The 2006 Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award, which recognizes extraordinary effort by a volunteer or group of volunteers during the previous year, were recently announced by ESTA (the Entertainment Services and Technology Association).
The ESTA Board of Directors presented the 2006 award to Ken Vannice for his work on leading the development of the ETCP Entertainment Electrician Examination and to the RDM Task Group for their work in developing ANSI E1.20, the Remote Device Management standard.
Vannice’s award was presented by two of last year’s Stewart Award winners, Eddie Raymond and Bill Sapsis, who led a spirited acknowledgment of the enormous amount of work he has put into creating the new ETCP credential and for whom it is the realization of a decades long dream. Vannice believed in the concept of certification long before the rest of the industry and has spent many selfless years working towards this goal.
Steve Terry, Co-Chair of the TSP Control Protocols Working Group presented the second award to Scott Blair, Javid Butler, Milton Davis, Gary Douglas, Doug Fleenor, Bob Goddard, Tom Grimes, Wayne Howell, Charles Reese, Tracy Underhill, and Peter Willis, the core members of the RDM Task Group. Steve spoke of the passion, technical expertise, and creativity required to accomplish standards work and commented, “Nowhere is this passion more evident than in the work of the E1.20 RDM task group. They have successfully created and published the first major functional extension to DMX512 in 20 years: ANSI E.20 Remote Device Management. First hatched as a gleam in Scott Blair’s eye, this important standard will allow devices to be discovered and remotely managed over a DMX network, and will be an integral part of the larger ACN/RDM network in coming years."
The 2006 Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Awards were presented at ESTA’s annual dinner and awards ceremony on Thursday, October 19th in Las Vegas. The award was created to honor Stewart’s incomparable service to the association during the eighteen years he served as treasurer.