The Channel: New Sales Support and Asia Wrap-up

Erica McDaniel	Sophia Wardlaw

Promotions for Universal Audio Sales Department
Congratulations are in order for Erica McDaniel and Sophia Wardlaw, the dynamic duo of the UA sales department, on their recent simultaneous promotions. Erica is our new Director of Worldwide Sales and Sophia has been promoted to Worldwide Sales Manager for UA. Erica has been a member of the UA team since the very beginnings of the company in the basement of Bill Putnam's Santa Cruz home. She would need 5 hat racks to hold all of the hats she's worn during her UA career, but sales management has been where she has really made her mark. Sophia came to UA about two years ago as an administrative assistant and immediately had an impact on the company via both her multi-tasking abilities and her energetic enthusiasm. She was promoted to Sales Coordinator within a short time after joining the UA family. Please join us in extending our most sincere congratulations to Erica and Sophia for their well-deserved promotions.

UA Welcomes Fred Zimmerman
It is with great pleasure and confidence that we welcome Mr. Fred Zimmerman, A.K.A. Fred Z, to the Universal Audio family. UA has acquired Fred's skilled services to handle product specialist and dealer support responsibilities for UA in the extremely important Southern California market. Fred has many years of experience in this market and is well known and respected by a broad spectrum of industry heavyweights. Fred started working the Southern California region for UA on August 15 and has already provided some much needed hands-on support for UA. We are looking forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship with Fred.

Terry's Asian Adventure Begins in Tokyo
In August I was provided the opportunity to pay a visit to our Japan software products distributors, Cameo Interactive, as well as our hardware distributors Electro Harmonix Nihon, in Tokyo. The Japanese market is an important market for Universal Audio, and my visit to meet with the sales and marketing teams of these two long time UA trading partners was very productive. The opportunity to meet with our international partners on their home turf is always illuminating in a way that all the emails and late night/early morning telephone calls can't come close to providing. Cameo is having tremendous success with the UAD-1 products and we discussed ways to better support the Japanese customers in achieving the best possible UAD-1 experience. The timing of the meeting with George Azuma, President of Electro Harmonix Nihon, was perfect to give him a sneak preview of the new LA-610 All Tube Recording Channel. George predicts a healthy interest in the LA-610 among the Japanese audio professionals and bedroom enthusiasts looking for an exceptional and affordable analog front end for their recording systems.

Terry Hardin UA Channel Marketing Mgr. with Cameo Interactive brass.

Universal Audio Goes to Beijing
As pleasant and productive as my short stay in Tokyo was, the main focus of this Asian adventure was in Beijing and the annual BIRTV show. Digital Media Technology Professional (DMT Pro) is UA's brand new distributor for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan headed up by the energetic and successful Choi brothers, Clement and Wilson.

Wilson Choi-Sales and Marketing, Clement Choi-Managing Director DMT Pro taking a rare breather to compare notes during the '04 BIRTV Show.

Clement Choi is the managing director of DMT Pro having worked his way up through the ranks of MI retail at Tom Lee Music in Hong Kong and a stint with ACE, a pro media distribution company also based in Hong Kong. Clement became interested in testing the distribution waters and started his own distribution company about 17 years ago. His brother Wilson, who joined DMT Pro a couple of years after its launch is in charge of sales and marketing and spends a fair amount of his time traveling between DMT Pro's offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Taipei when he's not traveling to AES in Berlin, NAB in Las Vegas, or NAMM in Anaheim. You get the picture. This guy must have a barrel of frequent flyer miles. DMT Pro is among the most prestigious of China market distributors. DMT Pro handles distribution for Universal Audio, Digidesign, SSL, HHB, Yamaha, and Genelec just to name a few. It is easy to understand, with those companies on their product roster, why they are leaders in major sound installation contracts, primarily out of their Beijing office. Supporting their China dealer network is K.K. Chan in the Guangzhou office. With our spectrum of products UA is poised to play a major role in both of these arenas for DMT Pro.

"BIRTV is touted as the largest and most well attended trade show for our industry in China."

BIRTV
Picture a combination of the AES and the NAB show nestled into 10 separate sound stage size buildings in a complex resembling a major film studio lot and you can get an idea of what the BIRTV show in Beijing is about. Every vendor who has anything to do with any aspect of the film, TV, audio, or broadcast production environment was well represented at this year's BIRTV show. BIRTV is touted as the largest and most well attended trade show for our industry in China.

DMT Pro's booth at BIRTV 2004 just before the doors open.

With the next 4 years to prepare for their first ever hosting of the Summer Olympic games, the interest in all things related to the broadcast industry as well as audio pre and post production in Beijing has already reached a fever pitch. After a 10-year absence, it was amazing for me to see all of the infrastructure upgrades that have taken place in and around Beijing City. An impressive new Beijing Capital Airport for starters, with planes taking off and landing on schedule (that rarely happened 10 years ago), a marvelous new 8-lane freeway between the airport and Beijing City. You see dozens upon dozens of new hotels, office buildings, and apartment complexes going up everywhere around the city. There are shiny new western-style shopping centers, with the prices to match. It was all very impressive, but when I went for a stroll through the district surrounding my hotel, it was apparent that it is still very much like the "Wild West" on the street level and virtually the same as I remembered it from my last visit in 1994. Everyone is just trying to get by as best they can. China has been doing this civilization number a bit longer than the rest of us so, by all outward appearances, they'll continue to have a fair amount of success as they move forward into this new millennium. They'll, no doubt, be singing about it through an LA-610 too.

Terry enjoys a particularly muggy day at the Mu Tian Yu (Great Wall) just North of Beijing

-Terry Hardin