LAS VEGAS-The Parnelli Awards Board of Directors announces that Al Siniscal will receive the Parnelli Audio Innovator Award honoring his influential career in the live entertainment industry, which included his pioneering development of bi- and tri-amplification powered speakers.
Longtime Brooks & Dunn production manager Randy "Baja" Fletcher was also named the winner of the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement award, and Jim Bornhorst is the 2010 winner of the Parnelli Visionary Award. (For more, CLICK HERE.)
From his base in Las Vegas in the late 1960s, Siniscal applied his engineering skills to the challenges facing the exploding live entertainment industry and created innovative solutions that had a far-reaching impact. He founded A-1 Audio, which grew to have offices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and Branson, Mo. before PRG acquired the company in 1999.
Siniscal's list of clients is tantamount to a late 20th-century pop history timeline. He worked with Paul Anka, Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Tom Jones, k. d. lang, Wayne Newton and many others in Vegas. Tours have included Aerosmith, Van Halen, Julio Iglesias, Engelbert Humperdinck, Chicago, Chris Isaak, and Mötley Crüe. He worked on several theater tours, including The Who's Tommy, and provided the sound design system for Pope John Paul II at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in 1987.
"We sometimes overuse the word innovation, but Al is the definition of innovation in the touring audio industry," says Ted Leamy of Pro Media UltraSound, a Parnelli board member. "Early on, when no manufacturer was building product specific to touring audio needs, he was designing and building audio systems based on what was needed to package efficiently, deploy quickly, and sound the best. Today, you can see the influence of Al's early innovations in products that are mass manufactured. His techniques, which we take for granted, are indispensable."
Born in St. Louis, Siniscal attended Washington University, where he earned a Bachelors degree in engineering and a Masters in business administration. He was also a first lieutenant engineer in the U.S. Air Force Missiles and Space System division, and it was on a base in Ogden, Utah, that he first started developing pro audio solutions to common problems on stage and in the studio.
Siniscal wrote a technical white paper, "High-Intensity, Modular Tri- & Quad-Amplification Loudspeaker Systems," and formally presented it to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) conventions in Munich, Germany and Los Angeles in 1972. This explained several of the very first powered loudspeaker designs he used that were multi-amped. Another far-reaching innovation was discovering that if he injected foam into the horns, it would dampen the horn and eliminate ringing.
"I think Al has always been a very honest and fair man when it comes to business, and on a personal level, he's a good friend," says Dave Shadoan of Sound Image, another Parnelli board member.
"Al Siniscal was not there in the beginning, but before the beginning," declares Terry Lowe, Parnelli Awards executive producer and publisher of live event magazines PLSN and FOH. "In the late 1970s, the system he created for the Doobie Brothers tour raised the bar to how good concert sound could be. Here in Las Vegas, his work in the early days with Paul Anka led to not only better sound but to better performances, and to this day his influence is heard in every showroom in town.
"He's also one of the most-liked guys in the business, and we are pleased to recognize all his great work with the live sound industry's highest award."
Siniscal will receive his Parnelli Award at an awards dinner set for Oct. 22 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.
For more information on the Parnellis, go to www.parnelliawards.com.
