Executive Q&A: A Decade of Growth

Jeff Murray, AVPro
(Image credit: Future)

SCN: What inspired you to create AVPro back in 2014?

Jeff Murray: I had been recruited out of the army by Sencore as an applications engineer and had an amazing 14-year journey there that helped me identify opportunities in high-performance video testing and calibration devices. By 2011, I was looking to start a family business with my son, Matt, and in 2012 we got a big opportunity to provide Best Buy with a significant quantity of 4K video generators for their teams across the country to use for video calibration and HDMI testing. That gave our brand Murideo quite a jump start, and we were off and running. We developed key relationships and partnerships with suppliers and manufacturers all around the globe and expanded our presence by founding AVPro Global in 2014, with our first base of operations in Sioux Falls, SD.

AVPro Global Holdings Logo

(Image credit: AVPro)

SCN: How are you celebrating the company’s 10th anniversary?

JM: We are certainly proud of the innovations that AVPro Global companies have brought to market, our amazing team, and the astonishing growth we have experienced over our first decade in business. We are also grateful for the many truly important relationships we have cultivated across the vast vertical markets in the AV space. We have shared our anniversary on social media and at various industry events. Ironically, in 2023 we acquired an almost 50-year-old iconic audio brand called AudioControl, so we are celebrating our 10-year anniversary with new team members who have been devoted to the cause for quite a long time—and bring with them such valued knowledge and perspective.

[Executive Q&A: Heading Toward HDR]

SCN: What brands fall under the AVPro banner?

JM: Our brands are AVPro Edge, offering audio and video signal distribution products; AudioControl Pro, makers of audio amplification and immersive audio playback components; Bullet Train HDMI and USB cables; Murideo calibration, test, and performance verification devices; and ThenAudio legacy HDMI interface products.

SCN: What’s the secret to making a great matrix switcher?

JM: There are several factors that contribute to a world-class matrix switcher, such as ultra-high-quality manufacturing backed by support services that empower integrators to understand the products fully and deploy them properly. We were one of the first manufacturers to offer an 8K-compatible matrix switcher, and though there aren’t vast applications for it yet, the integration community knows where to find 8K solutions and we like being that brand for them. Our flagship matrix switcher is a 18 Gbps 16x16 scalable solution compatible with HDBaseT, HDMI, and fiber, making it as versatile as it is high-performance for our customers. Understanding the needs of our integrator/partners is key: Today, many of them are moving toward an AVoIP infrastructure for scalable and flexible installations.

SCN: AVPro wasn’t a cable manufacturer, so what prompted you to start Bullet Train?

JM: Initially, we identified an opportunity to build handmade active optical cables (AOCs), so we hired one of the top engineers in that field. Integrators like the fact that with fiber, the cable runs are infinitely future proof, so as bandwidth demands increase, they can accommodate their clients without pulling new infrastructure. With HDMI cables, there is just pure, unadulterated demand across all our vertical markets for a high-performance, stable solution—and we effectively fill those needs with the Bullet Train brand.

SCN: Is USB-C taking over the Pro AV world, or is HDMI going to be around for a while?

JM: We anticipate HDMI maintaining a presence for a while because there are so many legacy devices built around HDMI connectivity and, on the residential side, continued reliance on the eARC ecosystem for extracting and distributing audio. That said, USB-C is taking over for many applications, and we are committed to engineering compatibility with optional features offered as part of USB-C, such as charging and the transport of video and USB simultaneously.

[Audio Manufacturers Revisit Supply Chain Issues]

SCN: Back in 2023, you acquired AudioControl. Why did you extend your audio footprint?

JM: There is high demand for audio distribution, and it seemed the perfect synergy with the AVPro Edge video distribution products we were already designing, building, and selling successfully in the marketplace. AudioControl has an unmatched legacy of nearly 50 years in audio and garnered tremendous goodwill with its customer base.

SCN: How important has Dante become to your audio business?

JM: Dante is a high quality, reliable audio distribution ecosystem that is growing in importance across all vertical AV markets. Dante is ideal for projects that feature lots of sources and many endpoints and is a perfect match with AVPro Edge’s MXnet AV-over-IP product portfolio, which addresses the growing need for AV-over-IP in commercial and residential AV market segments. Our engineers are fine-tuning the control/interface aspect of Dante within our products, delivering the most intuitive, easy-to-use solutions for integrators.

We anticipate HDMI maintaining a presence for a while because there are so many legacy devices built around HDMI connectivity.

SCN: Over at AVPro Edge, which are more popular, your 1G solutions or 10G solutions?

JM: End of the day, our two 1G solutions are big sellers. They have been engineered to match a high level of performance to a price point, enabling integrators to deliver what their clients need for each application. And many projects today still effectively use a 1080p video source, rendering our 1G platforms ideal, providing superb performance and reliability. Our 10G solution delivers higher bandwidth at a higher cost because the switching, encoders, and decoders required for 10G simply cost more. We are successful with both 1G and 10G platforms, but if the objective is to keep the customer’s attention at a sports bar so they order more cold beer, the performance of our 1G solutions are fantastic and outperform expectations every time.

SCN: What are some of the common AV-over-IP challenges that customers need you to help solve?

JM: Some of these projects, especially 10G systems, are quite large and complex, with multiple switches across numerous locations. In addition to being a supplier of premium solutions, our company’s mission has been to provide support for the systems we sell at the highest level. To accomplish this, we established a working group called the MXnet Systems Group (MXSG), a design and development business unit dedicated to expanding and supporting our AV-over-IP product portfolio. We have continued to grow the MXSG team in order to provide comprehensive training presentations that give integrators the confidence to deploy these systems, knowing that they have our system design and engineering support at the ready when required.

[USB-C and AVoIP]

SCN: What’s next for AVPro?

JM: We have established a culture of innovation at AVPro and the roadmap for 2025 features new products and solutions that solve challenges for our integrator customers. We have introductions coming for our MXnet ecosystem, including affordable 1G solutions that effectively manage distribution and control, plus new USB3 connectivity products based on the success we have had with our USB3 extender.

Mark J. Pescatore
Content Director

Mark J. Pescatore, Ph.D., is the content director of Systems Contractor News. He has been writing about Pro AV industry for more than 25 years. Previously, he spent more than eight years as the editor of Government Video magazine. During his career, he's produced and hosted two podcasts focused on the professional video marketplace, taught more than a dozen college communication courses, co-authored the book Working with HDV, and co-edited two editions of The Guide to Digital Television.