I-Mag Video Inc. first appeared on the scene in 1990 when owner Steven Daniels started an AV company based in Arizona. After building a company based on renting gear to tours and live events, he found himself growing with a need for a centrally located hub in the U.S. Nashville seemed the optimum place to start up another shop, and they opened up another warehouse. They recently marked the company’s 15th year in business at the Nashville facility.
Three years ago, longtime Nashville resident Doug Green came on board as a partner in I-Mag, and today he serves as the company’s vice president. Doug has assumed much of the day-to-day activities, bouncing between Nashville and their other facility in Las Vegas (they’re no longer in Arizona) and focusing on the strategic growth of the company. This frees his partner to work on several side projects. Mind you, this is a good thing, as Doug explains it. “For instance, Steven’s new project is in sales and distribution of LED video products, and I-Mag is doing a lot of permanent installs these days. We work together on a lot of this, and it all ties together in the long run. It makes our company diversified and even stronger.
From Touring to Trade Shows
Things have changed over the years at I-Mag, as has the core focus of their business. For years, they were one of the top video vendors in the cutthroat market of concert touring. But today, they run things a little differently. With incredible growth in the last few years, a decision was made. Rather than compete with all the other companies for a slice of that touring market, they have set their goals more on the corporate side, leaning towards trade show and installation work now. Mind you, they still accept tours, but they no longer depend on them for a big part of their income as they had done in the past.
“When I partnered up with Steve, I wanted to change the culture,” says Doug. “There was a lot of competition amongst vendors, and that just drives the prices down. We are not interested in bragging rights on large shows where there’s a lot of gear but not much profit. I decided that rather than compete, I wanted to be solid with all of the other companies in Nashville. After all, this town is a relationship-based city. I can offer our services and gear to all of our AV contacts to use for their clients. I’m equally happy to work directly with a client as I am to help out another company.”
Right now, that gear amounts to more than 2,200 square meters of hi-res indoor and outdoor LED tiles, not counting the projectors, cameras, media servers and various switchers they also own. They invest in high-resolution tiles only, though, owning nothing with a lower resolution than 9mm. Green explains his philosophy: “With all the corporate trade shows, we need to have the highest resolution, because people pass within several feet of an LED display at times. On the other hand, we don’t need the 3mm LED displays for our outdoor shows and festivals. Clients may have the mindset that all they need for an event is a 12mm product. But we would rather give them a higher-res model, even if we have to match the price. The bottom line is we don’t ever want to say ‘No” to a client because we do not have the gear. With technology always changing, people are just going to keep raising the bar. It’s just better if we invest in higher-res products and keep ahead of it.”
Variety in gear is a great attribute for a video company. For instance, the company owns a lot of Panasonic product as well as products from China-based Shenzhen Gloshine Technology Co. “We carry several different company’s products for different applications. For instance we have a lot of 5mm outdoor [manufactured by Uniview, also based in Shenzhen, China] that can curve, bending in either convex or concave directions. Or it can hang straight. We also have a very robust straight 5mm Panasonic product that we may spec for jobs in areas with potential for serious weather issues. At this very moment, we are taking delivery of 400 square meters of Panasonic 8mm gear that’s also built for rugged wear and outdoor elements. We will use this super-robust model for several of our festivals. We do a portion of the Olympics, and that production is one that requires we use Panasonic gear; we are happy to be able to provide it.” Having such diversified selections in video tiles is important, as so much of their work is high profile. For instance, they recently did a large permanent installation for the Tennessee Titans over at their home stadium, Nashville-based Nissan Stadium.
Looking After the Crew
The shop is literally on a hill overlooking downtown, just over a mile away. Heck, they are just minutes from three different interstates. They employ 19 full-time staff as well as labor pools and freelance techs scattered all over the country. Green keeps those 19 people working as hard as they want, but knows how easy it is to burn out from overwork. “We keep our full-time guys as busy as they want to be. But we can tell when they need some downtime, and we look after them. These folks here are not the usual group of video techs; we pride ourselves on our staff. We invest in their future by training them above and beyond what we need them to do. As much as they want to learn, we will keep teaching. We train them in media servers, screen management systems and switchers.
“With gear changing every few months we want to have guys that can keep up with the advances,” Green continues. “We want a knowledgeable staff. We may send you a lead LED tech on a show, but that same person may also be qualified to be an engineer. He’s happy to do the job he’s been assigned. And if something arises at a show, we know we will sleep comfortably, because we have personnel that can step up and do whatever needs to be done to ensure a smooth event.”
Not surprisingly, given those policies, there is hardly any turnover in personnel at I-Mag. “We’re all family here, and we look after our guys. We have some tremendous talent around here, starting with our senior project manager, Josh Collins.” Green is the first to admit that salesman don’t know about all the nuts and bolts a video system may need to work. So he depends on Collins to “dot the I’s and cross the T’s. He handles the logistics for our company, getting the gear from one show to another, as well as crewing every event.” Once Josh has the gear list assembled, he hands it down to the warehouse manager Nick Vaphiadis, who Green describes as “the integral part of our whole operation that keeps it all moving. He gets the shows out the door.”
They don’t just provide gear at I-Mag; they supply ideas and direction on a multitude of projects. While content creation is not something that is a main focus of theirs personally, they have a wide network of partners that do this and they try and support these companies. “What I really enjoy is getting involved with clients who are thinking outside the box,” says Green. “Brainstorming with clients is what gets me going. I love when a client comes in and has a rough idea on something they think will be cool, then we go back and forth until we can figure out a way to bring that vision to fruition.”
“ We certainly get involved in some projection mapping from time to time and own some Barco HDX 20K’s that we break out when needed,” says the VP. “We did a show with Audi this year where they showcased a new car by mapping 3D imagery right to it. Fun stuff indeed, but we find less and less people are calling for projectors, especially in the trade show circuit. The one thing I have noticed is that clients are wanting more and more interactive technology.”
Wrapping up, Green adds, “Our business model is to help support other AV companies. We love sub-renting gear to our friends and helping them continue to grow. If we are working with someone who has a few clients, it doesn’t make sense for us to go after their clients. We are adamant about the fact that we are happy to give you the gear as well as the techs you need for a job, but we would never think of poaching your client. The fact is we can only take on so many clients and work directly with them, but we can certainly take on many AV companies and support them in their growth with equipment needs.”
For more information, please visit www.i-magvideo.com.
