Industry Issues
ALIA Fire Aid Auction
2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the Australasian Lighting Industry Association, now known as simply ALIA (www.alia.com.au). A few events to celebrate the fact were in the planning but they have been abandoned in favour of raising money for the Australian people and wildlife affected by the fires. Production companies are helping out by supplying…
Read MoreOpera House Lighting: Catherine O’Shea
Article from The Archive: Connections Magazine, September 1998. Women in Lighting Opera House Lighting: Catherine O’Shea When Catherine O’Shea was 20, she decided she was bored, and dropped out of her third year of a mathematics degree. Eight years later, she is a Lighting SuperÂvisor at the Opera House.Of all the superviÂsors in all the departments,…
Read MoreImmersive Live Sound – The Story So Far
AUDIO Immersive Live Sound – The Story So Far  Two years ago Immersive Audio or Spatial Live Sound rolled out into the live audio market simultaneously from L-Acoustics  (France) with L-ISA, and d&b audiotechnik (Germany) with Soundscape. CX travelled to both manufacturers to hear the systems and talk to the engineers in October 2017.…
Read MoreTrending in Production Lighting – Weatherproof Fixtures
TECH TALK  Trending in Production Lighting – Weatherproof Fixtures  by ULA Group’s Simon Pentz.  While IP65 rated fixtures are nothing new, they have usually only been used in Architectural lighting applications. But over the last few years, the live production industry has started to adopt the use of IP65 fixtures as the…
Read MoreWi-Fi and Data Security on Events
COMMUNICATIONS Wi-Fi and Data Security on Events by Simon Byrne Wi-Fi is real handy at gigs. It means less cables need to be run, and it gives you the ability to easily transport media, control devices remotely such as mixing desks, lighting control and so on. However, it is a long way from perfect and…
Read MoreThe NBN – Not to Blame, Necessarily
COMMUNICATIONS The NBN – Not to Blame, Necessarily by Simon Byrne. We constantly hear of poor internet delivered over the NBN, however the blame does not automatically sit with the NBN Co. There is a lot going on. NBN Co are in an invidious position. Under significant financial pressure from the government, they are the…
Read MoreHow to win a Cisco hackathon
TECH TALK How to win a Cisco hackathon by Landell Archer. Recently, Kim Burgess, an ACAEngine developer from Australia, was part of a team that won the ‘Smart Spaces’ category at the Cisco hackathon in Dallas. Here’s how you do it: Identify an interesting problem Emergencies are an unfortunate reality. Think about it in terms…
Read MoreUndercutting. You aren’t really helping yourself!
OPINION An open letter for those entering the industry. by Alex Hughes. The Australian touring and events market is in a bit of a mess currently and, in my experience, it has been in steady decline over the last ten years. In a recent Facebook post/rant I expressed my frustrations with the overall touring market…
Read MoreTwo Way Radios
COMMUNICATIONS by Jason Owen, Managing Director D2N – Technology Solutions. Since the early 20th century, two-way radio technology has been a key enabler in how we communicate over large distances. From local government, to police, the military, freight operations, marine, aviation and much more, two-way radios have not only evolved but also delivered us smarter…
Read MoreSo What is Event Communications?
COMMUNICATIONS by Chris Dodds, Managing Director, The P.A. People. So who are The P.A. People and what is Event Communications? A common response from our crew is ‘Don’t be fooled by the name on the shirt’, particularly at some of the larger international events that we work on. Whilst domestically The P.A. People are reasonably…
Read MoreCrewCare launches: Important new charity helping crew
Around six years ago a collective of 70s and 80s road crew had a reunion at St Kilda Bowls Club. Afterwards a spreadsheet of present and missing crew was created and with a lot of input from the 200 crew at the reunion, an eventual 400 names represented all known working crew from the 1970s.…
Read MoreETC Augment3d at Integrate
More Than Just Pre-Visualisation by Alex Hughes. Pre-visualisation and the process of the pre-programming of lighting in general have not really evolved from the days of the first release of the popular visualisation platform known as Wysiwyg. Over the years the only real improvement that has truly been constant ongoing innovation has been the overall…
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