30 In Their Thirties: Matt Vocino, Owner, FPAV Audio & Visual Electronics, Shelby Township

A teenage obsession with all things electronic has led to a $1.5 million business for Matt Vocino, owner of FPAV Audio & Visual (FPAV) Electronics in Shelby Township.

“I had an older half-brother and he would come home from college and bring his big speakers home,” Vocino recalls. “That got me interested. Since I was young, all of my birthday and holiday money went to AV stuff. My Christmas list would be this speaker or that speaker, instead of toys.”

Growing up, Vocino says his circle of friends would hang out at his house to play video games and watch movies. “I had surround sound,” he says.

That interest led to a job selling and setting up displays at Circuit City, which he and a co-worker transformed into the region’s top-selling audio department. When competitor Best Buy started its Geek Squad team of technicians and sent them out to perform house calls, Circuit City countered by sending Vocino and his partner on the road doing installations.

Then, when Circuit City began outsourcing house calls, the pair decided to start a business focused on electronics installations.

“We fought for the Circuit City contract and got that, and started doing a lot of Circuit City work in Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne counties,” Vocino recalls. “Then we picked up the Sears contract. That was probably the bulk of our business for the first four to six years, and we’d get a private job every now and then. It just kind of grew from there.”

FPAV operated out of Vocino’s house for the first few years the company was in business. After that, he sublet office space before sharing an office with a landscaper.

“Six years ago, we moved into our own showroom in Shelby Township,” Vocino says. Last year, the business was relocated to a larger space nearby.

“It’s kind of a weird business. It’s a trade, like an electrician or a plumber, but it has a heavy retail front to it,” Vocino says.

In addition to audio visual equipment, FPAV Electronics provides networking wiring, security cameras, alarm systems, Wi-Fi, wiring for TV, and motorized window treatments.

“We do everything from basic TV mounts to crazy $150,000 residential home theaters,” says Vocino, who predicts that the future of his industry is in whole-house automation including lighting, music, window treatment and shade control, and one-button lock-up and shut-down capabilities for a whole house.

“At my house, at dusk, the outside lights go on, the shades go to 50 percent, and the under-cabinet lights go on,” he says.

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