AV News Magazine | Page 34

AV News 178 - November 2009 16th National AV Championships Kathleen Bird When I saw that the 16th National Audio Visual Championships were in Leicester I immediately thought of my friends in Loughborough. Here was a chance to visit them and to attend the championships in the same weekend. I belong to Ludshott Photographic Club in Surrey, which has a small AV group with limited experience, so I was keen to see some top quality work. I drove up to Loughborough on Friday morning to spend a glorious September afternoon walking in Bradgate Park in the company of my friends. Next morning I arrived at the Premier Inn in time to secure a seat just behind the judges. I was delighted to find that I was sitting next to Marion Waine, whose husband was one of the three judges. I soon discovered that she is a well established figure in the AudioVisual world in her own right. This gave me an opportunity to ask Marion about the people and the shows as the weekend progressed. The sequences were varied in subject and treatment. I was struck by the number of excellent documentaries, many inspired by one of the twentieth century wars. I wrote brief notes on each sequence, hoping it would help with the sometimes difficult task of voting for my favourite show in each session. During the lunch and tea breaks I enjoyed the beautiful sunshine outside while meeting many friendly, helpful, enthusiastic people. I did not attend the Saturday evening gala dinner, but the main event ran like clockwork, it was so well organised by the committee, definite HH