Aalberg Audio Appoints KMC Music as its Exclusive United States Distributor of the Ground-Breaking, Wireless Controlled Effect Pedals

Adding further momentum to its 2016 business development program, KMC Music (www.kmcmusic.com), the industry-leading distributor of MI and ProAudio products, today announced that it has been appointed by Aalberg Audio (www.aalbergaudio.com) to serve as its exclusive United States distributor.

Roger Hart, KMC Music Vice President of Merchandising, today called the appointment another important step forward in KMC’s 2016 business development program. “While last year was very much a year of transition for KMC, this year is going to be a year of significant growth and expansion as we add more and more lines to our brand portfolio," Hart said. "The addition of Aalberg’s audio effects pedals to our available lines is only going to help drive sales for our dealers.” 

According to Hart, great care has been invested in the hardware and software that makes Aalberg audio effects pedals sound amazing while being intuitive to use — with and without their wireless controller. “The pedals have rich, high definition audio, LED indicators for parameter levels, stereo in/out for multiple signal configurations, and a patented custom designed aluminum housing that is built to last,” he emphasized. “The pedals also the have the ability to wirelessly connect with the Aalberg Update app, enabling musicians to easily upload new content to the pedals.” 

Aalberg Audio of Norway, an award-winning manufacturer of innovative and high-end audio equipment, is committed to becoming the world leader in wireless music equipment. The core products of Aalberg Audio are guitar effects pedals that can be controlled wirelessly from a control unit attached to the guitar. This gives the guitar player greater freedom on stage, and the possibility to manipulate the sound in a manner not previously possible.

The inspiration for wireless effects pedals came to Aalberg Audio co-founder and guitarist Rune Aalberg Alstad after a night out with student friends in 2010 during which they'd been arguing about which were the best effects pedals on the market at that time. Alstad realized that all the pedals shared a common flaw: they are all fixed to one position on stage. The sky opened up and the ideas for a remote controlled pedal just came pouring in. Alstad recalls grabbing the closest object he could write on and scribbling down the blueprint for a remotely controlled effects pedal.

Rune used his idea to form the basis of a Masters degree in Music Technology at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU). Rune teamed up with the engineer Torkild Indstøy (now Aalberg's CTO) and entrepreneur Aleksander Torstensen (now Aalberg's CEO). The team has grown since then with many contributors and advisors helping to make our innovative ideas into a reality.

Burt Smith Appointed Executive Vice President For Business Development at NanoLumens

Emphasizing the importance of developing its core business outside of the United States, NanoLumens (www.nanolumens.com), the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of visualization solutions, today announced the appointment of Burt Smith to the position of Executive Vice President for Business Development, reporting directly to NanoLumens CEO Rick Cope.

“While we continue to build our base of sales in North America, NanoLumens must and will broaden the focus of its business development efforts throughout the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Asia,” Cope said today. “Burt Smith has the global business development experience that we need to help us achieve our sales objectives in all of these critically important target markets.  He has driven sales, marketing, and business development programs in small and large software and hardware companies in developing high tech markets.”

Karen Robinson, who has held the position of Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing since 2010, is moving on to direct the company’s mergers and acquisitions initiatives. “Karen’s talents make her the ideal executive to identify companies and technologies that complement and extend the NanoLumens eco-system of visualization,” Cope said today.  “She has done an outstanding job over the last five years in building out our executive team and I expect she will do the same in her new role with the company.”

Burt Smith has more than 25 years of success in professional sales management, channel sales management, marketing management and operations experience with large and small technology companies. With an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech, he has spent his entire career in technology, helping to launch numerous category-defining products. He has strong international channel sales development experience in the UK, EU, Middle East and China and has been directly involved in successful IPOs/acquisitions/exits including the sale to Autodesk of the Constructware SaaS (Software as a Service) collaboration software, the sale of the industry leading content management solution MediaBin to Interwoven (now HP) as well as the international IPO for MediaBin. 

Smith’s industry experience spans many fast growing markets including the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) market for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM), content management for consumer brand advertising, healthcare/medical SaaS solutions, high-end graphics visualizations systems and most recently big data and predictive analytics. 

As Executive VP for Business Development, Smith and his teams will be focused on expansion of the sales pipeline of business opportunities through targeted sales programs, direct marketing and messaging. Additionally, he and his teams will drive the marketing and evolution of the company to become the industry’s top provider of visualization solutions, utilizing the Visualization as a Service (VaaS) model, through the expansion of whole product solutions that offer increased value, greater repeatable sales, increased margins and substantial revenue growth.