GEO FOCUS SOUTH AFRICA >>> INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
Maldwyn Greenwood, SEGMA South Africa
SEGMA SOUTH Africa (Specialised Engineering Group in Media Advancements) has been at the forefront of the South African media industry, importing professional audio and other media industry equipment since early 2010. The company has since branched out into four fields and now services the studio, live, MI, and broadcast industries. Alongside its role as a major
distributor, SEGMA also provides educational programmes and maintains support centres in every major South African city. SEGMA’s key account sales Maldwyn Greenwood explains the current state of the South African pro-audio industry and how it is unique. Greenwood: “The largest growth
area we’ve seen over the past few years has mainly been the live industry. As more and more international artists come to South Africa (now more than four per month easily) the demand for gear has gone up along with the standards in our local productions. Currently a high demand has come for recording above 64 channels at a live concert, sometimes up to even 160+
>>> BROADCAST FACILITY The Academy of Sound Engineering’s Sound Engine
AFTER THREE years of design work the Academy of Sound Engineering’s new facilities are nearing completion. Named The Sound Engine, the new facilities are located across the road
from the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio Park in Johannesburg, where Academy of Sound Engineering rents about 1,000sqm of studio space. Academy of Sound Engineering MD Timothy Kraft explains: “The Sound Engine consists of several studios. Four of the rooms are designed as symmetrical 5.1 surround sound monitoring rooms. The main monitor speakers in these rooms will be fitted in 300mm thick columns that are cast from high-density steel reinforced concrete. The inside shape of these columns make up three exponential horns and form a massive solid baffle board for the left centre and right monitor speakers. The side walls form an extension of the left and right horns and join these to the surround monitor speaker columns. Thus, the room is designed to be an extension of the speaker enclosures. “The smallest of the four 5.1 rooms has a fairly generous floor space of
54sqm. This will be used primarily as a mixing and tracking control room. It is adjoining a 58sqm recording room. “The second-largest control room has a floor area of 61 square metres. This will be used primarily as a training area for students taking Avid accredited 201, 201M, 210P, 310M, and 310P Pro Tools training courses. After hours,
www.audiomedia.com
channels – this brings on a demand for higher-end consoles locally. “The studio market has also been
greatly reduced to the point that there are few music studios in action which would be considered large scale; however, in the same space we see more and more high-end equipment sales happening in small home-based studios (however, I feel this trend is being seen nearly everywhere).
brands in the world. In the post/broadcast and live market this means a lot – being able to talk to clients and understand, help, and support them adds a level of value in these industries. “Something to consider in Africa is our demand for content in our own languages. Beyond South Africa we have countries that want content in their own language and are willing
“Heritage brands like Shure do well where other microphone companies can’t touch the market as much because people are fixed on the brand and will always stay with it – we are a very brand loyal country.”
“Another high growth demand which has come in recently and is a large part of our sales is post and broadcast production. A lot of our sales of products like Avid are into these industries and, due to the increase in digital content and films being produced locally, we are seeing more and more Dolby 5.1 studios happening. We have capitalised on these markets using our knowledge in sound engineering combined with our offering of some of the best
to pay for it, thus driving an industry need. “The main trends of late have been
mostly in digital – as everything goes digital we see more and more demand. Whether this is unique I don’t agree but it is a sudden change. However, another trend we have seen happening a lot is customers spending more on equipment that will last and has a name behind it rather than something that is affordable or cheap. South Africa has become a market
that doesn’t accept new brands well, especially those that aren’t known or are cheap. Heritage brands like Shure do well while other microphone companies can’t touch the market as much because people are fixed on the brand and will always stay with it – we are a very brand loyal country. “The largest difference you will see
in South Africa versus any other industry is how one person will handle a number of jobs. Unlike other industries where you will find a live mix engineer who only mixes and knows how to mix, in South Africa you will find ours know lighting, power, sound, and more. “We work with a lot of small
budgets for productions locally, thus we have also worked out ways to make them effective while meeting the budget – it’s impressive sometimes to see how something that should costs millions to do is reduced to under a million and gets the job done effectively. “In turn, I believe this is because
of how we work as engineers, knowing a lot across all parts of the industry and being able to make everything connect effectively.”
www.segma.co.za
this will be used by the students as a mixing and tracking control room. It is adjoining a Foley recording area, which is also suitable for recording small bands, or for ADR recording. “The largest 5.1 room is designed as dub stages for film final mixing. It is a small theatre that seats 96. The other room will be set up as a small orchestral room, with 5.1 monitoring and a Pro Tools mixing station. “These four rooms will be equipped with 11 Pro Tools HDX systems, which
can be linked or operated independently.”
www.ase.co.za
November 2013 21
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