COLOSSUS `We Have Lift-Off!
`Seven, six, five . . . we go for their truck, and start building it. main engine start . . . two, one, In the meantime, the display lift-off. We have lift-off. (clip) systems and computers for If all goes to plan (it didn t the exhibition part of the day quite always) our guests at are unloaded, and set up in a events watching Kevin Coleman separate room. That s always a present new products see a worry in itself at launch events, computer-produced picture of as many of the computers that the space shuttle lifting off, we will use are hand-build pro- complete with enough sound totypes – and we never quite volume to make them feel they know what s happened to them are under the booster rockets! in the back of the trailer! Our worries are nearly always I m not totally clear why I groundless – a tribute to the enjoy doing behind-the-scenes technicians. stuff at launch events. I used to do the odd bit of theatre light- Inn on the Park– Mike O Riordan. ready for the off ing and sound at University, and maybe it s a yearning back to The stage itself is now starting to that. Or maybe it s a desire to take shape. On the left is a get out on the stage myself – lectern, which, from the audi- subconsciously hoping that ence s viewpoint, has a couple someone won t be able to go on of glass plates mounted at an and I can do it .. . angle in front. From the presen- ter s viewpoint, these are much So, how does the (hopefully) more useful – the script scrolls polished production on the day past on these, so actually you all come together? I ll give you seem to be looking towards the a little flavour. audience, but really, you re When we get to a venue to reading the script! There s a set up, the first thing that needs large screen that forms part of to be checked is where we are the stage, and two turntables, actually going to put the stag- which are used to reveal new ing, and how we are going to products to the audience. All the seat all visitors. Normally, this is presenters have to do in theory Harrogate– taking a breather easy – but at one event, there is read their scripts – Mike O Harrogate) it s a bit tiring. had been a last-minute rush of Riordan, Kevin Coleman, goes blank – I m sure he would people wanting to come, and Terry Shurwood, Mike Fern, appreciate it. The very first day that we set up we had to move to a totally dif- Peter Talbot and Bob Coates all At Birmingham, there was ( at the Inn on the Park (on Hyde ferent room in order to seat did presentations. I say in the- due to local authority regula- Park corner) it was well after them all. ory, because one or two slight tions) a further presentation. midnight that Kevin and I technical hitches did occur. If Sharon Yoxall and Brian Salter decided to get something to eat. Peter Flitton (Acorn s multital- you can think of a good clean went on to the stage, and while Shunning hotel food we went in ented haulage contractor) and joke that Peter Talbot could use Sharon read a safety message search of open restaurants. Fail- his sons unload the stage from the next time his prompt screen telling the audience where the ure – we ended up in the fire escapes were, Brian indi- Burger King on Piccadilly Cir- cated them in his best Air Stew- cus. Who said this life was ardess manner. This raised so glamorous?! much of a laugh from the audi- ence that I thought we should Anyway, I ve described how do it again at the next event – the stage looked. What the audi- but I was overruled. ence couldn t see was all the other people involved. At the The whole stage takes about back of the auditorium sits Alex, three hours to set up; sound the stage manager. His job is to video and lighting about four keep everyone in order. With hours, some of which at least him sit Sunil (lights) and John ( can be run concurrently. This sound). Backstage sit Susie ( isn t too bad the first day – but prompt system), Jem (video if you have events on two tape), me (computer graphics), consecutive days a hundred and running around backstage Inn on the Park– the setting-up begins miles apart (Birmingham and sorting out smoke effects, the COLOSSUS continued Harrogate– Bob Coates in expansive mood
Kevin Coleman– who said this life was glamorous? turntables for revealing products and they did. There are many and pushing presenters on-stage is unsung heroes. But it did all come Brian Salter. together. And as Kevin said in I wasn't always behind the scenes his presentation, `All these – I had two other 'jobs' –one was products have just got to go with assisting with the demonstrations a bang. If you get behind in the exhibition area – the other us now, then this is what we was as the unofficial are going to do to the opposition' – photographer. I hope the shots followed by a very loud bang with come out! two stage explosions. Ooh – I forgot to tell you that we It's -all a lot of fun, but you needed to get the automatic realise how much work has to sprinklers turned off in the go in from all sections of Acorn presentation rooms, didn't I. . to get this sort of show off the . . ground. All divisions needed to Harrogate– Mike Fern is put through his paces co-operate to make this work, Alastair France ■ Big Bang Theory Agreed We'd Like
This is a summary of how pro- ties associated with it. In the end were physically available and ject Colossus was conceived, the decision was taken to go the ` working. In typical Acorn fash- to Hear designed and executed. big bang approach. To this end ion the amount of hours con- During the early spring of Kevin Coleman was appointed sumed by Acorn staff in produc- 1992, deep in the tin hut other- as overall big bang co-ordina- ing slides, artwork, brochures, from You wise known as the epicentre of tor. As a result of this project video footage, prototype prod- Don t forget that Acorn News is all things good, e.g. Product Colossus was generated. This ucts, packaging, were truly enor- your newspaper. was the name given to all the mous. The trail of empty pizza Marketing, the realisation on If you want your colleagues to launch activities that were to boxes often testified to the pre- everybody s mind was the mag- know about something interest- take place at a date yet to be vious late night s activities of nitude of what Acorn was ing in your department, let us attempting to do in terms of pro- agreed, at a location or locations various members of the market- know about it. Similarly, if you ject Adelaide, project Perth, yet to be agreed, with a list of ing organisations. I suspect that have – or if someone you work project Tasmania. Two alterna- products yet to be agreed. So it some individuals even started to with has – an interesting hobby, tive plans were presented to was quite straightforward. We forget what their wives and chil- management. were going to launch a list of dren actually looked like. we d like to know about that too. yet undefined products, in a yet ■ One was a steady release of undefined number of locations The result and feedback from products throughout the summer to a yet undefined number of virtually every single person and autumn which would have people, on a yet to be defined who had the information from the benefit of each product hav- set of dates. What could be the Colossus launch programme ing its own launch scheduling simpler. activities. The disadvantage of was unanimous – it was the this was the fact that, in isola- most professional they had ever The logistical and scheduling seen in Acorn s history. The tion, some of these products effort involved in co-ordinating were, from an external market range of products was wider, the product development, prod- most sophisticated and more viewpoint, potentially of rela- uct launch, manufacturing activi- tively small significance. well targeted than ever before. ties of Acorn, dovetailed into The opportunities for dealers, both market and customer pref- software developers and users of The second scenario discussed erences for announcement and was that of bringing all the Acorn equipment has never availability of products resulted been greater. Of course the only product launch activities in truly a mammoth headache. together into one big bang . problem with having such a suc- This undoubtedly would have a It is a tribute to the Technical cessful launch as this one is the far greater impact on the market and Manufacturing people that fact that the next one will have but had potentially significant at the day of the customer and to be even better to top this one! logistical and scheduling difficul public launch all of the products P. Bondar ■ Acorn Gets New Network
At the start of October, Acorn number and we will be able should have a completely new to transfer calls within the network. People using it will company. notice a massive improvement in Both voice and data will share performance — less waiting time the same fibre optic links to — and the company expects to reduce our capital costs. We ll be save around £30,000 a year. using Mercury equipment — to Peter Talbot — General Manager UK Education The new network is the brain- reduce international costs and child of Andy Smith and will gain access to digital exchanges replace the existing three net- — and Cambridge Cable s fibre works: Econet, IBM serial and optic lines. As these are being Profile on Ethernet. As well as reducing the laid throughout Cambridge it bottlenecks experienced when will be ten times cheaper for us sending data, there will be to use these than to have Megastream lines. Peter Talbot important improvements to the voice network. Before settling on fibre optic Peter Talbot joined us in March planning and checking against our To eliminate the problems of lines, we looked at the possibil- 1992 as General Manager UK long-term objectives. Also, being having a different telephone ity of using Mercury microwave Education from Commodore an American company, number for each of our two links. However, this proved where he was National Sales Commodore expect a return on any main sites, there will be a master impractical because we can t Manager for Government and marketing investment within the exchange at Fulbourn Road with `see Addenbrookes from both Education sales. quarter.' a slave exchange at Newmarket sites and the flight path of Peter is 39 and the father of two Road. This means people calling Marshalls lies between us and One of the first things Peter had us will only have to ring one Madingley. ■ boys — Tim is 6 and Jeremy is 9. to do when joining us was to His wife Louise works part-time in adjust to our working style and a travel agency. Before joining the culture. 'There are marked computer industry, Peter trained as differences between the way a teacher at Loughborough and Acorn does things and the way they taught for four years before are done at Commodore', explains working in sports promotion Peter. 'The home computer and publishing. He enjoys a Val s Growing business is very volatile and as a variety of sports including football, result lead times are even shorter at cricket, tennis and squash and Commodore and decisions are made plays in the Acorn cricket team. on the spot. Here decisions are more considered and we spend ■ Passion more time On a very hot Sunday last June, variety of textures, shapes, Val Janssen helped raise money colours and forms. for MAGPAS (the flying doctor Val, who describes her garden as service) by opening her garden a haven of peace and tran- Kirk Wins First to the public during the Hasling- quillity , has had to overcome field village festival. Some 50 some tricky gardening problems, visitors were able to admire her including chalky soil and a slop- collection of shrubs and plants ing site. Her secret: plenty of Squash Tournament which she chose mainly for their manure and compost . ■ Following the success of the and a £10 voucher. Acorn Squash Tournament, an The underdogs Richard and Martin Acorn Squash League has been then challenged the finalists of the formed. Twenty-nine players are main competition. In an exciting competing in seven leagues, climax to the evening s with everybody having to play entertainment, Richard totally everyone else in their particular destroyed Kirk, and Martin league. For further information, thrashed Gary. ■ contact Kim Liddelow.
The first prize in the Acorn Squash Tournament, a bottle of scotch and a £15 pro shop voucher, was won by Kirk Alchorne who scored a decisive victory over Gary Johnson in the final. On the same night, there was another final of a competition to decide the best of the losers from the first round of the main tournament. This was won by Richard King who defeated Martin Ley and earned himself two bottles A haven o fpeace and tranquillity of Australian wine Electronic Publishing Targeted
Technical Team: Ian Nicholas, Trevor Acorn's newest Business Unit — To begin with, Acorn's prod- Ladies Team: Pat Barham, Ruth Greig, Kay Morris, Tansy Steele. Charlie Sturman, Graham Biss Professional Sales — was formed ucts are widely used in schools. Barham. Vicky Stead, Bev Stead earlier this year with the aim of You can almost hear the profes- taking Acorn products into pro- sional user saying, 'Wait a fessional markets. minute, if my kids use this in Traditionally, Acorn's products school, how can it possibly do Punting Race have been used as solutions to what I want it to do?' Then Over thirty people from Acorn took collected and donated to the Rosie specific problems — for example at there's the thorny question of part in the annual punting race held Maternity Hospital s fund which Cadbury's and at Lucas. While price. Our electronic publishing on the Cam in July. The princely hopes to raise £8,500 for a foetal applications like these are useful to solution based on the A 540 sum of £232.00 was heart monitor. ■ demonstrate Acorn's versatility, costs around £4995 excluding VAT they do not necessarily lead to compared with £9995 for the further sales. What Acorn needs to Macintosh system, so how can establish itself within professional our product possibly be as good? markets is a computing solution to a common problem, such as Note we've avoided the term DTP. The Drawing Office accounting, data processing or In the various industries that use electronic publishing. computers for publishing, After a long period of re- magazine editors call them It All Starts Here! search, it was decided to attack the electronic page make-up sys- professional market by selling a tems; design studios called them Hidden away on the ground motherboards and daughter- range of professional electronic electronic publishing systems; floor at the rear of the Newmarket boards like Econet cards, etc. Apart publishing solutions. whereas printers prefer to call them Road site is the Drawing Office. from finding ways of fitting all This department, headed by Paul Acorn's product is much less electronic typographic systems. the components that make up a The term 'DTP' is used only by Peddar, is responsible for a wide computer into the case, expensive than comparable systems range of tasks. These include: yet outperforms its rivals in a publishers of parish magazines! mechanical designers like Roger number of areas. PCB Design — laying all the have to ensure the computer We believe our products will be electronic components onto the complies with Electromagnetic However, the electronic pub- most suited to the publishing and board so they all fit, and work as Compatibility (EMC) regulations. lishing market is already dominated printing sectors. As printing efficiently as possible. Sometimes they also design the case by Macintosh, with PC derivatives itself. presses frequently work 24 Mechanical design — packaging running a close second. To gain hours a day, this market is pri- credibility in this market, Acorn all the computer components The mechanical drawings are marily concerned with reliability together within a case. produced on CAD before being has to overcome a number of and, in the event of a break- hurdles. Company Records — maintaining sent to outside contractors for the down, fast repair. ■ a library of all our engineering production of models and metal drawings, specifications, discs, bracketry. Then a prototype is built artwork, etc. and tested for EMC compliance, Drawing Office Manager, Paul thermals and safety. We work very Peddar, is assisted by Barrie closely with the manufacturers to Hawkins, Senior. PCB Designer, see if anything needs to be altered Dealer Skis to Work Andrew Diaper, PCB Designer, to make it easier, and therefore Roger Sale and Philip Kaye, cheaper, to produce , explains Roger. It may take around Late August sees the annual exodus If you appreciate a wilder, Mechanical Designers and Tonia Warner, Technical Clerk. five to six months to get the of a number of Acorn (NZ) staff on more pioneering spirit, there are a product ready for tooling. leave in search of the white large number of small club Now in his ninth year with powdered slopes of New Zealand's fields scattered around back-country Acorn, Barrie reckons to Paul Peddar is also responsible southern mountains. Coinciding areas. These embody a typically develop about two major new for all our archive records which go with a two-week holiday period New Zealand approach, where club PCBs every year, each of which back to Acorn s first product — the for schools, the August and members volunteer to run the T- takes about six weeks to take to a Atom. These old records are kept September months offer the best Bars, Pomas and rope tows, stage where it is ready for at the back of the training unit in skiing period of the year. and stay in club lodges based on manufacture. The rest of his time is Newmarket Road. the field. spent making changes to `We do a great many things that 1992 is an exceptional year, with existing PCBs. record snowfalls of over three Russell Layton, Acorn (NZ) people don t realise we re metres. In the days before the Drawing responsible for , says Paul. For PS: 9.30am, 28 August 1992. Office used CAD, it used to take example, as well as working For the uninitiated, New about six weeks just to draw up with design engineers like Zealand offers a wide variety of Christchurch city is blanketed under snow. All aircraft are grounded and a PCB design. If the design didn t Richard King, with outside manu- snow 'experiences' from down- work — and it often didn t — you d facturers and with the Process the Traffic police have advised hill skiing to telemark, heliski- have to start all over again , says Control Group, we work closely ing, and motorised toboggans. motorists to not drive. All schools Barrie. Now it takes about two with Paul Garside on the pro- are closed. weeks to position all the duction of technical documenta- For those of a civilised (some- Graham Jones, our intrepid, newly components, and another four tion, and with John O Neil with times indignantly referred to as ` appointed Canterbury Education weeks to do all the fine tuning. regard to the labelling of prod- yuppy') frame of mind, the Dealer has just rung us to advise ucts and their outer packaging: major commercial fields around that he has to go to work to meet There can be up to four PBCs in a computer including the ■ Queenstown in the South Island with his staff on urgent matters. He have all the challenge and is skiing to work! ■ facilities. International Sales Meet Target
Richard Sumner reports a very major metropolitan boards in encouraging start to the year. Toronto', reports Richard Sales targets for the half-year Sumner. have been achieved, in spite of Progress is also being made in the fact that this is a very diffi- Germany, and we are very grateful cult time for the industry in to our distributors, GMA, for general. helping us present our products at We have exhibited at two CeBit. New German dealers have major international shows: ECOOO ( been appointed as a result of the Educational Computing show, which led to a number of Organisation of Ontario) in May new sales. and CeBit in Hanover during There has also been a very March. important development in Holland The ECOOO show is held where the major printing press annually and is attended by all manufacturers, A B Dick, have suppliers of computers in educa- recently agreed to sell our DTP tion. The show attracts visitors from equipment. This will help them to the USA as well as from all over offer not just printing presses but a Canadian teachers demonstrating Acorn products at the ECOOO show Canada. We invited teachers and whole range of printing solutions pupils from Canadian schools to from pre-press to final production. demonstrate our products and Over the coming six months we're there were always at least three looking forward to welcoming teachers on our stand throughout Acorn in our international distributors at the show. the Acorn User Show and to an `Our work in Canada is even better second half of the beginning to pay off. We're making year. the Outback real progress with the school ■ boards, particularly with the As you know, many Australian tralia, yet has only 1,000 children live in remote areas far enrolled students. Computers away from the nearest school. Over purchased with the help of a the years, Australia has developed a government grant are loaned to range of distance learning individual children for a six- techniques to help these week period before being delivered children. Nowadays these include to another home. access to radio transceivers, audio and video tapes, telephones One Acorn dealer, Tony Plevy of and computers supported by Plateau Computers in Dorrigo, regular face-to-face contact with NSW, is putting considerable teachers. effort into introducing Acorn technology into these remote Learning materials are being areas. produced using word processing and graphics software. Studies are also Using a brochure he designed on under way to look into the his own A3000, he invites schools to possibility of giving students direct attend A3000 demonstrations. In Canadian teachers and pupils enjoying a meal during the ECOOO show access to databanks for library and addition, he offers a personal service resource materials. Some students and installation to schools as well as already use computers to follow-up support. communicate directly with their As we gain new Acorn dealers in teachers and peers. country areas, we can expect more Quick on the Draw The School of the Air covers and more children in the Australian an area of about a million outback to benefit from Acorn Mark Cox, who joined us in June about six months where he square miles, about half of Aus- technology. ■ this year and is based at Coral Park, designed the head used to Children are never too young to learn! has an exceptional talent. Working depict Mrs Thatcher and created the either from memory or from photos lips used on the model of the he has the ability to create Queen. He left the company in caricatures. His work is of such a 1987 when the programme was high standard that he has collaborated on the production of temporarily banned. latex heads for the TV programme In the past, Mark s talents 'Spitting Image' and special have also been used by local effects sequences for films newspaper publishers, advertising including 'Return of the Jedi', agencies, etc. He is also and 'Hell Raiser'. occasionally asked to undertake various commissions on a freelance Mark worked for 'Spitting basis. Image' in Canary Wharf for ■ Roger - Man of the Year
At the Edinburgh conference ( built into products available for 28-30 August) Roger Wilson around £50 for use on standard was awarded the Interactive classroom computers. Acorn Learning Man of the Year award by Replay, superior in several the organising committee (John respects to Apple's QuickTime, is 'Oh! the Roger Wilson'— Man of the Year. Edinburgh 1992 Barker and his friends). At the again the work of Roger dinner on the Saturday evening Wilson.' Chris Roper of Longman Logotron `The significance of Apple's FORTHCOMING EVENTS introduced Roger to the delegates adoption of the ARM was largely 18 - 19 September 4 - 5 November: and the essence of his speech can missed by the British media; too Print Expo 92, Novotel, Special Needs Education be found on E-mail. busy researching the latest Hammersmith Exhibition, SCET, Glasgow Some highlights from Chris's episode of Royal Soap, no 21 - 22 September: 5 - 11 November: speech were: doubt. But, at some point down the Headmasters Conference, Academic Advice Roadshow, Bruges, Belgium road, the great British media will South-West `Relatively few people know discover Roger Wilson and produce 29 September - 1 October: just how good the Acorn 11 - 12 November: television programmes and hooks Naidex, Wembley Special Needs Exhibition, Archimedes is, though some of you 8 - 14 October: about him. When that happens, you Cumberland Hotel, London will have recently seen can all say, "Oh, the Roger Academic Advice Roadshow, 12 - 14 November- demonstrations of software-only Wilson". We heard about him first Wales DesTech, NEC, Birmingham moving video on an Archi- in Edinburgh in 1992: 9 - 11 October: medes. That technology, ISIS, Business Design Centre, 18 - 19 November: branded as Acorn Replay, is now Malcolm Bird ■ Islington Resource Conference, Doncaster 13 - 15 October: 19 - 25 November Micros for Special Needs, Queen Academic Advice Roadshow, Newsletter Readership Elizabeth Hall, Oldham Midlands 22 - 28 October: 23 - 27 November: Academic Advice Roadshow, November Roadshow 3 Survey — Your Views North England - 9 December: 3 - 4 November: Academic Advice Roadshow, Thank you to everyone who • Do you think we should have a British Computer Society Southern England responded to the Readership Survey newsletter? Disablement Group, Annual 18 December: and sent me completed yes 98 Conference and Exhibition, Acorn Staff Christmas Party questionnaires. I actually no 0 Camden, NW1 received 100 replies from the • Should the newsletter appear 250 questionnaires sent out. bi-monthly 39 Replies were as follows: quarterly 48 • Overall, how do you rate the 3 times a year 4 New Names, New Faces Acorn Newsletter? twice a year 1 boring, not worth producing 6 Secretary to Managing Director Stewart Palmer — good in parts 59 monthly 6 Marion Calderbank Software Manager often as possible 1 Sales and Marketing Division Professional Sales interesting 35 when enough articles/info 1 very interesting 0 David Boughey — Jenny Byrne —Part-time • Is the size/shape of the newsletter • Would you like to see more International Business Secretary articles on — in order of highest too large 29 Development Manager Manufacturing and Operations number of votes: too small 0 Julie Dalleywater — Division 1. general company news about right 65 Administrator, Channels Saul Mark Cox 2. sales news should be A4 size 6 Dobney Warehouse and Administration 3. staff profiles One of the comments made sums it Market Researcher/Analyst Assistant 4. company objectives up, really — Like most things in Adrian Eaton Education Business Unit 5. products life, we get out of it what we put Industrial Placement Student, Chris Morley 6. quality in . Product Management Regional Account Manager 7. Australia/New Zealand Jean Hines 62 of you said you would like the Finance Division Pauline • Is the number of pages: Consumer Marketing Co- opportunity to contribute articles to Payne too few 24 ordinator the Newsletter. So I hope I m going to Industrial Placement Student too many 3 Teresa Mysko see lots of interesting copy coming about right 73 International Support Co- • Would you prefer the news- through from you all in the near ordinator letter to be of black/white news- future. Remember, the articles don t paper format? necessarily have to be business Sharon Yoxall yes 15 related. They might be about hobbies, Retail Sales Executive Technical Division no 78 holiday, social or sporting events — Karen Brooks makes no difference 7 anything that makes interesting • Would you like the opportunity reading — and don t forget the photos Technical Author to contribute articles to the to accompany the articles! Rupert Johnson newsletter? Industrial Placement Student yes 62 Lorraine Buckman ■ Liz Morris no 38 Customer Services Assistant