Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight:

Possibly one of the most important aspects of the AV integrator’s job is the ability to help their clients understand their technological needs – since many of them won’t actually understand the specific details of the gear and technology being used.

While AV is very highly focused on the latest and greatest gear and technologies, at it’s core this is a people business. We use technology to solve problems, tell stories, relay messages, entertain, leave an impression, and ultimately connect with people.

And when it comes to building connections – both technologically and with people – Seattle, WA-based AV integrator, Quincy Owen Solutions, does an awesome job of bridging the knowledge gap between their clients’ vision and reality.

Let’s dive in and explore more!

ABOUT QUINCY OWEN SOLUTIONS

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

Quincy Owen Solutions is a Consulting firm in the Seattle area specializing in audio, video, lighting and control technology systems consultation, design and deployment services to churches, schools, corporate environments and more.

Judson Bartels, Founder of Quincy Owen Solutions, is a consultant and integrator, who also works as a Pastor. Bartels has been working in the AV industry for the last 21 years and focuses on bridging the gap between the House of Worship sector and the tech sector.

We got the opportunity to speak with Judson about his journey into the industry, how being a pastor helps him understand his clients, and how he measures success…

TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOUR COMPANY?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “At Quincy Owen Solutions, we work with churches and other venues such as meeting rooms or community facilitates to remove pain points, increase unity, strengthen leadership, and integrate solutions. From a church perspective, we work both as consultants and integrators to help them navigate technology and understand their system needs. I like to say that we work as a translator between the tech world and the church world. The languages of those industries are completely different, but being fluent in both has allowed me to bridge that gap. Time and time again I see a pastor who knows exactly what he wants in his church but isn’t able to articulate that to the tech guys and so stuff can get lost in translation. That’s really where we come in. That’s kind of where the job of the integrator is most important because we have to become a client whisperer. This means trying to interpret what they’re telling us, asking a whole load of questions, and engaging with the client all through the process.”

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THE INDUSTRY?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “Well, I’ve been working in AV mostly in churches since the mid-90s when I was a teenager. This was back in the analog days, I had to learn how to make stuff sound good without a lot of resources. Then for the last ten years, my wife and I have pastored a church in the Seattle area and throughout that time we innovated with our own technology and I ended up helping a lot of other churches in the area with their technology. People eventually started offering to pay us for our help and we slowly realized we could turn this into a business.”

WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING PROJECT YOU HAVE WORKED ON?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “One of our most challenging projects was a tribal meeting center for a Native American tribe. It was made up of a large meeting hall, a conference room, and then a mix of several other spaces like a lobby, museum, and a kitchen. We needed to be very creative with the installation because there were so many components to one project.

We ended up using Symetrix DSP to control the entire venue and ran all the audio over Dante. It was great to be able to have the LEA amplifiers connected to that same Dante network. In their conference room, we did a 65-inch touchscreen smart board TV with a 4K display, built-in PC with a speaker on the left and the right. We also had a subwoofer that was tucked away in the corner of the ceiling, which was an ideal scenario as we could use the LEA Professional Smart Bridge to get a lot more power into that subwoofer. The feedback from the project was amazing and the client commented that they had never heard a good sounding system. It’s become a showpiece now, with the client bringing peers in to see how well it works.”

WHAT IS ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WOULD GIVE TO SOMEONE GETTING STARTED AS AN INTEGRATOR?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “I would say don’t be afraid to innovate and come up with new ideas. One of the things that people in the industry say — both clients and rep firms — is that our company puts fresh eyes on every project. We will never rinse and repeat the same two or three system options and that’s really because we are always looking for what else is out there that will benefit our client in the long run. I try to be extremely forward-looking and anticipate a client’s needs in the future. As an example, there was one project in a downtown Seattle facility meeting room where the original integrator didn’t include teleconferencing equipment because the client felt they didn’t need it. So now a year and a half later we are in there rebuilding their entire system to add teleconference and video teleconference. So, there are times when a client says, no, we don’t want that right now; but it’s my job to inform them that we could either build this in for a little bit more money now, or it could cost a lot of money later.”

WHY CHOOSE LEA?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “There are so many advantages to the LEA Professional technology, not just because of the cloud and IoT capabilities, but also the Smart Power Bridge feature, which allows a single channel of the amplifier to emulate the results of bridging two amplifier channels. All of the features are innovative, revolutionary and allow me to serve my clients in new ways.”

YOUR GO-TO AV GEAR?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “I remember having a conversation with a new client that we hadn’t worked with yet in Seattle, and they said their equipment had failed and they didn’t know what the problem was. In situations like that a LEA Professional amplifier is one of my go-to products to bring. Sure enough, their amplifier was fried and within a couple of minutes we had the LEA amplifier in place and had solved the problem. Not only did we fix the issue for the client but we gave them a new technology that allows us to monitor the system remotely through the LEA cloud platform so we wouldn’t need to have another on-site visit.”

THE BENEFITS OF CLOUD CONTROL IN AV

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “On another project, a client asked us to change some parameters on the amplifiers but it was late at night and I couldn’t drive down there. Instead, they walked around the venue and talked us through what they needed over the phone while I made the adjustments from home. It’s an extremely innovative solution that is valuable to any integrator who can save time and money from eliminating the need for an on-site visit every time there is a maintenance need.”

CHOOSING A PRODUCT/BRAND TO WORK WITH?

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “When working with a manufacturer, I look to see if they are competitive on price, performance, and service. LEA Professional ticks all three requirements, and when I find a product like this that I like, I put them everywhere!”

FAVORITE SONG FOR SYSTEM TESTING

Seattle, WA-based AV Integrator | Quincy Owen Solutions Spotlight

[JB] “I have two, the 1994 MTV live recording of Hotel California by the Eagles and the remastered Henry Mancini Pink Panther theme song on Spotify.”

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