Ep.14 - The Death of the AV Rack? Randy Blanchard on 33 Years in Pro AV

From projection TVs that weighed 260 lbs to AI-generated install guides — Randy Blanchard has seen every chapter of pro AV. In Episode 14 of Behind the Rack, the industry veteran joins host Vince Lavigne to unpack why the AV rack is disappearing, why networking skills are now non-negotiable for integrators, and where AI, video walls on substrate, and decentralized AV are taking the industry next. Recorded in Dorval, Quebec at SFM | Midwich, this conversation spans three decades of AV evolution: from analog distributed antenna systems and Crestron-stuffed racks to Dante audio networks, PoE everything, and conference rooms with nothing but a Luxul switch and a few PoE injectors behind the wall. 

🎙️ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN 

- Why the traditional AV rack is being replaced by network closets and cloud control - How Randy redesigned a 60-seat boardroom from 60 push-to-talk mics to 2 Shure MXA ceiling arrays - The shift from analog distributed antenna to Dante, AVB, and IP-based AV - Why AV integrators who aren't networking-fluent will be "100% left behind" - How AI tools like Gemini are already generating install guides, wiring diagrams, and BOMs - The future of video walls: from LED cabinets to printable substrate displays - Why integrators must stop selling parts lists and start selling themselves as the brand - The "suspension of disbelief" — AV's true endgame across audio, video, and XR 

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY 

The rack isn't dying — it's migrating. AV is becoming a networking discipline, and the integrators who win the next decade will be the ones who sell themselves as the solution, not a bill of materials tied together with Cat6. 

🏢 ABOUT BEHIND THE RACK 

Behind the Rack is SFM's podcast for AV integrators, dealers, broadcast engineers, and pro-audio professionals across Canada and beyond. Hosted by Vince Lavigne, the show goes behind the gear to explore the people, decisions, and shifts shaping commercial AV, broadcast, pro/live sound, and systems integration. SFM is a Midwich Group company headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, distributing brands including Shure, Genelec, Electro-Voice, Dynacord, QSC, Avid, BirdDog, Blustream, Netgear, Visionary Solutions, Christie, Bosch, Pioneer DJ, and LEA. 

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❓ FREQUENTLY ASKED 

Q: Are AV racks really disappearing? A: In fixed installations, yes — most AV functions are migrating to network switches, PoE, and cloud control. Racks remain essential in live venues, broadcast, and data centers. 

Q: What skills do AV integrators need most in 2026? A: Networking fluency (VLANs, QoS, multicast for Dante/AVB), system design thinking, and the ability to sell solutions rather than equipment lists. 

Q: Who is Randy Blanchard? A: A 33-year pro AV veteran with experience spanning high-end residential integration, AV distribution, video wall manufacturing, and consulting — based in the Detroit metro area. 

Q: What is "Behind the Rack"? A: A monthly podcast by SFM (a Midwich company) exploring the people and technology shaping professional AV across Canada. 

#BehindTheRack #ProAV #AVIntegration #AVoverIP #Dante #SystemsIntegration #AVtweeps #InfoComm #SFM #Midwich #AVindustry #CommercialAV #VideoWalls #NetworkedAudio #AVnetworking #AVpodcast

Transcript

Suspension Of Disbelief

SPEAKER_05 0:03

The thing we're trying to accomplish is the suspension of disbelief. What we're always trying to do is eliminate the electronics, right? The suspension of disbelief in the audio world. Are we how are we getting back to the musical event? How are we getting back to the live concert? Trying to convince the viewer and listener that we're in the event, not watching the event, that we're active, not passive. That's always going to be the ultimate end game. We've allowed our brands to outsell us. I gotta have a crown amplifier. I've got to have a QSG amplifier. Why? Why do I have to have that? Because that brand told us that they're the best for this. Well, are you getting your end user to say, I've got to have this dealer? You know, my company was PCAR electronics. I gotta have a PCAR system. And that's where we continue as an industry to fall start.

Hugo 1:11

Yeah, go for the last question. An important one.

Franco 1:15

Rack or nor racked, Randy.

Meet Randy Blanchard

Franco 1:32

Well, today we uh are pleased to have the man, the myth, and the legend, Randy Blanchard. Randy, it's really nice having you uh with us today on Behind the Rack. Really cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

Well, I am uh truly honored, truly honored to be here. Hopefully I won't hurt yourself.

Franco 1:53

Yeah, thanks for taking the time. I know you have a very tight schedule. So um, you know, I I think it was an interesting um it was an interesting choice to have you on because the name of our our podcast is Behind the Rack. And um nowadays, and I've known Randy for for many, many years, I think Randy has seen really the evolution of A V even more so than than us. And um, yeah, we're not really seeing that many that many racks as we used to be back in the days. So let's just get it started a little bit of um how did you actually get into AV, Randy?

How He Fell Into AV

Franco 2:32

Uh was there a plan or did the industry find you like everybody else?

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Oh, lordy, lordy. All right, so um it was back in college, which I was not successful at, was not good at. I was working in the A V department at the university, and um just by chance, a friend of mine who knew I wasn't being successful in college in my studies, she said, Joe, you'd make a great salesman. You should go be a salesman. So I went and uh I started working at a local uh Pro and uh Resi video store for a few months, then uh migrated over to a one of Detroit's premier uh premium high-end uh at that time audio shop. And they hired me because I had more of a video background than an audio background. And uh I did that for uh 22 years before you and I met, Vinny.

Franco 3:40

Oh wow, that's crazy. And what was the video back then? It was projection, I'm assuming it was projection or TVs?

SPEAKER_05 3:49

Barely projection. Oh wow. Biggest two TV out there at that time was uh I think it was actually NEC maybe that just introduced a 32. Oh but 26 was the uh was the go-to size. Jeez.

Hugo 4:07

Well so we're going way back, and and 32 was probably 80, 90, 150 pounds kind of thing.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

Oh uh I did a 35-inch JVC once that was 260 pounds. Wow, we had to we had to lift it off the ground and put it into a cabinet.

Franco 4:32

Oh my god. Yeah, not fun.

SPEAKER_05 4:36

Oh yeah, those are the days.

Franco 4:39

Yeah, I remember those days at uh I I I I actually ended up working at retail right before those phased out and those 36-inch like uh Sony panels with those Sony um were the XBRs or something like that. Yeah, something well the XBR I think is retro projection, yeah, yeah, retro projection, but also like the flat, uh you know, when you had those flat TVs, yeah, like the it was still like the yeah, flat tube, like yeah, yeah, exactly. And those were heavy too.

SPEAKER_05 5:07

So fortunately, the commercial product came with handles, the resie product, uh not so much so. Nice. And look lifting those beasts. Uh I was a young guy back then, so I could actually do it. And then, you know, um early, early uh uh rear pro, your early rear projection was three tube. Before then, it was two-tube. Sony actually, no Mitsubishi, I'm sorry, introduced a uh two-tube rear pro and boy was awful. And then the three-tube stuff came out Sony, Mitsubishi, uh, NEC, and you know, kind of everybody came out with uh three-tube rear projection. Yeah, and of course then front projection came in and uh this started out as three tube. And you know, we thought they were the greatest thing in the world, but if you turned a flashlight on in the room, you couldn't see the image anymore.

What Installs Looked Like Then

Franco 6:10

So so going back to that time, what what was a typical A V installation? Like what did that what did that look like?

SPEAKER_05 6:18

Um not a lot of V, right? I mean, it was uh if you were doing video, you know, let's take the resie side out for a bit, but like commercial bar restaurant, you know, you would you would be hanging banks of um 26-inch TVs even before they were 27. Uh you would be hanging banks of them, everything was done over uh distributed antenna, everything was done on coax and uh lots of wire, lots of sources, um, you know, a lot of distributed antenna stuff. Yeah, uh yeah, everything was everything was analog. Yeah, yeah.

Hugo 7:05

When you say distributed antenna, does it mean that basically you were, and again, pardon my my ignorance because I I wasn't there at that time, but was it basically you were receiving a channel on some type of receiver, and then you'd broadcast internally via uh Earth's uh uh Earth and not on like a modulator? Yeah, like a in in inside the bar, you'd have a modulator who would basically broadcast the same signal inside on on a certain channel.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Yep, exactly. So you could have a bank of uh uh TV receivers, and uh and you would they would go out into a channel master, channel plus oh, that was the other guy. Anyway, and yeah, go out and you would distribute those out, and uh the uh the channels on the TV were captive to the bank of receivers sometimes, or you would just install an antenna on the roof, and you know, the you would use a distribution system because you still wanted VHS, you still wanted to put a tape in some days, and uh so yeah, so you had very complex uh antenna modulation systems and uh lots of amplifiers because that signal doesn't like to go long distances.

Hugo 8:35

Uh-huh. Yeah. And and what was the basically um um the ticker, or was there anything you could overlay on top of the video, or it was basically that that was not possible at the time? Could you basically put your Go ahead?

SPEAKER_05 8:50

Yeah, it was. I mean, you could use things like uh special effect generators from people like Grass Valley and IX back in the day.

Hugo 9:00

Probably very expensive, right? That's exactly where I was getting.

SPEAKER_05 9:06

When you showed somebody how much it was, you're like, no, thank you. Okay, but that was I mean, that was you know the only way to do it. And it was uh, you know, hey, it was cool back then, now it's uh borderline barbaric.

unknown 9:23

Yeah.

Hugo 9:24

Wow. Oh, thanks for uh for I mean, I I I was not even aware of that, so that's stuff we learn every day.

SPEAKER_05 9:32

Because you're not old enough.

Hugo 9:33

That's it.

Building A Career Across AV

SPEAKER_04 9:36

Randy, after the uh the high-end integration side of things, how did you make your way through the AV industry?

SPEAKER_05 9:44

So um like I said, I did that for 22 years. We were um we were we were resi and commercial, both, uh, you know, very high-end uh resie, uh more mainstream commercial. Um and uh kind of grew from there, and uh, you know, that was successful, but for me it ran its course, and uh I was uh doing business with uh can I say their do I dare say their name, Vinny?

Franco 10:22

Go for it.

SPEAKER_05 10:23

I was doing business with another distributor and the security distributor, but uh they were good people. Uh but they had no idea what the hell they were doing when it came to our world. So I met the president and I said, Look, man, I love you guys. You're a great company, but you have no idea what you're doing. That was exactly what I told them. And he said, Okay, well, put your money where your mouth is. And uh he hired me to help them build a uh robust uh A V division and uh more resident commercial at that time, uh, because it's easier to get into, and the client base is uh, you know, security guys were doing that level, and that's where uh Vinny and I met many, many, many moons ago. Uh, but my you know progression through there, and then uh you know, if you want me to keep going, I can keep going. Yeah, keep going, keep going. All right, so I'll keep going. So I did that for 15 years and very successful. We we added uh uh about a hundred million a year and incremental growth in my 15 years there. Well, um, so it was successful. Then he ran away. And uh I came back.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

I came back after lots of tension today.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Yeah, from there I went to uh Vanco, and they had they had bought a product, they had bought a brand, a company called Beale Street Audio, which has an amazing patent for uh in-sealing recess speakers, but didn't know how to sell it. They're video guys, and so they hired me uh because that's all they needed to safe story, uh, and I helped them grow their Beale Street audio and pulse audio business. They had no commercial play at all, it was strictly resi. So um we built a commercial division, some really good amplifiers, uh, some uh really good 70 volt, actually 700 volt speakers, uh, and then built that business. Then um their core business, which was video, was kind of dropping off, even though audio was going up. They decided they wanted to refocus on video, so they eliminated my position, just like that one. So uh I did I did uh a friend of mine ask me to help him uh in his networking business. So I did connectors, fiber, um for about a year. Oh my god, I do not recommend that to anybody because God, it's boring. Oh my god.

Franco 13:26

But it's a it but but it's a must, eh? Like you can't you can't do any install without connectors.

SPEAKER_05 13:32

You can't, you're right, but trying to differentiate yourself, trying to say, my piece of plastic is better than his piece of plastic, my tool is better than his tool. Yeah, you know, I remember uh just a quick anecdote. I was doing a training, and I was in front of a I was in front of a group of security integrators, probably 60 guys in the room, and I'm talking about our crimper.

Franco 14:03

Is that the one with the pass-through?

SPEAKER_05 14:05

The pass-through uh the one afterwards one guy comes over to me and he says, I have never seen anybody get so excited about a crimper. I took that as a huge compliment. Yes, absolutely.

Franco 14:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 14:29

Yeah, so

Video Walls And Rollable Displays

SPEAKER_05 14:30

last app was uh the video wall world, which is an amazing business. Um company uh just video walls wanted to go into distribution and wanted to go into the commercial space, so they hired me uh to build that business for them. So I went there as their VP of distribution, and uh I did that for about uh eight months, and uh we'll call it a personality conflict.

Franco 14:59

Yeah. You were trying to sell speakers?

SPEAKER_05 15:01

Uh that didn't go work out the way I want it to, but I left them with a great roadmap to uh go after the uh distribution and commercial video wall world, you know, which is in their world is absolutely hospitality, uh quick circurf, bar, restaurant. You know, they're not gonna be they're not gonna be a player in large scale. It's just a different world.

Franco 15:30

Yeah. But it's huge. Yeah, video walls is huge. Like, I mean, I went to Infocom a few years back and that's all I saw. Like there was just a whole like section just of video walls. It was just insane.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

Oh, it's uh it is a uh it is an amazing market, it is an amazing technology, and uh it's um what it is today is not uh long long term. Uh you know, it's today it's a bunch of little modules and cabinets and everything fits together like a uh like Legos. Um but uh like Legos, like my Aaron Senna Lego F1 car that dropped off of my shelf the other day.

Hugo 16:22

Oh no. What you mean it it's it's not long term. Uh I I can you elaborate today?

SPEAKER_05 16:32

It's complex, right? It is literally um uh doesn't matter what the manufacturers are all essentially the same, which is stacks of 27-inch cabinets, 27-inch diagonal cabinets, and then little modules like this that snap in. So you take uh 216 inch, which is a pretty common size, and it's got hundreds of cabinets and give near a thousand little modules that requires uh uh multiple outlets, you know, three, four, fifteen amp outlets. Um it's complex, it's very complex. And there is, and you guys, if you've looked around, you might have seen it. Um, and we I remember years ago, and if I'm dominating the conversation, I apologize. But I remember years ago sitting with my boss way back in the day, and we talk about the day that someday you're gonna be able to buy TVs on a roll. And we're really close to that, where you'll rip off, and hey, there's your TV. Yeah. We're getting we that is that is the next iteration, uh, is you know, we're uh we're applying instead of applying uh pixels to uh boards, we're gonna be applying them to substrates. And we're already doing that. And uh it's just a matter of of resolution uh and uh uh processors to address them. But that's really you know where it's gonna where it's ultimately gonna end up is you know look at today's car, right? I mean, uh any any modern car has got an LED dashboard now, and it's just a matter of again, we can keep scaling that up to where large format TVs are just gonna be on substrate.

Hugo 18:38

That's really interesting. So that's that's the the future you envision for for larger displays, like something you roll on the wall, literally like sticking on it. Uh that's probably with an electrode on each side on each end, and that's it.

SPEAKER_05 18:55

Well, yeah, and you really just won because everything's gonna be addressed.

Hugo 18:59

True.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Okay. You know, it's it's really it's really gonna be as the managing power more than anything else. And uh again, if you look online, uh I love watching these, you can see it, where um probably the most common thing you see today are these uh shading windows, right? Where I'm in my office and and I hit a button and the window becomes opaque.

Hugo 19:26

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:28

There you go. I mean, that's the technology in a very basic form. But uh it won't be long, and it's gonna change, you know, as that evolves, as the resolution increases, it's gonna change everything. I mean, it's gonna change everything from you know Times Square to concerts to everything.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Randy, it sounds like you're you're very excited for the future of video. Um, and with all your experience from starting with the really the basics of video and intended distribution to you know possibly some invisible displays. Then going through audio and everything, you've you've really seen it all. Would you say that you're most excited like personally to see what comes out of the video world or which segment of the industry excites you the most?

Hugo 20:19

Yeah, good question.

SPEAKER_05 20:21

Oh that is a good question. Absolutely, it's video because yeah, because you think about it, right? Video is everywhere. And you can uh look at billboards, you know, billboards are digital now. Well, there is no audio. You it marketing, advertising, um, you know, digital signage doesn't use doesn't use audio, so we see before we hear. Right? And uh so oh yeah. So the the applications are vastly wider in the video space than they are in the audio space.

Franco 21:05

Very good point.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Very, very good point.

Franco 21:07

You know, it's funny because uh Hugo is another tech geek like all of us, but uh he showed me his metaglasses the other day, he made me wear them, and they were actually pretty freaking cool. I'm a bit jealous you didn't show me your meta glasses. And and there's actually little speakers right above, and they're kind of directional, so it's it's you can kind of hear them if he has them on, but not as not as clear when you have them on. And I wonder if that might be one day where the audio in the signage comes in where you're walking down, it's geolocalizing, and then it's you know, a little bit like minority report as you as you're walking into something, it's just sending out a signal.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

By the way, it is possible. Just like the museum systems, if you think about it.

Franco 21:49

Yeah, but that's a close closed circuit type of system.

SPEAKER_04 21:52

Like, you're saying oh you're saying like open world just walking by the store and all that.

Franco 21:56

I mean we we already get we already get it with uh with the phone, right? Like If you have a GPS on, you'll see the McDonald's. McDonald's is like one of the first things that pops up and stuff. But I wonder if that's the audio portion that uh I mean the technology's there.

Hugo 22:10

Yeah. Like geolocalized ads based on your location. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

But yeah, it's just it's a matter of, you know, addressing and uh people like Lissid and Williams are already working on that. They already have that technology. You brought a perfect example of the museums. Yeah. You know, go to and uh, you know, Vinny, you I don't know if you gentlemen, but I know Vinny, you've been to Europe. Yeah. And uh, you know, you go to any any museum in Europe, any guided tour, and okay, which language do you want? Yep. And you get the same event, the same experience in your whatever language you choose.

SPEAKER_06 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:56

Yeah. You know, but in video, there's no language. It's all the same message, it's all the same story.

Hugo 23:04

True. Yeah. More universal.

Franco 23:08

Yep.

Why The Rack Got Smaller

Franco 23:10

Shifting back to uh the rack, uh uh we we we talk about this all the time, Randy, and I obviously I think we we you and I were talking about it just when I was on my way out. But um when did when did you start noticing that the rack was being less of the focal point or the centralized point and what happened? Like what happened to all that like I would say the good times were it's funny because you know uh I was yeah I read the um the the sheet you sent me.

SPEAKER_05 23:46

Yeah, and I'm just thinking you guys gotta change the name of your uh podcast here because you can't three, you can't hide behind a rack anymore. Oh, sorry. So yes, you know, when did it start changing its symbols? When we started migrating out of the analog world into the digital world, you know, when we started, we we got away from you know, and the video side, what did we do? We started with RGB and composite, and then this little S video thing came out, came and went good. Um then we you know then component video came out, right? So here you've got whether you're doing RGB or component, you know, take SGI out for a minute. You had big matrixes, right? Tons of with you know, every single source, every single um display, every every single sync uh had three or four or five, depending on uh if you had, you know, because you could do RGB with separate horizontal and vertical sync. You know, the great thing about component is that we were able to take the horizontal, vertical sync, move it into the video. Um, but you had five wires going to every display from every source. You had these, you know, six, seven, eight-foot-tall racks of all this video distribution. Uh, then HDMI comes along, and uh now we take all of that, we put it down to 19 conductors, because HDMI's 19 conductors, and we put it on a pin that's you know that big. So the rack comes down. Then next step is you know, the original HDMI extenders were analog, they were good, but they were analog. Uh then we finally get a sort of a standard HD base T, we get smaller. Yeah, we keep getting smaller and smaller, and now um you can go digital, you the the extender, if you will, is built in the sources and the displays. So you're literally running cat, putting an RJ45, boom, you know. Um a quick another quick uh story. Just recently, I was uh consulting for a security dealer here that got uh the boardroom project, not boardroom conference room project, and it's uh it's a uh 40-person 60 by 40 by 11 foot high conference room that the company moved into the building and they wanted to out re-outfit it. And when I started designing it, it's got three hundred fifteen-inch uh Samsung commercial displays. Uh when I started designing the audio side of it, it originally had all Harmon and JB out and drop and ceiling tiles, shore microphones. By the time I was done, everything was uh Dante. And so I moved everything, you know, I went with should have done originally, uh, but I didn't design system in a couple years. So I moved it to Dante, and you know, trip then I had to explain to the guy, okay, the only thing you're pulling now is cat. Well, I said, yeah, from you got a home run because originally he wanted to do we were gonna do 70 volts so we can daisy chain all the speakers.

SPEAKER_06 27:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

And uh I said, oh, we're gonna change that, we're gonna do all Dante, we're gonna do all digital. We we uh what's that?

Hugo 27:36

Poe, probably also.

SPEAKER_05 27:38

Of course, yeah, yeah, and that's part of the Dante standard, right? And uh so our rack, which was uh uh whatever, you know, four foot tall. The only thing in there are uh we did for the video side, we did display link. So I put a display link uh matrix in a matrix, but it's uh display link hub in there, and then uh a Luxel switch, a couple extra PoE ports, and that's it. I mean, so we got a we got a rack that was originally gonna have Harman amplifiers and all this other stuff, yeah. And uh it ended up having it's literally got a Luxel switch and about eight or nine little boxes. That's it. That's the only thing in this rack. And uh so that's why I said you guys are gonna need to either uh hide behind get behind smaller racks, you're gonna get aim or something.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

But you'll notice our rack only has four components inside, so we're we're alluding to the future of racks.

Franco 28:52

Yeah, I could have I could have changed the logo to a 44U, but I decided a 27U was best, and we needed at least 12 U's for the logo. Yeah, and I don't know if you can see, but nothing's hooked up actually hooked up in the rack.

SPEAKER_05 29:08

So nice, yeah. I honestly I didn't notice your logo was a rack until just now. So you're not you're not a green artist. What can I tell you, brother? Um but uh yeah, I mean it's uh you know, I I remember uh days of massive racks, stacks of gear, you know. Uh we would do a system and we were we were a crush run house, and to do a crush tron control system, you know, you had crush tron boxes that were tall and many of them, and all your video distribution and everything, and you had uh miles of wire, and you know, now uh with crustron you could do the same thing with a tiny box.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:00

And uh so that's you know the the feint of our world. I don't know. I want to be in the rack business these days.

Franco 30:08

Well, is uh is uh no rack actually better, or have we just moved the complexity somewhere where the the client can't see? Like decentralized, like like a switch versus having you know what I mean?

Hugo 30:25

Like I don't know. Yeah, do do do you think it's better like these days, or actually another like a side question? Do you miss anything from those days? So do I miss it?

SPEAKER_05 30:39

So yeah, you you miss wire, you miss selling a lot of wire, you miss sell a lot of wire, yeah. Um and you know, so you you're you're pulling cat cables more than ever. Yeah, it's funny, the same job I was just finishing uh with all these big displays. Yeah, they still got uh the network room is it right next to the uh conference room we did, and you know, they still got a uh six, seven-foot-tall network rack for the whole building. Yeah, and so the networking guys are still selling large, mostly old racks, but large racks. Um, but the the video guys are just uh uh the the value there is is diminishing greatly. And you know, uh something you mentioned, yeah, we're gonna continue down the path of decentralization. Yeah, why do we centralize? Because we're comfortable centralizing, because that's all we've ever done. But moving away, uh just it's you know, uh as the control and the the monitoring becomes it already is cloud-based, um there's gonna be less racks because we're gonna continue to decentralize everything.

Franco 32:09

Decentralized in a centralized way, I'd assume, because the centralization is moving from the rack to the cloud. The cloud or the IT rack. Yeah, exactly. The network.

SPEAKER_05 32:20

Yeah, yeah. I mean, this this job we just did, I could have easily moved everything into their network rack instead of having our own rack. Yeah, and but we wanted to keep it separate because that's another company. You know, if if if I was working with the networking guys instead of the security guys, uh we probably would have just put everything in the same rack and not had a rack in that room. You know, the it's funny because this is a retrofit. And when we walked in, again, it was a security guy, a good friend of mine, he was my contract security guy when I had my A V company. And he said, you know, he knew I was unemployed. He says, Hey, you want to help me with this? I said, Of course, let's go look at it. So we go over. The room had two Epson projectors, big commercial projectors, four by three screens. There are 60 seats in the room, and every single seat had its own um uh PTT microphone. Wow. So every single seat had a goose egg microphone pushed to talk. There were two enormous cameras front and back. Um and think of that. Every single microphone was home run. There was uh at that point, that was uh component to the projectors, all home run back. There were 24 analog speakers, 70 volt, um, most of them home run back. So uh there was just gaggles of wire. Yeah, and when we're done, we've got you know a small bundle of uh cat cables and nothing else in an infinitely better performing system. You know, why have why have uh 40 or 60 uh push to talk microphones when I did a better job using two shores? I put two short ceiling microphones in and amazing, yeah, amazing technology and uh crystal clear. Expensive, which expensive is good. Well look, what we're we're salespeople. We're here to, you know, we may we love what we do, and that's important, but it we're here to make money.

Hugo 34:50

Yeah, yeah, but uh you know, compare 60 push to talk microphone with two MXA microphones from Shure, and I'm I'm I'm pretty confident that you'd it's still less expensive to put two ceiling microphones than 60 push to talk for sure.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

Between the labor, the cabling, the actual hardware for sure.

SPEAKER_05 35:08

Yes, the labor was dress obviously drastically reduced. Umics are thousand dollars each US. Yeah. So they're expensive still. Um yeah, and that's part of our that's uh the the the other part of our industry is you know uh there's less labor involved. Yeah, and you've gotta be a networking guy as much as an A V guy, yeah. You know, which I am not, which you know, I have to bring somebody in to help on the networking side.

Networking Skills Or Get Left Behind

Franco 35:45

Yeah. On that note, because we uh we we talk about networking being uh a big proponent of A V these days. I'm just curious, what what's the barrier for you of of pushing you into that network?

SPEAKER_05 36:01

Um for me personally, yeah doing it. You know, I'm I've I've moved out of the integration world and as you know, and as you know, distributor and manufacturer, uh it's if you're if you are an integrator, if that is what your livelihood is, and you are not as or more skilled in networking as you are in video and audio technology, you will 100% be left behind. Period. That is just the reality of it. You cannot survive today in an analog world. You know, our world isn't analog anymore. And uh, you know, we we look at let's talk about Dante, right? Finally, we've got a standard that the majority of the world has adapted, adopted, sorry. And uh that's uh uh good and bad, mostly good. But if you've done uh you know, I'm I'm just Dante level one certified. Uh the time it takes to get level two or level three certified is more time than than I can devote. Um but if you look at Dante certification as you go up, it switches to almost all network training. Yeah, right. Yeah, you know, and uh that's Dante Audio, Dante Video. And that's you know, HD base T is gonna go away, HDMI is already going away.

Franco 37:43

Um DI is coming in.

SPEAKER_05 37:46

Yeah, on the video side, you're not gonna have an HDMI connector on a TV, on a display. You're gonna have a RJ45. Yeah. And that's it. And so if you don't learn it, if you don't understand it, then you're you're you're gonna get left behind, or you're gonna screw somebody up.

Franco 38:11

And out of your uh 33 years experience, uh Randy, plus something your shock the industry um maybe still hasn't figured out yet.

SPEAKER_05 38:35

Um, from the business side

Stop Selling Parts, Sell Your Brand

SPEAKER_05 38:40

of it.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:41

It amazes me. And it doesn't matter what what market you're in, is they still many dealers, many integrators have not figured out that they're selling a system. That and that what they're selling is them as a system. And what I mean is they're still putting together these proposals and quotes like they're a distributor. Where I go in and you know, this is a prime example, you know, you walk in and you hand the guy a laundry list of all the stuff you're gonna put in, but there's nothing in the presentation about what you're going to do as an integrator. We use this term integrator now, right? Well, most of you guys don't know what a frickin' integrator is. What are you doing to integrate? What are you doing to take this laundry list and make it more than a parts list? What is the end game? What is the solution? And more importantly, and this still irks me, is what are you selling? Am I selling you know, uh this brand of speakers and this brand of video, and or am I selling myself as a company? Am I selling a total solution? You you you you buy a car, yeah. You know, uh, Vinny, we talked about your your SUVs, right? When you buy a car, does it have a list of who built the turbocharger, who built the bumpers, right? Who built, you know, boom, boom, boom. It doesn't have that. It has the solution. Yep. And we're afraid of allowing the manufacturer to outsell us. Now, good ones, and there are many, know this, and they're able to over there, they are selling themselves. What is your brand? Is the question I always ask dealers. You know, what is your brand? Most of them have no idea what their brand is.

unknown 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:06

And that's, yeah, you say what irks me, that's what irks me.

Franco 41:11

It's funny because one thing I've learned from you and and our friend uh our friend Gio is um always talking to brand. When we're talking to brands, it was always, what's the story you want to tell? And it's funny because we we we should be asking that question to the dealers and making them realize for those who aren't selling themselves is today. I I think if you want to differentiate yourself, you don't want to just be selling a parts list. You want to be selling yourself and the and the solution. And what what problem you're trying to what problem are you trying to solve for for the uh for the dealer?

Hugo 41:51

And yeah, am I am I selling or am I proposing a new way to communicate? Am I proposing a new way to to watch presentations or am proposing like a bill of material of exactly 60 pieces tied together with uh with cat 5 cables? So yeah, I think you're you you touch a very good point there. Yeah, but but you also said go ahead. You you also said that there's there are if a lot that are doing a good job at that, but some of them are still missing the point.

SPEAKER_05 42:23

Yeah, exactly. I mean the big ones have done that. That's why they're the big ones, you know. Um but the customers that we deal with in our space, don't. They don't have they still haven't figured that out. And again, it doesn't matter where you are, uh you know, what what whether you're you know resi commercial, uh uh networking guys, they still the networking guys actually do a better job of it, but it's because we've allowed our brands to outsell us. I gotta have a crown amplifier, I've gotta have a QSC amplifier, I've gotta have a JVL speaker. Why? Why do I have to have that? Because that brand sold us that they're the best for this. Well, are you getting your end user to say, I've got to have this dealer? You know, my company was PCAR electronics. I gotta have a PCAR system, you know, I've got to have this. Uh and that's where we continue as an industry to fall short. You know, yeah. Builders figured it out. Right? That's I mean, whether you're a custom home builder or commercial builder, you know, I'm having this builder build my building. Yeah, that's right. I don't care where he's sourcing the girders from, and you know, I don't care where you know what brand of drywall is going. Going in. I got a bitch filmer. We haven't figured that we haven't figured that out enough yet.

Franco 44:10

All valid points. If you were starting an integration company tomorrow, Randy, is what would you do differently? That 90% of the market isn't, and would that probably it? Is is is the storytelling?

SPEAKER_05 44:30

A lot of that. It's funny because I've always thought and I've always said and that I would go back into the A V business, back into the integration level, retail, if you will. If I can figure out the best mouse trap, what can I do that is so dramatically different that people would migrate to me and I haven't figured it out yet? That's this is a big piece of it. Um but I'm I haven't figured out what that uh best mouse trap is, and I've been uh struggling with that for 10 years now. Um is that because of the technology?

Franco 45:19

Is that because of the technology, the the evolution of technology? Like what what has been the biggest uh what hasn't been the thing that's yeah, oh is it okay.

SPEAKER_05 45:33

So um don't get myself

AI, Artistry, And The Human Touch

SPEAKER_05 45:40

in too much trouble here. So this job I just did. Um I won't lie to you, I got it a little bit over my head because of the newer technology because I switched everything to audio and I thought uh Lagrande, which I highly recommend Vadio, by the way, it is fabulous. Uh not the plug a brand, but there you go. Um but I started having questions, and I started questioning myself. I took my equipment list and I plugged in what I wanted the end game to be. And I plugged it in. I used Gemini, which is Google's AI bot.

unknown 46:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:27

And I asked it to spit out a finished product, and I asked it for instruction guides, setup guides, um, troubleshooting guides, uh wiring diagrams, everything. And let me just say it was 90% accurate. And if if somebody were to hand me that list today, I'm nobody, I don't know anything about this stuff. And someone were to say to me, hey Randy, here's an equipment list. Why don't we talk about you know being nothing more than the sum of the parts? Here's the equipment list. I could go into any AI bot today, plug in that equipment list, tell it what I think the end game is, and that sucker will again with pretty good accuracy spit out a finished product. Yeah, step-by-step instructions, installation instructions, programming instructions. I mean, it's it's the the barriers of education uh are are you know we're dumbing ourselves down. Yeah. It it's across everything. You know, yeah we're we're I always joke, we're one step of we're one day away from the matrix.

Franco 47:49

Yeah. Yeah, like Neo. You know, like plug it in, two seconds. I already got the manual, I already know how to set it up.

SPEAKER_05 47:57

It's it's as as almost as you know, and then I mean it what it gave me, you know, was you know, there were errors in there. You gotta be smart enough to know the errors. But was beautiful finished product. You know, how-to guys, titles, laid out, bullets, for everything formatted, spreadsheets. It's just boom. It's it it's it's you know, j just becoming easier. And you know, fortunately, things like networking, which you've gotta, it is more than just knowing which port to plug things into and understanding how Dante truly functions. And more than anything, it goes back to what we're just talking about. It's the artistry, right? It is what am I bringing to the game that AI isn't bringing to the game? What am I bringing to the game that the competitors aren't bringing to the game? Yeah, what is the art and what we're doing? Um, you know, what is the what is the ergonomics? What is the human touch? Yeah, and selling yourself first, you know, which I did helping this integrator. I sold myself first, then I realized you got it over my head.

unknown 49:25

Shh.

SPEAKER_05 49:26

So anyway, um the podcast is so popular.

Hugo 49:35

Careful on what you say, Randy, because the podcast is so popular that integrator might watch our podcast, you know.

SPEAKER_04 49:43

Randy, the important part was that you forgot to mention that everything worked out perfectly in the end.

Hugo 49:50

Because Randy was there. Because Randy was there.

Franco 49:54

He did tie in the loose ends. Because with Randy's story, it's always a happy, happy ending.

SPEAKER_05 49:59

Always happily ever ending. But you know why? Um because I care. Yeah, because I am my brand, which is why I think shocks take me as long to find a frickin' jump. But I am my brand, right? And I care enough to make sure that anything I'm involved in isn't half-assed. You know, there's not enough of that. There really isn't enough of that. And uh again, I said differentiator that argument, the human touch. Um, you know, i if you're not passionate about what you do, go do something else. Yeah, you know, I didn't I didn't get into this business because I uh was passionate about it. I got into this business uh because I needed a job. What I became very passionate about it, you know. Um you know, again, my first love is cars. But uh I uh I can't see myself doing anything else. Now I'm to the point where if I find something else, I'm gonna take it. Um, but it's seriously, the big thing is if you're not passionate about what you do, go do something else. Yeah, you know, um find find your passion, whatever that is. There's no perfect job, there's no perfect career, but find you know, find what you like. And I I freaking love when you finish a project and the end user has this wow, that's awesome. And they're happy, you know, because then you pat yourself on the back, you feel good about what you do, and that is truly more than the sum of the parts. You know?

Franco 52:10

Yeah. Passion is everything. Passion is everything.

Fewer Wires, More Automation

Franco 52:17

Where do you see the uh the future of A V, Randy?

SPEAKER_05 52:21

Well, we kind of talked about that already. It is absolutely well, look, our whole life is gonna wires are um wires are one step uh behind the rack in terms of a dinosaur. I had to. I know.

Franco 52:38

I was I was expecting more of that actually throughout this podcast.

SPEAKER_05 52:42

Oh, oh just open the gate for you, Ray. Let's go. Four hours?

Franco 52:47

No, no, we're at the top of the hour.

SPEAKER_05 52:50

I'm um, yeah, I I got more time if we need more time, of course.

Franco 52:55

Um but are are we going like 5G? Is it you know you're talking about wires? I'm even you know, you know, Elon keeps talking about everything in 5G and stuff like that. Do you see that?

SPEAKER_05 53:06

Or you know, are are we going even more decentralized with wireless, or is this uh do you still see wired being look the the the only the only thing that wires gonna bring is power, and we've already got inductive product. I mean, look at your phone. I remember it's at CES about four years ago, five years ago, HiSense showing a uh inductive television. Wow, it was truly the power, the power source was about a foot away from the TV. Wow. And um, you know, that obviously it was very prototypical, but uh we've already got it with our phones, we already have it in our cars. Uh as uh inductive technology becomes more prevalent. Uh we're again we're talking low power, then like everything will expand. Uh there's gonna be less needs for wires. Everything is gonna go to you know what we call the internet today, who knows what it'll be in 50 years. Um, but uh yeah, I mean, there's gonna be less racks, less wires, um, more automation, uh, more control, you know, uh control systems are gonna become um uh less necessary. Yeah. You know, as products communicate more and more with each other. Um, you know, that's the the way our future is gonna go. Right now, the best thing you can do, run wire. Yeah. You know, we're we're we're we're nowhere near this, I don't think, in the next 10 years. Uh, but we're getting close already, which again, what's you know, what is everybody pulling? They're pulling cat.

SPEAKER_06 55:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:01

You know, yeah. They're they're not pulling speaker wire, they're certainly not pulling, you know, garden hose, uh uh RGB cable. Yeah. Yeah. Um we're just not doing it anymore.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:18

And uh so that's

Rapid Fire Takes And Hot Buttons

SPEAKER_05 55:20

uh you know, that's the way life is.

Franco 55:24

Yeah. Like I said, we're we're on the top of the hour, but uh, I want to uh I want to do some rapid fire questions for you, Randy. Oh what are the rules?

Hugo 55:36

Uh you have 10 seconds to answer.

SPEAKER_04 55:40

Every question or each question? Every question. Each question. Sorry, yeah. Randy, you ready for this?

Franco 55:47

Yeah, do you want to start it off, Hugo? Yep. Best gear ever made. LED T V. Nice. Good answer. Most overhyped product in the last ten years.

SPEAKER_05 56:10

There's so much of that. Um, um I'm hanging, I got it. I'm just about to spit it out, but digital tape. So chat chat recorders.

Hugo 56:29

Yeah. Wow. Oh, that's that's that's good. Yeah, that was worth the wait. One brand that doesn't get enough credit.

SPEAKER_05 56:41

Me. Very good answer.

Franco 56:44

It's a good answer.

Hugo 56:49

Uh most overbuilt rack you've ever seen.

SPEAKER_05 56:56

Most network racks. Um a control room at uh Chrysler World headquarters that had about uh 60 racks of uh useless audio gear.

Franco 57:13

I'll PTT. Trade show you'll never miss.

Hugo 57:24

Infocom. Good. Oh, really? See you, I'll see you there, I suspect. One piece of gear you still have from the 80s, from the 90s, sorry, or 80s or 70s. So several.

SPEAKER_05 57:38

And I'm using them. Speakers. I have multiple, I have multiple brands of speakers in my basement, and I'm using an old pair of paradigms right now, is my uh near field monitors here. I have lots of speakers from the uh 90s and even older.

Hugo 57:56

True, huh?

Franco 57:57

Speakers, I mean, they're good for for a while. That that's the one thing. That's why I collect so many speakers at home, because that's just one thing that doesn't really evolve.

Hugo 58:07

It is like lenses in photography. Exactly. That's a perfect. Yeah, that's a great analogy.

SPEAKER_05 58:12

Yeah, and that's you know, something we didn't touch on. I'll touch on, right? After all of this is said and done, when it comes to the audio side, we always end up at analog. Yeah, true. I mean, to remember, right? We always end up in an analog world. Digital is is the transmission method, but what we hear, the emotional side of that, is always going to be analog, and you always got to keep that in mind, whether it's performance-based residential type product or clear vocal intelligibility, um you know, um, noise canceling, whatever that is, uh as an integrator, don't sell that part short. Don't put in crappy speakers just because they're Dante speakers, just because they're digital speakers. If the performance, if what the end user experiences isn't up to the level that you commit to, then you've chosen the wrong product. Sorry, I digrushed.

Hugo 59:22

No, that's wrapped it up. It's perfectly valid. It's perfect. Yeah, go for the last question. It's an important one.

Franco 59:29

Rack or no rack, Randy?

SPEAKER_05 59:32

Always a rack. Yes. I know that wasn't the truthful answer because I see unfortunately you know the answer. Yeah, and I feel bad for the metal vendors. Um, but uh yeah, racks, you know, because analog is yesterday, and racks are about analog, analog video, analog audio, big power amplifiers, you know, crush rod, AMX, big control panels. Um you know, the racks are gonna survive in the uh live venue, right? Where I've got to move things around a lot and I just need to stack everything, you know. Um but in the in the fixed installation world, yeah, we'll just we don't need them. We don't need them as we used to.

Hugo 1:00:29

Fortunately, these vendors are now able to sell these racks to IT hyperscalers and AI data center. So I mean the rack business is still there, but it just uh moved to another uh vertical. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:43

Right, yeah 100%. That's a good point. I certainly agree with that. So racks are will uh will always be there.

Franco 1:00:50

Yeah, yeah. I will always be behind it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:54

Next season will be past the racks.

Hugo 1:00:57

And you know, remember, I mean, the cloud basically a bunch of racks, you know? Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Franco 1:01:03

That's nobody talks about the racks on the top.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:07

That's actually a good point. You look at these data centers, right? Yeah, and you know, everybody they're putting data centers in everywhere. And uh it was just in again, one of your competitors in Texas, and they're a data center supplier. And um they were they're like, yeah, we're about to send this uh these racks out. And I I couldn't even count the number of seven-foot-tall APC racks they were uh loading for this data center that was going in Texas. But I mean, it was hundreds and hundreds of uh these giant APC racks. Yeah. So in our AV world, again, less needed, but we've already determined that our AV world is a networking world now, and uh in the networking world, they're still gonna be important. So hide behind your networking rack.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:10

Yeah.

Hugo 1:02:13

Hey, thanks a lot, Randy. That was a great conversation. It was nice chatting with you.

Franco 1:02:17

Yeah, thanks, Randy. Thank you. Appreciate taking the time and uh love to have you uh back on uh on another time. And uh yeah, we uh I didn't get half through the questions that I wanted to ask you, but I I think we had a good conversation. Yep. Especially from um going way back to the yester years and just seeing how everything is evolving and and changing, and um yeah, nobody really knows what's going on what's gonna happen, especially with AI coming in and stuff like that. It's it's it's tough.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

Well, I think that's what's fun about speaking with so many different people in different niches of the industry, is everyone has a different opinion. Yeah, and that's what's really cool. Yeah, that's what I'm discovering through the podcast is everyone has different hopes and dreams and you know, different wants.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:03

But at the end of the day, we'll we'll see what happens and we have to be ready for it.

Franco 1:03:07

And I hope we we you stay in the uh in the AV industry, Randy.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:10

I know you'll you'll always stay in the industry, but always always be a thorn

VR, 3D, And The End Game

SPEAKER_05 1:03:15

in somebody's side. Um it's no matter what we do, the thing we're trying to accomplish is uh a term I learned years ago. I don't know who coined it, but I wish it was me. But it's the suspension of disbelief. What we're always trying to do is eliminate the electronics, right? The suspension of disbelief in the audio world. Are we how are we getting back to the musical event? How are we getting back to the live concert when I sit in my room in digital signage? How do I how do I make you think that what you're looking at is that dress or that outfit or you know, that piece of furniture in in um in video conferencing? How do I get you to think that the person I'm looking at is sitting in the same room? How do I get you to think that I'm sitting in a chair next to you? That's always gonna be our end game forever. It's that suspension of disbelief. And as we get closer and closer, damn it. That was the one thing. Biggest, biggest failed technology ever.

Hugo 1:04:38

3D. True. Uh true. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:45

True. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:47

But right, those goggles we wear, why don't why do people have those? I bet you Vinny owns a set.

Franco 1:04:52

Yeah, I own two.

unknown 1:04:54

Right?

Franco 1:04:54

Yeah.

Hugo 1:04:56

And I still have 3D glasses at home. I've I've two or three generations of quests at home.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:02

But then you know, what is uh what's uh the VR one? Yeah. What are we doing? Why? It's the suspension of disbelief. We're trying to convince the viewer and listener that we're in the event, not watching the event, that we're active, not passive.

Franco 1:05:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:22

That's always going to be the ultimate end game. You know, could you imagine if we can do this and we're not that far away where a virtual me is sitting right next to you three?

Franco 1:05:34

You have to watch episode number seven or eight, and we actually had a VR XR uh XR guy talking about AR VR and uh something else. And yeah, he has his meetings with his colleagues in VR and it's Avatar mode.

Hugo 1:05:49

Yeah, avatar mode whiteboard. They have their meetings, like literally wearing those VR glasses and they're whiteboarding on a virtual I I couldn't believe it. It's super cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:00

I would lose my mind. We're trying to get you in everything we do electronically in our lives. Electronic mechanical and getting back to the human. Giving back to the physical state. Yeah, the suspension of display. So Yeah, will we get there in our lifetime? Maybe in yours.

Franco 1:06:28

That's the next episode for uh that's the next topic for episode Randy.

Hugo 1:06:32

Breaking the fourth wall.

Final Thanks And Sign Off

Franco 1:06:36

Nice.

Hugo 1:06:38

Randy, thanks again. I very appreciate it, Randy. Have a good rest of the day, and uh you're welcome back anytime.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:44

I had a bar. Thank you, gentlemen. You have a great uh great rest of your week and lots of success and sell some stuff.

Franco 1:06:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:52

Absolutely. Thanks, Randy. Thanks, Randy. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

I'll be alone, I'll be a sunshine, I'll be alone, I'll be a sunshine, I'll be alone, I'll be a sunshine, I'll be alone I'll be alone, I'll be a sunshine, you see the sea, I'll see a sunshine, I'll be alone, I'll see you.