Carnahan-White goes high-tech

The Springfield-based company has diversified its business strategy in recent years – first, with D&J Automatic Gates and, more recently, with rAVe Design Services.

As its name cleverly suggests, the newly created division specializes in AV, or audio/video, projects, such as home theaters, security and other automated amenities.

Most recently, rAVe installed a $25,000 home theater in the lower level of a $625,000 southeast Springfield home featured in the Parade of Homes.

The lush downstairs lair is replete with custom acoustic panels, a 92-inch high-definition TV and a digital surround sound stereo system, said rAVe Manager Mitch Smith.

Carnahan-White owner Stacey Hammit handpicked Smith – formerly of Stereo One in Springfield – to head rAVe, which launched in March.

The 54-year-old fencing company purchased D&J in 1998 after recognizing a need to expand its services in line with the demands of its clientele, Hammit said. The division primarily manufactures gates for residential subdivisions and installs closed circuit TV systems.

Hammit saw another opportunity for the company in the realm of high-quality home entertainment and assembled a team of professionals to design, engineer and install audio/video equipment.

Customers often take advantage of the multitude of services Carnahan-White now offers, Hammit added. For example, the company might work with a builder to install fencing and an automated gate as well as wiring the new home for an alarm or home-entertainment system.

“We have a lot of shared clientele,” he said. “It makes it a lot easier for the customer when they can single source out a lot of their needs for their home.”

Smith said rAVe is equipped to handle a variety of jobs, from mounting a plasma TV to designing a themed home theater from scratch. The company also installs security systems and noise-reduction measures.

The 17-by-14-foot home theater rAVe designed for Silverstone Custom Homes’ Parade house is located directly below the master bedroom, but a layer of sheet rock and a metal composite keep the noise contained, Smith said.

The system’s electronic components, which include a receiver, high-definition DVD player and an Xbox 360, are hidden in a wall compartment and disguised by a panel that swings open. A universal remote controls everything in the theater – even the amount of light emitted from snazzy wall sconces.

“Demand is growing quite a bit,” Smith said of home theaters. “When you have a room like this, there’s no need to go to the movies unless you want to see a new release.”

So what are Carnahan-White’s plans for bolstering rAVe’s business in a market with well-established competitors?

“I can’t really talk about that,” Hammit said. “We want to be … a little bit stealthy.”

Larry Batson, president of SCS Home Entertainment in Springfield, said competition has steadily grown over the years. That growth was good for his business, which now employs 15 people and pulls in more than $2 million in annual revenue.

But Batson said new competitors keep sprouting up. Former SCS employees like Smith, who briefly worked for Batson in the mid-1990s, are behind many of the startups.

“There’s a lot of them,” Batson said. “Five years ago, if we had this much work, we’d be dancing out in the streets and running our tails to the bank.”

SCS and rAVe are targeting the same customers, and it’s only a matter of time before both companies bid on the same job, said Batson, who noted that the dipping price of electronics has increased demand.

“It’s evolving pretty drastically,” he said of the home entertainment business. “Now it seems like you can do a lot more with the same amount of money.”

The largest home theater rAVe has installed was nearly 900 square feet and had seating for 15 people, Smith said, noting that customers choose the size, lighting, color palette and layout.

“You can get very ornate or nostalgic,” he said. “It just depends what your tastes are.”

Smith wasn’t able to provide an estimate for projected first-year revenues. “We’re kind of working on that,” he said.

The rAVe staff is small with only five employees, and the crew works out of Carnahan-White’s new facility west of Springfield city limits, at 1845 S. State Highway MM. The various divisions are all housed under one roof now; the fencing outfit was previously housed on South Campbell Avenue in a building that has since been demolished.

Hammit said he doesn’t expect the company to add any new divisions in the near future.

While fencing was central to Carnahan-White’s beginnings, it now only accounts for about half of the company’s business, Hammit said.

“I think we’re becoming pretty balanced now,” he said.