The lack of clear regulations regarding technology and issues related to customs and adoption of international standards, has not allowed a greater growth of the AV industry in Ecuador.
Richard Santa
Since childhood, and driven by his family, Juan Portugal began to develop tastes and hobbies that today have allowed him to successfully do his work in the audiovisual industry, with a career that is increasingly outstanding. In an interview with AVI LATINOAMÉRICA, this Ecuadorian recalled the path he has traveled in the industry.
As a child, he had an approach to music through his father and sisters, who listened to different styles all the time. And although they were his particular tastes, they stimulated him to seek his own style. Thus he came to form at the time of school a musical band in which he participated as a drummer. Some time later, he went from the musical world to the field of electroacoustics.
Also, from school, he approached technical drawing and has always liked to do modeling. Taking advantage of the different existing tools that allow predictions such as 3D modeling presentations, today you achieve a greater approach with the client towards the possible solutions of your project.
"My hobby is mainly listening to music and sharing it with my two children and my wife, with whom we have been together for 14 years. Fortunately, they have developed tastes of their own and we nurture each other. Although I must confess that my work is my great passion, so I am absorbed by every project in which I get involved. That's why my wife 'gets upset' because when we go out to have fun, because I always analyze the sound," he said.
Fully in the industry
Starting in 2001 professionally, Juan Portugal's experience in the AV industry has gone through recording studios, event production, sound companies, musical groups and even as a teacher. In 2015 he joined T&S Group, a company in the audiovisual area, as technical director.
"I had the idea of expanding my professional services but I could not articulate a working group that was efficient in every aspect. Coincidentally Iván Galárraga met with me to propose me to be part of a multidisciplinary working group which provides audiovisual solutions, it was a series of magnificent coincidences that led us to form a group of 3 people with Santiago Vallejo, to generate a coordinated work towards projects well underway, "he recalled.
Your day-to-day work starts in the office at 9am, as long as you don't have product demonstrations, project delivery, or equipment installation. It begins with a coordination meeting of the current day, action planning in which, depending on the project, the whole group is involved or only a project proposal is generated.
"Everything is based on customer service, which always defines our action plan. The meetings take place while the coffee comes and goes, because Santiago and I are passionate about good coffee and that by good counterpart Ivan is passionate about bread, which always suits the 2 parties, "he said.
Juan Portugal highlighted three objectives that he considers fundamental for the development of an AV company and that he puts into practice in his day-to-day work:
Knowledge of the right product for the market: quality, price, guarantees.
Customer service: find the middle ground where you can optimize resources in time and money to give a clear guide that you need at a fair price.
Training the company's collaborating people: a knowledgeable staff will train the client and a trained client knows what they want.
Education, the constant challenge
Our Professional of the Month defines the work in the AV industry as exciting and demanding, and compares it with live productions, because although it takes place in different times, it is much more critical and radical to be part of projects, because it involves many aspects when performing the demonstration, the quote, negotiation, installation, commissioning, training and finally after-sales service.
All these aspects, he added, require going beyond the technical part and demand a lot of experience in the technical and human fields, because the needs of the client must be directed in all aspects to reach a successful consensus.
On the day-to-day challenges of industry professionals, he mentioned that the biggest one is definitely to be trained to train, because it is a job that must be done with employees, the client and, of course, with the right language so as not to confuse, taking into account that if the client is well trained he knows what he wants. And another challenge is to be on par with technology to optimize resources in all aspects and stages of the project.
"I have been fortunate to travel, both nationally and internationally, with musical groups and have a lot of experience in the field of live sound. In addition, I have taken several courses and workshops abroad, which has allowed me to be part of and understand all the aspects involved in audiovisual productions," he said.
A lot to do in Ecuador
The expansion of the industry in Ecuador, according to Juan Portugal, "I would dare to say that we are just at the beginning of everything, there is much to do. The needs of regulations that allow to have certified facilities are just being visualized and, of course, we are responsible for the beginnings of this industry. Being linked to technology has an exponential growth, I believe that Latin America has a vision very similar to the one we live in Ecuador, with the differences of the case, with other Latin American countries with more demand and therefore greater opening of customs for access to cutting-edge technology . "
He added that from a subjective point of view and from experience, "I consider that in Ecuador the industry grows in a small percentage compared to countries that export technology, because we are just circumventing the issues of standardizations and therefore the regulations are not clear, both in imports and in regulations applied to projects. Let's say, there is no regulation so it is very difficult to keep statistics of this industry at the moment."
Finally, he pointed out that they still have to install obsolete equipment due to the client's request and ignorance; mainly it happens in the government area and to a lesser extent in the private area, which is more flexible when making budget adjustments, without much bureaucracy involved.
