All of that growth, though it had been in the works for some time, took place in January of this year.
“The Vegas location came into play to tailor (services) to TV and film, and to take advantage of a tax incentive increase the state of Nevada had just announced,” he explains. “It will also be home to a corporate division as well. We have a great team there, people who’ve been in the area a long time and have a lot of experience in the field.
:We’re also making a big push on international touring as well, with new staff members that come from production management backgrounds who understand the logistics and moving parts of having gear and a crew on the road.”
It’s been a frenetic path to tread over the recent past, fraught with risk but also the potential for big rewards. “I may be a bit over-ambitious, but maybe not. I just figured ‘go for it’,” Ciungan continues, “We moved out of our original space into a 10,000-square-foot building and wondered what we were going to do with all of that space. Then a year and a half later we moved to this 35,000-square-foot space.
“Over that time I developed some really good relationships with festival producers and tour managers. Cheap Trick was actually our first touring act and that relationship has led to introductions to others. They’re touring this summer with Heart and Joan Jett, and their production team has become really good friends of ours. They’ve signed off on our quality of work and how we do things, and that’s been incredibly important to our growth. But every relationship we’ve developed, even from little gigs, can lead to our next world tour, so we treat everyone as a potential client.”
Continuing Strides
The company’s growth was entirely organic in the early days. “When I took over, I didn’t sit down and write out a five-year business plan,” Ciugngan notes. “Now I do, of course, but to this point it’s developed on an as-needed basis.”
He’s taken a relatively conservative approach to the growth of the company’s equipment inventory: “We try not to blindly buy gear in the hopes of renting it out. We carefully analyze client needs and current market demands, and tailor our inventory to fit that.”
His first significant investment was an Adamson E Series concert rig, and that’s proven to pay off, with Burst maintaining an ongoing relationship with the company. Other components, such as Avid VENUE digital consoles, have been around for several years and continue to fill valuable roles.
Burst also has a fledgling division called Mod Works that is developing a line of interconnect panels and modules. An example is a patent-pending panel with a Socapex module designed for a d&b audiotechnik system with a standard W-2 and powerCON in/out module, developed to make assembly faster and bring down cost down. “We have a line of different panels and modules that will be released within a month or so,” he adds. “At this point the designs are done and we’re just optimizing them.”
The company’s staff has grown from Ciungan and a couple of independent contractors to 10 full-time employees and approximately 100 independent contractors who serve where needed on a regular basis.
“Burst went from a small regional company doing raves and the occasional festival in state to handling high-profile festivals and national touring acts, supported by multiple offices,” he says. “It’s been pretty crazy and we have to hold on at times, but I have a big dream and ambition to go with it – and I guess I have a lot of energy, too – but with that growth there have been mistakes. I haven’t been a CEO for 20 years so there are always things that I’m going to learn.”
As for being the driving force behind a company’s national growth at an age when many are just trying to figure out what to do with their lives, Ciungan concludes, “I think I have an easier time with it because the growth has been so organic. I’ve been used to a heavy workload for a long time. It was kind of a natural thing that happened, so there hasn’t really been any shell-shock from being in a position like this.”
Based in Toronto, Kevin Young is a freelance music and tech writer, professional musician and composer.