Author

Raised on a farm in Northland, New Zealand

I was raised on a 585-acre farm in Northland, New Zealand. My early career was in radio, audio engineering, and event technical production, starting at Radio 1ZN Northland, New Zealand, as an audio panel operator, and from there, I moved to Sydney and studied for a certificate in audio engineering. After many years working in audio and audio-visual, I became Assistant Technical Manager at the Sydney Convention Centre, managing large events.

Moved to London

Upon moving to London, I became Technical Production Manager at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in Westminster. About the biggest show was managing 32 sound, lighting, and audio-visual engineers for a week of the 1991 G7 Economic Summit Press Briefings to 4,400 world journalists, when Gorbachev attended. The G8.

While I was there, I studied and received an MBA from Kingston upon Thames University.

Satellite uplink events with France Telecom

Upon leaving the Conference Centre, France Telecom appointed me as Events Manager in satellite uplinks for global events. It was a fun four years, travelling in Europe, and to Tierra del Fuego in South America for a Landrover launch, managing the overall event in South America, as well as operating satellite audio links to VIPs, who travelled from the UK as part of the launch. I have written an account of it here.

Moved back to New Zealand

When I returned from South America, I married my Irish sweetheart, Orla, and we went to live in New Zealand. We were in Auckland for six years, where we made many friends and I became General Manager at Voyager Internet, owned by OzEmail, and subsequently by MCI Worldcom.

Founded Clearwire Ireland

We moved back to Ireland in 2002 and Orla helped me to found Clearwire Ireland, a wireless internet services provider, where we raised €52m in FDI through the McCaw group of companies, building the company to over 26,000 customers and 100 staff. It was later sold to Imagine, an Irish telecommunications provider.

During this period, I also worked as a consultant to EU-funded PHARE projects in Eastern Europe with Astec Global Consultancy, including a stint at SAPARD, the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture, and in Serbia, and Estonia. This involved writing tenders and specs for a satellite uplink vehicle, a national video archive, and a complex media monitoring system for fair and equal media broadcasts in national television and radio.

Founded Ardan Audio

When I left Clearwire Ireland, Orla helped me to found Ardan Audio Limited, where I created a professional audiophile speaker stand, and was assisted in the final design by an award-winning Irish product designer, James Ennis [1], launching it globally with the help of my business partner, John Gallen. John has since released two bangers of albums, and is a force of nature.

We sold 350+ speaker stands to major recording studios and audiophiles worldwide, and exhibited in Tokyo (NAB), USA (NAMM), Europe, and Canada. Product reviews were very positive [2], [3], [4]. Unfortunately, the after-effects of the great financial crash of 2008 severely impacted ongoing sales and funding initiatives, and we closed the company in 2013. We had over 30 designs for new products, it was a hard decision to make. Lessons learned - hardware companies are very difficult to get off the ground and the failure rate is very high, but I don't regret it; the most valuable lessons are often learned the hard way.

Where I work today

Today, I work in contract IT consulting in Dublin, Ireland, and continue to study and write in my free time. Recently, I completed a MSc Computing (Blockchain) at DCU. I'm not a wild cryptocurrency enthusiast, I did it to understand the math, the technology, and the space, and think some portions will come right, while other areas are toxic, and many people have lost their savings to snake oil smooth talkers. It seems to be as old as time. Distributed smart contracts are genuinely useful innovations, and it looks like AI and the metaverse may produce some exciting environments and experiences, if we can get the environments, ethics, the kit, and the control sorted. I am currently undertaking further study in AI, and considering even more, since I have studied and maintained a database of papers and books on AI since 1995. Please see “AI Connections” for more details on my AI writing programme.

Personal interests

I maintain personal interests in audio and video production, having mixed and produced four albums, one for myself, and three for my son, Oisin, as the artist Fullo [5], and shot, edited, and produced several 4k videos and storyboards [6], including a tribute to front line workers during the first round of COVID 19, for Stellar Choir, Dublin [7].

Apart from research and The Fragile Sea, I am writing a book, entitled 'a sack of cats: journeys into nothingness' - which I hope to release late 2024 or early 2025.

I also have deep and abiding interests in neuroscience, particularly related to AI, learning, memory, mental health, and neuro-divergence. Many brilliant folk walk among us.

Family, friends and sport

The weekends are full: I enjoy family time, walking with friends, swimming, gym, surfing, skiing, and watching rugby, having hung up my boots a few years ago, as a junior grade rugby coach in Dublin, after thirteen years. Being a kiwi living in Ireland has many interesting aspects and cheeky moments; I love living in this fair land, ever since we moved back from New Zealand over twenty years ago.

The format and content of the newsletter and other content can be found on the About page. An explanation of why I write, can be found on the Why TFS page.

Welcome to The Fragile Sea! I hope you find it valuable, provocative, challenging, and worth your time.

Take care,

Brent

[1]: J. Ennis, “James Ennis Applied Creativity,” Welcome, 2023. (accessed Aug. 06, 2023). James Ennis Space

[2]: Six Moons, “6moons audio reviews: Ardán Audio elevation pro EVP-M1,” 2012. (accessed Aug. 06, 2023). Six Moons Review

[3]: Sound on Sound, “Ardán Audio EVP M1,” Ardán Audio EVP M1, 2011.(accessed Aug. 06, 2023). SoS Review

[4]: B. Smith, “Ardan Audio,” ardanaudio, 2011. (accessed Aug. 06, 2023). Ardan Audio About

[5]: O. Fullam-Smith, “Fullo Music,” Fullo, 2023. (accessed Aug. 06, 2023). Fullo Music

[6]: Freedom Land (Single), Brent Finlayson. (Jul. 06, 2018). Accessed: Aug. 06, 2023. [Online Video]. Freedom Land (Single)

[7]: Stellar Choir, (Oct. 12, 2020). (accessed: Aug. 06, 2023). [Online Video]. You Raise Me Up