It’s Time to Begin our Post Pandemic Re-emergence
 

Over the past 15 months, the challenges presented by the pandemic have been covered extensively in the AV trade media. The coverage has been warranted and, in many instances, provided some motivation for “hanging in there” until we all re-emerge from our dislocated economy. However, a 60 Minutes (CBS network in the U.S.) interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell a few weeks ago started me thinking a little differently about the post-COVID phase of our business.

Powell said he believed that the U.S. economy would not only return to “normal” after the health crisis but enjoy significant growth – perhaps on the order of 6% to 7% or more for the remainder of the year – starting now.  For perspective, this would represent stronger economic growth than in any of the previous 30 years. We’ve all been looking for some good news, and if he’s right, this qualifies as great news.

We’re already seeing a significant uptick in business – likely resulting from a combination of pent-up demand over the past 14 months as well as new projects coming to life. This makes me hopeful that Powell’s prediction will be on the mark. 

Herein lies an unprecedented opportunity for all our businesses. This outsized boost, in the short term, can result in more prospective jobs than can be addressed by all of the collective Integration companies around the globe (we should file this under “problems I’d love to have”). But in all seriousness, we should consider how we can keep up and take advantage of this potential economic windfall. Mastering efficiency and getting each job we take on right the first time will be critical.

In the coming months, it will be more important than ever to listen to and understand our customers’ needs and to spec and install systems that meet them. While it may seem expedient to “cut and paste”  to speed your process,  savvy integrators know AV solutions, even when applied to seemingly similar applications, are not a one-size-fits-all proposition. End users have spent months in front of video screens with headsets or speakers as body extensions and they have come to know, more than ever, differences between excellent and ‘okay.’  Don’t squander the opportunity to make your customers happy by half-stepping and creating unnecessary problems. 

Most detrimental of all will be those “jobs from hell” that drag out with multiple service calls to troubleshoot and fix technical issues. Any measures you can take to bypass these situations – which again slow you down and take up your bandwidth – are worth pursuing. Be prepared and keep yourself and your crews’ expertise on the cutting edge of the latest technologies and best practices with the many educational and training programs offered by the likes of AVIXA, SDVoE Alliance and manufacturers (including ZeeVee).

In the end, satisfied customers are often your best resource for new business opportunities – saving you valuable business development time and organizational resources.

It appears as though we’ve made it through the worst of the storm and better times await us. How much better for pro AV depends on the resolve of everyone in the industry to commit to being “best prepared” to take advantage of these pending opportunities.

All the best,

Mark Your Calendars for Our Upcoming Webinars 

You can get additional information and register for these, and other upcoming events, via this link.

Our SIGNAL Partner website provides access to past SIGNAL Session and Certified Solution Partner Training webinars. To learn more about becoming a ZeeVee SIGNAL Partner, go to this link or contact sales@zeevee.com.   

Based in Hauppauge, N.Y., IVCi is a leading provider of audio visual and collaboration solutions designed to bring people together. For over 25 years, the AV company has attracted top talent, brought best-in-class partners into its fold and created a better experience for its wide range of customers in enterprise, education, health care, government markets and beyond. IVCi recently deployed ZyPer4K encoders and decoders in a major project for Facebook, upgrading 60 endpoints throughout its offices.

“Working with ZeeVee has been fantastic and we’re eager to engage them with other customers. There’s a big market they are serving well and it’s just getting bigger.”

- William Graves, strategic accounts manager, IVCI.

Celebrating 100 years of providing for the needs of its communities, Brookshire Brothers has grown to hundreds of grocery stores, fuel stations, pharmacies, tobacco shops, convenient stores, coffee shops and more spanning from the Texas Hill Country to western Louisiana. Last month, the company opened a unique grocery and dining experience outpost on the Texas A&M campus in College Station that features an array of food and fun options (barbeque, pizza, deli, bakery and sushi), as well as a coffee shop, bar and performance stage. A state-of-the-art AV system driven by ZeeVee ZyPer4k encoders and decoders feeds 50 monitors throughout the venue to let visitors watch a game and other programming, while getting a glimpse of the many menu options available.

“We were pleasantly surprised by the ZyPer4K’s distribution of video content with near zero latency over long distances, as well as the ease of set-up and operation of the gear in general. Customer service was there for us when we needed it. We plan to use ZeeVee for new locations we’re opening going forward.”

- Brian Lair, VP, asset protection, Brookshire Brothers
 

Last month we provided an overview of the new features of our ZyPer Management Platform 2.2. Now, we’d like to take a deeper dive and focus on the enhanced independent source and display grids. The grids offer an interface like that offered by HDBaseT systems, which will ease the transition for those looking to enjoy the many benefits of SDVoE and AVoIP signal distribution solutions.

• Status: Color-coded icons enable you to see which devices are online and perform simple diagnostics; 
   
• Routing: Track content routing between server and endpoints and change sources for displays; 
   
• Config: Change names and icons for sources and displays with dozens of preset options or those you can upload; 
   
• Video In (source grid): Monitors active resolutions of incoming content, reference video standards and ID codes and see detailed timing on inputs; 
   
• Video Out (display grid): Monitors active resolutions of content being displayed, see detailed timing on outputs and create customizable frame rates for monitors that do not have correct EDID settings;
   
• Network: Set IP addresses; 
   
• EDID: Change our upload custom EDID setting – there are over 30 custom EDID options offered plus the built-in “Auto EDID” feature;  
   
• Firmware: Reference current firmware and updatable options;
   
• RS-232: Configure baud rates for RS-232 communications. 

Each of these grids can be exported to .csv files and stored separately or altered and imported back into the system. 

Inavation Awards
Inavation Project Award Finalists Announced
March 4, 2021

Our partner Design & Production (D&P) was named a finalist in the InAVation Awards for its work in the National Museum of the United States Army. We are proud that our ZyPer4K encoders and decoder, as well as our ZyPer Management Platform drives the AV signal distribution throughout this impressive facility!

“In a year where the coronavirus pandemic caused project delays and cancellations, ravaged sectors such as transportation and live event and turned others on their head we weren’t sure what to expect from the 2021 Inavation Awards Project line up. We shouldn’t have worried. The global integration community has tackled these challenges head on and with buckets of creativity and ingenuity and today we’re able to publish a strong list of finalists the industry should be proud of. Here is a link to the entire story.

AVNetwork
ZeeVee Upgrades ZyPer to Facilitate AVoIP Transition
April 16, 2021

To further speed the adoption of AVoIP signal distribution in the pro AV marketplace, ZeeVee has upgraded its ZyPer Management Platform with advanced multiview, preset, and grid features, further enhancing the platform's functionality and user experience.

Version 2.2, designed for the company's ZyPer4K (SDVoE, uncompressed 4K, 10 Gbps) and ZyPerUHD (JPEG2000, compressed, 1 Gbps) AVoIP encoders and decoders, enables source content to be dragged and dropped onto video wall displays via an onscreen interface. The upgrade is available to current users free of charge. Here is a link to the entire story.

InAVate APAC
Complete Connection (ZeeVee Taiwan Maritime Port Bureau Case History)
April Issue

On the back end, ZeeVee AV-over-IP encoders and decoders and a Datapath VSN controller are used to manage and transport video. Wei Chen, managing director of the integration firm IPX-Innova, details: “From the workstations we use HDMI cables to directly connect these to the video processor. From there, six ZeeVee ZyPer4K decoders are used to deliver the signal to Datapath VSN videowall controllers and this drives the 4 x 2 LCD videowall. ZyPer4K AV-over-IP are used to deliver the video across the building to other rooms and spaces.” Here is a link to the entire story.

Located “across the pond” from ZeeVee’s Massachusetts headquarters is May’s employee of the month, Rob Muddiman. Rob joined the company in 2014 as sales director for the European, Middle Eastern, African and Indian (EMEAI) markets and continues to drive and manage ZeeVee’s impressive growth in these regions. 

What does he like most about the company? “The culture of trust and empowerment of staff at ZeeVee is a major reason why we can punch well above our weight and produce some of the best products and solutions on the market,” said Rob. “Staff are encouraged to provide input, allowed to make decisions and most importantly they are not punished for honest mistakes. I believe this is how we grow as a company and people.

“ZeeVee is uniquely positioned with a focus on AVoIP and RF video distribution. There are few, if any companies in the industry, who can match our depth of technical knowledge and expertise,” said Rob. “That becomes incredibly important when you consider that AV distribution forms the backbone of all large projects.”

It’s fair to say that AVoIP was adopted earlier in the region than the U.S. and thanks to Rob’s leadership and drive, ZeeVee was one of the first vendors to gain major success, enjoying some amazing project wins, from the largest AVoIP project at Saudi Aramco (with over 900 ZyPer4K SDVoE devices) to the incredible Samsung Experience centre in London (where again ZyPer4K provides the backbone of the whole installation).

However, it is the people in the EMEAI team that Rob is most proud of. “Finding the right people is so important and I have been blessed with a great team. They are all incredibly dedicated professionals.”

Rob lives in Chiltern Hills, near ZeeVee’s office in Great Missenden just outside of London. He is married with two daughters, Chloe and Holly (who just became a mother, making Rob a grandparent). A big lover of being outside – especially anything on the water – he enjoys sailing, paddle boarding and kayaking (pictured above) and is a keen gardener where he finds his inner peace!