Australian publishing mogul and bestselling relationship author Allan Pease has fulfilled a life-long dream on a massive scale – building a state-of-the-art, luxury, recording studio on his 54-acre Buderim property in Queensland.

Heliport Recording Studios, named because it sits above Allan and Barbara Pease’s private helipad, is the newest and largest recording studio on the Sunshine Coast.

Costing over a million dollars to build and fit out, the studio is also unique in Australia having the first commercially available Solid State Logic (SSL) Duality deck in Australia, which means the studio can be used to record on any scale right up to full broadcast music recordings and 5.1 movie soundtracks.

But why a recording studio – that’s where Allan’s lifelong dream comes in.  When Allan, now 58, was a teenager it wasn’t publishing and public speaking he dreamed of – he wanted to be a rock star.

“I’ve always played blues music and I was in a band and really wanted to be a rock star but the dream was rudely interrupted by life when I met my wife and had six children,” he laughed.

“I booked my ticket to Woodstock in 1969 and was ready to go when my girlfriend announced she was pregnant. I had to sell my ticket and Les Paul guitar to by carpet and a cot.”

Allan said he kept the dream alive for over 30 years and while he and wife Barbara built their lives, becoming Australia’s most successful publishing team writing 15 Top 10 Bestsellers.  But he continued to play Rock N Roll and Blues and taught himself to play piano.

“Now I can play the keyboards, bass, rythmn and lead guitars and drums as well as do vocals and harmonies.  Now I want to record my own album where I play every part,” he said.

“ I am lucky to be able to afford to fulfil my dream on a grand scale including building the studio but because I had my dream I also want to help others with their dreams too and use the studio to find and help new talent.  Angus Woodhead is the resident sound engineer at Heliport and he’s highly experienced and well-known in the recording business.”

The studio is in an architecturally designed building amid the Pease’s rainforest property overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Sunshine Coast so in addition to having state-of-the-art facilities it also has an environment that fosters creativity.  And if the view isn’t inspiring enough there is also a tennis court and clubhouse complete with a media room, kitchen and other facilities.

“It’s the perfect destination recording studio where artists can work and also relate as they create their music,” Allan said.

He said he had three New Years resolutions to work on in 2010: recording his album; learning to play the saxophone; and climbing 4600m to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Anyone wanting to find out about using the facility can call Pease International on 07 5445 5600 or email info@heliportstudios.com.

Reflected Image Productions produced a half hour broadcast documentary for cancer charity ‘Smiling For Smiddy’ which will air across Queensland on Win Television on December 20 at 1130 am.

The Win network have been very supportive of this project giving the documentary a fantastic time slot. ‘Smiling For Smiddy, A Journey Of Friends’  will be the lead in program to the cricket which guarentees it a large viewing audience. Smiling For Smiddy is a charity ride held each year to raise money for cancer research.

The ride is held in memory of Adam Smiddy who died from an aggressive melanoma. This year the riders raised over half a million dollars. View the promo below.[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/8054311[/vimeo]

Sunshine Coast entrepreneur and scientist Dr Geoff Edwards has just returned from EnviroAsia 2009, the fourth International Environmental Technologies Exhibition and Conference where he advised world experts about the future of nanotechnology in the
Clean Technology industry.

Dr Edwards, managing director of Nano-Nouvelle, was one of several experts from around the world invited to speak at the Sustainable Energy Conference at EnviroAsia 2009 in Singapore.

He told the conference that there was great potential for the use of nanotechnology in the clean energy sector, where it had already made a significant impact with solar cells and batteries.

“For clean energy to be widely adopted it is vital that it be affordable and nanotechnology developments and further research is key to achieving this.”

Dr Edwards said there had been significant development of manufacturing methods in the semi-conductor industry, which together with academic research had greatly expanded the range of nano-scale features that could be created, the range of materials they could be created in, and the number of legitimate large-scale production methods that could be used.

“This is exciting news for the clean energy industry. Nanotechnology can potentially have an impact in any area of clean energy where the performance of a material is significant,” he said.

He said just a few of the applications that could benefit in the future included thermoelectric materials, solar cells and hydrogen storage as well as air and water treatment.

Nano-Nouvelle, which is a client of the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast, is developing a nano-structured semiconductor, in the form of a thin film, to efficiently convert various forms of energy into electricity.

Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast Entrepreneur-in-Residence Nigel Hall said Dr Edward’s presentation in Singapore was evidence of his expertise in the area, and testament to the technology he was developing, which had great potential across a range of applications.

Dr Edwards said while their development was at an early stage, potential applications in clean energy were very large.

“The key to widespread use of clean energy,” as he told the conference, “is provision of that energy at a price that is competitive with fossil fuels. Our technology aims to assist this”.

“The recent explosion in nanotechnology is exciting as it is providing new ways to manipulate the structure of materials at the nanometre scale (one nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter) and at a time when sustainable energy is crucial, the clean energy sector can benefit from this,” he said.

Mr Hall said as a University of the Sunshine Coast company, dedicated to the development of the region’s economy, the Innovation Centre was proud to be playing a part in Nano-Nouvelle’s development.

“Developing this kind of new technology locally shows the depth of talent in the region, talent that drives the development of sectors such as Clean Technology, Digital and Creative Industries,” Mr Hall said.

Dr Edwards said the use of nanotechnology in the clean energy sector had to be part of a well-planned, focused strategy for development and manufacturing of the whole product.

“The costbenefit ratio is critical and manufacturing scale-up is a major issue for nanotechnology in achieving favourable ratios.

“Industry must be prepared to fund and undertake serious research and development in order to realise the potential that exists in this field,” he said.

Opengear (www.opengear.com.au), today announced that the Tatts Group, a global provider of highly secure technical systems and networks for electronic gaming machines, has acquired more than
12,000 Opengear SD4000 series device servers.

The SD4000 series will be used by MaxGaming, a subsidiary of Tatts Group, to provide secure remote control, monitoring and data acquisition on electronic gaming machines in the UK and in Australia. MaxGaming will use the SD4000 device servers to communicate with MaxGaming monitoring system software; provide
statistics on wins, turnover, jackpots, loyalty cards, cashbox, credit and games played; and provide process automation and detailed auditing.

“We evaluated systems from a variety of vendors,” said Darryl Green, Technical Specialist – Gaming Technology at MaxGaming, a subsidiary of Tatts Group. “We chose Opengear because it provided our engineers a customizable open sourcebased architecture, highly secure OpenSSL connections, proven reliability and lowest cost.”

Information about Opengear’s SD4000 Series
The Opengear SD4000 device server enables users to securely connect, manage and control RS232/422/485 serial devices from anywhere over ethernet or the internet. The SD4000 provides fast, secure and reliable local and remote connectivity to serial ports on meters, scanners, access control, sensors, PLC’s and SCADA equipment. The compact size of the SD4000 makes it the ideal choice for connecting RS232/422/485 serial devices to the network or to each other with its serial tunneling capabilities. The SD4000 series offers highly secure transactions over TCP/IP (SSL/SSH) with code integrity checks.

New ACM5000 Product Line Helps Gaming Operators
In November, 2009, Opengear launched the ACM5000 series. This family of products expands beyond the functionality of the SD4000 device servers, offering gaming operators a flexible commercial off-the-shelf platform for monitoring, control and supervision of thousands of distributed gaming machines.

The ACM5000 adds an Internal V.92 modem, cellular wireless connectivity, as well as having Ethernet, Wi-Fi and serial connectivity. With power and environmental management coupled with digital input sensors and a local flash disk, Opengear expects industry demand from the ACM5000 in the gaming industry.
“The gaming industry is looking for ways to cut costs. That’s why a move to open source-based device servers makes so much sense,” said Bob Waldie, founder and chairman of Opengear. “We provide the highest level of security and ability to customize – at a much lower cost than proprietary alternatives.”

About Opengear
Opengear (www.opengear.com.au) designs and manufactures next-generation console server, power management and kvm over ip solutions for secure remote access and control of infrastructure. Opengear console servers are installed in more than 10,000 locations around the world. Opengear’s open source platform gives network managers and system integrators the most flexible, extensible, console server solution on the market today for serial console ports, service processors, power solutions and environmental monitoring.

Fumunda Marine is working with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries to reduce the number of migrating whales caught in shark nets along the east coast of Australia.

Fumunda Director James Turner said he was very excited that the Queensland DPI&F had commissioned Fumunda to improve existing acoustic alarm devices, or pingers as they are known, which alert whales to the presence of nets used in shark control programs.

Mr Turner said that Fumunda, which has successfully developed pingers to alert porpoises and dolphins to the presence of fishing nets, was well into the design and engineering phase of the new improved whale pingers.

“Pingers emit a low?frequency signal that alert porpoises, dolphins and whales to the presence of commercial fishing equipment, thereby helping to ensure that interactions between the set fishing gear and marine mammals are avoided,” he said.

“We are passionate about working with stakeholders such as government and fishermen to find a solution that works for everyone,” he said.

Mr Turner said that in addition to the Queensland DPI&F commission, the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries had made enquiries with a view to ordering the new Pingers.

“Whales are wonderful creatures and it’s great to see their numbers increasing, so we are delighted to be working with both New South Wales and Queensland Governments to achieve this,” he said.

The new pingers have been designed to operate at a very low frequency known to be audible to whales.  The new pingers will be significantly more powerful than the existing models.

The new Fumunda low frequency pinger will be significantly smaller and lighter than the existing pinger technology, making handling and fitting to the nets much easier.  They will be made using high quality internal components and long-lasting replaceable batteries, ensuring reliable performance.

Mr. Trevor Long, Director of Marine Sciences at Sea World, has also thrown his support behind the improvement of existing acoustic technology.

“We need to be more proactive in the protection of our marine life from the danger that shark nets present.  New technology such as the Fumunda ‘pingers’ are certainly an advancement in the right direction, Trevor said.

“Fewer whale entanglements in shark nets in the future, is something we all want to see”, he said.
Mr Turner said he was very pleased to be working on this project to help protect marine mammals, which have always held a fascination for him.

“Whales and dolphins are such intelligent and unique creatures, and we have a responsibility to protect them,” he said.

“Approximately 12,000 whales travel up and down the east coast of Australia each year, and the team at Fumunda, like the New South Wales and Queensland Departments of Primary Industries want to reduce the number of incidental entanglements.

He said to help achieve this the Queensland DPI&F would also increase the number of whale pingers deployed to further enhance whales ability to detect them.

“Our whale pinger technology has applications globally and we hope to work with other stakeholders to further protect these wonderful marine mammals.”

Mr Turner said; for example, on the coast of Western Australia more than 17,000 Humpback whales make the migration to the warmer northern waters for breeding, having to navigate through thousands of lobster pots which are set everyday.

“Our whale pingers could very easily be deployed in clusters of lobster pots to reduce the risk,” he said.

“I am very keen to talk with the West Australian authorities about this opportunity.”

The new whale pingers are expected to go into production later this year, and will be deployed up the east coast of Australia well in advance of the northern whale migration, which starts around the beginning of May.

Tickets are still available for the Bloomhill Melbourne Cup Lunch, which will be a fabulous showcase of Sunshine Coast fashion and food.

The luncheon, held looking out over the beautiful beach at Mooloolaba Surf Club on Tuesday 3^rd November, will highlight all the Sunshine Coast has to offer.

“Bloomhill Cancer Help is a truly local Sunshine Coast charity helping people with cancer throughout the region and we want to highlight all there is on offer here,” Bloomhill fundraising coordinator, Terry Bailey said.

“Leading Mooloolaba fashion boutique The Lily Room will be putting on a great fashion parade for us and everyone will enjoy a lovely three course lunch.”

The Bloomhill fundraising committee, who are organising the luncheon, includes approximately 20 dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, focused on organising fundraising events to raise much needed funds to help people with cancer and their families.

“Since its founding in 1997, Bloomhill Cancer Help has run various events to assist people in need and each one is an opportunity for people to come together and have a great time – all for a good cause,” Mr Bailey said.

“It is fabulous to be able to put on this fundraising event and we are very grateful to the Mooloolaba Surf Club and the Lily Room for their strong support.”

The event will kick off at 11am, and is sure to be an exciting day for all those attending, with door prizes, raffles and sweeps providing a great chance to walk away with a prize on the day.

Tickets to the Cup Lunch are $70, including a three-course meal, and all profits will go to Bloomhill Cancer Help, with the Mooloolaba Surf Club also generously donating the use of the room.

“Cancer affects everybody who comes in contact with it. We all know somebody who has cancer or that knows someone who does, this is an opportunity to make a difference in their lives,” Mr Bailey said.

Bloomhill op shops can be located in Buderim, Maroochydore, Mooloolaba, Nambour, Noosa and Caloundra, and donations are always welcome.

Tickets for the Melbourne Cup Lunch are available at Maroochydore Surf Club on 5444 1300. Bookings are essential.

Sunshine Coast technology company, Schoolzine, is taking solving school communication problems nationwide with its innovative communications system developed specially for their unique challenges.

In just two and a half years, more than 85 Australian private and public schools have signed up for the system to send newsletters, emails and SMSs to parents and now, Schoolzine is taking its service national.

Schoolzine Managing Director Phil Reardon said while Schoolzine began as a solution to help schools manage and distribute e-newsletters, it had now developed into being a complete communications system.

“Schools can use our system to send newsletters and other notices via email, or to send SMSs to advise of cancelled activities or other urgent messages,” Mr Reardon said.

He said in fact demand for the system had accelerated since the Swine Flu epidemic during which schools needed to communicate quickly and efficiently with parents in relation to school closures and other safety precautions.

“This is where the system really comes into its own for schools, they can simply type in the text message they need to send and then send it simultaneously to all the parents they need to reach,” Mr Reardon said.

“This is effective for emergency situations but also just when they need to advice parents of cancelled activities and the like.”

Based at the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast, a University of the Sunshine Coast company, Schoolzine takes a school’s videos, photos and text and turns it into an e-newsletter and hardcopy within a single business day, which once approved is sent to everyone in the school’s database.

“It is environmentally friendly because it eliminates the printing and paper needed with traditional newsletters and it saves time for the school’s administration staff and the need for postage as a result it is more cost effective,” Mr Reardon said.

“It also means that messages that were previously sent home with students reached parents in a timely fashion.”

He said by seeking sponsors Schoolzine is able to subsidise the cost of the system and also give a percentage of the sponsorship to the schools, allowing them to generate an income from a previously very expensive process and to communicate better with their community.

Innovation Centre Entrepreneur-In-Residence Nigel Hall said Schoolzine was a great example of the innovative companies developing locally.

“Schoolzine has developed a great solution to a common problem and they are now taking that solution around the country,” Mr Hall said.

“The Sunshine Coast is emerging as one of Australia’s innovation hotspots and at the Innovation Centre we are dedicated to supporting that development”.

The Innovation Centre offers competitive, state-of-the-art offices, with a great location close to the University of the Sunshine Coast and to the Business and Technology Precinct to be developed across the road.

“Not only can companies access students from the university, they can locate themselves at what is becoming the ICT, Clean Tech, and Creative hub of the Sunshine Coast,” Mr Hall said.

The Innovation Centre is already home to 28 businesses, mainly in ICT, Clean Tech and Creative Industry sectors and also offers business development and networking opportunities for businesses throughout the region at the Centre and also via its redeveloped website at www.innovation- centre.com.au including the ‘Zero to Hero’ program which allows people at any stage of business development access to expert advice.

For more information on Schoolzine visit www.schoolzine.com.au. For more information about the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast visit www.innovation-centre.com.au.

Getting published can be one of the most daunting but rewarding achievements for a writer so the Sunshine Coast Literary Association is holding a one-day Publishing Seminar to help get people on their way.

The seminar will be held on Saturday 7 November from 9.30am to 4pm at Kawana Library. It will cover information including editing, agents, conventional publishers, self-publishing, partnership publishing, tax implications for published authors, copyright and other publishing issues.

SCLA president Hari Kotrotsios said information on publishing was one of the most requested by the growing members of the Literary Association.

“That’s why we decided to put all the information together on one day with experienced writers, many of them also members, offering down-to-earth advice and information based on their own experiences,” Ms Kotrotsios said.

Writer and educator Bronwyn Cozens will run a session on editing, offering information on building editing into the writing process, working with an editor, obtaining publishing guidelines and more.  Later in the day she will also talk about when and how to start a new book, as well as other publishing options such as anthologies, magazine submissions, ghost writing and being paid for your writing.

SCLA executive members Hari Kotrotsios, Peter Nolan and Barry Corcoran will also share their experience offering advice and information on the requirements and expectations of the different publishing options, such as finding a literary agent, publishing through a conventional publisher, or partnership publishing.  They and Don Hardgrave, who helped produce a recent anthology for Coolum Wave Writers, will cover self-publishing, as well as royalties, timeframes, costs, promotion and distribution and other issues relating to each option.

Dedicated to nurturing, showcasing and celebrating literary talent on the Sunshine Coast, the SCLA, trades as WARM on the Coast, which stands for Writers, Artists and Readers Month, working to make every month just that, by hosting regular events to inspire writers and allow them to network with each other.

Details of the Publishing Seminar follow and more information on this and other workshops is available on the SCLA website – www.scliterary.org.

SEMINAR DETAILS:

WHEN:         Saturday 7 November 2009

WHERE:         Kawana Library

TIME:         9.30am – 4pm

COST:         Sunshine Coast Literary Assoc financial members $55, non members $65

Bookings:         Book and confirm by payment before the seminar: phone 0414 635 407 or email info@scliterary.org.

Numbers are limited so REGISTER EARLY!