#237 - Glenn Roggeman, CEO of AED

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Hello and welcome to Geese of
Gear Episode #237.

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Thanks for joining us today.
So today's podcast is brought to

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you by Stratum Productions.
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connections among human beings.
They would love to learn more

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about you and your events by
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You can connect with Stratum on

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social media or by visiting
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Today's podcast is also brought
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That's Roe, visual.com.
None.

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And I'm back.
Thanks again for joining me

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Episode #237 and thank you for
supporting all of our sponsors.

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I know when it's companies like
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who are pretty great, it's easy
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appreciate it and they're they
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Our sponsors keep coming back.
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following them and supporting
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from them etcetera.
So thanks again.

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So once again, today's episode
is 237.

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I've probably said that five
times, but it's still shocking

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to me that I've done 236 of
these already and we keep going.

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You know, we're booked solid
right now with guests until I

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think mid June or something.
We're booked pretty far and

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Sarah's getting calls almost
daily right now for new guests.

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So it's amazing.
We appreciate it.

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If you're listening to this and
you want to be on the podcast,

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reach out to
producer@geezersofgear.com.

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That will get you to Sarah.
She'll get you into the

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screening and then booking
process and we'll try to find a

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date that fits for you.
So thanks.

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So today's guest, Glenn Rogeman
was last on the podcast in 2019.

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And obviously things are very
different than 2019.

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In some ways.
They're very much the same

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again, But a lot has happened
since that time.

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Obviously.
It's funny.

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It's like an apocalypse or
something.

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When you look backwards at 2019,
it's like, whoa, you know, so,

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but yeah, feel free to check
that episode out.

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It's #35 very early in our time
as well.

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And so, you know, I know COVID
impacted his business.

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I'm looking forward to hearing
about that.

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Knowing Glenn as well as I do
right now, I'm assuming that it

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was all positive impact,
everything was perfect and we,

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you know, we cured COVID.
COVID jokes aside.

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But you know, Glenn is a
promoter, he's a great sales guy

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and I look forward to having
that discussion.

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And I know that Glenn's
notoriously well funded.

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You can tell by all of the
businesses he has.

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They're all beautiful.
His building is beautiful.

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His party is parties are
notorious.

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The the Christmas party, the
customer appreciation event or

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whatever it's called that they
do every year is incredible.

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It's it's you know again
notorious.

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So he's quite well funded.
But still, I think COVID pushed

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the limits on everything and I
think that AED might have even

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closed.
I think they closed a location

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in Asia at one point but it
since that time, since COVID,

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they've just expanded like
crazy.

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They're flying high and growing
like crazy and so, so of course

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today's guest Glenn Rogeman is
the CEO of the AED Group.

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He founded AED in Belgium in
1985 as a dry hire rental

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company for lighting and sound
equipment.

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Today the AED Group is a major
player in the audio visual

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market in Europe employing more
than 300 people in eight

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countries, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Germany, France,

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United Kingdom, Italy and I
think most recently the UAE.

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We're going to talk about the
new, the new facility that they

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have there and and from what I
hear they're doing really well.

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In 2013, Glenn acquired AED
Studios and transformed it into

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the most eco friendly
entertainment complex catering

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to film and TV productions, show
rehearsals and corporate events.

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Sorry, I keep looking down
because something's flashing at

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me on my control system here.
Glenn also founded, or AED also

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founded, an audio brand,
lighting brand trusting and so

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much more.
So please, before I break

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something, welcome back Glenn
Rogeman.

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Hello, Glenn.
Good evening.

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How are you?
Good evening for you.

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Afternoon for me I'm good.
Thank you.

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How are you?
Finally thinking about the high

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tea.
Because you're in the afternoon,

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I'm in the evening, we're fine.
Yeah, yeah.

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Well, or a glass of wine or
something.

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You probably have a nice glass
of wine sitting there, I'm sure.

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So yeah.
Omen my gloves is empty, but I

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hope it will filling be filled
up in.

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Yeah, I'm sure it will.
I'm sure it will.

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Probably, just as you said that
there's a whole room full of

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people who are scattering around
trying to find you a glass of

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nice red wine.
So I feel rising to the

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supermarkets and she's back in
one hour.

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I'm just arriving.
Oh, OK, cool.

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Yeah.
So here it's.

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PM.
Ah, jeez.

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Yeah.
Here it's.

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I don't even know what time it's
2:00 PM So yeah, six hours.

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So you were last on my podcast
in 2019 and a few things have

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happened since 2019.
Obviously, life has changed

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considerably.
You know, I think the market is

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is back to sort of a familiar
place at least.

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But I want to talk about some of
these changes.

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And of course, you know in 2020
the world changed in a pretty

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big way and and both of our
lives, I know changed.

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I think you were probably better
prepared for it financially than

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I was.
And then a lot of businesses in

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our industry were, you know, as
you know, our industry are not

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necessarily always the most
financially savvy people.

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Perhaps, you know, we we come
from, you know, sort of a

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passionate place where one day
you're an artist and you're

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doing these beautiful lights or
this beautiful sound or

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whatever.
And next thing you know, you're

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accidentally a businessman.
And then next thing you know,

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COVID hits and you're like, what
the hell am I supposed to do,

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you know?
And like I know over here I, I

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became sort of AI, became a
friend and a consultant and A

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and a commiserator.
I don't know what you would call

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it to so many business owners
here.

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And one of the common things
was, you know, in in school or

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my accountant or whoever told me
that I should have 60 days of

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cash reserves.
And you know, that's generally a

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pretty conservative practice, I
guess, but nobody had 18 months

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of cash reserves, you know.
So, So yeah, I mean, AED is a

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big machine though when when you
had to shut that machine off,

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I'm sure it was a little bit
frustrating and painful.

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So first of all, yes, our
industry is packed with people,

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with passion, but also with a
lot of knowledge, a lot of

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knowledge about technology.
But for me, our industry, it's

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like a translator of an artist
on stage to 10,050 or 100,000

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people hearing and looking to
this artist.

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So our industry is wow.
And yes, our focus is a lot on

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the passion of technology and
sometimes our industry for

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getting the financial sides.
That's true.

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And I think COVID has helped our
industry evolve to evolve in a

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better understanding of
financial needs of a company.

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So cash is a dirty words, but
you need to have cash flow, you

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need to have reserves to absorb
negative impacts like like

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Corona.
So ID where we prepared for

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this, yes and no.
Yes, we are financially a very

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strong company.
Yes, we have a ultra low debt

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ratio compared to our assets,
but it was still challenging

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maybe like some of you knowing
it who are listening to us.

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I own also one of the main
televisions in Europe, so I own

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16 film stages.
It's about 500,000 square foot

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ID studios.
So there I know a little bit of

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the film industry and of also
Netflix and all the other in the

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world.
So when there were less

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entertainment, live
entertainment events happening,

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there were way more demand for
film and soaps of recording.

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And maybe some of you know we
have about 10,000 soft lights in

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in our rental inventory park,
about close to 100 miles of

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trusting, close to 150
kilometers of trusting corners,

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circles, all the beautiful
things to create rigging.

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And we rented a lot to the film
industry and to the television

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industry and long term projects
also before COVID.

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COVID hits Europe 19 March 2020.
Everything went on lockdown but

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I was preparing my company from
December, middle of December.

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I was preparing my company
because I always thought if our

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industry is hit by something
drastic like Corona, it will be

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very difficult for my customers.
So I need to try to find the

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solution where my customers, the
RV rental houses, production

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houses can have a unique
advantage.

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So I designed like smoke
machines with air disinfections.

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I designed like ultrasonic high
frequency, not ultrasonic but

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ultra high frequency that can
eliminate bacterias in the air.

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And I designed face flux
problems for the air dispersion

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because the air industry for
miracles and ventilation they

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were doing something wrong.
And This is why everybody in the

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world when they visit an up key
bar the the The Dirty air, what

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is circulated in the building is
reused and they heat it up and

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blow it on the people.
So it's like a germ spreading

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machine.
Like an airplane.

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Yeah, that's that's really, if
you understand something about

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aerodynamics.
I'm a pilot, so I understand

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it's a nightmare, but all the
world accepted like it is and

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we, a lot of us had corona.
So I designed in ultraviolet air

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disinfection and I well was on
the market with production

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capacity from April, one month
after lockdown had the supply

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chain under control.
But when I talked with the

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government in Belgium in
February, they were laughing

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with me and in April they were
still laughing with me.

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And in May and in June they were
all laughing with me because

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they told to the world, it's on
your hands if you open the door,

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be afraid to open the door, be
afraid to give a handshake, hey

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aerodynamic, you cannot have so
big impact.

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It must be airborne.
And This is why I started

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developing own Born air
disinfection systems.

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Yeah, you were, you were very
quick to market with I think it

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was all under the Luxy Bell
range, right.

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00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:57,200
The, yeah, I I remember your
products were very, very early

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00:15:57,200 --> 00:15:59,360
to market.
I was working with your, your

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00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,040
North American distributor over
here on a bunch of

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00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,160
opportunities, but you said that
you were preparing beginning in

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December.
So what did you know in December

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that you didn't tell me?
Why didn't I know in December?

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If you analyze that China was
deciding the second week of the

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the first week of December to
build large scale hospitals in

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tents but ultra large scales,
you were knowing there's

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something wrong.
So it was hitting Europe in the

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publicity quite hard in January,
February, but in February you're

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still at IZ going on strangely
because it was everywhere in the

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air, but you had a long
incubation time before people

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00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:57,920
was getting ill.
And so for me analyzing what

229
00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:03,360
happens in November and December
in China, I told very fast it's

230
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:09,400
airborne and I will will put my
money where my thought is and I

231
00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:12,000
will start designing it middle
of December.

232
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:19,520
I started at the end of December
1st smoke machine with particles

233
00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:28,079
in it that disinfect air.
Then in end of January had a

234
00:17:28,079 --> 00:17:33,720
sound generator who makes a lot
of noise but who kills germs.

235
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,320
The problem all that it was not
very stable and you cannot use

236
00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,560
it everywhere.
So in February I was beginning

237
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:46,040
February I was doing tryouts
with ultraviolets.

238
00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:51,920
So the 254 nano wavelengths
light fictions, light tubes

239
00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:58,640
where you have an exposure time
of 80 milliseconds if the air

240
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:04,600
runs over the block less than 6
centimeters.

241
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:11,840
So I designed that.
I let it checked by tooth and at

242
00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:17,520
the 99.96% rate of killing of
germs.

243
00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:23,200
So it was extremely effective.
The only thing nobody was

244
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:25,600
telling that it's in the air,
everybody was telling it's.

245
00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:31,720
But Glenn, even really smart
people, like when Italy got hit

246
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,760
so hard early on, a very smart
friend of mine in Italy called

247
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,080
me and said, Marcel, I gotta
tell you something.

248
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,600
And I said what?
And he said buy as many gloves

249
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,520
as you can, because Italy's
running out of gloves.

250
00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:47,280
Buy pallets and pallets of
gloves.

251
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:50,160
Now I can laugh because it's a
joke.

252
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,120
I laughed.
Then I laughed.

253
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:54,000
Then I said I'm not wearing
rubber gloves.

254
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,160
So if I'm not gonna wear rubber
gloves, why would I buy pallets

255
00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:58,960
of rubber gloves to sell to
people?

256
00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:02,560
You know, this is crazy.
Masks, yes.

257
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,680
Yeah.
But the downside of masks that

258
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,400
your immune system of your body
gets down because you don't have

259
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:16,960
a lot of germs getting in, so
you immune loses force.

260
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:21,400
Yeah, plus none of the none of
the masks fit well enough to to

261
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:23,840
really solve the problem
anyways.

262
00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:27,080
You're solving a a a small part
of the problem.

263
00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:29,040
Not a big part, but it became
so.

264
00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:32,280
People became so angry about the
whole topic.

265
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,360
So this was another thing.
It was a pandemic of of bad

266
00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:37,480
information as well, from both
ends.

267
00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:41,680
Regardless of your political
affiliation or whatever, it

268
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,560
became a real problem for good
information.

269
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:51,720
The World Health Organization
came online about air

270
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:59,640
transmitting of germs, or fetus
or bacteria, in August 2020.

271
00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:04,280
Yeah, that's crazy.
Like 5 months later, then they

272
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:09,520
locked everything down like nine
months later that they knowing

273
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,640
we have the problems.
Yeah, what?

274
00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:17,600
So but coming how did I survive?
By doing other stuff.

275
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:22,840
I was the guy talking with
politics about disinfection and

276
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:27,200
I was hoping that all my
customers, I have about 2500

277
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:32,800
customers.
Are they professional users that

278
00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:38,680
they grab this, use this, sell
this, make profit on it?

279
00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:41,280
I had even cannons to do
stadiums.

280
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:46,520
I was thinking, hey guys, invest
in it, rent it to events, tell

281
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:48,880
it to politician and we can
change the world.

282
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,040
The thing is, nobody's waiting
for that.

283
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:59,440
We have all passionate people,
but sometimes our industry it's

284
00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:02,600
very creative but also very
narrow minded.

285
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,320
Yeah, well, the other problem,
Glenn, none of us knew how.

286
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:10,680
They companies I sold them
everywhere in the world but.

287
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:12,760
Not and that's.
It.

288
00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:17,760
But part of the thing was our
industry could only think about

289
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:19,680
when are we going back to doing
shows.

290
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:25,080
And and so that window started
at sort of 90 days like from

291
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,240
March.
People were thinking by June or

292
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:31,800
July we were going to be back
doing shows, not two years,

293
00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:35,600
Yeah.
I was the guy telling it will

294
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:40,640
take the world and the politics
and the economy two years when I

295
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,480
was talking to my banks they
were all laughing with me.

296
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:48,360
Try to imagine had like $100
million standing open leasing

297
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:51,920
contact where my customers need
to pay me.

298
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:58,560
I was lying leasing to the
industry in Europe and they and

299
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:04,520
my bank told me it's simple, you
can pay, pay up, pay all the

300
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,280
debts from all my customers.
Oh my goodness.

301
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:11,880
Because the banks were telling
you in two months it's, it's

302
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:14,280
normal.
In three months it's done.

303
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:16,080
This summer, everything is
normal.

304
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:19,960
Yeah, In September it's normal.
So it was all the time.

305
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,120
Yeah, in one or two months it's
normal.

306
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:25,160
And I don't know, it's two years
and we worked.

307
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,840
Yeah.
In in the in problems in our

308
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,320
industry.
But coming back, how did we

309
00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:35,680
survive?
We had a lot to film and

310
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,640
television.
Well, how did that work though,

311
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:43,600
Glenn?
Like were you still, you were

312
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:47,760
still the studio was still fully
operational and you had staff

313
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:50,240
working there and stuff?
Because over here, I mean

314
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,320
everything was pretty much shut
down because it was California

315
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:56,560
and the politics said you have
to close basically.

316
00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:00,760
Correct.
We were closed in the studios

317
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:05,920
for six weeks and after six
weeks you had the limitation of

318
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,960
distance and blah blah.
But we were doing film sets and

319
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:13,640
and soap stuff.
But also thanks to that there

320
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:18,280
were a lot of studios all over
Europe making more and more

321
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:22,440
episodes and more and more
Netflix and Amazon and Prime.

322
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,480
What is all that?
And they had the needs.

323
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:30,840
So at one moment we have more
than 8000 light fictions out in

324
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:39,600
film in Europe and also the UVCI
sold a lot everywhere in the

325
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:46,680
world beside in Belgium and
besides to our network to our

326
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:51,800
customers had new customers
buying for me no companies eco

327
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,840
companies in other states in
other countries.

328
00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:59,520
So we were still hitting above
50% of our turnover in the group

329
00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:01,840
and that was quite amazing if.
You know it.

330
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,520
Very impressive.
It's 8%.

331
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:09,760
Wow.
Well, twice.

332
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:15,280
And we were hitting above 50%.
Very good.

333
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:17,200
Yeah.
That's so much better than the

334
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:21,560
industry as a whole.
You know, I mean again you said

335
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,560
it, our industry is so creative
and the people in it are so

336
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:29,520
creative.
And you know, so I had a weekly

337
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,760
zoom call that I was doing for
our industry for company owners

338
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:35,960
and lighting designers and sound
engineers.

339
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:38,960
It just started as a happy hour
where we would all have a glass

340
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,280
of wine on Wednesday afternoon
and just talk.

341
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,080
And then it became like 100
people every week.

342
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,240
Very key people, very smart
people and we were talking about

343
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:52,600
just ways to sustain yourself,
ways to sustain your business

344
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,640
and different pivots that people
are doing to to continue their

345
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,040
business.
But it you know some of the

346
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,880
things like when people talked
about it, I just knew that it

347
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,360
was a bad idea and it wasn't
going to work like drive in

348
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:09,520
concerts, you know these these
drive in concerts where there

349
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:14,120
were cars parked, I don't know,
10 meters apart or something and

350
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,840
and you listen on the speakers
on the radio in your car and

351
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,840
there's a band playing on a
stage far in front of you.

352
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,040
I just knew that wasn't going to
work.

353
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,160
Like to me that's not going to a
concert that you might as well

354
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:29,560
watch it on YouTube at home.
It's probably better sound

355
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:34,120
system.
And so some of those things that

356
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:41,960
that people tried and even even
the like XR stage streaming

357
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:45,920
concerts and stuff like that
stuff just for the most part for

358
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,320
me didn't work.
It wasn't the entertainment.

359
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,760
I didn't think now like last
week, I don't know if you know

360
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:57,520
who Dan Brown is, but he's the
former production manager and

361
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:00,360
now I think he's the creative
director or something for

362
00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:03,000
Metallica.
He's been with Metallica over 30

363
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:08,440
years.
And so they did one, an XR

364
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:13,240
concert that was really good
because they had this screen

365
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:17,600
that went around them in full
360 and it had sort of little

366
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:21,160
micro screens where you could
see the audience.

367
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,800
So they had thousands of people
up on the screen at any time.

368
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:29,440
And he could say, look, you Bob
in in, you know, Brussels or

369
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:33,120
whatever, let's rock, you know,
and he could talk to people on

370
00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:36,280
the screen or the band could
talk to people on the screen.

371
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,160
And so the band enjoyed it
because it felt like they had an

372
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,480
audience and the audience
enjoyed it because it was

373
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,040
interactive.
But other than that, I never saw

374
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,200
it done well.
Correctly.

375
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:52,680
I saw this technology coming
from sports industry where you

376
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,400
had sport industry, you had to
like televisions like 1000

377
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:01,200
television holes.
Hate you So terrible.

378
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,320
So terrible.
Like, what a terrible experience

379
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,800
that is.
But even for the athletes, you

380
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:11,440
know, like I'm a big hockey fan
because I'm Canadian, of course,

381
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:17,440
and watching hockey games with
no fans in the audience, to me

382
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,480
was just so weird.
And I can't imagine what it was

383
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,960
like to be the players with an
empty building, you know, very

384
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,200
strange, very odd.
So, so.

385
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:34,320
Our industry is fairly creative,
very mind blowing, very flexible

386
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:39,360
because in Europe you have about
12,000 rental houses completely,

387
00:27:39,360 --> 00:27:45,880
Europe production houses 12,000.
And they were not 100 going

388
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:52,080
bankrupt, No.
So they stick it out, they

389
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:57,400
survive the cuts and that's
because even when they had cash

390
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:03,320
flow problems, even if they had
bad debt at the bank, they were

391
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:08,720
doing everything to survive and
did really did a good job and

392
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:14,360
they came back strong, powerful,
greatly flexible.

393
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,840
And that's something that I love
about our industry.

394
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:24,160
To create.
The flex, the, the yeah, the

395
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:26,600
positive.
Well, you were in an interesting

396
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,920
position, as you just mentioned
coming out of COVID, when you

397
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:37,000
were carrying so much paper.
And did you end up, were you in

398
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,600
a position, and this might be
something you don't even want to

399
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,120
tell me, but where you had to
write off a bunch of that paper

400
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,640
or did everyone just find a way
to catch up?

401
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:50,320
How did that work?
I think it's a mixed emotion

402
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:54,800
answer.
So first of all, we rescheduled

403
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:58,560
the listings, so we prolonged it
in time.

404
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:03,440
That's one.
So we given all our customers we

405
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:09,120
had about I think 500 toss
years, 500 leasing contracts and

406
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:16,560
we made the meeting with all of
them sometimes 2 on the day,

407
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,560
sometimes 3 on the day and we
rescheduled or reframed time

408
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:25,800
frame of the leasing.
So it was a big help for a lot

409
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:27,680
of those customers.
That's one.

410
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:33,840
Two, yes, I've written down bad
debts.

411
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:39,480
So I thought I written down like
$20 million of bad debt for 50.

412
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:46,200
But now it's getting back
because thanks in our

413
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:52,120
bookkeeping we write it down but
with our customers we discussed

414
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:55,120
how we can do it.
We don't want to push them in

415
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:59,800
bankruptcy.
So we restructured their finals

416
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:04,680
deal and we prolonged the time.
So when they didn't have the

417
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:09,400
capacity for 20 months of
payment terms, we added 22

418
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,680
months with interests.
Interesting.

419
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:19,120
So I think we were there to help
all our customers and not to

420
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:23,560
push them in bank and taking
over them at peanuts their

421
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:27,000
shares.
I know a few companies that done

422
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,120
that.
I think sometimes ideas too

423
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:37,200
clean, too honest, too regional
and too gentle.

424
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,480
We are not aggressive on the
market.

425
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:43,240
Our prices are price.
Everybody shoots in our price

426
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:46,880
and want to rent their equipment
cheaper than us.

427
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:51,240
That's not IDID is a partner, a
loyal one.

428
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,520
We don't do productions already
39 years.

429
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,920
We are there to help production
company achieving their goals.

430
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:03,120
Is it technical wise you need
thousand line arrays for to do

431
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:07,760
in the Pope somewhere or is it
financially wise you need to

432
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:12,880
spread your package your finance
again or you have assets, way

433
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,200
too much assets and you want to
sell them in one go.

434
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:21,640
Even there we can help our
customers as we take here in our

435
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:28,960
occasion platform and we can or
resells new equipment or not.

436
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:35,600
Well, the the, I think one of
the problems is you know coming

437
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:38,280
out of COVID, if you're too
aggressive on the financing,

438
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:42,000
instead of carrying paper,
you're going to be carrying old

439
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,400
product because people will
return product.

440
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:49,120
And this was one of the problems
I saw is because you know, I

441
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:52,920
know companies who came out of
COVID with boxes that were brand

442
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,520
new, not even opened of moving
lights for example.

443
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:02,960
And let's say it's a version two
and now 2021-2022 happens and

444
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,080
the company released version
three.

445
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:08,000
And I haven't even opened the
boxes for version 2 because I

446
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,160
got them right before COVID.
You know, I got them at the end

447
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:16,360
of 19/20/19.
So you know carrying paper I

448
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:22,400
think is is probably more you
know efficient or effective than

449
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:26,840
carrying old inventory in in
some cases especially when you

450
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:29,640
don't have control over the
release dates from the

451
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,640
manufacturers and stuff.
And some of these manufacturers

452
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,880
really struggled like if you
look at you know Grand Grand MA

453
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:41,440
lighting that they launched the
MA three and then COVID happened

454
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:45,440
and you know they didn't have a
lot of time to get people on

455
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:47,760
board with the MA Three.
And what that did is that

456
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:52,840
created a lot of sales for three
years of the MA two and you know

457
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:55,680
MA twos.
We were selling used MA twos on

458
00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:00,960
Gearsource during COVID for 12
to $15,000.

459
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:05,760
By the end of COVID by early 22,
those same consoles were selling

460
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:10,560
for $30,000.30.
No, They went way up, but then

461
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:13,040
they went.
Not yet, no.

462
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:17,760
They're still, I mean they're
still 18 to $20,000 for a full

463
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,080
size MA two.
OK that's yeah, they're still

464
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,720
good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

465
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:29,000
But, but the point is that that
you know some companies I think

466
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,720
just got screwed a little bit on
their timing with with release

467
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:36,480
dates of product.
And and so you know they either

468
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,600
had a product just ready to
release and COVID happened and

469
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,960
now you're holding on to sort of
older technology for a couple

470
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,520
years while your competitors
might be investing heavily in

471
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:50,760
R&D and creating new products.
So yeah, I mean I don't know I

472
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:55,080
guess for me the manufacturers
how they came out of COVID was

473
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,040
completely different than what I
expected.

474
00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:01,440
Like, I didn't think all of the
moving light manufacturers would

475
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,640
be able to survive.
But not only were they able to

476
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:06,720
survive, they were able to
thrive.

477
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:10,400
Like they they sold every light
that wasn't bolted to the

478
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,480
ground.
They sold it in 2021 and 2022.

479
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:19,639
It was just such a crazy market
for a couple of years there, so.

480
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:25,760
Let's hope you had problems in
supply chain.

481
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:29,560
There were more demand than
production capacity.

482
00:34:29,679 --> 00:34:32,760
Yeah.
At at Acoustic, you had some

483
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,920
products with two years waiting
time.

484
00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:39,840
Yeah.
The ground demand today, I think

485
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,679
almost two years waiting time.
It's 18.

486
00:34:43,639 --> 00:34:54,159
So try to buy 500 motors.
That's a massive big problem if

487
00:34:54,159 --> 00:34:55,719
you want to have them in four
weeks.

488
00:34:55,880 --> 00:35:04,320
Yeah, yeah, that's really hard.
Why I started my own brands?

489
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:07,640
Yeah.
Yeah.

490
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:09,480
Then you can control some of
those things.

491
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,320
Yeah.
Yeah.

492
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,040
Well, production capacity is an
interesting one because I

493
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:20,440
remember, oh, probably end of
22.

494
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:28,600
I spoke with what's his name,
oh, James Gordon, the the CEO

495
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:33,440
from Audio Tonics, Audionics,
Audio Tonics, the Digico

496
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:37,360
basically.
And I spoke with him and and he

497
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:42,560
said, you know, sales are not
our problem, capacity is our

498
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:44,720
problem.
Like you know we're getting a

499
00:35:44,720 --> 00:35:48,680
longer and longer and longer and
longer back order and even

500
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,680
supply chain by that time wasn't
a problem, it was still capacity

501
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,240
just trying to catch up to what
the demand had done.

502
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:58,920
And then the problem is, and you
know this as a businessman, so

503
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:03,080
you look at the demand and it's
sort of a false demand because

504
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:07,280
you're still trying to backfill.
And so you don't want to just

505
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:11,080
triple the size of your of your
operation, you know, and create

506
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:15,040
a much larger manufacturing
facility so that you can hit

507
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,880
that demand.
But you also can't go on forever

508
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:21,800
disappointing your customers and
saying, yes, I can get you the

509
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:25,720
new Quantum whatever console.
It's going to take 18 months.

510
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,680
You know they're going to buy
something else at some point

511
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:33,080
because if the need is here
right now, like I can't wait 18

512
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:35,720
months.
So it's an interesting problem.

513
00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:39,560
I mean we're you said it
already, you said our industry

514
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:44,840
in many ways got smarter because
of COVID and I think a lot of

515
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:48,320
companies, mine included, had to
learn some really hard financial

516
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:52,160
lessons.
And you know because many of our

517
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,680
companies unlike yours, many of
our companies are really small

518
00:36:56,120 --> 00:37:01,600
and we don't necessarily have 10
accountants on staff who are,

519
00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,360
are geniuses.
You know, sometimes we might

520
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,520
just have a part time CPA who
works from a tiny little office

521
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:11,880
in the back of their house and
doesn't know how to give you the

522
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:15,560
best advice perhaps.
And so I think there were a lot

523
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,280
of mistakes made.
Unfortunately, as smart as we've

524
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,840
gotten, I think in some ways
we've gotten Dumber.

525
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:26,520
And you know, especially as the
market got really, really busy

526
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:30,640
over the past couple of years,
I've seen companies who were

527
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,720
making a lot more money than
maybe they should be.

528
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:38,840
Perhaps maybe maybe they're,
they're sort of living outside

529
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:43,160
of their, their comfort zone or
outside of their, you know,

530
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:45,240
their knowledge level or
whatever you want to call it.

531
00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:48,320
But they're, it looks like
money's just falling from the

532
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:49,720
sky.
So they're starting to buy

533
00:37:49,720 --> 00:37:54,640
houses and cars and boats and
all of those things instead of

534
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,720
really focusing on protecting
their business so that it can

535
00:37:57,720 --> 00:38:00,160
survive if something like this
happens again, right?

536
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:04,280
Or or anything happens again.
So it's it's an interesting

537
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:09,120
lesson.
I can tell you from the top 25

538
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:14,320
companies in the world, three
were asking me to have a cut

539
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:19,080
down on their payment but they
were having an open standing

540
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:24,800
debt of let's say something in
between 500,000 U.S. dollars and

541
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:33,280
two million U.S. dollars from
25. 40% of them were asking hey

542
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:37,520
can you cut down then I will pay
faster and blah blah blah blah

543
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:41,600
blah.
I've done it with a few of my

544
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:49,240
major clients.
I don't know a cut down of their

545
00:38:49,240 --> 00:38:56,320
invoice and then they assigned
with me a payment term and in 36

546
00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:02,040
months of of their invoices that
all the equipment was rented

547
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:06,280
out, 3 1/2 years before that
that it was paid and then a cut

548
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:12,120
down of for example 20% because
otherwise they may could go

549
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:15,120
bankrupt.
And I'm telling now from the top

550
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:20,960
25 companies, three of them, you
know what, what is a pity.

551
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:27,240
So we help those companies and
they are not loyal.

552
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,520
That's something that shocks me
a lot.

553
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:37,360
I'm known in Europe to be a
strong and hard businessman.

554
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:45,840
No, I'm a human being and come
to me with your hands open and

555
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:50,200
everything goes.
But if you help somebody in

556
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:55,840
life, for me it's normal that
they stay after it loyal or they

557
00:39:55,840 --> 00:40:01,160
find a way to pay you back.
Zero of those 3.

558
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:05,360
Wow, wow, that's terrible.
Well, you know, you're in a

559
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:09,720
you're in a unique position
because quite often we go to our

560
00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:14,520
customers or or whoever and we
say, hey, look, I'm not a bank,

561
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,880
stop treating me like a bank.
But in a sense you are a bank.

562
00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:21,920
You know, this is the position
that you stand in and it's one

563
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:26,920
of the many benefits that AED
offers to their customers is you

564
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,840
know some financial solutions
leasing and things like that,

565
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:35,200
so.
Sale back sale or we buy your

566
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:39,120
equipment back and you can buy
new equipment or anything sale

567
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:41,240
and lease back.
Yeah, yeah.

568
00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:48,480
And we lease back new kids.
We do it every month.

569
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,440
Yeah, for it.
Interesting.

570
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:56,360
So this year you've owned the
company 39 years.

571
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,360
You founded the company 39 years
ago, which is incredible.

572
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:01,960
It makes you start to feel a
little bit older when you think

573
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:04,720
of things like that because you
remember, I'm sure, when you

574
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,680
when you started the company.
Are you planning anything big

575
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,480
for the for the big 40th
anniversary next year?

576
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,520
The answer is yes.
I'm black.

577
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:20,400
Something big, Something
commercially big, Something as a

578
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:24,320
party big.
So all my loyal customers who

579
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:32,000
are working with us will have a
benefit of our 40 years of ID,

580
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:33,880
but that's something for next
year.

581
00:41:34,240 --> 00:41:37,200
Yeah, I'm still still living in
this year.

582
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:41,400
But it's funny because I know
you love a good party and and

583
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,840
you know your, your big customer
appreciation events and stuff

584
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:49,200
are are, you know, I talked
about it in the intro today to

585
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,160
the recording.
You know, notorious, like you're

586
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,760
notorious for throwing a big
event and a big party and a big

587
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:57,200
celebration and you're good at
it.

588
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:02,520
You know how to do it.
Something I respect all my

589
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:07,200
customers from the smallest one
to the most largest one.

590
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:13,280
And that's something that I give
back to my customers every the

591
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:18,240
last 10 editions or last 10
years, 8 editions there were

592
00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:25,720
about in between 20 to 23
countries and about 802,500

593
00:42:25,720 --> 00:42:29,400
companies visiting our party
always in the middle of

594
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,640
December.
And you have people from

595
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:35,040
anywhere in the world.
And that's something what is

596
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:42,280
nice to see that our industry,
we have a common passion and the

597
00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:46,440
best friends you can make with a
common passion.

598
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:52,000
If it's soccer or it's in the
army or it's driving

599
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:57,200
Alzheimer's, if you have a
common passion, you can build

600
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:01,320
the best friendship or playing
tennis or paddle something new

601
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:06,920
in Europe.
But you find connection with

602
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:08,920
people who's got the same
passion.

603
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:12,760
And sometimes in my industry I'm
missing that.

604
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:15,720
Yeah, yeah.
I know what you say and

605
00:43:15,720 --> 00:43:19,520
especially, you know, you and I
come from a similar generation.

606
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:24,520
And so I always hate to say, but
young people today are

607
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:27,120
different, but it's true.
You know, young people today are

608
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:29,480
different.
And you know, when we were

609
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:35,120
young, the way that we did
things to to gain business or to

610
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,120
take care of our customer or
whatever, we have a different

611
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,440
mindset when it comes to that
stuff.

612
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:44,680
Newer, younger companies or
younger sales people, younger

613
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:46,840
business people.
Today it's different.

614
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:51,360
It's different.
For me my words is much more

615
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,400
important than thousand
contacts.

616
00:43:53,720 --> 00:44:00,600
My word is written in stone.
If I say something and the case

617
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:08,920
with some other people normal,
so I what I find normal, I

618
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:14,000
expected back and that's
something I need to get used to.

619
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:18,400
Even after 39 years, I'm not
ready to accept it.

620
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:23,040
I'm ready to accept the good in
everybody.

621
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:27,120
I'm ready to accept the the
passion.

622
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:30,920
I'm ready to accept the
technical challenges that our

623
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:36,560
industry is doing.
I accept negativity.

624
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:41,160
I don't accept breaking your
words.

625
00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:45,280
I have it.
That's if you ask me, what is?

626
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:49,560
What do you hate?
That's maybe my top three.

627
00:44:50,720 --> 00:44:55,440
Written You know, it's funny
because as you're saying it, I,

628
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,880
like my girlfriend tells me all
the time, Like your biggest

629
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:01,360
problem is you trust and you
believe everyone.

630
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:05,040
And it's true.
If if you tell me something and

631
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:09,160
you say this is what I'm going
to do, OK, that's it.

632
00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:11,400
I don't need a contract.
I don't need lawyers.

633
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:13,320
I don't need anything.
Because Glenn told me that's

634
00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:16,120
what he's going to do.
And this is how I've always been

635
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:18,280
and I've been this way with
business partners, with

636
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,760
employees, with, you know, all
kinds of people.

637
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,000
And unfortunately it has hurt me
many times.

638
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,760
You know, it has caused me a lot
of problems, so.

639
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:36,720
Financially, but it had cost me
also emotionally had in the past

640
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:42,320
one of my best friends who was
also an associate in the ID

641
00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:47,080
group and I kept.
I found them stealing but really

642
00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:52,240
stealing a lot and I split it
and never talked to nobody about

643
00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:56,440
that.
It's is a divorce with my best

644
00:45:56,440 --> 00:46:01,800
buddy and with my he was a
shareholder of 25% of the ID

645
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:07,000
group or 20%.
I don't remember any, but I paid

646
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:10,360
them out completely to the penny
to the cent.

647
00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,480
But I divorced from it.
Also friendship.

648
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,920
It's so crazy you say this
because I had the exact same

649
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:20,000
situation.
You know, it was my business

650
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:23,120
partner in another company and
same thing.

651
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:27,200
You know, he was basically
robbing the company from its

652
00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:32,280
money and he owned roughly 25%
of the company.

653
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:35,960
Cost me.
For me it was much more painful

654
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:39,840
because you know it was still
relatively early and I didn't

655
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:43,680
have the money to to take care
of a lot of the problems and and

656
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:46,680
financial debt that he put us in
and all kinds of things.

657
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:49,240
It it hurt, you know, it
probably cost me two or

658
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:54,080
$3,000,000 and almost put me out
of business and.

659
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,800
It's better that it's costing
you two $3,000,000 than me.

660
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:02,960
You are like a cathedral.
I'm just a small Chapel.

661
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:09,760
You're you're the Vatican.
You're the Vatican.

662
00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:11,720
I'm.
I'm a church in the back of a

663
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:16,840
Mercedes station wagon or
something, you know?

664
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:23,680
What I must say, it's hurting
also emotionally as a human

665
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:27,200
being 100%.
It was me that a lot of my

666
00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:31,080
customers don't know and a lot
of people in our industry don't

667
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:37,880
know, have about 10 extremely
good friends, close buddies like

668
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:42,800
brothers and have about 50
friends like that.

669
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,920
We don't have time to make our
relationship deeper.

670
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:53,400
And I know, I think about 20,000
people know, knowing me.

671
00:47:56,400 --> 00:48:00,960
But the most important thing in
life is not money.

672
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:08,160
The most important thing in life
is time that you spend with your

673
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:13,920
family, your kids, your
bloodline directly, but also

674
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:17,360
with your brothers.
You have friends.

675
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:21,680
You have brothers.
Brothers is like a deep emotion

676
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:25,320
that they are ready for you
always at 1:00 at night, at

677
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,960
3:00.
If you phone them and you say to

678
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,120
them I need you, Please come
here.

679
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:36,240
I'm in this city that if they
ask you why that's not a

680
00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:38,560
brother, that's a friend.
I agree so much.

681
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,480
Yeah, I agree so much.
But the problem is Glenn.

682
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,520
Why?
They need to tell you when and

683
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:50,720
where not.
My problem is that I confuse

684
00:48:50,720 --> 00:48:54,880
those.
So I confuse the 20,000 with the

685
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:58,240
I forget what your next number
was, but 100 or whatever it was,

686
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:02,120
And then and then with the 10,
you know, the 10, you really

687
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:05,000
know who those are.
Well, one of those 10, by the

688
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:09,680
way, for me was the one who
stole money from me and cost me

689
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:17,200
almost my entire business, you
know, So my problem is I'm so

690
00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:20,760
naive because at the end of the
day, when this happens to me and

691
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,720
somebody is disloyal or they
steal from me or they cheat me

692
00:49:24,720 --> 00:49:28,600
or lie to me or whatever, I'm
always surprised and I'm always

693
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:32,080
disappointed, you know, very
emotionally disappointed by

694
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:34,880
them.
And my girlfriend always says,

695
00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:38,520
you know, don't you get angry?
And I said not really.

696
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:43,160
I get disappointed.
I get sad, you know, because of

697
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:47,040
those.
Losing money, that's painful,

698
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:56,200
but your brother that's even
more painful and time something

699
00:49:56,640 --> 00:50:00,320
because money you can earn in
life, brother.

700
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:06,240
Sometimes you can make honest.
I have six brothers and three

701
00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:10,960
kids and a fiance.
Those are my 10 close people.

702
00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:14,760
I have six brothers, not
brothers, brothers from another

703
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:16,520
mother.
Yeah, I understand.

704
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:23,720
But losing a brother, that's for
me losing time that I invested

705
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:29,360
relationship together and and
again time is the most pressure,

706
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:35,240
precious thing in life.
You cannot make time most

707
00:50:35,240 --> 00:50:40,840
richest people in person.
In life, time is something of

708
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:45,920
the most important time that you
spent with people.

709
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:50,760
Your kids, your wife, your
family, your brothers.

710
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:57,240
Time is unique and that's a
message to all of you that are

711
00:50:57,240 --> 00:51:00,320
listening.
Don't forget time.

712
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:05,000
You cannot make money you can
earn, but time it's sticking

713
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:08,680
away every second of your life.
It will never come.

714
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:11,040
Yeah, I agree with you
completely.

715
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:14,480
And one of the things that you
should be doing in your business

716
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:19,640
is creating freedom of time.
You know, creating freedom of

717
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:24,080
time, freedom of relationships.
You know, you want your business

718
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:29,440
to produce whatever it is,
whether it's money or space or

719
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:32,240
something that allows you to
spend more time with your

720
00:51:32,240 --> 00:51:35,040
friends, family, your brothers,
as you call it.

721
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:38,480
So yeah, I mean, that's such a
deep point.

722
00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:41,600
Jesus, without any wine.
I don't even know how to how to

723
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:45,160
do all of this stuff.
Let's search for a bottle.

724
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:47,960
I think we should, yeah.
It's a little early for me.

725
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,120
It's 240 still, so I I should
probably stay sober for a few

726
00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:53,520
more hours.
It's somewhere in the world

727
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:57,000
6:00.
So exactly, Yeah.

728
00:51:57,080 --> 00:51:58,120
Yeah.
Well, I'll blame you.

729
00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:04,360
So you opened, I think you
opened this year in UAE, right?

730
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:11,120
I opened four years ago in the
in Dubai in the Middle East in

731
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:15,120
Emirates.
But I bought my lands, I

732
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:19,840
constructed my building.
I didn't did my interior because

733
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:24,760
I didn't want to make a big
company, but I want to make most

734
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:30,920
cleanest, best organized company
out there in the Middle East to

735
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:33,920
help our customers achieving
their goal.

736
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:38,560
So our focus is not on doing a
production because we don't do a

737
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:41,560
production.
Our focus is on the assets.

738
00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:46,360
So if tomorrow you need 400
speakers on the stands in one

739
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:48,680
model, I can supply that in the
Middle East.

740
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:54,760
So and in ultra clean condition.
And so the Middle East was for

741
00:52:54,760 --> 00:53:01,560
me like a journey to develop my
own brands and all the rest if

742
00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:05,680
the asteroids.
So today I have from ID audio

743
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:10,640
alone closely to 1200 speakers
there.

744
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:13,880
Wow.
Damn.

745
00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:19,440
And so 1200 speakers for cross
rental or in sales inventory.

746
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:21,120
Oh, cross rental.
Wow.

747
00:53:21,720 --> 00:53:26,240
That's nice.
We just sales also in the Middle

748
00:53:26,240 --> 00:53:29,800
East with our first two
customers for ID Audio.

749
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:33,000
They had a just applied a few
days ago.

750
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:35,480
Interesting.
Yeah.

751
00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:39,880
So in and I don't understand
really well, but from what I

752
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:45,120
understand you have to partner
with a Dubai company.

753
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:50,040
Is that how it works or?
Yes and no.

754
00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:53,160
It's to see where you open your
company.

755
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:56,760
If you want to open it in a
freehold, you can be the only

756
00:53:56,760 --> 00:54:02,600
shareholder in it in its if you
want to be the shopping mall for

757
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:07,520
example, trying to have a local
be involved in your company

758
00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:11,400
because it brings also all the
bizarre for your.

759
00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:13,960
Employment.
Yeah, it just makes it cleaner

760
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:18,640
and easier, yeah.
So one of the things I really

761
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:21,200
want to talk to you a bit about,
and I'm sure you want to talk

762
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:22,960
about it too, you have a little
bit already.

763
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:28,600
But AED Studios, which you know
for me is, is really intriguing

764
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:32,480
for a number of reasons.
One, you were one of the early

765
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:35,680
ones to go green in in a
facility like this.

766
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:40,080
You went very, very green and
you did it very early to all LED

767
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:43,680
lighting.
And you can tell us more about

768
00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:45,600
some of the things that you did
to be green.

769
00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:50,720
But one of the things that I'm
curious about is, was that for

770
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:53,840
environmental or economical
reasons?

771
00:54:56,160 --> 00:55:02,920
So first of all, when I talked
to people in 2007 about ecology,

772
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:12,680
they were looking to me like a
UFO landing on the markets on

773
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,080
the town square.
So they were looking to me, what

774
00:55:16,080 --> 00:55:21,200
are you telling?
And I told you, for me ecology

775
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:23,760
will go hand in hand with
ecotomy.

776
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:28,800
But in 2007 and I bought my
first electric car special eons

777
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:32,920
in 2007 I installed my first
solar panels.

778
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:41,760
In 2007 I bought like 90,000
Let's fixtures, 90,000 for

779
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:47,200
example on the Copenhagen top.
In 2007 we supplied all the

780
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:49,200
lighting in Let's but
everything.

781
00:55:50,040 --> 00:55:54,960
Which is interesting because I
have an LED business that I

782
00:55:54,960 --> 00:56:01,280
founded in 2004 and I can tell
you in 2007 it wasn't easy to

783
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:07,000
find like good general lighting
fixtures for a building like

784
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:08,760
that.
Like you could find color

785
00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:11,800
kinetics, color changing
fixtures or whatever.

786
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:16,080
But to find commercial grade
white lighting was much more

787
00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:19,160
difficult.
So I made my own letter.

788
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:23,200
No way you did.
Sticks for my warehouses because

789
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:25,240
I couldn't buy something what
was good.

790
00:56:25,240 --> 00:56:29,880
So I made them in all menu,
maybe over engineered because

791
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:35,400
now about 1617 years later
they're all still working.

792
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:39,760
That's amazing, Yeah.
Working like 13 hours a day.

793
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:43,560
They're probably not very bright
though, because back then they

794
00:56:43,560 --> 00:56:47,760
were probably 30 or 40 lumens
per Watt, whereas now they're

795
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:55,880
150 or 200. 80 lumen per watts,
85 that early but the problem

796
00:56:55,880 --> 00:57:00,640
was heat dissipation.
So today the lead tubes they are

797
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:05,680
all made in plastic but at that
time I was making my lead tube

798
00:57:06,280 --> 00:57:11,120
so like a neon like a
fluorescent tube in a warehouse.

799
00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:16,320
I was making this in all minimum
profiles with heat pasta that I

800
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:18,560
can cool my leads and my
drivers.

801
00:57:18,840 --> 00:57:22,440
So that's why after 16 years,
they are still running, yeah.

802
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:24,520
That's.
Very impressive.

803
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:31,120
If I'm measuring today it's only
giving 70 percent, 80% of but

804
00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:34,080
still it's working.
Yeah, no, that's impressive.

805
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:43,480
And I made 10,000 no 7000 or 7
or 8000 neon tubes and I

806
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:45,280
installed them in all my
warehouses.

807
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:50,920
And at that time a neon tube of
1 meter 50 was consuming 58

808
00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:55,000
watts and my LED tubes were
consuming 23 watts.

809
00:57:55,320 --> 00:58:00,480
So if you calculate by running
it 1213 hours a day for five

810
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:06,480
days in a week, if you see it
it's like $27.00 per LED tube

811
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,560
times 5000.
Yeah, yeah.

812
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:17,840
It's good savings. $30,000 of
less electricity to to pay every

813
00:58:17,840 --> 00:58:22,680
year for the last 16 years.
Yeah, You know, and the math on

814
00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:26,760
that stuff, like when I started
my LED company early, early, you

815
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:30,160
know, we were one of the very
first LED companies here in the

816
00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:35,680
US and we opened up to, we had
that 1.23 locations.

817
00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:40,800
And when it became very
mainstream, we knew that we

818
00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:42,520
weren't supposed to be in the
business anymore.

819
00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:47,200
When people could buy LED tubes
or bulbs or fixtures in Home

820
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:52,200
Depot or in Walmart or in any,
then, yeah, time to get out of

821
00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:55,720
that business.
But in the early days, you know,

822
00:58:56,200 --> 00:59:00,280
an LED tube, like a fluorescent
tube replacement was around

823
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:02,360
$100.
It wasn't cheap.

824
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:06,560
You know now that same LED tube
is like 3 or $4.

825
00:59:06,960 --> 00:59:13,160
So yeah, the the math is very
good on replacing fluorescent

826
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:16,520
with LED, replacing incandescent
with LED, etcetera.

827
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:21,560
So, but again, did you do this?
I guess it sounds like it was a

828
00:59:21,560 --> 00:59:26,520
combination of environmental and
economical reasons.

829
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:30,440
I must be honest, it's a
combination.

830
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:34,880
So yes, I'm the kids.
So what do we leave behind?

831
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:40,440
A big waste of speakers and a
big waste of all sewers and a

832
00:59:40,440 --> 00:59:43,920
big waste of old apartment
buildings in Europe.

833
00:59:44,800 --> 00:59:49,760
So I was very early with the
mindset I want to change what I

834
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:52,200
can.
Maybe I cannot change our

835
00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:55,200
industry.
I've done my best.

836
00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:02,320
I can change everything, what is
under my hands if you

837
01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:07,680
understand.
Was very fast into heat pumps,

838
01:00:07,960 --> 01:00:13,920
super isolation, electric cars,
solar panels, batteries,

839
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:19,480
domotica systems.
I was extremely fast with that.

840
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:26,480
And try to imagine, yes it was
driven because I'm a daddy, but

841
01:00:26,480 --> 01:00:30,800
it was also driven.
Again, it's way less sexy, but

842
01:00:30,800 --> 01:00:33,760
it was driven.
Also financially wise, yes.

843
01:00:34,040 --> 01:00:37,880
Yeah, well, it's, I mean
paybacks on a building the size

844
01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:41,440
of like your studio, the payback
could be, well, at the time it

845
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:45,480
was probably 2 years payback,
but now it's down like probably

846
01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:49,320
4-5, six months payback on
something like that.

847
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:55,000
Try to imagine it's much more
than only a LED tube.

848
01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:58,400
It's also emergency lights that
I updated.

849
01:00:58,640 --> 01:01:02,920
I've updated the 1900 emergency
lights in the studio.

850
01:01:03,440 --> 01:01:09,320
They are consuming in the past
like in between 9 to 18 watts

851
01:01:09,360 --> 01:01:13,280
per hour of the emergency lights
is to see which model today they

852
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:15,720
are in between 1:00 to 3:00
watts.

853
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:21,760
Yeah, that's huge savings. 1009.
100.

854
01:01:22,480 --> 01:01:27,480
Try to imagine the time, the
cost price, the installation

855
01:01:27,600 --> 01:01:35,640
hours to pay it. 9000 light
fixtures, so like fluorescent or

856
01:01:37,520 --> 01:01:45,000
a light fixture. 9003 updated.
And I've put the Multica systems

857
01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:48,200
in all the corridors and in the
studios.

858
01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:52,320
For example, if you push the
button, the half of the light

859
01:01:52,320 --> 01:01:56,360
goes on, but if you keep on
pushing it for five seconds,

860
01:01:56,840 --> 01:01:59,720
100% of the light goes on.
Interesting.

861
01:02:00,120 --> 01:02:05,680
The most ecologic light is the
light that doesn't give light.

862
01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:08,920
Exactly.
Well, this is the thing.

863
01:02:08,920 --> 01:02:13,080
Like most lighting control
systems in the past for large

864
01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:16,400
buildings, etcetera, they
started with the lights at full

865
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:20,640
and they wanted to dim them.
But with LED, you start with the

866
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:24,040
lights off and you bring them on
only when necessary.

867
01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:26,800
It's a very different mindset.
Yes.

868
01:02:27,120 --> 01:02:29,920
Yeah, yeah.
Very different so.

869
01:02:31,160 --> 01:02:38,960
Something if you see the film
Studio 11 when I started with

870
01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:43,200
them because it was in the past,
another company, I bought it 11

871
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:46,240
years ago.
The occupation rate was at that

872
01:02:46,240 --> 01:02:50,120
time 30% occupation.
Today it's above 50.

873
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:57,160
The electricity bill was 11
years ago, $1.3 million

874
01:02:57,920 --> 01:02:59,320
annually.
Jesus.

875
01:03:01,120 --> 01:03:04,600
It's it's quite big 1.3 in
dollars.

876
01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:11,120
Today my occupation rate is
about 100% higher and the price

877
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:13,520
of electricity in Europe is a
little bit higher.

878
01:03:13,520 --> 01:03:24,000
So if I didn't do nothing, maybe
my electricity bill was in, but

879
01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:30,120
if I see to my invoices from the
year 2023, the invoice was below

880
01:03:30,120 --> 01:03:32,240
200,000.
Dollars.

881
01:03:32,240 --> 01:03:36,400
Jesus, that's a huge change,
very positive change.

882
01:03:36,760 --> 01:03:40,000
Well, and then when you look at
all the the environmental

883
01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:44,120
things, you know that that the
benefits that that's providing

884
01:03:44,640 --> 01:03:46,400
to the environment, that's all
good too.

885
01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:51,360
You know, regarding the studio,
I don't know how much you're

886
01:03:51,360 --> 01:03:55,800
involved with AI, but and I know
you don't call it AI, you call

887
01:03:55,800 --> 01:03:58,320
it IE, right?
Yes.

888
01:03:59,600 --> 01:04:01,400
Yeah.
It's not AI, It's IE.

889
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:07,880
Let's call it intelligence.
Yes, artificial intelligence.

890
01:04:08,360 --> 01:04:12,200
So I don't, have you seen
anything about this huge studio

891
01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:16,200
complex that Tyler Perry was
building over here in the USI

892
01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:22,440
think in LA and he stopped
construction because of AI or

893
01:04:22,440 --> 01:04:26,120
artificial intelligence.
Have you seen anything about

894
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:31,440
this?
Let's say that some things I

895
01:04:31,440 --> 01:04:37,520
must be discreet about, but I
can tell you there was a strike

896
01:04:39,240 --> 01:04:43,800
in America.
And I think it's necessary that

897
01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:50,320
the strike happens because AI
got the capacity to you make a

898
01:04:50,600 --> 01:04:56,640
picture from an artist, you put
topics of the script and the AI

899
01:04:56,640 --> 01:04:59,800
can make the movie and at which
quality?

900
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:04,240
Extremely high quality,
extremely high quality.

901
01:05:04,600 --> 01:05:09,600
So try to mention them.
A production like a Marvel

902
01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:14,560
production or a Disney, maybe it
can be done at a budget divided

903
01:05:14,560 --> 01:05:16,360
to 100.
What?

904
01:05:17,080 --> 01:05:24,880
But let's let's be real.
You go to a film to feel

905
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:30,800
something.
You go to film because you know

906
01:05:30,800 --> 01:05:35,800
Tom Cruise from Top Gun One.
So you can make it a picture

907
01:05:35,800 --> 01:05:42,400
from Tom Cruise and make Top
Gear 4567 with artificial

908
01:05:42,400 --> 01:05:45,240
intelligence.
Will it be great or it will be

909
01:05:45,240 --> 01:05:46,920
mind blowing?
Yeah.

910
01:05:48,240 --> 01:05:50,680
But.
But it's not Tom Cruise.

911
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:59,400
You cannot see the difference
but never forget that film

912
01:05:59,400 --> 01:06:02,800
industry, it's all about
passion.

913
01:06:03,840 --> 01:06:07,960
Film industry is all about
humans that are getting older

914
01:06:07,960 --> 01:06:13,760
also Tom Cruise, but you can
connect relate to them because

915
01:06:13,760 --> 01:06:17,280
it's human.
Film industry is all about

916
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:23,360
creativity.
So if we let IE loose from A-Z

917
01:06:23,600 --> 01:06:28,080
and it will learn a little bit,
yes, it can make more creative

918
01:06:28,080 --> 01:06:34,440
movie better movies than Eminem.
But it will be becoming one

919
01:06:34,440 --> 01:06:39,320
color movie, because then all
the people will stop making

920
01:06:39,320 --> 01:06:42,800
movies and their industry will
disappear.

921
01:06:43,680 --> 01:06:47,480
And in three to five or seven
years, not new.

922
01:06:48,840 --> 01:06:53,040
New feelings, new waves, new
things, because he will flatten

923
01:06:53,040 --> 01:06:55,000
out.
Everything will be good.

924
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:58,000
Everything will be the same.
At one moment.

925
01:06:58,240 --> 01:07:00,360
It will be very good.
But.

926
01:07:03,760 --> 01:07:05,880
A bit like technology, though.
That's a bit like all

927
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:08,520
technology.
Like, you know, iPhones now are

928
01:07:08,520 --> 01:07:11,160
all so excellent.
Like, I remember when iPhone one

929
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:15,000
came, I was waiting in line to
get iPhone 2 and iPhone 3.

930
01:07:15,320 --> 01:07:19,000
I don't wait in line anymore,
like I have an iPhone 13 or

931
01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:22,440
something, not a 15 because it's
not different anymore.

932
01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:25,080
It's basically the same shit.
They're all really, really good,

933
01:07:25,080 --> 01:07:28,080
right?
But the thing that I think is

934
01:07:28,080 --> 01:07:31,800
really interesting about AI
movies, One of the things that I

935
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:35,560
think is really interesting, and
this is such a complicated topic

936
01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:38,080
and we're not going to solve
anything today, but I wanted to

937
01:07:38,080 --> 01:07:39,560
talk to you because you're a
smart guy.

938
01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:44,760
But I think it's very
interesting that we can see

939
01:07:45,040 --> 01:07:47,960
Godfather Five with Marlon
Brando in it.

940
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:51,040
We can see Michael Jackson make
new music.

941
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:57,000
Yeah, we can.
We need the young Marlon

942
01:07:57,000 --> 01:07:59,760
Brandos.
We need the Michael Jackson, the

943
01:07:59,760 --> 01:08:04,680
new generation.
Because otherwise RE will be

944
01:08:04,680 --> 01:08:09,960
become.
If you let IE do everything, it

945
01:08:09,960 --> 01:08:14,640
will be wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
And here it will stop.

946
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:18,680
So it will go way faster the
next three years, the movie

947
01:08:18,680 --> 01:08:22,080
industry or four years.
And then it will stay the same,

948
01:08:22,680 --> 01:08:26,200
the next step.
So that's something we need

949
01:08:26,200 --> 01:08:32,640
people, we need passion, we need
real humans on the screen.

950
01:08:33,439 --> 01:08:38,520
So it will be a hybrid model
where artificial intelligence is

951
01:08:38,520 --> 01:08:41,439
used on images, on script
writing.

952
01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:48,520
But we still never can forget we
need the human beings, because

953
01:08:48,640 --> 01:08:51,920
otherwise the machines will take
over.

954
01:08:54,040 --> 01:08:57,439
Can we stop them?
You know, that's the problem.

955
01:08:57,439 --> 01:08:59,760
Can we stop them at this point?
Like, I don't know.

956
01:09:01,720 --> 01:09:06,680
You know, when we were young, I
think we were All Star Wars, Sun

957
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:11,000
and Star Trek.
And you remember you push in the

958
01:09:11,000 --> 01:09:15,479
wall and you have your food
coming out and you push another

959
01:09:15,479 --> 01:09:19,479
button in the wall.
And there was a component, a

960
01:09:19,600 --> 01:09:25,120
spare Part B print 3D and you
flip over something, a

961
01:09:25,120 --> 01:09:28,439
communicator.
That was the Motorola phone.

962
01:09:28,880 --> 01:09:34,000
So 40 years ago, Star Trek was
wow.

963
01:09:36,040 --> 01:09:40,319
But a lot of things has happened
today already in our daily life.

964
01:09:40,319 --> 01:09:43,000
And you know what?
We find it normal.

965
01:09:43,439 --> 01:09:47,600
But 40 years ago, that was mind
blowing, That you open

966
01:09:47,600 --> 01:09:48,359
something.
Did it.

967
01:09:48,439 --> 01:09:49,600
Yeah.
Spooky beam me.

968
01:09:49,640 --> 01:09:53,640
Up Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The wall and hoot out.

969
01:09:56,080 --> 01:10:01,840
So again, can we change it?
No, it will happen.

970
01:10:02,960 --> 01:10:09,560
But with smart people we can
keep human beings being involved

971
01:10:09,560 --> 01:10:14,040
in the film industry and being
involved in the vent industry.

972
01:10:14,440 --> 01:10:22,320
I think RE is a game changer
when used properly, good.

973
01:10:23,000 --> 01:10:28,120
So a guy that you engage who
knows IE very well, you will

974
01:10:28,120 --> 01:10:31,520
have people from that side, you
will have people from the other

975
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:37,360
side, people that don't use IE,
and there will be a difference

976
01:10:37,360 --> 01:10:41,120
in pay grades and I can do
nothing about that.

977
01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:46,520
That's the future.
But I hope the people that are

978
01:10:46,520 --> 01:10:52,800
using a lot of AI that will be
smart enough that they

979
01:10:52,800 --> 01:10:57,120
understand it's a hybrid model
and don't let everything decided

980
01:10:57,160 --> 01:10:59,960
by IE.
And I completely agree with

981
01:10:59,960 --> 01:11:03,280
that, that last statement that
you made there, and one of the

982
01:11:03,520 --> 01:11:07,240
very simple examples I know
people who for their website

983
01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:15,320
they use ChatGPT to write blogs
and I can spot a ChatGPT written

984
01:11:15,320 --> 01:11:18,760
blog from a mile away.
I could read 3 lines and say

985
01:11:18,760 --> 01:11:23,400
this was written by ChatGPT.
I use ChatGPT to write blogs,

986
01:11:23,640 --> 01:11:27,080
but I I tell it very
specifically what I want it to

987
01:11:27,080 --> 01:11:30,400
write.
It might take me 10 minutes to

988
01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:33,240
tell it what I want it to write
and how I want it to write it,

989
01:11:33,240 --> 01:11:37,240
and who the audience is and how
it needs to be output what

990
01:11:37,240 --> 01:11:41,640
language I want it in and then I
will read it and I'll change it.

991
01:11:41,640 --> 01:11:44,120
Even after that I'll I'll edit
it a whole bunch.

992
01:11:44,120 --> 01:11:48,200
So instead of the blog taking me
3 hours to write, it might take

993
01:11:48,200 --> 01:11:53,040
me one hour to write and it just
writes the boring stuff for me

994
01:11:53,280 --> 01:11:56,520
really.
And that's what I'm telling it

995
01:11:56,520 --> 01:12:04,000
must stay a hybrid model.
Don't give everything to AI, it

996
01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:07,840
must be hybrid.
And I hope this side of the

997
01:12:07,840 --> 01:12:12,400
human beings that are using in
the future more and more AI are

998
01:12:12,400 --> 01:12:15,160
smart enough to use it as a
hybrid model.

999
01:12:15,920 --> 01:12:18,400
Well, the other thing that's
going to happen Glenn, is, is

1000
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:21,600
the consumer will penalize for
AI.

1001
01:12:21,600 --> 01:12:28,760
So again, using the same blog
example, Google will give you as

1002
01:12:28,800 --> 01:12:31,520
a as a web developer or a
company.

1003
01:12:31,920 --> 01:12:37,040
Google will give you better
search engine optimization for a

1004
01:12:37,040 --> 01:12:42,160
personally written blog and it
will penalize you for a ChatGPT

1005
01:12:42,160 --> 01:12:45,840
or an AI written blog.
And Google looks for AI written

1006
01:12:45,840 --> 01:12:49,520
blogs and it'll it basically
gives you a penalty for that.

1007
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:52,880
And so it's already happening
and I think in the movie

1008
01:12:52,880 --> 01:12:57,360
industry you're going to pay,
you know, $2.00 or $5 for a

1009
01:12:57,360 --> 01:13:02,960
ticket to go see an AI movie or
$20 to go see a a human movie.

1010
01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:06,120
OK.
Let's make it now a little bit

1011
01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:10,680
more challenging.
If you go to restaurants and

1012
01:13:10,680 --> 01:13:15,840
you're visiting 10 restaurants,
are you always 10 or 10 times

1013
01:13:15,840 --> 01:13:17,960
happy with the surface?
Yes or no?

1014
01:13:18,360 --> 01:13:22,360
No, Never.
So try to imagine there will be

1015
01:13:22,360 --> 01:13:27,960
human, not the face of a human,
but the ergonomics like fingers

1016
01:13:27,960 --> 01:13:32,440
and and sensing.
Like the Tesla, like the BW

1017
01:13:32,440 --> 01:13:38,200
robot that will hit the market
in between 25,000 and $55,000.

1018
01:13:38,720 --> 01:13:43,000
And it will have a battery pack
in between 300 watts and 1000

1019
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:49,280
watts or even an extended range
4000 watts if you know that a

1020
01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:54,480
superhuman being got a capacity
of 500 watts but not full time.

1021
01:13:55,160 --> 01:13:57,680
And let's see that the machine
is not so efficient.

1022
01:13:57,960 --> 01:14:03,760
So you will have a superhuman
that can run like the fastest

1023
01:14:03,760 --> 01:14:06,400
human that will consume 800
Watt.

1024
01:14:06,400 --> 01:14:08,320
Got the battery pack of 4000
Watt?

1025
01:14:08,320 --> 01:14:12,440
That's like 40 * a kilo and a
half.

1026
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:18,880
Try to imagine this.
You will be served perfect on

1027
01:14:18,880 --> 01:14:23,920
time, perfect position of your
fork and knife, perfect your

1028
01:14:23,920 --> 01:14:28,520
napkin.
Would you be rather served

1029
01:14:30,440 --> 01:14:33,440
averagely or perfectly by a
robot?

1030
01:14:35,160 --> 01:14:39,160
Robot.
I know that's the wrong answer,

1031
01:14:39,360 --> 01:14:42,800
but I would rather have perfect
from the robot because for me,

1032
01:14:42,800 --> 01:14:47,480
when it comes to simple life,
things like if something could

1033
01:14:47,480 --> 01:14:50,080
bring me my car every morning
and it's always brought up in

1034
01:14:50,080 --> 01:14:53,400
the same spot and it's always at
the same temperature.

1035
01:14:54,240 --> 01:14:56,800
Clean.
Clean, yeah.

1036
01:14:57,600 --> 01:15:00,720
Because he wakes up.
He's always awake.

1037
01:15:01,040 --> 01:15:06,680
Yeah, it does your garden.
It's like 24 hour 24 hour home

1038
01:15:06,680 --> 01:15:08,880
slave.
I think what we're saying Glenn

1039
01:15:08,880 --> 01:15:12,360
is the same thing.
Like basically AI should support

1040
01:15:12,360 --> 01:15:18,960
humans, not replace humans.
AI should augment humans, not

1041
01:15:18,960 --> 01:15:22,440
replace humans.
And this is how I use it.

1042
01:15:23,080 --> 01:15:29,720
I want to be served, maybe by a
robot, but I want to be welcomed

1043
01:15:31,120 --> 01:15:34,680
by human being.
Yeah, so I advantage of

1044
01:15:34,680 --> 01:15:40,520
perfectness, but I want also the
advantage of being served by

1045
01:15:40,520 --> 01:15:41,560
humans.
So here's.

1046
01:15:42,600 --> 01:15:45,320
Here's another little add on to
that.

1047
01:15:45,320 --> 01:15:50,640
I want my food cooked by a human
chef because the nuances in how

1048
01:15:50,640 --> 01:15:53,960
a chef might make it today
versus last week, even if I

1049
01:15:53,960 --> 01:15:56,720
ordered the same meal, I don't
want it exactly the same

1050
01:15:56,960 --> 01:15:59,600
necessarily, right?
Unless you're going to a fast

1051
01:15:59,600 --> 01:16:02,520
food restaurant like a Big Mac
at McDonald's should taste the

1052
01:16:02,520 --> 01:16:04,760
same at every McDonald's.
But.

1053
01:16:06,000 --> 01:16:10,280
I I I think I'm not on the same
page.

1054
01:16:10,280 --> 01:16:13,040
And you.
I want my food made by computer

1055
01:16:14,960 --> 01:16:18,240
and I won't if I have a surgery
done on my heart.

1056
01:16:18,280 --> 01:16:21,480
Or on my that I want done by AI.
Oh.

1057
01:16:21,960 --> 01:16:27,360
No mistakes, no mistakes there.
Six months or in a year?

1058
01:16:27,640 --> 01:16:31,880
What 1000 doctors has learned in
50 years and.

1059
01:16:32,520 --> 01:16:34,720
You're right.
But here's the difference.

1060
01:16:35,000 --> 01:16:37,520
We're getting to a really cool
philosophical place here.

1061
01:16:37,800 --> 01:16:42,400
So with the the robot doing your
healthcare, your surgery,

1062
01:16:42,400 --> 01:16:47,360
etcetera, you want nothing.
No variables whatsoever, No

1063
01:16:47,360 --> 01:16:48,600
variations.
You want it?

1064
01:16:48,600 --> 01:16:52,520
Absolutely.
With food, with art, with

1065
01:16:52,560 --> 01:16:56,720
lighting, with sound.
Even sound engineers have

1066
01:16:56,720 --> 01:16:59,600
different, different ways of
doing things, so they're slight

1067
01:16:59,600 --> 01:17:04,960
little nuances.
And so for me these are human

1068
01:17:05,240 --> 01:17:09,560
functions, whereas maybe some of
the programming of the lighting

1069
01:17:09,560 --> 01:17:13,480
console, some at least the most
boring mundane things could be

1070
01:17:13,480 --> 01:17:16,400
done by AI.
But the actual running of the

1071
01:17:16,400 --> 01:17:19,960
show should be done by a human,
because if the drummer plays a

1072
01:17:19,960 --> 01:17:24,480
little faster or a little slower
or something happens like that,

1073
01:17:24,480 --> 01:17:27,080
you want the human to adjust for
that, not an AI.

1074
01:17:27,840 --> 01:17:33,600
So coming back from the cook, I
want robot cutting my food.

1075
01:17:33,720 --> 01:17:37,240
I want robot preparing
everything hybrid.

1076
01:17:37,320 --> 01:17:39,920
Model.
And the last thing I want to

1077
01:17:39,920 --> 01:17:43,280
cook doing.
Exactly the magic?

1078
01:17:44,120 --> 01:17:48,040
Exactly, no.
Again, I'm talking hybrid.

1079
01:17:48,240 --> 01:17:52,480
So I believe very strongly in
the hybrid model and I know

1080
01:17:52,480 --> 01:17:56,280
there are people watching this
or listen to this and say, oh, I

1081
01:17:56,280 --> 01:18:00,320
don't want the robot doing
surgery on me.

1082
01:18:00,720 --> 01:18:06,280
I can tell you if you have an
eye, surgery be done.

1083
01:18:06,960 --> 01:18:11,600
I hope it's a robot, because he
doesn't shake and he will take

1084
01:18:11,600 --> 01:18:18,280
out your lens on a precision of
A50 or 100th of a millimeter,

1085
01:18:18,840 --> 01:18:22,360
and no human being can do that
with his hand.

1086
01:18:22,640 --> 01:18:27,320
Well, there is.
AI think it's yeah a a very good

1087
01:18:27,320 --> 01:18:30,520
friend of mine in our industry
and I won't mention his name,

1088
01:18:30,520 --> 01:18:35,520
but he had life saving cancer
surgery I believe it was

1089
01:18:35,840 --> 01:18:43,080
prostate, a very, very new thing
that they do, but it's done by a

1090
01:18:43,080 --> 01:18:47,280
robot and it's a a brand new
robotic surgery that's done and

1091
01:18:47,280 --> 01:18:51,640
saved his life and you know 10
years ago he probably would have

1092
01:18:51,640 --> 01:18:57,080
died from from this cancer.
So yeah, have you seen just

1093
01:18:57,160 --> 01:19:01,320
finally to get off of this AI
conversation, But have you seen

1094
01:19:01,320 --> 01:19:04,600
Sora the?
Movie.

1095
01:19:05,480 --> 01:19:11,240
Sora is a it's an AI that's made
for for generating movies.

1096
01:19:11,480 --> 01:19:16,920
Just when you get a chance,
Google Sora and there's a few

1097
01:19:17,000 --> 01:19:20,400
short films that they've made.
You won't believe your eyes,

1098
01:19:20,880 --> 01:19:23,520
what you're looking at, It's
just crazy, the stuff they're

1099
01:19:23,520 --> 01:19:29,080
creating with it.
At least they are investing

1100
01:19:29,080 --> 01:19:35,520
their their self in making a
platform to generate movies and

1101
01:19:35,520 --> 01:19:37,880
they are extremely far with
that.

1102
01:19:38,200 --> 01:19:42,880
I saw it on the movie festival
in Sharjah.

1103
01:19:43,960 --> 01:19:46,720
It's it's a new business for
them.

1104
01:19:46,720 --> 01:19:53,920
It's it's a big thing about
creativity and photography and

1105
01:19:53,920 --> 01:19:57,800
now there's a big part already,
filament television, and it's

1106
01:19:58,120 --> 01:20:01,400
mind blowing how far they are
today with it.

1107
01:20:01,800 --> 01:20:06,240
Yeah, with everything.
So I want you to take just a few

1108
01:20:06,240 --> 01:20:08,240
minutes because I can't keep you
much longer because your

1109
01:20:08,240 --> 01:20:10,600
family's waiting for you with a
big bottle of wine.

1110
01:20:10,960 --> 01:20:16,360
But tell me about two things.
One AED growth plans for for

1111
01:20:16,360 --> 01:20:21,080
this year and beyond, but also a
lot of your, I know you've

1112
01:20:21,080 --> 01:20:26,520
created some house brands, your
own AED product lines, AED audio

1113
01:20:26,520 --> 01:20:29,480
I believe it's called is it next
trussing.

1114
01:20:30,120 --> 01:20:34,640
Yes.
And Luxi Bell I know is at least

1115
01:20:34,640 --> 01:20:36,600
one of your lighting lines.
I don't know if you have other

1116
01:20:36,600 --> 01:20:41,960
ones, but you know, give me some
idea of where that's all going

1117
01:20:41,960 --> 01:20:43,800
and tell me a little bit about
those brands.

1118
01:20:45,040 --> 01:20:53,600
So first of all, the ID of my
first speaker was coming from

1119
01:20:53,600 --> 01:20:59,520
the UK when I opened IDUKI visit
the gods of audio.

1120
01:20:59,560 --> 01:21:09,320
So the Britannia Rose, the WIC
1, the Antex and those are the

1121
01:21:09,320 --> 01:21:14,840
gods of live productions.
And I was shocked as the eyes.

1122
01:21:14,880 --> 01:21:19,920
I was shocked to see how many
different speakers a rental

1123
01:21:19,920 --> 01:21:25,560
house got in their inventory.
And the record that I saw was 43

1124
01:21:25,560 --> 01:21:33,360
different models to reproduce
full range audio 43 models.

1125
01:21:33,840 --> 01:21:37,200
A box like this, a box like
that, a box like that a box.

1126
01:21:38,440 --> 01:21:41,800
And at that time it was 2006,
Seven.

1127
01:21:43,920 --> 01:21:48,960
I I had a dream to develop
because I started in 1982

1128
01:21:48,960 --> 01:21:54,880
developing speakers and I sold
maybe many thousand speakers in

1129
01:21:54,880 --> 01:21:57,680
Europe.
And I stopped in the end of the

1130
01:21:57,680 --> 01:22:01,160
80s with manufacturing, because
all the manufacturers were

1131
01:22:01,160 --> 01:22:03,520
making beautiful, affordable
speakers.

1132
01:22:04,000 --> 01:22:06,960
And why did I start back?
Because all the manufacturers

1133
01:22:06,960 --> 01:22:12,480
were making a lot of beautiful
speakers, so you need to buy 100

1134
01:22:12,480 --> 01:22:21,360
of model R-100 of model B100 of
C and I had a dream.

1135
01:22:21,880 --> 01:22:28,320
Can I not build a speaker that
can replace all the fatalities

1136
01:22:28,320 --> 01:22:32,440
of of 1020 different speakers by
1 box?

1137
01:22:34,480 --> 01:22:37,400
That was my vision or my mission
statement?

1138
01:22:37,400 --> 01:22:43,560
Developing a unit that can
replace everything, not to

1139
01:22:43,560 --> 01:22:47,360
replace everything because in
our industry you have people

1140
01:22:47,360 --> 01:22:52,280
passionate about Meyer Sound or
about Adam Stone or about DMV or

1141
01:22:52,280 --> 01:22:57,240
about L acoustic.
Please be passionate about them.

1142
01:22:58,040 --> 01:23:02,600
But if you have 20 other models
in your warehouse from B brands,

1143
01:23:03,200 --> 01:23:09,360
you can replace those 20 models
by 1 unit idea audio and with

1144
01:23:09,360 --> 01:23:13,840
the sound quality that is up to
you to decide.

1145
01:23:13,920 --> 01:23:16,680
I will do a demo to any of your
audience.

1146
01:23:16,680 --> 01:23:21,400
Listen, they contact with me,
there will be mind blowing away

1147
01:23:21,400 --> 01:23:24,080
of the output and of the sound
capital.

1148
01:23:24,400 --> 01:23:28,840
But again, it's not competitive
top four brands, it's an

1149
01:23:28,840 --> 01:23:34,840
addition not to invest in
5/10/15 other speaker models.

1150
01:23:35,720 --> 01:23:38,080
By having one box you can do
everything.

1151
01:23:38,760 --> 01:23:43,120
So that was my mission statement
in 2006 and seven and I was

1152
01:23:43,120 --> 01:23:51,480
giving myself a budget of R&D of
€500,000, so $600,000 and I was

1153
01:23:51,480 --> 01:23:57,720
giving myself two years time,
wow, I didn't, I didn't succeed.

1154
01:23:58,360 --> 01:24:04,960
I owe everything times 5-6.
Oh my God, that's crazy.

1155
01:24:06,160 --> 01:24:14,400
It has taken me 12 and I was
quite, almost daily involved

1156
01:24:14,400 --> 01:24:22,000
with it, but I succeeded in
something what I'm extremely

1157
01:24:22,000 --> 01:24:31,320
proud of, a flexible speaker.
What is sounding amazing and

1158
01:24:31,320 --> 01:24:35,400
what is doing an amazing
pressure output versus size.

1159
01:24:35,760 --> 01:24:40,520
But you put two together, you
put two lows together of this

1160
01:24:40,520 --> 01:24:43,720
and it's got capacity of the
biggest box in the world.

1161
01:24:44,680 --> 01:24:50,120
I'm not telling a name but so
but you can use it as a

1162
01:24:50,120 --> 01:24:53,600
standalone with two mic inputs.
So that's our IDEA Audio.

1163
01:24:54,800 --> 01:24:59,560
By doing Idea Audio well, I
launched it to the market and

1164
01:24:59,560 --> 01:25:03,000
then was Corona.
So when?

1165
01:25:03,680 --> 01:25:05,880
Production.
I stopped production.

1166
01:25:06,240 --> 01:25:12,120
I restarted production in 2022
and in 2022 and 2023.

1167
01:25:12,440 --> 01:25:16,680
Just until now, we sold closely
to 5000 boxes.

1168
01:25:17,000 --> 01:25:22,120
Wow.
That's how the audio I made also

1169
01:25:22,240 --> 01:25:27,400
a budget speaker because not
everybody got a budget of a

1170
01:25:27,440 --> 01:25:31,440
brand.
Sometimes you need like AQ CK3

1171
01:25:31,440 --> 01:25:34,760
speakers.
So I make speakers also very

1172
01:25:35,160 --> 01:25:40,320
flexible, but it's called the
Multi 12 and the Multi Sip, then

1173
01:25:40,320 --> 01:25:43,880
Luxy Bell, Luxy Bell.
I'm not here to design the

1174
01:25:43,880 --> 01:25:47,720
moving ads because the moving ad
is the flavor of the day and

1175
01:25:47,720 --> 01:25:51,000
tomorrow it's another flavor and
the day after it's another

1176
01:25:51,000 --> 01:25:52,160
flavor.
So.

1177
01:25:53,320 --> 01:25:57,920
But I'm here to design high
quality light fixture who

1178
01:25:57,920 --> 01:26:01,840
delivers light?
Is it for a car show, a trade

1179
01:26:01,840 --> 01:26:05,160
show, A theater?
A front light of a festival?

1180
01:26:05,880 --> 01:26:11,640
This is what I'm doing, like L
and soft lights in ultra high

1181
01:26:11,640 --> 01:26:19,320
quality and I have those with
thousands and thousands in my

1182
01:26:19,320 --> 01:26:24,560
rental inventory.
Stage lift, that's my brand of

1183
01:26:24,560 --> 01:26:30,360
motors.
And in stage lift we designed

1184
01:26:30,360 --> 01:26:36,080
the motor made in Europe.
It's not a Chinese motor with

1185
01:26:36,080 --> 01:26:38,600
one of the top three
manufacturers in the world.

1186
01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:43,520
I had some things that I would
love to have like handles above

1187
01:26:43,520 --> 01:26:47,760
the motors and handles below the
motor automatically you hang it

1188
01:26:47,800 --> 01:26:51,200
upside down the motor that the
chain bag flip over without

1189
01:26:51,560 --> 01:26:56,280
losing time.
So simple stuff Teflon sides

1190
01:26:56,480 --> 01:27:01,000
that if you have scratches on it
that it stays a dark color of

1191
01:27:01,000 --> 01:27:03,800
the motor and not you see the
iron or the aluminium.

1192
01:27:05,080 --> 01:27:09,880
So designing my own motor I saw
it's now 1 1/2 years on the

1193
01:27:09,880 --> 01:27:13,720
market and I sold already about
3000 hoists.

1194
01:27:14,640 --> 01:27:20,000
Wow, so hoping to hit this year,
the mark of 3000 manufacturers

1195
01:27:20,800 --> 01:27:25,000
motors this year and I'm hoping
to ramp up next year the

1196
01:27:25,000 --> 01:27:27,320
production capacity.
Wow, that's impressive.

1197
01:27:28,320 --> 01:27:34,680
It's better than the D8 plus
motor, the the highest level of

1198
01:27:34,680 --> 01:27:41,200
safety and I think worldwide the
new sunlight double brake safety

1199
01:27:41,200 --> 01:27:47,040
factor one on 8 coming only I do
it in black chains chains and I

1200
01:27:47,040 --> 01:27:50,560
have it in stock.
Same idea audio I have today

1201
01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:56,920
around it's flipping in between
1000 to 3000 boxes any day of

1202
01:27:56,920 --> 01:28:01,120
the year in stock, so that's
also unique that I can supply

1203
01:28:01,600 --> 01:28:05,640
from stock.
And the AED audio, so it's a

1204
01:28:05,640 --> 01:28:08,680
line array package.
Your your main system is a line

1205
01:28:08,680 --> 01:28:11,440
array.
And are you also doing the

1206
01:28:11,600 --> 01:28:14,880
amplification or do you just
have a deal with power soft or

1207
01:28:14,880 --> 01:28:18,960
one of the other?
We design everything.

1208
01:28:19,240 --> 01:28:24,440
The amplifier model power soft
is making everything so like an

1209
01:28:24,440 --> 01:28:28,160
iron plate box.
I buy from Pascal.

1210
01:28:28,280 --> 01:28:31,680
That's the biggest one of the
biggest components builders in

1211
01:28:31,680 --> 01:28:34,480
the world of highest.
It's the highest grade for me.

1212
01:28:34,760 --> 01:28:38,720
I buy the model from Pascal, I
buy clock ships from Motorola, I

1213
01:28:38,720 --> 01:28:42,920
buy screens from Sony.
So it's coming from everywhere

1214
01:28:42,920 --> 01:28:46,560
in the world.
Assembly here in Belgium, My

1215
01:28:46,560 --> 01:28:52,480
wood is made in also a company
that we acquired in Portugal.

1216
01:28:52,680 --> 01:29:00,440
My iron is made in Spain.
So yeah, the Pascal is from

1217
01:29:00,440 --> 01:29:06,560
Denmark, the components, So it's
built and designed in Belgium.

1218
01:29:07,080 --> 01:29:11,520
So coming back, so brand #4,
that's next.

1219
01:29:12,440 --> 01:29:16,120
So I was the biggest customer of
Pearl Light in the world.

1220
01:29:18,480 --> 01:29:22,280
There are a lot of products that
was coming from our IDs at

1221
01:29:22,280 --> 01:29:25,040
Pearlite.
Pearlite went bankrupt when I

1222
01:29:25,120 --> 01:29:29,440
went out with money of the
company so I wasn't involved.

1223
01:29:29,600 --> 01:29:37,560
A few years later it was
bankrupt and I tried to buy the

1224
01:29:37,560 --> 01:29:42,160
name, but there was something
happened that I didn't bought it

1225
01:29:42,640 --> 01:29:49,080
and I started the next the next
big standards.

1226
01:29:49,320 --> 01:29:55,720
So today next is made in
Netherlands, not in

1227
01:29:55,720 --> 01:29:59,640
Czechoslovakia or in China or
somewhere else, right?

1228
01:29:59,800 --> 01:30:05,320
And I bought also one of the big
manufacturers in Europe, it's

1229
01:30:05,320 --> 01:30:09,240
called Intel, they are based in
Netherlands, Fenray.

1230
01:30:10,480 --> 01:30:15,080
I bought the company and they
had a very big rental inventory.

1231
01:30:15,640 --> 01:30:21,440
This was made to the standards
of ID and then Intel is renamed

1232
01:30:21,440 --> 01:30:25,120
now to Next.
So Next was a commercial name.

1233
01:30:25,480 --> 01:30:28,880
Intel was actually Now
everything is next.

1234
01:30:29,320 --> 01:30:34,680
And now we were like 10 years
ago the first company with robot

1235
01:30:34,720 --> 01:30:41,240
welding, the first in the world.
Now we are developing a robot

1236
01:30:41,240 --> 01:30:46,720
line but from A-Z, from cutting
to put on the Euro palette by

1237
01:30:46,720 --> 01:30:53,440
robots and I hope this is
operational in 30 months and

1238
01:30:53,440 --> 01:30:56,640
this will our production
capacity to.

1239
01:30:58,360 --> 01:31:01,960
Follow Wow, that's amazing.
That's a lot.

1240
01:31:02,640 --> 01:31:06,680
It's one more than competitive
Pro Light, but everything we

1241
01:31:06,880 --> 01:31:09,920
updated it.
For example, AB100 Truss, the

1242
01:31:09,920 --> 01:31:14,360
megatruss at Pro Light.
The wheels are connected fixed

1243
01:31:14,640 --> 01:31:18,640
to the Truss at our place with
the pin you take away.

1244
01:31:19,240 --> 01:31:22,160
That's smart.
Yeah, that's very smart.

1245
01:31:23,440 --> 01:31:28,160
Compatible.
So I try to be we are 100%

1246
01:31:28,160 --> 01:31:36,760
compatible and I try to advance
the product by being compatible

1247
01:31:36,760 --> 01:31:42,040
and standard, but still
improvements without people

1248
01:31:42,040 --> 01:31:45,120
knowing it.
Very interesting.

1249
01:31:45,680 --> 01:31:48,480
So cool.
Well, Glenn, I appreciate you

1250
01:31:48,480 --> 01:31:49,680
doing this.
Thank you so much.

1251
01:31:49,680 --> 01:31:52,840
It's always fun to talk to you.
I think we have to do it sooner

1252
01:31:52,840 --> 01:31:55,440
this time, not five years later
or whatever.

1253
01:31:56,440 --> 01:31:59,120
Plus, we're both getting older,
so we have to hurry up, you

1254
01:31:59,120 --> 01:32:01,960
know?
Oh, you don't get older.

1255
01:32:02,160 --> 01:32:06,560
No.
We people in our minds and I

1256
01:32:06,560 --> 01:32:10,080
hope we stay young in our minds.
Getting older.

1257
01:32:10,120 --> 01:32:14,600
He's telling all the new iPhone
is bad or the young guys are

1258
01:32:14,800 --> 01:32:19,040
wrong.
For me, the future is in young

1259
01:32:19,040 --> 01:32:24,760
people and I hope I'm in the
team of the young people and I'm

1260
01:32:24,760 --> 01:32:26,760
not in the team of the old
people.

1261
01:32:27,160 --> 01:32:35,720
If you see creativity, the best
songs of the simple minds or for

1262
01:32:35,720 --> 01:32:39,000
Madonna, the best songs were
coming when they were 20 years

1263
01:32:39,000 --> 01:32:40,560
young.
Yeah, it's true.

1264
01:32:41,560 --> 01:32:46,600
And still today they are playing
those same songs I was a few

1265
01:32:46,600 --> 01:32:50,120
months ago, a year ago.
It's a Madonna show.

1266
01:32:50,360 --> 01:32:54,120
Wow.
But all that I know and

1267
01:32:54,120 --> 01:32:58,680
everybody was shouting and
singing with them, were like a

1268
01:32:58,680 --> 01:33:04,560
virgin and all stuff.
So he is from the youngest

1269
01:33:04,560 --> 01:33:09,280
generation.
So I believe strongly also in a

1270
01:33:09,280 --> 01:33:14,120
hybrid model where the young
generation gives creativity and

1271
01:33:14,120 --> 01:33:20,880
we as not older people but as
experienced people, help them

1272
01:33:22,200 --> 01:33:26,840
directing their positive energy,
their positive mindsets, their

1273
01:33:26,840 --> 01:33:30,360
creativity in a better common
future.