ALPINE VIDEO STARS!
I trundled off to Alpine to deliver Haribo sweeties, for there will always be Haribo at Christmas, in memory of Harry Bo, our irascible, lovable admin gathered too soon. I also delivered deep chocolatey truffley things, as there are women executives to delight as well as the Terrible Twosome of Mitch Pirie and Ashley Booth. I even snagged executive types Atsuhiro Takeda (who’s surname I think I have been mispronouncing for all the time I have known him, according to the fabulous Begin Japanology series I am consuming on YouTube!) as well as Mike Cleall and Keith Holness, for tech-and-people clips.
The idea was to garner some stuff about new products and also to capture some true spirit of the Alpine blue blood, that which makes an Alpiniste an Alpine Bod! Mitch glows from within from pure lifelong enthusiasm and Ashley is devouring new areas of information about things like OEM. Atsu is always 24 carat insouciant effortless tech and Holness-San, well.. I clearly adore him. The clip below is really about how good the relationship is with Talk Audio
Keith Holness’ Interview:
http://youtu.be/Ik46HPHO9ng
And here is Ash Booth with a speaker test rig I would kill to be able to house in my gaff! You can hear my bitter envy at his four-way comparator for testing OEM speakers and thus collections of speakers. You can also hear how Ash is a true speaker congnoscentum! (I have just learned that he has now become part of the speaker development side of things, as well.. point proven!)
http://youtu.be/W_m4afulX-8
Then for me, one of the most gripping places in all UK car audio. The near-half-million quid 10 metre semi-anechoic chamber.. with another half million quid’s worth of test kit useful to physicists, inside it. To heck, it looks cool. Mike Cleall is exactly the sort of executive/scientist I would have written had I had to invent him. Except more dashing than my version.
http://youtu.be/RS_aswtwg5w
Here, Mitch Pirie is so totally eager about the new Museum Cabinet, that Atsuhiro Takeda kind of leaves him to it. You can hear Mitch is alight inside..
http://youtu.be/0xBOgJLJG2w
But the museum is a spare time thing, strictly, and he is there to be a tech dept factotum on new stuff. Here, he takes us through some current kit and an item you may not have suspected. A kicking bass tube!
http://youtu.be/iSJLakMbPCc
Then, with a gravitas and knowledge as well as pride in the product, my Alpine YouTube numbers-generator, is Atsu. Talking here about a new generation of amplifiers with big power and keen cost. ANY video I ever make with Atsu gets way more views, as the viewer recognises expertise. Plus he is obviously R&D grade knowledgeable about his subject. I tend to try to just get him set and not interrupt. I am not so good at the last bit, though
Watch until at least you see an amp test certificate, as each one has been bench tested and are usually as over-powerful as any American amp ever was! These Alpine PDR amplifiers are a serious proposition.
http://youtu.be/Eo7kSLHTc7c
And the last video I can show you for now as I have a pre-release video of an new system about to hit in the UK for Alpine but which is dependent upon actual arrival day. That too, is with Atsu but here I shall leave you with a video about the Alpine demo Passat. Genuinely hilarious that we had to ruddy well get out of the way for a car coming in that was actually using the chamber. The car was an estate car. It was a Jaguar. It was RED.
I cried, just a little and no-one saw.
http://youtu.be/j8ybzs57IDE
A very big thank you to the girls and boys at Alpine in Coventry and another for a tasty buffet laid on for us all on the day. And here’s to huge things happening and once again proving the theorem put forward fully twenty years ago at the Discover The Future Of Mobile MultiMedia Global Press Trip.
Alpine will always stay at least a couple of steps ahead. And behind closed doors, it’s about five steps