DiGiCo’s Ian Staddon was recently in South Africa, his first visit since appointing DWR Distribution as the DiGiCo distributor for Africa.
“The trip for me was phenomenal,” said Ian. “I think it was superbly organised and the number of people that we got to see was great. The vibe for DiGiCo around the country is really strong. Speaking to the engineers there was nothing but positivity and they all loved the SD range. The S series is obviously new and we’ve had some teething problems, but those have been addressed with the latest software. It seems that more and more people are getting to work on the consoles and they absolutely love them. The name is well known, but there is a change happening in South Africa with an increasing momentum behind the brand.”
Ian was at Soundcraft for 11 years, and by then Harman had also bought Studer. Due to his experience in sales but also the knowledge he had gained through the MBI broadcast projects, Ian moved from his then position of VP of Product Development at Soundcraft, over to Studer to work in their sales team. “Having done some work within Soundcraft for Studer, Harman asked me to go across on to the Studer sales side and I soon became VP of Sales for Studer. I was at Studer for about nine years, and thoroughly enjoyed my time there, but I felt that I had done what I could there and it was decision time for me.”
Ian had known the original investor / founders of DiGiCo, Bob Doyle and Dave Webster for a long time and commented “I’ve now been with DiGiCo for over five years and it’s a very different company to that of a massive organisation, although we are growing fast. It’s more like a family really, and I have a great team, which makes it a great place to work.”
Duncan Riley of DWR Distribution has not looked back since getting to know the DiGiCo team. “It’s such a pleasure to work with someone as humble and as knowledgeable as Ian,” said Duncan. “It’s all about the relationship between the manufacturer and distributor and DiGiCo really understand this. I think it’s great to work with people like that.”
