Inside Lantel with John Grennon: The Future of Security and Public Safety

This interview with John from Lantel Communications explores the vital role of low voltage technology, community safety, and industry collaboration in modern security and communication systems. Discover how innovative solutions and strong partnerships are shaping safer communities and advancing industry standards.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

John and welcome uh to our podcast on the job. Blue I'm honored. This is this is impressive. This is a really impressive setup you've got here, and congratulations on the podcast. You're killing it.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

All of them.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

They're great. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I know you uh have been doing dabbling in the podcast world yourself. We have doing a great job. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah, we've tried to from uh from the integrator side, we've tried to incorporate um customers, technology, but most importantly, talk about the culture of the company and the technicians.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what we're trying to accomplish too. Yeah. Just to kind of um bring some of the conversations that we have every single day to our members so they can see kind of behind the scenes of you know who we deal with, who we talk to, and you know, what what a day in the life looks like almost.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yeah, it's a 2026 vehicle that everybody seems to like. And it's uh there's not many things that customers, employees, and even competition will compliment you on. And uh when that happens, you know you're doing something right. Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

I was like I was saying earlier, I'm not sure it's quite my thing yet, but I'm trying to get there. But uh the more I do it, and the more when I have uh guests that are like you that are easy to talk to, I think it helps uh you know make it a uh a better show, so to speak. My wife might disagree with that, but that's another story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah. So uh so we're just a couple of podcasters hanging out today.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah, just hanging out at the hall. That's right. I love it. Yeah. What do you think of the little studio we got here?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

It's beautiful. I think that I think it's really it's just designed well. It's cozy, it's nice. I love the fact it's at the hall. It's not off site. So, you know, you there's the you know, you look behind us here and you see what's on the wall, and and and and this is um, I don't know, you're in a building that is organized labor, and you're coming in here and you're in a studio and you're talking about organized labor. And I I I think I ran into three or four members in the hall where we were sticking ahead and it's something to be proud of. Yeah, yeah, it is. So well done.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

You and you and your team. Yeah, it was an old uh, it was just a uh t-shirt closet with boxes stacked to the ceiling. Sean came in here, had a vision, we cleaned it out, you put the fur, got the furniture ordered, got the emblem on the wall, and it looks fantastic, I think. Cozier than I thought. Yeah, but it's well done. It's great. Yeah, you think you're in channel five or something. Right. Yeah, well, that's another story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um I thought it'd be great to have you on. Sure. John, um, what you and what Lantel does in our industry is so unique and such a major part of how the city of Boston and safety and security, among other things, just keeps it humming, uh, humming along. And I wanted to bring you on um to talk about talk about Lantel. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Um well, you know, I'm a new guy. I'm new to the business. I've only been there 11 years. It's a family company and uh been in existence for 33 years. Joseph Bodio um starts off as uh employee number one, starts the company from the ground up. Uh, we have we have deep, deep roots on the communications voice and data side. Uh Joe's an old phone company guy. And um I I would venture to say that the the family atmosphere that he started in his house the day he started Lantel continues today. Joe's son is the president, Scott Tourison, and um is kind of the next generation that is in lockstep with his father and is uh leading the company um uh I think marvelously. And we are finding that our culture has not changed, it's only strengthened. Uh our field force, um, as they remind me on a daily basis, they all have more time uh at the company than I do. Um it's we send security technicians or voice and data technicians in that have 25 years with the company. It's it's really impressive. So um our roots on the voice and data side as a structured cabling company and a go-to for the general contracting community is something that we have a great deal of respect for. Um, it has built our culture, and everything good that has happened at Lantel has happened because of that, that we've added on. And I I say that it's almost my disclaimer because I could talk about safety and security um to you, to the news, to professional organizations. That's kind of where I'm at because of my previous jobs. Um but I I want to pay homage to those guys on the on the voice and data side and girls that um that that led the way.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, they they they they're uh top top-notch company, Joe Bodio, to his credit. I know he's semi-retired now on his way. But uh what a what a what a company that he's that he founded and has built. And I know he you said he came from the phone company. And uh I've always admired when I more I got into this role, uh, the more I admired uh Joe himself and his business, uh how he runs his business, how he is as a businessman, and he actually know how he treats his employees. Yeah, 100%. You know what I mean? That which is right up here for me. You know what I mean? And um we were before COVID, we had a few years in a row, we had uh a little Italian American club down here. Yes, and every year we gave away Italian American man of the year, and I'm proud to say that Joe Bodio received uh that award. I was here that night.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah, I was here that night, and as an Irishman, I was a I was like a fish out of water. Um it was a wonderful evening that night, and that was big for Joe. It was uh, you know, one of the things with Joe and one of the things with Scott and and really the entire leadership group of the company, and I hope of myself also. Joe says when he hires somebody, he didn't just hire you, he hired your whole family.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

That's it. And that is in 2026 in the business world, you just don't hear that. And and that's how these guys lead the company internally. And I would like to say that's how we take care of our customers too. We have some big customers, and we have some small customers, and I'm happy to go on the record and say that the small customers are just as important as the big ones. Their family too, right? 100%.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, everything's relationships. Yeah, yeah. I say it all the time. Like uh we we're speaking, not only of course we're speaking to our members, right, all the time from my side, but we're speaking to our members, to our future members, to our contractors, to our future contractors, and to our customers and our future customers.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yes. And it's what I find, um, and again, I've been at Lantel for 11 years and I've grown into the executive director role that I'm in now. Um, so it's been a process for me, but the relationship between local 103 and Lantel and NECA, Nika Boston specifically, um, it was one of the first things that was mentioned to me. One of the first people that I met from local 103 was Mike Monaghan. And and and had a meeting with Mike and had a meeting with Joe and was smart enough to keep my mouth shut and just listen, right? Um, and Glenn Kingsbury, I believe, was was running Neker at the time. And these organizations together are are just it's the most supportive environment that I've ever seen. It really is. And I come from you know the state, that's where I worked prior. Um we are supported, and I've heard some of your podcast guests say it. I think Melanie from Anise was in here, and she was talking about a training that she was just at that Neeker had sponsored. Um, so I I kind of feel like as members of this industry, because of 103, because of Neeker, and because of our own company, we are constantly coached, we're constantly mentored, and we're constantly supported. And it's really it's that's across the street. Yeah. And and um I'll add one more thing to it. Um, it's intimidating. These kids that are coming out of the of the J H T C. I mean, you know, sometimes I'm on a customer call at them. I'm the dumbest guy in the room. Yeah, and it's great to trust them and and kind of uh support them however we can because they are what make us great.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Yeah, yeah. The training that coming out of the apprentices, whether the technicians or the electricians that are coming out of the school today compared to years ago, maybe when I come out of the school, uh I don't know if I could keep up. These guys are top notch, these guys and girls are just top-notch and they're they're dedicated, they're focused, they're some of the most active members that we have. Yeah. And it's really great to see because they're just they're just bought in, not just to the union or the contractor, but to our industry. And that's what makes us this, you know, the strongest that we are, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

It does. Let me can I add one thing? Yeah. Uh they're bought into the community.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Oh, 100%. I mean, that is really we've got people that are coming out now, and at Lantel Communications, we pride ourselves on not being installers. We're integrators. We go in and make multiple systems work with multiple systems. That's the people that are in local 103 that have been trained to a superior level, uh, that come in and work with foreman and general foreman and project managers who nurture them. And then they go to the customer and it allows us to solution sell. It allows us to walk into a place to say, well, you've got all of these different systems, so we are gonna have a fiduciary responsibility to your budget. We're gonna do it as as low as we can. We're gonna give you the best system that we can, and we're gonna take all of these existing systems and make them work together. I personally have a difficult time setting the clock on the microwave at home. And these people go in, these technicians that we have, they will go in and they make everything sing. Public space, uh private sector, nonprofit, it doesn't matter. And um I think one of the unique things about Lantel and Local 103, and I'm glad I get to say it, and I'm glad I get to say it here. Your technicians, your members, I'll say your members, my technicians, they're making the community safer. They're reducing criminal criminality, they are increasing people's sense of safety and security. They're bringing something to the neighborhood in in a career that maybe that wasn't really in the top five. You want to be a police officer, you know what you're gonna do. You wanna be a firefighter, I want to be an electrician or a technician. Okay, great. Do you really think you're gonna affect the clearance rates for homicides? Your members do. Right. We do. And I can walk through these neighborhoods with my head held high because of that. And that could be in Lawrence or Boston, or it could be in Quincy. It could be anywhere, right? Anywhere that we work, it's it's our our technicians that are doing that. Yeah, I'm very immensely proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

We um we hear about it a lot on the news nationally. Boston's one of the safest major cities in the country, right? And of course, uh, Boys in Blue, police and fire department, our first responders are up front, walking the beat, on the streets, you know, solving crimes, um, arresting bad guys. Um, but what doesn't get a lot of attention, and I think probably you guys' credit or whatever, but behind the scenes, you guys are helping law enforcement uh immensely with your technologies and what you guys bring to our community, to the city or to the com um to the other, you know, cities around Boston.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

And we take it seriously. So, and one of the things that we we do, and I think that we do it well because we've put a lot of effort into it, is if somebody wants to put a camera up, we recognize that that camera is a piece of surveillance equipment. And we understand before we at Lantel Communications put it in, we have to balance that with the civil liberties of the community. We have to take a look at the Fourth Amendment. We have to look back. Everything that we do comes, everything we do at Lantel on the security side begins in 1967 with Cats vs. US. That is a landmark case. It actually involved audio wiretapping by the FBI in a phone booth without a warrant. But it has been interpreted that you have to be very, very careful where you put cameras or where you do audio recording, and every camera in the world can audio record. You have to be careful of that. Where we put them has to be that balance between safety, security, comfort for the community, and then those fourth and fourteenth amendment sensibilities. And we do that every day. And uh how do you do that? Because that seems like a big task right there. Joe Bodio has put together a lineup of people, and and and and I could talk about this all day. He's put together a lineup of people where he says, I'm gonna take the best technicians I can find, and he gets them from across the street, and we're going to train them and we're gonna support them and nurture them to do the job. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna bring some project managers in. And some of the project managers come from finance or healthcare, but many that we have come from local 103. And then we have project managers that come from um the Department of Homeland Security. I came from the Sheriff's Department of Boston. So he puts this diverse group together and says, okay, let's go out and take low voltage to security. Let's take security to homeland security, let's take homeland security to the next level and serve the community's needs, use that Madison Park relationship to have these kids out making their neighborhoods where they grew up safer places to be, but at the same time, respecting that Fourth Amendment and respecting people's right to privacy. Um, and and um we do it every day. It's fun. And I sometimes I have to remind myself sometimes, am I at Lantel right now or am I at UMass Lowell teaching? Because they they cross and I think they're complementary to each other.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, yeah. That must be a high fine line to uh to walk. It is to try not to infringe people's rights, but also, you know, security and safety is paramount on everybody's mind, every day of the week, especially in the world that we live in today. Um, you know, people got ring cameras on their houses, sure, and everybody wants to make sure things are locked down and safe, and you guys gotta walk that fine line, and that that's a difficult task.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

And I I call it solution solving with customers because we'll get a call from a customer. Um, I was just talking to uh channel five about this last night, the Brown University. So you look at a terrible incident, and then what can we do? That's more about culture down there. That's not that's not devicing, that's culture.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

And then you'll have somebody that just wants to put them residential or business. And where can I put them? Can I put them near a bathroom? Can I put them in a bathroom? Can I put there's very, very, very few laws that govern where you can put surveillance equipment in the private sector. Remember, these your constitutional rights only protect you from the U.S. government. Right. They don't protect you from you can put a camera in here, right, as you've done, and we're all on it. And that's it, right? Now, if you were a school teacher, that would be different because you're an agent of the government. So we have to be careful of that. And and I think one of the things that that Joe supports us in doing is working with customers to make sure we identify the need, we give them a solution, but that the solution is balanced, and the solution passes a few litmus tests. And one would be regulations or CMRs or mass general laws, uh, one would be constitutional, and then the other ones are referenced at the ACLU. And I think that the ACLU folks they do a great job of protecting people's rights. Yeah. Um, and and they're they're warriors when it comes to that. And um, yeah, so we it's it's an everyday thing for us.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Super interesting. Yeah. They so you mentioned the Brown University. Yes. And such a tragic, tragic event. Yes. Um, and I know sometimes a community like the Brown community or even the Boston community after the marathon, and we'll talk about that after. Um is sometimes is there like an overreaction um to a sense of security after a tragic event like that where the customer might want to say, hey, we want security cameras, we want this, this, and every split spot we can, and you have to kind of almost reel them in and say, hey, hold on, we have a fine line that we have to walk.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

100%. 100%. If I buy a Peloton, I'm going to hang clothes on it. If I buy a treadmill, I'm going to hang clothes on it. It's not the equipment, it's how you utilize the equipment, right? So when you look at something like that Brown University situation, did they have cameras and access control and other things? Yes, they did. What was the culture of the university? So we're a country that that hung our hats on see something, say something. Yeah. Was that first and foremost? And education, the K-12 space or higher ed, it does have a problem. And I'll ask you this question. Is the main job of a school or an educational environment chief or president or provost or principal, is priority number one to educate the students, or is priority number one to keep the students safe? That's a very difficult question to answer. And it depends who's asking and who's answering and in what environment they're in. And there has to be that balance that you have to strike. It's almost like one in one A, right? I mean, Correct. Yes. You got to do both equally. It's it's really a math problem that you can't solve. It's one and one, right? So uh it's it's a difficult question. There is an overuse on technology where culture is lacking.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

And then when the culture is to be more proactive, then that's when the technology can really be used. Um we don't use facial recognition. Why don't we use facial recognition? It's not as reliable as one would like. Is facial recognition looking at people differently because of the color of their skin? It is. Is it looking um at uh the different aspect changes of somebody's face? Yes, it is. What we can use it for is object detection. So I can put a camera here in this room, and it takes a photograph and it learns what the room looks like. And if I brought a bag with me tonight and I left this bag here, and we all walked out and shut the lights off, that camera will alert you that something's in the room that's not supposed to be there. Now, in an airport, it could be an explosive device. In a school, it could be a backpack, or it could be in a hospital environment, it could be an employee's bag with protected health information in it. Or here, it could just be me dropping the Boston Herald in a cup of coffee. That's the utilization of technology in a culture that wants it, as opposed to knee-jerk reaction. Let's put more cameras in. Right. So we have to really guide the customers on that. Yeah. And we're lucky that we have great customers.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Yeah. Yeah. So I I know um I texted you a couple weeks ago, it was after the Brown University tragedy. And uh I said, hey, I saw you on the news. Yes. You were on channel five, and you were given some expert um advice or expert uh explanations to to the news station to get out to the general public about what was going on and what happened down there. Tell me a little bit about that. I think that that was pretty fascinating. We had some discussions after that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Yeah. Uh channel five, along with the other news stations, did some wire-to-wire coverage, and I've done some work for them in the past. Um, so it it very, very interesting. So I've been at Lantel for 11 years, was at the Sheriff's Department for 20 years, retired as a lieutenant, and I I teach in the criminal justice program, uh, terrorism and homeland security at U.S. Lowell. So there was kind of a three reasons to be there. So initially it was to talk about Brown, and then the call back came because they wanted to talk about the flock cameras, the investigation and the license plate being detected 14 times and how that all worked. And then later that night, the call came in that they're surrounding a warehouse in Salem, and this is what we're seeing. What are you seeing? And and it was a it was a very proud moment for me at Lantel because, you know, Joe always says, and it's kind of a mantra, we're not an installation company, we're integrators. And we're very proud of that. And we're proud of the technicians that do that. And it was kind of funny that Lantel that day, with that coverage and this, and what I've done it since, and I've done it for some other outlets too, recently. And it's it's been exciting because they're asking us to break something down, and it really told me that they look at us, they look at our 103 technicians as problem solvers, and they look at us as somebody that can provide a solution to their issue, not somebody that's going to come in, hang something on the wall, and leave. So it was really great. It was really, and and and we're continuing to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

So, I mean, what led them to you, um the Brown or the Channel Fives of the world and the others that that called you for some expert advice? Um, you got a repertoire, you got a cachet, and you got a you know a whole team of customers that you've worked for that gives you that credibility um to know. Like most of them are municipalities and police forces that you guys work with every day helping them solve crimes, right? Yeah, it goes back to safest city, safest area or safest city in America. 100%. It's it's part of the how the police force works and how you guys are right behind that, right? It's 100%. Yeah, it's a tool. We're a tool in their toolbox.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And and one of the things the peaceful tool. It is. And I think it makes, you know, I'll I'll give you an example. Um, if you have a homicide in the community, the community gets judged on their clearance rate for the homicide. In order to clear-what's that mean? A clearance rate would be has the has the homicide been closed? So I'll give you an example. If the person that actually took somebody else's life has died, whether by their own means in the Brown case or by somebody else's, the case is closed. Yep. It will not be adjudicated, there will not be a guilty conviction, but it is closed and it is solved. If they make an arrest and there's a successful prosecution, then it is closed. And if somebody uh commits a homicide and is never charged for it, then it's open. So that percentage of open cases is what a lot of police departments get judged on. In order to close a case, police officers have to knock on a lot of doors.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

They have to go into the community and they have to do investigatory tasks, which are sometimes uncomfortable because you're asking people in the community to talk about something, people see that happening, and then they leave. So the more digital evidence that can be collected, you the less witnesses that are at risk, the more street cameras that we do and public surveillance systems that pass Fourth Amendment sensibilities, the less intrusion into the community and comfort levels can be preserved. And I think that that's where we go hand in hand with some of the police departments by adding that piece of technology there. The last one is alerts. So um people don't watch cameras, they don't have time to. There's probably not a law enforcement agency in America that has time to watch every camera. But when you can set an alert on a camera, uh, we have a customer, um, the uh the Charleston Public School System, um, phenomenal. They put this beautiful athletic field in a lot of money. Beautiful. So we put cameras up and then we put radars on the cameras. And the radar on the camera will now detect anybody that comes onto the property during a period of time, and then a light will shine on that person and follow them. The police department will be alerted that somebody is there by a text message, and then an audio announcement comes out telling the person to leave. That's a great use of technology. And oftentimes the person will recognize they're not supposed to be there, they'll leave. No damage was done, no trespass was committed, no police officer needed to be dispatched, and it's a system that you bought and paid for already. Yeah, that's that's how you can prevent the crime from happening. And the first example I gave is clear the crime and solve it. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty it's pretty impressive of the technology. But again, it only I say this all the time. I say it to customers. I've brought customers here to tour the JATC, as you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

If you want to win a job, bring the customer to the JATC.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Do it all the time.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Oh my god. It's unbelievable. Politicians, customers, end users, whoever. Unbelievable. It's just unreal. You have to make it work, and the technicians are the ones that make it work.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

We have the greatest technicians in the world. Yeah. I'm always careful too when I come here because I do run around and tell everybody that we've got, we have, we at Lantel, I have to be careful of this. We have the best technique, you know. So we're all fraternally, we're all in the same group here. That's right. So uh 103's got the greatest technicians in the world, but I am telling you, boy, the people that we have in the stable, yeah, phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

They make my job easy. Yeah, folks like Lantel and your your um your security department, you guys actually help us, you know, navigate the direction or the future direction of the training that we do over at the JT. TC all the time. I know the training directors are constantly talking to you and others about where the where the industry's going.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, and it's funny too because we should be teaching. That's so proactive on their part. So I teach, right? And I it's it teaching can be stale. It can be really stale. And you can kind of rely on that textbook or the curricula and and not have it be, you know, it's like talking about the constitution. Is it living and breathing or is it just static? And your instructors here are very full with thinking. And the other one I have to give credit for is somebody like Mike Norris over at um Madison Park. So when you're identifying a sophomore in high school that is showing an aptitude and is showing that they want to work and that they're going to be good fraternally for 103, and they're going to be good for the industry. We want that presence. We want them. We want that kid that lives in East Boston and takes the train to work every day. Or the kid that goes to Madison Park and might live in Grove Hall, might right down the street. The training program, it begins there. What they get here, it's it's superior. And I don't know how I don't know how any other company relies. I just don't understand how it works. I do not understand how it works. If you don't have this, what the hell are you doing? Right, right. Um pardon my French. But um, but your instructors are forward thinking. And they are adding pieces of technology in. And as we see new things and video analytics, or you know, we're dealing with things um such as um nuclear detection. That's a big one now. Helium molecule nuclear detection that goes through uh, frankly, POE. So we can power it and we can transfer data around it. We're trying to tell your guys, hey, we're seeing this come down the pipe. It's a federal grant, we're seeing it, they're probably gonna start implementing it. Are you interested? And your people like give it to us. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, and you can put uh no one says no, Lou. Yeah, right, right. Nobody says no. Yeah, it's it's it's nobody says no. I expect that in sales, I don't expect that in education. Your people always say yes. So that's a camera could pick up nuclear detection? Sure. So it's a it's a detector, it's a sensor, right? So if you think about, you know, you think about a wireless access point, that is that is that is detecting, right? And that is transmitting. So we're talking about radio frequencies or any of the antennas that we operate. Yes, you can have detection devices that have a detector unit in them that can detect um chemicals, can detect vapor, can yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

So I I think of that and I think of the airport. I think of the machines at the airport. You know, you're running a m you're running a bag through a machine that picks up all those different things. And now you're saying that this stuff can be in a camera mounted on a pole and can pick up a lot of the same stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

It can. If you're at Mass General Hospital and you throw uh if a cancer patient um um if a cancer patient has soil laundry and it goes down the chute and the cancer patient has chemo, that hospital is going to any hospital is going to detect that they have radioactive material that has just shown up in the laundry room. Because to keep your employees safe, right? And nobody does it better than healthcare organizations. Um so we don't even think of it. These adaptive technologies are there and um and and we're we're very what's the word I'm looking for? Um sometimes with customers who watch a lot of TV, they have unrealistic expectations. Sometimes I find that our customers will watch TV and they'll be inspired by that technology and they'll say, Can I get it? How can I make this work? Can I give you a good example? Yeah, please. Schools, you go into a school, so if you study Sandy Hook, you have your first homicides at the front door. So schools in the K through K through 12 space have tried to move staff outside of that killbox. That's what it is. So now we have automated a device in schools with an iPad, and you go in and you take a government ID and you place it and it scans it and says whether you're allowed or not. It sends you through a 50-state sex offender registry database to say yes or no. And then if you have an index or a database for your district, say you have a bad uh parental custody situation, and you can have that person restricted. Say you have a student that has been suspended from school and you put them on the list, then they're suspended. Nothing's touching the U.S. government, nothing is touching Homeland Security, it's just all internal, then that would flag. And if you pass all of these things, you get a badge that spits out that goes on your shirt that will turn a color in an hour that's expired. And then the teacher that is supposed to meet you has been alerted and they will come down and get you. It's it's it's technology to keep people safer. And if a person steps in and the person wants to do bad, they're stuck in that box now. I can't get through. So the the the person on the other side of the ballistic or or bullet resistant glass is gonna see that there's a problem and hit a button and the PD's there through.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

I don't know what the the response time is for a police department, but it's probably between two and five minutes. I mean that's that's there's your two and five minutes right there. Correct. Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Five to seven for EMS and fire normally, fire first, EMS second, but police departments are lot quicker. Now, if you have a school resource officer on the property, right, that response could be 30 seconds. Yeah. And when you look at Uvalde and you look at uh Sandy Hook and you look at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, and we study these things. We go to the office and we study these things, and we say, we've got customers in the K through 12 space, and we've got technicians that want to do the right thing for them. So let's let's get on the phone with Uvalde and let's find out what failed. And we found out at Uvalde what failed was the Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 27:10

People were hitting panic buttons, and nobody was coming.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

So if you're gonna put that button in, um I know there's been a lot of blame going around on that. There has, and there's been big lawsuits. And the nice thing about lawsuits, and I kind of love lawsuits from my perspective, yeah, because everybody gets deposed.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

And then you find out this information. But if you're gonna overload a place with panic buttons, because it's a great sale, it's a great sale. Well, cycle the panic buttons you want. Nobody ever envisions when that day comes and the system is overwhelmed and they don't work.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

That's tough. That's what we do every day for our company.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Do you guys have a redundancy system for Wi-Fi? We do. Like we do for absolutely. So we don't lose power.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

We have redundant systems for almost everything. We do a lot of police 911 and radio communications work now. We're doing a lot of antenna work from uh point to point that 911's running over, uh, that audio communications cruiser to um dispatch uh fire EMS. Yeah, everything has to be redundant. Yeah. Because you can't go down. Of course, right, yeah. Yeah. So Wi-Fi going down and we're lucky too because some of our customers are really smart. Well, they're all very smart, but some of the customers actually are very forward thinking. And they say, we want this system to work. And with like a second system, maybe a third. Yeah. And it comes out of the aircraft industry, it comes out of the system redundancy that Boeing and Airbus have come up with, where if you're gonna have a fly-by-wire system, you've got to have five redundant systems there. And uh, and Boeing does the same with three. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Oh, how come I can never get my Wi-Fi on a plane to work then? We'll tell a call, we'll see if we can help you out. Jeff Blue will call you guys. Hook you up with Jeff Blue. My Wi-Fi never works on the plane. Hey, um talking about all this technology. Yeah, and um, I don't know, it's probably 10 years ago. It might have been longer, it might have been less. I was down here with a group of stewards that doing they were getting a demonstration from Lantel on the truck. The Mac U. The Mac U, which is probably the most incredible, impressive piece of equipment I've ever seen on wheels. I I think that thing should be shown off everywhere, to car shows to uh security shows. That thing is incredible.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Talk about how you guys come up with that and what you do with it. Uh so uh Eric Johnson, um, who we know and is a project manager on the public safety side, incredible, incredibly talented, right? That that's again somebody who has an electrical background, but also has a background with the Department of Homeland Security. So Eric Johnson's um uh dream was to really replicate what somebody on the Homeland Security side did with uh a mobile command unit, right? We have customers. So let's say we have a uh a community that has six or seven thousand residents. They don't have the budget for a mobile command unit. We do, right? We can offer that service to them. We can go to a special event and like a one-time special event to set up sitting in the garage. Could be a varsity football game, right? You want to get a head count because we can count zeros and ones and we can see how many people actually came in, and the number of people that came in will dictate how many police details or fire details need to be hired, right? Um, here's another one for you. We can take that, set up a couple of cameras, and we can give the snack bar the count from the previous game that walked through so they know how many hot dogs to make. So you can take this. But that's not really what you're using it for. It's not, but you but sometimes you're that's accurate, though. It's that accurate, and what you'll do is you'll take something that's designed for security and use it for a business development purpose. Yeah, and you never knew you could. Now, on the security side, what does that unit do? It has gunshot detection on it from Raytheon. So it will detect it will talk about that. I think that was the most impressive thing in that event. It may not be, but that's what stood out to me. It's up there. So if you fire a projectile, if you fire a bullet in proximity to that vehicle, in great proximity to that vehicle, it will alert you that a firearm has been discharged. It will alert you the position that it came from, the trajectory that it came from, and the acoustic signature that it gave. So most rounds that are traveling 1250 feet per second or greater, you'll at least be able to pinpoint that you have a round in your environment and number two where it came from. So you can pinpoint that, right? So if you're at a big festival, if you've got a camera aiming that way. Okay, so now we we have a we don't need to have a camera aiming that way anymore. We can have that system integrate and talk to all of the cameras to turn that way. So now we can send all of the cameras automatically to where it came from because they're integrated. And then let's say it's woods. So one of the cameras that turns is thermal. So now the thermal will turn on to the woods, and the person or the individual in there or the rifle or the handgun that is now warmer than the ambient air around them will show up. So it's phenomenal for the collection of evidence, where it came from, path of flight for a subject. Um, and then you can also count rounds. So it will give you an alert for each one because sometimes you're looking for victims. So, yeah, so that's one thing that's on that. And then we also have um the ability for uh three forms of communication off of it. So we can go out by modem, we can go out by satellite, we can go up by analog. Um, so police departments can actually use it to dispatch, uh, which a lot of police and fire departments that are small, they still call fire departments in Massachusetts, right? In some places. So they can utilize that to dispatch for a special event to leave the rest of their uh department free to answer calls in the community. Um and the last one is whether news advisories on anything that has to be brought in for intelligence, um, and I'll give you a great example. If the post-George Floyd protests, we were very much involved in that. We were able to take this to a protest, to a lawful protest. We were able to document the conditions before, we were able to document the protest if needed, and then conditions afterwards. Because what we found was there were a lot of folks that would pull that permit for that protest, and they had a a healthy, meaningful protest and demonstration. And then the knuckleheads show up when it's over. So if you've got some level of surveillance on this, you can determine the point in time the shenanigans begin. And you can vindicate those who are not responsible, and then draw the line to the the kid who's from Framingham, Massachusetts, that decided to come to Boston to firebomb a Boston police car. And that's what that surveillance can do. We've utilized it pre-storms on the South Shore. Um, we've launched a drone from it to do coastline erosion surveys pre and post, so you can actually file a claim through your the town manager's office for some femur assistance. Um, yeah, there's a lot of things I could talk to you about that vehicle. It's phenomenal. It's really great. Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Parades, you know, city and town events, you know, picnics, those types of things from yeah, I'm believable.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

Yeah, it's great. We have cameras too. We've done some camera shots in traffic to see if we can pick up faces or license plates um at 45 miles an hour in this direction, 45 miles an hour in this direction, and it picks up the plate. Phenomenal, right? Again, it's it's it was Eric Johnson's insight and Joe Bodio's permission. Joe's great.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Joe's like go ahead and go do it. Yeah, yeah. Like that thing must be in high demand.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

For those that know about it, it's in high demand. Yes. Um, we have scheduled events that it it will, uh, Boston Marathon, it will be at the tall ships this year. It's done the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It does a lot of K through 12 events. And then some of our smaller customers will have, you know, um uh Methuen Day. Yeah, or there'll be an oyster festival someplace, and we'll and we'll offer it to them. It's a great uh place for police officers that are working to come and also decompress. I saw one police officer, uh Eric and I worked in an event in Newburyport, and it was night, it was dark. It was a bare naked ladies' concert, actually, that we Eric and I were in the truck for the day for 16 hours, and uh, we're the technician with us, and a police officer needed to say goodnight to their kids. They came in there for privacy. And I said, Well, that that just that just did it for me. We just gave somebody a nice safe place that they weren't in the public eye, nobody was recording them.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

So so that that truck that Nick, you unit you have, does that thing stay one spot mobile, and then the radar detectors go up and the satellite dishes go up and it just kind of surveys the whole proximity of the area, or is it something that drives around and do both.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Really, yeah. It can do both. So some communities have mobile surveillance vans uh that will go into a high crime area, park, lockdown, and video record. And then other communities will have mobile surveillance vans that will go through an area for post and pre-surveys or for just a general look at a community. That vehicle will do both. It's completely mobile 100% of the time, or it can be stationary. Yeah, and that's really dependent on power, but it powers itself now. So we have the generator.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yeah, so I I assume most of your municipal clients know about it and use it. Yes. Uh and I'm sure word gets out, and hey, we're having a field day next week, or having a town day, like you said, the Methune Day or whatever day.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Falmouth Road Race just started using it. Yeah, that was great. We hadn't used it for the Falmouth Road Race, and now they want to use it. So now a lot of the running organizations are seeing it and they're picking up on it.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

So Falmouth Road Race came and went, yeah, went off without a hitch. Sure. No issues, no crime. Do you guys still provide them some data on what you guys picked up by just being there and observing?

SPEAKER_00 35:59

We do, and a lot of times customers for big events will ask us for certain data points before it starts. Okay. They might want a crowd count, they might want a vehicle count. Yeah. Um, they may want law enforcement interaction counts where they came back and maybe did a uh field interrogation or observation next to the vehicle so it was on camera. Yeah. So if you're doing a nystagmus testing or a field sobriety test that's actually on camera because the officers have a body camera on, then they'd want that tracked. So a lot of them, and then some are like, we appreciate your support. We just want you there. And then there's others that don't know what they want because they concentrate on the event. They do such a whatever the event is, they do such a great job, but that's the culture change. They don't know what they need for security and safety because they're surrounded by partners that tell them. Sure. Police fire and EMS specifically. And then you've got for the bigger events, groups like this that integrate everything together. And you offer support to those. 100%. Yeah. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

That's unbelievable. Yeah. Now I know we got the um the marathons coming up in a couple of weeks. And everybody knows about what happened at the marathon bombing April 15th, 2013, and everything that's happened since then. Um I know you guys stepped right in right after that, right? Was it right after the marathon? Yes. And you guys are a huge player in security and safety of the Boston Marathon. Millions of people converge in the city of Boston, mostly downtown on Boyleson Street. How do you keep track? I mean, the the the Boston police, the first responders do an amazing job, but nobody can do it all. It's just such a crazy day. What do you guys bring? I've seen it, I've I've witnessed it by going down there with you guys, but I want to hear you tell the forensic side of what you guys offer to keep the Boston Marathon safe so people can go to the marathon and feel safe.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

For any event, we bring what the customer wants. Yep. Right? And the customer sometimes wants something differently pre or post-tragedy or pre or post-actionable intelligence. So some organizations will call us and say we're not sure what we want, but would you make some suggestions? We would. Anything that happens in the city of Boston, the city of Boston, and the eight surrounding cities and towns that make up that metropolitan Boston Homeland Security region, they lead the way. They really lead the way in technology, they lead the way in practice, they lead the way in professionalism. Each of their police chiefs, commissioners, or or or um uh appoint people for that committee, they are so dialed in. It could be FIFA, it could be the Marathon. It could be the tall ships, it could be any, they are ready for anything. It starts with the Boston Fire Department assesses natural gas deliveries after 9-11. These people, they've vetted everything. So that's number one. So we have very educated customers, and we have, in my opinion, the best law enforcement EMS and fire service in the country. That's number one in that region. That's number one. Uh, number two, interoperability post-9-11. And the 9-11 report stressed that there was no interoperability, they've taken that seriously. And then number three is integration of the private sector, integration of vendors, and integration of technology. They've taken that seriously. So, what do we do for these events? We deploy technicians 24-7, the marathon, for example, for the week leading up to it. We work with all of the partners, private and public. Now, you think about the Boston Marathon, we've got two different counties. We've got Norfolk County, we've got Suffolk County, we've got two different municipalities. We've got Brookline, and we've got Boston. We've got uh private ambulance service in Brookline, we've got Boston EMS in Boston, we've got two different fire departments, we've got obviously the BAA is overarching in their leadership for this. And then everything comes back to Boston, integrating everything together into a real-time command center. It it's amazing that that Eric's able to do this, but he is because in practice he's done a lot of it. And and and Eric Johnson, I don't want to speak out of school, but Eric Johnson goes back to federal service to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He's been doing big events for a long time. Yeah, I'll leave it at that. Um, they create a command center where they have real-time intelligence in seconds and they can dispatch appropriately and they save lives when things happen. They're ready to do that or identify threats. And you can identify a threat utilizing a camera because it's what we're not profiling, but we're looking for things that don't fit in necessarily, right? We're not looking for a person's gender, we're not looking for religion, race, handicap status, the color of their skin. We're looking for a person on a 90-degree day that's wearing a winter coat hat and gloves. That bears some investigation. Somebody should know about that. It's it's eight degrees out, and somebody is in a bathing suit walking down the street. That bears investigation. So sometimes when you have an event, the crowd at the head of the Child's Regatta looks very different than a Boston Bruins post-game crowd. It's that simple. I am not passing any judgment here, but things look differently, and you have to triage that. And we do that at Lantel by deploying security technicians that started out their careers with certificates of clearance and S licenses and all the training they needed. But these guys and girls have really developed into our detective unit. They have really developed a sense of investigatory priorities with the technology that we utilize. And every deployment is different. Every deployment is different. So if Eric's got somebody that's working at the Boston Marathon and is responding, the FBI is reporting that a camera's out, or Boston PD is reporting something, and they're responding in real time. That's very different than we're working a high school football game, where there was a credible threat. The school resource officer heard something, they want some eyes and ears on the ground and they want some more technology, so we go deploy it. Yeah. Could be tripods, could be the MacU, it could be a drone that you don't know is up.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Yeah. Last year, um, a couple days before the um the Boston Marathon, I was talking to you, talking to Eric. Please come down. You guys invited us to come down and take a look at that command center that you guys have at the marathon inside the Boston Public Library. It looked like it was uh Super Bowl media. It was just table after table lineups of people sitting at laptop or computer, um, you know, focusing on and and monitoring data points all throughout the city. And we went over to one of your employees, one of our one of our technicians, who's got a laptop up, and you guys started pointing out to different different cameras that are set up through the city. Yes. And um and I just I was just so impressed, and I I tell this story all the time because I just really it's just so incredibly impressive. Um, there's a there's a camera set up on the top of 800 Boylson Street, or whatever the address was, and you guys could zoom that thing in, and you're zooming it in over the Charles River, and you're zooming it in, and it's going towards Cambridge or over where the Museum of Science is, and there's a duckboat coming through the thing. And the thing zooms in from the top of Boylson Street on the top of some building, down it's probably almost a mile away. Sure. And you could read the lettering on someone's sweatshirt inside that duck boat. Yes. Unbelievably incredible.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

And here's the other thing you can do, and this is another another thing that our local 103 technicians can do. A duckboat's having an emergency. They can pull that camera back 30 feet, they can count the souls that are on board before it goes down, and now you know what you're looking for in the water.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

So that technician is enhancing the rescue capabilities of who's responding to that. Yep. That's that is incredible. Incredible. How many are here? We don't know. The tech the 103 technician will tell you. Yeah. That's incredible. Here's the other one. We've got a thermal camera that's in place and we've got a smoke plume over the city. You can put the thermal camera on the smoke plume. You can detect what the temperature is, you can track it back to the building it's coming from. So now Boston Fire is gonna dispatch their first alarm assignment and they're gonna wait for somebody to get there to assess it and maybe strike a second alarm. But if you call fire alarm and say that we've got 1,100 degrees pumping out of a building right now that's not supposed to have it, they may dispatch a second alarm immediately. So the technology and the people that are handling it on a day to day basis make the city not just a city, but All of the communities that we are in safer places. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

From from that same scene at Boston Public Library and that computers, they pulled up another um camera. You know, it's a camera right out here on Freeport Street. Sure. Yeah. And he aimed it towards the hall and you could see the comings and goins out of the parking lot. And I was like, Well, why why um why are you focused on like on Freeport Street? Like, why is Freeport Street? Why why local 103? And he goes, Well, I'm just gonna turn 180 degrees and look at the other way, and there's a highway entrance right there. Yep. And it's one of the major exit points from the city. Yes. And any car that's done something wrong might be trying to get out of the city real fast at that point. And we got them. Snap.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Path of flight after a crime is key. Yeah. Normally the bad guys don't stick around to where they are, unless they're injured. They're gonna leave. We just start with the Brown University when the body ends up in Salem, New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

There will be flight. And path of flight is important. The other one is you've got some critical infrastructure here. You've got gas tanks. Yeah. And they're in sight. Um, so those are other things that we monitor. You've got, I don't think people realize that the the data cables that that run from Europe, they come in in Lynn.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

There's a building in Lynn. I mean, if you you want to knock out the data connections between the United States and Europe, it's in Lynn Mass. Oh shit, yeah. Oh yeah. And it goes underwater in Lynn. Jesus. And people, I don't think, realize that. And if it if we're down the cape. They realize it now. They realize it now. And that's public, that's public information. But here's the other one. If you've got an island, if you've got Nantucket, you've got Martha's Vineyard, you know, you know, you're the electrician, Lou, not me, but the electricity's got to get there somehow, right? That's right. There's a cable someplace that powers the whole. So these are things that also have to be monitored. And we find that a lot of communities now are taking far more serious their wastewater treatment plants, a lot of chemicals, their um uh electric light departments, their cable departments to get information out if there's an emergency, um, and their water facilities. Because I mean, if you want to take a community to their knee, just take the water out. Sure. We saw it. We saw it years ago when the the aqueduct for MWRA went down and paralyzed the region. Yeah. And the economy, frankly. Yeah, absolutely. Imagine closing every restaurant in the city of Boston or every restaurant in eastern Massachusetts is going to close for 36 hours. What kind of business development hit? Revenue hit is that gonna be because you couldn't protect an aquifer?

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Economy killer.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Killer. Right? Killer. Oh, yeah, definitely. Killer. And the person that requires the uh needs that paycheck to live, killer.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Yeah. Yeah, I'm so impressed with uh with you guys' operation, especially seeing the local local 103 technicians installing cameras on light poles or the front page of the of the newspaper. Yeah, you know, too. Always very proud moment for for for Local 103. And I I've said I've taken a lot of pride in what you guys do every single day, and it comes natural to you. I get to point it out and just just show the world, my world anyways, um, our world, you know, what our what our technicians are doing every single day, whether it's installing cameras, solving crimes, helping police solve crimes.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

There's a flip side to that too. The we're very proud of the partnership that we have here. So whether it's bringing a customer in, the answer here is always yes, by the way, Lou, which I I really appreciate. Bringing a customer in and seeing what goes on here, um, that gives that customer. Sometimes customers don't trust salespeople. They want to see a little bit more. I understand that. Sure. Right. So you we bring them in here. The other one is the business development support that we get from Local 103. Um, your your folks, your business agents in the fields, we talk to them a lot. I mean, they have a pulse on what's going on, right? They care about their members, they care about the work, and they're so helpful. They're so helpful. And sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes they're just relaying something. Great, no problem. But the open lines of communication that we have with Local 103 is is it's the big reason we're successful. 100%. And then the support we get from Nika and Kristen just lights out. I mean, the the training, the education that they do, um, and and really the pulse that they monitor for us on the contractor side, um, I can't say enough. We we we we could not operate. Nobody could operate independently.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

No, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

And you would know more than I would, but I would bet that there are other parts of the country that contractors like Lantel don't do as well because they don't enjoy the relationship with the local union that we do. I would bet that.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

I I've heard no judgment. No, I've heard that. Um, you know, there there are several pockets around the country that have strong relationships between labor and management, like we do here in Boston. And to me, from what I'm seeing, those are the most high-functioning um areas and local unions in the country as well. So I know for me, if I'm getting along with you and I got a good relationship with you, and I got a relationship with the contractor base at NICA, then I can serve my members better.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

And I feel you guys feel the same way. If we if you guys got open dialogue with the union, you guys can do better. 100%. You know what I mean? 100%. And you see it with with who you work with, um, of my crew. Yep. You know, hey, help me out. I don't know anybody on the school committee up here, and we're trying to get in with the school committee.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

And it makes it easier on a Wednesday at the Boston City Council meeting, yeah. We're both in the room. Yeah. Or we're the Boston Redevelopment Authority, a BPDA, what they're called now. Yeah. And we're both in the room. Or we may be, and we've been in meetings, we've been in all kinds of meetings, you and I, but we could be in a Quincy City Council meeting. Yeah, you know, a very changing city right now in the last election that's down there. Yeah, and we could be in any of these places together, and when you are, it's a very, very powerful combination. Yeah, I enjoy it. I enjoy it immensely.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Yeah, you know, how teamwork makes the dream work. They always say it's a cliche, but it's it's so true. They do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

They do. And it and it's interesting because I was the in my past life, I was the president of the union at the Sheriff's Department um for many years, public safety union. This is a different animal. This is really it's intimidating, it's different. It was new to me, but my God, starting with Mike and ending with you, this has been heaven. It's been great. Yeah, sky's the limit for the next 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Yeah, we're on the same page. It's nothing we can't accomplish. It really is, you know what I mean? Nothing. And uh you you go into if it's a political figure and they go into their office and it's if it's union and contract or it's labor and management, you know, we're on we're singing the same song. Because usually for for decades and historically, we've all been always been on the wrong side of the issue. You've been on one side, we've been on the other, therefore we can't accomplish anything. But we go into these meetings or you know, to give public testimony or anything like that, talking to a politician or trying to sell to a city council. We go in there together singing the same song. We're getting better results, we're getting the job. Can't lose. My people go to work, you guys get the job.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Can't lose powerful. Yeah, it really is powerful. Everybody in the room identifies with one of us. Yeah. That's powerful stuff. Yeah, that's what makes it fun. That's what makes it fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

The uh I know the electrical industry. I come up as an electrician in my family, electricians, and it's that that industry is changing. It's constantly changing, it's constantly evolving, but nothing even remotely close to how the low voltage uh technology in that whole industry is changing. Talk a little bit about how you know from from year over year, or uh you take a five or ten year window from 10 years ago to now. Sure. And from now 10 years out.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Let me go back to 2003. So POE shows up on the scene in 2003. So we're gonna move data and power over a cable.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

That's different. Yeah, it's earth-shattering. Um, and it it opens up a lot of different avenues. And and what does it do for us? It allows partners and manufacturers to start thinking about products differently. So, what we're doing now is we are finding that on the security side, we were hampered by 300 feet for a camera uh without a fiber uh connection, and now we're out at eight or nine hundred feet. Wow, that's amazing. We're seeing now uh automated building controls, we're seeing fire alarm, we're seeing intercom, we're seeing PA systems in schools, um, we're seeing uh certainly access control. How about phones? I mean, phones are all so we're we're seeing a shift technology-wise to the first question in the algorithm. The first question is is this an IP addressable device? So I'm surrounded by a couple of cameras here. So if Canon makes a camera that can be networked, we can do anything with it. That's amazing. And that's where the low voltage space is really constant. The telecommunications group now is doing anything that's IP addressable, the sky's the limit. And um and and then the the integration piece is really what is gonna keep us on our toes forever. I wanted to do this, this, this, this, and this, as opposed to it's not a light switch, right? Right? It's not a light switch. They don't want on and off. They want it to actually think. Now, if we're gonna add in AI and we're gonna add in predictive technologies and adaptive technologies, um if if the temperature in a room drops to a certain point, the heat's gonna kick on. But we want the temperature to drop to a certain point, the heat to kick on, you're gonna get a text message, my phone's gonna ring, and we would like the red lights in the hallway to start flashing. Yeah. That's where your technician comes in. That's where your technician comes in.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

So each individual system is an incredible piece of technology on its own. Yes. And then we talked about the in integrating it. Yes. So now all these individual pieces of technology need to speak to each other and alert each other and feed off each other. And, you know, I've been in I've been on a job site, and you go into an electric room or electric closet, and then someone in there with a computer. And they're and they're programming the lighting system, or they're programming, you know, the lights to come down at the end of the day, or to come on in the morning, or the the doors to lock at certain times, all different types of systems that they're they're they're what they're working on in programming. And that whole integration piece, and I says, you know, that that's the future. Right now, you're seeing one of these people in a building in an electric room as you're as you're put bringing a bringing a building online. Yeah. Brand new building. Um, 10 years from now, what that what's that gonna look like? I mean, it's gonna be the their own, they're gonna have their own little room or they're or they'll be doing it from their couch at home, whatever it is. That in that integration piece is I says, we have to capture that. And I remember the first call I made was to Joe Bodio, uh, because he knows that. Um, I says, we have to be part of that, or we're gonna lose out because that's the future. Yeah, right. That's how fast that part of the industry is changing. You guys are on top of it. And Joe helped us write that new classification that we adopted the last time we had a contract change. We have system integration in our in our forte of what IBW 103 and Nika do every single day of the week is it all stemmed out of what you guys started.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

Yeah, which is great. And it's Joe's baby. Like Joe really, you know, one of the things about Joe that I'll say, he'll get mad about me saying nice things about him here, but I'm going to. One of the things about Joe is when a new piece of technology comes out, sometimes a customer will say, I saw this and I really would like that. Well, that's translation is they want to play with it. Yeah. So go get it. Yeah. So a lot of times we'll have these conversations with Joe, and now we've just stopped having these conversations with Joe because he said it so many times. If there's something cutting edge, go get it.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

Bring it out. Get in front of the customer with it before the customer even sees it. Right. And the integration piece that you talk about, remember this. We've got a wonderful PA system in this building. And you've got a wonderful camera system, and you've got a wonderful telephone system. Three different salespeople, three different engineering teams, three different softwares. Sometimes they'll have an integration, sometimes they won't. But their job is not to make their system work with anybody else. Their job is to sell their system. Right. Your job and the technician's job and my job is to make them work together. And sometimes that is not as organic as one would think. Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

And you guys make it look like it's came together perfectly. Definitions make electricity. That's right, that's right. I mean, they are just amazing at it, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:22

And this is why, like I'll bring them on sales calls a lot. I just, I just brought one of our foremen on a sales call the other day, and and um, I I just I stopped talking five seconds anyway.

SPEAKER_01 55:31

You know, yeah, it's just yeah. It's funny you mentioned the uh, you know how to it's difficult to reprogram the time on the uh on the microwave. I if we get a TV and the TV's got to match up with the cable box, I get my 17-year-old. You get fixed remote 100% dial this remote in he's integrating. He's an integrator who doesn't even know it yet, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:48

But before the high school, the other night I said HD, um which one is the remote control, right? Kids are natural integrators. They are, right? They are.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

They're problem solvers, they're getting it done.

SPEAKER_00 55:58

You know, and and with kids thinking that way, uh, what does your membership, what does the legacy at local 103 look like because of the minds that are coming up? They're different, right? They're different. You know, I'm a Don Bosco guy, it doesn't even exist anymore, right? So the the Charleston High School Don Bosco connections and the the different neighborhood, like that has all changed. Right, kids don't go outside of play. So they don't know the correct rights. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

And now we have kids that are just playing a kid in South Korea and Iraq War Games.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

I was searching for a photo, and and and my my daughter's like, you know, you can just type in like uh and we'll find it. I'm like, uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Like, don't tell anybody that's so I think the low voltage, the tell the telecommunication side of the local 103 house is the most um underrated, the most kind of well kept secret. You know, we have a couple thousand applicants that try to get into our program every year. And uh vast majority of them, I want a lot to go, I want a lot to go. Because the pay seems like it pays a little bit more, you know what I mean? Sure. And that's probably the only reason because I don't really know the industry yet, because they're they're coming in. Oh, the pays a little bit more. That's that's the one I want. But by far for growth and for the future, the telecom side, the security side, the integration side is taking off like crazy. And I was talking to another contractor yesterday um about who's got both. He's got electrical and telecom. A lot of our contractors do. This was a bigger contractor that has a good a good stock of both. And he says the the the top 10 um W-2s at the end of the year in my company are the on the technician side. Yes. Because of the callbacks, because of the overtime, you gotta come in at night, you gotta, you know, off hours and you gotta come in and integrate in service. Yep. And he's like, people don't even know that. But the telecom side is such an underrated powerhouse in in our industry here locally. I wouldn't, I would never discourage anybody from ever going into the telecom side.

SPEAKER_00 57:57

But be ready for a sexual assault call-out. Be ready for a protest call out, be ready for a homicide call out, be ready for a missing child call out. Yeah, that's what you're doing. That's what your technology is doing. That you, that's what your customer needs you to do. And and I think it it gives them a I think it gives them a special purpose. Yeah. I do. Yeah, you're not just punching a clock. I see some pride. I see some absolutely. I started this, we started talking about making the community safe, being engaged in the community. And uh that's what those kids do. And I think that the growth potential for that is enormous.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

Yeah, and sure, there's there's the you gotta pull some wire, you gotta do some punch down. That's all part of learning in the industry. But that part of the industry that side of the house here at Local 103 is really just like the sky's the limit. Every day you must install equipment that a year later you're going back and you're installing new upgraded equipment that's 10 times better than it was a year ago.

SPEAKER_00 58:46

We have equipment now that we install, and the manufacturers will give, as part of the quote, five years of updates because it's changing so quickly. Yeah. And it needs to stay, it needs to keep pace. I will say this, though, and I'd be remiss if I didn't. Um, and we talked about this earlier. The level of respect that personally I have Atlanta Telecommunications for the voice and data and the cable and the communications guys and girls, that that's the legacy of our company, right? Joe climbing poles for the phone company, Joe's father being a phone company guy. This is a legacy company here. Um, that number one, it's it's it's something that we remind ourselves of every day and every night before we go to bed. That's number one. Number two, um, we are the telecommunications side of local 103. Yeah, but um, the respect that we have for the electrical side of local 103 and and all of the events that we've been to in the history, I'm not gonna mention the two sides. They do. They really do. We know where we came from. We know where we came from. Let's not forget that. The Boston Police Department, first police department in the nation, they came from a strike at JJ Foley's. Yeah. That's where they came from. Don't forget it. Don't forget where you came from. And we have a great deal of pride. And I think I mentioned Melanie's name earlier and Mr. McLaughlin. I mentioned his name earlier. We were talking about that. Um, I I was I was at a customer site the other day, and they had an electrical issue, and I was in a closet. It was the the lights weren't going down when the active shooter system went off. And they said, Do you do that? I said, No, but I'm gonna call it this in the morning. I'm gonna call Brian. I got somebody. So that family that we feel at Lantel and the family that we feel together with local 103, we also feel with the other contractors in Nika. That's good. Oh, it's great. Yeah, yeah, really. I mean, yeah, I have no fear of losing anything. Imagine that. Right. None. We have the best people in the field, we have the best products, yeah, we've got the best leadership at NECA 103 and Atlantel. Well, what the hell am I afraid of losing? Right. Bring it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

Yeah, we're not really losing. No, we're not. We're always winning. No, we're not. We're not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

Because the customers are smart, they know what they want. We're gonna give them a product. And uh when I say that, I'm speaking for all of the contractors that are part of this family. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

Yeah, we're we're constantly growing. Our contractor base is constantly growing. We're putting additions on the training center. Yeah, we've got a new footprint for the training center that's gonna open up in a month or so, up in 40 miles away from here in Wilmington, Madison. I know that. Okay, yep, and you'll be invited. I've been in the office. If the open house, we're gonna have another open house. We've added some JTC space. Okay at the time when we opened the build bought the building and opened it, we had a customer or a tenant on the first floor. So the tenants since moved out, we've remodeled that space, and we're gonna put a uh some training, a training part of the training center in that area. So we'll be opening that up. So that our footprint is growing, our membership's growing. Um, the interest in our industry is growing. It's actually exploding. And uh, you know, it's all because of good partnership. People hear good things from both sides of the table, and it's it's it's working out amazingly.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:29

And it's a profession. Yep. Make no bones about it. Yep. It is not, it's not a job. It's it's not it's not. I'm going into the trade. You are going to be a professional. That's right. And that's what this is. This is a profession. It's that's across the street, yeah, and it's nurtured with the fraternity of this organization. I love it. Come in. I really love it. This is great. We could talk about it all day. Really good. All day. This is awesome, John. Yeah. Yep. Yep. It's the union difference. Yeah. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

Yep, it is. It is a huge difference. Like you said, when we go in those rooms together, it's it's a it's a powerhouse. Can't lose.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:00

You know, can't lose, Lou. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

Yep. John, you're the best. It's all about wins, baby. Yeah, it is. Winning together. Yep. That's right. Good stuff.