peeriebryan

I take great exception to your accusations that I am trying to mislead people, so let's get some facts straight here bobdahog You were posting about the 'arty farty brigade', which you have still not defined, arts funding and how wealthy musicians should pay for the 'arty farty stuff'. I pointed out that the Creative Industries create considerable wealth for the economy both locally and nationally and backed that up with verifiable figures. You have so far been unable to provide any figures to the contrary. At no point did I claim that Mareel comprises any of the £25 million from the EKOS report. How can it? It isn't even finished. The primary sectors of the Creative Industries which stand to benefit from Mareel include music (live and recorded), film (screenings and film production), new media (such as web content generation and broadcast) and advertising, together with the associated education activities. These have long been identified as potential growth sectors in Shetland. If you would, as I have previously requested, define what you mean by 'arty farty brigade' and/or the artistic disciplines and industries to which you refer then we may be able to get somewhere.

What are you talking about, and what are you asking me?

So you expect me to debate the findings of a report with you, and you can't even be bothered to read it? Instead of posting ill informed anonymous insults and generalised rantings, I humbly suggest you take the time to inform yourself of the subject in question Mareel is one development in a burgeoning creative sector in Shetland. At no point did I say that Mareel will comprise of the entire creative sector But since you mention the local media, they will potentially benefit considerably from Mareel in terms of increased advertising revenue and content generation (such live radio broadcasts, such as event reviews and photo features) But it is difficult to have any meaningful dialogue with you bobdahog since you disparagingly refer to 'arty farty types' in your posts instead of defining what disciplines or industries you're talking about

Have you read the report?

Artists and musicians pay taxes, just like anyone else. And many wealthy artists and musicians make considerable philanthropic donations to the arts I'm not sure what you consider 'the arts' or 'arty farty stuff' to be, but the creative industries is one of the largest sectors of the UK economy and as such generate considerable tax revenue and economic benefits. It is also one of the largest growth areas of the economy. Here's a few statistics from recent DCMS figures: This is reflected in a Shetland context as summarised in report by EKOS in 2008 which indicates that Shetland has considerable growth potential in the Creative Industries That is the case, on both points. All of the spaces in Mareel can be hired Film showings and events will be programmed to make it convenient for folk coming from outside Lerwick. For instance, you could catch a film while in town doing the weekend shopping. As Spinner72 says As an employee of Shetland Arts I can tell you that it cost absolutely nothing. It was run on a voluntary basis with no costs involved. The publicity it generated was invaluable however, with interest in the story from around the world. It was one of the top ten most viewed clips on the BBC website last weekend It was far from serious, it was a good laugh! You didn't, as it didn't cost anything And in reference to JustMe's last post ^, I agree with you wholeheartedly!

I first heard of him through the http://www.speakerplans.com website which he runs. He knows his stuff! In the auditorium there a quite a few options with regards to speakers and amps and a lot to consider - cost, reliability, size etc - to ensure 'maximum bang for the buck'. I'm amazed at advances made in PA design over the past decade or so. The rule of thumb used to be that you need a big box to shift a lot of air, as had been the case for many years, but that's not the case any more. Then there's the front of house desk - the new desk will be digital, but there still isn't a clear 'industry standard' manufacturer to emerge, and digital desks are evolving at a terrific pace. Yamaha are, I suppose, the nearest thing to a industry standard, but there are other desks that do certain things better. Mareel's desk will require a wide range of facilities for tasks beyond PA, such as live broadcast, recording, theatre productions etc, so it's a big ask for one desk. So we'll see what PLASA has to offer (I can't make it though ) And to avoid the analogue vs. digital debate, Shetland Arts has a great Allen & Heath desk that can be plumbed in for visiting engineers who still prefer analogue. The studio and multi media suite will be primarily using Pro Tools for audio recording and editing

Arup is the company leading on Mareel's acoustics - http://www.arup.com/Services/Acoustic_Consulting.aspx/ The technical specs of the PA/lighting etc will be finalised soon after PLASA - http://www.plasashow.com/ I wasn't aware of Rog Mogale being in Shetland?

More details are available here - http://www.shetland.gov.uk/housingoptionsguide/repairingandimproving/ I enquired about the same thing not too long ago and was told that if you're in employment you don't qualify for any grants. Most grants now-a-days are only available to people over 60 or in receipt of certain benefits. The one exception appears to be where a property is "Below Tolerable Standard", which I guess your hproperty is. However, if you're working I don't believe that qualifies you either. But its worth calling Hjatland on the number MuckleJoannie posted above as things may have changed since I enquired. You should be able to get help with insulation costs though, and Hjatland or Heatwise can advise you on that. Also, government grants for renewable energy have dried up over the last year too.

I wouldn't say I've had any problems with BoS online, it's just feels clunky and the interface hasn't been updated since I started using it many moons ago. BoS can do the basics, such as viewing statements, paying bills etc, but there's none of the analytical, budgeting or reporting tools offered by other banks, and there's no way to view information other than in the same way as it appears on a paper statement (i.e a chronological list of income and outgoings)

I do most of my banking online, but its handy to have a local branch. I'm currently with the Bank of Scotland - very happy with the face to face service but not too impressed with the online facilities. I'm thinking of opening an account with another bank, with a branch in Shetland and better online facilities. What do you folks think of the online services offered by your bank(s)?

Yup, Open Office for me too I tried it a few years ago on the Mac (OS 10.3) but it wasn't particularly 'shiny' and felt a bit disjointed as it ran under X11, the Linux windowing environment. So I ran Neo Office, a Mac Java port of Open Office, for years. But since Open Office 3 / Mac OS 10.4 / Intel chips, Open Office runs as a native application and it feels like a much more 'pro' application. So if you tried it on your Mac a while back but weren't impressed, its worth looking at again. There's a couple of bits n pieces that MS Word does that Open Office doesn't and vice versa, but none of them critical. For me, the fact that Open Office has a database program, which was sorely lacking in the Mac version of MS Office, means I won't be bothering with MS again. And it means my Mac is completely free of Microsoft applications

Radio Scotland programme "Norn But Not Forgotten: Sounds of Shetland" which was broadcast earlier today - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00thpw1/Norn_But_Not_Forgotten_Sounds_of_Shetland/ Programme info - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-11111965

ScreenPlay 2010 kicked off last night with a screening of 'Chicago' in Fetlar, with loads more screenings and events happening over the coming week. I'm particularly looking forward to local young filmmakers' group Maddrim's offerings at the 'Home Made in Shetland' night on Thursday The programme is online here - http://www.shetlandarts.org/events/screenplay Today's Observer includes an article on ScreenPlay by Mark Kermode - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/29/screenplay-shetland-film-festival-kermode

John Haswell is Drama and Dance Development Officer at Shetland Arts, and he works with a range of youth groups. His contacts are here - http://www.shetlandarts.org/contact/ Shetland Youth Theatre have a production on this weekend that's well worth seeing - http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10485 If you go along to that and ask around I'm sure you'll meet in with people who'll be able to help you out

Here's some photos of last nights performance - http://www.shetlandarts.org/shetland-youth-theatre-performance-images-of-more-light/ It's a great production and well worth a look. It's on every night up to and including Sunday

http://www.shetlandarts.org/shetland-youth-theatre-announce-their-latest-production

Also, what's the significance of the 'humorously titled' books you mention?

I see no mention of resignations in the article Para Handy. Perhaps you could provide some evidence to back up your claims?

Woah horsies! It's not worth falling out over Let's try to keep calm

Active speakers have internal amplifiers, and the amplifiers require power to work - usually from mains or batteries The active speaker's amplifier(s) can be fed from low level signals usually at 'line level', or from a headphone output

There are a few factors to consider, such as impedance and sensitivity of the 'driver', but in general headphone outputs are usually in the region of 10 to 30 mV - powerful enough for small drivers shifting small amounts of air in a confined space (i.e. headphones in your lugs) but not powerful for larger drivers to shift the large amounts of air in an open space (i.e. loudspeakers in your room) You can run speakers from headphone outputs, but they won't be much louder than the headphones themselves Vice-versa, you can power headphones from speaker outputs, but you have to be very careful not to blow the headphone drivers I once had a pair of headphone output speakers with around 1 inch drivers - they were reasonable for being able to make out speech, but of little use for listening to music and useless if there was any background noise In summary, you'll need an amplifier of some description to boost the power of the headphone output to achieve reasonable volume and quality from the drivers. And if you need an amplifier, you need the associated power cabling ...unless you use wireless audio streaming, such as http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

This year's evening classes are now available on the brand new http://www.learnshetland.com/ website Quite a few interesting offerings....

One of the highlights for me was the Harris Playfair Youth Big Band on Monday night. The group produced an amazing set, particularly after only starting to work on it 5 days prior - it was an intense 5 days of workshops though! Jenna and Bethany Reid and their group will be performing the Shetland première of their Shetland Bus Suite at the Garrison tonight The full list of concerts is here - http://www.shetlandarts.org/events/fiddle-frenzy

I'm flattered, but no thanks

Why not see what prices the locals suppliers come with first?! Hay's or the Building Centre are your best bet for plasterboard, Kingspan, wood etc and they'll deliver. Get a quote from each. I can recommend Bulter and Mulhern for the windows and doors. They can send someone to measure them up - very handy if there all different non-standard sizes It's worth getting in touch with Shetland Heatwise as they'll be able to help out and advise on insulation/Kingspan - http://www.shetland-communities.org.uk/shwise/ Kingspan or foil lined plasterboard is another option, particularly if there's the potential of damp/sweat on the internal walls. You can fit Kingspan between the dwangs and cover it with lined plasterboard