Hurrairah bin Sohail discovers how the University of Newcastle upgraded AV systems to make its Great Hall leap into the future and highlight AV and IT’s convergence.
The University of Newcastle’s Great
Hall, found on the university’s
Callaghan campus located in the
western suburbs of Newcastle,
New South Wales is a local
landmark. The Great Hall was constructed in
the early 1970s and was built with signiï¬ cant
contributions from the local community.
The building is multi-functional and is used
by the university and the Newcastle community
for a wide range of events. With this in mind,
the university decided to upgrade the AV
infrastructure of the venue.
Xcite Audio Visual served as the integrator
while InDesign Technologies was the consultant
for the upgrade project. Work commenced in
June 2017 and was completed in October 2017.
Peter Coman from InDesign Technologies
talks about the brief from the client: “The reason
behind the upgrade was to deliver a signiï¬ cant
improvement in the audio and video quality and
reliability within the University of Newcastle’s
Great Hall, in support of the university’s
teaching, learning and community outreach
activities. As part of the upgrade we set out to
convert the current analogue system to a fully
digital solution built on AV over IP technology.
We wanted to provide an AV solution that was
fl exible, scalable and able to support the wide
variety of functions that the Great Hall hosts.”
Reimagined audio
The project got off to a shaky start. Coman
explains: “In being engaged to design and
project manage the solution, the single biggest
challenge we faced was a lack of time. There
were four months to design, gain approval,
tender, procure, install and commission the
system.
“To begin with, we didn’t even have access to
the architectural drawings besides some hand-
drawn, legacy sketches from the 1970s. Because
of this, we had to engage a Sydney based
company to laser model the hall to produce 2D
and 3D drawings, just to allow us to proceed
with our work. This took three weeks, but having
the dimensioned drawings was the only way we
could move forward, other than having to draw
them ourselves, from scratch.”
Issues with the old audio system were evident.
Coman describes: “The audio in the Great Hall
was inadequate for the room and unreliable. It
was absolutely paramount that the audio issues
be overcome since that was first and foremost the
reason for the upgrade. Due to many complaints,
external companies were usually hired to provide
temporary solutions to overcome audio issues,
but this was understandably unacceptable.”
Martin Audio line-array speakers and
subwoofers have been chosen as the audio
solution. These flank the main stage and provide
audio for the Great Hall. Martin Audio amplifiers
are employed as well. A QSC Core 500i DSP
serves as the heart of the audio system. A range
of Shure and Audio-Technica microphones are
provided for the purpose of input.
Finding a spot for the line-array speakers was
not simple and Coman narrates: “Our first audio
design had the two large line-array speakers at
the front and back of the hall with a column of
sub-woofers on either side of the stage. We sent
some of the 3D renders of the speaker design to
the university who immediately rejected the sub-
woofers being on stage due to aesthetic reasons.
So we had to redesign the speaker configuration
and fly them, hanging them behind the front-
of-house line-array speakers, and the end result
looked relatively unobtrusive.”
According to Australian building code
requirements, hearing augmentation is provided
by Williams Sound and Ampetronic products.
Hard work was put in to ensure that the audio
performance was of the highest possible quality.
Coman details: “The space itself was awkward;
it’s about 30m from front to back with a stepped
ceiling. Some areas have 20m high ceilings and
there is a combination of concrete, brick and
timber surfaces. The 3D drawings allowed us to
produce detailed audio mapping and models to
determine speaker placement.”
Audio signal transmission over IP is
accomplished via Dante. Keeping in mind
the multi-functional nature of the Great Hall,
Atterotech Dante wallplates and interfaces are
also provided. This allows extra audio equipment
brought in for special events to also be brought
on to the network. An Allen & Heath mixer is
used to manage inputs and outputs.
Coman says: “All the speakers, microphone
inputs and outputs, hearing augmentation,
digital signal processors, microphones, audio
console – about 120 inputs and outputs – sit
on the network and communicate with Dante.”
Brightly lit
The legacy video system of the University
of Newcastle’s Great Hall comprises a 300-
in projection screen mounted at the front of
the room. On the left and right side at the
halfway mark of the Great Hall are two smaller,
supplementary rear projection screens. These
screens were a specific pressure point.
Imperfect motorised retraction for the two
supplementary screens, to stow them away when
not in use, meant that the projected visuals
would often be out of focus. In addition, air-
condition gusts from nearby ducts would blow
and cause the screens to move.
Coman talks about how these problems were
rectified: “The new design replaced the front
projection screen with a larger 340-in motorised
screen from Screen Technics and added a new
31,000 lumens brightness Panasonic laser
projector.” The environment in the Great Hall
is well lit and the high brightness Panasonic
projector was essential in ensuring the visuals
would be properly seen.
Coman continues: “For the smaller
supplementary screens, a transparent LED screen
was used. This technology has every second row
of LEDs omitted on a 10mm deep transparent
PCB. The overall effect results in a translucent
screen that is far less obtrusive when compared
with a jet black or stark white projection screen.
Thanks to an extremely small pixel pitch the
screens provide exceptional quality images
as well. Brightness is no issue either with
settings having to be adjusted to one third of
the potential full brightness.”
The Lymlive LED
screens are powered by Novastar LED processors.
The selection of the transparent LED screens
highlights the attention InDesign Technologies
pays to its projects and its craft. Coman says:
“We first saw the transparent LED technology at
InfoComm. While we didn’t have an application
for it initially, we were always fascinated by it.
A Sydney company manufactured a suitable
product out of China and was engaged to design
the solution. We requested a sample to take to
the university for a demonstration to help them
visualise the end result. Everyone loved it. In fact,
the key decision maker came in and took one look
at it and immediately said yes, let’s go ahead.”
The LEDs screens have been hung on the left
and right side of the walls and required a special
structure. New supports were designed to attach
to the brickwork and concrete within the left
and right walls while maintaining the optimum
70-degree angle of the original screens.
While this sounds simple, there were
complications. Coman says: “The walls on the two
sides were not the same as each other. One wall
had a massive, stepped, concrete pillar extending
out from where the screen needed to be located
and that created further complications. But we
eventually got to a suitable solution and added
steel wire as a safety measure.”
Panasonic PTZ cameras are employed to
record proceedings in the Great Hall. A full suite
of connectivity via wallplates and floorplates has
also been provided.
Streaming success
Having both audio and video signals transmitted
over IP was a key consideration for this project.
Coman says: “The transportation of video signals
over the decade has changed significantly. Years
ago it was analogue and then it was digital with
DVI and HDMI etc., with a distance limitation of
5m. HDBaseT overcame this problem and as a result
has been used extensively over the last seven years
to transport video signals over long distances.”
But HDBaseT was not an option for this
project as Coman says: “HDBaseT starts with
a transmitter encoding the video signal into a
proprietary format which is then transported over
twisted pair cable to where transmitter decodes
the signal into something usable like HDMI. While
it uses the same cabling as an IT network it is not
Internet Protocol (IP), it doesn’t stream – it is
an uncompressed video signal, just in a different
format - HDBaseT. It’s only in the last six months
we’ve started to see video transportation move
over to use IP streaming boxes.”
Crestron NVX was chosen to be the video
over IP solution. Coman says: “University of
Newcastle are a Crestron university and until
now, they were using Crestron Digital Media as
their HDBaseT transportation system. There were
certainly risks for everyone involved in shifting
over to the new NVX transportation platform,
given that it hadn’t been used anywhere
before. NVX did however provide an excellent
opportunity to ‘test’ the product before rolling
it out across the entire university. Unlike an
HDBaseT system, which relies on centralised
matrix switchers, the NVX system only requires a
standard network switch to route signals.”
He summarises: “The end result was that
every single device, no exceptions, runs off the
network with Cisco switches. The only cable
that has been used is shielded Cat6a – a first
for us and one that will have profound impact
on the way we design systems,
moving forward.”
Overall, Coman identifies
the tight time schedule as the
greatest challenge faced while
delivering this project. He
says: “For us it was pressure,
pressure, pressure the entire
time. All the challenges
that continued to pop up,
robbed us of precious time.
The deadline however was
fixed, no allowances, no
possibility to extend it. It was
a complicated project reliant
on so many moving parts –
the equipment manufacturers,
structural engineer, electrical
engineers, electrical and
comms tradespeople, AV
installers, programmers and
of course the integrity of our
design.
“Being completely honest,
we were doubtful it would
happen on time. So many
things had hindered our
progress along the way but
naturally we kept pushing. It
still feels like a miracle that it
all came together, on time.”