Opportunities and risks for the industry

Thank you to everyone who supported ARCIA over 2016 — it certainly felt like a very busy year. I hope that over the festive season all members had an excellent break with family and friends. We finished off 2016 on a high with our annual gala dinner at the Melbourne Convention Centre attended by 525 guests. The evening brought together ARCIA members from all over Australia and some special guests from overseas to celebrate the industry. The MC for the evening, Brian Nankervis, provided fantastic entertainment and his RocKwiz theme kept the audience on its toes. During the evening we recognised the efforts of some special people in our industry and they are all to be congratulated for the work they do every day. On a special note the annual Jonathan Livingston award was presented to Martin McLeod of General Communications. Martin is a stalwart of the communications industry, having worked in it for more than 30 years. He is a true professional and he received a fantastic reception on the surprise announcement, the ultimate peer recognition that we can provide.

This year will see ARCIA celebrate 10 years of operating as the association, so make sure you come along to local events and help the association mark this special milestone. It would be easy to sit back and congratulate ourselves on a job well done for the last 10 years. While there is no doubt that we have met many of the criteria that we set for ourselves, there is still a huge amount of work to do. The market is changing before our eyes and we, as an industry, need to play our part as new technology emerges and eventually has the potential to replace what has been the status quo for decades. I make no predictions of the demise of two-way radios — we have been hearing that for decades — however, the underlying technologies that provide critical communication options are changing.

New technology options and regulations present opportunities as well as risks, and ARCIA sees its role as an industry association to bring together the industry, users and regulators to try an understand what is the best path forward for Australia. This is no small task, if you consider that our industry represents thousands of private networks that have diverse reasons for the existence. ARCIA continues to promote (through the ACMA and Department of Communications) the important role that private networks play, and that technology options must be made available through the allocation of suitable spectrum for the good of the overall economy.

During 2017 ARCIA wishes to continue state-based events in conjunction with Comms Connect, and to do this we really need your support. Keep an eye out for these events and make sure you get behind them. The first event for the year is in Perth with our local version of Comms Connect followed by the industry dinner that evening — watch out for details but remember the date, Thursday, 16 March. As in past years, we will have our annual committee planning day in early February, followed by our partners’ meeting. These events give the association the chance to plan ahead and give a set of goals for the coming year, and both are valuable opportunities to review what we have done and to include new items that are applicable to our survival and that of our industry.

Hamish Duff

President

Australian Radio Communications Industry Association