IE April 2012

Q&A

Andrey Garkaviy, SoundHouse Pro Achieving goals

every day – the routine was killing me. It wasn’t a question of money, because at that time, business was very depressed everywhere. When I set up the company, I had a young family, so it was a difficult decision. But I saw the chance to work with Electro-Voice – and it turned out to be good for them as well as for us.

Paddy Baker talks to the founder and

general manager of the Ukrainian distributor and integrator

responsible for the new audio systems in two of the country’s Euro 2012 football stadiums ‘Distribution is really

Aside from the stadiums that we’ve seen on this trip, do you have a favourite project? There is one good project – a church in Kiev, which is one of the biggest evangelical churches in Ukraine. It was a very interesting project because we competed in the tender with four companies with major brands. Most interesting was that all of these brands were offering line arrays. But SoundHouse Pro offered an alternative:

How did you start working in the audio business? I started in the audio business after graduating in 1994. I worked in a rental company, then as a sales manager in a distribution company – I worked with Sennheiser equipment, Cordial Cable, D.A.S. Audio – but all the time I liked the sound from Dynacord. In 2001, I started my own company, Sound House Pro, and from 2005, we started work with EVI Audio. We had many conversations about Dynacord products; at that time the situation with Electro- Voice in Ukraine wasn’t good: they had been with another distributor for 10 years. It can be a problem when a big brand changes distributor, but they did it: we received a proposal from them and started working.

What was it that made you think, in 2001, that it was the right time to start your company? At the time, the company I was working for had only one good brand, and there looked to be no possibility that the range could be expanded. Also, it’s hard for me to sit in a chair and do the same thing

important to us, so we will develop in this direction’

a line array combined with four delay lines, because of the acoustic properties of the hall. It was like a big concert hall with a big balcony and under-balcony space, and from our acoustic calculations we decided that without the delay lines it would be impossible to get good sound coverage for every seat. It’s interesting for us that we participated in the tender and came up with an idea that wasn’t presented by any of the other companies, and convinced the customer that the idea is the best they can have. It can be quite a challenge – unfortunately this doesn’t happen every time.

Have you done everything you want to do with the company? The major business is still distribution rather than installation, so we will develop in this direction. Projects are also important, but we want to focus on consulting – looking at project locations and advising on how to make good solutions. By teaching dealers

about this, they can offer better, more expensive solutions for each project, and will be able to convince the customer that their solution is right. There are so many competitor brands from Asia – to be able to sell high-end products we should teach the dealers first and then the customers. We sell very good brands for sound, cabling and trussing, but we don’t have a major lighting brand that would be a good reference. In Ukraine, most of the famous brands are taken by other companies that may not develop them the way they should be developed. If anyone reading this wants to contact us, they are welcome! Suppliers are used to working with partners in particular countries and often don’t want to change, because they don’t know other companies in the country. Unfortunately in Ukraine many

companies take two or three major brands, and they develop one brand and leave the others undeveloped – they kill it in our country. It’s the same with many lighting brands: there’s one brand that is handled by a rental company, it’s unbelievable – the company doesn’t work in the distribution market, it doesn’t have a sales department or a dealer network for these products!

Apart from lighting, are you looking to grow your distribution portfolio in other areas? We are moving step by step – beyond lighting, we’re not looking to extend our brands. All the brands we carry are good quality and a good price – it’s enough for now. Some time ago we also worked in the MI market, but I understand that our business is pro lighting and sound. I don’t have time to do more than that. It’s important to give good support to our dealers – in Ukraine we have nearly 60 dealers. It’s a big chain, and it’s not possible for us to have face-to-face conversations every day with companies in Lviv, for example, because we are in Dnipropetrovsk – 1,000km away! IE

Andrey Garkaviy was talking to Paddy Baker. There will be a report on the stadium installations in our next issue.

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58 IE April 2012

Installation Europe is published 12 times a year by Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LR, England Circulation and subscription enquiries Tel: +44 (0)1858 438786 Fax +44 (0)1858 434958 Intent Media 2012, Tower House, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, Leics LE16 9EF, UK Editorial tel +44 (0)20 7226 7246 Sales tel +44 (0)20 7354 6000 Editor Paddy Baker paddy.baker@intentmedia.co.uk Managing editor Joanne Ruddock jo.ruddock@intentmedia.co.uk Staff writerJames McGrath james.mcgrath@intentmedia.co.uk Head of design & productionAdam Butler adam.butler@intentmedia.co.uk Assistant graphic designer Nikki Thompson nikki.thompson@intentmedia.co.uk Sales manager Ian Graham ian.graham@intentmedia.co.uk Sales executive Les Wood les.wood@intentmedia.co.uk US sales representative Michael Mitchell +1 631 673 3199 mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv Senior production executive Florence Beaumont florence.beaumont@intentmedia.co.uk Digital content managerTim Frost tim.frost@intentmedia.co.uk Publisher Steve Connolly Managing director Stuart Dinsey Contributors George Cole, David Davies, Ian McMurray, Steve Montgomery Special thanks this issue Aneta Adamska, Agata Kielar, Mike Lethby, Josh Miller © Intent Media 2012. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owners. Printed by Pensord Press, Wales

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