IN CONVERSATION WITH
PRASHANT GOVINDAN
The Sr. Director of Harman Professional India & Sri Lanka, spoke to
us about his journey in this industry, various exciting products of
Harman, new launches this year and much more.
Tell us how you got into this industry and your journey
so far in Harman.
I started out in the Computer Engineering phase. I had been selling
software, writing software and more of a geek, that’s where I
come from. I was doing a lot of travel between India and UK in the
early 2000s. I used to run an IT publication in Glasgow. I always
liked Music, Audio Technology and used to build Loudspeakers,
Amplifiers etc during college. It was more of a hobby for me. My first
job was in Architectural Audio, a Singapore based professional audio
distributor. That is how I got my feet wet with professional audio. We
were more focused on installed rather than portable or professional
side of it. My expertise was built in the Installed audio area. From
there, I went to Biamp Systems, which manufactures high end digital
signal processing equipment for board rooms, conference room apps.
They build paging products for airports, convention centers and
such. I was representing Biamp in India, Middle East and Africa.
I was there for 5 years. One of my ex colleagues from Biamp who
joined Harman back then, moved to India to head Operations at that
time. He dropped me a line and I came on board as the Director of
Sales in 2012 and from there my journey has been very interesting. I
subsequently took over as head of operations in 2013.
How do you think Harman has reached to where it is
today in India?
Harman professional is a collection of 11 different brands: AKG,
Soundcraft, Studer, JBL professional , Crown, Lexicon, BSS, DBX,
Digitech, Martin Lighting and our recent acquisition: AMX. For us,
when the journey started, we started as an R&D center. We develop
software, firmware for all our mixer products including Soundcraft
and Studer and signal processing products in fact we have a testing
facility in Bangalore.. That was one of the reasons for us to come to
India. It is the best cost country for software and hence we’re based in
Bangalore. We started in 2009 with small set of R&D engineers. In 2011,
we decided to establish commercial operations. We set up our office
in Bangalore and in 2012 we went direct, until which we had a single
point distributor who would buy from different Harman factories.
We effectively took over all the distribution and operations in India.
Harman professional in India is the first pro audio company to have
gone Direct. We did because India is a dynamic and a fast growing
market so we wanted to invest and grow the market ourselves. It is
easier to put in investment when we require it. We have 14 service
centers across India, a full fledged warehouse in Chennai for both
finished goods and spares and three sales offices
You have a great variety of Endorsees. How do you
pick them?
World over, our Endorsee program is all about collaboration with
great musical talent. We look for Innovation and how engaged our
endorsees are with the brands. In India, we work with different
talent from various genres which could range from a guitarist,
percussionist, Bollywood, classical, fusion etc. We have artists such
as Sivamani, Mihir Joshi, Siddharth Mahadevan, Selva Ganesh,
Ranjith Barot , Sunitha Sarathy, Niladri Kumar, Soulmate, Stephen
Devass, and are signing on Kabir Café and Sweta Pandit soon. Our
endorsee program is mainly for musicians to look up to endorsees
World over, our Endorsee program is all
about collaboration with great musical
talent. We look for Innovation and how
engaged our endorsees are with the
brands. In India, we work with different
talent from various genres which could
range from a guitarist, percussionist,
Bollywood, classical, fusion etc.
and get a hang of the products, the ‘Why Harman’ factor. Each artist
endorsee uses a different brand and product too. We’re a versatile
house of brands and have a wide array of products that suit all
musical styles and genres. For instance, our go-to vocal microphones
for live performances are the AKG D5 & D7 are fan tastic, extremely
rugged,and tour grade. For studio purpose, we have the C414XLS
which is the legendary studio microphone. It’s been used for over
20 years. Some of the most memorable recordings are with those
microphones. We have the tube microphones like the C12VR, and the
small diaphragm C1000s which have brilliant sound. It is not just a
transaction with the endorsees, it has a lot of personal factors to it
too; most are very good friends too.
How do you think Harman helps the budding or
amateur musicians?
We have been known to be a “Professional’s Choice” and that could
be a little bit intimidating when you’re out there selling gear. We
come from a legacy and have great brands but we don’t let that stop
us from innovating and we love to bring products for the youth.
Let me share with you about this product from Soundcraft called
Ui series which is a console that you can carry around with you. It
doesn’t even have a surface, your smart phone acts as the surface. It
is light weight and you can mix a small band, up to 16 microphones
and line inputs going into it and it works on wifi. For a small band,
they don’t need to carry around professional gear. But by no means is
the quality less. We use the same technology even in larger consoles.
It’s a scalable product. There is a new product called the EON 206,
a “Concert in a briefcase” because it has a mixer, microphone pre
amplifier in built and it is an amplified pair of speakers. It can be
used by larger professional musicians for jamming too. We also build
guitar pedals from Digitech the most recent being the TRIO. You can
just play a chord and it automatically gives you the bass and rhythm.
We do build for professional and we also have a set of products for
budding musicians.
Tell us about your journey with Palm Expo India.
Palm Expo is a great platform and Ramesh and team have been so
supportive of our ideas. We are usually always ready to jump on any
new ideas. In fact this year, they are coming up with a Video Wall for
The
Score Magazine
www.thescoremagazine.com
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