As Media Joe founder and CEO Joe Melton tells it, there was a time when information-technology professionals simply had to know computers and computer networks.


Then came voice-over-Internet-protocol phone networks, and IT guys had to become phone guys. Now, audiovisual equipment has become Internet compliant, as opposed to having a proprietary wiring system, so those same professionals have to be AV guys. Soon, security systems will be tied more regularly into the same network, and IT guys will become security guys as well.


Melton is a cabling guy, not an IT guy, but his small Spokane company has followed a parallel trend. It started out focused on computer-cabling design and installation, then began handling wiring for phone systems, then audio-visual systems, then video surveillance, with security systems sure to follow.


Now, he says, the evolving systems-integration company is designing and installing all of those low-voltage systems in new buildings and is tying all of them together.


What has this trend meant for our company? It basically has made our company, Melton says. The convergence of all these media is what has developed us as the company we are now.


Located on the ground floor of the Fernwell Building downtown, Media Joe has two large picture windows that look out onto Riverside Avenue. Through one window, pedestrians can see a comfy living-room arrangement, with leather furniture arranged toward a flat-screen TV flanked by an impressive surround-sound system. On the coffee table, next to a bowl of Starburst candies, is a handheld device that can control all of the electronics in the room. The room serves as a showroom for the types of integrations Media Joe performs.


Melton says he holds lunch-and-learn seminars there once every couple of months to introduce ideas or new devices to customers.


The whole purpose is to get the technology in peoples hands, he says.


In through the other window, behind a foosball table, a set of two server racks can be seen. They hold the usual computer-server and switching components to which Media Joe attaches its wiring. They also hold a DVD player, small television screen, and other such items that even an average Joe can easily identify.


Last year, about 60 percent of the companys revenues stemmed from computer cabling projects, 27 percent came from audiovisual work, 15 percent from telephone work, and 1 percent from computer networking.


This year, he says, about 60 percent will come from audiovisual work, with the computer and phone work dropping off, in terms of their percentages of overall revenue.


In recent years, the companys sales have been between $500,000 and $1 million. Melton says he expects this years sales to reach $1 million. He has hired a salesperson to seek new businessthe first time in the companys eight-year history that someone other than Melton has sought out new businessand is expecting sales to crest the $1 million mark next year as well.


Melton says the audiovisual jobs the company garners typically involve integrating multimedia systems and computer networks, something he contends a lot of companies dont know is possible.


Weve found that we understand some things that the Spokane market doesnt understand yet, he says.


Media Joe recently completed work at CenterPlace at Mirabeau Point, designing and putting in all of the computer cabling and integrating into it the audiovisual capabilities available at the 54,000-square-foot community center in Spokane Valley. The technology serves the audiovisual needs in a 100-seat auditorium and an overflow room, and Media Joe needed to wire them so they could either show materials for the same presentation in both rooms or separate materials for different events occurring in the two rooms at the same time. Also, the company had to wire some rooms for the city of Spokane Valleys use and to support classes to be offered there by Community Colleges of Spokane.


With such a system in place, a handheld device is used to control electronics in the facility. For example, a user could push a power point button on such a device, and a screen would come down and the projector would turn on.


Media Joe has handled a lot of other jobs in the public market in recent years. In 2003 and 2004, it undertook an $800,000 recabling of all of the city of Spokanes facilities, its biggest project to date.


Our biggest strength happened to be in city-county government and schools, he says. They have the most technology, but they havent been integrating it.


If a school or municipal building is being constructed, he says hell lobby hard for a company to integrate all communications into the computer network so that all the needed technologyphones, audiovisual equipment, computer networks, and surveillance systemscan operate and be monitored through the same system, rather than installing a bunch of dedicated systems, because its easier to manage that way, he says.


Our focus is to educate the Cheneys, the Deer Parks, and any other municipalities east of the Cascades, he says.


While the vast majority of the projects that the company handles either are for businesses, county governments, or municipalities, it also handles low-voltage wiring for a half-dozen homes each year.


Earlier this year, the company handled a $100,000 wiring project in a 16,000-square-foot home that was built on Lake Coeur dAlene.


For that home, Melton says Media Joe installed three separate networks: a secure business network and a secure home network for the two people who live there, and a friends-and-family network for guests.


Those networks tie in computers, audiovisual, and phones, allowing the homeowners and their guests to access the Internet, a large DVD library, and other electronics.


Melton started the company in 1998 as NDV Communications, with NDV standing for Network Data Voice, after about five years of working as a cable installer for another company here.


He says that in the acronym-filled high-tech world, the NDV name seemed good at first, but he began to wonder about its effectiveness after a while.


Id call customers, and they thought I was saying MTV or BVDs or something else, he says.


With some help from the WhiteRunkle & Associates PS advertising firm here, the company brainstormed the name Media Joe.


Melton says the name stands out more, and also reflects better the systems-integration company that the concern has evolved into.


Id like to be able to take credit for whats happened here, Melton says. I just happen to be the right guy at the right place with some knowledge.