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By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Monday, Oct 29, 2007
People still bring Betamax tapes to Gary Stennett.
For those too young to remember, Betamax lost out to VHS in the videotape format war a couple of decades ago.
For that matter, people bring Stennett even more VHS cassettes, now just another has-been analog medium in the 21st century digital-recording era.
And then there are the reels and reels of even older 8mm and 16mm home movies.
Plus packages of 1970s 3/4-inch videotapes, SuperVHS and other tape formats, along with more contemporary video CDs, mini DVDs and others on which people have recorded memories, only to see them become obsolete.
Stennett and his co-workers give new life to all those aging recordings. Stennett is the owner of ARS Video Inc. on West Avenue in Tallmadge, a family-run business started by his parents 20 years ago.
ARS has carved out a niche in preserving memories that families feel are priceless things such as weddings and holiday gatherings that have been filmed or are on old photographs and slides.
The company can convert and edit those memories into a digital format that can be viewed on a TV or computer screen, often adding music and sound effects to otherwise silent footage.
They'll also shoot and edit wedding videos. Need to duplicate a non-copyrighted DVD or tape? ARS will do that, too. Business tapes are welcome, too. ARS didn't start out trying to do all that.
It's been a learning process along the way as the small company has had to upgrade its technology, change its focus to keep up with customer demand and interests and even do succession planning with family members.
ARS got its start in 1987 as an outgrowth of patriarch Arthur R. Stennett's marriage counseling business the video company gets its name from his initials.
Three generations of Stennetts work there now: owner Gary, his mother Gloria, and Gary's children.
''I was working with my (now-retired) husband in his counseling practice,'' said Gloria Stennett. ''I had a little free time on my hands and thinking we needed another business to go along with that. We researched a little bit, and we discovered the video transfer business and purchased the initial equipment.''
That set back the couple about $30,000, she recalled. That's the equivalent of more than $53,000 in 2006 dollars.
''We thought that would be a nice family business to go along with family counseling,'' Gloria Stennett said. ''We started out with home movies.''
After getting initial training on the video equipment, the couple practiced on their own home movies and those of friends before advertising their new business, Gloria Stennett said. ''From there it went to photos and slides and duplication.''
It took a few years to recoup that initial investment, she said.
Along the way, the business grew beyond just copying and preserving home movies and family memories.
''Initially we used one room in the back,'' Gloria Stennett said of the home-like building at 89 West Ave. ''We use the whole house now.''
Business people came in and asked ARS to make copies of such things as training, sales and demonstration tapes. With that came additional demands.
''They wanted to make changes to (the business tapes), so we had to edit them,'' Gary Stennett said.
As customers kept asking for different services, ARS bought more equipment, and the Stennett family members and other employees learned new skills.
The parents pretty much were running everything early on, sharing the workload fairly equally. Of their four children, Gary was the one who showed the most interest in helping.
ARS bought video cameras to shoot videos for business customers. Then the company was asked to start shooting weddings. Early on, videography became Gary's primary responsibility.
Eventually, though, the demands of the business became too much for Gloria and her husband. ''We were here day and night. We lived upstairs for a while,'' she said. ''A little too much.''
Gary showed an interest in taking over, she said.
So, in 1996 Gary (now 45) bought the business from his parents. He used his background in business and computers 11 years working in information technology at the J.M. Smucker Co. to bring ARS Video fully into the computer age, not only in editing videos but also to handle the small business's finances.
''I realized this business needed computers,'' he said. The technology saved a lot of time and a lot of money, he said.
''The editing systems and the computing requirements have just grown and grown and grown,'' Gary Stennett said.
Over the years, ARS flirted with other ideas, including creating an Akron sports newscast for Channel 23. They dropped that experiment after a few months when advertising did not materialize.
Stennett called on the free services of the Akron chapter of SCORE Service Corps of Retired Executives four years ago to help him develop an advertising strategy.
''I wanted to boost sales,'' he said. ''I was very happy with SCORE. I would recommend them to other business owners.''
ARS is doing well, he said. It has nine employees: two full time and the rest part time.
''We're strong. We're doing well, in the black,'' Stennett said. ''We're ramping up for our busy season now.''
The bulk of their business remains the transfer of 8mm and other home movies to a digital format. DVD and compact disc duplication is also growing.
''People bring in boxes of their family's camcorder tapes and want them preserved on DVD,'' Stennett said. ''Which they need to do, because after about 15 years, tape will start going bad.''
Although simple copying of a CD or DVD can take just a day to turn around, transferring, copying and editing home movies can take as long as three weeks to complete, Stennett said.
''It's a very labor-intensive service,'' he said. ''The price reflects that, but it's a really outstanding product. Our equipment's been upgraded. It's all high-resolution and digital. We add custom sound effects to the movies. Every scene has its own sound effect, music, song.''
Stennett said he is constantly looking at what customers want and need. As a result, he's budgeting to buy high-definition camera equipment in 2008.
''We constantly are learning about new equipment and bringing equipment in and trying it out, seeing what works,'' Stennett said. ''We learn and we grow, and we find what's most efficient. Cost has come down significantly the last 10 years. People can do their own editing at home on their home computer. But usually they'll try it and bring it to us.''
And should or really, when recording on DVDs becomes as obsolete as using Betamax, Stennett said he's sure ARS will still be on top of the latest technology.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
People still bring Betamax tapes to Gary Stennett.
Get the full article here.
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