To be clear, the experience center that’s owned by LK & Associates in Southeast Florida may be theirs on paper. But, as Seth Kaplan told us, this space is intended to be a playground for the industry. Shortly after the official grand opening, we sat down with Seth to explore how they got to this point, plans for the space moving forward, and much more.
Rob Stott: All right. We are back on the connected design podcast and excited today, to jump out to, well, down to, should say from Philly, you’re in Florida, right? Is that, is that correct? Mr. Seth Kaplan.
Seth Kaplan: We are, are in Dania Beach currently, which is right between Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale by the Fort Lauderdale airport.
Rob Stott: Not, not too terrible and I’m sure, well, I was going to say a little bit warmer than where I am in Philly, but you were down in the twenties not too long ago either, were you?
Seth Kaplan: Not quite the 20s, but there was some ice on the windshields when we got up in the morning, which we are not accustomed to this.
Rob Stott: Had to be careful of those falling iguanas, right? Is that a thing? Did you see any of those?
Seth Kaplan: So yes, it is a thing. We actually had one in my backyard that my wife stumbled across. And for the last three days, we’ve been going out there every day to see and it started like moving and breathing. And yesterday it was gone. So hopefully it’s alive and it crawled away. But obviously there’s a chance that something took it away and ate it, but we’ll see. You never know.
Rob Stott: No, three days. Can you imagine just being frozen? It was stuck in a position in position for three days That’s wild Right can you I would love to just freeze be frozen for three days and not do anything that’s incredible We appreciate it jump around president of LK and associates You know, we got a lot to dive into and I’m excited to do it with you but
Seth Kaplan:
Yeah, it was literally upside down and you can kind of see it breathing and hey, it’s a it’s a good nap, I guess, right?
Rob Stott: Well, first and foremost, think the biggest thing we can talk about is kind of where you’re sitting. You guys just recently had some awesome, you know, an awesome event that you were able to showcase this new space. So I want to give you the chance first and foremost, just to kind of talk about the news that’s out there and, you know, what’s going on and exciting in your world. Yeah. Yeah.
Seth Kaplan: Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate using the word showcase because that’s what it’s called.
It’s been quite the passion project for me. I actually started it like three years ago in a different space and ran up against some challenges that I wasn’t able to overcome. So I had to pivot, which I’m a firm believer of everything happens for a reason. And I think where we are now in the Dakota building in Dania Beach, the Design Center of the Americas, is a much better location for what we’re trying to achieve in the space. And essentially what we did is we created an experience center called Showcase where technology becomes an experience. And I wanted to kind of get back to the roots of hopefully why all of us got into this business, which was we experienced something really cool rooted in technology that got us involved in where we are now in this channel.
And, you know, it’s been many years since, you know, I’ve been doing it certainly, and most of the people in the business. And the business has changed. It’s evolved for better or for worse. And, you know, we went from selling pretty much strictly audio and video to where we are now with lighting and shading and networking and power and all these, you know, CCTV, all these great opportunities that have opened up, you know, additional revenue streams.
But it’s also taken away some of that experience, think, and passion from, you know, let me play this track for you and let’s see how you feel. So I kind of want to bring it back to, you know, how you feel in a space and how a space makes you feel. So what we did is we put together this experience and we have a whole talk track and story as you move through the space. It really focuses on audio, video, lighting, and power.
And we take you through the technology. So it’s experience and technology first. Obviously that experience is rooted and brought to you by our great vendor partners. We’ve got incredible high performance solutions. There’s actually over a million dollars of value product at retail in this space with over 20 of our vendor partners. We’re fortunate enough that we’ve got a great tool bag.
Rob Stott: Wow.
Seth Kaplan: So we have great synergies within the lines that we could bring this experience to light. I think the only two hardware pieces in the space that we don’t actually represent is the Kaleidoscape and the Apple TVs that we’re using.
Rob Stott: Wow. No, that’s awesome. So, a lot to bring together. And I know you kind of hit it with the mission of the space is right. Getting back to kind of the heart of what custom integration is and the technology at the center of it. That experience, you know, going back to the initial concepts of, you know, what drove this decision? You know, what would you say, whether it’s from you kind of got to like the again, the mission sort of like the the why for you guys though, what what sort of what did you set out to accomplish in developing this space?
Seth Kaplan: Right. I mean, I’m a firm believer that what worked yesterday won’t necessarily work tomorrow and increasingly focus on building what I call our value proposition to both our dealer partners and our vendor partners, right? Do better tomorrow than you did yesterday. And when I was looking at the business model, how we present and work with our integrator partners and how our integrator partners work with their clients, I just thought that I could add more to that equation. And what I mean by that, hold our integration partners in the highest regard. mean, what they do on a daily basis to me is incredible. They’re able to design, sell these elaborate jobs. We’re fortunate to be in a great market where it’s not uncommon for there to be a million dollar audio video job going down. And some of these jobs are being sold by very qualified integrators, but they may not have a showroom where that client can experience what they’re going to get in their own home, which to me is incredible.
In the same vein, when we’re presenting to those integrators, whether it be a video product, audio product, infrastructure, lighting, etc., sometimes we’ve got demo cases if the vendor provides such that we can carry in. But for the most part, we’re presenting it to them the same way they’re probably presenting it to their client, which isn’t the real way in my eyes to create that emotional connection to that experience. So I wanted to invest, you know, on behalf of our dealer partners and our vendors in a space where we could have more productive meetings rooted in demonstrations and experience with our dealers, where our dealers can bring their end users and use the showroom to hopefully, you know, grow their business within each sale. I often hear from our integrators, you know, I only had 45 minutes with the client and I always forget to talk about landscape lighting or security cameras. You know, you, you can fill in the blank on that one, but there’s so many things, as I mentioned earlier, that we’re selling from a category standpoint that it’s hard to remember and talk about all those things.
So I figured if we were in a captive environment or the dealer was with us and that client surrounded by all these technology disciplines, hopefully their sale would grow. And these are all high performance solutions that I’m confident that if they’re experienced, the sale will grow as well. you know, it’s really rooted in trying to collectively grow our businesses together with our dealer partners and the vendors we represent. And then what I’m excited about also is there’s an education component. So we have a dedicated training space. We actually have vantage certification training going on. It’s a three-day programming intensive certification. We’re the only rep in the country that does it outside of being at the factory. We want to invest in our dealer partners, not, hey, we’ve got a training for a vendor and it’s once a year where we confirm all the dealers are going to be there. And then the morning of we get, they get a service call and can’t make it. We, we, we, we’ve been there, done that. Right. So what we’re trying to is have a training track that revolves and there’s consistent education. if an integrator just hired somebody, or maybe they’ve got a day where there’s nothing on the calendar, they can send them here for education. And ⁓ we’re really looking to pull off different types of trainings, not just your static sales training of let’s roll through these PowerPoint slides, but what’s the stuff they don’t tell you? What’s the I got yous that you may encounter? It’s all based in how do we keep the profit in the job for our integrator partners, because they’re better suited to carry out that integration, that installation, that execution.
Rob Stott: What I love too about your answer there is that it hit at kind of the versatility of the space, both from a technology standpoint and what you have in there, but also from how an integrator and you and your team can leverage it and utilize it. You’ve got the, you know, the, the client facing meetings that can happen in there where the client can come in and learn and the integrator actually uses the space to, to their advantage. To the other side where you guys are actually able to bring them in and educate them on the technologies that are in there or their teams that may need a little extra training and things like that where they can come in and learn from either you or I imagine to the manufacturer partners that are in there are able to come in and run their own trainings out of there. Is that right? I don’t want to put words or expectations into your space.
Seth Kaplan: Well, we’re fortunate enough that I’ve got a fantastic team. that’s, know, when I get up every morning, it’s a joy to go to work with everybody that I work with with LK. you know, some of those team members have, you know, extensive training backgrounds. So we’re fortunate enough to not have to rely on the vendors to give these trainings because that model wouldn’t work. Hey, you got to fly in every month to do the training. They would be like, that’s not going to happen. So we just rely on them to provide the content and we deliver it, you know, more times than not. So we’re talented enough to do that, which is a great thing.
Rob Stott: Right, right. No, that’s awesome. And so I want to kind of follow up to on the versatility term that I use there. I know it’s brand new and you don’t want to, mentioned it, right? There’s million dollars of equipment in there. You know, the future versions of this too, talk about that a little bit, how the space itself can evolve over time as I’m sure that’s something you guys thought about, you know, as you’re putting it together, you know, what it could look like three, five years from now.
Seth Kaplan: Yeah, I think that I set it up and it wasn’t a product first way, right? We’re not focused on specific products and models. We’re focused on an environment in which the technology can exist and complement the design. So when you walk into the space, if you don’t know me and you don’t know LK, you’re not going to know what type of showroom this is. A perfect example is we have a high end wall coverings showroom that’s right around the corner and the owner walked in the other day and said, this is beautiful space. Is this a furniture showroom? And I said, no, but thank you. Cause that’s really what I wanted to pull off. I don’t want somebody, mean, there’s 16 TVs and a projector in here when it comes to video. I don’t want you to walk in and think it’s a Best Buy. So you walk in and we’ve got an art gallery wall with five Samsung frame TVs on it.
So, you kind of take it all in and you’re like, wow, this is a cool space. And that’s when we kind of go through our story of how technology can complement a design, can integrate aesthetically into the space without taking away or altering the design ID that was intended. And again, it’s all technology driven. It’s about how you feel in that space. Obviously, lighting is a big component. That’s a hot topic in our industry.
We don’t talk about specific necessarily brands and types of products. We show them the different technologies and why it’s not about just, I want a two inch light over here and I want six of them. No, no, no. Let’s talk about different color temperatures and how it makes the finishes come to life or it, you know, takes a finish that you thought you liked and makes it something that you even think that, no, I didn’t pick that slab even though they did. They picked it in the sunlight and now it’s an environment with a different color temperature on it. It looks totally different. And it’s also about how you feel. So we’ve got demos where we dim lights and we layer the lighting on. So it’s, you know, relaxing or it’s task oriented. So we’re really getting into the functionality, which I think will help the client realize, oh yeah, I want that. And then we talk about, okay, well that comes in a XYZ form factor or that product that delivered that experience is brand X. So we’re trying to go about the presentation in a different way.
Rob Stott: I, I’m glad you went through that because I think to even just, had a recent contribution on the Connected Design site about, you know, I’ll call them out. Kyle Steele a couple episodes ago too, from when this drops, you know, he talked about not leading with AV, right? Like don’t lead with the technology because that’s not, you know, the successful integrators today aren’t doing that, you know, with these high end luxury clients that, yeah, they’re going to want to compliment their space with the latest and greatest or some powerful audio and, develop a system or build a system with your integrator partner that, you know, suits their needs, but it’s not like they care about to your point and everything we’ve been talking about that experience that it suits them and what they want, how they want to feel or how their, their space needs to feel, what they want to show off, not, know, necessarily they’re not talking about specs, right? They’re not talking about.
Seth Kaplan: Correct.
Rob Stott: I know it’s hard to, you know, mentally to change that mindset of, kind of talking, making that. The follow-up conversation maybe, or like not leading with that, right? It’s the, you know, everything that you’re talking about from the aesthetic of it to how it hides or how it compliments or really showcases. I could see it. If you’re watching the video version, it’s just a little bit out of the corner on your screen, right? The lighting on a shelf and how that, you got some wine glasses on there, I see. So how all that comes together to really elevate a space as opposed to being the kind of the centerpiece of that space.
Seth Kaplan: I mean it’s ultimately how you feel in the space how it makes a space look and how the technology can integrate and enhance your your lifestyle Right. I mean we’re fortunate enough. I always joke we sell adult toys and not in the way that most people would Think about that But we’ve you know, we’ve got a really fun Occupation so we’re fortunate enough to do it.
Rob Stott: Yeah. Careful with that term. That’s incredible. Yeah. Well, if you were at CES this year, that’s a double entendre there for sure.
So you talk about the, the massive undertaking that is right. Because you have to develop a space with these partners that, you know, the tech for you is at the center of it. Right. But at the end of the day, when you’re throughout the space or walking throughout the space, you’re not necessarily thinking of the tech as someone that comes in, right? So talk about coordinating all that, making it work from designing this out to getting the partners involved to make sure that that vision actually comes through.
Seth Kaplan: Yeah, I mean, it was a huge learning experience for me. You know, I conceptually knew what I wanted to pull off. I’m not an integrator. I’m not an installer. I’m technical enough to be dangerous. Pulling it off, there’s, you know, again, kudos to our integrators. What they do is just, it’s really impressive on a daily basis. There’s so many different technologies that are designed in silos, but when you get out into the real world and they need to integrate and talk to other products, vendors, technologies, etc. Oftentimes those things aren’t necessarily thought through. you know, we, there’s a lot of I got yous. You know, I was head down in this project with my team. know, Daniel, my operations manager was a huge help during this whole process, just driving the ball across the goal line.
But you know, everything from construction issues to, you know, and I’m a perfectionist, so doing things two, three, four, five times to the technology and figuring out how that’s gonna play together. And listen, there’s still things that we’re working out and I’m sure things are gonna break that work now and we’ll have to figure that out. But you know, it’s, you know, I said this in my speech at our opening, it’s really made me wanna do a better job of supporting our integrators. And I also challenged our vendor partners to do the same, right? It’s not just enough to bring a product to market. You need to make sure that the integrator has all the tools and knowledge he needs so that, you know, he’s not stepping in any potholes along the way because, you know, once you have to go back two, three, four times and there’s time invested in fixing something that, you know, should have been obvious from the beginning, all that profit is gone. And that’s a challenge. And I ran into that a lot. mean, I was very fortunate that my vendor partners were extremely generous. But there were instances where product was provided for the job. And then on the backside, when it didn’t go in properly, it was like, you didn’t do this, this and this. And it’s like, I don’t install this stuff. I don’t know. Couldn’t you have told me that on the front side?
So, I got to live what our integrators go through on a daily basis. Not that I didn’t appreciate them before, because I always do, but now I have a different level of like, we all need to do a better job of ensuring that if we really want support from our integrator partners, that they have everything they need to get in, get out, deliver the experience as intended, and make as much profit as possible on these jobs.
Rob Stott: Right. Yeah, it’s, you beat me to it and it’s that you got to experience that from their eyes, but also to the other unique part of it is that you got to kind of. Experience the client side of it too, right? Cause this is your space. You’re effectively your home that you’re upgrading or building, essentially. And you got to kind of see how things work from a, you know, the integrator side, getting things delivered and working with the manufacturer partners and, ⁓making sure you get the right stuff and it, you know, all works properly to, you know, the level of care you had around it because it was the space that you were building for yourself. Right?
Seth Kaplan: Yeah, it was a frustrating experience, I’m sure for everybody involved, and I had a lot to do with creating that frustration. Because this isn’t also, it’s not a normal job where an integrator comes in and designs the system and then executes the system with brands that they’re used to selling and installing, right? This is a job that I created, I designed around lines that we represent and then tasked an integrator to come in and install that stuff, some of those lines that integrator, you know, wasn’t and isn’t a dealer for. So, it was kind of like backing into the job, if that makes sense. So, I think, you know, and I was head down, like eyes down throughout all the way to the end to the grand opening. ⁓ But it was really rewarding to have our vendor partners and our dealer partners come through the space and, you know, all the positive feedback and compliments that we received on the space was like, okay, we nailed it. Like, and I didn’t know that up until then. I mean, obviously I was hoping for that, but when you don’t have people coming through and I kind of kept it under my vest because there were many, many nights I went to bed thinking, I don’t know if I could ever, I’m going to finish this or not. Like it was definitely a, you know, a true concern. So I wasn’t out there screaming from the rooftops like, we’re building this, we’re building this, because I was like, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to complete this.
Rob Stott: Yeah. You want to make sure it got done properly? Yeah. We got to get to the finish line before we start talking about, no, I love that. And it gives you a chance to, was there ever, or having now gone through that process, is there anything from like the, the project standpoint that either you have a greater appreciation for or that you didn’t realize that an integrator has to go through something like this or, you know, any side of the equation, right? That like you didn’t know about that. Now having seen a project from start to finish, yeah, like you’ve learned about or have a better appreciation for?
Seth Kaplan: Yeah, I mean, the documentation is critical. The infrastructure that you lay out, you know, making sure you’ve got the right wiring in the right places and you’re toning your cables and, know, everything you lay down on the backbone is is critical. You know, we’ve done a lot of a lot of stuff here to create that upgrade path moving forward. But but just it’s the staging, the timing, no knowing how to work with the trades and who’s going to come in when I mean, there’s, I’ve tried to like, move on and forget a lot of the horror stories that happened because we’re in such like a good place now, but I know where all the bodies are buried. I think most people when they walk in, unless they’re looking for specific details that maybe weren’t done properly, I’m sure they could, they can find them too. I know where they all are. But…
Rob Stott: You’re even more dangerous now.
Seth Kaplan: You know, when you take in the whole picture of the space, it’s like, it’s kind of a wow moment for sure.
Rob Stott: Yeah. No, and it’s cool too, even though, to your point, you could probably peel back, like you said, the walls and where the bodies are. The fact that you kind of see how, to continue the metaphor, how they got buried. Right? So like the, kind of work through those challenges and create solutions on the fly. Like that had to be kind of cool too, to see.
Seth Kaplan: It was great. I mean, there’s so many, you know, aha moments, so many wins. And then it’s like, it’s like being a boxer, you know, you get a jab in, but then somebody hits you with an uppercut, you know, it’s like, great. The glass doors in, but wow. They didn’t measure it right. And they got to do it two more times. You know, there’s just, there’s so many things and, know, for better, for worse, we, as integrators are, you know, in our channel, have to work with all these different trades. If you’re doing lighting, like you mentioned the lighting behind you, you have to work with the Millwork guy and make sure you got the right extrusions and the extrusions to the right depth so you don’t see the diodes on the tape, even if it’s COB tape. You gotta make sure you have the right lens. If you’re doing a mirror TV like behind me, lot of integrators don’t wanna touch that for good reason, so you have to partner with a glass company that, to hang it. There’s just there’s so many different things. I mean, we were fortunate enough to have the new 115 inch micro RGB from Samsung on display. Of course, I decided to hang it on a wall where I put some really nice paneling that was on furring strips. So I had to have my contractor come in here, cut the paneling, put wood MDF backing to build the wall out, make sure you hit all the studs because it weighs over 200 pounds. I can’t hang it on quarter inch thick paneling that’s floating on top of the wall. So there’s just so many things you got to worry about the finishes. We’ve got an elaborate lighting cloud that we can walk through the different good lighting, bad lighting, different types of lighting, cove lighting, down lighting, tape lighting, different dimming static, dim to warm, tunable, full RGBW. So we have all these technologies, but you gotta work with the drywall guy to make sure the finishes are right so the trims look good.
We have a great outdoor area where we’re highlighting Coastal Source landscape lighting, which is a great category for our channel. And again, it’s about the experience. It’s not just here’s some lighting on some landscape elements. We broke it out into different channels on our Vantage system. So I can show you just what the uplights look like just the downlights, the different types of downlights. Even on the uplights, here’s one uplight on a tree and here’s three. This is why you need to surround the tree with lighting and look at the shadow detail. And here’s the wall wash and here’s the markers. Here’s the bollards and the path lights. And we break all that down so you can see the layers within that space. And then we show them how we would light the space.
So again, we’re trying to really create the experience and the value for them to be able to grow their—the level of the jobs that they’re doing. But again, I had to go find a really cool company that ⁓ takes moss and basically treats it with something. So I don’t have to water it. So I’ve got a whole landscape section in there. So there’s just so many trades that we dealt with. And the coordination of that is challenging.
Rob Stott: Yeah, it’s, it’s wild to a couple of things come to mind. One shows how, you know, for all the partners involved, you talk about needy clients. You guys came, you fit that bill. no, you gave it, but I, in the nicest way possible, because what you were able to accomplish in doing all that is like create a space that has all of that capability. Right. And, you know, it comes together to, to let everyone involved that comes into it from here on out, understand all of the different ways that a project can come together and, and showcase it in so many different ways, which is incredible for one and like a value that I can’t even, I, you know, I, I know you probably have a dollar figure in your head on what it, what the final bill was, but like the, it’s invaluable kind of the benefit moving forward to, the channel, which is really awesome to see.
And then to like the other thing too, like you mentioned is that there are so many elements of the space that are unique in that you’ve got indoor, you’ve got outdoor, how it all comes together to be controlled so that you can mess with it in all those different ways and change the lighting and show it in different ways, change it. Like every aspect of that ⁓ is unique too. And like, it’s just, at the end of the day too, you mentioned it, the partnerships and how all those people have to talk to one another and coordinate.
It kind of shows the—it gets to the heart of what I think Connected Design, what we’re trying to be in that that bridge between all those trades, right? Cause I, sure you could talk to it about how, you know, challenging to, you know, get them to work together for one, but also understand each other, right? Cause they’re coming from such varied backgrounds and what they do in varied disciplines. So, just a testament to kind of everything this space is about all packed into one, you know, experience center there.
Seth Kaplan: Thank you. It’s been a lot of fun and every day the new ideas are flowing. mean, we’re in a design center, right? I’ve got Scavellini, beautiful kitchens next to me. I’ve got a rug, very nice high-end rug company next to me, outdoor furniture, et cetera, et cetera. So we’re in the right place to integrate with the architecture and design community, which I know has been like the holy grail for our integrators and reps for years.
We’re trying to approach it in a different way, but there’s so many different opportunities. I mean, have integrators who’ve already approached me that wanna do their team sales meetings here. We’ve got vendors obviously come travel the market. We won’t just be here, we’re gonna go see our integrator partners in their spaces too, but one of the days certainly we’ll be here with their product on display so they can have more productive meetings. We’ve already gone through the training.
We have two CEDIA outreach instructors on our team. So we’ll be doing CEU courses for the design community as well. Dakota does spring and fall market where they bring in hundreds of designers and architects will be participating in those events. I’ve already been contacted by a couple of the buying groups who have events in the Fort Lauderdale market coming up and they’re going to be shuttling groups of dealers here to experience it as well. know, you know, we’ll be doing art gallery events and wine tastings here and just trying to bring all walks of life through the space to expose them to what we do and how it makes them feel. And hopefully we can create some interest and push some leads back to our integrator partners through those efforts as well. I even have one of our premium integrators that is hoping to use the place this Sunday night to bring 10 of his team and watch the Super Bowl here.
Rob Stott: Yeah. There you go. That’s awesome.
Seth Kaplan: So there’s lots of fun stuff that’s popping up.
Rob Stott: Yeah, you mentioned too, how far, or how thick are the walls between you and your neighbors? I’m sure they love having you in there.
Seth Kaplan: Yeah, you know, I was tuning and helping tune the system a couple of weeks ago. We put on Top Gun and cranked it up and the nice lady from Nextdoor came over and the look on her face was priceless. She’s like, is that like something you’re testing for like a couple minutes or is what’s going on over there? I’m like, yeah, yeah, it’s just a few minutes…
And it’s crazy because we took a lot of time and we work with Acoustic Smart as one of our vendors. There was an existing wall there. We vinyl cladded the wall. We built a dual stud wood framing system. We put insulation in there. We decoupled it from the floor. But I mean, when you’ve got, you know, Meridian LCRs with two subs combined with a Theory system, no matter what you do, short of like concrete bunker is going to travel through. So let’s just say our full throttle demos are…
Rob Stott: You can only do so much. That’s incredible.
Well, it’s, it’s incredible too. And I thank you for, you know, just taking the time to kind of walk us through it and talk about it. Cause you know, it’s, it’s exciting to see sort of, you know, in the discussions we’ve had prior to it opening, you know, it seemed like there was a lot of great things to come for this. And now that, now that it is open, I know there’s a lot to learn about, you know, sort of how it can be used that you’ve got ideas in mind. I’m sure integrators have come to you.
Your partners will come to you with a lot of ideas too, about how it can be leveraged in different ways that you haven’t even thought about yet. So, um, it’s exciting to see kind of where it’ll go in the future. Um, but you know, and just an incredible space. So, you know, awesome to be able to take the chance to talk about it. Um, you know, I look forward to at some point getting down there and seeing it. So that’s what we got. The next, the next, the next one of these will have to happen from down there, but, um, man, Seth, it’s awesome what you guys are doing. Appreciate you taking the time.
Seth Kaplan: Thank you. Definitely, definitely.
Rob Stott: And like I said, just look forward to kind of continuing to follow your story, man.
Seth Kaplan: Excellent, well we appreciate you Rob. Thanks for having me on and look forward to working with you more going forward.
