Midas and Klark Teknik’s Alex Cooper picks up 2009 Gottelier Award
Midas’ director of console development, Alex Cooper, picked up the third Gottelier Award during PLASA 2009 in recognition of his design work on the Midas range of mixing consoles and Klark Teknik signal processing equipment, work which has resulted in such industry classics as the Midas XL3, XL4 and H3000, and in recent years the new generation of Midas digital products, the XL8 and PRO6.
Cooper joined Klark Teknik in 1979, and by the early eighties was heading up the test department. In 1985 he was tasked with testing the newly-acquired Midas consoles and went on to oversee the building and debugging the first prototype XL3 in 1990, which contained some of his circuit designs.
As head of R&D, Cooper designed the Midas XL4, which was to become the industry-standard live sound mixing console. He also worked on the design of the Midas XL250, Heritage 2000 and 3000 and Verona consoles, the sound and control surface of the Midas XL8, and the PRO6 Live Audio System – Midas’ second networked digital audio system. As well as being a fundamental part of creating the legendary 'Midas Sound’, Cooper also worked on the new Klark Teknik DN540/DN530 Creative series, the KT Square ONE Dynamic processor and the DN800 stereo crossover.
“It’s a great honour to receive this award recognising my efforts at Klark Teknik and Midas over the years, and my thanks go out to everyone who voted for me,” says Cooper. “The audio industry is continually changing and I’d like to think I’ll be pushing its boundaries for many years to come. I continue to believe that sound matters above all else, and Midas has always had a very distinctive sound, which breaths life, openness and character into sources. However we move forward with future product development, we will never compromise on that.”
Named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, the award recognises product developers who have made a significant and sustained contribution to the development of equipment and tools that have enabled entertainment technology practitioners to push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation. Since its inception three years ago, it has been presented at the PLASA Awards for Innovation during the show.
Photo: Midas and KT’s Alex Cooper (left) accepts the 2009 Gottelier Award from PLASA chairman Rob Lingfield
Photo: Midas and KT’s Alex Cooper accepting the 2009 Gottelier Award
Photo credit: Christopher Toulmin