-Back in the early 80's, Davey Katz was living in Port Chester, New York in a loft with a graphic artist and photographer. The two men were recent graduates of SUNY and had paid for part of their education with time spent in New York City doing freelance A/V work. When Davey moved into the loft shortly afterwords, they offered him the opportunity to take over their freelance calls (as they no longer were interested in doing that work now that their photography and graphic arts practice had become a full-time occupation). Davey had very little experience with anything A/V and they told him not to worry about it but to call them if there was something he did not understand. Needless to say, Davey was on the phone with these fellows quite a bit at the outset.

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-Davey worked in hotels all over New York City during this time. Working during peak times of the year as a freelancer, he got a wealth of experience in a very short time. Davey worked in every major hotel in New York City (The Plaza, The Omni, The Sheraton, Hotel Vista, the Roosevelt), the World Trade Center, as well as clubs like 21, The Lotus Club, and the New York Athletic Club. This experience gave Davey the knowledge base he needed to start a company, although it was never his intention. Davey often joked with the managers of the hotels where he worked, saying that he made more money and had more freedom as a freelancer...why would he ever want to be a boss?

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-As time progressed and financial needs became what they were with mortgages to pay and a family to support, Davey moved from Westchester County to Cheshire, Connecticut. It was at this time that Davey got his first managers job working at the Trumbull Marriott Hotel for Colortone Audiovisuals. After 14 months at that hotel, he moved Colortone's office to the Bridgeport Hilton. After that assignment ended, Davey then went to work managing the Waterbury Sheraton for Colortone. That posting only ended up lasting a couple of weeks as the hotel chose not to renew Colortones contract.

-As such, Colortone no longer needed Davey's help and he was without a job whereupon he contacted the Hilton in Bridgeport where Davey had just come from and asked them if they would like him to start an AV company at their location. They quickly agreed however they stated to Davey that he needed to come up with a name for his company in order for them to pay him. Davey told them that he just come from a hotel where they referred to him as “AVDAVEY” and their sales director immediately said to Davey that that was the name he had to use! When Davey remarked that it seems silly to him and that no one would take him seriously, Lorraine Scelfo convinced him that that was the name he had to use. That was in May 1989.

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-Davey started his business (A/V DAVEY) in a single hotel room at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn with a $10,000 loan from the Dime Savings Bank and leftover equipment that he’d culled together from various places that he had worked. Shortly after Davey started the business in the early 90's, recession hit and times were very tough.  He ate 95% of his meals in the hotel cafeteria while taking in any kind of work to support our company whose gross in its first year of operation was only $10,000. We began making audio and video tape copies in quantity and continued to escalate the number of hotel properties country clubs and meeting facilities that would consign all of their AV requirements to us.

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-During the 1990's, Davey had amassed some 55 such facilities to use our services exclusively. By the end of the decade with budgets freeing up, technology advancing and our location secure, the company had a very rosy picture going into the early 2000’s.

 

-In the late 90's, we also developed the installation side or what is referred to as "systems integration" into our product mix. This move opened us to a brand new set of opportunities and would later be our savings grace as the systems integration side is now the strongest part of our business.

-We begin installing with Reuters News Service and quickly developed a following from our rental customers throughout the region for their systems design and installation. This includes sound, lighting, video control systems, video conferencing, and accompanying components.

-The 90's also saw our move out of the Bridgeport Holiday Inn Hotel to our own private office located at 71 Clifton Place in Bridgeport. This residential building has our home for the last 20 years.

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-Well times change, markets change, and so has A/V DAVEY. Although at one time we were involved in staging major events annually for companies like Sikorsky, Stop & Shop, Subway and others, these jobs faded away with budget cuts, technological advancements, and corporate acquisitions.

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-Our company now is focusing more than 75% of its efforts toward the systems integration side of the business A/V DAVEY is now selling and installing A/V systems in both commercial and residential projects. These projects vary in all aspects of technology.

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-On the commercial side, the technology included: sound, light,  video control systems, screens, projectors, monitors, video conferencing, collaborative systems, sound masking, and many others.

 

-Safe to say A/V DAVEY has seen virtually every type of corporate or institutional installation job in its 30+ years. We begin installing with Reuters news service and quickly developed a following from our rental customers throughout the region for their systems design and installation including: sound, lighting, video control systems, video conferencing, and accompanying components.

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-On the residential side we are installing sound, control systems, home theater, smart home products, and home networks just to name a few.

 

-With our Wilton store opening June 2018, we are poised to focus our installation/systems integration knowledge into a service designed to assist the frustrations of everyone. Because most of us, whether at work or home, have technological challenges. Both locations become more and more difficult to contend with when system failures occur.

 

-It is this frustration that has led us to offering our knowledge base via the new store and a website designed to answer questions of those in need. We believe this new model makes A/V DAVEY unique in the AV marketplace.