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Production Works Moves Up To Midas Pro 6

While the island of Tasmania may not have the world’s busiest touring and production schedule, that has never stopped Production Works in Australia’s southernmost city, Hobart, from carrying the world’s best quality equipment in its hire and production inventory. Production Works have a long and proud history of using Midas consoles and ElectroVoice cabinets as their live production workhorses. This summer, taking full advantage of the government’s economic stimulus incentives, they have chosen to add a Midas Pro 6 digital console at the head of their fleet and to upgrade their main line array to EV’s high-powered XLC DVX system.
Production Works CEO and life-long audio professional, Tony Miller explains the move. “We’ve been looking for a main digital console that sounds as good as our beloved analogue Midas desks. The Midas XL8 has the sound, but it’s simply too big and expensive for our market, so we jumped at the Pro 6 as meeting our needs in every way, and it’s a good fit with our XLC cabinets. This system helps us to keep the sound quality edge that we always strive for.
As there are a limited number of Pro 6 consoles in the country, we’re certain that this will not only help us to land more of the top end jobs, but also allow us to rent this console to production companies who also need access to the best gear for their productions.
"


 

Temporary Grandstands

To add to our existing large range of staging products we are now offering tiered seating frames to seat over 500 patrons.

Our seating frames can come in any configuration and are ideal not only for seating the public at all sorts of performance and sporting events but are the perfect solution for choirs and school photos etc.

They can be built almost anywhere on all terrain and utilizes our existing pro-stage decking system. Our tiered seating is fast to build, neat, clean, professional and safe, having been engineered to meet all relevant Australian design standards and the building code of Australia.

The new seating system has already been used for events such as the "FINA Short Course Swimming Championships" and "The Moorilla Hobart International" Tennis Tournament - part of the "Australian Open", and have also been chosen for the upcoming "Twenty20 Big Bash" between Australia and the West Indies at Bellerive Oval as Well as the 2010 "Equus Inspiration" equestrian event.

 
 
 

 

John Farnham: Live By Demand

When Farnham recently returned to Tasmania as part of his "Live by Demand" tour Production Works' were once again commissioned to provide the sound and lighting expertise and requirements for his concert at Hobart's Derwent Entertainment Centre. The front of house speaker system was an Electro-voice XLC X-Line Compact line array system, with an Electro-voice X-Array system being used as side hangs to cover the bleachers. For the lighting system Production Works' provided Molefay 8 Liters, ACL Par 64 Bars, Martin Macs, Selecon Pacific profiles, and LSC dimmers and moving light distribution.

 

 

Short Course Swimming 2009

To add to our existing Cobra II System we now also have available a Cobra 4 system.

The active 4-way COBRA-4 SYSTEM is designed to project over distances of up to 80 meters in medium to large sized marquees, halls and open-air venues and produces high  SPLs at the FOH position, 30 meters from the stage, of 110 dB in the medium-and high-frequency ranges and up to 120 dB in the bass.
Through the use of COBRA-4 TOPs and a COBRA-4 FAR, optimal line-array performance can be achieved without time consuming tinkering. With the COBRA-4 SYSTEM, high frequency range is particularly wide, to cover the areas directly in front of the stage. To project over long distances, a COBRA-4 FAR, which has a coverage pattern of 90° x 5° in the high frequency range, is positioned at the top of the array. For the low frequency range and the midrange, the same components are used as in the COBRA-4 TOP, so the low and midrange line array continues in an unbroken line. In all, eight COBRA PWH bass horns are used to generate the sound pressure levels and projection typically required by Top Forty bands and these can be stacked or arrayed as dictated by the architecture of the room. The COBRA-4 SYSTEM is driven by two ready-cabled and programmed CSR-4 amp racks with a DSP and power amplifiers.

Short Course Swimming

Swimming Tiered Seating

 
 

 

The Cobra-4 Line Array Has Landed!

To add to our existing Cobra II System we now also have available a Cobra 4 system.

The active 4-way COBRA-4 SYSTEM is designed to project over distances of up to 80 meters in medium to large sized marquees, halls and open-air venues and produces high  SPLs at the FOH position, 30 meters from the stage, of 110 dB in the medium-and high-frequency ranges and up to 120 dB in the bass.
Through the use of COBRA-4 TOPs and a COBRA-4 FAR, optimal line-array performance can be achieved without time consuming tinkering. With the COBRA-4 SYSTEM, high frequency range is particularly wide, to cover the areas directly in front of the stage. To project over long distances, a COBRA-4 FAR, which has a coverage pattern of 90° x 5° in the high frequency range, is positioned at the top of the array. For the low frequency range and the midrange, the same components are used as in the COBRA-4 TOP, so the low and midrange line array continues in an unbroken line. In all, eight COBRA PWH bass horns are used to generate the sound pressure levels and projection typically required by Top Forty bands and these can be stacked or arrayed as dictated by the architecture of the room. The COBRA-4 SYSTEM is driven by two ready-cabled and programmed CSR-4 amp racks with a DSP and power amplifiers.

Our range of concert sound systems now includes:

  • Dynacord Madras
  • Dynacord Cobra II Compact Line Array (8 Cabinets)
  • Dynacord Cobra IV Compact Line Array (14 Cabinets)
  • Electro-Voice X-Array (46 Cabinets)
  • Electro-Voice XLC Compact Line Array (DVX) with X-Line Subs (48 Cabinets)

All avalible for National Touring

See our Rental page for avalible inventory

 

 

Hobart Cathedral upgrades with Production Works

Production Works were approached to provide options for an Audio upgrade for the cathedral associated with the current restoration works with an intention or aim to improve intelligibility and clarity as well as provide flexibility for performance in the cathedral.

St David's Cathedral is the home to the Church of England in Tasmania, Australia. The Cathedral as it stands today began construction in 1868 following two previous structures on the site, the original timber structure of 1810 having blown down in a fierce gale.
As is the case with most structures of this nature the installation of a new sound system involved a lot of consultation with both the diocese building committee and the Architects involved with maintenance and restoration.
We offered a number of options for consideration that included both line array, distributed and point source options. The heritage listing of the building imposed a number of architectural limitations that ruled out a number of options from both a cost and practicality point of view. It was determined to implement a left and right point source option that would involve the hanging of speakers that would integrate with a future lighting fixture upgrade to make the speaker installation less intrusive.
The system decided on was a less intrusive Electro Voice option incorporating both EV speakers as well as amplification and control. The speakers chosen were XI 2123/106F cabinets selected for their exceptional pattern control that provide excellent coverage of the whole space. Such was the performance of the system that only two ZX 1 fill speakers were required to provide coverage on either side at the front of the Nave. The speakers are driven by EV CP series amplifiers with EV DSP control. The improvement in audio performance has resulted in a lot of positive comments with many saying that they no longer need to rely on hearing assistance to hear the message.
St David's is located in the heart of Hobart the capital city of Australia's island state of Tasmania. 'Production Works' in addition to supplying installation services are also Tasmania's leading supplier of A/V production services offering an extensive inventory of EV equipment including X-Array and XLC speakers systems as well as XW, ZX and SX systems along with EV amplification and processing.
This installation also included a Yamaha LS9-32 Digital console as well as a Klark Teknik Square One Active splitter, AKG wireless microphones systems and more.

 

 

It's now official; we are now proud Selecon Dealers

It's been a long time coming, but Production Works have negotiated full access to the quality range of Selecon Performance Lighting. This includes the outstanding Pacific series as well as the tried and tested Acclaim Range.
We will in coming months be building up an inventory of stock and spare parts to service our extensive rental inventory as well as our client's needs.


 

 

Panasonic professional FULL HD (High Definition) Camera Now Available!

Recently added to our expanding Visual Technology range is a Panasonic AG-HMC70. This beauty records on Solid State media (SD Card). This is a well featured camera with professional XLR audio connections with +48v phantom power as well as BNC connections for composite and component video.

Our package kit also includes:
  • Spare high capacity battery
  • AKG D230 Reporters Microphone
  • LED camera light
  • Spare SD cards and Reader

  •  

     

    More Wireless now available!

    Our AKG wireless system has continued to grow with the addition of further units we now have over 24 channel systems available to hire.  Our systems can come in any configuration with touring systems packaged in 8 channel systems.
    The WMS 4000 is a modular system for professional requirements. It is probably one of the most innovative wireless systems available today. Theses units are full true diversity systems with over 1200 selectable frequencies with environment scanning and presets of intermodulation-free frequencies. This truly is a package system
    .

    Our systems comprise of the following

  • AKG    WMS4000       Stationary Receivers
  • AKG    PT4000            Pocket Transmitter (lapel or headset available)
  • AKG    HT4000           Hand Held Transmitter (with multiple capsules available)
  • AKG    PS4000            Wide Band Antenna Multi-Coupler
  • AKG    CPU4000        Power Supply
  • AKG    HUB4000        Ethernet Network Interface
  • AKG    WMS000         Headphone Mixer
  • AKG    CU4000           Battery Charging Unit
  • AKG    RA4000B        Omni Wideband Booster Antenna
  • AKG    SRA 1              Directional Antenna
  • AKG    SRA 2B           Active Wide Band Directional Antenna
  • AKG    ZAPD-21+      Antenna Power Splitter
     
    And for the theatre use we have available

    Electro-Voice RE97 Ultra Miniature Condensor Headset Microphones

    RE97-2

  •  

     

    Bosch EWIS at the Taste

    (Emergency Warning & Intercommunications Systems)

    For over twenty years Sullivan Cove and the Princess Wharf in Hobart has paid host to the annual 'Taste of Tasmania' festival where the cream of Tasmanian produce and entertainment show off their wares over an eight day period through New Year's.
    This year Production Works were also contracted to supply a site wide paging system to handle emergency messaging and evacuation functions.
    Production Works used Bosch for the complete system that included an extensive installation of Bosch horns covering both the internal and external spaces. In addition amplification was also provided by Bosch with the popular Plena VAS system providing front end control with additional slave amplifiers and Bosch music playback devices also being used. The installation of the system was only for the duration of the festival All the equipment being removed following its completion.

    Equipment List:

  • 1 x Bosch LBB 1900/00 VAS master
  • 1 x Bosch PLN-DVDT source unit
  • 2 x Bosch LBB 1930/00 120 watt slave amps
  • 20 x Bosch LBC 3484/00 50 watt horn

  •  

     

    ICOM portables now available to hire!

    To add to our existing high quality communications packages we have just added a large number of new ICOM portable UHF two-way radios to our inventory.

    These CB's have plenty of go with an ample 5 watts of power, they are a rugged commercial grade and a military spec design (IP54) These two-ways also have pre-programmed private frequencies to avoid the interference on public CB bands.

    This adds to our extensive range of intercom and communication products which includes

  • Telex Audiocom
  • Telex BTR Radio Com
  • Production Intercom Announcer Stations
  • ICOM IC41s Two Ways
  • Shure In-ear monitoring systems


  •  

     

    The Dome Roof!

    Production Works' have recently added another roof structure to our extensive staging solutions inventory. The "Dome Roof" uses circular box truss sections to provide an extremely "clean lines" support structure for your next event. The structure is capable of supporting lighting elements and can be used with or without a skin depending on the weather.
    This structure can also be used inside the "Air Roof" to support its lighting needs when required.

     


     

     

    Frame Lock Barriers

    We have also added to our extensive staging inventory a large number of the new "Frame Lock" crowd barriers, these barriers come in 1 meter units and meet or exceed all Australian and International standards.

    For further information click here


     

     


    All New Air Roof

    Production Works inflatable stage roof is descended from the rapid deployment inflatable
    structures developed to house the Harrier jump-jet in the field and other military and emergency
    services applications. Capable of withstanding all weather conditions, including arctic,
    this flame and water resistant roof can be erected in practically any weather, on any terrain.
    Once laid out, the roof can be inflated in only four minutes and secured with a variety of systems
    ranging from concrete and water-filled ballasts, to hurricane screws, ground anchors or
    vehicle standing pads. It can go up in any weather, and with properly provisioned anchorage
    and ballast, stay put in virtually any weather.


     

    External

    Internal

    Width

    10m

    8m

    Height

    6m

    5m

    Depth

    7.4m (including the extended weather overhang)

    For More Information about the Inflatable Roof you can download our brochure from here.

     

     

    Hobart Cenotaph Installation

    The Hobart City Council commissioned Production Works to upgrade the audio system used at the Hobart Cenotaph. The main system comprises of Electro-voice ZX5 speaker enclosures suspended from Penn Fabrication tower lifts. The system in powered by EV CP series amplifiers and DBX control.
    For large Anzac Day services the system is complemented with additional speaker cabinets from our rental department as required.



     

     

    Production Works is Now a Yamaha Dealer

    Production Works are proud to announce that we are now Yamaha Professional and Commercial Audio and Music Production dealers and stockists. We now carry a range of Yamaha analogue, digital and powered mixers, digital effects processors, studio monitors, amplifiers, loudspeakers, recorders and digital audio workstations.
    Our hire and production inventory now includes a Yamaha M-7 48 channel digital mixer (pictured below).


    Click on image to enlarge
     

     


    A Magical Transformation
    for Blundstone's Farewell Party

    Blundstone Farewell PartyBlundstone Farewell Party

    Blundstone Farewell PartyBlundstone Farewell Party

    Production Works recently transformed the concrete bunker that was the betting floor of the Royal Hobart Showgrounds grandstand into a cabaret room for the Blundstone boot factory farewell party featuring Angry Anderson.

     

     


    Southern Roots Festival
    Hobart Showgrounds - Easter 2007

    Southern Roots - Hobart 2007

    Located at the southern end of Tasmania, an island some 300miles south of the Australian mainland, Hobart is one of the world's southern-most cities, so it came as no surprise that the new music festival staged there over the 2007 Easter weekend should be called Southern Roots. Drawing such artists as Wolfmother, Lemon Heads, Ben Kweller, The Pixies, Gomez and Toni Collete, who had recently performed at Australia's first V Festival and the well established Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival, the show was a breath of fresh autumn air for the music fans of Tasmania.

    For this festival Production Works were tasked with providing a complete turnkey production on the arena at the Royal Hobart Showgrounds, The package ranged all the way from a complete roofed main stage with loading docks and a second undercover stage, through PA, monitors and lighting, to full backline for multiple bands and production communications.

    Southern Roots 07Both stages were almost entirely kitted out with gear from the Electrovoice family. Mixing consoles were an all-Midas affair. The mainstage FOH was mixed on a Midas XL200 with an XL250 for monitors, while on the smaller indoor stage, a Verona 400 mixed FOH and a Sienna 400 took care of monitors.

    The Mainstage FOH system for the audience of 12,000 comprised 30 x XLC compact line array boxes and 16 x XLine subs, with XW15 monitor wedges, XArray side fills and four Mongoose boxes for drum monitors. Everything was powered by P3000 amplifiers. The indoor stage FOH for an audience of 1,500 was a large Dynacord Cobra system, with EV monitors and a Dynacord Madras system as side fill. All equalization and speaker control on both stages was handled by gear from Klark Teknik.

    XLC at Southern Roots 07The XLC system acquitted itself flawlessly, cruising its way through ten bands during the 12 hour gig without even raising a sweat. Although Production Works is already very impressed with the excellent performance of their XLC system, they are looking forward to upgrading their cabinets to the improved DVX specification.

    In addition to the Ethernet- over-power local area computer network employed to track channel allocations during the high-speed Mainstage band changeovers, all voice communications were via a Telex wired beltpack system interfaced with BTR800 RadioComms.

    The systems engineers from Production Works found, that without exception, the engineers who came in to mix the bands were pleased to be working on well-known and well-understood industry standard Midas consoles. Despite the availability of a digital console, in a festival environment that allowed no time for major system setups or sound checks between acts, the reliability and familiarity of the Midas analogue desks was the unanimous choice.

     

     


    Production Works at Falls Festival again
    for Tasmania's New Years Eve 2006

    Production Works once again supplied the Stage, Sound, Lighting, Backline and crewing for the 2006 Falls Festival at Marion Bay on Tasmania's East Coast.
     

    Pink October - the Tasmanian saga concludes

    Tasmania’s month of pinkness drew to a dramatic close with the transformation by Production Works of two more of Hobart’s landmarks into pink edifices, as part of the National Breast Cancer Foundation's Global Illumination programme.
    The classic Art Deco façade of the Hobart Mercury, the city’s only daily newspaper, joined the spectacle of pinkness for the first time in 2006, changing colour through the agency of a swag of Par 64 cans and QI floods. Back for an encore performance after its spectacularly successful debut in 2005, the 70m tower building of the Wrest Point Hotel Casino, once again was lit by a multitude of PAR64 cans and dual cyc floods.
    Despite weather varying between hail storms and 100kph winds with bushfires around the city, Production Works lighting manager Gareth Kays assisted by Matt Walker managed to keep all of the buildings a healthy pink.


    Parliament goes pink for Breast Cancer... the month of PINK in Tasmania (episode 3!)

    As part of the National Breast Cancer Foundation's Global Illumination Tasmania's Parliament has joined the bus and turned bright pink.
    Again they turned to Tasmania's premier event and production company Production Works to supply all their lighting needs using a number of ground supported Dual 1K Cyc Fixtures to light the building.
    Parliament although pink, was not quite up to PW's usual pink standards with the existing lights being required to be left running for security purposes.


    Launceston goes pink for Breast Cancer... the month of PINK in Tasmania (episode 2!)

    Part 2 of the saga of National Breast Cancer month involved Launceston's Town Hall turning Bight Pink this week to raise awareness of Breast Cancer. Once again Gareth Kays from Production Works dipped in to their vast collection of pink gel to undertake the project. The sources were a number of dual 1K Cyc fixtures, cantilevered out over the GPO building opposite the Town Hall and up some three stories, with power running across the road via a catenary line to feed the dimmers..


    The Beginning... the month of PINK in Tasmania

    Breast Cancer awareness month has started in Tasmania on Friday night with Production Works lighting "Storm Hairdressers" in downtown Hobart a decided touch of Pink! Using a number of Par 56's and 500w QI's with Auto-poles for supporting the parcan fixtures.
    ... Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!

     


    Production Works brings Ground
    Supported Rigging to Tasmania


    To facilitate production in venues where a full, safety-rated, rigging capacity is not available, Production Works have recently added a ground supported tower system to their rigging capabilities. Custom built for Production Works by Brown's Precision Welding, the system can be used in outdoor settings, heritage buildings, temporary structures or inside an existing building, to safely carry tonnes of sound, lighting, staging and audiovisiual equipment, without any additional support.

    By using standard concert truss modules and chain motors, the system is not only flexible enough to be configured for a wide variety of applications, it is also much simpler and faster to assemble, rig and strike, than scaffold structures.

    Concert Sound and Lighting rig for Jewel
    Full grid system in historic City Hall
    Concert sound and Lighting in an open air venue
    Symphony Under the Stars - Hobart
    hony Under the Stars - Launceston
    Ground Support system carrying concert sound system

    High Definition Plasma Monitors
    now available for hire

    Production Works have recently added two 50inch High Definition plasma monitors to their hire inventory.
    Complete with stereo speakers, the monitors are available in either table mounted or hanging configuration.

    Technical specification

    • 16:9 Aspect Ratio
    • High Definition Display (1080i/576p)
    • 1366 x 768 TV Resolution
    • SXGA 1280 x 1024
    • 16.7 Million Displayable Colours
    • Contrast Ratio 1000:1
    • Over 160 degrees Viewing angle
    • Broadcast receiver
    • Interfaces for: DVD, VGA, DTV, AV, S-Video



    Lighting and Sound enhance the atmosphere at Hobart's exciting new Barilla Bay Restaurant

    Barilla Bay Restaurant
    Barilla bay - Aliens in mauve

    Hobart's exciting new Barilla Bay restaurant features colour changing lighting using Martin Alien 05 downlights and highly flexible background music systems, built around EV's stylish Evid loudspeakers and a digital music jukebox system that stores thousands of music tracks.

    Barilla bay - Aliens in amber



    Production Works at Falls Festival
    NYE Tasmania 2003

    Production Works supplied Sound, Lighting, Backline and crewing for the inaugural Falls Festival at Marion Bay on Tasmania's East Coast.


    Wholehog PC takes wing in Hobart

    Production Works' Hog PC spreads its Wings

    Australia's first Wholehog PC system to employ the Wholehog III USB wing panels had its initial outing running a Credit Unions conference in Hobart this week. Production Works commissioned their new system for the conference only hours after the wings were flown into the country. Based around a Toshiba notebook computer, linked to an external LCD monitor, a Programmer wing, a Playback wing and two DMX Widgets, the system is running off one of the new generation of compact uninterruptible power supplies, to ensure that system is as at least as stable as a dedicated console.

    Operator consensus (and there were plenty of them lining up to try out the new system) is that although it feels slightly strange using Wholehog III panels to run a Wholehog II, the new console is a joy to fly. Production Works decision to use an external optical mouse in conjunction with the Programming wing's integral trackball, has proved to offer the best of both worlds for operators. Everyone, especially the video crew, has been eying off the gorgeous Hercules Prophetview 720 LCD monitor, although it has been the LED desk lamps, and their capability of crossfading between white and blue, which have proved to be the most popular feature of the wing panels.

    Production Works' Hog PC in action at the Grand Chancellor Ballroom

     

     

    Click here for the latest Production Works Newsletter. (pdf - 115kb)

    This newsletter is in PDF format, if you cannot download it
    click here to get Adobe Acrobat Reader free of charge.

    You can also download the lighting calculations spreadsheet described in our February 2003 newsletter

     

    click here to email us
    Wednesday 20 January, 2010