Many thanks to Mark Gander of JBL Professional for inviting me to attend the 2012 TEC Hall of Fame Awards ceremony 2012 at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show in Anaheim, CA. Mark, along with the late, great John Eargle, befriended us Lansing Heritage site founders waaaay back in 2000 and provided unlimited access to the JBL archives from which this site's literature archives were largely built. In a similar vein, the TEC Foundation honors the "founding fathers" of professional sound as a central part of its mission. You can read all about the TEC Foundation, their Hall of Fame Awards and the 2012 inductees here:
http://tecfoundation.com/hof/12techof.html
I have been attending the NAMM Show for more than thirty years, since the days it was so small it fit into the limited exhibit space of the Disneyland Hotel. For most of this time I was employed as a piano tuner for one or more of the piano companies exhibiting, and my worker badge enabled me to attend the actual show as well. More recently I have finagled a badge as a member of the Piano Technicians Guild, and this year my company Cogent Loudspeakers joined NAMM. For anyone interested in musical instruments in any way this show is the land of milk and honey! Virtually every company marketing musical products worldwide exhibits at this show. In the past year I have awakened my limited talents as an amateur drummer, and so I delighted in spending hours banging on the world's finest drums and cymbals at the show. Yes!
This was my second TEC Awards ceremony, thanks to Mr. Gander. Site co-founder Don McRitchie and I were present at NAMM to witness the induction of the Lansing Iconic loudspeaker two years ago.
This year the final award went to the JBL EON powered monitor loudspeaker. TEC presenter George Petersen, pro audio historian extraordinaire and past editor of MIX Magazine for thirty years, described the EON's significant contributions to the art, embellished by an acceptance speech by JBL Professional's Vice President Mark Gander. Mark detailed the goals of the EON design; high performance, ease of use and light weight being among them. He said that JBL initially invested more than a half million dollars in tooling for the die cast metal portions of the molded cabinet. He explained that heat sink fins for the amplifier were incorporated into the bass reflex ports to aid in cooling. These versatile systems were designed to be mounted on stands or flown, and were intentionally built as slant cabinets to permit use as stage monitors if desired (I have seen them used this way many times). When questioned, Mark replied that the sales of EON monitors was to date in the vicinity of one million units! Mark mentioned that the EON series has featured JBL's Differential Drive woofer concept from its inception, which has spread far into the greater JBL product line since then. Mark also clarified that the initial EON products did not use a Class D amplifier but that more recent editions have been so equipped. George Petersen mentioned the endless clones of the EON on display all over NAMM, a validation of the concept if ever there was one!
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