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IEINSTALLATION EUROPE

Audio, video and lighting in the built environment

BARS, CLUBS AND RESTAURANTSLack of convergence between pro AV and entertainment, p44

www.installationeurope.com

Issue 96 � June 2008 � £5 ¤8

ITALY FOCUSOpportunities despite political upheaval, p34

WHOLE LIFE COSTSLook beyond ticket price when choosing power amps, p20

A lot to talk aboutConference system functionality is growing rapidly

A lot to talk aboutConference system functionality is growing rapidly

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IE96 Cover3.qxd 3/6/08 07:05 Page 1

Something slightly curi-ous happened at theSIB Internat ionaltradeshow in Rimini,Italy, in April. For thefirst time, the biennial

festival of entertainment technol-ogy introduced a hall dedicated tocommercial and residential AV. Theinnovation was in keeping withSIB’s stated goal of embracing newmarkets, and it went down well withexhibitors.

As Ennio Prase, co-owner of spe-cialist installed audio distributorPrase Engineering, put it after theshow: “SIB was fantastic and reallypositive for us – the right exhibitors,the right visitors, the right environ-ment. Would we go back in twoyears’ time? Unquestionably, yes.”

Other exhibitors in the ‘AV’ zoneechoed Prase’s comments but, else-where at the show, the mood wasless uniformly positive. Some mov-ing-head lighting manufacturershad already defected to the rivalShowWay event in Bergamo earlierin the year. Those who remainedfound themselves in halls which,while they buzzed and boomed tothe tune of the local DJ communitystrutting its stuff over the weekend,didn’t seem to deliver much thatwas new in the way of solid business.

All of which raises a question. Ifthe audio side of the entertain-ment technology industry is sohappy to embrace the new breed ofAV-oriented customer, why doesn’tthe lighting side of it see the samepotential? Is the much-vauntedconvergence between commercialAV and entertainment really hap-pening? Or is its progress beingimpeded by the conservatism ofthe manufacturers and their sup-ply chains?

On the ground, there’s little

doubt that entertainment venuesthemselves are increasinglydemanding convergence. MikeGlover, whose Essex Sound & Lightcompany specialises in integrationfor night venues, sums up the situa-tion when he says: “The AV andvideo side of things is really pickingup now. People are grabbing hold ofthe idea and running with it. Andmost of these customers wouldrather we came in and took over thewhole job – the sound, the lightand the AV.

“That’s especially true if they’renew to the industry and it’s theirfirst venue. They get worried, andthey want one person to manage allthe technical aspects of the installa-tion. It’s so much easier for them ifwe can be a one-stop shop, and theyhave only one number to call ifsomething is not right.”

Return to MayhemThe March 2008 edit ion ofInstallation Europe showcased one ofESL’s most comprehensive installa-tions: Mayhem in Southend-on-Sea.The company revisited the night-club to extend the AV and lightinginfrastructure to newly openedareas, after completing the initialproject in 2005. From an integra-t ion perspect ive , i t ’ s hard toimagine a nightclub that has takenthe convergence of sound, light andvideo more seriously. At Mayhem,Glover’s company used the GreenHippo Hippotizer Express mediaserver as the main source of AV con-tent, and the ShowCAD Artistshow-control system as the primarymeans of controlling it.

“ShowCAD triggers everything –we use it as the main controller forall our installations,” says Glover.“And we’ve found the Hippotizer tobe one of the best media servers on

the market. It’s not the cheapest, butwe’ve found it to be the most reli-able. Green Hippo is happy to getinvolved and will amend anythingthat needs to be amended to make itright for each particular job.”

Yet it’s interesting to note thatneither ShowCAD nor Green Hippoare exactly a household name withinthe commercial AV community.Both companies tend to promotetheir offerings through establishedentertainment industry channels,rather than AV ones. By the sametoken, established names in multi-media sourcing and control in theAV world, such as Crestron andAMX, have yet to make much head-way in the world of bars, loungesand clubs. Glover thinks he knowsat least part of the reason why.

“At Mayhem,” Glover explains,“they had four leather-clad VIPpods that had TV screens insidethem. Initially those screens wereshowing the same content as therest of the club. Then the ownersdecided that the customers usingthe pods should have channelselection for their screens, and wewere going to use AMX for that,l inking the control lers to theKramer AV matrix switcher thatwas at the core of the signal distri-bution in the installation. But itwas going to be expensive, and wewere concerned that in a club envi-r o n m e n t , t h e t o u c h s c r e e n swouldn’t be rugged enough.”

Having rejected an AV solutionto an entertainment problem, ESLthen decided to take the oppositetack. “We’d installed some BSScontrollers in the pods for audiosource selection, and there was ap ot o n e a c h o f t h e m t h a t weweren’t using,” Glover recalls. “Wew a n t e d t o c o n n e c t t h e B S SSoundweb London DSP controller

to the Kramer matrix via RS-232 sothat we could use the pot to selectvideo as well as audio. BSS told uswe couldn’t do it. Two weeks later,we called them to tell them howwe’d done it!”

Broader optionsESL has used Crestron and AMXcontrollers on a few occasions, butGlover says he would generally viewthem “as an add-on, not as the mainplatform for the system”. In contrast,Chris Gunton at CGA Integration,another ‘one-stop shop’ companywith an impressive track record in theentertainment industry, is somethingof an evangelist when it comes to thebroader media control and buildingmanagement options that a Crestronor AMX solution can provide. Thenagain, that may be because CGA’sbusiness has diversified substantiallyin recent years, and now embraceslocations such as hotels, fitness cen-tres, and even people’s homes.

“There are more one-stop shops inthe residential market than in thecommercial one,” Gunton observes.“That’s partly because there still needsto be more convergence on the part ofthe manufacturers. If you look atCrestron products, for example – theyunderstand lighting dimmers, butthey don’t understand DMX.”

In many ways, this is the otherside of the ShowCAD/Green Hippocoin. Both Crestron and AMX werehappy to take the plunge into SIB’snew-look show this year, but theywere firmly in the ‘quiet AV’ hall,where DMX (which, for all its limita-tions, remains the technologicallifeblood of entertainment lighting)would be dismissed as irrelevant, if itwere understood at all.

Like a fair number of entertain-ment-industry integrators, Guntonbegan his career as a DJ. He designed

sound and light installations fordozens of what he calls ‘high street’venues in the late 1990s and the earlypart of this decade, before realigninghis business to cater for higher-endcustomers requiring a more bespokesolution, among them top-namehotels and restaurants. He sees him-

44 Markets: Bars, Clubs, Restaurantswww.installationeurope.com

Designed by architect Massimo Cadamuro, top club Area Venezia in the North Italian town ofMestre boasts a DYNACORD alpha concept sound system, installed by Renate-based pro-audio company dSoundPro, tailored precisely to the acoustics of the various guest areas

Pont Aeri Discoteque in Sant Celoni,near Barcelona, has recently beenrevamped with kit from Master AudioProfessional Sound Systems, as well asa variety of video and lightingequipment

Separate tables?For all the talk of convergence between pro-AV and entertainmenttechnology, many venue owners continue to use different suppliers for each, while the manufacturers’ business culture seems as far apart as ever.Dan Goldstein wonders why…

‘There aremore one-stopshops in theresidentialmarket than in thecommercialone’ Chris Gunton, CGA

Integration

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self as “a mediator – someone whopulls people from different disci-plines together”, but accepts this isn’tappropriate for every client.

“There are some people I only doaudio for, because they already have aregular lighting company,” he says.“Sometimes it’s the customer’s mind-set, and there’s no point arguing withthem if they have specialists who theytrust, working in a particular field.There are lighting designers out therewho are doing stuff that you couldn’tdo unless you were fully focused onlighting. There is the argument thatif you want someone to do yourbooks, you don’t go to a plumberwho is also an accountant. So I cansee both sides of the argument.”

Bigger pictureGunton does admit to getting frus-trated, however, when a customer’sinability to see the bigger pictureresults in a project not being realisedin the most technologically complete– and financially advantageous –way. “We did a pitch recently to ahotel that was spending £8,000 amonth on electricity,” he says, “andreckoned that by putting in aCrestron control hub and a roommanagement system to automati-cally turn power on and off, we couldsave them 30% of that. Not onlycould we have saved them power, butwe could also have reduced mainte-nance costs by having remotemanagement of that, too.

“ The problem was that theaccountants couldn’t see beyondthe through-the-door cost of thesystem – it was just too high. Sonow we’re doing the lighting, some-

one else is doing the AV, and some-one else is complaining about theelectricity bill!”

In these days of spiralling energycosts, the ability of systems integra-tion to reduce customers’ electricitybills could yet act as an importantcatalyst for further convergence ofAV with entertainment technology.Using a central control hub for light-ing and AV in a hotel environment isone example. Another is the increas-ing adoption of LED – a favouredtechnology of the AV fraternity – bytraditional sound and lighting con-tractors, in preference to moreconventional light sources.

“LED saves you running costs,but it can also save on initial installa-tion costs,” says Glover. “In the past,if we went to fit out a venue that had100A or 200A three-phase electricitycoming in, the chances are thatwouldn’t have been enough. They’dhave had kitchens, high-power audioand so on, and if you put conven-tional coloured lights on top of that,you’d need a bigger mains feed.

“LED lighting draws a lot lesspower, and it means we’re no longerhaving to use things like generic PARcans, which draw an enormousamount of power. So in many cases,we can now use the existing AC mainsfeed without any problems at all.”

A perfect example of this is therestaurant and nightclub at 50 DoverStreet in London (see case study, left),where the ESL team has undertaken acomplete overhaul of the lighting sys-tem, which is now exclusivelyLED-based and draws just 10A ofmains power. But simply installing aseries of LED panels into such a venue

46 Markets: Bars, Clubs, Restaurantswww.installationeurope.com

There are plenty of powerhouse audio network systems available. Ones with hundreds of channels. Ones that network engineers love to configure. What if someone offereda system that worked out of the box with no configuration? One fast enough to really call low latency? We think people would start to realize they can get digital quality audio for any size system everywhere they want it. And far away, too, with a 200 meterrange—up to twice the distance of any Ethernet system.

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AN EXCLUSIVE LEBANESEnightclub/restaurant, occupyingthe prime-site corner of Mayfair’sDover Street and Piccadilly, andnow branded simply as ‘50 DoverStreet’, has undergone acomplete lighting makeoverunder the inspiration of EssexSound & Light. Having obtaineda 6am licence two years ago,owner Wahid Makhaiel neededto be assured that thisremarkable installation wouldpass the durability test, since itwould need to function overlong duty cycles.

The brief handed to ESL’sMike Glover and lightingprogrammer Bob Calvert wasto provide a coruscatinginterior based around ananimated LED graphics wall,supported by concealed RGBedge-lit LED ‘tape’ and classicMR16s providing the LED spoteffects. To deliver this solution

the designers specified PulsarChroma MR16s, Malham’sdiscreet strips of tiny SMDLEDs, which curve like aflexible PCB, and the dynamicnew X-Panels from LightingEffects Distribution.

Some 236 of the 200mm x200mm graphic X-Panels adornthe stairway and facing walls ofthe nightclub, under the controlof a Green Hippo Hippotizer V3.The X-Panels allow for theconvergence of light and videoin a colourful and interactivebackdrop. Users can combinevideo with text, or still imageswith animated cartoons. Eachtile is equipped with 25 high-intensity RGB LEDs and thesystem supports more than 10types of software.

Calvert has placed all thelighting under the command ofa ShowCAD Artist. The walladdress is via a VGA/DVI signal

passed through the Hippotizer,where it is sampled and pixel-mapped to DMX for the panels;user control of the Hippotizercomes from the ShowCAD,integrating the video in withthe rest of the lighting effects.The lighting control architecturehas been constructed around amassive 25 DMX universes (inview of their RGB mix, thelargest X-Panel wall alonerequires 16).

Arguably ESL’s greatestachievement is the swirlingentrance staircase, whichprovides a magical journeydown into the basement pastanother 10 x 8 X-Panel, glowingMalham tape uplighters and aseries of MR16s in customchrome ‘cans’ fabricated by ESL’sengineering department. Sinceeach MR16 on the stair treads isassigned its own channel, it ispossible to generate any colour.LED tape is also used tobacklight the austere but ornatedark wood support columns.

Because the configurablepanels will produceunconventional aspect ratios,the correct choice of content isparamount to prevent theimage looking twisted andcrooked, according to Calvert.Hippotizer enables this to beachieved by cropping,stretching or compressing theimage in the software.

Case study: LEDs give new light to Lebanese venue

The lighting system at50 Dover Street is nowexclusively LED-basedand draws just 10A ofmains power

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would not, on its own, have been suffi-cient to take the place of the previouslighting set-up. It is ESL’s expertise invideo servers, show control and AVsignal distribution that have enabledthe LED effects to rise above thosethat preceded them, and make theproject a creative triumph – as well asa financial success.

To put it another way (and usesomething of an industry cliché), con-tent is king. “We don’t personally getinvolved with the programming ofcontent, but we sub-contract it andwork very closely with the people whodo,” says Glover.

Gunton tells a similar story: “Wework with two or three companieswho are specialists in their field,because customers are starting torecognise the importance of having aproper music or AV profile for theirvenue. A good profiler will come backto the venue after the content has

been supplied, to see how it’s working,whether it suits the ambience,whether the customers are enjoying it.It’s not like a pub chain where you canspecify the music for the whole coun-try. It’s a bespoke job that requires abespoke approach. I liken it to the skillof a DJ working a room – being able toreact to what the crowd is doing. Howdo you keep the atmosphere going?Or how do you change it if it’s notworking? That’s where specialistknowledge of content comes in.”

But, as Gunton says, if you’re seri-ous about content, you needintegration. “Everything needs to bebrought under central control if youwant the venue environment to beconsistent. You need time clocks toreduce or eliminate the staff require-ment. If everything – audio, AV,lighting – is triggered off the harddrive, the venue can still trade if themanager takes the day off.”

This interest in the ongoingwellbeing of a venue, long after thetechnical installation has been com-pleted, i s of ten what helpsdifferentiate a true integrator froma disinterested contractor. “We lookafter the service side for every proj-ect we install,” says Glover. “Wehave a big in-house repair team, andwe carry loan stock that we can sup-ply to a customer to replaceequipment that has failed. It’s basi-cally a complete package, fromdrawings and content des ignthrough to looking after the venueafter it’s been completed.”

Yet the broader the range oftechnologies an integratorembraces, the greater the risk thatsomething they have supplied willfail. “We should be looking at moremulti-faith, multi-disciplined sys-tems,” says Gunton, “but we needstandards. We need redundancybecause when everything comesdown to one interface, if it falls overyou have a problem.

“We should be telling manufac-turers that we need moreredundancy, more split processors.And we should be saying to endusers: consider the cost of owner-ship, maintenance and backing up.This gear doesn’t go on forever.People change the computer intheir office every two years, yet thesesame people expect their Crestronor AMX touchpanel to keep goingfor more than a decade. And it’sworking 24/7, it’s in a harsher envi-ronment, you’ve got all sorts ofpeople using it, so it’s going to besubjected to more abuse. Why dopeople expect it to last so long?”

48 Markets: Bars, Clubs, Restaurantswww.installationeurope.com

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‘Mostcustomerswant oneperson tomanage allthe technicalaspects of theinstallation’ Mike Glover,Essex Sound & Light

The Music Bar Bomfi, in Castelldefels,Barcelona, has again turned to D.A.S.Audio for a new sound system, installedby Fidel Color

IE96_P44-50_Markets_BarsClubsRestaurants_JR 3/6/08 00:44 Page 48

The situation is probably bestsummed up like this. Pro-AV andentertainment technology are cer-tainly converging, not least in theway that integrators themselvesalign their businesses and their skillsets. But manufacturers still havesome R&D to do before the processis complete, and once that is done,they will need to think harder abouthow they position themselves in themarket. Can lighting companies, forexample, continue to promote the‘wow factor’ of individual products,rather than the potential of theirrange to play its part in a total, inte-grated system solution?

At the other end of the foodchain , too , there i s s t i l l someprogress to be made – not just inhow customers perceive thesetechnologies, but in how they buyand use them. Gunton says it isnow “absolutely normal for digitalsignage to sit alongside LED light-ing in a hotel bar”, but he worriesthat corporate end-user structuresare standing in the way of bettersystems.

“There is a management issue.When you look at a hotel, the differ-ent areas, such as the lobby, theconference rooms, the restaurant,the nightclub, and the guestroomsthemselves, are often managed bydifferent people. So the potentialthat you have for putt ing in ajoined-up system, one in which thedigital signage can tell people whereto go for tomorrow’s meeting, wher-ever they are in the hotel, and islinked to the same control platformas the lighting, might be limited.”

In essence, then – and to useGunton’s somehow very appositebuzzword – it’s not just a questionof having joined-up technology. Weneed joined-up thinking, too. IE

50 Markets: Bars, Clubs, Restaurantswww.installationeurope.com

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COMPACT, OPULENT ANDfinished to a high degree ofcraftsmanship, the Crystal Bar

carries through the DorchesterHotel’s themes of luxury, qualityand high service standards to

late-night opening, offeringrelaxed drinks and discreetcorporate or VIP entertainment.Following successfulcommissions, CGA Integrationwas chosen to provide an AVsystem reflecting theDorchester’s signature valuesthrough high quality, attentionto detail and intuitiveoperation.

Consultation with the clientidentified an extremely variedscope for events andentertainment. Routine openingrequired background music,while anticipated demand forspecial events ranged from livesports and news to film andproduct launches, DJ nights,

private parties and karaoke. Liveduos or bands needed to beable to play on the house PA ortheir own PA, and the barneeded to offer several optionsfor positioning to create aunique feel for all events.

CGA Integration used PeaveyX-frame processing and wall-mounted X-controls to createthree zones in the bar, includingan optionally secluded VIP area,allowing flexibility, soundquality control andcustomisation. Inputs from a DJconsole, two radio microphones,a live band and customisedmusic solution create a mix ofopportunities for normaloperation or high-profile unique

occasions. Band and soundengineer positions can be variedaround the bar.

Evenly distributed sound isdelivered from a carefullyspecified mix of EV S40 wallspeakers and EViD c4.2 ceilingspeakers, warmed by EViD 10.1bass bins and Martin Audiosubs. MF and HF audio is drivenby Cloud multichannel ampswith EVQ series on the bass.

Video distributionarchitecture has also beenincluded to widen opportunitiesfor entertainment. A feed fromthe hotel system supplies live TV,but the potential to add customvideo or entertainment via adirect input is also available.

Case study: flexible AV distribution at the Dorchester Hotel, London

The audio brief for the Crystal Bar at the Dorchester Hotel had an extremely variedrequirement for events and entertainment, with several options for positioning

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