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2

iNside tHis issUe

As the year draws to a

close and we put the

final issue of the year to

bed for Pro-Systems

News, it gives me great

pleasure to announce

that we will be increasing the frequency

of the magazine next year to come out

every two months. I am also delighted to

welcome Greg Bester who now joins us

on a full time basis. It’s wonderful to have

him on the team with us as he brings his

wealth of knowledge and experience as

an experienced audio engineer. Have a

look at his article on “Transporting audio

into the ether” on page 24 to 27 and his

product review on the Avid Thunderbolt.

The next issue will be out just after we

attend ISE in January 2013 and will

provide you with a comprehensive round

up of the new products launched there

as well as what we can expect from

Prolight + Sound in March.

The next issue will be out just after we

attend ISE in January 2013 and will

provide you with a comprehensive round

up of the new products launched there.

In addition, the issue will also include a

sneak preview of what you can expect

at Prolight + Sound, taking place in

March.

Wishing you a successful 2013.

Publisher & editor

Contributors

Contents

sysTem iNTegRATioN

ise PreviewWorld class trade show returns with largest footprint – ever ..................10 – 11

museum TechnologySouth African history find its voice – through technology ............................12 – 14

Digital signageLondon finds a new digital dimension during the 2012 Games .........................16 – 18

seminar synopisThe talented Dr Kramer .........................19 – 21

Tracking Technology ...........................22 – 23

iNsTALLATioNs

ethernet Audio Transporting audio into the ether ........24 – 27

Venue solution Gold Reef City 4D ride gets more exciting .........................................28

olympics 2012 Pixel Tablets provide the cure ..............30 – 31

LiVe eVeNTs

Concert Report Technology enhances talent ...............32 – 33

show Report That’s entertainment – Bidvest style ....34 – 36

Product Review Audio giant has the ‘midas’ touch .....38 – 39

seminar synopsis Learning light – from the masters .........40 – 41

industry expert Denzil Smith .....................................................42

international Lighting Design Ultimate 007 after-party for Skyfall ...............44

Video mapping Mapping out the route for the Volvo V40 ....................................45 – 47

international Video Projection Illuminating the arts ................................48 – 49

PLAsA Report PLASA pulsates with innovation ...........50 – 55

sTUDio & bRoADCAsT

ibC Report IBC bustled with possibilities ..................56 – 59

industry expert Ian Osrin ..........................................................61

Product Review Allen & Heath GSR24 .............................62 – 63

Listening to the future ............................64 – 66

soCiAL ..............................................67 – 68

Claire badenhorst | Industry expert with eight years experience in event management, PR, marketing and advertising within the professional audio, video, lighting and staging sector. Claire has played an integral role in the development of the concept and content creation of Pro Systems and works closely with our advertisers and readers.

simba Nyamukachi | A graduate in journalism and has an honours degree in Media & Culture Studies. He grabbed the opportunity to join Sun Circle Publishers in his first position as a journalist for Pro-Systems News. He has an immense passion for the AV and live entertainment industry and is furthering his AV integration knowledge by completing an online accredited AV training program.

Louise stickland | Professional journalist and photographer with huge passion and enthusiasm for technology and the production industry. Louise initially worked and toured as a lighting designer after graduating from university. She has many years experience in the music and live event sector, and works closely with leading international designers, production companies and technology manufacturers.

Paul Watson | After touring professionally with several bands in the UK and then the US, Paul went on to open his own commercial recording and rehearsal facility, where he was resident producer/engineer for six years. For the last five years, he has been a regular contributor for a number of UK titles, covering live sound, studio sound, lighting, video, broadcast and post-production. He is also European Editor for one of the major US trade music publications.

Publisher & editor | Simon Robinson | [email protected] sub-editor | Tina Heron in-house Journalists | Greg Bester | [email protected] and Simba Nyamukachi | [email protected]

advertising sales | Claire Badenhorst | [email protected] design | Trevor Ou Tim | [email protected] subscriPtions | Albertina Tserere | [email protected]

Sun Circle Publishers (Pty) Ltd | Tel: +27 11 025-3180 | Epsom Downs Office Park, 13 Sloane Street, Bryanston, Johannesburg | PO Box 559 Fourways North 2086, South Africa

www. pro-systems.co.za

eddie Hatitye | Professional journalist and former editor of Music Industry Online, Eddie has been actively involved in the South African recording and music industry for the past 5 years. He has a strong passion for music production and has leveraged this knowledge and his contacts to further his career as a journalist.

greg bester | Musician and audio engineer – proficient in both the analogue and digital domains and has extensive experience mixing live music, setting up and configuring loudspeaker systems, monitoring and general stage management. He has mixed events numbering into the thousands and is comfortable on large and small-format mixing consoles.

geny Caloisi | An accomplished technology journalist, who has been travelling the world to cover events, speak to industry pundits and see the latest technology products since 2001. She started working in the broadcasting technology sector, as Editor of online publication advanced-television.com and continued with the audiovisual industry. Geny was Assistant Editor at the UK’s leading trade publication, AV Magazine for five years.

3

news

News

Ster-Kinekor Theatres, the largest cinema

exhibitor in South Africa, has confirmed a

major deal with Christie as it undertakes full

conversion of its cinema estate to digital.

Ster-Kinekor Theatres currently has Christie

NEC Display Solutions Southern Africa has

announced the appointment Edit

Microsystems (Pty) Ltd as a new preferred

partner. Edit Microsystems has been involved

in the supply of education solutions to

schools and corporate solutions to businesses

throughout South Africa for more than 21

years.

“Edit Microsystems has a proud tradition of

innovation and has always been on the

cutting edge of technological advances in

education,” says Sarah Fraser, Channel

Development Manager to NEC Display

Solutions, Southern Africa. “To this regard we

are very excited to navigate the South

African education technology frontier with a

partner who not only shares our more than a

century old philosophy in innovation, but that

does so while combining complimentary

products in offering customers

comprehensive solutions.”

“As we are extremely aware of the

sustainability challenges which education

institutions face, we are firmly committed to

finding the best technological solutions at

affordable prices for the schools which we

service,“ says Pieter Labuschagne,

Managing Director of Edit Microsystems.

“NEC’s trusted and innovative display

technology fulfils that need with their high

quality, reliable and affordable range of

projectors and other display products. We

are very excited about this promising and

key addition to our selective portfolio of

education brands, and are confident

that our relationship will ultimately have

a positive effect on the education

market.”

Series 2 cinema projectors operating within

the group but this will grow considerably —

to 180 Christie Series 2 projectors along with

198 Solaria One and Solaria One+ projectors,

which will be available from the end of 2012.

These come complete with lens, custom-

designed Xenon lamp, Christie Integrated

Media Block (IMB) and easy-to-operate

Screen Management Software (SMS).

The new deployment will also include

Christie 4K DLP Cinema® projectors for use at

select cinemas across the country in

Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape

Town — chosen after careful evaluation

against competitive models. This will be the

first time that the Christie Solaria, Solaria One

and Solaria One +, as well as Christie IMB and

4K resolution, have all featured in the same

deployment.

Proaudio, a fore-runner in the supply of

professional audio and DJ products, was

recently nominated as the new distributor for

RCF in South Africa.

RCF is an Italian Professional Audio brand

with more than 50 years experience

producing products of exceptional quality

from plastic molded single cabinets to

concert touring sound systems. They have a

huge range of products that cater for every

aspect of the sound and installation business.

“We are immensely proud that RCF chose

Proaudio to distribute its product in South

Africa,” says Proaudio CEO Joss Pack.

“RCF has pioneered many of the

innovations now recognised and used in

professional audio products, and the

distribution network with Proaudio will

continue to offer customers complete

support and technical back up in South

Africa. We look forward to a long and fruitful

relationship with RCF and its loyal dealer

base in South Africa.”

Notable products for the South African

market include the NX Series, D-Line, TT

Touring and Theatre as well as their Art Series

– a multi-purpose active speaker range

representing the finest example of digital

audio design that offers the best audio

choice for a multitude of live sound

applications. Proaudio has a large

showroom where its products are heard with

demonstrations provided by competent

sales staff.

Ster-Kinekor and Christie ink deal

NEC sign up Edit Microsystems

Proaudio nominated as RCF dealer

Joss Pack

Pieter Labuschagne, Craig butterworth, Jenny Labuschagne, michael Holgate, sarah Fraser and Coenie Labuschagne

4

News

Wild and Marr, a leader in the distribution

and installation of professional audio and

video equipment, recently announced the

appointment of Anton van Wyk as Technical

Divisional Systems Engineering Head.

Van Wyk, who is highly qualified and

boasts almost 15 years within the audio visual

industry, will not only fulfill an integral vacuum

in the company but compliment and

elevate the company’s engineering

capacity.

In his capacity Van Wyk will assist the Wild

and Marr sales team with designs including

high level technical support to technicians.

He will also be on the lookout for new

products while exploring more relevant,

timeous and accurate engineering solutions

on a global scale.

In a statement posted on their website

Wild and Marr state that Van Wyk’s

appointment is yet another step towards the

company’s long-term goal to maintain and

improve its industry offer as a professional

audio visual service provider in southern

Africa.

Southern African Music Rights Organisation

(SAMRO) has announced the appointment

of the Reverend Abe Sibiya as the new

chairman of its Board of Directors.

The announcement comes after

long-serving incumbent Annette Emdon

stepped down from the position after 15

years. The passing of the leadership baton

was declared following a recent SAMRO

Board meeting.

Sibiya is a well-known composer,

producer, publisher, multi-instrumentalist and

broadcasting executive, who is the chief

executive of the Urban Rhythm Factory

music publishing and audio production

house. He is also the pastor and founder of

the Zoe Bible Church in Ivory Park and has

written songs for the likes of Yvonne Chaka

Chaka, Deborah Fraser, Dorothy Masuku and

Chicco.

Prosound has announced its accreditation

as a distributor for the Bosch Public Address,

Voice Evacuation and Congress products.

Following the strategic move by Bosch

Security Systems to move to a distributor

model for the Congress and Public Address

systems, Prosound approached Bosch SA to

form a strong partnership in order to

continue supporting its dealer base. To this

end Prosound appointed Elaine O’Gorman

to head up the newly formed Commercial

Division. O’Gorman, who has 19 years

experience with Bosch products, has

intimate knowledge of design and correct

application of the products.

With Electro-Voice and Dynacord having

been in the Bosch Stable for a few

years, the company saw the potential

to offer their dealer base the most

comprehensive and cost efficient line

up of products available with

synergies of the Commercial and

Congress systems with Professional

Audio.

Wild & Marr appoints new engineering head

Prosound adds Bosch to product offering

High End Systems showcases products in SA

Abe sibiya Chairman of the sAmRo board

Chris Agius Ferrante, International Sales Manager

of High End Systems (a Barco company), visited

Questek in August to conduct consol training

and to showcase some of his company’s

products to South African market.

The official visit, which marked Ferrante’s third

time in the country, was from 14 to 22 August.

“It was very exciting to visit South Africa and to

showcase High End System’s digital range

comprising of the DL.3 and the new DLV,” states

Ferrante. “Also on show was our newer moving

lights; – Technospot, TechnoArc and Solaspot

(prototype) as well as SHOWGUN all of which

were controlled by a High End System’s Road

Hog Full Boar, kindly provided by Sound Stylists.”

Speaking about High End System’s future in the

region Ferrante noted that the SA market has

large growth potential for his company.

“With Questek on board as our partners in SA

and with more South Africa customer visits

scheduled to happen on a regular basis, we

expect to see healthy growth in this market from

which we have been relatively absent for a

number of years,” he added.

“Our product strategy is certainly one which

will play well in the SA market, and while

continuing to offer competitive product, we will

remain innovative and offer products that are

unique in the market.”

New SAMRO chairman ushers in new era

Zane Cretten of Questek with Chris Agius FerranteAnton van Wyk

Wild & marr

6

News

Martin Professional President and CEO,

Christian Engsted, visited Electrosonic’s

Johannesburg office in November.

Engsted’s trip, which included a stop in

Johannesburg and Cape Town to see a few

key clients, marked his first sojourn in the

country as CEO of Martin Professional which

coincided with the company’s 25th

anniversary.

To celebrate his visit, Electrosonic hosted a

function that was attended by Electrosonic’s

key clients. At the gathering, Electrosonic

showcased the power of the Mac Viper

Profile and the award winning Martin

MAC Aura among others.

Speaking about Martin’s President and

CEO, Bruce Schwartz, Electrosonic’s Martin

Product Manager, said: “It was very

exciting to welcome Christian Engsted

through our doors for the very first time. He

got a great feel for the South African

market and this insight will no doubt

improve our reach in the market.”

Engsted was accompanied by Peter

Dahlin, Area Sales Manager for South

Africa.

Through the launch of their online radio

station Prosound LIVE, Prosound has gone

one step further in their support of live music

and the arts in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prosound shares a long history with the

South African music Industry and is

committed to supporting the development

of local musicians. Prosound recognises SA’s

dynamic arts and music legacy as one of

the country’s richest resources contributing

to the country’s distinct identity.

In an industry where so many talented

artists are at risk of being drowned by the

mainstream, it is vital that they are given a

space to expose and present their style to a

wider audience.

Prosound LIVE radio provides a much

needed platform for any genre or subculture

of music that has a following in South Africa

but no medium to present itself. “Prosound

encourages artists to think of new ways of

selling and presenting themselves in our new,

cluttered digital world,” says Justin Acres of

Prosound.

By providing a live space for live

streaming, recording and rehearsing in a

production studio, a radio studio and OB

(outside broadcast) capabilities – aspiring

DJs, producers and musicians have a

setting in which to showcase themselves

using state-of-the-art equipment.

Years of experience have proved that

seeing Prosound equipment in action is

what wins the products their biggest fans.

The Prosound LIVE demo room plays host

to live gigs and DJ workshops where

products are put through their paces by

interested artists. “We recognise that

artists are the life blood of our business,”

says Acres. “By investing in and exposing

the best SA has to offer, outside of the

mainstream, everyone wins.”

Prosound goes live on radio

Martin Professional CEO visits SA

bruce genricks, Christian engsted, bruce schwartz and Peter Dahlin

Leviton is the largest

privately held

manufacturing

company of electrical

lighting equipment in

North America, has

recently appointed Stage Audio Works as

their primary sub-Saharan distributor.

Leviton prides itself as the smart choice for

creating sustainable and environmentally

conscious lighting solutions. Stage Audio

Works wishes to emulate this attitude through

the distribution of Leviton’s top tier product

range throughout the commercial market.

Like Leviton, Stage Audio Works understands

the importance of green thinking within

today’s industrial and commercial market

(as evidenced by their recent membership

within The Green Building Council of South

Africa).

Leviton appoints new distributor

The Technical Production Services Association (TPSA)

Awards Cape Town 2011 ceremony was held on 12

November 2012 at the Cape Town International

Conference Centre (CTICC). The TPSA Awards celebrate

industry professionals for the technical services they

provide in the production of live events.

• best newcomer lighting designer:

Moenier Allie

• best newcomer sound engineer:

Hugo Biermann

• best newcomer AV engineer:

Andrew Bosman

• Favourite AV rental company: AV Direct

• Favourite sound rental company:

Eastern Acoustics

• Favourite lighting rental company:

Gearhouse

• Favourite technical venue:

Grand West Arena

• Favourite technical staging company:

Gearhouse

• best rigger of the year: Wikus Visser

• Lighting designer of the year: Alan Muller

• AV engineer of the year: Matthew

Holmes

• sound engineer of the year: Arl Frost

• Production manager of the year:

Wayne Krull

TPSA hands out accolades in Cape TownTPSA 2011 Cape Town award winners:

thinking safety

Official distributor for Meyer Sound & EurotrussJohannesburg (Head Office)

Hillfox Centre, Weltevreden ParkTel: +27 (0)11 470-6800 Email: [email protected] Visit: www.prosound.co.za

Branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban

thinking sound

Prosound

8

News

Vivitek Corporation’s James Hsu and Brian

Grogan visited the country in October to

showcase several of the company’s newly

updated range of large venue and

educational projectors at Audiosure’s

Midrand offices.

The new products on display included the

D7180HD; the world’s first ultra-short throw full

HD projector as well as the D8800 – a

high-performance projector for the Pro AV

staging business. Also on show was the

D5280U, which delivers impressive image

resolution and in-built versatility to make it

the ideal projection solution for all types of

business, education and leisure applications.

During his visit, Hsu also launched the

Vivitek iPad and Android tablet app for

Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

region. Benefits of the app include access to

current product information (also when

offline), a distance calculator for easy

installation calculations and a product

selector tool for quick selection on specs and

comparison of up to four products.

Speaking about the app Hsu said: “We

would like to help our Vivitek approved

distributors and resellers in their daily job. The

Vivitek Product Range App will help to do so,

and we hope that the information will flow

quicker between us and the rest of our

Vivitek Approved Reseller Network.”

Preparations are already

underway for the continents

biggest and most successful trade

show for the live entertainment

and media industries.

Stand sales for Mediatech

Africa officially opened earlier in

October. Industry players such as

Extron Electronics, Concilium Technologies,

Audiosure, Inala, Technology Innovated

Distribution, Sound Harmonics, AV Systems,

Viva Afrika Sound and Light, DWR Distribution,

Macro Video, Penmac Audio Visual and

Matrix Sound that have already secured their

stands, to name a few.

Mediatech Africa will take place from 17 to

19 July 2013 at the Coca-Cola dome,

Johannesburg, South Africa. For more

information visit: www.mediatech.co.za.

The South African Roadies Association (SARA)

welcomed Linkin Park’s Production Manager

and Director of Touring – Jim Digby, to SARA

House in Johannesburg on 8 November to

share his production knowledge and skills.

Digby was joined by Linkin Park crew

colleagues Matt Mills (Lighting Director); Skip

Twitchell (Video Director); Bill Boyd – Creative

Director; Ken Van Druten (FOH); Sean Paden,

Chris Wilson, Megumi Kusano, Missy Allgood

and Lonnie Southall.

The Linkin Park team spent three hours at

SARA House interacting with SARA students,

sharing their respective experiences,

describing their work and job descriptions

and providing a well-rounded representation

of the inner workings of their technical and

production methods and systems.

The visit represented a milestone in

encouraging and supporting technical and

production knowledge and skills

development within the South African

Vivitek flaunts new projectors in SA

Mediatech Africa gains momentum

Linkin Park’s crew hosts workshop

James Hsu

Jim Digby

Dan engel and Nathan goldstein

Kathea, local distributor of Polycom video

communications solutions, recently

announced the availability of Polycom’s new

portfolio of solutions designed for medium-

sized businesses.

These solutions make high-quality,

enterprise-grade video collaboration more

affordable and easier to access for the

mid-market. The portfolio includes Polycom

RealPresence Collaboration Server 800s

-Virtual Edition as well as various next-

generation RealPresence video endpoints.

Polycom RealPresence Collaboration

Server 800s, Virtual Edition is the industry’s first

multi-protocol, integrated software

Multi-point Control Unit (MCU) with open

standards-based Scalable Video Coding

(SVC), interoperable with Advanced Video

Coding (AVC). It delivers 3X HD multipoint

video capacity for superior performance

and great scalability.

The solution offers dramatically lower total

cost of ownership and backwards and

forward scompatibility, without the need for

expensive gateways or hardware required

by proprietary SVC offerings; it is ideal for

mid-sized enterprises. The RealPresence

Collaboration Server 800s, Virtual Edition, is

part of the Polycom RealPresence Platform,

the most interoperable and comprehensive

software infrastructure for universal video

collaboration.

Dan Engel, regional sales manager at

Polycom EMEA and Nathan Goldstein,

regional solutions architect at Polycom

EMEA, exhibited the RealPresence

Collaboration Server 800s and other

products at an event held in October at

Kathea’s Johannesburg offices.

Kathea launches new Polycom’s portfolio of solutions

technical and production industry,

especially for young people.

This opportunity was conceptualised in

March 2012, at the International Production

Meeting of the International Live Music

Conference (ILMC) in London, between Jim

Digby and SARA president, Freddie

Nyathela.

At ISE 2013, come fact-to-face with new products from over 800 exhibitors showing dozens of AV, media and control technologies. Add new lines to your portfolio, get fresh inspiration for your projects and embrace the ideas that enable smarter working, building and living.

Find out more. www.iseurope.org

10thedition

Connect. Communicate. Construct.

A joint venture partnership of

ISE2013_Louder_EN_ProSystemNews_210x297.indd 1 09.11.12 11:17

ise

10

systeM iNtegrAtiON ise PreVieW

Promoted as: ’Bigger. Brighter. Better’, ISE 2013 is expected to be even

bigger than last year’s record-breaking event, which saw over 40 000

visitors and 825 exhibitors occupying 30 000 square metres of space to

display their latest innovations.

Show organisers promise a unique showcase of technologies and

solutions at ISE 2013, complimented by a comprehensive conference

and education programme. They claim that the yearly event will

attract professionals from every link in the systems integration

value-chain, including manufacturers, distributors, dealers,

contractors and consultants. The event, which will run for three days

(29 to 31 January 2013) at the Amsterdam RAI in the Netherlands, is

also tipped to draw huge numbers of end customers from diverse

fields such as education, sports, corporate facilities, hospitality and

live events.

Sizing up

Reflecting growing interest from exhibitors and visitors, ISE 2013 will

occupy the largest space in its history, thanks to the addition of an

extra hall to the show’s footprint.

Mike Blackman, Managing Director, Integrated Systems Events,

says; “The response from exhibitors to our 2012 show has been

overwhelmingly positive and, in the end, we felt we had no option but

to expand our footprint for 2013. This extra space will allow us to

accommodate new companies who want to bring their products

and services to our audience of 40 000-plus electronic systems

professionals for the first time.”

A lot of companies including Samsung, Sony, Digital Projection,

Sennheiser, Barco, AVC Group and Optoma are said to have taken

this opportunity to enlarge their stands. While almost all of the ISE 2013

exhibitors have not yet announced what they will showcase, the word

from ISE for now is that: “Attendees can expect more new exhibitors,

more new technologies, more education sessions and more

networking opportunities.”

Smart Building Conference

ISE 2013 will host the first Smart Building Conference. The event joins

ISE’s pre-show roster and is part of a bold initiative to make AV and

electronic systems integration a cornerstone of Europe’s construction

industry. It will be held at the Amsterdam RAI on Monday 28 January

– the day before the exhibition opens.

Blackman says the Smart Building Conference is a response to a

survey conducted during ISE 2012, in which attendees expressed a

desire to see more building automation, energy management and

related technologies. “Our attendees want to see more building

World class trade show returns with largest footprint – ever

All is set for the 10th edition of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) – the world’s biggest

trade show for the professional AV and electronic systems industries.

By Eddie Hatitye

Phot

os c

ourte

sy is

e

11

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ProSystems SA halfpage_Nov12v2.indd 1 2012-11-07 12:32

Penmac

automation, energy management and related technologies on

our show floor and these are the areas where they see the greatest

future growth potential for their businesses.”

He adds: “As building automation and energy management

become more important in the design and sustainability of both

commercial and residential buildings, it is important to hear the

voices of all those involved in their development – including

architects, design consultants, developers, electrical contractors

and more.”

Improved focus on full HD display solutions

As a way of bolstering ISE’s focus on display solutions that have

more than HD or full HD resolution, organisers are adding a new

summit to the show’s education bill. The new event, dubbed The

MegaPixel Summit, is said to be ideal for manufacturers, distributors,

integrators, rental companies and end customers.

Blackman says: “By hosting the MegaPixel Summit at ISE 2013, we

hope to create a forum in which the challenges arising from

creating large-scale, multiple-component displays are addressed

by a mix of different stakeholders: manufacturers, distributors,

integrators, rental companies and end customers.”

Event producer Chris Chinnock of Insight Media adds that the

MegaPixel Summit will focus on three elements of what he calls the

‘Pixel Pipeline’ ecosystem that defines a typical MegaPixel solution:

pixel generation, pixel processing and pixel display.

He says: “The summit will cover every link in the chain from the

CPUs and GPUs that generate the images, to the software and

hardware that processes, warps, blends and distributes them, and

then on to the various projection and display technologies that

can be used to show them.” The MegaPixel summit will be divided

into three sessions. The first two on the morning and afternoon of

Monday 28 January respectively, will focus on technology,

products and trends. The third on the morning of Tuesday 29

January (the first day of ISE 2013) will offer case-study examples of

successful MegaPixel system integration.

“Over the past couple of years, we have seen a substantial

increase in the number of ISE exhibitors offering display solutions

that are above full HD resolution. The potential of these

technologies is enormous, but these are complex systems and

many industry professionals endure a steep learning-curve while

implementing them,” adds Blackman.

On the other hand, a huge part of ISE’s educational offering

– The InfoComm Future Trends Summit, will take place on Monday

28. InfoComm’s director of international education and member

services, Scott Wills, says the popular summit will focus on future

technology trends, trends in the use and application of AV, or other

items that will affect the industry in the coming months and years.

Do not miss our next edition for a comprehensive update of

products showcased at ISE 2013.

12

systeM iNtegrAtiON MuseuM teChnoloGY

South Africa has more than 300 museums all over the country. This

might not seem an enormous amount if you think that London alone

has 240. Still South Africa’s relationship with its heritage is somehow

different to that of Europe.

Museums here are newer and more unusual. They can be found in

ex-gold mine sites, cultural villages, some elegant 18th century houses

or modern buildings. There isn’t a long tradition of object collection

and many times the stories told are based on past events for which

there are no objects per se, but rather an interesting tale. This is where

AV technology can help to bring the past into the present and make it

relevant, engaging and educational for people of all ages.

“South Africa doesn’t have a culture of museums visiting that

Europe has,” confides Gavin Olivier, founder of Digital Fabric. “Only

after the Second World War we became sophisticated enough to

have museums, but in the beginning they were designed just for white

audiences. Only since democracy have black people been included

in the heritage narrative, telling the wider story.”

Digital Fabric is a systems integrator and AV consultancy that

specialises in providing tailored solutions for the museums sector.

“There are not many off the shelf products in this market in South

Africa, so we make sure we partner with people that can carry out

the brief and fulfill the client’s vision.”

A close partner to Digital Fabric is Totem Media, an exhibitions and

learning experiences designer company. Totem was born in London

1987, founded by Francis Gerard as Totem Productions Ltd, an

independent documentary filmmaker company.

Gerard recalls: “I came to museums via documentary film – I had

over 20 years of experience with major documentary series for the

BBC and ITV companies and well as at Discovery and History

channels. While making a film about the Forbidden City in Beijing I

helped China’s cultural relics department assemble objects and the

narrative storytelling that went into a major international travelling

exhibition. I was so fascinated by the project that I slowly but surely

changed Totem Media into a fully fledged exhibitions, museum

development entity.”

Gerard, who was raised in South Africa and is married to a Chinese

writer, has a particular interest in these societies and has over time

expanded Totem Media in South Africa and China.

For many projects Olivier and Gerard have put their heads together

to find the best way of telling stories for different museums. Sometimes

the use of innovative AV technology is essential, but not always.

“We don’t begin with AV or any technology,” says Gerard “We start

every exhibition as a voyage of discovery – we need to get under the

skin of the ideas that will form the backbone of the exhibition’s

narrative. So the careful understanding of what the exhibition is in all

its iterations comes first. It’s only then that we look at what media will

best tell the story and carry the message. This could be commissioned

art instillations as well as AV and interactive technologies.”

South African history finds its voice – through technology

When was the last time you visited a

museum? When you were at school?

While on holiday? Well, it is time to re-

discover the museums in South Africa and

look into a growing and inspiring sector for

the AV industry. Geny Caloisi talks to key

players in this industry and finds out what it

takes to succeed.

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Adriénne van den Heever from Cultural Kaleidoscope, a specialist

in Arts and Culture Management, who also works with Totem Media

and Digital Fabric, agrees. “Technology is exciting and the constant

developments in the audiovisual arena can be seductive. We live in a

world that is driven by instant gratification and a plethora of digital

interfaces that often influence the demand to incorporate the latest

technological widget into the museum environment. However, for AV

technology to be effective, it is critical to have a healthy balance of

technologies that are traditional and contemporary. It is imperative

to cater to a range of visitors. Generally speaking older visitors engage

with a more traditional approach, while younger visitors revel in

interactive exhibits.”

An interesting project where Cultural Kaleidoscope and Digital

Fabric worked together is at the Liliesleaf Museum. The Liliesleaf Farm

is in Rivonia, Johannesburg and was the centre of ANC military

operations. It was on this 28-acre farm in July 1963 that key leaders of

the liberation struggle were arrested following a raid by the security

police. Today, the farm has reopened as a museum to commemorate

the liberation struggle, for current and future generations.

The manor house boosts an interactive table, which is a 3D

interface consisting of video, images, audio and text. The interface is

browsed by visitors using two aluminum ‘navigators’ that allow them

to view info about the apartheid era in South Africa.

“Gone are the days of static dioramas where visitors look passively

at unchanging displays,” points out Rahle Dusheiko, creative director

at Pixel Project, a company that develops software for interactive

applications. “It is very important to ensure that the right product is

used in the right way and context. We work with reputable AV

suppliers and use robust and reliable products to ensure this is the

case. Technology and software should integrate well together. It’s not

just about delivering content that people watch – but rather creating

memories and facilitating the transference of knowledge.”

The favoured equipment brands for museums, among all

interviewees are: NEC, Christie and projectiondesign on the projectors

front. Crown Audio, BSS Audio, JBL when it comes to audio and also

Alcorn McBride which provides audio, video, lighting and show

control products for themed entertainment. One of the most

important things these designers and integrators look out for is brand

that has local representatives with good technical support.

John Petrie director of Sonic Factory, the South African distributor of

Alcorn McBride gives three top tips from a technical perspective:

“When choosing which AV equipment you are going to implement in

a museum you have to bare in mind: 1- that the equipment is reliable

enough for long hours of continuous operation; 2- the system must be

as foolproof as possible as often there is no permanent staff member

on site to look after it; and 3 – technology must be used in such a way

that it enhances both the visitor experience as well as the operational

effectiveness of the museum.”

Sonic Factory provides design, installation, programming and

support services for all its projects. The company has also a recording

and editing studio, which is often used for the production museum’s

audio content.

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systeM iNtegrAtiON MuseuM teChnoloGY

Let me entertain you

The trend in this market is clearly to incorporate more interaction and

wow factor effects to provide museum visitors with an experience that

will live long with them.

Digital Fabric’s Olivier says: “Gesture based technology is key along

with high quality applications. As with most things the visitors are

exposed to a vast range of high quality apps that work well in their

daily life and they expect it in attractions. It sounds obvious, but in

practice the museums here and abroad are generally behind this

curve.”

Interactive displays, full HD video, good quality audio, smart phone

applications and immersive ‘4D’ type cinema experiences are on the

up, but the problem for museums is their budget. Olivier points put that

in South Africa it’s easier to find the capital cost to build the museum

than the operational money to run the museum.

Van den Heever puts it beautifully: “I think that the majority of

museum curators are visionary. They have the ability to conceive and

imagine a space in their mind, as well as the skills and know-how to

transform abstract ideas into tangible realities. The frustrating part is

that the vision is often constrained by budget restrictions or lack of

funding.”

Pixel Project’s Dusheiko recalls one of her favourite projects, in

which she worked together with Digital Fabric and Culture

Kaleidoscope: “We are very proud of the installation we did at the

Umgungundlovu Multimedia Centre near Ulundi, KwaZulu- Natal,

South Africa. The client wanted to present the history of the area in a

way that it would have a huge impact. The area is very rural, so it was

important that the solution was simple for anyone to use – regardless

of their experience with digital technology.

“We created a table carved into a relief map of the surrounding

area with three projectors mounted above creating a 3D mapping

seamless image. This is an interactive story-telling experience that

educates visitors about the interesting and diverse history of the

Emakhosini Valley.

“People can see a large projected aerial image of the valley. There

are two touch screens mounted on the side of the table from which a

story could be selected. The stories played out as narrated animations

that were projected onto the table. These stories were recreated using

illustrations and sometimes actual photography where they were

available. The interface, content and animations are available in

English and Zulu.”

For this industry to grow and prosper these experts agree that there

needs to be good and clear communication between all areas of the

team; from the curators and museums managers, to the content

designers/developers, system integrators and installers. In terms of

technology, the challenges are the same for any operation with many

thousands or millions of visitors – design for easy operation, clear view

lines, good flow of people and clear understanding of the public. The

technology needs to be capable of operation up to 24/7 and last for

some years. Using brands that provide good technical support locally

is also an advantage.

Museums need to tell stories in a creative and engaging manner.

As with all creative processes, there are various stages to go through

from design to implementation. Things might change, projects will be

tight on time, there will be challenges, but the delivery team needs to

work together from the designer through to the AV integrator and

software producer. Clear and open communication and following

the advice of experts in this field will guarantee success.

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SA Dealers: Jasco +27 11 266 1500 | Visual Impact +27 11 788 9879 | SBSS +27 21 425 6337 | Protea +27 11 719 5700Sony Broadcast & Professional +27 11 690 3200 | www.pro.sony.eu/mea

sony

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London finds a new digital dimension during the 2012 Games

By Geny Caloisi

London put its ‘glad rags’ on through Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) media to welcome

Olympic visitors and make them feel part of the games from the time they landed at the

airport, when they got on the tube and of course when they walked around town.

diGital siGnaGe systeM iNtegrAtiON

APART SOUNDS LIKE THE RIGHT CHOICEA great sound system is a must-have in your line of business but when there is so much equipment to choose from, how can you be sure you will ultimately get the result you want? We specialise in fixed installed sound systems and are here to guide you towards the solution that is right for you.

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iLeD

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were a

wonderful opportunity to showcase the influence that digital

signage can have on a city and its visitors. It also demonstrated

the kind of impact this medium can have on businesses and

events.

With an influx of visitors from all over the world, the population of

London almost doubled during the Olympics. The city was truly

multilingual and multi cultural – even more than usual. So the out of

home proposition needed to be creative; informative; inclusive and

spectacular. And it certainly was.

A good example of this was BP Olympic campaign. The company

used DOOH in all shapes, digital and traditional. Its campaign was

about brand awareness, communicating its core values, including

green solutions. It highlighted the importance of people ‘off the track’,

non-athletes such as street cleaners, nurses and handymen, who also

played their part in making the Games a success. DOOH’s flexibility

allowed it to bring up to the minute updates for visitors about town

and on public transport.

Social media and online played an important role too. Through BP’s

Facebook page people could nominate themselves for the chance

to win London 2012 tickets, which two lucky women won. The

nominees were selected using Grand Visual’s OpenLoop technology

and their photos were published directly to multiple DOOH formats

across London. Teaming up with Channel 4 the company

persuaded the nation to tweet good luck messages to the

athletes. And yes, encouraging messages and news on the wins

were shared almost immediately on screens across London.

There were a total of 2.5m tweets. These were the first

Tweeter games!

BP’s DOOH campaign was planned and booked by Mindshare

and Kinetic and run across CBS Outdoor’s XTP (cross track projection)

in tube stations, JCDecaux’s Transvision screens at the airport and

main train stations and on ECNLive.

A study from Kinetic Worldwide, a planner and buyer of OOH

media, unveils that engagement with the games was very high

– despite Londoners’ initial apprehension. The city was fitted with

large screens were people could watch the games. Three

quarters of the UK watched the games in some form out of the home,

rising to 83% of 18 to 24 year olds, according to Kinetic’s report.

Although some initial news reports of empty streets, footfall for retailers

in the heart of the capital was actually up 16% during the Olympic

Games, compared with the same period in 2011. Westfield Stratford

City attracted more than 5 million visitors throughout the games and

larger retailers particularly benefitted, with John Lewis reporting a 22%

year on year increase in sales at their stores.

London airports were a real ‘welcome gateway’ to the country,

portraying Britishness and helping visitors to find their way round as

soon as they landed.

Steve Cox, Marketing Director at JCDecaux Airport confides:

“Arrivals is a harder area to sale advertising than departures. But the

games were a great opportunity to prove how well this canvas can

work. The medium is part of the message and the numerous

campaigns we ran at the airport were a good example of DOOH’s

core objectives: generating lasting memories; capturing and

engendering a mood; and driving talkability.”

These games, as most people say, were the ‘public transport

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games.’ People were encouraged to commute instead of drive. Every

Olympic ticket received a free travel card. 60 million passengers

travelled on the Underground during the Games, an increase of 30%

year on year.

CBS Outdoor dominates London public transport advertising

network. Gavin Brice, Franchise Director at CBS says that the digital

legacy of the games is hugely important for the evolution of the

industry.

“Providing free WiFi in the tube proved a great success. We are

hoping to see more interactive use of digital posters in the next year.

In fact, outside the games, only 0.2% of campaigns ran interactive

content. During the Olympics this rose to 25%. We hope that live

streaming and tweeters feeds, become more part of the norm for

DOOH.”

CBS screens carried campaigns from BMW, British Airways, Nike

and Visa to name a few. It also partnered with Virgin to offer WiFi in

the tube and offered commuters the chance to download The

Telegraph newspaper on their iPads.

Kinetic’s Nick Mawditt, global director of insight and marketing at

Kinetic, points out: “Mobile phone capabilities have really boosted

what advertisers can do with DOOH. Back in 2008 during the Beijing

Games, only 12% of people in the UK had a smartphone. This time

around that number sits at over 50%. In 2008 you would have had to

ask what a tablet was. In 2012 over 11% of households in Britain have

one. So to say much has changed in the way we follow large scale

events in the past couple of years would be an understatement.”

The importance of social media, interactive technologies and

mobile devices, can’t be ignored after London 2012 Games. DOOH

media owner, media planners and buyers need to embrace it and

use it. DOOH hardware and software manufacturers must include it in

their offering.

OlympicsocialmediafiguresfromKinetic

• 15 million downloads of the official London 2012 app

• 4.7million social followers across official London 2012

channels on twitter, Facebook, Google+ and

Foursquare

•More than 150 million Olympic related tweets made

throughout the games

• 80 000 tweets per minute about Usain Bolt’s 200 metre

gold win, the record for tweets per minute during

Olympic competition

• Between 27 July and 8 August, Jessica Ennis

experienced an increase of more than 500% (541 946)

of the number of fans on her Facebook page

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There is another Kramer that has made just as big an impact on the

world. This impact was not felt in music or popular culture but instead

in what we now know as the modern audio visual arena. I am, of

course, talking about Kramer Electronics Ltd, founded in 1981.

Kramer Electronics is a company that has a long and progress-

driven pedigree. From their first product in 1982, a PAL video image

enhancement processor, to their current line of over 1 000 products,

Kramer’s’ commitment has been to “developing creative, reliable

and value-oriented audio, video and computer signal processing

solutions and distributing them worldwide with an uncompromising

level of service and support”. These are the words of Dr. Kramer – the

founder of Kramer Electronics.

Currently Kramer boasts the originators of technologies used

globally in a variety of modern audio visual systems. These

technologies include automatic video noise gates, colour processors,

screen splitters, symmetrical video boost/cut circuitry and eventually

high bandwidth CAT5 products and their ProScale digital scalers/

switchers, which he says, will endure for many years. Kramer was also

the first to introduce PAL S-Video processors and DAs at the Photokina

show in Germany, a testament to their relentless R&D and pursuit of

quality. Quality, after all, is paramount for every step in their

manufacturing process and this is most probably why they have

enjoyed such longevity.

On Thursday 25 October at the Pick n Pay training facility in

Fourways, Dr Kramer graced us with his presence on his first ever trip to

South Africa. After some delightful tea and scones, the seminar

started with an introduction into who he is and what his company has

accomplished - told concurrently with a short history of audio-visual

technologies - and then carried forward into a more in-depth history,

encompassing the last 30 years. Emerging technologies and

alternatives to HDMI such as DiiVA (Digital interactive interface for

Video and Audio) and Thunderbolt were then touched on before

moving into what is currently considered state-of-the-art. Let’s take a

look at his summation of the journey and where we are now.

The name Kramer conjures up

many references for many people

and just as many faces. There’s

Eddie Kramer, the legendary

South African producer/engineer

of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin

fame. There’s David Kramer, the

famous South African singer,

songwriter and playwright that

changed the face of Afrikaans

music forever. In popular culture

there’s Kramer guitars used by

Eddie Van Halen (not South

African) in his earlier years and, of

course, there’s Cosmo Kramer, the

parasitic neighbour who lives

across the hall from Jerry Seinfeld.

The talented Dr KramerBy Greg Bester

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The present

3D is here to stay. Currently there are two kinds: glasses-based, which

comes in active and passive versions; and glassless, which by its

namesake, does not require glasses. By 2013, Phillips and Samsung

claim we will have glasses-free 3D television. Dr Kramer says he

witnessed one of the early versions of this technology but it required

standing in a very specific location in order to properly view it. He also

says the technology has two further drawbacks, first, that brightness

drops by 80% and, second that light interference creates annoying

flickering, which requires you to view in total darkness. There are

currently three technologies employed in glasses-free 3D and they

are Lenticular, Liquid Crystal Lens and Parallax Barrier. All three, he

claims, reduce resolution by at least half.

Laser Video Display, or Laser TV, for short. These displays use two or

more individually modulated optical rays of differing colours to excite

the pixels. He claims that the colour is richer, the screen is much faster

and brighter and is vastly more power efficient.

New advancements in LeD illumination.

LED lights are very efficient and this technology has been selected for

projection technology. In an example, he showed a recently

launched projector by Projection Design called the FL-35 LED with a

resolution up to 2560 x 1600, which is massive. It emits 1 200 lumens

and has a contrast ratio of 8000:1. However, the biggest selling point

for this projector is the fact that it has a bulb life of 100 000 hours. It can

run continuously for 11 years before you have to replace it!

• A lamp-less 5 000 lumen projector the size of two packs of cigarettes was revealed from the Fraunhofer institute, the

originators of the mp3. The interesting thing about this

projector is that it was unveiled about three years ago but

suddenly vanished from the public eye. The light output of the

projector is 5000 candelas in monochrome (about half in

colour) while a typical computer monitor outputs 150 to 300

candelas per square meter. Instead of having a lamp it has a

tiny OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen which is so

bright it is blinding to look at. He speculates that because of its

low cost of $500 and immense power of the small projector,

larger corporations might have bought out the technology so

they could sit on it until the time is right.

• streaming is the media delivery format of the future,

according to Dr Kramer. IP networks using data packets that

are encoded and decoded is the means to this technology.

Higher and higher data rates will be seen in the future and the

H265 high efficiency video codec will become the norm.

H265 will double the compression rate, which will enable us to

store more movies in the same space.

• Revolutionizing the way we watch TV already. No longer can

the networks dictate what we want to watch because now,

with technologies like Netflix and Apple TV, the choice is

completely ours. Further, he explains, there are small,

inexpensive dongles now on offer that include an HDMI output

that connect directly into your TV that transforms it into a full

HD smart TV. You can browse the Internet, watch HD video,

play games and control it with the included remote.

• Wireless home digital interface is the next step in home

entertainment and is a consumer electronic standard for

wireless HDTV transmission throughout the home. It can deliver

uncompressed, high definition video through a wireless

channel that is compatible with any video source to

compatible display devices. To deliver such high resolution

video, it supports data rates of up to 3Gbit/sec on a 40 MHz

channel. Range and transmission loss is improved over

standard WIFI with a figure of 30M, including through walls

and latency comes in at less than 1ms.

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electrosonic system international

The future of technology: Dr Kramer predicts

• Cheaper, thinner, oLeD and laser-based. In the

near future we will see products that are thinner,

cheaper and laser-based as technologies become

more and more streamlined, efficient, and

compact. Lasers and OLED’s will replace LED as the

primary light source for displays and projectors.

• All analogue material will be digitised and scanned back to the cloud, where all work will be done.

Kramer muses, “I don’t know what will happen

when the cloud starts raining, but that’s a different

story.”

• 16K is probably the next step. 8K video will

penetrate our houses for the simple reason that we

will desire to have glass-less, 3D, high resolution

television. Eventually, 16K will emerge to take this

experience to a new level. Considering glass-less

3D cuts resolution by half, 16K will enable us to have

8K resolution in that domain.

• 3D sound can, in theory, be created by three

loudspeakers in your living room. No more 7.1, no

more 22.2. A total of three loudspeakers is probably

all that will be needed.

• optical crystal lattice storage – that is the future. A

major problem since the dawn of the digital age

has been storage for the simple reason that

magnetic data and digital storage devices are not

reliable. The disadvantages are many. They glitch

and if the microprocessor controlling them fails it is

not uncommon to lose all your data. On an optical

crystal lattice device the size of a grain of salt, you

can store a Petabyte (1000TB). Once it is written

there, it endures permanently.

The wrap

The flip side of all this wonderful, striding progress, Dr Kramer says, is

that the world is still cluttered with an unfathomable amount of

analogue technology. There are, 200-300 million CRT TV’s in use in the

US alone. People, for the most part, are just not bothered.

Staggeringly, there are some countries that have a market for

specialist boxes that transform HD video to analogue so they can

watch it on their CRT TVs they do not want to part with. In the words of

Dr Kramer: “Composite and VGA are still continuing to the live

because they are reliable. Simple and reliable. In most cases, after we

have done an installation, everyone says: “VGA is bad”. Yeah? Are

you sure? Well our [VGA] sales are not going up this year, but they are

not declining. It’s like last year and it’s for a real simple reason. If you

take a 1920 x 1200 image and run it on a long analogue cable and

you can get a super fit end image without all the HDMI trouble, why

not use it? That is why [VGA] will continue to live. It’s a good standard

that gives good quality images.”

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meyer sound Laboratories and NTi Audio

AG recently announced a new cinema

meter option for the handheld XL2 Audio

and Acoustic Analyzer.

Developed through a collaborative

effort by the two companies, the Meyer

Sound cinema meter option allows

cinema sound technicians to calibrate

loudspeaker systems efficiently and to an

extremely high degree of precision –

beyond the recommended basic SMPTE

standards – using a small, easy-to-use

handheld device.

The cinema meter option extends the XL2

Analyzer to facilitate efficient and

accurate alignment of Meyer Sound EXP

cinema systems, which are inherently

capable of highly linear performance

with exceptionally flat phase and

amplitude response. The new XL2 option

includes a Meyer Sound test script that can be used for tuning any

cinema system. Test signals can be sourced through storage in the

cinema system or from the NTi Audio MR-PRO generator.

Distributed by www.prosound.co.za

The Vivitek D7180HD is the ultimate short-throw projector with the

world record shortest throw-ratio of 0.19:1, enabling perfect

presentation for the presenter without incident light in the eyes and

without shadows on the image.

The D7180HD delivers a lot of brightness with 3 400 ANSI lumens and

an outstanding contrast ratio of 2500:1 for a perfect displayed image.

Also the Vivitek D7180HD has an impressive colour reproduction and

amazing performance thanks to DLP® BrilliantColor™ technologies. A

stylish projector with powerful 10W built-in speaker and an assortment

of connectivity options, including HDMI v1.3 for perfect digital image

transmission and RJ-45 for network connectivity, the D7180HD is the

ultimate short-throw projector for perfect presentations.

Distributed by www.audiosure.co.za

The F85 is a compact 3-chip 3D DLP projector for large and small

screen applications. It offers active or passive 3D at up to 120 Hz, as

well as guaranteed colour accuracy and modular I/O and image

processing.

In many application areas and industries, projectiondesign has

become the reference of reliability and high performance. Thanks to

the ever trustworthy DLP® technology, skilled engineering and

craftsmanship, projectiondesign presents the F85 series. With the

users’ best experience as a top priority, focus is on performance and

reliability in all aspects. In its class, the F85 is unique in terms of

performance to size. It is available with an extensive selection of

lenses, covering a wide range of focal distances and will fit in almost

any kind of installations that seeks performance, high brightness and

a low cost of ownership over time.

Distributed by www.questekadvanced.co.za

Crestron has been

flaunting the

GLS-EM-MCU, an

Ethernet-based

power metering

control unit,

designed to log

overall electricity

usage in real time.

It measures and

tracks actual energy

consumption by

attaching to the incoming electrical service and branch circuits. The

GLS-EM-MCU also works in unison with the GLS-EM-CTI and GLS-EM-

CT to provide more detailed data by tracking individual branch

circuits in a home or office. This data is then displayed on a touch

panel, mobile device or computer for viewing by users.

In addition the GLS-EM-MCU system interfaces with Fusion EM™

Energy Management Software to provide reports with greater detail

to show total building consumption.

The main control unit (MCU) monitors both voltage and current to

provide complete statistics of a building’s electricity consumption. To

achieve this, the MCU connects to line voltage of each phase (up to

three) and neutral. Current transformers (GLS-EM-CTs) clamp around

each of the incoming feed wires. These CTs then wire into the MCU’s

inputs. With the voltage and current data, the MCU calculates power

usage.

Distributed by www.electrosonic.co.za

Crestr0n GLS-EM-MCU Vivitek D7180HD

Meyer Sound XL2 Analyzer

projectiondesign F85 series

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traCkinG teChnoloGY systeM iNtegrAtiON

DAs

benQ earlier this year, introduced new 42-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch

interactive flat panels (IFPs) with 1920x1080p full HD resolution.

For education and corporate applications, the new T420, T650, and

TL550 combines high dynamic contrast ratios with touch technology

and multimedia connectivity to transform ordinary presentations into

powerful, impactful experiences.

Combining the power of touch technology with multimedia

connectivity, the T420, T650, and TL550 maximize the learning

experience for students, while enhancing meeting efficiency, training

effectiveness, collaborative discussions, data visualization and team

building exercises in corporate, government, and military applications

such as conference rooms and command and control. In addition,

the IFPs are ideal for interactive applications in a wide range of

environments, including eBoard information displays for menus,

airport flight schedules and much more.

extron electronics’ new PowerCage FOX HDMI fibre optic extender is

a modular transmitter and receiver set that enables long haul

transmission of HDCP-compliant HDMI, audio, and control signals over

fibre optic cabling.

Engineered for reliability and exceptional high resolution image

performance, it uses Extron all-digital technology to deliver pixel-

perfect transmission of HDMI computer-video images up to 1920x1200

resolution, including HDTV 1080p/60. Integrator-friendly features

include Key Minder®, EDID Minder®, Auto Input Memory, audio

embedding/de-embedding, audio gain and attenuation, internal

test patterns, and real-time system monitoring.

The transmission capabilities and comprehensive feature set of the

PowerCage FOX HDMI make it ideal for a wide range of applications

requiring long distance extension of high resolution content with the

highest quality.

BenQ T650 Extron Electronics PowerCage FOX HDMI

24

iNstALLAtiONs ethernet audio

More and more capacity is on offer for system designers, installers and

operators with progressively smaller and smaller footprints, producing

systems which belie their true power and, of course, offer endless

flexibility.

Gone are the days of cumbersome analogue audio snakes. Gone

are the days of miles and miles of analogue cable. Gone are the days

of actual, physical patching, for these are the days of the digital audio

snake and network audio, configurable via software and iPads, and

inter-connected via CAT5 cable. Audio transport hasn’t been the

same since.

But where does one start? After all, there are myriad AoE protocols

out there and many are proprietary to specific licenced

manufacturers so knowing what protocol suits your needs is key. Also,

knowing the features of each protocol, their compatibility with other

equipment, latency, upgradability and market longevity, to name a

few important considerations, is paramount.

Briefly the brand or protocol you choose is often the one you are

stuck with and there are no guarantees to how ‘future-proof’ one

protocol is over another. In light of all this, let’s take a look at some of

the current forerunners in the AoE arena, their current list of features,

and subsequent supporting manufacturers. But first let’s introduce

Audio over Ethernet.

Robust

To fully get your head around network audio, it might be worth your

while to get acquainted with how it actually works; how audio is

integrated into a standard 801.3x network (a wireless network is 802.11),

the limitations standard network gear poses and how protocol

developers have got around them.

At first glance AoE might look similar to Voice over IP (VoIP).

However, because AoE systems are designed to deliver high-fidelity,

low latency professional audio, they do not generally incorporate any

sort of audio data compression and therefore require a robust, high

throughput network. Typically, an AoE network requires at least 1

Mbit/sec per channel and less than 10ms of latency. Although – as we

will see – these figures are quite high.

First thing to know is that not all AoE protocols are compatible.

Often manufacturers have had to make adjustments to standardised

network processes to accommodate the need for high channel

counts and low latency, therefore rendering the technology

proprietary in most cases. For example, because computer

networking standards such as IP (Internet Protocol) have been

adopted in most AoE systems, so have their limitations such as the fact

that they are ‘packet-based’.

Transporting audio into the ether

given the advancements that have been made in both digital audio and iT networking

technologies, we now have more ways than ever to make interconnections and create

increasingly complex systems.

By Greg Bester

25

ethernet audio iNstALLAtiONs

A ‘packet’ is exactly what it sounds like, a small collection of data

that is part of a larger set. In the case of audio, these packets contain

header information that specifies parameters such as source,

destination, and involve an encoding /decoding process.

Once a packet of audio data has been encoded, it can then be

transmitted over the network where it is decoded by the receiver.

However, in a standard IP-based system, there is no guarantee that

the data packets will arrive in the order that they were sent. But it’s not

all bad news. In this approach the upside is that such systems are

compatible with off-the-shelf IT equipment such as standard routers

and switches, which can be helpful. On the other hand, because of

the unpredictable nature of packet delivery and to ensure smooth,

glitch-free operation, a buffer must be implemented, therefore

increasing system latency.

Generally this is not acceptable for applications such as in-ear

monitoring where ultra-low latency is required. A solution to this, such

as is found in AES50-based systems, is to use ‘frame-based audio

transmission’. This transmission style uses only the physical layers of the

IP network which are the physical cables and transceivers at each

end. In this system there is no need for an encoding / decoding

process as audio data is sent from point to point instead of as generic

data across a computer network. To put it another way, audio

samples are streamed continuously using Ethernet frames from

transmission to reception, which makes far better use of the

throughput capacity of IP-based systems and ensures smooth,

low-latency, high band-width operation.

Ethersound by Digigram

One of the more established of the bunch, Ethersound by network

audio masters Digigram, is a 64-channel (24-bit/48kHz PCM),

low-latency, bi-directional audio networking solution over Ethernet

with full compliance to the 802.3x standard.

As we see with many other AoE protocols, there are two variants: a

‘high capacity’ and a ’standard’ version, namely the ES-Giga and the

ES-100, respectively. In addition, in 2008, Digigram released a

unidirectional version of the protocol entitled ES-100/spkr, which

enables manufacturers to implement the ES-100 protocol where its full

features are not required, such as in loudspeaker systems with

Ethersound integration where a return stream is not needed.

Basically, the difference between the two is that ES-100 utilises a

100Mbit/sec network and the ES-Giga uses a Gigabit network, which

has ten times the bandwidth. Obviously, the higher the bandwidth the

higher the capacity of the network, so the ES-100 system can handle

64 bidirectional channels at 48kHz; and the ES-Giga system; 256

channels. At 96kHz all channels halve and at 192kHz they halve again.

Interestingly, in a single ES-Giga system, channel count can actually

exceed 512 channels by ‘overwriting’ existing channels in parts of the

network. In terms of latency, the end-to-end transmission time of an

Ethersound audio network is six samples at 48kHz, which equates to

125 microseconds at 48kHz. A further 1.5 microseconds (.5

microseconds in an Es-Giga system) is picked up for each slave

module in a daisy chain configuration that is added. These figures are

extremely low and acceptable for almost any pro-audio scenario.

But how low should they be?

One of the central features when selecting an AoE protocol is, of

course, latency. These figures can be a huge selling point for

manufacturers, especially with the growing popularity of in-ear

monitoring systems. Generally, anything over 3ms of latency is

considered unacceptable these days, even if it cannot be

immediately perceived by the performer, and the rule of thumb is that

total system latency cannot be greater than the time it takes sound to

reach a vocalist’s ears from his / her mouth. Now that’s a pretty small

margin because it can take milliseconds in the single figures,

sometimes less, for this to occur, which creates a huge design

constraint for protocol developers in the AoE field.

How manufacturers handle this problem is a core consideration

and one that I’m sure many dollars of R&D get poured into. Some, like

Ethersound, strive to use existing network standards to stay non-

proprietary. This has its advantages – such as the ability to integrate

into a pre-existing network with standard IT hardware – provided you

can keep latency figures below the acceptable threshold. Some

have found other ways to jump this hurdle and often results in the

development of proprietary technologies and hardware to sidestep

the latency constraints of a standard 802.3x network infrastructure.

Currently there are many mainstream manufacturers that are

Ethersound partners including: Yamaha, Allen & Heath, Digico,

Innovason, Martin Audio, Nexo and many more big players in the

industry. We’ll let you decide what that means.

CobraNet by Cirrus Logic

CobraNet is also a long time player in the AoE game, fittingly created

in 1996 by Peak Audio in Colorado to provide background music at

the Animal Kingdom theme park. It was eventually bought by Cirrus

Logic in May 2001.

CobraNet differs from proprietary AoE systems in that it utilises

standard Ethernet packets and network infrastructure hardware such

as controllers, hubs, switches and routers. Due to this latency figures

come in a bit higher than that of Ethersound at 256 samples which

calculate to 5.33 milliseconds. An additional delay of a dozen or so

samples per process will also be picked up when analogue to digital

conversion, digital to analogue conversion and sample rate

conversion is performed. These figures are deterministic and therefore

consistent at every point in the system.

However, despite the fact that the difference in latency figures

between CobraNet and Ethersound seems meagre, they are actually

quite large. When you’re talking about microseconds and samples,

26

iNstALLAtiONs ethernet audio

milliseconds are huge. This could be why CobraNet has seen a bit of a

decline in the past few years as many other protocols have arrived on

the scene that offer better performance and is why it might be best

suited to what it was originally designed for: background music. The

upside, however, is that there is no need for proprietary hardware so if

you can live with five or so milliseconds of latency, then CobraNet

might just be a more cost effective choice.

One possible solution to the latency problem with CobraNet,

however, is to send smaller packets more often, which can be defined

by the system programmer. This can reduce latency to as low as 1.33

milliseconds, which is a lot lower but still almost ten times higher than

the reported 125 microseconds for Ethersound. How any given

CobraNet device handles this lower latency is revealed on a

case-by-case basis and does not always equate to higher data

transmission at lower latencies. There are almost always trade-offs, be

it lowered channel counts or glitches in the audio stream and

performance relies heavily on the devices’ bundle capacity.

The other issue of interest is no doubt channel count. Just like the

Ethersound ES-100 protocol, CobraNet can handle 64 bi-directional

channels at 48kHz over a single CAT5 cable but these figures increase

with increased bandwidth as is found in a gigabit network and when

16-bit audio is used instead of 24-bit. How many extra channels can

be picked up is unclear from my research, but suffice to say that it is

indeed possible.

Because CobraNet is one of more mature of the AoE protocols

currently on offer, there are many manufacturers who have

implemented the technology, including Biamp, Bosch, Bose, BSS,

Clear-Com, Crest Audio, Crown, DBX, Digitech, DOD, Dynacord, EAW,

EV, JBL, Klark Teknik, Lab Gruppen, Mackie, QSC, Rane, Shure,

Soundcraft, Tascam, Yamaha, plus many others. Indeed, the

extensiveness of their licensee list reveals CobraNet’s longevity and

might attest to its performance.

Dante by Audinate

Dante by Audinate has been a protocol that has been popping up

more and more lately as it offers a one cable solution to low-latency

network audio and multi-track recording via their Virtual Soundcard

software.

One of the younger technologies of the bunch, it was originally

developed to construct and expand upon existing AoE technologies

such as Ethersound and CobraNet and offers several advantages

over the aforementioned, such as the ability to pass through network

routers, native gigabit support, higher channel count, lower latency

and auto configuration.

At a glance, once might be inclined to think that Dante is the

obvious choice. Well, it may be, but as always, it’s probably a good

idea to know why and delve into the inner workings. I suppose the first

point of interest is that Dante is auto-configurable and ‘plug and play’.

Automatic device discovery and system configuration are both now a

reality because Dante-enabled devices will seek each other out on

any given network and configure themselves. This is a huge selling

point.

Another advantage is that Dante runs on standard, inexpensive,

off-the-shelf IT hardware and does not require a proprietary network

infrastructure. Dante digital media streams are transmitted alongside

ordinary data traffic so you can integrate your Dante system into a

pre-existing network and with the Dante Virtual Soundcard software,

your PC or Mac is recognised as and acts like any other Dante-

enabled device on the network. This enables you to record low-

latency, high-channel count multi-track audio directly to your

computer without the need for extra hardware!

But what kind of figures are we working with here? Well, Dante

works over most modern Ethernet flavours, including 100Mbit/sec, 1

Gbit/sec and 10Gbit/sec supported. Both digital audio and control

data are distributed with some of the lowest latency figures in the

business, and I mean LOW. The point to point transmission time of an

optimised Dante system has been measured to be 83.3 microseconds.

One interesting point is that latency can be configured to be different

between devices in the same network, which means that more

critical connections can be configured to have lower latency and less

critical; higher latency, such as with a broadcast or recording feed.

Now, channel count. Dante supports a mammoth 512 bi-directional

channels over standard gigabit Ethernet at 24-bit, 48kHz resolution. As

we often see, for sample rates over 48kHz, channels halve to a paltry

256 bi-directional channels. For 100Mbit/sec networks, 48 bi-

directional channels are supported at 24-bit, 48kHz resolution and

(once again) at higher sample rates channel count is halved. This may

be where Ethersound picks up the slack because at the same

bandwidth it offers a further 24 channels for a total of 64 bi-directional

channels at similar resolutions.

Of course because Dante is relatively new, its licensee list is

considerably shorter but it is growing. For now, Dante is supported by

Allen & Heath, Bosch, Digico, Dolby, Dynacord, EV, Focusrite, JoeCo,

Lab Gruppen, Lake Processing, Peavey Commercial Audio, Symetrix,

Turbosound, Whirlwind and Yamaha.

AES50 / SuperMAC / HyperMAC by Klark Teknik

In July 2005 the Audio Engineering Society (AES) released a paper

entitled AES50-2005 which outlined a new and exciting way of using a

standard 100Mbit/sec CAT5 cable to transmit multi-channel digital

audio over a network.

This technology was developed by a team of geniuses at the Sony

Pro-Audio Lab at Oxford, England and is now licenced under the

names SuperMAC (for 100Mbit/sec networks) and HyperMAC (for

1Gbit/sec networks). We’ll see why shortly, but it was quickly picked up

by audio console giant Midas to implement into the audio and control

network of its flagship XL8 digital audio console.

Soon after it was decided to put the Sony Pro-Audio Lab

networking division up for sale which was picked up by Klark Teknik

27

Tadco

with equal swiftness. Klark Teknik, in a move of corporate

benevolence, has now made the technology available on a

royalty-free basis, bless them. It’s interesting to note that Midas, Klark

Teknik, along with Behringer and Bugera, are all owned by the Music

Group holding company and they are the primary owners and

licensers of the technology.

Indeed, the technology, at this point, has been thoroughly road

tested on mega tours with such acts as Metallica, AC/DC, Oasis, REM,

The Verve, Depeche Mode, OMD, Arctic Monkeys and Led Zeppelin

at London’s O2 Arena, not to mention many high profile festival shows

such as Glastonbury. Is that a great start, or what?

So, why all the fuss over this AoE technology? Well, it simply has

some of the best performance figures money can currently buy, even

when compared to some Dante specifications. Although, to be fair, in

some cases Dante has the edge. As we have seen before, there are

two variants, both based upon either a 100Mbit/sec or a Gigabit

network and called SuperMAC and HyperMAC, respectively. As

we’ve seen with the Dante protocol, we get 48 bi-directional

channels at 48kHz for SuperMAC over a 100Mbit/sec network. For

HyperMAC, we get 192 bi-directional channels at 96kHz or 384

bi-directional channels at 48kHz. In this case Dante is the clear winner

with an additional 184 channel capacity over a Gigabit network.

However, when it comes to latency in a Super/HyperMAC system,

there is one victor.

SuperMAC boasts a ridiculously low latency of 62.5 microseconds

over a 100Mbit/sec network. As if that wasn’t impressive enough,

HyperMAC takes it several steps further with a figure of 41.6

microseconds. These values are as close to real time as one can

possibly get at this date and time, and certainly sets the bar high for

future developers of AoE protocols who wish to up the game, so to

speak.

So what else is there to know about Super/HyperMAC? Well, it’s

completely proprietary so it’s not compatible with off-the-shelf IT

hardware. However, that is how it accomplishes such low latencies

– because of its frame-based, point to point approach and because

it uses proprietary hardware. Also, is fibre optic cable supported?

Absolutely, but only when using HyperMAC. SuperMAC does not

support it.

Finally, which manufacturers have licensed the technology? So far,

only four: Midas, Klark Teknik, Lynx and Auvitran. Let’s hope that once

this technology gets more interest we will see more products hit the

shelves that support it but for now, it seems that Dante is the up-and-

comer with a wider market behind it.

The wrap

Selecting a suitable AoE protocol can be a daunting task as the

technology, despite being a relatively recent phenomenon, is more

and more prevalent with many contenders that continue to pop

up as time goes on.

Indeed, the four listed here are one of many, including A-Net by

Aviom, AudioRail M11, MaGIC by Gibson, AVB, Roland REAC, Hydra

by Calrec, DSPRO, Livewire by Axia Audio, Audio Contribution over

IP by the EBU, Q-LAN by QSC, RAVENNA by ALC NetworX. The list

goes on. However, it seems that these protocols all work on the

same principles so once you get your head around the

fundamentals, the inner workings become clearer and better

judgement starts to set in.

One thing’s for sure, though; the need for low-latency, high-

bandwidth operation will never go away and knowing what you’re

up against when selecting a system / protocol combination is

definitely key. Happy hunting!

28

The Theme Park offers entertainment for the whole family, rides and

live entertainment. But if the real roller coasters are not your cup of

tea, the 4D Ride can provide a rollercoaster for the senses.

Gold Reef’s ‘4D Ride’ is an interactive experience. Not only do

images jump out off the screen in the best 3D quality, but there is also

the motion of the seats, wind, vibration and a range of scents which

add extra dimension to the whole experience.

Installed initially in 2006, the ride was updated this year with the

help and guidance of Digital Fabric, who were the original consultant

company for the project.

Explains Gavin Olivier of Digital Fabric: “The system is based on

Christie 3D projection, BSM video servers, Nexo audio, Crestron control

and Kraftwerk motion bases and effects systems.”

Theme Park visitors gain free access to the 4D Ride with their

entrance pass. The ride seats 96 people and can be turned around in

less than 10 minutes during peak times, essential when you have close

to a million visitors a year. The films are not long, typically between

nine and 12 minutes, which is usual for attraction films.

Although the attraction has seen minimum downtime over the

years: “The writing was on the wall regarding select key items, such as

the Christie projectors needed replacing and the now discontinued

Mediasonic video servers, were presenting a risk of breaking, resulting

in down time,” says Olivier.

Originally the system had Christie DS+8K projectors. “This was before

affordable full HD projectors,” points out Olivier. “In order to fit the

native HD content in, we overshot the 16:9 screen with the unused

portion of the SX+ projection chips. It was a compromise, but it looked

great – and for six years did the job.

“With the advent of the Christie HD-M series projectors which use

cheaper lamps sets, it was a no-brainer to switch. In the process the

ride achieved full HD and the difference between the cost of the

previous Xenon lamps and the new UHP lamps will pay for the

projectors within a few years. Christie veteran Andi Rogers of Fifty

South supplied and fitted the new projectors and made the required

modifications to the mounts and cabling.”

As far as the rest of the system was concerned the video servers

were the weakest link. The park wanted to have a fool proof solution

and, since the Mediasonic 9200 video players have been

discontinued, Digital Fabric chose a single Brainsalt Media stereo

server with redundant drives and power supplies as a replacement

and coupled this with a BSS Soundweb BLU100 for audio routing and

processing to augment the existing Nexo audio system. “The existing

PS10 amplifier and speaker combo were still in perfect shape and

needed very little attention,” adds Olivier.

The whole system is still driven by a Crestron controller. The original

unit has been re-programmed with a simplified layout to suit the new

equipment and functionality using the existing operator touchscreen

and large format X-Panel interface in the control room.

The entire upgrade was implemented in just five weekdays, up and

running again in time for the busy weekend schedule.

Gold Reef City 4D ride gets more exciting

Johannesburg’s Gold Reef City Theme Park boasts Africa’s first 4D ride.

iNstALLAtiONs Venue solutionPh

oto

by b

ruce

sch

wa

rtz

Creating AV magic

Questek – the leading suppliers of corporate audio-visual solutions:

• Boardrooms

• Auditoriums

• Training Rooms

• In-house Digital Signage

• Parliamentary and Municipal Chambers

• On-site Technical Support and Service Level Agreements

Supplying systems that integrate audio & video by embracing

new technologies such as remote management, cloud video

conferencing and the total automation of the system.

Present, share and communicate

information effectively.

MultiChoice Auditorium

KPMG Digital Signage

Johannesburg Council Chambers

KPMG Auditorium

Telephone: +27 11 706 0405 Email: [email protected] Website: www.questekadvanced.co.za

Creating AV magic

Questek – the leading suppliers of corporate audio-visual solutions:

• Boardrooms

• Auditoriums

• Training Rooms

• In-house Digital Signage

• Parliamentary and Municipal Chambers

• On-site Technical Support and Service Level Agreements

Supplying systems that integrate audio & video by embracing

new technologies such as remote management, cloud video

conferencing and the total automation of the system.

Present, share and communicate

information effectively.

MultiChoice Auditorium

KPMG Digital Signage

Johannesburg Council Chambers

KPMG Auditorium

Telephone: +27 11 706 0405 Email: [email protected] Website: www.questekadvanced.co.za

Questek

30

These Pixel Tablets were all individually driven and so collectively

acted as one giant video surface.

The person at the centre of development was Tait Technologies’

Frederic Opsomer, based at their European HQ in Belgium. Opsomer

has a history of designing and engineering weird, wonderful and

left-field LED and video projects.

The idea was first discussed in 2009. At that stage the International

Olympic Committee (IOC) and everyone involved was talking in

broad and general terms about integration and LED, resulting in

Opsomer being one of the people asked to go to London…and think

‘out of the box’.

A few months later, several proposals from different companies

were on the table, from which the Tait Technologies solution was

selected.

Having a temporary (ie. removable) pixel display on each seat

instead of the field of play offered many aesthetic and practical

advantages.

The 135mm square units each contained 9 pixels (Nichia LEDs) at a

50mm pitch. Based on the Barco FLX platform, they utilised Barco’s

already proven processing and control hubs. Having helped develop

the FLX product while working at Barco, Opsomer knew it was

extremely stable and would be robust enough for the job.

A Pixel Tablet and its accompanying holder – also part of the

design brief – was attached to the profile of each of the 70 500 seats

in the Olympic Stadium.

Processing wise, the stadium was divided into 50mm sections via a

virtual grid, and the tablets were positioned in the seating sections,

filling up this part of the grid.

Video content for the four ceremonies was primarily designed and

created out of the London office of Crystal CG from China, and

stored and played back via a customised AI Infinity server from

Avolites Media. The 3D model of the stadium was imported into the

server and various content was mapped to the pixels.

The first major challenge in manufacturing the Pixel Tablets was the

short lead time between January when the contract was confirmed

with Tait and the final Pixel Tablet design produced, and the product

to be delivered on site in Stratford by the end of May.

They had to be completely confident that all decisions taken in

Pixel tablets provide the cure

Of many impressive technical elements on the four Olympic Games Opening

and Closing Ceremonies this summer, arguably the one most capturing the

public imagination was the 70 500 Pixel Tablets installed at each seat.

iNstALLAtiONs olYMPiCs 2012

31

rapid succession were the right ones, and working with the Barco

backbone certainly helped this process.

The components were manufactured in China and the final

assembly was completed in Belgium.

EMC was a massive issue, with the chances of picking it up on an

installation of this scale very high, so every single component was

rigorously laboratory tested to ensure all were compliant. This was

undertaken in a lab close to Brussels over a two-month period,

which is extremely fast in terms of any product development!

The third big test was the logistics of the installation. With the

perimeter of the top row of seats in the stadium measuring 950

metres, plenty of time is consumed just moving around the space,

so efficient and practical planning and implementation of the

works was crucial.

Tait supplied a dedicated crew of 12 Pixel technicians to work on

the ceremonies, with five permanently stationed at the stadium for

the duration of the Games.

As the world saw … the installation was another massive success

for Tait Technologies – most definitely ‘a company to watch’.

Pixel tablets provide the cureBy Louise Stickland

Dave green, technical director, immersive/Avolites media and martin Harvey, media server operator, immersive in the screen media suite at London 2012.

Phot

o by

Da

vid

mor

rell

32

Staying at last years’ venue, the eighth season of Idols South Africa

was held at the Mosaiek Teatro in Fairland, Johannesburg; a 3 000

seat venue that is equipped with state of the art audio, video and

multimedia capabilities and boasts a large 278 square metre stage. Its

sheer size and advanced AV integration makes it perfect for the

needs of all involved, from the performers, to the stage and

production crew.

While being produced by local screen entertainment production

company [sic] entertainment for M-Net and directed by acclaimed

director Gavin Wratten, the technical handling of the show was

contracted to Johannesburg-based production company Dream

Sets, headed by technical manager Eben Peltz.

Peltz’s responsibility included the negotiation of all things technical

including the set itself, sound, lighting, video and broadcast. This

entailed bringing on board a number of other companies and

independent contractors to assist in bringing the production to

fruition; all falling under the Dream Sets umbrella. Audio Logic and

Alphacam were contracted by [sic] entertainment themselves and

they all worked in collaboration to ensure the success of the event .All

negotiations regarding sound and broadcast were done by Audio

Logic and Alphacam themselves.

The set

Season 8 set is just as impressive in real life as it is on television.

Designed in a collaborative effort by Eben, lighting designer Joshua

Cutts, director Gavin Wrattle and set designer Dewet Meyer, it was

designed to be dynamic, interactive and encompassing.

Incorporating such elements as HD screen arrays, low-res LED panels,

metres and metres of LED strip lighting and Chameleon Star Cloth, the

goal was to draw the audience in and wrap them up in the

performances.

The first features that you immediately notice are five wave-like

frames in a staggered configuration above the audience that

incorporate LED-strip lighting. These could change colour at will to

match the theme of the rest of the set and were a particular

challenge to rig, as expressed by Eben. Flanking the stage on each

side are four internally lit fabric pillars which, combined with the wave

structures above the audience, draw the viewer into the stage.

Speaking of the stage, the first noticeable structure is an arch

spanning the entire width of the performance area, with 22 LED strip

lights attached at regular intervals. On either side of the LED arch

there is an array of twelve HD flat panels, arranged in an irregular

fashion to break up the otherwise symmetrical configuration of the

stage set.

To the rear of the stage we see a wall of low-res LED panels – which

opens and closes for entering and exiting performers – surrounded by

several more hung above and to the side of the wall. All of these video

panels are incorporated into the set and are a large part of how the

set stays dynamic and evolving. Finally a star cloth was hung above

and to the rear of the performance area, adding to the overall

ethereal atmosphere of the set.

Lighting and video

Award-winning independent lighting designer Joshua Cutts of Visual

Frontier was commissioned for the third season in a row to handle

lighting the set and, to some degree, the audience.

In addition Cutts had a big hand in the overall look and feel of the

set, as many elements besides standard lighting were incorporated,

namely video, which was fundamental to the overall set design.

Cutts’ rig incorporates a total of 104 moving lights, excluding LED

fixtures, which is a big part of keeping the show interesting and

energetic. There are also another ‘60 or so’ LED par cans and strip

lights situated in various areas of the venue, such as the arch at the

front of the stage and above the audience.

Cutts’ lighting desk of choice for the production was a GrandMA II

full size with a (NPU) Network Processing Unit that can be controlled

via his laptop in the event of a system failure. All video is controlled by

Cutts and is stored backstage on three Coolux Pandoras Box media

servers and configured with Coolux Manager software.

He explains: “This year at Idols we focussed more on the video

element and created specific backgrounds for presenter links, the

dimmer lights, the amber looks, and I control it all from my lighting

desk. It runs through my network and we patch it as a normal DMX

fixture so, to me, it’s as if I’m controlling a moving light. The awesome

thing about having control of the video from the lighting desk is that I

can change the colour of the clips, I can add flash effects, I can

change the speed of the clips, depend on the song. The PC

configures it and my desk controls the PC as if it was a light.”

LiVe eVeNts ConCert rePort

Technology enhances talent

The Idols South Africa franchise is a

massive phenomenon that has grown

in production value from strength to

strength over the years, giving

budding artists from around the

country a dazzling platform to

showcase their talents and compete

for the title of the number one spot.

Phot

o by

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By Greg Bester

Lasers were also a big part of the show, incorporating five in total comprising a 20W and

four 5W varieties. These brought a 3D element to the show, seemingly to emanating from

the stage and enhanced by the smooth performance of a high spec MDG hazer.

Audio

Audio was handled by Marius Marais and his company, Audiologic, which provided the

FOH, monitoring and audio network for the production. Cristo Hattingh of Sound GP was

also contracted by Audiologic to handle the broadcast audio side of things from his OB

trailor where the show is mixed and recorded to multi-track for broadcast.

Marais used a Soundcraft Vi6 digital mixer to mix the show which was networked via fibre

optic to the remote stage boxes where three splits were made for FOH, on-stage

monitoring and outside broadcast.

Monitoring duties were handled by Willem Bronkhorst on cascaded Soundcraft Si1 and a

Si3 consoles. Since the set did not allow for on stage wedges, everyone utilised Aviom in-ear

monitoring systems with the exception of the backing vocalists, who were hidden behind

the keyboard players and were therefore able to use wedges. For the final two weeks, the

backing vocalists switched to the Aviom systems as well.

The FOH loudspeaker system utilised was a JBL Vertec 4889 line array, which was brought

in by Marius. Since Shure was the primary microphone sponsor of the show, on-stage

microphones included an assortment from the ubiquitous manufacturer, including all the

wireless hand-helds. Models used included Beta 91 and Beta 52A for kick, Beta 56A and

Beta 57A for snare, Beta 98Ds on all the toms, congas and bongos, and either SM81s either

SM94s on overheads. SM81s were also used on timbales and percussion overheads.

Electric guitars were miked with Beta 57As and acoustic guitars were taken direct albeit

with Shure UR series beltpacks with jack inputs. As far as vocals go all contestants and the

MC were miked with Shure Beta 58A wireless mikes (20 in total) and the backing vocalists

were miked with wired Beta 58As. Lastely, the judges were all miked with Shure Lecturn

microphones.

For the outside broadcast side, Cristo handled the mix of the show on an Avid Profile 96

channel system, fitted with two MADI cards to interface with an SSL MADIxtreme128 in a

Mac Pro tower. A MADI stream was linked to the OB trailor with and AES/EBU backup and

everything was clocked together with an Apogee Big Ben master clock, locked to

Backburst from the camera OB.

Monitoring was handled by JBL LSP2328s with a sub. Reference video was recorded on

an iMac using a Blackmagic USB capture card. A TVone quad scaler was used to receive

two video feeds along with the console and Mac screen onto a single 51” Samsung plasma

screen. Audio-Technica microphones were used to capture the audience.

Tech box Audio

• Soundcraft Vi6 FOH console• JBL Vertec 4889 Line Array & JBL wedges• Soundcraft Si6 & Si3 monitor consoles•Kick: Shure Beta 91 & Beta 52A• Snare Top: Shure Beta 56A• Snare Bottom: Shure Beta 57A• Toms: Shure Beta 98A•Overheads: Shure SM81s or SM94s•Congas and Bongos: Shure Beta 98A• Timbales: Shure SM81•Percussion Overheads: Shure SM81• Electric Guitars: Shure Beta 57A•Vocalists: Shure Beta 58A• Judges: Shure lecturns•Aviom MyMix systems

Lighting

•GrandMA II Full size & NPU•Robe Colorspot 700•Robe Colorwash 2500 & 700•Robe ColorBeam 700•Robe Robin 600 Ledwash•Robe Robin Ledbeam 100• Longman LED Batton & LED Par64s• 1000w Par64 Parcans• 10deg Source Four profiles•MDG Atmosphere•MDG Heavy Fog machine

Video

•Coolux Pandoras Box media players•Martin LC panels•Robe StageQube LED panels• Samsung Seamless LCD wall• Samsung 42” LED screens

Technology enhances talent

ConCert rePort LiVe eVeNts

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34

The three-night Bidvest awards event features a specially created

extravaganza stage show and accommodates 1 100 guests per

session, including Bidvest’s top executives and managers who travel

from all corners of the brand’s impressive global trading empire.

Pressure on the production team led by executive producers

Debbie Rakusin and co-producer David Bloch is intense, and the

expectations always high to produce something innovative, unique

and completely different to the previous year.

They come up with a series of initial concepts which are presented

to Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe, and developed from there into a

storyboard for the show. Joffe always has some ideas of his own,

explains Rakusin, and he also gives her and Bloch the space to evolve

the elements they think will work best to have most impact and

entertainment value.

Variety

This year’s theme was ‘That’s Entertainment’.

Rakusin and Bloch sourced a cast of around 50, including dancers,

five principal singers and a series of other performers – from Italian

impressionists to members of the Chinese Imperial Circus.

They commissioned musical director Bryan Schimmel who also

amassed the live band.

The budget was reasonable but not bottomless and the logistics of

creating a world-class show with a true international flavour in the

current economic climate and bringing it in bang on target are still: “A

major challenge,” affirms Rakusin, adding: “It’s a massive

collaboration which results in some incredible teamwork.

”With the results as rewarding as the whole thing is nerve-wracking

at times!

Design

For the past few years Tim Dunn from Gearhouse South Africa has

designed the event’s lighting, visuals and set the technical

parameters, working closely with Pieter Joubert from sister company

and set / scenic specialists, SDS.

Bidvest is also the largest corporate show for which Gearhouse

currently supplies full technical production.

The company’s ability to deliver all the required technical

disciplines enables a highly cost-effective solution and helps make

planning and communications a smooth, efficient process as it all slots

together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

The first meetings for the upcoming Bidvest show start about nine

months in advance.

Once on site in the week immediately ahead of the show, the

schedule is absolutely gruelling for all departments.

Resembling a West End blockbuster meets stadium rock show in

attitude, scale and achievement; it’s no mean feat to transform a

large stark room into a cosy, highly visual live entertainment

experience that wows the crowds in a molten mix of drama, colour

and excitement.

Dunn is renowned for always ‘pushing the envelope’ on his shows in

terms of aesthetics, imagination and technical ambition.

He utilises the available equipment to produce the very best end

results in a blend of experience, original ideas and he has the balls to

take some risks! When Brian Joffe is involved, absolutely anything less

than the best is not on the agenda.

Says Dunn: “The show stretches everyone to the limits to produce in

a very short time-frame. I enjoy working at this pace, it keeps your

mind totally alive, energises people and the end results are a great

tribute to the dedication and commitment of all involved.”

International conglomerate Bidvest’s Annual Awards Gala Dinner in

Johannesburg is one of SA’s biggest and highest profile corporate events of the

year. We have the behind-the-scenes lowdown for this year’s event.

That’s entertainment – Bidvest style

LiVe eVeNts shoW rePortPh

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By Louise Stickland

35

Gearhouse’s project manager this year was Lee Reynolds, who

co-ordinated the massive technical operation which included the

supply of rigging, lighting, sound video and AV plus set and staging.

Dunn’s visual concepts year-to-year are radically different. Last

year’s classic theatricality was replaced with a minimalist, high tech,

video-based set with a dynamically cool urban look and feel.

The stage was clean and stylish.

Dunn also made the bold move of flipping it around 90 degrees

from the 2011 event to run horizontally along the room, widening and

shortening the entire space. This entailed meticulous pre-planning to

get everything to fit and ensure that all parties and departments were

happy.

A 29-metre wide video proscenium arch defined the performance

space, and the addition of four large sets of movable steps mirrored

one side and clad with LED panels the other, was a bold, practical

visual effect adding depth and versatility.

This stripped back environment could be radically transformed with

vibrant, highly detailed video content.

Twenty-four upstage and side stage scenic columns (all angled at

15 degrees) emulated multiple textures from corrugated metal to

velvety stage drapes depending on how they were lit. These were

rigged from trussing above and clad with over a kilometre of canvas.

The size of the pillars meant that 12 pantechs were needed to

transport set to site, which was built by an SDS crew of five, project

managed by Willie Louw.

Video

The main video elements were the spectacular pros arch framing the

stage, made up from Lighthouse R16 panels; a large block of R16

upstage centre, six panels wide by 10 high; four jagged pieces of

Christie DuoLED, 18mm pitch for the inner two and 12 for the outer

flown from the roof; and the four sets of steps faced one side with

DuoLED 18.

Left and right IMAG projection screens were offset to contrast with

the sides of the pros arch which were also slightly jauntily angled – and

were each fed by a pair of overlaid Christie 16K projectors.

The video control was specified by Chris Grandin, with the bespoke

show content created by Marcel Wijnberger and Troy Wells from

Gearhouse Media. They had plenty of input from Dunn who had

precise ideas about the digital scenery he needed for different

elements of the action-packed show.

The video content – together with 10 pre-recorded channels of

multi-track audio plus a click track – were stored on an AV Stumpfl

Wings media server.

Grandin looked at the easiest way of making all the video surfaces

work flexibly both together and individually, using a Christie Vista

Spyder processing system for screen management. He created a

mask mapping the exact pixel spaces with which they were working

onstage, and these could also be used to separate the R16 and

DuoLED elements as required and to apply different looks and

treatments as required.

Much of the content finally evolved as the show came close to

completion during the concentrated five-day (and night)

programming, technical and rehearsal period, for which Gearhouse

Media provided full on-site editing facilities.

Using video in this way enabled instant flips of the scenery and

visual background information to suit numerous scenarios – steamy,

township musical mixology to industrial raw, utopian hippy dream

worlds to retro jazz and synchronised cabaret spectacular.

It also filled the stage with basic colour and atmosphere for the

additional line up of circus acts and mime artists. Even with a lone

performer on the stage, the video setting could close down for

intimacy and concentration – a powerful tool of visual psychology.

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36

LiVe eVeNts shoW rePort

Lighting

Tim Dunn has been designing lighting and visuals for years – way

before ‘convergence’ ever became a buzz word. When looking at a

show environment the two mediums have a completely natural

synergy.

The lighting rig featured many LED sources, to which he applied a

few elements of magic so they would all work together in producing a

uniform colour output.

Nine over-stage trusses – some angled to make it more interesting

– provided lighting positions, and another 10 trusses formed the

backbone structural supports for a scenic forestage canopy plus

additional lighting positions.

The canopy trusses had to be angled and deaded precisely as

they also stretched taut the canopy material attached to them, and it

was also a bit of a brain teaser to calculate the cut patterns for the

fabric.

ThemovinglightsincludedRobeREDWash3•192sandLEDWash

600s, Vari*Lite 3500 Spots and Martin MAC 101s. i-Pix BB4 LED wash /

blinders were used to up-light the scenic columns back and side

stage. Additional V*L3500 Spots and two Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1500s

on the floor up-lit the canopy.

Out in the auditorium eight striking scenic chandeliers – integral to

the overall design – were hung in the roof and internally lit with 64 i-Pix

Satellites.

Dunn programmed and controlled all the lighting – 13 DMX

universes in total – on a grandMA full size console with another running

in full tracking back up.

Gearhouse’s lighting crew chief Herman Wessels drew on his

experience of Bidvest 2011 and picked 10 of their top lighting crew for

the project, who worked with 20 stage hands from All Access.

Rigging – around 220 points in total hanging lighting, set, video and

PA most requiring a myriad of bridling to get in precisely the right

places – was installed by maestro Kendall Dixon working with a team

of six – three climbers and three ground-based.

The pros arch was one of the most challenging elements; it

weighed 3.5 tonnes and was lifted into place by 24 x 1-tonne

Lodestars. It was split into two halves with a gap in the middle for the

PA centre clusters and both the top and the sides were angled.

Apart from the short timescale of getting everything into place, the

other issue for rigging was gaining every available centimetre of

headroom … and Dixon ensured that not a millimetre was wasted.

Audio

This year Gearhouse asked Richard Smith to join their team as sound

designer. He’s worked on Bidvest shows before but not for some time

and collaborated closely with Andreas Furtner to specify the system.

A major task was ensuring all in the room enjoyed the same quality

of sonic experience and also to satisfy Brian Joffe’s stipulation for

cinematic quality, and that the large expanse of a room exuded the

cosiness of a supper club lounge.

His starting point was Dunn’s set design which defined the space

and where speaker arrays could be placed.

Due to the LED pros arch and sight lines, what would normally be a

centre cluster was split into two smaller arrays and he added more

front fills.

Although it was a relatively short run of around 40 metres to the

back of the room, he decided to add delays half way down to help

close the space down and boost the intimacy.

He specified L-Acoustics Kara for the main system – nine elements

per side with two SB18 subs per array. He’s a big fan of the brand not

just because his company (Sound Harmonics is SA distributor for the

premium brand) but because in this case Kara’s smooth horizontal

coverage was ideal for the shape of the auditorium and the main

arrays 40 metres apart.

The two centre cluster hangs were three Karas each and four SB18

subs under the stage completed the bottom end set up.

The delays comprised two L-Acoustics dV-DOSC speakers a side

and there was also another dV-DOSC each side of the orchestra pit

for front fill. The whole system was driven by the proprietary LA8 amps,

and L-Acoustics’ Network Manager software helped enormously in

optimising the system and to get to sound bigger and fuller than its

physical size.

Yamaha PM5D consoles were used at FOH and for monitors mixed

by Kholofelo Cyril Sewela (popularly known as ‘Rasta’). Smith has used

a PM5D for lots of theatre and festival work where it has proved a

reliable and flexible choice.

The monitor system was made up of eight L-Acoustics ARCS II boxes

in four arrays of two, the front ones on an 18-inch sub just behind the

pros arch and the back two flown.

The show’s five singers were all on a Sennheiser IEM system.

The radio mics were Shure’s UR series, a mix of DPA headsets and

Shure Beta 58 hand-helds and the band were micd with standard

Shure Betas.

The audio playback tracks from the Wings system were broken

down into 10 channels of different instrumentation – strings, percussion

for Smith to add big band components to the mix on top of the

13-piece live band, who used an Aviom personal monitoring system.

Additional playback for some of the acts, awards stings, and so on,

was fed via a QLab system.

With Bidvest 2012 another great success for Rakusin and Bloch and

simultaneously embracing so many new ground-breaking technical

goals, next year’s event is already hotly anticipated as an opportunity

for more cutting-edge ideas.

Imported by

www.audiosure.co.za

Audiosure / Allen & Heath

38

LiVe eVeNts ProduCt reVieW

Granted German-based Behringer has an almost omnipresence in

the current audio market but taking a look at their staggering sales

figures one would not be blamed for thinking that quality has always

come second to price point. Their products are simply everywhere

and to muster around as many boxes as they have requires some

clever shenanigans.

But now, the stops have been pulled and the cards drawn from a

clandestine sleeve somewhere or other, set to breathe new life into

the company.

Back in the last quarter of 2009 Behringer bought legendary audio

console manufacturer, Midas, along with Klark Teknik from the Bosch

Group for an ‘undisclosed amount’. Shocked yet? Well, there’s more.

Prior to that, founder Uli Behringer set up a holding company called

the Music Group, which now includes Behringer, Midas, Klark Teknik,

Bugera (valve amplifiers) and Eurotec, which is their electronic

manufacturing services company. Back in 2002 he also built a

massive 1.2 million square foot factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong

province, China, which is known as ‘Behringer City’. This is where all

Behringer and Behringer-related products are now manufactured.

Astoundingly, the facility produces a whopping 50 000 mixers a week

with a failure rate less than 0.1%!

So what’s the new trick? Well, it’s the Behringer X32, Behringers first

digital mixer since the DDX3216 and it brandishes the words ‘Powered

by Midas’ on the top façade. Yes this is a collaboration effort between

Behringer and Midas and many will be dubious with their opinions.

Well, I am of the opinion that after you try this console out for yourself,

you might just change your mind. Shall we?

Features

The motivation behind the creation of the X32 was to offer a mixer with

pro-level features in the sub-R40 000 category. In reality the only

digital mixers available in this prices range are the Yamaha 01V96i and

the Presonus Studio Live, which do not offer what Behringer was

hoping to achieve in the X32. These ’pro-level’ features include

separate input and output sections, DCAs and small LCD scribble

strips for labelling and colouring, among others.

All in all it has 40 processing channels, 32 local microphone inputs,

25 mix busses, six mute groups and eight DCAs. The microphone

preamps – all 32 of them – are Midas-designed and are fully

recallable. Any of the microphone inputs are fully soft patch-able, as

are the any of the inputs on the optional remote stage box, to any of

Audio giant has the ’midas’ touch…

Audio mega-giant Behringer has a few new tricks up its sleeve, writes greg bester.

39

[email protected] www.ephproductions.co.za 012-345 5303 082 924 9046

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ePH

the input channels on the X32. For each input, the channel strip

section offers 13 rotary controls and 17 backlit buttons with slick

looking LED collars. These control the input, dynamics, EQ and aux

sections, which are all distinctly marked and brightly lit.

Each section also includes a ‘view’ button, which instantly reflects

the selected parameter on the 7” colour TFT screen and is helpfully

day-viewable. The console utilises 40-bit internal processing which

boasts “no internal overload and near-zero overall latency”.

However, input and output AD/DA converters are still 24-bit.

Speaking of digital options, there are no options because the

digital Firewire/USB output card comes standard along with all other

digital i/o. This enables the user to connect his/her PC or laptop to the

console for full control via their XControl software or to make a full

multitrack recording. This turns the console into a powerful audio

interface.

In addition, when using the Firewire port connected to a DAW, the

console doubles as a control surface on either the HUI or Mackie

protocol. Besides the motorised faders we see four rotary encoders

and eight buttons that are user definable. These can either be

assigned to console parameters, or, when used in DAW control mode,

as DAW parameters. Also there are actually three banks that can be

selected for these buttons and encoders which total 32 different

parameters that can be assigned.

Looking at the back of the console we see 32 microphone inputs

along with 16 outputs on the XLR format. These are essentially ‘omni’

outputs that can be fed from any source definable from the console

GUI. There are also two control room / monitor outputs that can be

attached to your studio monitors; a convenient plus which makes this

console at home in both the live and studio domains. Remote control

ports are available on either Ethernet or USB. A wireless router can

then be attached and the console can be remotely controlled from

an iPad connected to the network via the downloadable XiControl

app.

Next we see MIDI in and out ports, which can send MIDI control

data through the AES50 network to the stage boxes and therefore to

any MIDI device that is attached. Also there is an AES/EBU output that

can be fed from any source assigned from the console.

Probably the most interesting features of the console are the

integration of the SuperMAC AES50 protocol and Ultranet. The AES50

ports (there are two) each carry 48 bi-directional channels of

uncompressed, low-latency audio. These can be used to send and

receive audio to and from up to six S16 stage boxes or to cascade

consoles together for FOH and monitor operation. The S16 stage

boxes themselves provide a USB port (for firmware update only), two

AES50 ports, an Ultranet port, 16 ADAT outputs and MIDI in and out.

Impressive!

Lastly, the Ultranet port can feed up to 16 streams to Behringers new

P16 personal monitoring system, which is a great advantage for stage

monitoring.

The conclusion

The X32 is a digital console that offers pro-level features at a budget

price. There aren’t many contenders in the sub-R40 000 price range

but given that this mixer offers features that are only found in

consoles that cost R100 000 and more, there seems to be only one

clear winner.

The sheer input capacity, processing, connectivity, user-

friendliness and flexibility of this console are sure to make it one of

the best values for money that one is likely to find. As Behringer has

branded on their X32 marketing media – game changed!

40

LiVe eVeNts seMinar sYnoPsis

Our closest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.24 light

years away and therefore the light that reaches

us from such a distance is almost four and a half

years old. It could have gone supernova and we

would be none the wiser for the time it takes a

newborn to grow into a child almost ready for

school. The mind boggles.

And so, until that happens, we will have to

settle for creating our own spectacular

supernovae here on planet Earth in a contained

environment without the inconvenient downside

of mass extinction. I am, of course talking about

event lighting, controlled in no small part by the

lighting designer and his instruments.

On 27 September this year, the fourth Stage

Lighting Master Class was held at the Market

Theatre Laboratory in Newtown, Johannesburg,

organised by creative consultant Declan

Randall, a lighting designer with 17 years’

experience, both locally and abroad. This year the guest lecturers

included Richard Pilbrow; probably the world’s most respected

lighting designer and theatre consultant with many decades in the

business, and Mannie Manim, one of South Africa’s most well-known

and respected lighting designers and theatre producers. Declan was

also one of the key lecturers as well as the main organiser.

Despite being deemed a ‘Master Class’, the event was geared

towards budding aspirants and working professionals so the crowd

included a wide variety of attendees. Indeed, with such prodigious

names like Pilbrow and Manim on the bill, there was much to learn on

all sides of the camp and ample was taken away by all. The main

sponsors of the event included Artscape, CamQuip, DWR Distribution,

ETC, Electronsonic, LEE Filters, The Market Theatre, Phillips Selecon,

Prosound, Rosco, Split Beam, and of course us – Pro-Systems

magazine.

On our arrival at the event we were greeted with a warm welcome

and two goodie bags filled with lighting things such as swatch books

and gels; things that audio engineers know very little about.

Day one started off with the usual welcome and handshaking as

everyone got acquainted. There were many familiar faces in the

crowd and it was clear that many people were particularly eager to

hear Mr Pilbrow speak. He is undoubtedly a hero in the field that few

lighting designers would miss.

As we moved into the theatre, we were greeted by Declan and

given a short introduction to basic lighting principles and eventually

to his guests. Next up was Mr Pilbrow, who is a quaint, warm man with

a good sense of humour and a sizable dash of English wit.

He began by giving a retrospective of his history in lighting – a

valuable insight into his methodology and philosophy as a lighting

designer – and eventually moving on to his involvement in theatre

consulting, which he continues to this day. Richard is a seminal figure

in this field and has consulted on the construction of over 1 200

projects in 70 countries worldwide, not to mention well known theatres

such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Opera House

and Covent Garden. In addition, he is one of the principle inventors

of lighting projection technology, which is becoming a major part of

what lighting designers do today.

After lunch, next up to speak was Mannie Manim, who also gave us

a retrospective to his career and learnings along the way. This was

particularly interesting and relevant as it gave us a small window into

not only his personal history but of the history of South African theatre.

Of course lighting was the focus and he had a wealth of insight and

knowledge to share.

The rest of day one proceeded with workshops delving more into

the art of lighting, including choosing colour, which was lectured by

Richard and eventually moving on to a lecture entitled ‘Lighting

Cycloramas’, lectured by Declan. In the evening at 8pm a lighting

performance was offered.

Day two was much of a continuation of the first, opening with a

discussion and critique of the evening’s performance. Throughout

the day, interspersed with a few tea breaks and lunch, many topics

were discussed and lectured by Richard, Mannie and Declan,

including LED lighting techniques, lighting for drama, opera, musicals

and dance, and designing with Gobo and Projection. The day

ended with an open panel discussion with the lecturers.

Learning light – from the mastersLight is magic. it is invisible and ethereal; only revealing itself to our eyes after its reflection.

indeed, one could even say that light and our senses cause us to live in the past because – as

instant as it all seems – light has a limited velocity, taking time to reach us and to be decoded

by our eyes and brain. Just looking up at the stars is a window directly into the past.

Declan Randall lighting the way

By Greg Bester

41

matrix

A team of specialised technical supply professionals for corporate,

television, theatre and music events.

Lighting Supplier and 3D Lighting Design

Advanced Video Presentation Technology

Sales & Rental of Pro Audio Equipment

Richard Newton

Technical Representative, Sight and Sound

Can you tell me what you thought about the master class in general? Was it helpful?

The overall knowledge shared by the speakers was unbelievably

informative, I was surprised at the depth we went into, from simple

lighting techniques to designing a complicated rig it was all very

absorbing.

Who was your favourite speaker and why?Between Richard, Mannie and Declan they have a wealth of

knowledge and their own ‘special’ techniques so I’d have to say all of

them. I must say I enjoyed witnessing Richards’s passion and

dedication to lighting design, with his spontaneous outbursts you can

tell he lives for lighting design.

What did you learn that you didn’t know before?

Wow, the list could be endless, I came to SLMC having previous

lighting experience and being under the impression I knew enough to

do it well. After the first day I realised just how intricate the industry is

and how much I still had to learn. I left SLMC with a whole new outlook

on lighting, I find myself constantly thinking of ways I can improve on

my rigs and my overall show design. A big thank you to the SLMC

team: Richard, Mannie and Declan for sharing their lifetime of lighting

knowledge.

Jean-Claude Laurent, Theatre Manager, University of Johannesburg

Can you tell me what you thought about the master class in general? Was it helpful?

As someone that has been in Theatre for the past 21 years it was a

good refresher. I however feel that the master classes spoke more to

students and non-lighting practitioners. A bit of a back to basics thing!

For the senior people it afforded the chance to do a bit of networking

as well as to listen to one of the founding fathers of modern theatre

lighting discuss his approach to lighting shows. It was also a good

reaffirmation that the training I was providing at UJ Arts Centre was on

the right track and for my senior technician, Sizwe, that he was

approaching lighting in the right way as he is now starting to light

shows.

Who was your favourite speaker and why?

The highlight for me personally was hearing Richard Pilbrow

speaking. He has been an inspiration to me since I started working in

Theatre and the opportunity to meet him was very special.

What did you learn that you didn’t know before?

Having worked in the industry for close on 20 years you soon find

out that you learn something new every day. The minute you stop

learning you may just as well give up. The most informative piece of

information that I took away from SLMC 2012 was all the new systems

that are in place internationally that makes the life of an LD a little bit

easier, even though it creates more paperwork. You win some, you

lose some!

I had the opportunity to catch up with a couple

of the master class attendees to find out what

they got out of it. This is what they had to say.

42

LiVe eVeNts industrY eXPert

How did you get into the AV industry?smith: I started out in the audio industry. In high school I

used to work part time for Macs Music and when I

matriculated they gave me a permanent job. At the

company I gained a lot of experience in sound engineering, audio

equipment repairs and rigging. After a few years I left Macs Music to

join Sound Hire, where I worked closely with bands.

How did you end up at AV systems? smith: I met Alvaro Rodrigues (AV Systems owner) during the Roxette

tour, at that time he had just started AV Systems. We talked about

possible collaborations and after the Phil Collins tour I decided to join

AV Systems. The company was still very small, with a small office in

Doornfontein and I was its very first employee.

you talked about technology. Where do you see the AV industry in the next five years? smith: It’s difficult to say because it’s a very fast-moving industry but I

think we are going to see more of LED products. These days everyone

prefers full HD presentations so I think projectors will slowly become a

thing of the past.

is that a good thing?smith: Yes and no. The good thing about LED is that it offers the best

overall quality but the negative side is that it is still very expensive.

oK. What has been your best job so far?smith: For many years I have done presentations for renowned South

African businessman Sol Kerzner. He has taken me all over the world

for these jobs and it’s always an honour to work with him.

What sort of invention would make your job much easier? smith: Wireless power. Because at the moment you can do pretty

much everything wirelessly but you always need electricity.

What’s your favourite piece of equipment?smith: The digiLED 6mm pixel pitch LED video screen – it’s so versatile

and the quality is unbelievable.

Worst piece of equipment?smith: The 1 ton motor – it’s so heavy and unfortunately you have to

use it on most functions.

What do you love about your job?smith: When I started I used to love to operate the shows but now I

enjoy the design and pre-production side more. I enjoy working at

venues that have nothing interesting and transforming them into

something unimaginable.

Anything you hate about your job?smith: Load outs and untidy cables.

What would you say is the most important thing that every person entering the industry must know? smith: You must have a passion for technology. I always say that if you

can’t set up your TV at home with your DSTV and DVD player then this

industry is not for you. If you like a social life then stay clear!

And do you think there are opportunities for young people in the local AV industry?smith: Yes. There is a huge demand for young people in the local AV

industry. Most youngsters are taking up audio engineering and the

majority of AV engineers in South Africa are over 30 years old. So

opportunities are certainly there for young people.

What are you up to when you are not working?smith: I am an advanced driving instructor for Mercedes Benz and I

have been a police reservist since 1996. So in my spare time I am

either instructing or out on the streets fighting crime.

great stuff! What is your holiday destination of choice?smith: I love wildlife and the bush, with no electricity or cell phone

networks.

Denzil Smith

With over 17 years in the audio-visual industry, Denzil smith is one of south Africa’s finest AV engineers. An operation manager at Johannesburg audio-visual rental company, AV systems, smith has worked on all kinds of AV jobs, locally and internationally. He won the coveted best Technical Production services Association (TPsA) award for best AV engineer, and is also one of the most nominated AV engineers at the awards (having been nominated every year for best AV engineer since the TPsA Awards were launched).

We recently sat down with smith to talk about his career and other industry matters.

AQ series Stadium series

The Martin Experience www.martin-audio.com

Blackline seriesWavefront series

Tel: +44 (0)1494 535312 Fax: +44 (0)1494 438669 E-mail: [email protected]

4326-Corp Ad PAA 15/10/04 15/10/04 16:20 Page 1

www.audiosure.co.za [email protected]

Audiosure – martin

44

LiVe eVeNts international liGhtinG desiGn

Skyfall after-party event producers AD Events gave Nick Gray a

demanding production brief that included making the after party

equally as dazzling and memorable as the premier screening at the

Royal Albert Hall.

The event took up the entire Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern

(formally a power station), and once again gave Gray the

opportunity to work his lighting magic in this distinctive and uber cool

architectural space.

Gray comments: “The Turbine Hall is an amazing environment to

work in and already highly atmospheric, so the real challenge was to

add requisite 007 qualities like mystery, action and intrigue to the

setting. Also to wow those who had already been blown away by the

movie premiere!”

A massive effort kept the space as clean and clear of visible rigging

and technical infrastructure as possible. Special scaffolding structures

were constructed around the pillars to provide lighting positions and

to avoid running overhead trussing down the room.

Fixture placement was crucial as the lighting also had to enhance

massive scenic projections onto the walls of the Turbine Hall, which

transported everyone from the banks of the Thames to the edgy street

scenarios of downtown Shanghai.

Additional video and effects were played out on a series of

staggered floor-standing LED screens at the end of the hall, and the

event space was further enhanced by several props from the film,

including an eight-metre high Chinese dragon and an Aston Martin

DB5 car.

This made the lighting design process infinitely more of a brain-

teaser, but Gray also relished the task more. “You really had to think

carefully about using lights appropriately and simultaneously maintain

the raw, industrial beauty of the venue,” he explains.

The most important psychological task for lighting was to create a

high-impact entrance for the 1 600 guests.

This happened on The Bridge immediately as everyone entered the

Turbine Hall – and was the first impression they had of what they were

about to encounter.

Gray used 24 Clay Paky Sharpies at the end of The Bridge pointing

directly into the entrance, shooting piercing shafts of light down The

Bridge. People flowing in to the building were silhouetted with 12 x

Vari*Lite 3500 Spots from behind the entrance which stunned

everyone.

Underneath The Bridge was an assortment of lights including Martin

MAC 301 LED wash moving lights, ETC Source Fours and pin-spots,

rigged on two runs of black truss concealed between the structural

RSJs.

Carefully positioned and focussed Source Four PARs and Codas on

top of The Bridge were used for generally illumination of the space

below including the seating areas.

At the far end of the Turbine Hall, Gray used a combination of

Chroma-Q Color Force 48 and 72 LED battens, Clay Paky Sharpies,

Alpha Wash 1500 and Martin MAC 700 Profile moving lights, together

with Source Four profiles for highlighting.

After only one intense overnight programming session – in the only

available time – a steamy molten mix of Oriental nightscapes created

by video and lighting pervaded the Tate Modern.

Outside the lighting scheme utilised six Clay Paky Alpha Beam

1500s, together with eight V*L 3500 Washes and a splattering of

outdoor PAR cans washed the building’s exterior.

The interior lighting was programmed and run by Rob Gawler using

a Hog 3 console and the exterior run by Matt Waterfield on a

Chamsys MagicQ 100 console.

Most of the lighting equipment came from Neg Earth, a regular

Renegade supplier, with specific specialist elements and the Chamsys

console supplied by Renegade.

Renegade’s crew chiefs were Paul Saunders and Chris Fyfe.

The impressive projections and other video content were designed

by Richard Bagshaw of Digital Insanity with equipment supplied by CT

London and Dobson Sound was the audio contractor.

Ultimate 007 after-party for Skyfall Nick Gray from London-based creative lighting and design

practice Renegade imagined a dramatic and striking

lighting ambience – both outside and inside – London’s

iconic Tate Modern art gallery for the new James Bond

Skyfall movie world premiere’s glamorous after-party.

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Video MaPPinG LiVe eVeNts

When the launch of the new Volvo went out to tender, technical

supplier, EPH Productions, joined forces with video production

company, ATTV and Penmac Audio Visual, to figure out a workable

concept for the launch.

“It was very much a team effort; I’m good friends with Andrew

Timm at ATTV and Penmac’s director, Malcolm Finlay, who’s done a

lot of jobs with (Dataton’s) Watchout. We’ve also been doing our

homework on 3D mapping and mapping on buildings with projectors,

so that’s where it started really,” says EPH’s Leon Pheiffer. “We

decided: ‘let’s map the car’, so we offered the concept to Mineshift

Events, a small events company in Johannesburg; they pitched for it

and got the job.”

Volvo International then sent the first demo of the car straight to

EPH’s warehouse in Pretoria, where all parties gathered for two days of

pre-production. The first step was to work out the projection angles.

“We did this on a CAD system so we knew at what height and

distance the projectors had to be put up at, then we created a map

of the vehicle and projected a still image onto it,” explains Malcolm

Finlay, who has been working in video projection and content for

more than 25 years. “The still image became the template for doing

geometric projection within Watchout; and once we had that right,

we applied the video content with the same mapping distortion onto

the vehicle.”

Finlay says there were two very different aspects to the job: staging

the content onto the vehicle and actually creating the content. The

latter was the task of Ronald Pillay, who started the process using a

CAD drawing to ensure that all of the perspectives were correct.

“You must get that part spot on before you can make the content

fit; you haven’t gone near Watchout or a projector at this stage,”

Finlay insists. “Essentially, you make a video in pre-production and

then play the video on the side of the vehicle so everything has to be

the right shape and have the right amount of distortion.”

Pillay created the video in two parts: a city scape (which was used

for the backdrop of the car), and a series of videos to cover the sides

of the vehicle.

“Basically we create a dynamic scene, put a vehicle in it, and map

the content on the side of the vehicle to map the scene you’re driving

through,” summarises Finlay. “Then you apply ‘eye candy’ flashes, to

accentuate the car’s lines, wheels and lights; in this case it’s four

videos in total: front, side, back and road.”

Pheiffer put up a 12-metre Top Vision LED wall behind the car and

deployed four Christie 605 projectors: two to project onto the front

and side of the car; and two to project the road that the car was

driving on.

“All of these projected surfaces had to be geometrically correct

because the projectors were all at very strange angles,” Finlay reveals.

“Once we got that right all the video content for the car, and

obviously the back LED wall, which was the scenery the car was going

On 14 August the new Volvo V40 was unveiled for the first time to 50 of South Africa’s

major car dealerships at Turbine Hall in Newtown, Johannesburg, where the vehicle

was brought to life through the medium of video mapping, writes Paul Watson.

Phot

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Mapping out the route for the Volvo V40

46

LiVe eVeNts Video MaPPinG

to be against, was synchronised using Watchout.”

Penmac has handled the local support for Watchout since its

inception in 2004; therefore Finlay is somewhat of an expert; in his own

words, he has “grown with the product and all the features that

are available”.

“The way Watchout has evolved in the past few years has made it

possible to generate multiple video feeds from one computer. In this

instance, we were running four of the projectors from one computer,

then another computer was doing the LED wall; that’s great for us, as it

cuts down the cost of hardware and licenses, because you have to

license the software,” Finlay explains.

“From a Watchout point of view, this was total show control; in

addition to making it fit properly, Watchout takes these four videos

and runs them in sync with each other, so it gives the illusion of being

one large scene; it also stops and starts the show and we were able to

drop in Powerpoint presentations onto the LED wall when the car

wasn’t moving, to illustrate the features and benefits of the vehicle.”

Finlay estimates that this project was

only the third exercise of video mapping

on a vehicle in South Africa and points

out that although the concept is not

new to him, it is always a challenge.

“Video mapping onto buildings and other types of sets has been

done plenty of times before but doing it on a vehicle is quite different,”

he explains. “The real challenge is that it doesn’t matter how often you

rehearse it, it will never be in the same place when you set it up; and

with limited time to put it all together due to venue and staging costs,

you’ve got to have incredible flexibility in the software to be able to

correct your mapping points once you get to your final destination.

That is one of the major strengths of Watchout: that it actually has that

capability and is being used around the world for that exact

purpose.”

EPH also provided the audio and lighting for the launch. Pheiffer

deployed a Soundcraft Vi1 console, which ultimately catered for

playback as the audio was embedded within the video content; and

a JBL VerTec line array system provided sound reinforcement: three

VT4888 enclosures were hung over two VT881A subs a side.

“There were only 50 people in the venue so you could say this

system was a bit overkill, but it’s very good kit,” smiles Pheiffer. “We also

put in 12 Martin MAC 401s and 12 Robe 101 lighting fixtures, all cued up

using the Avolites Tiger Touch controller. It looked and sounded great,

that’s for sure.”

Good enough for Volvo’s managing director, Bram van der Reep,

to invite the team to do an additional launch for the national press.

“The more homework you do, the quicker and more efficient the

setup becomes,” concludes Finlay.

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47

electrosonic – martin

“When we were asked to do a second

show, we only had eight hours to put it

up but it posed no problem; and when

you consider that the content creation

alone took about a week, the initial

planning and mapping took two days

and the staging took us a further day,

then that’s pretty quick work! Overall this

was a really successful project and

everyone was very happy with the

results.”

Tech box

Lighting:

•Martin Professional MAC 401

•Martin Professional MAC 101

•Avolites Tiger Touch controller

Audio:

• Soundcraft Vi1 digital console

• JBL VerTec VT4888 elements

• JBL VerTec VT4880 subwoofers

Video/Projection:

•Christie LX605 projectors

•Dataton Watchout

Phot

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Pen

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ePH

48

The show ‘Five Windows’ was based around stunning large format projections highlighting the

history, achievements and impact of the Hopkins Centre, which also houses the Ivy League College’s

drama, music, film and studio arts departments.

Giant images were projected on to the front façade of the Hopkins Centre, which was originally

designed by architect Wallace Harrison and opened in 1962.

The College approached Ashton who has completed several prestigious projected art installations

in the US within the past three years.

He comments: “It was a great opportunity to work with one of the most prominent educational

institutions in the US. The building is architecturally exciting, and compiling the storyboard and

artwork was interesting and compelling.”

Ashton took a brief from the College’s Organising Committee that discussed what they wanted. A

student committee was also invited to present ideas that could be included; from there he

originated the concept for the 13-minute work.

There were historical and future sections to the show, plus a special dance piece devised by

students which was videoed against a green screen, from which elements were edited and

Illuminating the arts

LiVe eVeNts international Video ProjeCtion

London UK-based

Projection artist Ross

Ashton was

commissioned by

Dartmouth College in

Hanover, New

Hampshire to produce

an exclusive Son et

Lumière show

celebrating the 50th

anniversary of its high

profile Hopkins Centre

for the Arts.

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49

integrated into the projection sequence.

“It was important to make it an all-inclusive piece and to

emphasise the hugely diverse traditional and contemporary

performance programmes for which the Hopkins Centre is renowned,

as well as the reputation of Dartmouth as a liberal arts university,”

explains Ashton, who knew from experience that dance as a medium

would transpose very dynamically onto the front of the building.

Ashton completed the story and script-writing in London, while

Projection Studio’s Sang Gun Kim produced the motion graphics with

some input from Ashton and Steve Larkins.

Ashton asked UK-based sound artist Howie Saunders – whose

cinematic credits include The Matrix – on-board to compose a

special sound-track. This featured recording from the first events at

the Hopkins Centre including readings by poet Robert Frost.

The impressive arched windows on the front of the Hopkins Centre

were each covered with bespoke Spandex shades made for the

occasion by Rosebrand, that were attached via magnetic strips to

the steel window frames.

Ashton specified two Christie HD18 projectors which had images

overlaid and were located in a special hide positioned 17.5 metres

from the front of the building. They were fitted with wide-angle

short-throw lenses and supplied by New York-based Atomic

Professional Audio, co-ordinated by Dan Ostroff.

Ashton worked closely on site with Hopkins Centre Production

Manager Todd Campbell, audio technician Doug Phoenix and video

tech Will Cleveland and they also hired carpenter Donald Winams.

The Watchout show control system was programmed by Karen Monid.

The big technical challenge was lining up the projectors across the

Hopkins Centre façade’s different depths, which vary by up to about

five metres.

Illuminating the arts

international Video ProjeCtion LiVe eVeNts

By Louise Stickland

50

LiVe eVeNts Plasa rePort

Organised by the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, the

trade fair exposed attendees to a wide array of innovative

technologies, industry trends, product launches and informative

seminars.

A major talking point on the exhibition floor was the organiser’s

decision to change the dateline and relocate the PLASA Show to ExCeL

London for 2013. The move, which comes after having spent 21 years at

Earls Court & Olympia, represents a major opportunity for the exhibition.

The new venue is located in a thriving area of east London and offers

excellent links to both Europe and the rest of the UK via London City

Airport.

“The move to ExCeL for 2013 gives PLASA and our exhibitors a great

opportunity to develop how we showcase the new products and

technologies as well creating more space to demo product for our

visitors,” states PLASA CEO, Matthew Griffiths.

“We will have more room to expand and enhance our conference

and seminar programmes which are getting great interest and crucially

we will be able to co-locate other like-minded industry exhibitions and

events which will complement each other. Also prove that London in

the first weeks of October will be the place to be if you work within the

creative industries generally and the entertainment technology industry

specifically. We look forward to seeing everyone then.”

Although the show attracted fewer visitors than last year with overall

visitor attendance at 11 500 (subject to ABC audit), event organisers

were delighted to announce that their seminars, presentations and

debates had been a resounding success with exhibitors and visitors

alike. Registration for seminars showed more than 100% increase on last

year. In all, more than one third of the attendees saw one or more of

the sessions.

education and conferences

In addition to the plethora of new product launches and innovations on

show, the training sessions and seminars available in the Professional

Development Programme proved to be a huge draw card for many of

the visitors. As we stated in Pro-System Q3, this year’s programme

explored 9 distinct categories, from future trends and emerging

technologies, to the fundamentals of audio, business issues, lighting and

video.

However, the most popular seminar was Olympics Uncovered session

entitled ‘Behind The Scenes At The London 2012 Ceremonies’. Presented

by Piers Shepperd, the technical director of the Olympic Opening

Ceremony, the session gave attendees an overview of the mammoth

staging, flying, audio, AV and special effects behind the London 2012

Olympic Ceremonies.

“The PLASA Seminar Programme was exceptional this year. It was

crammed full of creative and production personnel that had provided

the stunning shows and entertainment technology infrastructure

around all the events happening in the UK this Summer, particularly the

London 2012 Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This was

augmented by themes on professional development, sustainability and

business planning all giving visitors to PLASA so much more than just the

exhibition,” explains Griffiths.

Running alongside PLASA 2012 was the Rigging Conference where

delegates gathered from all corners of the globe to listen to industry

experts, share good practice and debate the future structure of rigging

on an international level. The legendary ‘Disney Rigger’ – Roy Bickel,

opened the Conference with a thoroughly engaging, entertaining and

informative speech about his influence on the development of modern

rigging over the past 50 years, which was enthusiastically received by

the audience. The conference, a near sell-out event, was attended by

156 delegates.

PLASA pulsates with innovationBy Simba Nyamukachi

The PLAsA show 2012 – the 31st edition of the premier exhibition for audio, video, lighting

and stage technology, was held from 9 to 12 september at earls Court exhibition Centre

in London.

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51

Plasa rePort LiVe eVeNts

Audiosure – xTA

www.audiosure.co.za

Imported by

Awarding innovation

Two important award categories were presented at PLASA 2012:

The prestigious Gottelier Award and The PLASA Awards for

Innovation.

This year’s Gottelier Award, which recognises significant

product designers and developers in the entertainment

technology industry, went to John Meyer of meyer sound in

recognition of his contribution to the modern sound

reinforcement industry.

With a total of eight Awards for Innovation to hand out, and

with the option of bestowing a ‘Gold’ Award on one or more

really outstanding entries, PLASA’s panel of independent

adjudicators had a difficult task ahead of them. During the

exhibition’s opening two days, the judges reviewed 47 product

presentations ‘live’ in front of show visitors and a camera crew.

PLAsA Awards for innovation

Award winners: • Stageco – Arena Lift

• Digital & Future Technologies – Super Twofer

• Tait Technologies – Pixel Tablet

• Avolites – Sapphire Media Infinity Video Control System

• Robe – Robin DLF Wash

• Harman International – JBL VTX V25 Line Array

• Martin Professional – MAC Viper Profile

• Gold Award Status: Cast Group – BlackTrax

• Award for Sustainability: ETC Source – Four LED

Products that received special commendation:

• Sennheiser 9000 Series digital wireless radio microphone system

• Shure ULX-D digital wireless radio microphone system

• Wentex Pipe & Drape System from Highlite International

• d3 Technologies d3 Designer

Audio

martin Audio took OmniLine® to PLASA 2012. OmniLine® delivers consistent audio coverage

with unprecedented accuracy in a wide variety

of architectural environments, using only one

amplifier channel per array in many applications.

By utilising a complement of unique, Martin Audio

designed drivers, and mechanical alignment

techniques, simple EQ and Limiting is the only

processing required.

A powerful software application provides

extremely accurate intercabinet and array

angles, in order to achieve optimum coverage

over a predefined area. OmniLine’s aesthetically pleasing cabinet is

finished in neutral light grey.


HARmAN’s JbL Professional presented the

JBL VTX Series. The V25 is a full-size,

three-way high-directivity line array

element that features two 15-inch

Differential Drive® woofers mounted, with

four 8-inch Differential Drive midrange

transducers and three D2 dual-

diaphragm dual-voice-coil compression

drivers mounted on a third-generation

waveguide/Radiation Boundary

Integrator assembly.

The Radiation Boundary Integrator combines the midrange and

high-frequency sections of the V25 so the transition across each

frequency band is uninterrupted while providing broad, stable

horizontal coverage combined with proper line source array coupling

for 0 to 10 degree inter-enclosure angles in the vertical plane.

Distributed by www.wildandmarr.co.za

Significant to the Allen & Heath stand was

the new GLD, a user-friendly, cost effective

and scalable live digital mixing system.

Conceptually based on the hugely

successful digital iLive series, a standard GLD

32 input system offers 28 XLR mic inputs with

plug n’ play I/O expanders allowing easy

expansion up to 48 inputs (44 XLR mic inputs).


52

LiVe eVeNts Plasa rePort

Nexo paraded the Universal Amp Rack (NUAR).

NUAR, which is filled with technological

innovation and functionality, is a scalable

amplification solution for all NEXO concert

systems that encourages inventory

standardisation among NEXO users and

facilitates cross-hire opportunities.

NUAR contains two NXAMP4x4 amplifiers, a new Digital Patch Unit

(DPU); an intelligent output patch panel; a new Digital Meter Unit

(DMU); an intelligent input patch panel providing digital

communication with the NXAMP; and an optional network card,

Dante or EtherSound by request. The NXAMP digital processors and

amplifiers are now available in a dual-voltage version for touring

applications.

Distributed by www.tadco.co.za

sennheiser flaunted their Digital 9000

system, which has been developed for

all professional users in broadcast

studios, theatres and live performances

unwilling to comprise on sound. Its

unique uncompressed digital audio transmission offers artefacts free

sound with great dynamics.

shure featured the ULX-D Digital Wireless

Microphone System with new multi-channel

receivers, a High Density mode that enables

63 channels to operate in just 8 MHz of

spectrum and integrated Dante digital

audio networking.

The new ULXD4D dual channel digital receiver and ULXD4Q quad

channel digital receiver pack two or four channels of wireless into one

rack space, with individual gain controls, LED meters and XLR outputs

for each channel. Like the single-channel, half-rack ULXD4 digital

receiver, the new dual and quad receivers feature fully digital audio

processing and RF transmission as well as AES 256-bit encryption.


HARmAN’s JbL Professional showed the

STX800 Series portable loudspeakers,

designed to bridge the gap between

lighter-duty portable PA speakers and

full-size tour sound systems. The six

STX800 passive loudspeaker models combine exceptional sound

quality with rugged, travel friendly construction, extreme power

handling capability and integration with Crown’s VRack amplifier V5

level processing and HARMAN JBL HiQnet Performance Manager™

software.


At the studer stand was the Vista Compact

Remote Bay. The product has been designed

for users seeking a slave or secondary desk to

work in parallel with their Vista console. Typical

applications are theatre or live sound

installations where it is desired to control the sound balance from the

auditorium. It provides full control and monitoring functionality and

can be used with all types of Vista consoles, including the brand-new,

all-in-one Vista 1, running software V4.8 and up. In addition it may also

be used as a completely stand-alone controller for the Vista’s DSP and

I/O should the control surface not be available.


Lighting

Avolites showcased the Titan One Virtual

Console. The Titan One offers a cost

effective solution for all lighting

applications. Its focus – to offer fast and

intuitive control of intelligent lighting,

Dimmers and LED effects from a single

on-screen console. The DMX USB Dongle allows users to output one

line of DMX on any of 12 lines, with the full functionality of Avolites Titan

Software.

Distributed by www.dwrdistribution.co.za

Phillips selecon offered the PLCyc1LED

luminaire. Delivering a smooth even beam, the

PLCyc1 seamlessly blends intense washes of

colour on cycloramas up to 5m high. Using LED

source technology combined with a properly

shaped asymmetrical reflector, the PLCyc1

delivers consistent light distribution without the compromising

performance of vertical or horizontal spreader lenses. Each luminaire

can replace the equivalent of a traditional four colour 1000W per

circuit Cyc luminaire, and with the convenient powercon system, the

PLCyc1 can light a typical cyclorama with a single 10A non-dim

circuit.


Robert Juliat launched their ZEP profile. An

evolution of the award-winning 85W LED

profile. The new ZEP profile is designed to offer

a higher light output – equivalent to a 1000W

tungsten profile spot – together with very low

power consumption. This new LED profile

incorporates an innovative and powerful 150W LED engine offering

two different colour temperatures, a choice of three zoom ranges and

the option to integrate wireless DMX technology. Designed with

ergonomic perfection, optical and mechanical excellence, ZEP

features a better colour rendering index.


eTC showed off their new Source Four LED

luminaire that has won the prestigious Award for

Sustainability at this year’s PLASA Show, against

some strong competition. Performing at 30 to

over 40 lumens per watt, the Source Four LED

spotlight excels in efficacy. This powerful yet

energy-saving light creates beauty and artistry

in stage, studio and architectural applications. It

combines the popular features of ETC’s conventional Source Four

profile spotlight with the intelligence and seven colours of ETC’s

Selador Desire LED luminaires.


martin Professional’s new mAC Viper Profile is the first

fixture in Martin’s 1000-watt MAC Viper family of

luminaires. Convincingly brighter than 1200-watt

fixtures, the MAC Viper Profile kicks out 26,000

lumens, making it over 30% brighter than veteran

1200-watt products and 55% more efficient. It also

outperforms them in terms of speed and

compactness.


53


Audiosure – xTA

www.audiosure.co.za

Imported by

Clay Paky exhibited the glowUp strip 100

– a LED bar for professional stage lighting, with

combined battery/mains power supply and

combined cable/wireless control. Ten

powerful RGB-W multi-chip LEDs are arranged

in a line inside a 100cm linear aluminium housing suitable for outdoors

use (IP65). The fixture creates a curtain of brightly coloured light, with a

beam angle adjustable from 14° to 70°. The original ‘white power

saving’ function helps optimize power consumption.


High end systems’ Lightweight and compact

yet extremely punchy, the 550W SolaSpot LED

was featured at PLASA. The luminaire weighs

only 24.5kg but produces a high fixture output

of 6,000 lumens and offers an even beam field.

SolaSpot LED’s fixed colour wheel creates red,

blue, green, yellow, magenta, orange and

cyan; the fixture’s indigo highlighter function creates dramatic new

design possibilities. The LED possesses a colour temperature of 6,500K,

pan / tilt of 540 x 250 degrees, variable zoom and iris, remote focus,

static and rotating gobo patterns.


Chauvet Professional showcased the Ovation™

F-165WW – the first Fresnel-style fixture in the new

Ovation™ line of theatrical lighting fixtures from

CHAUVET® Professional. Its innovative LED source

produces smooth, even washes from 13° – 41°.

Powered by 16 10W LEDs, Ovation™ F-165WW

delivers over 1,500 lux @ 5m (13°) without a significant temperature-

related drop off. The LED delivers this output with a colour temperature

of 3100K and a beautiful soft field. The selectable dimming curves

allow this fixture to blend into existing systems.


mDg paraded its latest product, the FAN. It is a

digital, fully DMX/RDM operated stand-alone

unit that has a very low power consumption of

only 100W making it very economical. It also

not channel hungry: the velocity of its

three-bladed rotor is controlled via DMX (1 or 2 channels) or RDM, or

locally using a discreet 4-button controller with LSC panel on the base

of the unit. A surge-protected, universal switching power supply covers

the full range of 100V – 240V, 50/60Hz ensuring the FAN can be used

anywhere in the world at the flick of a switch.

DTs Lighting’s JACK is a high-power, compact,

lightweight moving head was present at PLASA. It

features a wide excursion motorized zoom allowing

any application from long-throw projections to large

wall washing. Beam opening is: 1° – 2,5° ‘Beam’

projection; 2,5° – 37° ‘Spot’ projection; 38° – 46°

‘Wash’ projection.

The JACK generates a huge luminosity and extremely uniform

projection using only a 189 W lamp; power consumption is just 230 W.

Also, JACK comes equipped with the FPR (Free Pan Rotation – patent

pending) system, which allows limitless pan rotation, in either direction,

never having to reverse motion.

Roland systems group (Rsg) showed a range of

products at this year’s show, including a UK debut

appearance for the Roland V-800HD Multi-Format

Live Video Switcher. It incorporates high-definition

picture quality and eight multi-format channels

with independent scalers as well as a variety of

output formats including a built-in multi-viewer. The V-800HD Live

Video Switcher is ideal for any live event or installation that requires the

freedom to connect any type of source whether it is digital or

analogue, computer or video format.

Robe brandished the new ROBIN® DLF Wash This is the

perfect companion to the ROBIN® DLX, the new

ROBIN® DLF Wash is based on the same RGBW LED

module. With a perfectly smooth output via the front

Fresnel lens, this fixture has been optimised for those

wanting an even light output with no shadows. (RGB

breakups and shadows are not present even when on

closely positioned trussing or other objects.)


Networks

Klark Teknik paraded its pioneering DN9610 AES50

multichannel digital audio network connector. The

KLARK TEKNIK DN9610 is a cost-effective solution for

extending AES50 multichannel digital audio

network connections (Cat-5E/Cat-6 cabling) to

greater distances than previously achievable.

Housed in a rugged, compact, alloy case, and enclosed in a

shock-absorbing silicone sleeve, the DN9610 will fit almost anywhere,

being no larger than many DI boxes.


54

LiVe eVeNts Plasa rePort Riedel Communications unveiled the new

RockNet RN.345.IL network plug-in card for

Allen & Heath’s iLive digital mixing console

family. RockNet is a digital real-time audio

network that provides up to 160 digital audio

channels over a single counter-rotating CAT-5 ring. Based on a

redundant ring topology, RockNet forms a self-healing network with

no loss of audio in case of a connection fault between two devices.

Dante Users of Yamaha’s PM5D, M7CL, LS9

consoles and DME series digital mixing

engines are set to benefit from new

updates that were introduced at PLASA

2012 for the Dante-MY16-AUD interface

card that will allow the devices to control the head amps on the

company’s new Rio i/o rack mount interfaces.

A key feature of Yamaha’s CL series of mixing consoles is the ability

to control the head amps of the systems’ new Rio i/o rack mount

interfaces. This facility will now be available to users of other Yamaha

digital mixers as a result of the updated firmware of the Dante card

and a new version of Audinate’s Dante Controller software.

mA Lighting exhibited the MA 8Port

Node and MA 4Port Node set an

additional benchmark in MA Lighting’s

networking product range as they

feature the 1Gbit capability. They allow the conversion of Ethernet

data into DMX or vice versa and fit perfectly into the MA system and

its MA-Net2 protocol which is based on this high speed to ensure

maximum performance. Optimised for touring and installations

purposes, both have rugged steel housing for a long life even under

harsh conditions.


Rigging – screens – Projectors

miLos previewed its new Mobiltechlift

range. Three different versions of the

Mobiltechlifts were on display, all offering

a telescopic mast and manual

hand-winch system for easy operation and maximum safety in lifting

loads of up to 240 Kgs (529 lbs). Loads can be lifted up to 6.5 metres in

the air, and the tower lift can be safely stopped and locked off at any

of a number of Pin Locking System (PLS) locations on the mast, which

will then take the load as opposed to the wire rope hauling

mechanism.


In the technical curtain sector, gerriets featured the

G-Mesh fabrics, which are particularly impressive

because of their uniqueness, durability and

multipurpose applications. G-MESH is available in two

structural forms: as ring mesh made from stainless steel

or bronze with a diameter of 7mm; or with a diameter of

12 mm made from stainless steel, bronze or bicolour.

Prolyte flaunted the newest version of its

popular performance platform LiteConsole.

The LiteConsole XPRS, previewed at PLASA

Focus earlier this year, combines all the most

desirable features of LiteConsole in a sleeker,

lighter package. The design makes the system incredibly easy to

assemble and the innovative folding frame design means the

LiteConsole XPRS will flat pack and fit into an average car. The

LiteConsole has been described as “the all singing, all dancing

behemoth of portable, quick install DJ booths”.


Robert izzett – DWR Distribution overall impression: A lot of people complain

about PLASA shrinking, which I guess is true.

But PLASA has never been about products, it’s

about the networking element and this year

did not disappoint.

Products: Robe’s new MMX Wash Beam is brilliant. It’s a great

wash light that turns into a beam light via DMX. I also really

liked the Elidy from Chromlec – a fantastic lighting tool that

makes the most incredible Effect wall.

Trends: The one trend that really has not caught on in SA

much, which is huge in Europe, is moving trusses or sets etc. It’s

not a new trend at all but something that has evolved over the

years to a point where it is truly state of the art.

seminars: I went to the Olympic Opening Ceremony Seminar

– It was awesome to see how it was all done, especially the

rigging and automation and moving sets.

Alison Taman – Audiosureoverall impression: PLASA was a relatively

small show, but it was certainly well executed

and the overall presentation of the exhibitors

was very professional. Over the years the

lighting side of the show has grown and many

of these exhibitors put on a very impressive display. Although

attendance was said to be higher than previous years it did

not feel that way to us or any of the exhibitors we spoke to.

Despite the gradually more compact nature of the show we

always enjoy PLASA as our vendors have more time to spend

with us than at other shows and one can easily cover the

entire floor.

Products: Martin Audio made a big impact with their stunning

“Audio Lab” demonstration. They also had two Nissan Jukes

on display with a boot-load of powerful sound.

seminars: I attended the Martin Audio ‘Audio Lab’ which

showcased spectacularly good sound.

Justin mamulis – iLedoverall impression: This was the first PLASA I

have attended since 2006 and felt that it had

changed considerably since my last visit. The

show was far more locally orientated than I

remember.

Products: I went to PLASA with the very specific purpose of

meeting with my suppliers, and understanding what new

products they had lined up for the next year. Apart Audio was

certainly on the mark with the new product releases planned

for 2013. I was also incredibly impressed with Traction Sound

products.

New Agencies: We signed up Traction Sound. Traction Sound

is a fairly new company out of Brighton that is made up of a

fantastic group of guys, whose combined experience in the

pro audio industry is impressive to say the least.

Industry professionals’ perspectives on PLASA 2012

55


+27 11 791 7009 [email protected] www.tadco.co.za

Distributed by

Coda

Doughty unveiled the Baby Quick Trigger

clamp, designed for smaller truss sizes.

Adjustable to diameters of 25mm – 38mm and

with TUV approval pending, the Baby Quick

Trigger clamp comes in polished aluminium or

satin black.


Christie showed off the YK50, a small, dual-arm

yoke that supports the Christie LX700 and

Christie LHD700 projectors, offering a 7 000 ANSI

lumens LCD option for moving video projection.

The combination of the Christie YK50 with either

of these projectors gives you bright, realistically

colored, moving digital images, lighting and video displays – ideal for

any small- to mid-size venue where space is limited or less brightness is

needed, such as casinos, lobby displays, churches and planetariums.

projectiondesign introduced a new 3-chip

2D/3D projector model – the brightest

projector in the Norway-based company

product range and designed for 24/7

operation for small to large screen

applications.

Available in WUXGA or 1080p resolution versions, as well as a

special version that can optically switch between REC709 and DCI P7

colour spaces, the new F85 boasts a brightness of up to 11 000 lumens,

and a contrast ratio of 14.000:1, featuring high valuable performances

in terms of colour saturation, accuracy and image quality.


matthew griffiths – PLAsA CeoClearly the run up to the exhibition in London was heavily

influenced by the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations

and the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Apart

from the logistic headaches a lot of the exhibitors and

visitors to the exhibition were heavily involved in these

events. However it was great to see everyone use the PLASA Show as a

place to meet up, share their experiences and see the technology used

close up. Against this regional challenge we also had the ongoing global

economic challenge which we are all trying to trade out of. There was

much more positive feedback about the future for our industry from

exhibitors, which I found to be very encouraging.

Nick matzukis – AVL Distributionoverall impression: My overall impression of this year’s

PLASA was that it was reasonable. I think that it is a good

idea that the show is moving from Earls Court to ExCeL

London for the 2013 edition.

Products: There were a number of new products that

caught my including Gerriet’s new track systems, fabrics and screens.

Trends: In terms of notable trends that could be adopted by the South

African industry in the near future – I see more theatre equipment in rental

companies.

Industry professionals’ perspectives on PLASA 2012

56

stUdiO & BrOAdcAst ibC rePort

Held in Amsterdam between 6 and 11 September, this year’s IBC had

a slight upsurge in popularity by recording 0.93 percent increase from

last year’s trade fair. The exhibition’s total number of attendees,

conference delegates, exhibition visitors and exhibitors were pinned

at a record 50 937 by the end of the six-day exhibition.

Speaking at the end of the trade show IBC’s CEO Michael Crimp

noted that its success was a result of the quality associated with the

exhibition. “That we have drawn a record audience at a time when

there are still economic challenges in many parts of the world – and

when broadcasters are dealing with massive events like the London

2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games and US presidential elections

– clearly shows that, above all, IBC is relevant to people at every level

in our industry,” he stated.

Conferences

At the IBC Conference, a huge draw card for many visitors, more than

300 speakers addressed the audience but none drew more attention

than Black Eyed Peas front man and Hip Hop impresario – Will.I.am. He

is a technologist and Intel’s Director of Creative Innovation and drew

a capacity audience for his highly subjective view of the future in a

session co-hosted by Intel Corporation’s marketing VP – Johan Jervøe.

In their keynote address entitled ‘Creativity and Technology Forces

Combine – Transcend the Barriers of Convention and Rethink What

Can Be Achieved,’ the duo dealt with how creativity combined with

technology can be used as a nexus for change to identify and

overcome conventional thinking and challenge the status quo. When

Will.i.am was asked about his thoughts on broadcasting and

technology he said that the world needed more innovation.

Will.i.am recently inked a multi-year deal with Intel, which sees the

musician using Ultrabooks to communicate with his two million Twitter

followers and compose and record new music while on tour in

different cities. The relationship ties in with Intel’s ‘compute continuum’

vision, in which more and more devices will compute and connect to

the Internet.

Another prominent meeting was the ‘The Loudness Breakfast’

presented by Florian Camerer, Chairman, ORF & EBU/PLOUD, AUSTRIA.

The session dealt with the complaint made by consumers to

broadcasters relating to the irritating jumps in audio levels between

channels, programmes, clips and commercials. This session offered a

solution and a comprehensive explanation of the problems

encountered in audio loudness for multi-platform and connected

world applications.

The practice of focusing on loudness in mastering audio recordings

dates back to the days when vinyl records were played on jukeboxes

in clubs and bars. Any recording that was mastered louder than its

competitors was more likely to gain the attention of the audience,

and so disks were produced to replay at the loudness limit of the

medium.

Fifty years on, modern computer-based digital audio effects

processing allows mastering engineers to have more intricate control

over the loudness, compression and quality of a recording. Therefore

with the recent rise of international broadcast standards, ‘audio

loudness’ has become one of the most important and debated topics

in broadcast and pro-audio today.

Local perspective

When talking about an international trade fair such as IBC it is

always important to bring the discussion back home and to get

a local vantage point. Pro-Systems spoke to two South African

industry professionals – steve Alves of Concilum Technologies and Francois Lötter of Prosound, to get their impression on the

show and insight on exciting products that will be hitting our

shores soon.

Alves, who regularly visits IBC, believes that the exhibition

lived up to previous editions and stated that event organisers

seem to improve on the visitor experience year on year. “The

show seemed to have much more of a vibe than in recent

years. All of our partners had very impressive stands, and there

was no shortage of traffic through them so the recession does

not appear to be having a major impact on the broadcast

industry. We find IBC is a good opportunity to build on the

relationships we have established with many premium suppliers

over the years,” he said.

With regards to notable products paraded at IBC, Alves

highlighted that Glensound and Prodys showcased solutions

IBC bustled with possibilitiesWith a highly respected and peer-reviewed conference, a trade floor that exhibits more than 1 400

leading suppliers of sophisticated electronic media technology and an unrivalled networking platform

– International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) is a must-attend for professionals in the studio and

broadcast industry.

By Simba Nyamukachi

Phot

o co

urte

sy ib

C

57

ibC rePort stUdiO & BrOAdcAstthat improve the quality of audio for remote broadcasts stating:

“Glensound and Prodys, have been implementing new

technologies to improve audio quality over bandwidth limited

feeds. During this year’s IBC exhibition Glensound was awarded

the IABM Award for Excellence in Innovation and Design 2012

for their GS-MPI004HD HD Voice Broadcasters’ Mobile Phone.

While Prodys introduced portable codecs that have the

versatility to connect an audio broadcast via cellular or satellite

technologies that can be deployed in any remote area, even

where cellphone connectivity is not available.

Lötter, who had last visited IBC in 2004, was excited about

returning to the exhibition after a long absence. “It was great

attending the IBC show – it has grown considerably since the

last time I visited the trade fair. However, it is unfortunate that

the pro audio side has not grown at the same rate,” he stated.

While at the exhibition, Lötter attended the ‘Digital Radio

Experience Seminar’, which he found very fascinating. Of

interest to him was how certain countries approached the

uptake to digital radio, reasons why some are not moving

forward, and some of the misconceptions about digital radio.

Lötter also picked up new trends that he sees may be adopted

in the country in the near future.

“On the audio side one of the more key issues and trends

that stood out for me is the adoption of the new loudness

metering and processing set out by the ITU. The South African

industry will naturally have to adapt to these standards very

soon,” Lötter explained.

Codec

Prodys paraded a Bidirectional

Portable Video Codec for Live

Broadcast over IP and Satellite

called Ikusnet.

Ikusnet is not only a backpack

uplink video encoder. Ikusnet is a

multi-purpose HD/SD Mpeg4

AVC/H.264 bidirectional

portable IP video and audio

codec that can broadcast live from anywhere, at anytime,

supporting ad-hoc bandwidth aggregation of up to 10 links (3G/4G/

Dual-Ethernet).

Ikusnet is the only portable video codec in the market supporting

bidirectional live video and audio/talkback streams all in one

compact unit, with two switchable video inputs (two cameras-SDI &

HDMI) and two monitor screens that allow the user to monitor video

inputs, video feedback (cue program) and the quality of locally

encoded video.

Consoles

sound Devices introduced

the 664 Field Production

Mixer; the newest addition to

Sound Devices mixer line.

The mixer is the new flagship in Sound Devices’ line of portable

audio mixers. Building on the foundation of the popular 552 mixer, the

intuitive 664 has six inputs channels and four output buses. All inputs

and outputs are recordable to both CF and SD cards. This

unprecedented amount of I/O connectivity and recording capability

makes the 664 perfect for any production application

The 664 can record each of its inputs and its four output buses, for 10

record tracks. Recordings are saved to CompactFlash and SD cards.

Recordings are either 16- or 24-bit Broadcast WAV files with extensive

metadata. All popular production sampling rates are supported.

When used with a CL-6 Input Expander, the 664 records 16 tracks, 12

inputs and four output buses.


Digico showed the SD7B

mixing console, which

caters for all broadcast

situations from the most

complex to the most

straightforward.

The console draws on

DiGiCo’s Soundtracs

heritage by adding comprehensive broadcast-specific feature sets to

the respective multi-application consoles.

The SD7B has the routing capacity, processing ability and user

interface to form the heart of the most complex broadcast audio

productions, with a feature set designed to manage extensive,

challenging work. The work surface handles up to 996 simultaneous

optical, plus 224 MADI, 24 analogue and AES/EBU connections, along

with 128 busses (each with full processing in mono, stereo, LCR or 5.1),

32 matrix busses and 32-band graphic equalisers. Multi operator

engineering is easy, while up to 100 physical faders can be accessed

with the addition of EX-007 Expander Units.


ssL demonstrated

compatibility between

its consoles and Riedel

RockNet and MediorNet

systems at IBC 2012.

Collaborative

development between

Riedel and SSL has resulted in SSL C100 HDS and C10 HD digital

broadcast consoles that can now connect to Riedel RockNet audio

distribution networks and MediorNet fibre-optic transport, routing and

conversion networks.

Via Riedel’s RN334.MD MADI interface, SSL consoles can remotely

control mic gain, phantom power and pad settings for Riedel RN

series audio interfaces connected anywhere on a RockNet network.

In addition SSL’s own MORSE Stagebox and Alpha-Link I/O units can

also be connected via MADI to Riedel’s MediorNet networks with full

remote control capability maintained.

In a world premiere,

Lawo presented a new,

innovative highlight of

the mc² mixing console

series.

The latest mc² console

will surprise by its new

dimension of intuitive

operation, efficiency,

flexibility and easy to use. Among the mc²56’s new features is real,

two-man operation with fully decentralised control of all parameters

including bank and layer selection, EQ, dynamics and bus

assignment—due in no small part to the console’s fully featured ISO

bay access provisions. The new mc²56 now offers improved

ergonomic and intuitive handling, providing operators greater

confidence when working under pressure.

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stUdiO & BrOAdcAst ibC rePort

Wheatstone unleashed

the LX-24 Console

Control Surface, which

is an entirely new

design, combining a

sleek, low-profile, high-tech look with superior ergonomics.

Featuring smooth Penny & Giles long-throw faders, high-resolution

metering, positive-action switches with LED lighting and film labelling,

and fully modular construction, the console has an impressive array of

capabilities. It’s designed specifically for use with the WheatNet-IP

Intelligent Network.

Low profile design and a table-top form factor allow the LX-24 to fit

into almost any studio situation, requiring no holes or cut-outs in the

furniture. The meter bridge features three sets of bright, ultra-high

resolution LED meters, as well as LED talkbacks for auxiliary levels and

pan control. A digital clock/timer is also included.

Each fader provides access to four stereo busses, plus four pre-fader

aux sends a stereo CUE bus and four mix-minuses. An LED source

name display, an A/B source selector and two programmable soft

buttons are also available, plus SET button provides access to

assignable controls in the master section.

Calrec demonstrated Hydra2 – an audio

routing system. Its plug and play

architecture means that connecting

consoles together is as simple as

connecting their routers, with a single

connection between routers providing 512

audio signals in both directions and enormous network expansion.

The router does not require an entire console system to function, so

complex networks can be created with minimal cost.

The AeQ CAPiToL makes digital

technology available to radio

and TV stations where

digitalisation has still not been

feasible.

AEQ CAPITOL was conceived

taking into account our customers’ needs for a versatile, powerful,

easy to use and not less importantly, very cost efficient digital mixer.

Based upon the AEQ ARENA and FORUM digital mixing consoles

that are currently in service at thousands of studios of both medium

and high level, AEQ CAPITOL offers the same performance as the

FORUM but in a ‘fixed’ format; perfectly adapted to the real needs of

the majority of stations but with a limited number of options.


microphones

sennheiser unveiled the Digital

9000; a digital wireless system that

can transmit completely

uncompressed audio, artefact-free

and with superb dynamics.

Targeting broadcasting

professionals, (musical) theatres

and high-profile live audio events; it sets a new benchmark in digital

wireless transmission. The system, which includes the EM 9046 receiver,

SKM 9000 handheld and SK 9000 bodypack transmitters, and a

comprehensive suite of accessories, has been meticulously designed

for the highest channel counts in today’s increasingly dense

frequency environment.

The ground-breaking digital wireless system is fitted with two

transmission modes to suit any need and environment. The High

Definition (HD) mode will transmit entirely uncompressed, artefact-

free audio, as if a high-quality cabled microphone were used. The

Long Range (LR) mode has been designed for difficult transmission

environments with many sources of interference. It ensures maximum

range with a proprietary Sennheiser digital audio codec.

At 53.9 centimeters long,

Audio-Technica’s new BP4071L is

among the longest shotgun

microphones on the market today.

Originally developed at the request of broadcast

professionals, this microphone boasts an extremely narrow

polar pattern, excellent rejection from the sides and rear

of the microphone, along with crisp, intelligible audio reproduction. It

offers switchable low-frequency roll-off and a 10dB pad, and comes

generously equipped with a stand clamp, windscreen and case.


Audio interfaces

AViD announced the new Pro Tools|HD

Native Thunderbolt interface, delivering

the lowest latency and the highest sound

quality of any host based audio

workstation for Thunderbolt technology

equipped CPUs.

The Pro Tools|HD Native Thunderbolt interface brings the industry-

standard Pro Tools HD toolset and premium conversion of Pro Tools HD

Series interfaces to a broader group of customers who use a laptop or

other computer with Thunderbolt technology, at great value.

With its elegantly implemented Thunderbolt connectivity, the Pro

Tools|HD Native Thunderbolt interface gives producers, engineers and

mixers the incredible sound quality, low latency and sheer power of

the award-winning Pro Tools|HD Native system in a mobile-based

hardware solution, while connecting with Pro Tools HD Series

interfaces (such as HD OMNI and HD I/O) for capturing and

monitoring audio with pristine clarity.

In addition, customers can conveniently monitor mixes using the

interface’s built-in audiophile grade headphone output, which is

powerful enough to drive headphones with high impedance loads.

Recorders

Roland systems group introduced their

new flagship field recorder, the Roland

R-88. The Roland R-88 establishes a new

standard in professional portable recording

by providing seamless integration of a

recorder, mixer and a multi-channel audio interface. With eight

discrete channels of audio recording plus a stereo mix, the R-88 is

ideal for demanding multi-channel applications such as location

sound design, event production, event videography and live musical

performance.

solid state Logic flaunted its Live-Recorder system. Live-Recorder is designed for

situations where a robust and reliable

high-channel-count recorder/player is

required in a live performance environment.

59

ibC rePort stUdiO & BrOAdcAst

It is ideal for live music recording from front of house consoles at live

shows, in broadcast production studios and location recording

vehicles. Live-Recorder is also an excellent solution for live

performance playback of studio recorded multi-tracks. Unlike any

other solution, Live-Recorder exports/imports native (.ptf format)

projects directly to/from Pro Tools™ and to/from Apple™ XML and

Steinberg™ XML.

System connectivity is via standard optical MADI so can connect

over long distances directly to any MADI equipped Digital Mixing

Consoles, Venue Audio Distribution infrastructure (Riedel, Optocore

etc) or Routers. The system presents significant cost saving

opportunities when compared to Hard Disk Recorders or other DAW

recorder systems. Live-Recorder systems can capture up to 128

Channels @ 24bit/48kHz or 64 Channels @ 24bit/96kHz.

Loudspeakers

genelec unveiled its new Smart Active Monitor

(SAM) concept, which is capable of

automatically adapting to acoustical

environments.

As a sound engineer, you need to have a

reliable and precise monitor system that

reproduces the source sound neutrally. You want

an uncolored and undistorted sound with flat

frequency response in all situations. A monitor that is capable of

automatically adapting to acoustical environments and correcting

for levels, delays and room calibration is an indispensable tool for a

sound professional. A Smart Active Monitor (SAM) addresses all these

demanding tasks.

A SAM system can be controlled with digital networking, enabling

you to build highly flexible computer controlled systems of monitors.

The acoustical features of SAMs can be optimised with software

calibration features for different working styles or client demands. SAM

reflects the most advanced monitoring system features available in

the audio industry.

Telecomms

HARmAN’s studer introduced CMS Lite, the

new, cost-effective telephone system solution

for broadcasters.

CMS Lite serves from a single studio up to

multiple studio installations and integrates

perfectly with Studer’s range of OnAir

consoles, making call-ins easier to manage in the studio.

CMS Lite uses state-of-the-art technology and allows the installation

of a flexible and scalable phone system. It profits from renowned and

powerful technology, already proven in various large broadcast

environments with more than 100 users.

Because CMS Lite uses off-the-shelf standard IT components, it is

very cost-effective, requiring less installation labour, less cabling and

providing a high return on investment. CMS Lite also helps save costs

by moving away from old-fashioned, proprietary telephone hybrids.

CMS Lite retains much of the functionality of the large CMS System,

including DJ Self-op, switchboard operator and producer modes,

waiting rooms and database support.


Clear-Com announced Shipment of

BroaMan’s DiViNe V3R-FX-ICOM-SDI to

Broadcast Market at IBC.

The new BroaMan DiViNe V3R-FX-ICOMSDI is ideal for any setup

that requires multiple feeds of high-quality audio, video, data and

intercom. It provides scalable, protocol-independent routing,

repeating, transport and distribution of multiple signals over optical

fibre and is equipped with (four) four-wire RJ45 matrix ports and (four)

four-wire RJ45 panel ports. This ensures that either matrices or intercom

panels can be connected to the unit using standard CAT cables.

Users can send audio and control data from Clear-Com key panels

or matrices transparently through the optical network. The unit is

capable of housing up to six SD/HD/3G-SDI coaxial video inputs, or

outputs that are converted to and from single-mode DiViNe optical

fiber links.

Audio monitors

The latest member of TsL’s Precision Audio Monitor

(PAM) product family, PAM PiCo is a compact, yet

comprehensively equipped, standalone audio

and Loudness metre featuring the revolutionary

StarFish™ surround sound display.

Designed for use in any operational position

where ‘at a glance’ audio metering is required,

PAM PiCo is available in three formats; to display

stereo, multichannel or surround sound audio from analogue, AES or

embedded SDI signal sources, all measuring loudness to international

standards and recommendations including ITU, EBU and ATSC.

Both simple to use and easy to configure, PAM PiCo puts high

quality metering within easy reach of anyone involved in sound

production, from operators working throughout broadcast production

to music studio technicians and record producers.

TC electronic displayed the TC

TouchMonitor TM7 & TM9. These products

are the ultimate, stand-alone loudness

meter solution, featuring a touch screen

with highly flexible layout options, an

extremely consistent loudness readout and

compatibility with American, European

and Japanese broadcasting standards, for example.

TC TouchMonitor TM7 & TM9 is a full-featured stereo and

multichannel loudness and true-peak level metre, which is perfect not

only for broadcast ingest and transmission, but also for post, film and

live production. When you need to comply with a given international

broadcasting standard, the numbers representing loudness are

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61

industrY eXPert stUdiO & BrOAdcAst

Digital Cupboard’s owner Ian Osrin, a veteran of the SA recording

scene and a virtual godfather of audio. To many of us young aspiring

audio engineers who were still wet behind the ears when Ian was

already decades into his career making hit records.

What sets the Digital Cupboard apart is that it was one of the first – if

not THE first – fully digital recording studios in South Africa and possibly

anywhere else within 10 000 miles at the time. On top of that, Ian

Osrin, despite being a long-time player in the game, has not let his

longevity ail his sense of technology because the man is a virtual

technological guru. But do not be fooled. Once you meet him he

starts to reveal himself as somewhat of a paradox because model

numbers, specifications, and marketing claims mean very little to him

because his philosophy leans more towards function and

transparency than anything else.

The man

ian give me a little bit of background as to how and when you started your career in audio?“Back in 1983 I tried to produce a group and they told me how useless

I was and how little I knew, and they were right. I then went to study

sound engineering in the States at one of these six week recording

workshops – and quite a good one – in Chillicothe, Ohio. It was a

fantastic course, and I loved it.”

What did you do when you returned from the states?“Initially I couldn’t get a job so I was advised to work in live instead

of trying to get into studio so I got a job with Coliseum Acoustics

and did many shows with them. Then I was lucky enough to do an

event for Gallo Records.”

Please go on.“At that show, the head of what was then RPM studios – which

eventually became Downtown Studios – heard (my mix of) the

show and said to me: “You’re not bad. Do you think you can

record?” and I said, “Ja, I think so.” So he said: “Okay, go to a

studio, get a band, and if you can bring me a cassette in the

morning with music on, you’ve got a job.” So I said: “Cool.” I did

that, delivered it, and he put in me in an old studio in Gallo Studios

in Kerk St.”

Kerk street in Johannesburg near Downtown studios?“Yes. Basically, all those studios used to record were demos, church

choirs and Mbaqanga groups, which were typically material that

white engineers at the time would scoff at. But for me it was like

heaven for three years because nobody came there. They left me

alone. I had a two-inch Studer 16-track machine, which was

amazing. The quality was amazing. I had a Neve desk as well. That

studio was heaven for me and I learned a lot there.”

What came out of your experience there?“Well, like I said, that studio was heaven and I was lucky because I

was recording all this interesting traditional music. It was really

lekker. Then I graduated to the bigger studios, did a bit of work

there until I finally got a job at the Teal Truetone record company as

an A&R manager. I worked there for a couple years until I was fired

for being too revolutionary.”

We laughed. What did they mean by “too revolutionary”?“Effectively, I was once told by one of my bosses that I was too

black, which was a bit silly, because I’ve never tried to be. I just

happened to see that in those days that there was a lot of injustice

so I stood more on the side of justice. That made me too radical.

Plus, I insisted I go to work in shorts and refused to go to a 9am

meeting after a 4am session.

Ian OsrinTucked away in a quiet neighbourhood on the outer reaches of Albert’s Farm, stands a recording studio that is as unassuming as it is seminal. if the walls could talk, they would have a lot to say and we would listen with bated breath because when it comes to south African music, there are few studios that can contend with such a long and impressive pedigree.

Phot

os b

y g

reg

best

er

By Greg Bester

62

stUdiO & BrOAdcAst ProduCt reVieW

To

those

familiar with Cornwall,

England-based Allen & Heath, they

are a company who has had a long and

prestigious pedigree in almost many areas of the pro audio

market.

Their ML5000 live analogue mixer and now their digital iLive

consoles have a firm hold in the minds of audio enthusiasts, famous for

their great sound, ease of use and comprehensive features. The EQ

on the ML5000, after all, is known as one of the finest in the industry.

Given their history, then, it is no surprise that they also offer products

for the recording market, making a huge mark currently with their ZED-

range of studio mixers / audio interfaces and their recently released

ICE-16 standalone USB recorder.

Of course, we shouldn’t forget to mention past studio products, like

the System 8, a mixer released in 1983, built for studio and stage that

enjoyed much success through three revisions; the Saber, a medium

format studio mixing console; and then the GS3000, a medium

format, 8-group, inline studio mixing console aimed at commercial

and project studios. The GS3000 was a huge hit with many users

because it bridged the gap between the ubiquitous small format

cannon fodder that has an almost omnipresence in the industry and

the large format mixing consoles found in commercial studios. Sadly, it

was discontinued and as a result cries were heard all over the world

for Allen & Heath to reinstate or revise it.

Well Allen & Heath listened to their users and have reincarnated the

GS3000 in the form of the new GSR24 and GSR24M studio mixing

consoles. Let’s see if it retained its karma!

Features

Given the success of their ZED R16 recording consoles, it is easy to see

why Allen & Heath were prompted to revise the GS3000 format and

produce the GSR24.

Those familiar with the ZED R16 will be quite at home on a GSR24 as

many of the features are translatable. Quite simply put, there are

three sides to this design combination: a full featured analogue

console, an audio interface and a DAW controller.

This format is a growing trend in the current market. Digital audio

has brought with it many conveniences that save us a lot of time and

streamlines our workflow but many professionals still long to work on a

good analogue console for the tactile feel and the sound. As a result,

hybrid systems have been popping up all over the place that

incorporate outboard processors and summing mixers that are fed

from digital audio converters. This also has its drawbacks – No EQ, no

subgroups and none of the other features that an analogue console

provides.

This has prompted other companies, like Euphonix and SSL, to

release consoles that are not only full featured analogue consoles but

also DAW controllers. But still, they are very expensive and still require

outboard AD/DA converters, which can also cost an arm and a leg.

Enter the GSR4. The GSR24 is essentially a 24-channel analogue

recording console with integrated DAW and MIDI control and a

32-channel audio interface, provided you have the optional interface

card installed.

There are currently two cards available for the GSR24: analogue

and Firewire/ADAT. Of course, to take full advantage of the GSR24’s

features, the Firewire card is required in order to send DAW control

messages to and from the console. Using the Firewire card, a total of

Allen & Heath GSR24By Greg Bester

An established British manufacturer of audio consoles is in the spotlight.

Analogue option card

Digital option card

63

ProduCt reVieW stUdiO & BrOAdcAst

nine routing configurations are possible which includes enabling

direct out multitrack recording, latency free monitoring, or mixdown

modes (and more).

Of course, as the GSR24 is both an analogue console and a DAW

controller, mixing can be accomplished by routing audio directly to

the console or by using the 100mm fully motorized faders to control

the DAW. This is where the GSR24 and the GSR24M differ; ‘M’ stands for

‘Motorised’. The GSR24 does not have motorised faders and is

therefore less expensive.

Another noteworthy feature is the inclusion of two valve channels

that can be used to add ‘valve warmth’ to any signal you designate

to it. This expands the tonal ‘colour palette’ of the mixer. There are

also four stereo line channels so the GSR24 affords 34 channels in total.

When it comes to Aux sends, there are six, and independent stereo

and mono main busses along with a full-featured monitoring section

afford the user two stereo cue busses and 5.1 surround monitoring.

DAW-control is widespread in the GSR24. These include transport

control buttons, 12 rotary encoders and 14 user definable buttons that

can conceivably be assigned to any parameter of your choosing.

Also there are, of course, the 24 motorised faders in the GSR24M.

Anyone familiar with the layout of a traditional analogue audio

console will be quite comfortable on the GSR24. There is a full metre

bridge that displays a variety of configurations for channels and

monitoring. As mentioned, the console is in line design-wise with the

input channels to the left, and the master section to the relative

centre.

The microphone preamp comprises the same preamp found in the

ZED R16, which is nice if you have one of each for translatability. The

preamp gained its heritage from the summing amplifier that was

originally manufactured for a very high quality unnamed console in

the 1980s and is a very low-noise design. The EIN (Equivalent Input

Noise) rating of the preamp is an incredible -128.5dB at 60dB of gain

and also boasts an extremely low distortion rating. This makes for an

incredibly quiet and transparent preamp that has received much

praise from users all over.

Another feature taken directly from the ZED R16 is the EQ. It is a

four-band, dual parametric design with a high and low shelf. The

summing bus of the console incorporates low-noise transistors for a

clean, high-performance summing action during mixdown.

The wrap

The GSR24 is a fantastic, one-stop solution for any and all studio

recording needs. The fact that is first and foremost a full featured

analogue console is good enough but with the inclusion of DAW

control and audio interfacing, there is little reason to spend a lot

of time sourcing each of these components individually. With

one cable from the mixer to your PC you instantly have a

powerful, great sounding studio solution for recording, monitoring

and mixing purposes. Combined with the power of the DAW the

GSR24 represents a truly hybrid system that many engineers will

find comfortable, powerful and streamlined.

64


If one looks back several years, maybe even a decade or two, there

was not a huge amount of evolution in the digital audio workstation

market for the majority of the period. At least not on the surface. As

the industry slowly marched on, two distinct camps emerged: native

systems, such as Cubase, Nuendo, Logicand proprietary systems, such

as Pro Tools, Soundscape and Pyramix (DSD).

If we strip away all of the specifics, the topologies of these systems

are actually quite similar. After all, both are track-based and offer

processing, editing and mixing tools to route, mix, and manipulate

audio; a ‘virtual’ production studio within a computer. So, given that,

what are the differences?

Well, proprietary systems are often exclusively linked to their

hardware. In the case of Pro Tools, until recently, one could not

operate the software without the hardware counterpart. In addition

Pro Tools HD incorporated DSP accelerated cards which ran their TDM

plugins to take strain off of the processor, which in turn, ran only the

audio engine. The hardware was all connected with proprietary

connectors and cables too and this made for a closed system that

was not open to hardware from very many third party manufacturers.

The upside to this is that quality, reliability and support could be

assured and that is why Pro Tools became the de facto industry

standard in almost all commercial recording facilities.

Native systems, such as Steinberg’s Cubase, rely on the computer’s

internal CPU to handle all audio duties, including the audio engine

itself and real time processing, such as when using native plugins. This

potentially puts a huge amount of strain on the processor but given

the ever-escalating rise in the power of personal computing, running

a completely native system is becoming more and more feasible.

In addition to native systems being completely software-based and

running completely on the CPU, they are also open to a wide variety

of compatible third party hardware and software – both free and

commercial. This means that you can feasibly use any compatible

audio interface of your choosing and have the freedom to choose

from a massive and growing selection of free and paid-for plugins.

Plus given that third-party DSP cards like Universal Audio’s UAD series

are becoming more and more powerful (and affordable) and take

processing strain off of the CPU, native systems have seen a rise in

recent years and are now competing with Avid’s audio giant,

Pro Tools HD.

Given these advancements in technology and the rise of the native

system, it is no surprise that Avid chose to go native in 2010. From Pro

Tools 9 and onwards, Avid allowed the integration of a wide variety of

hardware on standard computer audio transport protocols such as

ASIO (PC) and CoreAudio (Mac) into Pro Tools and this did much to

broaden its user base.

The initial release of the HD Native and later the HDX cards for Pro

Tools 10 saw the introduction of the AAX plugin format; up to five times

the processing power of a TDM HD system on a single card and the

introduction of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) DSP Chip

for processing of audio tracks. Ultra low latency (1.6ms analogue

throughput!), input processing and high processing capacity are still

the main points of interest for Pro Tools HD systems and despite the fact

there are powerful native systems available, Avid continues to lead

the field as a studio standard.

What type of audio system do you use

– native or propriety? How similar are

they? Do you know how they differ?

greg bester asks (and answers) all

these questions – and more.

Listening to the future

65

ProduCt reVieW stUdiO & BrOAdcAst

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Thunderous applause

So what’s next? Well, in a follow on to the Pro Tools HD Native PCI-e

card that was released in October 2010, Avid recently released the HD

Native Thunderbolt interface, which is basically an HD Native card in

an external enclosure that interfaces with a PC or laptop via the

brand new Thunderbolt protocol developed by Intel.

These two pieces of hardware enable you to use Pro Tools HD

software and any of the Pro Tools HD interfaces without the

need for any accelerated DSP cards. It also enables laptop

users to harness the power of Pro Tools HD on-the-go.

Conceivably, an engineer could use the HD Thunderbolt

interface at his / her studio, unplug and then perform a remote

recording on his laptop; all cross-translatable between systems.

This was not possible in the past.

But what is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt – code named Light Peak – is a new bus

expansion interface for personal computing and the next step

forward in connecting peripheral devices to a PC.

Originally developed by Intel, it was first brought to the market in

collaboration with Apple and was introduced in their MacBook Pro

product line on 24 February 2011. It uses the same connector as the

Mini DisplayPort (MDP) that most MacBook Pro users are familiar with.

Diving deeper into the technology, Thunderbolt combines PCI

Express (PCI-e) and DisplayPort into a “serial data interface that can

be carried over a single cable”. This means it carries both generic

data and display data over a single cable and supports transmission

of audio via the DisplayPort protocol, USB-based external audio cards,

or through HDMI adapters.

The controller chips multiplex (multiple data streams are combined

into one signal over a shared medium) data from these two sources

for duplex transmission over a Thunderbolt lane and are then

de-multiplexed at the other end by the receiver controller, as seen in

Figure 1. A massive 10Gbit/sec data rate per device is possible, which

is absolutely huge considering USB 3 comes in at 5Gbit/sec and SATA 3

at 6Gbit/sec. Six devices can be daisy chained together and hot

plugging is supported.

interface the music

As mentioned before, the Pro Tools HD Thunderbolt interface is an HD

Native PCI-e card in an external enclosure. Looking at the interface, it

is unassuming and indeed, one could be fooled into thinking it’s

nothing special.

The front façade comprises a single headphone output, a volume

knob, and an LED light that indicates whether the interface is

connected and engaged. The words ‘HD NATIVE’ are brandished

there, along with the Thunderbolt logo, which is fittingly a bolt of

thunder superimposed over a circle.

Listening to the future PCi express PCi expressThunderboltTm Cable

Controller

Controller

PCi express / DisplayPort

DisplayPort DisplayPort

66


The rear of the interface is almost just as sparse as the front

comprising the Thunderbolt port, an external DC power port and two

Avid Digi connectors for the connection of Avid HD interfaces.

Austere? For sure, but the lack of controls belies its true power

because, despite being a ’native’ system, there are a few features

which distinguishes this system from others.

Firstly, the system is not strictly 100%

native. Granted, processing is handled

by your computer’s CPU but the audio

engine itself is run on the FPGA chip

installed on the card itself. This chip

provides the low latency performance

HD systems are famous for and runs the

mixer I/O. The card can run both Core

Audio and ASIO drivers, which opens it

up to operation with other DAW software

such as Logic or Cubase.

However when sticking the Pro Tools domain there is full session

cross-compatibility with TDM-based Pro Tools HD systems. RTAS plugin

versions will automatically be engaged. The only features that aren’t

available in an HD Native system are TDM-only plugins and Avid’s

HEAT analogue saturation emulation.

So what features does one get with a Pro Tools HD Native system?

Well sessions of up to 256 tracks are supported, along with 64

channels of I/O. Tracking is enhanced with ‘set-and-forget direct

monitoring’ and the included low latency mode feature. All in all, you

get a grand total of 1.6ms analogue throughput latency in this system!

This is undoubtedly one of the best latency specs on the market.

AAX and RTAS plugins are supported, plus AGC (Automatic Delay

Compensation) on hardware and software inserts. Sessions can be

seamlessly shared between Pro Tools|HDX and Pro Tools|HD users

without any loss of data and with complete mix translatability.

Timecode and video reference synchronisation are also supplied

when using the SYNC HD interface.

Finally, one of the nicest features for me at least, is the new RAM

Disc Cache feature which loads an entire session into physical

memory, provided there is enough available. This makes operation of

the software ‘snappier’ as there is no loading from the hard drive or

streaming over a network.

breaking into the box

For this review, I was supplied with a brand new i7 quad-core

MacBook Pro, the HD Native Thunderbolt interface and an Avid Omni

HD interface. The Omni is Avid’s ‘Swiss Army Knife’ interface that offers

eight channels of AD/DA on a variety of I/O protocols. There are two

microphone preamps included with send and return-style inserts;

along with eight analogue line-ins; eight analogue outs (on a DB25

connector); eight digital outputs (also on a DB25 connector in the

AES/EBU format); an AES/EBU input on XLR, S/PDIF i/o on RCA; and

ADAT optical i/o. There are also ports for a remote, wordclock i/o, and

loop sync i/o. However, only eight channels of I/O can be used at any

time but you can mix and match inputs to your heart’s content. I

found this limiting and a waste of all the connectors at the rear, but

we’ll leave it at that.

Set up could not have been simpler. I connected the Omni to the

Thunderbolt interface via single Digi cable and plugged the

Thunderbolt interface into the MacBook Pro with the supplied

Thunderbolt cable. It was identified immediately. After opening Pro

Tools all that was left to do was configure the interface via the

Playback Engine menu by selecting ‘HD Thunderbolt’.

Supplied with the MacBook Pro was a sample session by Grammy

winner Imogen Heap of the song ‘Tidal’. This session is 160 tracks and

uses nothing but standard plugins in Pro Tools HD Native. The session

played back instantly and without flaws despite the slew of plugins

used and a large amount of automation. There was no lag after

pressing play and everything felt tactile and fast. The Omni sounded

good too, and coupled with the Genelec 8030 system with a

Genelec sub, I had connected it to; the resulting sound was clear,

precise and full.

Verdict

I was quite astounded at the sheer power of a system with such a

small footprint. With 160 tracks going on and lots of processing

taking place, the relatively standard MacBook Pro didn’t even

seem to blink an eyelid. This, I assume, is because of the load taken

off the processor by the FPGA chip and because of Avid’s RAM Disc

Caching, not to mention the sheer speed and efficiency of the

Thunderbolt interface.

Just when we all started doubting Avid’s market choices and

thought they were about to join the rest of the native droves, they

came back to establish why they are the industry leader and

distinguished themselves as innovators. ‘Going Native’ did nothing

to hurt their reputation, in fact, it probably bolstered it not to

mention secured them sectors of the market they were only

dabbling in before.

Goodbye Pro Tools LE and the restricting nature of closed

systems. Hello to the future.

DF solutions and Residential solutions Training

67

sOciAL

Craig Potter and bruce Atkinson

Nathan goldstein

elaine shellard, Wynand Langenhoven and Angela murison

bomaru and Lebogang busami

Andrew Rowan and Christian engsted

elvis machebele and stefan mayer

J.C le Roux and Renier smit

Dan engel and Tinus van Wyk

Darren Cordoso, Chris maritz and Dale macmarray

brad miller and Phillip Austin

Vanessa speedie and Nickie Wolmarans

bruce genricks, Christian engsted, bruce schwartz, Peter Dahlin and eugene Coetzee

marnus Jacobs and Nicholas scott

Justin le Roux, Christopher bolton and bruce schwartz

Trevor morkel and Dean Knoetze

Werner steyn

Dan engel

Joe Ndala, Tinus van Wyk, mauritz van Wyk

Dave sternberg and Paul Lowther

Cliff gurney and Leon mulder

Paul servant and bruce genricks

omar sharfoodeen, Joel Davis, Petros sithole and Joey Twala

Tumelo sibanyoni

Divesh Nathoo, Craig Hooker, Parmesh Naidoo, John Dyssell and Joe Ndala

mpho moseki, ivy Dlamini and Charity Nyabereka

Dean govender and Jason Johnston

electrosonic Team (back) with Dr Kramer & mrs Kramer (front)

Denise van Wyk and Thea Pretorius

eugene Coetzee and Vanio Alexondrov

Peter Varley

Raul Novick

Raylene Power, Themba Phillips, Posa Nkomo and Nikiwe Lubisi

suren Lutchman, Peter Dahlin, Adrian skinner and grant Williams

Vanio Alexondrov and Lourie Coetzee

DF Solutions and Residential Solutions Training – iLED offices, Roodepoort

Polycom HDX and RealPresence Series Launch – Kathea office, Sandton

Dr Kramer’s “Future of AV” Seminar – Pick n Pay Institute, Fourways

Martin Professionals’ Peter Dahlin and Christian Engsted South African Visit – Electrosonic offices, Johannesburg

brinlay Pritchard, steve Alves and bruce genricks

sACiA members discussing ethics

Adrian Poulsen, Jaci de Villiers and Joceyn broderick

Catherine Dickinson and Kamini soobben

brendan Venter and stuart black

ian blair, mathius Kunde and Dave Whitehouse

gerhard Klopper and Nilesh bhana

Kris Dobie, James Hill and Wikus Venter

Andre Westrad and Kevin Rieck

David mukwana, emelda Khola and Thunyelwa Thambe

brian grogan

Kealeboga molefe, Palesa Zimbiri, Tersia du Plessis, Anele Tsewu, Dr Jan Nel, Lebogang Dhlamini, Thabang sebothoma, Keoitse Lobelo, mthunzi Ntshangase, Chantel Coetzee, mac motlotlo makhobtloane & Thato moalusi

mpho mazibuko and Lukas sibeko

sammy Naidoo, Anton Pike, Rudi du Plooy, brent eustice and mark geldenhuys

bruce genricks

Declan Randall

bright Asante, K. Fosu-Amoah, Abram mmuthule and Lancelot manjoro

Andries Liebenberg and Norman sesana

Keegan Adams, Rene Russol and benjamin mills

maria Khumalo and Nonhlanhla Kunene

sobi mokholo, Duncan Todd, mike berridge and Rob Nelson

Tebogo Dube, Levy modiba, David Forbes and Dean Jules

Arno mocke

Peter mitchell, marcus Henning and Chantel Coetzee

brendan Pursey and gareth Chambers

elijah makgobenyane and Wilhelm Disbergen

ernett Nkwana and Tebogo madega

grant Nortman and JC Laurent

Camilla brengosz and James Hsu

David mafokeng, Aubrey Ndaba and Thato mafokeng

gavin Atkinson

Lucky Nkosi, Jeffrey Kubheka, Patrick mbatha, george masilela and David mukwana

mannie manim, Dr jan Nel and James o’Donoghue

mannie mannim, Richard Pilbrow and Declan Randall

sam mutero and Len bloem stuart black, Camilla brengosz and Charl marais

Thys Venter (left) shows off the power of 3D

SACIA Breakfast – Blandford Manor, Johannesburg

Stage Lighting Master Classes 2012 – Market Theatre, Johannesburg

Vivitek Product Launch– Audiosure, Johannesburg

Viva Afrika

viva afrikaViva Afrika Sound and Light (Pty) Ltd

Unit 2, 2 Drakensburg RoadLongmeadow Business Park West, West� eld

PO Box 4709, Rivonia, 2128, South AfricaTel: 011 250-3280, Fax: 011 608-4109

[email protected], www.hybrid.co.za

Lightweight cost, Lightweight mass

Heavyweight punch!

• Small footprint and light weight

• DVA T12 and DVA T4 are totally compatible to fi t together

• DVA Composer predictive software manages the complete set-up

– which includes the DVA S30N Subs, DVA T12 and DVA T4 line array enclosures –

ensuring limitless combinations, to suit venues from clubs to stadiums and everything in between

• RDNet Software manages the system during shows

DVA T4 3 Way Active Line Array Module

Frequency Response (+/- 3dB):

80 – 19000Hz

Max SPL: 128dB

HF Drivers: 2 x 1” Neo Compression Driver

MF Driver: 1 x 6.5” Neo

LF Driver: 8” Neo

Power Rating: 220 + 100 + 100 W

Weight: 13.8Kg

Dimensions mm: 580(W) x 240(H) x 327(D)

With stats to produce a technical knockout

DVA S30N Subwoofer


30 – 120Hz

Max SPL: 141dB

LF Drivers: 2 x 18” Neo

Power Rating: 3000 W

Weight: 72Kg

Dimensions mm:

1100(W) x 580(H) x 720(D)

DVA T12 3 Way Active Line Array Module


60 – 19000Hz

Max SPL: 136dB

HF Drivers: 3 x 1” Neo Compression Driver

MF Drivers: 2 x 6.5” Neo

LF Driver: 12” Neo

Power Rating: 710 + 350 + 350 W

Weight: 29.9Kg

Dimensions mm: 580(W) x 386(H) x 430(D)

IT’s All AbouT The People

Thank you to the people for your support.

Happiness in 2013.

DWR

pro-systems 4th quarter 2012

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