The Billboard Insider Podcast
00:00:00 · Dave Westburg, S1, Don Szczepaniak
[00:00:00] S0: Hi. This is Dave Westberg, you're listening to the Billboard Insider Podcast where I interview industry leaders about trends impacting The US out of home advertising business. This podcast is sponsored by Adomni. [00:00:12] S1: Adomni, increase your revenue today by listing your digital billboard on Adomni. [00:00:17] S0: Today's guest is Don Szczepaniak, president and CEO of Prismview, a Samsung electronics company which manufactures indoor and outdoor display products, including digital billboards. Welcome to the show, Don. [00:00:30] S2: Oh, thanks. Thanks for having me. [00:00:31] S0: Don, talk about your background and how you got involved in the out of home advertising business. [00:00:38] S2: It's a long, strange trip. I'll try to keep it free. So I've been involved in the electronics business for my whole career and had spent over thirty years doing consumer electronics, commercial, industrial, doing all kinds of everything from sales to support to... I I used to joke that I had every job in the in the in the industry except for accounting and engineering. One, wasn't qualified for and what I like. You could you could you [00:01:02] S0: could Yes.
00:01:02 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:01:02] S0: could Yes. [00:01:03] S2: Kick which is which. But, recently, I was working for Panasonic, and they had decided to get into the LED business. And so I was picked to to run that group and and build that business. And couple years ago, Samsung came calling to have me come to Prismview and help them lead the growth and transformation of a Prismview as as it get... Got integrated into Samsung. So I came to the outdoor industry late Mhmm. In my career. Before Prismview, I really didn't spend a lot of time in it. So it's been a bit of an education and a kind of a gratifying time in terms of learning and learning and getting involved in the business. [00:01:37] S0: Talk a little bit about Prismview's history and its operations, maybe some of the mechanics of its current operation.
00:01:37 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:01:37] S0: Talk a little bit about Prismview's history and its operations, maybe some of the mechanics of its current operation. [00:01:45] S2: Sure. As you said at the beginning, we're a Samsung company. Samsung went and purchased Prismview from one of the large sign companies in The United States, in the Western Part of The United States, YESCO. So Prismview was the electronics division of YESCO and really started in the very beginning of the digital signage industry making digital LED signs for Yesco for their operation. Samsung is very public about wanting to dominate LED, like they dominate many other industries and was was looking for some capability, particularly in The US, for outdoor LED because Samsung has great expertise and great r and d on the indoor side, but didn't really have it on the outdoor side. So they went and then negotiated and acquired Prismview from Yesco in 2015. They got acquired. It's been a couple years straight... Working on straightening out the operation and and really aligning it with Samsung. And then in 2017, they brought me on board to really lead the growth and transformation because their goal is to dominate all the RLEDs like they dominate everything else. [00:02:49] S0: I remember you... You've got a quote I read where you said, I I first came to Prismview and was intrigued by this local company with the history of innovation in the sign business supported by a global tech giant. It must be nice to be able to run a business when you know your parent has access to capital.
00:02:49 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:02:49] S0: I remember you... You've got a quote I read where you said, I I first came to Prismview and was intrigued by this local company with the history of innovation in the sign business supported by a global tech giant. It must be nice to be able to run a business when you know your parent has access to capital. [00:03:05] S2: Yeah. I meant when I said that. I mean, you know, I was really intrigued by the Prismview opportunity because of the history. With Prismview, when I talk about it being there at the beginning... Very beginning, they were at the very beginning of the digital billboard business. We spent a lot of time putting up some of the first digital billboards in the in The US and really grew with that. So they had this history of innovation and and being nimble and being there, being in that business from the very beginning. And so that's what intrigued me about the company. And when I looked at that and said, wow. That combined with the incredible resources and the brand power of Samsung, I thought I would be a fool not to not to jump on and take the opportunity. [00:03:45] S0: Makes sense. Now review Prismview's current operations. You know, where's the headquarters? Talk a little about manufacturing. Where where is sales located and your network operations center on NOC, where you monitor all the signs? Where is all of that?
00:03:45 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:03:45] S0: Makes sense. Now review Prismview's current operations. You know, where's the headquarters? Talk a little about manufacturing. Where where is sales located and your network operations center on NOC, where you monitor all the signs? Where is all of that? [00:03:59] S2: So Prismview is headquartered in Logan, Utah, about an hour and a half north of Salt Lake City Airport. Yesco moved the operation from Vegas in the early two thousands. So we operate out of the main headquarters building where, you know, all the administrative functions are plus some of our manufacturing. We we actually have four different buildings in Logan. Wow. And so our NOC is is here in Logan. We have all the... All manufacturing, all fabrication, all calibration, project management. Management is all based out of Logan. We do also... Because of the the need to really expand our capacity, we actually are... Also produce modules. Some of our modules at what's called SAMX, which is Samsung Mexico in Tijuana. It's Samsung's largest production facility in The Americas. It produces all the TVs for the for The US and much of the Western Hemisphere. And so we actually produce some modules in that plant as well. So we produce modules in Mexico. We produce modules, cabinets, and do all the fabrication, assembly, and and final design work here in in Logan. [00:05:05] S0: Are your salespeople based also in Logan, are they regional?
00:05:05 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:05:05] S0: Are your salespeople based also in Logan, are they regional? [00:05:09] S2: Our salespeople are are based all over the country. I... You know, I I... With... When it comes to salespeople, I tend to try to find them where they're closest to their customers. So we have salespeople being from from Connecticut to California, Texas to Minnesota, and everywhere in between. [00:05:23] S0: Okay. What makes Prismview different from the other digital billboard manufacturers? [00:05:30] S2: I think, you know, again, what drew me to Prismview, I think, also, I think, makes it different. You know, we are a a US company, US based. We are very focused on the North American market, so we really pride ourselves on knowing our customers. We provide those services in The US. So, you know, you mentioned a twenty four seven knock. We have a twenty four seven knock in Logan, manned by folks who know the business and know Prismview. Think beyond that, what attracted Samsung to Prismview was some of the IP. We're really proud of the way our signs look than the way they perform, whether it's high refresh rates or the ability to really reproduce exactly what the customer wants us to reproduce, whether that is red, the red of Coca Cola Mhmm. Or the purple of the Baltimore Ravens. We really take pride in the fact that our our signs do that really well and continue to do that over the course of their life. [00:06:20] S0: Don, can you talk about some of your high profile Prismview projects?