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FIRST LOOK MIDDLE EAST
MIG CARDAMONE, DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING, SENNHEISER MIDDLE EAST SENNHEISER MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING REFLECTS ON HOW THE COMPANY HAS HANDLED THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, GIVES HIS PROGNOSIS FOR THE LIVE EVENTS INDUSTRY IN THE REGION, AND REVEALS AN EXCITING NEW PRODUCT SERIES SET TO TRANSFORM THE WIRELESS MICROPHONE MARKET.
Thinking back to the end of 2019, nobody could have foreseen the truly unprecedented situation that 2020 would bring. We, along with the rest of the world, have had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had an impact on our business and way of working that is both negative and positive. From an operational point of view, our team has done a great job in adapting to new working practices and conditions as they have embraced the technology that has allowed us to remain connected even when we were working from home, both together as a team but also, of course, with our customers. The move to remote working is well established now and we continue to operate a mix of home and office working, allowing the choice depending on personal circumstances and roles. It’s no surprise that many have preferred to come back into the office more regularly as a means of remaining in physical contact with colleagues and allowing for a clearer delineation between work and home life, but it’s refreshing to see how these new ways of working are embraced in this part of the world, as it has been clear that the output of work is either maintained or enhanced given the right motivation and tools to work. The situation has also served as an accelerant to our online education programmes for our customers, where we quickly put together a host of free pro audio training webinars and product demonstrations under our #DontStopTheEducation programme, which enabled us to keep in contact with our customers and offer valuable training on our products that were very much application focused. From a commercial perspective, some areas of our business are yet to fully recover, with the live events industry clearly the hardest hit as far as our own business in professional audio is concerned. However, having such a diverse portfolio has very much helped mitigate the negative effects, with other areas of our product offering experiencing a higher demand due to the way our customers have adapted to these changed circumstances. In fact, our offering in a few key areas has allowed us to replace this loss of business. As well as greater demand for home studio setups, we have also seen a move towards ‘contained livestream’ events that has allowed users to use different products to those they would have used on a regular live stage. Consequently, our Neumann offering of studio microphones and monitors has seen astonishing growth over the past year, as the focus
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