Los Angeles, CA: K-Tek founder Manfred Klemme was honored with this year’s Cinema Audio Society (CAS) President’s Award at the CAS Awards Dinner on February 27th. The President’s Award is presented by the President and Board of Directors of the CAS to an individual who has been dedicated to the advancement of sound.

A native from Canada, Manfred started his career at Braun Electric, where he became the company’s liaison with the Canadian government, working with pro and industrial audio and video. This led to a position with Nagra/ Kudelski SA. While at Nagra, Manfred was at the center of many industry innovations and was a key player in introducing time code along with his good friend Mike Denecke.

In 1996, he decided that the sound industry needed a local manufacturer who would focus primarily on products made solely for the sound professional in Hollywood. The M. Klemme Technology, Corp. (K-Tek) began by developing a uniquely modular boom pole that allowed each operator to have individual options. The design and development of the K-Tek Microphone Boom Pole and accessories for on-set motion picture sound and recording won a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1998.

Now semi-retired, Manfred (“Mr. K”) continues to dream about engineering new products while on his Nordic Tug. K-Tek continues, in California, to develop and manufacture microphone suspension mounts, windscreens and, of course, boom poles.