Abel Consulting‘s Kenneth (Ken) F. Abel joins the Commercial Integrator #AVLivingLegends family this week as our latest inductee. The Commercial Integrator #AVLivingLegends initiative is meant to celebrate and honor our industry’s biggest contributors. With this series, we thus hope to spotlight the difference-makers and world-changers who move among us.
Presently CEO of Abel Consulting, Abel has been providing consulting engineering and system design and implementation services for a wide range of projects and clients in the private corporate sector, as well as the government sector, for more than 25 years. Undoubtedly, Abel deserves this recognition as an AV Living Legend!
In this conversation, Abel reflects on his decades-long career, sharing interesting anecdotes about his journey at Verrex, the U.N. and even designing the audio system at Donald Trump’s first casino! Later, he imparts words of wisdom on how to stay focused in the AV integration industry.
Enjoy this in-depth conversation with Abel Consulting’s Ken Abel, a true AV Living Legend!
And if you’d like to read even more coverage relating to our #AVLivingLegends, like Abel Consulting’s Ken Abel, check out our hub page. It includes direct links to every living legend!
Commercial Integrator: What motivated you to join the commercial AV industry? What has kept you motivated and engaged in the decades that followed?
Ken Abel: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before! Like a lot of folks in the AV business, I am a musician of limited, but passable, talent. With the creative gene burning its way from the right side of my brain deep into the Spock side, I really had no choice but to find a career that adequately allowed both to coexist. I started by applying to Fender & Marshall etc. believing I could become the creator of the next great R&R amplifier. When that never materialized, I found a home with a small acoustical consulting firm. Although it was cool learning the physics and properties of the sound waves that surround us, I really was still much more interested in the hardware that created these waves. That lead me to New Jersey Communications (now Verrex) where, for the next 10 years or so, I cut my teeth designing large audio systems and helping Tom Berry Sr. and Dave Butz invent the modern AV integration firm. Whether on the integration side or the consulting side, it’s been a wild ride ever since!
Continued Motivation
Aw come on, really? Isn’t it obvious why we all hang in with this business of ours? Despite the fact that it’s not the easiest way to make a buck, we get to work with the most cutting-edge technology and apply it to some of the coolest projects on the planet! I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Commercial Integrator: Reflect on your role as both a mentee early in your career and as a mentor later in your career. Who helped shape the trajectory of your professional life, and how have you tried to help shape others’ careers?
Ken Abel: When I think back to the people who most helped shape my professional career, two major influences come to mind. The first was Lewis Goodfriend. Lew was somewhat of a rockstar in the world of acoustics when I graduated college. He taught me how to listen and learn from your clients, and how to never compromise on the solution that was required to solve their issues. I learned how to explain technical concepts to non-technical people, always respecting the fact that if I could not help them understand the ins and out of a design, that was my failure, not theirs.
The second person I consider a mentor was Tom Berry Sr. Tom was the polar opposite to Lew. Tom was a “if you can dream it, you can do it” or “if there’s a market, we’ll invent it” kind of guy, regardless of the technical obstacles. He taught me that it didn’t matter how cool the technology was or how smart your team was, if you couldn’t promote it — show people how it represented a 200% advancement over what they were used to using and of course, sell it — it was just a hobby, not a business.
As far as mentoring is concerned, I believe there is no higher purpose for principal/senior folks in our business. Sure, we all have to make money but there is no Harvard or Yale for audio and AV systems consulting, design and implementation. It’s up to the folks with the most mileage to pass the knowledge on and nurture the next generation. Next to cranking up that huge audio system or flipping the switch on a 65-inch curved videowall, mentoring anyone that will listen is my greatest satisfaction.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the most memorable story/anecdote of your career in commercial AV?
Ken Abel: Early on in my career, while working at NJCC, I was given a budget of $200K and the task of designing the audio system for the main cabaret stage at [Donald] Trump’s first casino. Mr. Trump had given the consulting contract for the building audio systems to his brother-in-law, a home security system installer. His specification for this room was two-three written lines of gibberish that concluded with “This system shall perform as good or better that any other Atlantic City Casino.” It also included one specified piece of gear on which NO substitutes would be accepted. It was a little-known (and since-forgotten) mixing console that was clearly intended for the studio and not live performance.
From being dealt that ‘airball’ of a hand, with the help of the amazing Jay Paul who came in to run the audio, we ended up with a system that most of the big-time performers of the day came to love.
Commercial Integrator: What has been your greatest professional accomplishment to date?
Ken Abel: I know it’s cool to say, “Oh there are so many I can’t pick.” I’ve worked on a lot of cool projects but for me the coolest is easy to parse out. For three-plus years, I worked with Parke Rhoads and the great folks at Vantage Technology on the United Nation Technology reboot. We literally took the UN from the dark ages of the telephone-patch panel into the digital era. The many challenges we overcame getting this project over the finish line were eclipsed only by the amazing end results. And of course, there were a few times where I think we almost solved the “world peace” thing while we were onsite — but it didn’t take.
Commercial Integrator: What has been your biggest professional regret to date?
Ken Abel: Not taking the final test for my PE license. I’m not big on certifications but this one I would have liked to have.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the best advice or pearl of wisdom you either received during your career or came to realize on your own?
Ken Abel: In the day-to-day business of selling and integrating great AV solutions, there are always bumps along the road. Things don’t always go as planned. As you plow through these issues, it’s important not to get bogged down. The end result is what matters and what your clients will remember. Focus on making sure that when you hand over the keys, your client is 100% happy and all of their requirements have been met.
Would you like to nominate a peer or colleague — or perhaps yourself! — to be featured in this #AVLivingLegends series, just like Ken Abel of Abel Consulting? If so, just email Dan Ferrisi, group editor, commercial and security, Emerald, at [email protected].
