Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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: Hello and welcome to the
very first episode of the Kontek Podcast.
I am so excited to introduce
you all to Marques Manning, the
President of Kontek Solutions.
We are gonna be talking about
some amazing things on this show
regarding AV audio, video technology,
especially for you dreamers out
there who think I need something
that will just blow the socks off of
my organization, my headquarters, my
uh, my higher education university
setting my healthcare operations.
I need something that is just
amazing for getting the word out,
for communicating effectively, and
that could be a range of things.
It could be video, audio, it could
be holding meetings, it could be
conferences, events, you name it.
Kontek is the best company.
In North Carolina and surrounding
regions to deliver that to you.
And we are gonna be talking about
so many different things, uh, why AV
projects succeed or fail, what budgets
we need to be looking at, why you
should stop buying things on Amazon,
which is gonna be a really fun episode.
So we have got a lot in store and
today what we're doing is setting
the tone for this podcast, this show.
And we are gonna be talking a little
bit about the history of Kontek and why.
They are such a leader with their proven
methodologies and processes and teams
that go into design, install, and support
these organizations with their AV dreams.
So Marques, as President of Kontek,
I'm so glad to have you on the show.
Tell us a little.
Tell us a little bit about
the history of Kontek.
I know this is a 30 some odd year
old company, um, started by a couple
of guys that had some dreams that
they could do this better, and 30
years later they are realizing that
dream and creating dreams for others.
So tell us a little bit about that
story and how you guys got started.
Marques Manning: Yeah, absolutely.
I'll, uh, feature a few time
skips because, you know, 38 or 37
years is a lot of time to cover.
But, um,
Brandon Giella: That's right.
Marques Manning: yeah, at
the core, it all started.
Actually at a local
university, um, Frank Kaha.
So if you're ever wondering, Kontek
Kaha, so that's our founder, Frank Kaha.
Uh, he was actually a student
at a local university.
Um, it's the correct shade of blue.
So points to anyone, you know,
especially for North Carolina, if you
can figure out the correct shade of blue.
But, you know,
Brandon Giella: That's great.
Marques Manning: we love, we love
both shades, so it's all good.
But, um, you know, he worked for
student services while he was a
student and he would do projects
and, uh, various things for.
Different folks on campus.
And over while, uh, over a
period of time he started to
think to himself, you know what?
I could actually do this a little
bit better than what you have now.
So that actually was the genesis and
the starting point for all of it.
He just had the thought of, you know
what, I can definitely do something
better than what's happening right now.
and with that context, systems was
born right, and from there it was off
to the races of doing small projects,
uh, small upgrades typically at
the university level to start with.
Um, but as he kept growing getting,
you know, kind of more outlandish with
what he was doing, he needed some help.
So he brought on, you know, someone that
he's still with us today, uh, Dan Ville.
He's actually our rack integrator.
He's really like a Swiss
Army knife technology.
He's seen it all and done
it all at this point.
But he came on board and, um, then
eventually, uh, Frank actually
convinced his good friend.
Wes Newman and he and Wes both
attended university at the same time.
Um, he actually worked for Wes, uh,
partly as a work study type deal.
So Wes had a great.
job.
Wes was doing just fine, but Frank
realized he needed some help.
He trusted Wes.
He knew Wes was very smart, and uh, he
convinced him eventually to come on board.
And I mean, that's really, you
know, the core foundation of, of
content and how it got started.
It was them.
Seeing what was out there,
seeing what was available.
And I mean, we really have to
think hard about what was there
in the, you know, the eighties.
Um, there's no HDMI in
the eighties, right?
There's no digital video.
There was, there's no digital audio,
there is no Dante, there's none of that.
So it was a lot, uh, of connectors
and cables and analog, this and that.
So the systems were much, much different,
uh, compared to what we see today, today.
But that's really where it all started.
And from there, you know, they wanted to
push themselves and challenge themselves.
Frank is really big in the creative
community, loves photography
and artwork and architecture.
So as they started to look at things,
they said, Hey, you know, you don't just
have to have clunky things on your wall.
You can actually integrate
this into the room.
So that kind of design ethos is
still the undercurrent of what
we do today as far as trying to
blend technology and architecture.
Make these really, you know, elegant
spaces that are extremely powerful
when it comes to communication.
So, you know, that's the really
high level version of how this
all started 30 some odd years ago.
Brandon Giella: I love that because
it's, it's, it seems like it's, you
know, every entrepreneur's story.
Like, I, I could probably do this better.
I, I know a better way to do this.
I have a bigger vision, or a
better vision, or clearer vision.
And then they bring that to life, starting
very small, but ends up becoming more and
more complex, especially as long as you've
been in business and as the technology.
You know, being a tech provider,
you see huge changes in technology.
So not only the complexity of the
projects or the size or scale of
the projects, but also the actual
underlying technology of how you
do what you do has changed so much.
And I'm wondering if you could
give us some insight into.
How have things changed from, let's
say, the late eighties to now?
We're in the mid 2020s, uh, 20, 25 here.
Um, how have things changed in terms of
like the kind, the nature of the kind
of projects that you do, but also like
the technology, like big, big advances
in technology, like you mentioned HD
mine, moving from let's say analog to
digital video and audio and, and different
things that you've been been able to
incorporate into some of these projects.
So, so walk me through like some
of those major transformations.
Marques Manning: Yeah, absolutely.
So again, it's, I speak
about the eighties finally.
I was a young type back then, so
my memory of all of it is always,
you know, based on, you know, going
outside and playing or whatever, you
know, the way I had at that time.
But essentially
Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.
Marques Manning: It really was a lot
of just analog moving the signals.
So, you know, folks that are really
in the, the technology space will
really get some of these comments.
But you had your 15 pin, you
know, VGA connectors and these
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: cables.
Or if you're being fancy, you
know, you may have what's called
A RGB HV cable, which is I
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: one computer to
connect to one projector, and there
are six cables breaking a signal apart.
Recombining it at the
end device and you know,
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: how it was transported
and just tons of, you know, cabling
compared to what we can do nowadays.
that was the standard, right?
That was what it was back then.
And then what really happens right
in this period of time is that that
exists for compared to today, at
least a really long period of time.
So you say that's your standard for
10, 15, 20 years or more of these,
you know, analog capabilities.
But then as we start to see the
rise of, you know, digital signals.
From, you know, DVI to, it
was still component video.
Um, and these other, you know, stopgaps
before we really got to HDM, uh, HDMI,
there's still, you know, a lot of cables
and there's a lot of figuring out.
So that's the part, I don't know
if everyone remembers the struggles
and the pain that came with.
Does this cable work?
Do these pins work?
Oh, wait, I slightly bent this one pin.
Now I have no video.
Let me try to figure out what's happening.
And when I say slightly bend, I
mean maybe you have a bend of.
Less than an eighth of an inch, but
it doesn't go correctly into the
connector, and now all of a sudden
you don't have blue or you don't
Brandon Giella: Gosh.
Marques Manning: Just crazy happens.
Everyone's navigating that
space and we're no different.
You know, we're looking at
everything that's going on.
But one of the benefits to, you
know, Kontek, and what we are at
our core is we love technology.
Everyone just about that's been
through our doors, you know,
touches technology in some capacity
and a lot of that starts at home.
You know, a lot of what we're doing
at home, a lot of what we see just
we're consumers like anyone else.
So we kind of bring that
in and we think, Hey.
How do I actually convert this
from something that's, you know,
consumer based to something that
I can see in the commercial space
or in a professional environment.
So, you know, we're doing it, but
at the same time, manufacturers
start seeing a need for this.
now if you start to fast forward a little
bit from the, the glorious analog days,
and if you think about this, you're
really giant TV sets and all these things.
Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.
I remember those.
Marques Manning: yeah, everyone,
everyone remembers the giant set
and if it broke, maybe put another
set on top of that set versus just
Brandon Giella: Yeah,
Marques Manning: it
Brandon Giella: I've seen that before.
Yep.
Marques Manning: might have like a
300 pound TV in your living room.
um, once we started to really
go digital, that was kind of the
change for everything, not just
in the industry, but also for us
as a company, um, industry-wise.
Yep.
We started to see component,
uh, DVI and then eventually we
started to see display port.
Not so much, um, in what we're doing,
but a lot of HDMI, the original versions
of HDMI started to come out there was
a lot of trying to figure that out.
Right.
How do you successfully.
At first do conversions.
Okay?
Because yes, we have this new connector.
We have this new signal.
No one went out and bought all
new computers because of that.
That's not what happened.
So next thing you know, we're
trying to convert, you know, analog
signals over to the digital world.
And oh man, I can remember that.
And that was always a headache because
it's the wild west of adapters.
It may work,
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: not work.
So any technician worked, their
salt probably had a bag of
just adapters and connectors.
Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.
Marques Manning: to this day, I have a bag
in my house of all of these random cables.
I think every tech person does.
Brandon Giella: Yep.
Marques Manning: will probably never
see an RCA connector again, but in
case I do, I have a cable for it.
Brandon Giella: That's right.
That's right.
It's dongle hell.
You know, everybody's got
their dongle box, you know.
Marques Manning: exactly.
So then I, I'll kind of skip forward.
when officially everything was
supposed to transition over.
Um, HDMI is coming up and what a lot of
people miss too is not just HDMIs and the
connector and how we're gonna transport
these signals, but the underlying.
Um, and the governance of, you know,
an H-D-M-I-A digital signal transport.
'cause with HDMI, HDCP
came hand in hand, right?
HDCP is a protocol that really
controls your digital content.
So if you try to connect something
that's not officially legal, you may
get a green screen or you may not see
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: And that's, you know,
the underpinning of that was HT CP.
So that was a lot to figure out,
you know, What are the rules?
How does it work?
How many devices can
you have in the chain?
and you work your way through there,
Brandon Giella: What time period was this?
The analog sunset.
Marques Manning: oh man, I should
know that, uh, this is like an,
it's actually a question on a test.
Um,
Brandon Giella: Oh, okay.
Marques Manning: sunset was maybe
the early two thousands officially.
Brandon Giella: Okay,
Marques Manning: back on
that one and, and actually
Brandon Giella: okay.
Okay.
Marques Manning: I don't remember
off the top of my head, but
Brandon Giella: Okay.
Marques Manning: the official period when
everything was supposed to switch over.
everything was supposed to go to,
you know, a digital base, uh, signal.
I mean, there's just a lot of learning
that comes with understanding.
You know, how does it work?
Why does it matter?
'cause you'll see failures where you
may have a cable, you think it's gonna
work fine, says it's a quality cable.
Well, all of a sudden, instead
of it being a 10 foot cable,
oh wait, I need a 35 foot cable
Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.
Marques Manning: And so
there was just a lot of
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: and understanding
and, and bandwidth is the magic
word to all of this, you know, does
the cable have enough bandwidth?
To pass what I'm trying to do.
And that even bites us at this day and
age, but we'll get there eventually.
And so as you're learning
that you also had SDI, right?
So SDI is in the mix.
And from personal experience,
I can tell you it makes all
the difference in the world.
I came out of the live event
space and we do these setups for
running SDI cabling everywhere.
And what would end up happening is, you
know, SDI would have certain names that
denote you know, how much bandwidth
they could support Is it 720 Is it 1080
Because originally HD meant 720 but
as you got longer and longer cables,
you had more stress on those cables
and you really had to have a quality
setup to make sure it would pass.
And so you'd have someone come in,
they'd have say a 50 foot cable.
Yeah, perfectly good cable.
They're telling you it
is rated for X, Y, Z.
You connect both ends.
You have no signal.
swap it out to a higher quality cable.
You have signal and that's.
for me that was the big learning of,
you know what, cables absolutely matter.
You know, reputable
manufacturers absolutely matter.
You can't just get the
cheapest thing off Amazon.
It will break your system.
So all this is happening,
manufacturers are, you know, on the
cutting edge of a lot of this stuff.
so there's some manufacturers that
are coming out with these digital
matrix with, uh, systems and, you
know, it was really a huge change
in how signals were being treated.
And so now instead of having a thousand
cables to connect up, you know, all these
points in the space, a few, you know,
digital connectors here and there, and
these, we call 'em chassis based systems.
So imagine just a huge rectangular
box with all these little
cards you can put in and out.
that really was a huge stepping point to
some of how we move things around because.
I can go into a space now if I
have, you know, once these chassis
came out, I have 10 computers.
I wanna be able to see all
of 'em at any point in time.
I connect them all to this system.
And now those are outputting all into,
maybe I have a display on the wall, I
have a projector in the ceiling, and
now I can send that video anywhere.
So that was a huge change in our industry.
Um, that also, you know, a lot
happened in two thousands and.
Technology just in
general changes so fast.
I mean, if you think about the lifespan
of a vinyl record and how that was
popular from technology standpoint,
you know, you have eight tracks.
You had cassette tapes, you had CDs.
My kids don't know what a CD
is really like they've seen
one now because I showed 'em.
I still have a collection.
But nowadays, you know, everyone is
streaming and can he get lossless
Brandon Giella: Yep.
Marques Manning: that.
So if you think about
how fast it's changing.
Say in the last 10 years versus
the 30 to 40 years before
that, that affects us as well.
So a lot of, you know, what we did is as
the company grew and you're bringing on
more and more talented people, it's all
about your people at the end of the day.
You know, do they have an interest in it?
Are they skilled in it?
And as we started to bring on
these more diverse backgrounds as
well, it really expanded what the
company could do because we all,
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: these thoughts and
these dreams and what we touch and
what we play with on a regular basis.
When you mix it all together, it
really gives you this ability to kind
of conquer any, you know, technology
based challenge because someone has
seen it, someone has experience with
it, someone has a background in it.
Um, and then it just kind of
all started to meld together.
So really the two thousands to the,
you know, 2010s, it really starts
spiraling more and more until we
kind of land where we are now, where.
Everything is digital.
Everything we're moving is digital.
You know, all of your audio signals, your
video signals, and not just thinking,
you know, HDMI and audio cables, but
now we're all network based, right?
So from our highest end of our systems,
you're just traveling over a network base.
So if you think about your standard,
you know, category cabling with a
network switch, that is the brains
of your entire system nowadays.
Whereas it used to be, you
know, these huge chassis
Brandon Giella: Yeah.
Marques Manning: You know, we call
'em 32 by 30 twos or 64 by 60 fours.
And I mean, these things
are really massive.
I mean, they're like the size of
a, a shelf sometimes if you're
going up to 1 28 by 1 28 and now
all of that is simply replaced by
a proper network switch points.
And now I can send anything
anywhere I want to in the building.
So, you know, as you see that
change happening you have to
keep up with it internally.
Right.
And so for us, it's always been.
do we have the right person?
Do we have the right people?
Do we see the change?
Do we know the change is coming?
Some of that's just
discussions internally.
Like, Hey, I saw this at a conference.
It's pretty cool.
Let's go out and learn about it.
So, tons of training, um, every year.
You know, we invest a lot of time
and effort and just going out and
training and learning and staying
ahead of the curve about what's
happening and what's coming our way.
And one of the huge benefits we had
is when we really did bring in folks
that had these outside backgrounds.
They weren't pure, you know,
AV people as we like to say.
Um, some had a background in networking,
some had a background in construction.
Lots of us have backgrounds
in live production.
That's really, you know, unlocking
some of these doors to the most
complex projects because in-house
we have all that experience now.
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
I hope it's clear and that listeners
are taking away that you guys
really know what you're doing.
This stuff.
It can get so technical,
but it changes constantly.
I think that's the point I want to
emphasize is it's always changing and
so you need a team that can keep up with
these things as they're changing, you
know, understanding to, to some very
serious detail, technical capability
of what is going on with these signals.
Analog digital.
Now, obviously, like you said, it's all
digital, but yeah, it's just amazing how
much you have to keep up with on a, on a
regular basis and how sharp the team has
to be to make these dreams come to life.
I keep using these, the,
this term, um, dreams.
'cause it's something that we've talked
about before where you, the, the kind
of, um, clients and the projects that you
work on, they really do start as dreams.
You know, you have these, uh,
very high level senior executives,
whether at a school, you know,
university or in a hospital
setting or in a corporate setting.
Where, uh, you know, you're, you're
talking through like, how do you imagine
this space is going to come to life?
How, how do you imagine getting your, your
communication, you know, messages or you
know, your ideas out there to your team or
to, you know, uh, to other folks abroad.
Can you talk to me a little
bit about the clients that you
serve and why you think, um.
Uh, you are well equipped
for bringing dreams to life.
Like why that matters to you?
Because you, because you even
mentioned like at Kontek, your
team full of dreamers too.
You guys like to build things and
imagine new ways of doing things.
Like, talk to me a little bit about
that, who you serve and how maybe
the dream framework comes to play.
Marques Manning: Absolutely.
Um, we always have to start by talking
about, you know, where are our core.
Markets.
So I'd say with a grain of, I
take that with a grain of salt.
You know, officially we support higher
education, uh, healthcare, corporate.
But really at our core, if you
have a, a need for communicating
in some fashion, and it involves
technology, you're our core market.
That's the way I really look at it.
Um, because that's, that's what we do.
We help people get their messaging out.
We help folks communicate and connect,
um, in various means and fashions
and different ways of doing that.
But the dream is the most
important part of what we do.
You know, it is great when you get
to go in and you know, you meet
someone, all they have is an idea.
Say, Hey, you know
what
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: we're
building a new building.
We have this executive boardroom, or we
have this all hands space and we really
want to, you know, wow, our employees, we
want to impress, you know, our C-suite.
We really wanna be, you know, something
that's outstanding and gonna last and you
know, also gotta throw in within budget.
And you know, it's just this huge
dream about what can we do in here?
And for us we love it, right?
Because it's open-ended.
All they know so far is, Hey,
I really wanna wow folks and I
want to get my message across.
And that really takes us on
this journey of discovery.
To understand, okay, well, you know,
how do you like to communicate?
How do you like things to be seen?
You know, how, how
bright is it in the room?
Do you like having windows?
And we just really start to understand
not just how they want to communicate
and what they wanna communicate, but what
is the surrounding environment like, you
know, what is your room gonna be like?
And when we can get in really early
and we're sitting with, you know, the
owner of the project and the architect
and everyone in the really early
stages, we're just kind of riffing and
brainstorming about what's possible.
That's, that's my favorite thing, right?
When someone calls up, they know
they wanna do something, but they
don't really know what's possible.
And that's where we really step in
because hey, it's like we have seen,
not gonna say everything because
there's always something new, but
we've seen a lot of things, right?
And it's not just seeing it, you know,
seeing it on the web or what have you,
but how do you actually make this work?
what I also stress to folks is.
You know, your dream.
I just want to hear what you wanna do.
Like what do you envision,
what do you hope is possible?
I can share what I've seen, what
I've done, what I know is out there.
And then that dream as it starts
to really, um, crystallize and take
shape and form, well, that's when
we can also bring in other teams
and say, Hey, here's the dream.
let's translate and make this
work technically, because we
have to talk to the IT team.
We have to talk to security.
We have to understand how do you do
all this and make it all happen, but
also keep it safe, you know, within
the fines and the rules and whatever
governs, you know, the building overall.
so for us, you know, that
process is awesome with clients.
And again, it really gets to how
we are ourselves and our company.
At any point in time we mix,
sit around and have a meeting.
man, I wish, you know, we had this, this
tool that could do this, this, or that.
maybe it's about toony rooms
better getting that really high
quality audio out of a system.
Maybe it's, Hey, I want a
different way to wirelessly share.
Oh, maybe, you know what?
I just wanna walk into the room
and connect with my phone and
I don't wanna touch anything.
Right.
And as we have these thoughts internally,
we build them, um, we have spaces and
throughout our office where we just
built things or we have something hanging
from the ceiling that we're testing out.
And, know, that's, for me,
that's some of the excitement of
being in the technology space.
And I've always been interested in
it since I was a kid and had my own
dreams when I was young and seeing
those get pushed out, um, not just
my own, but also my teammates.
And then that translating into.
You know, what we dream about, tying it
into clients and what their dreams are,
and then making this space, you know,
come to life because that's, that's
when it really gets awesome when you
see a client that you've talked to.
You know, these projects may take years
when you talk about a new building
being constructed, but you know, as
you're having these conversations and
you're showing renders and ideas and
sketches, you know, you see the excitement
building, but really that moment when
they can walk into the room for the
first time and use it and they see
what it does and they see how it works.
it's awesome.
It's, it's a great feeling of like, yeah.
And you know, they'll say, Hey, this is,
this is exactly what I was thinking about.
And in some cases it'll be more than
what they thought was even possible.
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: you know, I
also want to give credit, we have
some really great manufacturing
partners that stand by us because.
We can get, you know, a little out on
the edge some days with what we wanna
do on the, you know, at the end of the
day we are governed by laws of physics.
You know, we can't break those.
Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.
Marques Manning: had some partners
along the way from the manufacturing
side that will just dive in there
with us and say, Hey, we've never
quite done this, but let's work.
Let's figure it out.
Let's work on it and figure it out.
And so there have been some deployments
for things that are a first for everyone.
Like, Hey, this is the first
time this has been done.
It works great.
Client loves it.
Now everyone knows what's possible.
And we go from there.
So that.
That dreaming phase, man, I, I can't
express, you know how exciting it is
to have someone that wants to pull you
into it and they also trust you enough
to really take their thoughts and
their ideas and bring it all to life.
Brandon Giella: What's so amazing about
that is in order to really pull off
a dream like that, you've gotta have
so many different things that maybe
a hold intention with each other.
I mean, you're really.
Pushing the bounds of what's possible.
Like we're the first to ever do this.
The manufacturers never even
heard of this, you know, and
you're bringing this together.
But starting with that dream phase,
you know, if you're working on a
half million dollar or million dollar
budget, um, there are so many things
that could go wrong or different
pieces that you have to think through.
And, you know, what we've talked about
is, you know, talking to some of these
dreamers, it's like, well there's,
there's different, uh, components
that you really need to think about in
order for that to come, uh, to life.
And so you've got this conceptual dream.
And to bring it into reality at that
scale takes such extraordinary technical
ability that it's just amazing how you
can bring that to life, you know, and,
and get it within something that makes
sense, you know, for the budget, for
the objectives, for, you know, whatever
the, the client's trying to achieve.
And it's such a cool thing how
you guys get to do this every day.
It's pretty awesome.
Marques Manning: Yeah,
it's, it's great man.
And you hit the nail on the head though.
It really comes.
The dreaming is the best part because
making it real is the hardest part.
You know, there's so many
Brandon Giella: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Marques Manning: Uh, so many
folks, you know, so many hands.
If you really ever go by
a construction site or.
to the architect and there's all
these skilled trades that have
to come together to really pull
this off and make it happen.
So, you know, I always wanna give a
shout out to all the, all the partners
we have, not just manufacturers,
but we work with so many architects,
Brandon Giella: Hm.
Marques Manning: general contractors
and electrical contractors along the way
that, you know, it would never be possible
without all of them being on board.
All of
Brandon Giella: Mm.
Marques Manning: coming to the table
to see like, okay, let's do it.
Let's make sure it works, let's make sure
it's right, and then we go from there.
Brandon Giella: That's right.
That's right.
It's a huge team effort.
Marques Manning: It is.
Brandon Giella: Uh, so, so speaking of,
of people, uh, something that's really
important for Kontek and your team
is the local community, if you will.
So, you know, being in North Carolina,
being in your region, being around Durham,
and that kind of like local impact that
you have on the people around you in the
community that you live in and, and serve.
You also have some unique like ownership
structures within your, your, uh,
you know, employee base and how you
guys structure yourselves as a firm.
Talk to me a little bit about why
being local and, and, you know, having
tight relationships and being embedded
in community and having that kind of
impact is so important to you guys.
Marques Manning: Yeah.
Um, I think a lot of, you know, our
community involvement, starts with, you
know, the, the founder and it starts with
our former managing principals, and then
it's kind of driven through the culture
of the company and, you know, who we
bring on board is very similar minded as
far as how we wanna exist in the world.
You know, we're in Durham, right?
And the company was starting up, honestly,
we were one of the first companies to
open a business in downtown Durham.
Durham can have its challenges.
It can be, you know, a tough place to
live some days, but, um, anyone that
knows about Durham and downtown in the,
the eighties and nineties, it, it was
definitely quite the challenge some days.
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: But, you know, the
owners of the company, you know, Frank
and Wes they really believed in Durham.
They loved it.
They'd gone to college here.
They made their lives here.
There was so much going on in
the community, they said, Hey,
this, this is, we're all in.
This is what we're gonna do.
Here's where we're gonna be.
Um, and that's what really
got the doors opened up.
And then from there it was always
finding ways to support the community.
Like yes, you know, through business,
we have business dealings with local
universities and things like that.
But I always tell folks, you know,
anyone in Durham can call us.
even if we're not the right
fit, we'll hear you out, hear
you out, see what's going on.
Can we make a recommendation?
Because at the end, the of
the day, you know, the Durham
community has also poured into us.
So for us to have that ability to give
back and we support several charities
and local causes and you know, not
just through money, not just through
monetary donations, but time, you
know, pro bono projects when we can,
um, or we may take a volunteer day.
So every employee has volunteer time and
that's really just meant to go out, pick
a project they're passionate about, or
an organization they're passionate about.
They can go help, they can
arrange for a group to come help.
I that's, know, if all companies are
really investing in their community,
that just benefits everyone, right?
That helps your citizens.
That helps.
You know, the, the ones that are up
and coming, you know, all the kids.
personally, I am from Durham,
so I can remember what it's like
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: here and being around
and, you know, seeing what's possible.
And That's one of the big things I
hope we always stress to folks is,
Hey, we're a local organization.
You don't have to go to Silicon
Valley or go to the Northeast
or what, what have you.
We're a technology company.
We're locally, uh, locally based.
There's more and more folks
coming to the area in general.
So you could be highly successful
being from Durham and kind of
doing the things you wanna do.
So we always want to, you
know, show that support give
back, you know, however we can.
And that's just ingrained in
our company at this point.
Um, deep, deep in our fabric.
And.
No one has to believe in the same thing.
We can believe in all different
things, but we just support our
community however we best can.
And you know, that's a, a deep
foundational piece of what Kontek is.
Brandon Giella: That's so cool.
I, I love that you have this, uh,
you know, kind of groundbreaking.
Technological vision, and yet you're
so grounded in human relationships,
local, physical kind of, you know,
impact that you guys have around you,
which I think is such a cool compliment.
So.
Last question for you.
What's next?
So you've had this amazing
transformation, uh, over the years as
you're transforming with technology
and bringing these dreams to life.
Not only, you know, Frank and Wes'
dream, if you will, but also your
client's dreams, and I'm sure you guys
still have dreams ahead that you're
just trying to realize like where,
where you want to go in the next
couple of years, five years, 10 years?
Where's the vision going now?
Marques Manning: Yeah.
Our, our goal is to do, you
know, do more of it, right?
We, we love what we're doing.
We love the challenges, you
know, we love pushing boundaries.
So as we see, you know, things
change, have to kind of filter
sometimes through, okay, what's real?
What does marketing speak a little
bit, but what's the real deal?
What's happening in the technology sector?
but really it's, you know, taking on
these outlandish projects or something
that we see and we may think to
ourselves, Hmm, haven't seen that before.
Then everyone kind of perks up,
okay, well then let's go do that.
Uh, that's what we're
Brandon Giella: Cool.
Marques Manning: in.
So, and you know, at the end of the
day, right, it is really just about
helping people communicate better.
All these systems,
that's what they're for.
That's what your phone is for.
People don't really talk on their
phones anymore, but even if you're
texting, you know, you're on social
media, whatever you're on, it is
still a method for communicating.
So that's what we do at a really large
scale and there's so many things that
are happening across the industry,
um, pushing advances further and
further with we're seeing more of
like buildings being tied together and
sending signals, you know, not just
room to room, but literally building
the building or now I'm streaming it out
and we're pulling all these things that.
It used to be separate spaces.
For example, you could have, you
know, your pro style, uh, rock and
roll concert production environment.
Well, we see those now being
pulled into corporate spaces.
We've wrapped the series for
one of our clients where they
have these multipurpose rooms.
And in the control booth it is
a, you know, legitimate, you
know, production environment.
But they
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: it to be a
simple mode where a user can just
walk up, plug up your laptop.
Have a, have a WebEx or a teams meeting
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
Marques Manning: you.
So really staying in front of
figuring out, okay, how do we
bring more things together?
How do we bring in more capability,
you know, more technology?
But then at the same time,
it's gotta be easy to use.
Right?
It, it's, I always tell folks,
you know, if my family can use
this, we're doing pretty good.
My, I'm the,
Brandon Giella: That's it.
Marques Manning: person in my family, so
if I know of my, you know, my parents and
my siblings can do this, then I know we
did a good job because, you know, that's
Brandon Giella: Cool.
Marques Manning: they operate in.
that's where we're headed.
Um, know, we, we are local, but
we have special clients where
we'll go, you know, out of state.
So we're kind of
geographically expanding a bit.
and again, it's, it's for us all about,
you know, who wants to invite us in
to what they're dreaming about, what
they're thinking about, and where
can we take it and where can we go.
So that's, you know,
what we're in search of.
Brandon Giella: I love that.
I love that perspective, like pushing
the bounds on the technological side, the
capability side, but also how do you keep
it simple that your average user, you
know, working at a school or a corporate
environment can come in and plug up
their laptop and get to go get to work.
I just think it's so cool.
And I love that.
I love that.
Well, Marques, thank you for
joining me for this first episode.
I am so excited about what we have
in store, so please do take a listen,
subscribe, find us on YouTube, find
us on social, find us@Kontekh.com.
That's K-O-N-T-E k.com,
and stay tuned to our newsletter and
our upcoming blogs, and so much more
to bring your dreams to life, Marques.
Thank you.
We'll see you soon.
Marques Manning: see you soon.