Commercial Integrator May 2021 - 41

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Giovanni Agramonte, VP of operations at ArtMedia Corp (left) and Eugene Ababio, chief
executive at ArtMedia Corp (right), had unique paths into the AV industry that eventually
brought them together multiple times before creating the company.

this, like us, are not necessarily exposed to
this kind of industry or understand it can be
for them, " says Ababio.
Agramonte's experience was that of
the youths he and Ababio reach out to as
mentors now. Born to immigrant parents
from the Dominican Republic and growing
up in a Spanish-speaking household, he
reiterates the phrase he and Ababio have
adopted together.
" AV saved my life, " says Agramonte.
" I come from an urban environment that
was full of potential. However, many of us
lacked opportunity and outlets to channel
our energy.
" What happens is energy is placed towards what's easily accessible, which in my
neighborhood, unfortunately, was being
in the streets and selling drugs. Falling
victim to crime. I never saw that as a way
out because too many people were doing
it, " he says.
" To me, if too many people are doing the
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same thing that's not what I want to do, "
says Agramonte. " So I started early in the
music business. I was part of a rap group
back in the day. Then eventually I needed
to know what that engineer was doing with
those knobs. "
Agramonte attended the Institute of
Audio Research and learned about audio
engineering and music production.
" I learned how things connect and work
together, " he says.
His plan was to work in post-production
for Disney in Florida, but a conversation on
a train instead introduced him to a gentleman who hired him on an internship and
brought him to the studio where he and
Ababio first met.
After a few more jobs building more
sophisticated audio environments and
some time at an AV rental company, Ababio
eventually called Agramonte and hired
him into his first professional AV integration
environment in 2004.

" He taught me everything, " says
Agramonte. " Since the owner was a gentleman that was there half the year and abroad
the other half, Eugene had to run the shop
for the other six months. In that process
I was with him being exposed to how a
business runs in AV from soup to nuts.
" It was a crash course learning, " he says.
Agramonte freelanced working primarily
in AV rental until several years later when
Ababio convinced him to join the integration industry full-time. He took a job with
the same firm as Ababio.
" It was the university for AV. I learned
everything - analog, digital, loading code,
firmware updates, building racks. It was an
amazing experience, " he says.
It was here that Agramonte learned that if
you make your work attractive then people
can't say anything bad about it.
" Anything I touched I wanted it to be
attractive, " he says. " If a person removes a
display from a wall the cables have to look
neat and organized. It's like art. I always
had the mindset of wanting everybody
to be consistent, wanting everybody to
produce the same product so that you
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Commercial Integrator May 2021

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