1. Travelling the African continent

Trainee engineer, satellite contributions · 2000–2006

I grew up in Johannesburg as any other typical boy in a medium class home. I did all the kids things like playing sport and having fun. I finished high school in 1999 and went to Pretoria Technikon after I received a bursary to study Horticulture. I really wanted to work in the sun and not in an office.

This however didn't last long as the travelling to Pretoria every day took it's toll on me, missing practical buses after being stuck in the crazy traffic that could make me sit on the highway for hours. I spotted a notice on one of the noticeboards and there was a company looking for an intern to train-up in satellite news gathering and live sports broadcasting. This sounded incredible to me!

I applied, went through a few rounds of interviews and was hired along with another guy who was studying at UJ (RAU at the time). I then spent a year or two shadowing engineers on maintenance projects, assisting on SNG and OB's, installing remote feed sites, and learning where I could.

I was eventually let off the leash around 3 years in, and got to start travelling South Africa on my own, eventually travelling to all sorts of countries around Africa, spending weeks away at a time. I operated uplink and downlink, video and audio in the MCR, SNG vans and fly-away kits, and helped build remote feed sites. Live sport and breaking news I worked went out to desks including BBC, Sky News, CNN, Reuters, APTN, Octagon, SuperSport, and others.

2. Sounds of the cities

Projects supervisor, live events · 2006–2009

I wanted to learn more though and being associated with journalists in certain African countries was becoming more dangerous, unfortunately we lost a few colleagues and a more were getting arrested, we had also started to see journalists being kidnapped and beheaded on local TV channels and it was getting dangerous for us to be working in those countries.

I decided it was time for something new, and I took a break from working to study a digital electronics diploma through Unisa but eventually found another job, this time in Nelspruit where I could get my hands dirty with more toys. Sound equipment, lighting and stage equipment was next for me.

I joined an AV company that did most of the events in the Mpumalanga area, whether it was concert set-ups for large events, smaller school or community based events, private parties, and even weddings, we did it all, and this included all the dry hire of décor, draping for massive marquees, table settings, photo booths, all the lighting and staging too.

I remember it being incredibly difficult work as we had to set up in the week, often at multiple venues for different events, and then come Friday-Sunday, we would have to be at those events to operate any Audio & Visual gear and ensure that all the décor and decorative elements were also in place. Then we would have to pack up everything, usually after the event which meant after midnight for most. It was insane and I remember working sometimes for weeks in a row

I respect those event people tremendously but again I wanted more and I knew that I could do more.

3. Going live. EEEK!

Gallery co-ordinator, then technical director and vision mixer · 2009–2015

After working the events gig for a few years, in the back of my mind, I always missed the adrenaline of live broadcasting and decided to send my cv randomly one day to a company called etv. I never heard back from them for months and in the meantime had resigned from my job as the company had been struggling to pay all the staff's salaries and was on the brink of closing down. I was preparing to move back to Johannesburg again. I had secured a few freelance gigs to keep me going for a month or 2 and suddenly they contacted me with an interview request. I travelled to Johannesburg the next day and went through my interview process, travelled back to Nelspruit, and again no word for a few weeks. I thought I had done poorly and decided to accept my fate and just carry on.

They contacted me a few weeks later and offered me a position. I had gone for a job interview and hadn't even asked what position I was being interviewed for, I was so nervous. Anyways, it was for a multi-role position within the TV studio control room, called a gallery. This meant I got to play with all the equipment once more!

How exciting it was to be in the centre of live news, especially when something big had happened and people were scrambling to get to air first. I was back again! I tried to learn everything as quickly as possible and just devoured every bit of info, advice, tip or trick I could get my hands on. I progressed quickly and within a few months I was directing the last few bulletins late at night that had lesser viewers and handling them well.

One morning though, I received a call from our HOD and I thought I had done something wrong, all he said was that my director would no longer be returning to work and I needed to direct the morning show. It was the opening day of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa! I remember standing at the corner of the studio and watching the 6am show go through their stories and new inserts and sponsored segments and I remember being absolutely terrified!

08:55 comes and the anchors need to swop in the 5 min ad-break, crews need to move sets around, and I need to take calm myself. I sit in the directors chair and look at the mass of buttons and lights in front of me, I take over the reigns and all I hear is "10 seconds to air, 5 seconds, 3-2-1" and I say "Roll Server A" and we're live!

4. Madiba magic

Technical director and vision mixer · special projects and OBs

So, following on from the previous note, I managed to get through 3 hours straight of rolling live news coverage and no mistakes! What an incredible feeling being the youngest director there and crushing it! I only got more confident after that and before long I was working on the Prime 6-9 Night and Morning shows with the most viewers, hitting 2.4M viewers on one of months average ratings! Incredible, I was being taken seriously and contributing.

I felt as though I had grown up finally and had been given more responsibility on show look and feel. I was also now creating standard operating (SOPs) for how shows would look and I was trialling all sorts of new ideas that producers were running with.

I gained a lot of people's trust as now I was being asked to do special projects and external OB broadcasts. One being Nelson Mandela's memorial and final flights to Qunu. Incredibly humbling and high pressure considering the likes of us providing the world feed. This means that the international broadcasters that hadn't secured their own productions would be taking our video feed and entire production so our team had to perform at their highest potential. We cracked it out of the park.

5. Time to go big

Freelance camera director and vision mixer · then PFL · 2015–2019

Dealing with, let's be frank, morbid topics constantly, I felt I needed to get out and try find something else to do instead of watching and hearing about deaths, people striking, homelessness, bad economy and natural disasters. I took some time out again because it was a matter of my mental health to be honest, I was starting to hate society and the people in it. I kept thinking how do we treat each other this way?

Even though I loved what I was doing, I was dealing with conflicting views about humanity and I jumped. I couldn't do it day in and day out. I needed to step back. I took a few months and then started a furniture upscaling business where I could still be creative but I still missed the broadcast and design elements. I had stopped designing in my spare time and I had lost myself in the depressing topics and thoughts.

I spent a few years freelance as a camera director and vision mixer. That included Red Bull’s Iron Man World Championships in 2015 — the first broadcast I worked that was done entirely on a 3G cellular network — the Department of Education matric results announcement, and SA’s Got Talent as assistant backstage manager.

I then joined a friend, and my brother in-law, who was trying to launch a new Futsal league that was going to be broadcast into 60+ stores nationally. Naturally this excited me as I love being at the front of new ideas and technology. We started a league of 8 teams and 11 players and coaching staff, score keepers and technical crew to get this up and running. We ran games 7 days a week. It was created with the idea that people in betting shops could have something else to bet on during the week as sports was mostly the weekend.

It did well and created a lot of jobs for mostly unemployed individuals who could play a good game. We had open day trials for players from all over the country at different locations, and chose around 90 players to represent 8 teams. We named these after their location and a famous EPL team's nickname, like Polokwane Blues. Players would play in league games that lasted a period of 2 weeks and the winners would get a pay cheque and bragging rights. Some of our players represented South Africa in the Futsal World Cup, coming 3rd after losing to Brazil in extra time penalties. We had done our people proud and represented our country incredibly well with some players receiving international contracts in Belgium.

6. Much learned

Broadcast manager, then teaching myself to build · from 2019

Carrying on from the last note, unfortunately our client could no longer carry on with the league and we had to shut it down but I really do miss those days and the friendships we created. A lot of those people went back to where they came from, joined their families and hopefully found more opportunity afterwards. god bless them all.

Which leads me to another exciting project to work on. This time we were tasked with opening a 24 hour gambling channel on Openview Satellite TV. This channel was used mainly as a marketing tool to bring the brand to more people and what better way than to millions of people that have bought the Openview platform.

I was broadcast manager on that channel: consultation with crew, and the technical workflows that had to hold up every day. We found a studio, organised crew in record time, and hit the ground running. We had no real idea of how we were going to fill 24 hours every day of content. What did the viewers want to see, how could we make it entertaining still to viewers. So we went with some online gaming that tied into their website and started to educate people on how to play the games they were offering. We also added a sports show that would inform the viewers on team news that could affect bets in any way. We added a WhatsApp interactive line that could go out on air and we received numerous amounts of questions that could be answered and our aim was to create some interactivity with the clients customers.

We learnt so much from this project, which ran just short of a year, and we managed to ourselves on air within a week or so. Unbelievable that we managed to get it on air in time and that we managed to gain the viewers we did. We all just jumped in and got things done, regardless of our experience level or position.

7. On air in every store

Studio build, in-store radio, and media training · Betfred South Africa

Around the time Betfred was building its footprint in South Africa — the UK bookmaker that took over Betting World and rolled out betting halls across the country — I was brought in on a different kind of broadcast problem. Not a TV channel this time, but a national store radio network.

The idea was simple and practical: every branch needed something playing in the background that felt like the brand, not generic hold music. Loyalty member deals, marketing specials, quick news on big payouts or strong odds — content that could be turned around fast and pushed out to stores nationally from one place.

I built the studios and the technical side that tied the network together. Then I worked closely with the client to train their staff on media creation — how to record, edit, and get something to air without needing a full production crew every time.

We also set up in-company communications channels so messages from the CEO could go out to every store as video communication, not just another email sitting in an inbox. Staff could watch them directly as a team, or on their own if need be. It felt more personal, and for a retail business spread across 9 provinces, that mattered.

8. Radio OB in a flight case

Mobile radio OB kits · design, build, and on-air support

Not every outside broadcast needs a truck and a crew of twelve. I started building a new kind of radio OB kit — ultra-mobile, versatile, and stable enough to trust on air from almost anywhere.

The whole thing lived in flight cases. Wheel it into a lift, up an escalator, leave it in the van, or set up in a restaurant if that is where the broadcast wanted to happen from. A small van, an outside venue, the roof of a shopping centre — if you could get people and a case there, you could broadcast.

Audio back to studio ran over Comrex codecs. They are the bulletproof part of the chain — the bit you need when the connection cannot drop mid-bulletin. We specced and built the kits around that reliability, with everything else kept simple enough to rig quickly on a broadcast day.

I would also be on site for the OBs themselves — checking links, watching levels, and making sure the path home to studio held before we went live. Building the kit is one thing; knowing it will work when the red light is on is the other. The kits were a success and we were able to use them for a number of different broadcasts, from small local events to large national events.

9. The year everything changed

Fatherhood, Silver-Russell syndrome, and starting Techpunk

Then came the moment that changed everything. My baby girl was born — the biggest life shift I have ever had, and not one I saw coming in quite the way it did.

She was born with Silver-Russell syndrome, a rare growth condition that meant she needed more care, more attention, and more of me at home. I took a year off to be there for her and for my family. Work could wait. She could not.

That year was not idle time. I started Techpunk and used the hours between feeds, appointments, and nap times to teach myself to code properly — to design better apps and websites, not just patch things together. The broadcast discipline was still there; the problems were just smaller screens and quieter rooms.

Techpunk grew out of that year. So did a different kind of focus — building things that last, on my own terms, while being present for the people who matter most.