“Fighting the Pandemic Diligently”

When COVID-19 hit, the San Antonio-based Digital Display Solutions President Lisa Harbert committed to providing STOP COVID products and technical solutions to make the workplace and home office better and safer. “We found a Lighting solution which when installed in rooms can kill 98% of all germs”. It’s a new patented technology that uses ‘old technology’ from Operating rooms between operations—a patented bulb by Phillips that has true UVC lighting that is scientifically proven —not only helpful for flu but also for THE NEXT COVID bug,” explains Lisa. “We have started a new division of DDSAV called DTS-AVI. It’s Digital Technology Solutions- Audio Visual Integration. We also added an Interiors Division to bring a total package to our customers: Technology, Interiors and a total integration package.”

Digital Display Solutions Audio Video (DDSAV) is a full-service audio-visual system integration company based in San Antonio, Texas, with satellite offices in Houston, Corpus Christi, and Midland, Texas.

The company has multiple products catering to the present pandemic, including a Digital Receptionist called “Hello” that allows visitors to check in with a virtual live receptionist. The receptionist can direct the visitor to take their temperature, answer questions, and speak to the visitor's face to face over a screen. “This makes things safer and companies can have one receptionist cover 2-3 entrances thus saving money.” During COVID, Lisa also invested in 150 hours of training for her team to become Certified Zoom Room Integrators during this time. The trained employees can now instruct clients on maximizing the online video conference platform for increased productivity while social distancing in a conference room.

Digital Display is a family-owned business founded in October 2001 by Harbert and her husband, Roger Harbert. They started in 2001 when video conferencing was in its infancy stage, but Lisa knew the potential of it becoming a great future market for correct audio and visual, which was invisible. “When AV fails it’s so frustrating and reduces the success of the event,” says Lisa. “From the beginning, our commitment was to create a Technology Toy Store. We see new technology up to six years before normal people see it in Best Buy.”

The company has won numerous awards and accolades for their problem-solving capabilities. “We won the Best High Education Project 2017, Commercial Integrator Magazine - UTSA Retama Room. It’s a theater-type large area with theater seating, and it’s in the Student union of The University of Texas-San Antonio,” explains Lisa. “We designed, and audio engineered it all in house by Chae Chang. This was one of the most complex audio and video projects because the theater is used for many different uses.” It serves as a teaching room, live music, movie watching, drama and comedy performances, and music playing arena. To curb any future problem, the company created pre-sets for speakers, mics, lighting, and all, and it was based on the usage. “I think we had 97 pre-sets. We made the highly complex – simple to operate. One year after the installation, the operators publicly declared that they loved the system and worked great. “That is such a great sense of pride. AV that works- it’s a simple but effective principle to run an AV company.”

For the days to come, Lisa and her team look at self-branding products (collect groups that create a solution) sell them under their company name. “We are going to offer leasing for example, you could spend $600 per month and have the latest technology for life. It’s called “AV as a service.” A monthly payment plan gets everything and we are there in a few hours to service,” she says. “We plan to host webinars to just let customers know what we saw this week in the new technology world. We want to bring news and savings. We want to be seen as the “go-to” experts for the latest news and knowledge.” Lisa adds, “Our plans are to grow the interiors business and be a one stop shop. You get technology, furniture, interiors, and we maintain it all. We want to be America’s Commercial Technology Toy Store and back it up with KNOWLEDGE.” IE