Peter Morrison, audio specialist at Maverick said: "These academies are to help get audio across to a greater number of resellers in the AV market place. All too often resellers shy away from quoting audio under the impression it's too difficult to sell. This is simply not the case and we hope that the majority of people at these events will go away with a far greater understanding of how audio systems are put together. We wanted to show them that they could provide the complete package and be confident in selling the right packages to their customers. Our dealers are very competent at the visual side of the market and if they could be shown that there are simple ways to break into the audio side it would benefit all parties."
The roadshows have been held at Reading in Maverick's head office, Leeds and Birmingham. The format for the delegates consisted of two half-day sessions - one based around Sony product with Maverick and the other with Arbiter Pro Audio detailing JBL speakers, AKG Microphones, and DBX speaker management systems. Both sessions offered a hands-on approach to the equipment and training with an extensive amount of equipment being demonstrated. Indeed, sporadically through the day Feedback whistles could be heard coming from the Arbiter camp as Dan Eades (Arbiter's Acoustician) demonstrated the Advanced Feedback Suppression (AFS) from DBX.
Andy Duffield of Arbiter explained: "We had a wide range of delegates attending and had to tailor our presentations to suit the varied technical backgrounds. However, judging by the feedback we are getting, even some of the less experienced attendees have managed to walk away with a fundamental knowledge of audio installed systems and approach, and given this was the brief I hope we have achieved a great deal in helping to kick-start Maverick's new initiative."
Ken Morrison of Arbiter, who handled the AKG installed and discrete microphone presentation said afterwards "Whilst the product and information regarding the installed category from AKG remains vast, I believe we have managed to compact a great deal of information and illustrate the wide ranging versatility of some of the AKG installed and discreet solution."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
