ActiveLight was given life in 1998 and quickly rose to the top as President and COO Brad Gleeson, who was once VP of marketing for BoxLight (a five-time Inc. 500 company) collaborated with BoxLight CEO Herb Myers who gave Gleeson $300,000 in seed capital to pursue his interest in plasma screens (and thank the plasma stars he did)!

What really differentiated ActiveLight from other distributors from a business perspective was their very early adoption of Digital Signage. It was the outstanding marketing and sales efforts of Brad Gleeson, Nancy Brooks-Gregson, Richele Strong, Jennifer Fisher and Jeff Kresse that made them the true pioneers of the industry and no other distributor could touch them in their presence, promotion and understanding that Digital Signage would be (and now is) the next big thing. This hard work resulted in the first industry publications such as The Digital Signage Quarterly and The Digital Signage Resource Directory where any company could be listed to showcase its product and services. Informative articles were written to further advance and enhance in the education of Digital Signage. These resources were the first publications that served as a very strong conduit for the Digital Signage Industry.

ActiveLight also recognized that a high quality web presence was critical to the Audio Video Industry and could provide collateral via online quicker than most of the distributors of its day. This meant you could get information such as product specifications, specials or a price sheet quicker than the speed of light. 

ActiveLight also was the biggest, brightest star in catering to online e-tailors with the talents of Denis Hoshizaki (who convinced one of the first online e-tailors to put a plasma picture on his website) and the efforts of Karl Dight and ActiveLight’s IT department that provided a system that cultivated a live human response from east coast to west coast that could put any call center to shame. Behind those phone lines were the very best industry representatives on the face of the Earth; Chris Garcia, Jennifer Fisher, Matt Baker, Christine Elena, David Lawrence, Mick Gilchrist, Jeannie Lipp, Leslie Smith, Sarah Jewel, Karl Erickson and Brian Smith that were always there to answer your call no matter what US time zone you were calling from. The internet proficiency skills along with a superb sales philosophy of these people were (and still are) the meat and potatoes of what makes the online Plasma TV World rock!

Of course this perfect recipe includes the strong, professional organization skills of Janet Bohnet who can command a plasma television to ship five minutes after cut-off time quicker than you could say “please” to your fairy godmother…and Rose Perry who can find the most obscure, out of stock piece of equipment. She completes your order without breaking a sweat - and always delivers her soothing reassurance that your customers project hardware is on time or ready to be delivered. Along with the support staff includes the most caring administrative assistant named Mary Lou Jaramillo who is an absolute asset to her profession and a jewel of a colleague and friend to everyone. Her roles and tasks are too varied to list but she makes sure no employee birthday or birth of a child goes unnoticed and her project management skills can fix a shipping bill, order great chairs and even find you household goods for free. But more importantly, she is the first smiling face you will see at ActiveLight.

Some of the other huge things that catapulted ActiveLight to success were the programs they put into action.  One of them was the infamous (original recipe) Power Partner program where ActiveLight gave back to its customers by setting sales goals and upon reaching those goals they rewarded its resellers with a percentage of revenue credit back at the end of the sales quarter. When ActiveLight did this they helped many start-up businesses achieve success and gained huge loyalty because they proved they really wanted to help their customers to free up capitol for other expenses needed to make it in a tough, competitive business.

But what you really need to know about ActiveLight you cannot read in any other  press release or webpage. ActiveLight was about the people. From the owners who believed in a dream to the sales representatives’ relentless efforts to be #1. The expedience of the support team --all the way down to the highly efficient (better than a naval shipyard) way they ran the warehouse that was so incredible (and made you wished you worked in the warehouse) to the customers who liked doing business with the people of ActiveLight so much that even they wanted to help them to beat their competition. If you ever walked through the smoke colored glass doors at ActiveLight you can almost feel you were among the cream of the crop in the industry and surrounded by the most friendliest, high achievers that wanted the best and worked hard on very timely pursuits every single day to get the best prices, product allocation and support for their customers and partners.

You could dress them up and take them anywhere too! It has been a proven fact that they literally cornered the market in tradeshow booth design with their ‘WOW’ factor and the most memorable booth highlights being a video wall of Digital Signage (a few years ahead of there time) and the more recent, huge (very bright) LED screen a couple years ago provided by Barco that made ActiveLight look like the city that was built on rock and roll on the tradeshow floor. The amount of time, hard work and dedication that went into the planning and implementation of the tradeshow circuit deserves an award all of its own as the work hours were long and hard and would make any Toby Keith fan proud to be able to sing ActiveLight was “solid and steady and true down to the core”.

Some of the sights and sounds of ActiveLight are nestled in the Powder Hills in Poulsbo, Washington with the tallest trees you have ever seen. And on a clear day you can see the most incredible view of the Olympic Mountains that will always take your breath away no matter how many times you see it (not to mention one of the best places in Kitsap County to bring a blanket and watch the fireworks with your friends and family on the 4^th of July overlooking Liberty Bay). During work time in the very early morning hours you can hear the light, faint clickety-clacking of multiple keyboards frantically typing the order of the day and the distant sound of Norah Jones’ dark, crooning voice singing the song “Sunrise, Sunrise” as the Pacific Northwest rain pelts the windows keeping time with the sound of the rhythmic chiming of important online instant messages orchestrating the urgency of the day.

Visiting ActiveLight is always an interesting and fun experience (kind of like visiting the “Cheers” television show of Distributors). No matter what aspect of the industry you are visiting from everyone knows your name and someone is always glad to see you. You would never go hungry at ActiveLight either (as I am convinced that all the ‘foodies’ live there) with the smells of Campana’s Pizza (better than east coast pizza) Taco Time, Mitzel’s (especially their eggs, sausage and hash browns), enormous amounts of authentic Tai food, Ice Cream Cakes, Sushi from Central Market, Chung’s Chicken Teriyaki (with extra sauce and no veggies) and of course arguing about who is going to go through the McDonalds drive-thru, completes the menu scene that lends to the ambiance of ActiveLight. And if laughter really does make you live longer just know that your life expectancy has probably doubled if you experienced any aspect of ActiveLight history and on Fridays you could leave singing the famous country song “It’s five o’clock somewhere”.

ActiveLight wanted to be an extension of your business and if you had to guess you would think that ActiveLight was an employee owned business (but it was not) because you could be totally blown away with the vast talent under one roof!  You will not find many companies in this day and age with the kind of work ethic, integrity, intelligent and creative people that ActiveLight brought to any business let alone the flat panel display industry.

In conclusion, may we all always remember that no matter what part of this great past of ActiveLight we touched—that we were all a part of what made it the real ActiveLight. This is a different change to a unique era in the flat panel display industry. To all the people of ActiveLight past and present, your hard work and dedication is to be commended - may your spirit, essence and integrity set a standard and shine through in your new corporate life and more importantly, all of your personal endeavors.

Goodbye, Sweet ActiveLight.

“Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime... We’ll take the best--forget the rest and someday we’ll find… These were the Best of Times”—Styx.

 Good Luck and Virtual Success!

Opinion:  This story showcases ActiveLight past accomplishments and milestones in relationship to the ELECTROGRAPH ACQUIRES ACTIVELIGHT, CINELIGHT acquisition. It is business as usual. You should continue to place your orders with your ActiveLight and CineLight representatives.

Read More Press Releases About The Acquisition:

See The Official Press Releases:

ELECTROGRAPH SYSTEMS ACQUIRES ACTIVELIGHT AND CINELIGHT FROM POWDER HILL GROUP

Electrograph Systems Acquires ActiveLight and CineLight from ...
TMCnet - USA
... Electrograph expects that the acquisition of ActiveLight and CineLight will significantly enhance its size and scope, while solidifying its market presence ...

Electrograph Buys Two Players As Part Of Display Distributor ...
CRN - Manhasset, NY, USA
... Smith said there was less than 10 percent VAR customer overlap between Electrograph and ActiveLight and CineLight. Furthermore, he ...

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