Komnik & Franck: one room for tastings, training, meetings and events

Komnik & Franck has been part of Namibian business since 1954, when Anton Komnik and George Franck started it as a manufacturing representative business. Today it is owned by Jürgen Cronjé and supplies more than 2,000 customers with more than 5,000 products, from coffee, tea and coffee machines to amenities and spices.

Its customers include hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, lodges, guest farms, corporate companies and major retailers. Its Barista Training Centre teaches the skills behind modern coffee.

When the company extended its Windhoek warehouse in 2024, a new space opened up between the old building and the new one. Jürgen chose to make it an interactive experience room.

The room had four jobs. It had to host private tastings for lodges, restaurants and hotels, work as a classroom for barista courses and staff training, connect the team with suppliers and partners on Teams calls, and serve as a venue for corporate events and social evenings.

It also had to be simple. Anyone on the team had to be able to walk in and start a meeting without calling a technician.

The project started with a visit to our showroom, where Jürgen could see what the room might do. We then worked through the brief with him and set out every device in a visual quotation, answering his questions until the plan was clear. Each of the four jobs then decided part of the design.

Calls with suppliers and partners

A Crestron Microsoft Teams Room. One touch on the table panel joins a meeting, and the same panel books new ones. An AVer 4K camera frames the group and zooms in on whoever is speaking, so the people on the call always see who is talking.

Tastings, training and presentations

A 98 inch Samsung 4K professional display gives every presentation room to breathe. Crestron AirMedia lets anyone share their screen from anywhere in the room, through a wireless dongle or over the Wi-Fi, from a MacBook or any other laptop. There are no cables across the table.

Every voice heard

A Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling Medium microphone picks up voices from the ceiling, so the people online feel part of what happens in the room. Audac speakers carry the call clearly to every seat.

Events and evenings

Walnut WoodUpp Akupanels finish the room, so the technology sits with the coffee machines and the custom wood around it. Adjustable shelves on the panels display the awards Komnik & Franck has received from the brands it represents.

Saving energy

A motion sensor powers the video conferencing system down when the room is empty and powers it up when someone walks in.

Support after the install

Our team stayed with Jürgen and his staff from installation day onwards, explaining the system until everyone was comfortable using it.

Today the room seats 12 to 14 for meetings and hosts larger groups at events. Meetings start with one touch, and everyone is seen and heard. Anyone can share a screen by plugging in the dongle, and the video conferencing system switches itself off when the last person leaves.

"Stage Audio Works are the sound and visual experts in this country. And if they are the sound and visual experts then Komnik & Franck is probably the wine and coffee experts. So I think it was a good match." Jürgen Cronjé, Managing Member, Komnik & Franck

Planning a room that has to do more than one job? Talk to our team in Windhoek: sales.na@stageaudioworks.com