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This is one hell of a show. The CMI (Central Musical Instruments) Frontrunner show. It is staggered over four days and must cost CMI a bundle. On the day we went, the entertainment was supplied by the guys from John Farnham's band under the name "Roadrunners". The MC was Gavin Wood and there was a host of helpers and assistants.
It was staged in a purpose built tent in the CMI car park. We don't know how big it was but somebody paced it out at around fifty meters. The thing was packed with truckloads of stock, plenty of seats and lots of space to walk around. The food was excellent. Everything from a mixed roast to oysters in tomato and balsamic vinegar. A damn good feed and a couple of drinks put us all in the mood to enjoy the evening.
The night was broken into segments that included talks from
principals of a number of leading brands. These gentlemen between them have many decades of experience in the Music Industry and are at the forefront of product development through their respective brands.
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Lance Schmidt
Lance is President of IAG USA incorporating Latin America and the Caribbean, is a veteran of the industry having been involved since 1965 as a teacher of guitar, bass and drums; a retail sales manager and as a performer.
During this time Lance learned the basics of music and sound retail and wholesale. In the late 1970's after years of working in regional field rep sales and management for major manufacturers, he became involved in Pro Audio and has continued to advance in this industry segment.
By 1989, Lance had risen to the level of senior sales and marketing management at Peavey Electronics Corporation as their International Sales and Marketing Director, traveling extensively all over the world.
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He served in the late 90's at Harman International as President of the Harman Music Group's Music industry brands. In late 2001, he joined IAG, Ltd. to head up the Pro division in the American hemisphere. Lance was later promoted to IAG "Corporate" to help develop all of the IAG brands and divisions in his present role.
He lives in the USA in Northwest Florida but spends much time on the road telling the IAG story all over the globe. He also often visits the factory to keep pace with the internal team's efforts with manufacturing and new product development.
Hans (left) enjoying a chat with interested parties
Some dealers checking out the DB 50 series powerhouse (they did have some serious grunt).
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Hanswerner Radda
Hans's audio life commenced on his graduation from the College for Applied AUDIO & RF TECHNOLOGY, as a engineer in electronics.
Between 1968 - 1978 Hans was the Studio Manager & Chief Recording-Engineer for SONOLAB Studios in Montreal - Canada.
In 1978 to 1994 Hans commenced his life in the business side of the audio world by taking on the position of Export & Marketing Manager for AKG/Vienna-Austria.
During this time Hans was not only involved with all aspects of international trading but also was responsible for the founding of the AKG subsidiary companies in UK, USA, Germany.
Since 1994 till now Hans has been the Marketing & Export Manager for AEB - db Technologies which has also included the founding of subsidiary companies in Germany, UK and USA.
Hans lives in Vienna and although he speaks fluent German, English & French, he still enjoys coming to Australia so he can brush up on a bit of S'trailian. Peter Trojkovic has been helping him with the rudiments such as; "G' day Mate, I'll avanutha beer", "Stone the Crows" and "Hiz anybudy tol yah, yer a top Sheila".
We are pleased to say, Hans is coming along fine with all of it. |
Andreas running through the main features of the HK range
Andreas explaining the complex way they came to decide on the HK name.
A number of the guests stood and moved closer to the front so they could have a good listen to the HK.
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Andreas Mayerl
Andreas is the International Sales & Marketing Director for HK Audio (a position he has held since 1990). His vision ever since he joined HK Audio has been the driving force behind the development of the HK Audio brand from its humble roots in the 1980's to its power in the Pro Audio market place today.
He was a guitarist until early 2005 when his hobby changed to rebuilding his house which currently has no roof! He escapes the perils of leaking pipes, creaky floorboards, rotten timbers and general mayhem by visiting Australia. He thinks he is on holiday!
He will tell you all about woofers, tweeters, drivers, sub bass, line array, polar responses, sound pressure levels, leaking pipes, drainage problems, and anything else remotely to do with HK Audio and house building. All you have to do is ask!
Aside from being a very talented presenter made easy by the fact that he knows his stuff, Andreas is naturally quick witted and very entertaining.
He cracked gags whilst going through a number of key features and explaining some of the technologies. The rapport between all the presenters was excellent. They took the piss out of one another and generally made it a very enjoyable evening. Even to the point of friendly heckling from the sidelines.
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Col Peddler at the controls (How many FOH positions do you see with full baemarie)
Paul Airey
Paul was also out for Frontrunner. He has worked in the Music Industry all his life, both as a pro session player (keyboards, bass, and percussion) and as a salesman, and now as the International Sales & Marketing Director for Hughes & Kettner and MindPrint.
Picture of Paul taken near Broken Hill during an unofficial Frontrunner warm up
He has the extraordinary good fortune and pedigree to come from one of the more prolific UK music families. His elder brother Don Airey is one of the world's premier keyboard and Hammond players (currently in Deep Purple), and his younger brother Keith Airey has been Tom Jones guitarist for many years as well as being a leading session musician in London.
So Paul was fed good music from a very early age. He is no mean player either and knows the world of amplifiers forwards, backwards, sideways, anyways! .
Paul spent six years as the Celestion world wide OEM chassis manager, so has visited every premier amp company on this earth many times in his past.
He visited Hughes & Kettner early in 1995 to sell them loudspeakers and as soon as he saw the great set up they have, became determined to find a way to join the company . Two years later he did.
He has been with Hughes & Kettner for six years and has spearheaded a great growth in the company's business during this time.
This is Paul's fourth visit to Oz during the last three years. He loves the place and he enjoys talking about product with go ahead dealers and end users. |
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The management from Audio Oz enjoying the evening.
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Can you believe these things. Super expensive guitar amps. They were fantastic. More glowing valves than a 1950's radar system.
We saw plenty of friendly smiles from guests who all enjoyed the night.
Guests came from near and far.
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Ralf Jung
Another Frontrunner attendee, Ralf
is one of DigiTech's international traveling clinicians.
He joined the DigiTech Team in February 2000. Since then he has done close to 1,000 clinics and attended all the major trade shows worldwide.
His performances are informative yet entertaining and somewhat surprising with numerous techniques and words of wisdom.
Ralf has played in various bands and projects. He has appeared on several recordings and has been in the top ten charts in Japan and Germany with his music.
All good things must pass
We left before the night ended. The band was still pumping, the bar was always open and the guests were all enjoying themselves.
It would have been easy to stay but we had an early start the next morning. If we were really honest, we would admit that basically, we couldn't keep the pace.
We will most definitely be booking our spot for next year and suggest you do as well. But take a tip. Get ready to make the most of a very entertaining night.
Frontrunner ghost (maybe) |
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