Sydney V Melbourne. The theatre comparison

Today’s SMH has a great article by theatre director Julian Meyrick, on how new plans to expand the State Theatre (2,000 seats) fall well short of what is required for Sydney. Instead of a proposed rebuild to supply a proper backstage area and loading facilities, the owners (Amalgamated Holdings) will do what public companies do…

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Bah! CX Media Newsbreak….

Welcome to Friday, and today’s breakfast was interrupted by unwrapping the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald. They have gone big with a promotion for their Airlink, which we just tried and can now consign to the trashcan of failure. As you probably know, CX is a media network and today we debut our…

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Cheap stage? How about FREE!

While it is probable that Mortlake (western Victoria) farmer Ray Anderson is a very capable stage builder, his gesture in providing a free stage for Leighfest (Lawson’s Park, Inverleigh) amplifies concerns at a lack of standards for outdoor events. Local press in Geelong have lauded the donation of the stage, reported to be worth $300,000.…

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Videoplus – where is my SUPER?

I have continuously enjoyed the stories in your magazine, the website and your blog. Though I’m no longer working in Australia, your insights are still valuable for my work in the events industry in Europe. So thanks for that! I wanted to share with you a story that concerns Videoplus. Since I left Australia in…

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Hip Hop Cancellations

Contract? What contract? The Tarago driver gossip network is pretty solid, and for years now Hip Hop performers from the USA have got a bad rap, no pub intended. If you count MC Hammer as hip hop, then the rumours started 20 years ago and have continued unabated ever since. We hear of five star…

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Video Matters. RF interference from LED screens is a BIG problem!

by Richard Cadena “EMC is being enforced in Europe and it’s likely to become a bigger issue in other parts of the world, including North America. Don’t be caught with your shields down.” If you could see electromagnetic radiation, you would be surprised at just how much of it is around you. Everywhere you look,…

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Training: State of the Art; or ‘Real’ equipment?

Currently I’m working on a story about a GREAT school trade training venue with a fantastically well equipped learning venue – containing a studio / theatre space with seats for 450 audience. This venue has a Digico SD8 audio console, and a Grand MA 2 lighting desk. The consultant says these were chosen to give…

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ADSL 2 – SPEED revelation!

Who would know? And as the crew at CX will sagely nod and wink, not me. But tonight iiNet changed my home ADSL profile from ‘Safe’ to ‘Standard’, which answers the nagging problem of a sub 2Mb download speed. The new ‘Standard’ profile promises 10 to 12 Mb – which is 5 times faster! So…

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Ripoff alert – Melbourne (National)

Keith Clarkson from Event Sound (NSW) draws our attention to a disturbing ripoff. He noticed some unkown activity on his credit card (around $4500)  a few weeks ago from a small audio distributor in VIC, we believe they sell cable & home theatre stuff. “I have never bought anything direct from them but I purchased…

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Previously in Our (old) Blog…..

Here is the topic load from the OLD CX blog! http://julius-grafton.blogspot.com.au/ Time Machine: how about a gig with gear made before 1980? Tech Training: the skills gap Massive Screwups (when we owned ENTECH!) How we messed with the CX brand School talks – promoting college to Year 11. Ouch. Lunch with Robby and Steve. How…

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AMA kills Golden Goose

In 1992 the AIM (Australian International Music) Trade Show was two halls wide at Darling Harbour. It was a mini NAMM show, and thousands of kids came on Public Day to see Dime Bag Darryl (may he rest in peace). AMA (Australian Music Association) boss Rob Walker ran a good show, he also managed the…

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Off the record

22 years (almost) and I think I almost have spelling and punctuation sorted out. But the elephant in the room is always whether what you say in front of Julius is private, or published. Most times people are intelligent enough to qualify when something we talk about is not for publication. There are layers to…

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