November Featured Member: Inspire Audio Visual
Company: Inspire Audio Visual
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.inspireav.ca
Owner:
David Estabrook
204-975-9245
[email protected]
Owner:
Donald Estabrook
204-979-6695
[email protected]
Sales Manager:
Ian Laker
204-975-9245
[email protected]
How long has your company been in business?
Inspire Audio Visual has been proudly providing custom home automation and audio-visual solutions since 2016. We boast a management team that has just shy of a combined 100 years’ experience in the AV industry.
What services do you offer?
- Technology design services
- Smart home integration solutions (Lutron, Crestron, Control4 and Savant)
- Smart lighting
- Smart blinds/shades
- Custom home theatres
- Whole home audio
- Network security
- Security cameras
- Alarms
- SHAW/ROGERS partner for cable prewiring program
We also offer commercial solutions:
- Video conference rooms
- Audio and video for bars and restaurants
- Card-access and security
- Corporate networking solutions
Describe your team in 3 words.
Passionate technology experts!
What is your company’s greatest achievement?
What we are most proud of is Inspire Audio Visual’s vision and culture. We have experienced seven years of rapid growth while maneuvering through the pandemic and major supply chain issues (microchips are in many of the products we sell). Throughout it all, Inspire Audio Visual has been able to continue to grow while maintaining the solid foundation that we had set forth when we started the company.
We have continued to invest heavily in our employees’ education and training, and it shows in the knowledge base and workmanship of all our employees.
We have become the experts in the Audio-Visual and technology field, and we are always striving to create solutions where others are unable to. We are proud that many of our clients come to us to solve challenging problems where others have been unable to.
What are your business goals for the upcoming year?
We are looking to invest in providing technology education seminars to MHBA members. We are your AV/Technology experts and would love to help you with your technology needs.
Homes are having increasingly more technology in them as a basic standard. We at Inspire Audio Visual are looking to lobby having a “Technology category” as a part of the Parade of Homes awards to help reflect the work builders and renovators are doing to better integrate these advances in order to improve the homeowners experience within the home.
How long have you been a MHBA member?
Inspire Audio Visual has been an Associate member since 2017.
Why did you decide to join the MHBA?
We have always tried to be involved at a macro level in whatever endeavors we undertake. Both personally and as a business, from coaching to the countless product beta testing teams, we are always looking to help our suppliers with improving their products.
So, when we started Inspire Audio Visual, joining the MHBA was simply the logical choice.
What is the best part about being a MHBA member?
The best thing about our MHBA membership is networking and the connections we at Inspire AV have been able to make within the industry. There are so many great business and personal success stories here in Manitoba and it is always great to hear the difference the MHBA members have made in helping shape our province.
What is your favourite MHBA event?
The MHBA Housing Forum & Trade Show would have to be considered a highlight. It is always great to see so many members there, to have conversations about how their businesses are going and what they are seeing out there. The trade show also allows Inspire AV to field everyone’s technology questions. We LOVE talking about anything technology! Whether it is about home/enterprise networking, the latest in home automation, TVs, high-end audio, Wi-Fi 6, cybersecurity or how the AV security industry can provide better security options to the MHBA members.
But if we had to choose just one… the Inspire AV team had an absolute blast at the golf tournament, and we are already looking forward to seeing everyone out on the golf course next year!
How has being a MHBA member benefited your business?
It has been great to get that face time with our industry peers and to foster new relationships. This has allowed us the opportunity to showcase our passion for technology and to demonstrate what sets Inspire Audio Visual apart from our competition.
What is your favourite project that your company has done or service that you offer?
Project:
A favourite project was wiring up the massive 440” videowall at Browns Social House Portage, as well as providing the videowalls at Tavern United Downtown that consisted of thirty-two 50” displays.
Service or product:
We are really excited about leveraging newer security camera solutions that we have been testing and developing for the last 12 months. These will dramatically improve features, ease of use and effectiveness over the current industry standard that home builders have been offered in the past. This system utilizes machine learning to identify and notify of threats, while also deterring potential thieves, even when no one is at the home or site. Typically, systems in the past have been clunky and difficult to use, especially for builders with multiple sites to manage. Our solution will easily put all the relevant information into one simple to use application.
What advice would you give to a business just starting out in your industry?
We feel that to succeed in the technology industry you need to have a passion and a desire to constantly be learning about everything and anything new that the industry has to offer. Manufacturers are constantly putting out new products or firmware updates, and they do not always measure up to what they claim. In-house testing of products is a key part of what we do differently to make sure that the solutions that we offer are up to the exacting standards of what we want to provide.
Strive to be the best in the industry. Focus on quality workmanship and customer service. We feel that if you able to do those things, your workmanship will speak for itself, and the industry partners will find you.
Anything else you would like to share about your company?
Inspire Audio Visual also specializes in commercial solutions and has an extensive commercial AV presence.
Over the last couple of years, Inspire Audio Visual has completed just shy of 500 video conference room solutions, from simple Logitech TEAMS huddle rooms to government of Canada boardroom, training rooms as well as executive boardrooms of some of the largest companies in Manitoba, with rooms consisting of multiple displays, divisible walls, automatic camera tracking, and microphones hidden in the ceiling, keeping the boardroom tables free of any wiring.
It does not just have to be related to AV, all of us at Inspire Audio Visual are just passionate about technology and love having conversations about it. We look forward to chatting at the next MHBA event with you!
Thank you to Inspire Audio Visual for participating in our Monthly Member Profile interview. Stay tuned to see who next month’s featured member will be! #MHBAMembersMatter