2022 Recap: A year of growth and innovation for BZBGEAR

Overview

Success can be defined as the accomplishment of a goal or a step towards fulfilling one's purpose. And the BZBGEAR team can proudly proclaim 2022 as just that—a huge success. This year provided significant milestones as the company experienced growth and many firsts like exhibiting at our first trade shows, traveling abroad, and even winning multiple awards!

Along the way, BZBGEAR developed a number of very important relationships including a partnership with one of the biggest names in the AV and broadcasting industry. These relationships even resulted in innovative new products and software developments.

Besides the awards, international travel, and product innovations, we also saw growth from within. The BZBGEAR family expanded with the additions of new members to our marketing, sales, tech, and video teams—all making significant impacts on the overall success of 2022. Other noteworthy events the year brought include an exciting website revamp, new product releases, and groundbreaking software developments.

Additionally, the BZBGEAR YouTube tech channel, BZB TV, has been bigger than ever this year. Pro AV and broadcasting industry professionals have called it the best place to get educational content, demonstrations, and guides. This year, the video team has taken the content a step further and has been documenting tradeshow exhibitions to give subscribers an inside look at what it’s like at the industry’s largest tech tradeshows.

Do we have a story to tell! So hop on this sleigh ride and let’s just jump right in.

Quarter One

The first quarter saw the team prepare for their first-ever trade show at Educating for Careers Conference in Sacramento, California. The Educating for Careers Conference is an annual three-day professional development event surrounding career technical education. During this local event, the team spoke with education professionals about our education technology solutions but also got the chance to learn about the current demands in the education space.

It was nice to start off with a small, local trade show. These smaller events have a more intimate and focused feel, and it was great meeting with individuals from the same industry and neighboring communities. It definitely prepared us for what was to come in quarter two: the major national trade shows.

In quarter one, BZBGEAR also released a new line of matrix switchers and video wall processors. Things are starting to ramp up from here.

Quarter Two

Quarter two was very exciting for BZBGEAR. It was our first time exhibiting at major trade shows on a national stage—the two largest U.S. trade shows in the pro AV and broadcasting industries to be exact. Preparations were hectic as we did not know what to expect. We had an intricate 10’x20’ booth to design along with marketing ventures to pursue and team members to situate. It was certainly baptism by fire and trial and error throughout, but it was absolutely worth it as we we’d soon discover what the fruits of our labor would bear.

First was NAB Show 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, held from April 24 to April 27. NAB Show is the world's leading marketplace for innovation, connections, and technologies shaping the futures of media and broadcast entertainment. The BZBGEAR booth design took visitors through the future of live streaming, conferencing, and video collaboration. It featured stations demonstrating the simplicity of connecting our cameras and how well our AV and broadcasting solutions all operate together in an efficient ecosystem.

Anticipation was building at NAB Show as we debuted our new flagship 4K PTZ camera—the BG-ADAMO-4K. And let’s just say, it made quite the first impression! The Adamo was awarded Product of the Year by NAB Show and Best of NAB by Videomaker Magazine. The Adamo was not only recognized for its unique design, setting itself apart from all other PTZ cameras on the market, but for its robust feature set: 4K@60, HDMI 2.0, 12G-SDI, USB2.0/3.0, LAN, tally lights, and microSDXC slot with the capability of recording up to 1TB of locally stored video to name a few. With the Adamo starting at just $2699 as well as the inclusion of an NDI®|HX model, it certainly made an immediate impact.

After NAB Show, we only got a quick breather as we’d have to come right back to Las Vegas for InfoComm 2022. InfoComm 2022 ran from June 8 to June 10 and is the largest event for audiovisual solutions enabling integrated experiences with products for audio, conferencing, digital signage, production, live streaming, and live events.

We were recognized again for one of our cameras, this time for our auto-tracking ePTZ camera, BG-MAESTRO, as it was awarded Best of Show by Tech & Learning Magazine. The Maestro simultaneously outputs USB 3.0, 3G-SDI / HDMI, and IP streaming in resolutions up to 1080p. To achieve this level of quality, it utilizes a 1/2.8” high quality 4K CMOS sensor. The camera uses 3x digital zoom and ePTZ controls to automatically track subjects in its field of view, without the need for additional software to set the auto-tracking parameters.

Speaking of auto-tracking capabilities, we unveiled this feature in our Adamo camera at InfoComm. It was the newest feature added to its already strong feature list and people were blown away by its accuracy and quick, smooth auto tracking. We set it up at both corners of our booth and demoed it as people passed by. You can just imagine the fun they had walking by, seeing themselves on our big monitors as the Adamo locked on and followed them. People even tried evading the auto-tracking Adamo by quickly ducking or side-stepping to no avail! The Adamo stayed locked on until they were out of frame and the camera found a new target.

Quarter Three

The team spent most of their time preparing for IBC Amsterdam during quarter three, which took place from September 9 to September 12. This was the first time the BZBGEAR team traveled internationally together and was even the first time a few of the guys have been to Amsterdam Netherlands.

During the IBC Amsterdam event, our 4K auto-tracking PTZ ADAMO series was awarded Best of Show by TV Tech Publication. This was exciting news of course, especially since this was ADAMO’s third trade show award. This was also during the time BZBGEAR officially announced a partnership with Audinate and displayed the BG-ADAMO-4KDA; A BG-ADAMO model with Dante AV-H technology. What made this collaboration even more special was the fact that Dante AV-H was still very new at the time, which meant the BG-ADAMO-4KDA was one of the only PTZ cameras in the world using this innovative technology.

BZBGEAR has become a hot topic in the pro AV and broadcasting community since then, creating more opportunities for relationships and growth.

A few days after the team returned from Amsterdam, it was time to start preparing for the Vistacom Tech Expo in Pennsylvania. This was a one-day event giving new and popular tech companies an opportunity to highlight their latest innovations. The team reported that the show was a success for BZBGEAR, and they had opportunities to meet with installers and integrators from the east coast region.

Quarter Four

The last quarter of the business year was the busiest time period for the BZBGEAR team. In October alone, the team tackled four different trade shows, all in different regions of the US. It all began with the Calvo tradeshow down in Arlington, Texas. The Calvo tradeshow is a trade-only, one day event focused on professionals from the commercial entertainment and communication technology fields.

Less than a week after the Calvo event, the BZGEAR team simultaneously took on the east and west coasts in the U.S., which was labeled the “double impact” by BZBGEAR CEO Eugene Bocharov (A reference to the 1991 film Double Impact featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme). Two of our guys set out to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to represent BZBGEAR at the Audio Video Expo (AVX). At the same time, a few other team members flew out to New York City to represent BZBGEAR at NAB Show New York.

Five days after NAB New York and AVX, it was time to start preparing for the Church Facilities Expo in Dallas, Texas. Three of our team members came together and put on a great show for church tech professionals and church leadership members. Events like CFX are very important to the BZBGEAR team, as BZBGEAR has been a provider of church technology solutions for years. It is also important for the team to attend these events, so we can stay up to date with the current demands of select industries.

From CFX, the next stop was the Georgia Educational Technology Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The GaETC tradeshow was a wonderful opportunity for the BZBGEAR team to meet educators and education professionals and learn what the current needs are in the education space. The team was also able to educate visitors on the importance of pro AV and broadcasting equipment in the education space. This was also the perfect opportunity to highlight the BG-MAESTRO, which previously won “Best of Show” by Tech and Learning Magazine.

To end the tradeshow season strong, the team flew out to Los Angeles, California then Atlanta, Georgia to exhibit at the Dante Connect event organized by Audinate. Dante Connect brought together all sponsors and manufacturers with Dante compatible products. The goal of the event was to provide an opportunity for visitors to learn about Dante compatible solutions as well as Dante technology in general.

After the last tradeshow of the year, the excitement continued. BZBGEAR received NDI®|HX3 certification for our four-time award winning 4K auto-tracking PTZ camera: the BG-ADAMO-4KND. NDI®|HX3 is the latest NDI® standard and very few manufactures at the time had NDI®|HX3 compatible products. This made the news even more exciting for the BZBGEAR team. Other exciting news for the ADAMO, finishing Q4, included a “Best Product of 2022” award by Videomaker Magazine and an honorable mention by Videomaker Magazine for being the “Best 4K PTZ” in the market. This was the ADAMO’s 4^th award and the recognition for it was continuing to grow, even as the year was coming to an end! To top things off for the ADAMO, we continued to innovate its capabilities by adding a 31X optical zoom option.

The last big event of the year was an exciting award for our BG-MAESTRO! As you may recall, earlier this year, the BG-MAESTRO was awarded “Best of NAB 2022” by Tech and Learning Magazine. To end the year strong for the Maestro, TV Tech Publication awarded it “Best in Market 2022”. The TV Tech judge panel came together to source and judge the top products in the broadcasting and entertainment space. The BG-MAESTRO was one of the devices that came out on top, making it an official two-time award winner!

Overall, 2022 was a year of innovation for the company and a year of growth for the team. We want to thank everyone who supported BZBGEAR this year, as well as everyone that helped the team grow. We would also like to thank all of the BZBGEAR team members for an amazing year! Stick around and stay tuned to see all of the amazing projects and plans we have for 2023. You can look forward to exciting new product rollouts, groundbreaking software developments and more!