On the 11th & 12th of December last year the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) held RADCOMMS 2006 – their inaugural spectrum management conference. Now before you switch off because it all sounds too techy – if you are receiving this newsletter then the following information WILL AFFECT YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS.

The entire wireless microphone, transmitter, in-ear monitoring area is under threat in this country. We are fighting a battle against the cash-flush Telco’s for radio frequency allocation in Australia and not enough is being done to win.

At RADCOMMS 2006 the only two people from the audio industry present were Jeff MacKenzie and Peter Twartz – Jands staff members. This is out of over 200 delegates from all areas concerned, including the Department of Defence, ABC TV, Telstra, Motorola Australia and Networks 7, 9 and 10, to name just a few.

This is not a small issue.
If we lose this fight we lose the ability to freely use
all wireless product in Australia.

Susan Twartz from Jands has put together a proposal for presentation to the ACMA, but to date this is the only real action in this country being taken to protect our industry.
In short, this is the argument that Jands are submitting:

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is the regulatory body responsible for allocating radio spectrum for use in Australia. All wireless microphones, in-ear monitors and wireless guitar and keyboard transmitters fall within the ACMA’s area of responsibility for regulation.
 
The ACMA are currently assessing future requirements for the wireless spectrum in Australia and have released a discussion paper which basically calls for members of the public to comment on future requirements. The paper is titled:-
“Strategies for Wireless Access Services: Spectrum Access Options
Spectrum Planning Discussion Paper SPP 10/06”.

At first look it seems that this does not effect our industry, however it does. Pages 10, 11 and 18 of the paper discuss the ACMA's plans for the 520-820MHz band once transmission of free to air analogue television ceases. This is that part of the spectrum that wireless microphones, in-ear monitors and wireless guitar and keyboard transmitters operate in under the class licence that covers these products.

The ACMA believes that this is a good band width to auction off for other wireless devices which means that it will not be available to this industry for use under the current conditions.
 
The wireless transmitters in use in our industry cannot easily adopt other newer technologies such as Bluetooth or WiFi as these present latency and reproductive quality issues.

The Australian Music Association will be making a submission to this discussion paper on behalf of its members, as will a number of the major distributors of these products in Australia. You can help reinforce our concerns by taking the following steps.

1) Contact your local member of parliament

2) Write a letters to:
Senator Helen Coonan
Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
GPO Box 3513
Sydney NSW 2001
Email: senator.coonan@aph.gov.au

Mr Peter Garrett MP
Shadow Minister for the Arts
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
PO Box 249
Maroubra NSW 2035
Email: Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au

Emphasise the effect it will have on local communities and cultural activities if they are unable to use wireless microphones.

3) Make your own submission to the discussion paper. If you need any help with this please contact Susan Twartz at Jands.

Any actions you can take will enhance our arguments as to the size and importance to the Australian economy of the music and entertainment industry.

You are invited to an in-depth all day training session of the NEW ETC consoles! Get your license to fly the new Eos from ETC and get your learner wings on the new Congo Jnr.

Your instructors for the day will be Mike Griffith and Anne Valentino who are coming in from ETC especially for these training sessions.

Venue:
Brisbane - Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Fortitude Valley
Sydney - Jands Pty Ltd, Mascot
Melbourne - Jands Pty Ltd, Port Melbourne
Perth - TBC

Dates:
Brisbane - Sunday 4th February (we will also be at NARPACA)
Sydney - Thursday 8th February
Melbourne - Monday 12th February
Perth - Thursday 15th February

Time: 10.00am (lunch will be provided)

RSVP: tkennard@jands.com.au or 0409 748 294 by 5pm Wednesday 28th January 2007.

NAMM 2007

We have just seen some new and exciting product released from a number of the Harman companies.

JBL has introduced the PRX Series of powered speaker systems as well as 2 additions to the VRX Series; The VRX-928 ultra compact array and the VRX-915S sub woofer.

Soundcraft has released the Vi4, a smaller version of the Vi6 digital mixing console.

Pricing and specifications will be released shortly, so stay tuned; it looks like a very exciting 2007 is underway from the Harman group.

LDI 2006 Product of the Year, debuting product, lighting category!

Elegant. ETC’s phenomenal new Eos lighting console provides simple, approachable control in a nuanced programming environment, with unmatched depth and power. You’ll be stunned by how easy – and fast – moving-light control can be. And you don’t have to sacrifice what you need for conventional control to get it.

Original. We started with a white board and no assumptions. We talked to designers, programmers and electricians. We designed a product that is familiar, comfortable and simultaneously forward looking, with common problems solved in ingenious ways. We looked for intuitive solutions while reducing keystrokes. Our rich fixture library means palettes can be constructed quickly – automatically or manually. The command line is fully integrated with direct selects, allowing you to work seamlessly from the keypad and the touchscreen controls.

Sophisticated. The touchscreen-versus-mechanical-controls debate stops here. Eos provides touchscreen flexibility with the tactile response of buttons, so you can keep your eyes on the stage, not the desk. And we’ve got buttons. No mouse needed when you access commonly used programming functions. We don’t bury necessary features under layers either. What you need is right within reach.

Each device on the system has a discrete workspace: designers no longer have to sacrifice their needs for those of programmers. Partitioned control provides a safe and effective method for multiple programmers to build content into a show file.

Designers, programmers and electricians must work across venue types with equal ease, and your desk must too. Eos – Complete Control – from ETC.

Product Features

• 5000 channels (devices)
• 4000 and 8000 outputs/parameters
• Dedicated master playback fader pair
• 10 definable motorised faders, with 30 pages of control
• 99 cue lists
• 200 submasters
• 3 programmable grand masters
• Dedicated pan/tilt or XYZ encoders, 4 pageable encoders
• 2 15” LCD touchscreens
• High-density live and blind displays
• Electronic magic sheets
• ACN and ETCNet2 native
• MIDI and SMPTE In
• Synchronized backup
• Offline programming
• Data-laundering from Obsession, Expression and Emphasis show files
• 12 discrete on-line users
• Import Lightwright™ files

Asian Games - Doha, Qatar

Late last year the 15th Asian Games were held in Doha, Qatar. Widely considered the best Asian Games ever, the biggest Asian Games ever, the most widely reported Asian Games ever, and the highest standard of Asian Games in terms of both sporting achievement and planning ever - Doha’s success amazed everyone and left a legacy for all Asian Games to come.

There was a huge Australian contingent at these games, as has become standard for large scale sporting events globally since the overwhelming success of Sydney’s Millennium Olympics. The usual duo of The P.A. People and Norwest were there, slicing up the differing responsibilities between the Comms and the PA areas.

The P.A. People were responsible for the Comms for both the Opening and the Closing Ceremonies. The system was based around the ClearCom Eclipse 208 port Matrix. Interfacing to over 100 key stations, over 40 channels of 2-way radio, numerous partyline belt packs, the Eclipse was the hub of the operations for both ceremonies, sometimes dealing with over a hundred conversations happening at any one time.

Norwest had control of the PA contract, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and the full length of the Games. For both the ceremonies and the games themselves Shure was the wireless system of choice. For the ceremonies around 20 channels of the new Shure UHF-R Series were used, with a whopping 250 packs of Shure’s PSM Range.

During the Games themselves over 120 channels of Shure’s ULX Series, U Series and PGX Series were being utilised, from everything to crowd control, sports presentations, and in the media room. If that wasn’t enough there were around 80 channels of Shure PSM200 and PSM600’s strapped onto performers, security and presenters for the 2-week period.

Jands’ own Peter Twartz and Steve Caldwell were also at Doha, Peter assisting Norwest as Wireless Spectrum Monitor Manager, and Steve employed by Norwest as Head RF & Audio Technician.

ETC EDLT Lenses

Source 4 profiles and the new EDLT lens tubes use Aspheric lenses.  What is an Aspheric lens and why are they used here?

An aspheric lens or asphere is a lens whose surfaces have a profile that is neither a portion of a sphere nor of a circular cylinder. Their use in optical systems is primarily to reduce the incidence of spherical aberration and so improve beam quality.

In optics, spherical aberration is an image imperfection that occurs due to the increased refraction of light rays that occurs when rays strike a lens or a reflection of light rays that occurs when rays strike a mirror near its edge, in comparison with those that strike nearer the centre.

A perfect lens (top) focuses all incoming rays to a point on the optic axis. A real lens with spherical surfaces (bottom) suffers from spherical aberration: it focuses rays more tightly if they enter it far from the optic axis than if they enter closer to the axis. It therefore does not produce a perfect focal point. (Drawing is exaggerated.)