Beating off competition from Chile, Mexico and China, GT Group won the top Nexo Award for its impressive launch of STM at the end of 2012, described by those who attended as 'simply the best product introduction we have ever seen'. GT was also the first to bring an STM system into use in the real world, signing up Australian rental company Monitor City as an early pioneer of Nexo's modular line array. Anthony Touma of GT was in Frankfurt to pick up the Award from Denis Baudier.
Other winners included Iemke Roos of the Netherlands, celebrated by Nexo for their long-standing loyalty and commitment to the brand. One of Nexo's most enthusiastic champions in Europe, Bert Koenders of Iemke Roos picked up the Award on behalf of his colleagues.
A popular winner of the 2012-13 Award for Progress and Development was Concept Audio of Malaysia. Andy Tan and his young team have only been involved with Nexo for about three years, but their energy and enthusiasm has made them many friends. They staged a memorable launch event for STM in Kuala Lumpur, as well as bringing in a pioneer customer in Mubari Sound and Light.
And the fourth Nexo 'Oscar' makes its way to central America, to the offices of Representaciones de Audio, or REPSA for short. Jaime Celis, Estuardo Zarate and Juan Carlos Gamino picked up a new award, first-time winners of the Special Award for STM Excellence, and will be showing it off later this month at the Soundcheck expo in Mexico City where they will present the STM system together with one of their customers, new user TecnoSon.
The evening closed with a special thank-you to three men, the STM Pioneers. Thierry Trenchant of Melpomen, Ismail Hifda of West Evenement, and Kalle Hogrefe of Sound Linear are the first users of STM in Europe, and their adventurous spirit and faith in Nexo was rewarded with champagne and the applause of the 160-strong international crowd.
(Jim Evans)
