Industry-wide engagement delivers benefits

The ARCIA committee is made up of members from all over the country, volunteering to assist the association where they can. Thanks to the efforts of these people, the association continues to go from strength the strength. We also thank their employers for allowing our committee members to contribute time during working hours.

The most recent event on the ARCIA calendar was held in Brisbane. Members enjoyed stunning views over the Brisbane River and we heard from GOLDOC on the importance of communications during the 2018 Commonwealth Games earlier in the year. The Queensland Industry Award was presented to Geoff Wood; this was warmly received by everyone at the event and is recognition of someone who works quietly in the background.

The next event will be held in Adelaide on 4 October at the National Wine Centre, when members will get together to talk about the industry and hear from an interesting guest speaker. South Australian members, please make sure you support this event — maybe you could bring along someone from the security, cabling or CB industry for a great evening and to share our networking opportunity.

Once Adelaide is done attention will move to the Annual Gala Dinner at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. Planning for this event has been underway all year and, combined with Comms Connect, it is set to be the biggest yet. We understand that WFevents has put together an outstanding program with some key international guests, so if you ever needed an excuse to get to Melbourne, this is the year.

Another thing we have been talking about providing is training. Our industry is relatively small, spread all over Australia and has many unique characteristics that are not part of mainstream teaching any more. However, we also know the value of trained people and what they can add to our organisations. So it is pleasing to report that, under the guidance of Chris Stevens, we are beginning to see some options… the first of which will be a dedicated training session as part of Comms Connect at Melbourne this year. The idea is to provide a reason for ARCIA members to send more staff to these events and, hopefully, enjoy both the training and all the other activities.

After a long discussion with the AMCA on the merits of opportunity cost pricing for UHF spectrum in high-density areas, it is very pleasing to report that the ACMA has dropped the plan for more 15% price increases. ARCIA has always argued that what we expected from the ACMA was transparency in the usage of, and fair pricing for, spectrum. From the time of all the changes in UHF spectrum and the movement to harmonised government spectrum, we did not agree with the ACMA that there was suddenly an overall increase in the use of spectrum — especially when the majority of industry members were reporting the exact opposite. So we thank the ACMA for listening to our arguments and for allowing the association to engage with the regulator on such an important issue.

Finally, I would like to thank our committee members for their dedication and commitment over the last 12 months. We also welcome our new committee, many of whom have carried on from last year. I would also like to thank our commercial partners for their support of the association and WF Media and WFevents, our media and event partners, for their efforts across the country.

Hamish Duff, President

Australian Radio Communications Industry Association

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