Firstly, it will be 30 years since Alan Black started Sound Leisure in 1978. He showed his first jukebox product at the ATEI show at Alexandra Palace in London two years later. Now, Alan’s two sons Chris and Michael have joined him in the business and the company remains privately owned, employing some of the finest craftsmen and technical minds in the leisure industry. Next year will also mark the 20th anniversary since Sound Leisure demonstrated the world’s first digital audio jukebox in August 1988 and ten years since it developed the first satellite delivery digital video jukeboxes in 1998. Over the years Sound Leisure has remained at the forefront of new technologies and there have been many more industry “firsts”. The company now has at its disposal a wide range of facilities, housed in its 80,000sq.ft factory in Leeds. This has given a new home to its research and development, manufacturing, service and office staff. Additionally a further 10,000 sq.ft are occupied by computer hardware and software development in Nottingham, UK. All jukebox computer software and hardware is developed “in house”. The company now employs over 125 skilled engineers, software, hardware technicians, cabinet woodworkers, spray shop, metal workers and vacformers. “If we go back 30 years to when my father started the company and look at the charts during ATEI week, using our Milestones in Music search engine we can see that Wings were number one with Mull of Kyntyre! Other acts in the top ten were Donna Summer and David Soul. Times may have changed dramatically since then but ATEI still remains the highlight of the show calendar for us,” said Chris Black. “Once again, we will be pushing forward the boundaries in jukebox technology, showing a revolutionary new concept that we hope will change the way jukeboxes will be used in the future. The system that was developed in collaboration with Soundnet will definitely have people talking about our products and services for some time to come, we will also no doubt find the time to celebrate our fantastic history and thank our customers for the support that they have given to us over this time.”

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