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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: Hello and welcome
back to another episode of Wired
in a podcast presented by Contec.
So today we are gonna be talking
with Marcus Manning yet again,
thank you for joining, Marcus.
We are gonna be talking about something
I have been looking forward to for months
since we started talking about this
is stop buying AV equipment on Amazon.
And we, there's a lot of reasons for
this, and I want to get into this.
I'm, I'm so excited about this
episode, but funny enough, Marcus,
you said that your microphone you
bought on Amazon for this podcast.
Marques Manning: man.
Brandon Giella: Talk
to me about this, man.
Marques Manning: my camera,
actually my capture card, right?
So when I say stop
buying things on Amazon.
You know, there's no knock
against an online reseller
of reputable brands, right?
This really, the core of the, the
issue is not so much that I found
this particular manufacturer who's
well known in the professional or
commercial, you know, AV space, and
they happen to have an Amazon store.
Perfectly fine.
Where we see things, you know, prob uh,
coming up that cause interference or
cause problems with issues and systems
is when we say, Hey, I am strictly
going out to this online platform to
get the cheapest thing I can get that
says it will do what I want it to do.
And introduce that to my
commercial environment.
So when I say stop buying things
on Amazon, I don't wanna be super
hypocritical because again, I have bought
several things on Amazon and I love them.
They're wonderful, they work great.
Um, but again, it's using my experience
in the industry to look for the
manufacturers that I know and trust
and find their products that are gonna
work for my specific application.
Brandon Giella: And there's a distinction
that you're bringing up, which is, which
is why I, I, I wanted to start there.
And the distinction is
when you're talking about.
There's personal use perhaps,
or very limited low risk use.
And then there's commercial
grade, high quality.
You need this thing to work and buying
the cheapest option on Amazon for that.
The commercial grade set up is not good.
And you have an example
of this with an HDMI Cord.
Talk to me about, talk to me about this.
Marques Manning: I do.
So earlier this year, or either late
last year, we were wrapping up a large
scale project for a wonderful client.
This building is amazing.
I have to give the architects, you know,
and internal designers a lot of credit.
Um, it integrates really well
into the wooded environment.
I mean, this building is beautiful.
So with that, they have several
spaces they wanna do, you know,
high end conferencing and.
Combine and divide spaces and building
wide music and all these things.
It's actually a, a revenue
generating space and it's used
for training and all these things.
So the space.
Awesome, awesome space.
So one day, you know, we're
wrapping up everything.
I said, Hey, we always love training.
So gather everyone up.
Let's do some quick training
and talk about any issues, any
question marks you may have.
Just to make sure you know, all the
users are very comfortable with the
space because they're responsible
for also helping train other folks
that come in to use the space.
So I go in and, uh, keep in
mind I'm a technician at heart.
So when I leave my home, I always
have cables on me in my car.
I just have certain gadgets all the time.
I never leave home without them.
And I, I happened to get there that day.
Everyone's there, you know,
grab a cup of coffee and we're
saying, Hey, how's it going?
I said, Marcus, perfect timing.
You know, we're ready for the training.
We're all set up.
The system doesn't seem to be working.
I said, really?
Hmm, that's interesting.
You know, I talked to the
commissioning team and.
Put the bells and whistles in place
and everything should be good to go.
But you know what, I'm here.
Let me check it out for you.
So as soon as I walk in the room,
the first thing that catches my eye
is I see they have a really long
HDMI cable that they've crept across
the floor because they do different
configurations and you know, that's
how they wanna be able to do things.
They didn't want floor boxes, they
want just something in the wall.
It's no problem there, no judgment.
But when I glance at the cable
really closely, I see that it looks
like a little braided cool looking.
HDMI cable.
So in my mind, immediate red
flag, like, wait, I know we
did not give them this cable.
You know, we provide all kinds
of patch cables for folks.
We leave things behind so you have them.
I know it's not one of ours,
but you know, no judgment.
Try to be judgment free.
So I walk over with my laptop, connect up
basic troubleshooting, fire everything up.
Huh, no signal on the displays.
There's two displays in the room.
No content.
Said, well, this is very interesting.
In my heart of hearts, I
already have a strong feeling.
The problem is this cable.
So what I do is, and literally I have
cables on me all the time, and I had
a 30 foot HDMI cable on my person, um,
from one of our trusted manufacturers.
So I say, Hey, gimme one second.
I just lay my cable across the
ground beside their cable, patch
it in, patch it into my computer.
Immediately signal comes up everywhere.
They say, Marcus, what'd you do?
I didn't do a thing.
I said, all I did is
I used a proper cable.
And after that, you know, the
IT team was there, some of their
AV support folks were there.
And I started asking like, Hey,
just for my own knowledge, you know,
where'd you get this cable from?
Because I'm sure we didn't leave
you with something like this.
They said, oh, we went out on
Amazon 'cause we wanted another
cable and we found this for $8.
And they were really
happy about that $8 spend.
And I said, Hey folks.
Again, no knock on where you
bought it from because there's
some reputable manufacturers out
there and they sell through Amazon.
I said, however, if you buy a 30 foot
HDMI cable and you spend $8 you are
most likely going to run into trouble.
And I said, you know, this
is not all marketing hype.
Do you need a triple
gold plated HDMI cable?
No, you don't.
Do you need something that can pass 4K?
And when you start doing the math on
the pixel count and the actual amount
of bandwidth, and you have the proper
pins and all the technologies involved.
Then it starts to matter.
So, you know, in our case, I just gave
them a few recommendations on, hey, here
are the manufacturers we trust and we use,
I'd recommend you buy any cables here.
So they said, well, what should
we do with the cable we bought?
My honest recommendation is send it out
for e recycling or dispose of it properly.
Like, don't ever patch it in again.
Because again, you know, thinking
about the, the real cost of this
and what could have happened.
Say you had a client, 'cause
you rented the space out, they
were coming in to use the room.
All of a sudden, what is that
experience they're gonna have?
Because.
Very simple to use.
Hit the power button.
They plug in no signal.
They're trying to figure out what's wrong.
Is it my laptop?
Is it this?
Is it that?
So how much time are you spending?
You know, how much confidence has that
client lost or that user of the room lost?
You know, then you potentially
losing revenue because now you
have to move them to another space.
Do you have to postpone a meeting?
All of this over an $8 cable.
And so I always warn folks, you
know, these things do matter.
All cables are not created equal.
Someone will say, well,
it's digital, so on or off.
That is not quite true.
Um, if it was that simple, it'd be great.
And, you know, there wouldn't
be a problem with these cables
when we start talking about high,
uh, high bandwidth applications.
Folks that want 4K or even now eight k and
all these things, it really does matter.
And can that cable do what it says?
And in our case, you know, we
believe in trusting, but verifying.
So when we need to select cable
manufacturers, we actually test them.
We buy our own cables.
We don't rely on, you know, a
salesperson to send us a free batch.
Uh, we just order 'em like everyone else.
And then we have special equipment,
cable testers, so we can actually
push content of different types, uh,
different HTCP configurations, all
these things through these cables.
And then we make our notes
about what passes, what fails,
what throws an error code.
And that's what drives our recommendations
on the manufacturers we use for cabling.
And it's just one of those things where,
you know, you can do all these advanced
configurations in it and av, but if
you cheap out on your category cabling.
Well, all of a sudden now you're having
hiccups and things aren't working.
So that's why, you know, I always
say, please, please, for the love of
all things technology related, do not
just go out and search up the cheapest
thing you can find on Amazon and
patch it into your commercial system.
Uh, it's typically a recipe for a headache
and somewhat, it could be sometimes, you
know, a bit of disaster involved as well.
Brandon Giella: What I love is you have
a, let's say, half million dollar system
and all that goes involved with that.
All the design, all the consultation,
all the implementation, all the actual
like hardware and software, and it
fails because of an $8 decision.
I just love that contrast.
Um, and I think it highlights a
really important theme, which is,
and you kind of hinted at it earlier,
which is total cost of ownership.
If you think about different projects,
you know, whether you're, you're
thinking about there's a half million
dollar project and maybe we can shave
a few thousand dollars here or there.
What is, what is the
impact of that overall?
Like you said, trust or timelines or,
um, you know, thinking long term that
this system is set up properly to
last five, 10 years, you know, um, and
that whole investment decision that
you're making amortized over that time
schedule, it can be a lot upfront, but
it's gonna work and it's gonna make
sure that it lasts for a very long time.
Whereas if you go with the
cheap option, it doesn't.
I, I just find that so fascinating
that it is a long term play and
you gotta do it right upfront.
Marques Manning: Yeah.
Yeah.
In our space, you know, oftentimes we
have a thing in our office, we kind of
joke about it, we say value engineering,
and I always reframe it as, Hey, what do
you really not need out of your system?
Because when you start trying to
cut strictly based on dollars and
costs and things like that, without
really looking at the overarching
use, usability functionality, that's
when you start getting yourself into
a little bit of trouble, you know?
And, and the best.
Plan we always see is like, Hey,
can we dial the system back?
Do we not need every single function?
'cause they're the wants.
You know what you want your system to do.
And there are the needs about what
are the bare bones that we have to
have this room or this thing do.
And I also want to also caution folks,
we're not discussing this just in the
framework of technology solutions, right?
We see it all the time.
We talk about building
materials, construction
techniques, architectural design.
You know, if you have a room that's
designed for conferencing, awesome.
There's technology
that's gonna enable that.
However, if you decide, you know,
I need to save money, I'm gonna not
have my walls go up to the deck,
okay, I'm gonna save money again.
I'm gonna get, uh, some materials,
some tiles, whatever it may be
that have a lower NRC rating.
You know, so for noise reduction,
things like that, a lower rating
typically means lower cost.
Well, what you just did in making
that decision is you now have
created a space where ambient sound
will penetrate into the space.
So sound will flow in and will flow
out, and that makes it more difficult to
achieve your end goal, which is having
a really high quality conference space.
There are scientific kind of rules and
standards that apply to these rooms and
these spaces that say, Hey, your ambient
noise should not eclipse this level.
You know that your reflectivity in the
room should not be greater than this.
And that's what guides us as we get into
the technology side of this, because to be
completely honest with folks, you cannot
fix through technology what has happened
through construction and architecture.
Right.
There's, and we try to be
upfront and honest about that.
You know, there's no system we're gonna
sell you that is going to defeat the
construction techniques that we're
using, you know, erecting this room, or
putting up this building, or any of that.
Um, that's just not what it does.
Right?
And so that's a, a longer consideration
when you think about the long term
ownership of the entirety of the building.
You know, how many
complaints will you have?
Because, hey, I'm beside Bob,
and Bob is a really loud talker.
Every time Bob was on a phone call,
I could just hear him very clearly.
Hey, that gets back to construction.
How was your building created
and what did you give up?
You know, in the beginning to cut
the cost down, but now you have this
ongoing problem that you're gonna now
throw more money at trying to resolve.
So that's just the, you know, how you
look at the entirety of the system.
You know, a holistic view of a
building, including, you know, the
walls, the ceiling, and the technology.
Brandon Giella: okay, so what, what I
wanna hit on there is, this is not Marcus
or Conec having high quality standards and
you guys like to do some a certain way.
This is like physics.
Like, I can't mess with physics,
you know, whether it's the noise,
whether it's the height of something
or how long this is gonna stretch,
or the bandwidth or whatever.
I mean, this is just the way
the world works literally,
and down to a particle level.
Can't, can't argue with that, you know?
Marques Manning: No, sometimes we'll
look at things and we'll just have the
joke of, Hey, that math ain't math thing.
Like I don't care how you try to,
how you try to explain it that math
is not math thing, so this is not
gonna be a successful implementation.
Brandon Giella: That's right.
That's right.
And so I, I think that highlights a, a
certain theme that we've had, uh, for a
couple episodes is, is really you wanna
bring in the team as early as possible.
When you guys are thinking about a
space, uh, and it's especially, you
know, the more expensive this space
is or the dream that you have for
it, uh, bring in somebody early.
Let's talk through this.
'cause these details matter.
Marques Manning: Absolutely
100% they matter.
And again, everything is more
expensive at the end of the project.
Right?
If we can catch it early.
We can discuss it, we can design for it.
We can work with everyone
involved in the project.
All right, we have a plan versus,
Hey, all the walls are up.
The building is finished.
We have to add something now.
Okay, well now we're cutting open walls.
Are we cutting open ceiling?
No one wants to go back and core drill
a floor when you could have done it.
You know, in the initial concrete pour.
So all of those things, if you don't
catch 'em early, they can rapidly spiral.
And we're not just talking about the cost.
What is that experience like for the
project manager, for the building owner,
for all these other groups involved?
We're like, man, it's, we have to go back
and keep redoing work over and over again.
So now you get into the change order
process and you know who's at fault.
So it just, it starts to really spiral
if you don't catch these things early.
Brandon Giella: Yeah,
that's a great point.
Yeah, I think, um, you know,
thinking about price versus
quality and things like that is.
You've been doing this a very long time.
Your team's been doing
this a very long time.
You guys are experts.
You've made the mistakes before.
You've seen a a thousand different
variations of this problem.
And, um, if part of what you're paying
for is people that have that collected
knowledge and wisdom and they're
not just falling for marketing hype,
like, oh, this cable looks cool, it's
braided, or it's got gold plated,
you know, tassels on it or whatever.
Um, but it's like, no, I know
this thing is gonna work 'cause
I've done this a hundred times.
That value has to translate into your
work and, and obviously it shows up in
the bottom line, but the total cost of
that project can balloon if you don't
do those right things early, upfront.
Marques Manning: Correct, 100%.
And then there's also additional
hidden costs in the future.
We've seen, unfortunately, for
clients where all of a sudden they
had a failure later on, say within
18 months of opening a new space.
And when we saw the equipment that was put
in, it got back to, they made a decision
to, you know, reduce the overall upfront
cost in the very beginning of the project.
Well now you know, there's some components
that did not make it to the typical
lifecycle of a product, so you're
replacing them early, so now you spent
twice on the same solution versus going
in with a high quality solution from
the very beginning that you know it
would last, has a great warranty in the
event that it does fail and you would've
been covered for five years versus
now in 18 months, I'm having to go and
replace, you know, 18 touch panels to
control my system because they failed.
Brandon Giella: That stuff can add up.
This may I, I wanna bring
this back down to like, maybe,
um, kind of a personal level.
A a anybody that's listening.
I'm sure has done this where you
buy a printer or a monitor and maybe
it's like a decent brand, and of
course you'd get it through Amazon
or Best Buy or, or some of these
retail locations, something like that.
And for whatever reason it just, it
just, you know, yes, there's a $300
printer, but you bought the a hundred
dollars one and that one actually ends
up failing a year from now, or five
years from now, or it's just a headache.
Anybody that's dealt with
printers knows it's a headache.
Whereas if you just bought the
$300 one, it actually would last.
It's got warranties.
There's customer support that you
can actually call and talk to.
Um, I think about this with my, my
display where I bought a Dell display.
It's very nice, but there's some
particular things inside the
display that I don't understand,
but like drivers and the ports
and the connections and all that.
And I wish that I actually just
spent twice the money on like an
Apple Studio display, which is a very
expensive, very nice display, but it
would last for 10 years and I would
probably never have a problem with it.
It would just work.
I plug in whatever I want into that
thing and it would work because of all
these little tiny components that I
don't even understand are all within it.
Is that kind, am I talking
about the same thing?
I know this is commercial versus
kind of personal use, but is that
kind of what you're getting at?
Marques Manning: Yeah, 100% right?
100%.
We see it in, you know, products all
the time, where all of a sudden, you
know, we do a lot with LED walls, so
you think, you know, really large,
bright billboards you see nowadays
on the road and everything else.
So with LED walls, you know, if you
have, uh, a lower end manufacturer,
they're using different techniques,
different materials, you know.
Yes, it will be cheaper, but
what does it actually look like?
Is the coloration correct?
Do the panels fail?
We had a product, and this was
for a reputable manufacturer.
They started having pixel failures
probably every week, and we were
just blown away by like, Hey,
there's a manufacturing issue,
there's something going on.
So it's, but it was also a, a
lower tier, a slightly lower
tier from a no manufacturer.
And so I always caution people was
like, Hey, you're gonna pay for
this some, somewhere, some way this
is gonna come back to bite you.
But it's the same concept in.
To make it really hit home for people.
I always put it in the
terms of computers, right?
And I'm the only technical
person in my immediate family,
so I deal with this a lot.
But, uh, when it comes time to
get a new laptop, a new desktop,
whatever you need, people always
ask people, well, what do you do?
My first question is always, what do
you want to do with said computer?
Right?
And depending on what you say
to me, I'll say, okay, well your
budget should probably be this.
So my mom, love my mom.
She works in science, really smart about,
you know, transgenics and gene cloning.
Brandon Giella: Hm.
Marques Manning: Computers
aren't her thing.
So I say, Hey mom, you probably
wanna budget about, you know, $1,800
or so, maybe, maybe 2,500, and
it'll last for a really long while.
shock immediately, like,
what are you talking about?
I shouldn't pay that much.
I said, well, let's put
this in easy terms today.
You can go out to the store and you'll
buy, you can buy a $400 computer.
You really can.
The second you're gonna create
PowerPoints, or you're trying to edit
video, or you're trying to edit audio.
It's not gonna work and you're gonna
be upset with the computer where the
computer isn't the problem, right?
The computer for $400 was not designed
for that workload and that workflow.
It's just not, it's designed for maybe
checking some email, surfing the web,
you know, watching some Netflix, right?
So if you're doing advanced video
editing or you're working in CAD
or any of these applications that
are really, you know, heavy use.
Well, yeah, your starting point is
probably about $2,500 and you're
gonna get a machine that will last.
It will be able to actually handle
the work you want to, you know,
deal with on a daily basis versus
something that's just not going to
work for you, or it'd be incredibly
slow and all these things happen.
So that's the, the simplest terms,
because that really applies to everything
that we touch in the technology space.
It really, you can extend that
out to more just in your life.
But that's the easy example I use
for folks is just when it's time
to buy a computer, do not think.
Okay.
I want to spend $500.
Always think, well, what do I need to do?
Brandon Giella: That's right.
That's right.
I can confirm.
I have lived that lesson the hard way.
So this last computer I bought, it
was $3,000 and I knew I had to do that
because if I'm gonna be editing video
and 4K video at that and exporting and
all this, I have learned the hard way
that it takes me 10 times longer to do
then if I just paid the money for the
nice one and I can get it done, move on
to the next thing and it's gonna work.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
Totally understand that.
Totally understand that.
Okay.
Well, what, uh, what does
your, how do you, how does this
translate down into your team?
So you talked about how you guys
have like a qa, qc process on some
of these tools and things like that.
Um, what are some other things
that you guys do to make sure that
all of the, you know, the designs
or the, you know, consultation
period, the project management.
The, the qc, QA kind of process testing
things, how does all this like translate
into contact when you guys are living
your, your kind of daily work life?
Marques Manning: Yeah, it's, um,
I said it starts with the dream.
You know, what's the user want to do?
And then we start building it out.
And what we do a lot in our office is
we talk about what's known to work.
Right.
We'll have conversations.
We do a lot of testing.
Yes, we have manufacturers come in.
We always demo products, and this is
just one of those cases where someone
can tell me anything about a product.
Great.
Sounds awesome.
Send it to me.
Let's set it up in our test space.
Let's have it running.
Let's send content through it.
Let's do all these different
things and allow different
groups to interact with it.
You know, maybe our sales
team, they're a little bit less
technical than our design team.
Say, Hey, just go in here
and play around with it.
And is it very intuitive?
Do you just automatically
understand how to do it for install?
If we're looking at maybe speakers,
they may look at the speaker and
say, oh, that would be awful.
It's gonna take us one x times the amount
of times to install this other speaker.
Hey, that's a great note
because that drives up cost.
All right, well how's the sound quality?
Do they sound good?
Lots and lots of shootouts.
So a lot of what happens
behind the scenes, it gets
back to just testing products.
Um, training.
Lots of training, uh, going through
classes, taking training, and not just
manufacture training, but also industry
specific, you know, third party, um,
type coursework to really hone in on
the skills we need to even understand
what a manufacturer's saying to us
when they say there's a new product.
Okay, well what does this do for my users?
You know, does it, what
issue is this solving?
What problem is it solving?
Right?
If it's not, if it's not solving
a problem, then you know, I don't
necessarily have a need for it
right now, but it's great to have
those things in your back pocket.
So when you are listening to what someone
wants to do, you're like, you know what?
We have an idea for you.
We have a, we have a concept in
mind, and it just makes that process
flow and it feels more natural.
So that's one of the biggest things
and how that really impacts what we're
doing around the office, just on a.
A daily basis, you know, we can shout
out to support our support team.
They may say, Hey, we put these in
the field and man, you know, this
never happens, but this thing is
overheating and almost catching on fire.
Hey, well we definitely don't
wanna specify that and let's talk
about it and let's set it up and
let's, you know, run it, stress,
test it, run content through it.
Or have a camera just streaming for, you
know, 48 or 72 hours straight, nonstop.
See what happens, because
that's what happens.
You know, that's one of the
benefits of commercial products
versus consumer products.
You know, it kind of trails into why we,
we always stay on the commercial side.
Um, there are rules and regulations, the
things that people don't think about.
Um, as far as things like is it
going in a plenum space and all
these technical things you have to
know, but just how things are built.
You know, commercial display has fans
and different components and it's
designed to last much, much longer.
Then, a display, you're just gonna
go down to your box store and pick
it up and throw it up on the wall.
Just by doing that, you
void the warranty anyway.
You know, if you take a display meant
for a consumer use and you put it
into a commercial environment, you've
already avoided the minimal warranty you
would've had in the first place, which
is probably 90 days parts of labor.
Brandon Giella: interesting.
I did not know that.
Okay.
Marques Manning: Oh,
absolutely, absolutely.
You know, everything has a purpose.
You know, a typical, uh, commercial
display would have a warranty
that's three to five years.
You Right.
Easily three to five years,
something you just buy in the store.
If you look at the fine print,
which is why they sell you the
additional warranties, right?
Like, oh, you get the service
plan, it's another three years.
What?
That's why they're selling it to
you because your typical warranty
for, uh, consumer products,
you know, 90 days at best.
Um, but yes, the second you put it
into a commercial application, you've
basically voided that warranty.
Brandon Giella: Yeah.
Interesting.
I, I had, it makes me think
of my fridge and a year later,
one of the fans went out.
There's like six fans
in a fridge, who knew?
Uh, and I bought one.
I, and of course it was like a week
after the warranty expired, it went out.
So I went to Amazon and I bought a fan.
And a year later it went out again.
'cause it was a cheap fan and
I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't know what I'm buying,
but yeah, so it's like, man, I
should have just bought some dang
$10,000 subzero fridge or whatever.
Even though the guy told me, he was
like, they're all, they're all not, they
all have issues, you know, whatever.
But anyway,
Marques Manning: Yeah, there's nothing
Brandon Giella: But yeah, no, I get
Marques Manning: product, but there
are things that are reputable and
they will last and they have a great
track record, um, of being stable.
Right?
That's what we want, we're doing
When, when you're gonna spend this
kind of money and make this kind
of investment in your building.
You know, you want things that
are gonna be long lasting and
work and be consistent, you
know, there's nothing worse.
And yeah, you may have the best IT
and AV support team known to man.
Do they want to have to go into a room
every day and reboot it at 7:30 AM to make
sure it's working properly, or reconnect
the cable or disconnect something?
Because again, what's the cost of that?
What's that hidden cost of that hour spent
every day trying to troubleshoot a system?
Brandon Giella: That's right.
Lord knows those people have
other things to be doing.
Marques Manning: Right.
Absolutely.
Brandon Giella: right.
That's right.
No, I love that.
I, I love that you guys spend so much
time on that and I think that's something
that, you know, thinking about the, the
budget, price value kind of conversation
is you guys have a test environment.
You bring in the sales team because
they're gonna be, you know, probably
a lot more like the end users
that are gonna be in that space.
They're not technical, they don't
understand all the components.
They're not going to all
these trainings in that way.
Um, so I love that.
I thought that's a great note.
Um, so yeah, you're, and, and all of
that combines into wisdom and expertise
that that overall is gonna make a
much, much better project long term.
Marques Manning: Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's, you know, we work in technology.
There is something new it feels
like every week, weekly basis.
Brandon Giella: Yeah.
Marques Manning: And a lot of times the
pressure is, can I be first to market?
Is there that initial speed to just get
my product out there first to market?
All it feels like, you know, this
is completely subjective, often
feels like first to failure.
Sometimes it's like, hey, I'd rather
have something that, a little bit more
testing done, a little bit more robust.
And, you know, I can't remember the,
the magazine, but they did a great
article where they actually did x-rays
of USBC cables to actually prove a
point of like, hey, these are not
all created equally, the components
and the pins, and it's all different.
Brandon Giella: Yeah,
I think I did see that.
Yeah.
Marques Manning: Yeah.
And it's a really cool article
if you really understand what
they're getting at because.
You know, if you buy, you
can have two USBC cables.
They look identical to you.
One, if you hook it up, okay, my display
shows up, you know, my laptop connects
to my display, I can see everything.
If you use the other
cable, you have no signal.
Well come to find out, the other cables
only meant to pass power, whereas cable
B can pass video and audio and power
and ethernet and yada, yada, yada.
So it's, it's just one of those
things where you really have to
stay on top of what's happening and.
You know, see what's, what changes
are coming, how does it work?
And with USBC, it's like the wild West
right now anyway, there's not a ton
of, there are marketings that do mean
something, but every manufacturer kind
of markets it or brands it their own way.
So it's really hard without going deep
into the specs to understand like,
okay, what will this USBC cable do?
Um, and yeah, you'll, you'll have one.
And literally you're fighting saying,
well, something's wrong with my display.
Nope, it's your USBC cable.
That's it.
It was five bucks.
Go with the $25 cable.
Brandon Giella: that
this is so fascinating.
I, I.
I've had all these issues so many
times and I never know what's going on.
So I feel like I've, I've learned so much,
um, any, so basically don't trust the,
uh, don't trust the cool looking one.
Even, even if it is cooler looking, it may
not actually be the thing that you need.
Marques Manning: Correct, correct.
Brandon Giella: Okay.
Uh, okay.
Any other final thoughts to
leave listeners with as they're
considering, you know, thinking
about a large AV project like this
and want to do things the right way?
Um, and not maybe the first
way, but the best way.
Marques Manning: Yeah, it would only be,
uh, you know, trusted partners, right?
That's, that's who you lean
on, because none of us know
everything about every topic.
It'd be impossible.
You'd be learning for
the rest of your life.
You'd never do anything.
Um, so, you know, find someone you
can lean on that you can really
trust that's also knowledgeable.
And even ask them how
do they train, right?
How do you, how do you
enhance your knowledge?
You know, in some trades you're required
to, you have continuing education
credits and things of that nature.
You know, when it comes to
technology, it's not always mandatory.
There are governing bodies that say, Hey,
to have these certifications, you have to
get this many hours of training yearly.
But I would say, you know,
make sure you do that.
You know, I have smart cousins.
My cousins are really smart.
It doesn't mean I'm gonna trust my
cousins to design my AV system because
they set up their home theater, right?
It is a little bit of a different
skill set, and so I just say, you
know, lean on the folks that have a
lot of time invested, um, and it that
do it for a living and it love to do
it because that's who will really help
you out to really understand the design
elements and what's gonna be required
at the beginning of your project.
So when you get to the
end, everyone can be happy.
Brandon Giella: I love that.
That's perfect.
Marcus.
Thank you, uh, for you listening
out there or watching on
YouTube, please, uh, subscribe.
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for a lot more insights that are
coming your way about this, Marcus.
Thank you.
Marques Manning: Awesome.
Thanks.