as sub keystone, which allows you to adjust one corner only, producing asymmetric shapes. There is also linearity correction, which is a nice feature.

The image resulting from the application of keystone correction is reasonable and not too jaggy.

The Curved menu allows for some preset curved distortions, allowing for convex and

REVIEW

Is this your copy of AV?

Unlike a lot of projectors I have seen lately, this unit has the full range of terminations including both HDMI and DVI, so no need for adapters hanging out and putting unnecessary strain on the sockets. The locking power cable is also a nice touch.

If you’d like to receive your own copy of AV or if you’d like to continue to receive AV

concave projections. Similar to sub keystone, you can adjust just one edge to create asymmetric distortion. We did not get to try the PC control, but in this mode a range of geometry corrections can be applied simultaneously.

The edge blending is available on all edges individually or in combination. It has comprehensive adjustments and should achieve good results. One minor downside is that edge blending does not perform correctly if you are on a curved surface and using the geometry correction.

MULTI-PROJECTOR CAPABILITIES

No surprisingly, with only a single projector to test we could only look through the menu and try some of the multi-projector features standalone.

Colour matching aims to correct for slight variations in the colour reproduction range of individual projectors and can be set in three-or seven-colour modes, by either manually entering figures, or using a colourimeter which should make multi-projector jobs easier.

The brightness matching feature is intended to allow projectors in an array to constantly monitor each other and adjust to keep their outputs matched and the image even. It’s possible to connect up to eight projectors via a hub, or up to 2048 via a PC and software (hmm, I would like to see that job).

The last chocolate on the pillow is the built-in waveform monitor. Using this function with a test disc or reference image you can adjust the projector to ensure you are getting the full range of the signal reproduced.

In summary, the projector is easy to use, well built and produces some good images. If the projector and lens price comes in as expected and it stands up to the test of time, then Panasonic is going to shift a good number of units. It’s no real surprise to see one of London’s well known and respected AV houses has added a fleet of them to their inventory.  www.panasonic.com.au or 132 600 RRP: $64,349 (including GST, but not including lens)

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048

NEWS

InfoComm News News from the Oceania Region.

INFOCOMM MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE CHANGES (EFFECTIVE 2013) InfoComm recently announced membership program changes which will take effect early January 2013. These changes have come in consultation with InfoComm’s membership committee after quite an extensive review. The main difference between the old and new membership structure is simplicity. The new structure is easier to understand and details of the changes will be up on our website soon, however here are a couple of highlights.

Membership categories have been simplified; there are now only two categories.

• Individual membership • Corporate membership Membership levels have been simplified, as there is only one level of membership.

Changes to the membership benefits programs are almost finalised and we believe these will show a significant increase in benefits for our members.

AVSP BECOMES CAVSP The Audio Visual Solutions Provider program has become the Certified Audio Visual Solution Provider program. This change took effect on 1st of February 2012. In addition to the name change, from the 2nd of July there will be some changes to the qualifying requirements for Emerald and Diamond levels. Full details of the program (and changes) are available on our website www.infocomm.org just search for ‘CAVSP Requirements’

CTS TOOL KIT Do you have your CTS certification? Are you aware that we have a tool kit to help you maximise your investment in your certification. The CTS Tool Kit is available on our website www. infocomm.org search for ‘Tool Kit’.

The tool kit provides you with valuable information on leveraging your certification, including material which you can include in tender response documents, business card designs, press release templates, best practices and instructional guides on media relations.

INFOCOMM 2012 LAS VEGAS NEVADA, USA The InfoComm12 website is now live at www.infocommshow. org. You can go online to register to attend the show and research any of the 925+ exhibitors or the 300+ educational sessions. We are anticipating this to be our biggest US show ever, so don’t wait to register and book your accommodation.

Have you considered going early and taking an InfoComm University onsite class? There are lots available for you to choose from, and you can use Edubucks towards the cost of tuition.

There is a new AV/IT course being launched at the show, it’s called NET212 Networked Audiovisual Systems. The details of the new course are available on the InfoComm website at www. infocomm.org/education.

INTEGRATE IN ASSOCIATION WITH INFOCOMM INTERNATIONAL 2012 The call for presenters for Integrate in association with InfoComm International has now closed. The educational program is now in the advanced stages of planning, with some changes to the program from previous years. Following on from the keynote address theme at the 2011 show, The Dawning of the Net Centric Era, the Super Tuesday program in 2012 will have a theme of Net Centric AV and will address key areas within this theme.

There will be two half-day conferences aimed at the Government and Business sectors, as well as six InfoComm University seminars on a variety of topics for AV professionals.

All sessions at Integrate will be RU approved for those that have their certification.

UPCOMING EVENTS – SAVE THE DATES InfoComm Member Roundtable Meetings Melbourne – 24th April Canberra – 1st May Brisbane – 8th May Oceania Regional Webinars.

21st March, AEDT 1:00pm 18th April, AEST 1:00pm

All The AV Industry Employment News Delivered to your IN box with AV Newswire Any time you want it at www.av.net.au

049

TUTORIAL

VIDEO TROUBLESHOOTING This is an excerpt from the InfoComm class INS201 Installation Online, an interactive course addressing advanced science and technology concepts for the AV installer. The programme is designed to be easy and cost effective for selfpaced learning. The course outlines installation processes and procedures. In addition it contains more than 40 downloadable PDFs of step-bystep installation instructions.

Much of the content below focuses on CRT systems. It is important because many institutions still use legacy CRT technology, and those who are new to the industry often have no experience working on these systems.

Video System Troubleshooting

The following six examples are some of a number of problems which can occur in video systems.

For each there is a description of the problem and an image to illustrate it, the probable cause and solutions.

Improper termination, physical or electrical, is the source of most problems in a video system.

It is always good to check the connectors and cables to be sure everything is properly made, in good condition, and firmly in place.

Be methodical; go through the cabling and connections in a systematic manner. Move from one device to another only after checking every cable leading to and from it one at a time. While somewhat painstaking, a sequential check will be the most effective solution and may expose and enable correction of more problems than you were originally aware.

Banding

Banding occurs when the image shifts too far to one side of the monitor. This makes light bars appear in dark areas of the picture and dark bars appear in light areas of the picture. The overall picture appears darker than usual as well.

the top of the screen.

When misconvergence occurs objects are outlined along one vertical edge in a primary colour and along the other edge in another primary colour.

Bending occurs when the sync signal is damaged or mistimed.

There are several possible solutions.

1 The vertical shift can be adjusted to lower the image toward the centre.

2 Flip the serration pulse removal switch, if there is one on the equipment.

Switch usually on computer video interface Applies to RGBHV applications 3 Adjust the horizontal and vertical sync.

4 Change the vertical sync pulse width.

5 Flip the sync-processing switch.

6 Use a sync termination adapter.

Blooming

Blooming manifests itself as an overly bright, unfocused image on the display.

Bending

Bending makes the picture bend to the right side of the screen. It’s especially visible on a CRT near

Misconvergence occurs when the three colours of a display device aren’t aligned correctly, or when there is a delay between the colour signals.

To remedy this, check that all the colour signal cables are the same length. If they are, eliminate any equipment which might be causing a delay in the colour signals. As a last resort refer to the display device’s manual and adjust the convergence.

If using a projector, there are almost never any field service adjustments. There could be an internal technical problem which is not field serviceable. Repairs need to be done by properly trained technicians or factory personnel.

Ghosting/Reflections

Ghosting causes images on the display to have ‘ghosts’ (faint copies of the objects in the image) visible to their right.

Blooming is caused by a maximum, or beyond, brightness level.

If this is occurring, check that the input to the display is properly terminated into 75Ω. If you are using a computer video interface, adjust the level the control to decrease the voltage level of the video signal. Lastly, adjust the display’s brightness and contrast levels.

Chroma Delay

Chroma delay may occur with S-video (or Y-C) signals, causing the colour of an object to appear slightly to the right of the object’s outline.

The image has shifted too far to one side. This causes the display to attach its black level to the video signal instead of to the back porch.

When this happens, try using the horizontal shift (centring) to move the picture back to the centre of the screen.

Misconvergence

Chroma delay happens when there is a lag between the chroma (colour) signal and the luminance (brightness) signal.

When this happens check to see that both S-video cables are the same length. If there is a decoder or scan doubler adjust the delay.

Ghosting occurs when equipment is improperly terminated or when the signal is degraded by an impedance mismatch. This occurs when there is a change from the normal 75Ω{{{Ohm}}} impedance to a different value, causing signals to be reflected back to their source and retransmitted slightly later in time.

If you’ve looped the signal through displays, check that each display is correctly terminated.

(Some displays have a switch which needs to be set to Loop or 75Ω depending on the display’s place in the circuit.) Check that your coax cables are high quality 75Ω type. Check to see that there aren’t other cables running close to those carrying video signals. You could also rewire the system so each display is fed from a separate output of a distribution amplifier. 

050

Termination It’s Hacking Season text:/ Matt Caton

Have you noticed the spate of internet hacking that seems to be becoming far more prevalent in the last six months? If you answered no, then you - unlike myself - probably haven’t had your website hacked. Twice in the last seven weeks, the sanctity of my humble little blog has been soiled, and it still leaves me with a rather sour taste in my mouth. I awoke from my alcohol induced daze on January 1, only to find that I was unable to access my Wordpress blog. Luckily for me, I seemed to catch it ‘live’ (as in, while it was happening), and was able to get around the small hacking scare with little or no damage done. Further investigation showed that I had left security holes in my Wordpress installation that were akin to leaving the keys in my unlocked and still-running car, while I was away on an overseas holiday. So I knuckled down, fixed the permissions, fixed a few of the obvious Wordpress glitches, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

So imagine my horror when I got hacked again last week, only to find that this time, they left a lovely little malware virus in there.

This time real damage was done, and to make matters worse, it filtered down into my business website, my friends website, my ‘money making’ affiliate site, and a site I host for a client.

Realising that this scare may be a bit out of my league, I decided to call in a professional. In the first few seconds of talking to my professional PHP coding guru, he managed to tell me that he himself had just been hacked, as had two of his colleagues. He then pointed out that Facebook had been hacked last year (and unconfirmed rumours state that it happened again last week), and even the FBI website has been attacked. The next day, I discovered that the front page of the AFL website had been ‘altered’ with a rather sexually charged jibe about the CEO of the AFL and the President of the Collingwood Football Club. Obviously, hearing about these made me feel slightly better about my inadequate online security skills, but it made me wonder why the internet has got so bloody unsafe again.

THE MIND OF A HACKER

It also got me thinking as to why people choose to do this. What secret pleasure does it give them? So, I did a little bit of research. According to Canadian criminal psychologist Marc Rogers, the most visible breed of computer hacker is an obsessive, middle-class, white male, between 12 and 28 years old, with few social skills and a possible history of physical and sexual abuse.

“Hackers have been dubbed the enemy of information security,” said Rogers. “They research their targets, they know a lot about us. They are very good at intelligence-gathering or sharing.” Personally, this profile is starting to creep me out a little, especially when I think about the person who decided to play around with my blog.

Rogers offered what he called a new taxonomy of hackers, categorising intruders as newbies or script kiddies (who are beginners), cyberpunks (older, but still antisocial geeks), insiders (disgruntled employees), coders (who actually write the exploits), professionals (hired guns), and fully-fledged cyber terrorists. Great, so now we have this whole subculture with its own hierarchy, just waiting to hack into anything we decide to put online.

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

However, computer hacking and the spread of viruses is not contained to pimple-faced nerds sitting in their mothers’ basements. Online espionage is fast becoming one of the most important peace-time tools of the modern military, with the infamous Stuxnet computer worm an obvious example. Strongly rumoured to have been created by the US and Israeli Governments (or at least been developed by them), the sophisticated little worm seemed to hatch itself primarily in Iran, with the suspected target being Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.

In further proof of its intricacies, the worm only attacked Siemens industrial firmware and equipment, and if it landed on a system

without this firmware or equipment attached, it deactivated itself.

The worm worked by first causing an infected IR-1 centrifuge (used to separate out the radioactive isotopes of Uranium, for the non-nuclear physicists out there) to increase from its normal operating speed of 1064rpm to 1410rpm for 15 minutes, before returning to its normal speed. Twenty-seven days later, the worm returned to action, slowing the infected centrifuges down to a few hundred RPM for a full 50 minutes. The stresses from the varying speeds caused the aluminium centrifuge tubes to expand, often forcing parts of the centrifuge into sufficient contact with each other to destroy the machine. The changes were so subtle that they were easily missed by the nuclear technicians monitoring the plant.

ANONYMOUS

Of course, any story about computer hacking would be incomplete without a mention of the ‘anonymous’ group. You know the ones, they sit around in their Guy Fawkes masks, bitching and moaning about how ‘they’ own and control the internet, and limit their attacks to government and other corporate institutions.

Most of the time, their attacks are merely to prove the point that they ‘can’ break into a site, while others are just forms of protest, like the spate of attacks launched on the FBI, the US Justice department, Universal Music and the Motion Picture Association of America after the take down of Megaupload, and the talk of the SOPA bill for protection of copyrighted online material.

The long and the short of it is, the internet is becoming a little sordid again [‘a little’? ‘again’?!

– Ed]. Is computer hacking and the spread of malware having the same buzz-kill effect as what the AIDS virus had to the free love era of the ’60s and ’70s? While that may seem a rather strange comparison to make, I am starting to feel like we have all had our online innocence taken away from us. 

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