Named in honour of Tony Gottelier, the designer, innovator and industry commentator who died in 2006, this prestigious annual presentation aims to recognise "the product designers and developers who have made a significant and sustained contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation".
This year, a panel of 20 people, all with links to the PLASA organisation or its Media divisions, was invited to put forward their suggestions for the most deserving individuals or teams according to this criteria. From there, the final shortlist of six nominees was reached.
The nominees for the 2012 Gottelier Award are:
Nick Archdale
Nick Archdale's career began with the formation of the Digital Lighting Desk Company (DLD) in 1985. Later, with support from SpotCo, Archdale became one of the three founders of Flying Pig Systems (along with Tom Thorne and Nils Thorjussen). Flying Pig Systems was central to the lighting control revolution of the 1990s, with the emergence of the company's iconic Wholehog product line: the Wholehog II control desk, previewed at PLASA in 1994, was to become the most ubiquitous control surface in the business. Later, Archdale took his talents in a new direction when he co-founded another serial innovator - Carallon. The company's multi-award winning Pharos product line has made a similar impact on the world of architectural lighting control to that made by the Wholehogs in show lighting.
Chris Cronin
In almost 35 years in the business, Chris Cronin has had a hand in pushing forward many of the developments we take for granted. From the days of PAR cans and Raylights to the T2 safety truss, and from the Medium Duty truss to Take That's 'Big Man', Chris has applied his enthusiasm and ingenuity to products which have benefited thousands of projects all over the world. Having started his career with James Thomas Engineering in 1978, Chris left to start Tomcat Ltd in 1985, before founding Total Fabrications Ltd (TFL) in 1989, later expanding to become Total Solutions Group (TSG). In all that time, Chris has been at the forefront of the entertainment staging industry, developing flexible, safe trussing structures.
Dr. Christian Heil
Dr. Christian Heil founded L-Acoustics in 1984. His introduction of the L-Acoustics V-DOSC line array system in the mid-1990s led to a fundamental shift in the live sound market, and line array systems proliferated for the next decade and a half. Scarcely a pro loudspeaker manufacturer on the planet has failed to join the line array party. Still Heil and L-Acoustics continue to refine the line array concept: the KIVA ultra-compact system came to market in 2008; the K1 system - seen as the long-awaited successor to the ground-breaking V-DOSC - debuted in 2009; and the KARA modular line source system followed in 2010.
Wayne Howell
Wayne Howell began his career in entertainment technology in the mid-80s at Avolites, where he first learned computer programming and contributed to the development of the QM500 and Rolacue desks. In 1988 he founded Artistic Licence, a specialist lighting control solutions provider. Since then, his innovative products such as Micro-Scope DMX tester, the Lamp Tramp, the DMX-Dongle, DMX-Split, Pixi-Web and Visual Patch have won many industry accolades and formed key elements to many notable projects in entertainment and architectural lighting worldwide. He contributed to the development of ESTA standards DMX512 and RDM, created Art-Net - the royalty-free DMX-over-Ethernet protocol - and initiated the Zero Carbon Project. He is also the author of the books Control Freak and Rock Solid Ethernet.
John Meyer
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