CE Pro April 2024 - 47

" So I thought, what a way to combine our efforts into one
place, " she comments. " I came on board, it was early 2009,
and never looked back. "
" And she's a natural salesperson, " Neal adds. When Dawn
joined, it was in a sales role, but they quickly realized the
company really needed help with bookkeeping. She learned
QuickBooks and " he taught me everything I know, " she says.
A few years later, SoundCheck was asked by an integrator
it respected in the area but one that didn't pivot during the
rough recession years, if they would absorb it, which they
agreed to do.
" We were busy, and we picked up some expertise, " Neal
says. The team gained additional personnel via the merger
as well as their institutional knowledge of the integration
industry.
Neal says the cash from Security Management's acquisition
gave SoundCheck a nice financial foundation and funds
with which it could start building out a showroom.
" I was always someone who sold from an interactive
aspect - get people immersed in the experience, get their
hands on a product. And in this building that I own we had
all this extra office space, so we had plenty of room to build
a little Control4 showroom, " he says. " The other thing was
that in assessing my competitors, we were all kind of doing
the same thing. They were doing it on a much larger scale, so
what's something we could bring to SoundCheck that would
make us unique?' "
The answer was a Toronto-based company, Visual Sports,
which it found during a CEDIA Expo. It was a golf simulator
company, but Neal was even more intrigued because of its
uniqueness for actually being a multisport simulator.
" People were buying it for the golf, but it was the only
company in the world where you could play baseball on
it, hockey, football, basketball, soccer, bocci - all these
different games, and we had space for it in the building, " he
explains.
" I said while we're building out SoundCheck and trying to
get our feet wet with Control4, let's give a unique reason
for people to visit. So we made a commitment to Full Swing
Golf (which had acquired Visual Sports) and became their
Michigan dealer, and that was an important move for us. I
love golf, but I thought these other sports would make it
much more family entertainment, because people who were
coming into our showroom were families. "
Neal says SoundCheck started picking up some builders,
which earned new business, becoming more than two
technicians could handle. " So we started hiring and in 2010
everything really took off for us, " he says.
" They were mid- to high-end builders and we definitely
knew that someone who was going to buy a $50,000 sports
simulator was going to be somebody who had some level of
disposable income and so we knew we need to align with
builders who were catering to those people. Where we are
cepro.com
Upon entering the Experience Center, potential customers
are greeted by a " Welcome to Cool " message.
in Southfield, we're in Oakland County - it's one of the
most affluent counties in the country, I'm sure it's in the top
100, so we're right where all the action is. "
The building the Checks owned at the time was about
2,400 square feet, and there was a big conference room that
they didn't need after Security Management was sold, so
they turned that into the sports simulator showcase. They
also turned the installation manager's office room into a
family room vignette with motorized shades from QMotion,
and electric fireplace with a TV and a Leon surround bar,
Control4 light switches, thermostat, a couple of zones of
audio. " It was like a den, it was cute, " he says.
Going All-in on an 'Experience Center'
Eventually, the integrator's neighbors wanted to sell their
buildings. It included a barber next to them who wanted to
shut down his shop to retire, and the Checks worked out a
deal to buy the buildings. They picked up roughly another
3,000 square feet of space.
The purchased buildings remained mostly empty until
SoundCheck began seeing a gradual increase in customers
and realized it should utilize the space better.
" Dawn and I decided, what if we gut that space and build
a home inside the building, furnish it, and then put in electronics.
We already proved that this little 14x14 showroom
back here plus the golf were working, " Neal states. " But
what if we had something bigger with a new golf simulator
suite, more technology, shade demos, dedicated theater,
living space theater, all these different things? "
The company began building it out over time by reinApril
2024 CE Pro | 47
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CE Pro April 2024

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