The business of providing large video screens for indoor and outdoor events is not for the faint of heart. Jeffrey and Stephen Isenberg know this first hand as the owners of Impact Video. From their Burbank headquarters, the brothers coordinate the largest mobile fleet of LED screens in North America. With trucks sent out to multiple cities on any given day something is bound to go wrong that needs immediate attention, such as a vehicle threatened by floodwaters at an outdoor concert in Michigan. Impact has a national range but is operated by the Isenbergs like a small company in the way they take care of their customers. It is never an option not live up to a contract and having the right equipment and people available is critical. After all, if the screens are needed for a live television event there is no chance for a do over. “If you are not doing it right you’ll have headaches and putting out fires every day,” Jeffrey Isenberg said. Impact’s leadership resides solely with the brothers born 22 months apart in Canada and now both U.S. citizens. There are no outside investors, no equity partners. Stephen, 43, founded the company and handles the technology, management and operations. Jeffrey, 41, focuses on sales and marketing and looks out for the customer’s point of view. They are in agreement when it comes to major decisions. “They have a remarkable ability of thinking together when it counts,” said Mike Cooper, a senior executive with Daktronics, a manufacturer and supplier of the large format video screens used by Impact. In an interview setting, Stephen is the storyteller while Jeffrey is more concise with his replies. Take for instance the circumstances of Jeffrey joining the company in January 1994 when the company was still headquartered in Montreal. Up to that time, Jeffrey had worked in traditional sales roles for other companies and decided he wanted to use his skills, talent and knowledge at Impact. Stephen’s version has the two of them at dinner when Jeffrey asked about coming to work at Impact. Stephen at first was skeptical, thinking that he and Jeffrey couldn’t work together. His initial response to Jeffrey’s suggestion was, You’re joking, right? As a tryout Jeffrey went out on three events Image provided video screens for, including a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in freezing temperatures. After being hired the first business Jeffrey brought in was a $96,000 contact for a video wall system. “Two weeks into the relationship I knew we would be in business forever,” Stephen Isenberg said. While it hasn’t quite yet been that long the brothers have created a respectable business and a good name in their industry. Their large format screens have appeared at baseball and basketball games, Oscar and Tony awards telecasts, and military demonstrations. Bringing family issues into the workplace is a no-no but bringing workplace issues into family events is tougher to prevent when emergencies pop up. Stephen told of how he and Jeffrey once had to huddle in the cold during a family wedding to instruct their staff on dealing with a last-minute screen request. It’s by going to those lengths that the Isenbergs look to maintain their diverse customer base and set themselves apart from the competition. “They have a good knack for forward thinking and what their business has to do to meet their customers’ needs,” Cooper said. The brothers displayed that forward thinking in 2005 by acquiring the SportsLink mobile video rental business from Daktronics. The sale included seven trailer mounted LED video screens and brought a change in strategy from providing modular equipment assembled at meetings, trade shows and conventions to mobile equipment set up at auto races, golf tournaments, and concerts. The acquisition was a big nut to swallow, bringing more people to manage and a larger geographic area to serve. And it took Impact from a small medium-sized company to a large medium-sized company. Being big, however, has never interested the Isenbergs as much of the quality of the service they provide. After all, Impact has had only one location in the 11 years since moving the headquarters to Burbank from Montreal. Having overcome the skepticism of working with his brother, Stephen Iseneberg now believes that Impact would not be what it is today had Jeffrey not come to work there. “It would be better,” Jeffrey joked.