Simplifying Life Through Technology
SoundVision LLC is a lifestyle technology company located in Mooresville, North Carolina. We interview vendors, clients and staff with the purpose of demystifying the capabilties of new technologies for your home or business and sometimes highlighting local content that is important to our community.
Simplifying Life Through Technology
SAVI Controls: Scott Salzman
On this episode of “Simplifying Life Through Technology,” Michelle and Andrew sit down with Scott Salzman, Regional Sales Director from SAVI Controls.
SAVI Controls is the mastermind behind the technology at every Topgolf venue you’ve visited. That seamless entertainment experience, from the interactive bays to the AV systems, is all thanks to SAVI’s cutting-edge automation platform. Originally developed for Topgolf, SAVI has taken that same powerful technology and expanded it to transform lighting, audio, video, and control systems in diverse commercial settings.
Scott gives us an inside look at how SAVI’s easy-to-use interface and multifunctional TV displays enhance user experiences while increasing efficiency and revenue for businesses. We also trace Scott’s career, from his roles at Control4 to his impactful position at SAVI, where he’s helping disrupt the commercial automation market in a way similar to how Control4 reshaped residential automation—but with SAVI carving out its own unique space in the commercial world.
With industry veterans like John Dorsey in charge and a team filled with former integrators, SAVI is perfectly positioned to solve the challenges that AV integrators face today. Curious to see SAVI in action? We’ll tell you how you can explore their offerings online or check them out firsthand at your local Topgolf. Be sure to listen to hear all about the incredible features that make Topgolf’s AV magic possible—and how SAVI is pushing the boundaries of commercial automation.
To learn more about SAVI Controls:
https://www.www2.savicontrols.com/
Check out SAVI Controls on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/savicontrols/
To learn more about SoundVision:
https://www.svavnc.com/
Check out our Instagram to see our recent projects:
https://www.instagram.com/soundvisionllc/
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https://open.spotify.com/show/7fIkJuLZ7lZ8xbafz62muQ
Contact Us Today: (704) 696-2792 Ext. 1 | Info@svavnc.com | soundvisionlkn.com
Well, joining us in the podcast studio today, we have Scott Swalsman, the Regional Sales Director for Savvy Controls. Yay, Welcome Scott.
Speaker 2:Thank you. What a great reception.
Speaker 3:So tell us, Savvy is here to show us what's new on the commercial control side. Can you tell us a little bit about Savvy and the company and what you guys do?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Savvy Controls is an organization that's been doing Topgolfs all across the world for the last 10, 12 years, so anybody that's been to one of those environments has experienced Savvy without knowing it. And that's really where our organization started from, and we looked at the commercial space based on that experience and said it's too complicated, it's too expensive, it is too in-depth for most people to deploy efficiently, and so, as a result, we created our own platform of lighting, audio, video and control that we're now expanding beyond the Topgolf world into the integrator channel, into other areas, into arenas that we're working with NFL teams, nhl teams and really trying to. How do we do more jobs more efficiently without being there for weeks and months? How can we be there for hours and days and turn these jobs on for folks?
Speaker 3:That's awesome. You mentioned NFL teams. Can you give some examples of maybe some work that you guys have done?
Speaker 2:Yeah, currently those are under NDA. So I have to keep them a little quiet. They are extremely popular teams. I can mention that here locally we've done work with the Carolina Hurricanes up in Raleigh.
Speaker 2:And we're working on additional facilities with them right now with video boards. So we've got a long history with some sports teams and we're speaking to others now. But there's also other sports bars that we're doing, like Chicken and Pickle Tiger Woods company that he's investing in. We're going to be doing all of those. So we're really scaling at a high rate right now in all avenues.
Speaker 3:What is that company that Tiger Woods is invested?
Speaker 2:in. I believe it's Putt Stroke. I haven't interacted directly with them, but I believe it's Putt Stroke.
Speaker 3:So it's like is it like miniature golf, or?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so think of kind of like what Topgolf did. It went from bowling to let's do a driving range. Now let's make that experience with a mini golf instead of just being the awful Myrtle Beach experience with all that, how do?
Speaker 2:we make it into something that has a true sandbox. How do we make it feel like it's a real course. How do we make people engaged? We make it feel like it's a real course. How do we make people engaged and also, how do we help them facilitate more revenue by making a more engaging experience, which is really what Savvy's about. How do we make it a better experience to where the customer wants to spend more time and ultimately generate more revenue for the facility?
Speaker 3:So it's a sophisticated take on a putt putt. You know something a little bit more high end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an adult time, not child time.
Speaker 1:Gotcha Awesome. Well, you mentioned you guys got your start with Topgolf. What are some features that Savvy Control does for Topgolf that people can see when they visit?
Speaker 2:It's really about the signage experience. So when you go into an individual bay, there's a TV that's right up above you. Into an individual bay, there's a TV that's right up above you and that's a single display that our technology actually turns into three individual screens in one chassis.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So at the top you can have a live broadcast of the sports games or whatever else is happening. Then there could be an advertisement for whatever is important to Topgolf at that time for the bay. Maybe it's a happy hour experience, maybe it's a food special, and then obviously you want to have that local game that you're playing on that display as well. So we're able to deliver all three of those with our savvy technology into one chassis, and in a typical Topgolf we're controlling 250 to 300 TVs. That obviously have to be flawless.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because if there's any downtime at a Topgolf, it's not like residential without a TV. It's mission critical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would. I saw the, the demo of it, andrew, and I guess for us and other marketing nerds if you think of the Canva or PicMonkey or Mimatic Pro templates, where they have like the different spots of where you can drop content into. Very similar to that where he did it while we were sitting here. He did it from our showroom to their experience center in Dallas.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, and it went through just like that and he was able to put the different content in change up the shows. It was very amazing. So it was able to put the different content in change up the shows.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was very amazing, so it's easy to use too. Well, we've all been to a sports bar where we've seen the bartender running around desperately with the direct TV remote.
Speaker 1:I've been there, it's horrible.
Speaker 2:And the person that hates it even more is the bartender. Yes, and the problem is is at that point in time they're not generating revenue, the hamburger's getting cold in the window, so the guest experience is actually getting hurt. Yeah, with our interface people can do it from any device their phone, their iPad, even the computer in the office and be able to affect change and see that change happen without having to run around the facility. So it becomes very efficient operationally and makes the benefit faster, quicker, easier. And we all know in restaurants there's high churn of employees. Our interface is incredibly intuitive. So in a Topgolf we can't have them spend three hours teaching somebody how to operate the bay. Literally they spend 10 minutes with the employee and they are efficient and up and running. And that is unheard of in the control space in residential or commercial.
Speaker 3:Right, you mentioned you guys have an experience center in Dallas. Can you tell us just high level, a little bit about what it is, how big it is, what it offers?
Speaker 2:So in Dallas, our founder, john Dorsey, has made an incredible investment in our facility. Our founder, john Dorsey, has made an incredible investment in our facility. We have 80,000 square feet of facility in Dallas, texas. 50,000 is warehouse because when we sell the amount of LG TVs that we do, they take up a lot of space. So we have the space for that, but then everything else is for the staff and then our experience center. So when you walk in the front door there's a 26 foot diagonal TV well video wall that is at the main entrance and we can emulate what facilities look like.
Speaker 2:We can give an operator an idea of what's a sports bar going to look like if they happen to deploy us, and we also have about 300 can lights on low voltage that are our can lights that we do full RGBW lighting with throughout the facility, so we can make a very impactful demo in this facility for anybody that wants to come now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was checking out your website and I saw that video wall and your main entrance and it is. It's massive and it looks incredible.
Speaker 2:I am pitching a Super Bowl party in that room, and I'll even pay my own airfare because I think it would be phenomenal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could get on board with that too.
Speaker 2:It's like IMAX for Super Bowl.
Speaker 3:So, scott, you are relatively new with Savvy, but you are an industry veteran. I think I met you at the start of my career in this industry.
Speaker 2:Well, you just started two years ago, so you're aging me, I'm 27.
Speaker 3:Yes, but you you've worked for some other manufacturers that we've done business with control for. Certainly you were regional and instrumental in that organization as well. I know after that you did Brilliant and now Savvy, which is a commercial form of automation control. Just to clarify the difference, is it?
Speaker 2:not, yeah. So Control 4, which, up to this point, greatest place I ever worked at, because we changed the industry. How do we make it more affordable, more accessible? How do we make it available to more people? We're doing the same thing with Savvy, just in a different space, and it feels incredibly similar to what Control 4 was back in the day of when it got started, and I can see on the horizon the ability to become the commercial version of what C4 was in the residential world, and it's really due to the fact that we have identified a problem. We have a solution that we have deployed worldwide, and now it's time to take it to more folks so that more people can enjoy what Topgolf has been raving about for 10 years.
Speaker 1:Right. So we say it's a commercial platform. Is that going to be you guys going to stay on that path, or do you see yourself moving towards residential as well in the future?
Speaker 2:or the drivers are so different. You know for the integrations. So I envision us being in the commercial space. I won't say never, but in the limited time I've been with the company I haven't seen a roadmap that would indicate we want to be solely focused on what we're really good at, and there's a lot of competition in residential already. Let's go be the best commercial solution that we can be and invest in making that even better rather than being distracted by other things. So I think we'll stay in the commercial space.
Speaker 3:Makes sense. Personal question Ellen, when you were at Control 4, what was your favorite part of working there? Putting on the spot?
Speaker 2:From a product point of view, or Either Product, people, culture.
Speaker 2:My favorite part, and I've had the pleasure of doing this twice and I believe that Savvy will be the third time I've been able to do this. I like being part of a company that changes an industry. So I was in distribution before. Avid was Avid for the people in the industry and distribution was new. Having something locally was new new. Having something locally was new. And Avid was really that first national organization that came together as one to service the dealer base. And now it's been emulated at scale by Snap One, now ADI, and we changed how dealers secured product locally. That was fun.
Speaker 2:With Control 4, we came into a market where people were focused on the McMansions that are out there and they're phenomenal, but there's only so many of them. And with Control 4, we brought the entry price of automation down significantly to where it went from. Control 4 didn't exist to. It was the number one residential solution in the country. That's fun to be part of. Solution in the country, that's fun to be part of. And with Savvy I can see the exact same thing of where we're established and people in the industry know us. But now we're going to go from that hey, we've started and we've grown to how do we become that number one solution and I think within the next 12 to 18 months that conversation will be complete.
Speaker 3:One thing you mentioned when we were speaking earlier was that what is the owner's name?
Speaker 2:John Dorsey. John Dorsey.
Speaker 3:John Dorsey started out as an AV integrator.
Speaker 2:Correct Digital DM.
Speaker 3:So he is one of us, essentially, who was looking for a solution, who came up with the solution when faced with some challenges on an install, and so his product he's made for the commercial side, but he actually originated from the AV industry. He is an integrator.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Digital. Dm was a who's who in the Dallas market. I didn't call him the Dallas market when I was with Control 4, but I absolutely knew who they were. I knew John was. Uh. Every award that was out there he has won in some form or fashion. Uh, it's. Whatever John puts his attention to, he is going to push it over the finish line. He did that with his integration company when he saw the opportunity in the partnership with top golf to move fully into commercial, he did. And I will tell you that when John goes into something he doesn't Go a little bit. I mean he easily could have said, hey, I'm happy doing what we're doing. Now he built an 80,000 square foot facility and said let's go, and there's very few people that have that DNA.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it takes. I want to say this nicely and I'm not trying to be negative. It's just AV integrators are faced with so many different companies and so many different options. Many from overseas who come into the marketplace and they bring us something and it's shiny and it's pretty, and they're like this is going to work, it's going to solve all your problems, it's going to do all the things, but they don't understand our industry. They don't understand the challenges on the back end, our industry. They don't understand the challenges on the back end. They don't understand the culture and the relationships that we have to maintain with the customer.
Speaker 3:So for me, that really adds value to an opportunity like Savvy, because I feel more comfortable, like, okay, this person was an integrator, he does get it. I'm a little bit more confident than somebody just, you know, cold calling us from anywhere and saying, hey, I've got this thing, I've got. There's so many like a direct led. There's so many direct led manufacturers right now. You have to be really careful of who you choose, because they're popping up overnight and you don't know what you're going to get as far as support or warranty or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Well, I haven't given you the full look behind the curtain as far as how tied to that world we are. Two of our board members X control for product managers. X control for three of the four outside sales guys. X control for national sales guys. X control four. National sales manager X control four. So we've taken the previous experience that we all sat back and said this is the best job we've ever had and we're being blessed to do it again Now. The beauty is is I want to be sure to say this isn't control four in the commercial market.
Speaker 2:This is employees that have joined this company. Savvy stands on its own. It is not control for it, doesn't need control for it. Just they've recognized a problem the same way that brand did, and now they're attacking it with the same vigor that control for it. But, we do understand the space.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, I for me, anyways, I appreciate the fact that there are people that are familiar with our industry again that are working on solutions, versus people who aren't familiar with our industry. And you know, we do mainly residential, but we've picked up quite a bit of commercial and so we want to offer the same reliable, steadfast product on the commercial side as we do on the residential side. That's unequivocally important and be able to have the support in place and just keep the customers as happy on both sides. So to me, hearing that what your team is made up of and how your team came about and how this business came about, it's very exciting.
Speaker 2:Well, we always believe in being the guys and the ladies and the white hats. We want to show up. We want to be the good guys, good ladies, we want to be the partners. We want to be there to support you. We understand that this is more than transactional. It's about how do we support you in the good, and reality is there's going to be some tough times because it's technology. How do we solve that, not only for you, but for the end user. How do we partner together totally and frankly? That's one of the reasons that ProSource wanted to partner with us as a brand as they expand into commercial. That we were one of the first people they partnered with is because they get that heritage and they see the same thing that you're referring to. That this isn't a Johnny come lately. This is a bunch of people that have done this before and you can take what they say to the bank.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Yeah Well, Andrew, do we have any fun questions for Scott as we wrap up here?
Speaker 1:Absolutely One question we always like to ask our guest is.
Speaker 2:I should have watched the last one.
Speaker 1:Who is your favorite band or artist?
Speaker 2:Favorite band or artist. It kind of depends on the mood in the day. I have definitely become more of a country fan. But if you go, hey, this, this band's coming to town. If journeys on the band, on the mix, we're going. My wife and I are definitely down for some. Don't stop believing. Just went down to Atlanta. Did the journey deafard? Show down there?
Speaker 3:Nice, which was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I love stadium shows. I love being in Bank of America Stadium and having 60,000 people. So, whether it's Luke Combs or Kenny Chesney which, oh, by the way, Zach Brown absolutely smoked Kenny Chesney at that show- the headliner should have been Zach Brown, not Kenny Chesney. But I'm really open to everything. In fact, we're sitting here and on the TV we've got Taylor Swift playing and I need to watch that concert, because what this person has done for economies around the world is I can't wrap my head around it.
Speaker 1:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean the other night she had 20,000 people on a mountain watching from outside the stadium.
Speaker 3:No, it wasn't 20,000. I thought it was more than that. I thought it was like 100,000. It was something incredibly unprecedented. It was like rolling mountains of people.
Speaker 2:It's just insane. So really it's bad, but you'll also catch me dropping some Snoop based on the Olympics.
Speaker 1:Okay, you can also catch me dropping some Snoop based on the Olympics. Okay, yeah, we're seeing him.
Speaker 2:You caught that. I love that. So it's really what's the mood and what's the vibes that Scott needs that day.
Speaker 3:I like it. Andrew, have we ever asked you what your favorite band is?
Speaker 1:No, I don't think we have. I feel similar to you. It depends on my mood. I love the energy. Sometimes I love some good pop, I love some good rap, but sometimes I need that emotional music. I'm feeling a little down, so I need some good, uh, powerful women vocals or something like that. Positive vibes yes, but I agree, I think it kind of depends on my mood, my vibe, just feel the energy that's the great thing about music it literally can change how you feel. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So there's days I just I got to hit it up and it puts me where I need to be because the coffee ain't getting it done.
Speaker 1:Amen to that. Well, I think that's all we have time for if we want to go ahead and yeah, well, before you go, if our listeners wanted to learn more about Savvy Controls or get in contact with you guys, how can they do so?
Speaker 2:Yep. I would encourage them to reach out here. Contact directly with Sound Visions, reach out to Michelle. The team here is absolutely amazing. They can set you up. If you want some general information, savvycontrolscom is a great place to go work or go look and, even better, go to your local Topg, local top golf. Have a beverage, have a nice dinner, hit some golf balls and check out what we do there, because we are integral in that experience scott, thank you so much for for doing this and coming to see us and presenting this, this option.
Speaker 3:We I really appreciate our friendship over years, over the years. I definitely appreciate the opportunity that you bring, uh, and I'm very excited about it and it's great to see definitely appreciate the opportunity that you bring and am very excited about it and it's great to see you.
Speaker 2:Appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 3:Thanks for joining us.
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