New Zealand radio industry awards

The Radio Frequency Users Association of New Zealand’s (RFUANZ) annual dinner was held in Auckland last week, coinciding with the Comms Connect Auckland conference and exhibition.

The venue for the occasion was the magnificent St Matthews in the City church, transformed into an upmarket dining room for the night. MC duties were ably performed by All Blacks ‘legend’ Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford, who entertained the attendees with reminiscences of his time playing rugby, and also of his early career as a communications specialist in the Royal New Zealand Navy.

The official part of the evening included presenting the new RFUANZ committee line-up, and presentation of the association’s annual industry awards. The committee members are as follows:

• Chairman — Corey Weir (Outback Communications)
• Vice Chairman — Logan Caulfield (CSE Genesis)
• Treasurer — Kate Broughton (Mobicomm)
• Secretary/Administrator — Debby Morgan
• Committee — Roger Silcock (AC-WB Technologies), Dale Roberts (Go Wireless Ltd), Kevin Dove (Dove Communications), Steve Fogerty (Tennatron) and Gary Stevens (Informatics Ltd)
   

Members of the new RFUANZ committee.

Finalists and winners for the industry awards were announced in six different categories. Critical Comms joins with the RFUANZ and everyone in the industry in adding our congratulations to the worthy recipients. The winners of the awards are as follows:

Service to the Industry Award, sponsored by Tait Communications

The winner of this award was Brian Davis, of Brian Davis Consulting. Brian is one of the more well-known names in the NZ radio industry, and for good reason. Brian began his career in 1975 as a trainee radio inspector. Since then he has worked in numerous roles including radio inspector, radio engineer, radio surveyor, accredited radio tutor and examiner, to name just a few. He is known for having an exhaustive knowledge of New Zealand’s radio regulations.

Brian Davis (left) accepting his award.

Project Excellence Award, sponsored by Hytera

This award was given to CSE Genesis in recognition of its work to implement a comprehensive network replacement solution for the Surf Life Saving Northern Region (SLSNR). The company’s Motorola solution fully met SLSNR’s objectives for a future-ready, digital platform that provided reliable communications to support lifeguards in their mission to protect, assist and save the beach-going public from difficult and potentially tragic situations. The Digital Rescue Network was shown to be simple to use and learn, robust, with a range of additional useful features and the ability to be scaled up in terms of coverage, capacity and introduction of added-value technology.

Logan Caulfield (left) of CSE-Genesis accepting the Project Excellence Award.

Technical Excellence Award, sponsored by Radio Activity

The 2016 Kaikoura earthquake event has become an important part of New Zealand’s geophysical and human history. Immediately following the quake it became apparent that the community of Kaikoura was cut off and unparalleled damage to road infrastructure had occurred. Downer ITS of Dunedin rapidly formulated a plan to provide an immediate communications network to assist with remedial repairs of the inland access road, and later for coastal roads. It is for this work that the company was awarded the Technical Excellence Award.

Members of the Downer team accepting the award.

Employee of the Year, sponsored by RFUANZ

This coveted award was given to Vicki Mischefski of CSE Genesis. According to the company’s nomination citation, “Vicki has been an integral part of our team from Day 1, working across all functions of our business. Vicki came to Genesis (now CSE Genesis) from a sales support background and working in IT. Since then, Vicki has worked hard for Genesis and made herself well known amongst our Auckland-based partners and competitors. Vicki is the hub of our team culture and always brings energy to the workplace. This energy naturally spills over into her interactions with customers, who she goes to all lengths to help get an outcome for. Learning the Genesis products and solutions and applying them to our customers’ daily challenges has always been second nature to Vicki, and she has now taken a more full-time direct role within the sales team as a result.”

Vicki Mischefski on accepting her Employee of the Year award.

Apprentice of the Year, sponsored by Push Wireless

Michael Hooper of Outback Communications was awarded Apprentice of the Year. He joined the company in 2015 with only some very basic electrical knowledge, but he was keen and eager to learn. Michael has immersed himself in each part of the company’s diverse service offering, thus enabling him to develop a range of technical skills. He is halfway through an auto-electrical apprenticeship, which has also helped to formalise his electrical knowledge.

Michael Hooper (right) on accepting his award.

Outstanding Sales, Support & Service Award

Matt Alexander, also of Outback Communications, took out this award for his work with a Christchurch utilities company. Outback Communications has worked with this company for the last three years, and Matt has taken ownership of the customer liaison and developed a strong working relationship. As part of his work, he reviewed existing installations and components and together with the customer formed a specification for their new vehicle fit-outs.

Matt Alexander (left) accepting the Outstanding Sales, Support & Service award.

Images by Jeremy Hill Photography, courtesy RFUANZ.

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