Pro Systems March/April 2017 by Pro-Systems Africa News

March / April 2017

R38.00

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

Cover AV IN Feature EDUCATION ISE 2017 REPORT ZeeVEE INTERVIEW BLUE MAN GROUP VIDEO DISTRIBUTION

In This Issue EDITOR

CONTENTS Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of ProSystems Africa News, our Autumn edition for 2017. The new year has gotten off to an all-action start, as is reflected in our news section

this issue. We have another jam-packed issue, with a comprehensive rundown on the recent ISE show in Amsterdam which we previewed last time out. The organisers, Integrated Systems Events, have kindly provided a complete rundown of the exhibitor and attendance stats at the event, and it makes for interesting reading. There can be no doubt that ISE has grown in dominance in size and focus in the last few years, and the product launches, education programmes and innovations at this show support that view. You can read all about it in this issue. Our special feature this issue is on the education sector. A very burning issue in the sector in South Africa is accessibility and understandability, as our student populations need all the help they can get. Institutions of learning and government are therefore looking more and more to AV solutions to help with getting content across to large classes, to distributed campuses, and so. We profile some initiatives and products in the local and international markets, and provide some thought leadership in the educational AV space. Continuing our now-regular technical feature section, ths time out, we have an interesting follow-up story on livestreaming technology from a though leadership perspective, and regular contributor Abrie du Plooy waxes lyrical about video signal distribution. Our live section this issue has a wide and varied range of productions and live events, demanding some interesting AV skill sets – including the lowdown on AV for the Big Top! Lastly, this issue features two interesting interviews from different parts of our industry. Two senior executives from ZeeVee, one of the founder members of the SDVoE Alliance, discuss video over IP, and Jade Manicom, an up and coming lighting designer, gives us an insight into the life of a young lighting wizard. Our forthcoming special feature in May/June will be focused on Theatres, Galleries and Museums. If you have any story ideas in the space you wish us to consider, please get in touch. Don’t forget that we’re here for you – as your resource for key industry news, information, trends and product news. If you want to talk about any of that, have suggestions, or comments on anything you read here and in our regularly updated website, newsletter, and social media feeds, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m on james@sun-circle.co.za. Enjoy the read! James Sey

NEWS

Integration & INSTALLATION

Prosound announces new subsidiary Apexpro.............................................. 3 Viva Afrika distributes Denon DJ........................ 3 Watch out for the connected car..................... 4 Patrick Woodroffe in South Africa...................... 6 Africa’s largest MI and technology experience store launches in Midrand............. 7 Mediatech Africa 2017 in focus......................... 8 Questek lifts prestigious international award.... 9 Kyalami back on track as a live venue.......... 10 DWR the new Littlite agents............................. 11 Proxio Audio Visual appointed distributor for Asystems...................................... 11 Collective Works is launched........................... 12

AV over IP comes of age.................................. 26 The Education sector and AV.......................... 27 Alpha Technologies supports education sector............................................... 28 Huddling to learn............................................... 30 AV – Transforming the Classroom..................... 32 City Varsity chooses Elation Lighting for new studio..................................................... 34 Making education accessible......................... 36 Crestron’s education suite................................ 37 The University of Liverpool ................................ 38 chooses Lumens................................................. 38 Lumens’ education portfolio............................ 39

Technical Spotlight ISE 2017 SHOW REPORT

Sending successful video signals..................... 40

ISE 2017 by the numbers................................... 14 Atlona and Sennheiser form Technology Alliance.......................................... 16 Barco flights technology innovations.............. 17 Crestron unveils all-in-one meeting room solution...................................... 17 Kramer showcases solution for video/audio over IP in IT Environments........... 18 Seductive sound from CSEED and L-Acoustics..................................... 18 Powersoft launches new Quattrocanali Series.......................................... 19 HARMAN introduces AES67 support................ 19 ETC shines at ISE................................................. 20 Panasonic Paints with Light at ISE.................... 21 Prolight + Sound 2017 set to go....................... 22

INTERVIEW ZeeVee’s video vision........................................ 24

Live Events South Africa blown away by Blue Man Group........................................... 44 South African Idols 12th season finale success................................ 48 M-Net celebrates 30 years in style................... 50 West Side Story comes alive............................. 54 Bringing the big top to life................................ 58 Rigging and such: Rigging LED screens.......... 60

Technical Spotlight Behind the lights................................................. 62

Social Rigging Workshop by Marc Hendricks ........... 63 CM-ET Training by Chris Jones ......................... 63 Electrosonic SA’s 25th Birthday Event 2016................................... 63 Prolyte Training by Rinus Bakker ...................... 64 Mitech Direct launch......................................... 64 Prolyte Campus by Ruud De Deugd .............. 64

Cover graphic by Trevor Ou Tim

Contributors Elaine Strauss | A journalist and photographer, with experience in writing articles featuring a broad range of subjects, Elaine also has a honours degree in Visual Studies, and is making her mark in the audio and AV industries. With a keen interest in lighting design and film studies, she is a peoples-person with a fascination for all things new and shiny. With experience in journalism, videography and marketing, she brings to her writing a passion for and understanding of various fields. Abrie du Plooy (CTS, CERT AV PROF) | Abrie is an independent consultant in the AV industry. He writes for us in his personal capacity.

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

Editorial Disclaimer The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of Pro-Systems Africa News or any employee thereof. Sun Circle Publishers makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. Sun Circle Publishers reserves the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner it sees fit comments that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, or is otherwise unacceptable. All contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publisher.

www. pro-systems.co.za

news

Prosound announces new subsidiary Apexpro After more than 40 years of experience in professional installation of pro-audio visual and lighting equipment, Prosound has launched a platform exclusively designed for distribution, which they’ve named ApexPro. The launch of Apexpro is the culmination of Prosound’s experience in the distribution industry and the recognition of the need for a separate distribution subsidiary targeted at efficient and effective mass-market distribution. To distribute product well requires focus. Prosound’s focus has historically and rightfully been on their core business of being the premier pro-AV design and installation business in SA. In ApexPro, Prosound now has a dedicated team to focus exclusively on all their distribution customers and brands, with

more of both being added regularly. As ApexPro is operated separately from Prosound, with new business premises currently being renovated, they are able to service resellers with total dedication to the task. This model has so far been proven to be extremely successful for them. ApexPro imports and distributes some of the very best international brands in professional audio visual and lighting products, such as Electro-Voice, AudioTechnica and ETC amongst others. The team at ApexPro is focused on bringing the high-quality brands at their disposal to the professional end-user through partnerships with a dealer network of premium music retailers, integrators and

installers, rental and event companies, consultants and other professional resellers. ApexPro also distributes the range of Audio-Technica’s superb personal audio products through some of the biggest consumer retailers in the country – Takealot and Musica being two of them. ApexPro aims to continue the same pioneering spirit in forging new ground in the local market – all with the same focus on a superior customer experience. ApexPro is a subsidiary of Prosound, a pioneer in the South African industry with decades of expertise and institutional knowledge and an incredible passion for all things audio. The staff that possess exactly the same passion for sound and the same level of practical experience and knowledge that all Prosound people have – along with the same focus on a superior customer experience.

Viva Afrika distributes Denon DJ Viva Afrika Sound and Light (Pty) Ltd recently announced that with immediate effect the company will be the sole distributor of Denon DJ products in South Africa. The company is one of the largest and most successful distributors of professional audio and DJ products in Africa. Their extensive portfolio of products includes several professional audio brands as well as the Numark DJ range, a brand they have had tremendous success with for 20 years. Now with Denon DJ, Viva Afrika Sound and Light is able to expand and enhance its offering for the DJ market with this premier brand. In 2015/16 Denon DJ released an impressive new range of new DJ controllers all with the hallmark high quality build and functionality the company has earned a reputation for. In November 2016 they teased the DJ world with their #ChangeYourRider slogan and in January announced a brand new Media Player [SC5000], a new professional DJ Mixer [X1800] and a Direct Drive DJ turntable [VL12] as well as a

revamped Music Management application called Engine Prime. Says Viva Afrika director Bernard Pienaar; “In 1991 I purchased a Denon DN-2000F, the world’s first dual CD player with pitch-control designed specifically for DJs, from a company in Cape Town called Holscher Hi-FI, the Denon agents at the time. “I used the DN-2000F in my up-andcoming mobile DJ business and was so impressed with the product that as Hybrid Components [the forerunner to Viva Afrika Sound and Light] we approached Holscher Hi-FI to sub distribute the Denon DN-2000F in South Africa. We did this for a few years, selling DN-2000F’s to various radio stations, night clubs and mobile DJ’s in South Africa. “Viva Afrika Sound and Light is very

excited and proud to once again, after 25 years, be associated with the Denon DJ brand and we look forward to making it the top DJ brand in South Africa.” Neil Johnston, International Channel Manager for DenonDJ and all inMusic DJ brands commented, “Viva Afrika has represented Numark with enthusiasm and drive, and we look forwards to seeing this level of enthusiasm with Denon DJ. The brand has a very exciting future, with new technology that reaches beyond anything currently available. Viva Afrika fully understands where the technology is going and have the infrastructure to ensure the complete Denon DJ range continues to change the world of Djing”.

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Watch out for the connected car

The acquisition of pro-AV manufacturer HARMAN by Samsung Electronics has been making waves in the industry, and was recently concluded. The main focus of the deal was HARMAN’S presence in the ‘connected car’ market for linking a vehicle’s entertainment, security and other systems. But just what is this market all about? As consumer attitudes to car ownership and driving begin to shift and technology companies shape the roadmap for autonomous vehicles, the global in-car entertainment (ICE) hardware market is on track to reach $36 billion by 2021 according to a new connected car report from Futuresource Consulting. “The lines between couch and car are beginning to blur,” says James Manning Smith, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “The buzz surrounding ICE has been getting louder for some time and what we regard as conventional in-car entertainment continues to alter. We’re fast approaching a new landscape where our thinking will be redefined.” As ride-sharing and car-sharing become more popular, people are spending less time driving and more time-consuming

entertainment and media in the car. Better ICE systems are allowing the integration of personal mobile devices, leading to even greater device usage in the car through both smartphones and tablets. More and better screens, in the driver console and for rear seat passengers, greater availability of in-car connectivity and Wi-Fi services, and the development of Apple CarPlay and Google/Android Auto are all playing their part in growing the ICE market from $28 billion in 2016 to $36 billion in 2021. “Driving will require less human input or no input at all, and there is a greater opportunity to make use of travel as leisure time,” says Simon Bryant, Associate Director at Futuresource Consulting. “We’re going to see the car repositioned as an entertainment provider for its occupants, rather than just a means of transport. Personal devices will work seamlessly when in the car, altering environment and driving preferences based on the driver. Our transportation will become connected to our homes, our cities, our smartphones and other personal electronic devices, and our lives will seamlessly transition to each environment.” Rising connectivity levels, the driverless experience and increasing car numbers are all benefiting ICE hardware and service providers. Futuresource forecasts that connected cars will grow from 30 million vehicles globally at the end of 2016 to more than 200 million by 2020. That will grow the value of connected packages (telematics,

infotainment and safety) to more than $100 billion in the same timeframe. “Watch out for the proliferation of concierge services such as on-demand petrol delivery and filling at your home, mobile payments for tolls and petrol, usage-based insurance and smart parking,” says Bryant. “Driver and passenger personalisation is going to get smart through cloud services. Voice, gesture and motion control will be commonplace, as will augmented reality, biofeedback and integration with wearables and the smarthome. Human-machine interface (HMI) systems – the stuff of science fiction – are now sliding into the driving seat.” Although more dramatic shifts in personal transport are expected, autonomous driving will not have a significant impact within the forecast period. Futuresource expects autonomous vehicles to reach consumer markets by 2020, with production rising to approximately 10% of all vehicles by 2035. “As the car takes on a role as the fifth screen, the likes of Apple – seeing flattening demand for its mobile offering – and Samsung – with its recent purchase of HARMAN, will enter the automotive land grab in earnest,” says Bryant. “Keep an eye on the Dreamworks Honda collaboration and watch out for Netflix, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers all going after a piece of the action.”

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news

Patrick Woodroffe in South Africa

Roland Greil and Patrick Woodroffe

Legendary UK-based lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe will visit South Africa soon to present a one-day lighting design workshop along with his colleague and friend, the hugely talented Roland Greil. The workshop will take place on Friday, 21 April from 9am to 5pm at the UJ Arts Centre in Johannesburg. This is a unique opportunity for the local industry, as Woodroffe and Greil will delve into the history of rock ‘n’ roll lighting with reference to their colourful career in big-name concert tours and events. The day’s presentation will be illustrated with slides and video, including three case studies that they worked on, namely the London Olympics in 2012, Michael Jackson’s show that never was and the recent Adele concert. DWR Distribution is the sponsor and host of the international lighting design luminaries, and host of the day’s event. Says director Duncan Riley: “It’s a real privilege and honour for us to be hosting the event. Patrick is a legend in his time, having lit and directed for artists such as The Eagles, Lady Gaga, ABBA, Bob Dylan, The Police, The Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, to mention only a few. He has lit productions for opera, ballet and dance including the Vienna State Opera and Finnish National Opera, where his

lighting design took the place of the scenery. With a career that started in the midseventies, Patrick’s work has been extensive and it’s near impossible to list it all, but he has lit Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Concerts for Cameron Mackintosh, the Queen’s Jubilee concert in 2002 and has been lighting for Vanity Fair Oscar parties in Los Angeles for the last 20 years! As if that wasn’t enough, Patrick is joined this time by Roland Greil. Roland is a consulting lighting programmer, lighting designer and lighting director who is no stranger to South Africa, having presented the Bigger Picture Video and Lighting Workshop at DWR Distribution a year ago. He is a multi-talented and passionate individual who has been responsible for the realization of a variety of demanding projects and has worked closely with international artists and on productions worldwide.” DWR has extended an open invitation to this unique event on a first-come/first-served basis. Entry free, but booking is essential. Booking can be made online, at: http:// dwrdistribution.co.za/woodroffe/

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Africa’s largest MI and technology experience store launches in Midrand

Africa’s largest premium musical instrument and technology store, Mitech Direct (a Stage Audio Works’ group company) officially opened its doors to the public on Thursday 16 March 2017. The Midrand-based retailer offers a varied and comprehensive musical instrument and AV technology retail experience. The extensive facility is complete with an indoor live music arena, the widest range of musical instruments, professional audio and consumer electronics, recording studios and more. Director Will Deysel explains the need for a store of this magnitude: “We realise the ambitious expectations that we have set, but we have seen the need for music growth and the need to not only provide people with good quality products at competitive prices but to give them a full experience.” Customers will have the opportunity of browsing through Africa’s only Sennheiser in-store showcase, hearing the legendary Sennheiser HE1 headphones and interacting with Pioneer DJ's state-of-the-art interactive showroom. Stage Audio Works have displayed their range of turn-key technology solutions including the Stage Plus brand’s portfolio of stage and eventing products, the latest in broadcast and recording gear and more.

The musical instrument stockholding is spectacular. Mitech boasts over 400 guitars of the world’s largest brands on display, a full range of digital pianos from the likes of Yamaha, Roland, Nord, Korg, Casio and Novation, a wall of drums, a full scale classical department, three dedicated ‘jam’ rooms and two dedicated music lesson rooms. "We hope to set new standards in South Africa, especially when it comes to user experience. A major pillar of the business will also be our online store. It could be said that the Mitech facility will be the largest dedicated musical instrument and consumer

electronics retail space in the world," says Director, Mike Vaughan. The facility will also host legendary South African custom guitar manufacturer, Grant Fouche of Fouche Custom Guitars¸ as their in-house luthier. The world's leading Hi-fi brands will be set up in two listening rooms and leading brands such as Sonos, Onkyo, and Yamaha will all have their state-of-theart consumer electronics on display. To top it off, the facility also offers a fully equipped 1500 person capacity indoor arena, complete with a 12m x 8m stage, world-renowned line array systems, over 60 High-End System and Cameo lighting fixtures all suspended by over 200m of Stage Plus OV30 and OV40 trussing, a dedicated backline and the top-of-the-line control gear. There are also multiple high-end projectors and screens for the ultimate in media projection – essentially, the space is ready to be played in as a full live concert venue. For music and technology lovers, this experience is not to be missed. And even for those who are not 'musos' or technology 'gear heads', a walk through the facility gets you in touch with your inner rock star! Mitech Direct is located at 1 Midway Park, 61 Old Pretoria Road, Halfway House, Midrand. For more information call 087 55 10 111 or visit www.mitechdirect.com.

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Mediatech Africa 2017 in focus Mediatech Africa, the biennial advanced media and entertainment technology trade show, runs from 19-21 July 2017 at the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg, South Africa. Owned by Reed Exhibitions and Sun Circle Exhibitions, it is the largest show of its kind on the African continent, and attracts regional and international visitors and exhibitors from all over the world. Says Exhibition Director Simon Robinson, “We have a real feast of state-of-the-art technology for our visitors this year, in both components of the Mediatech Africa extravaganza. Presentation Zone 1 focuses on the broadcast, film and production sector; and Zone 2 is dedicated to the AV system integration and live event technology markets.” Show highlights include the ever-popular outdoor sound demos; a drone cage demo area, which is a first for Mediatech this year; and highlights this rapidly growing specialist technology product sector; In addition the show will feature a range of professional development conferences and talks. Finally the very popular Electrosonic and Martin Lighting Design Competition returns on Thursday 20th July. Building on the phenomenal success of the inaugural Electrosonic/Martin Professional / Mediatech Lighting Designer Contest in 2015 , the contest will once again feature as a highlight of the Mediatech 2017 show in Johannesburg. It will be hosted just after the show on Thursday evening, the 20th July 2017, in a specially constructed contest

area packed full of Martin Professional fixtures and glorious food. The Electrosonic team are hard at work putting together the details of this year’s event, which will be bigger and more spectacular than the inaugural event. Full details will be published towards the beginning of March, but it can be revealed that the contest this year will be open to ALL Brands of Lighting consoles – so MA , Avolites , Chamsys, Hogs, or any other console of the contestant’s choice will be welcome. Electrosonic will however provide the Martin M-Series consoles for the many M Series users competing. This will open up the scope of contestants and provide for even more thrilling designs. Once again Martin Professional/Electrosonic will be sponsoring some superb prizes. . Bruce Schwartz of Electrosonic comments, “We cannot wait till the 20th of July to see who will be awarded the Electrosnonic/Martin Professional / Mediatech Lighting Designer Contest winner in 2017. It’s always a great reward to see the support of the industry as we had last time and I have no doubt it will be even better this time.” Another prominent industry supporter of

the event is technical and event equipment supplier Gearhouse, which has been involved with the Mediatech media and entertainment technology trade show since 2007. Says Gearhouse Group Marketing Manager Robyn D’Alessandro, “For Gearhouse as a Group it is an opportunity to support our Industry in growing awareness around the South African offering and capabilities. We are able to showcase our own capabilities throughout our eight different companies – from the portable venue (Midi Dome frim In2Structures) we use as the Registration venue, to the latest LED products (From LEDVision), the Lighting and Audio in the Coffee Bar, AV in the conference areas (Gearhouse SA/INHOUSE Venue Technical Management) and our set building finishes for the Presentation stands (sets, Drapes, Screens). “It’s also a fantastic opportunity to catch up with our own suppliers and clients together in one space over a short period of time. Our Gearhouse Kentse Mpahlwa Academy students visit the Exhibition en masse, to learn about the latest technology and every year most of our staff body make time to visit. It’s an exhibition Gearhouse looks forward to and one that is growing more exciting every time we see it,’ D’Alessandro concludes.

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Questek lifts prestigious international award

George van Gils, Director, Questek (2nd from left), Darren Cox, Senior Sales executive, Questek (3rd from left)

AV magazine InAVate reports that the 2017 edition of its well-known InAVation Awards at ISE in Amsterdam was the most successful to date, with sold-out attendance and a record number of entries. Among the big winners was local technology company Questek, who won a major project award. The Awards are split into technology and project categories. Among the winners in the former category were companies like Christie, AMX, Barco, Matrox, Shure and JBL. The project categories attracted other local interest. European AV integrator Kraftwerk Living Technologies won the top visitor attraction for its work on the BMW Welt Refresh project in Germany. Kraftwerk Living Technologies collaborated with AV engineering consultants Macom on the project. Well-known local AV company Digital Fabric contributed to the project during the implementation phase, headed by Alex Sanfilippo. Gavin Olivier was at the event to represent the team alongside

colleagues from Kraftwerk Living Technologies. But Questek were the proudly South African winners of the best Retail project category, for their innovative work on the Telkom Customer Experience Centre at Telkom’s campus outside of Pretoria. This project was extensively covered in the July/August 2016 edition of ProSystems Africa News. The Project Awards are given for excellence in AV integration in projects within the various end-user sectors. Raymond Martin, the client-side AV specialist on the Telkom job, who worked closely with Questek’s team, had this to say: “The Customer Experience Centre has been a great success story for Telkom. Since the opening in March 2016, the room has been constantly busy, impressing high profile clients, dignitaries from government entities and South African celebrities. The flexibility of the design enables Telkom to wow clients every time they visit the centre, even if it is for the second or third time. Creating interesting experiences for our clients, showcasing the digital revolution trends and services available to them sometimes just leave them flabbergasted, realising the fact that Telkom has the capability to push their business to the next level. Showcasing world first

technologies in the centre just solidifies the fact that even in a small country like South Africa the digital revolution has arrived, and we are showcasing it on a grand scale to the whole of South Africa and the rest of the world. This centre has been such a success that a second one is now in design stages for Business Connexion, a subsidiary of Telkom.” While the CEC is dominated by the enormous 7Mx2M Barco Overview Seamless Videowall, an extremely high resolution videowall with zero bezel and up to 49 channels of touch interface, the centre boasts an array of other cutting edge AV technologies also. From Avitel infrared screens, to military-grade interactive floor panels, the whole Centre is designed with customer interface and interaction in mind. “The success of the project,” comments George van Gils, Director at Questek, “is down to our focus on our own customer – Telkom – and knowing they had to keep their customers happy. The project was a voluntary submission because we are so proud of the work we’ve done there. It’s using AV technology for one of its most powerful purposes – to change people’s experience.”

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Kyalami back on track as a live venue Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is proud to announce that this iconic venue will host three action packed motorsport events, as well as various Lifestyle events in 2017. The first race event will be on the 21st and 22nd of April. The Motorsport Festival will incorporate the Extreme Festival and will feature premier national and regional four-wheeled categories on the day. The Motorsport Festival returns for another round on the 4th and 5th of November. To end the year Kyalami will host the return of historic motorsport with the Classic Car and Historic Racing Festival taking place on the 1st and 2nd of December.

As well as enjoying racing action at the Circuit, fans can look forward to a variety of lifestyle events at Kyalami this year: The South Africa Bike Festival powered by Discovery Channel makes a welcome return from the 26th to the 28th of May. Back by popular demand from industry members and visitors alike the festival returns to electrify fans with motorcycling mayhem and will once again offer three days of fun-fuelled thundering two-wheeled, rip-roaring live action for the whole family. Visitors can look forward to the debut of SAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top 1000cc superbike riders as they battle it

out in two rounds of the SuperGP Champions Trophy series, taking place on the Saturday and Sunday of the festival. The journey that began with the successful staging of the 2016 SA Festival of Motoring continues in 2017 under the banner of the SA Motoring Experience powered by the SA Festival of Motoring. The Festival will take place from the 1st to the 3rd of September and will provide for on-track experiences with increased test drive opportunities on the iconic circuit. The NAAMSA approved national motor show will incorporate the Johannesburg Boat and Water Show, adding to the variety of exhibitors. The DStv Delicious International Food & Music Festival presented by Nedbank returns to Kyalami from the 30th of September to the 1st of October delighting music and food lovers alike. Festival organisers are promising visitors mouth-watering finds in food, street-chefs and delectable trends, as well as a world-class music line-up. This prestigious

festival fusing flavoursome fashion foods with eclectic entertainment is the biggest of its kind in South Africa and continues to grow with the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit as its new home. The newly revamped circuit features several venues for different types of live events, including a fully equipped convention centre, a conference venue, various boardrooms and flexible indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces. All have full water and power supplies and are fully AV equipped, or can be fitted out for any AV requirements. With world class facilities Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit continues to be the preferred destination for premier events, conferences and exhibitions. For more information on the exciting venue as well as upcoming events visit www.kyalamigrandprixcircuit.com.

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DWR the new Littlite agents DWR Distribution has recently been appointed Littlite agents. Littlite was represented in South Africa for many years by Tadco’s Simon Oates, who recently, very generously, made the decision to pass the brand on to DWR. A large stock order is coming soon, and DWR is running a competition where three people will have the opportunity to win the Littlite Anser Lampset 18 “Goosneck and Dimmer integrated into chassis. Littlite products are made in Michigan, America, and the vast range of task lamps are not only suitable for sound and lighting consoles, but can be used as map lights,

desk lights, lectern lights, microscope lights, inspection lights and reading lights. Sturdy metal components are used in the critical areas of the products. The Littlite LED products provide the best performance in a small, robust package and are unmatched in light output, colour temperature, energy efficiency and versatility. With this in mind, products carry a limited lifetime guarantee. “We initially wanted to order Littlite task lights from Tadco for our DiGiCo console users,” explained Duncan Riley of DWR. “In true Simon Oates fashion, he opted to rather make a phone call to Littlite and ask if the brand could be transferred to us. Littlite is a

well-loved product in our market and we look forward to making it available to our clients. Thank you Simon.” On a lighter note, Littlite has had its fair share of fame on the red carpet! The fixture can be seen in various movies such as in Julia Roberts’ classroom in the movie Larry Crowne, and in both Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve. If you go back in time to the comedy series Frasier, Littlite featured in many episodes in the show’s radio studio, and this famous little light was also used in the remaking of Ghostbusters. To enter DWR’s competition, visit the DWR Distribution Group page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ groups/113359085384785/ ). Simply let us know which is your favourite Littlite product and you could win the Littlite Anser Lampset.

Proxio Audio Visual appointed distributor for Asystems Proxio Audio Visual (www.proxioav.com), a distributing supplier of professional Video, AV and Broadcast products and solutions in South Africa recently announced their appointment by Asystems Corporation as their exclusive distributors in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan African continent. The formation of Asystems began with a group of industry veterans from leading audio and video companies sharing a dream of creating products that harness the latest and cutting-edge audio and video technologies whilst retaining the intuitive and user-friendly operation that is often missing in the market. Asystems have some of the best engineering and creative minds, who design with one objective in mind, to deliver top-notch products in pro audio live sound,

AV installations and recording systems that give their users creative freedom without any technical restrictions. “Acquiring the distributorship of Asystems in both South Africa and the Sub-Saharan African continent is just the next logical and exciting step forward for Proxio AV”, says Richard Barnes, Managing Director of Proxio Audio Visual, “Asystems has a really impressive arsenal of professional vision mixers and PTZ camera solutions, which opens up new market opportunities. The Asystems video products perfectly complement our existing product lines, where we are still able to provide to yet

another fantastic and reputable product that is incredibly well priced. In today’s age, this is particularly important in our industry. It’s all about quality and price. For us and our clients, Asystems meets these objectives head-on.”

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Collective Works is launched

Bradley Hilton, Christopher Bolton and Joshua Cutts

Collective Works is a brand new creative visual design practice launched by three highly talented and respected live event production industry professionals – Christopher Bolton, Joshua Cutts and Bradley Hilton.

All are well known for their work in South Africa and across the African continent. Bringing all the energy and vibrancy of the region to an international marketplace, the trio specialise in the disciplines of lighting, video and set / scenic design and digital content production. They have known one another and worked together in different capacities for some time, designing and delivering a variety of high profile music shows, live events, theatrical and TV productions. Sharing this vast experience plus the core values of passion for their work, imagination, creative flair and the ability to think ‘out-of-the-box’ in creating extraordinary audience experiences, Collective Works is a new and exciting venture.

It offers clients an enthusiastic and innovative approach to live show and event design – whatever the genre, scenario, size and budget of the project. From the raw material of fresh ideas, to the complex modelling of 3D and virtual simulations, to the equipment specification and co-ordination, client liaison, lighting and video programming delivery and execution on site, Collective Works will provide a complete creative service for those wanting great looking shows. “There is a great chemistry and fluidity of ideas and thoughts between all of us” says Bolton, explaining that while Collective Works is a really natural synergy between the three of them, their totally different personality attributes and characters add

yet more to the dynamics of the team. With three strong creative minds, projects requiring full technical design lighting, video and set – including automation – is the key target. At the essence of Collective Works is using a variety of technologies wisely and appropriately to help communicate with audiences, bringing narratives, performances, presentations, installations, public art and any other form of expression alive with visual magic like vast projections, incredible set architecture, pixel mapping or amazing lighting … ensuring the emotion and drama of the moment is captured and remains infinitely memorable. Immediate work confirmed in the months ahead includes Afrikaans is Groot and Starlight Classics, both in Cape Town and the 2017 series of The Voice. More information at www.collectiveworks.co.za

media & entertainment technology trade show

www.mediatech.co.za

SUN CIRCLE e x h i b i t i o n s

ISE SHOW REPORT

ISE 2017 by the numbers CHANNEL VISITORS BY TECHNOLOGIES SPECIFIED ISE 2017 was the biggest and most successful integrated technology show yet. With attendance, exhibitors and technology launches on the increase across the board, the organisation has released a comprehensive breakdown of key statistics from this year’s show, with which we start our comprehensive rundown of what went on at ISE 2017.

Overall registered attendees to ISE 2017 increased by 11.7% when compared to the 2016 edition. This figure includes both exhibitor personnel and attendees to the show. Over 40% who attended were visiting ISE for the first time. Attendees totalled 73, 413, from 177 countries. Of these, 22, 733 were first time attendees. One of the success stories of ISE has been its continued ability to attract significant numbers of new attendees each year. For exhibitors this represents an excellent opportunity to connect annually with new companies and individuals while also building on existing relationships. For the 2017 edition 41% of the total attendance visited the show for the first time. This percentage slightly increased (+2%) compared to ISE 2016. On average each new visitor to ISE 2017 spent 1.6 days at the show, slightly less than the time spent by returning attendees. Over 10% of first time attendees at the show were ‘end users’, a key demographic for the exhibitor target audience. 1, 193 exhibitors were on show, from 179 countries, of which 204 were first-time exhibitors. ISE 2017 also saw the largest ever representation of international trade and consumer media attending the show. In total, 630 print, digital and broadcast media personnel from 43 countries were in attendance. This figure reflects the event’s pre-eminence as an event where “news” is guaranteed as the world’s leading AV manufacturers premiere their latest products and services. The majority of the media represented, 31, 4%, come from professional AV publications. Systems integrators and installers dominated the attendee profile, at just over 30%, followed by distributors and manufacturers.

This table highlights the broad spectrum of technologies specified to be of interest to ISE ‘channel’ attendees. The channel is defined by ISE as the following types of attendee: distributor; manufacturer; meeting and events solution provider; systems integrator and installer; consultant. This listing is an expanded version of those provided in previous ISE Facts and Figures publications and so better reflects the full range of products and services on display on the show floor. Audio Guiding & Interpretation Audio Processing Audio Systems & Acoustics Building Management Cabling, Connectors & Signal Management Conferencing & Collaboration Content Creation & Management Control Systems Digital Cinema Digital Signage Energy Management Education Technology Furniture, Racks, Cases & Mounts Home Automation Home Cinema HVAC Control Image Processing Interactive Display IP & Network Distribution Large-Scale Display Lighting & Lighting Control Media Distribution Paging and Evacuation Systems Power Conditioning & Management Presentation Systems Projection Screens Rigging & Staging Security & Access Control Show Control Streaming Media Video Projection & Display Wireless Communication Other

14,0 % 25,4 % 39,2 % 13,6 % 24,5 % 23,0 % 12,7 % 30,1 % 16,0 % 37,7 % 7,5 % 15,4 % 13,6 % 21,9 % 19,0 % 8,0 % 14,3 % 24,8 % 24,3 % 21,5 % 24,3 % 19,2 % 5,5 % 6,7 % 24,3 % 27,7 % 9,5 % 12,7 % 12,1 % 22,5 % 39,1 % 26,1 % 10,5 %

SHOW REPORT ISE

CHANNEL VISITORS BY MARKETS SERVED

END-CUSTOMER VISITORS BY MARKET SECTOR

Attendees from the channel at ISE 2017 serve and operate within a wide range of vertical market sectors. This section of Facts and Figures has been updated and expanded to show the full breadth and reach of channel attendees. The table shows attendees who have specified which sectors their business operates in.

ISE 2017 drew a wide cross section of ‘end customer’ attendees to the show. Proportionally, end users are a growing element of ISE’s overall attendee demographics. This section of Facts and Figures has been expanded to show the full breadth of end-customer sectors represented on the show floor.

Agriculture Architecture Automotive Banking and Finance Bars, Restaurants and Nightclubs Cinema Command and Control Rooms Construction Content Creation Corporate Education Energy Production Government Home Automation Home Cinema Hotels and Leisure Resorts Information Technology Live Events Marine Medical and Healthcare Meeting and Presentation Rooms Military and Police Museum and Visitor Attractions Outdoor Advertising Places of Worship Retail and Leisure Venues Simulation and Visualisation Sports Stadia and Arenas Theatres and Performance Venues Transport Facilities TV and Broadcast Other

2,8% 12,7% 9,6% 16,4% 16,9% 20,5% 11,3% 10,9% 6,0% 26,2% 24,0% 4,3% 18,7% 16,6% 14,3% 20,8% 15,0% 18,0% 5,2% 12,2% 19,1% 7,5% 13,8% 10,1% 7,0% 15,4% 6,8% 12,4% 15,7% 5,8% 16,5% 16,9%

1,6% 3,4% 3,8% 8,2% 4,6% 7,0% 2,2% 3,9% 3,5% 9,4% 19,1% 2,7% 7,9% 3,3% 3,7% 4,9% 7,6% 11,8% 1,2% 4,2% 5,7% 1,4% 4,2% 4,7% 1,4% 8,8% 2,3% 3,1% 8,2% 3,2% 8,9% 14,7%

ADDITIONAL KEY NUMBERS In addition to the responses drawn from the visitor intelligence and lead monitoring system, attendees to Integrated Systems Europe 2017 were asked a series of questions designed to determine why they came, how they used their time, their satisfaction levels and attendance patterns at the event? The key findings from these questions are as follows: Average unique sales leads generated by exhibitors (estimated): The amount of ISE 2017 exhibitors that are “sure” or “very likely” to return to ISE: The amount of exhibitors saying “making new connections” was their primary reason in attending: The satisfaction ranking given to the service provided to ISE 2017 exhibitors: Average time spent on the show floor 1.6 days (based on new attendees only, excluding exhibitor personnel):

418.4 94.2% 89.5% 4.2/5 1.8 days

ISE SHOW REPORT

Atlona and Sennheiser form Technology Alliance The strategic partnership provides an interoperable solution across Atlona’s innovate soft codec conferencing system and Sennheiser’s wireless conference system… At this year’s ISE, Atlona announced its formation of a technology alliance with Sennheiser, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of installed microphones, conference systems, and wireless transmission systems. The Technology Alliance Member agreement is an important element of the Sennheiser Global Alliances programme, which represents strategic partnerships with technology-driven companies and vendors like Atlona that share a common goal of simplifying a customer’s daily business. This is made possible by creating a one-stop solution for business communication needs. The Atlona and Sennheiser partnership focuses on the confirmed interoperability between the Atlona AT-UHD-HDVS-300KIT and the Sennheiser TeamConnect Wireless Conference System. The interoperability between the two systems was on display at Atlona’s ISE stand at the show. “Atlona strives to serve our global customer base with forwardlooking, complete solutions that both simplify and enhance the way people work in a variety of AV environments,” said Ronni Guggenheim, General Manager, Atlona. “This strategic partnership with Sennheiser unleashes the full power of our advanced, innovative soft codec solution, and provides businesses with a simpler way to instantly provide a professional-sounding online meeting from any networked location. It underlines the importance of providing an ecosystem approach to make the integration more easy and reliable.” Introduced last year, the Atlona AT-UHD-HDVS-300-KIT is the industry’s first HDBaseT-equipped collaboration system to provide 4K AV switching, USB and HDMI extension and system control for PC-based conferencing using Skype for Business, WebEx and GoToMeeting cloud services. The two-piece system consists of the AT-UHD-HDVS-300-TX, which serves as the conferencing hub, video switch, and HDBaseT transmitter; and the AT-UHD-HDVS-300-RX, which receives the HDBaseT signal and delivers an HDMI signal to the display. The AT-UHD-HDVS-300-KIT is also the industry’s first soft codec conferencing system to enable a single category cable connection

between a conferencing hub and a 4K display, together with a USB-equipped video conferencing camera and/or microphone. This functionality supports connectivity with the Sennheiser TC-W, which provides the USB microphone and speaker that communicates with the Atlona transmitter and receiver. The Sennheiser TeamConnect Wireless case set is a portable wireless conference system that provides excellent sound and high speech intelligibility for online meetings. The system delivers multiple connectivity options with any laptop, smart device or video conferencing system via USB (as well as Bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack), making it a highly flexible asset to support all Unified Communications demands. “This strategic partnership offers an ideal solution for flexible meeting rooms with up to 24 participants, while greatly simplifying overall system design and installation based on the seamless interoperability across Atlona and Sennheiser,” said Nick Pemberton, Manager, Global Strategic Alliances for Sennheiser Business Communication. “Atlona’s strong and unique innovation for emerging online videoconferencing needs make them a perfect partner for Sennheiser and its global customer base.”

SHOW REPORT ISE

Crestron unveils all-in-one meeting room solution Barco flights technology innovations

Barco was once again a prominent presence at ISE, showing a variety of new technologies and models. Its best-in-class wireless presentation solution, Clickshare, was on display, including its new flagship model, the CSE-800. Other solutions on show included: A collaborative learning experience for any classroom To make sure engagement and collaboration remain central in a changing educational context, Barco designed weConnect. Fully scalable and networked, with a range of tools for connectivity, interactivity and information exchange, this solution enables remote classrooms and students at home to join in on the lecture. ISE visitors were able to learn about the different features of this relatively new solution for the education market at the show.

Visualisation systems for smooth control room operations

Crestron’s new Mercury solution delivers truly unified communication and collaboration combined with secure cloud deployment and management… Crestron, the global leader in commercial AV technology, introduced the most complete, flexible, and powerful table-top meeting room system with Crestron Mercury at this year’s ISE. The sleek, all-in-one console is all you need to transform your meeting rooms into highly effective collaboration spaces. It combines all the must-have conferencing and collaboration features employees need, along with the fast, secure cloud deployment and management required by IT managers. “As the leader in meeting room control and automation technology, only Crestron addresses all of the challenges that arise as unified communication and collaboration moves from the desktop to the collaboration space,” said Ted Colton, VP of UC Strategy at Crestron. “Crestron Mercury provides all of the features collaboration spaces need in a single console, while making it easy, secure, and cost effective for businesses to deploy and manage units wherever needed. On top of that, the sound quality of Mercury is truly exceptional and it’s the easiest all-in-one system to use by far.” Mercury enables users to instantly and securely present content wirelessly on the room display from a laptop, smartphone, or tablet using built-in Crestron AirMedia®. With Mercury, it’s easy to make exceptional sounding phone calls from mobile devices or standard SIP phone systems using the built-in, precision-engineered speaker and microphones. Workers can easily collaborate with colleagues via Crestron Mercury from a laptop or dedicated in-room PC using any soft phone, web conferencing or UC application, such as Skype® for Business, Cisco WebEx®, GotoMeeting®, or Slack®. The built-in occupancy sensor on Crestron Mercury allows facility managers to collect usage data to drive efficient room utilization. IT managers can rest easy knowing Crestron Mercury meets the latest enterprise security standards. Available Mercury collaboration spaces can be located quickly and easily thanks to the built-in PinPoint™ proximity beacon on each console. Seamless integration with Microsoft Exchange® allows users to reserve a room using Mercury’s onscreen calendar.

Renowned for its control room solutions, Barco provides the building blocks for control rooms that improve data gathering, distribution and monitoring. Highlights at this year’s Barco ISE booth were the OpSpace systems, the control room operator workspace designed to boost operator efficiency in 24/7 environments; and Barco’s brand-new RBG laser rear projection videowall, powered with the latest laser technology to deliver unseen brightness levels and vibrant colours at a very low total cost of ownership.

Networked technology for impressive experiences Finally, Barco also had on display its portfolio for the leisure and entertainment sector. Visitors to the booth encountered Barco’s revolutionary flexible LED technology for advertising, its renowned large family of projectors, including the new F70 laser phosphor projector, and image processing tools.

ISE SHOW REPORT

Kramer showcases solution for video/ audio over IP in IT Environments

The solution captures, manages and distributes to any number of displays from any single point on the network… Kramer Electronics, Ltd. showcased a revolutionary solution for video- and audio-over-IP designed for IT environments. Kramer’s audio/video over IP solution enables any video source (up to 4K60 4:2:0) to be captured, managed and distributed to any number of displays from any single point on the network. “The ease of deployment, flexibility, scalability, and use of standard Ethernet networks is aimed specifically at IT professionals responsible for managing vast IT device networks,” said David Margolin, Director of Corporate Marketing at Kramer. Video sources are captured with Kramer KDS-EN6 encoders, managed by Kramer Network and distributed by Kramer KDS-DEC6 decoders. Kramer Network is a software-based AV over IP enterprise management solution that gives IT system administrators complete centralised or distributed control of IP streams, room environments and any AV device from any single point on the network. The solution is installed on standard or virtual IT servers. In the coming months, the Kramer Video over IP solution will offer cloud recording and streaming. Users will be able to record, stream, manage, and distribute content video conferencing, Skype for Business, WebRTC, and video conference endpoints.

Seductive sound from CSEED and L-Acoustics Debuting at ISE this year was the CSEED 125, in partnership with L-Acoustics. In 2013, the world´s largest retractable outdoor LED TV entered the market: The CSEED 201 redefined size and style in the luxury class, won the prestigious Red Dot design award and immediately created demand for an outdoor sound system of the same uncompromising technical and visual sophistication. The answer to these demands is the new C SEED 125. CSEED 125 is a system of active speakers from L-Acoustics for configurations ranging from 2.0 stereo to 9.1 surround. The name refers to 125 decibel peak sound pressure, enough to entertain even a seriously partying capacity crowds. But even at very conservative volumes, the system is capable of unparalleled sound projection at angles wide enough to cover large terraces and gardens. L-Acoustics’ coaxial technology reproduces the entire frequency range with astonishing accuracy, faithfully rendering the finest nuances of a violin solo, the rich texture of a great movie soundtrack or a screaming guitar riff. These speakers rise out of the ground at the touch of a button. Visually, they complement the CSEED 201´s iconic Porsche Design layout. Acoustically, they are the final word in open air sound brilliance, because CSEED has teamed up with L-Acoustics, the undisputed masters of outdoor speaker engineering.

SHOW REPORT ISE

Powersoft launches new Quattrocanali Series

Powersoft has again chosen ISE as the forum to launch its new Quattrocanali Series… Following the unqualified success of the 8-channel Ottocanali series, launched at Integrated Systems Europe two years ago, Powersoft again chose ISE as the forum to launch its new Quattrocanali Series. Powersoft’s new four-channel amplifier platform includes three models: • Quattrocanali 4804: 1200 W per channel @ 8ohm; 1500 W per channel @ 2 ohm; 3000 W bridged @ 4 ohms; • Quattrocanali 2404: 600 W per channel @ 8ohm; 800 W per channel @ 2 ohm; 1200 W bridged @ 4 ohms; • Quattrocanali 1204: 300 W per channel @ 8 ohm; 500 W per channel @ 2 ohm; 1000 W bridged @ 4 ohms.

HARMAN introduces AES67 support AES67 support added to multiple HARMAN product families to deliver networked AV infrastructure… HARMAN Professional Solutions, the global leader in audio, video, lighting and control systems, including networked AV, announced at this year’s ISE the support of AES67 across networked audio and video product families. AES67 is a standard to enable high-performance audio-over-IP streaming interoperability between various IP-based audio networks. New Soundweb London BLU-806DA, BLU-326DA and BLU-DA devices will support both Dante and AES67 natively and will replace the BLU-806, BLU-326 and BLU-DAN devices respectively. The Crown DCi-DA Dante amplifiers will also support AES67 through a forthcoming firmware update. In addition to the new Soundweb London DA processors and Crown DCi-DA amplifiers, new AMX Networked AV N2000 and N1000 Series Video encoders and decoders will be released with support for AES67 providing networked audio compatibility with BSS and Crown products. The model numbers of these encoders and decoders will be identified by the suffix A, denoting AES67. “AMX Networked AV encoders can now stream audio digitally to a Soundweb London system and from Soundweb London to AMX Networked AV decoders,” said Tom Lureman, Large Venue Electronics Solutions Manager, HARMAN Professional Solutions. “Since the Soundweb London DA devices send and receive both AES67 and Dante simultaneously, the advanced functionality offered by Dante can be retained between compatible devices, such as HARMAN processors and amplifiers.” Support of AES67 by HARMAN video, processor and amplifier products brings interoperability with other AES67 compatible systems and more options to facility upgrades. A forthcoming release of HiQnet Audio Architect will include the new Soundweb London devices and updated firmware for the Crown DCi-DA amplifiers. The same release will also include a firmware update for the existing Soundweb London BLU-806, BLU-326 and BLU-DAN devices, bringing AES67 functionality to devices already deployed in the field.

This completes the Powersoft Installation Series that includes Duecanali (2-channel) and Ottocanali (8-channel) series. This new 1RU four-channel amplifier platform packs a serious punch, delivering crisp sound and sustained output volume, making it ideal for applications such as bars, restaurants, retail outlets and fitness centres. It features Powersoft’s trademark switch-mode power supply with power factor correction, smart rail management and bridgeable switch mode fixed frequency Class D output circuit topology. If the Ottocanali Series is purpose-designed for bigger installations with mission critical requirements, this new series addresses the requirements from small and medium applications where the channel count is limited but the need for a flexible product to work with Hi-Z and Lo-Z systems is a must,” says Marc Kocks, Business Development Manager for Fixed Install. “In particular, the new Quattrocanali 1204, featuring 300W per channel, can open up a new market for Powersoft that historically was recognized among the industry leaders for higher power applications. We believe that in many small installations, like leisure venues and retail spaces, where sonic quality and simplicity of use are important, this product will quickly become a best seller — because for the first time users have a competitive choice in Powersoft product’s catalogue,” summarises Sales Director, Luca Giorgi.

ISE SHOW REPORT

ETC shines at ISE Lighting and control company ETC demonstrated some innovative new products at ISE, including: • Unison Paradigm Designed as a new way of thinking about building control, ETC’s Unison Paradigm system fuses architectural lighting control advances with entertainment lighting-control technology. ETC brings its award-winning expertise in both areas together to offer the best of both worlds. Paradigm delivers a new level of comprehensive control – sophisticated facility-lighting and building systems integration. It is a green-minded energy management system that capitalises on daylight-harvesting, occupancy sensing and time schedules for maximum electricity and budget savings, combined with a deep library of lighting fixtures (LEDs, moving lights, and more) for dynamic effects, plus the power to speak fluently to different devices from different manufacturers over the same control system. The Unison Paradigm family of products includes software, touchscreens, wall stations, modular control electronics, dimming and control enclosures, and accessories to offer the most customisable and people-friendly control systems available. Paradigm addresses the whole space – bringing the beauty of well-controlled light in line with today’s environmental concerns and real-life needs. It is suitable for installation across the building spectrum – restaurants, hotels, casinos, schools and universities, museums, houses of worship, office buildings, and conference centres.

• Irideon FPZ A new, portable version of the popular Irideon FPZ luminaire made its debut at ISE. The fixture pairs the best of ETC’s popular Source Four® Mini LED platform with exceptional output, flexible zoom optics and a sleek industrial design to light your space with elegance and subtlety. Available for use with Eutrac® threecircuit track with data, the feature-rich design is perfect for museums, lobbies, and retail environments. Irideon FPZ has its own set of enhancements such as lockable 3-plane shutters, zoom optics, and the ability to dim using either remote DMX control or a local dimming knob located on the track adapter. FPZ puts out over 800 field lumens, with a wide selection of colour temperatures. This luminaire is fully convection cooled for fan-less operation and is available is a variety of colours, including custom options.

• Networking solutions ETC pioneered Ethernet-based networking in entertainmentlighting systems, with the power to transmit DMX, video and remote-focus data on a single wire. ETC’s Net3 suite, powered by ACN (Architecture for Control Networks), goes beyond that, providing an open network with the highest degree of reliability

and streamlined system control for greater flexibility and efficiency. And with the company’s leadership in the development of the ANSI standard for ACN, it continues to innovate in entertainment and architectural control using Ethernet-based protocols.

• ColorSource family Also at ISE was the famous Colorsource family of products that was developed for those with limited budgets who want a complete, high-quality LED lighting system with plug-and-play setup. The newest additions to the ColorSource family are the portable ColorSource control desks, which are available in two sizes with optional audio visual capability, and provide hands-on control with the ability to run effects, mix LED colours, control moving lights and play back cues – all with the flick of a fader. The ColorSource Relay can wirelessly switch power and transmit DMX and RDM to hard-to-reach places. And the ColorSource Spot, ColorSource Linear and ColorSource PAR luminaires can create bright light with the broadest colour gamut possible from a four-colour LED, thanks to their unique RGB-Lime emitter mix.

• Gio@5 The Gio@5 lighting control console, brings the acclaimed, professional-grade control of the Eos Ti® and Gio® consoles within reach of users with tighter spaces – and tighter budgets. This portable console packs all the control necessities into a compact footprint, so external monitors and accessories are optional. With an articulating, 17-inch, multi-touch LCD display, five definable and page-able motorised faders and a master fader pair, Gio@5 is the perfect step up for Ion® users who want expanded hands-on access to playbacks, colour control, touchscreen Magic Sheets and more. The console features the same full-function, backlit keyboard as the Eos Programming Wing and Gio® console, providing an easy transition for experienced Eos users looking for a smaller desk – and a good platform for new programmers looking to gain professional skills that scale up.

Panasonic Paints with Light at ISE International creative design practice Painting with Light was commissioned by Panasonic to produce a high-impact multimedia live show for their stand at the 2017 ISE (Integrated Systems Europe) expo at Amsterdam RAI. Painting with Light’s creative director Luc Peumans initiated the idea of simultaneous tracking and projecting onto multiple objects. It was a mission for which no-one could calculate a potential success rate in the confined and frenetic space of an exhibition booth. Luc’s concept for the show was that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. His hand-picked team included Michael Al Far, Painting with Light’s video content producer, as the visual designer and Painting with Light’s project manager Wouter Verhulst – who worked on delivering this exciting and exacting collaboration which produced stunning results that illustrated the power and versatility of the new super high brightness Panasonic PT-RZ31 31,000 lumen laser projector and the newly launched PT-RZ21 laser projector with 20,000 lumens. The show combined imagination, humour and interactive live performance with several cool technologies including laser projection, remote tracking and 3D mapping. The aim, explained Michael, was to demonstrate the “precision, detail and clarity of the projection in a challenging live situation” working in the context of the environment and also illustrate a number of symbiotic technologies in a fun and engaging way. The event stage was custom designed and built to fit into one corner of the large stand. A huge curved screen graced the top of the performance space, complimented with a straight back wall and then the floor which was also a projection surface. Fourteen Panasonic projectors were utilized in total. Four PT-RZ31s fitted with ET-D75LE6 lenses beamed onto the curved screen; three PT-DS12s with ET-D75LE95 short throw lenses were built in to the stage and covered the back wall; three PT-RZ21s with ET-D75LE50 lenses tracked the moving objects from the front, working in conjunction with two PT-DZ21K2s positioned at the sides … and the floor projection was delivered by two PT-RZ31s with ET-D75LE6 lenses. Painting with Light specified a BlackTrax real-time motion tracking system and a d3 media server to be at the heart of the control system. Eight Robe DL7S Profile moving light fixtures were also linked to the

ISE SHOW REPORT

Prolight + Sound 2017 set to go

The latest edition of the Prolight + Sound trade show is set to go at Messe Frankfurt from 4 to 7 April. Manufacturer and distributor presence from across the AV spectrum will be strong as usual this year, with various product launches on the cards. In addition, the Messe Frankfurt extravaganza will have some new innovations and has already made important award announcements.

The new‘Silent Stage’ This edition of Prolight + Sound will introduce visitors to the silent-stage concept with a new special area, and give event-technology professionals and musicians the chance to learn how this innovative stage set-up can help improve not only the mix but also the performance of musical acts. The advantages of a silent stage will be explained and opportunities for implementing the concept illustrated by live demonstrations featuring a presenter and band. Numerous event-technology companies are involved in realising the special area and will be showing their products and technologies there. They include Audio-Technica, Box of Doom, Cymatic Audio, Fischer Amps, Hearsafe, InEar, Kemper, Klang Technologies and Vision Ears. The idea behind the silent stage is to cut on-stage noise levels to a

minimum using, for example, amp simulations, isolation boxes, drum cages and electronic musical instruments. Equally, no monitoring loudspeakers are used and the musicians hear themselves and the other band members via an individually adjustable headphone mix. This has several advantages for the acoustic irradiation. In the first place, the sound from the PA system competes less with that emanating from the stage. Secondly, there is less crosstalk between the individual signals that can be clearly separated in the mix. When correctly implemented, the quality of the sound reaching visitors from the PA system can approach that of a studio recording. Moreover, the silent-stage concept makes it easier to control the overall volume of an event, meaning that live music is also possible in situations where noise levels may not exceed a certain limit, such as is normally the case at a trade show. The advantage for musicians on the stage: they are able to concentrate fully on the sound via the in-ear monitoring system, which can be mixed according to their individual preferences. This can result in an improved overall performance. Last but not least, the reduced noise level protects the musicians’ hearing. Prolight + Sound 2017 presents the advantages and the technologies required on a special stage erected in accordance with the silent-stage principle, on which a professional band will play several times a day throughout the fair. Initially, visitors only hear quiet music via the PA system. However, via listening terminals in front of the stage, they can immerse themselves in the band’s world of sound and discover the transparent sound made possible by the silent-stage concept. Additionally, visitors interested in headphones will be able to test the various in-ear and on-ear products from the exhibitors taking part in the special area. Together with the band, a presenter will explain the techniques used on the stage in detail and answer questions. Thus, the Silent Stage is not only an attractive infotainment

SHOW REPORT ISE

realisation of sound design in space’ (Jörn Nettingsmeier, Association of German Sound Engineers (VDT), ‘Myths about Truss & Rigging’ (Marc Hendriks, Area Four Industries) and ‘Compliance: its Role in the Entertainment Technology Industry’ (Randell Greenlee, VPLT).

Prolight + Sound Manufacturers’ Forum

event for visitors but also a new platform for companies wanting to demonstrate solutions for reducing noise levels and in-ear and on-ear monitoring under realistic conditions. The programme will be held in English. The Silent Stage special area will be a new magnet in Hall 4.1 (audio + multimedia) where visitors can discover products and services revolving around miking, portable sound, concert sound, installed sound, production, radio and network and media technology.

Extensive conference programme The fair will offer an extensive programme of lectures covering all facets of the event industry. Aimed at both newcomers to the sector and experts, the lectures will be held in the Forum building, close to the City Entrance of the Exhibition Centre. “Hardly any other industry is developing as rapidly as the event sector. The conference programme at Prolight + Sound enables professionals to keep abreast of the latest technologies and areas of application, as well as to gain new inspiration and learn to operate cost effectively”, says Michael Biwer, Group Show Director of the Entertainment, Media & Creative Industries Division of Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH. As in previous years, the programme is split into three parts, the Prolight + Sound Conference, the Manufacturers’ Forum and the Eventplaza Conference. Numerous lectures will be given in English and are aimed at an international audience.

Prolight + Sound Conference In the 30-plus seminars of the Prolight + Sound Conference, participants can learn all about subjects such as technology, training, law, business and aesthetics in the event technology sector. Expert speakers from Germany and abroad will provide interesting impressions of their work and present the latest developments in the market. “We are delighted to have been able to gain so many top speakers”, says Ralf Stroetmann, Head of the Training and Law Division of the German Entertainment Technology Association (VPLT). “Visitors who attend the seminars can gain valuable insights into the daily business of our industry and see how innovative, creative, professional and reliably our specialists operate.” The lectures in the Basic conference block include ‘Planning Public Address Systems’ (Volker Ruf, satis&fy), ‘Let there be light – Basics of lighting technology’ (Jochen Fünders, freelance lighting expert), ‘Media servers and video mapping’ (Thomas Giegerich, bright! GmbH) and ‘What is theatre machinery?’ (Andreas Bickel, Gerriets GmbH). Among the subjects covered in the Advanced conference block will be ‘3D Audio? – Psychoacoustic foundations and technical

Launched successfully in 2016, this professional-development forum gives companies the chance to pass on their expertise to event technicians, service providers and other players from the event industry. Advanced technologies are presented by reference to specific projects and best-practice examples. The companies taking part include Link S.r.l. (‘Myths, Challenges and Advances in Power & Signal Distribution for Live Event Production’, Bob Vanden Burgt), Hearsafe (Communication in a noisy setting – occupational health and safety through technology and tactics’, Eckart Beste) and Visual Productions BV (‘Protocols for lighting integration’, Maarten Engels).

Eventplaza Conference The lectures of the Eventplaza Conference are aimed specifically at event and incentive managers. A big part of the Eventplaza Conference is the 5th International Event Safety Conference (I-ESC) on Wednesday, 5 April. In this case, the focus is on safety and security at events. Another highlight of the Eventplaza Conference is the keynote lecture by London based Danish Product Designer and Creative Director Nicoline Refsing who has been involved with the realisation of many worldfamous shows and gained particular renown through her work as creative director and content producer of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest.

Sinus – Systems Integration Award 2017 Sinus is an honorary award and has been given in different categories annually during Prolight + Sound since 2004. The award pays tribute to projects distinguished by the innovative and future-oriented use of media technology and systems integration. The award was given this year to the media installation at the head office of Hilti AG in Liechtenstein. Within the framework of a project completed in 2016, the company’s main building and innovation centre were equipped with the latest technology, which brings the company’s history and philosophy to life and offers interactive insights into the world of Hilti products. The main aspects of the project were the planning and installation of two interactive exhibitions and a cinema, as well as a light show in the pedestrian tunnel linking the two buildings. The winners are Stuttgart-based Ranger Design (design and general contractor), Ingenieurbüro Techniz (media planning), the customer, Hilti, and the companies involved in the project, Bellgardt Medientechnik, Mediasens and Media Impression Unit 8. The Sinus – Systems Integration Award – is one of the most coveted honours given in the field of AV media technology and systems integration and will be presented during Prolight + Sound 2017, on 6 April. At the same ceremony the Opus – German Stage Award – the Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA) and the Prolight + Sound Press Award (PIPA), will also be presented.

INTERVIEW

ZeeVee’s video vision By James Sey

Bob Michaels

Making waves in the video distribution market is global business ZeeVee, which develops and manufactures video and signal distribution technology for the Pro-AV and IT markets. The company’s products are distributed in South Africa by Electrosonic SA. James Sey (JS) caught up with the company’s CEO, Bob Michaels (BM) and EMEA sales director Rob Muddiman (RM).

JS: First off, who are ZeeVee? How did the company start? What’s your vision? BM: We’re coming up to our 10 year anniversary next month and so the timing for some reflection is perfect. The roots of our company DNA lies within video encoding and from the onset, we have focused on technology to efficiently and affordably distribute high quality AV signals from multiple sources to large numbers of screens over long distances. The initial transport media we chose to work with was Coax cable. Coax cabling was (and is) widespread, existing even today in most commercial buildings and we recognised the benefits in being able to utilise an existing infrastructure with sufficient bandwidth to provide a means to primarily distribute satellite and cable TV throughout a building or campus. As a reference, we can encode and modulate 134 HD channels (with resolutions up to 1080P) over a single piece of Coax to hundreds of TVs to almost unlimited distances by simply utilising the tuner inside the TV to decode the signal. No hardware is required at the TV and customers are able to specify and purchase any off the shelf brand, mixing and matching as required. We provide solutions in every vertical, such as bars and restaurants, stadiums, retail, universities, corporate and healthcare. Should integrators wish to utilise monitors and or displays, we manufacture a stand alone tuner to address the need. Today, RF Distribution over Coax remains the most cost effective means to distribute AV signals and ZeeVee encoder/modulators power over 1 million screens around the globe. Early in the company’s history we looked at IP distribution since it has been “just around the corner” for the last 10 years! However, the switches and encoder silicon were not up to the task of high quality video distribution. That corner has been turned and especially the encoder silicon has reached the point where IP distribution is not just possible, but in many cases preferable. In early 2014 we launched an intensive development program on our ZyPer4k product. This product allows for the distribution of uncompressed 4K signals utilising fibre and/or copper and industry

INTERVIEW

representation effectively without any latency. Furthermore what ZeeVee has done is simplified AV over IP with all our ZyPer solutions through our MaestroZ Management platform which makes it almost plug and play. We believe in configuration not programming, so that installations can be carried out rapidly, without pain and especially without the need to carry ‘experts’ on staff for every different flavour of solution as with proprietary systems. Of course if a client wants to utilise their exiting 1G network, a compressed solution is the only way. The key here is to understand that application and whether latency and artifacts can be tolerated. For these instances our ZyPerHD solution fits the bill and just like ZyPer4K works with our management platform for a simplified installation. One trend we see on the decline is the use of proprietary or captive technologies, like HDBaseT. Before there were reliable compression techniques, or the cost-effective availability of 10G networking equipment, you had to use a proprietary technology to get goodquality video distributed reliably. However, with the advent of high-speed local networking and the advancement in video processors, this technology has reached the end of its useful life. IP offers massive advantages. It is THE industry standard, nothing else compares, we all rely on it every day of our life and network switches represent the most reliable technology that exists. Rob Muddiman

standard 10Gb Ethernet switches. Over the past two years, the ZyPer4K platform has been installed on five continents, addressing needs in verticals such as retail, government, military, healthcare, corporate, sporting venues, airports and higher education. We address just about any application where there was a previous requirement for a matrix switch more efficiently, effectively and in most cases at a lower cost point. We have been expanding our IP based portfolio adding IP out to our RF products; an HD compressed solution and a soon to be launched compressed 4K product working over a 1Gb network. We believe in simplifying solutions and utilising standard infrastructure – challenging conventional and proprietary, distribution systems, providing integrators total flexibility and scalability to future proof their clients’ investments. We will continue to be a driver of industry education for the adoption of standard IP technologies. Our invitation to be a founding member of the Software Defined Video over Ethernet (SDVoE) Alliance is testament to our leadership role in this transformation.

JS: What’s your view on uncompressed video signal distribution in the AV over IP space right now? What are the trends that you see? RM: ZeeVee produces solutions with and without compression and depending on the application or available network each has its place. Up until recently the only way to send AV over IP was to compress it, simply because even 1080p needs over 3Gb of bandwidth and that would not fit onto a 1Gb network. Compression works well because it manages the available bandwidth. However, it does bring two issues; there is less video information when you compress, and there will be latency because of the encode/decode process. Technology now exists whereby video up to 4K can be sent uncompressed over an IP network. ZyPer4K is a full solution that uses a 10Gb network, the cost of which is rapidly dropping and we are seeing 10Gb switch costs under $100 per port. This is a pixel for pixel

JS: ZeeVee sells its products and services into many different end-user sectors. Where do you see growth opportunities, and why? RM: It’s hard to single out particular sectors as, in theory, any solution that up until today has used proprietary AV switches can be replaced by a more flexible and future proof AV over IP solution. We are seeing more openness from certain sectors where cost and flexibility are the driving factors; such as universities. IT managers can see the real advantages of managing IT and AV on the same platform giving flexibility, cost savings and future proofing. There are very few AV applications where AV over IP could not be used. The process of change is happening and we see no real limits to the penetration of IP.

JS: Many IT Networking companies are building AV capabilities and technologies into their networks in the design phase. What’s your view on this, and how will it affect what ZeeVee does? RM: Three years ago when we introduced our AV over IP solutions we realized that we would need to embark on an education process for the AV industry. Typically AV integrators did not have enough IP knowledge or had their fingers burnt by poorly designed AV over IP solutions in the past, understandably creating a reluctance to move away from using traditional methods. We do not find the same barriers with the IT integrators. They simply see the ZeeVee offerings as superior AV implementations which can be managed just like any other piece of IP technology. In order to provide that education we developed a one day IP training course with the aim of bringing AV students up to a basic level of understanding that would enable them to appreciate and communicate effectively with IT managers. The final hour of the course is hands on with students building a small installation using ZyPer products. Yes, really you can learn about our solutions in under an hour, but we build some basic IP up first!

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

AV over IP comes of age Video streaming touches every aspect of our lives; from business to play AV-over-IP technology has evolved into an essential tool for modern communication.

However, not all AV-over-IP technologies are created equal. Each serves a different purpose for a different task. Evaluating AV-over-IP products can be challenging because needs differ greatly based on individual projects. When comparing products, consumers can identify how to best fit their needs within the ever expanding universe of AV-over-IP, by focusing on these two defining characteristics: reach and performance. Some projects require encoding across large distances, or on high traffic networks, therefore low bandwidth consumption is a requirement. Reach can be boiled-down to whether or not it can transmit over standard low bitrate networks. No AV technology has the capacity to handle streaming wirelessly or provide AV across “campus” and “multi-site” projects in the same way IP can. Reach refers to technologies that can touch as large an audience as possible. Reach can be described with a number of differing—yet interrelated—attributes, namely the number of devices that can extend simultaneously, device interoperability, use of open standards, the distance covered between devices, or AV wireless connectivity. On the other hand, sometimes the focus is on performance, such as delivering exceptional image quality and low latency pass through. Unlike reach, where only IP-based technologies are in contention; there are many competing technologies that can deliver 4K and full HD video with synchronised audio including those technologies that are designed to work on IP. A product ranking high on the performance spectrum boasts higher resolutions, lower latency, superior image quality, and close to “real time” processing. By considering reach versus performance, AV consumers can make an informed decision by determining where they fit and the choices available within the enormous AV-over-IP ecosystem. Just as some uncompressed and lightly compressed technologies cannot break the reach barrier, there are some combinations that involve low-latency and processing performance that simply favor uncompressed technologies. Uncompressed products are those

(with thanks to Matrox)

technologies that do not apply compression of any type to AV source content and data can be reconstituted at an endpoint without loss of detail or information. However, the transfer of full data video is bandwidth intensive and many existing networks are unable to handle the deluge of data presented by uncompressed video, and and this is where compression comes into play. Compression reduces IP resource demands, thereby expanding the potential reach and performance of AV systems. High-efficiency codecs, like H.264 and H.265 can empower the user to offer an optimised blend of simultaneous reach and performance. H.264 is an industry leader in a number of supported devices, scope of devices, distance reached, interoperability, and open standards. Today, nearly all smartphones, tablets, computers, and internet browsers are interoperable based on the H.264 open standard, making it the de-facto “maximum reach” solution in the market. The H.264 standard offers more free open source software, than any other codec in history. In the performance dimension, H.264 is designed for mass market video streaming, typically 4:2:0. Since H.264 has reached maturity, nearly every frontier in performance has been reached. Developed over multiple product generations across the board, the optimised codec has reached new frontiers in AV-over-IP technology, giving it superior performance in resolution, image quality, and transmission, at 10% of the bitrate of light compression technologies. Today, H.264 offers superior reach and performance to any other codec in the world, and will continue to be the gold standard for years to come. As core technologies are continuously evolving, most eyes are looking towards H.265 or AV1 to make a breakthrough as the leader in the next-generation of codecs, and that these codecs will continue grow in terms of both reach and performance. At this time, H.264 strikes the best balance between touching as large an audience as possible and image quality.

EDUCATION Integration & Installation

The

Education sector and AV

The worlds of AV and education are a natural fit, especially since distance learning has become a phenomenon, but even in the ordinary classroom environment there has always been a pedagogical argument for effective AV solutions.

Cable television in the 1980s gave a boost to the marriage of education and media technology. As the development of media able to deliver course content more compellingly became available, so educators began to design courses that could utilise video as a delivery channel. Now that these delivery channels are fairly sophisticated, and audio and video can be reliably transported over campus-wide networks or those further afield, the importance of content can take centre stage – and can be professionally designed. The growing ubiquity of AV over IP has meant that many companies and products are exploiting the web to boost student participation levels. There are developments in contemporary education that suit the intervention of AV systems well. An important one of these is that today’s student’s are used to social interaction as part of the learning experience, whether that is virtual interaction through devices, or in peer-group learning situations in the classroom. AV systems definitely facilitate this better, through interactive whiteboards, bring your own device solutions, and others. Corporate videoconferencing techniques and platforms are increasingly appearing in university classrooms, and even at school level, driven by the increased availability and affordability of more powerful codecs and distribution protocols. In the new styles of pedagogy which are current in South Africa and around the world right now, common approaches would be described as ‘flipped’, ‘active’ or ‘blended’ learning.

By James Sey

• In a ‘flipped’ classroom, students learn new concepts online by watching video lectures and other content — usually at home — and do what used to be called homework in class, where teachers can offer more personalised guidance and interaction. • With blended learning, face-to-face classroom methods are combined with computer-mediated activities, synthesising conventional and flipped styles of education. • Students working in an active-learning environment might watch a video in class, in chapters, with numerous breaks for discussion or written evaluations. Clearly all of these pedagogical methods lend themselves to new webcasting or online presentation systems. But while education is moving deeper into the online paradigm, the classroom itself is not going away. It won’t, however, remain traditional for much longer. As with museums that have more and more become immersive, interactive experiences rather than the passive viewing that was traditional, so new AV systems in and out of the classroom that are designed for education will require classrooms to become a multimedia space, with multiple displays using several types of platforms, including projection, LED screens and both live-streamed and archived content. No doubt, higher education especially is undergoing a turbulent phase of its evolution. New teaching and learning models arrive at a time when university costs have increased and debates about fees and education generally in South Africa are at a fever pitch. The AV technology necessary to support new approaches to education definitely require investment, but like all new technology, the cost of equipment gets cheaper all the time. In South Africa’s case, the fact that much of this infrastructure for the next wave of learning will comprise personal mobile devices, means not only accessibility for more learners, but also a price tag that will logically come down as solutions become more mobile and sophisticated.

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

Alpha Technologies supports education sector South African professional AV brand distributor Alpha Technologies represents many brands with important roles to play in the distributed classroom/lecture room environment.

Sony PTZ cameras The professional reputation of Sony equipment generally is good, and Alpha’s range of Sony PTZ cameras are no exception. “These products are very popular in the higher education field,” says Alpha’s operations director Joseph Milan. “They add clarity to every lecture, and make sure every presenter is seen clearly in crisp, detail-packed HD – even when the lights are low.” The whole PTZ range is defined by its smooth, speedy PTZ operation and powerful zoom – crucial for whiteboard detail in a distributed lecture room presentation. A popular model is Sony’s BRC-X1000, the company’s first 4K remote camera, combining uncompromising broadcast picture quality and smooth, silent PTZ operation with the flexibility of 3G-SDI and HDMI connections. Designed for remote operation, this compact but powerful robotic camera is an ideal for capturing images in hard-toreach or unobtrusive positions. It’s equally at home in TV newsrooms, studios and lecture auditoriums, houses of worship or sports stadiums. The 1-inch type Exmor R CMOS image sensor captures detail-packed 4K footage at 30p with four times the pixel count of Full HD, and excellent low-light sensitivity. Speedy, near-silent PTZ operation with 12x optical zoom accommodates wide-angle scenes and tightly framed close-ups, with Clear Image Zoom 18x (4K), 24x(HD) extending this range even further without visible loss of resolution. Broadcastfriendly features include dual tally lamps for on-air operation, while operational flexibility is enhanced with options for ceiling, table top or tripod mounting.

Grandview Screens The Grandview Crystal Screen Co. LTD was born from a Canadian and Chinese joint venture which has brought together Canadian design and Chinese manufacturing expertise to create screens that rival the best in the AV industry. Grandview’s ISO certification guarantees customers consistent QC and superior quality products, backed up by Alpha Technologies’ exceptional local warranty. . Grandview boasts an impressive range of over 35 models and 600 size variations to suit almost any application and is proud to supply the largest screens available in Southern Africa, many of which are available ex-stock. The Grandview brand is distributed to over 80 countries and regions around the world and has proved its reliability and value on the international market and locally, making it the first choice in screens for discerning buyers. It is proving particularly successful in the local education sector, featuring as the projector screen of choice in many university campuses nationally.

ALFAtron Lastly, Alpha is getting solidly behind its own ALFAtron range of signal management products, seeing them as equally at home in the education sector. The ALFAtron range caters for a wide variety of installation applications: from simple VGA/HDMI scalers, HDMI switchers, distribution amplifiers and Top-class HDBaseT extenders, all the way to Alpha’s incredibly popular scaler/switchers and digital audio products. The company is strongly focused on the value proposition of the new ALFAtron range, believing it offers great for money in the range ofHDMI matrix switchers and modular matrix switchers with all available signal types up to 144 x 144! What Alpha Technologies believes differentiates all its product ranges in their chosen markets is its strong confidence and support for the brand. The company is so confident in the product suite in fact, that it is offering a seven year warranty on all its ALFAtron products.

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All brand names, product names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Certain trademarks, registered trademarks, and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Crestron disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Crestron is not responsible for errors in typography or photography. ©2017 Crestron EMEA

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

Huddling to learn

By James Sey

Avitel Distribution is a relatively new player in the South African professional AV market, having started up as a dedicated entity for AV product distribution within the Questek Group. It forms a sister company to Questek Advanced Technologies, which is a well-known and established local black empowered company specialising in electronic display and visualisation solutions for professional markets. The group offers installation and integration solutions which answer specific customer needs in diverse markets, integrating advanced display technologies to give customers the most advanced and innovative visual communications tools. Questek Advanced Technologies designs and installs hardware and software visualisation solutions, integrating all aspects of the imaging chain from image acquisition and processing to image display and management.

EDUCATION Integration & Installation

From a different part of the value chain, Avitel Distribution houses and distributes high-end audio visual technology for professional markets, representing best-ofbreed international manufacturers and solution providers for control rooms, delegate systems, video conferencing, LCD and LED screens, cameras, high gain screens and connectivity. The company services very specific niche markets in the AV for enterprise industry, where a high level of technical sophistication and integration is often required. The Avitel distribution operation includes full product support for resellers and integrators, including system design, servicing, spares and after sales support. “The launch of Avitel made sense for us,” says Questek director George van Gils. “We needed to focus on our distribution operations and supporting our reseller network on one hand, and also allow our integration and solutions people to focus on projects and their own customers. We have some fantastic products being looked after and distributed by Avitel, including our HuddleScreen technology, which is an Avitel brand we’re very excited about and proud of.” Although not specific to the education sector, the HuddleScreen technology is a perfect example of the kind of flexible technologies required as classrooms and lecture theatres become more distributed and more used to an online technology solution set. New AV systems in and out of the classroom that are designed for education will require classrooms and lecture input to reflect a more interactive multimedia space, with multiple displays using several types of platforms, including projection, LED screens and both live-streamed and archived content. This is where Avitel’s HuddleScreen comes in. As Alan Worsley, general manager at Avitel puts it, “Huddle spaces in many walks of life are becoming more and more the norm. The HuddleScreen technology itself is geared in the first instance to a corporate small meeting room environment, where ‘huddle rooms’ are widely regarded as more effective and productive meeting spaces when equipped with the right AV technology. A huddle room is somewhere geared to enabling collaboration across the business is promoted through the use of video conferencing and presentation facilities. But the same usage exactly applies to most educational interactions and physical spaces.” The Avitel HuddleScreen enables group participation from a single point of access on any network, and is therefore ideal for classroom and lecture theatre interaction. Now any learner or educator can join a lecture or discussion session with a single tap, and share content effortlessly, so that the group spends time connecting to and learning from each other, rather than worrying about technology. The screen’s simplicity and robust design means that it integrates well into most modern learning environments, enabling productivity in any space where a virtual learning environment is present.

The technology is flexible and versatile, offering whiteboard sketch capabilities on a six-point touch screen, presentation functions, web browsing and video conferencing – all at a price point that will excite the traditionally cash-strapped education sector. “With the HuddleScreen,” continues Worsley, “ you can sketch, present documents, browse the Internet, wirelessly display a laptop or tablet screen, and set-up standard videoconferencing facilities. Basically, it offers everything you need to connect learners and educators to each other and to the learning group. Teachers, lecturers and business trainers get value out of the HuddleScreen compared to conventional whiteboard software as it enables teachers to allow students and learners the latitude to BYOD and use videoconferencing in the education process. The HuddleScreen is great in the classroom environment because of its enhanced whiteboard capabilities, with instant handwriting recognition. It turns anyone’s scribbles into typed text, so there’s no need for transcribing lecture notes!”. As Worsley alludes to, a key aspect of most corporate or distant education engagement technology these days is support for BYOD Collaboration. The HuddleScreen offers the opportunity to connect multiple users simultaneously to a shared display, using a range of smart devices, over a WiFi or Ethernet network. This enables sharing of content, instant collaboration and fast decision making. The HuddleScreen is enterprise ready, providing robust management capabilities and network deployment where necessary. Apple Airplay Mirroring support is also available for displaying desktops of Apple iPad or iPhones. The screen’s videoconferencing capability also supports cloud-based software video conferencing, and can natively connect to any endpoint or multipoint server that supports H.323 or SIP protocols (e.g. LifeSize Room, Cisco Tandberg Edge, Polycom HDX, etc.). It allows running Skype for business, Microsoft Lync, Cisco Webex and other video collaboration tools. This handy, intuitive screen is a perfect example of a flexible AV technology adapting to the educational needs of the internet Age. That it can also be deployed in various other industry sectors with equal ease is a pointer to the AV technology that will prove popular in the current cost-conscious market.

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

AV – Transforming the Classroom

By Marius van Wyk,

Director – Operations and Technical, SkyGroup Communications

Notwithstanding the explosion in online education and its varying degrees of success – in the traditional learning environment the physical classroom remains the very centre of the education experience.

It is here that students learn independent and critical thinking; make connections between seemingly disparate class materials, and feed off fellow students’ questions and lecturers’ responses. Study after study concludes that students who attend class achieve better grades and are more likely to graduate than those who don’t. It follows that universities and lecturers alike place a high value on class attendance and the means to keep it high. If you dig through the pile of factors that contribute to class attendance, ranging from lecturer personality to course material, you find at the core such seemingly mundane factors as the simple ability to hear or see the material being presented. Enter the critical role of AV equipment in the classroom.

Audio in the Classroom Most large lecture rooms have at least some sort of audio equipment to enable lecturers to be heard at the back of the room and above the ambient noise, but increasingly the basic microphone system is proving inadequate to this task. The highly regarded University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands, is a case in point. Last year, it identified that a poor audio experience in many classrooms was compromising students’ learning experience. Professors and staff spent much of each lecture wrestling with wireless

audio equipment – attaching belt packs to clothing, changing dead batteries, and dealing with feedback and interference. Sessions became more and more frustrating and fatiguing for students and lecturers alike, and the entire classroom experience suffered. A new audio solution was required and clear, intelligible sound was a priority, so that students would hear and understand every word. So too was a quick system start up time, ample error-free talk time, and the ability for professors to move freely around the classroom while lecturing. The university settled on a Revolabs audio solution that met these criteria and delivered other benefits it hadn’t even considered, like a feature that prevents lecturers leaving the classroom with mics still attached to them. While audio equipment is assuredly the most important starting point, classrooms are increasingly demanding more comprehensive AV solutions to meet ever more complex requirements – like live video conferencing.

Video Conferencing in the Classroom In years past, having just one guest lecturer was a rare occurrence that required extensive long-term planning and involved massive costs – the largest of which was often travel-related – but now, video conferencing technology enables an entire panel of guest lecturers, from the far corners of the globe, to join a classroom simultaneously. This ability to bring diverse and relevant expertise into the classroom at a moment’s notice, at greatly reduced cost and in real time, is having a dramatic impact on the freshness, relevance and value of course material, and consequently on the calibre of graduating students and the standing of the university. But AV equipment can do so much more than just that. Possibly the finest example of the extraordinary use of AV equipment in a classroom comes in the form of Harvard University’s fabled Computer Science 50 (CS50) class, led by charismatic professor David J. Malan. The class is an example of the alchemical combination of a magnetic

EDUCATION Integration & Installation

teacher, thrilling course material, and the use of bleeding edge technology both as a teaching method and a class-engagement tool. Crimson Magazine writer Cordelia F Mendez describes it thus: “CS50 is exceptional for its size, its resources and the cult of personality around its charismatic leader. It is more than just a class at Harvard; it is a cultural touchstone, a lifestyle, a spectacle.” Indeed it is. CS50 is an event, and one that has an on-campus student body of 800-plus, comes with its own production team and staff of 102, and is fully staged from start to finish. Its lectures are moreover recorded and uploaded to services that include iTunes U, edX, Coursera and YouTube, to service its global cult-like following, and in 2016 it became the first university course whose lectures can be watched entirely in Virtual Reality. It is, in short, the classroom of the future. Indeed, the digital era has changed not only how we consume information and communicate with each other in person and in classrooms, but also our expectations of how we should be communicated with and even our engagement threshold – how long we can concentrate on one thing (a lecture) before our attention begins to falter. This new reality presents both a challenge and an opportunity to educational institutions to transform the classroom into a high-tech environment, where the creative use of AV equipment, by lecturers, can lend weight, credibility and even flavour to course material – driving up student numbers, increasing attendance, and enhancing the institution’s reputation.

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

City Varsity chooses Elation Lighting for new studio The Production Warehouse installs broadcast-optimised Elation rig for infinity wall and studio lighting

The South African city of Johannesburg is the country’s hub for film, television and music and that focus on the creative industries spells opportunity for those interested in fields like production, design, and multimedia technology. City Varsity school of media and creative arts plays an important role in the education of young talent in the region and access to professional equipment is essential. City Varsity is a specialised institution offering degrees and other qualifications in professional fields in creative industries like

photography, journalism and film-making. A multi-campus institution, they have been national leaders in creative media education for the last 20 years. It consistently graduates industry-ready students with real passion for what they do from two main campuses: one based in the bustling centre of Cape Town’s business district, the other in vibey Johannesburg. City Varsity’s professional focus extends to a collaborative relationship with both the creative industries themselves and Subject Matter Experts (SME), who develop, prepare and deliver course material that is current and relevant. The SME’s create content for courses based on their knowledge and experience within the working world, allowing them to design and present material of the highest calibre. The approach extends beyond expertise to utilising as much professional media technology as industry can provide, so that students go into the world of work already conversant with industryleading tech. When the school recently launched a new multi-cam studio at their Braamfontein, Johannesburg campus they chose to outfit it with Elation Professional broadcast-optimised lighting including TVL CYC RGBW™ cyclorama wall wash luminaires, TVL Panel DW™ softlight luminaires and DW Fresnel™ LED lights. Elation’s South African partner The Production Warehouse (TPW) was responsible for consulting and installation on the project from

start to finish, including design of the lighting rig and installation of the lighting, rigging and control equipment. According to Marnus Nieuwoudt at TPW, the wide range of colour temperatures that the Elation fixtures offer, as well as the power savings of the LED were key factors when choosing to go with the Elation products along with the wide zoom range of the DW Fresnel. The TVL CYC RGBW cyclorama wall wash is used to light the studio’s green infinity wall, the curved backdrop surface used in broadcast and photography to blend the floor and wall together, creating a seamless background. The TVL CYC RGBW houses COB LEDs for a more even light distribution with better colour homogenisation, and an elliptical beam angle gives a broad, asymmetrical wash of light. Floods of seamlessly blended color and linear variable white color temperature presets (7200K – 3200K) make it an exceptional broadcast luminaire, ideal for infinity wall floodlighting. The TVL Panel DW softlight luminaires and DW Fresnel LED lights are used for general floodlighting, as well as front lighting and back lighting for both the infinity wall and the studio area. The TVL Panel DW, Elation’s new dynamic white soft light luminaire with 480 cool white and 480 warm white LEDs and linear colour temperature control, work as 45-degree front lights and as side lights on the studio section and at 45 degrees for the infinity wall. Started by brothers Jacques and Marnus Nieuwoudt in 2014, The Production Warehouse has served as Elation’s sales partner in South Africa since 2015 and stocks a full complement of Elation products. The company specialises in supply and installation of lighting and video equipment affordable and reliable enough to meet international touring standards while stressing a high level of service commitment. For the City Varsity installation, it was important that the installation was done as a professional studio lighting install, to provide students with a proper professional media technology experience.

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CMY

Most InAVative Retail Installation 2017 Questek’s Telkom Customer Experience Centre installation has been awarded the prestigious InAVate Best Retail Project for 2017 . The international competition is powered by InAVate Magazine and ISE. Judging notes: The pressure is on when you are an AV Integrator tasked with delivering systems for a company that wants to showcase leading telecommunication technology. Questek, however, rose to the challenge to cleverly deploy sophisticated AV systems that engage Telkom customers and demonstrate the company’s complete telecommunications offering for business. A giant multimedia videowall, projected floor

graphics

combine

and

Dolby

create

5.2

sound

unforgettable

customer experience. Military grade equipment was used to create an interactive floor display, demonstrating Questek’s ingenuity in delivering an innovative and unusual system.

www.questekav.co.za | +27 11 706 0405 | info@questek.co.za

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

Making education accessible Challenge: The University of Stuttgart is one of the top nine leading technical universities in Germany, accommodating over 27 000 students and 5 200 staff members. The university required a major modernisation of all the audio visual media tecahnology across 63 lecture halls of its facilities. Part of the task was to implement a high-class streaming solution which could stream lectures to other halls within each area of the university, enabling students to play back recordings of their lectures thanks to a newly established video capture service.

Solution: The latest technology to leave Crestron headquarters has been implemented at the University. Thanks to the latest Internet Protocol television (IPTV) technology, lectures can be streamed to other lecture halls across the campus network to create additional seats, and students have full play back capability. The project is the result of a collaboration between local experts in IT and AV technology, the cloud specialist and systems integrator, CANCOM, and Stuttgart-based AV consultant and specialist, Wireworx. The two companies were tasked with modernising and simplifying the technology across the campus. This included the implementation of a video management platform which could be managed from a central and simplified control system. Wireworx set to work planning the implementation strategy, creating CAD drawings, specifying and commissioning the AV technology required for the solution. Meanwhile, CANCOM was responsible for the whole project management, determining and programming all hardware, connecting devices and ensuring the smooth running of all specified AV technology, ensuring a robust IT and cloud-based service. Wireworx identified Crestron technology as an ideal central control system solution, Crestron’s 3-Series® 4K DigitalMedia™ Presentation System and Fusion monitoring and management software was specified to implement a layer of intelligence to the university’s current system, turning the establishment into a highperformance enterprise. “We were brought on to this project as the general planning company, responsible for concept, planning, project management and commissioning of all relevant technology throughout the university.” says Jürgen Kössinger, Wireworx. “Due to the quantity of reliable systems needed, we knew that the one manufacturer that we could rely on for a robust and high quality system was Crestron. We have installed Crestron’s DigitalMedia and Fusion systems for other projects in the past and have always had an extremely positive reaction, so we knew that this technology would work, and it would work exceptionally well, even on such a large scale as was required here.” Crestron’s Fusion technology enables a remote help desk, global

device management, and data collection and reporting. Working alongside video management platform Opencast2, combined with the learning platform ILIAS, students are now able to play recorded lectures directly to their smart devices. Lectures can also be streamed live to other lecture halls within each area of the university to create additional seating space for students. This modernised system now allows for multicast video streams from the lecture halls directly to the capture agents, eliminating the need for video cables. This new hardware is used to stream video content across the university in two ways; firstly to the capture agents for recorded content which can be viewed later, and also to stream directly to other lecture halls. As a result, the university can now disperse lectures with a high attendance across two halls. Not only is multi-streaming and content capturing now possible, but a central control centre for full media access has also been established. Wireworx and the University of Stuttgart created a concept to create different VLAN’s, meaning all devices belonged to their own network and would therefore be accessible across all campuses. Crestron’s DMPS control systems have been incorporated across all lecture rooms alongside its DigitalMedia senders and receivers to easily connect projectors and other devices. Using HDbT technology, electricians and other tradesman can now pull a predefined amount of cables into each lecture hall and use them to either send DM signals from one device to another, or to be used as standard LAN cables for network connection. The university provided a VPN server to both Wireworx and CANCOM, enabling the remote support of all media technology and Crestron systems, allowing them to be monitored and adjusted remotely, saving valuable time and resources for the university. “As a leading research University, we demand to be exceptional not only in the fields of teaching but also in the overall environment and learning conditions for our students,” explains Beatrix Kopahnke, Architect at the University Stuttgart. “One very important feature for this project is the modernisation and sophistication of the AV media technology. The renewal had to follow the latest developments and highest-standards in technology which has certainly been achieved, especially in the establishment of a central control room which was mandatory for this project.” This extensive and impressive project, which combined the expertise of both CANCOM and Wireworx to implement Crestron’s latest education technology, was recognised in the Crestron Integration Awards 2017 as the Best Education Project. According to the judging panel, this project was impressive, not only in its sophistication, but also in its sheer scale.

EDUCATION Integration & Installation

Crestron’s education suite

HD-MD-300-C-E – Crestron’s latest HD scaling auto-switcher and extender with network management enables a student to simply plug in and have their device automatically switched and scaled to the screen. The HD-MD-300-C-E also works out of the box saving time and money programming. When combined with Crestron’s AirMedia® presentation gateway this product provides a cost effective ‘Bring your own device’ (BYOD) solution, creating new opportunities for student collaboration. AirMedia® allows multiple students to connect wirelessly and present their findings to the whole class using whatever source or format they choose – whether it is a PowerPoint®, Excel®, Word, PDF or showing images from their personal smart device – without any wires to connect to, and all in H264 quality streaming.

DMPS3-4K-300-C – is the latest addition to Crestron’s award winning 3-Series® 4K DigitalMedia™ Presentation System. Using DigitalMedia™, teachers and students are able to stream 4K60 content, giving maximum impact to presentations shown in the classroom. The multi-format presentation solution works seamlessly out of the box with up to four Crestron Connect It™ Cable Caddies. If paired with AirMedia®, this system can also allow for simplified configuration using built-in Crestron .AV Framework™ technology, a platform which connects every visible device in a room on a managed network.

HD-WP-4K-401-C – is Crestron’s new multi window 4K video processing unit which can display up to four 4K sources simultaneously on a single display. It also supports up to four Crestron Connect It™ Cable Caddies for BYOD and collaboration. This device used in a lecture theatre could be set up to have two inputs showing on the screen. One input in full screen 4K with a secondary input scaled and positioned. This could be a presentation being shown and a streamed input where a distant presenter is delivering the presentation to a lecture theatre of students.

Crestron Mercury – is a new centre of table UCC solution ideal for web and audio conferencing. It allows for HDMI wired presentation as well as AirMedia® wireless presentation and therefore is an affordable option for distance learning. Mercury can turn any teaching space into a videoconference room by simply connecting a laptop running Skype® for Business, Cisco WebEx®, GotoMeeting®, Slack®, or another web conferencing or UC application. This provides students the options of a one-to-one or one-to-many collaborative session with distant presenters.

DigitalMedia™ NVX series – Crestron’s new DigitalMedia™ NVX encoders/decoder mean you can transmit 4K60 4:4:4 HDR video over 1Gb Ethernet without the need for an expensive infrastructure and no latency. It is perfectly suited to distance learning.

Integration & Installation EDUCATION

The University of Liverpool chooses Lumens

(courtesy of Pure AV)

Growing demand for courses, the expectation of digitised course content and campus sites in London, Liverpool and China have fuelled demand for Lumens PTZ cameras at the University; as high quality video recording becomes an important tool in the delivery of the academic experience. AV integrators Pure AV introduced the first Lumens PTZ camera to The University of Liverpool in 2010, and six years later there are over 100 cameras installed across the University estate. Deployed in all of the large teaching spaces at the University, a mix of VC-G30 and VC-G50 cameras are a core part of the teaching room set up wherever there is a lecture capture or room linking requirement.

Gary Swift, AV team leader at The University of Liverpool explains, “The popularity of the courses at the University has resulted in an increase in class sizes and greater use of room linking. As an AV team it is essential that we maintain the quality of the student experience across the teaching environment. A reliable camera able to transmit high quality images between rooms is an important part of that service delivery. Lecture capture is another area that has seen significant development at the University. Today’s students expect to have online digital content available to support the revision process and as a result lecture capture is now widely used across the campus. As the implementation of lecture capture has increased so too has the deployment of the Lumens PTZ cameras. The quality of the optical zoom, reliability and USB connectivity are key drivers behind the adoption of the cameras. Gary Swift confirms, “The ability to connect the camera through USB without the need for additional complicated drivers and the quality of the optical zoom gives us the flexibility to use the cameras not just for room linking and desktop video conferencing but also for lecture capture”. The reliability of the cameras is also an important factor. As Swift

points out, “In the 6 years that the University has been using the cameras there has not been a single failure and even now with an install base of over 100 units we have not experienced any product issues”. The camera covers a wide shooting angle and uses high efficiency DC motors servo-controlled to deliver high-speed, quiet positioning. From an AV and facilities management perspective once the unit is installed it requires very little attention. Dan Saville, project manager at Pure AV comments, “The VC-G50 is a great choice for Universities, if someone tweaks or moves the camera position, it will automatically move itself back to the correct position, and as Lumens use DC servo motors there is no gear box to break helping to make the unit robust and resistant to damage”. According to Swift, there is however an opportunity for Lumens to further enhance the product proposition. “I would like the camera to be networkable; with network output we could link it to our room monitoring system. The ability to use the Lumens cameras to look into the room would be very beneficial as part of our AV room monitoring”. The final application of the Lumens PTZ cameras at the University of Liverpool is in support of desktop video conferencing. The Lumens cameras are used in conjunction with StarLeaf desktop video conferencing when a superior video image is required. Most often this is in support of internal communication between the different campus sites and to carry out online viva examinations. As Swift concludes, “When you have a product that is reliable and delivers what you expect then it is natural that the usage will grow. In the six years since Pure AV introduced the Lumens PTZ cameras to the University we have gradually increased the applications where the cameras are used, and as the use of video and digital content persists I fully expect that to continue.”

EDUCATION Integration & Installation

Lumens’ education portfolio Lumens offers a product set uniquely geared to the education sector.

The Lumens VC-B20U HD Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) USB camera This has USB video output interface. It is equipped with a 1/2.8inch image sensor with Full HD 1080p output resolution and a high dynamic image of 60 frames per second.The superior 5x optical zoom lens, excellent white balance, and exposure mode delivers a clear image even in low light or the extreme contrast of brightness and darkness in a conference room. The camera covers a wide shooting angle and achieves high-speed, quiet, and precise positioning with smooth PTZ operations. There are up to 128 preset settings movements and stable remote controlling for displaying effective and efficient presentations. The VC-B20U is applicable for lecture capture and videoconferencing.

The CaptureVision Station This is a true, all-in-one digital video switcher that offers high-quality, Full HD synchronised recording, storage management, video broadcasting and remote access. It supports up to four input sources concurrently, is equipped with HDMI / VGA/ RJ-45 ports and supports full HD 1080p video and audio recording – so there’s no need to purchase extra matrix equipment. In addition, it supports synchronised, multi-source inputs such as IP PTZ cameras, document cameras, and laptops. The CaptureVision Station is designed with a friendly graphical user interface that is easy-to-use. Its embedded playback function allows users to review recorded video immediately. For optimal convenience in operation, the signal input is managed with the included remote control, and the parameter is recorded from the administration webpage. It is an embedded system, which makes it more stable than competing products on the market, and has a compact design that supports Ethernet, allowing for integration with IP cameras. This makes for cost-effective and simple installation and setup. The CaptureVision Station also utilises customised functions to produce professional microfilm easily and quickly. Users can insert watermarks, titles and trailers so that film can be produced instantly without a lengthy post-production process. Recorded videos can be saved to a built-in hard disk (1TB) or external hard disk using a flash drive. Afterwards, the files can be uploaded to an FTP/SFTP site or to a cloud platform such as YouTube, UStream and Twitch. Additionally, it supports scheduled recordings at a specific time. Finally, the CaptureVision Station supports live streaming to deliver live video, audio and instruction to another location simultaneously, making it ideal for the distance learning environment using AV. It supports HTML 5 for viewing the course content on any devices via web browser.

Key features: • USB 3.0 video output interface • USB 3.0 Plug & Play and compatible with Windows, Linux, • MAC OSX, Chrome OS • Full HD 1080p high definition signal output format with a high frame rate of 60 fps 5x optical zoom • Horizontal viewing angle: 70° • Wide range Pan/Tilt/Zoom actions: • Pan angle from -100° to +100°; tiltling angle from -30° to +30° • Up to 128 user-defined preset modes to allow for ease of use in all environments

TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT VIDEO DISTRIBUTION

Sending successful video signals

By Abrie du Plooy

As consumers living in the 21st century, we are almost constantly surrounded by video displays. Video has become an extremely popular and effective communication platform and is widely used for a large variety of purposes. Apart from cinemas and television broadcasts, people share many things from news, social media content and product marketing to showcasing talent. Whether the talent is amateur or professional, the same video platform is utilised. The consuming audience experiences all this by watching a video screen showing video content, but behind the scenes, from a professional AV perspective, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an entirely different ball game.

VIDEO DISTRIBUTION TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT

Every video system has three elementary components which comprise the system. There are the source devices, the sync devices and the connection between the two endpoints to complete the link. A source device is similar to the ‘start’ point of the particular system’s signal. This is the device that outputs or produces the video signal and it could be various different components. The most common examples are DVD or media players, personal computers and computer servers with video output ports. Another popular example of a source device is a video camera, producing and transmitting a video signal. The sync devices form the other end of the line and they are the video screens on which the playing video file is viewed. Multiple technologies are used to display video such as television screens, modular LED panels (digital billboards or big screens at sport events and concerts) and video projectors which project light onto a reflective display surface. The latter is very common in presentation venues, cinemas, auditoriums and concert stages. The connection between these endpoints is where the challenge lies.

At home it might seem like a really simple task to connect a DVD player to a television with an HDMI cable and Bob, as they say, is your uncle. In the professional video industry, systems can be a lot more complex depending on the application. Some systems require more than one video source to be routed to a single display as used in boardrooms with multiple connection points. Others require a single source to be distributed to multiple display screens similar to systems in airports and shopping centres. Apart from these there are systems that require both of the above in one solution, i.e. multiple sources to be routed to multiple displays at any desired configuration. This also requires the functionality to manipulate a current configuration and reroute any source to any screen or screens, with the press of a button. The above challenges are all doable as equipment is readily available to meet these needs as long as the video designer understands the system architecture. Accurate design will ensure that the correct components are used and configured accordingly. The users can then take charge and create configurations however they desire. As mentioned, the real challenges lie in the connection between source components and display screens. Systems such as these are mostly based on unique requirements and are designed to provide custom solutions in response. Therefore the challenges that accompany signal distribution are not exactly black and white. Video signals are based on analogue waves which are transmitted over a specific medium, such as copper and fibre cables. Depending on the format, and the resolution of the video signal being sent, there are distance limitations. Over longer distances, the physical environment causes signals to weaken until they are no longer viable for video reproduction. Within analogue signals such as RGBHV (Computer graphics or VGA) or composite video (standard definition video from a player or camera) for example, the amplitude of the physical wave is what is important. A transmitted signal’s energy will decline as it travels further along a cable. An additional challenge is the fact that radio waves constantly exist in the air all around us, which then interfere with the cable and transmitted signal. This is called radio noise and although this noise is mostly fairly weak, it does cause interference. As radio noise exists everywhere, the interference happens across the entire length of a cable and the noise is continuously present anywhere on that cable. This phenomenon is known as the noise floor of a radio signal. Coaxial cables, used for analogue signal distribution, are designed with a thick copper core and a foil or wire strand braiding around the outer diameter. This cable design functions as a Faraday cage and effectively reduces noise interference. The noise, however cannot be eliminated entirely. Thus from the available amplitude of the original signal, one can only utilise the section superior to the noise floor. This section is known as the signal-to-noise-ratio and needs to be sufficient enough in order for the video to be reproduced. Analogue signals can be amplified to increase amplitude or rather increased wave size. This is done in an attempt to have the waves travel longer distances. In some circumstances, the amplifying component cannot distinguish between the video signal and the noise floor and as a result it amplifies all the waves present on the cable and produces an increase in signal amplitude as well as an equal increase in the noise floor. The result is that the signal-to-noise-ratio remains unchanged. Due to this phenomenon, successful amplification needs to be applied nearer to the source where the signal-to-noise-ratio is still sufficient. Once it is no longer adequate, the signal will be present but not clear and would not suffice for video reproduction. Certain applications require video transmission over such large distances that constant amplification fails to qualify as a viable

TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT VIDEO DISTRIBUTION

solution. Balun technology was developed to extend signal ranges. The architecture requires a transmitter and receiver with a CAT cable in between. Baluns – a name derived from the terms balanced and unbalanced – uses technology similar to balanced audio systems where the video signal is duplicated at the transmitter end and both signals are sent over multiple twisted pair cables to the receiver end. The only difference between the two is that the second signal’s frequency is inversed to a negative version of the first. The noise floor, however, cannot be manipulated and thus remains constant and equal on both signals. The receiver end then collects from the two signal feeds, a positive video signal, a negative video signal, and two X positive noise floors signals. All of these are compared and all matching signals – in this case only the noise – gets eliminated, leaving only the two X video signals of which the positive one is used, noise free. In the digital world things work a bit differently. Digital video is not the only component to be distributed. Many formats exist such as DVI and SDI to cater for different applications but HDMI is the most common signal for High Definition digital video distribution. However it’s not video alone but rather a multi-media format which hosts a collection of additional signals such as audio feeds, power, Ethernet, EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) which is used to automatically identify a matching, optimum resolution between a source and a display, and lastly HDCP (High-definition Digital Content Protection), a protocol initiated by film producers which prohibits end users from duplicating copyrighted content. This is a large amount of information to be transported and the distance limitations are much bigger than with analogue video. A digital video signal is still an analogue wave but the polarity is manipulated to be either positive or negative. A positive wave represents a 1 and a negative wave represents a 0. In a previous article I explained how the analogue metric information is converted to a binary string. Binary numbers consist out of only 1s and 0s and the strings can thus be sent over larger distances. The receiving end collects the strings with 1s and 0s and reconstructs the information prior to being converted back to analogue signals, for human beings to comprehend. The noise floor is still present but the signal-to-noiseratio is irrelevant as the receiver only needs to establish whether a wave’s amplitude is positive or negative in order to identify the strings. Thus no information is lost. Unfortunately though as soon as the signal

is interrupted or becomes too weak and it loses as much as a single digit, the strings become corrupted and initial information cannot be established, nor reproduced. The entire signal is then obsolete. In other words, a digital signal works 100% or 0%. There is no in-between. This is known as the ‘cliff-effect’. In spite of this amazing technology, HDMI is still limited and as soon as a cable exceeds 15m, an alternative solution is required to distribute the signal. The beauty of these challenges within the current technologies is that they receive a lot of attention and funding. Solution focussed technologies are constantly seeing the light of day. Range extenders similar to baluns exist and are a popular solution. A few years back, HDBaseT was introduced to distribute HD digital video. HDbaseT uses high quality Cat5e and up to distribute media signals, control signals and electricity to power equipment (depending on their consumption) all over one cable. HDBaseT technology was really well received and many display manufacturers invested to get their products to accept HDBaseT as an input, thus eliminating the receiving component of the HDBaseT distribution system. A further popular way to extend digital signals is to use fibre systems instead of copper. Fibre transmitters send light along a fibre pipe or cable at much longer distances than copper because of the lower resistance. The same strings containing 1s and 0s are sent and the same principle applies at the receiver end. The latest and greatest form of distributing video (and media signals) is to convert them to IP packets and distribute them over an IP network. The world is full of IP networks and in principle it makes sense to simply connect to a network and introduce the media signal to the network and then collect it anywhere else on the same network, or even at multiple places, at different times. This great idea was halted as soon as the bandwidth requirements became evident. Video has been streamed over networks for many years but it has had to be compressed to such a low quality in order to make it viable to send and download. Like anything in today’s world the technology caught on and video over IP is becoming more and more available. Technology even exists to distribute 4K resolution uncompressed, that still supports HDCP. Due to of the massive amounts of bandwidth required, the network limitations needs to be 10Gbps – which is not excessive anymore. Slowly but surely the IT world will upgrade networks to 10Gbps. The only other obstacle for video over IP systems is to convince the IT managers and network-security teams. The latter might be the biggest challenge but it will have to be addressed. Video distribution has come a long and innovative way to where it is today. The current pace of technology development is unlikely to slow down. The near future is leaning towards integrating into existing IT technology which will then form the backbone to all our communication needs. But then again, who knows what the future holds?

The Kyalami International Convention Centre is conveniently situated in the business heart of Gauteng between Pretoria and Johannesburg. The Pit Building has been revamped to include world class facilities and promises to add a unique and inspiring experience to your meeting, conference, exhibition, trade show, product launch or private function. • Conference Rooms • Boardrooms • Paddock Area • Covered Viewing Deck • Roof Terrace • Launch Area • Pit Area • State-of-the-art kitchens • Executive ablution facilities • Wi-Fi • 3-phase power • Convenient access • Ample secure parking

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

South Africa blown away by

Blue Man Group By Elaine Strauss

The ever popular Blue Man Group recently came to South Africa with shows in Johannesburg, Cape Town and due to popular demand, an extra week in Johannesburg…

The legendary Blue Man Group made their South African debut earlier this year, with shows at the Grand Arena in Cape Town and the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg. Starting as a collaboration between three close friends, Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1988, the show has expanded phenomenally over the past few decades to an international sensation beloved by many around the world. Wink says “When we first began creating performances centred on this innocent, curious character called Blue Man, we never dreamt where he would lead us. We are so honoured to be able to share our show with the people of South Africa and beyond. We believe the Blue Man`s universal message of joyful exuberance and euphoric celebration resonates within all of us.” For the South African tour, presented by Big Concerts, the technical

production was done by AMPCO Flashlight, based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, who supplied all the lighting and sound equipment. With a travelling tour of 16 people, including Production Managers Matt Towell and Stuart Tucker, lighting designer Kevin Adams and sound designer Marcus Ross, the show also made use of several local crews to assist with the tour. Due to the show’s incredible success in South Africa, an extra week was added to the tour. After appearing in Cape Town, Blue Man Group returned to the Teatro at Montecasino from 30 March to 2 April. CEO of Big Concerts, Justin Van Wyk said “Blue Man Group is hugely popular around the world – first time audiences leave the theatre so exhilarated by the show that it has one of the highest return businesses of any theatrical event. We know it will be the talk of Johannesburg and Cape Town when audiences experience this innovative, playful, colourful spectacle.”

He continues: “With no spoken language, the Blue Man Group show is perfect for all ages, languages and cultures. It gives everyone the freedom to reconnect with their inner child, to re-experience mischievousness, sheer joy and to see what fun three guys can have with 30 litres of paint and 120 marshmallows in the space of an hour and a half!” The sound for the show, according to Head of Audio Christo Davies, was very unique compared to other live concerts. “The biggest difference from a sound point of view is that there are no live vocals, as opposed to a normal musical theatre production. The story gets told through the use of various different instruments,” he says. The show featured L-Acoustics K2 speakers, which really impressed Davies, who was using them for the first time on the show. “The K2 speaker has a very smooth linear response throughout the entire frequency spectrum, at the same time it is a very powerful speaker system. It is very easy to setup and travel,” he says. The audio setup for the show took two days and according to Davies, the L-Acoustics simulation software used was a big help. “Every venue poses its own unique set of acoustical challenges, but using the L-Acoustics simulation software, really helped us to predict the outcome to a certain extent,” he says. I’d like to thank Marcus Ross for designing such a beautiful, easy to use sound system.”

LIVE EVENTs REPORT The lighting kit included: The sound kit list included: • Digico Sd7 and SD8 mixing consoles • L-Acoustics Speaker system, which included K2, Arcs II, Arcs wide, 5XT, 8 XT, 115XT, SB28, LA8 and LA4Xamplifiers • Various microphones from Sennheiser, Neumann, Audio Technica and AKG • Allen And Heath Personal monitor mixers • JH Audio JH16 in-ear monitors • Drawmer compressors • Clearcom Helixnet and Freespeak II comms systems

Kate McNicholas, Head of Lighting for the Blue Man Group, says : “The show is different from most other productions because it is part theatre, part rock concert, and part light/ video show. There’s so much going on with the performance and with the equipment, as a technician I find it really holds your interest.” She was highly impressed with the Robe RGBW LED strobes used for the show, which she also used for the first time. “I love them because they are super bright and really versatile, the way they have been placed in the proscenium truss means that we can create some really cool effects with them, and they bring a huge amount to the show,” she says. According to McNicholas, the biggest challenge of the show for her was the amount of custom made set electronics that are unique to the staging of the performance. “There’s is so much custom made set electrics that are specific to these shows, when they go wrong it’s not a standard piece of kit that you’ve seen before, you have to figure out how it was put together, and there’s no manual!” she says. “Fortunately Blue Man Productions have a great special effects department who can help you out when you hit a dead end.”

• GrandMA2 Fullsize • GrandMA2 Lite • ETC Source 4 LED Lustre • ETC Source 4 • Source 4 Par • Altman UV-250 Flood Altman UV-705 Flood • Eclipse Dowser • ColorBlaze 48 • Robe RGBW LED strobe • Robin 800 LEDWash • CK Accent powercore MX • Martin Viper Profile • Martin Viper Performance • VL 3000 Spot • Robe Robin Pointe • Tour Pro Fireball 1212 • Gantom DMX spot • Star Strobes • MGD Atmosphere hazer • Viper NT Smoke machines • Reel EFX Fan • Gem AF1 Fan • Plus many pieces of custom electrics built into set pieces

The Blue Man Group is a combination of art, theatre, rock show, comedy and live concert, which pulls the audience in with a magnetic charm that has captured hearts around the globe. What sets it apart from other live performances and theatre shows is its ability to incorporate clever entertainment technology and custom electronics into a gripping, language-free narrative. Its magical quality and its ability to captivate young and old, make it a one-of-a-kind performance that will hopefully return to South Africa soon.

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

South African Idols 12th season finale success One of South Africa’s favourite shows, SA Idols, finished their twelfth season in November last year, produced by [SIC] Entertainment with the help of Dreams Sets, Visual Frontier and Audio Logic…

For more than a decade, SA Idols has been captivating South African audiences and the twelfth season finale of the popular show was broadcast live from the Big Top Arena at Carnival City for the Mzansi Magic network in November last year. Gavin Wratten of [SIC] Entertainment directed the nine elimination rounds, recorded on the Drama Stage at the State Theatre in Pretoria. While Audio Logic supplied the audio elements, engineered by Marius Marais, the set- and technical production for the event was done by Dream Sets, who provided all the staging, audio-visual, rigging and lighting elements. “It was awesome to watch the team in action and we are very proud of what we achieved,” says Eben Peltz, technical director of dream sets. Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier was brought in as lighting designer, with Robe taking the spotlight, so to speak, at the event. Cutts made use of more than 200 Robe fixtures for the finale, which, similar to the elimination rounds, used a framed half-circle of LED screen upstage and a similar curvature for the lighting positions and architecture. He made use of 36 Robe Spikies and 48 PARFect 100s, BMFL Blades, Eighteen LEDWash 800, ColorSpot 2500E AT, MMX Spots and a grandMA2 console for the event. Says Cutts: “The BMFL Blades are a FANTASTIC light! I can zoom wide and divide the stage up into slices with the shutters and they have a perfect colour temperature for cameras”. For the audio, Marais made use of a Studer Vista1 Console at FOH, JBL VTX V20 Line Array, JBL VTX S25 Subs, Crown VRack 4 x 3500HD Amp Racks and Dual Crown 4 x 3500HD Amp Racks for the PA system. For the monitors, he incorporated eight Klark Technic Square One Active Splitters, an Allen & Heath MEU Hub with Dante, 10 Allen & Heath ME1 personal monitoring systems, three Shure PA821A Antenna combiners for PSM900 Transmitters, 20 Shure PSM 900 IEM Systems c/w Shure PA821A Antenna Combiners, 20 Shure SE315 Sound Isolating

By Elaine Strauss

In-Ear Earphones, four JBL STX825 for side-fills and a Soundcraft Vi6 Console with Dante capability. He also used eight Shure ULXD4Q receivers coupled with Shure UA844 antenna distribution, ten Shure ULXD KSM8 handheld microphones, ten Shure ULXD SM58 handheld microphones, 12 Shure ULXD-1 beltpacks, Shure Beta91, Shure Beta52, Shure Beta56, Shure Beta98AD and Shure SM81 microphones, Shure Beta98AD, Shure Beta91 and Shure SM81 microphones, Shure Beta57, four Shure MX418DC Lectern microphones for the judge’s table and Shure SRH440 headphones for the judges with a Tascam MH8 headphone amplifier. Says Marais: “Due to the fact that the show is a live broadcast we needed to ensure that both the live and broadcast audio were of highest quality and therefore we implemented only the most reliable audio equipment, microphones and backline available.” The audio setup was done in three days with one day set aside for tech checks before they started with sound checks and rehearsals for the live show. “The setup for the final is always a big team effort from everyone on the production as it involves the whole move over from the Top 2 Live show the previous weekend at the State Theatre in Pretoria to Carnival City,” says Marais. He was particularly impressed with Shure’s new KSM8 Dualdiaphragm dynamic handheld microphone, which he used for the contestant’s vocals and emphasises the microphone’s dualdiaphragm, which he says helps with the proximity effect giving it a nice big “sweet spot,” as well as its flat frequency response, which make it an excellent choice for vocals. “Every year Idols grows beyond expectations. The viewership is unequalled, which makes every year more challenging,” Marais says. “I would like to give a special thanks to [SIC] Entertainment, Gavin Wratten and Anneke de Ridder, who have trusted us with the audio for 12 seasons of IDOLS South Africa. The team on the event was brilliant in their respective departments, namely Julius Dreyer as FOH engineer, Nathan Thiart as monitor engineer, Kenson Makeke as radio technician and Josh van As as stage technician.”

ColorSource Console ColorSource control desks are designed to work with the latest technology. With the flick of a fader, you can run lighting effects, mix LED colours, and – with the AV consoles – play sound and video effects. Now you can handle your rig – with style. Learn more at etcconnect.com/ColorSource

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

M-Net celebrates 30 years in style By Elaine Strauss

Don’t look Down and AV Unlimited ensured that M-Net’s 30th birthday celebration was magical…

The beloved pioneering channel M-Net celebrated their 30th birthday in November last year, in a dome specially built for the occasion on its Randburg campus. The production for this evening, part of three gala events, was covered by Don’t Look Down, who commissioned AV Unlimited to provide the technical aspects of staging the evening. The evening also boasted a hologram of international mega-star Trevor Noah, who used to have his own show on M-Net channel, Mzanis Magic, and entertained guests with a personal romp through three decades of Magic. The award-winning Don’t Look Down team consists of executive producer Glenn van Loggerenberg, executive creative director Anton Cloete, creative director Tebogo Mogola, line producer Ola Wilczynski and assistant producer Philisa Bidi. For this show, the technical team was once again managed by Guillaume Ducray from AV Unlimited and included Renaldo Van Den Berg as lighting operator, Dave Thompson on video control and Marius Marais for audio programming an mix. Staging CG was by Rob Rae, lighting design and pre-visualisation was by Joshua Cutts, stage direction by

Darren Hayward and technical drawings by Wayne Petit-Sproule. Says Cloete: “As live event and television producers, we see staging and AV components as story-telling tools. Every fixture, every LED panel and all other FX and audio components become weapons in your arsenal to move the story forward. The M-Net 30th celebration was no different.” Van Loggerenberg added: “Apart from the honour of being assigned the project by M-Net, Don’t Look Down’s biggest challenge was to devise and execute both a flawless seven star gala event and a night of broadcast entertainment, for three consecutive nights which lived up to M-Net’s brief: to exceed audience expectations with an unexpected and ground-breaking display of Magic in 2016.” Since all three events for the celebration was filmed and screened on M-Net’s various channels in December, the complex video cues devised for the event played a pivotal role in the overall success of the evening and fell into the hands of Thompson. Though he sees all events the same, when it comes to video, Thompson says that he likes to innovate on each one. “This was a great challenge!” he says. “It was definitely a show where the pressure was on and it being ‘outdoors’ definitely added complexity to the setup.” With roughly two days to set up for video and two and a half for rehearsal, Thompson relied on especially a Christie Digital’s

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Pandoras Box. “I could not have done that show if I were not using the Pandoras Box. The Power, reliability and stability give great piece of mind time and time again,” he says. Don’t Look Down’s approach to narrative demanded that, in concert with aggressive video, lighting for the event needed to manage the luminance of 200m of LED running throughout the show, not only for high impact performance sequences, but also for perfect HD broadcast recording of natural skin tone. To assist with this challenge, Van den Berg made use of Martin VDO sceptron fixtures, to give the design a futuristic look, Robe Robin Points for their functionality when it comes to design, powerful Martin Vipers for their good optics and a GrandMA2 console, which he describes as “amazing.” Elaborating on the fact that the event’s set up took about two weeks, Van den Berg says: “There was the design phase, where we had to make sure it did not only look good, but also had function, the pre-programming “visualisation,” which was done with Martin Show designer; here we had our patch, desk layouts and base looks in the desk before we were on site. Also some of the songs were programmed offline to time code in the studio. Finally, there was the setting up of the event. Working on a bigger event like this takes more time and the design was also quite intricate.” From the audio perspective, according to Marais, the event was very cue intensive. He made use of Dante protocols for communication between the AV/ sound and lights, saying: “It was highly effective and ran with zero issues. All we required were several ethercon cables and a network hub and Dante controller. It also only required one laptop to patch between interfaces, which made it highly convenient.” This seasoned collective, with only occasional team changes, has endured a decade of high pressure challenges to deliver creative

triumphs for some of the biggest clients in entertainment – and the resulting team trust once again enabled a smooth running event while pushing themselves to creative and technical limits. Cloete says: “Our consistent relationship with AV Unlimited as a technical partner, has enabled us to not only achieve our vision of an immersive experience with meaning, but also to successfully trial new and more efficient ways of achieving synchronicity by using an audio server to distribute digital tracks to all disciplines, sidestepping hours of rehearsal delays by economising workflows for fastest possible recue.” Van Loggerenberg says: “The credibility required for Don’t Look Down to make the bold event and broadcast production proposals we specialize in extends from a collaborative, not prescriptive, partnership approach, enabled by trust earned with M-Net over two decades, and which we in turn have learnt to extend to our wider production team – particularly AV Unlimited, – and which we receive back with interest through the pragmatic, but relentless, energy of Guillaume Ducray who helps us to deliver on all of our promises.” Thompson added: “The whole team was on top of their craft. Guillaume is a brilliant Production Manager, his leadership and direction creates an environment in which the team can deliver their best.” Van den Berg concluded: “I would like to thank Joshua Cutts, the lighting Director and Designer for his patience and leadership. He is such a professional and I have learned so much from him over the years. Obviously I would love to mention each and every crew member on this event but the list is too long! I would also like to thank each and every one of them; they were great to have on board. Lastly Guillaume, Glenn, Anton and Tebogo you were great front runners on this event.”

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

West Side Story comes alive

Photo by Jesse Kramer

Cape Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fugard Theatre has a well-earned reputation for creating exciting and innovative theatre productions and has been making a significant impact on the South African musical theatre scene for some time. When they, with the backing of film, television and theatre producer Eric Abraham, decided to mount a local non-replica, full size production of the heritage musical, West Side Story, they realised they would need the facilities of a venue like Artscape to accommodate the scale of the production; and would need to source the technical expertise from someone with a successful track record of coordinating full size musical productions on an international level.

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Daniel Galloway, the producer at the Fugard, approached Artscape to host West Side Story in 2015. Artscape agreed with Galloway’s proposal to use the services of prominent SA theatre rental company Splitbeam as the obvious source of equipment and expertise to safely realise the technical and logistical parameters of a show of the scale they envisaged. As a result Splitbeam’s managing director Alistair Kilbee was brought on board as technical director to manage the logistical, technical and Health and Safety aspects of the production. When set designer, Johan Engels suddenly and sadly passed away in the early stages of planning the show, he left only his initial pencil sketches for successor Connor Murphy to complete the designs. Together Kilbee and Murphy sat with show director Matthew Wild, the concept drawings and some scale models and painstakingly worked out scene by scene the mechanics involved in bringing the sketches to life. “The trick in this sort of production is to make really complex scene changes look simple and effortless,” says Kilbee “and paradoxically that always takes an enormous amount of effort and input. This one required a bit more than the usual franchise tours.” Part of the challenge on this particular production was that the set design incorporated hinged ‘concrete’ walls with steel fire escapes, a full sized drugstore and a 12m wide crane. The set was estimated to weigh around 30 tons in total which made movement difficult and risky. Substituting aluminium for steel throughout brought the weight to 18 tons and creative use of stage machinery achieved the seamless

scene changes required. "Working with the sheer uneven weight distribution on lifts and trucks was tricky and we needed some out-of-the-box thinking to make everything work as planned," explains Kilbee. "Roberto Grové (production manager at the Fugard) and I also conducted an extremely comprehensive risk assessment for Artscape ahead of the build covering all aspects of the production from the most basic potential hazard of having a single crew member alone in a truck with an unsteady load during get-in to a scene by scene breakdown of set movements and cast on-stage safety considerations.” West Side Story enjoyed an extremely successful, sold-out run at the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town in 2015 and is now back by popular demand in Johannesburg at the start of 2017. The production runs at the Mandela Theatre (Joburg Theatre) from 24 January 2017. Splitbeam fulfilled not only the technical direction role including all the logistics of scheduling, trucking, packing and risk assessment on both runs but also fulfilled much of the crewing requirements including a designated ‘festoon crew’ complement of four technicians and a 16-strong stage crew. “Our festoon crew for the Johannesburg run includes ‘newbie’ Cameron Squires, one of the Gearhouse Kentse Mpahlwa second year technical services learners who is specialising in theatre services at Splitbeam this year” says Kilbee. “It’s an in-house learnership initiative and our students are really privileged to have the

Photo by Jesse Kramer

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

opportunity to ‘cut their teeth’ on events of this sort of scale and complexity. Part of Cameron’s remit is to manage all practical lighting including 5.1 kilometres of festoon light strings to create the atmospheric environment for the ‘Tonight’ balcony scene as well as the industrial-feel fluorescents under the lifts for the factory scenes.” Splitbeam also provided supplementary equipment for lighting designer Joshua Cutts’ lighting rig and all of the rigging requirements for the production. Audio for the show was provided by Eastern Acoustics, which sub hired the Midas Pro 9 and Pro 1 consoles from Splitbeam for sound designer Mark Malherbe’s sound design. Comments Malherbe, “Eastern Acoustics also provided us with the Meyer Sound PA for the Joburg production, and the DPA microphones which are my go-to kit for musical theatre. This was a tricky production in some ways for the sound reinforcement, since the set design made for a challenge for monitoring. The orchestra and singers were great, however. In fact, many people didn’t realise that all the music was 100 per cent live every night. The orchestra followed

a clicktrack which in turn was synched to Joshua Cutts’s timecoding for the lighting rig. People thinking it was recorded music are paying us a backhanded compliment!” “Splitbeam is unique in the theatre market in South Africa”, concludes Kilbee. “Our rental stockholding is well-aligned to what the designers are specifying for large scale productions. Splitbeam has years of experience in franchise theatre tours and has been involved in some of the biggest in the world, so we have become the go-to theatre rental company in South Africa to make the idea work technically. However, we make all the same equipment available to the small school productions or amateur dramatics as well because we believe are all driven by the same passion and at Splitbeam we are committed to ‘realising the dream’ whatever the size of the production and budget available.”

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LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Bringing the big top to life By James Sey

The Great Moscow Circus is a throwback to gentler and more credulous times, and has been an international touring institution for decades. Currently touring in South Africa, the circus has of course installed state of the art AV to run their spectacular shows, which are used in a way somewhat different to normal theatre or live music events. James Sey (JS) chatted to the production manager for the South African tour, Adriaan Gerber (AG) about what goes into the big top extravaganza.

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which are conveniently programmed to a one button go. The Martin fixtures always perform admirably!.

(JS): I know that Electrosonic, the local supplier of Martin Professional fixtures and control, has been assisting you guys on the SA tour. How has it been working with them?

(JS): Please give us a bit of background to the Circus and the show in SA? (AG): The Great Moscow Circus has a very long history with South Africa. We did the first tour back in 2005 and followed soon with a tour in 2006. Both the tours were extremely successful. The tour then went to Taiwan where three of the South African performers were approached to join the tour which ran in 2006/2007. When the brand was re established in early 2016, the Australian based Theatre Tours International called us up to see if we would like to join again to run a South African leg of the tour. From the 22nd Dec to date we have entertained more than 65000 people and the tour cast and crew is an international melting pot of Russians, Americans, Canadians, Brazilians, Australians, Colombians and Mexicans. All together we make up a cast and crew of 85. The tour will next stop in Johannesburg at Carnival City from early April.

(JS): The AV for a show of this scale is really crucial to its success. From the lighting point of view, what fixtures have you used in the lighting rig in the show and how is it staged? I know you decided to go with a rig comprised solely of Martin Professional fixtures – why exactly, and how do they perform? (AG): A tour of this scale is always technically challenging and Frank Madzin from Madzin Productions Australia decided to go with a lighting brand that he knows and trusts and especially a brand that he knows will be supported wherever we land up going. The rig for the SA tour consists of an array of Martin MH7 and Martin MH6 fixtures which are truly versatile and pack enough punch to make the production look good, but also removes a lot of the heat produced by other fixtures and gives us the safety and reliability that we need in the Big Top environment. To date we have had the fixtures in Johannesburg, the Cape Town ‘dust bowl’, the Bloemfontein ‘mud farm’ and the Port Elizabeth ‘wind tunnel’! Not many people realise that in every venue the fixtures are exposed to the different elements. Although the Circus takes place in the Mighty Big Top we only cover around 40% of the natural ground, so the units are still exposed to a lot of dust. In terms of control of the rig, we drive the show with an Apple Mac running Cue Lab 3.2 and this triggers the martin M2GO over MIDI and it also plays back all audio tracks. The show consists of 432 Cues,

(AG): We would still have been cueing the show manually if it wasn’t for the help of Electrosonic South Africa and Martin World Wide. The tour was confirmed very late and Madzin Productions bought all the fixtures brand new and sent them to South Africa with a barely a day’s notice. With the whole rush of getting the units packed the Martin M2Go that was shipped arrived in South Africa without a MIDI card, which upon first call was also not available locally. We managed to secure a console via LineOut AV with the help of Electrosonic to keep us going whilst the Martin Network got busy. A few phone calls to Martin Partners in Australia and Singapore by Frank Madzin and before we knew it there was a unit on its way to South Africa! The Martin Network worked wonders! Electrosonic’s Robbie (Nassi) and Jessie (Dullabh) also assisted us in ensuring that the MIDI triggering worked as planned.

(JS): How important is a lighting rig and design to a Circus production? Tell us a bit about the production design. (AG): Good lighting is critical in a circus environment and especially in The Great Moscow Circus. Our production is all about the extraordinary human abilities of our performers, and the majority of the acts perform death defying stunts at high speed and with no safety nets. Thus good stable and reliable fixtures with a good even coverage and as little as possible fussiness is needed to ensure the safety of the performers. The one act we have is five Bikers hurdling around a six metre diameter steel globe at close to 90 Km/h. Any little flicker or pop can cause a distraction which can lead to an accident which will surely end in serious injury or death. Thus the stability we enjoy with the Martin Rush Fixtures gives us a real sense of peace and security while our artists push the limits of human ability.

(JS): Is there an inhouse professional sound system? If so, what, and how does it fit into the show design? (AG): The sound system deployed is designed for ease and comfort, but also for targeted sound reinforcement. We need to ensure that the audience can clearly hear the Ring Master’s announcements and jokes, which are a key part of the performance. But since our Ring Master, the famous Stanislas ‘Stas’ Knyazkov, speaks in a heavily Russian-accented, we need maximum sound clarity. Most of the music is on playback, but again the focus is on clarity more than overpowering volumes and levels. We utilised eight JBL EON 515 units to cover the whole seating area as well as to feed into the ring to enable the audience and the cast to clearly hear what’s going on. These are paired up with four JBL PRX Subs which are arrayed under the seating platform to enhance the lower end of the spectrum. The mind sometimes struggles to work out how things are being done in front of your eyes in the circus, thus your ears should not be over powered but be aided in fully enjoying the experience!

LIVE EVENTs REPORT

Rigging and such:

Rigging LED screens LED screens are heavy, not as heavy as in their early days, but the current tendency to use bigger systems isn’t helpful to bring the total weight down. It’s not to be expected to see a real decrease in the LED-screen weights that have to be rigged. So, how to rig them properly? For a start, the use of (smaller sized) triangular truss is out of the question. In general, triangular truss uses 25 per cent less material than same sized square trusses, but also has an approximate 50 per cent lesser loading capacity. Triangular truss is normally used for smaller loads, like textiles, and has a more restricted application range than square truss.

Square or Rectangle How to balance your LED screen load? So, square truss is the advice, but how? For lighting technicians, it is relatively easy to distribute the fixtures over the two sides in the cross section of the truss. However, a LED screen load is a very narrow and long load, by definition a line-load. And a straight line is impossible to distribute among two bottom chords. When only one chord is used the worst possible unbalanced load is the result (see fig 1). Manufacturers will immediately say that their load Fig 1 data are not valid anymore in such a situation. Bending and shear forces are taken into account, but a torsion force across the main axis of a truss is not foreseen in the standard loading tables. As an alternative the slinging suspension could be positioned over the centre of gravity, but again this will lead to a 50 per cent reduction of the

By Rinus “Rhino” Bakker

truss capacity, as one side of the truss is only acting as a stabiliser structure for the loaded ladder side of the truss. (This ‘single sided support’ is not possible when the truss is assembled between two sleeve blocks of a ground support).

Diamond orientation use of square truss? Even though this practice is observed on a regular Fig 2 basis when LED-screens are rigged, the answer can only be: ‘No’. (Fig. 2). A multitude of parameters are at play here, leading to this negative advice. The most important one is the fact that lots of (mainly plated, but definitely other types as well) trusses do not have diagonals on all sides and thus do not allow for such orientation. The second is that lots of trusses are missing internal diagonals, resulting in relatively easy deformation of the square cross section into a rhombus shape. Especially the bi-conical connection trusses made with narrow tolerances are susceptible to this type of deformation. Responsible brands, like Prolyte, will tell the user that using truss in a diamond orientation does reduce the loading capacity dramatically and will cause a real hazard.

Square with a simple basket set-up

Fig 3

There is no rocket-science needed for a simple solution (fig. 3). The drawing shows a square cross and a B55 (or B56 or B57) basket variation across the top chords. Those baskets obviously must be at the nodes or at least at the ¼<>¾ (“under” quarter or “over” third quarter) positions, and definitely not end up right in the middle of the chords in between the nodes. Simple but effective.

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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT LIGHTING

Behind the lights

By James Sey

The lure of the footlights and the stage is well-known. The path less travelled is the one that leads backstage, away from the adoration (or not) of the audience. This is the path travelled by up and coming young lighting designer Jade Manicom at Keystone Productions. James Sey caught up with her to learn a little about her career and what makes her tick.

James Sey (JS): First things first – what’s your background, and how did you get into the lighting game? Jade Manicom (JM): I first wanted to do backstage management, which I thought would require a thorough knowledge of theatre, so I studied drama at Rhodes. One of the productions I worked on was directed by Andrew Buckland, on which Roy Paynter designed the lighting. It was the moment of standing on stage helping him with the focus that I decided that this is what I want to do! I became involved in all the productions, and a specialised lighting design course was introduced in my honours year, so I was able to qualify in Directing and Lighting Design. Obviously being at Rhodes, I was able to work on a lot of Grahamstown festival productions, which was very formative. Through that I was able to work with amazing people like Mannie Manim, Wesley France, Patrick Curtis, Lara Foot and two of my favourite theatre people, Neil Coppen and Tina le Roux.

(JS): When you left the university, how did you break into the industry? (JM) My friend Jesse at Electrosonic had given me a few contacts to get in touch with, and Keystone was one of those. They put me on some gigs as a freelancer, for around three months, and then they offered me a full time job! It’s a fantastic opportunity, mostly to be working with Chris Bolton and, by working with him, to also work with Joshua Cutts, and on some of the great productions they’re involved with. It’s not theatre, but it’s an amazing learning curve.

Jade Manicom

(JS): What’s been your favourite production that you’ve worked on? (JM): I really enjoyed working on a theatre production called Hanamichi, which was a project in my Honours year, part of my coursework. It was Japanese-inspired and was performed on a 2m-wide diagonal across the stage, created entirely by light. So I used profiles to create the playing space, and creating moments from there. I was able to play with shadows and angles to enhance characters and atmosphere. It was great because it was my own design and project, from lighting plan to memory-sheets. I later recreated the whole production in a different space, a normal proscenium arch space at the Michaelhouse theatre, which required some redesign for the different space.

(JS): So what’s next for Jade Manicom? (JM): I don’t know – but I’ve been through some really interesting experiences so far, and I’m excited to see what’s next!

Jade Manicom: Selected showlist

(JS): What was it like initially working with Chris? (JM): It was daunting, obviously! But it is really valuable to have his experience to draw on. Working with him on Martin Show Designer is a really interesting process, visualising shows to discuss with clients. So becoming part of that creative process and able to suggest things – like limitations of the venue size and shape, etc. with clients was a great experience for me. We work on concept drawings all the time for possible presentation, which is great fun, just programming a bit of a light show. Chris encourages all of that creative process, so that I can grow and develop my design skills. The first big show that I did with Chris was the E.O.H. Spring Ball, a big corporate event, in 2014. The schedule was very tight, so while Chris did the programming, I was taking notes from the director during rehearsal. When we had the venue to ourselves we could make the changes based on the notes and the client discussion, knowing the changes would be right.

2015

E! Live from the Red Carpet Starlight Classics EOH Spring Ball Afrikaans is Groot

2016

Discovery Networks Upfront Show Microsoft Product Launch Ghoema Awards M-Net 30th Foyer Installation Alfa Romeo Giulia Launch

Rigging Workshop by Marc Hendricks – Electrosonic SA, Northcliff

Shepherd Dlamini, Sandile Kweyiya, Marc Hendricks and Mduduzi Sihlali

Thulani Sikhosa and Bongani Mtshali

Electrosonic SA’s 25th Birthday Event 2016

Social

Joel Davies, Jenny Genricks, Heather Davies, Marona Coetzee, Lourie Coetzee and Gizelle Fischer

Bheki Mokoena and Mduduzi Sihlali Denise and Schalk van Wyk, Karin and Bruce Schwartz, Bruce and Nicole Genricks

Bruce Genricks, Bruce Schwartz, Eugene Coetzee and Dawid Smit Sandile Kweyiya, Omar Sharfoodeen, Alphas Nkomo, Evan Lyle, Shepherd Dlamini and Mpou Makafane (front)

CM-ET Training by Chris Jones – Electrosonic SA, Northcliff Bruce Genricks, Terry Bourquin, Claire Badenhorst, Simon Robinson and Richard Simmonds

Chris Jones

Omar Sharfoodeen, Herman Mentz, Greg Angelo and Renier Smit

Bruce Genricks and Lourie Coetzee

Sivuyile Masala, Lebogang Molefe and Xolani Ngwenya

Artwell Maphosa and Chris Jones

Chris Jones and Nicholas Thompson

Zee Hlongwana, Tanya Brown and Sean Potgieter

Electrosonic Team

Social

Prolyte Training by Rinus Bakker – DWR Distribution, Honeydew

Rinus Bakker, Niel Mouton, Buks Nieuwoudt, Anrico du Plessis and Ruan Nel

Nick Vetter, Francois van der Merwe, Grant Nortman, Madison van Zyl and Leslie Wahl

Justine Nkabinde, Jesse Wang, Imms Shaulwa and Zane Koeberg

Jeremy Cullen, Sheldon van der Merwe, Brandon Kilian and Gareth Morey

Prolyte Campus by Ruud De Deugd

Mitech Direct launch – Mitech Direct, Midrand

– DWR Distribution, Honeydew

Mike Vaughan, Richard Edwards, Will Deysel, Lydia Deysel, Rodger Reeks, Gustav Barnard and Brad Silbermann

Nicolas Dhliwayo, Precious Ndlovu and Fairchild Dhliwayo

Mike Summerfield and Mariann Crosswell

Nathan Ihlenfeldt, Grant Katzin and Gregory Nottingham

Nicolas Dhliwayo, Precious Ndlovu and Fairchild Dhliwayo

Shelly Mokgadi, Kaydene Maarman and Khanyisile Mabena

Barry Strydom, Dewet Carelsen and Ockert Marais

Shaun Xavier, Mike Vaughan and Richard Edwards

Thabo Mokoena and Ruud De Deugd

Nick Vetter, Brad Smith and Lee Irving

Shadreck Munyai, Vitalis Ncube and Mthobisi Khumalo

Xolani Ngwenya, Ramesh Singh, Artwell Maphosa and Savemore Kakunguwo

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