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Good Vibes Flow From Out-Foxing the Zu The new management team at Song Zu is moving rapidly - relocating staff from Fox Studios back to McMahons Point, re-doing the studio showreel, installing a new audio suite and upgrading all the Macs. Song Zu Creative Director Ramesh Sathiah says the new Zu is full of energy and optimism..and creativity. In particular, Ramesh says closing the Fox Studio campus and moving all the staff back into McMahons Point has been a big plus. .....it feels great..... "When they split it up and moved the people over to Fox I thought it sort of lost the vibe a bit because it was just exciting having more people around. The one thing that we probably do differently from any one else is we really collaborate a lot. We've got quite a few composers who are really specialised. For example I don't pretend to do jazz drops because that's not where my expertise is: all those fields are a lifetime of work. "So we actually bounce things off each other a lot and get people to add elements and having us all in one space is better because we can cross-pollinate a lot more. "I've been hanging out for us to get back together and it feels great." To accommodate everyone the Zu has refurbished a building literally five steps across the road from the main studios. Ramesh said the weekend move went smoothly after much haggling over who was going to sit where. "The funny thing is we've all been debating for weeks about who goes where for what reasons and in the end we realised we've all just gone back to the rooms that we were in four years ago. .....new rooms new gear new vibe..... "Some people have moved across to the terrace but it is just heaps better being back together. Bruce has been at the Fox and he can't wait to get back in so we can bounce off each other." Ramesh says the speed of recent changes has also vibed everyone up. "We've done things that we've been talking about for months ..like getting a new DVD showreel together, getting everyone back from the Fox, renovating new rooms, buying new gear..it's all happened within a few weeks. "People have commented that in the past that would have taken a few years, but now the management structure is a lot more simple, there's a bit more trust and we're all allowed to run with our particular projects. I think it's just a bit more functional than it was before." And he says becoming an owner hasn't been that daunting. .....biggest danger is crossing the road..... "My pea sized musical brain can't comprehend it. All I know is I've been signing thousands of pieces of paper that I don't exactly understand. I know that there's a risk but this is nowhere near the risk of taking on a brand new business because it is a really solid business. "I've got lots of confidence in Ian Lew who's our Managing Director and Partner so I think we're in a really good position and I feel pretty confident actually." Apart from the new DVD showreel and the MAC OS/10 upgrade there's a new audio suite for Song Zu's frequent award winning sound designer, Simon Kane. "We've just brought him back here (from the Fox Studio campus) he's just switched over from Fairlight to ProTools HD and he's going great and the transition seems to be going really well for him too," Ramesh says. With enthusiastic staff and positive response from clients Ramesh says the trickiest challenge each day is moving between buildings. "We just have to make sure we don't get run over when we cross the road." Good Radio is BAD A radio campaign for the Queensland Sunday Mail has won the BAD Club Judges Award for 2003. "It was a tough brief that was beautifully executed and brilliantly written, but it started with a wonderfully simple and surprising idea and treats all of the mandatories as part of the idea, not as an add-on," judge Greg Logan said. The Judges Award was only one of 54 given to McCann-Erickson. The agency was awarded 1 gold, 16 silver and 37 bronze. For more information: www.badclub.com.au Karaoke Campaign Wins for Wella A radio campaign for Decore shampoo has won the Media Federation Award's gong for 'Best Use of Radio' by encouraging shoppers to sing in supermarkets, instead of the shower. The singers were enticed by the chance to take a shower of cash. The campaign, devised by George Patterson, boosted sales by 16%. WS Drinks to CRA Awards 2WS has followed up its international awards for Chambers Cellars with a local Commercial Radio Award. Three spots produced for Chambers Cellars: 'General' 'Beer' and 'Pony' were awarded 'Best Station Produced Commercial.' They were written by Eric Stephens and produced by Gregg Sinclair. The same spots earned the only Australian gold statuette for Radio at the Mobius Awards in the US earlier this year. Cristy Kilo from 99.7 Star FM in Griffith was the Provincial Winner for 'Falcon Beauty' and Jenny Summerville and Glen Thomas from 2RE Taree were the joint country winners for 'Ruby and Gordon.' Nova Melbourne production team Vicki Marr and Arden Hanley (now at Nova Perth) were the Metropolitan winners for Best Achievement in Production. Shane Rogers from 90.9 SEA FM in Shepparton was the provincial winner and Mitch Smart from Dubbo's ZOOFM was the country winner. For the full list of winners: www.commercialradio.com.au TAS Enjoying State of the Union Address Television + Advertising services, TAS has a new home and new equipment and is now strategically pursuing new clients to take advantage of their purpose-built broadcast production environment. Level 2 at 84 Union Street Pyrmont has 500m2 of production space. There are five edit suites with top-of-the-line AVID studios including the new on-line Symphony system. The audio studio has the new Fairlight Dreamstation, plus projection and surround and the new Combustion and 3-D suites sit alongside creative rooms, workstations and a lounge for producers and directors. TAS Group Business Director Paul Metcalfe says the first week in the new Pyrmont studios was spent introducing current clients to the new environment and the response was all positive. .....facilities for everyone..... "The whole space is such an inviting environment. TV producers and directors can come here to do everything end to end. They can take an office space, have breakout rooms, bring their clients, produce every element of their program under the one roof and throw parties if they want to." A massive bar dominates the TAS entrance. "There's a seven metre bar and a commercial coffee machine," Paul says. "The bar forms the reception area so if you want to have a stand-up sushi party you can." Overall the space is sleek and modern with polished concrete, white desktops, and logos projected onto the walls with audio-visual equipment. .....great sound space..... But the outstanding attraction is the equipment. TAS Sound engineer Paul Evans says it's a great workspace. "I can pull a great voice. Most engineers will appreciate if they're happy with the sound they're pulling in the voice over booth...they're very happy. It's something that I hold dear to my heart." The audio studio has been designed specifically for Dolby 5.1 and boasts Australia's first Fairlight DREAM console. "It's just wonderful, intuitive, it's fast, it processes well and it's compact, like a Porsche," Paul enthuses. "Particularly in production terms where speed is the essence it's very quick, extremely quick." Other gear includes the Avalon Design VT-737 mic preamp, Beyer microphones, a TC Electronics finaliser, Behringer compressor and Dynaudio speaker monitors as well as the usual time-code, DAT and reverb and the Lexicon effects unit. There's also an electronic screen and projection unit for theatre and TV work. Everything is digital and recorded at 48k. Paul says clients and talent love the new space, especially the voice artists. Radio Ad Revenues Spring Up in September Commercial radio advertising revenue rose 14.2 per cent in September sparking hopes for a boom December quarter this year. The figures by Pricewaterhouse Coopers show advertising revenue increased by double digit figures in all five capital city markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Total advertising revenue across Australia was $43.8 million, and the monthly growth was the best since August 2000. "The result augurs well for the December quarter, which is traditionally a peak period for radio advertising in the lead up to Christmas," said Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Joan Warner. "This is certainly a good indicator that the advertising recovery is beginning to flow through to commercial radio. The strong economic conditions, coupled with the success of the industry's brand campaign in raising awareness of the benefits of radio advertising are likely to see good results continue into the next quarter." .....strong response to CRA campaign..... Joan says there's been strong response to the national radio effectiveness campaign launched in July. "Interest has been strong in metropolitan areas but regional response has been particularly strong - a very pleasing result." The series of on-air and press advertisements are based around the message that radio advertising is twice as effective at reaching audiences throughout the day as television. No Stylus, No Style for Australian Radio He's just become a grandfather for the first time and he's not sure whether he's a dinosaur, but one thing David Flint does know, is the Australian radio industry is self-destructing. David says the loss of the Golden Stylus Awards and the current industry campaign position radio as a cheap, churn and burn advertising medium. "The people involved are just not interested in encouraging the advertising industry. "There's no reason for writers to be passionate about radio because there's not the awards to recognise the benefits of it," David laments. .....needs a new breed..... "For many years my generation did very well out of the Golden Stylus Awards and it's unfair that people like Paul (Le Couteur) and Rodney (Lowe) and Daryl (Missen) can't win Golden Stylus Awards," David says. "With Golden Stylus Awards it wasn't just the writer or the agency or the production house or the actor that were singled out: they were all involved. You used to get advertising agencies taking their clients along. I've seen many a client very pleased that commercials they've spent money on are winning awards." He believes the radio industry should set up a separate body or group of people to recreate the Golden Stylus Awards. .....anyone can sponsor..... "It needs a whole new breed of people who are passionate about writing good radio and it shouldn't disappear because people like Street Remley and myself are no longer producing to the extent we used to." David says Commercial Radio Australia's sponsorship of other Awards, such as MADC and the AWARD awards doesn't have anywhere near the same impact as awards from within the radio industry itself. "Anyone can sponsor. We all have, at one stage or another, sponsored a category in the Golden Stylus or Award or any of the different award groups but it's a little different to having an award that is run by the industry. When there were people on board who were passionate, such as Bob Logie and people like Bob, it meant something. It lost its way over the past decade and people weren't turning up. Of course they weren't, it lost its importance. ...only dinosaurs like maraschino cherries..... "It's such a wonderful medium and it reaches so many people so easily. It needs to open up a bit and bring in people, such as advertising people who have that creative edge and can add another dimension to radio. Otherwise it might be fun, it might appeal to the people in radio but it doesn't necessarily appeal to the people in advertising and the general listening public. It needs to include people like Susie Immurs, Chris Briscoe, Tim Crowther, Bryce Courtney, Tim Pike, Paul le Couteur and Daryl Missen and we need to include young creatives and maybe a client or two. "There was an article I gather from the people who are now producing the commercials for the radio industry and they blatantly referred to the people as the dinosaurs of the past: people who believed in Stan Freberg and maraschino cherries. They said there'd be no more of that and they were taking a whole new approach. "Well the commercials I've heard, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I am a dinosaur, but for me they're very dated and not very funny." .....beautiful TV ads are produced by the advertising industry..... More importantly though, David believes the spots project a poor image of radio overall. "They (the current spots) might work, I don't know if they're attracting more revenue, but they'd attract a certain type of revenue. They wouldn't attract the creative commercial if you like, they'd attract the budget advertiser and that sort of advertising. "That will give radio an image of being a budget medium. That's fine as long as it's balanced with good, creative, image-building radio commercials, but I'm afraid that side of it is disappearing and the loss of the Golden Stylus Awards tie in with that. "In television you see some beautiful television commercials and they're not produced by the channels they're produced by people outside; by the advertising industry. .....radio should be inexpensive, not cheap..... "TV stations produce some of the stuff you see late at night and some other commercials, the budget commercials. But of course the big advertisers do it through their agencies and they spend money to do it and do it properly and it improves their image. "Radio will always be, compared to television, quite inexpensive but it shouldn't be cheap. There's a difference. "But I think that's the way the current commercials are going. They're really aimed at people who will go straight to the radio station and advertise using their own voice if need be. They're not encouraging big money spenders through the advertising agencies to do it properly and that's where they should be going," David says. "It'll come back, it has to I think. Maybe the current radio industry will run its course for a little while and then realise what it's missing out on." Traditionalists Finally Wooed by the Web Five years after DBM Systems designed AudioNET, the rest of the industry is finally converting to Internet delivery. Digital Courier and DART are in the process of switching from satellite and ISDN delivery to Internet delivery. Digital Courier has a website for studio uploads although most radio station delivery is still via the satellite distribution system. DART is promising a website sometime 'soon.' DBM Systems Managing Director Dave Cox said the changes were inevitable. .....Internet is only a tool..... However, he said Internet delivery alone won't provide major benefits for radio advertisers: it will depend on whether the new services maximise the medium's potential. "I can use a paintbrush but that doesn't make me Leonardo da Vinci. The Internet is merely a tool and it's the talents of the people using it that determine whether it provides a great service. "The most outstanding benefit of using AudioNET® Internet delivery is that there is absolutely no degradation of audio quality from the studio that produces the digital audio file to each and every radio station that is broadcasting the commercials," Dave said. "Traditional delivery methods such as satellite and ISDN require at least one digital to analogue conversion somewhere during the delivery chain and that means at least one generation loss in sound quality." .....don't confuse internet and email..... And he stressed Internet delivery is not the same as e-mailing MP3 audio files. "Sending audio via e-mail is a very unnatural act. It's cheap and nasty. "E-mail was designed to deliver small text files. To deliver large MP3 audio attachments e-mail protocols pull the audio files apart like a jigsaw, send each little piece on its separate way through the Internet and then stick the whole thing back together again at the receiving end. "The e-mail network at the receiving radio stations then has to move the large re-assembled audio files to the correct addressee. They clog up the whole system and slow down other e-mail deliveries until the audio gets to right inboxes." Dave said the moves by Digital Courier and DART can only benefit audio studios and radio advertisers. "With all three of Australia's radio commercial delivery services soon to be Internet-based, all studios should be able to demand the same high quality, fast and efficient delivery as those who've been using AudioNET." How Many Dummies Bidding for Adelaide FM Licence? Four of the nine bidders for the new Adelaide commercial radio licence are companies less than two months old. The Australian Broadcasting Authority will auction off the new FM licence at the end of October. Only four recognised networks are listed among the bidders. The locals are ARN South Australia (5DN and MIX FM) and DMG Radio (5AA.) Outsiders include the Macquarie Radio Network which owns 2CH and 2GB and Hot Tomato, which recently launched in the Gold Coast. The hot tip is that if Macquarie wins the licence they'd do a swap with DMG for 5AA. The unknown bidders, all registered in the past two months are: The other unknown is Third National Network Australia, registered in Southport Queensland on 13th November in 2000. It's a pretty safe guess that's a front for Hot Tomato. It's not at all unusual for incumbent networks to have other 'dummy' bidders at auction, just to keep the competitors at bay. So who are all the other new companies bidding for?? They're the richest start-up companies we've come across - the reserve is set at $1m. ABA Provides DCL for ABC The ABC has been given a data-casting licence, allowing it to add interactive and Internet content to its TV broadcasting services across Australia. The Australian Broadcasting Authority's Acting Chair Lyn Maddock said the proposed data-casting services would add value to the future digital television services provided by the ABC. Datacasting services can include electronic program guides, Internet content, electronic mail, information services, educational programs, interactive computer games, text or still images, and advertising or sponsorship material. "The ABA expects that the appeal and value of digital television services generally will be further enhanced as new datacasting services start to become available over the next year or so through digital television receivers and set-top-boxes," Ms Maddock said. Stig Fields Follies We owe a big apology to Melbourne voice artist Stig Wemyss. In an article last month about Rowland's ad-lib ads for a car yard, we gave credit to voice talent Stig Williams, instead of Stig Wemyss. Very sorry Stig. AudioNET® Thought For The Day "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galilei Galileo, Inventor, Scientist.
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Killer Bits: October 2003
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