Pincer Ipoh

Perak Innovation and Creative Resource Centre or PINCER is the home for the largest render farm in the country. Located in Ipoh Perak it is owned by Perak State Development Corporation and managed by Perak E-Organisation Sdn Bhd.

The new PINCER studios & facilities are equipped with the latest and most advanced applications that can provides studio services for creative content work, industrial design and teaching facilities and with facilities of a mini theatre, classrooms and a gallery. It also equip with 3D character animation and motion editing software for full body motion capture and facial motion capture.

They are planning to build another studio inside the building to be equipped with studio lighting meant for video post production shooting and animation purposes.

For more information www.pincer-centre.com

TV Al Hijrah Studio

To compete globally and locally TV Al Hijrah has come out with their own Digital Broadcast TV Studio for News and Entertainment to promote new medium in Islamic activities with current needs. The Islamic content is produce here in digital format and broadcast via Astro channel.

The main contractor KUBTel has been awarded to design and build the Digital TV Station with studio lighting and back end equipment system. In the TV studio we have the opportunity to work with the Primula to install the studio lighting and dimming system.

With the TV Studio size of about 21m by 20m and height of about 8 m with the working grid above the studio the need to install different type of lighting truss straight and circular format to ease of the lighting setup is necessary.

With the truss layout a total of 24 nos of 1 ton chain master hoist were needed to power up the hoist up and down the truss and the lighting. Power cabling is via the flip flop cable tray from the grid level to the lighting truss. The truss is programmable in the touch panel to store the preset distance of the truss run.

The dimming system is a 96 channels dimmer and 24 channels DMX outputs distributed throughout the studio and terminated at the truss. Four sets of ADB Eurorack 60 dimmer racks were installed and control via Zero 88 Frog 96 DMX control desk.

Most of the studio light was from Arri for 2kW, 1kW, 650W Fresnel to studio cool fluorescent light with 4 and 6 tube types. With DMX control fluorescent light require lots of Non dim lighting point and we have done so with addition switch board to power up the light.

Working the Lighting Designer was fun and interesting as the need to create balance lighting for TV Studio which uses all HD cameras require that the color temperature has to be perfect. This is where the professional lighting designer like Jon Ramlan comes into important play especially in the HD studio. Most of the lighting set up is using 3 points lighting so that the camera can pick up details of the object with depth emphasize.

Starting June 1, Malaysia’s first Islamic television channel, TV Al Hijrah, will be made available on Astro’s Channel 114.

The campus, which will also have a faculty of applied science, a faculty of farm management and a faculty of computer science and mathematics, will be able to accommodate 5,000 students.

E&E Celebrate 60 Years Anniversary

Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd (E&E)celebrates its 60 year anniversary this year and had their anniversary dinner at Shangrila Hotel Singapore on January 26th 2011. Since starting in 1951 it has grown stronger to a 60th anniversary this year.

It is not easy to stay a float in Sound system industry for so many years but E&E Singapore just did it. Artistic Controls salute and wish to congratulate E&E for it successfull days and many years to come.

The Completed UiTM Convention Center - Front View

University Technology Mara (UiTM) in Shah Alam has built a new Convention Center in the main campus area. The newly completed Convention Center is futuristic look with a fan shape auditorium design and the main auditorium can accommodate about 4000 seats capacity.

The construction which started in late 2008 will be use for by UiTM function. Currently the building is undergoing the testing and commissioning stage. We understand that the first try run and actual use of the convention center will be by January 2011 by client the UiTM itself.

The turnkey main contractor is Marl Jaya and Artistic Controls is a specialist contractor to supply and install of the Auditorium Audio Visual System, Sound Reinforcement System, Projection System and Stage Lighting System.

UiTM Convention Center The Hall

The UiTM Convention Center when completed will be use in student convocation, cultural performance, seminar and high energy stage production like singing concert. It can be use to outside organization to rent and use the convention Center as the entrance is located near the highway.

The Sound Reinforcement System is fully digital system from Yamaha consists of 48 channels Digital Mixer for FOH, Digital Mixer for Stage Monitoring and Digital Mixer for Broadcast in Broadcast room. The selected brand for the digital mixer is Yamaha Series

The main loudspeaker is using JBL High Power Loudspeaker AES series and Crown High Performance amplifier. This combination of JBL and Crown will provide a max of 125dB which allow UiTM to use more than just the performance or speeches.

All cabling for microphones and stage and outside broadcasting is using digital Ethersound conversion. The analog microphone points will convert to digital at the stage area before send to the digital mixer system.

Matrade Naza New Convention Center

Naza Group has recently entered into building for land deal with the government which it will receive 65 acres of prime land in Kuala Lumpur for building a RM628 mil expo center for Matrade.

IT seem that another exhibition and convention center will be built in these area located along Jalan Duta. IT was understand that the building will have three floors of exhibition space that will house 12 halls. The exhibition building will have a gross area of one million sq ft.

New Matrade - Artist Impression

New Matrade Night View - Artist Impression

The whole expo will consist of main exhibition centre, multipurpose hall, auditorium, meeting rooms and display arena. There will also be a hotel, shopping mall and office tower.

The construction will start next year and due to complete by 2014.

Royal Selangor Theatre in Shah Alam

The Royal Selangor Theatre in Shah Alam which was completed in August 2008 has not been open and used yet. The Shah Alam Royal Theatre which stands alongside with the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah state mosque and Grand Bluewave Hotel was left unused. It was quite a pity as it took 30 months since Dec 2004 to built and since completed it has not been fully utilized.

The Royal Selangor Theatre was built at RM43 mil with RM5.8 million spend on the theatre equipment. It has an orchestra pit and a large back screen with rear projector.  With stage lighting and sound reinforcement by Electro Voice it will be able to play by large plays and even international shows. The Royal Theatre can accommodate 800 sealers and can held performance for stage show and orchestra performances.

Recently there was plan to restore the theatre to fully operation by next year. It was great to hear that finally they are serious in using the theatre and not leave it as white elephant.

Kusza Trengganu

Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (KUSZA) in Kuala Trengganu has upgraded the Public Address System for the hostel with facilities to page the students from the main admin office. Previously it was difficult for the parent to locate the students as they don’t have the PA system.

Artistic Controls has the privilege to work with the local electrical contractor to supply and install the new Public Address System using the Amperes products. The system was quite simple as it consist of desktop paging and emergency paging routed to the mixer and to the amplifier before branching out to all the speaker at various hostel.

Since at KUSZA they have eight block of hostel need to run the underground cabling to connect the speaker in each block and yet able to produce eligible audio to be heard properly. The speakers have a mixed variable with ceiling speaker and box speaker both from Amperes brand.

The amplifier is 11 nos from Amperes PA3360 which is 360W Line power amplifier and we need high power for in case of drop in power for long cabling and distance. At the end of the loop of the speaker termination it will be loop for the beginning for the amplifier to ensure the first point and the last point will always has same SPL.

The source equipment is by Sherwood CD player and Tuner which will be used for the back ground music for the admin area only. For the back up battery we use 120AH SLA battery with Amperes Automatic battery charger to ensure continue of 30 mins usage in case of power failure. To Calculate Battery Back Up type we calculate the total power required over the time needed which in this case just 30 mins. Of course for longer hours than the battery bank will be more and the space need will be bigger for proper ventilation.

Yamaha Annual Meet in Melaka 2010

This year Yamaha Commercial Audio organized the Yamaha Annual Meet with the Dealers  in Philea Resort & SPA Ayer Keroh Melaka from 8th DEC to 10th Dec 2010. This is like a great get away from the busy schedule to relaxed and attend the seminar.

The places are not too bad as we get to stay in resort style room beautifully done and come with Wifi.

Yamaha DSR Power Speaker

Yamaha Sequel Software

The new highlights of the Yamaha dealers meet are the introduction of the New DSR Powered Loudspeaker and the M7-48ES digital Mixer. These two products already been launched sometime ago we have had the opportunity to get closer with the sound. The DSR powered speaker surprisingly beat some of the better known powered speaker during the listening test.

We also saw the MPP-Steinberg Software the Sequel Family Software, Cubase Family and Nuendo Family for those who like to create their own music and song and mix together with music from the keyboard. These are the software based mixing and DSP audio.

Toward the last section of the seminar the recognition award was presented to top sales producers the young and dynamics person – AV United and Chan Lee Prosound.

Yamaha with Dealers Get Together

Once again a well organized trip by the Yamaha CA group and they take the effort to stay in touch with the Yamaha Dealers.

Future University Sudan

The Future University FU (formerly known as Computer Man College or CMC) in Khartoum Sudan recently obtain the status of the university. With this new status they very active and well known internationally. They are the prime source of skilled computer scientists and information technologists and are one of the prestigious Universities in Khartoum that offer ICT and Multimedia course to the local Sudanese as well as international students. They partners well with Malaysia educational institution like Lim Kok Wing and Multimedia University Malaysia.

Dr Abubaker Mustafa the Chairman and the founder of the Future University has asked Artistic Controls to provide stage lighting design and implement a suitable system in the current outdoor auditorium. This is in line with the modern university building model which they are going to build in to their existing building with top and modern facility.

The Future University technician installing the stage lighting

A simple all parcans design for the outdoor installation and some Fresnel spotlight and cyclorama and 575w moving heads on the inside stage was designed and installed. These are rig in the outdoor trusses. Knowing that Khartoum Sudan is hot and dusty for 8 months throughout the year the parcans will last longer in this condition. A followspot was installed to add the addition lighting for the stage.

All these are control by Zero 88 dimmer and Zero 88 Jester ML that capable to control moving light. Artistic Controls give an intensive training on how to use the desk for their upcoming university function coming soon.

After the training and installation the technical team is so happy with the new system and they say these may be one of the best in Sudan. They will have to take time to learn more all the features from control desk and they just like it.

Future University Sudan