What’s in a Team- Declan Hogan

 

At Tyrell, it is one of our most dearly held beliefs that people buy from people – namely people that they like, respect and trust. So, that is why we are always proud to sing the praises of our exceptional team at every opportunity, because we know that it’s our multi-disciplined experts, with their wealth of experience, that ensure the success of our business and the satisfaction of our clients.

Every week we’re getting to know our expert team a little bit better to prove that we really are the best in the business. This week we’re focusing on Tyrell Group Technical Director, Declan Hogan to find out …

Name: Declan Hogan
Job title: Technical Director
Miles on the industry clock: 25 years

Tyrell’s Technical Director, Declan is a natural problem solver. He can also, allegedly, lip-read and read upside down. His party trick is to complete the rubix cube in under 2 minutes. But it is his inimitable abilities as a problem solver that have been seamlessly transferred to solving customer problems with the most appropriate solutions, which makes him a truly valuable leader at Tyrell.

Soon after leaving College in 1992, Declan moved to London and found himself working in the University of London, Medical Examinations faculty, quite a different discipline to Electronical Engineering. It wasn’t quite providing the salary, or career inspiration that he wanted.  So, after deciding that he no longer wished to live the pseudo-student life, much to the joy of his long-suffering bank account and liver, Declan left the UCL and SOAS student union bars behind him and headed back to Dublin. 

Within a few days of returning to Dublin, he had an interview with a company named Avid, which he’d managed to wangle through an old school friend. Having no idea what they made and with no internet to help him find out, Declan somehow managed to impress and began work at Avid the very next day.  His introduction to the industry began with building Media Composer,  Media Suite Pro’s and Avid’s best kept secret- AudioVision. Shipping them out of the factory all over Europe.  Avid was exploding in growth at the time and Declan recalls one period that saw him working 43 days straight to keep up with demand. Avid’s share price was rocketing and after a couple of years on the factory line, it’s safe to say that Declan was becoming an expert at building systems – but he was looking for the next challenge.  

Luckily, the next adventure was just around the corner when he met Bryan Malone and Kevin Fitzgerald. A most dynamic sales duo by all accounts, who worked for local Avid reseller PVL. They were in need of an Avid Support person for their fast-growing customer base. Declan was drawn to the challenge of fixing systems in the field, and as Avid products back then were based on Macs, machines were fixed descriptively  over-the-phone which kept Declan pretty busy to say the least.

Windmill Lane was one of PVL’s biggest customers with 8 offline Avid suites and a lot of high-profile customers. Declan spent a lot of time on the phone and on-site supporting their systems and he got to understand their business in great detail.  Declan decided to join the team at Windmill Lane initially as a Senior Engineer then soon after promoted at the tender age of 29 to Chief Engineer. Declan was then exposed to a whole new set of challenges- the complete finishing posthouse. Shot on on Film, Telecine transferred to Digibeta, 3D animation, 2D Compositing,  audio post,  grading and onlining. It was here that Declan also got the time to sharpen his UNIX skills on the SGI super computers. The highlight project was to implement one of first 5 seat unity system, a Spirit Datacine with a Pogle grading suite and the replacement of 3 machine edit suites to Avid Online.. Remembering Windmill as a fantastic, challenging environment in which to learn, adapt and grow Declan decided that after 10 years, he needed a new challenge and applied for a job as a Technical Specialist in the national broadcaster, RTÉ.  

RTÉ was like the finishing school for Declan, enabling him to work at the next level and really test his mettle in the world of live broadcast with TX deadlines! At RTÉ, working with hundreds of editors in an enterprise environment, Declan learnt a lot about Enterprise System Architecture, Business Processes Management,  Public sector Procurement,  Change control,  Risk Management,  Capital Planning, whilst  finely-tuning his project management skills.  Transmitting on multiple channels 24 hours a day,  Declan worked with some very experienced people, who were willing and eager to share their vast knowledge and encouraged him to develop his skill-set even further. 

However, after 7 years, Declan began to get itchy feet and wanted to develop his skills to the highest of levels by working with multiple broadcasters and production companies.  It was timely then that at Tyrell,  Bryan was on the same page; looking to provide customers with a high-calibre service that would set Tyrell ahead of the pack – and luckily for Declan, building large scale systems with multiple interface points or workflows was just the thing to get him excited.

Five years later, Declan is still getting excited by the great strides that Tyrell continues to make within the industry. Having a deep understanding of many specialist manufacturers products keep Declan, and the Tyrell team, focused on the very best of breed solutions that customers need today. 

Declan is a firm believer that analysing and spotting new trends, and working out who the players are in those spaces, is what helps to keep Tyrell at the top of their game and allows the team to understand where Tyrell customers will be in the not too distant future.

Declan’s skills and experience give him a unique insight into the challenges faced by the different disciplines within the industry and ensures that he has a good grip on the challenges faced by most customers who look to Tyrell for help in providing leading solutions.

If you want to know more about Declan and how he helps Tyrell customers with his expert industry knowledge and experience? Follow him on Linked In where you can find out what makes him, and us, tick.