Gert Watson My CV

Available for the right team · Centurion, ZA

GertWatson.

I connect the dots
then make them work.

Founder of Pro-Group — the custom software, integrations and operations behind Pro-Outdoor and Pro-Stage. Senior live sound engineer for 14 years. I build the systems that let a small team outrun the competition.

See the work [email protected]

THE WATSON LINE

Four lines.
One interchange.

↗
E-COMMERCELIVE AUDIOCUSTOM SOFTWAREINTEGRATIONSOPERATIONSAUTOMATIONMARKETPLACESSHOW CONTROL
R27.8m+

Pro-Outdoor online revenue

Lifetime since 2021 · Sep 2026 snapshot
11,000+

Online orders, Pro-Outdoor

Lifetime since 2021 · same snapshot
1,000+

Rehearsal & show days

Across my live-production career
3

Person team, three sales channels

The systems carry the repetitive load

01 SELECTED WORK

Products I designed
and built. Try them.

Each card runs a live, illustrative demo of the actual idea — synthetic data, real logic.

MAIN BUSINESS OPERATIONS PORTAL

Pro-Group Portal

Supplier spreadsheets in. Live listings, orders and reconciled books out.

The engine behind Pro-Outdoor and Pro-Stage. It takes messy supplier stock files from legacy systems, maps them into a clean catalogue, prices them with margin, fees and courier costs built in, and keeps three sales channels in sync — then follows every order through to fulfilment and invoice.

  • StockSync AI suggests column mappings; a person approves them.
  • Takealot listing tools validate attributes against category templates.
  • Orders → suppliers → couriers → invoices, one connected record.
Supplier feedsTakealotShopify · EcwidBob GoPostgres
Read the case study
app.pro-group · StockSyncDEMO · SYNTHETIC DATA
Supplier file received
MAINTENANCE & OPERATIONS SAAS

UPWRKS

From “something’s broken” to a signed-off record — in one clear workflow.

Maintenance work lives on paper, WhatsApp and memory. UPWRKS gives every job an owner, a schedule, a checklist and evidence — and turns recurring routines into real job cards automatically. Technicians get a screen that helps them finish the job; managers get a history they can trust.

  • Recurring routines generate actual job cards on schedule.
  • Completion ≠ approval — the floor finishes, a manager reviews.
  • Multi-company records and permissions, kept separate.
VueTypeScriptPostgresSchedulingMulti-tenant
Read the case study upwrks.com
UPWRKS · Job cardDEMO · SYNTHETIC DATA
New request logged
LIVE AUDIO WORKFLOW AUTOMATION

MxA · MixAssistant

One tap on stage replaces a dozen routing moves on the console.

When artists swap, share a song or need effects on their in-ears, the engineer repeats the same routing changes by hand — mid-show. MxA turns those decisions into show buttons: pick the artist, co-artist and effects, and it fires every console change as OSC in one go.

  • Artist & aux mappings live in configuration, not memory.
  • Level mapping translates friendly values to console floats.
  • Real OSC — padded addresses, typed float arguments.
PythonStreamlitOSCDiGiCo
Read the case study Source
MixAssistant · Show modeDEMO · ILLUSTRATIVE OSC

02 THE VENTURES

Two stores.
One unfair advantage.

I founded Pro-Group in 2021 and built its systems, operating model and team. The tech isn’t a side project — it’s why the business works.

PRO-OUTDOOR.CO.ZA

Hunting & reloading, online.

A specialist store for optics, reloading equipment and outdoor gear — stocked from established suppliers whose data lives in legacy systems and price lists.

R27.8m+lifetime online revenue
11,000+orders since 2021
Visit the store
PRO-STAGE.CO.ZA

Pro concert technology.

Audio, lighting, AV and networking gear for production professionals — where 14 years behind the desk meets commerce. I know what an engineer needs because I am one.

~R6mannual group sales*
3channels incl. Takealot
Visit the store

MY ROLE · FOUNDER & DIRECTOR · 2021 — NOW

I own the whole line — from supplier to customer’s door.

Supplier relationships & purchasingPricing & gross marginSystems architecture & buildMarketplace integrationsStock risk & cash flowFulfilment & couriersReturns & customer careAccounting & VATTeam of three
C

THE COMMERCE LINE · ALL STATIONS

From a supplier’s spreadsheet to a customer’s door.

  1. Supplier & ERP dataLegacy systems, files, reps
  2. Catalogue & SKUsStructure, match, enrich
  3. Price & stockMargin rules, live sync
  4. StorefrontsPro-Outdoor · Pro-Stage · Takealot
  5. Orders & purchasingAllocate and source
  6. FulfilmentCouriers, tracking, exceptions
  7. Customer careSupport, returns, refunds
  8. AccountingReconcile to the rand

WHY IT WINS

The technological & operational edge.

Most competitors in these niches still retype supplier price lists, update stock by hand and run each channel separately. We built the bridge instead.

01

Supplier data, automated

Legacy stock and price files become a structured, matched catalogue — reviewed by a person, not retyped by one.

02

Margin built into every price

Pricing rules weigh supplier cost, marketplace fees and courier costs, so growth never quietly costs money.

03

One catalogue, three channels

Pro-Outdoor, Pro-Stage and Takealot run from the same source of truth — stock moves once, everywhere.

04

Orders that route themselves

Order to supplier, to courier, to tracking, to customer — with exceptions surfaced instead of discovered.

05

Small team, big operation

Three people run a multi-channel business because the systems carry the repetitive load.

06

Decisions, not guesses

Payments, fees and accounting reconcile back to each order, so commercial viability guides every technical choice.

*Figures reflect the September 2026 CV snapshot. Revenue is not profit; group sales and Pro-Outdoor lifetime totals are reported separately.

03 BEHIND THE SCENES

More tickets
from the archive.

Smaller builds, each solving a real problem I ran into — on the shop floor, in the inbox or on stage.

0041Industrial InterfacesA sensor on a production line presses the button nobody should have to. Arduino bridges into existing workstation software.[ AUTOMATION ] 0042Pro-InboxEvery customer conversation, with the order sitting right next to it. AI can draft; staff decide.[ SOFTWARE ] 0043TimeFestPlanned, actual and forecast — a shared show clock for operator, FOH and the artist on stage.[ LIVE SHOW ] 0044Bus RemotePerformers control their own in-ear mix from their phone — the console stays the boss.[ AUDIO ]

04 LIVE PRODUCTION · MONITOR ENGINEER · 2012 — NOW

The artists hear the show through me.

Every big music show has two mixes. Front-of-house is what the audience hears. Monitors is what every performer hears in their own ears — and that’s my job. Get it wrong and singers drift off pitch, the band loses time and the show unravels in front of thousands. There’s no second take.

It’s a freelance industry: you only get booked again if artists and producers trust you completely. In the last twelve months that meant 31 headline productions — stadiums, festivals and national award shows — plus a steady stream of smaller shows and corporate events in between.

31headline productions in 12 months — plus the smaller shows & corporate events in between
4stadiums: FNB, Loftus, DHL, SuperSport Park
~40artists, each with their own in-ear mix
6provinces, one weekend at a time
1,000+rehearsal & show days over 14 years
01

~40 personal mixes. At once.

Every artist gets their own mix: more of their voice, less drums, their click track. It changes song by song, guest by guest — live.

02

Live. No second take.

Stadium crowds, TV cameras, sponsors in the front row. Every cue has to land the first time, every time.

03

Find the fault in seconds.

When something fails mid-song, I need to know where in the whole system it is — and fix it before the artist notices.

DEPARTURES · THE LAST 12 MONTHS

31 headline productions. One monitor desk.

NO.PRODUCTIONVENUE · CITYTYPE
01Scorpion Kings LiveFNB Stadium · JohannesburgSTADIUM
02KroneLoftus Versfeld · PretoriaSTADIUM
03Afrikaans 100DHL Stadium · Cape TownSTADIUM
04Melk FestSuperSport Park · CenturionSTADIUM
05Afrikaans is GrootSun Arena · PretoriaCONCERT
06Kip MoorePretoria & Cape Town · 2 citiesCONCERT
07Steve Hofmeyr IkoonMoreleta · PretoriaCONCERT
08Francois van Coke & VriendeSun Arena · PretoriaCONCERT
09Spoegwolf op YsSun Arena · PretoriaCONCERT
10Lexus ClassicsSun Arena · PretoriaCONCERT
11Jacaranda CarolsSun Arena · PretoriaCONCERT
12Swingin’ Las VegasTeatro, Montecasino · JohannesburgCONCERT
13PassievolMoreleta · PretoriaCONCERT
14Liefde by die DamPretoria & Cape Town · 2 citiesCONCERT
15Afrikaans op die PlattelandPretoria & Cape Town · 2 citiesCONCERT
16Ons vir Jou MusiekblyspelAfriForum Theatre · PretoriaCONCERT
17InnibosNelspruitFESTIVAL
18Groot FeesHartenbos · Mossel BayFESTIVAL
19NampoNampo Park · BothavilleFESTIVAL
20Atterbury VersnitRust en Vrede · StellenboschFESTIVAL
21DroomlandPretoria Botanical Gardens · PretoriaFESTIVAL
22Dorp Toe FeesNylstroom · LimpopoFESTIVAL
23Mahela “Makulu” BoskonsertLetsitele · TzaneenFESTIVAL
24Helpmekaar College FestJohannesburgFESTIVAL
25Vodacom CEO Awards ShowVodadome, Vodaworld · MidrandAWARDS
26Aitsa Musiek Toekennings3CI · PretoriaAWARDS
27Ontbytsake ToekenningsSun Arena · PretoriaAWARDS
28Standard Bank MOE ConcertSandton · JohannesburgCORPORATE
29Famous Brands ConferenceSandton · JohannesburgCORPORATE
30Spar Dealers ConferenceSun City · North WestCORPORATE
31AWS Developers ConferenceMidrand · JohannesburgCORPORATE
And everything in betweenSmaller shows, launches and corporate events, week in, week out. Not listed, but they’re where the consistency is built.
ONGOING
PUBLICLY CREDITED BY KLANG & MA Lighting · Afrikaans is Groot ↗ DiGiCo · Loftus concerts ↗ DWR · Innibos 2024 ↗ Earlier: South African Music Awards · South African Idols · international touring artists

THE SKILLS BEHIND IT

Too many to list. Here’s how they connect.

Take any one line away and the show doesn’t work. The same is true in a business — and it’s the instinct I bring to every system I build.

EEarsCritical listeningHearing problems firstBalancing 40 mixes
SSystemsDiGiCoKLANG in-earsNetworksRecording
PPreparationShow filesSystem designCustom tools
HPeopleArtists & producersTrustLeading the crew
LLive pressureFault-finding mid-showSplit-second callsPlan B, ready

05 HOW I WORK

From a real problem
to something useful.

01

Understand the work.

The stage, the workshop, the order queue. Get close to the actual problem before deciding what to build.

02

Connect the pieces.

Hardware and software. People and processes. Build the missing link between tools that already exist.

03

Make it usable.

Clear controls, sensible boundaries, a useful next step. Complexity belongs inside the system.

04

Own the outcome.

Commercial viability guides the decisions. If it doesn’t make the business better, it isn’t finished.

06 A LITTLE ABOUT ME

Always curious.
Always building.

I’m Gert Stefanus Watson, based in Centurion. I bring together business ownership, systems development and a 14-year live-production career. I like understanding how the whole operation works — then building the connections that make it better.

BSc Computing (UNISA) sits alongside hands-on experience: custom audio tools, industrial interfaces and the systems behind my businesses. Next, I want to bring that to a team building technology-enabled operations.

EDUCATIONBSc Computing · 2026UNISA · NQF Level 7
LANGUAGESEnglish & AfrikaansCenturion, Gauteng
OFF THE CLOCKFamily firstMore of life beyond the desk, soon
GertCardGW

Let’s connect
something great.

Have a role, a technical challenge or a project in mind? I’d like to hear about it.

[email protected] 076 372 7626 Download CV ↓
OPPORTUNITIES · COLLABORATIONS · FREELANCE
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