Behind the Rack
Behind the Rack is the AV industry podcast where Pro AV, broadcast, and live production come to life. Hosted by Hugo Chevrette, Franco Caruso, and Vincent Simoneau, each episode dives into the latest audio, video, and broadcast technology trends, while sharing real-world experiences from integrators, tech specialists, and industry leaders.
From new product launches and system integration tips to AV industry trends, audio solutions, and video workflows, the hosts keep the conversations casual, practical, and easy to follow. Expect honest insights, a few rants, and plenty of useful takeaways that go beyond what you’ll find in spec sheets or trade show booths.
Whether you’re an AV integrator, dealer, broadcast engineer, or just passionate about pro audio and video technology, Behind the Rack helps you stay connected, learn something new, and see what’s really happening behind the rack.
Behind the Rack
Ep.1 - Different Paths, Same Rack: Our First Steps into AV | Behind the Rack Podcast
Curiosity built our careers long before we had the job titles to match. We trace three winding routes into pro audio, video, and system integration—through tape machines and DAWs, car audio and DJ gigs, retail aisles and distribution counters—and unpack how those hands‑on reps turned into real judgment. No straight lines here; just a lot of doing, failing, and learning until the signal path made sense and the room sounded right.
We compare the power of analog habits in a digital world, why Pro Tools HD once cost as much as a car, and how native processing and Intel Macs reshaped post‑production workflows. We break down what a distributor actually does in the AV supply chain, the leap from sales to system design, and the everyday math of impedance, gain staging, codecs, frame rates, and sync. Along the way, we talk brand management, entrepreneurship, and the reality of building a career that mixes weekday corporate work with weekend shows—plus the mentors and 4 a.m. cable calls that quietly change everything.
The heart of it is skill stacking and translation. Audio literacy elevates camera and streaming results. Video fluency prevents downstream headaches. Networking basics—DHCP, VLANs, and sensible IoT isolation—turn DIY rigs into stable systems. System design rarely has one “right” answer; it’s about trading constraints with clients in clear language and hitting the brief without overcomplicating the rack. The spark for this show came from a lunch that spiraled into CCTV and routers, and we realized our best conversations happen where specialties overlap and it’s safe to ask “obvious” questions.
If you’re AV‑curious or already knee‑deep in cables, this origin story sets the tone: honest, practical, and focused on the work. Hit follow, share with a teammate who loves good signal flow, and drop your biggest early lesson—we’ll feature listener questions in future episodes.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SFM.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to Behind the Rack, the podcast where we, Hugo Chavet, Franco Caruso, and myself, Vincent Semeno, pull back the curtain on the AV industry. Now, this isn't your typical polished panel. It's a casual real-world chat where we just talk about the gear we love and sometimes love to complain about, the trends shaping pro audio, lifestyle, broadcast, and system integration, and the lessons we're learning along the way. Now think of it as three AV pros sharing stories, swapping rants, and diving into topics that matter, not just to help listeners get smarter about tech, but to keep ourselves learning too. So whether you're in the booth, the boardroom, A V curious, or behind the rack, there's something here for you. So grab your headphones, pull up a chair, and join us for some honest, sometimes nerdy, always fun conversations. All happening in the rack.
SPEAKER_01:That was a great intro. Yeah. That was the first intro to our first podcast of Behind the Rack. Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_02:You know, it felt good. It felt good, anyways. Well done. To many more. Too many more. Too more. Yes. To many more. That's a good, that's a good start.
SPEAKER_01:That's an excellent start. How did you start in this industry?
SPEAKER_02:That's the question that I get asked a lot. I think you do too.
SPEAKER_01:I get asked a lot. Yeah, and I think we all have some really interesting stories. And that's what's cool about the AV industry. There's no singular path to get here. Everyone has a different story and a different uh way of how they got into this incredibly fun industry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And what's even cooler is I I don't I don't know Franco a lot. I Vince, we spent uh a lot of time together shooting like promotional material and and clips and movies, but uh but I don't know Franco that much, so I I I suspect I'm gonna learn something new from him today.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh which which is great. I mean, yep. And admittedly, we work in a really cool industry.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:I have to say the coolest industry in the world. Yeah. I'll say it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I think that's where we get asked a lot. It's like, you know, how did you get in and what what what does it take to get in? And surprisingly enough, you'll learn probably that uh just just a little bit of work, but uh and sometimes things happen for a reason. Yeah. Yep. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. Let's start with it, like let's start maybe with the like education and school and stuff like that. How did did that have an effect in terms of the career path or how you got here? What why don't you kind of take it take it off?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, in terms of schooling specifically, uh no, I had no idea I was gonna end up in the A V industry. And there's a couple things that happened along the way that just kind of made it happen naturally. Uh, I actually wanted to go into sciences, uh, was in sciences in high school, and then quickly realized after my very first chemistry class, there's no way I'm spending the rest of my life doing this. Um, so didn't do that. Went into marketing in CJEP. Loved it, had a great time. Uh always had kind of this inner entrepreneurship spirit, and you wanted to do something with business. Um after CJEP went into finance uh at John Melson School of Business, Concordia.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:And just like my chemistry class after the very first FINA class, finance class, I was like, I am not doing this for the rest of my life. And switched back into marketing and really enjoyed my time in university and and the whole business.
SPEAKER_00:You managed like you literally after a week or two, you said no. Oh, same, yeah, same day.
SPEAKER_01:First after the first class of that FINA, which is the finance core classes, I was like, I'm not doing this. Yeah. So I I actually I think that happened after a semester or two because you had to do your your base courses or whatever. My first core finance class, I was like, I'm not doing this. This is not this is not for me, which is fine, and that's what schooling is for, right? It's for realizing what you like and what you don't like. So I ended up finishing uh with a bachelor of uh of marketing, uh, like I said, from John Molson School of Business. And uh I think I'm gonna save how I got into the AV industry for a little later into the podcast, but a lot of different even signals I'll say that kind of just made me realize okay, you're going into AV. You love this. So no specific AV curriculum or no, no technical training, none like that, which I think is very different from you two. I I learned the old school way. Uh just by learning, by making a lot of mistakes, unfortunately. Learning by myself and uh eventually leaning on some pros in the industry, using them as mentors, and here I am.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not gonna lie, we still make mistakes, and we still make lots of mistakes. I'm one who still makes a lot of mistakes.
SPEAKER_01:Like not pressing record on the podcast?
SPEAKER_02:That that too. This is about the third time we shoot this this version. So I hope you guys enjoy this version. It's the more polished one. It's the more I guess you can tell it's the more polished one.
SPEAKER_01:This is gonna be a lot of fun though, boys. I'm excited to be here with you and be talking about this and learning more about you guys.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What about you, Hugo? Yeah, schooling-wise.
SPEAKER_00:Uh schooling-wise, I I did my CJEP, uh, sorry, I did my secondary school, very involved in sports and journalism. Like um and then I went into CJEP in in journalism, as a matter of fact. Uh didn't finish my uh collegial diploma. Uh for unfortunately, I only have like uh English and philosophy that I didn't finish, so I only missed two courses to get my full diploma. But as as you guys know, sometimes in this in this industry, they're not even looking at diploma. I mean, so why? But um after in the meantime, I started to be very interested into electronic music and started to play around with softwares like uh and it's back in 2003, probably. I had my first desk. Actually, I was making music on one of my friends, PC, uh, with softwares like uh Fruity Loop. I remember Fruity Loops Acid. Uh Acid was the name of the software, not what we were taking before. Uh allegedly. And propeller adds reason. And reason is a for those who who know, it's it's a software that it's probably 20 years old or at least 15 years old, and it's a virtual modular, virtual modular soft synth. Uh so it's a rack that you can turn around to see behind the rack. I like what you did there. There's gonna be a lot of these.
SPEAKER_01:Smooth, yeah, smooth, smooth.
SPEAKER_00:By pressing tab, you could turn a rack and you see all these wires. And those are real virtual wires, so those are real wires that you would see on a synthesizer. And I asked myself, I scratched my head and I said, Yeah, I want to know what these wires are for. And and and I looked online and there was one school that that was prominent in terms of uh uh production, music production, computer, uh, sound design. It was it was it's called Musitechnique, it still exists in 2025. And and funny enough, a lot of people in the industry went through that school. So it's as as I mentioned, it has a good reputation. So I started uh that course which was uh essay, so it's uh uh basically a specific specialized course uh for a specific topic, which was computer assisted sound design. Uh so basically I was teached how to use uh real uh synthesizer hardware. There was a lab with real synths like Roland GP 8000, uh Akai S1000 uh sampler. We were using Cubase as a uh uh for for programming MIDI. We were using Pro Tools to record audio, and funny enough, um I I was one of the I was the last um year uh at that specific school who was who were fortunate enough to record on analog tape. So our final project was recording on a real console 24 tracks into a tape machine, and so we record and we mix live on the console. So I was fortunate enough to have the a true hybrid uh class basically recording with uh uh computers, recording with tape, playing with real hardware, playing with virtual sense. So it was pretty cool. And um I to this day, I think this is really what got me into that business. This is where I learned about microphone polar uh polar pattern. This is why where I learned about XLR cables. So this is where I got my core knowledge for that call it A V or audio business, pro audio business. This is really the the the fundamentals and the where I learned and when I got even more passionate about it. Wow. And when I start, and I'm gonna keep also the story on what got me like my first gig and everything, but this is where I did study a computer assisted sound design.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing. Yep, especially touching the analog and digital right before it kind of changed. I think today we're getting back into the analog stuff. Yep, so getting taught, but getting taught, it's one thing like you know, a lot of analog stuff comes back nowadays, like you know, like the whole vinyl and stuff like that. Um, but getting taught it uh, you know, back in the day, I think is is really incredible. Because I don't think you get much of that today.
SPEAKER_01:No, and having all those toys in that one room just to play with is incredible.
SPEAKER_00:Like compressing a drum with a real compressor plugged and insert on a console. I mean, you don't see this nowadays. I mean, except in IN studio, which which uh still have like a an SSL or an Eve console with hardware, but those are expensive toys these days.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but it was out of necessity because that was the only way to actually do these things. That's right.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that's incredible. What about you, Vince? You Vince? Yep. Uh yeah, it's uh a little bit like Franco, where I started off into something that I thought I was gonna be interested in, which was computer science, and I quickly realized, yeah, that's that's not really what I wanted to get into. Um, I think it was it was a little bit fun at first, and then I got into really obviously mathematical, technical, and stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, that's not exactly where I wanted to, what I wanted to do. And then I ended up getting kicked out of college for a year, which led me to kind of uh ponder in terms of what I wanted to do with my life, my career. And at the time, uh it just so happened that uh first I always had a passion for for film and stuff like that, but at the time there was a huge demand um for film filming in Montreal. So there was a huge demand for it, and I said, why not uh like the X-Men series or shot ear? Early, yeah, early. I'm talking about early uh late 1990s, early 2000s.
SPEAKER_01:There was a lot of every summer there was something happening. That's exactly it. You would remember, hey, did you hear this? They're filming this in the old port or they're doing that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, chances are you'd be walking somewhere in Montreal and there's something that's happened, you'd see a line of trailers somewhere. So I figure, you know what? I I think this is a a good career path. I I think it's a very difficult one. I wasn't naive in terms of thinking that it was gonna be easy to get into, but I said, Let me let me give it a shot. And uh a little bit like you, once I got into the program, you got to learn about radio and video production, the film side, um, you know, animation and even photography were we're you know uh exposing and you know just taking care of all the film like the film aspects, the chemicals and chemical reactions and stuff. Yeah, the dark room and all that stuff, which was so much fun. And a little bit like you, I kind of um kind of the the the passion kind of kind of bloomed, yeah, sparked and kind of bloomed from there because that's when it I really got into. I think it I think it's that creative side that really like it gives you that opportunity to create something from nothing.
SPEAKER_00:And no, when the the ISO was something that's written on a film and you you have to buy a 200 ISO or a 800 ISO exactly, depending on where you stays, is it's more like I can change the setting on my digital camera, but at the time you needed to choose the proper film to film that. Absolutely, and if you miss, it's gonna look like you know, bad.
SPEAKER_02:Not only not only did you're absolutely right, I completely forgot about about that, but not only is your film important, but then how you expose it and then how you develop everything is like uh everything can be tweaked, and nowadays with the new iPhones, you just cycle through your your filters and then you can do a black and white or a sepia or whatever, you know. So it was uh even creating effects was was uh on the analog world.
SPEAKER_01:I think we're aging ourselves for the viewers. We're actually all in our 20s. We're all very, very young. Yeah, back in my day, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Um yeah, so that's what uh that really that really helped bloom myself into that. And I'll I'll again I'll I'll also keep my uh my my story. But what what got you was there anything in the in your childhood that kind of got you there where you are today?
SPEAKER_01:Um started playing piano. I was about four years old. Uh so I was always into music. Uh as I grew you know into my early teens, computers obviously became more popular. And uh I had a natural fascination for computers, and I quickly became the family IT guy, right? Every time something would happen, you know, someone would call me, Franco, how do you do this? How do you do that? And and the truth is I had no idea what I was doing, but I wasn't scared to experiment and try different things. And as long as it wasn't your stuff, as long as it wasn't my stuff, yeah. And you'll see that theme is kind of reoccurring uh throughout my journey. But um was super fascinating to computers. Uh, I always loved music, and obviously with the computers came digital music. Um, was ripping my dad's CDs onto the computer, so I had quite a nice collection going. And um as I grew older into my you know mid-teens, I was always the guy playing the music or responsible for music, whether it be a party, whether it be we're going in a car or something, uh I would literally carry around with me a cassette to one-eighth inch auxiliary adapter. Remember with the cord put it in? And the problem with that is a lot of cars, the cassette player didn't work eventually. Uh, so then I upgraded to the FM transmitter. Remember those days with the cigar uh with the cigarette lighter and you put it in the 12 volt? Never had any good uh never really worked properly.
SPEAKER_00:Um lots of interference.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so then I was like, How do we like we used to go in the car a lot and whatever? And I was like, Okay, there has to be a better way of playing music in a car. And uh quickly dove into car audio. Just by accident, a buddy of mine was like, Hey, I want to put a cool radio in my car, and I was like, Yeah, I can figure that out. Can't be too hard, right? Take out the dash, rip out the old radio, quickly realizing I don't know what I'm doing. A bit of research, you know, internet back then, dial up and start figuring out okay, you just gotta match the colors on the new wiring kit, no YouTube, barely any YouTube. That's right. And so um I figured out how to replace radios in cars, started doing that, which led to like subwoofer installations and again not knowing what the hell I was doing. The difference between wiring two subwoofers in series or parallel and how to pair them with an amp. So, yes, we blew some amps and had a lot of fun doing that.
SPEAKER_00:Probably a couple of eardrums at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:A couple of eardrums as well. I mean, my poor parents literally like three in the morning, we'd finally figure out which wire we didn't wire correctly, and all of a sudden you start hearing the sub, and we're like, we're having a great old time at three in the morning, right? So did the the whole car audio thing, and like it got to the point where it became a lot of fun. We were experimenting. Uh little radios turned into remember the DVD players in the car, but you could only play the DVDs if you were in park, right? And you had the park signal wire to say, okay, you're allowed to safely play the DVD. Um, don't do this at home, kids. But we uh we figured out again through the internet how to build like a relay bypass. So it would it we would trick the car into thinking it was in park when it really wasn't, so we were able to play the DVD. A video and multiple, or you could have played the DVD while driving if you wanted to do that. Of course, we we never ever listen, listen to the DVD.
SPEAKER_02:We listen to the DVD, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:You're not watching the DVD, we wouldn't do that, never listen to Tomorrowland, you know. And it was uh it was a lot of fun doing that. Uh, but it was more of a side gig, you know. Again, the entrepreneurship spirit was always in me, always had little side gigs going. Uh car audio eventually led into installing some home theater, you know. I could hang a TV, oh, I could wire a speaker, I could figure out a receiver and whatever. So I always did those things on the side. Um, but pairing the whole digital music thing, you know, at one point, and I was always providing the music, literally DJing without even realizing it. My dad was like, hey, like, why don't you think about DJing and doing this, you know, on the side. It's like, okay, I got the computer, I've got the music library, I've I love the technology behind it, right? Literally everything from a subwoofer in a trunk to the actual computer, kind of put it all together and started DJing and uh did my first wedding when I was 17 years old. Wow. I didn't sleep for three days before that because I was so nervous. I I it's somebody's special day. Someone's special day. I never really did it before. Uh, and and after that gig, which went well, I have to say, um, I learned from a lot of mentors in the industry. I was literally cabling wires for free at four in the morning at a hall in the east end, you know, like just to learn the way how do you coil an XLR cable? You know, how do you organize your cases? How do you do that? And literally all for free. Uh, and eventually started my own entertainment company, which is still running today. Super proud of that. But um at the at that time, you know, my parents wanted me to complete schooling and all that, and they they put a lot of pressure on me. And I'm not gonna lie, at one point, you know, I was DJing so much, it was very lucrative. So I don't need school, you know, that's it's not important. But I needed the family van to transport all my equipment. And when I say all my equipment, I didn't have a production grade, you know, inventory list. I was using old Nico home theater speakers that my uncle had given me for you know Suite 16s in a basement. Like it was it was really rudimentary, but it worked, right? It was it was a lot of fun, and uh and so they told me you're only allowed to use the family van if you stay in school and if you focus on events. Because I I was starting to get into the club scene and it was cool, right? The girls, the drinking, the whatever. And um, my dad kind of motivated me to stay in the event scene by saying, Hey, you know, you can actually make more money doing events. I don't know if he actually knew that back in the day. But I was like, okay, let me, you know, let me let me go down that path. And and that's what led to Caruso Entertainment and uh working as a DJ for the last 17 years of my life. Yeah, all founded by the minivan, all founded by the minivan and the pressure from my parents, and uh, and yeah, and that's what happened. And how I found myself to be at SFM is is a funny story too. I brought my CDJ 200s. Remember that Pioneer DJ, CDJ 200s? The gray ones, my cue button, just like every DJ goes through this. The Q button eventually fails after a million presses, which is completely normal. And uh and I had to get them repaired for my next gig. Didn't know what to do. I had bought them used, so I never really walked into a store and spoke to an actual authorized dealer. And uh someone had told me there's a company called SFM, Indoor Val. Go there, there's a little window in the back, just drop off your stuff and it'll get repaired. So I show up and uh shout out to Wayne, who's still here. Um I I dropped off my CDJ 200s, did not know what an RMA was. I had no paperwork, I don't even think I had a credit card back then. Dropped them off, he's like, Oh, you need to fill this out, whatever. Dropped them off, got them repaired. And when I came back, I was like, okay, I'm doing university. I don't know what my future is gonna look like, but it'd be really cool to stay in the DJ industry, but more at a nine to five level, corporate level during the week. And so I asked him if there was any openings, and he's like, hey, this is the website, check it out. I don't know what's open, what's not. Knew someone who knew someone, referral, did a couple interviews, and I started off as an assistant brand manager in the MI division. Nice, and now I'm here, category manager for Pro and Live. So I I stayed in the MI division, became brand manager, went to the pro audio side, brand manager there, and now I'm managing the the category, which is a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02:And specifically uh even Pioneer.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and what's crazy is like you know, the dream was to work for Pioneer DJ, and this is the closest thing possible in Canada, and now I get to manage Pioneer DJ Alpha Theta, QSC, Electro Voice, and have a lot of fun with all these brands. So it's uh it's crazy how different things happen and get you to where you are. Did you know this even existed? Like the I had when I dropped it off, I swear I thought it was a huge building just for repairs. Like I had no idea what a distributor was, what the role was in the supply chain of a business or a brand in Canada. I had no idea what exclusive distribution was, like I really had no clue. Um even applying for the job. Like I was naive about it, you know, like I didn't know what I was gonna be doing, what uh type of brands the company was dealing with at the time. Uh and everything just worked out. Yeah. And here I am, nine years later. So it's a lot of fun, it's cool, and I and I love what I did. I have no regrets. Made a lot of mistakes. I'm so sorry to all the people I installed. Bad car audio in. But it worked, it worked, it did work. Um, but that's how you learn, and I think that's what's so cool about the AV industry is that it's it's tactile, it's physical, to your point. You got to play with all those amazing instruments in person. I got to play with speaker cable and subwoofers and amps and you know, positive, negative, as rudimentary and as basic as that is. If I wouldn't have gone through all those steps, I I would have I wouldn't know what I'd be doing today, you know, and even playing with different cables, going to those companies at four in the morning, saying, Hey, I want to learn. I want to learn how to run a DJ company. Yeah, um, I wouldn't know the difference between you know different types of audio cables or video cables, how to organize them, the cases, the selling process. So, you know, always very like I said, entrepreneurship. Yeah, always had that in me. And I'm happy that I was able to marry with a more corporate side of things. And I still get to have fun on the weekends and please lots of crowds and and I enjoy every single minute of it. That's amazing. And I'm lucky for that.
SPEAKER_02:And it's and it's something that they don't always teach you in school that you know, there's if you have a passion for something, there's other avenues except for going directly into that specific thing. Um like, you know, you didn't even know besides uh outside of the DJ world that you can actually rep a brand. You can be an ambassador, you can do you know, all kinds of stuff. And sadly, they don't I don't think I mean from the little bit I was was paying attention in school, they weren't really telling you those different avenues to kind of branch out, saying there are other things that tie into that industry without having to be directly.
SPEAKER_01:You're kind of a very straight and narrow path, and this is how you do it, that's A to Z.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:And there's no, hey, you can actually do it this way. And it's it's you know, it's kind of the same thing in the A V world when you're building a rack or a system design, yeah. But everyone has a different way of doing it. That's right. Whether you're a DJ and you're mixing two songs, every DJ will mix those two songs differently every single time. Yep, whoever's designing a rack or a system design will do it differently, but at the end of the day, it's the result that matters. Yeah, you know, so it's yeah, it's yeah, it's it's funny when you look back at it, again, back in my day, you know, but it's uh it's fun to think of of all these little experiences and how it it brings you to the present day. Absolutely. Yeah, what about yeah, what about you, Hugo?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, back in my day.
SPEAKER_01:We're all in our 20s. I already warned you. We're all in our 20s, we're super young. It's okay.
SPEAKER_00:You know what's funny about me is um I've been uh with SFM, the distributor for for two years, close to two years now, actually. Yeah, two years. Um but I've been a salesperson for the past 23 years before joining SFM. So looking back at you know, I mentioned Musitechnique, um the the woman who was uh booking the internship, she kind of liked me, uh, but in a good way. Don't don't don't worry. I didn't do anything bad. Um uh so she she I I was very good at school and that at that particular school, I was top three in my class, very involved in the computer, as I told you, very knowledgeable on all the new softwares and and stuff like that. So she found me uh a job even before I finished my my last semester. Lucky you. So I think the semester was finishing in May, and by mid-April, I was already working at at a music store called Steve Music. You worked at Steve's Music. Steve's, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't know he worked at Steve's Music. You know either. I probably met you at Steve's without even knowing.
SPEAKER_00:Probably.
SPEAKER_01:What uh department did you work in? I I was working in the PA and DJ department, so really maybe if you purchased your pioneer around the I I couldn't afford new equipment, so I come in, see what's see what's happening, and look up the and go look used.
SPEAKER_02:What a small world though.
SPEAKER_01:It's scary. I have another story, it might save it for another podcast, but I met an existing employee who's still here today at SFM before starting at SFM, and then I saw him at SFM and was like, you were the guy who sold me my first pair of speakers. I'll save that story for a minute. Jesus. I'm an MC, like I'm gonna talk forever. So we'll let Hugo continue.
SPEAKER_00:So I I worked uh at Steve's Music uh in the PA department. This is another place where I learned a lot of stuff, especially around uh wireless microphone. At the time it was uh uh yeah, it was not digital, it was still analog. Um I learned a lot about power dams, microphones, um basically did my classes, completed my classes there, learning how to sell something to someone. Um and from there, I was working in the PA department, but I was still completely in love with recording and computer technology and computer technology and recording technology. So I was spending a lot of time in the pro audio department where where the the audio interface were and uh uh all this shiny gear. Um and I I was still I started mixing at the same time, mixing as a DJ. So as opposed to you, Franco, uh I did not the the events and gig. I went straight to the clubs. I I worked in clubs, I worked in a I had a gig at a restaurant for 18 years. Wow. Um, so in parallel, I was working in the PA department, I was starting to DJing, DJ at the same time. But sorry, was that because of Steve's that led you to DJing? I started DJing just before joining just before. Funny enough, another uh little story there. I bought my first kit to Newmark Access 8 and a Newmark. I think it was a TMO3 or something like that, uh, from someone in my class because he didn't have enough money. Really? Yeah, he needed the money to to pay for his class, actually. Anyways, that's a sad story. I I I bought my DJ equipment with my grants.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00:You see, you do what you gotta do, which ended up being a very good move because I did a lot of money as a DJ. Yeah. As you said. So, anyways, after a year and a half at Steve Music, that music store, um, someone from another local reseller who were exclusively selling Pro Tools HD, like the the large, the big Pro Tools system, which they use to record bands, mix for TV, mix for movie. That guy needed an assistant. And he kind of heard that I was pretty good with Pro Tools, and so he basically approached me and asked me if I wanted to be his uh his assistant, which I did for a year, another year and a half before he got fired. Uh, he got fired for health reasons, uh, basically lost his job for a for Health reasons, he had to leave. Um, and I basically got his gig. And at the time, another big step in my in my paycheck, because it was very lucrative. Uh, at the time back in 2004 or five, Pro Tools HD was to mix in 5.1. If you pair it with Gen Elec speakers and everything, it could be up to$60,000,$70,000 for one workstation.
SPEAKER_01:So that's hardware, software, the complete kit.
SPEAKER_00:And we were integrating everything. I mean, we were selling everything. Uh, we were actually buying Gen Elec speakers from SFM at the time already.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, so Gen Elec or others, I mean so you'd come in and outfit the studio or the post-production room.
SPEAKER_00:I could sell the whole studio, including the acoustic uh treatment and everything. Really? Yeah. What was that back then?
SPEAKER_02:Or Alex?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was selling Or Alex and um that Canadian company. Okay. Uh I don't remember.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry. Even though we're in our 20s, we forget things sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Um but so I worked at that company called C E V uh for another 17 years. But at one point uh audio uh got democratized and computer processors were much more powerful. So the technology dropped in price. Uh so basically, I was mentioning at first it was$70,000 to have a full-blown system. When I five to six, seven, eight years later, it was around$12,000 because you could do so much more with a native system. When I say native, I mean you could do so much more with a processor. And it was about the time when Mac computers, which are, as you guys know, are people are using Mac in in that industry, especially in the post-production business. So when Mac transitioned from Power PC, uh Motorola processors to Intel, suddenly the power went up like this. Like wow. So you could do so much more with a native system. The reason why these systems were so expensive is they were using DSP cards hooked up to the PCIe parts in a Mac. You could have up to three cards with 18 processors on it, and you couldn't run, I don't know, 150 plugins on it, no latency, like literally less than uh a few samples of latency. It was very, very high on stuff. But again, the processor, a native processor in the Intel Mac got so much powerful that you could do much more with a smaller system. So I was not making enough money anymore. So I was contemplating the idea of leaving and I don't know, working for somebody else. Uh, but the boss told me, you know, you're very good at what you're doing in audio, but I think you have potential also to sell video editorial systems. So this is where I started to be uh um interested in video because still at the time a video editorial system was still very expensive.
SPEAKER_01:Did you have any video editing experience prior to that? Or you learn a lot through the job?
SPEAKER_00:I learned a lot through the job, but the fact that I was basically selling Pro Tools system for audio to sound to picture, I kind of got to learn a lot about all these resolutions, frame rates. Because in post-production, the thing you want to do is you want the audio and the video to be synced. If not, you're screwed. So I I got to learn a lot about all these different formats. I'm not specialist about cameras, uh, but I'm I'm very good with codecs in general. So this is where I learned a lot, and I became basically doing selling audio and video. So this is where I got a second uh tool in my toolbox. Uh, and I did another like 10 years there. So I worked for 17 years at that specific reseller. And start after 17 years in one place, you start contemplating the idea of leaving. And I got approached by a national reseller who was also an avid reseller, but they also were an Autodesk reseller. Uh they're they're an expo, they're based in BC, but I was working off Montreal here. Uh so this is where I got another tool in my toolbox, which was uh everything VFX and gaming design. So all the desktop publishing softwares like Autodesk, uh 3DS Max, 3D Max or just Max, uh, and all those pipelines, understanding about asset management and everything you need to basically create visual effects in a movie. So I I wouldn't say I'm a specialist about that, but I've sold many systems also. So I kind of get the complete workflow and pipeline. Everything around a movie, I I kind of understand the bits and pieces that go around it. Nice. And after five years, I basically lost my job. Uh, and I got approached by SFM, the distributor we're working for here uh about two years ago. That's that's about is there anything Hugo doesn't know?
SPEAKER_02:I know, I was just gonna say after getting into that journey, did you have a preference in terms of are you you consider yourself more of an audio guy or more a video guy?
SPEAKER_00:Or that's really funny because you know I work in the technical department here and all these guys are audio guys. I mean, I'm the only video professional. I'm I'm kind of the broadcast specialist, that's how you call me here. But I I still consider myself an audio guy, but out of the all the audio guy, I'm the one who knows the more the video. Let's put it that way. Yeah, uh, but I'm more of an audio person still to that date. And that's funny because going from 23 years of being a salesperson or a technical salesperson, now I'm I'm still selling gear. I mean, I'm still helping the salesman here or the reps to sell, but I'm a lot more into technical these days, which I really like because at the end of my career, my my my sales director was telling me I was too technical. Oh wow, you know, because I was really geeking out with the customers, but I was not talking that much about like how much are you gonna give me? Right, how do you see like the business and blah blah. So I was more of a okay, what tools are you using? What's your workflow? I want to understand it. So so basically, I mean the job I have right now is I really like it. Nice. Yeah, it fits it seems like it's right up your alley.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yep. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:You see all this gear on this set here. We had so much fun building that.
SPEAKER_01:So and no pressure if the video and the audio don't sync up perfectly, hey? No pressure. It's gonna sink, trust me. I believe it.
SPEAKER_00:I believe it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, what about you?
SPEAKER_02:Oh boy. Um, yeah, I think it was just um a little sequence sequence of events, a little bit like Franco and even yourself, uh Hugh. I think it I think it's like that for a lot of us. Um, I think it's it stemmed out from uh uh started off with a part-time job uh during CJEP, which a buddy of mine approached me to work at Future Shop. I always had a passion for like home theaters and stuff like that. And uh he came to see me. He's like, hey, they're looking for somebody for car audio, and you'd be uh also selling on the home theater side. So I said, I think that's great. I'm not much of a sales guy, but uh I love being technical and plugging things in since I was a kid. I always played with like analog old stuff. We didn't have a ton of cash. I always had like really old mixers and stuff that was sometimes worked, sometimes didn't. Just you know, playing around with cables trips not working, yeah. Yeah, yeah, stuff like that, tube bamps and stuff like that. So it was a lot of fun. Anyway, so starting off at Future Shop was a lot of fun. The education was I think back in the day they used to say like McDonald's was like the first best job that you can get. You'd learn so much, and I don't know if it's like that today, allegedly, but um, future shop was a great, great um company to work for. They learned a lot on the sales side, a lot on the technical side, and uh got to learn a lot, a little bit like you on the car audio side, just learning about impedances and stuff like that, and on the home theater side as well.
SPEAKER_01:Were you installing car audio or just single?
SPEAKER_02:No, just selling, just selling, and on the home theater side, yeah. I would dabble into some side uh installations for customers. Sometimes they didn't want to go with their uh back then was like the it wasn't Geek SWAT, it was something else with Future Shop, but um yeah, just getting a pulse too. I love getting a pulse with the customers saying, you know, like what what type of applications they were getting into, some of the challenges like wiring, pre-wiring. Like I even back then I was doing like you know, wiring after the fact. So it was very challenging and surface mount wiring. Yeah, I would I I wouldn't go surface mount wiring, but you know, like okay, let's go through the basement and you know all kinds of stuff. It was it was quite challenging, but at a young age I got to kind of kind of matured me, I would say. And that was a good thing.
SPEAKER_01:Putting cable through a house that's already built will will humble you real quick.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, really quick, yeah, really, really quick. So that was a lot of fun, and I think um, and then right after that, the same friend who worked at a feed shop left um and Brick started expanding across Canada and uh came pulling me in when they started building the uh Kirkland uh center in the West Island in Montreal, and I helped open the store again working in the the home theater department. That was a lot of fun. Still doing some installs on the side too, and I think why I enjoyed it so much as well is um it it I kind of maybe it was an excuse I was creating for myself, but it kind of still tied a little bit of the film side where I was recreating the theater experience inside a home. Uh, and that always appealed to me. And um, I I there's there's so many people that work um behind the screen, behind the camera on a film production, uh, from lighting to costume design to set design to everything. And recreating that in the home, I think was super important for me. That's why I'm a little bit saddened today. Everybody's going for sound bars, but uh but I think it's it's really cool. Do a full podcast on sound bars on just sound bars.
SPEAKER_01:Just sound bars.
SPEAKER_02:That's coming up.
SPEAKER_01:Um theater system at home.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, many.
SPEAKER_01:Again, another episode just home theaters.
SPEAKER_02:Another episode. And even just the um I I I wrote a white paper um back in the day on just the the psychological aspect of having a home theater, a dedicated home theater space in the room, how it changes things, even just like the dynamic and stuff. But again, that's another podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Does your white paper talk about the wife acceptance factor?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes, the family acceptance, the family acceptance. Yeah, but that's a huge that's a huge part of it. Uh, but so, anyways, after after the brick, uh basically um I went to a little bit outside the industry in the telecom industry. And uh as soon as I actually left the telecom industry uh as a part-time job, obviously, and then I got kicked out a second time in college, and I really didn't know uh what I was gonna do. And and the timing was was really good because it wasn't like months off, it was literally like a week off, and then I get a call. And to this day, no joke, I have no idea how I came across this company because and I'll get to that. They call me up and they're like, hey, with all your experience uh on the home theater side, specifically Future Shop and the Brick, they saw that. They're like, We really want a counter guy in uh in in distribution for um A V. I'm like, fantastic. So I got the job, went for the interview, got the job, and I remember the first week they're just like, okay, I want you to.
SPEAKER_00:What is that company?
SPEAKER_02:Like that was what were they specialized in in? So they're a low voltage distributor.
SPEAKER_00:And can you define low voltage?
SPEAKER_02:Because I'm I'm I'm not sure anything that's not electrical, so anything that's 12 volts, 24 volts, and all that stuff. Like doorbells, doorbells, networking, yeah, doorbells, networking, monitoring, security cameras, access control, fire, uh, and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01:Intrusion, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Intrusion exactly, intrusion, uh, CCTV and AV, especially on the 70 volt side and all that stuff. Uh, and I remember the first week, they're like, okay, I want you to just clean the shelves. I want you to remove the products off the shelves, clean the shelves, and as you're cleaning the shelves, open up the boxes and learn the products. And I think that was fantastic. And I still remember after the first week, I'm like, what the hell do these guys do? I didn't know what a distributor was, and I was like, I still don't know what the hierarchy was, what the process was, like, what's a dealer? I don't know what a dealer is, I don't know what an end user was, I didn't know what a distributor or what the role of a distributor was. And uh that too got me to learn a lot throughout the years, and even there I started doing helping dealers do installs that are like had a little bit more difficulty on the A V space, so they'd they'd they'd uh they'd ask me to come on site, and I love that because again, I like having a pulse to the industry and see what was working, what was not working, yeah, and seeing firsthand what the challenges are, and you basically helped low voltage resellers or like a company specialized in security cameras or integration, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, uh selling A V products.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was more like guys who were already getting into the home and were getting asked to expand on some of their solution. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, you're doing my speakers.
SPEAKER_02:Can you also do my CC TV or the home theater or exactly so that was fantastic, and I would kind of uh educate them and kind of help expand their business. So that was a little entrepreneur uh in me as well that I loved um kind of helping grow people's businesses into areas where they're like, why are you putting yourself, giving yourself limits? And even back then, back then the AV industry, you're making a lot more money, a lot more margin just in cables. I mean, we're looking talking back into analog cables because components when we're getting into HD, you're selling separate uh video cables, separate audio cables, and uh just on cables, you're making pretty good money. Yep, so that was a lot of fun, which could be another topic too.
SPEAKER_00:That too, just cables, the hype about the cables, that they're expensive cables.
SPEAKER_01:And what could you do over CATSIX?
SPEAKER_02:Even just HDMI cables, yeah. That's a whole other so anyway. So I I started off from counter sales all the way up to inside sales into system design because I was a lot less salesy, like you, and uh a lot more technical, but um, and then later on became um managing managing the team, leading the team in Canada for the system design team, which was a a ton of fun. And then SFM was looking for somebody who was like a bit of a hybrid technical marketing and kind of help take uh more technical terms and convert into easy digestible type of marketable marketable applications and stuff like that, which is so much fun. So did you apply for the job or did they called you? Funny enough, I think it was a little bit of both, from what I understood. Um actually I I first applied for a brand management position. Oh yeah, didn't get it. So Franco said no. Franco said no.
SPEAKER_01:It was not me, just kidding, it was not me.
SPEAKER_02:At first I think they were looking for somebody a little less technical. I maybe I was a little bit too technical, but uh because of my history in in making actually rewinding, I actually started uh my video production company in 2013 on the side, which I actually closed very recently, but I actually had a film production company because I had some older friends that were still in the film business that are like, hey, would you mind producing and and directing some films for me? And I'm like, that'd be fantastic. And that was a lot of fun and very humbling as well. Yeah, because in the micro not the indie or the low budget, but when we're talking about micro budget type of productions where you're basically wearing multiple hats, you get to learn a lot of roles. You see everything, you see everything, and you're doing hands-on. Again, we're we're talking about experience, doing is the most important thing. Planning is also great, but doing and getting your hands dirty, making mistakes, making those mistakes are important, not pressing record. That that all makes that all makes a huge difference. And I learned, and then as the years were going on and the projects were getting a little bit bigger, I actually started building up a team. That too was very important for me to start learning how to uh have confidence in other individuals, their creativity, learning how those guys who are specialists and cra like you know professionals in their craft, how they think what they can bring to the table. And that applied a lot to system design, working with dealers. And again, you brought it up before, you know, like there's never especially when you're doing a design, there's never one perfect design. You can take that one um problem and give it to all three of us, and we come up with three different solutions. At the end, the customer is always happy, but there's always three different ways of doing it. And I always say two plus two equals four, but so is three plus one. You're always getting to the end of it. So uh that's basically it. So I think I think SFM, I think, from what I understand, is they kind of like that the video aspect and then the technical side and merging both together.
SPEAKER_01:So here we are today.
SPEAKER_02:Here we are today today. Do we sing our first podcast?
SPEAKER_00:Maybe we should. I I mean I I know uh I don't know how long we've been talking, but maybe we should just talk about the inception of this podcast, like how would we got the idea and all that correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we had gone for lunch.
SPEAKER_01:It was probably the first lunch us three had ever gone on just. We were with a reseller too, and um again, all different parts of the business, right? The marketing side, the brand management side, the technical side. And we were talking at lunch, and we started talking about correct me if I'm wrong again, I don't know if it was CCTV, security camera. Yes. Then we started talking about routers and access points, and I mean you guys, your networking DHCP VLAN. Yeah, exactly. And your networking shops are definitely better than mine. I mean, I have some basic knowledge.
SPEAKER_00:Vince was saying that he has a dedicated VLAN just for Chinese stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, IoT stuff. And yeah, I was like, what is that? You know, we're learning from each other, and uh I think by the end of that conversation, people must have been looking at us. It was a small restaurant, like, what are these guys talking about? And we're just going on and on and on, and I think at the end of the conversation, that's when we realized, hey, this is a really good content. Like we were just talking, we're learning from each other, yeah, and most importantly, it was a safe space, and I think that's what this podcast needs to be. It's being vulnerable and okay, Franco doesn't know a lot about video or networking, but he knows a hell of a lot about the DJ product, the consumer side of things, the entrepreneurship side, supply chain side of running that type of business in Canada. And I want to learn from gentlemen like you two, you know, that have more of those technical uh abilities compared to myself. And I and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun going back and forth and uh benefiting from our our strengths and weaknesses.
SPEAKER_02:Well, don't sell yourself short, because I think I think I found that lunch super insightful because even though I mean you you know quite a bit in networking as well, but what I what I found really interesting is that all three of us I think we knew a lot about the topic, but even even so, I still learned stuff that I didn't know you and and yourself, and we're always learning that we're constantly, constantly evolving, and it's a very fast-paced industry, everything is constantly moving, so you know, from our stories, we all made mistakes, we all got here at the end of the day, and that's what these conversations are going to be about is let's ask those questions.
SPEAKER_01:Let's not be scared to make mistakes. And hopefully the viewers as well will be asking lots of questions and we'll we'll jump into it. And we're not scared to look into it and uh and learn from each other.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, if you have anything that you guys want us to talk about specifically, feel free to uh drop that in the comments uh below, and we'll be more than happy to uh to look at it and explore all those these topics. We really, really, really want to hear from everybody out there.
SPEAKER_00:And I I gotta say that.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, like and subscribe, you guys. I mean, this is this is we almost forgot the most important part. Yeah. This is what will be driving this podcast going forward.
SPEAKER_02:Well, thanks for hanging out with us on Behind the Rack. We hope you picked up something new, maybe had a laugh, or at least nodded along with one of our rants. If you enjoyed today's episode, again, hit that follow, share it with a colleague or a fellow AV guy, um, and help us spread the word. Um, we'll be back with more stories, insights, and conversations from uh the worlds of pro audio, broadcast, live sound, and systems. So until then, keep the curiosity alive and we'll catch you the next time behind the road.
