> NEWS Audio Pro heralds 2010 award winners Experts and executives from across the industry cast their votes for the very best of the pro audio business
THE INDUSTRY has spoken and the winners of 2010’s Audio Pro Industry Excellence Awards, sponsored by NAMM, have been revealed. A judging panel of over 120
industry experts and executives, including some of the most respected figures in the business, cast their votes for the best in the pro audio business. Winners included SSE Audio for
the tremendous hard rock festival Download, which scooped Best Live Sound Event, while the award for Best
Live Sound Engineer went to the illustrious ‘Big’ Mick Hughes for his skills at FOH with Metallica. Another big winner in the Live &
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Installed Sound category was Optocore, which took the gong for Most Innovative Installation on account of the groundbreaking network solution it delivered for Cirque du Soleil’s Viva Elvis production. JoeCo, of Blackbox Recorder fame, proved to be the industry’s favourite new live sound company by some margin and
Sennhesier UK’s noble work at festivals and concerts around the country paid off when it was acknowledged as offering Best After- Sales Support.
In the Studio & Broadcast Sound
category, the inimitable Snap Studios was named Best New Studio by the judges, who also considered Rupert Neve Designs’ Portico II to be 2010’s Best New Studio Product. Ray Staff, the only mastering engineer to make the finalists, stormed away with Best
It gave Audio Pro great pleasure to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Tony Andrews.
Studio Engineer, and the HHB customers among the judges were clearly a satisfied bunch, because the supplier walked away with Best After- Sales Support. The award for Best Broadcast Sound went to SIS, a clear winner for its sterling work in helping televise The Proms. It was perhaps the Lifetime
Achievement Award that was the most anticipated of all and it gave Audio Pro great pleasure to be able to present this to the eminent loudspeaker designer and all-round audio genius
QSC to enter digital console market
QSC HAS announced a partnership with Greg Mackie and Peter Watts (M&W Pro Audio) to create a series of digital audio mixing consoles. Design work on the products will be done by both M&W and QSC, while manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing and technical support will be handled entirely by QSC. The first products are expected to be announced early next year. Mackie, who needs little
introduction, had the idea to create a new line of digital consoles after leaving Mackie Designs in 2003. He recruited long-time friend and collaborator Peter Watts – who designed the Trident DiAn, the first digitally controlled console – in 2008. The pair then began looking for a partner to develop the mixers. “We needed a pro-audio
partner with established sales, 4 audioPRO October 2010
marketing and distribution, and a solid reputation for quality and reliability – one that had the technical capabilities to develop advanced digital mixing consoles and the manufacturing know- how to produce the products,” said Mackie. “I had a long-time personal friendship with John and Barry Andrews and knew I could trust QSC to be exactly the right partner.” “We are delighted to be
working with Greg and Peter,” added Gerry Tschetter, QSC VP of marketing. Their passion for creating fine audio products mirrors our own. Our efforts to create value and performance on the ‘B-Chain’ (processing, power and loudspeaker) side have yielded a number of highly successful product lines. It’s great fun to be working on the ‘A-
Chain’ (mixing) side as well.” >
qscaudio.com
Tony Andrews of Funktion One. Andrews’ commitment to sonic accuracy and putting the crowd’s enjoyment first haven’t gone unnoticed and he was duly honoured for his tireless efforts in addressing paramount issues within the industry. Audio Pro International’s editor,
Andrew Low, commented: “It has been really fantastic to see the enthusiasm generated by the second
Audio Pro Industry Excellence Awards. Our aim from the outset was to provide a true representation of our industry’s opinions and achievements and I think we’ve succeeded. Many thanks to all our readers for their submissions, to our judges for their votes and the heartiest of congratulations to all the winners.” For a full breakdown of all the winners, turn to page 11.
Major truss companies Prolyte and Litestructures announce merger
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM: (L-R) Lee Brooks, Smeding and Prolyte’s Gurt Felten “The combined team effort within
LITESTRUCTURES AND Prolyte have merged. The amalgamated firm will trade as Prolyte Products Group. Litestructures’ Wakefield office will be run by MD Lee Brooks, who will benefit from a strengthened management team. The office will also be responsible for running a group-wide custom projects division. All bulk manufacturing will be handled by the group’s two European plants, and global distribution will be managed from the Prolyte HQ in Leek, Netherlands.
the group reflects the positive drive we have created by this merger, said Fokko Smeding the new group CEO.” Litestructures founder Adrian
Brooks, now on the supervisory board of the new company, added: “I have long thought that future development in our industry would rely on the collaboration of the key players. Together, we are able to exploit opportunities that would not have
been available to us separately.” >
prolyte.com
www.audioprointernational.com
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