Conversations with Innovators — Q&A with Troy Morgan of PanTech Design
The Conversations with Innovators blog discusses new innovations, big ideas, disruptive technologies, and the thought leaders, innovators, rebels, entrepreneurs and trailblazers that make all of this possible.
Troy Morgan started in the electronics field building high end car audio systems back in 1990. He grew his knowledge of audio, video and control systems while developing some of the most sophisticated systems ever put into a car. He holds national titles for some of the systems he built in the early to mid 90’s and was a sound quality judge for these competitions as well. In the late 90’s he transitioned into designing and building control systems for the residential and commercial industries and was soon hired by the largest control system manufacturer in the world, Crestron Electronics. He helped start Crestron’s Southwest office and held many different titles during his 6 years with them. Some of these titles include Technical Director, Key Dealer Manager, Training Manager and more. In March of 2005, he left Crestron and started PanTech Design.
PanTech Design was born out of the industry’s need for a reliable hardware and software engineering company in his territory. He saw the difficulty other programmers and designers were having doing what seems to come easy to him and capitalized on it.
Today PanTech Design has 8 employees and services and supports systems world-wide. Some examples of their work include:
Broadcast Camera Control System – Dallas Cowboys Stadium
Fort Worth City Council Chambers – Voting and control system
Perot Museum of Nature and Science – Building-wide automation system
Omni Hotel Dallas – The Owner’s Box – Audio Video Control system
Many other homes, yachts, meeting rooms, hotels, etc.
1. Troy, what are the hottest trends in the Audio Visual (AV) industry today?
Lifestyle simplification! Over the years we’ve seen may people spend lots of money on the next bleeding edge shiny new toy, only to be left with remorse because it didn’t do what it was expected to do as easily as it was supposed to or maybe it didn’t work at all. This has worked against the very reason why people are buying these toys. We’re all sold on the idea that technology can help us be more efficient or make our lives easier, but the speed that technology is being developed leaves little room for refinement. Without this refinement, we’re all left to beta test the very products we thought would help us. This requires time and money on the consumers’ end and that complicates our lives. People are getting smarter and researching with whom to spend money instead of believing all the shiny-new-toy sales talk. In other words, the AV industry is being forced by the consumer to grow up.
2. Where do you see home entertainment technology going?
Things are getting smaller, less expensive, and better. For the next few years, the stress is being put on “better.” This is being demanded by the consumer. Reliability is what’s most important to the consumer and not the next new thing. In the next 5 to 10 years, you’ll see a blend of 3 industries occur. The audio video industry, robotics industry, and security industry will blend in ways that will propel all of them, and we’ll be the beneficiaries because we know it’s coming.
3. How will the Internet of Things (IoT) impact home entertainment in the next few years?
I think this is going to work against a lot of industries, including the home entertainment industry. Manufacturers of devices will be required to make their products work with IoT or their product won’t sell. This will increase costs and complexity of the devices for a period of time while manufacturers figure out how to shoe-horn their standards into a new standard. The marketing of these devices will drive the engineering behind them, and we’ll be in a state of flux for the next 2 to 3 years while we figure out whether IoT is sustainable and viable as a standard.
We’ll also see a security problem with IoT for a while too. Can you imagine how great it’s going to be to hit a button on a touch screen from your bedroom and have your coffee made in the kitchen for you? Now imagine how it will feel to know somebody hacked your coffee maker and it made coffee all over your kitchen floor. This may sound a bit extreme, but trust me, it’s possible.
4. Does PanTech Design have any interesting new products coming out soon?
We certainly do. We’ve developed a software product for the Home Automation industry called ADAPT. This software is the fastest, most reliable, and most comfortable experience for engineers and end users. The engineer will spend 50% to 75% less time creating a reliable Home Automation system, and the end user receives a powerful, yet simple, reliable experience in their home.
5. What do you advise entrepreneurs to do while they are starting out?
Choose to learn a lot about who you are and who you’re not. Don’t guess at it. Know it. Most of all, share it.
This tells you where you should focus your time and energy to be most effective with your new venture. It also tells you what you’re missing and where you need outside help or who you need to hire to complement your strengths and goals. It’s crucial in the process of taking an idea from your head to market at a high level.
Most entrepreneurs have a few crazy bones. They’re visionaries, risk takers, and aren’t afraid to put themselves out there. These are all good traits when they’re understood and focused on. But there’s a lot more to business than ideas and taking risks. Can you manage money well? Can you define and refine processes, policies, and procedures? Can you market and sell your idea? Can you produce it? If you’ve answered “yes” to all of these then you’re a lot like I was when I started. That’s how I almost lost what’s turned into a 10-year-old thriving business.
Don’t focus on everything you CAN do. Trust me, you can’t do it all yourself and certainly not at the level it should be done. Know your strengths and capitalize on them. Once you know your strengths it becomes easier to see what you don’t do as well. You’ll have appreciation for things produced by other people needed to grow your business. You’ll stay aware, but won’t micromanage. You won’t be over-worked and scrambling all the time and people will want to work with and for you. That’s how you grow!
6. What’s the “one thing” that’s your key to success in business?
Knowing who I am and who I’m not. I’ve read a lot of books about business and most of them told me to focus on making my weaknesses stronger. I spent many hours and days trying to make myself better at things I wasn’t good at. I was running in place! Then I read a book called Strengths Finder and it changed everything.
I learned in detail what I’m an expert at already and how to use those things to my advantage. I also learned how my strengths can become my weaknesses if they aren’t clearly understood and not paired well with the strengths of others.
With my new found knowledge I decided to buy this book for each of my employees. That’s when things became awesome. We would meet and discuss each other’s strengths and how one plays off of another both positively and negatively. Now we all know each other better and we work extremely well together.
We as a team know who’s going to fit well when we’re hiring too. I give this book to every person I interview and ask them to send me their top 5 strengths. I can then see where they would fit in and how we can help them grow within our business model.
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About the Firm:
Klemchuk LLP is a litigation, intellectual property, transactional, and international business law firm dedicated to protecting innovation. The firm provides tailored legal solutions to industries including software, technology, retail, real estate, consumer goods, ecommerce, telecommunications, restaurant, energy, media, and professional services. The firm focuses on serving mid-market companies seeking long-term, value-added relationships with a law firm. Learn more about experiencing law practiced differently and our local counsel practice.
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