Page 25 - Climate Control News Magazine May 2019

200TH ISSUE
HAPPY 200
The year is 2002 and Britney Spears is the reigning pop princess.
Social media didn’t exist with the launch of Facebook still two years away.
In technology terms these were simpler times but there was still plenty of volatility.
US stock prices took a massive tumble that year and US President, George Bush, was preparing for war labelling Iran, Iraq and North Korea an axis of evil.
Locally, bankrupt airline Ansett Australia formally ceased operations and Media Puzzle won the Melbourne Cup.
In 2002 John Howard was Prime Minister and Simon Crean was the Opposition Leader. Crean replaced Kim Beazley and kept the seat warm until Beazley returned to the role of Opposition Leader for a second time in 2005. Aah Australian politics it hasn’t changed much
has it?
But the biggest event of
2002 for our industry was the launch of Climate Control News (CCN) magazine, Australia’s very first
independent news service for the HVACR sector.
Despite the age and maturity of refrigeration and air conditioning, it took until 2002 for the industry to have its own magazine. Still today CCN is the only monthly independent news publication in the country.
Sure there are quarterly magazines,
a number of well produced overseas publications, even local magazines produced by industry groups. But readers get the viewpoint of the industry group, it is not an independent news source.
Since its inception in April, 2002, CCN has grown significantly. It is no longer just a magazine, CCN has
a strong social media presence, a daily news
web site, its own annual conference and of course, its very own awards program the HVACR Leadership Awards. And yes we keep growing thanks to you – our readers and advertisers – who have supported us from day one. This celebration includes you, Happy 200!
Britney Spears
BOC was on the front cover of CCN’s very first issue. BOC Gases announced a new brand name BOC Refrigerants, part of a new strategy to be launched at ARBS 2002.
Of course no issue of CCN would be complete without a preview of ARBS 2002 with organis- ers declaring they hope to attract 200 exhibi- tors and 10,000 visitors. The theme of the exhi- bition that year was “The Key Elements of the Living Environment”.
A big drawcard for the event was the BACnet Village, which was Australia’s largest demon- stration of interoperability between building automation systems.
In one of the more unique special features in the ARBS 2002 preview, McQuay Australia said it will display a life-size, cut-away model of its new Frame IV Stargate screw compressor. The model will allow visitors to inspect the inner workings of the no-vibration compressor, the article said.
McQuay said it will also exhibit its new range of domestic inverters and R407c con- densers at ARBS.
While Fujitsu said it will be exhibiting its ART90 ducted split system, ART9 bulkhead split system and small inverter split, Danfoss had plans to launch its new AKC 55 Controller to the Australian market.
At the same time Copeland was planning to launch its new digital scroll compressor at ARBS while Grundfos was spruiking its new digital chemical dosing pump with re- mote operation.
York Refrigeration had plans to extend its chill- er range with a variety of HFC (R410a) chillers with Fantech expanding its exhaust fan range.
Interestingly, ARBS 2002 was held during the month of March from 25-27 in Sydney. Finally, AIRAH’s national president at the time was Phil Carruthers.
VRV TAKES THE LEAD
Daikin’s plans for a “major assault on
the commercial air conditioning market” was the biggest news story of the day in the April, 2002 edition of CCN magazine.
It was the lead story on page 5 and featured interviews with three senior Daikin executives at the official launch of the company’s new R407c VRV Plus System.
Daikin’s VRV launch dominated the news in April 2002.
One of the executives quoted in the 2002 news story was Daikin’s former business development manager, Gary Knox. Today, Knox is still with Daikin as the company’s engineering manager.
He has fond memories of the VRV launch 17 years ago.
“I joined Daikin when VRV started and it has been an amazing journey over the years,” Knox said.
“I recall the first issue of CCN and the Daikin News Roadshow story – great memories.
“The launch of VRV Plus was just the beginning of the strong growth that continues today.”
At the product launch, Daikin spruiked a long list of features which helped VRV take market share from conventional systems.
It had intelligent controls, heat recovery and a capacity of up to 82kw. VRV Plus made its official Australian debut at ARBS 2002.
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS
MAY 2019
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