Core Brands Strengthens EMEA Sales and Support Team with Industry Pros Marc Waple and Iain Cameron

Furthering its commitment to provide Distributors with the industry’s best sales and support team, leading control, audio and power solutions provider Core Brands, today announced the reorganization of its EMEA sales and technical support team, with the appointments of Marc Waple and Iain Cameron as Core Brands International Sales and Tech Support Managers, concentrating on the ELAN, Furman CI*, Niles, SpeakerCraft, Proficient, Sunfire and Xantech brands.

Marc Waple

“Both Waple and Cameron have produced impressive results, helping Core Brands to grow its business in the CI and Pro channels,” Core Brands Director of International Sales Simon Spears said today. “Their industry expertise will greatly benefit Core Brands’ Distributors, as they continue to drive sales, and provide technical support in the EMEA market. We’re excited to welcome them both as full-time members of the Core Brands international team.”

Marc Waple has worked with Core Brands products since 2006 when he began working as a Niles Audio UK Sales Manager for BMB Electronics UK. Since then, he has held multiple sales and brand development positions at well known organizations within the UK, such as Sales Manager at Midwich Homes, Business Development Manager at Invision UK, and International Sales Manager EMEA at World Marketing Associates. 

Iain Cameron

Prior to joining Core Brands full time, Iain Cameron served as the Managing Director of ICSound, where he utilized his extensive audio engineering background. Cameron first joined the industry in 2001 as the Head Sound and Lighting Engineer at Woodend Arts Center in Aberdeenshire. Throughout the next 15 years, he held positions such as Audio Engineer at Great Big Resources; Audio Systems Design, Integration and Commissioner at the Anglican Center Qatar; and Freelance Applications Engineer for CUK-Audio.

“Marc and Iain bring a wealth of experience to their new positions at Core Brands,” Spears concluded. “Their knowledge of the markets, coupled with their understanding of our product offering, is going to help our Distributors throughout the region build their business volume and profits. We’re thrilled to have them on board.”

*Furman Pro products will remain with Julian Young at WMA.​

Westin Long Beach Hotel Hosts Local Businesses and Events in High-Tech Meeting Space Protected by Furman

Competition is stiff among hotels that want to host events and corporate meetings for local businesses. To attract the event planners and meeting managers, the Westin Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach, California, recently transformed its large ballroom into a 4-room convertible space with divisible walls. To further enhance the space, the hotel turned to local integration firm Spinitar to incorporate the latest audio system and technology. According to Rudy Zavala, Associate Systems Designer at the firm, the goal of the installation came down to three things: simplicity, functionality and reliability.

“One big ballroom is great if you want to host large receptions or conferences, but the ability to split the space into four smaller rooms offers the hotel greater revenue opportunities and opens access to smaller parties and budgets,” Zavala explained. “But it’s not as simple as just putting in some convertible walls. Separate rooms mean you need separate audio systems and control interfaces that can also function as a single unit when the room is fully open for a larger event. To do this we used QSC’s Core 500i network audio solution backed by the protection of a BlueBOLT-enabled Furman F1500-UPS to ensure smooth, effortless operation 365 days a year.”

Routing all the power through the Furman UPS boasts multiple advantages. Utilizing the BlueBOLT cloud-based power, energy and network management platform, the device enables Spintar to access the equipment at its power source from anywhere in the world using any Web-enabled device. In case of a locked-up device or system power issue, the integrators can do remote hard resets of the touch panels, amplifiers and network switcher, even the entire QSC system if needed, greatly reducing service calls. This provides efficiency for both the hotel and the integrator, saving them time, money and frustration.

Featuring Furman’s advanced Series Multi-Stage Protection (SMP) surge/spike protection circuit, Extreme Voltage Shutdown (EVS) and Linear Filtering Technology (LiFT), the F1500-UPS provides the hotel with professional-level protection, filtration and backup combined with features engineered specifically for the needs of A/V systems. Fully programmable, the unit features an intuitive LCD front panel interface, which displays valuable system and diagnostic information, such as battery time remaining based on current load and voltage input/output. Additionally, critical load management capabilities allow hotel employees to prioritize allocations of battery power to connected equipment while the unit’s programmable IR blasters provide safe shutdown of remotely based equipment.

“Easy-to-use is an all encompassing term,” Zavala concluded. “This means that guests must be able to walk in to the space and use the system right away, every time. Additionally, the hotel managers and staff should be able to operate the meeting rooms without worrying about complicated technology. The GUI we created for the audio system is a floorplan of the space, with each touch panel opening up to its section of the room, and all the other sections are available by simply flipping to the next page of the interface. This way presenters can quickly use the input panels to hook up a microphone, iPod, or video player to one section or the whole room, while setting volumes for each specific area.”

Best of all, the system is designed to be easy-to-use for the integrators themselves. Incorporating the Furman F1500-UPS into the system simplifies the configuration, ultimately saving Zavala and his team time and money through BlueBOLT remote power management.

To download additional photography, click here.

“Mixing-Console-Kings” Educate Customers in Interactive Demo Room Protected by Furman

When Dallas-based Sound Productions, renowned as the “Mixing-Console-Kings,” was designing its state-of-the-art demo room, the goal was simple: create a comfortable environment with an authentic live venue atmosphere. After just 90 days, the room was equipped and operational with some of the hottest sound, lighting and video products on the market, ready to be test driven by anyone who walked through the door. Everything was running smoothly, until it hit them: severe weather in the area could ultimately shut down the show. After little deliberation, they turned to Furman to protect their investment and keep all of the systems operating seamlessly. 

“Originally, we installed a power management system that we quickly lost confidence in. The system failed twice during brownouts, which were common this past spring due to unusually extreme weather in our area. Fortunately, the failures did not occur during business hours,” Sound Productions Vice President of Sales & Marketing Jeff Humphrey explained. “It was almost a year after opening the new facility when we finally decided to incorporate Furman products into the racks to deliver advanced surge protection and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) backup.”

The company installed the BlueBOLT-enabled Furman F1500-UPS, Furman P8 PRO-C and Furman M-8Lx power conditioners and a Furman voltage regulator into the racks of four live demo stations showcasing sound reinforcement, recording, contracting, and mobile DJ products. The room comes equipped with the top 10 hottest selling digital consoles, a complete QSC line array speaker system as well as five other major speaker brands, a broad range of lighting products and a full complement of mics and backline equipment to simulate a live sound environment. In the room’s FOH racks, four APB- DynaSonic MixSwitches are used in conjunction with two Presonus Central Stations which allow seamless switching while auditioning the various consoles and speaker systems, all of which is protected and conditioned by Furman. 

Kris Landrum, Engineer & Sales Team Member at Sound Productions

“Going into this project, we were very careful in the design,” Humphrey continued. “We wanted the demo room to operate seamlessly, and be an active tool for our sales team and clients rather than a constant work-in-progress hindrance I’ve seen in so many other facilities. I have witnessed many failed demos; you walk into a room and only half of the equipment is patched or even operational. We wanted to change that typical experience and set expectations higher, so we built a system that does not require any patching or un-patching. It takes little effort to test any given product, in any configuration even down to a specific component.”

This system set-up is extremely beneficial since Sound Productions allows customers to come in and demo products during normal business hours. With this policy, they need to make sure everything is working 100 percent of the time. “My right-hand-man, Kris Landrum (pictured above), arrives early every morning to run all of the diagnostics, prior to opening our doors,” Humphrey added. “He ensures everything is fully operational before he settles into his sales position, so customers can walk in at any given time to see, touch and hear the exact equipment they want at a time that is convenient for them.”

Additionally, since the system is running through the BlueBOLT-enabled Furman f1500-UPS, the Sound Productions team can monitor their system through the cloud-based power, energy, and network management platform from anywhere in the world. BlueBoLT allows them to remotely reboot connected equipment in order to address a myriad of common system issues, so Landrum can fix menial system disruptions prior to walking through the demo room’s door. “We’ve successfully used the BlueBOLT function on mobile devices and local computers and found it to be seamless and very intuitive,” Humphrey stated. 

Sound Productions’ value-add business model doesn’t stop with daily demos. The company offers free monthly educational workshops with content based on new technology, industry trends and customer demand. Workshops and lectures are presented by leading manufacturer representatives and industry professionals such as Ken “Pooch” Van Druten, Bo Brinck and legendary FOH engineer, Buford Jones to name just a few. “Educating customers is our mission; educated customers buy with confidence. They purchase the right gear for their given applications and are happier in the long-run,” Humphrey concluded. “Our new facility and the workshops we offer provide a one of a kind experience for our customers.”

Furman to Host Manufacturer Power Management Training Program at InfoComm 2015

Today’s information technology systems are connected more than ever before, but they still face common issues like surges and AC line noise that can wreak havoc in a variety of ways. To help prepare integrators, Furman, the nation’s leading provider of power management systems, announced an all new manufacturer’s training course that will be offered at InfoComm 2015.

“With this training program, we are providing integrators the necessary knowledge and tools they need keep systems running smoothly,” John Benz, Core Brands Director of Product Management for Power explained. “When a system goes down it can cost both the client and the integrator money. “Be the Hero” is designed to address common issues and provide solutions to protect gear and optimize networks.”

Networked devices can create complex systems that have multiple points of failure and require specific boot sequences. This course will address power management features and benefits, best practices to employ power management solutions, and how the integrators can use the latest technologies to provide the highest level of service to their clients.

“Power management solutions from Furman can eliminate up to 80 percent of service calls, monitoring networks and giving integrators remote access to control devices from anywhere in the world,” Rob Harris, Furman Product specialist stated. “Furman is dedicated to providing attendees with the facts they need to greatly reduce or eliminate costly power management issues.”

Harris will lead the training program, showing manufacturers why typical surge strips are not enough to protect your equipment and maintain a healthy network of devices.  Join him as he walks integrators and technology users through common AC problems and their solutions while covering the science behind AC surge protection and noise filtering. Real-world examples will be used to show how Furman solutions protect gear, optimize networks and create reoccurring revenue opportunities for integrators.

Everyone who attends will be eligible to win one of Furman’s award-winning AC-215A power conditioners. Featuring the highest level of surge and spike protection available, linear filtration to ensure clean power, and auto-resetting extreme voltage shutdown, the compact, non-sacrificial AC-215A is one of the most versatile power management devices on the market today.

To register, visit: https://inf151.experientevent.com/showinf151/Default.aspx?UITEMS=_MT86

Integrator Relies on Furman CN Series for a Firm AV Foundation for Every Installation

For all of the amazing technology that is available today for sophisticated AV systems, it is the foundational, core-system items that everything else depends upon. That wisdom is not lost on Audio Visual Associates, a Denville, New Jersey full-service AV systems design and integration provider, founded in 1968 and specializing in the design, sale, service, installation, and rental of equipment typically found in the corporate, hospitality, education and other AV environments. That’s why virtually every project the company takes on utilizes in its design one of the Contractor Series of SmartSequencer™ products from Furman, the leading provider of power management systems.

“About sixty percent of our work comes from the corporate sector, and another ten percent from education, with the rest in other types of environments,” estimates Seung Yoon (DMC-E), System Engineer at Audio Visual Associates. “But virtually all of them will use one of the CN Series of sequenced power management units, the CN-1800 or the CN-2400. These are at the heart of our designs, because they protect our clients’ investments in their AV systems. It’s critical to protecting them that every component in every system be turned on and off in a very specific sequence. The CN Series products make certain that our programmed sequences are followed exactly, every time. This is becoming especially important as AV and IT systems converge — more of the systems we design and install include elements like network switches along with components such as DSP processors and amplifiers. To function correctly they need to be powered up and down in a controlled manner. Furman makes sure that happens.”

Two recent projects underscore how Furman SmartSequencers are critical to protecting the rest of the components in both AV and control systems. The Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, in Livingston, NJ is a private school that serves 736 students in grades PK/K-12. The school puts an extraordinary emphasis on a low teacher to student ratio, with eight students for every full-time equivalent teacher, compared with the New Jersey average of 13 students per full-time equivalent teacher. Teachers at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy need to focus on education, not on running projectors and sound systems, and the Furman CN-2400 units that Audio Visual Associates included in the AV systems they installed in the school’s auditorium not only provide excellent system performance, with features such as Furman’s Linear Filtering Technology (LiFT) that ensures maximum performance from connected equipment by reducing AC noise evenly across the audio & video bandwidth, but also protect the entire system with functionality like Furman’s Extreme Voltage Shutdown. EVS safeguards AV systems from catastrophic under-voltage (under 80V sustained) or over-voltage (over 145V sustained) conditions. And Furman keeps it simple: Security covers and sequence on/off keyswitch prevent unauthorized personnel from running/shutting down system or tampering with DIP switches. “We installed the CN-2400 as a critical part of the entire AV and control system so that everything in the school auditorium’s racks and control room start up and power off in the correct sequence,” Yoon explains. “It protects their investment and lets their teachers concentrate on their educational tasks.”

Another Audio Visual Associates project slated to take place in the near future will see several CN-1800 and CN-2400 units installed in practice and ensemble rooms at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall. These will power-up AV systems in each of the rooms in the proper sequence, allowing teachers and students to concentrate on their studies while vigilantly protecting those systems. “As with any of the systems we design and integrate, the user simply presses a button on a touch panel,” says Yoon. “The Furman controller turns on and off components like amplifiers, DVD players and DSP processors in exactly the right sequence with exactly the right interval between them. The great thing is that the user never knows it’s even in there. But it is, protecting their investment and making their lives easier. The CN Series is the one element of the system that makes sure all the rest of them are safe.”