If you are a regular viewer of our video publications you will almost certainly be familiar with our colleague Francis Rumsey. He is a key member of the part time team both in front of and behind the camera.
Francis is organist of St Mary’s Church Witney where we have made some of our video presentations and he plays a Regent Classic Organ. You can listen to Francis playing the organ at St Mary’s Witney below.
We are fortunate that having first met Francis as a customer we now have the benefit of his considerable audio engineering experience. Francis’s earlier career was in spent in the area of sound recording and psychoacoustics at the University of Surrey where he was a Professor.
Recognition for excellence and education
He has also been very active in the Audio Engineering Society, most recently as Chair of the Technical Council and Consultant Technical Writer and Editor of its journal. As a result, Francis has spent a considerable time researching and passing on skills to students, with a number of publications in this area to his credit.
This contribution to the sector has just been recognised with the award to Francis of the Peter Barnett Memorial Award by the Institute of Acoustics.
The award criteria are described as follows:
“Inaugurated in 2001 by the Electro-acoustics Group, The Peter Barnett Memorial Award honours Peter Barnett who died the previous year. This award, which is made annually, recognises advancements and technical excellence in the fields of electro-acoustics, speech intelligibility, and education in acoustics & electro-acoustics”
Nothing in life is free and as an award winner Francis will have to make a lecture later this year, when the award is presented at the Institute’s Reproduced Sound conference in Bristol. We pass on congratulations to Francis for this award and wish him well for the forthcoming lecture.
I have had a passion for church organs since the tender age of 12. I own and run Viscount Organs with a close attention to the detail that musicians appreciate; and a clear understanding of the benefits of digital technology and keeping to the traditional and emotional elements of organ playing.
