An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

This week's episode of Automation Unplugged our guest is Jesse Miller, second-generation owner of Midtown Video

About this episode:

Jesse has over 21 years of experience in broadcast and AV integration, and he’s passionate about multicamera live-streaming — whether he’s building the system or hosting the production himself. Midtown Video has earned major industry recognition from Commercial Integrator, including Best Immersive Experience in 2020 and Best Retail Experience in 2024.

Under Jesse’s leadership, Midtown is known for delivering highly customized AV solutions that blend technical excellence with creative storytelling.

This conversation is hosted by Kat Wheeler, and together they explore:

• How Midtown is elevating executive video and streaming setups.
• Award-winning immersive projects in education and retail.
• Jesse’s journey from hands-on technician to company leader.

SEE ALSO: AU #307- Stop Posting Like It’s 2015: Social Media Tips That Actually Work with Kali Keegan

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there. Ron Callis with another episode of Automation Unplugged. I hope this, , recording, maybe you're watching it on the day of release on Wednesday, or maybe you're watching or listening, , days, weeks, months later. But I hope you're having a great day. , This should be getting released, , right as we're entering. Into the end of spring, beginning of summer. , I'm actually not immediately sure of the day that we're gonna release this, but it'll be pretty soon. And we have a really special guest in store. And what makes this, , one thing that I, I really enjoyed is I, I brought this guest in and we were kind of, . Riffing in the green room, if you will, before, , we started recording, or before I pressed play and record, , is you notice how, how good he sounds and how good he looks in terms of his audio video setup. And, , now you would expect nothing less because this is Jesse Miller. He is CEO of Midtown Video, , right here in South Florida in Miami. Just Southwest of the Miami Airport. , With as much as I travel, I think I'm in his neck of the woods like every other week, , traveling in and out of, , Miami Airport. And, , they, they just have a, a great, . Family business. , This is a, a business that has been passed down, , from, from his parents down to, to he himself. And we'll find out who else is with him running the business. But it's just, , it's a great family op of business, , family business, a great American success story, and. Let's go ahead and bring him in. Let's learn about his business. We're gonna learn all about audio and video and the business side, the commercial side of course, of, of running that successful business. And, , and I mean, I'm gonna, I'll brag now and then we'll brag with him on camera and let him, , tell us about it. But although he runs a really small shop, , you know, it's, you know, 15 or so people on staff. Which in the world of commercial video, there's a lot, you know, there's bigger companies out there, maybe some of them are listening to this recording. But they are, are regularly winning. , Just some very impressive industry recognition in the form of, , I mean, best immersive experience from commercial integrator back in 2020 and in 2024, best retail experience. So they are, , some might say punching above their weight class in some regards and just, you know. We're gonna find out how they're doing that and, , I know I'm excited to learn more. So let's go ahead and bring in Jesse and, , let's get this started. Jesse, how are you, sir?

Jesse:

I'm doing great, Ron. Thanks for having me. How are you?

Ron:

I am doing excellent. It's, , I, you know, I know we're releasing this on a Wednesday, and I'm not supposed to say when we're recording it, but we're recording it on a Friday. It's the end of the day. It's, , beautiful weather outside, so, you know, life is good. I, I can't complain.

Jesse:

You really hyped me up from that intro, man.

Ron:

You're, you're worth it, man. You've earned it. And we're gonna, we're gonna learn here, you know, about the operation you've got going there and, and how you earn some of that hardware and recognition. I, I know that it's very well received. Um, for those that don't know you, Jesse or don't know Midtown, just tell us a little bit about yourself and just a little bit about, , midtown, , video and the type of work you guys do and, and where you do that work.

Jesse:

Midtown Video is a commercial audio visual integrator. We do a lot of AV and a lot of broadcast and streaming. Our DNA is, , we came from a broadcast rental house and a digital cinema rental house. So the projects that we like to take on, we do a lot of production and streaming studios. Video walls, video conferencing auditorium and classroom technology, sports broadcasting. Those are some great projects for us. And then large venue sound systems, whether that's, you know, background in a retail environment or a sports bar, or even stadium sound. That's what Midtown Video is all about. Um, and we learned,

Ron:

, , a a few, well, I'll say in the last hour that we actually have a, a common thread, and I won't mention the school, , just for, um, maybe confidentiality, but you, your, your firm also does work for some of the high school or help the setup, design and configuration of some of the high school. TV studios and some of the, the schools here in South Florida have some pretty sophisticated studios, including my son's school. And so that was in the back of my mind and you're like, yeah, we did that. So I thought that was just, that was super cool. I mean, that's, those are pretty sophisticated operations. I mean, I don't know if they compare to TV studios, but they certainly look like it.

Jesse:

I, I definitely try to inspire my team members by saying things like. The work that we do shows up, you know, you can go places and see your work. So that's, that's really a great example, you know? Um. I'll, I'll share with them how excited Ron was to hear that the production facility and his son's high school was built by Midtown Video. That's meaningful.

Ron:

Well, and it was super relevant because this in the, you know, my son is running for a student office and this is the end of the year and this is when the kids run and they do their little campaigns and he's running for an office. Position. And so he had to produce a campaign video, and his campaign video was then run schoolwide on the TV studio. And so he had to format it so that they could, , receive it. And, you know, the students run the TV station. So the students had to then receive it, process it, and then put it into their production, which was broadcast across the school campus. So, I mean, those conversations were just happening in my household in the last week. And here I am meeting the man that built the whole studio. That's so cool.

Jesse:

And the team? The team. The team. The team.

Ron:

The team. The team. The team.

Jesse:

Famous Na, NCAA, national champion, Jim Harbaugh said the team. The team, the team.

Ron:

Amen. You, this is a family business. Tell us just, , I mean, I I we're gonna go in a few minutes, we'll go into your whole background, but just touch on the, the aspect that this is a family business. , W where did, where did the business start and how did it ultimately, , end up that you're running your CEO of the operation?

Jesse:

My dad in Denver, Colorado, , before video cameras, he figured out that if you. Took the lens off A-C-C-T-V camera and put it up next to a slide projector, like a, those carousel photo slides. Oh yeah.

Jesse:

You could, you could get an image. And, , he had actually studied audio visual technology at, at, , in graduate school in the Midwest. And so in Denver, he put this system together that he sold to hotels before info channels. And, . He would, you know, you want your guests in the hotel to know what the, what's available in the local stores and restaurants, right? So they would sell advertising and they would sync up an audio playback system with these, , photographic slides that would promote. Local businesses. So imagine you're staying in a hotel. There's an info channel that shows the slide of a business and you hear, you know, come to, I don't know, barbecue jacks or whatever, and in the basement is my dad's little machine with an audio player synced up to this, , slide carousel that would. , Advance the slide and then advance to the next audio program. All pushed out through the CCTV system. The, so that's where, , , the audio visual engineering began, I think in the military, total

Ron:

analog in, I mean, entrepreneurial enterprise there, analog technology, and just, he, I mean, did he invent that little business model of that rig and then putting that out there?

Jesse:

That's how I understand it. You know, , I don't know that he is got a patent on it or anything, but he said the hardest thing was keeping the audio and video in sync. So after a little while they, they, he had to give it up because like all of his time was spent running around from hotel to hotel, like syncing up the, the playback, right. So he ends up, um, working in a, a, a studio that they would rent the studio out and do production for people. And that's where he met my mom. And then they started a video production company together. They would go to local businesses and say, Hey, are you advertising on cable tv? No. Well, they'd sell 'em a 32nd spot and then they would write the script, shoot and edit and produce the commercials for them. Wow.

Jesse:

And, and, , when it came time to name the business in Denver, Colorado, they had just purchased like a, a home to, to run the business out of. And the guy, their realtor's company was called Uptown Realty. They liked the name, so they named their production company Midtown Video.

Ron:

So they, how, how long did they run that operation outta Denver Before? I mean, because I, I know you as a Miami operation, so when did that. When did that happen?

Jesse:

It was about five or six years that they, that they ran this, that they ran this production company out of Denver. And it's like, it's really tough in my shoes when I do something spectacular, you know, ah, I just did this or that. My dad would be like, that's nothing. You know, I did the first live via satellite broadcast to a, a political. A convention, you know, we had this famous politician in DC and they were doing the convention and Roger Ailes, you know, it was first getting started and he hired art to get the satellite trucks. So anytime I come up with something brilliant, you know, I, I have to run it by Ken to hear him one up me, you know? And so it's, it's interesting. But, so they were running a full-time production company, which is 24 hours a day. Anybody that's been in. Production knows that that schedule is grueling. And they had my older sister, they had me, they've got these infants in, in Denver. Not a lot of support. All of my mom's family's in Miami. So in a, in 1983, they moved down to Miami so that they've got some uncles and aunts, they can watch the kids here and there. , But they wanted to stay in business. They wanted to stay in the industry. My, for about six months, my dad did research about what the video production community was like in Miami. And, you know, there are, there are heavy hitters that are still around today and he said that Miami didn't need another video production company. But from his discussion from these six months of asking people what, what their business was like, he realized they didn't have a great he video rental company. There was great film rental companies, but not video. So he. My mom decided to get a couple of iami cameras and Sony backs and a couple of beta cam decks and, um, editing analog edit controllers, ab roll. And they, they built Midtown video in Miami as a broadcast rental house.

Ron:

No, in this, in the early eighties.

Jesse:

Yeah. 84 is our, is our inaugural year in Miami. It's our 40 41st year in business

Ron:

and I'm, I'm just uninformed on this subject. Was the idea of a video rental shop or business, commercial enterprise, was that a normal type of operation that was popping up around the country and this Miami was lacking that type of business at the time?

Jesse:

I think that in bigger markets, in New York and LA in Chicago. There were video rental houses. In fact, he modeled the company after a Denver based company. Dean Schneider, who was at my Brit, who was at my circumcision h ran film video in Denver. And it was, , a, a lot of midtown videos practice, as Ken says, was modeled on Dean Schneider's film video rentals in, in Denver. But so, , yes. There, there were and there weren't in Miami and you know, based on his market research. So since then, certainly additional broadcast video rental companies popped up in South Florida. Sure. And you know, there may have been some in Fort Lauder. This is not to discount anybody. I just want you to hear how we got started.

Ron:

Yeah, no, well, that's, that's you, you're, you're my guest. So that's, you're, you're the person, you're the company and the operation that I, I wanna, I wanna learn about. Cool. Well, I, I do wanna, , point out, and it was actually kind of funny because when you and I were, you know, we connect a little bit before we start recording and I was talking to you and I, I glanced up and I'm looking over at my notes and I'm talking to you and it just, it like hit me. Your video looks really good, and the audio sounded really good. I know you tested a few mics and, and Allison who helps us with production, she was on here with us and, and she was, you know, commenting to me the same. That it sounds really good. Looks really good, and that. Of all the shows that we do, and, and there are a few outliers that, that look really good or sound really good, and for all of us that live in a world of, , video conference meetings, like, you know, one Firefly where I, I'm here in Fort Lauderdale, my, Steve, my team's located across, across North America, but the were in video conferences all day long. I swear 95%. This is not to knock any of my customers that we love and appreciate, but their audio and video is usually, , mediocre at best and often tends towards pretty bad. And this is in 2025. And it seems so common out there in, I'll just say, you know, I'm, I am typically talking to SMBs, small and medium sized businesses, but I mean, I'm also on occasion, I mean not on occasion, pretty regularly. I've had a couple meetings today with big manufacturers, you know, people that are employees, but staff members of bigger operations, and it is very common. That the video and audio experience people, for whatever reason feel is okay. Is, is just generally not very good. And yours was really good. And so it, it like hit me and then I was like, wait a second. He's Midtown video. Of course it's good. And then you were tell, so all right, so tell us what, what is the microphone you're using? What's the camera, what's the lens, what's your setup? What's the lighting?

Jesse:

Sure. And then, well, all great questions. Um, but. Before I can tell you the model numbers of all this gear, I wanna share that this experience comes from a philosophy, a mission of our, of our business. You know, in the audio visual industry, what are the two biggest complaints? Oh, it's so hard to use, or, oh, it never works. And so our mission is the precise opposite of that. Midtown Video's mission is to deliver systems our clients can use with pride. Confidence. Right. And pride looks like you gotta come see what Midtown Video did for me. And confidence looks like, oh, we've got a big, you know, conference coming up. We better use the Midtown video conference room 'cause we know it's gonna work. So, , with, with that, , it, it is also, , it bears on our history that we were broadcast in Digital Cinema Rental House. It was 2019 when I closed our rental department. For, you know, market reasons, you know, borrow lenses.com came out. Black Magic told everybody cameras cost $695. It just wasn't. Feasible anymore. It wasn't as profitable as it was. I'm not gonna

Ron:

tell you that I have a black magic, , , piece of gear on my desk because that serves a great

Jesse:

purpose. They serve a great purpose, you know, so they, and they led to, , closing my digital cinema rental house. Now there's a. Sony PMWF 55 connected to an SDI to USB capture card. So that's my webcam. I'm using a Zeiss Compact Prime. It's a CP 2 35 millimeter prime lens. I'm using, , light gears, light cloth, lc one 20. It's simple. It's like a poster, you know, so it could go on the wall, although I, I do have it at a 45 degree angle. Clamped on my desk. Got a little hair light, you know. Creating depth between the back of my shoulder and the front of my shoulder. This microphone is a Sony C 80. , It's sort of like the little cousin to their, , world renowned C 8,000 or C 800. Um, I'm actually just testing it out. It's a challenge, right? Because it's phantom powered. You have to do a little EQ on it. So I've actually got it running through an AV bridge from LA Grand. My usual Mike, or my, my previous Mike is this guy. Oh.

Jesse:

It looks vintage, but this is an actual USB mic, which makes it really easy to, to zoom and, and whatever with, but, , for, for your show, I decided let's,

Ron:

let's

Jesse:

bring up,

Ron:

yeah, no, I, I I love it. I, I use for my mic, the shore SM seven B

Jesse:

Perfect. Perfect. Podcaster's microphone, the Joe

Ron:

Rogan mic. There you go. Right. But it's, it's, and, and again, I, I wanna make sure I get the language, but it's also phantom powered. And so I have the dynamite, like I've always meant to like wrap the dynamite, , phantom power stick here. Mm-hmm. Or you, you could actually tell me what is this thing called? This guy's adding a little boost.

Jesse:

It's the, , it's the phantom power injector. If you, if you, the phantom

Ron:

power, a lot of people use the cloud, an external cloud that'll operate and you put it on the floor, but this guy is here in line and some people wrap it up so you don't see the brand name. I'm like, man, let's give dynamite a little branding. Why not?

Jesse:

We like to use, , the podcast mic arms that have LED lights on them just to add a little bit. But you got plenty of light in your, in your composition there. You're looking great. So yeah, you don't need, you don't need that, that shtick.

Ron:

Well, you're, so you're doing the, the three point lighting. Right? Or do you have three points? So you have a 45 degree behind you. That's your, you call it a hairlight.

Jesse:

It's my key light. And then I have, I do have a hairlight. I'm just doing two point lighting today.

Ron:

You're doing two point. Okay. So I've got three points. I have a little

Jesse:

fill to get rid of these shadows if I was really gonna be a diva.

Ron:

Yeah. So I've got, so here's my fill light, right. So I, there you go.

Jesse:

That's what

Ron:

I'm

Jesse:

talking about.

Ron:

I got it. I

Jesse:

best educational material on. Out there is when, , that I have seen is when they say this is three point lighting, and then they would turn off one light and turn the other light on and turn off the second light and to, you know, experiential education. That's, that's storytelling.

Ron:

I, , you know what, we're gonna do that right now because I, I've got it. And, , so I'm gonna do this and we're gonna do, so I'm gonna let you tell us why it matters. I'm gonna turn off my, my, we call it a rim light or hair light. , There we go. Oh,

Jesse:

I'll tell you why it matters.

Ron:

Tell, tell the audience. Remember we got Audi people maybe listening on their truck ride to the job site. What, what just changed?

Jesse:

Well, , what just changed is you, you turned off your rim light or your hair light. And, , astute viewers at home will notice that you have become. Part of the wallpaper, right? So we're, we're telling three dimensional stories about real people with depth in them, but we're consuming them on these two dimensional platforms. Your, your TV at home, your mobile device, those are two dimensional. So in order to. Trick the brain to, to remind us that what we are discussing or these experiences we're having, this communication we're sharing is three dimensional stories. We've gotta do everything we can to trick the brain into believing this two dimensional medium is delivering a three dimensional story so that the hair light or the rim light that creates depth from the back of your shoulder to the front of you. There you go. Beautiful. That now you're separated from your back. You're three

Ron:

dimensional.

Jesse:

That's right. I, that's why I drew into a corner. That's why I put a, a practical light on the set that's not lighting anything. That's why I like my microphone out of focus in the foreground and some interesting devices out of focus in the background. And then here I am in focus.

Ron:

Yeah, I, I love it. I remember when I did this set up back in 21, you know, it was a co, a covid project. And I, I noticed I, I don't know if I told this story on the podcast, but I noticed my son, my son was playing, you know, video games. He was watching these Twitch streamers and I noticed the Twitch streamers looked so much better in video than any of anybody I was meeting with ever. Yeah. They looked spectacular. They were crystal clear, HD lit, fun. I'm like, I would wanna watch Twitch too. Like this looks really, it was just, the presentations were so great and , and it was in such sharp contrast to all of the professionals that I was meeting with all day long in video meetings. And so I actually just went on YouTube and started to research how do Twitch streamers do their audio video setups? And that's when I, I learned, I mean, I, I didn't know anything about three point lighting. I didn't know anything about, , prime lenses on cameras. I mean, I'm totally green, but I could see how that, and I know that's only a small element of the services you provide, but I could see how providing that level of expertise. Coaching advice, set up configuration to professionals. I mean, I'm assuming executives would, should be great consumers of those services. I mean, is that in your business at Midtown? Like do helping people with their setups, whether in their corporate offices or their home offices, is that a growing component of your business?

Jesse:

, A hundred percent. Yeah. We call it executive streaming. You know, it's one thing to do a Zoom with your, well actually Apple. Has made it challenging to, to sell a package because the built-in, , laptop cameras on Apple and the built-in iPhone cameras are really great. Yeah.

Jesse:

Um, discounting that the, the story is you can't just have a Logitech C nine 30 webcam, you know? Yeah. You, you want to, if you want to impress your friends and strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, you've got to. Look your best and sound your best. And it's not just when you're video conferencing, it's when you're giving your CEO address, it's when you're doing your earnings calls, it's when you're appearing live on Bloomberg or on CNN to be a subject matter expert. You, you don't, you don't want to, , leave anything open for misinterpretation. Yes. And so we have focused an element of our business on, on what I like to call executive streaming because. Through five or six simple tricks, you can really change dramatically the, the three dimensional story that you're telling on, on the 2D medium.

Ron:

No, that makes sense. What comes to mind? I, I follow on Instagram, I follow Kevin O'Leary, the shark from Shark Tank, and he's, I mean, my goodness, especially with all this tariff stuff going on, he's, he's. On air, published on some, you know, CNBC or CNN or Fox, or, he's on television, I think daily, maybe multiple times a day. But he's, he's typically streaming, it looks like, from his Miami Beach condo. So what he does is when he's on air, he wears his suit and his white shirt and his black tie and what you see on tv superficial. And, but he always live streams with a perpendicular live feed, , on his side. I. The side shows that he's wearing his jacket and suit up top and down below. He's usually wearing pajamas and slippers. And so his livestream audience can see what is actually his setup. But his setup is, I mean, a pro camera and lighting, I mean a full studio setup, but in his studio, in his condo. And is is, I mean, is that. What, that's what I'm imagining you are describing when you're saying setting up professional streaming environments for executives. Is that the type of situation?

Jesse:

Y Yes. So often we're in their offices and that's where they're. That's where there might take many of their video conferencing calls from. And in one particular situation, we were in an executive's home, , in a Miami Beach location, specifically because we represent LiveView who, , create bonded cellular, , encoding. ENC coders for contribution to to studios so that you can have man on the street interviews, you know, without a satellite uplink truck or a microwave truck, you could do it with like five or six cellular modems. So this, this person was often asked onto television news programs as a subject matter expert to contribute, and he was sick of going into his office all the time. He wanted to do it from his, um, Miami Beach. Home office. So we put, you know, lighting up in the ceiling and we put a nice, , high-end Panasonic PTZ camera and, , and a live view encoder in his, in his home office. Yeah. So that he could look great and , and he looked great.

Ron:

That's, that's, that's so cool. I mean, we're, we're, we're gonna nerd out on more of the tech 'cause I'm, I, I think this stuff is just super fascinating and I'm gonna say sadly, so underappreciated by so many people that should, so appreciate the impact of sounding good and looking good.

Jesse:

, You mentioned how Mr. O'Leary likes to have his, , business up top and pajamas on the bottom. Yeah. In that vein, I, I like to sort of play, , I like to wear shirts that are problematic for television cameras. , From, so from 2009 to 2014 to promote our business, I produced and hosted a multi-camera live stream on the internet. And, and so this, this shirt. Is, , hearkens back to those days, I would always try to put on clothes that would, , appear to ruin the image. So we're creating, 'cause it has

Ron:

stripes, right? Cameras don't do

Jesse:

stripes very

Ron:

well.

Jesse:

Stripes or check patterns, when they're very tight in together, they, you create what they call a more a pattern. So, , I like to, you know, I wanna look my best. I wanna sound my best, but I'm trying to keep it a little bit fun. You know what I mean? This is my little nerdy way of doing that.

Ron:

That's, that's fun. , Well, let's go, , I wanna go a couple different directions, , here, Jesse, but let's maybe just start off with, tell us about your background. You told us a little bit about the, the business and your family's journey. Tell us about your, your journey and from wherever you want to start and go back in time to bring us to the present. What's it been like for you?

Jesse:

So, growing up, I. I would come to the office in the afternoons and, and file for my, my parents and when I could drive, I would work at Midtown in the afternoons and in the summers come back from school. So I got my hands, you know, dirty in the rental department and I really learned how to put together ENG news packages and multi-camera, . Coverage for a concert to get the imag up on projector or LED walls or whatever. But I never thought I would end up in the business. When I went to, I went to the University of Michigan and I, I studied philosophy at the University of Michigan, and then I also, , I was told that that wouldn't, that's not gonna cut it. You're gonna need, you're gonna need something else. So I got a second major in computer science and in. At the University of Michigan, John, professor John Laird runs a video game development course. So I spent four and a half years in the frigid north, you know, not just, not just, , developing video games. I was really into it. So right after school I moved out to California where all of the, , the big game studios were. Activision, um, Capcom Rockstar Games, who was responsible for the Grand Theft Auto Series, which took up a lot of my time. And, , playing

Ron:

or developing any games that you can mention that you, you worked on

Jesse:

so professionally there, I, I finally made it after applying to every firm out there, um, I was. Afforded a job at THQ who made the WWE F at the time. Now it's WWE e but they made the wrestling games. They made a game called Big Mother Trucker. And , and the game that I was assigned to as a debugger, as a video game tester was Finding Nemo. My assignment was, , the minimum specifications computer. I, I had to, I had to debug finding Nemo on the machine. Terrible enough that they could print on the box. These are the minimum specs to run your, your video. Oh, that's

Ron:

hilarious.

Jesse:

And, , it didn't pay great, as you might imagine. So I was living in a, in a three bedroom apartment with my best friend. From growing up, coincidentally, wow.

Jesse:

Who, who I got into philosophy from and who was working at Ubisoft, doing really cool things as a video game developer. Anyway, three bedroom apartment, me and Jordan, his girlfriend, and these three young ladies from Romania. We were, we were scraping by. I had to work like four jobs. Seven days a week to, to make ends meet in my Los Angeles adventure. So my entrance into Midtown video into, you know, the real professional version of, of broadcast rentals. My dad called up one day and said, Hey, um, my rental manager resigned, and if you wanted the job, I wouldn't have to interview anybody else. I was like, that's great. Let me think about it. He said, okay, you have 24 hours. And, , it was April of 2003 and I was in LA and I said, yes. He said, great. Meet us in Vegas for NAB, you know, national Association of Broadcasters to really blow my mind. And, you know, right at, right at the end of April, I made it back to Miami and started my, my career. Midtown video.

Ron:

Your dad must have been so delighted that you said Yes.

Jesse:

I think so. I, you know, it turned out pretty good for them. I, I keep saying my dad, my dad, my dad, but I gotta honor my mom is like 50% partner in Midtown video the whole time. And, and yes, they are thrilled. , Although here we are 41 years later, right. My mom has finally like, resigned. I was able to onboard a third party marketing firm to replace her contributions in marketing. Ken Miller still hangs on, insists on having an office at the shop still on the barrel. And so, as thrilled as he is, he's not, he hasn't given up completely yet, isn't

Ron:

fully relinquished. , You know, his hands on the business. That's right. That's, that's, that's awesome. So. What was it like for you attending that NAB show for the very first time in 2003? Do you recall how you felt?

Jesse:

That's a really good question. I do. A lot of it was overwhelming and because I had spent so much time, you know, in my youth, um, I, I knew all the vendors. I knew all the price sheets 'cause we were doing physical price sheets in binders at the time, and, and that was my job, all the filing. So it was interesting. . To have a little bit of experience, but then be like sat at in front of the national sales manager for Sony's broadcast camera department. You know, so it was a, it was a, it was an overwhelming experience that I, I came to with some familiarity, but, but at such a new level, it was, it was a little bit sobering, I would say.

Ron:

So. Fast forwarding 2003, , 20. Was this 22 years later? Yeah. To the present. And your, your shop. You have a, you have a 15 person team, you're, , CEO. What, what is a day in the life of Jesse Miller? The, the, the fellow running the shop as CEO in this business? Like what's, what's a normal day look like for you?

Jesse:

That's a really good question. I'm, I'm really focused right now on building up my team. You know, um, it, you don't hire somebody every day, but I'm out there trying to meet the best minds, the best contributors to the industry, um, particularly the geographically local ones. But if I could lure somebody from the frigid north, I would, so a, an element of my day, every day is spent on. , Making contributions to having the exact right people in the, in the exact right seats. I've got an incredible team of contributors, but we're, we're looking at growth. We're attempting to scale organically, and so there are a couple of spots on the org chart that are calling out to be filled. So that's one element. Another element is study, right? Staying at the forefront of technology, making sure that my skills remain sharp and that I remain relevant to my customers, so that when they come to me with, with challenges, I have innovative solutions that will, that will create excellent experiences for them. An element also, , with respect to team is the team that we do have, right? I need to make sure that our, our. Employees have, you know, monthly one-on-ones with their managers. They get the feedback that they need to execute, that they get the Kool-Aid from me, that I'm constantly dripping our mission, our values, you know, , finding ways to sort of encourage our team to carry those values out into the world, to our clients, to our vendors. Some of it is, has to be self-improvement. It's like. There's no, , shortage of. Let's call it constructive criticism from, from my, my colleagues on the team. So I've gotta be practicing, you know, what do they, it's it's empathy, emotional intelligence. I, I have to brush up on those skills. Yes. And then every now and then I get to spend an hour engineering a system. And so, , you know, doing the work that, that in the business, not just on the business. Yeah. So those, I look forward to those moments when I, when I can. And

Ron:

some of the language you're using, focus on mission, vision, values. It, it, it sounds to me, and I'll just say from my own personal experience, like that's. , By the really smart things to be working on, and I had to learn that from business coaches. And ultimately, um, in 2019, we adopted EOS traction and we've kind of redefined mission, vision, values and, and really honed in on company culture. , Is do you have any particular book or philosophy or coaching strategy that you've been exposed to that's been helpful or interesting to you?

Jesse:

I, I do. Yeah. You know, in 2017, we were a dual purpose business. We were a broadcast rental house and an AV integrator. Right. And our sales team that were executing these incredible installs, we were fighting over resources. You know, there was like one van and if, if, if you needed it one day, you might not have it because the other. Installation might have been going on, and we did not have a project manager until 2017. That's when we really started to commit to, , you know, joining a group of, of NSCA, , national Systems Contractors Association when, when I really became a student of the integration business. Mm-hmm.

Jesse:

And, um, so our first, our first coach was Navigate. Consulting Navigate Management, Brad Malone. Sure. For, for project management, I think there's not a finer mentor. And, and they got us, you know, from where we were to another place and we continued, I continued the pursuit. I want to be a mature integration firm with well-developed policies. We were a personality based company. I wanna become a process based company. So, , then we hook up with USAV, who's now Edge, which is a phenomenal marketing organization and buying group and like really great friends and. At U-S-A-V-I met Brent Lowe of, um, of base, BASE, and they have a book. And Brent became not just a business coach, but also an executive coach of mine, specifically for the emotional intelligence kind of issues. I, he helped me make a lot of progress, but his, um, lead together program, scale together program left obviously an indelible. , Mark on how Midtown Video ran our processes, you know, conduct what they would call retrospectives, you know, how they would handle things interpersonally, and, and that was like. , 2020 through, I don't know, 22, 23. Now, , now we're working very closely with Mark Fenner of the Rise Performance Group. He implements Verne Harnish's, , scaling Program. Scaling up, scaling up. It's a, it's the Rockefeller Habits. Yeah.

Jesse:

And it's phenomenal. I mean, you ask what a day in the life of mine is worth. First it starts out with like saying like, what should a CEO be doing? You know, I never, I never thought of myself as A-C-E-O-I, I'm an engineer, you know, I'm a, I'm a sales guy. I, I'm the guy that you want to build your multi-camera shoots. I ran the rental department so to, to be, . You know, to have 15 people depend on you for a paycheck every two weeks, it changes things dramatically.

Ron:

They're, they're looking for you to set the vision and tell them where they're going.

Jesse:

And so, so now, , with, especially with Mark's help and, and, and I'm reading, you know, you gotta read all the books, , profit First and, um, good Degrade and so all of them, of course, , but I'm able to say things like, you know, does this. Does this interruption rise to the level of, of, you know, is this important enough that I could disappoint everybody for the next 20 minutes while I, you know, do whatever is being asked of me right now? And so that's helpful.

Ron:

I, I love it. What if you could go, , maybe at a high level, it sounds like 2017 until the present, you have learned. The value of reaching into these networks. Hmm. Whether it be the Edge Group or NSCA, but also reaching out to these various, it sounds like you've interacted with multiple coaching organizations. Jesse (2): Oh yeah.

Ron:

What, what was it that led to you ultimately? 'cause it sounds like there was like the before and after there, before you weren't maybe doing those things and after you're now like. I mean, you've name dropped multiple avenues where you've been exploring and learning and growing.

Jesse:

I think it was, it was the succession plan. Like when we started with Navigate, they were really focused on, , the succession plan. And so that just like NAB 2003 was sobering. You know, Brad Malone saying, you've gotta focus on the succession plan when you're gonna be in charge and they're not. That was sobering. So, , we're also, we're members now. Of of PS and I, which is a lot like USAV, but a little bit different. But the exposure to the kinds of, , principles of massive aav, those are big

Ron:

operations. Jeremy's the president over there,

Jesse:

that's the guy from level, I mean level three, like diversified in New York. Tell, like these guys, when you're sat at a table hearing the kinds of decisions that they have to make it, it really. It really opens your mind to what a business can be, what you can expect from yourself, what you can expect from a team. So, um, yeah, it was the focus on, , the 2017 focus on succession. , Really got me jumpstarted into becoming a student of how to do integration. Great. How to run a great business, but how to run a great integration business.

Ron:

I, I love it. When I was getting you introduced right before I brought you on camera, I was teasing. , that, , you as, as since 2020, you've won a couple of very high profile awards and you've won them against some very stiff competition from some of the, the, the bigger, more impress impressive operations around the country. And I'll, I'll just rename them here and I'd love you to tell us about those projects. , In 2020, you were recognized by commercial integrator. Twice for best immersive experience. And in 2024, you were recognized. Midtown video was recognized for best retail experience. And I mean, this means you were competing against a hundred person companies, 500 person companies, thousand person companies, and you're a 15 person company. And you, you were recognized. What were these projects and, and what made 'em stand out?

Jesse:

So the best immersive experience came to us from the University of Miami. The football team, the football department wanted to impress the heck out of their high school recruits, and they actually came to us with the vision, which was , you know, and help. They put us on the five yard line. We just had to, had to punch it in, but we did some impressive punching it in. So it's a 22 foot round room, pardon me, 22 foot round room. It was about a nine feet tall. That was challenging because in this room they wanted 360 degree projection. Projection on the floor, and then they had two statues, like a seven foot tall football player and a seven foot long like spike. , Cleat. So we're doing projection on the walls. We didn't get all 360. There was a compromise that the door, , was not projected on, but we did get the whole floor. And then 3D mapping on the football player statue and on the cleat statue. Adidas was a sponsor. So while we're showing highlights and hype videos on the, on the 22 foot wall on these statues we're, , sort of rotating through the Adidas. Uniforms on the football player and sneaker designs on the sneaker with really badass animations to shift from one to the next. , In the 60 foot long hallway leading up to the rotunda, we had these LED lights that make it like a runway. And at in front of the door we had a fog screen. So maybe you've seen it, maybe you haven't, but a fog screen, you actually run a line, , you feed pressurized water and then a drain from the tank and it vaporizes water and pushes it down. And then we have our 11th projector. Doing rear projection on this fog screen, and we had speakers going down the hallway. So as you're walking towards this screen, you're hearing the highlights playing in the old sepia black and white photos. I don't know why it was in the eighties, but we're showing highlights of all their national championship years, 85, 89, you know, 2001. And, um, it's an immersive experience. So, , they, they made a nice video that we, we've got some testimonials where they're saying, you know, the kids walk in and their eyes light up. And, you know, why would you, why would you sign with FSU or Gainesville or some other high, , some other college when, when you've had that experience at the University of Miami? Holy

Ron:

cow. I'm hyped. I wanna go see this thing. I was, , I was just at the University of Miami a couple weeks ago for a, a robotics competition, but, , that what you're describing sounds amazing. Alright, so that was the 2020 recognition and then the best retail experience. That was just last year, 2024.

Jesse:

2024. This also came from an excellent request from a customer, so camp. Is a, it's a toy store, but they call it a family experience center. Now, every camp toy store there are nine locations. Pardon me? Just a moment.

Ron:

It's

Jesse:

okay. Let's put this on. Do not disturb.

Ron:

It's, I, I just did the same on my watch somewhere. A call came in. I was like, I normally put that on. I'm in a meeting so I set it up. Apologies. No worries.

Jesse:

So you were asking about Camp the 2024 Best Retail Experience Camp is a toy store. They have nine locations in, in 2018. We started with their Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York City. The premise is in the front, what they call the canteen is a toy store. You know, you go, you buy some toys off the shelves, they've got cool collections, great, but in the back is this 8,000 square foot experience. So there's a bookshelf. It slides open and you walk behind the bookshelf into what they call the tunnel, the tunnels, this immersive experience. And then through the tunnel you come into the big experience, which is a ticketed experience, and they, they. Have all these partnerships. So they built out a Trolls experience and a Little Mermaid experience, which we launched on the same day as the new film. , They built out a Bluey experience. In fact, six of the locations right now are running the Bluey experience. There was an Encanto experience, so they have all these different experiences, thematic, you know, awesome. And they rotate from location to lo location every six months or whatever their schedule is. The original design, we had 70 volt pendant speakers. The client brilliantly put, at about 12 and a half feet above the floor, there's a unistrut grid. So every six feet, almost like a lighting grid. We actually said you should put a lighting grid up every four feet. And instead of pipe and every four feet, we got a unistrut grid every six feet, we'll take it. So the original design, 70 volt speakers, you know, , to create the background audio or, or whatever they needed. After the second or third thematic rotation, the client said, Jesse, we need a better way. I don't wanna drag your team out here. Every time that we change the theme to like rerun 70 volt speaker home runs, he says, isn't there something we can do with Dante? And I go, yes. Yes, run shielded network cable. Put a network jack at each of the intersections in the grid. I'll get you sound tube IP enabled pendant speakers. And now we can dynamically rezone all of your speaker zones remotely. I don't go to New York anymore. Log into a computer. And I say, this is the new zone. It's not one speaker, it's four speakers. And instead of this one being over here, just do this. And at the very worst case, they might have to take one pendant speaker and move it instead of from this grid location to that grid location. But all of the programming, all of the, , you know, the, the gags. And so. There's a little more to it, but that's the gist of the, the brilliance and yeah.

Ron:

That sounds, I'm, again, I'm, I'm hyped just hearing about these projects, man. You make, , this tech sound exciting. All right. So you, you work with Kyle here at Team One Firefly, and Kyle wrote me a note. He, he knew I was gonna be interviewing you, so I have to ask you this. Tell us, tell us what you can, I, I know that maybe news will break on this in more detail later. . So tell us, what can you tell me about the conference room of the universe? Jesse (2): That's a really good, that sounds very big.

Ron:

So what is that? Jesse (2): It is the conference room of the universe.

Jesse:

So, , I mentioned I'm second generation ownership. My parents own the buildings. That's a great business tip. If you can own the real estate where your stuff is and the company's paying rent personally. That's a Warren Buffet 1 0 1, right there. Point is, we've got these three bays in Miami, and since I worked here, we always rented out this office space above our warehouse. You know, the, the renter changed throughout the years, but it was always rented out. And last June, the My Vice President of Sales, Fernando, I. Says to me, you know, when, when at our last vendor meeting, Jesse, we're Midtown video, and every time a vendor comes in to give us a presentation, we're sitting here in the kitchen. You know where we have lunch? What, wait, what's going on? I said, you're right, you know. , So I said, Hey Dad, please don't renew the lease of the guys upstairs. They're, they were out in October. We began demolition and um. What are we, six months, seven months later, we're about three weeks away from opening up the conference room of the universe, which is, , the idea is when our vendors come to town and they wanna present, we're not in the kitchen anymore. When I want my clients to understand the value of purchasing $150,000 system or what have you, I, they don't just have to take my word for it. Come on in. Have a seat in our showroom. , We'll, a, B, c The speaker oppor the speaker options so you can hear what this sounds like versus that pendant speakers versus column speakers on the wall. I've got 108 inch video wall on there. I've, you know, oh, how, how am I supposed to mount a camera when the. Video walls five feet tall. Where do you put it? Don't worry. We've got it all figured out. Come on in and check. And by the way, if you can't make it to Midtown video, it happens to be a video conferencing room. So just join us as our remote guest and we'll, , you know, we'll turn the camera around so you can sort of see what's going on in there. We, we, , we've got some very creative use of LED lighting. And, um,

Ron:

any brands you wanna mention, any type of gear that you want to, you wanna shout out or do you wanna keep more of that secret for the grand unveiling in three weeks, we're using KRA

Jesse:

for our sound system. We're using Pensar 1.2 millimeter pitch for our 108 inch, , LED wall. Now that's not 4K, right? Um, 108 inch diagonal at 1.2 millimeter pitch is only 1920 by 10 80, but. Come on in, take a look when we run some 4K content on it and tell me if it looks good or not. You know what I mean? So, yeah.

Jesse:

Um, , we're gonna partner with, with La Grande, with, , middle Atlantic to put a couple of conference chairs in there. Maybe, , maybe some credenzas and, , yeah, we're. Oh, sound tube. Also, we've got some mighty mite pendant speakers because we want, we've got three really cool options, right? The Vipers, which are one meter tall. Kra is the Maserati of, of sound systems. So I gotta have 'em in there.

Ron:

I am excited. I, I, you know, I, I, I am just thinking out loud here. I, I've, I have my leadership team in South Florida. . , Usually every other quarter or so. So I'm thinking maybe we'll coordinate when your conference space is free and if I could bring them in there, I'd love for my team, in fact, to Cool demo of that space. That sounds, yeah, we're into

Jesse:

it. We'd love to.

Ron:

Yeah. Sounds, sounds stunning. All right, we have time for one more question. , , And then we'll, we'll close up here. I know we both got tight schedules. Um. I would love to have you kind of riff, tell us what technologies have you really excited in the world of, of audio and video production, your universe, what's

Ron:

happening right now, 2025 that has you jazzed, that really enables you and your team to stretch your creativity as you're designing projects?

Jesse:

This is a great question. So there's a, it's not new. But the thought leaders in the industry are, are familiar with them now, so we can really accomplish big things with them. And there's a parallel change happening in the broadcast world and in the audio visual world, right? So in broadcast SDI is becoming sym 2110. And in the audio video world, you know, HDMI or HD based T is becoming AV over ip. So protocols like NDI and Dante. Are allowing us to achieve, you know, to, to shrink geographies. You know, people talk about, , about remote Remy production, remote production, and whether the production studio is down the hall or in another state. These. Audio visual over IP technologies are allowing us to have the control room somewhere and the production studio somewhere else, and remote guests contributing and a distributed audience. And so, um, I would say the audio visual over ip. Protocols are some of the more exciting things that allow us to paint more exciting pictures. Lately

Ron:

it's, it sounds like the system architecture is now so much more dynamic and flexible. Like so many of the constraints have been removed.

Jesse:

And I'll, I'll tell you, I gotta give a shout out to Netgear and their M 42 50 and 43 50 line. We, we put together a 10 gig backbone network infrastructure that, you know, unified four floors. Not like adjacent floors. The basement, the second floor, the 12th floor, the penthouse, , with some 25 gig fiber running. Anyway, Netgear is making it easy for us to use these protocols on their network switches and, and when I was in need, they dispatched an engineer. They, the client had bought enough switches to make it worth their while. They sent an engineer on the site to like. Really make it, smooth it out, make, solve any

Ron:

problems, make it easy, make you look like a hero.

Jesse:

That's right. That's right. So that we can make our clients look like heroes.

Ron:

There you go. Amen. Um, Jesse, this, , I, I feel like I could talk to you about all of this stuff and your business for a long time, but time is the time. As, as someone I've known for a long time always says. How can people that are listening to you, they're learning about your business, they wanna get in touch with you, they wanna get, , they, they either wanna get in touch with you directly, or they wanna learn about your business. Where will we send them?

Jesse:

Well, , my website is midtown video.com. You can hit me up on email. I'm J Miller, J for This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We love hearing from. Like-minded colleagues, um, you know, well-heeled clients, um, fans. Anybody that wants to say hello, we're, we're, we're listening.

Ron:

Awesome. I love it. Jesse, it's been a pleasure having you on this episode of Automation Unplugged.

Jesse:

Such a pleasure to be with you. Thank you very much for having me.

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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:

• Jesse Miller LinkedIn Profile


• Midtown Video LinkedIn Page


• Get to know the Midtown Video Team

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