CE Pro December 2022 - 32

INDUSTRY
CE Pro Masters
business in new directions.
In 1985, the alarm company
started selling residential
70-volt Soundolier music
systems and intercoms to
their affluent customers.
In 1990, Smith opened
Audio Video Design, ready
to go head-to-head with
the two biggest custom
companies in Boston. He
filled out his product line up
with Sonance, Audioaccess,
Canton, Sharp TVs, and AMX
and by 1992 he hired a GM
to run the alarm company
so he could concentrate on
evolving and upscaling the
AV contracting portion of
the business.
Things were going very
well and in 2001 Smith took
a giant step by opening a
14,000-square-foot design
showroom in Newton, Mass.,
among the best custom
showrooms in the country.
With 59 employees, sales
were great right up until
the Great Recession hit in
2008 and like everyone else,
AVD had to scale way back.
Says Smith, " From 20082013
I subsidized as many
employees as possible for a
very long time and I wound
up spending more than a $1
million in personal savings
- and still we had to pare
down to 20 employees. "
Luckily, all this time, the
alarm company kept generating
$100K/month in RMR
which helped every aspect
of the business until Smith
finally sold it in 2017, having
grown the business from 200
to 2,500 accounts.
Then, as very bad fortune
would have it, in 2011 Smith's
wife contracted brain cancer
and would only live 2½ more
years, so that time and several
years after were a very
tough period when he could
pay some attention to the
business but certainly had
no energy to try to grow the
company again.
Recalls Smith, " By 2018,
I finally had my head back
on straight and was having
new ideas about where to
take the company when
one of our best reps, Steve
Presti, called with a bit of a
proposition. As it turned out,
Greg Brett, who owned a
six-person local integration
company, Sounds Good, had
similar expansion ideas to
mine and at Presti's suggestion,
we started to consider
merging the two companies
to help us both achieve our
broader goals. "
Soon after, Sounds Good
acquired Creative Systems,
another respected Eastern
Massachusetts company.
The companies are now fully
merged with 36 employees
doing about $10 million in
sales.
Terence Murray, Strategic Development/Digital
Transformation, Sonance
CE Pro Master inductee Keith
Yates. Murray, along with his
close friend Lance Atkison,
started a custom installation
division for Keith Yates Audio
based in Sacramento.
" I did selling/installing/
operations/whatever the
business needed. I learned a
SUFFICED TO SAY, Terence
Murray is constantly in demand.
Both on the integrator
side and the manufacturer
side of the industry, Murray
has been tasked with creating
new divisions, entering
new markets, and honing
efficiencies, and along the
way he has been guided by a
list of mentors that reads like
a who's who of the industry.
Murray first got into the
industry in 1989 working
his way through college in a
high-end retail establishment
for industry guru and 2014
32 | CE Pro December 2022
great deal about marketing
and desktop publishing from
Keith. I also learned many
valuable business lessons
during my time and KYA. In
1991, both Murray and Atkison
joined Chris Stevens'
company Phoenix Systems,
where the duo opened the
company's first satellite
office in Sacramento. After
the company was acquired
by Harman International,
Murray's new role was GM
and Atkison became director
of sales.
" With the company
growth we needed better
software to create and
manage our proposals so we
bought and implemented a
system called AV Wizard Proposal
Software, " he recalls.
Those early years fostered
lots of lessons in terms of
creating a custom installation
company, learning the
manufacturing side of the
business, and being part of
a multi-national, publicly
traded company (Harman).
" Life was great, and then one
morning in 1994 I got a call
that Lance had tragically and
unexpectedly passed away
from a brain hemorrhage. I
now found myself having to
balance the challenges of
my personal loss with the
responsibility of maintaining
the business continuity for
our clients and team without
my business partner and
closest friend, " he laments.
By 1996, Murray had
moved to the startup Escient
Solutions and Tom Doherty,
Inc. as GM and VP to help
develop the first hard-drive
music server/CD changer.
While there, Murray implemented
the AV Wizard Proposal
Software from Merlin
Software, which was run by
another future mentor, Mark
Hoffenberg. Murray joined
Hoffenberg in Irvine, Calif., at
Audiovisions before and after
its acquistion by Best Buy
and subsequent reacquistion
by the four Audiovisions
partners (Hoffenberg, Bob
Walpert, Ted Taylor and
Murray). In 2017, Murray
founded his own consulting
firm archiTECHture, where is
now working with his client
Sonance as its Digital Transformation
leader. CE Pro
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CE Pro December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CE Pro December 2022
