The Miami Herald reports that the Miami City Commission has approved plans for a downtown convention center and a 1,800-room hotel on the site of the old Miami Arena.

“The commission’s approval of MDM Development’s $600 million Marriott Marquis Miami World Center clears an important hurdle for the developer, which can now pursue permits and tax rebates, and push to break ground before the end of the year,” David Smiley wrote. “The privately financed project has been long-desired by downtown business boosters, who say a convention center will help flush businesses, restaurants and hotels with customers.”

The convention center will feature 350,000 square feet of meeting space, a 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall, and a 60,000-square-foot ballroom.

Please visit the Miami Herald website for the full story.

(Image: Miami Wordcenter)

With its new project named Neo-Ticketing, The Firestation Centre for Arts & Culture wants to find out if it will sell more tickets, if guests will get better deals, and if artists will earn more.

The project recently received a £122,877 (US$198,701) grant by the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts for development and implementation.

“You’ve probably come across something a bit like this before, maybe buying airline tickets, or if you’re a bit global—baseball tickets,” the Windsor, England-based venue wrote on its website. “Easyjet, for example, make a number of tickets available at very low prices early to stimulate sales or reward advance purchase customers, whilst letting the price rise steadily over time. Their prices also change according to levels of demand or time of year.”

Firestation will experiment in three ways: rising prices, moving prices, and random price crash.

Rising Prices
“The price of your ticket will start very low, as much as 50 percent lower than we would normally charge, and increase slowly over time to a maximum of 50 percent more than we would normally charge. So the earlier you buy your ticket, the better deal you get.”

Moving Prices
“The price goes up AND down right up until the event, depending on how many tickets are sold and how quickly you’re buying them. So if the price is higher than you expected, you can always check back tomorrow.”

Random Price Crash
“Every now and then, perhaps to stimulate interest, perhaps to reward you for following us on Facebook or Twitter, perhaps just for fun on a Friday night, we’ll crash the price right down and see what happens. So if you hear us say ‘Tickets for New Years Eve are 10p for the next 10 minutes,’ get in there!”

The project is in partnership with Monad Software (the venue’s box office builder) and the Royal Holloway University of London, whose economics department will create the experiments and analyze the data.

“We’re very excited about Neo-Ticketing and really looking forward to seeing how it works,” the venue wrote. “We have a Tumblr blog at neoticketing.tumblr.com where we’ll post loads of updates and project news. Plus, we’d love to hear what you think about any of it—did it work for you? Have we missed something? Who else does it?”

(photo credit: drewm via photopin cc)

AEG Live has acquired two historic theatres in Virginia—The National Theatre in Richmond and The NorVa Theatre in Norfolk.

Located in downtown Richmond, The National is an Italian Renaissance-style theatre built in 1923 and was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 2003. The 1,500-capacity venue underwent a full restoration in 2008 at the cost of $15.6 million. Hosting 150 events annually, The National sits blocks away from the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Newly established offices at The NorVa will provide AEG Live a strategically located regional office under the leadership of the prior owners and management with industry veterans, Bill Reid and Rick Mersel. AEG Live’s Mid-Atlantic regional office will serve as a critical component and base of operations for touring and additional venue opportunities.

“We are fortunate to have acquired these two incredible historic and important theatres that will join AEG Live’s portfolio of elite venues,” said Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Live. “We are also privileged to now have the opportunity to work with Bill Reid and Rick Mersel as part of our AEG Live team. Their experience in the industry and this marketplace in particular will benefit both our organization and the guests who attend events in the theatres.”

Originally opened in 1917 as a vaudeville theatre and later as a movie theatre, The NorVa was fully renovated and restored in 2000. The 1,500-capacity venue is located in downtown Norfolk, Virginia’s second most populated city. Added to the National Register of Historical Places in 2000, the music venue hosts 150 events annually and is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top concert nightclubs by Pollstar and was recently voted No. 1 “Best Club” in the 2013 Rolling Stone readers’ poll.

“While both Norfolk and Richmond have proven to be active live entertainment markets, our new association with AEG Live will further establish these special theatres as ‘must play’ venues in the region,” said Bill Reid, vice president of AEG Live. “Having the ability to book these venues alongside AEG Live’s other well regarded properties, in addition to taking advantage of AEG Live’s well-established and deep artist relationships, will truly benefit all of our guests.”

(Image: The NorVa Theatre)

Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.”

Light-emitting diodes (LED) lamps are one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments (yeah, I said it), and this award is proper recognition for a life-changing invention.

“As about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth’s resources,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences wrote in the award’s press release. “Materials consumption is also diminished as LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent bulbs and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights. The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids: due to low power requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power. The invention of the blue LED is just twenty years old, but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.”

One environment that can benefit from the use of LED lambs is the sports venue, which has for years used traditional medal halide lights to illuminate a surface. However, some stadiums and arenas are looking at LEDs in order to save revenue and energy costs.

“These LED lights will outlast the rest of the building,” IAVM member Dave Olsen, executive vice president and general manager of PNC Arena (Raleigh, North Carolina), recently told The Washington Post. “We’ll get a solid 20-plus years of life without having to do any maintenance to them at all. That’s the real key, I don’t have to relamp every three to five years.”

Check out the rest of the Post‘s story to learn more about how other stadiums—such as NRG Stadium in Houston and University of Phoenix Stadium—are using LED lights to help the bottom light and to, ultimately, create a better fan experience.

(photo credit: tudedude via photopin cc)

Congratulations to the Anaheim Convention Center. The venue recently completed a 2.4-megawatt install solar panel system, covering 300,000 square feet on the rooftop of exhibit halls A, B, and C. The $5.7 million project features 7,908 solar panels, making it the largest city-owned, convention center, roof-mounted system in North America.

“The City of Anaheim has always sought to take the lead with projects that demonstrate government entrepreneurship and this partnership reflects the success of this effort,” said IAVM member Tom Morton, executive director of the City of Anaheim’s Convention, Sports & Entertainment Department. “We appreciate the partnership with our public utilities and welcomed this opportunity, which benefits not only our residents, but further enhances the convention center’s sustainability program.”

The system will generate an estimated 3.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, and the Anaheim Public Utilities is rolling the project into its renewable energy portfolio.

“Installing solar on the convention center furthers the city’s commitment to renewable energy initiatives,” said Dukku Lee, general manager of Anaheim Public Utilities. “The city was able to add a cost-effective renewable resource that utilizes the abundant sunlight we are fortunate to have in this region.”

Borrego Solar designed and installed the system.

“Throughout the contract and construction process, we witnessed firsthand the commitment and enthusiasm of the city, utility, and convention center leaders to ensure the success and quick development of this project,” said Mike Hall, CEO of Borrego Solar. “It’s communities like Anaheim that will enable California to meet its renewable energy mandates and continue leading the way on clean energy deployment.”

(Image: Borrego Solar)