An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there, Ron Callis. Welcome to another episode of Automation Unplugged, brought to you as always by my day job at one Firefly. I'm so happy you all are tuned in, whether you're watching, , here on Wednesday, the day of release, or you are watching at some date or time in the future. , thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. , it means a lot to me and all of the team members at One Firefly that spend all the time producing automation Unplugged that you do tune in. , if you feel so compelled, you give us a, a, a share or a comment on wherever you see this, , content posted. And if you, , do share it with your friends, if you find the content valuable. And, or, , if you feel so compelled, drop us a note and tell us what type of guests or content that you enjoy or that you wish we would have on the show. I promise you, we field each and every one of those. , we take your feedback very seriously. A lot of the, , the direction of Automation Unplugged has been directly impacted by all of you. The folks that are our regular watchers and listeners of the show, , today, , we have a, a great one. , we have a, a good friend, a good friend, , of one Firefly, and that is Kathleen Thomas, , the head of Sony cs. , many of you have known, , Jeff Goldstein. He was, , he came back into the channel in 2020 and was running. , the business for Sony for a while, and he handed the baton in April of this year, April of 2025, , to the very capable, , Kathleen, who's just, , been running and, , driving business forward. She's a, a pleasure to talk to, a pleasure to work with, and all of you are gonna find that out here. , if you don't already know Kathleen well, you're, you're about to. So let's go ahead and bring her in and, , let's see how she's doing. Kathleen, how are you? I'm awesome. How are you? Great. Really happy to be here. You know, I'm noticing that I know you, but maybe I don't know you that well, because I, , I see on your name there on the screen, it says, kt. And does that mean your, , your, your closest, , friends and coworkers or family? Do they call you kt?

Kathleen:

Yeah, really it kind of became a thing for work. , out outside, outside work. Nobody really calls me kt, but it kind of became a thing mostly because I'm just really lazy and so I don't type my full name. And so I always just type KT at the end. 'cause I, I am like, it's funny 'cause I, I, I'm very, very rapid fire. I like to get like, get things done and, and move on. Um, and one of the things compliments I usually get is you're really fast to respond really is 'cause if I don't respond real fast, I'm probably gonna forget. So I tend to go really fast and then I just write KT at the end. And so people just started calling me kt. Um, so yeah, it's just half the time if you tell people Kathleen, they won't know who the heck you're talking about.

Ron:

I love that we, we do that here when Firefly, we have a. Actually, Jessica, who works very closely was jt. Yeah, it's jt. No one else in her life, to our knowledge, calls her jt, but we call her jt and it, it just sucks. It was shorter than saying her first, or you know, her full first name and last name. So I, I totally relate to that. We, , we, we, we have the same, and there are other people on our ta, Taylor, my CFO, we call 'em T Why? 'cause I'm too lazy to say Taylor, so I just say T.

Kathleen:

Exactly. It's just really, it's, there's only so many minutes in the day.

Ron:

Exactly. Every microsecond you can carve out, , it, it helps.

Kathleen:

Yep. It's all efficiency. It's, it's our bio. It's our like life hack. Right. We should start our own podcast about life hack

Ron:

we show. Yeah, exactly. Amen to that. So kt , so I'm gonna, I'm gonna see how it fits. I'm gonna, I'm gonna see how it feels over the course of our conversation. Um, where are you coming to us from for this conversation? I am in my home office in Portland, Oregon.

Ron:

Portland. You, are you, you more recently moved to Portland, correct? I did. I did. Yeah. I,

Kathleen:

um, I've been in Seattle for off and on since 97. Um, and, , finally you had kind of found ourselves more and more on the weekend. It's only three hours away between Portland and Seattle and spent more and more of our weekends down here. The food scene is ridiculous. Um, you were telling me before

Ron:

we turn here how amazing it was. Now I, I, I'm dying to get to Portland to try it. Yeah. Describe the food scene for us.

Kathleen:

, so it's, I mean, there's more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the country. And a lot of that is because not only are there a lot of restaurants, but there's also a food cart culture. So you like, you know, if there's an empty parking lot in Portland, there are 10 food carts sitting there. Um, and you can get pretty much any, any kind of food. I mean, there's a vegan Sri Lankan restaurant. Um, there's, you know. Any kind of Thai food that you could want. Not just like the normal Thai food, but like, okay, this is specific to this region. Um, there's, you know, um, you know, Polynesian restaurants, I mean, there's literally any kind of food. We've been consistently rated one of the best pizza towns in the country. And, you know, several of the pizza places are listed on actually best. Pizza restaurants, , you know, from Italian organizations and things like that. So it's just a, a really, people here really value food and they go out, like you'll go to restaurants on, on a Wednesday and they're full. So it's, , it's a, it's pretty, it's pretty fun. There's, , there was a bread festival. There's always a festival, some kind of food festival. There was a bread festival last weekend and we really wanted to go, but we showed up and the line was so long. You were gonna stand like two hours just to enter the festival. Into the festival. Yeah, it was bananas. So, you know, people joke about like, you know, breadlines and there was a breadline in Portland last weekend,

Ron:

but not because people were hungry.

Kathleen:

Not because people were hungry, just because they wanted to buy, to buy bread. I'm

Ron:

by moving to Portland and moving into this food culture. Have you and your husband like. Ramped up the amount of time a week you go out to eat, unfortunately. Yes. And try all this out.

Kathleen:

Yes. Unfortunately, um, you know, both of us we're, we're both we're vegan. Um, I'm mostly vegan. I travel, it's really hard, and so I'll just be vegetarian when I travel. But, um, you know, he's pretty strictly vegan. And, um, so, you know, we, we eat pretty healthy and are pretty aware of what we eat, but there's like a lot of vegan bakeries here and a lot of like, it is, it's hard, you know, we went and got ramen last night and, you know, yeah. It's, there's, and I driving there, I was like, there's too many restaurants here because there's always like, is it vegan? Vegan ramen? It was vegan ramen. Yeah. So it wasn't a vegan restaurant, but like half their menu was vegan. Which is, that's one of the nice things to you here is like, it's, it's super accommodating. Whatever kind of like food you want to eat, like you can be a total like carnivore, caveman, diet person. You can be gluten-free. You can be, you're gonna find, you're gonna find plenty of places to eat. 'cause there's just an abundance of, of restaurants.

Ron:

That's, that's awesome. So you're, and it's beautiful. It's beautiful here. And it's beautiful. Yes. Yeah. I am, , I'm, I'm gonna have to check it out for sure. I, I am, I, I have lived in Florida. I'm in Fort Lauderdale and , I like certain aspects of Florida. Um, the topology. We have mountains. Say that again. Mountains. We have mountains.

Ron:

No, we have no olo. I mean, I guess if you go up to Orlando and just north of Orlando, you get into some foothills. I mean, I mean, I don't know, 50 foot. It's,

Kathleen:

I grew up in Georgia. I grew up in Georgia. That's adorable. Yeah, I

Ron:

know. It's cute. I, I'm from Virginia. We had at least the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yes. I know people out west still laugh at that. But, , yeah, in Florida, I mean within a hundred miles north or south of where I am, I mean, the highest elevation are the trash dumps. Yeah. I mean the, the mountain. The hill, when you drive the highway and you look up Yeah. That's because that's a, a trash site. Yeah. , otherwise you're at sea level. And that's, , it is what it is. So traveling around the country, that's, I do benefit. I do enjoy visiting other places. Come to visit. I have a guest room. You're, you're more than welcome.

Ron:

I, I appreciate that. I will, I will tell my wife and, , we might have to make a trip out west. I have a question for you. So, head of Sony ci, what does that mean? What does that role or function or responsibilities like, what does it, what does it encompass and I, and, and maybe in that will, will transition into kind of some of the, the stewardship, , in your, you know, the leadership. You, you worked with Jeff Goldstein. , yeah. I wanna share my experiences as well. I loved working with Jeff. Hope Jeff maybe watches this show. That would be really neat. I'm gonna make him watch

Kathleen:

it.

Ron:

We're gonna make it perfect.

Kathleen:

So, , yeah, so it's a, it's a really interesting job. Um, so prior to coming to Sony, most of the companies I worked with were much smaller. Um, you know, pretty much any job in our channel other than the large TV companies are, you know, even if they, we think of them as big, they're really small. Um, and, you know, most of them are kind of in general CI focused or CI is just a massive part of their business. And, and you know, so when I run businesses like another companys, like, it was kind of the whole business. And, you know, the, the CI channel in the world of Sony is, has a really unique position in that it's. You we're very, very different than the rest of the business throughout the, the company. And it's a very worldwide company, even though the US is important, um, CI is kind of a, a microcosm within the organization. Um, and, and so, and it, and it's very different in that, you know, if you think about the other businesses that Sony's dealing with, um, and, and the other large TV manufacturers and large companies that have diverse businesses, they're very, the other businesses are really data driven. Like, it's pretty easy to look at, say like a Costco or Best Buy or, you know, any of these large, large, large, or even. You know, outside the realm of TV in terms of cameras. 'cause we do cameras and things like that. Um, you know, the, the camera, you know, dealers and things like that. They're, they're very like large data-driven organizations, , where you know what the forecast is going to be. And you sit with the dealer and you do a forecast, all this kinda stuff. CI, you basically throw that all off the window. It's all vibes, baby. Like, it's vibes, it's talking to dealers, it's anecdotal. It's like there's not a lot of hard data there. And so my job is a little unique from the other department heads, um, in, in our group, um, of just home entertainment in that I, you know, I have to kind of, you know. Finger in the air, you know, test the wind a lot. It's little bit of

Ron:

voodoo, isn't it?

Kathleen:

It's a little bit of voodoo. It's a little bit of really understanding the channel and what drives the channel and what data to look at. Like you are not necessarily meeting with, , dealers and doing, you know, forecasting, but you are digging into housing data. You are digging into, um, you know, talking to, you know, every single level of integrator. Um, we also are a bit of, I like to call us the island of misfit toys and at Sony and that we're not just the hard integrator. We also have Crutchfield and some online, um, you know, people. So really it's those businesses that drive our premium. Business overall. So it's really about, okay, how do we drive premium? How do we show performance? How do we show that that, you know, Sony is, um, the leader in terms of performance for home entertainment. And so my job is really a mix of. , you know, investigator Intuitor, listening to our dealers, listening to our co, you know, our dealers are our customers, listening to our customers at every single level. So listening to our small accounts, listening to our big accounts, and, and everything in between. Um, you know, doing research, um, and then also being an advocate for the channel within our organization. And, you know, I can't expect our leadership, um, to know all the ins and outs and, and everything in terms of our channel and what drives, , and motivates our dealers. And so that's really on me. That's really on. You know, a big, big part of our job is to, you know, educate. Um, you know, for example, we just had, , you know, um, . Tyler Rashida, who had been running, , the president of um, home Entertainment recently went back to Japan for a new assignment. We have a new person that came in, Tara, us on Kimura. And you know, one of the great things though is that they do, they, they know that they don't know a lot about the channel. And so one of the first things we ever get to do when we get somebody high up is. We get a lot of time with 'em because they, we are the biggest thing that they need to learn. Um, and so I was able to have several, several meetings with him. We took him actually to Florida, um, to our showroom. We went to our dealer acoustic architects and he met with them and really spent the day with them. Went to houses, um, to kinda see what exactly to do. , he came to CDI met with, you know, different select accounts to had him take the, you know, tour. We had him at our party so he could meet with dealers and just kind of make sure it's a constant kind of educational process of. Like really informing, um, the business unit and the leadership at Sony about what the beating heart of integration is and what drives and motivates our dealers, because it's very, very different than what drives and motivates retail. Right? At retail, you could say you have too, I have too many widgets. You could say, okay, well we're gonna take 10% off the widgets this weekend. Great for retail. That doesn't work for ci. Right? Because you're having to specify the widget and Yeah. Okay. Now I, I act it's actually a negative because I don't want the price of that widget going up and down. Right? And so we really are there to kind of mitigate those decisions and say, Hey, wait a minute, you know, Hey, can we instead have this be a longer, you know, if it's a CI oriented product, can we have this be a longer promotion or can we shift the promotion to this period, which may be counter to. Um, like something for retail, but you know, it's important for our channel to also have that voice. So my number one job, like I have all these jobs, right? I also have a team to manage. It sounds like a

Ron:

very difficult job just by your description so far. It's great.

Kathleen:

It's great. No, it's awesome. So, you know, I, I have all these other parts, but the reality of what my, my job really is, my number one thing is to be the advocate for the integrator at a huge, crazy corporation, right? So, and all of our jobs in our, in our group is to make, working with Sony, working with this big, big corporation, feel small and feel more intimate and feel like, okay, they're listening to us.

Ron:

You've

Kathleen:

been actually a little emotional about it because it's so important. No, I,

Ron:

I, I, I think that, , I think it's a complex job and I, I would, yeah, I would add, I, I think it's, um, I'm a crier, so, yeah. Say that again.

Kathleen:

I'm a crier, so I get like, I get emotional about like these, about the channel because it's the channel. No, that's

Ron:

how, well, I, I, I, I wanna get back into your back, your backstory. 'cause you spent your whole career in this channel. Yep. Um, so actually, you know what, let's go there and then that'll bring us into you ultimately joining, , , Sony at the beginning of, , or not joining Sony, but transitioning into this particular leadership role at the beginning of 25. But I feel that if I, if we start there, then I'd, I'd rather you start at kind of the whole story. Tell us the whole story. Where did you. Begin your career, go back as far as you want and bring us through that experience ultimately to, you can go

Kathleen:

back to the very beginning. So go back if you're

Ron:

willing. I, I, I know that the audience and I would love to hear it. It's

Kathleen:

a, it's a fun fact about kt. So, and I, I, I loved is, there's been so many hilarious ways for me to bring it up in my lifetime, so I love talking about it. Um, yeah, my parents were in the industry. Um, so, , when I was born, , my dad was. The manager at a Hi-Fi store that was opening in Atlanta, Georgia. My mom was doing the books. Um, and , so when they opened in, I'm gonna tell you how old I am, you can do the math. I, when they opened in 1973, 'cause I wanna honor when they opened, , you know, the seventies were a great era for launching legendary, , Hi-Fi stores. I was in their first commercial when I was two weeks old. So I always joke, , you know, that, that that was my start at two weeks. It was very helpful to me when I was like 20 years old when I, the sales floor and guys would come into, because I later started, I later actually worked at Hi-Fi buys and, um, when, , you know, guys would come into the store and be like, little girl, I've been shopping here since before you were born. And I'm like, no, you haven't. Yeah. I was like, they, they delayed opening this store three weeks so I could be born. So. Um, but , yeah, and, and then when I was doing phones, , at, I later worked at, um, amigo and was doing tech support, which being, being a, you know, 20 something year old girl doing tech support at a high end audio importer, I got, I got, you know, a lot of pushback about, oh, you know, what's your experience and things like that. And so I would just tell them I had 20 years of experience and, you know, they really couldn't argue with that. Um, so k

Ron:

kt, I have a really neat, fun fact for you. You want this fun fact. I do. You, and I want you to restate for me this, the, the, the with clarity, so I can give you my fun fact. Your parents, , worked at HiFi buys or they they started HiFi buys. They owned HiFi buys. Yeah. So they

Kathleen:

were HiFi buys in Atlanta. Um, so they, , which is not the same company as the current HiFi buys in Atlanta, although they're

Ron:

connected. Okay. That, that's what I was gonna clarify. 'cause actually, , a couple, when this show airs, I will be able to say a couple of weeks ago. I had, , the current manager of High Five buys in Atlanta, automation Unplugged. Chris will have Just Air. Chris Allen. Chris. Chris.

Kathleen:

Yeah, I know Chris. Yeah. Okay. They're great. That's a different Hi-Fi buys connected. They're connected, but it's, it's not, it's the same kind of same location, but they really, they're really kind of, um, what they did was kind of take that heritage, um, and kind of bring it back to Atlanta. So, which is really exciting. And actually when they opened, I was there for the grand opening and they did a little story about me and stuff like that, about the, the, that Heritage Connection. But no, I literally grew up at Hi-Fi stores, kind of toddling around. And, um, later my parents became, , became sales reps. And I spent my summers packing literature, answering phones, um. I was really blessed with always having a lot of great audio gear at home. And, you know, I hooked up my first stereo when I was six because my parents were always a little ne negligent in terms of when they would swap out stuff, connecting it back up. And I got frustrated and yeah, it's like, you know, I could read, so I knew things went in, things went out and I, my dad came down, he is like, whatcha doing? It's like, I wanna listen to music. Um, you know, queuing up, turntables, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, so it really, it's um, it's just kind of in my blood and kind of what I've always done. And when I, you know, I went to, I was a total nerd. School, like I spent my summers at Duke University and, um, had a mentor at Harvard and did all these like, , what did you study in school? I'm sorry? What did you study? Well, I'm just talking about like high school. Um, I, I used, yeah, I

Kathleen:

would, so Duke has a, um, summer program for, for um, students. It's a test in program. And so I would go there and take classes for three weeks in the summer at Nerd Camp. And, and I did buy mail classes, um, through them also that, um, I had mentor at Harvard and did like, mostly history. , so I was like really, really into history. I still am. And um, got really burnt out, , , when I graduated. Um, actually left school a year early and I, I believe in hard, hard turns and so I. You know, even though I was like super intellectual and things like that, I was like, you know, I am a one dimensional person. Like I, I want to be, I want to explore different aspects of myself. And so I actually went to art school, so I applied at scad, um, Savannah College of Art Design, which at the time, now it's a huge school. They have campuses like in and things like that. It was not that, it was not that ffr when I was there, it was definitely a lot smaller. But, , yeah, went to art school, knew nothing about art, was not an artist. But, you know, hey, I got, I wanted to really flesh out. I was like one of the few people that got into art school on an academic scholarship. Um, but I did, and you know, I studied video production, I took drawing, I did all these things. Um, I actually majored in video production. Did any of your

Ron:

professors tap you on the shoulder and say, , Kathleen, why are you here?

Kathleen:

Well, the the best part was, I remember when we did like a math class. So we had, you know, you still had like math and things like that, and the, like, the teacher was doing a survey. It's just like, okay, so how many kids have done algebra? Like premature? Raise their hand. How many people have done like, geo, like taken geometry, raise their hand? And they're like, okay, so has anybody taken pre-calc? Like about half the class raise their hand. They're like, okay, who's done calculus? I'm like, who's done calculus two, you're the

Kathleen:

only one raising hand. Why are you here?

Ron:

Why are you here?

Kathleen:

But this is the thing, this is the thing is I think you always have to work on yourself to, you can't just go in one direction. Like you have to work on yourself. And I learned so much there in terms of leadership, and I remember, , when I got my first kind of leadership role when I was at Audio Quest and, um, my boss at the time, Steve Mimi, who was awesome. I love, I love Steve. And he was like, you know, sometimes it amazes me that you went to art school. He would always kinda make fun of me, background art school, but he was like, it kind of amazed me about you going to art school because like you're, like you. Act like you went to like a management, like you took, you know, studied management and I was like, look, I have to get people really excited about an idea and show up at five o'clock in the morning to hold a microphone for a video production for a class and you know, have them, you know, want to do that and have actors show up and, you know, all these things. And I couldn't even pay them. Imagine what you can do, what did we get people to do? When you give them money on top of money,

Ron:

they get, they'll get paid for this.

Kathleen:

Yeah. Like, it's so easy. This part's easy. I'm paying people. Um, you know, so it is, , it really, really taught me a lot about. How much of like working with people and things like that is listening to them, is getting them engaged, getting them excited, because if people believe in what you're doing, and it's the same thing with sales. Like you, it's all about getting people to believe what you're doing and to be as engaged with it as you, and you know, trying to, you know, get everybody on board with that idea. And, um, and so that's, that's my favorite part about, about the job. And it kind of goes back to me being the advocate of Sony. That's one my favorite things about Sony is, okay, can I get all these people that know nothing about CI to get like super, super excited about, you know, this product or this strategy or, you know, what, what we're doing in the channel.

Ron:

So audio Quest. What, where? And then I know B-M-W-B-B-M-W was there. Bowers and Wilkins was in there. Yeah.

Kathleen:

So I'll, I'll do, I'll do like the linear thing because I do tend to, oh yeah, I,

Ron:

well, just a little bit. Yeah. My, that part of my brain just wants a line, a little bit of line linearity. Yes. I, I've been

Kathleen:

super, super lucky to work. So like the best places ever. Um, so first it was HI five in Atlanta, Georgia. When they got bought by Twitter. Um, I was, you know, like 25.

Ron:

And you were working there when they were purchased. Yes. Oh, wow. Okay.

Kathleen:

So I was working there. When they were purchased, I became, you know, I basically took the, the money for my retirement account did completely what you're not supposed to do. And I was like, I wanna, I didn't like working for a big corporation, so I wanted to kind of keep working for a family owned company. And I also had always lived in Georgia, pretty much. I lived in California briefly when I was really young, but pretty much had always lived in Georgia. I was like, I wanna live somewhere else. Like, it'd be good for me. Um, kind of goes back to that hard term, right? And so I, um, decided, you know what? I'm gonna move to Seattle. And they, they wouldn't hire me, , without an interview. And back then they didn't have Zoom. So you had to actually like be there. Yeah, sure. And so what I did, because this was a big risk, right? Because I was like moving across the country without a job. So what I did was I called everybody that I knew in the industry, and so I had like a stack of recommendations that I like sent them in advance. And this was Who's the them?

Kathleen:

So the people at Magnolia, at Magnolia Audio. So this was back when Magnolia was a family owned company. So basically like I sent like 15 recommendation letters from all these people in the industry there. And so then I, you really

Ron:

wanted this job?

Kathleen:

Well, I was moving across the country to go work there regardless, right? And so they were like, okay, I know that, you know, I can get a job there. So I got a job there. Um, was there for a few years and then, um, John Hunter, who at the time owned, , ko, so that was later bought by, by, um, later bought by Sonos Faber, and then bought by Macintosh and now bought by those, so, you know, the way the industry transactions, but at the time they were like a, you know, small high-end audio and importer distributor based in Berkeley, California. So they wanted somebody to do like tech support and things like that. And I'd known them for a long time. So I moved down to Berkeley and worked at Samco. Ended up being there for seven and a half years. Eventually became a regional manager. Um.

Ron:

I don't know. Ko, what, what type of product was that? What, what is simko?

Kathleen:

Oh, it was like, um, Sonos Farber Speakers, project Turntables. SME turntables. So very Highend turntables, um, Ralph Subwoofers. Yeah. So like high Highend, mostly European products.

Ron:

So your whole career has been around high-end AV gear?

Kathleen:

Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. Um, and so I was there for seven and a half years, and then I went to Audio Quest, , the cable manufacturer. I was there for about 10 years. About seven of those years. I, , ran sales for North America and, um, which was, , you know, a huge leadership opportunity to get at a pretty young age. Um, you know, it was, I have an

Ron:

audio quest cable tied, , to my dynamite, , amplifier here.

Kathleen:

And it was, it was a great, , it was a great place to learn. Um, you know, the, the amount of trust that they put in me in terms of building out strategy. Um, and really it was the first time when I had a job where they really gave me a voice of like, you're really allowing me to, to be a leader. And, um, so that was an, an amazing, amazing time there. And, um, then I, , I was at ELAC very briefly, just for like a couple years, , which is speaker manufacturer. The best part about that was I got to become friends with Andrew Jones, the speaker designer who I adore. So shout out to a aj. Um. One of the best people ever. And then I went to Bowers and Wilkins and I, when I was there, it was an interesting time because they've been bought, bought by Eva Automation, um, and we're then later transitioning. Um, and so I was basically there from the EVA automation period until they were purchased by, by a little bit after they were purchased by Sound United. And it was an exciting time. Like it was a lot of change going on. But, um, you know, James, James Krakowski was leading sales there at the time and I loved working with him. Um, he's now my mortal enemy because he runs Samsung. But, um, we're secretly still friends and. But he was great and he really, , you know, gave me a lot of latitude in terms of driving the business. And that's where I met Jeff. So I met Jeff Goldstein at Bowers. He was their consulting, so they brought him in as a consultant to build out a strategy to grow the CI business. And, , Jeff kind of, , you know, pulled, pulled me in as his sidekick on the project and we really just really gelled. , and we were an amazing team. And really over the course of a year, built out a whole strategy to sell ci um, hired reps. Um, I managed all the reps, , just me. And, um, you know, the, you know, we really kind of, you really dramatically increased the CI business and built out a whole network of dealers selling Bowers and Wilkins CI products, which had never really happened before. They'd always prior been super, super protective and very, very limited distribution, and we really opened that up. Um, so that was a very, very exciting project. And then Jeff left and went back to, he went back to Sony. So. Um, and as soon as he, he went back to Sony, he's like, I'm getting you over here. And I'm like, no, there's no way, Jeff, are you crazy? I, I sell big speakers. I sell like, you know, really expensive turntables and things like that. I'm like, literally my email address is kt stereo, right? And my Instagram is kt Hi-Fi chick. Like, it's like, that is who I am. Like I'm a Hi-Fi, I'm Hi-Fi girl, right? Yeah. That's it.

Kathleen:

And um, you know, he kept kind of like poking me and, you know, and then, you know, there were, you know, changes and things like that. And I, I really started reconsidering and like. You know, the, the audio side of the business was very volatile at the time. And, you know, it's, it's nice to kind of be at a company where nobody's, nobody's looking to buy you. Um, although you're welcome to buy stock, but, you know, nobody's looking to, nobody's out there buying Sony. Um, yeah.

Kathleen:

And, , but it, it really ended up being a perfect fit. So, you know, and really what I came to realize was that I wasn't selling big speakers. I, I was selling performance and you know, Sony definitely at their very, very core is about performance and creator intent. And I loved that. And yes, I still am selling audio products too. Um, but you know, I really kind of, again, I, it was funny 'cause I realized myself that the girl, that the woman that always like, likes to make the hard turns wasn't really making a hard turn. I was hesitant about it, but, you know, so I was like, okay, now I, I had to check myself and like, okay, I need to make that hard turn. And I, you know, super, super glad I did and I've learned so much. And I've never worked in a big corporation before like this. And, um, it's been exciting, , you know, frustrating, like every job is, and you know, I've learned so much and it's just been a really great place to be. It's a amazing

Ron:

place. Have you, have you gone to Tokyo yet? Yeah. Is that part of the job you go to? They go to Japan?

Kathleen:

Yeah. So I went, I, um, went last year. I'm going again actually week after next. Um, I'll be in Tokyo for the week. So it's, , it's a great, great opportunity. It's always interesting too, to, to go to Sony corporate office versus, you know, the San Diego office is a different vibe. , I always joke because, um, my. , one of our leaders, hu, , he, , you know, around the, around the US office, he is, you know, very much like a hoodie. Um, you know, very, very casual. And then I saw him at, you know, when I ran into him when we were at the Tokyo office. 'cause last year we were there at the same time. He was like dressed. I was like, wow, okay. Dressed, impressed. I was like, you look a little different than you normally do. She,

Ron:

that's funny. Yeah. Kathleen, you speak so fondly about, , the leaders and managers or bosses that you've had throughout your career. , are there a handful of, of bosses that stick out to you as really having made an impact, positive impact? And, and if so, how did, how and why did they make a positive impact? Like, what was it that made that experience so memorable? Yeah. I just think of myself and the people that I, I lead at one Firefly and I, I hope, I mean, I aspire one day. Some of them might think of the interactions they've had with me so fondly. So I, I'm just curious, what is it about the way they treated you or led you or coached you or guided you that made such a, a, a positive impact on you?

Kathleen:

I mean, I think the two big things, um, that are consistent with the best bosses that I've had is one, a level of respect. Um, and that these are tied, but like a level of respect and, and giving, giving the people that work for you, agency. To explore different things, find out what they're good at, um, listen to their ideas, kind of let them go on tangents of like, Hey, I, I wanna do this project. Um, but I think the biggest thing is, you know, really giving them that freedom to do the best job that they can and not micromanage them, but just trust them to say, okay, this is your project. Like, okay, you know, you guys need, you guys go grow the CI business and map out what that looks like and giving you the agency to actually do that and the trust to do that. Um, you know, the fact that they gave me, you know, audio Quest gave me a leadership position at such a young age, um, you know, I. You know, they saw in me that I was already, you know, speaking up and taking a leadership position on my own. And they're like, Hey, you're taking this leadership position. Why don't we just make you a leader? Um, and I don't think that always happens, you know, I think sometimes, um, you know, especially I think, , you know, I, I see this happen more in like women, but I think we, I think everybody, there's that personality type that they do this, that they, they're kind of just naturally pushy people and sometimes that's not always appreciated, appreciate the pushy people, like the pushy people are your leaders. And so I think the people that recognize like, oh yeah, you're naturally like assertive and speaking your mind and. People are listening to, you don't see that as a threat. Like see that as, okay, wow, we really need to elevate their voice. And I've worked at places that saw it like a threat, you know? And, um, I didn't last very long at those places because I was like, I, yeah,

Ron:

I'm gonna speak up. Sorry, listen to me.

Kathleen:

Why am I here? Why'd you hire me if you're not gonna listen to me? Um, you know, and so I think that that's, that's it. Like, you know, value of pushy people, we're good value,

Ron:

pushy people. That's awesome. Alright, so here we are in, , we're, we're in the fall of 2025. , we're in the middle of, , , call it fall event season. I, I know I'll cross paths with you at various events, for sure. Certainly cross my team will cross paths with your team. Um, what's, , what's, what, what is Sony talking about right now? What, what has you excited and, and what are you getting the dealers in the marketplace excited about?

Kathleen:

Yeah, so buying group seasons, this is always a little crazy time of year. Um. But it's always such a great opportunity, , sort of like it's, this is like our gathering point for like seeing all of our people, right? 'cause we have Cedia and then we have, you know, the, the buying group events. And so this is really like our opportunity to kind of get that. Kind of biannual temperature check on, on everybody. And you know, we have so many dealers, , which is fantastic. But it's, it's, it's our opportunity to kind of really have that, those personal relationships. Um, you know, especially like from my perspective, I have like 1500 accounts, like in our little bucket that is ci, right? And so it's, I I wish I could go and visit everybody. I can't. So it's a great opportunity for us to see everybody. Um, so mean. I think the, the, you know, one thing we're gonna talk about are like, what are the pain points in their business? Um, you know, what are the things we can do, um, you know, as we're going, looking forward to next year's programs and things like that too. Um. You know, help work, you know, make working with Sony better. Um, and also, you know, how, how, , are the different, , you know, um, influences and trends in the economy affecting them. Um, all of those sorts of things from, , did

Ron:

you say the, the evil, the dirty

Kathleen:

E word, the economy. Oh, everything's great. Everything's fine on, I dunno what you're talking about. Um, but no, yeah, it's, , you know, it's, it's a factor and, you know, and we need to know how people are doing and it's our best opportunity face-to-face. Right. Yeah. Um, and then, you know, the other thing talking about is, you know, products of course. , what are the

Ron:

cool products on the horizon that you're allowed to talk about in this forum?

Kathleen:

Yeah, so, um, well we do have a new, so the easy one is we have a new projector, the Bravia seven projector, which is super, super cool. Um, it's. Honestly, it's funny because I was a little grumpy about this projector 'cause it's, when I first heard about it, it wasn't really exactly what I wanted, but then I really wrapped my head around it and saw it and it's amazing. It's under $10,000, um, you know, has our absolute best processing in it. So the picture is beautiful. And what really makes our processing special is we actually look at frame by frame and optimize each frame in terms of, um, brightness, in terms of color, all these things, right? Um, because we actually are in the development of film from end to end in some cases now we even create the ip. Um, you know, we, we know what an image is supposed to look like. And so we're always kind of going back to that creator intent, and we're able to do that on a frame by frame basis, which is amazing and really allows us to have very, very realistic, um, color. Um, we don't get a lot of banding. I mean, there's just, there's so, there's so many benefits. There's

Ron:

no other projector company I can nerd, I can really say that, right? The idea of end to end. We're the only one.

Kathleen:

Like, we're the only one we make. That's a powerful story. Video game. Yeah. We make the video game. We, that then has turned into the movie that is shot on a Sony camera. That's then, you know, big, you know, color graded and edited on a Sony monitor. Um, you know, we're using Sony microphones and then it's mixed in our theaters, and then we build the TVs, the projectors, the receivers that, the soundbars that you listen to them on. Right. And it's an incredibly powerful story. And it is not just a story, like it actually really affects everything we do. Like we know because we make the monitors that the, they grade the film color and all that kind of stuff on. We know exactly what that looks like. And so we make sure that our projectors and TVs look as close at that. When you literally take them outta the box. So we don't, you don't have to do a lot of work to get the best picture out of any, any Sony product. Um, and even our sound stuff, our soundbars, um, headphones, all those kind of things. We, um, you know, the people that, you know, mix film at Sony Pictures actually listens to Soundbars and things like that and approves product before we, before we start shipping them. So we really, really, really believe in that whole chain. Um, and, and

Ron:

everything, the Bravia seven projector, is that replacing a different projector at that price point level? Just

Kathleen:

fitting? It's just fitting right in there. Um, between right in between the, yeah, it just fits right in. Um, the other big thing too, um, is, , you know, RGB. Technology. So that is probably the biggest thing that's kind of on the horizon. Um, you might notice my, my,

Ron:

I did, I read the press release in the spring. , but I'm, I'm gonna admit, I don't know, I think I had read R-G-B-L-E-D tv. , what exactly does that mean? And then when, when can I buy it?

Kathleen:

So exciting. So basically this is the biggest revolution in television since 4K. Um, and the reason why is, so OLED’s awesome and I'm not gonna take anything away from OLED, right? Um, but OLED has limitations in terms, , particularly around brightness. And while you say, see, okay, how bright does my TV need to be? Well, the truth is, is like the, like the real world is incredibly bright. Like the dynamic range of the sun versus dark is huge, right? And you film gets a portion of that, but it's a lot bigger than, you know, you know, when they, they actually shoot, , you know, you're shooting something, you're gonna get like, you know, 10,000 knits. Um, and then, you know, , TV typically is like, maybe if you're real lucky, it's 2000 knits. So you're really having to kind of cut to cut, cut down, right? And so the brighter the tv, the, the, the truer and actually less fatiguing it is, the less clipping you have is very similar to having like headroom on an amplifier. The more headroom you have on an amplifier, the less you're gonna clip, the more natural everything sounds right. Um, and, and so. The brighter we can, the brighter you can have the image, the more realistic it's going to look like. Also, it's about color volume as well. So basically the, the technical side of it is on an LED you have a backlight that typically is like a bunch of like white or blue lights. Um, and then you have a, a filter and then you have the LCD panel. Um, basically what we're doing is we're taking that back light and instead of white or blue lights, um, which clearly are not red and green, blue. So red, red and green and blue, right? So you're, we're ba basically making that RGB, so it'd be replaced with, um, you red, green and blue led d so the backlight will actually be in color. Um, yeah. And so that does a lot of really cool things, but you have to really be able to harness that technology properly to really, , maximize it. So, , by having that backlight and color, the first of all, we'll be able to go brighter. This'll be a brighter than we ever have before. We're actually gonna have less blooming. So blooming is a kind of big negative, um, in especially LED TVs where you will have leakage from the backlight coming through the image. Now, if that backlight now is in color. You no longer have this white light kind of leaking out that's creating blooming. So it's gonna really dramatically decrease blooming. It's also gonna dramatically improve off axis response. 'cause when you're off axis, what you're doing is you're seeing more of the backlight than you are the image. Um, but now that backlight is in color. So, but that really requires to maximize it. That really requires having a lot of control over that backlight. And that's really the secret sauce. So the two secret sauces of Sony is control and the image processing. So in terms of backlight control, we're a second to none. We actually have surface mounted, um, controllers on that backlight. And this is actually true in our current Bravia nine tv. We have little controllers in there that are giving, . You know, better control over each individual zone. So if you take off the, the, the panel on a bravia nine tv, you actually see whatever image, like if it was like a picture of you, you would see the little outline of you and you would see even like your eyes and your features kind of in a kind of a gray scale fashion in the backlight. Nobody else can do that. Um, so we're gonna be able to do that but in color. Um, and we're gonna be able to go from, um, a groundbreaking 22 bit control over those back lights to 66 bits of control over those RGB back lights. So it's going to be, you know, really a revolution in terms of the brightness and the, um, color, volume, the, um, brightness of the color that you're gonna be able to achieve versus what we've been able to do in television. Um. You know, and the cool thing is it's something somebody's been working on for 20 years. So we actually had our first rrg B backlight in 2004. Um, and have been working on backlight technology, you know, this whole time. And, and, you know, nobody can really touch our backlight technology. So we're super, super excited about this, which is why I'm talking about it like a year bef like not, and we started talking about like a year before it's gonna come out, but, um, you, so it be really, is it that on

Ron:

display? Was it on display at C Dia? It was not on display when many people see it.

Kathleen:

Okay. So, , well, we'll have it at future events, um, TBD, but, um, but we'll have, we'll have opportunity for dealers to see it, um, in early 2026. And, um, yeah, we, we typically launch products in the, the spring and summer, so, you know, that'll, it'll be kind of the same launch period that we normally have, um, for, for tv, but we're. I don't think we've ever, we've never talked about TV new, new TV technology this early. Um, but it's because it's important and we wanna make sure that our dealers are ready for it.

Ron:

You mentioned Sony's been working on this RGB backlit technology for decades. Yeah. Is it represented in other products in the Sony ecosystem, or is it literally been in the shop in r and d for that long? And this is, it's, so, yeah. In

Kathleen:

2004 we released a, a, um, TV with an RGB backlight. Um, it, you know, was, this was before 4K was a thing. This was before mini LED was a thing. Like it was super, super early. Um, and so, , you know, after that we, we've really been working kind of up to it, um, in terms of really refining our backlight technology with our backlight master drive, which, you know, was. Wildly successful in our premium TVs for many, many years. Um, and then the, the backlight that we launched, , with the Bravia nine, um, you know, which is probably one of the coolest demos ever that you put your sunglasses on. See, you look at a movie just like, just with the backlight. Um, you know, and so it's really been something that we've written refining, because the big key that you have to have is control. And so there are, there are other RGB TVs out there. Um, you know, they're from our competitors and, but the main thing is they do not have the level of control and the processing power that Sony has. And a lot of that goes back to we, um, we're not just making TVs to, to make TVs. We make TVs because we're recreating the movies that we make. And so it's really, really core to who we are that, , that, that performance be there and that we make it, um, you know, we, we have a level of perfection that we expect out of ourselves. And so it's really, really important that it, it be as close to reality as possible.

Ron:

I, , it sounds amazing. I can't wait to see it. I'm sure everyone watching and listening is now super eager to, to see, put their eyes on it as well, and, and, and provide it to their customers. , I, I remember when I was walking, , the Sony booth at Cedia. And, , I was actually trying to talk to Joseph and he was over at all the, the receiver products and he was doing some demos and I was listening in. Is there, , , just high level, is there, what's going on in the world of Sony receivers, , in terms of, , technology driving that business? Is, , are you guys, , doing that? Is that a growth business? Is that any new technologies or what, what could you add there? Because I always think Sony, I think projectors, TVs and, and receivers.

Kathleen:

And receivers, yeah. Um, and we're really unique in that, where, like the one company that kind of does everything right, um, and, , yeah, so the, um, it's a 60 years of es so this is our 60th year of having, , ES products, so elevated standards. So that was a big centerpiece of C Dia, um, was really, I would say you

Ron:

saw all the lineage. Of Sony gear over the decades. It was really neat to see. It was cool. It was so fun.

Kathleen:

Yeah. And I like it. Um, and so we really celebrating that heritage, um, you know, it is, , the receiver market is really interesting right now. , I think there's a lot of directions where that business can go. , and so we're, you know, we don't have anything like, you know, brand new around the corner, but we're really kind of looking and analyzing, okay, what is, what does a receiver do in the system? What are right? What's a receiver gonna look like in 10 years? So that's really what we're focused on now is, you know, what, where is this going? And what is, what is the thing that we think of as a receiver now? To be, you know, five, 10 years from now because it may look and feel very, very different. Um, and so, you know, and that's just part of the dynamic nature of CI and you know, that it's always evolving. And as much as we think of it as a mature business this point, you know, it is, it's still very, very evolving. And I think a lot, we saw a lot of change happen in COVID in terms of how systems were designed and we're gonna continue to see change as things like ai, um, you know, and other technologies come in and really change how we interact with our products.

Ron:

W where are we at? I'm mindful of time, but I, I wanna just touch on a few more things. Video walls. I've, I've been to the facility and I've seen, , actually the Sony video wall display in a few places, but I, I saw you down in south Florida earlier this year, , at, at your, your rep's facility. And it was, , I mean, the display is stunning. , of course I saw it at CD as well, um, in, in the theater. What, , what is the video wall business doing from Sony's perspective? I, I'll tell you my perspective is it is a hot topic. It's, , yeah, a lot of people are talking about it.

Kathleen:

It's a, it's a fast growing business. It's definitely not the biggest business, but, you know, it's, it's expensive, but it's, it's the fa it's our fastest growing category. Um, you know, it's funny because we've actually been doing it a lot longer than a lot of the other brands on the market. Um, and one of the things that's re but my favorite thing, I kind of talked about that end to end. My very, very favorite thing about our C lad, which is what we call it, is it was actually originally developed, developed for production. So it's actually a production, it, it is used in film and, and, and video production. So it, it is really, um, a, a te , , intended on a design to be a backdrop, , and really put, , the actor in movie studios

Ron:

where it's the background of like Mandalorian type sets or, or not. I just know Mandalorian used that type of technology when they shot it.

Kathleen:

Yeah, yeah. And it's cool because it works in conjunction with the cameras, so you move and it, it like the backdrop moves and all that kinda stuff. It's very, very cool. Um, and really allows you to go to anywhere in the world, um, and looks much more realistic than like a green screen or anything like that. Yeah. And also is more immersive for the actor, right. They're able to like, interact in the space and, but it is so cool because that is literally the same thing that you put in your home. Um, and so you're, it is really that true lens to living room story where the same thing that you're using in, um, in production of a film or a TV show is what you put in your home. Um, and it's second to none. It's absolutely gorgeous. And it's just a different experience. It's a different experience than production. Like there's still a place for projection. Um, you know, it's, it is kind of like that analog streaming thing. Um, and so there still is that, that place and will always be epic place. I think for projection. You can put projectors, places that you can't really put a video wall. Um, but that is a, a truly awesome immersive experience, especially sitting in front of like 193 inch video wall. Um, and because of that, you know, I think you're, you, you know, you're seeing TVs get bigger and bigger and bigger. There's kind of a physical limit in terms of how big you can make a TV and you know, video walls are also the solution for that.

Ron:

So you, you, it's your forecast. You will, we'll see those continue to, it's, you see it as a Yeah, yeah. Fast growing category into the future.

Kathleen:

Yeah. No, it'll continue. You know, we're definitely the leader in terms of premium. Um, and you'll see also like, you know, prices, every technology, people are like, oh, what is prices? Good. Tech technology prices always go down, right? I mean, always. Yeah. Like we remember when, you know, a 55 inch TV was $10,000. Um, so the prices will, will come down. I mean, it's always, I think, gonna be a premium. Um, but, , it is definitely a, a awesome experience.

Ron:

Kathleen, I'm mindful of time. I actually have, , o other things I, I was thinking I was gonna get to, but I had so much fun in everything we did talk about. We're gonna, we're gonna call it there. I wanna thank you so much for taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule to spend time with me and to share with our audience, , about your background and about what's going on with Sony. It really means a lot. So thank you for joining us on automation.

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Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

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Resources and links from the interview:

• • Kathleen Thomas LinkedIn Profile Page

• • Sony Electronics LinkedIn Profile Page
    
    
• • Want a career inside Sony?