Alpha Technologies will be showcasing their extensive array of products at MediaTech in July. In a recent interview, AV Integration spoke with Alpha Technologies marketing director, Tiaan Hoogstad, about the company’s history, current offerings and future development.
Alpha Technologies is a distribution company specialising in audio, visual and automation products for the African market and serves as the local distributor for many top international brands including Bose, Barco and Biamp, as well as their own locally developed house-brand ALFAtron. Following a strategic corporate merger in 2017, Alpha Technologies has established a firm foothold in the market, largely based on its dedication to providing excellent customer service to its dealers, as well as expert support.
WHAT IS ALPHA TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING GOAL?
Most of the directors come from an integration background, but now we sell to integrators. Therefore we understand what integrators want and what they wish to avoid. We don’t sell to end users. We choose partners in the industry, be it small integration companies on the West Coast or big integration companies in Johannesburg. Our future lies with partners; that’s the approach we take to market. We focus on supplying the best possible product combined with the best service.
TELL US ABOUT THE MERGER BETWEEN ALPHA TECHNOLOGIES AND TID
It’s been two years since the merger, and we are happy to report that it has been a great success. We are one of the playmakers in the industry because of the way we service the market. We’re making our mark, and the industry is responding well.
HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED SINCE THE MERGER?
We have built the business comprehensively over the last two years and have expanded to around forty staff members countrywide. Originally, Alpha Technologies was only in Johannesburg. After the merger, we opened branches in Cape Town and Durban. All the branches are fully-fledged offices with service centres, showrooms, training facilities, and sales staff. We have streamlined many of the brands that we distribute – and the ones we offer now are critically important to what we do. Every single person in this company knows exactly what every product does. Companies are shifting their focus to becoming value-added companies, which is something that we are proud to say we have achieved. We can design the solution for our partners, supply the necessary products, and we provide comprehensive aftersales service.
WHAT VERTICAL MARKETS DOES ALPHA TECHNOLOGIES SERVICE?
We focus on the entire Pro-AV industry, but when you investigate specific verticals, such as corporate, hospitality, retail, events, education or residential, we’ve got a very particular set of products that services each one. We strive to be distributors who offer full turn-key solutions, nevertheless with a focused approach. We’re able to offer everything from projection, to brackets, cabling, microphones, amplifiers and DSPs, speakers and everything in-between. We’re at a point now where we have got a solid customer base that relies on us to provide products across the board to ensure that they can deploy a turn-key solution to the end user while relying on a single supplier.
WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOUR CUSTOMER BASE?
We are extremely committed to providing our partners with the support that they need over the long run. We strive to offer the best product warranty, so the installer and the end user have peace-of-mind when it comes to after-sales support. We also provide the local support necessary to honour our warranty that is extended on all the products from Bose, Biamp and Sony. We have complete faith in the robust nature of our in-house brand, ALFAtron, and as such, we provide a seven-year warranty on all these products. Our partners are, therefore, confident that when they use us as a distributor, their installations will receive the after-sales support that ensures that end-users’ needs are met.
WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAST FEW YEARS?
We’re probably proudest of the new relationships we’ve built over these last two years. The company has five directors, and all have diverse backgrounds, but that makes us very agile as a team, and we have all been able to build on the relationships that we had with clients before the merger and bring them into the fold of the new company.
Clients that were purchasing audio solutions from TID are now buying products for Video, and those who worked with Alpha Technologies for their video solutions are sourcing audio solutions from us. Bringing those two families together was a major goal in the merger – and we are very proud to have achieved this.
We are also very pleased to have established a comprehensive Solutions Department in Johannesburg. The purpose of this department is to provide clients with an opportunity to purchase a solution rather than a box. A client may approach the solutions team with the intention to purchase a speaker – but once they have had the opportunity to speak with one of our consultants they could discuss their project or installation holistically, and we are able to advise them on a full-spectrum solution, with our product range which carries between 5-7 year warranties . It comes back to that idea of establishing ourselves as a solution-based distributor. The Solutions Centre basically means that we don’t move boxes only; we sell comprehensive solutions that are fully supported over the long run.
WHAT IS YOUR FOCUS AT THE MOMENT?
For us, dealer training is the foundation of great service, and we will continue to grow this aspect of our service offering. Clients need to know our product ranges in order to be including them into their offerings. We have established training centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, and we hold dealer training every Thursday. Alpha Technologies holds the first Barco we present Training Facility in the world where we offer certified training for Barco, Biamp and Bose.
TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE BRANDS THAT YOU DISTRIBUTE
Bose is a key product within our range, and is a top-quality brand worldwide, with an ever-expanding product range. We are very excited about their amazing Design Max speakers, which will start shipping later this year.
Biamp has a very strong foothold within the corporate vertical in South Africa, because of the solid warranty and reliability of the company’s offerings in DSPs, evacuation systems, and huddle room products. Biamp is also soon launching new ceiling microphones which will be able to track and follow the audio.
Barco wePresent which is one of the top wireless presentation brands in South Africa, which is gaining popularity in the corporate and educational verticals.
ALFAtron, is our own in-house brand, is designed specifically to meet the unique requirements of the local AV market and offers robust, simple, commonsense solutions in a range of products. The seven-year warranty is a no-nonsense swap-out warranty, and many local integrators are increasingly relying on us to manufacture, distribute and support ALFAtron products for projects across all verticals.
We also distribute Beyerdynamic including their studio headphones, consumer headphones, microphones, boardroom installations and conferencing systems, – which have proven popular for several high-profile government projects.
Grandview is a superior quality screen brand which we support; these screens are used everywhere from corporate to education and home cinemas.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PERSONAL FAVOURITES?
It’s hard to choose a favourite because each product that we distribute has its own unique features and applications. However, the Bose ShowMatch is one of my personal favourites, because it gives you Bose-quality sound out of a massive PA system, made for up to 5000 people. On a smaller scale but no less impressive is the Bose S1 Pro Bluetooth Speaker, which has been made specifically for musicians.
Another unique product that captures the imagination is the worlds’ first throwable microphone from Catch Box. The mic is designed for meeting and brainstorming sessions, where speakers can simply throw the foam-covered box around the room to those people who wish to participate. Furthermore, it can be customised in the colour of choice, as well as with the company logo.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE THE COMPANY’S CORPORATE CULTURE?
We are a small and agile team that functions more like a close-knit family rather than the traditional corporate style. Most of our clients know the five directors personally as they make a point in personally getting involved where needed.
We also believe in face-to-face contact with our suppliers and have visited them regularly, in countries like China, Europe and the Middle East. Our directors regularly visit our branches, and together with the salespeople, they try to see all our dealers as we want to make sure that they know that with just a quick phone call we will be there to support them, no matter how big or small.
WHAT ARE THE EXCITING FRONTIERS IN THE INDUSTRY?
IT and IoT (the Internet of Things) is going to be a major player in the worldwide market and for us. We’ve invested in IT personal, so we’re able to keep up with the IT spec that’s going out as we are seeing a shift in the market, where IT and AV industries are aligning.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR ALPHA TECHNOLOGIES?
We’re looking forward to accelerated growth in the markets we cover. Our vision is to offer the best possible service to our dealers and to represent the brands that we offer in the best possible way, in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We’re grateful for the support we’ve had, and we’re looking forward to growing the AV market as a whole. The future for Alpha Technologies is bright.
