Interview: Robert Michaels, ZeeVee Features 11/10/2019 Hurrairah bin Sohail speaks with Robert Michaels about what drives ZeeVee and how the manufacturer’s expansion in Asia Pacific is a natural progression for the company.Companies live and prosper on core driving principles. Robert Michaels, president and CEO of ZeeVee, sheds light on what drives ZeeVee: “The backbone of the company has always been taking care of the customer by quickly and effectively responding to their needs. Where many other manufacturers would say ‘this is outside the scope of our responsibility’; we take the time to solve any nagging concerns and make life easier for our customers. Ultimately, this makes the end user experience better, which reflects well on the integrator that installed it, which then reflects well back on us.” Competing in the crowded AV over IP market segment, ZeeVee marries this core principle with hardware that sets itself apart from a field where many products do not. Michaels explains: “A lot of companies use the SDVoE reference design but we made the decision five years ago to move forward with an in-house design and now we are moving on to our fourth-generation product. Our overall design is so much more versatile and provides greater feature functionality than any other product in the SDVoE kingdom. We have the largest range of inputs and outputs, which include DVI, SDI, DisplayPort, analogue and HDMI. We have the best management platform and we are the only SDVoE range of models certified for use in medical applications.” These differences have been hard earned as Michaels continues: “We have more real-life functional experience with the IP based technology than any other company in the sector. We have invested thousands of engineering hours into making the product better. Over four years of experience with installations, large and small has provided a level of unmatched experience that continues to allow us to lead the market.” ZeeVee is now bringing this work ethos and hardware to Asia Pacific. The manufacturer opened up an office in Singapore. Rather than just jumping on the expansion bandwagon, Michaels is careful to ensure that the move to Asia Pacific is implemented the right way. He details: “We could have come to Asia a few years ago. But I don’t believe in simply shifting resources. Now that we are secure in the Americas and in Europe, we are able to make the commitment to Asia with a focus on ensuring that we provide the same level of service and comfort to our customers here that we provide in other regions.” Michaels says: “Singapore was the logical next step for our Asian expansion. It has a good talent pool, business is relatively easy to conduct and the City State holds a technology leadership position in the region. But most importantly, with an office in the country we will be able to effectively manage our business in the immediate region that includes Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia where we are seeing growing demand for our products.” ZeeVee is further engaged throughout the region with strong distribution partnerships in Hong Kong and China as well as Australia, Japan and India.