Signal Boost Newsletter: September 2024
Spotlight on ZeeVee’s U.S. Sales Team
This month we are featuring our U.S.-based sales and support team to provide you with a little background on their experience and expertise in AV signal distribution technology and solutions.
Joe Chordas, VP, North American Sales and Corporate Marketing
Joe, with 25 years experience as an AV and IT specialist, joined ZeeVee in 2017 and has assembled a team of talented professionals dedicated to growing the company’s business by “simplifying the complex for our integration partners and their end users.” He and his team diligently spread the word about how the company is revolutionizing the pro AV and IT industries with its award-winning encoders, decoders, and software.
In addition to his management role, he has been central to closing major deals with Planet Fitness, supporting approximately 2,000 locations, high profile projects in conjunction with the integrator firm Rockbot, and a state-of-the-art suite of conference spaces at Quorum by Convene in New York City. Joe has also been able to leverage his experience in the federal sector to secure deals with civilian and Department of Defense organizations.
In his marketing capacity, Joe enjoys the opportunity to build the tools the company’s global sales team uses to build the brand. He is especially pleased to hear feedback from integrators and AV consultants on how much they have come to depend on ZeeVee’s products due to their reliability, excellent value and ease of installation.
Joe resides in Southington, Connecticut with his wife Melanie and two teenage daughters. He also has two adult children and a granddaughter, as well as a French bulldog named Grover. You can reach Joe at jchordas@zeevee.com.
James Chordas, Territory Manager, Northeast United States & Eastern Canada
James started his tenure at ZeeVee in 2018, bringing deep video streaming knowledge from his previous work with companies like VBrick, one of the first com
panies to offer a streaming player to the desktop. In addition, his work during the balance of his 25-year career, included a stint as an AV integrator, which instilled in him much respect for what integrators do and the challenges they face.
Since joining the team, James has placed ZeeVee’s products into a number of high-profile venues across the region. He loves to see how these cutting-edge products that make AV experiences more immersive and interactive, quickly become mainstream.
One of his favorite projects over the years was at the Westgate Resort and Casino, where ZeeVee’s ZyPer4k AVoIP products, HDbridge 3000 encoders and decoders and RF modulators were deployed to revamp the Superbook sports book. This included the gaming industry’s largest 4K video wall that stands at 220 feet wide and 18-feet tall and highlights the extensive multiview features of ZeeVee AVoIP products.
In addition to the success ZeeVee has had in the casino, sports betting and entertainment spaces, he has placed the company’s gear in the many corporate projects, in which ZeeVee products fit perfectly in conference rooms, auditoriums and common areas.
James lives in Wallingford, Connecticut with his wife, two children, three cats and one dog. His family has been fostering and rescuing cats for the last four years and has built a “catio” next to their house so the felines can come and go as they please. You can reach James at jimc@zeevee.com.
Brian Davis, Southeast Territory Sales Manager
Brian Davis joined ZeeVee in 2023 and manages the accounts of dealers, end-users, consultants, and distributors for this crucial region.
As a 20-plus year AV industry veteran, Brian has a long list of achievements. At the top of that list, however, is his earning a Certified Technology Specialist- Design (CTS-D) AVIXA certification, which verifies that he possesses the fundamental knowledge and proven skills in AV design.
Brian appreciates the versatility of the AV industry, which offers countless ways to approach any given task, making every project a unique challenge. In addition, he sees it as a relationship-driven industry, where trust in people, hardware and software still plays a significant role in decision-making.
In the next five to ten years, Brian expects to see the pro AV industry dominated by IT, where all devices will be networked and managed from a central location. As a result, software management platforms that are easy to deploy and use (like ZeeVee’s ZyPer Management Platform) will become more popular than traditional control systems.
Brian lives in Monroe, Georgia, about an hour outside of Atlanta, with his wife of 19 years, Amanda. They have two children: Ali, a 15-year-old who is an amazing artist, and Eli, a 13-year-old who excels at baseball. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, smoking meat and going to Top Golf (which he prefers to actual golfing). You can reach Brian at bdavis@zeevee.com.
Michael Burton, Central U.S. Regional Sales Manager
Michael Burton, a 17-year industry veteran based in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area, joined ZeeVee earlier this year, just before InfoComm 2024. In addition to the strong industry relationships he’s built over the years, he brings a high level of AV industry knowledge and experience to ZeeVee.
Michael, a lifelong musician, first got into AV technology through live production and recording studio environments. He spent his early career leading teams of musicians and technicians in large churches around the country; both on stage and behind consoles. His role as account manager at Clark (Alpharetta, Georgia) was the catalyst that led him to a professional career in commercial AV.
Most recently, Michael was the regional sales director for the south central and southeast U.S. at SAVI Controls (Carrollton, Texas), makers of audio video control systems for the commercial market. Among other posts he’s held, he was a senior account manager and project manager at Ford AV (Oklahoma City), a major national integration firm that designs and integrates professional and commercial sound, audio video, network infrastructure and security surveillance systems.
Michael’s favorite all-time project was at the Coca-Cola Store at Disney Springs in Orlando, Florida. The immersive and interactive display featured a show-controlled exhibit for a meet the Coke Polar Bear photo opportunity. Among the AV highlights of the project was a queue with a video floor featuring Coke bears and birds swimming under visitors’ feet, as well as an intro and outro audio, video and lighting show at the exhibit’s entrance and exit.
He was excited to join ZeeVee as the company has a product line that fits into nearly every vertical market and application. For instance, ZyPer4K 10Gb AVoIP encoders and decoders are being deployed in a lot of emergency operation centers, casinos and event spaces, as well as video wall processor alternatives on large LED wall projects. At the same time, its ZyPerUHD60 1g AVoIP line is going into a lot of corporate and higher education environments.
Michael lives in Prosper, Texas, with his wife, Samantha. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys playing guitar and piano, watching movies and travelling with his family. You can reach Michael at mburton@zeevee.com.
George Konefal, Inside Sales Manager
George Konefal has been with ZeeVee for 12 years. While no two days are alike for George, he often spends his time pursuing business leads with the sales team, consulting with the finance department or speaking directly with customers.
George has had many notable achievements during his tenure at ZeeVee and takes the most pride in the small wins that make a big difference. This includes the many instances where he’s been able to ease the minds of customers by answering their questions about the company’s products and solutions. He also takes special pride in personally following up with customers after an installation to ensure their satisfaction.
When George is off the clock, he’s spending time with his wife, kids and nine-year-old beagle/labrador retriever mix (which resembles a foxhound). On weekends, George and his family transform their backyard into a sports arena where they play games such as basketball, catch, touch football and wiffleball. You can reach George at gkonefal@zeevee.com.
Tony Torres, Integrations Engineer
Antony (Tony) Torres is a technical support engineer that has been with ZeeVee since September 2022. He has an array of responsibilities, from helping i
ntegrators design AVoIP systems to troubleshooting customer challenges and leading product and technology training sessions.
Tony can often be found in the ZeeVee lab, a space where he is able to emulate customers’ AV systems to better understand their issues and more quickly work to find a solution. He can also be found on the road with the sales team providing insights based on his deep experience as an integrator.
One of Tony’s greatest career achievements was when he helped D&P upgrade exhibits at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C. A big challenge during the installation of 10 72-inch touch screens was eliminating “ghost touches” (occurrences where the screen moves or starts tapping buttons on its own). With the help of an infrared (IR) camera, Tony concluded the ghost touches were caused by the screens bouncing IR light onto each other and his quick fix was to adjust the positioning of every other screen.
Tony, his partner, Stacey, his two children and three stepchildren currently live in Norfolk, Virginia. As a self-proclaimed “hike-a-holic,” Tony loves balancing out his workdays hiking on trails. He also enjoys spending time driving and disassembling and reassembling his dream car – a Pontiac Trans Am. You can reach Tony at atorres@zeevee.com.
So now that you know a little more about the ZeeVee sales team, we invite you to reach out to them with your questions and support needed to design and install your customers’ dream AV systems.
ZEEVEE EVENTS:
Certified Solution Partner Training Webinars: Check out our extensive roster of free sessions on these important topics:
- AV over IP Training
- AV over IP Network Preparation, Readiness and Design
- Advanced Imaging Capabilities in AV over IP
- Security in an AV over IP Environment
- The Power of AV over IP, Open API and Flexible Control System Integration
- RF Training
- AV Specs, Cables and Connectors
A schedule and registration page can be found here.
ZeeVee will introduce two new models to our ZyPerUHD60 1Gb AVoIP line—the ZyPerUHD60-2E encoder and ZyPerUHD60-2D decoder. We are particularly excited about these powerful additions to our line as they deliver on the most pressing needs of integrators working on meeting spaces. We will also be showing our full line of ZyPer4K 10Gb SDVoE encoders, decoders and accessories.