Canadian Music Trade - December/January 2019 | Page 12

NEWS
2019 NAMM
Show Survey
Canadian Music Trade surveyed members of the
Canadian MI industry to find out their experiences
and opinions regarding the annual industry event
and the role it plays in their businesses. Here are
the results…
Will you and/or a member(s) of your staff be
attending The 2019 NAMM Show?
Charvel Guitars Founder’s Home & Workshop Destroyed
in California Wildfires
Charvel Guitars’ workshop and the home of company founder, Wayne Charvel, along with the homes
of five Charvel family members, were destroyed in the November wildfires that devastated California.
Wayne Charvel’s son and co-builder, Michael, told the story of what happened to Popular
Mechanics: “After we evacuated, my brother-in-law, the fire chief, checked on all of our places,
including our workshop. He said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you guys, but there’s nothing here anymore.’
Gone. My dad’s got years and years making the templates and the jigs and all the tooling and
the custom bits and in less than a couple hours, everything was destroyed. He’s been building
guitars since 1959. A lifetime of work is destroyed in a couple hours.”
His full account of what happened, and what is next for the family and company, is available at
www.popularmechanics.com. The Charvel family has launched a GoFundMe page to help in their
time of need at www.gofundme.com/wayne-guitars-wayne-charvel-shop.
48%
52%
Yes
No
From your experience, is attending The
NAMM Show a worthwhile investment of
time and resources for your business?
13%
48%
29%
Absolutely
Somewhat
No
Not sure
In general, how do you feel about The
NAMM Show’s expansion to include more
exhibitors and educational programming in
the areas of professional audio, live sound,
and lighting and live event technology?
ARTIST’S RENDERING OF THE EXPANDED INTELLIMIX/AVL HQ
Intellimix & AVL Media Group Expand Montreal HQ
& Enter U.S. Market
AVL Media Group and its parent company, Intellimix Corp., have recently completed construction on
a 10,000-sq. ft. expansion to their headquarters in Montreal. As well, AVL Media Group has entered the
U.S. market as the exclusive North American distributor for the Italian-made Spotlight brand.
“Our emphasis on developing and maintaining one-to-one relationships with all of our
customers proves to be [valuable] and helps us stand out against many of our competitors,” says
AVL Managing Director Andrew Hope about the company’s recent growth.
Hope and Intellimix/AVL CEO Stephen Kosters say they plan to explore additional opportu-
nities for AVL in the U.S. market, starting with products from European manufacturers that, like
Spotlight’s, are relatively unknown in North America. “We still have a couple of territories available
for American reps,” says Hope, “and we are evaluating other opportunities with various manufac-
turers as we focus on expanding into the wider North American marketplace.”
For more information, contact AVL Media Group: 514-400-0110, salesinfo@avlmediagroup.
com, www.avlmediagroup.com.
12
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE
13%
13%
19%
55%
I love it
It doesn’t change
much for me
I’d prefer it stay
MI-focused
Not sure