On August 20, Northern Sound and Light (NSL) will celebrate 15 years of providing gear and support to the professional audio and lighting community.

Based out of a 6,800 sq.ft. facility in McKees Rocks, a suburb of Pittsburgh, NSL was founded in 1990 by company president Steve Raslevich. "It has been wonderful to see the industry grow and change, and to have the opportunity to grow and change with it," says Raslevich. "The team at NSL is grateful to our loyal customers who have supported us over the years."

Raslevich, a musician and live sound audio engineer and system designer, founded NSL with the sole focus to provide gear and engineers for live shows. "From day one until today, NSL is founded and runs on the principles of how I like to conduct business - honesty, integrity, outstanding customer service and quality products," he says. Those principles led to the company establishing a web site in 1995 for their customers to reference as a virtual business card and as a sales tool to promote the pro audio and lighting products NSL engineers were using at live events.

"While onsite, NSL engineers were constantly being asked for either product info or business cards. So instead of carrying around cards or waiting for the manufacturer to send data sheets, we decided to post all the information online," explains Raslevich. "That way, anyone who was interested in what we were using and selling could have 24/7 access to that information." As the popularity of the Internet reached an all-time high in the late 90's, NSL's web site (www.northernsound.net) became a widely recognized destination for information on a variety of pro audio and theatrical lighting products. That recognition spurred continued sales growth; so in 2002, the company moved to its current location and finalized the transition away from live productions to fully focus on audio and lighting sales and support for their customers.

Over the years, NSL has received numerous sales awards from rep firms and manufacturers, most recently the 2004-05 dbx Sales Achievement Award, the 2004 Sennheiser Achievement Award, the 2004 TechRep Dealer of Excellence, the 2004 Horizon Music Achievement Award.