News

BADA reaffirms commitment to standards training at AGM and Conference (6/8/2007)

At the recent BADA AGM and Conference, the retail and manufacturer members reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring the industry works together to maintain the highest standards of in-store product demonstration.

During a debate held at New Hall College, Cambridge on 16th July, the chairman of BADA, Ian Anderson made an impassioned case for closer cooperation between manufacturers and retailers to ensure BADA's minimum standards are adopted throughout the UK. All the manufacturer and retail members present confirmed their belief in the importance of maintaining standards and gave their commitment and support for the Demcraft training initiative. The board of BADA and the associate members will now discuss the details for expanding the reach of the course for the benefit of the UK hi-fi industry.

Earlier in the day, guest speaker Ivor Teifenbrun MBE, executive chairman of Linn Products Ltd., spoke about his vision for the future of hi-fi and who will benefit from it. Ivor stated his opinion that entertainment software will be purchased via broadband in the near future and stored on media servers. It was appropriate therefore, that the final keynote speaker of the day was Simon Collinson, Director of Sales for BT Vision. Simon explained to great interest the concept behind the product and the opportunities it holds for the independent high street retailer.

Simon Foy from GfK presented the market performance figures for the previous 12 months, including the good news that high-end separates have demonstrated growth during the last year, despite the overall decline in hi-fi sales year on year.

The future of radio and the issues surrounding DAB, DAB+ and the possibility of the FM switch off were presented by Peter Davies, Director of Radio & Multimedia at Ofcom. Peter assured the gathering that there are no firm plans and no date at this stage for the FM bandwidth to be terminated. A discussion about the sound quality issues surrounding DAB and the new DAB+ took place, with Ofcom's recent consumer research pointing to satisfaction with the sound quality from the sample of the population questioned.

As a consultant in sound to major retailers such as BAA, The Body Shop and Tesco, Julian Treasure, MD of The Sound Agency explained how a brand's sound identity and in-store sound presentation is essential for the business's success and sales improvement. Julian is author of the book 'Sound Business' which explains the importance of properly thought through sound for building brands.

A new BADA board was voted in to serve for the forthcoming 12 months and after the Conference the board met to confirm the officers of the board. The full BADA board is:

Ian Anderson - Chairman (Billy Vee Sound Systems), George Bartlett (Bartletts HiFi), Gay Brown (Practical Hi-Fi), Simon Byles - Vice Chairman (Infidelity), Geoff Coleman (Acoustica), Vernon Hamblin (Unilet), Chris Henry - Company Secretary (Overture), Geoff Mathews - Treasurer (Soundcraft HiFi), Charlie Brennan (Arcam), Andy Napthine (B&W), Peter Thomas (PMC).

www.bada.co.uk