This month it's our Kiwi Kousins turn to take over this column and tell us a little about some of the awesome venues using Nightlife in their beautiful country.

Deep in the South Island, down in Wanaka, not only will you enjoy some of the most amazing scenery in the world, but you'll also find the iconic Shooters Bar... a 'must do' stop for huge numbers of locals and visitors alike.

Shooters Wanaka has it all... from pool tables and a great dance floor with plasma screen showing Nightlife Music Video (of course), to an amazing light show and chill out areas around the fire. Or just sit and look out over one of New Zealand's most picturesque lakes just 200 meters in front of you.

The lovely Jo drives the whole venue from the morning through to the wee small hours. With her friendly smile and party nature, Jo helps make this establishment a true Flag Ship for the Shooters chain, which is also in Christchurch and Dunedin.

At the empire Tavern in Auckland, proprietor Dean Lodge declares that nightlife has increased turnover by keeping the crowds in the venue and extending trading hours.

"We're big on it. It's been the best thing to happen to our Tavern by far. I couldn't do without it. The music is up-to-date and provides variety and scope for our wide ranging clientele. Our customers satisfaction runs high. We don't use a DJ, which has reduced our costs. When we have live bands, the system is a great crowd sustainer for build ups and breaks. The initial investment was significant but now the cost of Nightlife is well and truly justified."

NZ legend DJ Lizard tells how Nightlife has impacted on The London Shed, another renowned Auckland venue...

"The HDMS™ system rocks, and customers of all ages love the videos. We have a bunch of more mature customers who come to The London Shed to watch the Rugby. At half-time and after the game they stick around and have often commented to me how cool it is to see videos from The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf and bands of that era. The 80's had some great, or should I say shocking, videos with bad hair and fashion, but some of today's modern videos are visual treats and let's be honest, quite frankly, soft porn!

"With three other bars in our area offering live bands, The London Shed is the only venue with Nightlife, which gives us a superior point of difference. As a DJ (now a VJ) using the Numark Controller is a dream, and enables me to mix and sample. With the extra inputs, we have added a video camera and laptop giving our patrons a total visual treat."

Three very different venues, all making the most of their Nightlife systems, and reaping the benefits!

Tony Wheeler

	The completely awesome Spiderman 2 was unleashed for worldwide audiences last month. The soundtrack for the second Spidey adventure follows in the footsteps of its smash hit predecessor and features a whole bunch of great current rock acts. We’ve already released ’s Switchfoot’s Meant To Live (on RD100) and Killing Heidi’s I Am (on CX101) both of which feature on the soundtrack. This month on RD101 we have Train with Ordinary, a song that looks beyond the web at the shy and nerdy kid underneath the costume. If that’s not enough Spidey for you, we have a take on the Spiderman Theme sung by jazz crooner Michael Buble and remixed by Junkie XL. You’ll find that one on ED101.
	Coldplay’s Chris Martin has branched out and written a song especially for UK R&B starlet Jamelia. He says he has always wanted to pen something from a woman’s perspective, and has done it here on See It In A Boy’s Eyes, which also features his piano skills and haunting backing vocals. You can find it on this month’s CR101. HDMS™ users will also receive an audio bonus JD Rework of the track as well as a club mix of Universal Prayer, a song Jamelia has recorded with Italian superstar Tiziano Ferro for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games’ album Unity.
	Believe the hype... New York based quintet Scissor Sisters really do stand out from the current contenders for “the next big thing”. With tongue firmly in cheek they gave us that camp yet funky, falsetto, “Bee Gees-sing- Pink Floyd” cover of Comfortably Numb and Take Your Mama, the fun little song about coming out of the closet and getting your mum drunk. Now they offer us Laura, the third slice of funk-pop excellence from their self-titled album. Check it out from CR101.
	Later in the year Nelly will do a Guns ‘N’ Roses and drop two separate albums on the same day. It’s the first time this has been done by a rapper and Nelly says the albums will showcase his two sides. Sweat is packed with street oriented, up-tempo club bangers such as Hot In Herre and E.I. It will feature the forthcoming Neptunes produced single Flap Your Wings. Suit is the other album where you can expect sexy and more grown up tracks along the lines of his previous hits Dilemma and Ride Wit Me. This month we’re featuring the first single from Suit called My Place. It features R&B crooner Jaheim and is a reworking of the Teddy Pendergrass classic Come On And Go With Me. It’s on CR101.
	From great dance artists to some of the best rock in the world, Aussie music is where it’s at right now. Need proof? Check out your updates this month and you’ll find dance artists like Cheyne, Nick Skitz Vs The Choirboys and mrTimothy; awesome rockers Grinspoon, 28 Days, Shifter, The Spazzys, Thirsty Merc, 67 Special and Killing Heidi; pop tunes from Human Nature, Peter Andre, Miranda Murphy and Paulini; radio friendly gems from Eskimo Joe, Missy Higgins, Track 5 and The Dissociatives. We’ve even thrown in a novelty Angels spoof from Reg Reagan & The Knuckleheads and a couple of cracking audio remixes from Aussie legends INXS and Kylie Minogue.

	Author - Ben Preece
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DJ Craig - Prolite Video Discos.
When 38 year old Craig Winstanley tells you he's had "the passion" since he was a kid, you immediately know he's talking DJ talk. Starting with Blue Light Discos while still at high school and graduating to RSL Clubs at the tender age of 16, these days Craig runs two businesses and takes his mobile rig to the famous Tradies at Gymea every Saturday night. With DJ Craig driving the dancefloor, 7 giant screens and great atmosphere, it's no surprise that Tradies was voted Number 1 Club in NSW for Best Entertainment 2004.

Pictured here with the lovely Bec Cartwright from Home & Away at an under 18’s gig a few weeks ago, Craig’s other passions in life are his family, music, bands and movies.

Craig is a huge fan of Nightlife and reckons the HDMS was the best career investment he ’s ever made.

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How To Censor Your Music
From now on, Nightlife will be warning you about new music that contains explicit lyrics or has adult only (AO) video clips.

If a song is deemed unsuitable to have in your venue there are three ways to prevent it from being played:

1. Skip The Song Using [F10]. Skipped songs will not be loaded or played whilst the system is in SCHEDULER or when using [F9] to load a list (and will not appear on the jukebox). However the song will still appear on your HDMS™ program and CAN be manually selected and played, for example by a DJ.

To skip a song, highlight it and press [F10]. A blue asterisk will appear in the right hand column. To see which songs have been skipped, go to Search, Skipped Songs. This option is maintained by the venue and still allows songs to be manually selected, which means staff could select a 'censored' song when it isn't appropriate or unskip a song when they shouldn't.

2. Hide The Song. Hidden songs do not appear on the HDMS program and therefore can never be played.

To hide a song, put it into a list called HIDDEN. You can edit this list like any other user list through Lists, Edit Lists. However, it is password protected (default password is USER). After editing the HIDDEN list, select 'Yes' to rebuild the database. This is a safe option that ensures the song can never be played, however you have to manually maintain the HIDDEN list by adding new 'censored' songs as they are released.

3. Negative List RESTRICTED. When the negative list RESTRICTED is enabled, ALL explicit and adult only songs are automatically hidden on the HDMS™ program. In addition, when installing a new update, all the new explicit and adult only songs will be automatically hidden for you. This is a safe option that requires no maintaining by the venue. However, the RESTRICTED list is broad and may remove songs that are actually suitable for your venue.

If you would like to set up a RESTRICTED list, please call Nightlife on 1800 773 468.

News From NZ

November is fast approaching and that's when the No Smoking legislation kicks in for New Zealand venues. No one can accurately assess the impact this new law will have, but, no matter whether you run a party bar, nightclub, restaurant or local tavern, it is important to look at the habits of your clientele.

For instance, party bars will feel less impact on the later crowds because the need will still be there for a place to meet people. However, we predict that the venue will suffer from the effects of this legislation in the early chill out times, as the younger crowds, who demographically have a high smoker percentage, will not be able to smoke. Least affected will be the more discerning market who tend to be older. This market may, in fact, increase slightly.

The Minister of Health has issued documentation on permitted smoking areas. If you haven't seen a copy yet, don't hesitate to contact us. Venues who are able to create non smoking zones in easily accessible areas will be the fortunate ones.

Finally, we believe that venues using Nightlife have a key advantage, and that is the customers who love their music videos can only really enjoy them at your place, not at home. The ability to entertain and offer good reasons to come to your venue will be a paramount requirement come November. So now is the time to prepare your venue for this legislation. Make sure your screens are awesome, look at the areas available and study customer behaviour. Believe us, it will be important.

The NZ Team
Nightlife New Zealand
Ph: Whangarei 09 430 3035