VORSPRUNG DURCH AUDIO

Last month, more than 400 guests from all over the world descended upon the Emsdetten HQ of Westfalen Sound for an extravagant party that celebrated the leading German audio rental company’s 30th anniversary with a nostalgia-filled programme of fine dining and live entertainment. For founder Carl Cordier, it was the culmination of career that stretches back to the early 1970s.

Whilst at Steinfurt High School in Münster, it became clear that Cordier didn’t want to follow his father’s career aspirations for him to earn a medical degree — music was not only his high school major but also the career he intended to pursue.

Cordier gathered many other high school classmates who shared his enthusiasm for music and formed his first band with good friend and drummer Bertram Passmann. Better known under the name of Bertram Engel, he was generally known to be a natural musical talent and enjoyed local fame.

After a short period of working with Passman, Cordier realised that his other passion — sound engineering — was more likely to keep him employed in the music scene than playing bass.

In the early days of the German rock’n’roll business, this particular expertise had not yet been developed or realised to its full potential. Instead, the world looked to America, where large stadium or arena tours and festivals were being held, and this was an influence on the German market... and especially a young Carl Cordier.

Since there was no occupational training for this unique profession at the time, Cordier took matters into his own hand, spotting Hamburg as the perfect city for learning the craft.
A bubbling hotpot of creativity attracted Cordier to Hamburg and he soon found himself behind the mixing desk for his friend Passman’s new band, The Panic Orchestra.

Cordier’s first full-time professional work, however, came when he joined the company Music Productiv, located in Ibbenbüren, as a sales assistant. Working at a company that supplied so many loudspeaker systems, audio mixers, audio effects and amplifiers, was a pivotal point for him. Interestingly enough, many new technologies were not available in Germany at that time and Cordier visited London each week to buy them to sell to musicians all over Europe.

In 1978, with his customer contacts, together with the acquired state-of-the-art equipment, Cordier was motivated to start up his own business in rented storage and office space in Münster.

Inspired by the Panic Orchestra band members, he named his company Westfalen Sound and started touring within Germany with his own modular Martin Audio PA system. Cordier’s first staff members were dedicated and knowledgeable freelancers, and their commitment was rewarded with a number of contracts for festivals and large events.

To develop further, a significant capital investment was needed in order to boost the company’s equipment inventory and service a new stream of projects — much to the delight of Cordier’s bank manager!

EXCITING EIGHTIES
The beginning of the 1980s was an interesting and challenging time for Westfalen Sound, as it explored new ways of achieving the best return on investment and boosting revenue.

Hooking up with concert promoter Fritz Rau and his technical manager, Hans-Jürgen ‘Lauti’ Lautenfeld, turned out to be a key stepping stone, especially when the meeting led, in 1982, to a tour with Howard Carpendale on which Cordier formed a lasting partnership with lighting designer Mickey Lehr.

Innovation was the hallmark for Cordier from the beginning and Westfalen Sound developed a new compact PA system especially for this clientele. Westfalen initially chose Cerwin-Vega! compact systems and by the mid-’80s, with many international clients coming on board, the company introduced the WFS-4, four-way active PA — a unique, omnidirectional system with JBL speaker components powered by Camco (and later, Crown) amplifiers.

Westfalen’s chief engineer, Ludger Dreher (still employed at the company) participated intensively in this successful development. With more than 100 components comprising this system, it remained Westfalen Sound’s arena system until the end of the ’90s.

POOLING RESOURCES
As demands on resources increased with the company’s popularity, it became clear to Cordier that if Westfalen had any chance of expanding into the next decade, he would need partners and a structure to master future growth. It was not only a matter of audio and lighting equipment. Future customers would want their important events and complex problems organised from one reliable and highly competent source.

Westfalen Sound had already been co-operating with Bielefeld Tour Service and after the departure of Mickey Lehr to South Africa, Teddy Götz, the owner and lighting designer of Tour Service, was consulted on an idea that would lead to the formation of an interactive group of like-minded companies.

After acquiring a fleet of trailer trucks, Cordier later mused on the idea of how to manifest his idea of this ‘synergistic compound/partnership’. In 1990, TLC GmbH was formed as a 100% subsidiary of Westfalen Sound and saw the light of the day in Westphalia. Lighting industry veteran Jürgen Schürmann was brought in to manage the new company and now lighting design expertise was offered as an additional service to the growing client list.

From this point forward two important services could be offered from one source. Within the course of a few short years, a professional team was formed with its own customers and market segments. Cordier’s vision was materialising.

But lighting technology was not everything in those times. In fact, corporate industrial events were going to become more comprehensive, important and complex. A comprehensive organisation was required and further expertise was necessary.

Immediately after leaving his job at the concert agency Lippmann + Rau, ‘Lauti’ Lautenfeld was looking for a new challenge. No sooner had Cordier explained his aforementioned vision, than another new company — Trend*Event GmbH — was established in Frankfurt in 1991.

Parallel to this development, Cordier was approached by an old Münster friend and audio engineer, Werner Renz, who was looking for a new partner. Jürgen Schürmann and Cordier, along with Renz, became partners in Schallwand GmbH — this company was incorporated into the new entity and became a national audio provider. Both these audio rental companies merged in 2003 and operate today under Westfalen Sound.

In the mid-’90s, the rented office and warehouse became too small. Schürmann and Cordier decided to purchase some property and to construct buildings according to their own ideas and requirements. The Pool Group, the embodiment of Cordier’s synergistic vision was finally born.

In 1994, Schürmann and Cordier bought a 20,000m2 and built accommodation for all the subsidiaries at the Südring in Emsdetten. Two years later, MS Video GmbH was founded, the latest Pool company. The four most important disciplines and expertise for event production were now centred under one roof.

It was now time to think about new innovative ideas in audio. The WFS-4 systems were no longer modern enough for the increasing demands of industrial events and classical concerts. Cordier heard about a French physicist called Dr. Christian Heil, who had developed a completely new technology called the ‘cylindrical wave beam concept’. After conducting a comprehensive test in Emsdetten, the decision to purchase a new PA system was taken.

Despite initial market hesitance, the revolutionary innovation of L-Acoustics’ V-DOSC line array soon took the world by storm and Westfalen Sound was the first user of this new technology. The 1996/7 Supertramp tour, managed by Westfalen Sound, silenced any critics and from then on V-DOSC was the new standard of modern PA systems.

The steady growth of the Pool group required more space and this was satisfied in 1994 by the construction of a new administration base. As early as 1998, Pool decided to offer ‘Qualified Employee in Event Technology’ apprenticeships, and as a result, the Pool Group is now ranked among the leading apprenticing companies by Germany’s Chamber of Commerce.

A GLOBAL NAME
Since 1996, Westfalen Sound has earned an international reputation for its quality of service. “There were years in which we earned more with English and American artists abroad than in Germany,” states Cordier. Westfalen is especially well-known in the U.S. for organising tours in Europe with the best in audio technology and professional expertise.

Three years ago, Westfalen Sound began to add loudspeaker products from Meyer Sound to its inventory. This fifth loudspeaker system underlines the company’s philosophy of always looking for new and innovative ways of meeting customer demands.

With more than 600 loudspeaker units from Meyer Sound, the company is now in a position to fulfil even the greatest sound requirements with its own inventory. A perfect recent example was its audio support for this summer’s European tour by Metallica, which used two identical systems.

Further investments are planned. Since 2007 there has been a pre-tour production facility with a recording studio on the Pool premises in Emsdetten. “The Pool Group will be positioned in a more integral and comprehensive way,” says Cordier. “That is what customers expect in view of preparation times becoming shorter and shorter, and in view of events always getting more complex and larger.”

It’s a pity that Audi was the first company to embrace the phrase ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’. Translated literally as ‘advancement through technology’, this would have made the perfect sub-header for this operation.

TPi

Photography of the Westfalen Sound
30th anniversary party by David Wiggins