London names first Wi-Fi enabled stations - UberGizmo (blog)
We do know that London’s Underground stations will be introducing their own Wi-Fi services later this year, and it has been a long time in coming, but at least it is being done – the first stations with has been announced. Of course, in the course of the coming weeks, Wi-Fi services will be offer across some of the city’s busiest stations, ranging from Oxford Circus to Liverpool Street, London Bridge and Kings Cross. Before 2012 is over, over 120 different Tube stations ought to be up and running with Wi-Fi connectivity. Those who want to take advantage of the service will be able to make use of the Wi-Fi connection whenever they are on a station platform, but forget about it if you are going to do so through the tunnels as no signal will be present.
The exact dates remain to be seen, and TfL is more than confident that the service ought to be up and running without a hitch when it happens. Famous last words, I say, as you know that Murphy is able to strike when you least expect him to. Virgin Media will be the service provider of choice, and capacity testing was recently conducted at Chancery Lane Underground station.
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Vauxhall Prince Henry Commemorates Winter Trial Centenary - The Auto Chanel
LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM – June 4, 2012: A 100 year old Vauxhall model has recently celebrated the centenary of the Swedish Winter Reliability Trial by retracing the steps of the original event.
The Prince Henry model, owned by Alisdaire Lockhart of Selkirk, was driven from Gothenburg to Stockholm and back again, closely following the 1912 route, completing 620 miles (nearly 1000kms). Lockhart shared the driving with Andrew Duerden, Vauxhall’s Archivist. Kay Mordza, of the Swedish Vauxhall Owners Club, who arranged the journey, partnered them on the event. The car never missed a beat and averaged over 40mph for the entire event (cruising at 55mph on open roads) and achieving 30mpg.
In 1912, Percy Kidner, Vauxhall’s Managing Director, drove the Prince Henry model. He was the fastest entrant on the event, but incurred penalty points by arriving too early at checkpoints. The 2012 team were able to visit many of the points from the original route during their journey. At Norrkoping they visited the Standard Hotel building where the original photograph was recreated.
Alisdaire Lockhart’s long and painstaking reconstruction of the Prince Henry model paid dividends during the event with a reliable and speedy performance from the vehicle. Lockhart also paid testament to Kidner’s 1912 endeavours:
“We were lucky to have decent, asphalt roads and good weather. Kidner had snow covered surfaces with extremely chilly conditions which make his achievements even more astonishing”
Vauxhall Motors Launches New England TV Advert - The Auto Chanel
LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM - June 4, 2012: Today, Vauxhall Motors launched the sequel to their Home Nations football TV advert. ’Supporting a Nation’ features current members of the England Football Squad, football fans and Vauxhall staff from the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port production facility in Merseyside, the home of the Vauxhall Astra.
This new TV advert will air before the England versus Belgium friendly on 2nd June 2012 and subsequently around key fixture dates during the summer. The soundtrack ‘What a Life’ by Noel Gallagher’s band, ‘High Flying Birds’ is used again, a track which has become synonymous with football and was first used exclusively by Vauxhall Motors in the original Home Nations TV advert aired in September 2011.
The new advert focuses on the England team as they prepare for a major fixture. It reflects on how fans stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the players, supporting the team and bringing the nation together.
Ex-Liverpool and England legend John Barnes features in the Vauxhall advert and said; “As an England fan I share the same excitement that all fans feel before a big game. I really enjoyed standing alongside other England fans in the Vauxhall TV ad and can't wait to support the boys this summer in Poland and the Ukraine.”
The England players prepare to leave the dressing room ahead of a big match, Steven Gerrard pulls on his England shirt, a fan follows the same routine as he puts on his ‘Gerrard’ shirt and joins the line-up of fans. Joe Hart ties his boots as he sits – headphones on - listening to music. The line-up extends into a pub where fans meet their friends to watch the England match. The fan line-up extends into the tunnel where the players exit the dressing room to stand together with fans, all united. Scott Parker acknowledges the fans as the team turn and walk down the tunnel.
Commenting on the inspiration of the new Vauxhall Motors advert, Peter Hope, Marketing Director stated; “We wanted the advert to reflect the unity of the nation getting behind the England team and bring the players and the fans together”
“During a major tournament we all become football fans and as the England Team sponsor, we wanted to capture the emotion just before a major England fixture. “
McCann Erickson Birmingham developed the campaign for Vauxhall Motors under the creative direction of James Cross and Tim Jones. Explaining the premise behind the advert, James said, “The advertisement captures the excitement and anticipation a nation feels heading into an international football tournament, but it's not about being a die-hard football fanatic, it's about people everywhere showing support for their nation. This advertisement is a celebration of that. And it's this message of wide-ranging support that's true of Vauxhall as a brand.”
London orchestra to mime Games opening - ABC Online
Updated
There is outrage in London about the decision by Olympic Games organisers to have the London Symphony Orchestra mime its performance at the opening ceremony.
It has emerged the world renowned orchestra will pretend to perform while a recording made six weeks ago blasts out of the stadium speakers.
Considered to be one of the best orchestras in the world, it was awarded the contract for the 2012 Games.
But when the athletes walk in to the stadium in front of a worldwide audience of 4 billion people, the orchestra will in fact be pretending.
Twitter has been abuzz with outrage.
"What a bloody joke," one person said, "The London Symphony Orchestra told to mime at games opening."
"You'll see the London Symphony Orchestra at the Olympics, but you won't hear it - how ridiculous, what a farce," another posted.
The decision was made by the London Games organising committee, which is worried about the acoustics and the uncertainties of the British weather.
"Due to the complexity of everything involved in staging the ceremonies, it's not possible for all the music in all the shows to be live," a committee spokesperson said in a statement.
"There will be live musical elements, but many of the songs will be recorded to track in advance of the shows.
"This is standard practice for an event of this scale, and the performers have no issue with it."
The music to blare out of the stadium at the opening games ceremony was recorded at the famous Abbey road studios.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra operations director Lou Oppenheim says the decision to pre-record the music is not unreasonable.
"Performances such as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games are incredibly complex from an operational perspective," she said.
"The inter-relationships between a whole lot of different elements, including the musical elements, the pyrotechnics, the announcements, the lighting of the cauldron - everything has to be done to split-second timing."
Ms Oppenheim says a whole lot of different things can influence what can happen with the timing which is calculated to the tenth of a second.
"The wonderful thing obviously, the audiences will be still hearing the sounds of the fabulous London Symphony Orchestra, so it's not as if they're miming to, you know, another orchestra," she said.
"But if that's what's happening I would understand that that's possibly why that might be the case."
What might come as a surprise to many is that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra mimed its performance at the opening of the Sydney Games in 2000, and the backing tape was recorded, in part, by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Ms Oppenheim says live outdoor performances are difficult to manage and it is important that nothing is left to chance.
"I think it's important that we hear orchestras in the best fantastic light and if they've actually had to make a call that that's the way they've got to do it for this, I think you know, some understanding around that and to make sure that all of the elements of the ceremony can come together as smoothly as possible," she said.
Topics: music, olympics-summer, england
First posted
London revellers stoking up for Jubilee rock concert - Globe and Mail
Thousands of people have started to converge on the Mall ahead of tonight’s Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is to join them to take in the show, which features performances by Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Paul McCartney.
Union Jacks billow in downtown London, the streets are awash in bunting and storefronts feature photos of the Queen.
With rain forecast for the concert, many revellers are sporting ponchos and rain jackets to keep them as dry as possible during the show.
The occasional Canadian flag can be spotted in the massive sea of Union Jacks in the Mall, with some Canucks making the trip across the pond for the Queen’s big party.
Harper will have an audience with the Queen later this week before heading to Paris and then home.
London 2012 Olympics: weather won't dampen British spirits but Locog could learn from Jubilee success - Daily Telegraph Blogs
Out in force: regardless of the dreary weather the Brits were smiling
If the magical festivities of the Queens Diamond Jubilee proved beyond doubt – and how could we have had any such doubts? – it is that Britons, deep down are happy people.
The London Olympics and Paralympics have always been a portent for a month of non-stop good times, but with this summer-long party having started in the most majestic of ways the Olympic concerns of transport, security and crowding are but just an annoying sideshow.
For while the economies of countries around Britain are tanking, the weather is bitterly cold, uninspiringly grey and sodden, the stiff backbone of the British character is shining at its brightest.
Who would have thought that the dismal weather actually enhanced the weekend celebrations?
The fear of Olympic organisers is for a fortnight of dreary conditions not unlike Sunday. Yet the Queen's steely resolve to stand and acknowledge the heaving riverbank masses of red, white and blue despite the damp elevated the river spectacle way beyond it being a simple I-have-to-be-there-moment with strangers cuddling close to keep warm.
Commentators have talked about crowds 20-deep along the Thames on Sunday, but I rode my bike the length of the parade on the south side and 50-deep was the norm. From my vantage point, underneath the Millennium Bridge where artists were painting the modern-day Canaletto panorama, there was British sparkling wine in plastic cups, crisps and chocolate (in the shape of the Union Jack) shared around, and a subtle shuffle of order when the pageant started so that the little ones could get a better view.
Tens of thousands of spectators then weaved their way back to the railway stations. A queue of colourful umbrellas 700-yards long – presumably with people underneath sheltering from the driving rain outside of Waterloo – transformed this drab part of the city in to an eclectic party scene. Even so, taking the bicycle turned out to be an inspired choice.
Railway chiefs will have noted the failures of the trains to cope with the thousands of passengers turned away at Birmingham and other major cities and the chaos at tube stations like Westminster and Vauxhall.
Seemingly the crowd – officially 1.2 million – was much bigger than organisers expected. But we have seen throughout the Olympic torch relay that everyone across the country wants to get outside and engage with their community.
This is the summer of wearing funny hats and getting to know neighbours (the things you learn at a street party: mine is that a neighbour is a member of a popular boy band).
Yet some of the pageant spectators were perturbed by the sight of police carrying assault weapons along the river, others were frustrated by the crowd control officers more concerned with getting their packed lunched and sliver of a vantage point, rather than assisting those that were struggling especially families with young children.
With the Olympics security force now above 42,000 (military, Met Police, G4S staff and Locog security volunteers) Games planners can learn much from the river pageant.
More carriages on the trains, more toilets, more entertainment near critical transport hubs to turn a wait into a more relaxed time should be top of the list.
Organisers will have also seen that the good-natured crowds will put up with nearly anything if the mood of those in uniform is happy and relaxed and there appears to be some semblance of progress. Keep Calm and Smile On.
London Symphony to pretend to play for Olympics ceremony - Los Angeles Times
Reports from Britain state that the orchestra will mimic playing to prerecorded music due to concerns about the weather and the shape of the performing venue -- a large, oval-shaped arena whose scale would apparently make a live-music performance tricky.
The ceremony, which is set to take place at the new Olympic Stadium, is being overseen by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, who serves as artistic director for the massive event.
The London Symphony has reportedly recorded the music that is scheduled to be played during the July 27 ceremony. The Daily Mail reports that Boyle wanted the orchestra to perform live, but that he was overruled by the organizing committee for the Games.
When viewers around the world tune in for the ceremony, they can expect to see the conductor and musicians from the renowned orchestra going through the motions while a soundtrack plays.
This wouldn't be the first time that the mimicking of live music was used at an Olympics ceremony. In 2008, a mini-controversy developed during the Beijing Games when it was revealed that a 9-year-old singer lip-synced to the voice of another young girl whom officials had deemed less telegenic.
Similarly, at President Obama's inauguration, the musical performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill played, unamplified, to a recording. The decision to use a recording was made over fears that the cold weather that day could damage the instruments.
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