08July
THE VENUE GETS A REVAMP
It is 1968 a roots rock band emerges on the scene with an acclaimed album called Music from Big Pink. This band, which has hitherto backed solo artists like Bob Dylan, decides to call itself ‘The Band’. It’s not a gimmicky name, just an informal name that the band members settle on to describe what they are.
Fast forward to 2014, the year Tony Raciti decides to upgrade his Melrose Arch conference facility. The name of his facility? Nothing gimmicky, just, ‘The Venue’: a simple name to describe what it is.
-web.jpg)
Tony goes to such great lengths in keeping his venue in perfect condition that maybe it should be called ‘The Venue’.In the spirit of an extreme makeover reality show Tony went for a bottom-up overhaul: the entire venue was gutted, floors dug up, ceilings removed, and new facilities installed - bars, kitchens, stairs, washrooms as well as lighting and AV.
Kyle Robson, of Tadco, was in charge of providing sound. Andi Rodgers, of Fifty South, and Dean Govender, of Electrosonic SA, designed the video control systems. It then fell on Andi, to install the whole shebang. In close consultation with Tony, the team set about creating a venue worthy of the name.
For video control Dean ordered a complete suite of Kramer products to handle matrixing, scaling and signal distribution. The longest HDMI cable run was 70 meters, but there were no issues with performance, and Andi was very happy with the Kramer products. “The whole system works very well, and it’s very flexible – you can combine lighting, sound and video in just about any way you want. For example there are some 16 video destinations and, with some patching, you can send anything to any one of them.”
For video control Dean ordered a complete suite of Kramer products to handle matrixing, scaling and signal distribution. The longest HDMI cable run was 70 meters, but there were no issues with performance, and Andi was very happy with the Kramer products. “The whole system works very well, and it’s very flexible – you can combine lighting, sound and video in just about any way you want. For example there are some 16 video destinations and, with some patching, you can send anything to any one of them.”
Dean, too, was equally happy with the outcome: “We needed a very flexible solution, one that could handle having any source at any screen at any time – so we needed to integrate the entire system. Thanks to a great team effort, and excellent products, the system works brilliantly.”
Andi and Dean also enjoyed working with a client who, through years of experience, understands exactly what it takes to create a first class venue. As Andi put it: “Tony knows what he wants, and what he wants works for what he does - that’s why he’s so successful.”
No video selected.