Our round table discussion on ‘The Challenges of Purchasing in Today’s Global Marketplace’ attracted over 40 participants form a broad spectrum of engineering, purchasing supply and distribution roles. They included representatives from large and small companies in the US, Europe and Asia.

Most of the discussion time focused on how to manage the global supply chain, and five key themes important to global business evolved. These were nicely summarized by Dan Digre at the beginning of the panel discussion as: communication, trust, knowledge base, the true cost of the product, and building relationships.

The five panelists, which included participants from the US and China, then discussed their views and experience on these issues.

A wide range of test and measurement equipment was on display with Listen Inc., Gras, Loudsoft, Klippel, In2Audio and NTI all showing the latest in software and hardware for loudspeaker testing in the R&D laboratory and the production line.

Components were also well represented with materials such as Santoprene by ExxonMobil, the latest in adhesives from Henkel-Loctite and Cyberbond, Ferrofluids from Ferrotec and a wide selection of speaker components from Dr. Kurt Mueller GmbH & Co. KG. EFD exhibited their adhesive dispensing systems, and Audio Xpress distributed copies of their publications including the latest Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook.

As always, the invited technical papers were popular events. This year Brad Starobin of Polk Audio presented the CEA 2010 standard method of measurement of powered subwoofers. The draft of this can be found on the ALMA web site. Test and measurement again proved to be a popular paper topic, with Wolfgang Klippel discussing Rub & Buzz testing and Steve Temme presenting a paper on a new method for measuring multitone distortion. Marshall Buck presented a four channel data acquisition system for voice coil temperature measurement and Wolfgang Klippel and Matthias Ringpfeil presented a method for dynamically measuring material parameters of rubber, fabric, paper and other special loudspeaker materials. Finally, Ira Pazandeh of Episode Audio presented a new loudspeaker design. The papers are all available for download from the ALMA web site - just follow the link below.

Education is an important part of ALMA’s mission. The 2006 Symposium included two detailed technical training courses. Earl Geddes presented an all-day technical training program on ‘Spectral Analysis – the foundation of acoustical measurements’, and Dan Digre from Misco presented a half day course entitled ‘Loudspeaker 101 for non-technical professionals’. These were complemented by free tutorial sessions including ‘A Primer on Intellectual Property’ presented by Andy McKinney, 'New Adhesive Technologies' by Mike Shannahan, and 'The Fine Software suite from Loudsoft by Peter Larsen.'

We’d love to hear what training courses and tutorials you would like to see in the future, so send an email to management@almainternational.org with your suggestions.

ALMA elected new officers within its board at the ALMA Symposium in Las Vegas. Stu Lumsden, VP of Engineering at Polk Audio was elected President. He has served on the board for several years, most recently as Vice President.

As part of ALMA’s drive to become more international, three vice presidents were appointed, one for each major loudspeaker-producing region of the world. Bart Young of Acoustic Design Inc will represent North and South America, Wolfgang Klippel of Klippel GmbH will represent Europe and Phil Bunch of Phase Design will represent Asia.

This international diversity will ensure that the interests and needs of each continent are well understood by the board, enabling ALMA to continue to be recognized as the leading worldwide authority and networking community for the loudspeaker industry. It will also facilitate ALMA’s international recruitment drive – an important 2006 marketing activity.

Its never to early to ensure that you are a part of the ALMA 2007 Symposium. Information packages will be available shortly. Register now to ensure that you receive one!

An ALMA board meeting will be held March 15th noon- 6 pm and March 16th, 9 am - 2 pm during the NSCA show in Vegas. This meeting is open to any full members who wish to attend. While only elected board members can vote, all are invited to take part. Please come and bring you opinions and suggestions. Please note that ALMA does not reimburse its board members for travel expenses. The agenda includes:

• Planning for the ALMA Workshop for the AES in Paris May 06
• Planning for the China Symposium for November
• Planning for the ALMA Winter Symposium
• Administrative Planning
• ALMA Strategic Plan Review

Please email Lori @ CMA if you are interested in attending the meeting.