Tech Talk

Real freedom of speech ClearCom would have to be regarded as one of the main big players in the comms industry, and with a comprehensive array of product spanning wired and wireless pointto- point and partyline systems, it’s little wonder. The FreeSpeak platform has been around for long enough that it was time for an…

Officially launched at ProLight+Sound 2015, Adamson System Engineering’s new sub-compact line array system, the S-Series, has finally made it to Australia. Proud distributor CMI was keen to show it off, and invited audio bods from around the nation to their Brooklyn, Victoria headquarters to hear it. David Doorman, Adamson’s Technical Director for Asia- Pacific, was on hand to talk tech, answer questions and play some…

LED Blinder The humble audience blinder has been a mainstay of concert production since forever. Commonly found on front trusses, rear trusses, and scattered around stages, the tungsten blinder has certainly found a place in the world. But it’s not without some problems… A standard Molefay Duet uses a pair of 650W 120V Par 36…

Compact hybrid fixture It’s no secret I have a lot of time for Clay Paky. I love how well the company does optics, and the Mythos is perhaps one of their neatest achievements yet. It’s a compact fixture with a 1,500 hour, 470W discharge lamp. Luminous flux is stated at 23,000lm, native colour temperature is…

It’s become a Melbourne pastime to be disparaging about Docklands, the newly redeveloped waterfront precinct that’s home to vast gleaming towers and new business headquarters. Until now, it’s been missing a heart. That’s changed with the new library at Victoria Harbour, which is following the overseas trend of libraries becoming multifunction community meeting spaces with additional facilities like 3D printing and a recording studio. Library at the Dock stands out for…

Lessons learnt Allen & Heath has come a long way in the digital console market since the release of their first effort, the iLive. I was initially skeptical about iLive because I thought it was over-priced and clunky – indeed the first generation console didn’t find widespread market acceptance here in Australia. But since then the company has revised the software several…

Tidy tiny analogue I was recently asked by a friend for a recommendation on a small format analogue console which sounds decent. Mackie was not only among the brands which sprang to mind, it was the first. Small format analogue is kind of their domain – they’ve been doing it for years and they do it…

Renew, recycle, reuse The success of the Source Four as a luminaire is hard to deny – the modular design of the light source and swappable lens tube have made it a favourite for theatres and venues the world over. PRG now offers a product designed to allow users to make use of their existing…

Shoot your cabling duties down This might be the invention for which the entertainment industry has been waiting, seemingly forever. Now it’s here, and it’s pretty cool. The GaffGun first blipped on the CX radar when videos of the thing began appearing all over our individual social media feeds. Yes, most of our friends are…

  New to The Mill’s long list of software recently has been HOFA’s CD-Burn & DDP – standalone version – a fairly simple but effective red-book audio CD burning and pre-master DDP (Disc Description Protocol) manufacturing program that runs rock solidly on the Mac platform (it’s also available for PC). HOFA, a German mob from…

Moving head with framing shutters At the time of writing, the PR Lighting XR Series comprised no less than 17 models, ranging from the tiny little XR130 units right up to the XR1000 models. One of which we’re reviewing today – specifically the framing model. The XR1000 Framing has a feature set which is comparable…

The Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) is Australia’s first purpose- built convention centre, and is currently into the final stage of a $400 million dollar expansion. The redevelopment of the Centre’s expansion has been staged to ensure it can continue to operate throughout. The West Building, stage one of the expansion, officially opened in March 2015.…