QUESTEK ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES: Getting the Right Message to the Right People, at the Right Time

Technology touches almost every aspect of today’s world, that much goes without saying. It has changed the way we live our daily lives, the way we conduct business, and the way we communicate. Audio-visual integration (AVI) plays a major role in modern communication, a fact which still escapes many people, from the smallest meeting rooms and corporate boardrooms to the largest auditoriums. All these rely heavily on AV technologies to enable effective and efficient communications.

A well-executed audio and visual installation has the potential to change how efficient a business is in its operations, however commercial AV is a complex process, and not easy to get right. Based in Bryanston, since inception in the late 1980s Questek Audio Visual has been a true pioneer in designing, supplying and maintaining audio visual, video conferencing, control room, video wall, digital-out-of-home equipment and providing solutions for companies both large and small in Southern Africa. 

“Questek offers a turnkey approach to each project, from inception to installation and operation, on-site training and after sales support,” the company outlines. “A team of dedicated and skilled professionals work hand-in-hand with clients to deliver a cutting-edge solution to keep abreast in today’s highly competitive corporate market making sure clients’ AV needs are met to the last detail.”

HUMANOID HEROES

Quest for Technology is the exploded version of Questek’s more neatly abridged name, which perfectly encapsulates what has kept it growing and improving over more than three decades to date. “Questek is a 34-year-old company – a relatively old company in the grand scheme, but still constantly at the forefront,” sets out Sales Manager Darren Cox. “Beginning life in 1988, we were one of the first audiovisual companies in South Africa, having come from the broadcast industry which in fact dates us back slightly further even, through the combination of the three companies that joined together to form Questek.

“We have succeeded in building up quite an illustrious history, which has encompassed a number of world firsts and several innovation awards,” Cox shares, but adding a typically humble rejoinder. “The important thing, though, that we always have to remember, is it is not the past that is important, but what we are doing right at this moment.”

A particular strength of Questek’s at present, Cox reveals, is in the area of humanoid robotics. “We brought the first of these into South Africa about three years ago now – a Pepper Robot, the world’s first social humanoid robot able to recognise faces and basic human emotion” he details. “We have taken it much further, however, and are now at the stage whereby recently we have removed the insides of robots that we have bought in, leaving the shell, and developed a local system in terms of the software and the brains that go around the whole operation.

“As a result, we now have a locally-hosted robotics system, entirely here within South Africa, which comes with a whole of host of functionality along with it; we have just completed the first of these with our partner company. This is totally owned by us and is the first time it has been done in South Africa, and the obvious next step with which we are busying ourselves now is looking into building the bodies here to make it a 100% South African product.”

Cox cites the example of a project which has entailed Questek deploying such robots in a retail store, to deal with customer enquiries and guiding them toward their desired destination. “It is an invaluable additional resource to aid in sales,” he puts it. “The robot acts as a nice interface, or middle ground, between a human being and a machine. There is no desire here to replace humans, and never will be – this is one thing we make abundantly clear to our customers; it is all about putting a pleasant face on a computer, and in turn actually serves to make the people more efficient themselves.”

MORE THAN AV

Aligning itself acutely with the continued and concerted move away from coal-based energy sources in the country, and indeed the world, Questek is also developing applications for its robots in the solar sphere, Cox delineates. “We are working with companies to see how we can use a different type of robot for the cleaning of solar panels, and mechanisms for cleaning solar farms, in this current great shift towards solar and alternative energies in South Africa.”

The other aspect of the great Questek that Cox is anxious to unpack is that under the enterprise video and e-learning umbrella. “I like to equate it to being a corporation’s YouTube,” he condenses, “recording and uploading videos into the company’s portal and working hand-in-hand with their learning systems. We’re making it easy to record and distribute video, and we want transform how an organisation communicates, learns, and grows.

“We have also introduced a number of innovations into universities, looking at cutting costs through identifying the most key basic functionalities – nobody wants to have to learn how to use hugely advanced technology to be able to do their job, and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to disseminate their message to pupils.”

New products for boardrooms, Cox goes on, represent another key focus for Questek in the bid to cut costs and simplify the process of putting together solutions based on the needs of each individual client. “For three decades Questek has designed, installed, and maintained some of the highest profile boardrooms in the country, and we have a very good product which is really contributing to this. Our designs factor in considerations like room acoustics, room size and layout, existing infrastructure and the intended use of the room to produce an exceptional meeting experience.”

Another particularly fruitful area for Questek, Cox closes, is in control room installations, where it has been leading the way in South Africa since 1989. “We find that a lot of companies are consolidating into main control rooms at present, and it boils down to better managing multiple systems,” he explains. “We are focussing on the management of these multiple systems and installing the right ergonomics into these control rooms, and although it has boomed recently it has always been a mainstay of the business.

“Almost everything revolves around making the management of information easier, and being able to communicate more seamlessly,” he says. “I don’t classify us as an audiovisual company any more,” he concludes of such a multifaceted, ever-evolving outfit, “but as an ICT company with a primary focus on visualisation and communication.”