After the success of the first owner's meet here in Amersfoort last October, I had been thinking of holding another one, in much the same format as the original. At the time I started thinking about it, Rob Voisey contacted me to ask when the next one was going to be held, as he had an enthusiastic group of empeggers in Cambridge wanting to come over and sample the local beer and the Spicy Spare Ribs at our favourite restaurant in town.

With a vote of confidence like that, how could I resist doing it again?

So, the planning started in earnest - I contacted my friend Mo to do the photographs again, organised a booking at the hotel, and started thinking about what we would be doing on the day. Inevitably, there would have to be a quiz, competitions for Best Install and Best Sound, and the distance prize to encourage people to travel. Rob stepped in here with some very generous offers for the main prizes - a Rio Volt (MP3 CD-ROM/CD player), a Rio 600/64M, and a Nike PSA MP3 player. That plus a specially made Tee-shirt to be given away at the event, and a plethora of other small prizes meant that the competitions were sure to be strongly contested. I personally found the generosity of Sonic Blue to be quite exceptional, and it made the day extra special.

On the Saturday afternon before the event, Michael Tempsch (mtempsch) and Lars Eklund (Wire) turned up on the doorstep after having travelled together from Sweden and Denmark, respectively. Already, the first contenders for the distance prize were on hand; a few beers later Rob Voisey rang up to say they had arrived, and after a little settling in and organising, we departed to town to party. In the company of Mike Crowe (we are not worthy), his girlfriend Beks, Roger Lipscombe (Roger! All hail!), Peter Hartley (he-of-the-dry-quip), John Ripley (master audiophile), and of course Rob V. (newly-appointed as lord-high pointy hair), a quick beer in the market square outside in the sunshine watching a bandstand being setup for a band later on was the perfect starter. Before we went into the restaurant, I cast a quick glance up at the sunny, clear blue sky and prayed it was going to stay like that the next day...

The restaurant didn't quite know what hit them - many bottles of red wine, and multiple helpings of Spiced Ribs were necessary to slake the thirst and quell the hunger pangs of a group of happy people looking forward to a great day. The only way to end the evening (of course), was to retire to the bar and listen to the band outside in the square. A truly enjoyable night was had by all...

The next day dawned cloudy and dull (and judging by the green gills in evidence, with a few hangovers too). What is it with dodgy weather on the Empeg Owner's days? We are cursed with clouds and rain, I think - especially annoying given the whole week had been incredibly hot and sunny. No matter - the signs went out on the motorway exits, Rob set up the demonstrator and banners, and we took over a lecture room in the hotel. People gradually started to arrive from around 11:30 onwards, and started socialising. Many familiar faces arrived from the last meeting - Henno Putto (Henno), Hendrick Gelijk (Hendrick; previous winner of "Best Sound"), Frank van Gestel (fvgestel - but then you all know Frank! ), Derek Ward (Derek), and Edwin de Vaan (edwin). The "Bedford Boys", Henrick Blake (h_blake; previous winnner of "Best Install") and David, came over with Matty (Henrick's son), bringing Paul Thinfourth (thinforth2) who had travelled down from Aberdeen in Scotland for the event. There were new faces too - Paul Haigh (phaigh) turned up in a taxi with a big grin; Pim Zandbergen (pim) and his girlfriend Gaby arrived in a glittering black Alfa 156 with his new installation; Pepijn Schmitz (Captain_Chaos) arrived from just around the corner - I never even guessed there was another empeg owner in the district!

While people were getting badges, having coffee and meeting the faces behind the BBS names, my wife Merrigan was getting the food organised. After a brief introduction in the lecture room and an explanation of the program for the day, around midday we all piled outside into the carpark for lunch. A spread of sandwiches, sausage rolls, beer, nibbles and fruit was laid out in the back of our Renault under a garden umbrella: obviously, this was what everyone had been waiting for, and the atmosphere relaxed and became very friendly as the food went down. This was the chance to look at the demo car (complete with Tuner Module!), to walk round and look at everyone else's installs and ask questions. I was impressed by Lars' black Audi A4 estate; Pim's Alfa was definitely popular. A call for ice cream produced many enthusiastic takers, and I spent an enjoyable half hour making a mess in the back of the car dishing out ice cream cones to grinnning people.

Following lunch, we all retired back inside the hotel to get the lowdown on what was happening at the Empeg offices in Cambridge. In evidence was a number of Mk2's and, new for some, the Rio Receiver. Rob gave a long talk about how the merger had come about, and it's consequences. To summarise, the companies had beenn working together well for a long while, and the purchase allowed empeg to focus on what it did best - software. The laborious affairs of hardware manufacture and sales having being removed, Empeg Ltd.'s future as a specialist services division within Sonic Blue is assured, and the crew have all been seriously busy with many projects, not just the car player. The products of this will will be coming available sometime soon, and are pretty exciting. Shame Rob couldn't tell us anything about them! . There's an explanation of some of the results of the merger here.

The major issues - the Tuner Module, and Voice Recognition, were covered in depth. Basically, VR got pushed back for a number of reasons, but in the end, it simply boiled down to prioritisation and lack of manpower. This has now been rectified and is (finally) back on track, since a software engineer (John Graley) has now been employed specifically to deal with VR. He worked in audio technology at ARM and has made a major contribution to the up-and-coming, mythical V1.1, so you can be assured of the quality of his work! It's now high priority and is receiving heavy-weight attention.

The Tuner. Yes, that thing. The source of the single most irritating, FAQ on the BBS. The most desperately awaited item promised by Empeg, ever. Well, it really exists; we could touch it, and it was installed in the empeg A-Class demonstrator. Judging by the comments on the sound quality experienced by the people exiting the car during the day, it's a hit, good gear. So all that stands in the way is production quantities (arranged) and production quality software to push it (1.03, see the link above). Some readers of this BBS may be in for a pleasant surprise very soon. The date mentioned is mid July, and this is a firm promise. There was talk of Rob eating Hats/Words (delete as to your taste) in the event this does not happen...

There was a demo of 1.1 Emplode working over wireless 802.11 ethernet; what impressed was the fact that we were in a steel-framed building, away from the car-park about 150 metres away, and we could still read the contents of the disk on the portable. 1.1 Emplode is looking impressive, full-featured, slick - and more importantly, STABLE. The only thing remaining is release to Beta of the 1.1 player; there's still a few show-stoppers to kill yet, so this is going to be (inevitably) post-1.03 (around mid to end July 2001). Worth waiting for; it was a lark being able to make by-standers in the car-park jump out of their skins as the player started playing without warning, at high volume, in the apparently empty car standing next to them

Rob also introduced the very capable, low-cost Rio Receiver. It's impressive - low price, high feature spec, and a pretty powerful amplifier to drive a pair of speakers at nicely anti-social levels. It may well turn out that I buy one for each room in the house, it's that good. We also got the inside story on the fitting-out of the "Ministry of Sound" party hotel in Ibiza. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it - and Roger was the unfortunate chosen to do it. Never a better choice was made.

Next, the quiz - another real meany, with some truly excellent questions generated by the Empeg crew - for example, here's one of them:

"If you were to travel to the moon in your car travelling at the Dutch national speed limit (120km/h), with an empeg player of largest capacity, containing a full disk of tracks ripped at 128kb/sec, how many times would you listen to the same track?" *

I am embarrassed to say I actually won the quiz for the second time . So I am the reigning Anorak! (No cracks about Rubidium, please )

Rob liberally distributed sweat-shirts, tee-shirts and prizes to just about everyone, and then we all left to go out and judge the cars for Sound and Installs. As we all turned out into the car park, David Cless and his two friends (sorry guys - I did not make a note of your names, so please mail me and let me know!) turned up in an Audi A3 after having driven up from Luxembourg. His install was something serious - 600W+ with a tuned sub-woofer the size of a small continent. Unfortunately, the SW had failed on the way up, and wasn't working. However, the quality of sound from the remaining system was excellent. Later on he discovered it was just a loose wire - quickly fixed; I then underwent the interesting experience of sitting in the car with the doors shut and feeling my chest cavity resonate in time to the beat. Unbelieveable! **

For some fun, we had organised a treasure hunt related to the location, with an empeg and Linux theme. Contestants had to answer some very obscure questions dreamed up by Merrigan, and collect things (CD-ROMs, pictures of Tux and Empeg logos) while they walked round looking for answers and enlightenment . For example:

"How many green squares?" ***

Since the answers were as arbitary as the questions, you couldn't even be sure you had the answer right! So to some extent, it all relied on a bit of luck - Derek Ward was the winner and took away a pretty cool empeg mug with a big grin on his face.

Now came the highlight of the day - the prize giving for the competitions. Last year we had simple rules, and were tripped up by the results of the voting, so this time we decided to have jury decisions in the event of tie-breaks, with the Empeg crew giving the casting vote. While the team fielded difficult questions in a short Q & A session from the audience, and Frank demonstrated his new Displayserver for the Rio Receiver, the results of the voting were counted up. Guess what - we had difficult decisions again! Rob V. stepped ably into the gap and the results were rapidly resolved, albeit with a few last-minute rule-changes. Instead of the distance prize going to the highest Odometer reading, the Distance prize went to the individual who had travelled furthest, with or without a car. This still gave a pretty close result; the prize went to Michael Tempsch for having travelled from Sweden for the event, with Paul Thinfourth (Aberdeen) close behind. Michael was awarded with a Rio/Nike PSA Play/60 - a truly excellent prize. Next time Paul, start your journey from the tanker!

Best Sound had a surprise, but clear winner. Well, at least Lars Eklund was surprised - the look of delight as he received his Rio 600 as a prize was worth seeing! ****
I confess I was also surprised - Pepijn's Megane, David's mind-blowing A3, and Hendrick and Pim's Alfas were all close contenders. Better luck next time, guys!

With Best Install, we were looking for an install that the attendees found to be best by any criteria at all - tidiness, quality, expense, quirkiness, whatever they thought. So it was inevitable that we ended up with a six-way tie! After some hurried deliberations in the Jury Room, a worthy winner was decided - Frank van Gestel became the proud owner of a Rio Volt (for which, reputedly, Frank is preparing a version of Displayserver! ). The joint winners were all given runners-up prizes, including David for his monster A3 install.

Rob managed to surprise me by springing a special prize; for organising the event for a second time, I was given a special present of a Nike PSA player - something I have had my eye on for a long time - and I have to confess, I was extremely touched by the gesture (so was Merrigan - I suspect she'll be using it even more than I will!). Gestures like this really do bring home the message - as if it really needed any re-inforcement - that Sonic Blue, Empeg Ltd., and the people who work there are really special. They deserve your enthusiasm, your support, your patience (and your money too, don't forget ).

So, the event over - we said a few goodbyes (The Bedford Boys, Henno and Paul Haigh) to those who had to leave early, then convoyed down to the local Chinese for a truly memorable meal. The restaurant rose brilliantly to the challenge of having to deal with 30 hungry Empeg owners and staff arriving through the door without much warning; much jollity ensued, including a rather lurid chained discussion about "Rob's Knob"! . We managed to exhaust the stock of Chinese beer...

During the meal, an extra award was made on behalf of Merrigan - the Drop Dead Gorgeous Award, given to Roger for just existing. I guess the certificate is hanging over his desk at the office, just to prove matters once and for all (I suspect Roger's girlfriend knows this for herself - and she's a black belt, too!).

So would I organise another? Well, you betcha - only next time, it will be a weekend, and better! Watch this space

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I would like to thank everyone who came; you all made the day special, and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Come back for more!

Special thanks go to Mo Rolland for the (soon to be revealed) photography; Rob Voisey for organisational help and support; everyone at Empeg Ltd. and at Sonic Blue for the generous prizes; for the Empeg crew for spending their time at the event and being patient, funny and informative; my wife Merrigan for the food, support and treasure hunt questions; and my two little boys Nath and William for helping me set the treasure hunt and clean up afterwards!

Photos by Paul Haigh: thanks, Paul! "Official" photos will follow soon.

* The correct answer was three times - question submitted by Peter Hartley!

** I have a suspicion that because the system was not fully operational during judging of sound and install affected people's perception of David's system; as such, the result might seem a little unfair to him. However, I am sure that he will win at the next attempt (unless Rob V.'s upcoming Supra install is more mind-blowing ), so, are you coming to the next one, David?

*** Referring to the number of green tiles on the outside of only one side of the hotel, visible from the car-park. The correct answer was 6.

**** Lars has an interesting story to tell about this: if you mail him nicely, maybe he'll tell you!

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015