GUTHMAN BLOG
Meet Our Partners with Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems
Full Video Interview:
Full Transcription Here:
Introduction to Cirrus Systems
Hi, everybody. This is Dan Kerluke, and he is from Cirrus Systems, an amazing company. They were previously in Maine, and now in New Hampshire. Actually they have offices in both now, I believe. Dan has been working hard for years now bringing Cirrus to where it is now, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. So, all of our clients kind of understand what it is Cirrus is doing, and how it can benefit them, and kind of things … any tips or tricks to look out for out there while they’re kind of considering all the options that are out there. I’ll be quiet now. Thanks for coming, Dan.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Yeah, no. Thanks for having me. I’m just one teammate among 50 here at Cirrus. I’m just one part of the puzzle. But I love working here. I love the culture that has existed here before I got here that allows us to be creative and think innovatively. I don’t think there’s any other manufacturer on the market that iterates as fast as we do our product line or software. But to also kind of make a specific point, we don’t consider ourselves as a manufacturer. We are a marketing technology company helping drive value to our customers through developing really cool marketing tools. That’s how we kind of position ourselves here at Cirrus now. We will help our sign shops and our end users.
Who is Cirrus Systems Really?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Kind of to kick this off, I guess, who is Cirrus? The general background so people understand who Cirrus is, what the history is, and what brought us to where we are today.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Yeah. Like I mentioned, we are a marketing technology company. We solely have a vision to build the absolute best marketing tools at a price point that is reasonable while delivering premium services and hardware. That is a very key aspect of what we do. We don’t do anything cheaply. We don’t buy anything cheaply. We don’t make anything cheap. It has to be the best so it can service the customer the best. We’re getting close to nine, 10 years old as a company. Our founder, Dave Rycyna, who is our CEO and is the product visionary … So, we have a leader who has his hands deep into how we develop, what we develop.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
I mean, it’s amazing [regularity 00:02:48] that he has into our product and is ultimately helping us understand how do we build and what we need to build next. It’s pretty cool to have a leader that isn’t pushing numbers around but is actively part of making our stuff better, which is really cool. I mean, when you have that from the top down, it definitely instills a culture of creativity and a level of innovation I think we bring a lot differently than everybody else.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But Dave came into this market and looked at it in a lens that … wow, there’s a lot of deficiencies that exist. These things are really big and heavy. They take four to six weeks to get to someone’s front door. They got a lot of moving parts that make them expensive to make. And the reliability isn’t the best, because there is a lot of moving parts. There’s a lot of parts in general that have to be interconnected. And also at that time when we started, there was no cloud software. Didn’t exist. Everything was tethered to a computer. We’re called Cirrus actually because after the cloud, and that was like one of the things like, “Well, we can fix that. This is 2012. How’s there not a cloud platform for LED displays?” And no one took the lead on that. Well, let’s name our company after that.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
We developed the very first cloud platform. Like, a true web app cloud platform for the market. We were the pioneers to do that. Everyone said we were crazy, but then everyone else followed suit. We looked at very specifically, what are the deficient … We can’t just come in here and be another manufacturer that does it the same way. We looked at it … Well, how can we provide better value while solving all the pain points that exist?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
So, turnaround time. Well, let’s patent a modular product that we can actually build a lot of, and stock and ship out the next day. [inaudible 00:04:49] 24 hours. Okay, great. Checkbox number one. Let’s build a cloud system that you can actually manipulate from a beach in Hawaii while you’re on vacation. Great. How do you build a premium display at a mid-market price point? Well, let’s make it a solid state. Let’s simplify the engineering of it. Let’s leverage modern engineering techniques, so we don’t need to buy as many components to build the displays. Let’s make it less expensive to actually manufacture.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
We made another distinct decision three years ago to then, “All right.” Because we always engineered our stuff. Apple engineered in the U.S. but manufactured in Asia where we’ve made a very important decision. We don’t want to do that anymore. We want control over the process. We want to leverage even more technology to help this make the product even better, but that had to be on our own terms and our own control. Three years ago, we decided to actually manufacture this product ourselves. And we could leverage every advanced engineering practice available, every advantaged assembly practice available. And even the [inaudible 00:06:04] proprietary stuff in between that, but all in an effort to build the best product possible that will help end-users make money.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
We also made a very specific conscious decision I think close to three years ago now as well, and we split up manufacturing. We are only going to sell a high-resolution display. Because no one wants to buy a $20,000 16mm or 19mm in 2020. Can’t really do that much with it, and electronic text was novel 20 years ago. Clip artboards were novel a decade ago, yet that all seems to what people purchase because they are expensive. It’s not like buying a TV. These are much different type of technology.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
I digress. When we made the conscious decision to move manufacturing here to the U.S., we ultimately the decision to deal only in high-resolution displays. We got rid of our entire product line and made a singular product in the nine-millimeter display that could effectively deliver creative content that make sure when someone’s driving down the street, they’re going to look at your sign.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
At the end of the day, marketing’s all about emotional connections to something. If you can’t deliver a picture, or an image, a video, whatever that needs to be, you’re buying a brick. You’re wasting money in that investment. And now we have a 6mm, and a 4mm, and we’ll have an interior ultra high res coming shortly as well. But in all of that manufacturing coolness and iteration, everything we’ve done … it’s just really all in an effort to deliver a high-resolution display that we call a digital canvas that helps end-users paint whatever picture or story they want to tell to help them make money. That’s the soul DNA of what we try to do here at Cirrus.
How Do Cirrus LED Displays Last Longer?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
With regard to hardware, Dan, there are lots of different options out there just like in any market. A lot of different technologies. A lot of different LED boards that people are going to be looking at, possibly even put hands-on to look at. I suppose the best question to ask is: what’s different about Cirrus boards … or Cirrus hardware, rather, that would be important for a customer to know? [crosstalk 00:08:40].
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Yeah. That’s another loaded question because I’m going to go off on another tangent on multiple different ways here.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Yeah.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
That’s why I’m proud of this company because there are so many different value propositions that exist. I know we’ll get the software at some point. But if we look at just the hardware itself, we have a patent on the modularity, meaning the framing and the module itself. It’s a separate independent unit all built-in these 1′ x 2′ sections.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Why is that important? Well, that helps us deliver a product in 24 hours. That’s great for the end-user in the sign shop. But if we kind of look through the lens of an end-user, what does that mean for them? That means if you want to upgrade your display in five years to an improved resolution, you’re just swapping out modules. You leave the whole frame up there. That makes that really simple transition to newer technology. Or maybe I’m a church, and I had a budget for a 3′ x 6′ today, but I really wanted a (bigger size sign). I just couldn’t afford it, and I want to sign now. Well, you can add on modules down the road that makes it very easy to build a bigger display.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
We have some very cool advanced tech inside of this module as well. I don’t know for a fact, and I can’t say that I know for a fact. But we could be one of the only manufacturers on the planet that does not have a single wire inside of its LED module. Not a single one. That’s a pretty novel where even our former Cirrus, the Blade X, had one simple wire connecting our heat sink and a local board to the LED module. We’ve actually made an iteration in the X to the M that get rid of all wires completely. We don’t have anything that can corrode, or come loose that can break inside of our module specifically. It is rugged. We have a video of me shooting a hockey puck at a display, and I put some weight into it.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Check the description. It’ll be in there.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
I mean, that’s the rigidity our displays have. This solid-state … like, why are we different? Well, we don’t have any moving parts. We don’t have a single wire inside of our modules. It is robust. We also deliver data much differently than our competitors. We have a very distinct granularity into the health of our module, and we’ve actually just rolled out into Screenhub 24/7 monitoring. Here at Cirrus, we’re actually looking at your board 24/7. And even before something goes wrong, because we look at data a little bit differently … and I can’t get into the too much proprietary stuff.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But we have a view into it that we can see. “Hey, this, this looks a little bit funky. The module’s fine, but it’s still working. But you know what? I think we should replace it before it goes down.” People in the market talk about preventative versus reactive servicing, but I think we’re arguably probably the only company that can legitimately say that and work towards that 100% uptime on all fronts. In terms of the hardware itself, we’re pretty much unmatched in terms of leveraging the most modern applications of engineering and assembly that you can get in this market. Period.
How Does Cirrus LED Software Work?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
So, we’ve covered hardware.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Yep.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
You can guess what’s next. How does software figure into the Cirrus package? I’m guessing it has a lot to do with what you do, because like you said earlier, the Cirrus name was basically founded on that idea of cloud-based software. I’ll let you fill in the gaps. I also see a little thing over your left shoulder there. Innovation award winner, it looks like. I’ll let you fill in that gap.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
That was in 2018. We won an award in the International Sign Association for our software, which is really cool. Unfortunately, we can’t go to ISA this year, but I want to have another one next to it. We won in 2020 Best Digital Display. We’re really honored and proud of that. When we get to ISA [inaudible 00:13:10] award up there.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But for us, I think a lot of people in this industry treat the software as a kind of some ancillary component to the equation. And to your point, we named our company after the software, the cloud. What we’ve understood early on is the hardware is obviously a very important part of the equation, but ultimately the end-users interface with the software. That’s how they make their board look good, and how they interact, and schedule, and simplify their process to help them make money from the content they’re pushing to the board.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
We accelerate really fast on our hardware. But equally to our software, we just recently released … we’ll it call Screenhub version two. We didn’t make a simple iteration from one to two, which a lot of people would typically do. We actually started from the ground up. We don’t share a single line of code from version one to version two, because we wanted to make it vastly better. Not just incrementally better, but the delta between the two is significant. They somewhat look similar. There are a bunch of UI tweaks and improvements, but the engine behind it has been significantly improved to allow us to attach more functionality to it. Additional features to make things simpler.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
And we’re just getting started with the software. I mean, Screenhub is going to evolve almost every month with new functionality, new, this, new that. But it’s also important for us … It has to be easy to use. I have a 10-year-old daughter, and she’s been playing with Screenhub since she was eight. I mean, she could go in there and create slides when she was eight, nine-years-old. And we want that similar experience for anyone who may not be an expert with developing content, but how do you make it easy for them?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
And if they’re even still having trouble, that’s also what we provide is lifetime training support. If they need that assistance, it’s not some email back and forth between the two parties. We’re going to hop on the phone, we’re going to get on screen share, we’re going to help you through it. We’re very user-focused in terms of the development process. Let us know what you don’t like or what you do like, and give us feedback. Because we only develop our hardware and our software based on feedback from our great shops and our end users. I mean, ultimately you help us drive how to make the product better. And that’s important that we have that communication.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Absolutely. Okay. I know people are asking themselves when they heard that you have those frequent updates and improvements to the software, “What does that mean for the customer though?”
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
That means absolutely nothing. Every time they log in … Because we build a web app, which is the modern way of doing software. There’s no updates. There’s no file you download on your computer. It’s basically a really intuitive and robust website. Every time you hit the refresh button, you have the latest and greatest. Nothing you have to maintain, update, control. It’s very, very simple. Very, very intuitive.
What Makes Cirrus LED Displays So High Quality?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
What would be the reasons behind that for your specific solution, so people could understand what goes into that? What makes it last longer? What makes it higher quality, basically?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
It’s many things. I think what we’ve done very well is leverage the most advanced, modern engineering techniques to build the display where we do not need moving parts to make our stuff work. For anyone to say that you need moving parts is a crazy conversation. This is 2020. You have these little phones that can throw 30,000 dots onto your face to open it up. So, the Apple and crew are doing things much more novel in this industry. That’s for certain. But in terms of what we’re bringing to the market for our industry, we are light years ahead in terms of how these things go together.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
When you have fans, and other connectors, and ethernet cables, and wires, and sender, receiver, it’s another thing that can go wrong. How do you build a display that has the best longevity possible? Reduce the amount of components. We don’t have a single wire in our display. Buy expensive power supplies that are only driven half of what they can do, so they’re never stressed. They never get hot. Buy really good LED. They don’t generate a lot of heat, but they’re going to look good and great color saturation. You got to do a couple things. You’ve got to source really good components. And that’s the easy part. But then you need to develop an engineer to make those work really, really well together.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
You need to build your own control system, which we have a proprietary control system that gives us control over this whole ecosystem. And that’s important, too. But then you got to put these together and leveraging advanced robotic techniques … so, there’s a precision, and repeatability, and scalability in what we do. I would put our manufacturing facility against anyone on the planet, not just domestically here in North America. But we are doing things, and we’re just getting started. We’ve got some cool things. I know there’s a video you can share as a part of that that we put out this week.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
I’ll put that in the description too, for sure.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
And that’s just phase one. We’ve got some really cool stuff cooking in terms of the robotic processes to just make sure these are built the absolute best way possible through using premium globally sourced components driven by engineering techniques that are modern today, not what was novel a decade ago. And that’s what we’re always learning, and getting better … improving. That’s why we have a fairly fast iteration process. I mean, we’re on our M2, Blade, Blade X, Blade M. I mean, we’re on our fourth product iteration in eight years. No one is accelerating that fast.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But the other thing to note too, Bob, but these aren’t just … It’s not a brand new product every time. It’s just making it better, making it better, making it better, making it better. We’re proud of that. And that’s just … The electronics, that’s great. But par for the course with the software, that continues to be accelerated. But you take a look at even our frames, where we could sit there and continue to make same frame for the next 15 years. But no. How do we make a better frame, make it 10x the strength of the old one, make it thinner … and you know what? Taking manufacturing into our own building, so we control the process and supply chain. And without increasing costs.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Bringing that in-house, we made a frame that’s 10x better, yet not increasing costs. I mean, that’s how we work. We’re bringing plastics into Cirrus by year’s end. We’re going to be doing our own plastics, which is really neat. You talk about vertical integration. If I was to share … Like, who do you compare Cirrus to? I’m going to bring in Tesla, and what they’ve done whether you’re an electric car fan or not. But what they’ve done in this market is completely disrupt how the auto industry worked for decades.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
And here’s this company, Tesla, and the electric cars. And that’s going to phase out quickly. Well, no. They looked at quality. They looked at value. They looked at manufacturing processes, so they could develop a better car at a lower price point that is also completely different than anything else. They also vertically integrate all of their electronics, so they have control down to the control board in their cars. They’re not using a third-party Nvidia graphics card. They have their own Tesla designed PCP, which Cirrus is the same way. We’re not using an off-the-shelf, third-party PCP for our stuff. There’s a Cirrus logo branded on our electronics because we engineer that product. And that vertical integration gives us the control over our tech that no one else can.
What Mistakes Can People Avoid?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
What are some sort of misconceptions in Cirrus’s mind that people that are looking for LED signs might have? Some mistakes that maybe they could be at risk of making that we could help them avoid. What would you say would be an important one?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
I think attention to content is important. At the end of the day, I’m sure everyone in this industry is going to say this same thing. But especially when you’re buying a Cirrus display, you have that really amazing flexibility to deliver really engaging graphics. Whether it’s pictured, video. We don’t look at it like, “How many lines of texts can you have?” I mean, that was a conversation relevant five years ago, or when you’re buying a 16 or 19 millimeter. But for a Cirrus display with a nine, six, and a four … I mean, it’s like a TV screen. Put whatever you want on your screen.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But I would definitely recommend … Invest time into developing good content. Because if you’re creative and clever, it will pay off in big bucks on converting people into your services and products. I think some people, they get all hopped up on the sign, they get it installed, and they kind of use it, but they don’t really use it. I would suggest just forcing yourself to schedule an hour, maybe two a week that you’re spending time thinking creatively about content. Whether investigating how other people are doing it, or best practices for marketing. Being a marketing expert, there’s tons of collateral and articles out there to see what will work well. But invest that time. It will pay off in dollars in your pocket.
How Do Cirrus’s Solutions Look Compared to Other Factories?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Just to kind of support my previous comment, because I think solid state, new moving parts … I mean, when you throw a visual into here, it becomes very quick to discern why that is important. When you have less components, that means less things that can go wrong. I mean, if you were to take off the heat sink on our display on the right there on our module, there’s not a single wire inside of that, which is remarkable. You talk about a service call … Let’s say something goes wrong. We’re not infallible. Things can go wrong. And something does go wrong, it’s a 30 second it’s a swap out. You turn those two knobs, or you can service it from the front, and you pop that out, pop that in. We even have a patent on the sensors that exist in every edge, and you can press your controller button.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
You can actually now … which is pretty cool, Bob. I don’t think I’ve told you this. But even from Screenhub, you can now auto map your display. If you replace a panel, you press the automap button in Screenhub, it activates the sensors, the sensors talk to each other, and the display automatically maps itself. We have a patent on that. No one else can do that. A service call’s literally 30 seconds. We can fix it remotely from Cirrus first. That’s-
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Nice.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
That’s really cool. But if I go back to … I’m going to go back to this image here. When we talk about resolution, what does that mean? If I was to go back one more slide here … Let’s break it down versus a 16 versus a nine really means, let alone a six. I think 16 versus 9 … Okay, I don’t know what that really means.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
You mean definition, right?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
It’s everything. Yeah. If you look at the pixel counts … Okay. A 16mm, if you think all manufacturers could be from anywhere from 92 to 10,000 pixels. But if you look at our display … And our displays going to be priced similarly to a 16mm. I mean, you got 33,000 pixels versus a 16, let alone what a 6mm looks at 74,000 pixels almost. But let’s talk about what does that actually means for me as an end-user?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Let’s talk about marketing again, because we talked about Cirrus as a marketing technology company. This is what we care about because a 16mm’s display in 2020 … I mean, that’s antiquated tech. No one should buy that anymore, and we deliver a product that allows you to buy a 9 at a 16mm price point because it was really novel decade ago to go like, “Wow, we can have clip art on our shrimp tackle box,” versus put an image of our food. When someone’s driving by, that emotional connection can be triggered. Yes. I want to go into drive-through, and I want to pick up a chicken strip box. That has the major impact on your bottom line. That’s just how you make money.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
A changing message on a board isn’t powerful versus actually promoting your food on your display outside of your business. Case in point, this IHOP display, this was outside of our old manufacturing facility in Saco, Maine, but this display took 26 bucks out of my own wallet. This was a year and a half-ish ago, something like that. I was driving by this sign with my daughter. At the time, they were promoting the Grinch. They had the Grinch movie, and IHOP had Grinch pancakes, and everything else. And we’re driving by after hockey practice, and my daughter sees a sign, and they had the Grinch, and they had the Grinch pancakes with the disgusting green icing dripping off of it.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
We go get Grinch pancakes, and I have not been in IHOP in 30 years. Not a word [inaudible 00:28:08]. I haven’t been in there in forever. My daughter’s asking, and I’m a softie with my daughter. And I’m like, “I don’t know. Maybe next weekend after hockey.” The next weekend goes by, and, “Dad, the Grinch pancakes are still there.” And I said, “Okay.” I’m inside of IHOP, but I hadn’t been in 30 years spending 26 bucks on pancakes and bacon because the content on the screen allowed my daughter to get excited about and take my money. That’s the impact high resolution has, and why we only deliver a 9mm, 6mm, and 4mm because that makes an impact on your revenue as an end-user. If I was to strip everything out else out about our company, that is what we do really well. We help you make money.
How Can People Calculate the Impact of an LED Sign?
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
Because we look at this product that we sell through a marketing lens … People have repurposed this image that the U.S. Small Business Administration put out a while ago. We’ve actually modernized this with 2020 CPM rates. We added Google AdWords in there. We needed to make it relatable to today, not something that was pushed out a decade ago. But this is where I think people need to understand the ROI and the effectiveness of an LED display. Because if you look at this tool … it’s a marketing tool, these displays. You cannot look at this as a capital expense, and you have to align … Yes, they’re expensive. They need to last outside for 10 years, and they’re expensive to develop, and everything else that goes into that.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But if you look at this as a marketing tool, as aligning this to your monthly marketing budget, and if you’re spending anything on any of these channels, just redistribute your monthly marketing spend to include an LED display. Because I think when you look at this graph in particular, it’s really, really efficient in the cost per thousand exposures. But if we take that a step further, why does this stuff work? Why do LED displays work? It’s because they’re hyper-localized. It’s because that sign is outside of your business. And if it has a resolution that can make an impact, you’re going to be getting eyeballs from people who live in your community. It’s the person going to and from work everyday by your sign. That surgical hyper-localization can only be done by an LED display, and that’s the effect of this. Why these things work.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
You look at … Let’s take this a step further. Let’s look at on average, what did a four by double-sided display will cost on a monthly basis. However you purchase it. Let’s take a Taco Bell franchise and relate it to your own business if you’re not a restaurant. But if you look at it in that 10 to 15% range of what you can likely expect if you do a good job with your messaging on a 12-month increase in revenue … yes, please. I’ll take another $234,000 into my bank account, because I’m going to invest into a display, and I’m going to invest time to creating good content to make sure that display is going to be effective.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
But in this day and age with COVID itself … And Bob, I’m going to just bring up another deck here, which will continue the conversation. But if we look at today what it looks like, and this is what we are all experiencing together, and it’s frustrating … and this will go away at some point. If we begin to map out what digital can do, what is going to be permanent or increased, I guess … yes, the COVID lines will go away, but curbside pickup is here to stay for any type of retailer. That is going to increase. What’s happening before COVID even started, curbside pickup was becoming a thing. Now it’s just going to be a major part of many businesses, restaurants, and other things. But let’s look at what the customer journey looks like now.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
There’s this store outside the store concept where you’re going to have to not only get people engaged from a roadside perspective but from a curbside perspective too. And we go through what does digital do for me today from a roadside perspective. It’s about entertaining. It’s about engaging me from the road. But it’s also letting me know you’re thinking about COVID, and you’re taking precautions. I’m going to feel safe as I come in. Yes, I will come into Walmart and pick up a jug of almond milk. But let’s look about digitizing curbside where that eight to 10 minutes that I have in this scenario to entertain me, engage me, make it fun to come to Walmart.
Dan Kerluke, Cirrus Systems:
I mean, sports are coming back. We can put up hockey highlights. We can put the weather. We can put the news. We can send promotions in real-time based on your card history. We can get really creative among this customer journey outside the store. But this is something I think that can’t be ignored where exterior digital is going to be important to kind of replan how your customers interact with your business. I think it does extend beyond just roadside digital. I just wanted to kind of make that point where I think people get really creative in how they deploy digital strategies to help the customer experience, customer engagement, and obviously for advertising.
