Date & place of birth:
December 23 1953; Wimbledon, south-west London, UK.

Profession:
Unemployed Spaceman and Part-Time Company Director of Fuzion.

What was your first professional job?:
After some years as a very mediocre muso in South Africa, my first real brush with pro audio (after actually mining the system out of the ground - to use a John Penn expression) was taking a rig out for Mungo Jerry in the '70s, when they toured what was then Rhodesia. I recall driving from Beit Bridge (at the SA border) to Salisbury behind a Land Rover, sporting a mounted MAG58 and poking a broom stick out the truck window because we felt a bit left out not having a couple of FNs, hand grenades and flak jackets like everybody else in the convoy.

What's been the best example to date of Fuzion "growing" a brand?
This makes me think about brands over the years that I have built (and also failed to build), but I guess that relative to Fuzion our crowning achievement in this area is Nexo. The product had been around in the UK for a very long time when we took it on in 1994 but remained off the 'mainstream list'. Arguably this is no longer the case and - along with the team at Nexo and our clients of course - Fuzion has played a significant part in this process. OK, recently they have introduced some brilliant technological advancements, but the company has always been innovative. Our success was in matching those strengths to the marketplace.

Which recent developments in live audio will yield the best commercial prospects for manufacturers and distributors?
Despite some opinion to the opposite, I perceive that we are nearer the end of the current technological revolution than the beginning of a new one from a product point of view. Over the next couple of years we will see this technology refined into very intelligent products and a shorter chain. The challenges ahead for manufacturers and distributors are going to cause a shift in the status quo. Already many products in the MI sector are virtually consumer commodities being sold to an increasingly savvy group of punters. The lines between Pro and MI got blurred a long time ago and taking the snobby approach to being Pro just isn't going to wash anymore. It's simple really: manufacturers have a set of challenges ahead of them which may boil down (in many cases) not to degrees of success but survival. As the chain shortens, the need for distributors to add value will become more focused. If distributors are not adding value they just are soaking up margin - quo vadis?

How can trade shows add greater value to the exhibitor fee?
By increasing the number of women attending so we don't have to endure the spectacle of 'men only' functions and the ensuing conversational limitations.

If you could change one aspect of this industry, what would it be?
I would like to see the industry gain self-respect for what it does and stop treating the business like a hobby. We provide a hugely important service, yet in almost every market sector that we operate in there are people willing to do it for silly money. Our industry is not unique in this regard but our skills are - and those skills are not being replenished by quality new people entering the business at a sustainable rate. As we move to competing more directly with allied services like IT, the gap in income potential will just exacerbate the problem. We have to become more profitable as an industry. Profit is not a dirty word.

Who (or what) has had the most influence on you?
There was this older woman whose house we used to party at when I was a teenager who told me early one morning, as I stumbled through my departure, "you are an interesting guy but why do you take an hour to say goodbye?" I've got it down to five minutes so only another 4.45 minutes to shave off.

What is there left for you to achieve?
Finding absolute happiness without hurting anybody. I feel like I'm already familiar with this road but there's nothing wrong with an impossible goal if the journey's worth making. .

What were the last records/CDs you bought?
Foo Fighters - One By One, Ellis Hooks - Undeniable, Morcheeba - Charango, and Norah Jones - Come Away With Me. Talk about eclectic.

The last live show you attended as a punter?/B>
Red Hot Chili Peppers at Impact Arena, Bangkok.

Any hobbies away from the job?
Sailing, playing guitar, Thai language and culture, skiing, scuba diving and - of course - partying.

What is there left for you to achieve?
Lots! To listen, learn and try to use the best tools at my disposal (my ears!) to produce good sound.

Be ruthlessly selfish yet totally honest with yourself. Always question the accepted institutions. Never have an equal partner in business. Eliminate fear - it stifles progression. Learn about the world and the people in it - parochialism is the father and mother of stagnation. Develop the best bullshit detection techniques known to man. Above all, have fun... all the time.

e-mail: dzieba@cix.co.uk