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Mix Daily News Archive for September

 

Weeks of September 3-10

EAW Redesigns Website

Eastern Acoustic Works (Whitinsville, Mass.) has redesigned itsWebsite (www.eaw.com)with added features, easier navigation, streamlined graphics and fasterdownloads.

“With 900-plus Web pages and over 2 million hits a month, theredesign was inspired by improving the online experience for ourgrowing visitor base,” said Sean Correia, Webmaster of EAW.com.

In the coming months, the site will also feature a searchable newsarchive, a product finder tool, instructional videos, an ApplicationSupport Group mailing list, a new EAWTA database and user tools, aswell as market-specific sub-sections.

JBL Names Three New VPs

JBL Professional (Northridge, Calif.) announced the appointment oftwo new VPs of sales for the company’s worldwide sales efforts and anew VP of manufacturing operations.

Doug Daniel has been promoted to VP of international sales. Danielhas been with JBL Professional since 1992 in the position of directorof European sales. “I am delighted to be appointed VP of internationalsales and lead a sales and distribution team that will be putting aneven greater investment of time and resource into making JBL Proproducts available to yet more customers worldwide,” stated Daniel.

Tom Weeber has been promoted to VP of U.S. sales. Weeber has beenwith the JBL sales department since 1993, where he started as aregional manager and later promoted to senior director of U.S. sales.”We have an excellent veteran sales team in the U.S., and I am verypleased to have this opportunity to work even closer with JBL’srepresentatives, retailers and contractors to support their needs,”said Weeber.

Jeffery Groenke has been named VP of operations at the company’sNorthridge, Calif., headquarters. Prior to joining JBL, Groenke wasgeneral manager and engineering manager at Axiohm Transaction Solutionsand has also been an engineer for Hewlett Packard. “JBL has both a longhistory of manufacturing the world’s best loudspeaker systems and someof the most innovative new products I’ve ever seen,” said Groenke.”It’s a great company, and I’m excited to be part of the team.”

For more, visit JBL online at www.jblpro.com.

Mick Whelan Joins Telex

Telex Communications (Burnsville, MN) has appointed Mick Whelan tothe position of general manager for U.S. concert sound. In this role,Whelan will be responsible for management and marketing of thecompany’s ongoing innovations in concert sound technologies.

Whelan brings 30 years of professional audio experience — as anengineer and product and marketing professional — to the position.Prior to joining Telex, Whelan was VP of marketing at CrownInternational. He is also a founding member and an annual presenter atthe Live Sound Workshop in Anaheim, Calif. He has also designed andcommissioned touring and installed systems. His credits include RodStewart, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, the Beach Boys and Carole King,among others.

“I am very pleased to be a part of the Telex team,” said Whelan. “Ilook forward to helping increase the capabilities of Telex to deliverinnovative, successful products toward that goal.”

For more, visit Telex online at www.electrovoice.com.

Future Media Concepts Debuts Streaming Seminar

Future Media Concepts, a digital media training center, and SorensonServices USA, a streaming media encoding, consulting and trainingprovider, have launched a new training seminar, the Ultimate StreamingSeminar, to be held at Future Media Concepts training centers in NewYork (September 13 and November 29), Philadelphia (October 4 andDecember 13) and Boston (September 19 and December 6).

The Ultimate Streaming Seminar is a two-day event of intensivetraining covering MPEG, QuickTime, Real Media and Windows Mediasolutions for both video-on-demand and live streaming. The seminarfeatures solutions from Apple, Media100, Microsoft, Real Networks andSorenson Media. Also featured are services from streaming hostingpartners Globix and BopJet. Attendees will learn advanced encodingtechniques to achieve high-quality results and examine the pros andcons of different delivery strategies.

“Web video is the hottest and fastest growing area of newtechnology, and our customers have been asking for training that coversall the streaming formats,” commented Ben Kozuch, president of FutureMedia Concepts.

“We wanted to create an event where digital media professionalscould get advanced training on all the major streaming media formatsall in one place,” said Dale Sorenson, president of Sorenson ServicesUSA.

For more info and to register for the Ultimate Streaming Seminar,visit www.fmctraining.com.

Bag End Signs First Distributor For India

Bag End (Barrington, Ill.) has signed Sound of Music (New Deli,India) to distribute Bag End products in India.

“India is an immense untapped market, and we are delighted to havereached an agreement with Sound of Music,” said Bag End president JamesP. Wischmeyer. “Indian people love feature films and the Indian filmindustry is one of the largest in the world, so it is a natural marketfor us, especially our home theater products.”

Contact Bag End online at www.bagend.com.

Symetrix Turns 25

Manufacturer of analog and digital audio signal processing, SymetrixInc. (Lynnwood, Wash.) celebrates 25 years in business this fall. WithSymetrix gates, delays, preamps, amplifiers, equalizers, compressors,DSP processors, mixers, converters and voice processors being usedaround the globe, the company has grown through innovation, quality andreliability since the introduction of their first noise gate to the proaudio community in 1976.

Today, the company devotes its resources to three “brands,” theirlongstanding line of Symetrix processors, the recently founded Lucidline of AD/DA and sample rate converters, and the AirTools line oftraditional and multimedia broadcasting tools.

For more on the company’s anniversary, visit www.symetrixaudio.com.

Weeks of September 17-24


AES 20th International Conference Announced

The AES 20th International Conference on archiving, restoration andnew methods of recording is taking place on October 5-7, 2001, inBudapest, Hungary.
UNESCO representative Joie Springer will open the conference onFriday, October 5, with an address entitled “Promoting Global Access tothe Audiovisual Memory of the World.”

This conference will present views from several perspectives andexemplify the impact these methods have on several areas of the audioindustry.
Note: The AES 11th convention has been rescheduled to November30-December 3, 2001 in New York City.
For more, visit the AES online at www.aes.org.

HHB Appointed Distributor for Millenia

HHB Communications Canada Limited, a subsidiary of HHB UK, hasbecome Millenia’s exclusive distributor in Canada. HHB Canada willdistribute Millenia’s entire line of vacuum tube and solid-statemicrophone preamps, equalizers, dynamics, recording channels, mixingsystems, M/S decoders, archiving systems and discrete modularamplifiers.
“We believe Dave Dysart [president of HHB Canada] and staff have themost effective vehicle for placing Millenia products into asignificantly expanded Canadian customer base,” said John La Grou,president of Millenia Media.

“With HHB in the lead, we’re anticipating even faster growth in allsectors of the Canadian pro market.”
For more, visit Millenia Media online at www.mil-media.com or HHBCanada at www.hhbusa.com/000/canada.htm.

Professional Systems Network Names New Affiliates, Board ofDirectors

Professional Systems Network Inc. (PSNI), a 15-year-old nationwidenetwork of audio and visual system integrators who design, develop andinstall A/V communications systems, announced two new affiliates:Crescent Communications Corporation and TEL Systems, formerly ThalnerElectronic Laboratories Inc.

Crescent Communications Corporation (Kenner, La.) is a full-serviceaudio and video equipment dealer, offering sales, service, systemdesign and integration, and training to the broadcast, professional andindustrial markets.

TEL Systems (Ann Arbor, Mich.) specializes in the design,installation, and maintenance of educational, industrial and broadcastvideo and audio systems.

In other PSNI news, the new members to its board of directors for2001-2002 were recently elected. Mark Temen, president of Audio VideoResources (Phoenix), was elected past president, where he will serve asthe membership chairman and is responsible for new member recruitment.Bruce Ferguson, president of Pacific Video Products (Orange County,Calif.) and past secretary for the Board of Directors, was elected VPof PSNI. In this role, Ferguson assists the president in managing allcommunications-related projects and the execution of the annualReference catalog. Stan Wagnon, president of Lubbock Audio Visual Inc.(Lubbock, Texas), was elected secretary. He will be responsible for thedevelopment and compilation of the procedural manual. Joe Bereman,president at Duncan Video (Carmel, Ind.), was re-elected treasurer ofPSNI, continuing his role as manager of all the organization’s financesand preparation of the annual budget. Stan Stanek, president andgeneral manager of Alpha Video and Audio Inc. (Edina, Minn.), waselected member-at-large. This newly created, non-voting positioncontributes to special projects within the organization. John Bluhm,president of Clark-Powell Associates (Winston, Salem, N.C.), continuesto serve as president.

To learn more about PSNI services or about becoming a PSNIaffiliate, visit the organization online at www.psni.org.

Telex Announces Proposed Debt Restructing Plan

Telex (Burnsville, Minn.) has announced a proposed debtrestructuring plan intended to reduce its outstanding debt, increaseits financial flexibility and improve its cash flow.
According to Edgar S. Woolard, chairman of the board of directors ofTelex, holders of Telex’s “Senior Subordinated Notes” will be able toexchange their notes for units comprised of various combinations ofcash and securities, depending on one or more of four exchange options,that will be issued by a newly organized operating company, which willacquire substantially all of the assets of Telex. This exchange offeris conditioned upon the new operating company being able to obtainsenior secured financing to repay outstanding senior secured debt andother debts of Telex and its subsidiaries.

In anticipation of completing the debt restructuring, Telex will notmake interest payments due on September 17, 2001 under its 11% SeniorSubordinated Notes and the November 1, 2001 interest payment that isdue on its 10 1/2% Senior Subordinated Notes.

The exchange offer and solicitation of consents and acceptances isschedule to expire at 5 p.m. EST, on October 12, 2001.
Telex bondholders can obtain more information by contacting Telex’sinformation agent, GSC Partners, at 973/437-1025; fax 973/437-1037.

XTA Speakers Find New Homes

ATK/Audiotek has begun adding new XTA DP224 speaker managementsystems to its massive P.A. systems inventory. Along with the XTA DP200processors already in heavy use by the company, these addtions willbring the number of XTA DP Series processors in ATK/Audiotek’s arsenalto over 120. Most recently, ATK/Audiotek added the XTA DP200 to thestudio audience sound system it installed at The Tonight Show withJay Leno at NBC’s Burbank studios.

“When we wanted to transition to digital speaker processors severalyears ago, there were about four or five of them on the market — andnone of them were what we were looking for,” recalls Mike Stahl,president of ATK/Audiotek. “But when XTA got into that market, theylistened to us and gave us the flexibility we were looking for. We’renot committed to any particular company; we’re committed to productsthat meet our standards of excellence. We like to think that if you cansell it to ATK/Audiotek, you can sell it to the world. We think that’sexactly what XTA has achieved with their DP Series processors — that’swhy we have over 120 of them now.”

Also in XTA installation news, the River Center, a massive,three-section new performing arts center connected with the Universityof Georgia and slated to open in the spring of 2002, will featurecomplete speaker control and processing using XTA DP202 and DP226systems. A total of 21 XTA DP Series systems (11 DP202 2×2 units and 10DP226 2×6 units) will be used as the main speaker processing systemsfor all of the EAW speaker systems in each of the new River Center’sthree separate component buildings: a main stage theater, a smallerrecital hall, and a unique experimental theater hall designed withoutproscenium or other traditional theater elements.

For more information on XTA products, visit Group One, exclusiveU.S. distributor, at www.g1ltd.com.

Avid World and Pro Tools Conference Rescheduled

Due to the recent tragic events in New York City, the Avid World& Pro Tools Conference, which was to be held on October 7, has beenrescheduled for December 9-12, 2001. The New Yorker Hotel and allconference activities, including seminars, speeches, exhibitions andnetworking functions, remain intact pending further changes.

“We took into account the hundreds of people and companies involvedin this event, many of whom are flying from around the country,”commented Rick Friedman, president and co-founder of MindshareVentures, a co-organizer of the event. “It’s our desire to give themand local participants more time to recoup from the tragedy. To helpout, we’ve extended the conference’s Early Bird Registration discountto November 2, 2001.”

For more, visit www.avidworldeast.com.

Latin Grammys Cancelled

Organizers have pulled the plug on the 2nd Annual Latin Grammysafter trying to reschedule the cancelled affair due to the terroristattacks on September 11.
Recording Academy president Michael Greene expressed a possibilitylast week that the show could be rescheduled, but has since issued astatement saying it would be impossible.

“We’re disappointed that we will not be able to give this year’sdeserving nominees their chance to show the world what we already knowabou them — that they are world-class musicians,” Greene said.

The show was scheduled to be held in Los Angeles the day of theattacks. The Recording Academy plans to distribute the awards to thewinners privately.

For more, visit www.latingrammys.com.

An Evening with John Eargle

The AES Los Angeles Section announced its October 30, 2001, meeting,”An Evening with…John Eargle.”

Eargle will focus on multichannel miking, production and masteringtechniques for classical releases, using sound examples from hisextensive experience, including new DVD-A and SACD release formats.

In addition to engineering and producing numerous releases forartists/ensembles such as Carol Rosenberger, Bella Davidovitch, theSeattle Symphony, the London Symphony, the New York Chamber Orchestra,Etta James and many others, Eargle is an honorary member and pastnational president of the AES, a senior member of the IEEE, and amember of the Acoustical Society of America, the Society of MotionPicture and Television Engineers, the National Academy of RecordingArts & Sciences, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts &Sciences.

The meeting will be held at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, located at 12825Ventura Blvd. at Coldwater Canyon, Studio City. It will begin with asocial at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 and the meeting at 8.Dinner cost is $20, or $15 with an advance reservation.
Visit www.aes.org for more.

Studiomaster UK and Studiomaster Inc. Break Ties

The 11-year manufacturing partnership between Studiomaster UK andStudiomaster Inc. (the U.S. subsidiary) has been severed due to ongoingdisputes and irreconcilable differences, as reported by Jim Giordanowho heads the U.S. division.

“Negotiations are currently underway with six new manufacturingconcerns to pick up production of the existing product range as well asa host of brand-new product introductions,” commented Giordano.”Unfortunately, with the lack of available product, Studiomaster UK andStudiomaster Inc. have been negatively impacted and have had totemporarily suspend normal business operations.”

At press time, the principals of Studiomaster UK, along with theR&D team, are undertaking a total reorganization of the company andplan to re-open in early November. As for Studiomaster Inc., plansinclude staying open, with sitting management running the day-to-dayoperations.

For more, visit www.studiomaster.com.

Napster Closer To Being Legit

Napster is inching its way to launching its subscription service,announcing that it has signed a landmark licensing agreement with NewYork City-based Harry Fox Agency, a member of the National MusicPublishers Associations (NMPA).

The agreement sets the payment standard for any company that wantsto offer legitimate music file downloads, as well as providingsongwriters and music publishers the rights to royalties in a 1/3 to2/3 ratio with copyright owners of sound recordings, a longtime stickypoint in the ensuing court battles.

The agreement still needs to be approved by U.S. District JudgeMarilyn Hall Patel, by the plaintiffs in the class action and by theNMPA board of directors.

New Product Manager At Neumann USA

Former customer service manager for the New England area, Dawn Birrhas been promoted to product manager for Neumann USA (Old Lyme,Conn.).
In this position, Birr will handle all of Neumann’s internalresponsibilities, including customer inquiries, support for Neumannsales staff, and managing inventory and internal accounts. In addition,Birr will help develop promotional and advertising campaigns.

“I’m excited to have Dawn on my team,” said Jeff Alexander, directorof distributed brands. “She is a perfect fit for the task at hand,given her experience in the operations department, and she’s provenherself to be enthusiastic, knowledgeable and dedicated to ourcustomers.”

For more, visit www.neumannusa.com.

Mackie Appoints New Manager of Soundscape Brand

Mackie Designs (Woodinville, Wash.) welcomed Carl Owen into theposition of manager of the Soundscape brand. Owen will be responsiblefor establishing and supporting a worldwide distribution network forall Soundscape-branded Sydec products, and will be based out of the UK.He will also be responsible for introducing Soundscape products to newmarkets.

Before joining Mackie, Owen was the technical sales manager atSoundscape Digital Technologies Ltd., the UK-based company that hasbeen marketing and distributing Sydec products under the Soundscapename since 1993. Sydec was acquired by Mackie earlier this year.

For more, visit www.mackie.com.

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