Sound and Communications - July 2008 Issue

A Prosperous ProgressionMaland Presentations has grown far beyond its rental roots.By Dan FerrisiAs a business grows and develops,and as market conditions change,it is important that a company besufficiently nimble to evolve; in a dynamicfield, stagnation can be death.Maland Presentations, based in a4400-square-foot Seattle WA facilityand with a 1200-square-foot office inPortland OR, is a prime example ofa company whose ability to diversifyhas led to enviable success in thecommercial AV market.Maland, which limits its activitiesto the Pacific Northwest, wasestablished in 1993 as a traditionalaudiovisual rental company, primarilyserving the Hilton Seattle. Naturally,a business of this type had toset up equipment, but Maland hadno “integration business” proper. Asthe company’s breadth of offeringsexpanded to include box sales, it becameapparent that integration wasthe missing piece of the puzzle.Our contacts at Maland are DanSharron, integrated systems manager,and Michael Maland, owner.(Other critical team members areMark Hines, rental manager, and EdSeifert, branch manager in Portland.)Sharron revealed that he wasone of the driving forces for theexpansion into integration, and he,himself, was inspired by a trip to anInfoComm show.“That really motivated me to pushthe integration as its own thing,” saidSharron. “So, a few years ago, we actuallyseparated the integration sidefrom the sales side of the company,and built upon that. We completeda lot of smaller installs: hang andbangs. Now, they’ve grown in sizeand complexity, involving more ofthe design and build process, as opposedto just setting equipment up.”Michael Maland remarked that,at present, the company’s businessbreakdown is concentrated aroundintegration, followed by rental andthen box sales. “It’s probably 50%,35% and 15%, respectively,” he noted.The 12-employee company earns $2to $3 million per year and, despiteless-than-propitious economic indicators,enjoys steady growth. Malandemphasized that, market conditionsbeing as they are, it is difficult tosurvive on box sales alone. “You canrent something for $100 and youmake $100. You can install somethingfor $100 and make $30. If yousell something for $100…you makeeight bucks,” he chuckled.Simultaneous to its integrationOne officein thePrimeAdvisorsbuildingoutfittedby Maland.expansion, the company, havingcome from largely video roots, hasfortified its audio expertise. Accordingto Sharron, apprehendingvideo’s more abstruse cousin confersa competitive advantage. “Whetheryou’re selling, renting or integrating,understanding audio systemsseparates you from the guys whoreally don’t know that much. Almostanybody can work his way around avideo system, because you can seeit; audio is harder, so it separatescompanies.”Maland Presentations has an extensivelist of system integration clients,prominent among them BenaroyaResearch Institute, Pierce CountyTransit, Harborview Medical Center,University of Washington and TrubionPharmaceuticals. Michael Malandsummed it well, saying, “We’ve donechurches, government installs, corporatelobbies, digital signage, videodistribution systems for bars….We’vedone one of everything and a lot ofa few other things.” Sharron added,“Right now, we’re doing a project forPuget Sound Regional Council, whichDan Ferrisi is Sound & Communications’ Associate Editor.26 Sound & Communicationswww.soundandcommunications.com