New challenges require new thinking!

The conference focuses on two specific themes:

• place making
• place branding

The process around building a brand for a place is a relatively new concept and the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) based in New York will be providing one of the key sessions at the conference. Fred Kent is one of the leaders in the field of urban renewal and the concepts around liveability and the future of the town and city.

One of the first initiatives of the Brand Project was to create a website for the Dun Laoghaire brand and this became the www.dunlaoghaire.ie site. The site has a fresh, crisp design and addresses visitors from the local area and internationally. Locally it serves the needs of residents of the area and of businesses.

Functionality includes:

• events listing
• pop-up shop details
• business listing
• community group

There is also a newsletter subscription available.

Hence, the idea of a conservatory and amongst the designs that are popular in the UK is the Victorian Conservatory. These conservatories or sunrooms date back to the 16th Century. At that time, they were used to cultivate mediterranean fruit such as lemons and oranges. It was all very continental. Thus the term orangerie was coined, though few domestic conservatories will qualify for use of this name! These days in the UK, the terms sunroom and conservatory are used interchangeably and the conservatory conjures up images of the ornate conservatories associated with Victorian architecture.

Victorian Style Conservatories

Designs for the victorian conservatory date back to the reign of Queen Victoria and the 19th century was the golden age of conservatory building in the UK especially. This represents a classical period extension to your house.

With the emphasis on energy conservation increasing, the most obvious solution to year-round enjoyment of a conservatory is to have a solid conservatory roof combined with energy efficient insulated glass. A solid roof conservatory has the advantage of being cheaper and easier to heat in an unpredictable climate and is also easier to keep cool on those indian summer days. Here in the UK we tend to complain about the cold in winter and when we do get a heatwave, we can’t handle the heat and complain about that too.

See Guardian Roof for conservatory installers in the UK.

A pressure switch might be used in a variety of environments from manufacturing machinery and facilities to public buildings. It will generally be required in equipment that generates pressure during its use.

This could be due to the flow of gas or liquid, to steam, or to an electrical current. Often an alarm will sound when the pressure exceeds an acceptable level. For example, machinery that involves the use of compressors will almost always have a pressure switch in operation to fulfil the safety requirements of the equipment.

There are two different kinds available:

• electronic pressure switches
• mechanical pressure switches

Automated switches are popularly used but a manual switch may also be present as a back in case of electrical failure.

A typical electronic pressure switch is the SET46 model available from calibration and instrumentation specialists in Ireland, www.pjboner.com.

This one measures relative or absolute pressure in spans from 0.035 to 31.5 bars. The pressure measuring element used is a piezoresistive sensor. The sensor generates a signal which corresponds to the actual pressure and the temperature of the measuring cell is transmitted to the electronic system. This microprocessor-based transmitter has operating parameters which can be changed easily.

In temperate climates like those in the UK and Ireland, the summers can be wonderfully sunny and dry. And there again, they can be chilly and sodden! For those of us who want to be outside and yet want to be protected from the unpredictable elements, a conservatory is the answer. For many, the best kind of conservatory will be one with a solid conservatory roof.

The advantages of having a solid conservatory roof include:

• all year round use
• cheaper to heat
• easier to insulate
• cooler on hot Summer days

Traditional conservatories can have a similar effect to a greenhouse. The sun comes through the glass roof and heats up the air inside. As the air can’t escape unless a window or door is opened, the inside gets warmer. Sometimes stiflingly so. A solid conservatory roof can act as a sunshade and render the inside area more comfortable.

You get the best of both worlds as the windows will still let enough light and sun into the room. A good solution is to use Fakro windows in your conservatory. The roof can give a U-value of 0.16 (for the uninitiated this is good!). So before another summer goes by with why not put the plan into action and transform that damp conservatory into an energy-efficient sunroom.

Guardian Roofs are experienced conservatory installers in the UK and supply the only conservatory roof with Building Control Certification.

Phone UK 0800 0665832 for more details.

Calibration services are required in a variety of situations:

• routine maintenance
• new instrument manufacture
• external conditions changes eg. climate change, corrosion
• emergency maintenance eg. shock damage

How is Calibration performed?

Calibration is generally carried out using test equipment which is more sensitive than industrial equipment. The instruments will be adjusted so that they are in line with known values. For example, an instrument will be calibrated against another which is known to be correct. Experience and instrumentation knowledge is needed to carry this out correctly. The degree of accuracy will be determined by the function of the equipment. Pharmaceutical equipment will require to be calibrated to a high degree of accuracy. Relatively small inaccuracies in this kind of equipment can lead to potentially dangerous outcomes.

Instruments often have a recommended accuracy range and recommended environmental conditions for operating and for storage. They will probably come with a recommended servicing interval also.

Calibration and Documentation

Compliance with legal requirements relating to the use of equipment is ever more important for businesses. This involves having up-to-date documentation detailing an audit trail for each instrument.

PJ Boner are an Irish calibration company who are experts in calibration and have been established since 1978. They are Ireland’s leading Instrumentation, Weighing and Automation specialists.

Technology is historically important in the area of recording, but now has input in the area of composition also.

Strictly speaking, music technology covers the area of acoustics and programming as well as the broader areas of business management within the music industry. While acoustics is the study of sound and how it behaves in a particular environment, ‘programming’ is a computer term more familiar to the technical person.

Music Technology Training

From an educational perspective, the areas to focus on are digital sound editing and sound recording skills. Music technology professionals will need to be adept at music instrument digital interface (MIDI) sequencing and software. Proficiency in MIDI and audio techniques are necessary before the opportunities now presented by technology can be used. The use of microphones and direct inject (DI) techniques are part of the mix, as are the use of dynamics and effects equipment.

The study of acoustics and monitoring and audio monitoring are fundamental to the study of music technology. The aim is to be able to compose with MIDI-based music technology. Although a feature of many courses will also be the more practical elements of soldering and wiring, and studio routing. Session management for sound engineers is also a key skill to have. After all, it doesn’t matter how creative you can be with both music and technology if you can’t manage the process.

The best courses will address all of these areas of music technology. Ireland has a long and rich music history, both contemporary and traditional, and has a healthy music industry. Pulse College is the most experienced in this area in Ireland and it’s association with Windmill Lane is a great connection with a variety of artists.

With the increase in bandwidth on the internet, the opportunities for music sharing have grown. A new company which delivers on music technology is SoundCloud. This is an online audio distribution platform which allows users to upload and share their original content. One of the cool things they’ve added in is the ability to add comments at particular points on the timeline of the track. This is a great example of the iterative nature of the web and of technology in general. Each version adds new features and the user experience is enhanced each time. Last February saw the Global Meetup in Ireland for this community.

Access to Music Technology

And where would users be without Steve Jobs at this point. His death has provoked a genuine sharing of grief and loss across the global online landscape. Strangely, the news spread across the very technical tools that he brought about creating. He has left a fantastic legacy to the world in general, but to music technologists and music lovers in particular.

For those who create music the Mac has always been the product of choice and Apple took the audio components of their MacBooks seriously from the beginning. CoreStudio is also a superior product in its class.

Apple found new ways to bring music technology to end users and they did this with a focus on design and intuitive usability. From the introduction of the iPod, and then the iPhone and now the iPad. The iPad in particular has allowed touchscreen music performance that was previously prohibitively costly to do.

The calibration process typically involves the use of specialized test equipment. Some instrument manufacturers supply testing and calibration kits with their instruments. But where accuracy needs to be ensured an expert calibration service will be employed. The equipment they utilize covers a far broader range of testing and calibration possibilities than generic manufacturer supplied equipment.

The primary reason for calibration is routine maintenance. Other reasons for calibration include the manufacturing of a new instrument or a new installation., Where an instrument has malfunctioned or been damaged, the emergency maintenance then carried out may also require calibration. Where certain changes in environmental conditions occur users may find that readings are questionable. Sudden changes in air pressure, shocks, water damage, gas leaks, corrosion are all examples of environmental changes that may call for recalibration.

Depending on the environment the instrument is being used in, different levels of calibration will be required. In accordance with legal requirements and a companies own policy the range in which an instrument is configured is decided. Legal requirements vary from one area to the next. Because of this companies will hire expert calibration technicians where they do not have their own in-house calibration specialist.

A calibration expert not only brings with them a wide array of tools and equipment but also a great wealth of experience. This allows them to problem solve and error check rapidly and efficiently. An employee unfamiliar with the process could wrestle with any problems that occur for far longer. A calibration technician can also provide reports and recommendations; identify potential areas of improvement and highlight possible performance issues. The technician must be able to investigate and troubleshoot issues affecting accuracy, especially where the cause is completely unknown.

Groups other than specialist industries can benefit from regular calibration. When services such as electricity, water or gas have improperly calibrated meters, incomes can be affected for homes, ordinary businesses and municipalities alike.

This is not to say the technology hasn’t advanced, it certainly has. And beyond improved technology, affordability has resulted in a broader range of uses for audio visual systems.

Boardroom Audio Visual Systems

Audio visual systems are a familiar sight in corporate offices. Boardrooms have been home to video conferencing systems for decades. However, the cost of these systems meant only large companies with even larger profit margins could afford them. Often they were not particularly useful due to compatibility issues and the limited networking of the time.

With technology more affordable than ever and high speed networks an integral part of all urban infrastructures, video conferencing is a must have for any business. Now that so many companies conduct business over the internet, the ability to conference with clients and meet future partners face to face without the expense and time of flights is immensely helpful.

Audio Visual Systems beyond the Boardroom

While Video conferencing is perhaps the most familiar application of audio visual systems in the corporate world, it is not the only application. Many large offices feature training rooms equipped with advanced audio visual equipment. When new industry developments need to be taught or staff need to be up-skilled, companies find it is often more cost effective for to set up an internal training space. To allow experts to give remote presentations and training, these rooms are often equipped with conferencing facilities. This means that the room can also be used as a conference room, where employees can have meetings with the necessary audio visual facilities.

Audio Visual outside the Office

Companies don’t only use audio visual systems to communicate with other businesses or within the company itself. Audio visual systems can also be used for communication between the business and its customers, especially where those companies’ commercial aspects are directed towards the public in general.

Audio visual systems are now so widely used that we hardly think about them at all. In fact the only time we are likely to notice them is when we notice they aren’t there!

Breaking it down, the word ‘media’ is simply the different tools/mediums used to store, deliver or share content.  Or put in another way, it’s the various different ways through which content or information and all other forms of communication can be passed through.  This content is simply one or all of text, picture, audio and video.  The term “Digital” is more straightforward to define.  Basically any form of media that is stored, displayed or transferred electronically is digital.

It all comes down to two things; communication and interaction.  Digital media and electronic information is constantly evolving and the way we interact online is evolving rapidly along with it.  Whereas once there was only simple online chat forums, now there’s a whole vast social media empire base with Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Google Plus, all to name just  a snippet.  All of this is what incorporates digital media, and more.  Communication online, and advertising, marketing, online business transactions etc. are becoming less the exception and more the rule and eventually, we will hit a point when the majority, if not the whole, of our marketing budget will be spent on digital media.

We are entering into a digital world, and more and more of our daily interactions with people or customers, will be done digitally.  Shops are going online and selling to customers they will never see.  Services will be delivered online to people we will never see.  Advertising will be done through millions of tiny pixels on various different platforms, digitally, to promote your brand or product.  Traditional media is hitting it’s sell by date to be replaced by its digital counterpart.

It’s for these reasons, and for many more, that doing a digital media course in Dublin is a good idea.  There are many such courses in Dublin, so it’s best to do your research before you book yourself into one of them.  Dublin, being the capital, leads the way for digital media incorporation to businesses and thus provides the richest supply of courses.  Pick which one best suits your needs, but do it fast; the digital world is rapidly evolving and is waiting for no one.

Shortcuts make a huge difference to your speed when editing or training with Final Cut Pro. Since editing projects can take hours or days, shortcuts can mean huge productivity advantages overall depending on the length of the project.

Research shows that using a mouse can mean you spend up to 40% longer on a Final Cut Pro project than if you are using shortcuts. We’ve listed just a few of the ones you are most likely to find yourself using as you start out your Final Cut Pro training.

We all start somewhere and if you have started training in or just bought Final Cut Pro, one shortcut will be needed more than any other; Undo.

Command + Z: Undo

This shortcut will undo your mistake, bringing you back to the state before your last action.

N: Toggle Snapping

During editing with Final Cut Pro you will constantly need to turn on and off the snapping feature. The snapping short-cut will save you an enormous amount of time especially when you are just starting out or training.

So clips don’t overlap or gaps don’t appear between clips it is useful to use Snapping. Similarly, when you want clips to overlap or you want a gap between them you will want to turn it off.

Command + “+”: Zoom In

Command + “-”: Zoom Out

When you are editing in Final Cut Pro you will zoom in and out on your clips a lot. However far along you are in your training you will find you constantly use the zoom function.

These zooming shortcuts work for zooming in and out in the Canvas, Viewer and Timeline windows.

You might use the zoom function when you have the wrong window selected. Zooming in on the Timeline window you might find you have the Canvas window selected and you have zoomed in on that. No matter how much Final Cut Pro training you have had it can happen.  Just use:

Shift + Z: Zoom to Fit

Which will return your window to its full size.

Hopefully these short-cuts are enough to get your training kick-started.

If you’re looking for training in Ireland, take a look at Pulse College.

Do you have any others you’d like to share?