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It is difficult to imagine the world of communication and commerce without the internet. Current data has become an essential sales argument, because only through an actual and complete product presentation can your online presence set itself apart from the multitude of competing websites. Therefore, a simple, current and exhaustive data integration has become an important factor for success in modern online shops. Steinigke would like to support you in this complex matter by offering easy and innovative tools, in order to make life in the world of data networking as simple as possible for you and your customers.

The following provides a short overview of the possibilities and tools we are able to offer you.

Which data can be exported?
Our automated system makes it possible to obtain all relevant core data of the articles (article designation, price information, packaging information, supply on stock, etc.). Additionally, these can contain important information with regards to product presentation, such as links to product videos, picture galleries, deep-zoom pictures, etc. How do you gain access to the mentioned data? They can be downloaded in a standardized format (Excel, CSV, PDF) directly via the menu item “Pricelist” in our online shop. Or you could have us generate a data export for you, specially tailored to your requirements.

How current is the data?
The data we provide to you is exported directly from our internal ERP system and is therefore the most up-to-date information possible. Your system is just as current as our own online shop.

How can the data integration be structured?
You can import the data you receive from us directly via the import interface of your shop or ERP system, or you can utilize one of the enhancements (plug-ins) which we offer for various shop-systems. We momentarily offer plug-ins for xtCommerce, osCommerce and Magento.

What can the Steinigke enhancement (plug-in) do?
Ideally, when using one of the above mentioned systems, your complete online-shop system can be updated with one mouseclick via the Steinigke enhancement. All information, including product pictures and videos, can be integrated into your system from our server. It is important to note, that the circa 6500 Steinigke articles are merely integrated. Your data bank will only be supplemented and not overwritten. Consequently, conflicts with your existing core data are ruled out and you can continue to use and maintain it as you are accustomed. Furthermore, a filtration of the articles to be imported can be carried out. This allows you to configure the export as easily and as individually as possible.

What additional functions can the Steinigke enhancement offer?
The enhancement for xtCommerce offers the most additional functions. It presents the opportunity to automatically link data fields for so-called “cross-selling” (“Customers having purchased that item may also be interested in this…”). Moreover, you can forward orders from your shop directly to us, and we process these logistically as neutral dispatch. It is of our utmost importance, that we treat the information you send to us as absolutely confidential and only use it when processing your orders. Precisely the cross-selling functionality offers your customers a considerable added benefit and saves you additional time and effort with data maintenance.

How can we help you?
You’ve read it all through now and would like to network the data, yet aren’t exactly sure if one of the solutions mentioned will function with your system? Or you’re an expert and need more information or a variation of the data structuring we’ve presented? You have an online-shop, but no experience with the incorporation of enhancements (plug-ins)? Or you’re simply not certain how this topicality and networking can help?

No problem, we have an answer to almost every question. And we’re certain we’ll find a solution for every system, when in doubt even a custom-tailored solution, enabling you to receive our most up-to-date information with the least effort.

Don’t hesitate to contact Martin Dörr from our IT-Development Team. He is the reference person in our company for all questions regarding data integration and data migration.

Telephone: +49 931 4061 600
E-mail: kundenshop@steinigke.de

Even in music, as is so often the case: “Trust is good, control is better”. The acoustical controlling option addressed here is called Monitoring (lat. monere, to monitor, to warn). Essential for stage or studio musicians, if good sound is of particular importance.

Let’s tread the boards, as the world’s a stage, and devote ourselves to live monitoring on stages. One may ask why this is necessary. Other than perhaps on very small stages, the PA – or rather guitars and drums – are usually so loud, that the singer can’t or the keyboarder barely hear themselves. In order to change the situation and to allow for control over one’s own performance, it is advisable to install a monitoring system. It is a separately managed sound system, isolated from the PA. The musicians receive a similar auditory impression over the loud speakers as the audience does, making it easier to hear themselves and to better coodinate the musical interaction.

Studio monitoring, on the other hand, has a different emphasis. It naturally deals with controlling options, but on a much more sensitive level. On stage, the priority is good musical interaction and a means to check the overall impression, while in the studio everything centers on the quality of the individual signal, in other words of the respective instrument. In this case the sound of the recording and the subsequent editing are monitored. The point is, to reproduce the respective audio signal as exact as a microphone, an amplifier or another sound generator would emit. In order to achieve this, several factors must be considered.

Of overall importance is the right choice of speakers. There’s no getting around special monitor speakers disposing of good impulse reproduction as well as low reverberation and for which a linear frequency output ist essential – in other words, frequencies are neither raised nor lowered. Since one sits right in front of the speakers in the studio, they should moreover dispose of a wide emission angle and the sound properties should not alter within the working parameters of the sound technician. Equally important is the correct positioning of the speakers. If the sound should reach the listener directly, without hindrances, it is advisable to mount the speakers on tripods or on the wall. If mounted on a table or at the end of a mixer, distorted reflection could occur. The speakers should be oriented toward the listener and in this manner ideally form an equilateral triangle between the speakers and the technician.

In general, the rating of the amplifier should be larger than that of the speakers, in order to avoid distortions. Furthermore, larger amplifiers offer a higher damping factor and are able to produce precise and fast transmission of voltage peaks.

The selection of monitor speakers for stages is equally important. Similar to studio monitors, they should have a linear frequency response if possible, yet here it is more important to achieve a greater performance. One difference is demonstrated in the emission angle. As opposed to the broad studio version, a targeted emission angle is preferred on stage, as each musician uses his own speaker. A word about the design: it visibly differs from the studio speakers. A horn is used, not a dome tweeter, furthermore one side is sloped so the monitors can be laid on the floor in order to resound upward.

In-Ear monitors are being used more and more on stages, instead of speakers. These are small ear plugs with a fine earpiece, which take over the function of speakers via a wireless link. The advantages are clear. On the one hand, the musician can move freely and always receives an unaltered signal. On the other hand, technicians need to lay less cable and transport fewer speakers. Additionally, In-Ear-Monitoring protects against acoustic feedback, which could occur when, for example, a microphone again picks-up the amplified singing of an artist, which is played back over the speaker monitor.

Whichever version you choose or require, the right equipment is important so the performance isn’t distorted and as a result, inferior.

Our product recommendation:

OMNITRONIC IEM-500 In-ear monitoring set

The IEM-500 is a wireless in-ear monitoring system with excellent sound and full user comfort. 16 frequencies in the low-interference UHF band can be adjusted. Due to a limiter in the transmitter input, the ear is completely protected even in case of extreme clipping. The system can be operated in mono and stereo mode and is thus qualified for many applications such as live music, theater use and voice transmission. The multifunctional LCD screen indicates all operation modes. The transmitter features a headphones output with adjustable output level in order to monitor the signal sent to the musician at the FOH. The set comes fully equipped with transmitter, receiver, headphones and 483 mm mounting kit (19″).

Light pollution exists, just like air pollution. It not only causes the stars to pale, but also has a negative influence on humans, animals and nature. More and more critics therefore demand: Darken the night (again).

In 1846, the Berlin observatory was located in the heart of the city. Between Friedrich and Linden Streets, Neptune was discovered in the night sky. If you look into the night sky through a telescope at the same spot today, you’d have to look for quite a while to find the planet discovered back then – it wouldn’t be visible.

It may sound a bit strange, but the night has changed. It isn’t as dark as in the past. The reason for this is once again: man. Through artificial lighting he has illuminated the night and has polluted the natural light.

(photo: S. Barnes) In 1913, the effect of the so-called light pollution was already so strong, that the Berlin observatory was forced to flee to darker venues, in order to have a clear view of the celestial bodies. Nowadays, observatories are almost always located in very remote areas. Meanwhile, the exaggerated illumination by night has reached a critical level for many observers. More and more initiatives try to urge the population, and especially the policy makers, toward a process of rethinking. After all, the deprivation of stars is only one aspect out of many.

Although, or rather because, there are so many light sources, insects and birds lose their orientation. Mosquitoes, gnats and Co., for example, determine their position by the light of the moon. The numerous street lights can certainly be irritating. For the insects, these lamps are the moon and they fly around them so long until they become exhausted and die.

Now one could say, they’re just mosquitoes – a naive misjudgment. For every moth which stupidly revolves around a lamp, cannot fulfill its actual duties. It doesn’t look for food, doesn’t pollinate flowers, doesn’t reproduce. Since insects form the base of the food chain, this development has consequences for further animal species.

Given that many insects, especially those living near bodies of water, are on the menu for fishes and birds, this dietary staple would cease. This insect-deprived landscape will not only become species-poor, but ecologically susceptible as well toward the mass propagation of certain species.

If one considers, that in the summer months approximately 150 insects perish every night at each street light, and that alone in Germany we boast around 7-8 million street lights, you get over 1 billion “victims” in just one night.

But not only insects suffer from light pollution. Migratory birds become irritated and disoriented. They fly into lighted buildings and die, partially as a result of this or due to exhaustion. According to estimates of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, between 4 and 50 million migratory birds die yearly in the United States alone, because they are attracted to lighted radio towers. Turtles become distracted by artificial light as well. Due to brightly lit beaches, the offspring of sea turtles can’t find its way to the water and becomes the victim of predatory animals. Effects on other animals, such as bats or frogs, are very probable. More extensive observations are lacking, however.

The human body is equally not unaffected from the long term illumination of the night sky. It reacts increasingly allergic. Insomnia is the far lesser evil. It has been suggested, that the loss of darkness even promotes cancer.

But up until now, Germany’s cities have remained relatively unimpressed and seldom gamble with new concepts (lamps with narrower beam angles, other technologies or dimming of the illuminants). On the contrary. In Germany alone, the light pollution gets worse every year by several percent. More and more squares, buildings and parks are being lit – and not just in metropolitan areas.

But as unpleasant as it may be, that large parts of Germany lie under so-called “Luminous Domes” and many people have never seen the milky way before, exactly how much artificial illumination is dangerous, particularly for human beings, cannot yet be precisely said by scientists – surely a welcome pretext for many of those responsible, in order not to act.

Since the complied facts to date already satisfy some politicians, they’re presently acting. In Germany, the city of Augsburg with a population of 280,000, probably has the most environmentally friendly lighting concept. The inner-city street lighting has been completely retrofitted with sodium discharge lamps and supplied with dimmers. The result is not only beneficial for those directly involved, but also for the city treasury. The power consumption has been reduced up to 20 percent since then – corresponding to a savings of after all 250,000 Euros. Slovenia is a good example abroad. Here one finds prescribed maximum light intensities or a ban on sykbeamers. Furthermore, outdoor lamps may not radiate upward (as they often do here).

The rest of Europe will see some changes in two years at the latest: come 2011, the old, inefficient, insect-attracting mercury discharge lamps will be prohibited. Many “Light Protectors” welcome the use of LEDs, which allow perfect positioning and trouble-free dimming – quite apart from the fact that the power consumption would dramatically decline. Whether or not it will really come to this, is still written in the stars – because funnily enough, scientists presume that white LEDs could disturb the human Melatonin balance, causing insomnia as a direct result. These scientists!

Yet even if all cities would be illuminated with LEDs, in order to properly gaze at the stars one has to do as the observatories do and leave the light of the cities far behind. Perhaps the once thought about “skyparks” will come, in which the view of the stars is unobscured, as long as the weather plays along.

A substantial initiative against the excessively bright illumination calls itself “Loss of the Night”. It comprises a facilities-network of the Leibnitz-Gemeinschaft (Leibnitz-Association), of universities and of Dark Sky Germany (a subgroup of the Association of the Friends of the Stars e.V.) You can find the initiative brochure here.

This weekend, when it is kick-off time for the 19^th FIFA World Cup in South Africa, not only the world elite of players will attract attention, but also the ten World Cup stadiums with a capacity from 40,000 to 100,000. Most outsiders can hardly imagine how much event technology can be found in modern stadiums by now. Simple horn speakers with horn driver optimized for voice transmission only are a thing of the past in soccer stadiums. They are only used for amateur applications at most. They were replaced by sophisticated public address systems (PA) with intelligent network technology and fail-safe evacuation systems.

In large stadiums, the range of the speakers often consists of a combination of several line arrays as well as a variety of conventional cluster speakers with low low-impedance or 100 volt technology for a sound as uniform as possible in all spectator areas. Therefore, it is common to install a three-digit number of different speakers with matching power amplifiers in stadiums holding several tens of thousands. Altogether, there may be up to 100 kW which is equally high as at big live concerts. The typical signal chain ranges from playback devices and wireless microphones to some digital audio mixing consoles, DSP-supported matrices and interfaces as well as redundant data and signal lines to power amplifiers and speakers.

To coordinate this variety of components in a clear way, modern network protocols such as CobraNet are used. They allow a targeted access to every segment of the system through a control software. Additionally, there are evacuation systems with emergency power supply, circuit monitoring and double signal routing, to evacuate the audience from the danger zone in case of need.

Similar high safety requirements are expected from the floodlights and other lighting systems. They also have to provide emergency power supply to guarantee optimum safety for the visitors, especially during the evening games. For example, the UEFA demands full light output – according to the category of the stadium – also in case of emergency.

Mobile effect lights used for the supporting program extend the fleet of event technology. For professional use, the lighting system has to be coordinated with the demands of the current television technology. These requirements have increased since HDTV technology came up – meanwhile, the lighting systems deliver up to 2,000 lux illuminance. For comparison, an office room only has 800 lux. Moreover, television calls for reproduction of the crowd as natural as possible. Thus, some 30 shotgun microphones are set up per stadium. After all viewers at home in front of their television seats do not want to missout on anything, neither optically nor acoustically.