Dealer Profile
Twisted Pair Media
Nashville, TN
| Founders | |
| Ryan Shelton and Wes Kinney | |
| Key Statistics & Information | |
| Opened | 2004 |
| HARMAN Brands Supported |
JBL Sythesis, Lexicon, |
The HARMAN Luxury Audio Group is proud to have some of the best high-end consumer electronics partners across the globe. Each month, we have the pleasure of learning a little bit more about one of our dealers or distributors. This time we spoke with Ryan Shelton of Twisted Pair Media in Nashville.
How did Twisted Pair get its start?
Interesting story - I was in college and working for a family friend that was remodeling a home. The friend got in touch with a local home-grown automation company in Nashville and was interested in installing their product in his home. I reached out to the owner of the company one Saturday to ask what was needed behind the drywall to make his system work. We talked on the phone for about an hour and he asked me to come in to talk to him about coming to work for him as an installer (they were trying to start an install side of their company). Long story short, he hired me and Wes but wanted to pay us as contract labor, so we started a company called Twisted Pair Media, mainly as a joke. That Nashville-based automation company is no longer around but we still work with some of those same clients that we met as contractors 16 years ago.
How many people are on the Twisted Pair team?
We have eight total people including myself and Wes. Four installers, a dedicated programmer and an office manager/service coordinator.
Thoughts on the importance of training?
We have been very fortunate in that we have great people on our team that are eager to learn and grow their skill-set. While classroom and virtual training is extremely valuable in certain arenas, we have found that some of the best training comes from closely watching someone that is excellent at the trade on a day-in and day-out basis. Our lead technicians are fantastic at training our newer team members. We have actually never hired anyone with previous industry experience. We have always hired for the character traits that are harder to teach (integrity, patience, ingenuity, etc.) and then found ways to teach the person the specifics of the job and industry. This has worked very well for us so far and I would attribute that entirely to the people that we have within our company and their willingness to be taught.
What do you like most about HARMAN Luxury Audio products and which lines do you feature?
HARMAN Luxury has a solution for almost every application and can hit almost every “luxury” price point. The portfolio is large and covers a lot of ground, but we feel like we can trust every product to be a “best-in-class” offering. The build quality, performance and warranty are great and the team of people that HARMAN has representing the brand are fantastic. We love the support that we receive from all areas of the company. Being in Nashville, we are really trying to target the high-end listening room client, so we have used Revel and Mark Levinson for such rooms. We also love the performance of the JBL Synthesis line and all of the various configuration options it offers, whether that be for a small media room all the way up to a large theater for a couple dozen people. The performance is superb across the board.
How do you think the luxury audio industry is currently doing?
I guess it would not be 2020 if I did not mention something about the pandemic, but I feel like we have had more requests this year for things like media rooms and listening rooms. Clients are spending more time at home and are certainly going to be more reluctant to go to a movie theater where they have to wear a mask for the duration of a movie. I hate to say that we as a company have benefitted from the pandemic, but we certainly have seen an uptick in requests for luxury audio and willingness to spend more dollars at home. I hope that this trend continues into the future and not just while we are all wearing masks and socially distancing.
What is Twisted Pair’s mission?
At Twisted Pair Media, we want to provide luxury audio/video and automation solutions to our clients. We place a great emphasis on the relationships with our clients and seek to provide first-class service not only during the design and installation phase, but also long after the installation when it comes to service and maintenance work. All of our work comes from referrals and repeat business, so relationships are mission-critical to our success.
You have the floor. Anything else you want to share with us about Twisted Pair Media that you would like the world to know?
I don’t know that I really have any words of wisdom and I am not great at self-promotion, but as it relates to relationships, I will say that we always try to leverage the teams that each of our vendors have put into place. These people are hired to help us grow our business. I never hesitate to reach out with questions about a product or specific design application, request for training or support, etc. Leverage relationships to help grow your business with the brand. I would be remiss if I did not give a shout-out to our HARMAN rep, Chris Trojnar. He has been a fantastic brand ambassador for HARMAN and has helped us grow our business with the brand tremendously.
For more info on Twisted Pair Media, visit their website at twistedpairmedia.com .