#281 - Robert Hofkamp

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Geese of Gear episode #281 with
Rob Hoffkamp, OG of audio sales

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guys worked for multiple
manufacturers.

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In fact, he tells us on the
podcast almost all British.

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He spent many years with Martin
Audio, with Tanoi, with Void,

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and he has a big announcement to
make on this podcast as well.

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I think first time publicly
announcing and I'll let him tell

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you.
So please enjoy Rob Hofkamp on

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Geese of Gear episode 281.
Hello and thank you for joining

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00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:41,360
me today on Geese of Gear
episode #281 Two Days podcast is

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00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:42,800
brought to you by ACT
Entertainment.

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And today's podcast is also
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Founded in 2002 with an
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live event businesses buy and
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Since that time, the company has
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countries, selling 1/4 billion
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staging and video gear.
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So take full control over your
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gearsource.com today.
So as you hear this, we're

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probably all on flights to LDI
or at least getting ready to go

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to LDI.
I'm actually really looking

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forward to it.
I guess I missed last year and

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that kind of put me in the mood
to go to it this year even more.

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So looking forward to seeing all
of you and, and a lot more than

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all of you.
And also really looking forward

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to this dining with dinosaurs
thing.

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And if you haven't heard about
it, it's it's a luncheon that is

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on December 9th, 12:30 till 2, I
believe.

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And where we're pairing up what
we're calling dinosaurs who are

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industry legends in sound,
lighting, rigging, all kinds of

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areas, management, production
management.

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And so it's a really wild group
of like 14 people.

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You've probably seen it on
socials or even LDI are are

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advertising it and promoting it
now.

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But anyways, pairing them up at
round tables while you eat lunch

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with a group of people who want
to be there.

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And I think there's already over
100 people booked to come.

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And I'm really looking forward
to it.

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It's the first time we're doing
it.

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So we're kind of winging it.
And I will say that as this goes

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on, if they want us to come
back, which I think they will

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based on the early success here,
we're going to make it bigger

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and better.
So if you know me, you know, I

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don't like to do things halfway.
I like to kind of go all out.

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And so we'll do the same with
this dining with dinosaurs

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thing.
And so, yeah, I'm grateful,

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geez, of Gear continues to keep
becoming a bigger brand.

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More people follow our podcast.
We love that.

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I appreciate each and everyone
of you for listening and caring

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and giving a damn.
And having said that, please

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keep liking and forwarding and
reposting and subscribing to our

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podcast.
It really does help.

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We're growing.
We can continue to grow with

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your help.
Share this podcast, please.

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If you like it.
If you don't like it, then don't

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tell anyone.
And yeah, I appreciate you.

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And so today's guest, it's been
almost three years to the day

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that today's guest, Rob Hoffkamp
was brave enough to exhibit at a

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lighting show post COVID, even
though he's a lifelong audio

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guy.
And so, yeah, he's the one.

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He was on the podcast in 2021
from LDI.

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We actually recorded while he
was there at the show and he was

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representing at the time Void
Acoustics.

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And so today he's got actually a
pretty cool new announcement to

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make that I believe is the first
time that people are going to

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hear this.
So it's pretty cool.

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Probably actually by the time
you listen to it, it's going to

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be out in the press release
though.

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So if you want to hear his
previous podcast and really dig

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into, you know what what Rob's
done in his life and stuff,

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check out episode 158, which is
audio only.

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Wherever you get geez of gear.
It won't be on YouTube, but it

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will be on Spotify.
It'll be on Apple podcast and

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other mediums and also on our
website, geezofgear.com.

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Rob has been in the audio
industry since the 70s.

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That's a while nearly 20 years
as Sales Director for Tano in

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North America, 20 years as
Director of Operations for

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Martin Audio and nearly 10 years
as Director of Operations for

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Void Acoustics.
Most recently, Rob has been

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doing brand development for OPS
and consulting who specialize in

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the development of specialist
products for the professional

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audio market sectors in North
America.

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And of course, like me, Rob is
Canadian, so he's a damn nice

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guy.
Welcome, Rob Hoffkamp back to

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geysers of Gear.
Rob, how are you?

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I'm getting ready for
Thanksgiving.

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How about you?
But you're in Canada, I know.

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But listen, it's a day off for
me.

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There you go.
That's all you got to do is work

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for like American companies or
whatever and.

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You know, you know what it is
the beautiful part I've always

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used those Canadian stats to to
well, OK, so the Canadians that

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I'm working at like our
Thanksgiving, I'm going to be

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working for sure, right.
But on the American

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Thanksgiving, it's a catch up
day for me.

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Oh, yeah, yeah, that's true.
I mean, it is for me too, to be

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perfectly honest with you, even
though I live in the United

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States and.
Celebrate things from.

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Right.
Yeah, just cleaned it up.

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Well, I mean, and how much can
you eat and how much football

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can you actually want before you
got to grab your laptop and do

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some work?
So, but you know, The funny

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thing is, so my company's
completely remote.

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I have people in Canada, people
in Europe, people all over the

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place, people in the US.
And so some people take both

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holidays, you know, mostly my
Canadian good buddies take both

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holidays.
So they'll take the American

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Thanksgiving and the Canadian
one.

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And and then some people like
myself usually take neither

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holiday.
You know, I'll eat some Turkey

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and then straight back to my
desk.

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So yeah.
It's that, it's that passion to

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be busy myself, right?
You want to be doing something.

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I like it, you know, I, I love
what I do still.

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I, I love the people I do it
with and I just really, really

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enjoy working, you know, and
somebody, I listened to a

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podcast a couple days ago about
this, a very, very successful

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guy.
And he said, you know what?

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Friends and family come to me
all the time.

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And they say, Bob, you're
spending way too much time

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working, and you need to take a
vacation and go away with your

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wife and just sit on a beach
somewhere, and you need to relax

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and take some downtime.
And he's like, you know how

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afraid that makes me?
You know, the anxiety I get when

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you just say that, like, I don't
want to do that.

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I really enjoy.
Yeah, but you need hobbies.

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What if work is my hobby?
What if I just really enjoy

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work?
And, you know, sadly, I know so

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many people who were convinced
to stop working and, you know,

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died shortly after so.
So much truth to that, so much

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truth to that.
We're not, we're not programmed,

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built, trained or whatever to
just stop.

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We're we're creatures of doing
things.

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And you know, this is what I was
reading an article about AI

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recently and you know, that's a
very big topic, right?

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And.
Yeah, we'll talk about it.

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What I, I think it's, it's, it's
it's hard for my brain to put it

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all in place.
But one of the comments was the,

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the, the people have been
talking and saying, what is the

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purpose of humans going to be if
AI turns us into this, where,

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you know, the robots can do
everything, where the machine

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takes control and just takes
look after our life, what do we

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do?
And where we lose this sense of

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purpose?
And without a purpose, we're

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kind of just, you know,
wandering fish.

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I don't, I don't know, I don't
know where it will end really.

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But it's, it's definitely
something when you start

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thinking about it.
And I'm with you on this.

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And, you know, work for me has
never been a four letter word.

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It's a hobby, it's a passion.
It's what I like to do it.

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And I'm blessed to have married
a fantastic woman who allows me

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to do that right.
I mean.

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But Rob, the other funny thing
about technology is every time

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we go through one of these
massive technological shifts,

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you hear the same cry, which is
basically like everything, we're

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doomed.
You know, everything's going to

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be different and it's going to
take over and we're doomed.

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But guess what?
Then we figure it out and

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everything's different and you
know.

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In my in my mind, it's not like
AY 2K thing.

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It's just a case of I do really
understand the purpose and in

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classic cases, me, right.
Last March I retired quote, UN

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quote and I pulled the big R
out.

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Again.
Again.

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Yeah, Well, it was.
You're as bad as KISS.

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Yeah.
How many retirement tours are

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you going to do?
I think they're on their 7th or

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something, you know?
It's it's yeah, that's I can

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share some Ozzy, Ozzy and
Sharon, bless them.

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No, listen, I it was interesting
for for my last step out.

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And, you know, we know we know
my past history in the business

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with Tano and Martin and then
with Void.

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And when I ended with Void in
March, I took this opportunity

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to consider some things and a
really good friend of mine and

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customer in New York City who
I'd known for about 15 years

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through a couple of brands
actually in different different

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opportunities for us to do
business together.

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He asked me to come and help him
out in his business as a

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consultant.
So and look at business

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development growth and and
things right is the company was

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global AV Group fantastic
integration company in New York

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City.
Jason is a actually world

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renowned DJ in the 90s from the
proper venues in New York, came

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out of the club scene and it's
one of the most connected guys I

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know on the planet, you know?
He's a cool.

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He's a cool guy.
The, but I, I went to work with

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him and got into the deep side
of the integration aspect of the

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business.
So my whole career has always

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been on the what we'll call the
manufacturing side, right?

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So selling products to
integrators and getting into the

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integration side was really
interesting because I got to

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live first hand the problems
that they live either through

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delays and delivery.
And you know, the real test was

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we ended up winning a project
there.

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Jason's company won.
It was a fantastic opportunity,

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great people, right?
And the integration side of it,

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it was like 1100 speakers and it
took 90.

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00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:06,320
We did it in about actually not
even 90 days.

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00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:11,400
It was about 70 days.
No actually more like about 60

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days.
But great team worked with the

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local electrician company there
for doing the the wire pulling

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in that 110,000 feet of copper
blah, blah, blah.

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Big job, right, really big job
and results turned out really

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well.
They're very happy and Jason's

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continuing to work there now and
things are things are good.

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Lots of other projects in in
that marketplace for them, but.

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Yeah, I talked to him recently.
I talked to him recently about

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all that stuff.
He's obviously over the moon

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with that business because you
know, it's changed his

226
00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:46,200
trajectory, it's changed his
whole everything.

227
00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,280
You know when you when you get
projects that size that

228
00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:52,960
continue, you know it's not just
one and done like there's follow

229
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:56,440
on projects and stuff that's.
That could be life changing.

230
00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,240
Stepping into that side of it,
you can see where jobs at that

231
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,680
scope can really crush an
integration company because

232
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,840
delays lead to what lawsuits
lead to things, right?

233
00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:11,280
You lead lead to problems.
The the big jobs can kill you.

234
00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,760
But it went off like it hits.
Jason has got some fantastic

235
00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:17,480
people working there.
The the poor cat guys were

236
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,600
redoing drawings because, you
know, we get into little tricks

237
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:24,720
of the trade and stuff, but
speaker locations that magically

238
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:26,920
couldn't go because of other
things.

239
00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:30,560
But I know that it was a great
time and originally I'd only it

240
00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,480
only planned on working there
for nine months and just to

241
00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:35,440
because I was going to truly
retire.

242
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:37,680
I'm 63 years old, right?
Yeah.

243
00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:40,120
I just turned 63 last week
actually.

244
00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,360
It's not so old anymore.
No, I know.

245
00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:44,160
I feel like I'm I.
Remember when we were kids?

246
00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,000
You think 63?
It's like, Oh my God, they live

247
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,640
that long, You know?
Now you're just getting started.

248
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:50,760
Yeah.
Well, no.

249
00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,520
And that's I can't envision
myself retiring myself.

250
00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,240
I just it's not I can't do it
right.

251
00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:59,040
Yeah.
So anyway that it just we were

252
00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:00,760
done with that and I said OK,
we're good.

253
00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:02,760
And because originally we're
only going to be together for

254
00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:06,840
nine months and then I took
three months off, which is, you

255
00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:08,040
know, I made-up for all those
years.

256
00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:11,480
I never took a holiday and just
spent time with my grandkids and

257
00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:15,920
my wife and thought about what
to do and interviewed with half

258
00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:21,000
a dozen companies.
When again, I was, I was.

259
00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:24,440
I was humbled, honest to
goodness humbled by the fact

260
00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:28,800
that people would actually
consider hiring me and well.

261
00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:32,240
And sadly, as you probably know,
there's a shortage of really

262
00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,240
great people, especially at the
top of the food chain like you.

263
00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:40,040
You know, people, people like
you and I are, are really rare

264
00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:43,480
out there right now, especially
as time goes on and, you know,

265
00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:45,920
we're replaced by younger people
and all of that stuff.

266
00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:48,960
Like everyone's looking for
people like you right now.

267
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:50,920
The.
Thing I sell is too.

268
00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:54,320
I think this is part of the
COVID hangover because so many

269
00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:58,120
people left and decide, you know
what, I'm not going to come back

270
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:00,880
and didn't come back.
Just retired early.

271
00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:03,400
Just went on to something else.
Just said you know I found a new

272
00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,200
path and wanted to.
Make a perfect storm out of it.

273
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,720
Everybody got twice as busy at
the same time, so they were

274
00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,720
already busting at the seams and
now they they're twice as busy

275
00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,920
and they need even more people.
So yeah, it's a problem.

276
00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:23,760
Yeah.
So I think you know the I

277
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:25,000
shouldn't do a drum roll, I
guess.

278
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,280
Well, I finally decided the end
of October, I I made a few trips

279
00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,160
into the US and I was over in
Europe and I finally decided

280
00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:35,760
that what I want to do is is go
to work for Tony and Ann at

281
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:38,040
function 1.
And.

282
00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:44,200
For me, you know I I'm a I got a
thing for British loud speakers,

283
00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:45,840
right?
You can't see anything in my

284
00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,240
resume way that doesn't come
from a Union Jack flag right of

285
00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:51,240
America that.
Is interesting, yeah.

286
00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:55,000
But I, I love the sound, you
know, my wife said to me, well,

287
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:56,760
what are you going to do if you
don't like the way it sounds?

288
00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:59,480
I said, well, I'm not going to
be involved with them then then

289
00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:01,400
am I?
Like it has to sound good.

290
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:05,400
And then I, I just love the
signature sound of a British

291
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,160
speaker.
They've got away with bass,

292
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,040
they've got away with mid range.
So you.

293
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:12,000
Said Tony and Ann.
And for people who don't know

294
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,319
who they are, it's it's function
1, right?

295
00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:16,800
Yeah.
So this.

296
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,319
Is this is your big coming out
announcement right here?

297
00:17:20,079 --> 00:17:21,599
It is I.
Guess by the time people hear

298
00:17:21,599 --> 00:17:23,960
this, it'll be all over social
media and stuff probably.

299
00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,720
But that's really cool.
So I don't know if you know, but

300
00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:32,120
I had Tony on the podcast, I
don't know, probably four years

301
00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:34,520
ago or something.
Five years ago maybe at this

302
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:39,760
point.
And they also founded community,

303
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:41,760
right?
No, turbo.

304
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:43,320
No, not community.
Turbo sound.

305
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:44,400
Turbo sound.
Turbo sound.

306
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,400
Yeah.
You know, there's, there's a

307
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,880
really complicated story that I
could share in regards to Turbo

308
00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:55,200
and there's a lot of times where
Turbo was sort of populated in

309
00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:57,960
and out of my space.
But I've, I'd always followed

310
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,880
the company and certainly
appreciated what had happened

311
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,800
with the Pink Floyd tour and the
big concert in Germany for the

312
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:10,520
wall coming down and that, and
it's just, it was incredible

313
00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:15,800
product, right?
So the, the, the opportunity

314
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,560
came up and I just said, you
know what, it's something I want

315
00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:19,800
to do.
And that's the beautiful part

316
00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:23,680
about retirement, right?
You can pick and choose what you

317
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,360
want to do.
You know, I'm, I mean, there was

318
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:29,680
a day 25 years ago when it
didn't matter what I maybe chose

319
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:31,760
to do, but I had to go to work.
Yeah.

320
00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:35,240
But now my passion allows me to,
to, to be selective.

321
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:38,680
And you know, I I enjoyed
spending a couple of days with

322
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:43,600
them last month at the factory
and eating some beef food.

323
00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:44,680
Where?
Are they in England?

324
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:50,440
My God, you're going to ask me
that, aren't you, Dork Dorsham?

325
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:54,720
Yeah, one of those, one of
those.

326
00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:56,880
I mean I could go to Google and
a castle.

327
00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:58,400
Attached to it or something?
Yeah.

328
00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:01,040
Function1.com is where I find
them.

329
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:08,320
You know, when you told me this,
when you told me this yesterday,

330
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:14,800
I love it because, you know, not
only do I look back at your

331
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,520
career and think, wow, this guy
really has been with some iconic

332
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:25,960
European brands, but Void was
such a like void was such an off

333
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:32,040
the beaten path, like, you know,
different unusual creative brand

334
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,560
for me, you know, looking at
their boxes and they're all

335
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:37,200
weird shapes and stuff.
Like I, you know, you could talk

336
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,800
for days about their, you know,
their SPLS or their, you know,

337
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:43,480
whatever this or that.
But I'm just saying when you

338
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,560
look at the speakers and stuff,
like they did things different.

339
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,600
And if I was to think who else
does things different, you know,

340
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:51,520
I'd think Turbosound and
Function 1.

341
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:57,040
And like, I love it.
I think it's the perfect next

342
00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,440
step in your career.
It makes so much sense.

343
00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:05,040
For me it it was, you know the
the when I left Martin again and

344
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:08,800
the opportunity came up with
function one.

345
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,720
I I got to confess I had some
deep reservations when I was

346
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:17,320
flying to England thinking if I
would join void.

347
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,000
There was a couple of real
strong draws for me.

348
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,080
There was a colleague.
Who I have worked with most of

349
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:30,000
my career, which his name is
David Bissett Powell and David

350
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:33,200
used to be well, David was with
Tanaway and then ultimately

351
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:35,400
David was managing director at
Martin Audio.

352
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:40,320
So I've I've had a long tenure
with David and David's David's

353
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,600
long retired now, but he's doing
only he does a lot of

354
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,360
consultants consultancies for
different companies.

355
00:20:45,360 --> 00:20:48,440
And at that time he was
consulting for for void a bit.

356
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:54,320
And that's how I heard about it.
But it, it's, it was a boutique

357
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,080
line.
It has a lot of unique

358
00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:00,440
opportunities.
And it's not, again, it's

359
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:01,920
visually, it's not for
everybody.

360
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,880
But for me, the one appeal that
I did enjoy was it, it wasn't a

361
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:10,120
traditional black box.
And you know, the Martin era of

362
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:13,080
time, while we were doing a lot
of commercial work and a lot of

363
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:16,840
commercial business, a lot of
installs, churches and

364
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:20,680
entertainment spaces, dining
restaurants, the the, the big

365
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:23,680
bulk of Martin audio was large
format touring with MLA in that

366
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:27,720
technology and still still some
fantastic technology in that

367
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:32,840
product.
But that said, if this was a big

368
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:34,920
deviation off the normal curve,
right?

369
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,040
So for me and allowed me to
really leave the past in the

370
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:42,320
past and go down a new path.
Now, in the case of function,

371
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:45,200
when there's a couple of keen
draws, obviously first is Tony

372
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:50,160
and Ann, right?
And you know, and it's been with

373
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:52,400
Tony, they've been married.
Now actually they're married one

374
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,880
year longer than no, they're
actually my wife and I are

375
00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:57,480
married 10 years longer than
them, I think.

376
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:01,240
Anyway, forgetting all that,
they've been together for a long

377
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:06,440
time and the the lure to work
with another really iconic

378
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,680
loudspeaker designer And listen,
there's not a lot of them in the

379
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,040
club when you think about it.
You know, we got some really

380
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:16,200
famous Americans in John and
Canton and you know, a few

381
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:18,640
people, James Lansing maybe, you
know, there's a few people in

382
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,760
that curve of humans.
But when you think about the

383
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:26,320
legacy of a fellow like Tony
Andrews and you know, he's been

384
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:31,680
building boxes since the 60s and
what I love about it, I think

385
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:33,640
the biggest thing, and you know,
I've been, I'm learning more

386
00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:36,920
about the company and, and that.
But the thing, the passion that

387
00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:42,720
I'm interested in here is Tony's
passion to do it the most.

388
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:52,080
Just it's to just not not
utilizing some of the DSP

389
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,760
technology that's available
today, but rather building a

390
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,640
stronger mousetrap.
You know I.

391
00:22:58,240 --> 00:22:59,720
I gave a lecture around a
lecture.

392
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:01,880
I don't want to say a lecture
because I'm not a professor, but

393
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:07,120
I was invited to give a chat to
students at any society meeting

394
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:12,080
many years ago, like a long time
ago, as we could talk about the

395
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:13,840
educational aspect of my passion
there.

396
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,320
But I made this bold statement
and I thought about it

397
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:18,920
afterwards.
But you know, us, Canadians, we

398
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,600
just let it out.
We do occasionally.

399
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:24,320
We put our foot in our mouth a
little bit.

400
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:26,960
Sometimes both, because we're
very flexible, yeah.

401
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,320
Yeah, that's true.
That's.

402
00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:32,320
True, I said to.
The OR we have small feet or big

403
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:33,680
mouths.
I don't know one of the two.

404
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,760
I said to the students, I said
what I see today is that DSP is

405
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:41,360
actually crack cocaine for
acoustic engineers.

406
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:43,840
Yeah, it's.
True and.

407
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:46,200
You know, like kind of like
strobe lights for lighting

408
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:46,800
designers?
Well.

409
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:52,600
It's if if you fall into that
trap where you utilize and it's

410
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,400
very powerful.
OK, this this technology that we

411
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,440
have today is light years beyond
what you know, what guys dealt

412
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:03,720
with in the 70s and 80s, but
it's, it comes at a price,

413
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:05,480
right?
Nothing in audio is free.

414
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:10,280
And to me, you know, there's so
many ways we could talk about

415
00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,280
the pros and cons of digital and
audio.

416
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,720
There's, you know, again, it's,
it's how does the technology

417
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:17,160
evolve?
How does it change these things?

418
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,160
How does it make it better?
But what I saw during my time in

419
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:24,720
the business, what I saw was
engineers creating really cool

420
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,200
products, right?
But then marketing tell them,

421
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:30,480
look at an amp show is coming up
or the LDI show is coming up or

422
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,880
whatever.
And it's, we need this product

423
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,320
ready by then.
And the guy's going, but, but I

424
00:24:35,360 --> 00:24:37,840
got 1 little glitch.
I'm trying to fix 1 little

425
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,360
glitch.
No, no, no, you're out of time

426
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,120
and it's the path of least
resistance.

427
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,320
And then it then it becomes a
bean counter issue.

428
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:46,800
No respect to my accounting
friends in the world.

429
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,840
But then they say, well, no,
you've got 30 days that you can

430
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,480
spend on this project and after
that you're moving on because

431
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:54,480
that's all the budgeted time
we've allowed for it.

432
00:24:55,520 --> 00:25:00,280
So it those things die for
impede creativity and and

433
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,400
passion for for that product.
And Tony's not of that school.

434
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:08,960
He's he's, he's just a very
passionate engineer about

435
00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:14,360
everything regarding sound.
And that's, that's cool.

436
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:17,360
He's a cool guy and it's an
iconic brand.

437
00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:20,560
And so let me ask 'cause I don't
know it, I don't know a ton

438
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,760
about function.
Function one, I know that

439
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,360
whenever it comes up for sale on
Gear Source, there's a lot of

440
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:27,880
interest in it.
Similar to Void.

441
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,600
Whenever any Void product came
up on Gear Source, there was a

442
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:37,720
lot of interest for it.
But primarily big club market.

443
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,240
Is that like the biggest part of
the market?

444
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,760
At the moment, I mean, they
just, they, they've been their

445
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:49,480
distributor in America has been
very successful in that space.

446
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,080
Yeah, they, they're working
through a company called

447
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:58,600
Coherent Distribution, yeah.
And based in Las Vegas and

448
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,840
they've had tremendous success.
Actually, Speaking of Vegas, the

449
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,280
the new Fontainebleau hotel and
casino there, they just, they

450
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,560
did the live nightclub and day
spa with all function 1.

451
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,520
They're that recent.
That's probably the biggest

452
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,880
recent project.
But they, yeah, they, you know,

453
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,840
if you were to look at a top ten
list of large grossing, you

454
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,080
know, like the Super club, we'll
call them the Super Clubs.

455
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,600
Yeah, they've done probably 6 of
the 10.

456
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,400
Wow.
Yeah, that's impressive.

457
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,160
They're at the they're at the
pinnacle of that spot, right?

458
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:34,120
But they have, they have so many
other venues, like even, you

459
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:37,760
know, Tony's line array projects
the, the Vero and the VX90.

460
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,080
There's some I'm excited to play
with.

461
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:43,480
Actually, my first opportunity
is going to be next week in

462
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,640
Florida.
But what I'm, what I'm keen to

463
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:51,680
is, I don't want to say it's an
old school line array, but I

464
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,280
might say it's an old school
line array for lack of a more

465
00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:59,720
efficient marketing term.
But it's, it's just, it's it's

466
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:06,440
very operator, easy to use full
bandwidth really about matching

467
00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:10,120
sensitivity, about handling
transient speeds.

468
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,640
And you know, you, if you go
back and listen to Tony's

469
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,400
podcast, he does touch a little
bit and, and in a dialogue I had

470
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,640
with him, transient speeds mean
a lot.

471
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:23,560
And to audio and the transient
speed, the movement of the cone,

472
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:27,280
how fast it reacts.
And again, it's our ears, you

473
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:29,960
know, it's that little bit of
space between or our ears touch

474
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,920
and how perfect our ears are.
Yeah.

475
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:34,880
I mean, our ears are #1 defense,
right?

476
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:39,480
It's more important for our than
our eyesight for, for protecting

477
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:40,960
us as human beings.
I think it's.

478
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,000
The audio guy.
It is.

479
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,600
It is honestly.
And here's here's my argument to

480
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,480
that.
You're laying in your bed,

481
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,120
you're in Florida, right?
There's some damn little bug

482
00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:53,560
that's flown into your bedroom.
Your eyes are shut yet you know,

483
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:55,480
to the millimeter where that bug
is.

484
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,480
But if you open your eyes, if
you opened your eyes, you

485
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,640
couldn't see him, but but you
know where he is.

486
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:04,960
So you're going to kill him
because you want to go to sleep.

487
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,080
But that's, that's time arrival
differences.

488
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:09,920
That's time and space and
transit speed.

489
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,880
There's all these factors that
impact how we hear and, and it's

490
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,080
protectionism, right?
It's how we protect ourselves.

491
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,960
But no, I'm I'm excited and it's
going to be fun and so.

492
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:23,760
Are you, are you on the
treadmill like getting your club

493
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:27,280
bod back so you can, you know,
hit, hit the nightclubs because

494
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,320
you're going to be in the mega
clubs now and stuff.

495
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:31,920
If I no no listen, if I sneak
into them, it's going to be

496
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:33,880
through the back door at the
cover of darkness.

497
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,440
That's funny.
So I, I mean, obviously they're

498
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:44,600
bringing a guy like you in in
part to expand their market

499
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:48,520
outside of that club focus too,
I would expect.

500
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:52,360
I'm like a, well, my, my title
is kind of like a, a brand

501
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:56,440
development consultant.
I want to just take my practical

502
00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:01,280
experiences of marketing and I
do have a bit of a trait now

503
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,600
going on for British loud
speakers into America.

504
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,400
Yeah.
And there's a lot of people who

505
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,960
like the sound of British boxes
in America, right?

506
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,640
I mean, it's, you know, it's,
it's not like there's any

507
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:15,520
shortage of them.
As a matter of fact, I'd say

508
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:21,600
that the the European demand in
general has, you know, pretty

509
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:23,800
much taken.
Part of the market, yeah.

510
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,760
Pretty much taken over American
market and there's no but it's

511
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,960
for me that it's the getting the
brand exposure out there,

512
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:34,000
talking to, you know, just the,
you know, the 8000 odd contacts

513
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:39,400
in my database and touching them
and to say hello and you know,

514
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:41,800
not to call them and say, well,
hey, I got the emperor's new

515
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:43,640
clothes.
That's not what it's about.

516
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,360
It's about, hey, I got some cool
products.

517
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,440
If you're interested, call me.
I'm you know, I'm just back

518
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,280
playing in the sandbox a bit and
I'm looking forward to it.

519
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,160
I might I might be I might even
be back at name in January.

520
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,160
There's some debate.
I think we're going to be out

521
00:29:57,160 --> 00:29:59,160
there, though.
You're not going to be LDI

522
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,360
though.
No, you know, unfortunately I, I

523
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:05,760
was talking with them two weeks
ago, but I just, I'm not, it's

524
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:10,560
just a nanosecond too, too early
for me, right?

525
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:12,680
You know it's.
It's funny, I mentioned it in

526
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:17,000
the in the little intro that I
did that you know you were the

527
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:23,400
one guy who was crazy enough to
rush to a lighting convention

528
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,680
right at the tail end of COVID
with an audio company.

529
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,920
It's I'm Marcel.
What can I tell you?

530
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,880
I tell, I would tell any of my
colleagues, competitors in the

531
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,480
industry.
Guys, let's think about this for

532
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:36,880
a minute, OK?
It's a lighting.

533
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:39,120
It's a lighting trade show.
Yep, I get it.

534
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,360
It's in November or December.
Yep, I get it.

535
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:45,760
You're not really thinking of
doing that trade show work then?

536
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:48,480
Oh, wait a minute, it's in
Vegas.

537
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:50,960
OK, wait a minute, Vegas.
Let me think about this for a

538
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:52,520
minute.
The biggest entertainment market

539
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:55,920
in North America.
How can you turn down 3 or 4

540
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,200
days in Vegas?
I agree with you.

541
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,680
It's, it's a funny thing,
Marcel, you know, when I, when I

542
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:05,280
was really looking at
pioneering, you know, Tano and

543
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:06,920
Martin audio and Void for that
matter.

544
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:10,560
But any of those days, I was
pulling 8 or 10 trade shows a

545
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,480
year.
And you know, my first Infocom

546
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,080
show, here's another one where
an audio guy showing up at a

547
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:21,040
video show was 98.
And my booth was right at the

548
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:23,080
exit of the projection shootout
area.

549
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,520
And I had a little background
music playing and anybody who

550
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,480
had a ear for audio would stop
by.

551
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,840
And The thing is, is that at
that time, you would have a

552
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,280
lighting company or an audio, a
video company that was

553
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,880
diversifying to add audio to
their portfolio of items, right?

554
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,880
They want to be able.
You don't even have to tell me.

555
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:47,440
I mean, for me it's genius
because it's, you know, a, a

556
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,680
fellow Canadian used to always
say, you know, when they asked

557
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,960
him why are you so much more
successful than everybody else?

558
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,280
He said, I went because I go to
where the puck isn't, you know,

559
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,840
and Wayne Gretzky, of course.
And that's what you're doing

560
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,200
when you go to LDI, you're, you
know, if everybody's going to

561
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,680
the other show, you're going to
go to LDI.

562
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:12,360
And how many lighting companies
don't carry audio these days?

563
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:16,560
You know, most companies are
audio, video lighting at this

564
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,200
point, like more than not.
And.

565
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,400
You know, to put a plug in for
Kelly and the team at LDI,

566
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:28,640
they're so appreciative for the
support, they're so genuine.

567
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,360
They're working their butts off
for the industry, right?

568
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,680
They are passionately working
for the industry.

569
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:36,600
And you can't say that about all
of them, right?

570
00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:40,000
You can't you can't say that
about all those shows like and

571
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,840
you know what, if we're going to
be complimentary, we do should

572
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:44,840
and well throw out a compliment
to Nam.

573
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:50,480
I will say that Nam, you know,
over the last years has really

574
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:55,240
tried to envelope the pro audio
community with the addition of

575
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,840
that new hall and really
allowing the pro pro audio

576
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:00,640
community to get together in
that space.

577
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,440
It's tremendous.
It's made to show you know a

578
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:07,480
much when.
Did they start showing that?

579
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,720
Because I, I don't, I haven't
been at Nam in, I don't know,

580
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:13,200
3-4, five years.
I don't know why.

581
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,160
It's got to be no, it's got to
be six or seven years.

582
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:19,720
I'd have to look up when they
did the modification.

583
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:22,880
You know, a fun, a funny story
about Nam.

584
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:24,280
I'll just, I'm going to do this
anyway.

585
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:25,360
I don't care.
It's a story.

586
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:33,520
So Nam, maybe 9899, the Anaheim
Convention Center went through a

587
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:36,640
reface, right?
They rebuilt that other end down

588
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:40,240
by the Marriott and the Hilton.
And they said, OK, guys, we're

589
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:42,560
under construction.
We're closing.

590
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,560
You can't have man here.
So Nan took us to downtown Los

591
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:48,920
Angeles, the home of, you know,
the home of Rodney King or

592
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,480
whatever happened downtown LA.
And Nan calls me up and says,

593
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,040
where's your where's your
application exhibit?

594
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:59,000
I said, I'm not going downtown
LA, They said, they said, what

595
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,800
do you mean?
I said, guys, listen, my cousin

596
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:04,400
is in the recording studio
business, in the music business.

597
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,920
He lives in Hollywood and he
won't even go to downtown LA,

598
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:09,719
right?
Like what what do you mean?

599
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,040
I'm not I'm not coming there.
There's not going to draw

600
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,800
anybody, right?
And that LA at that time was

601
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,880
getting a really bad rap from
all of the things that went on

602
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:19,440
like Rodney King and whatever,
right?

603
00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:25,960
By the way though, I'm, I did
end up getting back to Nam and I

604
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,159
said, OK, I'm ready to come back
when they open the Convention

605
00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:30,360
Center up And they said, well,
we're going to put you in Hall E

606
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,320
right downstairs.
Holly's in the basement, right?

607
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,600
Well, unfortunately I don't know
how to speak any other language

608
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:39,920
than English and I'm barely good
at that.

609
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:41,800
So I wasn't going to Hall, EI
said.

610
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:45,120
Guys, I will hurt my brain more
by being in the basement than it

611
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,560
will be if I'm not at the show.
You know, they did that to the

612
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,040
lighting companies.
Like we really want you here.

613
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,080
And Martin, when I was with
Martin, we were supporting Nam

614
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:59,640
in like the early 90s, like
9293, something like that.

615
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,560
And so, you know, they come out
with this new hall E and Oh

616
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:05,360
yeah, we're really going after
lighting.

617
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:06,920
We're really going to support
you guys.

618
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,840
We we've even given you your own
new hall and it's in the

619
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,360
basement and nobody goes down
there.

620
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:15,600
I mean, it was shit.
It was.

621
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,960
Totally shit AG double hockey
stick right?

622
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,960
It's like, yeah, no, listen, I.
Just did.

623
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,680
So I've got to throw out AI got
to throw out something here.

624
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:28,880
A thank you to Tim Chapman.
Now, Tim used to be marketing

625
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:33,440
director of Meyer Sound and you
know, Miner never exhibited at

626
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:37,400
Nam either.
But what what Tim did was Tim

627
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:42,240
would meet everybody at the
Marriott Hall P Right now, Hall

628
00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:44,920
P at the Marriott is the pool.
Yeah.

629
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,240
OK, I said this is way better,
right?

630
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:52,240
So Rob Langfield and I bless him
for Martin, we would go to the

631
00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:55,480
Marriott Hall P and we would
have all the meetings in the

632
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:57,800
world there.
Reps would come and meet you

633
00:35:57,800 --> 00:35:59,480
there.
You can buy him some food, you

634
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,080
could.
The magazines would all meet you

635
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:02,480
there.
You could buy him a drink.

636
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:07,280
And it was way cheaper than the
drage for Nam.

637
00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:10,400
That's so funny.
That's awesome.

638
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:14,120
It really worked because it
really wasn't a pro audio show,

639
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:15,840
right?
It was really an MI show and a

640
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,720
fantastic MI show, but.
The trade shows hate when you do

641
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:19,920
that shit.
Like I don't know if you

642
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:24,800
remember the one time where MIAC
in Vancouver, I think it was

643
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:31,240
either Roland or Yamaha, like
booked a yacht or a cruise ship

644
00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:33,560
and brought the cruise ship in
right next to the Convention

645
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:34,880
Center there.
Took everybody out.

646
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,600
And took people out.
And I mean, it was bad.

647
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:42,240
Like there was a massive fight
between them and MIAC for like a

648
00:36:42,240 --> 00:36:46,480
couple years over that thing and
then they eventually kissed and

649
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:48,720
made-up and they came back
inside the show.

650
00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:53,120
But hey, you know what, whenever
anybody does stuff like that,

651
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,360
like says we're boycotting the
show or whatever, I understand

652
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,120
because as you know, it's very
expensive to do these.

653
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,320
Shows.
These shows cost a lot of money,

654
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,160
people.
Come and they say why why don't

655
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:06,000
you do this?
Why don't you have this?

656
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,800
Why you know, like some of these
companies that at LDI for

657
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,840
example, are spending $1,000,000
to be at 1 trade show.

658
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,080
Like that's just insane and.
You know the.

659
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,600
Couple 100,000 in drage by the.
Way.

660
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,040
Yeah, just to.
Carry your shit from the back

661
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:25,080
door to your booth.
A couple $100,000, That's

662
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:29,720
insane.
That's the that's the tragedy.

663
00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:34,440
I mean listen, I know that for
the all the shows of any large

664
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:38,680
scale were I had a demo room
going on, the draves cost was

665
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,480
more money than the convention
cost than the cost of the booth

666
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:43,520
in the government.
Crazy that shouldn't be that

667
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:47,320
way.
That it's just the case of, you

668
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:49,760
know, I don't even want to say
it out loud, but it's it's a bit

669
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:54,040
of a RIP off and yeah, at least
it's let's just say this let's

670
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:57,360
say it's a perceived RIP off,
right, because you're only 100

671
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,360
feet from the dock so.
Yeah, and it's crazy.

672
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:04,400
And it's and it's a forklift.
I've been in so many of those

673
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:06,040
fights.
It, it was funny in the early

674
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:09,280
days at Martin, you know, I'm
this dumb Canadian who moves to

675
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,320
Florida and goes to work for
this company.

676
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:16,200
And at the time, our head of
operations was this crazy, like

677
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,080
Israeli.
I don't know what his real

678
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:24,000
background was, but his name was
Michael Yaheskiel.

679
00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:29,200
And he was, you know, a very
militant type.

680
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,840
And I remember when we went to a
show in Chicago, I can't

681
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,840
remember, I don't think it was
LDI, but it was a show in

682
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,280
Chicago.
And, you know, the union came to

683
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:41,880
him and said, you can't touch
that equipment.

684
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,280
We're going to have to put it up
for you.

685
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:45,120
And he goes, fuck you, get out
of my booth.

686
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,880
And and and they said, no,
that's not how this is going to

687
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:52,200
go.
You'd, I mean, the guy fought so

688
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:57,560
hard with the Union in Chicago,
you know, and to a point where I

689
00:38:57,560 --> 00:38:59,960
was afraid we were going to have
to go fish him out of the river,

690
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:02,440
you know, at some point, like
and.

691
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,200
You know what it would have Was
that like in the late 80s?

692
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:11,040
It was in the 90s.
It was probably 9394 if I were

693
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:13,120
to guess it.
You know what, I I wouldn't

694
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,200
surprise it almost sounds like
the one of the last shows for

695
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:19,200
Nam being in Chicago.
Might have been.

696
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:20,240
Yeah, it might.
Have been, I don't.

697
00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:22,800
Remember what show it was?
I just remember, like him

698
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,320
literally screaming at these
union guys.

699
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:29,680
Like union bosses, you know,
these are big guys in the union.

700
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:33,560
And you know, in Chicago that
that's not always, you know, the

701
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:36,000
straightest business, I guess,
especially back again.

702
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,240
It's quite deep.
Exactly.

703
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,440
Yeah.
And full of guys like him who

704
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:44,040
argue with the union, you know,
So yeah.

705
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,960
But but yeah, I mean,
congratulations first on the new

706
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:49,080
gig.
I I love it.

707
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:51,200
I think it's I think it's a cool
brand.

708
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:55,520
I look forward to seeing what
you do with it and and I hope it

709
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:57,560
works out tremendously well for
you.

710
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:00,520
Yeah, I'm, I'm thrilled.
It's a grand.

711
00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,360
It's it's fun.
You know, that's it.

712
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:05,520
It's just you have to do what
you like to do.

713
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:07,600
And I, I love the sound of
British speakers.

714
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:12,080
And again, kudos to Tony and
the, the passion and what he's

715
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,520
created.
You know, again, like I said,

716
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,200
there's having the opportunity
to work with all of these

717
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,520
engineers like it, you know, a
Dave Martin or Bill Webb or

718
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:23,240
Jason Baird from the Martin
Audio Camp or you look at the,

719
00:40:23,240 --> 00:40:26,640
the products from Tanoi and Alex
and those guys in engineering,

720
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:32,520
Boaz Elielli with the ICT at
Goodman's some, you know, that

721
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:34,800
was an incredible device that he
created.

722
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,360
But the biggest thing for me is
this, you know, the, the

723
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:46,160
evolution of the paper mid range
and creating the best proper

724
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,960
horn to put that mid, mid band
frequencies in.

725
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,360
And you know, the mid range is
the the most important frequency

726
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:54,280
for us.
It's our vocal bandwidth, right?

727
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:58,200
You need, you need vocal
intelligibility, vocal clarity.

728
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,720
Well, I remember when I was
playing in bands in Canada and

729
00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:08,840
we were using JBLW bins and, and
I think we were using, I can't

730
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:12,960
even remember like 45 sixties
for mids and then like Altec

731
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,200
horns or something way back in
the day.

732
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:17,400
And then all of a sudden
somebody shows up with this

733
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,080
Martin, Pennsylvania, you know,
with the, I forget what it was

734
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:22,640
called, folded horn or
something.

735
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,760
Probably was the West bin and
the Phillips shave on top, the

736
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:29,080
double double mids and then a
horn up on top of that.

737
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:31,880
Yeah.
And I mean it was small and

738
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,000
every we kind of looked at it
and went yeah, right, OK.

739
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,400
And the thing just sounded
incredible, especially the mid

740
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,000
range, like the mids on those
were unbelievable.

741
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:45,040
And that changed everything at
that point like that that.

742
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:48,520
From that point on, then that's
where you step into what Tony

743
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:53,240
did with Turbo and making the PM
3 and then it became A1 box

744
00:41:53,240 --> 00:41:55,240
solution, right?
And then of course, we got EAW

745
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,960
with the KF 6:50 right then,
yeah.

746
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:02,400
Then you get at that point.
Now we're moving into the 80s,

747
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,000
you got JBL that's got the HLA
box.

748
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:07,600
Yeah.
And you know, you get, but you

749
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:11,120
can look at this evolution of
these sound systems over time

750
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,480
and yeah, and see how everybody
sort of gleans a little bit of

751
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,080
knowledge off the other person
and and it evolves.

752
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:19,720
Yeah.
You know, where do I see it

753
00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:21,560
going?
I'd like to see it become some

754
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:25,440
more simplistic.
I'd like to see it become more

755
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:29,920
musical and less processed.
And you know, I think of that

756
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:32,960
and I'm, I haven't been into
Speaking of processed audio,

757
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:40,480
this fear in Vegas.
I have no clue what they're

758
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:42,800
doing in there with hollow point
and how that really works.

759
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:44,880
I've watched a few videos.
I've tried to learn a little bit

760
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:50,400
about the technology, but I'm,
I'm, I know there has to be a

761
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:55,120
lot of DSP steering in that
within that process.

762
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,920
Of course there has to be.
And then I think about that and

763
00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:03,560
I go, well, from a, from a live
artist perspective, that DSP is

764
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:07,520
going to take time, right?
And it's going to create an

765
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:13,280
incredible delay between what
they sing and what they hear,

766
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,240
right?
There's this whole time factor.

767
00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:20,520
And how does that all correlate?
You know everybody I've heard,

768
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:24,440
you know reviews of it from
general people, right?

769
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:27,840
No, I haven't talked to any
quote UN quote person who I

770
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,480
would consider an expert on
sound.

771
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:32,280
Yeah, I have, but.
But they've all enjoyed it,

772
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:33,560
right?
They've all enjoyed the

773
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,600
experience and.
Yeah, the average Joe does.

774
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:40,960
The average Joe loves it.
People like you probably won't,

775
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,080
at least not at first.
You know, it's just like a very

776
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:48,800
distributed kind of sound
product, right?

777
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:53,680
It's it's very separated and
very scientific, and it's not in

778
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:56,520
your face like like most of the
bands.

779
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:02,160
My feeling hasn't changed about
the Sphere since before it even

780
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:05,080
opened.
If I was going to go see Led

781
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,760
Zeppelin, the one band that I
really, you know, was on my

782
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:12,960
bucket list and I never saw and
never will because they're gone.

783
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:17,840
But if I would have seen Led
Zeppelin, I wouldn't want to see

784
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,120
him in the sphere.
I I'd rather see them in an

785
00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:24,880
arena, in a club, even in a
stadium over the sphere because

786
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,880
it's too visual.
And it's Ding, Ding, Ding.

787
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:33,280
That's for me the biggest thing.
I never watched MTV videos.

788
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:35,600
Yeah.
My wife did.

789
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:37,800
She loved them.
I said I don't want to watch

790
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,080
them, I want to hear them.
I'd always rather see a live

791
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:43,440
band video like a live video
than.

792
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:45,960
An MTV Video.
Like acting and stuff.

793
00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:49,320
I never was into the acting and
the visuals so much.

794
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,520
I'm afraid that the visual takes
away from the auditory

795
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:54,480
experience. 100% of course it
does.

796
00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:57,880
That's to me, that's what I'm
referring to and saying I wasn't

797
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,680
watching MTV Evidity or I mean,
a lot of bands on stage and the

798
00:45:01,720 --> 00:45:05,520
energy that they create together
of course, is magic, right?

799
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:08,640
It's magic.
Yeah, I mean, I, I went to, I

800
00:45:08,640 --> 00:45:12,480
went to Metallica, the stadium
thing in in Edmonton because I

801
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:16,200
was up there last summer at my
house and and the guys were

802
00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:18,120
like, hey, you know, you got to
come see it.

803
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:22,600
So I went and saw it and I was
standing right next to the stage

804
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,960
and there were all these Subs in
front of me.

805
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:26,760
I think they use all Meyer
stuff.

806
00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:30,400
And there it was just a row of
the Subs in front of me.

807
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:36,720
And I mean, you felt it like you
really felt that sound like, you

808
00:45:36,720 --> 00:45:40,080
know, it was like, whoa.
And it wasn't insanely loud.

809
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,880
It was just, man, did you like
it almost gave you a bowel

810
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:46,360
movement, the sound standing
there, right?

811
00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:50,200
It was crazy.
And I just don't see getting

812
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:51,720
that out of the sphere, you
know?

813
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:57,560
OK, so for Fish, I get it.
For Grateful Dead, I get it, you

814
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:01,240
know, for bands like that.
Or what was that the kids act

815
00:46:02,720 --> 00:46:05,920
where they all wore red and
stuff, Red and yellow and the

816
00:46:05,960 --> 00:46:08,440
Australian guys.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

817
00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:12,080
You know.
Them, them, you know, that would

818
00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,320
be so visual in there that kids
would lose their minds and

819
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,360
stuff.
You know, maybe I don't know,

820
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,600
Taylor Swift or something, but
like, I wouldn't want to see a

821
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:22,520
real rock band in there.
I just wouldn't.

822
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:24,720
I just wouldn't.
Like, even the Eagles to me is

823
00:46:24,720 --> 00:46:27,160
kind of weird, but I have
friends who've gone to it and

824
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:29,400
said it was the most incredible
experience ever.

825
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:35,040
OK, yeah.
I mean, I saw I I saw the Eagles

826
00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:41,400
on during their production
rehearsals in LA at Sony Studios

827
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:44,800
in a tiny little room.
It was this front of House Guy,

828
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:51,440
me, three or four other roadies,
the LD and the band, and I

829
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,280
pulled up a folding chair in
front of the stage that is

830
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:56,320
seeing the Eagles you.
Know that was.

831
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:59,720
Seeing the Eagles and they were
in shorts and and T-shirts, you

832
00:46:59,720 --> 00:47:01,480
know?
They were real.

833
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:04,680
It was unreal.
It's to this moment, like I just

834
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:06,840
got goosebumps again.
Every time I say it, I get

835
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:09,480
goosebumps 'cause it.
They did Hotel California and I

836
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:13,160
sat there 6 feet in front of the
stage and just watched them do

837
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,960
it perfectly.
OK, listen, I gotta say this.

838
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:17,160
I have to say this.
You said it.

839
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:19,560
I didn't.
Hotel California, right?

840
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,640
Album of the Year 7677.
Yeah.

841
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:25,880
Their song?
It's our industry.

842
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:28,760
You check in, but you never
check out.

843
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:31,080
Hey, there you go.
You ain't wrong.

844
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:32,400
You ain't wrong.
It is.

845
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:34,320
I'm a lifer.
Been my.

846
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,720
Theme song ever since.
Absolutely.

847
00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:38,320
Ever.
Since it's funny you say that

848
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:40,400
because when we were getting on
this call, I was thinking like,

849
00:47:40,720 --> 00:47:44,000
there's not that many Ogs of
audio out there.

850
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:47,320
You know, we, we, I think I told
you, we've got Dave from Sound

851
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,560
Image coming and doing this,
this dining with dinosaurs

852
00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:53,040
thing, which is going to be
super fun.

853
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:55,040
He's a cool guy.
And I wish I could be there.

854
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,320
I wish, I wish I could be there
because I'm it's going to be

855
00:47:57,400 --> 00:47:59,120
fun.
I think it's going to be just,

856
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:03,440
are you going to do any, any
recordings or any podcasts of

857
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:03,880
it?
I don't know.

858
00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,920
Because it's an LDI thing, you
know, we're just, I'm putting it

859
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:10,000
on and, and I put the group
together and all of that stuff.

860
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:13,400
But it's an LDI thing.
So they'll control obviously.

861
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:17,080
Like if they do a video, they'll
probably charge you to see it or

862
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:18,840
something.
I don't know we.

863
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:20,560
Should try.
Yeah, we should try.

864
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:22,240
I might.
Hide the camera in the corner.

865
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,120
Try and get some content
opposite podcast cuz it'll be

866
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:25,920
mailed.
Hell yeah.

867
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:26,720
Hell yeah.
Yeah.

868
00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:30,360
Well, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
probably most of the people that

869
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:33,840
are there, the dinosaurs I'm
gonna do podcasts with after the

870
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:35,720
show.
Some, most of them I've already

871
00:48:35,720 --> 00:48:37,000
done podcasts with.
Yeah.

872
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:39,880
The ones I haven't.
You know, like Roy Bickel again,

873
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:43,760
like he's, you know, literally
the godfather of rock'n'roll

874
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:47,280
rigging, you know, and he's
there Jake Berry, who's one of

875
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:51,000
my favorite people, big time
production manager and he's

876
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:53,480
there.
You know, it's it's a really

877
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:56,160
cool group of people and I'm
really excited about doing it.

878
00:48:56,160 --> 00:49:00,600
But back to this OG of, of
audio, like in Canada, you know,

879
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:04,120
you're one of the very early
guys.

880
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:08,200
You're a pioneer of being an
account exec for an audio

881
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:10,520
company or a sales guy for an
audio company.

882
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:15,720
Like, you know, I remember when
I was working for music stores

883
00:49:15,720 --> 00:49:20,960
in the late 70s, I think I
started now probably early 80s,

884
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:27,440
early like 8182 and went until
like 19, I don't know, 89 or

885
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,240
something when I moved to
Florida in 91.

886
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:32,920
Connected to Martin then.
What's that?

887
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:35,280
Is that when you connected with
Martin in 91?

888
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:41,240
Yeah, 91 I, I came to to
Florida, but you know like I

889
00:49:41,240 --> 00:49:45,240
remember some of the Ogs of of
the business and I was in

890
00:49:45,240 --> 00:49:48,440
Western Canada and I don't know
if I ever met you at the time or

891
00:49:48,440 --> 00:49:50,680
not, but I might have who knows,
I'm sure we.

892
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,920
We we had to have crossed paths.
Somewhere wasn't Tano through

893
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:56,240
like white back then or
something though?

894
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,800
Well, there could have been.
I'm trying to think of who we

895
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:01,640
had as dealers and reps White
might have had some of it back

896
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,000
then, but I'm sure, listen,
there's no doubt.

897
00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:06,640
I mean, you know, we like I
said, we've all checked in.

898
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:08,040
We all go to the same trade
shows.

899
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:10,720
We just get a different business
card every once in a while.

900
00:50:10,720 --> 00:50:11,160
It's.
True.

901
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:12,600
Yeah, it's true, right?
It's true.

902
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:18,240
And I mean, I, I had desperately
tried to not, you know, change,

903
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:22,880
but change is good and
opportunities come up.

904
00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:27,160
You know, I think for me, it's
been really, it's kind of funny

905
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:28,800
that I've managed to stay in
Canada.

906
00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:32,160
I remember being requested many
times to move to an American

907
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,560
office and I just said, I can't
do it, guys.

908
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:38,040
My family's here.
I'm, I got a support system for

909
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:41,040
my wife and my children.
And, you know, I'll commute,

910
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,880
I'll see you Monday morning and
I'll fly home Thursday night.

911
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,800
But I'm not, I'm, I'm not
relocating to, to America.

912
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:50,600
It just wasn't in the cards.
And that was because of trying

913
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,080
to at least have some family
responsibility.

914
00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:56,200
So you're one of the OG remote
workers too then?

915
00:50:56,200 --> 00:50:59,560
Probably like you, you probably
were working remote way before

916
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:02,320
it was ever a thing.
Well, even when we were in

917
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,200
Kitchener, I worked from my Home
Office a lot of days, especially

918
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:06,840
when my kids were young.
Yeah.

919
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:10,240
And then it, there was a time
and then, you know, then this

920
00:51:10,240 --> 00:51:14,720
once I started travelling heavy,
I, I very rarely went into the

921
00:51:14,720 --> 00:51:18,120
office, Right.
I would I would work in and from

922
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,320
my house in my den.
I was wonder if I got built my

923
00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:23,640
house purposely to have a
separated area where I would

924
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:25,920
actually I could actually just
go outside, walk down the side

925
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:28,080
of those and go to a basement
office.

926
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:30,720
Oh, really?
And it yeah, it just said a

927
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:32,000
little joke with my wife just so
you.

928
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:34,000
Force yourself to get dressed
every day.

929
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:36,840
Well, it's.
Not It's not like our good

930
00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:39,760
friend Kevin O'Leary who shows
up with pajama bottoms on with a

931
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:40,400
suit.
I do.

932
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:42,680
I do all the time.
I won't show you what I'm

933
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:46,880
wearing on the bottom right now,
but I promise you I I don't.

934
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,320
You know I don't get dressed up
on the bottom half most days.

935
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:53,360
I will tell you that, but you
never see more than the top half

936
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:54,480
of me.
So I do.

937
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,760
I do because I have a glass desk
and you never know if the camera

938
00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:01,120
can fall so.
Yeah, that'd be scary.

939
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:05,680
But you know, through the time
and like you, I started in

940
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:12,120
retail high fry in 7879 and and
I loved it, right I was.

941
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:14,840
Crazy crazies or something, no.
It was crazy crazy.

942
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:18,000
It was actually called Sound
Audio Symposium and it was a

943
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:21,240
boutique Y little high fry shop
on the second floor of this old

944
00:52:21,240 --> 00:52:23,600
warehouse in.
Toronto.

945
00:52:24,160 --> 00:52:26,560
And actually, no, in Kitchener.
Oh, wow.

946
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:29,960
And you know, it's The funny
thing is that point had turned

947
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:35,080
out then to go to it became a
distribution company because the

948
00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:36,840
recession in the early 80s,
right?

949
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:39,520
It was a mess.
Nobody's spending money on high

950
00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:43,160
fry, but it it rolled into
distribution company at that

951
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:44,760
point.
Then they picked up Rockford

952
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:48,840
Fosgate, they had thorns, had a
couple other brands, and then

953
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,040
Tanner came into the fold.
And that's where the big

954
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:54,160
connection made, you know, so
we're doing distribution in

955
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:57,760
Canada, which then turned into
distribution in the US, which

956
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:00,800
then took them into taking an
ownership stake and ultimately

957
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:03,360
owning it and TGI and the rest
is history.

958
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:07,120
But yeah, the beautiful part
about starting your career at

959
00:53:07,120 --> 00:53:09,400
that age is just like going to a
sound company.

960
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:12,120
If you walk into a sound
company, you're going to go out

961
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:14,000
and you're going to clean some
cable and you're going to learn

962
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:16,040
to rock some cable.
You're going to learn to lift

963
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:17,480
some shit that's heavy and
light.

964
00:53:17,960 --> 00:53:20,160
You know, you're going to learn
how to play Tetris in a truck.

965
00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:23,560
You know you're going to learn
from the ground up.

966
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:27,600
Well, I was really fortunate in
being able to learn from the

967
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:29,680
ground up and getting into all
those departments.

968
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,680
You know, when the warehouse was
short of staff, we'd work in the

969
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:33,880
warehouse.
When people would go on

970
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:38,120
vacation, we'd sub.
And when you get to have that

971
00:53:38,120 --> 00:53:42,120
learning opportunity to go
through the whole business and

972
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:44,960
have an understanding of the
team members and what each

973
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:46,120
department does.
And.

974
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:49,400
Yeah, you know, and that's,
that's why when I went into this

975
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,760
consulting gig of mine, I
created this name OPS Plus,

976
00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:56,200
right?
And it's just OPS Plus.

977
00:53:56,600 --> 00:53:58,840
I have to put a shout out to
Jason's wife, Lee.

978
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:00,600
She's the one who made the logo
for me.

979
00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:03,480
Her company's in the graphic
design department did a

980
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,840
brilliant job, but I needed some
kind of cool little thing.

981
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:12,080
So it was optimization
opportunities and something

982
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:13,840
else.
But it was all about the O

983
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,360
because it's sort of what you do
when you're a brand builder.

984
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:21,120
And you know, I like, I like to,
I don't want to say pioneer

985
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,680
things because certainly none of
the brands that I dealt with

986
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,600
were were in the pioneering
stage of their life in the

987
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,320
American market.
They may have been more.

988
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:31,520
That's what I was.
Going to say, I think they were

989
00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:33,880
like, I think, you know, I
didn't really know anything

990
00:54:33,880 --> 00:54:36,760
about Void until you.
I didn't really know, you know,

991
00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:39,040
I remember Tanoi sort of
happening.

992
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:42,720
I think I was with Axe Music
when Tanoi started coming up as

993
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:48,440
a as a pretty big brand and and.
Well, and when we took that over

994
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:50,160
a.
Function one, as old a company

995
00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:53,720
as it is, it's it's still
relatively young in the United

996
00:54:53,720 --> 00:54:57,520
States in in North America,
accepting clubs where you know,

997
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,480
they know about it.
It's it's, but it has such a

998
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:03,960
wide breadth of product and, and
more things to come.

999
00:55:04,200 --> 00:55:08,040
Yeah.
And again, it's just a little

1000
00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:09,800
bit of that and working on the
branding side.

1001
00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:11,560
And that's what I love to do the
most, right?

1002
00:55:11,560 --> 00:55:14,520
It's just pressing the flesh,
doing the you know, the should

1003
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:16,720
have been a politician actually,
not that I could have made a

1004
00:55:16,720 --> 00:55:19,160
difference in the world.
Well, but are you going to be

1005
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:21,240
doing business development with
them as well?

1006
00:55:21,240 --> 00:55:24,240
Because I mean, obviously you
have every connection in the

1007
00:55:24,240 --> 00:55:26,480
world when it comes to business
development.

1008
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:30,400
I will.
I don't want to pee on the front

1009
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:33,320
end of the spear anymore.
I'm more than right.

1010
00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:36,720
I don't want to be that guy.
Yeah, but there's no doubt

1011
00:55:36,720 --> 00:55:38,280
there's a lot of help I can
offer them.

1012
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,040
And it's just really it's
branding and it's marketing.

1013
00:55:41,720 --> 00:55:46,800
Maybe give it some time before
you introduce them to the devil,

1014
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:49,680
you know, give them, give them a
little bit of time before you go

1015
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:54,680
there, you know, wait, they they
might need to work their way

1016
00:55:54,680 --> 00:55:58,800
into that, you know?
I I can neither confirm or deny

1017
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:02,280
I'm not discussing on airline
with the public audience.

1018
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:05,200
Yeah, that's funny.
No, no.

1019
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:09,080
Anyway, listen, I, I again, I'm,
I'm very fortunate.

1020
00:56:09,680 --> 00:56:12,640
Happy to be alive, happy to be.
It's nice to be needed and

1021
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:14,360
wanted, you know?
That's always good.

1022
00:56:14,720 --> 00:56:17,080
I was just going to go back and
say that again, the fact that

1023
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:19,920
people would still consider
hiring me just astounds me.

1024
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:25,440
It just, it really humbles me
because, and again, I don't tell

1025
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:28,480
anybody, right?
It just sort of leaks out.

1026
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:33,000
And so I've never made a resume
in my life.

1027
00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,520
Yeah.
Me neither like, yeah, because I

1028
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:39,080
don't.
I mean, looking when I left, I

1029
00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:40,000
won't even know.
Forget.

1030
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:42,520
It doesn't matter which company
it was, but I had to No, it was.

1031
00:56:42,840 --> 00:56:47,320
I had to Google to learn how to
resign like that's hilarious.

1032
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:50,040
What do I need to do to resign?
Yeah, like.

1033
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:53,600
Well, if you just quit coming
in, eventually they get the they

1034
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,040
get the point, right?
Yeah, but you know what?

1035
00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:57,640
My conscience won't let me do
that.

1036
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:02,080
I'm I couldn't live with myself
if I didn't give it my all.

1037
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:05,840
And I think, you know, I think
to, you know, you think about

1038
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:08,080
what, what do you have as a
passion in life?

1039
00:57:08,080 --> 00:57:11,560
And I go, well, I've always told
my children a couple of things

1040
00:57:11,720 --> 00:57:13,400
and it just is sort of what I
live by.

1041
00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:18,960
And one is show up job, one,
show up job 2.

1042
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:22,840
Give do your best.
Like don't, don't do it half

1043
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:24,640
baked.
It's so funny.

1044
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:27,040
My son busted my ass on this one
day, right?

1045
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:30,600
He's because I'm, you know, my
son is 3334.

1046
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:33,200
Anyway, he's in there.
He's an adult now, right?

1047
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:36,640
Anyways, I said to him, that's
OK, Ryan, you know, we're good.

1048
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:41,240
Everything's all good.
And he says, Dad, we're not

1049
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:44,720
doing it half assed good for
him, but it's OK.

1050
00:57:44,720 --> 00:57:45,920
It's OK.
No.

1051
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,600
And you know what, he was 100%
right because I was baking out

1052
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:51,080
on it.
I was just going to let it go on

1053
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:52,600
behalf baked.
And yeah.

1054
00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:56,080
And he said no, but that's
that's my view.

1055
00:57:56,080 --> 00:57:59,520
And at the end of the day, you
got to you got to be responsible

1056
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:02,320
to yourself, right?
And yeah, we'll see, you know,

1057
00:58:02,320 --> 00:58:03,960
we'll see how the world rolls
today.

1058
00:58:03,960 --> 00:58:08,240
I'm you know, I hope the next
generation I've often thought

1059
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:11,360
about too, is the the
communication skills today of

1060
00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:14,840
our next generation and has the
youth comes up, there's fewer

1061
00:58:14,840 --> 00:58:19,520
and few people who just will
communicate that way.

1062
00:58:19,520 --> 00:58:22,520
I just see too much texting and
not enough.

1063
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:26,880
Verbally, I go both ways on it.
Like I, I, you know, sometimes I

1064
00:58:26,880 --> 00:58:31,000
get down on young people a
little bit and, and you know,

1065
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:35,760
some of their traits are
interesting for sure, especially

1066
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:38,040
compared to us.
Like when you get into, into

1067
00:58:38,040 --> 00:58:39,880
people who are 60 now or
whatever.

1068
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,720
We all learned similar ways.
We had a foot up our ass if we

1069
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:46,720
didn't do it, you know, like,
you know, we did get beaten by

1070
00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:48,720
our parents.
It was pretty regular.

1071
00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:52,120
And sometimes by our neighbors,
our parents, friends, their

1072
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:54,560
friends.
You know, I remember one time I,

1073
00:58:54,840 --> 00:58:58,200
I think I, I whipped it out and
peed in the middle of the road.

1074
00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:00,960
I lived in a tiny little town
and I stood there.

1075
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:03,720
I was four or five years old and
I stood there and peed in the

1076
00:59:03,720 --> 00:59:08,840
middle of the road and, and one
of the townsmen came and with my

1077
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:13,160
pants still down, smacked the
hell out of my ass like I was

1078
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:16,760
welted.
And I cried for days over it

1079
00:59:16,760 --> 00:59:18,800
because I was like, how could he
do that to me?

1080
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:21,800
And they're like, he, you be
good, or I'll call him back over

1081
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:25,640
here to do it again, you know?
But you know, it's not like that

1082
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:27,400
anymore.
It's all about people's feelings

1083
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:29,240
and all that stuff.
And I get some of that.

1084
00:59:29,240 --> 00:59:32,320
But at the same time, like every
once in a while, some really

1085
00:59:32,320 --> 00:59:34,840
good things happen.
And it gives me great hope that

1086
00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:37,040
we're in really good hands going
forward.

1087
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:40,200
So I don't know, we'll see.
We'll have we'll have to wait

1088
00:59:40,200 --> 00:59:42,320
and see how it all turns out.
Yeah.

1089
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:43,840
Oh no, I'm I'm not down on
we'll.

1090
00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:46,840
Get to watch by then.
I'm not, yeah, I'm not down on

1091
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:49,200
young people at all.
I just think the communication

1092
00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:54,360
I've never been AI like simple
texts for simple things, but if

1093
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:57,680
it needs if it needs more than
one text then you better just

1094
00:59:57,680 --> 00:59:59,280
pick up the phone and have a
phone call.

1095
00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:02,680
Yeah, I'm, I'm guilty though.
I, I do a lot of texting.

1096
01:00:02,680 --> 01:00:05,600
It's because I'm a multitasker.
Like while I'm sending a text

1097
01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:07,840
conversation, I'm also in an
e-mail.

1098
01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:09,680
I'm probably also on a phone
call.

1099
01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:12,080
I'm probably also doing
something else.

1100
01:00:12,520 --> 01:00:16,640
And you know, I'm just, I do a
lot of things at the same time

1101
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:19,280
generally.
Like I'm I'm a crazy productive

1102
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:22,880
person and I probably do more in
a day than most people do in

1103
01:00:22,880 --> 01:00:25,760
three days.
But, and I'm not bragging, it's

1104
01:00:25,760 --> 01:00:30,240
an addiction.
It's a weird thing, but so yeah,

1105
01:00:30,240 --> 01:00:32,920
I mean, I'm definitely guilty of
sending a lot of texts.

1106
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:37,200
I I like to just, again, it's
it, it's things.

1107
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:39,760
It's just things for me.
Yeah.

1108
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:41,360
Part of it is, you know, it's
funny.

1109
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:44,040
I, I don't know, I maybe got a
bit more sensitive to it when I

1110
01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:47,640
found, you know, I was running
like 400 emails a day.

1111
01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:49,280
Yeah, right.
That's brutal.

1112
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:52,560
And, and I'm thinking, well,
wait a minute, I'm looking at

1113
01:00:52,560 --> 01:00:57,000
this thread and I'm seeing, OK,
there's four people on this

1114
01:00:57,000 --> 01:00:59,600
three or CCD one's actually
there, but everyone else is

1115
01:00:59,600 --> 01:01:01,000
chiming in.
They're only CCD.

1116
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:02,760
So it's just really an FYI for
you.

1117
01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:05,640
And now we've written three
weeks of The Young and the

1118
01:01:05,640 --> 01:01:08,400
Restless.
Yeah, in this e-mail thread.

1119
01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:10,920
And it's like, wait a minute, if
we just got on a phone call for

1120
01:01:10,920 --> 01:01:13,160
two minutes, we'd suss this out
and be done.

1121
01:01:14,480 --> 01:01:17,160
Well, even worse is when you go
to a larger company.

1122
01:01:17,160 --> 01:01:19,680
Like I remember when I left
Martin and I went to work for

1123
01:01:19,680 --> 01:01:22,720
High End for a little while and
High End at the time had about

1124
01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:28,640
450 people and they had a really
weird culture of copying people.

1125
01:01:29,080 --> 01:01:34,000
And so like, I suddenly went
from like 200 emails a day to

1126
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:37,400
400 a day.
And the other 200 were like,

1127
01:01:38,200 --> 01:01:41,880
just letting you know, Betsy in
finance won't be in today.

1128
01:01:43,120 --> 01:01:47,160
Her daughter is sick, you know,
and I'm thinking, the hell do I

1129
01:01:47,160 --> 01:01:50,120
need to know this for?
And I'm getting these over and

1130
01:01:50,120 --> 01:01:53,360
over again.
Or like something in, in

1131
01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:56,880
manufacturing, you know, we're
out of a particular type of

1132
01:01:56,880 --> 01:02:00,680
copper wire and therefore it's
causing a 2 minute delay on line

1133
01:02:00,680 --> 01:02:02,760
7.
You know, I'm thinking I don't

1134
01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:05,200
give a shit.
Like how does this change my

1135
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:08,880
life?
You know, so that made me, that

1136
01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:13,000
made me a little bit nauseous.
You know, it was just like I'm

1137
01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:16,360
doing it again now because I
just parted ways with an

1138
01:02:16,360 --> 01:02:20,920
executive in my company and I'm
doing it right now where I'm

1139
01:02:20,920 --> 01:02:23,400
going in and going.
Why is this all so complicated?

1140
01:02:23,400 --> 01:02:27,160
Like why is everybody, you know,
they've got this sales at e-mail

1141
01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:31,520
group and there's so much noise.
I added myself to the group just

1142
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:35,320
so I could see the chatter.
There is so much noise, I can't

1143
01:02:35,320 --> 01:02:39,200
even imagine how anybody sees
the gold among the noise.

1144
01:02:39,200 --> 01:02:40,280
Right?
It's like you.

1145
01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:42,960
Can't function.
Yeah, you're not going to get a

1146
01:02:42,960 --> 01:02:45,040
lead when it comes in.
Somebody's going to say, hey, I

1147
01:02:45,040 --> 01:02:49,240
want to buy a a, you know, half
million dollar sound system.

1148
01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:52,080
Can you please call me right
away?

1149
01:02:52,240 --> 01:02:56,000
You're going to miss that on on
the 100 other bullshit CC emails

1150
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:58,200
and stuff, right?
Agreed.

1151
01:02:58,280 --> 01:03:02,680
I think it's, I think it was
Elon Musk who said if you don't

1152
01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:05,920
think you need to be in the
meeting, don't come.

1153
01:03:06,840 --> 01:03:10,200
Well, Steve Jobs was a big, big
he.

1154
01:03:10,680 --> 01:03:13,360
He would look around a room and
he would actually call people

1155
01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:14,320
out.
He'd go, what's your name?

1156
01:03:14,520 --> 01:03:17,360
She'd say Janice, and he'd say
Janice, what are you doing here?

1157
01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:20,000
I was invited.
Janice, do you have anything to

1158
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:21,640
add to this meeting?
Do you have any?

1159
01:03:22,400 --> 01:03:23,880
Do you play a role in this
meeting?

1160
01:03:24,040 --> 01:03:26,320
No, Sir.
OK, Janice, you can go back to

1161
01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:29,800
your desk, you know, And I mean,
he would sit there and just

1162
01:03:30,040 --> 01:03:33,440
basically weed out the room and
get rid of people because the

1163
01:03:33,440 --> 01:03:36,600
smaller the meeting, the more
productive it is usually. 100%

1164
01:03:36,760 --> 01:03:37,600
yeah.
And if you.

1165
01:03:38,560 --> 01:03:40,680
If you're not a contributor.
Yeah.

1166
01:03:40,680 --> 01:03:43,480
Yeah, if you're not a
contributor and I, I look at

1167
01:03:43,480 --> 01:03:46,040
emails the same way.
Unless you need me copied on

1168
01:03:46,040 --> 01:03:49,000
this e-mail, don't copy me on
this e-mail 'cause I don't want

1169
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:50,960
to see it.
Like I have too much noise

1170
01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:53,640
already in my life.
So I'm doing that right now.

1171
01:03:53,640 --> 01:03:58,360
Like, I've always believed that,
you know, creating things is

1172
01:03:58,360 --> 01:04:01,680
easy.
Making them easy is really hard.

1173
01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:04,240
You know, making things simple
is hard.

1174
01:04:04,720 --> 01:04:09,560
And so, you know, that's why the
original iPhone was so good.

1175
01:04:09,560 --> 01:04:13,200
That's why when you see
technology that knocks it out of

1176
01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:16,760
the park, it's usually because
it's really simple to use, you

1177
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:18,000
know?
It's just easy.

1178
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,640
That's a really good point.
It's, yeah, it's the GUI.

1179
01:04:20,640 --> 01:04:23,200
The interface has to be that
easy, and that's where kids get

1180
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:25,280
it so well.
Yeah, Hell yeah.

1181
01:04:26,360 --> 01:04:29,120
So, you know, I'm, I know we're
going to run out of time at some

1182
01:04:29,120 --> 01:04:31,560
point today, but I want, I
really want to get into

1183
01:04:31,560 --> 01:04:34,240
something with you if you're
willing to go down this path

1184
01:04:34,880 --> 01:04:38,560
because I just, I want your, I
want your opinion on sort of the

1185
01:04:38,560 --> 01:04:43,800
state of the audio industry
today as it relates to large

1186
01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:47,080
scale line array.
And we've got a couple of

1187
01:04:47,080 --> 01:04:51,600
companies out there who are very
large, very well funded, you

1188
01:04:51,600 --> 01:04:55,480
know, big private equity bankers
backing them and stuff.

1189
01:04:56,040 --> 01:05:00,480
And so they're just constantly
pushing for more and more sales

1190
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:03,440
that, you know, they're, they're
these quarterly number guys who

1191
01:05:03,440 --> 01:05:05,760
are like, it's got to be growth.
We got to have growth, we got to

1192
01:05:05,760 --> 01:05:07,840
have growth, growth at all cost
kind of thing, right?

1193
01:05:08,440 --> 01:05:11,640
And you know, I'm not going to
pick on anyone company, but you

1194
01:05:11,640 --> 01:05:14,720
know, sometimes you'll have the
J series, then the K series,

1195
01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:17,120
then a minute later you have the
L series.

1196
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:20,240
And, and it's like you're not
done paying for the J series,

1197
01:05:20,240 --> 01:05:22,760
but you're supposed to buy the K
series and then there's a new K

1198
01:05:22,760 --> 01:05:24,920
series product and then there's
an L series.

1199
01:05:24,920 --> 01:05:29,880
And and can can the industry
sustain that?

1200
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:34,640
OK, this isn't, this is a big
rabbit hole, right?

1201
01:05:35,120 --> 01:05:37,480
This is a, this is a really big
rabbit hole.

1202
01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:43,120
But there's a couple of points
I'll make and there's, there's,

1203
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:45,200
there's, there's points you
touched on, right?

1204
01:05:45,200 --> 01:05:47,400
And it's the got to make a
profit at all costs.

1205
01:05:47,400 --> 01:05:49,080
We've got to beat the next
quarter results.

1206
01:05:49,080 --> 01:05:54,080
So, you know, this the mergers
and acquisitions that have gone

1207
01:05:54,080 --> 01:06:02,160
on in the last cycle of time.
And that cycle is the last 1012

1208
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:03,600
years.
It's not a COVID cycle.

1209
01:06:03,600 --> 01:06:05,320
It's a it's a it's a cycle,
right?

1210
01:06:05,720 --> 01:06:07,920
Yeah.
But it puts enormous pressure on

1211
01:06:07,920 --> 01:06:12,320
these companies.
And so how do you create a, how

1212
01:06:12,320 --> 01:06:14,480
do you create additional
revenue, right?

1213
01:06:14,480 --> 01:06:16,360
How do you beat that the last
bottom line.

1214
01:06:16,360 --> 01:06:19,000
So first talk about the problem.
Yeah.

1215
01:06:19,000 --> 01:06:22,040
So again, then that puts
pressure on engineering.

1216
01:06:22,440 --> 01:06:24,000
Guess what?
That's where the engineers get

1217
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:27,000
the croc cocaine out and have a
little toot and OK, we're done.

1218
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:28,920
Here you go.
That puts.

1219
01:06:28,920 --> 01:06:31,480
Even more pressure on the
customer though because now the

1220
01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:34,720
the engineer or whatever says I
got to have the L series.

1221
01:06:35,200 --> 01:06:35,880
Right.
And so.

1222
01:06:35,880 --> 01:06:38,120
You just finished paying off the
K, Yeah.

1223
01:06:38,480 --> 01:06:43,320
You know, and you're, you know,
the CapEx depreciation stuff in

1224
01:06:43,320 --> 01:06:46,000
the US was quite helpful.
Yeah, right.

1225
01:06:46,280 --> 01:06:49,040
That discount was really helpful
for a lot of people and December

1226
01:06:49,040 --> 01:06:52,320
was always a good month for me
because people could take

1227
01:06:52,320 --> 01:06:54,960
liberties with that.
But so you've got this financial

1228
01:06:54,960 --> 01:06:59,280
burden right for the company and
you've got this drive to

1229
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:04,200
marketing to the next thing.
But in, in we'll even go back to

1230
01:07:04,200 --> 01:07:06,600
an earlier story.
We'll even take it back one step

1231
01:07:06,600 --> 01:07:10,280
even earlier and we'll go from a
conventional 1 box solution,

1232
01:07:10,480 --> 01:07:12,400
right?
Just a trapezoidal shaped box.

1233
01:07:12,920 --> 01:07:16,560
You put up a sphere or globe,
whatever for you to find your

1234
01:07:16,560 --> 01:07:17,960
coverage area with old school
PA.

1235
01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:21,280
So the early days of line of
rain, right?

1236
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:25,880
My first deployment and it was
it was a company that will

1237
01:07:25,880 --> 01:07:29,240
remain nameless and a brand that
will remain remain nameless

1238
01:07:29,280 --> 01:07:30,720
because I don't want to speak of
brands.

1239
01:07:30,720 --> 01:07:36,680
But 1998, a big client of mine
at that time purchased a rig.

1240
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:39,560
It was a line of rain and I'm
going to wait a minute.

1241
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:41,480
This is not good.
Like what is this all about?

1242
01:07:41,640 --> 01:07:46,760
So I went with him on his first
show and you know, they put up

1243
01:07:46,920 --> 01:07:51,120
like 16 aside in an arena.
And it was interesting.

1244
01:07:51,120 --> 01:07:53,160
I remember talking to
engineering in the factory and I

1245
01:07:53,160 --> 01:07:54,520
said, you know what, the box was
loud.

1246
01:07:54,560 --> 01:07:57,560
It covered really well.
You know, could throw for days.

1247
01:07:59,240 --> 01:08:02,440
It went up, went up nicely.
There was some magic when it's

1248
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:05,120
spun in the air, right?
They trained it up, blah, blah,

1249
01:08:05,120 --> 01:08:07,600
blah.
And, you know, the sales pitch

1250
01:08:07,600 --> 01:08:10,080
at that time of that PA was you
could put the PA on the dance

1251
01:08:10,080 --> 01:08:14,360
floor of the truck, right?
So that was good because, again,

1252
01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:16,520
now we're appealing to the
accounting side, saving my

1253
01:08:16,640 --> 01:08:19,520
space, weight, whatever.
But if you think about it, then

1254
01:08:19,520 --> 01:08:21,680
I would go and watch an
international artist whose name,

1255
01:08:21,680 --> 01:08:25,240
again, will remain silent.
They would be touring with

1256
01:08:25,240 --> 01:08:27,319
Claire, and they used to have
the old Claire rig.

1257
01:08:28,040 --> 01:08:31,479
Yeah.
And they would have 72 boxes

1258
01:08:31,479 --> 01:08:36,399
aside in an arena, right?
Full round in the arena, 72

1259
01:08:36,399 --> 01:08:38,000
boxes side.
Then you see him come with line

1260
01:08:38,000 --> 01:08:41,000
arrays.
The last time I was at that show

1261
01:08:41,080 --> 01:08:46,080
they had 74 boxes in the yard.
There was no saving in boxes,

1262
01:08:46,080 --> 01:08:47,319
right?
Because now we're amount of

1263
01:08:47,319 --> 01:08:49,080
boxes.
But now you got to fly them.

1264
01:08:49,560 --> 01:08:51,800
Well, now we're flying all the
base and we're having ground

1265
01:08:51,800 --> 01:08:54,600
supported base, right.
So because we're trying to get

1266
01:08:54,600 --> 01:08:57,560
that spectral balance right,
because we had that massive

1267
01:08:57,560 --> 01:09:01,960
efficiency difference in the
frequency bandwidth because how

1268
01:09:01,960 --> 01:09:05,240
much HF energy we can produce
versus how much LF and mid

1269
01:09:05,240 --> 01:09:11,160
energy we can produce.
So you've got that dynamic, but

1270
01:09:11,160 --> 01:09:15,720
for me, I don't know where it
will ultimately go because the

1271
01:09:15,720 --> 01:09:17,439
big word today is immersive,
right?

1272
01:09:17,439 --> 01:09:20,680
The big new sales pitch is
about, you know, what Floyd did

1273
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:23,680
in the 90s with the Brick in the
Wall tour and having the

1274
01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:25,439
surround system.
Yeah.

1275
01:09:26,160 --> 01:09:28,479
And then you know what they say
I'm going to get my bottoms up

1276
01:09:28,479 --> 01:09:30,399
next week.
And I used to have some platform

1277
01:09:30,399 --> 01:09:32,760
shoes that, if I still had them,
could be worth a lot of money,

1278
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:36,840
right?
But it's like it's everything

1279
01:09:36,960 --> 01:09:39,720
going through a cycle and I'm
hoping the cycle is going to get

1280
01:09:39,720 --> 01:09:42,279
to the point again where we go
with an old screen.

1281
01:09:43,359 --> 01:09:45,479
Oh, sorry it happened.
Tone down.

1282
01:09:46,120 --> 01:09:48,800
It happened.
It happened.

1283
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:51,399
I'm sorry, it's.
I don't know why I did that, but

1284
01:09:51,399 --> 01:09:53,439
anymore, my oh, geez.
What'd you do?

1285
01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:54,720
Throw your arm?
My Internet.

1286
01:09:54,720 --> 01:09:57,240
Sent it flying.
We had to do this, I'm going to

1287
01:09:57,240 --> 01:09:58,680
say this.
We had to do this interview on

1288
01:09:58,680 --> 01:10:01,720
my phone because my Internet in
my office today is rubbish.

1289
01:10:02,600 --> 01:10:06,280
Yeah, but no, that the immersive
experience, I'm into it.

1290
01:10:06,280 --> 01:10:08,200
I understand that it's another
effect.

1291
01:10:09,080 --> 01:10:13,160
But in the end of the day, for
me, I love that impact, that

1292
01:10:13,160 --> 01:10:19,200
percussive impact, that energy
from just a powerful PA and a

1293
01:10:19,200 --> 01:10:21,800
powerful artist, right?
In the energy that they can

1294
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:24,440
create.
And the way, you know, it's like

1295
01:10:24,440 --> 01:10:27,680
they write a story when they
choose the songs in the order

1296
01:10:28,600 --> 01:10:31,320
of, of how they, they run us
through an evening with them,

1297
01:10:31,320 --> 01:10:36,320
right.
And I think I, I hope that the

1298
01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:41,440
industry will pay more focus to
that than the, the carnival

1299
01:10:41,440 --> 01:10:43,000
effects of some of these other
things.

1300
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:46,960
And I don't mean to be sounding
disrespectful to them, but in my

1301
01:10:46,960 --> 01:10:51,120
mind, it is not, it's not what I
would prefer to see happening.

1302
01:10:51,120 --> 01:10:54,200
And I think it may be a gimmick
to just sell more boxes.

1303
01:10:54,720 --> 01:10:57,520
It may be a gimmick to force you
to buy the next greatest.

1304
01:10:57,640 --> 01:11:01,960
You know, Emperor's New Clothes,
That's where it seems.

1305
01:11:01,960 --> 01:11:05,400
To be going, you know, it's just
another way to sell more stuff

1306
01:11:05,400 --> 01:11:08,000
cuz like, I mean, at the end of
the day, those companies have

1307
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:11,040
gotten quite large and there's
also competitors out there.

1308
01:11:11,040 --> 01:11:13,280
You know, obviously Meyer does
pretty well still.

1309
01:11:13,880 --> 01:11:18,000
I think Martin does OK.
You got the little guys out of

1310
01:11:18,000 --> 01:11:21,240
Western Canada, PK Sound.
They're doing a little bit of

1311
01:11:21,400 --> 01:11:23,480
making a little bit of noise out
there right now.

1312
01:11:24,040 --> 01:11:26,040
Yep, there's lots of there's and
there's.

1313
01:11:26,040 --> 01:11:29,840
Listen, there's lots of really
good products, yeah, some better

1314
01:11:29,840 --> 01:11:31,480
than others, some worse than
others.

1315
01:11:31,960 --> 01:11:34,320
Yeah.
At the end of the day, you know

1316
01:11:34,560 --> 01:11:37,680
the guy who's driving the car
can win the race, to take that

1317
01:11:37,680 --> 01:11:39,440
analogy, right?
Yeah.

1318
01:11:39,720 --> 01:11:42,560
But I know that like in
lighting, in lighting, the same

1319
01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:48,760
sort of arms race happened like
probably early 2000s when

1320
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:52,600
everything was getting brighter
and more gobos and more this and

1321
01:11:52,600 --> 01:11:56,360
more that pretty rapidly.
Now that's all slowed down to

1322
01:11:56,360 --> 01:12:01,080
where everything is kinda like
incremental little little

1323
01:12:01,080 --> 01:12:04,800
changes, little improvements.
You're not getting the leaps and

1324
01:12:04,800 --> 01:12:07,840
bounds improvements that you get
when you go from a lamp to an

1325
01:12:07,840 --> 01:12:13,320
LED or, or from an LED to a way
better LED or to, you know, now

1326
01:12:13,320 --> 01:12:16,200
it's all little incremental
things and it's all pretty good

1327
01:12:16,200 --> 01:12:19,600
stuff right now.
But let me just finish this

1328
01:12:19,600 --> 01:12:23,080
point quickly.
So in the lighting business,

1329
01:12:23,080 --> 01:12:25,920
we've kind of gotten back to
where you can buy a light

1330
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:32,400
fixture today and you can use it
for the next three years and

1331
01:12:32,400 --> 01:12:36,320
then you can sell it for 60
percent, 50% of what you paid

1332
01:12:36,320 --> 01:12:39,200
for it today.
And it's still a somewhat

1333
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:43,360
profitable venture.
It's not the same as it was 20

1334
01:12:43,360 --> 01:12:46,760
years ago when you could use it
for 15 years and then sell it

1335
01:12:46,760 --> 01:12:48,480
for what you paid for it
practically.

1336
01:12:48,880 --> 01:12:53,840
But in audio, like what I'm
seeing is I'm seeing people

1337
01:12:53,840 --> 01:12:58,920
spending two plus $1,000,000 on
a new speaker system and they're

1338
01:12:58,920 --> 01:13:04,800
using it for maybe two years in
some cases and they're selling

1339
01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:08,960
it for $1 million and then
they're buying another 2 +

1340
01:13:08,960 --> 01:13:13,520
1,000,000 dollar speaker system.
And it seems like a break even

1341
01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:16,520
endeavour.
And it's it's similar in video.

1342
01:13:16,520 --> 01:13:19,320
LED video is a problem like that
right now too.

1343
01:13:20,760 --> 01:13:24,040
So your point regarding the
lighting, let's touch there for

1344
01:13:24,040 --> 01:13:25,360
a minute.
I was going to say this.

1345
01:13:25,920 --> 01:13:29,800
Do you think it's a case of
finance controlling the

1346
01:13:29,800 --> 01:13:32,360
engineering wing and just
clipping their wings and saying

1347
01:13:32,360 --> 01:13:34,920
you can't develop that
technology or they don't have

1348
01:13:34,920 --> 01:13:36,880
the time or the budget to
develop that?

1349
01:13:38,920 --> 01:13:41,520
There is a little bit of that
and there's also a little bit

1350
01:13:41,520 --> 01:13:45,360
of, you know, there has been an
onslaught of of Chinese product

1351
01:13:45,360 --> 01:13:49,960
in the in the lighting world
that hasn't happened yet in

1352
01:13:49,960 --> 01:13:52,400
audio.
I'm guessing at some point

1353
01:13:52,440 --> 01:13:54,640
you're going to have speaker
manufacturers if you don't

1354
01:13:54,640 --> 01:14:00,280
already who are as good as many
of the other guys out there and

1355
01:14:00,280 --> 01:14:05,000
the product becomes accepted.
But in lighting that's already

1356
01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:08,400
happened right now.
So what that does is it lowers

1357
01:14:08,400 --> 01:14:12,760
the the sort of appetite for
innovation.

1358
01:14:13,000 --> 01:14:16,120
You know, it's like nobody wants
to spend huge money on

1359
01:14:16,120 --> 01:14:20,200
innovating when your product is
being copied almost as fast as

1360
01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:23,200
you hit the market.
Agreed 100%.

1361
01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:26,160
I think from, from what I could
comment in regards to the

1362
01:14:26,160 --> 01:14:29,720
speakers and these guys, you
know, buying new clothes and I

1363
01:14:29,720 --> 01:14:32,160
agree with you, it's for any
sort of real system today,

1364
01:14:32,160 --> 01:14:35,840
you're well into $2,000,000.
If you're trying to buy an Arena

1365
01:14:35,840 --> 01:14:40,560
PA, it's a minimum 2 bills.
Now from a sound company

1366
01:14:40,560 --> 01:14:42,560
standpoint, all the sound
companies that I've had the

1367
01:14:42,560 --> 01:14:47,000
luxury of working with and, and
partnering up with and drawing

1368
01:14:47,000 --> 01:14:49,600
brands together, their brand as
well as the speaker brand that

1369
01:14:49,600 --> 01:14:52,280
was associated with the
speakers.

1370
01:14:52,280 --> 01:14:55,080
They were hoping to get 7 to 10
years out of them and they were

1371
01:14:55,080 --> 01:14:58,880
typically writing them off over
seven years because it was the

1372
01:14:58,880 --> 01:15:00,960
mainstay.
It was the backbone that helped

1373
01:15:00,960 --> 01:15:06,080
them carry the 100, the 200, the
$300,000 consoles, right.

1374
01:15:06,080 --> 01:15:09,440
That was the, you know, it's
like the bike rack barricade.

1375
01:15:09,440 --> 01:15:10,840
Yeah.
You know, that's one of those

1376
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:13,000
things that's just that's gonna
help pay the bills down the

1377
01:15:13,000 --> 01:15:14,040
road.
Yeah.

1378
01:15:14,160 --> 01:15:17,240
And I needed to have a 10 year
life cycle, so you can't be

1379
01:15:17,240 --> 01:15:19,520
flipping your Pennsylvania every
24 months.

1380
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:22,560
You just.
Yeah, but that's changed like,

1381
01:15:22,680 --> 01:15:25,320
you know, when you're talking
about like early line array,

1382
01:15:25,320 --> 01:15:29,560
like V DOS was around for a long
time and then I remember DV DOS

1383
01:15:29,560 --> 01:15:32,360
came out.
But now those things are coming

1384
01:15:32,360 --> 01:15:35,160
out really fast.
Like they're coming out quite

1385
01:15:35,160 --> 01:15:39,480
quickly with new products.
And yeah, I don't know, like to

1386
01:15:39,480 --> 01:15:44,200
me, it's I'm seeing more sound
companies struggling or even

1387
01:15:44,200 --> 01:15:49,880
closing their doors today than
ever before in my life that I.

1388
01:15:49,880 --> 01:15:52,000
Can call tragic.
Which is tragic.

1389
01:15:52,000 --> 01:15:55,080
Because behind each one of those
sound companies is a passionate

1390
01:15:55,080 --> 01:15:56,680
audio file.
Hell yeah.

1391
01:15:57,440 --> 01:15:59,280
Passionate.
Like their, their, their craft

1392
01:15:59,280 --> 01:16:00,880
is the quality.
It's the passion.

1393
01:16:00,880 --> 01:16:03,720
Yeah, they didn't.
Go to Business School and and

1394
01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:06,200
then decide I'm going to go into
the lighting business.

1395
01:16:06,200 --> 01:16:09,360
They they were passionate about
audio and it turned into a

1396
01:16:09,360 --> 01:16:11,320
business you.
Know yeah, if they if they did

1397
01:16:11,320 --> 01:16:13,240
that they would have retired and
went to the beach yeah.

1398
01:16:14,560 --> 01:16:16,840
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.

1399
01:16:17,440 --> 01:16:19,240
Exactly.
You know, they you know, they

1400
01:16:19,280 --> 01:16:22,240
did make make a ton of money
running a sound company, but.

1401
01:16:22,320 --> 01:16:25,280
But I mean, going back to the
lighting guides, like they had

1402
01:16:25,280 --> 01:16:31,240
to make a conscious decision to
slow innovation basically to

1403
01:16:31,240 --> 01:16:35,320
say, you know, we can't come out
with new fixtures every year

1404
01:16:35,520 --> 01:16:39,160
when when our customers are
still just getting their

1405
01:16:39,280 --> 01:16:42,560
bearings on the on the fixture.
We sold them last year and

1406
01:16:42,560 --> 01:16:45,080
they're only halfway into paying
off their lease on it or

1407
01:16:45,080 --> 01:16:47,440
whatever.
We can't keep hammering them

1408
01:16:47,440 --> 01:16:50,760
with new models, even though
we've got better ways of doing

1409
01:16:50,760 --> 01:16:53,120
things than we did a year ago,
you know?

1410
01:16:53,400 --> 01:16:56,680
That's that's the thing that you
got to wonder because again, it

1411
01:16:56,680 --> 01:17:00,080
to me, it's this whole immersive
thing, like, wait a minute, is

1412
01:17:00,080 --> 01:17:03,160
that, you know, is that the,
the, the, the, the robe we're

1413
01:17:03,160 --> 01:17:04,680
putting over the block speaker
box?

1414
01:17:04,680 --> 01:17:08,720
Because at the end of the day,
these transducers haven't really

1415
01:17:08,720 --> 01:17:13,800
changed the size, the shape, the
components that, you know, OK,

1416
01:17:14,000 --> 01:17:16,440
adhesives have gotten better
over the last cake.

1417
01:17:16,440 --> 01:17:18,840
Fantastic.
But it's still a 15 inch

1418
01:17:18,840 --> 01:17:22,160
radiating driver and it's it's
an 18 inch and a horn like.

1419
01:17:22,880 --> 01:17:24,840
What does?
Stupid question, what does

1420
01:17:24,840 --> 01:17:27,800
better adhesives do?
Does it allow you to create

1421
01:17:27,920 --> 01:17:32,840
higher SPLS or?
Yeah, it it basically it allows

1422
01:17:32,880 --> 01:17:35,800
you to drive the, the the
speaker like a higher power

1423
01:17:35,800 --> 01:17:37,840
handling.
Well, the better adhesive deals

1424
01:17:37,840 --> 01:17:40,840
with the heat, right?
So that heat in the voice coil,

1425
01:17:40,840 --> 01:17:44,240
right, that coil is going to
glow and that better adhesive is

1426
01:17:44,240 --> 01:17:48,800
going to hold the former to the
cone, to the surround and keep

1427
01:17:48,800 --> 01:17:51,520
you in place.
And that's why that's why I

1428
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:55,040
really don't like doing demos
where it's just all about SPL.

1429
01:17:55,320 --> 01:17:58,280
Cuz guess what?
Everybody can today can make it

1430
01:17:58,280 --> 01:18:00,240
loud.
Making it loud is easy.

1431
01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:04,520
Giving it articulation and
fidelity and, you know, on a

1432
01:18:04,520 --> 01:18:07,080
decent level of tonality.
That's the magic.

1433
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:08,640
That's the art.
Yeah.

1434
01:18:08,760 --> 01:18:12,640
And there is art in there.
And that's where I'm hoping that

1435
01:18:12,640 --> 01:18:16,000
we get to more the art and the
simplistic sounds of like, let's

1436
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:18,240
all go and listen to a local
Symphony again.

1437
01:18:18,680 --> 01:18:22,080
Yeah, Like, let's go actually
listen to what a real person's

1438
01:18:22,080 --> 01:18:24,560
voice sounds like.
You don't.

1439
01:18:24,560 --> 01:18:27,640
Get you know, it's funny because
same thing in lighting.

1440
01:18:27,640 --> 01:18:30,800
Like in lighting, you know,
everyone's got 8 bazillion

1441
01:18:30,800 --> 01:18:34,280
moving lights now and everyone's
got a huge LED screen and

1442
01:18:34,280 --> 01:18:38,000
everyone's got all this stuff
and, and so everyone uses it all

1443
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:40,320
the time.
So every concert you go see has

1444
01:18:40,320 --> 01:18:46,280
1000 moving lights or whatever
and it becomes relatively

1445
01:18:46,280 --> 01:18:48,320
boring.
You know, it becomes like where

1446
01:18:48,320 --> 01:18:50,680
1000 moving lights is, is
vanilla.

1447
01:18:50,920 --> 01:18:54,600
And I kind of want some other
flavor now, right?

1448
01:18:54,600 --> 01:18:59,040
So I went a couple weeks ago,
Mark Brickman designed the

1449
01:18:59,040 --> 01:19:03,440
latest David Gilmour show.
He's been designing Pink Floyd

1450
01:19:03,440 --> 01:19:07,720
since the 80s.
And so I went to David Gilmour

1451
01:19:07,720 --> 01:19:11,960
in New York a couple weeks ago,
and the show that he designed is

1452
01:19:11,960 --> 01:19:16,200
so entirely different than
anything I've ever seen, let

1453
01:19:16,200 --> 01:19:19,880
alone just the last few years.
And in many ways, it's way back

1454
01:19:19,880 --> 01:19:22,240
to basics.
It's not 1000 moving lights.

1455
01:19:22,680 --> 01:19:26,440
It's very classical looking.
It's very artistic looking.

1456
01:19:26,640 --> 01:19:29,480
And it's that back to Symphony
that you're talking about with

1457
01:19:29,480 --> 01:19:30,160
audio.
Yeah, you can.

1458
01:19:30,400 --> 01:19:36,600
Same thing.
Understand that there's it's

1459
01:19:36,600 --> 01:19:39,320
just, it's dynamics, it's
breath.

1460
01:19:39,400 --> 01:19:44,440
It's, it's the, you know, the,
it's why do you have scary music

1461
01:19:44,440 --> 01:19:48,480
in a, in a scary movie?
It's it, these things go hand in

1462
01:19:48,480 --> 01:19:49,800
hand.
Like if you want to really

1463
01:19:49,800 --> 01:19:52,000
experience what the artist is
trying to tell you, you have to

1464
01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:54,440
have the ability to really get
the tone of their voice.

1465
01:19:54,440 --> 01:19:58,280
And again, I'd love to just see
the things get a little simpler.

1466
01:19:58,800 --> 01:20:02,520
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
You know, life moves on and I

1467
01:20:02,520 --> 01:20:04,800
don't want to sound like an old
person because I'm only 20.

1468
01:20:04,800 --> 01:20:08,680
Three again.
Again.

1469
01:20:08,680 --> 01:20:12,960
Yeah, Going back to something
that I brought up very quickly,

1470
01:20:13,920 --> 01:20:20,240
you know, import products and we
can blame it on China for today,

1471
01:20:20,240 --> 01:20:23,680
I guess.
But I know in lighting we're not

1472
01:20:23,680 --> 01:20:25,400
just talking about China
anymore.

1473
01:20:25,400 --> 01:20:31,000
We're talking about Taiwan,
Malaysia, other countries, even

1474
01:20:31,080 --> 01:20:32,840
parts of Eastern Europe and
stuff.

1475
01:20:34,000 --> 01:20:38,760
But specifically China, you
know, I know like the other day

1476
01:20:38,760 --> 01:20:41,600
I discovered something.
I was looking, I was putting

1477
01:20:41,600 --> 01:20:44,440
together a slide deck for
something and I wanted a generic

1478
01:20:44,440 --> 01:20:48,280
line array image.
And so I just put in images of

1479
01:20:48,280 --> 01:20:51,400
line array.
And you know how many Alibaba

1480
01:20:51,480 --> 01:20:56,800
line array listings came up?
Like literally about 100 Alibaba

1481
01:20:56,800 --> 01:21:02,840
line array listings of no brand
name line array boxes made in

1482
01:21:02,840 --> 01:21:06,600
China.
That the picture sure as hell

1483
01:21:06,600 --> 01:21:09,320
looked pretty good.
Little comedian slide there.

1484
01:21:10,120 --> 01:21:13,240
So this, these copies are
knockoffs.

1485
01:21:13,240 --> 01:21:15,520
I was saying to you like I
really think a lot of times

1486
01:21:15,520 --> 01:21:17,600
you'll find they're actually
original links right to the

1487
01:21:17,600 --> 01:21:21,720
manufacturer's homepage from
these these products that knock

1488
01:21:21,720 --> 01:21:23,680
them off.
But I've, I've yet to hear

1489
01:21:23,680 --> 01:21:26,520
anything that really has any
sort of Sonic signature.

1490
01:21:26,520 --> 01:21:30,440
And I'm not sure why that is
because, you know, they can cut

1491
01:21:30,440 --> 01:21:34,760
a box of 1010mm and get it put
together and, you know, the

1492
01:21:34,760 --> 01:21:35,960
materials and that are quite
simplistic.

1493
01:21:37,760 --> 01:21:41,240
But there is something to be
said about the voicing and the

1494
01:21:41,240 --> 01:21:45,320
tuning of a product, and we got
that to work.

1495
01:21:45,880 --> 01:21:49,000
So that's how it started in
lighting too, like automated

1496
01:21:49,000 --> 01:21:53,480
lighting, it started that way.
It started where you had just

1497
01:21:53,480 --> 01:21:58,760
really very elementary copying
of, of speakers, really, really

1498
01:21:58,760 --> 01:22:02,080
raw copies where they were just
basically taking it apart,

1499
01:22:02,080 --> 01:22:05,320
reverse engineering.
Like they used to actually even

1500
01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:06,800
just come to the trade show
booths.

1501
01:22:06,800 --> 01:22:09,600
And if you had a, a product open
on your booth or whatever,

1502
01:22:09,600 --> 01:22:11,080
they'd take a bunch of pictures
of it.

1503
01:22:11,080 --> 01:22:12,920
Oh yeah.
And they would literally just,

1504
01:22:13,200 --> 01:22:19,000
yeah, they'd copy stuff.
And but, you know, they couldn't

1505
01:22:19,000 --> 01:22:22,320
really copy the software.
They couldn't really copy, you

1506
01:22:22,320 --> 01:22:24,240
know, the nuances of the
product.

1507
01:22:24,560 --> 01:22:27,840
And So what they started doing
is hiring Western engineers.

1508
01:22:27,840 --> 01:22:31,000
They started hiring engineers
that worked for companies like

1509
01:22:31,000 --> 01:22:33,040
Martin or High End or whoever,
right?

1510
01:22:33,600 --> 01:22:36,560
And that's when things really
changed.

1511
01:22:36,560 --> 01:22:39,760
Like, that's when it just went
room like that.

1512
01:22:39,760 --> 01:22:43,320
So my guess is that they're
going to start, if they haven't

1513
01:22:43,320 --> 01:22:46,480
already, they're going to start
hiring guys like you and

1514
01:22:46,480 --> 01:22:50,880
bringing them over to China and
and you know, housing them there

1515
01:22:50,880 --> 01:22:53,640
for a few months at a time or
whatever and getting you to tell

1516
01:22:53,640 --> 01:22:55,920
them how to make great speaker
boxes and they'll.

1517
01:22:56,120 --> 01:22:59,360
End up, I don't, I don't foresee
that happening for me.

1518
01:22:59,360 --> 01:23:01,080
But you're right, that is what's
happening.

1519
01:23:01,120 --> 01:23:02,720
People like you people.
Like you?

1520
01:23:02,840 --> 01:23:05,520
Yeah, people.
Do get poached and they they

1521
01:23:05,520 --> 01:23:07,960
migrate over into that sort of
space.

1522
01:23:07,960 --> 01:23:11,040
And I guess there's got to be
some positives to it.

1523
01:23:11,040 --> 01:23:12,680
There's got to be some negatives
to it.

1524
01:23:12,680 --> 01:23:18,880
But again, I think that to me, I
don't know it.

1525
01:23:19,680 --> 01:23:22,280
You know, you look at the tariff
aspect of what's coming down the

1526
01:23:22,280 --> 01:23:25,280
pipe and I'm not sure how that
will impact things.

1527
01:23:25,280 --> 01:23:26,720
We'll see where that all levels
out.

1528
01:23:27,000 --> 01:23:29,680
Yeah, I mean, at least it evens
up the game a little bit.

1529
01:23:29,680 --> 01:23:32,760
But I mean, if they're, you
know, if, if a typical line

1530
01:23:32,760 --> 01:23:35,720
array that we've just talked
about it, an arena line array

1531
01:23:35,720 --> 01:23:39,520
system is $2,000,000, if they're
kicking it out the door for

1532
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:46,800
300,000 or something, you know,
even with a, a 25 percent, 50%

1533
01:23:46,800 --> 01:23:48,120
tariff, it's.
Irrelevant.

1534
01:23:48,560 --> 01:23:51,600
Yeah, it's irrelevant.
It's still 1/4 of the cost of of

1535
01:23:51,600 --> 01:23:55,520
the the full blown system.
And what I'm seeing in lighting

1536
01:23:55,600 --> 01:23:58,560
is you're starting to see
companies, smaller companies,

1537
01:23:58,560 --> 01:24:04,160
you know, two $3,000,000 little
lighting companies buying those

1538
01:24:04,160 --> 01:24:08,000
brands that you see on Facebook
Marketplace or you see on, on

1539
01:24:08,040 --> 01:24:13,120
Amazon or on eBay or whatever.
Brands that I had never really

1540
01:24:13,120 --> 01:24:14,920
even heard of.
Like there's this one called

1541
01:24:14,920 --> 01:24:18,680
Sheds or Shreds or something.
I keep seeing their ads on

1542
01:24:18,680 --> 01:24:20,160
Facebook.
I've never even heard of this

1543
01:24:20,160 --> 01:24:22,720
company.
But apparently there's lots of

1544
01:24:22,720 --> 01:24:25,560
little lighting companies out
there that buy those because

1545
01:24:26,120 --> 01:24:29,880
they can get a moving head LED
fixture that's pretty nice in

1546
01:24:29,880 --> 01:24:32,360
that they can take out and do
weddings or little trade show

1547
01:24:32,360 --> 01:24:35,720
booths or whatever.
And they're buying them for 250

1548
01:24:35,720 --> 01:24:38,320
bucks, you know?
So they're buying 8 for the

1549
01:24:38,320 --> 01:24:41,080
price that they'd pay for one
from elation or something,

1550
01:24:41,080 --> 01:24:44,920
right?
So I guess that hasn't happened

1551
01:24:44,920 --> 01:24:46,240
yet though in the audio
business.

1552
01:24:46,240 --> 01:24:48,960
That's what I was curious about.
No, I, well, I don't think we're

1553
01:24:48,960 --> 01:24:51,320
seeing it on, certainly not on
the top end, right.

1554
01:24:51,320 --> 01:24:54,880
There's still that demand on the
top end of it, but I wouldn't

1555
01:24:55,040 --> 01:24:56,360
look.
There's a lot of little sound

1556
01:24:56,360 --> 01:24:59,240
providers out there too that are
just doing local bar gigs on a

1557
01:24:59,240 --> 01:25:03,160
Saturday night because you know,
as a secondary gig even, they're

1558
01:25:03,160 --> 01:25:05,480
not even doing it as a real gig.
Yeah.

1559
01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:08,280
They're they're doing it just to
get out Saturday night and get a

1560
01:25:08,280 --> 01:25:10,080
couple free beers.
Yeah.

1561
01:25:11,440 --> 01:25:16,360
Well, more than I don't want to
sound, but the, the, that's all

1562
01:25:16,360 --> 01:25:17,520
they can afford.
It's all they can.

1563
01:25:17,800 --> 01:25:21,400
You know what you touch on that
side of it, It's these two and a

1564
01:25:21,400 --> 01:25:26,200
half million dollar PAS where
the box rental price is absolute

1565
01:25:26,280 --> 01:25:29,360
dirt, where these guys are the
payback that they're getting for

1566
01:25:29,360 --> 01:25:31,120
this investment in equipment
today.

1567
01:25:31,480 --> 01:25:33,760
Disgusting.
It's tragic.

1568
01:25:34,560 --> 01:25:38,200
And I don't know how.
I mean, you know, unless you can

1569
01:25:38,200 --> 01:25:42,360
get that super national tour,
right, that's going to take you

1570
01:25:42,360 --> 01:25:44,720
around, you know, 30 weeks.
Yeah.

1571
01:25:44,920 --> 01:25:49,480
And you're going to be doing
venues 10,000 and above, and

1572
01:25:49,480 --> 01:25:51,600
you're going to be doing four or
five shows a week.

1573
01:25:52,280 --> 01:25:53,640
There's just no way to pay for
it.

1574
01:25:53,920 --> 01:25:57,280
But even then, like your stuff
gets beat to shit and you pay

1575
01:25:57,280 --> 01:26:01,280
for maybe 1/4 of it during that
20 or 30 week tour.

1576
01:26:01,800 --> 01:26:05,640
And you know now you've still
only paid for 1/4 of it, right?

1577
01:26:05,640 --> 01:26:09,320
So you got to do that four times
just to pay for it and then what

1578
01:26:09,320 --> 01:26:13,240
your profit is in selling it
used for six 700,000 I mean.

1579
01:26:13,760 --> 01:26:16,720
The only other topic there,
Marcel, is this.

1580
01:26:17,280 --> 01:26:20,560
What are the, what are the bean
guys doing for depreciation?

1581
01:26:21,120 --> 01:26:23,080
Yeah.
Like are they depreciating it

1582
01:26:23,080 --> 01:26:25,200
over 24 months?
Yeah.

1583
01:26:25,280 --> 01:26:30,280
And if they are blowing it down
over 24 months, it is a wash on

1584
01:26:30,280 --> 01:26:32,240
paper.
If it's to me, it's not the

1585
01:26:32,240 --> 01:26:35,040
smartest wash on paper.
Yeah, you know, because just

1586
01:26:35,040 --> 01:26:37,920
because you didn't, you didn't
make the money either.

1587
01:26:38,680 --> 01:26:41,120
Well, and then the other thing
is like half these guys.

1588
01:26:41,120 --> 01:26:45,800
Are financing it on a like a
four or five year lease or

1589
01:26:45,800 --> 01:26:50,000
financing note.
And so yeah, you'd appreciate it

1590
01:26:50,000 --> 01:26:52,240
over two years.
So it's worth half as much or

1591
01:26:52,240 --> 01:26:57,680
whatever on your books, but you
still owe 60% of it.

1592
01:26:57,680 --> 01:27:00,480
You know that.
Where's that make sense?

1593
01:27:00,480 --> 01:27:02,160
How does that look good on your
balance sheet?

1594
01:27:02,160 --> 01:27:04,200
I don't know.
I'm, I'm not that smart when it

1595
01:27:04,200 --> 01:27:08,200
comes to accounting, apparently.
But anyways, I, I was just

1596
01:27:08,200 --> 01:27:11,640
curious about all that, like,
because to me, I hate seeing it,

1597
01:27:12,120 --> 01:27:14,960
you know?
Yeah, it's well, again, like I

1598
01:27:15,000 --> 01:27:16,640
said, the speakers were the
lifeblood.

1599
01:27:16,640 --> 01:27:20,120
For you know, outside of copper
wire, yeah, they were the

1600
01:27:20,120 --> 01:27:22,520
longest trick.
You want to at least get 7 good

1601
01:27:22,520 --> 01:27:25,200
years out of APA for sure.
And I don't see why you

1602
01:27:25,200 --> 01:27:27,440
shouldn't, because the
technology isn't.

1603
01:27:27,440 --> 01:27:31,680
Changing enough to where like,
audiences certainly aren't going

1604
01:27:31,680 --> 01:27:35,080
to notice if you're using AK or
an L rig, you know?

1605
01:27:35,080 --> 01:27:39,200
So like, are we just getting a
little too high on ourselves and

1606
01:27:39,200 --> 01:27:41,760
saying it's got to be an L rig,
you know, it's got to be an L

1607
01:27:41,760 --> 01:27:44,240
series or whatever.
And again, I'm downplaying it

1608
01:27:44,240 --> 01:27:47,320
because I really don't even know
the difference, but all I know

1609
01:27:47,320 --> 01:27:52,280
is we sell a lot of used J
series and KSL series and all

1610
01:27:52,280 --> 01:27:57,080
that kind of stuff and and lots
of L acoustic stuff, lots of all

1611
01:27:57,080 --> 01:28:00,520
of it, you know, so and see that
still comes out of price

1612
01:28:00,520 --> 01:28:02,240
somewhere sell too, right?
Because even.

1613
01:28:02,240 --> 01:28:07,720
Though the manufacturer is still
getting these new sales, they're

1614
01:28:07,720 --> 01:28:10,600
not picking up the sale of the
guy who's buying that used gear,

1615
01:28:10,720 --> 01:28:12,600
and they're not building their
relationship there.

1616
01:28:12,600 --> 01:28:15,480
And that guy is just going to
continue to go down that tunnel.

1617
01:28:16,080 --> 01:28:16,760
Yeah.
OK.

1618
01:28:16,760 --> 01:28:18,960
He might.
He might get a relationship

1619
01:28:18,960 --> 01:28:22,480
together to buy some Spears or
that, but he's not going to.

1620
01:28:22,480 --> 01:28:24,480
He's never going to have the
taste to pay double.

1621
01:28:24,960 --> 01:28:27,680
Yeah, right.
Or more or more than double.

1622
01:28:27,680 --> 01:28:29,400
Yeah, more.
For sure, yeah.

1623
01:28:30,160 --> 01:28:32,200
But you know the good news.
Is we all survived?

1624
01:28:32,640 --> 01:28:34,160
COVID, we're all.
Back working.

1625
01:28:34,160 --> 01:28:35,600
Everybody's in a good space
there.

1626
01:28:35,920 --> 01:28:37,880
No, I love that.
I love that.

1627
01:28:37,880 --> 01:28:40,320
I love.
I think the industry's in a

1628
01:28:40,320 --> 01:28:43,440
relatively good place.
I, I think, you know, you called

1629
01:28:43,440 --> 01:28:47,240
it earlier, you called it a
hangover and, and I think there

1630
01:28:47,240 --> 01:28:50,160
is a bit of a hangover like it,
it was wild, Wild West for a

1631
01:28:50,160 --> 01:28:55,160
couple of years there. 2223, I
think 24 was a bit of a comeback

1632
01:28:55,160 --> 01:28:59,280
to reality.
Year 25, everybody's telling me

1633
01:28:59,280 --> 01:29:02,480
tons of stadium shows.
Again, 25 is a stadium year.

1634
01:29:03,040 --> 01:29:07,840
And so, yeah, I mean, to me,
it's still a really healthy

1635
01:29:07,840 --> 01:29:11,000
great business.
It's just I, I happened to hear

1636
01:29:11,000 --> 01:29:17,080
this morning that two different
pretty reasonable sized sound

1637
01:29:17,080 --> 01:29:20,720
companies are closing and you
know, one of my sales people

1638
01:29:20,720 --> 01:29:24,400
told me that because, you know,
two different companies kind of

1639
01:29:24,400 --> 01:29:26,360
called us with a similar story.
Hey I need.

1640
01:29:26,360 --> 01:29:28,160
To unload a lot of.
Gear really quickly.

1641
01:29:28,160 --> 01:29:31,280
That breaks my heart.
Yeah, it really does.

1642
01:29:31,360 --> 01:29:34,320
It does break.
My heart because they're so you

1643
01:29:34,320 --> 01:29:37,160
know that well and again, it's
they're struggling to get

1644
01:29:37,160 --> 01:29:40,240
staffed tumor cell, right,
because again, all the gig, the

1645
01:29:40,240 --> 01:29:43,680
gig community, I'm just getting
over that latest cold, by the

1646
01:29:43,680 --> 01:29:44,760
way.
So that's why I was trying to

1647
01:29:44,760 --> 01:29:47,960
get some water under me.
It's all good.

1648
01:29:47,960 --> 01:29:50,040
The You know that the industry
lost so.

1649
01:29:50,040 --> 01:29:52,920
Many people and they never came
back, and then to see these

1650
01:29:52,920 --> 01:29:57,600
companies shuttering makes it
even more.

1651
01:29:57,600 --> 01:30:00,240
Challenging because there's less
choice, there's less available.

1652
01:30:00,240 --> 01:30:02,480
People out there to work,
there's less gear to work.

1653
01:30:04,200 --> 01:30:06,320
And ultimately that means
there's less entertainment for

1654
01:30:06,320 --> 01:30:10,320
everybody.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on

1655
01:30:10,320 --> 01:30:11,800
that.
I agree with you on that

1656
01:30:12,080 --> 01:30:14,800
business to start nobody all of
a sudden.

1657
01:30:14,800 --> 01:30:17,160
Goes into the desert and pops up
a sound company.

1658
01:30:18,560 --> 01:30:21,520
Well, some people do, but you
know, The thing is that the

1659
01:30:21,520 --> 01:30:23,400
money.
That it takes these days it's

1660
01:30:23,400 --> 01:30:26,200
it's you know, that's the other
thing about our industry.

1661
01:30:26,200 --> 01:30:29,400
Like, I don't know what you
think about it, but you know,

1662
01:30:29,400 --> 01:30:36,000
it's almost becoming impossible
for the, you know, the Dave

1663
01:30:36,480 --> 01:30:41,640
shadowing or the, you know,
these, the small entrepreneur

1664
01:30:41,640 --> 01:30:46,920
enthusiast to grow a company and
survive against all these big

1665
01:30:46,920 --> 01:30:52,440
private equity backed companies.
You know, it seems to be the the

1666
01:30:52,440 --> 01:30:55,800
window is closing for that
company to be able to do that.

1667
01:30:56,400 --> 01:31:00,080
And that's kind of sad.
The buying cost is just too

1668
01:31:00,080 --> 01:31:01,240
high.
Correct.

1669
01:31:01,240 --> 01:31:03,320
Yeah.
Yeah, you just, you can't, you

1670
01:31:03,320 --> 01:31:05,200
know, you mean?
Millions and millions and

1671
01:31:05,200 --> 01:31:08,320
millions of.
Dollars to just get a potential

1672
01:31:08,320 --> 01:31:10,280
invite to the dance.
Then you got to get up to the

1673
01:31:10,280 --> 01:31:12,760
political side of what can
actually go home with the girl.

1674
01:31:13,400 --> 01:31:18,880
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can get.
To the dance hall if you got the

1675
01:31:18,880 --> 01:31:20,440
right kit, but.
It doesn't mean you're going to

1676
01:31:20,440 --> 01:31:22,920
get the talent and all of the
politics that goes with that.

1677
01:31:23,280 --> 01:31:26,080
No, it's so, so true.
So true.

1678
01:31:26,440 --> 01:31:28,880
I'm sad, I'm so sad.
I'm not going to see you at LDI

1679
01:31:28,880 --> 01:31:29,760
this year.
I'm no.

1680
01:31:29,760 --> 01:31:32,920
Me too, I like hanging out with
you at LDI for a little bit.

1681
01:31:32,920 --> 01:31:37,000
Anyways, until you hire, it's a.
It's a great event.

1682
01:31:37,000 --> 01:31:39,960
It's a lot.
Of fun and I still think they

1683
01:31:40,000 --> 01:31:43,200
should keep it right on top of
Vegas and then and the F1 so

1684
01:31:43,200 --> 01:31:45,200
that it could kill two parts
with one stone.

1685
01:31:45,320 --> 01:31:48,800
Can you imagine what hotel rooms
cost though for her to?

1686
01:31:48,920 --> 01:31:51,400
To do a trade show?
Hell no, couldn't do it.

1687
01:31:52,360 --> 01:31:54,920
Yeah, it's it's already
disgusting as it is.

1688
01:31:54,920 --> 01:31:57,960
Like, I remember when I first
started going to shows in Vegas,

1689
01:31:58,280 --> 01:32:01,560
you could get a room for 40-50
bucks a night, you know, you

1690
01:32:01,560 --> 01:32:03,200
could eat for practically
nothing.

1691
01:32:03,640 --> 01:32:07,320
Beer cost nothing, nothing.
You know it, it was like it was

1692
01:32:07,720 --> 01:32:10,960
so easy to go to Vegas for a
show and then it became a thing

1693
01:32:11,320 --> 01:32:13,920
and now it's like like I'm
staying at the Renaissance and

1694
01:32:13,920 --> 01:32:16,440
the Renaissance is 300 bucks a
night or whatever.

1695
01:32:17,000 --> 01:32:19,200
You've got privilege if you're
if you're able to walk there,

1696
01:32:19,200 --> 01:32:20,560
listen with a confession.
My.

1697
01:32:20,560 --> 01:32:23,560
First trade show was in Vegas.
Yeah.

1698
01:32:23,560 --> 01:32:27,840
In 1984, yeah.
And I stayed at the Golden

1699
01:32:27,840 --> 01:32:33,280
Nugget, Yeah, I got a week in
Vegas flight there and back.

1700
01:32:34,040 --> 01:32:42,600
Rental car, hotel and it was
about $420.00 USI believe that.

1701
01:32:43,480 --> 01:32:45,440
Well, I mean.
Remember when you could get

1702
01:32:45,560 --> 01:32:50,000
breakfast buffet for $1.99?
You know, and eggs.

1703
01:32:50,120 --> 01:32:54,000
But steak and eggs, it's.
About now everything in Vegas is

1704
01:32:54,000 --> 01:32:58,600
a profit center yeah right
everything, everything the the.

1705
01:32:58,600 --> 01:33:00,400
Days of.
Clocks, the days of these

1706
01:33:00,400 --> 01:33:04,640
things, they're all gone.
And yeah, yeah, they make huge

1707
01:33:04,640 --> 01:33:07,680
money on food.
And booze and entertainment and

1708
01:33:07,680 --> 01:33:10,840
stuff now where that used to all
be tossed in just to get you to

1709
01:33:10,840 --> 01:33:13,240
gamble.
Yeah, I mentioned the someone

1710
01:33:13,240 --> 01:33:14,800
the other day.
I sort of like to win the my

1711
01:33:14,840 --> 01:33:17,760
brain.
It's a today statement, but they

1712
01:33:17,760 --> 01:33:21,480
certainly did everything they
could to get the customer right.

1713
01:33:21,480 --> 01:33:22,240
They were.
That's true.

1714
01:33:23,040 --> 01:33:26,360
And there's nothing, you know, I
can't find accounting for my

1715
01:33:26,920 --> 01:33:29,920
ability to run days.
But the town was always

1716
01:33:29,920 --> 01:33:32,200
exciting.
It is a great convention

1717
01:33:32,200 --> 01:33:36,000
destination and not industry in
particular, right, because

1718
01:33:36,000 --> 01:33:38,920
there's so many things going on
there, yeah.

1719
01:33:41,240 --> 01:33:44,200
And it's got all.
The it's got all you need,

1720
01:33:44,200 --> 01:33:45,720
right?
It has the convention space, it

1721
01:33:45,720 --> 01:33:47,640
has the airport, it has the
hotel rooms.

1722
01:33:48,640 --> 01:33:51,120
You know the front for selfish
reasons.

1723
01:33:51,120 --> 01:33:53,920
I used to like when they went
back and forth between Vegas and

1724
01:33:53,920 --> 01:33:57,120
Orlando because I could jump in
my car, drive up to Orlando and

1725
01:33:57,120 --> 01:33:59,600
go to the show, you know?
I mean, it was just that easy.

1726
01:33:59,600 --> 01:34:02,280
Like it's a 2 hour drive up the
road for me.

1727
01:34:02,720 --> 01:34:10,280
And you know, and they're like,
I like Vegas for what it is, but

1728
01:34:10,280 --> 01:34:14,320
especially as I get older, you
know, I don't use it for what it

1729
01:34:14,320 --> 01:34:16,640
is anymore.
Like I don't go out till 3:00 or

1730
01:34:16,640 --> 01:34:18,920
4:00 in the morning like I used
to in Vegas.

1731
01:34:19,200 --> 01:34:21,880
And in Orlando, you know,
there's nothing to do so you

1732
01:34:21,880 --> 01:34:26,200
have to go to bed early.
You know, it's so you can't do

1733
01:34:26,240 --> 01:34:29,360
anything after 11:00.
In Orlando, there's nothing.

1734
01:34:30,000 --> 01:34:31,600
Well, I mean, it was a little
later than that.

1735
01:34:31,600 --> 01:34:34,080
Like we'd stay at the Peabody
and and the lounge in the.

1736
01:34:34,080 --> 01:34:37,000
Peabody was always a lot of fun
for LDI.

1737
01:34:37,000 --> 01:34:40,800
That's where all the LDS and all
the people, the late guys like

1738
01:34:40,800 --> 01:34:45,240
me would sit in the lobby bar at
at the Peabody and it'd go till

1739
01:34:45,480 --> 01:34:49,120
I think one or something.
But but yeah, I'm with you.

1740
01:34:49,120 --> 01:34:51,720
There's not a lot to do in
Orlando after 11, that's for

1741
01:34:51,720 --> 01:34:53,640
sure.
Don't don't want to date

1742
01:34:53,640 --> 01:34:55,000
themselves like that, but the
the.

1743
01:34:55,040 --> 01:34:59,240
Efficiency of you can do two
things now, right?

1744
01:34:59,240 --> 01:35:02,680
You can either drink and go home
at a reasonable hour and get

1745
01:35:02,680 --> 01:35:04,520
some sleep.
That's why people in their

1746
01:35:04,520 --> 01:35:07,160
retirement time, let's say, or
their older years will start

1747
01:35:07,160 --> 01:35:09,720
drinking at 4:00 in the
afternoon instead of mine

1748
01:35:10,080 --> 01:35:12,080
instead of mine.
Yeah, that's true.

1749
01:35:13,000 --> 01:35:14,560
They want to drink until 9:00
and then go to.

1750
01:35:14,600 --> 01:35:16,920
Bed so that way they can.
Get up and feel OK in the

1751
01:35:16,920 --> 01:35:18,560
morning.
Yeah, yeah.

1752
01:35:18,600 --> 01:35:21,160
That's, that's kind of how I do
it, you know, And the other

1753
01:35:21,160 --> 01:35:23,600
thing in Vegas these days.
And I'm giving away my secret,

1754
01:35:23,600 --> 01:35:28,440
but I book hotels based on being
able to get to the elevator

1755
01:35:28,440 --> 01:35:33,080
without passing the bar and, you
know, because, because when you

1756
01:35:33,080 --> 01:35:35,480
walk by the bar, you know,
there's 20 people going.

1757
01:35:35,480 --> 01:35:37,320
Hey, Marcel, come have one.
Just have one.

1758
01:35:37,320 --> 01:35:38,360
Just one.
Just one.

1759
01:35:38,360 --> 01:35:40,440
And next thing you know, it's
3:00 in the morning, right?

1760
01:35:40,760 --> 01:35:43,160
Like I used to always stay at
the Hard Rock.

1761
01:35:43,160 --> 01:35:48,160
And I used to live at at the
Circle Bar, you know, and but it

1762
01:35:48,160 --> 01:35:52,080
was a three or 4:00 in the
morning night, every damn night,

1763
01:35:52,080 --> 01:35:53,920
you know, and I can't do that
anymore.

1764
01:35:53,920 --> 01:35:57,880
The Hard Rock was the bar.
Yeah, yeah, it was pretty.

1765
01:35:57,880 --> 01:35:59,880
Great.
I mean, so you know.

1766
01:36:00,520 --> 01:36:03,200
That was a.
Full Martin Tanner project in

1767
01:36:03,200 --> 01:36:05,200
Vegas for us.
Oh, is it?

1768
01:36:05,520 --> 01:36:07,480
Yeah.
The circle bar was all 12 inch.

1769
01:36:07,480 --> 01:36:10,160
Coaxes and built.
Up in the in the front end of

1770
01:36:10,160 --> 01:36:14,320
the bar there and then in the
joint was a Martin F1 system.

1771
01:36:15,160 --> 01:36:16,880
Yeah, See, I never looked at any
of that stuff.

1772
01:36:16,880 --> 01:36:19,120
I just looked at the.
VL fives that were above the

1773
01:36:19,120 --> 01:36:21,360
bar, Those are sexy.
Yeah.

1774
01:36:21,400 --> 01:36:23,920
Yeah, they looked great.
Back in the day, you know.

1775
01:36:23,920 --> 01:36:27,280
And the I don't know if you've
been to the Virgin Hotel, which

1776
01:36:27,280 --> 01:36:31,160
took over the Hard Rock, but
it's not the same, you know, and

1777
01:36:31,280 --> 01:36:34,360
like a lot of people go to the
bar, a lot of.

1778
01:36:34,360 --> 01:36:37,400
People go to the bar, It's fun.
But it's not the same.

1779
01:36:37,520 --> 01:36:39,880
It's just not.
Yeah, it's interesting.

1780
01:36:40,840 --> 01:36:44,280
Yeah, I was in Vegas 3 weeks.
Ago and it was and I actually

1781
01:36:44,280 --> 01:36:48,920
stayed at the property, I'll
tell you that from a check in.

1782
01:36:48,920 --> 01:36:51,080
Perspective.
They get a 10 out of 10.

1783
01:36:51,800 --> 01:36:53,080
Really.
Oh my God.

1784
01:36:53,480 --> 01:36:55,120
Listen, if you go to any hotel
on the.

1785
01:36:55,120 --> 01:36:56,920
Strip you can.
Spend an hour on a check in

1786
01:36:56,920 --> 01:36:59,000
line, doesn't matter what time
of day and I do fuck in.

1787
01:36:59,320 --> 01:37:01,640
Totally true.
When I went to Bergen I walked

1788
01:37:01,640 --> 01:37:02,840
up to the counter and got my
room.

1789
01:37:02,840 --> 01:37:05,720
He went to my room.
I think I did the same.

1790
01:37:05,720 --> 01:37:07,480
Yeah, I stayed there two years.
Ago.

1791
01:37:07,480 --> 01:37:10,360
Not last year.
Two years ago, 3 weeks ago, same

1792
01:37:10,360 --> 01:37:12,640
thing.
I think the problem is for you.

1793
01:37:12,640 --> 01:37:14,400
And I we experienced.
The hard.

1794
01:37:14,400 --> 01:37:17,800
Rock.
Yeah, if you never experienced

1795
01:37:17,800 --> 01:37:19,440
the Hard Rock.
And you went to Virgin today.

1796
01:37:19,440 --> 01:37:22,280
It seemed like a great.
Hotel smells good, looks good.

1797
01:37:22,680 --> 01:37:24,560
Yeah.
It's got a little bit of a kind

1798
01:37:24,560 --> 01:37:30,760
of a Scandinavian vibe interior
wise, yeah, but.

1799
01:37:31,520 --> 01:37:33,240
I'm.
Looking forward to seeing what

1800
01:37:33,240 --> 01:37:35,960
the new Hard Rock looks like
going on the Struck where

1801
01:37:35,960 --> 01:37:38,080
Caesar's or not Caesar's.
Sorry, what?

1802
01:37:38,240 --> 01:37:40,960
Yeah, they're they're doing a
guitar hotel like the one here.

1803
01:37:41,120 --> 01:37:42,280
Yes.
Yeah.

1804
01:37:42,280 --> 01:37:46,000
So I'm excited to see how.
That property fits in and what

1805
01:37:46,000 --> 01:37:50,000
sort of they put on it there?
Yeah, yeah.

1806
01:37:50,040 --> 01:37:51,640
I mean it it, it'll be
interesting.

1807
01:37:51,640 --> 01:37:55,680
To see, you know, I haven't done
Resorts World yet.

1808
01:37:55,680 --> 01:37:58,680
Like I know that's the other one
where everybody sort of gathers

1809
01:37:59,160 --> 01:38:03,080
and I'll probably get over there
next weekend for LDI.

1810
01:38:03,080 --> 01:38:04,920
I'll probably get over there at
least once.

1811
01:38:04,920 --> 01:38:07,720
I I've got a pretty crazy
schedule while I'm there because

1812
01:38:07,720 --> 01:38:11,200
I'm not there long enough, but
depending on what Hall LD is in,

1813
01:38:11,200 --> 01:38:12,600
the fountain Blues are pretty
close.

1814
01:38:12,600 --> 01:38:14,520
Drop for you.
Oh, yeah, Yeah.

1815
01:38:14,520 --> 01:38:16,400
It wasn't open a couple years
ago when I was there.

1816
01:38:16,920 --> 01:38:19,960
That's that's right now, just
right beside.

1817
01:38:19,960 --> 01:38:21,560
Basically right beside the new
hall.

1818
01:38:21,560 --> 01:38:24,320
Plus put a shout out for a bagel
joint right beside the.

1819
01:38:24,800 --> 01:38:27,120
I know everyone talks about it.
Yeah.

1820
01:38:27,320 --> 01:38:29,640
Bagels in Vegas.
Yeah, everyone talks a

1821
01:38:29,640 --> 01:38:31,440
convention year.
Standpoint, it's close

1822
01:38:31,440 --> 01:38:34,760
proximity.
Yeah, it's a breakfast stop

1823
01:38:34,760 --> 01:38:37,160
every time I'm done.
Yeah, yeah, everyone.

1824
01:38:37,160 --> 01:38:41,240
Talks about that I got AI.
Got a rate at the Renaissance

1825
01:38:41,240 --> 01:38:44,760
that includes breakfast, so I'm
good, you're good.

1826
01:38:44,760 --> 01:38:47,360
I'm just going to eat breakfast,
walk into the show.

1827
01:38:47,880 --> 01:38:50,600
You know.
Do a dinner after and straight

1828
01:38:50,600 --> 01:38:53,120
back to my room.
Sneak past the bar, nobody will

1829
01:38:53,120 --> 01:38:55,320
see me.
Are they done with all the

1830
01:38:55,320 --> 01:38:59,320
renovations now to the original?
Convention Center, do you know

1831
01:38:59,320 --> 01:39:00,960
is that front end finished or
not?

1832
01:39:01,280 --> 01:39:03,760
I don't know.
I literally haven't been at the

1833
01:39:03,760 --> 01:39:06,280
Convention Center.
I think in two years, I think

1834
01:39:06,280 --> 01:39:10,280
it's been 2 years because I
skipped last year and I don't

1835
01:39:10,280 --> 01:39:11,800
think I've been there for
anything else.

1836
01:39:11,960 --> 01:39:15,760
I was out in Vegas at Infocom.
Right.

1837
01:39:15,840 --> 01:39:19,720
And yeah, in June and they were
really tearing the front end.

1838
01:39:19,720 --> 01:39:23,840
Up really hard.
Oh, and I don't know whether

1839
01:39:23,840 --> 01:39:24,960
it's.
Finished yet?

1840
01:39:24,960 --> 01:39:26,600
It's.
Probably not, They're doing some

1841
01:39:26,600 --> 01:39:31,680
serious renovation because to go
from the new hall to the old

1842
01:39:31,680 --> 01:39:38,440
hall, I ended up taking the loop
the the tunnel deal and then you

1843
01:39:38,440 --> 01:39:40,280
had to.
Go through this maze and up and

1844
01:39:40,280 --> 01:39:42,880
down.
To get past the construction

1845
01:39:42,880 --> 01:39:44,960
because they're basically
putting a new front end on the

1846
01:39:44,960 --> 01:39:48,880
building, which will match the
new hall much better.

1847
01:39:48,880 --> 01:39:53,000
And again, you know, Vegas is
still got one of the best

1848
01:39:53,000 --> 01:39:56,920
convention centers, although I
think the OCC in Orlando is

1849
01:39:57,200 --> 01:40:00,600
probably still my personal
favorite from facility to get in

1850
01:40:00,600 --> 01:40:02,400
and out.
Yeah, it's about the best in the

1851
01:40:02,440 --> 01:40:04,040
country.
It's pretty great.

1852
01:40:04,040 --> 01:40:06,360
And it keeps growing too.
Like it just.

1853
01:40:06,360 --> 01:40:09,040
Keeps getting bigger and bigger.
You know, you think the

1854
01:40:09,040 --> 01:40:11,520
convention business would be
slowing down now that so many

1855
01:40:11,520 --> 01:40:15,320
companies are remote and stuff,
but it's seems to be doing just

1856
01:40:15,320 --> 01:40:19,120
fine.
People do business with people.

1857
01:40:19,720 --> 01:40:21,400
Yeah, people love to congregate
too.

1858
01:40:21,400 --> 01:40:24,000
All comes down to the people.
And you know what's the?

1859
01:40:24,960 --> 01:40:28,560
The name of the game is
recognizing the importance of

1860
01:40:28,560 --> 01:40:30,080
people.
Yeah.

1861
01:40:30,560 --> 01:40:32,360
So the.
The last thing I want to ask you

1862
01:40:32,360 --> 01:40:34,600
about we're.
We're coming into, you know, the

1863
01:40:34,600 --> 01:40:37,600
big holiday season here.
It's, of course, Thanksgiving

1864
01:40:37,720 --> 01:40:40,600
tomorrow here in in the United
States.

1865
01:40:40,840 --> 01:40:42,520
I already had Thanksgiving in
Canada.

1866
01:40:42,520 --> 01:40:46,120
Thank you very much.
And yeah, where I got my cheeks

1867
01:40:46,120 --> 01:40:48,640
from.
I get to do both now, so.

1868
01:40:48,680 --> 01:40:53,480
You know, I, I.
Quite enjoy it, but do you do

1869
01:40:53,480 --> 01:40:59,240
anything this time of year with
any kind of give to something

1870
01:40:59,240 --> 01:41:01,120
charities do you support?
Anything.

1871
01:41:01,120 --> 01:41:03,880
Do you?
Want to brag about any a couple

1872
01:41:03,880 --> 01:41:06,360
of things that I do something
unique I did this year, which

1873
01:41:06,360 --> 01:41:09,920
I'm.
Which is kind of good and bad.

1874
01:41:10,720 --> 01:41:13,800
We live.
We live on a corner of a street,

1875
01:41:13,960 --> 01:41:16,160
right, two houses out of houses
on the corner.

1876
01:41:16,280 --> 01:41:20,240
And we had this blue spruce tree
that we planted there when we

1877
01:41:20,240 --> 01:41:24,120
built this house in 98.
Well, she's about 40 feet tall

1878
01:41:24,120 --> 01:41:27,920
now and owning the front of my
yard and owning the.

1879
01:41:28,000 --> 01:41:31,360
Front like it's just.
It's very big and it's it's a

1880
01:41:31,360 --> 01:41:32,840
risk.
I'm afraid the old girl's going

1881
01:41:32,840 --> 01:41:35,200
to blow down.
And anyway, my son mentioned to

1882
01:41:35,200 --> 01:41:38,600
me he's dead, he said.
Just take that one down and

1883
01:41:38,600 --> 01:41:42,040
plant frat Albert there.
So Fat Albert is a blue spruce,

1884
01:41:42,040 --> 01:41:45,600
but it grows very slowly.
That's the name Fat Albert.

1885
01:41:45,600 --> 01:41:47,320
He just and.
Anywhere.

1886
01:41:47,320 --> 01:41:49,840
Long story.
Short my neighbor a couple years

1887
01:41:49,840 --> 01:41:53,640
back had the city taking down
one of his trees, Big Blue

1888
01:41:53,640 --> 01:41:56,360
spruce, beautiful tree, right?
And that was right smelled down

1889
01:41:56,600 --> 01:42:01,760
in front of his yard.
And I went over to the city

1890
01:42:01,760 --> 01:42:03,360
worker and they said, how do you
guys do this?

1891
01:42:03,360 --> 01:42:08,080
Like what, How did he get you,
the city to come here to take

1892
01:42:08,080 --> 01:42:12,960
down his tree on his property?
And the lady had mentioned to

1893
01:42:12,960 --> 01:42:15,160
me, she said, well, actually
this tree is going downtown to

1894
01:42:15,160 --> 01:42:17,400
the city center.
We're going to use it for the

1895
01:42:17,400 --> 01:42:23,560
Christmas tree for the city.
So Needless to say, I.

1896
01:42:23,560 --> 01:42:25,840
Convinced.
My son convinced me that I

1897
01:42:25,840 --> 01:42:27,880
convinced my wife we're going to
change this tree out.

1898
01:42:27,880 --> 01:42:30,000
And that's finally, it's been a
couple years in the meeting, but

1899
01:42:30,000 --> 01:42:35,160
this year the city took it down
and it's now getting set up in

1900
01:42:35,160 --> 01:42:37,600
the Town Center for the
Christmas tree.

1901
01:42:37,600 --> 01:42:39,880
Oh, that's cool.
The town Christmas tree.

1902
01:42:39,880 --> 01:42:41,680
And I'm really excited for it
because.

1903
01:42:42,800 --> 01:42:45,640
And you know, the, the, the news
media came and interviewed me

1904
01:42:45,640 --> 01:42:48,000
and I only agreed to do the
interview because I don't really

1905
01:42:48,000 --> 01:42:50,520
do interviews probably for the
guys.

1906
01:42:51,240 --> 01:42:53,760
I'm fair with your beliefs, but
you know, I can talk to you.

1907
01:42:54,120 --> 01:42:55,400
Well, I've interviewed you twice
now.

1908
01:42:55,400 --> 01:42:56,560
I don't know what you're talking
about.

1909
01:42:56,560 --> 01:42:58,960
You're the only.
Person I don't yeah, Marcel, I

1910
01:42:58,960 --> 01:43:02,640
don't really do it I.
I'm not about, you know, I'm

1911
01:43:02,760 --> 01:43:04,960
actually a pretty short guy and
I know it's hard to believe and

1912
01:43:04,960 --> 01:43:06,480
you probably think of why it's
true.

1913
01:43:06,840 --> 01:43:10,240
Anyway, I should have said to
the news media when she was

1914
01:43:10,960 --> 01:43:13,440
interviewing me, I said the real
reason I did it is because it's

1915
01:43:13,440 --> 01:43:16,200
the only way I can afford to get
my Christmas food decorated.

1916
01:43:16,640 --> 01:43:22,240
It's now the city is going to
look after it right downtown.

1917
01:43:23,720 --> 01:43:26,760
But no, so that's that's one
thing we've done this year.

1918
01:43:26,760 --> 01:43:30,440
But what I've done my whole life
is the host of friendship.

1919
01:43:30,440 --> 01:43:36,200
Locally, I do food hampers.
OK, I mean my son and I one year

1920
01:43:36,200 --> 01:43:40,640
got up to almost.
During 100, I think we're at. 89

1921
01:43:40,680 --> 01:43:44,520
food wow, you know, we I did it
with my kids ever since I ever

1922
01:43:44,520 --> 01:43:47,040
since I got him out of the car
seat basically, and it was to

1923
01:43:47,040 --> 01:43:50,720
take my children around to let
them see other people and the

1924
01:43:50,760 --> 01:43:54,120
situations that other people
live in and they appreciate what

1925
01:43:54,120 --> 01:43:56,160
you have and to be grateful.
How's that work though?

1926
01:43:56,160 --> 01:43:58,520
How do you get the?
Like do they give you names of?

1927
01:43:58,520 --> 01:44:01,160
People who need help and you go
deliver stuff to them.

1928
01:44:01,360 --> 01:44:04,600
It's a big program.
They they.

1929
01:44:04,800 --> 01:44:06,520
You know, a lot of people are
starting now.

1930
01:44:06,800 --> 01:44:08,280
They'll start now gathering
food.

1931
01:44:08,280 --> 01:44:11,240
So all of the food donation
stuff comes in and they they

1932
01:44:11,240 --> 01:44:12,960
usually approach a local
business.

1933
01:44:12,960 --> 01:44:16,720
I mean, one year they got my
uncle to give up some warehouse

1934
01:44:16,720 --> 01:44:20,200
space where they could set up
these lines and they could build

1935
01:44:20,200 --> 01:44:23,640
these food hamper boxes, right?
And you can take all the food

1936
01:44:23,640 --> 01:44:27,480
in.
And then starting at about the

1937
01:44:28,280 --> 01:44:34,880
15th of December, 910 days out,
there's a big push and all the

1938
01:44:34,880 --> 01:44:37,640
food dampers are now built up
and ready and they're in boxes.

1939
01:44:38,160 --> 01:44:40,240
Depending on the need of the
place where you're going, you

1940
01:44:40,240 --> 01:44:45,080
might have 1-2 or three boxes
and you take them in.

1941
01:44:45,080 --> 01:44:48,880
And so I get a Dolly cart.
I'd like to take big apartment

1942
01:44:48,880 --> 01:44:52,840
buildings or condos or
government boxes where there's a

1943
01:44:52,840 --> 01:44:55,240
lot of there's a high.
Density of deliveries.

1944
01:44:56,080 --> 01:44:58,760
And then I could use the cart
and, you know, we'd load up the

1945
01:44:58,880 --> 01:45:02,360
back of my pickup truck and go
out after dinner.

1946
01:45:02,440 --> 01:45:04,640
And time, time was the best time
to deliver them because most

1947
01:45:04,640 --> 01:45:08,840
people are home.
You know, I did it one year.

1948
01:45:08,960 --> 01:45:10,800
I I actually I think I did it 2
or.

1949
01:45:10,800 --> 01:45:12,840
Three years I.
Did it two or three years where

1950
01:45:12,840 --> 01:45:19,280
there's a there's a church not
that far from here in what do

1951
01:45:19,280 --> 01:45:22,480
you call like what's a what's?
A good name for the.

1952
01:45:22,480 --> 01:45:26,640
Hood, I don't know, but in, in
the hood, basically there's a

1953
01:45:26,640 --> 01:45:30,600
church in the hood and you go
there with an SUV or a truck or

1954
01:45:30,600 --> 01:45:33,160
whatever and they'll load you up
with meals.

1955
01:45:33,440 --> 01:45:38,480
And I, I would take my son and a
couple of his buddies and they

1956
01:45:38,480 --> 01:45:43,880
basically give you a section
like a segment of the area and

1957
01:45:43,880 --> 01:45:46,200
you just go and you knock on
doors and say, would you like

1958
01:45:46,200 --> 01:45:48,600
Thanksgiving dinner?
And it's on Thanksgiving Day.

1959
01:45:48,600 --> 01:45:51,800
So while, you know, my ex-wife
would be cooking food with

1960
01:45:52,000 --> 01:45:55,160
whoever, I'd be out with the
kids doing this.

1961
01:45:55,480 --> 01:45:57,960
And it was, it was such a cool
thing to do.

1962
01:45:57,960 --> 01:46:02,200
It was so much fun to, to go out
and hand food to people like

1963
01:46:02,200 --> 01:46:06,640
that on Thanksgiving Day.
You know it's a good it's you

1964
01:46:06,640 --> 01:46:08,640
know it's.
It's good to give back.

1965
01:46:09,400 --> 01:46:12,160
It's good to do something that
humbles you because sometimes

1966
01:46:12,160 --> 01:46:14,040
you get a little bit ahead of
yourself.

1967
01:46:14,360 --> 01:46:18,040
And again, it's like I said
about the opportunities with

1968
01:46:18,040 --> 01:46:22,200
these people who called me, I
was just genuinely taken back to

1969
01:46:22,200 --> 01:46:25,520
think that.
And it's it's humbling, but the

1970
01:46:25,520 --> 01:46:28,080
food hamper program is a good
one for me.

1971
01:46:28,080 --> 01:46:29,240
The.
House of Friendship.

1972
01:46:31,240 --> 01:46:35,160
Is is another one.
I could, I could definitely, you

1973
01:46:35,160 --> 01:46:37,760
know, it's, it's always hard for
me because of the traveling

1974
01:46:37,760 --> 01:46:39,880
commitments and that sometimes
you lose faith.

1975
01:46:39,880 --> 01:46:43,440
In practice, December's always
usually pretty much a home

1976
01:46:43,440 --> 01:46:44,720
month.
And we'd.

1977
01:46:44,720 --> 01:46:47,560
Pick a couple of days and and go
and do these deliveries.

1978
01:46:47,680 --> 01:46:50,200
But it has to be fast.
You know, we'd end up doing it

1979
01:46:50,200 --> 01:46:52,800
three or four nights and then
Saturday before Christmas.

1980
01:46:53,360 --> 01:46:54,760
So it was a blooming
undertaking.

1981
01:46:54,760 --> 01:46:57,000
It wasn't just a one thing.
Yeah.

1982
01:46:57,000 --> 01:47:00,200
But yeah, our, our record, I
think, was either 89 or 93.

1983
01:47:00,200 --> 01:47:02,760
And we were back.
We wanted to do 100 so bad.

1984
01:47:02,760 --> 01:47:04,400
It was just a personal goal.
Right.

1985
01:47:04,680 --> 01:47:06,920
Yeah.
Because it's doing the 100

1986
01:47:06,920 --> 01:47:08,440
deliveries.
There's a lot like.

1987
01:47:08,520 --> 01:47:10,440
Yeah.
And I think about now an Amazon

1988
01:47:10,440 --> 01:47:12,840
driver and wonder, like, how
many, how many drops does that

1989
01:47:12,840 --> 01:47:14,000
guy do in a day?
Yeah.

1990
01:47:14,200 --> 01:47:17,080
Well, they do 100 by 9:00 AM
like those.

1991
01:47:17,080 --> 01:47:20,600
Guys, some of them, you know,
we'll get the, we'll get the

1992
01:47:20,600 --> 01:47:24,520
little, the, the Ring doorbell
noise on our phones or whatever,

1993
01:47:24,520 --> 01:47:26,360
sometimes at 5:30 in the
morning.

1994
01:47:26,360 --> 01:47:28,680
And I'm like, why?
Like, why are those people

1995
01:47:28,680 --> 01:47:30,880
already here?
What's going on?

1996
01:47:31,280 --> 01:47:33,480
Yeah.
But hey, you know, good on them.

1997
01:47:33,560 --> 01:47:35,880
It's nice, especially this time
of year when you're starting to.

1998
01:47:35,880 --> 01:47:38,360
Do the.
Black Friday stuff and Christmas

1999
01:47:38,360 --> 01:47:40,360
shopping and stuff.
They must be getting crazy.

2000
01:47:40,360 --> 01:47:45,120
But yeah, well, Rob, you know I
will miss you this year at LDI

2001
01:47:45,120 --> 01:47:48,560
and and good luck with your new
gig.

2002
01:47:49,240 --> 01:47:52,960
I think it's a great fit and I
look forward to seeing.

2003
01:47:52,960 --> 01:47:56,120
What you do with those guys?
And the new products coming out

2004
01:47:56,120 --> 01:48:00,000
and all that stuff, Yeah, I'm
excited to be part of the team

2005
01:48:00,000 --> 01:48:01,160
over there.
And again, it's a.

2006
01:48:02,040 --> 01:48:04,960
It's an honor to work with
someone who, you know, had a

2007
01:48:04,960 --> 01:48:06,600
great vision for Tony for a
while.

2008
01:48:06,600 --> 01:48:10,480
Well, listen, you know, he was
supposed to speak at that LDI

2009
01:48:10,480 --> 01:48:13,760
don't know when that was.
And then I'm so bad for 10

2010
01:48:13,760 --> 01:48:15,680
years.
But I showed up and he didn't

2011
01:48:15,680 --> 01:48:18,160
make it, but he was on video.
And I was so disappointed

2012
01:48:18,160 --> 01:48:21,600
because I just wanted a personal
moment to chat and say hi.

2013
01:48:21,640 --> 01:48:25,880
And it did stay for the class.
It was worthwhile listening to

2014
01:48:25,880 --> 01:48:27,000
him.
Yeah.

2015
01:48:27,000 --> 01:48:29,760
Anybody listen?
I'm I'm envious of the dinner

2016
01:48:29,760 --> 01:48:32,440
with the Chenon crowd and the
and the and a few more old teams

2017
01:48:32,440 --> 01:48:34,440
going to be fun.
Yeah, it's going to be fun.

2018
01:48:34,440 --> 01:48:35,960
Shot to hear from me.
I look forward.

2019
01:48:35,960 --> 01:48:38,800
To it.
What's that?

2020
01:48:42,040 --> 01:48:49,560
Oops, stopped again.
Someone tried calling me.

2021
01:48:50,120 --> 01:48:52,720
I know my technology's been all
wrong today, but don't tell

2022
01:48:52,720 --> 01:48:54,040
anybody.
Just blame Bell.

2023
01:48:54,480 --> 01:48:56,600
Now that was I did.
I don't know if you heard that

2024
01:48:56,600 --> 01:48:59,040
or not, but you have to have at
least one shot of Jaeger for me.

2025
01:49:02,840 --> 01:49:04,760
Oh, hey, I hate Jaeger, but I'll
do it.

2026
01:49:04,760 --> 01:49:06,480
Just one you asked.
Me to so I'll do it.

2027
01:49:06,480 --> 01:49:09,160
Actually, listen, if you want
to, well, there's a.

2028
01:49:10,000 --> 01:49:12,640
There's a friend of mine.
Who Who I've worked with for

2029
01:49:12,640 --> 01:49:16,040
many years and used to do our
trade show booths at Martin and

2030
01:49:16,040 --> 01:49:19,480
then at other companies as well.
But he was always a big

2031
01:49:19,480 --> 01:49:21,240
Jägermeister drinker.
Chris Aysen.

2032
01:49:21,240 --> 01:49:25,120
I think people already knew who
I was talking about, but I'll

2033
01:49:25,120 --> 01:49:27,240
I'll convince here's a secret
for you one day.

2034
01:49:27,520 --> 01:49:29,560
Middle of the day people tell me
that this is called.

2035
01:49:29,560 --> 01:49:31,560
Liquid cocaine.
Now I don't know if that's the.

2036
01:49:31,560 --> 01:49:36,640
Real drinking name for it, but
half a shot of Jager and half a

2037
01:49:36,640 --> 01:49:43,520
shot of Goldschlager.
So the Goldschlager takes the

2038
01:49:43,520 --> 01:49:45,920
edge off the Jager.
And.

2039
01:49:45,920 --> 01:49:51,400
It it's yeah, that's that's just
like cocaine takes the edge off.

2040
01:49:51,400 --> 01:49:54,920
Heroin or vice versa, whichever
it is, you know, great ideas.

2041
01:49:54,920 --> 01:49:57,720
You know, I, I heard Nikki Sixx
from Mötley Crüe talking about

2042
01:49:57,720 --> 01:49:59,280
that.
Yeah, I took the heroin to take

2043
01:49:59,280 --> 01:50:01,720
the edge off of the cocaine.
Smart.

2044
01:50:02,280 --> 01:50:04,880
I'm running straight towards the
clip and I can't even see it.

2045
01:50:05,320 --> 01:50:06,440
Listen, have a.
Wonderful.

2046
01:50:07,600 --> 01:50:09,040
Yeah.
You make a wonderful season.

2047
01:50:09,120 --> 01:50:12,320
It's been a pleasure.
As always, be well and safe.

2048
01:50:12,800 --> 01:50:14,520
OK, thanks.
Cheers mate.