CMS Australasia Pty Ltd

Coast to Coast with CMS

Darren — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:38:29 +0000

We love being busy at CMS and this quarter has been seen us tour with Coles, CPA Australia and Les Mills and we’ve had events in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. See photos of our most recent event, Filex in Sydney which featured a creative LED wall display.

We have just come back from Filex in Sydney, Australia’s largest fitness convention. CMS Australasia delivers the technical production for the Les Mills Ultimate Super Workshop at Filex which brings together over 800 of Australia and New Zealand’s best fitness instructors in one intense and highly energized, bass thumping weekend workout.

This year featured a truss arch backdrop that was 30 metres wide encapsulating three 16:9 screens with an LED wall display to complement and a lighting and sound system that brought the whole convention centre to life. Participants said that “the show was amazing” and “this was by far the best yet.“

We would love to hear what you think below!

SCEC to Close – Have Your Say

Darren — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:33:13 +0000

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell recently announced that the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre will be closing from late 2013 until 2016 while the $1 billion redevelopment of the precinct takes place.

Apparently, if SCEC was to remain open during the works, the project would not be completed until 2019.

Read the article in SPICE magazine.

We want to hear your thoughts. Is this the best move, to close SCEC for 3 years?

How will this affect your business?

Post your comments below.

TOD Update – April

Darren — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:44:43 +0000

The PCO Association recently ran a series of forums looking at the reasons for and against TOD fees. More interestingly, we also discussed why these fees were unnecessary and damaging to the events industry as a whole.

Just as a side note, if you are unaware of TOD charges because you always use venue AV services, you may want to consider talking to us. It has been reported that venue AV prices are on average 30-35% more expensive than the market rate. This varies across AV companies and venues but worthy of consideration.

One question that was raised at the forum was whether charging TOD fees is anti-competitve behaviour and in breach of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. This is probably a matter for the ACCC, but we would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment below or email us.

I am of the opinion that this battle will be won by the power of market forces rather than through the legal system.

If you are sick of paying TOD fees, remember that contracts are an agreement between two parties.

Ask yourself these questions:
- How much money am I already bringing to this venue in catering, room hire, room nights?
- Is my preferred AV supplier reputable? Do they have insurance? Do they have an OHS Policy? Do they test and tag their equipment?
- Do I see value in what the TOD provides when I already have trusted technicians looking after my event? If so, what are these services worth?
- What can I do about these fees?

Ask the venue these questions
- What will the TOD do for me, the client?
- If they are there to ensure your venue is protected, why do they need to be there beyond the installation period for the duration of the event?
- If they are there to supervise OHS, why does my preferred AV supplier’s credentials not suffice? Please provide me with documentation of the qualifications of every individual TOD that we can expect to meet during our event.
- Does this venue receive commission from your in-house AV supplier? If so, how much?

Finally, if none of the answers that come back are to your satisfaction, simply advise that you are not willing to sign the contract with those TOD terms. You will find that venues will negotiate on this issue.

I would also be inclined to shop around. Is there a comparable venue not too far away that is willing to be more service focused, rather than being focused on penalising you for building your event your way?

Video News Coming Soon…

Darren — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:19:15 +0000

Being a video production company, we feel that the best way to show you what we do, is to show you what we do. For this reason, we will be changing the format of our monthly newsletter to video news or v-news. You will get to see first hand our capabilities with 3D animations, Virtual studios and more…

Video communicates what text alone cannot…feeling, inclusion and visual stimulation. If you are not using video to communicate with your audience, get on board.

CMS Australasia has 3 dedicated video editing suites and a national team of video production personnel. Whether you want to capture the content at your live event, or produce a video for training or promotional purposes, our team can develop a creative, engaging and inspiring video that educates, communicates and entertains all at the same time.

Have a project coming up that is going to involve video? Talk to our team about how we can help.

Free Recording Offer March

Darren — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:43:45 +0000

CMS began as a Conference Recording company and to this day provide high quality professional audio recording services that are utilized by major venues and production companies as well as associations and PCOs.

When you book in your event audio visual with us in the next 2 months, we will record your event for FREE and output each session so it is ready for you to distribute online, or we can replicate CDs for you as well.

The benefit of using CMS Australasia for all of your Event Technical services is that you only have to deal with one company and do not have to be concerned with how your various technical elements are integrating.

To enquire about this offer, simply send us your details and some information about your event emailing us.

TOD Update March

Darren — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:41:14 +0000

CMS Australasia has been raising awareness about TOD Fees in venues for a while now… Read our original article “TOD Fees – Necessary Evil, or Just Plain Evil.” which was published in the CIM Magazine

TOD Fees became a HOT topic at the PCO Association conference in Auckland last year and as a result, is a major topic being discussed at the PCO Associations first forum series for 2012. CMS Australasia has been proud to be a part of this event in Sydney and on the Gold Coast and is looking forward to participating in the panel discussion next week in Melbourne.

Be sure to come and check out the forum next week. You can find more information on the forum and how to register here.

TOD Update 2

Darren — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:23:30 +0000

Event: 3 day Conference and Gala Dinner
Venue: Sebel Albert Park
In-House AV company: Staging Connections
Contracted AV Supplier: CMS Australasia
Total Revenue for Job: $30,000
TOTAL TOD/Venue Labour Charges: $5440

We competed against Staging Connections (in-house) and another supplier to win this job and were able to provide a more competitive quote, despite them having equipment “in-house”.

Somehow, Staging Connections still managed to charge us almost 20% of our total revenue for themselves in labour alone! The Sebel has implemented a Contractor Supervisor policy that means there will always be a “Technician On Duty” when there is an external audio visual company onsite. This is not dependent on the event, nor on the experience the AV provider has with the venue.

As an experienced and reputable AV supplier that works in venues all over Australia, we have worked at the Sebel for many years, even back in the days it was called Carlton Crest. We know the venue very well and we also have the appropriate insurances, our own OHS policy and conduct Risk Assessments for all jobs. Up until recently, the venue charged TOD fees for the first 4 hours of an install and during the bump out. This made some sense.

The current policy now however, means that on any given event, there will be a 2nd AV Technician that sits next to the contracted AV Technician for the entire duration of the conference. What is their purpose? The policy states that it is to “Supervise” the contractor. They literally sit there at the AV ops position. Is this how you would like to spend $80 per hour of your conference budget?

On top of the Contractor Supervisor charges, we were also charged labour charges of 8 hours by Staging Connections for “Setting up” and “Packing Down” the permanently installed equipment that we cross-hired from them. We also believe that we were charged for labour that was performed by the Contractor Supervisor. If this is the case, we were being charge $160 per hour for 1 person’s labour!

What value was provided for $5440? What did the end client receive for this sum? To be fair, there was some internal patching required of the in-house supplier and there was also screens and projectors hired from the venue. The button on the remote controls to turn these on was pushed by the in-house AV company. Total labour perhaps could be generously put down as 2 hours.

In our opinion, there was not much value provided at all. In fact, we would much rather have seen that money go into providing a visually enhanced event for our client. Unfortunately, the money that is being paid to venues even when they are not providing the audio visual service means that events in these venues are suffering. We want to see these policies abolished.

Up until this point, we haven’t shed too much light on the commission arrangements between in-house AV companies and hotels. In our next TOD update, we will look at this and seek your opinion as to whether there is a conflict of interest in play. We will also outline our proposal for an alternative policy that will protect venues and not eat into the budget of Event Organisers.

If you would like to share your thoughts, comments or stories, please email us.

Filming Around Australia

Darren — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:16:23 +0000

Did you know that CMS Australasia has a video production team in our recording division?

From training and promotional videos, to event capture and highlight showreels, we work with many corporates and associations. In October and November we have been in Tasmania, ACT, Victoria, NSW and Queensland filming for various clients.

We help a number of associations to ensure that their Professional Development Content lives on after the live event. We capture, edit and deliver it online.

Video communicates what words alone cannot express. Our video production team can work with you from the initial concept right through to the product delivery.

Live Event Capture
Corporate Communications
Promotional Videos
Training Materials
Highlights and showreels
Storyboarding

Scripting
Casting
Filming
Editing
Printing, dvd & cd replication
Web streaming / online distribution

Gearing Up for 2012

Darren — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:25:23 +0000

In 2011 CMS has continued to grow and update inventory which will enhance your events in 2012.

This year we have seen a great expansion in the vision stock including:

6000 ANSI Lumen Panasonic Projectors
13‘x7.5’ wide screen format projection screens
Broadcast quality Sony cameras
Multi camera vision switching equipment
More plasmas! Now in stock – 32” 42” 50” 60”

Lots of LED Par Can lights
Truss Style Stage
Brand new Conference Audio Packages

If you would like to see some of our new gear in action, register your interest for the CMS showcase launching 2012 in February.

Showcase Event – 2012

Darren — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 03:58:43 +0000

CMS Australasia is proud to present its inaugural showcase event to coming up in 2012…

With fine food, drink and a spectacular display of inspiring ideas for your events, CMS Australasia’s 2012 showcase will be one to remember!
More details will be coming soon…