How AV8 Raises The Bar For Premium Home Cinema Distribution

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Barry just launched AV8 Distribution, and the real story is not a logo or a press release. It is what happens when someone with decades in the custom AV and home cinema world decides to bet on relationships, service, and performance, then has to deliver from day one. We talk about the leap from employment to ownership, the flood of industry feedback, and why reputation in high-end AV is built on the moments nobody sees, like late-night commissioning support and getting a project over the line across time zones.

We get concrete about how AV8 supports integrators: a tightly curated premium portfolio, early-stage design involvement, and co-branded proposal packs that help clients understand viewing angles, screen sizing, speaker placement, and expected results without reducing everything to a price line. Barry explains why dialogue clarity and correct calibration are often the difference between a “loud” room and a great cinema, and why demonstrations at real facilities can change a client’s mind faster than any spec sheet, whether you are showcasing movies, immersive music, or the finer details of a reference system.

Looking ahead, we dig into where premium residential AV is moving next, including direct-view LED, large-format displays for sports spaces, and the practical challenges of placing speakers when the screen is the wall. We also explore new growth areas like outdoor audio, home nightclubs, and studios, plus the goal of making distribution feel more like a community than a transaction. If you care about premium home theater design, AV commissioning, and support that matches the promise, hit play, subscribe, share this with an integrator friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

Meeting Barry And The Big News

SPEAKER_01 0:09

So, Barry, how are you? Very well, thanks. Thanks for coming up to see us. Thank you for inviting me. So we obviously saw each other uh beginning of this year when we were doing a meridian sort of TPI day uh up in Huntington. And we discussed doing another podcast. Uh the other podcast was going to be at TPI. Um we sort of run out of time on that day, you know. Jars was talking about his amazing speakers. But today we found ourselves in Ely in a office sort of shared office space, and we're talking to you about something completely different, which I don't think anybody apart from you and Hugo saw coming, uh, which was Aviate. So tell us a little bit about the news, what's going on, and what Aviate is about.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think it for me it was an opportunity to do something on my own. Um, it's something that I've always thought about doing, but as you probably know well as well, that going from having um regular employment and then starting your own venture is always uh a bit of a leap of faith. Um but this is like 26 years of being in this industry now, um, building up contacts, building up um reputation, you know, doing doing what you say you're going to do and looking after people, um, just seemed like a perfect opportunity for me to um have a discussion uh and see whether we could create our own thing. And and you know, AV8 is a result of that, really. It's been um it's been it's been great. I mean, the coverage the last couple of weeks or so has been fantastic, really kind responses from the industry and from around the world, actually, because um, you know, the last 10, 11 years at Meridian, I I did get to see a lot of the world and look after international um distributors as well. So, yeah, it's been been a sort of a culmination of all of that effort and energy, and now it's uh yeah, now it's my own thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Well, it it must be nice, you know. Obviously, we'll get into the sort of bits and pieces a bit in a minute, but it must be nice looking at the social media feeds from you know, people off the Inside CI, Essential Install, Hidden Wires, you know, it must be nice reading those comments because I think that was said when I got here, the interaction we had on the Inside CI LinkedIn post just on its own was like over 3,000 people had looked at it and interacted with it. I think eight eighty to a hundred people had actually sort of liked up thumbs or hearted it. And then so many like, congratulation, buddy, great move for you. So for like me, as somebody who's been in this industry for nearly 20 years, to see those comments must have been like, okay, right. This isn't this is this is what I wanted to hear. It couldn't have really, those bits couldn't have gone better, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

No, I I don't think so. I think I didn't really think about that side of things. I was so focused on getting the business up and running and and being ready to to work from day one effectively and making sure that the team were ready and you know, happy and re and motivated to get going. And then um, you know, the announcement went out and the the feedback was it's pretty overwhelming, it's very humbling as well. I think you know, you do the right thing and you look after people, but to see that level of response was really uh flattering, and it it is yeah, it's quite it's quite emotional on some side because you just think someone's gone out of their way to say something. And yeah, of course, you you've got likes, thumbs up, all of that type of stuff. But it's the phone calls, the text messages, the the emails, and so on. Um, and the support from from day one really has been um fantastic, and it's great, you know, it's been speaking to people who have also started new roles that that have got in touch before as well, just to say, you know, hey, excited for you, you know, congrats, pumped and all those things. So, yeah, it's it has been fantastic. I couldn't have asked for more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

So tell me a bit about Aviate. So obviously, a lot of people would have known you, Meridian, distribute by Meridian, and the brands that you had there. So obviously, Avi8 is a completely independent business. There are no financial ties to anybody else apart from Barry's bank account. Um, so it is an independent business with you. Um, so tell me a little bit about the structure of the business. You mentioned that you've got some people working for you. Um, how did this scenario

Why Go Independent Now

SPEAKER_01 4:20

come? Because I think you said to me when we were setting up, like um it'd been sort of before Christmas January that the balls had started rolling. So tell me how this sort of came about and tell me a little bit about you know Aviate being an independent business and your vision for the future.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Yeah, I mean you can probably tell from if you you know visit the website aviatistribution.com, uh which actually quite a lot of you know, quite a lot of people have. There's a bit of a bit of the story on there, but but really it was about creating those relationships and and really working with those relationships that we've had for such a long period of time and then and then moving that into the the next level for us. And those relationships are so critical to what we do, um both on the on the dealer and integrator side of things, but also on the supplier side of things. You know, I've worked a really long time to cultivate those relationships and basically look after either suppliers that we're working with or with integrators that we're working with, um, and just moving that on to the next level, but also having the the control and the creation, if you like, to be able to do things that you want to do as well. So um whilst ultimately we are supplying products to installations, and that's what we do, um, the backbone and how we do that and how we support those things is really, really key for us. Um we work at the very, very top end of the market. We have a very, very finely chosen range of um products and brands that we work with, and they're all really the, I always say they're the Coca-Cola of the brands, you know. You don't have that, oh, we've got Pepsi Max. We only have, you know, the very, very best brands. So we need to represent them properly. We need to make sure their products are specified correctly, calibrated correctly, looked after, you know, during the deployment stage. Uh, and we're working with amazing integrators, you know, and their service level agreement to their clients is really our bar. You know, we need to be able to offer them the same service level agreement that they offer to their customers. So for us, it's really about elevating ourselves to have the best products, the best design support, the best sales support, and then the best after sales, um, which is obviously much easier said in a podcast than it is done in real life, but we're committed to making that happen.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

So, with the brands in Pacifics, nothing really has changed much from what you were doing previously. So, anybody watching this who's not read the articles, anybody reading this who, you know, potentially I mean, I can't imagine there's anybody in this industry in this country doesn't know who Barry is. Um but so the brands that you had at the previous place have literally just come straight over to you. The service level agreements, the support, all of those types of things, the integrator should expect nothing different.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah, exactly that. Um my telephone numbers remain the same. Yes, we've got new email addresses, we haven't some new phone numbers, but um one way is to say you could say the brands have followed me, the other way is you could say the relationships have endured across to this new business. So the promise of performance and delivery of has that we made as DBM, that's the same as we've got really with um with AV8, and the brands willingly wanted to work with us because they know that we've got the right mindset involved to carry things on. So you imagine we finished the financial year at Meridian in the end of May. Um, well, there's projects that are being delivered right now. So AV8 is going to commission those projects with the integrators. So we've got a project over in Germany to go and finish off on a marine application, we've got one over in um Dublin to go and commission, and multiple across the UK. So we're gonna be carrying on what had been promised before, um, because that's how you that's how you do things. Um, you know, Friday night there's a project that it wasn't originally, but now because the uh the uh residence is mobile, um we were supporting Friday evening over in um in in Florida um because that was the final day commissioning handing over stuff. So we were in comms with the uh with the guys on site to make sure that the handover was smooth and and honestly, you know, eight in the evening receiving a thumbs up, we're all sorted. Uh it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

I think it's little things like that, isn't it? I know, I know as uh in the years I was an integrator, the you know, the 90-odd years as an integrator, when you got that you first of all you saw the message come on your phone on a Sunday morning, you're like, oh my god, no, I don't need this today. And then you open the message up and it was like, we had a party last night. I just want to say thank you. It was amazing. And and I think that you know, for what I know of knowing you for these years, you and for how I feel in this being in this industry, it's those little times where you might go beyond it, but you go beyond it because you know that the client's gonna enjoy it. And you know that obviously in the case of distribution, the integrator's gonna be like, thanks, mate, thanks for supporting us. So yeah, I think to get those little bits and pieces like that, they sort of make those late evenings and those early mornings a a little bit more tangible.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah, I think you you go beyond it because you care. You could be cynical and say, Oh, yeah, because you just want the next order. No, well, sure, that might happen. It also might not. You can never take anything for granted. We go beyond because we care, we're invested and we want to see have a good result. Um, it reflects well upon us, it reflects well upon the brands that we work with. Um, but honestly, it means that next time I see you at a show, I don't have to go and hide. I can go up to you with confidence and say, wasn't that a great experience? Didn't that go well? Um, you know, it's it's personal for us to make sure that when these projects are delivered, they're delivered to the standard that's expected by all. And you know, there'll be dark days. There'll be days when we're going, oh, how are we gonna sort that out? But I know we'll get through them because we have done every year that I've been in business for um working for other people, and we'll continue to do that uh with AV8 moving forwards as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

There's always a lot there's always a way to address an issue, there's always a way to sort a problem. Sometimes you just need to step back from it and go, okay, this is channel A is not gonna work. Do we go to channel B? So the brands that you've currently got, are you actively looking for uh new brands to fill gaps is probably a bad word, but to fill sort of like fill opportunities. So maybe some brands that you didn't do at DBM in some areas that you didn't do, you're now as AVA, you're looking at okay, so we could

Keeping Promises On Active Projects

SPEAKER_01 10:40

do with this, we could do with this.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah, it's really trying to find something that would add value to an integrator's projects in most cases. Um people will say, I don't need another ABC or XYZ. No, you might need the best ABC or XYZ, and that's really where we fit in. Um but yeah, there are a few, not many, but a few um spaces within our portfolio where we could where we could look to add some additional um support to projects. Um so one, never say never, uh, but two, also just just keep an eye as to what might be useful. And there's a there's a couple of things that we've got our eye on that we'll we'll see how they develop. But I think it's more about how does it fit into the range, how does it offer a benefit to our partners, and how can we support on the deployment and the um execution of a project. It's pointless having a thing with either no market or no clue on how to support it. So it's not about bits, it's really about how does it well, does it make sense? Um, because there's only so many hours in the day. And so we really focused on what it is that we do. And if you look across the range at the moment, it really there's very little crossover and there's very little competition within the range. It really is, you know, very specific, just very, very premium, high performance systems.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Well, no, in our last don't think it was on the talk, but I think it's when we talked, you were talking about the synergy between Meridian and TPI. Yeah, and a lot of people would look at that and go, well, hold on a second, that's two competing speaker brands.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

But it's not. No, absolutely not. And you know, for us now, as the time's gone on a bit more, it's very clear where we use Meridian and it's very clear where we use TPI. And I think um that just comes with time spent with the with the brands and also with the um with the dealers that you're working with. Um but we're not we're not in every project. Um it's not possible for us to be in every project because of the range of products that we offer. So when we're in when we're in a project, we know for sure we have the right solution and we'll offer the best um option for that project. And you know, sometimes that'll be a Meridian product, sometimes that'll be a TPI product, sometimes it'll be neither, um, you know, because it's uh aesthetically, for example, um we don't have an invisible offering within those two brands, for example. Um so there'll be times where we um where we aren't right, there'll be more times where we are right, it's more about, and this is I think where the sales experience comes in, why people should work with us and how we can help them to get you know a really high level of performance into a client system.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

So at DBM you had the design service, and you know, like like we say to all of our customers, all my ex-customers, you've got to get us involved as early as possible. You know, we've got to be there at drawing stage, we've got to be discussing cabling schedules before we even think about kit type of thing. Do you still offer the design service? If we have an integrator watching this who's like, okay, so I potentially want to speak to Barry about a project coming up, is it still the same scenario as like sooner the better?

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Ideally, yes. Um, we do get involved late stage, um, which is fine. Um, it's a bit more speed required in those scenarios, but the sooner the better, because if you can if you want to leverage us and our sales ability early on, then you know, get us in day one. Let's meet the client and let's help develop um the sale in the first place. And we can typically help to increase the value in a lot of the projects that we get involved in. We can see 30, 40, 50% increase on the overall spend because of the way that we introduce. Maybe, maybe one might like to have some of these things added to the system that they didn't know were possible, or maybe the integrator lacks the confidence in telling someone that they can have that. Um, but a backbone of all that is the design service. And so Chris Smythe, who many of you will know, uh, you met him again recently when you're over to see us. One, he's just one of the nicest people on the planet. Um, he's just a really, really gregarious guy. Um, dealers like working with him. If clients meet him, they love him as well. Um, and creating that proposal that we do with the design service is um a real key thing. It's a document that's branded with your logo, branded with our logo now as well, but it explains why you might want to scale the system up and what benefits you get from that. And I must admit, you know, week one, seeing a proposal go out in the new the new pack, the the aviate branded prep, I mean that was that was pretty cool. I was pretty proud about that. Um, Chris did a great job. And you know, there's there's a lot of those that have already gone into the into the field. And you know, sometimes if it's if you're trying to present something to someone, the design pack's very useful. If you just need us to check the trigonometry effectively on a on a project to make sure that the laser has okay, to make sure that the sight lines are okay, the throws right, the offsets right. And we can do obviously um simple drawings just to show the technical, yeah, yes, this this will work. Uh will we sign off and approve that this will work.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, concept like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah, or you know, you can get more involved and you can do a whole um design pack. And I think having seen a few projects recently where we've been involved with the integrator and presenting the system to the client, seeing how the client perceives these documents, they're like, all right, yeah, this is like a statement of fact almost. This is this is um something that's not just a you know a spreadsheet with a price at the bottom. Because there's no pricing in the documents, right? The document says this is what we would suggest. The integrator is in in control of the um the pricing side of things. So it really is a you know a t a technical document that that really um helps with that delivery, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I think unless a lot of clients have had a cinema before or had a solution like that before, a few people, you know, in my experience, a few people don't really perceive, oh, I'm just gonna walk into the Odeon or I'm just gonna walk into you know the um showman or whatever like that. They don't perceive how honed it is to the individual or to the family in a room like this.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

So uh obviously one of the biggest benefits with DBM was the demonstration facilities because you could produce those documents, you could get the client in. I mean, I personally would like to like liaise with the client first, show them documentation, get them in for a demo, whether that was at the old showroom or you know, at one of the distributors, obviously like Meridian, um, because that sort of enforced everything before you then dropped that you know bottom line on them because a lot of customers will just scoot to the end and miss the 32 pages of like you know, Euro Module One, Cat6, and all this lot, just see how much it's gonna cost them. So, do you still have the demos access to the demonstration station demonstration facilities at Meridian? So that element hasn't changed at all.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Yeah, so one of the key things is demonstration. We're not selling um, you know, health insurance or otherwise, we're selling entertainment, we're selling uh immersion, excitement, drama, action, all those things. So demonstrations at the heart of that. Uh so yeah, we have access to um the two systems at Meridian, the two theatres we have there, but also all of the other show spaces for two-channel demonstrations, you know, listening to a bit of music, plus the amazing reception area. We'll still be hosting events there. We'll also have access to uh the TPI showroom um up in Leicester and also um Cortric, so Barclays uh headquarters as well. So we can take um dealers and also clients. It's amazing. Stunning building it in a stunning town. Yeah, it's a very cool place. Um, it's quite close to um spa

Premium Brands And Portfolio Discipline

SPEAKER_00 18:20

francochamps as well. Should one decide that after visiting a manufacturer, they might like to go to um a race circuit or maybe even the Nurberg ring.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

I've got I've got a segue here. So your logo is very race wave.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

You know. Quite like cars. So um I remember uh Chris um asked on the on the um LinkedIn post, how do you say it? And I said, Well, there's a pause in between, so you say A and then V8, um, because you know, I'm quite partial to V8 engines. I think most people know that. Um the speed lines, as they get called, which is the the bit that runs across on the bottom of any of the presentations that we do. Yeah, they're a cool cut a cool part of that. Um yeah, but back to the demonstrations. So even in week one of launch, so we launched on the Monday, Tuesday, I was back um doing a demonstration over at um Meridian with an integrator. And uh it was great because the client had had systems before, um, so he wasn't uh he wasn't new to these things. Um but we sat down and we started chatting too, and we probably chatted for 20 minutes before we played a single piece of content. Um, and he was asking a lot of great questions, which is um always fun because he was really engaged. You know, why is the screen that size? So I said, Well, try the front row, try the back row, explained about angles, determined at that stage, he's a 45-degree man, right? He's a back row guy. So that's so now we're gonna screw, you know, in in Chris's drawings, we're gonna size the screen based on where the client's going to sit and the viewing angle that he likes. One of the big standouts for me was um I said, have a listen to this, see what you think. And he said, The dialogue's amazing, it's so clear. And I said, Oh, interesting you point that out. Why's that? He said, Well, in my system, this is and he goes, I have to run it with subtitles, or I have to rewind it, or I turn it up for some bits and I turn it down for another bit. So we are seeing these second, third, fourth generation cinema owners now who have an idea of what they don't like about a system, but they might not know how to fix that. So being able to just sort of tease that information out about vocal intelligibility, how important the center channel is, how important channel placement is, um, you know, there is a more sophisticated buyer now, which helps because we have more sophisticated systems. So the differentiation between you know what a lot of people will think a cinema is crash bang wallop. Um, well, no, if you're playing a piano piece, then it should sound like a piano. Just because it's a high sound pressure level theatre system doesn't give it a buy to not sound like a piano. Um, so all those parts now we are seeing a more sophisticated buyer, a more educated and a more experienced um buyer with these systems, so they have a higher bar of performance, and I think that's where you know the demonstrations that we have at TPI and Meridian really bring out those benefits of a premium system.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

I think the thing is, I think people are starting to realise that Atmos is more than just movies. You know, we I was at an event the other day with one of your previous employers, and that was about music and immersion in music. And that really to me, we were talking to the artists, and that really to me sort of like enforced that side of the industry, or sorry, the side of the room that not many people uh know. So I think actually, yeah, getting someone into one of the demonstration facilities and maybe playing some music, maybe even the screen not on, especially with Meridian, you know, fundamentally, you know, awesome at reproducing movies, but phenomenal at reproducing music. I mean, some of the things the best things I've ever heard are on a set of you know Meridian speakers, uh hundreds of funny enough. Um, can't afford them. otherwise. So I think, yeah, having that with the client, but also having that with the integrator. So you mentioned training. So is it still are you still looking at bringing people into the different brands? So Meridian, Barco, TPI, etc., and offering hands-on training, and maybe you don't know about this product, come here and listen to it, look at it, play with it, just so you can sell it.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Yeah, I think the training aspect, we have a slightly different approach with that because we typically sell products that aren't in every installation. Even someone who's flying along doing um cinema systems, they may only do three, four projects a year. So their day-to-day contact with that type of product is more limited. Yeah. You know, it's not setting up a control for system, which is in every project that they're doing, or a crestron system, which is in every project that they're doing. So the retained knowledge with those type of products is reduced because you're not hands-on all the time with them. We know that. We're very aware of that. So we've developed a way of supporting that, hence supporting a project in Fort Lauderdale or supporting a project over in Germany at a boatyard or over in Dublin. So typically the commissioning services that we offer are really a a part of a handover but also fine-tuning the system. By having the skill set in house we're able to say this is how we would do it. Here's the steps here's the process here's the flow that we work through to do this. Here's the end result. Now what's your opinion on that and how can we how can we tweak that? Now on the video side of things it's an absolute you know it's right or it's wrong. On an audio side of things it's much more subjective. So we'll show how we achieve a result that we would be very happy with. And then we listen to feedback from either the integrator or the client in many cases and it's the usual thing could could you make the rear channels louder? Can you make the top channels louder? So those types of things and knowing where all the buttons are knowing where all of the sliders are and understanding how these things work. Some people do have that skill set and more. Some people don't have that skill set. Some people would still like to know and have the hand holding on there. So some of that's remote and some of that's us visiting site either either's fine. You know whatever level of confidence that you have is not a problem at all. We've got the skill set all the way up to large you know DCI machines that most people dream of selling in the first place. You

Design Packs That Build Confidence

SPEAKER_00 24:30

know over £100,000 for a projection system. Well they need to be maintained they need to be service every 12 months so well we got trained up to do that so we can deliver those services we've replaced light engines in projectors as big as this table.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

That is not something that you perhaps would have thought you'd be doing in the basement of a project supported by the warranty of the manufacturer but someone's still got to you know replace these things put it all back together again realign everything calibrate it and then give a thumbs up afterwards. So being able to do those types of things as a small distributor I think really sort of shows the level of support and care that we have we don't like outsourcing that type of thing. It's a human thing so it requires a human touch and it requires a human interaction.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Well I think I was talking to I think when just after the announcement came out I was talking to Hugo and and and we were sort of discussing it and what's going on and all this like and it's just like well actually you'll get more Barry potentially with Aviate because it's not only his company but it's the sole focus the products he represents the company that he owns and the distributors that he sorry the integrators that he works with. So you know there's none of the other things around him to you know take the focus away.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Every morning I wake up that's what I'm focused on doing. You know there's nothing else on that I had a phone call at 10 to 9 this morning after having a 530 phone call in the evening on the fr on the Friday which was just you know running through a final part of basically the commissioning sign off of a of um a projector installation. Cool. You know the phone call in the morning was it is it too early and I said for what? For business ever like the phone well my phone's on. And again that text I sent on the Friday night was hey look I know you're a five hours behind and I know you can't get access to it yet but I'm around like if you need anything give me a shout. I think being available and showing that you're there to support people is a key thing. In both those instances there's only text messages. So are we going to start seeing on Facebook Barry's traveling too Barry's traveling too Barry's travelling back from yeah no I don't I don't it's funny I I probably used to do a bit more of that than I used to I have sort of dialed back on it a bit these days. I think there's a there's a way I'm working on which you'll see in the next you know few weeks or so which is a better way of getting information out to integrators. You know I love visiting the dealers and I love spending time with the teams but it's so difficult to fit within their busy schedules and it's so often is the case that you go oh can we change that mean can we change that mean can we change that customers and really it's like well this this information I'm going to tell you is really useful to your business in my opinion. I would love to convey that to you but finding a slot when we can meet up because you've got so many people and there's so many pools for that resource within there as well. So just trying to work out how we can serve our um our customers better and give them the information that they need. So we're also looking at how we can do very simple booking systems so you can book in resource. If you know you're going to be on site next Friday and you need some help well just tell us and we'll we'll bang out some time. You may not need us but we know we're available during that period of time so we're ready and we're we're set we know what the project is we know what the products are we know what you're likely to need.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

We can preempt we can send a load of things through these are the steps this is what you need to do these are the things to be aware of these are the typical pitfalls and you're already armed you know when you're going to site you're not walking in but it's so simple it's so simple to sort of say look I'm going to be working from the office today drop me a call if you need me because I'm available you know and like book the day out I'm just going to catch up with X, Y, Z. When it comes to things like pricing product range, I know personally from my integration days my quotes always happened on a Saturday or Sunday because it's the only time I was off the tools. So if someone wants to well first of all if someone wants to sign up they don't know you. So if someone wants to sign up with A V8 distribution sorry AV8 distribution how do they go about it? And then what resources do you have available from as simple as a pricing structure to what products are available for them to dip in and out of whatever they need to dip in and out of?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Yeah that's an important point. I mean of course we'd love to be involved in a whole system but there's no issue with us being a a a bit part in the overall film if you know what I mean. So if you just need a projection system cool. If you just need some loudspeakers no problem if you just just want a uh DCI server system that can play the latest day and day release software I've always just wanted that yeah then sure um so that that side of things you know we are known as a system company a lot of what we do is systems but we are still very happy to work on on um you know small parts you still get the same service and support um we just can we feel we can it impact the project more positively if we're involved in it more uh yeah price lists are on our website and it's very simple to sign up uh on there to gain access to them um we've done a Excel version which most people want to use because they can just import that into there we'll be talking to the usual suspects in terms of uh making sure our products and brands are presented within um Specify and we quote as well because I know a lot of people are using those these days. And and yeah if you need help then let me know. We've got an email address which is TMAT which goes to all of us so we can dip in and support those things. But if you're quoting on something there's probably something we can help you with that's more than just saying it costs this much. Maybe you want us to check the fine details just bounce it over. Let's have a look it's very rare that someone just needs to know the price for something. They often need to know okay cool and will it work with this? Can I plug that into it? Do I do this with it? So it's not just about here's a self-serve price list. If you don't want it to be um we'd like to be more involved so that we can um you know give some of that specialist knowledge to their because it's you know these brands are not just boxes and bits and pieces they are um really carefully created from our side and so need to be carefully looked after when it comes to the specification side of things.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Well I think what's great with the brands that are on the screen is that I certainly know a lot of the faces behind those brands and they're very much not just boxes and just they're not it's not just a projector it's not just a processor. There are there are people and brands behind those which is why I think a lot of people are going to be happy to hear that you know what they were used to at DBM is is what they should get at A V A V8. Obviously this is so so brand new this almost seems insulting to say the next question but what's next? Where where can you see this going? Yeah I mean I I can see us already in the well week three this is um being pulled into more projects which is fantastic it's massively appreciated um I really feel like people are seeing the skill and the resources that we can offer and how that can be beneficial to their business and so uh yeah we are being pulled into a um a growing number of of um projects that are all pretty cool I mean that obviously usual case you can't really talk about these things but we're getting asked to be uh contributors to some amazing specifications and amazing systems which is yeah it's flattering and you know at my heart and same for Chris as well we just want to do cool stuff like we love the technology we love the performance we love the excellence that you can deliver deliver so being involved in those projects um in that way has been great the other big thing for me is is I I want it to be more than transactional um we talked about relationships a lot it was no surprise to know what my hobbies are but actually those are the hobbies of quite a lot of uh my um my integrators and partners around the world so uh I'd like to do a lot more of um you know the the uh outside of work more still a barco project are gonna

Demo Rooms That Close The Gap

SPEAKER_01 32:50

track that brand's hatch maybe I mean maybe um I don't think so I don't want it to be transactional I want it to be more like a a club or a community so I don't want it to be hit X get Y because that's that is transactional again this is I'm doing this I'd love to for you to be there I think you'll have a great time by the way whilst we're there we might pop into well I think if you look at consumer technology there's so many brands out there who are just they're box shifters for want of a better word you know the client needs A come by A and and I think that what's always been nice about dealing with some of the brands in our industry and also you know dealing with yourself at DBM is that it's more almost like well okay yeah we do these but let's talk about the project you know what are you what are you thinking you know because actually you might not just need to spend that or do you know if you go to this you you're gonna unlock the potential to do this which as you say I'm pretty good at keeping up to date with everything in 20 years of I've been doing this but you can't it can't keep up to date with everything.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Oh it's impossible there's way too many products around and I think you know for me I'm looking at where where can we add value and where can we um open up a new space. So of course cinema is the obvious one the less obvious one is outdoor audio and then the even less obvious one is home nightclubs or home recording studios. They're new verticals for us too until we started working with TPI. So being able to go outside of a theatre into a garden with TPI going into a nightclub and I don't you've not had the opportunity yet you will do there's a lot of building work going on at TPI at the moment as they're adding more demonstration spaces but their nightclub range of loudspeakers are gobsmacking. So I need to put my Acid t-shirt back on again into it. You need to listen to it and try not to just smile and laugh your head off when you hear it because it's it's mega. And I think that enthusiasm excitement that we have for deploying theatre systems moving that into a home nightclub moving that into a home recording studio or you know DJ booth or otherwise these are sorts of things that people are starting to go yeah we could we could do that that'd be pretty sweet so I think that's given me some sort of fresh energy and excitement and I'm now like looking for those projects and asking for those projects you're not you haven't got space for a nightclub have you?

SPEAKER_01 35:19

And you'd be surprised I mean yeah of course you know shout out to Robert Maven you know he's done a few which some of the projects that he's been involved in you know have been like it's a nightclub that's an outdoor TV that's an outdoor system you know or you've got like you know Simon who does the podcast with me he's been involved in some projects which have been like you know speakers and swimming pools garden audio and I think if you look across our industry uh or the industry across social media you see a lot of home cinema companies are out there doing it plus you know you're in there doing the home cinema have that conversation with the client so what do you I can see there's some work going on outside what's going on outside you know oh it's gonna be a barbecue area blah blah blah well we got asked to visit um a project because some the client we client came over for a demonstration um saw a freya and went yeah that's what I need and so ordered a freya which is fantastic he's then got another property as most clients do have uh the projector in there when I'm not happy with it.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Okay. So we go over to have a look at the property and we do a review on the projection system, we check it over, we make sure it's aligned correctly, make sure it's focused correctly do a cursory calibration on it and then do a report back to the integrator to say this is what we found. This is what we'd recommend, right? Pretty straightforward. And in this instance I said I looked at the um where the property was and I said hey got an outdoor audio system. Yeah. Should we review that whilst we're there yeah it's been in a while I don't think he uses it much it's not very good. Oh okay so then we just did a quick review of the outdoor audio system. We looked at the placement the loudspeakers the quantity um how many of them were working uh what did they sound like and I know the client having met with him is a is really into his audio and goes to a lot of the nightclubs where um audio is really important. You know over in over in a beta there's a lot of nightclubs that very low capacity three four hundred people but the sound systems are absolutely outrageous. Typically you know they are TPI systems in those instances but uh so we did a review of that and then that went on to another design proposal. So what was a can you check out a projector was here's what we'd put in there to replace the projection system here's how we'd refresh an aged outdoor audio system. By the way the client may already have heard of these when they've been at the nightclubs in the first place. So those types of um ways of introducing I think that comes back into that sales ability it's just it's looking at things and saying well what what is the opportunity? How do you present the opportunity and how do you give someone the confidence to present that opportunity because ultimately you're saying to somebody else would you like to give us some more money for these things which will make your life better not everyone's comfortable with that.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

But I think quite often in in my days when someone's turned around to me and said oh I don't like insert brand here if you then have a conversation with them and go why? Oh because it doesn't work I had a client a very famous client I don't like it because all of the favourites are in Russian did you happen to buy the house from a Russian family? Yeah well that was because that was their favourites we need to get someone in to reprogram for yours. But to them it's like it doesn't work how I want to work it could but they understand behind it. And I think when you've had something installed badly or incorrectly you know then to go back to that client and say well look okay you know it's a great system but what what should have happened is X, Y, and Z.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

That's why you know the design service really takes responsibility for that. So it's basically a certified stamp of performance that you'll gain whether that's you know brightness viewing angles from a projection system or an LED direct view LED large format display or an outdoor whatever it is you know we know that the products that we work with will deliver this level of performance and therefore you can you you can proceed with confidence that that's what you're going to deliver. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Well especially large format as you say large format LED displays you know that was the barcode we saw at our ISE was was was stunning.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

It's phenomenal yeah yeah well now having you know DCI within that range as well so now we can offer the Bel Air server systems with direct view LED and with um traditional projection um but LED is in the US it's huge it's a vast percentage of you know more as in more than half of their theatres that are being deployed in the US are with direct view LED which is incredible. In the UK it's a much much smaller number but it's definitely on the increase.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

And of course that's something where the design service will come in because obviously if you're putting a large format LED on the wall where the speakers go?

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah it's a big challenge. I mean the we're very lucky because we've got the two best solutions obviously in my opinion you know Meridian pioneered and and developed the image elevation technology so we can put the three speakers beneath the screen use the image elevation technology to bring the sound

Commissioning Support Remote Or Onsite

SPEAKER_00 40:30

stage to the centre of the LED which is one option works incredibly well and we demonstrate that quite often actually if we're doing demos at the factory. And then TPI has the movement system which has three speakers below and three speakers above both different systems both deliver really incredible performance and and really to the point where now I will go yeah sure you can have a a TV in your cinema if that's what you like because the audio compromise is not a compromise if we're using one of these technologies. Whereas I think if you'd asked me a few years ago I would be very staunch and against DirectView LED. There's loads of benefits it delivers and my personal view is you should use projection right but if a client is asking for a television a large format LED then you say absolutely here's a large format LED. They're not wrong for wanting that and as long as we're responsible with the specification make sure we've got the ventilation make sure we've got the audio dialed in so it's working as it should be there's no downside for them wanting to have large format LED in the in the in the room because you can have incredible brightness incredible contrast and all the other things. So I think now I'm much more comfortable specifying you know large format LED especially when we can do it in scope format as well so 237 format and DCI.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

You know we've got an offering for for theatre systems with LED and we've got an offer for living rooms with LED I was going to say because obviously some of our clients will have a dedicated cinema room but then they want a big screen in their sort of living room and okay big TVs are getting bigger.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

It's still only a hundred inch though isn't it I mean it's still realistically I mean 113 now I think with one of the brands and you're looking at 25 grand which is remember my first TV hundred and that's not it should you could start with a two if you want yeah um but you really you know and also we want to be measuring how wide it is not what its diagonal is so a four a four and a half meter wide television in the living room I mean that's pretty awesome there's a big drive for it in the US and I think we will see some more of it in the UK as well which is large sporting rooms um where a large format LED is perfect for that because especially if we've got multiple things well at the weekend we had the um we had the Grand Prix on which was fabulous. Awesome three Brits on the big three brilliant was that thing three brits yep the goat on the top step fantastic but we had that on there's also that other race you know one of the biggest races in the world the 24 hour Le Monde they're both on at the same time so I I was try not to watch that because I didn't want to be sad. Yeah but you you know that's where large format LED would be fantastic because you it's not which one do you want to watch you just go yes and you go Formula one Le Monde Formula One with some football around the edges if you want to watch the World Cup yeah so having the real estate for that and you don't want to be watching the Formula One in a in a dark room. You want to be eating snacking chatting to your friends because the audio is really just dialogue. There's no dynamics there's no magic there's no surround effects it's just you know some great commentators getting you excited about what's happening. So in those environments you know you want to have great speech intelligibility you want to have large real estate so you've got you're not squinting you've got this big old impression and you want to show off to your friends. So you know those types of um events I guess you could call them. They're perfect for LED. You know, trying to make projection work in that environment is absolutely the wrong tool. So, you know, I can see that we will see more LED come through. And it's also because it's got better uniformity of the display is very important. You know, they need to be very, very flat. So having a really good mounting system, you know, like well, Barkov developed for their range, is really important. Having a white glove service to make sure it's installed properly is really important, which is also what's offered there. So yeah, we we are quoting a lot of LED at the moment, and we've got such a big breadth of range in terms of quality, light output, ratio, size, pixel pitch, all those things are covered. I think this 26-27 we'll start to see more and more LED being deployed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

And what's your do you have plans for case studies with some of your clients? Obviously, if they're allowed. So if people might see some case studies coming out from some of those jobs in, you know, certain publications, I know of one. Um so just to see, you know, what sort of projects you're getting involved in.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Yeah, I mean, we you know, over the years at DBM we did some amazing projects, and some of them we were fortunate enough to case study. Um, Mr. Who's the Boss was one of my favourites actually, because um that that was a huge project to win. Um the integrator, you know, Simon did an amazing job of bringing us in early, who'd have thought. Yeah. Um, letting us do some demonstrations and present it to the client, which they loved, and then obviously the final handover commissioning side of things. But that was a great case study, and um, you know, that's the type of projects that we get involved in. That's the type of um thing we want to do at the back end. So, yes, once we've got a project over the line and the client is happy for a little bit of um photography video or otherwise, we'd absolutely love to do that. You'll notice at the moment we very deliberately haven't included case studies on a website because what I don't want to do is take a project that we did, even though it's really, you know, the same people and it's the same brands, but that wasn't my business that delivered that. Um and so their logo, shove your logo. Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. We we talked about it um because you could say, oh yeah, but you you know, you were involved, you did you did do a lot of sure, but that's not that's not mine. And I think I'd like to, you know, carve out my own um case studies and and and deliver those as well. And I think they will come. They're seldom because of the lot of client confidentiality, but where we are able to, we absolutely will, yeah. Because I think they're just a showcase of of what's possible. I think one of the biggest assets you have is the projects you've done before, because you can use those to help motivate. You know, for me, a lot

New Ideas Outdoor Audio And LED

SPEAKER_00 46:50

of dealer meetings is storytelling. We did this the other day.

unknown 46:54

Boom.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

That's brilliant. I've got a project where we could do that. I didn't even think about it. All right, cool, how can we do it? So a lot of it is that ideation of um, you know, options and things that can be done, um, selling the dream almost, and then um that will start to that will start to sort of tease out of the street.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Someone's gonna done it, someone someone has gonna done it first for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

And then if you're involved in that, you can say, Well, look, we did this over there and it worked really, really well.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

So Yeah, I mean, ha as I say, you know, really and I was there for a long time, and I and I so I did get to see a lot of the world. So I've got a lot of friends over in the US, but also into Europe, South Africa, Australia. So I get to see, and I would, you know, these are my friends around the world, right? Of course, they're in one sense customers because they bought something from us, but really, you know, the relationship goes way beyond that for me. Um, and so they're proud sharing things that they've done, which gives me another idea as to how we could look at using that in in the UK. So that sort of network of um of amazing um integrators from around the world doing like bonkers projects, and yeah, they're only the ones you get to see, the ones you get told about are even more crazy.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Yeah, um the ones at the senior awards, you're having a drink. Oh, what happened to that? Oh yeah, you should have seen it, it was amazing. You're never gonna get to see it though.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Yeah, there's so many. I mean, yeah, some of the well, it's what NDAs are for, right? But some of the stuff you're signing an NDA for, you're like, okay, this is some this is some proper stuff. And and you know, that that will forever remain a secret, and you'll never get to see behind that. But um, yeah, they can really give you some amazing ideas. And I think what's what's brilliant to see is the quality of the integrators that we have in the UK is amazing. And so, well, they can deliver these things. Yeah, you know, these aren't flights of fancy, this is not something made up that maybe one day might happen. It's like, no, of course they can do that. Uh, and that's really cool because then nothing's really off limits. You can go wherever your imagination takes you, and then you can work with people who can help deliver that. And I think one of the new brands that we added into um AV8 is um the guys at at Cinema Pro, which is part of future automation. Yeah, you know, future automation have helped me to deliver loads of projects over the years because we're like, well, how do we make that work? And we might do a little sketch and then you'll show it to them, and I'll go, I remember my first sketch. How about we do it this way? Yeah. Oh, yeah, okay, that's that's why you're mechanical engineers, that's why you do that, isn't it? So I think you know that that knowing people that can help to deliver the dream outside of your own remit is a real key thing. So a lot of occasions where we've said, you really need to speak to these guys, you really need to speak to those guys. So we talk about partnerships, but we have partnerships that go outside of the brands we work with. We work with a lot of other distributors around the UK who have bits that fill in spaces where we don't have. So it's not uncommon. So I was chatting to Jamie at C A V D, great guy, great business. Um, they absolutely have products that we don't offer, and of course I'm going to recommend that they go to there if they if they need that. So we've got these relationships, and it's not just about a sale at all costs, it's about doing the right thing and you know getting the right result.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

Well, that's what I think is great about this this industry, you know, that we've both been in for a while, too long. Um that yeah, you might have competitors who are not too far away from you, but actually a lot of them are friends. You can share successes, you can share, you know, issues you've got. Um so talking about Aviate, is there anything else you want to cover to bring the podcast to a close? Are there things that we've not talked about? Um, a self-promotion plug again for the for the website, etc. Um, yeah, is there anything else you want to talk about before we we close down the conversation?

SPEAKER_00 50:48

No, I I mean you know, just to say thanks to everyone for being so supportive, um, for getting in touch and and having a chat. It really did mean the world to me. And I think um that's been, as I say, really humbling. Um and really just just get in touch. You know, we're, in my opinion, great people. Chris, especially is just one of the nicest people you'll ever speak to and incredibly talented when it comes to design.

Case Studies Partnerships And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Um, and if there's something you need, get in touch. If we don't know how to make it happen, we know who can make it happen and we'll help make that happen. Um, and yeah, thank you very much and and look forward to working on the next project with all of you. Yeah. Excellent. And the website address again? That is abadistribution.com. Same as our email addresses, just with a name in front of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

So thank you for your time. Thank you for doing this podcast with us. And uh yeah, Barry, good luck with your uh with your future endeavour.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

Cheers, Barry, thank you. Cheers