Does anyone know the whole story about Media Systems? Are they completely out of business or just re-organizing? It's disconcerting that one of our leaders could go down like that.

Done. Completely done. Gone. Finnito...kaput...DOA..etc....

Heard this from a supplier recently.

Ohh...and they're dead, gone and done.

Are we talking about this Media Systems:
[Link: mediasystems.com]

When?
Why?

This message was edited by QQQ on 07/07/04 17:04.

One of the trade magazines had info on the auction held at their place. I'll look for th article.

Yes QQQ,

That's the one. Apparently, from what I'm told, all their employees just showed up and the doors were locked.

McNasty knew something about it a while back, said some of their installers had been calling around looking for work!

Also heard it from a VERY reliable source inside an east coast distributor I deal with!

It's a bummer if it is indeed true...but if there was an auction, I betting it is!

avdude

Wow. How the mighty have fallen. I've attended a couple of Mitchell Klein's seminars at CEDIA. He always closed with that "there's always room for beer" thing.

This following Jeff Hoover's company closing in Florida makes me nervous about the health of the industry.

Jeff Hoover??!!

Audio Advisors??!!

WHAT??!!

Hadn't heard that one!

avdude

Greg,

got ya covered!

[Link: ce-pro.com]

Couldn't find anything to substantiate Jeff Hoover's demise (I'm glad by the way). I hope no one else can either!

avdude

Did I get that wrong? Some big dealer in Florida stumbled last year or early this year. If I said Hoover and it was someone else, I apologize.

Yeah... that article blew me away too.

I have enjoyed both Mitchell and Eric Pickilingis. My surmising is that the story might be something like this. We all know the economy took a downturn. Media Systems was in what has to be some of the most expensive real estate in all of Boston. These guys seemed to really care about the people that worked for them. As projects either came in at much lower overall and net or went off to the land of the cheaper installer with gear purchased on the internet they probably treid to keep things afloat and not let guys go... I'll bet the owners didn't take a salary.

We have a very prestigious dealer here in Washington that used to not even talk to you if your budget wasn't 6 figures. Now they're banging down builders for structured wiring jobs. People see me giving my sarcastic, cynical and negative opinions here but its because I have documented a big change in this industry. The ONLY reason I'm still here is that I've stayed small, used subcontractors, stayed in a ghetto office that only costs me $850.00 a month with utilities included, and have taken less pay than my lead installer.

I feel really bad for these guys... hopefully they'll recover... and hopefully Mitchell's still got room for beer.

I attended the auction of the offices. The company is gone, the mailing list was sold, the installers have moved on.

Any idea for how much?

rhm9,

I'd love to know the inside story of why Media Systems really went under. This was a company that focused on high-end installations. Personally I'd guess that people purchasing over the Internet and having a cheaper custom installer install it would rank somewhere around 1 on a scale of 1-10 for the reasons they went out of business. I'd suspect there's quite a few other reasons, and while the economy is probably one of them, I'd guess there are some other ones that only the higher up/s in the company know.

Agreed. I'm sure the purchase of equipment and lease of an unbelieveable space for a fantastic showroom, along with the donation of what is certainly a multi-hundred thousand dollar theater to Children's hospital, and even more to the make-a-wish foundation, had nothing to do with it.

Just speculating here, based on the press releases on their website...

Their hearts were CLEARLY in the right place, just maybe not their finances at the time....

At that level, it might take one slip, one goof, or one damn independent accountant (seen that happen recently!) and POOF...done....

I personally am very saddened to hear of Media Systems demise, as they have been in the industry for 23 years, and have in fact pioneered portions of it!

If you check in here guys, good luck!

avdude

I could have elaborated but I'm too well known for a long wind (that and I guess some other wind but I usually save that for employees in tight spaces).

My post didn't say that the only reason that MS is gone is because of t-slammers and the internet. The point Q missed is that a lot of overall projects are lower because people (at least in my neck of the woods) are holding back still. It is loosening up but for a while they were really keeping it in. We all know margins are lower and I've whined about that even though I'm realistic enough to know that thats NOT going to change. The CEPro magazine that holds that article has a good one from Julie Jacobsen about channel conflicts and the fact that you have to embrace changes and make them work for you.

I've watched other local businesses go under or lay off massive amounts of people who beat down my door for a job or start little companies themselves. I'm not the amazing Kreskin (did I just date myself?)but it seems obvious to me that the story is basically that the income level was not enough to support that which used to be supportable (is that even a word?).I agree that no one who wasn't there knows what the exact scenario is that got it to that place. I'm not unhappy in my present model but who hasn't pictured themselves with the kind of prestige that a Media Systems held? In the kind of environment they were in? I would think that once you were there it would be hard to backtrack and that you would make sacrifices to hold down the fort in hopes that things would return. Once a few new jobs are taken on to pay off old jobs the spiral can be pretty quick.

In the 80's I worked for a company that did well over 60% of all of the autosound in the greater Seattle area. I made a lot more money then than I do now when you compare economies. Long story short...original owner sold and moved on. One new owner was a cokehead and the other had a penchant for taking healthy profits and investing them in harebrained schemes that lost money. Between the two of them we were soon on credit hold with suppliers. Couldn't buy new gear to sell to pay of debts on old gear. Soon displays were sold off and in Christmas of 1987 we were all two paychecks short and on the streets.

The buzz was the same... WHAT? They're out of business???????????? The new king is called "Car Toys"... started by a former employee of that company. Life goes on in some form.

I shall end now but please don't take the inference that I'm calling Mitchell Klein a cokehead or a bad investor... I was just relating a story.