Awards a springboard to success

AFTER years of working as an audio visual consultant in South-East Asia, and wanting to do things better, Phillip Jenkins decided to form a technology company.

So successful has he been that WA-based company PIVoD has since won a slew of awards, including back-to-back Asia Pacific IT&T intelligent technology awards and this year’s WA Small Business of the Year Award in the innovation category.

PIVoD boasts a staff of 22 and has offices in Perth and Melbourne.

It recently installed its Media Venue Management System in the Melbourne Museum, part of Museum Victoria – rated as one of the most high tech museums in the world – that allows it to control video and audio displays, special effects and lighting via computer (from Perth if necessary).

With that project out of the way, PIVoD has started work on Melbourne’s National Maritime Museum and has further contracts pending in this area.

Mr Jenkins said an appearance at a recent trade show in the US resulted in about 30 strong leads, including one from the prestigious Smithsonian Institute.

The company also recently began work on Central Park’s convention facility – its first WA job in the past eight years.

Mr Jenkins said PIVoD’s first major project was the Singapore Discovery Centre, which required a centralised control facility for 250 monitors, five video walls, 50 laser disc players and a six-channel translation system. This control system became the embryo for its MVMS.

Hot on the heels of that project was a job to recreate the feel of the surrender of Singapore to Japan in 1942. The surrender ceremony is recreated in the actual bunkers used during World War II by the Far East command.

PIVoD also fitted its MVMS to the King Abdul Aziz Historical Centre.

Besides fitting venue management systems, it also fits building management systems to homes and office buildings.

Mr Jenkins said most of the company’s products could be controlled via the Internet. In fact, the company’s whole approach to business is Internet based. Its sales, tendering and project management processes all run from the same database.

Mr Jenkins said this made for a seamless approach to the project and was a unique system.

He said the Internet approach also made maintenance monitoring easier and removed the need for electro-mechanical devices in displays.

“Because I was doing a lot of work in South-East Asia I didn’t want to be going back to do the maintenance,” Mr Jenkins said. “We can upgrade systems or fix problems online.

“Plus I wanted to improve the process of how a building or a project was developed.”

Mr Jenkins said the Victorian Government was trying to lure his company away from WA.