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
Nate Lambert from SoundVision
On this episode of “Simplifying Life Through Technology,” Mark and Andrew sit down with Nate Lambert, SoundVision's newest project manager. Nate is responsible for coordinating project schedules, building and maintaining client relations, and making sure projects run smoothly.
Nate shares his fascinating journey from aspiring medical professional to smart home expert. After nearly completing pre-med requirements, he pivoted to electrical engineering, discovering a passion for technology that led him through roles in pharmaceutical robotics, security systems, and eventually home automation. His candid story of packing up his dog and belongings to move to Charlotte with no job lined up reveals the determination that brought him to our industry.
Drawing from his experience with Amazon's smart home division and another custom integration firm, Nate offers valuable insights into the difference between consumer-grade smart devices and true home automation. "Alexa is child's play," he explains, describing the sophisticated systems he's helped implement—from automated Lutron shades to custom lighting for art collections and pressure-plate activated entry gates.
What makes Nate's role so crucial? As the vital link between our design team and installation crew, he ensures your vision becomes reality through detailed planning and consistent communication. When unexpected challenges arise (as they inevitably do in complex integration projects), Nate's approach focuses on finding solutions rather than dwelling on problems. His commitment to creating those "you wouldn't believe" moments of exceptional service resonates perfectly with our company values.
Learn how our dedicated project managers' approach ensures a smooth, stress-free experience from concept to completion.
To learn more about SoundVision:
https://www.svavnc.com/
Check out our Instagram to see our recent projects:
https://www.instagram.com/soundvisionllc/
To listen to more “Simplifying Life Through Technology” podcasts:
https://open.spotify.com/show/7fIkJuLZ7lZ8xbafz62muQ
Contact Us Today: (704) 696-2792 Ext. 1 | Info@svavnc.com | soundvisionlkn.com
Joining us in the podcast studio today. We have our new project manager, nate Lambert. Welcome, nate.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Pleasure to be here. I gotta say that originally when I heard about Nate and I actually I did not interview Nate. I didn't meet Nate until he was official here.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's the first person here. As a matter of fact, that's the truth. But I was a little concerned because I heard his last name and I was. I was a little concerned that I could lose my wife. Where's that going? Because, um, chris is an avid Adam Lambert fan.
Speaker 1:Oh, I knew it.
Speaker 3:Okay okay, and when he was on American Idol. There were comments that I cannot repeat here or I will definitely lose her Not that she's going to listen to this, but if she does. But I was thankful to see that it was you, nate, and not Adam. It's me and my musical talent is non-existent. Are you related to Adam in any way? Not to my knowledge, not to your knowledge. Okay, good.
Speaker 1:At least you don't have competition with Adam.
Speaker 2:That's what. I was about to say I'm taking place for the other team.
Speaker 3:Anyway, no, no, no, that's actually when you're watching American Idol. Back then, that was not a thing. Yeah, that was not out yet, and but that dude, by the way, that dude is unbelievably oh yeah, he has got a crazy range voice. Yeah, he does it's yeah.
Speaker 3:So anyways, adam, if you're listening, great job with queen nate back to you. We're excited to have you here. Tell us a little bit about you. Where are you from? What's your background? Kind of career path, what are you into that? That sort of thing? Take it away all right.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, I'm known as nate, but real name is phil. Point at 2.0, as we all know. Second, field here yeah, and we have a third field down in willington which is kind of cool. So but a little about me. Um, I grew up in west virginia coal mining family all my life. Um, I went to, uh college. I started in the medical field. I thought I wanted to be a nurse, anesthetist. I got two, three years into it and I was like ah not for me.
Speaker 2:So I was like, well, I'm just going to go to med school I I got within one class of taking my mcats. I was like I do not want to go to med school. I got within one class of taking my MCATs. I was like I do not want to go to college for eight to ten more years. Let's switch to engineering.
Speaker 3:So, wait a minute, you were in college. Were you at WVU? Were you at West Virginia? No, at Bluefield State College, bluefield State, okay. And you were in a medical field. You wanted to be a nurse. A nest, yes. So I started in that slow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started in the nursing program and it just it didn't end up working out. Um, it was, there was some politics involved and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people change, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was like well, I'll just go on to go to uh, uh, physicians, physician program yeah. And I wanted to go to osteopathic school was my goal and um my last class I had to take was um. Medical sociology was the only class I really needed medical sociology yeah, as opposed to regular sociology exactly and um.
Speaker 3:I was just like man.
Speaker 2:I was sitting in class one day. I was like I can't do eight, ten more years of this. I just can't. So they're, they're really well. The bluefield state college was really well known for their engineering program, robotics specifically, um. So I was like, well, let me switch to engineering, because I've always loved numbers, electronics, all that stuff. So I flipped to electrical engineering technology and graduated a couple years later.
Speaker 3:Wow andrew, I don't know what you got out of that story, but right before we went on the air, we were were making fun of Andrew's New York accent and Nate just says can't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you caught that. There's words it comes out, it comes out. I understand. I'm cultured a little bit so I can enunciate most words but it still comes out.
Speaker 3:So that's cool. So how did you get to North Carolina? You're in West Virginia, yeah.
Speaker 2:West Virginia. So that's cool. So how did you get to north carolina? You're in, you're in west virginia, yeah, west virginia. Then, um, from there I went to kingsport, tennessee's for a short while. Um bounce back from there to virginia for a short while. I actually still have a lake property. It's in radford, virginia, so, yeah, just like two and a half hours from here. Um, it's like a family property and stuff. So stayed there for a long time. There I worked for a company, uh, designing the electrical panels for a lot of pfizer pharmaceutical robotics, which was pretty cool because they would actually come in and run the robot and stuff in our facility. So it's kind of fun to do.
Speaker 2:Then I had a traveling job where I was traveling the us doing like mobile security and surveillance got burnt out on that. So it was our last leg in and we was coming from Florida. We came from Florida. There was a horrible snowstorm. We actually got snowed in. We stopped near Charlotte or Concord, stayed the night. When I got back home I told my boss I was like I'm done with this, went to my house, threw a few bags in my car, threw my dog in my car, drove down to Charlotte. No job, no, nothing Um booked myself in the extended stay on tavola oh my god wow and um ended up getting a job with adt security.
Speaker 2:To start out that was rough. Um moved from there to residential electrician, which was an awesome job I really enjoyed. I didn't ever see myself being a residential electrician but after I got I was really thankful I got the job I. I was lucky enough to have a really good mentor there, so I learned a great deal about residential electric and just home protocol in general, which was great so we're around.
Speaker 3:What year are we talking about? When does this take us up to?
Speaker 2:this was probably 2017, 2017, okay, yeah, and then uh from there, um, probably 2017, 2017.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and then from there, amazon launched their smart home division here, which that's when they partnered with Lenar Homes and they was putting, quote unquote, smart homes, but it was Alexa, sonos, a couple of Lutron, caseta, smart light switches, anducks, ruckus, access points is essentially what they were putting in these homes. But, um, I oversaw kind of the development and installation of that. Those products, um, designed the media panel in the closet for the products, stuff of that nature. I got to travel a lot doing that. That was really cool. They ended up dissolving that company because it was not profitable yeah.
Speaker 3:So before we jump on, because this is this is a question that we get a lot and it and it kind of revolves around a professional installer versus a diy uh, and while this isn't really dy diy I can't even say that well, this isn't diy, it is, uh, more of a diy style of product which you just outlined, with the exception of the ruckus access point very much. And so what challenges? You don't have to go like super deep, but, but maybe just quick for our listeners like what challenges did that those products present? Uh, because it sounds simple, but they dissolved the company and it wasn't profitable, so it couldn't have been.
Speaker 2:That couldn't have been that great it wasn't and it was their idea from day one.
Speaker 2:They knew they weren't going to profit from that specifically, so their idea was getting us in there and I I think their idea was hoping they'd want to buy more products from us, add more products. But here specifically, a lot of the lenore communities are 55 and up, um, so then you know, most of those people are this is too much anyway, like mind blown, and then they didn't really want to add too much more stuff. But the biggest issues I ran into there with the products we used was definitely the ruckus access points. I've heard they were overkill for these residential homes, but then they also had a really weird protocol in them that caused significant issues to the network when, you would add, it was either three or more or four or more sonos products and it was just causing it was shut, the network down, sonos would go offline. It was we'd have to contact ruckus's engineering team, they'd have to put in. It was like a week-long process just to get like a simple setting switched and it was just absurd for Sonos.
Speaker 3:And for our listeners. My guess is that a lot of them do not understand or know the name Ruckus. That's a commercial grade access point. As a matter of fact, we here at SoundVision we use Access Networks, which is a ruckus product. It's kind of a derivative product but very similar and so again, maybe just as a quick explanation, you would think, well, if it's this commercial grade product and we're using like simple stuff with it, like why wouldn't it just work? But the challenge is when you use these commercial grade products is they are more locked down. They do have better cybersecurity settings, they do. They are more restrictive. You know, I guess a lot of people think the nicer the product like, the more open it is, but actually a lot of times the more restrictive it is to kind of protect, so it makes it harder and it's not necessarily as intuitive, right? I mean, like you were just saying, like you just can't log into some portal and make a quick change, you literally have to get to an engineer.
Speaker 2:Well, the name for it says it's best Commercial grade. It's definitely not designed with residential homes in mind with residential homes in mind.
Speaker 3:And you know I, when I first started we did a lot of track uh, production built homes uh, of which Lenore is a very successful production builder, and there's nothing wrong with that model at all. It services a an enormous amount of folks. But it's it the way it's set up, the way it's designed. Is production built it is. It's set up the way it's designed. Is production built it is. It's not custom. It is designed in a lot of cases for those two bookends.
Speaker 3:Like you have the first time home buyer and you've got that 55 and up, kind of they're moving down out of the whatever bigger homes, kind of you know whatever they were in before, and so we find that. But those folks, like the first-time homebuyers, like to do the stuff themselves and a lot of times maybe don't have the finances yet to be able to afford some of this stuff, so they do it themselves. And then some of the older folks just don't get it, especially the voice stuff. I know it freaks a lot of older folks out If they're not comfortable with it. Amazon's listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and that was always. If you carry a cell phone, you're already getting listened to anyway.
Speaker 3:So that's that is really interesting. Okay, so that was around 2017. Then after that, you actually worked for another integrator yes, in town, um and you were a project manager there. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:I wore multiple hats there. That was my title, but yeah yeah, I was a project manager there. I managed their projects. I also put together their proposals um their sales pitches.
Speaker 3:I managed the inventory van inventory van maintenance oh, you did yeah, most, most of the day-to-day operations okay, okay, so you're more of a kind of a general manager, yeah, in that sense, uh, but that's how you sort of cut your teeth. I mean, you were with adt and you did the one r thing.
Speaker 2:This was more in the custom side bigger, bigger type homes, more intricate yeah, you know I came from amazon and you know, when alexa got big, everyone's like oh, oh cool, alexa this, alexa that. And then I worked for this other integrator. I'm like this is smart home automation. This is real home automation Alexa's child's play.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so when you were there, did you do things like automated shades?
Speaker 2:Yes, lutron, only Lutron. Shades Full custom audio theater rooms um custom entryways, like with the like uh pressure plates for the gates.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, all kinds of stuff it was pressure plates for the gates is like when you drive up to a gate and it auto opens when you're leaving. That, a lot of times, is a pressure plate, if not a beam of some sort. Uh and then, uh, what about? Was lighting a thing yet, or was that? Were we still a little early for that?
Speaker 2:we was doing a the owner, the owner, that was his bread and butter. He knew lighting to a t. That was just saying he loved lighting, um. So we did do a lot of lighting um landscaping. They kind of contracted out um. But at the in-home lighting, um they it was really big on the in-home lighting, the decor lighting, especially for art, because we had a lot of customers had high-end artwork. They wanted the nice lighting on it. Um, you had mentioned the name of the lighting we used before. I can't remember it. It's a real high-end one, um, oh, you're uh, that we use here no, we don't use it here.
Speaker 2:Um, it's the. It's the opposite of the one we use here um, we'll edit this part, yeah oh, it's, oh it's catcher yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah
Speaker 1:that's. I was like it's a simple name, come to me, yeah, yeah catcher, that was uh, that was uh.
Speaker 2:They started using that when I was like it's a simple name. Come to me, yeah, yeah, catcher, that was uh, that was uh. They started using that when I was there. I really enjoyed the catcher line.
Speaker 3:It was oh, very cool. Yeah, it's a great product, it is cool yeah, I like catcher a lot so how did you hear about us? So you, you, that integrator, um, you moved on and I guess there was, there was another step in between before you you found us. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah. Another project management position, um, can't go into too many specifics on it. It wasn't low voltage, um, but it was still project management related it was, it was a government job. Yeah, yeah, government job nothing, nothing, super cool, crazy but I just can't talk about it.
Speaker 3:There's ndas, uh, and then how did you hear about us?
Speaker 2:um, indeed, oh yeah, I found you on indeed, yep, sure did, I was just scrolling through.
Speaker 3:One day, indeed, you andrew zing, so you came in and you actually met. I think you met michelle and phil.
Speaker 2:Yes, and zach the first time oh and zach, okay he stepped in for a few.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you met the all-star team and you were coming in, because we have a lot of projects that need management and all we have is Phil, phil, phil.
Speaker 2:Which feels great, he can do it all.
Speaker 1:Great, he just needs a little help.
Speaker 3:He is Now Phil's incredible and, as a matter of fact, he was just either weaving because they had just had their first child, uh, and so it was kind of an odd time, but, um, so you've been on board now for like six weeks just over a month, yeah let's see july first was my or 31st?
Speaker 3:yeah, so june 31st is my first day june 31st is your first day, and so what have you thought about here? How is? How has those first 30 days been? We can always edit this out. If it's not stellar, no listeners no pressure. This is wrong it's been great.
Speaker 2:y'all are wonderful um, are wonderful. I feel like anyone that's worked multiple jobs or different places. The work environment can definitely impact your joy of the job or wanting to come to work, or the work itself, and Sound Vision is awesome. I love it here. Everyone here is really great. We have an excellent team of sales designers, management and our techs are awesome. We have some of the most amazing techs I've worked with, so it's been really great so far. That's cool.
Speaker 3:Love to hear it. Yeah, that's cool. So I know, without going into too much in the details of some of the jobs that you've been on, you are now assuming you're you're learning kind of the way that we do it, your role, explain kind of your role, because in our industry it's it's not ultra common to have a dedicated product manager, product project project manager, somebody who is in between sales and installation and service. So kind of take us through, what does that look like for you?
Speaker 2:So, uh, what it's looking like for me so far, so far. You know we have our sales and designs team. So the sales team is they're meeting with these clients, they're putting the jobs together, selling the items, giving us the items that the customers are going to have installed by the completion of the job. We have design that kind of does the layout puts everything together and then it's passed off from us. We have design that kind of does the layout puts everything together and then it's passed off from us.
Speaker 2:Once it's approved and the customers have signed off on everything, I like to send the customer a welcome email, welcome to SoundVision and working with them. And then, once the other contractors and builders have actually started construction on the home, I like to go out, look at the home kind of, get a layout or take some pictures. That helps with design and everything also, and then, once electrical started, we like to do a walkthrough with the customer and the builder. That way we kind of even for the homeowner this is the first time they're actually seeing the layout of their home.
Speaker 2:So it presents a lot of questions for them a lot of times and they can actually visualize. Well, maybe, instead of putting that there, I might like it over here, or is there a different option for that? You know a lot of stuff we need before we actually start pre-wiring the home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I would only correct one thing, and that is especially with as much lighting as we're doing. That's done pretty way in advance of the electrician.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with the electrician, yes, yes, yeah, you are correct about that, a little late if they're already in there. Yes, little late if they're already in there. But yes, yeah, you're correct, our spinny project. We actually went out met with electrician, uh, about two weeks ago on that, before they even started yeah.
Speaker 3:So what are the coolest parts of this past month, like what are your favorite parts, or things that maybe you didn't expect or were, I don't know were different than what you've experienced before. I don't know anything the energy really.
Speaker 2:Uh. One thing I like about here is I feel like we always end the week on a very positive note. I feel like Fridays are a very good energy for everybody. All the techs are here, the whole team's here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe share what it actually is we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have us a nice little breakfast and we sit down and we discuss any concerns positive points throughout the week. I know from the project management side of things I don't get to interact or typically see service a whole lot through the week. So they get to sit down with us and go through their jobs, explain everything that's going on for them, which in retrospect sometimes can fall back into installation or project management stuff that we might implement going forward to prevent repetitive service calls or something of that nature, and we just have a good little fun with it. We get to catch up with everybody Everybody's week. You know, suzanne, she's not in all the time.
Speaker 3:So we get to hear from her. Sue is our sunshines and rainbows?
Speaker 1:Yes, she is our superstar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like how it. I like how we just kind of end on it's. I like how we just kind of end on it's a very low stress Friday, which is very nice for everybody, because I feel like especially the techs work really hard throughout the week, so I think that's very cool. Another favorite part of my, another favorite part of the job for me, is I always love interacting with the customers and seeing the homes, because I think everyone's always got a different vision and that's what I think is like the coolest part about jobs like this is getting to see every unique vision come to fruition. So that's another favorite part of it for me.
Speaker 3:It's nice to have a couple of project managers that specialize in the details of the project which Phil and Nate are doing. It's hard to keep up. These projects have so many things going on and there's so many little I's to dot and T's to cross, and to have people that are dedicated to making sure that it happens and having a contact point for a customer. A lot of times in a lot of companies, it's the salesperson which is tough, because they're onto the next person and then the the previous person feels like they've, they're not important anymore. So there's the kind of that um, I don't know that dichotomy of you know, working with one person and then passing them off, and but, uh, I think you and Phil have done an excellent job of you know, putting the customer's concerns, making them feel at ease, letting them know that you're not going to drop the ball, that you're there to help make sure this project comes, their vision is realized, absolutely so, and that that's really important. That's really important.
Speaker 2:That's the goal and I think I mean with solid communication. I think majority knock on wood. You know things do happen, but I think with solid and consistent communication most setbacks or drawbacks can be avoided most of the time.
Speaker 3:And you know I'm glad you brought that up we're dealing with very complicated. Not only the systems which we design, complicated so that they're easy to use, and that's a. That's also kind of a misconception A lot of times. If they're, if they're easy to design, they're very complicated to use. It's it's sort of backwards thinking.
Speaker 3:But we're also dealing with electricians and heating and air folks and general contractors and plumbers and, like everybody, we're touching the pool guys and we touch a lot of this stuff. And so, being able to to really hone in on that and have that time to do it, there's going to be problems, like there just is there's too much stuff. There's going to be problems. It's not the fact that there's a problem, it's like how do we react to that problem and how do we? We talk about in here all the time making, creating, and how do we? We talk about in here all the time making creating. You wouldn't believe moments and that can happen in a problem. Like you wouldn't believe how they took care of this, you wouldn't believe their communication. That's what we're looking for and that's what I think is the kind of the, the boil it down.
Speaker 1:That's the most important thing that we all do, but you and phil specifically what the customers do absolutely yeah, stay prepared yeah, and always find a solution exactly there's always a solution so, um, let's talk about your experience with smart technology in your previous roles in project management. Um, I guess we kind of talked about that um, I was just going to the end, andrew oh, oh, we're just going, are we?
Speaker 3:going to fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, we're at 27 minutes all right I'm watching the clock, baby so before we go we always like to gauge our guest music interest okay so, nate? Why don't you tell us who is your favorite band artist? What kind of music are you into?
Speaker 2:oh boy, I'm all over the place let's hear it so one of my current favorite artists um her name's sippy she's a dj, actually went sippy yeah, yeah, is in like sippy cup s-i-p-p-y okay, yeah, I actually went and saw her in charleston last weekend, um, but she's my current favorite dj. I have a lot of them, though, um hold on.
Speaker 3:I got a question I I honestly do not know this because we asked for artists, which means fine. Is a dj considered an artist?
Speaker 2:now, so in the so andrew's nodding, yes, sort of so in the edm music genre they don't really go by artists, they just go by djs edm electronic.
Speaker 3:What?
Speaker 2:uh dance electronic music or something I think the m or in actually stands for something a little bit more detailed, I think. But yeah, essentially electronic dance music okay, and then there's so many sub genres of that, like they have house techno, uh, drum and bass, etc.
Speaker 3:Etc so are they creating this or are they taking music from you know? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Insert any artist here and then so they all create it, but some will use um like backdrops or like backbeats of other famous music, but a lot of them do create their own, so it's that is crazy.
Speaker 3:I've seen this, you know, I know. Look, I'm an 80s dude. No, there's no doubt, I'm 55. I have no idea what edm is people that are out there laughing like I don't know, so I'm, I'm learning too.
Speaker 2:It's, that's cool but I listen to a little bit of everything. I listen to some very mild country I listen to. I love classic rock. I love metal. Um, I love metal covers of, like, non-metal songs. That's a, that's a big thing of mine do you know, mini kiss kiss you don't know, mini kiss.
Speaker 3:Okay, come up. Yeah, check check out. If you're a, if you're a classic rock fan, check out, mini know mini kiss.
Speaker 2:Okay, come up. Yeah, check, check out. If you're a, if you're a classic rock fan, check out mini kiss. Mini kiss Wanted to check them out. So yeah, I'm kind of all over the place. Very cool.
Speaker 1:Very cool, all right. Well, anything else you got for us today, oh gosh.
Speaker 3:You didn't say what's your jam say what's your jam?
Speaker 1:that's usually what that's usually what andrew says I do. I almost said it too. I was waiting all right, well, nate. Thanks for joining us and for giving our listeners a little more insight into who you'll now be seeing at our jobs thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:I look forward to it all right, thank you.
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