Peter Champion

OK, what can I remember about the New Orleans trip? I was there for two weeks because I went out a week before the show to sort out any tech issues with accessing the UK’s PSS X25 network using the TV’s dial-up modem. But dialling US X25 access nodes wouldn’t work because of different modem standards and dialling internationally to UK didn’t work [because of echo suppressors I think]. So we had to use Plan C – before leaving the UK I had recorded onto a regular audio cassette recorder the line traffic of a demo, so that all we had to do was play that back into the TV’s phone line and the screen would display exactly what it had during the demo, and all the presenter would have to do would be to sync the presentation talk to it: rather like an autocue.

So, job done; that left me most of the first week to get to know New Orleans: the Blues, the Hurricane drinks, the French Quarter, the Garden District, the drive across Lake Pontchartrain’s 25 mile causeway, the size of the Louisiana Superdome, etc.

I have been thinking of all the people I worked with there at Redifon, from the high-octane to the solidly capable/dependable/professional, you need them all, and the key to making it work was each respecting the other. For several years it was an awesome team, and a lot of fun too!

Peter Champion
April 2010