Shure to Throw the Spotlight on Microflex Ecosystem and Stem Ecosystem at GITEX Africa 2024

Yassine Mannai, the Associate Sales Director at Shure, says doing more with less is a growing priority for businesses today

Please provide an overview of your company’s products, services, and activities.
Shure (www.shure.com) has been making people sound extraordinary for nearly a century. Founded in 1925, the company is a leading global manufacturer of audio equipment known for quality, performance, and durability. We make microphones, wireless microphone systems, in-ear monitors, earphones and headphones, conferencing systems, and more. For critical listening or high-stakes moments on stage, in the studio, and from the meeting room, you can always rely on Shure.

At Shure, we have a deep audio experience that we leverage when designing our products. We know what works on stage, in extremely demanding environments during live events, in broadcast, etc. and we want to deliver those outstanding experiences to everyone in the workplace and classrooms. As a global company and having teams collaborating remotely daily, we experience our own products ourselves, so we have a passion for making them better and better. We also collaborate closely with our customers and partners. This helps us understand their frustrations and demands, but also to stay ahead of market trends. We use this feedback and our expertise to deliver the highest quality products and audio solutions. That is what inspires us.

We understand that we live in a fast-paced, changing environment that requires us to be flexible. Today’s hybrid, hyflex and remote environments mean that there are new ways for businesses to work, and those change daily. Participants can join a meeting in person one day and the next day join from home. Creating a technology that easily adapts to this flexible environment is fundamental. But businesses also need to equip their teams with gear that can adapt to this working model, and this means providing systems both for meeting rooms and at home.

What are your reasons for coming onboard GITEX Africa, what are your expectations, and who are you hoping to meet at the show?
We’re all getting used to the concept of hybrid working as it becomes part and parcel of everyday life. While more and more teams are heading back to the workplace and students are attending lectures in person once again, many others are choosing to continue working from home for at least some of the week. When joining a meeting from home, we’ve become used to seeing our colleagues or fellow students in individual boxes on our screens. Now, in this hybrid work set-up, we might be struggling to see our in-person colleagues or fellow students gathered in a large meeting space.

This presents a new challenge for IT and AV leaders who create and manage these hybrid environments. How do they ensure meeting equity where any talker can be heard and seen clearly by all participants, whether they’re joining remotely from home or in a physical setting? The ability to see and hear who is talking in a crowded meeting room gives a greater sense of connection. And the greater the connection, the better the employee experience and levels of productivity. In recent research by Frost & Sullivan into how collaboration tools promote active engagement and productivity, 89% of survey respondents said video conferencing helped them feel connected, with 75% saying it increased their productivity.

Are you planning to launch any product/service, demonstrate any technology, or sign any partnership/MoU during the show? Please provide details.
Microflex Ecosystem and Stem Ecosystem provide high-quality audio for customers, whether their needs are simple or complex. For corporations, governments, higher education, or greater organizations that might have bigger investment possibilities, the Microflex Ecosystem portfolio, which recently added the MXA920 Ceiling Array Microphone, brings outstanding audio quality to even the most difficult meeting and teaching spaces. These devices undergo exhaustive development processes and quality tests in our labs and easily integrate with third-party AV equipment. They also allow spaces to adapt to different situations. We know that some broadcasters and film production companies have been using some Microflex Ecosystem solutions on set and in the studio.

With the Stem Ecosystem portfolio, Shure offers a customizable solution that requires a more straightforward audio and control package which local IT teams can deploy in standard meeting rooms. For small businesses or simply smaller meeting rooms within a larger AV project can have consistent and effective audio with these solutions. Now with an enhanced acoustic performance thanks to the firmware 2.5, recently announced. It is easy to use, scalable and can be combined with other communication platforms.

What are the trends that might shape the African tech ecosystem in 2024?
Doing more with less is a growing priority for businesses today. It means consolidating existing investments and assets involving business resources – such as data, documents, databases, applications, platforms networks, and systems, as well as security for these business-critical resources – by reducing duplicate and redundant solutions, and leveraging technologies that enable consolidation. It also means ensuring that future investments are delivering maximum return on investment.

The ability to do more with less requires a full understanding of current assets and investments, how the business is leveraging these to drive growth, and whether the technology investments in place are being used appropriately in terms of security, governance and compliance. It is critical to ensure that digital solutions meet local compliance and regulatory requirements.

How important is Africa for your business and what is the volume of business growth you anticipate in this region over the next few years?
Africa is home to some of the fastest-growing economies and consumer markets in the world, and in recent years Africa’s household consumption has grown faster than its gross domestic product (GDP) —and has even outpaced the global average GDP growth rate. Considering the increasing affluence, population growth, urbanisation rates, and rapid spread of access to the Internet and mobile phones on the continent, Africa’s burgeoning economies present exciting opportunities for expansion in a range of sectors.

To what extent can the governments of African countries support and accelerate the continent’s tech industry?
Africa presents a sea of economic opportunities in virtually every sector, and the continent’s youthful population structure is an enormous opportunity in this digital era and hence the need for Africa to make digitally-enabled socio-economic development a high priority. Digital Transformation is a driving force for innovative, inclusive and sustainable growth. Innovations and digitalization are stimulating job creation and contributing to addressing poverty, reducing inequality, facilitating the delivery of goods and services, and contributing to the achievement of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities of doing business in Africa?
Both large and small businesses are critical to Africa’s economic growth as they are key drivers of growth locally, regionally, and internationally, and in turn provide a significant portion of the local population’s income. And, given the current rate of globalisation, the growth potential is unimaginable. Despite this, there are challenges in doing business in Africa, these challenges range from lack of financing to shortages in mentoring, and training available for high-potential digital skills

What industry verticals in Africa are you targeting and why?
Shure’s main focus is providing reliable and high-quality audio gear wherever our customers and the industry need them. We’ve supported companies in different spaces like pharmaceuticals, finance, local and national governments, higher education institutions, and more. We’ve recently released products for conferencing such as the MXW neXt 2, but also wireless systems for live events and broadcasting, like Axient Digital. We also have great microphones for podcasters, gamers, and content creators. We make products for high-stakes moments on stage, in the studio or in the meeting room with the goal that our customers sound extraordinary and can always rely on Shure.

Global funds have invested massively in African startups recently. How do you see the market behaving in the next five years and in which ways that will influence the investments in the region?
Fintech is the fastest-growing startup industry in Africa, with over 5,200 companies spread across the continent in 2022. The rapid expansion has in part been driven by the increasingly young, tech-savvy and urban population. These consumers are looking for user-friendly and advanced digital finance solutions, rather than traditional and often slow-paced services.

Have you noticed an increase in the availability of technical skills and young talent in Africa recently due to the tech industry expansion? In which ways has this impacted the companies in the region?
One of the benefits is that Africa, with the right structures, will provide a significant population of talent for the global tech space.