News

15 Oct 2015

Integrate 2015 – ICT meets AV in the MCEC

The Integrate tradeshow made its way down south to Melbourne in August for the first time in its six year history. The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre suits the show well, with the vibe being almost exactly the same as InfoComm in Las Vegas, complete with casino next door. The standard of exhibit, technology and visitor was high, with many of the industry’s leading figures making the journey down from Sydney, lured in part by the excellent programme of education seminars laid on by InfoComm.

On the tech side, the dominant themes were 4K and HDBaseT on everything, lasers and ultra short throw lenses on projectors, new ways to deal with IPTV, and AV control evolving to become a human resource management tool. Jason Allen prowled the show floor to bring you this round-up of new and notable technology, including news on movements in product distribution and personnel changes.

Introducing Australis Pro Audio

Australis Pro Audio: L to R Ben Ruut, Trevor Morrow, Adam Goglis, Kurt Schramm, Dave Kelly, Peter Costello, Nik Buchanan

Australis chose Integrate to introduce Australia to its new stable of professional brands, now falling under the Australis Pro Audio banner. Having acquired distribution of the Music Group’s Behringer and Turbosound, Australis recently announced the TC Group of brands, including lab.gruppen, Lake and Tannoy, are now also in their stable..

“We’ve been looking after the artists for 40 years with brands like Ibanez and Tama,” said Australis CEO Trevor Morrow. “Now we’re also looking after the stage, front of house, the audience and the technician. We know what the artist wants, and now we’re giving the technician what they need. Our new brands are integrated into our business using

the same logistics, marketing, and accounts team, but we’ve brought in technical expertise and talent to make sure we supply what’s required. New recruits Nik Buchanan, Dave Kelly and Peter Costello are very experienced, service-driven, and fit fantastically into the culture of Australis.”

Crestron – more HR than AV

Crestron’s Stephen Beck uses his iPhone to book a meeting room via Fusion and PinPoint

Crestron Fusion is an enterprise management platform that in addition to enabling remote monitoring and management of AV equipment, also handles room scheduling, lighting control , climate control, and energy consumption measurement and control, all from the same software, run either on your own server or through the cloud. What’s really interesting about it is what’s possible when it’s paired up with customisable personal profiles and individual device control.

Using handy gadgets like PinPoint, a tiny USB/Bluetooth device that plugs into USB wall sockets or chargers, a user on the Fusion network can have their preferences follow them around a building, or even from home to the office. Through their iPad or iPhone, AV controls relevant to the space they’re in appear on screen. PinPoint sensors outside meeting rooms let the user see availability and make bookings. Temperature, lighting and shade preferences can all change when you enter a space. The possibilities are huge, customisable and food for thought for any integrator.

Interacting with Hitachi

Hitachi’s Michael O’Connor demonstrates the HITFHD6516 65” full HD interactive flat panel

With huge players like Microsoft entering the interactive panel market with its oversized Surface model, the sector is about to get very crowded. But companies like Hitachi have the drop on the newcomers, having occupied the market for so long. The HITFHD6516 offers six person multi-touch interactivity, a bright LED anti-glare screen, wide viewing angle and 15W front facing speakers. It’s compatible with Windows 7 or 8.1, has wireless capability and the option to include a built-in PC.

Collaborating with Wolfvision

Hill’s Himal Jekishan with the Woflfvision Cynap

The market for wireless collaborative devices for small corporate and education spaces continues to expand. The Wolfvision Cynap is one of the most flexible and useful devices I’ve seen for this application. It’s built-in wireless supports connection up to four BYO devices on iOS, Android, Mac or PC. Cynap can play, display, record, and stream all commonly used media simultaneously,
from local storage, connected devices, cloud or USB. It supports both AirPlay and Miracast, and can record video and audio of sessions direct to internal memory or USB. Connectivity includes HDBaseT, multiple HDMI in and outs, network port, four USB ports, and audio in and out.

OHRCA Spotting

Roland’s Marc Allen with the M-5000 Live Mixing Console

Roland’s new M-5000 made its Melbourne debut on the Hills stand, ably presented by Roland’s Marc Allen. The open architecture system isn’t really measured by ins and out, but by 128 processing paths, completely user configurable. And that’s what Roland’s OHRCA (Open High Resolution Configurable Architecture) system is all about – the ability to make the desk do just about anything you want. Compatible with all existing Roland stageboxes and M-48 personal monitors, you can also connect the M-5000 to Dante, MADI, Waves SoundGrid, REAC, XI-SDI, XI-SFP, and XI-DVI. You can set-up three inputs per channel (input, track and alternate), make ins and outs stereo or mono, reorder EQ and dynamics processors, setup a Mix Minus, Solo In Place, and run and monitor in 5.1. Topping it all off are 24 DCAs, 8 mute groups, 8 FX engines, 32 GEQs and parametrics, two RTAs, and a built in 16×16 USB interface.

Audio Brands Australia presents Univox

Audio Brands Australia’s Don McConnell with Univox

Rapidly growing distributor Audio Brands Australia were happy to announce their distributorship of Univox, an industry leading hearing loop manufacturer. Founded in Sweden in 1965, Univox export to countries including Norway, Denmark, Finland, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, USA, New Zealand and China. Long- term dedication to R&D has positioned Univox at the forefront of the induction loop industry, with the range featuring high voltage and high current models with long-lasting casings. Univox were also deeply involved in the creation of the enhanced IEC 60118-4 standard for induction loops, which was adopted in 2006.

EAW goes Redline

PAVT’s Ben Clarke with EAW Redline

Production Audio Video Technology brought the cool to Integrate with their craft beer bar and musical act playing through their enormous EAW Anya adaptive line array. But the focus wasn’t on the mighty Anya, but the latest from EAW; the Redline range of active speakers. The Redline family consists of two powered, two-way loudspeakers – the RL12 12” and RL15 15” – along with the RL18S 18-inch powered subwoofer. The top boxes feature 90 x 60 degree user-rotatable horns and 1,250W of fanless Class-D, Power Factor Corrected amplification. On-board processing lets you choose between three user- defined voicings. The RL18S subwoofer runs a single 18” powered by a 1000W amp. When you’ve got two or more, you can use them in cardioid mode via simple rear-panel controls.

Extron in control

Extron’s Marc Booth with the CCI Pro 700

With a huge presence near the front door of the show, Extron had its full range of switching, routing, processing and control products on display. But what caught my eye was this not-very- Extron-looking bit of gear, the CCI Pro 700. It’s a control system and user interface for conferencing, collaboration and AV control. Looking like a phone with an LCD screen, it includes a 3.5” colour information display, a numeric keypad, and backlit buttons. The information display can be used to show contact information, call directories, and call status. Buttons directly below the display can be used to navigate custom lists and menus. The display and all buttons can be customised using Extron software. This is a good looking, powerful piece of control hardware that will look at home on any boardroom table.

Q-SYS goes Corporate

The expanding range of QSC Q-SYS processing and control options at the TAG stand

Technical Audio Group were showing off the expansion of the Q-SYS range to include both processors and control aimed fairly and squarely at meeting rooms. The QSC Q-SYS Core 110f is the latest addition to the Q-SYS line-up of network audio solutions, with 24 I/O, USB, POTS and VoIP simultaneously. It integrates with QSC’s own suite of software-based conferencing technology which includes next generation acoustic echo cancellation (AEC), multiple-instance SIP softphones, gain sharing and gating automixers. Complementing the new processor are new control options like the TSC-7T table touchscreen and the TSC-7w wall mounted screen.

BSS expands control and connectivity

BSS BLU-DAN

On the Jands stand, BSS were showing their new BLU-DAN Dante to BLU link bridge. With Dante now the dominant digital audio network standard, the BLU-DAN lets BSS users simultaneously transmit and receive 64 channels of Dante via BLU link to any BLU link device, including amps and processors. Two more handy options for BLU systems include the BSS EC-V Ethernet Wall Controller, a volume control compatible with BSS Audio Soundweb London, Crown DCi, and other HiQnet devices, and the BSS EC-4B Ethernet Wall Controller, a four button controller compatible with the same range.

Sennheiser SpeechLine Digital

Sennheiser’s Jason Grbevski with Speechline Digital

After being nice enough to invite us to their 70th birthday party at the David Bowie exhibition running at ACMI, Sennheiser wowed us with SpeechLine Digital. The range consists of mobile transmitters tailored for presentation, with speech optimised microphone capsules and an easy-to-integrate stationary receiver. Batteries can be recharged in multi-device chargers or via USB, and give a 15 hour operating time. Running in DECT (1.9 GHz license free range), Automatic Frequency Management keeps channels interference free. Automatic Sensitivity Management makes the setup even easier, with gain settings made automatically. Speechline can be controlled over a network via AMX, Crestron iOS and Android apps.

Lightware in the Matrix

Lightware‘s Jacques van Deventer and Jason Wright with their 25G Hybrid Frame

Lightware were showing a handy range of new matrix switchers, the MMX Series. Designed for smaller meeting room and classroom environments, the range has three models. The MMX6x2-HT220 has six video inputs and two video outputs – four HDMI 1.4 and two TPS (HDBaseT) inputs and two independent HDMI outputs which both have mirrored TPS (HDBaseT) outputs. With 4K@30Hz, 3D capabilities and HDCP fully supported, the device also has four audio connectors for audio insertion and two audio outputs for de-embedding purposes. PoE 48V remote powering is available on all TPS ports on both input and output. The other two models are variations on the HT220; the HT210 has the same specs but only one TPS output, while the HT200 has only HDMI outs.

NAS in the Cloud

National Audio System’s Shane Bailey with Cloud and Ashly

National Audio Systems distribute a range of extremely useful integration product, not least the Cloud range. Operating in the UK since the 70s, Cloud make products specifically for commercial audio installation. In the rack pictured, Cloud products from the top down include the DCM1e 8 in 8 out digital processor, CDR1 remote control, LM2 input and volume control wallplate, CX263 three zone, eight in mixer, and 36/50 two zone mixer amplifier.

ULA’s Pixel Pitch

L to R: ULA’s Cuono Biviano, Blair Terrace, Lenka Šatánková, and Nathan Wright with their Vuepix S1.8 screen

Vuepix’s S Series are serious LED screens for serious applications. Proudly hanging in pride of place on ULA’s stand was a screen made up of S1.8 panels, which measure 465x465mm with a depth of 78mm, contain 256×256 pixels per panel, put out an impressive 800~1,000 nits and have a very satisfying 1.81mm pixel pitch. Assembly is practical and well designed, with some really well-thought out features for protecting the sides of the panels from damage if it’s going into a hire situation where its regularly assembled and disassembled.

First published in CX Magazine (October, 2015)

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