Communication Technology Ltd has announced the death of its founder, Ron Glaisher, aged 80. His funeral took place on Thursday 25th May at Croydon, Surrey. Ron had been a well-known amateur radio enthusiast since the 1950s and even before starting his own specialist business played an important part in the development of microphones and handsets for transportation and radio communication applications. Ron sold his Company in 1999 to Scarecrow Bio-Acoustic Systems, a company owned by Tony Walker. Walker commented: "I had known Ron for more years than we would both have cared to admit; until very recently he was involved in our new product development and will be sadly missed as a good friend. I am sure everyone who knows his wife Prue will wish to offer their condolences to her."

The Production Services Association has made two announcements: the first is that John Jones of PCM has filled the remaining seat on the 2001 PSA Council. John is a long-time supporter of the PSA and through his company PCM has donated £10,000 to the PSA Welfare & Benevolent Fund since the Fund’s inception. PCM has also gained a reputation for being among the industry’s leaders in promoting training, with the PCM Motor Schools now well established. In a separate announcement, Keith Owen will now oversee the PSA’s new series of BTEC courses. The courses, which commence in June in Birmingham with the Production Technician Intermediate BTEC, will be expanded during the year to cover other disciplines. Owen spent 20 years at Light & Sound Design before spending 18 months at Loughborough College as the PSA’s representative for training. He is working for two days a we

DPA Microphones has appointed Craig A. Parrish (pictured, left) as sales and marketing manager and Henrik Bronner (pictured, right) as area manager (Americas). Both Parrish and Bonner join DPA with strong backgrounds in international sales and marketing and come from most recent positions as marketing manager and business development manager, respectively, for a Danish manufacturer of large-format scanners for the reprographics industry. Craig Parrish, who is an American that has resided in Denmark for many years, has an MBA degree in International Business and has 18 years’ experience in export sales and international marketing. Henrik Bronner has been hired to strengthen the company’s sales and marketing efforts in North and South America. Bronner has lived in the United States for more than seven years.

After a career spanning 15 years in publishing (latterly as advertisement manager of AV Magazine) Lucy Donovan has joined FrameSet as sales manager. The Hampshire-based conference staging specialists - whose expansion programme will be accompanied by a major rebranding exercise - sees the recruitment of Lucy as an integral part of their new marketing thrust. Lucy arrives following a short stint with Quantum Publishing’s Exhibitions Division. "I love the AV industry and this feels like coming home - it’s a challenge that I am relishing immensely." Lucy Donovan has a nationwide remit and will be reporting to managing director, Chris Lillywhite.

Albert Wong has been named High End Systems' new regional sales manager for Singapore. He takes over the duties of Jimmy "JR" Chai, who recently left to pursue other interests. Wong will handle all matters pertaining to High End's automated lighting and controller sales in North and Southeast Asia, and will manage operations at HES Singapore. Wong has 12 years of experience in the industry. He recently was sales manager at a pro audio and lighting company, where he worked for the past nine years. "I am really excited being on the High End team," says Wong. "I am going to enjoy working here, especially with the growing potential in the Southeast and Far East Asia markets."

Recently arrived at industry specialist PR agency JGP, Noelle Lane brings a background in IT - with some media experience tucked away. With a keen interest in music and songwriting, Noelle will work as PR assistant alongside Jerry Gilbert. She says she is relishing the challenges ahead. "I’m really excited about entering an industry where my personal interests overlap those of business. I feel I’m finally embarking on a career worth getting out of bed for."

JBL has announced that veteran Guy Hawley has assumed the additional role of sales director, Asia. Based in London, Hawley will add the Asian territory to his current responsibilities as sales director - Middle East and Africa. Hawley has a long history with JBL: prior to his working as director of sales, Europe, Hawley held several sales positions for Harman UK, the company-owned European distributor. "I welcome this challenge and opportunity in the Asian markets," stated Hawley. "JBL has many longstanding relationships with our Asian distributors. These markets offer growth and stability and their strength in the contracting and cinema markets makes them even more important for us. I look forward to working with these customers to get them to the next level with JBL."

JBL has also announced the promotion of Rick Kamlet to the position of senior director, installed

Adam hall has announced that export sales manager Sue Mistry will be leaving the company in order to move to Austin, Texas, where she will join her husband Manoj and take up a new role which is yet to be announced, although it is understood she will be remaining within the entertainment technology industry. Mistry had been with Adam Hall for 11 years, and has been a familiar face at international trade shows during that time.

Mass Audio Visual, of Burlington, Massachusetts, has appointed Skip Bensley as a new account executive. ‘Skip’ brings over 15 years of audio-visual industry sales experience to massAV. His background includes positions with COMSYS, Harvard University, MatchPoint Systems, and Projection Presentation Technology, where he managed numerous national AV accounts during his tenure. He has experience with a large corporate client base, including Key3 Media, Staples, Computer Associates, and DCI Incorporated. His knowledge of managing large-scale production events and general sessions will extend to current and future massAV clients.

The arrival of the new WORKS line at Fuzion (see today’s Product News) coincides entirely by design with the appointment of Linton Smeeton, former sales director of RCF. Smeeton was specifically recruited to take on the position of brand manager for the WORKS line and will be responsible for specifying the new brand into jobs. Smeeton commented: "I am delighted to be working in an area of the market I know very well, although the WORKS brand is new to me. However, I'm pleased to say that as well as the listening tests conducted here, Fuzion took the precaution of testing the products extensively in real world sites and found that the range acquitted itself extremely well. The range looks good and sounds good, so I'm looking forward to getting out there and selling it."

Fuzion director Paul Ward commented: "Linton will be doing what he does best, and that is getting

Expotus continues its current expansion programme with the appointment of Luke Baldry in the role of sales manager. With his first experience with the company at the AES in Amsterdam, Luke has hit the ground running. He brings to the company a wealth of experience to complement the current Expotus Team, ranging from running his own recording studio, to more recently representing Apogee in the UK and selected European markets.

Karl Winkler, veteran brand manager for Neumann microphones, has been promoted to director, marketing communications, for Sennheiser Electronics Corporation. In his new position, Winkler will oversee all advertising, public relations and field communications for the Sennheiser, Neumann, Innova-Son and D.A.S. Audio brands. In addition, he'll be responsible for new promotional items, all printed materials, and corporate website development and maintenance. Winkler and his team will also initiate ongoing in-house training programs, manage the SEC merchandising calendar and provide the company's monthly sales rep update newsletters on programs and new products. Based at Sennheiser corporate headquarters, Winkler's new team includes literature and trade show coordinator Mary Kenny, database manager Lisa Egner, web developer, Jesse Starks, and marketing coordinator Luke Bean.

The Cloud One Group Ltd, located in Birmingham, have appointed Bill Jones as business development manager. Well known within the industry, and most recently with Lightfactor Sales, his background in sales, aligned with his vast knowledge of sound and lighting equipment, will strengthen the group’s long established position within the areas of equipment hire and event production. Installations, flight-case manufacturing and the sale of pro audio products are other areas covered by Cloud One, Stratford Acoustics - the rental arm - and Midland Custom Cases.

Caroline Travis has been recruited by the SNP Group as marketing support executive. She joins from internet content delivery company Akamai Technologies where she gained valuable marketing experience. SNP Group is at the forefront of data/videowall technology in Europe and is currently undergoing a considerable expansion programme. Caroline will be assisting Emily Mardon-Taylor in all areas of the marketing portfolio, in particular with the development and maintenance of the website.

Michael Tuck has been appointed sales and marketing director of Celestion International. Tuck’s arrival at Celestion is his first entry into the audio industry, but he brings with him a high level of managerial experience from the consumer goods and light industrial sectors.

For the last two years, he has been Group marketing director of Avocet Hardware plc, one of Europe’s leading ironmongery and electronic security companies, with sales in excess of £100 million to the home improvement and building market. Prior to that, he was director of the Trade Division at Williams Holdings, owners of the most famous names in the lock industry, Chubb and Yale. As a Director of Plasplugs, his remit took him all overEurope, including a stint based in the USA, and he also has a solid sales foundation, notably seven years as national sales manager for Gillette UK.

AC Lighting has expanded its international sales operation with the appointment of Chris Buckman. Chris is a well-known figure within the lighting industry following three years with Opti where he held the position of director of sales and marketing. He has enjoyed a distinguished career covering a wide range of industries including fibre optics, telecommunications, plastics and industrial plant. He also served as Deputy Head of the International Division of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Commenting on the appointment, Nic Tolkien, AC’s international sales director, told PLASA Media: "We continue to expand our International Sales operation and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to recruit someone with the wealth of experience in general and sales management which Chris brings to the company. His fluency in five languages will be a major asset to our in

Jon Stanley has joined beyerdynamic as product manager for XTA and biamp systems. He will be the technical contact for XTA and biamp, responsible for systems integration, customer support and as a feedback portal for product development. He will also assist with technical support for beyerdynamic's conference products with particular emphasis on specialist software applications to configure systems to specific applications. With an impressive history within the broadcasting industry, Jon's first position was as a presenter and sales executive for a local radio station in Shaftsbury. Following this, a position of IT product manager for the radio automation system Enco DAD with The Audio Connection supporting over 80 UK radio stations, as well as facilities in Europe and the Middle East.

Fred Bentham’s Memorial Service took place yesterday at the Palladium Theatre in London. Over 100 colleagues, friends and family members attended the Memorial Service, which was a celebration of the life of the man who many regard to be the founding father of the lighting industry. Roger Fox introduced a number of tributes to Fred from colleagues in the industry. Francis Reid talked about Fred’s insight into the art of theatre and its technical requirements, whilst Brian Legge and Alan Luxford of Strand recalled their time at Strand with Fred and his early involvement with the ABTT. Bob Anderson spoke of Fred’s impact on lighting at the BBC during the 1950s and his work on the Riverside Studios, whilst John Watt paid tribute to the man he felt had played a large part in designing the equipment most in the lighting industry grew up with. Richard Pilbrow reminded the audi

California-based pro audio manufacturer QSC Audio Products has appointed Duke Ducoff to the position of Audio Design Liaison. Based in Austin, Texas, Ducoff’s responsibilities include assisting consultants and contractors with specifying QSC’s expanding product line, including signal processing, signal transport, and audio network systems. Ducoff brings more than two decades of sales management and marketing experience to QSC, including over three years at White Instruments where he served as vice-president of sales and marketing, and 10 years at The Jones Sales Group in regional sales. Ducoff is also a long-time member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the National Systems Contractor Association (NSCA), and has received a number of prestigious sales awards. Ducoff holds a bachelor’s degree in Radio/Television Production from the University of Houston.

This week Show Technology’s managing director Emmanuel Ziino made a major commitment to the rapidly growing area of architectural lighting by appointing Jonathan Ciddor as architectural products manager. Ciddor has been involved in the lighting business for over 30 years, the last 15 specializing in taking entertainment lighting to architectural and theming applications to create interesting lighting solutions. This wealth of knowledge will now be used to develop Show Technology’s position as one of the leaders in innovative architectural lighting in Australia.

Jonathan’s own experience on large scale architectural and theming projects is vast and he has worked on a wide range of projects. He is currently working on the permanent location of the Olympic Cauldron at Homebush Bay involving over 20 Clay Paky Goldenscans. The installation of this project is by Beyond Audi

Thommy Hall who has joined California-based Mobolazer to manage the sales department. Hall is well known throughout the lighting industry and was previously in New York City as northeast region sales manager for High End Systems. He also spent two years in Hawaii as sales manager for Hawaii Stage and Lighting and was also lighting director of the highly acclaimed production of Ulalena at the Maui Myth and Magic Theater.

Vari-Lite Inc has announced that Bob Schacherl has joined the company as vice-president of sales and marketing. Schacherl will lead Vari-Lite's worldwide sales and marketing efforts for the new line of Vari*Lite luminaires and consoles. "We're excited to have Bob as part of the Vari-Lite team," said Clay Powers, president and chief operating officer at Vari-Lite. “Bob's knowledge and experience will be instrumental in helping us to achieve our goal of making Vari*Lite the preferred brand in automated lighting technology."

Schacherl joins Vari-Lite with over 20 years’ experience in the automated lighting and entertainment marketplace, and a successful track record in building effective worldwide sales organizations. He is a founder and former president of High End Systems, from which he resigned at the start of this year.

David Plail has joined MCL London as head of project management, bringing with him 28 years of industry experience. David comes to MCL from FrameSet Products, a company that he founded over 10 years ago, dedicated to the design, build and supply of diverse conference staging products. "Some people may think it a strange decision," said Plail, "to move away from FrameSet when it is such a successful company. But MCL is a young company with incredible backing from Avesco and it was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss. In the end it was an easy choice to make. It puts me right back into the industry mainstream and will draw heavily on what I have learnt over the years. I am looking forward to the challenge."

In his new role, Plail will be drawing together all existing elements of project management at MCL London and will fine-tune current practices to ensure the

Rebecca Lace has joined LeMark Group as sales office manager, bringing with her multi-skill experience in bothelectronic and conventional marketing and sales. Rebecca will also head LeMarks’ continued expansion of custom-printed consumables into the North American and Canadian markets. Rebecca’s background has recently been within the Medical & Scientific equipment manufacturing sector, where she project-managed both the marketing and sales promotion of a new equipment range to clients throughout the world. A lover of theatre, film and music and in her ‘spare time’ she enjoys the practicality of DIY and Design. Stuart Gibbons, LeMark managing director said: "We are absolutely thrilled to have someone of Rebecca’s calibre and professionalism join the team. Expanding LeMark into the US market has been a big challenge for us all. I feel confident that with

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