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Staging Connections has signed a new
agreement with the prestigious Sydney Showground as its on-site venue services
partner bringing its premium Venue Services Network portfolio to over 70 five
star hotels and venues in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, China and Dubai.
Trying to go low risk while emulating the
long established ENTECH AWARDS, the producers of INTEGRATE (Alchemedia Events)
have discovered that running an industry awards process is fraught with danger.
Saturday August 21st at our campus is our 20th birthday party, and now we have just added Doug Parkinson to the bill. The greatest voice in Australian pop music (at least the greatest voice that hasn't retired and come back!) is playing with his hot session band and reprising the best of the Southern Star Band.
Avid make digital video editing systems and also own DigiDesign, makers of Pro Tools and live mixing consoles. Now this audio and video industry leader has swallowed much smaller audio firm Euphonix. Both make high end control surfaces and at the audio end, there are commonalities. But this is a story about survival. Meanwhile Apple have strengthened their share price with the launch of the iPad, a strategy that shows where the future lies.
UPDATED 11 April 2010: Here at Juliusmedia we have been reporting accidents on stage and in venues for almost 20 years. Now we've searched and collated our list of accidents, incidents, fires and deaths and some frightening trends emerge. There are more though, so we throw the wires open to you- tell us your recollections, and give us leads to more incidents we can collate here.
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Pioneering
two-day event to bring rigging, venue and safety communities together
In
a ‘world first' for the entertainment rigging industry, PLASA Events
has announced the launch of the PLASA International Rigging Conference,
to be held alongside two days of PLASA 2010, at Earls Court, London on
Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 September.
Philips Entertainment has
announced the appointment of
Bytecraft Entertainment, with offices in Melbourne and Sydney, as their
Project
Partner. They will be responsible for Strand Control project solutions
and
have access to all the Philips Selecon entertainment and display
lighting lines. Current long-standing Philips
Selecon Dealers also now have access to much of the Strand Lighting
product
ranges.
They tenderised the producers and venues by walking off their Broadway jobs and closed 26 shows for almost three
weeks in 2007. The strike ended after stagehands and producers agreed to
a five-year contract that both sides called a compromise.
Now this: the result gave some workers unspeakably large penalties, stratospherically higher than their 'award'. Read the whole story here.
Everyone is now under an award. Technicians, floor crew, musicians, TV
crew, film crew, retail staff, warehouse workers. Absolutely everyone.
And the Modern Awards arrived on January 1st, so we are already
exposed.
Suddenly everyone working behind the scenes in entertainment OR the
SUPPLY LINES is covered by a national minimum award but the confusion
factor for employers is high.
Cancer takes lives before time, acoustician
Richard Priddle made 60 years before departing prematurely at the end of
January. He had featured in the very first issue of Channels, the precursor to
this magazine, almost 20 years ago.
CX knew him for a decade prior and ran into
him in unlikely places. One was Hamilton Island where the first auditorium was
burned to the ground. Richard was supervising the second and duplicate audio
installation. Other times he would appear at the opening of a new recording
studio - he designed more than 100 over his career.
Phil Eastick died in Adelaide aged 55 in February, after a very long battle against kidney disease. He had a
transplant last year. He fought for around 20 years, but not too many people
knew he was ill.
CX first knew Phil from the road.
There is a memorial to be held in Adelaide for Phil. Deatils:
Monday March the 8TH 12 midday
The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel which is often just called The Gov, at 59 Port Rd. Hindmarsh Adelaide SA
Family are asking people to wear red shoes or something red because Phil loved Red.
Phil's wife Robin, and daughter Sarah would love to see you there if at all possible.
Leading Australian Music & Sound Craftsmen and "Computer Whisperer"
1956 - 2010
Simon Leadley was one of Australia's leading audio and music for film craftsmen. He was a founder of Trackdown Digital, now a world renowned orchestral recording facility in Sydney. Simon was a "Computer Whisperer" who had a sixth sense for how to do things smarter and break through many of the outmoded conventions in his field of expertise.
MEMORIAL SERVICE: 4 March. Info at end of article.
Day rate goes out the door as penalties
kick in. Under the new 2010 Award, a standard
production will almost always result in an overtime penalty for the crew. Full
time crew can work up to 12 hours at normal time, but casuals must be paid
penalty rates after 8 hours. The new award is in place but in some cases
the penalty rate provisions do not apply until July.
The new Live Performance Award 2010 removes
junior rates of pay from the industry after June 30, and makes it very hard to
start a career. Anyone paid less than $19.54 an hour as a casual can take legal
action at any time. Modern Awards are simplified so more workers will know
their rights.
Traineeships are under fresh scrutiny with
the introduction of the new Award, because a formally contracted Traineeship under
the New Apprenticeship Scheme is the only way to pay less than full adult wages.
The National Training wage is around $430 per week.
The new year was only days old when the
first implications of the Live Performance Award 2010 were felt at a Sydney
production company. Alarmed at abusive practices, a young crew member contacted
CX to confirm his work conditions did not include being forced to drive a
company van to Melbourne in just 8 hours - on P plates. The 963 kilometre trip
would legally take 11 hours minimum with breaks for a P plate driver.
Big employers cautiously welcomed the new
industrial award, one of just 120 ‘modern awards' covering every industry in
Australia. The abolition of thousands of federal and state awards and the
creation of Fair Work Australia is a big move by the government.
A lighting tech has faced court in Launceston, charged with possession of up to 22 bags each allegedly containing 1 gram of cocaine. He pleaded not guilty. James Centofanti, aged 35, was arrested at Launceston airport, on his way to light shows in Tasmania.He was under contract to the band Sneaky Sound System. The band have distanced themselves from him, saying he is a freelance lighting tech.
CX Media Kit
