Talamas

Since Talamas was founded in 1979, the company has consistently responded swiftly to innovations in audio and video technology, anticipated industry trends and earned a reputation for unparalleled technical know-how and outstanding customer service.

With CEO Dave Talamas’ life-long fascination with film, still photography, science and engineering , building a company dedicated to bringing state-of-art gear to professionals in Boston and across the United States was a natural choice for him. Even early on, when Talamas operated on a shoestring budget out of a 375-square foot office space, rather than focus on one area of production they stressed the integration of audio and video technology to best serve the needs of audio professionals, cinematographers and the production industry overall.

"Right from day one we focused on meeting the needs of our customers with quality equipment, service and support,” says Diane Talamas, who came on board as CFO six months after the company opened its doors. “Making sure our clients get the best technology and service possible has always been our mission and we remain committed to that.”

That ethic has served Talamas well and allowed them to consistently expand their client base, services and inventory, while retaining customer loyalty, long term.

Then, as now, Dave employed a holistic approach to growth; one informed heavily by his studies in electronics at the Lowell Institute and the realization that even sophisticated electronics are constructed from simple components that interact to create a high functioning, coherent system.

Based on his experiences working at the Stuart Cody Company from 1971-1979 as sales and rental manager, Dave knew the same principle applied to any successful business venture. As a result, Talamas’ always focused on deepening the integration of the production technologies they offered, recalls Rental Manager, Jim Billbrough, a 26-year veteran of the company. “When Dave expanded, he didn’t separate the audio and video departments as a traditional rental house might. And when he hired people, it wasn’t just for their expertise in one field, but because they were able to see how developments and evolving practices in one discipline effected all the others.”

In the 1980s, when wireless systems became integral to the broadcast and production industries, Talamas was an early adopter of the technology. As other providers began to incorporate similar equipment Talamas responded as they always did; offering increasingly sophisticated technology, service and support.

As Talamas grew, they expanded their facilities consistently. “After renting that first office, I took another down the hall, and then another, and I kept doing that,” Dave says, “but by 1997 we’d grown to the point where we needed much more space, so we moved across the street into three storefronts and a warehouse.”

State-of-the-art gear – real people

Talamas’ ongoing success is a result of the core principles they adopted early on, an unwavering commitment to customer service, a willingness to anticipate trends in the industry, and an emphasis on maintaining strong relationships – personally and professionally – with their growing clientele.

In doing so, says Staff Engineer Anthony Bottaro – whose father was one of Talamas’ early customers – maintaining an open dialogue with clients is of key importance. “The way I look at it, and this is based my personal experience running a video production house before I joined Talamas, you have to be able to access the real ‘tech-heads’ at a company. That’s hard to do at some places, but here, if someone asks for help and other technicians don’t have the answer right away, I’ll take those calls. If a customer is out there with a piece of gear, whether it’s their own or they had to rent from another company, we’ll help them out.”

In the 1990s Talamas expanded its video rental inventory substantially, Bottaro continues: “Not only acquiring high-quality gear that others, locally, didn’t supply, but by hiring people with cutting edge expertise in its use.”

As the digital revolution took hold in the 2000s, Talamas set out to reduce cost and improve their client’s workflow by embracing new technology; focusing even more heavily on integrating audio and video and expanding their dialogue with clients to ensure they continued to serve their customer’s changing needs as the tools and formats they used evolved dramatically. “We listened and we responded,” says Ted Driscoll, Senior Account Manager, Digital Cinema and Video, “in an effort to be flexible, give people the best deals, customer service and quality possible, and to offer solutions that not only save them money, but increase the quality of their productions.”