Academy initiative at SEMANPRO

December 2011 Two SEMANPRO Academies, each individually tailored to the demands of specific vertical markets, took place in Straubing at the end of October. The SEMANPRO team led by Oliver Sahm (Tech Support ProAudio EMEA), Frauke Jungbluth (Sales Manager Europe) and Andreas Köstlinger (Tech Support) was pleased to welcome around 60 participants from all over Europe.

The subject of the first Academy, which ran from October 24-25, was “The Retail Business." The two-day series of seminars focussed mainly on small- to medium-sized live sound systems. Here, in the most modernly equipped and (at 600 square metres) largest demo hall in Europe, Andreas Köstlinger demonstrated system combinations such as the PowerMate mixer with Corus Evolution series loudspeakers, and the CMS mixer with SEM-Lite powered speaker systems, as well as DSP, Cobra and VariLine loudspeakers. A special workshop on the subject of digital signal processing (also providing an overview of working with cabling and setting-up the systems discussed) rounded off the event.

It was a programme of real relevance that exceeded the expectations of participants. "The combination of theoretical know-how and practical training has proved invaluable in many of our Academies," explains Jungbluth. "The feedback for both these latest Academies was once again highly positive." In addition to being plied with hard information as well as tips and tricks for dealing with day-to-day problems, participants were shown how to get the most out of their systems. "The immediate consequence is invariably improved sound performance," states Jungbluth. "The highly positive response from the participants validated this approach to education and demonstrated the extent to which participants can profit from our team's know-how and from hands-on time with our products ."