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Plugged In!


STANTON ACQUIRES ASSETS OF CERWIN-VEGA

The Stanton Group has announced the purchase of the assets and brand name of Cerwin-Vega Inc. 

Confirming the company's successful bid, Stanton President and CEO Gerard Cohen stated, "We are very excited about this opportunity to grow and expand our business portfolio.  We feel that the strength and heritage of the Cerwin-Vega brand name will be a strong complement to our existing businesses and create synergies in the future.

"We also clearly recognize the value of the existing customer base and are committed to maintaining strong business partners going forward.  Stanton will stand strong behind the Cerwin-Vega product and brand name."

Recognizing the difficulties Cerwin-Vega had faced this past year - requiring them to solicit protection from creditors - the Stanton Group had become instinctively attracted to owning one of the greatest names in the speaker industry over the last 30 years, with the obvious synergies this would bring.

"Cerwin-Vega's technology is perfectly complementary to the current audio lines owned by the Group - namely Stanton, Pickering and KRK," said Mr. Cohen. "The customer base is very much the same in the pro audio industry, with Cerwin-Vega's primary markets being DJ's and musicians."

During the course of this year Cerwin-Vega's management had already reduced the head count from 250-plus to around 80, and after completion the plans are to retain most of the existing staff. Although Gene Czerwinski, who founded the company in 1954, is expected to retire from the business, his support and advice will continue to be sought out and welcomed in the Company's new development program.

Cerwin-Vega will continue operating from its main Simi Valley facility, with Stanton Group introducing new management, reporting directly to Mr. Cohen.

Cerwin-Vega's blueprint will be to restore its distribution and reputation as one of the finest audio producers in the world, to keep the name integrity and to use all synergies between the other lines at Stanton Group to design, produce and distribute more efficiently, which may involve some changes in their sales network.

The Stanton Group's immediate aim is to continue addressing Cerwin-Vega's core markets of professional sound, hi-fi, home cinema and car hi-fi - but it will review all business activities carefully before making any long-term decisions.

The Company will be examining all facets of the current operations including expanding its existing operation and manufacturing facilities to include other areas of the world. "The research of the right global partners is going to be one of our priorities," stated Mr. Cohen.

The acquisition is expected to bring a wealth of benefits to end users  - including faster delivery, better back-up, and onsite service - as well as many new competitive products to be launched in 2002 and 2003.

Mr. Cohen states, "The aim is simply to return Cerwin-Vega to profitability, to build the finest loudspeakers in their core markets and regain all market share lost over the last few years."


 

2002 PLASA Product Excellence Award

The DENON DN-D9000 twin CD player won the 2002 PLASA Product Excellence. Award for Design Excellence in the Sound category.

Simon Curtis (Sales & Marketing Manager) of Hayden Laboratories, DENONs UK distributors collected the Award, at the 4-day PLASA exhibition in Earls Court, London, on Tuesday.

Curtis comments, Its great to win the award. The D9000 is an excellently engineered, well designed and feature packed product, and its great to have these elements recognised by an organisation like PLASA.

Denon is a world leader in the manufacture of DJ equipment. With the D9000, it again raised the stakes the twin CD marketplace, a machine designed as the ultimate creative tool for DJs of all genres.

Just two days before the PLASA Awards were announced, the DN-D9000 also won the DJ Magazine Award for Twin CD Player of the Year - in a world-first double. The DJ Magazine award a readers poll - was presented at the DJ Magazine TSCAN (Technical) Awards held at Momos in London.

For all its complexity and innovation, the DN-D9000 is simple, user-friendly and logical to operate.

The D9000 utilises high-speed PC Drive technology and internal processors, to offer many groundbreaking digital features. Its streets ahead of the competition and has already become recognised as the worlds most advanced twin DJ CD players across the globe.

The DN-D9000 features several world firsts including the Alpha Track facility that allows DJs to play two tracks off the same disk simultaneously. The D9000s digital user-replaceable ATAPI drives will reliably playback CDR, CD-RW and now mp3 disks, they are also the first ever User Replacement Drives (BU-9000) for site swap-outs. Extensive

arrays of effects include Delay, Flanger, Filter (2 types) and Transform

http://www.denon.com

DN-D9000 New Plug-in

DN-D9000 dual CD player, Denon has now made available six new plug-ins, free of charge to registered users. The plug-ins provide new playback and sound enhancing functions previously unavailable in the DN-D9000.

In addition to the extensive feature set of them DN-D9000, including several "world's first" features for DJ's, the newly available plug-ins can be used to create new sounds and effects not possible with other units.  Denon's revolutionary ALPHA Track mode, allowing independent and simultaneous playback of two tracks from the same disc, now incorporates ALPHA Scratch (Both/Forward/Reverse), ALPHA Pitch adjustment of ±100%, and ALPHA "Play Change" to Main with dual output swapping.  Other new plug-ins give users a Back Spin effect and a realistic Vinyl Scratch sound for adding realism and new effects to performances.  A new 2 Mode Search (Jog Search and Jog Scan) addition is also available.

To obtain the free DN-D9000 Plug-in software and detailed installation instructions by mail, users may fill out the online registration on Denon's website (www.usa.denon.com). An easy-to-follow MPG video of the installation procedure is also available online.  The new plug-ins are available immediately to all U.S. and Canadian customers.

http://www.denon.com


1,000,000+ Watts of Crown Down Under

SYDNEY, Australia - March 2002 -- After purchasing 28 more Crown amplifiers earlier this year, Sydney-based Jands Production Services now owns a grand total of 200 Macro-Tech 5002VZs collectively delivering over one million watts of power.

Jands exclusively uses the Crowns to drive its JBL and L-Acoustics line-array systems, and has taken the amplifiers out on recent tours for Ricky Martin, KISS, Bon Jovi and Australia/New Zealand’s huge Big Day Out festival.

Peter Ratcliffe, JPS head of sound operations, notes, “The Crown 5002VZ provides a high output in a compact 3U package. That combined with its reliability and industry recognition make the top-of-the-line Macro-Tech our preferred amplifier of choice.”

Crown International, a Harman International company, manufactures amplifiers, microphones and systems control products for professional audio markets worldwide, with corporate headquarters located in Elkhart, Indiana, USA.


Stanton Scooped the Pool

Stanton Magnetics scooped the pool when one of the world's leading dance trade journals, DJ Magazine, announced the winners of its T-Scan Awards, in fashionable London restaurant, Momo, recently.

The ground-breaking Final Scratch - the unqualified star of the PLASA exhibition at London's Earls Court, with which the awards coincided - won the top accolade in both the 'Most Innovative Product' and 'MP3 Hardware' categories, and Stanton Magnetics' Senior Product Manager, Laurent Cohen was on hand to collect the awards.

Final Scratch is a unique and patented technology that allows real-time manipulation and even scratching of digital music files such as .wav and MP3 - from conventional analog decks.  Using any standard turntable and mixer set-up, a DJ can manipulate digital sources just as he has always done - by hand and with vinyl - while out on the road a DJ can now carry his entire record collection to a gig in a simple travel bag.

Certainly Final Scratch proved to be a popular winner, as DJ's continued to flock onto the stand - which Stanton shared with their UK distributors, Lamba - throughout the four-day PLASA Show. Among those who saw Stanton's B-Side and John Acquaviva put Final Scratch through its paces were Roger Sanchez, Grandmaster Flash, Cutmaster Swift and XPress 2 - who recently enjoyed a huge UK chart hit (Lazy) with former Talking Head David Byrne.

Commented Laurent Cohen, "We are delighted that DJ Magazine has recognized what we already know - that Final Scratch is setting a major global trend and will truly revolutionize the world of DJ'ing."


15th anniversary of Sound Dynamics

Sound Dynamics, the specialist sound installation company based in Belper, Derbyshire, is celebrating its 15th anniversary - thanks in part to the UK's obsession with health and fitness.

Steve Porter and Gerry Cornell founded the company in 1987, just as the aerobics boom was getting underway.  By carefully tailoring equipment packages to the specific needs of gyms, exercise studios and sports centres, Sound Dynamics rapidly gained a national reputation.  The company sells standalone systems and self-install wall-mounting kits as well as commissioning full installations; Sound Dynamics has also ventured into manufacturing, producing proprietary "user-friendly" amplifers which have the minimum of fascia controls.

Today, their customer database holds more than 10,000 names, and the list of recent projects stretches from the Falkland Islands to the Maldives, with systems in prisons and police training centres as well as sports and fitness chains such as the JJB SoccerDomes and David Lloyd Centres.

"The acoustics of sports halls are almost always awful!  One of the worst things you can do is put in multiple sources so the choice of a speaker with all-round performance is critical," says Steve Porter, Sound Dynamics' Technical Director.  "Over the last 18 months, our most popular loudspeakers have been the Wharfedale EVP Series, which have a good flat response and a punchy presence which isn't excessive in any one part of the frequency spectrum. 

"As with all the products we sell, we took the EVPs apart, and were very pleasantly surprised by the build quality.  You don't often get high quality at reasonable prices these days, but the superior build of the EVP is reflected in its reliability."  Featuring many proprietary Wharfedale Pro purpose-built parts and fittings, the EVP series is made for the demanding professional user.  High efficiency HF and LF drivers give long-term high output with a minimum of power compression, while the trapezoidal design gives low resonance and sonic accuracy in the low frequency range.

Having built its business in a niche market, Sound Dynamics has no immediate plans to diversify.  "This is our forte," says Steve Porter.  "We're specialists, and we've built up a good reputation through specialisation.  It has led us to a highly streamlined and efficient business model, one which we'll be happy to stay with for another 15 years!"

All Wharfedale products are supplied to Sound Dynamics by Nottingham based CIE Audio.

 

 
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