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Wired In: Kontek Conversations is for leaders who want to get technology right. From universities and healthcare systems to corporate enterprises, each episode delivers practical insights to help you navigate complex projects, avoid costly missteps, and design environments that truly connect people.
Through candid conversations with Kontek executives and industry experts, you’ll discover why projects succeed or fail, how to balance innovation with usability, and how bold ideas become reality. Along the way, we share perspectives on the evolution of AV technology, the impact of employee ownership, and the culture of accountability that drives lasting results.
With almost four decades of expertise, Kontek invites you to think bigger, dream bolder, and imagine what’s possible when technology and vision come together.
Brandon Giella: Standards,
standardization, and strategy.
you were talking to me about how important
it is to understand what standards
you're working with on your AV project,
then creates the standardization you
need to complete that project, and
then informs the wider strategy about
how you're going to implement that.
So talk to me about why this is important.
Marques: Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, we handle, you know, all types
of clients, and there's always, you
know, a technology leader, whether
they're IT or AV directly, and they'll
say, "Okay, we have a strategy.
We know what we wanna roll
out, how we wanna do it, the
numbers associated with it."
But that's not really the strategy
if you think about this, right?
So the building blocks of that
strategy starts with standardization,
and then before you get
there, what are the standards?
And so when I say standards in, in AV and
technology, things we're thinking about,
you know, am I doing open standards?
So just for audio, for all the tech
people out there, are we doing AES67?
Are we doing Dante?
You know, what do we want that
mechanism to be if we're doing digital
audio and we're transporting it?
Okay, well, that's a standard.
Also, how are we calculating display size?
Lots of folks feel like, well, a
sixty-five or seventy-five-inch
display is big enough.
Well, guess what?
In our industry, there's actually math
involved, and it says, "Hey, based on
farthest viewing distance, based on
contrast, image height," things of that
nature, that's how you actually calculate
what size display should be in a space.
So as an organization, you should say
and agree to, you know, as you're working
through these things, okay, no matter what
the room is, the room type, we're going
to have the standard we follow for how
we do select what size image do we need.
You know, what, uh, how
many speakers do we need?
How much coverage?
How much audio is gonna be, you
know, hitting in that space?
Um, it should never really be subjective.
People say, "Oh, I just need it louder."
And I pick on our team, I'll
say, "What does louder mean?"
I know what numbers are.
I know what ninety-four dB means
or seventy-eight dB or things
like that, but what does it just
mean to be, you know, louder?
And using those standards for
if I have conferencing, right?
I need my noise, uh, noise
coefficients to be below a certain
point, so I can make sure the
microphones work and everything else.
So as we wanna talk strategy, it
should always start with standards.
What are the standards in an organization
that we're gonna use every single time?
Um, you know, it's how we're gonna
dictate, okay, I need a projection system
because my image height needs to be a
hundred and ten inches, which means, okay,
I, I'm not gonna do just a flat panel.
Um, and then- It's really important
that you're doing it consistently,
because what happens oftentimes is
you'll get these rooms, and I've
seen it time and time again, where
the display is actually too small.
And we talked about this
on a previous episode.
What ends up happening is you're
not really making quality decisions
because you can't see the content.
Your Excel sheet, you
can't read the numbers.
You know, you're showing charts and
gr- uh, charts and graphs and all these
things that people can't really make out.
So hopefully, you did the
homework and did the pre-reads.
If not, you have to come back
later, we can actually see it.
So that's some of the importance of
just starting with a solid foundation
of what are the standards we're
gonna use as an organization that
we're then going to deploy, you
know, throughout all of our spaces.
Whether you're higher education with a,
you know, a campus, if you're talking
about an enterprise, corporate, uh,
client, no matter what it is, if you
have more than one room, and if you
have one room, you can still do it.
But it really does start with what
are the standards we're gonna adhere
to that are gonna drive our design
thinking, our design methodology, and
then eventually fold into standardization
Brandon Giella: I love the comment
about, "We just want it to be louder."
it's c- it reminds me of when
folks talk to us and they're
like, "I want a modern website."
And it's like, "What does modern
Marques: What does that mean?
Brandon Giella: What does that
Marques: All right
Brandon Giella: Uh, okay,
um, yeah, I love that.
Um, so to me about, uh, if you're
talking to a dean of a university or
a, a leader at a, you know, healthcare
facility or in, uh, a corporate
environment who is dreaming of a big
space, it common for them to understand
the standards that they're looking for?
How do you coach them through that
process and help them understand?
Like, like how do you educate
them on the, the, these ⦠'Cause
these are very technical details.
So how do you walk through like, "Okay,
this is what we need to decide before we
get into the strategy or implementation.
Like, we need to think about these
very technical AV things that
you probably don't know about."
Why is it important for them, and
how do you walk them through that?
Marques: So at the highest level, um, when
you're talking about C-suite, visionaries,
people just, you know, they have a
dream of what this building's going to
be, we're not talking standards, right?
We'reâ¦
Or we're talking about
it in a roundabout way.
We're saying, "Hey, what's
the feel for your employees?
What's the feel for your
clients when they come in?
You know, what are your pain
points right now as far as do
these rooms operate differently?"
So employees, we've talked about it
before, "Okay, I'm not using ballroom
or conference room A because it never
works right, so I'm only gonna use
conference room B," and all these things.
So when you're talking at the highest
level, it's really a focus on experience,
because by having that adequate
experience and consistent experience,
you're really talking about standards
and standardizing on the building.
But it's, you can avoid getting
into the weeds with them because
that's not really the role.
Now, you take a step down to whoever's
driving the technology, the CTO, you
know, CIO, AV manager, whomever, now
you're really gonna start hammering home
about, "Okay, let's talk about standards.
You know, what is the methodology
or the mechanisms we're gonna use
throughout the room, the building, the
campus that need to be consistent?"
And you kinda do it that way.
So the higher up you go, the less you get
in the weeds on the individual standards,
but you have to have the concept in your
mind all the time, because that vision
needs to be a holistic view of what's
going to happen, and you're gonna tie it
all back and make sure there's con, uh,
consistency across the rooms, across every
single environment, um, in a building,
and then that gets into your standards
Brandon Giella: What about if you're
talking to a developer or architect,
you know, before the building is built?
Is that-- Do you have that
conversation with them?
Is it the sameâ¦
You know, who, who are you kind of
talking to in that, environment?
Marques: Oh yeah.
When we're talking about, um, on the
design side of it, when we're talking
architects, now we'll start talking
standardization because, you know, they're
really working on the building, right?
The big picture, how does it look?
A lot of aesthetics.
So we're not gonna put 65-inch
displays in one room and 85-inch in
another room if we can help it, right?
Now, that's where there's a bit of
a trade-off because when you really
want that same feel everywhere
you go, you know, it's gonna be
dictated somewhat by the room.
And we do, you know, we do
designs for, uh, schools.
Well, the size of a first
grader is different from the
size of an eighth grader.
So the classroom size is gonna be
bigger, uh, so the distance people
are sitting away from the display
is gonna be a little bit further.
So immediately we know, hey, we're gonna
use this standard for calculating image
height, but we may have variability.
So all of our kindergarten, first grade,
second grade classrooms may be running
75-inch displays, while then all of
our, you know, eighth grade classrooms
may actually need 98-inch displays
because there is a bigger room there,
and then that's how you treat that.
And that way, as you go through
the room, so they're all identical.
Every single kindergarten
classroom will be identical.
Every single fifth grade
classroom, pretty much identical.
Um, so that way as teachers come in
and out, you know, the students are
comfortable, they're feeling at home.
And that same concept, it actually
translates across any kind of organization
Brandon Giella: Does this have any
impact on permitting, zoning, like how
a, a geographic area might be thinking
about the electricity that they need?
Uh, is there like a bigger picture
of, uh, how this might work?
Marques: It does.
It does because as we start talking about
category, uh, cabling, and, and North
Carolina these things are changing as,
um, I'm not the expert on our team as
far as all the licenses and the permits,
but we know that with fire codes changing
and things like that, and you can handle
more, uh, power over cables nowadays.
So when think-- people think
data cables, sure, maybe I'm just
using, you know, plugging up a
camera or connecting my internet.
Nowadays you have lighting fixtures
that do, you know, 100 watts of
power over an internet cable.
That's how people will refer to it as.
Like a category six cable can handle,
you know, huge power amounts that
are completely different than before.
So now there's more and more permitting
that has to be involved as we're doing,
okay, maybe I have a high-end camera.
I have five or six of them.
I'm pulling this much wattage
and we have to separate it out.
So it does get involved at the
level of permitting and thinking
about code compliance and things
like that when you're really
digging in some of this design work
Brandon Giella: Okay, my brain just
went into a rabbit hole of like centers
and the, the power grid and people
wanting AI in their TVs and how that's
pulling on power and data and all.
Uh,
Marques: It's so wild
Brandon Giella: there 'cause I don't
even know what to talk about, but
Marques: Every device
has to be accounted for.
Every single device.
Yeah
Brandon Giella: That's fascinating.
Okay.
Okay, interesting.
talk to me more about, okay, so you've
got, let's say, this big vision, you've
got more of the implementation level where
those standards come into, to real play.
We really need to nail these things down.
And then that feeds into standardizing
the whole project and then the
strategy of how that develops.
So, so talk me toward
like the strategy end.
Like what does that look like when
you start to really roll this out,
how these things come into play?
Marques: Yeah.
So once you have your standards you're
gonna use to dictate your technology,
you start standardizing your room blocks.
Now we start to say, okay, when we talk
strategy, strategy to me, after you've
done the, the background work, starts
talking more into how do we roll this out?
How do we implement it?
Because, you know, five
rooms is one thing.
We have a campus with 100 rooms,
200 rooms, um, tons of users.
It's a much bigger project.
So now we're talking about
strategic, uh, phases.
So we say, "Okay, we do 50 per year,"
because, you know, money matters.
You know, there's a budget
to these things, but that's
also part of the strategy.
If we say, "Hey, we're gonna allot
this much funding, we're gonna roll
these rooms over every five years."
So essentially every five years you're
rolling over blocks of rooms, right?
And that also allows you to start
discussing technology changes,
'cause nothing is forever.
So as you're, uh, upgrade, upgrading
your rooms on these cycles, you
also start looking at, okay,
what's happening with technology?
And one of the greatest points for
us is, you know, we went from these
traditional systems that, you know,
you're plugging up all the HDMI cables to
now everything's moving over a network.
So a standard room went from, you
know, a chassis-based, I connect all
my HDMI cables, and I switch it, to,
hey, we're gonna do everything digital.
I have a network switch in every room.
Everything is doing a transmitter or
receiver that's going over some standard
to get my signal back and forth.
So now we just change the
entire standardization of this
block of rooms, you know, in
one refresh cycle, potentially.
So going from wired HDMI connections
into a switcher to, hey, we're doing
AV over IP and we're transporting
everything over the network now,
which is a modern way of moving it.
So that's why that standardization
matters so much because that would be
built out during your strategic phasing,
so you know that, hey, on this next
round, our standards have changed, thus
our standardized rooms have changed.
Now we need the strategy of rolling this
all out, and you keep that refresh going
Brandon Giella: All right.
Okay.
There's a lot there.
Uh, how does this impact your, team?
So your business, the way that you guys
think about how to create the standards
that you think are, let's say, best
in class, and you, you know, you kind
of have, like, this default protocol.
Like, this is, if we get a new
project, we would recommend this,
but of course, every client is
different, every project is different.
But then you standardize the way that
you do things, and then you've got a
particular strategy that you think is
kind of, let's say, like, a d- kind
of default template, if you will, that
then of course needs to be customized.
But, like, walk me through that journey.
Like, how do you guys think of your
own standards and standardization
and strategy for your business as it
Marques: If
Brandon Giella: to your clients?
Marques: Yeah.
For us, it really starts with
understanding the technology and what's
happening and where is it moving, right?
Because we have to understand what's next,
uh, to make sure we serve clients well.
You don't wanna install something
today that's, you know, decommissioned
or obsolete by next year.
Does it happen?
Unfortunately, sometimes it does, but
you wanna try to stay in front of that.
So for us, it really does start with
education, um, staying up on what's
happening in our industry with those
standards, bringing it in-house, right?
Then we start testing everything, and
that way we can say, "Hey, here are
our top three to five manufacturers."
So we develop our own standards
that we lead with, and for us it's
not, you know, nothing monetary.
It's strictly based on, "Hey, this
has a strong support track record.
Um, it's modern," and maybe,
yes, I'm using an SDI or HDMI
connection, but guess what?
It has a network-based transport
connectivity baked right into the device.
So I know that when this client's
ready to upgrade, we are ready.
It's gonna, you know, live through
this cycle and be ready to go.
So we start really testing,
uh, in-house, coming up with
mock-ups, have little systems.
Like right now in our, in
our podcast studio, you know,
this is a system we mocked up.
We've done one or two for a few clients,
then we built our own so we can kinda test
it, rip it apart, put it back together.
Yeah, that's how we kinda build out
our equipment standards, uh, because
we always tell folks, you know, we're
manufacturer agnostic for the most part.
We only wanna put in what's gonna
work, what's gonna fit the use
case, what's gonna serve the client.
So that drives a lot of our, our
design thinking and our choices
about what we're gonna do.
But once you start putting all
that together, that also shapes
what we're gonna lead with when
we talk to a client, right?
If I walk into an environment and there's
a client that has a large scale AV
team, if they don't already have their
own standards, I say, "Hey, based on
your structure, our company recommends
these manufacturers and this, uh,
type of, you know, content transport,"
just based on how that manufacturer
operates, how they deal with training,
things like that, because we really
wanna empower users that are capable
to really be a partner to us and not
just rely on, "Oh, this didn't turn on.
Let me call tech."
Great.
We love you if you do that.
But at the same time, "Hey, how do
we help you solve some of this?"
Because maybe there's a hiccup, there's
a quick reboot, there's something simple.
Um, and so that way you become a
true partner in supporting this.
And so that drives our strategy
really as far as just understanding
what's out, what's happening,
where's the client going, and then
internally, what are our own standards.
We just met, you know, a few days ago,
a day or two ago, and we're discussing,
"Hey, let's make sure we update, you
know, across the company to, to know
what are our preferred cameras, what
are our preferred speakers," you know,
and it's based on so many factors.
But primarily it is, you know, what
do we know for a fact works, um, what
has a great support track record and,
you know, pricing is not really--
I think I literally said, "Hey,
pricing can't be in the discussion."
So as we're talking, does budget matter?
Yes.
And you know, as you pay more money,
you're typically getting more features.
When you're trying to reduce
your budget, I always hear
that as, "What do you not need?
What, what feature do you not
need in your feature set?"
And then we make the decisions
that way financially, um, versus if
you're getting a race to the bottom
Everyone's feelings will be hurt
when that, that project is done
Brandon Giella: So talk to me
more about that, about pricing
doesn't enter the discussion.
Like, what's going through your mind?
Uh, you know, just your experience.
You've been doing this a long time.
You've, you've seen all the
manufacturers, you've seen all the
devices, you've seen things and
fail, last for a long time or not.
W- why do you, you emphasize
pricing in that way?
What, whatâ¦
Yeah, what
Marques: Yeah.
Brandon Giella: thinking there?
Marques: So for us, um, when I first
came to Contech, you know, I was on
our design team, and that's one of the
things I would always lead with is,
you know, what a product cost should
not-- Not just what it costs, what a
product costs or how much money we make
on said project, uh, product should not
drive our decision-making when it comes
to recommending things for a client.
So first and foremost, we consider
ourselves to be a trusted advisor,
so that means we have to be making
decisions for the right reasons, right?
Yes, we're a business.
We have to make money.
There's no doubt about that.
But there's some products out there
that we would see, um, we test them,
they just wouldn't quite hold up.
But the selling point from the
manufacturer would be, "Hey, you make
a ton of margin on this product."
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques: That's no, that's no good.
Like, I can't go into a client space,
put something in that I don't trust,
that I don't have faith in, just
because I'm gonna make more money on it.
Maybe they do save a little bit of
money, but now if they've had to
replace it early or they're always
having calls about it because it's
failing rapidly, who's saving money?
And, you know, it's not just the
money, it's the brand, the reputation,
because again, we really do c-
consider ourselves trusted advisors.
We're trying to operate in the best
in- interest of our clients because
we feel that that approach is the best
for our business long term, because
that way we have partners for life.
Brandon Giella: So when I first, when
you f-, uh, when you first said that,
I was thinking in my head like a bit,
it sounds idealistic or, you know, I
want the finest of everything, you know?
And it's like, it's not that.
It's more of think about
the total cost of ownership.
Marques: Correct
Brandon Giella: investment up front,
but if you extend that out 10 years,
it's actually probably will work out.
You'll be happier.
There's more support if
something goes wrong.
Uh, it's a better manufacturer overall.
Is that more of what you're, what you're
getting at, the total cost of ownership?
Which we do have another
podcast, by the way, to
Marques: We do?
Brandon Giella: Check out that podcast
'cause we go into, detail on that
Marques: We do.
That's, that's what it
all ties into, right?
And in this case, it's not just
the total cost of ownership.
We're talking about, you know, boxes,
equipment, you know, doing a project.
Do the project once, don't
do the project twice.
But it's also that cost associated
with, uh, the trust you will lose if
you're spec'ing something and you're,
you're just kind of turning and burning.
I'm just putting it in, I'm gone,
I'm-- they're never gonna see me again.
You know, that's not how we operate.
We've been around for, I think
around 40 years now, so we've been
here for a long time doing this.
And, you know, we have some clients
that have been with us 20 years,
30 years, and that's because when
they bring us into the conversation,
they trust that we're operating
with their best interest in mind.
And that's, that's just
how we wanna do it.
It does seem idealistic some days,
and it's tough sledding some days,
but honestly, it makes us feel better
about what we're doing, because
we know there's a pathway for it.
We've been here this long, so we know
there's a pathway out there, and there
are clients that appreciate that approach.
We say, hey, and you know, we
always tell manufacturers too,
we're upfront, honest about it.
You know, we don't just recommend
any manufacturer because, you
know, one size does not fit all
in this, and as we're doing this.
So we're always upfront with, uh,
manufacturers about it, um, and we're
also upfront with clients about it, so
everyone knows where we're coming from.
And then internally, we just
stick to it and say, "Hey,
what's best for the project?
What's gonna work?"
Um, and then eventually, yeah,
cost does come into play.
If we can save a client money
and get them everything they're
asking for, we'll recommend it.
But if the only thing, you know, product
A is going to do is cut the cost down
and we're gonna make some more money,
that's not the driving factor for us.
And I mean,
Brandon Giella: I love
Marques: man, I'm telling you,
we've done testing on products.
Yes, they were cheaper.
It couldn't pass in our testing phase.
You know, we leave something running
over a weekend, and we come in, we've
got green screens for the video content.
The boxes fail.
There's no good way to
manage them and communicate.
It's, you know, or outdated technologies
when it comes to management.
And that stuff, you know, it, it
has a place because, yes, there's
some things out there that are,
they have to be value engineered
and although I do hate that term.
I always say, you know,
you're giving up features.
It's not really value engineering.
You're just getting rid of something.
Um, but we know it exists.
But again, for who we operate with
and what our goal is as a company,
we just wanna make sure that,
you know, when we put our name on
something or if we recommend it,
we have to be sure that it's good.
So again, total cost of ownership
for the actual dollars you pay for
the equipment and doing the work.
There's also that, you know, total
cost associated with your reputation
Brandon Giella: Yep, yep.
Yeah, I love that.
That's a, that's the best place to be.
It's a win-win for everybody, and you
can go home and sleep at night, and your
clients can go home and sleep at night
and know everything's gonna be handled.
I
Marques: Yeah, absolutely
Brandon Giella: What is something that's
on the horizon as it relates to standards
that you're thinking about that you
believe one of these dreamers listening
to this show needs to know about?
That if they're thinking
like, do want that high-end.
I wanna be cutting edge.
I want, not the best of the best, but I
want to be thinking ahead, and I wanna
be innovative and fresh," what is that?
What, what's, what's got
on your mind right now?
Things maybe changing
Marques: Yeah.
Brandon Giella: looking at
Marques: Uh, the biggest thing
to me, and it's already here to a
degree, but, you know, I'll say AV
over IP for a moment, but really
just the flexibility of bringing
this all into the IT world, right?
So now all these signals living
on switches, and there's more
and more capability coming up of
routing different signal types,
different aspect ratios, USB content.
USB is the Wild West.
That's a whole 'nother episode 'cause
it is the Wild Wild West with USB.
But,
Brandon Giella: Okay
Marques: um, the capability of now
bringing all that over a single cable
and that being pushed further and
further, further, I mean, it's notâ¦
We're pretty close to the point
where every single system, it'll
just be all over a network.
And for us, it's not just the
simplicity of it all, right?
I just, one network cable.
I've got power, I've got signal, I've
got control, I have everything I need.
But on the flip side of that too is
as your systems are scaling, I have
a client right now that I'm talking
to in Winston-Salem, and, you know,
we did a project two years ago, and
they're looking to upgrade, but it
was more of a fixed environment.
I said, "Hey, by going to this
AV over IP route, now we're
gonna be able to expand this.
So in two more years, if you
wanna upgrade, we're just
adding encoders and decoders.
We're just adding parts and pieces, and
it gives you more and more scalability."
You know, on the, on the episode with
Kenel and Jeff, we mentioned, "Hey,
do you really need this," right?
"Do you really need to be able
to route anything to anywhere?"
Some people do, right?
And, and now that is so easy to make
it happen, um, and it just seems like
there's more and more of a merger
and a partnership between AV and IT.
It used to be this big wall
between those two teams.
You know, IT doesn't know AV, AV does
not know really IT, or they haven't
historically, but now you have to
communicate and you have to talk
because we are-- sometimes we're on
the corporate LAN, sometimes we're on
a separate LAN, and that's something
that even internally here is a strategy
because myself, some of my colleagues,
we have deep networking backgrounds, so
it just feels like a natural fit for us.
So when we go have to have a talk with
a, a, a CIO or an IT manager to say,
"Hey, got these products coming out.
We need to put them on your network,"
we can speak the correct language.
Because I think that's one
of the biggest barriers.
Like, "Yes, we understand.
We're doing multicast, but
we're doing it this way.
Here are the protocols.
What we- we're dealing with IGMP
snooping," and yada, yada, yada.
Um, all of that really to
see it all blend together.
So I think, you know, it's
gonna continue to go that way.
We're not going backwards.
So we're gonna continue to push
further and further into the IT
networking style for AV, and it's
just opened up so much flexibility.
And even running cables now, you're
just pulling category cable, right?
Just regular old internet
cable versus having a specific
cable for every single device.
Um, to really live through that and see
it happening and see it accelerating
more and more is pretty exciting
Brandon Giella: Marcus, sometimes
when you talk, I feel very dumb.
not sure I followed any of that.
Break this down for me.
So why-- Okay, talk to me about AV over IP
Marques: Yeah
Brandon Giella: and, and give me,
like, a concrete example in a room
where, like, if we went to this,
it would be massively helpful
Marques: Yeah, 100%.
So AV over IP, and there's more
than one way to do this, right?
So this is why we talked
about standards before.
So I'm gonna talk about it conceptually
and not specific to a manufacturer
or an implementation style.
So we're just talking about we
are now moving audio and video
signals over networking cable
in the grand scheme of things
Brandon Giella: like Wi-Fi.
That's how it works.
Marques: Like Wi-Fi.
Brandon Giella: Okay.
Marques: Wi-Fi.
Brandon Giella: Okay.
Marques: to a degree, but like Wi-Fi.
Um,
Brandon Giella: that's
Marques: how it's working now.
Brandon Giella: That's
Marques: That's another episode.
But that's basically what's
happening now, right?
And so instead of, you know, right
now at your desk, you probably
have either an HDMI cable connected
between your laptop and your
monitor, maybe DisplayPort, right?
So imagine you didn't have that anymore.
Now I've connected up, I just have my
network cable plugged into my computer,
and I'm sending my audio out to my
speakers that way using Dante or AES67.
Uh, my video makes it where
it's going using, say, NDI or
some other protocol like that.
So all these connections I had before
with, uh, USB plus an HDMI plus whatever
else I'm dealing with, that's the concept
of these, you know, AV over IP options.
I just connect it to the network,
I'm routing everything over
that cable, and I'm good to go
Brandon Giella: okay.
So that tracks with like, uh, I got one
of these fancy Apple Thunderbolt Pro
cords connected from my computer to my
display, and you're saying basically
you, you plop down a desk somewhere in a
conference room, for example, you plug in
one cord and you can do all the things.
Marques: Yeah, basically.
And it's, and it's everywhere, right?
So we have some clients, um, some
university clients we've done projects
for, and, you know, Jeff and Connell
mentioned like, "Yeah, everyone
doesn't need everything all the time."
100% correct, and that's very, very true.
You have to figure out who
actually needs something.
But on the flip side of that, for some
of these spaces, you know, if we have
a space that has three video walls,
six displays, three LED walls, 15
cameras, and all this content, we're
now moving it not just throughout that
one room, we're moving it throughout the
entire building, all over the network.
Just network switches.
Anywhere, anywhere in
any room, I can pull up.
There's a keynote speaker happening
in my auditorium or I'm in the
classroom, I can now see it,
hear it, extremely low latency.
So if I have a question, I can just
have a microphone in my classroom, talk
back to the team in the auditorium.
There's none of that 30-second or
awkward lag like, "Okay, you go.
I go.
You go.
I go."
We see it on Teams all the time.
It happens sometimes.
But, um, you know, by really getting
that latency down and pushing over the
network, now you're scaling outwards.
Uh, and it's so impressive to
really see how easy it's become.
'Cause again, we've tied
classrooms together.
You see more and more people, um,
especially in higher education, they're
tying buildings together, right?
I just run a fiber optic
backbone between my buildings.
Now the same IT-based AV signal, I can
send it from one building to the other.
And so your capabilities really
start growing when you think about
overflow and max capacity seating
and tying all these things together,
and all that is possible now because
we are routing so many thingâ¦
I should say it's, it's easier
done now because we're routing so
many things over network traffic
Brandon Giella: I, that, that makes
me think of, uh, uh, you go to like
a, a megachurch or a big conference
or something, you got the, the keynote
speaking, but then you got an overflow
room that's, you know, on another side
of the building or in another building,
and you're saying you can just take
all that and put that right over there
in that other building real easy.
That's cool.
Marques: 100%.
It's just, you know, connect
some switches together.
I say that casually.
Those on the IT side know
sometimes it's a little bitâ¦
There's a lot more to that as far as
script writing and things like that.
I give a shout to Mike Warner because
he really improved some of the custom
scripts we write for our switches.
But, um, yeah, man, just seeing
that progress and seeing people
actually deploying it, right?
That's one of the coolest features is
seeing, you know, this stuff happening.
And we have a client, he was explaining
to me how some of what we've done,
it's a real-time case of, hey, we've
shortened our decision-making time.
Because now instead of us having to get
together in a physical room, something
may take a couple weeks to get our
hands on it and see it and everything
else, we can do a demo in one location.
We dial everyone in.
We're mixing technologies because, yes,
we're s- sending things out over the
network locally, and then also tying in a
Team session or a Zoom session so that our
remote folks can also see it in real time.
Now we condense our decision-making
from five weeks to three days
Brandon Giella: Man, that's massive.
Massive.
I mean, decision-making at a, at a
large organization, especially big
decisions, you got people flying in,
board meetings, whatever that is.
Cutting that down is significant.
Marques: Yeah.
Brandon Giella: of time.
Yeah, I love
Marques: And I love it.
And when he told me the story, I'm
like, "That's what our companyâ¦
That's not just our company,
everyone in this space, that's
what we really thrive for, right?
How do we, how do we get your message out?
How do we enhance communication?"
And it really does matter because again,
that's a legit ROI for them 'cause it, it
literally took them, you know, five weeks.
And when you think about flying
everyone in, decisions going back and
forth, everything else, now they're,
you know, doing legit almost product
development in real time and getting
feedback, and that's pretty awesome
Brandon Giella: That's huge.
In the age of AI, with things moving so
fast and be able to create prototypes
and whatever and, and make decisions
quickly, have agents do things, that
decision time on the AV side is huge.
That, that helps those
kind of initiatives keep
Marques: Yeah, 100%.
Brandon Giella: Yeah, I love that.
Marques: 100%.
Brandon Giella: cool.
Okay, well, last question for you.
Is there anything else that when you're
thinking about, you know, a dreamer
listening to this show, got a, a vision,
uh, they're putting forward, thinking
about standards or standardization
and how that rolls into strategy.
Is there anything else that you find
really valuable that they should know?
Marques: You know, I always think the most
important thing is dream big early, right?
Never, never go into a session or not a
meeting thinking about what can't be done.
Let's just talk through it, right?
Because sometimes what'll happen, and we--
it happens to everyone, happens to us,
we'll get in the middle of a project and
then someone asks the question, "Well,
you know, is it possible to do this?"
Yeah, it's absolutely possible.
It would've been easier to know at
the beginning of the project, so
now we have to rework a few things.
But yeah, it's 100% possible.
Um, and the look on some folks'
faces when they hear that, "Oh,
I didn't think that was possible,
so I didn't even bring it up."
Yes.
There's very few things that are
just legitimately not possible
this day and age, you know?
And even if it's not
possible, we'll figure it out.
I guess let's put our, our brain
power together and figure out,
okay, how do you make this happen?
Brandon Giella: That's right.
That's right.
When you have a great team and you've
got a realistic budget with a team
that helps you understand what that is,
there's a lot of things that can happen.
I
Marques: Yeah.
Brandon Giella: I love it
Marques: So open-minded.
Be open-minded.
Dream big
Brandon Giella: Love it.
Well, if you are looking for more
resources on this, we've got a ton
of other episodes, articles, videos,
all on our website, kontact.com.
Please get in touch with
the team, especially Marcus.
He can help you out, and, uh, we'll
see you next time on the next show