Part of the company’s UK expansion, Solotech has appointed Ian Woodall as Director of Video and Paul McCauley as Video Business Development Manager for the UK and European markets.
Ian ‘Woody’ Woodall’s CV includes time at XL Video where as Sales Director and time as a freelance, designing and building A/V systems in European venues and as a touring video engineer on projects including Nile Rodgers and Chic who have been with Cher for the past year. Paul ‘Macca’ McCauley has extensive experience in the both the live events and integration industries. He moved from audio to video when he worked as Senior Project Manager with Woody at XL Video more than ten years ago.
‘We decided that it was important to build on the huge reputation of Solotech for video in Canada and the US, and therefore necessary to start organically, building it from a clean slate so that we can maintain the same Solotech service across the UK and Europe.’ Woodall says.
‘Initially there are three key facets to our business that require equal attention. First leveraging the contacts and expanding the scope of the UK Sales and Integration divisions within SSE Audio and Wigwam. We will bring our new offering of video services to the project delivery teams and existing customer base, alongside the development of new business that Macca and myself can introduce under the banner of the new Solotech UK Video department.
‘Then there’s Solotech’s huge video touring business. As a global company we need to locally support our customers. As our clients visit us from the US and Canada, we can provide the necessary technical assistance to support each tour. Having this infrastructure within the same organisation on both sides of the Atlantic is a not only rare in today’s market, but a necessity.
‘Finally, we have our own local touring clients. While this is no less of a priority, we are planning for structured growth, as we want to ensure that we increase capacity at the right pace, providing every client with the same expected premium level of service. We have the worldwide backing of Solotech, which enables us to make significant capital investments on equipment so that no project is too big or too small.’
‘Projects across the board now increasingly call for a 360° service, where a single vendor supplies sound, lights and video,’ says Solotech Live Productions Division President, Mickey Curbishley. ‘This is equally applicable in both live production touring and the sales and integration markets. Delivering the right equipment, with the right people at the right price will enable us to achieve that goal.’
The appointments are accompanied the opening of a new Central London office close to Covent Garden tube station. Here, alongside permanent staff including the video team, there are a number of hot desks available to clients and visitors from other offices to use when in central London. The meeting rooms feature video conferencing facilities that can support virtually any conference client – such as Skype, Zoom and Facetime.
‘The central location is perfect for meeting with clients, whether from the UK or further afield,’ says UK Sales and Systems Integration MD, Alex Penn. ‘There are four airports all with good links into the capital and Kings Cross International is three stops away on the tube. We hope that making our team more accessible in the city will help us to develop our contacts and open new doors to us.’
‘The new offices and the video department are key to us delivering the Solotech offering in the UK, alongside growing and developing the businesses of our UK brands,’ adds Solotech President of Sales and Systems Integration, Philip Giffard.
More: www.solotech.com
