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Talk Can Be Cheap; Listening Never Is
 In a typical year, I spend more than 50% of my time in front of our partners, distributors, integrators, consultants, industry colleagues and end-users. In 2020, these “visits” – conducted almost exclusively on virtual platforms – allowed me to touch base with those crucial to our business success and with whom I’ve become friendly. Yet I can’t help but feel something has been missing.
Listening to, hearing and acting on the needs of our customers have always been at the cornerstone of our business model. This mission critical tenet is so important that every year each member of our senior staff is committed to spending time in front of customers. These visits and conversations provide a first-hand understanding of their businesses and keeps ZeeVee in tune with the general market. The reason for this is simple—those throughout our company must ask the myriad of searching questions with the ultimate goal of answering the most important question of all: “How can we serve you better?”
Our expectations are for honest and forthcoming critiques. While we enjoy a bit of praise (who doesn’t?), we might not always like what we hear. However, we do understand that we ignore customer feedback at our peril. Conversely, you can count on our honest feedback. We will never over promise or tell you we can do something we cannot deliver on. We offer the industry’s widest array of AVoIP, RF modulation and video streaming technology and product lines so that we are able to address the specific needs of virtually any AV project. At ZeeVee, it’s never “this is what we have, so this is what you get.” You get what you need to address your requirements. If the ultimate solution is not within our wheelhouse, we will help guide you to one that might be better suited.
We are unique in that we are 100% dedicated to the distribution of video over coax or IP networks—it’s all we do. That enables us to react quickly to customers’ needs, such as supplying product information, a point of view on best practices for system installation or troubleshooting issues that arise during a project—whether or not they involve our products directly. We punch above our weight in the pro AV industry not only because of our technology expertise but because we stand by our partners from the design phase through the completion of their projects and beyond. We take great pride in these facts.
As noted, I miss the usual comradery of face-to-face interaction, as I am sure many of you do. There is light at the end of the tunnel and we must (especially now) keep a positive thought that we will soon get back to normal.
I’m looking forward to finding myself in the same room, on a trade show floor or on site at an installation to catch up in person. Until then, I invite you to stay connected with us via our SIGNAL Partner Program, SIGNAL Sessions and Certified Solutions Partner Training webinars. Email and telephone works too; we always look forward to hearing from you and we will listen!
Regards,
Bob Michaels
CEO, ZeeVee
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Mark Your Calendars for Our Upcoming Webinar
- February 18: ZeeVee Certified Solution Partner Training on AVoIP and RF Modulation: Are you a system integrator or AV installer looking to become an AV over IP and RF expert? Join us for this informative session and receive up to 3.5 AVIXA CTA credits
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.
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 CDEC is an award-winning AV integrator with a proven track record and strong commitment to providing the very best bespoke AV solutions. Its strong company ethos, collegiality and partnership approach have held the firm in good stead over the last 20 years and has given it a strong foundation to partner with and respond to a diverse customer base across education, corporate, health and retail environments. CDEC recently deployed ZeeVee ZyPerUHD (Compressed 4K | JPEG2000 | 1GB) in a project at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, England, that elevates both teaching and learning experiences.
 IPEC/Kangfei Electonics was founded in 2005 by the professional team of Philips Communications and Security Department and is committed to providing audio- and video-related system value-added services and products, as well as software integration solutions, for the B2B and B2G markets. The Taipei City-based firm recently deployed ZeeVee ZyPer4K encoders and decoders, as well as the ZyPer Management Platform, in the updated AV system for the Taiwan Maritime Port Bureau to deliver content between a diverse grouping of source components to a LG LED wall processor and video wall.
 Since 1998, CCS Presentation Systems of Jacksonville, Florida has served customers in corporate, government and education markets to provide full-service integration, installation, training and maintenance of audio and video equipment. This includes large format LCD displays, digital projectors, interactive whiteboards, room control systems, audio systems, high definition videoconferencing systems and more. The firm recently used our RF solutions for VyStar Credit Union in Jacksonville, Florida.
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The ZvShow Must Go On!
 ZvShow is an “extra” channel available on most of the ZeeVee HDbridge3000, HDbridge2000 or ZvPro modulators, that enables video content stored locally or on an inserted SD card to be played and looped continuously on a monitor without requiring an additional input. It offers a high performing and efficient one-box solution for delivering a wide variety of content to monitors, including but not limited to, commercials, promotional messages, inventory management data and health and safety notices.
ZvShow is a sub-channel configured on the first RF channel of select ZeeVee  modulators and is displayed as another logical channel to the existing lineup. It can play back “.zvc” files, converted using the ZvConvert tool, in sizes up to roughly 250 MB via the internal memory of the HDbridge2000 and up to 4GB when using the SD card slot on the HDbridge2000 and ZvPro units, as well as via the internal memory of the HDbridge3000.
Each ZeeVee HDb2000 or ZvPro product can generate a single ZvShow channel and multiple ZvShow channels can be generated from head-ends deploying several HDbridge2000, HDbridge3000 or ZvPro units.
The images on this page illustrate how menu items and specials are displayed using ZvShow at Shoeless Joe’s a popular sports bar in Kemptville and Orleans, Ontario, Canada. (Don’t know about you, but we’re getting hungry!)
Jeff Underhill, owner/operator of these two Shoeless Joe’s sports bar franchises, describes his experience with ZvShow like this: “I have been running ZvShow for five years now. In my opinion there is no better way to inform guests with consistent and powerful messaging. We can display looping ads and video to anyone or all our 53 TVs as a channel with a simple channel scan. I create content, upload it to ZvShow and that’s it.”
Underhill adds that he takes advantage of the fact that a lot of the promotional content he creates is interchangeable, as many of the graphics he uses to display for his guests via ZvShow are also used for Facebook.
ZvShow has been very popular with our customers not only in the bar and restaurant sector, but also in retail, hospitality, enterprise, education and government sectors.
Contact your ZeeVee rep for additional information.
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InAVate Magazine
Teesside University Case History
January 20, 2021
 Project manager Michael Atkinson, branch manager, GV, said: “Teesside had already looked into the options out there and wanted something from the SDVoE Alliance. A solution was required that was interchangeable, flexible and can go in any direction that they want to go.” GV evaluated the SDVoE offerings at the time of install and chose ZeeVee, largely due to the previous work that the company had done focused on AV distribution. “They had a lot of boxes in the range that could fit with whatever we wanted to do and they had a dedicated management platform that really appealed to Teesside as it is self-contained in one place without thinking about connecting things to the internet.” LINK TO ENTIRE STORY
ProAVLAsia
ZeeVee PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE of RF Webinar
January 27, 2021
Steve Metzger, one of three founders of ZeeVee nearly 14 years ago in 2007, will share a bit of history as to how ZeeVee evolved into a business providing world-class RF encoders/modulators to thousands of organizations around the globe. He will update you on the current ZeeVee RF product family and why it remains relevant in 2021. Lastly, he will provide exciting information on the future of RF (yes, the future of RF). Following Steve, Art Weeks, Director of Product Management, will provide an overview of several customer applications involving ZeeVee's RF technology. LINK TO ENTIRE STORY
AV Network
SDVoE Alliance confirms Board of Directors for 2021
December 17, 2020
 The SDVoE Alliance has named its 2021 board of directors made up of pro AV experts from the six steering member companies, plus Grandbeing who won this year’s election to represent the contributing member companies. The board of directors will be composed of Ryohei Iwasaki of IDK Corporation, Keith Kennedy of Grandbeing, Laurent Masia of Netgear, Jonathan McCune of Black Box, Bob Michaels of ZeeVee, Don Shaver of Semtech, and Clark Williams of Christie. LINK TO ENTIRE STORY
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Employee of the Month — Steve Metzger
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 Steve Metzger, ZeeVee co-founder and VP hardware and operations, has seen the company evolve quickly since its establishment in 2007. Considering its beginnings as a consumer AV products company, he is impressed with how the company has stayed ahead of the curve and met the needs of new markets to become a forerunner in IP-based and advanced RF AV distribution solutions for enterprise, hospitality, government, retail sectors and beyond.
“We started by combining expertise in IP switching with high-end telecom to create a breakthrough low-cost broadcast solution and have since been able to branch into new market segments and accomplish so much with so few people over our 14 years,” he says. “We’ve presented smart people with hard problems and they’ve continued to find ways to move the lever in the AV industry.”
Steve fully appreciates how being a navigator of ZeeVee’s evolution and entrance into global markets has enabled him to see the world. He is proud that ZeeVee currently serves customers on nearly every continent (sorry, Antarctica).
He notes the challenge for AV technology to keep up with the growing sophistication of today’s average consumer. As an example, he points to the growth of Esports, where actual arenas are being built so fans can watch professional gamers, as but one segment driving AV forward.
“Once upon a time, high definition video was a big deal,” he says. “Now it’s so much more about delivering individualized content with zero latency.”
Steve also views COVID-19 as a major catalyst for lasting change in the AV market. For instance, he believes the growing use of sophisticated remote communications and learning applications, as well as the expanding implementation of command centers with intelligent video systems to monitor human behavior, will remain in place going forward.
“If you’re professionally sitting around hoping for things to get back to normal, you  risk being left behind,” he says. “You need to be ready to adapt.”
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in AV is another development that has Steve’s attention. He saw a demonstration in Germany where a teacher was able to track students’ engagement with a lesson, whether they were cheating on a test and even their mood via a readout on a monitor.
“The ability of AI-enhanced smart machines to process, flag information and make determinations is not only fascinating but opens huge opportunities for future AV technology solutions.”
When he takes his ZeeVee hat off, Steve spends time building his own helicopter and tending to his jet engine collection that fills his garage. Admittedly, he’s not sure if it’s a hobby or an addiction.
 Steve lives in Virginia with his wife Lee. They have two grown children, a daughter, Emily, and son, Alex. In fact, the big news in the Metzger family is that Alex and his wife Catherine brought Steve’s first grandchild, Victoria Poppy, into the world in December. (Isn’t she a cutie!)
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