AV expertise to advance integrator

SCARBOROUGH, Maine - Jesse Abbott never planned to add audio and visual expertise at his systems integration company Advance Technology, but that is exactly what happened after he partnered with a local audio visual expert on a hospital project. Last year Advance Technology launched Advance Technology AV, a division that installs display and auditory products for auditoriums, classrooms and boardrooms. The new division is expected to account for between one-quarter to a third of the company’s overall business within the next two years. “What we found is that other successful electronic systems integrators have also opened up an AV division because there’s a lot of crossover,” said Abbott, president of Advance Technology, a 22-employee systems integration firm that serves the Northern New England market. That crossover lies not just in the pulling of cable for a security or AV system, but also in a low voltage designation and ties to the construction market. “I look at it as both types of technology coming under the same umbrella of low voltage contracting,” said Jay White, who heads Advance Technology AV. “Certainly the migration path for technology companies today is to provide a total solution.” For now, White is the lone employee in the audio and visual division, but by the end of its second year plans call for three additional sales people to come onboard. The company has already begun the process of training two of its security technicians on audio and visual systems, sending them to attend Crestron Training to learn the code writing associated with this field. “There are some synergies in the basic labor form, in pulling wire, cutting inboxes, loading equipment racks and wiring equipment racks,” said White, who expects technicians to be up to speed within the next six to eight months.