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December 2012 l 05
seasonalbusiness UNITED KINGDOM Joe Bull’s 12 Days of Christmas
In a festive special, the JoeCo founder shares a Christmas present wishlist as the company celebrates another successful year of BlackBox development
DAY 1: A 26-HOUR DAY IT WOULDbe great to have a couple of extra hours every day. My working day typically starts at 7am and often finishes after midnight. However, we have expanded the JoeCo team recently with the arrival of Francis Duggan. He’s training up on the support and logistics areas, so that’s going to free up some time to focus on what I should be doing: developing new products.
DAY 2: EASTERN PROMISE No, not Turkish delight: JoeCo’s distributor network has grown to a very satisfying 40 territories, covering Europe, Scandinavia, North America and Oceania, but our focus for 2013 is on expanding business in the Middle and Far East, especially China, as well as exploring the potential of territories such as India.
DAY 3: STANDARDISED AVB NETWORKING One of my current ‘hobby- horses’! This year has seen JoeCo expand its focus on Dante technology with the BBR64-Dante release. Standardising AVB is obviously an issue that affects this market. It can’t come soon enough.
DAY 4: ANOTHER TRACK-COUNT RECORD Use of multiple 64-channel BlackBox MADI systems has led to some impressive track counts; 2 x 256 channels on the George Michael Symphonica tour with a total of eight systems. We’re looking to beat this in 2013!
DAY 5: MORE GREAT SHOWS THAT WE ARE FREE TO TALK ABOUT! As a small manufacturer it’s a nightmare getting clearance from artist management to allow us to tell readers who is using the BlackBox on major tours and events. We’ve had fantastic support and feedback from several high-profile users, but there have also been great BlackBox stories that we’ve been prevented from telling you about. Frustrating? Certainly.
DAY 6: A TECH SUPPORT-FREE CANDLELIT DINNER WITH MY WIFE On the rare Saturday evenings that we have managed a quiet dinner in a posh restaurant, it always seems to coincide with the equally rare occasion where an engineer calls from some far- flung destination with an urgent query. As a former live engineer, I know the pressure that
guy is under, so it’s just not in my nature to not answer the phone. But why is it always when I’m sitting down to eat?
DAY 7: A SOAPBOX During the 30+ years I’ve worked in this industry, there has been a constant striving to improve professional audio quality to satisfy the demands of a discerning public. However, the last decade has seen the
Joe Bull: someone buy this man some socks!
consumer becoming increasingly satisfied with a lower quality of deliverable audio. As a purist, that disappoints me, so, a soapbox, please, and an opportunity to stand on it and make my views known.
DAY 8: A BIGGER DISPLAY CABINET It may be tempting providence, but we’ve been very lucky in receiving international awards on an annual basis from industry press, readers and trade associations. These have included Best New Company and various product accolades including a TEC Award for the 24-channel BlackBox BBR1. We have a second TEC Award nomination for the BBR64-Dante system, so that really would be the icing on our post-Christmas cake. Please vote for us!
DAY 9: A ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ MOMENT I’m often asked if there’s anything I’d have done differently over the past five years since founding the company. I’d be lying if I was to pretend that you can’t improve situations or products with the
benefit of hindsight, but on the whole, the basic principles behind the company and its products have shone through. I might have capitalised more on our best-selling BBR models, the 24-channel balanced analogue BBR1 and the BBR64-MADI. However, we’re getting increasing demand for our Player software and the BBR64-Dante system, so I can’t really complain.
DAY 10: THE CAR OF MY DREAMS Tempted though I am to include a super car here, my honest answer would be to replace the same rugged, robust and reliable Volvo that I’ve had for years with something similar. It gets you there with minimum fuss, it’s easy to drive, roof-rack mounted and not a slave to onboard computer systems and numerous electronic gadgets that can fail at a crucial moment. Sounds vaguely familiar?
DAY 11: AN END TO THE RECESSION AND BETTER TIMES AHEAD I have a history of starting new companies during recessions. If you can get a business up and running during hard times, by
the end of a recession you’re usually well on the way. Unfortunately this economic situation has lasted longer than hoped, but JoeCo has grown steadily during the past few years and business is actually good, so I can’t complain. However, we’d like to see life improve for some of our customers as we go into 2013, as well as continued growth in the live market.
DAY 12: SOCKS Yes, really. They have been known to form excellent packing materials for BlackBox units in suitcases, especially in the early days when I’d be carefully transporting a first prototype and a hard drive to a trade show. Last year they came into their own as we braved the arctic temperatures of Amsterdam for ISE in January (and that was inside the venue), not to mention all the other international trade shows that we’re now attending. I never travel without a selection! n
www.joeco.co.uk
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