www.psam.uk.com SHOWCASE
SOUND SYSTEMS
set out to separate manufacturer from installer in the bid process. At the end of the bid process we got the best installer and the best equipment.”
ANZ’s management challenged the idea that a stadium couldn’t have ‘opening ceremony’ quality sound.
Davies. “That familiarity with the venue and the goals we had given ourselves allowed us to set a tough brief.”
Willsallen it seems was unperturbed. “The main confi ne of this brief was to use pre-existing rigging points and all cable infrastructure from the old PA system.” The thinking being, as Davies so succinctly puts it, “I’d rather invest our money in the new system hardware than the infrastructure. Our customers don’t value the infrastructure, they take it for granted, but what they experience directly: sound, vision and comfort, all have great importance.” Willsallen was engaged by the challenge immediately. “In one sense that brief was restrictive, but it did mean that the money we saved on cabling and rigging, which when you consider a large 80,000 seat stadium, is a signifi cant fi gure. So that part of the budget could be called on to buy a better loudspeaker system.”
ANZ Stadium expected nothing less than scrupulous and exhaustive competitive tendering; charging Willsallen with establishing such a procedure. His initial bid package invited 18 of the world’s leading pro audio manufacturers, “Representatives for all bidders were open for feedback, so we could comment on their initial proposals and they could respond to those comments. Besides a broad in-depth evaluation process of the proposal from a technical and qualitative perspective, I also took an integrated approach to the installation process. It is normal for installers to forge relationships with particular loudspeaker brands, Stadium and Arena managers all over the world will be familiar with this cosy scenario. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that the best installer for your project will have a relationship with the best manufacturer for your project. So I
Not that Willsallen’s tenacity in driving a deal on behalf of his client ended there, “I also included the maintenance contract within the installers bid. This precludes installers from making unrealistic loss leader pitches for the main project in the expectation that they will become the favoured bidder for the maintenance contract when it comes up and can make a profi t there. The benefi ts are twofold; rolling installation and the ongoing maintenance contracts into a single bid item precludes unrealistic and unsustainable bids: just imagine what happens to a bidder who secures the installation project on a wildly underpriced bid, and then fails to secure the maintenance contract? More positively, such an interleaved proposal means the successful bidder has a vested interest in doing a really fi rst class job on the installation to minimise long term costs to their own maintenance programme.”
Having reduced the original 18 contenders to a short list of three through his empirically moderated four-page criteria, Willsallen invited a shootout at the stadium. “For the shootout Scott and I and the stadium’s MD Daryl Kerry were in attendance,” says Davies. “We also invited many
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