My Press release

It's official, I have a press release about my new position at Russound.

Russound Appoints New Product Manager
To Oversee Development of Advanced Video Distribution Products

Doug Hansel Brings Years of Experience in A/V Product Development
To Russound’s Expanding Line of IP-Based Products

NEWMARKET, N.H., March 25, 2008— Russound, the #1 brand in multiroom audio, today announced the appointment of audio and video industry veteran Doug Hansel to oversee the development of Russound’s next generation of advanced video distribution products.

In his new role, Hansel is responsible for the development and marketing of products that integrate high-definition video into new and existing Russound models and systems. In particular, he is driving integration of IP-based architecture into the future of home networking, with emphasis on standards such as Universal Plug And Play (UPnP).

“As HDTV and digital audio continue to become part of everyday households, we are constantly looking for ways to simply and efficiently move content-rich media from room to room,” commented Andy Lewis, Russound’s Director of Product Development. “Doug is not only remarkably fluent in current developments in digital video and audio, but he has a keen sense of how these new trends can be adapted to simple solutions that benefit our installers and their customers.”

“I’ve pretty much lived and breathed digital technologies my entire professional life, but I have never seen a company as devoted to adapting these technologies to its customer base as Russound,” said Hansel. “It’s a pleasure to work with a team that is focused on offering the best of current digital technologies in products that are as easy to use as a light switch.”

Hansel comes to Russound from Avid Technology Inc., where, as Senior Product Designer, he led the development efforts of the company’s acclaimed Avid Mojo and Adrenaline hardware products, designed for video professionals and “prosumers” requiring a high level of control and flexibility over A/V productions.

In addition to his track record as a product marketing and design professional with prosumer and professional A/V products, Hansel brings a well-rounded international perspective to the Russound team, having held product management, sound engineering, and film editing positions throughout Europe and in South Africa.

About Russound
Since 1967, innovation, quality and reliability have been the pillars of the Russound® product tradition.
Located in Newmarket, N.H., Russound, the #1 brand in multiroom audio*, offers the products and expertise customers need to enjoy multiroom audio and video systems in the home. With more than 40 years experience, Russound continues to cater to installation professionals and their customers by pairing powerful systems using the latest technologies with intuitive controls to give customers high-performance,
easy-to-use solutions. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.russound.com.

*According to June 2005, 2006 and 2007 studies by EH Research

Fine Cusine!

I am blessed in many ways, but one of the ways that is demonstrably in my face (literally) is in the area of good eating. My wife was born and raised in the South of France, the Lyon area, which most people will agree is known as the home of the worlds finest cusine. My inlaws are all great cooks, they think about it all the time, they dream about recipes, they talk about it at least once in every conversation, it's a hobby as well as a life pursuit. Unlike most of us who enjoy a good dish, but hate going through the preparation, my wife can turn leftovers into something better than I can get at a multi star restaurant. (which is one of the reasons I prefer to "eat in")

As an example, I offer up last nights menu to which I was the lucky recipient:
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Libation: Vodka tonic
Apperitif: Brie, apple, and walnut croustades

Main Course:
Pan seared shrimp and scallops with lime beurre blanc and cilantro gremolata served with steamed new potatoes.
Libation: South African Chardonnay

Cheese platter with rosemary crackers
Libation: California Merlot

Desert:
Chocolate Truffle Mouse with vanilla scented creme anglaise
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Do you see what I'm talking about here? And she wonders why it never occurs to me to go out to dinner? All this while the kids are asleep upstairs.... no babysitter required.

This is the definition of "blessed"
I love you Veronique!

On the subject of unemployment

Hearing of layoffs in one sector or another is an almost daily occurrence these days and as such, I am reminded of my recent foray into that world. I had not been unemployed since the company I was working for in the UK went bankrupt (New England Digital – makers of the Synclavier) back in 1992! That’s a great story for another time too. Losing a job is tough indeed, whenever it happens, but finding that new job was a real exercise in writing letters and calling on the phone back in 1992, especially when you consider that I landed my next job in South Africa!?!
Needless to say, the internet 15 years ago was not what it is today in terms of “networking” in social and business terms. That’s precisely what has been so amazing with this recent turn of events. Job websites are filled with promise to be sure, but as everyone will tell you, it’s your own personal network that can get you a job 9 times out of 10. It’s all about building that personal network, or in my case, waking up a personal network that I had largely let sit dormant for many years. Waking up your own personal network is as simple as reaching out to folks and telling them your news and mining for information. I was given some great advice by an employment counselor that you should NEVER ask your “network” if they know of any jobs going at their workplace, as that turns people off straight away. The better approach is to tell them the kinds of things you are interested in, and what you think you might like to do next. Let your network make suggestions and hopefully volunteer information on the subject. He said networking is all about getting information, and if you get a name of someone who might know someone that is exactly the kind of thing you want. Leads! Fresh and new!

For myself, I cast a huge net and largely away from the Pro Audio and Video space I had been working in for the past 20 years or so, because I wanted to try some other things. Being unemployed, you get to think about what you REALLY would like to do if you had the choice, and other than being financially independent, I discovered that I was really into alternative energy and specifically, I was drawn to solar power. So, I went nuts and read everything I could find on the subject. I wanted to be a part of this next wave of clean energy! So, I started researching companies online as you would. I realized straight away that I had no network in this new field and felt myself at a distinct disadvantage. This is where the internet and these new “social” based network sites really come into their own. I used “LinkedIn” to search for solar power and started uncovering “solar” people that were in my area and thanks to that “six degrees of separation” concept I was quickly getting introductions to key players in the business. Wow..
So, in the end, I “almost” got a job at a major solar power company as Director of Marketing. A field I had no prior experience in, but a whole lot of passion about. I worked hard, and survived multiple rounds of interviews from hundreds of candidates down to the final two… me and one other guy… it was like American Idol or something… it really felt like a reality TV show. Anyway, the other guy had a much better “marketing” based resume than me, so I lost out on that job, but it taught me that I could do just about anything I wanted now that I had learned how to really use these new tools for building my network and mining for information. For example, the company I finally ended up at, Russound, I had never even heard of before and thanks the “net” I’ve found a perfect fit for me!

I have to say here that some people I really thought were my friends where surprisingly absent for me during this difficult time, and likewise, people I’d not considered myself that close to went above and beyond the call of duty in their efforts to assist me. Another real lesson that being unemployment teaches you, is that you really find out who your friends are!
So, unemployment for me was an incredibly humbling wake up call for someone who largely had:
• become burnt out and didn’t recognize it
• taken the whole work thang for granted
• no idea how valuable my personal network actually is
• no sense of how powerful the web and social/business networks could be
• had no idea who his friends really were

So, yes, being out of work is a scary thing that I don’t wish on anybody. One thing’s for certain in this life, and that is change, so preparing for it is never time wasted.

It's official! I suck at Blogging

OK, so there I was, setting up a blog space with high hopes of joining the fray, and I've managed to totally drop the ball. It's not like I expected to do the daily thing, no, I didn't for a moment fool myself, but I really did think I could manage something weekly, even monthly for Christ's sake... but, no I haven't written a thing since August 26th, 2007... shameful. Especially considering that I should have had some fabulous subject matter.. being unemployed (I am going to write more about that) for 6 months, you would have thought I could have found the time...

OK, so all I can say is sorry (to myself, as I'm the only one reading this).. does that make it a diary? More like Diarrhea (yes I had to look up the spelling and I'm actually proud of the fact that I don't know how to spell it for sure)

Anyway, for anyone out there reading. I finally got a job, in what was a very "educational" unemployment experience.(see next blog)

The "beauty" industry

OK, I know this has been out for a while... but...
This should be seen by every kid in junior high school and discussed as part of class. Dove the company rocks for making this piece.

Why American Airlines Sucks

We took a trip this summer to visit my wife's parents who live in the south of France. We've done this before, but in addtion to taking our twin boys (21 months old), which can be a real experience, we also took my parents. So, we had a real entourage! The visit itself was absolutely wonderful, as there is nothing better than staying with family you love dearly when visiting overseas. The journey itself was hell and it starts with simply trying to book the tickets! So, for this installment of why American Airlines sucks (and sucks BAD), I'm going to post a letter that we wrote to them in advance of our trip. You'll note that this letter was dated July 1st. We've yet to receive a response from AA, which, as you can imagine is totally unacceptable. We both faxed and FedEx'd (with signature required) to customer relations, so we know they have it!!

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July 1st, 2007

Douglas Hansel and Family
Our address goes here

American Airlines Customer Relations
4255 Amon Carter Blvd.
MD 2400
Fort Worth, TX 76155-2603

To the attention of: Isabella D. Goren and Ralph L. Richardi

AA Advantage number: xx
Record locator: FBBFAX

To American Airlines,

We are writing to inform you of a very negative experience we’ve just had when trying to spend over $6,000.00 purchasing tickets to LHR with American Airlines for a family vacation. What should have been an easy and straight forward transaction ended up being extremely frustrating, time consuming and eventually cost us money. The quality of service we have received throughout this ordeal has been poor to say the least. We are now hoping that our traveling experience will make up for the problems we have encountered thus far, or needless to say, we will never travel with American Airlines again. We are due to fly on July 6th and return on July 20th.

Here is our story:
On 4/29/07 we booked 6 tickets online to fly to LHR using a Visa card. The transaction went through and we got a receipt. Record locator: FBBFAX

Imagine our shock when three weeks later, on May 22nd or 23rd (thereabout…date not exact), we get a phone call from American Airlines to say that they could not actually process the transaction as the Visa card was issued by a non-US bank. We were then told that the only way we could confirm our tickets was to go to Boston Airport in person with the card and photo ID. We complained of course as Boston Logan is a 2 hour drive away on a good day. Fearing we would lose our reservation, we decided we would have to make the trip.

On June 14 2007, we drove to Boston airport from NH specifically to complete the transaction in person. After waiting for about 45 minutes in line to speak to a particularly terse and unhelpful customer service rep (only ONE ticket counter open in the whole airport!), we were told that they could only process 3 of the 6 tickets and we had to provide another credit card to complete the transaction for the next 3, or our reservation would be cancelled. This was totally unacceptable since all of our travel funds were in the bank where the debit VISA card is linked. But, again, to insure our reservation we were forced to use a different card.

It gets worse:
We were then charged $15.00 for each ticket (a total of $90.00) for completing the transaction at the airport when in fact these tickets were originally purchased online. When asked to speak with a customer service representative, we were told no one was available and that we would need to bring this up with American Airlines’ customer service directly. When we asked to speak to someone on the phone to resolve the issue there and then, we were told that this was not possible and that we would have to place our request in writing. Having already wasted several hours of valuable time and in consideration for other customers who were waiting in line to purchase tickets, we decided to give up and make the drive home.

In summary:

We spent 5 hours driving back and forth from NH to Boston and waiting for the transaction to finally be complete, when originally it took us under 10 minutes to complete online…or so we thought.

Our extra expenses incurred thus far:

Gas mileage : $40.00
Airport parking: $15.00
Toll: $3.00
Airport ticket charge: $90

Total out of pocket: $148

½ day off work to sort out this absolute mess: $90/hour X 5 hours time = $450 billable time
All of this because AA caused a perfectly normal online VISA transaction to go very bad.

So, yes, you can imagine we are very upset by this.
Not only do we expect AA to refund our out of pocket expenses of $148, but we expect to be well compensated (before we fly on July 6th) as this kind of experience is not likely to be forgotten otherwise.

Very Sincerely,


Doug Hansel and Family

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So, if you read all that, you'll see clear evidence of why AA suck and why we won't be flying with them again.
British Air is better, Virgin is better, Southwest is WAY BETTER (pity they don't fly to Europe .. it would be south west on the way home.. kinda)
BTW, we're not the only people that think AA sucks... check out this site:
http://www.ihateamericanairlines.com/

I'm going to try and post our story there too.

Doug

Watch this Movie - Hotel Rwanda

Ok, So I just finished watching Hotel Rwanda. You owe it to yourself to see this film. It's not going to make you feel nice, but then, important films typically do not.

I had NO idea that this was going on. The coverage of the Rwandan genocide was non-existent. I was living in London at the time. Sure I was caught up in my own self absorbed selfish world, but STILL, there was nothing talking about this. Which really makes me wonder about the media "lots of things make me wonder about the media you'll see" What the hell where they doing? What was more interesting than 1 million people being murdered? I'll have to go and research the "truly hot news" of the time. How the hell did the Clinton administration dance around any responsibility on this? "Genocidal acts vs. Genocide"? Lawyers, gotta love 'em.

So, this brings us around to "modern" times. Sudan - Darfur. It's happening again! Oh boy, can't wait till this film comes out so we can see how bad it was... (TOO LATE)

It's things like this that just really make me wonder about humanity. First off, how folks can kill each other for such lame ass reasons, but second, how other folks that claim to be "responsible" and "world leaders" can stand back and let it happen.

We Suck!
But CHINA REALLY SUCKS... (I'll be writing more about those bastards later)

http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes