Why You Should Hire an Architect

2010 September 8
by squadron

An architect is a well trained expert who has experience in planning, designing and the construction of buildings and the management of construction jobs.

Also, one is not considered an architect until he or she has properly passed all the necessary education and accredited programs to procure a license in order to practice architecture. When practicing architecture, the architect can have free reign to design the building or group of buildings, as well as the space around it that still counts as part of the project. These ideas form the planning stage of the project and can take months to finalise.

The reason why architects are so important to the success of any building plan is simple: they can put your ideas into a feasible and concrete reality. If you have great ambitions for your home or business, then an architect can make sure that those dreams will come true.

But aside from the actual design of the building, there are so many other complex factors (beyond the scope of inexperienced people) that need to be considered, and these are also covered in the responsibilities of the architect.

For example, there are some architectural firms that not only design the building for you, but they also prepare the tender documents for the pricing of the entire project, and are the ones that most commonly talk to the contractors, stakeholders and any third parties involved in the assignment.

When you engage an architect, you will not have to be bogged down by all the small technical details. All you have to be concerned about is if whether or not the building is coming along according to your plans originally established with the help of the architect.

The architect is also very helpful before the actual construction. If you do not have an actual plan but do have an idea on what you want your structure to look like, then that is where the professional can help you on the endeavor.

All you have to do is to present them with some ideas and they can be the ones to take care of site analysis, the assistance you may need in zoning and planning, any environmental impact studies you may need, tendering and contract negotiation with the contractor and his men, and so much more.

The architect that you hire will be involved in all of the aspects of your project. Essentially, you are hiring an architect because you require a trained professional to take carriage of planning and designing the building or dwelling as well as provide the necessary feedback and support throughout the entire assignment.

Engaging an architect is like taking on a business partner for your project, one who is knowledgeable, knows the risk areas around the project and knows how to minimize those risks, has the necessary people skills to work with contractors in order to hire additional resources within budget.

A good architect will treat the project as though it is his or her own and will devise creative ideas and plans to the manager, and discuss in great detail the advantages, disadvantages, any hindrances of a particular strategy.

These are just some of the many important benefits and key reasons why you should hire an architect. There are so many more reasons that really prove that any project worth going through with has to be under the supervision of a highly qualified architect. In the end, it all boils down to the fact that you have a dream construction project, and your architect is the person to make all these dreams become reality.

Looking for Brisbane architects? For renovation architects Brisbane, contact Dion Seminara Architecture. They are leading home improvement architects. Brisbane office is located in Morningside.

Tents and Marquees

2010 September 2
by squadron

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are used when you want to make a splendid outdoor scene. They are generally structures installed at a location for a period of time.

Why A Tent?
Commercial Tents are used as protection from the sun, rain or a gathering place. They can make a stunning and creative atmosphere for any event.

Tent Rentals
Tents can be rented or leased for a day, a weekend, weeks, months, etc. For one or two day events, the Tents are usually installed a few days before the event, depending on scheduling and weather, and remain until a few days after the event. Many rentals are quoted for the entire week, allowing for time to set up and design the interior and exterior. Some Tents are built for exceedingly long-term events and have been installed and remain installed for years.

What Kind of Tent Should I Rent?
Tent rental companies come in all sizes – from small-sized companies with just a few Tents to exceedingly large-sized companies – carrying dozens of several sizes and styles of Tents. Some general rental companies rent from tent rental companies to accommodate their client’s needs.

You may know you want to use a standard Tent for your event, or your event planner may already have in mind to use a Tent. You have options! There are lots of other spectacular
structures and Tent styles out there. Some are unique and make a statement of their own. Ask the rental company you’re working with for a list of the type styles they have on hand.

Usually, the different types of Tents available in most companies are (the names vary depending of the company):

Folding Tents Easy and fast to use and always in demand. Very popular, because usually is the less expensive tent. Fast, flexible, cost effective and long lasting.

They are used by:

  • Corporate brands across most industries
  • Government & Council buyers
  • SME business marketers
  • Franchisees
  • Agricultural exhibitors
  • Emergency services & community groups
  • Folding Tents create brand exposure opportunities.
  • You can reach your audience at the right time, in the right place with the right message.

Inflatable Tents An exciting and lively alternative Tent. Easy & fast to set up. Be sure they have removable printed roof because in that way you can share the investment with other licences.

What Size Tent Will I Need?

The size of Tent depends on a few factors:

1. The number of guests you expect
2. Layout or seating arrangements or the style of event:

* Reception with what type of tables?
* Speaker engagement with what type of seating?
* Will you need a dance floor?
* Will you need display areas for your products?

If you are interested in a Tent, you can expect to need about 2,000 – 2,500 square feet for 200-seated guests. That could mean a 40 x 60 size Tent (Always ask the Tent rental vendor directly and they’ll give you the best dataabout the size of Tent you’ll need).

Therefore, the key rule is; know what you are going to use your tent for. The choice of tents is amazing, almost on par with the choice of cars that you can buy.

So if you need a tent for the family BBQ, for example, your needs are fairly rudimentry
and your budget may be low. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a solid warranty for under $600.

If you need a tent for a school or sports club you will need a selection of sizes, and colours. Most plain colour Tents s range between $995- $2900. If you are keen to promote yourself, you can have your names printed for around $150-$300. Printing logos usually cost a little more.

In the last 5 years, portable Tents have become important to businesses for their marketing. The key need for these buyers is a prominent and identical reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as dull as a website address or they can be a design masterpiece.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build recognition of your company with your printed Tent. Printed corporate Tents range in price from $1500- $4000. Good ones will really catch your eye.

Once you have decided on what sort of buyer you are and how you are going to use your Tents, a good Tents company will offer you a choice of frames, a warranty of between 3-5 years and help with formulating the printing-if you need it.

For more information about tents, contact Extreme Marquees. We have a range of cheap tents, for all sorts of home and business applications.

New Zealand’s Top Holiday Cities

2010 August 23

New Zealand has a majestic array of beautiful landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, endless coastlines, breathtaking rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These picturesque wonders have all made New Zealand an attractive destination for all kinds of holidays.

Amazing travel packages and holiday specials are available on quality accommodation in modern city hotels and luxurious wilderness lodges at discounted prices. Among the top holiday destinations in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a distinguished online specialist travel operator and provides fantastic tourist services for New Zealand. Travel Online provides an instant quote and booking service for accommodation in cities right across the country.

Queenstown
The international resort town of Queenstown is situated on the shoreline of Wakatipu Lake. This beautiful region is among the most picturesque locations on the globe. Throughout the year adventurous and stimulating sports like jet boating, bungy jumping, and white water rafting take place. This town is the epicentre of the entire world’s bungy jumping activities too. With the advent of winter, the town gets transformed to an alpine wonderland with snowboarders and skiers from all corners of the world assembling at the annual Winter Festival.

There is constant demand for Queenstown Accommodation all round the year and Travel Online offers a select group of hotels best suited for New Zealand holidays. 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom apartments, with cutting-edge facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Larger apartments with more bedrooms, tennis courts, private jetties and fitness centres are also available at a higher price. Luxury complexes with studio rooms in the vicinity of cafes, bars, and restaurants are also found in Travel Online’ Queenstown Accommodation selection.

Christchurch
When choosing a place to stay in Christchurch look for hotels that give views over the wonderful Victoria Square, across the transfixing Avon River or towards the historic Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with great festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals accommodated in the vicinity of the Christchurch Cathedral will find hotel rooms with a Manhattan-style feel. Tradition and elegance are everywhere in these hotels along with a keen eye on service excellence. Spacious bedrooms with full-fledged kitchen facilities are common, along with hi-tech conference facilities, resort-like leisure features like spas, saunas, gyms, and swimming pools. Many of these hotels provided by Travel Online are located in the vicinity of the Technology Park, the International Antarctic Centre, and the airport. Travelers who want to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan life will find suitable accommodation in the stunningcountryside surrounding the city.

Auckland
Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is situated in between 2 harbors and has more boats per person than anywhere on the planet. Within minutes a person has the choice of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the high life in the casino, surfing at winding beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and spacious executive / marina suites. Travel Online caters to the tastes of corporate and business tourists and can beat any price seen on Auckland accommodation advertised. Auckland harbor is breathtaking, and is seen perfectly from atop Sky City and the surrounding accommodation.

Affordable and comfortable apartments are available for casual tourists, equipped with kitchens, laundries, and balconies to provide a memorable holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland love visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More encounters include cage-bereft shark dives, scuba expeditions and snorkel safaris. New Zealand is waiting.

Travel Online has a wide range of Queenstown accommodation close to all the snow action and cosmopolitan Christchurch accommodation surrounded by all that theatre and art. For holidays in and around the water, Auckland accommodation is as good as anywhere in the world.

Repairing Flooded Carpet: A cheap job is a good job right? Wrong….

2010 August 18
by squadron

Don’t have a novice 24 hour carpet cleaner attempt to repair your carpets damaged by water. These are the things you must be wary of:

Overcharging. An amateur water restoration carpet cleaner may fill the job up with extra extras. E.g. using dehumidification on the flooded carpets unnecessarily.

Having the correct equipment. They may use equipment from hire places for the carpet. This is ok to do, but an experienced water damage restorer will have all their equipment so they offer a quicker response and hopefully a better value job.

The right moisture metre. If they don’t have the choice moisture meter, they won’t be able to know when the carpet is dry enough. This furthers the danger of mould in future. Mould removal would then be required.

If they aren’t specialised. There are many “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do water damage repair work on the “side.” i.e. they don’t do this type of job each day. Be careful of that. Drying carpet water damage is an art. Reinstalling carpets on the gripper strips has to be completed by a professional, otherwise it can be damaged beyond repair.

You may be thinking, how do I find a professional Flood Restoration Business? Below I have set out some pointers to check for when you call around for a carpet flood damage business:

What size is their Yellow Pages ad slot: This can signify how much repair work they have already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad slot can cost about $50 000. If they have got a bigger ad, you get some expectation that they are established.

Where do they come up in Google? The higher the rank in Google, the more “online votes” there have been for their business.

What Qualifications do they have? The minimum qualification they require is a IICRC qualification about Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies hire them for water damage jobs? This is a better indicator. If insurance companies hire them, the business is likely to be good at their skill. Insurance companies generally use the providers that offer them the better value for money.

What Equipment do they have? They should own a minimum of 100 Air movers. If they have this many, this means they have been running for a good time. It took our business 8 years to own that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What kind of commitment can you get with them by calling? See if you can pin them down to a set fee for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they can’t give you a price for at least this, you know they are not going to serve you, so move on.

Response Time – Our Water Damage Brisbane business operates to a 59 minute response time to a water damage emergency. The repair needs to be done ASAP. Mould can come after a 24 hour period.

If you stick to these tips you are sure to come up with a Flood Damage Restoration business who can do the job right.

If you have carpet water damage Brisbane, call us for flooded wet carpet drying. Brisbane storm season is approaching and you may need storm damage carpet cleaning. Brisbane and surrounding areas serviced.

Podiatry as a Career in Australia

2010 August 13

As a practicing podiatrist in Brisbane, Australia, I am often asked by clients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to consider . There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a opportunity that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even GPs . Big Business controls a lot of health practices. Consider how often you see an independent optometrist these days – can they compete on price with the multinational chains?
  • Legal Issues: In Australia (unlike the USA where things are very different), podiatrists very, very rarely get sued . The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your customers the bad news that their condition will be terminal.
  • Working Hours: Emergency call outs are very unlikely. This is great news for those among us who like their sleep uninterrupted.
  • Financial Reward: Whilst it is true that podiatry doesn’t pay as well as being a dentist or doctor , the pay is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most rewarding aspects of being a podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will see a plethora of bite-sized jobs each day, many with a cure you can provide immediately. From someone that has worked with unanimously grumpy customers in a past career, believe me when I tell you, it makes the day much less stressful when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will allow you a lot of opportunity to help relieve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatry provides a practitioner the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for instance where one acts under the direction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can claim to be a podiatrist are those with a podiatry qualification. The clear roles that this demarcates relieves the need to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Do you like to travel? There are many places around the world that do not qualify their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to travel the world, Australian podiatrists can gain employment in any Commonwealth country and are especially in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a big range of complaints. There might be an ingrown toenail or two, an excruciating corn, a sporting injury, some back pain and at least a couple of painful arches . The key to being a good podiatrist is to be an effective problem solver. Each patient is an individual with a unique complaint requiring a well considered solution.

How do you qualify as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist necessitates) a four year Bachelor of Health Science degree course {available at six Australian Universities:

  • Curtin University
  • La Trobe University
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of South Australia
  • University of Western Sydney.

Last year, the entry score for the QUT was OP 8.

Stephanie Cosgrove graduated as a podiatrist from QUT in 1990 and with a Master’s degree in Applied Science (Podiatry) in 1996. Since 1991, she has worked in private practice as a Podiatrist Brisbane. She received three university prizes during her studies, including the award for excellence in design and manufacture of orthotics. Brisbane has been the site of her private practice since 1991 which has grown to four locations and eleven staff. If you want to Walk Without Pain consider a visit to Brisbane’s most innovative podiatry practice today. Call for an appointment now on 1300 A1 Feet.

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

2010 August 7
by squadron

Take charge of getting your site established by a developer and understand the process it will save you money and gain you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Knowing your business and how you are currently established in your market.
In order to create a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full knowledge of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to examine how you want to explain your business and what it offers in 7 seconds or less. Sounds impossible? Well that is the average time that a user will consider the point “is this site I searched for?”.

2. Budget and estimation
Have a budget in mind and don’t be afraid to let the developers know what it is. In saying this: BE REALISTIC, $500 will never see a great web site created, nor will they be anything left in the bank to market it.

3. The creative process
Be furnished with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can get an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will build a good profile and realise not only what type of site to build for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for efficient development. The more interaction and information you give them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by getting what you want 1st time round. Check with the designers on how many rounds of changes come with the contract, most will allow for a total conceptual redesign only once and 2 rounds of changes after that.

4. Production and Content
After the home page design is created, the developers will more than likely take the general layout of this concept and then construct the inner page template. It is this template that will be replicated for most of your pages for your site.
Submit your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t get too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be kept when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is inferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are very important later on in not only interacting with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; formulate a decent amount of content but provide it in a way that a reader may achieve a summary of what you are trying to infer across in the 1st couple of paragraphs and an image or to. The rest of the paragraphs that get into finer details ARE FOR GOOGLE !

5. Development Programming and CMS
If your website contains Content Managed Areas (CMS) or has any other dynamic sections the developers will wrap your design around a content management program such as Joomla or Drupal or they may have a custom built system. Make sure that you get to see how the CMS system works on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can use and comprehend the system when your site is complete.

6. Testing and training
We work closely with the developers to test your site especially if there are any CMS or special programs that have been created for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not operate 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program operates and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, chances are it won’t make sense to your audience. Make sure you test your website on more than just your browser, try to test it on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All of these browsers are on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to put your site live make sure you have finished the above testing step until you are happy that this website is the best representation of your business / product it can be. Remember even though you can change things after going live it is still a poor reflection on your business if there are spelling mistakes or broken images when you launch.

8. Marketing
There is little point in having a website if nobody visits it, make sure as part of you contract you have considered search engine optimisation and or search engine marketing as part of your website build. This is the absolute most important factor of the whole process. If you are the only one looking at your site then you are in trouble.

Remember Search Engine Optimisation is about 30% Onsite (getting your site correct for Search Engine to index correctly) and 70% Promotion. Any developer who tells you otherwise hasn’t been in the industry too long.

For more information about web design Brisbane, contact Web Site Blue. Our web designers understand marketing as well as design.

Tips to Creating a New Business Logo

2010 August 6

A logo is a essential step to creating a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face represents the tone of your business, indicates the service and screams the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the creation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they require to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that created the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it recreated. This is redundant and may cause complications when trying to recreate the logo exactly as determined originally.

We have created some basic tips you for to think about when creating a logo. Hopefully these will help you from experiencing any future obstacles.

Tip 1
First things first – you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is hinted that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will help in conveying a clear message across to your target audience.

An icon can add an extra element to your branding in that you could use the icon on its own on collateral where perhaps you are looking for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

A excellent example of this is the well-known and executed Fedex logo.

Tip 2
Colour can be an essential decision as it not only could affect the output costs but can also margin your output use. Think about the end result and what you will be putting your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Confirm you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and make sure that it includes all the files required for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Confirm you have a copy of your logo as a PDF – with the text converted to curves.

Tip 4
Using images in your logo is not very easy to regulate. For example it is difficult to reverse into black and white. Images also have limitations when it comes to size – they can only be reproduced to a certain size before they start pixilation.

Tip 5
Using gradients in your logo is not recommended. This too can have limitations when it comes to output for ie: gradients are hard to reproduce when embroidering fabrics.

Tip 6
Make sure sure the font is legible. Some logos need to be reproduced on small pieces of collateral ie: post stamps. It is important that in this case the text is
readable

Tip 7
Insure that you get a copy of your logo in CMYK high resolution 300 dpi (for printing use) and RGB 72 dpi(for web use).

Tip 8
It is important to have a style guide of your logo. It will clearly show you how to use your logo so it looks exactly the same every time it is reproduced. This allows you to keep your corporate image consistent.

Tip 9
Make sure that you get a letter from the design studio declaring that you own the copyright to your logo.

If you follow these tips then not only will you collect a well-designed logo but you will also own the artwork. And when it comes to reproducing your collateral you will be doing it the most cost effective way.

For logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

2010 July 31
by squadron

How many times have you mailed business cards to print and procured yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been frantic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then spotted that the crucial tag line is missing or your logo has been wrecked.

There is only one way to thwart this from happening and that is to use a style guide. Not only will a style guide help you conduct the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you strengthen your brand recognition – which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.

We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.

Step 1 : Define the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to use in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will need different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.

Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may wantcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to refer to the business and team.

Step 4 : Make sure you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding sits on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reprinted.

Step 5 : Assure to accommodate any contributing logos or logos of business that are correlated with you. It’s also important that you issue a copy of the layout to these companies to insure they agree with the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

Step 6 : Make certain that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.

Step 7 : Confirm that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they understand~know~discern~apprehend} that a proof needs to be dispatched~sent~mailed~commissioned}to you to be confirmed as correct.

Have your Style Guide completed and as secure as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly suggest a training session – whereby your design studio comes in and trains your staff on how to put to work the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.

For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.

Projectors: LCD Verses DLP (The downfall of DLP technology)

2010 July 19

The most common question customers ask when buying a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: will I get an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, an acronym for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, an acronym for ‘digital light processing’ are the two most popular projector imaging technologies. With so many business brands and models available, it can be confusing for customers to pick between both technologies. The fact is that LCD projectors give better image quality and colour accuracy. The following article explains why DLP projectors struggle with bringing up a comparable standard of image quality.

Think of a set of blinds in your home over your bedroom window. By pulling on a rod you can make the shutters open or closed, according to if you want to let light in or not. And such is exactly how an LCD projector functions. Each pixel operates like a unique shutter on a set of blinds to either allow light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is made up of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the experts like to call them. Each pixel element functions to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the point at which the projector is turned on to when the image reaches your screen is ultimately significant in regard to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors shine white light from the lamp by dividing it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which direct the coloured light to 3 individual LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels cast the elements of the image by turning each pixel on and off. The pixels are then projected in a glass prism to create the projector image. Something to remember about LCD projectors is that all three colours are projected onto your screen at once. The way a DLP projector runs is totally different and even the way an image comes out is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is directed through a turning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This approach to projecting an image casts a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors as mentioned above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to create the image elements. The elements of the image are displayed in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s eyes will then put together each coloured element of the image into the single total image. From LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to offer the highest brightness and superb colour accuracy. In DLP, just one colour is available at any given time, and so causing lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some manufacturers have put a white segment for the colour wheel to improve overall brightness, but this goes and detracts from colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP has a higher contrast ratio and ergo must be superior quality. For those who do not know, the contrast ratio is a measure of a display system defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to that of the darkest black that the machine is able to produce. DLP projectors do offer high contrast specifications compared to many LCD projectors. At one glance, this must be a benefit, however, in real life, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room when the projector is in use. Do not be fooled by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you are trying to project includes moving images, DLP projection technology also creates image errors, or ‘artifacts’. The most typical artifact that a DLP projector creates with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is incontrovertible in DLP systems because moving images change position between the time red, blue and green colours are displayed. LCD projectors do not have this downside because every colour is sent at the same time. DLP developers have created 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to solve the colour break up problem, but the expense of these projectors make them hardly practical for the large part of businesses and consumers.

Another difference between LCD and DLP is how they make up for the refractive qualities of light. Jump back to high school science, and remember how different colours of light refract different amounts when projected through the same lens. The problem with DLP projectors is that they have the one same panel and the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously different and refract light in different ways. Generally with a DLP projector, an extra yellow colour will appear above and a spill of blue will be projected below something as simple as a straight black line. While being built LCD projectors can be fixed to minimize these effects on the projected image, because each colour is projected on a separate LCD panels.

The one true advantage (excluding price) with choosing a DLP projector is its smaller total size and weight. However, this is only relevant with regard to transport and needs to be traded off against the image advantages of LCD projectors. If the outcome of the picture quality is important to you, then the decision is easy. Choose an LCD projector! LCD projectors will always produce bright, colourful images with fewer image errors. If you desire to ask more about LCD technology in more detail, check out this fabulous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any further questions, get onto Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager for Projector Central, Australia’s number one online store for projectors. Brisbane based, Projector Central has served Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in Brisbane and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

2010 July 16

As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht had been a leisure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave him a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), ordered for additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 bet. Yachting became classy among the wealthy and aristocracy, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and held much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other clubs, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was seen in some ordered fashion on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society had been formed at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continuing location of British yacht racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high bids were held, and the social life was superlative. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English gained dominance. Sailing was mostly for leisure and reached its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the latter half of the 19th century. The design of bigger yachts was originally greatly affected by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a syndicate led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what it had already done for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had been individually built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. Today, one of the fastest flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to standard requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be held on an even basis with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting belonged primarily for the aristocracy and the wealthy, cost was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller yachts happened in the second half of the 19th century from the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A voyage around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the seaworthiness of less sizeable yachts. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, when steam started to take the place of sail power in market craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in personal craft. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing was a favoured occupation of the wealthy. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then made way to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the second half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, purchased by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and was used in active service for World War II.

As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were developed, many bigger craft started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed in World War I. In the decade that followed, large power-yacht manufacture grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the best auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of large power craft declined from 1932, and the style after that was for smaller, less expensive boats. After World War II, lots of small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting is a globally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and keeping their own small recreational boats. The amount of craft and yachtsmen increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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