26th Annual TEC Awards Announces Nominees for Outstanding Technical Achievement

The TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio today announced the nominees for the 26th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, to be held Friday, January 14, 2011 at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. The TEC Awards is the world’s most prominent awards show honoring outstanding achievement in professional audio production and product innovation.

The nominees announced today, comprising 17 categories of Technical Achievement in product design, will be followed by announcement of nominees in nine categories of Creative Achievement in sound production. The nominations, made by a select panel of nearly 150 professionals in numerous audio specialties, are for products and projects released or completed during the eligibility period of April 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010. The eligibility year was increased by 3 months to compensate for the later date of the 26th Annual TEC Awards. Online voting begins on November 1 among members of various professional organizations, including the the Producer and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, the Society of Professional Audio Recording Services (SPARS) , NAMM, the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) and qualified professionals subscribing to various audio industry trade publications.

As is often the case, this year’s crop of nominees include a number with multiple nominations, including Audio-Technica, PreSonus and Shure, each with three nominations. Another 11 companies are double nominees.

At the same time, however, as TEC Foundation president, Hillel Resner, points out “there are more first-time nominees and ‘boutique’ companies with specialized and unique products than we have seen in a while. This is the sign of a changing industry serving a broader, more diverse universe of end users.”

The 26th Annual TEC Awards will be the first since the event’s inception to take place at the NAMM Show. The relocation of the TEC Awards follows the separation of the TEC Foundation from Mix magazine in 2009. Resner, former publisher and editor-in-chief of Mix, serves as co-executive producer of the awards with David Schwartz, co-founder and first edtor-in-chief of the magazine.

“We view the move of the TEC Awards to NAMM as an opportunity to take TEC to the next level,” Schwartz said. “The pro audio industry, including some of its most important and innovative companies, has a strong and growing presence at NAMM, and their customers attend the NAMM Show in large numbers. All of this means a bigger stage for the TEC Awards and greater visibility for audio professionals and technology.”

The TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio, is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, charitable organization headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. Sponsors of the 26th Annual TEC Awards include Sustaining Sponsor Harman, Guitar Center Professional, NAMM and Shure, Inc., Sterling Audio and other leading companies in the professional sound and music industries. For information visit www.tecfoundation.com, or call 925-284-7729.

For a complete list of the 26th AnnualTEC Awards nominees, please visit www.tecfoundation.com/tec/10nomineestech.html