Stability and Trustworthiness as Maxim: Company Founder Friedrich Salzbrenner became 70

It was in 1963 when he laid the foundations of the meanwhile worldwide operating SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP. With his characteristic ambition and consistency, he has built up an established consortium within four decades, focussing on the professional audio business. Today, the MEDIAGROUP provides altogether 160 employees with a safe job. On 23 December 2002, Friedrich Salzbrenner celebrated his 70th birthday. A look back.

His start into business was not too easy: When he was 17, Friedrich Salzbrenner escaped from the then-Soviet occupation zone and came to Hallstadt near Bamberg, following his father who had to save his life after expropriation. Salzbrenner suffered the same fate as many of his fellows: the authorities did not recognize his Soviet-zone graduation, so the university doors remained closed to him for the first. Therefore, he spent his life with jobs in the food business and became a spices salesman. At the same time, he started devoting himself to his hobby: ham radio. It was already in 1960 when he experimented with earth-moon-earth radio transmission, using the moon as a reflector. He has remained faithful not only to this pastime but to all his life activities until today.
Still a spices representative, he started to gain local reputation for implementing sound reinforcement at processions. When his graduation was after all accepted in 1956 - he was 24 then -, the course of studies was obvious: He enrolled in radio-frequency technology at Weil am Rhein. In his early thirties, and after many breaks necessary for earning his living money, Salzbrenner successfully finished his studies. It was just a few months later when he founded a radio-system repair and maintenance workshop.

»…the curtain will rise at half past seven…«
One thing was a main concern in those times: keeping the living standard for oneself and the family. Therefore, Salzbrenner repaired TV sets and radios, installed antennas, and was contracted by Philips for maintaining special radio sets for physicians. »After the flight, our situation was very bad, and I was determined that we would never lead such a terrible life again,« says Friedrich Salzbrenner about the beginning of his self-employment.
Just one year later, he was commissioned to install a new stage-management system for the Bamberg Symphonic Orchestra. Already then, each and every system had to be customized to meet the very special requirements of the customer; there were no standard solutions. Therefore, Friedrich Salzbrenner designed a tailor-made stage-management system.
The Bamberg Theatre ordered a similar system shortly afterwards. This project was much more extensive, and Friedrich Salzbrenner had actually never seen how a theatre works; therefore, he accepted the offer of scrutinizing a new theatre production from the initial rehearsals to the first curtain. He attended the morning rehearsals, where he could watch on-stage and back-stage practices, and worked in his shop in the afternoons and evenings. This phase turned out to be a fundamental investment into his future, as it should become the basis for many follow-up jobs and his specialization in theatre and stage-management technology. »The curtain would rise at half past seven. The equipment had to be up and running until then. This was one of the most important points I learnt at that time.«

»… a customer only if he comes back…«
One valuable follow-up commission was mediated in 1964 by the predecessors of the Gerling + Arendt development business in Berlin who were desperately seeking a theatre expert for a renovation of the Ingolstadt theatre. Friedrich Salzbrenner deployed the sound-reinforcement and stage-management systems in virtually no time. One of Salzbrenner's principles was that of continuity, and still today, Gerling + Arendt and the SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP are often realizing projects as partners. "A customer is a customer only if he comes back," says the senior head.
More jobs, for example, at the Theater des Westens, and large installations such as the ICC Berlin followed, furnishing the company with an even better name in the fields of intercom technology. Salzbrenner's business was growing steadily, also because his wife had become one of his most vigorous supporters.
In the meantime, Salzbrenner had become a Philips authorised dealer and service provider, increasing his market shares in northern Bavaria. First, his installations were based exclusively on Philips components but these were not being sufficiently advanced anymore in the eighties. Therefore, Friedrich Salzbrenner started developing components himself in order to be able to supply up-to-date equipment. At first, there were just supplemental components used in combination with Philips gear (e.g. P.A.-system accessories or networking applications); however, this branch kept growing, ending up in an in-house development department - the same which today produces the C.A.S. systems, a sample of most up-to-date digital intercom and stage-management technology.

»… the burden of responsibility was spread…«
Today, the development and installation department is one of the few prime contractors that are fully established on the market - be it in theatres, playhouses, and operas or with fixed installation of audio, video, and intercom systems in convention centres and multipurpose halls. An additional line of action of the SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP department are installations in the fields of radio technology and professional video production..
However, it was still a long way to the establishment of the MEDIAGROUP. »When my three sons Wolfgang, Thomas, and Stephan joined the company, it was the first time that the responsibilities were spread among several people. This was the time when I could devote to other things beside everyday business,« Salzbrenner explains the innovative thrust the firm experienced in the nineties.
In 1989, a distribution team was built up in order to supply additional products from the fields of high-quality recording-studio technology. As a team of well-coordinated specialists was hired for the new business, it not only gained highest market acceptance almost immediately but has also been able to increase this approval up to the day.
The expansion of the company in the fields of professional audio technology went on. At a time when the entire audio industry underwent radical changes, Salzbrenner took his chance: A prominent R&D team searched for a partner to develop digital studio equipment. Together with this innovative and experienced team, Salzbrenner established STAGETEC, a separate R&D company for digital routing systems and mixing consoles, in 1993. The operation of this new business led to the release of their first product just half a year later: the NEXUS audio router. From the very beginning, the innovative quality of STAGETEC has been not only their developments and products but also the entirely new business model where the entire team was financially involved as co-founders of the company. This model ensured not only staff continuity - all these co-founders are still today members of the team - but also constant innovation and product development. All the products successfully introduced since then - in particular, the CANTUS and the recently presented AURUS - are proof to that.
In 2001, tpc international joined the SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP. A company of outdoor-broadcasting productions and O.B.-van construction sold its fleet, due to financial difficulties, and dismissed a well-playing team of employees, so SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP took time by the forelock and entered a new arena in the broadcasting scene. In January 2001, this company division named tpc international started a cooperation with the established Swiss production company tv productioncenter zürich ag, serving the European TV-production market.

»… values I introduced a long time ago…«
The rapid progress and growth during the last years had taken place in silence and discretion. It was only in October 2001, after the company had moved to the new headquarters, that at last a platform had been established to adequately represent the expanded consortium to the outside world. Some previously external branches such as the intercom R & D and production departments formerly based in Gelnhausen were moved to the HQ premises in Buttenheim. At the same time, the SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP was established by four powerful partners: the SALZBRENNER STAGETEC Audio Video Mediensysteme in Buttenheim, the STAGETEC Entwicklung professioneller Audiotechnik in Berlin, tpc international based in Pliezhausen, and DELEC Audio- und Videotechnik GmbH, an intercom-system manufacturer based in Göllheim, as the latest addition to the group.
New distribution and service branches were founded in Rome, Vienna, and Brussels. These branches - like those in Berlin, Löffingen, Pliezhausen, and Chemnitz - are meant to be local contact institutions addressing all issues with regard to the application of products and services provided by the MEDIAGROUP.
After moving to the new headquarters and establishing the MEDIAGROUP, following 40 years of work, Friedrich Salzbrenner handed over most of his management duties to his younger successors. »Today, a can look back with pleasure, and forward with confidence, because values I introduced a long time ago are respected still today where the small family business has become an internationally operating consortium: the SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP,« said Friedrich Salzbrenner at his birthday party. There are only two things he will never relinquish for all his life: ham radio and sound reinforcement at processions - two things that prepared the ground for his autonomy.