Audio Pioneer Bruce Jackson Dies

Bruce Jackson, a founding father of Australia’s concert audio and lighting sector, died in a plane crash in Nevada Feb 4.

His technical skills, which saw him setting up a pirate radio station as a schoolboy in Sydney, led to Jackson setting up audio and lighting production hire company Jands with Phillip Story in 1968.

Jands later manufactured high-tech lighting, column PAs, guitar amps, power amps and mixers. Jackson moved to America in the ’70s and became sound engineer for Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand.

He later headed R&D in the digital realm at Lake Technology and Dolby and invented items globally commonplace today.