Jands Staging Division Expands

  As reported in July’s Backstage, Jands recently picked up two 
  large staging projects in Melbourne, being the Melbourne
  Convention Centre and the Melbourne Theatre Company. To
  accommodate the amount of engineering work now required from
  Jands we have expanded our Staging and Engineering Division.

  The Engineering Resource Group (ERG) has just recently
  ballooned to 8 people, taking the entire division, including Theatre
  Projects and Fabrication to 27 full time staff members.

  This is where we would like to introduce Neil Morrison, our newly 
  appointed General Manager – Staging/Engineering. Neil comes to us with a very strong Manufacturing and Project Management background, having worked internationally in various industries, from the US to Europe and here in Australia.

Neil’s strengths in developing processes and procedures, along with his project skills, will be a welcome and necessary addition to the Jands Team as we continue to grow.

Cheaper Calls to Jands for Melbourne Dealers!

Jands has a new phone system, which makes it easier and cheaper for our Melbourne dealers to call Jands head office in Sydney. It’s as easy as dialling the Melbourne number on
8698 0909.

By dialling the Melbourne number, your call will automatically be directed to the switch in Sydney and be transferred to the department or person you wish to speak to. The best news being, you will only be charged the cost of a local call!

We hope by making this move we have created an environment that services our Melbourne dealers more effectively. If you have any queries or wish to comment on this change please don’t hesitate to email info@jands.com.au or ring us on (02) 9582 0909 (…remember
8698 0909 if you are based in Melbourne).

Introducing New Possibilities With Color Split

      Twice the Possibilities from a Single LED Fixture.
      New from The AC Lighting stable, the Chroma-Q™ Color Split is a
      compact, high output LED fixture providing designers with twice the
      possibilities.

Based around the Color Block's modular, multi-purpose design, the Color Split features larger dual side-by-side RGBA cells. This ingenious configuration provides designers with the flexibility to light with a bold single colour or project a wide range of dramatic split colour effects from a single LED fixture - making it ideal as a truss toner for illuminating the uprights and cross-braces.

Features include:
      • Dual side-by-side RGBA LED cells - bold single colour or dramatic split colour effects.
      • Advanced split beam technology - smooth colour wash from top to bottom of a surface.
      • Magic Amber control modes - warmer colours range and superior colour rendition.
      • Built-in power supply - no additional costs.
      • Choice of standalone or DMX control - for maximum versatility.
      • Modular construction - easily configured as a wide variety of shapes.
      • Smooth, linear dimming curve - for most demanding lighting applications.
      • All-purpose design - create an LED system using stock of one generic fixture.
      • Range of fixings - suitable for wall, floor, truss, stand and vertical hanging. 

The Amazing New Stanton T.90USB

Want to convert your favourite vinyl into digital music files in a way that is so simple that even your granddad could do it?

The Stanton T.90 USB is a professional turntable with a direct drive motor and USB output. DJs will find it's got all the professional tricks, including Key Lock built-in, so they can adjust the tempo of a record without affecting pitch. Not only does the T.90USB offer 33 and 45-rpm speed controls but it also has a 78-rpm selection – which is good for granddad’s collection!

The choice of USB and S/PDIF digital outputs, and the fact the T.90USB ships with Cakewalk Pyro 5 music editing software, means you will be listening to your precious vinyl on your MP3 player in no time at all.

         $649.00 RRP Inc GST.

 Clear-Com Eclipse System
Heart of Recent Upgrade to Police Operations Centre

The NSW Police service recently upgraded their operations centre in readiness for major upcoming events such as the recent APEC summit and World Youth Day in 2008.

Many aspects of the operation centre are classified for security reasons, which limits what we can tell you about it. However a press release published by Fairfax media in December 2006 said this;

"A new hi-tech police operations centre in Sydney will help officers deal with incidents like last year's Cronulla race riot, the NSW government says.

The revamped command room at the Sydney Police Centre will also be used for policing major events like next year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Sydney.

Police Minister John Watkins said the APEC summit - to be attended by the leaders of 21 countries, including the US, Russia, China and Japan - would be NSW Police's biggest challenge since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

                                                               The command centre is also designed for major public order incidents like the violence in Cronulla on December 11, 2005, he added.

"If something like this (Cronulla) does happen in the future, we will have this upgraded police operations centre to deal with it,"
Mr Watkins told reporters.

The operations centre, which was unveiled after undergoing a $1 million technology upgrade, features large video walls which can display live images from traffic cameras and force helicopters.

A new communications system allows full two-way contact between the command room and front-line officers at the touch of a button.

NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said the command room would be used on New Year's Eve this year, as well as in 2008 when the Pope visits Sydney for World Youth Day.”

In addition to this we can tell you that the communications system mentioned is based on a large Clear-Com Eclipse Matrix system which dynamically links operators desktop panels to radios, telephone lines, media feeds etc. The system also utilises several channels of Clear-Com FreeSpeak digital wireless intercom and Clear-Com VoICE (Voice over IP Communication Equipment) interfaces.

We’d love to tell you more, but ...... you know…

Fixture Libraries Explained

A “fixture library” (also known variously as
a “Fixture Personality”, “Fixture Template” etc) contains information for the lighting console about the features in a moving light, so the individual controls on the console are mapped to the correct DMX channels in the light.

As new automated fixtures are released almost daily the demand to keep updating these files is increasing.

What are Fixture Libraries?

Lighting consoles communicate with moving lights using DMX channels, where each channel will control part of the moving light. Different moving lights use different channels to control their parts.

What Consoles use Fixture Libraries?

Nearly all lighting control consoles with a dedicated moving light control section utilise fixture libraries to make patching and control of moving lights easier.

If the fixture I am using is not included in the on-board library in my console, how can I create a new library file?

The detailed answer to this question differs depending on the console you are using.
Some consoles have the ability to create new fixture libraries from an on-board or PC based editor, while for others it is a matter of downloading them from the manufacturer’s website and pasting them into your existing library files.

Some newer consoles such as the Jands Vista range use libraries in a different way whereby colour, beam and position information is stored as generic values rather than DMX information. In these cases the library acts more like a driver such as the printer drivers you use on your PC that interpret this generic information and apply it to each individual fixture in a way that will produce the same result no matter which fixture is used.

Due to the complexity of these files, the only way to source these libraries is by contacting the support team for that product, and provide them with the DMX mapping information for the fixture you wish to use. They will then generate the relevant files for you.

Attached is the procedure for each of the consoles in the Jands and ETC ranges.

More informationu 

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